What Speaks To You?

May 15, 2014May 15, 2014 / Lisa / 6 Comments

In the last post, I listed eleven questions. Interestingly, most of the responses I got said the questions were too hard. Also interestingly, those responses came in to my email rather than here so I think it was difficult to admit that, too. So I decided to prime the pump of opening dialog by answering them myself. Not all at once, of course, as some are hard.

What makes a book speak to you – the characters, the setting, the plot?

For me, it’s always the setting that pulls me in. The characters and the plot keep me in the story world once there, but it’s the setting that hooks me.

I want to immerse myself in a place that resonates, even if it’s somewhere I’ve never been. Ellie Griffith’s book, The Crossing Places comes immediately to mind, with the salt marsh, the space between land and sea. I also think of the late, great, Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series that took me, over the course of many years, to Egypt.

No matter what the location is, the emotional responses are similar. Especially if the setting is an integral part of the story so it becomes a character in its own right. I want to feel that sand in my clothes, the damp salt air on my skin, the freezing, biting snow (Winterdance, by Gary Paulsen). When the setting is so well written that I can see, smell, feel it, so well written that it no longer becomes just a background description but alive and vital to the story, then I won’t want to leave. I’ll want to read everything that author writes from then on. It’s a dream world that becomes tangible on the page.

I also love it when the author uses setting as a character, as I mentioned. Whether that land is an antagonist, throwing up conflict for the protagonist, or is a supporting character, or even comic relief. Writing like that brings the world even more to life, even if it’s a futuristic place on another planet.

For me, the land is the main character, and I’ll wander there, following the other characters as they move through that story world. I’ll even reach first for a book with a cover that shows the setting.

So what makes you reach for a book? What pulls you in, speaks to you, makes you stay within the pages all the way to the end?

Endless Chains

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 / Lisa / 4 Comments

Remember chain letters? I suppose only if you are from a certain generation. I hated them, but had guilt if I didn’t follow through, thinking about all the people anxiously awaiting the arrival of their recipes, or whatever the chain letter promised. The premise was that you received a letter with a list of people and addresses. You had to respond, add your name to the bottom of the list, and mail it all off. Supposedly you’d end up with hundreds of new recipes if no one broke the chain. In reality you might get one or two, which always told me not many suffered from guilt.

These days, in the blogging world, chain letters have been replaced with the Liebster award. Which is basically a chain letter to introduce other blogs and learn a bit about a person. Having just been ‘nominated’ for this award, I now have guilt. The rules are, you link back to the person who nominated you, answer eleven questions, nominate eleven bloggers, and ask them eleven questions.

To ease guilt, I was nominated by ‘Simply Sam’ at http://www.sschroth53.wordpress.com. I’m going to answer her eleven questions below. I’m also going to add eleven questions. However, I’m not going to nominate eleven bloggers. Instead, I’d rather have a conversation and see who wants to answer some or all of the questions, and what those answers might be. So consider yourselves all nominated, and enjoy the guilt.

Simply Sam’s questions for me:
1. Favorite thing about blogging. Meeting new people, learning from them, stretching my imagination from conversations.
2. Favorite thing to write about. Mountains, forests, wild country. For me, the setting creates the associated stories.
3. Most interesting place you’ve been to. Dunnet, Scotland.
4. Favorite book. Come on, that’s like asking a starving person their favorite food. Can you really only have one favorite? I think not.
5. Favorite author. Similar to #4. Elly Griffiths, the late, great Elizabeth Peters, Meg Gardiner, Patrick McManus, Gary Paulsen…
6. Favorite genre. Mysteries
7. Favorite season. Spring or fall. Here in the mountains they’re the same. Some sunny days with underlying chill, clean fresh air, fat raindrops.
8. Favorite food. Anything related to bread, unfortunately.
9. Day or night? No preference. If it’s dark you’re supposed to be asleep. If it’s light you’re supposed to be up. Makes for long days in the summer.
10. Prefer the movie or the book? Depends on the book and the movie, and how well both are done.
11. Pets? In the past year I have gone from ducks, chickens, cats, dogs, a turtle, and a horse, to a cat, two dogs, and the turtle.

And my questions for all of you (pick one, some, or all and let’s chat):
1. What makes a book speak to you? (the characters, the plot, the setting, etc.)
2. What form does your creativity take? (writing, art, cooking, running, etc.)
3. What influences your creativity, makes it slam to a stop, makes it sing…?
4. What is courage, to you?
5. What is fear, to you?
6. Do you prefer crowds or solitude?
7. Why? (see #6)
8. Define ‘family’ and what that means to you.
9. Tell me one thing you are curious about that you hope to one day answer/see/do, etc.
10. Did something in the past week make you laugh out loud (not just smile)?
11. Can you answer the question, ‘who are you’ without telling me what you do?

The photo below is taken on a cousin’s farm. We rode that road on ATVs for a long, long time. The road seemed endless. Rather like chain letters and guilt.

A chain letter road?

Toss It, I Say

March 25, 2014 / Lisa / 134 Comments

Many years ago while driving down the freeway, my son pulled his sock off, opened the window, and held it out. In his mind, the wind would fill the sock like a balloon (which he’d lost out the window earlier) and slow the car. Instead, there’s a little white sock out there on the shoulder of a road, slowly decomposing.

I remembered that today, thinking about my writing process. So picture me speeding down the highway, ripping the following pages out of a rule book and sending them flying.

Writers must outline. Rip, gone.
Characters must be developed before you start the story (or writers must use character dossiers). Rip, really gone.
Keep your theme/premise in mind as you write. Also gone.
Know the motivations of your characters. That one went very fast.
Write every day. Rip, with laughter.
Write a thousand words a day. Rip, with hysterical laughter.

Why am I destroying this rule book? For years I’ve felt guilty that I don’t follow what I perceive to be the laws of writing. On one hand, I know that no writer conforms to all of these. And yet if you read books on writing, or attend conferences, you come away with guilt if you don’t.

I’d like to conform to at least one of the rules. Well, I probably do. Beginning, middle end. Show don’t tell. Eliminate the passives. Okay, quit laughing, those of you who have edited my stuff. I said I conform; I didn’t say I was successful.

Yet somehow I manage to finish a novel length story, and hey, that’s something to be proud of. Well, okay, that story might need some editing, or lots of editing, but at least it’s done.

When I write, I do so as the first reader. I have no idea where the story is going to take me when I sit down and pen the opening line. I have no idea who this character is that I just met. She’ll show me as we go along. I have a vision of the ending, but no idea how to get there when I start.

A good friend of mine calls this organic writing. I think it’s more like jumping off the granite Index Town Wall with no parachute or climbing ropes.

Whatever the process is called, I’m not the only writer out there who creates this way. And I do believe I’m done apologizing to my inner critic. So I’m going to admit it publicly and see if any other writers in the back of the room sheepishly raise their hands and admit the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying following the rules is a bad thing. A friend who outlines gets her books done much sooner, with a lot less editing, and she’s an incredible writer. But for those like me, let’s quit feeling like rules equal competency, and roll that window down.