SEEN AT BOUCHERCON! PART III

In this final post, following my little monkey’s theme of “Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil,”  (hey it was a Murder Convention…get it???)  I’ll share some of the pictures I took for the “SEEN AT BOUCHERCON.”  I didn’t take a ton because I already felt a bit gauche, and “touristy” what with the photo snapping I was doing to begin with.  Doing that is not conducive for trying to blend in.  Matter of fact, I’m thinking it looked SO uncool because I wasn’t doing all those quick, snappy selfies with cell phone – remember, I remain for the most part, technology “untethered.”

I think that might have to change in the near future.

Anywho, here we go!

They called these little red bags…”Hook Up.” When I checked in at registration, the lady said, “Hang on dear, let me give you your hook up.” Well. All righty then.

Sign up and choose a name, or have your own used in an author’s next work! (no, I didn’t sign up, boooo, party pooper!)

Henery Press display for Hank Phillippi Ryan books

Where “THEY” will be to sign books!

Margaret Maron (Bouchercon’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, 2015)

Margaret Maron, moderator (not pictured) Panel New Faces Best New Novel Nominees: L to R, Lori Rader Day, M.P. Cooley, Kristi Belcamino, and Allen Eskens. (not pictured, Julia Dahl)

Long shot, Julia Dahl on end

Les Edgerton and Trey Barker from the Rough Tough Tales for Tough Readers panel.

Rough Tough Tales for Tough Readers Panel, moderator Eric Beetner (far left), Tom Young, Chris Pavone, Les Edgerton, Trey R. Barker

Political Espionage Thrillers: Pre- and Post Edward Snowden, L to R, Susan Elia MacNeal, Terry Shames, and Mark Greaney, moderator. Not pictured Gayle Lynds, and Marc Cameron.

The Political Espionage Thrillers Panel – long shot with Gayle Lynds and Marc Cameron, Funny, where’s Colin and Loretta Sue? Hmmmm.

Barbara Poelle and Patrick Lee!!! (nuff said)

Just what it says…

Books galore!

Browsers in the book room…

Who else was “SEEN” by me, but not pictured?  Janet Reid, Loretta Ross (DEATH OF THE RED HEADED WOMAN), Colin Smith (a regular REIDER), an editor from GRAND CENTRAL (whoop!  I just wish I could remember her name) who sat with THE Barbara Poelle at our table in the bar, and talked “business.”  Also seen Donna Andrews, Wendy Corsi Straub, Susan Spann, and someone with a hat and sunglasses on coming through the lobby, who looked so “in,” I just figured he had to be a BIG deal.  Except I have no idea who he was, but he had “the look.”

As well, and no offense intended, I saw a LOT of folks who looked on in their years.  I think I understand why the publishing industry gets SO excited about young authors.  You know, that Five Under Thirty Five.  I don’t know.  Maybe writing suspense, thriller, crime makes you grow old fast.

WHAT WAS SAID AT BOUCHERCON – PART II

As I mentioned in the last post, I’m writing about Bouchercon 2015 in three seperate posts.  These comments come mostly from authors or agents.

WHAT WAS SAID:

• Question from audience:  “In your opinion, what’s the biggest mistake beginning writers make?”  “Too many doorknobs turning, too much looking in the mirror, too much sitting and thinking.” ~Gayle Linds
• “I know I won’t ever be a bestselling author because what I write is pretty rough and you know what, I don’t give a shit.”  ~Les Edgerton
• “I’m thinking maybe I’ve done too many searches about anthrax.   And that my phone is being tracked.”  ~Susan Ella MacNeal
• Me, “So and so author is looking for you.”  Secret Agent, “Yeah, that’s why I’m hiding.”
• “Is this thing on?  Hello?”  (moves head.  moves body.  moves mic.  Assumes awkward, stiff, uncomfortable position, stares at audience)  “Okay.  I’m not moving.  I’ll just stay exactly like this through the end of the panel.”  ~Lori Rader Day
•  “There are about 200M readers in the U.S.  As an author, with the best case scenario you might get 1% of them reading your books.  That’s 2M people.  And that’s the best case.  Don’t worry about trying to please everyone because you can’t do it.”  ~Chris Pavone, on email criticisms from readers.
• “My best selling books were cookbooks, and then I decided I wanted to be a thriller novelist.”  ~Chris Pavone
• On POV and writers using their own beliefs or way of thinking about hot topics in their story, “Writers will sometimes use their writing as a platform,” and “As long as you can write a compelling story without being preachy, I see no reason not to do this.”  (collective response from several authors)
• “And I read it wondering, does this suck?”  ~Julia Dahl

This is just a snippet of what was said.  I would have had to have a tape recorder, or known shorthand to capture it all.  All the panels were well moderated, fast paced, and those of us sitting in the audience weren’t disappointed.  I’d read some of the information on what to do, not do.  I made sure to sit towards the back in case I wanted to leave because a panel wasn’t all that good.  I didn’t leave.  I stayed and listened and learned.

And swooned.  Just a little.  Okay.  A LOT.

OVERHEARD AT BOUCHERCON! Part I

I’m so proud of my hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina for hosting Bouchercon 2015.  I love our beautiful little city which has become an eclectic and lively center for night life, arts, foodie type restaurants, all with a bright array of craft beers, for which NC is becoming quite well known.

See that little red brick building tucked in the middle? That is the Sheraton, one of the hotels hosting Bouchercon.

Like those little monkeys of “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil,” fame, I’m going to share the experience of Bouchercon in a similar manner.  Part I is going to be what I “(over)heard,” Part II, what was said, and Part III, what was seen.

This was my very first writing event.  I honestly don’t think I could have picked a better inaugural one to attend.  Maybe I should be ashamed to admit I’ve never been to a workshop, conference, or book signing/reading.  This seems very strange now, in hindsight, considering all the years I’ve spent writing.

What is Bouchercon? I’ll just link to it here so you can read for yourself.  The funny thing about this is, I signed up for this convention over a year ago because at the time I was writing a hard crime novel.  I thought, wow, how fortunate this well known event is coming HERE, only 45 minutes from my doorstep.  A lot can change in a year.  I almost didn’t get to go.  I’m SO GLAD it all worked out so I could!  It was a once in a lifetime chance to meet some great people face to face that I’ve come to know online, as well as actually seeing some well known authors (and agents!) up close.

I’m still swooning.  Anyway, on to what I OVERHEARD:

• Fellow writer, Colin Smith said, something like 1,400 people flew in.  (That doesn’t cover folks like him/me, who live close enough to drive to it.  Which I did both Thursday and Friday.)
• A writer engaged another writer, So, what’s your book about…?  Response, Uh…uh…uh…
• My feet are killing me.  Should I add that as a plot line in my next book?
• OMG, I think I just saw Hank Phillippi Ryan!
• “Can you please talk about writing instead of Edward Snowden?”  (This said at a panel which was actually focused on writing Political Espionage Thrillers; Pre/post Edward Snowden.  In my opinion, this writer earns the “author asshat” award.  Credit for phrase goes to Janet Reid)
• Who’s that?  Who’s that?  Is that?  (this voice was so animated I had to turn and look – I think it was a Tom Franklin sighting, but it was SO crowded, I’m not sure because I never saw him)
• God, I need a drink.  But then, I’d want to write.  Do you drink and write?  (I almost interjected myself into this conversation with a resounding YES.)
• Aren’t there more bathrooms than this?
• Will you sign my book?  I love your work, I love…
• I can’t carry all this.  This thing must weigh fifty lbs.  (book bag)
• Squeals of joy
• Lots of laughter
• A persistent hum of ***voices, all talking about books, writing, authors, agents, publishers, booksellers.

***I’m highlighting this last one because if writers are supposed to be a reclusive bunch who find it hard to engage in conversation, and being in public, I certainly “heard” no evidence of this – AT ALL.  It got pretty loud – especially once we moved to the bar.

The convention is still going on today and tomorrow, but I won’t be able to finish it out, and that makes me sad.  Despite that, I’m grateful for the time I did get to spend there, and for the generosity of others who shared that time with me.  I came away with good vibes, a collective overall warm fuzzy feeling I think my writing soul needed, like filling up the gas tank, knowing I can now add more mileage to the journey this has become.

“The Writingest State”

As a member of the North Carolina Writer’s Network, I am aware of the plethora of writers who are members.  NCWN sends weekly updates highlighting opportunities to see/hear fellow writers as they traverse various parts of our state participating in book signings, readings, and other social events to promote their work.

I’ve always noticed the sub-header of these newsletter’s stating we are, “The Writingest State.”

I don’t know how this determination was made.  Was there a study or research done to back up the claim?  I thought, well, let me just do a little investigation and see what I come up with on my own.  Admittedly, my only source for this “research” was Google.  Honestly, I doubt there could be or would be any broader source, unless there’s somebody out there who happens to know every person who’s ever written and published in this state and then was able to compare it against the other forty-nine.  And by the way, I think it’s only fair to count “published,” because anybody can sit around and say they write.  My Auntie Lou could say it, and should we count her?  No.

I also suppose I could ask someone at NCWN how the sub-header came to be, but then I thought, won’t that seem like some sort of “challenge” question?  Anyway, I Googled.

I started with these terms: States with the most authors.  Not much there.  Then I tried States with most published authors.  I did get this.  And even more surprising, the conclusion was the Midwest and the Northeast had the highest concentration of most famous authors.  For North Carolina, imagine my surprise to see that O. Henry is the author considered to “carry” our state in terms of literary weight.  I found this interesting because…what about Thomas Wolfe?  (LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL, and posthumously, YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN, and THE WEB AND THE ROCK)  And what about Reynolds Price?

Come on Publisher’s Weekly!  How about these fine writers?  Kaye Gibbons, (ELLEN FOSTER, and ON THE OCCASION OF MY LAST AFTERNOON, to name a few) and oh my gosh, what about Clyde Edgerton, Allan Gurganus, and Ron Rash, and Charles Frazier?  Okay, they said “famous,” but what exactly did they mean by famous?  Charles Frazier?  Hello?  COLD MOUNTAIN made into the movie with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, remember that one?  What about Doris Betts?  She won several awards including a Guggenheim fellowship as did Gurganus.

Doris Betts

And then there was this list which had ones I mention above, and maybe by the numbers it’s a great list, yet the quality/influences of work ought to be considered overall, as well.  And then I spotted David Sedaris among these, and realize he wasn’t born in NC, but evidently lived/grew up in Raleigh during some part of his school years.

So.  My conclusion as to that sub-header?  Actually, nothing.  Based on all the above, I have no idea how it came to be, but, hey, I like it, that much I can tell you.  It’s funny because the first thing I thought of was let’s hope it’s not like that other claim which went into some sort of the chicken or egg type of dispute a while back between NC and Ohio.  That was over NC’s license plates, and the “First In Flight,” motto.  I’m sure most of you know, but just to clarify, the Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk is where Wilbur and Orville Wright lived and tested the plane and made those famous first flights, yet they were born in Ohio.

No one’s disputing the NCWN stance, I mean, not even me, I was only curious.  And…no one’s challenged it, far as I know.  I do believe we have a lot of great writers in our state, past and present.  I’m very proud I’m from a place that cherishes the arts and recognizes achievements made by those who contribute to cultural and intellectual advancement with their efforts.

The “writingest state?”  I can stand by that.

Were you surprised by the writer who “carries” your state on the first list?

This Is A Movie?

I went to the Redbox outside Walgreens just about a mile away looking for the movie CAKE with Jennifer Aniston.  To my disappointment it was already checked out, and so I stood there a moment debating.  I could go to the other Redbox outside the Hess Wilco gas station a block over, but I was tired.  Instead, I decided to scroll through the remaining movies just to see if anything else caught my eye, and boy, did it.

When had CHILD OF GOD been made into a movie?

COG was the second book I’d ever read by Cormac McCarthy.  The first was THE ROAD.  Both prompted a McCarthy frenzy which sort of petered out before I read the last book I’d bought by him, BLOOD MERIDIAN.  I’ve blogged about this in the past, with this book, and this one. 

I’d come away from those with a bit of burn out based on his repetitious style of writing.  Granted, he can take a situation and for several hundred pages have you following along because sometimes you think, “it just can’t get any worse,” and then it does.  He’s extraordinarily talented with revealing just how corrupt and backwards some individuals can be when forced to live at the edges of society.  He writes about characters who are depraved, ignorant and typically desperate.

At any rate, imagine my surprise as I stood there trying to decide since I can’t have CAKE, (ha) what’s it to be?  And then I saw it,and my curiosity about how they could take a story like THAT and make a movie of it won out.  I rented it.  I figured James Franco directed, I can’t go wrong.

Just like with books, I don’t typically rely on the ratings too much.  It was a little surprising however, when I got home and searched for the movie’s release date (2014), to see that Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it two stars.  And reviewers who use IMDb ranked it at 5.4 out of 10.  I watched the trailer.  I thought it looked pretty good.

Maybe it’s the extraordinarily tasteless acts ole Lester Ballard engages in that has turned folks off.  If nothing else, you got to hand it to McCarthy for going “there.”  No one else has, not that I know of.  I thought certain topics were taboo and he proved that’s not the case necessarily.

I’ll hand McCarthy this.  He writes as if everyone he knows, or anyone who might judge him is dead.  There is no topic off limits.  As a writer, I’ve yet to learn this.  I think twice before I word something a certain way.  I write a scene over and over and over with the thought, “who might read this?  Oh, yeah, them.”  DELETE.

I want to learn to write like no one’s looking over my shoulder.

Don’t you?

Much Ado About Nothing?

With all the controversy swirling around I can’t say I want to read this any more than I did when I pre-ordered it weeks ago.  I mean, I’ve always wanted to read another book by Harper Lee, and so, from the initial “discovery” of the manuscript to this copy held in my hands, I’m happy.  Right now, anyway.  If I am perhaps more anxious to hurry up and read, it’s only so I can form my own opinion, particularly now that I know I’ll read about a different Atticus Finch.  From what I understand, he won’t be the upstanding man portrayed in MOCKINGBIRD.  He’s stood on the pedestal of justice we built for him with righteousness and one could imagine even, conviction.  What a huge burden he’s carried all these fifty some years, what with living under false pretenses.  I guess that’s the issue.  I don’t really know other than what I’ve seen on TV or read in the paper.

But, with all that aside, the truth is, this IS the book Harper Lee originally wrote, the book that became TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.  MOCKINGBIRD is the result of an editor reading the GO SET A WATCHMAN (GSAW) manuscript and perhaps, with her editing pen tapping on her desk, she picked up the phone and called Ms. Lee and said, “I think the story needs to start earlier.  By twenty or thirty years.  Maybe a story about a young girl who reveres her father, and even more so after he shows her the true meaning right and wrong, patience and the complexities of living in a Jim Crow South.”

The editor did right by Harper Lee.  She gave her the advice any writer would want – the ability to look at a manuscript and see the story that was needed for that point in time.

You know what I’m most fascinated by?  That index card I saw, the one with the typed notes about GSAW and the fifty or so page increments brought in to the publisher, those notes that stated something like, “brought in by author” with the date, etc.  What an artifact!  The index card was shown on CBS morning news the day of the book’s release and I was SO hoping someone would flip that thing over so I could pause my TV and read the rest of what it said.

That is, in my opinion, a real piece of history, something that shouldn’t be lost.  They should have made bookmarks out of it and provided one to all us readers who’ve bought the book!

Anyway, I’m currently reading COMING OF AGE IN MISSISSIPPI by Ann Moody which is another eye opener, and I’m only about halfway done.  Whenever I get into GSAW and finish, I’ll be sure to throw in my two cents worth here.  After all, I’ve only read MOCKINGBIRD about five times now, the last time when the 50th Anniversary edition came out and I bought it, remembering it as one of my favorite all time reads as a child, not to mention the movie with Gregory Peck.

I hope I’m not disappointed by WATCHMAN.  I plan to steer clear of reading too much more about all of it beforehand.  In some small way, I’m a bit stupefied by the “shock” of the press over the so called “plot twist” about Atticus’ true nature.  At this point in time it sounds a lot like the typical path taken by a writer who worked with an editor to produce the best book she possibly could.  Newsflash, this still happens today – except we don’t drop into a publisher, we email our work.  The rest is the same.

We write.

Editors help us produce a better book.

And excuse the pun, but, end of story, right?

Doesn’t that make all this really much ado about nothing?

 

A Little Trick

Every now and then I will come up on a writing article which shares a tidbit so simple, yet so juicy, it’s like the salivary glands of my brain kick in and I think WOW, so that’s the trick to it!

Don’t get too excited.  This will not be the Holy Grail of discovery for many writers here.  You might actually feel cheated when I tell you what it is, and you may say to yourself, “Oh.  I already knew that.”  On the other hand, if you didn’t know, then you may feel a bit like this:

….if you’ve finished a project (like me) and now wish you’d had this little juicy tidbit beforehand.  Well.  Nothing can be done about it now, however, for future projects, yes!

So, my last project was categorized as “hard crime.”  I recollect all too well (hey, just look at that pic) there were moments of hair pulling, frustration and downright anxiety where I felt like keeping a somewhat suspenseful or tension filled story going was almost impossible.  I kept wondering, how do they do it, how do mystery writers (even though I wasn’t writing a mystery) suspense writers, or thriller writers DO IT?  What’s their trick?  Maybe their brains just work different than mine.  Maybe I’m not cut out to write this sort of story.

And then?  Months later, well past me typing THE END, this article comes along and explains a tool often used.  It’s making your readers think one way when it’s really not that way at all.  It is so simple, yet for some reason, it never occurred to me this was what I needed to do – don’t ask me why.  Maybe I was stuck on the idea of not tricking readers. You aren’t if you do this, not really.  You’ve simply got them thinking one way, and it’s…, well.  It’s not that way at all.  It’s setting your story up so events appear to be headed in a certain direction.

I like to call this THE GONE GIRL METHOD.  It is, as this article states, using a “fallacy.”

For example, let’s say you have a story where a woman is on the run from her husband.  She’s trying to get away from him because she believes, and you, as the reader believe, he’s going to kill her because the author has planted this idea in your head earlier in the story.  Maybe in an earlier scene the woman says, “I know what you did to your first wife, and you got away with it.”  Maybe the husband is approaching her slowly, with caution, and the story is from her perspective and you see the crazy in his eyes like she does.  You’re like RUN! Run, you DING DONG!  Of course he’s denying it and maybe the author sets up other clues that point to him.  You, as the reader don’t know what’s the truth any more than his wife.

Except.  He actually didn’t kill his first wife and he’s not out to kill his second wife.  That bit, the truth, whatever it is, is what is held back until it’s absolutely necessary to share with readers.

Here’s the article that does a much better job than me at giving you the nuts and bolts of this method.  It delves into some real examples, but for me, as you could tell from above, the very first one I thought of was GONE GIRL.  There were more “I didn’t see that coming!” comments about this book than any other I’ve ever read about.  Your hidden agenda has to be believable, of course, and yet something so well camouflaged, or embedded in your story, when the reveal happens, readers are left dumbstruck by how “they didn’t see that coming!”

What’s the simplest, yet best writing tool you’ve ever stumbled on?

What The Heck Is This?

When I finished my last project I realized I was in a bit of a dilemma.  Based on what I’d read, it wasn’t an unusual spot to be in.  My dilemma was, what genre did my book fit in?  I hadn’t written a mystery because a reader would know certain things up front my MC didn’t.  My MC wasn’t trying to solve the crime, she was simply trying to find out what happened to her parents.  It wasn’t a thriller because although I did try to make things suspenseful for her, I didn’t have her hanging by a fingernail out of a plane door, nor did I have her standing on the ledge of some mountain about two thousand feet up with a knife wielding maniac taking swipes at her torso.  I didn’t have my bad guy constantly thwarting every attempt she made to figure things out.

I simply wrote it (ha! simply wrote = eighteen months of hair pulling and angst), tried to make it good, typed THE END and then I admit, I sat back and wondered, what the heck is this? 

Was it so out of line, so off the mark of anything marketable it was doomed from the get go?  I’ve tried not to worry about that.  Then, one day, without me trying to figure it out, I was practically handed my answer on a silver platter because I honestly can’t tell you how I land on the sites that answer my questions.  I traverse the internet the way a monkey traverses treetop canopies.  I cavort here and there without paying attention to what I’m linking to, flip flopping around like a spider on a web.  (no pun intended.  Well, okay, there is, because it’s a pretty good one if you’ve ever seen a spider spinning a web)   Hither thither I go, reading this and that.

I somehow found myself on the Algonquin Redux site and landed on a list that clearly stated the difference between a mystery and a thriller.  Here’s the short of it:

MYSTERY                                                                  THRILLER
A puzzle                                                                       A nightmare
Curiosity motivates                                                   Victim story (at top)
Protagonist has skills                                                Protagonist must learn skills
Thinking is paramount                                             Feeling is paramount
Action is offstage                                                        Action is onstage
Small circle of acquaintances                                  Thrust into larger world
Clues                                                                             Surprises/twists
Red herrings                                                                Cycles of mistrust
Information withheld from audience                     Information given to audience
Audience a step behind                                             Audience a step ahead
Mostly single Point of View                                      Up to four Points of View
Whodunnit?                                                                 What will happen?
Suspects                                                                        Betrayers
Ending intellectually satisfying                               Ending emotionally satisfying
Closure a requirement                                               Can end ambiguously
Series expected                                                            Often stand-alone
Usually 300 pages                                                       Can be longer

Here’s the link if you want to read the article in it’s entirety.  It’s actually pretty short.  This was all fine and good but it still didn’t quite nail the way I handled my story, or maybe I should say the way my characters handled the story.  Therefore, I still didn’t have a clue.  But, lucky me, I subscribe to various blogs and am never at a loss for something to read.  And just over a week ago I found my answer here.  Hallelujah, what I wrote actually fits nicely into this!  Crime fiction!  Whoop!

On what constitutes crime fiction:

“I would say that crime fiction is less about the whodunit than about the protagonist’s dilemma in a criminal milieu. The protagonist may not have all the information—so there is a mystery in that he is trying to find something out—but the story is really about how he solves his problems, which are often as much about his lifestyle as about the particular crime that spurs the plot. For instance, in Ray Bank’s brilliant Saturday’s Child, Cal Innes is forced by a local mob boss to find a former employee and the money he stole, but in many ways the story is about Cal trying to find a place for himself and form an adult life within a socioeconomic stratum that offers very few options.”

—Stacia Decker (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

This was such a relief because “crime fiction” isn’t listed very often.  If you do a search on it you can find some resources, but mostly you get thriller, suspense and mystery and often all of these are lumped together.  When I was trying to buy books so I could read “in the genre” I was writing, suspense was the one I searched under.  And oftentimes I ended up giving up because I just couldn’t seem to pinpoint a similar story.  (Saturday’s Child above would have been good to know about, for example)

Now I know.  A day late and a dollar short maybe, but my book fits somewhere!  Clearly!

Have you ever written a book, only to have no idea what the heck it is?

Practice Makes Perfect?

How many times have you heard, “practice makes perfect?”

Recently an article written by a teacher who taught an MFA creative writing program caused a lot of backlash.  Chuck Wendig’s blog post alerted me to the uproar otherwise I would have never heard of the controversy.  If you haven’t read Chuck’s post or the teacher’s, both are worth the few minutes of time.  The teacher’s opinion is just his opinion, of course.  I’m not planning to drag us all into the weeds all over again about it, at least I hope I don’t.  Chuck did a great job (when does he not?) at articulating his views, and as usual I found myself nodding many times while reading his thoughts.

The debate about inherent talent versus anyone can do it if they work hard enough, is interesting, another hot button topic if I ever saw one.  For the most part, I think some people do have an extra advantage.  Call it talent, or “natural aptitude,” as one commenter on Chuck’s blog pointed out.  If not for that, wouldn’t we live in a world where all of us would be able to do just about anything, become pro football players, elite runners, play any instrument, become physicists, write Pulitzer Prize winning books, etc., if we set our minds to it and practiced or studied like hell?  Personally, I don’t think so.

Our bodies, our brains are not all equally alike.  When I was reading about gene/DNA coding, a fact sheet states “There are small variations between every individual in their genetic information that makes each of us unique.”

I think all of us are aware of that, and it’s not really the main point.  Writing, painting, sculpturing or whatever art form chosen, the trite saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” couldn’t be more true.  And what about “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  The argument was about who decides who is talented.  It’s simply that whole subjective thing – all over again.

After I read Chuck’s blog, and then read the teacher’s article too, I sort of shrugged and thought, “well, I just don’t know what to think about that, and I’m not sure I care.”  Maybe I should care.  It’s about the writing community, after all.  It’s about all of us hopefuls out here, MFA’s or not, who work so damn hard to finagle and wrangle and wring words into stunning, captivating, sentences that might thrill, excite, and grab someone, anyone’s attention and make them turn pages, again and again.

Think about Betsy Lerner’s book, THE FOREST FOR THE TREES, where she breaks down into six specific writer personalities or identities. (I think it’s six but, I’m too lazy to walk upstairs and verify, so oops if it’s seven.  Or eight)  And what’s one of them called?  “The Natural.”  When I first read her book years ago, that’s the one I wanted to be.  The one who bubbled to the top of the pile with a natural born, uncanny talent for prose, the one who’d taken years for editors to find, the one they would whisper about around the water coolers (do they still even have those?)  “did you read her…,?  did you hear about…,?  Her name is…”

Huh.  Yeah.  Well.  Rrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeep! That there’s the sound of a needle dragging across vinyl.  If you’re too young to get it, oh well.  Let’s say I’m still “practicing,” shall we?

It’s obvious though, Betsy believes some out there have that awesome, wonderful, “natural ability.”

And then, about three weeks ago I watched the movie WHIPLASH.  Have you seen it?  Watch it because let me tell you what, my heart rate stayed elevated the entire movie.  Talk about perseverance.  Talk about not quitting.  Talk about PRACTICE MAKING PERFECT.  That movie holds all the lessons we receive from the writing communities we dwell in about “never give up, never stop believing it won’t happen, never stop writing, you can’t win if you don’t play,” and on and on.  But, it still brought me full circle back to the question; was the MC as good a drummer as he was because of talent or was it because of all the practice?  I think it was both.

That made me start thinking about the article that fired everyone up, and what if the MFA teacher had a point?  Maybe he was sort of like the jerk of a teacher in this film, who recognized talent, and was simply on the lookout for it.  Maybe he was just calling it how he saw it, but back to the rub, who was he to dictate a writer as talented or not?  Subjective, subjective, subjective.  And around and around we go.

What if I don’t have talent, or natural aptitude for writing?  Is it going to do any good to keep at it?  Is it possible to raise myself above mediocrity, and who will decide when I have?  Will I actually get better and better or will I eventually come to a point where no matter what, this is as good as it gets?

What if we’re really being lied to when told, “practice makes perfect?”

Courtesy Inside The Writer

 

A Story Worth Telling

Blank.  Vacant.  Meaningless.

Those three words describe the current situation with my latest WIP.  This will be the fourth book I’ve written – if I ever get it done.  I felt like this with the last one too, and I did finish it, so yay, consolation there, right?  Meh, sort of.

What’s different is, I’ve run up against a new problem I’ve not encountered before; what is the story?  What am I writing about? I haven’t the faintest idea.  I still love the setting.  I still love the working title.  I just can’t seem to get my act together, and it’s starting to get a little worrisome.

Here’s what I want.  I want to be buried so deep I can’t see anything else but where the storyline is going next.  I want to drift around the house with that perpetual little wrinkle between my eyebrows, as I worry over a particular plot point.  I want my fingers to strike the keyboard fast as they can and still not be able to keep up.  I want to STOP pecking out a few words only to delete them.  I want to stop feeling like the ideas are all a waste of time.  I want to stop thinking I have nothing left.

I’ve sat on quite a few ideas, for days, weeks even.  I started to write, only to trash all within a day or two – usually as soon as I go back and re-read what I have the next day.  Two months ago, I was ten thousand words in on one lame idea, and it just didn’t feel right.  I think what I mean is, I wasn’t excited.  What actually went through my  head was, “God, this is a stupid story.”  If I’m not excited, how could anyone else feel that way?

Since then, I’ve play around with several other beginnings, only to get about two to three thousand words in, and I’m like, “nah.”  I’ve had so many false starts at this point, my folder for the new project has racked up discarded bits and pieces of this and that, just like the donated clothing bin over on Highway 421 with its overflowing trash bags of shoes, sweaters, pants,and coats.  I think I even saw someone’s red negligee fluttering in the wind.  In typical fashion, I think, ah, there’s a story there.  And the brain cells dry up.

I’ve questioned if I’ve pigeon holed myself by choosing this particular place to write about.  I don’t think so.  It’s a swampy area, and the perfect place for something suspenseful to happen.  But what?

Part of my relentless doubt about my new story’s beginning is because recently, I was blown away by a random encounter with an opening line of a story that grabbed me, and held on.  In my mind, it’s one of the best I’ve ever read.

“The boy was on fire.”

This is how THE FIVE STAGES OF ANDREW BRAWLEY by Shaun Hutchinson begins.  The book is not in a genre I would typically read, (LGBT YA), but I found myself absorbed instantly in the story.  Much like the last post, the writing once again only underscored the point that if the story is good enough, if it pulls a reader in and keeps them intrigued, it’s a story worth writing, a story worth telling.  It has heart.  It has tension filled moments.  It has a MC I want to get to know better.  I want to know how he ended up where he was, and what might happen to him.

If I didn’t know it before, I know it now.  This is why I’m still searching.  It’s why I haven’t yet found what I want to write about because until I’ve got something that snags at my heart strings the way the beginning of this story did, it does no good to start and stop.  If I have any confidence at all, it’s in the fact I recognize this and know it’s all part of the process.

It will happen – eventually.

Bottom line, I really just want a story worth telling, don’t you?