from Jung’s Red Book
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While Rob and Megan were in Minneapolis visiting his family, Nancy Pickard flew in for a visit from Kansas. Yes, it’s like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz dropping by, except that the lions and scarecrows and tin men on this visit aren’t separate beings. They are us.
I met Nancy in 1985, I think it was, at the first book signing I ever did, for my first novel. She was two novels ahead of me. She and her former husband used to spend part of their winters in Fort Lauderdale, where we lived at the time, so we saw each other frequently. Over the years, we moved, Megan was born, she got divorced, and we both kept on writing. When we got together, our discussions were always bottom line – metaphysics, the hows and whys of writing, and usually, a bunch of synchronicities. This visit was no different.
The synchros started when we went to the dog park. The only other human of our usual dog group at the park today was Colleen, who lived in Kansas for two years. Nancy knew the town, questioned Colleen about it, and Colleen talked at great length about how much fun she’d had there, how great this town was after where she had lived in Michigan. As we were leaving the park, Nancy murmured, “Synchronicity!”
“Really? How?”
“That town? It’s where my next novel is located. It’s a nothing little town in southern Kansas and the way she described it explained exactly what I need to know for this book.”
What are the odds?
Later that evening, we went up to a favorite coffee spot that was celebrating its first anniversary with free food. Nancy was telling me about the week she spent at Antioch College, teaching at a writers’ workshop. Her focus was first paragraphs and first pages in novels and she used classics as her examples. Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Dickens. In each instance, the first paragraph or first page encompassed absolutes or contrasts that used words like first, last, best, worst, alive, dead…well, you get the idea.
And I suddenly realized that I although I had set up the absolutes/contrasts in the novel I’m working on, the third in the Esperanza series, I didn’t address it in the first graph or first page. And with that realization, I suddenly knew who my protagonist should be. I suddenly knew whose story this is. This point of view thing in a novel is so critical to how the story unfolds that unless you have it right from the get go, the book won’t work.
Think of Harry Potter. It has one perspective through all the books – Harry. We get to know the other characters, but it’s his story.
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’ brilliant trilogy, sticks to one perspective – that of Katniss, the female protagonist, and the stakes in this story are life or death.
In The Great Gatsby, probably F. Scott Fitzgerald’s best novel, all the decadence and strangeness of the jazz age of the 1920s is captured through the eyes of Gatsby himself in the opening paragraphs.
Don’t take my word for it. Do what Nancy and I did. Start pulling your favorite novels off the shelves. Read the first paragraph or the first page. What are the stakes? The contrasts? The absolutes? Which words are used?
A novel, of course, is more than just an opening paragraph or first page. The author has to carry the idea and the characters through to the end. And the ending is just as important as the beginning. It’s probably why author Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird) used to write his endings first.
When Nancy finished her teaching at Antioch, she got a standing ovation, the first time that had ever happened in the history of this particular writers’ workshop. “One of those magical moments,” she said.
Ha, I thought. It’s because she left-brained something that all novelists should keep in mind: give the browser who picks up your book a reason to buy it. Give them magic.
trish – with every click of your virtual ink wand, you weave magic – a beautiful gift for all of us –
Speaking of synchronicity and novels,I was just finishing (Australian singer) Paul Kelly’s memoir “How to Make Gravy”mid-week,where mentions reading Jonathan Frazen’s novel “The Corrections”,while touring the USA in 2002.That reminded me to book tickets to Jonathan’s talk at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival today,which I probably would have missed out on had that passage not reminded me.
I met Jonathan today while getting him to sign his three books,
“The Corrections”,”The Discomfort Zone” and “Freedom”.
I’m not familiar with his work at all,but Paul Kelly gave the thumbs up to “The Corrections”,so I think I will find it good reading.
Jonathan said he was busy writing “The Corrections” into scripts for a TV series coming out in 2013.If I like the novel I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.
On the creepy side though…the Gallery of Modern Art Bookstore also had two Lego models for sale.One was the Seattle Space-needle and the other was the Sears Tower in Chicago.The Sears Tower reminds me of a much taller version of a building in Brisbane,which also gives me the creeps (I call it the Batman building),so I bought it (because it looks like something out of a Batman movie,with those white antennas on it’s top…and it reminds me of how I felt when I saw Heath Ledger dressed as the Joker,before he died) as well as a book on Brisbane.But the more I look at the picture of the tower on the box the more it creeps me out.Maybe because it’s all black…I don’t know? Who would make a building all black,wouldn’t that make it energy inefficient,unless they were solar panels on it ?
But when I saw this model I was drawn to it…but in a spooky kind of way.I hope it’s just imagination running wild like when I see the Batman building in Brisbane,and not a bad omen.
Trish, I don’t know what you think about this, and this is more about me than what you have written, but I am wondering about breadwinning and writing. We want the book to be right, both because we choose to write, and because we want to sell. The “Law of Attraction” guy writes his book–why? Because he has a passion for the subject but also because he wants to sell into that market. It can be a confusing mix. One is drawn to the things of the Spirit, synchronicity or otherwise. What is the right way to be true to your labor of love, and also make a living? I have a friend who has devoted much of her life to the spiritual search. She has written an honest, moving portrayal of her struggles. But…she wants to sell books. There seems to be a razor’s edge there. I’m not sure what to make of it. But I am wondering that if I am going to Trust, then I should trust about the breadwinning part to.
er, that last word should have been “too”. Oops.
Interesting question. My beliefs has always been that if it’s a labor of love, then why can’t you make your living that way? I guess my belief has always been stronger than my doubts, although I have plenty of them
at times. I got 24 rejections on my first novel – that was in the days where there were a lot more publishers. The guy who bought it then bought the next 15 novels. He was the right editor, at that time, for my books.
Then he died of AIDS, another editor inherited me for the remainder of my contracts, then I moved on. You absolutely have to trust in the breadwinning part. Other people sell their books and make their livings as writers. Why not you?
Or your friend? It’s an abundant universe.
To quote the movie “Field of Dreams”,
” build it and they will come”.
I think that is true of most things in life.
If you tap into what you really believe moves you,then most times that will also resonate with the majority as well,and therefore will translate to popularity in the long run.
Look at Vincent van Gogh and his paintings for example…or Banksy…or James Redfield and his novels (maybe that one wasn’t such a great example…but it worked out for him dollar wise,anyway). If you believe in what you are doing…well just do it.
Chances are others will like it too and reward you for it.
Love it! I learned something here. Thank you, Trish, and thank you, Nancy!
Thanks for sharing this with us: the magic that happens with writing.
That dog park of yours will soon be on the tourist trail after all your synchros there!
The synchro tourist trail!
Math, you just happened to pick the ultimate example! The great writers don’t shy away from hyperbole. The best, the worst, the first, the last.
Trish, you sweetie. Thank you.
Thank YOU. If we hadn’t had that discussion, I’d still be casting around for answers!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness….” Charles Dickens, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, etc., opening lines.
As I read the entire paragraph in my much-worn copy of that classic this morning, it reads exactly like today’s news headlines, yet Dickens lived in the 1800s. His magic caught me and held me captive throughout his novel, and continues to do so today whenever I pick it up and browse throught it yet again. I await your next stories with impatience, Trish!! Hurry!!
Thanks, Math!
Tale of Two Cities was one of the books Nancy talked about in that seminar.