In some of my very favorite stories, I could just read about daily life in those worlds and still happy. I hardly even need "conflict" or "catastrophe" or "plot twists" at all. Now most readers would probably get bored pretty fast without these necessary elements of a good book, and maybe I would too, but it feels like I wouldn't sometimes--if the story is good enough.
More of my favorite books include stories about the end of the world. I dearly love the concept of the apocalypse. Some horrible
event that ends life on this planet as we know it and a small group of
survivors have to pick up the pieces and move on. The Stand was
memorable to me in that genre. I also enjoy the "survive this game to
win your life and probably financial riches too" motif. Stephen King's
The Long Walk spoke to me in that particular tale.
I've
read Steinbeck's The Pearl and The Red Pony and Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird as well as books from the myriad of works by Dean Koontz and
John Grisham and Michael Crichton.
Somewhere along the way I started trying to guess where the story was
going. I wanted to see if I could make up the next part and if it would
be as good as the author's version. I found myself thinking of
different ideas for a story as I lived my daily life in school and then
in my career and at church and on dates and while playing guitar.
Finally
one day I just started writing things down. I learned quickly to
respect the art form. It's not as easy to write something worth reading
as it is to read it. That is a brilliant insight, I know. But I
found that in many of the books I read, especially during times in my
life when I was just trying to escape reality, I enjoyed the world of
the book whether or not anything exciting was taking place or not. I
just liked being somewhere else for awhile. Now I realize that that
will not last for very long for the typical reader. Stuff HAS to
happen. And bad stuff is what makes it all interesting. So I'm careful
to not linger too long in my stories. I want them to be page turners. I
want my readers to lose sleep and risk their jobs and their grades
because they cannot put my stories down. Well, not really...but sort
of. I think you know what I mean.
I am just so
thankful for all the writers who entertained and inspired me during
tough times in my life that I pray that I can be such an author for
others. I want to help people escape the pain and/or boredom of their
lives and if they can possibly even be inspired by something I've
written, that would be the highest honor I could imagine. Sure I want
to be a best selling author, but first I want to be an author who speaks
to people's hearts.
I could go on but this is already
probably way to long for a blog post. If you are still reading this, thank you. I look
forward to keeping you posted about my writing process as it continues. I
will post about that soon. Now go jump into a good book even if just
for a little while today! Go on.... Headfirst like a big boy or girl...
1, 2, 3 Jump!
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