Propelling Your Fiction With Props

In the December issue of The Writer Magazine (which, if you're not subscribed to, you should be!), Adele Glimm wrote about using props to establish character, plot and theme.

The writer asks, "Have you ever toured a historic house and felt the past spring suddenly to life? It was probably not the tour guide's speech that did it, but rather the sight of a hoop skirt, a chamber pot or a musket."

Using Ms. Glimm's examples, imagine, if you will, that Diane, the heroine of your story, works as a computer specialist whose personal life is nowhere near as successful as her professional life. You wish you understood her better (in other words, understood the dread GMC). Take a moment and close your eyes. Look closely at Diane's desk at work. What's there amidst the clutter of paperwork and technical manuals? Perhaps a souvenir from a childhood vacation could give you the chance to bring Diane's background to life and shine a light on what makes her tick. Maybe, even at the advanced age of thirty (and I can say that because I'm on the south side of that number), she still treasures a small Mickey Mouse statue because a trip to Disneyland was the last family vacation before her parents divorced.

Next, consider what layers of meaning might be developed around this object. What if (and that's a favorite story starter... 'What if...?') Diane is leery of having children because she's afraid of bringing them up alone after a breakup, or she just wants to make sure no child of hers has his/her world shattered like hers had been? Now, that's probably not enough conflict for Diane, so here comes the hero, who badly wants a son because of his own background, represented by... a catcher's mitt? A gold pocket watch? Some heirloom that he wants to pass down to a child of his own.

Now, have that little statue disappear from Diane's desk and watch the fur fly. Her co-workers will be surprised at the apparent irrational reaction from their usually calm and cool colleague, but your readers won't because they know what complex emotions are tied into that little mouse.

Showing is always better than telling. By having that statue on the desk and using action to show Diane's attatchment to it, maybe even a conversation with the hero about her background (let's say he's an outside computer tekkie who's come to assist her with a big project), the readers can "see" her motivations and conflict. Much better than a long monologue of 'Diane thought blah, blah, blah,' wiped her tears, more 'blah, blah, blah.'

In my blog on Friday, I included a quote by E.L. Doctorow. Here's another, on descriptive writing: "Not that it's raining, but the feel of being rained upon." Sometimes, when I'm particuarly stuck on a scene, I lean my head back against my chair and close my eyes, and type. I picture the character: what he's doing, seeing, smelling, feeling. And I write from his POV. If he's sitting in the rain, he'll feel it dripping off the end of his nose, getting his shirt collar wet, soaking through to his underwear. If he's mad, this probably will make him angrier. If he's sad, it fits his mood and makes him that much more melancholy.

Try this link, the next time you get stuck on making your prose more descriptive. It's a useful online tutorial in using descriptive detail in fiction writing, hosted by Colorado State.

And keep writing!

I Made Another Sale!

I just got an email from the Executive Editor at Whiskey Creek Press Torrid with a contract for my short-story Chocolate-Covered Werewolves. Woo and hoo!! This will be part of the Spring Flings anthology that's due out in April 2006.

My bud Jenna Howard also had her stories accepted -- three contracts. Count 'em. Three. She'll be in the Spring Flings anth with me, plus her other two stories will be in the Summer Sizzlers and Fall Fires anthologies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that WCP will like the two I submitted for them for those other anthologies, and Jenna and I can share the pages there, too.

2006 is gonna be a gonga year!

Did I Fry My Brain?

On Thursday I wrote just over 2,100 words toward my NaNoWriMo project, and almost 1,900 on my short story. Wow! But yesterday I only managed 900 words on NaNo. Zero on the short story.

Have I fried my brain? Or did I just get too late of a start? I think my most productive time is the morning, up to about 1 p.m. I can write in the afternoon and evenings, but I don't get the quantity that I get in the morning hours. A friend and I got together for an early lunch and a brainstorming session on promotions. (Because, frankly, I don't have a clue!)

Before I knew it, it was almost 2:00 in the afternoon. I came on home and really couldn't write anything. I just couldn't concentrate. Sat and stared at the screen for a while, then just shut it all down. Figured I'd have to make it up today, after I get back from a medical test.

And if nothing comes to me, I'll just have to write crap until it gets better. I can't have two days in a row that aren't productive.

Writers write. I have to keep telling myself that. You're a writer. So write.

Writers On Writing

The best inspiration you can have, as a writer, is from other writers. One of my favorite non-fiction books is by Stephen King. On Writing was started prior to him trying to become a hood ornament on that guy's van, and was finished during and after his recovery. If you've never read this book, go buy it or pick up a copy from your local library. It is excellent.

One of my favorite parts is toward the end of the book. King says, "Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy." He went on to write, "Some of this book--perhaps too much--has been about how I learned to do it. Much of it has been about how you can do it better. The rest of it--and perhaps the best of it--is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up."

Isn't that just beautiful?

E.L. Doctorow once said that "writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination. You don't even have to see the scenery that you're passing. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. I must say, this is some of the best advice about writing (or life, for that matter) that I've ever heard.

The great Western writer Louis L'Amour said, “If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing something and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.”

And, just in case you think writing should be easy and you must be a dummy because it ain't easy for you, think about what Harlan Ellison had to say: “People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.”

One last one, from Virginia Wolf: "It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything."

The common advice these writers have given us is:

1. Start.
2. Keep at it.
3. Finish.

And enjoy the journey along the way.

Sometimes Ya Gotta Just Go With The Flow

Well, I didn't make my 2,000 word NaNoWriMo goal yesterday, but I did enough to keep up with the average daily required word count. I also did some unplanned work on my local RWA chapter's newsletter (I'm a co-editor). Then I'd planned to move on to my wolf story, but my Muse was pretty stubborn about that. She kept insisting that I start another short story.

Ya don't argue with the Muse. I guess my werewolf hero, Ryder, and his heroine, Taite, still have some, um, percolating to do.

So I started a story that involves humans with telepathic and telekinetic abilities and the genetically enhanced warriors that guard them. The mentally-endowed humans are being systematically placed in key positions in governments all over the world (and not for good reasons, mind you); the warriors act as their body guards. Biogenetic engineering has rendered these warriors with the appearance of humans, but has given them the abilities and senses of different animals. My hero is Max Didion, the leader of these warriors and a man wholly at ease with who and what he is. A six-foot-four hunk of humanity with the abilities of a cougar. And, of course, he ends up with a heroine named... Cat.

Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, you'll see this story in print. So far, the murder has been discovered...

So, what's the agenda for tomorrow? Write and write some more. I'm shooting again for 2,000 words on my NaNoWriMo project, and maybe 1,000 or so on this new short story.

May the Muse be with me.

I Survived...

... my first day of NaNoWriMo. I wrote 2,160 words and stopped midstream so I'll have something to jump right back into tomorrow.

That's something else that I've learned on this journey. It's a good thing to stop in the middle of scene rather than writing until you've finished it. If you finish the scene, the next day you come back to a blank screen and have to figure out where to go from there. If you stop mid-scene, the next day you come back and jump right back in where you left off, and the flow continues into the next scene. That's the theory, anyway. Sometimes those peanut butter days don't allow that to happen. But it's the best way to combat the peanut butter, really. Nothing's worse than trying to slog through peanut butter without your knife. If the knife's in hand, getting through it is at least a bit easier.

In the afternoon, I finally managed to finish the short story I've been working on. Another 1,300 words. The story ends with a steamy love scene, which always takes the longest for me to write. I have to make sure the emotional impact is there, that it's much, much more than just "insert Tab A into Slot B." While I write erotic romance, I do NOT write porn. Hence, the more arduous aspect of writing a sex scene. It has to be hot, and it has to have the character's emotions out there, naked and raw. Um, no pun intended.

But, all in all, a fairly productive day at just over 3,400 hundred words. Today, it's back into NaNoWriMo--I'm shooting for at least 2,000 words per day. If I can manage that, I'm jumping back into my werewolf rewrite. All too soon I'm going to have to go back out and get a day job, so I want to take advantage of all this time I have on my hands. Write, write and write some more.

As long as my brain holds out...

NaNoWriMo Madness Has Begun

Well, it's official. Jenna Howard and I are completely out of our ever-lovin' minds.

We signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where we've committed to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I had questioned Jenna's sanity before; now, there's no doubt.

But what about me?? I've been having trouble getting an 8,000 word short story completed. I should be able to kick something like that out in about four or five days. Earlier than that, if I'm particularly verbose. But... 50,000 words in 30 days?

Oy vey. I don't have all the GMC figured out yet. I have the G. I have the M. I have some of the C. But... who's the villain? I haven't figured that out yet. What happens once the inciting event happens? Dunno. Am I going to be able to make the hero sympathetic while he's being a real ass at the beginning of the story? (gulp) Again with the Oy. I am so screwed.

I think it's safe to say that I'm as loco as my friend Jenna. Maybe more so. I'm older. I should know better.