Jennifer Crusie's Blog, page 327

Explain That Again: Headhopping

The Explain That Again thread on Cherry Forums is open a day early due to a moderator scheduling conflict. The post on headhopping is up, and I'll be checking it a couple of times a day to chime in on discussion or give my opinion on questions. Quick summary: Headhopping is bad. Don't do it.

Explain That Poll

So for all you writers out there, there's a poll to the right on topics for the Explain That series on the Cherry Forums. I asked over there and the schedule so far, per request is:

January: Headhopping

February: Openings, plus a special Valentine's Day GHH post*

March: Motif, Symbol and Metaphor

April: Theme

That leaves us with eight months to schedule and the following 12 topics to choose from:

Antagonists

Beats

Bookending

Conflict

Foreshadowing

Infodump/The Exposition Fairy/Author Intrusion

MacGuffins

Pacing/Turning Points

Prologues and Epilogues

Show Don't Tell

Time Shifts

Tone

Poll is to the right of the blog. Vote for top four, please. Thank you.

*My mistake. That's Trope of the Month, not ETA.

The Abyss and Me

This book is kicking my butt.

I realize that I'm the luckiest woman on the planet–hell, I have a job–and I am not discounting that, but with that disclaimer, I feel the need to whine. It really feels like the books get harder and harder to write, and that sucks the marrow out of your soul at 3AM as you stare at the ceiling and think about how if you died, nobody could be mad that you're eight months past your deadline, plus a month past the deadline for the sequel. Okay, not your deadline, mine, but you get the drift. I am letting down the team here in a big, big way, and I can't seem to find the key to finish this book. Key, hell, if I could find a machete to hack my way to the end, I'd take that.

Another disclaimer: I have the most patient, supportive editor and publisher in the known universe, and my agents are a dream; nobody in New York is putting pressure on me. I also have good friends who have offered to read the book, brainstorm the book, do whatever is necessary to help with the book. But at the end of the day, I'm the one who got myself into this story and I have to get myself out. Then they can help, but for right now, I'm in this alone, and that gets a little tense. Plus I haven't done a decent blog post here in months, and that's a disappointment. I like this blog. It deserves better. Well, you all deserve better.

But here I am, staring into the abyss. I have diagrammed this sucker. I have collaged it. I have the soundtrack. I know what the story's about. I love the characters. The woman's journey plot is solid. The mystery not so much, but that's pretty much par for me. And yet I cannot get this book to gel, to move into that sunny, realer-than-real place that means it's alive and kicking. It feels like an acquaintance, not part of me. I'm not part of it. And I have absolutely no idea how to get into it.

December was an awful month, and I'm hoping all that trauma is over and the new year will clear my mind and I'll see the way, but I'm really wondering if some of this isn't age. I've been doing this for twenty years so there should be some accumulated knowledge here and yet, I'm lost, so I'm wondering if I'm not losing brain cells and just don't have the jazz I used to. Or maybe it's that I gravitate to more complex books now; these books were supposed to be easy, simple romps and we're back at the doorstop woman's journey novels again, so maybe I'm just setting the bar higher. Maybe This Time felt like the bar was higher, but I don't know if that's because the bar was higher or I've gotten shorter.

The thing is, this could be an amazing book. It has Stuff. It could be the kind of book that you walk into as a reader and just make yourself comfortable in, the kind of book where everybody knows your name. And then there are supposed to be three sequels, and I know what happens in those, too, and that could be so great, to live in this world for four books. It's just writing them that's kicking my butt. I sit downstairs and vibrate with the tension because I'm not writing the book, and that makes it impossible to write the book, so the book isn't getting written . . .

So now it's 2011, and I'm only eight months past my deadline and I think I've worked my way through most of the stress, and I'm sure this is going to be a fabulous year, so I'll just go work on my book now, and everything will be fine. Really. I'm sure of it. Because otherwise . . .

Me and the abyss. We've been here before, but this is the first time I've felt like jumping.

Fast Women Faking It

Sorry about the title of the post, I couldn't resist. Fast Women and Faking It will be out in trade paperback this spring (I think) and I just got the cover jpgs. I thought since you all had so much input back in the mists of time when we were first designing these suckers that you'd like to see the end product:

(Click on the images to see them larger.)

Name That Locked Room

I am currently fascinated with locked room mysteries thanks to Jonathan Creek and John Dickson Carr. For those of you who love them, too, give me some great locked room titles, please. And thank you very much.

(Yes, I'm exploiting you all again. Some day I'll write a real blog post, but I feel this is your own fault. You've become legendary on the internet for solving any problem. You don't want me to exploit you, stop being so damn good at answers. Thank you.)

Oh, and speaking of locked rooms, Madeline's still in the tomb over on the Cherry Forums Gothic Book Club where we're discussing the merits of getting rid of guilt through live burial.

Happy New Year, Argh People

Nothing but good times ahead.

Oh, and in case you don't have enough trauma in your life and/or are a writer, Cherry Forums is debuting its newest writing thread, Exercises from Hell, appearing on the first of every month. Go here to play, but here's the prompt:

Because you don't have enough trauma in your life, Cherry Forums presents Exercises from Hell 2011, writing exercises that we'll post on the first of every month that will make you think or at least worry.

It's not a competition, we're not looking for the best or worst, we're just interested to see how you solve the prompts and how much hair you tear out in the process. So here's your first exercise:

Write the first paragraph to a novel, the first line of which is:

Quote

"Had I but known what evil lurked in Marybeth Anstruther's heart, I never would have bought that salamander."

Now finish the paragraph. Oh, and since it's the opening paragraph you'll need to establish protagonist, antagonist, goal, setting, mood and tone and begin the conflict.

Good luck!