Jacky Lang's Blog, page 2

Slippery dreams

All my life I've had extremely vivid dreams. Often my dreams provide some of the best writing ideas...if I can just capture them before they slip away. Sometimes it's a race to get the ideas, the dialogue, or the sensations typed into my files before the drowsy haze lifts and they fade into the work day. Not that I don't remember most of the details of my dreams on into the day. It's just that the intensity and texture ghosts away from me as the lights, caffeine and sounds of the world invade. I've tried all kinds of tricks to extend the time I have to capture these dream inspirations: notepad and computer near the bed, keeping the lights low, delaying that first cup of wake-up liquid. Today, nature is helping. I've got a dark, rainy and quiet west coast morning that's dragging into mid-day. The fuzzy, sleepy and creative wrapping of dream time is lingering around my brain and I feel inspired. Did you think this would be about the OTHER kind of slippery dreams? Maybe next time...or in the next book.

Classic or tired?

There are some classic story themes that come back, and sell, over and over again. Star-crossed lovers, the underdog hero or the epic battle between good and evil will always garner fans, especially when the tale is told with a fresh twist. So what makes a story a retelling of a beloved theme and what makes it a stale, done-to-death flop? Here a few thoughts I had while doing beta reading for a colleague:
1. Does it seem like you've read or heard this exact dialogue before?
2. Can you guess the big plot reveal or ending by page three?
3. Do you find yourself comparing with another story while reading?
Classic ideas stick around for a long time because they work. The key for us as authors is to try to find a new take that will capture the reader while at the same time giving them the comfort of a familiar theme.

Inside jokes

I was asked to read and comment on a screenplay this past month. The writer had written a story that was pretty universal but had buried it in the language and jargon of a particular hobby group. I won't say what to protect the writer, but let's just say that if you didn't share this unique interest most of the dialogue made no sense. Early in my writing I struggled with the fact that too many of my characters sounded like me. It led to lots of late nights and rewrites. Sometimes I wonder if in our enthusiasm about a particular topic we might be losing our audience because we're too busy navel gazing and speaking an insider's only language. So writers out there, is your work filled with inside jokes that no one gets? Just wondering.

Author with a day job?

Okay, I'll admit it--I'm not rich or famous, and I work in the "real world" when I am not writing. Aside from keeping my bills paid, which is HUGE, I'm thankful for my other career because it's also the hidden part of writing. Huh? The world of online, independent ebooks allowed me (and thousands of others) to finally realize the dream of being an author. However, this new easy access writing world also means that I spend a lot of time doing marketing, networking and promoting book sales. Without experience outside the realm of writing these tasks would have been frustrating. I've noticed lots of people in my network came to writing as a second career or write (like me) while holding down a day job. I think it makes us better marketers...I hope it makes us better writers as we never lose touch with the "real" world and our readers. Will I be a full time author one day? I don't know, but for now I am thankful for the set-up I enjoy. I'd love to hear from other writers. Are you working in another field? If not, how long did it take to get enough success to say "I'm an author" with no qualifiers?

Do I need to love you...

to write you?
This past week I was involved in a book discussion with a group of serious readers. We were talking about a book that had a main character that most of us disliked, so much so that we chuckled about scenes where he was humiliated or punished for his actions. I wondered, did the author like this guy he created? I have a hard time writing characters I don't like; I simply don't want to spend that much time in their company. Of course, I know all stories need a full array of characters, but I find that if I fall in love with a character I want to spend more time writing him/her...and have to drag myself to write the "bad guys"...then again... If I've got some comeuppance or retribution up my sleeve it does get easier.

Debt ain't sexy

For generations fiction writers have romanticized the painful and just plain yucky parts of life. When readers escape into a story they realize, in their heads, that women don’t fall in love with their kidnappers, crimes aren’t solved in days with iron clad evidence, and underdogs do not usually end up as billionaires. However, when they read with their hearts, fiction lovers want all these things and more to be true. It was this desire to have a better than real life outcome that pushed me to write Love & Money. Real news stories about the young women and men who sell themselves to pay off college debt inspired me to write my first novella. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07... Because it’s fiction, my heroine has sexy and exciting adventures to go along with her bitter reality of indebtedness and loneliness. If only real life were as easy to edit as a manuscript.
Love & Money on amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008ISXQX4

Scheduled creativity

Sometimes writing drives me nuts. When what I want to write or what I need to get finished doesn't match what comes out on the computer screen I could just go mad. Do other writers ever feel this way? I have days when I clear my schedule, the everyday tasks are all done, the house is quiet and I sit down to write...only to discover I can't think of a single thing to say. Then there are days when I am already juggling a bunch of responsibilities and inspiration hits like lightening. I find myself frantically searching for a pen or a moment to look at a keyboard so I can capture the ideas before they dissolve. The struggle to balance disciplined writing strategy and sparks of inspiration continues each day.

Saving the cat

I have this brilliant but temperamental friend who is also an independent filmmaker. He reminded me recently of his "saving the cat" rule for introducing characters. He told me that if you must bring in characters that are hard to understand that showing them doing something good/interesting early on will help readers connect with them. His example is having the harsh looking, tough guy feed or save a stray cat in the early scenes. I find it's helpful to not only talk to other authors and readers but people with a more visual take on stories (like filmmakers) when I'm stuck or stalled. How about you?

Who's allowed to be sexy?

When I first decided to write adult romance my goal was pretty simple: write something I enjoy that someone else might also enjoy reading. I held no illusions of delving into deep literary waters. However, as I began researching and churning stuff out I realized I was hitting on some touchy issues without even trying. At least I thought I was...
I became convinced when a couple of things happened. First, my ebook cover designer could not find images of sexy Asian American men to use to reflect the romantic hero of my first novella Love&Money. Second, my most popular social media posts were the ones that mentioned both my books contained sexy computer geeks. We all deserve the right to feel sexy and to find characters like us in romance stories. So far I've included lots of racial diversity and some inter-race relationships, sexy geeks, and women over thirty. I'm sure I will get to smashing some other not-allowed-to-be-sexy stereotypes soon.Jacky Lang