Miss Macchiato

Two years ago I decided to get serious about writing. At that time, I had attempted to write three novels and ended up abandoning them all.

The process was harder than I thought.

I knew I needed help, so I did the next logical thing: Buy a book on how to write books. There’s a lot of those floating around and a lot on Amazon.com with high ratings. I went with The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. Although I’ve read many, many how to books since then, the contents of that first one has stayed with me more than the others.

Funnily enough, the author of the book, Jack Bickham, says flat out for new novelists to avoid writing first person perspective. It’s too hard, he says. Don’t do it, he says. You’ll get there eventually, he says.

Any smart person would have followed his advice and worked on developing their unique voice or how to stick to a plot or creating dynamic characters – you know, the things I should have done. But that would have made sense. Where others saw a warning, I saw a challenge. I decided I needed to tackle the more difficult writing in order to become a great writer faster.

If I only knew then…

Fast forward to now. That original book took me three complete rewrites. I put it through two of my critique readers, who came back with some comments that have caused me to rewrite the entire ending. And that’s going quite well. I’m very happy with where the book is headed.

However, now that I’ve had enough experience in writing and have been subjected to a critique group, I can see that my first person perspective is everything Jack Bickham warned. It’s clunky. It’s uninspired. It doesn’t really add to the story.

So now what?

I am committed to this story, so I have to look at options. Unfortunately, all of them require work. But that’s what writing’s about. If I wanted to do something that didn’t require talent, effort or brainpower, I’d audition as Ke$ha’s replacement.

The future of America…

But I digress. Here are my options:

1. Rewrite the entire story (all 120,000 words) in third person perspective. It’s totally possible however, there are a few things in the book done in first person perspective that I feel are really great. In order to do it, I’d have to be willing to give a few key elements up, and I don’t think I can. Option 1 is out.

2. Get feedback from my writers group. I do plan on doing this, but I have some reservations. Everyone in the group is also a beginning novelist – in fact, I think I’m the only person who has actually finished a project, putting me ahead of the curve (see Jack Bickham’s comments about new writers and first person perspective). Still, I do think their feedback is valuable, though because we’re all newbies, it can’t be my only source. Which leads me to option 3.

3. Research. I did a quick, half-hearted search for books that instruct on how to write in first person perspective, and couldn’t find much. So, I went to the ol’ bookshelf and pulled out some novels written in first person perspective by notable authors. Yesterday I re-read Two For the Dough by Janet Evanovich, a New York Times Bestseller. Evanovich writes mystery and does it in all first person with her tongue firmly in her cheek. Her first person perspectives are a little more “in your face”. Quips and one-liners galore. It’s everything you’d want a first person crime novel to be. You’re in the protagonist’s head, listening to her thoughts, experiencing her process of “who done it?” of the tale. On the other end of the spectrum, I flipped through House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds, a highly acclaimed futuristic science fiction novel. The first person perspective is more subtle here – no one gets slapped upside the head with quips and one-liners. This book actually swaps between two characters. So every other chapter you’re in the other person’s head. When the plot is furthered and the characters are unable to speak openly about it, I find myself reading on, wanting to get to the next chapter to find out what the other person thinks of it. So it’s still used there but more subtly. I liked that.

I have a better idea now about how I want my first person voice to be, though I think I’m only scratching the surface. The only way that I’ll find it is by working at it and writing more. I’ve prepared a 1,000 word excerpt from THE FOURTH CHANNEL for the writers group, edited after the research that I did over the weekend. I’ll keep you posted on what they say.

This morning, I read a great post by Janice Hardy, who is on a blog tour to promote her the second book of her Healing Wars Trilogy. In this, she talks about why THE SHIFTER was picked up by an agent and sold so easily, when the many books she wrote before received rejection letters. For those aspiring-to-be-published writers, it’s a great read.

Worth the Trip – by Janice Hardy

As you know, I’ve been working on two novels (phew) at the same time. As I’m tidying things up with THE FOURTH CHANNEL, I’ve been working on a new novel to share with my writers group. I’ve been lovingly referring to it as “The McJohnson Book”.

Every time I say that, Tom laughs. He thinks it sounds like an inappropriate coffee table book.

The McJohnson Book has been developing quickly — much more than I’m used to. Of course, since my first novel took me a couple of years to finish, everything seems fast, not to mention better. And when I say the word “better”, I mean my skill level is noticeably improved since that first night I sat down and stared for two hours at a blank page, just willing something to come out.

After I read the first scene of The McJohnson Book at my writers group, someone asked me if I had to meticulously think about the content before writing it. “Nope,” I honestly said. I remember being surprised at that answer because a year ago I wouldn’t have said that. Back then I would have tortured the ideas to death in my head before finally eking out the sentences on the pages. This time, it was different. Why?

Glad you asked. Now that I’ve managed to get my first novel mostly under my belt, I am much better at making decisions. With every sentence typed out on the page, a hundred conscious decisions have to be made about what is happening and where the story is going. The fact of the matter is, if an author isn’t actively furthering the plot in everything they write, then get rid of it and get to the story. All of the great writing books out there reinforce this idea, but it was hard for me to wrap my head around it until after I finished my first book. These days, I’m less attached to paragraphs and backstory than I every was. I’ve learned the value of editing and deleting while only keeping what needs to be said and, above all, making conscious decisions to get down to the plot. If you’re stuck, get to the next plot point and only fill in the details that are absolutely necessary.

My first book, THE FOURTH CHANNEL, is nearing completion. My goal is to have it all wrapped up in the next month. And then — fame, fortune, NY Times Bestseller list!

I wish. Next up in the process is for more critique. I’ve been reading that it’s good for writers (especially first time novelists) to have Beta Readers.

Yeah, cool. It’s like a beta tester, only you troubleshoot/identify glaring issues instead of try to break stuff. My writing group and coach can take a look at snapshots of my writing style and guide me. But for overall arching plot and flow I need a few people to read the whole thing and tell me if anything really bothers them.

With that said, I am looking for a couple of friends who know a thing or two about novels (and have a general grasp of the english language) and would like to read my book. Please keep in mind that I am looking for critique — I’m not yet passing the book around for enjoyment. I did that with a couple of my friends — passing out chapters as I went and, in hindsight, that was a very bad idea. Now that I’m editing the end of the book, I realize there are two major components that need to be reworked or deleted in the overall story. I definitely won’t be doing that again.

If you would like to be a Beta Reader for my book, please let me know!