Jeffe Kennedy's Blog, page 201

Why Fairy Tale Endings Weren’t Always Happily Ever Afters

I’m over at Paranormal Romantics talking about old-style fairy tales and how fairy tale endings weren’t always what they mean today.

Screw the Writer’s Journey

Screw this “Writer’s Journey” stuff already.

I mean, really.

Longtime readers know I have a pet peeve about the “my journey towards publication” thing. It’s not that I hold the effort to become a professional writer lightly – far from it – and I know it’s difficult when a writer is not yet published, but feels the pressure to start a social media presence. “You must have a blog!” they’re told. (I was.) But what the hell are they supposed to blog about? Reviewing other writers’ books is fraught. Few people have day jobs or lives interesting enough to make for a compelling blog – or they probably wouldn’t want to be a writer. Giving writing or publishing advice comes across as kind of fraudulent.

So I don’t blame them, all these people who title or subtitle their blogs “My Journey Towards Publication.”

(Even if I do roll my eyes a little every time I see it.)

But the metaphor is so cliché that it’s lost any meaning it once had.

That’s the problem with clichés. It’s not that they’re inherently evil – though to hear some advice-givers, you’d totally think so – it’s that they become placeholders, empty shells so weathered by overuse that our eyes pass right over them. They’re like plastic clowns outside the fun house at the old carnival on the pier. Once bright, fascinating, funny and unsettling, after years of sitting there, the colors have faded and they just look pitiful. Someone ought to fix them up, probably. After a while, you stop even noticing them.

I know, I know – this idea has been around for a while. A bit of slapdash research (i.e., two minutes of Googling) reveals that the well-known and oft-used screenwriting book by Christopher Vogler called – wait for it – The Writer’s Journey – was first published just over 20 years ago in 1992. And, yes, he based it on Joseph Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey, which was popularized around 5 years before that.

But, you know, there’s a lot of 80s stuff we’re not doing anymore. I do not stripe my eyeshadow, none of my clothes have 8-inch shoulder pads and I don’t even own a cassette deck. (I may have leg warmers tucked away – shh.)

Besides, “journey” does not give me a happy feeling. Is this just me?

I mean, a journey is a trial, right? Full of tests of character, dangerous situations and a hell of a lot of tromping along. Sure, we can think up how this parallels the endurance and persistence required to make it in publishing, but is this really how we WANT to model ourselves??

Why can’t we have the Writer’s Romp? “My Playful Path to Publication.

Or the Writer’s Rollercoaster. “I Rode Mister Twister 27 Times in a Row and Only Vomited Once.”
(A little nod in there for my Denver peeps – moment of silence for our stolen youth.)

Hey! There could be the Writer’s Grand Tour. “How I Wrote Nine Books in Ten Different Genres and Made Less than a Dollar a Day!”

SEE? Isn’t this already way more fun than the stinking “Writer’s Journey”?

Join the revolution, peoples! Re-envision your life as a writer. Hit me with your ideas!

As for myself, I’m totally working on the “Writer’s Beach Vacation.”

Bring on the cabana boys!

In Which I Geek Out Over Faerie Worldbuilding

Today I’m over at the Paranormal Unbound blog, geeking out with sister scientist A.J. Larrieu over the world in my Covenant of Thorns series. She interviewed me and asked me some really great, insightful questions about my version of Faerie. She got me thinking about my early ideas for this series and how I got to the world I did. Very fun stuff!

Easy Steps to Polish That Draft!

I’m over at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog today with advice for post-NaNoWriMo! I’m talking about my final short list to polish a manuscript before I send it to my editor.  And also revealing my secret writer shames.

Season of Seduction Guest Blog

I’m over at Romance with Flavor today, talking about the Season of Seduction anthology and the original title of Five Golden Rings.

Good Friends, Great Times and Arbitrary Endings.

This weekend, my local RWA chapter, LERA, had our biannual conference. Two of our guests were Jennifer Enderlin, editor for the fabulous Darynda Jones at St. Martins, and NYT Bestselling author Deanna Raybourn. On Friday, Darynda and our two conference organizers, Tammy Baumann and Kari Bovee, made the trip up to Santa Fe. We did lunch and shopping and I got to play tour guide. Such a fun day for me!

You can read more about it, and about what the most difficult part of the story is for me, over at Word Whores today.

YES Party!

The Romance Reviews is having their Year-End Splash party and my Q&A is featured today! Head on over for a chance to win a copy of Five Golden Rings!

Falling in Love with the Book Boyfriend

I’m over at the Contemporary Romance Cafe today, talking about book boyfriends. What? You know you have one. Or ten.

At What Point Do You Dig In to Protect Your Writing Process?

A shot from Los Angeles last week and lunch with the delightful Lynda Ryba (@fishwithsticks). She’s going to be helping out with my Facebook Author Page, so we should see VAST improvements in that! (Really, it couldn’t get worse…)

What with it being NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, if you live under a rock – basically you commit to writing 50,000 new words during November), I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing process. Quite a few people wanted me to participate in NaNoWriMo. I could, because I’m seriously drafting book 3 in Covenant of Thorns right now. (I think it will be called Rogue’s Paradise.) I’m almost 20K into it and will almost certainly write at least 50K during this month. And I’d like to be supportive – I really would. Some of the newbie writers in my local chapter are doing it and I can see it would be helpful of me to join in. I like being supportive that way.

Except I said no.

Why? Because I *have* to turn in this book – complete and polished – by December 31, according to my contract. Worse, my editor is going on this long trip to New Zealand (yes, we hate her) and really wants the manuscript by December 25, so she can take it with her. Really a week doesn’t make that much difference, but it makes the deadline ever so slightly tighter. I cannot miss this deadline.

But Jeffe, you say – isn’t that all the more reason to do NaNo, to crank on getting those words down?

See, it’s really not.

Over the past several years, I’ve put a lot of effort and concentration into learning and refining my writing process. I say “learning” because I really believe we all have an organic process that we have to discover and love. It’s rough to go against that. I’ve now written six novels and novellas according to the method I’m using now. I know how much I can do each day (right now, about 2,250 words in 2-3 hours) and how long it will take me to complete the draft and then to revise. Being able to reliably create on a schedule is crucial for being a professional writer. This process is delivering for me. That makes it precious.

Which means I’m not going to mess with it.

No way.

Call me superstitious, but I’m not changing a thing.

I’m feeling much the same about workshops and classes. Now, I’m a huge believer in continuing education, lifelong learning – all that stuff. I was the girl in college who took 21 credits every semester, just because there were so many interesting classes to take. That said, I don’t have a writing degree of any sort – no English major, no MFA. I’ve taken tons of writing workshops, etc., over the years, but for the time being, I’m feeling like I want to stay away from them.

This isn’t the hip thing to say these days. Particularly not in the romance-writing community. (In fact, I don’t recall seeing this perspective much at all in the literary community. Those writers are much more apt to be protective of their process and to be vocal about it.) People love to point out when established writers come to workshops. They say things like “I’m never done learning!” and “not taking workshops can lead to stagnation.”

In fact, someone said that last to me just the other day. I threw the question out to Twitter (of course). I framed the question carefully, asking if any of the writers – especially well-established ones – found themselves staying away from classes and workshops, to protect their method. I tried to phrase it to weed out the happy “I love to take classes!” answers. Even so, I still received those responses.

 

@jeffekennedy Yes. I get very “I’ll do what I want!!!” about it. I always hated writing for school.

— Victoria Dahl (@VictoriaDahl) November 3, 2013

 

and

@jeffekennedy Definitely. It’s taken me a long time to get my process right, and I’m not messing with it now after 20 books!

— Zoe Archer (@Zoe_Archer) November 3, 2013

 Another author, who preferred to remain anonymous, told me about an experience early in her writing career about “you can’t do that” that stopped her flat. She didn’t write for almost a year.

I think if I cast my net wider, I’d hear more of this kind of feedback. Because it sounds better to be enthusiastic about learning and growing, those writers who feel protective of their process might be less likely to speak up. But, I think it’s an important point – and speaks to the gal who said that not learning could lead to stagnation, a very common view – to remember that growing isn’t necessarily derived from taking workshops. There are thousands of ways to learn and grow as a writer, not the least of which is reading!

It’s certainly a fine line to walk. And it’s not that I think my process or my art is perfect. I do feel, however, that it’s working for me. I’m continuing to improve as a writer and that’s important to me.

More, I’m protective of it.

Setting and World-Building – Keep It Concise!

I’m over at Word Whores today, discussing this great scene and talking about setting.