Only Rocky Ground Will Test Your Balance.

Over the past several weeks, the writers at Novel Matters have hit on tough topics such as self-publishing, disappointing sales results, writer’s block, and other challenges of the writer’s life.

From the beginning of this blog, we’ve attempted to offer responses to the question, “Why write?” and, more particularly, “Why write fiction?” Over time, the answers have ranged from the sublime: Art for art’s sake! To the mundane: I write because I must. To the dreary: I’ve no idea why I write, I’d stop if I knew how.

Perhaps our reasons for writing change like our socks and underwear. Likely, we make up our excuses as we go along until eventually we’ve been at it so long that turning back, rather than continuing, is the absurd choice.

Part of me wonders if writers don’t suffer from the same affliction as gamblers. Just one more crack at it. One more hand (idea), one more pull at the slots (alluring character), one last spin of the wheel (novel) and then I’ll stop.

Except “stop” doesn’t mean stop, it means “win.”

One more shot at this book-writing thing and I’ll hit the big time. Donald Maass will ask me to dance. Amy Einhorn will salivate just hearing the premise. Readers will line the streets waiting for my autograph. Paparazzi will fall out of trees attempting to photograph me in a bikini.

Okay. Maybe not that last one.

If we’re honest, we all have a fragment of our soul that believes literary success—maybe even fame, but at least a pay cheque—is around the next corner. We’re addicted to the idea that our little book might be The One.

This mildly crazed part of us isn’t the piece that rules in the clear daylight. Certainly not. We have sensible reasons then. Good ones like art for art’s sake, and I write because I must. It’s only at night when we can’t get to sleep, or worse, are woken out of a deep slumber, that the niggling dark part of our soul pipes up and whispers, “Psst. Have I got a hot-topic premise for you. A sure-fire bestseller. Better turn that light on, kid.”

If you’re thinking I disparage this part of my soul, you’re reading me wrong.

It’s that unreasonable hope in my soul that keeps me typing when all reason tells me to get up from my desk and get a job at Taco Bell. A real job. Respectable. The kind that comes with a regular pay cheque and the self-respect attached to it. It keeps me reading, writing, improving, studying the industry. It keeps the ideas flowing when common sense would have stanched the flow ages ago.

After awhile—years—that unbalanced corner of our soul becomes the one thing we count on when we face relentless reality and rising odds. It becomes the only truly sane thing about us as writers.

I may never be a great writer.

Then again, I might be.

In Anton Chekhov’s The Sea Gull, Nina is a young actress who, after two heartbreaking years, returns to the Sorin estate with the knowledge that she will never be a great actress. She speaks to Konstantine—a writer who is in love with her, but whom she does not love—about her losses, which include her youth, career, and an infant son conceived out of wedlock. Near the end of her monologue she says: “Now I know, I understand. Kostya, that in our work . . . acting or writing . . . what matters is not fame, not glory, not what I used to dream about, it’s how to endure, to bear my cross, and have faith. I have faith and it all doesn’t hurt me so much, and when I think of my calling I’m not afraid of life.”

The unreasonable corner of a writer’s soul is the faith that makes it hurt less, that makes us not afraid.

That’s why artists were given the provision of owning a dark, crazy portion of our souls.

Shuffle through the loose bits of your soul for this difficult to find scrap. And, if you find it, embrace it. Strange as it is, unreasonable, and unseemly, it’s destined to become your best friend.

Are you in touch with your inner crazy? We’d love to hear about it.

Writing Opposite-Gender Characters

I think it's safe to say very few of us have written/will write a novel populated exclusively with characters of our own gender. So that means most of us have written characters of the opposite sex. But writing primary characters of the opposite sex is different than writing secondary characters of the opposite sex, because primary characters are so much more complex. The danger is that we resort to cliché, and cliché is never good, no matter what. Men writing women protagonists tend to make them more sexual than what is reasonable, more physically perfect than what is reasonable (okay, we women make our female characters a little too perfect as well, and our male characters too), and either uber-competent or uber-dependent, depending on the plot. In short, they're characters with whom we can't sympathize. Women writing male protagonists tend to make them overly sensitive, way too in touch with their feminine side, in a way that doesn't ring true. I realize I'm painting with a wide brush, but I think this generally holds true.

So how do we create primary characters of the opposite sex who are real and relatable? Is it even possible? Yes, of course it is. Margaret Mitchell did a pretty darn good job with Rhett Butler, but, well, quite truthfully a good example of a male novelist writing a true and honest female protagonist doesn't come as readily to mind. I will say, however, that Tennessee Williams did an excellent job of creating Amanda and Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. My husband Rick and I had the great pleasure of seeing Sally Field play the part of Amanda a few years ago at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. This 4-person play was outstanding.

Most of the novels I write have female protagonists, and multiple secondary characters who are female. It's not that I intentionally avoid writing male characters; it's just the nature of the stories I write. However, I have written a novel, as yet unpublished, where the protagonist is a nine year old boy. His story came to me one day as I was cooking dinner, when this young guy said this to me:

I decided long ago if I was ever to write a story, it would be about Annie. And Mama. And all of us. I'm Annie's brother Charlie, and it's my fault she died.

Well, I just had to follow up on that, which resulted a year later in a novel.

So how do we as women get inside the head of a man, and vice versa? Because it's getting inside the head of our characters that make them come alive. I've been married to Rick for 42 years as of two weeks ago. And as well as I know him, I can't say I honestly know how he thinks. I can usually predict what his response will be in any given situation---as he can me---but responses and thought processes are two different things. Chris Bohjalian, our guest author on July 22, talks about writing opposite-gender characters in an audio interview on Pen on Fire/Writers on Writing. It's worth listening to.

I also came across an article written by author K.M. Weiland with some good points to consider when writing opposite-gender characters. (I sought permission to reprint, but didn't hear back. But follow the link for the specific points.)

For fun, try this exercise: Take a scene from a novel you love that includes both a male and female character, and that's written from the POV of a character who's the same gender as you. Rewrite that scene from the POV of the opposite-sex character, then tell us about it.

Bug Splat: Chapter Two of an Indie Writer's Journey

I’m getting very good a giving away books. I gave away 10,350 Kindle books of Goodness and Mercy and 11,387 of Like a Watered Garden, an out-of-print book I re-released. That’s nearly 22,000 books! By all accounts a very successful promotion.

But, alas, I’m terrible at selling Kindle books.

Since you've been with me from the beginning, generously writing lovely reviews when I put out the call, I thought you might be interested in the results of this experiment. I’m not trying to depress or discourage you but give you a personal look into the independent publishing experience.

And please, please, please hear this: I’m sharing as one writer to another. This is NOT an underhanded attempt to make pity sales. No, I’m learning how this indie publishing game is played and bringing you along on the bumpy ride. 

And, hopefully, the story isn't over yet.

For our discussion here, let me focus on Goodness and Mercy. I launched on June 12^th with a 3-day giveaway as suggested by several Amazon marketing books I’d read. The theory was to give the book away on Wednesday through Friday to encourage weekend sales, which are supposed to be the best.

I’d paid a fee (a small fee) for the book to be featured on free Kindle book blogs. They promised to

place the book according to genre to capture the highest number of readers. I think there are ways to test their success, but I haven’t done so, not yet. Six blogs featured the giveaway. I also posted made-by-me announcements of the giveaway on my two Facebook pages, plus the Novel Matters FB page. I believe the FB ads were the most effective.

And the reviews rolled in.

Fifty readers have taken the time to write reviews on Amazon. (Thank you!) Nearly 80% of the ratings are 5 stars. And the two 3-star ratings are quite positive. Some have made me cry with joy. This is more reviews than I've ever gotten, even on my traditionally published books. At this point, I was very encouraged.

I made it into the coveted top 100 in free kindle books, which meant lots of people were seeing my book and getting a chance to grab it. They did some great grabbing. Thanks to all who pushed G&M up in the ratings.

Once the giveaway was over, my sales averaged about 50 books per week for two whole weeks. I truly expected that number to rise.

It hasn't.

Sales have steadily decreased since the third week out. I sold 14 books last week.

Honestly? I’m splatted on the windshield of life, a bug life marked by a smear of yellow goo. This

smacks!

Okay, analytical Patti is back. Breathing. Breathing.

I have to assume that the reviewers aren't lying. Besides three or four, I don’t know them, and none of them are relatives. From what they've said, the story is readable, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

So why are sales, well, in the toilet? (Since I put a bug splat picture up, I'll spare you a toilet picture.)

From some folks I trust, one thing to reconsider is the cover. Evidently, it isn't doing a good job at drawing the right reader. I do worry that the cover turned out too sweet. I’m trying to decide if I have the energy and cash to create another cover.

Another thing to consider is the book description on Amazon. Do people read it and yawn? Say huh? Leave the page? I’ll be taking a look at that this week, too.

Finally, I may not be charging enough. The ceiling on Kindle books is 4.99. I have G&M set at 2.99. I may be sending the message that this is a discount story, hardly worth reading.

Meanwhile, what to write next? I've pretty much decided that IF I do write another novel, it won’t be a CBA type of book. The audience is too narrow (as in small), and they want to read something entirely different. Obviously, there are CBA readers who are hungry for a story that isn't a typical historical romance, just not a big enough group to support my habit of writing. Maybe I should be writing something else, a series that has a clever tie-in for marketing, humorous with a touch of romance.

We've talked a lot here about art for art’s sake. The problem is—minus the nasty recession numbers and the low probability of finding a job—if I do a good job, even simply complete a job with some competency in any other area, I will be paid.

There’s lots we could talk about here. When is enough enough? If you are privy to the magic that sells books, we would love to hear from you! Has anyone out there made a living from indie publishing sales? What has worked for you once the giveaways are over? Have I totally killed your desire to self-publish? I would hate that. I do hear happy stories. And mine might get happier yet. 

The Time-Honored Tradition of Making Things Up

Writers make things up. And sometime even non-fiction writers do it, although that is generally frowned upon by publishers unless you let them know ahead of time you’re doing it (and even after it’s discovered, you can very occasionally get away with it at least for a while if you write a book that is famous and/or influential enough. Examples: Pulitzer Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu and sorry-to-burst-your-bubble Alex Haley of Roots fame.)

Readers appreciate a heads-up signal to let them know, look, there’s some fictionalizing going on here. I recently did that in my co-authored non-fiction book, Discovering the City of Sodom, when I depicted the four traditional views on something by letting some (well-labeled) fictionalized characters, who exemplified those views, dramatize them in dialogue.

But fiction writers – ah, we get to make things up all the time.

Plots.

Settings.

People.

Universes, even!

And at the micro level, we get to make up words. By so doing, we are following in the footsteps of none less than William Shakespeare, who according to Shakespeare Online  invented over 1700 words (many of which I thought were quite modern such as zany, amazement, and cater, for example.)

I’m working on a suspense novel co-written with a friend. In it, I have a 16-year-old girl who uses great “new” words that are actually in use by the daughters of a friend of mine. Like, “teenagery.”  And my favorite: “handitizer.”

Help me out, here, readers. Have any of your teenage friends or family taught you any new words that I can abduct for my WIP? 

Paying Attention?

Perhaps if you have read my first novel, To Dance In the Desert, you'll remember something my terminally ill character, Glenda said: "If you pay attention, five minutes is enough."

Confession: Glenda said that, I didn't. At the time, I had no idea what she meant by it, but she insisted, and I wrote.

But I think it's a little clearer now.

I write this post at the end of a long day, so I'll tell you now that the threads I'm about to lay on the table won't connect in any obvious way, not till I braid them together.

Here's the first:
On Monday, wise Debbie suggested we "spend time away from writing and reading and being connected to social networking in order to feed that place where great stories originate."

The second:
In his nonfiction book, Nudge, Leonard Sweet suggests that every time Jesus says "Verily, verily" in The Gospels, he really is saying, "Pay attention."

In fact, Sweet goes on to say something worth cross-stitching into a tea towel:

"You are what you pay attention to ... In a world of inattentiveness, a world that goes largely unregarded, it is the special mission given to humans to bring the world to life. How do we save the world? How do we keep the world alive? Through loving attention. … by 'tending and tilling,' naming and cherishing the tiniest part of what God has created." 

(I wish I could tell you more of what he says about paying attention, without pushing the fair-use laws into a breakdown.)

Before I pull in the third thread, let's twist these two together a bit:

My spiritual walk of the last few years has led me to reflect again and again how few things are about me. How much of life - real life, my own life - lies outside my skin. How life experiences that differ from mine might create an experience of life far different from my own. How people send signals to say things they have no words for - to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

I have often been frustrated by my failure to write a third book - and I still mean to do that. But the moments in this past year I have managed to catch the view outside my skin have enthralled me enough to lessen the pain.

Here's the third thread: In case you haven't met her before, I'm going to introduce you to a woman named Vivian Maier, who paid attention. By design, she had no audience till after her death. The audience seemed to matter far less than the seeing.

She's a hero of mine. And while I'm glad that someone at last allowed me to be her audience, and I'm grateful that many wonderful authors have cared enough to publish their work, I want to remember that seeing comes first. I want to remember that the "verilies" of Jesus are his command to me to pay attention.

Keep Calm and Ponder

 

I recently watched a lecture by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) which was delivered in 1991 on the subject of creativity.  I found it challenging and informative.  He had five main points that are necessary for creativity and you can watch it here. Rather than repeating his main points, I want to highlight the information that made the most impact on me.   And I’m paraphrasing here:

• ·When it comes to creativity, it is easier to focus on the trivial things that are urgent than the more important things that are not urgent  OR the little things we know we can do than to start on the big things we’re not so sure about.

• ·The first 30 minutes or so is spent in getting into the mood, tuning out the distractions of everyday life and getting into a playful, less purposeful mode.  The purpose is not on problem solving, but experimenting with ideas.  Then you can spend an hour or so in pondering, which is preferable to spending long periods of time (less productive).

• The most creative people don’t give in to the quickest, easiest solutions.  They can tolerate the tension or discomfort of sticking with it and taking longer to find the most original ideas.

As I watched, I found so much that we can use to seize the year:  brainstorming story ideas, imagining the direction, shape or POV of a story, discovering creative ways to market and promote.  Determining how to unfold the story in the most creative way.  Tossing an obvious plot solution for something more original.   Expanding a small story idea into a bigger one.  We might take time for this at the pre-writing phase and then later at a mid-point where the story dries up or looks up at us fish-eyed and smelly.  We can focus on the big picture, the whole story, or the minute details, as long as we approach the process in a playful, open frame of mind.  No ideas are wrong, they’re just ideas, and this is essential to spontaneity.

He also made a statement that creativity is not a talent but a way of operating and is completely unrelated to I.Q.   We can learn to get into the open mode needed for creativity.  It’s not something you either have or don’t.  Phew on both counts!

Most importantly, I felt he validated our need as writers to spend time away from writing and reading and being connected to social networking in order to feed that place where great stories originate.  

So I’m going to set aside time, create my oasis and ponder the possibilities.  What about you?

The Carpe Annum Interviews: Chris Bohjalian

Lincoln’s Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of 16 books, including eight New York Times bestsellers.  His work has been translated into over 25 languages and three times become movies.

His epic novel of the Armenian Genocide, The Sandcastle Girls, was published in paperback this month. This July his new novel, a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet set in Tuscany at the end of the Second World War, The Light in the Ruins, arrives. 
 His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Hartford Courant, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Bookpage, and Salon.
 His awards include the ANCA Arts and Letters Award for The Sandcastle Girls, as well as the Saint Mesrob Mashdots Medal; the New England Society Book Award for The Night Strangers; the New England Book Award; a Boston Public Library Literary Light; a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; and the Anahid Literary Award. His novel, Midwives, was a number one New York Times bestseller, a selection of Oprah's Book Club, and a New England Booksellers Association Discovery pick. 
 He has written for a wide variety of magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine.  He has been a weekly columnist right here in Vermont for the Burlington Free Press since February 1992. 

Chris graduated  Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Amherst College, and lives in Vermont with his wife, the photographer Victoria Blewer, and their daughter Grace Experience.  They are passionate supporters of Homeward Bound (the Addison County Humane Society), Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter, Concord Academy, the United Church of Lincoln, and a small elementary school in rural Armenia, where this year they are funding a new fresh water and plumbing system. 

Novel Matters: Tell us about your newest novel.  

Chris Bohjalian: “The Light in the Ruins” began as a re-imagining of ‘Romeo & Juliet,’ this time set

in Tuscany at the end of the Second World War.  I have always savored love stories – especially epic love stories set in war.  Books such as ‘Atonement’ and ‘The English Patient.’

            And while the love story is instrumental to the novel, the tale grew beyond that.  Now it’s the story of two young women, one of whom was a partisan battling the Nazis and Blackshirts. The other is a Tuscan nobleman’s daughter who falls in love with a German lieutenant.  The book moves back and forth in time between the cataclysm that was Tuscany in 1944 and Florence in 1955 – when a serial killer is murdering one-by-one the remnants of the nobleman’s family.

            It’s set in one of my favorite parts of the world: That part of Italy called the Crete Senesi – the hills and woods and the eerily lunar-like landscape south of Siena. I bike there and do some of my best writing in a medieval granary that figures prominently in the tale.

            The novel goes on sale on July 9. To purchase the novel or learn more about it, click here:  

NM: Some authors write one book a year and others write a handful over a lifetime. In the beginning, did you consciously choose one of these paths over the other, and are you happy with that choice today? 

CB: No. I was simply hoping to write a novel after (finally) selling a short story. I amassed 250 rejection slips before I sold a single word.

            That first short story is called “Sparks” and it appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1988.

NM: Writing careers ebb and flow—one day you’re an Amazon 5-star, the next you’re on your way to the bargain table. Always, every day, however, you’re an artist. The story must be written. How do you—do you?—separate yourself from opinions to give your creative self for another day of writing?

CB: I don’t dare read the reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or BN.com. I used to. I wrote an essay once for the Washington Post about my old addiction to reading the way anonymous people would eviscerate my work. But now, in the interest of my mental health, I give the reviews as wide a berth as I can. They can really screw up a sunny day.

Here is that essay I wrote for the WashingtonPost.

NM: If tomorrow were the first day of your career, what advice would you give yourself?

CB: Write what you love; write what moves you and makes you proud.

NM: Writers debate whether to write a novel using a detailed outline vs. no outline, just go with the gut. Which do you prefer? What role does epiphany play while planning or writing?

CB: I never have an outline. I depend upon my characters to take me by the hand and lead me through the dark of the story. I begin with only a vague premise of what the novel is about.

NM: What's the one thing (be it a technology, a notebook, a wristwatch, or pen) that you can't be without as a writer?

CB: Sugar Free Red Bull.

NM: Who do you turn to for advice when things are rocky on your writing journey?

CB: My editor and my literary agent.

NM: What advice do you give to writers who are looking to seize the year and take control of their writing career?

CB: I don’t. I’m not presumptuous.

NM: The theme this year on Novel Matters is Carpe Annum: Seize the Year! Tell us about a turning-point time in your journey as a writer when you took hold of your career. What did that look like? How did that moment change you as a writer?

CB: In 1992, I finally wrote a pretty decent novel: “Water Witches.” The voice felt authentic and the story felt original. It was my fourth book. I wished my previous three books had never been published. I still keep them all out of print.

Thanks so much, Chris, for sharing a part of your writing journey with us. We're excited about your latest!