I forgot yesterday when I posted that I would be blogging here again today that it’s my turn to do the deed at Blogging in Black. So if you want to know what’s on my mind today, head on over. I’ll meet you there.
Archive for the 'for writers' Category
I’m doing my blogging thing over at Bettye Griffin’s blog, Chewing the Fat with Bettye. The particular bit of grissle in my molars is learning to protect your writing. You can check it out here. I’ll be back blogging over here tomorrow.
12
Jul
Got Cliche?
As I’m working on my own paranormal series, I was interested in story elements/characterization stereotypes. In other words cliches that I wanted to avoid. I have a couple of articles posted on the website regarding romance cliches, but damn if there don’t seem to be more in fantasy.
For me this bears a bit of irony since of the two genres romance is the more restricted. In fantasy you can make your own world in ways you can’t with romance. You can go to the past, the future, a parallel world or one that exists only in your own mind. You can have a love interest if you want, but you don’t have to. You can have a happy ending if you want, but you can also be a bleak son of a bitch if you desire. Your characters can be shape-shifters, vampires, invisible pixie-like ‘droids if you want them to. So why so much conformity?
Part of the reason, I’m sure, is that unlike pure fantasy, fantasy publishing exists in the real world where what is expected to be a success tomorrow is the thing that was a success yesterday. The mantra tends to be give me exactly what I had yesterday, except just different enough not to incite cries of plagiarism. I mean how many versions of The Incredible Hulk do we really need.
I think it’s also true that people write what they’ve seen and liked and thought they could put their own spin on. Hey, the Bard of Avon did it. His Romeo and Juliet is based on another work Romeo and Giuliet (I think that’s how it was spelled, but it’s been a long time since I took that Shakespeare course). To the Elizabethan (and other minds) the true merit of a story was not its originality by the skill the author showed in telling their version of the tale.
vs. 
Same couple, different centuries?
Given the recent spate of remakes of previous works everywhere from the movie theatre to the bookstore to Broadway, it appears the do-over is de rigeur.
So that begs the question, what to steal and what to leave behind? Here are a few websites to help you decide. Each features cliches to avoid.
What cliches do you hate seeing in science fiction/fantasy/paranormal works? What would you like to see more of? Inquiring writers want to know!
I was over at Patricia Woodside’s blog and found a post that made me say yes, YES, YESSS! I teach a fair amount of writing courses, and I’d never seen a post anywhere that helped potential online participants (a) decide on which course to take; (b) how to behave once you sign up.
To Patricia I say, thank you, thank you, first for writing the post and second for allowing me to post it here and to feature it on my for writers page.
For more sage advice from Patricia, vist her blog. For now, enjoy her post on writing workshops.
Online Writing Classes, Do’s and Don’ts
I don’t know that anyone has ever published etiquette or guidelines for behavior related to taking online classes but I thought someone might find my observations and experiences helpful. So here’s my take on this:
First, the Don’ts:
Don’t take a class if you don’t have time for it.
Sure, you can get and print out the lessons but why not wait for a later time when you’ll be fully engaged? You and your fellow partiicipants will gain more from your full involvement. And, if there is limited class size, you won’t be taking up space that could be used by someone who’s ready to learn.
Don’t take a class and then share all the handouts with all of your writing buddies and critique partners.
Yes, the material was great and you just know all your writer friends will think so too. Encourage them to take the class. What did it cost you, 20 bucks? Support the instructor and class sponsor by encouraging others to enroll.
Don’t be afraid to participate.
You may find yourself in the company of other published writers, or at least a whole lot of folks who seem to know a lot more about this writing thing than you do. Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated! Sit at your desk, in your most comfy pjs, and jump right in! Ask questions, engage in discussions, and lend your support of the other class members, many of whom feel just like you.
Don’t take a class and assume you are now an expert on the subject.
This one can be difficult, especially if the material really resonated with you. Perhaps you really do have a deeper understanding of the subject mattter. Put it to work in your writing so that you can truly master it.
Don’t allow the class to overwhelm with what you don’t know.
Some of the classes are short, maybe only a week or two. At the end, you may feel no more enlightened than when you started. Keep studying until you hit the nugget of truth that helps you to get it.
Don’t assume what you just learned is the only way to approach the subject matter.
Writing is like baking a cake. There are many recipes, all of which result in delicious eating. If something doesn’t resonate with you, don’t bad mouth it. Realize you still got something out of the class. You learned what doesn’t work for you.
Don’t take the class as an opportunity to posit your own theory on the subject matter.
This is the instructor’s class, not yours. Input is certainly welcomed but don’t take up the instructor’s time nor that of your classmates, challenging every point the instructor makes. If you’re not truly interested in learning the subject matter as it’s being taught, or quickly discover that the class is not for you, simply bow out. Don’t try to hijack the course and change it into what you need it to be.
Now the Do’s…
- DO seek class recommendations.
- DO research the class and instructor before signing up.
- DO register before the deadline.
- DO devote reasonable time to the workshop.
- DO complete the assignments.
- DO engage in class discussions.
- DO ask questions.
- DO keep up with the pace of the class so your questions are timely.
- DO network with other class participants.
- DO use digest to manage the message volume.
- DO print out or download the lessons and handouts.
- DO soak up as much information as you can, keeping what will be helpful to you, and graciously discarding the rest.
Most of all, keep writing!
One last point. I find the majority of online classes are offered between January and September, with July being an “off” month due to the RWA convention. Plan accordingly.
Peace & Blessings,
PatriciaW
Stay focused. Move Forward. Believe.
28
Jun
The freak in me
I have always been interested in the paranormal–things for which the five senses we credit ourselves with have no explanation. I couldn’t help it. With Halloween for a birthday, what else can you expect? I read tarot cards during my bohemian teenage years and to this day own a couple sets. In my dotage here I’ve finally started writing on the first book I’ve ever wanted to write–a story about witches and ancients and the fate of the earth. It’s damn slow going since it means so much to me, but most fulfilling.
It’s scary really–not because there are any spooks or goblins running around in the story, but because this book is something I haven’t found in a while–a true book of the heart. My first book, Spellbound (which will be reprinted in October by Parker Publishing), was my first book of the heart, a labor of love for the island (Martha’s Vineyard) that I loved, for the people who’d shared part of my youth (many of whom assumed they were someone in the story) and for the occult lover in me (are the women in this family witches? Only their familiar knows for sure).
As the average writer and they’ll tell you a book of the heart is a rare thing. If you’ve ever had the feeling that you were put on this earth to do a particular thing, that’s close to how a writer feels about that “heart” book. Or maybe it’s like salmon returning to their home stream to spawn–produce or die trying. But finishing this story feels like a biological imperative; the fingers to the keyboard are the labor pains.
Anyway, I’m back to writing now. But if you’ve got a book of the heart you’re working on, tell me a little bit about it. What makes it a book you just have to write?
21
Jun
Blog This!
When I saw this quiz over on blog things I couldn’t help but add it to my blog. How they discovered all this about me in four questions, I don’t know, but, who am I to argue with the blogosphere? Enjoy!
Your Blogging Type is Confident and Insightful |
You’ve got a ton of brain power, and you leverage it into a brilliant blog. Both creative and logical, you come up with amazing ideas and insights. A total perfectionist, you find yourself revising and rewriting posts a lot of the time. You blog for yourself - and you don’t care how popular (or unpopular) your blog is! |
21
Jun
Action? Affirmative.
The release of Jeffrey Deaver’s latest tome has got me thinking why, in principal, I like Alex Cross a lot more than Lincoln Rhyme. Let me start by saying that I’ve never read a Rhyme book. Deaver’s quadriplegic hero came across my radar when Denzel Washinton played him in The Bone Collector, opposite Angelina Jolie. Now we’re not going to get into what I think of the (not-so fair) Angelina, but you’d think any character played by the inimitable Denzel would win my favor. What killed the drool factor was Rhyme’s confinement to bed, and not in a good way. It struck me as too close a metaphor for what often happens to black men in American society–mentally competent but handicapped by a populace afraid of their physical prowess. And it really, really doesn’t help that the woman he’s forever denied, on a sexual level, at least, is white.
Although Deaver won an award for the creation of this creating this character and presenting a great role model for handicapped folks, proving they can be productive members of society. I’d guess, though, that there is a more pressing need in society for black men to be seen as cerebral, competent, active and sensual–without cutting the legs out from under them in either a literal or figurative way.
By contrast, Alex Cross is an active man who gets the girl he wants (who just happens to be black), a school teacher (or is it principal–either way she’s an educator, so I’m biased), has a family he takes care of, and is in general an honorable man. Aside from the near-tragic casting of Morgan Freeman as his movie persona, he’s pretty terrific. Or he was. I haven’t kept up with Cross as much as I would have liked to.
Truthfully, I’m all for breaking down barriers, for portraying us humans in all our infinite variety. Just sometimes there seems to be a certain awareness of what these images might imply. This isn’t limited to the way black men are portrayed, though that issue is on my mind at the moment. Don’t get me started with the pairings of old, half-dead geezers with sweet young things everywhere, as if women drop off the face of the earth once they hit thirty-five.
In my own work, I’ve written about men and women, blacks and whites, whoever–and I know what it’s like to be careful not to make the villains or the heroes too stereotypical. Frankly I applaud folks for creating characters, especially heroes, out of people unlike themselves. How about, give it a bit of thought before you create a character outside your comfort zone. That’s all I ask. And a damn good story, of course.
11
Jun
Around the blogosphere
I’m crazy busy, still revising this site, writing, babysitting my new baby niece and all manner of other things. So rather than come up with my own post today, I’m sharing other folks’.
Let’s start with Crimesistahs, where Angela blogs about the latest survey from Sisters in Crime . It’s amazing what information you can find on the market if you just look around. I hadn’t realized the mystery was genre non grata until I read this post. From now on I write thrillers, dammit.
Next stop is Sarah Weinman’s blog. She steals a bit from an essay on suspense written by Thomas Perry for LA Weekly.
Suspense isn’t a pleasant sensation. We go to great lengths to manage our lives in ways that will keep us from having to go through periods of uncertainty — particularly when it’s prolonged, and when the stakes are high. But in reading fiction, especially a novel, we crave this sensation of increasing tension, and the higher the stakes, the better. We love the experience of sitting somewhere in perfect safety with a book while some character serves as our surrogate in facing a world full of danger. What we’re enjoying is growing excitement, followed by a tantalizingly delayed cathartic ending. It’s a quality of all good fiction, and it’s why the reader keeps turning the pages.
My response is exactly! I know that’s why I read and the experience I hope to engender in my work.
Weinman also posits that Perry is correct when he speculates that the literati aren’t enamored with suspense is “perhaps because [suspense] seems to stimulate emotion rather than intellect: It makes readers care rather than think.”
Isn’t that the mission of all genre fiction? To bring the reader into the world of the protagonists and make them feel what the characters feel? And perhaps that’s why romance is the most denegrated genre of all, since the character’s feelings play such a prominent role in the development of the story.
And finally, Patricia Woodside blogs about finding your literary voice.
Hope you enjoyed this mini-roundup. Now that the heat wave here in New York has broken, I’m actually going outside.
Romance Slam Jam goes live once again. The website is up already. Due to scheduling problems, I missed the last one. But I’m not going to miss the one in Cali. Hope you don’t either.
And just so you know, the picture is me receiving the very first Emma ever handed out by Ms. Emma Rogers herself. What a thrill!
