If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn’t matter a damn how you write.  – Somerset Maugham

So true.  Until today, I had no idea who Somerset Maugham was…and now I wish I’d known him; his books are now on my “want to read list.”  A little stumped for a blog subject (shocking for someone that is usually all worded up with nowhere to go), I did what any self-respecting person would do and turned to Google — “Quotes about Writing,” to be specific.  Maugham’s words not only stood out, but spoke to me.

If you aren’t familiar with Somerset Maugham, he was a British playwright who also wrote novels and short stories (thank you Wikipedia!). He was very popular, in fact, was reportedly the best paid author in the 1930s.  What amazes me about his quote is not only the truth it speaks, but that he spoke it almost a century ago.  The world can – and does – change at terrifying speed; everything around us has become so technology-dependent, materialistic and, frankly, scary.  But people haven’t changed that much, nor has the love of a great story, awesome characters…things we can relate to and believe.  The medium may have changed since Maugham wrote these words…movies have largely replaced books and real paper, bound books are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  But the story, the people, what they say and do and what it means to us?  Well that hasn’t changed much at all.  We all love being swept away.

Even in a disappointingly superficial world, when it comes to the written word, our radars are still pretty well tuned, don’t you think?  As Maugham points out, how one writes isn’t as important as their sincerity and passion.  There are extraordinarily literate folks out there who can pump out thousands of pages (and do, every day – just look at the glut of blogs – and I make that analogy with a pained expression), yet say nothing.  Or what they say simply doesn’t ring true.  Or you just can’t feel it.  A true communicator who believes in what he or she says, breathes their characters’ breath and is fuelled by passion and inspiration (as opposed to ego and caffeine), creates a product that will touch his or her audience in a way like no other. 

I have to go there…have to build a quick and easy bridge from Maugham to the amazing Charles Dickens.  If anyone wrote with the tenants referenced in the above quote, it was Dickens.  Ironically, I was writing my own stories before I ever read any of his books, but once I started barely over a year ago, I was hooked.   There have been thousands of authors before and after him who are nothing short of amazing…but Dickens nailed it every time, and it just doesn’t matter that he was born over two hundred years ago and wrote with a quill under candlelight; you read his work and relate immediately.  Why?  Because he could tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and had sincerity and passion!  He was a known social critic and it comes through loud and clear in his work – but not through preaching or over-the-top insinuations, but woven into the fabric of his characters…he showed his story in addition to telling it.  When you turn the pages, you are there…the story will consume you, you walk amidst the characters …and, very importantly, you feel the fact that human nature hasn’t changed so much after all.

I read a book this past week that was so painful that it was a labor to simply finish it.  I finished only because the subject was compelling to me and I wanted to learn all I could.  But once I read this quote today, I realized that nearly every element was missing in my most recent read…all that touched me was the obvious research that went into the book; facts and fair speculations.  While those things were impressive enough to keep me reading, when I closed the book I felt so hungry for substance (and in my humble opinion, there are thousand other feelings you should have after reading, but hungry is not one of them unless the book was so good you forgot to eat!), so desperate for anything substantial that I immediately set about to fill the void.  I ran to Dickens and I am barely into Great Expectations, but I am so, so satisfied.  Already.

So if you long for good reads but aren’t sure what to look for, maybe a short checklist that looks a lot like Maugham’s quote would help.  Read reviews, ask friends and check the story and author out.  If nothing else, just hold your nose and jump in–start a new book.  But the story doesn’t reach out and grab you, or at least lead you by the hand…if you don’t feel the characters are utterly real even though you know it’s fiction…if “stuff” isn’t happening either in the pages or in your mind…then you probably don’t even have to worry about those last two items (you know – sincerity and passion).  Because it takes all those elements together to make it worth your very valuable time.  Put that thing down and find another book!

Let me know if you want a suggestion…