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Fast Five: SJ Tilly’s 1st POV

Nov23

Hello my lovelies! How are you today? I’m reading the third book in S.J. Tilly’s Mountain Man series and I have to share some thoughts about Tilly’s use of Alternating 1st Person POV. These books are Romance, so some of these comments are going to tie specifically into that specific genre.

  1. Remember how the old romance novels used to slip between perspectives, especially in the spicy scenes? Making the scene well rounded on both sides of the relationship and keeping the pacing? She is able to do this…. How? Well…..
  2. Chapters vary in length, some only a few paragraphs (I want to say one was only a sentence, but I could be wrong.)This tightens suspense, especially in a predator / prey or romantic chase  type of way.
  3. In the shorter chapters, the sentence length changes as well, leaving the reader slightly breathless. It makes the pacing completely on point for spicy scenes.
  4. In the longer chapters we get more depth– varied sentence length as well as the gamut of emotions– heart break to hilarity. These books have both made me laugh so hard I cried, and just ugly cry for the character.
  5. I don’t really have a 5. I feel in love with the way she uses the structures of writing to help tell the story, both in chapter and sentence lengths.

Have you read anyone lately who makes you think about writing a little differently? I have a few more books to review through the lens of how’d they do that writing edition LOL. So I’ll see you very soon!

Importance of voice

Dec4

Especially in dialog.

Took a family trip to San Fran and the beach yesterday. It was lovely.

And personally I found it HILARIOUS that not one of the 3 iPhone users remembered a charging cable. We had 3 for androids and only 2 in use.

But the van had a dvd player. I was sitting up front so I didn’t see the movie, but I could hear it. And after a while, you learn to tell the difference between characters because of their voices. But also the way they speak.

In writing, we don’t have the audio playing but we have to get it playing in the readers imagination. There’s the “she hissed” and “he growled” type tags, but…

Maybe the point is to make the dialog read like you imagine it sounds. Like a person is actually speaking. So if someone is hissing, you’d put in many s words “Sadies still not stopping?” (Which is off the cuff and horrible but you get the idea.)

What is we took that sentence, and gave it some action? “Sadies still not stopping?” Melanie whispered, grabbing my arm.

Eh, not quite there. But closer. The point is, each character is going to talk differently, have different rhythms and patterns to their speech. Just like us lol.

Character Voice becomes especially important when you write first person from multiple POVs. If readers are to believe that these are from different perspectives, we have to put in the work. A psycho, musician, a businessman and a soldier of fortune will all not only speak differently but think differently as well. And if they don’t, then the author has to stop and evaluate why there are two characters instead of one. If they think and talk the same…. They are the same to the reader. They won’t be able to differentiate between them so the characters will get lumped together.

Funny story — I started this blog post over a year ago, when I still lived in California. We had just left the beach (my farewell tour lol). Back then, I read traditional romance and speculative fiction. Now, I read across the spectrum, including non-traditional romance including poly romance (RH) where making characters have distinct voices is imperative. Otherwise, they are related to only being in the mix because of a need for their body parts.

We need to make sure that every character who gets screen time (POV scenes or chapters) has the personality and individuality to pull it off.

Bookish Thoughts: A Tale for the Time Being

Sep26

I’m thankful that I found Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being during my last tour of Barnes & Noble. In addition to being a great story, it made me think about writing and reading and the relationship between them.

First off, just in case you decide to drop everything and buy it: this book should have trigger warnings. Intense bullying, attempted rape, suicide attempts.

The books I think of myself as reading have none of those things. And yet this Buddhist magical book sucked me in and kept me enraptured. This book is dense and playful and all the things I love about reading and the things I hate. Alternating POV and perspectives, appendices, foot notes and the conversation between reader and writer and what it means to walk in the world.

One of the things that caught me off guard was the way the author is inserted into the narrative. She’s in the book- Ruth– and if my reading is correct the one doing the footnotes. The Ruth parts, interestingly enough is written in 3rd person, while the alternating narrative is the diary of a teenager in Japan. What tipped me off was one of the jacket blurb said it was a blend of fact and fiction.

Here is an interview and questions for the author on the publishers website. I couldn’t find mention of it anywhere else which surprised me.

Because I love the way things are pushed and pulled in and out of view, even what type of book you think you’re reading. I found it tragic, funny, lovely and lonely. And when it was over it made me want enough to leaf through the appendices.

Getting the Words Down

Apr28

When you first start writing a story, do you start where you as a writer need to start? Or do you try out first lines/paragraphs until you get it just right? I just finished 6 handwritten pages, and I know that it will all be backstory. The character that is the focus of that chapter isn’t a main POV character— but what happens to her is what sets the whole shebang going.

I needed to know what happened to her, what set everything in motion before I could start the rest. And still, I’m stuck. I know where I need to go, but I’m trying to figure out whether to open it up with the drunken knight or the scared little boy. These two characters are the ones that will change the most within the story— but I’m still probably going to start with the drunk. Simply because it’ll be fun 🙂

I’ve struggled with this one. Partially because I almost always have written female main characters. This will be a leap for me. My last big leap was a modern paranormal in first person. All in one shot! I think I’m at the point where I want to not only enjoy writing, but also stretch a little when I do it. The paranormal needs a lot of work before I send it out again, and I’m debating writing more on it….

But for now, I want to go back to magic and mayhem and horses and knights who are a bit broken. And the POV’s will be mail, and also…probably not quite the same tone as I normally use.

How do you stretch yourself as a writer? Do you change up POV, genre, style?