Writers, Don’t Write What They Tell You

I was inspired to write this after reading this wonderful article from Writeforkids.org: http://writeforkids.org/2017/01/matte... and I thought I’d try to expand upon it using personal experience. I figure I should write a little more than just book reviews…

When I was thirteen or fourteen years old, my favorite book series were the Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell. A New York Times bestseller, Dork Diaries revolves around the zany misadventures of 14-year-old Nikki Maxwell, an unpopular girl attending a swanky private school, due to an arrangement her father made after getting hired as the school’s exterminator. It has all the perks of a middle-grade diary series: a quirky protagonist, “humor,” eccentric characters, and zany plotlines. Today, there are about a dozen books in the series, a huge fan base, and a spin-off for boys, I do believe. I guess you can say that Ms. Russel is an “accomplished writer.”

But what defines accomplishment? What or who should we measure our work against?

The answer is this: No one, except for ourselves.

As writers, we possess a unique gift: We have the ability to share our thoughts coherently, in a way that’s entertaining and educational, and that will impact those who read what we wrote, whether it be through a novel or short story, an essay… or a blog post. It’s frustrating when we don’t get the results that we hoped for, and for some, it’s downright depressing when we see how others are “succeeding” in the field (and we “aren’t”). But again, I must ask: What is “success”?

Thinking back to Dork Diaries, one thing I have always remembered from the first book, was the dedication given: the author credited her agent with giving her the idea for the series after sending in a “rambling 50 pages about a quirky girl and her fairy godmother.” But in a story where a teenage girl writes to her diary about how she could achieve “jumping out of a five-story building without going SPLAT on the pavement” (I found this while peeking inside of a recent volume of the series), I have to wonder, would the “rambling 50 pages” have been a better story? For readers? For the world?

No, this is not an attack piece on Dork Diaries or Rachel Renée Russell (though I was disturbed by what was mentioned above). The point I would like to make is this: Success depends on what matters to you most. Do you want to make lots of money? Appear on Good Morning, America? Be so popular you can’t leave your house? Write what “sells” because in the end, if it doesn’t sell, then don’t bother publishing it, right? Just let it go! Burn it! Take it off the market altogether, or edit it so much that it’s unrecognizable to you.

OR...

Is it more important that your words have changed the life of an elder, an adult, or a child for the better? Is your story something you love with all of your heart and want to share with others? Is it better to have a strong message, as opposed to a strong paycheck? This doesn’t mean you don’t seek feedback from others or hire an editor. And if something in your story needs tweaking, by all means, TWEAK IT. But, as we enter the third week of the New Year, I encourage every author (traditional and independent) or aspiring writer who reads this to write. Not what the New York Times Bestsellers’ List has been telling you, but what your heart tells you.

Write, because your story is NEEDED.
Write, because your message is TRUE.
YOU WILL find your place in the writing community.
YOU WILL impact people for the better. But first…

You have to try. And it starts with a good story.