Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing (10 page)

I’m reminded of Larry
Niven
. A critic once talked to him about his bestselling novel
Ringworld
,
pointing out that it had strong ties in its plot line to
The Wizard of Oz.
Larry, who is a genius by any standard, was floored. He said, “I suddenly realized that I had read
The Wizard of Oz
hundreds of times as a child. I loved it. Of course, I couldn’t help the fact that it helped form my fiction.”

Because
Niven
was drawing upon a popular source for inspiration, it probably helped him to find a large audience.

But let’s say that he hadn’t. What if, as a child, Larry
Niven
had fallen in love with a terribly obscure
tale.
Let’s make up one. We’ll call it “How Pollywog Lost his Tail.” It’s the story of a pollywog in a tiny pond. Day by day, the fierce sun beats down upon it, shrinking the pond. As he goes about feeding, he worries that he is going to die, and his tail shrinks. Yet as it shrinks, he finds that he begins to grow new hands and legs. Eventually, the pond dries up, and as the pollywog begins to die, his tail shrinks completely. The pollywog turns into a full-fledged frog, and uses his newfound powers to hop away.

I
nstead of writing
Ringworld
,
let’s say that
Niven
wrote
a story about a young lizard man in a city. As city violence escalates, lizard-boy finds that his tail begins shrinking. Eventually, lizard-boy is on the verge of losing his life, when suddenly his “death fangs” grow in, and he gains super powers.

Would the second tale resonate with a larger audience?
Not at all.
I’m not aware of any place in literature where humans celebrate the loss of body parts as they
metamorph
into adult creatures. So there hasn’t traditionally been an audience for this, and the new novel most likely would never find an audience.

In other words, you can
also
go wrong by drawing upon obscure sources for your resonance. If you don’t develop mainstream tastes at any time of your life, it’s not likely that you’ll attract a mainstream audience.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have a career
as an author
. It just means that you’ll need to try to use your novelty and perhaps your own unique writing skills to create an audience.

A similar thing happens if you don’t draw upon common cultural experiences in order to resonate with life. If your life was a novel—if you were raised by lions in Africa—you’re not going to be able to draw upon family life, school, and so on in order to create a
bond
between you and your audience.

Have you ever noticed that very young authors, regardless of talent, can almost never connect to a vast audience? They haven’t lived enough, experienced enough, to do so. Given this, they almost always find that they connect with audiences that they do have something in co
mmon with—very young audiences.

We have a vast reservoir of shared experience that helps us as people bond together.

Some of that shared experience can be found in literature, in film, in movies, or in art. Other shared experiences come from our schooling, our workplace, our love of sports—our basic lifestyles.

When you read a popular book or go to a major movie, you’re doing it with perhaps millions of other people. You might read a book and find that you enter a magical world, becoming another person for a while. Millions of others do it, too, and the experience changes you all, binds you together. If you’re a Star Trek fan, you might travel halfway around the world, meet someone wearing Spock ears in Korea, and instantly feel an affinity for that person. Societies are built around our shared moments.

The truth is that you can’t write any tale without drawing upon that vast pool of shared experiences, but the wisest writers, those who become most popular, learn to draw upon art and literature in order to create works that speak to audiences more strongly, more deeply, and appeal to a wider network of readers.

Learn to do draw upon other works consciously, and to do it well.
  Too often, authors are content to write “little” stories, tales that are so personal that the rest of the world just doesn’t relate. 

Remember, a great tale isn’t just about you.  Ultimately, the reader should close your book and feel that a connection has been made, to realize with wonder and delight that “This story is about me.”

If you’re a novelist, familiarize yourself with the bestselling novels in your genre
.
Are you trying to write children’s books?  Then you should read
The Wizard of Oz
and
Alice in Wonderland
in order to get some historical perspective.

In fact, as a writer you need to keep your finger on the pulse of your marketplace, studying all sorts of trends in fiction and fashion.

I once worked with a writer in Hollywood to create a new fantasy franchise
.
The first thing that he did was ask for a list of other films in the genre that were influential
.
He then went out and rented movies—
Conan the Barbarian, Willow,
Ladyhawke
—
and dozens of others, then watched them over the course of several days in order to educate
himself
about the genre.

Every novelist should do the same, familiarizing himself with popular books, movies, poems, music and other forms of popular art
.
Depending upon the genre, you may need to research history or videogames.

Beyond other works of art, you need to look at real life
.
This might mean that you will want to draw from historical records when describing life in Chicago in 1920
.
You may be able to find old photographs, or read from local writers of the time in order to get a deeper feel for what you’re trying to create
.
You may want to study menus from restaurants in order to get a feel for the cuisine
.
In order to write about a wizard who used herbs once, I planted a garden with herbs that had historic uses—and then took
took
the herbs myself, in order to study their effects fist-hand.

In short, as an author, research the work of others
.
Don’t be content to just try to absorb familiar works like a sponge
.
It’s helpful to sit down and research the works of others, to think about their achievements, to study, to garner what you can, and then to use their skills to embellish your own fine creations.

Learn more on how to improve your writing and enhance you
r
stories from David
Farland’s
other writing books:

Available
here
.

Attend one of David
Farland’s
writing workshops to further hone your craft.  View upcoming workshops on his
website
.