: Re: What keeps most authors writing after receiving multiple rejections? Last year, I completed a heavily researched 95,000-word novel about an emerging pandemic that targets primarily children. I am

@Nickens642

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I see two questions in your question. One, why do writers write.

I don't need to write, but I do need to contribute to my society, in order to have a sense of meaning about life. Writing is how I do this now. In the past I have tried to contribute in other ways.

I also write as the latest in a string of 'lifelong learning' endeavors. It's been educational, and I enjoy this aspect. My normal working vocabulary has grown, my understanding of tricks and tools in storytelling is infinitely bigger, from beats to emotional resonance, etc.

Two, I see you asking what to do next with your story.

I am guessing that people do not connect with your characters. This isn't based on your writing, which I've not seen, but your technical background. I have a technical background. I am trying to 'teach' through writing ("contribute") but am told repeatedly that no one wants to be 'taught' when they pick up a book.

Fair enough. For me, this means I need to make my characters more sympathetic, easier to connect with, more real. It means making my story less about the external threat (in your case, the pandemic) and more about the internal change in the characters.

Sidenote: I taught the 1918 flu epidemic in a unit about RNA viruses. This was a few years ago, so my memory is hazy on it. The college students in my class were not interested in the fact that this virus killed X number of people or that it used RNA as its genetic structure. They had little inherent interest in learning the structure of the capsid proteins or what have you.

But, within that unit, I found a way to help them connect with the flu epidemic. I included the idea (which I read in a book called Ten Diseases that Changed the World) that President Wilson (I think) was sick with that very flu when he signed a treaty (?) in France, and that he gave concessions--possibly because he was sick with that very flu--and that those concessions led in an arguably straight line to the rise of Hitler and World War II.... And suddenly the story of the 1918 flu epidemic had teeth for the students.

Of course, I needed them to learn about RNA viruses and how they replicate, not global politics. :-) But you get the idea.

So the answer to what I think your second question is, is to look at your characters. Does a reader want to get inside their head and wrestle with whatever ethical or emotional dilemma that character is dealing with? It will require the character to be sympathetic and relatable and to have a thorny internal problem in addition to dealing with a global pandemic.

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