Most writers seem to have a kind of wheelhouse, a place where it’s clear they’re doing their best work and they’re in control. I like the term “wheelhouse” in both its metaphorical and literal meanings. In baseball, the metaphorical wheelhouse is where the hitter nails the ball the hardest, as in, “He threw it in his wheelhouse” after the batter whacks the ball out of the park. In nautical terms, it’s the covered area on the deck where the wheel is. From there, the pilot is sheltered from the elements and can steer the ship.
I think you have to write for a while, though, before you find your wheelhouse.
That’s the place of your true material and where your voice rings the clearest. And, naturally, it’s a shifting target. Still, it is possible to know when you are there. It’s important to recognize your strengths and what you gravitate toward. That’s the wheelhouse.
I’ve been looking at the stories where I think I do my best work, my own wheelhouse, and this is what I’ve noticed: I like stories about yearning. “Yearning” is a cool word. It’s sort of like wanting but also being drawn in, like wanting to find a missing piece without knowing the piece is missing. This feels different to me from straightforward covetousness or lust. There’s a different flavor to “yearning.”
Stories with caves or castles or old, old houses are big for me. It may have to do with the sense that those kinds of places have lingering spirits. I don’t mean ghosts, exactly (although sometimes), but more a sense that a lot of life and emotion has passed through a place. I can feel it in old cemeteries or churches, in ghost towns, and in any school or a mall when it’s empty and I’m wandering around. Try it. You’ll see what I mean.
I gravitate toward romances that are about boundary crossing. All romances are border crossings anyway. I mean, think about a couple who have never held hands. The first time one of them reaches for the other’s hand, a boundary has been crossed. Each physical step along the way is a new boundary. There are emotional borders too, like saying “I love you” for the first time. And there’s society’s borders, like introducing this new person to friends and family. So, I like stories with even bigger boundaries. Think of Romeo and Juliet, or Harold and Maude, or Harry and Sally. Border crossings are fun and filled with tension.
Irony appeals to me. Most of the best literature relies on irony in one way or another, but I often find myself trying to up the irony ante in a story.
Something I like but don’t do particularly well is clever dialogue. I think Nora Ephron is a genius, for example, in how her characters talk to each other. From a dialogue writing standpoint, you can learn a lot by watching Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally. Joss Whedon is particularly good in the dialogue arena, too. I yearn to get that kind of writing in my wheelhouse.
I lean towards undercutting my tone. If I’m writing a horror scene, I want to put something funny in it. When I’m writing humor, I want it to have something very serious at the core.
I want my stories to work like good music. If I could get a story to build as well as “To the Pirates’ Cave” does in the first Pirates of the Caribbean, then I would be very happy. That would be a nice thing in my wheelhouse too.
I think I’m pretty good at writing about teen characters.
So what’s in your wheelhouse. What do you want to be in your wheelhouse? What are your strengths? What are you working to make stronger?
James Van Pelt has been selling short fiction to many of the major venues since 1989. Recently he retired from teaching high school English after thirty-seven years in the classroom. He has been a finalist for the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, Locus Awards, and Analog and Asimov’s Reader’s Choice awards. Years and years ago, he was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He still feels “new.” Fairwood Press recently released a huge, limited-edition, signed, and numbered collection of his work, THE BEST OF JAMES VAN PELT. He can be found online at his website or on Facebook.
