Leaving genre

If reading a story is like taking a trip, then the literary novel or short story is adventure travel: we don’t know when and how we’ll eat or sleep, we have only a glimmer of where we’re going, and we usually end up dirty, startled, disillusioned, or exhilarated. We’re hitchhiking, backpacking, taking the third-class train, and getting to know the countryside. In the end, we know both ourselves and the world better; we’ve grown and changed in the process.

The genre novel, on the other hand, is like a package tour. We don’t expect to have our view of the world unsettled. What we want is a cruise with all the expenses paid ahead of time, umbrella drinks by the pool, and a good floorshow in the evenings. Genres are all about the pleasures of the familiar.

-       The Longman Guide to Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing

-       by Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren

I had a plan to become a published author.

I would write romance novel(s) because they are the most read (biggest market) of any kind of fiction and the easiest to get published. This is not to say that authors of genre fiction aren’t good writers. I sometimes think it’s more difficult to be creative when you have restrictions.

Back to the plan.

Once I had a bit of a publishing track record traditional publishers of mainstream, literary fiction would be more likely to consider me. Right?

I wrote three contemporary romance novels. All have been e-published. All have bombed. No traditional publishers of literary fiction are knocking on my door.

What happened?

My novels, I’ve been told, were not popular with romance readers for a number of reasons. I didn’t introduce the love interests soon enough. My ‘Happily Ever After’ was lukewarm or not at all. I needed to ‘sex it up’. My subplots overshadowed the romance. My heroes lacked testosterone. My heroines didn’t show enough vulnerability. My words were too big, my plots too real, my characters too unlikable. My stories were out of control.

I suspect it might have something to do with the notion “you are what you read” – more specifically, you write what you read.

When I read I want the experience of the literary novel, such as described in the opening quote from the The Longman Guide to Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing by Sarah Stone and Ron Nyren. Writing for me is the same. I want adventure – similar to my style of hiking. When I head into the backcountry I like to leave the marked trail. At least once I want experience the panic of being lost  – I don’t know where I am, where I’m going, or how or when I’ll get back. Terror is undeniably exhilarating, and overcoming it is oh so satisfying.

I miss the adventure when I conform to the confines of genre fiction. That and the fact that I don’t do it well, makes moving on (not necessarily upward) easy, without risk or anxiety, and without even the faintest indication of success.

Norman Mailer said, “Until you see where your ideas lead to, you know nothing.” This is resonates for me, especially “the you know nothing” part.

What’s important, finally, is that you create, and that those creations define for you what matters most, that which cannot be extinguished even in the face of silence, solitude, and rejection.

- Betsy Lerner

The Forest for the Trees

An Editor’s Advice to Writers

It appears that I’m in the company of a lot of great writers, at least in sentiment if not talent. I will continue to do what matters most for me in the “face of silence, solitude and rejection.” And rejection. And rejection.

According to George Seidel, author of The Crisis of Creativity;  “An artist will always have one thing no one else can have: a life within a life.” Ultimately, that may be my only accomplishment.

Is that a bad thing?

Eagleridge Bluffs - five years later the injustice still resonates

 An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

- Martin Luther King

The B.C. Court of Appeal recently dismissed an argument by 82 year-old environmentalist, Betty Krawczyk, that her 10-month jail sentence for refusing to abandon the protest at Eagleridge Bluffs was unduly harsh.

Ironically, the appeal was heard after Betty had served seven months of the sentence and been released.

Krawczyk was arrested three times between May 25 and June 27, 2006 inside an area of highway construction at Eagleridge Bluffs protesters had been ordered out of by a B.C. Supreme Court injunction. In sentencing her to 10 months in jail, the sentencing judge noted Krawczyk had deliberately disobeyed that order to court publicity for her cause.

Eagleridge Bluffs was a unique ecosystem home for migrating birds and many environmentally rare and endangered plants and animals. The BC Liberal government decided to blow up the Bluffs so the Sea to Sky Highway could bypass the congestion at Horseshoe Bay. This would cut a few minutes off the trip to Whistler, the destination of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, a promise the government made in its game-winning proposal to the IOC.

Despite alternatives that were not only environmentally friendly but cost effective, and in the face of international outrage, the government stuck to its guns, or more aptly its explosives.

Twenty-four protestors were eventually arrested. All received $1000 fines with additional fines from $250 to $400. Three were jailed for criminal contempt of court including Betty and Harriet Nahanee, a 71 year-old Native elder.

Harriet served nine days of a 14-day sentence. A week after her release she was hospitalized with pneumonia at which time doctors discovered she had lung cancer. She died of pneumonia and complications at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver on February 24, just one month after her original sentencing.

Harriet had been weak from the flu and asthma in January, and it was widely suspected that her condition worsened during her incarceration. An independent public inquiry into her death was called for in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia , however Solicitor-General John Les, while expressing "regret", denied any government responsibility and refused opposition requests for an inquiry.

Eagleridge Bluffs was a rare and special place not only to me but to hundreds of others. The Liberal provincial government’s intransigence to consider other options was not only frustrating but incomprehensible. Only when it was suggested that the contractor that would carry out the project had donated ten of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions did it begin to make sense. A sickening sense.

Upstanding citizens were so outraged they took it upon themselves to violate a court injunction to abandon the blockade. They were arrested and forcibly removed.

When confronted by an immoral government that uses just laws for unjust causes, what options does a citizen of conscience have?

This is the question I pose in my novel Eagleridge Bluffs. Challenged with this reality, a law-abiding citizen takes the next step and becomes involved in eco-terrorism.

One has to wonder how many citizens that loved the Bluffs, citizens that were frustrated by an immoral government, and paralyzed by the legal system, considered taking the same step that my fictional heroine took?

Gandhi said, ‘In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.’

Five years later the injustice of Eagleridge Bluffs still resonates.

Eagleridge Bluffs, the novel is available at www.devinedestinies.com

Royalties are being donated from the sale of Eagleridge Bluffs to The Friends of Cypress Provincial Park Society to support the ongoing work in the preservation of the park's natural environment, its special historical and cultural features; and through education, an understanding and appreciation of the park's natural features. For more information about The Friends of Cypress Provincial Park Society and their work visit  http://www.cypresspark.bc.ca

Why I critique

The best way I've found to become a better writer is to have my work critiqued by other writers. It can be painful, disappointing, even infuriating but it’s been absolutely essential for me and contributed immensely to the small measure of success I've had.

It’s ironic that the best advice is also the least expensive.  The price of a critique is paid in time not cash, which makes it more practical than conferences, online courses, night school, or creative writing programs.

To get the most from the experience I adhere to a few guidelines. Here is my Critiquing W5.

WHAT to have critiqued.

I send my best work. Critiquers aren’t editors nor are they book doctors. They aren’t there to write my story only to comment on what I’ve written. To send in less than my best is disrespectful, not to mention unprofessional to those taking the time to read it.

I submit the beginning, the end, or anywhere in between, but no more than 3,000 words, about ten pages. I get the most response (on-line) when my submission is short enough to read in one sitting. If my critiquers are sitting across from me I go shorter still. It’s very discouraging to see stifled yawns and fidgeting half way through reading aloud your opening chapter.

WHERE to critique.

I prefer on-line critique groups since I get more and varied responses. Not only are there several different perspectives, but the critiquers can take their time and give me a considered and in depth opinion. In your face critique groups are, by definition, spontaneous and can be confrontational.

Local chapters of the RWA likely have a critique group but other sites include:

Scribophile  www.scribophile.com

Writer’s Digest  http://community.writersdigest.com/?p_PageAlias=Community

Romance Writers Community (RWC)   http://www.charlottedillon.com/RWC.html

WHEN to critique.

I don’t submit work until I’ve completed a second draft. By that time I’ve corrected most spelling and grammatical errors as well as plot glitches in the first draft. Most importantly, I fully understand my plot and characters, which allows me to consider if the comments I receive are relevant. By this point I’ve also invested too much time to get sidetracked by criticisms that address the story and not the writing.

I use to rush to submit. It was embarrassing. Now I let my writing rest and revisit it a week or so later. I’ll also read it aloud before I sending it.

WHO to critique.

Ideally, you will give and get critiques from people writing in the same genre and at the same level of skill or better. I find it difficult to fully critique genres that involve werewolves or vampires because I’m not steeped in their culture. Sending erotica to someone who writes inspirational may not only be personally insulting but also professionally a waste of time.

WHY to critique.

Having my work critiqued by other anonymous writers provides two essential things – an objective opinion, and instruction. The person analyzing and assessing my work doesn’t know who I am and has no vested interest in pleasing or displeasing me. Equally important is that the criticism is coming from another, ideally better writer, who knows more about the craft and the pitfalls than I do.

When I was a kid I use to watch Dick Clark’s American Bandstand – yes, that’s how old I am. One of the features on the show was “hit or miss” where Bandstand regulars would rate a new record (yes, record, not CD). After jiving up a storm the teens would gather around Dick and rate the song out of ten.

“It had a good beat, you know,” a young man with skin-tight pants and a Brylcreamed waterfall would volunteer. “I’d give it a seven.”

“The words were groovy,” a pony-tailed, bobby-soxer would swoon. “It’s a nine for me.”

“Only a four, it was hard to dance to. ”

Thus the new song was “critiqued”.

In the beginning, my critiques were reminiscent of this. On one hand, coming from a reader they were honest and important, but on the other hand, coming from a writer they were superficial and unprofessional. Because I’ve learned so much from the well-considered and knowledgeable insights of magnanimous strangers I wanted to return the same. I wanted my critiques to be of value so I began to read books on the4 craft of writing to learn how other writers addressed the issues I was seeing in the submissions I read (see a short list at the end).

Some submissions I critique are from beginners. In those I try to explain Point of View, Goal, Motivation and Conflict, and Showing instead of Telling. I do this in broad strokes and try to be patient. Regardless of how sensitive I think I’m being some people still get their feelings hurt.

When I submit a work for critiquing I assume it’s going to be criticized. After all, that’s why I sent it in. Even after several rewritings it’s still not perfect, I seldom get it right, and for sure it can always be improved upon. In my opinion, a critique that’s not critical is an oxymoron.

I have to admit sloppy submissions do make me crazy. Poor punctuation, bad grammar and repetition of errors leads me to believe the writer is either not serious or not skilled enough to take this step at this time.

A submission from an accomplished writer can be intimidating. I usually look for subtleties and nuances like voice, the characters’ and the author’s; pacing that involves a variety of sentence lengths; plotting including leaving room for the readers imagination; and, character development – consistency and believability. I’ll often comment on language – a more appropriate word sometimes makes all the difference.

When I submit my work and begin receiving critiques back, I remind myself of two things: everyone is entitled to their opinion; and, unlike almost any other situation I can think of, all opinions have some validity and should be appreciated. I watch for common threads in the criticisms because that's likely where the work is needed. And though it might make sense to defend my work to an editor, it never does to a critiquer.

This mental task of addressing the errors and weaknesses in other people’s writing makes mine better. The adage that ‘to teach is to learn twice’ has no other better application than then when it comes to critiquing other writers.

Here are a few books on the various aspects of writing fiction including the writing experience. I’ve found these books educational, entertaining and, not surprising, well written.

Things Feigned and Imagined – by Fred Stenson

Self-editing for Fiction Writers – Renni Browne and Dave King

Stein on Writing – By Sol Stein

The Fiction Writer’s Guidebook – by Edwin Silberstang

Show, Don’t Tell – by William Noble

Make that Scene – by William Noble