Literary pet peeves

I was thinking the other day of some things that annoy me in fiction. In general, I'm a pretty forgiving reader. Plot coincidences? Sure, as long as they work within the context of the story. Occasionally clunky writing? As long as the storytelling is sincere and I'm engaged with the characters, I'll allow it. But there are a few things that really bug me.

"Because I Said So" Relationships: Character interactions are important to me. As a reader, I need to have an understanding of why characters are friends, enemies, lovers, etc. It doesn't have to be spelled out for me in letters three feet high. All I need is for the character relationships to feel believable and organic. But sometimes there will be interactions that just don't seem to work. For example, one character is deeply fascinated with another and wants to learn more about that person, but the reader doesn't see what makes the person so fascinating. This is the peeve I'm most lenient on — heck, there are people in my own family whose relationships leave me scratching my head.

"Eye of the Hurricane" Characters: Often found in "Because I Said So" Relationships, these characters have interesting things happen around them, and to them. Yet the characters themselves are not interesting. Oftentimes these characters are not so much people in their own right, but catalysts for the other characters' growth and actions. It's especially unfortunate when this not-to-interesting character is the main character — it gives the book a hollow feel.

The Character Arc Loop-De-Loop: This is the peeve I cannot let slide. Few things irritate me more than when a character, who's been established as behaving a certain way, decides to behave a radically different way just to keep the plot moving. This is not to say that characters can't change. They can, and should, but the change has to be organic, and dictated by what has happened to them over the course of the novel. A previously taciturn character should not suddenly become talkative and sassy just because a talkative-and-sassy character would have livened things up. A character who's been established as having strong views on a certain topic should not suddenly change those views in order to take the plot in a given direction. There are some books that I used to enjoy a great deal until on a re-read I realized they had the Character Arc Loop-De-Loop, and my affection for those books has waned a great deal.

Readers, what are some of your literary pet peeves?

This could be the beginning of something good...

Got in nearly 2,000 words in on a new writing project! More details to come, but I'm feeling very good about this day's work.

Writing craft: Tear it down, build it up

All writers have asked the question: "Well, what do you think?"

It's a question that doesn't get much easier to ask over time. We hope that it will. We may even have a hunch what the answer will be. We want it to be a positive answer, but must accept that it may not be.

The first time I asked that question (asked it of someone who wasn't my Mom and therefore obligated to say nice things about my writing) is seared into my memory. The time: my college days. The place: University of Missouri at Columbia. The occasion: a creative writing course, and I had just finished reading a selection from a very, very early version of my debut novel, The Day After Yesterday. What did the instructor and my classmates think?

They tore it to shreds. They were right to do so.

Because it wasn't good. It was the only serious writing I'd done, and I'd had no critique whatsoever on it. I was full of myself in the way that only a college student can be; I recall thinking that I was sure to wow everyone, not least because I was writing a novel (one of many stupid ideas I had in those days was that short stories were somehow inferior to novels). 

I can't imagine what the look on my face must have been as the criticisms piled up. Too many adjectives, too much melodrama, characters didn't behave realistically, and so on. I don't know if it went on for a very long time or if it just felt that way. By the time it was over, my ego had deflated considerably.

And yet, the instructor and my fellow students had just enough positive things to say to make me think that the story wasn't a complete loss. The critiques were harsh, but after I stopped crying I realized that they were accurate. The final project for the course was to revise the work based on the critique. I was astounded that I got an A. At first I didn't understand, as I was pretty sure that I had a long way to go to make the book truly good. But the instructor explained that what determined the grade was our ability to not give up, and to do our best to improve the work based on the feedback we'd received. This didn't mean slavishly making every change suggested. But it also didn't mean sticking our fingers in our ears and singing, "La la la la, I don't hear your criticisms of my book!"

It took a lot more writing, a lot more reading, a lot more learning about the writing craft, and writing the book twice before I got it right. But that first critique was when I learned the most valuable lesson any writer can: no one starts out good, and only by listening to others and using their feedback to improve your manuscript can you be a better writer.

So let me give a much-belated and long-overdue thank you to instructor Speer Morgan, and to all the fellow writers in that creative writing course. Thank you for getting me out of my bubble, and for your critiques.

Musical inspiration: Kate Bush

I am so happy that the weather has finally turned cooler (we've even had this weird thing where water falls from the sky - I think they call it "rain"). One reason I'm happy is because it means I can change up the music on my iPod. It's weird, but some music lends itself to cool, rainy weather. I can only play k. d. lang's Drag when it's overcast; by contrast, anything by Electric Light Orchestra is reserved for a bright, sunny day (with the exception of "Can't Get it Out of My Head" and maybe "Telephone Line").

It gets complicated, and one album that exemplifies this is Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. Made back when albums had sides, the first half of the album is the "sunny" side. The songs are about love, from the sensual yearning of "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" to the possibly unhealthy relationship in "Mother Stands For Comfort" to the bond between father and son in "Cloudbusting."

But it's the album's second side that calls to me when the weather turns chill, and that has been an inspiration to my writing. This side is a mini-suite called The Ninth Wave (the title comes from a Tennyson poem), and it tells a story of a person alone in the sea, fighting for life. The suite follows its protagonist from struggles with exhaustion and despair, through the terror of facing mortality, reconciliation with knowing that life will go on without them, ending on a note of hope and joy that's nicely ambiguous (it's not necessarily clear if the person is rescued or if it's a transition into a pleasant afterlife).

I listened to this album for the first time in a long while, and I was struck by how often I had been trying to capture the feelings and sensations of the songs in my own fiction. I honestly don't know if I could have written scenes like the fight on the frozen lake in Ashes or Daniel's narrow escape from drowning in The Day After Yesterday if I hadn't had the moods of Bush's music in my subconscious.

Writers are advised to read a lot and read widely if they want to learn how to write. That's absolutely true, but writers can also find inspiration in other arts. Start by listening to The Ninth Wave. If Bush's (admittedly idiosyncratic) style clicks with you, I think you'll find it captivating.

Thoughts on NaNoWriMo and Thanksgiving

It's November, which means it's time for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Which also means it's time for me to feel vaguely guilty for not participating in NaNoWriMo.

Because I think NaNoWriMo is a great idea. I'm all for giving writers the incentive to push hard and fast and finish a story, whether that story's been stuck at chapter four, or at the outline stage, or is still just floating around in the writer's head. I've been there: I spent years working on a very early (and very terrible) version of my debut novel - and for much of that time I just tinkered with the same dozen-or-so scenes, over and over again. At some point - shortly before a milestone birthday, I won't say which one - I realized this was never going to get the book actually written and completed.

That's where the beauty of NaNoWriMo lies - it provides that motivation to get out of bad writing habits and eliminate distractions so that you get the bulk of a first draft down. Notice I didn't say that you finish your novel. NaNoWriMo just gets you through the first draft (and if you're writing a long novel, you may have more to write. You still need to stash the book in a drawer for a while, read it through with fresh eyes, edit, edit some more, edit yet again, give it to beta readers, gather their feedback, implement their feedback, edit again, and give it to someone to copyedit and proofread. Maybe we can make January the National Novel Editing Month?

I'll be honest, though, the main reason I don't participate in NaNoWriMo is because of the "No" part. November's a busy month for me because of Thanksgiving. I particularly look forward to Thanksgiving because I enjoy the cooler weather and the opportunity to cook for a lot of people. I've had some people think I'm nuts because I like to prepare the entire feast, but to me it's comforting.

• I usually have the feast on the day after Thanksgiving. My guests are all friends, as my family is too far away, and this gives them the chance to spend the day itself with their own families, and then come over to my house for Thanksgiving 2: Turkey Boogaloo.
• Having the feast on Friday also gives me an extra day to prep. I can spend Thanksgiving day itself making pie and cornbread and other make-aheads at my leisure. 
• While I do prepare the whole meal, I don't make everything from scratch. I get frozen pie crust for my pumpkin pies; I order an apple pie for my blaspheming friends who do not like pumpkin pie; I buy bread rolls at the store; I use Williams-Sonoma turkey gravy base for the gravy. 
• Similarly, I use the cranberry sauce out of the can. I am not a huge fan of cranberry sauce, so I asked the friends who do like it whether I should track down a fun recipe for it. To a man they all said the stuff from the can was fine with them. I extricate it from the can so that it's in the perfect shape of the can, and then put it in my fanciest crystal dish - it sits there on the table looking ridiculous and amusing the guests until dinner time.
• My turkey is simple but delicious. I just rub it with a thyme-and-rosemary butter rub and chuck some herbs and onion into the bottom of the pan. I've tried brining and some other fancy tricks, but the herb butter rub gets me the best results.
• Now that I've made a number of Thanksgiving feasts, they're not that daunting. There are two main challenges that always exist. 
• Getting all the side dishes ready and turkey carved at the same time. Thanksgiving is a flurry of prep at the beginning and a whirlwind of prep at the end. In between those prep times is a long period of loitering in the kitchen, nibbling on things, and having some wine. 
• Which leads us to challenge 2 - having just enough wine to make the loitering and basting enjoyable (not to mention taking one's mind off one's aching feet) but not enough so that you forget a side dish or two (a scenario that's happened to at least one person I know). It helps with the second challenge to pace yourself with a good wine that you'll feel guilty about gulping, and save the silly sweet stuff you got at off an end cap at the Trader Joe's for after dinner, when even the teetotalers are drunk on food anyway and no one will notice that you are pixillated.
• There is always room for pie. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

Feel free to leave me a comment about how you like to spend your Thanksgiving!

Reckoning (the Ashes sequel) on target for November publication!

Good news for fans of my suspense novel Ashes. I got the final copyedits/proofreading notes in from the editor, and have started on those. The book's well on target for its publication date in the first half of November.

I'm very excited, because of all my books Reckoning was the one that was most fun to write. I was coming off a several-year writing hiatus at the time (said hiatus was because my son was very young and I didn't have the physical energy or mental stamina for serious creativity), so I was very enthusiastic to be getting back to writing, and I think that shows in the book. Those of you who read and enjoyed Ashes will like the sequel (which can be read on its own - but it's best to read both books to get the full story arc).

Now, back to editing!

How to get a book written

Gary Glass, author of The Nirvana Plague, has some sage advice for getting a book written. It's over at the Like Fire site - take a look!

Experience matters

Great piece in The Atlantic about the importance of life experience in writing. Take a look.

Writing craft: Beyond the sea

In the not-too-distant future I'm going to be heading off on vacation - to the beach, to be specific.

I really can't think of a place I love more than the beach. I grew up in Southern California so I'm partial to that state's coastline, but really, as long as the it's that stretch where the ocean meets the land, I'm happy. I love the smell, I love the sound of the waves. There's a feeling of timelessness about the beach that's comforting somehow.

I like the beach in summer, when it's playtime. And I like it in winter, when it's good for wandering.

The beach is also very inspiring to me. It resets my mental equilibrium. The smell alone relaxes me. One time, when life was not going all that well, I stopped at one of my favorite beaches - El Capitan State Beach, just north of Santa Barbara. I paid the day use fee and spent a few hours wandering the shore and the coastal trails.

Best ten bucks I ever spent.

The beach is a big influence on my writing. You'll notice that the "good" places in my books - the fictional towns of Los Cielos, CA in The Day After Yesterday and Haven Cove, BC in Ashes - are coastal towns. Los Cielos is based on several real places that include my hometown of Redondo Beach, CA, as well as Laguna Beach. Moreover, Daniel's walk up the state of California in The Day After Yesterday takes place mostly on the coast, with particular attention called to the coastline of Ventura and Santa Barbara, and his journey ends in another coastal town, the fictional Faber.

My characters often have epiphanies on the beach, or at the very least experience life-changing moments there. The scene that opens The Day After Yesterday takes place at a beachside diner, and is the linchpin for much of what happens in the book. Likewise, in Ashes Jennifer celebrates the one-year anniversary of her survival at the coast, and the book's climactic scene is at a house near the sea. And in Ashes' forthcoming sequel Reckoning, there is another crucial event on a beach, this time in Maine.

So you can imagine that I'm looking forward to spending a few days near the beach. I've got reading material picked out, local restaurants researched, and oh yes, have a vague idea of what clothes I might pack. (Hey, I've got priorities.) And I'm definitely bringing the journal in which I keep my story ideas and musings. I'm looking forward to some long walks on the shore, and who knows, maybe that experience will appear in another book.

What it's all about

"Drop a stone in the still pool of your character’s life and watch the ripples." - Jeff Gerke

Writing craft: Pixar's rules for storytelling

It's a given that you can learn a lot about storytelling by reading books. But movies can also be an excellent guide. And here are 22 rules for storytelling, courtesy of Pixar movies. Very good rules, methinks!

Writing craft: There's something about the holidays

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I really get into the holiday season. I'm indifferent to Halloween (I hate dressing up and really don't need more candy in my life) but I love Thanksgiving and - most of all - Christmas.

Because I'm so partial to those holidays, I often "check in" with my characters to see how the holidays are treating them. This may also be an influence of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, a book I've read so many times I've got it nearly memorized. Have you noticed how much happens in that book around Christmastime? I realize that it serves the story, but everyone, from Marley in the past to Scrooge and Tiny Tim in the future, seems to die around Christmas. Something to think about!

Readers of The Day After Yesterday will have noticed that I show the characters and how well (or not) their Christmas is going. These range from the first Christmas we see in the book, a dark time for all concerned, to the epilogue, which takes place at a Christmas concert and ends the novel on a note of grace and hope. And my Constant Readers who've read my suspense novel Ashes know about two chapters that take place on New Year's, and which are notable not just because the day and its events are turning points in those characters' lives, but because the events include tawdry sex and horrible ways to die. (If this piques your interest, remember that Ashes will be available in print and ebook in March of 2013.)

So whatever your plans are this holiday season, I hope it is a healthy, happy, and joyous time for you. Take a moment to think of how you'd portray it in a book or short story.

Writing craft: No such thing as flawless

One of the trickier things in fiction is creating characters who are likable and sympathetic, but still believably flawed. The worst thing you can do with a hero is make him or her perfect. Perfect people don't exist in real life; perfect people in fiction are unbelievable, obnoxious, and boring.

Fiction derives from conflict, and whether your story is a mainstream coming-of-age novel or an edge-of-your-seat zombie apocalypse thriller, the conflict has to derive at least in part from your characters' flaws. Their insecurities, foibles, and issues must help drive their actions.

A few things to think about when creating good-but-flawed characters:

1. Flaws must be large enough to affect the story and the characters' interactions with each other, but not so great that they tip the character over into villain territory. A good-but-flawed character can have problems communicating with his wife about their relationship. A villain beats his wife.

2. Flaws must not be so minor as to have no effect whatsoever on the story. It does nothing for the story if a character's flakiness about finances has no greater consequence than being unable to join coworkers for Friday lunch at the tapas restaurant. It's another matter if the character's financial flakiness means she couldn't get a flight to Omaha and see her father on his deathbed. I tend to allow my characters one Colossal Mistake per book - two at the most. More than that, and people will start to lose sympathy. But one is all you should need, provided it's in the right time and place for the character. And as long as it's in character, which leads us to...

3. Flaws must be organic to the characters. If a character has always been conscientious about his schoolwork, it makes no sense for him to suddenly skip a semester's worth of classes and miss out on graduation.

One way to create flawed-but-sympathetic characters is to look at your friends and family. What are their tics and foibles? Use those for inspiration.

And of course, you can look to see how other writers do it. For a quick and excellent example, watch the movie It's a Wonderful Life (it's about that time of year anyway). Pay attention to George Bailey, and you'll notice he's far from perfect. He's a hero in a quiet sort of way, but he's also bitter and resentful at times. He's focused on the missed opportunities of his life, so much so that he doesn't see the good he's done until it's almost too late. Director Frank Capra and actor Jimmy Stewart aren't afraid to let George Bailey be flawed, even to the point of unloading his anger on his family. But because we understand George and why he has his flaws, and because we understand he's a good man driven to the  breaking point, he never loses our sympathy. And that's why we are on board with the friends and family who do everything to help him.

Editing, editing, editing

The plans to publish my two-book suspense series are well underway. I'm giving the two novels one last edit to make minor changes and to catch any errors that have slipped through earlier edits. Although I'm going to publish the books separately - Ashes this fall/winter and Reckoning in the second half of next year, I'm editing them together. I've been told that director John Cassavetes said, "Continuity is for pussies," but he could get away with that, because he was John Cassavetes. I am not, and I feel compelled to make sure everything synchs up.

The good news is that I am done with the read-through and markups for Ashes. Now have to get started on read-through and markups for Reckoning (I am old-fashioned and do everything on hard copy). Even better news is that the books still hold up for me, so far, and that means you'll probably like them.

"Donald imagined things"

I know how Donald feels.

Illustration by the late, great Edward Gorey.

Take one down, pass it around

I'm doing an edit of my two-part suspense series, Ashes and Reckoning, for publication. 4 chapters down. 70 to go. Oy vey. Better load up on caffeinated beverages.

This says it all

A quote I found that sums up perfectly my approach to stories and characters:

"Drop a stone in the still pool of your character’s life and watch the ripples." - Jeff Gerke

Writing craft: Waiting to let the penny drop

One of the trickiest things in fiction is finding just the right moment for a plot twist or other good bit of information to make itself known. Give things away too early, and you can lose the element of surprise, or deny your readers a really good sucker punch. Delay things too long, and it becomes obvious that you're delaying, and the reader will resent you.

Waiting to let the penny drop is a good technique, and it can be used for comedic and dramatic purposes. It's a little easier to do with comedy, for if the laugh is good enough the audience will be more than willing to accept any delays revealing the twist. For an example, here's Monty Python's "The Pope and Michelangelo" sketch*:

Now, logically the Pope would be more upset by the three Christs than anything else. But it's funnier for the three Christs to be revealed after we've heard about the Jell-o, kangaroo, and twenty-eight disciples. It doesn't make sense, but no one cares because the comedic effect is so good.

It's a bit trickier with drama, but it can be done. A stellar example is Ray Bradbury's short story "The Aqueduct." I'm unable to find an online version of it, but do yourself a favor and go read it right now. I'll wait.

You're back? Good. Wasn't that a doozy? Though it's a very short story, it does so many things so well. First of all, that revelation. The first time I read the story, I actually screeched, something I rarely do. I hadn't seen it coming, and the implications of that revelation are so terrible that I was truly sucker punched. Furthermore, when you go back and re-read the story, it's clear that Bradbury did not cheat when writing that story. You might think he did, but go back and read it again. Pay close attention to the word choices. He does not cheat. Furthermore, he drops that penny and trusts his reader to know what that penny means.

How do you know when it's time to let the penny drop? Use your instincts on the first draft or two, then let your first readers tell you. If they laugh, or screech as the case may be, you've done it right.

* Yes, I am well aware that Leonardo Da Vinci painted "The Last Supper."

Author interview at LL Book Review

The LL Book Review website kindly gave me the opportunity for an author interview. Read it and learn a bit more about my book, about my process, and what's next on the horizon.

Still not tired of this meme, so...

This looks pretty accurate to me.