Archetypical Whedon

I’ll admit that I’m still processing the information from Tami Cowden’s Archetype workshop. The idea that any character type can do any action–the motivation for doing it will be different–is still sinking in.

Tami said that Joss Whedon’s ensemble casts usually have very strong archetypes. This struck me as very wise. I have watched Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so I can look at those casts and see which archetype is represented by each character.

Enter the new Joss Whedon series: Dollhouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollhouse_(TV_series). In this Fox series, many of the actors that Whedon has used in past series are in recurring roles. This series is interesting in its setup. The scientists have perfected a brain treatment that erases memories and implants others. The ‘dolls’ in the Dollhouse are operatives that are programmed specially for each ‘engagement’. The series follows Echo (Eliza Dushku, ‘Faith’ in the Buffy series) as she becomes self aware and manages to hold onto memories that should have been wiped.

In this series, I watched the first episode wondering if I could identify any of the character’s archetypes. Right at the moment when I was trying to decide what archetype Boyd Langton (Echo’s handler) was, he said, “it’s the mission!” So, even for a poor student of archetypes, Warrior.  I’ve only watched the two episodes that have aired so far, I’m hoping to catch it each Friday, but I know that it’s available online if I miss it on Fox.

I’m finding trying to identify characters by archetype to be an amazing exercise. At first I doubted that my favorite book and TV characters would be the purest examples of archetype–but they are.  Once I realized that, I think I can go back to my WIP and actually test my current characters and their motivations.  It’s fun to learn something.  More fun to learn something useful in my writing.  spw

I want to be Nora!

I have a lot of favorite authors who I would gladly trade places with.  Jayne Anne Krentz for her deft characterizations.  Elizabeth Lowell who uses words to weave wonder tapestries.  Marilyn Pappano for her warm, caring stories.  And maybe Iris Johansen for her exciting plots.  But most of all, I want to be Nora Roberts.

No, not for her great writing (though I’d kill to have Roarke…even if it meant Eve Dallas would take me down!), but for her output.  I’ve been struggling to get one particular book finished for over five years.  Nora puts out about four titles a year!  And they’re somewhere around 100,00 words books.  What I wouldn’t give to have that kind of dedication to my craft.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love writing and I love the writing I’m doing, but when I see authors who turn out so many books so fast, I begin to feel maybe I don’t have the dedication a professional author should have.  As a nurse, I’m constantly focusing my energies toward providing the best care for my patients I can.  If it means overtime, I do it, usually without whining too much.  Very little detracts me from my patients and I tend to get very aggravated with anything that diverts me from my patients.

But it doesn’t take much to sidetrack me from writing.  Email, TV, reading (especially when I get the latest book in a series and end up re-reading the ENTIRE series!), even doing laundry, for God’s sake.  Is it because I’m less of a professional writer than I am a professional nurse?  Yes and no.

Yes, because I NEED the security of a steady paycheck.  I haven’t the faith in myself to let go and risk all for my art.  Also, part of me resents “writing” to the market.  No doubt I got spoiled as a Star Trek fanfiction author; if one fan editor didn’t like my story, another would.  My story would get published somewhere if I had the patience to keep submitting.  Intellectually, I KNOW my books have to be saleable, but part of me just wants to write what I want to write.  And finally, I’m a terrible professional writer because I totally HATE the business part of writing.  Promoting, doing booksignings, networking, etc.

On the other hand, I am a professional writer because I constantly seek to improve my writing through technical books, conferences, and workshops.  I DO force myself to attend to the business side and I accept that if I want to sell, I have to write a marketable book.  And, praise be to God, I HAVE sold my stuff and have the royalty checks to prove it.    But what I wouldn’t give to be able to write at least two books a year.  *Sigh*

Any suggestions on how to speed up my writing?

Contests: the Good, the Bad, & the Un-Entered.

With our own chapter contest approaching like a friggin’ freight train, I’ve been paying attention to what people are saying about other unpubbed contests.

From entrants’ POV, who the final round judges are seems to be very important. They look for respected editors and agents who not only request materials from contests, but have a reputation for actually buying something as a result of a request via a contest. And entrants want to see the list of final round judges early, not two weeks before entries close. They also respect contests whose final round judges have been well-researched and known to be acquiring in the category/sub-genre they are judging. LIKE OUR CONTEST DOES!

Another point is the reputation of the contest. The longer the contest has been around, the better. The more seasoned first round judges they use, the better. It’s thought that if a chapter recruits judges online, especially at the last minute, they will let just anyone judge in their contest.

And it’s about professionalism, too. Does the chapter announce finalists and winners on or very near the date they say they will? Do they send confirmation emails telling entrants they’re ms has arrived? Do they send emails to non-finalists before they announce finalists, or does the non-finalist have to find out by checking the website? Is the contest website always kept up to date?

First round judges are very important to most entrants. They may or may not choose to re-enter the following year based on the validity, quantity, and tone of those first round judges. They are paying good money to enter, have their work critiqued and possibly sent to a final round judge, and since the majority of the entries will not final, that critique is all they get.

Most entrants say they won’t enter again if they get a poor critique–and I don’t mean a crit that honestly tells and shows them their work is poor (put in more diplomatic language, of course). The biggest gripes seem to be: no comments on the manuscript; no or very few comments on the score sheet, especially when a judge has given low scores; invalid comments that themselves contain spelling or grammatical errors(!); vague comments, such as, “I didn’t like your hero,” which are useless unless a judge mentions WHY.

And nitpicking is huge. Taking points off for minor formatting issues, especially in electronic contests where formatting may go out the window during file transfer, is a big bugaboo. Criticizing and/or taking points off for things like two spaces between sentences and what kind of symbols one uses between scene breaks make writer’s hate a contest and refuse to enter.

Lastly, it seems most writers would rather enter a contest electronically. They also like contests that allow more pages, and provide three first round judges per entry, especially if the lowest score gets dropped, instead of those that doing discrepancy judging.

As a first round judge, a contest entrant/finalist/winner, and a contest category coordinator, I’ve learned a lot from my recent contest research. And I, for one, think RWI’s chapter contest, Where the Magic Begins, stacks up pretty darn well.

With A Song in My Heart, er, iPod

My daughter has made it her duty—a life mission—to enhance and improve my music education. I sincerely thank her for that. Some of the stuff she’s into is far too hard core—Head Banging–Gosh-How-Can-YOU-Stand-That!—can it even be called music? My age is showing here. Then she shares some local singers, Paco Estrada, Sarah Jaffe, Overscene, who are wonderful! Performing their own songs, I appreciate that they are writers just like I am.

While listening to the songs DD has put on my iPod and computer, I noticed some can be taken on another meaning—maybe it’s because I’m twisted. Before I get any hate comments/emails, I know these are love songs.
Here are two I call ‘stalker songs.’ Death Cab For Cutie’s—and by the way, I love this group—“I Will Possess Your Heart.” After you get through the 4:33 eerie intro music of an 8:31 song, the lyrics begin “How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me. It’s like a book elegantly bound, But in a language you can’t read just yet.” The creepiest part is the 2nd verse “There are days when outside your window, I see my reflection as I slowly pass, And I long for this mirrored perspective, When we’ll be lovers, lovers at last.” Here’s the Youtube link if you are really interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uln8UxZz9Ys

The Police, “Every Breath You Take,” I can’t help but think ‘stalker.’ “Every breath you take, And every move you make, Every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you. Every single day, And every word you say.” Seriously, this is icky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnejNGprm3I

I have a playlist I listen to when I’m feeling not so generous—aka bitchy! “I Hate Everyone” by Get Set Go is my top favorite. DH knows when he hears that one blasting, he’d better tread lightly, especially when followed by “She Hates Me” by Puddle of Mud, “Horns & Tails” by Poison The Well. Let me not leave out Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch.” DD has that as my ringtone by my request!

Other out of the norm—is there a normal for me? No!—songs on my Must Listen To are: Death Cab for Cutie’s, “Your New Twin Size Bed” and “You Can Do Better Than Me (But I Can’t Do Better Than You);” Paco Estrada’s “The Game” both versions; “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence; Thrice: “Night Diving” (no words), “The Artist & The Ambulance,” “Come All You Weary”; Nickelback (almost all of their songs) “Figured You Out.” I also have the traditional love songs, country, jazz, classical; zumba, bellydance and R & B.

Lyrics and notes are written by talented people expressing their thoughts, hopes, dreams and disappointments, just like I do with my own work. Those keeper songs, like my keeper books, are the ones that touch my soul.

What is on your favorite play list?

Rain, Rain Go Away

Water.

Not what I wanted to see when I got home Friday night. Not INSIDE my house, at any rate. But as I walked in the front door, a waterfall flowing off the upstairs walkway greeted me. {YIKES!} Luckily DH was right behind me, who quickly shut off the water from outside. The culprit was a bad/old line under the upstairs sink. Why is it always the upstairs? {sigh}

Unfortunately, underneath the waterfall was our entertainment unit – TV, DVD player, pictures. etc. As of this writing, I’m still not sure if the TV will work. Kinda waiting for the thing to dry out. Like the walls. And floors. And ceilings. {{sigh}}

After we scurried around to get some big containers to catch the never ending waterfall (even with the source turned off), we spent the night sopping and soaking and sucking water out of the carpet. Upstairs I’d do a heavy-footed stomp on a thick towel until it was soaked, wring it out, then go some more. DH was working the shop-vac, sucking for all it was worth. I have no idea how many times he emptied that thing! Once we could walk across the carpet and not have water squish between our toes, we turned on all the box fans we owned and collapsed into bed.

Saturday morning DH went over everything with the shop-vac again as I assessed the damage. We finally figured out there’d been too much water. No way was our wooden floors going to dry out with the carpet and padding on top of them. (We don’t have a slab floor.) So we started cutting, ripping, tugging and hauling wet soppy carpet. And the more we look at it, the more we realize entire walls, as well as ceilings, will have to be replaced. Dang it. Was not in the mood to start remodeling and living in the middle of a construction zone. Just one more thing to get in the way of my writing time. {{{sigh}}}

So what gets in the way of your writing? Minor – or major – catastrophes? Let me know.

Linda

P.S. Sunday evening the valve under the other upstairs sink blew. Sheesh. At least this time we were home to catch it before it flooded everything. Gotta’ be grateful for small blessings wherever you can get ‘em.

But… it’s my baby

I’ve spent most of this evening trying to finish the forms and copies to needed to enter the RWA Newsletter competition. The deadline is Wednesday. As in RECEIVED BY Wednesday.

As I put the finishing touches on everything, I take a moment to once more berate myself for waiting till the last stinking minute to do it. Why do I do that? I hate rushing. I hate scrambling. Why do I put myself through that additional stress?

Cause I’m just one of those people who can whip it out at the 11th hour and never have any last-minute problem creep up? Yeah, right. Cause I live for the rush? Not hardly. Cause why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? Perhaps. But I suspect it’s more to do w ith the fact that I consider the newsletter to be my baby (okay, yeah, Auntie Sharon is helping raise her, but still…) and I don’t want to throw her out there and have someone call her ugly. Or even cute in a “unique sort of way.”

Kinda like my writing. And kinda like my jewelry (yes, I make beaded jewelry too).

Little pieces of myself go into everything I do. What’s the point otherwise?

I know I should be sending stuff to our critique group each month. I know I could learn a lot from that group either by talking through stuff on my own submissions, or by listening to what’s said about the others. And I want to get better. I know for sure that my stuff isn’t perfect. I don’t expect it to be. I believe that everyone can improve and everyone can learn something new. If they want to. But wow! Do I hate the anxiety that comes with the waiting.

Don’t get me wrong, I can let my little creations go if I know they are going to be loved or, at at the very least, appreciated. A friend of mine has been selling some of my jewelry over the last few weeks. It’s very cool to see the inventory pile get smaller (and to deposit those checks!). I’ve even gotten a few requests for custom orders.

But my writing isn’t as tangible. I can’t see the patterns as easily. I don’t have a color wheel to double check that the colors are compatible. I haven’t learned all that yet. And I’ve been taking class after class for several years now.  Yet I’m still learning.

But I will get used to sending it out. I know it will get easier. I just have to practice, practice practice. And maybe get a therapist.

An Editor’s Thoughts on Rejection

I was surfing the Net this morning looking for some info I have elsewhere but can’t lay my hands on and it was just easier to look for it again, and came across this website called Rejection Collection. It’s exactly what it sounds like — rejection letters on all kinds of things creative. I read some of the agent/publisher rejections (submitted by the authors rejected) and found most of them to be of the whiny nature.

(I’m sorry. I know writing’s deeply personal. I know we put our hearts and souls into our work. I know it sucks pond water when someone else doesn’t love it as much as we do. And I also know that most of us are whiny about it.)

However, farther down the home page, there’s a header called “From the Other Side,” I think, and it’s responses from the folks doing the rejecting. Good reading there. I didn’t get to finish — too much else to do — but the comments I read were thoughtful and enlightening.

Especially THIS one. Check out what one intelligent, reasonable, well-spoken sci-fi editor has to say about rejections. Very good reading for a Sunday morning. Here’s the link.

Is it Spring yet?… please

Spring has to be my favorite time of year.

I have the most energy this time of year. I want to get out, get my hands in the dirt, de-clutter my house, and plan projects.

This year a few of my projects is to paint a couple rooms in my house. Deciding on the color is the most difficult. In the fall I painted my kids bathroom and the wall color was NOT what I thought it was going to be. It was supposed to be sun yellow, it turned out a more orange-yuck yellow. So since the ceiling is a bright blue, I’ve decided to paint the walls a lighter shade of blue, then put a wall paper border around the ceiling that looks like a mixture of blue glass tiles.  I plan on painting our master bath a color called “Journal Cover”. And you guessed it, it’s in the brown family. But with our off-white trim I think it will look great.

The reason for all this painting? Every room in our house is painted the same color, and I like it, but it’s flat paint. Not so great for cleanup…especially in bathrooms.

I love to decorate my house, so I will probably pick one room to focus on. We’ve only been in this house a couple of years, so there is still lots to do.

Another project is flower beds. I LOVE planting flowers, I just don’t have the best of luck with it. But every year I have this urge to get my hands dirty, so I try…every year. As a matter of fact, if it’s not too cold Sunday, I plan on starting on that one. The main flower bed in the front yard is filled to the brim with grub worms. EWW! I hate those bugs. Which I think is why everything dies. So I got the goods to kill em all. *BEG*

So I’m reallyyyy ready for spring. Winter is not my time of year, and I’ll be glad when it’s over.

So what’s your favorite time of year and do you have any big projects for this year?

Ashlynn

Let’s Start at the Very Beginning

Ever wonder how a writer gets the embryo for a book? I have–but then I’m eternally curious. Some people call it terminally curious.

Here’s my MO. I start with I-wonder-what-would-happen or I-wonder-what-it-would-be-like.

With BLIND SIGHT, my book coming out in April from The Wild Rose Press I started with, “I wonder what would happen if every time I touched someone, I could tell what they were thinking, what they’d done or what they were worried about.”

Then I put it on simmer in the back of my mind.

Cassaundra Reynolds, the heroine of the story introduced herself to me not long after that. The hero, Keegan Flynn, was a little harder to come by, but he finally showed up.

The book grew from there.

For Gypsy, the next manuscript I wrote, the heroine (Gypsy) came into my mind full blown. I wrote the story around her.

I know authors who write in totally different ways. One woman writes several chapters of backstory so she can get to know who her people are, deletes all that and goes for the meat.

Another dreams her stories.

And a really famous one writes a long and detailed outline that she says is really a short first draft. 

As one of the terminally curious, I’d love to know how your books spark to life.

What’s the method of your madness?

BTW: My “post” from last time (February 9th) is a page. Those Slutty Neighbors are always causing me trouble.

You Want Me to Stick My WHAT WHERE?

Are you thinking dirty thoughts about now? Ooh, come sit beside me!

No, sorry, that was my inner slut speaking. What I’m talking about is expectations. We all have them – authors, editors, publishers, readers – but sometimes, just as the stars don’t always align in our favor, neither do others’ expectations. There are occasions where editors or readers hold our manuscripts/books with a befuddled look on their faces, going, “You want me to believe what?”

{{Spoilers follow!!}}

If you’re a fan of Suz Brockmann’s and live in the Internet, you’ve probably heard the fuss about her latest book. For everyone who’s waited years for Sophia and Decker to get their HEA, the time is here. They both wind up in love and on the brink of happily-ever-after . . . just not with each other.

I admit, this is one of the few times where I can separate my writer self from my reader self. As a reader, I liked the Sophia/Decker coupling. I wanted to see them together. They were a couple in my mind, so I wanted them to be a couple in their book. I don’t want to see them fall in love with someone else instead. I totally relate to the disappointed readers who’ve been making their opinion known online.

But as an author, I totally relate to Suz’s need/desire/right to tell her story her way. Decker and Sophia exist only because she created them. All we can ask of an author is that the characters remain true to themselves, that the story be well told, and that the ending be satisfying. We don’t get to choose which man the heroine chooses or which woman the hero loves forever and ever, or what trials they have to go through to get their HEA. That’s the author’s prerogative.

In my Bethlehem series, there was a secondary couple who appeared in most, if not all, of the books. (Hey, it’s been a few years, there are nine books, and there was a whole town full of people.) Their greatest desire was to have a child, but she’d had numerous miscarriages.

Finally, she got pregnant. I was writing the book where the pregnancy was progressing well, not even really thinking about the baby beyond the fact that his/her due date was penciled into the story calendar. Then, in one scene, several months early, she went into labor. Despite the doctors’ best efforts, she gave birth prematurely to a beautiful little boy.

With Down syndrome.

I didn’t plan on that. I don’t do that kind of micro-plotting for my books. I’m lucky if I know the highlights of the main characters’ romance, and I trust that the rest will work itself out in my subconscious when I need it.

It didn’t seem fair. Melissa and Alex had tried so hard and prayed so long for a baby. They deserved a perfect-in-every-way angel for their efforts and heartaches.

But it felt right. This less-than-perfect baby was the perfect baby for this couple.

Some readers didn’t agree with me. In fact, some readers were downright irate with me. They couldn’t believe I would do that to such good people. They were convinced I knew nothing about Down syndrome, that I would never wish such heartbreak on anyone.

(On the other side, I got a letter from a woman whose little granddaughter had Down syndrome, and she was the light of her parents’ and grandparents’ lives. She was happy to see that I’d given Alex and Melissa such a blessing.)

It came down to expectations. Some of those readers expected me to reward Alex and Melissa’s struggle with perfection. But it was my story, my characters, my choice. I stand by it.

Did they have the right to be disappointed? Of course. They had expectations that I didn’t meet. In my opinion, those expectations were contrary to what was right for the book. In their opinions, their expectations were reasonable and, well, expected. And we’re both right.

The truth is, you can’t please everyone. You’d go nuts trying. All you can do is tell your story in the best way you can, without worrying what each individual out there is going to think. Sure, you want to make your readers happy, but first, you have to make yourself happy. Because if you’re not loving that book as you write it, odds are, no one else is going to love it, either.