Rock the Boat!
March 12th, 2010
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been working with the newbies attending this year’s RT. A few nights ago, I really don’t remember why this came up, but I mentioned my favorite of the Jack Sparrow scenes from the last movie. The one where Jack realizes the only way to return from the far side of the world is to rock the boat…
But Jack, being Jack, doesn’t bother with trying to explain his brilliant deduction. He simple begins to run from side to side and due to his sheer confidence – or madness – the others follow his lead.
And viola! It works.
Now, I’ve been working on editing together a small collection of blogs from the ship to present to the newbies and one of the more brilliant entries comes from Captain Hellion. You all know the one… Everything I Know About Writing I Learned From Captain Jack Sparrow
(Did I say I was editing? Uh…no, not editing, Hel. I’d never edit you! The blog is perfect…though I think you might want to update the info on what you’re currently working on… Just saying!)
So, Hel presents 12 perfectly logical rules, er…guidelines…to follow as a writer. I want to add a 13th… Have the confidence to rock the boat.
I love how Jack throws himself into his task. He knows he’s right. Or if he doesn’t know, he believes he’s right and goes for it with everything ounce of energy inside that luscious body. He just goes for it.
Thinking about how Johnny created this role begs the question, which came first… Jack or Johnny? Johnny has been rocking the boat most of his acting career and doing it quite well. Again and again, he put together a character, then waited to be fired from a project, certain he’d gone too far this time. And we may never know the roles he didn’t get because of this tendency. Ah! But the roles he did get! And what they can teach us about moving forward with confidence and the going for it philosophy of life.
I look at Edward Scizzorhands, Ichabob, Jack, Charlie, Sweeny, the Mad Hatter…and bless Johnny Depp, a writing pirates hero!
Now, I’ve been navigating some heavy seas lately and simply have no time for lack of confidence. I must trim my sails, tighten those lines and hold that wheel with the conviction that what I am writing is the right course to steer. So, I consider Jack.
Because what I write rocks the boat. Especially this newest story. My silverton story as I call it. The Kraken’s Mirror. I finished this story last week and am already doing some basic editing. I have an extremely clear vision of this story in e-print. (Is there such a thing? Well, there is now. I just coined it. Or borrowed it if it already exists. I am a pirate, I can do that. No. I do do that!)
I can see myself selling it, pitching it, no bwah ha ha this time, but a *wink *wink perhaps. And I’m throwing myself into this project with the total abandon of Jack, rocking that boat.
I wrote a heroine who is 53 years old. She’s short. She’s got a mix of grey and brown hair. Her boobs droop. She’s got cellulite. She curses like a sailor when having phenomenal sex. And throughout most of the story she is convinced she’s insane.
I wrote a hero who is 65 years old. He’s got an old man’s butt. A few strands of dark blond snake through his silver grey hair, which is elbow length. His body is covered in scars from 50 years of pirating. And he’s cursed with good luck. (Resulting in only scars and why none were death wounds.) And he plots, seduces and uses his curse quite effectively through the story.
I’m mixing Alice in Wonderland with Pirates of the Caribbean with Peter Pan with some hints of steampunk (steampirate, doncha know!)…with senior citizens!
They say I’m mad. I say I’m rocking the boat and loving every minute of it. I’m challenging the paradigm! I’m creating a genre!
And if no one can recognize the brilliance of this story, I will give it away. I will post it on my website, I will find a way to see it read. Nope, don’t know where or how. I’ll deal with that if it comes to it.

There’s a real freedom to rocking the boat. Risk? Sure, but if life isn’t an adventure, what the hell!?
So, the discussion for this Friday… (To which I will be in and out. Sorry, pirates…I’m attending my first steampunk convention but it starts late for you east coasters, so I think I’ll be OK to attend to the blog. If I disappear…I’m lost in steamland.)
How do you rock the boat? If you don’t now, how would you like to rock the boat? Challenge the paradigm of your genre? Throw yourself with abandon into a writing project…what would you do?
(BTW…anyone have a blog they want to nominate as an excellent learning and/or inspirational device for the newbies? Feel free!)


*in the early morning light, where the Romance Writer’s Revenge is anchored at port in Vermont, which is truly magical since Vermont is not a state with a coastline, and the deck is suspiciously quiet. Perhaps the crew of the RWR are sleeping in preparation for their guest 







