Writers in the Storm

By Laura Drake

On Monday, our own Fae Rowen took on the Inspiration half of this discussion, brilliantly. You can read it here.

When this throwdown was first suggested, all the WITS Bloggers assumed I’d take the Sweaty side. I don’t want to think about what that says about me. Or my deodorant.

Why? Because I get up at 3 am to write before work? That I do it on weekends too? Because writing and getting published is the single most important thing in my life right now? (If you know my husband, do not call him – there’s money in it for you.)

I get the feeling sometimes that people hate me for my writing habits. No, really. When the subject comes up, they glare at me, or they look guilty and sidle away.

But please, before you do that – read the following:

You do not have to get up early, or stay up until the ungodly hour of nine to put in sweat equity.

• I know busy moms who back their SUV up to the soccer field and write – looking up now and again to shout encouragement to their kids.
• I know retired people who lock themselves in their office, not emerging until their word count for the day is in the bag.
• My husband met an 80 year old guard at the badge-check booth of an Aerospace firm, who penned “City Slickers” while on the job (honest-to-God truth.)
• Many writers get their best ideas in the shower (no, not the sex scenes, either.)

It’s not about the time of day. It’s not about the ambiance of your writing space. It isn’t even about butt in the chair.

It’s about wanting something. Wanting something bad enough to put in the hours, tears, years, and enough sweat equity to buy the city you live in.

It’s just as hard and simple as that.

If you set a goal, want it bad enough, AND you enjoy the journey to get there, you will.

So, all that remains is for you to decide how best to enjoy the journey while you’re waiting, right? That means finding a schedule that works best for you. Morning, evening, or stolen minutes between . . . it doesn’t matter. I don’t get a gold star for getting up early. You don’t get one for staying up late.

What we both will get if we keep at it, is a book in our hand, with our name on it.

So what if it’s a little damp and sweaty-smelling?

That’s the smell of success, people!

Laura

by Fae Rowen

This one isn't so much a throwdown  as a mirror reflecting what keeps us writing.  Usually Laura Drake draws the line in the sand first, but today I'm going to talk about inspiration and writing.  On Wednesday, since she's the queen of "bottom in the chair," Laura's going to follow-up with perspiration and the writer. (How lucky for me that, according to the old saying, I'm only writing about the 1% inspiration and Laura gets the hard work--the 99% perspiration!)

Without the inspiration of that first story I would never have attempted to write my own novel.  But the characters kept adding scenes to the movie in my head and I felt my day-to-day life slipping more and more into their reality.  A bit scary when the story is a medieval fantasy! An English-teacher friend told me to write the movie down and my first novel was born.

Typically my characters start to impinge on my consciousness to the point of me saying, "Okay, already!  I'll write your story!" so they'll leave me alone when I'm not writing.  I pretty much know the beginning scenes and the ending before I start writing. When they're clear enough in my head, and the characters are three-dimensional complete with backstory, I start the book.

If you read our throwdown about Plot- vs Character-driven stories, you'll know that I'm not much of a plotter.  But when you've been a voracious reader all your life, you've pretty much got the drill down.  Things start out bad and get worse and worse still.  When your character is facing death--or worse--things get better fast and you're done.

This writing style can be a problem after the first three or four chapters. Uh, what happens next? How do I get to that compelling ending? How do I weave my theme into non-existent scenes without getting that dreaded sagging middle? That's where inspiration takes over for me. I can get inspiration from almost anything--and have.  Take the time I was working on a contemporary (so out of my time zone!) about a female math professor who had been a star ballerina in her younger days. Because of an injury, she now tutored young ballet students in her spare time.  Need a scene.

I was taking a belly dancing class in preparation for my Middle East trip. Now, I am not any kind of a dancer. As I was trying to figure out where the muscles were that made my stomach ripple (Did I have them?), I thought, "What if my heroine were a belly dancer?"  What if her friend, a fellow student at Juilliard, danced in a belly dancing troupe? What if, after my heroine's injury, she learned to belly dance? What if she rejoined the troupe for one night only as they toured the West Coast--and that was the night our hero saw what he thought was an uptight college professor belly dancing?  Hmmmm.  Yep, bump up the romance with a shimmy and a hip thrust.

My little sports car has been a jet fighter, a spaceship, and a race car, depending on the book.  In fact, Laura calls the car the Athena-mobile, after the heroine of my first futuristic.  My Siamese cat, Shogun, has spawned a tiger, a lion-like creature, and a sentient alien race.

Most recently, on a trip to Kauai, I was snorkeling as I usually do on vacation.  While maneuvering through coral tunnels looking at eels, octopus and hundreds of brightly colored fish, I thought of the book I'm working on now.  Of course, there must be an ocean on that end-of-the-universe planet.  Since it's a planet with crystals instead of trees and plants, it would make perfect sense that underwater there would be beautiful crystalline gardens with incredible hues and dangerous currents from the vibrations of the crystals.

Not only that, but this beach would work well to show the hero he isn't infallible and that he can't fix everything like he can on his home world. Later, a major scene with a competitive sporting event will have a a broader influence if it's at two venues, one of which is that same beach. Made one scene into two like that! And ramped up the tension (thank you, Donald Maass!), because the heroine must compete at the location of her recent almost-deadly accident.

All that from a wonderful morning snorkeling the North Shore of Kauai.

Did I mention that this planet has no food source? The people must eat only protein bars and protein drinks packed with all the necessary supplements--and some nasty things they don't know about!  Guess what? When I came up with this idea I was on a diet, you guessed it, of protein bars and powders.

You could probably look at what you do the next two hours through a different lens and come up with at least one--I'm thinking more--story ideas for setting, character or scene. Just ask, "What if ...?" and go with it.  There is no wrong answer. You're opening the door for inspiration from your everyday life. And, like it or not, we all write based on our own lives, because that's what we know best. And great writing comes from what we know best.

So put on those glasses of a different color and be inspired by your world. Awaken to everything around you and see it in a new way, as if you're seeing for the first time. And wonder what might happen if ... .

Do you have a sure-fire way to get inspired to write? Do you have a routine to call in your personal muse? We'd love to hear from you. (Heck, I'm not above stealing a good routine!)

Unfortunately, you can't finish a book on inspiration alone. You've got to do the work. On Wednesday Laura Drake will address writing from the "perspiration" angle.  I can't wait to read her blog--she's incredibly dedicated to putting in the time.

We're huge Donald Maass fans here at WITS. We've got all his books. Mine are dog-eared. He has a way of breaking down critical craft points and making them easy to understand. He's graciously allowed us to repost a blog that originally appeared on a blog we're also fans of, Writer Unboxed.

Note: If you don't have Writer Unboxed on your 'must read' list - go do it now - we'll wait. *whistling*

Okay, here's Don:

It’s Not About The Cougar
by Donald Maass

Last month I looked at how tension emerges on the page when apparently nothing is happening. The inverse of that is when high action hits with bullets whining, cars careening and explosions mushrooming.

You’d think that high action would be the most riveting stuff in any novel, but strangely it often is easy to skim. C’mon, be honest. You’ve skimmed some action, haven’t you?

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending a day with Chi-Libris, a group of published authors of Christian fiction. Late in the day we tackled micro-tension. A participant offered a paragraph from a WIP in which a cougar carried a toddler across a stream (in its mouth, in case you were wondering), pursued by the story’s protagonist.

The passage was well written, visually clear—and not particularly scary. When I asked, “What do you think will happen next?” hardly anyone was stirred to speculate. I then asked, “How can we add tension?”

As I expected, most suggestions focused on making the cougar more menacing, raising the stakes (the toddler is a Senator’s child!), changing the protagonist’s actions, etc. No improvement. The outcome still didn’t matter to most.

Then came a suggestion that held the key to increasing tension: heighten the emotions of the point-of-view character. Even better, create conflicting emotions. Bingo. Suddenly the moment sprang to life. Both the interest level and uncertainty of the outcome spiraled up…

…except for a group of a male authors, who were mostly clustered in a back row. “But what if the cougar reared up on its hind legs?” “Cougars have vicious fangs, what if its lips curled back?” The men didn’t want to let go of the idea that tension comes from guns, or in this case claws.

Finally, I improvised a version of the passage that went something like this:

The cougar splashed across the stream, the toddler limp in its jaws. Jim splashed after it, snapping off a branch. No way was he backing down. Forget it. It was man against nature. And this time man was going to win.

Simple as that was, interest increased. Someone noticed that the hero’s determination was undercut by the words this time. Another participant wondered, “What happened last time?” Exactly. It’s the contrast between bravado and fear (both implied) that creates tension and makes the outcome uncertain…

…except for the guys in the back row. “But seriously, what if the cougar…” I shook my head in despair. “It’s not the cougar,” I said, “it’s the emotions.”

Guys. Ah-yee. What are you going to do?

Donald Maass is president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York. His agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc. (AAR).