Category: Musings

Musings

Weekly Musing: You’re My Inspiration

DH Hanni

I’ve touched briefly upon what spurred me to become a writer but I haven’t talked about who my inspirations are, both good and bad. What I mean by that is, which authors do I admire, who in my wildest dreams would I love to be like, and which authors have I read that made me roll my eyes, sigh, and think ‘God, I hope I can do better than that.’ So today I’d like to wax a bit on those writers who have inspired me.

My absolute favorite author is Ken Follett. When I started reading his works, I think it was the first time I realized how much historical fiction I actually read and was the genre I loved the most. I was introduced to him by my spouse, who lent me a copy of The Pillars of the Earth. I loved the book. I loved the time setting, the story, and all the characters even that scumbag William Hamleigh. I started reading other Follett books, haven’t gotten through all of them yet, and my absolute favorite of his books is A Dangerous Fortune. Besides the tremendous amount of research that goes into each Follett book, the biggest thing I admire the most is the depth and complexity of his characters. He can juggle several major characters creating wonderfully entangled relationships. The characters feel like real people. They act like real people. His female main characters are always strong and complex. They are women with brains who buck the social constraints of their time period yet never come across as being out of place or too ‘modern’. Their motivations maybe for love and family, tropes most writers go to, but it never feels trite.

Follett’s characterizations and ways of seamlessly weaving in historical facts and details are a model for me. If I can achieve even an eighth of that, it would be a huge accomplishment in my mind. In A Dangerous Fortune, the book is set in the late Victorian era and Pilaster family’s wealth is centered in the banking industry. This is something most people aren’t familiar with so Follett has to educate the reader but not get the reader bogged down in all the boring financial terms. Instead of taking several arduous paragraphs to explain this, like some authors who shall remain nameless, he sprinkles it throughout the narrative in short, easy to digest paragraphs. He gives it the probiotic treatment. Just long enough to explain why it is germane to the story but not enough to glaze over the reader’s eyes. This approach is something I hope I can do in my own narratives because it is too easy for me to get caught up in the nerdy details I find interesting.

Another one of my favorite authors is George R.R. Martin. Like a lot of readers, I became aware of him via the show Game of Thrones based upon the excellent series A Song of Ice and Fire. His writing style is very different from Follett’s and modern writers I’ve read so far. He has this wonderfully dense, sensitive, lyrical quality to his prose. Sure some lament this but I find it refreshing; it makes his work and voice stand out. I’ve read some of his earlier short stories and am completely jealous of his early works because you can see his uniqueness even when he was a teenager. If I could put together prose a fraction of a fraction as beautiful as Martin does, I’d be exhilarated.

Besides the beauty of Martin’s words, the other thing he does that inspires me is, again, his characters. If you want to know what real, honest characters that quickly become people, then read George R.R. Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire is full of morally gray characters. It is full of characters you may love or hate at the beginning of the series but you wind up switching allegiance to by the end. But it’s not just this series where the characters are like that. His short stories are full of characters with indescribable depth. I admit I haven’t read any of his other novels yet but I look forward to them because I trust the quality will be there.

And for all my fangirling with regards to at least 2 of the authors whom I aspire to be like, there are those that I aspire to NOT be like. I won’t be specific with names or titles because that would be rude but suffice it say, when I attempted to read a certain book with sparkly vampires, I had to stop. Thinking ‘Um, is this what passes for a best-seller?’ is either inspiring or depressing. Inspiring as in well, I don’t think my writing can be any worse than that. Depressing as in I could be going at this for decades, producing well-written work (I hope) and yet not get published. What bugs me about books I’ve read that I don’t finish or like is because those authors have not created complex characters, interesting settings, or have strong prose skills. What gets published isn’t an accurate reflection of quality; it’s just what a publisher thinks they can sell.

But that’s when I realized I just need to concentrate on doing the best I can. I can be inspired without aping anyone else’s style or voice. It is incredibly easy for me to look at what my idols write and get down on myself. Is it realistic to aspire to be the next Ken Follett or George R.R. Martin or J.K. Rowling? Perhaps but I doubt any of them started out thinking they would be huge authors with millions of fans around the world and thousands of people admiring them.

Musings

Weekly Musing: I’ve Got a Secret

DH Hanni

I’ve got a secret to share: I think I suffer from Writer’s ADD. I know it’s only a writer’s affliction because I can focus quite well in the outside world. It’s when I’m lost in my writer’s world that the symptoms become apparent.

For reasons I have yet to figure out, when I sit down for the day to work on research or brainstorm ideas or to write, I get ADD. I’m not referring to daydreaming or staring off into space to help me think. Or the actual ADD my spouse has. No, I’m talking about getting massively distracted by outside stimuli like the Internet.

Damn you almost unlimited knowledge resource and high-speed connection! A random thought will pop into my brain like say, ‘Oh, I wonder whatever happened to…?’ Let’s jet off to Wikipedia to look this person up. Oh, and here’s a link to someone else they worked with; let’s see what they are up to! Wait, that person was in that movie or TV show that I loved? Let’s click on that link and read about it. Fast forward and somehow I’ve lost an hour or more of my life. All in order to obtain worthless knowledge that only my spouse will be subjected to yet be utterly unimpressed that I know.

I refer to this phenomenon as the Wikipedia black hole. All those links, all those sources cited, it’s just way too easy to click and explore.

Another black hole I get into at times, and this one truly shames me to admit, is the dribble Yahoo passes off as ‘news.’ The IQ of my whole house goes down a few points when I click on a Yahoo article. Even though I know the article is going to be poorly written and about some idiot no one should ever read about. And yet, my index finger clicks on the mouse button. I am a git. And from the comments, usually the best part of any Yahoo article, I’m not the only one that regrets the decision.

Oddly enough, neither the TV nor the Xbox factor into my ADD. Although I haven’t beaten Bioshock Infinite yet…

But as of late, I am trying to deal with my Writer’s ADD. It isn’t beneficial to me whatsoever. Why waste my precious time with web-based junk food? In order to treat my Writer’s ADD, I’ve decided to set an alarm limiting myself. So far it is working because if I know I have 30 minutes to mess around the Internet, it actually sparks me to spend time on websites that are worthwhile. Like writingforums.org, writersdigest.com, or authormagazine.org to name just a few. Or to listen to interviews of my favorite authors.

I guess I have a fear of getting down to the daunting task of writing and research. I love and enjoy both of these activities but they can also be the ones that inspire the most anxiety in me. Looking up dumb stuff on the Internet is, unfortunately, a good way to not deal with that fear. With the timer system, though, I think it will be a great way to allow me time to soften up my brain before diving into work. Another benefit of setting a timer is I’m using it for research and writing time allotments. It focuses my brain on the one task I should be doing and quiets down the urges to multitask. And multitasking one’s mind rarely works for productivity something this writer is very much interested increasing.

Musings

Weekly Musing: What Makes For a Good Read?

DH Hanni

What attracts a reader to spend hours each day reading? Is it the characters? The plot? The author? The subject matter? Is it the story? That desire to experience a world different from their own?

For myself, I’m usually drawn to what the story is about but what ultimately makes for a good read are the characters. Occasionally it is the author but only if it’s one of my favorites.

But what is it about a story that peaks my interests? Genre is the first attraction. Since historical fiction is one of my favorite, I’m first drawn to particular time periods. If it’s fantasy, stories with swords or magical people or creatures or just has a unique world. And, as of late, I’ve been reading more of the classics and literature just because I feel deficient somehow.

After picking a genre, reading the book jacket to get a feel for the story is key. If the story is set in a time period I’m familiar with, what twist are they going for? If it’s a story containing a real historical figure, what aspect of their life do will I find interesting? If it’s fantasy, what is going to happen in this world? With the classics or literature, I tend to be interested in a theme or an exploration of a character as he goes through change in his life. Location and time period aren’t as important to me.

Once I’ve started a book, the biggest thing that will hold my attention are the characters. I generally prefer the lead characters to be smart, strong, and courageous yet I’m coming to realize that a really good lead character doesn’t necessarily have to be all these things in order to be interesting or a well-developed. Well, actually, the lead should be at least smart. And by smart I don’t mean has a high IQ but that there is something smart about them. I don’t want to read about someone who constantly acts stupid. The lead can make stupid decisions as part of the plot and character development but the character itself can’t be stupid.

Admittedly plot isn’t too big of a priority. I’ve read some books recently that had some pretty out there plots and didn’t mind because the characters were so interesting. American Gods by Neil Gaiman has a plot I have a very hard time describing but it is the odd, creepy characters that intrigued me. Actually everything I’ve read so far by Neil Gaiman I could claim to have a hard time describing the plot other than it’s just different. Another book I’ve read, Emperor Mollusk vs. the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez is a sci-fi read with a villain as the main character that again, it’s hard to describe the plot and do it justice. It’s not that they had bad plots or boring plots, if they did, I’m not sure even the most interesting and well-developed characters could save a boring book. I think overall, I’d much prefer a simple lot and simple subplots with complex characters. If the characters are complicated, then I get more of a sense they will do just find mucking up a simple story. That’s what is fun for me to read.

Those elements that make for a good read to me are what I strive for in my own writing. Yet I do realize it is important to have a good plot; it’s the platform that allows characters to do their thing. Also, plenty of readers are attracted to plot so I do need to keep that in the back of my head. But for me, characters are what drive the story bus, both in what I read and what I write.