Today I’m pleased to introduce you to author Aria E. Maher! Aria won the micro fiction contest I judged over on Amid The Imaginary. Without further ado, here is Aria!
Emotion is one of the most powerful forces in the world. It can sway mobs, transform lives, transcend its medium, be it the lyrics of a song or the words of a poem or the quiet notes of a piano solo, and take people through experiences they might never have otherwise. It is what sets human beings apart from other creatures who act only on instincts. A rabbit flees from the fire because it knows what fear is, but a child runs towards the danger because curiosity is stronger than the instinct. Fear can control men, anger can turn the timid into lions, sadness can deaden the bubbliest personality.
Okay, you’re probably wondering what in the world any of this has to do with writing. Our job as authors is to entertain the masses, right?
Wrong.
Well, unless you want to write escapist fiction. There’s a market for that, and it’s always growing. But emotion transcends the story and turns mere entertainment into something real. It grounds the would-be escapist firmly on planet Earth. And it’s not always for everybody. If you can make just one person feel fear or anger or sadness or joy, you’ve done your job, even if you never make a million dollars or have a million people read your words.
Sorry. Spoiler alert: Writing is not about getting rich. It’s about saying what you have to say and changing someone’s mind, moving the ground they stand on. It’s not about the masses; it’s about that one person, or those three people, or those twenty who found something real in your work.
Shameless advertisement: I wrote a book. One of the first people to read it was my grandma. She prefers a quieter, more realistic kind of fiction, and I guess my murder mystery slash steampunk fantasy adventure wasn’t really up her alley. But it was the greatest feeling in the world when she told me how scared she’d been. That’s emotion. That’s what you want to give your reader.
Escapist fiction is a valid form of entertainment. Sometimes you need to wind down, and sit in a corner and read some good old fashioned ‘fluff’, as my dad calls it, and forget about real life. But the best books, the most powerful books, the books with staying power are grounded in real life experiences. Sometimes it’s not pleasant. If you’ve ever cried while reading something, you know what I mean. But it’s real. And emotions stick around a lot longer than the details of an intricate plot or that gorgeous description you edited fifty times.
I know I’m supposed to be giving advice, so I’ll do my best. Write from your heart. Write about the issues which are important to you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that the market isn’t right, or that people don’t want to hear it. Chances are if people don’t want to hear it, they probably need to. Write the truth, write real life. Change someone’s mind. It’s not about the recognition, or fame, or Twitter fans. It’s about telling it like it is. And that’s the best thing you could ever do.
About the Author:
Aria E. Maher has been a writer for the better part of her life. When she was eight years old, she wrote and illustrated an entire series of homemade books chronicling the adventures of Super Mario, Gandalf and various other video game and book characters. At ten, she filled countless notebooks with diagrams of robots and circuitry, before she decided that the life of a robotics engineer was not for her and resigned her ruler and pencil in favor of penning fantastical tales on her faithful laptop computer. Aria’s favorite inspirations are Steampunk costumes and illustrations, Allan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels, anything by Terry Pratchett that she can get her hands on, N. D. Wilson’s delightfully creepy fantasy books, and the slightly enchanted woodlands not too far from her house, where she and her family take long walks on Sunday afternoons.
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About the Book:
People do not generally think about death, especially not on the night they are going to die…
Devon Lavender never thought he’d end up in the middle of a murder mystery. But when an unnamed red haired woman dies in his arms on the dance floor in the middle of the Prince’s extravagant costume ball, it would seem obvious to everyone who the killer is. Devon finds himself with one chance, and one chance only, to prove his innocence and discover the real murderer, before it’s too late.
Purchase on Amazon
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