The Contradictory Nature of Great Fiction
By Donald Maass | January 5, 2011 |
If you like political theatre then the current situation in Washington probably strikes you as highly entertaining. Everyone’s angry. Everyone wants their way. Whatever your personal affinity, consider this central dilemma of our age: Everyone wants the best of everything but nobody wants to pay for it.
Writing high-impact 21st Century fiction also means facing a dilemma. On the one hand readers want to wallow in the kind of story they love; that is, they want stories that are comfortable and familiar
On the other hand, readers want to be stirred if not shaken. They want to see the world in new ways; that is (as I’ve discussed in recent posts) they long to be elevated out of self into the state of transcendence that scientists call “awe”.
That in turn demands that readers go to places unfamiliar and feel emotions that are at first troubling. See the contradiction? Readers want comfort but also seek discomfort. How is a novelist to meet those opposing needs?
Embracing the familiar is the approach of strict category writers, who cleave to the “rules” of their genre and produce stories that may feel satisfying to read but also can feel small, conventional and low-impact. We damn such fiction as formulaic.
Blazing trails in style, setting or theme may be satisfying for a novelist to write but can put readers off. Highly original stories can be condemned to low sales.
Now consider this: The highest impact novels of our times achieve both goals simultaneously. They both sooth readers with what is satisfying while also pushing them into new takes on a world that they thought they knew. When written with conviction, depth and panache, such fiction sells phenomenally well.
There’s a lot to say about pulling off this trick, but let’s start with two simple things that every novelist can do. One is to make sure your current manuscript gives readers a gift that’s probably on their wish list. The other is to push your characters to places they will hate to go.
The gift: Think about your favorite fiction…what element unifies it? In other words, what do you love best about the novels that you love? When you’ve got that, you’ve identified what you as a reader find most satisfying in stories. Make sure that element’s strong in your WIP.
The challenge: What is it that you—yes, you—least want to accept, refuse to feel, fear is true, find unbearable, feel angriest about, or avoid at any cost? What do you see around you that makes you sick? What in yourself makes you terrified?
Go further: What’s the truth that underlies all things? What principle guides human behavior? What’s the greatest insight you’ve even had about yourself? Or even just this: What do you know about anything that nobody else does?
Give any of the above to your protagonist and share the rest around with your other characters. Hold nothing back. Save nothing for future projects. To stir your readers you must first unsettle yourself—a lot.
Accomplish those two things in your current manuscript and you’re on your way to writing high-impact 21st Century fiction. In upcoming posts I’ll discuss other way of resolving the big dilemma, starting with what “depth of character” really means, how it works and its role in inducing awe.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s Daveybot
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).
Thank you Mr. Maass, as always — BRILLIANT!
Thanks for this awesome post! I just recently became a reader of this blog, and even though I am a short story writer and poet more than novelist, I found this post incredibly helpful!
Even though I’ve read two of your books, your concepts continue to amaze me, and more importantly, your words inspire me to write.
Thanks.
Thanks for this inspirational post! Your concept is great for writers like me who want to write romance but have a hard time staying in the lines of the formula.
The idea of pushing yourself, to make yourself uncomfortable as a writer, really speaks to me today. Thank you.
WONDERFUL post! As a new writer, self-exploration is so important when writing and those are some great questions for me to really dig deep. As usual, a very inspirational post. Thank you!
Good stuff – you consistently are able to put your finger on what makes fiction really stand out, in a way most people can’t express so clearly.
Thanks!
Fantastic! I’ve noticed that authors tend to be polarized into literary and mainstream. Few of them try to mix the new with the familiar. I’ve been torn between writing enjoyable fiction and deep, “intellectual” fiction, but maybe we can all write both. Thank you, that was really insightful and helpful.
Fantastic! I’ve noticed that authors tend to be polarized into literary and mainstream. Few of them try to mix the new with the familiar. I’ve been torn between writing enjoyable fiction and deep, “intellectual” fiction, but maybe we can all write both. Thank you, that was really insightful and helpful.
Fave line: “Hold nothing back. Save nothing for future projects. To stir your readers you must first unsettle yourself—a lot.”
As usual, another great Donald Maass post! The only thing more I could have asked for is an example or two of recent books that are successfully doing what you’re talking about here.
I’m very grateful for these monthly posts of yours. I yearn to be both brave and yet safe as a writer, especially since I’m still earning my stripes. (Haven’t done more than outline them on the canvas, really.) I need these kind of questions to help me make sense of the paradox and move forward.
Anyway, thank you.
Love this! I’m currently reading Maass’s “Writing the Breakout Novel.” It’s been very insightful so far!
Kristan-
Examples?
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
The Last Child by John Hart
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
For starters. Books that are simultaneously unsettling and great reads.
Don
The best books to me as a reader are the ones that change me. But, I am resistant to change, so I resist reading those books. Therefore the best books are the ones that shock me.
Two great quotes from authors:
“Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.” — E.L. Doctorow
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” — Robert Frost
*Thanks to Anna Elliott for those.
Wonderful post, thank you. I think I’ll be the last person in the world to read The Help, but read it I will.
And thanks for the quotes Sarah and Anna. Love them both.
Very early on, I was introduced to the quote, “Only Trouble is Interesting.” Even knowing this, it took a long time to get “comfortable” creating discomfort for my characters.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Oh, I loved this. Be familiar, but take risks. A reader must always be able to identify their surroundings, even when they’re in unknown territory. Unsettling? Yes. Riveting? Yes!
I’ve never quite thought about asking myself these two questions, at least not this way, before. So often it seems as if the two notions are opposed: you can either give readers what they want (familiarity) or you can challenge them (with something they don’t). I’m glad I’m still early enough in my current manuscript that I can without having to do major revisions, and hopefully the first draft will be much stronger for it.
“To stir your readers you must first unsettle yourself—a lot.”
That phrase is oddly comforting to me, as I’m writing the climax of a horror novel and finding it, well: horrifying!!!
You have a knack for well-timed advice, and I really look forward to your next post.
I like the way you discuss the dichotomy–I haven’t heard it phrased this way, and you make sense of it. In working on a new character today I became more and more unsettled about him. I must be onto something.
You did it again, Donald Maass. I’m going through your workbook right now – so worth it.
Great – I have a few more books to add to my “required reading” list.
I loved this quote, too: “Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.” — E.L. Doctorow I pasted it on my office wall for my quote of the week.
Your blogs are concise and chock-full of information.
Suburb, Donald! Your posts never ever disappoint. Reading your advice and suggestions hit my thoughts like that first cup of morning coffee — a jolt to the mind and primed with necessary courage to kick the fluff out of every word composed through the keyboard.
This gives me fuel for my WIP that hits awfully close to home.
That’s it. I’m finally going to read The Help. Therese we can have a virtual book club about it since we’re for sure be the last ones on Earth to read it.
“The challenge: What is it that you—yes, you—least want to accept, refuse to feel, fear is true, find unbearable, feel angriest about, or avoid at any cost? What do you see around you that makes you sick? What in yourself makes you terrified?”
Well said. Gotta go write!
[…] worthwhile to explore difficult subjects as a writer. It made me think of a wonderful, inspiring post by Donald Maass, which reminds us to not just write compulsively, but to consciously risk ourselves […]