Write what you love to write

My time of reflection over the past few weeks has been very advantageous. I had been writing on projects for so long that I forgot why I was writing in the first place. That reason has become increasingly clear over the past few days.

The object of being an author is to write what you love to write.

Don't get me wrong. I love all three of my main characters who are the center of my novels. My time away to assess has directed me toward working diligently to finalize one novel. (Veteran authors say there really is no novel that is finalized, just one on which the work stopped for publication. That's very true.) This novel is closest to my heart. It is from a world I know best.

My favorite is my baseball novel. It is good for me because I am writing what I love to write. I don't believe it is good from a financial standpoint. Sports fiction is not a big seller these days. Most literary agents who list sports as a category they represent add that they represent nonfiction sports. It's easy to understand why. Nonfiction relates to a particular event or person, and that increases the potential profitability of that novel. Which is a sports fan most likely to buy, a book about Aaron Rodgers or one about a fictional character? Aaron is going to win that battle every time.

So why am I focused on a nonfiction sports novel? I know this world so well. To my followers from my old hometown of The Dalles, Oregon, here's the basic makeup of my protagonist: He is part Doug Sawyer, part Jim Willis, but the biggest part is just the creation of this fiction writer. There is no player I know of from The Dalles or anywhere else who is an exact copy of this protagonist. If I can't sell this project to an agent and publishing house, I will self-publish in time for next baseball season. That is set in stone.

I don't want to discount my interest in another novel I am working on. The baseball novel is so close to me that it has a special place in my hierarchy. The other novel I have in the finished (for now) stage is vastly different, and so is the subject matter. It touches on things that are relevant today, like job loss, broken relationships, broken dreams and chances to revive treasured hopes. I hear all this junk about how strong our economy is these days, but the anecdotal evidence says otherwise. Many careers, and not just those in journalism, are being wounded by job cuts. I hear friends who work in many different industries say that. The other thing I love about this novel is that my main character can be a jerk. It is that way in the first paragraph. I probably don't help myself by writing in a way that might put some people off. (My first paragraph is rather prickly, and intentionally so. I want a main character with flaws, someone who is real and not a caricature of what a protagonist should be. I am willing to take that chance because it begins a beautiful character arc.)

Again, creating a character with rough edges is what I like. It's like real life, and I try to make my novels mirror real life.

I will go about the business of writing while embracing the love of the game. I move forward with that as my foundation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wrestling with the idea of white privilege

A former co-worker was the first I saw charge that all Caucasian employees have the advantage of white privilege. I laughed and labeled it as the latest wave of thought designed to find perpetrators for victims. I laughed because of my upbringing. I was born in The Dalles, Oregon, which isn't an epicenter of wealth and status. It's a town of about 10,000 residents on the banks of the Columbia River. It is known for cherries, wheat, winds funneled through the Columbia River Gorge, and a key historic spot for Lewis and Clark and the pioneers who ventured west on the Oregon Trail. It was a good place to grow up, at least for me. It was small enough that you had the feeling all residents were neighbors. A downside was that you were often known by who your parents were. I was often introduced as Eldon's boy, or Virginia's boy. I was the third child of three, so I also was known as Steve's little brother, or John's little brother. It also was a town with a racist
Read more

Western boy adjusts to the South

I must apologize for the lengthy time between posts. You see, I have pulled up stakes in Colorado and settled into the beautiful Upstate region of South Carolina. It's more than merely a new location. This is a different culture, weather routine, foods, way of life. I am not going to be so presumptuous to believe I understand it all, but I have had time to form opinions about my new home. Here are a few: 1) The South doesn't believe in pretenses. Maybe it's different in Atlanta or Charlotte, but my new hometown of Anderson, South Carolina, is as comfortable as an old shirt. No one is expected to act one way, dress accordingly, show off the signs of status, or spend time telling people how good you are. One of our friends in our new home is Mykel, an African-American man who just moved with his wife into a new home from the apartment complex where we currently live. His reaction to his new home and car on the same day? "That's a blessing," he says. Walk down
Read more

On being out of journalism for one year

April 24 marked the one-year anniversary of Kevin Dale calling me into his office and notifying me that my job at The Denver Post was being eliminated in a reduction of workforce. I won't write about that decision today. That is so last year. But I learned a lot in those intervening months, so it's time for an update. It is a situation in which there is good news and there's bad news. People given the option of what to hear always take the good news first. I will reverse that order. Those bad things sit deeper in my soul, as they should for anyone who put decades of effort into his or her craft or profession. So here are the three worst parts of leaving journalism. 1. I have so much to offer and no opportunity. I am a skilled journalist. I have numerous writing awards. I was a good copy editor who worked on some of the best newspapers not only in the West but in the world. What was that worth in the job market? Not a darned thing. I applied for any job that had the word
Read more