Getting Emotional

I heard a writer comment that one of his readers had pointed out a problem in his manuscript: His protagonist didn’t show a lot of emotion. When faced with a personal situation, like a death, the protagonist hardly reacted and went on about his business after a sentence or two.

This struck a chord. It happened to me, too.

When I only had 30 pages presentable enough to share, I had it pointed out that my protagonist, a female, who discovered a crime scene and a body early in the story, was very matter-of-fact about it. I was told that no one outside of a police procedural would react like that, or rather, not react. So I had a choice to make: Make my protagonist more emotionally clued in or make her even less so.

I seriously considered creating an autistic character like the one in The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

I probably could have done it. But I didn’t go there. Instead, I added moist eyes, a runny nose, a tear-streaked puffy face, a breathless aching chest filled with trembling quaking heartbeats, nightmares, and so on.

In a similar vein, I also had problems with a fight scene later in the book. My first attempt ran a whole paragraph. I got called on that one, too. I made it better. Had to. It couldn’t get worse.

I wrote about my three-step system of getting through a scene in my Aug. 18^th blog post: I start with the dialog, add motion, and lastly—work in the emotions. The process has helped me deal with these pesky problems.

                  

Also, by adding the emotional low spots, I’ve given my protagonist a better starting point on her character arc.

The result: Things are looking up—for both of us.

Present Tense Revisited

I devoted my Nov. 21^st blog post to talking about the merits of writing novels and stories in first person, present tense. I cited two books as examples of main stream fiction using what appears to be this current trend. Those examples came from the two book clubs I’ve been attending.

At the monthly meetings of those respective books clubs I asked people their feelings about this issue. I thought I might get some useful comments. Judging by what I read on Goodreads.com, where several readers expressed very strong opinions against books written in present tense, one went so far as to say she’d stop reading a book if she noticed present tense verbs, I expected some negative reactions.

The results of my very informal poll: No one cared all that much. They just read the book. Enjoyed the story. Didn’t think much about the technical aspect of verbs.

I have to admit that the first time I read The Hunger Games and The Art Forger I never noticed either. I was just reading for the story with the former and looking for artsy terminology in the latter. I didn’t pick up the finer points of the verb usage until the second reading when I focused on how the writers were working things out.

I don’t know what this means. I’ll have to keep asking for more opinions. I guess that’s called research.

On Writing Simply

It's the birthday of anthologist and writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (books by this author), born in Cornwall in 1863. Quiller-Couch published fiction and literary criticism under the pen name "Q" and was best known at the time for his publication of the Oxford Book of English Verse (1250-1900), a book that remained the most popular anthology of its kind for nearly 70 years.

He is remembered by writers today for one of the most enduring but non-attributed pieces of writing advice ever given. He wrote in his 1916 book On the Art of Writing, "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it — whole-heartedly — and delete it before sending your manuscript to press: Murder your darlings." Now a popular catchphrase among editors especially, "murder your darlings" admonishes writers to refrain from being too precious about their prose and to trust in the values of simplicity and efficiency.

I don’t think I understood what that meant before hearing this piece from the Writer’s Almanac. I thought the phrase “kill your darlings” referred to clever ideas, neato scenes, or maybe dramatic action sequences. I hadn’t thought of it in terms of sentence structure.

Old style writing can be florid and overwrought. Side trips into extraneous digression. I’ve seen examples, long torturous examples, so long in fact that they ultimately made no sense whatsoever.

Yes, I have found myself showing off every once in a while with a long sentence complete with semi colons. Or sometimes I’ve made up a list of things so I can legitimately use a colon.

Now I know why simplicity and efficiency are best. And I only had to go back to one hundred years or so to find the source.

Art and Real Life Meet in Bishop Hill

People gathered too commemorate the 176^th birthday of Olof Krans with cake and ice cream, live entertainment, and the release of a new book that documented all know works of the folk artist.

Then it turned into a surprise party.

The revelation of another work, previously unknown, was announced by the Bishop Hill Museum’s curator. The names of the owners were withheld.

Olof Krans was an important figure because he documented the early life of the Bishop Hill Colony, a religious communal society founded in 1846 by Swedish immigrants.

According to the Nov. 7^th edition of the Galva News: “There were dozens of other religious settlements: the Shakers, the Quakers, the Mennonites. No other colony had its portrait painted like Olof had.”

Olof Krans has a unique place in American folk art.

Olof Krans has a unique place in my novel.

It’s so exciting to have art and real life meet like this.

A mystery unfolding in real time to go with the one I created in a fictional past.

Who would have thought it possible?

Oh, wait—I did.

Thanksgiving 2014

I am thankful for:

·        Going over 50,000 words on Thanksgiving Day.

I made my pumpkin pie and got to type away thanks to a very helpful husband who put the turkey in the oven and watched it until it was golden brown and done.

·        Still having more writing to do because my novel has more than the minimum 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo.

·        Liking the changes I’ve made so far.

The change to first person from third person is going well. I find myself satisfied with the results more often than not. Actually, I haven’t found anywhere that it hasn’t worked out for the better.

When I’ve read comparison pieces at the Writer’s Studio, the results were always evenly split. No clear winner.

·        Having this opportunity to work on my novel. So many things could have gotten in the way.

Too bad it’s taken so long to get it done. But I wanted to make it the best effort I could manage. And let’s face facts—I had a lot to learn.

Best thing to be thankful for:

·        I’m in the home stretch.

I have so much to be thankful for.

First Person, Present Tense

How do I improve the “immediacy” of my novel? The request has me thinking. Do I go with first person point of view over third person? There are advantages and disadvantages.

I like third person. It goes a long way in shaping the story. I can reveal information and have multiple characters speak their minds. Important stuff on the way to developing theme, motivation, as well as action. Works well for the new writer.

But, I can see how first person shines the spotlight on the protagonist and forces his or her character formation to take center stage. A pretty good thing for me to consider.

However, what becomes problematic about this quest for “immediacy” is the use of present tense over past tense for my verbs.

Using present tense flies in the face of most writing advice. To avoid fuzzy abstractions and passiveness, I get lots of encouragement to “swat your Bs.”

The Bs in this case: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been.

I’m currently reading two books for local book clubs that feature first person, present tense: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro. I’m finding lots of Bs in both books. Lots. But they don’t appear to stand in the way of developing action or story. Every once in a while, there’s a really awkward sounding sentence that makes me pause and reread. Not good for the flow of the narrative, but then I am being picky.

I have to be picky if I’m going to consider such a drastic change in my manuscript. After all, it is one thing to practice first person, present tense in a small piece such as a blog post, it’ll be quite another to keep it up for an entire novel. 

And what about all those other voices I want to hear from? Those voices I feel the need to hear from. I have to find a way for them to speak their minds and add other dimensions to my work, more layers of meaning.

Such is my experiment in progress for this year’s NaNoWriMo.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it. 

Focus Group

Last weekend I attended a focus group meeting for the Midwest Writing Center.

We had a good discussion of MWC's present programs and services and gave our thoughts on what we might want in the future.

When I got home, I decided to go through my pile of MWC workshop folders and handouts.

I’ve saved everything since I started attending events in 2008. I like to dig them out every once in a while, sort through them, and see if I can throw anything away. Never happens. It's all good reference material for some part of my writer's journey.

The current finds:

·        Jane VanVooren Rogers's tips on editing, 2008.

·        Vonda N. McIntyre's manuscript preparation, 2010.

·        Vonnegut's eight rules for writing fiction, 2011.

Five years from now--the MWC needs to be right here fulfilling its mission so the shy, quiet people in the back of the room can continue to develop and grow into real writers.

Survey question #10: How will the world be a better place when MWC fulfills its mission?

My answer: When my book is finished, published, and for sale.

My husband’s answer: The world will be a better place with a community of fully aware and independent thinking readers and writers.

He had the better answer.