{"id":1134,"date":"2020-03-11T08:20:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T12:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1134"},"modified":"2020-03-11T08:20:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T12:20:27","slug":"santa-on-the-dark-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/11\/santa-on-the-dark-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa on the Dark Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 4, 2019, Raina wrote her third question in response to my plea for questions (Thank you, Raina!): What do you do when your story turns \u201cdeeper\u201d than you originally intended, and a whole bunch of complicated (not bad or problematic, just\u2026complicated) themes and messages crop up, and the story you find yourself writing is no longer the story you set out to tell? I\u2019m really bad at explaining this one, it\u2019s more like a gut feeling. To use some examples from my work, what was supposed to be a fun, lighthearted adventure romp about Santa turned into a story about revenge, power, grey morality, and social media mob mentality. In other words, thematically it basically went from Percy Jackson to Game of Thrones.<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, it\u2019s not that I don\u2019t like dark, deep, serious, or morally complex books, or that I think that MG readers shouldn\u2019t read these books. I love Game of Thrones and similar works *because* of the complicated characters and grey morality, and I think there should absolutely be books like that for MG readers. It\u2019s not really a matter of a serious tone or \u201cdark\u201d content, either. (I asked a similar question a while back but I don\u2019t think I phrased it well.) It\u2019s more like, as I write, the story is starting to ask difficult questions that I don\u2019t know how to answer and am not sure I want to ask.<\/em><\/p>\n

And, of course, part two of the question is how do you know if this is actually an issue, and not just in your head? I have a tendency to overthink\/over-read into things (like the old joke where the English teacher goes on a long analysis about what blue curtains symbolize, while the writer just liked the color blue) and maybe I\u2019m seeing things between the lines that normal readers would never notice.<\/em><\/p>\n

And as a note, I know that some stories are *meant* to be serious, complicated works that force the reader to think deeply about the world and its issues. I like to read those and I sometimes write those, but my problem is when a book that *isn\u2019t* supposed to be like that starts turning into that and I can\u2019t control it. Sometimes I just want a fun, lighthearted adventure romp to stay a fun, lighthearted adventure romp.<\/em><\/p>\n

Melissa Mead wrote back, I can sympathize. Real-life politics are trying to creep into the WIP, and I don\u2019t want \u2019em there. Themes, sure. Moral issues, sure. But not something I just saw on the news, only with serpent-demons. (Fortunately for the WIP, life\u2019s simpler for serpent-demons. If somebody invades their territory, the demons just eat \u2019em.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Raina responded, Yes! That is my problem exactly. I can deal with morally complex big-picture themes relatively easier than I can with smaller, specific ideas that may or may not be reminiscent of real-world issues (though neither are easy to deal with). Themes like power, morality, corruption, etc., have been around for millennia, both in fiction and in history, because humans are flawed, and I feel like I have comparatively more leeway to explore them from all angles because of that. They\u2019re so common, and occur in so many different forms, that you can\u2019t really pinpoint any specific event or issue that those themes correspond with.<\/em><\/p>\n

But what I\u2019m really afraid of is writing something and have a reader think \u201cthis sounds like an analogy for a specific thing that\u2019s going on in the real world, and this is what I think the author is trying to say about that real-world thing\u201d when I wasn\u2019t trying to say anything at all. I admire authors who use their medium to address real-world problems, and I think it can be done well, but sometimes I just want a story to be a story and I\u2019m afraid people will read between the lines and find messages that I never meant to leave.<\/em><\/p>\n

I feel your pain! Since my Princess Tales book, Sonora and the Long Sleep<\/em>, came out I\u2019ve heard from readers a few times about\u2013breast-feeding! If you\u2019ve read the book and remember, Sonora is ten times smarter than any other human being. She can talk almost instantly (though with a lisp, because she doesn\u2019t have teeth yet), and she refuses to be breast-fed, calling it cannibalism.<\/p>\n

Readers have deduced that I, Sonora\u2019s creator, oppose breast-feeding. Not so! But I imagined Sonora as, intellectually, a twelve-year-old in a baby\u2019s body. At twelve, there is no way I would have breast-fed!<\/p>\n

If I\u2019d anticipated this response, would I have changed what I wrote or cut it entirely? I can\u2019t say. This was many years ago. But I continue to like it, because it\u2019s true to my character, and it\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t anticipate what readers will think when they read our stories. It\u2019s wonderful when they let us know, because they felt strongly enough about our words to reach out to us. (We can answer, or not.)<\/p>\n

Going back to the first part of Raina\u2019s question, about serious and problematic themes cropping up unexpectedly, I have a couple of thoughts.<\/p>\n

This is just a possibility: These grave topics may be pushing you, wanting to be written about. If we tamp them down, our story may punish us in the ways that recalcitrant stories know all too well how to do.<\/p>\n

Raina, I remember that you outline. You might spend a few hours figuring out where the story would go if you let it be serious. If you like what happens, you can go that way.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t, then you can list ways to lighten things up.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a pantser like me, you may have to write a lot of pages to find out.<\/p>\n

Or you can write both stories. A writer I loved (I haven\u2019t read him in years), the late Donald Westlake (high school and up), wrote comic crime novels under his own name and darker crime novels under the name Richard Stark. In the comic ones, the MC is always the bumbling crook, Dortmunder, and in the serious ones, the criminal MC (but not the villain) is Parker. In one of the funny books, Dortmunder and his gang of idiots have a book by Richard Stark (which is an actual Richard Stark book that Westlake wrote). They decide to commit Stark\u2019s crime exactly, because it turns out well for him. What could go wrong? It\u2019s such a funny premise! Westlake got two books out of one. You can, too.<\/p>\n

If we decide we don\u2019t want to be serious, how can we dial it back?<\/p>\n

\u2219 Our characters. This is probably the most important one. Let\u2019s make Santa our MC. We can write two versions of his stream of consciousness:<\/p>\n

The dark one: The letters came from this house. Not addressed to the elves or the old elf, who would be me, but to the King of Cold, the bringer of winter, the troll at the top of the world. Been on my mind all year. Don\u2019t they realize I need to be happy? Don\u2019t they know my happiness affects everyone else\u2019s?<\/p>\n

The light-hearted one: The letters came from this house. Sent me straight to the mirror to see the troll at the top of the world. I didn\u2019t get what she meant until I shone a flashlight under my chin and forced a snarl. Ho, ho, ho! That was funny. I want to thank this girl. She got me through a dull summer.<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re getting too serious, we can examine what our characters are thinking, saying, doing, and make different choices for them. Also, the effects of events on our MC will influence the mood. An MC who keeps trying, who isn\u2019t defeated when events go against her, will keep our story bobbing up no matter what.<\/p>\n

Secondary characters can help, too. If Santa shows the troubling letters to his chief helper, that character will also set the tone. If she\u2019s horrified or outraged, matters may escalate. If she, for instance, says, \u201cYou want to hear from your public, boss. I wish somebody would once, just once, write to me.\u201d she\u2019ll calm the waters.<\/p>\n

\u2219 The stakes. The stakes don\u2019t have to be high for a story to be engrossing. What\u2019s needed most is likable characters who care deeply about an issue, which could be either winning the snowman-making competition or surviving the global snow-pocalypse caused by nuclear winter. If our story is more serious than we want it to be, we can lower the stakes.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Setting. Might be hard to make The Shining<\/em> quite so scary if it took place in a Holiday Inn or a private house, say a raised ranch.<\/p>\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 I\u2019m never sure how to take the nursery rhyme, \u201cJack and Jill,\u201d which seems tragic. Turn the rhyme into two stories, one sad and one happy.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Take \u201cJack and Jill\u201d again. Your MC, Abby, is babysitting for little Bobby, who heard the rhyme at school and was terrified. At home, he brings it up and weeps uncontrollably. Write a very serious story in which Abby, who means well, makes everything worse, with lasting consequences for her, Bobby, his family, and the town of Hillsford.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Santa receives the first name-calling letter in July and begins a correspondence with the writer. Write a few letters back and forth and then have the two meet. Let the story decide for you whether it\u2019s lighthearted or dark.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 4, 2019, Raina wrote her third question in response to my plea for questions (Thank you, Raina!): What do you do when your story turns \u201cdeeper\u201d than you originally intended, and a whole bunch of complicated (not bad or problematic, just\u2026complicated) themes and messages crop up, and the story you find yourself writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[139,326],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1135,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}