Common Threads in Reading and Writing

One of the pearls of wisdom given to writers who are starting out is to write in their favourite genres – or write the genre they know best. And of course the best way to know a genre, to see it done well and done terribly,  is to read it. In a nutshell – write what you know.  But what if there are things you don’t realise you know?

A few weeks ago I had the delight to befriend emerging novelist Holly West via Twitter.  Reading her blog  Adventures in Bedlam I came across her post Three Favourite Books of All Time which got me thinking about the commonalities between reading and writing, and that perhaps there were many more layers to “writing what you read”.

West’s post is based on questions posed in literary agent Donald Maass’s book Writing the Break Out Novel. While Maass’s book is geared towards the emerging novelist, the questions West posted and answered on her site seemed to me to be valuable to writers of both long and short prose alike.

The three questions which appear on West’s website, from Maass’s book are:

What are your top three novels?
What do they have in common?
What do you bring into your novel from your top three favourites?

Three Top Novels

Despite all the books I have read over the years I still find in reasonably easy to name my favourites.  In no particular order my top three are:

Lightning by  Dean Koontz
Magician by Raymond E Feist
The Time Travellers Wife by  Audrey Niffenegger

With the exception of The Time Travellers Wife I read the first two in my early twenties.  I have lost count the number of times I have read Magician. I love the smudging on the pages which reminds me of sitting on the top of a combine harvester ladder in the middle of a wheat field during a break down reading it for the first time, covered in wheat and bull dust under the harsh Spring sun.

I have both Lightning and The Time Travellers Wife slated to be read later on this year when Mercury goes Retrograde next. I’m intrigued to know if Lightning will stand the test of time given I’m always citing it as in my top five favourite novels but haven’t been back to re-read it since I was 19. The Time Travellers Wifeis something I intend to read (and blubber my way through) every year – a bit like Magician with fewer boxes of tissues.

The Commonalities

I’d never given a whole lot of thought as to what any of my favourite books might have in common. After reading West’s post and mentally creating my list on the way to pick my son up from Kindy, I realised one strong common element – time travel.

The other thing I notice in these top three is that none of them belong to the same genre – which is perhaps where my dislike of genre  pigeon holing comes from.

Reading some of Koontz’s thoughts on the publication of Lightning I saw another thing these books have in common – they are cross genre books.  While Magician belongs in the fantasy section – I’d like to think it is equally a cracking adventure story. The Time Travellers Wife is firmly grounded as a love story, but has definite  sci-fi and thriller elements.  Then there’s Lightning which is a hybrid with equal lashing of romance, suspense and sci-fi.

Lastly all three books came recommended by people I admire and play/or have played a pivoutal role in my life.  Lightning came via my Dad, Magician via my oldest friend who was also my flatmate at the time and finally The Time Traveller’s Wife on Paul Anderson’s high praise.  And I just noted – they’re all males!

Reading Influencing Writing

I have to admit it was a bit of a shock to see time travel/dislocation as a common theme in my favourite books.

The emergence of time travel as a strong theme/premise in my favourite books shouldn’t come as a big surprise  given the diversion my writing has taken this year.  It took joining the dots together between the books to see it … my writing since November last year has been geared around time and dimension displacement – some voluntary and others beyond the choice of my characters.  However because of the many guises in which “time travel” has taken and the number of genres it has crossed it wasn’t immediately obvious to me in my own writing.  I’m a bit slow or not given over to this type of introspection – after all, I do maintain I simply tell the stories which come to me.

There’s Celia whose story involves a time machine (like Lightning and to a lesser extent The Rift Machine in Magician)  I put a genetic tampering take on time travel with Light Years (though it is not a “condition” per se as it is in The Time Traveller’s Wife).  The project I am considering for this year’s NaNoWriMo has a character going back in time to relive parts of her teenage years again but this time armed with new knowledge about people and events. It has definite dark elements of which there are numerous in  The Time Traveller’s Wife but it has the underpinning of Lightning – that you are unable to escape the line of destiny set out for your life. There’s also another collection of short stories which have at the heart of them a sense of time travel (they’re unnamed at this point) – but it is more a sense of time repeating over and over, waiting for the right elements to fall in place and offer and resolution.

Then there is my own personal sense of travelling through time as a writer to set and explore stories in the future – last year’s NaNo project Blue Melissae and this year’s Dirk Hartog series of short stories (which with Dom Benoit’s encouragement and ascertain that Hartog is unlikely to leave me alone, may become something more than a collection of short stories – thanks Dom!)

Now I’ve seen a definite theme emerging outside of the regular run of the mill ones (love, betrayal etc) I’m going to invest some time in researching different theories on time travel and see where my writing may go as a consequence. The challenge with time travel is creating a unique take on a rather done to death scenario.

Without finding and reading Holly West’s blog I would have been none the wiser.  I’d like to think I might have had an epiphany at some points, probably years down the track, about this fascination with time travel – but who knows?  Thank you Holly for sharing your reflections and inspiring my post this week and I hope it motivates others to look a little outside the square too.

What are your top three books and what do they have in common?  What are you able to pick in your writing which may have roots in the pages of your best loved novels?

Jodi Cleghorn’s interest in time travel isn’t confined to books. Among her favourite shows are Doctor Who and Life on Mars. She remembers her Grandfather attempting to explain a theory of time travel to her as a child. You can follow Jodi’s Tweets @jodicleghorn or her expanding blog Writing in Black and White.

The pages are still blank

Image from Strollerderby

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible
Vladimir Nabokov

This quotation from Nabokov was the inspiration for the name of my own writing blog. At the time, it encapsulated perfectly my feelings as an emerging writer, a neophyte in the field of writing, yearning to release the words that I was aware of, stories that wanted to be seen and read by others.

Today the phrase has another, less joyous connotation for me. The words are there, I can sense them, I know they are, but clamoring now means struggle. It is a hard fight to make make the words visible. It is a painful and slow process to make sense of the screaming in my head, so many words at once and the totality making little sense, barely able to discern the single strands of coherence.

Words are there. They want to be seen, they want to be read. But at times I can’t see how to make them known.

For some months now I have struggled, and have at least been diagnosed with, depression. My attention is unfocused, my will almost non-existant and my energy low. Writing is an effort, whereas before it was a joy. And while the anti-depressants I have begun to take will help to dispel the worst of the murky gloom that hangs over my mind, I’m terrified that it will also dull other parts of me, specifically my ability to imagine, to write, to tell stories.

Is depression, indeed is mental illness more generally, the price for artistic merit? Or is artistic talent more prevalent amongst those who are prone to, or suffer from, mental illnesses? I know of (and in some cases know personally) writers who suffer from depression. Musicians and visual artists also have amongst their ranks many talented individuals who have seen depression touch their lives to varying degrees.

Is the incidence of depression amongst artists higher than the rest of the population? Or are artists more willing to acknowledge it, and so it is merely a higher reported incidence?

Paul will stand back up. You’ll know just the moment when he’s had enough. Sometimes he’s afraid, and he don’t feel so tough. But he’ll stand back up.

[Fiction] Friday #111

[Fiction] Friday Challenge for July 3rd, 2009:

Where your character is committed to a drastic or extreme change

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How Fiction Friday works
Fiction Friday is easy to do.

• Every Thursday, just check this page for this week’s theme or challenge.
• Spend at least 5 minutes composing something original based on the theme or challenge.
• But, remember, no editing. This is to inspire creativity not stifle it.
• On Friday, simply post what you wrote to your own blog.
• Then come back to Write Anything and leave the link in the comment section below.

If you’re participating in the Write Anything meme, please leave a link to your entry in the box below. (If you’re not participating, please don’t leave a link. People who aren’t playing will be removed). Please don’t forget to leave us a comment in addition to leaving a link!
You might also like to Tweet links from this site as they are posted.

If you’d like to participate further, just go visit some of the other links left by other participants, read what they wrote, and leave a comment. Just be sure that your comment is constructive—this is, after all, a meme to give us all a little writing practice.

Want more information? Visit the Fiction Friday page.

Technorati tags: fiction, fiction friday

Popularity Contests

I have to admit I am guilty of this as well as many others. A writer friend of yours asks you to vote for their story, poem or book in a contest. Without hesitation you follow the link and place your vote without reading or even looking at the other entries. I have done this with the intentions of helping a friend and hopes of the favor being returned one day. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen often.

Despite this fact, I detest contests where you choose the winner. I think they show a lot of bias. If you’re not popular enough, what’s the point of entering. Now, I’m not saying every person falls in this category, but let’s face it. A lot of writers do.

I have entered a few contests where judges didn’t exist and the most votes wins. The votes I received were from friends. I can only recall one maybe two times where I received votes from someone I didn’t know. I feel this can be unfair for someone like me. I’ve been published several times but are not widely known by most writers. So, how could I beat the odds? Not enter at all unless the winners are chosen by judges and not by popular vote.

Do you think contests by popular vote are fair for all writers? Do you enter them?

Andrea wants to thank Annie for the inspiration for this post. I hope you did well in the Editors Unleashed contest.

Writing Paranormal Romance

Paranormal romance seems to be the flavour of the year, with the huge influx in romance stories filled with demons, werewolves, shape shifters, the ubiquitous vampire, superheros, Gods and other fantastic creatures. Vampire porn has simmered in the background of erotic romance for years, but it has enjoyed a renewed interest after the Cullens were thrust into the limelight. Although it may seem saturated, the market is always keen for more paranormal romance with the key having a new angle, a new twist or take on the world and beings which inhabit it. The fascination of allure of the dark, dangerous realms in which the paranormal exists is a huge drawcard for many readers; especially if there is forbidden love involved. If, as a writer you decide to dip your fountain pen into its murky depths, then there are certain rules which you must adhere to.

Vampire Lust   Image via Wikipedia

As with any story, there are major elements of a story which act as the adhesive for the plot.
Strong characters with strong motivation to their decisions and actions (which may be hidden or teased out gradually depending on how you like to introduce them)
Strong elements of conflict. Within romance, this needs to be a simmering pot of emotions.
However add to the pot -
Thorough research or definitions to your paranormal rules
Consistency within your paranormal rules.

Character Building
There has been ample information shared about building characters, fleshing out their desires, emotions, fears, likes and dislikes. Look specifically at the species (the supernatural or paranormal creature you create) and its definitions and life rules. Paranormal beings tend to be drawn upon human characteristics. This is particularly important for the romantic hero/heroine of your story, so that your readers can relate, lust or hunger after them.

Conflict
Creating conflict within paranormal stories is extremely enjoyable, adding a romantic twist to it make it even more delightful. It gives the audience the chance to completely abandon their mundane life and wander into new worlds and be enchanted and seduced by new beings. It a chance to ‘suspend disbelief, so ensure that there is enough simmering conflict to keep the story and romance rolling.

There are many types of interesting situations to explore explosive chemistry between subspecies and research or thorough character class definition is the key to believability. The most common is for a paranormal being to fall in love ( or the other way round) with a human and for this love to be rejected by one or the others society – or for them to keep it a secret from all but the reader.

Consistency
You may choose to make up a sub species or superhero character for your story. If you use a creature with an established mythology, like the vampire or werewolf, ensure you do extensive research on their capabilities. Nothing kills a paranormal story quicker than inconsistencies within mythology, and some readers get very precious about the ‘known’ knowledge of some beings. You can of course fly in the face of superstitious knowledge and create your own rules ( thanks Stephanie Meyer with sunlight and vampires)

Create your own world and be consistent with the rules you set. If you borrow from other worlds or myths, ensure your angle or idea is constant the entire way through your story. Be mindful of the physicality of your beings, especially if they become romantically involved with a human. Tentacles, wings and other appendages may get in the way of love making or present a completely unbelievable scenario.

Write from your passion. Don’t focus on fads and what’s ‘hot at the moment – write from your bliss and stay consistent with that.

Continue to read in the genre you wish to writing in. Look at the things you like and don’t like about books you read. Make notes on the parts you would edit out or how you’d take a character or a scene a step further – if it were your story.

Keep it Simple -Don’t try to introduce too many ‘beings’ within your story – or include a paranormal creature just for the sake of it. They generally don’t live in the same space comfortably in anycase, but tramping a variety of vampires, gnomes, fairies, werewolves, angels, elves, Gods and trolls throughout your text lead to your readers becoming extremely confused.

Where to next?

I’d suggest looking at Zerotime for detailed info on vampires and werewolves.   Paranormal Romance has forums and yahoo groups to discuss romance within science fiction, fantasy, and romantic fiction with paranormal elements, including time travel, futuristic, magical, ghost, vampire and shapeshifter themes.

Bringing a new eye to the genre, a new twist is key to breaking into this growth area in writing. Most importantly, don’t get lost in the paranormal elements of the novel. As always, the main focus is quality writing exploring the romance between the main characters and the development of their relationship. It just so happens that one or the other has certain physicalties or powers which sets them apart from the readers.

Annie Evett is guilty on many occasions for the over use of weird stuff simply for the sake of it being spooky or unusual. Can’t help it – double scorpio. Catch her growing amount of websites and blogs here

Proper Focus

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you that I had created blogs for my two eldest children. Like many neophyte bloggers they have spent the last two weeks obsessed with the technical details of their new toys—which is all fine and good—but this obsession has come at the expense of any real care over the content of their blogs. I’m not so much concerned about the subjects of their posts—my boy seems preoccupied with locating YouTube animations of Star Wars Lego characters—after all the posts of a teen and a preteen off their leashes will nearly always seem vapid to an adult. But so far they seem unconcerned about things like misspellings, sloppy punctuation or style.

So it was a nice surprise a few days ago when I got little assistance from an unexpected source. Smashing Design is a site I’ve followed for a couple of years now that gives excellent tips and techniques for web design. They’re always giving out freebies (like icon sets) and compiling helpful lists (like 25 hacks for your WordPress blog). It’s definitely one of those sites that can get a blogger lost in the nuts and bolts of keeping a blog up and running instead of focusing on writing.

But a few days ago, Smashing Magazine published 50 Free Resources That Will Improve Your Writing Skills. It’s a actually a fairly comprehensive list of 50 websites that focus on the basics, like grammar and punctuation, and moving through some fairly technical tools that can check the readability of you blog.

I haven’t yet browsed through all 50 of the sites, but I have forwarded the site to my kids with the warning that their blogs were created to help them experiment with and improve their writing—and maybe it’s time they get started.

Dale lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with his fiancée and four step-children, and spends a good portion of his time trying to locate an absent muse. You can read about him, his family and his struggles at Rough Draft.