"Whatever makes you weird is probably your greatest asset." --Joss WhedonI mentioned a few entries ago that I don't want to write standard boy-meets-girl romance, or the amazingly common "good girl meets bad boy" romance which is practically a subgenre in and of itself. I've never had any interest in writing mysteries, or contemporary stuff, or anything that feels like it could actually happen here in our world.
It all seems so... common. So plausible. So normal. And while I'd never say someone was wrong for writing that sort of stuff, the thought of writing something that could be considered normal bores the hell out of me.
I know very, very well that I'm not the only one who feels this way, but looking at the sheer amount of books I see plugged these days that sound so ordinary to me, it starts to feel like it. :P I think this picture says it all much more simply:
See what I mean?
Things like this are why I encourage everyone to embrace their weird, no matter what genre they write in. We're dealing with words here, and with words, we can make anything happen. So go nuts. Write exactly what you want to write, no matter how strange it might seem at first. If you can find a way to make it work, and the story's better for the strangeness, go for it.
This is the sort of thing I have to tell myself as I plug away at my book-in-progress (current word count: 50961). As you can see above, it's a strange sort of tale, and it wasn't until that tweet that I tried to consolidate the plot into a single sentence.
But I think that sentence is pretty awesome, so I'm still working hard on this thing, in hopes that someday someone else will want to embrace my weird.
...there has to be a better way to phrase that, but I think you get the idea. Somewhere out there, there's someone (hopefully many someones) whose desired reading weird matches your writing weird. And if you don't write it, they'll never get to read it.
So go. Write. And stay weird.
Ha! I love that screenshot:) I'm sure that you could make a very successful career writing everything that you think is strange because if you like it, chances are there are other people who'll like it, too. I think we all should write the kinds of stories we'd like to see--especially if those stories are not being written by anybody else.
ReplyDeleteThank you! And that is where a lot of this comes from - this type of story is one I love but it's not something I found anywhere. (I'm sure others have done similar things, but still.) All I can do is hope it works out and that there are others who are also looking for it.
DeleteHey, yours is the book I would read! Keep writing the weird.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear. ^_^ And trust me, my plotting files are filled with nothing but weird, I'm not stopping.
DeleteThat sentence is awesome. And unique. And dang it, it had better be unique if it's worth writing in the first place!
ReplyDeleteThank you. And that's a good point - there's not much point to writing something if it's going to be like everything else out there, is there.
DeleteWeird is fun! And that's a great sentence. :D It's nice when you can make an interesting summary in just one line.
ReplyDeleteThanks. ^_^ And I'm kind of surprised I could fit it all into one sentence. I think I saw that whole thing as a challenge, especially considering the other responses.
DeleteThat IS a fantastic elevator pitch for your novel! Those are really hard to get right.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm actually quite grateful I saw that tweet, as I hadn't tried to fit the story into one sentence before, and now I can sum it up with ease. And it's been great to see people here saying that it sounds like something they'd want to read. ^_^
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