Judith Post's Blog, page 128

Writing & Research

I write urban fantasy–make-believe.  So why am I doing more research than I did when I wrote mysteries?  It came as a shock to me when I ended up with stacks of print-outs on voodoo and Norse gods, Wiccan Sabbats and Gorgons.  How could supernaturals be more work than killing someone?  (I started out writing mysteries).  But it’s simple, really.  Whatever a writer puts in a story has to FEEL real, and if some fact is off-key enough to jostle a reader out of the flow, it’s a misstep.  So if I put the Norse goddess Freya in a novel–Empty Altars, I’d better have my basics in decent shape.

My friend, M. L. Rigdon, writes fantasy, but she also writes Regency romances as Julia Donner.  She has to research more little details (Were gloves buttoned? What fabric of gown did a woman wear at home instead of for a fete?), than I ever stopped to consider.  Until I wrote Empty Altars.   Then little things tripped me up.  I couldn’t say “They went to bed,” because what was their house like?  What did they sleep on?  What did they do to keep warm?   Mary Lou read my  novella Uncommon Allies, set in Medieval times, and e-mailed me, “Send these to me before you put them online.”  Because even after I’d done a decent amount of research, I apparently hadn’t done enough.  The mistakes are mine, but at the time, I thought I was in good shape.

In the beginning, I have to admit, I wasn’t a big fan of stopping every other chapter to look up what gargoyles were carved from, the history of griffins, or the origin of Pegasus.  But I learned that research not only adds a richness to a story that was lacking before, but it also inspires ideas.   Now, granted, I’ve known people who spend more time on research than on writing.  Somewhere, a writer has to strike a balance.  But authenticity rings true in a novel.  It makes the characters and setting come to life.  It places the reader in the protagonist’s world–and nothing’s better than that, to live and breathe along with the main character.

The other thing to consider is that readers are SMART.  Most of them are smarter than I am.  Someone who buys one of my stories is going to know more about Norse myths or witchcraft or Druids than I do.  I can’t compete with them, but I sure don’t want to disappoint them, so I try to get all of the facts I use right.  Because if I’m wrong, they’ll notice.  And it will jostle them out of the story.  And that’s the last thing that I want to happen.

As writers, we want to grab the readers’ attention and keep it.  We want them to keep turning the pages.  If we screw up, they notice.  They might even forgive us.  But it puts a bump in a story that might make suspending disbelief impossible.  And then we’ve lost that reader.  Maybe forever.

Writing–Lessons Learned

Blood Battles

I finally finished the second book in the Fallen Angels series.  Blood Battles will be online soon, (I’m hoping in the next week or so), but it’s taken me longer than I expected.  I’ve learned a lot, writing this book.  These are not words of wisdom that I’m passing along.  They’re frustrations I dealt with the hard way and hopefully, you can avoid.

Number One:  Know your genre.  I thought I did.  I was wrong.  Read at least half a dozen authors, most of them best sellers, in the genre you want to write in before you begin.  The reason that I qualify a few best sellers is because these are the writers who’ve hit all or most of the ingredients in the genre really well.  Read a few others to see what those authors do that’s a little outside the box.  Then find your own voice, what you want to bring to the genre, and be yourself.

I started out writing mysteries.  When I wrote Fallen Angels, I clung to the mystery framework to structure the book.  After all, a mystery has a built-in plot provider–someone’s murdered, you track suspects, and eventually you find the killer.  But mixing mystery and urban fantasy wasn’t my most brilliant idea.  It did, however, give me a transition to ease into my new genre–perfect or not.

Number Two:  Don’t just focus on the obvious.  When I first read urban fantasy, I listed kick-ass heroine, battles, a supernatural romance sub-plot, and an evil, supernatural villain as the basics for a decent book.  A good weapon was a plus.  But relationships are a major part of urban fantasy, too.  Feelings are what lift the battles to a higher level, what make the outcomes more dramatic.  The love interests often respect and admire strong women, and their courtship/relationship with the heroine is based on mutual respect (even if it’s not of the common variety).

Number Three:  Repetition kills tension, no matter what that repetition is.   I did almost everything wrong I could do in Blood Battles.  I plotted the book so that each battle would escalate until the end.  I started with a surprise attack.  Then, one of the good guys dies.  Then they’re tricked, etc.  But guess what?  Using battles to amp up the tension just got boring.  It came off as a gimmick, and my beta readers (bless them) let me know.  It’s like reading mysteries where the author kills someone every time the plot sags.  Or people die in more grotesque ways.  It gets old.  I had a couple of subplots, but they didn’t affect Enoch, my protagonist, enough.  They weren’t personal enough.  And that’s the real key to what drives a story.  The conflict has to hit your protagonist hard enough to raise his personal stakes.

Number Four:  Humor’s hard.  I thought I’d throw in a Don Juan vamp to make a move on Enoch’s love interest, to annoy him.  I thought it might add a bit of humor, but Amado annoyed my beta readers enough, they told me to kill him.  Just stake him and be done with it.  Not the reaction I was looking for, so I had to completely re-vamp (a little urban fantasy humor) my Latin, undead lover.

Number Five:   Rewrites can fix almost anything.  I didn’t fix Blood Battles in one edit.  Partly, my own fault.  As authors, we can get stubborn about things we love, things that don’t work in our novel.  I had to do three rewrites before I finally purged most of my mistakes and changed the focus of quite a few of my scenes.  I pitched two entire subplots–that’s what the “delete” button’s for.  By the time I got done, the book was a lot leaner and meaner, but I couldn’t tell if it was better or even if it totally hung together, I’d changed so much.  One of my beta readers, brave woman, went throught the whole thing for me AGAIN.  When she said it worked, it was a real relief.

I think it’s rare or impossible for a writer to ever write “the perfect book,” but I think I booted most of my biggest blunders.  So can you.  But I hope you don’t make as many mistakes along the way as I did.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com

In Writing–Show, Don’t Tell

If you read any how-to books on writing, one of the first rules given is show, don’t tell.  Easier said than done.  I still try to rush scenes at times and just tell the reader something that, in my mind, is small so that I concentrate on something that I feel is important.  And I get caught every time.   A critiquer inevitably circles that part of my story and writes “Telling” in the nearest margin.

If you’ve written long enough, you see scenes in your mind, and that’s how you write them–what you see, smell, and listen to.   A new writer joined our group, though, and “show, don’t tell” was one of the hardest things for him to learn.  He knew the stories he wanted to tell and all of the important plot points along the way, but he asked for help in bringing those scenes to life.

It always amazes me how much difference “showing” makes.  It puts the reader into the story instead of pushing him aside as an observer.  Showing allows the reader to live the story along with the book’s characters.  If the advice “space equals emotion” is true, a big scene needs to be big–not one line or one paragraph, sometimes not even one page, but enough space to give it weight.

The author doesn’t say, “When Jake walked into the room, someone tried to shoot him.”  Instead, the author shares the details of scent, sound, and emotions, so that the reader smells, hears, and sees what Jake does.

Jake pulled to the curb in  front of the house.  An overhead light gleamed in a back room.  Shadows swallowed everything else.  The driveway sat, empty.  Jake checked the address Heath had given him.  With a nod, he started up the sidewalk.  Worn porch steps creaked underfoot.  Should he ring the doorbell?  Why was the house dark?  He reached a finger toward the buzzer, hesitated, and pulled on the screendoor instead.  It creaked open.  He turned the doorknob and pushed.  The door swung wide.  Even in the gloom, he could make out the body lying on the living room carpet.  He grabbed for his cell phone when a shot rang out.  Wood splintered beside him.  Jake turned and ran.

Telling took one sentence to say what a paragraph showed, but telling doesn’t evoke emotions.  Showing does.  Ultimately, that’s what fiction is all about–grabbing a reader’s attention and letting him live vicariously through a character.  And to do that, a writer has to “show, don’t tell.”  Oh, and active verbs help too.  But that’s another matter.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

My Mother’s Not Allowed To Look Over My Shoulder As I Write

I always read a genre before I try to write it.  When I first discovered urban fantasy, there was a lot more sex in the pages than there’d been in the mysteries I usually read.  Did I have a problem with that?  It depends.  I enjoyed reading it.  I’m still not great at writing it.  I have visions of my old Sunday School teacher picking up one of my  novels and dying of a heart attack.  What if my mother saw it?  Or some of my conservative friends?

One of my friends asked me, “It doesn’t bother you to kill people on paper, so why do you get all repressed when your hero and heroine jump in the sack?  Is murder more acceptable than sex?”  The short answer, for me, is–yes.  I can push a man’s car in the river and let him drown.  I can use a crossbow to stake vampires at a distance.  Killing is easy.  Relationships are hard.  Maybe it’s because I started out reading and writing mysteries.  There are lots of crimes that a main character might solve, but few of them are as dramatic as murder.  Killing raises the stakes.  My mother and friends don’t mind bloodthirsty one bit, but they’re scandalized by satin sheets and hanky panky.

My poor mother, these days, has Alzheimer’s.  She wouldn’t remember tomorrow if I shocked her today.   My sisters aren’t readers, so they’ll never see it.  And my friends?  Well, they pretty much love me as I am, so my writer’s repression is beginning to fade.  But my big hang-up made me wonder.  How far am I willing to go as a writer?  How far will I push the boundaries?  The answer?  Farther than I thought.  Because it’s not me doing any of the bad things I write about.  It’s my characters.  And a character with no flaws doesn’t make for much of a story.  A villain who’s too nice isn’t worth the bother.  But still there are places my computer keys have never gone.   I pull back.

I recently discovered a writer who’s new to me that reminded me of my own writing a few years ago.  The words flowed.  The plot was well structured.  The characters were interesting, but I could feel that the author never let loose.  She carefully crafted each scene.  I can be too careful sometimes.  I’ve come to believe that honesty and rawness bring characters to life much faster than endless scribbles about their likes and dislikes.  I no longer care what their favorite color is.  I care about what they’ll do when disaster strikes, who they’ll team up with, what compromises they’ll make.   If I can create a book full of characters like that, I’m going to have a good story.

If my mother could still read, and if she could remember from one page to the next, she might shake her head at what I write.  But that’s better than closing my book because I didn’t hook her.   I’m not talking about going for shock value.  That’s a cheap trick.  I’m talking about making an effort to make my characters real.  And I want to write with an honesty that I’m beginning to grow into.  Urban fantasy helped me with that.  It offered a freedom that I enjoy  more and more.  It’s hard for some of us to open up when we write, to show our characters, warts and all, but I think that’s one of the differences between a good novel and a great one.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

 

 

 

Writers and Stray Cats

My husband (bless him) buried one of my stray cats this morning.  A neighbor called last night and said she saw one on the side of the road.  We scooped him into a trash bag and dug his grave this morning.  He wasn’t really mine.  I tried to woo him with tuna and milk, but he’d eat, and then leave.  Mostly wild, but wonderful. There used to be nine of them.  Now I’m down to five.

I’d like to think Midnight found a home.  He was the most affectionate, loved to zip into the house when the door was open and wanted petted under his chin.  Our chihuahua annoyed him.  Maybe he found a home with no dog.  The kitten with the cutest face left next.  He, too, loved kitchens, so maybe someone served him salmon instead of canned tuna and lured him to be theirs.  Glados, their mother, would glare at me as she begged for food.  I had to admire her prickly independence, but I can’t believe anyone could make her a pet.

It’s odd, but the strays made me think of fellow writers I know.  And maybe myself.  The strays come to me when I call, will wind around my ankles, but bolt if I try to touch them.  They value their independence more than they value a warm room and soft cushion.  Not many writers can claim that they’re putting words on paper to be rich.  They might start out thinking that, but that fantasy evaporates pretty quickly.  But we still write.  When we lose money, we write.  Just like the cats, we’re skittish about success.  We want it, but we want to do things our own way.

Experts give advice on how to use a formula to sell books.  Most writers aren’t interested.  We read books on how to plot, how to pace, even how to market.  We cozy up to the experts, but insist on doing it our way.  We purr about following the rules, but break the ones we decide not to follow.  For good reason.  Each writer needs to be fresh, to bring something unique to the market, and to have an individual voice.  We don’t want to play it too safe.

Just like everything else in writing, balance is the key.  There are rules that define the basics of good writing, but there are exceptions that make each story our own.  And who knows?  Maybe some day, my novels or novellas will find a big audience, and I can stretch out on a velvet sofa, secure in my sells numbers.  But in the meantime, I have to beg for scraps of attention, twittering “read me, read me,” and sauntering through the perils of no publisher, no home.   A stray.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

 

 

Writing–when is enough, enough?

I wrote once about not being tempted to rush things.  I tend to be a sparce writer.  My first draft of a scene usually only gets the bare bones down–the characters, some conflict and action to advance the plot, and hopefully some realistic dialogue.  I have to give the scene a second pass to add dimension, description, and emotion.  Often, I need a third pass to add any subtleties.  If I hurry, it shows.  My story has what it needs, but it’s  not enough.

There’s another danger in writing, though.  And that’s the desire to tinker with a story or a novel until you’re not improving it any longer, you’re simply changing it.  So how can you tell when you’ve rewritten and polished enough?

I don’t have a “for sure” answer to that, but for me, I’ve adopted the rule of the first three–I get three shots at making each page the best I can write before I give my manuscript to someone else to critique–my trusted readers.  I don’t hold myself to this rule for the first chapter.  I have a tendency to go back to those pages over and over again as I write.  But for most of a book, I give myself three stabs at getting it right.  First, I do chapter rewrites as I work–polishing the pages I wrote the previous day before I start work on a new chapter–this almost always involves adding more pages to flesh things out.   Then when I finish each quarter of the novel, (the way I organize my plots), I’ll stop to look at that one fourth of the story again.  And finally, when I finish the entire thing, I go through it as a whole.  Then it’s time to send it to my readers.

I’ve never had anyone read my entire novel and say, “It’s perfect.”  It’s never going to happen, because I’m too close to the story and the writing.  So…that said, once I get the readers’  feedback, I start another round of rewrites to fix the scenes and screw-ups I didn’t catch myself.  And by then, you’d think the book would be in pristine shape.  But when I send it to my agent, there’s always something I missed.  When I’m lucky, it’s only a scene or two.  When I’m not, well…there’s more.  But by the time I finish those, I’m thoroughly and completely sick of the book.  I don’t even like it for the moment.  And that’s when I know it’s done.

I’m not saying this is a perfect method.  No two writers do anything alike.  But this works for me–usually.  Which means, there are no hard and fast rules in writing, even though it would be nice.  But this system has helped me find a balance between writing too fast and doing rewrites over and over again and never finishing a book.

This rhythm almost feels like a part of me now–three rewrites, show to readers, ready to send–so it suprised me when I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the last novella in one of my series.  I tinkered with it when I should have left it alone.  I’d accomplished what I wanted the series to do.  If I could say farewell to a novel, surely I could part with a series, right?  I’d intended for the Ally/Dante series to be a short one.  Four gargoyles, four novellas.  Each a sort of action/romance.  But I found that I really liked playing match maker for my gargoyles.   I enjoyed introducing them to their supernatural, soul mates, sifting through some of my favorite mythological immortals to introduce them to.  But the way I’d set up the stories, the series was over.  I left each gargoyle with the girl of his dreams–even if she was a gorgon or a winged horse.  They each had their own happily ever after, so…it was time to to be a good “writer mom” and get out of their business…and wish them well.  Even though I’ll miss them.  And just like my series, every writer has to reach a point when her “baby” grows up, it’s finished, and it’s time to let it go.  Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.  Don’t fall into the trap of infinite rewrites.

Here’s a link to the four Ally/Dante stories: http://bitly.com/bundles/judithpost/5  P.S.  The first novella, Flesh & Stone, is free on smashwords right now.  And here’s the newest and last novella in the series:

  (Sorry, this cover’s a little scandalous, but the girl’s a tree nymph, after all, and it’s hard to step out of some bark and be fully clothed.)

Getting the Writing Juices Flowing Again

I woke up this morning with thoughts of meatloaf and a novella running through my head.  The meatloaf, because I’m hungry for it.  Hungry enough that I’ll make it for supper tonight.  The novella, because the juices are stewing again.  My story is taking on life.

I’ve been away from writing for a while.  I worked on serious rewrites before the holidays.  That’s a form of writing, and one I usually enjoy.  This time, though, it was the third time through a manuscript I’ve lost all perspective on, I’ve looked at it so much.  But rewrites are different than sitting in front of a blank computer screen and asking myself, How do I bring this story to life?

The first time I asked myself that question, I only got a sorry, “this might work,” nothing that excited me solution.  If it didn’t excite me, it sure wasn’t going to entice a reader.  The second time, I didn’t fare much better.  Had my creativity flown the coop?  Taken a vacation?  I always panic for a minute and wonder if my writing skills are infinite or finite.  Can I use them up?  I could have wrestled some ideas to make them work, but more often than not, that shows.  It’s a bare-boned attempt, driven by plot points with not enough flesh or emotion.  The spark never really clicks, and the scene falls as flat as the lack of inspiration.

My brain wasn’t built to go from zero miles an hour to ninety.  It was just warming up.  That’s when I give it more time to play.  This was the third story in a series that I based on the setting in Fabric of Life, one of my novels.  So I thought back to the characters I’d created.  Usually, when I think about them–how they interact, what they want, what they’re doing in their world–ideas start percolating.   I know the main plot of the story before I ever start, but the journey from point A to point Z is driven by my characters and the decisions they make.  And this morning, before I opened my eyes, I could see Sheri getting ready to play her keyboard at the Fourth of July celebration in Emerald Hills.  Her nephew and his wife are saving her a spot on their blanket to watch the fireworks.  She’s looking forward to seeing old friends and having a picnic, but I know Fate has lots more in store for her.  She’s in for lots more than she bargained for.  And now, I can’t wait to start writing.

(Here’s a link for the first Emerald Hills novella, More Than Bonbons: it’s available at amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, smashwords, and more)

http://www.amazon.com/Bonbons-Emerald-Hills-Novella-ebook/dp/B009WEJ2FY/ref=sr_1_14?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1358782402&sr=1-14&keywords=Judith+Post

Almost A Month With No Writing

I wrote like a crazy woman in November and December, not because of word counts, but because, for the first time that I can remember, I decided to take a break from novels and novellas while my grandsons were here and when company came to stay with us for my husband’s surprise birthday/retirement party.  The boys stayed here for three weeks, from December 14 to January 7, and John’s brother and our daughter and son-in-law flew in on January 10 to 14.  I wanted to focus on people and enjoy them with no time out at my computer.  Did I like it?  Yes.  Do I want to do it again?  No.  Why?  I love friends and family, but I missed my writing.

I’m not saying that I have to do my usual routine–writing off and on for most of the day until it’s time to start supper–but if I would have squeezed in just one or two hours a day while the boys were here, it would have eased some of the itch of withdrawal.   I missed my keyboard, my make-believe worlds, and my characters.   It’s not like the boys need, or even want, to see me every waking minute, but people were in and out of the house, my husband was home, and I usually ditch everyone for my writing room, but this time I wanted to make the effort to bake cookies, cook their favorite meals, and enjoy them.  It was a mixed bag for all of us.  The truth?  I enjoy being a writer, and THEY enjoy having me escape and do my thing for a few hours a day.  (Okay, so maybe they want to get rid of me for a minute or two–hmmm).  So next year?  Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas, and they can live without me for a couple hours a day.  It makes us all happy.

Writing Goals 2013

I’ve been reading more books that are outside of my usual tastes lately, and it’s been good for me.  It’s made me think about what makes a good book.  When I read my favorite authors, I expect them to deliver certain things really well.  And they almost always do…that’s why they’re my favorites. But when I try a new author or a new genre, I don’t know what to expect, and I end up paying more attention to how the plot is constructed and the characters are developed.  It makes me think more about what works and what doesn’t…and how I’ve told my own stories, and how I can tell them better.

Things I’ve learned:

1.  Great scenes do not necessarily create a great book.  I’ve read quite a few novels lately where each scene is entertaining, and I keep turning the pages, but when I finish the novel, I realize something was lacking.  I enjoyed the book, but I didn’t love it.  The book didn’t demand much from me, so I didn’t invest much into it.  The novel’s a great one-shot read, but I wouldn’t go back for more.

2.  Repetition kills tension.  Every author knows that repeating information in a novel is redundant and loses a reader’s interest, but using the same technique over and over again gets old too.  I quit reading mystery writers who killed someone every time their plot started to sag.  I’m not against a death here or there to keep tension up, but enough is enough.  And glopping on more gore doesn’t make the scene more original.  The same goes for battles in fantasy novels.  Even if the writer adds a new element each time to keep the scenes fresh, the technique gets old.  The writer needs to change it up and surprise us.  Don’t be predictable.

3.  Angst isn’t enough to make me like a character.  Every protagonist has a problem, or an author wouldn’t have a story.  I’ve read a few stories lately where the writer straps a bad choice/experience onto the main character, and she carries it everywhere with her.  It affects the way she interacts with others.  I like that.  It adds depth, but it’s not enough.  The character has to come alive as a person to hold my interest.  She does this through her actions, not her thoughts.  What she does says more about her than lots of internal dialogue.

4.  Balance is hard to find.  My favorite books get it right.  Every main character comes to life.  No character fills a “slot”–this is the love interest, this is the bad guy, this is the potential body when someone has to die, etc.  There’s internal and external conflict, and there’s tension between characters.  Every scene has a purpose and conflict of some kind.

5.  Knowing the rules of good writing and doing them are two different things.  But my goal for 2013 is to try to grow as a writer, to make my stories more powerful or to involve the reader more.

Also, I want to thank anyone who’s taken the time to write any kind of feedback for my stories or novels, from long reviews to one sentence opinions.  I appreciate it.  Constructive criticism is a blessing.  It makes me think.

I hope 2013 is a great year for all of you–whatever your endeavors.  And if you’re an author, I hope you flex your writing muscles and your stories are better than ever.  What’s your favorite novel?  And why?

Writing–Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I’m in the middle of rewrites, with more to go.  I wanted to write a novel that focused on escalating battles.  With me, the problem is that when I focus on something, it’s possible that I focus too much.  When I first started writing (and no one should EVER do this), I concentrated on one thing that I wanted to learn and improve on with each novel I wrote.  The first novel was all about plotting.  I studied other authors’ novels and graphed peaks and valleys, made notes on when they added subplots and (for mysteries) clues or red herrings–looking for patterns.  I still have one of the novels I studied with scribbles on the edges of pages and outlined ideas on the title page.

A small press bought my endeavor and printed it as a sort of short newspaper to sell to people at airports (I still like that idea, but it wouldn’t “fly”–get it?–these days with e-readers.  But at that time, people could buy the “newspaper fiction” for reading on their trips).  Fun, but when I finally got my copy, the editor had slashed here and there to shorten the novel to fit the format–sometimes making the writing impossible to understand.  I wasn’t too thrilled, but I knew nothing about writing or publishing back then, so considered it a learning process.  I wouldn’t let that happen again.

My second novel was about pacing–how to keep people turning the pages.  In the third, I experimented with POV, etc.  (As you can see, I wrote a lot of novels that no one wanted–which was all for the better).  I made a habit of writing one step behind trends, so that when I sent a manuscript to editors, they’d say, “We’ve already seen ten zillion of these and never want to see another.”  It was a strong point of  mine, writing a serial killer novel right after the market was glutted.  But eventually, I came closer and closer to getting most things right.  Not that I, to this day, have sold a book to a big publisher.  But I’ve sure learned a lot.  And that’s a big part of why I finally decided to put my books online as e-books, because then I can continue my habit of writing the thing that captures my attention at the wrong time, or my equally enduring habit of never QUITE getting the genre exactly right without crossing genres a bit, so that an editor asks, “How would I market this?  It’s not exactly urban fantasy, but it’s not paranormal romance or a mystery either.”

Anyway, in my follow-up novel for Fallen Angels, I decided to write a novel with a lot of battles–because I wanted to learn how to write them better.  The result?  I didn’t have enough characterization and character conflict to make anyone care if the good guys won or lost.  A series of battles does not, in and of itself, a good story make.  So lots of rewrites to do?  Yes!  Is it fun?  Only some of it.  Lesson learned?  Characters are what drive a story.  The tension has to come from them.  And tension between the main characters is even better–so that there are battles on and OFF the battlefield.

My advice to you?  Don’t write like I do.  You might learn a lot, but there are easier ways to do it.