Backstory: How Much, How Little, When, and Where?

Lost (RIP) was a master of backstory.

Starting with the first scene of the pilot, the show followed the cardinal rule of screenwriting: open in the midst of a crisis, and introduce your characters by showing how they react to it.

Having crashed on an island, Jack opens his eyes, gathers what he can of his situation, and springs into action doing what he does best: saving other people.

And once the audience sees the plane wreckage and starts to meets the survivors, they want to know A) what happened on the plane? and B) who are these people?

Using parallel stories (one taking place on the island, and one taking place before the crash), the show jumped back and forth between two equally compelling plots each episode.

I struggle a lot with back story. I don't want to overload the beginning with information that's not relevant, but I also don't want to provide too little information and risk alienating the reader. If the audience doesn't understand why someone behaves a certain way, they might lose patience or stop caring about the character altogether.

How do you balance "present time" versus backstory? Do any novels or TV shows inspire you in this regard?

The Best Part of Going to the Magic Castle

(Beside the magic, of course...) is seeing the reactions of people who've never been before.

My husband Joe performed all last week in the Close-Up Gallery, and I brought friends on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday. I'd planned to go even more, but with my commute and his late schedule (he performed 10 pm to 1:45 am) it was a little tricky. 

The Castle is a private club for magicians and there's no place like it in the world. Seeing it through the eyes of first-timers is a blast because I never know what's going to fascinate them most: the portraits whose eyes follow you? Saying the secret code to get past the entrance door?  The winding, hidden hallways and a floor plan that mysteriously never quite adds up? The Houdini Seance Room? The fact that there are five separate bars? 

Joe's week was great because not only does he have a killer new show, the rest of the magician acts were completely different in technique, style, and tone, so the variety of performances complemented each other well. I think it was one of those wonderful combinations that only comes around once in a while.

Questions to Ponder While Stuck in Traffic on the 405

1. How did the graffiti artist get up that high?
      a) Why is the word "Wucky" spray-painted on the side of that truck? Was the creator a Wookiee fan who can't spell? Or is it an homage to Russell Brand's "My Booky Wook"?

2. Will I be able to drive 6 miles in 40 minutes? *

3. Would walking be faster, at this point?

4. Why is the guy in front of me letting everyone into our lane????

5. Is the 101 interchange the root of all evil?

6. Who is "Dr. Gutter, Inc." and does he have a PhD?

7. What genius coined the term "rush" hour? The same person responsible for the phrase "short sale"?

8. And finally, How much does the bus cost, and where do I catch it?


* No, no I will not.

An Abundance of Jonahs

In the last month or so, I've read three YA books featuring a lead character named Jonah:
1. "Jellicoe Road" by Melina Marchetta
2. "How to Say Goodbye in Robot" by Natalie Standiford

3. "The Black Book Diaries" by Jonah Black  (a fictional narrator)

This isn't a trend for anyone but me. It's completely random that I happened to read these books in a cluster.

Still, I'm curious why the name was chosen. Although most famous for the Biblical figure who was swallowed by a whale,  Jonah also means "dove," according to www.behindthename.com

None of the characters in the above-mentioned books are particularly peaceful or dove like. In fact, the first two are pretty antisocial and give the main female character angst.

How do you pick your characters' names? Do you ever study the etymology first, or do you just go with what feels and sounds right?

Lotsa Love for "Lost"

I needed a few days to process the finale of Lost before I posted, but overall I loved how the series ended, and I'm keeping the Jimmy Kimmel special on hold just so I'll have something to look forward to.  

Lost was unique. I can't think of any other show on TV that so beautifully combined action/adventure, sci-fi/fantasy, romance, philosophy, mythology, time travel (!!), and mystery. There really was something for everyone.

I love the way epic TV events bring people together and in this case, Lost went all out. The episode was broadast "day and date" -- something usually reserved for blockbuster movie franchises -- meaning it aired simultanously across the world (like 5 a.m. in London) to avoid spoilers and bootlegs getting out.

The Internet kind of exploded, too. According to Variety, "Google tracked more than 1,700 online news articles and 245 blog posts about the finale by midday Monday." At my office, we've been literally talking about it around the watercooler for the past few years and I'm going to miss that. The characters on the show were so richly drawn I feel like I've had to say goodbye to some friends.

Reviews of the finale were mixed, mostly divided into two categories: the "But they didn't answer X!!!!" people, and the "Emotionally satisfied but slightly confused" people who enjoy analyzing and interpreting the different possibilities. 

io9 hated it...

But the Onion's AV club loved it.

As did Entertainment Weekly. Perhaps most intriguingly, someone claiming to have worked for Bad Robot (Lost's production company) also chimed in.

Cyber Clean

Thanks for the brainstorming tips and encouragement yesterday. I haven't typed anything in the past few days, but I have written some free associations by hand, done a bit o' research and come up with some solutions to my plot dilemma. Gonna give the issue a few more days to percolate.

In the meantime I've discovered new and creative time wasters. Yesterday I cleaned my keyboard with ecto-plasma neon goop, er, I mean, Cyber Clean. It's completely weird. I love how they refer to cell phones as "high tech equipment."

A Case of the Mondays

Or at least a six pack.

We set up our home office this week. My husband did an amazing job putting it together and I love it. Computer, printer, slide-out tray for keyboard, phone, back-up hard drive, ergonomic chair, coffee...

I should be writing up a storm but I screeched to a halt Sunday night. To be fair, I had been writing up a storm until that point, and then I got to the halfway mark of my revision and felt like I'd wandered over to the edge of a plot cliff.

Each option presents new problems.

I'm driving myself crazy so I've decided to stop thinking about it for a few days and see if my brain will come up with a solution when I'm not actively pursuing one.

Have you reached an impasse in your writing recently? What did you do to overcome it?

Small Advance, Huge Prize

According to the Christian Science Monitor, this year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "Tinkers" by Paul Harding, was rejected by 20 publishers and only earned him a $1,000 advance.

"Tinkers" story centers on a man, now dying, who repairs antique clocks. Despite the tough road to publication, the novel was lauded by the L.A. Times, the New Yorker and the Boston Globe prior to capturing the Pulitzer.

Do you think Harding's next advance will be bigger? ;)

Diabetes Research Auctions - With Literary Prizes

Attention writers!

Win a 30-page read and phone comments from literary agent Sara Megibow. Trust me when I say her notes will be AMAZING. Best of all, it's for a worthy cause -- all proceeds in the auction go to benefit diabetes research. You've got about two and a half more weeks to place your bid.

Live in the DC area? Love politics?

Here's another great auction, courtesy of the awesome Miranda Kenneally: Lunch and a private tour at the U.S. Department of State.

Writing Lessons From "30 Rock"

Tina Fey is one of my favorite writers and performers and I have a theory about why her character on 30 Rock, Liz Lemon, works so well.

In comedy there are two basic types of characters: the straight man, who reacts to everybody else, and the wacky one, who gets to do ridiculous things. Liz Lemon is both, depending on who else is in the scene with her. For example, when she's in boss mode and has to corral the talent on the show-within-the-show, she's often exasperated and deadpan, but when she's in employee mode and heads upstairs to Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) office in the corporate arena, she's a bundle of quirks and physical comedy. She's three-dimensional but never contradictory.

Nobody is just "one thing" and I think viewers relate easily to Liz because A) we all think of ourselves as weird or nerdy and B) we also think other people can be worse.

Do your characters change when they interact with different people? Does their language and behavior reflect the differences?

Is it Necessary to Have This Much Cranberry Juice?

At my local Von's, there is an aisle devoted to cranberry juice and every variation you can think of. This photo is just the tip of the iceberg. It's too big for my camera.

There's 100% juice, juice cocktail, plain cran, cran with apple, cran with pomegranate, blueberry cran, raspberry cran, diet of all of the above, "light" of all of the above, generic, brand name, six-packs, gallons.

It makes me think of Andy Warhol, and Western excess.

My mother moved to the U.S. from Zimbabwe in 1970, and the grocery stores overwhelmed her with the sheer amount and variety of what should have been basic items. I finally understand what she meant.

"How big the world is!" the ducklings said.

"The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Anderson is one of my favorite kids' stories. As I'm sure you remember, the poor duckling is an outcast who spends a miserable winter alone, fending off the bitter weather and the other animals' cruelty and scorn.

But eventually... "He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him..."

I always thought that was a great lesson, because how can we know what it means to be happy unless we've also experienced unhappiness?

For those writers who are querying agents, out on submission, or just plugging away at a third or fourth draft, do you think years of hard work and uncertain toil will make success all the sweeter, or do you wish fortune would shine on you now?

Reverse Schadenfreude?

It's no secret among my friends that I like messed-up memoirs. In fact, most of the non-fiction books I choose to read depict a world or situation I'm vaguely horrified by.

Recent reads include "Among the Thugs," about soccer hooligans in Europe; "Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams"; "Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China"; "Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea"; and "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective." Last night I started "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick.

Why do I read such downer books? Probably for the same reason I watch Intervention and Extreme Hoarders: not to delight in others' misfortunate, but to celebrate their hard-won victories, remind myself how lucky I am, and learn what life's like for people who A) grew up in other countries B) grew up in other time periods. Also, real life is definitely stranger than fiction, and can inspire me in different ways than fiction does.

If you read non-fiction, what topics pique your interest?

A note to inspire

"Who wants to become a writer? And why?... It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower of life, even if it's a cactus."

-- Enid Bagnold, British novelist and playwright

My mom sent me this quote in the mail a few years ago and it's had a home on my bulletin board ever since. Whenever I feel down about my writing or wonder what I'm doing, it perks me up.

Today's my birthday (my Facebook wall doesn't know what hit it) and I may be getting the most wonderful present later: a niece!

A Quick Primer on E-Publishing

I have to admit I've been conspicuously avoiding most talk about e-books. When the words "e-publishing," "Kindle," "iPad," "Sony Reader," and "agency model" appear, my eyes kind of glaze over. I know I should be following this stuff. I know I should be informed.

Part of my hesitancy to delve into the topic is pure denial. (Always smart.) I'd like to think that someday I'll have a physical book on a shelf in a brick-and-mortar bookstore (another term that earns the Eye Glaze. "Brick and mortar"? Did anyone even use this phrase until recently?).

Because really, who dreams of one day having a downloadable file?

But last night I read a fantastic article, "Publish or Perish," in the New Yorker, about Kindle vs iPad, publishers' attempts to set prices with e-distributors, the hope that Apple may "save" the publishing business, and various insights from staffers at the six largest publishing houses.

And click ye here for Kristin Nelson's excellent posts on the Amazon / Macmillan war as it unfolded.

L.A. Times Book Festival and Another Idaho Pic

It's been quite a week! I returned from Idaho on Monday, got lotsa notes on my YA WIP (okay, a "yawip"  sounds like an exotic breed of dog, the bark the dog makes, or both) and tonight I've got a college friend visiting from out of town.

I also read two excellent books ("The Girl Who Fell From the Sky" by Heidi Durrow and "Albatross" by Josie Bloss).

If you live in L.A., be sure to check out the Festival of Books this weekend at UCLA. The line-up is amazing; guests include Meg Cabot and Dave Cullen.

And now, a random photo of Boise, taken by my husband. :)

A Trip to Idaho

I just returned from a lovely trip to Idaho, where my husband Joe is performing magic at Mystique restaurant in Boise for the month of April.

My agent-mate Natalie Bahm and her husband were kind enough to join me for a meal and show, and we got to chat reading and writing, which was really cool.

Fun fact: the Idaho state lotto features "Cheers" scratch-offs. It's almost like I designed it.

Recommended Read: "The Tyranny of Email"

In "The Tyranny of Email: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox", John Freeman explains how globalization, the concept of "now," and the synchronization of time have robbed us of a sense of leisure, personal and private life, the importance of local events, and even identity.

Disclaimer: Yes, I realize the irony of writing about the perils of the Internet while on the Internet. Also: I love Skyping with friends and family across the world, and I know email's an invaluable (and addictive) tool... I just like to occasionally assess my use of it, and I found Freeman's history of mail fascinating.

Here are some eye-opening tidbits from the book:

* Long before instant messages, texts, and Tweets, the postcard was blamed as the reason for the end of elegant composition; the "reason our daughters write like housemaids and express themselves like schoolboys." (Ha!)

* Oscar Wilde's telegram to his publisher, regarding book sales: "?"
The response: "!"

* 65% of North Americans spend far more time with their computer than their spouse.

* Because emails tend to look the same (and are read on a screen) there's no tactile sensation in the communication. In the past, different paper was used (formal letters used to be printed on heavy stock; telegrams with dire news were rimmed with black around the edges as a warning).

Want more? Check out Freeman's Manifesto for Slow Communication in the Wall Street Journal, from which I culled this: "The speed at which we do something -- anything -- changes our experience of it...not all judgments benefit from a short frame of reference... We need time in order to properly consider the effect of what we say upon others. We need time to shape and design and filter our words..."

(Good thing Google added that "unsend" button ;)

Typo City, Population: Me

Per Amy's suggestion, I've been reading my latest manuscript out loud to myself, and DANG there are a lot of typos. I also abuse certain words. Without plopping the whole text into Wordle.net, I predict that my most common offenders are:

"Even"
"Totally"
"That"
"Ever"

How embarrassing! I'm purging my text of unnecessary qualifiers. I definitely recommend reading your work out loud because you really don't catch the same problems when skimming or reading silently. It's a bit tough and awkward at first, but worth it.

On the plus side, by the time I send it along to my agent it'll be in cleaner shape.

My voice will also be hoarse.

Commuter Mind-set

I've been commuting for a month now, and what have I learned?

If I leave at 10, I get to work at 11.

If I leave at 10:05, I get to work at 11.

If I leave at 10:15, I get to work at 11.

If I leave at 10:20, I get to work at 11.

For some reason, convincing myself of this basic fact has proven challenging.

Here's what usually happens. At 10, I think, "I should probably get going...but no, it's okay, wait just a bit longer for traffic to clear out."

At 10:05 I think, "Getting closer... but DON'T LEAVE yet, it'll just be bumper-to-bumper at at the 101."

10:10: "Don't do it... just WAIT... STEADY, STEADY..."

10:20: "OMG, GO! GO!"

Clearly, 10:15 is the golden moment. My best time heading in is 37 minutes, which is only about 10 minutes longer than my old commute. Woohoo.

Other things I've learned since moving: Santa Clarita doesn't have a police station. They have a Sheriff's Department! I feel so Veronica Mars.

P.S. I also have a commuter tan now, i.e. my right arm up to my shirtsleeve is tan, and the rest of me is pale.