Writing Blog Number 2

20240131 A Change In Approach

When I Changed My Writing Approach

A few people gave commented on the publication credits list I posted: "20240114 The Boring List Post" .

Thanks, those people.

However, I didn't just start writing and selling. Yes, I had a sale early on (which isn't in the list because I do not know if it was published; I just got paid), but then there was a huge gap. I never stopped writing (never do), so what changed to make my stories go from "meh" to sellable?

I think it's simple - in the early 2000s, after years of just writing, I had a discussion with a couple of people and we came to the conclusion that my characters were dull. I tried to make them livelier, but it didn't seem to work.

Then, I had an epiphany, and I had it reading Colin Thiele for my class. It also made me realise why Harry Potter's first two, three books were so good (the rest were not bad, but the focus shifted to the big over-arching big bad coming back plot).

I was writing about things happening. My method was to have an idea for some great thing to occur, and then throw everything around it to lead to this climax. I was writing about events. I was showing, yes, and, looking back, my descriptions were not terrible. But things were happening and the characters happened to be involved because the things had to happen to someone.

Thiele wrote about characters first, and the things happened to them. Rowling wrote about Harry and the things that happened around him were what filled in the gaps.

There is a subtle difference. My focus was the events; their focus was the people.

I changed my stories from events happening to some people to people having events happen to them. The people became the focus. As soon as I worried about the people first, I started to sell my stories. An example would be Invasive Species  . In 1998 I wrote a book about a dragon in Australia. The focus was a dragon in Australia. Fast forward 20 years and I wrote a book about a dragon in Australia. The focus was the people hunting it and their relationship. Guess which one sold, and which one is my biggest selling piece? But it's also there in my short stories as well - focus on the people who these things are happening to or around.

So, that was the change.

Characters first. Characters drive the tale. But there needs to be a tale. To me Tsiolkas' book The Slap is a novel-length character study, because there is very little happening and I find the book dull. It is, however, the sort of book Australian publishers love, and the Australian literati think is wonderful, but that is why Australia is not taken seriously as a place for writing. Themes and concepts over story. But that's another rant for another day.