Don’t Take My Word For it… No Really, Don’t

Back during the 2011 NaNoWriMo, Writer’s Digest was giving away several of their ebooks, including one called the Complete Novel Writing Handbook; a title I’d been wanting to pick up for years, that includes stories from writers, agents, and publishers on what makes for good fiction.

One author suggests to make your story more interesting you should use real life events. Remember that tragic thing you thought would make for a good story? Use it. The next author, however, argues. Don’t do that. It’s terrible and overdone.

For a new author this can be fairly confusing, and the sad fact is, when it comes to writing this is often the case. There are few things writers seem to agree upon universally, even the oxford comma is widely debated.

The good thing is, writing isn’t an exact science and so what works for one book won’t work for another. The bad thing is, writing isn’t an exact science and so what works for one book won’t work for another. Your guess for what makes a great story is as good as anyone else’s and what exactly is the measure of its greatness anyway? Remember, Fifty Shades of Grey was number one on several lists including the NYT Best Seller list for months. Why Twilight became a runaway success and yet the flood of the vampire novels that followed it did not see similar fame is unclear, even the author’s other book the Host has not seen the excitement that Twilight did.