Dear Every Ghost-Hunting Show Ever, and Even Shows Only Loosely About Ghosts and More About Deadness in General that Still Feature People Speaking Off the Cuff:
Paintings are hung.
People are hanged.
I have posted the Nerdrage Man once. Pray that I don’t post him again.
~L
I’ve been madly editing and rewriting my newest ms, SEKRET, which has gotten me thinking a lot about my writing process. And the executive summary of those thoughts is: “Wow. I wouldn’t wish this process on ANYONE.”
It works for me. But probably not anyone else.
I think a lot of new writers come to social media, blogging in particular, looking to build that elusive “platform,” but for want of exciting news like book deals and signings and genre-saving crix de coeurs, they default to dispensing writing advice. I was certainly one of them. And that’s all right! A number of these blogs gave me the inspiration and insight I needed when I was a nobody without a single finished manuscript (as opposed to the nobody I am now, with two finished manuscripts!). But I tried to be one, too, and …
I really, really wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
So I’m going to shift focus in the blog here. I’ll still talk about writing quite a bit, I’m sure, but it will be less instructive and more ruminative. For instance, I’m working on a post about alignment influencing character creation. Writing issues where there’s no clear answer.
I also want to talk a lot more about the books I’m reading, and the books you’re reading and writing. (So please, feel free to jump in!) I want to talk about my ridiculous, fun, sad, expensive, tasty city, and gaming; and I’ll probably post pictures of my dog doing dumb doggy things. To wit:
If you are still looking for thorough, stellar instruction as you develop your writing style, then I highly recommend Janice Hardy’s blog, which offers countless detailed looks at all the aspects of telling a great story. I also suggest watching some of the weekly web round-ups out there: Kate Hart, a woman after my reptilian analyst heart, does an excellent one on YA Highway when she’s not making badass infographs. Adventures in Children’s Publishing and Eric @ Pimp My Novel are also great filters.
So, thanks for sticking with me so far! I think it’ll only get better from here. If edits don’t kill me (and they like to try).
1. I’m feeling a bit disconnected from the reading world lately. What new releases are you looking forward to? What are you loving right now? My GoodReads shelf, it groans from neglect. Share the love.
2. I’m so, so close to finishing my current work-in-progress, SEKRET, that I can taste the ashy, fiery destruction. Next is not so much a problem of not knowing what to write next, but choosing between about 8 possible things to write next. I have a full Book 2 outline for UNDER A DEAD MOON, but don’t feel that I should start it just yet. I could outline Book 2 for SEKRET, but I’ll be in a similar situation. And I probably shouldn’t be writing the first book of yet another series, hah.
3. I have a serious case of ComicCon Envy. I’m not going to GenCon or BlizzCon this year, which are my usual Con lurks, and I missed out on the big book events this year as well. Watching G4TV’s coverage of the video games aspect of CC makes me wish so hard there was a publishing channel. Book reviews, interviews, bestseller charts … Yeah, let me get a couple billion dollars and I’ll look into starting one. I think the only way to make it operate at profit would be to have every single ad spot purchased by Kindle …
4. I have the opportunity and motive of late to really get out and enjoy my wonderful city but it is TOO DAMN HOT. Cabin fever, you are my frenemy.
5. In our large but nonetheless sheltered little writing world on the web, it is so easy to forget how many people out there really don’t read with any sort of regularity. Pick out a really great book and give it to a non-reader you know. Bonus points if it’s a kid.
I have this problem; I think the DSM-IV classification is “nerdrage.” I get so invested in a series—book, TV, film—and its wonderful setting, awesome characters, gut-churning plot-twists that as the inevitable conclusion looms, I look at the chaotic state of the series’ universe and panic. The ending can never be perfect enough! I’m not ready to say goodbye! I want more!
Well, ideally that’s why I’m stopped before the final act. Unfortunately, far too often, it’s because something or a huge accumulation of somethings has so jarred me from what I thought the series was all about that I throw my hands in the air and surrender.
Here is my embarrassing list of series that I really should have finished by now. This will be spoileriffic, but obviously I don’t know how it all ends so NO SPOILERS PLEASE:
The Wheel of Time: Book 1 was fun, in a “my first hero’s journey epic fantasy quest saga” sort of way. Books 2 and 3 were amazing, and seriously: BALEFIRE. How can you not get excited about balefire?! But then Books 4 and 5 passed, and I would be hard pressed to tell you a single thing that happened in them. Lanfear might have made a snippy remark. But I’m trudging along, because there are crazy artifacts around the world, and I want to see them mess people up, and can we get some more BALEFIRE?!?
Then pritty pritty desert princess Aviendha shows up and nearly gets hypothermia in Book 6 and can only be revived by Rand’s sweet, sweet lovin’? Really? REALLY?
That may have been the first time I ever threw a book at the wall in rage. It wasn’t the last, but it was definitely the end of that particular weave of the wheel for me. Sometimes I think I owe it to myself to know how it all ends, but then I realize I was only a third of the way through the series, if that, and would have to re-read the 6000+ pages I’d already invested just to recall what in all the hells is happening. Because all I remember? Balefire, too many demons to remember, secret wind tunnels of death, balefire. I think I’ll stick to those memories.
Battlestar Galactica: I hadn’t quite reached breaking point on this one, but I do remember planning our days around the delivery of each subsequent Netflix disc so we could gorge on four episodes at once. Netflix only had half of the final season available at the time, though, and that last disc with the half season finale was fairly treacherous. Congratulations, Starbuck, you found Earth. Too bad it’s probably located halfway inside our expanding, dying sun at this point, and frankly, even that’s less screwed up than your marriage.
We’ll finish this one, but I want to rewatch it from the beginning. Relish the early days of Adama/Roslin. Mostly I want to know if those crazy old kids make it out okay, and I want to find out who’s the final cylon (NO I DON’T KNOW PLEASE DON’T TELL ME OKAY).
Harry Potter: This one’s through no fault of Harry’s (or J.K.’s). I read the first five books; watched the first five movies. I even read Book 2 in Russian (Garry Potter and the Secrety Room). No, the only strike against HP is that Books 6 and 7 had the misfortune of being released while I was wading through a wizarding morality tale of my own called Lindsay Smith and the Deathly Online Gaming Addiction. I’ll finish this, but only once I find a nice box set of the books.
Dude, where’s my son?
LOST: I endured the circuitous dialogue. I forgave them for killing Juliette (because, really, no one dies on that show in any meaningful way). I accepted the time travel madness of season 5. I think what really did me in was the show’s tendency to use five characters where one would do. This led to the ever-growing hierarchies: ah, but it’s not the Tail Section, it’s the Others! Oh, it’s not the Others, it’s the Dharma Initiative! Oh, it’s not Dharma, it’s these crazy militants on a ship! Oh, it’s not the militants, it’s PHYSICISTS! No—MONKS ON AN ISLAND! But wait there’s ANOTHER conspiracy group who have spent thousands of dollars in airfare just to prove some guy who’s dead is really dead, except he’s alive except for when he’s not, and it’s not really him anyway, because really Locke is the Monster is the Jacob is the Richard is the Man in Black is the Man in White is a polar bear is Christian Shepard is dead but not really.
Mind you, I only saw snippets of the final season so I’m probably horribly wrong in all of these assumptions, but it’s just too much. Any time the show painted itself into a corner, the solution was to introduce twenty new characters who Knew Things but still provided no real answers as to the show’s greater truth.
I finally asked J to spoil the ending for me and tell me what happened in Season 6, but he said he couldn’t explain it if he wanted to. I guess I’ll either Netflix this one (agony!) or find a nice write-up online.
What series have filled you with the Wrath of Nerd? Do you regret not persevering, or do you consider yourself lucky to have escaped when you did?
Today I’d like to talk about characterization a little bit–taking personalities to the extreme, and whether that can accurately depict people’s behavior in the real world.
I’m pretty strict when it comes to my characters’ actions. If something seems way too altruistic, way too sinister, way too snobby, way too ignorant an action to be believable, chances are, it is. I like my characters to be thick, complicated, hot messes of personality. My “good guys” do awful things. My “bad guys” have their moments of true generosity.
On the whole–people are like that. No one sets out to be the world’s biggest jerk, and lets that dictate 100% of their actions. And when your heroine always makes the right choice, always has the best answer, always figures out the puzzle before everyone else, then chances are good she’s made of cardboard.
But sometimes people can astound you when they play to type. You know someone’s ruthless, but you didn’t expect them to be that evil. Isn’t that only supposed to happen in fiction? How many other people have you misjudged?
So let your characters surprise you. Don’t make them complicated in the same way. You never really know what someone will do until backed into a corner. Leave them without any options, and let their real personalities come through. And if they make some bad choices along the way, get someone hurt, break their own rules, then congratulations. You’ve made more than just a character.
You’ve made a human.
Apologies for the delay, folks, but real life has been rather Illithid-like these past few weeks. Regular blog posts will return shortly, but until then, I want to congratulate the Summer Book Giveaway winners!
Prize Pack 1: J E FRITZ!
Prize Pack 2: ERICA OLSON!
I’ll be in touch with you shortly. Congratulations, and if you didn’t win, don’t worry—there will be more giveaways in the VERY near future. Promise. Soon as I can pry this mindflayer off of my nog!
If you’ve been around me for any length of time, you know that I eat, breathe, sleep the fantasy genre. But not just any fantasy books—they’ve got to be beautifully crafted, with compelling characters who aren’t perfect and wholly good, and the world has to be stunning. Teresa Frohock’s MISERERE is all those things:
Miserere: An Autumn Tale
(Night Shade Books / July 1, 2011)
Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s soul, but Catarina doesn’t want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfill her dark covenant with the Fallen Angels by using his power to open the Hell Gates. Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell.
When Lucian refuses to help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape. In the end, she will force him once more to choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates so the Fallen’s hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching Heaven’s Gates.
Read the first four chapters online FREE!
Today Teresa is here to answer my interview question as part of her blog tour. I’ve asked her a little about her writing process, as I’ve only gotten to read those four sample chapters of MISERERE so far, but maybe we can convince her to come back later to answer more questions about the book, hmm?
Raised in a small town, Teresa Frohock learned to escape to other worlds through the fiction collection of her local library. She eventually moved away from Reidsville and lived in Virginia and South Carolina before returning to North Carolina, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter.
Teresa has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying. Miserere: An Autumn Tale is her debut novel.
Teresa can be found most often at her blog and web site. Every now and then, she heads over to Tumblr and sends out Dark Thoughts, links to movies and reviews that catch her eye. You can also follow Teresa on Twitter @TeresaFrohock and join her author page on Facebook.
Lindsay: Welcome, Teresa! I can’t wait to read the rest of the book—you’ve made Lucian’s struggles against his past, his sister, his world so vivid, and I love it. There’s so much depth to your writing! You’ve said on your blog that you do not write quickly, and often edit as you write the first draft. What more can you tell us about your process, from that first feature spark to a finished draft?
Thanks for hosting me today, Lindsay, I always love visiting you here.
In terms of first features, occasionally I get “what if” plot ideas, but most of the time, my story ideas begin with a character. Lucian started with a dream, Guillermo came to me as I was daydreaming one day, and there was something intriguing about both men—I knew they had stories to tell.
So once I have my character, I choose a theme. I want it to be something that I feel really strongly about because I think that makes me and the reader care about the character and his or her story. Sometimes the theme comes to me and stays consistent throughout the novel like it did with MISERERE, and sometimes I pick a theme, but the character dictates another, like what’s happening with THE GARDEN right now.
I do character sketches and histories, and these are subject to change given how the story progresses. I do a lot of research on the front end of the novel; it’s amazing how much research I did on castles and battlements so I could describe the Citadel and its grounds. All that research translated to a few pages, but it’s worthwhile, because I feel that it makes the description easy on the reader. They can clearly see the scene.
Then I work out a rough synopsis with several scenes and how I intend to bridge those scenes so they turn into chapters. For example: in MISERERE, I knew that the exorcism would take place in an abandoned building. In the original synopsis and first draft, it was an old mill; in the final draft, it was an abandoned church. All the action remains the same, but the places changed in context with the needs of the story.
From that point forward, there is nothing to do but write. With MISERERE, I wrote the entire first draft, then went back to do edits. My climax rose then flat-lined, so I ended up re-writing the entire second half of the book. Then I had to re-write the first part to match the new second half!
I’m doing things a little differently with THE GARDEN. I’ve written eight very rough chapters and stopped essentially at the half-way point of the novel. Now I’m filling in those motivations in the first eight chapters, because events in the second half of the novel will be dependent on the motivations in the first half. I will average about a chapter every two weeks (maybe less, depending on how polished the drafts emerge) until the novel is finished.
My first drafts are always little more than stage direction: Lucian enters the dining room and sits down, dialogue, action, cut. Then I go through the scenes again and ask myself questions, for example in the dining room: what does Lucian think when Catarina tells him Rachael is dying? How does that make him feel? Have I adequately explained who Rachael is and why her death is so important not just to Lucian, but to the entire story? Those kinds of things.
Each evening when I pull up the chapter that I’m working on, I read what I wrote the night before, tweak or fill in anything that needs to be fixed, then move on to add the new portions. I ask myself questions: did I include or mention all the characters present in this scene at least once; is it easy for the reader to follow the action; I look for gaps in logic (one of my favorite logic issues was in the original draft when I had Lucian sitting in a “silent” room listening to a “crackling” fire).
Once I’m done, I pass it along to my critique group, and while they’re editing that chapter, I start on the next one. Once the novel is complete, I read through it once for each character to edit character motivations. I am looking for consistency in their actions and growth. I have to see a change in that character from the first time he or she enters the story until the end.
I work full-time, so my writing/reading time is in the evenings. I try to spend at least two or three hours writing or editing every evening, and my weekends are devoted to major edits. That’s why I’m such a slow reader right now, most of my free time is spent writing; however, I do try to carve a half hour to an hour out of every day to read.
My goodness—no wonder it takes me so long to write a book…
How about you? Share a little about your writing process in the comments or post a link to a blog post at your blog where you talk about your writing process.
Thanks for the insight, Teresa! Best of luck finishing THE GARDEN, and getting the word out about MISERERE. Teresa’s next interview question will be at Brenda Drake’s blog, talking about writing scenes—which are her favorite, and which are the most challenging. You can keep up with all the interview questions at Teresa’s blog.