by M. L. Buchman
Or perhaps, the fear of exploring?
I think that one of the primary jobs of being a writer is to constantly test and push boundaries. We are explorers of emotion and circumstance.
The Uncomfortable
Sometimes this means writing the uncomfortable.
ONE
The first truly uncomfortable, scary uncomfortable scene I ever wrote was for my first publisher on my first book. They kept pushing me to put more and more sex in the book. They wanted me, as a male romance author, to go over the top. (The fact that I was writing a fantasy novel was apparently beside the point.)
Finally sick of it, I wrote a crude, blatant, erotic over-the-top scene to show how ridiculous I could be. "Perfect!" And it ended up in my humorous fantasy novel. That taught me a hard lesson.
Let's just say that I'm glad to have since redrafted that title. And that scene, which didn't fit the rest of the book at all, has been purged. It's now safe to read my Deities Anonymous #1, Cookbook From Hell: Reheated.
TWO
The second one was for a writing class. The challenge? Write something like you've never written before.
Hmm... Up until then I'd never written a first-person story. And I'd never written a true villain. And I never write horror.
I wrote a villain who makes Hannibal Lecter look, well, maybe not cuddly, but at least approachable. And I got so far into his first-person head that he never even got up to the word "I". In ten thousand words (long short story) I never even learned his name. It is the single most chilling thing I've ever written. For over a decade that character shouted and screamed, demanding his novel based on the short story. I will never give it to him. I think he finally realizes that as it's been almost 20 years and he pops up only occasionally in my thoughts.
Why won't he get his novel? Because I have a criteria that controls all my writing, other than that one story. A message of hope. A message of belief in people. Oh, I've written villains since, but they are villains, not glorifications of the most evil aspects of people.
I'm not critiquing those who read or write horror. I'm just saying that it isn't me and isn't my choice.
THREE
However, I'm a huge fan, as a writer, of pushing into personally scary territory. I once heard Norman Mailer say that, "A character must be at least 5% me or it doesn't come to life on the page." Over time I've decided that his number is a little low (I'd go for 15-20%).
It's scary, as a writer, to put a chunk of ourselves on the page. But that's where the good stuff lies, the heart and soul of a character out there wearing our hopes and our fears. Of hopes quashed and fear realized...and the eventual triumph if I'm the one doing the writing. :)
Those are the hardest scenes to write, the ones that are personally scary. "Am I putting too much of myself on the page?" I'm not sure you can. Because that is where the characters come alive for me.
MODERN DAY SCARY
We business professionals, though, we authors have a new and different scary problem to contend with.
MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Whitewashing, LGBTQIA+...
PC RULES! It is far scarier as an author to face the demands of "politically correct", and the possibility of immediate and brutal backlash, than to face our inner selves.
How do we know? How do we anticipate?
MeToo began three years ago last week (about two millennia late in my opinion, but we won't get into the Council of Nicea in 325 AD that purged women from most of the positive roles in the Bible). Whitewashing is now so severe that last week Gal Galdot (an Israeli) was slammed for taking the role of Cleopatra (Egyptian) because the two cultures haven't lived in close proximity for the last 2,000 years (oh wait, it was more like the last 4,000). Chinese-American actors are being slammed for taking on "pure" Chinese roles. And... Yeah, you get the point.
So how do we confront this as writers? I'd like to share a post I recently made on a writer's loop where this was being discussed.
I'm presently writing a long-arc (12+ books) team series [Miranda Chase] with: a
white female autistic, a female Australian Spec Ops warrior, a
Viet-American male computer nerd, an military San Francisco-Chinese
woman, an illegal Mexican refugee turned Pentagon officer... Around
the edges I have Japanese, African-American, Chinese, Russian... I
don't have a transgender yet, but I have gay and lesbian. I also
have white men and women, neurotypicals, heteros...
I'm am only a few of these things. I do my research (I ask around, I
poke out a question in an autism group, I read a LOT of non-fic and
blogs). But I don't have a flock of beta-readers for "sensitivity proofing." I have two. One
very good at details, one very good at overview (focused on story).
Plus a proofreader. All three WASP American.
My theory? I write with respect.
If I screw up, I screw up. (And hopefully my beta-readers catch the
worst of it. I know I missed the mark when they tell me I slipped
from character to caricature.). If I want someone to be of another
race I find a way to say it. I need to show dark skin? I have a
character compare their light skin color to theirs. Or "Ah, at least
my people don't burn in the sun. We're already the perfect color."
(To which my autistic would put her foot in it in a totally non-PC
way, lecturing about how "actually people with high levels of
melanin in the skin are not immune to sunburns as so many people of
your skin tone seem to believe...")
If I tried to hit 100% PC? It sure wouldn't end up being my story,
if I was able to write at all.
Repeat: I write with respect. (Even my villains of whatever
race, height, nationality. They want to throw their race, religion,
whatever in someone else's face, I just try to do that with respect
for the character, even when the character themselves don't have it for themselves or
others.)
That is how I avoid the fear.
Just my two cents.
How about you?
USA
Today and Amazon #1 Bestseller M. L. "Matt" Buchman has 60+ action-adventure
thriller and military romance novels, 100 short stories, and lotsa audiobooks. PW
says: “Tom Clancy fans open to a strong female lead will clamor for more.”
Booklist declared: “3X Top 10 of the Year.”
A
project manager with a geophysics degree, he’s designed and built houses, flown
and jumped out of planes, solo-sailed a 50’ sailboat, and bicycled solo around
the world…and he quilts. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.
5 comments:
Interesting post(s), Matt. There's a good 20% of me in my main characters...even the men as they are composites (good and bad) of the characteristics of men I've known and men I'd like to know.
As to your point about the Me Too, etc. movement. I've not analyzed my writing to that point. My characters are true to my image of them, that part of me that is an integral part of them and to what the story needs of them. I believe that knowing there is systemic injustice anywhere one looks is important. Knowing enough to see it, address it and make personal changes so as not to engage in it is critical.
However, we all have our personal experiences, our personal perceptions, our personal beliefs and each of those experiences, perceptions and beliefs have a direct impact on how we see the world. There is no way to be 100% politically correct because each of us have slightly different points of view on how the world is and should be.
Even "truths" can have different interpretations. Just think of the "truths" we hold to be self-evident in the US Constitution. And to this day, there is a fairly large number of U.S. Citizens that do not believe the "truth" that all men are created equal, etc.
Enjoyed your post, Matt. I would add humility. It is humility as well as respect that drives you to do the extensive research to "get it right". A writer who knows they don't know everything, knows their experiences are not the be-all and end-all, and is eager to learn is a good writer.
I worked as a teacher's aid to a middle schooler with Asperger's. As I read the bit about sunburn, I went exactly to where your character Amanda Chase would go. You were spot-on! Love the characters and the books!
I'm even more invested in my characters--particularly the protagonists. I would say closer to 40-50% of them is some part of me. It could be a younger me, the part of me that thinks things I never say, or a part of the pessimistic me vs the optimistic me. (I'm mostly optimistic but I do have my days). The point is when it comes to emotion and facing challenges and making decisions, I do rely on my experiences.
The PC thing is a tough one. I do have a large family and therefore a lot of relatives. In my own extended family there has been intermarriage between siblings with a person from India, a person from Mexico, a person from Taiwan, and a Native American. In addition, because several relatives have taken in foster children, I've grown up with and are close to people I consider like cousins who are black, Native American, Caribbean, and hispanic and mixed combinations of lots of things. I also have first and second cousins who are LGBTQ and gender fluid. I have several siblings with a variety of learning disabilities from hearing difficulties to autism and various level of intellectual difficulties.
In spite of all that, I still don't write protagonists in those identities or races that are different from me. Six years ago, a Chinese-Canadian friend of mine asked me why, suggesting it was important to have non-white people represented in our literature. My response then was because I couldn't really know, at a deep level, how they would react. (A reflection of how much I identify with my characters) Should I write myself with a different skin color, a different gender identity? I do represent people not like me as secondary or tertiary characters, but I haven't as the protagonist.
I still struggle with that question and answer. Is it enough to leave it to OWN voices and support them? Yet I admire people, like Paty Jager, who have always wanted to write about the Nez Perce and have gone out of her way to know tribal leaders and to make sure she is not representing them wrong. Paty clearly has a love for the Nez Perce and a burning desire to make sure they are not forgotten.
In the end, it is each writer who needs to determine what works for them. It is not a sustainable creative state when you believe you are forced to write something that doesn't fit you, your values, or your experience. I've tried to write certain types of books for pure monetary gain (e.g., erotica) and found I was unable to do it. I could write the scenes but I couldn't imagine a plot. I once tried to write a mystery. I love watching mysteries on TV, I love reading well-written mysteries. I found I couldn't do it because my brain doesn't think in puzzles. My brain thinks in individual personality characteristics and how a person grows (in good or bad ways).
Thanks for sticking to what YOU love, Matt. It has done well for you in the end.
Great post, Matt - and also great comments to follow. As to how much of me goes into a book - I have noticed in the last few that there is a lot of me - from experiences that I use as a basis for my character's experience. I also know in my early writing, that female characters were too cautious - as was pointed out by an editor - that made them appear weak. And I realized that was ALL ME - a chicken about possibly saying anything that might hurt people's feeling - and therefor, I was unable to really test my characters. I'm learning at this late stage in life to be more assertive both as a person and as a writer :-)
Yes, Yes, Yes! Thanks for the great comments.
Humility? Absolutely! I have such severe imposter syndrome that I can barely speak to a military person, even when they tell me they like my books and would be glad to chat, help, give me a tour of the Army National Guard Medical Black Hawk (I still can't believe I didn't follow up on that one). Yet, I know that I have a wide variety of military fans because I have tried so hard to get it right.
And Maggie, to you I say, risk exploring, you might like it. Writing the military (as a severe peacenik) is such a weird juxtaposition, that I could as well be writing sub-Saharan nomadic experience. I've probably done 1000s of hours of research, but know almost no one well who actually served. My family, unlike yours, is very small and most of my experiences are white, seriously male-driven corporate America. I would challenge you, if 40%+ of your characters is you. Give us something brand new. Give us your extended family. Let it loose in one of your genres and see where it leads. Give us a fantasy world, where they aren't different races, but differently powered castes or something. Seriously, you have an extremely unique experience there that is a big part of you. Let it out and I'll bet the readers respond. JMTC.
Deb, Yeah, being brave, even on the page, is tough! Maybe write a character who does all those things you wish you'd done / said / perpetrated on some sod's ill-deserved head. Bet that could be fun! Another factor I failed to mention that I consider to be absolutely key to getting it right!
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