What We Can Learn From Orange Is The New Black

I admit it, I've been a fan of 'Orange Is The New Black' since ten minutes into the first episode. So now that we're into season three, I'm consuming new episodes as fast as life (and kids) will allow me. Last night I watched three episodes back-to-back. When I finally went to bed, all the story lines kept playing over and over, and just before 2:30 am, my writers-brain realized that the show had done something every good novelist needs to constantly be aware of.

Conflict.
There's always conflict between prisoners on the show, and sometimes those in charge, but last night's 3 episodes had conflict in spades!

I read a series review yesterday that talked about this season being sadder. Well, I can see that, but the conflict is more developed as well. Inter-personal conflict, a big thing hanging over the prison (no spoilers), woman vs nature (bed bugs!), prisoner vs prisoner, and even prisoner vs their past.

'Orange Is The New Black' is about far more than one woman trying to make her way through her sentence. There's a lot writers can learn from the show. Multi-layered characters, how humans can adapt to our environment, how people relate to one another when they have no choice, how our past can shape who we become, conflict, setting, and the list goes on.

'Survivor' won't teach you anything but 'Orange Is The New Black' will.

What Moves?

Motivation moves the world, don't you think?
If you think about it, motivation is responsible for everything. From the shows we watch, or don't, to the books we read, or don't...right back to the classic myths.
Hercules was motivated to complete his tasks out of desire to prove himself.
Crime fighters want to see justice done, heroes want to protect the innocent.
So it is, or should be, with good fiction.
Readers want to see a character reach their needs, get whatever it is they want. Writers use motivation to help shape characters, to help drive the story forward, to build tension and conflict.
(I think a lot of writers block could be resolved with a look at motivation, but that's just my opinion and doesn't apply if the block is caused by too much 'real-life')

It's interesting that for me, as a writer, character's motivation isn't always clear to me on the first draft. So I slog through the first draft, only having a vague idea where I want my folks to end up, and then sometime during the second draft, I get this A HA! moment where I suddenly see what they want or need. After that comes the fine mince-step of re-writing, editing and making sure it all comes together properly.
This does not all come together in harmony. More often than not, it requires multiple drafts. This is the stage that I either stick with a story or let it drift away in the wind.
Once or twice, I've had a story idea come back to me months after I let it go. Stories like this, it's clear I need to write them for one reason or another. I look at what part(s) of the story are still flapping around, begging for attention. I look at why that needs to be written. Is it a character? A concept? The theme of the piece?
Sometimes I'm motivated to pick it apart and start over, like a piece of my knitting that's been let languish in the basket for weeks on end.
Motivation to work with those characters or concept either moves me to write, or waste time on Goodreads.

See? Motivation makes the world go 'round. 

Setting, As Important As Characters?

Once again, I'm going to draw on one of my favourite blogs for inspiration, but with my own twist.

Writers need to constantly be concerned with characters. How they come across, their quirks, their habits, their history and so on. Sometimes a well-written character  can carry a stumbling plot. We readers can spot a flimsy characters three chapters off, can't we?
But how many of us, readers and writers alike, have considered the setting as a character unto itself?

I hadn't even considered it until I read the latest blog post over at Women and Words, in which R.G Emanuelle discusses The Soul of A Character

It got me thinking about the setting of the pieces I've written, and the settings of my favourite novels and short stories. I love reading about places I know, but it's getting harder to find fiction set in Ontario, let alone set in Canada in general. Before I get too lost in wondering why that is, let me take this one step further.

I think readers enjoy reading about places they know because these places are familiar, they already have a presence and a reality in the reader's mind. I've only stumbled across a few pieces set in Northern Ontario, but the few I have, set the tone perfectly. In particular, Crow Lake

The setting was bleak, sparse, full of memory but promise as well.

The setting worked for this novel because the overall theme of the book was memory, tragedy and struggle. The setting became, really, the only logical backdrop for this story. It just made sense to me, as both a reader and a writer.
As a reader, the book never left me, and I read it back in 2011. As a writer, it never left me because of that setting, because it was set in a familiar part of my home province and because the story was that good that I've been haunted by it ever since.

So as a writer, I am conscious of how to make a setting so vivid that it becomes nearly a character itself. As a reader, I want a backdrop that will be both real and yet not take away from the story.
It's a fine dance, and when done well can leave a lasting impact.

What settings in novels or short fiction has left an impact on you?

Our Make Believe Friends and Enemies

Over at one of my favorite blogs this morning, Women and Words, Jordan Redhawk discussed what inspired some of her characters, and as a reader, I found the whole post to be fascinating. Seriously, what reader hasn't wondered how an author came up with their characters?
It was always easy for me to imagine how Annie in Misery came into being.
Dar Roberts in the Tropical Storm series? Sure, I totally understood the inspiration for her. I'd still like to know how the author, Melissa (Missy) Good came up with Dar's mother, though. Ceci is as cool a character as her daughter.
(It occurs to me that in this day and age, I could just tweet Missy and ask...)

So while I took the dog outside to do his business, I tried to keep my mind off the cold by evaluating what had inspired my own characters.

In my 'Lies We Tell Ourselves' (a novel-in-progress), one of the secondary characters is a-not-quite-elderly-yet Scottish woman who is head housekeeper of a large mansion. She is so much more than just a housekeeper though. Confidant, advisor, employee and friend to Bree Donovan. Originally, I envisioned a Mrs. Doubtfire, but with a bit of Dame Maggie Smith rolled in. As the chapters progressed, Mrs. Beverly Vaughan gained a life of her own.

In my current obsession, (I am a manic writer at the best of times) 'The Amethyst Teardrop', the protagonist is a woman full of layers, strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. She is very much me, and yet, not.
She looks nothing like me at all, or anyone I have known. She is not built upon a character from television, but rather, a woman I dreamed about once. The fact that April has a lot of my habits is purely circumstantial. (Roll eyes here)
But her experiences, her past, her life is entirely her own. Her employment when we meet her is another story. I've done that job. Lived it and breathed it for long enough that I understood it in my pores.
No research necessary there.

A secondary character from the same novel, Marie, the store's ghost, is absolutely 100% from the store I used to work. There was a "story" that someone had died very close to the store, and as a result, her spirit inhabited the store. She was rumored to be helpful at times, restless at others, and if she did not like one of the staff, they knew about it rather quickly. I spent many closing shifts at that store, and I'm not ashamed to say that I believe the story wasn't so much fiction as many claimed.
In fact, it was that ghost that prompted not only Marie's character, but the whole story!
My boss at the time would always tell me I needed to write down some of the things that happened, the place was rife with inspiration for short stories.
When I started The Amethyst Teardrop, I intended it to be a short story with a supernatural twist. When chapter one was finished, there was so much more story to tell...I just went with what Marie and April whispered in my ear. The story grew and became the story of April's and Lani's love affair, and one of my favorite pieces among all my works.

So it goes to show you that inspiration can be found in the most unlikely of places.
Even a little corner store.

Wrinkles, Warts And All

Characters are only make believe people in a book, right?
Wrong.
They can be as real, or as flat, as the author makes them.
Sometimes, they can be mirrors for readers, or the author. If the author has written a compelling character, readers sometimes ask "is that you?"
Not every character is the author on paper. Sometimes the writer will take an aspect of themselves and flesh out their character with that part. Sometimes, the character can be all that we are not. That works for both good and bad.
I have written characters that I wanted to be, and some that were the worst parts of me.
But no matter how that character is written, they can indeed make or break a story.

Nothing turns me off faster than an abusive, whining, needy character; so you'll likely never find one in any of my works.
There's nothing redeeming about them.
I'd much rather write about a flawed character who genuinely wants to be better. Braver, more honorable, kinder....whatever, but they must be striving to be a better person somehow.

I want to read about, and write about characters that are as close to realistic as possible. Bad habits, foibles, wrinkles, warts and all.

What do you want to see in a character?

My Readers Stories

As a writer, I frequently get ideas for stories when I cannot write them down. In the shower, grilling at the barbeque, as I fall asleep. I always tell myself to remember these ideas, and sometimes it works. More often than not, it doesn’t and the gem is forgotten by the time I reach paper or a keyboard.

The one thing that has stayed consistent however is the direction I feel myself being pulled in by the Universe. Increasingly, I find myself drawn toward short fiction, no matter how much I love novels. And I know what I want to write.

I want to write about women coming out. Lesbians and those who swear they aren’t. Woman being independent on their own, women in the wild woods together, depending on each other. I want to write about the secret life that a forest takes on when no one is there to see it. I want to write about the deep, mystical aspects of women’s lives. About the pulses that help shape us.

I want to write about the spirit world. Spirit dogs that refuse to leave their people when they pass on. The spirits of loved family members who watch over us and keep us safe. Guardian angels that are not related at all, but issued people as assignments and responsibilities.

But I also want to write about dragons and Elves and swords that have deep histories. I want to write about gemstones that madmen have killed for, quests that define  characters that are not expected to win the day.

I want to write about women drawn together by forces they don’t understand. Powerful women, damaged, fractured women that need love. women who trek across countries seeking answers and find love along the way.

I want to write all of it.

I want to share it with those who understand these things.

Some of it I have written. Some of these tales are still being written, some are ignored and neglected. Some are still looking for a published home.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about a writing career over the years.

At one time I thought perhaps the freelance route was for me.

But it seemed too dry to hold my passion for long.

Looking back, I have a writing career, albeit a small one. I have a few articles under my belt, a novel, a series of children’s stories and three or four published short stories out there somewhere.

So lately my thoughts have turned to a collection of short fiction.

I, of course, am an impatient writer. I want a drawer full of short stories, much like Ray Bradbury and Stephen King claimed to have had.

But when they were at their prime is not the writer’s world of today.

Today, it’s dog eat dog, and everyone is a writer with the advent of self-publishing. Now that so many are writing, how do we make our individual voice rise above the din of all the other writers doing the same thing?

Persistence, a writer friend told me.

I watched a movie recently that I cannot get out of my mind. Not because the actresses were gorgeous, which they were. Not because one of the characters was straight at the beginning of the film, but because the story was honest, and so common.

A straight woman and lesbian develop an attraction and the straight woman gives up everything for her lover.

Pretty simple story, right? But it was done so well, acted so exquisitely, written so brutally honest … that particular hour and a bit might never leave my writer’s brain.

And that’s how I want my work to be perceived in time.

Only I want that to hurry up and happen now. I don’t want to have to die before anyone realizes I might have been pretty good at this writing thing.

But I suppose the only way for that to happen is for me to keep my butt in this chair and write.

Finish the fantasy story about the lesbian half-elf, and put it out there to see if they love it like I do.

Finish the story about the woman disfigured by hatred, but redeemed by love.

Finish the story about two women such polar opposites who share a ghost between them and eventually fall in love, in spite of the shared ghost.

Then, find my readers, my people who will nod as they read and know I told their stories.

I know they must be out there somewhere...

Lessons From A Writing Life

My local library isn't the world's best, but it feeds my brain. I guess that's all I can ask. At least this last trip in, I actually had to tear myself away from the shelves so that I didn't overload myself. One book among the large pile I brought home was Terry Brooks "Sometimes The Magic Works".
Yes, Terry Brooks of The Sword of Shannara" fame.
This is one of those books that reads like you got to have coffee, or a few beer, with one of the most accomplished, lucky writers still alive.

My poor partner has been subjected to my mumblings at random moments for some time now, so I think she's used to me. But tonight, I just had to read her a little ... well, two passages really. These words express writing for me better than anything I could have stuttered out.
Here, read this, and if you're a writer, published or not, you'll understand and agree. I'll bet you even nod your head.
If you're a reader, you'll see a little of what makes writers tick.
And mumble...

"Writing is habit-forming. It is addictive. You get caught up in the challenge of the storytelling process. You become enchanted with the worlds and characters you create. The worlds are your home and the characters your friends. You come to know both as well as you know yourself. Born of you, they become a part of you...If I don't write, I become restless and ill-tempered. I become dissatisfied. My reaction to not writing is both physical and emotional. I am incomplete without my work. I am so closely bound to it, so much identified by it, that without it I think I would crumble into dust and drift away."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Mr. Brooks.
Thank you.