{"id":575,"date":"2015-05-27T09:39:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=575"},"modified":"2015-05-27T09:45:22","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:45:22","slug":"rainy-day-misery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/27\/rainy-day-misery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainy Day Misery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks for weighing in on the changed blog! If you have more thoughts, please post them. By the way, what used to be called labels<\/em> are now\u00a0categories.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now a little pre-post before the main event:<\/p>\n

Without being specific, a writer recently asked on my website about advancing controversial opinions in stories that might offend some readers. This has come up before, and I\u2019ve written a couple of posts on the subject. Basically, I\u2019ve said that we shouldn\u2019t stifle ourselves, and we don\u2019t know whom we\u2019re going to offend or not offend, anyway. The most seemingly bland scenario may trouble someone.<\/p>\n

A fresh idea has occurred to me, however. I still don\u2019t think we should worry about our readers. There is literature in the world putting forth every take on every topic in the universe. But we may want to protect ourselves.<\/p>\n

Something like this was addressed not long ago in my poetry school in a master class about writing about actual people in one\u2019s life (which I\u2019ve also written about here). One of the poets teaching the class had published a collection that revealed troubling family history. The response from his relatives was less than positive. I think he had every right to publish, but he also had the right to not publish and shield himself if he felt that he wouldn\u2019t be able to deal with the hurt.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t apply just to life experiences. If we put forward an unpopular position, whether our readership is broad or narrow, we need to be prepared to accept the response. I\u2019m not saying not to do it\u2013maybe we should<\/em> do it\u2013but we should brace ourselves. If we\u2019re not ready for criticism or even anger, we can hold off and wait for a better moment.<\/p>\n

Now for the regular post. On January 15, 2015, KLC wrote, I had been writing short books that had good ideas, but were not suspenseful at all and leaving me with absolutely no reason to turn the page. Then I started planning for other books and as I started to write them, I realized that the only way I knew to make my books suspenseful was to add in lots of drama and people dying. The problem is that that’s not how I want my books to be like, so how do I make a good, suspenseful book without making it a blood-and-gore horror story. (Perhaps I have been taking your advice “make your characters suffer” a bit far…)<\/em><\/p>\n

At the time I wrote, I’m adding your question to my list, but it will be a while before I get to it. In the meanwhile, readers will be in suspense if they care about your main character and if he or she needs something or wants something or is in trouble. No one has to die.<\/em><\/p>\n

And this is what I\u2019m writing now: I love to walk but not in the rain. On most Tuesdays I commute to New York City and while I\u2019m there I like to get in a long walk of about three miles, because I especially enjoy striding through the bustle and along the interesting architecture. The endorphins kick in after a while, and I feel like the healthiest old lady on the planet. Starting on the previous Wednesday, I anxiously watch the weather predictions. It\u2019s silly. My health won\u2019t be damaged if I miss a walk or two, and it\u2019s not my only form of exercise. Usually I\u2019m lucky and get sun, but I worry that I\u2019m wasting my wishes on weather, and when something really important comes along, they\u2019ll all be used up. Still, I care a lot. If I were a character, and the reader sympathized with me, he would want the sun to shine whenever I wanted it to.<\/p>\n

Could this desire for a sunny day be a suspenseful part of an interesting story? I think so. Let\u2019s make me a lot younger than I am and let\u2019s call our MC Abigail, since no modern young person is named Gail, alas. Abigail is an outdoorsy person, and things haven\u2019t been going well for her lately. Let\u2019s say her Geology teacher seems to have it in for her and she\u2019s failing, even though she loves the subject. Her best friend has texted her with accusations that make her feel awful, even make her feel that their friendship since they were toddlers may have been a sham. Oh, and let\u2019s top it off: The friend\u2019s accusations are true, because the most misery comes when we are guilty (and, I think, the most reader sympathy).<\/p>\n

Abigail needs a break, so she plans one for the next day, because today is shot. It\u2019s spring. The dogwoods are in bloom and she hasn\u2019t seen them yet in her city neighborhood. She packs a picnic lunch the night before and decides to leave early for the big park a mile from her house. If the day is clear, she\u2019ll be able to outstrip her unhappiness or walk into it and figure out some strategies. She goes to sleep visualizing sunshine.<\/p>\n

If our story has been very tense up to now we may give her a break and blue skies. If not, we make it pour. She\u2019s cooped up at home because it\u2019s the weekend. What does she do? She obsesses about her friend. She composes an answer, then thinks it won\u2019t do, tries again, gives up. Next, she picks up her geology textbook, reads a paragraph without comprehension, shuts the book with a thud. Desperate to do something positive, she decides to cook dinner for her parents and make her favorite recipe, which they also like, but it turns out that a crucial ingredient is missing, and the deluge is still going on. We\u2019ve set it up that she doesn\u2019t deal well with frustration. So far she\u2019s been cautious and positive, but we know that isn\u2019t going to last. She starts curling her hair around her finger, always a bad sign. The reader wonders in what way she\u2019d going to go off the rails\u2013and keeps reading.<\/p>\n

So what have we done? We\u2019ve taken a trivial wish and surrounded it with unhappiness, because we do need to make our characters suffer, even if the suffering is unlikely to kill or maim them or anyone they love. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve made Abigail sympathetic enough in just this summary, but we need to do that, too, to persuade the reader to turn the page. One possibility for that would be to put her in the presence of her friend, who\u2019s ignoring her. We reveal\u00a0her thoughts, as she wonders about the right approach, as her friend smiles and talks with other people, maybe even glancing in Abigail\u2019s direction and looking away.<\/p>\n

A great example of all of this is Anne of Green Gables<\/em> by L. M. Montgomery. Nothing more violent happens than Anne cracking Gilbert Blythe over the head with her school slate. There\u2019s death, but it\u2019s not the focus of the story, and a baby gets the croup, but Anne saves her. What draws us in is how unloved Anne feels herself to be, with some reason, her ardent desire for whatever she wants at any point in the story, her wry self-awareness, and maybe five other things I can\u2019t think of. Certainly the voice of the narrator is engaging. If you haven\u2019t read it, I hope you will. You don\u2019t have to be eight years old; it\u2019s worth studying.<\/p>\n

Although no lives are at stake, the themes can and should still be big. In my example of Abigail and the sunny day it may be friendship, self-worth, self-understanding, empathy, personal growth, honesty. That we touch these grand motifs will also keep readers reading.<\/p>\n

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

\u2219 Make the reader care about your character\u2019s wish for one of these: a melted cheese sandwich, eyeglasses, quiet, a single good idea, a set of watercolors. Write a scene or the whole story.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Show Abigail at home after receiving the hurtful text. Make her sympathetic through her thoughts and her preparations for the longed-for sunny day.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Write the argument between Abigail and her friend when it finally comes. Make the emotional wounds deep, as if this were a battlefield and the words were swords. If you like, then bring about a reconciliation. If you don\u2019t like, use the argument and the injuries sustained to launch your plot, in which the pain is never physical. You can end finally with renewed friendship or separation and growth, or, tragically, just separation.<\/p>\n

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

Thanks for weighing in on the changed blog! If you have more thoughts, please post them. By the way, what used to be called labels are now\u00a0categories. Now a little pre-post before the main event: Without being specific, a writer recently asked on my website about advancing controversial opinions in stories that might offend some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79,235],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575"}],"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=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}