What’s your Golden Wheelhouse?

 

In accordance with the guidelines of the Insecure Writers Support Group, where writers share their insecurities and thoughts, I’m writing my post to coincide with the first Wednesday of the month. My topic for this post is the Golden Wheelhouse.

 

These little sounds and symbols are often triggers that set off emotional bombs. But what matters are the meanings of words and the truths they express, not the symbols themselves. ~ Paul Rosenberg.

 

All writers are in the business of these little sounds and symbols called words. But apparently, when we’re writing in our ‘golden wheelhouse’, our words become more heavily freighted with meaning and significance. I rather like this newly coined term which I’ve read in various articles and blogs on the interweb of late. I believe the term means when a person writes about the subjects and characters that hold the most meaning to them, the resulting book becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

 

 

 

 

How do we find what we should be writing?

I've always heard that you know you’ve found the zone which works for you when the subject matter and genre excite you, when the hours vanish and time has no meaning. I’m drawn to write about the big questions and ‘high concept’ fiction for children. Then, further, I'm the most interested in the fantasy genre and mythology. Those places are where the words flow for me, where it feels as if the prose comes from my heart and soul, so those things must comprise my ‘golden wheelhouse’.

 

Decide what’s important to you.

I’ve realized you can tell when a writer is working in their golden wheelhouse–that depth of feeling and experience comes across in every word. There’s an accompanying sense of the effortless in a story written this way as well. It has an uplift effect, and more importantly, the story has a beating heart. It’s alive.

 

A few years ago, I read a manuscript for someone, in which they had deviated totally from their golden wheelhouse to a new genre and the story came across as sterile and unappealing. It didn’t come across as authentic. The story had lost the usual soul and resounding impact.

 

Our task as writers is to engage our readers from go to whoa. In order to do this, it seems to me to be paramount that each writer decides what is the most important to them. Not what they think will be popular or will sell books, but what moves them to their core? What do they need to say? That's the key.

 

 

How about you? What’s your golden wheelhouse? Have you discovered it yet? I'd love to know!

 

See ya' in the funny papers!

Till next time,

Yvette K. Carol

 

"The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow