I hate surprises. Seriously. Hate 'em. Don't like people jumping out at me yelling 'Happy Birthday'. Don't like someone putting a dish in front of me for which I have not ordered and don't know what it is. Don't like someone not telling me something because "It's a surprise". So you'd think, then, that I'd also hate when a book or movie has a surprise in it, right? Well, um, no actually. Surprise! :)
Writers know that if there are surprises in a story a reader is more likely hooked by the story. In the last month I've been made aware of how important this element is to story telling in two very different stories and mediums: the George R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire book series and the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love.
I just finished reading the fourth installment of the book series a couple of weeks ago and I saw the movie last week with my daughters so they're both fresh in my mind. In both cases, the author and the screenwriter, used surprises very, very well and those surprises are what I keep thinking about when I think back to the stories. Martin is known for killing off characters that a reader expects to survive but he also throws in some unexpected character actions that make a reader perk up and say, "Whoa! He did not just DO that!" But those surprises, while coming where and when you least expect them, are not OUT of character - ever. That's the key to a surprise. It must be set up properly (without a reader or viewer) being aware that it is being set up. So that when the surprise happens, all these little 'clicks' happen in your brain that take you back through the events of the story and you realize that while this is a surprise to you, all the stepping stones were there - all the little clues to the character or the storyline - that you cannot (or should not) be aware of while you're reading the story. This kind of intricate, subtle story-telling leading to a surprise (or twist or whatever you want to call it) was also done exceptionally well in Crazy, Stupid, Love. I can't reveal the surprise (one minor one and one major one) but it's a beauty and it throws all the storylines together. It elevated an already highly enjoyable movie into an excellent one for me.
The other thing that a surprise can do for your story is save it. I'll be honest, by the middle of the third Martin book my interest was flagging. Too many characters, too many stories, taking too long. But then in the third book … the author does something to a character I was not expecting. It changes the character and the story and immediately my interest is peaked again. That kind of thing can make the difference between a reader putting down a book and never picking it up again or hanging on to see what else might be thrown at a character.
Understandably, you can't have a story filled with surprises and twists on every page and just for the sake of 'throwing something in there'. However, I would recommend having one or two surprises, set up nicely, timed to be revealed at a critical point in the story and making it a game-changer - where everything you thought about a character or a storyline now needs to be re-thought. As a writer, I've found the best surprises in a story are not necessarily planned. In ILLEGALLY BLONDE I have a surprise towards the end that when I wrote it I went, "Seriously? SHE's the one??" and it was perfect. Same with my current wip. I thought I was writing one character in a certain way and "Bam!" she pulls something on the hero and it's a game-changer - for her and the story. I had to go back and carefully re-read the story to that point and, in many instances subtly change some of her actions/thoughts in order for the reader not to say, "Okay. That is totally not in character." For, above all else, a surprise must be BELIEVABLE.
What about you? Hate or love surprises? And, if you're a writer, do you plan them or are you, you know, surprised when they happen?
Showing posts with label surprises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surprises. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Things That Make the Crankies Go Away
I should have posted this blog post yesterday but I was in an epically cranky mood. No particular reason - a combination of delays and frustrations on the reno, The Boy not being ready when I got home to take him to Tae Kwon Do when I'd asked him to (this is a recurring theme with him), my hair needing a major re-do and a few other things that, by themselves aren't anything epic but accumulate them over a day or a week and suddenly I find myself in a major Blue Funk or becoming "The World's Crankiest Mom and Wife".
Besides having a glass of wine to deal with these episodes (and that wasn't possible in yesterday's busyness) there is one other thing that never fails to help me to feel better when I've got a case of crankies: I search where my book is in various public libraries across the country and see if it's been checked out. I know, I know. A bit self-obsessive, isn't it? But the idea that someone is reading Illegally Blonde always cheers me up. And the other day I checked the Toronto Public Library and found they'd ordered 14 copies of it! This was a major pick me up because Toronto's my home library and the city with the biggest Portuguese-Canadian population in Canada. Since IB features a Portuguese-Canadian teen I was a little bummed the TPL hadn't stocked it yet. Well, as always, librarians come through and make somebody's day (mine this time) a little sunshinier. Thank you, TPL!
How about you guys? What cheers you up when you've got the crankies?
Besides having a glass of wine to deal with these episodes (and that wasn't possible in yesterday's busyness) there is one other thing that never fails to help me to feel better when I've got a case of crankies: I search where my book is in various public libraries across the country and see if it's been checked out. I know, I know. A bit self-obsessive, isn't it? But the idea that someone is reading Illegally Blonde always cheers me up. And the other day I checked the Toronto Public Library and found they'd ordered 14 copies of it! This was a major pick me up because Toronto's my home library and the city with the biggest Portuguese-Canadian population in Canada. Since IB features a Portuguese-Canadian teen I was a little bummed the TPL hadn't stocked it yet. Well, as always, librarians come through and make somebody's day (mine this time) a little sunshinier. Thank you, TPL!
How about you guys? What cheers you up when you've got the crankies?
Friday, November 5, 2010
Vintage or Just Old Crap?
So my daughters have decided that buying vintage sweaters from the Goodwill is cool (well, not cool exactly - they'd never use that word). I am, shall we say, ambivalent about this sudden thriftiness. I grew up with hand me down clothes (even a bra once, Lord help me) from my cousins. Some of them were even girls :). I did get new clothes as well but I remember getting dresses and coats and other sundry items from various relatives and thinking they really were not my style. Perhaps they were my style but, darn it, they weren't new so they couldn't be as good, right? Anyway, I've had no trouble over the years donating tons of clothing to Goodwill. It is a fabulous organization. But I never really ever shopped there before. So when, the other night, Daughter 2 said she wanted to go we went. I was pleasantly surprised.
The Goodwill Store we went to was just recently built, bright lights, clothes organized in colour-coded blocks on racks and while, yes, there were some sketchy items, most of them were very well cared for, clean and in good shape. Daughter 2 bought 3 old man sweaters (don't ask. Apparently old man is a style these days) in almost perfect condition for under 20 dollars and was thrilled. Now I know she's not going to stop buying ridiculously expensive brand name items at American Eagle or Hollister (she'll try her hardest to make me buy them for her) but I love the idea of her recognizing that just because something has been used before it doesn't mean it's crap. The idea of not wearing something that a thousand other girls have in their closet is also a good thing as well. Wanting to be unique/individual is to be celebrated so if my girl wants to wear an oversized sweater that has a picture of an equestrian and his horse on the front then more power to her! Even better that it only cost $5.99.
Now if I can just convince my Dad to donate all his old shirts and sweaters to me I've got the next few Christmas's and birthdays covered. But then they'd probably think they're just hand me downs. I guess the fine line between Crap and Vintage is being hung on a rack with a thousand other old man sweaters and a price tag of $5.99.
The Goodwill Store we went to was just recently built, bright lights, clothes organized in colour-coded blocks on racks and while, yes, there were some sketchy items, most of them were very well cared for, clean and in good shape. Daughter 2 bought 3 old man sweaters (don't ask. Apparently old man is a style these days) in almost perfect condition for under 20 dollars and was thrilled. Now I know she's not going to stop buying ridiculously expensive brand name items at American Eagle or Hollister (she'll try her hardest to make me buy them for her) but I love the idea of her recognizing that just because something has been used before it doesn't mean it's crap. The idea of not wearing something that a thousand other girls have in their closet is also a good thing as well. Wanting to be unique/individual is to be celebrated so if my girl wants to wear an oversized sweater that has a picture of an equestrian and his horse on the front then more power to her! Even better that it only cost $5.99.
Now if I can just convince my Dad to donate all his old shirts and sweaters to me I've got the next few Christmas's and birthdays covered. But then they'd probably think they're just hand me downs. I guess the fine line between Crap and Vintage is being hung on a rack with a thousand other old man sweaters and a price tag of $5.99.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Strangers on a Train
I'm back from another few days away visiting my mom first then spending a couple of days with my girlfriend - the longest relationship I've had in my life outside of my family. Longer even than my husband and we'll have been married 20 years this year plus dated for several more before that. Jan and I don't see each other very often - if we're lucky once or twice a year. But, as in most friendships if they're good, you don't need frequency so much as a deep empathy and understanding that makes the few get togethers you have seem like no time at all has passed. Simply put, we get each other. We have the same sense of humour and the same types of interests in TV shows, books, movies, and musical theatre. We do differ on some things and we definitely aren't personality clones or anything (she's way more patient and understanding than I am by a long shot. Guess that's why she's my friend :) Still, we complement each other. What more can you ask of a friendship? And how vital it is to have those types of relationships. It is one of the joys in life.
Mostly those kind of relationships take time to develop. But sometimes you can connect instantaneously with the most unexpected people. I was fortunate to have both experiences happen to me this weekend: a chance to reconnect with a life-long friend and a chance encounter with a stranger on a train.
I usually don't end up talking with the person sitting beside me on my infrequent train rides. I'm too busy writing or reading to really pay much attention or put much effort into the superficial chit-chat that typically occurs during these encounters. But yesterday, for some reason, as I was writing I paused and glanced over at my seat mate. He was an older gentleman (in his late eighties as I was to find out) partially blind, using a cane, well-dressed and quiet. I remember thinking in that first quick glance: "I wonder what he's experienced in his life." I'm always especially interested in talking with senior citizens. Inevitably, there is some really fascinating thing that has occurred in their lives. They did live through the most turbulent of times during the twentieth century after all. This man was no exception.
When he saw that I'd stopped writing he smiled and asked if I was writing my memoir. I laughed and said I hadn't had nearly that interesting a life. I did say I was a writer and that started the conversation rolling since he admitted he'd often thought about writing a memoir. He told me things about his life that were the stuff of movies. How he became a doctor at age 40 and lived in the Arctic for several years with his young family while caring for the indigenous people of the area. He saw the last real evidence of how the Arctic people lived for thousands of years before the modern world began to invade. After the Arctic he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. Before he became a doctor he spent time in Rhodesia and other parts of Africa that were still under British or Portuguese colonial rule. He told me about his adored older brother who was a bomber pilot in WWII and was shot down and killed. He spoke eloquently of how that devastated his parents - and him - to lose the shining star of the family. He told me he was still practicing cardiology though not in clinical practice because of his blindness but he still consulted with other doctors and helped patients with the psychological stress and after effects of having heart surgery. He told me he was going back to work after visiting his children - a four day train ride from British Columbia. I said, "Four days?? I hope you had a sleeper car." "No," he said. "Veterans can travel free on coach class." I looked at him, stunned. "You sat for four days on a train?" He shrugged and replied, "Those things don't bother me."
After the life he lived, I guess not.
He was an amazing, positive, awe-inspiring man. He told me that when he got to Toronto (a trip he made weekly) he was going to take the subway to a hotel I knew was at least an hour's subway and bus ride away. But, like the four day cross-country train ride, it was nothing to this fiercely independent man. I will probably never see this gentleman again but I will never forget him. In two hours he taught me so much about following your dreams, staying passionate about life and the power of the human spirit. Sometimes, a brief encounter has as much impact on you as the relationships that have sustained you for a lifetime. I treasure them both.
Mostly those kind of relationships take time to develop. But sometimes you can connect instantaneously with the most unexpected people. I was fortunate to have both experiences happen to me this weekend: a chance to reconnect with a life-long friend and a chance encounter with a stranger on a train.
I usually don't end up talking with the person sitting beside me on my infrequent train rides. I'm too busy writing or reading to really pay much attention or put much effort into the superficial chit-chat that typically occurs during these encounters. But yesterday, for some reason, as I was writing I paused and glanced over at my seat mate. He was an older gentleman (in his late eighties as I was to find out) partially blind, using a cane, well-dressed and quiet. I remember thinking in that first quick glance: "I wonder what he's experienced in his life." I'm always especially interested in talking with senior citizens. Inevitably, there is some really fascinating thing that has occurred in their lives. They did live through the most turbulent of times during the twentieth century after all. This man was no exception.
When he saw that I'd stopped writing he smiled and asked if I was writing my memoir. I laughed and said I hadn't had nearly that interesting a life. I did say I was a writer and that started the conversation rolling since he admitted he'd often thought about writing a memoir. He told me things about his life that were the stuff of movies. How he became a doctor at age 40 and lived in the Arctic for several years with his young family while caring for the indigenous people of the area. He saw the last real evidence of how the Arctic people lived for thousands of years before the modern world began to invade. After the Arctic he lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. Before he became a doctor he spent time in Rhodesia and other parts of Africa that were still under British or Portuguese colonial rule. He told me about his adored older brother who was a bomber pilot in WWII and was shot down and killed. He spoke eloquently of how that devastated his parents - and him - to lose the shining star of the family. He told me he was still practicing cardiology though not in clinical practice because of his blindness but he still consulted with other doctors and helped patients with the psychological stress and after effects of having heart surgery. He told me he was going back to work after visiting his children - a four day train ride from British Columbia. I said, "Four days?? I hope you had a sleeper car." "No," he said. "Veterans can travel free on coach class." I looked at him, stunned. "You sat for four days on a train?" He shrugged and replied, "Those things don't bother me."
After the life he lived, I guess not.
He was an amazing, positive, awe-inspiring man. He told me that when he got to Toronto (a trip he made weekly) he was going to take the subway to a hotel I knew was at least an hour's subway and bus ride away. But, like the four day cross-country train ride, it was nothing to this fiercely independent man. I will probably never see this gentleman again but I will never forget him. In two hours he taught me so much about following your dreams, staying passionate about life and the power of the human spirit. Sometimes, a brief encounter has as much impact on you as the relationships that have sustained you for a lifetime. I treasure them both.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
First Fan Mail
I was going to blog about the fabulous Donald Maass workshop that the Toronto Romance Writers (TRW) held on Saturday. And I will because it was both exhausting and exhilerating -two things a writer's workshop should totally be. If you're not completely wrung out by the time you finish one of these sessions you have not been listening to the speaker. But more about the workshop in future. What has absolutely thrown me for a loop and is pre-empting that blog post is getting my first complimentary fan mail on ILLEGALLY BLONDE today.
A fellow author in the TRW bought Illegally Blonde on the weekend and sent me such a lovely - really, really lovely - email about how much she enjoyed reading it. The best part? She stayed up very, very late to finish it because she couldn't stop reading. I swear, those words are like manna from heaven to a writer. And she's recommending it to others too. More manna. And totally unexpected. For some weird reason I never expected to get comments from readers. And fellow authors? Yikes - that's like scary. Really. Those guys can see so much - good and bad! Besides, people are busy. It takes a lot of effort to go out and find a book and then read it and then to actually sit down and write something to someone expressing your enjoyment of a book? Colour me amazed. I think it might just be my favourite part of this whole journey to publication so far. Feedback from readers is like the gravy on an already fabulous bowl of poutine (I don't like cake and icing that much so my analagy had to go to one of my favourite Canadian dishes, okay?) And if those readers are also writers it gives it a special flavour too. Writers can be some of the most critical readers and the credo usually goes if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. So when a compliment is given it is very special. And very much appreciated.
So, fellow writers and readers, remember if you can take the time and you feel you can honestly say you enjoyed reading something send a note (email, twitter, Facebook comment, whatever) to the author. It totally makes all the hard work worthwhile.
A fellow author in the TRW bought Illegally Blonde on the weekend and sent me such a lovely - really, really lovely - email about how much she enjoyed reading it. The best part? She stayed up very, very late to finish it because she couldn't stop reading. I swear, those words are like manna from heaven to a writer. And she's recommending it to others too. More manna. And totally unexpected. For some weird reason I never expected to get comments from readers. And fellow authors? Yikes - that's like scary. Really. Those guys can see so much - good and bad! Besides, people are busy. It takes a lot of effort to go out and find a book and then read it and then to actually sit down and write something to someone expressing your enjoyment of a book? Colour me amazed. I think it might just be my favourite part of this whole journey to publication so far. Feedback from readers is like the gravy on an already fabulous bowl of poutine (I don't like cake and icing that much so my analagy had to go to one of my favourite Canadian dishes, okay?) And if those readers are also writers it gives it a special flavour too. Writers can be some of the most critical readers and the credo usually goes if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. So when a compliment is given it is very special. And very much appreciated.
So, fellow writers and readers, remember if you can take the time and you feel you can honestly say you enjoyed reading something send a note (email, twitter, Facebook comment, whatever) to the author. It totally makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
When a Character Surprises You. Good thing or Bad?
So, despite my moaning about the dreaded middle of the book slog I've been going through, I have been moving on it. Slowly, painfully, but definitely moving. And while I've been considering the intricacies of plot and pacing (I've been writing notes to myself like Need something to happen here! Or Talking heads! Talking heads! Action required!)I haven't been overly-stressing about my characters. By this point in the story - approximately 35,000 words in more or less (Hey, I write the crappy first draft in long-hand and have only typed in about 15,000 words on the computer so far so cut me some slack on not knowing how many exact words I've got right now) I'm pretty comfortable with who my characters are as personalities, their motivations and their particular strengths and weaknesses so they kind of write themselves. But yesterday, as I finally hit a major plot point that will drive the book into the third Act, one of my characters pulled something so unexpected I had to stop writing and say, "Whoa, really?"
But when I thought about it, when I considered her character, where she came from, what she'd gone through in the years before the reader even sees her on the page it was totally believeable. But I had no idea she was going to do that. When I'd thought about that scene, I had it worked out a certain way in terms of how my hero was going to manipulate her into a particular situation. But my heroine, as I guess I subconsiously knew, would not let herself be manipulated. Turns out she wanted to take matters into her own hands and try and turn the tables on him - with a pretty gutsy move. So when she did that I had to sit back and think, "Does this unexpected action change my plot in any significant way? If it does is it for the better or worse? Or, if it doesn't, is this action there to reveal a side of her character that I kind of knew but the reader - and the hero - had no idea about?" And if it was more of a character reveal than a plot changing moment do I keep it or write it out so that the original plot line moved the way I had originally planned it? So many, many questions. What's a writer to do?
I ended up keeping the unexpected event because not only is it a great character reveal, it is also a dramatic, unexpected plot twist and my hero is going to have to respond - and adapt - his original plans to accommodate that change.
But this whole thing made me think about those unexpected surprises that characters throw at you and whether they are a good thing for a novel or if it just means you just don't know your characters well enough yet to be writing the story. Personally, I like surprises. It keeps a story fresh to me. And if a story is fresh to me, the writer, then surely it will be even more surprising and unexpected to the reader. But it can be dangerous. If I didn't have a handle on my character, if I didn't know her backstory and what she wants to accomplish then all I'd have was a "Weird. Where did that come from?" response from a reader. There's also the tricky balance of hinting at the potential of her doing something like that early on in the story but keeping her true self hidden long enough (in this case not only from the reader but from the hero) to make this a nifty kind of "Wow! I can't believe she did that" followed quickly by a "Yes. That is totally what she would do in this situation."
Some people write with every plot element carefully lined up, characters completely lock in step with the action they planned and what they need to do to get from Plot point A to plot point B. I envy them that kind of control and planning. For me, I need a general direction, I need a goal and I need interesting, charismatic characters. If they want to throw me a curve ball once in a while I'm game. But I always reserve the right to go back and beat those characters actions into shape if they get too crazy on me.
But when I thought about it, when I considered her character, where she came from, what she'd gone through in the years before the reader even sees her on the page it was totally believeable. But I had no idea she was going to do that. When I'd thought about that scene, I had it worked out a certain way in terms of how my hero was going to manipulate her into a particular situation. But my heroine, as I guess I subconsiously knew, would not let herself be manipulated. Turns out she wanted to take matters into her own hands and try and turn the tables on him - with a pretty gutsy move. So when she did that I had to sit back and think, "Does this unexpected action change my plot in any significant way? If it does is it for the better or worse? Or, if it doesn't, is this action there to reveal a side of her character that I kind of knew but the reader - and the hero - had no idea about?" And if it was more of a character reveal than a plot changing moment do I keep it or write it out so that the original plot line moved the way I had originally planned it? So many, many questions. What's a writer to do?
I ended up keeping the unexpected event because not only is it a great character reveal, it is also a dramatic, unexpected plot twist and my hero is going to have to respond - and adapt - his original plans to accommodate that change.
But this whole thing made me think about those unexpected surprises that characters throw at you and whether they are a good thing for a novel or if it just means you just don't know your characters well enough yet to be writing the story. Personally, I like surprises. It keeps a story fresh to me. And if a story is fresh to me, the writer, then surely it will be even more surprising and unexpected to the reader. But it can be dangerous. If I didn't have a handle on my character, if I didn't know her backstory and what she wants to accomplish then all I'd have was a "Weird. Where did that come from?" response from a reader. There's also the tricky balance of hinting at the potential of her doing something like that early on in the story but keeping her true self hidden long enough (in this case not only from the reader but from the hero) to make this a nifty kind of "Wow! I can't believe she did that" followed quickly by a "Yes. That is totally what she would do in this situation."
Some people write with every plot element carefully lined up, characters completely lock in step with the action they planned and what they need to do to get from Plot point A to plot point B. I envy them that kind of control and planning. For me, I need a general direction, I need a goal and I need interesting, charismatic characters. If they want to throw me a curve ball once in a while I'm game. But I always reserve the right to go back and beat those characters actions into shape if they get too crazy on me.
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