Literary Lightening Bolt

I'm so excited about my latest burst of creativity that I just had to share it.  You all know how I've been going on and on about the necessity of research ... well, I keep finding my imagination jolted into overdrive by what I'm reading (I'm on the 2nd to last chapter of Only Yesterday.)  Remember how I cut Lila's current adopted father, Arthur, in favor of a living, breathing (still highly flawed) biological father named Herbert?  Well let me tell you a little bit about Herbert Payton ...

He was initially inspired by a chapter in Frederick Lewis Allen's book exploring the rise of salesmanship in the U.S. during the 1920s.  As the country prospered, the average citizen found themselves in the position to buy more of the many new-fangled technologies and modern conveniences coming down the pike.  Advertising boomed and salesmen were finding themselves pressured by their bosses to outsell the competitor (or even the next guy in the company.)  I'm sure you fellow-writers can already see a wealth of potential character development in all this (hey, Arthur Miller did, right!?)  

So then today, I'm reading another chapter in my trusted tome of the twenties about the real estate boom in Florida.  And while Mr. Allen doesn't go into great detail about the sordid side of the speculation business, he does mention how ready and willing the average Northern Joe was to lay down 10% on "gorgeous beachfront property," sight unseen, which in reality might lie deep in the heart of an inland mangrove swamp.  

Does this kind of sordid speculation and risk, just years before a devastating stock market crash, sound at all familiar to any of you?  (I hope my Brilliant Editor who's reading this - you know who you are - is proud of me for injecting some much-needed contemporary relevancy into my novel.)  I can see so much potential for drama and conflict between Lila and her father, and of course, Herbert and his own inner demons (insecurity, desire for success and recognition, etc.) come to head because of this that I can hardly wait to write about it.  But everything in due time ... I still need to finish those character attribute sketches first!

FIGURING IT OUT AS I GO:  This post goes out to all you period-piece writers (and I'm using the term loosely for anyone writing about an era which they did not live through personally.)  Get to know your time period!  What were its socio-political nuances and eccentricities, and how might your characters and storylines reflect this?  Obviously there is no rigid prescription that says every novel must be a direct reflection of its time setting, but I find as a reader that I get so much more out of a book which shows great sensitivity and awareness to the era in which it's set.

The Cut

My brain feels like it's about to explode with all the new ideas and inspiration I've been having lately (which I suppose is a good thing, considering the alternative.)  I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Only Yesterday, An Informal History of the 1920s and I cannot rave enough about this book (however, this blog is not for book reviews, so I shall keep my raving to myself.)  Suffice it to say that having a better understanding of the era in which my novel takes place has opened my mind up to the potential for new characters who reflect the "zeitgeist" of that period.  I'm not talking about 2D cameos, but flesh-and-bones individuals with unique quirks and values which will be enhanced and reflected by the spirit of the times.  

Am I being too vague?  Probably, so here's a concrete example:  Frederick Lewis Allen's book highlights the wave of materialism and aggressive salesmanship that arose during the 1920s.  My manuscript is completely devoid of any allusion to this because, well, I knew nothing about it prior to reading Only Yesterday.  So the idea came to me, what if I put a salesman character in my novel?  And suddenly I had a clear vision of him - Herbert Payton, Lila's father, will be that salesman.  There are so many ramifications and character development possibilities with this, for both Herbert and Lila, that I'd be here all night if I started listing them.  The bottom line is that this is a good example of how a little research can go a long way in inspiring characterization.

For those of you who have read my first draft, you might be asking, "Wait, isn't Lila's dad's name Wilfred, and isn't he dead?  And what about her adopted father, Arthur?"  That leads me to my next point of discussion ... I've decided that a few (drastic) changes are in order for Draft #2.  Remember when I told you that I was on the hunt for any signs of weakness within my characters (as in, weakness in my writing, not their personalities)?  Well, after careful consideration, I came up with a short list (which turned out not to be so short) of characters who aren't pulling their weight.  And here it is [BEs, you may be a little shocked by who didn't make the cut ...]

CUT:

• Cora Morse [yup, former protagonist Cora]
• Arthur Morse
• Edward Whitaker
• Tobin Whitaker

REMAINING POV CHARACTERS:

• Lila Payton
• Rosemarie Dauber
• Marcus Torrington

That's right people, I'm cutting my two title characters.  So now "The Whitaker Boys" has become "Untitled Work in Progress" yet again.  Why am I doing it?  Because Elizabeth Lyon's wise words about consolidating characters have been haunting me for weeks.  Why have four love interests between Lila and Rosemarie (Edward, Tobin, Clayton Starwell - the politician, and Marcus) when I can have two, who will be reworked in such a way so as to bring out essential character revelations and narrative thrust.  I am also going to consolidate and trim down families as follows:

• Lila will live with her widowed father, Herbert, and Ophelia (the one you know, but don't exactly love ... yet.)
• Rosemarie's family remains the same, essentially, although I plan to flesh out her parents' characters to make them more 3D and compelling in their own right.  I'm also toying with giving Rosemarie a younger brother, but only if the storyline justifies this.
• Marcus's whole family has been scrapped, except for the grandfather, who will be alive during the first part of the novel.  I am also transplanting Marcus into Edward's old family, because I'm quite attached to Minnie, his alcoholic, soft-hearted mother.  I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I should keep the younger brothers, Barton and Clyde, because, as of now, they're dead weight.  Farris Whitaker (Edward's philandering father) will be revamped and renamed Oliver Marcus Torrington II, and will become Marcus's hard-nosed businessman father.
• And Assemblyman Clayton Starwell is going to be tweaked and given a much more significant role which may cause a lot of upset amongst all three viewpoint characters ...

That's probably more detail than you cared to know; the upshot is that my changes were motivated by a desire to minimize bodies and maximize conflict, tension, and most importantly, reader interest!

FIGURING IT OUT AS I GO:  Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take a hatchet to your manuscript.  For some writers, this may require chopping away at characters, while for others, it might mean chopping down plotlines.  (It looks like I'm going to be doing a bit of both.)  A novice writer might be inclined to think that this kind of massive editing is a sign of failure, but I believe it's the exact opposite.  How many times have you read an interview with a published author who says something along the lines of, "After working on a novel for a year, I realized the story was lousy and the characters were 2D and boring, so I ultimately decided to scrap the whole thing.  Then one day, I got the inspiration to write [insert Pulitzer Prize-winning novel here] and the rest is history."  So take heart, Novice Writer - if you're scrapping huge chunks of your first draft, you're in good company. :-)

Writing IS Research

Take heed, children, because this may well be the most important post on my blog so far!  (I'm not trying to patronize, I just liked the way that phrase sounded.)  But in all seriousness, I'm kicking myself at this moment for how short-sighted I was during my initial research process.  I am truly baffled by the fact that, aside from doing a quick internet search here and there when I needed more information on a topic, I did not see the need to get an in-depth overview of the period in which my novel is set.  

I find my decision particularly baffling because I love to research.  And I certainly know how to do it - I read upwards of twelve books before attempting to write a 20-page article published in a legal journal.  So why did I shortchange myself when writing a 400-page novel?  The only logical explanation I can come up with is that I naively viewed novel writing (period novel writing, no less) as a largely creative endeavor, not a fact-based one.  But what I dumbly failed to realize is that the era in which my characters exist would and should color their lives on an almost daily basis.  And this cannot be successfully accomplished by throwing in an occasional piece of trivia via the front page of a newspaper or a cocktail party conversation.  

Looking back over my Brilliant Editors' critiques, I see now how my lack of adequate research fatally affected my writing.  A couple BEs thought I lost the "feel" of the 1920s in places throughout the book; one asked, "How is your novel relevant to today?" and another said, honestly, "I was expecting more from the story."  Aside from the characterization issues I plan to work on, I think a lot of these problems could have been (and of course, still can be) solved by proper research.  

At the moment, I am reading Only Yesterday, An Informal History of the 1920s by Frederick Lewis Allen.  As the Amazon reviews indicated, it is proving to be an incredibly well-written, entertaining, and informative book.  But what really peaked my interest when I was shopping for research material is the fact that this book was first published in 1931!  So the author, a reputable journalist, is writing about an era which he and the world had only just lived through.  Finding such a fresh synthesis of the decade, unclouded by modern-day analysis, was a true gold mine, and had I stumbled across this book sooner, my novel may have taken very different turns.  But of course, all is not lost ... that's what re-writes are for!

POTENTIAL NOVICE WRITER SIN:  (That's right, I brought the Draconian terminology back for this one ...) Unless you are writing complete fantasy or an autobiographical novel, do not pick up a pen or tap a key on your computer until you have read several books about, talked to a number of relevant people about, or gone and experienced first hand the events/place/time period, etc. in your book.  There is no substitute for adequate research.  (As you can tell, I feel quite strongly about this.)  If you cut corners during your initial writing phase, you're just going to have to go back and deal with the holes in your manuscript later, so you might as well tackle the research in the beginning.  Besides, the extra work will be well worth it, as it may answer questions you're grappling with re character motivation and plotlines, saving you a lot of revision time down the line.