(First off, apologies to all of those who were looking for this on Monday. I hadn't realized it hadn't gone up since I put the wrong date on the scheduled post.)
Weekly word count: (checking NaNoWriMo site): 9 313
Whew! That's way better than I've been doing. So a few things are clearly working for me:
1) Staying up late to write rather than trying to do it in the afternoon and early evening while I am also trying to keep an eye on the kids.
2) Using the weekend for writing blitzes instead of blogging or tweet-boarding or other writing business.
3) Getting to enter a daily word count and watching the overall progress on a graphic.
The staying up late has been a problematic success. I'm getting less sleep, which is taking a toll on both my alertness and productivity, but on those days when I've skipped writing, I find I still have a hard time falling asleep and I feel frustrated and irritable. So there's no real win either way. Ideally, I'd like to have my early afternoons available for writing again (or heck, the whole day while the kids are at school) but that's not a reality right now and I'm not going to put myself on hold until it is.
I've started using the post-school to kids' bedtime hours to do my blogging, planning my tweets and managing the business of writing. Again, not ideal, but I find it easier to divide my attention between those tasks and parenting than I do when I try to be creative and parent at the same time.
I wouldn't have though the graphic would be such a motivator. After all, I've always included my weekly word count in these posts and I hate when I have to report a 0 week. But getting to enter information every day is proving to be a good counter to my bouts of mental inertia. I think I'd have to be careful about it, since I'm already finding that the projected "here's where you need to be" total is a dragging discouragement. But it would be great to have a similar graphic on my own site that I could see on a regular basis.
My Books
Monday, 13 November 2017
Thursday, 9 November 2017
Heroine Fix: Willow Rosenburg, Witch, Redhead, Genius
Heroine Fix is a monthly feature looking at characters that I admire and who influence my own writing. (Warning: this article will contain spoilers.)
Anyone who knows me knows that I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I quote it frequently, still sing the songs from "Once More With Feeling" and have a huge crush on James Marsters. But it was the female characters that really brought the series home for me, and the one that inspired me the most was Willow Rosenburg, as played by Alyson Hannigan.
She was smart. She was cheerful. She was powerful. She was a redhead. There were many levels of connection and inspiration for me. One of the things I thought was most inspiring about her was her willingness to be entirely genuine about how she felt, what she thought and what she wanted. Unlike Cordelia, who hid behind a mask of cool, Willow embraced herself in all her glory. She gushes about Sunnydale High's library, gets excited about chicken feet and quartz crystals, and gives her whole heart to her friends and partners.
One of the first things that struck me about her character was how she seemed impervious to the darkness around her. When her clothes are mocked, she glances down at herself and is confused, but she also shrugs it off quickly. She isn't interested in being one of the popular girls, because the popular girls don't get to do research in the library or hack into city hall or do magic like Willow gets to do.
When it came to love, Willow's first on screen interests were Xander (who was oblivious), Carmine (who was a vampire planning to kill her), and Malcolm (ancient demon hiding in the Internet and planning to destroy the world). It would have been very easy to portray Willow as the naive damsel in distress but that's not how it works in the Whedonverse. She might be naive but she's no pushover. When she realizes that Malcolm is really Moloch the Corruptor, she hits him with an axe, shouting "I think we should break up!" With Carmine, she resists being dragged into the graveyard, challenging his assertion that it's a short cut. And although she knows Xander is never going to see her as a romantic interest, that doesn't stop her from being his best friend and wanting the best for him.
Then Willow finally got someone who woke up and recognized the awesome: Oz. From the first moment he saw her in her Eskimo costume, to the moment he started the best asking out moment in screen history, Willow had him wrapped around her little finger.
But Willow doesn't take advantage of Oz's devotion. She supports him whole-heartedly, helping him to graduate and adjust to the whole being a werewolf thing. She's not perfect (and as a teenager, she shouldn't be). While she is with Oz, she and Xander end up flirting with a relationship, but Willow does what few of us would have the strength to do: she walks away from the dream of her first crush to focus on her real feelings for Oz. When he decides he has to leave because he's unable to handle his lycanthrophy, Willow is devastated.
She doesn't stay crushed for long, though. Personally, as someone who has always fought depression, I found Willow's ability to get back up and genuinely find the joy in the face of despair to be one of her most inspiring qualities. She wasn't white-knuckling her way through life, hiding her tears. Instead, she was sad but hadn't lost herself in it. And soon, she found someone new: Tara.
It took Willow awhile to understand how her feelings for Tara were going far beyond friendship and a magical pairing, but once she did, she never looked back. She accepted who she was and how she felt without any sign of angst. Their relationship was one of the great love stories of the Whedonverse, but like all Whedon love stories, it ended badly.
When Tara died in her arms, Willow goes full dark side. She is ready to rip apart the fabric of reality so that everyone can share in her pain. Forget roaring to the heavens, Willow gets right to business. I believe it spoke to the depths of her agony and love. When Oz left, it hurt, but when Tara was taken from her, she was ready to hurt back. And there is nothing that anyone can do to stop her. She is more powerful than Buffy. Xander reminds her of who she truly is, standing defenseless in front of her. "You've been my best friend my whole life. World's gonna end, where else would I wanna be?.... you're about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid. And, hey, I still wanna hang! You're Willow." And I agree with him. Even at the end of the world, I'd want to hang with Willow, too.
And despite hitting a level of despair that most people can only nightmare about, Willow still opens her heart yet again to love Kennedy, one of the proto-Slayers from the final season. Because being open is a big part of who Willow is.
In the episode "Doppelgangland" Willow faced the vampire dominatrix version of herself, a juxtaposition which showed the core of the character brilliantly. Vampire Willow broke a vampire's fingers asking: Who do you work for? When the vampire told her, she did it one more time, so he could understand that now he worked for her. She walked into a bar and when someone was a jerk to her, she tilted her head, said "Bored now" and flung him across the room. Good Willow helps Anya with a spell to retrieve her lost necklace, puts herself in danger to rescue the hostages at the Bronze, and makes the wonderful joke that she and Oz play Mistress of Pain every night.
Both Willows are unreserved. Vampire Willow loves the fact that in her world there are people in chains and she can ride them like ponies. When Anya's spell goes wrong, Willow seizes her chicken feet and storms out. Both Willows take action to solve their problems rather than waiting for someone else to solve them. Both make jokes and are focused on what they want. Although Buffy and the others hasten to reassure Willow that the vampire version of her is nothing like the original, the truth is that the parts that make Willow stay consistent no matter where her moral compass is pointed.
But there's a dark side to always being open. Willow struggles with addiction, becoming intoxicated with magic. She likes feeling powerful and being able to solve problems with the flick of a finger. Of course, just because she can make people do what she wants doesn't mean that she should, but it's so easy that she fails to resist the temptation. Her life spirals down out of control and she has to work hard to get it back on track and earn back the trust of Tara and her friends.
It would have been typical for the show's writers to put Willow in a position where she is tempted to use magic again and show her growth by refusing. Instead, they put Willow in a situation where she must use magic in order to save the world. After a season of struggling to keep herself closed, Willow had to trust herself again and open herself to everything she truly is: a witch, a hero and a helper.
She connects with the magic and activates every potential Slayer across the globe. The sequence of girls and women standing up to face their fears and tormentors is one that still triggers a straightening of my spine. And Willow did it, not through denial of herself, but by embracing herself.
That's worthy of celebration. Willow was the inspiration for the heroine of my first novel, the one still under my bed because writing a heroine who is cheerful and happy and faces adversity without flinching was beyond my newbie skills. But I still love the story and the character and hope that one day, I'll have the writing skills to bring her to life.
Are you addicted to strong and intriguing heroines like I am? You can sign up to get each month's Heroine Fix by email and then you'll never miss the next fix.
I'm still in a witchy mood, so next month, I'll be looking at one of my favourite romantic comedy heroines: Sally Owens from Practical Magic.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I quote it frequently, still sing the songs from "Once More With Feeling" and have a huge crush on James Marsters. But it was the female characters that really brought the series home for me, and the one that inspired me the most was Willow Rosenburg, as played by Alyson Hannigan.
She was smart. She was cheerful. She was powerful. She was a redhead. There were many levels of connection and inspiration for me. One of the things I thought was most inspiring about her was her willingness to be entirely genuine about how she felt, what she thought and what she wanted. Unlike Cordelia, who hid behind a mask of cool, Willow embraced herself in all her glory. She gushes about Sunnydale High's library, gets excited about chicken feet and quartz crystals, and gives her whole heart to her friends and partners.
One of the first things that struck me about her character was how she seemed impervious to the darkness around her. When her clothes are mocked, she glances down at herself and is confused, but she also shrugs it off quickly. She isn't interested in being one of the popular girls, because the popular girls don't get to do research in the library or hack into city hall or do magic like Willow gets to do.
When it came to love, Willow's first on screen interests were Xander (who was oblivious), Carmine (who was a vampire planning to kill her), and Malcolm (ancient demon hiding in the Internet and planning to destroy the world). It would have been very easy to portray Willow as the naive damsel in distress but that's not how it works in the Whedonverse. She might be naive but she's no pushover. When she realizes that Malcolm is really Moloch the Corruptor, she hits him with an axe, shouting "I think we should break up!" With Carmine, she resists being dragged into the graveyard, challenging his assertion that it's a short cut. And although she knows Xander is never going to see her as a romantic interest, that doesn't stop her from being his best friend and wanting the best for him.
Then Willow finally got someone who woke up and recognized the awesome: Oz. From the first moment he saw her in her Eskimo costume, to the moment he started the best asking out moment in screen history, Willow had him wrapped around her little finger.
 |
| Oz: I'm gonna ask you to go out with me tomorrow night. And I'm kinda nervous about it, actually it's interesting. Willow: Oh. Well, if it helps at all, I'm gonna say yes. Oz: Yeah, it helps. It creates a comfort zone. |
She doesn't stay crushed for long, though. Personally, as someone who has always fought depression, I found Willow's ability to get back up and genuinely find the joy in the face of despair to be one of her most inspiring qualities. She wasn't white-knuckling her way through life, hiding her tears. Instead, she was sad but hadn't lost herself in it. And soon, she found someone new: Tara.
It took Willow awhile to understand how her feelings for Tara were going far beyond friendship and a magical pairing, but once she did, she never looked back. She accepted who she was and how she felt without any sign of angst. Their relationship was one of the great love stories of the Whedonverse, but like all Whedon love stories, it ended badly.
When Tara died in her arms, Willow goes full dark side. She is ready to rip apart the fabric of reality so that everyone can share in her pain. Forget roaring to the heavens, Willow gets right to business. I believe it spoke to the depths of her agony and love. When Oz left, it hurt, but when Tara was taken from her, she was ready to hurt back. And there is nothing that anyone can do to stop her. She is more powerful than Buffy. Xander reminds her of who she truly is, standing defenseless in front of her. "You've been my best friend my whole life. World's gonna end, where else would I wanna be?.... you're about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid. And, hey, I still wanna hang! You're Willow." And I agree with him. Even at the end of the world, I'd want to hang with Willow, too.
And despite hitting a level of despair that most people can only nightmare about, Willow still opens her heart yet again to love Kennedy, one of the proto-Slayers from the final season. Because being open is a big part of who Willow is.
In the episode "Doppelgangland" Willow faced the vampire dominatrix version of herself, a juxtaposition which showed the core of the character brilliantly. Vampire Willow broke a vampire's fingers asking: Who do you work for? When the vampire told her, she did it one more time, so he could understand that now he worked for her. She walked into a bar and when someone was a jerk to her, she tilted her head, said "Bored now" and flung him across the room. Good Willow helps Anya with a spell to retrieve her lost necklace, puts herself in danger to rescue the hostages at the Bronze, and makes the wonderful joke that she and Oz play Mistress of Pain every night.
Both Willows are unreserved. Vampire Willow loves the fact that in her world there are people in chains and she can ride them like ponies. When Anya's spell goes wrong, Willow seizes her chicken feet and storms out. Both Willows take action to solve their problems rather than waiting for someone else to solve them. Both make jokes and are focused on what they want. Although Buffy and the others hasten to reassure Willow that the vampire version of her is nothing like the original, the truth is that the parts that make Willow stay consistent no matter where her moral compass is pointed.
But there's a dark side to always being open. Willow struggles with addiction, becoming intoxicated with magic. She likes feeling powerful and being able to solve problems with the flick of a finger. Of course, just because she can make people do what she wants doesn't mean that she should, but it's so easy that she fails to resist the temptation. Her life spirals down out of control and she has to work hard to get it back on track and earn back the trust of Tara and her friends.
It would have been typical for the show's writers to put Willow in a position where she is tempted to use magic again and show her growth by refusing. Instead, they put Willow in a situation where she must use magic in order to save the world. After a season of struggling to keep herself closed, Willow had to trust herself again and open herself to everything she truly is: a witch, a hero and a helper.
She connects with the magic and activates every potential Slayer across the globe. The sequence of girls and women standing up to face their fears and tormentors is one that still triggers a straightening of my spine. And Willow did it, not through denial of herself, but by embracing herself.
That's worthy of celebration. Willow was the inspiration for the heroine of my first novel, the one still under my bed because writing a heroine who is cheerful and happy and faces adversity without flinching was beyond my newbie skills. But I still love the story and the character and hope that one day, I'll have the writing skills to bring her to life.
Are you addicted to strong and intriguing heroines like I am? You can sign up to get each month's Heroine Fix by email and then you'll never miss the next fix.
I'm still in a witchy mood, so next month, I'll be looking at one of my favourite romantic comedy heroines: Sally Owens from Practical Magic.
"Sometimes, when the wind is warm or the crickets sing...
I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for."
Monday, 6 November 2017
Weekly Update: October 29 to November 4
Weekly word count: 67oo words
After last week's writing success, I knew I couldn't go back to hit or miss sessions at home. Trying to write between supper and the kids' bedtime just wasn't working. There was always something ready to interrupt. So I've switched to writing from 9 until 11 in the evening. There's a definite downside to this: less sleep, since I need at least 30 minutes to unwind after shutting down the computer (and usually it's more like an hour). There have also been a few days when I looked at the previous day's work and realized it was completely incoherent towards the end. But I'm having fewer non-productive days.
I'm also pleased to report that my Nanowrimo account is up and running. I don't find the website to be very intuitive but it is gratifying to watch my little total creep up. (Or at least it is now that I figured out that I have to enter a cumulative total since November 1st rather than a daily total in the update section.) Anyone who wants to buddy up can find me under Jennifer Carole Lewis (not imaginative, but direct).
I've been debating whether or not I want to enter Inquisition in a contest. It's not too expensive to enter, but I have to send signed physical copies for the entry. It's tempting since I still would really like to be able to add "Award Winning" to my name, but I did a lot of contests in 2016 and there wasn't much of a return.
This month's ORWA workshop with Susanna Kearsley was amazing. Her explanation of the techniques for weaving multiple storylines was invaluable and brought me a lot of clarity on things that I've done intuitively.
November is going to be nose to the grindstone month. Fingers crossed that I can begin the editing process by December 4th. I'm in the mid-twenties of a planned forty-five chapter outline and getting to explore a lot of fascinating themes, like the dark side of Peter Pan and interspecies fertility. This is the part of writing that I love: the chance to story-splore.
After last week's writing success, I knew I couldn't go back to hit or miss sessions at home. Trying to write between supper and the kids' bedtime just wasn't working. There was always something ready to interrupt. So I've switched to writing from 9 until 11 in the evening. There's a definite downside to this: less sleep, since I need at least 30 minutes to unwind after shutting down the computer (and usually it's more like an hour). There have also been a few days when I looked at the previous day's work and realized it was completely incoherent towards the end. But I'm having fewer non-productive days.
I'm also pleased to report that my Nanowrimo account is up and running. I don't find the website to be very intuitive but it is gratifying to watch my little total creep up. (Or at least it is now that I figured out that I have to enter a cumulative total since November 1st rather than a daily total in the update section.) Anyone who wants to buddy up can find me under Jennifer Carole Lewis (not imaginative, but direct).
I've been debating whether or not I want to enter Inquisition in a contest. It's not too expensive to enter, but I have to send signed physical copies for the entry. It's tempting since I still would really like to be able to add "Award Winning" to my name, but I did a lot of contests in 2016 and there wasn't much of a return.
This month's ORWA workshop with Susanna Kearsley was amazing. Her explanation of the techniques for weaving multiple storylines was invaluable and brought me a lot of clarity on things that I've done intuitively.
November is going to be nose to the grindstone month. Fingers crossed that I can begin the editing process by December 4th. I'm in the mid-twenties of a planned forty-five chapter outline and getting to explore a lot of fascinating themes, like the dark side of Peter Pan and interspecies fertility. This is the part of writing that I love: the chance to story-splore.
Thursday, 2 November 2017
The Awesomeness of Women's Friendships
This is one area where I think women have got a leg up on men: our ability to have great friendships.
Last week, I spent a week at a Charleston beach house with an amazing group of women. I didn't know the vast majority of them before I arrived but by the end, we knew each other's stories, had laughed enough to make our ribs hurt, shared some painful moments from our pasts, and were hugging one another like family.
I've been very lucky to have some amazing female friends throughout my life. They've been there for me through some of the most awful times in my life and some of the most exciting times, too. These are friends who will help me however I need, and while I've never needed to test this assertion, I am firmly convinced that if I called them and said I needed help getting rid of a body, they'd be there in under an hour with shovels.
With all the talk about how common assault is and how often women are told to be afraid (don't do <blank> because you might get hurt), I think we sometimes forget how powerful women are in groups.
One woman might have trouble standing up for herself. She might freeze and be uncertain how to proceed in the moment. But three women together can have two Amazons to draw on. I've seen it again and again as women closed ranks against the insulting jerk or the leering letch and made him regret opening his mouth. Even if it's another woman who's seeking to draw some verbal blood, good girlfriends will have each other's back.
It's easier to stand up for someone else than it is to do it for yourself. And it's easier to stand up for yourself when you know that someone else has your back.
It disappoints me that the female friendship often seems to be an all or nothing proposition when it comes to stories. Sex and the City and Thelma and Louise had plots that revolved entirely around female friendships, but too often there's a lone female cast member who never has another woman to talk to (unless they're discussing men, which you often see in romantic comedies).
I want to know who Black Widow hangs out with when she's had a shitty day and needs to unwind with some popcorn and watch Lucifer. I'd love to see Wonder Woman kicking back with Hawkgirl and complaining about how Batman leaves his shit all over the Justice League headquarters. Because that's side of real women that's worth celebrating: our ability to share and support one another.
Maybe I'm biased, having just gotten to experience it firsthand and having such friendships that have lasted longer than the Jurassic Park franchise. Maybe I'm just suffering from an overdose of Grrrl Power. Or maybe it's that the older I get, the more I realize how wonderful it is to have someone that I can both laugh and cry with, where there is no pressure to fit into a prescribed societal mode.
To the ladies who made the Charleston trip such fun: may your upcoming year be full of profit, pleasure, and discovery.
To the women who have stood by me since my awkward high school days (and the new additions to the collective who have joined us since): I would not still be here without you and I am hugely proud of you all. You deserve everything in life and if you need a shovel, just tell me when and where.
To all the women out there: please, take a moment to reach out to your girlfriends and tell them how amazing they are.
As healing and cathartic (and necessary) as it is to focus on the crap that life continues to deliver, it is also important to celebrate the great. Because the great is what's going to get us through the crap.
Last week, I spent a week at a Charleston beach house with an amazing group of women. I didn't know the vast majority of them before I arrived but by the end, we knew each other's stories, had laughed enough to make our ribs hurt, shared some painful moments from our pasts, and were hugging one another like family.
I've been very lucky to have some amazing female friends throughout my life. They've been there for me through some of the most awful times in my life and some of the most exciting times, too. These are friends who will help me however I need, and while I've never needed to test this assertion, I am firmly convinced that if I called them and said I needed help getting rid of a body, they'd be there in under an hour with shovels.
With all the talk about how common assault is and how often women are told to be afraid (don't do <blank> because you might get hurt), I think we sometimes forget how powerful women are in groups.
One woman might have trouble standing up for herself. She might freeze and be uncertain how to proceed in the moment. But three women together can have two Amazons to draw on. I've seen it again and again as women closed ranks against the insulting jerk or the leering letch and made him regret opening his mouth. Even if it's another woman who's seeking to draw some verbal blood, good girlfriends will have each other's back.
It's easier to stand up for someone else than it is to do it for yourself. And it's easier to stand up for yourself when you know that someone else has your back.
It disappoints me that the female friendship often seems to be an all or nothing proposition when it comes to stories. Sex and the City and Thelma and Louise had plots that revolved entirely around female friendships, but too often there's a lone female cast member who never has another woman to talk to (unless they're discussing men, which you often see in romantic comedies).
I want to know who Black Widow hangs out with when she's had a shitty day and needs to unwind with some popcorn and watch Lucifer. I'd love to see Wonder Woman kicking back with Hawkgirl and complaining about how Batman leaves his shit all over the Justice League headquarters. Because that's side of real women that's worth celebrating: our ability to share and support one another.
Maybe I'm biased, having just gotten to experience it firsthand and having such friendships that have lasted longer than the Jurassic Park franchise. Maybe I'm just suffering from an overdose of Grrrl Power. Or maybe it's that the older I get, the more I realize how wonderful it is to have someone that I can both laugh and cry with, where there is no pressure to fit into a prescribed societal mode.
To the ladies who made the Charleston trip such fun: may your upcoming year be full of profit, pleasure, and discovery.
To the women who have stood by me since my awkward high school days (and the new additions to the collective who have joined us since): I would not still be here without you and I am hugely proud of you all. You deserve everything in life and if you need a shovel, just tell me when and where.
To all the women out there: please, take a moment to reach out to your girlfriends and tell them how amazing they are.
As healing and cathartic (and necessary) as it is to focus on the crap that life continues to deliver, it is also important to celebrate the great. Because the great is what's going to get us through the crap.
Monday, 30 October 2017
Weekly Update: October 21 to 28 (with photos)
Weekly word count: 15 250
This week marked the end of a very hectic period of my life. After six weeks of various events, commitments, and chaos, I got my beach week.
Now, those who know me will realize that I get very nervous in new situations. The evil voice of lies in my head tells me that I'm going to invariably screw everything up and be revealed as a pathetic incompetent impostor. The slightly less evil voice of poorly understood probabilities tries to convince me that nothing can ever live up to my expectations.
Both of these voices got slammed by reality. First off, there was this:
That's where I was. That's a beach, with actual sand and ocean and sunshine and temperatures that do not require insulated pants. Strike one, voices.
Strike two: these are the wonderful ladies I was with, including the one who took the picture. I could not have asked for a better group to spend a week with if I became a supervillain and tried to design them in a computer. Their generousity, kindness, sense of humour, passion and wit is unparalleled. Any group that can both give a group hug to help someone dealing with difficult personal issues and continue sniggering over our newly invented vocabulary word "Ass-tertaste" is a pretty great group of people.
Strike three and the final blow: this week was both highly productive and fun. As you can see, everyone grabbed their own little writing spots through the day (mine was the blue couch on the left with the cushions piled to one side. I could lie on it and see this:
Since I do very well with writing in a semi-reclined state, it worked brilliantly.) I got five chapters completed (including writing two of them over twice). Now that the middle of Judgment is nailed down and sparking fire, it's a race to get the second half done. (Which is why I joined Nanorimo, though I'm having some trouble with getting my account working.)
We would write until five or six in the evening and then gradually begin to congregate in the kitchen or start using our laptops to share videos rather than working. Some of the ladies did some sight-seeing in Charleston, there was almost always someone ready for a break and a walk on the beach if you wished, and a delicious assortment of home-made meals served each night.
Now, I've done my own "writer retreats" where I go to a hotel and put my nose to the keyboard, but no matter how productive the day goes, there's no matching how much fun the night gets when you're with a group whose crazy matches your crazy.
I introduced the group to Deadpool and Lucifer, and they introduced me to Outlander and Good Behavior. We played Cards Against Humanity and invented our new word: Asstertaste (that sour taste you get in your mouth when you realize you're dealing with a complete asshole, Oxford English Dictionary patent pending). We talked about dating after divorce, love at first sight, promotion techniques, traditional vs indie publishing, our kids, our husbands (or exes), the best ways to hide bodies and whether or not its possible to ride a horse from New York to Savannah in under two days. We talked about our favourite books and authors, shared stories about different conferences and reader events, discussed the implications of Amazon's latest newsworthy faux-pas as well as the recent inclusivity push by RWA.
We would be up until well after midnight, laughing and barely noticing the time. Then crash and start it all again the next day. There would be periodic shout outs like "Does anyone know what kind of helicopter would be used to transport large animals?" or "Can you give me a name for my new villain?" followed by furious keyboard clicking.
It was exactly the kind of break I needed and while I settle back into temperatures that have a little minus sign in front of them, I'm already looking forward to next year.
This week marked the end of a very hectic period of my life. After six weeks of various events, commitments, and chaos, I got my beach week.
Now, those who know me will realize that I get very nervous in new situations. The evil voice of lies in my head tells me that I'm going to invariably screw everything up and be revealed as a pathetic incompetent impostor. The slightly less evil voice of poorly understood probabilities tries to convince me that nothing can ever live up to my expectations.
Both of these voices got slammed by reality. First off, there was this:
Strike two: these are the wonderful ladies I was with, including the one who took the picture. I could not have asked for a better group to spend a week with if I became a supervillain and tried to design them in a computer. Their generousity, kindness, sense of humour, passion and wit is unparalleled. Any group that can both give a group hug to help someone dealing with difficult personal issues and continue sniggering over our newly invented vocabulary word "Ass-tertaste" is a pretty great group of people.
Strike three and the final blow: this week was both highly productive and fun. As you can see, everyone grabbed their own little writing spots through the day (mine was the blue couch on the left with the cushions piled to one side. I could lie on it and see this:
Since I do very well with writing in a semi-reclined state, it worked brilliantly.) I got five chapters completed (including writing two of them over twice). Now that the middle of Judgment is nailed down and sparking fire, it's a race to get the second half done. (Which is why I joined Nanorimo, though I'm having some trouble with getting my account working.)
We would write until five or six in the evening and then gradually begin to congregate in the kitchen or start using our laptops to share videos rather than working. Some of the ladies did some sight-seeing in Charleston, there was almost always someone ready for a break and a walk on the beach if you wished, and a delicious assortment of home-made meals served each night.
Now, I've done my own "writer retreats" where I go to a hotel and put my nose to the keyboard, but no matter how productive the day goes, there's no matching how much fun the night gets when you're with a group whose crazy matches your crazy.
I introduced the group to Deadpool and Lucifer, and they introduced me to Outlander and Good Behavior. We played Cards Against Humanity and invented our new word: Asstertaste (that sour taste you get in your mouth when you realize you're dealing with a complete asshole, Oxford English Dictionary patent pending). We talked about dating after divorce, love at first sight, promotion techniques, traditional vs indie publishing, our kids, our husbands (or exes), the best ways to hide bodies and whether or not its possible to ride a horse from New York to Savannah in under two days. We talked about our favourite books and authors, shared stories about different conferences and reader events, discussed the implications of Amazon's latest newsworthy faux-pas as well as the recent inclusivity push by RWA.
We would be up until well after midnight, laughing and barely noticing the time. Then crash and start it all again the next day. There would be periodic shout outs like "Does anyone know what kind of helicopter would be used to transport large animals?" or "Can you give me a name for my new villain?" followed by furious keyboard clicking.
It was exactly the kind of break I needed and while I settle back into temperatures that have a little minus sign in front of them, I'm already looking forward to next year.
Thursday, 26 October 2017
Ink Tip: So What Do These Romance Tropes Really Mean Anyway
Romance readers and writers have their own shorthand. If a romance reader comes up and says "I like MC, secret baby, friends to lovers type books" then we know exactly what books to recommend to him or her.
But sometimes, we forget that these tropes aren't universally understood. And after participating in the romance tropes panel at Can-Con, (and fielding several questions afterwards), I thought I would put together a common romance trope primer for this month's Ink Tip.
All of these tropes will end in a happily ever after with the hero and heroine falling in love and getting together. (And for the record, these tropes also appear in LGBTQIA+ stories as well. I use hero and heroine to describe the two characters in the central relationship but they can be of any and all genders. And there can be more than just two.)
Accidental pregnancy/Secret baby: this trope requires the heroine to be pregnant and the pregnancy either forces the heroine and hero into proximity (think Fools Rush In) or the heroine tries to hide the baby, creating additional conflict (and the best film example I can think of for this is Superman Returns).
Alpha hero/Protector: the hero is a take charge, shoot first man of muscle and action. There are lots of variations on this trope: MC (motorcycle clubs), military, billionaire, police, monster (usually vampire or werewolf), and more than I can easily list. There are two main types of alpha hero, the broken hero dealing with damage from his past (Wolverine) and the protector hero who will do anything to save others, particularly his love interest (Die Hard).
Arranged marriage/Marriage of convenience/Faked relationship: this could be seen as a variation of the friends to lovers trope, but I feel it deserves it's own entry. For some reason, the hero and heroine must get married, either to each other or just in general. Once they are married, they discover their affection and love for each other growing into true love. An example of the arranged marriage trope would be The Princess Diaries 2, while marriage of convenience would be The Mirror Has Two Faces, and Just Go With It exemplifies the faked relationship trope.
May/December: one of the characters is in the "December" of their life while the other is in the "May" of their, i.e., there is a significant age gap between the two characters. Usually the hero is the older one but we're seeing more with women snagging younger mates, like How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
Disguise/Mistaken Identity: one of the characters is misrepresenting him or herself in a way that threatens the developing relationship. While You Were Sleeping is my favourite example of this trope.
Cyrano: the hero or heroine helps the other to woo another, only to realize that they are falling in love instead. The Ugly Truth is a great one for this, if you don't want to go with the classic play.
Enemies to lovers/Friends to lovers: the couple starts out either as platonic friends (When Harry Met Sally) or on opposite sides of a conflict, like Beatrice and Benedict in the classic Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing. (And for the record, Romeo and Juliet is not a romance. Unless there's a post-credit coda showing the two of them happy and in love in the afterlife.)
Forbidden love/Opposites attract: the characters are separated by social, economic, cultural or other taboos for forbidden love but just on opposite sides of their points of view for opposites attract. If Romeo and Juliet ended happily, they would be an example of the forbidden love trope. And actually, for the life of me, I cannot think of a movie where they use this trope and allow the characters to be together at the end. But Dharma and Greg did opposites attract over five seasons. (If you can think of a movie for forbidden love, please let me know in the comments so that I can smack my head and say "why didn't I think of <title>?")
Jilted/Runaway: these are two sides of the same trope. For jilted, we start with a character who has been abandoned at the altar and rebuilds their hopes, like Meg Ryan in French Kiss. And runaway is where the character realizes that he/she is marrying the wrong person and finds love (like Paula Marshall in That Old Feeling).
Return to hometown: a character returns home and finds love in the last place they ever thought they'd come back to. (Sweet Home Alabama)
Reunited love: the couple used to be married or dating but broke up sometime in the past. Now those feelings are coming back. I could use Bette Midler's character in That Old Feeling as an example but Did You Hear About the Morgans is another good one.
Heart of Gold/Redemption: in heart of gold, one character is "bad" but is also a generous and caring person (Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman), leading the other character to fall in love despite the stigma. This is often paired with a story of redemption where one character is trying to atone for past actions (like Black Widow in The Avengers)
This isn't an exhaustive list. There are hundreds of variations out there, but it does cover the common ones and my own particular favourites. And gave me an excuse to run through some of my favourite movies and characters.
But sometimes, we forget that these tropes aren't universally understood. And after participating in the romance tropes panel at Can-Con, (and fielding several questions afterwards), I thought I would put together a common romance trope primer for this month's Ink Tip.
All of these tropes will end in a happily ever after with the hero and heroine falling in love and getting together. (And for the record, these tropes also appear in LGBTQIA+ stories as well. I use hero and heroine to describe the two characters in the central relationship but they can be of any and all genders. And there can be more than just two.)
Accidental pregnancy/Secret baby: this trope requires the heroine to be pregnant and the pregnancy either forces the heroine and hero into proximity (think Fools Rush In) or the heroine tries to hide the baby, creating additional conflict (and the best film example I can think of for this is Superman Returns).
Alpha hero/Protector: the hero is a take charge, shoot first man of muscle and action. There are lots of variations on this trope: MC (motorcycle clubs), military, billionaire, police, monster (usually vampire or werewolf), and more than I can easily list. There are two main types of alpha hero, the broken hero dealing with damage from his past (Wolverine) and the protector hero who will do anything to save others, particularly his love interest (Die Hard).
Arranged marriage/Marriage of convenience/Faked relationship: this could be seen as a variation of the friends to lovers trope, but I feel it deserves it's own entry. For some reason, the hero and heroine must get married, either to each other or just in general. Once they are married, they discover their affection and love for each other growing into true love. An example of the arranged marriage trope would be The Princess Diaries 2, while marriage of convenience would be The Mirror Has Two Faces, and Just Go With It exemplifies the faked relationship trope.
May/December: one of the characters is in the "December" of their life while the other is in the "May" of their, i.e., there is a significant age gap between the two characters. Usually the hero is the older one but we're seeing more with women snagging younger mates, like How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
Disguise/Mistaken Identity: one of the characters is misrepresenting him or herself in a way that threatens the developing relationship. While You Were Sleeping is my favourite example of this trope.
Cyrano: the hero or heroine helps the other to woo another, only to realize that they are falling in love instead. The Ugly Truth is a great one for this, if you don't want to go with the classic play.
Enemies to lovers/Friends to lovers: the couple starts out either as platonic friends (When Harry Met Sally) or on opposite sides of a conflict, like Beatrice and Benedict in the classic Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing. (And for the record, Romeo and Juliet is not a romance. Unless there's a post-credit coda showing the two of them happy and in love in the afterlife.)
Forbidden love/Opposites attract: the characters are separated by social, economic, cultural or other taboos for forbidden love but just on opposite sides of their points of view for opposites attract. If Romeo and Juliet ended happily, they would be an example of the forbidden love trope. And actually, for the life of me, I cannot think of a movie where they use this trope and allow the characters to be together at the end. But Dharma and Greg did opposites attract over five seasons. (If you can think of a movie for forbidden love, please let me know in the comments so that I can smack my head and say "why didn't I think of <title>?")
Jilted/Runaway: these are two sides of the same trope. For jilted, we start with a character who has been abandoned at the altar and rebuilds their hopes, like Meg Ryan in French Kiss. And runaway is where the character realizes that he/she is marrying the wrong person and finds love (like Paula Marshall in That Old Feeling).
Return to hometown: a character returns home and finds love in the last place they ever thought they'd come back to. (Sweet Home Alabama)
Reunited love: the couple used to be married or dating but broke up sometime in the past. Now those feelings are coming back. I could use Bette Midler's character in That Old Feeling as an example but Did You Hear About the Morgans is another good one.
Heart of Gold/Redemption: in heart of gold, one character is "bad" but is also a generous and caring person (Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman), leading the other character to fall in love despite the stigma. This is often paired with a story of redemption where one character is trying to atone for past actions (like Black Widow in The Avengers)
This isn't an exhaustive list. There are hundreds of variations out there, but it does cover the common ones and my own particular favourites. And gave me an excuse to run through some of my favourite movies and characters.
Monday, 23 October 2017
Weekly Update: October 15 to 21st
Weekly word count: 3150 at home and 4700 for first full day of writer's retreat
As I write this, I am in Isle of Palms (which is near Charleston, South Carolina), in a gorgeous beach house, listening to the waves from the beach which is right at our back door. I'm saying this not to be a "Hahaha, you suckers back in Canada with your cold weather" kind of bitch, but because next week I'll be back in Canada with the cold weather and tons of responsibilities and this is all going to feel like a dream that didn't really quite happen. So I need to document it while it is happening to remind myself that it was real, at least for a little while.
I decided to try a new tack for writing last week, inspired by a very vivid dream that involved David Tennant and a lake with the sun setting behind it. (Not that kind of dream. I'm honestly offended that you think I would go there... and not be up front about it.) It was just a powerful emotional moment and in that moment, I *knew* what had led up to it and what would happen after.
Sometimes when I wake up from those types of dreams, I'm all excited because I think I've got a brilliant story idea now and it just dropped out of the sky into my head, fully plotted and ready to go. And then I take the time to actually look at my brilliance and realize it's not quite as good as my subconscious brain thought (that side of myself is enthusiastic but not always coherent) or that it's actually a plot that I saw on Buffy, or Star Trek, or something else.
This one might have the potential to be something more some day, but right now it doesn't fit in with either the lalassu or with the companion series I'm working on. Usually this would mean I would take copious notes and then store it in the wistful "Someday" bin of ideas. But I'd been having a hard time working on Judgment in the evenings, despite being eager to get on with telling the story, so I decided to give myself some slack and allow myself to explore this idea. Not worry about the writing or the story being good, but just exploring the emotionality of the moment.
And three days later, I had 3150 words. I'm not quite sure what to do with that information, other than maybe recognize that I'm under more pressure than I thought, including the pressure of getting Judgment ready. So maybe I needed some consequence free writing time to get the pump primed.
Either way, once we got settled into the beach house, the words have been flowing much easier. It's only been one day and I've already written more than I did in the previous two weeks combined. If I can avoid the temptation to just goof off and socialize, I could make some real progress here. And if I can keep up the momentum, then maybe I'll meet my goals for Nanorimo too.
And maybe I also need to remember that if that doesn't happen, that's also okay.
As I write this, I am in Isle of Palms (which is near Charleston, South Carolina), in a gorgeous beach house, listening to the waves from the beach which is right at our back door. I'm saying this not to be a "Hahaha, you suckers back in Canada with your cold weather" kind of bitch, but because next week I'll be back in Canada with the cold weather and tons of responsibilities and this is all going to feel like a dream that didn't really quite happen. So I need to document it while it is happening to remind myself that it was real, at least for a little while.
I decided to try a new tack for writing last week, inspired by a very vivid dream that involved David Tennant and a lake with the sun setting behind it. (Not that kind of dream. I'm honestly offended that you think I would go there... and not be up front about it.) It was just a powerful emotional moment and in that moment, I *knew* what had led up to it and what would happen after.
Sometimes when I wake up from those types of dreams, I'm all excited because I think I've got a brilliant story idea now and it just dropped out of the sky into my head, fully plotted and ready to go. And then I take the time to actually look at my brilliance and realize it's not quite as good as my subconscious brain thought (that side of myself is enthusiastic but not always coherent) or that it's actually a plot that I saw on Buffy, or Star Trek, or something else.
This one might have the potential to be something more some day, but right now it doesn't fit in with either the lalassu or with the companion series I'm working on. Usually this would mean I would take copious notes and then store it in the wistful "Someday" bin of ideas. But I'd been having a hard time working on Judgment in the evenings, despite being eager to get on with telling the story, so I decided to give myself some slack and allow myself to explore this idea. Not worry about the writing or the story being good, but just exploring the emotionality of the moment.
And three days later, I had 3150 words. I'm not quite sure what to do with that information, other than maybe recognize that I'm under more pressure than I thought, including the pressure of getting Judgment ready. So maybe I needed some consequence free writing time to get the pump primed.
Either way, once we got settled into the beach house, the words have been flowing much easier. It's only been one day and I've already written more than I did in the previous two weeks combined. If I can avoid the temptation to just goof off and socialize, I could make some real progress here. And if I can keep up the momentum, then maybe I'll meet my goals for Nanorimo too.
And maybe I also need to remember that if that doesn't happen, that's also okay.
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