Marry Me, Carey

I've always had a thing for tubby dorks in glasses. Just ask my husband. So my passion for Drew Carey is no small thing. Yeah, I think he's sexy.

But, seriously.

Drew Carey was someone who caught my eye years ago, just before he hit it big with his own TV show. So, over the intervening years I was pleased to discover that he, like I do, has a "live and let live" philosophy, as well as loathing for the Hollywood celebrity culture. The man has a brain, he's funny, and he likes a good time--in my book, he's batting three for three.

No, I don't want to marry him--I picked the title for this post because the rhyming pleased me. (It takes so little to entertain me some days.) For one thing, I already am. For another, I think he'd be a better drinking buddy and friend with benefits than husband. For a third, marriage would keep me from entertaining James Spader, should he ever appear at my door. Mmm, James Spader...

But I digress.

Carey's involved with something named, natch, "The Drew Carey Project" which is, in Carey's words, "about freedom." If you want to see the advance clip, you'll need the password, which is sizzle.

One of these days, I'm going to start a MySpace page. And when I do, I'm going to friend Carey. Who knows? Maybe he'd agree to do an interview with me, right here on this blog.

In the meantime, Drew, I salute you, you handsome, intelligent devil, you.

Barrie

Tips for Writers Who've Lost the Joy

(This is a cross-post from my other blog. But I think the information is important enough to justify my duplicating it.)

If you're a beginning writer, you may be thinking, "Lost the joy? I'm bursting with ideas and can't wait for the times when I can write. How could you lose the joy of writing? Why are you still writing, if it's no longer fun?"

Once it becomes a job, with contracts and real deadlines and such, you can lose the joy. For me, when I lose the joy is often when writer's block rears its ugly head.

I took an online course last week all about "block-busting" and recapturing the joy of writing. The presenter, Laurie Schnebly Campbell, presented an interactive workshop that gave me a whole new way to look at things. And, you know what? The joy has come back!

Laurie gives courses on a regular basis at Writer U. The courses are a very reasonable thirty bucks--we're talking month-long courses here. I'm signed up for her October workshop, "Creating Your Hero's Fatal Flaw", and, boy, am I looking forward to it!

I highly recommend her workshops. (Plus, she's a great person.) The one I took came at the problem from a psychological angle, tapping into fears you might not know you even have that are blocking you.

Below is a small amount of information I learned from the course. Happy writing!

***

Things that work, or have worked, to jump-start my writing:

--Timed writing.
--Club 100
--Writing every day, because momentum helps me (which is difficult for a number of reasons)
--Establishing personal deadlines (I've always responded well to deadlines, because I procrastinate!)
--If blocked on one WIP, work on another (though this isn't feasible if I have a committment and have to work on WIP #1)
--Going for a solitary walk - sometimes this frees the stuck place in my head. (It used to work like gangbusters when I was a tech writer.)

***

Things that I could do if I weren't blocked:

I could finish my two novels and sell them to a publisher with whom I'd make more money.
I could finish my two novels and land an agent.
I could finish my two novels and land a multi-book print contract.
I could send my current novella to the editor who really likes my work, and make more money.
I could write books faster.
I could become financially successful.
I could make enough money for my husband to retire.
I could be productive and not feel guilty about taking time off when my daughter returns from Egypt in five weeks.

***

As you can see, I have a lot of anxiety around money when it comes to my writing. And worrying about money always blocks me. The workshop reminded me that I need to write, and leave the money worries outside of my little writing sanctuary.

Wishing all writers productivity and happiness (which may be the same thing, who knows?)

Barrie

Writing: Find Your Core Theme(s)

A few years ago at a writing workshop, the presenter (I believe it was the marvelous author Barbara Samuel) stressed that, as writers, we come back to the same themes over and over in our stories. We need to figure out what those themes are in order to find our voices. Knowing our core themes also helps us write new stories.

I remember the astonishment I felt to discover that my core themes, especially in my longer works, all have to do with family. Questions like, what defines a family? How do we create our own families when our birth families cause us serious pain? How do we get past old wounds? feature in my stories.

I was also surprised to figure out that, duh, I tend to make my characters either orphans, or estranged from family. In fact, the hero/heroine and secondary hero/heroine in my novel, "The Baker's Man" (currently serialized on the internet--scroll down on the site to read a bit of it--only eighteen or older to view this excerpt, please) are all orphans! Their orphanhood and difficult childhoods create a bond among the four.

"Alice in Boogieland," an unpublished novel of mine set in the Seventies, also deals with alienation from birth families--but the core dysfunction in "Alice" is dark despite being partially played for laughs. Alice has a birth-family younger sister whom she does her best to protect, and whom she loves like no one else. Alice works hard to create her own family, because, when she arrives in Boston, she is deeply and fundamentally alone.

The sisters theme reappears in one of my current works-in-progress (or WIPs), tentatively titled "Shirley Goodness and Mercy." In it, two very different sisters who can't stand each other, and who come from a family that is perhaps the darkest one I've ever written, must reconcile in order to reach a common goal--and to achieve a kind of peace between them.

Finally, in my erotic romantic suspense WIP "Burning Questions," (only eighteen or older to view this excerpt, please) the hero and heroine are childhood friends--the man, raised by a single mom, and the woman, raised by her great-aunt after her parents die when she's very young. Of course, the single mom and the great-aunt are both gone now. Orphans again!

In fact, the thirst for connection drives just about every story I write, even though the plots and characters differ.

If you're a writer, take some time to explore what your recurring core themes are. Try to find the common threads among your stories. It will make you a better storyteller--I cannot stress this enough. All you need to do is read your writings, and think about which theme(s) run through most or all of your stories.

And readers, consider which novels and authors are your favorites, and why. I'm betting you'll find the same core themes in the books you enjoy most.

Barrie

Creating Memorable Characters, Part Two

In my last post, I mentioned two points: A, being curious about lots of different things in the world, and B, studying real people and their lives in order to create characters that are completely, humanly, real, yet still have that larger-than-life characteristic.

Curiosity. If you're not curious about a gajillion things in this world, you need to develop curiosity. For example, I found the TV show Ice Road Truckers by accident back in August, when I wanted to watch something after seeing an installment of a three-parter about the CIA called The Company (and what an interesting drama that was). I saw "Ice Road Truckers" on my cable guide, said what the heck can that be, and watched it. By the end of the hour, I was hooked on the human drama of these drivers and what they dealt with as part of their job's routine.

I have to confess here that extreme climates, and how people cope with them, fascinate me. I love Alaska, want to visit Death Valley (the hottest place in the US), et cetera, so I probably was an easy sell for getting hooked on IRT. But I'm also curious in the extreme--I've been known to watch all varieties of strange (according to my husband) shows and read nonfiction books about obscure matters. I've been known to people-watch and eavesdrop on conversations of strangers. I check the newswires every day for offbeat stories, and save them in an "ideas" file. Everything, as I tell an artist friend of mine, is grist for the mill.

If you write, and want to create memorable characters, first study some real people. I've never written a story with truckers in it, but I suspect that, at some point, I'm going to have ice road truckers in a story, even if it's only a character's background. For something I'm currently working on, I found a bit of backstory for my hero that gives the conflict a neat twist--in a tech news story about the guy who wrote the first-ever computer virus when he was fifteen. This tidbit has become backstory for my hero in my erotic romantic suspense tentatively titled NETWORKED. So, you see, raw material for creating stories and characters can be found everywhere.

Okay, you've observed a lot of human drama and you've come up with a character or two. Now, how to make them larger than life? It's all in the details.

In my latest release, PLAY HARD, the hero, Burt Stone, comes from old money in Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs. He's richer than sin, but can't abide being a playboy, so he works hard to follow his dream of becoming a world-class equestrian. Then, a jumping accident leads to the death of his horse, and his left leg and hip being put back together with pins, so he can't ride any more. The story starts two years after that accident--and he hasn't even touched a horse during that time. But, because he can't bear idleness, he starts his own company, providing custom databases to the equestrian community. He drives a Lexus Hybrid SUV, because he also can't abide wastefulness, but needs a car big enough to accommodate his bad leg. He goes to a charity auction with a childhood friend, and bids on poker lessons on a whim, because it benefits therapeutic riding for special needs kids.

Okay, what do we know about Burt? A, he's rich but hard-working; B, he's had the one thing he loved most taken away from him; C, he's moderately disabled (he needs a cane to walk); D, he's enviromentally-conscientious; E, he has a big heart when it comes to charity; and F, he has a childhood friend with whom he's close. From these we can interpolate that he's loyal, overcame great pain, and generous. You know he's not going to hang out in casinos playing baccarat. He's not going to party with Paris Hilton. He's the real deal, despite his money. And he's not perfect.

It's important to remember that--your characters should not be perfect. They should have some wound or some negative attribute--that will keep them human and believable. But they should also have attributes that push them to take risks, because, remember, characters (especially primary ones) need to change over the course of a story.

Homework: go to Ann Roth's site and download "Getting to Know You". Her character template is fairly complete, and it will force you to answer questions and consider personality characteristics to help you define your characters. Ann's Word document is by no means the only one on the internet--try Googling "character development in writing" or something similar if you wish. But her document will at least get you started.

Barrie

Creating Memorable Characters, Part One

Yesterday I blogged (at great length) about "Boston Legal," touching on the writing that fuels the show as much as the acting. The writers have created truly different and fascinating characters--fascinating, because their quirks arise from who they are, not from some stuff a writer decided his character should be composed of to make the character "interesting".

For example, Alan Shore's sex addiction arises from specific happenings in his background that push him toward the intimacy of sex, even as he runs from any associated emotional intimacy. In one episode, he describes lovingly--there is no other proper adverb--to a sex therapist how his mother used to have him stand still so that she could hem his clothing. Something about the physical closeness of his mother, combined with her caring for him by fixing his pants--brings great emotional and, yes, sexual longing in him. We get the idea that his mother often was not loving, often did not care for him, and... perhaps was, at times, sexually abusive of him. And Alan loved the abuse, because it meant she touched him, even though it damaged him permanently.

This is powerful stuff.

When you create characters, not only do they need to be grounded in real human attributes, emotions, personal history, and so on, they need to be larger than life, especially if they are primary characters (heroes/heroines) in your story. They have to have some quality that sets them apart from every other character in the story, some quality (or qualities) that enable them to overcome obstacles and change over the course of the story. And a character has to change--a hero/heroine who remained the same, start to finish, would have no dramatic tension. The story would be flat and perhaps even the dreaded "b" word (boring).

Inadequate character development is often what keeps me from enjoying some best-sellers that have a fantastic plot, but cardboard characters. I'm not going to diss any specific book. But, if you can tell an amazing story and have fascinating characters, then you will sell your book (assuming you have mastered the basic skills of writing--spelling, grammar, logical construction, etc.).

I originally started this post with the intention of writing about a television show that has become a guilty pleasure for me: Ice Road Truckers, shown Sundays at 10 PM Eastern on The History Channel. Who knew that there was a road composed of ice in far northern Canada, and who knew that, sixty days every year, truckers race to provide supplies to remote mining operations by driving hundreds of miles across huge lakes covered with ice?

I'll save Ice Road Truckers for my next post, which will address learning how to create better characters and stories by A, being curious about lots of different things in the world, and B, studying real people and their lives in order to create characters that are completely, humanly, real, yet still have that larger-than-life characteristic.

Barrie

The Emmys, Spader, "Boston Legal", Writing, and Sex

Some years I watch The Emmy Awards. Last night, I was more interested in watching the New England Patriots play football (and win) than The Emmys. Despite not watching, I do care about the results, because I enjoy television. That might not be politically correct to say in some circles, but I like TV. Besides, I've never been one to care about what's PC and what's not.

Therefore, I was thrilled to read that some of my favorites had won--"The Sopranos" for best drama (though its last season was kinda lame), America Ferrera for best comedic actress (plays Betty Suarez on "Ugly Betty", one of the best shows on network TV), and--be still, my heart--James Spader for best dramatic actor on "Boston Legal" (one of the other best shows on network TV). And when I think of Spader, thoughts of sex are never far behind.

I admit to being a Spader fan since the film, "sex, lies, and videotape" in 1989. These days, he may be a little saggier in the jowl and a bit paunchier than his buff Graham character in the aforementioned movie, but, hell, so am I. Saggier and paunchier, that is.

Spader's Alan Shore character, besides being screamingly witty and outrageously funny (part of that is the sparkling writing, part is Spader's acting genius), is also one of the most complex and interesting characters, sexually speaking, on network television. If you watched the last season of "The Practice", you were there, at the birth of this marvelous character. Thank the goddess they spun him off into a new show. It would have been a shame to see Alan Shore's character die in its infancy.

Alan Shore has a bit of a sex addiction, mostly because he's so terrified of intimacy. We are teased with little bits of "how he got that way"--a strange relationship with his mother in a strange family, failed love affairs, trauma in high school. He substitutes in-your-face kinks and industrial-strength sexual come-ons for real love with women--and does surprisingly well in that arena, generally getting to bed every woman he goes after. (And why not? I mean, it's Spader.) But love? Piffle, not for him, though his character has melancholy moments when he admits he's lonely, afraid, and depressed. Alan knows that he substitutes sex for the real deal. And yet, he seems powerless to change that fact about himself.

Alan, however, does have love in his life, and is loved back unconditionally--by the bombatic, blatantly racist/sexist/ultra-homophobic Denny Crane (played to scenery-chewing perfection by William Shatner). Denny would be a two-dimensional buffoon were it not for two facts: he has mad cow disease, so his brain doesn't always work the way it used to, and he loves Alan with his whole heart. Denny, of course, is also a sexoholic, and resists intimacy with women. Yet, these two odd duck males--Alan and Denny--find great comfort and pleasure in each other's company, engaging in "sleepovers" and a ritualistic whiskey and cigar on Denny's balcony at the end of every episode. In other words, real heart is behind the bizarre antics and snappy comebacks that are the trademarks of this wonderful show.

And I haven't even mentioned the other unique, non-stock characters on "Boston Legal", or Candice Bergen's marvelous acting. If I did, I'd work all day on this blog post. But, if you're a writer and want to learn more about your craft, I recommend this show to you. It's made me think about what makes a character interesting, and the bon mots are as delicious and frivolous as a Godiva truffle. Would that my own characters spoke such intelligent, witty, and downright hilarious words!

Yes, I would watch Spader read the phone book, I admit it. But I urge you to give the show a try--ABC, Tuesday at 10 PM Eastern. New episodes begin a week from tomorrow (Sept. 25). If you're a beginning writer, watch, if only for what you'll learn.

Barrie

What Makes a Story Hot?/Vote in the Poll!

Erotic romance and erotica are interesting literary critters. What floats my boat, satisfaction-wise, may do nothing for you--and the book in question may be a well-written story. But sex, like a sense of humor, is different from person to person.

Of course, books that feature a "kink" that you don't care for won't do it, no matter how great the story or writing is, so let's leave the question of erotic books that stray beyond "vanilla" sex for another time.

Okay. What I find hot about a book usually has to do with description--I don't like overly flowerly description, but I do like sensual reactions--what the hero/heroine are tasting, smelling, touching, feeling, hearing--it's all got to be in there for me. I try to include all the senses I can in each love or sex scene I write. I don't care for abrupt, clinical descriptions and non-sensual words. (That doesn't mean I don't like frank words--I call a cock, a cock--just the words that you tend to see more in male-oriented, hard-core porn.)

What also moves me or excites me is knowing what's going through a character's head as the sex is proceeding. I want to be there, inside the scene, to obtain maximum pleasure--both physical and emotional--from the story.

I know people who won't read a story if it's in first person. I know others who don't care which point-of-view in which the story is told. So, you tell me: Do you prefer first person for your erotic romance/erotica, third person, or does it make no difference to you?

You'll find the poll on the right, if you scroll down past the listings of my books. Please do vote--I'm truly curious. And, as incentive, I'll choose one person at random to receive a free copy of one of my ebooks--winner's choice. So, vote, and then send me an email (barriea [at] gmail [dot] com) telling me that you voted. (You don't have to tell me how you voted unless you want to.) I've started things off by voting for first person.

Barrie

A Revamped Blog

I'm Barrie Abalard, and I've revamped my blog. I deleted all the old posts and freshened the place up as best I could.

First order of business: check out my Squidoo page!

Ta-ta for now,

Barrie