Why "Never Give Up" Is Terrible Advice

​Yes, I'm at it again!

I'm still working on The Fracture of a Dream, so I thought I'd try Camp NaNoWriMo once more as an extra incentive to write every day.​  April's Camp NaNoWriMo was a massive failure for me, and I like to try again and again until I succeed.

Hmm...that must be why I spent my lunch hour playing backgammon until I won.​

(Note: Psychologically, perseverance is not always a good thing.  It's important to know when to cut your losses and give up.  If you're unrealistic in your level of control, i.e., you think you have control over things you do not​ control, you're more likely to persist even when others would have stopped trying.)

​We see this often in our everyday lives, with bad situations that we simply can't change, with jobs that must be done, with people who come into a relationship with their own motives, quirks, and emotional baggage.  Sometimes, we have to make the best of it.  Sometimes, we need to know enough to just leave.

​Keep this little tidbit about perseverance in mind as you read about Dek Sundowner and his adventures.  When should he give up?  When should he keep trying?

And how might this change how his story ends?​

Stay focused (unless you think it's time to give up?),​

Ren D.​

​

Writer Versus Himself

Many of the things I do, and the ways I perceive the world, are colored by my training as a psychologist.

Currently, I'm neck-deep in every writer's personal, inner revolution:  editing.

I'm resisting.  Oh, I'm resisting.

My novel was outlined and planned out with a certain degree of logic before I got far in writing (around the 15,000-word mark).  I want certain events to happen, I want certain passages to stay intact...because they make sense that way.

(You can hear me arguing, I imagine.)

But when your thoughtful beta-reader respectfully disagrees, or when your reasonably sane-sounding writing-advice book Hooked, by Les Edgerton, tells you five red flags to avoid at all costs, it's time to stop being defensive and restrain yourself from throwing out the "buts."

But that part belongs there!
But I have a good reason for doing it that way!
But I worked so hard on it, and *I* love it!
But I'm the writer!  Don't I know what's best?

Yep, I've been there, struggling along with the rest of my writer brethren.  I know the feeling of unwillingness to bend to someone else's will.  I know the feeling of total rebellion in the form of apathy:  "Who cares?  I'm doing it my way!"  In my most recent situation, I've been fighting the edict that I must rewrite my first chapter entirely.  I really did plan this chapter a certain way, and it plays a parallel to both the ending and the resolution of the first climactic point...but I need to let go of my defensiveness.

Perhaps, ultimately, it might be better for my novel if I keep the original first chapter.  However, I won't know until I attempt, openly and non-selfishly, to find an alternate beginning.  It could be there.

I was telling myself, "But there's just no other way that beginning, with the same logic and parallels, can come about!"  I realized, of course, that this is ridiculous.  I'm writing fiction.  Thus, there can and will be a new beginning.  I've challenged myself, as a creative writer, to find a solution to the problem and make it work even better than the original solution did.

And I will.

So it's back to the plotting board, as we plotters say.  Push on through, fellow editing-revolutionaries!

Ren D.

When We Click

First of all, I have to confess that Camp NaNoWriMo was a spectacular failure this time around.  I somehow thought I could revise my manuscript, take online courses, see friends and family, and job-hunt in earnest while traveling for almost five weeks.

I make myself laugh.  None of that happened in April.  I barely slept.  As usual, I made myself ill.

But you know what did happen?  I found the time to read a few books on my to-read list.

Click, by Ori and Rom Brafman, was among one of my stacks, and much like their book Sway, the narrative was both interesting and highly readable.  Great storytelling job.  Click deals with that special sort of "magic" we encounter -- whether it's an unexpected love connection, a number of complicated factors coming together just so perfectly all at random, or even just the feeling of being "in the zone" while working on a project.

The idea is fascinating, of course.  You probably aren't aware of this, but there's something you use every day that's the product of one of the "clicks" discussed in the book.  Can you guess what it is?

That mystery aside, Click got me thinking about those special people we have in our lives -- the ones we take a shine to right away, the ones we know will be our best friends as soon as we meet.  These are the friends we can fill hours with, chatting away, the ones we trust with our spare keys and secrets, the ones with whom we can pick up where we left off after years of separation, no discomfort or reacclimatization needed.  (Don't worry; I'm going somewhere with this.)

We are our best selves, our most unguarded, authentic selves when we are with these people.  And, in our writing?  When our characters are with someone with whom they click...that's when our readers (and we, as writers) get a dose of who they are, really.  Their unfiltered personalities, their motivations, their anxieties, their dreams -- all these vibrancies can come through, if you get these characters together with the right person.

Many people act differently or speak differently, according to the situation they're in or the people they are with.  (These social chameleons are generally known as high self-monitors, in case you're interested.  They're always managing the impressions they leave behind.)  This behavior is perfectly natural.  It can make for a confusing character, however, when you're developing your protagonist.  How can your readers get a good sense of who the character is, without needing you to tell them directly?

Get your character into a good click situation.  Then, just let go.  Whoever your protag is, just let that personality flow out onto the paper.

Ren D.

The Ties That Bind Us

As a writer with a psychological bent, I often examine my own interactions with the people around me, probing the boundaries, fingering the threads and knots.  I've done this since I was prepubescent, working out who got along well with whom, how to diffuse tense situations, how to tailor my approach to a person when I wanted to ask a favor.  I'd like to say the ability comes naturally, but it doesn't.

I'm still the master of social gaffes.  I sometimes work against myself.

But there's a beauty in the way people are connected -- some bonds stronger, taut, steady...others thin, wispy, barely sustained.  Complicated.  There's the mother who would sacrifice anything for her child, yet she hardens her heart with jealousy, eyeing her thriving child, born into privileges she herself was not fortunate enough to have.  There's the broken criminal, brusquely keeping the other inmates in line with threats and muscle, but whose thoughts turn to the younger brother he left on the outside, barely a teen and now fending for himself and their younger siblings.

A story can take place anywhere, any time, in any setting.  But it's the relationships between the characters that draw me in.  So I don't rule out any particular genre.  I'll read mysteries, sci-fi, fantasy...anything, if the author catches me with some good relationship tension.  So how are your characters connected?  Are the ties overt, simple?  Or hidden, snarled?

Sure, I love a good relationship.  Does that mean I write romance?  No.  In fact, I find relationships that are barbed with awkwardness, conflicted feelings, and hardships to be the most interesting.

I also love to get deep down into a character's biggest soft spot.  His or her true devotion, whatever he or she most wants to protect.  Whom does Dek Sundowner most want to protect?  The answer may not be so obvious...

Keep loving,
Ren D.

What I Did Last Summer...I Mean, This Coming April

Anyone else taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo next month? I'm excited to be participating (though I'm extremely stressed out -- I'll be traveling, job-hunting, and taking courses at the same time). Nevertheless, after a successful (and productive) trial with NaNoWriMo last November, I feel pretty confident about tackling a reduced word count. If I happen to write more -- all the better!

I'd love to hear from my fellow Wrimos. What are you working on, what are you hoping to accomplish in April?

Stay writery,

Ren D.