Hold it right there. Don’t move. Though my computer’s connection with yours, I’m getting a sense of who would be the perfect writer for the story in your head. Just a moment…wait…I’ve got it!
It’s you.
I suppose I needn’t have gone to all that trouble establishing the complex networked linkage between our computers. It goes without saying you’re unique. No one else shares your exact experiences and passions. For that story in your head that you think some real author ought to write, I can assure you, no one would write it like you.
Famous authors get this all the time—a fan, always a stranger, comes up and says, “I’ve got a great idea for the next story you should write.” There are no recorded instances of the famous author replying, “Really? Great! You see, I was fresh out of ideas myself. Tell me yours, and I’ll simply write the book.”
You’re the one who thought of the idea, borne from wherever your ideas come from. You’re the one with the enthusiasm, the one for whom the story idea has intensity and meaning. If your mind won’t let go of it, if you can sustain the passion for it, hold on to the wonder of it through the long hours of writing it all down, then and only then was it an idea worthy of becoming a story. It really can’t be someone else’s story.
No one else in the world shares your craving, your yearning, to see that story in print. You might be able to convey the plot idea to someone else, transmit the character outlines to somebody. But the element you can’t transfer is the caring. No one else will be as enthused about it as you.
Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s give several famous authors the same assignment. We give them each the same plot, same theme, same characters, and same setting. You already know the outcome of this experiment; all the resulting stories will be different. Somehow each author will have imbued his or her story with a special and unique flair, a style not shared with any other author. Moreover, it’s quite possible that the resulting stories won’t be the best works any of those authors ever wrote; that’s because they were given the idea by someone else, and didn’t really own it.
Maybe you’ve never written a story since grade school, but with regard to that story idea of yours, no one is going to write it but you. In fact, you’re the perfect person to write it. Imagine the odds of that—a great idea occurs to the very person best suited to write the story. I guess those odds aren’t so slim after all.
So abandon that notion of convincing “a real writer” to write your story. You do it! After all, you’re perfect for the job. Meanwhile, I know another writer who’d better get busy on his next story, and that’s—
Poseidon’s Scribe
