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Category: Writing and Poetry

LOLAUTHORS

Earth as a Vacation Destination: Life Not As We Know It...kinda sorta
Current mood: indescribable
Category: Writing and Poetry

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NOBODY KNOWS THE TROUBLE I’VE SEEN (thoughts on writing conflict)
Current mood: busy
Category: Writing and Poetry

(this blog was originally posted on PUBRANTS)

My agent, Kristin Neson, asked me a week or so ago if I'd guest blog on Conflict. She credits my Denver workshop for an "a-hah!" moment she had on the matter (Conflict vs Complication), and even though I assured her I was not the source for that particular tidbit of writerly wisdom, she was unmoved. So here I am, a guest in my illustrious agent's (cyber) house, feeling as if I'd better be on my best behavior and knowing I also have to be instructive, witty and insightful.

Good thing I'm on my second cup of coffee.

So let's start talking about conflict (in commercial genre fiction, okay? Not literary or experimental fiction) by starting off saying that it's honestly impossible to talk about just conflict. It's honestly impossible to talk about any ONE facet of writing. You can't fully understand conflict without considering characterization, and you can't work with characterization without looking at word choice, and you can't… well, you get the idea. Crafting a novel is like dealing with a can of worms. Conflict is just one of those slithery things you have to understand.

One of the most critical issues about conflict (in writing commercial genre fiction) that I've learned is that for conflict to work, it must be personal. That is, it must relate directly to the character and/or an aspect of the story line. Overlarge, impersonal conflict is a guarantee of a cartoonish novel. It will eventually fail to draw in the reader (or agent or editor) because it doesn't answer one of the most critical needs of the reader: "Why should I give a shit?"

And yes, that's an exact quote from an editor I interviewed a few years back on the subject of what makes a book work (or not). The "Why should I give a shit?" factor is huge when it comes to making a novel grip the reader. It also relates to two things I learned from Dwight Swain's TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER: 1. Readers read to experience tension, and 2. It's the author's job to manipulate the emotions of the reader.

But we're talking about conflict, you wail.

Yes, we are. We're talking about the thing that is the engine of the story (thank you, Jacqueline Lichtenberg), the thing that keeps the story moving forward, the thing that keeps the reader turning pages.

Conflict happening to characters about whom the reader/agent/editor gives a…damn. (I'll try to keep it cleaner for my genteel Midwestern agent.)

Impersonal conflict—which can sometimes appear as complication—doesn't light the "give a damn" fire and get the story wheels turning as much as personal(ized) conflict.

Let me give you an example: Alphonse is strolling down the street and a dog runs out of a yard and bites him. Police/EMT's arrive, report is filed, Alphonse is patched up. End of scene. Okay, nasty thing to happen, but where do we go from there (story-wise) and how? And moreover, why should we?

Re-roll the video tape: Alphonse is strolling down the street and a dog runs out of a yard and bites him. Police arrive and find out the dog belongs to Alphonse's ex-wife who has also mailed death threats to his house and left a headless chicken on his doorstep. Police seek out Alphonse's ex but she's not to be found. Suddenly, the story gets a whole lot more interesting.

Why? It's personal to Alphonse (and therefore, also to the reader because reading is a vicarious experience, right?). It's personal because this isn't a random act that might not be repeated. This is a plot. A plan. Against Alphonse (reader). You—author—have just started the "waiting for the other shoe to drop" syndrome in the story. Because there's a salient, logical (albeit crazy) reason for these things to happen to Alphonse. His ex is pissed off. The reader then rightfully expects further trouble. Oh, joy!

Now please, don't point out to me that there have been X number of highly successful novels in which the reader didn't know who was behind the dead-chicken-on-the-doorstep until the final page. Of course there are. I'm being simplistic here to make a point. Plus, in the novels where the antagonist is theoretically unknown until page whatever, the skilled novelist still drops in clues, red herrings and hints which tug—and sometimes lash out—at the reader's emotions. Thereby manipulating the reader by making the conflict that happens to the protagonist feel personal.

Alphonse is now scared and therefore, so is the reader. Alphonse is scared because he knows this problem is not going to stop. The biting dog was not some random coincidence that most likely will never happen again. SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN. And it ain't a matter of if…

Noted SF author Jacqueline Lichtenberg states in the World Crafters Guild on her site that conflict is "an urgent and undeniable MUST prevented from materializing by an equally formidable CAN'T." Complication and random conflict can be amusing and even annoy the characters in your novel, but they don't qualify as being FORMIDABLE. They can go away. An antagonist hell-bent on making your protagonist fail will not go away, and the reader—if you've structured your plot, pacing, characterization, word choice and conflict properly—knows this too. Well-written conflict is an undeniable I MUST slammed flat up against an equally formidable YOU CAN'T.

If nobody knows the trouble you've seen—or intend to bestow on your protagonist—then you're not building tension, excitement and anticipation by the best method: conflict that is personal to the characters and the plot. Keep conflict real, keep it personal, and keep it coming.

~Linnea Sinclair

RITA© Award Winning SF Romance
Bantam Spectra 2005: FINDERS KEEPERS, GABRIEL'S GHOST, AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS

2007: GAMES OF COMMAND, CHASIDAH'S CHOICE, THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES

Other Links:

Sim Gen School
Conflict Integration Workshop
Conflict & Motivation
Conflict & Story

Currently listening : Labyrinth By Juno Reactor Release date: 26 October, 2004

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Jurassic Passions: A Look at Character and Motivation
Current mood: thoughtful

Currently reading : Gabriel's Ghost By Linnea Sinclair Release date: 25 October, 2005

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Writing Real Life
Current mood: pensive
Category: Writing and Poetry

One of the fun things about writing fiction is you get to make shit up. One of the funner things about writing science fiction and fantasy/romance is that you get to make funner shit up. If fiction engages the imagination then science fiction/fantasy/spec fic romance engages the imagination plus.

One of the tougher things about writing science fiction/romance based here, on this planet, in present day is that you have to be real careful about the shit you make up.

I'm finding this out the hard way as I come down the home stretch with THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES.

I know. GAMES OF COMMAND just came out two months ago and here I am talking about a book that won't even be out until November, 2007. But it's the one I just finished working on and hence, it's in the forefront of my mind.

THE DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES (hereinafter DHZB), as some of you know, is my science fiction/romance/police procedural book. It's the first one I've done that's based here and (give or take 15 years hence) now. It's based in Florida in a city that's suspiciously like St. Petersburg, where I lived and worked as a private detective for ten odd years (and damn, was they odd!).

The hero is a homicide detective sergeant named Theo Petrakos. And therein lies the focus and point of this blog: writing a real life law enforcement officer. Being a retired PI, you'd think that would be a cake-walk for me.

Not. The two professions may interact (more infrequently than television and movies would have us think) but they operate from totally different perspectives and venues. So in order to write Theo and his department--the Bahia Vista Police Department--I found I needed to do research. A lot of research.

This has slowed my progress on the book enormously because--for one thing--cops don't easily talk about what they do and how they do things (for some very valid security reasons, in many cases). For another, I'm an admitted research junkie. Once I found a website or source that could provide the information I need, it was easy for me to get sidetracked by all the other aspects of what it takes to walk in a cop's boots on a daily basis. Quite honestly, fact--in the case of what many law enforcement officers deal with as part of the job--is far stranger than any fiction I could write (well, almost).

From an author's perspective, that hard part comes with melding the fact with the fiction. I wanted DHZB to have an authentic feel as to what Theo goes through and as to who and what Theo is. But I didn't want it to become a manual of police procedure or homicide investigation. I write--and I say this with all pride--space opera romance or, in this case, space opera police procedural romance. I didn't want to lose my science fiction readers or my romance readers by getting too wrapped up in the methodology of a well-executed chokehold. But I also didn't want any mystery readers who pick up the book to helicopter it because I've ignored the realities of call outs, shift work, the law enforcement chain of command and--most important--the law enforcement mind set.

I tried to approach crafting DHZB in the same manner as I would any of my other books. Let's face it, world building is world building. Whether I'm working with Port Rumor--a totally fictitious city somewhere three left turns past the center of the galaxy--or Bahia Vista, Florida which is in reality St. Pete, I'm still working with maps and charts of where things are. I'm still sketching out interiors of rooms--be they kitchens or starship cabins. I'm still working with characters whose lives have been shaped by their cultural beliefs (and I have to know those cultural beliefs). Gillie in AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS was Raheiran, raised with spells and chants and who spent a fair amount of time on her butt in a temple. Theo Petrakos is a Greek-American who grew up diving for the cross each January in celebration of the Ephiphany. GABRIEL'S GHOST'S Chaz Bergren grew up on a space station and learned that an upside down beer bottle stuck in a corridor railing meant it was Party Time! Theo grew up playing softball on palm tree-shaded sand lots and skim boarding with friends in the Gulf of Mexico.

Contrary to what you might believe, it has not been easier writing Theo because of the very fact that he is "here", in the sense of a world that you all have been to. None of you can go to Port Rumor unless I take you there. But you can go to Bahia Vista (St. Pete) and then write me a letter and tell me the police station is NOT on Central Avenue--as I have it depicted--but on First. I know that. I turned the building around to face Central because I wanted to. It IS fiction.

Which brings me to another point. I recently received an email from a reader who deemed me "a pretty good writer" considering all the flaws in my books, one of which he stated was the way I structured my militaries, my space fleets. He instructed me to read and study David Weber's Honor Harrington series so that I can learn to improve. News flash: I'm a long time Honor Harrington reader and am well aware that Weber uses the "Horatio Hornblower" military structure for his fleets. Second news flash: my books--save for DHZB--are not Earth-based and the space fleets I construct are not 'far future' extensions of the US, Canadian, French, Chinese, Russian, Horatio Hornblower or any other military on this planet, as Weber's are.

The reality of writing UNreality--to me--is consistency. World building must be consistent WITHIN THE BOOK ITSELF. Not necessarily a duplication of what is Here and Now. If I'm writing a book set in Florida, USA, yes, you will find it to be accurate to your present experience. Though be warned! I will turn the police station around to face the other direction because I want it to. Because it is fiction.

The UNrealities I create are as detailed and researched as the reality of law enforcement procedure I've recently immersed myself in for DHZB. Do I take liberties? Absolutely. But to the best of my abilities--which I'm the first to admit are no where near perfect and never will be--my liberties have consistency. That, to me, is the goal of my world building, whether it be the officer's mess on board the Vaxxar in GAMES OF COMMAND or the interior of an unmarked police car in DHZB.

And the goal of my books? Fun. Plain and simple. I write space opera romance. If it gave you a grin and a giggle, then I'm good to go.

~Linnea

www.linneasinclair.com

(this blog originally appeared as part of ALIENROMANCES and I'm actually reading an ARC of Grant's HOW TO LOSE AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL IN 10 DAYS...but MySpace didn't have an option to list that...)

Currently reading : My Favorite Earthling (Otherworldly Men series Book 2) By Susan Grant Release date: 01 March, 2007

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How to Piss Off An Editor
Current mood: determined
Category: Writing and Poetry

HOW TO PISS OFF AN EDITOR (or Slush Pile Reader)

By Linnea Sinclair

Internet writing sites and local bookstore bookshelves are full of them: how to do everything right to get published. How to structure your plot. How to set up your pacing.

But rarely, if ever, has anyone noted what not to do. Which to me seems equally as important. It's very easy—while you're concentrating on doing the correct things—to let a few very big bad things slip through. And the sad tale of the tape (or in this case, tale of the tale) is that editors, weary, bleary and leery, are only human (or so they say). And if you, writer, happen to include one of their pet peeves in your otherwise lovingly crafted tome, you stand the chance of losing your chance at acceptance.

Granted, most editors will overlook a few faux pas. But let's revisit my description for a moment —weary, bleary and leery. The editor or first reader has already slogged through thirty two manuscripts and it's not even lunchtime yet. Then yours appears on the desk or screen. How forgiving is that editor feeling at that moment? Do you want to take that chance?

I queried a dozen editors in a variety of genres and publishing houses to find out—not what makes them tick—but makes them go 'ack! ack!' and push a manuscript away.

Read on, and be forewarned:

Editor A said her pet peeves were:

Unnatural dialogue. Read your dialogue aloud. Make sure that each character has his or her own voice. The professor doesn't use the same language or have the same rhythm to her speech as the man who is repairing her roof. (If he does have the same kind of vocabulary, there had better be an explanation for that.)

Too many unnecessary characters. Timothy Findley said, in an article, "Be prepared to kill your darlings." Of course he was talking not only about editing out characters but about cutting delightful, poetic descriptions that might not be appropriate to the story you are telling.

Editor C said:

Most often the problem is too much backstory. I feel that the reader loses interest in long introductory chapters where the setting is lovingly set out and the characters' backgrounds are given in detail. Show me who the character is by how she behaves in a real, compelling situation. Don't tell me she has been hurt in the past. Show me how she overreacts now. Explain later, much later. Above all, keep the pace moving! The reader needs to be swept into the story. Keep things happening, whether those things are mental or physical.

I haven't even mentioned poor grammar, spelling, typos. It doesn't matter how lovely your thoughts are or how exciting your story is, if you use poor grammar or spell badly, the first impression is that your work isn't worth reading.

From Editor H:

The most common mistake I find is writers who "tell" the story and confuse POV. Page after page of "He told Mary he wanted to go to the seminar, but she said no. Then they walked to the market. While they were there they met their friend Paul. He let them know that he would be going to the seminar and he wondered if they were going also. At the time while we were talking, several people in the market were staring at burglars who came into rob the store. They took all the money from the cash registers and then they asked us for ours. It was terrible."

And a thoughtful pause from Editor F:

Hmmm....the first thing that makes me reject is pages of backstory and prior history and exposition before the action begins. I want to see a story that starts in the middle of something, not a detailed listing of how our characters got to this point in time and place. And sloppy formats, glaring errors [how hard is it to hit 'spell check'?] and clunky sentence structure, with sentences all the same length or style.

Editor B was concise:

Common mistakes:

1. Too much backstory 2. Head-hopping POV 3. TELLING instead of showing.

Editor J presented me with a list:

I would say that the most common problems that make me reject a book are:

1) not sent in the right format and layout as in the submission guidelines - sent immediately back

2) spelling and grammatical problems right off the bat

3) nothing to draw me into the story quickly - the Why should I care? Question

4) dialog is stilted or unnatural

5) lack of delineation of the characters - If I get confused who is who very quickly in the book and get frustrated knowing that it will only get worse as the book progresses - it's a goner.

6) Certainly lack of conflict and downright bad writing skills (no full sentences, spelling, grammar, etc.)

Editor D is really bothered by:

POV hopping that makes me dizzy, laughable anachronisms (I once saw a manuscript set in 1000AD Wales where a character said things like 'prophesy schmophesy'—must have been a member of the little-known Yiddish-Celtic tribe), and characters who do things because it's convenient for the author's storyline goals, even though it goes against everything else we know about the character—these will get my editorial hackles up. I also find excessive use of -ly adverbs irritating, but they can be corrected during editing, if the rest of the manuscript is strong.

And Editor G goes in-depth on issues almost every other editor mentioned:

Over use of explanation points(!!!). I read an author who used them so much I was screaming in my head after every sentence.

Also, frequent point of view switching within scenes without any transitions. I'm no dummy, but when I have to stop and go back every few lines to figure out who's talking, it's not worth the aggravation. I don't care how many characters' points of view are USED, well—within reason, just BREAK between them.

SHOW, don't tell! Example: "Get out!" he yelled madly.

Instead: Anger near blinded Jack's vision and choked him until he could barely speak. He pounded his fist on the desk top, and gave the impudent fool standing before him a look he hoped would send the idiot from his sight. "Get out."

Last, but not least, give me a HOOK from the first sentence. "You really need to get laid" sure got my attention in a recent book I read. Or, start with an action(s), dangerous situation, etc. Grab me from the first line and continue to grab me, and you've got a fan for life. Don't bore me.

Quite a checklist, and a helpful one if you're willing to look honestly at your writing. What do you do if you find you've erred in one of more of these ways? Well, there are those bookshelves full of How To Write books down the street in the local bookstore. Some of my favorites, in case you don't know where to start, are listed below.

Here's to happy editors and authors!

WRITER'S HOW-TO BOOKSHELF

Dwight Swain - Techniques of the SellingWriter; Creating Characters; How To Build Story People

Jack Bickham - Scene & Structure; Setting; The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes

Browne & King - Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Nancy Kress - Beginning, Middles & Ends

Debra Dixon - GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict

Copy and pass ''How to Piss Off An Editor' around to your heart's content, but always post my copyright notice, correctly, thank you, as both a courtesy and a legal necessity to protect any writer.

Currently listening : Parade of the Athletes By DJ Tiësto Release date: 02 November, 2004

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Action!! Lights! Camera!
Current mood: restless
Category: Writing and Poetry

Action! Lights! Camera!

Crafting the Grabber Opening Scene

by Linnea Sinclair

You're not dyslexic. And the title of this how-to article is not backwards, in spite of your mind's attempt to correct it to read: Lights! Camera! Action!. My point in skewing the word order in that tried-and-true phrase is to bring to your writerly attention the fact that what works in cinematography doesn't always work in written fiction. That is, action must come first, not last.

I'm talking about the opening chapter, and maybe even the opening paragraph, of your novel or short story. But by action I don't mean you must start your story with the car going over the cliff, though that certainly would grab any reader's or editor's attention. I'm saying you should start your novel or short story at the point of action, life-changing or mind-changing or belief-changing action, in your main character's existence. Start your story with the incident—or accident or occurrence—after which nothing is the same in your character's life.

Dwight Swain, in his superb, "Techniques of the Selling Writer", puts is this way: "[Your character] must light a fire he can't put out".

Lighting a fire doesn't mean literally that, of course. A novel's start doesn't have to offer only physical action. That life-changing incident could be nothing more than the opening of a letter: "Dear John, By the time you read this, I'm on a plane to Rio with Waldo". It could be the appearance of a thought: "Today I'm telling my boss to take this job and shove it". It could be something as seemingly banal as your character taking the bus to work, instead of the train. What's key here is what follows. As a result of this letter, this thought, this change of plans, your character's life now goes in a direction from which there is no turning back. From which everything is different, changed, challenged; more so than it would have been had she not opened that letter. Held that thought. Stepped on board that bus.

Writing Guru Jack Bickham puts it very well in his excellent tome, "The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes" when he titles his chapter, "Don't Warm Up Your Engines". Bickham writes, "Every good story starts at a moment of threat" and I believe that. I've sold novels and won several awards for short stories because that's exactly what I did. My Grand Prize winning novella, "Gambit", opens with my heroine sitting in a brig on a starship; her enemy's starship. This forces her to cooperate with him against another mutual enemy. Which forces her to see her former enemy in a new light. Which causes her to rethink all her beliefs and prejudices. Which culminates in a high-action love story, with lots of adventure that takes the reader for a wild ride.

I could have started "Gambit" at an earlier point in the story; in the 'backstory', which is a mistake many beginning writers make. But if I opened with Ty'mara before she was captured by the Jhen, there would have been the possibility of her evading capture. She still had options. She could still have put out that fire Swain refers to. I needed to open where she had no options other than the one that would ultimately change her and her life. No options for your character is what creates character growth (and yes, your characters must grow) and conflict (and yes, you must have conflict).

There are, obviously, published novels and stories that don't follow this recommendation. As the old saying goes, if everyone liked chocolate ice cream... Which means that, yes, you can sell without opening at the moment of threat. The moment of change. The moment at which all your character's options take a hike. But it's been my experience, and the experience of many other authors such as Lawrence Block and James Frey (both have excellent how-tos out there) that your chances of selling your novel, and grabbing your readers, is better if you follow this simple advice. Open with a life-changing, no-options, belief-blitzing scene.

One of my favorites is from science fiction author Pat Cadigan's short story, "Love Toys of the Gods" (which originally appeared in "Omni" magazine but I gleefully discovered in Dozois' "The Year's Best Science Fiction, 11th Annual Collection"):

"The night Jimmy-Ray Carver got nailed by the alien, he ran five miles without stopping, all the way to Bill Sharkey's house, and busted in on our card game, screaming and yelling and carrying on like a sack full of crazed weasels. Good sex will do that to a person."

A good opener will do that for a novel, a short story. Grab the reader, drag him in, screaming and yelling and wanting to read more. 

Action, Lights, Camera! Action creates what the camera spotlights. Open your story by slamming the door on your character's options. Your readers, and editors, will love you for it.

6:54 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

CHARACTER TORTURE, 101
Current mood: pensive
Category: Writing and Poetry

Disaster. Ya' gotta love it.

Especially if you intend to delve into the dangerous area of writing fiction. Of creating disasters. Of torturing your characters. Of working conflict.

Because if you don't do all those things, if you don't consistently torture your characters, dangle them over the edges of literary cliffs, you're not fulfilling your promise to your readers.

Readers crave disaster. They may not consciously know this. And when confronted with that fact, may righteously deny they house such base desires. But trust me. Readers crave disaster.

Okay, don't trust me. Trust writing guru Dwight Swain who states that readers read primarily for one reason. And that reason is to experience tension. "Your job as a writer," Swain says in his aptly named Techniques of the Selling Writer, "is to control and manipulate that tension.

Author Lawrence Block puts it a bit more graphically: "Fiction is just one damned thing after another." It's not enough for your hero to be likable. He must "...keep dodging one menace only to rush headlong into the jaws of another.

Character Torture, 101. I'm sure there's a psychology behind it. It was either writer Jack Bickham, or Swain (and since the latter was the mentor for the former, I'm sure they both held this thought at one time) who posited that the reader needs someone to pass judgment on. Someone's whose actions must be weighed against good and evil. Or good versus evil.

Good versus evil or evil versus good is conflict, and conflict is exposed most often through character torture. Consider the following:

Bill woke up at seven o'clock sharp, showered and dressed. He drank a cup of coffee, boarded the bus for his office, and worked diligently all day. Upon returning home, he read the mail, watched the late news, and went to bed.

There's a story for you. A series of events. A main character. A glimpse into his day.

Which gave you absolutely nothing you cared to read. Why? The author didn't torture the character, put him through any tests. Dig into his mettle by throwing a disaster or three his way.

I've been working as a critique partner with a number of yet to be published writers and have unfortunately read more than a few plots that ran exactly in the line of our friend, Bill, above. The rationale of some of these yet to be published writers is that their novel is a chronicle of their character, who to them is intrinsically interesting and fascinating and wonderful, and yet bores to tears the rest of us. And these yet-to-be-pubbed writers don't understand why.

I've brought you into his life," they persist in saying. "Isn't that enough?"

No. It's not enough. A novel is not about bringing the reader into someone's life. It's about bringing to reader into someone's life just at the point disaster hits.

Try this, instead:

Bill woke up at seven o'clock sharp, showered and dressed. He drank a cup of coffee, but the bus never arrived to take him to work. Late and disconcerted, he had no choice but to hitchhike his way into the city. He strode out onto the dusty highway, and stuck out his thumb.

The sleek, black Jaguar convertible purred to a stop in front of him. The driver was a stunning blonde. Her skimpy polka-dot halter-top displayed her considerable charms as Bill climbed in to the front seat.

"Going my way?" she asked in a voice that sounded like honey on velvet. It was then Bill noticed the large black gun nestled between her legs. And the daggers strapped to her thighs.

Okay, lousy piece of clichéd writing. But the point is, Bill's life just got a tad more interesting. And so did your readers, because this character is clearly about to be tortured. And maybe not by the gun or the daggers but by his own ethics. Or by his own fears. Or by his own inadequacies.

Or by the fact that for the first time in his life, Bill's going to be late to work. And not give a damn about it. Which of course leads to more character torture, and conflict. Because his brief encounter with Honey Velvet (that's her name, by the way) has convinced him he's wasting his life selling left-handed widgets in Podunk, and it's about time he explored the big, wide world. Mama and Aunt Esther be... darned! Look out disaster (and Kansas City), here comes Bill.

And so should unfold your novel. Decisions should lead to conflict and conflict should lead into disaster, and disaster should then prompt new decisions.

Don't muddle around in the mundane. Court conflict. Dabble in disaster. Torture your characters. Your readers are gonna love it.

Linnea Sinclair is a former journalist turned private investigator turned science fiction-fantasy novelist. Her award winning novels include FINDERS KEEPERS, GABRIEL'S GHOST (2006 RITA award winner) and AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS (all from Bantam Spectra) with three more due out in 2007. She's also a Pushcart Literary Award and John W. Campbell Award nominee. For more information on her books, visit her website at: www.linneasinclair.com

(c) 2006 Linnea Sinclair

Copy and pass 'Character Torture 101' around to your heart's content, but always post my copyright notice, correctly, thank you, as both a courtesy and a legal necessity to protect any writer.

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FLYING SOLO
Current mood: working

           Humans are supposed to be herd animals, creatures of the pack. Even only children like myself are raised in a family setting. We attend school in groups and if you're a young female, you learn to go to the bathroom in groups. We have our cliques, our club memberships, our teams and our carpools.

            Then a few strange ones suddenly veer off the crowded path, find their trembling wings and start flying solo. As writers. As one-woman private investigative agencies.

            Ah, you say. Now I know where she's going with this. Good, if you do. If you don't, sit back, grab a beer and get ready for some free-fall soul searching.

            Has it yet occurred to you that one of the reasons you're a writer is that you're very comfortable being alone?

            Not every one can do this. Mostpeople -- and I like e.e. cummings' phraseology on this -- "Mostpeople have less in common with ourselves than the squarerootofminusone." If you don't believe me try going to any well-populated social gathering. A clearance sale at K-Mart will do. Tell the multitudes that you're a writer and once they finishing ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the fame they associate with the profession, they will inevitably ask how you do it. How do you sit there, hands on the keyboard, staring at a blank computer screen, or blank piece of paper, and get your ideas. Your characters. Your action. All by yourself.

            And that's the kicker. All by yourself. No boss breathing down your neck. No supervisor clucking her tongue at your tardiness. No taskmaster with a whip, other than your own self.

            And then you try to explain that you're really not alone, that there are about a hundred or so people who live inside your head, all with stories to tell, all clamoring for your attention.

            And these people, these nice employed-in-big-nine-to-five-offices people began to back away from you. Slowly.

            Been there?

            Fifteen years ago when I started my investigative agency I figured I'd have two or three others on staff. All male. Reverse chauvinism. And they had to be good looking (they all were). But I found, and it wasn't due to the distraction of being surrounded by hunks, that I got just as much work accomplished by myself.

            So for the last few years I worked as I investigator I was flying solo, and it may come as no surprise to you writers that the majority of private investigators do the same.

            We have our heads full of people, too. Slimy people, wacky people, tricky people, lost people.

            I worked a lot of cases by marching these people out onto my mind's stage and running them through their paces. I tripped up slime because in my mind I wore their skins. I found the lost because in my mind I wore their walking shoes. I out-thought the con artists because in my mind we donned the same thinking caps.

            My days often went like this: I'd sit in the attorney's office after delivering my report and he'd look at me from across his polished mahogany desk, praising my work.

            "So. How many investigators did you put on this guy's tail?" While he questioned me I knew that outside his office door are no less than two secretaries, a receptionist and four junior partners in his law firm.

            "None. Just me," I 'd tell him.

            "Just you?" he'd asked, as if being only five feet tall even further reduces my abilities.

            "Yeah. Just me."

            "Then how did you figure out so quickly what this guy was up to?" The attorney knew he couldn't even produce a simple transmittal letter without getting at least three other people involved.

            "Easy," I'd tell him. "Around two in the morning, after I've beaten the case file and all the accumulated data to death, I pour myself a goblet of Opus One. Then I pace the kitchen in the dark and become your adversary. I think his thoughts, feel his fears, absorb his desperation."

            At this point the attorney would inevitably glance at his watch, make a remark about his busy day and full schedule of appointments, and if I wouldn't mind showing myself out....?

            Yeah, I think me, myself and I can handle that.

            Gentle readers, gentle writers, you and I fly solo. There is something in our nature that requires us to pull away from the 'madding crowd' and hover, to observe and record.

            But not in a crowd at the zoo or a class trip to the museum, where other fingers point out the sights and others opinions fill our ears. But on our own, either as the advance scout or the straggler. So we see what others would have trampled on, hear what others would have lost in the din.

            We saw heroes in the stars long before anyone told us what the constellations were supposed to mean. And we still see castles in the clouds when most other people only see a seventy per cent chance of precipitation.

            One of my greatest thrills when I had my private pilot's license was to fly directly into any cloud castle I wanted to. It would blanket my small plane, obscuring the windows and then suddenly I was out the other side, and the whole horizon looked brighter, more vivid with color. Pilots called it cloud punching.

            I think of that blankness sometimes when I sit and stare at the white screen on my computer, knowing the words that I type suddenly make it come alive with color. With voices. With characters.

            Which brings me back to my original question. Has it yet occurred to you that one of the reasons you are a writer is that you are very comfortable being alone?

            Now do you know why?

            Happy cloud punching.

-#-

Linnea Sinclair is a former journalist turned private investigator turned science fiction-fantasy novelist. Her award winning novels include FINDERS KEEPERS, GABRIEL'S GHOST and AN ACCIDENTAL GODDESS (all from Bantam Spectra) with three more due out in 2007-8. She's also a Pushcart Literary Award and John W. Campbell Award nominee.

For more information on her books, visit her website at: http://www.linneasinclair.com

(Flying Solo originally appeared in FUTURES magazine as part of Sinclair's award-winning column, The Full Sass.)

 (c) 2006 by Linnea Sinclair

Copy and pass 'Flying Solo' around to your heart's content, but always post my copyright notice, correctly, thank you, as both a courtesy and a legal necessity to protect any writer.

Currently listening : Nyana By DJ Tiesto Release date: 06 May, 2003

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Romancing the (SF Shy) Romance Reader
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Writing and Poetry