Good storytellers in any genre know they must step up and take responsibility for the big decisions in their story.
Sometimes readers and teachers who aren’t fiction writers themselves don’t like the sound of that notion because it strikes them as heavy-handed. Good writing shouldn’t be manipulative, they believe. Mistaking control for manipulation, they fall victim to an old romantic fallacy, namely:
“Craft and daily discipline be damned – the best novels aren’t designed, they are discovered…FOUND. Marvels of inspiration, they almost write themselves.”
It’s a curious idea, not all that different from saying the best sculpters don’t actually chisel the marble , they let the statue emerge.
At the same time, it’s understandable – even a compliment to the writer. After all, what is good fiction if not a successful hoodwinking of the reader to believe something that we all know is not true? If “living” characters seem to have been captured, rather than created, by the writer, well…good job!
Truthfully, however, there’s an intentionality to fiction writing that can’t be denied. A simple example: if your story is about events surrounding a murder, you need to decide if you are writing a mystery, a thriller, or a mainstream drama. This is intentional, a conscious decision, and having made it, you must stick with it.
The “how-to” language of creative writing should never imply that a fiction writer is a passive enabler, that characters “have a life of their own,” that you “channel” your story, or “wait for inspiration to strike,” etc. Experienced fiction writers shun this language because it makes their art and craft sound like fishing.
As novelists, our decisions shape and drive our story, and it’s our responsibility to optimize the reader’s experience of it at every turn. Turn away from this responsibility risks losing that reader–and for the novelist in particular, who must commit to very long haul, that would be a huge misfortune.
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