Fantasy and Reality

 In my dream, I walked into the snack bar of the student union of my alma mater. Daniel, the hero of my first novel, sat at one of the tables. He melted me with a sexy megawatt smile and purred, "Hello, Penn."

The awake part of me cringed--Penn was the heroine's name--and muttered, "You're going over the edge, Byerly. Writing IS a form of schizophrenia." 

"Uh..., hello, Daniel." I sat down beside him and decided, to heck with mental illness, I was going to enjoy myself. 

Even after many years, that dream remains vivid. It was my first encounter with the gray shadings between fantasy and reality in a writer's life. I know the difference between the two, every writer must. I've also learned their interplay enriches my characters and my life.

Parts of me litter my novels like confetti at a party--Tony Chaucer wears the ratty man's bathrobe I refused to stop wearing, Ariel at five snuggles with my teddy bear, and David has my vermouth dry sense of humor. Those parts help my characters live.

But each character is more than just chucks of me. They have thoughts and wisdom I've never had. 

I've borrowed Daniel's genius for quick puns and dear Nelson's serene wisdom and faith when my own was sadly lacking. In this manner, my characters have given back as much as I've given them. Almost like real friends. 

Are you wondering what happened in that dream about sexy Daniel? We sat and discussed his own college days. You see, fantasy like reality doesn't always have the expected ending.

Starting the First Novel

 QUESTION:  I have an idea for my story, the characters, and most of the plot, but I’m afraid to start, and I really want to.  What’s my problem?

Forty odd years ago, I finally decided it was time to begin writing that novel I'd always wanted to write.  I started out with lots more advantages than the average writer.  I'd taken writing courses in college, I'd written poetry and short stories for years, and I'd been an English major.

Those first pages were nearly impossible for me.  I felt like I was writing it in my own blood.  Everything I'd ever learned about writing seemed to have vanished from my brain, and I struggled just to get words down on the page to tell the story I wanted to tell. I had absolutely no confidence in myself as a writer.  

Then about six months into writing and a fourth of a way through the novel, something clicked inside me, and I realized I could do this.  My confidence came back, and the story began to pour out of me onto the page.  I finished the novel in under six weeks.  

Yes, the novel had major problems, my craft stunk, and the novel wasn't remotely publishable, but I'd finished it.  I began to rewrite it using what I'd learned as I wrote.  The novel has never been published, but few first novels are or should be published.  They are practice rounds.  

Without the internet and all those online classes and experts as well as critique partners we have now, I had to struggle to figure out my craft on my own, and my first sold book was my seventh.  

The point is that most writers struggle with the writing.  It takes work and courage to put words on the page.  It takes even more work to make your craft competent.  But you have to start somewhere.  

Write the story and don't worry if it's not good enough. Rewriting can take care of the flaws.  Teaching courses and good critique partners can hone your craft.

If you have to write and have to tell the characters' stories, then the work is more than worth it.

Here's a favorite quote from Nora Roberts who has written a zillion books, all of whom hit the bestseller lists.

"I'm just starting [a new book] and the battle has already begun.  I don't think they ever go smoothly. It's work. It should be work.  It should be hard work. I think if you sort of sit around and wait to be inspired, you're probably going to be sitting there a long time. My process is more about crafting, working an idea through my head to see if it's a good concept." Nora Roberts in an interview with the "Hagerstown Herald-Mail."

We Foreshadow Our Own Future

 At a writing forum I hang out at, Quora if you are interested, a newbie asked if writers put foreshadowing in while we are writing or when we are editing.  The answer is both, of course, but I have found as I start editing my books that I have added foreshadowing of things I wasn't even aware that I was going to do until I did them.  My subconscious knew that an important thematic and plot element was the darker self, and there were images and metaphors of mirrors, shadows, moonlight, and twins sprinkled from the first page.

All this to say aren't we all writers long before we know we are, and the writer in our brain has been busy taking notes?  Yeah, now I've stopped everyone here so they can consider that question.

From the first bedtime stories my dad invented on the spot, I always wanted to be a writer, and stories were flowing through my mind, but putting them on paper as a book was some day, not right now, while I worked on my college degrees in literary analysis and teaching.  

When I finally started putting it on paper, I realized that many of those long analysis papers I wrote were as much about figuring out how to create the stories I wanted to write as figuring out the metaphoric structure of a novel by James Fenimore Cooper.  

So, I’ve always been a writer and a reader, plus a writing teacher, and my subconscious has known my whole life.  How about you?

Criticism and the Writer

In the early days of writers' lives, our works are our babies, and no one wants to be told that the baby is ugly, or has bad manners, or isn't the brightest tot on the block.  It's hard sometimes even for a pro writer to remember that the work isn't really our baby, and we must learn to separate ourselves from our work.

The trick with writing and publishing is to remember that criticism is about the work, NOT ABOUT THE WRITER.  Criticism, constructive or otherwise, also isn't about the dream of being a writer, it's just another part of the work of being a writer.

Learning writing craft is similar to what an athlete does to become good at his game.  We start out with no skills but work until each necessary skill reaches a certain level of competence. 

It requires practice, even more practice, sweat, pain, criticism, the pained self-knowledge that we are not perfect, and a realization that the dream of being published or being on the team doesn't magically happen. Then the cycle begins all over again as we grow as athletes  or writers. 

As a writer, you have a choice of whether you want to dream the dream or you want to buckle down to the hard work, the criticism, and the incredible learning curve of creating publishable craft.  

The criticism, both positive and negative, will never go away if you choose to be a writer.  You need only read the cruel Amazon reviews of some of the best writers to see that even fame, fortune, and success have an ugly side.  Or listen to the stories from pro writers who have to deal with incompetent or control-freak editors and publishers.

The work of improving craft never goes away. It is the same whether you are a newbie without a clue or an established writer.  Nora Roberts and Stephen King have said so, and I imagine any other writer you respect has said the same thing at one time or the other.

Dreaming the dream with no work or emotional toughness may be fine in the short term, but in the long term that dream attracts the predators-- the scam agents, fake contests, and vanity publishers-- who convince you that you are perfect then suck money and dreams right out of you until even the writing is no longer enough, and the dream becomes a nightmare.  

If you love the writing and want to be published, you need to decide if it's a goal worth fighting for as well as a goal worth the time and distress of learning the craft and putting up with the shit.  If it isn't,  you need to find another goal worth the effort.  

The Off-Track Novel

 QUESTION:  I’m writing a novel, but I’ve already hit my word count.  The thing is I can’t finish the novel.  My characters are acting crazy, and I can’t control them.  What should I do?

Ask yourself these two questions. 

Who is my main character? 

What is her/his goal in the story?

Now, start reading your book from the beginning. In each scene or chapter ask these questions. Is the main character driving the plot forward? Is he/she doing something or learning something in each scene to reach the goal? If this isn’t happening in that scene/chapter, highlight that scene/chapter and change the font color so you can look at it later. Keep doing this until you reach the point where you stopped.

Make another copy of your manuscript and give it another name then go through this copy. Remove all the colored sections where nothing is happening. Now reread the whole thing. Does it make sense? Are there reasonable steps the main character has done to achieve their goals? If you are happy with this and see where you are going, you can move forward to finish the main story line.

You can now go back to the original manuscript and reread all those colored font areas to see if they add or subtract from the main story. Characters who are just around can be deleted, and subplots can be kept if they improve the main story, or they can be deleted. Information can be moved to the scenes that remain.

Misbehaving secondary characters may be asking for their own book so tell them to behave in this book, and they may be the main character in their own book. (Yes, this is weird, but authors are weird.)

You should now understand your book well enough to finish it. Good luck.