Do you feel sorry for your characters?

Do you feel sorry for your characters?
You should. If you don't, something's wrong with your story.
I feel sorry for mine.
Oh, how they suffer! And yet, I lie awake nights thinking of fresh ways to disturb them and make their lives horrendously hard.
Why?
Because without conflict, a story is about as exciting as a stale marshmallow, a dead toothbrush, or a cracked porcelain bell without a clapper.
We love our characters, so it's tough to make them suffer. If only their lives could be smooth as ironed silk scented with blooming jasmine. . .
However, if we wrote them like that, they'd be so boring they'd put everyone to sleep.
So, another day, another hardship! For the characters, that is.

teen writers' boot camp

Last week I led the "fiction track" of the Explorati teen writers' boot camp. Twenty young writers and I gathered together every day for four days to focus on writing. Whooee! (Meanwhile, other groups concentrated on writing nonfiction, screenplays, or poetry.)

The camp turned out to be just what I needed to feel happy, alive, and inspired. Is that hard to believe? It shouldn't be, but it's kind of boggling how many cultural messages are out there about how "difficult" it is to be around teenagers; how much trouble they are; how touchy, out-of-control and maddening they can be; how etcetera. . .

Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I simply like teens in a way that most people don't. I suspect it's a combination. At any rate, "my" young writers were generous, sensitive, fun, funny, interesting, entertaining, and kind. Not only that, but they were excellent writers, and highly motivated to write even better than they already did.

I felt really blessed to be there. And I can't wait to read their books in the future!

My mom has passed away

Yes, it's been a long time since I blogged.

My mom got really ill in March, and left this world on the last day of April. I was able to go to Florida for just about three weeks and be with her, and I'll always be grateful that my "job" allowed room for that.

Mom was happy with her terminal diagnosis, and refused treatment that she believed would be ineffective anyway. She felt she had lived her life; she wanted to join my dad and see what was next. She thought I should write about people like her, people who feel ready to go. "I don't believe I'm the only one," she said.

Maybe one day I'll write more about the subject of death and dying. For now, it's enough to feel all that I'm feeling.

I'd like to share something my mom wrote:

"Have you ever waked up in the morning and looked at the floor and there was the sun right there on the floor? And you looked around to see where the sun was coming from, and found out it was coming right in through your window, even though the window was shut tight. That's a funny thing about the sun--it can come in when the window isn't open, and just sit there on the floor smiling."

I love that.

Well, now you know why there's been a lack of posts from me lately. I'm one of those people who gets very quiet when I'm feeling a huge amount.

Today I woke up and looked at the flowers and felt as if they were telling me something: It's important to bloom even if you could get torn up by a strong wind or lashed by a torrent or even struck by lightning.

We can't know what's next. We can't make sure that there will always be a wonderful climate with just the right amount of sun and rain. But we can go on blooming just the same.

productive writer?

Today I've been remarkably productive. I got through a whole heap of things that I've been procrastinating about. Everything seemed to work out well and go easily.

Is all this productivity today related to the fact that yesterday I was almost completely UNproductive? I would start one thing and then move to another. Nothing I did seemed to go easily at all. By the end of the day I was ready to cry.

So today I'm thinking, maybe it takes both kinds of days. Maybe the days when we're feeling frustrated, clueless and overwhelmed are just a sign that we're rearranging something underneath the surface, something that will help us out another day.

Impossible to really know. But if you're feeling tired, upset, overwhelmed or just plain terrible, remember that everything changes, sometimes as soon as tomorrow.

How to begin a book?

I'm often asked "How do I begin a book?" or "When I start a new story, I feel really inspired, but somewhere along the way I lose inspiration or the story fizzles--what do I do?"
Getting past chapter three is a challenge for many people, including me. To keep going without getting permanently derailed, I always remind myself that IT'S OKAY TO WRITE BADLY. During a first draft, we're not trying for deathless prose; we're just trying to stay alive. When it comes to the first draft, perfectionism is death--save it for the final draft.
Just get in there, get going, and keep going! You can't write a book without writing it, and it will only happen word by word. Often, in a first draft, the words are nothing special. That's fine. Don't worry about it. Set aside obsession and attention to detail. Set aside criticism. Just write. There will be plenty of time later to go back and polish up what you've written. By then, you'll be celebrating the fact that you have something to polish!

video link to bookends interview

Here's a link to an interview I did with some teen writers last month.

http://www.psdschools.org/services/channel10/nowplaying.aspx?pageid=6801#bookends


Guess I need to look up how to make the link light up. Well, meanwhile, try copying it into your browser. . .

deadline or aliveline?

It's been a while since I posted to this blog. Why can't a writer keep up with her own blog? The short answer: deadline. The long answer is too long, so I won't go into it.

I did make my deadline for revisions to my latest fiction book: VIOLET WINGS, which will be published next year.

I truly love revising. The dreaded first draft is a long way in the past, and so are the second, third, and fourth drafts, etc. During final revisions, the whole point is to get very close to the story that originally inspired all the work of writing it down. It's a time to add in what's missing, cut what doesn't need to be there, and enhance what belongs. For me, and for many writers I know, polishing is much easier than digging a jagged, ugly-looking jewel out of the ground. (If you prefer writing first drafts, there's nothing wrong with that. Remember there's no such thing as a "typical" writer.)

I like working with a deadline looming. I like it so much that I'm thinking "deadline" could be called the "aliveline" instead. Yes, I know that if the deadline isn't met, the "dead" part of the line becomes more prominent. But there's just so much aliveness about having a definite goal in time. It's motivating. It's so motivating, in fact, that when I'm under the influence of a deadline, I find all sorts of inner resources that seem to lie dormant otherwise. Every part of my mind rallies to the cause of getting finished. It's exciting. Enlivening.