Category: Writing

I was talking to a friend the other day, complaining about a fact I needed to check for my WIP and trying to decide how to dig out the information. She said, “Why do you care? Why don’t you just make it up?”

I said something about fiction needing to be grounded in reality, but after she left I started to really think about it. Why can’t I just make stuff up? I know that good fiction needs to be based on reality, but why? Why do we say “it just wasn’t real to me” when we read a fiction book we don’t like? Why can a wrong fact push the reader right out of the story? In other words, why does fiction have to be real?

After stewing over that a little bit, I had a few thoughts. First, the rules of day-to-day life connect us all. If I, as a writer, am trying to communicate to you, a reader, we need to have common ground to understand each other. Societally accepted facts and norms provide a handy communication platform.

Then there’s the fact that fiction – any fiction – uses reality. If the story seems real, if it corresponds with your acceptance of reality, then you are more willing to enter the writer’s universe.

When you can accept the reality of the fictional world you are reading, then you relate to the things that happen there as if they were also real. In other words, you identify with the world and the characters in it.

Fiction can also use reality by contrasting with it. By bouncing off it and around it to show the absurdity or the horror of it. That lets you, the reader, relate to reality in a different way and maybe pierce the veil a little bit. But you have to have the base – the reality – before you can contrast.

I think that fiction becomes, in a very true sense, its own reality. When you read a book, when you believe it, you help to create it. Harry Potter’s world existed simulataneously in the minds of millions of people all around the globe. We all created versions that were slightly different, but they were all basically the same because they were based on the same book.

To create a world, we have to believe in that world. And to believe in a world, we have to see that world as real. And for us to see that world as real, it has to have some sense of reality. Harry’s world was fanciful and alien in a lot of ways, but we all understood it. Even though the rules that ran the world were strange, we were able to comprehend them.

So, yes, I make things up when I’m writing fiction. But I still have to base what I write on the experiences and facts of life. Even if the story’s about a bunch of kids flying around on broomsticks, it still has to be real.

 

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

Stephen King, On Writing

As always, I bow to Mr. King’s expert advice in his book On Writing. And I think he is absolutely right. If you want to be a writer, you must read a lot and write a lot.

For me, the problem is keeping the two in balance. Do you see the little “and” in that sentence? “Read a lot AND write a lot?” That means you have to do them both. Preferably on the same day. Or at least in the same general time frame.

I am a voracious reader. You might even call me compulsive. Or addicted. Add in the fact that the writing part is work (however lovely), and the reading part is fun, pile on the stresses of life, and it’s really easy for me to give the reading side of the see-saw more play than the writing side.

Part of that’s because of the way I read. If the book captures me, then it literally CAPTURES me. I fall into it hard, fast, and deep. Mr. King suggests teaching yourself to “read in small sips as well as in long swallows.” So, I’ve tried to do that.

Except that my small sips get bigger and bigger and bigger until they’re swallowing up my whole morning and I’m running late for work.  But it’s soooo haaarrrdddd for me to pull myself away from a book after it has swallowed me.  I need to see what happens next!  I can’t just walk away!

Giving up on reading is not an option. This is true not only because I am a writer, but because reading defines who I am. Reading IS Betsy.

And so, once again we come back to the theme of balance and discipline.

Being a single, working person striving to be a writer means that time is precious. Reading AND writing must both fit into the hours available. Thus, although I might start my day picking up my current book, I can’t spend my entire morning writing time reading it. And, while I can end my day playing Mahjong to relax, reading must also be on the agenda.

If you want to be a writer, then you must read a lot AND write a lot, and you must balance your life so you can do both.

And if you don’t want to be a writer, then just go read a lot anyway.  Hey, if you’re interested in romantic suspense, have I got a book for you…. 😀

 

 

 

It’s really hard for me to try to write when I’m feeling extremes of emotion.   The emotion can be either end of the scale.  If I’m feeling extremely happy or excited, I’m all jittery inside, or I just can’t make myself sit down at the computer.  If I’m extremely upset or angry, then it’s hard to put it aside and find my rhythm.

I think that’s because writing, as with any creative endeavor, requires you to enter what is almost a different state of consciousness.  As I write, I feel myself sinking into the characters and the situations in which they find themselves.  If I’m in a good, stable, peaceful frame of mind it is much simpler (although never simple) to push through the closet of coats and break out into Narnia.  If I’m in an extreme state of emotion, well, it ain’t pretty.

I’m finding that if I want to be a productive and consistent writer (and I do), then I can’t let my emotions influence whether or not I write.  If I sit around waiting for that perfect zen writing mindset to hit me, I’ll be old and gray before I finish my second book.

Oh, wait.  I am old and gray.  Well, you know what I mean.

So, if I want to write, I have to write regardless of how I feel. I have to write regardless of the drama going on in my life. It doesn’t matter if I’m angry or happy or sad or excited or irritated.  I have to save the drama for my mama, sit down, and do the work.

The added benefit is that if I can get started, nine times out of ten the act of writing itself will help to settle me and bring me back to the center. So I guess the key is to go towards creativity when I’m feeling stressed instead of going towards things like, you know, food.  Or chocolate.

And the best part is that if I’m writing, I can create a scene where the heroine eats chocolate AND gets busy with a hunky hero.

Win!

 

I’ve been listening to the audio books of “The Bride Quartet” by Nora Roberts over the last couple of days. It’s been a long time since La Nora has written a series of straight-up contemporary romances without mystery, suspense, or woo-woo stuff, so I was listening to learn.

I have various reactions to the books themselves, but what really blew me away were the number of named characters. Not only do we have the four female leads and the four male heroes, not only do we have important secondary characters, but we have a positive plethora of brides, grooms, wedding party members, and others who show up throughout the four books as minor characters. The number of names needed for this series dazzled me.

Naming characters is one of the hardest things I have to do when I’m writing a story. I know you find this hard to believe, because I’ve already demonstrated my expertise in coming up with baby names. But naming a character is different. The name of a character can be a useful tool and a clue to personality. Finding one you’re comfortable with can be fraught with difficulty.

Not only does the character’s name have to fit, but there are other considerations you have to worry about in fiction. For example, do you know someone with that name? Will that person be offended if you give their name to a particular character? On the other hand, will they think it means more than it does? (especially in a romance novel – LOL)

Does the name conjure up bad memories? Does your boss have that name? Is the name pronounceable? Will the readers stumble over it every time it shows up? Does something catch your attention and draw you away from the story? In my book, two of the male characters had last names that sounded very similar. It caught my attention when I was reading, so I changed one of them.

Then there are all of the things names are shorthand for – like ethnicity, background, and age. Are the names you want to use stereotypes? Are they cliches? Are you using them as a way to get out of developing the character, as opposed to a signpost leading to that character?

In the “Bride Quartet” books, Nora uses the names of the minor characters to create brief images with the single stroke of a pen, like a line drawing. Not enough information to get confusing, but enough to create different personas for the brides and grooms trouping through the busy wedding business portrayed in the books. I can’t even imagine naming that many characters.

So, hats off to Nora Roberts. Again. I listen, I learn. And I’m reminded how much the character names help support the story.

I think my next couple will be named “Chip” and “Bitsy”.

Or not.

 

Yet another broohaha in Romancelandia over reviews and the author’s response to said reviews has prompted me to examine my own responses to the reviews I’ve gotten on my book. I would prefer not to be stupid as I pick my way through the minefield which is publishing.

Sometimes it’s hard to know the right thing to do. You’ve written this thing, you’ve poured your heart into it, given it your time. Then you release it into the wild and not everyone sees it the same way you do.

If you get a bad or lukewarm review, it might be that your first response is to take offense. Maybe all you want to do is defend the book. But you have to resist the impulse, and that’s really hard.

When I read some of the less-than-kind reviews I’ve gotten, I wanted to defend myself. That would have been a mistake. The reviewer is entitled to his or her opinion. And they usually made some good points that let me see my work from a different perspective.

Obviously I want everyone to love my book, and I’ve been fortunate that most people seem to like it. But a few (hopefully very few) bad or lukewarm reviews or ratings are only to be expected. They’re part of the price of admission.

So when I see kerfluffles where authors attack reviewers for their opinions, I shake my head. I mean, we want reviewers to post about our books, right? How does attacking them help anything?

I admit, it’s easier for me to shake my head because I’m new. I don’t have the community (yet) to generate a lot of attention. It’s probably easier for me to take a deep breath and move on.

When I read my own reviews, I try to remember that, whether it be a good review or bad, the reviewer is not writing for me. The reviewer’s job is not to prop up the ego of the author. That’s my mother’s job and my sister’s job and the job my friends are supposed to do. The reviewer is writing for his or her own community of readers. The only thing the reviewer owes me is an honest opinion and the respect we all owe to other human beings.

As I continue to write and publish, I’m sure it will be harder to take the high road when faced with a bad review. The longer you’re out there, the more varied opinions you attract. I just hope that I will handle whatever comes halfway decently. And I hope I won’t be stupid.

The other day, two of my characters decided to um, get busy with each other.

I’m a romance author. Characters tend to get busy (*wink, wink*) in romance novels. But here’s the thing. I hadn’t planned for this to happen in the scene I was writing. I hadn’t really wanted it to happen in this particular scene. A little later on, yes. But not now. And yet I looked up from my typing and the heroine was sitting in the hero’s lap playing tonsil hockey.

I realized that I had a choice. I could force the characters apart, send them each to their respective corners, as it were, and bend them to my will. Or I could go with the flow.

I decided to just go with it. The result was a scene that was incredibly easy to write. Everything just fell into place (pardon the pun). More, I realized that what had happened made sense for the story, more sense than what I had planned. Their love scene spun out organically from the situation, which is important and sometimes a little difficult to pull off.

What happened? The characters took over. They turned the tables and made me do what they wanted to do. As a result, they came alive.

It’s not always convenient when the characters take over. The fact that the scene is different than I’d intended screws up my story outline. And because it’s not convenient, it’s very tempting for the author to push the characters back where we want them to go. Lord knows I’ve fallen into that trap. The result is stilted dialog and fake action.

I don’t know if this scene will stay in the book. I’m sure it will need to be rewritten and edited in the second draft. But I’m glad that I’ve matured enough as an author to recognize what was happening. I’m glad I went with the flow of the story, despite my intentions.

I hope that at some point I’ll be mature enough as a human being to treat other humans the same way that I treat my characters. I hope that eventually I’ll learn not to try to push people into boxes. I hope I won’t try to make other people follow my outline. I hope I can let them be who they are, the same way I’m learning to let my characters be who they are.

It’s just a lot easier to do in fiction.