Agony! Beyond Power of Speech!

I've been overhauling a very gloomy story lately. Several characters have distinctive Great Tragedies, and nobody comes out on top. Bad things happen to everyone and no punches are ever pulled. With apologies to Stephen Sondheim, every time I contemplate heaping more misfortune upon my poor characters, all I can imagine is said characters banding together to sing their own rendition of Agony from Into the Woods.

"Agony! / Far more painful than yours! / When you know she would kill you / if it opened plot doors!"

Replotting the story and figuring out the fates of all my named characters has gotten me thinking: it's not just me who's cruel to these fictional people; it's popular for writers and authors all over the Internet to detail just how much fun they've been having torturing their brain babies. What's up with that? Are writers just all sadists who turn their desire to maim and harass to people they can torment without going to jail?

I'm still not ruling out that particular possibility, but I've spent some time thinking about the question and I think I've come up with an answer:

Life is pain, Highness, and not everyone knows how best to deal with that pain. Life is long and full of misfortunes big and small, and humans being who we are, we've come up with many varied ways to cope with that. Some coping mechanisms are healthy, some are destructive, and some are so common and vital that there's an entire industry devoted to them: namely, the publishing industry.

Books, I think, are one of humanity's shared ways of coping with all the bad stuff. We writers heap all this misfortune on characters because misfortune is part of daily life, whether that misfortune comes by way of losing keys or by way of something bigger and much more painful. As writers, we know all about how no matter how fantastical a world, there has to be a tie to reality. That tie, it seems, is that everyone goes through unpleasant things.

We heap these horrible events on our characters to see how far it takes to break them, and what happens when they break. Some fall, some die, some transform into unimaginable beasts. Some, though...some use their pain and their anguish and transform into something shiny and new. Some make it through the horrible events their writers heap upon them, and they come out victorious.

We as humans know the world is full of darkness, and we as writers take that darkness and throw it at our characters. We as readers devour these stories. And why? Because we want to see people go through hell and come out shiny and new. We want to see people succeed and we want to know that no matter what demons the characters face--whatever demons we face--there is still a chance to defeat those demons and find safety, security, happiness.

People go through hell, and they don't always come out on top. Similarly, not all characters come out on top. But as long as there's a chance for those characters to win, we'll keep reading and writing about people going through hell. Misfortune is unavoidable, but if people in books can get through it...well, maybe we can, too.

Or maybe writers are just sadists. Who knows?

'Til next time,
J.

Rules and Regs

Today I'd like to talk about rules. I wrote and published a similar post last week, but thanks to a rather unfortunate bit of computer mayhem, it got deleted while I was trying to reorganize things. My best good pal Mires wrote a similar post in its wake, though, and it seems to me that the point of the post is one that deserves reiterating:

When it comes to writing, the rules were made to be broken.

I enjoy reading what other writers and folks in the industry have to say about crafting a story, and for the longest time I devoured how-to book after how-to book. I still have several that I enjoy and that I will recommend, but I must say that I think my old obsession with the "rules" caused my own writing to suffer. While many people have great advice, none of them are the ultimate authority and getting wrapped up in the rules they lay down is a great way to get derailed from the real task at hand, and that is writing a good story.

When it comes right down to it, I write for my own enjoyment first, and second in the hopes that people will read and enjoy the stories as much as I have. The agents and publishers of the world are the middle men and, as wonderful as many of them are, I think getting wrapped up in the rules they lay down can be detrimental. Don't write this kind of story, always keep this tip in mind, take a look at this trend, et cetera.

Now of course I don't mean to paint the industry or its members as a bunch of bad guys; rather, I'd like to point out that, just as many a rejection letter has pointed out, the market is ever-changing and the components of a good story are completely subjective.

Everyone has preferences, and those preferences can vary wildly from person to person. If we as writers only look to the preferences of a few (no matter how vocal those few), we run the risk of getting wrapped up in quickly churning out stories to fit the market, rather than focusing on stories we love, or, worse yet, driving ourselves to endless frustration with stories with elements we don't even like.

This applies on the small scale, too, with individual story elements. "Don't write about prophecies," somebody might say. "It's overdone and readers hate it." That might certainly apply to a chunk of readers, but there are plenty who like prophecies just fine. The real question to ask yourself is, do you like stories about prophecies? Is a story about a prophecy something you could get invested in, toil over, and stick with for years and years?

It is? Then write it.

Stylistic choices, too, are yours and yours alone. Editors might make suggestions, and those suggestions might work for you, but the choice is always yours. That doesn't mean throw grammar out the window, but it does mean that if you want a character to speak wi' a bit o' slang or inflection, you shouldn't be afraid to play around with it and see what works for you. If you want to Capitalize or CAPSLOCK things for emphasis, WHY NOT? It won't always work out, but getting so wrapped up in what the "rules" say might keep you from discovering something that suits your story perfectly.

They (whoever 'they' are supposed to be) like to talk about how you should never write prologues, never include dream sequences, and never ever ever rely on tired ideas of people discovering alternate worlds or hidden powers.

Fie, I say! I like alternate worlds and hidden powers! I appreciate well-implemented dream sequences! If a prologue is written well, I see no reason not to include it. It's what I like that's important to my story, and the only rule I ever stick to is this:

If you're so focused on rules and what the agents might say, you're missing the point, and that is to have fun while writing a great story.

Go forth and have fun, my friends.
'Til next time,
J.

Words From a Smart Man

I started off the year fully intending to immediately get back to a regular schedule. Regular blog posts, daily writing, being responsible and super awesome, the whole shebang. Unfortunately, however, things didn't exactly go as planned. Despite small bursts of inspiration and desire to write pretty words, I've been crippled by insecurities and even anxiety.

I used to write constantly, and thinking about how much that's changed is something that hurts me a lot. It makes me want to get going again just to prove that I still can, but then I get stopped in my tracks by the overwhelming panic that comes at night when you're surrounded with nothing but darkness and your own insecurities. Over the past few months I've written, but never much at a time. No matter how much I tell myself to put my butt in the chair and produce words, I can't. No matter how much I post about fresh starts, I can't make that fresh start happen. I've lost count of how many times I've deleted this blog's archives to start over, hoping that this time I can make it all work out.

What right do I have to take time away from my real-world responsibilities to play with imaginary friends? Where do I get off playing pretend when there are dishes to do, carpets to vacuum, bills to pay, a husband to feed? What's the point in wasting my time when my stories won't go anywhere; when the chances of making it big are so minuscule?

I might have continued being mired in those bleak thoughts for weeks, months, years longer if it weren't for my husband. We had a long talk late at night, when I was firmly in the grasp of the strongest insecurities, and he said something that was akin to the slap in the face that brings a person in hysterics back to the present.

"If there's something you enjoy, you owe it to yourself to do that thing."

Gods bless that man and his ability to help me break through my insecurities. It's a simple statement, but it gets down to the base of my problem. I don't need reassurances that I'm a great writer, because I know damn well some of my words are shoddy. I don't need insistence that I'll get published someday, because that's not my primary goal. I don't need somebody to tell me my stories are good, because I don't write for them and their enjoyment, if it exists, is a happy accident.

What I needed, and what I think everyone needs from time to time, is reassurance that it's okay to have fun and spend time doing things you enjoy. You can't blow off your responsibilities, but you can't kill yourself stressing over everything and forget to actually enjoy things every once in a while. It may seem like such an obvious thing, but sometimes it's so hard to let myself get immersed in a time-consuming hobby that doesn't have an obvious payout. My crafts I can sell or give as gifts; there's practical sides to that. Video games can be interrupted with little notice. All of my other hobbies have some practical aspect or can be set to the side easily when responsibilities rear their ugly heads.

Writing, though...writing is time-consuming, writing doesn't have immediate payouts (if ever), and writing is hard to break away from when you're in the middle of a scene. It's something that's deeply personal and a bit indulgent, and for so long now I've been wrapped up in analyzing every little thing I do that any hobbies that are more than superficial have fallen to the absolute bottom of my to-do lists and have all but dropped of the radar completely.

January may be half-over, but it's not too late to set New Year's goals and resolutions. Hell, it's never too late to set goals and resolutions. Every day is a new one, and today I intend to roll up my sleeves, kick out the last remnants of the insecurities that have kept me from playing with words, and actually write. 

I enjoy writing, and I owe it to myself to spend some time telling stories, free of stress and free of questions about the practicality of scribbling rough drafts in a tattered notebook. It's my time to shine.

Until next time,
J.