With that said, a lot of us can enjoy and be affected by stories without really popping open the hood and getting at what makes them work (or what made them work in their time). This can often lead to writers learning the wrong lessons when analyzing these works, which is why it's a good idea to dig a little deeper to be sure that you're putting the right tools in your toolbox going forward.
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| Oh... oh there's a LOT going on in here... |
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Now then, let's get to it!
Knock-Offs and Genuine Articles
A long time ago I wrote an entry titled Your Fantasy Novel Probably Sucks, and Professor Awesome's University Explains Why. The short version of that post is that a lot of people who want to write fantasy novels grew up influenced by Tolkien. While not a bad thing in and of itself, they often wanted to follow the blueprint he'd laid down with an epic trilogy of books, big world building ideas, etc. The issues was that these stories often lacked characters to act as audience focus; characters who have the same heart as Samwise, the same mystery as Aragorn, or the determination of Frodo.
Put another way, a lot of folks end up copying the style, the sound, and the aesthetics of arguably the most famous trilogy in fantasy at this point, but their vehicle lacks an engine. And without that drive, the story just sort of sits there, doing nothing, and going nowhere.
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| Hmmm... why isn't it moving? |
We can see this in all sorts of creative endeavors, and from all kinds of creators. Another good example is Zack Synder's adaptation of Watchman, as it could be argued that his personal politics and opinions caused him to utterly miss the point of what the original creator Alan Moore was laying down. Snyder got the aesthetics of the story, and he understood the basic reversal (treating superheroes as part of the real world, and the implications thereof), but he utterly missed the commentary Moore was making on that power fantasy of superheroes that made it such an effective deconstruction of the genre. So we see characters like Rorschach portrayed as heroes, rather than as the monsters they were intended to be. We also see the glorification of the superhero, instead of how it is (arguably) something that wears one down, and rarely solves any problems. And so on, and so forth.
From romance novels to zombie stories, killer clowns to Viking-esque fantasy epics, the classics become classics for a reason. And if we want to tap into these tales and understand what makes them tick then we need to look beneath the surface to get to the heart of the matter.
Look Beyond Aesthetics
A lot of the time when authors miss a message it's because they were focused on the outward structure of the story, missing what was going on deeper inside of it. As a result, when they apply their own creative touch it feels like they perfectly recreated the wrapper around a Reese's peanut butter cup, but they completely neglected the delicious treat inside of it.
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| It looks right, it smells right... taste? Why bother with that? |
Stories that stick with us affected us for a reason, even if we aren't always sure what it was at the time. And it's true that sometimes a story will hit us harder because of factors that aren't of the author's doing (it reminded you of someone you cared about who gave you the book as a gift, it was the first "grown up" story you read, etc.). The stories that we keep coming back to, though, and the ones that really stand the test of time, tend to have messages inside them. They have characters who are interesting and compelling, and they deal with themes that spark our imaginations.
Magic systems, sci-fi gadgetry, fantasy species, mood and storytelling flair are all nice things to have, but these things are often the icing on the cake. And while you can construct a cake-like replica made out of just icing, it isn't going to satisfy the audience the way a genuine cake would. So keep that in mind when you start drawing inspiration from authors who came before you, and asking what elements of their stories you're trying to add to your own repertoire going forward.
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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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