Weather or not....

The wind raged at the trees and flag pole that dared stand fast. Cans and bottles were cast onto the driveway like dice rolling down a craps table. The rain, not to be outdone, battered the cans and bottles like a jazz drummer, keeping an oddly rhythmic beat. In the background, thunder accompanied the composition, and lightning set the stage.

I wrote this after standing outside yesterday during the storm (safely under my porch). This reminder about the ferocity of storms left me awed. I may use this in a book or story someday. It may inspire a story of its own.

Weather is one of those things that may get overlooked in novels. We're busy focusing on characters and plots and setting but I find that weather is rarely mentioned other than a brief one line about how hot it is, how a storm shook the windows, or rain hitting the roof. Let your characters be more than inconvenienced by getting soaked, or shivering because it's snowing. In my sci-fi novel, Lethal Dose, my main characters Dalen and Adara pass by a planet with black lightning which of course screws up all communications and electronics. In my middle grade fantasy Evolution Revolution: Simple Machines (debuting September!), weather plays a big part in the story; the animals are safe for several more days when the construction machines sent to clear their woods are trapped in mud after a horrific storm. Snow adds more complications because tracks gives the animals' locations away.

If your story takes place in Seattle, where most of the time it's rainy (I could never live there), repeated references to rain and drizzle and mist would get tiresome. But in Twilight, Bella tells Edward her favorite color is brown (like his eyes, gag), but also because everything is so green from the constant precipitation. It's understandable that one would get sick of so much green and that comment says it all.

As Mark Twain said, "Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it." So mind the weather! And let's see how it impacts your story, your character, your plot, your mood.

I'll be sitting poolside because the summer heat baked the sunflowers to perfection; they stood, a deep golden yellow, almost too perfect to behold.

Char

Designing Devices

Since there have been writers, there have been literary devices. I'm talking about visual devices;. like when poets create a poem in the shape of a tree because that's the theme. You probably did this in sixth grade (maybe it's still hidden in a drawer somewhere.)

The savvy writer knows not to use it more than once, possibly twice in a book; or just use one device throughout the book.

One of the best I've seen is in the book New Moon, the second in the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. Edward has abandoned Bella and she's so devastated she 'checks' out. She's only going through the motions of living. Here is how she showed the emptiness in three chapters:

October.

(new chapter:)

November.

(new chapter:)

December.

There's nothing there. Life has gone on, but it hasn't left any impression on her. I think this is brilliant.

Another example of one that is commonly used now showed up in Lauren Myracle's young adult series starting with ttyl. She uses text message language, which now is falling out of favor because of spell check which fills in the word for you, although there are plenty of people who still text "R U there?" and other assorted phrases. Inserting texting into manuscripts- along with emojis- has become as commonplace as flashbacks, unless you're writing pre-cell phone era. Many of us use not only texts, but letters, journals, news reports, etc. interspersed through our manuscripts.

One of the devices I despise, abhor, can't stand: stream of consciousness. William Faulkner does this in The Sound and the Fury. His character Quentin, who's going off to Harvard in the fall, speaks in streams of consciousness. I can't find my copy of the book so I'm going to illustrate with my own words:

I run fast I keep going how could she do that there's the fence I need to jump around it Benjy won't stop bellowing Father doesn't give a damn...

Obviously, Faulkner's words were different, but you get the gist. I don't like this device because without punctuation you have to slow your reading down to separate the different thoughts. Whole paragraphs can be quite tiring. And, as I indicated to my English professor at the time, I didn't think Faulkner used this device correctly. (Yes, I know, he's a celebrated writer and I'm not; move on.) I believe this device would have been more suited to Benjy, Quentin's 33 year old brother who is mentally disabled, with his limited communication skills and no education, rather than a Harvard man. (And I got an A on that paper.) Either way, I would never use this.

One device that I love when it's done right is foreshadowing. Too heavy a hand, and you automatically know what's going to happen or who did what. It takes skill, and any book or movie that's done right leaves you surprised. I like the use of red in The Sixth Sense. Some of you may have guessed the twist, but I didn't and in the end I was "Of course!"

Then there's the last twist before the end. One of my fave's is the alien on board the escape ship with Sigourney Weaver in the movie Alien. She battles this beastie, saves the cat, and the damn thing still won't die. (I also love the fact that she was right- she told the captain not to let the guy with the creature on his face in, it violated safety/contamination protocols. And discovered that the ship's computer and the android were government 'spies' with a priority to seek out new life forms for military purposes. And that she was kickass enough to be the sole survivor.) That last twist, down to the final tense, fearful moments, made me hyperventilate.

There are so many devices to kick your novel up a level. Use them sparingly and wisely to place your story out of the crowd.

Keep writing,

Char

What Ever Gave You That Idea?

I'm still giddy over my Team Patriots win, that's why this post is late (plus I had to clean up after the party).

When I do author panels, or meet readers at signing events, I get asked, "How did you come up with the idea for your novel?"


For Blonde OPS, our editors at St. Martin's, Peter Joseph and Kat Brzozowski had the original idea of a 16-year-old hacker girl who goes to Rome, works on a fashion magazine, thwarts an attempt on the First Lady's life. They'd read Sirenz and liked our style. We wrote several drafts, filling in characters, plot, and details, and they offered us a contract.

Sirenz is a long way off from how it originally started... as a vampire book. With the success of books like Vampire Academy and Twilight, Natalie and I figured we could write a funny vampire book. But then we saw how many vampire books there were. And the Percy Jackson series was so popular... We decided to do a Greek mythology book for girls, only we didn't want to be similar to Percy. So we chose to focus on sirens. Of course a number of the Greek gods had to saunter through the story.

Which left us with plenty of opportunities to bring the two main characters, Meg and Shar, back. And, being that he was such a hit, Hades, the Underworld bad boy delish, was central to the plot again.

Now that I'm focusing on my solo novels, I can tell you my ideas come from a lot of places. For my sci fi novel, Lethal Dose, I watched a Discovery Channel special about space travel and the possibility of humans being able to live on other planets which intrigued me. Then I saw another program about a murderous poisoner. My devious mind put them together. (Sorry, no cover yet- I'm in the midst of revisions for my agent. Stay tuned.)

Last month I sent a my agent a middle grade manuscript based on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. (Sorry, I can't give any more details and I don't have a cover yet...). I got the idea thinking about all the popular books that were mashups or 'rethinks' of popular stories, like Wicked and Dorothy Must Die for the Wizard of Oz. Or Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. Or Cinder for Cinderella. I browsed through my library and wondered, which one hasn't been done...?

My two year project is another middle grade novel, but this one is historical (hence the 2 year timeline- research). It's set in 1937, at the Berlin Zoo. I saw a program on the History Channel about one of the many disturbing programs the Third Reich instituted involving pushing science past then currents limits for nefarious purposes. (I love that word and never get to use it.) Of course I can't tell you more because that would give away my twist. "Truth is stranger than fiction" is a phrase I've come to endorse, so I watch scientific, historical, and technical shows. (I can fix a lot of stuff.)

Dear to my heart is a faery story (yeah, I know, there are a lot of faery stories out there), but I like mine because it deals with murder, the Mafia, art forgeries, angry fae kings, and a conniving little backstabber out to make trouble for my main character, Breena. This idea came from... I don't remember because I've been working on this story for so many years. (I refuse to give up on it.)

There is a rough manuscript about a girl who gets a heart transplant and wakes up so very different from the operation. That idea came from an article I read in Reader's Digest about heart transplants and how one woman emerged changed more than just physically. (There's no magic or super powers involved.)

I can walk down a street and see a couple arguing--and make a story around them. I got an idea for a horror novel from watching my cat. Other inspirations? A news story about a runaway. Driving in my car and passing a twisty, unkempt street. Walking in the woods on a snowy day and seeing footprints wander off... So many things spark story ideas that I wish I had time to write them all. (Well, I would if I could just write them and not have to revise, revisit, rework them.)

So if you're stuck for an idea, watch a show that normally you wouldn't- Underground Cities. Biography Channel. Foreign news. Muscle car fix ups. Hoarders. Explore a road you've never been down (you have GPS, so don't sweat it; just get out before dark.) Rummage through an antique store and imagine the history of weird and wonderful things. Visit a hospital/nursing home and listen to people's stories. Make your worst nightmare come true. Trace your genealogy. Take two unrelated things, like a sock without a mate and the squirrel in a tree and think how they ended up together in the neighbor's yard. Harvest your dreams, especially the weird ones. Sniff your grandmother's favorite perform. Listen to a symphony you're unfamiliar with. Taste a food that grosses you out. Feel the softness of a milkweed seed.

Ideas are all around you; use your senses and your imagination. You can find a story.

Char

In My (Glorious, Fabulous, Unasked for, Annoying) Opinion...

Who asked for my opinion? Well sometimes people ask.And I am more than happy to give my opinion--unless the book stinks. I can share it with my close writer friends, but am leery about telling others who might not feel the same and could be offended that I didn't LOVE whatever book they're raving about. (It happens...)

Once I made a comment about Bella in Twilight. She's not a strong female lead (until the very end, when she's fighting to save her child). It bothers me that she has no thought of what college to go to, or what she wants to study, or what she wants from life other than her boyfriend, and then she goes comatose when he breaks up with her. And she reads the same book, over and over! The person to whom I made this comment to said, "Well, you're no Stephenie Meyer!"

Nope, and I don't want to be, I have my own stories, thank you very much. Would I like Stephenie Meyers's success? You betcha. In a nano-second. Now, please. It may not happen, but I'm no less a writer because I don't have mega success, and neither are the other million writers out there in my shoes.

But success does NOT guarantee that everyone will love your book. (We've had some pretty harsh critics for Sirenz, ouch!) and it's part of the business. Even nicely put, rejection hurts but when the same critics turn around and like your next book (shameless plug- Blonde OPS), then their opinion counts, right?

When there's a book I didn't like and someone asks me about it, I say, "I read that book! I love the part about..." and bluff my way through. There's always at least one nice thing you can say.

But that's just my opinion.

Char

"Man Up"

"Gender driven."
"Gender specific."
"Appeals to "X" gender."

All these labels mean is that there is some kind of "Do Not Enter" for one gender. A book is written for or by, or featuring one gender in the title role. While I don't care if the main character is male or female, it seems boys have a problem identifying with the opposite gender. They will read Harry Potter, the Heroes of Olympus, Ender's Game or any thing that features another guy, but trying to get them to read Twilight or Jane Eyre or any books where females are the leading character is a battle royale. My own family, consisting of three sons and the hubs, has never read any of my books for that reason. Blonde OPS has Bec Jackson, a 16-year-old girl, but she's cool, she's a hacker. Why doesn't that interest them? And the Sirenz series has a cool bad guy in Hades, and Greek mythology, the same gods in the Percy Jackson stories.

How and why do males become so sexist in their reading while females are more open minded? Maybe if they read more books with females, we wouldn't be quite the mystery they seem to think we are. I think English classes need to balance the scales a bit more and present more books that feature girls and women in leading or at least equal roles.

And the guys should just man up and broaden their horizons--females make up half their world.

Char