In a post on Writer Unboxed, Donald Maass examines an intangible element that the best manuscripts embody, which he calls the Eighth Element. “The missing quality is one that falls somewhere between insouciance and recklessness,” he says. “It has aspects of courage and authority. It’s easier to say what it’s not. It’s not safe. It’s not careful.”
While most writers believe we write boldly, Maass says that’s not his experience. Instead, writers aim not to offend or try to slip into a market niche, to smooth their path to publication. “It’s paradoxical, but the very values that would seem to make a manuscript acceptable can be the same values that produce a novel that isn’t particularly memorable,” Maass says. “The quality of being memorable or—let’s be ambitious—timeless, doesn’t come about by writing safe.”
Writers should create without regard to “don’t”, Maass says. Memorable stories are written with authority and their authors don’t apologize or wonder if they are worthy. “They assume that they are and not only that, they have been appointed to tell us who’s who, what’s what, and to do that in their own quirky way and if you don’t like it then go jump in a lake,” Maass explains. “It’s as if those authors don’t care a damn who approves their novels but care like hell about the ache and joy of the human condition.”
Great writers write fearlessly and without influence. While inspiration is motivating, Maass says influence is often combined with constraint. “Fearing to err. Worrying about sounding cocky. The terror of feeling naked,” he explains. “To write fearlessly is to risk those things in assurance that to avoid them is to wind up with a story that is no better than acceptable.”
Maass suggests some challenges that can inspire you to write fearlessly:
- Write about a feeling that is mean, ugly, small and unfiltered.
- Write about hopeless generosity or goodness that is stupid.
- Write the moment when your protagonist no longer gives a fuck.
- Write what’s going to piss me off but you don’t care.
- Tell me what’s wrong with things, and so what if I don’t want to hear it?
Continue reading the article at the link below for more challenges and insights.
