Here to Create

Yes, books can be dangerous. Just ask school boards nationwide. But what I’m talking about is more insidious and also based in reality. You see, for every book I re-read, that’s one less new book I have time for. Obvious, I know, but still shocking when I realize just how far behind I am on current releases, not to mention classics and everything in between.

Reading the latest and greatest didn’t used to seem like a big deal, but the deeper I get into writing, the more obvious it is that I need to have a much more thorough knowledge of my chosen genre. For instance, the list of Nebula and Norton nominees just came out, and I’ve read shockingly few of them. Some of them are in my physical or virtual to-be-read piles and some I’d never heard of. I had the same experience a while ago when reading a thread on classic fantasy on the Absolute Write forums. I hadn’t heard of most of the books being discussed. So now I have a Barnes and Noble wishlist called “Fantasy I Should Have Already Read”, and I try to add one or two from that list to every order.

But I’m still re-reading, because it’s such a crutch for me. Retreating into an old favorite is like cuddling with my favorite blankie as a kid. It’s soft and comfortable and fits easily into the space I’ve already made for it. A lot of re-reading is about revisiting states of mind, whether that’s relief that a character’s painful life isn’t mine or awe at the delicious twist of a writer’s words.

Another reason I re-read is that I don’t trust my memory, especially when it comes to the earlier books in a series. Sometimes it’s because I tear through a book too fast and finish it at four a.m. when my eyes are glued permanently open. Often it’s because, as a writer, I’m so conscious of the way the smallest details impact the story. If there’s a critical detail in book one that will dramatically unfold in book two, then I want to remember it so I can have all the fun of making wild predictions as I read. Unfortunately, that means I still haven’t read the latest Harry Dresden book, nearly a year after it came out. I feel like I should re-read the first ten or whatever books, because I read them so fast I have a hard time differentiating one from the others.

But I also re-read to learn the craft of writing. When the first thrill of the story is over (though the best writers make me feel that thrill again and again), I have the space in my head to figure out why I love this character so much it hurts or why that plot makes me skip ahead to the best parts instead of being caught up by the whole story. Learning a craft is about studying the masters, and I do take that seriously. But I’m not sure anyone needs to read The Complete Sherlock Holmes twenty times. (And I’m not even exaggerating.)

Obviously, the solution is to re-read sometimes and read new stuff other times. To encourage myself, I’ve made an effort to buy more books lately instead of relying on the library. Partly this is because I’ve grown more conscious of writing as business and want to support my favorite authors. Partly it’s so I always have new books on hand and no excuses.

I haven’t come up with the perfect new to old ratio, because that would be a little crazy even for me, but every time I look at an old book and think how nice it would be to re-read it, I’m going to think about what I really want. Do I want a medieval fantasy setting like The Lord of the Rings? A character like Phaedra from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel books who challenges and engages? A plot like any of Jim Butcher’s books that grabs me by the throat and leaves me gasping at the end? Something in Roger Zelazny’s style? Thanks to the wonders of the internet, it’s relatively easy to find a book to cure my craving. Not to mention the books by my favorite authors (Zelazny) that I have accumulated but not yet read.

So am I completely crazy? Is anyone else this conflicted about re-reading? Or does everyone else read a book, shelve it, and move on to the next?

It’s the famous question every writer hears over and over, even unpublished ones like me. A few days before my first NaNo, I told my mother-in-law that I didn’t have a story yet, but I wasn’t worried, something would come. And it did, the night before, so I wrote out a couple of paragraphs about the plot and the next morning I started writing. Easy as that.

(Of course, it wasn’t that great an idea to start with and got tweaked a lot on the way and is unreadable now, but it was also the first novel I’d ever completed, so the way the idea came about wasn’t really what crippled it. Ideas are easy. Expressing ideas is hard. Maybe that’s why copyright law only applies to expression.)

Whenever I hear someone wish she could come up with ideas that easily, I’d like to offer some advice, but the concept of having no ideas sort of baffles me. Ideas are a result of thinking, and if you’re not thinking? Well, I have bad news: you’re dead. Except vampires think. Sometimes even zombies think. Hmm. Anyway, if you can think, you can create. Simple as that. Of course, the process of developing ideas into stories takes practice, and that’s where most people fall along the wayside. But you can’t really practice without an idea to start with.

Finding story ideas is about being open to possibilities and then being willing to seize the baby idea before the little wriggly thing can escape. So for SWORD AND KNIFE, I started my thinking about the story with one line of dialog:

“Once, by the gods, and I thought you were dead.”

I don’t remember where that line came from, except it was one of things my brain produced when I let it loose to freewrite. But then I took the next step, pushing to see who these people were, what they were talking about, and what was behind their words. I had a strong feeling that it was one man talking to another, and they were talking about a betrayal of trust. The language suggested a medieval fantasy setting. Well then, who are they and what are they doing? What was their relationship that they would still be together after this betrayal? What was the betrayal? And so on. Good writing begins by asking a lot of questions.

The line never made it into the story itself, because it doesn’t fit the character’s voice and there are no gods in their world, among other reasons. But the idea of betrayal became one of the underpinnings of the story. It’s the theme that runs throughout and informs the plots and subplots, as well as the relationships of the main characters with each other and with secondary characters. All from one line and the willingness to ask questions.

So the next time you’re fretting because you have no good ideas, just relax. And then pick something that intrigues you, whether it’s a scrap of dialog, a half-formed character, or a setting. And then push. Ask why? How? Just keep asking questions until the story emerges. Really, that’s all there is to it. Until you sit down to write. Then you have a whole other set of problems. But asking questions will get you started.

So what’s your process? Something similar or totally different? I’d love to hear in the comments.

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde compares to nothing I’ve ever read before, in a way that was very welcome. I picked it up because I read Fforde’s Big Idea piece on Scalzi’s blog and liked his idea of focusing on what happens after the apocalypse. In fact, the characters just call it The Something That Happened and don’t know why their lives are different from the Previous. And they don’t know much about the Previous either, thanks to scheduled Leapbacks that remove knowledge and relics from the past, some of them as simple as multi-speed bicycles. I could go on forever about the worldbuilding, because it completely fascinated me.

I have to talk about the color specifically though. Color is everything in this world. People are divided into social ranks according to what colors they can see. Who they marry is largely determined by what their combined color ratings will do for their offspring. For instance, Eddie Russet, the protagonist, is a Red trying to marry into the Oxbloods, an old Red family that wants to increase their red percentage. It’s crazy-sounding, but with a little thought it’s not that different from marrying for money or some other kind of prestige.

Despite the fixation on color, Eddie’s world is very black and white. He lives in a rigid society that is completely dedicated to the Rules. He knows his duty and he does it, both as a member of society and as a young man looking for the best marriage. But he soon finds out that there’s a lot more underneath his orderly world than he ever guessed.  And he finds that he’s willing to risk more than he realized to find out the truth.

Shades of Grey is a meticulously constructed book that was a fascinating exploration of a very different kind of post-apocalyptic world and the decisions we face when we confronted with a shift in worldview.  I’m looking forward to the sequels, and I think I need to check out some of Fforde’s other work as well.

Update: Also, if you like the book, definitely check out the Shades of Grey website.  Barcoded animals! Lincoln green! You’ll just have to read the book to truly get it.

Despite evidence to the contrary, I have not forgotten yet again that I have a blog. I’ve been playing with the sidebar, see? —–> But more importantly, I’ve been working on other writing projects. Not, of course, on the ones I’m “supposed” to be working on, but that’s nothing new. I got a burst of enthusiasm and started editing my 2008 NaNovel about werewolves. Over halfway through, according to my spiffy new progress meter!

Also, I’ve committed to daily writing as part of Inkygirl’s 1000 Words a Day Challenge. I’ve already skipped two days, but I cheated and made up the word count a couple of days later, so don’t tell anyone, ok?

Most days, committing to a specific word count without a particular project goal helps me sit down and just start writing. It works even better if I do it first thing in the morning before my brain has woken up and started telling me I suck. It takes me about half an hour to an hour to blast out 1000 words of freewriting, which usually consists of mulling over elements of various stories. By then I’ve woken up a bit, so I move onto one of my projects.

It’s easier for me to work on a story when I’ve spent a while limbering up my brain. More importantly, freewriting gets me into the rhythm of writing. I might start with meaningless rambling, but one thing leads to another, and connections between things spark ideas I never would have had if I’d made myself get up and stare at a project file until I gave up and went back to bed. Writing is a muscle that gets stiff and easily tired when it’s not used. This daily challenge is my workout.

Thanks again to Inkygirl for the idea and the spiffy graphic! Complete information, including badges for 500 and 250 word challenges, are available on Deb Ohi (inkygirl)’s website.

If I had judged these books by their covers, I probably wouldn’t have picked them up, since teenage drama at a snobby boarding school isn’t usually my thing. But when I found out the boarding school was just a cover for an elite spy school, I took a second look. And I’m glad I did. I read each of Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls books straight through in one sitting as fast as I could get them from the library. And I will be adding them to my permanent collection when the book budget has recovered a little.

In order, the Gallagher Girls books are:

-I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You

-Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

-Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover

It’s hard to talk about all three books without spoiling any of them, especially since each book is full of twists and turns that teach these spies-in-training that the world is not always what it seems. It’s fascinating to watch Cammie, the narrator, approach her world with the skills she’s learned in her years at Gallagher Academy: martial arts, hacking, multiple languages, and other invaluable spy skills. And yet like any teenage girl, she’s often blindsided by her emotions.

Despite being the daughter of the school’s headmistress, Cammie’s specialty is being invisible. She’s known as the Chameleon because she can blend into her surroundings so completely that even her friends can’t find her. She’s also learned how to disappear at school by exploring the old building’s many hidden passageways.

Cammie’s voice is smart and confident, but also funny and very personal with conversational asides sharing her thoughts about boys or the current mission. Her training as a spy pervades her life, with parts of the text even being told in the form of a covert ops report, as well as lists that show Cammie’s ordered mind. Cammie has known for most of her life that she wanted to be a spy like her mom and dad, and it shows in the way she thinks.

Like Cammie, her friends at the Gallagher Academy think like spies, though each has her own background and unique personality. I love how real Cammie and her friends are, and yet how diverse. Each girl feels completely authentic, with her own very believable strengths and weaknesses. They may be taught to hide their emotions and think in terms of neutralizing threats, but even as their skills develop, the Gallagher girls remain very human, very accessible.

In fact, this is one of the themes that runs through the Gallagher Girls books: what does a spy give up in order to be the best she can be? The ability to be herself instead of one of her numerous “covers”? Honest relationships with people who don’t have a high enough clearance? Any semblance of a normal life? Cammie and her friends wrestle with these ideas and the hard decision of whether to pursue the life of a spy with all its dangers.

It’s no surprise that a girl surounded by spies-in-training and taught by ex-spies is also surrounded by secrets. Some of these are relatively harmless, though they might be classified. Others could cost her and her friends their lives. Cammie stumbles across both kinds in her quest to be at least somewhat normal, especially when it involves boys.

And yet Cammie and her friends address the mystery of boys like spies rather than like your average high school girl. In the first book, Cammie creates a cover story to tell her normal boyfriend. She and her friends hack into various government databases looking for dirt on him. And her friend Liz is working on a boy-to-English decoder. These twists on the usual teen-girl-obsessed-with-boy trope were a welcome change.

Things grow a little darker in the second book, with the danger more real than just a class exercise, and darker still in the third book, which leaves us and Cammie with more questions than answers. In fact, the question at the end of Don’t Judge a Girl By Her Cover gives me that anxious sort of itch that makes me wish I didn’t have to wait so long for the next book in the series. But I’m sure it will be worth waiting for.

The fourth Gallagher Girls book, Only the Good Spy Young, is scheduled for release in June 2010.

(The first book of Ally Carter’s new series, Heist Society, also looks pretty interesting. Out February 9, 2010.)