Sigh
April 24, 2008
I’ve not really felt like posting because I’m thoroughly fed up and knackered.
But there is glimmer of light on Barbara Hannay’s blog – read Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood. More about going your own way, writing what pleases you and protecting yourself from outside influences.
Does this really work?
Update: Since I had half a glass of Pimms and found some new friends on Facebook, I’m feeling slightly better. 😉
Posted by Phillipa @ 10:50 am | Leave a Comment
Rosy Thornton Says:
More advice about NOT slavishly following the accepted wisdom – but instead being yourself. Hoorah!
Rosy x
Phillipa Says:
Rosy – isn’t it great advice – and very encouraging. These three authors have sold millions of books between them. Barbara Hannay is one of my favourite Harlequin writers; her novels have such warmth and emotion. I’m so glad she shared these tips on her blog.
Ray-Anne Says:
Discipline. Focus. Positive Energy.
These are the three key elements I have picked up from the great and good over the years – and not just from writing.
To some people these sound too much like a chore. Like ironing or washing up or eating your veggies before your dessert. Some of those same people think it would be easy to ‘churn out’ a romance novel and have it published. If only they could…[ insert suitable excuse here..]
Having the ‘Guts’ to see the work through comes with the territory even for super writers like Barbara Hannay.
Of course we get fed up and knackered. But that is only because we care.
It is HARD to be positive and focused and disciplined. All power to the writers who make it.
Now, did someone mention Pimms? And is there any chocolate left?
Hugs, Ray-Anne. Who is struggling with a 130,000 word monster and at the moment would be quite happy to shred the lot.
Laura Vivanco Says:
I’m going to quibble with part of this advice too, just like I did with the last lot (sorry Rosy!).
Celebrate universal and timeless values – courage, loyalty, honour (The Odyssey is a good example)
Embrace issues that go beyond culture – good versus evil. Go beyond the current social issue.
This is not good advice, in my opinion, because although a great many cultures have had these concepts, their ideas of what they mean, and how to achieve them, has differed. Even within a single historical place and time you can find significant differences, such as when the medieval church tried to stop jousting:
At the Council of Clermont in 1130 the ninth canon issued stated that
“we firmly prohibit those detestable markets or fairs at which knights are accustomed to meet to show off their strength and their boldness and at which the deaths of men and dangers to the soul often occur. But if anyone is killed there, even if he demands and is not denied penance and the viaticum, ecclesiastical burial shall be withheld from him.” (Barber and Barker, 17)
So one group’s idea of “honour” and “courage” may well be another group’s idea of “worldly vanity” and “stupid, unnecessary risk-taking.”
And as for “issues that go beyond culture – good versus evil,” I can’t help but think of the many politicians who have tried to frame themselves and their allies as “good” and their opponents as “evil.” What is considered “good” by one person might very well be considered “evil” or “wicked” by another.
This is not to say that authors shouldn’t write about courage, loyalty, honour, good and evil. Of course they can! But if they do so while assuming that these are unchanging values, perceived in exactly the same way in all cultures, they run the risk of being anachronistic (if they’re writing historical fiction) and lacking in nuance and depth if they’re writing about contemporary societies.
—–
Barber, Richard, and Juliet Barker. Tournaments: Jousts, Chivalry and Pageants in the Middle Ages Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1989.
Phillipa Says:
Gosh Laura! Thanks for posting here (and *please* keep visiting ) I wouldn’t even know where to start to debate those points with you which is why I’d have never made an academic. All I can say, is I feel (irrationally) down at the moment and I found the advice from these authors very encouraging.
Ray Anne – Pimms is always a pick me up.
Phillipa Says:
PS Discipline. Focus. Positive energy?
Think I’ll go and have a lie down… or maybe shopping ..or perhaps there’s something on ITV2…
Laura Vivanco Says:
Like I said, it’s only a quibble (though one I feel is important), and I can see how the advice as a whole would feel encouraging to an author.
Interestingly, the bits I quoted from Patricia Smith’s advice are also rather contradicted by this, from Jayne Ann Krentz’s advice:
“Voice is not just style. It’s also your world view, your code of ethics and your understanding of right and wrong.”
Krentz is saying, in effect, that each author will have her own understanding of all the supposedly “universal and timeless values” mentioned by Smith.
While it might be nice to think that you could find some ideals to write about which would please all readers, you’re never going to be able to do that. Krentz, for example, not infrequently includes secondary characters who are lesbians. I can imagine that might not appeal to some readers with a different “world view,” but she carries on writing those characters because it’s part of her world view, part of her “voice”.
Phillipa Says:
Laura – You absolutely can’t please all of the people, I agree.
Ray-Anne Says:
PS. Did I mention that I am the worse offender when it comes to actually following these three principles? EBAY? Boxed sets of DVDs? Amazon? My towering To Be Read pile? Filing?
Watch out when you start to iron the socks. Seriously! have a great weekend. 🙂