To Rewrite

/ Lisa / 7 Comments

I’m struggling with rewriting a story.

Editing I can do. Revising I can do (after all, revising is a lot like editing, right?)

But rewriting is a whole different game.

I’ve spent a couple months with some health issues which meant I didn’t get any work done on the new story. I know it’s going to be easy to pick that thread up again but right now the energy I have for writing isn’t streaming toward creating. So I pulled out an old story I wrote almost twenty years ago.

I love that story but there are serious structural issues with it. Not enough characters, so that the antagonist is glaringly obvious. Not enough conflict. And not enough subplots. Well, let’s be honest. There’s basically one subplot and that’s it. Which, as any writer of fiction knows, won’t support a novel-length story.

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Symbolic of structural issues, wouldn’t you agree?

So I decided to use this time of healing to rewrite that story. And I’ve discovered it’s actually hard. I’ve been trying to come up with something to compare the process to. And the closest I can get is baking.

Have you ever baked a cake, finished the batter, poured it into the pan, and then realized that you forgot something vital, like the eggs? So you dump it back into the mixing bowl and try to add what you forgot, but it just doesn’t mix up quite the same. And doesn’t bake quite right.

Rewriting is like trying to add those darn eggs after the cake is baked.

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Guess this is the only photo I have of a cake. Obviously not one I baked!

So much energy is invested in creating and editing and polishing. And then there’s the process of letting go so the story can go out into the world. Rewriting is also like trying to pick up that energy after it’s long dissipated. Trying to find the mood that story was written in.

It’s challenging to find spots to slip in new characters or new dialog. That seems much harder than adding in bits of internalizations. Then there’s trying to figure out conflicts and subplots for secondary characters that I’ve now realized I never knew.

There’s too much in the story that’s good to just toss and start all over. I’m not even sure I could start over and end up with the same spirit that’s in this version. I definitely don’t want to lose this version.

So I’m plugging along – literally – plugging in bits and pieces as I go. I still like this old story. But my writing has changed since back then.

The process of rewriting is more challenging than I expected. Luckily I like a challenge when it comes to writing.

We’ll see what happens.

One For All

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

Forgive me a lapse into teeny-bopper crush mode.

BBC’s The Musketeers is coming back for a third season. All I have to say about that is…PORTHOS!!!

Okay, I’m back to ‘adulting’ now.

I read Alexandre Dumas’ books in junior high, with my favorite being The Three Musketeers.

(An aside – does anyone say ‘teeny-bopper’ or ‘junior high’ anymore, or am I dating myself?)

As a result, the character of Porthos caused me to dump my first crush, Huckleberry Finn, leaving him behind on that raft so I could run off wielding a sword.

I’ve watched all the incarnations of Musketeer movies over the years. My favorite was the version with Oliver Reed as Porthos. Other female hearts pitter-patted for Michael York as D’Artagnan. Not me.

One thing the movies have in common is an underlying theme of humor – of almost slapstick humor. Again, think of Michael York and Raquel Welch. And in some versions that slapstick humor was done with such a heavy hand that the original characters and story lines were barely visible.

What I love about the current incarnation from BBC is that the slapstick humor is gone. This show is not a comedy. From Peter Capaldi (loved him in Local Hero) who is amazing as Cardinal Richelieu, to Season Two’s Marc Warren as an excellent, villainous Rochefort. Scary bad guy with a tortured past. And Howard Charles as Porthos…well, as I’ve said, I do like that character. Even Constance becomes a strong young woman, especially in season two, and not just the female prop to D’Artagnan.

Okay, season one was a bit rough, as new seasons can be, but wow, season two. More fully developed characters, great story lines, multiple layers of conflict everywhere. I should add a caveat here that my husband says what I consider to be excellent, award winning television, most people consider ‘B’ shows at best.

Alexandre Dumas (assumed, by the way, to have had at least forty mistresses) wrote The Three Musketeers in 1844. In well over a hundred years, that story is still with us. Just like countless others written by countless authors, over hundreds of years that pull us in with the timeless hero’s journey. Even today books on writing dissect the hero’s journey for us struggling writers. People have spent their lives writing essays and books on why these stories still resonate so strongly in our psyches.

Not me. I’m going to return to Porthos.

What has been the appeal of that one particular character? I mean, D’Artagnan is always popular. Aramis with his love of women certainly attracts his fair share. As does Athos with his doomed love for Milady D’Winter.

It’s that strong silent type. You know what I mean. The character in the background, with the mysterious past, the gruff exterior, and that hidden sweet soul that only a few chosen ones get to see.

Hmmm. Just realized I married someone who very closely resembles that description, minus the mysterious past. I guess the character of Porthos left a lasting impression on my teeny-bopper, junior high heart.

I’m not sure yet when season three will be released but I’m going to see if I can pre-order it. I mean, after all, ‘adulting’ just isn’t as much fun.

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BBC’s ‘The Musketeers’ from www.express.co.uk

Kindle Pricing

/ Lisa / 4 Comments

I’m curious to see what others think about the price of Kindle books.

Here’s how I browse when looking for a new author. I scroll for a title that catches my eye, and more importantly, a tag that looks professional. I saw a tag after a title not that long ago that said, ‘A thriller mystery romance!’ Well, if the author doesn’t know the genre, I’m certainly not going to be able to figure it out either. Plus exclamation points telling me I should be excited have the opposite effect.

After I find something that catches my eye, the next thing I look at is the price. If the Kindle price is over $4.99 I move on. Even if it’s a big name author. If the book is written by one of my favorite authors I’m still not going to pay more for it. Because if I’m going to pay $15 for a book, it’s going to be an actual book I can hold, especially if it’s a favorite author.

One of the reasons I won’t pay much for a Kindle book is I always wonder how they justify the price. ‘They’ as in the authors or publishers. If there are no printing costs, no shipping costs, etc., then why does the e-book cost the same as the paper version?

Once I did spend $13 for a Kindle book by a big name author. I’d never read the author, the synopsis sounded intriguing, and I figured if I liked it, the author had a lot more books I could read. It was one of the worst books I’ve read. I should have at least downloaded a sample first.

I understand the whole concept of valuing the author’s time and how long it takes to write a novel. I understand publishing costs, the cost for editing services, cover art, etc. And I also understand that people want to make a living. But even with all that understanding, I just can’t bring myself to spend a lot on an e-book.

I’m curious what others think about this. I keep my Kindle prices low, and keep the first book in the series free hoping to make the books accessible to all. Do you equate cheap prices with low quality? How do you justify spending on e-books when there are little production costs? Does it bother you that an e-book can  cost almost the same as a hardback book?

I’d love to hear opinions on this as I’m very curious – and also looking for something new to read on Kindle.