Writers Health
Confidence
by Katherine Garbera
I'm on a lot of writing loops and links on-line and periodically the subject comes up--confidence. It's funny because I'm not a big ego person but I've always felt like anything I want to do I can accomplish. When I first started writing this wouldn't have been an issue. Before I joined a writers group I had my little secret that I shared only with my husband and family. Then after I started meeting with other writers some of my confidence slipped especially when I joined a critique group.
I'd find myself bring a chapter that I had revised ten times to the group and then cautioning them that it was a "rough" draft. I don't know what I hoped to accomplish by this but that mind-set made it hard for me to feel confident about the pages I was writing. So after my critique group disintegrated as they sometimes do, I was alone again in my writing and found the confidence that I'd had to begin with. The confidence to take chances and do write the story that I wanted to write. The story that I didn’t feel comfortable talking out loud about but the one that really mattered in my heart. That book became my first sale.
I've always been a little insecure as a write, which I attributed to my own failings. The fact that I repeatedly got that comment on my report card throughout my school years--doesn't live up to potential. I'm still trying and measuring myself by someone else's standards and that takes more effort then I've got to spare these days. But it doesn't change the fact that this feeling is universal. There is little we control in the publishing industry as writers. We control our work to a small extent. We control whom we sell our books to by deciding what contracts to sign. We control...okay that's all I can think of.
Though this out of control feeling is not one I relish I'm beginning to think it may be an essential part of being a writer. That fear and vulnerability add an edge of realism to our writing. I think if you allow yourself to wallow in these feelings. To explore them to their full extent then you find that emotion that is the heart of being human. Fear that we wont' fit in, our society is one which functions on the basis that we all want the same things and when we don't fit in then we become ostracized.
When you think about it we already ostracized ourselves. Writers are by nature observers who record the world from a distance. But I don't believe that fear is exclusively ours and I believe that confidence in our writing is something hard to find. Hard to define and hard to put a pin on. But in our hearts I wonder if we all aren't putting our best work out there with the caution that it's only a draft.
It's hard to be confident when everyone on your loop is experiencing a tight market. It's hard to be confident when the fourth book in a series you've been writing is rejected. It's hard to be confident when you look at the computer screen filled with your own words and know in you heart that it's trash.
Jung, Contests and Judging
by Katherine Garbera
I’ve long believed that everything in the world is related or connected to one another. But I didn’t have any training to back this up. Last summer while attending a workshop in Anaheim at the RWA National Conference I heard Joan Marlow Golan mention the Jungian theory of the Collective Unconscious. Suddenly, I had a place to go to learn more about these thoughts. Recently, I read an article where the author spoke of integrity in contest judges. As I’m a person to whom integrity is an integral part and a frequent judge in contests, this bothered me.
I wondered at the circumstances that prompted the author of the article to make such harsh assumptions. Then I did a little research myself on Jung’s theory. I’ve been on both sides of the coin as an unpublished entrant in a contest and the published judge. I’ve never wondered if anyone would steal my idea or if they would take the essence of my story and use it for their own gain because it is impossible for someone to tell my story.
"Jung’s psychological equivalent of the universal One, his hypothesis of the collective unconscious, underlies his approach to those forms of literature which arise when the poet’s imagination connects to the universal psyche."**
Do you know how incredible this is? That we all have "heard" in the universe the call to tell a similar story. Maybe not that incredible when you acknowledge that there are 42 distinct story plots which have been told and re-told since the beginning of story telling.
When it comes to contest judging I believe many published authors straddle a fence. Many want to help their local RWA chapter and give back some of the help they received when they joined RWA. It’s so hard to tell as a published author if you are going to be given a manuscript to judge that is similar in theme a book you’ve already been contracted for. Especially since contest coordinators like to have judges who are published in the category of the entrant. The chances of this happening are increased. As well as unpublished and published writers writing to trends i.e. cowboys, babies, brides, etc.
Jung theorized that there was a "world-wide occurrence of the same patterns, images and motifs in mythic, religious and symbolic literature".** This is never more apparent to me than when I see several movies on the same topic being made or a slew of books from different publisher on the same topic. Was it that these movie-makers and book publisher all looked at the market and saw a similar lacking or was it something larger and more unexplainable. I believe the latter.
Many times I’ve started work on a project and then heard someone else discussing something that is similar. Of course, it’s not the same. No one can bring my life experiences to the page. No one has the same view of the world that I do and no one can tell the same story that I can.
I would say that the combination of the Collective Unconscious and each writers unique life-experience and voice give us a rich tapestry of stories to choose from. Stories that may have the same theme or situation but are different because of the uniqueness we all bring to the table.
If you truly believe in yourself as a writer nothing will stop you from being a success. Not if you can grow and change and tap into the Collective Unconscious.
**Roberts, Maureen B, Ph.D. "The ‘Gregarious Advance of Intellect’: Romanticism, Platonism, and The Evolution of Western Consciousness"
by Katherine Garbera
Sexual tension is one of those elements that is a must have in every romance novel and on one level it seems instinctive and easy but once you sit down to write it’s a little harder. When my first book came out I kept hearing comments about the sexual tension and how well it was done. Well this was news to me. Sexual tension was one of those "writers tools" that I really wasn't sure how to use. I just knew that I wanted to draw out the intimacy of the hero and heroine as long as I could. But when I went back to the book several things became clear to me and I’m going to share them with you now. These are my tips for writing sexual tension and they apply to every genre of romance writing.
Create Sexy Characters. Everyone defines what’s hot differently so the key to this is to make these characters sexy to each other. Make him the embodiment of her fantasies and vice versa. Another thing I see a lot in first time manuscripts is characters who aren’t sensual. Characters who don’t experience all five of their senses in every scene. A good writer friend of mine read a work-in-progress I had and her only comment to me was the lack of sensuality. I had a scene in the rain and the characters, and through them the reader, had no idea if the rain was shockingly cold against sun-warmed skin. What was the smell of the rain? What memories did it conjure for the POV character--in this case the hero? I had missed an entire element in creating the scene and though mechanically correct in content it lacked the emotional sparkle that it needed to touch a reader.
First Meeting. We’ve all read that when the hero and heroine meet for the first time sparks should fly but what kind. I have a writer friend who is one of the funniest women I know, she’d probably have the hero or heroine set something on fire and those sparks would be flying. But we have a tougher challenge. We have to create in the first meeting the groundwork for your central romance plot and then move it forward, but this needs to be natural. The hero and heroine need to feel an instant attraction and it should throw them for a loop. I like to have them shake hands or accidentally brush against each other. Then there is the physical spark and I add a layer of emotional spark as well. This is where you put in the first hint of your conflict. Something like--it had been years since a man had touched Josie other than her doctor. Immediately you've created tension. Why has it been so long? What is stopping her from being touched? And as you layer in the answers to these questions you are creating sexual tension.
Just a note of caution: If you are writing a suspense novel and there is a real danger to your POV character they are probably going to be thinking about saving their skin instead of how nice it would be to kiss heroine. After they've made it through the hair-raising thing then have the hero reflect on the fit her of her pants as she crawled ahead of him out of the narrow tunnel opening.
Constant Contact. Once you've established in the opening the attraction and the reasons why they aren't going to pursue each other then you create scenes and situations where they have to touch. Each time one of them touches the other--a business handshake at the end of a meeting, passing a plate at a community picnic--then you add a layer of longing. Example: The handshake should have been cold and impersonal as the man who was giving it but it wasn't. Josie felt the warm strength in his hand, an image of those strong blunt fingers on her stomach flashed through her mind. Her skin tingled and she pulled her hand hurriedly away.
The First Kiss. Now this is probably what you've been waiting for. Sexual tension involves the first stages in the mating dance. When the hero and heroine kiss for the first time they are going to have confirmation of what they'd been expecting and the additional spark of something more or they are going to have something unexpected. They'd been expected the friendly kiss of lifelong friends and find instead a spark of desire.
The Mechanics of the Kiss. The nuances of the kiss are what differentiates between a spicy romance and a sweet romance. Is the embrace openly carnal with the hero pushing for more than he knows the heroine is ready to give? Or is it a more tentative brushing of lips something that touches the hero in ways he'd never known existed because life has never been tentative to him? Now this is going to sound silly but I have a book on kisses. It's a coffee table book and has all these artsy pictures in it of couples embracing. And sometimes I browse through it to anchor in my mind how they are embracing. More than mouths are touching or maybe not, breasts brush against a strong chest, her skirt wraps around his legs. These are all the layers you want to add to the kiss.
Awareness of each other. This is so important. At each meeting after that first embrace they will remember what happened. Remember the sparks that flew the desire that began to flow heavy in their blood and why didn't the embrace go any further. Maybe your characters have decided that this is the wrong time to be involved with each other. They are competing at work for a big sales incentive or something external is keeping them apart. Just because this isn't the right time for them to fall in love doesn't mean they won't. Every time he sees her, he wants her and maybe he thinks its only physical or maybe there is another layer and he knows deep in his soul that if he lets her slip past his guard she'll affect him and his life in ways no one else ever has.
Commitment to make love. Sometimes the plot gets to a point where one or both make a conscious decision to make love. Once this happens I like for the plot to actually keep them from making love. I like for steamy embraces that are trying to lead further to be interrupted. The best example of this I can think of is MacKenzie's Mountain by Linda Howard. The hero and heroine have been interupted several times before they can complete the love making act and the hero says to her something like "No matter what happens, the house catches on fire, someone knocks on the door, this time we finish it." That's the kind of tension that makes the air seem electric and completely captures your reader.
Making Love. To me this is the culmination of what you've been working toward with your sexual tension. The mechanics of the act of making love, the emotions the hero and heroine have been trying to deal with all come into play. At no time are the characters more vulnerable than this moment. Explore that vulnerable, make sure that you are capturing every nuance. Don't forget all five senses. What does the room look like? Or is the embrace so intense that the details blend into a background of abstract colors?
A secret they need to share. This is how you tie sexual tension to your central conflict. Though they both desire one and another and they are lovers now that doesn't mean that they'll make love again. Or maybe they are making love again but one of them is tortured with the knowledge of a secret that once spoken will drive a wedge between the hero and heroine. And if you tie this secret to the opposite characters inner fear you will create a moment that transcends your story and not only touches readers but makes them cry.
Black moment--making love. This is kind of mean on one level but I think as a story device this is the best one. I like to have my black moment come right after the hero and heroine have made love. Both characters are feeling vulnerable and maybe hopeful that this time love is here to stay and suddenly they are going to get a shocking wake up call that it hasn't. The levels of sexual tension and emotional tension fairly sizzle if you do this correctly. One or both may still be partially undressed and as they look at each other there is still the awareness and the hum of sexual satisfaction from having just made love.
Meeting after they've broken apart. This is the easiest place to have sexual tension. Once two lovers are parted they still want each other. The anger that drove one of them from the other, the hurtful words or actions dim when their eyes meet and they have a remembered tingle of what being together felt and meant to each of them.
It isn't always easy to figure out which tools you want to use when you sit down to right a scene but the one that you always want to use is sexual tension.
Copyright 1999 by Katherine Garbera. All rights reserved