Approximately twelve years ago, I decided I wanted to write a novel. I dug in and actually wrote quite a bit, and it was fun! However, I had no idea what I was doing.
I joined a writer’s group that met every week in the local library, and they were wonderful. They loved my writing and encouraged me to continue. They would patiently sit through whole chapters of my work as I read aloud, then asked me lots of questions. I was encouraged. We moved away, and I kept writing the only way I knew how.
But. I then joined another writing group, in which some of the people were published authors. They had much less patience for my writing, and even lectured me on form and content. Sheesh… Covid hit, so we didn’t meet anymore.
I started to poke around the internet, and found an interesting option, an online course which I’ve mentioned before in this blog, called Story Grid. I signed up in late 2021, went to the Zoom group lessons, did the homework, was assigned to a cohort of three other writers who were also struggling mightily with their own creative projects.
THREE YEARS LATER (aka now), I felt brave enough to let go of studying and restart my novel. I am still welcomed each week to my cohort, although the other three writers are continuing with Story Grid. (I have a feeling that, even if one or all of them drop out, that we’ll still meet, and/or share our work.)
This experience has made me marvel at not only the authors from history who managed to write magnificent novels without the help of such training, but all those who continue to entertain and educate us with their imaginations. Books by the author Jane Austen, for instance, are still bestsellers today!
Why is that? There was no Story Grid back then, but somehow, Ms. Austen figured it out.
It’s simple, actually. Jane Austen wrote about human love. You can tell, even though she herself never married, that despite this she deeply believed in the possibilities inherent in human love, and wanted to urge other women to embrace it, to know it was possible to have a relationship that was rewarding and passionate (even at her time in history, where marriages of wealth and convenience were common).
The novel I want to write has always been about the orchestra business. I was an orchestral violinist and administrator for much of my earlier career, so I know a lot about how an orchestra works. I know how important having these cultural institutions are for communities across the world. They build pride, they’re great for the economy, they prevent damaging movements like “brain drain”, they give hundreds of people meaningful careers, they educate kids, they showcase international artists…in short, they’re invaluable to the health of a community, just as schools, art museums, fire stations, etc. are important.
I’ve seen many orchestras threatened over past and recent history, with Minnesota, for instance, enduring an extended lockout, San Francisco being threatened right now, and my son’s orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony (the oldest municipal orchestra in the US), also locking their musicians out and threatening to downsize (they didn’t). This is only a small sampling of orchestras whose futures may be up for grabs.
I deeply believe in the power of music to alter life in profound ways, of sharing that power with other humans, and in defending this idea, I am willing to die on that hill.
I always knew this, of course, but I didn’t know how to put it into words and tell that story in a compelling way, a way that would change or enlighten people’s minds and attitudes. Now, I think I do.
It’s important to have interesting characters, great dialog, something that pushes your story forward (like a war, a love affair, a really bad guy, etc.) But I realize that, after you have all of that, this is what great story writing comes down to: don’t write about what you know (although that’s fine too, but it shouldn’t be your only criteria), write about what you believe at your very core. What hill are you willing to die on while trying to convince whomever is reading your book or looking at your creative work of your passion and belief?
Help someone else see the world this way, share your feelings and experiences, hold someone’s hand and help lead them through this mess called life. And do it with an urgency, so that they keep going when things get rough, just as Jane Austen did. Falling in love is tricky business, especially in her day, but she makes it clear that it is totally worth it when all is said and done.
After everything else in these busy lives of ours, making stuff with our whole being is really at the core of who we are.
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