Remembrance Day Reflections
I’m prouder to be a Canadian on Remembrance Day than on any other day of the year. When I was 12, my parents took my best friend and I over to Europe, and my dad made sure we visited some of the most important Canadian WWI sites. I’ve never forgotten that trip, or how I felt standing on those battlefields and in the cemeteries. Humbled and awed, and incredibly sad that so many young men died in the war that was meant to end all wars…but didn’t.
A month ago my best cousin and I traveled to Europe, and visited Normandy, France. Our first stop there was to Juno Beach, where the Canadians landed on June 6th, 1944 for their part in the D-Day invasion of Operation Overlord.
A few days before arriving there, I happened to learn a very interesting fact. To give you a point of reference, my father was president of Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers for a long time, and worked as the right hand man of the CEO, Dave Ritchie. The Ritchies are from Kelowna, a small city in the interior of BC.
Turns out, Dave’s eldest brother volunteered to fight during WWII, and was killed at Juno Beach. My father says Dave remembered his eldest brother marching through the streets of Kelowna on their way to war while the crowd cheered them on. Dave ran after him, and his brother told him to go stand with their parents. That’s the last time Dave ever saw him.
On the way to Normandy from Paris, my cousin and I passed a Ritchie Bros. yard on the main highway. I didn’t think much of it at the time, except to point it out to my cousin. We visited Juno Beach and the visitors center, then went to the Canadian cemetery and found Dave’s brother’s grave–not forty five minutes’ drive from where the yard now stands. It gave me goose bumps to know the eldest brother had died liberating France, and because of him and his fellow soldiers turning the tide of the war, sixty years later his baby brother was able to set up part of his empire there.
So this Remembrance Day I’m thinking of Corporal William Ritchie, and the ultimate sacrifice he made. I wonder if he knows the part he played in helping his little brother.
Warrior Writer: Reflections
Got back last night from Bob Mayer’s Warrior Writer workshop, and during the drive home mulled over what resonated with me the most.
The first day was a writing workshop where we focused on the main story idea and conflict, plus reviewed critiques of our opening pages from the other participants. Except for my critique partner (who you can’t have–she’s mine! All mine!), all other criticism I usually have to read and then put away for a day or two before coming back to it. Otherwise I get too stuck on the negative things pointed out, and get down on myself. You know how that goes, right? Instead of thinking, Aha! I see how I can improve this, and I’m so glad someone pointed this weakness out, we wallow in the abyss of self-pity. Instead of seeing it as constructive criticism, we hear people saying, “You suck, and somebody should take that keyboard away from you because clearly you shouldn’t be using it“, or “I would rather stab something sharp into my eye than have to read another word you write“. Yeah. Feeling like people hate your work (or worse, you) can cripple a writer.
Bob put it perfectly, saying that writers are a different breed, and it’s usually that one “aw, shit” that wipes out the ninety-nine “atta-boys” that came before it. That’s why I always let the feedback marinate a while in my subconscious. I’m always better off that way. Of course the comments are just opinions, but if there’s something constructive I can work with to improve my writing, I’ll at least take a hard look at it. And let’s face it, when NYT bestselling author points out weaknesses in your work, you’d better sit up and pay attention and then work to improve your craft/story.
After day one, I was suddenly left questioning my entire plot and main characters for the WIP I’ve been struggling with. The good news is that my subconscious already knew there was a problem with the story, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. After mulling it over this weekend, I think I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve to make it better.
I learned from Bob that most writers are introverts by nature. We kind of have to be, since we hole up in our little cocoons and type on a keyboard for hours on end, day after day. Month after month…Yikes, year after year even. That’s why most of us are not very good at promotion. We’re more comfortable being in the audience than on the stage. We tend to get discouraged easily, either because of negative feedback, or because of the way the business is set up. That’s why so many writers give up before they get published, and why others give up before they’ve attained their dreams. Bottom line is, nobody can make you quit except you. And nobody’s going to do the work for you. It’s up to you to figure out how you want your career to be, and then keep writing until you turn out a product that publishing can’t say no to.
Here are a few thoughts to ponder about your current project:
-How can you make your main story idea more special and so unique that it grabs the agent’s/editor’s eye right away in the query letter? You want something that can knock their socks off and set you apart from the other fifty manuscripts with a similar plot already sitting in their inbox.
-What attribute(s) can you give your main characters to make them different than any other character ever invented? Make them so interesting and riveting that no reader, agent or editor could ever forget them.
-How can you up the stakes of the conflict so that your protagonist is the only person on Earth fit to take on your antagonist?
-Do you have at least two layers of conflict in every single scene? Verbal, emotional, physical, psychological.
-You should write in the point of view you enjoy reading the most.
-Study authors and books that you love. What is the POV? What is it about the characters and story that draws you? What have those authors done that you haven’t?
Finally, the biggest thing I took away from the weekend is that pretty much everything is fixable in a manuscript. It just takes the willingness to change and a lot of hard work. But above all, you only get one chance to hook an agent or editor, so make sure you only put your best work in front of them, and never ever give them an easy reason to reject you. Make it really hard for them to say no.
I challenge you to put these ideas into action. See if you can really push the envelope with your plot and characters. I’m looking forward to watching how much life it injects into my current work.
Remember, style and craft can be fixed, but in today’s writing market, it’s the story itself that has to be brilliant.
Happy writing!
Kaylea 🙂
Happy Halloween!
Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween! Here in Vancouver the weather has turned crisp and the leaves are falling, swirling through the air on gusts of autumn wind. Our front porch is decorated with spiders and jack-o-lanterns carved to look like a ghost and a pirate skull, and my little ones are beside themselves at the prospect of filling their treat bags once it gets dark.
Tonight I’m dressing up in my drindl I bought in Munich, tying my hair into pigtails and rocking the whole outfit by topping it off with black fisnhet stockings and four inch black heels. Then I’ll be escorted by none other than Bumblebee and Scooby-Doo for some good old-fashioned trick-or-treating.
If it’s cold wherever you are and you’re in need of a Halloween treat to warm you up, Katie Reus has a new paranormal erotic romance release out called Unleashed Temptation, under her alter ego’s pen name, Savannah Stuart. You can check it out here.
Hope everyone stays safe and has a great time tonight!
Kaylea 🙂
Halloween fun
Expecting copy edits for Relentless (book 4), but I’ve got to get my butt in gear with the first book of my Bagram Special Ops series. I’ve tentatively titled it Turbulence, and am about a third of the way through the first draft–the hardest part of the writing phase. Well, at least for me 😉
In honor of Halloween, I’ve put in a short clip of this amazing costume. For anyone out there with young boys, this is guaranteed to make them smile. So without further delay, here’s someone who’s a huge fan of the Transformers movies. Enjoy!