March 1, 2008 | reading
I’ve been a bit flat and crow-ridden for the past week or so, for a bunch of reasons. I had some last revisions to do on Honey Trap, and then I tried to jump right back into writing Girl from Mars without a break, which was a stupid thing to do. Then between one thing and another I haven’t had much time to write. In general, writing begets writing, so when I can’t do it I start to feel disconnected from my ms. It sounds a little bit weird, to be saying in one breath that I needed to give myself a break and in the other saying I can’t be away from the writing, but it’s one thing to take a deliberate break and quite another to be prevented from writing by outside stuff. I failed to do the first and found myself in the second.
I had a great workshop with my writing group on Wednesday, but in general I was feeling rundown and tired and dispirited.
And, of course, I’d reached the place in my book where I didn’t know what was going to happen next. This is always tricky and entails much moaning and whining on my part.
However. I’ve taken some steps to climb out of my funk. First off, I’ve been taking vitamins and this might be a placebo effect, but I’ve immediately felt better physically. I got my hair cut and it’s amazing what that can do to make you feel better. I’ve had a bit of time to write, and I’ve got the story started again; more than that, I’ve started planning a bit and so I have a general shape of where I’m going (though it is very general).
I think what’s helped the most, though, has been reading, researching, and absorbing stories. Liz Fenwick posted on her blog today that reading Freya North’s Pillow Talk (which won the Romantic Novel of the Year award this year–it’s on my TBR list) has helped her see a way forward with one of her mss. I went to the library and got out several graphic novels to help inspire me with my comic book artist heroine, all of which I devoured in a matter of hours. I also went to Smiths and bought the latest 2000AD. They reminded me of tight story structure, and of the particular constraints and strengths of visual storytelling–an important theme of my own novel.
I’ve spent some time exchanging emails with a guy who writes comics scripts for DC, and he’s got me thinking, too, about visual storytelling, and some of the issues that my hero and heroine are going to have.
I also got, on the recommendation of my agent, The Rose of Sebastopol, which I started yesterday and have hardly been able to put down; I’m now about a third of the way through. It’s about a very conventional Victorian woman who finds her world challenged by her cousin and the Crimean war. One thing that is really striking me in that book is the sense that things are bubbling under the surface, that the narrator does not understand all that is happening, or is perhaps holding something back. There’s also an excellent sense of two very different worlds colliding, or about to explode onto each other. It’s fascinating and makes me turn the pages.
Last night I deliberately didn’t try to write; instead I watched Bobby, which I loved. It’s the connected stories of several people in the Ambassador hotel on the night in 1968 when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, and it showed me some valuable lessons about drawing characters quickly and sympathetically, especially the lovely and understated relationships between the characters played by Helen Hunt and Martin Sheen, Sharon Stone and William F Macy, and Lindsay Lohan and Elijah Wood. What it really hit me with, though, was how these individual relationships were played out against a context of a tragedy that affected the whole course of US and global history. It’s a good lesson about how to raise the stakes in a story.
So…I’ve learned some stuff. Raise the stakes. Make worlds collide. Look at bigger things. Even in a romantic comedy about a comic book artist, I can use these lessons.
What have you learned lately from your reading?
liz says:
I am flying through Pillow Talk and loving it but am trying hard to learn as I go
. You are so right about raising the stakes and for me I need to let my characters be open on the page which is what Freya does so beautifully 
amanda ashby says:
Great post!!
I’ve been in a funk as well and have been reading Bird by Bird and Writing From the Inside Out and they really helped. I have such a weird process that often makes me feel crazy ,so discovering that I wasn’t the only one who felt like this was a HUGE help. I’ve also been watching some big budget action DVDs which always has me itching to up the characterisation in them and in turn inspires me to make sure that I really get under the skin of my heroine and hero.
The most important thing I did was actually start working on something else and that freed up mind to start thinking without me knowing it!!!!!
Fran says:
it is so good to read posts like this, because it is sooo honest. now i have to confess to the book which i have just read and really enjoyed becuase it was so easy to read, but was still a page turner, and i don’t know, even though all of you reading this should have repsect for every writer, if you will LOL when i confess to being an Alan Titchmarsh fan! i fear i hear titters.
liz says:
Absolutely not Fran! I like good ol’ Alan too although I haven’t read his books – they haven’t reached Dubai
Julie says:
I agree that letting your readers know your characters is a really important skill, Liz. I find myself holding back, sometimes, and then I think why? What am I saving it for?
Looking forward to reading that book.
What’s your weird process, Amanda?
I agree that it’s not only good books and movies that make me think, but ones that I wish had been better, because then you have to think of how. Good point.
Fran, I haven’t read any Alan Titchmarsh but he seems very charming and I’m sure that comes through on the page. I think any book we like, we can learn from. And there is real skill and craft in making books that are easy to read. I just read a Jill Mansell that I sped through in two days (and with my limited reading time, that’s fast); I couldn’t stop turning the pages and it was only afterwards that I stopped and tried to figure out what she’d done to hook me so much. I think it is how she makes all her characters so sympathetic, even when they make mistakes.
amy appleton says:
I’m currently reading The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella which is fabulous – his first, Food of Love, was a Richard and Judy. It’s romantic and very evocative of both the foods and the feel of Italy, with a very strong identity for wartime Naples. I am rationing it because I don’t want it to be over, but the importance of the setting is really hitting home: Naples is a character in its own right, challenging the main character and his rather staid attitudes. It’s really made me think about how to set the character up in opposition to the place, to raise the stakes.
Glad the vitamins and haircut are helping you through a blip. When I get stuck, I try to go on my exercise bike a lot, as exercise does give me feeling of achievement if I am struggling otherwise.
Fran says:
liz..julie too…thanks for making me feel better about my reading tastes!
and Julie, i have read all Jill Mansell books, and, like yours, they are so annoying, because as you said you just can’t help reading them to the end, and at speed, and then you have to sit back and find the “hook”, work out why they are so magical and enjoyable and so damn readable…and how it can be achieved.
Donna Alward says:
Ack, i SO hear you on life and being away from the writing makes things disconnected. Sigh.
My reading lately has run the gamut from books I adored to ones I absolutely didn’t, and with those ones I try to figure out WHY they didn’t work for me. The ones that are taste, are easy. I didn’t like the heroine because of this. I didn’t relate to the hero because of such and such, but I could see how others might.
But then there are a few others that I had real issues with the writing in general. Books that cross subgenre but don’t succeed, instead feeling like patchwork of suspense and chicklit, etc. Others that were very passive and lacking in conflict. And one in particular that I gobbled up because it totally engaged me and I adored the wit and the heroine.
Out of that I realized that at least half the time I have a clue what I’m doing.
And I see how far I’ve come, and that’s motivating. One of the best things I ever learned is that my first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to WORK. And then it can be refined, and then my editor refines it further.
Great post btw.
D
Jessica Raymond says:
Honestly? Lately my reading has told me that I will never be Nora Roberts…! And for my own information, what vitamins are you taking? I could do with taking some.
Marcy says:
Last night I went to the movies to see Juno. What a story. It was simple…yet powerful! I loved all the symbolism and hope that I can achieve even a fraction of that character development in my own writing.
Dennis says:
I wish I had time to sit down and read. I must confess that the last time I sat down and read a book was in October. This was back in the “pre life changing event” period for us. I have reading envy, maybe I should go pick up a good sci fi this week and escape.
On the stalker side of things….I stopped in to see your folks on the way back from skiing yesterday but they were out. It was a bit surreal pulling into the drive after all these years.
Candace says “thanks for the support”
D
Julie says:
Amy, I love hearing about what people are enjoying reading and that sounds like a good one. Lucky you with your exercise bike, and very smart! I suppose I could jog up and down the hill with the toddler in the pushchair. Oh, wait, I do that every day anyway.
Fran, I don’t mind being called annoying in that way!
Donna, you are right that books you don’t love can also be helpful, because you can see what didn’t work. I have read a few books lately that annoyed me because though they were fun, they were superficial, and I like to emotionally relate to the characters.
I read one where the heroine had three best friends who were total cliches (the rich bitch, the gay guy, the mouthy one) and nothing else. There was no depth or emotion at all. You couldn’t figure out why they would like each other, and they spent most of their time complaining about each other. Maybe as the book went along they gained some self-knowledge, but I didn’t stick around to find out.
The book I’m writing now is all about a group of friends, and man am I trying hard to make them realistic and actually like each other.
Julie says:
Jess, only Nora can be Nora, and you don’t want to be Nora, you want to be Jessica Raymond!!
I am taking massive doses of B vitamins, and vitamin C. I thought it was working but then the blues came back big time yesterday so maybe it’s not. I’ll keep on at it; I had a B6 deficiency one time years ago and it felt much like this.
Marcy, I want to see Juno! I’m glad you liked it. I need to make some time for that one.
Julie says:
Dennis, I get reading envy all the time. Get a few graphic novels from your library! They don’t take long and are total escape. I think Candace’s idea of a book on tape for the car was a really good one.
My parents will be sorry that they missed you!
Donna Alward says:
Julie I take B vitamins for that reason. Evening Primrose Oil is another good one for hormone regulation that my doctor suggested. And get outside and get some sunlight. It helps too.
I had to do a stint on actual meds several years ago and hated it, so my dr is great about trying common sense methods.
More sex? LOL
Hugs hon.
D
Julie says:
LOL indeed…
I will look into evening primrose, too. Thanks, Donna.
Jessica Raymond says:
Vitamin B, OK, I’ll have a try. I’m sure I heard that you could get vitamin injections from your doctor to keep you pepped up, but I could be wrong! Also, Earth Mama Angel Baby (the company who makes the Milkmaid Tea) do a lovely body/room spray called Happy Mama which you can use to lift the blues. I used it fairly often in Little Frog’s early months and every now and then when I’m having a yucky day.
And good point about Nora! I should not be trying to become another writer. But … *sigh* … lately I just feel like I’m not good enough to do it.
Seems to me like lots of people have the blues at the mo! Maybe it’s something to do with seasonal affective disorder. The clocks will change soon, though.
Hugs to you and Fecklet.
Ruth says:
I just finished ‘Timbuktu’ by Paul Auster, which is written from the point of view of a dog called Mr Bones…have you thought about having an animal as your lead character?
It was pretty good, but not marvellous. One I did love was ‘After Dark’ by Haruki Murakami which was beautiful to read.
Oh, and I entered a competition in the local library today, you have to nominate a book as a recommended read and I nominated One Night Stand!