I've Got a Secret

As I've been busy building a new database, and trying to write the next chapters of the Novel In Progress, it occurs to me I still have to blog.  Some days there aren't enough hours in the day or enough words in my head.  Logical thinking, creativing thinking AND random thoughts?

But then it came to me.  As I was watching James Bond (of all things).

Today's writing tip:  I've got a secret.  One that I can't tell anyone or risk losing everything.  What fun is a story where everything goes according to plan?  Unless there's something the hero/heroine doesn't want us to know.  My example today comes from Casino Royale (thanks, James!). 

James Bond.  Super Spy.  Callous, cold hearted killer.  Meets a woman, falls in love.  Who'da thunk it?  But she has a secret.  One that the viewers don't even know.  Oh, they know she has one, but that's part of her mystique.  Part of why James likes her.  We have to get all the way to the end of the movie before we realize that the unattainable man, the one that NEVER falls for a woman and now finally has, has made an error in judgment.  He accused someone who may or may not be guilty of setting him up.  But was it really the mysterious woman?  Obviously EVERY woman loves James Bond, so how could she possibly do an evil deed against him?

These are the kind of plot devices that keep readers coming back.  It's not enough to know the woman in James Bond has a secret past involving an unmentionable man.  Sure, that's a secret she wants to keep.  But what they don't tell us is that the unmentionable man is unmentionable because he isn't part of the past.  He's part of the present, and he's part of the reason she is involved with James to begin with.  But who thought she'd fall in love with a womanizing cad like James Bond?  So while she's been sacrificing to spare the life of her unmentionable man, she's shifted her attention to James and now she's really in a pickle.

So there you have it, a subplot for Casino Royale and a reminder that in every story, the characters have to have something at stake - something that alters their normal behavior and can be their downfall if discovered.  And, piggybacking on my last post, this is where that annoying, brainless secondary character can help you out.  (I'm exaggerating to make a point, so don't anyone think I'm being nasty to the people that aggravated me last week.)  Witless secondary characters can stir up a big pot of mess for people with secrets, not to mention how annoying they can be! {rubbing hands together with an evil grin}  Doesn't that sound yummy?

Ok, folks.  Back to creative writing.  I have a story to finish! 

Anon

"That Person's Life Would Make for a Great Book!"

Have you ever had a friend come up to you, rolling their eyes, and saying, "that person's life would make a great book!"?  Excuse me folks, I'm going on a rant this week.

I had such a moment (not for the first time) this week.  The problem with that is that the person in question is usually not a strong character.  The reason you would NOT want to write a book about their trials and tribulations is that they can't deal with them, or don't want to deal with them.  Backing up - maybe that's a little bit harsh.  Let me explain myself.

I've had several experiences for the record book this week.  Let's start with #1.  I taught a class, at the request of the students.  During that class, there was one person who stopped learning.  She took her hands off the keyboard, crossed her arms and leaned over the shoulder of the woman beside her.  I asked if she needed help.  "No, that's okay.  I'll just watch."  Pardon me, but didn't I just give up a couple hours out of my day to help you?  and now you're saying you don't want to learn after all?  I'm going to leave that story right there because if I continue on, I'm going to get myself into trouble.  Suffice it to say I was not happy.

Let's move on to person #2.  The Excuse Queen.  The kind of person who doesn't take responsibility for herself, there's always some reason why she can't fit in and do the same things everyone else does.  Again, I don't want to go into great details here, but I'm sure we all know someone like this.  Someone who can't get to work on time because they're too tired?  Forget about the trials the people next to you are going through, it's all about you.  The fact that other people can manage to get to work on time and even early, despite greater obstacles, doesn't matter.  (That's the minor complaint, folks.)  This person believes their life is so difficult (and I'm sure, for her, it is).  Hey.  I've been there.  I've lived through difficult days where I wasn't sure I was going to make it.  The difference is that I didn't walk around telling everyone I met about my woes.  I got help.  So this person?  The one that people tell me I should write her life story because it's one thing after another?  Here's my take on this one, individual circumstance.  She would make a poor heroine in a story because, for starters, she can't seem to help herself.  Heroines have to be strong, even if they don't know they're strong.  The obstacles this woman has to overcome in her life ("I'm just so worn out!") are not insurmountable obstacles.  They are barriers she's created in her own mind and barriers she invents to use for excuses.  (Is my lack of sympathy/tolerance showing yet?)

Okay, to play fair (like I said, it has been one of those weeks), there are people that seem to have a black cloud hanging over them.  These are people that have REAL problems, not your everyday variety.  Those people I've read books about.  One comes to mind - and it has been a number of years so I've forgotten the title - about a bank clerk who is accused of theft.  She's a straight-laced. law abiding citizen so her life gets turned upside down by this false accusation.  Through the story she fights to prove her innocence, but the twist to the story is that in the process, she hooks up with and becomes a jewel thief.  I cried for the first three chapters of this book for the wrongly accused woman, and in spite of her turn to crime, you cheered for her by the end.  Her morals remained intact (the jewel thief part was more like Robin Hood). 

When someone's turmoil is out of their control, I'm completely sympathetic and yes, those people just might make a good story.  But the folks that are usually recommended for a story (you can't make that kind of stuff up!) are usually people that have created their owns problems and not the victims of circumstance.

Ok, enough with my rant for the day and my opinions on "people you should write about."  Thanks to my friends for their recommendations, but for some of these folks, the best I can do with these "poor, helpless" people is a supporting character role where they don't have to be strong.

Relearning old lessons

I have trouble writing villains.  Blame it on my parents.  I'm too nice.

I'm at a turning point in my story where I'm struggling with making my villain really bad.  It's pretty easy to have him do something evil, then have my hero show up to save the day.  But it's too easy.  Part of plotting is conflict and turning points.  Fortunately, I had a lot of rewriting prior to this critical point in the story which kept me involved while I sorted through black moments and turning points.  But when I finished the rewriting, or at least as much as I had planned until I'm done with everything, I was still struggling. So I pulled out some old writing magazines - I called it cleaning house - and went out on the deck on a sunny afternoon to read through them for articles I might want to save (that's why I didn't throw them away in the first place, right?).

Wouldn't you know it?  I found an article on just this problem - something about "saggy middles."  It talks about the middle part of your story where you lose focus or lose motivation and while you're busy rushing through the conflicts, you still have 100 pages or more to write.  It's helpful to revisit these lessons, and particularly at such crucial times!  Suddenly, I had a clearer picture of where I was going.  Okay, let the hero find her, but what if she doesn't want to be found?  Or what if the villain allowed the hero to find her for a darker purpose?  Immediately I went to my PC and started writing the rest of my story arc, the villanous side that so often eludes me.  I knew who the bad guys were, I knew what I wanted them to do.  The problem I was having was the why and the outcome and what's the worst that could happen?  It was all too simple until I remembered to throw in a couple of impossible twists for the characters to work through, even if the hero was able to rescue the heroine quickly.

Yes, I recycled a bunch of my old writing magazines, but I also rescued some of the articles that resonate or remind me of points to remember when I'm plotting.  Even after hours in a classroom or with my nose in books, some lessons have to be refreshed regularly.  This is the benefit of subscribing to market related magazines.

I work for a company during the day where "professionals" are required to complete "continuing education" on an annual basis.  This is to educate them on changes in the industry and to refresh lessons already learned.  The same principle can be applied to any vocation and was clearly demonstrated to me again today.  For writers, continuing education most often comes in the form of conferences and trade magazines.

Important lessons to remember:  1) Writing is rewriting and 2) Learning is an ongoing process. 

Gotta go - I have villains to write about!

Serendipity

I'm sure I've blogged with this same title before, but here we go again.

I'm on a writing vacation this week.  Not a week AWAY from writing, a week OF writing.  I'd really like to get this first draft down, and the more dedicated time I can spend with it, the sooner I can finish.  Making good progress - pleased, overall - and here's that serendipitous moment that cemented my belief that this was a good move on my part.

Have you ever seen the Northern Lights?  Aurora Borealis?  (Is this a weird question?)  I live near Chicago.  Big city, bright lights = light pollution.  The Northern Lights don't happen here.  For starters, it's too far south, and then there's the whole light pollution thing.  But one time, driving to Minnesota to visit my sister, along a cloudy highway at night, I could see flashes of color between the dark clouds that tried to hide them from me.  A small glimpse, but a glimpse all the same.

In the story I'm writing now, I pulled from that minor experience and expanded on it.  My hero has a flash that reminds him of the Northern Lights.  I've given him the requisite background to have had that opportunity.  I wrote that chapter last week.  Last night, the news was all about solar flairs and a solar tsunami that was triggering the Aurora Borealis as far south as Illinois and Ohio.  Go figure!  So last night, I went out to my back yard in the dark and stared up at a clear, starry sky, looking for the waves of color.  It might be useful to point out that we are between storms that have been dropping several inches of rain at a time, so this is a window that I was not expecting to have.  But there it was.  A clear, starry night, and with it, flashes.  Not waves of color like I'd been expecting to see - I'm in Illinois, after all, but flashes of light like lightning in a clear sky.  Maybe if I had stayed out longer I might have found some color, after the neighbors turned out their lights and went to bed, after the world went to sleep, but somehow, with streetlights and city lights nearby and living on the far edges of the range of this magnificent phenomenon, I'm thinking that might have been wishing for too much.  All the same, what are the odds that I'd write about the Northern Lights (in the first place) and that they'd choose this exact time to manifest themselves IN ILLINOIS (in the second place)?

Karma?  Coincidence?  They tell you coincidences should be limited in your writing since it stretches that line between belief and disbelief, but when life jumps in and throws a coincidence like this at you, do you discount it all and say "nah, I don't buy it"?  Not me.  I prefer to view it as divine intervention.  Maybe I've already gushed on my blog about how excited I am about the story I'm writing right now.  I'm slogging through the hard parts that make it work instead of fun, but I'm loving the story just the same.  To see just this small part of it happen in real life, for me, acts as reinforcement that this is a story worth writing and somewhere, somehow, someone is validating my decision to write it.  (Thanks, God!)

So now, if you'll excuse me, I have a story to write!  That's why I'm on vacation, after all!