What makes the difference between one manuscript and another? One book and the next? Why does one story grab us by the heartstrings and not let go, pulling us into the very heart, mind and soul of the heroine/hero? And why can we easily walk away from the next story without even discovering the ending?
I believe it's because the first author put her passion into her story and the second simply wrote a story. Passion is everything in life--whether it's passion for words, stories, people, ideas, passion for life or for living.
Passion is the spark that sets your book apart from other writers. If you feel indifferent about what you're writing, your reader will immediately pick up on that. If you don't infuse your characters with that passion, they will remain lifeless, two-dimensional, and forgettable.
Passion is the sparkle in your heroine's eye, the basic motivating force that gets her through her trials and conflicts, the drive that pushes her beyond the ordinary. Let your passion live through her and excite your readers, drawing them into the magic dream you've woven.
3 comments:
We need to be careful, however, not to confuse passion with melodrama or the sob-sister factor. Books that are written to evoke emotional reactions are not the same as those written by an author who is passionate about his/her characters or the message of the story.
What Jennie said. It's about writing with passion, not writing about passion. But thank you, Lynn, for answering a question that's been bugging me for ages. Someone (a journalist, no less) asked me what made me love the Twilight books so obsessively compared with other books, and I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly what it was that captured me (and millions of others) in that bizarre way. Now I think it is probably that magic ingredient - the passion of the writer for her characters and their story. It's infectious.
What about Death of a Saleman? Not a lot of passion in that character.
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