Do You Know Why You Do What You Do In Your Novels?

When I read submissions, I can often tell within the first few pages whether or not the author is new at the game or is experienced in the craft of writing. It really doesn't take much to figure it out. How do I know? It is all about what they are doing in the stories? So many authors inaccurately insert conventions in their stories, or do things to their plots. Does it mess up the story? Not necessarily. But it certainly doesn't enhance the story in the least bit.

Here is the issue. For many new authors, they are busy learning the craft of writing while they are writing. There is nothing wrong with that. But for these authors, they are also attending every workshop they can get to. They are watching every video, attending every online meeting and reading every blog such as mine. They are like a sponge absorbing everything. Again, there is nothing wrong with this, except for the fac that when someone tells them this is going to work great in their story or it is going to make their story better, they put it into their story...without thinking.

One of the things that separates the experienced authors from "the newbies" is that the experienced authors know when to use those conventions and when not to. They also know what those conventions do and the impact on the story. Let me give you an example.

Do you use an prologue or not? What is even the purpose of a prologue? If you are a new author, you might just insert it because you have this short scene that doesn't quiet fit with the rest of the story or has some information you want to dump, but that is it. Is that really a good reason for a prologue? I would argue, probably not. For those new authors, they have seen other prologues with information such as this and they "believe" that is what the author is using it for, but the reality is, they are missing the real reason. The author is probably doing something much bigger. 

To get to the point of these experienced authors takes a lot of time reading and studying the writing of other authors. You don't read for pleasure, but you read to "study." You take the time to stop and ask, "why did the author do that? and "what is that doing to change the story?"

If you are a literature major, you will understand this well. This is really what we all did getting that major. We tried to figure out why Hemingway could mess up his grammar and still make it work. We figured out why Falkner could write those obnoxiously long paragraphs and still somehow make it work. 

I guess what I am trying to get at here is this. Take your time. Learn the craft. Know why you do what you are doing in your story. You will find you are going to be much more successful!