Into the Fire

Some writers resonate academician precision before they attempt their first project. They’re well-read, methodical, strive for excellence in anything related to words—whether it’s teaching, reading, listening, writing. Some of these writers invariably become what is referred to as “literary” writers because the way words ultimately come together to create story matters almost more than the story itself.

Other writers serve story. The greater the story, the greater the journey in writing it. They can be outliners or strobe their fast-moving plots along by the quaint term “seat-of-the-pants” writers. Move it, move it, move it—they push those words onto the page and surf the words like a giant curl. Those words look like just another great wave to them, and they don’t mess with them to any great degree other than to ride them out to the end of that story, hoping for the perfect ending to “shooting the curl”.

Others of us fit somewhere in between these types of writers. Some plug away with a careful outline, some of us tap away at our keyboards wondering what these characters are up to next.

In the midst of these styles, efforts, and unique perspectives, novels get written. If the authors write enough of these novels, something else happens. The real evolution. Authors get better, improve, graduate to some ill-defined next level. Given enough opportunities, the evolution of writing occurs. And amazingly enough, it doesn’t take fabricated billions of years, a ridiculous mythological carbon footprint, or an unreliable carbon dating system, and it doesn’t take an imaginary, unscientific means of measuring the process. It simply takes place because most authors pay attention to what works for them, what once might have worked but no longer does, where they want to travel to become the writer they hope to be . . . someday, and whatever now influences them to include in their own work.

Some of us know we will never implement those styles of some writers we admire. Perhaps we write in another genre and know we’ll not be trespassing into an area where our skills limit us. We sit at our computers and silently wish we could do what they do but settle for what we do. And then try to do our best. There will always be somebody better than us at what we do. I think coming to that realization is a positive rather than a negative. To some degree it takes the pressure off. Isn’t there enough pressure to perform in this world? Who needs more of the same? Well—maybe pressure is your motivator. For me, the comparison nature of that kind of motivation leaves me silenced and wordless and unproductive.

Simple adventures into first person Point of View—or second or third person or omniscient POVs if never attempted—mark a new adventure for an author. Evolving into a different approach to the similar story patterns make movement in storytelling new and hopefully effective for the faithful readers.

Our local discount Christian bookstore at the mall has become a great place to buy books. Although they get the New Releases, they also stock the warehouse overruns from all kinds of well known and not so well known authors from past to present. Their sales are fabulous, and the majority of stock in the store is usually carrying some kind of sales tag. It’s not unusual to get a regular-priced $12 to $14.99 trade paper novel for $4 to $5.99 or even a hardcover for anywhere from $5.97 to $7.97. I don’t quite know why it’s comforting to see the best authors with these discount sales tags on their wonderful novels. The point here is if you go back to the original novels of multi-published authors after having read their newest books, oftentimes you can see how their writing journey evolved. They’ve changed. Maybe you like the change and maybe you don’t, but chances are if you’re reading their older novels, and by that I mean several years old, you’ll be a witness to their growth.

The real evolution remains personal. We change. We hope we improve. We take on new perspectives, implement new approaches, and we learn sometimes by what we don’t like in ourselves or what we do like in others. This is the real evolution of a writer.

Father, keep workin’ on me. That’s all I got to say. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.