Wisdom From Tess
Tess Gerritsen made a guest appearance on the blog Murder She Writes and gave some writing advice on the difference between thinking your way through a book and feeling your way.
It’s not the first time I’ve given this advice to a writer: “Stop thinking and start feeling.” The writers who most often need to hear it are, oddly enough, highly educated, logical, cerebral men like my friend. Well-read, accomplished people who think that writing a novel is going to be a snap for them because they’re so intelligent, so logical, such deep thinkers.
But deep thinking is what gets them into trouble. They work so hard trying to get across their philosophical or political points, they forget that novels are really about people. They’re about love and anger and grief. They’re about marrying and having children and being terrified of losing them. They’re about standing over your wife’s coffin and knowing that you’ll never again feel her hair brush against your face, never again hear her footsteps on the stairs.
They’re not about “self-actualization” and “personal journeys.”
Now, I think a lot of people would say they’re writing about those personal journeys. Those folks might take issue with Gerritsen. I’d say writing is about thinking and feeling your way through. But, really, what I think she’s talking about is the need for conflict, emotions and the famous Dark Moment. Or, as my cp keeps reminding me, it’s kind of tough to have an interesting novel without an escalation in conflict and an emotional connection between the reader and the characters. For Gerritsen it works like this:
When I write my own novels, I don’t think my way through them; I feel my way. I’m always stopping to test my gut reaction. Does a scene move me in some way? Am I upset or scared or excited or angry? No? Then I need to dig deeper to find the emotion. Maybe I haven’t layered in enough conflict, or I haven’t given my hero a stake in the scene’s outcome. Or maybe I’ve chosen to send the plot in a direction that leads nowhere interesting – to no crisis, no conflict.
February 15th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
I agree with you. I think it is both, but I know what she’s talking about. Smart lady.
February 15th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
I found her advice helpful. I think it’s situation-specific. Some scenes require more thought than emotion, while for others it’s vice versa.
Did you notice how she got raked over the coals by what sounds like a very “bitter writer”? Boy, you can’t even give advice w/o getting hit by a peg or two of sour grapes.
Unpubbed writers ought to just keep toiling. Don’t attempt to satisfy your thirst for success by taking gulps of envy and bitterness. It doesn’t serve your overall ambitions in any way shape or form.