Staying Fresh as a Writer...

...means writing until you are terrified. It means writing when you have something to say. It means writing with tears streaming, or your teeth clenched, or your door closed, or with no worried glances at the phone from your Great Aunt Muriel to complain.

It means finding the truth, and rewriting until it's right, and most importantly it means knowing your hero or the people your hero loves can die at any point.

I just read this post from Maggie Stiefvater called Why We Love Writers Who Treat Us Bad.

I was musing today that the old saying that women love guys who treat them badly holds true for authors too. 
Before you start to snort and through your lattes at the screen, bear with me here. I started thinking about it this weekend because of the response that BREAKING DAWN is inspiring amongst readers. For those of you who live under rocks, BREAKING DAWN is the fourth installment in Stephenie Meyer's YA vampire saga. Even if you don't read them, you oughtta know what they are. Anyway. I have not read the 600 page beast which just came out this weekend, but I have read the hundreds of reviews which have appeared on Amazon and on blogs. The upshot is this: in the final book of the saga, Stephenie Meyer gives readers everything they could've possibly wanted for the protagonists. A happy marriage, a healthy baby, everyone's in love, no one dies, and they get to stay in town because the main character's dad is cool with his daughter being a vampire (I warned you there were spoilers).
And the readers hate her for it. I mean, the reviews could peel paint. These people are not just unhappy, they are out for blood. But why? They got everything they wanted, right? Everything is perfect! Every thread is tied up! Everything that every reader has ever lusted after for those characters was granted.
But we don't want that, do we? Nay, as readers, we want the author who won't call us in a timely manner after that first date, who makes us pay for lunch, and who makes eyes at our best friend. Let's compare the Breaking Dawn reaction with J. K. Rowling's series. She kills Dumbledore. She kills one of the Weasley twins. She kills Sirius. There are bodies flying left and right. Nobody gets what they want. But at the end of the day, there are no legions of fans shouting that J. K. has ruined the series. They moan "why did Sirius have to die!?" but not "what was she thinking when she killed him?"
Or how about my favorite movie trilogy ever, the Bourne movies? (sorry, Robert Ludlum, I haven't read them, only watched 'em). In the first twenty minutes of the second movie, they off Jason Bourne's beloved love slave in a ruthless and expedient matter. Do we scream and throw the remote? Nah, we rend our clothes a little and say "poor Jason, come to my house, I'll comfort you" and then we watch the rest of the movie and the next one back to back and we love them.

We don't want authors to treat us well. We hate 'em when they do. Complain as we might about a beloved character dying, hell hath no fury like a reader who actually gets what they think they want. 
Note to self: kill someone off in the next chapter of my WIP. 

K, now I want you to watch this video.

When you are done, watch a few seconds of this. It's the same group. The same song, and it's beautiful, but it's not the same.

This one is safe. The sound is clearer, but they are in a completely different location, and it's sung with far less passion and heartbreak. The story isn't as powerful, which means the music isn't as powerful. It's still fantastic, don't get me wrong, I love these guys, but to me, it illustrates the difference between writing with acoustics, and writing in a safe place.

The echoes from that church, man. Just brilliant.

Things only echo, if the walls are raised.

Write something that scares you. That's how you'll stay fresh.

~Sheena (and Maggie Stiefvater, and The Lone Bellow)

The Woman Who Spilled McDonalds Coffee and the Power of the Media

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before, but I am a Simpsons fan.  Well, a Simpsons fan of their first eight seasons.  I haven't watched the show in years, and I'm not even sure if they are still on the air, but the first eight seasons were pure gold.   

There was an episode in season six called Homer badman where Homer is wrongfully accused of sexual harassment of a baby sitter.  The episode is hilarious, and I highly recommend watching it.  It is as relevant today as it was when it was aired about 20 years ago.  The episode parodied how media could demonize a person by the way it spins a story.  Media tells stories, and sometimes real people are cast as the antagonist when real life is never that simple.

I remember when the news broke about a woman who spilled McDonalds coffee on her lap and sued McDonalds and won millions of dollars.  The whole thing was so ridiculous because everyone knows coffee is hot.  If you spill coffee, of course you are going to get burned.  How is that McDonalds' fault?  The way the facts were presented made this story a poster child for frivolous lawsuits with immoral lawyers and their greedy clients winning the jackpot.

Jokes about this woman were everywhere on television, especially on the late night circuit.  Seinfeld (another show I love) even made a parody out of it with Kramer spilling coffee on himself while smuggling it into a movie.   This woman and her pain was turned into a joke.

But that was the story the media presented, and I never questioned it until I saw this link on facebook.

 

 

I'm assuming you watched the clip (and if you haven't, seriously watch it), but in case you still refuse, here is a recap.

 

 

1.  McDonalds coffee wasn't just hot it was dangerously hot (180 to 190 degrees F), well above the coffee pot temperature of 150 degrees F.  At this temperature third degree burns occur in a matter of seconds.  Third degree burns are really serious.  I think most people have only experience first and second degree burns.  A second degree burn from coffee wouldn't be that big of a deal, but a third degree burn is a different story.

 

2.  McDonalds knew their coffee was too hot.  Hundreds of other people had gotten serious burns from McDonalds coffee before, and it had been previously been suggested that McDonalds should turn down the temperature to prevent something like this from happening.

 

 I'm not saying that Stella Liebeck should've won a million dollar settlement (although she didn't exactly get millions of dollars), but only that she had a reasonable case against McDonalds, and it was not the frivolous lawsuit that was portrayed in the media.  She certainly was not a villain.

 

 

It is amazing to me the power of the media has to write people's stories, and what they include or more important don't include can paint anyone as a protagonist or a villain depending on which way they want to slant the story. I think this has only gotten worse with the internet where information or misinformation can travel faster than ever and very, very few people do any sort of fact checking before they spread the gossip. 

 

 

I read this article recently that Stephenie Meyer said she is over Twilight.  She explained her reasons here (Aug 14, 2013 entry) more clearly in her official blog.  Here is a quote from that post.

 

 

"Even those of you who love Twilight the most (in fact, especially those who love it the most) have probably noticed that there's been just a teensy little bit of backlash following the success of the books and films. I try my hardest to be thick-skinned, but I'm not much better at that than I am at brevity. So when I speak of Twilight becoming a negative place for me, it is entirely that near-omnipresent Twilight antipathy that I am speaking of. And I'm not complaining or saying it's unfair—I totally understand and even empathize with its existence. I'm just saying that Twilight isn't the wholly positive place for me that it once was."

I think she is under-playing that backlash.  At least on the internet, Twilight bashing is pretty big.  Twilight has become synonymous with bad writing and controlling stalker love-interests when there are a lot of books with much worse writing and way more controlling stalker-ish heroes. 

In some ways Twilight has been vilified by the internet in the way that Liebeck was vilified by the media.  Criticisms of Twilight that suggest the story is misogynistic and/or dangerous for impressionable teens usually pick and choose parts that support their position and largely ignore the parts of the books that don't.  I'm not saying that some of these critics don't make some very good points, only that the criticisms are uneven and in many cases over-exaggerated.  I don't think it really is so much worse than hundreds or even thousands of other books.  But Twilight has become the poster child for bad YA books like Stella Liebeck has become the poster child for frivolous lawsuits.

I know that writers need to be thick skinned, but I understand why Stephenie is over Twilight.  No matter how thick skinned you are being the butt of a million jokes is always going to get tiresome.

~MaryAnn







Make Them Suffer

Yes I know this isn't Skyfall.

I saw the latest James Bond movie Skyfall over the weekend.  I liked it.  My husband is a big James Bond fan in general and I’ve seen a lot (not quite all) of the James Bond movies.  Daniel Craig is by far my favorite James Bond, and these last three movies have been eons better than the previous ones, and I think the big difference, why they work for so well for me, is how much the movie makes James Bond suffer.

I’m not going to give anything away since I know the movie just came out, but if you’ve seen Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace you know what I mean.  These writers aren’t afraid to make Bond suffer emotionally and physically.  Every movie puts Bond through a wringer.

I feel kind of bad that I like to see characters suffer almost like I’m a little sadistic, but honestly, I think making the characters suffer ups the stakes, it makes you feel that they have a lot to lose and that success isn’t a given, in fact, it is almost impossible, and that ratchets of the tension while making the hero feel vulnerable, more relatable.  And that is what I personally like in a story.

Leverage

I started watching Leverage a TV series when it first came out.  And I thought it was really clever.  It was about a team of ex-thieves and ex-con artists conning bad thieves and bad con artists who are ripping off innocent people.  Of course the noble team gives most of the money back to the original victims of the bad guys and keeps only a small percentage for themselves.  It’s kind of a modern day Robin Hood and his merry men.

 I’ve always loved a good heist flick, so I was pretty excited about this show.  And really it had everything I like in a good story, interesting and fun characters with a lot of clever dialogue and twists with great character-character dynamics, and I’m sure that there are a ton of people who love this show (and I do understand why), but I gave up on the show after four or five episodes, and it took me a while to figure out why this show didn’t work for me.

In every episode that I watched there was a point when their mark was on to them, and it looked like their whole scam was unraveling, but in the end, it was always revealed that they had planned the whole thing, that the mark catching on was just part of the con.  It was really clever how everything came together and how they tricked the bad guys, but it go really old really fast for me.

I realized the show didn't work because there was a the lack of stakes.  The team never really suffered or struggled.  They were always better, smarter, one step ahead of everyone else, and while it was cool that they were so awesome, but it also made them less interesting, less real, less human.  And while it is fun to watch a group of criminal geniuses pull off a clever con, it is more fun to watch that clever con fall apart completely and leave the team scrambling and struggling to pull the pieces together and somehow managing to regroup and pull off an even cleverer scheme, like in the movie The Italian Job.

Elena vs. Bella

Just because Breaking Dawn was recently released and I haven’t blogged about Twilight in at least a couple of months, I feel the need to mention Breaking Dawn.  I’ve blogged before on how I felt about Bella’s transition into a vampire was too easy (you can read it here), but the recent episodes of Vampire Diaries have made me think about this a little more (WARNING:  massive spoilers for both Breaking Dawn and Vampire Diaries).

This season in Vampire Diaries, the main character, Elena, has just turned into a vampire.  There are a lot of parallels between Elena and Bella since they are both human girls who fall in love with a vampire (or vampires in Elena case), but unlike Bella, Elena never wanted to be a vampire.  More than anything, she wanted to remain human.  Even in times where her problems would be solved if someone just turned her, she always chose the harder path of staying human.  So she wasn’t happy at all about being turned.

In the past several episodes, Elena has struggled immensely with being a vampire.  She can’t keep down animal blood and has to drink human.  Enjoys drinking blood a little too much, and almost killed her human friend who was a willing donor.  She struggles between that predator vampire side and her overly compassionate human nature.  Even though she is super strong and wicked fast and will be young forever, the down side of drinking blood and nearly killing people is torturing her.  And for additional angst, her vampire boyfriend, Steffen, is having a hard time adjusting to the new Elena because he’s struggled immensely trying to keep those murderous urges in check and seeing those aspects of himself that he loathes in Elena has put a strain in their relationship.  This all translates into lots of tension and conflict, and I think it makes for a very compelling story, and I’m really enjoying this season.

Honestly, this is where I thought Breaking Dawn was going.  There was all of this build up about how hard it was to become a fledgling vampire, and I really thought Breaking Dawn would focus on Bella struggling to adapt to be a vampire and maybe even some conflict between Bella and Edward because of how becoming a vampire changed her.  It felt like a natural place for the story to go, and I was disappointed that Bella had no struggles at all in becoming a vampire.  I thought it was a missed opportunity for lots of great internal conflict that would have enhanced the tension of the story.

I just think that there is something about seeing a person or character suffering that makes us empathize and care more about that them.  Although, I do think that there is a limit.  You shouldn’t go out of your way to make your character’s suffer.  That can feel just as false as going out of your way to protect your characters.  Also, it can be emotionally exhausting for the reader when everything goes wrong and the character loses everything.  Like in all aspects of writing, there needs to be a balance.  I’ve heard the saying that a writer should essentially chase the character up a tree and then throw rocks at him, and I’d like to add that maybe the writer shouldn’t go a step further and burn the tree down.  There is a limit to making your characters suffer, but you should make them suffer.

~MaryAnn

The Dreaded Mary Sue

Both Spock and Kirk had the hots for Mary Sue

The term Mary Sue was inspired by Star Trek fan fiction where original female characters were being introduced into the Star Trek universe who were young, beautiful, talented and loved or envied by all.  They were believed to be author inserts, a way for the writer to interact with their beloved series and its characters.

When these stories were shared, other fans of the show hated them.  They didn’t like their favorite Star Trek characters fawning over and being shown up by some annoyingly perfect new character.  Since then, the term has moved to other fan fiction universes and to original fiction.  It now describes any character that appears to be an author insert or one that seems to be loved too much and protected by the author.

How do you know you’ve created a Mary Sue?

There is plenty of vitriol for Mary Sues on every writing board and tests to see if you have indeed created the abomination (like this one and this one and this one). The fear of creating a Mary Sue often keeps aspiring writers up late at night, making them fight their urges to give a character unique or good looks, question if their character should really be the chosen one or a half-breed or exceptionally talented in any way, and clutch their manuscript tightly before handing it over to a beta reader while repeatedly stating that the main character may be a little bit of a Mary Sue.

The thing is that the term Mary Sue has been thrown around so much that it has little meaning.  Some people use it for any character they do not like or any character that is larger than life.  But some stories, like epic fantasies, call for larger than life characters like Aragon, Rand (wheel of time), Harry Potter, etc., all of which have been labeled as Gary Stues (the Mary Sue male counter-part).  They do have many of the characteristics cautioned by the Mary Sue litmus tests, but they also fit the story being told.  

But Mary Sue is a real problem because readers usually dislike her/him.  A real Mary Sue can undermine the story and alienate readers, but it is hard to determine if your character is just larger than life and works in the story or has truly passed into Mary or Gary Suedom.

I don’t think it is the character that is causing the problem in original fiction (fan fiction is another story), but how the other characters and the world treat that character.  Your MC can be the chosen one or a hidden heir or exceptionally gifted in some way as long as every other character doesn’t fawn over him/her or be secretly in love with him/her or be constantly in awe of him/her, and as long as the world where the story takes place doesn’t bend over backwards to accommodate him/her.

How to avoid a Mary Sue

Bella from Twilight is often referred to as a Mary Sue, and I’m not saying that she is, only that I can see why people see her this way.  I’m going to use her as an example because most people have read Twilight or seen the movies or at least have heard about it.  I could use Harry Potter as an example, but honestly, I really don’t see how he fits (other than being the chosen one).  But then I’m a true, devoted Harry Potter fan, and J. K. Rowling can do no wrong.  :)

Bella, as she describes herself, is pale and clumsy, rather shy and socially awkward.  She has little interests and never mentions missing any friends from Phoenix (I’m guessing she didn’t have any).  Honestly she doesn’t sound like a Mary Sue type character at all.  There is little that is special about her, at least initially (that does change). 

WARNING:  massive spoilers.

How the other characters react.

When Bella moves to Forks, the whole town is a buzz about her.  I get it, she’s the sheriff’s daughter and new in town and Forks is really small, but that newness is going to wear off really fast especially when she gives everyone the cold shoulder.  Instead, Bella is asked to some dance by three different guys (none of them are Edward or Jacob).  I know Forks is a small town, and the local boys are excited to have someone new to date, but unless she’s some smoking hot goddess (which she isn’t) or very outgoing and flirtatious (which she’s clearly not) the boys are going to lose interest fast.

But it doesn’t stop there.  All the vampires except Rosalie (who seems jealous of her), love her and accept her into the family.  The werewolf pack easily accepts her too even though she had dated the enemy vampire.  These two powerful supernatural forces join together and risk their lives to protect her.  It really feels like every character in the whole Forks universe seems to revolve around her.

Why is this annoying?  When the world seems to revolve around one person, it makes that person appear selfish, conceited, and self-absorbed even if they aren’t.  It also is unrealistic.  In real life, everyone has their own problems and issues to deal with.  While people care about others, they can’t devote their lives to solving other people’s problems.  In a book when it feels like the supporting characters’ only concern is for the main character (MC), it makes the supporting cast feel shallow and undeveloped  (I’m not saying this happened in Twilight, just that it can happen when the focus is too much on the MC).  When all the characters seem to only care about one character, that character feels like a Mary Sue.

How to avoid this.  I think this is tough because your plot should focus on the main character.  After all, it is his/her story you are telling.  Sub-plots are great, but they need to be connected somehow or they feel distracting.  I’m not for adding scenes just to prove that the MC isn’t the center of everything.  I think this needs to be done more subtly. 

Give the illusion that there is a world beyond the MC, filled with people who don’t know or don’t care about the MC.  For example, if the boys at Forks high school seemed to ignore Bella after the first day and go on with their lives after she clearly so demonstrated she wasn’t interested, it would at least have shown that Bella wasn’t the center of her group of high school friends.  Also secondary characters need their own motivations for helping out the MC.  Everyone can’t just do it because they love her/him.   They all need realistic motives for risking their lives.

A world that accommodates the main character

An important part of every plot is forcing the MC to make some hard decisions.  Bella does make some tough choices throughout the Twilight Saga.  She chooses Edward over Jacob.  She chooses to become a vampire, to carry the half-vampire baby, to get married out of high school, to stay and fight the Volturi.  When she makes these choices they all have serious consequences or risks, but Meyers seems to protect Bella and doesn’t make her suffer any of the long term consequences.  In the end, Bella gets everything she wants without losing anything.

Bella chooses Edward but in the long run, she doesn’t lose or even hurt Jacob because he imprints on her daughter.  Thus, Bella gets to be with Edward, keeps Jacob as her friend and future son-in-law, and no one is really hurt by her choice.

She chooses to carry a half-vampire baby.  The half-vampire baby could be a monster.  The werewolves fear it and want to kill it, and Jacob even breaks away from his pack to protect Bella.  The baby grows too fast and sucks all the life from Bella threatening to take her life.  All of the vampires except Rosalie, who now loves Bella, want Bella to abort the baby.  But everything works out perfectly.  Bella survives and becomes a vampire which was what she wanted anyway.   Jacob imprints on her daughter so the werewolf pack no longer sees the half-vampire baby as a threat and are now willing to protect it.  And all the vampires are just thrilled to have two new members of their family.  There is no fall-out at all about her making this decision.

Bella chooses to become a vampire.  There is a huge lead up to this decision.  In Eclipse, we see what new vampires are like.  Strong, blood thirsty, with no self-control.  Bella is told that if she becomes a vampire, she cannot have children, she will never be able to see Charlie or her mother again, and she will spend a few years blood thirsty and murderous until she learns to control herself.  Also by turning her into a vampire the Cullen clan will null the treaty they have with the werewolves and have to leave Forks forever. It is a big sacrifice, but she is willing to do it to be with Edward. 

Only she doesn’t suffer any of those consequences.  Bella has perfect self-control from day one.  In one day, she manages to control those urges that Jasper still struggles with.  Before becoming a vampire, Edward gets her pregnant, and although she nearly gives her life to have the baby, she still gets her baby.  Since Jacob has imprinted on Bella’s daughter, the werewolves will no longer attack the Cullen clan.  They have kind of joined with each other as one big happy werewolf-vampire family.  And furthermore, Jacob lets her secret slip to Charlie, who is fine with it.  So Bella gets to be a beautiful, graceful vampire without any of the nasty urges to murder.  She gets the gorgeous husband, a baby, and doesn’t have to leave Forks or her father.  I’m guessing at some point in the future, Bella will visit her mother who will be fine with everything as well.  In the end, Bella gets everything she wants. 

I could go on, but this is getting rather lengthy.  The point is that Meyer sets up some hard decisions, and Bella makes them expecting to face the consequences for those choices, but through plotting and world-building, Meyer makes sure everything works out perfectly for Bella.   This makes Bella feel like a Mary Sue.  I’m not saying she should suffer from all of these consequences, it is okay for some things to work out, but she never suffers the consequences of any of her decisions ever, at least not long term. 

Why this is annoying.  In real life, unless you are evil, when you see someone suffering, you feel sympathy towards them.  When you see someone who seems to get whatever they want without any difficulty or sacrifice, you tend to feel envious or annoyed or at least unsympathetic to the person, especially if they whine about how hard their life is.  It is no different for characters in a story.  Characters who never really have to suffer for anything are annoying.

How to avoid this.  Main characters need to make tough choices, but the author cannot protect the characters from every consequence.  Sure it is okay for things to work out once and a while, but if it happens every time, if the character seems to get everything they want without paying any sort of price, some readers will get annoyed and cry out Mary Sue.  

Make your characters suffer the natural consequences of their actions at least some of the time.  Remember, you are not your character’s parent.  :)

So go ahead and make your character special or larger than life or even beautiful, but remember, the story may be theirs, but the world you create and the characters in that world do not revolve around your character.   If you build a world to challenge not to reward your MC and fill that world with characters who have their own problems and goals, I think you will be able to avoid creating the dreaded Mary Sue.

~MaryAnn

Living in Twilight

DH and I spent this past weekend in Forks.
Unfortunately, it was 80 and sunny so we missed all the vampires lurking about as we hiked through the woods. We drove past the high school and didn't see any remotely pale and sparkly people (okay, I lie, there were plenty of pale people, just not quite that pale). We even made it out to La Push and got our picture taken at the treaty line between the vampires and the werewolves (yes, there is actually a road sign).

I'll admit, I'm not a huge Twilight fan. And we didn't come as pilgrims to this land of dark romance. We came on a scouting expedition.* We might have snickered a time or two at the tour buses making their rounds to various 'real and true' Twilight destinations. And once we definitely guffawed as a battered truck with a pit bull in the back passed us on the road. Over the tail gate was painted 'Twilight Sucks'.

But for this sleepy town with a population of <4000, Stephenie Meyers has accomplished something no one else ever could have; she brought this area to life. Even more, she brought her story to 'real and true' life. Almost every other store is named 'Twilight Something-or-Another'. Even the grocery story has its own Twilight section cordoned off (I almost chose the Bella Burger and the local burger joint). I don't think I can think of another book that's done to a town what Twilight has done to Forks.

And it's funny (even if I'm not a huge fan), how much of the books I remembered as we drove and hiked around. I listened to the birds, and twisted my ankles on the rocks and thought fleetingly of Bella and Edward in the forest. I smelled the salt of the ocean and felt the pounding of the waves and maybe just a little remembered that one scene where Bella almost got herself killed - again. And I was going to use this as a segue to worldbuilding, but I'm kind of losing my train of thought, and MaryAnn did such and excellent job (strange how the Proser's brains have been working the same direction so often these days, isn't it?), and I'll admit, I'm really, really tired.

photo by Bryan Bell

So, let me just say, creating the setting of a realistic world can be tough. If you can get out and physically experience a place similar to what you're writing, you will find little bits of inspiration that will come in no other way. Like the gnarled root I tripped over that looked like a goblin's face erupting from the ground (yes, it was creepy even in the daylight). Or the secluded beach we hiked to and the persistent warning that buzzed in the back of my head, because if we didn't get back to the trailhead in time we'd be trapped against the cliffs with the incoming tide. Oh, yeah, and don't forget to read the historical markers - did you know that the hot springs around Sol Duc were caused by two fighting dragons? They tore each others hides and the skin fell down as lichens over the forest, and when neither could prevail they sank into the earth to weep bitter, hot tears. Or so says the Native American legend - what an awesome story idea!

If you can't get out and experience a setting in person, though, Google is your best friend. Even Stephenie Meyer didn't really visit Forks when she wrote Twilight. Here's from her website:

For my setting, I knew I needed someplace ridiculously rainy. I turned to Google, as I do for all my research needs, and looked for the place with the most rainfall in the U.S. This turned out to be the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. I pulled up maps of the area and studied them, looking for something small, out of the way, surrounded by forest... And there, right where I wanted it to be, was a tiny town called "Forks." It couldn't have been more perfect if I had named it myself. I did a Google image search on the area, and if the name hadn't sold me, the gorgeous photographs would have done the trick. (Images like these of the Hoh Rainforest (a short drive from Forks). Also see forks-web.com ). In researching Forks, I discovered the La Push Reservation, home to the Quileute Tribe. The Quileute story is fascinating, and a few fictional members of the tribe quickly became intrinsic to my story.

Your other best friend might well be Netflix. I love the huge selection of National Geographic specials they have. And watching Ken Burns's National Parks series opened my eyes to so many beautiful landscapes - and not static ones, but ones that changed through the seasons and through time, and because of the people who visited there.

Take home point, then,  before I collapse into bed, dream and be wild with your worldbuilding. Be open to using all your senses and use all the tools available to make your setting amazing.

~Susan

*Every year my dh leads an intrepid group of a dozen+ boy scouts into the wild (last year it was to a rattlesnake infested desert). This year he thought he'd scout out the Olympic Peninsula. After hiking by the beautiful Sol Duc Falls and the Hoh Rainforest, I think he's finally settled on a 30 mile hike down the coastal beaches where he'll only have to keep the boys safe from riptides, high tides, rockfalls and raccoons. Sigh. I love my dh.

How the Red Cross Almost Killed Me

 And Jason Bourne Saved My Life

Or, in other words,

Happy Writing Birthday!

Lois Mcmaster Bujold, author of some of my favorite books including the Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls, began writing in her teens, petered out during college, but started up again when she found herself unemployed with two small children and a very tight budget.






Stephen King started his writing career young, with a homemade newspaper, and never stopped creating.

Stephanie Meyer had only dabbled in unrelated chapters and hadn't written a word for six years before she had the dream that was to become Twilight. The first book of the series was completed three months later.






We all have a story of how we started writing. Whether you can't remember a time when ideas didn't flow through you, or if something triggered the itch to write more recently, these personal narratives are as unique as we are.

My second writing birthday has just passed (or rewriting birthday as you'll soon see). I thought I'd share my convoluted tale that finally brought me to the point where I can say 'Why yes, I am a writer' without cringing too much.

I'd love to hear your stories in the comments.

My mom and dad refused to allow a tv into the house until I was eight, and then it was only grudgingly accepted as a gift from my grandparents who were shipping off to Tonga as missionaries for two years and wouldn't need it. During those first eight years of my life, without the Flinstones or Scooby Doo or HR Pufnstuf to keep me company, what else was there to do but read and climb trees and imagine?

Writing was the natural by-product.

Recently my mom gave me a file cabinet full of my school age writing. It's been fun to go back and see a younger me that I can barely remember. Here's a taste, the first 13 of a story called Watch Over that I wrote when I was sixteen. Riahd might be heir to the watch tower of Tolderan, but he and his father have never seen eye to eye. After staying away two years, he returns to his home only to find that the aggressive and expansionist Kole (think Ghengis Kahn) has captured the tower, overridden the land and destroyed his family. Disguised, he infiltrates the tower to seek revenge, but finds that things are more complicated and convoluted than he had ever imagined.

The sun rose in full splendor, burning off the night sent mists and promising a clear hunt. Golden rays gilded the autumn touched treetops and sent the granite stones of Tolderan tower shimmering in the early light. The tower rose from a glade like an ancient tree reaching far above the forest heights. Its iron gates alone could easily admit twelve horses abreast and over fifty could be kept inside with ample room for grain and supplies. The thin slit windows kept endless watch over the forested border between Thol and Sheris.

A solitary rider stood silently at the edge of the glade. He shaded his eyes and stared toward the banner flapping idly in the morning breeze. A raven glared back defiantly against a blood red background. The man swore and slammed his fist on the saddle's pommel.

 By today's standards it's purple prose-ish, probably doesn't intro the main character soon enough, but you know what, I'm still kinda proud of that 16 year old girl.

If only I'd kept writing.

But two years later I left for college, and for some reason I thought I needed to leave 'childish' things behind. I went into the sciences. I didn't write creatively again and hardly picked up a book for the next two decades. Looking back I just think, what the heck was wrong with me???

Well, fast forward those two decades and I was laid out on a gurney in my church's gymnasium donating blood. I think they took too much because I almost fainted, barely drove home, curled in bed cold as ice and shaking (isn't that shock or something?) and stayed like that for days. I couldn't do anything, so I picked up my husband's copy of The Bourne Identity. And the two sequels, and anything else I could get my hands on. Six huge books and three days later, and something snapped or rewired or something in my brain. Ideas started flowing and I started scribbling on any available paper. It was literally a light bulb being turned on. Do you think there's something to the medieval practice of blood-letting after all?

 I'm so thankful for a patient husband and kids, because I'm not the same person I was two years ago, at all. But I do feel more like 'me', if that makes any sense. Like a piece of me has been restored, adding a little more balance to my unbalanced life. As frustrating and gut wrenching as getting the right words on the page can be to me, I'm so grateful for having a second chance at writing. And I'm thankful for this awesome community of Prosers.

                                So, have some birthday cake, 

                                                                     and tell me, 

                                                                                      what's your writing story?

~ Susan

On Writing Betrayal: Friends & Lovers

Et Tu, Brute?

Ah, so my day to post, sadly, does not come on the Ides of March, but I cannot resist taking this opportunity to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart.

Betrayal

Betrayal comes in so many flavors.

The enemy you thought was your friend: Who wasn't shocked - shocked, I say - when Mad Eye Moody, who had helped Harry Potter so much during the school year, revealed himself as Barty Crouch Jr., an agent of Voldemort?

Best friends who do bad things: Julius Caesar was willing to fight off an assassination attempt until he saw his best friend, Marcus Brutus, among his assailants. It broke his heart. "Et tu, Brute?"


Love Triangles: Everyone loses, including Camelot, when Guinevere and Lancelot can't control themselves.

But, but, but - what if, for some reason, Harry still had to work with Barty throughout the rest of the series even after all he'd done? What is Julius survived and got a chance to meet with his best friend, Marcus? What if Camelot didn't have to fall, and Art & Gwen & Lance had to work things out (and found a way to)?

What happens if the betrayal isn't the end of the story but the middle?

The heart of my current WIP is betrayal. Here's the very short blurb on it (aren't they the worst to try to do well?)
 

Hunted by Queens and Barons, and hidden away behind walls and silence by a desperate mother, an Heiress of the Sea chooses her new servant, Dyln, to trust.

She chose wrong.

Dyln knew he would lie to Pearl, steal her away, and betray her to her enemies. He just didn't expect to fall in love with her first.

I've almost shelved this story more times than you can imagine.

Twilight gets a lot of flak because of the 'Edward the Stalker' factor. And just as disturbing,  Bella's acquiescence, even enjoyment of it. As I plunked down words on this story, I couldn't help but think, "Dyln's behavior is so much worse than anything Edward ever did to Bella."

Is it even possible to write a story with a romantic element where one character betrays the other so completely? The Prosers came to my rescue in my darkest hour with some excellent advice. The thing that seems to matter most is not just the act of betrayal itself, but the brutally honest portrayal of the consequences of that action and the reactions of all the characters involved.

Here are a few more things to consider:

Fiction is Real Life made Bigger

People read fiction for a lot of reasons. Exploring dangerous. terrifying situations from the comfort of an easy chair (with a cup of hot cocoa and a fuzzy blanket) is just one of the perks. Fiction can be an ideal medium to examine painful, difficult issues. Betrayal is very real. Who hasn't had a secret splashed all over school or work even though you only told your best friend and swore her to secrecy? And, equally, who hasn't also betrayed someone's confidences at least once? By conflating mundane betrayals (no matter how painful they are) into the life-and-death, save-the-world conflicts of novels, readers can think about all sides of an issue in an environment that isn't quite so close to the heart.


Make Everybody a Sympathetic Character

Okay, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for Barty Crouch Jr. Sure he had a bad dad, but he's an evil psycho who never really had any other intention but to feed Harry to Voldemort. Marcus Brutus, though, that's another story. And Guinevere and Lancelot take it to a whole nother level. Gwen and Lance are complete characters, good and bad, imperfect, conflicted. Betrayal is most realistic when a reader can sympathize with all the characters involved.

Good Motivations = Bad Actions

Barty Crouch Jr. gets his, Julius Caesar dies, Camelot is destroyed. But, if  a large portion of the story is the aftermath of betrayal, then the motivations of the characters becomes hugely important. In my WIP, from the very start Dyln has his reasons for deceiving Pearl (which, by the end, you might even agree with). After he realizes he loves Pearl, his motivations to deceive her change, BUT his actions don't.

After a betrayal comes to light, it's then that the characters must each grapple with those motivations and reasons (and excuses). And that, I think, is when the reader can put the most of themselves into a story. They can grapple a bit with their own experiences with personal betrayal. And that's why it's so important to... 
 


Keep the Characters Together

I recently became aware of a family feud that happened in the early 1900's. One part of the family wronged another member over some land. The injured party moved half a state away and never, ever spoke of his relations again. Descendents had no idea there was another side of the family until someone mentioned the incident in passing - 75 years later.

Surprising? Yes. A good story? No.

Most often in real life, people dealing with betrayal will still have to interact with each other. Kids in High School will still be in classes together. Sports and dances will necessitate unavoidable encounters, and don't even start on the gossip (employment works almost equally well in this scenario - is that sad?). As in real life, so in fiction: friends and lovers who betray each other shouldn't have the luxury of just checking out. Physical barriers (they're trapped together somehow) can keep them together, or an ideological reason (they must still defeat a greater evil, and they can only do it together), or some other circumstance. But they must be drawn back to each other again and again. The tension and hurt has to be worked out center stage before the reader.

Consequences

This is the part where I learned the most from the Prosers. Bad stuff happens. All the time. What matters is how the parties react to the bad stuff. Will Pearl just shed a few tears when she finds out what Dyln's done and say, "But Dyln is so dang hot, I just have to love him no matter what..." Hek no! Whether friends or lovers, if the betrayal is to be resolved, there must be consequences, and the consequences have to be equal to the crime.

For the Betrayer

In Sunday School when I was little I learned that repentance was a process. I was taught a cute mnemonic device to help me remember. It just so happens that I think these 6 R's of repentance are the very things I, as a reader, must see in a character if he's to have any chance of being redeemed in my eyes.

1. Recognize - until he realizes he's done something wrong, nothing will change.
2. Remorse - yeah, he'd better feel really, really bad.
3. Restitution - he has to try to make it better. Even if he's not successful, he's gotta try to fix it.
4. Reveal - confess to the person he betrayed face to face and be willing to take what's coming to him. (in church we were also taught, of course, to confess to God and ask forgiveness - so if there's some appropriate deity in a story, this could also be worked in)
5. Resolve - to never do it again. If he keeps up the same behavior it means he hasn't learned anything and his cred is shot with me.
6. Resolution and/or Rejoice - for the story to have closure there needs to be some level of resolution between then betrayer and betrayee (I just made that up), even if it isn't a perfect happy ending.

For the One Betrayed

Hurt is always going to be the first emotion in a betrayal, but after that I see two viable paths for the person who has been betrayed. Often these paths intertwine before the story ends as things get sorted out.

Revenge and hatred are the first option. How much of that natural hurt will be funneled into rage, and how that anger plays out depends in large part on the character. It can be a powerful source of tension, but ultimately, doesn't very often lead to a happily ever after.

Forgiveness or at least understanding is the second option. Things will never be the same again in the relationship (whether friends or lovers), but can a second path be forged by the two? Can understanding motivations, or having a heart softened by the repentance of the betrayer actually lead to a satisfactory relationship? It's tricky to make this believable to the reader, but I think more satisfying in the end.


An Example from Burn Notice

*If you haven't watched the Fourth Season, Don't Read This!*

Okay, a perfect example comes from the perennial Proser favorite, Burn Notice. In the fourth season, Michael is hot on the trail of some bad guys (motivation) when he accesses a counter-intelligence agent's computer and inadvertently gets him burned. Ack! Michael knows how that feels (sympathetic character). When the agent, Jesse, shows up on Michael's doorstep looking for help, Michael takes him in w/o telling him he's the one who burned him (further betrayal). He thinks they can work together to bust the bad guys and maybe get Jesse reinstated (motivation). But soon Fi and Sam and even Mom are lying to Jesse, too. (Not to mention there's a little heat between Fiona and Jesse) We feel for everybody - it's a total mess of betrayal.

Jesse finds out half-way through the season what everyone has done to him. He almost kills Fiona and vows to take out Michael (hurt & revenge). I'm not sure Michael is capable of repentance, but over the next episodes there is a lot of working stuff out (sticking together to defeat a greater evil), coming to a new understanding and ultimately a satisfying ending (probably Jesse shooting Michael was somewhat cathartic for him, too, don't you think?).

And wouldn't you know it, after writing that, Youtube doesn't have one single video that's usable. *sigh* Guess you'll just have to hop on Netflix and watch season 4 again.
 

~Susan

Romanticizing the Stalker

The internet is overflowing with articles accusing Twilight and Hush Hush and many other paranormal romances of romanticizing stalkers and abusive relationships. People seem genuinely concerned that a generation of girls is going to seek out unhealthy abusive relationships because Edward watched Bella sleep and removed her engine from her car.

Some of these YA paranormal romances want to have these dark, mysterious, dangerous heroes, but they don’t want to show the consequences. There is some fantasy involved in having a dark, dangerous hero without the actual danger. So these unseemly behaviors get glossed over or even romanticized.

But is this really as big of a deal as those articles on the internet make it to be?

Don’t get me wrong. I understand how serious and frightening being stalked is. I would never want to make light of it, but there are other stories that glorify other horrible behaviors like killing.

The movie the Matrix is one. I loved that movie (the first one, the sequels not so much), but it was extremely violent. Some people have blamed it and other violent movies and video games for being somewhat responsible for very tragic school shootings.

I understand that there is power in stories, that they can inspire and uplift and change minds, but I’m not sure if every story has that power.

Some stories like Twilight and The Matrix are really just for fun. They are not meant to be groundbreaking, world-changing novels. I don’t think the teenaged audiences are as impressionable as others make them out to be. Most people know the difference between reality and make-believe long before they are teenagers, and if they don’t, then there is a much bigger problem there.

I honestly don’t think that the reason someone gets into an abusive relationship can ever be simplified to “I read Twilight as a teenager.”

I don’t know. Am I wrong?

But I do know that I don’t like censorship in any form. Claiming that some novels are dangerous for impressionable teenagers is a slippery slope because it opens up the flood gates to keep some very important and powerful books from teen readers just because some people don’t agree with the world view presented in the story.

I believe we should trust the teen readers and teach them to think deeply and critically about what they read. Let them make up their own minds.

There was no YA section when I was a teen, and when I think about some of the things I read….

For example, when I was fifteen, I was obsessed with The Phantom of the Opera. I listened to the music from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical all the time, went to LA to see the play, and read the original novel by Gaston Leroux. I loved the story, and I still do.

But talk about a stalker.

The Phantom is unquestionably manipulative, abusive, controlling, and a murderer. But he is also isolated, rejected by society and his own mother because of a physical deformity. He is brilliant, a musician, a genius. Cold and callous, and yet deeply wounded. In my opinion, he is one of the most fascinating characters ever.

There is also something deeper in that story than an obsessive, controlling love.

In the book, we come to understand The Phantom, and by sympathizing with a villain, who does unspeakable things, we see that people aren’t born evil. They are twisted by how they are abused by society.

But his tragic past in no way excuses his behavior. He does not win. He does not get the girl. He is only redeemed when he gives up what he wants most. In the end, he learns that if you really, truly love something, you can’t trap, manipulate, or control it; you have to let it go.

I understood this as a teenager, and I don’t like the idea of keeping powerful stories like this from teenagers because it could be interpreted as romanticizing the stalker.

So what do you think?

Do you think that romanticizing the stalker is harmful to teenage girls and boys?

Do you feel that YA authors have a responsibility to present healthy romantic relationships or at least not glorify unhealthy ones?

And how do you really decide what is a healthy relationship?

I’m very curious because I've been fascinated by darker characters like The Phantom, Heathcliff, and Raskolnikov ever since I was in high school.

~MaryAnn

ETA: This post was inspired by this converstaion on Hatrack: http://www.hatrack.com/cgi-bin/ubbwriters/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=007142;p=0&r=nfx