Fear of the Unknown

June 30, 2011June 30, 2011 / Lisa / 8 Comments

My husband flew out of state for work and will be gone a month. Last night we stayed at a nice hotel near the airport and ate out, which is a rarity for us. We didn’t recognize half of the things so artfully displayed on our plates. And when my husband left in the dark wee hours this morning, I stayed in the hotel until checkout time. (After all, we paid a lot for those hours!) I took advantage of the quiet, alone-ness, and lack of distraction, to work on writing.

In the past I have been a very organic writer. The idea flows in, usually following a ‘what if’ question, and off I go, along for the ride the characters take me on. There’s a reason I called this blog the story river, and it’s not because I outline in detail. I usually know the very ending before I know the story, as if I picture this final dramatic moment, and then backtrack to figure out how to get there. Admittedly I feel guilty that I don’t outline, but when I try to, the story dies, as if the story feels that since it’s been told in outline form it doesn’t need me anymore.

Back at the hotel this morning though, I sat very fearfully in front of the computer and only managed two short paragraphs. I can feel the arcs of this story, like soft wool I need to spin into threads. I can see how I want it to be. In the past, right now, I’d be deep in that world, writing furiously. Instead I’m approaching the words way too tentatively.

The oncologist told me the creative side of me wasn’t killed in radiation, and I believe him because I do see writing coming back, and this blog has helped tremendously with that. However, it’s one thing to rather timidly approach a blog of a few paragraphs, and another to take on a novel. I am horribly afraid that if I start I will find the writer has not been resurrected after all. I am horribly afraid that if I don’t start, something that is extremely important to me might never come back.

I don’t know where this particular story river is going to take me, but I’m beginning to think that I’m thinking too much. It might be time to open up my arms and tell the characters, ‘possess me, whisper your story to me’ and just pick up the damn pen.

Coincidences

June 27, 2011December 22, 2014 / Lisa / 3 Comments

I have a personal goal that I will never walk away from a book unfinished. Partly it’s optimism. Sometimes I just keep hoping the book will get better. Honestly, it is very rare that I come across a story that I feel the urge to pitch out into the woods. Which is why I am very, very slowly making my way through a book called The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova.

Here’s the first problem. I am on page 323 (not quite half way through) and I still do not know the name of the protagonist.

Second problem. I can flip through the book, pick out a line of dialog, and not have a clue who is talking because they all sound so much alike. The father talks exactly like the teenage daughter, who in spite of being a teen in the 1970’s speaks like an old-world professor. I could cut the author slack here because dialog that is unique to the character is something we all struggle with. However, I’m also struggling with hundreds of pages with this type of dialog.

Third and biggest problem: Coincidences. Jessica Page Morrell says in her excellent book, Between the Lines, to use coincidences very sparingly. One per book could even constitute pushing believability. If you do use one, it should be written very carefully, very thoughtfully, in order to make the reader swallow it with the story as a whole. In this book, there are so many coincidences that I’ve given up counting. It would take too long to enumerate each one here, and I really don’t want to pick this book apart in that level of detail. After all, it’s not such a horrible book that I don’t keep picking it back up. It pulls at me in spite of all the problems. Either that, or I’m just hoping to find out the reason the author is withholding the protagonist’s name.

Either way, coincidences in a story bug me, and I find myself agreeing with Jessica. If one coincidence is written in, and handled professionally enough that the premise is set up beforehand, it can work. We all know that coincidences happen in real life, so a reader might be inclined to believe one showing up in a story.

In reality though, I think most readers are disinclined to believe coincidences within the story framework. I think the reason may be that there is a higher expectation that the writer will not take the easy way out by giving the characters coincidences to ease their path to the end of the book. Because after all, that’s what coincidences in a story do. Make things easier for the writer.

Although harder for the reader.

Favorite Blogs

June 26, 2011 / Lisa / 5 Comments

Recently the author of a blog I enjoy listed mine as a favorite. I decided to do the same because that compliment really brightened my day. Thanks to Ré at Sparks in Shadow for the kind words and the idea. Hope these links work; I’m figuring it out as I go. If they don’t, I also have them listed to the right on this page in the Blog Roll.

So here are some blogs that I enjoy, besides Ré’s.

Dancing Beastie at dancingbeastie.wordpress.com Life in a Scottish castle would have made me read this blog anyway, but the essays are so much more. My absolute favorite is the Tuesday Tree, and I try to never miss a blog visit on that day of the week. The blog also has many, many links that have sent me spinning into worlds so different from my own and introduced me to wonderful people. Matter of fact, just browsing all the links keeps me on the computer much longer than I should.

Susan Schreyer’s ‘Writing Horses’ blog at writinghorses.blogspot.com Susan is a good friend of many years and one of the three people I trust as first readers when I need honest opinions and critiques. (The other two being my husband and friend/hiking partner/poet Sabrina). I got a kick out of recent posts where she interviewed the characters from her stories.

Lisa’s blog of art and words at satsumaart.wordpress.com Not being able to paint or draw, I greatly appreciate it in those who can. When you add writing to the mix, you end up with a blog that I visit often. Lisa and Ré, mentioned above, both give me thoughtful and insightful comments on posts that make me wish I could pull the post and rewrite it with all the new things they give me to think about.

Len’s Conversations With Self at carpediem202.blogspot.com Len is a wonderful, self-deprecating woman. Her blog includes reviews of books and interviews with authors. I enjoy those, but I enjoy more when Len herself stops in to visit and her words on her parenting challenges, her gentle outlook on life, and her kind humor shine through.

And finally, here’s a new one I just discovered thanks to the dancing beastie, and I can tell it’s going to be one I revisit often because it involves so many things I love. whisperingearth.wordpress.com The author of this blog can even find native and wild plants to comment on when walking in the city. But her words bring to the page one of the things I love about where I live, being surrounded by nature.

These are just a few of the blogs I like, but they are the ones I visit most frequently, and the ones I learn from. Hope you enjoy them as well. And now the sun is out finally and I am going to uncover the tomato plants, let the dogs out, and take them for a romp in the creek.