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 13^th… 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!)

This sorta ties into last months blog on Alt. vs. Actual, insomuch as I want to meander about what readers expect from a genre. And how these expectations must either be met or dealt with. (I warned ye I wasn’t done wit’ this topic!)

I’ve been reading a book on screenwriting and the author talks about what movie goers expect to see when they pick a particular movie to see, emotion-wise. And I get that it’s different for each genre. And it isn’t always expectation, it’s what we hunger for on a particular day. What we need. (I’m a big movie goer and often find it easier to discuss plot, genre, etc, with reference to movies.)

For example, some are easy. You expect (need) to laugh? Go see a comedy or pick up a book with comical aspects. To experience courage? Go see action adventure, an epic adventure, etc. Love and longing fulfilled? A romance. Want to be scared? A thriller. Want to see cleverness? A mystery. You don’t get these, you are disappointed.

You get something very different? Well, what disappoints for a particular genre? What hauls you out of your ability to suspend belief?

Some are obvious. Romance readers expect either a HEA or a HFN. Mystery readers expect a solution. Thriller readers expect the resolution of tension. Fantasy readers expect imaginative worlds or a mythology they can frolic in. Scifi readers expect some science fact… Erotica readers want…well, we all know what they want!

Historical readers speak a special language and not using these terms will haul them out of the book. If you didn’t use them, as a writer, you would likely disappoint your reader. For example, a regency reader knows the vocabulary. Words like pinz nez (those little glasses), reticule (a small purse), chatelaine (a small women’s tool kit, thimbles, sewing needles, scissors), pelisse (a slip)…they already know all of these and so using them is part of the genre. All of the fabric choices, the dress terms, the term of the aristocracy…all part of the genre.

They are expected and they signal authenticity.

When I began reading authors recommended by several other pirates, many of them were regency or historical authors. And I do not have the vocabulary for this genre. It drove me crazy to be pulled out of the story by words I didn’t understand. Where was the dictionary for a newbie like me? The characters were interesting, the story was interesting…and blam! Terms I didn’t get and no fast way to find out what they meant.

I sort of knew this would happen when I stepped into the worlds these authors were writing. Still frustrated me. But I’m flexible, so I just slid past them and kept reading. (Good authors can rise above the reader’s not knowing, as long as the reader is willing to keep reading…)

When I read science fiction, I know there are going to be all sorts of science terms I’m going to flounder on. But the good scifi author finds a way to communicate with those who don’t have the science knowledge.

Here is where it gets tricky. It is my supposition that some readers are more flexible than others. Some genres are more open for a loose interpretation of facts. Some readers are flexible, some aren’t.

A paranormal reader may or may not be turned off by certain things. A historical reader is going to flip out over toying with history. My dear friend, Jane-o, reads historical. Mostly historical. She writes historical. I can take it or leave it. (I don’t write it, other than history I can totally muck about with, twisting ‘real’ into a fantasy.)

But the argument we got into regarding steampunk made me realize how stubborn she was when it came to evaluating genres. To her, it’s just sh*t. The idea of toying so much with history, to make steam the prevalent method of industrial discovery, to mix paranormal with actual history, to change the outcomes of major historical events, such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars…it totally offenses her sensibilities. She simply cannot suspend her connection to what is real and what is not to appreciate the intricate worlds steampunk authors create.

She’s kinder to me and my meddling, but she knows me!

(Granted Jane-o was a bit put out by the lesser number of historical panels scheduled at RT, and resented the allocation of time to steampunk. Time she felt would be better spent on purely historical panels. She has a point, there are very few historical panels. Sorry, Jane-o!)

Any toying with realty hauls her right out of the story. And I see this with a lot of readers. Now my mentor is knowledgeable, knows her genre right and left, knows the ins and out of writing romance, erotica, history…but toss in a bare hint of magic without complete explanation of it and she is frustrated.

Most fantasy readers expect to take a great deal on faith. To read everything explained would frustrate them. They expect to discover these tidbits as they go along. Tidbits that are world oriented, you understand. Not character oriented.  (We all expect to discover characters as we read.)

My mentor was open enough to admit that she could be finding things bothersome that wouldn’t bother a more well-read fantasy reader. I’ve had me sis read the same book and sis had no difficulties whatsoever with the world oriented tidbits. Sis expects to suspend belief until it all dances before her eyes. When one knows the world, as in historicals, any deviation is going to draw attention to itself. And piss someone off.

Every genre has its expectations. Every reader wants these expectations met. I believe problems arise when readers take a step into something different and carry those same expectations with them. When the cross pollination of genres take some/leave some, readers are often left wondering where certain elements have gone.

And let’s face it, the specialization of genres is the flipside of this coin. There are specific target audiences/writers that leave no room for toying with any elements.

What do you see as the expectations for the genre you read? Or write? Do you know of any authors that dance the fine line between genres and manage to satisfy expectations? How do you write to satisfy an ever-changing public, more and more demanding? (Not to mention publishers?)

Off subject, what would a modern day chatelaine contain for you?

You ever have that feeling that you might have bitten off more than you could chew? I know, it’s a well-known saying, but I think it can also be used to illustrate the writer’s dilemma.

I’m creating worlds, as I’ve mentioned before…(blogs are by definition supposed to be about personal experience, right? I worry sometimes that I’m being a big egocentric, always writing ‘me’ blogs…)

OK, for the sake or being different, let me talk about some other writer. Some other…unknown writer. She starts a story…tra la, la, la, la. Things are going along swimmingly. Great story, fun characters, nice plot… La, la, la. La. L…a.

Ooops. Ran out of plot at 65,000 words. Uh, this is supposed to be a big book. Hmmm. Well, this isn’t so much too big a bite as not really enough to satisfy. (What do they call that on the Food Network or Bravo’s Top Chef? Some French word that is supposed to mean one bite. Scar a bouche? (A prize for whoever knows this word!) Or for those of us uncultured…a snack.)

The market is tough for a manuscript this…uh, short. (Unless the eventual folderol known as the Harlequin Mess ever gets straightened out. Harrumph.)

OK. So, this writer says to herself, “Chance…” Uh, I mean, “Self! You need to do something to fatten this puppy up. It’s a good story, it’s a fun story. The characters are cool. Let’s get going!”

Self re-opens the document and begins to work on her 65k. Decides that isn’t really the ending…it was too quick. Too easy. She throws in more angst, more drama, another killing, kidnapping, oooh! Yeah, I’ll add a bigger villain! I mean, she adds a bigger villain! An über villain! Not just a threat to the heroine, but a threat to the WORLD!

On a roll! Really moving now! Yes! Toss in this plot line, this secondary couple! This… Wow. This has gotten a bit…large. From a snack to a buffet table.

Now, I like a buffet. I mean, she likes a buffet. And the market is better for a more fully developed manuscript. What market there is at present.

The rewrite begins, because this buffet needs a theme, a sense of organization. The entrees need to be near the end of the line, the deserts at the end, the salad at the beginning… (And I’m off on another metaphor! Damn!)

The gist of this blog is about starting projects that grow out of control. (Like this blog.) I do watch those cooking shows and time and again, it’s the chef that starts out too complicated that gets booted off. Or, as the picture illustrates, you start off thinking you can tackle this and then…wow, that is a big ship! And we’re small pirates.

I feel this way in general about writing at least once a month. That I’ve started something that is way too big for me. Then I get over that. But the Work In Progress will loom up with a similar theme… I’ve started something that is way too big for me. I get over that. Editing? I’ve started something…

You get the picture.

Everyone has these feelings. Every time we start an endeavor that seems overwhelming in the attention it needs. I’ve been guilty, many times in my life, of starting something with the best of intentions and then sucking at the follow through. Sometimes it works out anyway, despite my own unique way of running-away. (My house, for example…it’s still going up in value, even in this market… I live ½ from the Monterey Bay. I could let the walls fall down and it’s still going to be worth moolah.) (No, I’m not letting the walls fall in, but the paint is bad, the outside is two-toned, the yard is a jungle (and not in a pretty way…) … we redid the kitchen, never cook…. Blah, blah, blah.) Best of intentions, rotten follow through. (If I did the follow thru, the value would really climb! Whoop!)

Other endeavors I’ve managed to run away from? Making jewelry. I liked forging, soldering, sawing, filing… Casting. What was it I didn’t follow through with? Well, I really sucked at polishing. And pretty much sucked at marketing. But the big downfall was polishing. The buffing, the compounds, the patience to make something shiny instead of just…sorta shiny. Me? Sucked. Me? Don’t make jewelry anymore.

Singing. I like to sing. I have a good voice. I took classes when I moved away from my beloved, afore-mentioned, voice instructor. But…no follow-through. Didn’t look for someone who would like a voice to go with that guitar, that piano, that mandolin. Didn’t reach out, find venues for open mics…look for people who might need a voice to go with that… Uh huh. Me. Rotten follow through. I sing in the car now, that’s about it.

Now, I’m writing, and working so blessedly hard at not sucking with follow through. I’m learning how to polish a MS. I’m learning how to talk to editors/agents…write those awkward letters… “Remember me? You requested a partial from… Have you had a chance…”

Sigh. I think I suck at it, but I’m doing it. I sent some stuff out way too early…but I’m not going to just pull it. I love A Caribbean Spell, and I’ll push it until I find someone willing to work with me on making it sparkly. (Thanks fer the feeback, Q!) And I work to make it better periodically. And I work very hard at making sure the next manuscript I put out there is closer to perfect.

I constantly fight the feelin’ that I have bitten off more than I can chew. That I have a tiger by a tail. That this ship has too much sail… (I love metaphors!)

So, your turn! You feel often like you’ve over-reached yourself? Do you see a pattern in your life of being a bit…overly ambitious? True or not? (Because in truth, we are all brilliant and sparkle like the stars we are.) You know where your weaknesses lie? Am I so over the map I’ve lost you? (That’s OK, I get lost, too.) You ever read something where you can tell the author really overdid it with that buffet? You juggling too many chainsaws? (Can I fit in another metaphor?)

(Sorry, no musical influences for the week. I’m not Sin. She’s off playing somewhere other than the ship, and I graciously took over for the day. Sorry. No angst. No music. No murder. Or thoughts of murder. Live with it.)

            2^nd Chance

On with the blog!

We were all newbies once. We all took the first step to a conference or a convention or an RWA meeting or a classroom at one time…stepped into that room and wondered if the big neon sign above us, shouting out TOTAL IGNORANT BOOB was working.

Admit it, we all have these signs.

I know how terrified I was at my first event. The Romantic Times Booklovers Conference in Pittsburgh, April of 2008. I was lucky. I’d signed up for the Aspiring Author workshop and one thing Judi McCoy does brilliantly is set up a bulletin board for everyone to join who takes her class. Months in advance.

So, we all had a chance to babble about our nerves, to address the questions about what we needed to bring to class a bazillion times, how to format our writing… OMG! What if we do it wrong???? We’ll be cast into no-more-chances hell and never see daylight again! Nooooooo!

Yeah, total chaos and lots of diving into the chocolate bins. Would have been much worse without the BB. As it was, because of that BB, I arrived to meet Jane in person. We’d already found common ground on the BB and started a friendship apart from that link.

Last year, Judi asked Jane and me (should that be Jane and I? These grammar things confuse me sometimes…) Anyway, she asked us to join her newbie board as a pair of experienced students who could help her, and them.(I’ve come to the conclusion this gives Judi more time to write and helps her save patience for the convention. Smart woman!)

We agreed. And we had a blast. Made friends with most of them, several we are still corresponding with. And several I lured to the Revenge. (Hi! Sabrina!) We were told by many of them how our joking back and forth set them at ease and made them look forward to not only everything they’d learn, but how much fun they’d have. And they weren’t worried about arriving at the con feeling terribly alone.

Jane and I both felt this was our opportunity to give back to the community. And to help out with making sure the newbies don’t feel as scared as we did, despite knowing each other when we arrived in Pittsburgh. (I mean, what if we’d really disliked each other on site? What then? It could have happened that way!)

We’re doing it again this year, another crop of newbies to encourage and work with. And Jane e-mails me, “Were we this freaked out?”

And I e-mail her back, “Yes! Of course we were!”

How quickly we forget! Granted, what freaked me out didn’t freak Jane out. And vice versa. But yes, we both freaked about different things.

In Orlando, it was fascinating to see how certain newbies prepared for the conference. Sabrina had a color coded notebook of all the panels, when, who…she was über organized! Willie had a pack to haul away books and I think she ended up with around 200 in that pack. (Not all freebies.) Kathy and Darelle, a niece and aunt, put together the most amazing costumes for the fairy ball! Damn, I wanted to steal that crackle glass globe atop her staff!

We’re looking forward to what this next group will surprise us with. Last year, we had goody bags for them, a total surprise for Judi, who cried at seeing her newest book included in the bags. A surprise Jane’s husband sprang for.

(The dog that inspired Judi to create her new dogwalker series passed away right before the first book made it to the bookstores. Bryan, Jane’s DH, is a big softie and wanted to contribute something to make Judi feel better. This box of books arrives at Jane’s house from an unknown benefactor and we didn’t know until months after the conference that they came from Bryan. Now, that’s romantic!)

We filled the bags with some snacks, chocolate, small notepads, pencils, snacks, pens, bookmarks I made printed with the most basic of the acronyms that had confused me in the beginning…just fun stuff. Oh, and buttons. And info about the Revenge!

And several of the newbies had visited Disneyworld before the con. Brought me a pirate flag pin and Jane got a TinkerBell mug. Sweet girls!

Even though Jane and I aren’t published, or agented, we feel it’s important to do what we can with what we know to help out the how ever we can. Jane, the insane one, is going to volunteer at the con this year. I might tag along, but nothing official. I hate being scheduled at these things…

So, you remember what it was like to be so brand new you didn’t know what HEA meant? (I do.) How did you feel the first time you walked into a conference, did it feel to you like everyone knew everything while you knew nothing? (I did!) Have you been to a conference yet? Worried, at all? (I admit, I still worry.) How do you give back or plan to give back to the writing community?

 And I missed it. So, in honor of me first blog…back on January 23^rd, 2009…

What I Have Gained From My Year on the Revenge

1) I thought it would be fun. And it is fun! I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, from our guests and from those who visit and babble along with us. Yes. The mysteries of glittery hoohas, the allure of a bedazller… And actually useful stuff. I’m still not finished with my picking away at the question of genre and what it all MEANS! I think that is my eternal quest, much like that of the Holy Grail.

But my mind delights in skipping and dancing along the way to figuring something out. Anything, for the most part.

For example…

Earlier this week I sat across the kitchen table with my 70-something Mother, discussing the origins of cuss words and  how I found it interesting how the varied ways words used to describe genitalia somehow became insults. I find topics like this fascinating. Not totally sure what Mom thought, though she did chuckle once or twice.

Any day is a good day when I can make Mom chuckle.

So, the delightful back and forth of this blog suits me quite well. And if the discussions sometimes turn into not much more than I-like-this-so-there…well, it’s still interesting. Then I sit back and contemplate why that was the answer!

Yes, Hel. I contemplate not just my navel, but all navels! I am an equal opportunity navel contemplator.

The blog stimulates my mind. Thank you! I hope it stimulates yours.

2) I thought the blog would help me build a platform to use when I get published. I still think it will work that way. I do a lot of wandering around examining writing trends, and one is about the entire idea of an author platform. I see several panels at RT on platform building, on web presence, on how to use the technology available to build an audience, even if you aren’t pubbed yet…and about branding. Not sure yet what that one is all about, but I look forward to exploring it.

I’ve spoken before about putting together a video book pitch and posting it on YouTube. I’m working on the script and hope to have it up before RT. Because I think it will be fun, not because I think it will work to get me an offer. I’m even going to dress up in all my pirate finery! Stand with the Pacific at my back, look distant and all romantic. Hee, hee.

It has to be fun or I’m not going to do it. (Though I can’t make that work with synopsis writing, blast.)

As for the idea of branding… I wonder if it’s about things like Christie Craig and her hats… I suspect it isn’t. But I was recently working on business cards to take to RT and put together a card that I felt spoke of how I see myself. More than a pirate, but writer who fully embraces the anarchy of piratatude in how I write, what I write, etc.

I chose a motto of sorts… Sailing the Seas of Adventure. And I claimed the genre of fantasy. (But I’m not through contemplating it or discussing it! Fair warning to all!)

I came to all of this through my time on the Revenge. The identity I found here is my writer identity. And I love it!

Thank you!

3) Friends. I’ve found friends. Terrio, who reads the stuff I send her and comes back with such intensely common sense she stuns me sometimes. (I keep asking her to marry me. She keeps putting me off, sly girl!) Sin, who is my musical guru and sends me music to inspire my muse. Hellion, who writes brilliant blogs on how to navigate the waters of a very complex writing sea. Halleigh, who is so academically brilliant it’s scary. And her research! Damn! Marnee – the master juggler. Writing, motherhood…a real inspiration. J. Perry, Santa, Lisa…all ladies that follow their dream, forging their own path.

Sometimes it’s slow, sometimes it’s hard, but we all work our sails the best we can. And Melissa, Julie, Quantum, Sabrina and all those who come along for the ride… I adore you all, even if I don’t list your name!

My world is so much larger for stowing away on the Revenge and wheedling my way into a one day a week chance to pontificate from the bar stool.

Thank you all!

And here’s a rum toast to you all! Scotch for you, Q!

To the Romance Writers Revenge! Long may she sail!

What do you find draws you back to the Revenge? You have anything particular you found here that assist you in finding your heart’s ideal? Any mottos spring brilliantly to mind? Any thoughts on whether a blog assists a non-pubbed author as much as a pubbed writer? Wanna wish me a belated happy anniversary?

It be the dawn a’  the pirate age, when the stylish thing ta wear be a fur tricorn and weave bones in yer hair. We find two stalwart Neanderthal pirates stompin’ about the deck a’ their giant, thick walled ship. It be near sunset and Og holds a carved wooden tankard a rum. (Because there was, and always will be, rum).

Tar, his second mate, holds a large orange, sliced in half and be slurpin’ away at the juice. It’s pretty disgustin’, as his beard is all sticky and all…

A sudden gust a’  wind caused both ta loose their footing… Og manages ta hang onta his tankard (somethings never change and spillin’ rum be heresy) but Tar’s wonderful juicy orange flies inta the air…

Only ta land with a large *kerplunk* in Og’s tankard.

“Ya got fruit in me rum!” he roars.

“Ya got rum in me fruit!” Tar roars back.

Og takes a cautious sip, grunts, takes another.

And so, on a blistery day, back in the time a’ the ancient ancestors, rum punch be born.

What does this have to do with my blog topic today? Well, what came first, the orange or the rum. (I know, I should have used a pineapple, that would have needed to be one huge tankard.) (And I like OJ in my rum.)

So, we did critiques at my last local RWA chapter meeting. I put forth a few pages of my latest grand scheme to rule the… Uh, I mean, I brought two pages of my pirates with i-pods epic. And read it aloud. (Which was very helpful for me personally and I may try this reading aloud stuff more…but I digress…)

Yeah, yeah, nothing new there…

Anyway!

One of my chapter mates has Donald Maass as her agent and I think she’s already pubbed, but I’m not sure. (I’ve been told, I’m certain, but per norm, it went in one ear and sped through my convoluted brain, got lost, found, lost again and then dribbled out the other ear.)

This lass said, (not a direct quote, btw…remember the convoluted brain?) “You have a very literary style. It’s very compelling, but distant.”

Crap.

Not because it’s compelling, or literary…but the distant sort of bugged me. I looked around at the others and they were all nodding in agreement. I asked for some clarity on exactly what is a literary voice and after some stumbling comments I left about as confused as I normally am.

Stop snickering!

I went home and thought about those comments. They touched on style, on an agreement that what I read was compelling. And even that a literary voice is very appropriate for my genre. So, I wasn’t hurting, just a tad…confused.

I said, stop snickering!

Blast.

I looked up style and then voice. Well, that was fairly useless. About as much help as what came first, the chicken or the egg. One source said… “Voice is the author’s style, the quality that makes the writing unique and which conveys the author’s attitude, personality, and character.”

Well, that was some help. Though it basically said style and voice were the same thing. Another definition said that style was “the way an author writes. The word choice, tone, syntax…” 

Sigh.

Aside from my personal search for exactly what is meant by the term literary voice, now I’m bobbing about the sea, wondering about the entire concept of voice vs. style.

What does the crew have to offer? Any clue on the meaning behind what is to me a cryptic phrase — literary voice — or on the entire debate of what is which and which came first and if the two are the same? How do you define your voice? Your style?

And thanks to Terrio, who contributed another well earned kick in my ass when I worried if I needed to change my voice. Thanks, Ter. Whenever you need a swift kick, I’m yer pirate.

BTW, Tar wanted his orange back and Og wouldn’t share so a bloody fight ensued…all perfectly normal.

Been a rough week, crew. I wrestled with deep despair over contest results. Again. (Crew, do not let me enter another contest. Ever. Club me with a rum bottle, hang me from the yardarm by my feet if I ever, ever babble about entering another one, ever.)

Our dear Bo’sun hauled me outta the pits and set me straight. So, I’m better now. But…still been a scrappy week. Felt like Hellion was going to toss me overboard a few times for disagreeing with her and refusing to acquiesce to being lashed.

So, let’s pick a few fights today. Get it all out there and bloody up the deck. The rum will flow… I’m serving up Feisty Friday Freezes.

Number one. I don’t read what I write. Who wants to take me on about this one? Now, I have a powerful green eyed jealous monster who rides me back. If I read something I felt I could have done better, should have done better, should have been first, could have been first… I shut down. Convinced it is too late, I suck…you name it. So I don’t read it.

Seldom read it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know…how can I know the genre if I don’t read it. Well, I read about it! So, come on…tell me why I’m so incredibly wrong…

Number two. I also write what I don’t do. Never been a mother, but I’m writing about a conflicted mother. Sue me.

If writers only stuck to what they had personal experience with, no one would write historicals. So, there!

I have a mother, I talk to her…a lot. About being a mother. I read…a lot. And there are so many mothers in fiction. So, I can write one. And there are daddy’s that look good on paper and to a child’s eyes they are fabulous. But are really monsters that deserve walking the plant. Over a volcano. An active volcano. Moms, too!

I also write about alien abductions, fairy, pirates and a ton of things I have no personal experience with.

Sin? Every really killed anyone? Wallowed in blood?

Hal? Last arms deal you took part in?

Marn? Have any traffic with demons lately?

Hel? Last time you dated Lucifer?

Now, I know Bo’sun coached the girl’s version of baseball…softball. So, I guess she’s the only one allowed to keep working on her stuff.

OK, Hel might actually have dated Lucifer…

Number Three. Anyone can disagree with me and not be an idiot. I feel pretty strongly about this one.

And Frodo was too a hero.

Moms who go to work do raise their children. And moms who stay home are worth way more than any family can afford to pay them.

Avatar was a good movie.

Anyone else have any tidbits they want to throw in the ring from the last few weeks? Toss it up and see who steps into the ring to duke it out? Do you read what you write? Do you write only what you know? Can you know something well enough by reading about it to write about it, convincingly? Let’s go, I’m feeling feisty!

Blame it on the Bo’sun, if this blog holds together better than mine normally tend to. I was really floundering on this and have come to the conclusion…I take bad notes. So, trying to pull enough together to make sense and not meander about… I give you 3 items of interest from the Donald Maas workshop I attended last Saturday.

I’m going to start with the third point, because I like working backwards. It amazed, what I heard during breaks and at the end of the day. “Well, guess I’ll just scrap what I have and start over!”

No kidding?

And I thought, “What? No bloody way!” My inner censor held me back from standing up and staring then all down, “Are you all mad? He’s hasn’t said anything that isn’t fixable!”

I do have some instincts toward self preservation. And these were my chapter mates and I need to continue meeting with them once a month.

Now, I am not so egotistical to assume nothing he said pertains to me and my manuscripts. Quite the contrary! Some wonderful ideas for adding verve and excitement and sharpening the works… Lots of great ideas.

But this was an important point for me…I’m not writing perfect, but I don’t believe in pillage and burn. I mean, how can I continue to build a mutually satisfactory relationship with any manuscript if I just pillage and burn it?

He spoke of revisions. He spoke of receiving a rejection and resubmitting according the suggestions made. He didn’t say…burn it.  So, last thing I walked away with? Don’t burn it.

Secondly, protagonist! I discovered that I write great protagonist. Oh, boy, sounds egotistical again, don’t it? No, not that way! But Donald said that protagonists tend fit into two types. Those that are born great and those that have greatness thrust upon them. Say…the Navy Seal compared to the stock clerk. And he emphasized with both of these types…make the reader connect with them in the first five pages.

(I hate the first 5 pages stuff. I know, it’s realistic. But I struggle within the confines of reality all the time.)

But I listened and understand the gist. Those that are great need to be made fallible so the reader can relate. Those that aren’t great naturally…well, my notes suck here, something about giving them attributes to admire and enable to them rise to the greatness they are headed for. I create protagonists that are already great. (Not in an egotistical way, remember, but in a already a warrior sort or thing… Oh, never mind, I’m getting myself into trouble enough.)  

The gist of it? Examine where your protagonist fits into this world and make sure you bring them into the world. Not so great that no one can relate and not so…uh…not-great so that there is no suspension of disbelief when they end up doing great things. (Did I use a double negative there?) Suspension of disbelief? Yeah, that might be better.

Firstly, oh…I loved this one! Special Characters! This topic fascinated me. He spoke of how to use this tool to address a need for action, for information, for climax wrap up. Special characters, the larger than life presence that hovers over the action, but often isn’t ever introduced. The general in charge of the troops, the scientist, the head of the school board. The one we writers use as an off screen device.

Donald recommends bringing them on screen and let them relay information, spur action, add color.

I have the Guardians in my current WIP. They know why the world changed, they make rules, but for the most part, they are off screen and they don’t interfere. Until one of them pops up near the end and because he’s eccentric and disagrees with some of the original Guardian doctrine, he drops bits of information that changes everything for the H/H. But he does it in almost an accidental way.

I love it, I can use him more. Not just at the end. It’s going to be fun to incorporate him just a bit more. Just a bit….mostly at the end, but I can do some gentle foreshadowing using this character.

Delish!

There was more, of course. At one point I wanted to thrust my fist in the air and shout out “YES!” Because he spoke of how telling can be as important as showing. How an objective POV can be useful to make the intangible dynamic.

Donald is my hero.

Details? Give me more time to reflect and I hope I can give you more. And maybe I’ll read the book…find the specifics that struck me as wonderful. He did use an example of a paragraph from an author he represents. Daniel Depp. Yup, related to our favorite pirate actor. Wrote a mystery of sorts set in Hollywood. Great passage he read. (Gotta look for this book!)

The last question he addressed was great. Asked how he recommended an author approach revision, he replied that a linear approach was fine and good, but he suggested a more scattered and random approach. Work out of order. A sort of shuffle things around and grab a scene, a bit of dialog, some action…read it, apply the methods he suggested…grab another. From anywhere.

This appeals to the chaos imp that lives inside me and likes to play.

So, to reiterate…

3) Don’t burn. (Sin, this is for you. Stop the bonfires. Now.)

2) Great or greatness thrust upon them? Either way, still need a way to connect to the reader, for the reader to believe this could be them…

1) Special Characters are to be used.

.5) Edit out of order

Now, lets see how you might find some of this useful with your current WIP… (And keep tuned in…one last point he made I am writing up as an entire blog on all its own. One I know Hel is going to take great delight in…)

I’m up at me Mum’s and time will be tight today. Bear with me as  I pop in and out…and play nice! The bar is open!

OK, I think I’m a real loon. I’m not sure when I crossed over from simply interesting to sweetly quirky to totally bizarre. But as I write stranger and stranger stories, I’m coming to the realization that…in Sin’s dear words…I ain’t right.

Course my ain’t right is different than her ain’t right. I seldom create scenarios involving the demise of innocent characters just for the heck of it. (I’m not denying envisioning numerously painful ways for the twit in front of me at Starbucks to die when he pulls out a list of 45 drinks that have to be made before my single little caffeine fix is done… Nope, not denying that.)

My ain’t right involves the directions I find my stories taking once I get going. I recently started a new book… (Needed something to entertain myself between editing duties. Once I’m actually doing the editing, I’m fine. It’s the thinking about doing or the break I need once I’ve spent some time doing it… I long for something light and frothy and fun.)

So, I started the book I’ve been talking about to myself and to the blog. I wanted to write a nice sexy loves story staring two not so young people. Like a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s… It would be sweet and sexy and fun… I’d make it a pirate adventure, but nothing too wild…

Well, maybe a little wild. No magic, just some fantasy stuff. Friendly… No time travel. Well, maybe a little time travel. And a touch of magic. Ok, a curse and a wicked ice queen. Absolutely no vampires…

But I’d have i-pods and good drinks and toss in the kraken. An albino kraken! Oh, damn. Vampires snuck in…but they aren’t really sexy or alluring. They do, however, know how to waltz.

At this point I figured what the heck. I added a swamp and some zombies wandering around. And what’s a romance without a pack of werewolves racing around the forest? And a voodoo queen who can mix up a cure for hangovers…

Toss in some pirate ships, and maybe some goggles, for the steampunk fans. No aliens. (So far.) And no dukes! (Or viscounts, or duchesses, or royalty of any sort.)

You know, this stuff just happens to me. I’m writing and my mind just takes this detour somewhere strange. But…come on! Doesn’t this sound like a party?

I do believe that sometimes, the muse just needs to chug that pitcher of margaritas and dance the wild one on the bar. Is it marketable? I have no idea… I don’t even know how long it’s going to be. But the sexy love story is central to all of it. I got a heroine who longs to become the sexy woman at 53 she’s always dreamed lived inside her. A tortured hero who starts out a villain but eventually redeems himself and teaches her that she sure the hell is that sexy woman. And he sure the hell deserves her!

I actually have a plot in the midst of this madness. I have motivation, goal, AND conflict. Internal conflict and external conflict. (Remember the curse?)

Actually, it’s one of the first MS I’ve ever worked on with all of these things pretty well established before I’ve reached the editing steps. I know this isn’t really…normal.

Maybe it’s normal for me. Because I ain’t right.

But I’m not necessarily wrong either. I’m just a bit…different.

OK, a lot different.

Unless, maybe I’m not!

Here’s your chance. Another confession Friday! Who else has decided to try it all, toss your hat into the stew pot, in fact, jump in and have a hot tub party? Or maybe a little less wild…mix just two odd elements together? Or what would you like to see put together? I mean, we had Jane Austen and zombies… Of the current trends…your passions…what would you like to mix and match?

(Uh, nope this isn’t the second in my naval contemplation of genres. I’m on the road today, crew, and will be posting periodically. So I went with an easier one to bat around. Enjoy!)

“Sin? Sin! Blast it, where did that sneaky tart go?” Chance held up the vial of perfect brightness, figuring even that ninja couldn’t hide from that elvish light. She hadn’t counted on that cloak Sin had flinched from the wizard’s school. The Quartermaster was invisible, still!

“Wow, this thing is great!” Terrio spun, holding out an old looking compass. “If I think of my daughter, it points to her! If I think about a job, it points toward toward the southeast! This is so cool! Slipping into that script was a great idea, Chancy!”

Chance rolled her eyes, hating that new nickname. She glanced over toward Marnee, who was gazing intently into a large mirror of water.

“I can see my son…he’s going to be so handsome! Oh, and the new baby…!” Marnee beamed, being careful not to let anything touch the oddly still bit of water. On a ship…and it didn’t move. Gotta love magic.

“I’ve got twelve things done and in the oven!” Santa twisted the lever of the time piece she’d lifted from the girl at Hogwarts. “And I’ve finally caught up with all my e-mail!”

This ship was becoming dangerously full of stolen ideas.

Chance thought it would be fun to slip into other books and lift a few bits of sparkle. After all, they are pirates and pirates…uh…borrow. A lot. But she had a feeling the Captain wasn’t going to agree about this. Though her never ending barrel of rum was stolen from an idea from her own book…

But Hogwarts! There was going to be hell to pay when the Captain made it on the ship.

Damn.

You do know there are no new ideas. No new plots… Everything that seems new is just a different perspective on an old idea. I, personally, have lifted ideas from numerous sources. My sexual witch? Janet Morris did it first. (Though I’m sure the erotic pubs have played this. It’s a natural!) Traveling through time and space? Thank you, the BBC and Dr. Who. Riding through space without a vehicle? Thank you Doris Piserchia and Star Rider. An infinite variety of alternate worlds? Michael Moorcock. A world without people? Left to rot without human intervention? The History Channel and Life After People. I am sure there are more examples in my books. Dozens. Or more.

J.K. Rowling purportedly credited Diane Duane and the So You Want to Be a Wizard? series as inspiring Harry Potter. (An American version… I like Duane. It’s a good series.)

Tolkien borrowed extensively from the myths of Northern Europe. (In the movie, anyone else see Saruman’s Orcs and think…Klingons?)

The entire Star Trek universe, personal opinion, can be traced back to A. E. van Vogt and The Voyage of the Space Beagle.  Van Vogt had an episode in the Beagle book that had to be the inspiration for Alien.

We all do it. We all read something that just twinkles for us and like the good pirates we are, we steal it. Er…borrow it. Now, we generally disguise it. Give it a different name, twist elements of it. Be it a basic universe, a magical toy, a plot device, a character’s profession…

The key, I’m certain, is to brand it in some unique way. To make it ours. Change it so that it isn’t instantly recognizable. Now, some readers are going to see it and be offended. Or entertained. Sometimes, we’ll do it better. Sometimes, we’ll do it worse. But we must make it ours.

I tread close with A Caribbean Spell… I struggle to separate it from fan fiction. And I am constantly tweaking it, changing this and that…pulling it away from the roots of the idea. I think I need another good rewrite to cement it as an individual work of fiction. I won’t mind if it be seen by those who love pirate stuff as a tribute to Pirates of the Caribbean. It certainly won’t be the last!

You can’t steal characters. You can…borrow elements that inspire you to create a new character, a new universe, a new romance. Of course, it won’t really be new, but if you really take care, it will be yours.

Because nothing is new, and we are all thieves. In the strictest definition of the word. Or perhaps just the spirit…

How about you? Noticed anything when you read that you know is the hallmark of another author? I know I’ve read books where I say to myself, “She read Jennifer Crusie… But it’s good! Nicely done.” And I’ve read ones where I thought, “Oh. Big Eloisa James fan. Eh.” Ever read one book and then every other book by that author reminds you of the last? (Yup, we borrow from ourselves, sometimes it works, sometimes it don’t…) Same with movies, television…

Can you admit to what you’ve lifted? Give credit where credit is due! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or something like that. Confession is good for the soul!

Have an idea you want to flinch? Need some help on how to make it yours? We’ll help! Well, I’ll help.

Because I admit it, I’m a thief.

Stolen articles: Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, the Phial of Galadriel, Jack Sparrow’s Compass, Galadriel’s Mirror, Hermione’s Time-Turner