Lost in a Jane Austen Fog

A lot of writers write in the same genre they love to read. If they read Sci-fi, they write Sci-fi. If they read YA, they write YA. This isn’t the case with me. You see, I’m petrified to even attempt to write what I love to read. Historical romances. I think this genre has got to be the most difficult genre to write in. First off, not only do you need to know the language of the time, and keep it consistent throughout, but you have to contort it in clever ways via flirtatious banter between the hero and heroine. On top of that, you have to know what they ate, how they dressed, how they traveled, and even the local news of the time period, most times in a completely different country. Talk about research, research, research! I am absolutely in awe of these authors and I just know if I attempted to write a historical romance I’d botch it up to no end. I imagine these people eat, sleep, and breathe in the era they’re writing.

This is the mode I’m in currently, albeit mine is through watching movies. I know, so lame. Over the past week, I’ve discovered that Netflix has a full selection of historical romances to choose from, most based on Jane Austen’s books. I’ve watched Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Lost in Austen, and next on queue is Mansfield Park. What’d you say? You’ve never heard of Lost in Austen? Well, then you’re truly missing out. This has now become my favorite movie. I love love love love love it! Anyone who adores Pride and Prejudice NEEDS to see this movie. Like seriously. If you have Netflix, it’s currently in the romance titles. Or, I think you can watch it online too.

The move is about a woman in modern-day London who is dissatisfied with her life. Her ratty copy of Pride and Prejudice has been read more times than she can count (since the age of 12), and she compares every man in her life to Mr. Darcy. They’re just not good enough. Obviously. *swoon* A portal of sorts opens in her shower and she and Elizabeth Bennett switch places (she enters as Elizabeth’s out-town-friend). When she arrives, it’s as if the story of Pride and Prejudice is starting fresh from the beginning and she is in awe over meeting and interacting with the characters and visiting the locations. Her goal from start to finish is to make the characters perform the way they do in the book. But nothing goes the way it should, and she finds herself falling in love with someone she shouldn’t. In short, it’s a bit like fan fiction in that the story is completely switched around, but the characters remain the same. The writers even take liberties with twisting what you think you know about a character (i.e. Wickham).

But what I love most about the movie is two-fold. First, this is not a cheesy remake. It’s really good quality movie making. The characters are EXACTLY as I imagined them from their appearance to their mannerisms. It’s just perfect. But because the plot takes a turn, it’s almost like you have a “backstage pass” to the story. You get to spend even more time with the characters you love and learn different things about them. Most importantly, it brings a dream many of us have probably had to life. What is this dream? Well, that you wake up one day in a Jane Austen novel. Okay, so maybe that’s just one of my dreams. But the fact that this actually happens (in movie land) to a woman just like me brings it that much closer to reality. Does that make sense or do I sound like a loon?

Here's a clip from the movie I found online, which is actually cut out of the Netflix version.



I always go overboard when it comes to historical romances. One time, I ate nothing but scones with jam and Earl Gray tea for breakfast just so I could feel closer to the characters. Please tell me someone else has done this? I just love history so much. Did you ever feel like you were born in the wrong time period? I feel like that all the time. I want to wear petticoats and dresses and button-up shoes. I want servants bustling about me in white caps and gray gowns. I want to ride a horse across the misty moors and to go to outlandish balls. I want to eat and read by candlelight and live in a house full of twists and turns. The problem is…I can’t and I never will. And when I get into what I call a Jane Austen fog, I wander around modern society like a lost puppy, with visions of horse drawn buggies where cars are honking or visions of Mr. Darcy where my husband stands. And then as the day wears on, and technology has invaded my senses, the fog dissipates, quite sadly, and I cannot wait to go back in again.

Is there any genre that does this to you? Just gets underneath your skin and you can’t let go? Like you’d give up reality in an instant to be able to jump in?

I haven't given up completely on writing historical romance. It plays a role in my current series, but in a small way. My main character has dreams of past lives and in those dreams I get to pretend I know what I'm doing. Here's one of my attempts. :)

She fingered the brocade curtain, smooth between her fingertips, and looked out the leaded-pane window. Lush green lawns rolled into the horizon, a circular garden brimmed with roses of every shade, and a cement lion spouted water from its mouth. An estate fit for a princess, but even after living there a full six months, it still didn't feel like home. She felt like an intruder, an annoyance, a thorn in her Uncle's side.

Female voices drifted in from the hall. Hearing her name, she hid behind the curtain, afraid of being accused of eavesdropping. She held her breath, her muscles tense.

"They say she's unmarriable."

"Tsk. Her poor mother."

"I know! Can you imagine? Three seasons and not one offer of marriage. It's unheard of."

"What do you suppose is wrong with her? She's pretty enough and I hear she can play the harpsichord beautifully."

There was a pause and she glanced at her ring-less hand gripping the curtain. Her ears strained to hear the other woman's response.

Bark, Bark, Bark

Quinn opened her eyes. No, she had to find out what was wrong with her! She closed her eyes again, trying to get back to that warm, hazy spot in her dream.

Bark, Bark

Growling, she shoved back the covers and sat up, peeking through her veil of bangs. What the hell was that dog barking at? "George! What is your issue?" She glanced at the alarm clock. It was seven thirty-four. Ugh. She didn't like to get up any earlier than nine on Sundays.

**************

Okay, I can't help myself. I had to include this scene. Just know it's a major spoiler alert if you intend to watch the movie. God, he's so yummy!

You're Only Ready When You're READY

I figured it was time to get back to talking about writing. Can I tell you how happy I am with how my MS is turning out? The conflicts and plot are more believable than my first attempt and the scenes are overall “fuller.” What does fuller mean? There’s more depth, emotion, internal thought, description – everything I’ve lacked in the past. And I owe this to many aspects and people in my life. Writers (including myself) come out of the gate thinking they’re ready to churn out a masterpiece. They’ve read more books than taken showers, they’ve aced all their creative writing classes, and their imagination is so full it’s on the verge of spilling out their ears. To quote Spongebob: “I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!” (A quick aside, punbop was my youngest son’s first word. *rolls eyes*) Well, guess what? They may think they’re ready, but they’re not. By my layman’s calculations, it takes about three years before a writer is truly ready to publish their first novel. Give or take a couple days, of course. ;)

For me, my three years is almost up and in my heart, I know I’ve reached Spongebob status. I’m ready. I’m finally ready. I have an amazing story with great characters, twists and turns, mystery, and conflict up the ying-yang. I can’t WAIT to share it with the world. And that is what’s driving me to keep going; to improve my writing skills and output level. I want people to know my characters and the world I’ve created. And I have a good feeling this time.

So who do I have to thank for this newfound confidence? Geez, where to start. Well, I guess at the beginning. The Absolute Write forum and Karen Junker, in particular. She helped me understand the secret to making first chapters pop and have the reader begging for more. Then there’s Claire Gillian, who forged through my manuscript with a weedwacker, and showed me how to cut non-essential drizzle, which had nothing to do with my plot, and she also kept things logically sound (How can she talk to her neighbor through a closed window?). And the agent, Scott Eagan, who took the time in his rejection to point out my issue with telling instead of showing. Next came my old writing partner, Lindsay Currie, who showed me how much beauty a scene could contain if you took your time with it. And Sarah Fine, who after many strikethroughs, finally drilled it into my head when to italicize internal thought and when not to. And as of late, I have a trio of wonderful betas, who not only encourage me every step of the way, but have taught me about true friendship.

Michelle Davidson Argyle has walked the same path I’m currently traveling and is a fountain of advice and experience. She’s caring, humble, and a huge supporter of my writing. Her first full-length novel, Monarch, came out last month, and my fingers are itching to get a copy of it. Any day now I’ll be holding the beautiful butterfly-covered thriller in my hands. (By the way, I have never seen such gorgeous covers come out of a small publishing house. Kudos to Rhemalda!)

Michelle Louis is my current writing partner and in the same boat as me. Together, we’re navigating the waters of cleaning up our first manuscript and a day doesn’t pass when we’re not IM’ing each other. To have that every day contact with another writer is so important I can’t even stress it enough. It’s like that little voice in the back of your head, saying, “Get that chapter done yet?” except it’s in your face with an added, “Come on! I need to see what happens next! Hurry up!” Michelle certainly keeps me on task! And her talent for description constantly challenges me to create scenes a reader could step in to like she so effortlessly does herself.

Carmen Fox is my cliché buster and ego builder. She seeks out any clichés in my writing and destroys them on sight. Imagine a Brit holding an oozi. And as you can see from my blog, I, uh, tend to use clichés quite often. Hee hee. But Carmen also pinpoints my strengths and her observations fill me with pride and confidence. Coming from her, it means a lot. Of course, she’ll tell you she has to write in a linear fashion, approaching her MS quite mathematically, but I think that’s a bunch of hooey. She’s a natural writer and a natural beta reader. I’m sure it took her years to get to the point she’s at right now, perhaps starting in an “insert slot A into slot B” type of style, but not anymore. She's another Spongebob. She's ready. And next week she’s querying so fingers crossed!

There have been so many other people who have helped get me to the point I’m at now and I can’t possibly list them all so I apologize if you were missed. Just know I’m thankful and your input was much appreciated. Wow, this is sounding like I just won a Grammy...not exactly how I'd initially intended it to go. But you can see how thankful I am!

Also, my writing skills didn't improve just from people telling me what I was doing wrong, but from beta reading for others.

Here's a handy line graph that shows my personal progress, but I think it could be applied to any writer. I think as readers and literary people in general, we start out as pretty good betas. Yes, some people have very distinct pet peeves and can be opinionated, but I’d like to think we all have talent when it comes to editing other people’s work. In my case, my beta skills were better than my writing skills when I first started. Obviously, as I started to understand and implement “show don’t tell” and non-essential dialogue, and backstory dumps, not only did my writing improve, but also my beta reading. But what the graph shows most is how much my writing improved as a result of beta reading. It quadrupled! (okay, that might not be the right word as math is not my specialty) But basically, it went up a heck of a lot!

If I could give any advice to a new writer just starting out, it’s this: Don’t rush your path to publication. Get dirty in the trenches for a couple of years; really hone your craft. Three years in a lifetime of writing is a drop in the bucket (cliché alert!) and the experience and friends you’ll gain is unmatched. If you put in the time and effort, publication will happen for you...but only when you’re truly ready.

Now a tornado?

Okay, seriously? I think God wants to wipe my town off the map completely. I can now check off the third natural disaster from my bucket list. Earthquake? Check. Hurricane with massive flooding? Check. Tornado? Check! Oh, and did I mention all of these occured within a 2-week period?

This was my latest adventure. Yes, we're alright. Thankfully!

(It comes in at about 6 mins.)

What Irene Took From Me

I sometimes feel like I live in a bubble, protected from the outside world and natural diasters alike. I live in the Northeast where the only weather system I have to worry about are Nor'easters. There are no tornadoes, hurricanes, or earthquakes. Last week, however, we got two out of the three; an earthquake and a hurricane.

The earthquake did little damage but shake me in my chair. The hurricane did much more than I could have ever imagined. It arrived on Sunday, having rained since Saturday night. The wind was mild compared to what you see on TV and I have to admit, I was actually disappointed. Like, that's all you've got? But little did I know it wasn't the wind that would snake it's way into my bubble, bursting it, but the rain. Sunday night, I thought we were in the clear. We didn't have any trees down and we still had power. But then the Facebook posts started coming in from friends and family. The river was rising. Yes, my town is nestled right along the Mohawk river. On my little hill on the north side of town I hadn't realized the looming danger. And by Monday morning things went from bad to worse. Historic flooding that was ripping our historic landmarks to shreds.

As the pictures came in, and memories rushed forward, the tears began to flow. The gas station I worked at for four years during college is ruined and the owner, a woman who taught me how to be business savvy and gave me confidence, is now homeless. The furniture store I used to ride my bike to and play hide and seek in is ruined. My friend's childhood home where we used to have X-files parties and drool over David Duchovny is ruined. The ice cream stand where I'd "just" been to last week with my children is ruined.

Then the news came in last night. A family friend drove through a blockade to check out his corn fields. He misjudged the water running past and was swept away. It happened so fast, the troopers couldn't get to him in time. He was found miles down the river, dead in his truck.

I feel like screaming at someone, anyone! How can this type of destruction come to MY town and take away MY childhood memories and destroy the lives of MY family, friends, and neighbors? My bubble has officially been burst. And it sucks.





American Red Cross Donations

NED

I've had an eraser on my desk for about a year now. I look at it every now and then, not always "thinking" about it. But today I did. It has a picture of this goofy guy's head (Ned) with the following words written on it:

N Never give up
E Encourage others
D Do your best

My son received the eraser at school at an assembly and I don't exactly know how it ended up on my desk at work, but it somehow did. I'm glad. The words are few but they pack a punch and should be everyone's mantra in life.

Never give up. As writers it's easy to give up. Sometimes we abandon projects because we can't get them right. Sometimes we take long hiatus' because we're full of self-doubt. One bad review can sink our conviction, our confidence. We just need to overcome those feelings and remember we're doing this for ourselves, not anyone else. Never give up.

Encourage others. By encouraging other writers, we not only build up their self-esteem, but we build connections, and form friendships. As I've learned in the past couple months, beta reading is not just helpful to the writer, but the beta reader as well. Personally, I gain inspiration from all my beta reads. One of my friends writes lyrical, beautifully descriptive sentences that flow off the page like silk. After I read her work, all of a sudden my own manuscript is infused with description I hadn't thought myself possible of. Another friend of mine has quirky, humorous charcters in her manuscripts. After doing a beta read for her, my own characters start making clever and witty quips. Beta reading allows you to grow as a well-rounded writer and helps bring out the shine in others' writing. Encourage others.

Do your best. To me, this is a no-brainer. If we didn't do our best, what's the point in doing it at all? Yes, everyone has weaknesses and everyone has room to grow. But doing your best is not just excelling in what you do well, but learning and improving on what you don't do well. Do your best.

If you keep NED in the back of your head, you'll go far like a shooting star. Hey I made a rhyme! :)

Everything Happens for a Reason

I'm a true believer that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes, when in the middle of a particularly hairy situation, I'll thumb my nose at it, but eventually, I'll come to realize why it happened and that I'm better off for it. Today, something amazing happened. Well, at least I think it's amazing. :) I was having a boring day at work being that my 6-month long hair-pulling, teeth grinding project is now completed, and I was perusing a writer's forum, Absolute Write. I came upon a post that caught my eye. Why? Because I saw myself in the writer. She was doubting her ability because someone somewhere along her writing journey (out of who knows how many betas) told her her writing was "clunky." Like any normal person, she zeroed right in on that comment and hasn't been able to let go of it. It's even been holding her back from writing her second book. I know how that feels.

So I PM'd this writer and offered her a completely honest opinion on whether I felt her writing was "clunky" or not. I may not be the best writer in the world but I feel like I can recognize whether a writer has what it takes or needs more work. She took me up on my offer and sent me her first three chapters.

Can I tell you, her voice and writing skills are AMAZING. Yes, I put it in caps because it deserves to be in caps. And to think she may have stopped writing because of someone's preference for a different writing style. It boggles my mind but in reality, it happens to every one of us. We keep that doubt locked away in our head, taking it out and carressing it every time we're stuck or receive a rejection. We need to stop treating doubt like our most prized possession and instead smash it into little pieces, then stomp on it for good measure.

Of course, me finding her isn't the basis for my post today. That would be a bit of an ego-stroke for me. Hee Hee. The amazing thing that happened occurred when I was talking to my writing partner about this woman. I mentioned that she had a predicament...a vampire predicament. She didn't think she could query agents with her MS because it was an Urban Fantasy about vampires. (Oh, and by the way, she came up with this book before Twilight came on the scene.) So anyhow my friend tells me how a new agent introduced himself on Absolute Write today, saying he's looking to build his client list and wants vampire stories. Shazaam! Oh, to be a fairy godmother right now. "Cool new agent meet awesome vampire author." I wave my magic wand and they live happily ever after with bestsellers clogging up the NY Times List.

The timing is completely off the wall and I've offered to help her get her MS in shape for querying before his clients start piling up.

And you know I can't leave without at least a little ego-stroking. It's like speed for writers! Check out these compliments she gave me. :)

"This is fantastic. In these three chapters you have been more useful to me than all my previous beta-readers put together!!!" and "What you've done is awesome. I'd love to have you do the rest for me. Hell, I'd pay you to do it (no, seriously)."

Tee hee. I'm not making her pay me. :) But yes, everything happens for a reason. I just hope the stars align for her like she deserves.

Can You Be My Friend?

You know a book is engaging and the characters realistc when you find yourself wanting to jump into the story as another friend, or at the very least, a third cousin. I'm beta reading a YA right now from the multi-talented Claire Gillian, and I keep thinking of her characters long after I stop reading. I want to be their friend. It's so odd to think that and a little embarrassing to say it aloud. But I do. I want them to cry on my shoulder, to confide in me, and fetch me an apple (Claire, you'll get this when you read my comments. LOL).

Does anyone else ever get this feeling? Like you wish you could be friends with the characters? Or that they were real people you could invite over your house to just hang out? And it doesn't even have to be just book characters. A few years ago, I so wished I could be one of the "P" sisters in Charmed.

Come on, I can't be the only one. 'Fess up. :)