Now that you’ve read Strunk and White’s Elements of Style and armed yourself with an array of weapons to assault the blank page, you have to settle on what to write.
Write the story that is in your heart!
If I was clever, I would end the post with that thought, but cleverness often eludes me, slipping through my fingers like cookie crumbs falling from a child’s hand, so I offer some helpful hints. When determining your first story, think about what you like to read, what sets your heart beating or gets you thinking or sends your boat floating. You get the idea.
If you love thrillers, don’t start a fantasy epic. Each genre has its own unwritten rules, so write your first story in the genre that you are most familiar with. Once I settle on a genre, I usually have some interesting setting or theme in mind to add to the story. For Fourteenth Colony, I wanted to have a dystopian political subtext because I thought it would be topical and interesting.
Hopefully there is a small corner of the world that you find interesting or have a certain expertise in that might add some sizzle to your story. Two cautionary notes! If you intend to write commercially, you should always think about your intended readers and choose something of interest that will appeal to them. Second, the story must always drive your novel. Don’t get so caught up in 16th Century England that your readers forget why they started reading in the first place.
Finally, never write a zombie story because zombie stories are hot. By the time you finish, mermaids will be in, and what will you be left with?
By Jeff Altabef, author of Fourteenth Colony. To learn more about the Fourteenth Colony, Click here - http://www.amazon.com/Fourteenth-Colony-ebook/dp/B00C2D97OS/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=13741937...
