Category: Musings

A big compliment any artist, whether an author, musician, actor, what have you can get from an audience is being told ‘I haven’t *insert emotion here*!’ In other words, you made me feel. Usually this is a good thing especially if eliciting that particular emotion was the goal. Sometimes, though, a fan or group of fans can get too emotionally invested in a character or story to the point it clearly clouds their ability to function.

First off, I’m not one of those people who gets easily offended nor do I easily cry or get angry. However, it is relatively easy to make me laugh but to elicit tears or well-placed anger in me is hard to do. I’m not quite sure what specifically triggers it. Sometimes it depends on where I’m at in my life; I could be more or less sensitive to certain emotions. For example, in The Wedding Singer, I cry every time at the end when Adam Sandler’s character sings that song to Drew Barrymore’s. But there are loads of times I don’t cry when I know I am expected to cry. Did I cry during Titanic? Yes, but it had nothing to do with Jack and Rose. I lost it in the scene of the musicians continuing to play and entertain even as the ship was ripped apart. Don’t think James Cameron meant for that to happen.

Movies and TV shows don’t generally cause me to emotional however books do. Whilst reading the series A Song of Ice and Fire there were many times that I not only cried but I went ‘Holy Sh*t!’ Yet in that series the one section known as The Red Wedding in A Storm of Swords that I’ve heard of many, many people who not only cried but also threw the book across the room, I didn’t react. In that case I think it was because of who was involved in that scene because I certainly have reacted the way the author intended at many other points in the narrative.

Harry Potter is another series that has brought out strong emotions in me. I absolutely lost it when Harry sees his parents in a special mirror in the first book and I cried not when Dumbledore died, but when Snape did because the reader, along with Harry, had just learned Snape’s childhood friendship with Harry’s mother. Damn you Rowling for making a grown woman cry reading a children’s series!

These are just a couple of examples but ones, which to me, are a sign of excellent writing because all of the characters and situations feel real. I appreciate that. Interestingly enough while I relish realism in my fiction it is that same realism that can cost an author readers. According to one of the talks George R.R. Martin gave this past weekend at ConCarolinas, years ago he received an e-mail from a reader. This now former reader eloquently told him that she couldn’t continue reading his work because it was just too real for her, too bleak because her real life was rough and books were her opportunity to escape. He e-mailed her back explaining her understood where she was coming from and thanked her for a being a reader and wished her luck. As a writer, he knows, as most writers do (or should) that with each story you will gain and lose readers.

While it’s great to become emotional and attached to a character or story, a phenomenon I’ve become aware of the last few years has to do more with what I consider to be overinvested reactions, usually with TV shows or movies. By overinvested reactions I’m referring to the people I’ve interacted with online who became almost hysterical at the conclusion of season 3 of Sherlock. Or who if you mention the name Steven Moffat, one of the show runners/writers for Doctor Who and Sherlock, just watch the kind of violent nerd rage that conjures up in some people and the endless debate that ensues. Or one who sends an author a nasty letter because your favorite character died. It’s one thing to be shocked or upset by the turn of events but to be violently outraged to the point you think the writers have somehow personally offended you tells me that perhaps you need to step back.

Whether it is a book, TV show, or movie, it is vitally important to keep in mind a few things:

1) It is a work of fiction, it is not real. Yes, the characters and situations may be intended to reflect as much of real life as possible but it is not real life.
2) If you don’t like something you can either stop reading or watching it. Simple as that. Not everyone likes everything and if you find yourself getting to a boiling rage point then you need to move onto something else. Getting into arguments with people who disagree isn’t going to help either side.
3) If you disagree with how it was written then take the opportunity to tap into your inner writer and do something better. I think if more people took the time to try and write what they would consider a more satisfying story they would see just how difficult it is. What makes sense to you doesn’t necessarily make sense to someone else.
4) How a character acts should be viewed through the lens of that character not you as the audience. What we would personally do in that situation is not what the character should do. Do those actions make sense for the character?
5) Revisit point #1 if you still aren’t convinced.

At the end of the day this is entertainment and it is up to you, the audience, to decide what is best for you and how much emotional involvement you want to invest. Just be careful and not get so wrapped up in a world you give yourself an aneurysm or heart attack. That’s what sports are for.

Looking over my previous posts I realized I have yet to talk about writers groups in any kind of detail. What made me think about this is now that I’m finally getting more settled in my new area, I decided to spread my wings and find myself a writers group. I had to decide if I wanted to join another in person group, like I had where I used to live, or did I want to go online.

I’ve used both and prefer in person but online has some advantages. One site I’ve used is Critique Circle . This was great for when I decided to start sharing my work with others because it is pretty much anonymous. What I like about their site is the credit system as well as the tit-for-tat list. The way the credit system works is a writer gets a set amount of credits when they first join. Each time you want to submit a story for review it costs a certain amount of credits depending upon length of the piece. In order to earn credits, you need to critique other stories thus encouraging writers to learn from each other. As someone reviews your story, a special icon shows up next to their name whenever the next time they post their own story. The purpose of this is good karma.

I prefer in person just because it’s nice being around other writers and sharing struggles and triumphs. I’d been looking for a group over the past few months and used Meetup.com . Last week I mustered up enough courage to attend a couple of meetings of the Charlotte Writers Group. Each Wednesday night they meet at a coffee shop for a write-in. The idea being it’s a set period of time for people to work or to socialize or both. In addition to the Wednesday night write-ins, they meet the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month to critique stories.

I was unsure if I would go to their critique group until that first write-in. I should up way early to the write-in and nervously waited. This first person I met I started asking him about what the critique group was like. He put my mind at ease telling me how respectful and honest people were and most importantly, encouraging. I told him a little bit about my old writers group because it sounded like I would be in a very similar environment. As other members showed up, I immediately felt safe and secure.

But going into my first meeting, I still wondered if would be a good fit for me. I’m glad I went, though. While I didn’t read the stories that were up for review, wanted to observe first, what I saw and heard was reassuring. It’s a diverse group in age, gender, published or not, and backgrounds. There was a positive, comfortable energy to the group as the stories were reviewed. I like the structure they have for critiques. Each story is given fifty minutes to be discussed and rather than go around the room having each person give their comments, whoever feels like commenting speaks. To keep order the leader writes down the order in which people want to comment.

Another thing I appreciate is how stories are chosen for review. In between stories, the leader asks if anyone has a story ready to raise his or her hand. He writes down the names, puts them in a hat, and draws out two names.

It was interesting seeing how another writers group is run. My old group would take up to three submissions for each meeting and we went around the room for each story. Nice and easy process for both groups.

I’m grateful and hopeful that my new writers group will be a positive place. I’ve been spoiled so far in my experiences with critique groups. There are horror stories floating out there about people joining a group where members get competitive and jealous of others’ successes or who make new members cry after critiquing their first piece. Yes, one must develop a thick skin as a writer and realize not everyone will like your work for one reason or another, but even the most poorly written piece has some bright spots. In my opinion the responsibility of a writers group is to support each other. Ripping someone apart or being jealous of success doesn’t accomplish that. I’m thankful I seem to have found a group of people who share that philosophy.

It’s all about what works best for you as long as you get some kind of consistent feedback. Look for people that will offer constructive criticisms. This means both positive and negative feedback. It’s far too easy to focus on a story’s flaws that telling someone what they are doing right is far more difficult. In some ways it’s more important to let someone know what they are doing right so they can play to their strengths.

At the end of the day, you, the writer, can take whatever criticism is thrown at you with a grain of salt. Disagree with someone’s assessment of your story? That’s fine; you aren’t beholden to them or anyone else to please them as long as you are pleased with the story. You’re the King or Queen of your world.

A few weeks ago I talked about how I had started the revision process on my first novel. I was hopeful back then as I had written notes of how to improve the story, what character revisions I wanted to make, and gathered pictures to help me visualize the world the story lived in.

However, as I started to actually write, all of my prep work went out the window as new ideas popped up. I rolled with it but it became apparent I was actually drafting a new novel. The characters were still the same but the story itself changed. A new main character took charge as I realized I enjoyed working on that character’s sections more than who I had intended the book to be about. A new structure jumped out at me that I liked so I went with it.

Yet at the back of my mind I was still debating if I should go back at all and truly rework my first novel.

The answer is: No. For now, I’m canning any further work on it. I feel okay with this because in listening to authors speak and reading interviews it’s not unusual for a writer to tuck a project away for a few years, come back and work on it, tuck it away again, and so on until it’s done. One writer in particular, I believe it was Jess Walters, told the interviewer he just wasn’t ready for the story as a writer meaning his own skills weren’t up to what the story needed. That doesn’t mean if an idea drops into my head I’ll ignore it, I will log it. Thankfully I keep all drafts and anything related to each piece I do.

Perhaps that is what my first novel revision process has taught me. The fact that a different novel wound up being written shows me I simply wasn’t ready to tackle revising the first one. Does this mean the second novel I did wrote is going to be one I see through a full revision? I don’t know. I’m not going to worry about it all, though, nor am I going to schedule any time to devote to working on it unless there is a strong pull in that direction. For now I’m going to concentrate on working on short stories, develop some ideas for articles I’d like to write, as well as researching a period in history I’m not too familiar with since some ideas for a novel have planted a seed.

At first I was quite dismayed with myself for realizing hours and hours of work I’d put in planning and revising was for nothing, but as I keep being reminded none of it was wasted time because it is all part of my evolving learning process. Even if I don’t touch either novel ever again the time spent working on them is still practice writing. This can only help me in the future plus I’ve now written two novels. So what if the current products on those novels are terrible, I can’t begin to hope to succeed and get better without some failures along the way.