Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Crisis of Faith

Have you ever gotten to a point in your writing career where your critique partners believe you’re ready to rise to the next level of writing craft, but you’re not so sure?

That’s where I am now. Since Tuesday’s meeting, I’ve been struggling with whether to scrap the considerable work I’ve already done on my western romance novel, POLITE ENEMIES, or continue reworking it for sale. My face-to-face partners say to start again because I’m ready to bring the story to a higher level of craft. My online critique partners say that the story is entertaining and to get it out to readers who are waiting for my next novel.

A New Path…

Have you ever found your life going an unexpected direction? That’s exactly what happens to my heroine, Matilda.

In MATILDA’S SONG, the Anglo-Saxon heroine is faced with a dilemma. She either marries a brutal man—who is collecting on a political I.O.U. from the local earl—or she “gets out of town,” leaving behind all she loves — family, friends and village. She chooses to go.

She pretends she can’t become betrothed because she has married her widowed cousin from a village two days’ travel away. This decision cuts off any chance of seeking “the man of her dreams.” If she cheats and the knight discovers she lied about being married, it will be the death of her—literally.

Creativity Adapts

I usually don’t think about creativity. I’m a disgustingly practical person—my writing is like a 9-5 job. I get up in the morning, exercise a half hour and start in. I don’t expect—and most often don’t get—writer’s block. When I get stuck, I take a day off and a new path opens up for me.

But these past three days I was on a camping retreat—away from cell phones and the Internet. It gave me time to think about creativity and I learned just where creativity kicks in in my writing.

When editing!

Already built is the structure as an outline, the story question and conflict points, and a roughing out of the dialogue interlaced with setting. The novel by this point has form, but it doesn’t have life.

Editing to me is like creating sculpture. The beauty is found as the excess parts are chipped away.

Life enters the novel during the multiple times I go over the words on each page. It’s where I find that exact combination of words which look good to the eye and ring true to the ear. Editing seeks the hidden, buried life in the draft, exposes it to the light and makes the novel a breathing, pulsating story.

The first novel I breathed life into was MATILDA’S SONG. It took me four years of polishing and re-polishing until I learned enough craft to build a gripping story out of the tribulations of the characters.

I’ve been blessed with finding a creative endeavor that brings me joy. Now, I can produce a novel a year. It’s work that I want to keep doing for the rest of my life.

I found my life purpose. My question to you is: How and when does creativity express itself in your life?

JoAnn Smith Ainsworth
www.joannsmithainsworth.com\reviews.shtml

Lessons in Courage from Novels

I learn life lessons from book characters that show courage in the face of adversity. When a heroine gets herself out of hot water, I say to myself, “I should try that.”

My stories are about people going about everyday life. Something slams into them that knocks them of kilter. It could be a scheming person or a physical threat or Mother Nature acting up. Whatever the cause, my heroines must respond. There’s no getting away from it. Just how she’ll respond is something I often don’t know until I start writing the scene.

It’s one of the aspects I like best about writing. I know the crisis I’m going to throw at the heroine, but I don’t always know how she’s going to face it. Will she crumble? Will she fight back? Will she take another direction or turn a blind eye? I know where I want the story to go, but that character might not be the one to take me there.

MATILDA’S SONG by JoAnn Smith Ainsworth

I am delighted to invite you to enter the turbulent world of Matilda and Geoff as they struggle against social chasms and villainy.

MATILDA’S SONG (ISBN -60504-195-5) e-released today. The heroine escapes a politically motivated betrothal to a brutal knight by pretending marriage to her middle-aged widower cousin. She lands in hot water when a Norman baron mistakes her for a real bride and demands First Night rights.