Novel writing can be a lonely job. You’re basically in the ivory tower, locked away with your characters and your plot, churning out the literary equivalent of hot dogs and ice cream. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a sales pitch for a book you’ve never heard of. You’re bombarded with media requests and lined up for talks at major book clubs. Your social media accounts are filled with reader engagement and you get a sweet email from an editor you didn’t even know existed, inviting you to submit your work for review.
All of this would be pretty cool if it weren’t for one major fact: none of it is real. The hot dog lady doesn’t exist and you don’t have access to a time tunnel, either. So, for the most part, your readership is made up of flesh-and-blood human beings with real emotions and real reactions to your stories. And when they don’t like what they’re reading, they have the absolute RIGHT not to like it. Your job, as the author, is to entertain them – to pull them in and make them keep turning pages, come back for more, and tell their friends about the great book they just read.
Letting your readers into your fictional world and immersing them in your story is a crucial step to taking your creative writing to the next level. And that, my friend, is where the magic happens. It’s when you start putting in the work to make your readers believe that what they’re reading is actually real that you start to see the results of your genius and, hopefully, your success. So let’s look at how you can use a theme to your advantage, shall we?
Understand Your Characters Better
When you write an action-packed scene, it’s easy to get carried away by the momentum and the excitement of the moment. You’ll see a character do or say something funny or quirky that will land him or her in a situation that seems perfectly foreseeable and reasonable, given the circumstances at hand. So, when you reread the scene, or even the chapter, afterwards, it can seem kind of unrealistic and forced. This is especially true if there were similar scenes or situations that you’ve previously covered in the story and you feel like you’re treading water, trying to keep the plot moving along, while also inserting more and more humor or quirky character moments.
You can’t write a good scene if you don’t understand your character’s mindset and behavior at the beginning of the process. You need to know what makes them tick, why they are the way they are, what propels them forwards and what drives them backwards. Only then can you truly write a scene that feels organic and, more importantly, that feels true to what you want your readers to learn from the story.
Make It More Than Just a Comedy
Even though humor is extremely important to your plot, it doesn’t have to be. You can use a light-hearted approach to your story and still make your readers laugh and, hopefully, enjoy your work. But the most important thing is that you make them think. To achieve this, you have to show them something new, either through humor or an other means. Take a look at Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Although it’s a comedy, one of the things that makes it so unique is that it’s heavily focused on character development and moral questions. In one of the most beloved stories of all time, the titular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a completely unreliable and satirical source of information. In the first line of its first chapter, Adams mocks the very idea of an authoritative, honest guide to anything, let alone travel and exploration, by saying, “Many people believe that [the universe] is a great place and, furthermore, that it’s a dangerous place, which makes sense because what else would you say about the place you call home? So many different perspectives, so many different ways of looking at life. What’s wrong with that?”
Adams then proceeds to set up the premise of the entire work and, in the process, gives us a detailed character analysis of the titular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to the most interesting characters in literature. The point is that despite the work’s humorous tone and the fact that it’s been called, more than once, “the funniest book you’ll ever read,” the writing is so sharp, insightful, and character-driven that it transcends its status as a comedy classic and becomes a literary masterpiece.
Make It Multidimensional
You can’t have a one-dimensional character; it doesn’t work in fiction or even in life. Your characters should be three-dimensional; they should have depth. This doesn’t mean that you need to write a biography for each character or that you need to give each one a mind of their own, it just means that you make them complex and, sometimes, contradictory. The trick is in finding the right combination of actions, words, and situations that give each one dimension and, in the process, make the reader understand them better, even when they are saying the least meaningful things or doing the most ridiculous things. This brings us to our next point…
Make It Read More Than Just One Meaning
Humor is a very subjective subject. Even when you’re writing in a humorous tone, you don’t always need to make reference to it. You can choose what your readers get out of what you write and, in doing so, allow them to find the hidden themes, the metaphors, and the allegories that you intend to convey. The beauty of creative writing is that it can be whatever you want it to be. You don’t have to follow the rules or be limited by what other people think is appropriate for a certain genre or story. So, if you want to write a serious work, then you can make every scene and chapter intense and, at the same time, hilarious. Of course, your readers will appreciate both the humor and the seriousness of your story.
Incorporate It Into Your Life
What’s the point of creating an elaborate fiction if you don’t try and incorporate it into your life, afterwards? At the end of the day, you’re not really writing the story, you’re living it. And the truth is that all of us, as human beings, need stories in order to make sense of the world. Whether you’re a writer who sits down every morning, or you’ve taken up creative writing as a hobby, you’ve got a narrative drive that keeps you coming back for more. And that’s what makes you special. That’s your gift and your talent. Don’t hide it; own it. Instead of seeing yourself as a writer who happens to create stories, you can see yourself as a storyteller, and even a creator, in the sense that you make the worlds that others see.
So, what do you think? Does this article inspire you to take your creative writing to the next level? What is your favorite story about becoming more creative? Let us know in the comments below!