Thomas Wolfe and the Loss of Magic

by Janis Patterson

Sometimes finishing a book can be the saddest thing on the earth. I know that when the magic has been really working and the book is good and tight and alive, I often have difficulty in writing the last chapter or two.

I know what’s going to happen. I even have most of the wording in my head. I can see the action in my mind just like watching a movie screen. But I hesitate and procrastinate about putting the words to paper… or pixels, as the case may be.

Other times I race to the finish (as much as my picky craft-obsessed mind will allow) and typing The End is an incredible relief, one that could be called escape. I am shed of that world, which has grown tiresome, and the characters, whom I sometimes have come to actively dislike, while the wonderful, pristine world of a new project beckons seductively. I don’t know why one project becomes the mental equivalent of hard labor and another a delight which I am reluctant to complete. It has nothing to with genre, as this phenomenon has happened in every genre I write – except children’s, but as I have only done one of those and it was the result of a fit of bad temper, I don’t believe that is big enough a sample to count.

I do, however, flatter myself enough to believe that my readers cannot tell which book has been a delight to write and which has been labor.

I am currently in this situation. I am within 2-3 thousand words of typing THE END and have been having a terrible time doing it. I love this story, this world, these people. Instead of writing I find myself doing housework, which I normally regard as slightly less enjoyable than a visit to the dentist. No, I must find another analogy, for at the dentist’s I am given copious amounts of happy gas, which is a wise self-defense measure on the part of my dentist. You see, I bite. Quite involuntarily, I assure you, as I actually like him as a person and he is a very good dentist.

Perhaps this ‘place of magic’ is why the phenomena of series are so popular. Once ensconced in a world, book after book after book ensures that neither the reader nor the writer has to step outside their cozy little enclave. But while that is true up to a point I disagree. Yes, there is the safety of familiarity in subsequent iterations, but characters and places move on, and neither is ever the same as the first time.

Thomas Wolfe was right. You can never really go home again.

Writing, Magic and Electricity

by Janis Patterson

I am always astonished when people ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” The world is full of ideas. Almost anything can spark an idea. At a writers lunch not long ago someone brought a very technical book on statistical analysis they had just published as a part of their day job. The subject was so esoteric while I could read every word in the title, but could not understand what they meant as a whole. (I am definitely among the mathematically and scientifically inept!) When the author explained, I said, “But what a wonderful idea for a plot!”

Everyone looked at me as if I had just lost my mind and one writer was blunt enough to say, “Not for me, it doesn’t,” whereupon I spun out the skeleton of a tale including – as I recall – rogue scientists, an honest researcher and various unscrupulous types manipulating the future through scientific predictions based on statistical data.

It’s usually at this point where The Husband says, “You’re weird.” This impromptu story-spinning of mine has been part of me all my life and is now an almost obligatory performance at dinner parties and other social functions. Pity I don’t remember any of these tales for more than ten minutes or so.

The point of all this being that anything – anything! – can be the germ, the seed, the kernel of a plot. Of course, we all know that for a book you need hundreds of ideas, ideas that will interlink into a seamless whole, but every plot starts with a single idea, even if you don’t know from where it comes.

And they do come – in waves and deluges and herds… The only trouble is that they don’t necessarily mesh with each other enough to make a coherent plot.

In a way it’s a shame to let all those ideas die without even attempting to incorporate them into a manuscript, but sheer numbers and time crunches make that impossible. The whole exercise is extremely useful, though, as just that – an exercise for my imagination. As the saying goes, use it or lose it. Therefore I fully intend to keep on entertaining (and occasionally unnerving) those around me with my flights of fancy. As an acknowledged member of the Reality-Challenged, it’s great fun.

So how do I decide which idea becomes a book or even part of a book and which is an amusing piece of ephemera? Easy – I don’t. It’s the idea. It grabs ahold of me and won’t let go. No matter what else I’m working on – writing or cooking or anything – it’s somewhere there in my mind, as tenacious (and occasionally annoying) as a terrier. Eventually I give in and start writing. Generally every one of those books is finished, usually including a few ideas that somehow didn’t manage to stand on their own. I do have a few – a very few – of these stories that petered out before the final ‘The End’, but I don’t think they’re dead. They’re just dormant, and when the right combination of ideas comes together they will be finished, even if not in the form I originally intended.

That’s why I think writing is a form of magic. Like electricity, I don’t really know how it works, I just know that that it does.

Expectations and Christmas

by Janis Patterson

It’s the holiday season again – gulp! – and we’re all running around like mad trying to fulfill all our individual family traditions and other obligations. Gifts and food and guests and cards… sometimes it seems overwhelming.

But in spite of overspending and overeating, it is a magical time of year. Those of us who are religious have the extra pleasure of celebrating our faith. Those who are not religious simply enjoy the energy and the spirit of the season. Just about everyone, though, wishes the spirit of the season could last all year long.

Stay with me – this does have something to do with writing.

Mention Christmas to anyone – Christian, Jew, Wiccan, agnostic, any flavor of belief – and I’ll bet money the first reaction that snaps into most everybody’s mind is an impression of evergreens and countryside and holly, all perfectly frosted with a glistening blanket of snow… in other words, all the traditional icons of Christmastide. It makes no difference if someone lives in the desert or a city high-rise, the first image most people conjure of Christmastime is heavily influenced by the pictures of Currer and Ives. Even if we’ve never seen such a Christmas in our life, that image is one of our cultural expectations of Christmas.

I grew up and live in Texas, where – in my part of the state, at least - we almost never get white Christmases. A couple of years ago, though, I went to join The Husband in Germany for the holidays. There were evergreens artistically frosted with snow. Holly bristled with red berries. The city abounded with flags and banners proclaiming “Merry Christmas!” It was like walking into a Hallmark Christmas card with every expected Christmas image right in place.

And that’s the link. Expectation. We expect romance novels to end happily. We expect mystery novels to end with justice (not necessarily the law) being served. We expect the good guys to win in genre fiction. That’s one of the joys of popular fiction – even though we don’t know how it’s going to get there, we know how it’s going to end. It will fulfill our expectations.

Unfortunately, there is no such guarantee of a happy ending in real life. On the other hand, as humans we are adaptable. In spite of temporary disasters like an exploding turkey (don’t ask), gifts that are just flat wrong, the inevitable fight between warring uncles or squabbling cousins, whatever, we will remember the good parts of Christmas – and there will be good parts. Great food. A wonderful gift that you wanted but didn’t expect. The magic in a child’s eyes when they talk about Santa’s visit. The comfort of family and friends. This year’s disasters become next year’s shared anecdotes and then pass into treasured family lore to be passed down through the generations. (And if your family is like mine, they never forget anything no matter how much you might want them to!) The children grow older and the magic of Santa is replaced with the eternal magic of love and family, until it is time for them to create the magic of Santa again for their own children.

As writers we are incredibly fortunate – we don’t have to wait for Christmas. We get to create magic and fulfill expectations all year long.

Merry Christmas! May it meet your expectations, now and forever.

Viewpoint, Tinsel and Magic

by Janis Patterson

I am ambivalent about the holidays.

I still have enough of the child in me to be in joyous awe of Thanksgiving, with its focus on thanking God for what made this country great as well as (let’s face it) for the unrestrained gluttony. My family is full of excellent cooks who, for this one day a year, throw their usually healthful menus to the winds and provide a sumptuous feast. Some of the more fanciful and calorie-laden recipes are only brought out on Thanksgiving … and occasionally on Christmas, but not always. We all eat all day and no one says a thing except, “More, please.” We all believe that one day of gourmandry is nothing to worry about, at least, not if you have a ready supply of Tums and Pepto Bismol handy.

The fortnight before Christmas is the same emotional rush – the decorations, the carols, the lights, the mysterious and alluring packages that one by one appear under the tree as if really brought by elves… It is the stuff of magic, and if you are not touched by it I pity you.

On the other hand, I am adult, and I know the work and expenditure and planning and sometimes sacrifice that must be done to create the magic of both holidays – the hard, grunt work that makes them happen. Grunt work it might be, but isn’t all magic supported by grunt work? It’s the quintessential symbiotic relationship… for adults, at least.

Which is a lot like writing. (Stay with me here – I do have a point.) As adults we can see both sides of the holidays – the magic and the hard work. As writers, we have to see and make believable both sides of our characters, bad and good. We have to see all of their motivations, even – especially! – if they conflict with other characters. Such a skill is a necessity, unless we are content to write flat cardboard people with no depth, no reality – creatures who are nothing more than verbal paper dolls. Real people and real characters are multi-dimensional, with sometimes contradictory beliefs and actions both towards others and within their own psyches. As writers we have to see and respond to both.

In other words, we have to create both meat and tinsel in our books. Yes, it’s hard work, but when it’s done right there is magic – and that magic is what we all want.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and wish you a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you observe. Now I must run – Christmas is coming more quickly than we can believe, and I’m running low on tinsel!

The Magic Click

by Janis Patterson

Just to be upfront, know that I am a pantser. When I start a book I have a vague idea of what the basic shape of the story is, but the idea of writing from a detailed outline not only makes me break out from stress, it also effectively kills any kind of creativity. In other words, I am bored with the story before it even begins.

I admit my style of writing has its pitfalls. Sometimes I simply sit and stare at the screen while it stares back at me. Sometimes an entire day’s work simply must be deleted because it just doesn’t take the story where I want it to go. To be honest, though, I have had the same problems when, during my ghostwriting career, I had no choice but to work from a detailed outline.

Pantser or plotter, there’s only one solution for when you hit a wall like that – write. Put one word down after another, again and again, repeat as necessary, until you have something on paper. If it has to be rewritten or even discarded later, you have something to work with, a base from which you can go forward. It’s not the dream of writing, nor is it the easiest task, but it is something every professional writer can do. Eventually the wall dissolves and the way becomes easier again. 

And sometimes there is the Magic Click, that wonderful moment when everything falls into place and the book flows like molten butter. You suddenly know exactly where everything is going, what clues to put in, what is going to happen two or ten chapters down the road, sometimes all the way to the end of the book – an end that is imminently satisfying and logical, yet might not have the slightest resemblance to the original you envisioned.

Magic, indeed. But isn’t that what writing is? Surely it must be magic to create believable worlds and people from little more than imagination and caffeine.

Some writers say that writing which comes so easily is suspect and most likely garbage. Perhaps, but I’ve never found it so. Usually the post-Magic Click prose is among my best, some of which has stood as written without any changes at all from various usually tough editors. I personally think it’s because all the pre-writing is done in the subconscious and is fairly well edited before it erupts onto the page. Plus, just getting all those words down (as many as 8.000 during one rather spectacular session) is a purely joyous rush.

Pantsing is sometimes frightening, sometimes labor-intensive, sometimes frustrating. It is also great fun and very rewarding. In my opinion it creates a much more ‘alive’ and vibrant story. The Magic Click is just gravy.

          Janis Patterson is a seventh-generation Texan and a third-generation wordsmith who writes mysteries as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children’s books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.

          Formerly an actress and singer, a talent agent and Supervisor of Accessioning for a bio-genetic DNA testing lab, Janis has also been editor-in-chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups as well as many other things, including an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. 

Magic?

Steam escapes from my humidifier. Magic? Well, not really. Care went into achieving this phenomenon. First, someone a while ago figured out how to construct a product a certain way to make steam occur, turning dry air moist.

That wasn't all. A company had to gather each part either by making them or through purchase. Then, it all had to be put together. The humidifier is ready. Still, if no one knows of this particular brand, how can its benefits be enjoyed?

Using advertising methods, be they word of mouth, written, e-mail or snail mail, someone from the company has to inform buyers this particular humidifier is available at a particular price. Someone at Walgreen's has to make the decision to buy that brand and how many.

Walgreen's then keeps an amount of humidifiers in the stores, keeps circulars in its stores and also sends out copies of the circulars in the Sunday papers.

I see the ad in the paper. I buy the humidifier, take it home, put water in it, place it on the table, and turned it on. Steam comes out. This particular day the sun from the window shines on it, highlighting the steam even more.

Not exactly magic.Actually, lots of work from many people before this product got down to me, the consumer, to enjoy its benefits.

Books aren't magic either, although their inspiration might seem to be. Authors need to not only get an idea, but also master grammar, use common sense, research the genre, settings and/or plot points, plus spend however many hours it takes to put that book together. That could take months, or years, but very rarely only a day or two.

After a book is written, whether indie or traditional, it still needs to go to an editor to catch what the author missed. That editor offers suggestions for improvement, which the author agrees to or not. Changes are  done to make the book stronger.

At some point, preferably early on, a designer puts together a cover provided by an artist or stock source. Sometimes authors do this themselves, but whoever does it must take care to achieve a professional look.

Once the book is done, whether indie or traditional, it needs to be formatted for e-book and/or print. If e-book, it will usually be put up at Amazon and/or Smashwords. If print, some popular places to use are Createspace through Amazon and/or Lightning Source.

The book  is then available for purchase, but no one knows about it. If an author and/or publicist is on the ball, word has already leaked out about the upcoming release.

When the book is actually ready, more publicity results through websites, blogs, publicity releases, and popular social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Goodreads. If print copies are on hand, an author might arrange a book launch party or book signings at brick and mortar stores.

Then, wonder of wonders, light shines down. A reader sees the book. Magic?  Not really.

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Forever Young: Blessing or Curse on
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