All it Takes is the Right Story (Oh, and a Ton of Hard Work)

I’ve been told on several occasions that all it takes to “hit it big” is to tell the right story.

“All you need is the right story and you’ll be famous,” they tell me.

“All you need is the right story and they’ll make it into a movie,” they said. “Then you’ll be rich and famous.”

As if it’s just that easy. Bang out the “right” story and you’re golden. No, literally. You could have a gold statue of yourself made because you’re rolling in book and movie money.

That has me wondering: what is the “right” story? I mean, I’ve published several novels and no one has offered me butt loads of money or a movie deal, so does that mean I’m writing the wrong stories? Does that mean my stories aren’t good? My characters are weak? My themes are rotten?

You know what? It’s beginning to sound like this writing thing has a bit more to it than just telling the “right” story. It sounds a bit like it takes time and effort to carefully craft brilliant characters, a perfect story line, suspense, action, adventure, romance, danger. And, in the end, you may only end up selling ten copies. It’s perfectly plausible that you may write the “right” story and still end up on your ass with no money.

In fact, sometimes–and I really do mean sometimes–it seems like you will inevitably end up on your ass with no money, no matter how hard you worked on that book.

Before I became a writer, I would read a book and have no idea how much work went into it. How many months–sometimes years–went into the writing, editing, revision, publishing, and marketing process. I just read the words, enjoyed the book, or not, and went on my way. Granted, I’d done my fair share of writing. But I’d never completed a book, nor had I looked into what sort of process it took to create a finished product and distribute it to the masses. As far as I knew, the author just hammered it out, gave it a once over, and off it went to the world.

I was one of those people who believed you just wrote it, and if it was good you were set for life. I understand where people are coming from when they think all it takes is the “right” story to be the next J.K. Rowling or Stephen King. And yet that still doesn’t make it any easier when people say it to me now. Maybe it’s just the human condition to get aggravated when someone makes light of the writing process–of my dream career–or maybe it makes perfect sense. Whatever the reason, I understand that it takes really getting into the craft of something to fully understand how it works, and the complexity of every part of it.

People are so quick to generalize something or write it off because people are successful at it. As if it’s the easiest thing in the world. When in reality it takes much more hard work than people think, and even after all that hard work it seems as if luck plays the biggest role out of all of it. Sometimes it takes the right person seeing it, the right cover, or the right description. But I believe that “right” stories are written all the time. Just as “right” covers, descriptions, and people play roles in the book process and even then sometimes nothing, or very little, may come of it. But it’s become clear over the years that writers don’t write for the fame or the money, they write because they have to. Because they don’t want to stop, no matter how many terrible reviews they get or how famous it makes them. Writing is fun. It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. It makes me want to scream. But I love looking at my bookshelf and seeing my name in print next to so many others, and it just further reminds me why I keep at it.

When do we Pair Learning with Teaching?

Image Credit: Lynn Kelly Author via WANACommons

I absolutely believe that it is impossible to learn everything there is to know about writing. It just can’t be done. With the constant changes in the markets and what readers are looking for, you just can’t learn it all. There are just so many techniques to learn. Sure, you can learn a lot of them, and you can become a master of those you do eventually learn; but to master all the techniques of writing? I don’t know about that.

This got me thinking. Because we never stop learning about writing, I feel it’s impossible to stop learning and start teaching about it. So, at what point do we pair teaching with our learning? Sure, people have asked me for advice about how to do this, or how to write that, or just general feedback. But I’m not expert. At least, not to my knowledge anyway. Does being published make me an expert? Technically it makes me a professional, having sold my books for money. But am I qualified to teach it?

How does anyone become qualified to teach writing? You get a master’s degree? I plan on doing that to teach creative writing and fiction workshops at the college level, but does that degree make me an expert in the craft? What if I published an “On Writing” book? Would it be worth anything? Would it be helpful to anyone? I would like to think so. But I’ve only been published for about two years now. Maybe a little less. I suppose I have the experience to help guide some people through what it takes to write a decent story, but who am I to judge that? What if I started taking submissions and giving feedback on this blog? Would that be something the writer benefits from? Would it be helpful to other readers? I mean, just because something works for me doesn’t mean it will work for someone else. But I guess that’s the chance we take as writers. To become better writers we must become the best thieves and liars in the business. We slink around the pages of everyone else’s work and shove it into our pockets. Then we run home and try to make it our own.

I don’t mean this in a self-loathing way. I’m not trying to say that I’m not worthy to give feedback, or to even teach people. I’m just wondering what physically qualifies a person? People out there like Chuck Wendig and Kristen Lamb offer their tips and advice several times a week, and include guest posts from other writing experts. Would anyone benefit from me giving my advice as a professional writer? I’m not asking for permission, and I’m not really asking for justification to do this, I suppose I’m just curious. Think of this as more of a musing, I suppose. An expression of my internalization. That’s what blogs are for, right?