Story vs. Marketing

"Write the story that wants to be written," is one of my favorite mantras. It was bequeathed to me and countless of other budding young authors by my Gran, the one and only Madeleine L'Engle, who not only wrote stories that wanted to be written, but ones that wanted to be read.

I say it not only to myself, but I preach that sermon to writers from the ages of eight to eighty. I believe in it. I believe that writing is about excavation and discovery, it's not *just* about getting published.

And yet . . . it is about being published and having our work be recognized. We aren't writing out of a vacuum - we are writing both to understand and maybe to be understood. We want our stories to be heard, which can be an uphill battle.

Why? (Besides the cacophony of us on the interwebs, clamoring for attention.) You have to have a niche, a genre. You have to know who you're talking to, you have to know your MARKET.

Really?

Whatever happened to just writing a story? It's hard enough to listen, to really listen to our characters without worrying whether or not they are "marketable".

When I started writing Edges, I was answering a call from my main character. I didn't know from "audience" - all I knew was that Luke (who also happened to be a teenager) was dying for me to tell his story.

I nearly drove myself mad (and everyone else) with the writing and thought the madness I felt would be over once I found an agent. No? A publisher, surely. No? Ah, I will feel sane when I am published then.

Sorry, but no.

My adventures into the psychotic world of marketing had just begun, which I have shared with you all along the way dear readers, and you know that I have come through it stronger and with a sense of humor. (Most of the time!) If you are pre-published or debuting, you will too, I promise!

We authors complain about marketing, because none of us have the magic formula, and we are delusional for a while thinking that there is one. If only . . . We all feel ridiculous, thinking that we are doing too much and then worrying that we are not doing enough and we just have to STOP.
 
And remember that it has to be about writing the story that wants to be written, about being authentic. About finding YOUR voice, so that we can hear it. Because nobody can tell a story the way YOU can.

I can't be successful trying to be someone that I'm not, so I may as well be the best Léna Roy that I can be. Will you be the best YOU?

Reveling in a Teen's Words

Image by Enokson via Flickr

 Cross posted on SheWrites:

How can we not revel in other people's words?

Especially ones that are spoken,
       whispered or belted
        in an intimate manner,
        on stage or off,
        words connecting with listeners,
        with readers,
        showing our common humanity,
        reaching across borders of experience, age and culture.

My life-line as a writer and human being is in being part of communities that advance and support other writers. Communities like Girls Write Now, and SheWrites (and Writopia, the writing program for kids/tweens and teens that I teach for).

Part of Girls Write Now's mission is for teens to practice sharing their work. I am struck by all of these young authors, but am particularly focused on Dalina Jiminez. You can watch for yourself and hear the power of her words here:

Did you REVEL in the raw emotion of her teen poet's voice?

I do not consider myself a writer of the poetic persuasion, but listening to Dalina reminds me of why I am compelled to write - it is to understand our experience and create something larger than ourselves that touches others.

Dalina inspires me to think about my own struggles with lack of privacy and sleep with her poems Reveling and Sleep, Or Something Like It. Her words take me with her as she is finally able to take a nap in the sunshine and then as she struggles with the myriad things that get in the way of being in restful repose. My eyes sting as I feel as if Dalina is speaking directly to me, and I wonder at how she has successfully bridged our age gap.

Her emotional risk taking inspires me to write as authentically as I can both in my blog essays and with my fictional characters, delving deep into the specific details of their lives.

Writing and finding your own voice as a writer is all about details, and working with young writers on a daily basis reminds me of that.  I know that my life would be diminished if I didn't have a community of writers, specifically female writers, who constantly remind me of what's important.