Food Prep and Writing – Cooking up Analogies

Two weeks ago, we asked for any suggestions for improvements to Reader Friday posts. Robert Luedeman said, “More recipes! We must have more recipes!” He was kidding, but it made me start thinking about analogies, comparing food preparation and writing.

Whether you’re cooking, baking, frying, grilling, or just gathering all your ingredients and planning the steps of the process, there’s a lot of “food for thought” and plenty of opportunities to create some new analogies.

Now, I’m worthless in the kitchen and stay out of my wife’s way. She bounces around from counter to counter and from microwave to microwave. I don’t want to become road kill, so I leave the cooking to her. But she did give me an idea for an analogy. Whenever someone compliments her on one of her great dishes and asks her for her secret, she always points out that you have to start with quality ingredients. No cutting corners. Quality in, quality out. And the same can be said for producing a great work of fiction.

So, there’s my weak example of an analogy. Now it’s your turn.

• Remind us of an existing analogy.
• Invent a new one.
• Or, if you agree with Robert, that we need more recipes, share one that you’re proud of. Maybe you can even rename the recipe with a literary phrase.

Reader Friday: A Fan Moment  –  Dale Ivan Smith

Like many authors, I have been fortunate to have moments in my author career where I’ve received emails from fans, or a message on social media from readers who liked my work. There was the woman who plowed through my Empowered series in a few days and wrote to tell me she couldn’t stop reading, and how she’d missed sleep thanks to me because she had to see how the series turned out. Then there was the award-winning fantasy author who emailed to say they had enjoyed my urban fantasy novel Gremlin Night.

Writers are also readers, and I’ve been equally fortunate to have some fan moments with authors whose own writing made a difference to me. One author was David Morrell, who I met in person at a writer’s workshop he gave here in Portland years ago. I’d found his novel First Blood a riveting read, and his non-fiction book on writing, Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing AKA The Successful Novelist. David was as thoughtful and encouraging in person as he was in his writing book. He  took the time to talk to each of us during breaks. Being able to talk to him casually for a couple of minutes meant a lot and helped reinforce the kindness he showed throughout his workshop.

Another was getting to meet Neil Gaiman in person. I had loved his Sandman graphic novel series and his novel American Gods, and his television work for Doctor Who and Babylon 5. At a 2013 book signing hosted by Powell’s Books here in Portland, I mentioned to him I had applied to the six-week Clarion West Writers Workshop he would teach at shortly. When I had applied to Clarion West a few months earlier, his upcoming workshop inspired to go further and apply as well to a two-week novel writing workshop being given by Kij Johnson, another Hugo and Nebula award-winning author.

I ended up not being accepted into Clarion West. However, Kij did accept me for her novel writing workshop and itt had just ended shortly before his book signing. We agreed Kij was a brilliant writer and teacher. I told him that, while I was sorry not to have made it into his workshop, Kij’s had proven transformational for me, and it was thanks to him inspiring me to apply to both CW and the Novel writing workshop. He smiled and reached out and shook my hand.

Now it’s your turn. Please tell us about a fan moment you’ve had with a reader, or as a fan yourself with an author you admire.

Please join Dale in discussing posts he has selected from the archives, as I recuperate from cataract surgery.

In my guest TZK words of wisdom this Saturday, we jump into the archives to find tips on surprising the reader, knowing when to kill a character, and the power of the shadow story. Feel free to comment and engage other readers on any, or all, of these topics.

Surprises

Surprises can be powerful things – they can draw a reader into a book in a way that is (I think) often more powerful than a mere plot twist or a shocking ending. They can take the form of an unsuspected insight into a character, a happy coincidence, or just the details of a world created that transports the reader’s imagination. The element of surprise is however much harder to achieve than suspense or the power to shock and I think (in terms of craft) it requires:

• An appreciation of language – the beauty of a turn of phrase that can delight as well as surprise should never be underestimated.
• An understanding of the nuances of the human condition – many of the best surprises occur only because an author has a grasp of the full idiosyncrasies of characters (both real and imagined).
• An ability to create parallel worlds full of quirks and charms that allow a reader to suspend disbelief.
• And, finally, the bravery required to take a book into rough uncharted waters…

–Claire Langley-Hawthorne– October 12, 2009

The Kill Bell

That malicious peeling noise that lets me know, as I’m drafting my latest book, that it’s time to drop a body.

That’s how it sounds to me, anyway. Maybe yours sounds different, but I’m guessing I’m not alone in having one. As a mystery/thriller writer, I know I have to kill, early and often. And since you’re on this blog – it is called The Kill Zone, for goodness sakes – you probably know it, too. Lord knows, no one here is writing cozies. I’m betting the Kill Zone authors alone traffic in more blood than your average Red Cross chapter.

But how much do we spill? And how do we know when the time is right?

That’s what the kill bell is for. I’ve come to value it, to know to listen for it, and even to anticipate it. It’s that little friend that tells me things have gotten a little too comfortable for the reader and I need to shake things up.

It’s not like it happens in predictable intervals – and thank goodness, since it would get a little too cookie-cutter if you whacked someone every 10,000 words. I can sometimes go 40,000 words without slashing so much as a single throat. Then I shoot someone and I think I’m okay for a while but, ding-a-ling, there’s the bell again. And, even if it’s a mere 2,000 words later, I’m puncturing someone’s temple with a nail gun.

I suspect every writer’s kill bell is set to a slightly different frequency, which is why we all write different books. The important thing is to respect it and, when you hear it ringing, to act. Even when it’s not clear how. –Brad Parks– March 10, 2012

The Shadow Story

Simply put, the shadow story is what is taking place away from the scene you are writing. It’s what the other characters are doing “off screen.” By giving thought to the shadows, even minimally, you greatly expand your store of plot material.

Shadows Inside the Lead

You can also delve into the shadows and secrets of your Lead. Maybe you’ve done this already, by giving your Lead a backstory and answering key questions about her life (education, hopes, fears, lost loves, etc.)

But every now and then, in the middle of the writing, pause to come up with something going on inside the Lead that she is not even aware of. Try what I call “the opposite exercise”: The Lead, in a scene, has a specific want or need (if she doesn’t, you need to get her one fast, or cut that scene!) Now, pause and ask: what if your Lead wanted something the exact opposite of this want or need? What would that be? List some possibilities. Choose one of those. Ask: Why would she want that? How could it mess with her head?

Then look for ways to manifest this inner shadow in some of your scenes.

Or imagine your Lead doing something that is the opposite of what the reader or, more importantly, you would expect in that scene. What sort of shadow (secret) made her do that?

Just by asking these sorts of questions, you deepen your Lead and add interesting crosscurrents to the plot.

That’s the power of the shadow story. –James Scott Bell– April 12, 2015

***

Any tips on how to surprise the reader?

How do you decide when to kill a character?

Do you spend time thinking of the shadow story in your own fiction?

Reader Friday: Books to help you overcome your greatest obstacle

by Dale Ivan Smith

Writers face many obstacles—time, the day job, family responsibilities, health challenges, etc. Then there are publishing challenges, be it the traditional path, small press, or self-publishing.

However, in my experience, the greatest obstacle we face as writers is ourselves. Whether you consider writer’s block real, there are mindset issues such as managing expectations, procrastination, fear of failure, and many others. Getting out of our own way can make all the difference in our own writing.

Fortunately, there are books to help you get past your greatest obstacle. This retired librarian still likes to provide multiple resources, so here are three:

 The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield. Pressfield spent decades struggling to write, and then toiled trying to break-in as a screenwriter, finally succeeding when he co-wrote the story for the 1986 film, King Kong Lives, the sequel to the 1976 reboot of the original. Unfortunately, King Kong Lives bombed at the box office. Pressfield came to recognize that the biggest obstacle to our succeeding as writers is what he names Resistance, that part of ourselves which holds us back from engaging in a new endeavor that might change our lives, especially creative endeavors like writing. Each brief chapter provides an insight patterned after Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Pressfield breaks the book into three parts: Defining Resistance, Combating Resistance, and getting Beyond Resistance.

The Mental Game of Writing, by James Scott Bell. The Killzone’s very own James Scott Bell’s provides a tool chest of tips and strategies to help you with your mindset as a writer. He covers the gambit from the importance of deciding to become a writer and defining success for yourself, to creativity, production, joy, to not comparing yourself to others, dealing with stress, being inspired, and many more. Jim packed a terrific amount of very practical advice into this book. It’s a resource you can dip into repeatedly after you’ve read it, to look for help in any area that is an inner obstacle for you. Reading this book was like having Jim as a writing mentor, offering suggestions and tips to improve your mental game.

 Breakthrough, by J. Dharma Kelleher. Thriller writer Kelleher looks at creative self-doubt (akin to Pressfield’s “Resistance”) and how it affects our writing. Right off the bat, she provides tools to get past it: meditation, affirmations, and the power of re-framing how you look at an issue you’ve encountered in your writing or publishing. She discusses the importance of your health, understanding your own creative process, focusing on the work rather than the results, dealing with feedback, understanding the “delusion” of paying attention to reviews, and much more. She provides helpful advice, tips, and an extensive list of additional resources.

Now it’s your turn. Do you believe we writers are our own greatest obstacle to our own writing? What books or resources have helped you get out of your own way as a writer?