What's Your Why? The Heart Of Your Story, and Why You Have To Tell It

This is a guest post written by Melody Jackson in collaboration with NoQuWriCo for the Preptober series.

When someone asks you, "What is your story about?", you probably start thinking of your elevator pitch. What would you say if you only had 30 seconds with a publisher to pitch your book so they will want to publish it?

Typically, you’d want to look for something flashy and eye-catching (or, ear-catching?), such as…

- Sky pirates flying airship races in competition for a dragon soul.

- A curse to be broken with a time limit on it before something even more terrible happens.

- Galactic space dragons discovered by an unlikely group of adventurers searching for the answer to their planets' problems.

But I’ll tell you a secret. Despite the fact that all three of those examples are from books I have been slowly working on writing in the background of my current WIP…I am actually terrible at elevator pitches. These three just happen to be the outliers, with concepts for plots that I think are strong enough to stand on their own. Most of the time? Give me a spontaneous hour or two of your attention and you might have enough of an idea of the plot to want to read them.

Why? Because when it comes down to it, the plot of the story is only the engine for the true heart of your story. Thousands of people have written stories about “a prince or princess goes on a quest to save their country”. But I bet you can think of at least one or two books in that criteria that resonated with you far beyond that basic plot. Maybe the characters went through something you have struggled with yourself. Maybe their levity gave you laughter and a little bit of hope in a dark time. Maybe it helped you deal with your own grief in a way that made things just a little easier to unpack.

Or maybe, it inspired you to be a better person, a better friend or family member. Maybe it made you see a new perspective you’d struggled to understand before, through a character you disliked at first until you got to know them. There are so many reasons that books stay with people long after the last page is turned, luring them back to the beginning when the memories of each scene begin to be missed once again.

What Makes A Book Memorable

So what really makes the ideas of your story important? It's not the movie trailer version details of your book; the flashy scenes, quick one-liners, or dramatic cliffhangers. It's a glimpse at the journey your readers are going to go through. What is at stake beyond just the initial plot of saving the world, and what is something that people can take away from it?

Let’s take Lord of the Rings for an example. Is the exciting part the fact that they take a three-book journey around Middle Earth? Or is it the internal struggles with greed and power and what it can change you into? Do people read it so they can see pages upon pages of walking around, or is it something much deeper?

Without the internal struggles the One Ring forces the characters to contend with, Frodo’s journey would be frankly little more than one large chore to throw something away in a very dramatic fashion. And while we’ve all had experiences with taking out the trash, I’m pretty sure that in and of itself wouldn’t be enough to make the story as memorable and inspiring as it is.

So, What’s The Heart Of Your Story?

I discovered the heart of my own story just the other day while in conversation with a friend. When she asked me, What is your story about?, I didn’t want to just say “well, a princess goes on a quest to save her country, with the help of some dragons”, because something about that just felt…empty. I have been through a lot of big life changes from when I first started writing this book, and it felt almost strange to come back to it after so many years because I have become such a different person than who I once was.

So I spoke to that. How what I’ve been through has shaped me in ways both bad and good, how loss and new love and motherhood all change aspects of your personality in ways you might not even expect, and what it’s like finding who you are as if for the first time once you finally start to come out of survival mode.

But What If I Don’t Have A Good Reason?

Having the wrong reason to write a story is what usually makes it feel lifeless and uninspiring. There's a big difference between just ticking boxes and putting out something you are passionate about. If you love your story, others will love it too. If you don't put passion into your story, readers will sense that, too.

If you’re just writing for the market, for fame, for money, for recognition…those can still be reasons, true, but you’ll probably find it a lot harder to keep going when you hit a writing slump or can’t work through a plothole that threatens to make your entire story fall apart.

What If My Reason Is The Exact Same As Everyone Else’s?

Everyone thinks they need to have the most creative concepts to make a story that truly stands out. But if that were true, then we would all be at a loss. To quote Anna Quindlen: "Once you’ve read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbird, and A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel.

Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had."

To put yourself on a page is to be known, in some deep way that you might not even be expecting to experience, and allow others to connect with that. You can have the exact same motivation for writing your book as someone else, and yet it will be entirely different because it is you on that page, not them. It’s your personality, your voice, your life and emotions on the page, seeking to resonate with others.

But What If No One Connects With My Story?

One of the hardest parts of finding your why in writing your story, I've found, is not just understanding but being okay with the fact that it won't resonate with everyone, and that isn't a bad thing. It certainly doesn't make you a bad writer. Some books are for certain people at certain times, and sometimes it's just not the right time, or the right type of story, and that's okay. When you write from your heart, there will be people who see it, same as there will always be people who want to be your friend, and others who won't. Some will be there for a short time and some for a lifetime. Some may change their minds, but some will be fiercely loyal even through the toughest times. It's part of what's so scary, but also so wonderful about being an author.

But What If I Never Even Publish My Book?

Even if you don’t ever publish your book, that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth writing. The person who grows and benefits from the experience of writing can and should always first and foremost just be you.

It’s not about the destination, but the journey that gets you there. Your ‘why’ can be as simple as learning to build your craft, or branching out to try something you haven’t before. It can be a way to process things you’ve gone through, or explore the consequences of circumstances that never actually happen, or would happen naturally. Why do you have to write this specific story? What is driving you to keep going even through all the difficulties you’ll face with it?

Why you write your story is so much deeper than simply what it’s about. Maybe you're exploring a difficult relationship dynamic. Maybe you're seeking to show that a love story can be much deeper than just physical. Maybe you want to explore the depths of broken trust, and a realistic timeline of repairing it.

And maybe, it’s just for the fun of doing something creative. That’s still a why, and just as valid as any other. If it motivates you to keep going even when writing gets difficult, then it’s a reason worth holding onto.

So now, with all these things in mind, I want you to ask yourself just one thing.

Why are you writing this story?

Melody Jackson independently published The Dragon Within, Dragons' Bane, Dragons' Might, and Dragons' Hope in her teen years. Now as a wife and mother, she is returning to writing once again.