Jenny’s Blog

Do you write by creating characters first and letting them speak to you? Or do you think of any and craft each character as you hit various crossroads in the story?
 

I got asked this question recently and thought to take a moment to answer it here.

I don’t think that there is a really definitive answer to this question, actually.

I had to stop and think about how I start a story. Character or story?

Hmmm…How do I define inspiration in words that anyone who wants to write can understand?

What causes that spark in my imagination when all the pieces just seemingly fit as though the story was already assembled?

At any time during the course of a day I have about 75 different chunks of stories, various characters, emotions and ideas rolling around in my head - my mind continuously mixing and matching to see who goes where while I go about my daily business.

Much like assembling a puzzle you, as the writer, have to find the edge pieces of the story. You start with laying out the four corners of the story: Character, Event, Setting, Idea. Any one of these basic elements can spark the entirety of a story you want to tell.

In the story that I am working on right now (Table for One) the entire story was inspired by an event that I was going through in my own life. I was going through a breakup over which I was fairly ambivalent and yet not so much. It was odd to me. On one hand I was totally okay about the breakup, then on the other hand I was completely devastated. The conflicting emotions inside me intrigued me and started to sift through each individual feeling, examining what it meant for me. In the end I was amused by my own inner conflict.

In a fit of rage at my in-the-process-of ex-boyfriend I sat down in front of my computer and just let it all go, describing in detail what I wanted to do to him. The resulting event was pretty funny and shortly became the inspiration for a character who was, herself, very ambivalent about life in general.

Two corners had been laid out. I created a setting for her. Then finally the ideas started to roll out from there, driving this character through a series of events that would ultimately change her attitude and her life. Her arc was defined by a catalytic event that brings everything into perspective.

As the narrator of the story, Trinity, my character experiences these various emotions from the first person perspective (I said, I did, I walked, etc). The story started with an event, but ultimately became a character driven story, peppered with various emotional events in a setting that anyone could recognize and ideas that readers can relate to.

The four corners were in place and with each new idea a section of whole puzzle was put together, giving me the basic path for where I was going and what I was doing.

Life inspires me. I am constantly observing the people and things around me. I read the news cutting and pasting little snippets of articles that stir up an idea in my mind. Sometimes I record bits of my dreams (when I remember them). I examine every emotion I experience to see if somewhere inside it is a connecting thread to one of my story ideas.

I can’t say that I start with a character. I don’t. Nor do I start with just an idea. Or a setting. Or an event. It is the combination of all of these things coming together almost simultaneously that will drive me to my computer to get that story out of my head before I explode with it.

When writing I apply the same philosophy that Michelangelo applied to sculpting:

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
The stories are within me everyday waiting to be uncovered, the pieces put together by some small incident that reveals the whole picture.

As you start to lay out the border you will find a piece by accident that will help fill in the center and as you start to look for similar shapes and colors of your puzzle the story will roll right on out.

I hope this helps!

Love,
JG  

Apparently there is new version of human rights that are only granted to those people who’re heterosexual. I have yet to see this document, but am most interested in the imbecile who has penned it. 

I was at the grocery store the other day eavesdropping in the deli section on a couple discussing the virtues of this anti-gay marriage ban. As I listened to them talk about the “ridiculousness of those people trying to undermine the Constitution” I couldn’t help but feel very sad that this is the level to which we have sunk. 

We have come so far as a “free nation” that we are able (in a grand, sweeping sort of way,) to grant freedoms to women, African-Americans and Native Americans, Hispanics and other foreign immigrants. However, this magnanimous extension of privileges only reaches so far. 

Unfortunately we still live in a country shredded by bigotry and hate and fear. There is still a need for groups such as the NAACP and GLAD that passionately protect the rights of people who we, as Americans, don’t (or maybe won’t) do ourselves. And that is a tragedy. We weaken our own power as a nation by not granting freedoms to every man, woman and child regardless of race, creed, color. 

Or sexual preference. 

Thomas Jefferson set forth a long-forgotten and mainly ignored statement in our culture right now when he wrote the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Eleanor Roosevelt furthered the definition of these unalienable rights by setting forth the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In fact, Article 16 is very specific on addressing Marriage. It states: 

“Article 16. 

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. 

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.  

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” 

I don’t read anything in there, no parenthetical reference, nothing that states (Oh, by the way, this human right is just for straight people). 

I never thought I would see the day when this simple concept of unity would become the monster that it has, but sadly it is just a by-product of our own inabilities and human frailties to change and accept others no matter what. In fact, I really hate that there is any “acceptance” needed whatsoever. It just seems an odd concept to me. 

I guess I just grew up with a set of parents whose values and opinions are very different than most. My godfather was gay. He died of AIDS in the mid-eighties. Many of my friends throughout the course of my life have been gay and there never was anything weird or wrong or sick or against nature to me. It was just part of who they were and I loved them more for it, if anything. 

(Though bummer for me, I would sometimes lose out on a cute guy to a gay friend, and later get ruthlessly teased about it, but hey I’ve lost cute guys to girl friends too.) 

To me, as a heterosexual female, I find that I am so offended on behalf of the homosexual community that I could remain silent no longer. Our country has been torn apart so many times because of hated and our own unwillingness to grant people the right to exist that it is time we move into a new generation of peace and trust and hope. And, yes, acceptance. 

We have a long road ahead of us, and many much bigger (and more real) problems. We’re destroying our environment, we have enough nuclear power to fry every man, woman and child (regardless of their sexual preference) on Earth. Is it really so important to fight so hard just to keep gay couples that much more undermined in our already overly bigoted country? Is it really that important that they not be allowed the same rights as a heterosexual married couple? 

Does this seem like an odd restriction to anyone else? Or is it just me? I look at this and go: “What is wrong with us that we are making such a big deal out of it?” 

It doesn’t matter, people!!!! It really doesn’t matter. You want to fight for a cause, for virtue and righteousness, then fight for the fact that these people don’t get afforded the same basic courtesy as every other American whether born here or on foreign soil. They don’t get treated fairly. And that is repulsive. 

We do not have the right as Americans to deny anyone the human right to be happy. 

Today was quite a busy day for me!

At 7AM I was on the radio with Natalie Emerson of Nat Chat Live talking about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We discussed the rampant trade in human trafficking.

After a hefty dose of reality I decided that I needed to indulge in a little escapism so off I went to San Diego - this year’s host of the International Comic Convention aka Comic-Con.

And what an experience that was.

I had heard of conventions like these where artists and fans alike dress up as their favorite characters and converge on a single spot for a weekend of comic bliss. I gotta say that I have never seen anything like it before. It went beyond everything that I had imagined it to be.

At the root of Com-Con was your basic trade show, various booths set up to display wares of all comic-industry trade.

But really it was the people who were most fascinating. The biggest gathering of superheroes and monsters that I have ever seen and every one of them behaving in character.

Among these heroes and villains I saw several versions of Darth Vadar from the mini version of a 7-year-old fan to that of a Vadar who must’ve been old enough to have met with Moses on Mount Sinai.

Then there were the numerous Siths, Vampires, Wonder Women and several characters with whom I was not familiar.

It was great fun. It bummed me out that I was only in my civies on this occasion. I think if I were to dress up I probably would have had to go the She-Ra Princess of Power route. Or maybe Rainbow Brite. I always wanted her Pegasus for my very own.

I always liked her as a superhero. I wish they’d release those cartoons on DVD already.

Spending the day amongst my childhood idols made me long for the idyllic time when Saturday morning cartoons rolled around.

Me and my little friends would gather in a pile about 4 inches from the television and sing along with the theme songs of each cartoon.

A part of me missed that time very much when the greatest tragedy of life was the cancellation of Dungeons and Dragons and He-Man. (Okay. I admit it. I liked those cartoons best because the men were SO manly and I’m a girl through and through. Cut me some slack.)

It was fun to be reminded of my childhood idols and I finally understood why so many people my age and older flocked in massive droves to these conventions.

I used to think that they were a bunch of freaks and wierdos. However, next year I will may even be among them.

Maybe I will dress up as the Empress from The Neverending Story. Her crown is really cool.

Tomorrow, July 22nd, 2006 I will be talking to Natalie Emerson on Nat Chat Live. It’s a 7AM PST (whoa)! But good for all those Eastern board residents!

At any rate, Natalie Emerson is a 13 year old girl who hosts her own radio show on WELE in Daytona.

I gotta say that this girl really impresses me! At 13 years I was consumed with horses and riding. I would help out when I could, but it certainly wasn’t my main focus in life.

Nat however created a radio talk show for herself to talk about what she deems “kid issues”.

All I have to say about that is: It’s about time!

So I am going to be talking with Nat tomorrow primarily about the book that I wrote with my dad and more importantly how that’s relative to human rights and even more specifically the Youth for Human Rights group of which I am part. (www.youthforhumanrights.com)

You see, I grew up helping people. It was just one of those things that you did with my family. We did Sub for Santa and Habitat for Humanity and helped the homeless and those less fortunate than I so it really became ingrained in who I am that it is part of my duty to help.

In turn, it always awes me to see kids like Nat who’re really making a difference in ways that will probably ripple throughout our society (though we may notice it for years to come).

I think it’s important for kids (especially as they enter those all-important teenage years) to have a peer or a leader of sorts that they can rely on to point the way through the garbled mess of emotion that walks hand-in-hand with that age group.

I admire her greatly for her work and look forward to following her career!

Check her out and tune in! www.natalieemerson.com  

Love,

JG

On the last blog I talked about writer’s block. Since this seems to be the biggest issue that new writers have in getting started I am going to continue along this thread for a moment.

Writing is a very disciplined art. Some writers need utter silence to extract the imaginary voices of their characters from the rest of their daily thoughts, while others need the slight stimulation of a coffee shop or bookstore when they sit down to write.

Myself, I need the uninteruppted solace of my office. I shut off the phones, turn on my iTunes, and start sifting through the ideas that bubble and stir around in my imagination from that section of my mind that is always working. This part of my consciousness is separate from the part of my mind grinds against those daily questions, menial thoughts and answers of “What is in my checking account?” or “I have bills to pay” or “Did I feed the dogs already?”

But that is how I keep myself disciplined and not everyone will be able to work in the way that I do. That is the thing you as a budding writer need to discover. What do you need to do to enable your mind to start producing those thoughts that you can string together in a contiguous storyline? Do you need to go to a coffee shop or are you too distracted by that? Do you need to lock yourself up in an office with a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign?

Discover that secret to the workings of your mind and you will soon be on the road to overcoming the first obstacle of being writer.

Now what to write? That’s always a kicker because that all-important very first sentence is the concept that will capture or lose you your audience in an opening volley. But to make your job easier, allow me to suggest a certain possibility: There are hundreds of thousands first sentences. It doesn’t really matter! What is the most important thing is just starting your story.

Taking an opening sentence from my own books, Table for One, it goes something like this:

“Brad, you’re boring in bed.”

There it is an opening. When I started this story I didn’t know where I was going with it, but that statement in and of itself really amused me. I knew that the girl who had the balls to actually say something must be some kind of character. So I started asking myself questions about her. Questions such as: What does a girl like this do for a living? What does she look like? When she goes to the mall what stores does she go to? Who is her favorite designer? What is her favorite food? Favorite smell? Does she wear perfume? If so, what kind? How does she wear her hair? What does she look for?

I have a list of about 100 questions that I force myself to answer about my characters that help me develop the details of who she is. By understanding who she is, it helps me to discover what she does and how she reacts in certain situations.

From that opening line I realized that she is an open book when it comes to her willingness to communicate about things. Her problems stemmed not so much from her inability to communicate, but rather her inability to act. And thus there was conflict. How do I get her to act upon her outrageous statements? From these simple questions I asked of myself I ended up with a touching, funny story about a girl heading up to her 30th birthday realizing that her life was very from the idealic picture she had painted for herself as a child and she didn’t know how to turn those circumstances around.

So the point of all of this is it doesn’t matter what your first sentence is. Just get it out there and start hunting for the details. There was some reason that you made that bold choice of statement to open your book, so discover what it is.

You may find that you will need several tries to get to that statement that sparks the internal questioning. But keep writing. You’ll get there and you’ll know with utter certainty when you hit it because a new vista of possibilities will open up and you will start sifting through many different ideas that could relate to that opening line.

So just keep at it. One way or another you will spark a memory or an idea that will have an entire story behind it. And you’ll know.

Love,

JG

A few years ago I went to visit some long-lost relatives in Georgia. I had never met these distant cousins of mine, but was interested in doing so as they still lived on the plantation where my roots began. I called them up, introduced myself and told them what I wanted to do. In true Southern style they were delighted to host both myself and my father at their home for the afternoon.

So taking the journey down South, my dad and I went and saw where our family had come from. While there I got an opportunity to see something that few Americans will ever see: original bills of sale for slaves.

I will never forget that moment in all of my life. The first line read:

For the one that calls itself Hannah, aged 10. 5 dollars.

It sickened me utterly and cut me deeper than I had realized, this complete disregard for human dignity and I left there feeling slightly ashamed of my lineage and my heritage.

I left there thinking “Well Thank God that doesn’t happen anymore!”

I was vaguely aware of human trafficking at that period in time. I knew it was something that happened to “other people” in “other countries”, but certainly NOT in the good ol’ US of A!

I got home and was instantly immersed into life again and tried very hard not to think about that experience by focusing on the all of the interesting people to whom I was related. In some glamorized fashion I even related my story to a modern day Gone With the Wind sort of romanticized version. Yet that bill of sale still seemed to haunt me a little bit, and disgust me tremendously.

One hundred and fifty years of freedom still had not managed to wipe away a slight sense of guilt that I carried forward on behalf of my ancestors. And still, though I read infrequent news reports about it, I ignored the blatant fact that human trafficking existed.

But it always tapped softly on the door of my consciousness and soon I could ignore it no longer.

I was asked to write a simple booklet for a group called the Youth for Human Rights about the dangers of human trafficking. I lept at the chance to teach youngsters about avoiding the traps of modern-day slavery.

What I didn’t expect was to be taught in turn about the horrors that go on every day in my home town.

Fact: An estimated 600-800,000 people are trafficked every year.

More people are trafficked in a single year than in the combined 400 years of “legal” slavetrade before the era of the Civil war.

Fact: An estimated 14-17,000 people are trafficked into the United States to be used as drug mules and prostitutes and sweat shop laborers.

Fact: Los Angeles is the second largest trading port for trafficked slaves.

This is MY HOME TOWN and I sit in my lovely, air-conditioned home on my squashy couch watching my big-screen TV while people are literally being worked to death.

Seemed to me that the apple didn’t fall far from my Southern tree.

So rather than sit on this nagging guilt and irresponsibility I decided there was something I could do about it.

I could use my God-given ability to write and to educate.

I immediately signed up to be a spokesperson for Human Rights with this organization. The purpose of the Youth for Human Rights organization is to educate young people of all nations, creeds, colors, race of their basic Human Rights assured to them by the United Nations.

These rights were set forth by Eleanor Roosevelt and ratified in 1948 by the United Nations. It is known as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 191 countries signed on to this document, promising to protect these basic human rights that are to be afforded to every person on Earth, including countries well known for their blatant disregard for human dignity and freedoms such as China, Cuba, Cambodia, Vietnam. The list is very long.

And of all the countries swearing to uphold this declaration not one of them have made good on their agreements.

There are 30 basic human rights granted to us by this declaration including the right to privacy, the right to education and social security, the right to life, the right to travel, the right to a nationality. Just 30 basic rights that we are all given with that very first breath we take at birth, and yet most of the world (97% by survey) don’t know their basic rights.

600-800,000 people every year are so trained to believe that they don’t have any rights that they gladly give themselves over to the trafficker with a false promise of a “better life”, a life where their children can be educated and their grandparents will have food on the table.

A life that inevitably leads into a slow and tortuous death, controlled by threats, lies and punishments.

But like I said, there is something that we can all do. We can know our basic human rights as put forth by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Do you know yours?

www.youthforhumanrights.org

If you want to help educate these children alongside me, then join the fight. Let’s put an end to the slavery for good.

Love,

JG

I had the strangest day today. First I was so tired because it was SO hot, which lead to being hot last night in bed while trying to sleep. Finally drifted off around 2ish, then at 7ish while the sun was just warming the into the brutal, vicious melting pot it became, my bedroom warmed with equal intensity, thus waking my poor and tired person right up.

Well that’s all well and good, however, mid-day I was stupid enough to go outside and I have yet to stop sweating despite standing in front of the air-conditioner for long periods of time.

Then this evening I decided it was high time I chopped the bamboo that grows wildly in my backyard. This was so I could reach the hose that hangs on my fence. Now, for those who don’t know me, won’t really understand what an accomplishment this actually. Because, my dear friends, those bamboo leaves are quiet havens for big, hairy spiders. And I HATE spiders. I don’t want them anywhere near my home, my animals, my clothing, my hair and MOST ESPECIALLY within 10 feet of my personage.

Thank you, I’ll pass.

But because my puppers were as hot as I was today I went out and bought them a lounging pool that they could play in. In order to make this genius idea work however I needed to fill it with water, which required me reaching through about 3 feet of spider infested bamboo.

So out came the hedge clippers, on went the mask (and long sleeves) and I started hacking. Finally, finally, finally, I reached the hose and using a clever mechanism of my precariously balanced body and a long stick I was able to wedge the hose off of its hook, as the bamboo was just too thick and dark for me to even THINK about sticking my hand in there.

In all my hacking I only managed to dislodge one spider. And what did I do with it? Well with my handy hedge clippers I hacked him right in two. It was an excellent day for me all around.

It must be the heat.

I spent a chunk of yesterday and today reading over one of my novels that has been sitting around gathering dust. I was inspired by my lovely PR/editor Mary Kay to pick it up again and re-read it from the viewpoint of an actual reader.

So pretending that I hadn’t written the book I started reading and I must say that I was impressed with myself over that one. I had forgotten how much FUN my sassy little character was. In many ways, I poured a lot of myself into her thoughts and feelings, her ambitions, her tastes. But then in other ways she really became her own character, a by-product of my imagination for sure, but definitely a wonderfully flawed human.

Sometimes I forget how much my characters inspire me. I know that sounds odd since I am their creator, but it’s true in a sense that there were ideas and thoughts about my own life that really came through in this book and it makes me realize just how much farther I myself have come from that point. And I guess that is what inspires me to expand.

At any rate, I am looking forward to editing this book because there are certain aspects of the book that will change as a result of my own changes in life. And I like that. I liked being affected by the story and I know that if it made ME laugh and cry outloud - objective, critical writer that I am, then I cannot wait to see what happens with my readers.

Look for Table for One shortly! It’s a fun one.

Love,

JG

Well, here it is… My updated website. FINALLY. Over the next several months I will be updating and adding cool new features and games, but first I thought it was high time that I update my old website to this newer and cooler and much more better site where I can blog and answer some frequently asked questions.

Today the first question that I get asked the most is actually from other struggling writers. The question has several variations on the theme, but is essentially about what to do when you have a story rolling around inside your head and yet when you sit down to write it, your mind goes into some hyperdrive frission that short-circuits the functionality of your fingers, which in turn wipes every idea that you have had about this story completely from you memory.

In short, my dears, what to do about writer’s block?

There are several things you can do and I will address only one of them in today’s blog. (I do after all have to save some of my more brilliant solutions for later blogs.)

The first thing I do when I run flat into that wall of uninspired doldrums is I pick up a book of one of my favorite authors J.K. Rowling and I start reading, paying attention to HOW she crafts her stories. She is, without dispute, one of the most successful authors to date and so it is a clever move to study what she does from an academic standpoint. Plus she’s a bloody good writer. But not everyone is going to have the Harry Potter passion that I do, so I recommend that you STUDY one of your favorite authors paying particular attention to the way they pull off the various plotpoints of the storyline, how they build the tension, and keep you as a reader interested.

Then study the details of each character and how each person in the story is carefully defined, how much of the scene the writer paints for you, and how much detail you as the reader fill in.

Using J.K. Rowling as an example again, if you have ever read any of the Harry Potter books, you will know that she does a supreme job in creating the universe in such a way that you literally drop into the action and are part of the story. You can see the castle and the lake. Her characters are well defined and she RARELY misses a beat when carrying forward the story from the previous novel. I would bet that she has stacks upon stacks of detailed notes and descriptions. I also know for a fact that she doodles out some of the images that she sees in her head, probably to make them more real to her so that she can truly communicate what she sees in her imagination.

It is those details that while trying and difficult to define make the difference between an average story and really great read, regardless of genre.

A quick exercise to do is to rip a page from a magazine with a pretty picture on it and start writing down every detail you see on the picture. Get as poetic and metaphoric as you wish, but focus on the nuance of colors and textures you see and lights and darks, shadows, those things which in passing we might all overlook. This exercise will start to train your mind to think in detailed patterns and in turn will make your writing easier.

Stay tuned for the next step to THIS process. In the meantime, feel free to post your musings here.

However, be warned, if you say anything rude on here I do (as the administrator) have the power to remove it immediately and will do so!