| Who's in yours? By which I mean specifically, your writing support system. Who reads your stuff? Who listens to your moan and whine endlessly about how much your work sucks, how this chapter stinks, how this plot point or that one isn't working and your ending feels unfinished or whatever your particular writing issue is? I have two main readers. My critique/writing partner Anna J. Evans, and my bestest friend Cori back in Florida who beta-reads. I send them sections at a time. Anna sends them back with comments. Cori actually agrees to waste hours of her time on the phone discussing the intricacies of my plots and characters and what's going to happen next and why such-and-such happens. That's a good friend, folks, because as I'm sure you all know, most non-writers (like Cori) will start rolling their eyes after about twenty minutes. (This is, btw, why Megan from Personal Demons shares Cori's middle name. It's the least I could do, at least until this actually makes me some money [at which point she has made very clear exactly what I am to buy for her].) I think most of us have someone who'll beta read for us, whether we found them through an online group or a local groups or a friend-of-a-friend or whatever. But who supports you? Who do you turn to when it feels like you'll never get anywhere? When it's the middle of the night and your book feels like so much useless gibberish to you? When you feel like you're missing the boat, missing the plot, missing out on everything? Do you have someone? Do you want someone? How vulnerable will you/do you make yourself? How about your characters? This is a big realism issue for me. I always feel uncomfortable around people who open up too much or too fast and it never rings true for me with characters in books. Intimacy and trust go hand in hand. You should be able to see, without being told, who a character trusts, how they feel about that person, by how intimate they allow conversation to get. And I don't mean that in a sexy way (although for reasons I cannot fathom it seems like almost every other sentence out of my mouth these days is a double entendre. Must be all those rumballs.) I mean, if character A is sleeping with character B (and I do mean that in a sexy way) but telling their secrets to Character C...the reader should be inferring all sorts of things about those relationships. Effortlessly. What do your characters reveal? Who do they trust? Who do you trust? |
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My support is my family unit. My Dad won't even consider the fact that I won't fnish or publish, my Mum will sit there and listen and occasionally try to offer advice, and my sister is quietly confident, ready and waiting to put her Grammar Nazi skills to good use.
My character Eve has Stella, who fulfills the role of kid sister almost. They went through alot together and it's created a real bond between them. Unquestionable trust. Outside of Stella she has Gina, Stella's mother. But for full trust and disclosure that's it. There's a big part of her life she feels she can't share with anyone else.
Aaaand that's about it. *grins* We're rather insular that way.
My support is a) my wife, the last of the blue pencil editors, b) my mother who reads all the gory, kinky, disgusting gags and tells me whether I've hit the mark and her twisted funny bone, c) my writing group, who unbeknownst to them gets the worst of the worst and thank God they've gotten more and more depraved 'cuz the jokes just keep gettin' dirtier!
Great post! IMO, this is one of the key things to tweak in order to create a character who's wildly different from oneself. Never mind the "furniture," the circumstances and mannerisms; it's these deep structural issues that really differentiate people.
I don't have or require a support system -- after all this is a solitary profession. When it's not going well, what good would it do me to moan to someone else, when the only one who can fix the problem is me?
But my character Clare, in VAMPIRE DEMOCRACY, works in academia, and is a pragmatic, roll-up-your-sleeves team player. It hurts and unsettles her when her colleagues in Tokyo refuse, most unprofessionally in her view, to include her in their fieldwork. She bounces back and gets to work on a solo project, but when that goes pear-shaped as a result of her own ignorance, and the undead shogun of Tokyo targets her, where does she turn for help but to those same colleagues? No guesses what happens this time...
I suppose this partly reflects my own cynicism. If it was me instead of Clare, I'd never have given those guys a second chance. To be fair, Clare isn't stupid or even particularly trusting; she just didn't have many other options at the time. But also, she assumes she can count on a high level of professional support.
It's at times like this I realize my own characters have a lot to teach me :D
My husband will read anything of mine that I put in front of him and will be both honest and encouraging. And I when I told him I wanted to try to write professionally he bought me my own laptop to make it easier (and the writing safer from kiddos). Seriously, like a month or two later. He will listen to any rant, but (heehee) publishing talk puts him to sleep. Not because he is bored, but because he doesn't know what to add other than "That's not fair"s or "I understand"s. Plus he says that my voice is very soothing, so to hear me ramble for long periods of time, even if I'm irritated with something... as long as it's not him... LOL
My kids are pretty supportive too, even if they don't realize it. Any interest my son shows other than the minimal "Whatcha doing" is a compliment. So when he asks me about a story in detail it's awesome.
And my daughter (3) will pull the few print things I have under my belt off the shelf and go "Mommy, that's YOUR book. You wrote that book." That is a huge encouragement, even if she doesn't realize it.
Wow, I'm amazed at how many spouses out there are reading! I don't even bother to ask mine anymore. He'll say he'll read it but then he never does.
Yes, Rose, it is a big difference, isn't it?
I've a fantastic support system in place (and to be honest, without it, I know I wouldn't be getting published *g*)
No 1 is hubby, not for anything writing related, but just for his total commitment.
No 2 is my best writing buddy (she's a writer too) and we email/phone with moans, rants, and words, then we bolster each other up, and suggest answers to all those blank/not quite right bits in each other manuscripts.
No 3 is my weekly face2face writing group (which includes my best bud *g*)They listen, they care, and they really, really won't let me off the hook. If it's not working they tell me! And if it does work, they tell me that too - which is just as important ;)
No 4 has at times been the OWW, which has been wonderful for getting newer, fresher eyes on my work and seeing(!) just exactly how it goes down.
And No 5 is my soon to be crit partner. Someone whose writing is fab and who is as into the genre as I am, which is a big, big plus for me.
For me all this feedback works, it helps me to find my way out when I'm lost in the depths, renews my confidence when I think everything I've ever written is total crap, and sparks new and better ideas for both my characters and my plots. Personally I wouldn't be without them.
Suzanne
Stacia, I'm astonished at the level of spousal involvement here, too. My husband is fabulously supportive of the fact that I write but he's never read a word of it. Maybe because I would snarl and rip it out of his hands if he tried. I'll let him read it WHEN IT'S PUBLISHED!!
But as Suzanne mentions, there are other ways to be supportive besides active editorial / critiquing input, aren't there! (nudge nudge wink wink)