Politics and Preachers and Barry Goldwater

Fiction Writing 101: Plot, Part Deux

A gracious reader in Stockholm politely informed me that Kate Braverman's suggestion about plot was interesting but not too helpful to the novice fiction writer. Okay. Let's try some advice about plot from Anne Lamott. She offers lots of wonderful ideas about writing in Bird by Bird. Here's some of what she says in her chapter about plot:

"Plot grows out of character."

"Characters should not... serve as pawns for some plot you've dreamed up... I say don't worry about plot.  Worry about your characters. Let what they say or do reveal who they are and be involved in their lives, and keep asking yourself, Now what happens?"

"Find out what each character cares most about in the world because then you will have discovered what's at stake.  Find a way to express this discovery in action, and then let your people set about finding or holding onto or defending whatever it is."

"But something must be at stake or you will have no tension, and your readers will not turn the pages."

"If someone isn't changed, then what is the point of your story?  For the climax, there must be a killing or a healing or a domination.  It can be a real killing, a murder, or it can be a killing of the spirit, or of something terrible inside one's soul, or it can be a killing of a deadness within, after which the person becomes alive again.  The healing may be about union, reclamation, the rescue of a fragile prize.  But whatever happens, we need to feel that it was inevitable."

It's inevitable that that's enough about plot for now.

Fiction Writing 101: Plot and Structure

What an amazing response to my request yesterday!  People from all over the world urged me to continue posting tidbits about writing fiction. Yes, I heard from folks in Slovakia, Tonga, and Uzbekistan.  Botswana, Cyprus, and Maldives. They all want me to keep posting these ultra important tips about story telling. Of course, they mostly wanted to know how to write romance novels which, sadly, I know nothing about. But today I will impart the few things I know about plot. Actually, there's only one thing I know about plot, and Kate Braverman explains it best when she's talking about her short stories, but I'm sure you can apply this to an 800 page novel as well.

Kate Braverman calls some of her short stories "exploded moments" and goes on to say that "they're just a point in time and space, and that's all they are. They don't necessarily resolve, and they don't necessarily have a structure. Who's to say that plot is necessary for literature? Just men who have been involved in plots and boundary disputes. Does that really have anything to do with me?"

So the question of the day is: Does that have anything to do with you?

Fiction Writing 101: What's Left?

What's left to say about the basics of fiction writing?  Oh, plot and structure.  Perhaps something about dialogue.  Maybe a few sentences about point of view.  That's about it.  But the big question is:  Does anyone really care about those things?  If you would like to hear about any of these topics, please let me know at carelesslyuttered (at) gmail (dot) com.

In the meantime, here's a great list:Janet Fitch's 10 Rules for Writers

Self-Published/Independent Writers of Literary Fiction

Do you write fiction that doesn't fall into a specific category?  Do you write fiction that doesn't fit neatly into a genre such as romance, mystery, thriller, science fiction and so forth?  Do you write fiction that some call literary?  Good!  I would like to review that kind of fiction and post my thoughts about it-- no stars, no points, no letter grades-- on this blog. So here's the deal:

Send me an email telling me about your self-published aka independently published book of non-genre specific fiction aka literary fiction aka general fiction, and I'll respond promptly:

carelesslyuttered (at) gmail (dot) com

I look forward to hearing from you!

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Here's another book I recently finished reading and which was published by William Morrow. If you enjoy fiction about motherhood and identity, you'll enjoy Secret Daughter.  India and California are the settings for this novel that explores the meaning of family.  I highly recommend it!

The Flower Bowl Spell by Olivia Boler

Just read a fun, self-published book!  Yep, called The Flower Bowl Spell-- same as the title of this post.  If you like magic and spunky writing, please give it a try.  It's available as an ebook, and I believe it will be available as a paperback in the near future.  But don't wait for paper-- and save a tree-- read ebooks!  Here's the description from Amazon:


Journalist Memphis Zhang isn’t ashamed of her Wiccan upbringing—in fact, she’s proud to be one of a few Chinese American witches in San Francisco, and maybe the world. Unlike the well-meaning but basically powerless Wiccans in her disbanded coven, Memphis can see fairies, read auras, and cast spells that actually work—even though she concocts them with ingredients like Nutella and antiperspirant. Yet after a friend she tries to protect is brutally killed, Memphis, full of guilt, abandons magick to lead a “normal” life. The appearance, however, of her dead friend’s sexy rock star brother—as well as a fairy in a subway tunnel—suggest that magick is not done with her. Reluctantly, Memphis finds herself dragged back into the world of urban magick, trying to stop a power-hungry witch from using the dangerous Flower Bowl Spell and killing the people Memphis loves—and maybe even Memphis herself.

Fiction Writing 101: Consequences

Dear Gentle Readers,

The lesson for today occurs at the end of this post, so please be patient because I need to say something about the the politics of reproduction in the United States because something needs to be said. Of course, a lot is being said lately because some United Statesians still want to control women's bodies.

Many people, including many women, believe that women in the United States have equality. The sad truth is that women in the United States are second class citizens, and I don't hear that said too often which is why I'm saying it here. Since I have a readership of about a zillion, this message will reach all corners of earth, maybe even deep into our solar system, so I repeat: Women in the United States are second class citizens. The politics of reproduction is a manifestation of that status.

What is the politics of reproduction?  I will let Rickie Solinger explain:

"Reproductive politics is a late twentieth-century term.  Women's rights advocates known as Second Wave feminists devised the term originally to describe late twentieth-century struggles over contraception and abortion, race and sterilization, class and adoption, women and sexuality, and other related topics. The term has been useful because it captures the way that questions about power are at the heart of these debates." (page 2, Pregnancy and Power by Rickie Solinger)

Yep, power is at the heart of these debates, and there are some who just don't like the idea that women are in control of their very own bodies.  Solinger goes on to say, "I understand the term reproductive politics to refer most basically to the question, Who has power over matters of pregnancy and its consequences?"

Ah, consequences.  Maybe we're getting closer to the discomfort. What are the consequences of women having control of their bodies? There are many consequences-- some can be construed as negative and some as positive and many fall somewhere across the continuum-- but that doesn't mean the government should take away choices and options. Everyone must deal with consequences in her or his own way. And this so nicely leads me to tell you about my fiction and the lesson of this post.

Much of my fiction deals with the politics of reproduction and consequences. The consequences aren't always terrific, but we must have choices! Characters make difficult decisions in my stories, and the characters aren't always that content with some of the consequences of their decisions. Remember: If characters make decisions that don't cause conflict there wouldn't be a story. So please take a look at Momentary  Mother, To the Left of the Microwave, and My Valley is Icky Too.

Fiction Writing 101: Thoreau

“How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.”

-- Henry David Thoreau

(Born on July 12, 1817 in Concord, MA and died May 6, 1862 in Concord, MA)

Fiction Writing 101: Characters

You've got to care about your characters.  If you don't, your readers won't.  In fact, you've got to love your characters.  Even the ones who do bad things. And it's the details--significant and particular details-- that make characters feel real.  The details add to the credibility of the character. How characters behave also adds to credibility.  For example, a nun usually acts differently than a stockbroker.  But it's the writer's job to let the reader know what behavior is appropriate for a character.  Maybe there is a nun who behaves like a stockbroker, and maybe there is a stockbroker who behaves like a nun.  I doubt the latter especially, but the writer would have to reveal the appropriateness of the character's behavior through appearance, tone, action, or details in order to convince me that a stockbroker behaves like a nun. Of course, this information isn't imparted like a list to be checked off (this is discussed in my post about telling v. showing).  It's best for this information to be implied through appearance, tone, action, or detail.

Details and the appropriateness of behavior add to a character's credibility.  The character also needs a purpose.  The reader wants to identify with the character, and what the character wants will determine how much the reader identifies and sympathizes with the character.  We can relate to characters who are criminals because we can identify with their desires:  revenge, money, love, hate, greed and so on.  Yes, characters are complex, and that's necessary because characters need to show contradictions.  They must possess a range of possibilities. They can and must conflict with other characters and situations, but convincing characters must also conflict with themselves.  And they need to be capable of change.

When a character is given a chance to do something or is faced with a choice, this moment triggers a movement, and the character acts. This act is revealing a change that's occurring in the character.  Hooray!  Yes, this isn't like real life. In real life when many people are confronted by chances or choices, they are simply paralyzed by fear. But, my dear readers, you aren't writing real life. You're writing fiction.

To end this post, here's something Anne Lamott said about characters: You are probably going to have to let bad things happen to some of the characters you love or you won't have much of a story.  Bad things happen to good characters because our actions have consequences, and we do not all behave perfectly all the time.