I’d like to talk again about fatal flaw, the “fault” upon which you
build your story, a topic I mentioned in
a recent blog-post.
In the beginning, the character
lives his ordinary life. But beyond appearances, there is something wrong. This is his weak point:
he is either sick,
divorced or other, he has a serious existential condition. When the character is forced to face this weakness
to go on, the story begins: that is his story and only he can live it in
this way.
To create a good story you need imagination; to write it you need literary
talent and good technique. Then, grammar and syntax have to be exemplary.
That’s all true, you need those ingredients like eggs for a cake!
But, what I place first in my
writer experience, is personal
inspiration. I can’t make up characters, situations and events if I don’t live
them in my head first. I can’t write
just for the sake of it, Even that little detail in that scene, has to be
mine. In other words, I
can’t convey that emotion, if I am not the first one to feel it.
Why is it this way? I think that
writing is a deep and intimate process, you have to struggle to get it out, it’s
act of love: you have to give the best part of yourself if you hope to have
something in return. Why would we be so tired after a demanding passage, if it weren’t
this way? And why is this tiredness so
satisfying, and this emptyness so inviting to be filled again?
The answer is easy: writing means showing our naked and weak feelings to everyone.
It means to reveal our nudity. We can
hide or try to get away, but sooner or later, qualities and faults will be more
and more evident. I thought, or I believed, or I deluded myself, that I could expose
selected aspects only. It isn’it like this. We communicate over our intentions.
I notice that some readers found in my words hints of sadness or escapism or something else, but something that
I didn’t like to give away, instinctively trying to protect myself.
You can’t cheat with your life, nor with yourself. Every story is
the character’s, isn’t it? Facing your weakness and your fears means walking your
path with more self-confidence, knowing
that you can grown better. This is why the fatal
flaw is essential in every story you write (in screenplays it is timed every
tenth minute) and is so important (more than eggs!): much more than a simple
ingredient, it is the representation of difficulty in our own life, the same difficulty we like to solve, in
our novels, in our own time. The most beautiful stories are those where the
character deeply changes: maybe how we would like to happen in our life.
* - *
When I heard about self-pub for
the first time, I thought it was like home-made
brewery! Jokes aside, I didn’t go
for it immediately because, I didn’t understand. I’m so stubborn !
I was hoping some publisher, a real one, one day would have accepted me. I gave myself a deadline: a few months,
surely someone would have come to me. It wasn’t so much the belief that I was a big
talented author, but more the certainty that I had something new to tell..[MM3]
It didn’t go like I wanted, and I didn’t regret it. I started to
self-pub with Amazon at the end of 2012 and I didn’t dream about a traditional publishers
anymore, but I discovered so many new things I never thought about.
Self-publishing is a reality: who considers self-pub’ers like
second-choice is like those people who believed silent films were the only
option when sound films came on. I think
that it’s like a new form of democracy, in fact it came from the Land of
Freedom. Anyone can say his opinion, even if he has five or six readers only,
one from each continent. Nothing is precluded.
No man is an island, but self-pub’ers, like old Italian cities, have
initiative, bravery and a desire to express themselves. A traditional publisher
can promote his books, that’s right, but, as I told to a friend of mine, the cemetery is full of irreplaceable
people. It’s always possible to discover new ways to do something that has
has been done always in the same way.
I don’t believe it would have been
possible, for me, to have four
books if I had traditionally published, not at least in such a short time.
Anyway, it’s not the number of books or the fact that you have something to say
that implies that you have talent.
Either way, I am very happy that
over two thousands readers in Italy and other Countries, have been interested
enough to buy my books!
Thank you, Isabel, for inviting
me. It was a pleasure to be here,
Italian version in my guest-post in the Isabel Giustiniani site!
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