How to Know When to Give Up

 

Can't believe it's already time! But the Coastal Magic Convention is only a few weeks away and January 15 is the last day to register. I love this convention and there's going to be tons of great authors, bloggers and readers there - so if you can wrangle it, you should totally join us. Great panels, terrific interactions and it's right on the beach. SO fun!

So, this week's topic is: It's dead, Jim - how to know when a project isn't working vs when its fixable.

I want to tell you a couple of stories.

Back in the mists of time, when I was a baby aspiring writer who focused mainly on creative nonfiction, I helped organize this annual writers' retreat. We brought in some great speakers and one year I drove to Denver International Airport to pick up a guy who was the Editor in Chief of a prominent creative nonfiction literary journal. On the two-hour drive up to Wyoming, we talked a lot about writing, publishing, the industry in general and my fledgling career in particular.

(BTW, this is a great way for newbie writers to begin building industry contacts. Volunteering to pick up or escort visiting agents, editors and established writers gives you time to have longer, more intensive conversations.)

At any rate, one thing this guy said to me was that he felt strongly that some aspiring writers should just give up. It was his opinion that not everyone possessed the native talent to be a writer. He said he struggled as an editor not to simply tell some writers submitting to the magazine that they should give up already and go do something else.

Of course, I obsessed over this, wondering if *I* was one of those people. He'd rejected many of my essays, after all.

The second story happened many years later, after my first book of creative nonfiction was published by a university press. I'd switched to fiction and had written the book that became ROGUE'S PAWN. I shopped that one for a *long* time. Years. I had two friends who were in the same place, shopping their first novels in the genre. One of them hit it - won a contest, got an agent and a three-book deal. The other two of us kept slogging along. One day, the other unpublished gal asked me how long I was giving myself. At first I didn't know what she meant. "I'm giving myself a year," she clarified, "then I'm giving up."

I told her I had no deadline, that I'd keep trying until I succeeded. That response totally mystified her. I think she regarded me as quite foolish.

You know what? She gave up on being a writer. ROGUE'S PAWN ended up being the first of the Covenant of Thorns trilogy and I have in the neighborhood of twenty published fiction works out there.

I realize this is all somewhat sideways of the question - which is when to give up on a project. A lot of authors I know have "under-the-bed" books that they say will never see the light of day.They call them learning books and are happy to let them go.

This is just not who I am. "Stubborn" is one of my defining characteristics, and yes, more than one person has cited it as a character flaw. Including my PhD adviser. He also told me he didn't think I could make it as a writer, when I said I wanted to be a writer instead of a research scientist.

So, all of this is byway of saying that this division doesn't exist in my world. Nora Roberts rather famously says she can fix anything but a blank page. I agree.

Never give up. Never surrender.

How to Build a Better Villain

I'm writing from the Coastal Magic Convention, right on lovely Daytona Beach. I've been doing sunrise beach walks each morning with fab book blogger Jen from That's What I'm Talking About. Wonderful way to start the conference day!

This week's topic, following on last week's ruminations on negative traits in our heroes and heroines, is how the development of positive traits builds better villains.

I confess I rarely, if ever, think in terms of villains. The word calls to mind the old-style melodramas, in which the villain is identifiable by a glossy handlebar mustache and an evil cackle. Just not my schtick. Because, you all should know by now, I'm a shades of gray kind of gal. I don't even really believe in the concept of evil. I think people do the things they do not acting out some struggle between good and evil, but because they're doing what they want and need to do. Everybody has reasons for their choices. Maybe not admirable or understandable ones, but reasons nevertheless.

Which is the key to writing a better villain.

Give them REASONS.

Villains are, after all, characters in your story also. They should be as fully fleshed as any other character, with goals and conflicts. This is probably why I shy away from the word "villain" - because that implies a single motivation, which is to be evil. Instead, the antagonist should have a noble dream or goal of their own. This is where positive traits come in.

Anyone who vigorously pursues their passion is fascinating to us. We love the story of the underdog who triumphs, the drive to succeed and secure personal victories. Whatever the villain of a given story is striving for, that motivation will be interesting. Even better if he or she sincerely believes that what they want is Good and Right and Necessary.

For example, in my Twelve Kingdoms books, High King Uorsin absolutely - even megalomaniacally - believes in the union of the warring kingdoms. He's a warrior, powerfully determined, nearly a force of nature. It's easy for the reader to see just how wrong and awful he is, but HE doesn't know it. He'd be an admirable person, if he weren't quite so narcissistic.

But hey - we all have our flaws.