Upon Craving Chick Lit

Lacking any chick lit to read yesterday, I picked up Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the chick lit author of the 18th century.

Opening Paragraphs:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

"However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."

How can you not love this?

A few interesting facts about Jane Austen:

She started writing in her teen years.

Her first novel was Northanger Abbey, although it wasn't published until after her death. Reading it, you can see her development as a writer.

Her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, was self-published in 1811.

She published it and Pride and Prejudice anonymously.

Her stories were based loosely on her own and her family experience.

She had one proposal of marriage, which she accepted then retracted the following day.

She died at age 42.

Her popularity is greater today than ever before.

My own observations:

Austen writes with POV all over the place. Within chapters, even paragraphs, the point of view will change suddenly.

Sometimes it's necessary to reread a section because you really don't know what the heck anyone just said there.

These people are obsessed with money. Everyone talks about how much everyone else has to live on.

It doesn't matter what rules of writing she follows-- it all comes together so well, who cares? You just want more. Give me more Jane Austen. Oh, dear Jane, why did you have to die so young and leave us with only seven novels?

The Golden Egg and Lavender Drops

Yesterday my husband asked me, "Has your blog reached its tipping point yet? You know, where you don't have to work so hard at it and it just keeps going and getting new followers?" (Read-- You sure spend a lot of time blogging.)

I said, "Why, Mr. Gowen, you are much too droll! How could I entertain the possibility of restraint on an activity which provides me with such pleasure?" (Read-- I'm having way too much fun with blogging to stop, and last night I finished Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen so this is how I talk now.)

Just the same, it reminded me of the realities of life, that it's not all fun & games. How my involvement in social media is supposed to be helping me sell my books and promote myself as an author. Sales and marketing! How terribly dull and pedantic! (oops, there's Jane Austen again, sorry folks)

Can I just say that I despise marketing? Hawking my books? Tonight I have a presentation and I don't want to talk about my books. I'd rather discuss Jane Austen. The weather. My red shoes. My son leaving for basic this morning, saying goodbye to his wife and three little kids for nine months. My other son in Africa. Brave people. Women's voices. The garden we need to plant. My heart and soul went into those two books. Buy them. Read them. Yadayadayada.

Remember the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg? Everyone is looking for that goose and that golden egg. Everywhere you see all these great ideas on promoting yourself and your books. Yes, they're great ideas. But there is no golden egg, no magic formula. It takes hard work and pushing yourself past your comfort zone. Over and over again.

Or as Jane Austen would say, "...but no attitude could give her ease, and in restless pain of mind and body she moved from one posture to another, till growing more and more hysterical, her sister could with difficulty keep her on the bed at all, and for some time was fearful of being constrained to call for assistance. Some lavender drops, however, which she was at length persuaded to take, were of use..."

"the seduction that is part 1"

We keep hearing over and over about the short attention span of the reader, that we have to get to the action right away. After all, we aren't writing 19th century Jane Austen or Henry James, where we have the luxury of spending copious chapters describing the character's homes, families, clothing styles, friends, hobbies, mealtime conversation, etc etc. The modern reader won't stand for it. Still, we need to be "properly introduced," as Lynn Price (Behler Blog) says in her post, Have We Been Properly Introduced?

Larry Brooks refers to it as setting up your story, acquainting us with the main character-- where they live, what they do, what their hopes and dreams are. This allows the reader to empathize, to care, and to want to know what comes next. The set up needs to happen before any plot twists, or before the "first Plot Point".

Brooks calls this set up "the seduction that is Part 1." (I love that phrase.) Your intriguing hook in the first few paragraphs captures interest. The set up does the rest, leading readers happily into the first Plot Point which takes them the rest of the way, securely entrenched in the story. Hooray! Mission accomplished!

There are 5 missions to be accomplished in Part 1, the Set-Up. First is the hook. I shared mine last post--thank you for your feedback! Second is introducing your hero.

Here's how I do it in my current WIP. It comprises two chapters:

Marcie McGill goes with all her kids to visit her sister Cindy who lives 2 hours away. They eat dinner and they talk-- about baby Jakob, about Cindy's husband Karl, a school teacher on strike. They interact with each other and with the children. In two chapters, here's what we learn about these two families during the course of this visit (above and beyond the fact that something is wrong with Cindy's baby):

1. That the teacher strike is bitterly adversarial, pitting teachers on strike against those who cross picket lines.

2. That Cindy is conflicted about using food stamps to help get by. She would like to, but Karl's against it. What does Marcie think?

3. That the McGill family has no tv in their home, because Marcie wants her kids to read and be creative instead of watching tv, but her children figure out ways to learn about their favorite shows regardless.

4. That Elizabeth McGill, the 10-year-old daughter, hates compliments because she feels singled out. "Nobody tells the boys they have pretty eyes and a pouty mouth! I hate it!"

5. That Cindy doesn't like where they live and wants to move back to Jacksonville near Marcie.

6. That Cindy had problems nursing her two-year-old when he was an infant and, due to La Leche League counsel, refused to give him formula thus almost starving him.

7. That while Cindy and Karl have serious problems to contend with, Marcie and Shawn on the other hand, are doing quite well.

These are a few of the issues, elements and background revealed in my first two chapters. Is it enough to engage the reader in the lives of these two sisters? Is it enough to keep reading on to Chapters 3 and 4 and beyond? Let's hope so. Next post-- Illuminating What is at Stake.

How do you handle set up? How do you like to introduce your characters? I prefer dialogue, because it's more engaging than blocks of explanatory paragraphs.

What techniques of set up and introduction of characters do you like to use in writing, or enjoy seeing in the books you read?