How to write a book with impact that still has a good story
K
Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be. Welcome to The Writer’s Triangle, a podcast about publishing and all things books. And today we’re gonna be talking about writing a book that has impact while also telling a good story. And the reason why I picked this topic is because I was on Twitter the other day, and I was I was thinking a lot of comments, where people were like, can anybody just write a funny book? Why does every book have to be so heavy and so serious and so politically correct. And so woke? I think, Well, every book doesn’t have to be, and you can still write a story with impact. That’s funny, that’s light hearted. And I just feel like there is sort of this narrative that’s kind of going on in the world, that any book that has impact has to be heavy and serious. And I also feel like there’s a lot of debate on what’s work, what’s not well worded won’t come from an all of that, I’m putting all of that stuff to the side. And I’m gonna focus on just having an impact. And writing a good story, I’m not going to delve into any of the politics that go with it. Except to say this one thing that was a statement that really kind of peeved me off that I did see, and it was whoever’s brave enough to tell the story gets to tell it. And I kind of feel like not is not completely accurate. So I feel like there are some points of view that I could just not that I could not write in an authentic way. And the biggest reason being is that there are some points of view that I don’t know anybody who holds those points of view. And I’ve had no contact with that point of view. So I’m not of the mindset that an author has to be everything that we’re writing about. A great example is Robert Creekmore, is a man who’s MC in the Prophet series is a lesbian woman. And I feel like Rob is just really in the mindset of Naomi in a way that even I couldn’t be. And it’s just such an authentic story. So looking at it, I don’t think that writers only have to write from their lived experience, but I do think they have to write from within their knowledge. So if you don’t know, any lesbians writing a lesbian authentically would be really difficult. Whereas someone like Rob, who was one of the first teachers in his area to head up the Gay Straight Alliance at their school, has a lot of experience with the LGBTQ i plus community, from teenagers on through adults. So having that, that contact and being I would consider rob an ally, I don’t know if Rob feels comfortable being called an ally, but I think he’s definitely an ally of the community. And that gives him access to the community where he can talk to people that have these points of views, and have these lived experiences, and his own lived experiences are intermixed with those. And Naomi has a blend of a bunch of different experiences that the author has had. That’s completely valid. And it reads authentically. And I think that that’s the key is whatever character you’re writing, write them with authenticity, you have to have a reference point, or something that you’re drawing from, it can’t just be completely from thin air, if they’re supposed to exist in our world, right? If it’s supposed to be something we’re familiar with, or as a book that we’ll be publishing in a few years, the time slayers has stuff and creatures that don’t exist in this world. And so you don’t have to have a point of reference that’s completely out of imagination, where as our paranormal series, they’re called no moon saga, it has werewolves, witches, mermaids, Ghost, and a whole bunch of paranormal things that we’re kind of familiar with. And so we do sort of have to make a decision when writing those characters.
K
Are we writing those characters and stereotypical ways? Or are we putting a new spin on them? And when we’re doing those kinds of things, it means to be consistent. And I think if you’re writing from truly your point of view, and truly your belief, if it’s, you know, cryptorchid creatures, mythical creatures, real people, it all has to just sound true, right? And then you can decide what do you want the end have to be. And I don’t think it has to be heavy. I think having a book with impact, it doesn’t have to have a heavy impact. Your desired impact could be, Hey, I just want to open someone’s mind or I want to expose them to something. And Fixman, one of the characters, one of the werewolves is non binary. And it’s never stated in the book, their pronouns are they them consistently throughout the book, and that identifies them as being Indian. So it’s nothing heavy, it’s not had done in a way that someone who’s unaware of it would actually even notice. But now that I’ve said it, anyone who reads it will notice it. But I think it just, for me that point of view, I think it’s really cool. That something you know, a creature that’s hundreds of years old is doing this thing, that a lot of people are arguing as a new thing. I don’t think it is. But whatever. I’m not doing the politics of it, I’m just saying that it’s, it’s not introduced in a way that that’s the focal point of the story. And Kate is not the main character. They are the main characters best friend. And so when they’re written about they do play a focal point in the story, and they do have their own storyline as a side character. But they’re not the emcee. And so for some people, that goes completely unnoticed, but it was done with intention, by the author, they felt that was truest to that character. So it wasn’t this rash or grand political statement. It was just that’s who that character authentically is, in the author’s imagining, and I think that that is so important, if this is the way the character is speaking to you being true to your muse, and being true to what that character is saying, what’s their voice? What’s their personality? So Katie Grimm does a fabulous job of charting characters. She knows their astrological signs, their birth dates, their favorite color smell, like really nice characters are some of the best thought out characters of all of our authors. And I think that she just does a phenomenal job with it. And they’re real people. They’re fully imagined people with birthdays and everything. So I think that that’s really cool that, you know, the, their star signs are charted, and all of that, and, you know, deep personal things about them, and favorite colors and things like that are not something that every author considers about a character and I don’t think it’s necessary to have a fully realized character to have all of that like to give Katie a shout out on doing this phenomenal job in that area. And it’s one of the reasons why when we got the short story from Katie, when we were doing the anthology as to one of the reasons why I asked Could you please can you write us a full length book? And I am so glad that she said yes, because I absolutely just loved fell in love with heal. And I don’t know anybody that wouldn’t fall in love with heal. I mean, come on a 20 year old werewolf literature. Professor, just How romantic is that? Right? Just I’m such a hunk. Such a hunk. So you can check out carbon in the beginnings sort of his origin story in our winter anthology. And then, of course, pick up the cardinal Moon saga. Fabulous, fabulous book series. But let’s get back to what we’re talking about writing a great story. So for me, I feel like our practice series and the cardinal inside I feel like those have varying political positions. I feel like the Prophet series has a stronger political stance, in that it is taking on conversion therapy and talking about conversion therapy, and religious cult. And if you’re familiar with like, go with the Dragon Tattoo that series it’s very reminiscent of that in terms of how political it is, in terms of how bloody it is, and how gory it is. I think the Prophet series that’s a good, good reference point for that. And Cardinal, the cardinal Lin saga is not taking on anything political. It just so happens that one of the characters is non binary, and then looking in the middle grade space. I really love. Y’all know, I love CW Alan just huge fan. And I think the following hand Chronicles what’s great about them is that each book has a different message for middle graders that I think are really positive, uplifting and awesome. So in the first book, relatively normal secrets. What we have is the message is that every family is relatively normal and that Normal is just a very relative thing, right? What are you relating it to? What are you comparing normal to.
K
And then in the the second book, The Secret benefits of invisibility, it’s about how children are often not noticed. And they just become an invisible part of our life. And because of that, in Book Two, they’re able to do extraordinary things, because they’re children and succeeding, because their children not in spite of it, and a lot of books that will be children overcoming being children to succeed, whereas in that book, it’s about children succeeding, and then tells it The Forgotten founders, I think, is the most political in that it takes on bookbinding. And it takes the point of view that whoever bounds books, they get to decide what our history is, and how our history informs our presence and informs our future. And It delves into that in a really fun way where the children find a secret passage, find a secret stash of books, and it’s just really a fun story about hidden passageways, and discovery. And it’s not heavy. So when you’re looking at when you want a book that has impact, what is it that you’re wanting the impact of the book to be? What is authentically your point of view? And what is it that you believe, and I think that every writer puts a bit of their beliefs in every book, I think it’s inevitable. And if you’re wanting to make a strong impact, and you’re wanting it to be a political impact, then you need to have your political bearing really fixed. And then build a story that tells that political bearing or that reflects that political bearing, and find a setting at a time in history, and the type of people that would be the best tellers of that story, and go from there, and then really focus on telling a great story, rather than making a political point, if that makes sense. And I think that, that if you look at the three books, I’ve mentioned, the the three series I’ve mentioned, for me, what they all have in common is that it’s not beating you over the head with the point, every page of the book, it just kind of unfolds with the story that this is the thing, that the story is wrapped around in some cases. And in other cases, that just happens to be. And that’s a big decision that you need to make what is the most authentic and truth for the characters.
K
So you can start out saying, hey, I want to write a book that really tells the story of discrimination, I want to tell the I want to write a story that really tells the story of women’s reproductive rights, whatever side you fall on, that’s great. But then do you have the characters that will be impacted in the way that fits your view. And it may be that as you’re writing the story, that that falls away. And that that doesn’t actually fit the story that’s in you to tell. Because not every writer is a political writer, and not every writer needs to be because every story doesn’t need to be. And it can be that after you’ve written your book, you find out hey, I wrote a really funny book that makes a lot of really great political points that align with who I am as a person that align with who my characters are. And then you’re telling a great story. It has to be what’s true to the characters. And a sticking point for me is that I think sometimes, writers can get caught up in trying to fold in too much diversity. And then it just reads as false. If you have no experience with different holidays, and different cultures, don’t write them. It’s really just that simple. Don’t write them. If you have the experience or you have access to beta readers, that can give you information about cultures that are different than your own. then by all means, do that, but if you’re not, if you don’t have access to people in that culture, it’s going to ring faults, just going to break that bit of bad news to everyone, it’s, it’s going to ring false. And there are certain stories that I would just never try to tell if I were a writer, because my mind just wouldn’t work that way. Even though I have access and exposure to those cultures, and to those ways of thinking, it’s just not true to my lived experience. And I don’t think that I would be inspired or have any characters that had that level of authenticity. And when I’m talking about diversity, I’m not saying the political diversity, I’m saying anything, that’s not you. And so for me to write a story about someone who’s black, indigenous Jewish, and a member of the LGBTQ i plus community would not be me writing a diverse story, that would be writing a story that speaks to my identity. And that’s not diversity.
K
If I were going to write a story about being a black man, that would be me writing diversity, but writing to my son’s lived experience of being a black man, who has now grown up and become a black man, or writing about any of my family members that I could draw from those. But that would be me writing diversity away from what I’ve known, if I were to write about a cisgendered, white man, that would be me writing diversity, writing it from my point of view, drawing from my relative lived experience, because I’m not a cisgendered. White man. So for me diversity, when you’re looking at it from the author’s perspective, is what aren’t you? That’s your diversity. And I understand that the word diversity has been politicized. And again, I’m trying to take the politics out of it, and having us look at it in a less heated way. And I know some people may disagree with me vehemently. And if you’re one of those people, Hey, let me know down in the comment section, or hit us up on Twitter, and let me know, the reason that I have this view on diversity is because I don’t like how the word diversity has become political. It just means different. That’s all. It doesn’t need to be this heated, upsetting thing. When writing a story about impact, and keeping it light and fun, we can think about the light and fun things. When people come into contact that are outside of their normal sphere of interaction. That’s diversity. That’s them interacting with diversity, and what are their points of view?
K
And really, listen to your gut. What is your gut telling you? And really listen to your muse? What is your muse telling you? Because before political statement, before diversity, before point of view, you have to have authenticity, and you have to have a story? What’s the story going to be about? What’s motivating your characters? What types of things are they going to overcome? What are what’s the rising and falling action, those things need to be paid close attention to, throughout the writing process. And it may be that you have to sacrifice some of the political intention of your writing for good storytelling. And I advise every author to make those sacrifices, because if it’s forced into the story for point, it’s going to feel forced when I’m reading it, and it’s going to feel forced when your audience is reading it. And it’s going to be harder to get that book published, you know, because at the end of the day, publishers want to publish good books. And a good book is a good story. You also have to think about the audience that you’re serving. Looking at the three different series that I talked about, the phone, home particles, any age group can enjoy it. It’s a middle grade that’s really witty, really smart. I think the whole family can enjoy it. I know I enjoyed it as an adult. And I enjoyed we have below grade BETA readers and our middle grade BETA readers enjoyed it. So I knew it was age appropriate. And of course their parents read it. And they gave me the same feedback like yeah, it’s a family. We all enjoyed this book. And I feel like with fixed Moon it’s a little bit I don’t think a middle grader would be interested, it’s really in the the new adult category. But I think some way people would enjoy it, there’s nothing in it that would make me say, this means a lot of a lot of content warnings. But the profit series is definitely nc 17. It is an adult series with a lot of content notes, a lot of trigger warnings, and not for the faint of heart. In the least, if you’re writing a book that’s like that, then, you know, okay, with this audience, if I have an NC 17 audience, you can dang near write whatever you want. But if you’re writing for middle grade, you have to think about younger readers. And you have to think about that, that precocious six or seven year old, that might be an advanced reader picking up your middle grade book, and is that book safe for them to read? Are you going to be doing them a disservice in the way that you’ve written it. And if you’re writing in the upper levels, where you’re like, Ooh, I wouldn’t even want this book read aloud to a five year old, really think twice about whether or not it’s actually middle grade. Because I found as a mom, I was reading middle grade and some adult stories like Lord of the Rings, we were reading those as bedtime stories.
K
Now we enjoyed to our very young son, and not something when you think about it, is every single word on the page, okay, for the audience that you are writing for? Who do you expect to reach with the story? And what do you expect their level of interaction to be? Is this a story that’s going to be shelved in a way where someone who’s a little bit too young to be reading it is going to find it and pick it up? Or is it going to be shoved correctly, because it’s in the right category. And that’s something that goes into telling a good story, when you’re thinking about genre and age range, it’s about protecting and serving your audience. If you have a lot of content notes, then you know that that should not be in the middle grade category, or the Y a category. And if that’s just the authentic story that came out, then you know, hey, this is the way it is. That’s just the way it is. So after you’ve written your story, I always think that authors should kind of put it, put it down for a month or two, and then pick it up and read it and say, If I had not written this, what I want to buy this book, if this was not my book, is it a good story? And did I serve my audience? Does it ring true for the characters? Does it ring true for the era? That whatever time it’s supposed to have taken place? And? And does it reflect and represent me? Well? because like it or not, every book you write is going to be seen as a representation of you. Does this book represent who you are at your core? And would How would you feel if your most intimate person whether that be a close friend, or romantic partner, someone you trust with your writing? If they read it? Will you be proud to have written it? And for me, that’s the best litmus test for Is it a good story? Are you proud to have written that? And if you’re truly proud to have written it, and you stand by every word on the page, right on, you vote, a good book. And I think books are inherently political. I think books inherently have a point of view. And I think all books have an impact. At least every book I’ve read, had an impact, even if that impact was just a great way to spend an afternoon. So those are my thoughts on writing a good book that still has an impact. I hope you found them to be helpful. If you did, please give this video a thumbs up and think about subscribing to the channel if you’re new. And I want to thank all of our beautiful cinnabar moths for tuning in and you don’t have to be a cinnabar moth. You can be any kind of moth you’d like to be, or even a butterfly but I’m not Mariah Carey, and I’m not trying to bite her rhyme. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye