Writing from the Heart to Move the Heart

How does one move the heart in fiction? One way is to create memorable characters that we care about. Characters who face conflict, find a way to resolve the conflict, and grow through the experience.

I recently picked up Roger Rosenblatt's Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing. Rosenblatt speaks about digging deep into ourselves to reach the emotions and memories that can turn a good phrase into a memorable phrase. As a writer, I am always looking for, and not always finding, le mot juste. If we are not honest about our own emotions and we write from that lack of honesty, then I think we are cheating our readers.

I just finished several books by a long-time best seller. Why? Because he is a groundbreaker in using a specific theme that I want to exploit for Max 3. He remains anonymous, because in the last two books I read, I didn't give a damn about the protagonist. One's anger management problems were so atrocious that I wanted to kill him off myself. The other protagonist whined his way through 300+ pages.

I got to thinking about why I was disappointed. I've read this writer for years and have liked many of his works. In these last two, he abandoned much of why I read him in the first place.

1. Limited character development, not likeable and didn't grow. He plopped them on page one and didn't do much with them afterwards.
2. Evil bad guys so shallow that you could drive a truck through their wickedness, yet the main characters never saw through them. And in one book, a main character is romatically involved with one of the evil people. He drops out of the story 100 pages before the end. She never knows he's behind the attacks on her ex-husband. Come on.
3. Red herrings left to rot on plates on the table.

I'm done reading this writer. I know what not to do. I know I can continue with the themes I've set out for Max 3. I know I need an antagonist who is flawed and with whom the reader can at least empathize. I need to maintain the likeability of Mad Max. If no one likes her, why bother?

Good lessons from Rosenblatt applied to my "light" reading. Thanks, Mr. Rosenblatt. You are making me a better reader and a better writer.

Enslaved by Ducks

I'll admit it. I probably wouldn't have picked up Bob Tarte's Enslaved by Ducks, but when a friend gave it to my husband for his birthday, I decided to read it. I found myself howling at the antics Bob and his wife experienced as they acquired bird after bird.

The growth of the menagerie comes about almost by accident. When Bob and his wife Linda move to a farmhouse in Michigan, it seems logical that they will have a pet. Where I would probably start with a dog or cat, they started with a bunny they name Binky, who transformed their house into an "indoor petting zoo." Other rabbits follow, each with its own personality, which Tate describes in howlingly funny detail.

Next comes the first of the birds. Chester, the canary, is innocuous enough, but when Bob and Linda add Ollie, a tyrannical pocket parrot that demands constant attention when anyone is in the same room with him, I wondered if they had lost their minds.

Not to be outdone, more birds arrive: ducks, both domestic and wild, geese and turkeys. Even a flock of abandoned starlings that have to be dropper-fed every two hours around the clock. With each new addition, Tarte tells us how they find and decide to adopt the bird, how it fit or didn't fit with other birds in the growing flock, which birds needed to be isolated so that they wouldn't fall prey to jealous brethren, etc.

I wasn't sure I would finish the book, but I found myself wondering what new and probably sociopathic beast would move into the Tarte Michigan farmhouse next. As I neared the end, I remembered an interview in the Washington Post a few years ago. A high-powered lawyer in Washington, D.C. decided to buy a mini-farm out near the Blue Ridge Mountains and raise pygmy goats, the farthest thing from his daily work tasks at a political action committee. When asked why, he said (in today's parlance), "I never get a tweet from the pasture."

Alas, Tarte and his wife get different kinds of tweets all day long from the flock living in their house. Better them than me. I'll stick with one cat, thank you very much.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

If you haven't read Little Bee by Chris Cleave, you're missing a terrific experience. A New York Times best seller, this novel was short-listed for the 2008 Costa Award for Best Novel. It breaks most of the rules agents list on their sites for what makes a novel worthy of representation.

Little Bee is the story of two women whose lives become intertwined through a single act of violence in Nigeria. Sarah, a white English woman, and her husband Andrew try to repair a damaged marriage on a vacation to Nigeria. On a walk along the beach, they meet Little Bee, a girl who was being chased by dogs and armed men.

Two years later, Sarah is back in England, raising her four-year-old son, Charlie, who decides he's Batman. He won't take off his Batman costume, because the "baddies" will win. Little Bee has just been released from a detention center for refugees seeking asylum and makes her way to Sarah's home. Let's just say, the situation becomes complicated when the reunion of the two women opens deep wounds and forces them to confront the blackness within each.

Cleave breaks several "rules" agents insiston: he uses two narrators, both speaking in first person; much of his dialogue is in dialect. Sarah, of course, speaks perfect English. Little Bee sometimes speaks with a Nigerian dialect, sometimes she speaks like Queen Elizabeth, particularly when she feels threatened by authorities.

And Charlie speaks his own language, always to be corrected by his mother. When Little Bee asks Charlie to take off his Batman costume, Charlie replies, "...if I is not in mine costume then I is not Batman."

Cleave maintains unique voices for each of the three main characters. Charlie never speaks correct English; Little Bee sometimes thinks in a Nigerian dialect. All are unique characters, fully rounded and completely sympathetic.

So, why does this novel meet the requirements posted on many agents' web sites? Because it is a literary novel, and most agents do not want to represent literary novels. Thank goodness one did. Little Bee is a book club favorite. It's easy to see why.

Roanoke Regional Writers Conference

The Fourth Annual Roanoke Regional Writers conference sponsored by Hollins University came off only one glitch that I saw last Friday and Saturday. Sold out, the conference brought together writers and teachers, readers and students in a day-an-a-half immersion in all things writing.

Lake Writers and Valley Writers were well represented. Four from Lake Writers and eleven from Valley Writers (I think it was eleven) listened intently to the speakers. Here, Sally Roseveare (Lake Writers) and Jim Morrison (both) sit in the front row, with Dick Raymond (both), Donna Knox (Valley Writers) and Bob Sandy (Valley Writers) in the back row listen to a session on what we should reveal on our blogs.

First, the glitch. The coffee. Never, ever, ever provide dreadful coffee to a group of bleary-eyed writers. Many had been up much of the night working on their materials. They (and I) were lusting for good, strong coffee to kick-start the gray cells. Instead, the first pot was thin as tea. The second pot was stronger but tasted odd. So, most of us relied on bottled water, which was tasty, to energize our brains without the benefit of a caffeine-induced buzz.

Why do we go to these conferences? First, networking. Getting reconnected with old friends from previous conferences. Meeting new friends, including on Facebook friend who is now a "real" friend. Taking away tidbits to improve our writing, make us look at the world in a slightly different way.

The most productive sessions were on what to look for in a publishing contract, telling lies and writing fiction, and media writing. The attention placed on blogging--how to, when to, what to, why to--sparked more thoughts about this blog. I learned that I'm not supposed to use it to promote a book. Well, that's not a problem. Yet. I'll deal with that when I have a book ready for publication.

Thanks to Dan Smith for his tireless work in pulling this conference together. It is a year-long labor of love. And thanks to Hollins for hosting it again and providing many of its faculty to teach the classes.

Will I go again? You bet. Sign me up for next year!

Beach Reading Leads to Research Request

My husband Terry and I just got back for a few days in Florida where, of course, I did some reading. I'm always curious about what others are reading in airports, poolside and on the beach. I saw a lot of thrillers and mysteries (Clancy, Patterson, Child et al), romances, plenty of The Girl Who... and me. What was I reading?

The The Virus Hunter by C.J. Peters. Yes, it's heavy shit, but it's valuable research for my next Mad Max book. It was a fabulous read about Dr. Peters's 30-year career chasing hot viruses (think Ebola) around the world.

I've been doing a lot of reading lately about viruses (viri?) lately. In Max 3, Max and her grandson Alex will be put in jeopardy when an unknown disease spreads through a small town and a hospital nearby.

Max is not scientist. She's a grandmother. She will be as stumped as the reader is about what's happening.

So, I need to be sure the limited science I'll be using is possible.

I've read several books about viruses, including Gina Kolata's Flu, Richard Preston's The Demon in the Freezer and The Hot Zone, Pamela Nagami's The Woman With a Worm in Her Head, and several others. I have just enough information to be dangerous. I don't want to sound stupid, so I need help.

Does anyone know a virologist who would be willing to answer some basic questions?

Dealing with Emptiness

Back in October, I went to the James River Writers Conference and listened to a session with Dean King, Richmond best selling author, on writing history. I normally do not read historical fiction, nor do I pick up historical books for the heck of it.

At the time, I was struggling with how to describe a landscape swept clean. Nothing there. Nada. Zip. Nil. But how to show such destruction, such isolation? How do you describe the absence of something rather than the presence of something?

At this particular session, King talked about his bestseller Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival. Set in 1815, the book follows the story of twelve America sailors shipwrecked off the coast of West Africa, captured, enslaved and driven into the desert. I talked with King after the session and asked him many questions about dealing with bare landscapes.

King does a terrific job of describing how the desert is barren and yet not barren. There is life there, if you know how to look for it.

From King's descriptions I learned how to describe the landscape in which my main character will find herself in Mad Max 2. I think I can fill the nothingness with small life forms, with sounds and smells, with the rubble of destruction.

Thank you, Dean King, for suggesting that your book might be an inspiration. It was and is.

Borders Delaying Payments to Publishers

For all my published and yet-to-be-published friends, I wanted to call your attention to an article on New Year's Eve in the Wall Street Journal.

The article was a cautionary tale. Borders is trying to restructure its debt because it's in financial deep water. It has a cash-flow problem, meaning money is coming in but not enough to pay publishers for shipping the stores products to sell. This could turn into a vicious circle. If the big-box stores don't receive books to put on the shelves, authors won't sell books. And if the big-box stores sell books but don't pay the publishers for them, do you think authors will receive royalties?

I've been in business for over 35 years. Even I know that if I don't pay my suppliers under the terms and conditions of our contracts, I wouldn't be able to order more materials. The same holds true for authors. I for one am going to watch this very carefully.

This helps make the case for e-publishing.