When someone asked me what I thought of the last book I read, I said right away, "It had flavor."
Maybe she thought I ate it.
I explained it had to do with the story and the writing evoking a feeling. The characters were true to, not just themselves, but the setting and the time. The atmosphere was right.
Yes, I could've said the story was realistic, well researched, the author used the proper syntax, and made use of all the senses...
But I like the single word flavor.
And just like some books can leave a bad taste in your mouth, this one tasted just fine.
It had flavor.
--Cat
Found on the web:
It was chapter 13. [Spooked by the number, maybe?]
And it wasn't working for me.
It usually doesn't occur to me that the problem lies with the POV [point of view].
I thought I had it nailed. Seemed logical to continue using the POV from the previous chapter. As I edited, however, it was apparent some nails had been wrenched out, leaving gaping holes.
Filling those holes without interrupting the flow proved difficult.
But changing from Her POV to His saved the day. Or the chapter, to be more precise.
I didn't have to change the events. Only the manner in which the POV character sees them, how they affect him.
And as previously she had to interpret his actions, now he will interpret hers. For this chapter it works better this way.
There may be future chapters or scenes in which I'll need to do this. I need to remember my original draft was not written in stone. That's why it's called a draft.
– Cat
I watched figure skating and noticed the best skaters bring more than skill to their performances.
They bring emotional depth. They connect with the audience. They resonate in a way that's long remembered.
How does this relate to writing?
I remember best those novels that made the emotional connection. I was a kid staying up all night to read To Kill A Mockingbird. And some years later did the same with Gone With The Wind. I devoured works by Mary Stewart, Helen MacInnes, Frank Yerby, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, Taylor Caldwell, on and on . . .
I traveled the world in books, relived history from the age of dinosaurs through wars and beyond, leaped into a future limited only by the writer's imagination. Much excitement, yes, but none of these books would be memorable to me if I hadn't felt an emotional connection to the characters.
How many novels did I read with pounding heart and fear that characters X and Y might not make it? [I wouldn't allow myself to check the last page.] And before it became a given that Romance novels ended happily-ever-after, I sweated through that black moment of despair along with X and Y.
I don't often relive those breathtaking moments; age has jaded me. Yet there are books I close and think, "Whew, what a read," or, more rarely, "I loved it."
I've read many books in which the characters walk through without leaving an impression. I'm not sorry I spent money on those books, I'm sorry the authors toiled for months or years on the novel and failed.
Failed with me, anyway.
Writer's quotes:
If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats.
--Richard Bach
I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.
--Tennessee Williams
--Cat
Timelines/Outlines
The first historical romance I wrote, a behemoth of 900 pages, single spaced, remains a fond memory. An abandoned fond memory.
I'll say one thing for myself as ambitious writer -- I was bold if I thought that novel might be published. I wrote with a lot of passion, a great thesaurus, and although I could tell the difference between good writing and bad, my own tended more to the purple side and exhibited a lot of ignorance about structure and plot development.
I started with every character's backstory.
At about page 200, the story began. I thought.
At page 300 the main characters finally met.
And so it went, until years later, older and somewhat wiser, I reluctantly put it down. RIP.
(I still begin each new story with backstory, but I've learned to place that part into an Outtakes folder for reference, and start where that particular story actually starts.)
I then began work on a story I'd vaguely plotted in my head. The beginning and end were clear. I wrote scenes in no particular order, planning to organize them at some point. Scenes multiplied as the story took shape, some elements morphing several times as new characters, new dramas arrived, stayed, or departed.
At some point I needed to list the scenes in order, so I created a rough point by point outline, adding one sentence prompts that would join the scenes I'd written.
This wasn't good enough. I needed a timeline to ensure the drought scene happened in summer, the blizzard happened in winter.
First off--the date the story began and a brief description of the event: example--train derails, A & B meet.
It became important to put the main characters' dates of birth in the timeline to keep track of their ages. Also, their parents and siblings, and various other characters.
Each important plot event received an appropriate date, so on it went.
Ordering my scenes became easy. Adding important ones and taking out needless ones made sense.
And I had the makings of an outline that came together out of necessity.
My timelines have all become outlines, usually after the fact.
To outline or not in advance is up to the writer, who learns what works for him/her. Here are four authors' takes on outlines:
I'm one of those writers who tends to be really good at making outlines and sticking to them. I'm very good at doing that, but I don't like it. It sort of takes a lot of the fun out.
--Neil Gaiman
The outline is 95 percent of the book. Then I sit down and write, and that's the easy part.
--Jeffery Deaver
The research is the easiest. The outline is the most fun. The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out. The rewrite is very satisfying.
--Ken Follett
In fiction, you have a rough idea what's coming up next - sometimes you even make a little outline - but in fact you don't know. Each day is a whole new - and for me, a very invigorating - experience.
--Peter Matthiessen
– Cat
I may not have noticed it so much had I not read the books back to back.
Two Historical Romances by authors living in different countries, both published in 2009 by different publishers, yet the stories so similar the writers could have been following a template.
Handsome noble tortured hero - check
Beautiful determined heroine - check
Dastardly relatives in need of heroine's inheritance attempt to force her to marry a friend who will share the wealth - check
For her safety, hero must spirit heroine to his isolated country home near the ocean - check
With the love and support of heroine, hero undergoes a harrowing catharsis, meets his demons, and is cured - check
Pages of steamy love scenes - check
HEA - of course
Both books are well-written, have unique individual style, a good sense of place and time, and unobtrusive yet endearing secondary characters.
But I would have enjoyed the second book more had I not read the first, or had more time elapsed between readings.
Not the authors' faults. Not the reader's either. I guess I'll chalk this up to coincidence, and the limitations of the genre.
This all gives me pause in my own writing. One of my works in progress knowingly contains an oft-used plot device as a subplot, and my job is to twist it so it doesn't seem business as usual.
Hopefully the characters will assist me with this task.
~Where did I read that there are only five or so different plots and all the good ones are gone?
--Cat
Hill Towns by Anne Rivers Siddons.
Marital midlife crisis played out against the beauties and dregs of Italy. Truly a wonderfully detailed travelogue, dense with images of Rome, Venice, Florence, Tuscany...
Siddons uses words like an artist uses paint, and the results are stunning. The main character's name is Cat -- how could I not enthusiastically partake of this book's delights?
While the reader is meant to savor the word pictures, I found myself skimming segments in order to get to the action. Wading through the pretty lettuce to get to the tomato I glimpsed every now and then, to use a silly metaphor. Gorgeous scenery does not a story make. The characters are unique, well-described, properly flawed, yet I couldn't immerse myself in their travails. Their travels, yes; oh, silly pun.
Things do happen, the main characters change, but I was left with an empty "is that all there is?" feeling?
~
What did this book teach me about writing?
--My experience reading this book was uniquely mine. It spent months on the NY Times bestseller list, so many, perhaps most readers loved it. I need to remember people get different things out of books.
--I haven't the talent for writing beautiful vivid imagery that Ms. Siddons has. My descriptions consist of a few items that would catch one's first glimpse, then I rely on the reader's imagination to fill in the rest. I find, with other writers as well, that when I stop reading to admire the writing I am pulled away from the story. Also, as an unknown I can't add pages of details at a time when publishers prefer less, not more.
--While I have read and loved literary works, I've never attempted to write one. Symbolism and metaphors abound in Hill Towns. The story itself is a well-crafted metaphor, something I could not plan in advance. My rare symbols and metaphors happen by chance (as the lettuce one above) and are usually not seen as such till much later. I write genre. Sure genre can be literary, but literary cannot, I think, be genre. Clear as mud, right?
--My stories can't meander about leaving the (genre) reader wondering when the pace will pick up. Several times I set this book down and was in no hurry to pick it up again. I want my readers to keep turning those pages.
--Backstory. The first third or so of this book is backstory, relevant to the main theme, so it needs to be there in some form. In my (genre) novels relevant backstory, which I thought was necessary to show in depth, becomes a few sentences told by one character to another, or a brief memory.
~
Writing quotes:
Learn as much by writing as by reading.
--Lord Acton
If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.
--Stephen King
~
--Cat
I was having trouble with a scene -- no matter how many times I went through it, I wasn't satisfied with the effect. It was slow, wordy, dare I say boring? Aack -- k o d (kiss of death)!
I needed a different perspective, so rewrote the scene from his point of view. And yes, it's faster, less wordy (he's a terse sort) and has an edgy sense to it, something I couldn't pin down when in her POV.
She will have many other tense scenes, but this simply wasn't one of them.
It wasn't pie-making-easy (trying to avoid cliches) to change gender POV in this scene as specific events still need to occur. But I'm happier with the outcome, even though the characters are still in a big quagmire.
--Cat
It's April.
My, oh my.
All research done, I added some 1200 words to my book, throwing in almost everything I learned, food, drink, music, clothing, ornaments, architecture... you get the drift.
This is the "I researched this so you have to read every word" syndrome.
I've read books where a writer does this to excess, and to me it slows the pace of the story. *Unless the information is exceptionally fascinating, in which case it slaps me out of the story as my focus shifts gear. Too often I have chased after more information on these fascinating subjects, and the book I was reading gets left behind on a figurative bus stop bench somewhere.
Well, I went through and (judiciously, I hope) deleted 700 of those new words. I wanted exotic background color, not a discourse on the life and times.
And I did not want a small new subplot which magically evolved along with the exotica, starring a new and definitely extraneous character, who must now vanish, no matter how delightful, alluring, and charming she acts, hoping for a bit part in the opus.
Out the new character must go, with some small regret, to join a dozen or so others I'd written in, then out, all now standing on the sidelines, waiting patiently for that big break when they may be called back for a role in another story.
In book biz, like show biz, some of the best scenes are left on the cutting room floor.
On an unrelated note, I was typing away and a dropped letter from a word gave me a sudden creative idea. Only time will tell if the idea becomes more than a light bulb flash.
--Cat
***A great post on "killing your darlings" my author Kristen Lamb
I was thinking of villains.
Yes, this story needs a villain. Abundant dire situations that must be overcome are not enough for these characters.
My villain PG did not spring ready-made into my mind, like some characters, mostly minor ones, often do.
He evolved. First he was just a name. My characters must have a name before I can write about them. That's when I "saw" him. His reason for being became clearer. The first "reason" was rather trite, so I dug a bit and discovered the real cause of his villainy.
I will introduce him as having this trite motive, then at the proper time reveal the true nature that drives him.
I'll need to be careful that he isn't some cartoonish stereotype. He will be evil, but subtly so. Nothing worse than an over-the-top depiction whose very appearance screams BAD GUY! in your face.
I want a final slam-bang scene that disposes of this villain so the main characters can get on with their life. It's coming to me slowly, but there's a long way to go before I get there, so I have time to plan. Or the characters have time to let me know.
--Cat
In research. Again.
I have a one-scene chapter in which the MC travels abroad. I needed local color, smells, tastes, sounds, etc.
The year is 1868, the locale is exotic, and--oh my gosh--once I began searching, I couldn't stop. Didn't want to stop, is more apt, for each intriguing page I found led to more intriguing pages.
And, as I often do, I spun off on a tangent, moving past research that I needed on to research that I simply wanted, not satisfied until I reached the end of the story, usually many years past the one I needed.
Google is a blessing and a curse for a procrastinator.
Which brings me to some quotes I found while killing time (procrastinating).
So true:
Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment. ~Robert Benchley
So ominous:
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried. ~ Author Unknown
So humorous, naughty, but true:
Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself. ~Author Unknown
--Cat -- getting to work
