So, dear writers…I’m discovering that it’s actually liberating to follow someone else’s directions to write a novel, sort of like following the steps of a cake recipe. Only you get to take more liberties with the ingredients.

Today’s assignment involved writing character profiles. I’ve been thinking about my characters, and it’s fun imagining their likes and dislikes, their fears and ambitions, where they live, what their character traits are, how they look, a bit about their past, maybe more than a bit, and so on. Yesterday over lunch with two friends (Missy and Louise), we threw ideas around. Someone suggested that maybe one of the main characters had gotten a “boob job.” That she was just a bit on the white trashy side, but was working her way up. That her husband was a construction worker named Bill. That they’d met in high school. Maybe she was a cheerleader, but Bill got her pregnant a month before school ended…

One of my main characters is Susan Winthrop. She appeared in a short story of mine published about 5 years ago (Perfection), in which she spends the entire story getting her nails done, (”her hands are the best part of her anatomy”

flowers to write by

), thinking and worrying about her teenage daughter, over whom she’s losing control. Susan’s a Washington lawyer, pretty strait-laced, controlling, smart, a bit humorless. Now I’m learning things like what country club she belongs to, which one she’d like to belong to, who she married and how they met (at a press conference…so typical DC!). One by one her family members, and all their foibles and eccentricities, are marching on stage and making an appearance.

I’ve always been an advocate of writing character sketches. They not only help you get a handle on your character, but it’s a great way to brainstorm plot. As I delve deeper into Susan or Sandy or Bill, snippets of plot seem to materialize out of thin air. What ifs emerge. Connections between characters seem to happen.

Quote from Sarah Domet’s 90 Days to Your Novel:

The characters you cast for your novel will be the single most important factor in your book. Why?  Because characters are the driving force of your novel, the lifeblood of fiction, and nearly ever other element of your novel is related to the characters you choose. … Mark Twain reminds us that when we create characters so complete, so fully rounded, they’ll jump off the page and feel so real that the reader just knows them.

By Caitlin MacDougall, Intern

You never forget your first read of your favorite novel—at least I don’t.  In the wake of your first reading, you remember how the book became a part of you, how it shaped and defined that one period in your life, and the painful separation anxiety you felt when you realized you were on the last chapter.  It’s about as good as falling in love.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was that first love for many, but I never got the chance to read it.  I remember showing my mother my reading list in junior high and her puzzled look when she realized Lee’s one and only masterpiece, a coming-of-age prerequisite, did not make the cut.  “What kind of middle school doesn’t have To Kill A Mockingbird as required reading?” she asked.  I felt excluded from this literary secret that everyone seemed to relish, but I made it my personal responsibility to read the book on my own.

Years went by and as I checked the American classics off my unofficial reading list (F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, J.D. Salinger), To Kill A Mockingbird lingered as the itch that had not been scratched.  Walking around Politics and Prose recently, I noticed a re-print of the novel in honor of its 50^th anniversary (I’ll let the baby-boomers take a moment to let that settle in).  As a recent college graduate experiencing my first taste of funemployment, I knew that this summer was my chance to finally fulfill the experience I had missed out on when I was thirteen.

I read the entire book during a weekend with my family in Lake George.  Instead of sailing, hiking, or biking, I spent hours sitting on a hammock on the porch, engrossed in the story.  What I love most about Lee’s writing is her mastery of place.  The passage in which Scout first describes the town of Macomb is unforgettable:

“Macomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oak on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.” (5)

How beautiful.  The description completely sets the tone for the entire novel.  As we follow Scout, Jem, and Dill through the seasons, through their neighbors’ yards and the through heartwrenching trial of Tom Robinson, we are reminded of the heat and listlessness in that first passage about Macomb in the summertime—a description of stagnancy that was sure to be torn apart as the town’s racial epithets are challenged and the characters are drained of their innocence.

Lee’s masterpiece is a testament to the importance of setting certainly, but it is also a reminder to re-read the books that inspire you.  Ask yourself: why is this story so important to me?  What makes it magnificent?  You can read as many How-To books about writing or getting published as you want, but the best lessons are those hidden in the sleeves of that dusty hardcover you love so much.

First read article, then I’ll comment on why it’s on a blog about writing.

The Cornell v Loyola lax game, on Saturday (May 15th), was aired on ESPN-U, then made ESPN news, was featured in numerous newspapers, and Max’s (#33) goal made top 10 on ESPN’s sports center the following day.

Max Feely’s Goal In Triple Overtime Advances Cornell Men’s Lax Past Loyola In NCAA Tourney

5/15/2010 5:25:23 PM

Feely #33-in foreground

5/15/2010 5:25:23 PM

ITHACA, N.Y. – Junior Max Feely (#33) picked an opportune time to score his first career goal, as the All-Ivy defender took the ball coast-to-coast for a clear before depositing a shot past the Loyola goalkeeper 1:55 into the third overtime to give Cornell an 11-10 victory on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. The win advances the seventh-seeded Big Red into an NCAA quarterfinal contest next Sunday at Stony Brook against the winner of tomorrow’s contest between No. 2 Syracuse and No. 16 Army. Cornell improves to 11-5, while the Greyhounds ended their season at 9-5.

Feely’s goal ended the longest NCAA tournament contest in both school’s history and the longest game on record in Loyola’s storied lacrosse program. Cornell last went into a third overtime against Yale in 1996, falling to the Bulldogs 11-10.

* Box Score
* Cornell Postgame Notes
* Cornell Postgame Press Conference (check it out–Feely answers Qs)
* Loyola Postgame Notes
* Photo Gallery

Okay, I’ll admit it. Max Feely is my son. And this is a ‘proud mom’ moment. Sorry for the brag, but hey, I’m a mom.

A quick disclaimer: The point I want to make may be a bit of a stretch, but this was the thought that came to mind the more I thought about my son’s feat, and that of so many people who succeed at what they set out to do: YOU can accomplish what you set out to do. Even amazing things. It takes hard work, perseverance, discipline, more hard work, perseverance, and faith in yourself. It takes a vision of success.

This morning there was a story on the Today Show about a girl, who at age 8 was kidnapped and brutally raped. The rapist then slit her throat from ear to ear and left her bleeding in a field. She was lucky to have been found 14 hours later by some kids playing nearby. She couldn’t call out because her vocal cords had been sliced. She was told she would never be able to speak again. The next day she spoke. She recovered physically, but was traumatized, as you might expect.

This beautiful little girl set a goal. She would find the killer. Everyday she thought about him and worked to achieve justice. She never gave up, certain that she would succeed. About 18 years later they found her killer! He was convicted and sentenced to life w/o parole. In the cell he hung himself.

Writers and artists: set goals, envision them, keep writing and creating. It’s not easy; it requires diligence, a dedicated work ethic, training, faith.

But there’s one more thing. Make sure you read the following paragraph before moving on to the next blog.

These days there are far too many people who think they can simply write a novel or a memoir, or a work of non-fiction without putting in the time getting training, working at the craft, honing their writing skills, etc. They think a draft or two will do. They think they don’t need a class or a workshop. They think they were born writers. (Okay, for a few that’s true. Sorta’.)

So, like Max Feely, who puts in several hours a day training, who then has to study to get grades (he gets good grades…okay, I’m bragging again), and who then has to find time to sleep, and like the little 8 year old girl, who worked each day to find her killer, you have to put in the time, you have to be disciplined, and you have to believe in yourself.

In the same vein, it is possible to write a story or a book that gets published or wins a prize or both.  So keep at it. Good luck!

Love to hear from you. chrysaliseditorial@rcn.com. Or comment below.

Check out this quote from a famous novel:

“There is no use trying,” said Alice, “I cannot believe impossible things.”

“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

One of the secrets to creativity is seeing like a child sees–i.e. approaching each moment with naivety, “discovering” everything you come across before you question it, and throwing your whole being into believing things; believing that Santa Claus makes an annual journey, for example, or that your mother has X-ray vision, or that if you practice enough you’ll be able to fly.

Or that when you grow up you can be a writer.

Lewis Carroll knew his stuff.

1. Everyone has a strong, unique voice.
2. Everyone is born with creative genius.

These affirmations are two of five “essential affirmations” suggested by Pat Schneider, a writing teacher/workshop leader with a unique and affirming approach.** For inspiration and “the guide that will beat the block, banish fear, and help create lasting work,” I highly recommend her book “Writing Alone and with others.”

A writing exercise recommended by her:

Write something that feels too huge, or too dangerous, to tell. Courage is not the special prerogative of those who have experienced some dramatic suffering.

In Japan, Schneider led a workshop and a young woman named C. Misa Sugiura wrote the following:

When I was little, people laughed at me and called me flatface. They pulled their eyes into slits and said, “Me Chinese!” and laughed.

I didn’t know my face was flat so I went home and looked in the mirror to see, but all I saw was my face. It wasn’t flat, was it?

And I wasn’t Chinese, but I looked in the mirror anyway and my eyes looked like eyes. Didn’t they?

So I went to school and said, “I’m Japanese and my face is like yours, isn’t it?

And they said, No. It isn’t! It’s flat like a pancake. Me Japanese pancake-face! And they laughed.

And I went home again and I looked in the mirror and I cried because they were right.

Sugiura attended elementary school in America where she was ridiculed by her classmates. This piece, about personal shame and internalizing the taunts of others as true, is something many of us experience; it can take courage to write something so personal. And yet, hers is not a complaint, instead, as Schneider writes, “Misa reveals the mind of the child: she does not analyze, interpret, or argue. And it works!”

So now, you take a turn writing “something that feels huge, or too dangerous to tell.” Dig deep, be daring. Once you are finished, don’t judge it. Let it stand as is. It’s your voice telling some piece of your own story. If you’d like a comment about what worked or was beautiful or what touched me (no critique, only affirmation of your creative voice), send it to me. If it’s too deeply personal to submit as a blog comment, use my e-mail: herta@starpower.net. Good luck!

This castle is situated high atop a mountain in Bavaria (southern Germany). This is the land I come from. The Black Forest is the location of fairy tales, mostly dark if you think about them, i.e., Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty. (The Brothers Grimm are aptly named!)
But here is a thing of beauty, a castle embedded in most of our minds because we’ve seen it thousands of times…on travel posters, and even more so its replica in Disneyland. King Ludwig inhabited this castle. After taking some 10 years to have hundreds of artisans build it, this avowedly crazy royal disappeared having lived there for only a few months.

So…I guess I’m saying it serves you well to look beneath the surface of things, behind the façade of people and their relationships, the veneer of places, etc. Perhaps you might use this concept as a writing prompt. Who is your neighbor, really? What was that knife in his drawer actually used for? What is happening in the Oval office after hours? What happened to King Ludwig? He liked to hunt, he liked to roam off. Google him if you want further information, though an entirely made up story might give greater flight to your imagination…make up your own fairy tale…

Send me the first paragraph…maybe I can include it in the anthology: Confessions: Fact or Fiction?

When I see a picture like this, I am reminded of the beauty that surrounds us.  At some point today, try to take a moment to travel inside this picture.  Is the wind soughing through the trees?  What are the smells?  Appreciate the light that falls in lacy patterns on the road.  Try to forget that you are sitting in front of your computer and instead let your imagination transform your surroundings and inform future writings.  Enjoy this moment of Zen!