“…the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage.”
--Harlan Ellison, from his anthology Dangerous Visions
How do you define a “classic story”? Can you? For the most part…yes. But then, that depends on who you ask. For instance, the discussion of “how to create a classic” is a story I’ve tried to sell to many writing magazines. The dominant response from them in so many words is: “You cannot define a classic. It’s something that defines itself.”
I would agree with this conclusion in the context of looking for a “how-to” article, which isn’t impossible to write, but it would be extremely hard and would have an unpredictable outcome at best. I personally believe a how-to article on making a classic would be counter-productive, and would completely distract from the reality of a classic.
A classic is, to put it simply: passion and focus.
Could those two things be taken away from something like Moby Dick, A Christmas Carol, The Lord of the Rings, The Odyssey, and so many others, and still have the same story? Would you even have the story if the authors didn’t have those two things…
My personal journey isn’t a good example yet but I’ll speak of it anyway, because a lot of authors, published or otherwise, will most likely be on the same quest as I am.
Ever since I was 11 years old I began writing novels, and at 12 I began my first Fantasy novel. Since that point I’ve run into many different teachers that have opened my mind to different ways of writing. I’ve read many books on the subject, most all of them have been beneficial. The same goes with my teachers. But it’s one in particular that stretched me just enough to find the conclusion that I have now about a classic.
My story is made in such a way as to emphasize the fact that my characters are on a long journey fraught with peril. My teacher didn’t like that. In fact it was denounced many times in front of my class.
This challenged me. It made me upset because I couldn’t see how my teacher had the right to stand up there and talk about how I “should” do my story as if it were hers this whole time?
So I scrutinized what I was learning by going to other sources. I don’t like it when people simply write off what others say, so I wanted to be different and actually look for her to be right. So I took what I learned from her and looked around for the truth.
I read books like, The First Five Pages (Noah Lukeman), Plot & Structure (James Scott Bell), Creating Plot (J. Madison Davis), Creating Scenes (Raymond Obstfeld), and Dialogue (Gloria Kempton). Without getting into every little detail that I learned right now, I’d say that the best thing I learned could be summed up in this sentence: “…the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage.”
That sentence was the embodiment of my truth and I found myself justified for writing the way I felt I should write my story.
Let me be painfully honest with you all, even to the possible detriment of myself from the get go. I don’t expect my book to fly at the beginning. I don’t expect great sales as soon as I hit the bookstores. I do not expect it.
That’s what makes a classic in a sense. It’s not everything that makes a classic, but as an introduction it is fitting, because the attitude of a writer is his greatest tool. As I post more and hope that others will discuss what I post, I believe there will be a point where you’ll find your own way to make a classic. It is your story after all.
Respectfully,
Levi Hendrickson
--Harlan Ellison, from his anthology Dangerous Visions
How do you define a “classic story”? Can you? For the most part…yes. But then, that depends on who you ask. For instance, the discussion of “how to create a classic” is a story I’ve tried to sell to many writing magazines. The dominant response from them in so many words is: “You cannot define a classic. It’s something that defines itself.”
I would agree with this conclusion in the context of looking for a “how-to” article, which isn’t impossible to write, but it would be extremely hard and would have an unpredictable outcome at best. I personally believe a how-to article on making a classic would be counter-productive, and would completely distract from the reality of a classic.
A classic is, to put it simply: passion and focus.
Could those two things be taken away from something like Moby Dick, A Christmas Carol, The Lord of the Rings, The Odyssey, and so many others, and still have the same story? Would you even have the story if the authors didn’t have those two things…
My personal journey isn’t a good example yet but I’ll speak of it anyway, because a lot of authors, published or otherwise, will most likely be on the same quest as I am.
Ever since I was 11 years old I began writing novels, and at 12 I began my first Fantasy novel. Since that point I’ve run into many different teachers that have opened my mind to different ways of writing. I’ve read many books on the subject, most all of them have been beneficial. The same goes with my teachers. But it’s one in particular that stretched me just enough to find the conclusion that I have now about a classic.
My story is made in such a way as to emphasize the fact that my characters are on a long journey fraught with peril. My teacher didn’t like that. In fact it was denounced many times in front of my class.
This challenged me. It made me upset because I couldn’t see how my teacher had the right to stand up there and talk about how I “should” do my story as if it were hers this whole time?
So I scrutinized what I was learning by going to other sources. I don’t like it when people simply write off what others say, so I wanted to be different and actually look for her to be right. So I took what I learned from her and looked around for the truth.
I read books like, The First Five Pages (Noah Lukeman), Plot & Structure (James Scott Bell), Creating Plot (J. Madison Davis), Creating Scenes (Raymond Obstfeld), and Dialogue (Gloria Kempton). Without getting into every little detail that I learned right now, I’d say that the best thing I learned could be summed up in this sentence: “…the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage.”
That sentence was the embodiment of my truth and I found myself justified for writing the way I felt I should write my story.
Let me be painfully honest with you all, even to the possible detriment of myself from the get go. I don’t expect my book to fly at the beginning. I don’t expect great sales as soon as I hit the bookstores. I do not expect it.
That’s what makes a classic in a sense. It’s not everything that makes a classic, but as an introduction it is fitting, because the attitude of a writer is his greatest tool. As I post more and hope that others will discuss what I post, I believe there will be a point where you’ll find your own way to make a classic. It is your story after all.
Respectfully,
Levi Hendrickson
No comments:
Post a Comment