The Irresistible Novel
By Donald Maass | November 4, 2009 |
What is your favorite novel? By someone else, I mean. How many times have you reread it? Don’t you wish you could write a novel with that kind of magical appeal?
Why don’t you?
I’m serious.
Many manuscripts submitted to my agency are accompanied by covering e-mails that cite the influence of various great novels. The manuscripts themselves rarely-to-never live up to those models. But they could. Why do novelists hold themselves back? Why do they fail to enact in their own stories what excites, delights and moves them in the work of others?
I suspect that many do not feel entitled. Greatness is for someone else, right? That’s a shame, and wrong since every story has in it the potential to make readers laugh, weep and think. It is not a function of subject matter or style. Are you writing coming-of-age, a noir mystery, or dystopian science fiction? So were Harper Lee, Raymond Chandler and George Orwell. What is the difference? Those writers gave themselves permission to write universal stories with high authority, in a straightforward style and with an impassioned purpose.
Think of your favorite novel. What is your favorite thing about it? Who is your favorite character in it? What is your favorite thing that this character does? What moment in the story most stands out for you? What about that moment is particularly memorable? What in the story made you laugh the hardest, cry the most, change your views? What setting in the novel did you love the most? What location in the story, and what about it, made you the most afraid? Why?
Why not find ways and places in your current manuscript to make analogous things happen? Why not go bigger? Why not say more? Really, why not? What are you writing fiction for? To be good enough to get (or stay) published? Or to tell stories that are great?
A literary agent in New York, Donald Maass’s agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004) and The Fire in Fiction (2009). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.
Donald Maass (he/him) founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency. in New York in 1980. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009), The Breakout Novelist (2011), Writing 21st Century Fiction (2012) and The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2019). He has presented hundreds of workshops around the world and is a past president of the American Association of Literary Agents (formerly AAR).
You really spoke to me in this blog post. I’ve been dithering around on one particular manuscript, but I can’t seem to make myself finish writing it. I KNOW it has potential to be big, but I’m not able to take it there at this point in my writing career. I’ll put it aside for awhile and continue honing my skills on other stories. Maybe in a year or two, I’ll be at a point in my writing to do it justice.
.-= Margaret A. Golla´s last blog ..Dis and Dat =-.
Thank you so much for those words. They were exactly what I needed to hear today.
I wish to write plot like JK Rowling, meaning and purpose like CS Lewis, instantly lovable characters like Dean Koontz, diction like JRR Tolkien, and have courage to change the world like Upton Sinclair and Charles Dickens.
Now to write the novel that encapsulates them all…
Wow! Permission to succeed. Thank you.
Agree agree agree! For a long time I was trying to write LIKE the books I enjoy, instead of WRITING THE BOOK I ENJOY. That one degree of separation makes a huge difference, believe me.
.-= Kristan´s last blog ..Overwhelmed, underfocused =-.
What an interesting post. I think it is lack of courage that has stopped me letting go a little with my WiP.
I forget that the ‘greats’ were once like me. I will read my work through and add more oomph to it. :)
.-= Glynis Smy´s last blog ..Ta Da! A Few Words from Me =-.
Officially Going Big. Thanks, Don.
I eagerly look forward to your posts on this blog, and I am never disappointed. Ever since getting your books, I have become a fan, because the advice you give is practical though nevere easy, and it’s encouraging. It makes me want to make sure that my story is as best as it could be, and then double check that it is before sending it to an agent. Thank you.
.-= Lost Wanderer´s last blog ..Third Day of NaNoWriMo and How is it going? =-.
What if the story you feel passionate about isn’t universal? What if it’s not something that the majority will like? Does that mean it isn’t great? Univeral and great are probably what writers shoot for; but the end product may not be commercially successful.
.-= StephanieD´s last blog ..Hint Fiction Contest – A Story in 25 Words or Less =-.
I remember writing a journal entry a few years ago while I was in college (by “a few”, I mean “eight”). In it, I remember bemoaning a lack of skill that would allow me to create worlds as detailed and engrossing as those created by authors like JRR Tolkein and JK Rowling.
Three months later I began the groundwork on what would become my very own literary world, one I hope to one day bring readers into with the same enthusiasm.
But self-doubt is a hard voice to silence. It helps sometimes to think of it as telling a story to yourself, that way you aren’t pressured by any fears of reader rejection.
.-= Judy´s last blog ..Vox Populi Vox Dei =-.