I think that the primary reason I write is because I love the excitement and adventure of discovering / creating a whole new world and sharing that world with others. Each new person that opens up “my” world, and begins to explore there, discovers something new that I didn’t see before. Sometimes what they see is something that neither of us enjoys: a grammatical error, a difficult transition, an awkward phrase, or worse yet a bad plot twist or story line. Sometimes they see something wonderful. Either way, it’s been exciting and fun to see the story come together and improve.
Now that it’s published even more people can read and explore this new world, that’s no longer just mine.
I think the thing that made Harry Potter more than just a book was the fans. The story was strong enough and integrated tightly enough that readers could enjoy sharing not just what was written on paper but all of their own ideas and discoveries associated with it. So little of any story can be put into print and language so difficult to use that it’s really all of the imagination and creativity that it sparks that is so much more important. – That’s what I want my writing to be like.
I still have so much to learn with respect to language that I worry, sometimes, about how much I get in the way of others loving “my” story as much as they can. That’s why I’m so grateful for all the feedback that I can get, whether it’s on things I’m doing well or things that could be done better. I think that’s also why I’ve decided not to be as worried about marketing. Because once a story is worth sharing, marketing happens naturally.
No comments:
Post a Comment