Why I Can't Write Anyone Else's Book

First, I have to say that I think that anyone who wants to write a book should. No, that’s not my smart aleck way of saying, “Don’t tell me what to write.” I mean it. If you want to write a book, do it! Anyone can write a book.

Oh, yes, they can. I’m a teacher. Don’t argue with me.

I didn’t say that anyone could write a publishable book, or even a good book that just doesn’t catch the breaks needed to get published. So what? I live in Colorado, and know lots of people who never in their lives wanted to become professional skiers, and yet, they ski. Some of them are terrible skiers, but they have a ball and they don’t run anybody over, so why shouldn’t they ski?

Let’s try another analogy. Lots of people are birdwatchers. Some people know the first robin of spring and the call of a meadowlark, and they are quite content to look for these creatures. They know a chickadee from a magpie from a pigeon. Great! They’re more in touch with nature than people who don’t notice birds at all. Then you have your serious birdwatchers. There’s not a critter with feathers they can’t identify by call, color, or silhouette. They know when each species made its appearance last year and can predict with reasonable accuracy when it will return this year. They just like knowing this stuff. It’s fascinating. Finally, you have your honest-to-goodness ornithologists. They make a living tracking, observing, and classifying birds. Among this crowd, some are better than others. Obviously, there is everything in between, as well.

Am I going to tell you that you should either become an ornithologist or forget about birds altogether? Heck no!

What does all of this have to do with not telling a writer what to write? Glad you asked. A book can be a random story, told by a writer because the story captured his/her imagination. There’s nothing wrong with that. At the same time, you’ll notice there are not a lot of these kinds of books at your local Barnes and Noble. If a writer is hoping to create a really solid novel, she has to give it structure and purpose, and only she knows what the structure and purpose are. Chances are very slim (not impossible, but slim) that she can incorporate your structure or purpose with any success. It’s kind of like having an artist tell you about a series of paintings they’re working on, and you say, “Sounds great! You know, I’ve been to the place where you’re doing landscapes, and you need to put X kind of tree in them.”

Okay, so I write historical romance, and I’m trying my hand at women’s fiction. Folks ask me what I’m working on, and I’m usually excited to share. But here’s the deal, you tell somebody that you’re writing a book set in such-and-such year in such-and-such place, and if there’s anything about that time or place (or even close) that they are interested in, they start telling you how you need to put this into your novel.

I write romance, not historical fiction, and even if I did write historical fiction, it might not work. My story is not about the time or place. It is about two people living in that time and place and falling in love. Everything that goes into that novel must enhance THEIR story. I know their hopes, dreams, and fears as intimately as if they were mine. No one else does.

Right now, I’m working on a story that involves several objects that are linked together in a woman’s life. In a conversation, my husband and several friends suggested that I incorporate something that happened to similar item that belongs to a mutual acquaintance—it was stolen. The thing is, the novel has a structure to it. The stories connected to the items only go until the items end up at their final destination. If I have one of them get stolen, the story connected to it has to stop. But remember, the story is the story of the item’s OWNER, not the item itself. “Oh, but just think if it…” my companions eagerly chimed in.

Um. If I do that, the structure of the whole damn book unravels.

Yes, I know that I could choose not to tell people what I’m working on, but they seem to like hearing about my books, and it makes for easy conversation. I don’t mind in the least if the topic switches from my book to the theft of our friend’s property. Besides, the journey of a stolen item might be a fascinating story. I’d love to hear about what one of my friends might do with that idea if she wanted to write about it. I just don’t want to be told that I should put this into my story.

I know why people enthusiastically offer suggestions. For one thing, they truly are trying to be helpful. For another, people get excited by the concept of storytelling. Why shouldn’t they get excited about it? After all, everyone is a storyteller, even if the only way it manifests itself is in the story you tell your spouse about the #%$* customer/client/boss/coworker you had to deal with that day or the car accident you were in last week.

I’ve also mentioned that my WIP is the result of a suggestion made by friends. Here’s the key, they suggested a very broad scope of a story without trying to dictate anything that I ultimately do with it. The other critical piece is that they weren’t trying to tell me what to do with something I was already working on. Believe me, if I say that I’m on page 140 of a book, I know where the rest is going. There is no room for a major new element. I don’t know how a true seat-of-the-pants writer does it. This book started off a seat-of-the-pants project, but by the time I got to chapter six, I had to outline the rest. The structure was just getting too complicated to try to implement without a great deal of intent.

Now, maybe all that talk about structure sounds mystifying to you. Don’t let that stop you from writing your book. It doesn’t have to be the great American novel. Goodness knows my books aren’t. You want to write a pretty good book? Take some adult ed classes, read Stephen King’s ON WRITING, become more aware of the plot and character development in books that you read. If you just want to write and not worry about all that other stuff—go for it! Ski, even if you’re not much of an athlete. Enjoy the sight of the first robin of the spring. It’s just silly to die with a book stuck inside of you, and you’re the only one who can write it!