Agonies of a Young Author

Today, let's talk fun things.

Namely: fiction, and tricking Madam Mocking Muse.

Sometimes when you get going on that recent burst of inspiration, the smallest thing can snap you abruptly out of you creativity. Any hesitation over that small detail not readily to hand, and poof! All gone.

So when I write, I trick the Muse.

I don't write.

Actually, what I mean is that I don't write down what's bothering me, and skip over it to continue with the next word. If you are confused, don't worry. Let's use some practical illustrations. This is a excerpt from my newest W.I.P. (work-in-progress) a Regency novella tentatively titled "Admit Nothing":

...but in the country where eligible single men only dot the landscape like (----------), one had to do with what one had. 

See the dashes? See the big gaping hole where the rest of my metaphor should exist? Yes, see it? See it? 

Yeah, that's been my biggest pet peeve for the past week and a half. HOWEVER, while I may be hung up on the wording NOW, the first time I started furiously scribbling, I left the dashes and just continued. And I got an additional four pages after this paragraph, all because I didn't stop to ponder what specific word I need. If I had, I would have lost my train of creation (that's a good one, can I copyright that?) and I would have been stuck with only four lines and a great deal of frustration. 

Let's see another example: 


He continued. "Mother wishes to remind you of our dinner on Thursday. Pray watch your tongue this time. She was rather horrified at your talk of - of ---"

"(---------)," I said.

Lorimer stared at me for a few moments. "Yes. Those."

I opened my mouth to ... well, I'm not sure what I hoped to say, but instead I gently shut it again. What was there to say? Proper Young Ladies did not have an interest in (--------). Mrs. Paddingtow was hardly the first to notice my eccentricities,but she was certainly Society's staunchest voice reminding me of them.

NOT revealing the answer to your readers might be the best thing you do as an author.

I know, sounds slightly contradictory right? Not giving the reader what they want? It goes against all the basic principles of consumer culture. But, I've realized this week, that secretly, it IS what the reader wants. They just don't know it. But YOU the author should.

I first was exposed to this idea when another writer/blogger (unfortunately I've forgotten who, but credit's all to you!) wrote an article on how writing well should be just like the Sesame Street book The Monster at the End of this Book. The character Grover does and says everything to stop you from turning the page, which of course has the opposite effect. And you can't wait to get to the end and discover who/what is the monster.

Holding back the details teases the reader with a mystery that they're dying to figure out, either by getting into the character's head or reading on. Either way, it's good. My favorite example of this is Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels. Basically from chapter one, the reader knows that Kate is hiding something about her heritage from the world. But Ms. Andrews also hides it from the readers. Book One gives you tantalizing hints, book two infers, and only in book three does she confirm. Which means, I'm absolutly dying for book four.