August 2008 Archives

We've talked before about the "colorful" language sometimes used in novels and my readers represent many different opinions on the subject. My opinion is and always has been that such language should not be gratuitous (same with graphic sex and violence), but it's sometimes necessary. (note: those of you easily offended had better skip After the Storm, the sequel to Before the Storm, due out in June 09. Written in part from the point of view of an angry seventeen-year-old boy, it's loaded with spicy language. I'll address what it was like trying to get myself into his point of view as it gets closer to the release date. But I digress. . . .)

Over the years, I've received letters and emails chastising me for using four letter words or for "taking the Lord's name in vain." Most of the time, the letter will go something like this: "I loved your latest book. The story was wonderful, but it was nearly ruined for me by the language. It's completely unnecessary to use the 'F" word and cheapens your story."

Writers are used to this sort of criticism, but I'd be lying if I said it simply runs off my back. I always take my readers' feedback seriously, even though I feel confident I've made the right decision in what I put into my books and what I leave out. In After the Storm, I struggled with the language, but Keith is just not a "gosh darn it!" kind of kid.  

Anyhow, what made me revisit this conversation is something I heard the other night when I visited a local book group that was discussing The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes. One of the women told me she found some of my older, out of print books at the library. She was reading Brass Ring and discovered that someone had used white- out on all possibly objectionable words. I was amused at first. Then sad. Then angry, because this reader not only defaced a library book but she/he interfered with someone else's enjoyment of a story as well.

So my plea to all of you is, if you borrow a book from the library and find it offensive, don't read it. Just take it back. And if you buy one of my books and find it offensive, return it. You can also let me know, if you like, but please don't impose your standards on the enjoyment of others. 

End of lecture! 

Naming a character is one thing. Naming an entire book is quite another.

This is much on my mind as I toy with titles for my new, fledgling work-in-progress. I jot them down in the dark as I'm falling asleep, and they seem so brilliant then. In the light of day, though, they often lose their sparkle. 

I recently read a terrific article about book titles by thriller writer Barry Eisler (he has loads of great material for writers on his website, by the way). His article was published in NINK, the monthly newsletter for Novelists, Inc, an organization for multi-published authors to which I've belonged for nearly two decades. (If you've published two novels with a qualifying publisher, you belong in Ninc. Join now!) Eisler talks about titles having either automatic or acquired resonance -- or in some cases, both. 

The way Eisler describes it, automatic resonance simply means the title resonates with the reader in such a way that just hearing the words gives you a hint of what the book is about. You connect with it on a nearly primal level. When you see a book title and can answer the question "What do I think this book is about?" it most likely has automatic resonance. Using my own titles, think of The Secret life of CeeCee Wilkes, The Bay at Midnight, and Before the Storm. You don't know the stories themselves from the titles alone, but I'm guessing that each title resonates with you in some way. A woman is hiding a secret. Something a bit eerie happened one night on a bay. Emotions are building up to a huge storm, probably both emotional and literal.  Eisler suggests choosing a title that will resonate with as wide an audience as possible.

Acquired resonance, on the other hand, describes a title that tells you little to nothing about the book, but makes perfect sense once you know the story. He gives the examples of Mystic River and Lonesome Dove. Thinking about my own titles, I'd say Brass Ring has acquired resonance. You really don't have a clue what it's about until you read the story. Then you get it. Kiss River is another example.    

Reading Eisler's article helped me understand something about my own search for titles: I lean toward titles with a mix of both automatic and acquired resonance, but usually a bit heavier on the acquired side. Of all my titles, my favorite is The Courage Tree. If you haven't read The Courage Tree, I wonder what you'd think it's about? I imagine the title will resonate with you, but will still leave you mystified until you read the story.

Unfortunately (or maybe it's actually fortunate), my publishers rarely like my titles, and now I understand why. My publishers tends to lean more toward the automatic resonance--titles that evoke emotion, yet don't leave the reader going "huh?' before they've read the book. Yet, this has not always been the case. Here are some of my original titles:  The Escape Artist was Songs for the Asking (talk about acquired resonance!). Cypress Point was first The Shadow in the Mirror, then The Healer. Summer's Child was Gift from the Sea. Fire and Rain was Still Waters. Kiss River was The Keeper's Daughter. Her Mother's Shadow was Kaleidoscope. And the ultimate in aquired resonance, my first novel, Private Relations was originally Coterie. That title went over like a lead balloon with my publisher.

On a lighter note, Lulu.com (the only self-publishing company I'm ever comfortable recommending)  has a title scorer on it's site. Of all my titles, it gives The Courage Tree the highest score. I'll probably spend the rest of the day obsessively plugging in my new title ideas to see how they fare.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite book titles.  

(note: Eisler's article originally appeared in two parts on MJ Rose's excellent blog, Buzz, Balls and Hype, if anyone wants to read it in detail).

 

 

The last time John and I were on Topsail Island, we were having dinner in a restaurant when John suddenly said, "Do you see that waitress over there? That's Dawn."

I figured he must mean the character Dawn in my latest book, Before the Storm. I turned to look at the waitress. She was a little chubby, about five-four, with chin-length medium brown hair and a no-nonsense demeanor.

"Dawn who?" I was perplexed.  

"In Before the Storm."

"You're kidding! Is that the way you picture her?"

Indeed, that was John's image of Dawn. In my own mind, Dawn is tall and lithe, with long auburn hair and, yes, a no-nonsense demeanor that only barely masks her vulnerability.

Our conversation started me thinking about what I see as I write a book versus what my reader sees. I have such a clear image of not only each character, but each setting--every house, every room, every sand dune, every night sky. Without going overboard on detail (yawn), I try to give my reader the same vision I have. Apparently, I sometimes fail! Remember our earlier blog conversation in which some of you told me you didn't realize The Sea Tender, the house my characters lived in, was round? You came up with your own images, and they worked for you. That's the important thing. I think as readers, we get very attached to the images we form in our minds. That's one reason why, when a book is made into a movie, we can have trouble making that leap from the page to film. The people and the setting may not look at all like the pictures we've affectionately created in our own minds.

I have a confession to make, though. In Before the Storm, there are two kitchens in The Sea Tender.  It nearly drove me crazy as I wrote the story. For example, in the scenes where Laurel tends to little Maggie's cut hand and where the teenaged Maggie meets her illicit lover, the kitchen is in the rear of the house and overlooks the ocean. In the scenes where Laurel has post-partum depression and Sara brings over groceries for her, and the scene in which Marcus asks Laurel if she's comfortable with him moving back to the island, the kitchen is in the front of the house. And they are completely different kitchens. This is very rare for me. Usually I get one image in my mind and it becomes so real that I can't budge it if I try. The Sea Tender kitchen moved back and forth over time and nothing I did (including keeping a diagram of the house next to my computer) could keep it in place. I only hope my readers were able to get it to hold still.

So, are you visual readers? Do you picture each setting and each character in detail? Or do some of you see only words without images attached to them? I'm curious if different people experience books in different ways. 

Soundtrack of the day: I'm listening to the soundtrack of Blood Diamond on my iPod as I work today. Beautiful, stirring music (and an excellent movie, too).  

Naming characters can be such a challenge! But it's not nearly as difficult as remembering what I've named them.

For my first four or five books, I kept an ongoing list of names I'd used so that I'd be careful not to re-use them. Somewhere around book six, I got sloppy or busy or both, and let my list of names slip off my list of things to do. Now, as I begin book number nineteen, I realize I simply must know what names I've used before.

I have a new, wonderful assistant, and I've given her the task of going through each of my books, making a list of first names, surnames, and fictionalized place names and the book in which each was used. The main characters' names are marked with asterisks, since I want to be sure not to re-use them in particular. So far, my assistant's made it through six of my books, and her spreadsheet already shows 237 first names, 118 surnames and 46 place names! Glancing over the list, I barely remember who some of these folks are. I saw that I'd used the name "Sylvie" in all three books of the Keeper of the Light trilogy. The name was familiar, but only vaguely. Who the heck was Sylvie? Turns out she was one of the character's cats.  

A reader named Shelly once wrote to me to ask why I used the name "Shelly" so often in my books. I did? I had no idea, but in the six books already culled through, Shelly already appears twice, albeit with different spelling.

Why is it important not to re-use names? In the big picture, it probably isn't, but I imagine one of my readers reading two of my books back to back, each with a character named Shelly and feeling at best, surprised by my choice in names, and at worst, confused over which Shelly she's reading about. This becomes particularly important with surnames. I don't want to make unrelated characters look like they're part of the same family, but it's an easy slip to make. We all have names (and phrases and vignettes) floating around in our minds, and when one of these pops into our heads while writing, it may seem fresh and new, but we're really just tapping into that same old well of our memory. It's the only one we have (which is why it's important to refresh it from time to time, but I'll save that discussion for a different post!) 

I have a few resources I use when naming characters. Baby name books, of course. I have several of those and I relied on them heavily in the days before the Internet gave me better options. Now, I often go to the Social Security Administration, where you can see which names were popular in which year. For example, a character I'm writing about right now was born in 1942, so I can see that Mary, Barbara and Patricia were the top three female names that year. I can dig as deep into the list as I choose. There's also a feature in which you can plug in your name or another to see how popular it's been over the years. Diane, for example, peaked in 1955 when it was the 14th most popular girl's name. (It now ranks 906th).

For surnames, I love the phone book. I think that's the only thing I use the phone book for anymore. I also like the obituary column of my local newspaper to help me find some wonderful old North Carolina names when NC is the  setting for my work-in-progress.  

Once I have a few names to choose from, I try them on to see which feels right for a particular character. I can usually tell within a few pages if I've hit the correct name. It's rare that it happens right off the bat. One character in this outline has been Sybil, Grace, and Barbara all in the last few hours. I see on my handy-dandy new names list that I've already used Grace for a central character, so I think I'll scratch that one. Sybil sounds a bit too "multiple personality-ish." And this character really is not a Barbara, so I'm going back to the Social Security admin page.

 Maybe I'll see you there.

Those of you who've read Before the Storm know that one of the main characters, Laurel Lockwood, develops post partum depression after the birth of her baby Maggie. With the depression undiagnosed and severe, she begins to drink as a way to escape her sadness and shame. She continues to drink wine coolers even after learning she's pregnant with her son, Andy, who is born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

Writing about Laurel with sympathy was my challenge. Reading about her with sympathy has been a challenge for some of my readers as well. Jodee Kulp is one such reader, and her opinion is important to me because Jodee served as my FASD consultant as I wrote about Andy. You see, Jodee is the mother of an adopted daughter with FASD and the author of several books on the subject, as well as an upcoming novel, The Whitest Wall, featuring an FASD character. Jodee has been a close witness to the havoc maternal drinking can take on an unborn child. Letting Jodee read Before the Storm was a bit nerve wracking! I knew how hard it would be for her to read about Laurel's behavior. Here's a little bit of what Jodee had to say:   

I struggled with Laurel as she struggled with her alcoholism and depression, knowing what she was creating, understanding the damage she was doing to the small person growing within, knowing with my own angst. I rejoiced in her rehabilitation . . . Life itself has many twists and turns and true to life, what often appears to be reality is only bits of truth. Before the Storm does justice to the work of families struggling with alcohol and its many outcomes. It does justrice to the reality of human frailty and interconnected relationships. . . .I hope Diane's work will add awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder to those who need to know.

 

I can only imagine how hard it must have been for Jodee to keep an open mind as she read about Laurel and I'm pleased I was able to make her into a character Jodee could ultimately care about. What do you think? Whether you've read Before the Storm or not, do you think you could have sympathy for someone like Laurel? 

 

I've taken a tiny break from the blog as I train myself in using my new Blackberry, along with Outlook, Word and a few other torturous inventions designed to move me into the twenty-first century. So while I'm doing that, I thought I'd share this video John made for Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures, nature photography workshops he teaches along with two other photographers. John's the workshop's master of digital printing. I hope you enjoy it, and I'll be back with a fresh blog post in a day or two.

My neighborhood bookclub met tonight to discuss Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell. (For those of you who don't know, twenty-nine-year-old Julie Powell set a goal of making every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking--all in one year, in a tiny apartment in New York. Lots of stocks made from scratch, jiggly aspic, organ meats and the slaying of lobsters. The movie version comes out next year.).  I would say we had mixed feelings about the book, but we loved our hostess's yummy French-inspired refreshments and the good company. 

However, this post is really not about that.

When several writers get together and they witness or overhear something fascinating that simply cries out to be in a story, one of them is sure to scoop up the morsel and claim it as her own before the others have a chance to grab it. At bookclub tonight, I heard just such a morsel, and since I don't think it will ever fit into one of my books, I'm hereby offering it to whoever wants it. It's just to good to pass up!

One of the bookclub members told us that when she and her husband were house hunting in our neighborhood, they fell in love with one particular house. As they toured it, walking from room to room, they knew it was perfect for their growing family. The owners had already moved out all of their furnishings and the house was empty. . . except for a box on the kitchen counter. You've probably already guessed what was in the box: The human skull was surrounded by a bit of dirt, as if it might have been excavated only recently. Even those of you who don't write must be wondering "Why? Why? Why?" Needless to say, my neighbor and her husband decided to continue their search for a house elsewhere. 

The obvious thing, and it could make a yummy short story, is that a nasty divorce battle resulted in the husband losing the house to his wife, who then needs to sell it. The husband sabotages the sale by planting the skull, because seriously, who'd buy a house with a skull in the kitchen? You'd never be able to walk in that room without picturing that icky box. But I bet a clever writer could come up with something less obvious, so I offer this impossible-to-pass-up morsel to you writers out there. Please do something wonderful with it. I bet this skull would make a delicious stock.

 

Years ago, while working on my fourth book, Keeper of the Light, I hired writing consultant Peter Porosky to help me brainstorm the plot and structure. I lived in Virginia at the time, and Peter lived nearly an hour's drive away from me in Maryland. He'd read my initial outline and we got right down to work, talking about characters and storyline. I already loved the story I had in mind, but talking about it with another writer was thrilling. Peter would never tell me what I should do, but he talked about what worked and what didn't and prompted me to come up with my own solutions. (An ironic aside: one of the many twists in Keeper of the Light came to me during this conversation when Peter accidentally referred to one character by the name of another, which started a whole series of "what ifs?" in my mind and ultimately changed the entire story!) When I left Peter's house, I got in my car and started the drive home, stuffed full of ideas, my mind a thousand miles away from the road. It's hard to describe the excitement I felt. If you're a creative person, perhaps you know what I mean. You hit on an idea, and it begins to take off, spinning out in a dozen different directions. It's not only your mind that's reacting to the thrill of discovery. Your entire body feels engaged and your fingers itch to get going on the project. It's a creative person's Nirvana.

Anyway, I was driving home and I finally noticed a sign along the highway for the Baltimore-Washington Airport. Huh? I struggled to pull my mind back to the here-and-now and realized I'd gotten on the highway going north instead of south. Totally oblivious to my surroundings, I'd driven a full thirty miles in the wrong direction. I didn't cuss or fret. I didn't care. I didn't care if I ended up at the North Pole. I was working on a story!

So yesterday, I was driving home from Starbucks. My car should know this route automatically by now, even if I'm not paying attention, but no. I ended up in Wake Forest, a town way north of where I live. I stopped at red lights, avoided pedestrians, and stuck to the speed limit, but my mind was clearly on a North Carolina beach with some new characters who have stolen my heart. These folks are not only affecting my driving, but the rest of my life as well. I can't tune them out. They have so much to say to me and they're full of surprises, forcing me to take notes when I should be sleeping and making me blurt out things like "Oh, wow!" in the checkout line of the grocery store and not even feel embarrassed about it.

People often ask me "What's your favorite part of writing a book?" This is it. The Nirvana part. The writing while driving part. Even at $4.30 a gallon, it's worth it.   

 

I'll be doing a live chat at The Happy Bookers Club Monday evening at 8:30 pm, EDT. You need to register at their site, but then just click on "chat" in the menu and we can talk books!