Write What You Love
I had an interesting conversation earlier this week with a friend who writes music. He was talking about how he had a revelation at some point that if you don’t really enjoy the music that you are choosing to play, the audience will be able to tell. And he said that before that point, he felt like listening to and enjoying your own musical recordings was a bit ostentatious. But afterwards — he realized that you’re supposed to be excited about your own work.
I can remember when I first started writing feeling like I had to write serious stories to be taken seriously as a writer. (I think a lot of us have experienced that dichotomy of what we think we SHOULD be writing versus what we WANT to write.) For me, while I can write serious when the occasion calls for it — it tends to stifle the playful, conversational aspects of my natural voice. The parts of my own work that I most enjoy reading back over are usually the funny bits, or the bits where character relationships evolve — often through banter. (Though I think some of the most powerful parts of most of my books are when the characters are in mortal danger, and what they’re saying to each other amounts to a just-in-case goodbye.)
When you read over your own work, what makes you giggle, or gasp, or want to draw hearts around the text? If you were live-texting bits of the manuscript to a friend who like the same type of books as you, what snippets would you send? It’s easy to worry that these might be the “darlings” all the writing advice books are telling you to cut — but if you’re having an emotional reaction as a reader, these moment are probably where you’re finding the power of your voice.
Write stories you believe in, stories you enjoy writing. I recently saw a quote on social media that was a play on one of my favorite writing quotes. It said, “Write the book you want to read because you will have to read it 75 times.” It’s true — you’re going to spend a lot of time editing and polishing your work. You might as well enjoy it.