#WW Writer Wednesday, Thoughts on Letting Go

We're bringing you our #WW Writer Wednesday feature a day early this week! 
On the release of her fifth book,The Rosewood Guitar, Jon’s Story, Mariam Kobras reflects on knowing when to let go and end a series…

“Write about ending a series,” my publisher said to me. “Write about how you know when to end a series.”

Being the good, cooperative author I try to be, I said, “Sure! I was going to do that anyway!” Implying that yes, I’m versatile, spontaneous and flexible, no fuss, no problem. (Well, I try to be.)

After all I came to writing as a child comes to chocolate cake: it was a surprise to me that I had it in me to write an entire novel, let alone five. Or six. Truth is, if my publisher at Buddhapuss Ink hadn’t found me on Twitter and snatched my first book, The Distant Shore, from my willing yet reluctant hands, I’d still be writing that book now, some five years later.

I had made myself at home in it, explored every twist, every nook and cranny in the lives of Jon and Naomi Stone and their families. I’d probably have drifted off and made up an entirely new spinoff series about the Italian branch of Naomi’s relatives, and eventually, I’d have killed off Jon Stone. I’d have left Naomi alone, embittered, a cold, lonely woman trying to deal with what life had thrown at her. Who would have the power to unlock her frozen heart? Who would save her from herself?

But, no.

That book will never be written, nor its alter ego, the story where Naomi dies and leaves Jon behind unable to cope with life or find solace even in his music, and what miracle would have to happen to make him pick up the pieces of his shattered soul!

Oh, the drama! I can see the beautiful sadness, and the bright ray of new hope when they find new life, new happiness… but, no.

When you’ve lived with characters as intimately as I have with the Stones, letting them go is so hard.

Even if there’s a new idea, a new premise, new, intriguing characters in a totally new story; the pain of letting go remains. And it is pain, trust me.

It’s letting go of something you know you can actually do. After all, it was these characters and their stories that got me that first book deal. Can I do that again? Do I have it in me to write something new, something different, and will my publisher like it, will they think it’s worth their time, money, effort?

Letting go of a series is stepping off a cliff. It’s moving to a different country.

It’s getting a divorce from someone you know you still love, and deeply, it’s drifting away on a raft from everything you knew, felt comfortable with, loved. It’s walking a tightrope, blindfolded. It’s going on a diet without sugar, a morning without coffee, a missed plane that leaves you stranded at a strange airport in a strange land.

It’s being dropped into a room full of strangers who don’t speak your language who stare at you with that huge big “Who the hell are YOU?” on their faces.

It’s stepping up to the conductor’s podium, and the orchestra looks around, confused, and asks where the real conductor is? Because it surely can’t be you, can it?

 

Leaving the Stone Series behind was a moment of change for me.

I’d started writing the first book before I was an author, out of an inner drive that I can’t name. I’d written it in my spare time, to amuse myself, to fulfill a teenage dream, but never with the thought of submitting it. It was mine and mine alone. And even when The Distant Shore was published, and the other books after it, it still felt as if I was writing for myself and only letting others in on the fun. I’d set the rules for those characters. I was safe within the parameters of a well-known world.

Would I be able to do it again? And how comfortable would I be in that new world, with new characters, new habits, new needs, dreams, desires?

Would I even be able to create something like that again?

Would I be able to do this again?

Yes, and that’s the heart of the matter, isn’t it? Can you do this again? Can you create something new that’s so different from what you did before that people will enjoy it and not say it’s a pale shadow, and can you make it true enough to be recognized as yours?

There’s only one way to find out, right? Jump off that cliff. Get that divorce. Let them go, those old characters, watch them leave, bid them a fond adieu. Join the ball and smile at those strangers dancing around you, introduce yourself! They’re your new imaginary family, even if they’re still hiding behind masks.

And–oh yes! Explore that new world! Nothing is lost. Anytime you want to, you can visit with those old characters: they’re waiting right there on the shelf, waiting.

Jon and Naomi Stone will never die. They live on in those books.

But they’re not the only ones who want their stories told. The curtains are drawn back now; I can see new characters patiently waiting, gazing at me, silent, smiling, knowing they will be heard.

My heart is open to their fates.

© 2015 Mariam Kobras

Three-time IPPY Award winning author Mariam Kobras, was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Growing up, she and her family lived in Brazil and Saudi Arabia before settling in Germany. Mariam attended school there and studied American literature and psychology at Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. Today she lives and writes in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, two sons, and two cats. 

To hear Mariam read the first chapter of her new book, CLICK HERE.

Thanks, Mariam, for a great piece on leaving characters and stories that you’ve loved behind and embarking on a new series. The first book in Mariam's new series, Sunset Bay, written with co-author CW Morgan, will be coming out later in 2015. A mix of mystery and romance, it unfolds in the wilds of Vancouver Island in western Canada.

READERS: We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of our #WW Writer Wednesday Series and that we'll see you again next week when our guest is Selaine Henriksen who will be talking about picking the right format for your story. Until then, "Butt in chair, WRITE!

~ The Black Cat

Buddhapuss Ink LLC is proud to be a small, but solid house known for great fiction and nonfiction books, written for readers with brains by authors who have more than just one book in them.

#WW Writer Wednesday: Get Close to your Readers through Point of View

In any story, there’s a narrator that is separate from the writer. Point of view concerns how the narrator tells the story, and this will determine how close the relationship between the narrator and reader will be. Each point of view, from first person to third to second works differently to move the reader, and through the manipulation of point of view (POV), a writer can create intimacy or add necessary distance.

FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW

First person POV narratives are the most intimate as the narrator, “I,” tells a story directly to the reader. We become his or her sole confidants. As a writer, it’s important to have a firm sense of who your narrator is, how he views the world, how he speaks, and why he’s compelled to tell this particular story. Is the narrator confessing a past misdeed? Trying to clarify past events for his own state of mind? How faulty is his thinking? Os he funny, confident, tongue-tied, or driven? What discoveries does he make in the telling of his story?

With first person POV, a writer can create an unforgettable character through a distinctive voice, which helps to endear the narrator to the reader. Author Dorothy Allison does this in Bastard Out of Carolina. The story is told in the informal voice of the colorful character “Bone,” who starts sentences with clauses, conjunctions and declaratives, as if speaking in real time, gossiping with us at the kitchen table. We quickly realize Bone knows terrible secrets about her unconventional family, and there’s no doubt she’s going to tell us everything. We enjoy being her chosen audience.

In Roddy Doyle’s novel, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, the narrator is an abused wife who works as a housecleaner. In this excerpt, she both admits and denies her alcoholism:

Years ago, I had to drown the alcohol with coke or blackcurrant. Now I prefer orange juice, but I’ll drink anything. I don’t know when I started being like that. I don’t know when I became an alco [sic]. My children have gone without food because of my drinking. My children have suffered because of my drinking. But I have it under control. I’ve been taking back some of the day. I don’t drink now until after Jack has gone to bed. . .  Sometimes I put him to bed a bit early.

Such a candid confession creates empathy, all the more profound because readers can clearly see what she cannot. Some of the most fascinating stories are those in which the narrator does not seem to be aware of their own distortion of the events.

Multiple first person points of view, when the writer alternates two or more first person narrators, can also be used. Romance novels are commonly written this way. Readers form an alliance with the narrator they most identify with, yet feel sympathetic toward the other narrator(s) because they are privy to their private thoughts, too. That said, having two narrators may not be as intimate as one if readers find themselves torn between differing viewpoints. Not everyone likes being forced to form alliances.

Conversely, this can work to a writer’s advantage by provoking sympathy for multiple characters and entrenching the reader in their dilemmas. It’s like being at a family dinner where everyone you love is arguing, and you don’t want to take sides. This happens in Joanna Briscoe’s Sleep With Me, a novel about a love triangle narrated in alternating chapters in first person points of view by a husband and his pregnant wife, who unwittingly have an affair with the same woman!

THIRD PERSON POINT OF VIEW

Third person is one step removed from first POV since an invisible narrator is telling a story about a “he” or “she.” Third person limited POV (where we see the world only through a particular character’s eyes) can be as intimate as first person, but there are subtle differences that make it well-suited for certain characters.

A good example is Belly, by Lisa Selin Davis. Belly is an argumentative, belligerent ex-convict at odds with his adult children. The reader needs distance from this prickly character. Although Davis makes use of Belly’s caustic voice when we see events through his eyes, his inner monologue is still separate from the narrative. This allows us to be observers, yet brings us just close enough to empathize. In this scene, Belly openly grieves, but he is so out of touch with his emotions that he doesn’t have the tools or words to express them:

He turned and looked at his youngest [adult] child, her pale stringy hair and her pale eyes, everything about her light against the darkening sky and he felt something strange, some foreign object clogging his throat, I’m giving birth to an egg out my mouth, he thought, and then he coughed and made a sound and he thought, What is happening to me, what is this? And Eliza put her skinny little arms around him and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay Daddy,” and he still didn’t know, he could not see out his left eye and he let his head hang down on her bony shoulder and he shook and her shoulder was wet. It was all over in a minute.

As you can see, third person POV permits a writer to make use of descriptions, metaphors and language that the character himself wouldn’t use. In this way, third person opens up possibilities to do more with the writing. An objective narrator can also reveal things about flawed or shady characters that would be less than honest with the reader.

Third person works well with multiple points of view, too. We are observers who learn the motives and thoughts of various characters in a story. A sense of intimacy with the reader can be gained by using limited POV, when the narrator zooms in to get the inner thoughts of a particular character. Chapter or section breaks help cue the reader as to whose inner thoughts we are privy to.

Another type of third person narrative is omniscient, where the narrator knows everything and everyone’s thoughts. This type of narrative is the most distancing, but well suited for novels where setting and history are as important as the characters.

SECOND PERSON POINT OF VIEW

The second person pronoun “you” can be used several different ways, and this POV can create a surprisingly intimate bond between the narrator and reader. “You” turns reading about something into experiencing it.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny, begins: “You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. . . ”

Obviously, the “you” in this novel does not refer to the reader. Here, the self has split, creating a “you” in an inner dialog. The narrator is speaking to the self in denial. Although we understand the narrator is not us, his inner dialog becomes internalized through use of the word “you.” We are drawn into the mind of this conflicted narrator as he avoids dealing with reality through escapism. I won’t give the plot away, but when the reason for his distress is revealed, his self-discovery becomes, in essence, our discovery, too, and it packs an emotional punch. The same story told in first or third person POV wouldn’t have the same impact.

Second person POV can be used in an instructional narrative, as in Bonnie Jo Campbell’s short story “The Solutions to Brian’s Problem” from American Salvage. The narrator, Brian, brainstorms how to deal with his wife, who is a meth addict and the mother of their baby. The narrative is gut-wrenching because we cannot help but imagine ourselves in his shoes as he lists any and all possible ideas.

Solution #1

Connie said she was going out to the store to buy formula and diapers. While she’s gone, load up the truck with the surround-sound home entertainment system and your excellent collection of power tools, put the baby boy in the car seat and drive away from this house you built with your own hands. Expect that after you leave, she will break all the windows in this living room, including the big picture window and the big mirror over the fireplace, which you’ve already replaced twice. The furnace will run and run. Then she will go to your mother’s looking for you, and when she doesn’t not find you, she will curse at your mother and possibly attempt to burn your mother’s house down. . .

Solution #2

Wait till Connie comes back home from the “store,” distract her with the baby, and then cut her meth with Drano, so that when she shoots it up she dies.

By the time Brian arrives at the seventh and most plausible solution, we are right there with him, feeling his inner conflict and pain as if it were ours.

Another way of using second person is when a first person POV narrator, “I,” addresses a specific character, "you,” throughout the story. John Ames, an elderly minister, dying of a bad heart, is the first person narrator in GILEAD, by Marilynne Robinson. Ames is writing an account of his life for his six-year-old son to read when he’s an adult. Gilead is an epistolary but written as informal conversational, so it reads like a second person address. Here, Ames refers to a playful moment with his boy that turns somber:  

And then I pretended I had a bee buzzing around in my mouth, and you said, ‘No you don’t, there wasn’t any bee!’ and I grabbed you around the shoulders and blew into your ear and you jumped up as though you thought maybe there was a bee after all, and you laughed, and then you got serious and you said, ‘I want you to do this.’ And then you put your hand on my cheek and touched the flower to my lips, so gently and carefully, and said, ‘Now sip.’ You said, ‘You have to take your medicine.’   

The second person address creates a contradictory reaction in the reader: we feel the narrator is personally addressing us, while, at the same time, we acknowledge the “you” as a specific character in the story. Our emotional response deepens because we cannot help being called into the father-son relationship. We feel the love, tenderness and sorrow firsthand, as if we were Ames’ son.

If this novel were a typical first-person narrative, it wouldn’t have the strength that it does to move readers. It would be simply a sad sermon delivered by a devout man on his deathbed. Instead, we’re able to step into a loving and affectionate relationship through the virtue of the second-person pronoun “you.”

Whichever POV you feel most comfortable with, don’t be afraid to explore different narratives in view of your characters, their motivations, and the story they are telling. How intimate do you want your readers to be with your narrator? Does intimacy serve the story? The subtle and complex layers of POV are worth studying so that your work receives the desired response from your readers. What a story is about cannot be separated from who is telling it, and how.

In addition to the books mentioned above, a solid resource for writers is Points Of View: An Anthology Of Short Stories, edited by James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny. The anthology contains stories by Steinbeck, Capote, Updike, Dostoevsky, Poe, and more, and gives an excellent account of the many variations of fictional techniques concerning point of view.

Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a published poet and writer with a chapbook award and an MFA in fiction. She wrote her forthcoming novel, In The Context Of Love, (July 2015, Buddhapuss Ink) in a first person POV second person address, where the narrator talks to her lost love throughout the story.

Thanks, Linda, for a very clear and intriguing explanation of POV and the important role it plays in every story!

READERS: We hope you enjoyed this week's edition of our #WW Writer Wednesday Series 

~ The Black Cat

Buddhapuss Ink LLC is proud to be a small, but solid house known for great fiction and nonfiction books, written for readers with brains by authors who have more than just one book in them.

A Cure for the Winter Doldrums!

What if you could strengthen your immune system, lower your stress levels, diminish pain, and boost your energy all at the same time for just $.99?

Numerous studies have shown that the simple act of laughing can achieve all this and more,* and Buddhapuss Ink LLC, a publisher in Edison, NJ, has just released a surefire way to add more laughter to your life with the hilarious first installment in the Leslie and Belinda Mystery series: Daredevil by Tennessee author, Linda Browning. 

These two wise-cracking seniors have been described as Murder, She Wrote meets Laverne and Shirley. The reviews are just starting to come in and are calling this new series “Just fun!” and Daredevil “A book that keeps you smiling from start to finish.” Get down and dirty with these meddling residents of a retirement village in middle Tennessee who let their curiosity get the better of them. Sticky situations and comedic antics abound as Browning sets her characters loose. “Where others are winding down in retirement, Leslie and Belinda are just getting started. Browning‘s cozy mystery celebrates the second half of life with humor, delight and wit.” quipped Sam Hilliard, author of the #1 bestseller The Last Track. This pair of sassy, senior sleuths, Leslie and Belinda, are on the hunt for a missing girl; and it leads them on a crazy chase through a dark graveyard with Leslie’s eight-pound-dog, Riff-Raff, right in the middle of all the action. Buckle up and keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times; it’s going to be a bumpy (and hilarious) ride!

“Everyone at Buddhapuss Ink loves working with Linda. It's like a roller coaster unleashed and off the tracks!” said MaryChris Bradley, Publisher at Buddhapuss Ink. “Her characters are the kind of comic relief that cozy mystery readers love. Think Miss Marple with a penchant for shopping at the Dollar Store. Her stories are fast-paced reads that will leave you rolling on the floor. I want to live next door to Leslie when I retire!” 

Grab your copy of this hilarious eBook and join the laughter. Remember, it's good for you health.

Browning worked for many years in clerical and supervisory roles at the Clinton Valley Center in Michigan, but later followed her husband to Tennessee when he was asked to relocate. They are both happily retired (sort of) and living in a middle Tennessee retirement community. Linda rediscovered her love of creative writing after receiving a laptop for Christmas in 2011. She'd dallied in various crafty endeavors like quilting and painting, but it was her thirst for storytelling that really stuck. “Life is good and at 62 years of age…I’m finally getting going.” 

*Laughter is the Best Medicine for your Heart: Study done by the University of Maryland Medical Center http://umm.edu/news-and-events/news-releases/2009/laughter-is-the-best-medicine-for-your-heart

Laughter Therapy: Study from the Cancer Treatment Center of America http://www.cancercenter.com/treatments/laughter-therapy/

The Science of Laughter: Psychologist and laughter researcher Robert Provine, Ph.D., explains the power of laughter, humor, and play as social tools. (Psychology Today) http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200011/the-science-laughter