If Fifi loses her car keys and has to run to the meeting, those lost keys won’t find Fifi missing and snoop through her diary or follow her to the school and Impending Doom– and of course Mom will. Worse, Mom will keep pushing Fifi and making her wonder not only what she’ll do next but if she might actually be right, at least right enough to make Fifi rethink her own agenda.

We spend a lot more of our lives dealing with Moms than missing keys. So of course we’re social animals hard-wired to focus on human conflicts; we call some “villains,” some not. A story made of up lost-key problems would have to strain to build a fraction of the complications that one good human conflict can… and in the end, all it’s done is teach you not to lose your keys. People, and their agendas, are LIFE.

If we want to do this professionally, then the reader takes precedent. I imagine if you examined the books you love with the litmus of what I am teaching here in these posts, you will see this is all present. When we first desire to become writers, I imagine it is much like a child longing to one day be an illusionist. All we see is the magic, the disappearing doves, the woman who vanishes in a whoosh of glitter or beneath a billow of silk.

Then we apprentice and see all the mirrors, the trap doors, the wires, the misdirection. For a time, it can and will feel…un-fun. BUT, as we master these illusions, add our own flair, even get skilled enough to invent our OWN bigger and better illusions, the joy returns because we remember the crowd. That WE were once in that crowd too and we LONG to mesmerize them as we once were. We want nothing more than to pass on magic, OUR magic, perhaps even a better variation of MAGIC.

Besides, structure done properly is INCREDIBLY fun to write. I only trust you bear with me and this series. Once you have this down, it will be second nature and that is where the incredible FUN for you and especially your readers will begin.

At the end of the day, yes writing IS fun and should be. But it is also a LOT of work, a LOT. Most readers can’t (and never will) appreciate all the hard work that goes into this vast illusion (a novel) any more than a Vegas audience can fully grasp the incredible work that goes into creating a one-evening Criss Angel show.

The hard and often fruitless work comes when we want to skip learning the tricks of the trade so to speak. Just as there are fundamentals to magic shows that have been passed on for centuries (then modified, improved, changed, etc.) same with story craft. The training is what makes the difference between mediocre and magnificent. So hang in there. I promise, it does become far more enjoyable once we nail the essentials 😉 ,

Any thoughts on that would be welcome

Tom Gould