It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. This month we have the question of the month here at the Fantastic Site and I have a few details about my story in progress (SIP) which will be included in my upcoming book of short fiction.
Question of the Month
The question for August 3 is: When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want? My answer to that, is that when I write a story, I don't so much try to be more original as I try to write sincerely. That means when I write I often develop the story from an idea that I had jottted down in my journal way before hand as it came to me. To me it appears to be an original idea because if it didn't I wouldn't have bothered jotting it down (at least not for fiction). But when I do develop the idea into a story I try not to think about how original it's supposed to be. I just try to let my characters perform their own actions based on their surrounding environments and the events of the story that pertain to the idea that started it.
Also, I try to write the story as sincerely as possible, not as in making a "portrait of the artist", or in this case the author, but as in releasing my own emotions and experiences into it. These emotions and experiences are often dispersed throughout my story’s several characters. If you write sincerely your experiences will show up in your story to some degree. Nobody has the exact same life experience as someone else. So, if you write in this way, the story can only be original. It will be new and original to readers and so in that way you'll be giving readers what they want in which most readers want new experiences and the unexpected in stories.
WIP: Writing in Progress
I've been continuing to work on a story for my book of short fiction in progress, "Bad Apps". I had been stalled on it because I was having a hard time coming up with an ending that was satisfying to the story yet without being too explanatory in the resolution to the conflict. More specifically, I did not want to bore the audience with methodical details. The ending had even come out kind of campy and comical which I didn't want. But I've finally come up with a way to show the resolution through suggestive yet concrete action. This is characteristic of most short stories, more is said with concrete details but with less words and so with suggestion. So, that story will come to a completion soon, I'll go on to the next ones and hopefully be able to release the book by next month sometime. For more updates, keep checking back here or on my Facebook page. For even more details on my book’s progress, subscribe to my author’s newsletter—it’s free!
How much sincerity do you put into your stories in order to make them original? Or do you go by formulae and market trends to please your audience?
Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Tara Tyler, Lisa Buie Collard, Loni Townsend, and Lee Lowery! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels!
Until next time . . .
