Tag: Writing Tips

Writing Tip — Mythology

helmetw-2321740_1280In the fall of 2016, I wrote a few posts on finding inspiration in mythology and decided to revisit the subject.

I only became interested in mythology in the last few years. For someone who writes contemporary crime fiction, it might seem strange that I find inspiration in the tales of ancient Greece or Scandinavia. But it isn’t the centaurs and cyclopses I find inspiring. It’s the themes, the plots of loss and revenge, love and hate, the journey, and the quest.

The Original Soap Opera

I had no idea until I looked at the family trees of the characters in Greek mythology that the ancient Greeks invented the soap opera. The same families pop up over and over again, and the stories begin to read like a never-ending afternoon serial. For example, when Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, is searching for his father after the end of the Trojan war, he stops by Sparta, where King Menelaus and his wife Helen of Troy are happily reconciled and celebrating their daughter’s marriage.

The Story of Orestes, Then and Now

All this family drama provides wonderful inspiration for contemporary stories. For example, the tale of Orestes is ripe for updating.

Original myth: There are several versions with different subplots, but here is one basic versions. King Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the gods to gain their favor before he heads to Troy to help his brother recapture his errant wife. Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra vows revenges. When Agamemnon returns victorious after being away 10 year fighting, Clytemnestra murders him. An oracle directs Orestes, their son, to avenge his father. He kills his mother but feels enormous guilt, and the Furies hound him.

Update: Father is a member of a powerful Hollywood family. Mother, an actress, and Father divorce and remain enemies. Father grooms and pushes Daughter into the family business. The pressure proves too much, and Daughter overdoses and dies. Mother vows to ruin Father and tries to enlist Son, who is angry with Father but doesn’t hold him responsible for hi sister’s death. What will Son do?

At any point in the story, I can diverge from the myth, which is the wonderful quality of myths. I can use what I want from them and add whatever elements I need.

Swapping Genders

Another way to adapt myths is to change the sex of the character. What would a story based on Hercules be like if the character was female? Or the journey of Odysseus if it was a woman struggling to get him after many years away?

Recommended Books

I have found these books helpful when researching myths.

  1. Myths and Legends: an Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings by Philip Wilkinson
  2. Mythology by Edith Hamilton
  3. Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch

Have you turned to myths for inspiration? Which ones?

 

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Writing Tip — Favorite Stories

IMG_0238For my favorite story this month, I chose a book to suit St. Patrick’s Day. Cindy Thomson, my friend from my writer’s group, wrote The Roots of Irish Wisdom: Learning from Ancient Voices. She recounts the lives of Ireland’s most famous saints, Brigid, Patrick, and Columcille. She also has shorter biographies of “The Apostles of Erin.” Other chapters cover “Celtic Learning and Art” and “Celtic Prayer.”

It’s interesting to read her nonfiction account of Brigid since she also wrote a novel based on the saint. Her research showed her that some of the attributes of the Celtic goddess Brigid were assigned to the Irish nun.

Ancient Irish history fascinates me, perhaps because it developed differently from the rest of Europe. Since Rome never conquered and then abandoned the island, it entered the Dark Ages with a different tradition. In her chapter “Celtic Prayer”, Cindy writes  that “Christianity developed differently in Ireland … because the faith had a monastic base.” This “took root … because  ancient Ireland consisted of a system of tribes, groups of family members ruled by a king.” The Roman style of organization with a bishop in charge of a city “was unnatural to the Irish.”

I enjoyed the chapter on prayer because of the wonderful rhythm to some of the prayers and the images from the natural world.

At only 84 pages, this well-researched book is a quick read. So if you want to curl up with a book while you sip Irish breakfast tea (I hate coffee) and snack on Irish soda bread on March 17th, The Roots of Irish Wisdom will not let you down.

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Writing Tip — Writing in Time

I will be blunt–March is my least favorite month. Occurring in both winter and spring, it comes out as a poor imitation of both, ending up as month with no real identity. February is irritating, but at least it has the decency to confine itself to 28 days in most years. March has no mercy, stretching out the misery to a full 31 days.

The events and holidays during March have never greatly appealed to me as a writer, but maybe I can provide you with some literary inspiration. Or maybe writing this post will spark something in my own writing.

Lent — Part of Lent is always in March. I find the introspection during this time depressing, but I try to make it an uplifting experience by giving up worry. I could write a story about a character doing the same thing. Because of Lent’s emphasis on sin, I think it’s a perfect time for a mystery, one about laying bare old crimes the most suitable.

Daylight Saving Time — Check out my post last year on this day. It has great potential for speculative fiction.

March Madness — I am not a sports fan. But for those of you who are, the basketball tournament, with all its drama, could mirror the character arc of a player, a coach, or even a parent of a player.

St. Patrick’s Day — Teachers and librarians are always on the hunt for new children’s books associated with this holiday. I like the setting of ancient Ireland, and a friend of mine, Cindy Thomson, had written two novels during this time period, Brigid of Ireland and Pages of Ireland, and is working on a third.

Holy Week — This occurs in the last week of the month. It is such an important time in the Christian calendar and contains so much meaning, that it deserves its own post, which I will write during that week.

Do you like March? How would you use it as a setting?

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Writing Tip — Short Stories

womenw-1483484_1280I’ve always loved short stories. I discovered the short stories of Damon Runyon and Sherlock Holmes as a teenager. As a new mom, I could squeeze in a complete story before dropping off into an exhausted sleep.

Although most of my writing ideas take shape as novels, I’ve learned a very important technique from reading short stories: write tight.

Write Tight

New novelists have a tendency to take all the room of a book and fill it up with a lot of unnecessary words.

If I look at each chapter as a short story with a goal that must be reached within a specific word count, I trim the long passages of description, get rid of tiresome explanations, and punch up the dialogue.

Description, especially, is the area where I have benefited from reading short stories. No matter what I am describing, person, place, or thing, a succinct , vivid description in one sentence will stick with readers longer than a detailed paragraph. And within a novel, I can revisit those descriptions, dropping reminders of a person’s eye color or the night’s humidity, echoing the first description. If I rein in my word count, it give me more space for plot and characters development.

I also love how many short stories have a kicker ending, a twist that makes the whole experience wonderfully satisfying. I don’t know if you can do that kind of a twist in a novel but I’d like to figure out how.

Bonus Benefits

When I am getting restless in my reading material and want to find a new author to rave about it, I read anthologies. I can sample many different writers in a short period of time, and if their short stories intrigue me, I can check out their novels. If a short story doesn’t hold me interest or lets me down, I have only wasted one night, instead of weeks with a novel that disappoints.

Another benefit is that short story writing allows aspiring novelists to get material published and before readers while waiting for their novel to be discovered. I thoroughly enjoyed writing a crime fiction short story because of the challenge it presented.

Which do you prefer to read, short stories or novels? Which do yo like to write?

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