Tuesday's Inspiration - A Story Is... #MFRWauthor

This will be the last one on this theme since I've reached the end of the book. Next week I'm sure there will be another way I've found to inspire me and hopefully you.

"A story is a larger life, created and shared  with others by a writer." Each story we write takes place in a world we create. The world may be the one we life in, a time in the past or the future, or a fantasy world. A story is the product of the writer's imagination but is also a product of who they are.

Every person in the stories you create to share with others carries a bit of yourself and also parts of people you know or ones you've watched. The road they follow through the story are invented to share with others. Honing the imagination keeps the writer's inventive people and places new even if they're the world you life in.

I have friends who say they only write contemporary stories and that they're true to the world. They are and they aren't. The trigger can be an event that has taken place in the world of reality but what is done with this idea changes that reality. So be inspired by what's happening around you and take the things you've observed into the past, the future or a fantasy world.

Yuesday's Inspiration - A Story Is... #MFRWauthor

Once again a quote from Dwight V. Swain to prime the pump.  "A story is a double-barreled attack upon your readers."

The image this quote produced in my head made me laugh. Then I started to think. For me this means when writing my stories, I need to stimulate the emotions of my readers for my characters. And I need to do this in a logical way, Can't have them throwing the book across the room or deleting it from the devise they're reading the story on. So this double-barreled approach needs to be considered and to be applied to the story.

The emotion in your story needs to appeal to the reader you hope will discover you and become a fan. Chances are you won't sell that cute romance to a die-hard techno thriller fan. Of course there are some readers who devour most any kind of book. Those are the kind you could be aiming for. But -- You won't find readers loving your stories if you don't love your story. Every book you write should be the book of your heart at that moment until the next one comes along. Writers are fickle. There should be a shirt with that written on the front. So pull out the emotions in your story, the ones that appeal to you. Remember when you're going for an emotional approach to your story - Don't become the preacher and beat the reader's head over the point you want to make.

Now about the second barrel of that gun. Logic. There's nothing that upsets a reader more than coming to a point in the story when it stops making sense. I've been a judge for a number of contests. Some writers fail to make the story seem logical in the first few pages, some in the first 50 or 60 pages. When the progression of the story stops being logical, the reader will be lost. That's not what you want to do.