Columns: Tag – Publish
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Writing Quips and Tips
Theme, plot and action - so what’s the difference?
“I want to write a story about the inhumanity of men toward women.”
“O-okay. If that’s your thing. But what’s your plot?”
“That’s my plot.”
This was a conversation Richard and I had with a student in one of our writing circles. And I think it’s a common misconception – that a theme somehow constitutes a plot.
Another is that, when you’ve actually got the plot, you’re set to go.
Writing Quips and Tips
Romance – Lesbian vs Straight
Life is a story.We tell stories, not just to entertain and to escape, but as a rehearsal for life. How would we handle this or that? How would we face the trials of our hero or heroine?
Romance novels should provide us with the characters and situations that we can, and choose to, identify with. Lesbian Romance gives gay women the kind of love stories they can be drawn into – that provide them with a “rehearsal for life” in the love stakes.
Writing Quips and Tips
Book Research is Like Make-Up
Research is like good make-up. It should make you look better, without drawing attention to itself.
As a writer, you have to do far more research than you’ll every use in your book. But once you’ve done it, you’re tempted to show it off. Resist the temptation.
There’s nothing quite as off-putting as having your characters indulge in a long conversation about the history of Rome, just because you looked it up and you’re damned if you’ll lose it.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing a novel - how to keep going
“These are notes you may find useful during your rewrite.”
Yes, these actual words left my lips while I was giving feedback on someone’s writing last week. And after four books, it seemed obvious to me. No first draft is ever perfect. A book is the end result, not the first try.
But I’d forgotten their effect on a first-time writer until I saw her collapse, grimacing and clutching for her heart. They’re not words. They’re daggers, poisoned spears.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing a novel - more tips to keep you going
When Richard and I worked on a screenplay once, we would allow ourselves a glass of champagne at the end of every scene. At the end of each act, we went out to an elegant cocktail bar for strawberry daiquiris.
If I’ve learned anything through writing four books, it’s how hard it is – and how to make it easier on yourself.
I believe in rewards. Even little rewards. While busy with my first book, I used to make up lavish “When my book is published” daydreams. Only, I wouldn’t allow myself to indulge in them until I’d finished writing for the day.
There’s nothing more important than just keeping on. It doesn’t have to be perfect first time, so that’s no excuse.
Writing Quips and Tips
Every writer needs a few - personalities, that is
How many writers does it take to produce a novel? One, but with multiple personalities. And that’s not a joke.
It’s a task that requires several selves – or parts of selves. There’s the intuitive, day-dreaming self who allows ideas and scenarios to drift through her consciousness until they begin to form threads. Then there’s the “medium” self, who allows herself to be taken over by her characters while they’re writing it for her.
When it’s finished, the analytical bitch-editor fires those sensitive selves – who are in love with every word – and get on with murdering the babies. After her, the tenacious self must still believe, all odds to the contrary, that a book is worth fighting for when it starts to be shown to people.
Writing Quips and Tips
Is it really not working, or are you mentally reading it in a funny voice?
There’s nothing quite like the high of a story that’s working.
You get into a zone and the world recedes. It seems more real than the world we’re told to believe is real. And when you finish for the day, you float a little above the mere mortals around you. You feel like you’ve been somewhere they haven’t experienced. You’ve touched something infinitely precious.
That’s when it’s working. As writer Julie Checkoway puts it, when your novel isn’t working, “it just lies there in pieces on the page, leaking vital fluids all over your desk”.
Writing Quips and Tips
Writing and rewriting - it’s now or never
I recently read that, before he begins a new novel, EL Doctorow writes 60-or-so pages of dialogue between his main characters – then throws them away and starts again.
I don’t know how he does it. It must break his heart. But I do understand why.
Having just finished a rough draft of a new novel, I have been giving him a lot of thought lately – and wishing I had his discipline (not to mention his talent).Reading my manuscript from beginning to end, I can see how the voice of the protagonist, and the novel as a whole, develops as I gain confidence. At the start, my protagonist is a tentative being, just drawing her first breaths in the world I gave her. By the end, she is more confident in her skin. She speaks and reacts in a way that is more true to who she is.