Home » Arts & Design

Choosing a Topic to Write About: Are You Enthusiastic About the Idea?

Ranked #22,252 in Arts & Design, #537,264 overall

Choosing a Topic to Write About: Are You Enthusiastic About the Idea?

Writers are sentimental about their writing, but are they enthusiastic about it? You have found a topic to write about, but you don't know if it's one you really want to write about. How can you tell if you should use it as your next topic? Just ask yourself this: Am I sentimental or enthusiastic about the idea? Does it matter?

Love Your Topic

Choosing a Topic to Write About: Are You Enthusiastic About the Idea?

Do not mistake sentiment for enthusiasm. They are not the same things. Don't believe me? Let's ask the dictionary:

Sentiment: noun

1.) Tender, romantic, or nostalgic feeling or emotion

2.) A personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty

Enthusiasm:

noun

1.) A feeling of excitement

2.) Overflowing with enthusiasm

3.) A lively interest

A tender romantic emotion that evokes nostalgia vs. a lively interest filled with excitement. So how does this affect you the writer? Think of it this way: You may have sentiment for an old faded Valentine, but do you have enough enthusiasm about it to write a story about the Valentine and how it came to mean so much to you? It holds a warm place in your heart, and you well never throw it away, but do you burn with the feverish desire to tell the world about it?

Now think about your readers. Your reader has no sentimental attachment to your Valentine, if they saw it, they'd probably toss it in the trash, for it means nothing to them at all. Would they read about it? Well that depends on how you write the story, doesn't it? If you spend you're times mooning over the Valentine and its sentimentalism, most likely your reader well toss the story aside calling it a load of sentimental tripe.

Sentimental tripe. Yep, that's what kills many a story. People don't want to read sentimental tripe that moons and simpers over days gone by and the writer's obsession with their own past. The reader wants to know the hows and whys behind the Valentine. They want the facts, every juicy detail. The Valentine in and of itself is not enough to keep the reader reading, there has to be something more. Think of the Valentine as the skeleton, the bones of the story upon which you must build up the muscle and flesh to give it substance. Write a story about the sentiment of the Valentine and bore your readers to tears. How do you correct that? With enthusiasm. Question is, do you have it?

Your reader wants to know how the Valentine became sentimental. They want to know how the Valentine came into the possession of your character. They want to read about the chain of events that caused it to become a sentimental item. Write a story about the Valentine and how it came to be important TO YOUR MAIN CHARACTER. Instead of sentimental mooning you have vibrant enthusiasm. You have a character, not yet turned sentimental. Now the reader has a reason to want to read about the Valentine. They can see a character that has feelings and emotions just like them. They can become the character and feel what the character feels when he feels it.

But are you truly enthusiastic about your idea? Do you burn with the desire to write it? Do you feel that you cannot exist until you have spread the word throughout the entire world? Does a fiery passion to tell everyone everywhere about your story, drive you forward? That is enthusiasm, and that is what you need to tell a great story. Leave the sentiment behind, and let your story burn with passion, let that passion fill your soul; pour your soul into the story.

On Writing

by: Stephen King

Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 02/18/2012)
List Price: $7.99
Used Price: $1.17

Release Date: 12/31/1969

Usually ships in 1-2 business days