Category: philosophy

Blog like No One is Reading?

Seen on Twitter: “Dance like the photo’s not being tagged, Love like you’ve never been unfriended, Tweet like nobody’s following.” @postsecret from @bythebrooks (via @neilhimself).

Don’t you wonder what people have to say if they think no one will read it? Maybe that’s why some people quit blogging. If no one out there is responding, they’re not about to keep putting themselves out there. Blogs have great tracking features to tell you how many people read your post. Plus you can add feeds for subscribers to increase your readability.

But it doesn’t really bring in readers. What you write does. So is what you’re saying interesting enough to hold an audience? Only of people who personally know you? Not even then? Even if you have something interesting, humorous, or noteworthy, you might not capture the audience. Perhaps someone will repost one of your thoughts, but never come back again. [I am recently guilty of this.]

I just don’t read that many blogs. I haven’t yet found the time. It doesn’t mean I won’t find the time, especially if someone shares it directly with me, but my focus is toward writing: blogs slanted that way, books on the topic, books in genres I write, plus the writing and revision of my own work. It’s time consuming. I let it be that way.

Not that I don’t pay attention to my family. That’s where the rest of my time goes.

I’m not really under delusions about how many people read my blog. If I were WordPress would definitely burst my bubble. It’s not about what I’m trying to tell someone else, but it’s an expression of something I want to say. I think a blog ought to be something you want to do. I originally started one because it seemed like the thing writers do – they blog. Some do and some don’t. Some are successful and some aren’t. There is no one way to label a writer or a blog. The expert opinion is to do it if you like it, but that there are plenty of ways to reach an audience other than blogging if that’s the author’s preference.

It’s a long way to say: if you’re reading, thanks. It’s nice to know someone wants to read it. I’d probably still be blogging anyway – but it makes me happy.

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Pets, Continued

I think it was because of a show and tell subject, but when I was five I seriously wanted a tarantula. I know a lot of people aren’t fond of spiders, but somehow the larger the better for me. Not that I generally enjoy them crawling on me – I don’t. However, if I had a pet spider I’m sure I’d make an exception.

I’m not sure what draws people to exotic pets. Many of us don’t think farther than cats or dogs unless we get the cool factor involved or unfortunate allergies. The “cool factor” isn’t the best reason to get one, according to exoticpets.about.com.

I knew a woman many years ago who had flying squirrels and chinchillas. She lost a flying squirrel in her car, but I suppose that happens when you take them out of the cage. Never did hear what happened to it.

Many stories don’t feature pets. When you do put a pet into a story, it’s important to take the time to develop the character and explore what it means for the plot. Sure, it might also just be fun to mention that your best friend has a pet snake, but if it doesn’t actually mean anything it might be like the gun that doesn’t go off – a distraction that must be dealt with during revision.

If, instead, your friend runs an exotic pet boutique, it might be weird that her home isn’t a menagerie of critters. Or it might be the starting point of a short story that she can’t handle more life forms to feed and house while she’s at home and she made friends (and even named) her plants.

All right, I’ll admit it: I named my house plants for a while. I had three until my husband liberated them from my tender care. By which I’m saying nicely that they held on to survival by sheer willpower. I do better with actual animals. Somehow the blinds were closed and I’d forget to water those poor plants for too long at a time, but they had names!

Probably best if I stick with the child for some time. She’s thriving. Someone might even attempt to draw a correlation between the intelligence of the life form I care for and how well I care for it.

Which brings more questions for the writer about the character and the types of pet he or she might choose. What do you choose for your characters? Did a pet ever steal the scene? Do you consider writing animals in or out depending on the needs of the story? What pets other than cats and dogs have you run into or even had the pleasure of owning?

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Pets

If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have already seen these questions: What do you look for when you find a pet? What draws you to pick a certain one, like a cat vs a dog vs a turtle vs an ant farm vs a tarantula?

I found some interesting information on what your pet says about you. ABC reallyworks.org  Even the name can say something about the person who owns the pet. Jezebel

Most of that pertains to dogs and cats, probably because most people own one or the other, or both. I tend to disagree with the inherited name meaning the owner is too lazy to change it. Perhaps it’s better to let the pet retain its identity through a change of home. Of course, some people also rename children when adopting them, so perhaps we think of a lot of things as needing change when entering our home.

It’s something to take into account when fashioning a character who has a pet. Right now I am working with a teenager who has a pet cat. He doesn’t have a very unique name for her because that isn’t in his character. His best friend is constantly pushing her name for the cat – a Shakespearian character she thinks has a beautiful name.

Somehow it also reminds me of another story that pops into my memory here and there, an urban fantasy where some of the species kept humans as pets. What would that say about those types of people? Partly, they feel humans are less intelligent if they can be owned. They were also able to enforce their will through magic.

What is it about a pet that makes a human a good or bad one? I haven’t dug into that part yet – my focus centers on a character who is half-human and only has a peripheral view of the pets themselves. But now it makes me want to.

Drat. I didn’t need another distraction from my novel rewrite! That’s why I’m going to have to be prolific – I just keep getting great ideas.

 

 

 

 

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Writing about Writing

How many stories do you read about writers? About the writing process (but in a fictional setting)? About getting writer’s block?

All right, I’ll admit Misery is staring down at me from the top shelf, but other than that, how many of them do we read from big-name authors? Feel free to put them in my comments.

TV and movies admit there are blocked writers, but the conflict of the story line does not revolve around the writer and whatever tale is attempting to come out. They’re more often trying to understand something from life like relationships or another facet of work – like digging deeper when a report doesn’t make sense.

So why does it seem amateurs often write about writers writing? Is it the write what we know thing, where that’s all the writer has figured out? Or is it more about trying to explain away the obsession of writing to those unafflicted with the disease?

Sometimes a writer is a perfect choice of protagonist to find out certain stories and the things behind them, but if we get too bogged down in the actual writing we will miss the fun conflict of the real story.

A book I grew up with that had a writer at the core was Harriet the Spy. She was never lost for words, however, which ultimately got her into trouble when her notebook was taken and read by her classmates. Even though she wanted more than anything to be a writer and those notes were how she worked on her craft, I’m sure far fewer adolescents reading the book would turn the next page if she agonized over whether to use chartreuse, lime green, or that icky green from the crossing-guard’s jacket. I wanted to keep reading because Harriet kept getting in trouble and trying to do something and her observations provided me more information about the story as it unfolded.

Well, it might also have to do with liking writing and also conspicuously carrying around a notebook – but who knows?

Take another look at that drafted novel with the writer at the center who chews on his pencils or crosses out word after word in her notebooks. Are you giving the reader a plot point? Is that word going to be important later? Or are you filling space that could otherwise be used to tell a compelling story that will keep your reader turning page after page? Don’t be afraid to cut out the boring stuff, even if it means you don’t share with your reader the perfect torture of finding the correct word. If they’re writers, they already know. And if they’re not, they don’t care.

I know it’s heartless, but I’m a writer and I still don’t care about another writer’s search for the right words through writer’s block or whatever. I want a story with conflict and all the proper words thrown in without hearing about how the writer got there. I struggle enough with the correct thing to say on my own, thank you very much. Tell me how much you want to hear that here, too.

P.S. For anyone who is a blocked writer out there – the writer’s block links all point to fun links to help a writer beat the block.

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To Critique

Sometimes the deadlines just make whooshing sounds as they go by. I had a personal goal to try to get the notes made on a story for a critique partner today. I’m not sure I’m going to make it because my schedule keeps changing. [Seriously, who would drive 4 hours away for the weekend and not leave at naptime if given the choice with a rowdy toddler? However, naptime is generally when I catch up with all my personal goals.]

I read the story and enjoyed it. I marked a bunch of places where I want to make more comments. I’m close, but I’m also afraid if I don’t finish it before I leave for the weekend that I won’t work on it when I’m away, and it’s always good to give it back to someone on a weekend, especially if that other person has a day job.

On the other hand, I really don’t want to rush it. I want to take some good time to dig into the story and tear it apart the best I can to help the author make it awesome. That does take time. It really help that I’ve marked the places to comment, but on the overall I keep losing my train of thought. No excuses there – it’s an off week around my house and I’m doing good for what I’ve managed for the week.

Just don’t check it against my to-do list. That thing always spirals out of control with the number of things that need to be done. It’s like that old saying, “Man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.” Not that it’s necessarily man’s work versus woman’s work, but somehow the domestic chores are never completed.

Probably because they get in the way of the writing.

I’m sure that’s not true for every household. Not everyone is a writer tucked away masquerading as a housewife. (Or not, I have too many part-time jobs for that as discussed previously.) But there’s always something.

I’d much rather critique a story than do the dishes, which is why my sink is piled high again. And while I catch up with them, I’ll be trying to get my larger comments in order to type in before I leave, if I get a chance.

Sometimes it amazes me how many ways we try to critique stories. Most of the groups I have attended take the position of reading the piece aloud, or part of the piece during each meeting, and then taking notes or simply remembering the parts to critique. The turnaround is immediate and there is often little time to think. It took me a long time to get accustomed to the process, and listening actively for that amount of time can be a challenge.

I’ve also had trouble not grimacing when someone makes up a word like “scramblingly.”

Over time, I have learned a bit more from dealing with people online for critiques. Somehow the written word comes through very well and there is plenty of time to figure out exactly the parts that need to be tweaked. It’s also easier to take larger chunks at a time without worrying as much about the time requirement for the room.

There are groups out there who hand out pages each meeting, take them home, and discuss them at the next meeting. I haven’t been part of that to see how it works, except for the Summer Writing Festival, but I’d like to see more of that in action. The other issue with some of that is finding people who are good at your genre and also local in geography. The in-person group I attend now has very little experience in speculative fiction, as well as a few other things like poetry and children’s literature.

What do you do to critique? How do you manage to get around the daily obstacles to get it done? Is it in person? Is it a group? Do you find people online? How have you worked with others within your genre and outside it to make the best of the criticism you receive?

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Name Trends

Searching for a name for a person is a little different from deciding a name for a character. I suppose many of the principles are the same, but it still feels different.

A baby give the challenge of being an infant through an adult with the name chosen by the parents. Adding to the difficulty, they both have to agree. [I suppose there are ways around this, but we’re pretending to live in a world where we’d like peace among both parents.]

In a book, it’s nice to pick different names. Some stories have requirements – like historical fiction – where it’s better to choose a name that might have been heard of during that era. Example: A novel set in the 1940’s would not feature a Braeden. The name has become popular for many boys since 1995, however, so a contemporary children’s book could easily have a character with that name.

An author also might choose a name she didn’t like for a character she didn’t like, or to show how it didn’t suit the character if she did like the guy. The beauty of names is that the possibilities are infinite, and the importance behind choosing the correct one for the character depends entirely on what the author wants to say. Would Isabella Marie “Bella” Swan be the same person to us if we knew her as “Izzy” instead of “Bella”? What about “Marie”? How about if we changed her name entirely to Meredith Sue Peregrine?

Then would Meredith be the #1 name on the list for the Social Security Administration’s most popular baby names of 2010 instead of Isabella? Would Jacob be the top boy’s name? If you’re curious, one series of books – no matter how popular – can do all of this on its own. [Twilight was released in 2005, and the name Isabella had already inched into the top 10 in 2004.]

One thing that makes books so much easier to give the characters a name is that I usually don’t have to worry about a childhood nickname and a grown-up profession and all the time in between. An author can write in the cruel naming twists that kids in school somehow figure out that are much worse than the ones found in Don’t Name Your Baby. I’m not knocking the book; I own it. It’s really much more about humor than what to seriously not name your child. My husband often jokes about Harry Potter by calling him Harry Potty. Somehow these kinds of insults never come up at Hogwarts or the public schools he attended before that.

The other reason it’s so much easier to name a character in a book is that the last name can change if you want. If you find the name Parker and love it, you can find a last name to put with it. You can bend the rules of what to name boys or girls. Remember A Boy Named Beverly?

There are a lot of names on this unisex name list. There are trends where some go more toward female and or more toward male, more popular or less popular in general. Some names seem to morph from one category to another.

What do you name the children, then? Something you can stand to shout at the top of your lungs several times a day for years on end, something you think the kids won’t twist into a bad word, and something you hope the person your child grows into will fit and appreciate. Yeah, that’s easy. And it’s a bonus if every other kid in the class doesn’t have the same name, too.

Why is all this on the top of my head? If you noticed yesterday’s Silent Sunday post, you’ll notice my daughter is checking out a secret in the ultrasound.

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Balance versus Focus

Sometimes, it feels like the two are definite opposites. I’m curious how other people handle the many irons in the fire. Do you follow one, the most important, and let the rest fall as it will? Do you just not worry about it? Do you manage to keep each one just far enough from the flames to keep it from burning?

I’m struggling with my goals for the school year and where to place the emphasis. I always have too much going on to just let one thing be my entire world. Funny how easy it is to roll with the school year for goals when I tutor students. It’s nice to have the summer, then get back in gear for fall.

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Revision

Some writers revise as they go, so in touch with their inner editors that they choose each word with a deliberate grace.

I am not one of those writers. I’m often not afraid to just throw in an approximate word to get me through the first draft. There is room to revise later and I’m very fond of whoever said “You can’t edit a blank page.” Someone could easily have the next bestseller in her head but without ever putting it down on paper the public will never know. So I race through the rough draft sometimes, if the characters and plot come easily, and then see what I have at the end.

Then comes time for revision. There have been a couple stories where what I have at the end isn’t what I thought I was going to write about in the beginning. Somehow the story took me with it and the characters made their own decisions – just like they’re supposed to. The next thing you know I get to struggle with whether to remake them into my original vision or let their own ideas shape my final manuscript.

“Burning Bright” was one of those manuscripts. I had the two of them with a different mission, to find another version of remnants of life in the story. They made their own rules and informed me later, which worked out well enough for me but not so well for Isra. When I read it after I finished the draft, I realized how much they needed to have the plot go the way they took me rather than how I planned to take them.

Still means I have a lot of things to revise. Earlier plot points that would have led to my original ending had to be rerouted. The character development sometimes needs to get a little deeper. Every now and then entire characters have to be ousted from the story. They’re generally bit parts that just clutter the story I’m telling, and I can’t see that until I’m finished.

The good news is once the process is finished, the sparkling story is ready to go somewhere and be read. In the process right now with another novel, and now I’m wondering if the title doesn’t fit the story. Still, just another piece to revise and make the best I can manage.

What are your rituals through revision? Do you follow the set vision in your head as you go, or do you let the drafts fly and fix them later?

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Prolific

From dictionary.com: prolific is defined as producing in large quantities or with great frequency; highly productive: a prolific writer.

It’s true, some writers can push out a lot more words than others. Recently I heard a comparison between Toni Morrison and Danielle Steel to show that Toni Morrison had 9 novels out to Danielle Steel’s 70. However, I counted this morning and I got 86 for a similar time period. To compare with an author I’ve actually read – Mercedes Lackey has 116 novels out in half the time, just over twenty years instead of forty.

Mercedes Lackey is one author I think of as prolific. She’s been described that way on her book jackets. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what you say when you’re not sure what else to say, but over a hundred novels out in twenty years? I’m not sure there’s another word to describe that. One great thing about a prolific author is a reader spends much less time lurking in bookstores trying to find that next sequel. I’m sure I could put Dean Koontz in there as another example.

So when a new friend from the festival and I were chatting and I explained how I couldn’t really combine all these ideas I have because they’re so different – she said I might just have to be prolific. And she might be right. Well, there might be a way to combine stories about teen pregnancy, time travel, and the random urban fantasy in my head, but they each have their own story lines. Not to mention the mainstream YA novel I’ve been working on lately.

Though I’ll admit I’ve let a lot of things get between me and that novel lately. However, I figured out how to show the one scene I’ve been missing over the weekend, so I think I can dig into that rewrite pretty well now.

Maybe this overflow of ideas is just what happens to some authors. We can’t stop the ideas from flowing and we just can’t wait to get to the next one, though we do our level best to make a good solid manuscript before moving on. Is that why I’m happy to put a story to bed at some point and not endlessly rewrite the same characters over and over? I have a couple more sets of characters telling me their stories already – I can’t make just one into the baby of the family and coddle them more than they need.

What are your thoughts of prolific – or not – writers? What do you think drives them to put out that much work? Why don’t all writers do this?

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What’s Real?

I read an article by Kitty Kelley entitled Unauthorized, But Not Untrue. She wrote about the unauthorized biography, of which she has written several, and how much trouble she gets into because she tries to write the truth. Her latest publication is Oprah: A Biography.

It leads me to question what is real, though. Are the ideals we hold real? Are they truth? How do we decide to believe one thing and not another? When do we say one person is right and another is wrong? When did our world become black and white?

I wonder if celebrities [term used loosely] realize the myths they create around themselves. Some of them must, or we wouldn’t have jobs for publicists other than to promote the person. Did a publicist or media consultant type person create the idea of spin? Perhaps it was around earlier than that, when one interesting person decided to take advantage of the way an event played out.

Who would we elect as President if we knew the little secrets? Myths are associated all the way back to George Washington, so we’ve been creating new images for our leaders since our country began. At some point we learn he probably didn’t cut down a cherry tree, that the legend cropped up around his legendary honesty. So what would a man like that say about the people we elect today? Are we even allowed to be honest with ourselves if we’re trying to gain a foothold in the public eye?

The next question is how does it affect the rest of us? When we have a leader who is known for honesty, are the common people more honest? When we don’t know what to think about the people who are making decisions for the rest of us or who we idolize just for being, will that change how we expect others to behave? I wonder if that’s when we let the little lies slide, because there are so many larger and more hurtful untruths out there lurking.

I’m not sure I know what’s really supposed to be the truth. If I can’t find it, how do I know it really exists? Maybe we can change the very fabric of existence by the different stories we tell each other and what we choose to believe. There might be another explanation entirely, but I’m a fiction author. It’s my job to tell a story that isn’t true.

There are a lot of questions today – anybody feel up for some answers? I’d love it if you’d weigh in. 

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