Today I have the opportunity to expand beyond my regular post as a Genre-ista to guest blog about this crazy writing biz. As I tap away on the draft of
my seventh book, Big Sky Talk, I'm pleased to say that the hefty word count in my
literary backpack has earned me the “write” to impart some wisdom. It's a tough business that I now take quite seriously. It didn't start out that way when I wrote my first book, Stitches.
Wisdom lesson #1: No two
stories are alike, but chasing a lucrative trend means that you're too late. (As Rocky used to
say to Bullwinkle, “That trick never works!”) Since there are only seven basic
story structures in all of literature (according to author Christopher Booker), a fresh take on those plots needs to be unique and loaded with personal style. An example is Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series fitting squarely within the framework of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
My first series, the Stitches Trilogy, unpacked my imagination
with wild abandon. It's structure fits squarely into a "Voyage and Return". Stitches, Brushes, and Riffs became the
books I desperately wanted to read and couldn’t find. These books contain everything I
love: mystery, crime, heart, humor, naughty pets, and magical realism. I even
re-invented ancient Egyptian history to solve the mystery of a supernatural artifact.
My baby boomer characters embark on a trek to England, tracked by an FBI agent,
and then I plunge them into a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens to solve the mystery of immortality. I didn’t give a hoot
if the series became a bestseller or not, because I was having way too much fun
with the research and story composition.
While I wrote my first three books, I sharpened my craft in the Hawthorne Fellows literary program at the
Attic Institute. I was inspired to make the impossible possible The most important lesson I learned, though, was
to shed my fear of actually finishing the books and sending them out into the
world.
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| Photo: Script Magazine |
When I met with several literary agents about that first series, I
was forced to squeeze the Stitches Trilogy into a genre box. Heck! I
wasn’t Romance, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Sci-Fi, Young Adult,
LBGT, Erotica, Steampunk, or Dystopian. My stories were clean, poignant,
humorous, and written for the over-fifty crowd, specifically baby boomers like me. Our behavior is driven by Peter Pan Syndrome and adventure. We also have emotional shrapnel stuck under our aging skin, which even the sharpest of tweezers can't extract. I vividly remember being sixteen and turning sixty this year. The decades
in between were a blur of a career and responsibility.
Wisdom lesson #2: A
story without serious conflict is boring. It takes courage for an author to
reduce their beloved characters to tears and push them to their limits. But redemption is oh-so-sweet when I have the power to fix it all in unexpected ways.
I didn’t feel like a bona fide writer until I started my
second trilogy about the wacky Dushane Sisters: The Executrix, Indigo
Lake, and Indigo Legacy. That series revealed a lot of personal stuff, and I had to muster
up the courage to dig deep within myself. The big difference from
the first series was that I wrote the Dushane Sisters Trilogy with readers in mind. As a result, my
humor got edgier. My story line got tighter. And the conflict got more
uncomfortable. I heaped so much trouble on the three sisters that digging them out became downright hilarious.
Wisdom lesson #3: Release
a reader’s imagination. Characters are best developed through what they say and do,
not through their backstories or intense physical description. If a novel isn’t
made up of 80% dialogue—characters talking—then the book slows to a crawl. A
simple three-word comment can say much more than a whole paragraph of
explanation about what’s behind it.
I must do a good job with this particular wisdom lesson, because the first book of each trilogy started out as a standalone
story. My readers' insisted that I keep the characters going. So buoyed by confidence, I expanded each story to a trilogy. And I’m glad I did. Telling a story in three full-length
novels—a complete beginning, middle, and end—allowed me to challenge myself and
my craft. Each series became a much bigger story than what I could create in one
novel of eighty-thousand words.
Wisdom lesson #4: Behind
every successful novel is the author’s truth. The story and characters may be purely fictional, but readers know when the emotions and actions aren’t genuine.
This last wisdom lesson is one I’d go to the mat for. As an
author, I must have a real-life reference for the
emotions I project on my characters. Otherwise, their credibility—and mine—suffers, and they cease to be believable. How can
I possibly know what my character feels about losing a parent if I haven’t personally experienced that devastation? I would also find
it difficult to write about a character’s crumbling marriage had I not suffered through a divorce myself.
My intention with Big Sky Talk is to create a tight, intense story that engages readers and makes them think. Set in Kalispell, Montana, a ghost story unfolds among the magic of wildlife, mountains, lakes, and nature's dangers. Themes of aging, losing
parents, and taking emotional risks will fill the pages. The cast includes an orphaned retiree,
an about-to-retire sheriff, an injured grizzly bear . . . and a rifle. That's certainly a combo I can have fun with!
Now, it's back to work to employ my own advice. True to my words, I am a pretty good shot with a
hunting rifle, have lost a parent, been alone after decades of marriage, and am about to retire. I'm planning for Big Sky Talk to be a
standalone novel. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Unless my readers tell me otherwise.
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| Photo: Micah Brooks |
windtreepress.com
Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.
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| Available Now! Book 3 of the Dushane Sisters Trilogy |
The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill.
The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.
7 comments:
Courtney, thanks for sharing your Wisdoms. And so glad you are working on #7 and it's set in Montana's Big Sky and Beautiful country. BTW: Did you know how to shoot a rifle before spending time there?
Great advice, oh wise one! When I learned to mine my past for emotions to inject into my characters and into the story, my stories became more "real". I'm still struggling with making life difficult for my characters. I know it'll be for their own good (and will benefit the story), but still...
All great points of wisdom. I do agree that digging deep into your own experience brings emotion to the page. Certainly, if you've had the experience yourself (death, breakup, divorce, surgery, cancer, etc.) you have a deeper knowledge of that experience and perhaps can put it on the page. That is IF you are willing to relive that experience again in all its emotional intensity and put it down. That really is the key.
However, I disagree slightly that you can't write an emotional book without the specific experience you are writing. For example, I wrote a suspense novel about a soldier with PTSD who'd seen horrible things in combat. I've never been a soldier, nor have I had PTSD. However, I've known soldiers with PTSD and I wrote the book during a time when my son was serving in Iraq and I worried about what he was experiencing. Being willing to go there in my mind and apply what I knew about PTSD to my character was what brought the emotion to the page. It also, in some ways, prepared me for how he might come home. Fortunately, he came home whole both mentally and physically but I worked through my own demons in writing that book.
The same would be true about experiencing a murder, suffering from cancer, or having surgery after a car crash. One can write about those things by transferring emotion from other areas of life AND being willing to imagine what they would feel if those things happened to them.
I don't think you have to have lost a parent to write a story about loosing a parent. If you have ever lost someone you really loved, those emotions are still raw and can be used. The difference is you have to go there yourself and ask what would you be feeling if it were your parent instead of X (friend, sister, brother, husband).
So, I'll be the first reader to say: "Count on a trilogy for your new book." :)
When readers invest in the lives of your characters, they become "friends." They fall in love with the characters and want to know more about their lives. Or, they fall in love with an area (Kalispell, MT) and want more books set in that location. Your series doesn't necessarily have to continue with the same characters as the protagonists; but it can continue with the same location and have one or more of your characters make cameo appearances.
Can't wait to read this book. I know it will be amazing because all of your books are amazing. Of course, I am a baby boomer so you are hitting that demographic very well.
Very good advice, Courtney, but I agree with Maggie about #4.If you've lived it and can handle reliving it, outstanding!
Great post!
Thanks for the great comments all! Maggie is right. As long as I reference a real emotion I've personally experienced, I can infuse those feelings into any situation with more elbow grease of research - cancer, PTSD, or physical attack.
I hadn't ever even held a gun until I met my husband. He's a genuine hunter and a good teacher. He bought me a rifle and takes me to Mt Hood to target shoot. We talk often about moving beyond practice to hunt in earnest. I'm not sure how I'll handle the moment a buck or elk strolls into my scope, but it is a situation I must experience to pull the trigger. For me, shopping in a gun shop was as awkward as walking into an adult store, like walking into a weird world. While it's a sport, there's a practical side of learning to survive on your own. As Jeff explained, it's a much healthier way to fill the freezer than factory farmed meat at the grocery store. In Montana, it's a way of life. I'll apply all that I learn in order to write about it.
Although guns are controversial to write about, it is a timely subject that encompasses risk, politics, the constitution, the law, and emotional dilemma. My character will be put through the ringer of all those emotions to get to redemption.
I enjoyed your blog post. Very interesting and informative. Glad you've made it to Kalispell, MT. My husband and I were there a few years ago, beautiful area. I've target practiced my whole life and enjoyed it. I did go hunting in MI back in the '70s. I never killed an animal, now I wouldn't hunt I enjoy seeing the deer in my yard.I will look for your next book, it sounds fascinating!
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