I know! I know! I haven't been here... how lazy am I? Nah. I'm not lazy, I've been working on 'The Tour Guide'. It's nice little book, with a nice little story, and a nice little ending in it.
But really, when you're writing a story like this, you have to put in some adventure, some out-of-the-comfort-zone shit which will keep your reader turning them pages and glued to your story.
Okay... 'The Tour Guide' is a time-traveling story which is based in our present time.
It's based in my home town of Brisbane.
All of this is comfort zone stuff. It's a place and time I know... this is great. This gets people pulled in and comfortable with who I am, where I'm from, what I love about my city and where I was born.
Now - BAM! - I get in and throw a curve ball and get you all wondering what in the hell I was smoking when I wrote that paragraph!
GOTCHA!
This is right where I can either keep you in this story or lose you in the next three sentences.
Yep, it's as easy as that!
With the comfort zone, a writer can't throw a really out-there uncomfortable thing at the readers and expect them to just swallow that huge massive blue pill (or red pill - I've forgotten which was which) and jump down the rabbit hole after that jittery white rabbit who's always late for whatever he's going for.
Nope... ya gotta ease them readers into your stuff... otherwise they'll ease on down the road and throw your book as far as they can to get away from your work.
Yes, you'll lose them; and you'll never get them back.
In my Flash Fiction, I find that sometimes getting people into an ordinary situation first is best... then throwing that curveball right at the end is what will keep them coming back for more.
Then, you'll have more of a chance that your audience will adapt to other writing you've had a go at.
The comfort zone is always a difficult thing to adapt your audience to. If you don't know how they'll react to your work when you've been writing comedy the whole time and then suddenly write a horror piece, you're better off trying out something which sounds like the movie 'House' (a horror comedy) and see how they take it. IF they enjoy the horror more than the comedy, that's when you jump and do more horror.
For me, I'm always trying out new writing styles. I've been able to pull off horror, comedy, sci-fi, paranormal, and now romance. I had to learn the last one from a few romance writers; I'm not really that great at writing romance... it's just not the first thing I write when it comes to fiction. It's really outside my comfort zone.
So, there ya go. The comfort zone in writing. I'm a writer and I have gone outside my comfort zone many times... and then I've been told by people I never go outside my comfort zone as a person - but really they don't know if I do or not. Until my next post, happy reading.
But really, when you're writing a story like this, you have to put in some adventure, some out-of-the-comfort-zone shit which will keep your reader turning them pages and glued to your story.
Okay... 'The Tour Guide' is a time-traveling story which is based in our present time.
It's based in my home town of Brisbane.
All of this is comfort zone stuff. It's a place and time I know... this is great. This gets people pulled in and comfortable with who I am, where I'm from, what I love about my city and where I was born.
Now - BAM! - I get in and throw a curve ball and get you all wondering what in the hell I was smoking when I wrote that paragraph!
GOTCHA!
This is right where I can either keep you in this story or lose you in the next three sentences.
Yep, it's as easy as that!
With the comfort zone, a writer can't throw a really out-there uncomfortable thing at the readers and expect them to just swallow that huge massive blue pill (or red pill - I've forgotten which was which) and jump down the rabbit hole after that jittery white rabbit who's always late for whatever he's going for.
Nope... ya gotta ease them readers into your stuff... otherwise they'll ease on down the road and throw your book as far as they can to get away from your work.
Yes, you'll lose them; and you'll never get them back.
In my Flash Fiction, I find that sometimes getting people into an ordinary situation first is best... then throwing that curveball right at the end is what will keep them coming back for more.
Then, you'll have more of a chance that your audience will adapt to other writing you've had a go at.
The comfort zone is always a difficult thing to adapt your audience to. If you don't know how they'll react to your work when you've been writing comedy the whole time and then suddenly write a horror piece, you're better off trying out something which sounds like the movie 'House' (a horror comedy) and see how they take it. IF they enjoy the horror more than the comedy, that's when you jump and do more horror.
For me, I'm always trying out new writing styles. I've been able to pull off horror, comedy, sci-fi, paranormal, and now romance. I had to learn the last one from a few romance writers; I'm not really that great at writing romance... it's just not the first thing I write when it comes to fiction. It's really outside my comfort zone.
So, there ya go. The comfort zone in writing. I'm a writer and I have gone outside my comfort zone many times... and then I've been told by people I never go outside my comfort zone as a person - but really they don't know if I do or not. Until my next post, happy reading.
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