Two Ways to Begin Writing

Copper Spaniel  
A brief look at two different approaches to starting a book.

Some Thoughts on Beginning Writing.

I was asked to welcome a new bride to the family at a wedding reception. She was a cute blonde and really smart, so I agreed, thinking it wouldn’t be hard. It was. The words didn’t come, so I googled wedding speeches, thought about who’d be there, and cribbed some good jokes.

               The speech went well. The applause was real. The groom’s hug lifted me off the floor. People talked to me about it afterward . . . in a good way.

               The bride’s father came up after me.

               “I didn’t prepare,” he said. “I speak from the heart.”

               Well ... there wasn’t much interesting in his heart, and this was supposed to be an entertaining moment. Applause was brief and polite.

               I thought about him the next time I sat down to write. It seemed to me that, complete unpublished amatuer that I am, that starting writing, if you have some hope of selling your work, is a bit like preparing a wedding speech. There are two distinct ways to start. One is to look at what’s popular and is selling and try to find a niche in that market, another, to write from your heart, and hope a lot of someone elses like it.

It's great fun to let the words flow and the characters write their own story, not worrying about word count or audience or . . . much else. That's likely the way to create a really average story. My sense is that writing something worthwhile from your heart requires an organized heart that plans carefully and works hard at the craft.

               Some writers have done very well striking out on their own. J.K. Rowling comes to mind, as do Lisa Genova,Still Alice, Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove, and Matt Haig, The Humans. Backman makes a story about a man wanting to commit suicide entertaining. The Humans strikes a memorable cord about humanity without developing a major conflict, and Geova’s novel about descending through Alzheimer’s disease is far from mainstream, but still, very compelling.

               Having said that, a story that’s hard to categorize presents a hurdle to publishers who are usually looking for specific genres aimed at target audiences. Harry Potter was rejected fifteen times, and, well, I'm not nearly as good a writer as Rowling. Not anywhere close.

               The other alternative, looking at what sells and aiming for an established target audience, gives a writer a format to start with, a target word count, and a place to begin when submitting to publishers.

              With that in mind, women and middle school kids seem to be buying a lot of fiction.

It’s rare to find any recent adult writing, in print or on a screen, that doesn't have a strong female lead. Established authors like Grisham and Sandford, who’ve build their careers around male protagonists, are now creating female main characters. Sandford's developing a series about Letty Davenport, daughter of one of his most popular characters. Grisham has female leads in The Whistler, Gray Mountain and Camino Island.

Scholastic Books, aimed at elementary school children, is a force in publishing. The Captain Underpants series, featured there, has sold 80 million books and been turned into a movie. The Wonky Donkey, was, for a time, #1 on the Barnes & Noble bestsellers list, ahead of Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House, and in second place on Amazon’s list. The authors are damn good writers, still, not bad for a pair of pretty silly books.

              When I say look for an established target audience, I don’t mean hopping on specific bandwagons, like vampires. They’re short term hits. If you’re starting from scratch, the publishers are likely to have moved on by the time you’re done. I think t makes more sense to look at bigger trends in plotting and character development and try to find a place where you want to fit in.

               Cozy mysteries are formula books that sell in a predicable way. Murder mysteries and detective stories are the core of Netflix. Certain kinds of science and historical fiction are worth a look. If you can write a moving and humorous story about a modern woman’s deep and relatable emotional experience which contains some soft sex, you may well have a hit.

               It's likely worthwhile to look at successful writers like Agatha Christie (murder mysteries) Diana Gabladon and Sarah Waters (woman’s historical fiction) and the pile of recent best sellers, and think about what makes their work so compelling. Certainly, they have the basics, simple vocabulary, great clarity, and interesting characters, but, if you look close, they use tricks to create sympathy for the main character(s) and create mysteries without being confusing. Much to think about there.

               Just my humble opinion.

13 Comments

Rxd01

I disagree.
Sort of…
In some parts…
Okay. So I don’t think that market research is necessarily the right place for first time authors to start.
Now, hear me out. What you’re suggesting sounds like very much like writing by committee, which I worry would lead to something the author is less passionate about, which (especially for newbies) can easily lead to unfinished manuscripts, or worse, that lack of passion coming over in the writing.
Call me a romantic if you will. But I think all stories start with an idea, that special something the author’s mind hooks onto and starts building a world around.
Once you’ve got the first draft/full outline/initial vomit of words onto the page. Then that’s the time for the market research.
But, hey, that’s just my opinion. Thanks for sharing such an interesting blog.

Aug-12 at 09:35

Glitterpen

Good blog post!

another, to write from your heart, and hope a lot of someone elses like it.

I’m working on a YA novel, but I’ve gone with what I want to write, rather than create another dystopian YA book. :smile:

Aug-12 at 09:36

Nicolaysen

Great thoughts.

This is definitely a mixed bag for novelists. When you write a book, especially if you want to traditionally publish, you’re probably going to be spending the next three to four YEARS with that book. Writing, querying, updating with your agent, putting it on sub, then edits, then marketing (6+ months)—and that means you’re going to be reading/working intimately with this draft, over and over and over, that entire time. If you don’t love it, it will be a very long slog. :sparkling_heart:

Aug-12 at 12:06

Lvocem

Can you give us the bullet points of the video.

Aug-12 at 12:10

Jacksavage

Use fingers and type and keep typing until you reach The End.

Aug-12 at 14:26

Doublet

Interesting article!

Aug-12 at 17:25

Nicolaysen

IT IS THAT EASY?! :rofl:

Aug-12 at 19:14

Lvocem

Okay, I read the article. And… I disagree with the notion of finding what sells.

The first thing you need to do or figure out, is if you like writing. There are a lot of other hobbies and activities that are more productive, better for your health than writing. Writing is mainly a solitary activity that you engage with in your own brain. You may be better served by taking pickle ball, or tennis, or hiking. It will keep you active and with a group of people.

So you need do decide if spending a lot of hours lost in your own thoughts is the thing that you want to do. If this is something that you already do. Then you need to test the next thing. Can you commit to paper? Do you enjoy doing this activity, even more important, do you like going back to what you wrote and edit. Does it fascinate you? Can it keep you focused for hours? If it doesn’t, if this feels like a chore, go back to tennis.

At this point, you need to ask yourself. What do I write about? The obvious thing is, yourself, your life, your experiences. Also ask yourself, what do I like to read? What fascinates your?

Here some of you are going to disagree, but it’s what is recommended in every single program, class. Read. Find what your like. When it comes to writing, you’re what you read. Instead of trying to find what sells, find a niche that you love. Find the authors in such genres that move you to tears, that make you laugh, that make you yearn for those lives.

So start putting ideas down on paper. At this point I would not go into novel mode. There’s a huge learning curve. So write shorter pieces. See if you get a grasp for character, scene, narrative, point of view.

This is when you start to read with a critical eye. See how your favorite writers developed characters. How they handled back story, exposition. How did the hook you into the story.

If at this point you are enjoying all these activities then ask yourself, can you commit to it at least one hour a day if not more? Writing once or twice a week does not make you a writer. So if you are not willing to create the habit of writing with regularity, again find tennis. If you find solace behind the pen, stamping words on a page, and can’t wait to be doing it. Then you got what it takes to be a writer.

The rest is time and perseverance.

Aug-12 at 22:17

Crazyli825

I think it depends on your goal. Are you writing to make money? Is it a casual hobby or a passion project? I started writing because I had a story I wanted to tell. If I tried to just look for what sells, I’d likely have lost that story along the way.

My works will never get picked up by a worthwhile publisher (at least, not my main series), but that’s fine. This isn’t a career for me. I’m happy self publishing and most getting the story out there. I’ve given out copies for free plenty of times.

To me, market research is more important when it’s time to market the book, not when you first write it.

Every type of story you can imagine has probably already been done before. Sure, some are more popular and likely to do better, but no matter what, you can find an audience if you know how to look. There are going to be examples for you to latch onto.

Aug-13 at 20:03

Bennymolto

I’ve many completed and polished short stories, and I’ve started pieces by having a title come to me. As I work on my novel, seemingly extraneous notions come to me and create a cool movie scene or a full-fledged sub-theme.

And I’ve started pieces with a first sentence that popped into my mind while I was out walking or washing the car or reading something,

I like to start pieces when a terrific ending comes to mind.

My stories are much about theme, sub-theme, or motif and when that arrives in my mind, It’s away we go.

Lately I’ve been reading about phenomenological ontology, the works that Sartre took as a starting point for the creation of existentialism. I’m not certain that I can handle this thing in a short story, or even in a paragraph.

The novel I’ve been working on for years began with details of clothing and wardrobe! Yup. Out of this came a plot with one character who travels the world for a year and checks in by cellphone. His lover meanwhile is the main character in a Hollywood movie that gives the backstory of many of the characters.

Often a friend will say something cool and I’ll say, “I think I can use that.”

As for marketing, Douglas Adams was right in saying, “Come the revolution, the marketing personnel were the first up against the wall.”

Aug-19 at 01:37

Vivienne

Hi, Coppper,
I don’t think looking at what is currently selling is the right way to go, but I sincerely agree with the part about planning.
I write what I want to write about, but don’t just set off with no research. Plotting is another thing. I know in my head where I’m going, but not on paper. that way, things happen that surprise me, and I hope, my readers.
Writing to market seems to me to be a way to become formulaic.

Aug-19 at 15:38

Bthurn

Thanks for the post. That’s some useful insight. However, I am the kind of writer that follows their heart and writes for the enjoyment of it. It would be great to publish but I know that’s a longshot so I just try to have fun with my words. With AI coming, i feel that there will be an onslaught of average stories put out that try to seek market approval. People will crave more truly unique stories. To compete with AI one must write from the heart. Just my opinion.

Aug-24 at 10:00

Clockwind

Usually switch back and forth when I’m stuck.

Purpose mind/what the scene needs to accomplish

Creative mindset. Description, dialogue, action, pacing. Figuring out how every aspect of writing or sentence affects what has happened or what could happen.

I also like to think of it like the two vague choices of good or bad. What would be more interesting? If I say bad then I have somewhere to start when I’m stuck in a scene.

Sometimes I like to pick object of choice and see how it can affect a scene. Or I’ll literally ask. Who are the people surrounding them? What are they doing? How does that affect the character. Extra.

Sep-14 at 05:38
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