The Conqueror, Chapter 11; My Novels are Ambitious

Total word count: 13,231
Words written today: 2,005 (almost makes up for yesterday!)

Talking with my best friends today, it has been pointed out to me that my novels are big, ambitious, and have a broad scope. I both agree and disagree with those. I don't necessarily think that my novels are big, but they certainly have a large cast, with multiple narrators (or at least The Conqueror does). There is no definite hero or main character, there is a cast of primary and secondary characters. And yes, it has a broad scope, but these aren't worlds hanging in the balance. The issues would still be there, whether or not my characters were involved in them. In Zenith, Rob was merely a catalyst for something bigger than himself, but the situation predated him. In The Conqueror the characters are involved in the resistance effort, but the narrators, for the most part, are not the ones doing the fighting. They are related to the people who are, or in love with them, or tied to them in ways they can't quite explain. These are the people who are hurt outside the field, not by bullets, but by worry and loss, the people whose lives change and can't do anything about it. It's about them and it's about more than them. So, yes, I have a broader scope than other YA novels.

But are they ambitious? I'm not so sure. I'm not saying that I don't hope to accomplish something with my novels, because that would be me lying to you. I do want to do something. I don't think for a second that I could stop a war or end racism or keep the world turning, but I do hope that maybe, just for a second, you'll think about these things. Think about what you're doing and how you're doing it and what message that sends. I write about wars and diversity and friends and family and love and loss because these are a part of our lives. That's not grandiose, as one person said, and I don't think it's ambitious, either. These are things we live through every day, and maybe it's on a bigger scale, but that doesn't make it any different. I just want you to look at the bigger picture, see yourself as something far more infinite than you could imagine. Maybe that's ambitious, but it's possible. That's what I write about.

I won't always leave quotes, but I just found this one via sheismargo's tumblr:

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates