So we reach the half way point at last! Or do we....Depending on just how successful this is, I might just extend it a bit or create a sequel which will ruin everything! Or maybe not...
This week we touch upon the ingredient upon which all the rest of it depends, your love and passion. Without these elements, none of the rest of it matters does it? No, Alan, it doesn't! Remember when you asked about that favourite meal your mum always made; you tried to make it yourself when you moved away, you watched her like a hawk and had everything she put in and her steps carefully memorised but it NEVER tasted the same? You asked her one day and told he what you did, each and every step. She smiled and nodded the whole time, that knowing smile of the mother. You finish and ask her "what did I miss? It never tasted like yours! What was missing?"
"The love, my darling, I always put a large dash of love into everything I made for my children and husband..."
If you're making it for yourself, the love isn't there, you're not waiting to see your loved ones smile with pleasure and enjoy their meal after a hard day. You need to think again, put your pans and utensils down and think. Look at your ingredients, look at your method; find your box of love, chop some passion up. Your book will be something you create; you season it, you mix the ingredients, you prepare it, marinade it, stir it, you serve it up to your hungry and tired readers. Without that little box of love being opened up and sprinkled in at the right moment, your children just won't feel the joy they should. It won't taste right, it won't be your mum's. It won't be THEIR mum's. It won't have that love they crave....
As I say, they always tell you, 'write about that which you know' right? I say you can do that but will that draw them in? Writing about what you love is better! Loving to write, having the passion which drives you to sit up all night clackity-clacking away at your keyboard and driving your loved ones away is what will make you find success. Put it this way, if I see an error or a badly written passage, you know what I do? I get really angry and upset with myself because I am that passionate about my work. I'll correct it too, obviously but I'll get angry for a while first. So here are my opinions (Alan J. Fisher reserves the right to inform the reader that all opinions are his own and not lifted from universally popular sources. Any offense given or taken are the propery of the donor or the recipient exclusively and no refunds or backdating of nuts can be anticipated or given);
I think a memoir for an unknown, undiscovered and nobody author is a bad move. Let me explain why. You are trying to make your name, break your way in and establish who you are. You are trying to be you and have your reader base built on who you are. A memoir is not a market breaker or reader winner. It will not open the publishing world like an oyster like cracking open your fictional or even non-fictional writing style and creativity will. There was a reason famous people saved their memoirs until last (before the flash in the pan famous people came along); because people like to read about the lives of people they've heard of an already have an interest in. I might write a direct and non-allegorical memoir one day but not for a long time yet. If you really must do it, use your creativity and dress it up in fiction I implore you!
Do not write about what you love reading. You will copy both style and content whether you mean to or not. It's a natural as singing like your favourite vocal artist when doing your version of their song. A true artist can make it their own but the original is never going to be equalled because the passion which made them write that song cannot be replicated.
Do not simply write about what is popular. There is only financial reward dreamed of in there. If you're truly passionate about what you write, you'll keep going and be unable to stop because you don't care what other people are doing or thinking at that point! If Picasso had painted what was popular like he was told to, we'd never have heard of him and a whole artistic movement would never have existed.
Do not write what you think people want to read. You'll have family, you'll have friends, you'll have fans. You will NOT write what they want you too but what YOU want to. Go full George R. R. Martin on them and kill off their favourite character if they annoy you enough! If they want a certain story; here's pen and paper, enjoy! This is MINE and you can see it when I'm done and you've paid $5 into my Paypal account thank you!
Do not cater to fashions and trends. The famous line is 'revolutions always come around again' and this is true. If you write for a trend or popular thing, it'll fall out of sight as soon and next popular thing comes along. People who follow trends and fashions tend to be rather fickle and not altogether loyal.
Believe in what you are creating! If you don't, they won't. Your love and passion for your characters, your story and your world will show through in your writing. If you love a setting you will describe it in heart-aching detail which makes the reader explore it in their imagination. If you love a character, their emotional moments draw tears from the reader because they identify and understand, your writing gave this 'person' life!
Your passion will translate into rage which they will feel, anger they will shake their fists at, horror they will recoil from, decisions they will question and make they cry out 'what are you doing?' while hopefully at home alone and not on public transport. It will make them laugh, cry and cheer again, ideally in private. But no love, no passion no raging and rampant desire to communicate your story and you will have written something as dry and sterile as a textbook. That simple.
I am not here to make money or be popular but I am here to tell the truth as it is and sugar it not at all. Smile and tell me about your story. You know I'll be honest.
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