It Can't Always Be Good News

First, for those of you sharp-eyed patrons who might have noticed, my header has changed and this is no longer "novelists at large" but just one, me, Stephanie Barr. Although I did write three novels with Lee, with our divorce fresh and still raw and both of us scrambling to find our new equilibrium, there's no telling if there will ever be another one we write together. And it won't be the same.

Still, one must give credit that writing three novels with one's spouse, without any blood drawn, is no small achievement. I'm grateful for the perspective and recipient ear he provided, the insight, and the character traits I loved (all captured quite cunningly in various character put on virtual paper). I enjoyed writing with Lee, except for a handful of short bursts where I hated it, and it was certainly a learning experience.

I will still be writing and talking about writing here, but this was a big change and deserved mention.

Secondly, as predicted, my slow introductive start for Saving Tessa did not impress the ABNA judges and I failed to pass the second round (though my sister, Shakespeare did so feel free to give her your support).

Predicted or not, I was more devastated by this than I had expected. Perhaps, this was bad timing (Motto: Don't try to market books while you're already reeling from personal tragedy) and amplified by unrelated stress. Perhaps, as I haven't really tried marketing anything for a while (and I have a soft spot for Saving Tessa), I was still too close to it. I spent a day questioning why I keep trying to write and wondering if I'm as good as I think I am, or even good at all.

Then, as cursing the darkness only gets one so far, I went looking for a match. The strengths of my stories (or so I believe) are characters and dialog and humor. Humor, I might add, is far too uncommon in novels as a whole, or rather, good humor is. But the humor, which is a big part of this and every book (without making them comedies) was in scarce supply in my beginning. I don't want to jump into my plot in my beginning; didn't then and still think it's wrong for the story.

But, I could change how I introduced my characters and spice things up nicely with far more overt humor, which would not only make the story more interesting in the beginning, where it needs to be to interest agents, publishers and readers, but also offers considerably more opportunities for revealing why I love my characters and revealing the dynamics of their relationship without just describing it.

I haven't put my thoughts and speculations to the test yet, though I've been toying with some possibilities on how to do it, but, I'm excited by the notion, already thinking of ways I can use this new scene to streamline "narration" from others or other aspects that were bogging down the first few chapters.

And, if this brief disappointment I had ends up making this a better book, well, then it's just the tonic I needed.

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Best Thing to Hear

I read my books (and others) to my husband. I always catch things to fix and he's ruthless if something isn't working. The collaboration has it's down sides. Sometimes we butt heads and it's a real struggle to work through it.

This last novel was no exception. I had my heart set on infecting the hero of book number one with a brain-eating parasite and Lee just wasn't happy about having his favorite character get his brain eaten (even though I was going to make him survive). My medical friend actually sided with him so we did something different-ish.

Had to find a different way to pull it all together, but, in many ways, it worked out even better. Which is why I work with my husband.

So, I just read the finished book to my husband, cleaning up this, straightening wording here, tightening up this phrase or that. Still needs some polish, but, really, I thought, not as much as I expected. I seem to need less and less polishing the more books I write.

My voice, with my allergies was going, but he kept urging me to read more. How can you not want to read more if your audience is wanting it? Very gratifying. We managed to finish it up at 2 am yesterday.

What does he say to me this morning? "You know the worst thing about that book? There's not more of it."

If we're never published, I'll still have that.

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Collaboration

I've mentioned before that I write with my husband. In our particular case, writing together means I write it, then read it to him and we discuss what needs to be changed. If it's "my" idea, I get to decide the big decision. If it's "his," he does. Except, if one of us hates something, we can each veto.

You'd be surprised how often a veto actually comes into it. And several ideas that were veto material have been compromised away from what either of us thinks is optimum to reach an agreement (if not an approval). Lee is not fond of dark things and hates torturing characters he likes. Pity because that's kind of part of the deal for novels.

I have to be convinced the characters, stories, etc. make sense. Lee does that too and frequently points out something I missed.

So, why am I mentioning this? Well, for the last week or so we've been wrangling. Ever since I had the idea, I've been wanting to give the prime character from my first novel (Beast Within) primary amoebic meningitis, only let him live through it in the sequel. My husband has hated, ever since I got the idea, inflicting parasites on the shapeshifter who becomes a dragon. HATES. IT.

No explanation or protestation was enough. No clever cure or redemption was sufficient. No need or drive was justification. He HATED IT. Period.

I'll be honest. I was thinking I couldn't find something else that did what I wanted:

a) deadly
b) adversely affecting the brain, preferably with delirium, hallucinations and or involuntary body movements
c) non-chemical so that our talented healer couldn't just cure him and be done
d) uncontagious so everyone else didn't have it (though I wanted them to wonder if it were)

Fortunately for me, The Mother was kind enough to point me toward arborvirus forms that cause meningitis/encephalitis or even combinations. Since it's a vector, it's still not communicable. And, although my original intent was to have one character do something clever, I thought of a different clever way of curing it that used actual medical science (if only to repay The Mother's patience with my magical healer).

So, there you go. Compromise. Everyone's happy. And, though I haven't gotten a lot done this weekend, I've now updated it so I can move forward. And with my collaborator still a willing partner.

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I'm an Idiot

I'm an idiot. Back a year or so ago, my good friend helped me with a query by making it far different than my normal type. After reading Query Shark, I was so certain I had it nailed and knew what I "really" wanted, that I left this behind.

Except, I just read it again. What was I thinking? This is great. THIS is what my book is about.

It wasn’t enough that women from Tander’s tribe had been stolen, including his wife, Layla, or that those who had stolen them had nefarious plans. And phenomenal magic powers. And could escape in seconds. And an underground fortress in the midst of frozen mountains so cold Tander was afraid he’d shatter if he stumbled one more time. It wasn’t enough that he was surrounded by angry husbands worried about their wives and willing to take their tempers out on him if he was leading them in the wrong direction. It wasn’t enough that he was also surrounded by the remaining women from his tribe who were equally angry and more than capable of kicking his butt.

No, on top of all those little issues, he discovered he's no longer “just” an extraordinary swordsman, but also a great and powerful sorcerer with absolutely no idea how to use his powers. He was not just any sorcerer, either, but one chosen by six tiny kitten familiars who do know how to use his powers and who have no problem telling him. All the time. While they demand to carried all over his person, purring and taking inopportune naps. He didn’t want these powers or a flock of noisy but helpful kittens, but he'll need them. He'll need all the skills and talents he and his companions possess in order to save their women—and Layla.

But we love you, Tander! Solace insisted, purring and licking his neck.

Things have got to get better soon.

Damn. I should have just left well enough alone.

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Mining Someone Else's Precious Gems

I mentioned that we were delving into one of Lee's ideas that he's been kicking around since he was a kid. Now, on the one hand, that makes him a much more involved collaborator and gives me access to all kinds of details on weapons and spaceships and stuff that have always fascinated him.

On the cautious side, however, I have to be very careful. In this case, I'm trying to put on paper someone else's idea, someone else's vision. There's nothing wrong with injecting a bit of myself into the final product, but I have to do so without corrupting his own vision. I can influence it, try to trim out the ideas that we've both outgrown, but I have to do so carefully. It's hard to give up little bits of yourself, like ideas and stories are, even if they no longer work. Those scenes and character traits are precious. I have to be gentle any time I want to make a change in what I know he already loves.

And I have to be careful that what I add is harmonious, that is just adds to the story he thought up, adding depth and color and texture without changing the structure, the bones that were already there.

It's a challenge, but then, I like challenges.

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The Ultimate Editing Tool

Over the years, I have done a lot of editing, revising, rewriting, and all. It's a great deal of work and sometimes very frustrating. It doesn't have the same appeal, at least for me, than creating the world in the first place. But it's absolutely necessary if one strives for excellence.

Having said that, it's always nice to fix something and make it better. Over time, I'm likely to go over it multiple times. And I have some fantastic people who take the time to read over it and give me comments - I've had my eyes opened to many things from thoughtful reviewers.

Still, of all the tricks and methods I use to clean up and polish my work, nothing helps me find typos and grammatical errors, nothing highlights out an awkward sentence, nothing ensures dialog that sounds real like taking the effort to read it out loud.

I've always read my work out loud. It's essential when you write rhyme/rhythm poetry, as I did in high school, to read it out loud. That kind of poetry (and, in my opinion, all poetry) is best when read aloud...or it probably isn't very good poetry.

When I moved on to short stories, I found that reading aloud was just as helpful. My husband of the time wasn't fond of listening, so I didn't write much, but, when I did, I'd hole up somewhere and read it out loud. Always.

My relationship with Lee has really changed things. He not only lets me read it out loud, he likes it. He listens. Reading things out loud to someone receptive and listening, someone interested, someone brilliant (and opinionated), is far more useful than reading to oneself. The humorous parts stand out, of course, but the reaction, the interplay, makes polishing not only more effective, but far more fun.

I wouldn't want to edit any other way.

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