Tell Your Story Walkin'

I love that saying. Its so sharp and dismissive. It does have different meanings for me, however. When saying it to my son, it means that I am through listening to excuses and he needs to do whatever must be done.

When applying it to your story it takes on an entirely different meaning. You cannot be stagnant, you have to allow your story to grow and change. It wants to be told. Can't you feel it? Sometimes you have to let it be what it wants instead of trying to mold it into what you think it should be. When you try to force it, the words falter and feel stiff on the page.

What are you doing wrong? Are you trying to make your MC something he/she isn't? Are you trying to shape your story into something that will be hot on the market right now? Or maybe your trying to twist it into a different direction because your afraid by the time its written, no one will be interested in the subject matter. This is a bit like trying to find your voice but even if you know what that is, you can still make the mistake of trying to follow a trend.

Case in point: I do not want to write YA. I am afraid the market is saturated with it. I like to use bad words every once in a while and I am not sure that's appropriate. But the story I am writing wants to be YA. I made my MC in her mid-twenties and I had problems moving my story forward. It stalled. I changed it and made her seventeen in her senior year of high school. Now its flying from my fingertips at a scary pace. I might have even seen a spark or two.

I don't know how it will turn out but its the story that wants to be told....and I am walkin' with it.