Arwen Adams Bicknell

I’m a little jealous of my kid.  His is a pretty heedless scramble through life. Not much planning, not much foresight, not much consideration of consequences, just bouncing from A to B to C as events occur.

The consequences occasionally come back to bite him, of course.  But there might be some method I could extract from the madness.

His storytelling adheres to this ultra-linear model, though admittedly his choice of detail still has that little-kid slant to the weirdly irrelevant.  “We got up super early to go to the beach, and there was a bug in the back seat and I ate a granola bar and then we got there and then we came home.”

He rarely makes the other typical little kid mistake: “I saw this movie where there were these two guys, and one was in jail, and then he got out, and then they visited a nun, and then they went to a church, and then they went to a diner, and then they went to a music store, and then they put on a concert, and … oh, I left out the part where they went to the hotel lounge and the shopping mall and their apartment blew up … and then there was a big chase scene and then they were in jail, Tha End … oh, except they also rode in an elevator.”

I hope my writing falls somewhere between these two extremes.  I’m afraid it trends more toward the latter.  I write long, I write rambly, I write hyper-detailed descriptions of car crashes.  Then I go back and read what I wrote and realize I forgot to mention whether anyone was hurt.

I’m not sure what makes one person wax rhapsodic while another writes stereo instructions.  I’m not sure one is better than the other, when it comes to literature. I do know I want Hemingway telling me how to program my DVR, not Proust. (Of course, Hemingway would probably get drunk and break the DVR, so maybe not.)

I do know my writing changes from the first draft to the third. So maybe I need to work on the distillation process before I start typing.  Run the plot through the Kid Filter, as it were.

Or, I could just shut up and write.  Probably better to get on with it.

What is your writing style?

(Props to those who recognize what that’s from.)

So in my last post I lamented that I hadn’t really written anything not aimed at whoring myself out in one capacity or another.  I rectified that; I wrote yesterday.

I’m 5,000 words in on a targeted 20,000 word middle-grade novel.  My kid is my target audience, and so far he’s said he wants to keep reading, so I figure I’m on the right track.

And yet …

Today I read an agent’s wish list on Facebook. And I started wondering about what I’m writing.

Part of the hard thing about writing fiction is that there are so many different avenues you can take with a story.  I set out with a plot, a goal, a voice and an audience in mind.

And then I think, “But this story would be so much cooler if I could write it with some older, sexier, darker subtext. That guy should really WANT that girl, and not get her. Can I write that into middle-grade fiction? Pretty sure my kid doesn’t get the whole unrequited love concept. Nope, take it out.  Or should I just start writing the other version? Can I write the same book twice, from two different perspectives?”

And then I think, “Bah. I can’t even get one book published. Why would I write two of the same thing?”

And then I think, “You know, this story would be so much more saleable if I say they are all vampires.”

And then I think, “Perhaps I should stop writing and go eat some cake. Like, forever.”

And then I sigh and go back to Plan A.  Because I like Plan A.  I think it’s got legs.  Or at least a captive audience of one who will read it if I bribe him with chicken nuggets.

I just wish I knew someone who actually worked in the business who could tell me whether I’m right.

As a journalist, I know reporters are supposed to cover the things they think are important. I know that newspapers run what editors think should be known, not just what people want to see.  I know that if “give ’em what they want” was the guiding principle, there wouldn’t be many stories about water board meetings or fiscal policy or what have you.  Or those stories would run, but they’d require a tie-in to Katy Perry. (Is she still trending, or has her time passed?)

As a “writer” I know I’ve been told to write what I want/know/love.  To write my story, not the story I think will sell.

So, OK, fine.  But here’s thing: Doesn’t everyone want their story to sell? How do you untangle that knot,  O Editors?

Meh.  Back to writing for my audience of one.  There’s some satisfaction in that.