April 2007
Getting Cozy with Karen...
April Musings
Welcome to my website! Feel free to pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, settle in awhile and join me in a chat about this and that.
"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds."
[Gilbert K. Chesterton]
I found this insightful quote just recently. It prompted me into thinking about how a writer finds balance between structure and creativity.
I'm one of those right brain/left brain people who can run an accounting office and write an emotional novel. Not at the same time, of course. It can also be difficult to turn one off and get the other one moving. But, I digress. Suffice it to say, after reading this quote several times the practical side of me wanted to argue out loud that there are always rules and structure in everything I do, while the creative side of my brain gently blew raspberries in my ear and taunted me into playing hide-n-seek in the castle gardens.
As writers, we spend a great deal of time and effort working to design the architecture of our novels, the doors we walk our characters through or the windows we throw them from [okay, so I write suspense ].even the strange worlds we set our buildings upon. Although it's necessary for us to frame this architecture, we can't forget that we are building castles in the clouds.
Those of us who've been doing this awhile have heard it all. Use multiple POV. Don't head-hop. You should plot. You should let your muse flow. Don't do it that way. Do it this way. You write too much sex. Not enough. You should use these words. Avoid the LY and ING words. Keep your synopses down to three pages. Five. Seven. Outlining. Storyboarding. Collages. Brainstorming. The list goes on and on if you've pursued your craft any length of time. I've even added to the mélange with my own plotting classes.
It's great to have all of this guidance when we're building our stories. In today's competitive book industry, it's necessary to learn everything we can from the industry professionals. There's a lot of useful information out there simply waiting for us to pick up and incorporate into our writing. But all the techniques and guidance in the world won't do us much good if we bury the story of our hearts in a viscous bog.
It's all too easy to get sucked down into the mechanics of writing so that we forget the joy of creation. Or we kill the beauty of what we've created because we've honed our story to death in some misguided attempt to jam our castle between a brownstone and a 60-unit apartment complex. I'll be the first to admit I've been guilty of both of these extremes at one point or another in my career.
Now that I'm aware of those mistakes, I'll be able to avoid them in future. Maybe.
I believe the trick to building castles in the clouds today as a writer is to always keep in mind the architecture is the underpinning, not the mantle. All of our training and workshops and techniques are designed to give us a "loose" container so we have just enough structure to capture the magic so we may share it with our readers. After all, that's what our readers are searching for.the magic.
Have I found my balance between structure and creativity? I'm not certain. I do know I still have a lot to learn about building castles in the clouds so if you'll excuse me, my muse just called "Ollie, Ollie, oxen, free!" I wonder what we'll play next?
And other miscellaneous..
If you dash to the NEWS page you'll find the "W" online plotting workshop scheduled for Hearts Through History Romance Writers this month has been moved to October. I'd like to thank those gracious people for working around my unscheduled surgery and apologize to those who had to wait for their class. I'll make it up to you when we get together in October!
I'm looking forward to presenting an abbreviated version of the plotting technique at the Romancing the Rockies Conference in Denver in May. Culling the highlights of the "W" in the next month to fit the one-hour lecture format will be a challenge, but fun. If you've never been to a local chapter conference before I highly recommend them. They're more intimate, and chances of getting one-on-one time with the agents and editors are greater. The Romancing the Rockies Conference is organized by my home chapter, Colorado Romance Writers, and has some great speakers, editors and agents coming this year.
See you in May if you'd like to Get Cozy with Karen again. In the meantime, feel free to check out the rest of my website at your leisure.
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Articles
Plotting.Beauty or Beast?
First Print - savvyauthors.com blog, June, 2010
Born to Write
Colorado Romance Writers Romance in the Rockies newsletter - February, 2006
The Big Kids Clubhouse Secret Handshake.Finally!
Colorado Romance Writers Romance in the Rockies newsletter - August, 2006
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