WIP

Grim Confession Time:

Last month, I saw a tweet from fabulous agent Colleen Lindsey w/regards to a trend she's seeing with growing frequency in the YA/Fantasy/Urban/Paranormal genres. That would be all of the authors killing the parents of the main character off.

I've noticed the SAME thing as Colleen, and furthermore (and this is the part that disturbs me the most), I keep seeing books which begin with a morose character who is afraid of cars because she survived a car wreck which killed her parents.

Um.

Guess how BS Wesley (one of my current WIPS) started off....

Yes. *sighs grimly*

Mom was crumpled like a piece of paper and Dad was beheaded. Wesley wasn't in the crash, but her youngest sister was, unfortunately. The kiddo is permanently damaged because her dad's head bounced into the backseat and landed at her feet.

I didn't quite figure out how one parent was beheaded and the other merely crumpled while both sat in the front seat of their Chevy Cavalier, but I was going to work out those details later. <- That was before I starting coming across all these books (including Evermore and Oh My Goth) where one or more parents was offed in this fashion.

I went through the five stages of denial at first (including - "I noticed, but it's not like anyone else will!" and "They HAVE to die! Or else the story won't work!" ).

Then I tried to fix the problem... subtly:

I toned down the car accident. I moved it back five years to allow for some healing. I took the kid out of the car. I put the parents in a crashing train instead. I took them out of the car and had them killed in a hit and run accident in a parking lot.

And with each revision attempt, I kept coming back to the same thought, "It's still too similar." The parents died in a traumatic accident and are deeply mourned at the beginning of the novel.

So I brainstormed.

Both parents had to be gone, because it's important for the three girls to fend for themselves at the old family house, etc. And it had to be traumatic for the youngest to be the way she was, and also for the oldest to drastically change mentally and emotionally. And it had to be horrific enough for the entire community to know all about it after following all of the news reports.

It was too similar to other books out there because both parents were killed and there was a vehicle involved. <- I noted this, but initially didn't know how to fix. I had to mentally get to that point where I was OPEN to changing the plot completely, even writing in new plot threads. Prior to that point, I just wanted a quick fix right there at the beginning. I wasn't willing to write in anything that required a full revision of the book.

The answer came to me while watching CNN Headline News. I didn't have to kill both parents and it didn't have to be an accident. No, Dad didn't murder Mom and he isn't in jail, but [spoilers carefully deleted and preserved].

This meant a brand new plot thread to reveal throughout the book, and not surprising, the main plot and characters changed completely with this addition of this new thread. <- And yes, this is a good thing. Both the plot and characters became deeper and feel more solid than before.

Last night, I finished up revisions for Ch1 and Ch2 and could have cried over when I recognized a quality that had not been there before. No, that doesn't mean I'm going to say, "YAH, publish me now. I quality writer!" <- Heh. Edits are neverending.

Back when I was still struggling with keeping my 'car crash' thread, I didn't have a lot of confidence about those two chapters. I knew that anybody reading them would likely lose interest as the 'cliche-device alert' warning lights came on. Maybe CH3 and CH4 were stronger and more unique, but I couldn't assume that a reader would choose to read that far, if they've already been turned off by the 'same old'.

The fact that I did something completely different, that I know for a fact isn't in any of the books I've read lately... that's what I mean by a recognizable quality. Maybe I still need to revise a touch more (and finish the book), but there is a chance that this one will make it.

Final Word and Bossy Advice for the Day:

If you read over your working copy and have this feeling that you read this story before (and not just because you wrote it), you shouldn't cross your fingers and hope your readers are idiots. If you noticed it, you can betcha other people will. <- And you can't always rely on critters, because most people are going to be too nice to point out something that essentially means the entire novel in its current form is trash.

Keep reshaping the plot and characters until you are satisfied. <- And I mean REALLY satisfied, not just you telling yourself you are.

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and suspected that it could help other people in a way. I'm not sure.

Since I first began writing, I initially wrote for myself and my sister (my only reader in the world back then). This meant I had the freedom to write EXACTLY what I wanted, and I knew what to write to bring about a desired reaction from my sister.

That is how I've approached writing for years, and it worked for me.

But when I started writing the newsletter for work, I realized that in order to make the newsletter a success, I had to figure out how to write things for a wider audience.

Basically, I had to figure out how to switch over from writing a 'my-opinion-of-the-world letter to the editor' to writing an interesting news story.

I had to learn how to be impartial and present information the right way. The best story is one that is 90% information, 9% guidance, and only 1% personal opinion.

So, you gather information that you find interesting. Guidance is how you put the information together so that your reader will reach the same opinion that you have. Personal opinion is extremely limited and professional.

Prior to reaching that conclusion, my inclination was to write something that was 10% information and 90% personal opinion. A bit like what I do here on the blog. And while I write this, I recognize that the best bloggers out there are those who do not do this. They are the ones who learned the above technique long before I figured it out.

So how does this work for stories and novels?

I think it translates... roughly. Or at least is related with looser percentages.

You have a full plot in mind and scribble down all your ideas. Then as you write the novel... you have to figure out how to present that story so it appeals to the greater audience of people.

That isn't the whole answer, of course. <- Hence the reason why I've been stalling about this topic for a while. You can't sit down and think about a novel as a VERY LONG impartial news article. The best writers (or the ones I love best) are those whose books 'sound' like them. Their personality and humor are present in every single word. A writer's voice is the result when a writer learns to harness his/her personality and emotions and deftly use them to engage the reader.

A novel can't be just a ham-session by a personable writer. Nor should it be a soap box from which an emotional person preaches and emotes loudly. On the opposite side, a novel shouldn't be all information presented without any emotion or influence by an author.

There has to be a balance.