Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 33
March 6, 2015
Caring about characters
One of the most difficult and frustrating pieces of feedback for a writer to get is this:
"I didn't care about the character(s)."
I have junked manuscripts based on such feedback. It's such a fatal, fundamental and pervasive flaw. If the reader isn't invested in the story, game over.
But if such a flaw is ever fixable ... how? What makes readers care about a character? What makes you care?
"I didn't care about the character(s)."
I have junked manuscripts based on such feedback. It's such a fatal, fundamental and pervasive flaw. If the reader isn't invested in the story, game over.
But if such a flaw is ever fixable ... how? What makes readers care about a character? What makes you care?
March 4, 2015
On reading memoirs
Some thoughts I've had while reading memoirs and autobiographies:
--Do not start with the grandparents and then take us chronologically through the next two generations to the main subject. Slip in the backstory gradually.
--Not every event and detail is of equal importance.
--We don't need to know about every single friend, relative, teacher, co-worker, etc. If we must "meet" a lot of people, introduce them slowly, not all at once, or we will never keep them straight.
--Tie every scene to the underlying theme(s) of the book. (I'm reading one now that does this very well.)
--Pay more attention to why than how.
--Interpret some. Allow the reader room for interpretation, too.
--Examine your motives.
--If there's something you don't want to delve into, leave it out altogether. Don't hint at it and then fail to explore it.
--Help us understand the connections, the causes and effects.
--Do not start with the grandparents and then take us chronologically through the next two generations to the main subject. Slip in the backstory gradually.
--Not every event and detail is of equal importance.
--We don't need to know about every single friend, relative, teacher, co-worker, etc. If we must "meet" a lot of people, introduce them slowly, not all at once, or we will never keep them straight.
--Tie every scene to the underlying theme(s) of the book. (I'm reading one now that does this very well.)
--Pay more attention to why than how.
--Interpret some. Allow the reader room for interpretation, too.
--Examine your motives.
--If there's something you don't want to delve into, leave it out altogether. Don't hint at it and then fail to explore it.
--Help us understand the connections, the causes and effects.
March 1, 2015
What else is there
"He seemed pleased, and glanced down at me in the chair. 'How are you doing?' I told him fine, 'I'm still writing.'
He said, 'What else is there?'"
--Donald Hall, Essays After Eighty
What else is there? An interesting question for writers to ponder.
For me, "what else" includes hiking, and reading, and time with friends. But without writing, something big would be missing.
He said, 'What else is there?'"
--Donald Hall, Essays After Eighty
What else is there? An interesting question for writers to ponder.
For me, "what else" includes hiking, and reading, and time with friends. But without writing, something big would be missing.
February 27, 2015
Discovery
One of the best things about the writing process as I experience it is the gradual discovery of what the story is about. Character motives reveal themselves over time. Coming up with a title often gives me further insight.
I don't think I deliberately incorporate layers in a story. Some part of my brain plants them there. But when I notice a thin layer, just a suggestion of a theme or symbol, then I consciously build the layers more thickly. I find places where I can repeat a symbol naturally. I find ways to echo or point to the theme. I look for places to make connections.
I don't think I deliberately incorporate layers in a story. Some part of my brain plants them there. But when I notice a thin layer, just a suggestion of a theme or symbol, then I consciously build the layers more thickly. I find places where I can repeat a symbol naturally. I find ways to echo or point to the theme. I look for places to make connections.
February 25, 2015
Changing
I've continued my decluttering process, slowly letting go of books and magazines that I knew I wouldn't reread--or in some cases, never got around to reading in the first place, despite once-upon-a-time thinking that I wanted to. I'm lucky to have places to donate these books, so that they can find new readers.
I've been noticing how the books on my shelves have changed over time. I buy less fiction now, and when I do, it's usually YA. I buy many more memoirs, many more books of personal essays.
I'm also noticing there were books I once loved and reread regularly, but haven't touched in years. Have those books served their purpose in my life? Have I entered a different phase, where I need different stories? Or will I go back to those old favorites at some point? These are the questions I try to answer, weighing these books in my hands.
I've never been good at letting go of things, but in the past year, I've become so much more willing and able to do it. To do it with few pangs, with much relief. With the sense that I am making room. For what, I don't know yet. But I'm looking forward to finding out.
I've been noticing how the books on my shelves have changed over time. I buy less fiction now, and when I do, it's usually YA. I buy many more memoirs, many more books of personal essays.
I'm also noticing there were books I once loved and reread regularly, but haven't touched in years. Have those books served their purpose in my life? Have I entered a different phase, where I need different stories? Or will I go back to those old favorites at some point? These are the questions I try to answer, weighing these books in my hands.
I've never been good at letting go of things, but in the past year, I've become so much more willing and able to do it. To do it with few pangs, with much relief. With the sense that I am making room. For what, I don't know yet. But I'm looking forward to finding out.
February 23, 2015
Figuring out the next step
There's knowing what needs to be done, and there's doing it.
Although I sometimes grumble about the work, energy, time, involved in doing what needs to be done, I prefer that situation to the other--the one in which I don't know what needs to be done.
And I really only know three ways to figure out what needs to be done: Trial and error. Seeking advice. Waiting.
None of them is a surefire, fully successful path to the answer. Sometimes one works, sometimes the other.
Maybe they are all, in fact, a variation on "Trial and error."
What's the next right thing to do? The answer often seems to hover just beyond reach.
Although I sometimes grumble about the work, energy, time, involved in doing what needs to be done, I prefer that situation to the other--the one in which I don't know what needs to be done.
And I really only know three ways to figure out what needs to be done: Trial and error. Seeking advice. Waiting.
None of them is a surefire, fully successful path to the answer. Sometimes one works, sometimes the other.
Maybe they are all, in fact, a variation on "Trial and error."
What's the next right thing to do? The answer often seems to hover just beyond reach.
February 19, 2015
The A in YA
When I'm writing YA fiction, I sometimes feel very close to my characters. Everyone has experienced love and pain, worry and fear, guilt and shame. It doesn't matter that my characters are in their teens and I am--older. But occasionally, when I realize they are worrying about their homework or driver's test or getting into college, and I realize I am getting a medical checkup for one of those conditions people don't have to worry about until later in life, or reading up on the rules for my retirement accounts, or discussing home-improvement projects with my husband, then I do feel a bit of a gulf between us.
In an essay about Gourmet magazine (reprinted in Scribble Scribble), Nora Ephron wrote, "'Does everyone who gets married talk about furniture?' my friend Bud Trillin once asked. No. Only for a while. After that you talk about pistachio nuts." This sentence sums up the perceived distance between settled adulthood and impetuous youth: the gulf, again. And then I remember some of the rambling conversations I had about trivia--maybe not pistachio nuts, but on that level--when I was younger. Grownups don't have the conversational market cornered on furniture and snack foods. And I remember that I am still vitally interested in politics, education, travel, and other let's-change-the-world-or-at-least-explore-it topics that engaged me when I had my whole life, and many untested choices, still in front of me. And the gulf narrows again. Some things about us change as we move through different phases of life, but others are evergreen, eternal.
In an essay about Gourmet magazine (reprinted in Scribble Scribble), Nora Ephron wrote, "'Does everyone who gets married talk about furniture?' my friend Bud Trillin once asked. No. Only for a while. After that you talk about pistachio nuts." This sentence sums up the perceived distance between settled adulthood and impetuous youth: the gulf, again. And then I remember some of the rambling conversations I had about trivia--maybe not pistachio nuts, but on that level--when I was younger. Grownups don't have the conversational market cornered on furniture and snack foods. And I remember that I am still vitally interested in politics, education, travel, and other let's-change-the-world-or-at-least-explore-it topics that engaged me when I had my whole life, and many untested choices, still in front of me. And the gulf narrows again. Some things about us change as we move through different phases of life, but others are evergreen, eternal.
February 16, 2015
What shall we call it
I'm good at coming up with titles for books that nobody has written. It's harder to come up with titles for the books I've written. When they're in progress, I use working titles that are most often named after the main character or some feature I had in mind when I first began the book. For example, Until It Hurts to Stop was in a file named "Margaret," after the main character. I got the title for that book by pulling a phrase out of the text, a phrase that seemed to work on a couple of levels.
But it never gets easier. For my work in progress, I came up with what I thought was a decent title. When I did a search, I discovered that it is a good title--so good that another writer is using it on a book coming out this spring. Titles can be reused, but not so close together.
I keep saying I should write about something so strange and obscure that there will be no competition for possible titles!
But it never gets easier. For my work in progress, I came up with what I thought was a decent title. When I did a search, I discovered that it is a good title--so good that another writer is using it on a book coming out this spring. Titles can be reused, but not so close together.
I keep saying I should write about something so strange and obscure that there will be no competition for possible titles!
February 14, 2015
Chance
Success is "not about fairness. It's not about talent."
--Sting, in 20 Feet from Stardom
"I thought if I gave my heart to what I was doing, I would automatically be a star."
--Merry Clayton, in 20 Feet from Stardom
"... financial success in front-list publishing is often very random ..."
"It is my strong impression that most of the really profitable books for most publishers still come from the mid-list--'surprise' big hits bought with small or medium advances ..."
--Daniel Menaker, My Mistake
What are we to do with the unpredictability, the role of randomness and chance, in success in the arts? (Perhaps in any kind of success.) Hard work and talent can increase our chances of success; laziness can ruin our chances. But we generally can't wrestle destiny to the ground and bend it to our will.
The older I get, the more I see how big a part chance plays in our lives--a much bigger part than I was led to believe when I was growing up, and was taught the Horatio Alger-esque narratives of hard workers reaping rewards.
Yet, would I say there's no point in trying?
No. There's every point in trying.
--Sting, in 20 Feet from Stardom
"I thought if I gave my heart to what I was doing, I would automatically be a star."
--Merry Clayton, in 20 Feet from Stardom
"... financial success in front-list publishing is often very random ..."
"It is my strong impression that most of the really profitable books for most publishers still come from the mid-list--'surprise' big hits bought with small or medium advances ..."
--Daniel Menaker, My Mistake
What are we to do with the unpredictability, the role of randomness and chance, in success in the arts? (Perhaps in any kind of success.) Hard work and talent can increase our chances of success; laziness can ruin our chances. But we generally can't wrestle destiny to the ground and bend it to our will.
The older I get, the more I see how big a part chance plays in our lives--a much bigger part than I was led to believe when I was growing up, and was taught the Horatio Alger-esque narratives of hard workers reaping rewards.
Yet, would I say there's no point in trying?
No. There's every point in trying.
February 11, 2015
Yes or no
Sometimes you say yes to everything.
Sometimes you say no to everything.
Those are the extremes, the "I'll try anything!" or the "I'm so burned out I can't do anything" ends of the spectrum.
In the middle, it's more difficult. Figuring out how to balance time, energy, ability, interest, ethics, and so on. Thinking about whether it's a yes or no, and not deciding too hastily.
Sometimes you say no to everything.
Those are the extremes, the "I'll try anything!" or the "I'm so burned out I can't do anything" ends of the spectrum.
In the middle, it's more difficult. Figuring out how to balance time, energy, ability, interest, ethics, and so on. Thinking about whether it's a yes or no, and not deciding too hastily.
