Mary O'Gara

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My friend and colleague, Diana Rowe, is a travel writer and also a published fiction writer.  She’s a member of the prestigious Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and sizing up a setting a a few words is a fundamental part of her craft.

Diana’s teaching a two-week workshop about creating settings for fiction for the rest of us., beginning September 12th.  And here’s Diana with a few quick thoughts on one of her favorite subjects:

Setting Using Travel-Writing Techniques
I confess – I’m a travel writer, but first and foremost, I’m a writer. I’ve always written, as many of you might also say. From the first moment I picked up a crayon, I created stories, either using made up childish squiggles representing stories and then, once I learned the magic of the alphabet, real words. I’ve written (and illustrated <g>) children’s books, short stories, completed five romance/chicklit manuscripts, and hundreds of articles. Many of these have been published, and some have even won awards.

Describing the setting of a particular destination is not as simple as describing, for example, one of Aruba’s industries like this:

“Row after neat row of mint-green aloe vera plants lined up like eager children searching for the sun.”

I can’t describe a setting without putting on a wider lens and describing what’s going on AROUND the setting.

“Almost sterile, crisp and clean in their presentation, the fields were barren but for the preferred plant.  No undergrowth, no wayward  vegetation. In Iowa where I grew up, unwanted, errant, often colorful weeds sprung up at will between the rows of corn and soybeans and intertwined with the plants like misbehaving children, but here, it was as if the weeds were sent to detention.”

As with fiction writing, travel writing is as varied as the genres. Some are filled with prose and others are more straightforward. During my upcoming two week intensive session, we’ll examine the possibilities of setting in travel writing, and then bring those conclusions back to your own book. We’ll do this by examining some of my favorite travel writers and bringing their techniques into your books.

Come join me!

Please follow my travel journeys at www.TravelingInHeels.com

My guest today is Sally J. Walker, who is Editorial “Director of The Fiction Works and Script Supervisor of Misty Mountain Productions.  Sally’s own writing include two novels,  a Western, DESERT TIME and a mainstream literary, LETTING GO OF SACRED THINGS.  She is also president of the Nebraska Writers Guild.

Like many other people I treasure, Sally came into my life by serendipity.  A friend said, “There’s this writing workshop…” and I said, “Writing?  Why not?”  There were two workshops, both taught by Sally in a single week end.   I still have the notes twenty years later (and still use them) and now Sally is teaching a for Writers Online .Classes in August.  Her workshop will be on Cross-Genre writing, and here’s a little of what Sally has to say about the power of Cross-Genre work.

“Cross-Genre Knowledge is Empowering”

By Sally J. Walker

Most writers create stories similar to their reading tastes or live up to that adage “Write what you like to read!”  Some writers consciously write to a specific market, as in “Write to your reader expectations.”  But what happens when your style of storytelling COULD pull in more readers from other genres with their own set of expectations?

Well, that requires an understanding of the expectations of the scope of and details of those other genres.  Incorporating those expectation elements can result in “Cross-Genre Appeal” and that is precisely what my up-coming course at Writers Online Classes will be all about.

I have found a particular appeal, even a challenge to deliberately weaving in types of characters and plot structures from various OTHER genres than the main genre I am writing in.  The practice stimulates my creative process, my growth as a writer.  The possibilities are endless.

At this very moment I am writing a Christian western romance.  Each of those three genres dictate conventions, limits and specific elements I must work at everyday so that a reader favoring any one of the three genres will be satisfied.  I don’t want to be predictable nor boring.  I want my characters to be unique and my plot events to be convoluted yet logical to the sequences I create.  It is hard work to maintain a well-crafted literary flow as I do all that . . . but, WOW, is it gratifying when I am “in the zone” and story flows out of my mind and into my fingertips.

My awareness made me think of other stories I have created:  an action-adventure romantic mystery (When Eagles Scream, a screenplay), a contemporary western horror (Eyes of the Cat, another screenplay), a children’s Scottish fantasy (The Legend of the Golden Rose, a read-aloud picture book), an historical romantic suspense (Please Believe in Passion, a novel) then on and on through my portfolio.  As I objectively assessed each of the projects I have completed, I discovered  a subconscious effort to write cross-genre stories all along.

This AWARENESS empowered me as I revised each of my works readying them for marketing.  I identified where I could trim blatant elements to artistic subtlety and where I could enhance thin elements to meet the expectations of readers (and editors) in OTHER genres I could market to.

Subsequently, I encountered writers who did not understand other genre expectations but likewise wanted to write for a broader appeal that would increase their own chances of selling a project.  So, I took my notes of the various genres, studied them in depth to verify my own observations AND researched the dictates of genre experts to create a succinct series of lessons in “how to” do that very thing, deliberately write for cross-genre appeal.  for me, the study and practice has proven that adage “Knowledge is power.”

What a hoot to share with others in a succinct, time-saving manner and empower them!

Would you change jobs if you had a boss like you?

Are you a slave driver to your creative muse?

Yes, writing’s a business.  If you want to write full-time and haven’t won a lottery recently, you probably do need to spend some time every day on marketing and being business-like.   But there are laws against slave labor, and your must shouldn’t be abused just because she can’t sue you.

Workers deserve to be paid.  It’s in the Bible:  ”The worker is worthy of his hire.”   Muses get paid by having fun.   A gold star means more to the muse than the dollars that go into your pocket as “business owner”.  Muses like to read or play with fingerpaints or go to museums.   And they like to go alone with you; like any child, they want attention, praise and a little comfort at the end of the day.

Good managers assign tasks on the basis of skill, talent and interest for the most mercenary of all possible reasons:   It’s the beset way to get top performance year after year.   Some businesses do run from crisis to crisis–but the good ones ask workers for favors during a crisis and then manage well enough to avoid that particular crisis in the future.  Should you do less for your muse?

One bad contract shouldn’t become a career.  Don’t say “no” to your muse, but do say “no” on behalf of your muse.

Reassess your talents, abilities, and emotional needs on a regular basis.   I take the week between Christmas and New Years and the week before my birthday for major assessments and take a day in between for minor revisions as needed.  Once a week, I do planning to be sure i’m working on my own and my muse’s top priorities; if I don’t take the planning time, it’s too easy to live by someone else’s priorities.

Entry level jobs in the fast food industry aren’t the standard for creative workers.   Check out the film industry in your area.   Richard Gere’s contracts give him holiday time with his family.  Nicolas Cage assures himself a congenial living space wherever he works.   Give your muse the attention actors’ managers give their talent and begin making the changes that will make your muse adore you again.

And, finally, your muse is going to hate it when you do all or nothing things like deciding to quit writing forever because you’ve got a bad gig.   Just finish the gig and do better by the muse next time.  And while your’e doing the gig, give the muse some great music and a cup of hot chocolate at the end of the writing day.

Perfectionism rears its ugly–and I do mean ugly–head in as many ways as we allow it.

Sure, it would be lovely to have your own office or even a room and a private computer tucked up under the eaves in an old house.   And a maid, a cook and a nanny to make it easy to stay in that perfect world.   Would you like a personal maid to iron your lingerie for erotic evenings after a day of perfect writing?

That’s part of the pleasure of a writer’s conference, isn’t it?  Elegant mornings in a plush hotel room with no distractions? Other than old friends, exciting meetings and workshops, parties, the food, the bar, the new city to explore.  And even there the leaders in any writing field manage to disappear into their hotel rooms for part of the day and <gasp> write.

I used to write in a city newsroom with clanging typewriters.   Since my whole family knows about the newsroom, I can’t get by with complaining about a little television noise.   “Please, you’re breathing in my space and I can’t write” doesn’t work at my house.   I’ve been looking for that ivory tower, but I think we forgot to build it.

And you don’t need one either.   What you need are good habits.

If you don’t have a computer that’s dedicated to your writing in a space that’s all yours, find a small habit that tells your body it’s writing time.  Rituals are an important way to tell your body something is going on that’s more important than the usual daydream.   So create some habits for yourself.   Make them simple so you can do them day after day.   Make them inexpensive.  Create no new excuses for yourself.

The best habits are portable and rely only on tools you can replace easily.   You might,for example, get up in the morning and grab a bottle of water.  Take time for brushing your teeth, drinking coffee, giving yourself time for meditation or whatever makes the morning pleasant.   Then take that bottle of water to the computer and take one sip.  Now it’s writing time.

Make the habit strong.   “Any time I drink water while I’m sitting at my computer, it’s writing time.”

Or maybe you put on a baseball cap and it’s writing time.   Just be sure it’s a cap you can replace if the dog eats it or the cat hides it.

Small triggers lead to solid habits.  Habits lead to production.   And if you produce the writing inventory, you can revise and whip it into shape.  Voila!  One sip of water leads to a career.   Just think what you could do if you ate an apple a day and kept the critic away.

How about taking a tumble with the whole world watching your Olympic ski run?

Or tipping your own team mate and costing your country two medals in front of the world?

I’ve been glued to the Olympics, awed by the courage of the contenders.  And learning even more about the amazing combination of talent and habit I admire in writers like Nora Roberts and artists like Twyla Tharp.

In one of the interviews, a skater talked about performing on off-days.   The skater says it’s in the muscle memory; you just do the moves day after day and the muscles remember.

In The Creative Habit, Tharp talks about the car that waits for her every morning, the habit of going to the studio.   Nora Roberts interviews talk about her commitment to writing day after day.   You hear the same thing from writers like Suz Brockmann and Anne Stuart and Rebecca York.  Whether they’re talking at RWA conferences or sharing their insights online, all four writers emphasize the importance of getting words on paper, day after day, week after week, year after year.

Watching the Olympics made me so grateful I’m a writer.  I don’t have to wait four years for another chance after a rejction, and I don’t have to run zamboni’s all night to afford a ticket to the next competition city.   I can send a story out again the next day.  The cost of postage and paper and ink is insignificant compared to the cost of flying around the world and paying for hotels on practice days.  Some editors even take email submissions.

And if everything I write tomorrow is garbage, no one will know until it’s been fixed.   Those of us who do our work alone and revise before the public sees it incredibly lucky.

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I just threw an excellent time management book in the waste basket.   And good riddance!  What writer has time to turn life upside down and adopt a whole new way of working?   What the organized time management author wants me to throw out might be what delights my muse or gives me the flexibility to follow a story when it’s flowing.

So instead I’m doing the hard work.  I’m giving up computer solitaire.  (Oh, no!  I can’t believe I told all of you I’m giving it up.  Now I have to do it.  For one month).  One habit.  One month.   By the end of the month, I’ll have broken the spell of the game and found out whether it really does feed my muse or just wastes time.

Maybe I won’t write with all that time.  Tonight I worked on my taxes when I was feeling fidgety.  Yesterday, while I was thinking about this step, I tried writing American sentences and short poems for focus.  Tomorrow I might do poets’ word exercises like 12 words that sound like rain on a window or finding 10 words that sound like a peach tastes.

I might clean closets or get on the treadmill.

What I won’t do is solitaire.  One month.  One habit change.   Find out where it takes me.

And I’m inviting you to join me.  Pick a habit, any habit, that wastes your time.  Give it up for a month.  Keep notes.  Try another habit the next month.

Did you see the Kennedy Center Awards last night?  Awesome.

And Mel Brooks had a flop that kept him off Broadway for six years.   What a loss–for all of us!

But he didn’t let it stop them   Robert de Niro’s movies weren’t all stellar.   But he and Martin Scorcese teamed up early and kept going until they’d mastered their media.

Besides talent, what stood out last night was the heart and courage of the national treasures honored at the Kennedy Center.  Racism didn’t stop them.  Flops and bad press didn’t stop them.  Heartbreak became part of the art.

President Obama and the First Lady were actively engrossed, entranced, enjoying the arts, obviously appreciating the artists.   And that’s a huge change from President Bush’s bored expression during earlier award nights–or Laura Bush’s cancelling the state poet laureate’s dinner at the White House so she wouldn’t have to listen to poets who disagreed with her husband about the war.   Finally, a little support for President Kennedy’s dream of art at the heart of our culture.

T.S. Eliot asked a poet’s question I’d like to share with every writer I know:   “What do I have to say that can be said in this form?”

It’s an innocuous question, quieter than Joseph Campbell’s famous recommendation to “Follow your bliss”.”  But Eliot’s question opens doors that Campbell only tells us to expect.

Multi-published writers, blessed by contracts spiraling off into the future, can get tired of writing about cowboys and babies or serial killers.   And along comes Eliot with a question that breathes new life into old forms and brings back the bliss.

Unpublished writers, hanging onto market lists as if they were promises, need Eliot, too.   When editors say they want the same thing, but different, Eliot’s question is as valuable as a great chef’s talent for making the same old dish new and enticing and memorable.

What each person has to say is the creative spark that lifts a story out of the ordinary.

What you have to say comes out of your own life, and it can be a hard-won lesson for your main character or a hobby you share.  It may be your yearning to shop on Rodeo Drive that makes a heroine lust for shoes–or it may be your memory, like mine, of happy winter days in a kitchen where hot chocolate and clothes warmed around a fireplace made winter mornings a treat.

Eliot, of course, was talking about poetic forms.  You could ask the same question about short stories or novellas or novels of any length.   What do you have to say that needs the intricate repetition of subplots and belongs in a longer novel?   What story is so clear that it belongs in a very short novel or even a novella?   What is a snapshot idea that belongs in a short story?

Best sellers like Bridges of Madison County and Love Story were in shorter forms of the novel, in the form that was right for the story.  But who could compress Rebecca into a short story?  Or expand some of Hemingway’s stories into novels?  Not even the masters.

Dianna:
Mary: What do you know how about collaborating that you wish you’d known before you started your first book with Sherrilyn?

Dianna:  In all honesty, not a thing.  I might have over-thought it on my end and worried too much about “how to collaborate.” As it was, we had about eight weeks to turn in the manuscript and I won’t turn in anything that hasn’t been through outside cold reads so we needed time for that, too.  Our editor loved the first book, sent back a few edits then we polished the last time and sent it through two more reads before handing the book in.  After the first one, we just continued as we’d started.  I think I’m very fortunate in how both collaborations have turned out, but part of that comes from the company you keep.  I like to think I choose intelligent, pleasant and creatively-generous people to spend my time around,  then try to return the same courtesy and genuine consideration to them.

Mary: I’m asking such serious questions–but all three of you are women with great senses of humor.  Is there anything you’d like to say about the importance of laughter in a writing partnership?

Dianna:  LOL – there is NO way to collaborate UNLESS you have a sense of humor.  Mary and I work by phone (she lives in the Pacific Northwest and I live in the Southeast) sometimes for hours.  She is an amazing author just based on her writing, but finding out she types everything with two fingers totally blew me away (I want all of you who take her online classes to think about those detailed responses she gives hundreds of writers at a time).  Once when we were working via phone with our files open on each computer.  I was telling her something we needed to change then said, “Wait, I’ll make the changes here because you’re only using two fingers.”  She replied, “I’m using the third one now.”  I told her I couldn’t see it with the curve of the earth and all. <g>  Sherri and I write snarky comments to each other in brackets all the time and have to remember to take them out before sending in the pages.  During the final polish on the first book, we were in her cabin working in two different rooms and emailing each other finished chapters.  I got up at one point and walked in to where she was sitting and pointed to a line on a hard copy.  I asked what that meant.  She thought “I” had written it and I thought she’d written it.  We decided to delete it and act like it never happened. <g>

Mary:  And finally, although I know you’re all good friends as well as writing partners, do you also have written agreements specifying your responsibilities for the work and your profit shares?

Dianna:  I suggest to all writers who plan to collaborate that they be very clear about the terms of their agreement and work out the details in a way that is acceptable for everyone – in advance of starting.  I follow that advice myself.  Having things in writing shows that you are approaching your partnership as a business person and simplifies things down the road if either of you change your mind.

Mary:  Is there anything else you’d like to share about collaborating?

Dianna:  The only other thing I will add is that collaborating isn’t easier than writing solo.  I know you may think sometimes it is when you’re beating your head against the wall trying to finish a book, but collaborating is something you do only because the two of you on that particular project are going to create something greater than each of you on your own.  You will write other things by yourself that are outstanding, but a collaboration is the blending of two talents to come up with something unexpected and fresh.  Go into a collaboration only to create a powerful story and be willing to hear the other person’s ideas.  If you have any other reason for co-writing a story and have your mind set on exactly how that book has to be written – then do it yourself and save a friendship

Mary:  Dianna, you’re amazing.  Thank you for sharing your insights and wisdom with all of us.