If you write a book
what you would like is for the reader to fallen hopelessly in love with your
characters and their adventures. Ideally they should be smitten the moment they
read the title or catch a glimpse of the book cover.
As a reader, this
has probably happened to you at some point. The thing you’re looking for and
the thing you find intersect in a wonderful manner and you feel like the
universe is tilting in your direction. Hurray!
However, forcing
someone to fall in love at first sight is as impossible with books as it is in
real life. It happens when it happens and, unless you’re a master hypnotist
with no scruples, beyond the control of mere mortals.
But a love affair
doesn’t always require an aligning of the stars and planets. Sometimes people
take a little time to come around, sometimes they rush in and regret it later.
And our relationships with books are no different.
So you do your best,
you try to be true to yourself and hope that someone out there will appreciate
what you have to offer. Although it doesn’t hurt to present things as polished
as possible. You want to make a good first impression. Nobody goes on a first
date in their everyday scruffy attire. Sure, later you might relax and let them
see you with bed hair and in an old pair of sweats, but initially you dress up
and make sure you look your best.
Of course, you can
end up trying too hard. Trying to please everyone usually ends up pleasing no
one. Doing what everyone else tells you, changing your point of view to suit
others, going along with whatever’s in vogue can all seem a bit needy and
desperate.
As writers we are
bombarded with advice and all of it seems pretty reasonable, but it can end up
overwhelming our individuality. And if someone is prepared to fall in love with
that, do you really what them to?
Sometimes the answer
to that question is yes. In fact often people join in with fashion trends just
because everyone else is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You dress like
your peers, listen to the same music as them, hang out at the same places. Can
you tell the fashion victims from the people just enjoying themselves? Does it
matter?
Whether the flavour
of the month is books about vampires or zombies or dystopian love triangles, as
long as they make reader hearts beat a little faster, the story is doing its
job. In fact it’s during those sudden swells of popularity of a particular
genre that love at first sight is at its height. Readers are hungry for more. Will
those love affairs last? Probably not, but a short, torrid, passionate fling is
no bad thing.
Still, there are
those books you feel quite dirty after reading. You feel ashamed and don’t want
anyone to know. You try to convince yourself it wasn’t so bad, just a guilty
pleasure, but deep down you know it was wrong, wrong, wrong. What you can’t
figure out is why it felt so good.
Other times a love
affair starts out great. It fulfils your wildest dreams and then some. But
slowly the magic fades. The memories keep you hanging in there, well after the
spark has gone. You know you should walk away, but you’ve read the first
sixteen books in the series and the seventeenth could be a return to form,
couldn’t it? Probably not, but hope springs eternal.
And then there are
those times we are betrayed. We used to want the same things, held the same
values but suddenly our love is headed in a new direction, and we’re expected to
follow. Not likely. Even the greatest love affairs end. People drift apart.
Bestselling authors start writing big piles of crap. It happens. But then it’s
better to have loved and lost...
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8 comments:
I've never written to a trend or tried to follow what was popular. (Obviously - I wouldn't write what I do if I did that.) We just hope enough readers fall in love with our work to matter.
Guilty! I felt I had to give it a shot with the trendies. And I'm not really sure what *my* writing style/genre is anyway. All my WIPs have been different. Maybe I'll figure it out eventually. Great post! :)
@Alex - sometimes a trend becomes so pervasive you fall into it without even realising, like a bad haircut. Or legwarmers.
@Lexa - Thanks.
I have some authors I have torrid affairs with; sometimes wondering why I keep picking up the novels, other times saying "sweet, this is exactly what I love." As you say Moody, sometimes the writing isn't as good or too trendy.
I enjoyed the theme of this post. Nicely presented :)
This sounds really difficult to do in a book. So not up my ally.
@dolorah - thanks, presentation is key (my dad tells me).
@Lilith - love is hard.
I've actually had some experience with this from an author perspective, and my research has been interesting to me (if not for anyone else). The fan mail I've collected about my books has all been about how someone connected with my character because it reminded them of themselves, physically, emotionally, and sexually. So I'm inclined to think that to get the kind of connection that you speak of, you just have to be true to a character and someone out there will connect with it, but not everyone. It is the rare person that can do so on a broad scale. A theory might be that you have a better chance at doing so if your characters are very young and obviously written for the very young, because at that point, most children want/desire the same thing. The older your protagonist gets, the older your audience gets, and the more specific the traits are thereby winnowing down your ability to connect.
It's just a theory, but one that I believe in.
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