THE COURAGE

The Courage it takes to be Me

The Courage it takes to be Me

Writing

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word commonly designates those who write for the profession, and those who write in different genres and forms more or less codified. The word is almost synonymous with author, although somebody who writes, for example, a list, it can technically be called a writer, but not the author (Lavene & Lavene, 2004). Skilled writers can use language (narrative or not) to express ideas and images.

Novel Writing

Ever since our ancestors first scratched on a dark cave wall a tale of great conquest or success on a hunt, man has strived to write. Great men and great novelists like John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, and Jack London wrote stories to share experiences, to boast, and to leave their own unique mark on the world.

Many men have dreamed of writing a novel; however, figuring out why you want to write a novel is critical, for it is fuel for the fire to complete what will likely be a formidable task. For me, the courage it takes to be a writer driven by my desire and a belief that I could create yarns as exciting and compelling as some of my favorite authors, men like Frederick Forsyth, David Morrell, Vince Flynn, and others in the male-oriented spy thriller genre(Burack, 2008). It was also a personal challenge to me; something I had daydreamed about for ten years but had done nothing about it.

Once you have uncovered the why and made the decision write a novel, then you just have to figure out how. It can be a daunting task for anyone to create, from the starting point of white, blank screen, two hundred pages of a compelling story. However, it is like many things in life, simply figure out what others did and do the same thing.

Let's clear immediately that the difference between story and the novel is that the first is short and the second is long. There are 50 pages of stories and novels of 30, even though these extreme cases suggest that something is wrong: the story tends to tire too long, too short, the novel tends to be convoluted, poorly developed and motivated. This is because, as would Vincenzo Cerami, the story based on a single powerful idea, while many of the novel's ideas weak.

To better understand the meaning of "strong idea" think of "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka: the poor Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning and discovers to be a monstrous insect. The story tends to be monothematic (for this, if it is too long, bored at the end), while in the novel has the intertwining of the many themes - primary and secondary - proposed. For, this novel needs space, breathing, to develop fully. In the story has the idea in itself, one that focuses the whole story. There are - or have just mentioned - subplots the events concentrated in a precise time: the ...