Peg Herring's Blog, page 34
October 21, 2010
The "So What?" Story
History tells us that people of olden times listened to the same stories over and over. Within the story told around the fireside, there would be lots of repetition of familiar events and names, so each person felt a connection to the story.
With television, movies, and print books teeming through society, we have a situation that is similar, although not the same. Readers seem to have a yen for the same characters, even the same character types. If this season's TV offering has a detective with a personality disorder and it gets good ratings, count on more such characters in the future. Successful published books tend to be repetitious, too: the same plotlines over and over. A seasoned reader/watcher knows from early on what will happen. "Here's where the protag becomes conflicted because his father was undemonstrative and he wants to protect the kid whose father is undemonstrative."
I guess it's all right. We need entertainment, and we don't mind it being run-of-the-mill, at least most of the time, because it's only entertainment. But sometimes I long for classic tales, ones that tell, if not a different story, at least the same story differently. So much of what I read and watch leaves me with a "so what?" feeling. Did anyone change? Nope. They'll be back next week, next book, next sequel with the same story. Of course they'll move the location to Tel Aviv or Rio. People like that.
With television, movies, and print books teeming through society, we have a situation that is similar, although not the same. Readers seem to have a yen for the same characters, even the same character types. If this season's TV offering has a detective with a personality disorder and it gets good ratings, count on more such characters in the future. Successful published books tend to be repetitious, too: the same plotlines over and over. A seasoned reader/watcher knows from early on what will happen. "Here's where the protag becomes conflicted because his father was undemonstrative and he wants to protect the kid whose father is undemonstrative."
I guess it's all right. We need entertainment, and we don't mind it being run-of-the-mill, at least most of the time, because it's only entertainment. But sometimes I long for classic tales, ones that tell, if not a different story, at least the same story differently. So much of what I read and watch leaves me with a "so what?" feeling. Did anyone change? Nope. They'll be back next week, next book, next sequel with the same story. Of course they'll move the location to Tel Aviv or Rio. People like that.
October 20, 2010
Living with A Mystery Writer
Yesterday was 41 years for us as a married couple, and I started thinking. What must it be like for my husband to live with me?
I spend LOOOOOOOONG hours in front of my computer, focused on protags and the WIP, terms he very possibly hopes he never hears again.
We drive all over the Midwest, schlepping books and hunting for libraries, conference centers, and the home of whoever is hosting this month's Book Group.
My tax accounting is always in the negative numbers.
I rant about people neither of us has ever met: dumb editors, uncaring agents, clueless readers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
All this is in addition to the usual husband/wife things, like who left that suspicious container of something in the refrigerator and why did the garbage not get set out on time.
And of course, he has the worry that one of my biggest interests in life is how to kill someone and get away with it.
I spend LOOOOOOOONG hours in front of my computer, focused on protags and the WIP, terms he very possibly hopes he never hears again.
We drive all over the Midwest, schlepping books and hunting for libraries, conference centers, and the home of whoever is hosting this month's Book Group.
My tax accounting is always in the negative numbers.
I rant about people neither of us has ever met: dumb editors, uncaring agents, clueless readers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
All this is in addition to the usual husband/wife things, like who left that suspicious container of something in the refrigerator and why did the garbage not get set out on time.
And of course, he has the worry that one of my biggest interests in life is how to kill someone and get away with it.
October 19, 2010
It's Too Close to Halloween for This
Last night I was about to head to bed, and the chores thereto include letting the cat out for the night. When I opened the door, the most bloodcurdling howl you would ever want to hear sounded from my back yard. A dog, but a dog in a state of high emotion, for sure. It was...well, think Baskerville and you'd be close. I listened for a while, a bit of a chill creeping up my neck, but it is not unheard of for dogs to wander away from home and "visit", so I didn't panic.
Until the lights showed. Out my kitchen door, about forty feet away, is a shed, and suddenly I saw two lights in the woods behind it. They moved slowly around and around, shutting off for a few seconds and then coming back on. "Reflections of car headlights on the road," I told myself, but it was hard to see how something happening in front of the house could reflect around to the side, behind a building.
The lights kept circling. After watching for a while I gave up trying to figure it out and started for my bedroom. In the window facing the back yard was another light. This one shone straight up, lighting the tree branches high above. I could see the feet of someone holding the light. There really were people in my back yard.
Was I scared? Yeah, for a second. Then my husband came along, took one look, and said, "Coon hunters."
Yup. These crazy people hunt raccoon with dogs at night near cornfields. The animals tend to climb a tree to escape, so the hunters were tramping around my back yard, within a few feet of my house, looking for their prey.
The question is, what would they have done if they'd found it? It's bad enough that they made me think my home was under attack. What if they'd fired off a few rounds?
Until the lights showed. Out my kitchen door, about forty feet away, is a shed, and suddenly I saw two lights in the woods behind it. They moved slowly around and around, shutting off for a few seconds and then coming back on. "Reflections of car headlights on the road," I told myself, but it was hard to see how something happening in front of the house could reflect around to the side, behind a building.
The lights kept circling. After watching for a while I gave up trying to figure it out and started for my bedroom. In the window facing the back yard was another light. This one shone straight up, lighting the tree branches high above. I could see the feet of someone holding the light. There really were people in my back yard.
Was I scared? Yeah, for a second. Then my husband came along, took one look, and said, "Coon hunters."
Yup. These crazy people hunt raccoon with dogs at night near cornfields. The animals tend to climb a tree to escape, so the hunters were tramping around my back yard, within a few feet of my house, looking for their prey.
The question is, what would they have done if they'd found it? It's bad enough that they made me think my home was under attack. What if they'd fired off a few rounds?
October 18, 2010
Updating
I spent an hour and a half this morning updating my computer, first the anti-virus stuff and then I found one of those analysis things where they fix all your registry errors and defragment and whatever. It says it will "increase performance, speed up response time, and improve efficiency."
I wonder if I could get one of those for my brain...
I wonder if I could get one of those for my brain...
October 15, 2010
When You Get to the End
Often I leave the living room when that last commercial break before the end of a TV show comes, which has from time to time caused comment from others in my home. I don't care if I see the last ten minutes of a detective movie lots of times, either. And if I could, I'd let someone else write the last twenty pages of my books.
In most cases, writing the ending doesn't interest me as much as the build TO the end. Once I reveal whodunit, I don't care about the chase through the streets, the abandoned warehouse, or the Grand Coulee Dam. I don't really even care if the bad guy/girl lives or dies. For me, it's all about leading the reader to the point where together we figure out who and why. Once that's established, the chase and the arrest or whatever is just the icing on the cake, and icing is often very sugary and laid on too thick.
So when it comes to writing an ending, I sort of have to force myself. I know what readers expect, and of course I want everything to tie up neatly. But the running/ fighting/confessing part is hard for me. I have to remind myself that the story needs closure, otherwise I might simply do the outdated "I've gathered you all here to explain that there is a murderer amongst you" scene and skip the chase through the dark woods at midnight.
In most cases, writing the ending doesn't interest me as much as the build TO the end. Once I reveal whodunit, I don't care about the chase through the streets, the abandoned warehouse, or the Grand Coulee Dam. I don't really even care if the bad guy/girl lives or dies. For me, it's all about leading the reader to the point where together we figure out who and why. Once that's established, the chase and the arrest or whatever is just the icing on the cake, and icing is often very sugary and laid on too thick.
So when it comes to writing an ending, I sort of have to force myself. I know what readers expect, and of course I want everything to tie up neatly. But the running/ fighting/confessing part is hard for me. I have to remind myself that the story needs closure, otherwise I might simply do the outdated "I've gathered you all here to explain that there is a murderer amongst you" scene and skip the chase through the dark woods at midnight.
October 14, 2010
Peanut Butter and Other Bad Things
I liked it better when we didn't know stuff.
As a kid, I didn't know I should not sleep in the back window of my parents' 50-something Ford on long trips. I thought it was a cool place, just right for a kid to curl up in.
As a young mother, I didn't know that letting my children sleep with us from time to time was bad. I thought they were learning that sometimes, when you're unhappy or scared or unsettled, Mom and Dad sleeping on either side of you is reassuring.
And for the first half of my life, I didn't know peanut butter, my favorite food as a kid, was laden with fat and sugar. I thought it was the best thing ever, especially when we were at some relatives' house and they offered food I had never heard of before. "Can I have a peanut butter sandwich, please?" They always shook their heads at my finicky eating habits. But every one of them had a jar of peanut butter.
So many things can be enjoyed if one just doesn't know the pitfalls. And after all, a person has to die of something. Dying of peanut butter does not sound that bad to me.
As a kid, I didn't know I should not sleep in the back window of my parents' 50-something Ford on long trips. I thought it was a cool place, just right for a kid to curl up in.
As a young mother, I didn't know that letting my children sleep with us from time to time was bad. I thought they were learning that sometimes, when you're unhappy or scared or unsettled, Mom and Dad sleeping on either side of you is reassuring.
And for the first half of my life, I didn't know peanut butter, my favorite food as a kid, was laden with fat and sugar. I thought it was the best thing ever, especially when we were at some relatives' house and they offered food I had never heard of before. "Can I have a peanut butter sandwich, please?" They always shook their heads at my finicky eating habits. But every one of them had a jar of peanut butter.
So many things can be enjoyed if one just doesn't know the pitfalls. And after all, a person has to die of something. Dying of peanut butter does not sound that bad to me.
October 13, 2010
Do You Have an Ear for Literature?
I spent twenty-six years in the tenth grade, twenty-seven if you count the year I was actually a sophomore. In that time, I tried very hard to make reading a good thing for my students, offering variety, encouragement, and gentle nudges on to the next reading level. One of the things I learned is that the "ear" for literary excellence is tricky. Age, ability, and inclination all enter into it, and while there are some who have a tin ear for literature, most can develop their sense of "good" literature if they try.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
October 12, 2010
It Won't Take Long--The Biggest Lie
I planned to submit an older book to a publisher this week. It was one that several publishers showed interest in just before the Big Drop when everyone stopped buying everything.
Anyway, I thought I'd read through it and clear it up: move the dates up a year, freshen the clothing styles, whatever.
Ha!
I can't just skim through. I have to read, and then I find things that could be said better, things that should be clarified, things that need paring down. In other words, I'm in the middle of a full edit.
And it's going to take a while.
Anyway, I thought I'd read through it and clear it up: move the dates up a year, freshen the clothing styles, whatever.
Ha!
I can't just skim through. I have to read, and then I find things that could be said better, things that should be clarified, things that need paring down. In other words, I'm in the middle of a full edit.
And it's going to take a while.
October 11, 2010
Fun with Kindle
I've only had the thing a month, and already I'm irritated if I want a book and it has not been "Kindlized". I just found my friends Laura Alden and Hannah Reed on Kindle (MURDER AT THE PTA and BUZZ OFFF, respectively), which is cool.
Living in a very small town, I used to have to make a list and then when I got to a town big enough to have a bookstore, look for books I wanted to read. Often, authors I meet at conferences are with small publishers, so the bookstores would have to order the book. Then I had to wait until I returned to that town to actually get the book. Now I just click "Buy Now" and I do.
I still like wandering through a bookstore to learn about authors and books I have not heard of before, and I always end up buying something. I don't think that thrill is going to disappear soon. There really is no way for mystery lovers to find stuff new to them except that method, and it's a lot of fun to pick, choose and anticipate.
But when you know what you want (and I know Laura and Hannah are going to provide a fun read every time) the click and download method is easy-peasey. And through the entire process, I never once have to put on shoes.
Living in a very small town, I used to have to make a list and then when I got to a town big enough to have a bookstore, look for books I wanted to read. Often, authors I meet at conferences are with small publishers, so the bookstores would have to order the book. Then I had to wait until I returned to that town to actually get the book. Now I just click "Buy Now" and I do.
I still like wandering through a bookstore to learn about authors and books I have not heard of before, and I always end up buying something. I don't think that thrill is going to disappear soon. There really is no way for mystery lovers to find stuff new to them except that method, and it's a lot of fun to pick, choose and anticipate.
But when you know what you want (and I know Laura and Hannah are going to provide a fun read every time) the click and download method is easy-peasey. And through the entire process, I never once have to put on shoes.
October 7, 2010
Gettin' Away
We've decided to take a few days and go hide in the U.P. (That's the Upper Peninsula for all you non-Michiganders.) The color is at its peak, my brother will watch the house and the cats, and we found a window of time when neither of us has a commitment. I can't recall the last time we went on a trip together that was not business related or required by family circumstances.
Traveling for fun? I'm not sure I remember what that is, but I'm willing to relearn. I'm even leaving my laptop home, so don't expect a word from me until Monday.
Traveling for fun? I'm not sure I remember what that is, but I'm willing to relearn. I'm even leaving my laptop home, so don't expect a word from me until Monday.
