Beginning / Middle / End / Beginning

Most coherent stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. As with a speech, you don't want to start communicating without having some idea where you are going. Good fiction will tend to have a beginning, a middle, an end, and then it will double back to the beginning to be sure that the opening questions have been answered by the end of the book. It isn't always necessary to tie down every loose end, especially if you want to leave the reader with open-ended questions rather than answers, but wrapping things up neatly yields reader satisfaction and is a sign of good writing craftsmanship. However, if you are writing a series of novels, you may want to use the technique of ending each volume with a dilemma or stimulus that will entice the reader to crave the next volume.

Obituary vs. Celebration of Life

I was looking at web sites that had templates for writing obituaries, just because I will be including a few obituaries in my latest novel. It struck me that obituaries really don't tell you that much about the nature of the person who died. I learn much more when I go to a memorial service where they are having a Celebration of Life for the individual. Not only do they have panels full of photographs from different points in the life of the deceased, but they invite family members, friends and acquaintances to talk about him or her and to remember important and anecdotal events and encounters. These are extremely valuable to you if you only knew the deceased in a single context or situation. The problem is that I typically learn that my friend or acquaintance had so much more depth and substance in his or her life that I never comprehended or appreciated. Why can't we come up with a new kind of written profile for those with whom we interact that allows us to share our common interests and better appreciate each other while we are still alive and vibrant? We would need something beyond a resume that does not invade privacy, but opens the door a crack toward offering the opportunity to explore each other's qualities during one-on-one interactions. Can you write such a personal profile about yourself?

Into the Ebook World #1

I've finally started my journey into the ebook world with the publication of Lead Us Not into Temptation, Volume I of the Lord's Prayer Mystery Series as a paperless book. All formats of ebook are available at the links shown below:

Richard Davidson's Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mysteryimp
Book page to sample or purchase Lead Us Not into Temptation: http://smashwords.com/b/59509

I've also just skimmed this book in both the widely distributed epub and mobi (Kindle) versions, and I found the ebook reading experience reasonably satisfying (although I still feel nothing can match the printed book experience). I will soon have my other books available as ebooks also.

Dick Davidson Interviews Sharon Fiffer

www.SharonFiffer.com

1. Q. Whether you are writing memoir or a Jane Wheel mystery, you draw stories out of physical objects and memories of real objects. Do you find this easier and more satisfying than conjuring up an object from your imagination to fit your story?

I simply find that using objects works for me—and I usually like to find something real.  The hunt for the object helps me think out the story. That’s not to say I don’t make objects up.  When I am writing about a “mystery” suitcase that Jane Wheel picks up at a sale, I might have her open it to find a Bakelite pin that I will describe in great detail.  It isn’t necessarily a piece of jewelry I’ve seen—it might just be something I think should exist.  As far as memoir, I think real objects can lead you into memory in a concrete way.  They just help anchor your thoughts, help you focus.  That’s been my experience.

2. Q. When you use fiction for creativity and filling in the blanks in memoir, how do you keep from slanting the story so that it is more entertaining or self-serving than is true to the actual events?

I do not use fiction to fill in the blanks—and I hope I don’t ever give that impression.  Compressing time or using composite characters isn’t really fiction.  Writing actual dialogue for someone that’s true to the person or event or true to your memory isn’t  what I would call using fiction –although it might be using the tools of fiction writing.  Also—if your memoir isn’t entertaining, why are you writing it?  I think all writing should teach and please (badly paraphrasing Aristotle there) to a certain degree—and if your story doesn’t have a point of view or doesn’t increase someone’s understanding of the human condition, doesn’t expand the world in some way, it might be a very interesting personal diary, but it isn’t necessarily memoir to be shared.  And as far as writing being self-serving?  That’s what journals are for!  To work out all those revenge fantasies!  That is not what I think of as memoir.

       3. Q. How does a memoir that uses fiction compare to a personal historical novel?

I think I have to repeat myself here—using the tools of fiction writing to craft your memoir is not using fiction.  I’m not sure what a personal historical novel would be, but unless I had changed history in some way, I’m not sure I’d attempt it

 

       4. Q. You take the unusual approach of using real family members and    locations identified by their real names in your novels. Does this technique make you tend to put yourself as a character or raise questions from family and friends?

I use characters who were part of my life—like my mother and father—and their place of business, The EZ Way Inn.  Because I have great affection for the people and the place I feel I can base characters on them without raising any negative questions from anyone who knew them.  But make no mistake, even though my Don and Nellie are based on the real Don and Nellie, Jane Wheel’s parents are my fictional creations.  I never feel bound by the real people—my wonderful characters are all troopers in that they live to tell the story.  By the way, the only characters whose real names I use are my parents who have now passed away.  Although I use some real place names and street names, I would never have something terrible happen in a real ongoing Kankakee business.  

5.  Q. Have you received encouragement or recognition from the city of Kankakee, Illinois for setting your stories there? Would your stories have more flexibility in a fictional town?

I think the people in Kankakee who read my books love them.  That’s what they tell me when I go there to read and sign.  And someone from Kankakee is presenting the key to the farmer’s market to me in June and naming a carrot after Jane Wheel—I’ll be there signing and they’ve asked me to hand out recipes for Nellie’s vegetable soup.  And as far as flexibility?  I can tell whatever story I want—just as Sara Paretsky can make Chicago home for V.I. but tell any story she wants.  If I feel wanderlust at all, Jane visits someplace else.  Book #3, The Wrong Stuff, takes place in Michigan and Hollywood Stuff, Book #5 takes place in LA.  Having a real home base for the series is, I think, an advantage. 

6. Q. You and your husband are both writers. How would you respond if he wanted to co-author a mystery with you? Do you think co-authoring works well?

We’ve written one non-fiction book together  and edited three collections of memoirs together.  Pure pleasure.  Steve is a non-fiction guy—all plot and structure—and I am much more interested in dialogue and character so we make a good team.  I think it would be a lot of fun to do a mystery together—we just have to find some time when we both aren’t swamped with separate projects.

7. Q. Do you have other types of writing that you would like to pursue? Would you feel obligated to keep the Jane Wheel series going while you wrote other things?

I’ve been lucky that my editor and and publisher have not required a strict book –a-year schedule.  Between books  #4 and #5 I took some extra time to work on some other projects.  I still have a few other stand-alone novels I’d like to write—and I think I might even have another series in me.  I just need a few extra hours in the day, a few extra days in the week.

8. Q. Would you please give a few examples of items you see at estate sales, and what you think they tell you about their former owners?

Photo albums are obvious storybooks—but I prefer handwritten items.  I love old autograph books, old high school yearbooks that have been signed, even old notebooks from high school classes.  Love to find other peoples’ doodles and notes and lists.  I also like old kitchen items and recipe boxes with lots of hand-written recipes with notes on family dinners and adjustments made to recipes.  I also love finding handmade things—crocheted potholders, knitted blankets—all that time and love and domestic art!

9. Q. I noticed that on your business card, you give Jane Wheel, PPI her own e-mail address. Does she receive a lot of e-mail, and how would you characterize it?

Jane gets a fair amount of fan mail.  I use that email address on my website, www.sharonfiffer.com, so fans who visit the website can email directly.  The idea of using one side of the card for Jane’s name and title, PPI (picker and private investigator) is a bit of whimsy that appeals to me. After seven books, Jane’s earned some professional swag.  

10. Q. Did your parents ever read a Jane Wheel mystery, and if so, how did they react to being in it? If they didn’t read one, how do you think they would have reacted?

Sadly, my father died long before Jane Wheel was born.  He became ill one year after he and my mother sold the EZ Way Inn and retired.  I know he would have loved the books—he’d probably have plenty of ideas for scenes in the tavern—and would probably share lots of anecdotes that I never got to hear.  My mother was not a reader—I always tell the story that I apologized that the Nellie character came off pretty rough in the first book (but has redeemed herself many times over—and Jane has begun to better understand where her mother’s gruffness comes from) and my mother told me not to worry about it.  “Hell, honey, I won’t ever read it anyway,” is exactly what she said.  I did read some parts of the book to her—and she enjoyed hearing me describe the tavern and some of the characters.  She died at 92, and remained as feisty as the fictional Nellie until the end.

www.SharonFiffer.com

Dick Davidson Interviews Zoe Zolbrod

1. Q: In your novel, Currency, you used a Thai male narrator because you had spent enough time in Thailand to become familiar with the culture and language. How would you go about building sufficient expertise to use a narrator from a country you had never visited?

A: Well, the first thing I would probably do would be to plan a visit to that country. Although I know writers have successfully done it and taken similar leaps, I can't imagine being moved to create a narrator from a country with which I'm not personally familiar. I did have characters in my book who were from places—Kenya, Russia—I've never been to, and even for these characters, I steeped myself in both fiction and nonfiction from those countries.

2. Q: How do you feel your day job as a textbook editor affects your fiction writing?

A: I work on books and instructional materials for middle and high school literature and language arts classes, and at its best, my job requires me to attend very closely to some good and great literature. I've learned a lot about story construction and language by having to deconstruct selections for students and write and edit questions about the works. Even as a writer who reads with an eye toward craft, it's hard for me to slow down and concentrate as fully as I need to when reading on my own time. On the other hand, having a full-time job while raising a family starves me for writing time. Better that than actually starving, though.

3. Q: In Currency you had the Thai narrator from a culture other than your own. If you had several other-culture characters with different backgrounds, would it be worth juggling cultural details, languages, and idioms? We tolerated a lot of films in the past where all the other-culture characters had British accents.

A: Because my novel is a lot about the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships and about the way nationality affects how we move through the world, it seemed important to me not to flatten those aspects of even minor characters. I tried to give a different cadence to the speech of my Kenyan and Russian characters; I tried to take into account their backgrounds as I created them, so they'd be fully fleshed people. To me, that's an author's job. However, in my book, I took license with everyone's syntax and so forth. I wanted to give the flavor of their idiosyncratic English without making it too difficult for the reader to engage with.

4. Q: What are the primary characteristics that make a character’s voice believable?

A: A distinctive voice, and sense of depth or back story. A character should rarely say everything he or she thinks or feels--most of us are not even consciously aware of everything we think or feel. So the author should know more about the character than is revealed.
 
5. Q: How do you avoid distractions of unusual voices in multi-character dialog?

A: One thing I kept tinkering with in revision were the dialogue tags and bits of description interspersed in conversation. If there are too few, the dialogue becomes ungrounded, but if there are too many, they can impede a conversation's flow. I didn't worry about the idiosyncratic voices per se, though. To me, it's more distracting--or difficult, anyway--to follow and care about a conversation when characters' speech patterns are so similar that it's hard to tell who's who.

6. Q: What is the role of the reader’s imagination in capturing a character’s voice? How subtle can the cues be to trigger that imagination?

A: The reader's imagination is very important, of course, but a character should not be a blank slate. Like most readers, I've been in conversations with others who have read the same book and found myself disagreeing with their opinions of certain characters. That's fun and interesting, and the conversation usually reveals that our opinions say more about us and our own experiences than about the characters. But in such a conversation readers should be able to support their opinions with many specific details from the text.

7. Q: On your website, http://zoezolbrod.com , you describe the enjoyment your book tour gave you. Your novel also has a travel dimension. Please share the relative values to you of travel itself and the purposes of your travel.

A: From childhood, I've had a curiosity about other places. Seeing new things sparks my imagination, and when I travel, I’m more fully present in the moment, I live through all my senses, and I’m more open to the world; I'm a better observer, which makes me a better writer.  Traveling helps me take the focus outside of myself, which increases my empathy and compassion, and in the process, it helps me know myself in a different way. I've traveled to broaden my own horizons, and now I hope to spark a similar openness and curiosity in my children.

8. Q: You have said that Currency emerged from a daylong exercise of conjuring up your Thai narrator and having him converse with you. What were your other motivations for writing this novel?

A: I wanted to explore questions that were raised for me as an American traveler visiting much poorer countries, as well as to reflect on my experience growing up as a townie in a college town and working as a waitress in the tourist mecca of Santa Fe, New Mexico. I wanted to better understand the ways of the world and to investigate how an issue can appear differently to different people depending on a variety of factors.

9. Q: You indicated that the total Currency process from first writing efforts to publication spanned approximately ten years. Are you an exceptionally patient person? Describe the highs and lows of this process.

A: There were many highs--writing and revising the novel was an extremely exciting and satisfying period of my life, and that period lasted a long time; about three years or four years. It was easy to be patient then, because I could sense that I was on the right track and that I was refining the book in meaningful ways. I could feel myself getting stronger as a writer, and there was such a thrill of discovery as I continued to realize new things about the characters and their situations. I expected it to be difficult to find an agent and a publisher, and so I remained fairly patient during the two years it took me to find my first agent. The lows came after that agent collected her first batch of rejections from publishers and started pulling away from me. I eventually found another enthusiastic agent, but when the same pattern repeated itself, I became extremely demoralized. I had a child by this time and a more demanding job, and I couldn't drown my sorrows in immersing myself in a new project; I just didn't have the time to throw myself into something. I pursued publication with small presses, but half-heatedly. When the novel finally found a home with Other Voices Books, my feeling was initially one more of disbelief than excitement or joy. It took awhile to realize that Currency was finally going to be made into a real book, and that other people cared enough about it to help me with the process.

10. Q: What are you planning to do differently in bringing out your second novel?

A: I'm not working on a novel currently. I'm working on what I think will be an extended work of nonfiction. At the rate I'm going, it's likely to be many years before it's ready to be considered for publication. This time around, I hope to maintain the writing community I've reconnected with upon Currency's publication and not to give up hope. I'm also going to try to publish excerpts of it online and in journals in order to generate some interest and keep my own momentum. And I'm going to start trying now to make connections with the communities I think will be interested in my current topic. That's really invaluable, both for building a platform for my work and for learning things that will enrich it.

www.zoezolbrod.com
@zoezolbrod

Susan Bearman Interviews Laura Munson

Follow this link

http://2kop.blogspot.com/2011/03/rubbing-virtual-shoulders-via-internet.html to an interesting interview with Laura Munson about her family crisis memoir. The full interview is posted on Susan's blog, "2 Kinds of People."

Three-Dimensional Novels

One of the ways you can make your novel stand out is to make it three-dimensional. The same principles can be applied to shorter written works, but you have better opportunities to do it within the length of a novel. The width dimension of a novel is enhanced by intertwining and layering plots. Instead of a single start-to-finish plot, use two or three main plots interwoven and coming together as each strand meshes with the others before the climax. Sub-plots add further layering and change-of-pace interests for the reader. The depth dimension of a novel concerns its message or messages. A good novel will convey a message or philosophy to the reader which must be consistent with the nature of the story. The length dimension of a novel is obviously its numbers of words and pages, but it should contain enough twists, turns, and character developments to give the reader the feeling that he or she has undergone an experience by its completion. Generally, the novel length should range from 75,000 to 100,000 words. Most readers won't tackle a work much longer than that unless the author is well-known and respected. If your novel has well-developed width, depth, and length, your reader is very likely to get immersed in it.