Scribblers Retreat

Since I haven't yet gotten all the pieces of my career and life organized, this isn't being updated much, so I'm not sure anyone is reading it. But if you are..wanna play editor?

The setting: Many years ago, I got annoyed because I could never figure out who-done-it in mysteries. I decided to read some books on writing mysteries to understand how clues are hidden. That didn't help, so I decided to write one, just for fun, and to see if I could figure it out that way.

Since it was just for fun, I made it a bit silly, intending to do a light humorous mystery. I made all the suspects stereotypes and then overdid the stereotypes so they were beyond silly. This was supposed to stress-relief. However, I kept the heroine, her family and her friends real, more or less.

So now, years later, I found the manuscript, which never got finished, and decided to type it into the computer, since I'd handwritten it in the car while kids were in meetings and classes. I don't have the talent to really publish a mystery, but once typed in, I'm going to try to finish it and re-write it as if I did, and see what emerges, since I've been studying the art of fiction.

Here's the problem: There is one silly character I actually like. She's an actress, and always practicing by pretending to be a different character every week or so. All her characters are bad stereotypes, since she really has no talent for anything but dressing up and being cute. But I like her, and I could see her being useful in a series, since she can play parts.

However, she first appears a few pages into the story and you don't know she's a bad actress...you just think she's a badly written character. If she emerged later in the story, it might not matter, but as the story stands just now, I need her right away because she works at the scene of the murder.

How would you handle this? Would you make her normal that day...give her a character that seems almost normal that week (although she added a lot of fun to the scene...sigh....) or have someone tell the heroine right away that she's dealing with a bad actress here?

The actual mystery accidentally got too serious to be populated by weird people, and my sense of humor is too quirky. People don't always get it. So I have to tone it down, although if I can figure how the introduction to this shallow little receptionist, I intend to keep her weird and let her lighten things up.

So...advice anyone?

Link: http://www.scribblersretreat.com/Skill_Building/writing_to_change_attitudes.html

As a writer, you have a great opportunity to reach a large audience and influence how others think and act. With that great opportunity, however, comes a great responsibility. First, the changes you advocate should be responsible ones, changes that will make things truly better.

Next, you should be practicing what you preach. Get out and do what you’re encouraging others to do. All the words in the world won’t feed a hungry child or find a home for a homeless person. Go and do.

Finally, be respectful in your advocacy. Be for something, instead of against something. When writer’s focus on what they’re against, they tend to slip into lies. The whole goal becomes to discredit the “enemy” instead of helping others to see the wisdom of what you believe. If a lie will help, then the person who lives his life against things sees no reason not to use them. Sarcasm and satire become favorite tools. Never mind offering solutions and good advice. Make fun of someone and discredit those you don’t like. As children we learned not to make fun of people. Calling it satire or sarcasm doesn’t make it okay to be mean.

When you’re for something, instead of against, you can win over converts to your beliefs without hurting others in the process. If your passion is really valuable and good, you don’t need to lie or to be mean to win. If you have a cause worth fighting, know why it’s worth fighting for so completely you can win people over with the good stuff. Tell them how the world will be better if you win, not how it will be worse if you lose. Tell them how this change will make them feel good about themselves and the world in which they live. Keep it positive. Keep it uplifting. Keep it motivating.

Be nice—nice guys do, in spite of what you’ve heard—often win, and the changes they make can really make a difference. Your gift with words is an extraordinary gift with great power—use your power wisely and kindly.

As a writer, you have the ability to influence thought, action, and values. The question is whose values you will adapt in order to do this.

You don’t get to choose whether or not what you write will affect someone’s actions or values. That is entirely beyond your control. And so, that leaves you, as a writer, with a powerful responsibility. When you write, ask yourself:

1. What do I want to have happen as a result of what I’m writing?

I’m not talking about fame here. I’m talking about your readers—what do you want them to feel, to believe, to do?

2. What things could happen that I didn’t intend to happen?

If you write about a young girl who makes a decision which you, as an adult, know will ruin the girl’s life in the long run, and you choose not to show the consequences, could another real girl use that as reassurance that she can make the same decision without consequences?

You have values, personally held beliefs that matter to you. What part do they play in your writing? Do you compromise your values because it’s “expected if you want to succeed?” In the long run, do your values mean less to you than fame and fortune? This is something you have to decide for yourself. How strongly do you feel about your values and what are you willing to sacrifice for fame?

Many will say you should be willing to sacrifice everything for your art. I disagree. In the long run, fame means nothing if you sacrifice your very core to achieve it. What makes a great writer great is passion, and turning off your passions turns off what has the power to make you great.

Don’t sacrifice your values for your art. Take your responsibilities to your readers, especially young ones, seriously. If everyone did it, there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place. So dare to prove to the world you are so talented you can break the rules by hanging on to your values, and still succeed.

I run an ESL program at church. I usually have the intermediates these days, but some weeks, when my students have to work, I help out with the advanced class, since the teacher there isn't a native. I get peppered with questions on the nuances of language.

Last night: What's the difference between "I doubt" and "I'm not sure?" At first, they seem like synonyms. As I gave it a quick thought, though, I realized I don't use them interchangably.

Example:
"You're having trouble with your car. Let me fix it for you."
"You're a great mechanic, but I'm not sure you can fix this one. Do you have experience with antique cars?"

""You're having trouble with your car. Let me fix it for you."
"Ummm...you're ten years old. I doubt you can fix my car."

Tone of voice for the first is politer than for the second, where a bit of sarcasm is blended in.

I'm beginning to think more about the nuances of our language as I answer these types of questions. The difference between an average writer and a great one might be, in part, an ear for nuance.

I always hated symbolism analysis in school. I'd read too many disclaimers from authors saying the symbolism literary analysts were writing about their books was nonsense and they hadn't written any into their book. In fact, I once wrote a children's story (never published, fortunately) that was read to a writer's group--not my own. They were convinced the tree in the story represented the dead mother. I was confused. There was no mention of a mother in the whole story. It was a brief story about a father and daughter and while the mother is never mentioned, I didn't say she was dead. She might well have been in the kitchen baking cookies or at work. She just wasn't needed. And a tree as a substitute mother? I didn't get it. I still don't.

So I'm now working on a novel for practice, and my sister the lit major thinks it demands symbolism. Can a person who has always made fun of symbolism put symbolism into her story? Am I even capable of it?

Sister says there are several elements to my story that make ideal symbolism...stones and light. So we'll see if I can do it. It's only for practice anyway, right...unless it turns out to be any good, but I'm not holding out extreme hope for this possibility.

But then again, I never thought I could write a non-fiction book and get it publshed and I've written two, so who know.