Skin
Because I've written 20+ books, I'm often asked which one is my favorite. I have a different answer depending on my mood. Because I finished it so recently, I can honestly say Freudian Slip has a special place in my heart. I had the most fun writing it. I love Spanish Disco because it was my first book. And I love The Roofer because it was my most personal book. I love Magickeepers because I get to share it with my kids. I really loved Do They Wear High Heels in Heaven because the narrator was most like me. You see what I mean. I can't quite pick.
But now that I am sort of searching for which work-in-progress to focus on, it makes sense that I should work on something I really love. And thinking about it, I realize there are some books that feel like writing. And there are some books that I slip into like skin. When I wrote The Roofer, I don't think I ever had to re-enter the world or re-read sections. Something about the narrator and that world was really like skin. It was easy to inhabit, even though the material was dark. The voice slipped on effortlessly. The dialogue seemed to write itself. The characters seemed to channel through me. I knew Tom as well as the back of my hand. Knew what he would do and what he would say.
So now I'm wondering . . . maybe I need to go back to that world. Not that one, specifically, but some of the themes, some of the setting. Or at the very least, I'm searching for skin again. I associate that feeling with being in the zone, with a work that is part of me.
Thoughts? Are there some things you've worked on that you now realize fit you so comfortably that they were skin?
21 comments:
I haven't published enough books to really have favorites, but I think of the 4 I've published, including the 5th contracted for, that my favorite is probably The Serpent's Kiss because it did everything I wanted it to do. Sometimes books just work from the start and that was one where I felt that everything came together.
Colt.
Falling into that voice is like donning my favorite leather jacket. It just feels right.
A book called Taming The Tiger. It's dark and heart-wrenching, but I love that book, loved writing it, love the story.
Mark:
You know, in publishing, there are always these "doomed" books that editors joke about where nothing goes right from start to finish. The author is a pain, and then their galleys get screwed up, and then the cover design is re-done five times . . . and it's like all the way through nothing goes right. And then there are those dream books where everything flows.
E
Jude:
Cool . . . .
E
Sex Scenes:
Yeah . . . the one that was easiest for me to write, the most like skin, was the darkest---and I don't think I have a dark personality.
E
Eric, Skin is a perfect word for the experience. Love it! Early on, I remember a book that became skin to me. It was my first brush with that magical zone and I remember it all of these years later. It's in a box with all of my other newbie efforts, but it showed me what to look for. Those are the best, and so worth the discovery!
LaDonna:
I remember the first short story I ever wrote where the voice was "mine." I was 18 . . . and it was the first time I wrote something really authentic, I think. I suppose we're all aiming to recapture that . . . .
E
This WIP is my first stab at fiction, and I often get into the zone when writing and rewriting...but to date I've been most comfortable in my essays because they're really me in my own voice -- even though that differs day to day and time to time.
Hi Amy:
My essays also feel very real to me. When I type up my Demon Baby blogs . . . it's very much my voice and how things really happen around this crazy house.
E
Yes ... and no. Yes, in the sense that TM came to me very quickly and easily, at least in terms of the world and the characters. But I had to take several stabs at it to make it conform to what I wanted. It was more a case of me knowing exactly what I wanted, and not getting there right away.
And right now, I'm kind of struggling a little bit with a bigger story, because I don't really know how it's going to get where it ends up.
Lurker:
I hear you. I am lost on numerous fronts.
E
A part of writing is searching--searching for the voice right now, but at other times searching for other things.
I suspect if you look back at it, you've written several good things which involved this kind of introspection along the way.
Maybe persistence is a part of the name of the game.
Joe:
I agree. I often am searching for the voice--less so the story idea . . . but who, precisely, is going to tell it.
E
Erica, were you eavesdropping while I ate dinner with my hubby tonight? I said to him, "The story's telling me it's in Buffalo." (It's a roots thing.)
I've been on the fence about setting with this Epic. Once it hit today, it pulled me right along. I'm not sure if it's skin, or just a rash, but I felt deep into the zone, only to come out so I could fix supper.
I'm a starving artist, after all.
Today was brilliant!
P.S. I like "The Roofer" zone, if you're looking for opinion.
My women's fiction book fit like skin. It was so easy to write. I never had the sagging middle. I loved the interaction between the characters. I'm writing paranormal now, though I love the characters, it's not fitting like skin. When I finish this, I'll have stretch marks.
I think specific aspects of the books I write feel more like skin than others. For the most part, they are any scenes involving romance or some other type of intense character interaction.
I love writing about conflict in close relationships, like between lovers or best friends or deadly rivals. Those scenes come to me as clearly as if I'm watching a movie play out in front of me.
Kath:
So Bufflao's a shorthand for skin. I'll remember that. :-)
E
edie:
That's wonderful that you found a genre you feel so comfortable in.
E
L.C.
Good point . . . I am way more comfortable in dialogue--and less so in romance.
E
I think you've hit the reason I haven't started my next draft yet. I've decided to expand a minor character and it takes some time for me to get into her head (a non-English speaking illegal in LA). The wip I started in NaNo flowed more easily because the characters come from the same place as me.
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