Babel Clash

If you’ll take a glance just a wee bit below, you’ll see that our host Morgan asked a question that’s going to be difficult to answer, because it’s almost impossible to predict what other writers, new or long-established, are going to take from our books. And if we instead discuss what we hope others will glean from our books it’s going to be hard not to start bragging. We can on occasion be an egotistical lot (not just we three, mind you, but all storytellers in general, since it’s not an occupation for the overly humble and timid).

But with that said, he did ask, so I’m going to take a shot at providing something approximating an answer. Here’s what you might learn from Peter and Max. First, if you didn’t enjoy the book, don’t try to do something similar. Don’t set your story in the vast Black Forest of a long-ago German like fantasy world. Don’t make the central conflict revolve around a family struggle to see who gets the best flute. And certainly don’t do anything that involves your hero stuffing his wife into a pumpkin shell.

You know, on second thought, even if you did like the book you probably shouldn’t do any of those things either, because as a general rule you want to learn from the heart and structure of a story you admire, not just copy some of the particulars. When the Lord of the Rings trilogy (actually a tetrology, but that’s a whole ‘nother conversation) enjoyed its biggest flush of popularity in seventies and eighties, we were deluged with a host of other Epic Quest Fantasy trilogies, that featured one wizard, one elf, one fighter, one dwarf, and so on, on one long, foot-numbing quest do do away with the Dark Lord. These were excruciatingly bland copies of the props and more obvious fixtures of the Rings books, without capturing a sliver of its heart and substance.

So, lesson one: try to absorb the deep substance — those things that really make the story work — without copying the specific details.

Lesson two you can learn from any good book. A novel is a hard thing to complete. So don’t waste your time writing a dull one. I had Peter and Max simmering in my mind (and assorted notebooks) for as long as Fables, the comic book series, has been in production. I got to know both title characters pretty well before attempting to write their saga. Make sure, whatever your story is, it’s the story you most want to tell. Make sure it’s the story you need to tell. But don’t mistake this admonition to mean that you must set out to write an important work of fiction. Those who set out to do important books usually produce dull books. One thing all three books Morgan mentioned below have in common is that they’re works of entertainment, and I suspect all three were designed to be just that. I think what I mean by this point then is that, if you don’t love your own story, it’s going to be nearly impossible to write one that anyone will like, much less love.

So, part of lesson two is: be your own first fan. If you can’t win yourself over, you won’t likely win other readers either.

I’m sure there are others things I’ll think of, once James and Matt weigh in on this, because they are fonts of good ideas, and good ideas tend to spark other good ideas, which is another thing you might take from any book you enjoy — the spark of a new idea. In my youth I loved reading The Count of Monte Cristo, so someday I’m going to write a revenge story. No, it won’t be at all like that book. That book is already written, so we don’t need it again. But the idea of a man consumed with revenge, that is an idea that can be spun in a thousand different directions. Someday I’ll find the direction I most want to take and write it.

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