|
There's a wonderful Latin phrase-- in medias res --that means in the middle of things. To my mind, that's always the best place to begin a story. Think of du Maurier's Rebecca: the very first line tells us that the unnamed heroine has been dreaming of Manderley, the great, Gothic house that was the scene of the most tragic events of her life. Or of Stephen King's Carrie, which opens with the second-most famous bloody shower scene in history. In the epic poem, Beowulf, my very favorite monster story, vicious Grendel is already wreaking havoc just a hundred lines in. Nothing turns me off so fast as a story that takes forever to get going. I want to know that the stakes are going to be high from the beginning, and that they're only going up for most of the rest of the story.
The most exciting part of my writing career began right in the (presumed!) middle of my life. I had spent over forty years doing the intro. Nearly twenty of those years were spent writing novels and stories in which nothing much happened. Finally, I decided that I needed to make something happen. I started writing ISABELLA MOON on an airplane on the way home from a meeting with my agent, who had been encouraging me to explore the darker possibilities in my work for years.
I gave myself two rules for writing ISABELLA MOON: 1) Something exciting had to happen in every chapter to move the story along; 2) The action could take place on a sexy, violent, wild version of Days of Our Lives, the daytime soap I started watching at my mother's side when I was a little girl. Now, ISABELLA MOON takes place in a small Kentucky town and, in the end, does not resemble the soap at all. But those two rules captured my imagination and were there for me if I ever felt my energy flagging.
Why the darkness?
While I believe that each one of us has a great capacity for goodness, goodness isn't always what motivates us. When I write about uncomfortable or frightening things, I shine a little light into the darkest places inside myself, and also to try to make some sense of the apparently senseless acts of violence that I read about in the news every day. But most of all, I want to thrill you with a good story--a story that will engage you for many tension-filled, enchanted hours, and will haunt your thoughts long after you've turned the last page.
Recently a reader wrote me asking me to "edit in" a happily-ever-after ending into my next novel. I can only tell the stories that my characters allow me to tell. If I try to force them to do things that are, frankly, out of character for them, the story won't work. I asked the reader if she could be happy with "happily-ever-after for some, and no unanswered questions." While she didn't write back, I'm thrilled to know that she's still thinking about the novel of mine that she read. I really couldn't ask for better encouragement.
As to my personal stats: I have a husband, two kids, and two dogs who adopted us at the local animal shelter. If you wonder what I'm up to, working on, or just thinking about on any given day, you can catch me at Notes From the Handbasket.
Thank you so much for reading. I truly appreciate every moment that you choose share with me.
Blessings, Laura
|
