Creating Vivid Settings in Fiction, by Jess Lourey

This past weekend, I attended the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books, a two-day (free!) event featuring authors, cooks, readers, critical thinkers, and general lovers of the arts. Besides learning how to make a great Thai curry, I also heard William Kent Krueger deliver one of the most inspiring and humbling keynote speeches I've ever heard.

I also had the great honor to teach the "After the Idea" class for MWA-U. MWA-U is a low-cost, all-day, college-level, fiction-writing seminar sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. It consists of six classes, each taught by a different instructor and each building on the course before it. My presentation explained in seven manageable steps how to turn your idea into a full manuscript, Hallie Ephron then brilliantly outlined the secrets of suspenseful plotting within that manuscript, and so on.

John Galligan, a Wisconsin creative writing professor, was a new instructor in the line-up. He taught the "Setting and Description" class, and it's his method for crafting vivid details that I'd like to share with you now. According to John, effective detail explains time, place, character, and theme. This isn't always possible, of course, but it's what writers should aim for.

Here's an example. When describing where she grew up using as few words as possible, Hallie said, "before it was 90210." Does that evoke time? Absolutely. Place? Of course. Character? Yes--you have a sense that the speaker has a sense of ownership with the pre-zip code Beverly Hills, which tells you a lot about the person, which can lead naturally into the theme or mood of the book, depending on the context.

Contrast that neat, sweet package with the "cataloguing" that can be found in a lot of fiction nowadays (and I've been guilty of this myself):

I grew up in southern California, a hot, windswept land of palm trees, ocean, and blonde hair. You have to know somebody to be somebody here, and I remember when I first arrived, I tried to look the part. I dyed my hair platinum, wore blue contact lenses, and affected a Valley Girl accent. If you're still reading, you've got a lot more patience than I do. It was here that I made my fortune and left, well before Yankees knew where Beverly Hills was.

Not terrible, but not memorable, either.

So that's my lesson for today: when you write, use detail mindfully, and never information dump. Be concrete, and try to hit all four goals (time, place, character, mood/theme) with a single detail at least once a chapter.

Your assignment: either leave a writing tip in trade for this one, or describe where you grew up in ten words or less, using only concrete detail. Cheers!

Launch is different the second time around

I've had two books come out this month. Old Maid's Puzzle, the second in the Quilting Mystery series from Midnight Ink and Stamped Out, the first in the Stamping Sisters series from Berkley Prime Crime.

Two books, two launches. It's different this time around. People treat me differently. With three books under my belt, I have a certain level of credibility that I didn’t experience when WGC. No one is patting me on the head saying, how nice for you, dear. Two books in a month tend to make people pay attention.

It takes a little getting used to, this attention. I’m still the same person. My opinions, that no one cared to hear this time last year, are pretty much the same. My level of expertise hasn’t changed but still people look to me for answers. I can suddenly sit on panels, speak with authority. It’s a little daunting to see the look in people’s eyes,like I’ve suddenly have the key to origin of the universe.

No wonder Britney shaved her head.

It was with this attitude that I attended the East of Eden writing conference last weekend. I've been going for years, but always as a student. This time my name badge said "Faculty." I was part of a late night panel of mystery authors with Lee Lofland, Halle Ephron and Dave Corbett. I'm usually in the audience at those things, cracking wise under my breath and occasionally heckling the speakers. It was fun to get to heckle from the other side of the podium. The panel was easy, talking about what we love to do, write mysteries.

In the morning I gave a breakfast talk, and afterwards I was the Pro portion of the Ask-A-Pro. I couldn't imagine what wisdom I had to offer the people who signed up to talk to me, but speaking with them was interesting. All most of them needed was an attaboy and a confirmation that they were on the right path. And their projects were fascinating.

I learned something that day. I'm having a blast.

So, with apologies to Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, my version of The Second Time Around.

Launch is lovelier the second time around
Just as wonderful with both feet on the ground
It’s that second time you see your book title on the shelf
Makes you think perhaps that publishing, like youth, is wasted on the young
Launching a book’s more comfortable the second time you fall
Like a friendly home the second time you call
Who can say what brought us to this miracle we’ve found?
There are those who’ll be published but once, and yet
I’m oh, so glad to be published the second time around