by Charlene Teglia | Dec 16, 2004 | Uncategorized
Some of the nicest compliments I’ve had on Yule have come from fellow writers. There is nothing like a jury of your peers handing in a good verdict. So today I thought I would talk about how I study other writers to learn, and who I study.
Whenever I come across a writer who does something really extraordinarily well, I will devour books by him or her, looking to see how they do it. Pacing, humor, characterization, structure, theme, dialog, description. Every once in a while you find a writer who seems to do it all and make it look easy, and those are the best ones to study although not if you end up feeling suicidal because you’re comparing your first draft to their final copy. It’s always good to keep in mind that once a book is published, you are seeing the work of an entire team of professionals. Do not compare a first draft to this. It could be the first draft of War and Peace and you’d still be despondant for months.
So who do I study? Lois McMaster Bujold. She does it all and makes it look easy. Linda Howard. She can do erotic, funny, suspense and action all in the same book; the two very best examples are Mr. Perfect and Open Season. Laurell K. Hamilton does action sequences like nobody else, and the detail in her books makes them so visceral and real that you completely buy a person who raises the dead for a living as no more unusual than a postal worker. Come to think of it, Anita Blake probably has a lot in common with postal workers. But I digress. Stephen King. He could write the phone book and make it fascinating and also give you nightmares about telephones while he was at it. (You should see what he did with a harmless thing like a laundromat in the unforgettable short “The Mangler” if you don’t believe me.) Jennifer Crusie for structure. Her stories are flawless examples of structure, and she does everything else right, too. But the structure shines through with a particular genius. Terry Pratchett. I don’t have any words for Terry Pratchett except “read his books”.
In the past I’ve devoured Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, P.G. Wodehouse, E.A. Poe, Lovecraft, every piece of classic literature you can name including the Epic of Gilgamesh, Louis L’Amour (his Sacketts are so real, you expect to see them come riding out of the hills with guns at the ready), and comics galore. Comics have amazing stories.
I couldn’t possibly name every writer I’ve learned from, but from Poe I learned atmosphere, from Heinlein I learned how to have a theme without beating readers over the head with it, from Linda Howard I learned that condoms can actually be used in a love scene without being a public service announcement (the scene in Open Season is the ONLY condom-using sex scene I’ve ever seen where it was actually part of the story and couldn’t have been left out without losing something vital), from Crusie I’m still trying to learn structure; I’m getting better. From Asimov I learned that science fiction and mystery can coexist happily. The list goes on and on.
I owe a debt I can’t even measure to every writer who taught me pieces of the craft, whether they knew I was learning from them or not. I think I’ve learned more from reading, picking the book apart to see what made it work and writing, writing, writing than I have from any book on the craft or any class I’ve taken.
by Charlene Teglia | Dec 16, 2004 | Uncategorized
I got a big chunk of revision done yesterday, and there’s nothing like the glow of satisfaction a good day’s work gives you. And I thought it was worth mentioning that with all the revising I’m doing, I’m not changing the story or the characters. If something was distracting from the story, it gets trimmed down or removed or moved into the background.
For example, in one scene I got carried away with the setting and it overpowers the story. I deleted a few things here and there, toned it down, moved it further into the background. The setting matters, it needed to be there, but it needed to be in perspective. There’s a subplot that didn’t develop and made a dangling loose end I needed to snip off. Those are the kinds of changes I’m making.
Shouldn’t I have seen these things myself and fixed them before I sent it in? Well, honestly, it doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re going to miss something. That doesn’t mean I don’t try. But I also know that I’m going to miss something, and the longer and more complex a story is, the more things you’re going to miss. Which is why I expect to get revisions back. I know I’m not perfect and the editor will point out the things I missed, so I can fix them. Hopefully as time goes by I will miss fewer and fewer things, but a story always benefits from another pair of eyes and a new perspective.
Which brings me to the topic of how you know good advice on your story when you get it. Somebody (forget who) said that you should take the critique that makes you wish you’d thought of it yourself because it’s so obviously right. Every single editorial mark on Rockets made me smack my forehead and say, “Oh, of course, how could I have missed that?”
Same thing with Yule. Once I got the editorial feedback, I saw that I needed to add a scene in the beginning that showed more of Luke’s character and established his motivation. And subtle changes throughout the story continued to build that character arc. I didn’t change him or the story, I just added explanation and emphasis where it was needed. But until it was pointed out, I didn’t see what was missing.
Does this mean I think every editorial input should be treated like the ten commandments, handed down from on high? No. But when you can see that it’s right, you should take it for the good of the story. If you know it’s wrong, you should suggest an alternative or explain why you disagree. And if you disagree most of the time, you’re badly mismatched. When you’re well matched, you’ll find yourself in agreement, smacking your forehead and saying, “What was I thinking? I can’t believe I didn’t see that.”
by Charlene Teglia | Dec 15, 2004 | Uncategorized
It’s always nice to find a great review waiting in your inbox in the morning! Yule Be Mine rated 5 Hearts from Love Romances and more stunning compliments than I have brain power to process without coffee. Very cool way to start the day. Thank you, Tammy. And thanks to Angie for emailing it to me.
Today’s the day I turn on the Christmas music and nail my behind to the chair and see if I can’t hammer out the rest of the Rockets revisions. Thanks to the Laurell K. Hamilton blog, I have great tips for getting in the mood when you’re soooo not in the mood for sex scenes.
by Charlene Teglia | Dec 14, 2004 | Uncategorized
Gave up and dug out Harry Connick, Jr. to write to this morning since I can’t possibly be anymore distracted than I already am. It’s music that helps me relax and cheers me up, so if nothing else I’ll be calmer and in a better mood in spite of the distractions. It doeesn’t help that I keep thinking, “I’m distracted, I’m not working fast enough”, so I get tense and everything becomes more difficult by an order of magnitude. If I can’t be focused, I can at least be cheerful about it instead of uptight.
And besides, if hearing Harry’s voice doesn’t inspire me to rework those love scenes, I need my pulse checked.
Slept through the Geminids last night, as I expected to, but I’m sure there will be plenty of photos of the event posted around the internet. Next year I ought to be able to stay awake to see the show, Baby 2.0 will be at the blissful sleeping-through-the-night stage and we’ll be past the staggering exhaustion stage. For the Perseids, I’ll probably be awake anyway due to the staggering exhaustion stage and should get a good look at the shower. See, there’s always an upside.
by Charlene Teglia | Dec 13, 2004 | Uncategorized
The Geminids are supposed to peak tonight and apparently are rivalling my favorite shower, the Perseids, for spectacular. If you want to do some star-gazing tonight, here’s a link to find your orientation depending on where you are. I don’t expect to be awake at 2:00 a.m. myself, but if I do wake up in the wee hours, I’ll take a look. No city lights here to interrupt the view.
Back to my revising. My characters are very cooperatively providing me with new dialog and scene snippets where I need to add bits. Whenever they move around and talk without any prompting from me, it’s a really good sign. Oh, and Yule has moved to #2 highest rated recent ebook on Fictionwise, all other stats the same (#4 in fiction, #1 in romance best-sellers).
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