Not Every Story Is A Book
I gave some advice in a writers Facebook group that I thought could be shared more broadly. Someone was struggling with their story. Don’t we all from time to time? My comment was:
Do you have a book in you or do you have a story in you? The difference in it being a book is just the medium – if a book seems not quite right, I’d say think about what formats might suit both you and the story.
This was in the lead up to NaNoWriMo 2021, so it’s fair that people had novel on the brain. But a story that doesn’t suit the novel format doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile, it might just mean it’s not a novel. That’s fine. It can be something else.
If you ever get stuck on your story, really stuck, remember, not every story is a book.
By the way, I write a lot about creativity (and creativity with a chronic illness) on my Patreon page. You can join for as little as $AUD 1.50/month.
I remember going to a memoir-writing workshop once and the facilitator trying to explain that most people’s stories may be of interest to no one other than themselves and those they know. That family histories may only be of interest to those involved.
I was looking at Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s The Erratics at the bookstore I was at on the weekend and – though I haven’t read it (cos, non-fiction!) – I know it won awards and have heard her speak about it. It made me wonder why some memoirs (involving non-famous people) are of more interest than others… the story told or perhaps the writing?
People have commented to me that in writing my memoirs I should get it copied for my family. Nah, I said, because I know my family! They might be more interested as time goes on and for that reason alone, I have printed out the posts and they sit, dated in an old fashioned but useful A4 folder. And yes, I wrote it for me more than anyone..
It’s been great to have you share your post this week for #lifethisweek on Denyse Whelan Blogs. Thank you. I hope you will be back next week, where the optional prompt is “young” but my guest poster, Mr Whelan, is sharing his thoughts for the final time on the blog in 2021 on a different topic. See you there, Denyse.
[…] It means I need to learn more about how to write this. Or it means that maybe it’s destined to be a script and not a novel. Or some combination of […]