Books That Got Me Thinking Differently About Writing…Part Two

A disturbing subject delivered with dignity.

I genuinely LOVE Mo Hayder (the Jack Caffrey series anyway – I’ve yet to read her stand-alone novels). To me she represents the best in gritty crime/suspense paired with a prose style that is practically literary fiction. I don’t believe it is categorized as such, but in my humble opinion, it should be. Her stories are layered, gripping, lyrical, and among the very few that manage to make me grimace, wince, and even sometimes, put the book down and walk away (or lie awake).

This second book in the Caffrey series, The Treatment, is the “worst” in terms of its ghoulishness, and it’s the kind of book you love to hate…or perhaps hate to love? And what it ultimately taught me is that a good writer can tackle a reprehensible subject – pedophilia – so long as it is done with dignity and tact. It’s a fine line, a tricky balance, all eggshells and thin ice, but when done well it will blow the top off any so-called “thriller” or “horror” out there. I’m not saying that I, personally, am ready to tackle such subjects as of yet, but this has given me permission to experiment and be as fearless with my premise or my theme as Hayder is, and as I am with my characters. There are dark crimes and true evil in this world, and literature shouldn’t necessarily shy away from them just because they are uncomfortable or taboo. What literature – and all media – needs to avoid is the glorification of these crimes, however inadvertent or unintended. Hayder has shown me that a talented author can make a novel double as both a warning, and entertainment.

Books That Got Me Thinking Differently About Writing…Part One

It wasn’t the plot twists that gave me an eye-opener.

I held off on reading this book for a long while, until perhaps a year before the movie came out (and I held off on seeing that, too). I’m not one who adopts trends quickly, and if a book is too popular I shy away from it just like I do Steele and Clancy, and several other mass-market authors who’ve become, in my humble opinion, too commonplace and unexciting.

So when my friend and coworker finally did convince me to read it, she then had to convince me many more times to stick with it. The characters were downright unlikable – and this is coming from a reader and writer who loooves flawed characters, conflicted heroes and compromised heroines – and the pacing was, at times, slow. Halfway through the novel I put it down and read something else that I enjoyed better in a fraction of the time. Ultimately, however, I returned and finished it because as a writer, and as a student of writing, I’d been hooked by Flynn’s writing style.

It was stream-of-consciousness. It wasn’t particularly eloquent or high-brow, and at a times it was downright gritty. There were other times when I struggled to separate the characters’ voices; I could’ve been reading Nick, or Amy. Yet it worked. It told a story. A raw-knuckled, unpleasant, uncomfortable story. The ending (spoiler alert) – Nick deciding to stay by Psycho Amy to salvage their child’s upbringing – is disturbingly haunting. And more than that, it gave me the confidence to abandon the struggle to perfect over-styled, over-weighted lyrical prose in my futile attempts to mimic the likes of Gabaldon, to be great, and write. As Jack Kerouac said, “It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.” So thank you, Gillian Flynn. It’s because of you that I shelved my 265,000 word four-book schizophrenic opera and wrote an abrasive but honest detective story from the heart. And I like it infinitely better, and myself infinitely better for finding my own voice.

“Art” of the Query Letter

Writing query letters is like doing calculus (or whatever she’s doing).

 

This is a topic I’ll be coming back to more, but for now just let me say #@$%! and then smash my head off my dining room table. I say dining room table and not desk because I don’t like to write at my desk. I spent my entire life sitting at one in one form or another, and I spend 32 hours a week (sometimes more) sitting at one in a particularly hellish place – a cubicle. So is a desk conducive to creativity for me? Nope. Dining room tables, over-sized armchairs, hotel room beds and sofas are where the juice flows. But that’s a tangent for another time.

And actually, writing queries isn’t so much an art as it is uncovering the secret of the universe. After losing so much hair my husband noticed, I decided to pony up for a consultation and paid $150 to a professional via Grub Street to hack into my query letter. I’m not going to reveal all his secrets because then the guy won’t get paid, but I have to say – it was well worth it. Even after all of my research and reading and studying example query letters, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Now I’m about 50% more confident. For some reason I understand the concept, but when it comes to applying the formula, I get writer’s block. My plot suddenly becomes Everest and I’m standing at the bottom in a sports bra and sneakers attempting to climb.

Cue the editor. First, it’s not about cramming your letter with your entire plot. It’s about setting up the context – where does your story take place and in his words, why it’s “cool.” It’s about the character arc and showing what the character desires, some conflict and how the character changes – also without being too wordy. It’s also about introducing the main characters – hopefully not too many – while avoiding confusion. Most of all, it’s about doing your homework on each and every agent you intend to submit to so you don’t come across like a telemarketer making a cold call. All this in just 350 words, give or take.

Sounds “easy” until you try, and then you can’t get out of your own way. Which is why – and don’t call me a traitor here, because I held out until I received a few rejection letters and then swallowed my humble pie – it’s worth it to shell out the bucks and take a class or hire a pro. They can tell you what’s extraneous, what requires more info, and redline all the crap that’s better saved for your synopsis (if you get to submit one). The painful truth is, you can learn only so much on your own, and then you need the feedback massacre. It only hurts a little. Okay a lot, but it’s worth it. And like I said, this won’t be the last time I rant on queries. Now that mine is as “complete” as it’s going to be, I’m going to put it in front of an agent and see if it holds up. Pray that it holds up, more accurately. That will be a double-swipe deodorant day for sure.

GrubStreet…

In one word: excellent

I know more than a few writers who would rather bathe in sewage than join a writer’s group or workshop. That used to be me. Then I joined GrubStreet. The center has exceeded my expectations. It’s intense, it’s legit. My classmates are from all walks of life, they are talented, interesting, multidimensional artists who are serious about being there and developing their craft. The instructor clearly knows what she’s doing, she manages our group well and piles on the assignments. Not that I thought Grub was a joke–it has an excellent reputation–but I was still leery of spending the money, getting in there and realizing this wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. I’ve taken creative writing classes in college, I was an English major at one time (I’ve been a lot of majors at one time or another) and so I was worried that this might be more of the same, that I wouldn’t grow as a writer. Au contraire. In just a few short weeks I’m already changed. I approach my writing differently, I find myself reading (even for fun) with a more critical eye. I’ve received useful feedback for my stories and overall style of writing. It’s been worth every penny. I’d recommend Grub to any writer dragging their feet, but who knows they need to do something to expand their talent and enter the bigger world of writing and publishing. Take it from me–group anything is not my thing, and this place gets my two thumbs up.

Writing Prompts

Mind as barren as a white blank page?

I started a writing workshop about a month ago, and it’s been a serious eye-opener. One thing I found surprising was that so many people–including the writers in my class–need help thinking of things to write about. This  absolutely astonished me; I have the exact opposite problem, there are a hundred things I want to write about and not enough time to do it. I get inspired by anything and everything. My imagination knows only one state–overdrive. But that’s me, I’m a Pisces and my head is in the clouds. I get that people are different, and writers come in all flavors, from artsy-fartsy to quasi-rocket scientist. And just because you have an idea for a story doesn’t mean that you can write it. Writing well has nothing to do with the subject matter, that’s for the selling. And, I’m not saying I don’t get prompted. When an idea hits you, you’ve been prompted. The difference is being open to accidental inspiration versus actively seeking it. In this post I’m discussing the latter. So what to do when your fingers are itching for the pen or keyboard, but your mind is a barren sea floor? Writing prompts.

There are tons of sites to help generate ideas, from Writer’s Digest to CreativeWritingPrompts.com. When I actively seek, it’s not so much for the story idea as it is for help with details–character development, setting, etc. So when I’m after something unique and different, something I want to come from outside of me to infuse my story with originality, I generally look to daily life. My fast faves? Public transportation and texting “auto-corrects.” Also just texts. Take up your cell phone, scroll through whatever happens to be saved and pick out a quote. I once wrote an entire story about the end of an engaged couple’s relationship from nothing more than a Christmas Day text my sister and I exchanged regarding brussel sprouts, and whether we had enough to feed everyone. Technically uninspiring, right? Most people don’t even like brussel sprouts.

Public transportation provides excellent opportunity for sound bites. These are snippets taken out of context that we overhear from our unintentional eavesdropping. Or sometimes, you get damn near the entire story handed to you. Picture this: you’re on a crowded train and a twenty-something girl across from you is having a very loud, very earnest conversation with God-knows-who about how she’s “never having children” because her family “is so medically messed up” it would be “unethical” for her to “pass that along.” After a brief pause she scoffs, “Adoption! Ew, no. It wouldn’t be mine, I couldn’t trust that it wouldn’t…you know…turn on me.” How can you not tune into that? Her voice is raised like she’s at a bar. Her tone is strained, imploring, then suddenly becomes derisive. Other conversations hush and you–emotionally intelligent observer of nature that you are–understand this is because there are likely half a dozen people on the train who were either adopted, or adopted kids themselves. Now you have tension, a critical component of any good story! And, as you surreptitiously glance up, you see she also looks a little unhinged. Tell me you can’t write something from that! (And yes, that’s a true story.)

True sound bites, however, can still provide you with excellent fodder. You can be anywhere–in line at Starbucks, picking out a bottle of wine, sitting at your desk at work–and get juicy story material. I was once sitting, waiting for the writing workshop to begin, and in the hallway outside the classroom a young woman apparently recognizes a young man. I hear her exclaim, “Hey, oh my God!” as he immediately calls out, “Hey! I haven’t seen you since the last time you screwed me over–!” My classmate and I exchanged startled looks and I snorted, trying not to laugh. I think I might’ve even said, “Now there’s a prompt for you. Write something from that.” (We tried to hear what the hell he was referring to, but they’d lowered their voices. I guess that’s where our imaginations have to come into play.)

Last but not least, dream up your own bizarre sound bite. Take any mundane scenario I listed above–like picking out a bottle of wine–and then imagine a ridiculous comment to coincide with the event. I picture myself turning over a moderately-priced bottle of chardonnay to see if it’s unoaked (gag me) while happening to overhear a college student turning to the store owner and asking, “What type of wine should I buy if I want to get laid?” To which the shop owner promptly escorts the young man over to the I-pretend-that-I’m-serious-about-wine silly-girl bottles with tasting notes proclaiming the wine’s “skinny” and “fun” and “fruity” nature. But then throw in a curve. The girl this young man is trying to impress actually knows something about wine and is highly insulted by his grape juice-excuse-to-get-drunk choice. Uh-oh…

Sidelined!

“Crawl Away” by Alex Cherry – pretty much sums me up these days.

Well, it commenced during this blog-building exercise, but it has since snowballed into an unexpected life and time-suck. I’m talking about my personal health, which has pretty much sidelined me from writing, and this blog. If you asked me four weeks ago whether I thought a “little” thing such as a medical condition could derail my love and passion for writing, I would’ve told you you’re nuts. Joke’s on me! It’s not such a “little” thing anymore. Between the issue itself, the meds (and the surprise hospitalization), and the fatigue/insomnia, my characters are doing little more than swirling overhead as I lay on the sofa and try not to shop Sephora for the one-hundred thousandth time out of sheer boredom. Lack of focus is an understatement!

However, this is a good life lesson. There’ll be many things that sideline us from writing–both positive and negative. And you know what? As I’ve come to learn, that’s okay. Sometimes we need a break. And I’m talking about a real one, not just a week away from a story. The first set of novels I wrote I hadn’t touched since July, right before my vacation and, incidentally, the sneaky little health problem that was about to overtake me. A couple of weeks ago, without anything to read, I converted the first of the novels into an ePub, uploaded it onto my Nook. I brought it with me to every doctors’ visit. I’d forgotten half of what I’d written (which turned out to be a good thing, because I was cringing and regretting every last query letter I’d ever sent out) yet the other half made me insanely excited and motivated to return to writing. It was, in all modesty, surprisingly good! There were sentences, phrases and descriptions that made me do the proverbial “Wait–I wrote that?” double take. (Then I swelled with silent pride and threw my figurative hat back in the ring, amending that I made a rookie mistake and queried too early). In any case, the unintended sabbatical  made me realize I do have some talent, and it gave me the objective, critical editor’s eye I lacked being so deep in the reeds before. As soon as I get up enough energy, I am returning to it with a hatchet and a machete. I’m evolving as a writer, which means something is working, but boy…it’s a trek.

Kick Me When I’m Down!

This sounds like an invitation to a pity party, but it’s not. It’s about needing to be kicked, and often. Reevaluating and prioritizing, essentially. I’m a firm believer that life is a road paved with lessons, and when we’re not paying attention, it doesn’t hesitate to slap us in the face. Sometimes backhand us. Hopefully we land on our ass, take notice, enjoy (or decry) the epiphany, get up and move forward in a better direction. Most times, flawed beings that we are, we slip back into old patterns and habits and cease paying attention, begin missing the signs, until it’s time for another Krav Maga takedown.

Who the Hell am I?

I’m not looking for an actual answer from you. Perhaps the more accurate question is, what the hell am I doing, thinking I can sign with an agent and get a book published? Why couldn’t I be a woman with sound goals easily attained through hard work and dedication? Buying a house, traveling to Peru (though I still want to do that) or learning the Electric Slide (and actually remembering it when I need it)? Why am I the dissatisfied chick with the big imagination and even bigger dream of doing something with it? 

Drunk Writing – Better Writing?

I am certainly not the first who’s noticed the switch-over in writing skill and style once a glass (or two) of wine takes hold. (Substitute your beverage of choice—I might have said scotch but that gives me the munchies and then I get up from the computer). Didn’t Hemmingway say “write drunk, edit sober”?