Hellion's Meditation 17
I’m not a fan of literature we had to read in high school, but there were a couple pieces that made an impression. One was John Donne’s Meditation 17, where he says no man is an island; and that any man’s death diminishes all of us. Cheerful Tuesday fodder, I admit; but in my Hellion irreverence sort of way, I think, hey, no writer is an island. All writers are a part of us; and what we put forth on the page has been influenced by all the writers that have published (or some even, unpublished) before us.
I buy writer’s books whenever I’m stymied by anything. A footnote, a punctuation mark, a sex scene…whatever. If you go to the “Go On Account” page where a bunch of writer’s books are listed, I have all but one of those. And many more besides. But the question remains: can a writing book really teach a writer how to write? Or for a completely different analogy: do you really learn how to have sex by reading a theorized manual on it, or do you learn by practice—and if you’re lucky, by being tutored by someone who’s done it before and knows how? (I know, we pirates, everything circles back to sex. It’s all the men on this ship!)
But really, although I have learned some really great things from the writer’s books I’ve gotten, I have to say—the real stuff I’ve learned about writing, I learned from reading other published books. Books I wanted to write myself. Books I was so inspired by that I ran out and told all my friends about. Okay, maybe not when I was thirteen. (My friends threatened to burn my books then, so I didn’t exactly share then.)
In the first “real romance” I ever read (circa age 13) I learned the importance of the “cute meet.” Janelle Taylor’s First Love, Wild Love is a story about the rancher’s daughter who comes home, stays overnight at a bordello (after nearly being accosted), and ends up being seduced by the hero, a Texas Ranger, whose bed she just happens to be sleeping in. (Granted, I’m taking liberal interpretation of “cute meet” but considering the scene in question, it’s one of those 80s “forced seduction” scenes. The Windflower out West.) The cute meet ties with the “catalyst” (sex) and the rest of the book is this wild romp of will they or won’t they? I still have a soft spot for blond Texas Rangers. And bordellos. It probably also explains why I love having heroes who have a LOT to overcome to make themselves heroic. (I mean, what type of guy has sex with a girl who’s barely awake? Even if she is dressed like a strumpet? Even if she did seem interested? I mean, get her name first.)
In the second “real romance” I read (Autumn Dove), I learned the importance of internal conflict. He was a half-breed and she was a white woman/lady. Considering the time period, it would never work out. And the internal conflict of this very simple belief propelled the external conflict as well! The conflict was built from the characters themselves. It wasn’t just some historical point where two characters were inserted; the book seemed very real, as if these were real historical figures with real problems.
Then there are my auto-buy authors: Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Teresa Medeiros, Elizabeth Hoyt, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Kasey Michaels.
Jude Deveraux: her heroes were always to die for. I always wanted to marry a Taggert or Montgomery (especially Alex from The Raider or Hank from The Awakening.) I loved the situational comedy she’d do; and the feisty heroines with the smart remarks, but her heroes were always my favorite of all. Her heroines seemed so real; her stories were different (hello, A Knight in Shining Armor?); and her heroes were swoonworthy.
Julie Garwood: I adore her gift for the one-liner and dramatic irony. She knows how to open a chapter, and she knows how to end it so you don’t dare put down the book and go to bed. I’ll never forget my jaw-dropping when I got to the end of one of her chapters and I read, “We like to call her Pagan.” (I was 14 or so, and not very good at solving the mystery—so this was huge news to me.) I couldn’t put the book down after that. Now when I read the book (The Guardian), it’s clear from the first chapter who Pagan was; and I love her cleverness at imbedding the clues in plain sight.
Teresa Medeiros: I’ve always wanted to be able to do lush prose and setting like Teresa does. It’s gorgeous; and it doesn’t seem overdone when she does it. Sweet humor, vivid emotion—I couldn’t even begin to be that brilliant, but damn, it’s beautiful to read. Maybe one day it will rub off a little.
Kasey Michaels: In my favorite books by her, she starts off with a quotation. I love this. I love quotations—and I imagine she does too. She probably does this because she likes them. What a wonderful thing to learn! Write what you love! I think she writes the story she wants to read. Like J.K. Rowling does…whom we all know I adore! P.S. I think Kasey has some really imaginative, clever plots and twists! I wish I was half as clever.
Sherrilyn Kenyon and Elizabeth Hoyt: The hottest sex scenes ever. Sex scenes so hot even my best friend who used to burn my books can’t wait to read the next one. Okay, so she says she reads Sherrilyn for the stories, but she admits the sex is hot. She doesn’t skip it. That’s saying something. To make the characters so believable, the sexual tension so thick…yeah, you don’t want to skip a word of the love scene. This is hard. I’ve read books where the characters were likable; the story good—but the tension was lukewarm at best, and I skipped the sex scenes. Me! I never skip sex scenes! Or worse, you have characters but no tension—just pulsating jets of warmth between your thighs or whatever. SKIP.
Speaking of skipped sex scenes, even the books you don’t like you learn from. You realize what didn’t work for you and you learn not to do that in your writing. For instance, I will never have a jet of anything shooting anywhere in my manuscripts.
And to think these were all books I was going to buy anyway! So are all my other writer’s books a complete crock and waste of money? I don’t think so, but I don’t think I’ve learned half as much from them as I have from my auto-buys and the books I cut my romantic teeth on.
What about you? If you’re a writer, what do you think has influenced you more? What books have you read that made you go: Damn, I wish I was this brilliant? If you’re a reader, what makes you keep going back to the authors you read? Is it anything specific? What makes you avoid some authors/genres? Do any particularly vivid scenes stick out in your mind that you wish you could have seen the book made into a movie? (I would have loved The Guardian or The Raider as a movie.)
Books by the Crew
44 comments:
You and Vixen Tiff are on the same page this morning, Captain, LOL! Was there something in the water? Or the rum? Out of your list, I especially admire Kasey Michaels, who seems to slip between genres with ease and grace. She is so prolific. I think I've learned more from writers talking about writing on the Internet, combined with reading some great novels. I've avoided the "how to write" books, just because I'm so cheap. :)
"I have read a ton of writing books too." See what happens when I can't edit. :(
I have read a ton of writing books to, some I keep and reread. I think the how-to books have their use, just as (to extend your metaphor, Hellion) sex manuals have their use. But I don't think directions and advice are ever a substitute for doing. Practice generally improves performance. :)
Modeling behavior is a proven teaching strategy, and I think that's how the novels we read (and reread,Linds)work for most writers. I study Kathleen Gilles Seidel, Deborah Smith, Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and others for lessons in characteriztion, pacing, structure. I agree that novels by writers we want to emulate are our best textbooks. But it's a fine line. Watching the teacher has to give way to leaving the classroom and going it on our own. (Ugh! I have really mixed metaphors here, but I don't have time to revise.)
A character named Ranger in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series is what inspired me to write. I wanted to give Ranger the ending I thought he deserved, and I did several times over in fan fiction. The thing that inspires me to write is characters like Ranger. They seem so real you can't shake their actions long after you close the book.
I also like authors who can convey emotions well, and a fresh plot idea. You've mentioned some great authors, I love reading Kasey Michaels, and Julie Garwood. They always leave me with the awe factor.
I loved the Guardian. One of my favourites because the timing was perfect, the humour was fresh, and the emotion seemed very real, the characters made you really feel.
It's very true, at least for me, that I learn best about how I want to write by reading other books and figuring out what seems to have worked and what didn't. Sure, I might not learn all the technical names for the devices we end up using almost without thinking of them...alliteration, simile, polysyndeton, antimetabole...but at some point we realize there's actually a technical term for that really cool sentence we just wrote and it makes it that much better!
I love all of your auto buys. Though I haven't ever read Kasey Michaels, all the others are auto buys for me.
I think Jude Deveraux's older stuff is better than her newer. I loved love loved Sweet Liar. Fabulous, wish I were that talented. And Julie Garwood's Gift was one of my first reads and I love her spunky heroines.
You're right about Kenyon and Hoyt's sex scenes. I have been reading them trying to work up to mine.
I think Teresa Medeiros has a way with setting up situations that have me laughing, even though her language isn't overly silly. I love that.
Maggie, Tiff and I frequently channel each other. *LOL* I'm not surprised. And I'm cheap too--I'm just so dreadfully insecure that I buy the books like a hypochondriac buying snake oil from the back of a wagon. Sometimes it helps, but mostly...it's just flavored water.
Janga *grins*: Always the voice of moderation. There is room and need for both ways. If I didn't know you were a teacher, I'd know you were a teacher. :) Followed by the truest statement of all: only writing making us better writers.
I've lost track of how many times I've said I want to be SEP when I grow up. But if I could take SEP, Garwood and LaVyrle Spencer and blend them all together, I'd write just like that. It's a pipe dream, but it's my pipe dream.
These days, even when I try to read for the sake of entertainment, I still end up disecting the book. Reading a passage and thinking, "That's a great line" or "I would have deleted that." It does take away some of the enjoyment.
I have books on craft but like most of the other books on my shelf, I've yet to read them all the way through. I usually start then never get back. I have the Donald Maas one and the Deb Dixon plus all my notes from my Margie Lawson ecourse. Someday I'll get to all of those and I'll be a better writer when I'm done.
Lisa, what is it about Ranger anyway? That man has more influence in my life than most of the men I've been on dates with combined. He doesn't talk a lot; he isn't in all the books--but man, when he shows up, he makes such an impression, he's your entire frame of reference for all things after. He's the chicken in the farming video.
Okay, I'm going to be like the only person who gets that. Even after I explain it. But whatever.
I've read a lot of different authors and have a dozen or so autobuys. I suppose there is something about each one that touches me or talks to me in some way or they wouldn't be autobuys. But the few authors that I read and say to myself "Wow, I wish I could write like this are Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Mary Balogh, Lisa Kleypas and Deborah Smith (my new love).
SEP speaks to me. I know the people she writes about and she captures them perfectly! She also does an awesome job of blending humor and angst.
Mary Balogh writes her genre perfectly, IMHO. It's as if she is living back in the time her books take place. I love her use of words and phrases.
Lisa Kleypas is hot without being raunchy. Her novels are very emotional and sensuous. Nobody tops her when it comes to writing self-made, alpha men with a beta center (I know there is a name for this but can't for the life of me think of it).
Deborah Smith is another author who seems to exist in the time, but more importantly the place, she is writing about. She creates the most unusual and compelling places and situations for her characters. She's also awesome with metaphors, Hellion. I was reading her last book and kept thinking about you and your love of metaphors. If you haven't tried her you really should. I think you'd like her.
Kris--I remember flipping through the pages of the Margie Lawson stuff, reading definitions of stuff (stuff I'm sure I covered somewhere, in 4th grade perhaps, but promptly forgot) and I was all: OMG, there's a word for that? Why did Ms. Yount always tell me it was an incomplete sentence! It wasn't! It was a beat!
I loved The Guardian. I loved how she had to work to play feminine and he automatically discounted the thought she was doing anything to protect him. I loved how she kept running away--so he wouldn't leave first--and he'd run her down and bring her back. "I impressed the hell out of her, too," he says grinning at one point. The comic timing was perfect in that book for me, but a lot of fun, good action.
I prefer Deveraux's older stuff too, as I do Garwood's stuff, but we all go through phases, right? I never went anywhere in high school without a Deveraux book. So much so I got an "award" one year for "Most Likely to Publish a Romance Novel" or hit the NYT's bestseller's list...something like that, and it was "signed" Jude Deveraux. That impressed me, since I thought Pam was too busy trying to burn my books to pay attention who was writing them.
My absolute favorite Teresa comic scene was in Whisper of Roses, when the gorgeous Ranald and the chubby Enid get caught in the midst of sex. This is followed closely by the one-upmanship of Emily and Justin with the lizard and the dog...their fights were hysterical.
SEP, Garwood, AND Spencer? Back away from the crackpipe, Terr...that's a good B'sun...
Irish, are you talking about Gentle Rain? I picked it up at the library, but sent it back before I started. I just wasn't at the right place to enjoy it. I think I was wanting...hot and furious rather than a metaphor. :) I still need to read her. I hear great things about her all the time. *puts her back down on the list to read*
You're spot on about Lisa K., on all counts! *LOL* I love that alphas with beta cores. *swoons* Hardy Cates. I would love to write like her contemporaries...I wasn't sure about them, but they're almost better than her historicals. And her love scenes are amazing!
Yes, A Gentle Rain is the one I just finished, but you could try The Crossroads Cafe also. They are both fantastic reads. She is definitely not hot and heavy, but she's amazing.
I didn't know if I got my point across with the alpha with a beta core (I was daydreaming about Oreos!). I wrote the same thing over on RV, but referenced the Oreos! LOL
Much like Lisa, the whole reason I got into writing was because of an attitude wielding, in your face woman named Stephanie and a smokin' hot badass ex-Special Forces man named Ranger, whose sexual tension nearly caught my book on fire each time they were on the page together.
As much as I hate to write the HEA, I adore reading them. I'd give my left pinkie toe for half of JE's fame that she's wasting away with crap books with no plot. For the ability to build great characters like Lisa Kleypas does and leaves you thinking about them after you go to bed at night. *cough* HardyCates *cough* For Kim Harrison's ability to build a fantasy world that is very realistic and write angst like it's second nature. I admire a lot of authors. They are the fuel that keeps a writer going.
Great blog!
PS. Happy birthday Pirate Lisa.
Hey, if you're going to have dreams, you might as well have big one.
I had to go check out Irish's oreo comparison. Now THAT is a metaphor.
Look at the post above this one.
Irish, would you happen to be dreaming about Oreos due to the tractor-trailer full of Oreos that turned over on the highway?
Had to see the RV post myself. Great analogy...except, I lick out the sweet stuff first thing, then savor the dark. What's that say about me, I wonder?
Oh, I was going to mention licking the creamy center, but decided to take the higher road. LOL!
I did not know about the tractor trailer full of Oreos. What a feast!
I hadn't bought Oreos in forever. Had a taste for one a couple of weeks ago and the pantry has been stocked with them ever since. I knew once I caved there would be no going back. My family is devouring them. (I can't seem to get rid of the carrots and dip, though) And they all eat them differently! I wonder if there is a personality test associated with Oreo eating!
I eat the whole thing all at once! I don't know what that means, Hellion, but it's probably something mysterious and erotic!
I read yours, Irish, and I can't stop laughing....
Oreo Personality Test:
http://www.joygreetings.com/oreo.htm
Don't say we don't take our research seriously around here.
Mine is totally spot on, by the way.
Wow, that is accurate. Mine says I lack imagination. LOL! Yep.
Irish's is cracking me up. LOL!
One bite at a time, Terri? Who eats them that way?
Actually I like to dunk mine sometimes, and that one totally fits too. "You are in total denial about the shambles you call a life."
*I* eat them that way. At least people shouldn't be worried to leave their children with me. *points at Irish*
LOL, I just answered this question over at the Vixens. Whenever I start trying to answer it, though, it turns into a list of 20 people. But one I forgot to mention over there that I ought to second is Julie Garwood. I loved her books in high school, and I think they've been really influential on me, even though I haven't read any of them since high school. In fact, I'm afraid to go back and reread them, because I worry that I'll see, "Ah! All this time I've been mimicking JG!"
ROTFLMAO!!!! That is hilarious. They must have me confused with someone else! I think I would be more of #2 or #3, myself. But, what can I say, I still like to eat them all at once. So I guess I have to go with their carefully documented scientific observations and change the way I live!
Maybe, children are safe around me as long as there are no Oreos present!
I happen to like Hellions! "compulsive liar and exhibits deviant, if not criminal, behavior"!
Now, Irish, where would you get the criminal behavior? I was thoroughly behaved when we met. It was Sin who was the deviant criminal...
I bet she doesn't eat Oreos.
I bet Sin throws them up and shoots holes in them before she eats them. Is that on the quiz?
LOL That has to go into a book or something. I can just see Sin all dressed in her Stetson and chaps with her six shooters strapped to her hips throwing Oreos up in the air and shooting them.
I meant to comment on Tessa's post - I think I have that fear also that I love these authors so much that I may copy what they've done. Well, not Mary Balogh - I don't think I can write historical. And not Deborah Smith - I don't think I possess her vocabulary! But even just plot points or phrases that stick in my head. It's a scary thought that I would inadvertantly plagiarize.
Irish - you have to remember there are only so many words and so many stories out there. Everything has been done at some point. It's like saying no two songwriters can use the same cords. Eventually, something is going to sound alike. But that doesn't take away from either one.
First of all, I love oreos. I haven't had any in ages since they took away my mint cookie oreos that were dipped in chocolate. I adore double stuffed but none of that other crap. When I was a kid we only got sandwich cookies, which everyone knows are NOT oreos.
I'm not a deviant criminal. I just have a grey area I'm not afraid to stray into. And shooting oreos definitely strays into my "it's TOO criminal even for me" area.
But y'all paint one helluva picture of me. LMAO
And I haven't taken the quiz yet because it makes too much noise and I'm at work.
Irisheyes, for me it's not so much plots or phrases I worry about, it's more about pacing. Like, it's part of my style to transition from scene to scene and chapter to chapter by playing off the last sentence in the previous scene. And I just attended this workshop the other week with Julia Quinn, where she talked about Julie Garwood being famous for these great transitions, where she would end a chapter with something like "It was going to be the best day of her life" and start the next with, "It was the worst day of her life", and I was like OMG! Have I totally just absorbed that from my teenage JG reading? Maybe so... Although I never use those exact words, it's a stylistic thing. I hope I'm doing it in my own way - but now I'm almost afraid to pick up an old JG historical and find out.
I do the same thing, Tessa. I love that ironic styling that Julie Garwood made famous (at least I think she did, if someone did it before her, I don't think I read them)--and I do try it sometimes in my work for the pacing it gives the work. After all, anyone who ends a chapter with "It was the best day of her life" YOU KNOW something bad is going to happen and you can't wait to turn the page to find out.
I'm sure your voices are different, which is what is going to count.
Now if you have a lady pirate in the Regency period who is secretly bodyguarding a nobleman who is secretly HUNTING for the pirate, whom he doesn't know is a lady pirate...or even the lady pirate currently "protecting" him--THEN you might run into some legal problems.
Otherwise, I don't think you can copywrite a writing style.
P.S. Being you have THREE books coming out next year, I'm pretty sure your agent and editors would have said something about you sounding too much like Julie Garwood and not yourself...at least by now....
I forgot to mention my husband is the one who only eats the middle of the Oreo and throws out the chocolate cookie. He claims it has to do with his childhood - he was too poor to afford Oreos so they bought the ripoff brand and the chocolate cookie tasted like cardboard! Can everyone hear the violins playing??!!!!
I'd do the same thing, Irish, but hell, if you get OREOS now, why not eat them? That's like not having sex with guys, but kissing them because you're holding out for George Clooney--if you're finally kissing George, have the sex!
Hellion said:
"P.S. Being you have THREE books coming out next year, I’m pretty sure your agent and editors would have said something about you sounding too much like Julie Garwood and not yourself…at least by now…."
LOL, considering we have the same publisher, one would hope so...
I'm pretty sure that's a writing device in any genre and I doubt Garwood created it. She might have perfected it, but she didn't invent it.
But if I'm going to find out somewhere down the road that I happen to do something just like a LEGEND in the romance genre, I'm throwing a party.
Tessa - I can't wait to get my hands on your books to see for myself!!! Like Hellion said I'm sure they would have caught it already. LOL I know what you mean about copying the pacing or flow.
I'm a big Garwood fan too (historical, not contemporaries. Sorry, Ter!). My favorite of hers has always been Saving Grace with The Secret running a close second.
I loved how she kept telling you what a frightened little mouse of a woman Johanna was and how fierce Gabriel was and yet she showed you they were the exact opposite. That's an amazing talent. Saying one thing but showing the irony of it not being true at all. The humor in her historicals is also very well done.
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