Beyond The Familiar

The problem with a long hiatus from an endeavor is learning how to ride that particular bicycle again. There’s a oft-quoted exchange between Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe about learning how to write a novel, and the upshot is that Wolfe noted you only learn how to write the particular novel that you’re presently creating.

Writing is a both a skill and a talent. Some people just know how to tell a story, but even those can’t do it without practicing their craft. Not if they want to do it well, with well being measured by how the story impacts readers, whether it stays with them.

I know I was affected by the urban legend of the hanged man in the film version of the Wizard of Oz to the point where a story blossomed from that seed. I first heard the legend in an offhand comment, yet it stayed with me until I put words to the page in “The Hanged Man of Oz.” Now I am unable to watch the film without stopping at the scene where Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, and the Scarecrow dance down the Yellow Brick Road pas the place in the background forest where the hanged man makes his brief appearance. The film is forever changed for me because of how the story impacted me (the first nonchalant mention and my own tale).

So it is imperative that when I map out the work in progress I take several passes and find the right balance between plot and theme — between action/thriller and mystery/horror — because the twist in this particular tale of the undead should say something about our current world. I understand that what I did wrong in my vampire novel — Only The Dead (which I had expanded from a short story “Ye Shall Eat in Haste”) — is that I focused only on plot and failed to balance (or find) a central theme. Part of that was the setting. Relying on the “twist” in that tale was not enough to elevate the story from the familiar to one that touched readers. A truly great story has to go beyond the familiar.

Don’t get me wrong. I want a book that is entertaining, but I also want something that is as good as the best that came before, as good as Dracula, Salem’s Lot, Carrion Comfort … I could go on and on and on composing a list of all the really good vampire fiction that I want this book to join. I want to tell a tale that is accessible because it is familiar but is memorable precisely because it goes beyond.