If I were to do a developmental edit of your manuscript, you could find remarks about the emotional connection the reader has with your characters. I may even say that the character needs to show more emotion in a particular scene, so the reader feels that emotional pull to root for the character. Emotions are powerful, and you could have a fantastic plot, but if the characters are bland, readers will not want to keep reading.
Today, author M. L. Little is here to give us a great writing tip on writing what we know.
Welcome, M. L.!
Name: M. L. Little
Genre: Fantasy
Latest Novel: The Book of Secrets
Writing Tip:
Write what you know! This puzzled me for years. Write what I know? Write a character who wakes up, eats toast, sits in traffic, goes to school, and repeats? I don’t know about you, but the ins and outs of my daily life grow rather mundane. So why do writing classes teach us to write what we know? How can there ever be stories of revolution and victory and long-lost worlds if so few of us will ever experience anything great?
This confusion exists because “write what you know” is the most ill-interpreted piece of advice in the whole catalog of writing instruction. Write what your heart has known. If you are alive, you have experienced every emotion on the human spectrum, regardless of the depth of severity. You have been nervous. You have known anger. You have felt joy. Have you lost a relationship, a job, a pet? Then remember your anguish and spin it into the fall of great empires or the destruction of the world. If you have held your newborn child or watched your favorite team claw its way to a championship, then you can write the victory of battle or the joy of reunion. Take your emotions and place them in the biggest, wildest worlds of your imagination.
Your heart already knows everything. Write from it.
I love your explanation! We all have unique situations and feelings and should draw on those emotions to make a deeper connection with our characters.
Favorite Writing Tip for New Writers:
Set yourself a writing goal, be it five lines or five pages, and meet it daily. Do not allow yourself to go to bed until you have reached your goal. Is your writing terrible? Good, you’ve still put something on paper. And it will probably look better in the morning. The only reason I have a book coming out into the world was because for three months straight, I couldn’t go to bed until I had hand-written two pages. You want a good night’s sleep instead? Don’t become an author. You’ll never sleep again.
Who needs to sleep? 😉 But seriously, setting small goals will give you the discipline you need to finish writing a full-length book.
THE BOOK OF SECRETS, a novel perfect for ages 11-14, instantly immerses the reader into an original fantasy world of a mishmash of time periods and rough-and-tumble adventure, whimsy, and heartbreaking beauty.
After Gabriel Draven— impulsive, creative, and too curious for his own good—smuggles home an item from the restricted section of the bookshop, he has no idea that it’s the most wanted book in the Seventh Realm–or that it’s connected to the mysterious stranger who disappeared from his grandfather’s tavern in the middle of the night. Suddenly Gabriel finds himself on the run, seeking shelter with the creatures and humans he views as enemies–but are they? As his journey takes him out of his own realm and into another, Gabriel finds that the deepest mystery lies at the heart of his own family, and he must do whatever it takes to find his way back home.
Flowing through the veins of his adventure is the legend of Brim, a seer and wizard rumored to be reawakening. But those are just stories. Brim doesn’t really have any power, right?
As one early reviewer said: “Strong and unapologetic, full of vivid, well-timed simile and lilting rhythm, bright with humor, at times bursting into a depth of pure simplistic beauty,” THE BOOK OF SECRETS looks far beyond the typical medieval swords-and-sorcery and, instead, introduces mystical creatures, absurd new worlds, and, at its heart, a hymn of praise to the complicated bond of siblinghood.
M.L. Little writes reviews for Kid Lit Exchange and is inching closer to becoming a degreed theologian. She resides in the southern foothills of the Appalachians on the edge of the woods, where she sometimes hears the cry of what might be a nullian. The Book of Secrets, installment #1 in the Seventh Realm series, is her first novel and releases on August 15th.
Before you go, take a moment to connect with M. L. on social media so you can get the latest news on her upcoming release.
What about you? Do you find it difficult to draw from your emotions and experiences in your writing? Leave us a comment and join in the conversation.
Social Media Links:
https://www.instagram.com/mllittleauthor/
https://www.facebook.com/mllittleauthor/
***If you are an author and would like to be considered for Wisdom Wednesday, please email me for openings. You can email me at erinrhoward@yahoo.com
Clean fiction or Christian fiction required. All genres will be considered.
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