Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 153

Happiness is Change

I got my hair cut.  The last cut I got. was four years ago when I was heading for RWA NYC, so it was getting long and really frumpy.  I went from most-of-the-way-down-my-back to a pixie, and it’s so much fun to look in the mirror and be surprised.  Then I took everything out of my bedroom (the one in back that’s like being in a treehouse) and just put back what I liked and even though. it’s a lot of the same stuff (just a lot less) it still feels new, especially since I moved into the front bedroom for the winter.   So much. fun to wake up in a new place.  And then I cleaned out the front bedroom b because Krissie is coming to visit this week and that’s really her room, so on Friday morning, I’ll wake up with a roommate that’s not four-legged with. fur, at least she wasn’t the last time I saw her,  but it’s been a year since she was here, so who knows?

Change.  It makes me happy.

What made you happy this week?

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Cherry Saturday, June 22, 2019

It’s Onion Ring Day.  Also Chocolate Eclair Day.  I think you’re gonna have to choose.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, June 20, 2019

I’ve been reading a lot of P. D. James’ later books, the ones I haven’t read because I’d stopped reading her years ago.  She’s an elegant writer and a good plotter, but she is strangely devoid of humor.  I’m not looking for comic mysteries, just for a writer with wit.  Ngaio Marsh comes to mind, as does Allingham and Gilbert and Hill.  The British are aces at dry wit that doesn’t ever become outright comedy (well, they’re good. at comedy, too; look at Wodehouse, Pratchett, and Monty Python), but somehow James just doesn’t have it.  This may also be why I could never connect with Moby Dick.  (Yes, I know Melville was American, but still not a laff riot unless you think Ahab got what he deserved, which I do.. . . where was I?). Anyway, I need wit in my writers, even the grim ones (like Stephen King, who is brilliant but who I cannot read more than once because nightmares.  So I went back to Allingham and The Fear Sign/Sweet Danger and there was Albert and Amanda snarking at each other as they defeated Evil and I thought, “Oh, there we go.”  Also James is terrible at romance, which isn’t a deal breaker since she writes mysteries, but her hero can’t bring himself to tell the woman he loves that he loves her (and since there is nothing on the page to tell you why except she’s extraordinarily beautiful you do wonder why) so he hands her a letter and then watches from a distance while she reads it.   And she’s thrilled, although as declarations of love go, it’s mostly about him.  I give up.  I mean Albert was ten thumbs with Amanda, too, but I know why they’re together and that they love each other.

What good book did you read this week?

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Working Wednesday, June 18, 2019

I’ve been working on my kitchen, getting rid of a lot of stuff, getting a lot of new stuff–knives! knife racks! paper towel holders! cutting boards! more stuff!–making it a place that’s fun to work in.  My kitchen is two small rooms, one 9’x9′, the other 7′ by 9′, separated by a hallway (it used to be a kitchen and a dining room) but it’s getting to the point where it’s the perfect kitchen for me.  Once I get all the paper towel racks up.  There’s something really satisfying about making a good work space, especially when it involves food.  Or office supplies (next job: the living room/office).  And then there’s Nita.

So what satisfying work did you do this week?

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Questionable: What If I Write a Lot of Different Stuff?

Chacha wrote:
I have been writing for a long time, started self-publishing in 2012 . . . [G]iven that I have not yet found an audience, is it likely to kill me that all my stuff is not in the same style? . . . I’ve got romance novellas, romance-adjacent contemporary novels, historical novels. My published contemporary novels are in three (so far) different styles. Two are alternating-first-person POV. One is 3rd/omniscient. One is straight-up 1st person. . .

First, those things are not style.  Style is the way you sound on the page, your word choices and rhythms and world views, and chances are great that your style stays the same no matter what you write. I write ghost stories, romantic comedies, caper romances, demons, etc. but they’re all in my style; they all sound like Crusies. 

What you’re talking about is genre (romance, adventure, etc.). 

It helps a lot if you stick to the same genre because that’s easy to market. Basically, if you shift too far out of one market, you’re starting all over again to find an audience.  But that’s shifting from romance to horror, or from sf to mystery, it’s not about point of view or the kind of lovers you write about or demographics.  If you write romance, that’s your genre, and even if you switch between M/F and M/M and F/F, it’s still romance.  Having people of color or LGBTQ characters won’t have any impact; that’s what the world is made of.  What determines your brand, if you will, is the genre and how you interpret it.  And since you’re writing stories you want to read, chances are good there’s one genre at the base of all your stories, the way mine are all connected to romance in some way.

I’d like to think that eventually people will find the series and like it *as* a series, and be willing to roll with the differences in viewpoint and style in order to follow the (long) through story and the recurring characters. Is possible, or is crazysauce?

You know, it depends on the stories you write and how well people like them, especially how well they like the characters and the world and want to go back to it.  Not everybody will follow you no matter what, nobody ever wrote a book that everybody liked, but in the end, you gotta write what you gotta write, so it doesn’t matter.

Well, it doesn’t matter from a writing standpoint. Remember, I just got a book turned down because all they wanted from me was romantic comedy. So yes, from a publishing standpoint, sticking to one subgenera is a great idea. But you’re not a publisher, you’re a writer; you write ’em, they sell ’em. Write what you need to write; you really can’t do anything else.

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Questionable: How Do You Focus on One Plot When Your Book Has Two?

CarolC asked:
You mentioned you needed to focus more on the Nita and Nick romance plot and less on the Cthulhu plot. Could you expand a little on how you do that? What makes the romance the main plot? My Cthulhu plots tend to take over.

The things that make the romance the main plot are that the major events and turning points are about the romance, the theme is tied to the romance, and the climax is about the romance.   Okay, that sounds obvious, so let’s look at this using Nita as the example because ARGH that’s all I think about these days.

Here are the turning point events:

Beginning: Jimmy gets killed by a Cthulhu minion, and because of that Nita meets Nick

Higher Stakes: Nick saves Nita by smiting Rich, a Cthulhu minion, and Nita has to accept the supernatural and Nick as future Devil.

Point of No Return: Nick is poisoned by Cthulhu, and Nita has to deal with a series of new Nicks as she fights Cthulhu.

Crisis: Nick is kidnapped by Cthulhu’s minions and Nita goes to Hell to get him back and put Cthulhu down.

Climax: Nita defeats Cthulhu and commits to Nick. 

If this is Nita vs. Cthulhu, then Nick’s irrelevant except as a complication, a subplot.  If this is Nita vs. Nick, Cthulhu is the complication in their love story arc.   Pick a lane, Jenny.

So now that you’ve looked at the events that make your turning points, answer the following questions:
• Who’s the protagonist and what is her/his goal?

• Who’s the antagonist and what is her/his goal?

• What is the main conflict/central story question?

• What are the turning points?

Nita’s Cthulhu plot:

Nita’s goal is to keep her island safe for the people who live there. Cthulhu’s goal is to take over the island and use it as a power base to become Devil, exploiting the people for his own ends.
• The conflict is Nita blocking Cthulhu and Cthulhu fighting back directly against Nita to take power from her, aka “Will Nita defeat Cthulhu and save her island?”
• The turning points: Nita shows up when Jimmy dies because Cthulhu ordered Nick killed; Nita realizes that she’s up against the supernatural when one of Cthulhu’s minions tries to kill her which ups her game, Nita is left to fight alone when Cthulhu poisons Nick, Nita goes to Hell to confront Cthulhu, Nita defeats Cthulhu.

Nita’s Romance Plot:

Nita’s goal is to save her island because it’s her only connection to humanity.
Nick’s goal is to defeat Cthulhu because it’s his job.
Their goals bring them together in the same fight against the same Big Bad, but they get in each other’s way because they have differing views of reality and how to proceed.Nita and Nick begin to work together and are bonded even more through stress as Cthulhu tries to split them up because they’re more powerful together; they fight and negotiate as the start reversing the effects of Cthulhu’s plotting.The central question is “Will Nita and Nick compromise to forge and protect a partnership so that together they can defeat Cthulhu and live happily ever after?”Turning Points: Nita meets Nick when somebody tries to kill him and it’s her job to find out who; Nita accepts Nick as a partner when she realizes he hasn’t been lying about the supernatural; Nita sleeps with Nick and then finds out he’s been poisoned and has to work to accept and save him even though he’s somebody else (multiple somebody elses) now; Nita and Nick reconnect and commit just as he’s kidnapped back to Hell; Nita and Nick save each other, defeat the Big Bad, and live HEA.

Both plots have Nita as a protagonist and control of the island as a goal.  One story is a power struggle and the other is a relationship test; one story is about politics and the other is about love and trust in a relationship.  They both have most of the same events, the emphasis is just different. 

For a romance plot, I don’t need as many details of Cthulhu’s general plot for the island, I just need the moves that threaten the romance. I don’t need all the stuff that Nick does to defeat him or that Nita does to defeat him separately, I need to arc them working together.  The Cthulhu plot would make some crucial scenes in the romance unnecessary; the fact that they have sex three times has nothing to do with the Cthulhu plot, but they’re crucial to the romance since because of the poisoning, Nita has sex with three different Nicks who don’t remember each other or being with her before, so the struggle is to find the memory and the connection they had before.  If Nita defeats Cthulhu in the Cthulhu plot, she returns the island to safely.  If she defeats him in the romance plot, she’s done it by her and Nick working together which fosters a committed relationship having saved their island/home.

Short version: The events are the same, but the events don’t mean the same thing in the different plots.  That means I can cut the romance-only events from the Cthulhu plot, and cut the miscellaneous Cthulhu events that don’t directly affect the romance in the romance plot.  So the difference in the plots is where you find your meaning and put your focus.

Or approach it through character arc.  Look at your protagonist and see what the turning points in her character arc are:

Nita is alone and cold and afraid for her island.Nita joins forces with Nick after she gains a new understanding of the forces threatening her island (supernatural); she’s not alone any more.Nita commits to Nick and sleeps with him even though he’s radically different after being poisoned and works with him and the team they’ve assembled to save the island.Nita goes to Hell to save the island and Nick, realizing that she belongs everywhere now.Nita defeats Cthulhu and returns to Earth with Nick, establishing a safe warm community for everybody, demons and humans (sanctuary city!).

That’s a relationship arc, not a Cthulhu arc.  She’s not growing and changing because she’s fighting Cthulhu, she’s growing and changing because she’s met Nick and connected to him and the team they’ve gathered, and in the process discovers who she really is, ready to become part of a committed relationship and her community.

Which is probably overexplaining. Argh.

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Happiness is Sleeping Late

Sorry, conked out early last night and forgot to put a post up, but I got a LOT of sleep, so I’m happy.  Guilty but happy. 

What made you happy this week?

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Cherry Saturday, June 15, 2019

June is Pride Month.

I am constantly amazed at how fast attitudes have changed about sexual orientation.  Not fast enough, of course, it’s been hell for non-heterosexuals for centuries, but the change is speeding up.  In 2016, 61% of Americans approved of gay marriage.  in 2018, it was 67%.  That’s a majority, albeit probably located on the coasts.   The reactionaries that have taken over our government this year told our embassies not to fly the Pride flag, something the embassies have been doing for years, but this year a lot of the embassies ignored them and flew it anyway, which makes me so proud.  We’re obviously not out of the national closet yet given the way we marginalize anybody who doesn’t go for the missionary position with two different genders (the ones they were born with, damn it, don’t confuse the bigots) but we really have come a long way.  Kind of like with women’s rights: Not there yet, but getting there.  And I really do believe this administration is the last gasp of patriarchal, homophobic, racist, sexist morons, an extinction burst that was necessary to show us how bad things could get so we’ll get up off our lazy asses and vote and protest and speed up the bend that the universe takes toward justice.

But in the meantime, it’s Pride Month so let’s celebrate.  Get out your rainbows, people, and support love in all its forms.   It’s the decent thing to do.

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Questionable: How Important are the Rules* of Writing Fiction (*Really More of a Guideline”)

Jeanine asked:
I know you’ve said that every writer has their own process and they must discover what works for them. Nonetheless, in your discussions of the craft of writing, you often speak of guidelines for writing or, at least, for the finished product. For example you speak of things to avoid, such as prologues or flashbacks. Have you encountered any occasions where the writer completely breaks the rules or ignores the guidelines that you’ve established (at least for yourself), and what shouldn’t work, works brilliantly?

 

All the time. That’s why I slap the “many roads to Oz” disclaimer on everything I teach. 

The thing about rules and guidelines is that most of them are there because they protect the reader from the writer. 

Take prologues, since you mentioned them.  Writers love prologues, as a writer I love prologues, because they’re the easiest way to get back story in.   But as a reader, I hate prologues because I want to get to the story, and there’s all this crap in my way.  Here’s the thing: when your reader opens your story, she wants to love it.  You own her for the first page at least, she’s on your side.  Now what are you going to put on that page, the protagonist you want her to invest in for the entire book, or some stuff from the past that you need the reader to know before she meets the protagonist?  Because if it’s the stuff you need her to know, she’ll try to connect with it, only to find out that the character in the prologue is not the protagonist of the story, she’s the protagonist as a little kid or the antagonist plotting evil or whatever.  So you’ve just thrown away your best shot at grabbing the reader and for what? Because it was easier for you? Prologues are stupid writing.

Pretty much every rule or guideline out there came out of writers being self-indulgent and caring more about making their jobs as writers easier than about taking care of the reader.  That’s why it’s as important to understand the theory behind the rule as it is to follow the rule.  That way when you decide to break it, you’ll be able to tell if it really will make the book better, or if you’re just screwing the reader over because you’re too lazy to take the high road and do it right.

Having said that, I’ve read some rules for writing that are just bonkers, so be careful what you read on the internet.

The best writing rule ever comes from Elmore Leonard: “Try not to write the parts people skip.”

That would be the prologue.

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This is a Good Book Thursday, June 13, 2019

I’m a big Ben Aaronovitch fan, not the least because he does things I can’t do, like work with actual locations and incredible detail and deep history.  But mostly I like his characters, especially his protagonist, Peter Grant, who is almost a young Sam Vines without the alcohol problem.  He’s easy-going but dedicated, loyal and brave, with a dry wit and a worldview that’s fun to follow.  Another thing I like about Aaronovitch is that his books are actually better on rereading.  There’s so much stuff in there that I miss some of it searching for story–the first person narrator loves his info dump–but the story is there and it’s always fascinating (okay, he lost me with the unicorn and the train into faerieland, but everything else is excellent).  So when I saw he had something new out, The October Man, I bought it even though it wasn’t a Peter Grant, and instead of being London-based was set in Germany.  It’s not one I’ll re-read, although I applaud him extending his world outside the UK, and it was fun to see Grant’s German counterpart talk about him and his boss, Nightingale, as distant competitors.  The big problem is that the protagonist is bland.  I just now finished the book and I can’t remember his name, although his partner’s name is Vanessa and the river goddess in this book is Kelly.  I think the problem is that it feels like a shadow of the Peter Grant books: he’s Grant’s opposite number, the female cop he works with becomes a new apprentice at the end of the book, he has a contentious relationship with a river goddess that foreshadows a love affair, there’s even a baby river goddess as a counterpart to Nicky from the Grant books.  It feels like Grant Lite.  None of which means that I don’t already have the next Grant book on pre-order (out in November).  Grant’s been kicked out of the Force and he’s about to become a father, and his ex-partner, now a rogue magician is on the loose and dangerous, and I can’t wait to read what happens next.   

So what did you read that was good this week?

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