Posts by Heather Webb
I must admit, I have history on the brain these days. It should come as no surprise that as a historical fiction writer, I subscribe to the idea that history is always relevant. Understanding what has passed is the answer to our whys and hows, and becomes the building blocks of the future. While reading (and writing) historical fiction, I’m searching for aspects not always present in other genres of fiction, that are, in fact, the hisfic genre’s strengths. Things like:
Today, history is being made around us, for better or worse, and as writers, it’s nearly impossible not to consider how that affects our ways of life as well as our thinking. To many of us, we’re watching in horror as history’s dark past becomes the present once again. It seems we are doomed to repeat history as is so often said, because the human memory is short, and frankly, I don’t know many teenagers—or many adults—who have learned from someone else’s mistakes. Mostly we learn from our own. So here we are, in the midst of a great conflict.
Lately, common words in our everyday vocabulary are:
protest, resist, contradict, agitate, depose – all examples of CONFLICT
Another way to view conflict J. Turnbull of Oregon State University shares with eloquence: conflict really means “thwarted, endangered, or opposing desire.” These are fundamental words to those who wish to protect democracy, protect rights, protect others, but they’re also fundamental words in our writing lives. Conflict in all its forms are essential to a character’s journey and development, and ultimately, to the outcome of their fate.
There are many ways to sew conflict into a story, both externally and internally. A combination of both makes for a stronger narrative in general, though some character-driven stories are quite successful with the majority of the conflict being internal as well. We probably know a lot about conflict already, but I find after years and years of writing, it’s still easy enough to lose my way. Fiction writing is complex and each new story brings its own set of challenges. To help keep me on […]
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We’re in the thick of the holiday season from the religious to the nature-centric to the end-of-year celebrations, and I find myself ruminating on this cluster of holidays most of us celebrate in some form or another. How these holidays shape our habits, our mood, our intentions, our motivations. As I sip my cappuccino, I’m asking myself: do we really change who we are this time of year, put ourselves on pause and aim to be better human beings? And how do we each choose to adhere to our belief systems? Are we steadfast and loyal, or more of a cherry-picker whose beliefs have eroded over time and experience and distance from their origins? What is the nature of these beliefs, and how do they form a deep-seeded part of who we are? As you can see, my favorite way to spend the month of December is pairing my champagne and Christmas goodies with big thoughts and deep questions.
For writers, it’s an easy jump to take these deep thoughts about ourselves and apply them to our characters. Our characters are, after all, just people on the page that we’re aiming to imbue with life. So I’m considering my current main character’s belief systems, her customs and traditions, and her sense of morality, since they are a large part of what gives any character dimension and depth. I’m also thinking about pivotal experiences and how they not only underscore themes throughout the story, but they are the key to her growth. These aspects of beliefs, both learned and taught, add the kind of scope that makes our character worth reading.
Beliefs that are Taught
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Have I said all I need to about craft and the writing life? This is what I asked myself as I searched my mind and heart for a compelling topic to write about. I have literally thought about this post for weeks and kept coming up blank until I realized that was the very thing – this coming up blank – that has plagued my writing life for the past six months. I’d sit at my desk and stare at my WIP, move a few commas around, reread what I’d written, maybe manage to eke out a few sentences, and then walk away. Over and over again, week after week, month after month. It’s been a frustrating year in that regard, and I started doubting the premise of my WIP. Would anyone want to read this book anyway? And then I started doubting myself. Maybe I couldn’t pull off what I was trying to do on the page. Maybe I’d forgotten how to write entirely.
So I’d been paralyzed, so much so, that I’d been stranded at the same 30k word count for months.
I’ve Got Nothin’
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My blood pressure is rising, as I sit here pondering what has dominated my writing life lately and what, therefore, I should write my WU article about today. My blood pressure skyrockets as I wonder when and if I’m EVER going to get more words in on my WIP. And then I am struck with the answer: procrastination! For weeks, I’ve been sitting down (the ol’ butt-in-chair) and attempting to write, but instead, I look up recipes and write “to do” lists and take care of the dozens of writerly admin chores waiting for me in my inbox. I write a few sentences and delete them, gaze at my outline, and then I clean the kitchen and run errands. I do everything but put actual words on paper.
I have a deadline, you see, around the holidays at the end of the year, and I’m trying not to panic as I stare at my 28,000 word count that has remained the same for weeks and weeks. I know it’s possible to crank out a draft by December, but given the kind of writer I am and the amount of drafts I typically do, I should be on my third draft already, layering, layering, layering. Instead, I’m stewing over the plot, moving commas around, cutting pieces and filling in others, waiting to hear back from experts on a few historical details. Worst of all, I’m still trying to figure out how I want these details to drive the B story of the book. What is the B story?! I just don’t know how this will all come together. I don’t know if my heroine’s story is a worthy tale, or if I’m using the best structure, or if I pull this one off!
In the midst of all of these “I don’t knows,” I’m practicing some serious self-loathing and above all – procrastination. Ahh, procrastination. We are old friends, but I must admit, it has been quite a while since I have seen thee. I’m a “put in the work a little every day” kind of girl, at least since I graduated college many moons ago. But it seems that right now, the young, dithering, procrastinating Heather of yore is back.
WHY OH WHY IS THIS ONE FEELING SO HARD?
So you see, I’m actually glad I’m writing this post today because I could use a little self-examination to help get me going again. This is what I’ve come up with:
The Problem
The Solution
When our procrastination is at an all-time high, we need to reframe our thinking, alter our typical routines, and make room for an evolving writing process to set ourselves up for success. Here’s how.
Time constraints & Accountability. When I am at my most distracted, I have discovered that setting a timer for thirty minutes – in particular with a writer friend that I can sprint with – works miracles. Suddenly I have accountability! Not just that, I have a literal ticking clock! The pressure is on […]
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Last month while in Florida during multiple stops on book tour, I wore my “I survived reading banned books and all I got was smarter” t-shirt. How could I not, given the unbelievable number of titles being banned in that state. Interestingly, it started some good conversations almost entirely positive, which made me happy. There were, however, a couple of dirty looks and even one middle finger. I waved and smiled at those because the long-ago buried southern belle in me knows that killing them with kindness is a more powerful countersuit in the end.
Another stop on the tour took me Tucson, Arizona, a city I’d never been to before (and what a gorgeous place it was!). I met hundreds of bookish types and participated on a panel in which a moderator asked us an unusual question: If you were to write a banned book, what topic would you choose?
I’ve fielded a lot of great—and random—interview questions, but this was a new one. I couldn’t imagine purposefully selecting a topic that might put me on a banned list. Then again, I do set out to write books that ultimately center around what I’d call important topics. Still, I couldn’t name a topic at the time, and my off-the-cuff answer to the question surprised me in that moment:
The book-banners don’t understand that their reaction to the novel in question isn’t really about a specific topic. It’s about their fear and lack of empathy.
It’s also about truths that make them uncomfortable. Truths are a difficult enough thing to face in our own lives, so when confronted with one in a novel, especially those that arise in the gray spaces of morality, these book-banning readers can’t and won’t face them.
Ultimately, banned books are a result of those who cannot step into someone else’s shoes. Who cannot imagine an alternate truth to the one they are living and refuse to extend beyond themselves to consider a different reality from their own. They also don’t believe others should be allowed to develop their own truths for themselves. They believe there is only one way. Once again, lack of empathy and Fear.
This line of thinking made me examine more carefully what it is we’re aiming to do with our stories with these big truths. More importantly, how revealing these truths through your protagonist’s choices—or lack of action—elevates a story and makes it bigger, more impactful, and lasting. So I ask you:
How do “important topics” and/or these big truths play out in your work-in-progress?
How about you? Would you avoid certain topics for fear of banning? What big truths have you written about in your work?
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After years and years of writing, our routines, at times, can start to feel a little stagnant, especially if you’ve been doing the publishing tango. Part of that is being forced to spend metric tons of time and energy outside the writing itself. Part of it is the sheer amount of labor involved in bringing a novel to its fruition. The other thing—something we discount too easily for some reason—is that our big creative brains need a regular stream of stimulation and inspiration. I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately myself. It’s strange because I have a book idea that I’m excited to write, but I’ve found myself inching along, picking at it very slowly, and losing focus. After I had a conversation with a few writer friends, I realized what I really needed was some rejuvenation and to go back to basics.
Going back to basics, for me, meant starting with a few questions:
Basically, I realized I needed to shake things up a bit. Break my habits and routines. Invite in the change! And most of all, reframe my thinking a little.
Exercising is Feeding the writerly soul
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I came across a post recently on Facebook about characters who cheat and how readers/viewers receive it. People who commented became pretty involved in the discussion and were quite passionate one way or the other. It got me thinking about “morally repugnant” behaviors and human nature. Sometimes, notions of right and wrong fall away because at our very core, we are built to try to survive. This begs the question of why we place emphasis on certain “morals” when it’s against our innate selves. I always come back to human nature being fundamentally selfish and self-focused so we need moral codes and actionable laws to govern our impulses, or the world would be one big game of cat and mouse. (I suppose it still is in some ways.)
When a person breaks these codes/laws, it makes us uncomfortable. But when a character does this, often the opposite is true: readers, or viewers in the case of TV, often become fascinated by this acting out. As a sometimes-writer of historical biographical fiction, I’ve had to tackle some of these repugnant behaviors to stay true to the record. Occasionally I get dinged in reviews for “going there,” but in general, I’ve found readers are actually drawn to stories that involve these messy characters with messy lives. From a craft perspective, this presents me with some challenges. How do you keep a reader engaged, satisfied, and willing to ride the rollercoaster of the protagonist’s failings for an entire book? What is it about these repugnant behaviors that is working?
What Readers might be drawn to in a less-than moral scenario:
*As a side bar, don’t discount readers who say they don’t like books that include certain behaviors or topics, because strangely, it doesn’t mean they won’t read the book. It also doesn’t exclude them from recommending it to others. I’ve seen this happen a lot, in fact. There’s a strange sort of disconnect sometimes between what a reader says they like and what they actually read.
The Writer’s Job:
Ultimately, nearly any action can be justified with the right set of circumstances and context. It might not make your reader love the character, but the behaviors may not turn them away either. First, you’ll have to decide between a likable character or a sympathetic character (no, they aren’t the same thing), or a completely unlikable character (A note of caution here. Unlikable characters can often come off […]
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Am I showing a freakish side to my personality by admitting that I believe in signs? Probably, but really, aren’t writers considered a little kooky? Yeah. We look for meaning where there is none—and then create some. We opt for fiction to make our story believable when the facts are just too weird. We craft imaginary people and put them through the most ridiculously difficult things on the page to elicit emotion from our readers. And some of us look for signs, or perhaps a better way to say it is, we’re open enough to our surrounding world to find answers we’re seeking.
Searching for Answers
When I first started writing, I dreamed about a real-life person for two weeks before I decided to grab a biography and look them up. She became the subject of my first novel. While deciding what to write about for my next book, I was traveling out of town to a writer’s conference and ended up walking into two different establishments with faux statues of Rodin’s Thinker. In the airport on my return, I headed to the baggage claim and saw that it was backlit by several large screens that flashed ads. The screen above my waiting luggage was stuck—on an image of Rodin’s Thinker. I laughed aloud and said to no one in particular, okay, okay. YES. I will write that book. It may seem silly, but I listen to an idea that presents itself to me, in whatever way it comes.
There’s another really magical thing happens to me sometimes. I’m in the midst of a work-in-progress and there’s a particular aspect I’m stewing over. I can’t seem to nail down the direction I’d like to take. I hem and haw for days or weeks, or months, and in the meantime, I do what I always do. Ponder, explore, discard. And I read. One day, I’m minding my own business and reach for a book that I’ve had on my shelf for ages but haven’t yet read. Undoubtedly, it’s something I’ve wanted to get to and have told myself I’d circle back to a million times. (So many books, so little time, amiright) But suddenly this book is the only book I see, as if I’m drawn in by its gravity.
This is where the magic comes in. I read the novel and suddenly, the answer to my craft question in my WIP is right there, in this book that has been on the backburner for no specific reason–and it holds the key! It demonstrates the kind of structure I need to use, or an emotional thread I’m trying to develop, or insight into a character that mirrors the one I’m hoping to capture on the page. Next thing you know, I’m covered with goosebumps and I absolutely marvel in that magic. This has happened to me so often, that I almost wonder if I am subconsciously buying books that I somehow know I need, later.
It also makes me wonder how any writer can say they don’t have time to read. To read is to expand your skills in a very real way. It’s the fundamental core of your writing. To read is to open a pathway into the beating heart of your own work. […]
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I’m a sucker for interesting novel structures, but I so rarely see craft articles out there about them. It’s as if they belong only to film and TV series, and yet, that’s entirely untrue. There are many experimental novels out there from greats like Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, and Kate Atkinson. Ariel Lawhon’s I Was Anastasia tells the story of the woman who faked being Anastasia Romanov, starting from the end of her tale moving toward her beginnings, interspersed with chapters about the real Anastasia whose story starts at the beginning of her tale moving toward her end. The two stories collide in the climax. Talk about a different method of storytelling! And it’s brilliantly done. John Green’s Looking for Alaska is a five-act tragic structure that uses a “before” countdown to a major event midstory and an “after” to the end.
The authors’ aims vary but in the end, they’re all about delivering a story in a way that underscores the book’s themes, as well as makes a direct impact on the plot or the character’s emotional journey.
One of my favorite, simpler ways to add a little spice to a story is to use a framing device. They’re a story within a story, or, more aptly put, a literary tool that acts both outside of and in tandem with the main story. Framing devices are a clever and handy way to make certain elements of your novel pop.
Framing devices can be used quite creatively, but often serve one of these purposes:
As you can see, framing devices are handy and can be used in a myriad of ways. Here are a few kinds you might try:
If you’re unsure which device to use, experiment! That’s part of the fun of writing; trying on different styles and attempting something bold or challenging with each new book to keep things fresh for you as the writer.
In my novel, The Next Ship Home, a novel of Ellis Island, I played around with several devices. Initially, I wanted to use excerpts of immigrant interviews from the Oral History project to bring in the essence of multiple voices that surround my two main characters, a first generation German-American woman who works at Ellis Island, and an Italian immigrant who attempts to pass through the immigration center quickly and begin a new life, only to meet many obstacles. I thought that by incorporating various immigrant voices in these snippets between chapters would give the reader the sense of the millions of people that passed through Ellis Island, and how vastly different they were from each other. And yet, how similar their needs and hopes and dreams were.
Problem is, it didn’t work! The interviews wound up giving the narrative a cluttered feel and it was confusing to switch from a random person’s voice that didn’t appear in the story at all, to those of my main characters. […]
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As writers, we do a good job of talking about the challenges of our chosen field, both those in writing and especially those in the business of publishing, but what about the joy? The shiny gold nuggets of happiness that we mine in our work? Would you say you “play” in your writing process or daily life in some way?
I asked some authors about their favorite little joys and this is what they have to say:
“Playful writing is probably even more important in fantasy than in other genres, simply because of all the world-building involved. The rules of physics don’t necessarily apply and anything is possible! That means that fantasy writers really have to stretch themselves to come up with new creations, creatures, and settings. One playful writing exercise I do builds on my dreams from the night before. I jot down whatever details I can remember, then try to use that as a starting point for a new story. The problem with dreams, of course, is that they rarely make sense, so the challenge becomes incorporating the imaginative spirit of the dream while also creating a coherent story with a beginning, middle, and end. In some cases I can even use those exercises to improve or add to my current work-in-progress.” –T.M. Blanchet, author of The Neath Trilogy
“I love taking little known bits of history and bringing them to life in a unique way such as the female ambulance drivers on the Front, or how cardiology got its start because of the Great War. I also love asking the question ‘what if?’. What if your sister ran away to become mistress to a Nazi, how far would you go to save her? What if the Winter Soldier from the Avengers fell in love, what would that relationship look like? And if I can take those little bits of history trivia and combine them with ‘what if’ then all the better not only for me, but more interesting for readers.”—J‘nell Ciesielski, author of The Socialite
“One thing I do for fun is really spending some time setting up the appearance of my scrivener document before I start working on a project. I change my computer backgrounds and try to digitally immerse myself in my main project. For my upcoming novel, Lavender and Sage, I rotated lots of different lavender fields in southern France, for example.” –Aimie K. Runyan, author of The School for German Brides
“Sometimes I will do a whole bunch of fun dialogue that I know will be cut. I love quick wit in dialogue but it doesn’t always serve the story so I will play with it a little and then the absolute best funny bits get to stay. I definitely see this as a form of play and exploration.”—Ann Garvin, USA Today bestselling author of I Thought You Said This Would Work
Our very own Therese Walsh, editorial director of Writer Unboxed and author of The Moon Sisters shares,
“I love the process of titling my chapters! Sometimes it takes a long time to come up with the right title, but once I do it helps to pull […]
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It’s been a rough year in publishing. (Isn’t it always, though?) We keep getting hit with articles about sales and consolidations and literary agencies folding or firing people. Then there’s the AI problem—don’t get me started. I’ve been on the road to various events and writing retreats in the last six months, and I’ve spoken with a good number of author friends and I keep hearing about “soft sales” and fear of what’s next. It’s all too much doom and gloom for my taste, because you know what? There is something next. Storytelling is fundamental to our existence, so we will find a way to deliver those stories, even if things have to change a little bit…
Speaking of change, putting all of that doom and gloom together has validated something for me that I’d long ago suspected, and it appears to be true now more than ever. It’s the secret to winning in publishing. And it’s in plain sight.
The secret to winning is to learn how to pivot. To be flexible. To get loose and stretch and change directions.
You may need to pivot if you’ve suffered endless rejections on a particular project (or several), if your sales are flat, if it’s “not the right time in the market for this book,” if you’re burned out on your genre because no matter how many novels you write in that category, you can’t seem to make any traction…and more. There are lots of reasons to pivot. And there are lots of reasons we despair and become bound up over the idea of changing directions. Moving into unknown territory can feel scary. The truth is, however, that pivoting isn’t a bad thing. If fact, it may be the best choice you’ve ever made.
First and foremost, pivoting equals freedom.
When you pivot, you’re freed from your past and your track record and your numbers. Pivoting offers a new beginning, breathing room, and plenty of fresh opportunities. You may take a new pen name. Try a new genre. Work on a collaborative project. Find an agent or publisher better suited for your work. Become the publisher yourself, and be the one you’ve always wanted. It may spark ideas you’d never considered. Perhaps you learn a new aspect of storytelling beyond books.
Authors who are “winning in publishing” learn to pivot over the years of their writing career, and they lean into the renewal and the freedom it brings. It’s how they create their successes. When they hit a bump in the road, they buckle up their seatbelts and put their foot on the gas. They don’t despair (for long). When they find themselves in the midst of an emotional reaction to some perceived failure, they don’t flail and shut down. They don’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. Neither do they beat themselves up (for long). They learn to let go. They lean into the new and fresh. They relish the idea of being free, of finding the fun in the challenge again.
Pivoting may also mean a whole other kind of freedom. This kind of freedom is understanding and accepting where your boundaries lie. Perhaps you’ve had enough of the rat race, the thin promises, or the ups and downs of a business that […]
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The past month, I’ve been in the throes of promoting my new novel, Strangers in the Night. The book is about Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, their wild and rocky relationship, the glamour and the underbelly of Old Hollywood, and the cost of celebrity. There’s so much more to it, too, but one aspect of writing this story really stood out to me as I waded deeply through my pile of research: the very real draw of toxic relationships. As things became more unwieldy between Frank and Ava, the more entranced I became. I simply couldn’t look away.
Recently I devoured Rachel Hawkin’s The Villa, set in a gorgeous Italian villa that has a past. It’s a story about two friends who are writers; one is world-famous and wealthy, the other is a stronger writer in her craft, but she can barely pay the rent. They go on a vacation together and each become inspired to write something new when they discover the story of a murder that took place in the villa where they’re staying. One friend steals pages from the other, and things begin to unravel from there. Toxic friendships at its finest. I also recently finished Andrea Bartz’s We Were Never Here, featuring a friendship maligned by jealousy and murder. More toxic friendships. The fantastic show, “Bad Sisters,” on Apple TV is about an Irish family of four sisters, three out of four whom despise their brother-in-law. He’s abusive and twisted and invades each member of the family’s lives in various ways to manipulate them—and winds up dead. (This isn’t a spoiler. At the beginning, you know someone has killed him and the show is about who did it told with loads of dark humor.) So many toxic relationships, familial, on the friend level, and also within a marriage.
What is it about toxic relationships that we find so appealing to read, or watch from the sidelines? (Certainly, no one wants to be in one!) They’re addictive, and this revelation made me think about what draws me in personally. I boiled it down to a few points.
1.) Fascination. I found the way Frank and Ava interacted on such an unhealthy level truly fascinating. How long would someone put up with fights, cheating, jealousy, and scandal before they called it quits? Would they grow from their failures? What would they learn about themselves in the process? These are a few of the questions that fascinated me. In “Bad Sisters,” I was riveted by the way the brother-in-law that the sisters hated would find ways to manipulate each of the family members, based on their weaknesses or the things they loved. This guy was really a sick individual and I couldn’t help but watch in fascination as he carefully took down each of the sisters in different ways.
2.) Sympathy. I felt for both Frank and Ava, as they struggled to do their best—and their worst—to corral their passions and achieve that intangible goal of loyalty and lasting love. Love may make everything better, but it also makes everything harder. This is a universal truth, and I couldn’t help but sympathize with them as they struggled to arrive at some comfortable happy medium. Plus, I could sympathize since I’ve had my own […]
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Most of us are busy humans, living busy lives, filling up the time with SO.MANY.THINGS. Child-rearing, elder care, building our careers and riding the waves that come with it, maintaining our homes, our relationships. For me, the last several years I let those things expand until I’d squeezed out my hobbies and squeezed out my self-care—and squeezed out my health. I hit major burn-out mode with writing and major physical and mental exhaustion. Finally one morning last fall, I woke up as tired as if I hadn’t gone to bed and said, why am I doing this to myself? What’s it all for anyway? ENOUGH. It was time for an about-face, a change, a rejuvenation of sorts. I decided I needed to make some major changes. To take action.
Action creates motivation, not the other way around.
You aren’t suddenly motivated to get up and change your habits, or to finish that book that’s languishing on your desktop. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion and that’s the truth. I knew I had to take the first step toward this fresh, new path I wanted to be on.
It’s been a few months since that fall day of ENOUGH and the calendar turned from 2022 to 2023, and as it did, I decided my word for the year would be HEALTH. Physical health and writing health.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. Taking action. Working toward health in body and health in my writing life.
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It’s been a while since I’ve shared thoughts here, my dear Unboxers. I took a sabbatical last year for a chance to catch up on a deadline that I was horribly behind on after covid and a major family emergency. Ironically, the time off allowed me to enjoy so many more of your posts. You really are a brilliant bunch of writers. There are as many thought-provoking comments as there are posts. This community is so special and I feel lucky to be among you. But I digress. All is well here now. It’s well…except for January.
January.
It was all things. And it was one thing, like a solid door. Its cold sealed the city in a gray capsule. January was moments, and January was a year.
-Patricia Highsmith, The Price of Salt
As I stare out at yet another gray day, I’m wishing for a snowy winter day with bright skies rather than the gloomy rain that has plagued New England this year. The dreariness, in fact, has me popping vitamin D and looking for ways to put a little more pep in my step. To self-soothe. So I started thinking about ways I self-soothe and there were a few immediate obvious answers. I bake. I read poetry. I rewatch historical flicks and romcoms. I exercise. (Shortly after writing this article, I’m going to make oatmeal cookies. If the aroma of cinnamon and sugar can’t make you feel better, nothing can.) But I also pace and doom scroll and have a glass of wine, preferably with friends, and suffer anxiety dreams.
This got me thinking more deeply about those habits and my subsequent needs, and most importantly, what they’re connected to. I didn’t have to look far. If you opened my calendar, you’d see this:
There’s a lot of good stuff here for sure, but it’s still quite a lot to manage in a short period of time. Ultimately, my self-soothing underscores what my calendar tells me: I’m stressed and I’m stewing over a few things. 1.) I really want more time to put in on another full draft of the WIP before I submit the “completed” revisions, but it’ll be really tight and I’m worried it’ll make the book too thin; 2.) I’m hoping my students feel like they’re getting something out of the class and that I’m giving them enough material to challenge themselves; and 3.) the largest among them, a struggle related to being a midlist author at mid-career with a publisher on strike. Numbers are everything and if sales on the book are mediocre, this affects the possibility of another book contract which in turn affects whether or not I’m picking up more jobs to pay the bills which in turn affects how much I can be around for my kids who are extremely needy at the moment for various reasons.
And now we’re at the heart of the […]
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