Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
By the time this goes live on Chandler’s Ford Today, I shall be packing up after a lovely holiday in Scotland with my husband and Lady and preparing to have a long journey home again. So with that in mind, I thought I would look at journeys in writing.
The Quest Story
My favourite example of this is The Lord of the Rings. For me, this is by far the strongest and best journey/quest story. It also shows Frodo and company facing the elements, the problems of survival, the problems posed by geography etc, as well as trying to outwit and defeat Sauron and get that wretched ring destroyed.
Often in fiction there is talk about the character’s internal journey. A character should not be the same at the end of the story as they were at the beginning of it. They will have been changed by their experiences, for good or ill. No character should be static here. It wouldn’t ring true for a reader. We are changed by our own experiences in life and fiction reflects this. Must reflect it in fact.
The Lord of the Rings also reflects this aspect well. I always thought it was realistic to show Frodo as so being badly scarred by his experiences, while he survived, it did mean he could not stay in The Shire when it was all over and left to be with the elves. It was the best outcome for him. Sam Gamgee, less damaged, could and did make a new life for himself in The Shire.
I was sorry to hear about the recent death of Bernard Hill. My favourite work of his was as Theoden in The Lord of the Rings. Simply magnificent. Couldn’t imagine anyone else in that role.
Non-Fiction
Travel books are a great way to experience something of other countries and cultures without leaving your armchair. They can bring the world to you to a certain extent. Great railway journeys are often interesting to read about.
Martin Kyrle has written Jottings from the Trans-Siberian Railway and Jottings from Russia and the Baltic States Part 1: Russia and Estonia if you’re looking for a local author to read who works in this field. Naturally books like this can inspire journeys of your own.
They say travel broadens the mind. A useful first step could well be to read books about that travel! Journeys and everything associated with them are a rich field for the non-fiction market.
Fiction
Regardless of genre, or story length, every tale ever told is a journey in its own right. We see Character A at the start of the story, something happens, they have to deal with whatever that situation is, there are difficulties along the way, and then there’s a resolution (be it happy or otherwise) at the end.
The classic formula of beginning, middle, and end for storytelling works. This doesn’t just apply to books. It is just as true for plays. Shakespeare takes so many of his characters on literal and emotional journeys – think Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet etc. Nobody said the journey had to be a nice one!
The Writer’s Journey
Every writer has their own tale to tell here. I started off writing novels, then moved to short stories, and from there to flash fiction, and then on to the non-fiction side from my blog posts to writing for Chandler’s Ford Today and, more recently, Writers’ Narrative. There will be further twists and turns in my writing journey before I get to hang up my pen/PC I suspect.
Opportunities arise. You follow those through. Sometimes what looks to be an opportunity turns out to be a dead end. That too is all part of the writing life. But what every writer should want to achieve is to look back at those early works of yours and then compare them with what you write now. Can you see where you have got better along the way? You should do.
In my case, I can see how flash fiction has taught me to write tightly and to focus on what matters for my characters (and thus for my readers to know). No room for waffle. This is always a good thing!
Most writers set goals for themselves, some of which are short term, others you know will take much longer, but that’s fine. I find goal setting stretches me as a writer. It is a joy when goals come to fruition. It is frustrating when they don’t but, again, that is all part and parcel of the writing life.
So your journey as a writer continues as you try to achieve those goals. Along the way you get to meet other writers and develop friendships. This is wonderful and a great support when you and your own writing journey seems to have got stuck in a pot hole. It is comforting to know other writers go through the same thing.
Plus I find I’m always trying to improve on what I write. I have better ideas now for coming up with interesting characters when I need them (and I do need a lot!). Experience developed along the way matters a great deal too and not just in the writing life.
Conclusion
I like to send my characters on journeys of discovery. All of them find out something, often about themselves, or aspects of their character come out as the story goes on, which in turn changes the outcome of the tale. Okay, some of those journeys are short (100 words long in fact!) but there is still a changing point, something happens, the character is changed.
What does any reader want from any story? To find out what happened. The story shows the journey of what happened to your characters and how they handled it. I find that so fascinating in what I write myself and when I read works by others.
There are endless possibilities for characters and the journeys they take. There will always be a place for fiction in the grand scheme of things. Rightly so too. Why? Because fiction often reflects back on us – what we know, experience etc.
We too are on a journey. I’ve developed over the last X number of years I’ve had on this planet to date. I will continue to develop. Our stories and characters do this too. It is, I think, why good stories resonate with us all. Deep down we recognise the journeys the characters are on.
Related Posts:-
A lot has happened since I wrote this post!
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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