Opening the Vein by Liz Flaherty and Helen DePrima

by Liz Flaherty
How do I start a book?
Sometimes it’s because I see a building—especially if it’s a deserted one with pretty
lines—and I think about what’s happened there. Who’s been hurt, who’s come laughing down the stairs and tripped over the second from the bottom step, who’s cooked a thousand meals in the kitchen at the back of the house. I can hear the sounds and feel the memories and experience the wistfulness of a house abandoned by the people it’s sheltered.
Other times―actually, most times, I will meet the people first, although I never see their faces. Their hands, sometimes, and their hair. Often their eyes. And there will be something wrong. Dramatically wrong. Usually, with me, they already know each other. They’re best friends or one-time lovers or even former spouses. Because that gives me the immediacy I need as a writer. I have trouble making a relationship born from scratch in the first pages of a book real. I want the people to know where each other’s scars are, who they voted for, and what makes them laugh and cry. That’s just me.
It gets difficult then, because I have to find out what that “dramatically wrong” thing is, and I have to admit sometimes I go through two or three to get to the one that works. (This makes for a lot of hand-wringing scenes, believe me, since I have to scrap all but the bones every time.)
I write in silence, always, yet much of my inspiration comes from music. Mostly, I think, because I’m married to a musician and have heard his singing voice and his fingers on guitar strings every day for nearly 48 years. Just now, for instance, I heard Vince Gill sing “…I get weak in the knees…” and that will stay with me when I write.
Halfway, or thereabouts, through the book, I become convinced I can’t finish it, and I go through the tortures of the damned because I have to decide—every single time—whether to go on with the book, start over, stop writing and become a recluse who makes quilts, or persevere. So far, I have always persevered, but I live in fear of the time I won’t.
The first and last chapters are always the easiest to write. The first one because it’s all new and exciting, the last because it’s my reward for surviving the paragraph above.
I don’t write fast anymore, and social media plays havoc with my attention span, but I can easily say that I am still happiest when I’m consumed by a story, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s one of mine that I’m writing or someone else’s that I’m reading.
That, then, is the story of my stories. What about you? Want to share?
The Dark Horse is 99 cents today. If you haven't read 2018's Christmas Town stories, this is your time to catch up!




***
by Helen DePrima

Leaving recently for a long road trip, I almost forgot to pack a bedtime essential, something to read for a few minutes before turning out the light. With one foot out the door, I grabbed the handiest book, a copy of my first novel self-published in my pre-Heartwarming days. I’ve worked my way through it over the last week, for the most part pretty happy with what I wrote. I did note a couple of disheartening tendencies, like overuse of semicolons which created sentences too long for comfort. I also found too many parentheses – too cute. Mostly, it wasn’t a bad first effort, with strong, sympathetic characters and vivid settings, so say readers who reviewed it on Amazon. I think I’ll reread my Cameron’s Pride series next with the same critical eye, hoping to find each successive book shows just a little improvement over the one before.


 Right now, I’m working on a fourth novel in the series. I wasn’t able to communicate my ideas for this book with the powers-that-be, finally throwing up my hands after the third or fourth rejected synopsis, so I’m writing it on spec, with fingers crossed. I’ll be glad finally to type The End and then put it aside for a week or so before beginning the rewrite. I’ve heard many writers bemoan that stage of the process, but I love it. I’ve done the hard part; I tackle revision like a kid with a new coloring book and a fresh box of Crayolas. Here’s where I add details and depth of color as well as gain greater understanding of my characters, what they might or might not do. Most of the time they behave as I expect, but occasionally they grab the bit and take off in a totally unexpected direction, great fun but a little creepy, something like possession by something outside my control. I know most of what will happen in the course of the plot, I have a bang-up finish completely written in my head, but I’m still not sure about the final outcome. Editorial advice will be welcome!




I’ll be glad to hand this project off because a young Marine with PTSD needs me to give him a voice, and the director of an equine rescue in Kentucky has problems that need attention – all fiction, of course, but real to me. So many stories to be told!

Comments

  1. Such eloquent accounts of your personal writing processes, Helen and Liz! Just as we all have different styles, we all have a variety of methods of getting word on paper. Yet no matter those differences, we all can relate to the pain and joy, can’t we? I usually start with a vague idea that doesn’t form until I actually start chapter one. Then the roller coaster ride begins!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is definitely something about typing CHAPTER ONE that gets things going, isn't there? Thanks, Janice.

      Delete
    2. I'm with Liz regarding inspiration from old houses. We passed a lot of neglected farms, once their owners pride and joy, along the length of the Delmarva Peninsula. I long to stop and dig my fingers into the soil and and explore around the foundations of abandoned houses to discover perennials hidden among the weeds, flowers that once brightened a farm wife's day. One lifetime isn't enough to pursue all the stories waiting to be told.

      Delete
  2. Liz, our processes are so much alike, it's scary--yet it's not because we've learned how very much alike we are. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So interesting to look at where a story comes from--houses, streets, landmarks, like a covered bridge or a pier or a beach house will trigger an idea. Growing up I rode trains and buses in Chicago and sometimes passed the time making up stuff about other passengers, mini-stories about their lives. Later, I met lots of writers who did that with strangers. It's in our blood. Thanks for the reminder! Lovely posts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used to do that, too! The school bus, which I was on for about an hour and a half a day, was a true breeding ground for stories. Most of them were very dramatic with me as the slim and shockingly intelligent heroine... Thanks, Virginia!

      Delete
    2. Hi Virginia! Like you, I love to speculate about strangers I see in public places --I'm a shameless people-watcher. I don't ride the T in Boston as much as I once did, but Amtrak trains and stations are great places to "meet" a wide variety of potential characters.

      Delete
  4. I love reading about your story starting points. My ideas usually come in the middle of the night. Can't exactly call them dreams as I feel like I'm awake. Usually start with people who tell me they want me to find their story. But I love the idea of seeing a place and deciding who lives there and why. Happy Easter one and all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Roz. I used to keep pen and paper beside the bed, but since I usually had to scramble UNDER the bed to find them, I gave it up. I still have those ideas, but unfortunately I forget most of them by morning. Happy Easter to you, too!

      Delete
    2. Hi Roz! We must be channeling the same muse. Sometimes I wake up from a dream as vivid as a full-length movie. I no longer try to write down the details in the middle of the night -- my husband grumbles about my turning the light on -- but once I wrote most of a chapter on paper towels in the recovery room following knee surgery. Most of it even made sense!

      Delete
  5. Liz, I know your pain! :-) I just keep telling myself - you've done it before, you can do it again. And Helen, when I was a kid I lived near the Memphis airport and when those planes took off and flew low over my house I could almost see the people inside. I wondered where they were going and what kind of life they left behind.

    Thank you both for poignant memories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Patricia, the hardest part about the book I'm now writing is the lack of a firm deadline. Since I'm accountable only to myself, I have to provide my own whip and and carrot -- no Face Book until I finish the scene currently in progress.

      Delete
    2. I tell myself that every time, too, Pat. I hope it works yet again. :-) I agree with Helen that there's difficulty to being without a deadline, but luxury, too.

      Delete
  6. Liz, I love that you see the building and what happened inside. I've never had that happen, but I love interesting buildings. Helen, I love the revising stage best as well. Right now I'm typing out those words so I can rearrange them later into something pretty. At least that's the plan, because my rough draft is not pretty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beth, I revise constantly during the first draft, so the next revision is more fine-tuning, a real pleasure. I had wonderful editorial experiences with the first two books in my series; alas, she was transferred to another imprint. My endlessly-patient agent always provides the first reality check, for which I'm deeply grateful.

      Delete
    2. I love publisher revisions, because then I know there's a decent chance I'm doing what is wanted. And, Beth, you are great at "something pretty!"

      Delete
  7. Love seeing an abandoned house and wondering about the stories in its walls. Sad to see some abandoned knowing they had such good bones and look lovely, even as they age and start to decay.

    denise

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One very cool site I follow is Old, Abandoned, and Interesting Places in Colorado -- talk about scope for imagination! (A phrase I've always loved from Anne of Green Gables.)

      Delete
    2. Oh, they break my heart sometimes! I've always said if I ever got rich or won the lottery (although word has it you have to play to win), I'd buy old houses, refurbish them, and sell them to young families.

      Delete
  8. I am thankful when my characters decide where they are going and just take me along to type it up. Helen is right it's a little creepy but when I get in a jam, they come to the rescue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In my Cameron's Pride novel The Bull Rider, my main female character said three words -- "I'll help you." Totally unscripted, taking the plot in a completely unexpected direction, to the betterment of of the book.

      Delete
    2. That is so cool when one phrase can change the whole story!

      Delete
  9. Liz, you made me smile. I have the same problem in the middle of the book. It feels as if I'm pushing sand up a sand dune. But there's always a hump point. Once I get past it, I'm pretty much okay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, excellent way to put it. And the dunes keep getting taller! :-)

      Delete
  10. I've never been aware of the mid-novel slowdown. Seems the farther I go, the faster the writing progresses. Doesn't necessarily
    mean it's good writing, just moves at a quicker clip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd like to experience that sometime! Although the last chapters usually go pretty quickly. It's the middle that gets me.

      Delete

Post a Comment