Becoming A Writer

What to write?

A lot of people have emailed me and asked, 'how did you come up with the ideas for How to Punch Soren Mckinin?'And furthermore, how did you make it unique?

To say it in short, I was sick of reading bad boy books that the boy had no reason to be bad.

He just was bad so the girl had something to fix, and the guys temper or desire to be alone was what drove the plot forward. It is cliche and after book, after book... was kind of painful to read. I wanted realism, I wanted truth. I wanted a character that was 'bad' because he could not handle the world, that had his dreams die before his eyes. Shit that is actually real and makes sense.

So, for yourself, how do you think of a good idea?

There is a few things to keep in mind. No good idea is the first idea. I hate that quote but it is true. I wrote about 3 books before I wrote How to Punch Soren Mckinin and ALL of them were absolutely shocking. They were shocking because I did not know what I wanted out of the book.

You have to ask yourself, "what do i love reading?" And "what do I hate about the books that I read?" Because at the end of it all, you should write what you have been dying to read.

For example, if you absolutely love zombie apocalypse books and you love how everyone explains what it feels like to be alone in the woods listening for growls, climbing trees for safety. But the thing you hate is that no one ever comments on what it feels like to kill a zombie, no one writes a character that cries when He/she kills a zombie because the moment before true death, the zombie's eyes fade to humans, and he/she sees the person she murdered to save her own life....

Well, there you have it. Now, it is your job to write what you have been dying to read. Because, more likely than not, other people are sick of the same things you are and love the same things you do.

I also find that this help's with 'writings block' because you are now writing for your own interest, but that is another chapter.

When we take the concept of 'write what you have been dying to read' I think it is important to break down exactly what you want out of this book.

If you loved say, 'Jay' and 'Soren' from my own book, and wrote/continued a book about the boy with depression and the golden girl, I don't believe you'll ever find the satisfaction you felt when reading my book. As, you are just almost writing a fan fiction. This is not what I mean when 'write what you want to read', don't write a fan fiction about a book you think should have ended differently or gone down this certain path.

Take a step back and go, 'what did i logically enjoy about this story that makes me want to write?' Did the author write super interesting characters, what made them in-depth? What did I hate about them? The idea is not to remake other's story but to continue what the author laid on the ground, look and examine and then ... that made me think of this idea.

For example, if you read a sci-fi novel where all the character cannot see in colour until one girl wakes up and she can. Rewriting that concept because you loved the idea is not improving you as a writer and I am sure the author will have something to say about it. Looking at the book in the bigger picture and going 'is society blind to something? What is that....' and you will lead yourself down rabbit holes.

The idea of books is not to create the world you want to live in but to rather show a reader some part of your brain and soul, and hope that someone goes 'I've been thinking about that too...' or 'I understand you...'