Vampires and popcorn at midnight, oh my!
Last night around 11:15 pm when my daughter, her friend and I took our seats in a soon to be very crowded theater to see Twilight, I leaned over and said, “I’m mother of the year, huh?” My daughter prompted raised her eyebrows and looked around and laughed. Not exactly the reaction I was going for. “Um, sorry,” she said, “But look at all the mothers here.”
My bid for mother of the year thwarted by a teenage vampire.
The crowd was calm until someone said “Twilight.” Then the girls were screaming. Heck, I screamed. It’s hard not to get caught up in the emotion of a fabulous 500-page book coming to life.
And they did a good job. Robert Pattison played a believable tall, pale and handsome Edward Cullen, our hero. When he walked into his very first scene the entire theater cheered. Kristen Stewart played a good sulky and determined Bella, our narrator and heroine. There was some real chemistry between them that really moved the story along.
This was the first time my daughter went to a movie made from a book she loved. She gave me a play-by-play of what scenes were missing (many) and where lines were delivered in towns instead of meadows. The entire first book of the Twilight series, Twilight, is narrated by Bella, therefore when things happened in the movie that happened out of Bella’s sight or knowledge, like violent scene between Edward and the aptly portrayed James, something that was merely eluded to in print, she did not like it. Stephenie Meyer effectively delivers Twilight to her readers with much innuendo — and movies just lay it all out there.
To make a long story short, my daughter said, and I concur, that the movie was an excellent synopsis of the book. The characters were not fully developed aside from Edward and Bella, and even with those, two hours does not afford the time to go into the full scale detail of their lives, their mulitple friendships and family relationships. Nor does it give us any lead-up. In the movie it seems like Edward and Bella fall in love on the second day they meet. In the book, let’s see, how can I put it? It’s much more realistic.
And so it goes, without surprise, the book is better than the movie.
The biggest surprise? I stayed awake through the entire thing. I admit it, I was riveted, clapping and cheering with every other teenager and mother in the theater.
If you read Twilight, don’t miss the movie. If you haven’t read it, I’ll lend you our copy. I’ll even bring you some popcorn to go along with it.
Oh, and author Stephenie Meyers has a cameo in the film — she’s sitting at a counter in a diner doing what else but typing away on a laptop. And if you question the pop-culture phenomenon of the book, not the movie, every one in the theater pointed and said, “There’s Stephenie Meyer!” Including me.
Now talk to me about the dying publishing industry and how people are going to stop reading books. I dare you.
Where I will be at midnight
And I’ll be there with two 13-year-old girls and a theater full of strangers.
No stranger than us, I suppose.
A writer’s brand, from soup to nuts
Just when I get to the point of knowing exactly who the hell I am, I go and find out I should also be a brand. When I think brand, for some reason, I think of Campbell’s soup. The red and white label, the cute Campbell’s kids who aren’t chubby anymore, the time my son said the soup he made was really thick because he didn’t know he was supposed to add water (i.e. he didn’t read the directions).
I don’t really want to be a can of soup.
But branding makes sense if you want an identity in the bookstore, in the public eye or on the internet. One wiggly thread that weaves through what you do, who you are, what you write. I’m thinking it’s more like being a variety of soups on the shelf, not just one. Like being Chicken with stars, rice, o’s and alphabets. It’s all chicken soup with a different twist. But in the end, it’s chicken soup.
It’s the consistent taste and quality is what keeps people coming back for more. You know what they say…
Mmm, mmm, good!
OK, too much soup talk.
So I have thought about what noodles (couldn’t help it, sorry) its way through all of my writing. For the most part my non-fiction articles and essays are parenting-life related in some way. Not necessary about parenting, but about life as it revolves around the world of parenting. Perhaps we could go further and say nontraditional parenting since I’m not in a traditional family. Not too many people are these days, but if you read parenting crap, I mean articles, you’d never know that. I think most of my pieces also put a positive spin on things, because frankly any other option is relatively ridiculous to me. I think that complaining is a waste of time, so you better just make the best of it all, make it work. If you waste a day, don’t spend another one crying over it. Harsh? No, economical. Time is something you can’t make more of or get back.
Are you branded as an author/writer and if so… what’s your brand? What is the piece that makes it undeniably you and what in your writing holds onto readers through various media, books, magazines, journals? Is it just darn good writin’ that keeps people coming back for more of your fiction or creative non-fiction or straight non-fiction. Meaning, could you write about a glass of water and make it interesting or do you need that thread that goes through it that links it to your work. Water for a family because you’re a mom or a dad. Water for horses because you write about ranches and animals. Water for swimming because you write about athletes?
See? It’s not really about soup.
Author Allison Winn Scotch has recently adopted a brand for her work, and that’s working for her. I tend to think along those lines, of making headway with many different stories that all emerge from one small place.
I think that may be key in these tight publishing times, to position oneself as an expert or a damn good writer of a certain type of story or book. Anything that helps is worth exploring, right? Or am I nuts?
No, maybe I’m just hungry.
The tao of teenagers
Tao is the presence of a force of nature, something unstoppable and beyond your control. You know, like teenagers.
If you don’t have any, I have a couple I could loan you, although I must admit I’d want them back, especially if you feed them and do their laundry. I know a few people who might offer a few for sale, cheap, you know, the economy being what it is and all.
Last Friday night I had a house full of 16-year-old boys, all embroiled in an XBox contest. Food and mayhem ensued until they left in one fell swoop to go to the movies. They have a permeable energy, even when they’re quiet. Especially when they’re moving in a group. The energy radiates through the whispers and the beeping of cell phones.
On Saturday I chaffeured/escorted two 13 year-old-girls to the nearest mall. Now 13 isn’t 16 and they are much less of a force to be reckoned with, until, of course, they happened upon one of those cheapo jewelry/hat/chatchke store or fall into a hysterical fit of laughter while they trail behind me at Trader Joe’s or while they were running around on a Twilight scavenger hunt at our local Borders.
As a mom, the force that drives my kids, on any given day, is the force that moves along my days and weeks — it’s the force behind dinner and food shopping and even behind laundry and almost every activity. It’s the definite force behind short term and long term plans.
It’s all about them, pretty much always. And that’s how it should be right now. But wrapped up in all of those unstoppable forces of nature — is me.
The Tao of Teenagers is external and internal. It pulls me from the inside and it pushes me from behind. The force that drives me as a writer is completely different. I don’t feel a lot of outside pressure unless I’m under a specific deadline…all the pressure is internal and I can shut it off unlike the power of teens, which has no power switch other than full-throttle. I’m a multi-year Nanowrimo dropout, and I rarely follow my own schedules or to-do lists, yet everything gets done, eventually.
What is the force that drives you to write? Is it the force of a pile of bills? Is it a force of an impending deadline? Is it the force of a creepy voice inside your head? Is it unstoppable? And what drives you otherwise…what is your Tao…what’s out of your control? And do you manage it or let it stay out past midnight?
Publishing is a crapshoot. What else is new?
Excellent NYT article on publishing. It’s nothing new, just well put, with examples and numbers. Always good for some nausea with your Sunday morning coffee.
Come back and let me know what you think.
For me, it means that even with best sellers and amidst the trend of diminished sales, no one knows what will appeal to readers and what won’t — sort of.
It means that if you don’t try you don’t know — and hopefully editors feel the same way.
Found the article through one of my Tweets, author Allison Kent.
Oh, and if you were confused about best seller lists before, pour yourself a drink and read this blog post.
G’day mate, youse guys are da bomb
As you know, I watch soaps and I offer no apology for it. I realized the other day that while there is ample leeway for coming back to life, age-jumping and never going to the bathroom, I don’t understand the eradication of accents. It seems like the one thing the writers and actors could do to help a character maintain his or her identity through their 11 marriage, comas, under-cover agent careers and their surgical moonlighting gigs.
I remember the day on General Hospital when Mac Scorpio emerged out of Port Charles harbor as the brother of hero, resident Aussie, Robert Scorpio. I could barely understand poor Mac, he was such a believable bloke from down-under. And now, years later, he is still Mac Scorpio…same face, no amnesia, somewhat consistent storyline, but the accent is gone. Way gone. Forget the fact that the actor is from Chicago. This would have been one easy way for us to remember that Mac Scorpio is not a native Port Charlesian. OK, he’s Chief of Police, so maybe an accent wouldn’t work. But for me, it would be the thread that linked his past to his present.
Not that anyone asked me.
Of course I’m not surprised that the same thing has happened in Llanview, Pennsylvania and One Life to Live. Carlotta Vega was the very trusted maid of the rich and evil Dorian Lord for years. On the show she was, and is, Puerto Rican. She finally quit her maid job (YAY Carlotta) and opened a very popular diner. And over the years, while the dialog is peppered with Spanish, Carolotta no longer has an accent. At all.
I know that soaps are different from novels, but I think it’s hard to keep all the threads and sub-plots straight and consistent. I have not yet decided or figured out how I make sure that I haven’t changed/dropped/or put someone in a coma (not the reader, that’s another issue). I also know that accents fade in real life, but soaps are not real life — and neither are novels. In a book you may choose to have a character’s demeanor or accent change, but there would be motivation and reason. Or at least there should be.
What kind of methods or charts or notes or programs do you use to keep things consistent and growing organically? How do you make sure your character has the same accent at the beginning, middle and end of your story — unless the character is taking classes to get rid of it, of course. How do you take all the threads and weave them all without dropping any?
Hints? Thoughts?
Overflow
Whether you write as yourself or under a pseudonym, and whether you write fiction or non-fiction, it all incorporates a certain amount of creativity. Does that overflow into the rest of your life? Can you draw? Play the flute? Do you dress with a certain flair? Are you an actor? If you have a blog does it reflect your writing style or are you someone different blogging than writing?
Is everything you do intertwined?
We’re all more than one thing, but I don’t mean friend/son/daughter/uncle/grandmother. I mean, are you a painter you and an accountant you and a writer you and does writing filter through to it all or there dams built that keep it all separate? Do you have to keep it sectioned off? We could say it’s compartmentalizing but that makes it sound very psychological, and I think it’s not. I think it’s just how it is, no analysis or psychobabble or reasoning necessary.
All this goes along with there being many of each of us, and also with one of the books I’m reading. So if you had to say all your parts, without listing a myriad of familial labels and keeping it to one (my blog, my rules) what other parts of you are there and, how do they effect each other? Or do they? Like I’m a Mom/Writer…and frankly trying to decide what else. I am so NOT an accountant, though, just for the record.
For me I think that being a writer spills over into everything and means I can’t just jot off a blog post or a Twitter Tweet or a Facebook update without re-reading it and sometimes rewriting it, but always proofing it. It means that I sit in line waiting for my daughter to come out of Junior High and I see someone I know who is wearing just the right outfit that would categorize a character just the way I want. It means that I play with words and language to a fault, just to get a reaction from someone sometimes. (No one who reads this blog) I collect quotes and consider creative license a God-given right, which doesn’t mean that I lie (I don’t) but I do make shit up for fun and I only reveal the parts of any story I tell that move it along, and that are relevant, and that I want someone to know.
You?
How much should you reveal?
Writing and blogging. They’re both very revealing in many ways.
When I started blogging about three years ago I quickly learned two important lessons about the blogosphere’s drawbacks. First, if you published something on your blog a top newspaper or magazine usually will not buy it and publish it. Hello? It’s already been published on your blog! Second, there are folks out there who will steal your stuff right off your blog. That’s right, folks. Steal. Your. Stuff.
It happened once and I don’t remember the name of the site that was pilfering posts from a long list of blogs and reposting them without permission. It had nothing to do with being paid, it had to do with the fact that the work belonged to me and not them and they did not have permission. Having my posts on their site gave me no credibility, it did not add to my clips. They were posers.
It was that stark reminder that this is the World Wide Web and that we can literally and virtually cut and past anything at all and plop it down where ever we want.
Now this harkens back to high school plaguerism, but if you’re trying to write and publish an article, story or book, it’s worse than that.
I’ve seen posts and comments all over the blogosphere as to whether or not it’s safe to send your chapters and manuscripts via email to agents, editors and publishers. Then it’s just “out there” so to speak. But, as long as you’re sending those chaps and mss (gotta love the lingo) upon request, yes, it’s perfectly safe. According to a recent post on the Guide to Literary Agents blog,”Agents and editors don’t steal work; writers steal work”.
Oy. Sad but true.
It’s why I caution friends of mine who’ve posted parts of unpublished books online to whisk that baby back to a Word doc. I think most writers are honest and only want their own ideas in their own books, but you just never know. It doesn’t mean you can’t write your heart out on your blog to make a good show of it. I know a smattering of bloggers have gotten book deals from their blogs, but it’s truly a smattering and that was due to the writing on their blog - the subject matter and voice - not showcasing a chapter or two of fiction. Frankly, these folks don’t write fiction, they compile their blog posts into memoirs or books of essays. All great and wonderful, but different from wanting everyone in cyberspace to read Chapter 1 of your novel.
I think about these things with all those critique sites out there. I don’t get showing work to strangers. It’s like asking a really nice lady on a Mexican beach to watch your kid while you go horseback riding. Oh right, I did that. It’s nothing like that.
Trustworthy and amazing people have read my work. But it’s good to be prudent — even wary, especially if you meet a brand new possible critique partner. My suggestion (since you asked) is to have him or her review some of your older work, something already published or something that you know won’t be before you show something new. And always swap work.
You know, you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.
Brave Writer Award
My friend Val has done something wonderful and brave…she has submitted something even though she was t-t-terrified to do so! And she has gotten some good feedback. It’s not my story to tell, but we all need a boost and I know she needs one now. Let Val be an inspiration to kick your fears to the curb (a la Erica as well, in the comments from yesterday) and put yourself, and your writing on the line.
WAY TO GO VAL!
I know Val reads the comments, so g’head…give her a virtual high-five or a cyber pat-on-the-back!
My two cents
There’s a guest blogger over at The Swivet today. Matthew Cheney writes a letter to his younger writer self, and his advice to himself is very insightful.
But, I make a habit of not treading in the waters of the past. I can’t change what was, only what will be, or what is. I am not big on wasting time and I find wishing things were different is the ultimate mind game. Sort of like watching The Biggest Loser while eating ice cream. Not that I’ve ever done that, nope, not me.
I actually don’t have advice for a younger me — because I think that today’s me is a culmination of the good, the bad and the in-between. I think it all adds up like pennies in a milk bottle. I don’t think I’d be a writer again today if I hadn’t made the exact choices that I made or lived how I lived or did what I did or met who I met. I wouldn’t change a hair style or a fashion faux pas.
That being said - I have no problem giving other people advice or giving myself a good talking to in the present - especially about writing and publishing. I am not guru or god, but I am addicted to search engines and publishing sites and books. With the proliferation of publishing information on the internet, I find it unconscionable when a writer does do his or her homework to understand the business, which I think is one of the keys for success in today’s publishing climate. Therefore I did the happy dance when I read this from Matthew Cheney on MFAs:
“There’s a difference, though, between the art and craft of writing and the art and craft of getting that writing published. This is something that all the writing guides I read when young really did teach me well — from an early age, I knew the basics of agents, contracts, etc. The information is out there, and it doesn’t require an advanced degree to find it.”
I have friends who have queried fewer than a half dozen agents and feel they have failed when not offered representation. My advice to them is to query more agents. I have friends who have queried ad nauseam with no luck. My advice to them is to write a new book while they wait.
What advice do you give your present day writer? Do you listen to your own advice or is it easier to listen to someone else?
And, do you find that you spend time in the past wishing you’d finished that novel that’s under your mattress or that screenplay that’s under your socks? Because if you do, tomorrow you will realize that you missed the opportunity to write today.
Just my advice.
