How to Write Great Fiction — Tip 10

Your little moth wings must flutter

Have you ever been drawn to a story idea, concept, setting, character, epic quest, etc. — Like a moth to a flame? If not, don’t expect to write great fiction.

If your answer is YES! YES! YES, you may just be on the right path.

One glorious ability great fiction writers have in common is the strong emotional attachment they have with their story and characters. Being drawn to something or someone like a moth to a flame is to experience a force that is magnetic and near impossible to resist.

This type of emotion is addicting. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, it makes the seemingly inevitable even more satisfying. However, like other more harmful addictions, this is not one you’ll want to control — well, maybe a little.

Great fiction is not a story that is conceived in one day, written in a week, and published with lightning speed. When reading interviews of well-known fiction writers, they often relate how many years a story idea nagged at them before they actually began the writing process. Often, that writing process was a labor of even more years before they completed the story to their satisfaction. And in the case of a fictional series, it may take decades to complete.

With that type of dedication and time involved, nothing less than an addicting attraction could keep a writer focused on the story flame only he sees and feels.

Whether or not a story idea has its own magnetic field has yet to be proven but I personally think it exists. I know it does for me.

The next time you think you have an epic story to tell, test your little moth wings first. If they don’t flutter and start to fly toward the flame, great fiction is not yet in your grasp.