Top o' the morn to ye, and a Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I'm not Irish, I'm pure French, 2nd generation American, but don't let my daughter hear you repeat that. SHE is Irish, and don't you forget it! Her father is Scotch-Irish, she picked up on the Irish part as a kid, and since she looks pretty good in green, she's been Irish ever since. And since Ireland and France have never gotten along, she prefers to hide her French heritage. But that's okay... I've never liked the color green, anyway!
But I digress. St. Patrick's Day is today, complete with a wearing o' the green, parades, leprechauns, shamrocks, and even Green Beer. Let's talk about some of the myths surrounding "St. Patrick."
First, a little background: "St.Patrick" was born Maewyn Succat sometime in the late 4th Century A.D., the exact year seems to depend upon which historian you read. He was not born in Ireland, but in Celtic Britian, to parents of Roman descent. He was kidnapped by pirates at the age of 16, and sent to Ireland to work as a slave for 6 years. He escaped to Britian, then went to France, joined a monestary and studied under St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre. After 12 years in training, he became a priest and returned to Ireland to teach Christianity. He adopted the name of Patricius ( Patrick) upon becoming a priest.
Myth #1:
St. Patrick was Irish. No, he wasn't. He was born somewhere in England, which in the 5th Century was more Celtic than British, thus he would be a Celtic Briton. He was also the son of a Roman official.
Myth #2:
St. Patrick was the first Christian Missionary to Ireland. No, again. There is evidence of Christian missionaries traveling through Ireland in the 4th Century, although none was very successful at changing pagan beliefs to Christianity. The most well-known of these missionaries was Palladius, who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 A. D.
Myth #3:
St. Patrick used the Shamrock to teach about Christianity. A very endearing legend, but just that, a legend. It is said that he compared the shamrock to the Trinity of Christ: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, he never mentioned the shamrock in any of his writings. Some historians have said that the legend derives from the Celtic tradition of using the shamrock as a metaphor for "A trust in your soul," "Belief in your heart," and "Faith in your mind." Nevertheless, details aside, few Irishmen seem bothered by the lack of evidence and the shamrock remains the national symbol of Ireland.
Myth #4:
St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. Uh uh. The problem with this story is that Ireland never had snakes to begin with. Ireland was separated from England and the Continent thousands of years ago, during the Ice Age, and emerged as an empire completely free of snakes.
Myth #5:
The Annual St.Patrick's Day Parade is an Irish tradition. Not exactly. In fact, not at all. The practice of honoring St. Patrick on March 17th, the day of his death in the 5th Century, is an Irish tradition. The Irish people have, for centuries, honored his death as a religious event, possibly even wearing green, carrying shamrocks, and attending Mass, but that's all. The very first recorded St.Patrick's Day Parade originated in Manhatten in 1766, when some military units which included Irish soldiers in the British army, marched at dawn from house to house of the leading Irish citizens of the city. This parade had been held in New York every year since 1766, with only a few exceptions. It has become an Irish tradition born in America, and only recently adopted in Ireland.
Here are a few little tidbits about St. Patrick's Day:
Wearing of the Green: The color green became a symbol for Ireland around the early 19th Century. Because of the abundance of rain and mist, Ireland is green all year round, and certainly deserving of the name The Emerald Isle. But wearing green is traditionally only for Catholics, at least in Ireland. If you are Protestant, you wear orange.
Leprechauns are a symbol of Ireland: Well, sort of. In Irish mythology, a leprechaun is portrayed as a tiny little man, just under 2 feet tall, always a shoe cobbler as they made the shoes for the Irish faeries, and they are troublesome, contrary, irksome, and definitely unfriendly. They all have a pot of gold, well-hidden, but if you manage to capture one, you just might find that pot. The problem is, you will only do that if you can hold on to the leprechaun, and stare him straight in the eyes the entire time you have your hands on him. But he is a tricky little character, and so far, no one has been able to hold him and stare him down.
Corned Beed and Cabbage is the official dinner of St.Patrick's Day: Not exactly. Cabbage has always been a staple in the Irish diet, but it was always served with Irish Bacon. It wasn't until the turn of the 19th Century, when Irish immigrants began arriving in the United States, that corned beef came to be served with their cabbage. And the only reason that happened is because the immigrants couldn't afford Irish bacon in the states, and they learned about Corned Beef from their Jewish neighbors.
Well, guess that's all for now. I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade... ooops, sorry... but just wanted to clear up some of the mythology surrounding St. Patrick's Day!
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
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Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
Friday's Focus: Contemporary Sensibilities
In my last post, I talked about the revisions I was making on my historical novel with respect to the issues mentioned by the publisher and her editors. One of those issues was "contemporary sensibilities." The editors said my main character's dialogue was "too adult and had contemporary sensibilities." Bringing his dialogue down somewhat to reflect his age ( 13), and still keep him in character for the pre-Civil War era was a challenge. Kids of that era grew up much faster than our kids today, and their speech reflected that. However, after working on it for a while, I think I've managed to satisfy the editors, although I'm still going to be looking over his dialogue again before I resubmit.
But the "contemporary sensibilities" threw me. At first I thought, What, Ben isn't supposed to have the same feelings and emotions that kids today have? Umm...well, actually, no. It took me some time to figure that one out. First of all, what does the word "sensibility" mean? The dictionary definition is:
Sensibility: 1) the capacity for being affected emotionally or intellectually, either pleasantly or unpleasantly; 2) capacity to respond perceptively to intellectual, moral, or aesthetic values; 3) sensitivity to stimulus or other things/events that make you react in a certain way.
I had to think about that. What many of us writers do... if not all of us at one time or another... is to ascribe to our characters thoughts, beliefs, actions, and behaviors that come more from our own knowledge and life experiences than what those particular characters would be exposed to. So is that what I did with Ben? The truth is, no, I didn't. But what I DID do, was not give enough of his back story so that the reader, most probably a MG kid, would understand where Ben's beliefs and attitudes came from, and why he felt about slavery as he did. Because of that, the editors felt I had instilled "contemporary" sensibilities in him.
So let's talk about that. Take the "N" word for example: in the days of slavery, up through and even far beyond the Civil War, the word "nigger" was commonly used. It and "colored" were the appellations given to the black community of both slaves and free blacks. It was not a slur, it was not derogatory at that time, it was used in everyday speech. Today it is a terrible slur, it is a word most people of ANY color sincerely wish would disappear from our vocabularies and dictionaries. If offends out "contemporary sensibilities," as does the very idea of what slavery meant, and what it cost the American people in terms of lives lost in order to eradicate that institution from our society.
The N word does not appear in my story... I would never use it, even if it were normal speech for that era. However, Ben's deep-rooted hatred of slavery had to come from somewhere. He had to have learned somewhere in his life that slavery was wrong, but being in Kentucky, on a plantation that owned slaves, where could his belief have come from? That was what I failed to adequately explain, so that it seemed to the editors his beliefs came from a 'contemporary sensibility' that someone of his age, living in the South in that time period, would not have had. In other words, he would not have had the capacity, the sensitivity, to respond emotionally, and finally, physically, as he did to a cultural condition that he had grown up in during that particular era.
That's where his back story came in. Not pages and pages of it, but sprinkled here and there throughout the early chapters. Ben spent the first 10 years of his life in New York City, where he learned from school and from daily life that slavery was wrong, that it was a sin for one human to "own" another. This was the culture he grew up in. However, his parents and older brothers HAD grown up in Kentucky, they had accepted slavery and owning slaves ( who were not considered "human" like whites, therefore it was okay to own them like pieces of furniture). When his family returned to Kentucky, Ben learned for the very first time what slavery was really all about. But even at 10, he hated it, could not understand why it was acceptable in one part of the country and denounced in another part.
His background is what gave him his first attitudes and beliefs about the concept of slavery and why it was wrong. When he moved to the plantation, his grandmother, widow of the man who had owned it, was an Abolitionist, and her beliefs enforced what he had grown up with. All of this back story was crucial to Ben's attitudes, beliefs, and values...his "sensibilities" of the times. But I had not given enough of his back story for the editors to understand why he believed as he did, and of course, younger readers would not understand, either.
It was not easy to go back and insert bits and pieces of his back story so the reader would understand why Ben felt so very differently from his parents and older brothers. But, thanks to my editors, I realized what a crucial part of the "front" story it was, and why it needed to be there to eliminate the issue of "contemporary sensibilities."
I hope I have described this intelligently, and given you all an idea of what we do... and don't do... without even realizing it. Contemporary sensibilities have to reflect the sensibilities of the time frame in which you are writing, and not be an indication of the morals, ethics, and values your characters would not yet have been exposed to.
One more thing to remember: the time frame you are writing in does NOT have to be historical for you to ascribe "contemporary sensibilities" to your characters. Ethics, values, morals, and the situations reflecting those aspects of society change all the time, so just make sure your charcters are thinking, feeling, and reacting to the experiences they would have had in their time frame, even if it was only 5 or 10 years ago.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
But the "contemporary sensibilities" threw me. At first I thought, What, Ben isn't supposed to have the same feelings and emotions that kids today have? Umm...well, actually, no. It took me some time to figure that one out. First of all, what does the word "sensibility" mean? The dictionary definition is:
Sensibility: 1) the capacity for being affected emotionally or intellectually, either pleasantly or unpleasantly; 2) capacity to respond perceptively to intellectual, moral, or aesthetic values; 3) sensitivity to stimulus or other things/events that make you react in a certain way.
I had to think about that. What many of us writers do... if not all of us at one time or another... is to ascribe to our characters thoughts, beliefs, actions, and behaviors that come more from our own knowledge and life experiences than what those particular characters would be exposed to. So is that what I did with Ben? The truth is, no, I didn't. But what I DID do, was not give enough of his back story so that the reader, most probably a MG kid, would understand where Ben's beliefs and attitudes came from, and why he felt about slavery as he did. Because of that, the editors felt I had instilled "contemporary" sensibilities in him.
So let's talk about that. Take the "N" word for example: in the days of slavery, up through and even far beyond the Civil War, the word "nigger" was commonly used. It and "colored" were the appellations given to the black community of both slaves and free blacks. It was not a slur, it was not derogatory at that time, it was used in everyday speech. Today it is a terrible slur, it is a word most people of ANY color sincerely wish would disappear from our vocabularies and dictionaries. If offends out "contemporary sensibilities," as does the very idea of what slavery meant, and what it cost the American people in terms of lives lost in order to eradicate that institution from our society.
The N word does not appear in my story... I would never use it, even if it were normal speech for that era. However, Ben's deep-rooted hatred of slavery had to come from somewhere. He had to have learned somewhere in his life that slavery was wrong, but being in Kentucky, on a plantation that owned slaves, where could his belief have come from? That was what I failed to adequately explain, so that it seemed to the editors his beliefs came from a 'contemporary sensibility' that someone of his age, living in the South in that time period, would not have had. In other words, he would not have had the capacity, the sensitivity, to respond emotionally, and finally, physically, as he did to a cultural condition that he had grown up in during that particular era.
That's where his back story came in. Not pages and pages of it, but sprinkled here and there throughout the early chapters. Ben spent the first 10 years of his life in New York City, where he learned from school and from daily life that slavery was wrong, that it was a sin for one human to "own" another. This was the culture he grew up in. However, his parents and older brothers HAD grown up in Kentucky, they had accepted slavery and owning slaves ( who were not considered "human" like whites, therefore it was okay to own them like pieces of furniture). When his family returned to Kentucky, Ben learned for the very first time what slavery was really all about. But even at 10, he hated it, could not understand why it was acceptable in one part of the country and denounced in another part.
His background is what gave him his first attitudes and beliefs about the concept of slavery and why it was wrong. When he moved to the plantation, his grandmother, widow of the man who had owned it, was an Abolitionist, and her beliefs enforced what he had grown up with. All of this back story was crucial to Ben's attitudes, beliefs, and values...his "sensibilities" of the times. But I had not given enough of his back story for the editors to understand why he believed as he did, and of course, younger readers would not understand, either.
It was not easy to go back and insert bits and pieces of his back story so the reader would understand why Ben felt so very differently from his parents and older brothers. But, thanks to my editors, I realized what a crucial part of the "front" story it was, and why it needed to be there to eliminate the issue of "contemporary sensibilities."
I hope I have described this intelligently, and given you all an idea of what we do... and don't do... without even realizing it. Contemporary sensibilities have to reflect the sensibilities of the time frame in which you are writing, and not be an indication of the morals, ethics, and values your characters would not yet have been exposed to.
One more thing to remember: the time frame you are writing in does NOT have to be historical for you to ascribe "contemporary sensibilities" to your characters. Ethics, values, morals, and the situations reflecting those aspects of society change all the time, so just make sure your charcters are thinking, feeling, and reacting to the experiences they would have had in their time frame, even if it was only 5 or 10 years ago.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Tuesday's Thoughts: Writing to Specification
I'm back after a long absence. Do you ever get to the point where you wonder where you're going with your blog? Where you don't seem to have anything to say that you think others would be interest in, so you think, Why bother? Hmm...maybe that's a good topic for another post.
Well, that happened to me, but that wasn't the main reason I haven't been posting. I've been editing and revising my historical novel, The Freedom Thief. If you've been with me for a while, you're probably thinking...She's still working on that story?!
Yes, I am, but under new circumstances. The story is now in the hands of a publisher, and I'm 'writing to specification.' Oh, don't get all excited! I don't have a contract in my hot little hands, so there is no guarantee of publication at the moment.
This is what has happened: the publisher emailed me with a rejection, but asking for a resubmission, WITH certain revisions if I was willing to make them. She told me what the editors who had read the manuscript said, what her comments were, and said if I was willing to work on these comments and make the revisions they thought were necessary, I could resubmit it and she and the editors would be happy to review the manuscript again. Of course, I said I would be willing to work on the revisions.
Writing to specification means taking the four issues they talked about, and editing and revising each one. It's not as easy as it might sound. At first, I thought I would go page by page and work on each of these issues. Oh boy, did that get confusing! So I decided to work throughout the entire story on just one issue at a time. When I finished with that issue, I saved the manuscript as "Draft One." Then I went back to the first page, and started on the next issue, and when I finished, saved it as Draft Two, and so on. I'm now on the fourth and final issue, and that will be saved as Draft Four.
Their first comment concerned my main character's father and two older brothers, whom they felt were 'one-dimensional.' Yes, they were. That was deliberate on my part, as I wrote them that way to give credence to why Ben, my MC, hated slavery. But apparently, they are too much "that way," so I've had to go back and create better personalities and a more rounded characterization for them. This has been difficult, particularly since they only appear in the first 3 or 4 chapters, then nowhere else throughout the rest of the story. Actually, this is the issue that concerns me the most, and the one I will be revisiting for (hopefully) one final time, when I'm finished with the draft I'm working on now. I want to be sure that these 3 characters are as "well-rounded" as I think they can be, for the short time they are in the story.
The second issue concerned Ben's dialogue, which the editors thought was too adult for a 13 year old boy. In pre-Civil War era, 1859 to be exact, boys were considered to be men by the age of 14, and Ben is almost 14 ( turns that age in the story.) As with all children of that era, he has grown up much faster than today's 13-14 year olds do, so it is natural for him to speak in a more adult fashion. But the editors wanted me to tone his dialogue down a bit. It took awhile to do that, and still keep him in character for the time frame.
The third issue concerned a "passive voice" in certain places throughout the manuscript. Now I know the difference between 'passive voice' and 'active voice.' So what did they mean? Oh wow! How easy it is to slide over into passive voice when you have no intention of doing so! I was amazed when I saw how many places I had done just that. Little things like "There was " or "It seemed like" or "The wind was howling" were sprinkled here and there...I know better. That took some time, also.
The fourth issue concerned "contemporary sensibilities." That threw me. I had no idea what they meant until I sat down and pondered it for a while. When I finally realized what it was, I went to work. This is the fourth draft I'm working on now, and perhaps the most difficult and time-consuming of all. But I'm not going any further with this at the moment. I think perhaps "contemporary sensibilities" might make a whole 'nother post!
Now you know why I haven't been around. "Writing to specification" is not all that easy, and at best, is time consuming. But I'll be back soon, so please stay with me.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Well, that happened to me, but that wasn't the main reason I haven't been posting. I've been editing and revising my historical novel, The Freedom Thief. If you've been with me for a while, you're probably thinking...She's still working on that story?!
Yes, I am, but under new circumstances. The story is now in the hands of a publisher, and I'm 'writing to specification.' Oh, don't get all excited! I don't have a contract in my hot little hands, so there is no guarantee of publication at the moment.
This is what has happened: the publisher emailed me with a rejection, but asking for a resubmission, WITH certain revisions if I was willing to make them. She told me what the editors who had read the manuscript said, what her comments were, and said if I was willing to work on these comments and make the revisions they thought were necessary, I could resubmit it and she and the editors would be happy to review the manuscript again. Of course, I said I would be willing to work on the revisions.
Writing to specification means taking the four issues they talked about, and editing and revising each one. It's not as easy as it might sound. At first, I thought I would go page by page and work on each of these issues. Oh boy, did that get confusing! So I decided to work throughout the entire story on just one issue at a time. When I finished with that issue, I saved the manuscript as "Draft One." Then I went back to the first page, and started on the next issue, and when I finished, saved it as Draft Two, and so on. I'm now on the fourth and final issue, and that will be saved as Draft Four.
Their first comment concerned my main character's father and two older brothers, whom they felt were 'one-dimensional.' Yes, they were. That was deliberate on my part, as I wrote them that way to give credence to why Ben, my MC, hated slavery. But apparently, they are too much "that way," so I've had to go back and create better personalities and a more rounded characterization for them. This has been difficult, particularly since they only appear in the first 3 or 4 chapters, then nowhere else throughout the rest of the story. Actually, this is the issue that concerns me the most, and the one I will be revisiting for (hopefully) one final time, when I'm finished with the draft I'm working on now. I want to be sure that these 3 characters are as "well-rounded" as I think they can be, for the short time they are in the story.
The second issue concerned Ben's dialogue, which the editors thought was too adult for a 13 year old boy. In pre-Civil War era, 1859 to be exact, boys were considered to be men by the age of 14, and Ben is almost 14 ( turns that age in the story.) As with all children of that era, he has grown up much faster than today's 13-14 year olds do, so it is natural for him to speak in a more adult fashion. But the editors wanted me to tone his dialogue down a bit. It took awhile to do that, and still keep him in character for the time frame.
The third issue concerned a "passive voice" in certain places throughout the manuscript. Now I know the difference between 'passive voice' and 'active voice.' So what did they mean? Oh wow! How easy it is to slide over into passive voice when you have no intention of doing so! I was amazed when I saw how many places I had done just that. Little things like "There was " or "It seemed like" or "The wind was howling" were sprinkled here and there...I know better. That took some time, also.
The fourth issue concerned "contemporary sensibilities." That threw me. I had no idea what they meant until I sat down and pondered it for a while. When I finally realized what it was, I went to work. This is the fourth draft I'm working on now, and perhaps the most difficult and time-consuming of all. But I'm not going any further with this at the moment. I think perhaps "contemporary sensibilities" might make a whole 'nother post!
Now you know why I haven't been around. "Writing to specification" is not all that easy, and at best, is time consuming. But I'll be back soon, so please stay with me.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday's Focus: Setting, Weather, and Characters
When most of us begin writing a story, we usually concentrate on our plot and our characters. Making sure all the elements of plot are there, and that we are sure our characterizations are consistent with who and what those characters are supposed to be, or represent.
But our characters respond...or should...to more than the plot elements we've laid out for them, such as goals, motivations, conflicts, crises, and so on. What about the setting your characters are in? It doesn't have to be historical fiction for you to be knowledgeable about the geographical location, the towns/cities, the clothing worn, the jobs/careers, the schools, the food, the transportation, the electronics or lack thereof, and all of the other everyday elements we humans are surrounded with that your characters are also going to be surrounded with.
Let's say your MC is a 16 year old girl in high school. What kind of school is it: big, small, old construction, new construction, brick, wooden, etc. Does she walk carefully up a rickity old staircase, or run up concrete steps? Does she live in a big city with tall skyscrapers that she doesn't know her way around in, or a small town where she knows every street by heart, and most all the people? Does she wear old jeans, sweatshirts, and boots because she lives on a farm and that's all she has, or does she wear designer jeans, expensive sweaters and brand name shoes because she goes to a prestigious school and that's what is expected? Or maybe she wears the old beat-up jeans and boots TO that prestigious school because that's all she has, and suffers ridicule because of it.
Your characters react and respond to the setting in which you place them, so be sure that you know as much about that setting as you do about your characters. You don't have to use everything you learn, but you should know enough to know how your characters realistically respond and act/react within that setting.
Weather is another part of story writing that a lot of writers dismiss. Or, they use it in a cliched manner. How many times have you read something to the effect of: The tears running down her face coincided with the rain peppering the window pane, and her heart felt as broken as the jagged slashes of lightening. Or: They huddled together behind the hay bales, trapped by the raging snow storm and the would-be killer outside.
It seems that we gotten accustomed to using the weather to reflect our characters' moods, to the point that it has all become a giant cliche'. Have you ever thought about doing just the opposite of what the weather seems to inspire? For example:
She stood at the window, glaring down at her younger sister playing with her friends. How dare they be so happy and lighthearted, how dare the sun be so bright, the sky so blue, when her heart was breaking and the tears were racing down her face? Or: He opened the door, already relishing the black clouds that precipitated the coming storm, and the cover those clouds would give him. Imagine his surprise when he was confronted with bright moonlight and clear skies, a situation clearly not conducive to the evil he planned that night.
In other words, we use the weather to change and possibly confuse the circumstances we've put our characters in. We use it to showcase the contradictory nature between what our character is feeling and how she believes
the weather should be to confirm those emotions. We take the weather and we turn it into an element of surprise, both for our characters and for our readers.
Think about it.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
But our characters respond...or should...to more than the plot elements we've laid out for them, such as goals, motivations, conflicts, crises, and so on. What about the setting your characters are in? It doesn't have to be historical fiction for you to be knowledgeable about the geographical location, the towns/cities, the clothing worn, the jobs/careers, the schools, the food, the transportation, the electronics or lack thereof, and all of the other everyday elements we humans are surrounded with that your characters are also going to be surrounded with.
Let's say your MC is a 16 year old girl in high school. What kind of school is it: big, small, old construction, new construction, brick, wooden, etc. Does she walk carefully up a rickity old staircase, or run up concrete steps? Does she live in a big city with tall skyscrapers that she doesn't know her way around in, or a small town where she knows every street by heart, and most all the people? Does she wear old jeans, sweatshirts, and boots because she lives on a farm and that's all she has, or does she wear designer jeans, expensive sweaters and brand name shoes because she goes to a prestigious school and that's what is expected? Or maybe she wears the old beat-up jeans and boots TO that prestigious school because that's all she has, and suffers ridicule because of it.
Your characters react and respond to the setting in which you place them, so be sure that you know as much about that setting as you do about your characters. You don't have to use everything you learn, but you should know enough to know how your characters realistically respond and act/react within that setting.
Weather is another part of story writing that a lot of writers dismiss. Or, they use it in a cliched manner. How many times have you read something to the effect of: The tears running down her face coincided with the rain peppering the window pane, and her heart felt as broken as the jagged slashes of lightening. Or: They huddled together behind the hay bales, trapped by the raging snow storm and the would-be killer outside.
It seems that we gotten accustomed to using the weather to reflect our characters' moods, to the point that it has all become a giant cliche'. Have you ever thought about doing just the opposite of what the weather seems to inspire? For example:
She stood at the window, glaring down at her younger sister playing with her friends. How dare they be so happy and lighthearted, how dare the sun be so bright, the sky so blue, when her heart was breaking and the tears were racing down her face? Or: He opened the door, already relishing the black clouds that precipitated the coming storm, and the cover those clouds would give him. Imagine his surprise when he was confronted with bright moonlight and clear skies, a situation clearly not conducive to the evil he planned that night.
In other words, we use the weather to change and possibly confuse the circumstances we've put our characters in. We use it to showcase the contradictory nature between what our character is feeling and how she believes
the weather should be to confirm those emotions. We take the weather and we turn it into an element of surprise, both for our characters and for our readers.
Think about it.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Friday's Focus: Is a Critique Group Really Necessary?
Whether you take writing classes in college, nightschool, online, or from a private instructional course, almost from the first word you write you are going to be told, "Join a critique group." At the least, have a critique partner.
Of course, you are also admonished that this critique partner or partners should never be friends or family members, or even co-workers, because all they are going to do is tell you how wonderful your writing is. You need to have people who are objective, and willing to point out errors as well as the good things you write.
This is all well and good IF you can find a ready-made critique group to work with, AND if you find you fit well into that group. But it's not as easy as it seems. I joined one group when I first started taking the ICL courses, and left after little more than one month. There were 9 women in the group...and that's way too many...and everyone was supposed to submit something to be critiqued each week. That meant that you had 8 other stories to critique, as well as have something ready yourself every single week. It left no time for my own writing with respect to doing ICL assignments, and to say nothing about having time for the rest of my life!
The second group I joined was made up of 4 women, who did nothing but vehemently criticize each other's work, and tell them what terrible writers they were. These 4 were friends who'd been together for some time. Friends? I left that group the seond week.
The third group was my own. I went online to every writers' forum I could find, and asked for people to form an online critique group. The first group was 6 women, including myself, and 5 of us have been together for the last 5 years. One finally left several months ago, due to other responsibilities, we now have 2 new members, and we all work very well together.
So why have a critique group? What do they do for an individual writer, or what should they do? The first thing, and possibly the most important, is to show support for one another. Writing is a lonely profession if you are in it to become a published author, and it's almost necessary to have people who know and understand what you go through. Families often don't. They often think of your writing as a hobby, and "when are you going to quit that and do something more productive?"
Another reason is to have someone point out any inconsistencies you might have, in terms of days, dates, time of year, where one character is at a specific time so that you don't put him, a couple of chapters or scenes later, somewhere else. Unless you are a very organized writer ( which I'm not), it's easy to forget little things like times or days when you have written something in one chapter, and then have to go back to that later on in your story. My partners have caught me on those things so many times, and it saved me so much time and effort.
Then there is the ever-present voice! Our voice has to be consistent throughout the story. Dialogue is one area where a lot of writers get messed up. In my first novel, one of my main characters spoke perfect English...'perfect' in the sense that she never used contractions, such as "I don't", "you haven't", and so on. It was always "I do not," "You have not,"etc., and I was fine until about 2/3 of the way through the story. Then in one whole chapter, she was using contractions in her dialogue. A dumb mistake on my part, but my critique partners caught that immediately!
Pointing out holes in your plot is another area where critique partners are necessary. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own words, as well as the anxiety about getting that darn story finally finished, that we leave big holes in our plot. For example, in the last chapter or two, do you ever find one of your main characters suddenly spouting off a lot of dialogue that is nothing more than an information dump? He or she is giving the reader information, through dialogue, that should have come up earlier, or been accounted for through scenes and action. As the author, you've just realized that you didn't explain an incident, so now the MC has to do so.
Or how about those last two secondary, rather minor characters that you introduced in Chapter 5, who've suddenly disappeared but without any reason or explanation? They were there, they had dialogue and action, but now there's no trace of them at the end of the story. What, they just evaporated into the atmosphere?
Then there's that mystery you've been dying to write. Your MCs stumble upon a dead man in a car on a secluded street, and this leads them into a fantasy maze of death, destruction, and terror before they finally find their way through the maze, solve all the crimes and problems, and return to their normal lives. EXCEPT! Who was the man in the car, who killed him, and why was he the key to this new fantasy world with all the problems? If you haven't explained that, it is a huge hole in your plot.
The point is: critique partners are very valuable entities for all writers. Granted, sometimes it takes awhile to find just the right group, but once you do, they can save your bacon on more than one occasion! No writer should ever presume that we don't need someone to oversee our work, to provide help and guidance along the way, to keep our voice, our characterizations, our dialogue, and so on, on the straight and narrow. We need new eyes, fresh ideas, and certainly objective and honest criticism about our work. Obviously, in the long run, our work is our work, and we need to take from our critiques only that which we feel will add to our story. But, also in the long run, we need the accountability that a critique group gives us.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Of course, you are also admonished that this critique partner or partners should never be friends or family members, or even co-workers, because all they are going to do is tell you how wonderful your writing is. You need to have people who are objective, and willing to point out errors as well as the good things you write.
This is all well and good IF you can find a ready-made critique group to work with, AND if you find you fit well into that group. But it's not as easy as it seems. I joined one group when I first started taking the ICL courses, and left after little more than one month. There were 9 women in the group...and that's way too many...and everyone was supposed to submit something to be critiqued each week. That meant that you had 8 other stories to critique, as well as have something ready yourself every single week. It left no time for my own writing with respect to doing ICL assignments, and to say nothing about having time for the rest of my life!
The second group I joined was made up of 4 women, who did nothing but vehemently criticize each other's work, and tell them what terrible writers they were. These 4 were friends who'd been together for some time. Friends? I left that group the seond week.
The third group was my own. I went online to every writers' forum I could find, and asked for people to form an online critique group. The first group was 6 women, including myself, and 5 of us have been together for the last 5 years. One finally left several months ago, due to other responsibilities, we now have 2 new members, and we all work very well together.
So why have a critique group? What do they do for an individual writer, or what should they do? The first thing, and possibly the most important, is to show support for one another. Writing is a lonely profession if you are in it to become a published author, and it's almost necessary to have people who know and understand what you go through. Families often don't. They often think of your writing as a hobby, and "when are you going to quit that and do something more productive?"
Another reason is to have someone point out any inconsistencies you might have, in terms of days, dates, time of year, where one character is at a specific time so that you don't put him, a couple of chapters or scenes later, somewhere else. Unless you are a very organized writer ( which I'm not), it's easy to forget little things like times or days when you have written something in one chapter, and then have to go back to that later on in your story. My partners have caught me on those things so many times, and it saved me so much time and effort.
Then there is the ever-present voice! Our voice has to be consistent throughout the story. Dialogue is one area where a lot of writers get messed up. In my first novel, one of my main characters spoke perfect English...'perfect' in the sense that she never used contractions, such as "I don't", "you haven't", and so on. It was always "I do not," "You have not,"etc., and I was fine until about 2/3 of the way through the story. Then in one whole chapter, she was using contractions in her dialogue. A dumb mistake on my part, but my critique partners caught that immediately!
Pointing out holes in your plot is another area where critique partners are necessary. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own words, as well as the anxiety about getting that darn story finally finished, that we leave big holes in our plot. For example, in the last chapter or two, do you ever find one of your main characters suddenly spouting off a lot of dialogue that is nothing more than an information dump? He or she is giving the reader information, through dialogue, that should have come up earlier, or been accounted for through scenes and action. As the author, you've just realized that you didn't explain an incident, so now the MC has to do so.
Or how about those last two secondary, rather minor characters that you introduced in Chapter 5, who've suddenly disappeared but without any reason or explanation? They were there, they had dialogue and action, but now there's no trace of them at the end of the story. What, they just evaporated into the atmosphere?
Then there's that mystery you've been dying to write. Your MCs stumble upon a dead man in a car on a secluded street, and this leads them into a fantasy maze of death, destruction, and terror before they finally find their way through the maze, solve all the crimes and problems, and return to their normal lives. EXCEPT! Who was the man in the car, who killed him, and why was he the key to this new fantasy world with all the problems? If you haven't explained that, it is a huge hole in your plot.
The point is: critique partners are very valuable entities for all writers. Granted, sometimes it takes awhile to find just the right group, but once you do, they can save your bacon on more than one occasion! No writer should ever presume that we don't need someone to oversee our work, to provide help and guidance along the way, to keep our voice, our characterizations, our dialogue, and so on, on the straight and narrow. We need new eyes, fresh ideas, and certainly objective and honest criticism about our work. Obviously, in the long run, our work is our work, and we need to take from our critiques only that which we feel will add to our story. But, also in the long run, we need the accountability that a critique group gives us.
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Tuesday's Thoughts: Suspension of Disbelief
We all know what the literary term "suspension of disbelief" means, right? But did you know that the term as I wrote it lacks one important word? "Willing." Yes, that is the important word: it is not the suspension of disbelief, it is the willing suspension of disbelief.
Let's go back to the origin of that term. Most people, writers, screenwriters, playwriters alike, believe the term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817, when he wrote his biographical sketches of his literary life. And who is Samual Taylor Coleridge?
Coleridge was born in 1772, died in 1834, and was perhaps one of the most influential poets and literary giants of all time. He and his good friend, William Wordsworth, found the Romantic Movement in England. Coleridge's greatest works are the "conversational poems,"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan."
When he wrote Biographia Literaria, which were sketches and opinions of his own literary life, he coined many literary words and phrases, among them the willing suspension of disbelief. Here is the statement in his work which, supposedly, originated that term:
"In this idea originated the plan of the "Lyrical Ballads," in which it was agreed that my endeavors be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."
Frankly, I had to read that statement over several times to figure out what he was trying to say. I think what he was getting at was that as people read his work, or watched the plays during his time, they had to be able to believe what they were reading or watching, and in order to do this, they had to set aside their own knowledge and perception of what was real for the duration of the book or the play. And he termed this ability the willing suspension of disbelief.
The willing suspension of disbelief is one of the most important narrative functions in books, plays, movies, and TV. Without it, no story, no matter the format, would ever be successful. This suggests that every person of every age has the ability to suspend disbelief: that must be true, because don't we see it every day with our children? They read ( or are read to) fantasies and fairy tales, they read about puppies who talk and bunnies who dress up in human clothes. Yet they know their own puppy doesn't talk to them, and the bunnies who eat up Mom's early spring garden aren't dressed up. They believe because they want to believe. And so do we, as adults.
As writers, it doesn't matter if we write fantasies, science fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, contemporary stories, or what; it doesn't matter if we make up whole new worlds or create gigantic steel spiders bent on inhabiting our planet or merely write about today's teens undergoing the horrors of drug and physical/ sexual abuse, our stories have to have that elusive ingredient that makes the reader willing to suspend his/her disbelief in what is on that page, and accept for the moment that real life is as it is written. As to what that ingredient is, each and every writer must find it for himself/herself.
We have to create a compelling plot, strong, believable characters, realistic conflicts, dialogue that rings true for each character, and a climax and resolution that reflects all of the above and is consistent with the plot. It is only then that our readers are willing to suspend their disbelief in what they know is real, and what they know cannot possibly happen as they are reading it, and still hang in there to the end, hoping for a good read and plausible ending.
If we don't give all of this to them, in every story we write, they are not going to be willing to suspend their disbelief, and our writing careers will be over.
By the way, Coleridge is NOT the first person to use the phrase "suspension of disbelief." Aristotle, who lived between 384 and 322 BC, wrote a book called Poetics, in which he says:
The plot is an arrangement of events derived from an unbroken chain of cause and effect. The beginning, middle, and end must have causal connections comprising a holistic whole to ensure audiences do not suffer from a suspension of disbelief or become disengaged from the plot.
How's that for being around a long time?
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Let's go back to the origin of that term. Most people, writers, screenwriters, playwriters alike, believe the term was coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817, when he wrote his biographical sketches of his literary life. And who is Samual Taylor Coleridge?
Coleridge was born in 1772, died in 1834, and was perhaps one of the most influential poets and literary giants of all time. He and his good friend, William Wordsworth, found the Romantic Movement in England. Coleridge's greatest works are the "conversational poems,"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan."
When he wrote Biographia Literaria, which were sketches and opinions of his own literary life, he coined many literary words and phrases, among them the willing suspension of disbelief. Here is the statement in his work which, supposedly, originated that term:
"In this idea originated the plan of the "Lyrical Ballads," in which it was agreed that my endeavors be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least romantic, yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith."
Frankly, I had to read that statement over several times to figure out what he was trying to say. I think what he was getting at was that as people read his work, or watched the plays during his time, they had to be able to believe what they were reading or watching, and in order to do this, they had to set aside their own knowledge and perception of what was real for the duration of the book or the play. And he termed this ability the willing suspension of disbelief.
The willing suspension of disbelief is one of the most important narrative functions in books, plays, movies, and TV. Without it, no story, no matter the format, would ever be successful. This suggests that every person of every age has the ability to suspend disbelief: that must be true, because don't we see it every day with our children? They read ( or are read to) fantasies and fairy tales, they read about puppies who talk and bunnies who dress up in human clothes. Yet they know their own puppy doesn't talk to them, and the bunnies who eat up Mom's early spring garden aren't dressed up. They believe because they want to believe. And so do we, as adults.
As writers, it doesn't matter if we write fantasies, science fiction, historical fiction, mysteries, contemporary stories, or what; it doesn't matter if we make up whole new worlds or create gigantic steel spiders bent on inhabiting our planet or merely write about today's teens undergoing the horrors of drug and physical/ sexual abuse, our stories have to have that elusive ingredient that makes the reader willing to suspend his/her disbelief in what is on that page, and accept for the moment that real life is as it is written. As to what that ingredient is, each and every writer must find it for himself/herself.
We have to create a compelling plot, strong, believable characters, realistic conflicts, dialogue that rings true for each character, and a climax and resolution that reflects all of the above and is consistent with the plot. It is only then that our readers are willing to suspend their disbelief in what they know is real, and what they know cannot possibly happen as they are reading it, and still hang in there to the end, hoping for a good read and plausible ending.
If we don't give all of this to them, in every story we write, they are not going to be willing to suspend their disbelief, and our writing careers will be over.
By the way, Coleridge is NOT the first person to use the phrase "suspension of disbelief." Aristotle, who lived between 384 and 322 BC, wrote a book called Poetics, in which he says:
The plot is an arrangement of events derived from an unbroken chain of cause and effect. The beginning, middle, and end must have causal connections comprising a holistic whole to ensure audiences do not suffer from a suspension of disbelief or become disengaged from the plot.
How's that for being around a long time?
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Wednesday's Wanderings: Looking Back...and Forward
The year of our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven is over, and I for one am so glad! It was not the best of years for me and my family, so I think 2012 can only be better.
I learned some things this past year, however, that are probably going to change the way I look at the future in terms of my writing. I received a lot of rejections last year, but the "good" part of that is that most of them were personal notes of rejection. I learned that for the most part, agents like my writing. They like my characters, they like my plots, they like the way I develop the story, how I arouse emotion from sympathy to anger in just the first few pages, how vividly I paint an imaginary picture. But the answer is still a 'no.' For a variety of reasons: just accepted one similar; not quite what I am looking for; don't have the "stomach" to go down the road of slavery right now; and the one I liked best: I loved it but didn't "fall in love" with it. And there were other reasons.
What does that tell me..or you? I think agents are looking for a SURE thing, and how can they be "sure" of that with a new author? All of the agents I queried were ones who were looking for new clients, at least according to blog interviews and Query Tracker. But it seems that new clients doesn't equal new authors, in many cases.
Publishing has changed drastically in the last couple of years, due to the bad economy and to the advent of ebook publishing. The "Big Six" publishers in New York are only going to publish those books that are going to bring in a lot of money, and possibly make the New York Times Best Seller list, and very few new authors are going to do that. Well, unless you're the next JK Rowlings or Stephanie Meyer, that is. And most of us aren't, even if we'd like to think we are!
Consequently, agents have to deal with publishers who are being extremely choosey about what they publish, so agents also have to be extremely choosey. Most of them are no longer willing to take chances on new authors, unless they truly believe you have a blockbuster of a novel. The exception to this 'rule' is the few agents who are aiming for the smaller, less-well-known publishers, rather than the Big Six or any of their imprints.
(Big Six: Hachette Book Group, formerly TimeWarner, many imprints including Little,Brown, and Co; HarperCollins, with 50 imprints; MacMillan Publishers, dozens of imprints including St.Martin Press, Tor, Farrar,Straus, & Giroux; Penguin Group, second largest trade publisher in the world; Random House, largest English-language trade publisher in the world; and Simon Schuster, with dozens of imprints.)
From what I've been reading on several published authors' blogs, the Big Six are looking for younger writers who are truly outstanding, who are writing series instead of independent novels, and with whom they can have a long-lasting relationship. So where does that leave the, er, not-so-younger writer? Are we all nothing more than chopped liver, in terms of our writing? According to the personal rejections I've been getting, I'm not exactly chopped liver, I'm a "brilliant writer" but I don't have the demographics the Big Six are looking for, so I'm not what the agents are looking for, either.
That was then, this is now. 2011 is over with, 2012 has just begun, and for me, that means changing my direction, changing my thoughts, and changing my career path. I'm a grandmother, and proud of it! And if I have to frame all of those "glowing, thanks but not thanks" personal rejections, and hang them up in my study to prove to myself that my writing is "brilliant," I will do so. But I'm not giving up, just changing things around a bit.
This year, I'm going after the small, independent publishers. NOT, repeat, NOT the vanity-type where you pay them to publish your book, but the smaller, less well-known publishers who do a lot, if not most, of ebook publishing. Why not? Ebooks are now being published from picture books to middle grade, young adult, and adult. Ebook publishing no longer has the stigma that it did when it first came out, and although you don't get an advance, your royalty percentage is quite a bit more than through traditional, print publishing.
You do have to do a lot more of the promotion yourself, but in today's economy, you also have to do much of it even with the Big Six. Websites, blogs, interviews, school visitis, smaller independent book store signings ( if you get into print), are all easy and inexpensive ways to promote your book.
Another thing I'm going to look into is self-publishing. Again, not the kind where you have to do all the work and pay someone else. But I've been reading about highly successful authors, including some who have made the NY Times Best Seller list, whose best-selling books are self-published. It can't be all that bad. At least, it's an option to look into.
Does that mean I'm going to stop querying agents? Not at all. But it does mean that I'm not taking days and days of doing research on them, it means I'm sending out queries to many at a time instead of only a select few, and it means I'm not going to be heartbroken over rejections, personal or otherwise.
And in the meantime, I'm going to be querying as many ebook and smaller, independent publishers as I can for the coming year. I'm looking forward with a smile to 2012. 2011, you're in the trash can!
Are you looking forward to what this new year will bring? What are your feelings about ebook publishing?
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
I learned some things this past year, however, that are probably going to change the way I look at the future in terms of my writing. I received a lot of rejections last year, but the "good" part of that is that most of them were personal notes of rejection. I learned that for the most part, agents like my writing. They like my characters, they like my plots, they like the way I develop the story, how I arouse emotion from sympathy to anger in just the first few pages, how vividly I paint an imaginary picture. But the answer is still a 'no.' For a variety of reasons: just accepted one similar; not quite what I am looking for; don't have the "stomach" to go down the road of slavery right now; and the one I liked best: I loved it but didn't "fall in love" with it. And there were other reasons.
What does that tell me..or you? I think agents are looking for a SURE thing, and how can they be "sure" of that with a new author? All of the agents I queried were ones who were looking for new clients, at least according to blog interviews and Query Tracker. But it seems that new clients doesn't equal new authors, in many cases.
Publishing has changed drastically in the last couple of years, due to the bad economy and to the advent of ebook publishing. The "Big Six" publishers in New York are only going to publish those books that are going to bring in a lot of money, and possibly make the New York Times Best Seller list, and very few new authors are going to do that. Well, unless you're the next JK Rowlings or Stephanie Meyer, that is. And most of us aren't, even if we'd like to think we are!
Consequently, agents have to deal with publishers who are being extremely choosey about what they publish, so agents also have to be extremely choosey. Most of them are no longer willing to take chances on new authors, unless they truly believe you have a blockbuster of a novel. The exception to this 'rule' is the few agents who are aiming for the smaller, less-well-known publishers, rather than the Big Six or any of their imprints.
(Big Six: Hachette Book Group, formerly TimeWarner, many imprints including Little,Brown, and Co; HarperCollins, with 50 imprints; MacMillan Publishers, dozens of imprints including St.Martin Press, Tor, Farrar,Straus, & Giroux; Penguin Group, second largest trade publisher in the world; Random House, largest English-language trade publisher in the world; and Simon Schuster, with dozens of imprints.)
From what I've been reading on several published authors' blogs, the Big Six are looking for younger writers who are truly outstanding, who are writing series instead of independent novels, and with whom they can have a long-lasting relationship. So where does that leave the, er, not-so-younger writer? Are we all nothing more than chopped liver, in terms of our writing? According to the personal rejections I've been getting, I'm not exactly chopped liver, I'm a "brilliant writer" but I don't have the demographics the Big Six are looking for, so I'm not what the agents are looking for, either.
That was then, this is now. 2011 is over with, 2012 has just begun, and for me, that means changing my direction, changing my thoughts, and changing my career path. I'm a grandmother, and proud of it! And if I have to frame all of those "glowing, thanks but not thanks" personal rejections, and hang them up in my study to prove to myself that my writing is "brilliant," I will do so. But I'm not giving up, just changing things around a bit.
This year, I'm going after the small, independent publishers. NOT, repeat, NOT the vanity-type where you pay them to publish your book, but the smaller, less well-known publishers who do a lot, if not most, of ebook publishing. Why not? Ebooks are now being published from picture books to middle grade, young adult, and adult. Ebook publishing no longer has the stigma that it did when it first came out, and although you don't get an advance, your royalty percentage is quite a bit more than through traditional, print publishing.
You do have to do a lot more of the promotion yourself, but in today's economy, you also have to do much of it even with the Big Six. Websites, blogs, interviews, school visitis, smaller independent book store signings ( if you get into print), are all easy and inexpensive ways to promote your book.
Another thing I'm going to look into is self-publishing. Again, not the kind where you have to do all the work and pay someone else. But I've been reading about highly successful authors, including some who have made the NY Times Best Seller list, whose best-selling books are self-published. It can't be all that bad. At least, it's an option to look into.
Does that mean I'm going to stop querying agents? Not at all. But it does mean that I'm not taking days and days of doing research on them, it means I'm sending out queries to many at a time instead of only a select few, and it means I'm not going to be heartbroken over rejections, personal or otherwise.
And in the meantime, I'm going to be querying as many ebook and smaller, independent publishers as I can for the coming year. I'm looking forward with a smile to 2012. 2011, you're in the trash can!
Are you looking forward to what this new year will bring? What are your feelings about ebook publishing?
Until next time,
That's a wrap.
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