My least favorite question

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating, my least favorite question isn't the infamous "Where
do you get your ideas?" I like that question, actually, and cannot understand how anyone could move through this world and not end the day with their pockets stuffed full of stories (whether they have the will or the wherewithal to write them down is another matter).

No, my least favorite question is "Which character is you?"

The thing I like about "Where do you get your ideas?" is that it has as its underlying theme a genuine understanding that this writing thing is something I could do if I could just understand how to get started.  The question of which character is me gets at a fundamental misunderstanding of what fiction is, much less how it is done.

I probably didn't help much by writing in character as Dr Deeds on Twitter. That isn't to say that Howard's mad science teacher doesn't have a lot of me in him, but no more or less than Howard, or Old Suit, or Erica for that matter. But none of them are Scott in disguise.

I can't think why I'd want to put on Groucho glasses and a wig and wander into my story. "Nothing to see here, author coming through, carry on, nothing to see..." what a distraction that would be.

Which isn't to say that authors never inject themselves into their stories. "Never" is a dangerous word and almost always the first word of a lie. Some writers do and I find it deeply annoying in much the same way that I've grown to hate the inevitable Stan Lee cameo in every Marvel movie. Let's step out of the story for a moment while we all acknowledge the creator of this fictional narrative we were enjoying before you interrupted it for an inside joke.

It can be done right, and carefully in the correct circumstances (Kilgore Trout springs to mind). But you don't serve your story or your reader by forcing your story to form around an ego trip.

That's the fundamental conceit of fiction that this questioner doesn't understand and a bridge that far too many have trouble crossing. The purpose of storytelling is to let both the reader and the storyteller live lives we'd never be able to live, to experience things we might never encounter, to feel empathy for people we've never met or never could.

All of these kids and mad scientists and government agents and robots and alien creatures are part of me, but none of them are me. We use stories to inject ourselves into other lives, other times, and other situations. To breathe humanity into dry history and to postulate very ordinary human reactions into extraordinary situations. None of it requires me to inject myself into the story as a thinly-veiled character and nothing would be served except my own ego by doing so.

Which character is me? All of them. And none of them.

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GETTING BACK IN THE TIME MACHINE:

Next weekend, I will be in Port Townsend, Washington for The Brass Screw Confederacy May 29-31st.  There will be writers panels, radio shows, and other shenanigans.

I hope to see some of my Seattle-area folks there!

Writing Tips from Published Authors...

Q: Where do you turn for writing advice?
A: I tend to tell people asking me these questions to buy Bird by Bird or Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, and then pass on the advice I've summed-up from a hundred such conversations I've had with people you've actually heard of: "At some point you just have to put the books down and write something". If you want more nitty-gritty, detail stuff, that's why many writers keep blogs and I encourage you to check in on them from time to time and perhaps "follow" some of your favorites on Twitter. (And if that doesn't disabuse you of the notion that becoming a writer is lavish parties and fancy cars, nothing will. It's hard work and it's a business.)

Here are a few of my favorite online sources of information or musings that I found valuable...

• Veteran suspense author and journalist David Hewson keeps a regular blog about writing and travel. Recently, he posted a great article about methods for the pesky task of keeping track of multiple characters amid multiple storylines, that gave me that "Yeah, me too" moment that makes me read other writers' blogs.
• I really had to search for this one... Back in August of 2006, The Atlantic aggregated some of the Great Writing Advice that has been offered in the pages of their magazine and posted it here. Which goes to show that when you do find advice you value, don't lose track of where you put it. (In my case, I had it printed out and had to go back and find where it might yet reside online.)
• I was there for this one... At the PNWA conference, James Rollins handed out some sage advice that one of my fellow attendees blogged. Rather than reinvent the wheel (or re-blog the conference) I'll give you a link to his summary of James Rollin's excellent advice. Advice we all should heed more often than we do.
• And of course, there's always the genius of Neil Gaiman. The man's chockful of advice. Some of it's even about writing.

Notice that with the exception of Mr Hewson's musings on keeping characters straight in a convoluted story, most of it can be summarized with the words: "Writers write, if you're not writing, you're not a writer"? There's a reason for that, and a reason that this blog is titled "Pages to type before I sleep". Which reminds me. I have writing to do before I can get some shuteye.