by Mark Phillips

Created on: January 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

I do not know what "the formula" is. That phrase is a morbid to me when it comes to creative writing. It seems as much of a contradiction as someone majoring in creative writing in college. No one can teach you to write creatively and, in my opinion, there is no formula for good fiction.
To me there is only one prerequisite to good writing, honesty. When you are telling a story you must be honest. It may seem ironic that fiction (which, obviously, is inherently false) should depend on honesty, but it does. When you lie to your reader they know it. They know it and they no longer trust you.

Trust is the basis for any good reader\writer relationship. Our job as writers is to go out in the world and observe. Watch how people are, how they behave and then tell them about it. Show them what you've seen. It doesn't matter if your auspice is a star ship in the year 2099, an old musty cellar with a ghost breathing ice down your neck, or two lovers on a couch watching a weepy movie. In every good book there exists relationships. People interact and react to each other. It is about those relationships that you must be honest. Again, if you lie you will only have yourself to blame.
Other than that, work hard at your craft. Write everyday. Do not be a part-time author, there is no such thing. Writers write, it's what we do. It doesn't matter if you have kids, a job, school, whatever. If you want to write you will find time. That may sound a little callus but I'm not here to coddle you. If you do not have the desire to put in the time needed to write then you really don't want to do it in the first place and you're just wasting your time.
And for God's sake don't tell me that you'll work harder on it when you start making money from it. Money is nice, we can all agree on that, but it is not a basis to write. Writing is something one does for love, not for money. If money is your motivation for writing then you might publish a novel, you might even make a good deal of money (I've known a few writers like that, sad bunch that they are) but you will not be a real writer. You will be an empty shell pounding away at a keyboard and spewing out drivel that enriches no one's life, least of all your own. And writing will never make you happy. However, if you write for the love of story, then you have a chance to do something great. And it doesn't matter if it's read by two people or two million. If you create something that you can cherish and want to show the world then you've done something that precious few people in this world have done. You have labored over your love and you have come through successful.
It will never be perfect. Stories are only perfect things when they exist in the eternal light of a writers imagination. When they come out they lose a little in the translation like some foreign phrases, but don't despair. Even a poor attempt is better to be out in the light of day then to be kept cooped up in the writers head. Most of them demand to be let out, and be damned the consequences. Plus, the more you write the better you will become at getting that story out without losing so much of it. That's the only formula I know, and the only one that I think can work.

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