In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Joe Ponepinto says that focusing on stories that are smaller in scope can help you tell big truths. “Many writers go about it the wrong way,” he says. “Since they want to say something big and universal, they tend to write their stories in the universal.”
Unfortunately, creating characters who embody universal subjects often results in flat, homogenous people, who represent a philosophical point rather than an actual person. The tone sounds forced and the story is predictable. So, how can you write a story that illustrates the truth you want to tell?
First, you shouldn’t try to force it, Ponepinto says. “If there is a truth in your story it will become apparent in a subtle way, allowing the reader to discover it instead of being lectured about it,” he writes. “Better to concern yourself with the smaller truths about human nature, which are just as universal, and often far more satisfying to readers because they are easier to identify with.”
Ponepinto recommends focusing on character first and portraying your setting and story through their senses, emotions, and interpretations. “By expressing the world in specific terms that are natural to the character, the writer creates a sense of identity not with what the character sees, but with what it means, and the fact that we all have a similar need to find value in our ways of living begins to bridge the divides of place and status and race and sexual orientation and our other differences,” he says. “Offering those details in generalized terms that are disconnected from character doesn’t do that.”
