Novelists: Fools for Hire

True confession: It's been awhile since I've done any fiction writing  (besides revision). And once my foot heals, I'll be applying for a must-brush-your-teeth before-noon job. That does not mean I will stop writing.

It's tempting.

Maybe I could evict those voices in my head, as Latayne wrote about on Wednesday, or I could apply my hard-won discipline to something that doesn't include rejection letters or heartless (but honest) reviews.

But I know myself better than that. I won't give up writing when I get a job. I'm a storyteller down to my genes. The form is still up for grabs (I'm taking a flash fiction class at the Breathe Writers Conference), but the stories are not.

And all six of the stories on my to-be-written list are a bit silly, close to the edge, very different from what I've written so far. This makes my heart beat faster and my pits sticky.

Ms. Rice is more than correct when she says we must risk making fools of ourselves to write. Whoever thought a story about a wannabe wizard would capture our imaginations, or a story narrated by Death, or any story that begins in the imagination of the writer.

Do you agree with Ms. Rice? Must we risk making fools of ourselves to write a story? What does this mean to you?

Those Random Guys in our Heads

USA Today ran a story this week about male students at Ohio State University who were renting a house. Sometimes they would find cabinet and microwave doors left open, things out of place. But since there were several roommates, no one could pin down the culprit. They even joked about having a ghost in the house.

Imagine their surprise when one of them heard some "weird noises like dings and alarms" coming from behind what they had thought was a utility closet in the basement. There, unbeknownst to them, a fellow student named Jeremy had been living.

Jeremy was evicted, but the students are still uneasy, because they don’t know how many keys to their home are still circulating. They don’t know who will show up next.

We at NovelMatters know that feeling. We had a conference call the other night to catch up on each other’s lives, and one of us expressed frustration with an unfinished book. “I’ve got these characters running around in my head, and I’m tired of them,” she said, weighing the time and effort she’d already spent on the book against the possible relief from just ditching the project.

Another author chimed in, “I want to evict some of those voices in my head!”

Yes, we are possessed. 

We are inhabited. 

We are novelists.

And while we may be able to be selective in who we kick out, I’m pretty sure they’ll always be peeking in the windows.

The Really Beautiful Truth

My husband keeps a photo of me above his desk. It was taken the morning after I finished my first novel. I will never let you see that photo.

It's just not the picture I formed of myself as a writer, when I was in high school. Back then I'd seen authors on the backs of books. They looked intelligent. They wore the half smiles of those who know the sad truth about life and living. They hung out in shadowy places. They wore black a lot, and preferred their photos taken in black and white, because artists must reflect the dark world we live in. Writers never looked tired on their book jackets, only jaded. Their hair was softly tousled in a way that looks un-contrived, but actually takes a little work. I know.

 Sad to think I look nothing like that - except I do like to wear black (it doesn't show coffee spills), and my hair is tousled when I do the work, and just a mess when I don't. But I smile a lot, and I often look tired. Disappointing, isn't it? But I tell you this to prepare you for The Really Ugly Truth.

 To preface, let me explain that in high school I hated homework, even essays. I loved writing poetry in little books, and journaling, and writing stories, but the writing I had to do just didn't turn me on. The words stuck in my gullet. I didn't know what to write, and what I did write felt wrong. I got sleepy. I got restless. All at the same time.

 The writing I wanted to do was all different. When I wrote poetry and short stories, I felt like a flame blazed inside and the words fell like sparks from my pen and smoldered, spreading their energy across the paper in glowing lines that smoked like incense. In other words, the kind of writing I wanted to do for the rest of my life was the kind that felt good, and homework was not that kind.

The Really Ugly Truth: Once you are a writer, you are supposed to write. And that's homework.

To illustrate, let me tell you about the most difficult post I ever wrote for this blog. I didn't wait till the last minute. A day or two before, I'd done the research and written an outline, leaving just the composing, and that would be easy. My schedule was busy that week, but there would be hours of time Sunday night before the post was due on Monday.

 But Sunday night, on a whim, I took my mother to the movies. Then we had a late dinner. I got home later than I'd planned, at about 9:30. No worries. The blog post would take an hour or less, and then I would go to bed. But the minute I sat down to write, my body went limp and my mind went blank. The busy week had done me in. I was exhausted.

 Just look at the outline, I told myself. Write one sentence at a time, and you'll be done... in an hour and a half. In bed by eleven. My two black kittens, three months old at the time, were asleep on the footstool I kept under my desk. I liked it when they slept there, out of the way but within arms reach, so I could pet them between thoughts. Don't all writers have cats? These guys knew their part in the writing process. Except they forgot on this particular evening. When I began to write, the kittens began to tussle, and this made the footstool rock on my uneven floor, and that made an irritating noise.

Exhausted writers hate irritating noises, so I picked the kittens up, gave them a light toss and told them to tussle someplace else. But the tussle had been just a warm-up, and now their jets were hot, and they commenced to bounce off the walls. That's not a cliche - well it is, but it's also the literal truth. They ran back and forth in my office like they were on South American catnip, the good stuff. At one point I actually saw a cat run vertically up my bookshelf, clawing like it was El Capitan, pulling books out as he climbed, before he crashed to the floor, spun and ran the other direction.

 Me? I scolded, yelled, squirted them with my squirt bottle.

But I didn't write, at least not much. Finally - finally at about 2:30 in the morning, they began to tire. I looked at the progress I'd made on the post to that point, and realized I was almost done. Just finish up and post it, I told myself. In bed by 3:00. 

And then my computer blinked off. My work was lost. The blog post was still due Monday morning. And it was Monday morning. I looked down, and there a kitten sat sweetly beside me, his face all wide-eyed innocence, his foot on the surge protector's button.

I'd had times like this. In high school.

The Ugly Truth is that being a writer feels like having homework forever. But that leads me to the beautiful truth, and that is, it doesn't matter. The post got finished, and no one noticed I'd written it in a state of numbed exhaustion. In fact, it sparked a great discussion. .

And that leads me to The Really Beautiful Truth: Everything I have ever done has felt ugly in the middle. Too hard, too tiring. I wasn't good enough, and it wasn't going to end well. Only it did end well. I felt that way in the middle of raising my sons. I don't know how they grew up to be so wonderful. I felt that way when I endured trials - badly. I don't know why my life is so good today. I felt that way when I wrote my novels. I don't know why people I don't know send me emails to say how much my books mean to them, and then become cherished friends.

Except I think I do know. I think it has something to do with the loaves and fishes story. I bring my sorry sat-on bag lunch full of nothing, and the Lord makes SOMETHING of it. I recently read something a man named Adel Bestavros once said:

Patience with others is Love. Patience with self is Hope. Patience with God is Faith.

Isn't that good? Whatever you face today, I hope you'll be patient. Things are better than you think.

The Fellowship Revisited

Well, if it’s September, I must be deep into Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring again.  I don’t know when this habit first started, but every fall when the leaves begin to turn, I get the desire to revisit the shire and all the familiar characters I’ve come to know and love.  Silly, maybe.  It’s like a reunion of sorts.  I don’t always finish the book - sometimes I just want a taste. If the story world weren’t so real, I wouldn’t even have the desire to return there.

On Facebook this week, I saw a post that J.K. Rowling had secretly completed 75% of a new book she’d been working on in the Harry Potter series.  People were ecstatic!  The article explained that she was dissatisfied with her lukewarm reception into adult fiction and was returning to juvenile fiction.  According to Snopes, it was all a big hoax which first debuted on April Fool’s Day.  How disappointing for Harry Potter fans who wanted just a little bit more time with Harry or just one more adventure.

I don’t know about you, but in order for me to become so invested in a place and characters that I revisit them time and again, several things have to take place:

·         The character must be likable and earn my respect

·         The character’s desired outcome must be worthy of my investment

·         The stakes must be so high that it looks doubtful that they will even return alive

·         I am willing to accompany them on this journey, unwilling to let them face it alone

·         The story world must be detailed, grounded and in some way, winsome.  Believable, above all.

·         The story world must provide a brief respite from life as I know it, however briefly, to take my mind off of problems and issues. 

As a child, I remember devouring the Anne of Green Gables series, hungrily seeking the next book in the series when I completed one.  The pastoral setting sounded beautiful - safe - and the characters were so well-defined and held to high standards.  But life in Avonlea wasn't without heartbreak and hard choices.  The characters weren't perfect, but they were able to live uprightly while faced with their choices. The story line wasn't as perilous as those with a quest, but the problems were story worthy on a smaller scale.

Do you have a book or series that you revisit thanks to the extraordinary story world and characters? We’d love to hear!

Subtle Inspiration

Sharon's post on Monday got me thinking about inspiration. It's a funny word. More a notion than an actual thing. We understand what it is to be inspired--at least in the moment we feel inspiration--but as Sharon's post demonstrated, it's tough to define in precise terms.

Writers tend to take the idea of inspiration as a straight line from ignition to paper. An idea hits and we're off, scribbling down impressions, stringing words to make pictures, tacking those pictures together to create story.

But.

What if inspiration is something more subtle, even elegant?

Writers want inspiration to be an ocean, but my experience tells me it's more like a raindrop. An inkling that trickles a narrow path down the window of your mind so when you look through it's magnifying residue, life outside appears different.

Inspiration tricks the mind's eye. It tilts the world. It is anything that causes the sunshine and darkness in your mind to spill out of their safe compartments and into each other. It is courage. It both upsets your world and fills it with hope at the same time.

It's not an idea. It's an event, a party in your mind that changes you.

I'm deeply inspired by the sound of my husband's laughter. The sound moves my heart in new directions, reminds me of long abandoned dreams that suddenly feel close and purring.

I'm inspired by the feeling of being unhurried. I mean canoe-upon-the-glassy-water unrushed. I remember myself in those moments.

I'm inspired by poetry slams. The rapid-fire free verse done well can take me a fair pace through life.

Does any of this directly relate to writing? Yes, of course it does. Just not on the surface. These inspirations are the blush and tilt of any story I write. They are the charm, the brutality, the light hand whenever each is needed. They are the well I draw from and imp that sits on my paper and refuses to let me have my own way with a story.

Take a few minutes to close your eyes and let your mind drift to the things, people, places, sights, and sounds that inspire you.

Drift away on that tide of inspiration. When you're breathless, share with us what inspires you.

Who's the Boss?

Inspiration: "An inspiring influence: any stimulus to creative thought or action."

Writing fiction is all about inspiration. Novelists are inspired as to subject, theme, characterization, and every other aspect of the creative process when it comes to producing a novel---as is true with any other artist of any other art form. As novelists, we create something out of nothing, and that something usually begins as a zygote of an idea that gestates into a finished product. That takes inspiration, and lots of it.

We tend to think of inspiration as some nebulous thing that strikes when all perfect conditions converge, and that our creative forces are at its mercy, that we're hamstrung to proceed and produce without it. In a way, that's true. I've been "inspired" to write certain novels, and to write certain passages within those novels, and you have too. It feels wonderful when inspiration does its thing, and I for one give credit where credit is due---which means to say, not myself. But inspiration is sort of like a nudge that gets you going. It will not, and will never, take you by the hand and walk you through the process from start to finish.

Ayn Rand, in The Art of Fiction, says this about inspiration: "What is colloquially called 'inspiration' ---namely, that you write without full knowledge of why you write as you do, yet it comes out well---is actually the subconscious summing-up of the premises and intentions you have set yourself. All writers have to rely on inspiration. But you have to know where it comes from, why it happens, and how to make it happen to you." Did you get that last phrase, how to make it happen to you? That implies that we're not at the mercy of inspiration; rather it's something we can rein in and manage. (As an aside, Ms. Rand also said, "In regards to precision of language, I think I myself am the best writer today." To which I wrote in the margin, "Hmm." But more power to her.)

That may not be good news to the person who lacks the motivation to complete a project, because there goes the excuse for not getting to the finish line. But for those of us who are serious about our craft, who have the wherewithal to roll up our sleeves and get 'er done, in the inspired language of my son-in-law Justin, it means we can and should control the process. We can plant our behinds wherever it is we choose to write, and get to work, anytime, for any length of time, and be happy with our accomplishments.

For me, and probably for you too, inspiration is most necessary at the inception of a novel, at that place where story is just the cell of an idea with unlimited potential. Once that story gets off the ground and I get into the story world, craft, skill and experience take over, and I'm in charge. I don't have to wait for inspired thought and language to drop into my head ... I go after them with all the tools I possess. Ms. Rand says, "I have written many scenes which I did not plan in advance, beyond a general definition that 'this scene will accomplish such and such a purpose'---yet when I came to them, they wrote themselves." So have I. She does not mean, nor do I, that she was the conduit of some other creative force, as if someone or something were dictating to her; rather that she utilized the tools and skills we've been talking about to write an inspired scene.

Writing a novel is a daunting challenge. That was true of the first novel I wrote, and has been just as true of every novel I've written since. It takes great determination and steady work, and cannot depend on "inspiration" for every word that's written. The inspiration is the nudge as I said before, but then the writer takes over from there. The key is to consider that you as a writer are inspired to write, and that the idea of your writing is inspired; but you, the writer, wield that inspiration, and not the other way around. When you sit at your desk to work, do so with the knowledge and confidence that the goal you set is achievable, and that you're in charge of the outcome. As with any skill, the more you exercise it the better you'll become. So write, write, write. Whether you feel inspired or not. Because the accomplishment itself may be just the inspiration you need.

Prepping for a Writers Conference: Story Structure

I'm teaching at the same writers conference as Latayne (we'll be roomies!)--the Breathe Conference in Grand Rapids, MI--but they aren't trusting me with the keynote (wise people). I'll be teaching two workshops. One on dialogue and the other on hooking your reader.

Dialogue is one of a gazillion subset skills a novelist needs in her trick bag to write stellar fiction. Dialogue that lacks tension or purpose is flat and boring. My dearest hope is that I can gather my wits about me to help the attendees at the Breathe Conference power up their dialogue.

As for hooking the reading, this is so much more than a snappy first line and explosive action, although a snappy first line and action are part of the picture. Hooking a reader is about story structure.

The essence of good fiction is tension, and an inflated balloon depends on tension (air pushing at the skin, trying to escape, trying to explode) for its shape and personality. The more air you put into it, the tighter the tension, and the more inevitable the forthcoming explosion.--Larry Brooks, Story Engineering

He's talking the first 50-100, although I lean more toward 50, pages of your manuscript that leads up to the first plot point.

I don't intend to explain the fine points of story structure here. That's a big job, too big for one blog post, but I am going to encourage you to prepare yourself for your next writers conference in a very specific way.

Most writers conferences focus on the subset skills of writing fiction and nonfiction. That's not a bad thing. Building suspense. Scene development. Finding your voice. Creating characters. These are all important.

If these are the subset skills, what brings it all together and makes your story work? Story structure. The only way to satisfy your reader is to know story structure inside and out. Basically, story structure is the integration of premise, character development, and the building of your story in an order that resonates with with your reader.

For me, learning about the hero's journey was revolutionary. Humans have a story template embossed on their souls that satisfies like a meatloaf dinner on the first cold night of the year. The hero's journey is a starting point, I'm learning. I've become a story structure explorer for the last couple of years. Screenwriters are especially adept at this, so I've read mostly their books. Writing a novel allows for a bit more freedom, but there are still expectations of the subconscious in the reader that must be satisfied.

I invite you to prepare for your next writers conference by going with a foundational understanding of story structure. As you're learning the subset skills, you'll see how they strengthen the structure. Here's a list of books I've read on the topic:

Story Engineering, Larry Brooks (novels)
Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell (novels)
Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hauge (screenplays)
"The Hero's 2 Journeys" (DVD), Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler (screenplays)
The Anatomy of Story, John Truby (screenplays)
The Moral Premise, Stanley D. Williams (screenplays and novels)

Story structure may sound like putting yourself in a creativity straight jacket, but far from it. Structure is quite freeing as it keeps you on the main trail to a great story, which means fewer drafts. I like that. Very freeing. Plus, no story can stand on great voice, good characters, or snappy dialogue alone. There has to be a story that works.

Are you attending a writers conference soon? If you're a seasoned attendee, how do you prepare beyond pressing your jeans? Have you read a book on story structure you can recommend? One of these listed?

PS--Ages ago, Lori Benton won our Audience-with-an-Agent contest. The agent signed her, and her debut novel is out. Besides pairing her up with an agent, we can't take any credit for the beautiful story she had published, Burning Sky. Congrats to Lori for a job very well done.