Literary Modeling Gone Wrong: Guest Christopher Chik

Who Shot First?
 

Modeling, an essential skill in any writer’s toolkit, is that sort of legal fringe where plagiarism becomes the art, becomes craft itself. When Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea, she modeled extensively on Jane Eyre, almost foreshadowing today’s fan-fiction. At times Rhys’ excess was a detriment to her narrative, which could have been a brilliant standalone novel.

Christopher Chik

Influences are some of the most important things a writer uses to contribute to our great human storytelling tradition. We update stories of the past, taking and combining elements from many in order to create something new. Sometimes, though, writers can love their influences too much, and the writing crosses from literary modeling to fan-fiction.

Should someone escape Jane Eyre’s torturous grasp during high school tenure, he could still read Wide Sargasso Sea with complete understanding. The average reader has a closer connection to Kevin Bacon than Rhys’ work has to Brontë’s, because the timeline order of the two novels is inverted. WSS is an origin story for Brontë’s character, Bertha Rochester, but takes place a half century later.

The central tension in WSS, which Rhys uses to explain Bertha’s craziness in Jane Eyre, is only possible because of the unique historical climate the so tightly woven into the narrative. The racial tension in the Creole culture exists because of an 1833 Emancipation Act that freed slaves in all British colonies. The events in Jane Eyre take place roughly forty years prior to that act, around the turn of the century. By contrast, Jane Eyre’s central tension hinges on how Jane will resolve her love for Bertha’s husband if she is alive, well, and crazy up in the attic.

Bertha would have been kept a secret by an aristocratic family in either time period, but in the Jane Eyre timeline, it’s more plausible for Bertha to be locked away in the home instead of an asylum. Mental institutions weren’t as plentiful and didn’t have the prominence they would in the late 19^th century. As a little girl in the 1830s, Rhys’ version of Bertha would be well into the 1840s before she married Rochester. By the time she was a completely filled bag of crazy, locked away in an attic, time would have slipped into the latter half of the century. By then, WSS as a prequel becomes as plausible as Greedo shooting first.

When a writer’s efforts to model on others begins to undercut her own effort, as with Rhys, the work becomes more of an homage or poor tribute to the original piece, than something of true literary merit. There are moments in WSS where the modeling goes so far, the pieces seem shoehorned: Bertha’s doppelganger, Antionette, seeks out a voodoo woman who sets in motion the events necessary to make the Jane Eyre narrative happen in the future; Rochester’s doppelganger mentions he’d trade his eyes, something he loses in Jane Eyre, to have never married Bertha. It’s unfortunate Rhys chose to take her modeling to such an extreme, because she wrote a brilliant novel, which explores an interesting time and place.

Antoinette is an intriguing protagonist in her own right and deserves to be her own bag and blend of crazy. Everything about her circumstances is interesting and relatable in ways that neither Jane nor Bertha proved to be, throughout Jane Eyre. Short of a butler, live-in maid, or a nanny, who really identifies with Jane on any level beyond love that can or should not be? Anyone can identify with a woman driven to madness by insufferable circumstances; anyone can sympathize with a little girl growing up in the middle of racial tension and horrible violence. The reader doesn’t need Brontë’s Bertha to feel deeply for Rhys’ Antoinette.

As a writer, modeling should be an exercise; it should be a tool for improving the craft and developing one’s own stories, through inspiration from the past. We should emulate the great authors who inspire us. We should strive to understand what makes their voices unique, dissect the humble beauty of their sentences, and reprocess it all through our own lenses and pens. Going too far with our modeling, doesn’t always doom us to plagiarism. Sometimes, a runaway modeling exercise just creates too large an anchor, which then drags our writing down from a level at which it could have been.

Never be afraid to let your own voice shine brightly through your disguises, modeled on the great writing of others. That’s how we get Bradbury’s Leviathan ’99, brilliantly modeled on Moby Dick. Otherwise, we get lip-service fan-fiction. On the plus side, instead of Twilight, when someone writes Jane Eyre fan-fiction, we get something far more literary than Fifty Shades of Gray.

Follow Chris on the interwebs:

Email – christopherm.chik@gmail.com

Website – www.occupymars.net

Twitter – @g1mpy

The Craft of Writing Synopses by Robert Begiebing

The Craft of Writing Synopses is the final piece of a three-part series of posts by Robert Begiebing.  I had the privilege of working with Robert Begiebing on my first novel, including query and synopsis.  A recipient of the Langum Prize for historical fiction, Robert J. Begiebing is the author of seven books, a play, and over thirty articles and stories.  He is the founding director of the Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction, and Professor of English Emeritus, at Southern NH University. He's also just a wonderful guy.  

Please visit Tim Greaton's blog for Part One of the series, Selling Your Novel: Creating a Compelling First Impression  and Derek Flynn's blog for Part Two, The Craft of Writing Queries. 

The Craft of Writing Synopses by Robert Begiebing

We’ve discussed approaching agents and editors through sample chapters (the real key to gathering interest in your novel) and queries, but what about those synopses I’ve referred to?  These one-page, single-spaced synopsis documents typically accompany your query letter, both of which are intended to get the addressee to ask you to send along the sample pages/ chapters.

Your synopsis is just that—a one-page, single spaced, high-energy, no gimmicks/no B.S.  presentation of what your novel is about (main characters, setting, plot line, theme) that should make any reader, but especially an agent and editor, want to read it.  The biggest mistake writers make is turning the novel synopsis into a mere plot synopsis.  If there is some contemporary event or issue the novel addresses, emphasize it.  If you show your synopsis to colleagues, friends, and lovers and they are in any way unclear on what the book is about, you are not there yet.  If they would not be immediately interested in reading it, you are not there yet.  Some agents and editors will read a 1-5 page synopsis, but I recommend unless otherwise specified that you send along a one-pager for efficiency and to show you respect the reader’s time, to demonstrate you are a powerful, concise writer. This document is essentially an extension of your supporting paragraph in the query.  In most instances the letter and the synopsis, along with SASE for hard copies, make up your fiction query package.

The synopsis is a single spaced business document with double spacing between paragraphs.  The title of the novel along with the word “synopsis” should appear in the upper left margin, in bold font if you like; and note that either under the title of the novel or in the right upper margin you place the novel’s word count (as in a simple “70,000 words”).

Expect to hear “no” more often than you hear “yes”—that’s part of the publishing game and the ancient and honorable authorial struggle.  If your query package succeeds, you will be asked to send the first three chapters or 30-50 pages, sometimes the complete ms.

Editor and agent websites are usually very specific about what they want in a query.  Always check first.  Smaller presses might ask for more than the two basic documents at the start.   If so, you’ve got a nice package ready to go with your opening chapters already polished and intact.  If a small press asks on its website for your entire novel, send it along with SASE and a letter of transmittal—merely telling what you are sending (“as indicated on your website”), why you think this novel is a good fit for their list, and a brief author’s bio highlighting any professional credentials you might have for writing and researching this book.  As a writer as well as marketer of your own work, keep in mind that persistence (or good ol’ grit) is more than half of talent and success.

 

 The 20th anniversary edition of The Strange Deathof Mistress Coffin, a novel set in 17th-century New England, is now available in paperback and e-book. Originally published the early 1990s, Mistress Coffin was a Main Selection in The Literary Guild, The Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Clubs, and is currently optioned for a film.

Visit his website at www.begiebing.com.

Don't forget to Twitter follow and say hello to Tim Greaton and Derek Flynn after you check out their websites!

 

Tim on Twitter 

  

Derek on Twitter  

Why Do We Still Read Ayn Rand? Guest Dillon Stone Tatum

It is hard to underestimate the power of Ayn Rand’s works today. In fact, one might be hard pressed to come up with another fiction writer from the twentieth century whose work carries such weight in contemporary political discourse—especially among the conservatives, and libertarians. But why? What is it about Ayn Rand that has allowed her work to become popular despite the fact that it is, plain and simple, poor fiction, with a rather terrifying pseudo-philosophy built-in? After all, the great Flannery O’Connor once remarked to a friend, in reference to Atlas Shrugged, that: “The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hoped you picked it up off the floor of the subway and through it in the nearest garbage pail.” And, a review in the National Review by Whittaker Chambers commented: “From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: ‘To a gas chamber—go!’” Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, may have been a terribly authored book, with a disturbing philosophical message as well (in this case about abstinence), but her book has not helped to characterize the philosophical battle lines in contemporary political discourse—that is, of course, unless we consider “Edward vs. Jacob” to be a major social and political dispute. Why Rand?  Why a second-rate novelist, whose fiction is not taken seriously by political philosophers, or professional writers and critics?

It’s not because of a lack of philosophical ammunition for libertarians. Libertarianism—the idea that the first and foremost liberty is the right to property (including self-ownership), with the implication that miniscule to minimum government is necessary and just—has a long lineage in modern philosophy. Whether this is from John Locke’s focus on absolute equality in the state of nature, John Stuart Mill’s rally against tyranny, or Friedrich Hayek’s theories of the free-market, there are important strands in modern political thought that have tried to honestly, and rigorously, defend the ideas of small government, and personal freedom, that many libertarians, and even Tea Party conservatives, bow to. But, there is something unique about Rand. This uniqueness is not about a particularly powerful view of “the good life,” or proper government. Rather, Rand’s novels are captivating for many because they tap into, and justify, the very greed and selfishness that big industry has instilled in contemporary Americans. The inimitable Gore Vidal summed it up all too well:

“This odd little woman is attempting to give a moral sanction to greed and self interest, and to pull it off she must at times indulge in purest Orwellian newspeak of the “freedom is slavery” sort. What interests me most about her is not the absurdity of her “philosophy,” but the size of her audience (in my campaign for the House she was the one writer people knew and talked about). She has a great attraction for simple people who are puzzled by organized society, who object to paying taxes, who dislike the “welfare” state, who feel guilt at the thought of the suffering of others but who would like to harden their hearts. For them, she has an enticing prescription: altruism is the root of all evil, self-interest is the only good, and if you’re dumb or incompetent that’s your lookout.”

The irony should not be easily missed, as the small-government conservatives have managed to persuade even those who are at the very bottom of the income scale that the same unregulated markets that have caused them to lose their jobs, or to have their homes foreclosed on, are the backbone of America. To use Rand’s own imagery, the Titans of Industry as “holding up the world” is both a reflection of a mythology of the American dream that has yet to die, and also an appeal to our rather bestial, and subconscious, need to win at the expense of our fellow citizens. Fiction, used in this way, is not only a reflection of reality, but an attempt to reconstitute (or demolish) what we take to be our duties as citizens. What kind of Republic would ignore Aristotle’s dictum that man is a political animal, who is only whole because of his relations with fellow men?

Well, if Americans are not going to go back and read Aristotle (and, honestly, who wouldn’t want to?), maybe we need to think more of the power of literature, and the importance of themes like sacrifice, love, and the unique ability we have to come together when times are tough to defeat the forces of cruelty and “evil” that threaten us.

Hey, maybe Twilight doesn’t sound so bad after all.

Dillon Stone Tatum is a Ph.D. student, and Graduate Fellow, in the Department of Political Science at the George Washington University. He studies political thought, international organization and international security. 

Connect with him on twitter @Dillon_Tatum
Or visit his website www.dillonstonetatum.com

Getting Serious About Grammar

I recently blogged about the Grammar Police, those social media friends who are compelled to correct tweets and Facebook statuses down to the last comma. But now it's time to be serious about grammar, punctuation and basic language skills. In writing, in business, in self-promotion it is very important to work towards perfection.

Yes, perfection.

I just visited a website for a company that writes press releases for various organizations and individuals and distributes the releases to publications for use. Their website was riddled with errors. I debated about sending the company an email to alert them (and ask if they'd like to hire a proofreader) and in the end decided: no. Honestly, if I sent emails to every website I visit that has errors, it would be an unpaid part-time job. So I have to pick and choose.

Joe's car wash? Yes, I would email them. Joe is probably just a decent, small business man that is trying to make a living by washing cars. Although he may not be particularly tech savvy, he does understand the importance of a web presence and probably hired his cousin to build a website for him. Joe may appreciate the heads up and possibly be receptive to the idea of a proof reader. I like Joe already.

But a PR firm? Aren't they advertising their exceptional writing abilities? Not only would I not hire them, but I would suggest they hire an editor. I can only imagine the email I would get in reply:

"Thanks for visiting our websigh. Are you interested on any of our servics?" (No, really not, thanks.)

Which brings me to the point of this blog. I don't expect everyone to be perfect. I'm certainly not. But, writers, or editors, or businesses that are in the business of selling their writing want to be taken seriously. Therefore, they should at least try to make their marketing material, or self-promotion, error-free.

 

Use an editor or a proofreader if you have to. Graciously accept and acknowledge those who find an error and let you know so that you can fix it.  Strive toward perfection.

Check out my (meant to be humorous) blog about the Grammar Police.

Twitterstories: Interview with Darren Cormier

Darren Cormier is a talented writer from the Boston area. I'm honored to be able to introduce you to Darren and his recently released A Little Soul: 140 Twitterstories, which are all under 140 characters in length.

Tell us about A Little Soul: 140 Twitterstories:
The book was started in May 2011. I had been reading a lot of Lydia Davis at the time: she writes stories that are sometimes no longer than one line. I tried to write a few stories in her style and decided to post one per week to my blog as a means to drum up interest. The idea actually worked and I started developing a little bit of a following and generating a lot of positive feedback. So I thought, “Why don’t I compile 140 of these and self-publish it as an eBook.” I presented the idea to my editor, and I didn’t shoot it down. About a year later, upon first coming up with the idea for a recurring blog entry theme, “A Little Soul” was born.

What made you decide to write Twitterstories?
I started practicing writing under constraints a few years back. It started as an effort to hone in my natural tendencies as a vomit drafter and rambling style. I started with trying to write a story in a page and it would morph into experiments without using certain letters. Writing under constraints forces you to choose all your words very carefully. The 140 character constraint of Twitter was just a natural evolution.

Any big plans for release date? Any rituals, parties we should know about?
I decided to have a soft release for the eBook portion, which was released on June 14. The print version should be available by the end of July. It’s going to be a print-on-demand version. I am strongly considering a reading at a couple of small venues in the Boston area, but I haven’t decided yet.  Everyone within a 5000 mile radius of the Boston area will know about it, though.

What are you working on now?
Right now I am revising a novella which was the centerpiece of my MFA thesis. I have also started a few short stories and essays, but those are only in the nascent stage.

Why do you write?
There’s a lyric from the song “The Origin of Love” by John Cameron Mitchell from Hedwig and the Angry Inch " that summarizes exactly my intentions as a writer: “I could swear by your expression that the pain down in your soul was the same as the one down in mine."
I’ve always been the person who is most interested in knowing your ugliest feelings, in being someone who everyone confides their shit to. You always feel better after you’ve talked things out with someone. And part of me wants to take those emotions and use it to show the pain inside each of my characters (and us) and, hopefully, by showing that pain, help them (and us) heal.
Also I’m not really good at much else, and I’m not awful at writing. And I love the sound of typing.

Other than writing, what is your claim to fame?
I invented the giraffe. And I’m also the only person to win the Triple Crown in baseball and horse racing.
Honestly, I’m not sure. I once got kicked out of a Crate & Barrel because I fell asleep on one of the beds.

What is life with Darren like right now?
From the outside it’s not terribly exciting. I spend a lot of time either reading, writing, or working. I work a lot. But to me it’s actually exciting, as over the past year and a half I’ve slowly been accomplishing a lot of personal goals that I’ve always wanted to do: publish a book, have semi-regular work as a writer and reporter, run my first marathon—I’m training for my first in October.  I ran my first official half marathon Memorial Day weekend. And I’m going sky-diving later this summer. Achieving personal goals, however you define it, doesn’t always result in the most exciting stories and can actually be a very solitary endeavor, but as long as it means something to you, then it’s an achievement.

What turns you on?

Intelligence; glasses; a love of books; a slightly offbeat sense of humor; eyes; I had a thing for short hair for a long time; confidence; ambition; honesty.

 Visit Darren's Website

 Follow Darren on Twitter @DarrenCormier 
 

 Buy A Little Soul: 140 Twitterstories

Sculpt Those Flabby Writing Muscles! Guest Ciara Ballintyne

Wait! This is not about exercise! At least not the Olivia Newton John in fuchsia tights and a headband exercise. It is, however, about exercising your writing muscles, and no-one is in better shape (yeah, corny, I know) than my favorite fantasy writer, lawyer and Aussie (not Olivia) Ciara Ballintyne. Thank you, Ciara, for taking the time to share this:

When we begin to write, we know nothing. Our writing muscles are weak and flabby, having never been exercised. Or, it may be you have toned them in a specific way, to write a certain way, such as technical papers, and now they need to be trained to write fiction – like a sprinter training for a marathon.

We can learn a certain amount from watching, and writers do this by learning from what they read. The problem with this is:

• ·Not everything you read will be quality and you may not (in the early days) be able to distinguish; and
• ·Eventually you will get to the point where you know what you’re reading is better than what you’re writing, but you don’t know why.

Like an athlete trying to learn from watching, we can observe the effect, but we can’t always observe all the technical detail, or understand it if we can observe it. Why does a runner warm-up? Why does he run in a certain way? What is the strategy that goes into a marathon? None of these are things you can observe.

As your writing skill improves, you will know the sentence you are reading is better than yours but not why. And the why can’t be observed.  Through trial and error you may eventually figure out the why, but this is the long, hard way.

There is an easier (and much faster) way.

In my own learning curve, there have been three key events that accelerated my writing skills:

1.        Joining a critique group;
2.        Taking advantage of the advice of a freelance editor; and
3.       Workshops.

Workshops – aerobics for your writing muscles!
 

These days, they are easily accessible online and often inexpensive as well. I mostly do mine through Savvy Authors, but there are plenty of others to choose from. In fact, if you want to see how serious I am about workshops, you can find the complete list of workshops I have completed on my website.

Workshops will teach you the technical details, the why you can’t learn from observation. Why does sentence length matter? Why are adverbs bad? Why are saidisms bad? How do I improve my sentence? Why does POV matter? How do I write better descriptions? How can I create better plots How do I create more conflict?

Even if you have been doing some of these things right before, a workshop may help you to better understand what you have been doing intuitively or unconsciously, and then you can make an effort to do more of it consciously.

As an example, I am plotting an outline for my next book at the moment. I’ve started from an outline I did previously, because when I plotted my last book, I plotted its sequel at the same time. Now I remember the last time I did this, when I went to write the book, I realised I had half a book badly in need of subplots.

This time, as I am writing it, I’m thinking:

•   Has it got enough subplots?
•  Why are the characters doing these things? Do they make sense?
•  Is there enough conflict/tension?
•  What do each of the characters want?

I couldn’t easily answer any of those questions just looking at the outline, but I simply thought ‘I will do a Goal Motivation Conflict’ chart. And that helps me to see what characters should be doing, what’s stopping them achieving their goals, and any other areas of potential conflict. Such a simple tool, but one of which I was unaware last time I outlined. In fact, I wasn’t even consciously asking the questions last time.

Now you may be aware of GMC charts already (or not), or you may not like to use structured tools (I do, because hey, let’s face it, I’m a lawyer and that’s how I think) but I assure you there is more to learn that just GMC charts, and you can apply the knowledge without using the structured tools if that’s your preference.

After all, the important thing I really took away from that workshop was not the GMC chart, but the knowledge to ask the questions I asked. Answering the questions can be done in a multitude of ways, in whatever manner best suits your writing process, but you can’t answer a question you don’t know to ask.

So if you haven’t already done so, go! Study! And learn. If you have used workshops, what did you study, and did you find it valuable?

For a list of the workshops I have attended, please visit my website!

 

CIARA BALLINTYNE

The cracks in our souls bleed darkness. High fantasy. Poignant. Immersive. Gripping.

EMAIL – info@ciaraballintyne.com
WEBSITE – http://ciaraballintyne.com
TWITTER – @CiaraBallintyne 

And I couldn't resist: 

Who Died and Made You an Expert? By Lorca Damon

If you’re ever unsure of the intelligence of the average human, go check out the comments section of any article on Yahoo or video posted to YouTube. It’s like the internet has given people the necessary anonymity to say whatever dumb thing pops into their little minds. Sadly, the same thing is true for book reviews.

Everyone who’s ever read a book is now an expert on writing, thanks to the ability to post reviews on the online sales pages of books. Whether you actually read the book cover-to-cover or if you just walked by the display in your local bookstore, you’re now able to write your comments for all the internet to see.

In the interest of full disclosure, here is the most aggravating review of my own book on autism:

“This book was okay if your child is younger. My son was diagnosed at age six and I had already put into place most of the practices discussed and was past other stages. If your child is older than 2, I recommend books by Ellen Notbohm and Paula Kluth instead.”

Let’s dissect this: first of all, her child is older than my child. HOW WAS THAT MY FAULT? You gave this book a 3-star review, thus dropping its status, because you squeezed your kid out before I did? Then you proceeded to completely shanghai my Amazon page with a COMMERCIAL FOR A DIFFERENT BOOK. That’s like me going to the Amazon page for THE HOLY BIBLE and writing, “Y’all should totally read The Torah, it’s way better.”

Now, I realize this sounds like me just venting some anger at a pointless review. Let me be the first to assure you that it’s not the case. I have two UGLY one-star reviews from people who absolutely hated my book and I respect them for having strong feelings about a topic and trying to share those feelings with others. I don’t like what they had to say, obviously, but I respect their opinions. This crappy review above, however, was just unnecessary.

As readers, we should make our points clearly and succinctly. I agree that having forked over some of my hard-earned cash to purchase a book does give me some right to voice an opinion on it. But as writers, we should stick to an honest evaluation of the writing in a book we review. I can read a book on a topic I don’t really care about but still be able to intelligently appraise the book’s value. I am literate enough to understand whether or not other readers will be able to appreciate the book or if they will have to put on their hip waders to muck their ways through its poor editing and outright rape of the English language.

Reviewing a book is an awesome responsibility. As a reviewer, I may unwittingly encourage one to spend their money or worse, stop someone from reading a life-changing book. It’s not a job I take lightly, and I would hope that other writers feel the same way.

 Lorca Damon is a teacher in a juvenile correctional facility and staff writer for GoodEReader.com. Her first non-fiction title, Autism By Hand, is an Amazon bestseller and her first fiction title, The Earth is for Dancing, was recently published as well. She is also one of the funniest people I know.  You should stalk her at

Her website:  lorcadamon.com

Twitter: @LorcaDamon

Good E-Reader goodereader.com