D. Hart St. Martin

I make female heroes badass AND believable

writing life

Writing Tools Part I

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DISCLAIMER: Nobody has paid me to talk about the program/app I cover in this post. I am not necessarily endorsing it; I am simply explaining why it works for me and hope that my experience may help another writer out there.

I don’t know about other writers, but I need a convenient writing platform and the appropriate tools to keep everything moving swiftly. For many, many, many years (maybe 20+) I have used Word to capture my text. And for a good deal of those years, Word was sufficient to my needs. Even when I started self-publishing, I could format a book—both print and digital—with some ease within its confines. But a little over a year ago, I discovered that my current version of Word (2016) had become cumbersome and twitchy when it came to formatting for print in particular. Then, a few weeks ago, Microsoft did an update to the app which turned things topsy-turvy, and I said, “Enough!”

I have known about Scrivener for a couple of years now. It’s a powerful program for writers of books. I tried it out a few years back but returned to Word because, well, change is hard, right? I wanted to keep doing what I was doing because it was working. If it ain’t broke… But then Word kinda broke, and I decided it was time to give Scrivener another try.

The first great thing about Scrivener is you get a 30-day trial. And it’s not just 30 days from the day you download it; it’s 30 days of use. So if you don’t open it for a day or two or a week or even a year, the remaining days are there when you do use it again. I think that’s damn straight of them. The second great thing is it’s a single purchase program. If they create a new version, you do have to pay for that, but I suppose you can always stick with what you have and not update. Updates within the version are free, however. And a plus for those purchasing it for Windows right now is they’re including the upcoming version 3 in the package.

But there’s more. Because it is specifically geared to long, broken-into-chapters-or-parts projects, you can open a “project” and put all your chapters (or whatever) in that project. They remain separate, but should you decide to print the entire project for a beta reader or to prep it for publication, all you have to do is “compile” the individual chapters in the order you’ve placed them in the “binder,” and you have a complete document.

Now, let me say one thing about this. The selling point for me came after I had compiled a beta copy of my WIP in Word, one chapter at a time, for my betas and partway through realized I had left out intervening material (I call them “interludes”). I looked at Scrivener after that and realized how much easier the process would have been from there. Purchased and done. I am now writing book projects exclusively in Scrivener.

And in case you’re thinking well, that’s nice, but what’s the learning curve. Not long, actually. It has a multitude of bells and whistles, a great many of which your particular process will never require. But what could be useful is more than likely there. I’m not going to give you the link to their site because that just feels like selling my soul. Just run a search—you’ll find it.

Next time I plan on discussing text expanders and how important they are to writers. If you’re not using a text expander (Autocorrect in Word is one example), you’re wasting a lot of time on fixing typos and typing other stuff. But that’s for my next post.

Extending the Proper Invitation to the Story

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Beginnings are delicate things. First line, first paragraph, first chapter all require meticulous attention on the writer’s part. They serve as layers of an invitation to the reader to join the writer on a journey, and if the invitation fails to ignite the reader’s passion, they will get up and walk away, leaving the writer behind. No matter how amazing that journey may be, if an author can’t draw a reader in, they’re gone. So where middles and even endings can survive the sin of losing their bearings now and then, beginnings must be perfect.

I am about to slash my first chapter to shreds. I generally don’t go back and read something from earlier in a book while I’m in the process of writing or editing—I am, by nature, a linear writer—but in this case I took a look at chapters 1 and 2 last night because I’ve sent those chapters to a friend. I finished up chapter 1 with “meh” and “it’s too long,” while chapter 2 garnered my thumbs up. Why? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?

I didn’t want to dwell too heavily on it, not while I’m neck deep in a complicated rewrite of changing both the point of view (from limited 3rd to 1st) and the verb tense (from past to present). (I wrote about this a few weeks ago.) I am immersed in this and pushing to get it done, so I didn’t want to get myself hung up in perfecting chapter 1, not now, not while I’m making good progress.

But I couldn’t help it. I went to bed, sat on the mattress edge and thought about it. It was then it occurred to me. I may (or may not—the jury’s out) safely eliminate reference to a particular entity throughout that first chapter and give it its due in chapter 2. Will I be able to make it work? I don’t know. And I won’t know until I return to chapter 1 on my next rewrite. I’ve placed a large Post-it® on the cover page with some brief notes of what I want to do, and that’s going to have to be it before I get back to it.

Sometimes we have to kill our children. It’s a writer’s adage. Editing sucks, and what sucks more than anything is when amazing phrases or metaphors must be sacrificed for the sake of better storytelling and better prose. But we do it. And I’ll do it when the time comes to rip that chapter apart, throw away chunks, saving them for use in chapter 2 but knowing I’ll likely use very few of them, if any at all.

Why do we put ourselves through this torture? It ain’t the money, that’s for sure.

Interview – Chris Rosser

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Chris Rosser

Chris Rosser is an indie author based in Melbourne, Australia. Originally from Wales, he moved to Australia as a child, where he was educated and has mostly lived, albeit with several years’ worth of travel. Today, he’s married with three kids and toils away his days as a technical writer for a multinational financial services company. And did I mention he’s a great friend, confidant and co-conspirator I originally met on Twitter?

Hart: Tell us a bit about yourself, Chris.

Chris: I’ve been writing stories as long as I can remember. Yet, for much of my youth, I chased the dream of being an archaeologist. Eventually, I realised that what attracted me to archaeology and history was a love of story and narrative…so I righted the ship, painfully but for the better.
In addition to my books, I run a modestly successful blog over at chrisrosser.net, where I write articles, app reviews and the occasional tutorial – basically whatever takes my fancy.

You can also find me on Twitter, where I spend half my time with the #WritingCommunity and the other half trolling Australia’s rotten politicians. I have a lot of fun doing both!

H: What genre or genres do you write in? What attracted you to that genre? Do you read more books in that genre, or do you indulge in genres outside your speciality?

C: I write fantasy—it’s my first and most enduring love as a writer. While I lean towards gritty realism and dark themes, I don’t know if I’d label my work as Grimdark. I’m not shy of swearing or including sex scenes where necessary, so I don’t think I qualify as YA either! I’m something of a romantic and have long been enthralled by tales of high adventure and magic, things which are exceedingly scarce in our own world—but I’m not afraid to make my characters’ lives bloody awful.

As a reader, my tastes are generally broad, and I read much less fantasy than I used to. I’m also just as likely to listen to audiobooks as sit down and read one made of paper. I love contemporary thrillers, historical fiction, sci-fi and British murder mysteries.

I’ve dabbled in writing other genres. A year ago, I wrapped up the first draft of a modern techno-thriller set in Chicago. I’m also sitting on a historical adventure novel set in 17th Century Italy. Both are gathering dust, and I haven’t decided what to do with them.

H: Do you schedule time for your writing? or do you just grab the odd minute or hour?

C: Being a dad of special needs kids, and working full time, makes it really hard to schedule time. Last year, I tried Sunday afternoons, but life kept throwing obstacles in my path. So, I mostly snatch the time when I can, and usually, that means on the commute into work (if I can get a seat on the train) or into the night after my kids have gone to sleep.

H: What research do you find absolutely necessary to keeping your story authentic?

C: I studied archaeology and history as an undergraduate, which helps a lot when you are writing historical analogues as I do in my fantasy setting. I learnt that much of our assumptions about historical societies—particularly the middle ages—are wrong and based mostly on stereotypes portrayed in film and television. I spent a lot of time reading and analysing primary sources by classical and medieval writers, and it did wonders to build up a picture in my mind of how societies really worked and how people thought.

Unfortunately, these days my time is too limited to spend hours lovingly researching and world-building, so I tend to rely on accumulated knowledge, or I make things up on the fly. It hasn’t hurt my setting, but I admit if I were writing historical fiction, I’d have to dust off those sources again. Then again, that’s one of the reasons why I love writing fantasy—I don’t have to be a slave to facts.

Still, research is essential because if you don’t know what you are talking about, a reader will see through it immediately. So when I do research, it’s usually on subjects of which I have little personal experiences, like sailing or horse riding.

H: How do you see the role of women in fiction these days? How do you promote women in your work?

C: Fantasy has long had a problem with women. For a long time, women were either written as tired clichés—spoilt princesses, warrior maidens, whores—or they were omitted and marginalised, like in Lord of the Rings. Books were always about men on quests, or boys becoming great heroes—a place for young men and boys to live out their fantasies by proxy.

I hope it’s changing. I see strong women abound in novels and their TV adaptations. But part of me feels there’s still an element of objectification to women in fantasy.

George R.R. Martin did wonders to break taboos in the genre, but since HBO got their hands on the series, sex, violence, and sexual violence in particular in the genre have exploded.

I’m by no means a prude, and I certainly explore sexuality in my books, but for many authors and screenwriters rape has become a staple of female character development, and quite frankly I find it abhorrent.

Fortunately, I spent a lot of my formative years reading books by women, and about women—stories like The Mists of Avalon and The Clan of the Cave Bear. They’ve really stuck with me over the years for their portrayal of the world through a woman’s eyes.

As for me, my stories reflect my real life experiences. I’ve been surrounded by amazing, talented and wonderful women for most of my life. When I originally wrote Weaver of Dreams back in 2004, it was meant as a present for my younger sister, so I chose to make my protagonist a young woman. Not only did it challenge me as a young writer, but it tested my assumptions about the genre. It taught me I could write epic fantasy, with all the action and magic that lovers of the genre expect, but I could do so with a vulnerable young woman at the helm who doesn’t have to morph into a Xena/Red Sonja clone to be a strong character.

Ever since, I’ve tried to make my female characters every bit as rounded and exciting as the males — perhaps more so, because I have to work a little harder.

H: Do you have a current release you’d like to promote?

C: I’m juggling a lot at the moment. As you read this, I’m very close to publishing my second book, Cadoc’s Contract, and launching a new podcast.

Cadoc’s Contract is actually set before my first book, The Weaver’s Boy—blame the muse. It tells the story of how Cadoc became the Lord of Skeinhold. He’s a veteran limping home from a bloody crusade and is struggling to adjust—not least because he’s got a dark secret and owes a blood debt to the gods. I’m really proud of how the story’s turned out, and I think it will make a great prelude to the series.

INTERVIEW – Jan Maher

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Jan Maher

First, I must thank Jan Maher for volunteering to be the guinea pig for this new feature on my blog. I believe in supporting other authors, and when the idea of interviewing authors for my blog occurred to me, Jan was my first choice.

I’ve known Jan for 25 years or so, ever since our days on the Women Who Write AOL message board. I did not, however, appreciate the level of her talent until I read Earth As It Is (you can find my review here) about a year ago, and it was a natural progression to asking her to help me by submitting herself to my questionable skills as an interviewer.

A novelist, playwright, and occasional poet, Jan Maher lives and writes in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. Her novel Earth As It Is was named a Best Indie of 2017 by Kirkus Reviews; Heaven, Indiana was chosen a Best Indie of 2018. 

You can contact Jan via her website where you can also subscribe to her incredibly infrequent blog.

Hart: What genre or genres do you write in? What attracted you to that genre? Do you read more books in that genre, or do you indulge in genres outside your specialty?

Jan: I consider my primary genre to be literary fiction, which is to say it is character-driven and doesn’t fit well in any other genre category, though it often overlaps with other genres.

Earth As It Is, for example, shares a bit of the Venn diagram with LGBTQ, and Heaven, Indiana might be seen as Women’s Fiction; Earth could be considered Historical; both are the subset of Midwestern. I’d call them both “crossover” and “up market” in that they are appealing to a general audience, not solely a literary fiction or niche readership.

I also write plays and occasional poetry. Except for poetry, in which I’m more often focused on capturing a mood or set of images, it’s the characters who compel my interest. Who are they? What drives them? What do they want? What actions do they take to get it? What kind of trouble does that get them into? How do they resolve that?

I read mostly general and literary fiction. I love a good gentle mystery now and then when the world seems too complex. Every great once in a while I’ll jump into a well-constructed fantasy world (such as, ahem, Solsta) and binge read for three or four days. And I read a lot of non-fiction, especially if it’s about neuroscience (for lay folk) or health.

H: Thank you for the mention. So, tell me, do you have a current release you’d like to promote? 

J: Earth As It Is is my most current release. This novel is the story of a crossdressing dentist who, devastated by his war experiences and disenchanted by what it brings out in men, opts for post-war life presenting as a female hairdresser in the small town of Heaven, Indiana.

As Charlene, she quickly establishes her salon as the place where Heaven’s women safely share their secrets even as she deftly manages to keep her own story hidden. What she has not planned on is falling in love with her loyal customer Minnie. Anyone who is curious to know what happens next is invited to read the book! 

H: I really enjoyed Earth As It Is and am currently reading Heaven, Indiana. Both of these take place in Heaven, Indiana in the mid-20th century. The entire setting feels remarkably authentic. What is your research process when writing about a time and a place that even for us of a certain age is only a dim memory?

J: I have a few different research processes. Since I grew up in Indiana, some of the research is into my own dim memory, calling up the sensory details, experiences, and emotions of my childhood. When I go back to visit cousins who still live in Indiana, I love the storytelling: sharing what we remember, and until just a few months ago when the remaining sibling in my mother’s generation died at the age of 96, listening to the stories of the elders.

I also do a lot of book-based research and internet-based research. Right now for example, in my files for my work-in-progress, I have information about spare parts for Italian-made espresso machines, soil types of eastern Indiana, hog farming, tornadoes, and Klan activity in the year 2004 among other things.

For Heaven, I remember reading or browsing stacks and stacks of books about carnivals in the Midwest and Romani life in the United States. I wrote to small-town reference librarians and asked for notable events in their communities’ histories, especially related to the Underground Railroad. I visited small-town library reference rooms and read centennial yearbooks.

For Earth, my research topics included the Galveston, TX storm of the century, one-room schoolhouses in Texas, the 1918 influenza epidemic, and the first dental college in Texas—all of which supported writing that was edited out of the final manuscript—as well as The Battle of the Bulge, crossdressing, dentistry in World War II, night clubs in the early 1960s in Chicago, what was on television in January 1964, etc.

For this project, I literally Googled my way through by starting with the year 1900 as the presumed year my protagonist was born. One set of answers led to new questions, and those potential answers led to still more questions, and I never knew what would come next until it arrived and declared its place in the story!

H: We authors do have interesting browsing histories, don’t we. So, further to these two books and your process, when did you come upon the truth about Charlene? You mostly slip past her in Heaven, Indiana, and I found myself wondering when her back story crystalized for you to the point where Earth As It Is became your necessary next book?

J: The story of Charlene as told by Seese in Heaven, Indiana is a snippet loosely inspired by a bit of a story my mother told me about a hairdresser in her home town who was discovered, upon her death, to be a man. There were very few details in my mother’s story. I took the basic idea and created a couple of fictional details that served the purpose for Heaven, but the overall story of Charlene remained a snippet. My readers knew as much about her as I did, and it wasn’t very much.

Then, around 2002, in a writing group, we took on an exercise exploring three minor characters in work we’d already completed. Charlene was one of three I chose to explore from Heaven, and she’s the one who simply wouldn’t go away. I read and re-read the two or three pages in Heaven that describe her and started asking all the questions that had gone unanswered in those pages. Where did she come from? When did she first cross dress? Was she ever anything other than a hairdresser? Why did she choose Heaven as her adopted home town?

I filled pages in my journal with questions and what ifs. Based in the handful of “facts” in Heaven, I posited possibilities, explored them through research and writing, and using what I call the pasta method, saw what stuck to the page the way well-cooked pasta sticks to the wall.

I’m not sure when Charlene’s story became my necessary next book, but I will share with you the biggest surprise of discovering her story. At one point when I’d written her childhood, her marriage, her life as a dentist in Chicago, her war experiences, and had gotten her to Heaven, a friend in my writing group who’d been there through all those years of development (did I mention I’m a slow writer?) asked if she was ever going to be able to come out to anyone and be in a relationship with anyone or was she doomed to live out her life in her self-imposed isolation? Elizabeth insisted that she would have to have a friend and confidant; otherwise, the story would simply be too depressing.

It caught me by surprise but it felt absolutely true as soon as she asked the question: Charlie/Charlene had to have a beloved. So I again re-read Heaven, Indiana, looking for clues as to who it might be. After exploring one or two other characters and hitting dead ends, I realized the answer was in a line in the very first chapter of Heaven, where Helen Breck is described as walking past Charlene’s Beauty Shop waving to Minnie, first customer of the day.

Now, Minnie in Heaven is seen mostly as an older woman and a terrible gossip. But it felt incontrovertibly true that it would have to be Minnie. I was gob-smacked. Flabbergasted. And finally, intrigued and challenged to get to know Minnie as deeply as I’d gotten to know Charlene and figure out how the heck they might have ended up as lovers.

H: I love when characters take over the story. I’m curious. What author revs your creativity engine? Is it a particular work by this author? All of their work? Or the author themself?

J: Toni Morrison. All of her work. Every delicious word. Same with Marilynne Robinson’s fiction (her essays not so much). Most of Louise Erdrich. I like Jose Saramago’s work quite a lot, too. There’s something in each of them that makes me feel, “Oh, you can really do that in writing! Wow! Okay.”

H: Is there a quote that drives you in your day-to-day life?

J: Whether it’s a direct quote or a paraphrase is impossible to know in this day of memes and minimal citation, but the Dalai Lama is said to have said, “If you can, help others. If you cannot, at least try not to hurt them.” That’s my day-to-day life quote. My writing life quote is from Rumi: “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

H: What is the ratio of reading to writing in your life? Does it vary? Or is there a static give and take between the two?

J: Not enough to not enough, so maybe that’s a one to one?

H: Do you schedule time for your writing? Or do you just grab the odd minute or hour when it makes itself available to you?

J: It depends on the project and the phase. I keep a very messy journal and try to at least grab the odd minute or hour in which to jot down new ideas, work on smaller pieces, or move a longer piece forward a bit.

When I’m far enough into a project that I start to live in that world more than in what we tend to call “the real world,” I will schedule time, as much as possible, till I have a full draft. I stay in that mode through revisions and first edit. I return to it when the book is completely edited (by someone else) and it’s time for a proofreading or two or three or five before it heads to the printers.

Thank you for inviting me to share my work and thoughts with your blog readers!

H: And thank you, Jan, for your wonderful and inspiring answers.

The Learning Curve Ahead Shouts a Wary Caution

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I have created a monster. I’m off and running on a new project—interviewing authors for my blog. I’m excited to get going with this. I really am, but here’s the thing. You have to be organized to do this, and I am an organizer. But I’m also incorporating new tools into my web site and its email which are forcing me to learn a bunch of new stuff. (That word “stuff” is pretentiously literary, isn’t it?) So although I may be promising to get the questions out to my subjects “in a few days,” I’m using only the loosest definition of “a few” since I’m still working on them. It could be weeks. Curve!

The first new tool was a change in my email server. My web designer decided to move his email from his own server due to problems, and that necessitated a move for me as well. He kindly offered to take care of the tech end of it, and I am now all moved over to a free email hosting site. However, there are all these bells and whistles. I may not have to use them all, but some could prove very useful. Curve!

Which brings me to the question of a calendar to keep track of the schedule for the year. I didn’t want to use my phone calendar; it’s full enough with personal reminders. I started with Microsoft’s calendar, but it turns out the email server site has its own calendar. I transferred everything over to it, but I still have the Microsoft calendar running just in case. Curve!

A few days ago I announced on Twitter and Facebook that I was setting out on this new adventure. Now, I’ve filled the year up. I’m only going to post these interviews once a month, at least for a while. I have to see how it goes. With only 12 spaces to fill, it was pretty easy. (And the fact that I’d already set up an interview with a friend for January eased the transition.)

I hope to concentrate on female characters and their empowerment, but I will most likely tweak this aspiration as I go. What I really want is to get to know some new people, and if I reach a few more potential readers along the way, all the better. It should be an interesting year. Here’s to making new friendships and broadening my social media skills.

In Which WTF Becomes My New Mantra

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My beloved 18-year-old Saturn died two weeks ago. She only had 31.5K miles on her, but when the dementia of a terminal electrical problem sidelined her, I knew it was time to put the old gal down.

She was a good car. I mean, 18 years. Come on. Only a couple of small problems over our time together. She even had her original brakes. I’d dubbed her “Bratgirl” because she looked a little like a sports car. I certainly felt like my ass was dragging on the ground when I drove her. But, she had to go. Here’s my last shot of her as I backed away in her replacement.

When I make a decision like buying a new car, I generally do a minimal amount of research and then go. Do it. Get it over with. Plus with an anxiety disorder that has left me mistrustful of automobiles in general, I needed to deal quickly with the reality of my fear of the car just stopping—STOPPING—in the middle of the road without power.

I began by looking at used cars offered by a rental company. I’ve known several people who’ve had very good luck getting a car this way. Then I looked at new cars and discovered that for only a few thousand more, I could get a brand new car with no mileage to speak of. Worth it to me.

So on the Saturday after the Thursday Bratgirl first crapped out on me, I forced her to take me to the local Toyota dealership where I abandoned her in favor of a brand-new, bright-red Yaris. I named her Ruby Saturday.

And here she is.

First new car in 18 years. Do you know how much has changed in that time? I got pretty much the cheapest car on the lot. It has Bluetooth and a push-button start and a backup camera. Standard. All of this advanced technology is great, but my driving skills have been truly challenged. Take today.

Today, I drove to my writing workshop, pushed the button to turn the car off and saw a yellow light on the start button. I’d never seen that before. What the fuck? What’s the yellow light for? I pushed the button to start the car again, then turned it off again. Yellow light remained. I looked around and noticed that the car was still in Drive. So my car was telling me to shift to Park. (The Saturn would have refused to give me the key, but Ruby Saturday doesn’t have a key to hold hostage.) Lesson learned.

Ah, but that wasn’t the end. When I came out, I got in, put my foot on the brake and pushed the button, and once I’d backed out of my parking space (with the screen displaying the backup camera’s viewpoint) and shifted into Drive, no music. What the fuck?

A big icon filled up that little screen telling me…what? I thought it was telling me the Bluetooth wasn’t working. So I switched over to the radio, but no radio. And the damn icon wouldn’t let me change things at all. I played with it for a couple of minutes (back in Park), but to no avail.

So I drove my brand-new, bright-red Yaris named Ruby Saturday back to the dealership and whined to the young man in the service bay, “I’ve only had it for a week-and-a-half, and this happened.”

And you know what he said? You know what he said after he said it wasn’t the Bluetooth? He pointed to the icon on the screen and said, “It’s on mute.” And proceeded to show me all the places I could turn the mute off.

Progress. We can’t live without it, but it’s damn irritating to live with.