Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Guest Blogger - Carolyn J. Rose


How to Escape the
Muddle in the Middle


by Carolyn J. Rose

Writers get lots of advice—solicited and unsolicited—from family, friends, and other writers. (Okay, on the days my skin is particularly thin it seems more like criticism or fault-finding, but to steer away from that tangent, I’ll call it advice.)

After a while, we learn how to accept those comments without cringing, crying, or clawing out the eyes of the person offering. Eventually we learn how to weed out comments that are irrelevant, mean-spirited, or just not helpful. Then we consider what might be valid, what bits of advice to take.

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever took was, “Know how your story ends before you begin.”

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

If you know where you’re going, if you’ve figured out the ultimate goal, then all you have to do is blaze a trail from plot point to plot point, from immediate goal to immediate goal, and you’ll arrive at your destination. Right?

Absolutely.

Positively.

Well, in theory.

My problem is that once I leave the inciting incident behind and enter the valley of plot twists, character quirks, and literary re-visioning, it’s easy to lose sight of the path to the ultimate goal and the mountaintop of story resolution. Without that landmark in view, it’s far too easy to wander off into shadowy and uncharted of What-If Woods.

Legend has it that some writers have been lost forever in this forest. They wander in circles, following plot points dropped by other writers, ignoring signal flares sent up by members of their critique groups, huddling at nightfall around a campfire of first drafts, wrapped in a blanket of discarded adjectives and adverbs.

I’ve been deep in that forest, surrounded by ideas sprouting like jungle vines and characters clamoring for larger roles, wishing there was such a thing as a literary GPS.

But while I floundered, I learned some ways to find my way again:

Forget about progress. Stay in one place and think.
Review the immediate goals.
Let your characters lead you
Cast off in a number of directions and compare results
Set a new final destination

Let’s look at the perks, pitfalls, and perils of each method.

Forget about progress. Stay in one place and think.
While taking a few days off from writing to reassess can be healthy for both writer and story, I’ve found that a few days can too quickly become a few weeks. Once I stop keeping that daily appointment with my keyboard, I start making other appointments—with books, bon-bons, friends, fruity drinks, and TV series I’ve cached.

Thinking is good. Overthinking to the point of the paralysis that leads to procrastination is not so good.

Set a time limit on how long you’ll allow your unconscious to work on the problem. Then try another method.

Review the immediate goals.
I call these the IGs to distinguish them from the UGs, the ultimate goals.
There are a lot of IGs on the road to the UGs, IGs created to generate conflict, tension, and suspense. But sometimes the conflict over those IGs can become mundane, irrelevant, and even distracting. A trip into a literary cul de sac isn’t bad, but a full-fledged detour might be catastrophic. So make sure most of your IGs are pointing, if not at the UGs, then in their general direction.

Let your characters lead you.
I might hesitate to admit to a psychologist that I let my characters take the lead, but writers will understand this isn’t a sign of mental imbalance. There comes a point in every book where my fictional friends start to act out their roles on the stage of my dreams. “If you want to take a curtain call in a sequel,” I tell them, “then you’d better come up with some ideas for act two of this drama.”

Usually, they do. The problem is that I have to know who to listen to. Trusting the killer to lead me will result in a far different ending than trusting the detective. And trusting too many of them could take me to a whole new level of lost. So, consider the source(s) before you write more.

Cast off in a number of directions and compare the results.
The strategy here is the same one you employ when you get off a clogged freeway and go miles out of your way just to keep moving.

I put aside my original outline (and, for the record, it’s more of a collection of spotty notes than an outline) and set off on a plot-twist trail to the left, roughing out the possibilities for two or three chapters, possibilities that include the emotions and actions of my characters. Returning to my jumping off point, I then bushwhack to the right.

Sometimes this casting about makes the problems with the first path clear and I race back along it to repair logic holes or add character reaction and thought to make the trail more evident and get the momentum I need to get out of the woods. Sometimes, however, I strike a new trail that’s more promising than the one I first plotted, a trail that will lead to a more satisfying ending.

Being a Virgo, I’m always reluctant to abandon previous plotting or to kill off characters I’d thought would go the distance. But I remind myself that this is fiction—and a first draft at that. I take a deep breath and go for the ultimate solution.

Set a new final destination.
Yes, it’s a last-ditch method, a new ultimate goal, with a new kind of climax, and new resolution for the ending.

In mystery, this usually means deciding that someone else is the killer and/or that a few other someones might be shot, stabbed, strangled, poisoned, pummeled, or pushed off a cliff along the road to resolution.

Have I mentioned that I’m a Virgo? Yes, I see I have. Then you know that the degree of difficulty on this is up there with landing a quadruple axel on the ice rink.

First, this involves admitting (if only to myself) that I didn’t know how the story would end, that I hadn’t really taken that piece of advice I mentioned earlier. Talk about embarrassment and humiliation.

Second, I have to rearrange all those index cards and sticky notes. Worse, I may have to toss some of them—or at least put them in a box (neatly) for future reference.

But, if I’ve been stuck long enough, the choice is to do all of the above or to shelve the whole book. So, I close the door to my office, throw a small-scale fit, and then get on with it.


What are the ways you get out of What-If Woods when you’re stuck in the middle of a book? Drop by and leave a comment. I’d love to add to my list of possibilities.


For the record, when I began writing Hemlock Lake, a solo project, I had a clear idea of how and where it would end and was able to bushwhack steadily toward that landmark through a series of arsons and murders in a remote community in the Catskill Mountains. When my husband Mike Nettleton and I wrote The Big Grabowski, however, our concept of the ending was, to say the least, vague. We knew only that the killer was one of the many suspects we’d planted in a quirky town on the Oregon Coast. It was only when we were about two-thirds of the way through that we decided for sure that the killer had to be …

Sorry. I’d love to tell you, but my publisher won’t let me.



Carolyn J. Rose grew up in New York’s Catskill Mountains, graduated from the University of Arizona, logged two years in Arkansas with Volunteers in Service to America, and spent 25 years as a television news researcher, writer, producer, and assignment editor in Arkansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. She teaches novel-writing in Vancouver, Washington, and founded the Vancouver Writers’ Mixers. Her hobbies are reading, gardening, and not cooking. Visit her at Deadly Duos Mysteries.
 

Friday, September 24, 2010

FATAL UNDERTAKING by Mark de Castrique (Poisoned Pen Press)


Who could stop reading a book that starts with, "You want to borrow a casket?" Part-time funeral director and part-time deputy Barry Clayton is incredulous when Archie Donovan makes his request, but he's won over when Archie explains it's for the Jaycees' haunted house at the Halloween charity event. Few mystery readers will be surprised when a dead man turns up in the coffin. The predictable death is followed by some pretty nifty police work and a lot of national news coverage. The investigation in the seemingly close-knit North Carolina mountain community quickly highlights family feuds, large-scale Christmas tree high jackings, and just enough humor to lighten the occasional dark scenes.

I always enjoy de Castrique's books, and this one rates among his best. Come visit North Carolina. You'll be glad you did!

FTC Disclosure - Book was provided by the publisher

Thursday, September 09, 2010

What I Read on My Summer Vacation

I started back on my monthly talks at the Cary Library today. We take summers off because I'm always busy at the daylily farm and the library is busy with kids out of school. We had a good group of folks ready to get back to talking about mysteries. I shared some of the great books I read while we were on hiatus. If you'd like the handout, click here. Let me know if you share my appreciation for any of these.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Guest Blogger - Lisa Bork


What’s My Brand?

I met Molly Weston at Bouchercon 2009, my first fan conference. On day one, Molly offered her card and snapped my picture during the Author Go-Round, where I gave a spiel about my debut novel, For Better, For Murder: a Broken Vows mystery (an Agatha Award finalist for 2009 Best First Novel). On the last day of the conference, Molly picked up my book during the Book Bazaar. Then she took my picture again.

Don’t ask me what happened to those pictures. Molly may be keeping them for blackmail. [Note from Molly: I don't think I'd make much money as a blackmailer for this photo of Lisa!]

This past May I sat next to Molly during the SinC breakfast at Malice Domestic, where she invited me to guest blog. I accepted, not because I particularly like to blog but because I like Molly. So here I am.



I’ve been thinking about branding lately—and by that I mean setting realistic reader expectations for a mystery series. For Richer, For Danger, the sequel to For Better, For Murder, releases this month. So, what is this brand? Or, after writing four books in this series, how can I prime a reader?

My protagonist, Jolene Asdale, lives in a small, touristy Finger Lakes town. She’s married to Ray Parker, a deputy sheriff. They butt heads, mainly over murder and Jolene’s bipolar sister, Erica.

In For Richer, For Danger, after years of ambivalence about parenthood, Finger Lakes sports car dealer Jolene Asdale is now driven to adopt her foster child, the daughter of fugitive robbery suspects. But some major roadblocks arise, including an open hit-and-run case and a recent murder—with the silent, uncooperative birthmother as the prime suspect.

As for the brand…count on lighthearted, fast-paced escapism. Count on Jolene struggling to "get-in-the-know.” Count on Erica to do the unexpected—more than once. Count on Ray to be smoking hot in his uniform and always “in-the-know.” Count on Jolene’s theatrical mechanic, Cory, to steal the show and make the right choices. Count on a page-turner. Count on an underlying heartwarming love between spouses, sisters, and friends.

And I hope you enjoy reading these books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

So, as an author, is it more fun to write a series with known characters? As a reader, what draws you to a series? What keeps you coming back? Can you immediately tell when a series will become a successful brand?


Want to win a copy of Lisa's For Richer, For Danger? You'll be very lucky if you win! To enter the contest, just email Lisa at Lisa@LisaBork.com with "MM Drawing" on the subject line. Entries should be emailed by midnight Friday, September 10.