Right now the boys (one mine, one his friend who stayed over for the night) are fixing the cushions on my sofa. They made a fort to sleep in for the night and my living room was a mess of brown pillows and mismatched blankets that I had to step over to get to my computer. There’s also a plastic Bat-Cave sitting near my fake fireplace with the Millennium Falcon parked right next door.
All the evidence of a night well spent with two 7 year-old’s.
The world we live in is not static. There’s color and shape and the blatant trace of human contact embedded in our environment. And while there is something to be said about a writer allowing room for the reader’s mind to build a particular setting in their own imagination, these details are also integral to telling a story right.
We’ve all heard the “show, don’t tell” mantra told over and over again.
“I want to feel the ocean spray on my face!”
“Let me taste the apple! Don’t just tell me he bit into the apple!”
But I’m going to tell you to stop.
Don’t write hoping to make your reader feel the ocean spray, or taste the apple. These are not helpful in telling your story. It’s actually really distracting and can draw your reader right out of the story. And the last thing you want is for your reader to be jolted out of the story.
Instead, let’s alter that mantra; show what is affecting your character.
Your character walks into a room – what impacts them the most? What jolts them? Based on who they are, what would they notice first?
I’m going to use Megan Shepherd from my current WIP, Persona, as an example.
Early in the book she comes to the home of Victor Von Buren, a very austere Naval Captain. When writing the scene where she first enters his home I have to consider not one but two voices – Megan’s and Victor’s.
Even though Victor isn’t present, he has left his fingerprints on his home. So as Megan is wandering through different rooms (which, I confess, I might have been giving a slight homage to the Von Trapp family in Sound of Music) she is not only reacting to the room itself, she’s reacting to the man who lives there.
A writer’s job isn’t to just paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind, it’s to make that picture important. It doesn’t matter if they feel ocean spray on their face, what matters is the emotion that can be hooked onto it.
The alarm goes off at 6:30 AM every morning and I drag myself from bed just long enough to hit the snooze button. It’s a ritual at this point; no sooner has the Band of Brother’s soundtrack begun than I’ve cut it off, grumbling something incoherent before flopping back onto my pillow.
At this point the Orange Beast crawls onto my chest or back, depending on how I’ve landed, and begins pawing at my face until I pet him.
Ten minutes later the orchestra goes off again and I trudge over to my kitchen to start the coffee because, let’s face it, I just can’t function without at least one cup of coffee in me. Somewhere in the foggy minutes before the coffee is done brewing I manage to fill my kid’s bowl up with cereal and make the first call to get him out of bed.
I’ve learned not to put milk in the bowl until I see him emerge from his room, otherwise the cereal gets soggy.
I’ve also learned to dress myself first before making sure the child gets everything he needs for the day. Shoes, jacket, computer bag, school bag, lunch bags, and we’re off!
Most of the time I “read” books by listening to them via my iPad. I have an active Audible account but I do hunt for podio-books or other forms of audio books to listen to while I’m at my day job. For actual “sit-me-down-to-read” time I have to wait for my break.
Or there’s the bedtime story for the kiddo. We’ve been reading Star Wars novels lately but that’s bound to change.
In any case, my time is severely limited and I tend to focus on the audio books these days because it frees up my break for personal writing. I’ve found that if I use my break to write something then it sticks with me, ruminating in the back of my mind for the rest of the day so that, when the child has been bathed and put to bed, I can sit down and do my “real” writing.
“Real” writing is when I know I’m going to have uninterrupted blocks of time to dive into the work. Though, to be completely honest, these are very rare. I am a single parent and so there is no such thing as “uninterrupted” time anymore.
(AKA – He’s supposed to be in bed at 8:00PM but wanders out every now and then for water, a hug, or to tell me something his seven-year-old brain has determined is of the utmost importance.)
What I’ve discovered I have to do to get any work done is shove my headphones on, listen for 5 minutes to something orchestral like the Captain America Winter Soldier soundtrack or the Last of the Mohicans soundtrack or … you get it … with my fingers poised over the keyboard until I get into the groove again.
This is almost always interrupted by the child, who wants or needs my attention for something, and … frankly, can be quite frustrating sometimes. There are days I have to shut the whole thing down and go play with the kiddo. There are days when I get all of 500 words written.
But there are other days when I get 3,000 words written.
It’s alright, though. Words are written. Plots are discovered. Somehow I manage to meet my deadlines on time and my kiddo knows that there is nothing more important to me than he is.
I’m happy to roll with the punches so long as that fact remains embedded in his mind.
Check out what my fellow authors do to keep reading and writing a priority!
A.J. Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)
Geeta Kakade http://geetakakade.blogspot.com/
Margaret Fieland http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/
Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/
Connie Vines http://connievines.blogspot.com/
Beverley Bateman http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Rita Karnopp http://www.mizging@blogspot.com
Rachael Kosnski http://the-doodling-booktease.tumblr.com/
Helena Fairfax http://helenafairfax.com/
Heidi M. Thomas http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/
Ginger Simpson http://www.cowboykisses.blogspot.com/
Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/
I’m starting off the New Year with a bang!
Or … well … a mistaken “bang” on the 1st because in my NyQuil induced haze I accidentally “leaked” the novel online but we’re moving past that now. This is my first self-published novel and I’m equal parts terrified and pleased by it.
Tapped is a space-traveling adventure that follows the Barlow family as they unwittingly begin an underground railroad for refugees in Consulate space. It’s a story about what makes a family. It’s a story about the consequences of standing up for your convictions and a brothers-in-arms story all wrapped up together.
The original concept for this novel was that I wanted a mother-son story. We have a lot of mother-daughter, father-son novels out there but I haven’t seen as many dealing with the relationship between a mother and her son. And since I happen to be the mother of one incredible little boy it was important to me that the Greeks not get the final word here.
(No, really. The Greeks had the whole Oedipus thing that was really gross and weird. Just … yuck.)
In any case, I’m throwing confetti and will enjoy some wine and a comfortable evening celebrating my first self-published release. It has been an adventure learning how to format and prepare a book for publication and, to be honest, kind of fun.
Jorry thought winning a galactic war would be enough to buy a peaceful life. She was wrong. Running from the government she fought so hard for, she carves a simple life out for herself and her family. When her family is dragged into a black market deal Jorry finds herself directly in the sights of those she’s been hiding from and must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the people she loves.
