Elliot Kessler

Today I met a fellow author who at a craft fair. He was an older gentleman in his 70s or 80s who wrote many non-fiction books about languages since he studied a lot of them in college. He also wrote some fiction, primarily historical fiction. He discussed how he began his writing, and he talked about how he thought through his novels. He talked a lot about style, grammar, and language. He told me that it’s better to use more words with German roots than those with Latin roots and gave me many tips on language. As he talked, I realized that he writes for the sheer beauty of language. He focuses on the words rather than the story or the themes, whereas I focus on a story’s themes, philosophy, and emotions. I realized that we all write from different perspectives. He looks at the words, and I look at the themes. You might look at the story’s external conflict, while someone else might look at the internal. We all see things differently.

But why do we have different perspectives? What causes us to see things differently than our neighbors?

One of the reasons we write with different perspectives is our backgrounds. We all come from different places. We’ve lived different lives and had different experiences. Those experiences translate to our writing. The stories we write are illustrations of our experiences and our past. Our background is one of the determining factors of our perspective on anything, and our perspective determines how we write.

Another factor in our perspective is our beliefs. Our beliefs determine how we see the world, and that world is shown in our stories. We all see the world differently, creating those worlds in stories to show our unique perspectives. That’s what makes fictional worlds so interesting. Not simply the beauty of the world or the excitement and wonder it brings but also its commentary on our world. The more we understand fictional worlds, the more we understand our world from the view of others. There are infinite possibilities for fictional worlds because there are infinite perspectives on our world.

These unique perspectives can significantly aid in unique and engaging storytelling. However, it isn’t utilized enough. Most stories are written to be simply entertaining and don’t show unique perspectives. There are a lot of stories out there that are written with political intent and political messaging, and critics love them for being “bold” and “unique.” But they aren’t bold or unique. They’re simply bad. They don’t have anything interesting to say. They’re simply saying the things that have already been said a million times over. They don’t show any unique perspectives. They’re simply noise in a sea of other stories that say the same things.

But, through stories, we can share our unique perspective. We can share our experiences through many different ways when writing. When we write, we not only tell a fictional story, but we also share our story. We write what we know. We write what we’ve lived. We write our stories.

Some writers have a focus on spectacle. Some have a focus on language. Some have a focus on theme. Some have a focus on commentary. Whatever it is you focus on when writing, don’t shy away from it, but lean into it. It’s your voice. No one can write like you, like how no one looks or sounds like you. You are unique, and so is your perspective. You are unique, and so are your stories.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.