Sunday, April 19, 2009
TOP FIVE BROKEN RECORDS by Guest Pirate Debra Dixon
We are proud and excited to have one of the most respected voices in fiction on the ship today. Award winning author of both fiction and non-fiction, the power-house behind Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, and a driving force behind Belle Bridge Books (click the covers at the bottom to check them out), Debra Dixon.
I'm not talking about the box of Beatles albums you find in a cardboard box at an estate sale. I'm talking about those bits of advice I give to contest entrants. Sometimes I feel like a broken record. So, tonight I stacked up a set of contest entries I finished while on a business trip and took a stroll through them. I thought I'd pick out the "Top Five" items I offer most often to contest entrants.
1. Master POV.
Too often writers haven't taken enough time to understand and experiment with POV so that they have control of this wonderful bit of craft. POV, when used properly, pulls the reader into the story world, produces MEANINGFUL characterization and provides clarity for the story.
2. Dial it back.
Over the top reaction and melodrama isn't necessary. Newer writers mistake reaction strength for strong emotion. Some of the strongest emotion is created in the quiet moments.
3. Characters don't have to have pointy ears to be logical.
Landing a character in hot water is great fun, but not if the character said, "Gee, there's a fire under that pot and the water is boiling. Let me jump in because that will show everyone in the room how much I don't care." Character stupidity happens far too often because a writer thinks the resulting situation will be hilarious or dramatic. Nope. Not so much. The simple question "Would a reasonable adult behave this way?" is a great question to add to any writer's arsenal.
4. Characters must be present to win.
Characters need to drive the action. They have to wake up, make decisions, and create their plot rather than allow others to push them from circumstance to circumstance. (Come on. You know these characters. Nothing is ever their fault. They aren't active. They aren't present in their own stories.)
5. Your character must be identifiable in a line up.
I'm not talking physical attributes. I'm talking about fresh, unique characters who beat the stereotype label even when they are redheads with anger management issues. Unique and identifiable are achieved with strong POV which individualizes the character and lets the reader see the beyond the familiar to the unique and interesting.
And finally the biggest broken record of them all: You have to be willing to fail miserably. You have to commit to the story. You have to commit to your voice and find yourself. Writers write about more than stories. Our novels have something to say about the human condition. What do you have to say? How do your novels and characters shed light on this thing we call life?
I'm not talking about the box of Beatles albums you find in a cardboard box at an estate sale. I'm talking about those bits of advice I give to contest entrants. Sometimes I feel like a broken record. So, tonight I stacked up a set of contest entries I finished while on a business trip and took a stroll through them. I thought I'd pick out the "Top Five" items I offer most often to contest entrants.
1. Master POV.Too often writers haven't taken enough time to understand and experiment with POV so that they have control of this wonderful bit of craft. POV, when used properly, pulls the reader into the story world, produces MEANINGFUL characterization and provides clarity for the story.
2. Dial it back.
Over the top reaction and melodrama isn't necessary. Newer writers mistake reaction strength for strong emotion. Some of the strongest emotion is created in the quiet moments.
3. Characters don't have to have pointy ears to be logical.
Landing a character in hot water is great fun, but not if the character said, "Gee, there's a fire under that pot and the water is boiling. Let me jump in because that will show everyone in the room how much I don't care." Character stupidity happens far too often because a writer thinks the resulting situation will be hilarious or dramatic. Nope. Not so much. The simple question "Would a reasonable adult behave this way?" is a great question to add to any writer's arsenal.
4. Characters must be present to win.
Characters need to drive the action. They have to wake up, make decisions, and create their plot rather than allow others to push them from circumstance to circumstance. (Come on. You know these characters. Nothing is ever their fault. They aren't active. They aren't present in their own stories.)
5. Your character must be identifiable in a line up.
I'm not talking physical attributes. I'm talking about fresh, unique characters who beat the stereotype label even when they are redheads with anger management issues. Unique and identifiable are achieved with strong POV which individualizes the character and lets the reader see the beyond the familiar to the unique and interesting.
And finally the biggest broken record of them all: You have to be willing to fail miserably. You have to commit to the story. You have to commit to your voice and find yourself. Writers write about more than stories. Our novels have something to say about the human condition. What do you have to say? How do your novels and characters shed light on this thing we call life?
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51 comments:
Hi Debra, welcome aboard!
We all learn from our mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others and consequently makes fewer of his own.
I remember a raw research student, many years ago, who struggled with his project for a year and eventually found a way to solve it. His method was unique using new original models that were not available in the text books. The delighted supervisor commented that he liked to throw students in at the deep end because brilliant young minds always find a way to swim. This was in the UK but I rather think that Dick Feynman in America might have had similar stories!
My point is that the high fliers, the future NYT best selling authors,are likely to forge their own unique way of writing and will absorb the bits of technique that they need on the journey.
While a guide book for writing is of course interesting and very useful to help avoid re-inventing the wheel, I do wonder if its actually possible to write a guide book for the genius who for example might need an oval or square wheel for his purpose.
I suspect that you can only lay down a few guidelines and outline methods that have worked well for others. If there is a grand highway to the fountain head of creativity, then I would definitely have to buy the map and study it!
Would appreciate any thoughts on 'teaching the creative genius to write properly'
As a 'hobby writer' who likes to dabble and analyse I have picked up many tips from blogs like this and you definitely tempt me to look at 'GMC'. Is it available to download?
Do try a pint of the excellent rum before commenting.
There is also a bottle of vintage scotch in the captain's cabin, hidden under the bunk. :wink:
Lovely to meet you! :D
All great points! I think when we are learning to write we do miss all these key elements. And the most important (at least for me) is voice. Without knowing your characters, knowing when to pull back, and then when not to pull your punches you stifle that voice.
Something I have noticed from judging contest entries is that new writers often want to throw too much about the story into the first vital pages. Usually all the conflict because they think that'll draw the reader in. But in doing so they stifle the characters, the goals become unclear and the story often fails to deliver what it needs to deliver to a reader.
Just my two cents. It only took me two and a half books to figure out the valuable things you mentioned above before I wrote a story that I know (and my agent knows) will land on the shelves one day because I learned to make my own rules, trust my instinct and trust in my characters to help me along the way :)
Welcome to the boat, Debra!
These are wonderful pieces of advice. I particularly have just started to feel like I've started to really master POV and I think that it's made a huge difference in my work.
About #4.... I think that it's ok to have circumstances push a character as long as the character still chooses how they react. I mean, sometimes external conflicts are very powerful, but it's the way that the character reacts to those external conflicts that really builds their characterization.
These are great tips for contests, Debra. Thanks for being here!
Deb, I attended your workshop on Saturday (I was the one sneezing and blowing her nose the whole time), and I have to say, you've saved my writing hind end. What's more, after the later session, I realized my what I thought was my BBM was in fact, my ordeal, so I gave my hero some sort of sword and now he's off.
For those of you who think I've lost my mind, Deb also taught The Hero Journey, by Vogler.
Invaluable stuff.
I'm so exited to say WELCOME ABOARD, DEB! I know you had a very busy weekend and I so appreciate you being with us today.
Great tips, as always. #2 made me think of those faces the actors make going into commercials on soap operas. LOL!
I know I have a handle on #1 & #3, but now I'm wondering how well I handle #4. Hmmmm....this is going to hurt my tired brain.
As for shedding light on the human condition, I've found that most of my stories boil down to overcoming fears, trust, and taking risks. There's a song by Jason Aldeen called Every Man Dies and the point is that though we all die, not everyone lives. I'm big on believing people should live and not let life pass them by. But fear and trust can really stand in the way of that. I guess maybe since I have a family full of people afraid to take risks, that's what I write about.
Jason Aldeen may be singing it, but Mel Gibson (as William Wallace) said it first. (Okay, so "not every man really lives" has undoubtedly been around a while...but when Mel said it, it was POWERFUL. Even more power than Jason.)
Okay, had to defend The Scottish Movie. Now that that's out of the way.
I think the human condition my books play out is that line from Hope Floats: "Childhood is something you spend the rest of your life getting over." Peter Dunne says something similar in his screenwriting book--your past is what made you are now and your future is how you come to terms with your past.
And I also think the Harry Potter mottos are great in novels: "It is our choices who really makes us who we are" and "Love is the only power that matters." I think I see these themes played out in many novels; and they are the books I seek out to read again and again.
Quantum–
Thanks for the rum. That’s particularly helpful this morning as I try to work up my courage to swab the deck. How the hell do birds get this far out to sea?
Just like writers, scientists like Dick Feynman need foundation. He had a deep understanding of the physical sciences before making his intuitive leaps. He had many tools at his disposal and used them. Part of his brilliance was integration of theory.
I believe writers need the same broad education in their field. Writers need both the instinctive understanding of story and mechanical tools of expression. From that point they can break from known models and create something new. But like Dick Feynman, the new that they create is only possible because they understand the known. A very tiny few, instinctively understand story and gain the tools they need because they can recognize patterns through reading. They can subconsciously analyze how they “receive” story in their brain.
Storytelling is a prehistoric science. We’ve been building on that model for a long time. Some experiments catch on and others die the quiet death of unsung heroes.
Hope that makes sense! And, GMC is not available for sale in an electronic form. The publisher is a small print-centric press.
Welcome aboard, Debra! Thanks for blogging with Ter today!
Hm, this whole shedding life on life thing. I have characters who hate their lives, struggle to change them, fail miserably. (Just like the rest of us in life- I'm hopelessly optimistic aren't I?) I have a hard time identifying goals. In school when they teach you how to set goals, I'm the kid who's daydreaming in the corner about unicorns and magical places without a care in the world. I tend to have easy attainable goals that gives me short bursts of satisfaction until the next burst.
And like now, I think I have troubles getting my point across.
Tiffany-- Ah...voice. Another critical element of great fiction. Voice is organic. It's grown and found (usually over time) and nurtured to confidence. Voice can't be taught. You can help a writer get out of the way of her own voice by helping her use craft more effectively so that what she has to say about the human condition and how she choses to say it becomes crystal and accessible by the reader.
The voice is the most important tool a writer has to deploy in this highly competitive marketplace.
The "but" of this endorsement of voice is that beautiful brilliant voices in disasters of a manuscript don't get bought. We see a lot of lovely "paragraph" voices submitted to BelleBooks and Bell Bridge. But we can't buy paragraph voices. We have to buy writers who can sustain both plot and voice.
Writing is hard and I don't think writers, especially those who have not achieved a wide audience are told often enough that they are amazing people. What we do is important.
Marnee Jo- I think we're on the same page.
Circumstances force characters to make decisions. My issue is with characters who allow OTHERS (see above) to make those decisions for them. Circumstances will challenge a character, will force a decision.
Diane Keaton in Baby Boom created the circumstance that forced the decision of keeping baby Elizabeth. She wanted to give that baby up for adoption and then she had to choose in that moment.
I want our protagonist(s) to forge the path and not bestfriend Susie. I want the protagonist to own those decisions and suffer the consequences instead of looking st Susie and saying, "I hate you for getting me into this." ::stomping foot:: "So, now what do you think we should do?"
That example's a wee bit over simplified! LOL!
I do totally agree that "Characters who are tested experience character growth. Conflict test characters." (That's a broken record from my workshops. I probably say it 5-10 times in the course of a day.)
J Perry Stone--
Excellent!! You used theory and applied it in your own work. Woohoo! That's what I like to hear.
I generally feel victorious if I come away from a craft book, a discussion of story telling or a workshop with ONE key learning that I can immediately apply. Storytelling is both a craft and an art. We aren't going to use every technique in every piece of art.
We need the right tool for the right job. So, I'm delighted when folks tell me that they found a tool and made it work for them. Makes me happy.
Thanks for sharing.
Terrio, Terrio, Terrio--
How IS my long lost twin? (I'm not sure people know we were separated a birth and only recently discovered we chatter non-stop with our own special don't-need-to-finish-that-sentence-language when put in the same room.)
I love that you've examined who you are as a writer and come to grips with the elements of the human condition that intrique you. There are so many ways to explore our themes. So many characters to carry our standards into battle.
I am very interested to hear examinations of themes and how we apply them in our books.
Hellion-- Yes! Themes are universal. We see them time and time again. It's the characters who make these themes fresh. We are all fundamentally alike and absolutely unique. That's part of what fiction helps us see.
Sin-- I think you got your point across very well.
Although I'm not sure if you write literary, general or genre fiction.
In genre fiction, readers expect to see a character struggle. We don't expect their lives to be perfect. But that struggle, that commitment to changing their lives is what gives us hope for change.
Part of reaching the reader is connecting with them, offering that universal experience or emotion with which we can connect and shake our head and say, "Yep. I totally understand THAT'S where we are. Right here. This is my story too and I care what happens."
Yes folks, it's scary once Deb and I get going. We spend the entire time yelling I KNOW! then keep right on going. LOL! To bad it's talk about business and not because I share the craft genius stuff. *sigh*
Hellie loves to correct me. I only referenced Jason because I listened to that song during my EIGHTEEN HOURS OF DRIVING this weekend so it was in my brain. I'm tired and punchy, be nice.
I almost think our themes come to us organically and without us even knowing. I didn't know most of my stories would revolve around taking risks and recovering from past hurts. It just sort of happened that way. Write what you know and all. :)
After that explanation about the best friend moving the story instead of the protag, I think I'm okay. But it'll be something to keep in mind in case I lose my way.
What is your take on the difference between regular (for lack of a better word) and deep POV?
POV quickie...hmmm... You know that's a whole honkin' workshop right? LOL!
Deep POV carries context and ignores everything without meaning to the character. Deep POV crashes throught the walls that distance the reader from the story through time-delay or space. There is only the moment and the moment is filled with context and emotion that informs the experience. Each moment gives way to the next until the world is built and our identification with the character is complete.
POV is an art with many ways to use it. Some folks begin a story in omniscient, work down to third limited and then immerse themselves in a deep third.
Some stories intentionally want to create a barrier in time to the story that is being told.
blah blah blah. Lots of goodies in the POV tool kit. Any choice might be right. Knowing the benefits will help the writer produce the story the writer wanted to tell.
You mean you can't answer that question with a sentence or two? LOL!
I guess what I wonder is if NOT using the deeper POV is a strike against you? I think I'm a stay on the surface kind of girl. This move toward deep POV makes me nervous.
(And I can hear you now, "If you write it well enough then you're fine. LOL!)
Welcome aboard Debra,
Thank you for such wonderful insight, and helpful information. You are so right about the emotional aspect of characterization. Less is always more. Also, dead on about making characters individually unique, by showing it in their actions, instead of trying to make them unique through physical description. Some of the reasons I love different authors unforgettable characters, is because I can relate to them as a person, or I want to turn the page so I can learn more, or see what they will surprise me with next.
Lisa-- You've hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I can't tell you the title. Or the author. But I can tell you about the character in a beloved book. The character remains when all else fades.
Terri-- I think you have to dig deeper. You're writing popular fiction. Even if you could "get away with" less deep point of view, I can almost guarantee you the book would be the better for deeper POV.
And of course my "final answer" is: "It all depends. And if you do it well enough, you can do anything you want."
Deb, thanks for your feedback and all these great suggestions and tidbits. :)
I do have to say that I love the idea of GMC, though I think it's hard to make sure it's there every step of the way. My first story, I thought I'd figured it out at the beginning of the book, but after I read through, it seemed to disappear at the middle. And by the end, well, it was pretty ugly.
Any tips to keep an eye out for it all the way through?
Also, do you think it's best when the hero and heroine's goals/motivation are in direct conflict with each other? Like, the hero's a slob and the heroine's a neat freak? (Very simplistic....)
Marnee Jo--
Characters can add goals, change goals, abandon goals. Often a character will realize there is a more important goal. This happens quite often in the "two dogs, one bone" scenario. The hero or heroine will sublimate their goal for a time to help the other (who they now see as deserving) achieve their goal.
There are a million ways to use GMC. Strong goals drive characters to do the things we wouldn't do unless we had to.
If a goal is too simplistic, with no milestones in getting to the goal, it will often be achieved too quickly. Make sure you have smaller hurdles your character must jump in order to get closer to the goal. Ask yourself, "What does my character have to do to achieve this goal?"
What will your character do to get what they want? What won't they do? And then make them do the thing they won't. or at least the thing they said they wouldn't.
GMC's are different for every book and every type of book. Don't get into the trap of thinking light book goals have to be as complex as heavy/dramatic book goals.
Every book is more or less perfect. Meaning the book itself is close to perfect or it's much less than perfect. (g) Don't kill yourself trying to write a perfect book. Write a good book. Don't beat yourself up.
In regard to whether it's best if the h/h goals are in conflict with each other, "Nope." I don't think it matters if the goals are in conflict. I think it matters that the characters have core conflicts which must be resolved. But the h/h can be allies or enemies when it comes to the goal. Either works. You, as a writer, may have a special affinity for writing love interest as allies (unwilling or not) or for writing more antagonist heroes and heroines.
Deb, I think I write genre fiction. I'm one of those people that don't read many craft books (though I need to and have read the GMC book after Hellion shoved it into my hands at a meeting (which BTW is an awesome book)) and I tend not to understand a lot of literary vocab.
Mostly because I don't want to and enjoy being the anarchist aboard the ship.
I love deep POV. I've always contemplated how to get the same effect from third person deep POV as I get in first person. When writing third person, I feel disconnected to the character I'm portraying to the reader.
Are there any POV exercises you suggest to get me better intuned to my inner third person deep POV?
Debra, thanks so much for coming on board!
I don't know if genius can be taught, as Quantum wonders, but I do know your book opened my eyes to so much I previously hadn't known or understood. I recommend GMC to everyone, so thanks for writing about such important topics in a way even I could understand.
Thanks also for the right question to ask in "Would a reasonable adult do this?" I have a friend who always has her characters act in absurdly wacky ways--doing things I know she herself would never do. Few adult women would. But when I say I don't believe her characters' actions, she looks at me with great pools of doubt. Now I can say "Debra Dixon says..." :)
*wrinkles nose*
I knew you were going to say that. BOTH of those things. LOL!
Now I'm reminded my heroine has no goals. *sigh* Well, she kind of does, and I think I know how to take out the kind of. I have A LOT of work ahead of me when I get back to this story in July.
Dee - I love that. LOL! Anything that starts with "Deb Dixon says..." is some powerful stuff.
Debra, are you a member of Georgia Romance Writers? Unfortunately, the year I was able to come to Moonlight & Magnolias was when Nationals had just been in Atlanta and the conference was abbreviated. But I enjoyed meeting all of the group so much. You all were not only gracious in the truest Southern sense but a lot of fun. AND the food at the luncheon was fabulous!
;) I keep telling Jack that my mom didn't raise any dummies. Why keep using a slingshot when I've got the words of the big gun?
Sin-- You've got to blend the character's perception, thought and emotion into the pov. It's not just observation and action.
Pull out some books you think are deep POV and test them for the character's perceptions, thought and emotion.
See how it's done first and then take a crack at one of your own scenes.
>>Anything that starts with “Deb Dixon says…” is some powerful stuff.<<
With great power comes great responsibility.
Keeps me up at nights. ::gulp::
>>Now I can say “Debra Dixon says…”<<
Oh, man!! Now I'm going to be even more hated! LOL!
But I do think the "reasonable adult" question is a great filter for character action. If the answer is no, then you know the motivation bar is really really high.
Dee-- I'm not a member of GRW currently but they are the best. A great chapter and my home away from home for many years. I still have tons of friends there and was just delighted they dragged me over for a workshop.
Deb said:
With great power comes great responsibility.
Keeps me up at nights. ::gulp::
As my first boss ever told me as I was climbing a 15 foot ladder to change some light bulbs - That's why you get the big bucks.
LOL!
*LOL*
No kidding about the "great responsiblity" bit. You're the reason I joined MORWA--because you did your awesome GMC workshop--and I had to overcome my fear of driving on 270. And my laziness of driving 2 hours one way to meet with other writers.
It is just a sort of real-life example of "make sure the goals you give your characters are urgent enough that they will overcome their fears to pursue them."
My biggest problem is making the motivation for my characters feel authentic and reasonable to my readers. Do you have any tips for creating compelling motive in your characters? (Because I also remember the caveat of "And 'falling in love' is not a motive because it's inconvenient and messy...and isn't typically with the person the character has picked out."--I think a lot of characters/humans are motivated by a need for love (or approval, which I think gets equated as the same)--and I keep having characters wanting love/approval, but I'm torn by the whole "avoid the falling in love thing".)
Ha! Made Hellion drive. (g)
Internal/emotional gmc is about universal things we all understand. But if there is a need for love, it's not the need for romantic love. It's an aspect of life that love touches. Unconditional love, security within the family, need for respect because your father never loved you, blah blah blah. Those kinds of love don't usually have anything to do with the hero. They come from emotions created long before the hero appeared.
Haunt the self-help section of the bookstore. Seriously. There are lots of screwed up people and families. Find the mistakes of your character's past and figure out how those mistakes haunt them. Break down that guilt into internal GMC.
We carry the baggage of our parents and our childhood and our experiences.
Ha! Self-help section? I should just interview my family at the next reunion! "Why did you feel the need to point out how chubby I was getting all through school...and how old I was looking...and how worried you were I was never going to marry, when I was only 19?"
My family is a lot like the family from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." Except they're not Greek Orthodox...or Greek, even.
Okay, okay, now here's a trick. How do you as a writer find a way for your characters to stop lugging around their emotional baggage...when you, the writer, are probably still lugging around your emotional baggage (because let's face it, you probably are)?
I've learned the trick to overcome the dysfunctional family is to move away and visit as little as possible. :)
Do we ever really put down our baggage? Because I'd really like to drop this crap somewhere.
Don't drop it entirely, use it!
Oh, and I'm perfect. I have no baggage.
::snort::
This emotional baggage question led to a 2+ hour workshop I do on the emotional big black moment.
If I could I really would summarize this, but it won't be helpful. The book is divided into 3 parts with specific tasks you want to address in each section. This is done in scenes of which establish the issues for the reader, provide the reader with scenes that force them to confront these issues and finally leads them to scenes that require them to deal with these issues in order to have what they want.
Well, it looks like I'll have to cut and paste this blog and the comments, lol - then go out and finally buy your book!
It seems I would have a hit with one or two of your record breakers but I am happy to say that I've learned some things along the way.
When I first started writing my characters were all very vanilla to the reader. I knew who they were and what they were capable of and made up of. I just never really quite conveyed that to the reader while, at the same time, shaking my head and wondering why they didn't 'know' my characters.
And I really do have to thank you for blogging here with us today. I've heard all about GMC, POV but never have I understood the concepts until I read them here - at your own hand. I'm making a note to myself to get your book and to sign up for the next workshop you do close to home.
And, no, Terr we never really put our baggage down. We need some of it if for no other reason but to use as fodder for our stories. Names without, 'natch, to protect the "innocent". And don't we always say 'Man I could write a book about that.'? I know I have on more than one occasion, lol! Imagine if I ever used half the things I hear at work....
Santa, you definitely need to buy her book BUT you also definitely need to see her in action. Her workshops are brilliant...
And clearly I need to go to her workshop about the BIG BLACK MOMENT. That sounds way awesome. Are you presenting the BBM workshop anywhere in the Midwest?
Hey Debra, you set the bar really high today.
What a fascinating discussion, and I'm really impressed that you are familiar with some of Feynman's work....did you formally study physics at all?
I understand the argument that it is necessary to acquire a minimum level of understanding or perception for the 'patterns' in good story telling.
From all the discussion of deep/shallow POV, themes, goals, motivation, conflict,voice etc, this writing business seems extremely complicated when analysed.
But then I have seen a baby born to bi-lingual parents who in a few short years began to communicate in both English and Russian. The newborn child has the structure of language hardwired into the brain.
In a similar way do you think that some people are born story tellers, and in little more than a heart beat can acquire the formal skills to translate their visions into captivating prose?
Feynman used to say that he only really understood something when he could derive it from scratch for himself. In the context of writing fiction that would imply that the author would only really understand the complex interplay of all the threads that make up a good novel after successfully writing said novel.
That in turn suggests to me that perhaps the best approach may be to try and pick up the techniques in parallel with actually writing. Maybe revising and correcting as something new is mastered; but treating the first book as an experiment to probe the art of writing.
Rather like a baby learning to walk, maybe I should think of GMC as a baby walker until I become proficient *grin*
Debra, thanks so much for such an entertaining and instructive session. :D
Quantum, when I first started writing a few years ago, I subscribed to Feynman's theory of learn as you do it. I knew nothing of craft. (sorry, Debra!) I was lucky enough to have some very good editors who pointed out things like POV and motivation. Of course, it didn't all take the first time. Or for the second book...or fourth. But I learned and grew the more I wrote. (I at least hope more than my posterior was growing during this time!) So if you haven't already, jump in--the water's fine. And pick up a copy of GMC. In my opinion it helped, but like chicken soup, it can't hurt.
Debra, thanks so much for sharing with us today!
See, this is what I call 'learning on the job' and that's how it usually happens for me. I have to believe that the more I write, the more I'll learn and the more natural the right way will feel. This means by the time I finish school this summer, I'll be starting behind everyone else, but I hope all the stuff we discuss and learn from each other here is sinking in.
Thank you so much for being here today, Deb. You've given us some great tips and insights and sent some of us running for the extra rum and the shredder. :)
Do you post a schedule somewhere so we can see if you're coming to a town near us? I checked your site but didn't see one. Also, will you be in DC for the RWA Nationals this summer? If so, save some time for me!
Santa-- I've barely scratched the surface of POV. Alicia Rasley and Orson Scott Card are the two books on POV that I recommend. Rasley is accessible and complete. Card is less accessible but worth the trouble in many ways.
I'm glad we've managed a "paste worthy" blog today. Yoohoo! (g)
Hellion... Midwest? Hmmm...nothing springs to mind. I seem to be headed west-west. Michigan but I think that's a retreat and closed.
I'm sorry I'm late. I've been writing today, although not fiction, alas!
I have reread one sentence from Debra's blog again and again: "You have to be willing to fail miserably." That scares me!
Quantum-- Lord, no! I've not studied physics but I read a weird assortment of nonfiction along with my steady diet of fiction. Ideas are fascinating and so are the people behind them.
Hmm...I'm thinking... A baby isn't born hardwired for language. Those connections are built through experience with language and practice, yes? So it is with writing. We work the process. We learn by doing and figuring out how to cohesively get the fiction out of our head and on to our pages.
Craft is the vocabulary acquired by the fledgling baby writers.
This is definitely a "get your hands dirty" kind of learning. Theory must be applied and adapted and even tossed out for new theories because writing is as much art as science. We exclaim and adore the unorthodox use of language by babies. But they have enough of the language right that we understand them. "Hers got my kiss." Translation: I already said goodnight to her.
So, a novelist has to get enough right that we can enjoy the "new" he/she brings to the party.
In *general* it is all but unheard of for someone who has never studied craft to produce a viable novel. Getting your "arms around" everything is hard to do. It's a messy process for most of us. And even if a writer completes a first novel without studying some craft, 99.99% of them realize they've made the big mess and wish they'd packed a flashlight before marching off into the dark.
It is next to impossible for someone to produce a viable novel without having at least made a serious study of novels. Novels are a form, like a sonnet or a haiku.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but I can't recall ever talking to a published writer with an established national publishing house who didn't speak "craft" before they published.
Most of us say you have to get the first one under your belt before you can really know what you need to know. You need that frame of reference. Writers need the "doing" just like babies need the practice to fully understand communication.
Janga-- Don't be scared! Failure is as important and thrilling as success. Getting in the game is a huge rush. Sooo many people never throw their chips to the center and say, "All in."
My first book is under my bed. I failed miserably but I learned a great deal. Mostly about the stuff I didn't know. LOL! And I still have a soft spot for that book.
If I hadn't tossed my chips in, I wouldn't have had the opportunities that came my way. I wouldn't have had the experience to make something of those opportunities!
So, you go, girl ! Get in there.
Ha! First book recommended today in Orlando, at the RT convention? GMC by Debra Dixon. Sorry I missed the blog, but I was walking the work...
Man, I need some rum...
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