Category Archives: Writing

WHEREAS, the Writer is an experienced writer of heroes, scientists and adventurers…

Writing, , ,

Rarely do legal contracts amuse, entertain, or titillate.  But the contract I signed this week did all those things.  Do you see how excited I look posing in front of my Angel Punk post-it note plot/character board?  And the title of this post, you ask?  Actual quote from the contract:

“WHEREAS, the Writer is an experienced writer of heroes, scientists, and adventurer…”

That line got me thinking about another line, the line working writers need to cross from hobby writer to professional writer.  I spent many years as what I would call a hobby writer.  I wrote when inspired.  I wrote when I got dumped.  I wrote when I felt all Zen.  Words were a way to process my internal experiences and to understand my world.

I got very lucky with my first book.  Paddle My Own Canoe was written out of grief and as a tribute after my grandmother died.  I read it at her memorial service.  The editor who published my grandmother’s memoir was in the audience.  She approached me about publishing the poem, which we did the following year.

And thus I stepped over the line…  I put aside the other professional plans that I laid out.  My husband agreed that it was time to give writing the full-time chance it deserved.  For me that meant, joining professional writing organizations, taking workshops to improve my craft, printing business cards, and writing on a regular schedule.  But perhaps the most important step was claiming the title.

“What do you do?”
“I’m a writer.”

And now…  with four books out and a contract for a YA novel that will be out next year, I wear that appellation pretty comfortably.  I’m ready to take it up a notch.

“WHEREAS I am an experienced writer of heroes, scientists, and adventurers.”

 

Eddard Stark, Dumbledore, and Death as Plot

Writing, , , ,

For a story to work, and by work I mean, grab me by the throat and refuse to let me go, I must be fully invested in the characters. I want to fall in love, to believe in their reality to such a degree that if Eddard Stark walked through my door, I would say, “A mug of mead, Lord Stark?” not “Where’s the freaking costume party?”

(I know I declared my intent to discuss plot and yet digress to character.  I promise to get to the point.)

So in the space of one week, I watched the season finale of Game of Thrones and finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to my children.  And…  well… two characters I fell in love with… they die.

Is that stupid story-telling?  Doesn’t that kill your plot (so to speak)?  What is the point of reading on if your favorite characters die?  That makes me think of BallyKissAngel. Thanks to Netflix, I was doggedly in love with Assumpta and Father Peter until – you guessed it – death reared its oh-so-permanent head.  I stopped watching.  

Why will I keep watching Game of Thrones and move right on to The Deathly Hallows but I won’t stick with BallyK?

Death drives plot forward when it is more than just death.  If the loss of a character turns the plot trajectory on its head by impacting other beloved characters so strongly that they start making different decisions, then it can work. Everything is different for Rob Stark, Arya and her sister when Eddard Stark falls.  And for Harry, his string of losses seems like more than anyone could bear.  No longer can he share his burden with Dumbledore.  Now his chance of successfully defeating Voldemort is slimmer than ever.

I have to know what happens!  I keep reading (or watching).

You writers out there, consider death.  By all means kill your characters, but make sure that what they stood for matters so much that the rest of the story will rise from the ashes like my buddy Fawkes.

 

 

Writing retreats are serious business even in bikinis

Antics, Travel, Writing, ,

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Cannon Beach in a rented house with the Viva Scrivas on retreat.  Lest you think it was all cocktails and bon bons and Scrabble, let me tell you a little story…

Saturday was the kind of day that happens once or twice a year on the north Oregon coast.  75 degrees.  Clear sky.  No wind.  A day for bikinis.  Seriously!

And we worked, wrote our fingers to the bone.  When I paid our bill at the rental office, the woman said, “I saw you all working away yesterday.  How did you do it?  The day was too nice for work.”

How did we do it?  One word at a time…  Some of us are on deadline (yikes).  Others making good use of the time away from demanding jobs and small children.  Another getting back to writing after a long absence.

Our group tries to get away 2-3 times a year for writing binges followed by those aforementioned cocktails and bonbons.  It’s a great way to be together and make major accelerations in our writing progress.  I wrote nearly 5,000 words to give me nearly 45,000 words written in my newest novel.  I’m into the last 1/3 and let me tell you… IT FEELS GREAT!

Get Low & The Importance of Telling Our Stories

Antics, Writing, ,

Recently I watched Get Low starring Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek,Bill Murray, and the adorable Lucas Black.

IMBD says: A movie spun out of equal parts folk tale, fable and real-life legend about the mysterious, 1930s Tennessee hermit who famously threw his own rollicking funeral party… while he was still alive.

So this guy, Felix Bush, experiences this terrible tragedy and feels responsible.  In order to punish himself, he sequesters himself away from all human contact.  Until, at the end of his life, he realizes that he must tell his story to purge his soul.  And, as the preacher says, find “peace from the burdens of his head and heart.”

I believe that we all have important stories to tell and that in the telling, we become stronger, better people.  If there is one thing I want young readers and writers to know, it is that their stories are valuable beyond measure and well worth telling.

I second the mission of StoryCorps: To provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.

The writer’s job: make alien out of auto parts

Writing, ,

In my current WIP, my main character has a part-time job at an auto parts store.  While googling for a list of metal auto parts that I could talk about, I came across this amazing piece of metal art.

It strikes me that this what I am trying to do as a writer.  I want to take the pedestrian, the everyday, the bin of scrap auto parts, and transform them into something out-of-the-ordinary.  Maybe even out of this world!

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley

Events, My Reads, Writing, ,

This delightful, picture book biography is up for an Oregon Book Award tonight.  I’ll be in the audience clapping loudly for Barbara Kerley.

As a nonfiction writer myself, it has been gratifying to watch picture book biographies and history come into their own. Writers are pushing the form to greater excellence by using innovative formats and many of the techniques of fiction: scenes, voice, character, story arc, etc.

Interestingly, science books for kids have not innovated in the same way (with the exception of scientist profiles).  I think it’s the next frontier and I plan to be there!

Recently I gave my agent a manuscript about extinction biology that melds a graphic novel format with more traditional nonfiction.  I can’t wait to see what he says!