Brilliance or Crap?

How's that for the title of a blog entry?

I have come to the conclusion that writers tend to fall into two distinct camps. In the first camp, we have writers who believe that everything they write is brilliant. No word of their prose should be edited. They are the greatest incarnation of an American novelist ever. When I was a book editor, I would read queries that had statements (NOT meant tongue in cheek) like: "This book represents the finest prose on the experience of poverty since Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath." Now, it might (and I am being overly generous) be all right to make such a delusional claim IF the work held up to scrutiny, but I have usually found the writers who believe this about themselves are some of the worst I have ever seen or read.

And they don't even have to aspire to Steinbeck. Every genre has aspiring and published writers whose work is cringe-worthy and whoe writers seem oblivious to it.

In the other camp are writers who think everything they write is CRAP. They rip up or delete nearly every work in progress. They stall over a single paragraph for days, paralyzed by an aspiration of perfection and therefore convinced anything they write is total garbage. Needless to say, these are often the writers who never finish any novel or novella EVER. I know some of these people. I get Christmas cards from them--still plugging away on a novel they started ten years ago.

There is nothing wrong with suffering for your art. There is nothing wrong with being a slow writer. But there is a problem if the reason you are slow is self-flagellation of the most vicious sort. If you hate your art.

I think the most (and I use this term loosely) well-adjusted novelists are the ones who can straddle both camps. I am really, really proud of INVISIBLE GIRL as it gets released this week. Like my earlier work in THE ROOFER, it is a book of my heart. It is fiction (can't really call it a romance . . . not even romantic suspense . . . not quite a thriller). I am proud of the prose. But along the way, I thought it was crap. I started it three different times, and it took a WHILE to get rolling with it (with a shout-out to Jon, in my writers' critique group, who really helped me gel the past/present technique I used). In the end, I "own" it--I think it's a good book. Along the way, I cringed. I hated chapters. I wasn't sure it was going to work.

If you think you are so brilliant you have nothing to learn . . . you won't. If you think you are so God-awful that there is no hope for your writing, then there isn't.

Learn to balance the two, and you have a path.

Anyone recognize their thought processes here?

Journaling

It has dawned on me that my blog has become a creative journal. While I don't chit-chat very much about my "real life," there are little hints here and there. I'm actually a person remarkably free of emotional baggage, so I don't NEED a journal in the way I did when I was 15 and the world semeed like one big angst-ridden hell. :-)

However, the very exercise of writing nearly every day has opened a floodgate of creativity. And that's a good thing. When I was younger, I journaled nearly every day. Looking back, it's amazing how full of the longing to be a "real" writer was part of me.

When I go to speak with middle schoolers and high schoolers about being a novelist, I tell them "Write every day. Start a journal." It's a portal into your creative side.

I no longer need to look inward in the same way I did when I was a student, though. And I no longer have the energy to dissect my primary relationships. I have a keen eye for what works in my life and what's broken. I know what I can fix and what is going to be broken but tolerable for the rest of my life here on Earth. It's not that anything is beyond hope, but sometimes broken is the best you can hope for. For instance, there is one particularly horrid--and I feel comfortable using the word evil--person in my life. I have offered her forgiveness multiple times via email and handwritten letter because she happens to be blood-related to someone important to me. Each time she has been more vile in her response than the previous time. Broken. I don't even think a death bed would make her realize how truly awful a human she is. She will go to her next rebirth as a cockroach perhaps. BUT . . . here's the thing . . . there is, I assure you, a calmness about this for me. It is what it is.

So no, a journal isn't necesssary for me to analyze. So what does it do for a writer? This blog has made me think about process, fine-tuning my writing, and most of all, it has often made me look at inspiration. Creative spark. Divine blessings. It has made me look with wonder at the gift writing is in my life. At the way I take the real world I live in and spin it and skew it and create a fake world that is on-so-much more dramatic at times, or better, or has a happy ending. Humans get "stuck"--in their addictions, in their hatefulness. But characters get to change.

So in terms of creativity, I guess that's what this blog does. Fellow bloggers? Journalers? It seems like nearly every writer I know has written since they were small. Anyone who has journaled that long?

It Was Better When I Was Naive

Okay, so I'm moving on from my Oz-themed blogs to something completely different.

It was better when I was naive.

You see, for me, blogs weren't something I read very often, if at all. In fact, until I started mine way at the end of last summer, I thought blogs were for parents who liked to post pictures of their kids, or else really anal people who liked to tell their families and friends what they ate for breakfast each day. I read a political blog or two. But other than that, I didn't give them much thought.

Then, because I do like varying outlets for my creativity, when I got a major website update, I was asked by my web guy if I wanted a blog and I said sure. But even then, I didn't actually WRITE in it. But when I was in high school and college, I kept a journal, and I did find the habit of daily writing was a good one. Now . . . I usually write in my blog twice a week at least, and if you look at the list at right, those are blogs of online pals or people whose blogs I respect and I visit them with regularity while drinking my first of many cups of coffee. Blogs can be addictive.

But the real reason for my title is only recently, and I mean REALLY recently (last month) have I seen certain writers use their blogs as weapons. And it disgusts me. It was like this whole world of attack-blogging was revealed to me. I have seen thinly veiled PERSONAL snark attacks (or not so thinly veiled in one case). I don't mean Miss Snark, I mean one writer just attacking another. I have seen people tear into a statement or two taken out of context, with the viciousness of a pit bull. I have seen one woman who has climbed so high on her soapbox that frankly, despite my spiritual beliefs, it's going to be somewhat amusing to watch her fall.

I have seen some good. Julie Leto has warned newbies of some people who prey on writers in scams. Some bloggers have been supportive of newbies. J.A. Konrath comes to mind, of course. Heck, he even has the word Newbie in the name of his blog.

But for some, blogs seem to be about a power trip. One that comes to mind was so misinformed as to be laughable. And it wouldn't be so bad if people didn't BELIEVE what was written, but like my late grandmother, Fannie (and yes, that was her name!), an Old World (Russian) woman who faithfully read The Enquirer each week, along with The Star, she believed if it was written about in the "American Press" it had to be true . . . some people seem to think by virtue of things being written, they must be true.

So in a way, it was better for me when I really didn't know this blog game. When I didn't see lies written about other authors, editors, agents. When I didn't see people slicing each other down instead of building each other up. No, I am not a product of the 60s with rose-colored glasses thinking we can all make the world a better place (though wouldn't that be nice). I'm younger than that . . . but I still am from the if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all school.

So if you have a blog, wield it well.

Anyone? Seen some blog fights get out of hand?

The Scarecrow

Yeah, I just can't let go of these Oz-themed entries, but they really have been inspiring me to do some creative thinking. Today, the Scarecrow. For me, he represents research. For while I do house an enormous amount of utterly useless information and trivia in my brain, I still have to research my books.

Some people do all their research beforehand. I'm usually too impatient and research as I go. In general, I tend to "fudge" my research a tiny bit. No, I'm not talking about lying, cheating, or otherwise putting in bad information, I'm talking about choosing my characters wisely. For instance, if I have a choice to make between a heroine who is a comparative religion professor (my main character in January 2007's BLOOD SON) and a chemistry professor, I will choose to make her a comparative religion professor because I am considering returning to university for a PhD in comparative religion . . . and I do all my "fun," downtime reading in that. Chemistry? Not so much. Anyway, thus in research, I tend to choose characters where I already have some pre-existing strength or I have relatives or dear friends with that strength. Granted, THE ROOFER was full of hitmen, so take from that what you will. :-)

One word of caution about the Scarecrow. And I learned this the hard way. Sometimes you do not know what you do not know.

Huh?

While I have a wonderful editor, and in turn have had mostly great copyeditors, sometimes an error slips through the cracks. And it nearly always turns out to be something I did not know that I did not know. For instance, in TRACE OF INNOCENCE, the main character has a recollection of her mother planting bulbs in her garden. In spring. Apparently, according to my brilliant and knowledgable about almost everything mother, you don't do that. I live in a tropical climate, so what do I know? I also don't garden (any time I have had a garden, it's been vegetables, not flowers). My guess is it didn't jump out to my editor, nor to the copyeditor. It was a single line. And I didn't RESEARCH it, because I didn't know what I didn't know.

So that little lesson is a word of advice. Be really careful, Scarecrows. Sometime you don't know what is brains . . . and what is straw. Anyone with some research advice or stories they wish to share?

Dorothy and her Ruby Slippers

Time for another character from Oz.

To me, every writer must be like Dorothy.

When I go to visit middle school kids and talk about being an author, I tell them two things to break the ice and set up my discussion:

1. I have the best job in the world because I get to write in my PJs and my commute is 30 seconds from my bedroom to my laptop.
2. All writers must be intellectually curious.

Hence Dorothy. She was always trying to get home from Oz, but along the way, she embraced the journey, she embraced her newfound friends, and she was fearless. Or at least hid her fear pretty well. And I see that all as a metaphor for intellectual curiosity.

Breaking out of a rut is one of the best things you can do as a writer. Questioning the world and the people in it . . . being curious about what people do for a living, their motivations, their back stories, all of it can eventually pour into your fiction.

But the other part of it is Dorothy eventually did make it home. The way I see it, that's the grounded part of being a writer, the "know thyself" part. Because you can take all the knowledge and information and emotions that you have culled, but unless you ground it, place it in order, have a firm foundation in craft, and have a decent sense of direction, you're going to get lost in the process and you'll be stuck in Oz forever. While yes, Oz seems to have a nice supply of poppies and the Lollipop Guild, it's not home.

So the lesson I take from Dorothy is follow that Yellow Brick Road, visit all the magical places, but root yourself in the skills you've honed as a writer so it's not one big sloppy mess.

Residents of Oz? Any take on this?

I am the Wizard

My last blog entry explored the Tinman (needing heart in writing). This one is about the Wizard. Of course, it's one of the most famous scenes in a movie EVER. "Do not pay attention to that man behind the curtain," he says as he's pulling levers . . . with Toto tugging on the curtains. The Wizard was manipulating his image. He was rather ordinary (though with a bit of a twinkle in his eye) after all. He was also very astute. He may not have had "magic" powers, but he was able to discern what each traveler to Oz needed. I think every writer needs to have a bit of the Wizard in him or her.

Why? Well, it's all about doing what he did. He created an image, this fierce wizard, with "smoke and mirrors." Isn't that what we do after all? We create a world that's as vivid as Oz. When we're creating a scary or suspenseful short story or novel, we want genuine goosebumps. We want to be able to do what Stephen King or (fill in your favorite horror or suspense writer here) does. Which is get the reader so involved and tense that if the phone rings, the reader jumps or screams or drops the book. (Happened to me. I was reading Just Killing Time by Derek Van Arman and I remember calling my boyfriend at the time, terrified, and asking him to come check all my closets!)

But the thing with the Wizard, the most important thing, is that we not see him pulling the strings and pushing the levers. And therein it's all about craft. Scares and suspense, or even comedy and slapstick, should feel utterly natural and real. One of my editors has an expression: TSTL. As in, Too Stupid To Live. As in you shouldn't make your heroine walk into the serial killer's house unarmed, in the dark, when backup is one minute away, because she's simply foolhardy or TSTL. Because when you do that, it's forced. We see the man behind the curtain pulling the levers.

That's why honing your craft and studying is so important. It's the difference between things that go bump in the night and a slasher film.

What have you learned in your writing about being the Wizard? Where do you have to write carefully so we don't see the man (or woman) behind the curtain?

I am the Tinman

I've decided on a few Wizard of Oz-themed blog entries. :-)
I am the tinman. Um . . . tinwoman.
Why?
Writing--good writing--is about heart.
I knew a writer a couple of years ago who was always chasing a deal. If a trend happened in the marketplace, she chased after it by writing the "hot" genre. First chick lit, then hen lit, then Brit-lit. If editors were buying, then she was trying her hand at the latest type of manuscript she read getting bought at Publisher's Lunch.
And she never got a deal.
At first, I couldn't put my finger on it. Her manuscripts were clean. They followed a formula, but they were intelligent. Then one day, out of the blue, it hit me. The books had no heart. No soul. No . . . essence to them. They were paint by the numbers. The heroine has a list of qualities, the sidekick had a list of qualities, and none of them had the human idiosynchracies of which we all possess. Instead, the attributes of the heroine and her pals were a laundry list of qualities.
There is something to be said for "If you write it, they will come." While I am the first person to say you have got to at least attempt to write for market (and my career is largely in commercial fiction, so I know my successes have to do with writing what the audience clamors for), there has got to be heart to your book. You have got to LOVE, with a passion, the world you create. Note that I did not say LOVE your CHARACTERS.
Why? Because sometimes my characters do unlovable things. But I do feel for their struggles, and they do feel very human and real to me. But the world I immerse myself in during my writing is one that is, like Dorothy landing in a Technicolor Oz, vibrant and real and three-dimensional and beautiful and scary all at once. It isn't a dream, not really. But parts of it are.
Chasing the ethers of a deal can be exhasuting. I sincerely believe the energy is better spent having a heart.
Some of you might disagree . . . feel free to post about it here in Oz.

Mothers and Daughters

Mother's Day is around the corner. So is the release of INVISIBLE GIRL under my pen name, Tess Hudson, for MIRA. And what does one have to do with the other, you ask?

Well, for me, most of my books are about the motley assortment of criminal types inhabiting the world of my heroine. Father-daughter relationships are complex. Brother-sister relationships are so close as to be mildly creepy (or VERY creepy, as in THE ROOFER). But I've never written about moms and daughters.

I know overbearing mothers are a stock character in chick lit, but I never went there, maybe because my own mom is nothing like said stock character. In my darker works, nine times out of ten, I "off" the mom before the book even opens. I know, an analyst would have a friggin' field day.

But in Invisible Girl, my editor . . . my brilliant editor . . . gently suggested I "try" just this once, to add a mother into the fabric of the story. I had already offed the mother, you see. I thought the idea was preposterous. But she's my editor and I trust her, so I gave it a shot.

Now, again, I have to say (and this is not a case of she doth protest too much), I really, really like my mom. She's my best friend, we talk every day, we laugh together, she's a very smart, honest woman with common sense and a down-to-earth way of looking at life. But I suppose in each writer are twists and turns and pathways we don't always turn down. Why? I don't know. Maybe the archetypes we choose are the "easy" ones for us. I love my father, but he's definitely more difficult for me to understand than mom. So maybe the archetype of the complex father was just a crutch for me.

All I can say is it was an adventure to turn down this OTHER path, this one loaded with vines, and dark and untrodden. Mothers and daughters? What could I write about? Turns out 300 pages worth! I adored the process. It was something new, something revelatory.

Invisible Girl is about a woman whose father has always been a ghost of sorts, a figure in the CIA (maybe . . . maybe not), a criminal . . . dark and unknowable with secrets from his time in Vietnam. Her mother and father's love story--and the tragic secret the couple share--form a mystery that could kill my heroine, Maggie. She has to piece together the story of an orphanage, Operation Babylift, corrupt politics, murder and rape and a massacre, before she and her brother both end up dead. Her mother is a Buddhist who speaks to spirits, a woman who clearly communes with something invisible. But at its heart, the book is about mothers and daughters and the absolutely unbreakable bond--even from beyond the grave--they have.

So it seems fitting I talk about the book as Mother's Day approaches. But even more, I think of the book as a lesson. Sometimes, as writers, it's the easy way out to return to themes and archetypes we use again and again. I do it because I love them, but I do it because writing about them comes effortlessly for me. Not this time. I challenged myself. My editor challenged me. And I'm a better writer for it.

How about you? Anything in your wip that is causing you to stretch your wings?

The End

As promised, we've had The Beginning, The Middle, and now . . . The End.

As I wrote in the blog entry The Beginning, I usually know where I am going to end. I often, in fact, know my last line.

More often than not, though, the end, for me, is lightning fast. It's like reaching the top of a hill on your bike and flying downhill with no hands on the handlebars. I feel it, as I'm climbing the hill. Up, up, up. I'm usually struggling up that hill, having to work a bit to build to the climax of the book. And then . . . it's all downhill. All my characters get their resolutions, the big theme is fully laid open, the loose ends are tied up, the mystery is solved, the relationship reaches its final point for better or worse . . . whatever. All I know is I find the end fun.

And then, as I'm flying downhill, I approach the last chapter, and it usually feels awesome. That's where I get to impart my last bit of creativity in the book, and then . . . it's the last paragraph, and I get to write something a little poetic, or to bring the book full circle back to what I intended when I started chapter one. I love it.

So that's The End for me. How about you?

The Middle

I was overwhelmed by all the great Beginnings posted on my blog and shared with me. Fantastic, wonderful beginnings of books I hope to read someday.

Now we tackle the Middle. For me, it's more like The Dreaded Middle.

As a non-outliner, it is very likely that I will get into trouble somewhere in The Middle. At some point, in every book, I feel boxed in by the path I've chosen, the plot. Or, I will get well into The Middle and someone ELSE will turn out to be the Bad Guy, the Love Interest. It's unexpected, but . . . well, for me The Middle is like that. It's like being lost in a dark forest and I just keep plunging forward hoping to head toward sunlight sometime soon.

One thing I have learned though, is not to abandon my book in The Middle. I usually find that much of my angst in The Middle is simply that, angst. I have anxiety about where the book is going, but if I stick with it, don't abandon it, and most of all DON'T PANIC, I can usually write my way to the other side of the forest.

So how about you? How is The Middle for you?

The Beginning

The next three blog entries are going to be simply The Beginning, The Middle, The End. I'm talking about writing your novel. (Or reading one.)

The Beginning. How do you start? What do you look for when buying a novel? How do you hook someone in from page one, paragraph one, word one?

Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly (I'll see what other writers and friends and readers say when they post), I always, without fail, know how I am going to start a novel. The blank page, the beginning, does not intimidate me. Now, I think that is not always the case for others. Much like some artists may stare at the blank canvas, I am sure some writers stare at that blank screen, cursor taunting them, "Start writing something, Dummy," but for me . . . no. I always know where I am going to start.

And for me, when I start, it's nearly always a provocative sentence. I want something that shocks, intrigues, hooks. From The Roofer: My first instinct was to look at the corpse. From Trace of Innocence: Blood spatter was artfully arranged. From Diary of a Blues Goddess: I live in a house with a dead prostitute.

The other element I am always seeking to get in that first paragraph or page is the voice, the unmistakable character of my lead. For me, and other writers are different, setting can come later. Diary of a Blues Goddess was set in the city of New Orleans before the hurricane (it was written three years ago or so). The Roofer is set in the gritty streets of Hell's Kitchen--before Hell's Kitchen was renamed Clinton and became a little trendy. Trace of Innocence is set in a crime lab and my heroine lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. BUT, all of that can come later. I want my character's voice to be distinct. To be the reason the person in a bookstore wants to read more.

And within the first chapter, I want the hook, the set-up, the high concept. In Diary of a Blues Goddess, the Heartbreak Hotel is haunted. In The Roofer, her father is dead and we're at a wake, and this is definitely a dysfunctional, criminal family. In Trace of Innocence, we know she's going to be drawn into a case.

AND, if I'm lucky--or less so much luck and instead the loose plan I have (I don't outline, so I DO mean loose plan)--when the book ends, it will have come full circle. If you've been reading any of the ridiculous comments fields for the last blog entry, The Roofer has been coming up a lot. So I don't want to ruin the ending in case anyone is tempted to pick up a copy, but the last sentence of chapter one is precisely how the book ends as well (which actually isn't giving anything away) . . . and the book was indeed planned that way.

So that's my beginning. Later this week, we'll talk about the middle and the end, but how about you? What do you try to do when you start writing your book? AND if you're a reader, what do you look for when you start to READ a book. Discuss! :-)