Rule Y: You can’t avoid offending someone with your writing

Linda’s Rules of Writing

We’re onto the letter Y in Linda’s Rules of Writing of the A to Z Challenge, and You can’t avoid offending someone with your writing.

When I was writing with a cowriter, he asked a friend volunteer to read our novel in progress.  He told her it was a thriller set in Virginia during the Civil War.

She was a published writer, so it was kind of exciting because if she liked it, it would be a good referral.  She read 70 pages, and then gave back a 4 page critique that nitpicked the story to death.  I read it over and had set it aside for a few days.  It was scathing!  Her kindest words were “Your prose is clean.”  I read a few days later and immediately realized she’d hated the story and hadn’t known why.  So she’d picked it apart as justification.

A few months later, cowriter mentioned that the romance writer was vehemently anti-gun.  That explained a lot.

Seriously, it was Civil War. Did she think that we would leave out the guns?

You can’t avoid offending someone.  It’s simply part of being a writer.  Have you run into anyone you’ve offended for something in your story?

–

Caption: A to Z Challenge Logo

 

Books are better than chocolate. Maybe.

There’s a great scene in Tamora Pierce’s Page.  The story is about Kel, who is attending school to become the first female knight.  She declares war on other pages who bully students under the guise of “hazing” — and it’s kept the pages away from the library.  But after Kel and another page, Owen, survive a fight with the bully, the other pages realize: why not study in the library?  They head out as a group, with Owen happily chanting, “Books!  Books!”

Mmmm.  Books.

Definitely better than chocolate.

I go to the bookstore probably more than I should, and that’s in addition to what I get online.  I went into withdrawal when Border’s closed down and still wistfully stare at the building where an Ashley’s Furniture is now and wish for more places for books.

The one thing I really like about a bookstore is simply being able to walk through and scan the shelves for a book that catches my eye.  I’ve been known to sit on the floor to get at those delectable chocolates books on the bottom shelf. When Borders was still around, they had a new paperback table that was always my first stop.  The books were face up on the table, so I could see the covers and the titles.

* Whimper * No more Borders.

But I have my own frustrations with the bookstores, too.  Barnes and Noble is it, and they just throw thriller into the general fiction section.  But it depends on the thriller because if it has a crime, it’s probably in the mystery section.  And that isn’t helped by publishers who recategorize books in different genres because the genres are popular, not because the book actually fits.  Like the publisher who labeled a book as a thriller for someone like moi to pick — and discover that it was actually a romance novel!

I felt like I needed to get the cross and garlic.  I do not care for romance.  If I did, I could easily find the section in the bookstore.  I don’t need publishers to try to sneak it past me.  Puh-lease!  Respect the reader with the money!

This time, I picked up manga, because Mary Sue recommended some feminist books.  Yeah, yeah, feminist is kind of a dirty word, but in this case, it refers to books that present women as great characters and avoid sexism.   I picked up Sailor Moon, though I’ll admit it’s been a challenge reading it.  Manga is done from right to left, so I had to start at the BACK of the book, on the last page, with the upper right hand corner.  Grrr!  I keep catching myself flipping left to right!

What new books are you trying to for the fall?  Anything that’s not what you would normally read?  Tell!  Tell!

—

My story “A Soldier’s Magic” has been accepted by Mosaic Indigo Publishing for their anthology The Darkness Within.  It’s a contemporary fantasy set after Desert Storm.  Two female soldiers have to make the difficult decision to kill a friend to keep a parasite from infecting the military world-wide.  The anthology is due out in September, so I will post more information when it is available.

Also, check out my article “Critiquing for Omniscient Viewpoint” published in Vision: A Resource for Writers.  The reason I did this article was because I’ve found hard to get anything in omniscient viewpoint critiqued.

 

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen Review

My review for The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen just went up at Washington Independent Book Reviews.  Enjoy!

 

Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven

I’ve had a realization over the last few days.  I’ve always thought of myself as writing character-driven books, and I’ve realized that I’m actually plot-driven.  I think I confused characterization with character-driven, and they’re not the same thing.

Consider this from Tameri Guide for Writers on Plot-Driven:

A plot-driven story captivates readers or audiences through the excitement of events. The characters are important, but the action takes precedence.

That description fits the thriller genre perfectly, and certainly fits some urban fantasy.  Even a detective novel would be plot-driven because the readers are coming in to see the character solve the mystery. 

This is what Tameri had to say on Character-Driven:

Character-driven stories rely on interesting characters and their responses to situations. While the situations arise from the plot, readers or audiences remember the characters.

On one of my previous projects ( a thriller), the story was set during the Civil War.  A Federal army officer was off on his own agenda, but he had to stop a fellow junior officer named Babcock who knew too much.  Very briefly, I considered a scene where the major orders Babcock’s regiment to come after Babcock, using a lie the soldiers believe.  Babcock realizes that, and he’s caught in the position of knowing his men will kill him to follow orders or to kill his own men for following orders based on a lie.  That never got past the thought stage because it would have been a distraction in the action-based story.  Now I undertand why it didn’t fit.  Action in the story took precedence, and such a direction would have been a distraction for what I wanted to do overall with the story.

 

The Distance in Omniscient Viewpoint

Several years ago, a writer in my critique group submitted a couple chapters from the thriller he was writing.  It was in omniscient viewpoint, and it was so distant, it was like it pushed me away.  I didn’t understand why until recently.

I just finished Black Magic Woman, which is an urban fantasy done in omniscient.  It didn’t push me away like the writer from critique group; but it was rather distant.

Why?  What makes it different from J. K. Rowlings, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, and other similar writers?

The omniscient narrator had personality. 

With Black Magic Woman, it felt to me like the narrator was reporting objectively on what was happening.  Factual yes, but it didn’t add anything to the personality of the story or the characters.   I kind of wish it had; the characters reminded a little of Mr. Steed and Mrs. Peel. 

Not sure about the critique group piece, though.  I wish I still had it so I could look at it again.  I’m guessing it was some combination of reporting objectively and word choice.