Aspiring writer…. Aspriring? That doesn’t sound right.
“So you’re an aspiring writer? How nice.”
“No, I’m not.”
I’m having some difficulty with this topic. Argue if you will, agree if you will but I don’t like the term: aspiring writer. Mainly because I don’t like the way the term is used. It sounds almost belittling. I’m not aspiring to be a writer. I am a writer, published or not doesn’t remove that fact. If you’re writing, you are meeting your goal, you’re not aspiring to write. You are writing.
I am aspiring to get published. I’m aspiring to be a better writer. I’m aspiring to be successful. But no I am not an aspiring writer. I’d say an accurate assessment would be that I am aspiring to be a published author.
That sounds right.
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Character development
It seems the more I write, the more I read. And the more I inadvertently watch character development. I’ve been reading a ridiculous amount recently, it helps immensely to widen the scope in my own writing and I’ve seen more and more how imperative it is to show the reader what you see as the author.
I can sit here at my laptop and edit or add text or work on a different book. I can choose any of my WIP‘s and vividly see my landscapes, my worlds, my characters and the intimate ways they all culminate. I can flip from novel to novel, brand new or a year old and see them all as though I were watching a movie. But my goal is to make the reader see what I see. That is also, I believe one of the biggest challenges for a lot of writers. All those minute details that are needed to bring words off the page and to life.
I was recently reading one of the books on my ‘Currently Reading’ list and felt that familair tug of wanting more. More detail, more…life. It seemed at the end of the day (or book) I still wouldn’t feel connected to a certain character. I didn’t feel the pull that I am sure the author intended, that I am sure the author felt as it was being written.
My point being just because you, as the author, feel it and see it and know it doesn’t mean you are conveying it to the reader. I think we (me too!) have a tendency to get so caught up in our story, so excited or touched or moved by everything we are creating, that we sometimes forget the reader can’t see inside our heads. It’s our job to transport them into our imagination and hope they feel nice and comfortable and choose to stay a while.
So read your dialogue out loud and see how it sounds when it isn’t only in your own head. Hear how it sounds to someone who isn’t already in love with the main character because he only just got introduced.
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Laney McMann's Blog 