bookpublishing

If you’re a book lover like me, you’re going to love this video. It really makes you appreciate book design and makes you wish you really did live in a world full of books. Well, I guess it is full of books, right? Sometimes, I feel like I don’t have enough time to appreciate them. Is that totally strange coming from a book editor? Thanks Felix (twitter ID @noturavergeprep) for this amazing video. And if you’re interested in cool and always interesting nuggets found all over the web, check out Noturavergeprep finds. He really does find the best stuff. And he lives in New York (Queens specifically), so if he doesn’t find something crazy online he can certainly find it out in the real world. There, Felix. I think there’s enough information in this blog post for someone to steal your identity. Seriously folks, aside from being one of my best friends and a former roommate, “Feex” is good enough to Retweet my blog posts and share the blog love; so I wanted to do the same for him. Hope you enjoy the video, “This is Where We Live”:

I’ve got more editing to do tonight for a freelance job, but I’m hoping to find some time to work on my own book. Maybe do some reading. Maybe make a trip to Barnes & Noble. Ok, now I’m thinking weekend plans. I guess my weekend will be book themed!

Also, gotta shout out to another former roommate, Megan–it’s her birthday today. To celebrate, we’re hitting up the best sushi place in Connecticut and playing Outburst Remix. Don’t be too jealous.

So living in a new place, which also happens to be a small town, and finding things to do in the winter is not the easiest task. Because many of my friends have moved farther apart since high school and college, I’m trying to build a new social circle. Many people have suggested a site called Meetup.com to find local groups, social functions, and people with similar interests. I’ve been to the site a few times but nothing sparked my interest right away. I decided to try again and found a group I’m excited to join: a local book lovers club. This particular club sounds more like a writers group than a book club, but the important thing is that the members like to discuss books! Should be a good fit, right?

I am personally more interested in a writers group structure because having other people read my work keeps me motivated to continue working–even when I get negative feedback (often it’s more motivating than positive feedback). Do you have a local book lovers group you attend? What do you discuss? Where do you meet?

Anyone local to New Haven, CT, can check out the Branford/New Haven book lovers group at the Meetup.com site. Our next meeting is Jan 27 at the Branford Starbucks at 7pm. Hope to see you there!

In an interview with Stephen Elliot at therumpus.net:

James Frey: It was fun [writing Bright Shiny Morning]. The most fun to write of the three books. I started at the beginning and just went. No outline, no idea of what was coming next until I did it. I knew the three protagonists, and had an idea of the structure, but nothing else. Coming after all the bullshit related to A Million Little Pieces, nobody was expecting anything from me. No publisher, no agent, no one. Just me and the book. It was great.

Oh the joys of having no publisher, no agent, no respect.

I think James Frey is probably the person I most enjoy making fun of. Other than Oprah when she makes a really dumb/unfortunately endorsement and when she does it again. Now, every time a book/memoir/historical account/speech/general discussion includes any mistruth, Frey’s name gets thrown in for good measure. I love that.

If I were Frey I’d love it too. No phone calls, no readers, no friends… “I love the process of being alone in a room,” Frey says.

Unfortunately he does still have the readers. Not to mention “some huge crowds, a small riot in LA, and some empty houses.” The huge crowds were throwing spoiled vegetables and the riot was… well, rioting. Too bad he couldn’t get the angry mobs out everywhere.

There are too many great parts to this interview. Forgive me for editorializing in brackets. I can’t help myself.

Frey: Yeah. I’m about to start [a new book]. I just finished an outline. First time I’ve outlined a book. [I’m shocked. Shocked!]
SE: You know you’re going to throw half that outline away though. [I bet there was some stuff in there that was actually true. You better toss it.]
Frey: Ha. Probably. But it was good to do it. It helped me focus. […on what NOT to write.]

Oh wait, it gets better:

SE: Now this is a book about a man, a carpenter.
Frey: It’s the third book of the Bible, called The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. My idea of what the Messiah would be like if he were walking the streets of New York today. What would he believe? What would he preach? How would he live? With who?
SE: I remember you saying he would perform gay marriages.
Frey: Absolutely.
SE: And he would live with a prostitute.
Frey: Love is love.

No need for editorializing there! And best of all, no need for research!

One last piece. Really.

SE: I was worried about you [during the MLP fiasco].
Frey: It wasn’t fun. But I’ve been through worse. [like a root canal without Novocaine. Oh wait, that was the part I made up. I even confuse myself!]

Ok, back to me. Me, me, ME! it’s been a heck of a long time since I worked on my book and I don’t even remember half of the important changes I wanted to make. I have recorded messages on my cell phone, emails to myself, pieces of chapters on my desktop, pieces of chapter on my laptop, and highlighted notes throughout the book. What a mess. All day I’ve been craving a whole day alone in a Starbucks so I can totally immerse myself. In fact I seem to be channeling Frey. “Just me and the book. It was great, no really great. Because I like myself more than the rest of you smart asses.” What a jerkhead.

One of the hardest things about writing, in my personal experience, is making characters work so well that they pretty much write themselves. I have one or two in the book I’m currently writing, but the other characters need a lot more work. Recently I’ve been looking for inspiration elsewhere and I find that some of the best characters written are characters for TV. I’ve constructed a list of 20 television characters from a range of shows (limited to ones I’ve seen of course) that I think jump off the screen… Here’s hoping yours jump off the page!

As always, please feel free to suggest some of your own. There are a ton of shows I don’t watch and I’m sure many of the include some pretty awesome characters worth watching.

In no particular order:

1. Josh Lyman, West Wing*
2. CJ Cregg, West Wing
3. Toby Ziegler, West Wing
4. Danny Concanon, West Wing
5. Lorelai Gilmore, Gilmore Girls
6. Luke Danes, Gilmore Girls*
7. Gregory House, House*
8. James Wilson, House
9. Michael Scott, The Office
10. Jim Halpert, The Office*
11. Pam Beesley, The Office
12. Dwight Schrute, The Office
13. Shawn Spencer, Psych*
14. Adrian Monk, Monk
15. Jemaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords
16. Bret McKenzie, Flight of the Conchords
17. Sookie Stackhouse, True Blood
18. Bill Compton, True Blood*
19. Michael Bluth, Arrested Development*
20. George Michael Bluth, Arrested Development

I regret missing out on characters of shows I don’t watch, like ER, Lost… Although I do want to start watching Big Love and John Adams! That is, after I finish West Wing.

*Should also qualify for hottest men on television… just saying.

I noticed a great discussion that began on the Creative Byline Facebook page including Joyce Carol Oates’s words on creating and listening to characters in writing:

“…[my students] say, ‘We don’t know these people.’ And I say, ‘Well, you have to listen.’”

Joyce Carol Oates says that only after hours of writing will writers discover what their characters really have to say, and that they “won’t know what it is in the beginning.” This plants fear in the hearts of many young or new writers, but they are not alone: Oates describes the first six weeks (!) of writing a new novel as “like hell” for her. Because she has a very broad definition of what constitutes a “character,” her comments are useful for writers of both fiction and non-fiction. Characters’ personalities must become known to a writer, and that only happens if he or she is “listening,” and even then it happens only slowly.

When have you given up? When have you paid the same attention to a new character that you would a new acquaintance? What similarities have you found between getting to know a person and getting to know a character? What differences have you noticed in the depth or complexity of your characters when you approach them this way?

I’m certainly having struggles with the personalities of my characters. Some are so vivid and easy to write that they take on their own story and run with it whether I like where it’s going or not. Others are so stagnant and so unattached to any kind of vivacity that I constantly struggles with them. I do agree with one post-commenter, Holly Larocque Bodger, that, when written well, “your character dictates where they want to go and what they want to do (sometimes to your own frustration!).” But I don’t necessarily agree with what another commenter, Allison Fant, that “Its always easier to relate to the characters and to know how they will react in certain situations because you have experienced it in real life”–running with the argument that characters who are based on someone you know are more real and more impactful. One of the strongest characters in my story is not based on any real person and probably has more in common with other literary characters; yet that doesn’t detract from his effectiveness.

What do you think about characters in writing? What makes a good and effective character? How does a writer make a character “more real”? Do you run into these struggles in your own writing?

p.s. If you’re not familiar with Creative Byline, see my previous post about their writer services.