Don't Fear The Semi-Colon/Punctuation Is Not The Enemy

DON’T FEAR THE SEMI-COLON and DON’T BE A SEMI-COLON HATER. 

“I’m afraid of the semi-colon,” a fellow writer said. Don’t fear the semi-colon. It’s just a piece of punctuation. And don’t hate it either. There’s no reason to treat the semi-colon like some undesirable who crashes a party. Some people do though.

Some people are worried they’ll use it wrong but others seem to think it will turn off readers. They feel it has a snobbish quality.  Why not just use a period and be done with it? What, you’re too good for a period?  

The semi-colon is just another punctuation tool we have in our toolbox of punctuation. I need all the options I can get. Anyway it’s a sophisticated and friendly little comma and floating period ;--what’s not to like?

The semi-colon (;) looks less powerful than the colon ( :) , but looks can be, as we all know, deceiving. It is the only piece of punctuation that has the muscle, by itself,  to separate two independent clauses (also know in most circles as complete sentences).  So if you have two sentences that are related, the semi-colon works quite nicely. Or if you have a lot of short sentences and you want a longer one for the sake of paragraph rhythm, it’s there for you.  The only thing you have to be careful about is that you do have two complete sentences (thoughts). A thought and a half (dependent clause, independent clause) will just need a comma.

Embrace the semi-colon.  Just not too often.

           

The Element of Surprise

HOW NOT TO START A NOVEL/ THE IMPORTANCE OF SURPRISE

Don’t start a novel by having an outline that you’ve scratched in stone with diamonds. First of all, that’s a very expensive and difficult way to write. Secondly, you won’t want to change things. I think it’s essential that you be willing to change any outline you write because of the element of surprise. In this case, I mean the surprise most authors encounter in the act of writing fiction.

This surprise can happen in many different ways. Suddenly a character starts doing things you didn’t expect, or things happen to that character you didn’t expect, or a character you didn’t expect shows up in a “guess who’s coming to dinner” sort of surprise. Could be that the tone of the novel itself will change, giving the whole novel a different feel.  Could be many things. It’s the writing itself that puts you in places of surprise. And your surprise will translate into surprises for your readers.

You have to be open to these surprises to take advantage of their narrative vitality and importance. 

genre blending/bending

As a writer I like to draw outside the lines of genre. I cross the borders of sci-fi and fantasy and realistic fiction and mystery and literary fiction and comedy and drama because a mix of genres helps me find the spark(s) that drive my story and give form and structure to it. Genres are all well and good if that’s where your work naturally fits. Mine doesn’t. I have to wander. Good for me. Not necessarily good for marketing.

A lot of people call the kind of fiction I’m talking about genre bending, but I think of it more as genre blending. I end up wandering in and out of genres and taking what I can from each that helps me tell my story.

People who sell books, as opposed to write them, like genres. They want to be able to put fiction in a neat category for the purposes of drawing a particular audience. (More true of adult novels than YA) Completely understandable. It makes it easier to sell a book if the seller can identify the audience and then try to find ways to attract that audience to a novel.  Publishers like genre and bookstores like genre. But here's the thing about fiction. It's not cooperative. There's something inherently rebellious about writing fiction. And there are writers who find themselves, even if they begin writing in a certain genre they love to read, wandering. Sometimes they’ll try to restrict themselves or pull their story back a certain way so they don’t loose their genre place. I think this can deflate certain stories, allow a certain inauthenticity to creep in, rob them of a richness a mix of genres might give.

I think, even though it may make your work harder to sell, you have to tell the story you have to tell. You gotta be who you gotta be. Eventually, readers will find you.

I like to read in many genres. Literary because I love language and character driven stories.  Sci-Fi for ideas—especially the strange ones—fantasy because the world needs magic and is full of mystery, mystery for story and entertainment…Of course I’m most drawn to works that might be presented as belonging to a certain genre but that I see as blending more than one. Kurt Vonnegut, for instance, who mixed realism with science fiction and comedy with drama and social criticism and lord knows what else to create a potent mix. GG Marquez mixed fantastical events and realistic fiction so well critics decided to give him his own genre: magical realism.  Kate Atkinson’s mysteries have elements of literary fiction and her literary fiction has elements of mystery.  These are just a few. There are many.

I love to write. I love to genre blend. I am frustrated that the market often struggles to accept good stories that blend genres but I have to write what excites me. I know there are readers out there like me who love to read books that artfully blend and bend genre and make something different, unusual, unique. I like a lot of books but what I’m looking for are books to fall in love with. 

For me, that’s often a book that doesn’t neatly fit into any category.

Here's a little more on beginnings. What I wish I had said in this interview that I didn't say (alas, a common thought in interviews I've given and life in general--what I wish I had said--and that may be the title of my next book, in fact) is that knowing the ending is hugely helpful in constructing the book, the structure of the book, and in finding the right place to begin. So I try to remain open to major changes when I revise because it's not until that point that I know the ending (sometimes only roughly and sometimes the actual last paragraph).
http://youtu.be/9d6-ADvUEoQ

Back to the Beginning

Beginnings:

Some people begin with a character or characters. They want to know more about that character. That works, but you may find, if you just want to know more without a focus, that you write a very interesting character sketch. The character needs to do things and want things and be challenged in order to show, as Vonnegut said, what “he or she is made of.” This is a way to create character and story.

Some people begin with plot and try to fit their characters into that plot. I don’t think there are many writers that write this way, but some do. It works for them.

Elmore Leonard says he begins with dialogue. He needs to hear his characters talking. Then he kills off the ones who don’t have interesting things to say. He focuses on the ones who have the most interesting things to say. 

Joyce Carol Oates also talks about having characters talk to each other to find her way into a story. One exercise she has for students is she has them write for a conversation between two characters. She has them do this for an hour. She says the writer will have something at the end of that hour. Not something to use directly but something.

I begin with a situation and then let character direct the story.

There is no one way, of course. You find what works for you through working, putting words on paper. But you will never “figure it out” completely. I’m grateful for this though I’m angry about it, too—sometimes. It keeps writing endlessly interesting though.

MC has some interesting things to say about his character's name and setting as a character.

martial art of writing

I like to think of writing as a martial art. I did martial arts for seven years. I had to learn how to make my body do things it was reluctant to do and I had to get in very good shape to have a chance at doing certain moves. Writing is like this. It is not just intellectual. People who try to think their way into manuscripts often end up with unsuccessful work. I know a lot of very intelligent people who just can't find their way to writing good fiction. Why? In martial arts some people can talk very intelligently about the intricacies of a movement, but they can't actually do the moves. You can know in your mind how things should work but not be able to make them work. This happens in writing to many people.

I like to say when I start writing something new that it is always hard and it always feels like I'm doing it for the first time. I always wonder if I can do it again. I always wonder how I ever did it before. BUT it is also like going out on mat and doing martial arts--sparring with someone. If I know the moves, I can't think about them in order to do them while I'm doing them. I just have to do them. In writing once I get into a story, get into the moment, the moves come back even if I don't/can't consciously think of them. Years and years of constant hard work and conscious effort on aspects of craft and practice and struggle come back so that I make the right choices.

You can't think your way into a manuscript while you're writing it. Later, in revision, there will be plenty of time and need for analytical thinking. But when you're writing it's best to pay attention to something Annie Dillard once wrote. "You’ve got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down.”   You have to write from that place deep within you and beneath your conscious mind which is all too interfering in the intuitive connections stories require—then you will be jumping off some cliffs and building your wings on the way down.

            Good luck.

            Wear a helmet and kneepads.