Florence Witkop's Blog, page 80

Modern Marvels

My DH is fixing an electrical circuit. Makes me wonder what we'd do without modern marvels. Like electricity. And computers. And the internet.

Life would be different. We'd be writing books by hand in candlelight. The worst thing, though, would be the dearth of books to read because how many people could find the time to pen those novels by hand by candlelight?

Think how long it would take. Louisa May Alcott did just that. What dedication that must have taken.

Strong Female Characters

There are tons of bad-ass female characters out there now. Some are human, some aren't and some are super-human. None would be found tending cows on a farm.
I like the strong kind of female character who would tend cows somewhere. The kind we see in pioneer literature or stories about civilians caught in the maelstrom of war.
Because strong isn't necessarily bad-ass. It can just be strong.
Bad-ass heroines are fun to read about. Women who rise to the occasion because they have to are just as wonderful.
I like both kinds.

Books and Spring

I'm trying to finish Wolf Legend before the snow thaws. Spring is late this year. In fact spring has never been later. The lakes are still frozen tight and there's a foot of snow on level ground. It shouldn't be that way, there should be flowers blooming.
But Wolf Legend should be done by now and it isn't. I've been delaying it because I'd reached a difficult part and didn't know how to proceed. Yesterday I figured it out and it's going well now.
So Spring can come. Please!

To Read or to Write

It's always a difficult choice for me. There are only so many hours in the day and what's the best way to use them? Reading, which I love and enjoy totally. Or writing, which I also love and enjoy but not always totally.

Because writing can be hard work and very frustrating. A book goes too slowly. It takes twists and turns I didn't anticipate and need to figure out.

Reading, on the other hand, can be a guilty pleasure. Is the laundry done? What to make for dinner? Can I see what color the floor is or has too much dirt been tracked in?

Oops. Guess I'd better get a mop.

Guns and 99 Cent Reads

I’ve decided that Americans like their guns and I have the data to back up that claim.  My data, as inconclusive as it may be, is that my novel Wanted Sharpshooter is selling better than any of my other books, even Spirit Legend, the book that was prominent last week in a book blast that sent it to be featured in a dozen blogs.  I admit this is a surprise to me.

Why has it  happened?  I have a thought.  Just a thought.  If you check out Wanted Sharpshooter, you’ll see that the cover features a guy with a rifle and he’s ready to fire it.  Both the guy and the rifle are prominent and can’t possibly be missed.  Both man and gun are dangerous.  The book sells for 99 cents.

Conclusion?  We Americans like our guns and I suspect we aren’t the only people who do. And I know that people everywhere also like a good, inexpensive story to read.  So perhaps Wanted Sharpshooter fulfills both desires?

As far as guns go, I can’t hit the broad side of a barn.  But when my dad died, our inheritance was guns.  Growing up, he repeatedly reminded us that guns are capable of killing people and you must remember that every single time you so much as touch one.

Books can be equally dangerous, though in a different way.  Words have the potential to change the world.  Not the books I write, they are for enjoyment and relaxation.  But both words and bullets are extremely potent weapons.

And a good, affordable story is a well-deserved treat.

Too Much Research

When I decided to become a writer, I thought I’d write non-fiction because it paid better.  I thought that, since I lived on a lake in the North Woods, that’s what I’d write about.  So I checked out magazines that featured those places.  And decided what my first article would be about.  And started to write.

I soon stopped because I had to make sure my facts were right.  That was before the Internet had arrived in northern Minnesota.  To make a long story short, I soon discovered that research was so time-and-money intensive that I soon changed from non-fiction to fiction.  I haven’t looked back and I haven’t been sorry.

But I soon learned that research is also necessary for fiction.  All fiction.  Even a story about a fictional universe must obey the laws of physics. But fiction isn’t real.  So I wondered exactly how much research is truly necessary.

I asked around.  I now know of writers who practically write a book of details about the world their protagonists live in before beginning the story they want to write.  They spend a lot of time doing research.  A lot!  I wondered if all that time was really necessary.

Over time I learned that it was necessary only for the kind of writer with an inner compulsion to get all the details nailed down before starting.  I believe that’s a personality thing, and I don’t have that kind of personality. So I learned that, for most of us, there’s an easier way.

Start writing.  When you come to a place where you need to know a bit of background, stop writing and take a walk, garden, cook, or do whatever you do when you need to brainstorm.  If appropriate, go online and look up a few details, but not too  many because you don’t want to get bogged down.

When you have the background figured out to the point that it feels right for the story, check what you’ve already written to see if you were right.  If your new thoughts about background are right, everything you’ve written will be right.  A few sentences might need to be tweaked but not much because subconsciously  you knew all along what the background for your story should be and your research is done. (You might have to repeat this a few times as the story progresses, but not nearly as much as if you tried to do it all beforehand.)

Then grab a sheet of paper, an index card, or appropriate software on your computer and jot down a few notes so when you next need to know the background, you’ll have a handy reference.

It works.  You won’t have to write a book before writing your book and your background details will be right for your book because you’ll be filling them in as you write instead of having to fit your writing into an already existing, rigid and possibly wrong framework.

Global Cooling

It's April. Spring. Supposed to be, anyway. But another seven inches of snow is forecast for tomorrow and had to use our roadside assistance today to be pulled from a ditch filled with snow because the car slid on the icy road. So what's going on?

Global warming? Or global cooling? Are we headed for another ice age instead of the other way around? Should I start writing snow stories? What would they include?

Commuting in Sno-cats. Wolves running over the ice sheets. Ice flowers everywhere. Sunglasses advertisements showing skiers instead of beaches. And romantic getaways in igloos. They are small, nicely rounded, have shiny walls and built-in beds.

Hmmmmm. Maybe I should get started. Unless the seven inches doesn't come tomorrow. Then I'll be dancing on the deck.

Why Loglines?

There’s a spot on the wall above my computer where the paint has worn off.  Because there have been so many loglines stuck there over the years.  I pulled the paper with the logline off the wall when the manuscript was finished and often some of the paint came off too.

For those of you who don’t know what loglines are, they are those one-sentence descriptions of your story that are used to pitch your book or that become the beginning of the blurb on the back cover.

But there’s another reason for writing down a logline.  A reason that has to do with the process of writing.  You seldom see this reason listed but it should be.

Because …  a one-sentence description of your story taped to the wall above your computer reminds you what you’re supposed to be writing.  It keeps you from getting lost in the details.  It tells you how to slant a scene if you don’t quite know how to write it because it keeps you focused on the bare essentials.  In short, it tells you where you’re going and how to get there.

Most importantly to you as a writer, the process of writing the logline makes sure that you know what you’re writing.  Because if you don’t know … and know well enough to put it into one sentence … no one else will either.  And if your readers don’t know what you’re saying, they won’t bother finishing your book.

Maybe one of these days I’ll paint that wall.  Or maybe not.  I’m kind of fond of that bare plaster.  It reminds me that I’m doing my job.

Minor Characters

Minor characters are sneaky.  They are necessary to the story but they aren’t supposed to take over.  The problem comes when one or more of them do exactly that.  So what to do?

Depends.  There are two kinds of minor characters.  You need to know which category your minor character belongs to before you can decide what to do about it.

The first category is that in which the minor characters flesh out the story, make it deeper, stronger and better. But if that character could be written out of the story without changing the story itself, then that particular character isn’t essential.  Rein them in, keep them under control.  Do it!

The second category is that in which the minor character is essential but isn’t the character that the story is about.  Same question applies.  Could you write that character out without changing the story?  If the answer is ‘no’ then you should think long and hard before you rein in that character.

Because your story just might be better for enlarging that character’s place.

I’m thinking about this because, in my book Spirit Legend that’s going to be featured in a Book Blast starting the 8th of April (drum roll, please) a minor character took over and became a major player.  I didn’t know it was happening until after the book was finished.  It was the reviews that made it very clear that the character of the spirit in the lake was pivotal and important.  Reviewers used words like  ’charming.’  ’interesting.’  and ‘endearing.’  And the spirit only came into existence as a device to hang a story on.  Until it took over and I let it run riot because I couldn’t figure out how to rein it in.

Now that I’m deep into Wolf Legend, the same thing is happening to the character of the psychic wolf pup Snowball.  She was supposed to be an afterthought.  She now has a starring role and I’m glad to say that this time around I’m smart enough to recognize what’s happening and run with it.

So expect to see a lot of Snowball in Wolf Legend.  And I’m looking forward to seeing whichever of your minor characters take over and run with your story when you publish your next piece.

Long, Dark, Silky Hair

I've been involved in a thread in a Goodreads group. It's about first versus third person narrative. I mentioned that first person is great if done well and awful if done badly. I quoted a sentence I'd read in a book, "I brushed my long, dark, silky hair," as an example of awful. The responses were wonderful. Readers took the sentence and added to it until I doubled over laughing just from reading them. "I brushed my long, dark, silky hair as his blood slid silkily down it." And so on.
It was great. I think there are either a lot of writers on Goodreads or a lot of readers who'd make wonderful writers if they let loose and tried!