You Need Not Be An Author To Write a Book
Writer: Gregg Naclerio
To me authors are those talented few who can come up with a concept that will capture the interest of a flighty and preoccupied public. Yet, the concept is only the first ingredient. Then comes research, perhaps significant research, into character development, scene of the action, plot – maybe subplot – conflict, and finally resolution. Some 70,000 to 100,000 words later the reader is transformed to platform 9 3/4 to board the Hogwarts Express or find himself some 800 feet beneath the surface of the ocean on a boat named Krasniy Oktyabr or joining the quest with hobbit Bilbo Baggins, 12 dwarfs and a wizard name Gandolf to take back a kingdom.
But very few of us are named, Rowling, Clancy or Tolkien.
Most of us will never reach “Author Status.” Nevertheless, we can’t fight the desire to give written expression to our thoughts. We persist, even though we have “wasted” dollars at Submittable to bring our work to the public. We persist, even after the most skillful and persuasive Query Letter we could write, yields a response – after five months – of “thanks, but no thanks.” We persist because “writers write.”
Perhaps you are like me, someone who dwells on the other side of the writing spectrum – I’m a Storyteller. That means the classic elements of a story: characters, plot, conflict, etc.- are provided for you. Your task is to make what starts out as an ordinary event into a meaningful and interesting story. History teachers that cultures have told stories going back to the prehistoric cave drawings in Lascaux and Chavaux in France. We all have the storytelling gene and just like those cave dwellers, there must be something you would like to leave as a legacy.
The skill you need to master is to take a single kernel of a story and turn it into popcorn… better still Caramel Popcorn.
I suggest you start your storytelling adventure with and for your family. Many of us are unable to trace our ancestors past grandma and grandpa. Yet these are the people whose exploits made us who we are today. Unfortunately, only “important families” have authors chronicling their exploits. Does that condemn the family history of the rest of us to the trash pile of history, lost to the ages? To avoid this fate, I suggest at Sunday dinner, get the senior members of your family relaxed with the beverage of their choice and ask them to tell you about their experience with their parents and growing up in the 50s. 40s… 30s… whatever. They will give you the kernels from which you will write your story. Avoid the temptation to take the easy way out by just writing down notes, compiling them just as they were told, stapling the pages together and labeling it “Our Family History”. I submit that’s a big mistake. Nobody’s interested in your family diary unless your name is Anne Frank! The key to make the stories you heard interesting. Yes, you may have to embellish some of the parts and fill in the blanks to make the story readable, but that’s part of being Storyteller. Remember, want to make your relatives to pick up the book, and read it and then pass this priceless heirloom down to their future family.
Now that you completed this task – if you really have the storytellers bug – it will give you the confidence and the experience to try other stories be they from your career or the career of family or friends.
Once you get the bug all you want all you want to do is make “Popcorn”and yes, better still “Caramel Popcorn.”
About the Writer
Gregg practiced criminal law for over 40 years in New York State as a public defender, special assistant attorney general, prosecuting Medicaid fraud, and a partner in a 45 person law firm. Sometimes events would occur in the course of a case that seem downright unbeliveable. When Gregg retired he wrote “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: My Criminal Law War Stories”. He has a Martindale – Hubble rating of AV – preeminent and was extensively involved in legal education programs. He is a resident of Cary and is involved in various community related organizations.