sym·bi·o·sis/?simb???sis/
- Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.
- A mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that my characters are real, nor is the world, however realistic I might try and make it.
But, all the same, my characters mean something to me. No matter what goes on in life, I rely on them to distract me, and subvert the truths of my existence that day. For their part, my characters can’t live without me, they need my troubles, my joys, and my truths to exist themselves. They are no aware of it, truth be told, being figments of my imagination they are not aware of anything, yet there is a mutually beneficial relationship.
Therefore I can only conclude that I have a symbiotic relationship with my own imaginings. On some levels all writers do, we get involved. Doesn’t matter whether it’s writing for a book, or a film, or a game, it doesn’t matter if it’s just a story you tell your two and a half year old niece on the fly.
Well here’s the thing, that symbiosis doesn’t last forever, eventually move on. Maybe that character, or that world might be still in small way active at the back of your mind, it does however fade. A cruel ending you might say to such a relationship. Except it’s more a parting of the ways, certainly for some writers. The writer gets a new character, and a new world to become symbiotically attached to. The character or world gets, if the author shares their work, to form a new type of symbiotic relationship with a reader.
I love that, I really do. I think it makes each book special, every character amazing.
I’m not the best at conveying these worlds and these characters to paper, but when I do, and I share it, my one true hope about my writing is that the reader forms a different but important relationship with my characters.
I would love that one day, I write something that connects with enough people that my characters exist on in fan fiction. To know that my characters connected with an audience in that way would be truly special. Don’t get me wrong, writing for profit also handily goes with this particular want, but I’d honestly take much loved and cherished characters than simple cash.
So, yeah – it’s corny, a little cliched but I do genuinely feel a connection with my stories, that’s what I love. I’m hoping one day to have the craft to be able to actually put these fantastic stories into words that people understand and appreciate.
A writer should always be reading, and sometimes that means going beyond their normal stable of genres. So I’m branching out into what currently sells. It’s a new thing, I’ve only just started, but I’ve just read The Hunger Games trilogy, and I certainly can see why the first book became so popular. (my initial view having just finished the trilogy are three things: emotional blackmail, food, fast pacing – and I don’t mean any of that in a bad way, it’s a great trilogy especially the first book).
I have no problems coming up with ideas, and now I’m getting a dab hand at the planning stuff. Now I need to learn how to connect with an audience. Next year’s NaNoWriMo will be to write a first draft that I won’t have any reservations about letting someone else read. I’m not too fussed that the kind of thing I write doesn’t get into top 100 books very often, I can write in most genre’s comfortably. Instead it is just how these top authors connect with their audience, and maintain that connection.
So what’s next? Well, given that I have a focus for what I want to get out of reading, I will sit down and properly lay out my thoughts from Hunger Games, a review, but one that is focused on that audience connection. Then I’ll do it for the other books I go for. I’ll do it at one a month, (I’m not a millionaire after all, and I need to fit it around the other things I read). I can see my Kindle being very busy next year.
Aspiring 