Don't close your eyes! (Scary Mary is coming for your children...)

Clever writing tie-in: it's all about how you spin it.

Happy Halloween!

The Art of Introduction

As I work through the beginning of a new manuscript, I'm reminded of the challenges of introductions. Not so much of the story, but of the characters the reader will need to follow through the coming pages.

One mistake I often see in unpublished manuscripts -- and more than a few that make it through to publications -- is the tendency to bring in too many characters at once. In general, the fewer you introduce at a time, the better. Otherwise the reader may have trouble keeping names straight and differentiating the characters from one another.

In some books, however -- including my current project -- it's necessary to introduce characters in groups rather than one by one. If you have to do this, less is more. In other words, keep your group of family members, coworkers, et cetera, as small as you can manage. Give some characters dual roles. (Agent/author Donald Maass calls this "telescoping" in his book, Writing the Breakout Novel.) For example, if the head of the hero's department is also his brother-in-law, readers will have someone recognizable to anchor them when they go from the workplace to the family celebration scene. Since I write books set in small towns, overlapping roles are very likely.

Another important factor is each individual character's distinctiveness. If you absolutely have to introduce, say, a half-dozen firefighters at once, choose a few on which to focus, and carefully differentiate them in terms of how they speak/act/attitude, dress (even people in uniform can vary, some wearing rumpled, faded, stained, or ill-fitting versions while others don meticulously ironed clothing or perhaps a shirt so obviously new one can still make out the creases from the package), age, and appearance. Rather than sling out too many details at once, choose one or two "distinguishing features" matched with individualized dialogue. All you're trying to accomplish is recognition later in the story when the character pops up again. If you fail and the reader has to flip back to figure out who on earth someone is, this can destroy the story's flow -- or be distastrous if the character ends up having a crucial role near the book's ending. (I once read the unveiling of a mystery's killer and exclaimed, "Who the heck is that?" Totally wrecked the impact when I had to start flipping through pages to come up with an answer.)

Names are also very important. I try to avoid using too many sound-alike names or names beginning with the same letter. I like to throw in likely nicknames here and there, but I try not to get too weird with character names, which to me can make the characters sound artificial. If someone does have a supremely odd or ill-fitting name, another character might comment on it, but otherwise, I like them to sound like the kind of name you might encounter in real life.

Do you have any pet peeves to share about character introductions? Or any rules of thumb to share? If so, I'd love to hear from you.

"The Worn Path": Eudora Welty speaks about the genesis of a story

A Lonely Pursuit? Not Unless You Want It to Be.

A lot of people have this image of the novelist as a solitary type who never leaves the home office, unless it's to sit brooding in some smoky bar... or (updating on the stereotype) sit behind a laptop in a Parisian coffee house. Or maybe just the local Starbucks.

I know writers whose journey is largely solo, who don't care much for people and are quite content to live inside a world of their own making. There are probably tons more that I don't know, because they don't want me (or anyone) to bug them.

Fair enough, because I'm one of the other kind of writers. Though I enjoy and need time alone, I genuinely like people. Especially my fellow writers, with whom I have so much in common. Every once in a while, I have to come out of my cave and hang out with people who understand what it's like to feel at the mercy of some editor or agent who's ohlding my work hostage, with people who know (or crave) the challenges of deadline, with folks who'll help me brainstorm a title or untangle a knotty problem with my plot. And I love hearing about what they're up to, love helping out where I can, as long as I can keep the sharing part of me from gobbling up too much of my writing time.

Out of these writers' gatherings, which may be group meetings, conferences, or classes, I've forged some mighty alliances and met the closest friends of my adult life. Some of them, I critique with twice monthly and see even more often. Others, I run into at area writing events and enjoy a friendly catch-up session. Still others, I bump into annually at conference. There are some, too, I online know from online venues. I've never met them personally, but we come close via e-mail.

Although big crowds make me nervous and I can be socially inept in other situations, when I'm around those who love books and writing, something in me comes alive.

What about you? Do you consider yourself a loner, or do you seek out other writers? What organizations have you found most valuable?

Margaret Atwood on life and debt

On our way to the crossword puzzle, I had to stop and read Gary this terrific op ed piece by Margaret Atwood in Sunday's Houston Chronicle. In "A matter of life and debt: Moral balance must be restored for recovery of financial system", Atwood (author The Handmaid's Tale et al) discusses the spiritual consequences of borrowing and lending, setting the morality and human condition of indebtedness in historical and literary context.

Here's a bit of it:

Debtor-creditor bonds are also central to the plots of many novels — especially those from the 19th century, when the boom-and-bust cycles of manufacturing and no-holds-barred capitalism were new and frightening phenomena, and ruined many. Such stories tell what happens when you don't pay, won't pay or can't pay, and when official punishments ranged from debtors' prisons to debt slavery.

In Uncle Tom's Cabin, for example, human beings are sold to pay off the rashly contracted debts. In Madame Bovary, a provincial wife takes not only to love and extramarital sex as an escape from boredom, but also — more dangerously — to overspending. She poisons herself when her unpaid creditor threatens to expose her double life. Had Emma Bovary but learned double-entry bookkeeping and drawn up a budget, she could easily have gone on with her hobby of adultery.

Check it out. And while we're at it, here's a link to O.W. Toad, the Margaret Atwood Information Site.

"The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter

I was reminded recently of one of my all time favorite bits of words, the achingly beautiful short story "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter. I promised Colleen I'd post a link so she and our other critique-mates could read it and (oh, yes) weep. Katherine Anne Porter was born Callie Russel Porter in Indian Creek, Texas. She was proud to be a direct descendant of Daniel Boone. When Porter was just two years old, her mother died, and her father took her and her four siblings to live with their grandmother, Catherine Anne Porter. Porter spent part of her childhood with relatives in Marfa, Texas, and her work held a whole new meaning for me after I went to Marfa with Colleen when she was researching her novel Triple Exposure. Bleakness and beauty coexist, as do life and death, hope and despair, miles and miles of everything that goes on.

My daughter Jerusha and I discussed the story at length as we were driving to Killeen a few months ago, and it struck me deeply how drastically the meaning of the story had changed since I first read it as a teenager.

Here's a bit from the story:

Her bones felt loose, and floated around in her skin, and Doctor Harry floated like a balloon around the foot of the bed. He floated and pulled down his waistcoat, and swung his glasses on a cord. “Well, stay where you are, it certainly can’t hurt you.”

“Get along and doctor your sick,” said Granny Weatherall. “Leave a well woman alone. I’ll call for you when I want you…Where were you forty years ago when I pulled through milk-leg and double pneumonia? You weren’t even born. Don’t let Cornelia lead you on,” she shouted, because Doctor Harry appeared to float up to the ceiling and out. “I pay my own bills, and I don’t throw my money away on nonsense!”

She meant to wave good-by, but it was too much trouble. Her eyes closed of themselves, it was like a dark curtain drawn around the bed. The pillow rose and floated under her, pleasant as a hammock in a light wind. She listened to the leaves rustling outside the window. No, somebody was swishing newspapers: no, Cornelia and Doctor Harry were whispering together. She leaped broad awake, thinking they whispered in her ear.

“She was never like this, never like this!” “Well, what can we expect?” “Yes, eighty years old…”

Well, and what if she was? She still had ears. It was like Cornelia to whisper around doors. She always kept things secret in such a public way. She was always being tactful and kind. Cornelia was dutiful; that was the trouble with her. Dutiful and good: “So good and dutiful,” said Granny, “that I’d like to spank her.” She saw herself spanking Cornelia and making a fine job of it.

“What’d you say, mother?”

Granny felt her face tying up in hard knots.

“Can’t a body think, I’d like to know?”

“I thought you might like something.”

“I do. I want a lot of things. First off, go away and don’t whisper.”

Click here to read "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" in full. And in case you're worried that kids today aren't getting any great words thrown at their heads, here's a moment from TV's teen angst-fest One Tree Hill, featuring the profound words of Katherine Anne Porter. Kudos to the writers for including this quote, even if they had to google for it.

Saturday Quote: Lee Child on The Invisible Undercarriage

As gleaned from the most recent Author's Guild Bulletin (if you haven't joined, get on it!), quoting from a June 2008 New York Times interview with bestselling suspense novelist Lee Child:

"I want the books to be entertaining, and I want them to be easy reads. It's up to me, not the reader, to do the work...If someone says that my books are well written, I worry a little. I mean, I hope they are, but I don't want that to be noticed. It should be the invisible undercarriage."

This may be the smartest bit of writing advice I've ever read... and key in avoiding the sin of elegant variation.

Although I still have enough of an ego to like it if someone compliments my writing. ;)

Write What You Know (Nothing About)

As I work through the early stages of a contracted novel, I never know what craziness is going to pop out of my head and land with a big, juicy *ker-splattt!* inside the story. Generally, each book's good for one major topic about which I know almost nothing. In one historical, it turned out to be the tragic explosion of the Civil War-era steamboat, The Sultana, which took the lives of 1700, mostly half-starved Union POWs from Confederate prison camps. Mymost recent romantic suspense explored both glider flight and fine art photography.

Every one of these topics scared the snot out of me and resurrected the ghost of that hoariest bit of writing adivice: Write What You Know. So with much trepidation (and visions of angry reader letters calling me on my ignorance), I set out to learn everything I could about each topic...

And made a wonderful discovery. I love research, love learning, adore experiencing new things. I find the new "expertise" I've picked up along the way to be one of the most rewarding facets of the writing life. Sure, it can be taken too far, sucking the research junkie into an addiction so strong, no actual writing ever takes place. Or it can bog down a manuscript, if the author feels the need to pour every crumb of newly-discovered knowledge into her plot. (Yawn!) But for the most part, the excitement the writer feels in the discovery adds freshness to the story. It can even hook readers on newly-found enthusiasms.

So with that in mind, I'm forging ahead with a plot containing a frightening new element, one about which I know zero. But you can bet that won't be true by the time I finish this book. (For one thing, my husband is already planning a research road trip for the two of us. Yea!)

So do you agree with me that "Write What You Know" should be changed to "Write What You Want to Learn"? And what's the most interesting research you've ever done for writing?

'Tis the season for philippics

Okay, I am a word nerd, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. In the course of our morning coffee and crossword puzzle ritual this morning, Gary and I learned what we agreed is one of favorite words in a long while:

philippic
Pronunciation: \fə-ˈli-pik\
Function: noun

Definition: a discourse or declamation full of bitter condemnation; a tirade

Etymology: Middle French philippique, from Latin & Greek; Latin philippica, orationes philippicae, speeches of Cicero against Mark Antony, translation of Greek philippikoi logoi, speeches of Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon, literally, speeches relating to Philip
Date: 1592

Feel free to flip me a sentence using the word philippic, which seems particularly apt for election season. Or go hear to read The Philippics of Cisero.

Too Good Not to Share: On Being Skipped

Over at The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, blogger Andrew Wheeler writes about books being skipped, or passed over, by the major chains. Wheeler, a marketing manager for John Wiley & Sons with a long career in publishing (mostly in the science fiction arena), gives up some detailed numbers in this longish but extremely worthwhile post.

While it's a problem for the publisher to have books skipped, it's pretty much a disaster for the author. Sadly, I know this from my past writing life as historical romance author Gwyneth Atlee. Great reviews, endorsements, and awards notwithstanding, publishing, in the end, is a popularity contest. If your work isn't "popular" with your publisher (compared to other books on the list), with the chain's buyers, and ultimately with sufficient numbers of readers, you're going to end up experiencing a numbers "death spiral" that will eventually put you out of business.

So does that mean the end for you as a writer? It can -- or it may just be opportunity calling you to change and grow and reinvent yourself as a success. And you may be surprised to know that your "failures" give you a leg up -- as well as a depth of knowledge and experience -- that can serve you well.

So as the economy shrinks and the chains continue to face huge challenges, expect more books to be skipped and more authors to fall upon tough times. But don't count anybody out because people will always need stories to help them make sense of their world.

Cue the Thunder...

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

-- From Shakespeare's Macbeth

These days, I'm plotting, tossing a lot of ingredients I barely understand into the cauldron of my work in progress. It's an exciting time because almost anything can find its way into the story: aspects of characters I've met in real life, shards I've plucked from gossip or news items, shiny bits of life that have caught my eye and won't let go.

It's a dangerous time, too. With the wrong combination, the whole plot can blow up, showering the story with corrosive gook and melting down my bright hopes for a worthy novel... as well as a completed manuscript before my springtime (gulp) deadline.

But more often than not, the strange ingredients, no matter how disparate (or desperate) eventually form worthy characters and a cohesive tale. How does it happen? I could tell you it's all due to hard work, time... imagination.

Or I could speak the truth: that's it's a form of magic -- a mystery I've never understood and can't begin to explain.

So what's your recipe for beginning a new story? Do you dream plots, as does an author friend of mine? (I'm frankly jealous.) Do you start with a simple idea and then embroider upon it? Do you begin with a character? A place? A situation? (I've done each of these, at one point or another.) How do you get started?

And does anybody have an eye of newt to lend me?

One for the toolbox: Forgotten Books online

A great resource I've been digging lately is ForgottenBooks.org, where you can read thousands of books online for free or purchase in paperback at wholesale prices. I ordered collected writings of Clarence Darrow and a few other lovely old chestnuts. I've also taken advantage of the nifty Google feature to search inside.

From the website:

We specialize in historical writings, this includes works such as: classical fiction, philosophy, science, religion, folklore, mythology and sacred texts, in addition to secret and esoteric subjects, such as: occult, freemasonry, alchemy, hermetic and ancient knowledge. Fiction and non-fiction books.

It is our mission to find hidden knowledge and preserve lost knowledge, from antiquity to the present day, and make this information freely available to the world.

Check it out.

Sunday Quote: King on the Truth of Fiction

"Fiction is the truth inside the lie."
-- Stephen King

I love this quote. It makes me think of all the great novels I've read and plays or movies I've seen whose imagined characters have taught me something real about the human soul. To me, there's more truth in The Kite Runner by the talented Khaled Husseini or in The Trip to Bountiful by the brilliant Horton Foote than in any number of newscasts.

Which novels (or fictional stories from other media) have felt especially true to you?