Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Taboo and the Voices in Your Head

Hey all! Thanks, Alecia, for inviting me! I'm really excited about today! And wow, Cat's a tough act to follow, LOLOL! That's is some really terrific advice on writing. And no one could possibly accuse Joss Whedon of doing it poorly!

In that vein, I wanted to tackle a couple of things I get asked about quite a bit. The first is: How do I feel about writing on 'taboo' topics? The second is: Where did I get my 'writer's voice'? The first question has a lot of answers, ROFL, and the second is really a compilation of more than one question.

Okay, so what is taboo? Honestly, just about anything can be taboo, it just depends on your point of view. Everything from politics and religion, to gardening and cleaning house can be taboo (I mean, if your neighbor was using human waste as a fertilizer that'd be pretty taboo, right, LOL?). It all depends on the elements of the situation.

Now, I know what most folks are talking about when they ask me about taboos. They are talking about Heaven and Hell, my series for Changeling Press. Yes, I've had my fair share of "you are going to burn" comments, though those aren't regarding a particular work, but the fact that I write erotica, LOL. Fans of mine, and the series, tease me about Hell, but what they really want to know is why I chose those characters for my stories. After all, I make no effort whatsoever to conceal that the characters in these books are Judeo-Christian beings of note and myth/fact, whichever you choose to believe. I mean, how many Archangels do you know named Gabriel, ROFL?

When people ask where I got the idea for this series, I don't have to think hard, LOL. I was baptized and raised a strict Catholic. And from the time I was about six or seven, I used to dream up stories involving the Archangel Gabriel. I found him fascinating, this Angel who was both light and darkness. The General of God's Army, and also the bearer of the news that the Virgin Mary was carrying the Christ Child. How interesting a being would this man be, if I could meet him? As I grew up, those stories became lusty teenage fantasies, ROFL, and I said more than my fair share of Hail Mary's and Our Father's for those in confession. My point is, long ago I made Gabriel a character of my own creation. He was based on real belief, but I had expanded him, developed him, made him real. And that's how you write about a topic that might be considered taboo.

You take the taboo out of the equation by making the story REAL. By giving the characters faults and tragedies, triumphs and joy. By allowing readers to imagine things through your eyes, you take them to a place above and beyond whatever made the subject taboo in the first place. This applies to erotica as a whole, as well as some of the more left-of-center things you can find between the covers of books in the genre. By taking the explicit sexual content and making the characters experiencing it REAL, a writer can move erotica away from the taboo label of 'porn'. A writer can 'reshelve' erotica in the minds of his/her readers as fiction or some subgenre there of, making it no longer taboo.

So, in short, the way to tackle taboo isn't to shove it down people's throats, or yell at them to stop thinking such 'archaic' things, but to make it REAL for them. To bring them into your story, your characters, your setting, and make them a part of the story. As readers of erotica have proven, it isn't 'porn', it's great tales with real people and real emotions and interactions that's worthy of the time and money spent enjoying it.

Now, question number two: How do you write the way you do? Where did you find your voice? How do you choose a point of view in which to present the story you're writing? LOL, and several other questions.

This one is a bit more difficult for me to answer because in the beginning, I didn't really understand what the question was. I mean, I just write. I don't think about writer's voice or style, or really even POV(point of view) when I settle in to write a story. I just do it, LOL. After a few fumbled attempts at answers, I started asking what those questions meant? I was told, delightfully bluntly by a brilliant lady, that the question was really "How do you make yourself unique?"

Well, THAT I could answer, ROFL! I make myself unique simply by virtue of the fact that I am unique. No two writer's are alike, LOL, much as no two snowflakes are alike. You could give two writers the exact same plot outline and you'll get two very different stories. Each author has their own unique style, flare, and voice.

Take the way I write third person POV. I don't use scene breaks and iteration, which is a standard. I write a scene from all perspectives available for it: both characters, or more, if that's who's starring in it. I change POV from one paragraph to the next. I do this because I'm not a big fan of 'standard' third person. I don't like to re-read the same scene I just absorbed from the heroine's POV, from the hero's POV. I already know what happened, I don't need to 'see' it again , LOL. I want the scenes in my books to flow, seemlessly, from one character to the next. I want the reader to REALLY feel like they can see all, feel all, and react to everything that happens as if they were the characters, and a voyeuristic, invisible watcher, as well.

Aspiring authors seem to be the biggest worriers about this kind of thing. My advice is to RELAX, LOL. You aren't going to be the next Steven King, Angela Knight, or Nora Roberts. You just aren't. And the reason is because you are going to be the next YOU! Much like writing taboo, you can try to emulate someone else's style, but in the end the only way to convince people of your work is to MAKE YOURSELF REAL. Believe in yourself, enjoy what you do, and breathe, LOL! You don't have to be anyone else, or write just like a NYT bestselling author. You have to write like you. Let your 'voice' shine on the pages. Let your imagination sweep the reader away into a world that only YOU can create, because only YOU could write it just that way.

Don't get me wrong, emulating the style of your favorite author is the highest compliment and it can be a very useful learning tool. Following an established authors book presentation, in regards to the parts of story not the content (ie, plot formation, action sequences, etc.) is a great way to learn the how-to's of writing a story to completion. However, you'll soon find that the writer you are will take you places you might not have expected. You might decide that you need that fight scene much earlier than expected, or the sex scene really has to wait until later. And that's just the beginning of, not 'finding' your voice, but unleashing it!

Simply put, be YOU! You are the most important part of the writing process. You are the one who creates the world, the story, and the characters. YOU ARE UNIQUE, and as such your work is unique. The sooner you believe in yourself, and let the author in you take control, the sooner you'll find that your stories can write themselves. No book on the writing process, or advice, can make you a writer. You have to believe and accept that, in your heart. Once you do, the sky is the limit!!

Emma Ray Garrett
www.freewebs.com/emma_ray_garrett

Posted by Alecia Monaco :: 10:19 AM :: 7 Comments:

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