Taste

Something I've learned over the course of writing and submitting is just how subjective liking something, or even a part of something, is. I know that's rather a "duh" statement, but in the past I never gave it much thought.

Even two people who are very much alike in taste don't always like the same thing, or can see something differently. For example, my sister and I were discussing a book we both enjoyed. I found one sequence jarring and unnecessary. She thought it was a fair outcome. Here are two people who share genetics, points of view, and taste. If we have differences, how is it that a whole flock of unrelated people can unite via the pocketbook to produce a best seller?

I’ve given this much contemplation. The picture I've included with this post is a fractal: a geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole. Only recently have we had the mathematics plus high speed computers to understand these beautiful and complex entities.

But they've always been evident in nature...and in artwork. People may not have realized they were creating fractal drawings, but they must have felt the "rightness" of it. And still do. Check out the next paisley shirt you see. Carl Jung said this was because fractal images (he called them mandalas) are universal, in other words, they are part of the human collective unconscious.

Writers, while not creating with drawn images, paint with words. I believe a best seller, whether considered high literary art or trashy genre fiction (kidding…that’s what I write), has to tap into something universal. At the same time it must be uniquely told. So I got to thinking about how my five top favorite young adult characters could be represented in one sentence that says “universal,” yet “here’s how I’m unique.”

Harry Potter

Young boy struggles with being different at school and at home…as a wizard.

Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)

Young girl wants to be different and thinks she has to leave home to find it…in a magical world.

Hardy Boys

Two young men want to prove themselves in an adult world…as teenage detectives.

Bella (Twilight)

Young girl struggles with insecurity and her own mortality…while she chooses between an immortal and a mortal lover.

Frodo (the book isn’t YA, but he is)

Young hobbit struggles with a responsibility he isn’t responsible for…in an alternate universe.

I found that exercise very interesting, and then proceeded to boil down my own books. I was happy to find I could do it.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if a book has parts or pieces that you many not like or wish wasn’t there. Details make for excellent discussions, but if a story reaches into what Jung would call the collective unconscious people will respond regardless. I’m sure you’ve heard someone say “I know I shouldn’t like this book but I couldn’t stop myself from reading it.”

That statement means the author has touched the core of humanity. Readers, even if they or critics think it’s “bad”, won’t be able to resist. It’s something very primal…unless it’s the same old thing.

In some ways, every story already has been told. It’s our job as writers to craft universal truths in a way no one else has done before.

Whew.

PS. Those one sentence blurbs would be great starts for query letters. Hummmmm…