“If you focus on what you’ve left behind, you will never be able to see what lies ahead.”
-Gusteau, from the movie Ratatouille
Tag Archives: life
T is for … Target Audience
You’re lining up to cash out at the grocery store. There’s a guy in his mid-twenties behind you and a woman in front of you. The woman is arguing with a child who wants a chocolate bar. You think to yourself, just buy it and shut the kid up. The guy behind you says as much under his breath but loud enough for you to hear. Which one of these people do you relate to? If you actually thought, just buy it… then it’s the guy behind you. On the surface you are in cahoots. But if you’re a parent, you probably thought, that poor woman, and chances are you relate to her on a deeper level. Why? Because you probably share experiences.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the things which connect us as human beings are that which we relate to when we read a book. The more we can relate, and get into the mind of the protagonist or even the antagonist, the more we’ll enjoy the novel.
Back to my scenario at the beginning. Assuming you’re a parent, you can probably understand on some level what it’s like to have a child who, at one time or another, acted out. Yes, there are people out there with perfectly behaved children in public. Perhaps they only go out on days that the sun shines. I have no idea. But not to belabor the point, let’s go instead to the guy standing behind you. If you agreed with him then you can relate, but only to a point. His situation and his attitude aren’t as obvious as the harried mother’s. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write a book he’d be interested in reading. It probably wouldn’t have children in it. Then again, the mother’s ideal novel probably wouldn’t either. She’s looking for an escape.
So is the solution to never put kids into your novels? Maybe. Or maybe you just need to think about who is going to relate to your characters–their lives and their emotions–to find your target audience.
Things are coming to a head in the story of Jupiter and Xavier! Have a read – just click here: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/t-is-for-the-tux/
Chaos
There’s something about this photo that feels chaotic to me. The tangle of branches; the dead leaves from last fall, hanging on precariously even as the new spring growth pushes out from the winter’s dormant branches. The century old brick a backdrop for yet another spring – another dawning year. Even the drops of rain suspended on delicate branches, waiting to fall, to nourish the earth from which the tree thrives add to the pandemonium.
I wonder which will outlive the other: the tree, or the house?
Do you sense the chaos? Is it just me?
S is for … Survey – Fictional Characters
The first arguably most difficult thing about creating characters, is avoiding writing about yourself. This argument is based on the fact that you know no one better. Your experiences, tastes, and even your most used expressions are bound to creep in – sometimes you don’t even realize it.
The second arguably most difficult thing about creating characters is making them believable. It’s easy to write a one-dimensional character. So we write back stories, which may or may not show up in the final cut. But how detailed are those back stories? And how rounded do they make your characters?
The difficulty I find in writing a back story is that it tends to be about the big stuff. When I’m writing one, I’m looking for what motivates my characters to do what they do. Because a character with no motivation is the worst kind of cookie-cutter character. So I go back to their childhoods to discover what made them who they are. What are the huge events that shaped them into the person my readers will see when I plop them down in my story and ask them to react?
It’s not just the big things that shape who we are in real life though, is it? It might be where we were when someone else’s big event happened. It might be a piece of music we heard. Any number of trivial things make us who we are. And it’s those little things that make people care about us. Truly care. Which is another MAJOR if not the most MAJOR thing in keeping a reader reading our story.
With this in mind, I came up with an idea. What about those stupid surveys you see all over facebook and the like, which teenagers love to fill out? I looked one up. My mind was blown. This is only one of thousands: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=50193333157 so if you don’t like the questions here, google “100 question survey facebook.” If I answered only a third of the questions on this survey, from the perspective of my characters when they were teenagers, I would know everything I could possibly want to know in order to create the best characters I can come up with. Because the problem with writing just a back story, is the lack of spontaneously coming up with your characters quirks, opinions, and thoughts. Why? Again, because your own seep in.
As soon as I have the time, I will take this survey for at least four of my novel’s characters–two main, and two supporting. I honestly believe this is the golden key to rounding out their lives, and making my readers–and myself–care about them and what happens to them.
Do it. And really put some thought into it. Remember what it was like to be a teenager, when all of these questions mattered. Then let your character’s experiences seep in to your story and not your own. I can almost guarantee that it will give you a better story.
Stranger things have happened! Or have they? Click here to go to my fiction blog and see: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/s-is-for-serendipity/
I Found My Willy! (and other randomness)
If you’ve been following me for a while you might remember this post: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/whereswilly-com-the-20-blog-post/ It’s about a $20 bill I received and signed up online, before I spent him, to see where he goes. Yesterday he resurfaced!
I got an email last night to let me know my Willy is still in good condition and is about 7-8 hours away, north of Sudbury, Ontario. He came out of an ATM! I was afraid that since he was old (2004) he might have been taken out of circulation by the bank, especially since we now have plastic money here in Canada. But it turns out my Willy is still making his rounds.
Also, this morning, I was greeted with an email to say that a user of Goodreads with the handle “Coffee Talk” wanted to be added as my friend.
I accepted, of course. Although I’m surprised – coffee has been my friend for years already.
What’s your randomness for today?
R is for … Real Life Villains
There’s a contest going on at a local radio station at the moment to promote the concert and to give away tickets for the band Wheatus. You might remember them – they sang the song “Teenage Dirtbag.”
(great video)
To win the tickets you must write about your own experience with a dirtbag and send your story in to the station. This got me to thinking (as things do) about how one doesn’t really need to resort to watching “Criminal Minds” to find a villain for their story. Most of us, if not all, know people in real life who would make perfect villains. All that’s required is to amp up their faults either a little or a lot.
Take the jock in the video, for instance. He pisses off his girlfriend when he throws something at the nerd. Bullies like this are everywhere – not just at school.
True story: A couple of years ago, my mother was in the parking lot of the local mall when she grazed another car going around a corner. She was supposed to meet up with me inside the mall that day, and she didn’t know what to do, so she came to find me. Someone, meanwhile, witnessed the accident and wrote two notes; one they left on my mom’s windshield and the other on the windshield of the person she hit. I don’t remember exactly how it went down, but I contacted the owner of the damaged car. Luckily, I didn’t let my mother deal with the asshole.
He told me he wouldn’t put in a police report if I would agree to pay for his repairs. I said fine – it wasn’t much damage. He was going to get it fixed right away. When it was done, he called me to say it would be $300. This is how it went from there:
Me: Okay just send me the receipt for the repair.
Him: No.
Me: I’m not giving you any money unless I see the bill.
Him: Don’t you trust me?
Me: (thinking, no I don’t) It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just want it for my records.
Him: What do you need the receipt for – are you a bookkeeper or something?
Me: Yes I am.
Him: Well maybe I’ll just call the police. You don’t want this to go on your mom’s record, do you?
Me: Not really, but I still want the receipt.
Him: (getting angry) Look, I’m giving you a deal here. You should be paying me more than $300 for my inconvenience. I had to go without my car for two days. Doesn’t my time mean anything to you?
Me: No.
I hung up on him and took my mother to the police station to report the accident. Her insurance paid for her damage and his paid for his. And that was that.
Classic bully. What a villain he would make.
Have you crossed paths with a villain? Please share your experience in the comments!
For the continuing saga of Jupiter, Xavier, and the gang, click here: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/r-is-for-rumours/
Holiday Anxiety in Children
I sit here writing this in a state of exhaustion. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you’ve been here. Up since 4am with a child who can’t see the merit of sleeping when tired, but can only scream and cry, I’m just about ready to do the same. Most of us go through a stage when this occurs on a daily (or nightly basis) but even when that less-than-delightful slice of life is over, it can come back with a vengeance during the holidays.
But they’re supposed to be fun, aren’t they? Relatives come to visit, or we go to visit them; everyone has an extra day off work or school or daycare; there’s great food to be eaten; there’s excitement in the air because everything is different! So what’s the problem?
First, many kids can’t handle the excitement. The pressure to be good for Santa, or in this weekend’s case, the Easter bunny can be overwhelming. They don’t know what to do with their energy when all the adults are telling them to please be quiet, and at the same time ignoring them because they haven’t seen Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ralph in ages. Between that and the preparations or the traveling, the kids will start to be annoying because it’s their only way to get the attention they want. The result: anxiety all around.
Second, schedules go down the tubes. When everyone is going about their daily routine, whether it be the weekday one or the weekend one, kids know what to expect and when to expect it. The holidays present an exception to just about everything. For a small child, even the fact that he or she isn’t being served spaghetti as usual on a Saturday evening can be a cause for a little extra glee.
How to combat this depends on the child. With my two who weren’t afraid of Santa and the Easter bunny – or even the tooth fairy – schedule was essential. It was all different, yes, but by letting them know what to expect ahead of time, for instance when people would arrive, what we’re having to eat, when we’re leaving and getting home etc., they could at least anticipate how they needed to behave and when. This way I was able to spend time with them when I wasn’t busy, and they knew that then was the time to have my undivided attention. Allowing them to help out with the preparations was always a good way to spend time with them and still get something done, as long as I allowed for the extra time it would take.
Allowing them to have a say in the decision making as well, was a great way to get through the day. It gave them a sense of control, even though the choices I asked them to make were unessential to what I had planned. For instance: we’re leaving at noon – do you want to wear this coat or that one? This is something I’ve carried through to every day life, and I find it amazingly helpful in getting anywhere. Or in the case of preparation, I would ask them where they wanted the decorations placed. Thanking them for their good decisions also aided in making them feel as though they were being well behaved, taking some of the pressure off and with it the anxiety of being good enough to receive their gifts. This is something I personally disagree with, by the way; I won’t deny them the treasures of the holidays. Rather, I will take away the extras they receive during non-holiday events, such as a favourite activity.
So you get through your day and it’s the night before. Excitement is at an all time high at bedtime because a special visitor is coming while they sleep, to leave gifts. You put them to bed praying that they won’t get up and catch you doing the deed. It’s even worse if the anxiety includes fear of the “beloved” character who is shoved down their throats sometimes month in advance of this one highly stressful night. What happens then? Right. I’ve been awake since 4am.
And so we go back to Alex’s fear of the dreaded bunny etc., and that’s the one I haven’t figured out what to do with. Alex’s anxiety isn’t, I’m sure, unique to only him. It keeps him awake at night, which is something even we adults can relate to.
I’d love to hear any suggestions you have in the comments. For the rest, I hope you can take something from this: I hope it helps.
If I Just Had… Stream of Consciousness Saturday (Just)
I hear people say all the time, “If I just had,” this or that, then I’d be happy. Today, if I just had a moment without stress I’d be able to think about what I want to write! That’s what SoCS is for though, right? Just start writing and publish whatever comes out.
So I’m sitting here with my laptop on my lap, on the couch, while my mother tries to avoid Alex, who is bound and determined to terrorize her in any way he can.
Stress doesn’t even cover it. Doesn’t begin.
I hate whining though. Whenever I get on here and I write a blog post that sounds like I’m complaining, I delete it. But I can’t do that today. So here, you see a rare blog post from me where I’m actually bitching about things going on in my life. It’s like spotting a rare bird in a tree. Quick! Take a picture!
That happened to me the other day, actually. I heard the cardinal before I found it – I wouldn’t have been looking for it otherwise. It sat singing at the top of a tall tree, brilliantly red. I got my camera out of my pocket to take a picture, not sure I could zoom in enough to get the shot, but it flew away as I was pushing the zoom button. So, you don’t have a picture of that not-so-rare bird.
Things are quiet. This is the stupidest post I’ve ever written. I need to do my laundry.
This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-april-1914/
Q is for … Quagmire
One of the best and the worst things in writing fiction is to get your characters into a situation that’s difficult to get out of. It creates a quagmire not only for them, but for you, the author. There’s nothing quite like the moment when you figure out how to release them from an impossible situation. There’s nothing better for your readers than not being able to figure out where the story is going. It makes them want to keep reading. It’s the goal of the author to create such an irresistible environment.
But what if you’ve put your characters into a place that’s so boggy that the only way to get them out is for something convenient to happen? They’re adrift at sea and the sharks are circling… oh look! It’s a helicopter! That sort of thing just doesn’t fly (pardon) with most readers.
Do you keep trying to come up with a way out? Or do you start again, and put them into an easier situation? Personally I hate giving up on these sorts of difficulties. Because the solution, when it comes to me, is one of the best feelings in the world.
Giggity.
For your convenience, a quick link to see how the problems are adding up in my A-Z fiction, here: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/q-is-for-quest-for-harry/
O is for … Openness
Do you ever wonder how much you’re giving away of yourself when you write? Details of a writer’s psyche must show through, since all we really have to draw from are our experiences and our emotions. Our backgrounds: our genetics, our nature and how we were nurtured as children make up who we are, and are inherent in everything we do. Whether a writer of fiction, personal accounts, poetry… what creates our literary “voices” is our individuality.
I worry–not as much now as I used to–how much personal information I’m putting out there, whether intentionally or not. I worry that my kids will read what I write and be embarrassed or scarred – who wants to read their mother’s love scenes after all? How do they know how much of it comes from my imagination and how much from experience? I certainly won’t hand my own mother my novel and say, here, enjoy it. But then she judges me more harshly than anyone on the planet.
Of course, not everything we write comes from experience. I often say that if Stephen King did, he’d long be imprisoned. It’s not as though he goes around killing people, or feels the pain of being hit by a car. … oh wait, never mind. I watched a Youtube video the other day, in which he spoke to a room full of students about his process in writing, among other things. He said that one of the questions he is asked most often is what his childhood was like – what kind of trauma he went through in order to write the things he does. He said there was absolutely nothing… but if there was, he wouldn’t tell.
For myself, I went through an obsession with death after my father passed away suddenly. Not surprising since I was only fourteen years old. Is it why I write horror on occasion? I’m not sure. It was certainly the only traumatic thing I went through as a child. Yet paternal abandonment, in whatever form, shows up in every major work I’ve written to date. It took four novels before I realised it.
This is what I am open about. What about the stuff I’d rather not be? I ask again: do you ever wonder how much of yourself you’re giving away when you write? Is there anyone in your life you’d rather never read your work – or are you careful just in case they do?
Illustrated in light erotica, on my fiction blog here: http://lindaghillfiction.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/o-is-for-oh-jupiter/
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