Hearing Voices

I've just started reading Anna Quindlen's new book, Every Last One and have Yann Martel's Beatrice and Virgil waiting for me at the library. Each of these books reflects the author's ouevre, that vein in which they mine stories which reflect their perspective of the world. I read reviews of both books around the same time and quickly ordered them from the library because I am a fan of both authors.

These disparate books got me wondering about how an author chooses their slice of the universe, whether in form of genre or theme. Anna Quindlen's literary career has been built on novels that explore the world of home and the dramas of everyday life. She scrutinizes the mundane, often unobserved moments, and describes how sudden events can change the otherwise well-managed course of our lives. Yann Martell creates stories with a fantastic Aesop-like quality where animals step in for humans to present morality tales and explore timeless ethical conundrums.

I understand that an idea for a story may come to an author's mind and they ask themselves, 'what if?' and so begins the story. My question is, when the author then writes several novels within the same theme, are they asking themselves the same question again and again? Is it a conscious decision to stay within the parameters of that idea? Is there ever a temptation to venture out in another direction? Does an author say to themselves, "I want to write chick-lit, or sci-fi fantasy, or literary fiction, because...."?

Going deeper, I want to know if an author chooses their voice? For instance did Gabriel Garcia Marquez consciously determine that he wanted to write in lyrical style of magic realism, or was it as innate and immutable as the color of his eyes? Does an author choose a commercial voice over a literary one? Or is their writing voice not a matter of choice, but one which finds a home in a genre only after the book is done? I would love to write a cozy mystery as much as magic realism, each for different reasons, and each would be equally gratifying. Do other writers feel this way?

Yes, yes, I am grateful for the diversity of our literary world. I simply want to know the how and why of its impetus.

Into the Woods

Thank you all for your wonderful advice on my plotting conundrum. I've decided to take your suggestion to simply write my way through the woods and see where it takes me. This morning I opened my novel's file and began where I left off...and before I knew it, I'd quickly written two pages.

I'm still without clear direction on the plot, but I believe that will work itself out as I go along. It simply feels great to be writing again.

Another discovery. I've found that I write best first thing in the morning before I get to work on anything else. This week I've been working on a small freelance writing project and each day promised myself that I would get to my novel after I'd completed my other writing. Of course, the result was that by the time I'd finished with my work, I was too tired to contemplate facing the blank page. This morning I put my foot down and decided that I'd just write one page in the novel before starting my 'regular' work. One page turned into two and now I get to begin my day with a feeling of satisfaction, having already completed the work that means the most to me.

Thank you all, again, for your encouragement.

I've Lost the Plot

I've been working on my novel. I even like what I've written. In fact there are moments when I am scrolling through the already written pages and I just sigh at how much I LOVE what I've written. I actually think to myself, I'd read this book!

A little background might be in order at this point: I began this book a few years ago. It's segmented into sixty-six chapters, told in alternating voices of the protagonist in Moscow and a year later in a small village near Lake Tahoe. I wrote the first half of the book, then jumped forward and wrote a few bibs and bobs of scenes toward the end of the book. Then I put it away for a year. I am currently at 60,000 words of what will be a 100,000 word novel.

In January, I opened the file again and started writing. Over the past three months, I've made progress and enjoyed the fact that I am writing again. There's just one problem: I've lost the plot. Ostensibly, I'm writing a murder mystery. Unfortunately, I have no idea who did it or why?

My protagonist witnesses a murder in the first chapter. She believes she knows both the murderer and the victim. She wants to bring the murderer to justice. The problem is, did she really see who she believed she saw? The victim is certainly dead, but she's no longer sure of the murderer.

And neither am I!

As much as I love what I've written, it may not be good enough for publication, but I want to finish it and polish it for my own satisfaction. I want to learn about craft, and become a better writer at the same time. I am impatient to continue writing, and would be thrilled if I had an outline of what to write next so that I could simply allow my curious fingers to fly across the keyboard. I'm itching to get the book done. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

I just don't know what to write next because I have no idea of where to take my characters. I need to make them do things, meet new people, make discoveries, create sub-plots, maybe even kill someone else. At moment, she's just wandering around not doing much, having conversations, but not confrontations (or action, for that matter).

This past weekend, as I read An Unfinished Life, I took the time to write a brief sentence or two about each chapter so that I could see how Mark Spragg created his plot. I also started reading Donald Maas' Writing the Breakout Novel, focusing on the chapters on plot. Still, I feel stuck....I am anxious to get back to writing, but wary of just writing garbage. In fact, the last scene I wrote was so boring I will need to completely re-write it once I've figured where I'm going. The question is how to figure it out.

Has anyone else out there had a similar problem? If so, how did you solve it? Do you outline, do you just keep writing until you have a breakthrough? What do you do when you've lost the plot?

The Unexpected Book

Yesterday I stopped by the library to pick up the books I'd ordered online and which sat waiting for me on the reserve shelf. One of the things that I love about the Evergreen library is that they actually trust you to walk up to the shelf and take your own books. At my former library in Fort Lauderdale, you had to go to the check-out desk, present your library card, recite the last four digits of your phone number, and only then would the librarian turn around and pull the books you'd ordered from the shelf behind the counter.

There are a few other things I love about my 'new' library: they have a coffee machine that provides your choice of a variety of free (!) caffeinated beverages. In my old library you weren't allowed to bring liquids of any kind into the library, as if they expected patrons to spill said liquids onto the books as they were suddenly and inexplicably caught up in wild spastic fits as they careened among the aisles.

The third thing that I love about my new library is that they have a wall of books near the check out desk where they display 'staff picks'.  From what I've learned, patrons actually check out the recommendations with such frequency that the staff have to come up with new recommendations every day. It was here that I found an unexpected treasure: An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg. (This book was recently made into a film starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez).

I was first drawn to the book because of its cover art, a photo of a pair of antlers intertwined against a dusty blue background. Then I opened the book and read the jacket flap and was piqued by the mention of Wyoming (since I am in a moving frame of mind). I took the book to the 'Quiet Room,' a beautiful circular reading room at the back of the library with comfy chairs, a gas fireplace, and a wall of windows that look out at the side of hill filled with blue spruce and rock formations. The sort of room where time stands still. A place you could stay for hours with a good book and not have noticed the passage of time until you looked out the window and noticed the changing light.

I took one of the wing back chairs near the fireplace and opened Mark Spragg's book and decided to read the first few pages, to give it an audition before I decided whether to add it to the pile of books I was checking out. I knew that I already had two new books to read for next month's book club meeting and a couple others sitting on my nightstand. In fact, I'd just returned four books that day un-read because I'd simply had to prioritize my time. I wasn't looking for yet another book to begin and discard.

And then that magical thing happened that only occurs once in a great while, but makes you happy to be a reader. I got drawn in. Like slipping into a warm bath, reading the first few pages of a book that has that something special is one of the great pleasures of life. It is the flow of words that are beautifully crafted and yet seem effortless, without pretension or artifice. It is the start of a story that you feel you already know, characters that are somehow familiar, and yet because you don't know you can't wait to read on and watch their world unfold.

This joyful suspension was a feeling I experienced first as a child when I read Beverly Cleary's delightful Henry Huggins or Ramona books, or Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz series, and of course Madeline L'Engle's classic, A Wrinkle in Time, and compelled me to read with unabated appetite. As an adult, finding books that so completely capture my imagination are less frequent, even among some books that I enjoyed for their story. So when I have the pleasure of opening the pages of a book, especially one that I found unexpectedly, and re-discovering the joy of reading, well there's not much better than that.

Needless to say, I took the book home with me and have continued reading, savoring a chapter at a time. It sits on top of a pile of books in my office and when I need a break from my computer, I go to the reclining chair pick up the book and read some more.

Now it's your turn: What unexpected book(s) have you become lost in?

WWHSD?

"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it is a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, Pooh Bear, nothing. We can't all, and some of us don't. That's all there is to it."

"Can't all what?" said Pooh, rubbing his nose.

"Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush."

- Image and quote thanks to Winnie-Pooh.org

Remember when WWJD was all the rage? Every kid on the block had a colorful rubber bracelet with those initials, which stood for: What Would Jesus Do?, a potent reminder to consider what the Savior would do if He were in a similar situation. I like to imagine that this slogan was meant to inspire us to act in a manner that would be pleasing to God, but it might also be a reminder for us to act in a way that was consistent with our best selves, if we are indeed children of God.

A few weeks ago, when I was feeling rather Eeyeore-ish and discouraged by the glacial progress of the job hunt (why does no one want to hire me?), novel writing (does this story even have a plot?), home search (is it Evergreen or somewhere else?) I had an epiphany.

For a brief moment I imagined an idealized version of myself living the life I wanted, where everything had fallen perfectly into place, where instead of feeling discouraged I felt confident, where instead of being turned down for a job I was doing my perfect career, where instead of wondering where to live I knew exactly where to go. I savored that happy image and then I thought: what if every morning I got up and asked, "What Would Happy Suzanne Do?" Then I thought of specific tasks for each day that I would accomplish with a positive attitude, not worrying about the outcome, simply getting the work done with the best intent. Instead of perceiving a rejection as another indication that I (Eeyore) am a loser, I would ask 'what can I learn from this, how can I improve my performance next time?' For example, when a proposal I'd made on elance.com was rejected, instead of telling myself that this was a sure indication that I would never get hired, what if I said to myself, well there were other people who were also rejected, and the person who was hired bid less than I did, or maybe they wrote a better proposal. So, next time I will improve my proposal and bid lower if I want.

I know, I know, this sounds like some feel good, 'I'm okay, you're okay' blather. But it turns out that there is scientific evidence for the benefits of using learned optimism to improve our outlook and therefore our performance and enjoyment of life. Last week while perusing the shelves at the thrift store, I picked up a copy of Dr. Susan Vaughan's book Half Empty, Half Full: Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism. In it she describes how our internal predisposition to pessimism or optimism colors our perception of external events, like success or failure. Based on studies with laboratory rats and examples from human case studies, she demonstrates that people who have a pessimistic outlook believe that failures are their fault and are destined to be perpetuated and success is discounted as a fluke. Whereas optimists see failure as external to themselves (and their positive self image) as temporary, something to be overcome the next time, when success is ultimately expected. Dr. Vaughan believes that negative outlooks become hardwired in the limbic areas of our brains, but through sustained positive thinking practice can be changed. While this book was originally published in 2000, since then several other books in the theme of 'positive psychology' or the 'science of happiness' have been published, each substantiating and offering hope that as we change the way we perceive the world, our actions, and therefore our outcomes will have more positive results.

From a practical standpoint this makes sense: if you are pessimistic, you're more likely to give up sooner, believing you are destined to fail. On the other hand, if you are an optimist, you see yourself as a winner and therefore are more likely to stay with a task and modify your approach until you find a way to succeed because you believe that that outcome is as inevitable as the pessimist believes his failure. In other words, "As you think, shall you become" a quote attributed to Bruce Lee (though I think there's a similar quote in the Bible book of Proverbs).

I have made WWHSD my mantra. Although I've always considered myself an optimist, I also realized that my core sense of self carried negative expectations to every endeavor. And quite frankly I am  tired of that burden. While I will always adore Eeyore, I've decided that I want to change my outlook on life. It hasn't been easy, just this morning in bed I started to cry as I wallowed in some negative thought. Rather than stay there and sink deeper into brooding, I got out of bed and got to work. And I immediately felt better. That's what Happy Suzanne would do.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter, remembering the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, and His resurrection that speaks to the new life that we can all embrace.