Pat, my decades-long friend and writing
partner from my previous professional life, is a natural storyteller. She tells
of happenings in the lives of family and friends. While doing so, she
embellishes with rich details, she paces the information flow, and she reveals
the climax at just the right time.
Pat says she can't write fiction, but she is the most vivid dreamer I know, and retells her dreams fluently. For whatever reason, she doesn't see the connect to writing fiction. Of course she could write fiction. Why do some of us think we can and others do not? And what does she really mean by her staunch belief she cannot write fiction?
By nature, we are a story-telling
creature. However, Pat doesn’t see that the stories she tells me are ones that
others would want to read. Or she doesn’t think there’s enough detail to
sustain a novel. And maybe there isn’t. Because she doesn’t like reading short
stories, she would never write short stories. I, myself, write both full-length
and short.
Maybe that is the disconnect. She
doesn’t see how to stretch the dream into a feature-length film. Is that a
difference between those who claim “fiction author” as an identity? Do we see
all stories as potential novels? I know I do. Ah, but the execution!
I believe Pat could indeed write a
novel. She is an avid reader who knows what makes a good story. But she has to believe she could do it, and
more importantly, she would need to want
to be a novelist. It’s a hard enough job when you want to and think you can.
Has it happened to you? You have a
great premise. Novel, even (Ha!). Unique. Unknown to the known world.
Yeah, right.
How quickly the idea can devolve into
the mundane. Been done? Ordinary? Prosaic?
There’s something about sustaining that
great idea across 60,000-90,000 words that make 90% of us who start writing a
book, quit. 90%. Don’t you think that’s high? Someone in some writing workshop
tossed out that number. I have no idea how one could come to that estimate.
Still, it doesn’t ring untrue. How many people have told you they have a book
idea. And you should write it!
Let’s say the number is less. I know
that I have started writing about three dozen books. I have completed seven;
two others are about a third done. Oh, and I wrote several short plays and one
full-length play. With another full-length play about a third done. (Seeing a
pattern?)
How many novels have I started in my
computer files only to abandon them because, as Gertrude Stein wrote of
Oakland, California, “There’s no there there.”? Great premise, but thin on the
development. Maybe a short story, but not enough engaging stuff to sustain a
novel.
So that makes my personal percentage
for completing what I start way below 50%. That doesn’t mean that 50% are
history. Au contraire. Many stories
are just delayed. I’ll get back to them. Later. After I finish the new one I
just jotted down an idea for!
