Write What You 'Don't' Know

Writers often live by the rule: 'Write What You Know'. In doing so, a writer is comfortable in their surroundings, knows what they are talking about, and therefore, bring a sense of reality to their writing. It kind of keeps us from looking like idiots, I guess. However, I've discovered that I have a real problem with writing what I know. And the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem...

First of all, I have to say, I adore research. I love learning about something new. For me, it's like travelling to a different world, briefly, and getting a taste of something I've never had before. Like worms. Okay, I'm not eating a worm for research, although I did eat a rock once, but I digress. The point is, research is fun. And in writing my novel, They Call Me Crazy, I did some research on worm farming so I could make one of my characters believable.

Of course, I couldn't learn all there was to know about worm farming, but I learned enough to pick out what I considered the interesting aspects of it, and that's what I included in the book. As a reader, I don't want to know all the details about it, just the parts that get my attention. As a writer, I have to remember that the ultimate goal is to interest readers.

It seems that if I were a worm farmer, I would be able to give a lot of interesting information, because I would know so much. Right? Not always. I'm not a worm farmer, but I have been a Nurse for 30 years, and although I could tell you some great stories, I find that when I write about anything medical, I tend to instruct. I give too much information and try to be as detailed as possible. The result? Boring, run-on lectures about medically related subjects, when all I really wanted was someone to get a paper cut. I've been a Nurse for so long that choosing between 'the interesting parts' and 'the important parts' has become difficult.

Yes, I had someone that knew a little bit more than me about worm farming read the book for accuracy (Yes, there are worm experts). But the medical stuff? I've found that I have to 'consult' with other medical professionals for accuracy, and non-medical readers for interest and believability. If I were writing an instruction manual, it would be different. But I'm not. I'm writing novels, with a purpose to entertain, not teach.

So write what you know...Yeah, yeah, yeah---to a certain extent. But don't be afraid to dig through some subjects that you don't know anything about. 

How else are you going to learn how earthworms mate? 

(Well, I guess you could just read my novel....)  

The Right Way to Publish a Book

I recently, finally, signed a publishing contract for my Southern noir crime novel, They Call Me Crazy.  I say finally because it has been two years since I finished the book, which by the sands of a publishing hourglass, I hear, is no time at all. But, I work hard and fast on everything, and for me, two years was a long, long time. So now I have a publishing contract, and a year from now, I should have a book.

I'm not going to tell you to keep working, keep going, keep trying---it's not my job to motivate anyone in this business because honestly, it's a hard business to stay positive in. It's filled with rejection, self-doubt, and in most cases, very little return on your creative investment. But I am going to tell you this; there is a 'right' way to publish a book, and finally,  I know what that right way is.

As writers, we have choices. We can self publish, go with a small, independent publisher, work with a medium press, contract with a bigger press or one of the Big Five. We can choose to query agents to help in this process, we can rely on our attorneys to read contracts or we can simply go it alone. We can query by email, we can go to conferences and meet people 'in the know', we can incorporate the services of book cover artists and editors, or again, we can do all of these things ourselves. We can even choose not to publish at all.

With all of these options, how can I possibly say there is a 'right' way to publish? I almost self published and changed my mind when the business side of it began to overwhelm me before it even began. I queried some publishers on my own, then found an agent who queried more, then made corrections, adjustments to my manuscript and queried again. Basically, I used the Hot Oatmeal Method: throw it at a wall and see if it sticks.  Is that the 'right' way? Well, it worked...

I have friends who are happy and successful in self publishing, small press publishing, hybrid publishing and traditional publishing.  What do they all have in common? At some point, they sat down and thought about what they wanted, what they needed, from this thing called publishing. They were honest with themselves and with others about their needs, their time expectations and what they were willing to do to promote and publish their own work. As individual as their manuscripts, they had a plan, based on their goals and their work.

 Had I been a bit more informed about all of these options and had I been a tad more in touch with what I really wanted for myself and my work, this process would have been more  streamlined than it was. I'm certain I would have found my way to the exact same destination, contracting with a smaller press as I have, but I also feel like had I taken the time to really evaluate my goals and my work, the journey would have been less stressful than it was.  Had I not listened to those that tried to tell me the 'right' way to do this I might have realized that everyone has their OWN way.

The 'right' way is your way. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

It really is that simple. And that difficult. 

They Call Me Crazy--coming soon from Red Adept Publishing

Marguerite, Rachel and One Crazy Mother

Marguerite Duras is my favorite author, The Lover, my favorite book. I've read it at least a dozen times and each time, find some other connection, another reason to love it even more. So when Rachel Thompson asked me if I would be willing to share something about my life, something that was a turning point, I thought of Marguerite Duras and The Lover. Let me explain.

"I believe that always, or almost always, in all childhoods and in all the lives that follow them, the mother represents madness. Our mothers always remain the strangest, craziest people we've ever met." –Marguerite Duras

Do my children feel the same way about me?  I read this to my oldest son, who laughed and said, “Yes, that sounds about right.”  I then read it to my youngest who said, “Of course we think you’re crazy, but we love you just the way you are.”  And I am a joker, a smoker and once a midnight toker. This is the part of me that people see, the side that my children know. But there is also another side of me that I try to hide from others---the doubt, the depression, the madness. It all stems from early on, as it does for most of us. We all have demons, some of them scarier than others.  

"Very early in my life it was too late." -Marguerite Duras

This is the quote from The Lover that I have read over and over again. Why does this resonate so deeply? Some things are better left unsaid, in the head, dead (I think maybe Dr. Seuss said that first).

As a teenager, Marguerite Duras lived with her mother and two siblings in French Indochina.  It was the 1930’s and young Marguerite was trying to identify herself with the world around her.  Her family was poor, and although political and racial tensions existed on extreme levels, she had an affair with a wealthy Chinese man.  This affair was later written about several times during her lifetime.

At the age of seventy she wrote The Lover, and tells the story one last time.  Why?  Because she never felt she told it right.  She never felt she gave the story the depth, the love, the hate, the spectrum of emotions it deserved. It was a defining moment in her life, one that she thought about and tried to figure out in her own mind well into old age.

I've always said that I hope when I am seventy years old, I have the courage to look back and redefine, redescribe, rewrite the stories of my life that have been most influential, whether they be good, bad or ugly. I'm almost fifty, and still find it hard to think about some things, much less write about them. 

But, Rachel has encouraged me and although it has taken several months for me to finally say, okay, put it out there, I'm still anxious about sharing one small story. 

 

"When it's in a book I don't think it'll hurt any more ...exist any more. One of the things writing does is wipe things out. Replace them."-Marguerite Duras

I sure hope you are right, Marguerite.

The Dark Side: I  Met the Devil Once on Rachel Thompson's blog.

 

The Light Side: One Crazy Mother on my blog 6's and 7's.

Back to Crazy

For those of you that read my blog regularly, you might remember that in January, with an idea and an overactive muse, I wrote a novel in 16 days.  As I said then, sure, it was pre-editing, but still, I am a fairly deep researcher and to crank anything out that fast seemed impossible to me. But, I did, and now, three months later, I have edited, revised, reread, slashed, hacked, cut scenes, added scenes, and finally, today, sent it to an editor.  Yes, And They Call Me Crazy is moving right along. 

 

So, I've decided to tell you a little about it.  Here goes.

And They Call Me Crazy takes place in the small Kansas town of Bally Springs.  It is a fictional town, but closely resembles the small town that I grew up in.  It centers around a mid-thirties woman, Cass Adams, who decides to whack her husband over the head with a shovel and bury him in their yard.  Yes, Cass has a few problems.

I wrote this book as an exploration of flawed characterization and unreliable narration.  It is told in first person, present tense from eight narrators, all of whom have problems of their own. 

  

I'll be ripping and rewriting when it is returned from my editor, but in the meantime, I'm fairly happy with the progress.  So check out the blurb, listen to a little Patsy Cline, and I will go back to my new WIP, currently untitled, the second novel in what will become my Ragtown/Hoover Dam trilogy. 

Back to work!