Saturday So What: Why can't I be you?

In case you haven't noticed, my writing style is very conversational and mass market.  I don't have a literary hair on my head. Or on my legs for that matter.

But I long to write the flowing lovely sentiments and imagery that a friend of mine does. Her writing is stunning and deep and ...ugh... and I can't even come up with the right words here. When I had the opportunity recently to write a personal essay about a lesson I had learned from one of my kiddos, I saw it as a chance to strut my serious side. I was gonna make the reader cry, darn'it. I poured over my words, spending hours to find just the right line. For example, "inflicting my pain on the cold and unyielding earth". Yeah, you can probably guess how well it was received in my writer's group.

The central conceit behind my essay was just fine, but the flow was stilted and I was leading my reader to the emotion by the nose. All in an attempt to write like this other girl. Flash forward to me attempt  a few weeks later. I had an idea, it took me 45 minutes to write the 1200 word essay, and I just let the words flow out in my natural narrative voice. This time it was well received. I have a few chuckles and few tears without searching for the flowery or "ensign" words to insert. Just me.

So here's the lesson I took away from this exercise.  I may love the operatic sopranos, but I am firmly an alto. And if I tried to squeak out Ave Maria, everyone would cover their ears. But I can sing something lovely in my own register, something uniquely me. Same goes with writing. As an author, I have to stick with my own voice. I can appreciate and admire yours, but if I try to emulate it, everyone will cover their eyes.

So whether you write fiction or non, romance or YA, revel and celebrate your own unique style. Don't try to be Dickens, or Rowling, or Twilight. It will always be a pale imitation. Instead shine and create a new original  that others will long to be.



Come visit Smashing Stories for another excerpt from Finished being Fat. "Ghosts of Fat Past"
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I Slept In But I'm Calling it Research!

This week has been one of huge adjustments to my personal schedule. Monday I started a part-time job, and getting home late and exhausted every night has messed up my mornings. My great plan to be up at 7:30 so I can have a morning with my kids and start work (writing) at 10am got flushed.

But I haven't given up. Neither, apparently, has my brain. (I'm really hoping once I adjust to the schedule I'll get up and write again.)

Early this morning I started dreaming about a fantastic new main character. I'm going to blame my sis-in-law and our feverish plotting of our joint blog tour this coming September--her first book and my second-ish--because MEL writes about pirates. Yep, you guessed it--I had a pirate dream.

My main character was amazing. Feminine but tough, sassy but stylish. She had a best friend who disapproved in an I-love-you-and-don't-want-to-see-you-killed sort of way, and also the best friend hated seeing the main character dress like a man as she did before battle. And the MC had a love--a man who supported her and felt she ruled his world. I think he was a pirate too, or at least a privateer.

The world they roamed was one of fantasy--like Earth of old but with some definite extras. So describing it was a mixture of the familiar and unusual. And she had a ship and a loyal crew. But one flaw my MC has is she relies heavily on being underestimated--and you know that's the sort of thing that will come back and bite her in the end. Eventually someone WON'T underestimate her, and then she'll really be in trouble.

I woke up a few times during the dreams but was always able to refresh her in my mind. So I lay there for extra long trying to iron out the details I wanted to keep--and pull some essentials from my subconscious. Like her name. Which, unfortunately, has been lost in the recesses of my mind.

So, yes. I slept in this morning. But I'm calling it research. :)

The Ides of March (Has Your Story Ever Been Hijacked?)

Today, March 15 is known as the 'Ides of March', the word Ides referring to the Latin word for middle, according to Wikipedia.

The reason the terms Ides of March is well known has to do with two things – history, and writing.

The History part revolves around Julius Caesar (this info is all taken from the same Wikipedia site). Apparently he was assassinated on this day, stabbed to death by a large number of co-conspirators, several of which were friends/colleagues. The interesting part about his murder is that it was predicted by a seer – a prophecy that Caesar was aware of. because he apparently refuted the prophecy when the day fortold arrived and he was still breathing, telling the same seer, “The Ides of March have come,” (aka I'm still here, aren't I? Better get a different day job...)

To which the seer replied, “Aye, Caesar, but not gone.” (aka, it's not midnight yet, Cinderella)

And he died soon after. On the Ides of March, as prophesied by the seer.

The writing part came when Shakespeare dramatized the assassination in his play Julius Caesar.

I was thinking about this little tidbit of trivia today because of an experience I recently had. The other day I was working on a scene in my current WIP that I had meticulously plotted and imagined. I had done so much 'internal' world building that the words were flowing quite effortlessly. I knew where the scene started, where I wanted it to end, and what I needed to happen in the middle to make it all come together.

I continued to work along, enjoy the process and pleased with my ever growing word count.

And then something unexpected happened.

A new character appeared. And inserted herself into my scene. And changed the plot ever so slightly.

Wait a minute – where did she come from?

Now by new, a don't mean materialized out of thin air. She was a character introduced in the very beginning of the novel to build setting/relationship/etc., but because I had no further purpose beyond that, I forgot about her!

Some characters, however, will not be forgotten.

Curious to see the point of this intrusion, I allowed her some room to explain her purpose for interrupting my previously smooth plot line.

She did her bit, said her piece, and disappeared as quickly as she came. For good? Who knows?! Apparently she has her own agenda when it comes to my story.

I sat back and took a close look at the wrench she threw in my plans. When I was completely honest with myself, I realized I liked the way she had changed the scene. I liked the complications she had introduced. She enriched the story.

While this is not a new experience for me (I've had lots of characters do unexpected things while I was writing), it was what came to mind while I read the fun facts on Caesar and The Ides of March.

Mandi: “The middle of this scene has effortlessly come.”

Not-to-be-forgotten character “Aye, writer, but it has not gone.”

You just never know what will happen when you write. Maybe that's why we love writing so much!

What about you? Ever had your writing hijacked by your own characters (major or minor)?

Progress Report

First of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who commented on last week's post about my title troubles. I really think you helped me head in the right direction and I wish I could give you all a prize. But my thanks will have to be enough.

I hit another block with Ruby's story, and it's something I really have to search deep inside myself to resolve. Initially, I really wanted to set the book in Duncan, OK because I have fond memories of the place and wanted to show a different side of what is sometimes considered a backwater area. My idea, since I'm telling the story from Ruby's point of view, is to show how annoying she finds everyone and everything about her new life at first, but how eventually even the acts of strangers begin to warm her heart.

But now I'm kind of hit with a crippling fear that locals reading the book will be so disgusted by the stereotyping and cliche characters at first they won't wait around to see how it gets better. Because, right now, the only characters who come to mind are cliche and stereotypical.

That's my current problem. I'm the first to admit that being a Mormon in the middle of the "Bible Belt" is difficult. One of my sons has already been told by a classmate he's "going to Hell" because he's LDS. We have lots of religious discussion in my house now, more than we did when living in UT, and most of it is started by our kids. I think it's because they feel the lack of what they used to know, and seek their grounding in the gospel because it is familiar and true. And, not to point any blame, but the current political atmosphere is NOT making things easier on my kids. Weird, huh?

Last Sunday, author Rachel Ann Nunes posted on FB about a bad review her book received on Amazon--not because the reviewer didn't like the book but because the reviewer felt there should be a distinction between LDS fiction and Christian fiction. Again with that whole "Mormons aren't Christian" nonsense. As a lifetime insider, I confess I don't understand how people can say we aren't Christian. It's in our name. And I pity the poor soul who ever tells my daughter she's not a follwer of Christ. That girl, who can greet Jesus like an old friend, will happily correct them.

I don't want you to come away thinking everyone out here is against us, because that's not the case. Before we moved, each of the kids received Father's blessings. The predominant theme was that the people out here are also God's children, and they are good people with good hearts, and that we don't need to shut them out in order to maintain our faith. In fact, more kids asked my son "What's a Mormon?" than condemned him to Hell for being one.

Religion aside, I'm still struggling with this fiction novel of mine. It will be obvious to any LDS reader of Ruby's story that her aunt's family is LDS. But I want to emphasize the Christian aspect of their beliefs and actions, so that anyone else reading the book won't immediately shut down because it's about a bunch of Mormons. This isn't for some future big reveal, but more for myself. I want the story to resonate with all Christians. Which is why I'm self publishing it and not going through an LDS publisher or trying to hit up a national publisher (because they'll make me take out the religious aspects and mess up my whole plan).

I think I've been more rambly here than I intended. And probably what I'm going to have to do is delve into these supporting characters in Ruby's story and find out the parts of them that make them loveable and less like the cliche, stereotypical book fodder they currently are.

Resume for Heaven

I often think of the day when Christ comes again. The peace that will fill the earth. The love that will fill our hearts. The righteousness that will fill every living thing. The joy that will burst out in chorus from the hearts of those who have long awaited this glorious day!

I reflect upon my life now and wonder if I am pleasing the Lord. Am I doing the things He wants me to do? Am I following His commandments accordingly? Am I worthy to live with Him again?

I know that I am a beloved daughter of His. I feel it everyday in the little things I do. I feel it when privileges to serve others arise and warm me as the Spirit touches my heart. I feel it when my kids come home and show me just how much they missed being with me.

Yet, as these things fill me, I can't help but wonder if there is anything more I can do? I cringe to think if I am lacking in any way. Perhaps one way I know that I can extend myself is to share what the Lord has given me?

I love to nurture others from parenting tips to writing to friendships. I did not have the opportunity to serve a mission and it saddens me. I wish that I had, yet, I can still now, right?

I reach out to others in every way I can.

I think that being a writer is so solitary that we yearn--crave--for others who share our gift, so that we could relate our special experiences with them. I understand that some of us are fortunate enough to be surrounded with them. Yet, there are many of us who float alone among normal people like small islands of confusion.

I believe reaching out to others--whether it be writing wonderful stories or cultivating other writers--will help us grow closer to Heavenly Father. He will bless us through our efforts and strengthen our weaknesses. As I do this, I hope it means that I will become a better writer and that, maybe, I can influence others for the better with the written word?

In what way and how do you nurture others with your writing?