Tag Archives: writing

IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK AND IT WADDLES LIKE A DUCK AND IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK, WHAT IS IT? LITERATURE AND TODAY’S BOOK WORLD

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Symbols in fluxAre you a cowboy? A spy? A sexy lover? A  child at heart? Somewhat intellectual? If so, you probably read in a genre like children’s books, westerns, mystery, romance, or literary.  Publishing is defined by specialized categories of book, which also identify readers by age, gender, interest, locale. These seem to become more targeted by the week. The process helps greatly in marketing books to try to insure readership.

No longer are these groups simple and innocuous. Sub-genre succeeds sub-genre. I’m not sure I even know what some of these mean. For example, urban romance fantasy. Is this several dragons who live in a large city off-world and become enamored of one another, or an historical period piece in which Cleopatra and her lover Marie Antoinette battle the evils of Czar Peter the Great in St. Petersburg? Or both?

My publications are classified as clean or sweet romance. Devoid of overt sex, this category can incorporate a great deal of passion, depending upon author, plot, and publisher. I prefer to think of them as “women’s fiction,” a bit closer to my approach, because the journey of the main characters is to succeed in meeting life’s challenges, not simply discover love. Of course, being a writer and always ready to split hairs or argue until I’m blue in the face, I don’t like to assign labels at all.

Which brings me to authors who defy categorization and leap-frog genres: Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, P.D. James, among others. I’m sure their publishers would prefer they didn’t. It makes marketing their work more difficult. But these are big names, and they can do as they please. Successfully.

A  challenge for newbies, especially in more structured, dare I say rigid?, genres. Publishers, bloggers, book sellers want to know the type in a 30-second elevator speech. For example, when I sent my first novel to an online reviewer, she declined it despite its HEA ending because she felt it was chick lit.

But this blog ISN’T about genres. It’s about excellent writing. Even if a book is a particular genre (i.e., waddles like a duck), I think good writing should be possible in any genre. I’ve just finished a book that explained an area of writing that I’ve never heeded. When discussions centered on symbolism, I poo-pooed the theories. Who knew or cared if a rope meant characters were tied together, or if waves crashing on a cliff substituted for sexual fervor?

A major shift in my attitude occurred with “How to Read Literature Like a Professor.” Author Thomas Foster hand-led me through weather, violence, flying, seasons, and other topics serving as symbols for life’s issues, such as love, freedom, and depression. Giving examples from classics and popular books, he showed how use of symbolism gives added depth and enhances the reader’s understanding and appreciation.

Hmmm. As I thought back over my own work, I realized it contains a fair number of sequences that can serve as symbols. A storm in the middle of a confrontational camping trip. Seeking shelter with a potential partner during a snowstorm. A wildfire engulfing adversaries. Did I intend these as symbols? Not at the time, but unconsciously I must have absorbed cultural cues. Henceforward, I’ll incorporate these deliberately. I’ll have more fun, and perhaps my readers will, too.

So if you read about a telephone in my future writings, don’t assume it’s just a chat. It might represent confusion, ambition, or, who knows?, sex. A duck can always morph into a swan

THE MANY USES AND MEANINGS OF WOOL—A PUBLISHING PHENOMENON

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sheepMy awareness of the publication of a piece entitled “Wool” grew bit by bit. I started seeing references to it in the news, on book blogs and sites, eventually via word-of-mouth. I heard it was a self-published genre (sci fi) success and without taking time to sample it, I pooh-poohed exclamations about its excellence. I knew from reality TV, fashion fads, and politics that popularity rarely equates with quality.

Then a friend of mine with terminal cancer mentioned it. He’d been trying desperately for decades to get his work in print and wondered if he could beat his life’s deadline by going the self-publishing route. After researching “Wool’s” progression a bit, I learned author Hugh Howey had written the first section as a short story, and reader response motivated him to continue with four more sections. It became a huge best-seller and found a mainstream publisher. Still not convinced, I purchased the first section of the novel.

“Holston,” part one, deals with a law enforcement officer who rejects his post and his society (located in an immense underground silo) to commit suicide by venturing into the toxic outside. Say what? A protagonist who’s killed off in the beginning of the plot? Surely a violation of one of the canons of writing a novel. Plus the title made almost no sense. The major mention of “wool” was its use as a material to clean screens.

What kept me reading the entire work? The initial section left enough puzzling points, raised sufficient intriguing questions that I was drawn in and hoped the rest of the novel would address these. Another strong reason—Howey’s world was absolutely real from the get-go. In fact throughout the 500+ pages, I never forgot the majority of the settings were deep underground; and I got claustrophobic!

Now, weeks after completing the book, it dogs me. Howey’s writing style isn’t especially compelling, although it’s solid. The plot and characters aren’t peculiar or unique. Yet I find myself thinking of it often—how it captures personalities, contains compelling conflicts, moves faster and faster through crises. And I realize I’m using “Wool” as a kind of primer for novel-writing.

As time passes, I also find many instances in which wool can apply to the novel.  Examples: pulling the wool over your eyes. . .dyed in the wool. . .wrapped in wool. . .woolgathering. . .cotton wool. Then add in terms associated with sheep (sheep to a slaughter, stupid as a sheep, wolf in sheep’s clothing) and knitting-related terms. The depth of the book expanded exponentially, its pertinence to contemporary life became obvious.

Serendipity occurs frequently to me when I discover books that seem to illustrate or complement other books I’ve read, I’m now scrutinizing “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” (Thomas Foster, 2014) with its wealth of information about symbolism and irony in fiction. I’m again returning over and over to “Wool” for examples to show me about incorporating a new, perhaps deeper level into my writing.

So hooray for “Wool.” No alien monsters. No mystifying technology or eons-away science. At the conclusion of the book, we’re left musing over ethical dilemmas and diverse characters, all in a fast-paced plot. We confront personalities familiar during our own times, perhaps even the faces we see in mirrors.

Have we been fooling ourselves all these years? Failure may hold more meaning and value than success because we learn more from it.

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failureWe usually define “success” as achieving some sort of goal. A sports team wins a competition. A job search results in an offer from the company of our choice. A contest awards a prize. And life in general, we gain more money or a bigger house or greater fame than others.

I’m starting to realize that I’ve learned the most from projects that I initially labeled as “failures.” This perspective probably is grounded in the decades I’ve spent trying to get published. I wanted to be a writer since I was ten years old. For about 30 years, I slowly but steadily published articles, nonfiction pieces in a variety of local and regional outlets, capped by a how-to book about recruiting and managing volunteers in libraries. Hardly the stuff of a Pulitzer or National Book Award. Since I always wanted to publish fiction, if I’d been asked about my writing success during those years, I would have rated myself as a failure.

At the same time I usually held down a full-time job in communications and public relations. It was during some stints writing applications for grants, then evaluating projects based on the final criteria, that I realized the expectation always was that we’d achieve every objective we’d listed in the original proposal. That defined “success.” This wasn’t always possible or even desirable. Surely if the people involved in the project learned about impacts, that was more important that claiming we’d met objectives. An example—if we hosted an art workshop for kids, and our objective was for each child to create three clay pots, surely it was more important that we leaned those children preferred paints to clay than that every child made his allotted number.

Evaluations with goals and objectives also are common in work plans. In fact as a government employee, I became accustomed to dreaming up annual evaluation methods, which usually changed according to agency fiat every few years, ungrounded in any kind of reality. And again, I seemed to learn more from ostensible “failures” than successes.

This same approach can be applied to raising children. Before mine were well launched into adolescence, I agreed with the theory that good parenting showed up in children who never got in trouble and did well in school. My eyes were opened to the independence of a young human when one of mine always had to learn the hard way. If my sole criterion had been my original standards, I would have written off the parent-child relationship as irretrievably broken. Fortunately I held on and realized both of us had learned and grown through the ill-defined “failure.”

Bob Dylan wrote, “There’s no success like failure. . .failure’s no success at all.” I’m inclined nowadays to apply this Zen-like approach. Arbitrary standards for success may be applied by others, but as the person on my own voyage through life, I’m trying to enjoy and learn from the process, not the result. Perhaps others can benefit from this perspective, too.

Are We Honest or Overboard About Obscenities?

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While watching a 50s Western on television, I chuckled to be reminded of the extremes the media used to reach to avoid censorship or offending their audiences.  One character, a rancher, was married to a Native American woman; and two of the townsmen launched a sexist tirade to get his goat, stating, “We’ve heard she’s some pumpkin.” To update the scene, replace “pumpkin” with the profanity of your choice.

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At the same time, I was rereading a science fiction classic, The Stars My Destination,”  by Alfred Bester. (The teleporting hero seeks revenge for his abandonment on a wrecked space ship and causes havoc all about him.)  Published originally in 1956, the version I perused made special note twice of the lack of complete rape and sex scenes, claiming that had the author been writing more recently, he wouldn’t  have been stifled and we could have been treated to vivid renderings.

I was thankful I’m not limited in my writing the way people were sixty years ago. I have more freedom, I thought. But then I wondered why that was my reaction. I didn’t miss the violence and sex in the book; the plot certainly raced through compelling scenes and conflicts, sending my fingers fluttering through the pages. I remembered the Western. Did I miss any tension because substitutes had been made for vulgarities? No.

One of my works in progress is a novel with a vivid sex scene. This is not one of my romances. In those, unlike the current trend to include in fiction every bang or whimper or lick, I don’t accompany the characters into beds. To me, that’s comparable to writing at length about someone eating or using the toilet. There’s not much difference among humans, it’s repetitive and boring no matter how a writer tries to dress it up. And yet, yes, I’m including this sex scene because it’s part of the satirical slant.

I have to say I don’t like unending vulgarities in films, books, television or otherwise. While some writers, composers, filmmakers will protest they’re just reflecting society, that’s not true. My friends and family don’t swear with every other word.

Many have noted that bad language is a substitute for thinking, for careful attention to expression.  Am I offended when the man next to me on the bus is conducting a conversation loaded with F-bombs? I don’t think so. But my attitude tends toward disgust that he has so little regard for strangers around him, or himself and the image he’s conveying to them, that he uses it.

I’m grateful that society has loosened up so use of an obscenity is not grounds for jail or shunning. In any creative endeavor or situation taut with emotion, swearing is a tool of expression. But have we become too dependent on it in everyday life as well as our entertainment? Maybe before we open our mouths, we should ask ourselves if foul language will add to our expression and understanding.

G & A FOR 2014

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goalWhat’s G & A?  Not General & Administrative in a budget expense document, nor Grief & Aggravation in slang shorthand. It’s “goals and achievements,” a blog hop for my publisher, Prism Book Group, taking place January 20 and 21, 2014.

A blog hop links together a number of bloggers around one topic, and you, the reader, can hop from site to site to read them easily. This one focuses on me and my fellow writers, what we’ve achieved, what we see coming up in the next year.  Click on the Linky link below to travel to other authors.

Serendipity plays a big role in my writing. I’ve learned to see this as an achievement. While ideas for stories and books frequently swim around in my brain for years, the particulars depend heavily on coincidence. Take the manuscript I’m currently working on. Because it’s a romance, a woman and a man meet and fall in love after many problems. But the particulars—their characters, the setting, the dialogue, the supporting cast—frequently develop from happenstance in everyday life.

One theme I think will resonate throughout the story is what value do we place on friendship? This question occurred after I saw The Armstrong Lie, a documentary film about the bicyclist. Some friends turned against him as his deceit was revealed; others struggled against betrayal out of loyalty to him and the team. He, too, talks about the bonds of friendship. This theme could be the strong underpinning for my entire plot.

As I watched the revelations from a once-heroic figure, I realized I could base a character from my NEXT novel on him. A person who would make any sacrifice to win, yet a man who seems to value personal loyalty above almost anything else. A parent who must somehow figure out how to retain the affection of his children in the face of his moral downfall. An individual held captive by our collective guilt in many situations that excuse bad behavior if “everyone is doing it.”

Another coincidence: Colorado’s recent floods. Mother Nature or luck pulls people out of their ordinary rounds, and they’re forced to react unexpectedly. They can respond in admirable or despicable ways. In my upcoming novel  (possibly titled Rocky Mountain Rebirth or Rocky Mountain Renewal, slated for publication summer 2014), one of the wild fires that periodically sweep the forests plays a major role. And in the manuscript I’m working on, I’ve decided a flood like the ones the state experienced in 2013 will be a major turning point.

My goal for 2014 has fallen into place on its own—finish a new novel. I hope and trust the cycle will continue indefinitely, goal-achievement-goal-achievement, as long as I can drag myself to the keyboard

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Click with your mouse on this Linky Link to get to 21 authors and their thoughts about Gs & As

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