Kate Larking's Blog: Anxiety Ink, page 43

Immortal Characters: Yes Or No?

A panel description at World Fantasy raised the question of how we write immortal characters. So many end up acting like modern twenty- or thirtysomethings. Should we even bother to attempt these centuries-old characters?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Hell, yes.

In one novel concept, I have a 4,000-year-old vampire. In a short story, I have a race of immortal lobster-creatures. One urban fantasy novel has the main character regularly interacting with creatures hundreds, if not thousands of years old. An entire series revolves around a set of artificial intelligences that have shaped the world for hundreds of thousands of years.

So no, I don’t think these are character types best left alone.

However, the pitfalls for making these characters believable are difficult to avoid. The temptation for lazy writing beckons. Far easier to write someone no different in any real way – any of the ways that matter – from anyone you might pass on the street.

Far harder to hold onto the knowledge of the history they’ve experienced, their loves, their hates – all the things that shape who and what they are now.

What might fascinate me most is how they would view time. Time, as the saying goes, is relative, after all. The older we get, the faster it moves. Wouldn’t someone a millennium old lose track of years – maybe even decades – the way we lose track of days of the week?

My advice: write an immortal carefully. But don’t let it stop you from writing.

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Historical Licence When Writing Fiction

Yet another memorable panel from When Words Collide was Historical Licence. The very talented presenters included Diana Gabaldon, D.B. Jackson (aka David B. Coe), Jodi McIssac, and Susan McGregor. Each panelist has written some form of historical fiction, what separates them is their devotion to history and willingness to change things to suit their stories. That’s what lead the discussion.

Turning to myself for a moment, I’m an avid history nerd. Much of my early and mid-teens was devoted to historical fiction –to the point that I can barely read it now. My love will return, I just need space. More than that, I’ve written my share of historical fiction. In fact, much of the honours project I completed involved writing turn of the century fiction and some set in the 60s/70s era. Finally, I make no bones about loving research. Not only do I love to know things, I love to find out how they came to be the way they are.

History is, quite simply, awesome. So obviously I took great interest in this talk. I won’t present it at length, but I’ll share my favourite parts that I think will be fruitful for anyone who wants to write historical. Please remember the awesome thoughts presented have been filtered through my measly brain! Now back to the panel.

Diana Gabaldon’s commitment to historical accuracy is far beyond laudable. In the course of all her books –the entire Outlander series and the spinoff Lord John series– she can tell you the two historical inaccuracies within them. Two inaccuracies she made willingly because her story wouldn’t work without them. That is mind-boggling. Considering the Scottish history she covers, not to mention the WWII history she covers, I feel like my research skills need vast improvement.

Still, she agreed with the other authors when they said it’s up to you as a writer whether or not you want to stay true to history “as it’s written.” That’s a key phrase there. You can deny it if you want, but history is written by the winners. More often than not, the barbaric, male winners who spin tales to their own ends.

So, depending on what you’re writing about, there’s vast differences in the kinds of history available to you. Some cultures have been taken over and erased. Some, like the people of New Guinea, rely(ied) on oral traditions, so mass deaths/killings from things like colonialism have wiped out swaths of their history and culture. All we have left are the notes from people like Margaret Mead and the stories and knowledge the elderly hold onto.

Beyond the implications of “written history,” you have to remember that you’re a fiction writer, not a historian. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how authentic to history you want or need to be while writing. But, there is a difference between historical fiction and alternate history fiction. D.B. Jackson went on about this at some length since he holds a history degree and his fantasy books are set in colonial Boston.

Two basic questions to ask yourself include: what needs to change, even minutely, for your narrative to work; and, are you trying to recreate a place that was or a place that could have been? Your answers to these will save you a lot of time down the road when it comes to your writing.

Regardless of what path you choose, there are always going to be certain readers who will be alienated by the things you choose to stay true to, or not. This can be said about any narrative choice when it comes to writing and it all ties back in to finding your ideal reader.

From a purely narrative standpoint, Diana Gabaldon mentioned that juxtaposing history can be just as powerful as presenting it, which is what she did by using a (relatively) present day damsel in historic Scotland. Using Claire’s more modern perspective as a filter bridged the gap between the tumultuous Scotland of yore for many readers.

I have to say here that I have yet to read Gabaldon’s Outlander series, but I do know quite a lot about it and the time in history in which is takes place. For the record, there is no way in hell I would want to be a woman in that time. And from what I’ve heard, Claire walks a fine line doing so because some of her sensibilities don’t jive. That’s a powerful arsenal for a writer.

Something else that Gabaldon said made me quirk my head: ordinary people in their time will be ordinary in any other time –extraordinary people are catalysts, though not usually for mass change because history doesn’t work that way. This is both a fantastic and realistic concept. One I still need to think at length on before I dissect. But I do agree that single individuals are not equipped to bring about mass change. It’s not possible. Just think of the legacy of Dr. King and the issues African American still face half a century later.

Another important point that came up that is truly worthy of discussion is that historical persons have to stay true to their time, even if a contemporary moral compass dictates that what they do is ethically questionable for readers. People are products of their time, that’s the be all and all. And believe me, I know that’s frustrating.

You can absolutely stay true to your moral compass, I do believe you should, but there’s a fine line between balancing that and integrating true history. Perhaps it comes down to depicting only just what you need. For me, I prefer to depict all the good and bad because the bad shouldn’t be erased or forgotten because then it’s far too easy to repeat. But that’s part of my moral compass.

The last topic that really piqued my interest concerned using real historical persons as characters. I can’t remember what writer they quoted who said that it shouldn’t be done, but the entire panel, and most of the packed room, laughed at this. Historical fiction would be pretty damn dull without the real people who made up history. Just think of all the Henry VIII books we’d miss out on!

Still, the panelists agreed that if you’re going to put words in real people’s mouths –which they very much supported– this is what they advise: do your research to see what they would say, how they would say it, and whether they’d care about the topic you’re making them talk about. Most importantly, don’t portray them doing anything worse than they actually did. That was a line the authors all agreed they would not cross, but said it’s up to an individual writer. It’s something to keep in mind.

That’s all I have for you folks! It was a wonderful discussion.

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A Bad Writing Month is Okay

I’ve had a lot of issues this month surrounding guilt. I’ve had a heavy month at work, a vacation, NaNoWriMo, a publication deadline that required a lot of start-up work, and depression.

The depression is a biggest factor. The reason for that is it has influenced my point of view on everything else. Work is harder to make it through when depressed; I have less energy, can’t sleep as much but need more sleep, and feel discouraged/overly anxious with what I am working on. Enjoying my vacation was harder because I felt my spirit was too dampened to deserve a vacation. I felt lazy and awful not working, not writing, not being productive. When I struggled to write, I could feel the depression smothering me like a fire blanket snuffing out flames. Any time I wanted to work creatively, I felt the nagging of my publication deadline and all the things I needed to get done to make December 4th successful.

So this month I have been working really hard to concentrate on forgiving myself.

It seems an oddly simple thing to say but it is a lesson that is going to take me some time to learn, appreciate, reinforce, and continue to apply to myself.

I have a feeling that this whole month is going to be about learning this lesson. I am listening to lectures by Brene Brown, reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I am only just starting to feel more comfortable about writing again. Because this bad writing month won’t define me.

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NaNo Roundup

Somehow, we have all made it to the end of NaNo. Congratulations!

My word count is . . . pathetic enough that I’d rather not share. And after the first week or two, I gave up on making my daily goal of two hours of writing time.

I had a lot of bad habits to unlearn. Still do.

Ideally, I’d love to be like Chuck Wendig and write 50,000 words every month. But that is nothing I will manage working a full-time day job while acknowledging family’s existence and having a social life.

This year’s NaNo gave me the chance to relearn how to eke out a few extra minutes of writing throughout my day. How those minutes quickly add up to something significant. I’ve even had a few days that approached my June levels of output, when I was finishing a chapter every other day.

I won NaNo.

Not by word count, and not by my arbitrary measure of hours per day. My whole purpose was to get back into a rhythm I’ve been missing for months. It may have taken me all of November, but I did it.

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Expanding Writer Setting

As I’ve said a few times this month, and last month, and the month before, NaNoWriMo is on my mind. As part of the prep work I keep bringing up, I’ve expanded my writer setting. I haven’t done anything truly special to my space except attach some cork board to my wall, but it’s big for me.

Step one has stalled…

When I was thinking about all of the things I need to learn and relearn in order to dive back into my WIP, I remembered some of the troubles I faced before –like flipping between my research panels and writing panels in Scrivener because I forgot a detail I needed.

Part of the issue is that my character, while similar to me in many mental ways, has a lot of physical skills and work skills I will never have. Unless the apocalypse descends in my lifetime. My character has to know about, not to mention how to use, a variety of weapons to do her job. She’s also had a lifetime of exposure to weapons. Me, not so much. Plus, I have no interest in hunting or hunting implements, so all the things I learn about them have a tendency to be the first details to leave my brain.

Beyond that issue, I’m largely unfamiliar with my setting. I’ve researched significant aspects, have visited, and will continue to learn, but there are things I forget. For instance, I have a terrible sense of direction while driving. I’m better on foot, but 9 times out of 10 if I’m driving somewhere new I get lost. Trying to write a character who does not have that problem is harder than I thought it would be because as the writer I have to know where everything is and be able to transcribe directions to a reader in an interesting fashion.

Obviously, I needed one solution for all of these challenges.

Then I recalled a picture I came across on the internet of Laurell K. Hamilton’s plot wall. She’s over twenty books into her Anita Blake series, by the way. I’m just suffering through one book *breathes into a paper bag*.

Laurell K. Hamilton via Pinterest

Anyway, I knew from the first that sticky notes were not for me. One, they suck. They are not big enough and the glue is not sticky enough for people like me who will change their minds and move things around. Two, they’re really expensive! Three, my cats would have a field day trying to pull those suckers down. And one cat has a glue fixation that I do not like to encourage. Four, I don’t have a wall to devote to sticky notes.

I thought of using cue cards and thumbtacks, but I also didn’t want to decimate the wall space I do have by filling it with little holes. Eventually, I remembered there was such a thing as cork board, and voila! I’ve stalled out on filling it because NaNo is time consuming, but it will be a part of my post-50K therapy.

As much as I love the organization of Pinterest and Scrivener, having something tangible devoted to my story is really inspiring. No, my little space won’t solve all my writing problems, but it does put my WIP in mind constantly and it gives me a place to walk to, to move to, when I’m feeling stuck.

Have you changed your writing setting at all in an effort at improved productivity?

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DNF

Last week I started talking about the major points that stood out from Rae Carson’s keynote at Sirens Conference in October. This post, I want to talk about the second one.

Rae mentioned how she loved to start things. She would start stories and never finish them. She would start numerous craft projects–and not finish them. Something new and shiny would always come around and grab her attention. While on one hand, this is a sign that she is a really creative person, it told of something else: she had practiced giving up throughout her whole life.

The DNF (did not finish) pattern made her give up time and time again.

So when she was writing, the first lesson she learned was one of the hardest: she had to practice commitment. Just because she had stopped before finishing time and time again, she had to learn to push through to the end, even if she didn’t think it was perfect. After all, perfect is the enemy of good. And good is the enemy of done.

To paraphrase, what she said after hit me the hardest after overcoming this DNF obstacle that had ruled her life: “Obstacles are not walls. They are not impassable. You will still learn. You will still throw words out by the bucket. But you will still be moving forward.”

A timely post for the end push of NaNoWriMo. Do the thing! Finish the story.

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Writer’s Block

I have ridiculous writer’s block. Which is weird for me. Once I get over the hump of starting, I’m generally fine.

Not this time.

So in lieu of a proper post, I’m going to share a favorite research/procrastination source: Unseen Portland is a photo blog of – you guessed it – Portland.

No, not that Portland. The other Portland. Maine has one, too, remember.

Not only are the photos amazing, but it is wonderful reference for a particular urban fantasy.

Photo by coreysomething, Anxiety Ink.

Action and Opening Scenes: Yea, Nay, or Balance?

This is my very last post about When Words Collide 2015. After this I’ve used up all of the notes I think others will find useful and/or interesting.

It’s not surprising that over the course of the extended weekend in August, I heard contradictory pieces of information. Devil’s advocate that I am, I like to play both sides of the fence, unless it’s something really obvious where there is only the right side to be on. The opposing views I came across are from Faith Hunter and Fonda Lee, and they concern using action as a book opener.

To be fair, Faith Hunter was busy discussing and dissecting opening scenes generally over the course of a day, so her comments are not as in-depth as I’m sure they would be had I asked directly. And while Fonda Lee’s panel Knock ‘Em Out: How to Write Action and Fight Scenes went into depth about action scenes, openers weren’t her priority. Then of course this post has been filtered through me with my own agenda.

Fightgirls by MGEARTWORKS via Flickr

Here are Faith Hunter’s thoughts on action scenes as book openers: Regardless of the current vogue, it’s never a mistake to open with action and/or conflict. Of the three types of openings she identified, Hunter labelled action as an ideal one because it can be an instant hook for readers. That was her priority and the topic of her workshop –hooking readers in those first five pages.

This is Fonda Lee’s opinion on action scenes as book openers: Ignore the common advice “start with action.” Action is precious. People are not emotionally connected to the characters or the situation or cause in your book’s first scene which wastes the action. For better insight into Lee’s opinion, you have to look at the three principles she outlined for great action: 1) Action evokes emotion; 2) Action must serve narrative purpose, and 3) Action is about character.

Lee adds that the only thing that makes your action scenes stand out is a vulnerable protagonist in a desperation situation. It makes sense that if we don’t yet know the protagonist, it’s hard to identify or empathize with their vulnerability and we won’t recognize the true desperation of the situation if we’re thrown in head first with no information. Thus, she recommends starting with the inevitability of action, the promise of it.

I have to say I fall somewhere in between these two brilliant ladies. As a reader I appreciate a book opening that grabs me with its breakneck speed, but at the same time I recognize that I’m not as emotionally invested if intense action is happening to a character I don’t know. I’m interested, but I’m not compelled.

I agree with Lee in that an intense action opener seems to be a waste of emotion. However, if it were a subsequent book in a series I could live with it because I’m already invested emotionally in the cast of characters. But that’s assuming that readers read books in order (I actually can’t believe that there are people who don’t).

Lee’s breakdown of action makes perfect sense to me. So does Hunter’s ideas about an action packed opener that grabs the reader’s attention. I think there’s a way to meld the two and balance them out, but I’m inexperienced. Still, in medias res is not touted in the writing world for nothing…

Action is part of reaction to a situation, and while we never want our protagonists to only react in a story, why can’t an opener have a tense reaction on the characters part? All books start when the protagonist is pushed into exiting their normal lives. That seems like the ideal setup before they start the action when I’m emotionally invested in them.

What do you think?

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Writing and Impostor Syndrome

While I’m on the topic of writing about keynote speeches at Sirens Conference, I thought I would touch on two really important points in Rae Carson’s keynote.

The first point I want to touch on was her mention of continually experiencing impostor syndrome as a writer.

Wikipedia defines imposter syndrome as:

Impostor syndrome describes people who are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.

Luck and timing are key factors in the publishing industry that spell out success. As a result, it’s really really hard to acknowledge your own talent when luck and timing are vital variables in an industry.

But the industry isn’t one where, once you are in, you are in. The total opposite, actually. Rae mentioned that she always felt that her next book would reveal that she’s a hack. In the meantime, she obsessed over covers, sales numbers, print runs, and what that all means. It’s taking a long time for her to return to the pure state of loving writing and to simply share a story.

I know a lot of writing friends who are impacted by the feeling of being an impostor. The feeling that any good words are the result of luck that was undeserved. That writing is a game of karma, not about practice, skill, passion, and a story to tell. I feel it all the time. We live in a world–mostly in North America–where we are conditioned as children to grow up and become world heroes. We are going to amount to something huge. When that doesn’t happen, we start to feel like we are the extras in the world’s story. And we wonder if we can give to the world, especially when our passion turns to creative pursuits often dismissed by the academic and business world.

Rae said she treats her impostor syndrome the same way she would treat depression: with acknowledgement, forgiveness, and kindness to herself. While that is wonderful in theory, we all know–Rae included–that practical application of those can be harder than saying the theoretical practice. Sometimes, we don’t even see that we are struggling, especially in an industry that relies on luck, timing, and well-written words.

The most valuable lesson from this aspect of Rae’s speech was that, no, the feeling won’t ever go away completely. Being published doesn’t take away any of the fears and stresses and insecurities you have held when you were unpublished. Being published isn’t going to magically make all of those worries better. So you don’t have to wait for publication to treat yourself with kindness, encouragement, and forgiveness.

Part two coming up next week

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(My) Tropes To Avoid

One panel at World Fantasy was on tropes that must die. Situations and settings and characters and plot devices that are so overused that they need to be retired. Permanently.

The anti-climax: I didn’t attend this panel. However, I have sat in on similar panels and discussions, and have some thoughts of my own on the subject.

The takeaway from panels like this tends to be that most any trope can be well-written, though the more it’s used, the harder it it to come up with a new and different take on it. And sometimes tropes need to take a break – maybe come back in a few years with a fresh spin that makes it new and exciting again.

I highly recommend tvtropes.org – only if you have a few hours to spare to the rabbit hole!

I still have difficulty identifying tropes in my own stories, but there is an entire subset of tropes I prefer to avoid. I call it special-by-birth: characters who are somehow born special, whether because of family, or some unique ability, or because of some prophecy.

And if you know me and my stories, you’re probably laughing right now, because that encapsulates a lot of my main characters. I’ve only recently become aware of this, all right?

These tropes are essentially wish fulfillment. I mean, who doesn’t fantasize about having superpowers, or discovering she’s really an intergalactic princess? And there’s nothing wrong with wish fulfillment. If it’s written well, it can be a powerful tool. Tricky, though.

But the problem with the special-by-birth tropes is that what they are makes them special, not what they do. See the difference? What makes a character sympathetic and has us cheering for her are the choices she makes. Her agency. Characters that are the object of action and not the subject are boring, no matter how special.

Does this mean that I’m going to forget my stories that use these tropes? No. But it does mean I’m going to scrutinize each and every one of them.

And here is where you can peek into the workings of my brain:

I want this inherent specialness to inform the characters, not define them. So what would happen if I took away that thing that makes them special? Erased it entirely? Are they still them? Their values, their choices, their personalities?

Yes? Good. No? Back to the drawing board. Whatever character I have is too one-dimensional.

But if I took that specialness away, would the story still happen? If yes, then it’s nothing more than a plot device – deus ex machina – a shortcut. Sloppy. Get rid of it, and the story will be stronger. If no, I might be on the right track. Just so long as that thing that makes her special is not the fulcrum of every twist and turn of the plot.

In one novel, my main character starts out not knowing anything about her particular heritage, but take it away and there’s not much she would do differently. It is not central to move the plot, though it sometimes helps it along. So I had to play with what it would mean to take it out entirely.

Then there would be no story.

I have another story where the ability was central to the initial concept, but I’ve become less and less convinced that it works. Where the story stands now, I could easily write it out and not lose a thing.

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