Category Archives: Writing

My Favorite-Folktale Formula

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So I’ve been looking for a shorthand/formula for m-o-n-t-h-s now, and finally sat down and created one out of the tales I constantly return to.  And it works!  Made it very clear which elements do and don’t belong in *this* novel.

I started by analyzing favorite Beauty and the Beast and Iron John variants, then compiled a structure/format that also fit other tales

  • The Ebony Horse
  • East of the Sun, West of the Moon
  • The Lindorm King (of course)
  • The Lady and the Lion
  • “A Flowering Tree” (basically a pre-marital counseling session wrapped in a folktale. I might be able to write this novel in my 50s)

This covers pretty much all the complex tales I am drawn to, showing relationship development (usually in a nutshell), and allowing both the man and the woman to think and affect their “destinies.”

  1. Opening state.  Usually there are some inherent qualities of the MC
    1. Birth; e.g. royalty, other significant parentage (optional)
    2. Attitude; which attitude depends on the needs of the story
  2. Other intrudes
    1. Does M.C. notice?
    2. How does M.C.respond? Acceptance (in this model), but how?
      1. reluctantly?
      2. with fear?
      3. innocence/naivety?
  3. Physical separation from the known
    1. Frequently this includes an emotional connection with a former stranger
    2. If the emotional connection is skipped/missed there are deeper regrets and pain in the next step
  4. Physical separation from the new known
    1. Opportunity for character discovery- self and/or others
    2. Journey to return
      1. Sometimes a series of tasks/helpers to process
      2. often anguish of seeing things changed while gone
  5. The closing FIND, usually with a final twist that is victory beyond mere achievement.

I like how this formula isn’t as complex as Campbell’s Journey of the Hero, and provided me with a structure to look at individual story lines for each major character.

I’ve not much liked how many steps there were to keep up with in the Hero’s journey, and how some authors feel it’s so central/clever that they’ll over-work a story to fit it.

And it always seemed a waste of time to “reject the call.”

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Character vs. Circumstances

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It is really too bad that, while we recognize lapses in judgment or steadfastness in ourselves as merely circumstantial, we quickly assume similar lapses in others as character flaws.

Turn that around and you’ll understand why I stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing critiques for my new writing group. They don’t know me, so protestations about busyness are (at this point) excuses and not reasons.

I know how harshly I would want to judge them (Transform my gracelessness, Lord), and can’t bear my own censure– so I work late, uh, early.

The point of these meetings is feedback and interaction. If I can’t expect that of myself, how can I expect it of them?

Compromise

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Had a very effective talk with Becky last night.

It is such a relief to be able to talk about a story and have someone else have more than a clue what you’re talking about!

Several useful things were clarified. Among them, Lindorm is a *folktale* (duh.) not the next fantasy epic; so I can relax a bit about the ax (mallet) in the ceiling. My concerns about things “missing” are a bit misplaced.  Having a new category for fantasy work (basically, beyond *epic*) is very helpful.

Two of my favorite fantasies: The Seer and the Sword, along with its companion novel, The Healer’s Keep, are more what I need to keep in mind than, say, Eragon or Lord of the Rings. For that I’m on-track.

“We’ve” also decided it’s a character novel, which has solidified the structure as well.

I spent last night rebuilding the Table of Contents to cut and rearrange, before taking my two current versions of Despoiled (Chapter One) and melding them into a single opening chapter.

The “compromise” referenced in the title is this: Since we’re still trying to move (You know, get the house packed and on the market… long-term goals and all that ;) ) I’ll limit myself to one chapter a night for the next several weeks.

I have 20 chapters that have two versions before I reach new (untouched this revision) material.  Those need to be gone through as I did the first chapter, keeping details of a particular timeline while incorporating the improved writing where possible.

I’m quite content with this arrangement, and thankful to keep pecking at the novel.  I know how to move slowly; I just want to keep moving.

*Knowing* My Characters

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I’ve been studying personality theory (Especially the Myers-Briggs expression) for several months. Tonight I applied the four perimeters to the eight most prominent characters in my Lindorm novel, and this is what I came up with:
Linnea          ESFJ
Kennett       INTP
Tykone        INFP
Runa            INTJ
Ivan             ISTP
Torbjorn      ESTJ
Cecillia        ISFJ
Irene           ESTP

I determined/identified the types by going through each parameter for every character (Does Linnea gather more energy from being alone with her thoughts or being with other people? What about Kennett? Tykone?).

Comparing them one parameter at a time helped me focus on what they were, rather than what I wanted them to be. I tried to base my judgment on the characters’ behavior as much as possible, but the exercise was especially useful for the characters I had too deep in my head.

I have been concerned that Runa is more interesting than Linnea, who’s supposed to be the main character.  *Surprise* (or not) Runa has my personality type so I “get” the way her brain works. Being able to look as clearly at Linnea– her similarities and differences compared to my type– is very helpful.

The main reason this discovery is so exciting to me is that reading the profiles for each character did two things for me.

  • It affirmed how consistently I’ve written (most of) these characters, both in action and motivation, even before having this clarity.
    • Makes me feel like I have some aptitude toward this thing I love to do.
  • It was a delight to imagine my created characters were *known*.  That’s exactly him! or, So this is why that response always felt right happened over and over as I read through the profiles.

Kennett, the elder of the twin princes, has no interest in being king, and one descriptor of his “type” is the loner element, that this type “isn’t interested in leading or being led.” The coldness of his type makes the device of the mind/emotion-reading-by-touch (it’s okay, I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about if you haven’t read the story) especially delicious. It facilitates a closer relationship than would have been possible without the magical connection.

Linnea’s personality type explains why she’s so shaken by her stepmother’s emotional abuse and and almost equally by her stepsister’s indifference. It shows how she could be cowed by her stepmother’s words not even a day after standing up to the stranger unearthing her father’s coffin.

It makes me almost ready to keep my original scene order (that is, the one from October). I’ll have to look at it seriously before I’ll know for sure.

I could never say before why I felt Linnea’s behavior wasn’t inconsistent (it sure looked that way– that’s why I started shuffling scene order). Now that I understand the why, I hope to more clearly show that. It should make a number of things a lot easier to juggle.

Nailing Linnea’s type also showed me where to build her flaws– namely in manipulation. Not sure yet how that’s gonna look.

Maybe I’ve found a new formula:

Four parameters = Instant depth. ;)

I Don’t do Crowds

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I strained my voice yesterday. That used to be a lot harder to do.

I was talking with two other ladies at an indoor playground with forced-air heat. (Read: loud with happy children & other noise). With barely 18″ between us we still had to work to converse.

But it was lovely, talking with two women of similar intensity and confidence.  The whole conversation was very balanced, constructive and encouraging.

~

But it reminded me that I function best in a small group of two or three. I’m basically wired to pull 1/3 to 1/2 of the conversation, and that inclination doesn’t always change as the group grows.

Yes. I know.  I’m getting better.

This basic tendency seems to affect my writing as well.  I’ve said before I have a massive cast, and sometimes loads are on the stage at once, but usually no more than 2-3 interact at a time.  Maybe 4 do, once.

This explains why I freeze up when the prospect of an “epic battle” crosses my radar.  I feel desperate as any soldier’s mother for peace-before-conflagration; largely because I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to put off a large-scale anything… (and I’m afraid of what writing about war would say about me).

There have been three distinct times in my Lindorm novel when the action seemed to be pulling toward a war.

I suppose I’ve watched too many fantasy-genre movies– that obligatory CGI massiveness really can impress itself on the psyche.

And each time my “fear of conflict” (HA!) has forced me to find a different and (I believe) more creative solution to get to the next stage.

I can safely say that natural wiring does not have to be a liability.

First-Page Critique

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I visited an “agent chat” at a local coffee house this morning, asked and listened to a bunch of questions and answers and at the end had the nervous thrill of hearing a “First Page” critique of my WIP from the agent and the other writers around the table.

What got read aloud (not by me– which was part of my education) in front of the agent & 7 other writers:

1— Despoiled

Garm’s low growl made Linnea pause before entering the clearing around her family’s homestead.

For a moment she gripped the nearest tree, feeling the papery bark under her fingertips as she balanced on her good foot.

Nothing could be seen to be out of order, except-she felt a shiver slide down her neck. There were footprints in the newly fallen snow. The dusting didn’t allow enough of a print to be certain, but Linnea felt uncomfortably that the prints were of bare feet. Larger feet than any she’d seen before.

She’d just rested her forehead against the tree when she started at a rhythmic sound behind the small house.

The slow, shnick–THUB… shnick–THUB… sounded almost familiar, if only the pain behind her eyes would let her think.

Releasing the tree, Linnea looked down to the shaggy white form of her sheeping hound. Her stomach tightened when she saw him, tensed to launch at her word of release.

A shovel in the earth.

That’s what the interminable repetition was. And the only thing behind the house was her father’s grave.

Understanding seemed to snap her windpipe.

Regripping her staff, Linnea started across the clearing as quickly as her twisted foot would allow. Garm raced ahead, reading her intent and barking a challenge.

The agent began by asking the listeners what they knew from the first page. Continue reading »

Famous Folks’ Writing Advice

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There’s a lovely list of advice making the Twitter circuit now.  Here are my favorites– not all are original, but all I want to be able to return to.

Diana Athill

  • You don’t always have to go so far as to murder your darlings – those turns of phrase or images of which you felt extra proud when they appeared on the page – but go back and look at them with a very beady eye. Almost always it turns out that they’d be better dead. (Not every little twinge of satisfaction is suspect – it’s the ones which amount to a sort of smug glee you must watch out for.)

Margaret Atwood

  • Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.
  • Other people can help you a bit, but ­essentially you’re on your own. ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don’t whine.
  • Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person. Change the tense. Change the opening page.

Roddy Doyle

  • Do be kind to yourself. Fill pages as quickly as possible; double space, or write on every second line. Regard every new page as a small triumph
  • Do give the work a name as quickly as possible. Own it, and see it. Dickens knew Bleak House was going to be called Bleak House before he started writing it. The rest must have been easy.
  • Do change your mind. Good ideas are often murdered by better ones.

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I’m Starting a New Novel

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There, I said it.  It’s official.

This time I plan (at least at first) to do things completely differently.

Whereas last time I did NaNoWriMo, and wrote pretty much “by the seat of my pants” (though, to be honest I had the structure of the original tale to keep me on track), this time I’m attempting to plan before I write.

Jay bought me the Snowflake software when it was $20, so I’m experimenting with that.  I’m finding it’s hard for me to flesh out my characters before I’ve seen them in action, but I’m chipping away at it, wanting to give this method an honest go.

Seeing the issues I’m having with the Lindorm novel that’s currently wrapping up, I want to learn if I have fewer of those with more rigorous planning.  I’m also riding a bit closer to the original model (the folktale) than I thought I might.

Mainly because it’s easier to identify conflict and motivation when it’s less subtle.  Those girls, at least as far as I’ve painted/pegged them so far, are beyond my ken.

And I hope this story will be less complex then Lindorm.  But we’ll see.

I have the three brothers pegged in a very traditional manner, and I hope they will still be interesting for all that.

The princess is not your witty She-Ra that populate so many fantasies.  I suppose I am prosaic enough that I don’t trust the portrayal of women who are set forth as anomalies despite the fact that that world produced them.

*pah*  Foolishness.

This is not the popular heroine, if I may use my own awareness of popular heroines as a guide. I thoroughly dislike “strong” women who are strong primarily in contrariness, rather than in contribution. But I suppose this will come out in anything I write, whether my heroine is contrary or not.

What a writer is intellectually, morally, spiritually, emotionally will radiate through the work, like light on an overcast day in which there is no visible sun, so that all things appear illuminated equally.

–Joyce Carol Oates, from her essay Reading as a Writer

At this moment this feels like a very comforting surety.

I’m not sure if this is a true quote or something from my own mind, but If we must be hanged, let us be hanged for the truth is how I feel now. I don’t know how it will be taken, this Water novel, or the Lindorm one. But they will be true, as a story can be true, and I feel quietly comfortable in that.

Stepping off the cliff again.

It really is quite exciting to me, and I welcome your prayers.

Updating my World

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I hope this is a one-shot deal…

But today I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time figuring out things like TwitterFeed, Bit.ly, Tweeting in general, and fun stuffs like Acsii art and HTML specialties.

I resisted setting up a second Twitter or Facebook account for specific “networking” or “marketing” (barely trusting myself to keep up with the new elements I am trying to understand now).

We are currently on day 10 of 21 of our scripted eating, and I think the lack of variety, along with excessive focus on the details, is messing with my thinking processes. i.e., I think I’m even more obsessed than usual with the little things over general reality.

Also discovered #YAlitchat on ning, and signed up because one of the blogs I visited today said they have online critique groups– but I haven’t found them yet, and my patience for on-line time is just about frayed out, so I’ve accepted not figuring this out today.

~ ~ ~

I started reading On Becoming a Novelist yesterday, and quickly decided I want my own copy.  He begins with an entirely different approach than most writing books I’ve read– that is, in attempting to answer the niggling question, “Am I really cut out for this?“

Well, instead of actually answering it, he paints a variety of portrait possibilities, and since I can see bits of myself in them, I feel affirmed and encouraged that my tendency is both natural and reasonable.

This is much easier to swallow than the idea that I am irreparably messed up, so I’m thankful to roll with it for now.

As for the novel: it is decidedly on hold until this special eating project is over.  I am at the stage where I need to think of the details in relation to the whole– and I am personally at the place where I will “strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.”

Which I’m beginning to fear I’ve done already.  But those 30,000 words really did need to be cut!