Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Masterpiece of Nature & Happy Holidays

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

No one who has ever had a close friend, a true friend, needs to be told how wonderful friendship is; one knows that in the way that one knows the sky is above and the sun is warm. It is a basic truth. In writing, having the right friends is especially important. At first glance, you might think by "having the right friends" I mean that you need friends to use them for their connections. That isn't what I mean. The connections a writer needs are earned with hard work and talent. I need writer friends for another more important reason.

Blind spots...
When I'm driving, there's that spot near the passenger rear quarter-panel where I can't see a car with peripheral vision or my rear-view mirror. An entire car can hide in that spot. I presume that is why car manufacturers designed the side mirror, which I can use to eliminate the blind spot. Writer friends are, in effect, the side mirrors of my writing world. As the author, I create a story and I know so much about the characters, the setting, the conflict, the world inside my manuscript that I can not see what I have neglected to tell. Friends who are writers are also very good readers. They will spot what an author can not see. "Hey, Alexa, I thought you said he was a dragon. How come he's barking at the moon?" Pause. "Hmm, used to be a werewolf in another version of the story? Yeah, you forgot to make some changes. No, there's not much to change except chapters 4, 6, 7, 11, and 12." :)

When The Stars Align...
When the author's style aligns with the reader's tastes, magic happens. One of my favorite writing memories is lying on a bed in a hotel room in Pennsylvania staring at the ceiling while Maddy sat at the desk reading a newly written section of my work in progress. When she laughed out loud, an ear-to-ear grin blossomed on my face. I had done it. I had tried to write something funny, and it had worked. Life is wonderful.

What I really think is...
Sometimes, many times, it's hard to hear the bad critique. It's also hard to deliver it to close friends. I'm not sure that it ever gets easier. In fact, when one starts to sell stories, it might get harder as ego starts to rear its ugly head. Then I guess the answer is to take a deep breath and maybe a shot of tequila and just listen. I find that while I don't always agree with everything that's pointed out in a critique, when I take a step back, I know that some of what's said is true even if it was hard to hear.

I've shredded plenty of pages, and whole manuscripts that aren't up to snuff sit idle in my closet. When a scene isn't working, the story arc is flawed, a character is uninteresting, it all has to be fixed. Sometimes I don't feel up to the task. And that's when having friends, especially other writers, is helpful. They can talk me down from the proverbial ledge, and I can talk them down. We offer hugs when things go badly. ("You've got to throw out 10,000 words because the vampire Navy Seal is now a werewolf archeologist? Honey, I'm so sorry, but it's really for the best. Vampires a lot like cats; they don't really like getting wet.") And they celebrate when things go well. ("You've sold another story? That's fabulous. See, I told you you'd figure out how to tone down Ares' psychopathic tendencies and turn him into a dark romantic hero. Well, done!")

Choose wisely...
So, if you're a writer, find others who "get" what you write and have a style and personality that you enjoy. Begin to give and take feedback, gently, firmly, relentlessly. It's hard not to let feelings get in the way, but the work does deserve to be deconstructed, to be improved, to be polished until it shines. Because there is a relationship that is just as important as the friendship with the person who is your critique partner, and that is the unspoken relationship between a writer and her reader.

Promises...
I often think of women rushing to work and home, cooking, perhaps taking care of small children or elderly parents or studying for difficult classes, with barely enough time or money for themselves. To buy a book is an act of trust. Unlike an outfit or a pair of shoes that you can try on first, a reader takes a leap of faith. I take that leap myself all the time, and I love when a writer lives up to the challenge of entertaining me. So I take my job as a writer seriously.

This holiday season I'm grateful to two groups of people...
my friends who are my critique partners and my friends who are my readers.

Have a safe and happy season!

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