Awards Time!

Stacy Green over at Turning the Page has kindly nominated me for the 7×7 award. Thank you, Stacy. I’m honored. The rules are that the recipient must link back to seven posts in seven categories, and then must pass the award on to seven deserving recipients, so here goes:

Most Beautiful:Faith, Let Go and Know.

Most Helpful: Drafting vs Outlining. I wrote this in response to a member of my workshop who was doubting the writing process. I believe there are as many writing processes as there are writers, and there is no wrong way to write… except the way that produces no writing at all.

Most Popular:A Goodly Deal of Cursing combines humor with Medieval swearing, so no surprise that it was so popular!

Most Controversial: The Pit and the Pendulum. This one riled some folks up. The really angriest comments (those with swearing and threats) never made it to light. It is my blog, after all.

Most Surprisingly Successful: Full Moon Madness Maybe this one shouldn’t have surprised me, but I thought I was just writing a silly little bit of something. People really do love werewolves.

Most Underrated: Going Deeper My post about a moment of inspiration brought on by a quote from Pat Conroy.

Most Prideworthy: This one should probably also be The Pit and the Pendulum. I stuck by my beliefs in that one, and didn’t back down. I feel pretty good about that. But since that post is already filling the Controversial slot: She because I had fun bringing my muse to life and giving her a persona.

I’d like to pass this award on to these seven wonderful recipients:

1) Nina Badzin: Nina’s blog is always upbeat, straight-talking (I find myself nodding my head a lot when reading her posts) and she has some great posts on blogging and Twitter etiquette that are worth checking out.

2) Melissa Crytzer Fry: Melissa is a fellow Arizonian who uses her camera and her considerable writing skills to share her love of the desert.

3) Jolina Petersheim: Jolina will sometimes make you cry, but mostly she’ll make you laugh.

4) Leah Singer: Leah’s beautiful blog is a blend of the good things in life; cooking, family, crafts, and books.

5) Julia Munroe Martin: Wordsxo is all about Maine, and writing, and like my blog, just whatever Julia feels like writing about on any given morning.

6) Erika Marks: the same writing that makes her posts so fun is just what you get to enjoy in her first published novel, Little Gale Gumbo.

7) Natalia Sylvester: Natalia is a freelance author with a sweet writing style and unique view on the world who posts about writing and life, and the writing life.

Going Deeper

Pat Conroy

Since the moment I cracked open my first Pat Conroy novel many years ago I have been a fan. The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides: these are great classics. Long delicious reads filled with lyricism and passionate description.

So when my friend, writer Char Bishop, loaned me her copy of Writer’s Digest  (she always shares them with me – so generous – but that’s Char) and I discovered it had an interview with Pat Conroy inside, I raced home and devoured it.  (It’s the May/June 2011 issue, if you’re interested. The interviewer is Lynn Seldon.)

Much of the interview is about Pat Conroy’s marriage to writer Cassandra King, author of The Sunday Wife. It’s a peek into the home life of two writers cohabitating. Interesting stuff. But one question was asked that produced an answer from Mr. Conroy that sent my little writer brain into paroxysms of ponderation. The question was a simple one: If you could each give one piece of writing advice, what would it be?

Mr. Conroy’s reply? Go deeper.

Now, sometimes when I read a famous writer’s advice I scratch my head, mumble something profound like, hmmm, and then move on. But this response made me have to put the magazine down and take the dog for a walk – one of the activities I engage in when I have to do some heavy thinking.

Because I knew exactly what Mr. Conroy meant. It was a light bulb moment for me. I knew following this advice would make Sword of Mordrey better. And I wanted to go over the novel in my head and find the places where ‘going deeper’ would achieve that.

Were there places in my novel where I could go deeper into what my characters were thinking and feeling, and why? Could I bring this out, not just in their interior monologues, but in their behavior and reactions, as well?

And not just my characters, but the medieval world I’ve created too. Are there places where I can show more? Maybe in just a few brief words that suddenly make the atmosphere gritty and visceral and get right up in the reader’s emotions? I knew I had to seek those places out too.

By the time I got back to the house I realized I would have to do yet another full rewrite. Not a fun prospect on the surface. I’ve already done so many. But as I sat at my desk the following morning those two words still strobed in my head like a lighthouse beacon. And the mists were beginning to clear.

Writers, what does ‘going deeper’ mean to you? Are there places in your WIP where you could go deeper? How do you identify them? What do you feel the overall effect would be on your novel? And more importantly, on your novel’s readers?