Writing Humor Part I – Random Association

Humor is like anything other type of writing, it takes work to perfect your craft, practice, dedication, and realizing that what one person likes another may not.


John Philipp continues with his series on writing humor and satire.





Someone who was not I said, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince." Humor is no different; you need polish a lot of rocks to uncover a gem. Professional comedians often generate 100 jokes to find ten they think have potential, then tweak those in front of several audiences before they end up with one or two to put in their next routine.

But generating bad jokes is fun, as long as you are the only one who sees them. When writing humor, you don't want to listen to your Inner Editor whose territory covers the gamut from typos and grammar to character development, POV, and thematic imagery.

Listen to your Inner Comic, who delights in anything unexpected and constantly marvels at how clever you are at making unexpected connections between two items.

The House of Humor is built on the foundation of surprise. When two items are put together that you would not expect to find together (what Arthur Koestler in "The Act of Creation" calls a bi-associative event), you have one of two reactions.

If the context is science, the reaction is AHA!

If the context is humor, the reaction is HAHA!

One way to generate surprises is by random association. Here are the steps:

• Pick a topic. I'll pick football as the Super Bowl is almost upon us.

• Create categories under your topic. In this case, you want categories under "Super Bowl." Put each category on the top of a separate piece of paper.(Example categories might be: player, coach, team, stadium, ads, cheerleaders, fans, band and Body Part Exposure ... OK, I'm getting ahead of myself.)

• List items under categories: Under each category make a list in the left-margin of items that might fit underneath the category. Three examples:Under "players" you might have: quarterback, running back, tackle, guard, water boy, etc.Under "stadium" you might have: dome, artificial turf, field, bleachers, name, hot dogs, etc.Under "ads" items might be: funny, expensive, beer, animals, etc.

• Generate adjectives for each item: list as many adjectives as you can think of that describe each item or a part of the item, such as:Tackle - big, no-neck, stubborn, rock, leg grabber, pushy, grunterField - lined, grassy, long, cleat markedName - past player, city official, corporation, big bucks.
  
  
• Play "mix 'n match" with the groups of words you have generated. Take a word and, in your mind, put it next to each other word looking for a humorous or unexpected connection. A+B? No. A+C? No. A+D? Wait a minute, something's there. Maybe something using corporate names not for stadiums, they already have them, but what about for Olympic events?

Now I have a concept that has a potentially humorous slant. What corporations would sponsor what events and ... exaggerating my paradigm even further, wouldn't corporations create events that suited their products?

This is what often happens with humor. We started with the Super Bowl and ended up with the Olympics but who cares if it's funny?

I said in the beginning that humor is built on the foundation of surprise. Here's one: I didn't end up going with the Olympics this round. I also played with "ads" and came up with: Super Bowl XLII AD Mania.

Sure humor takes time. I didn't say it was easy. Fun, yes. Easy, no.

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John Philipp is a weekly humor columnist for four Marin County, California newspapers and has won numerous humor and memoir writing awards. His humor columns are posted at http://johnphilipphumor.gather.com/.
His wisdom (with Phil Prank's cartoons) is posted at Thought~Bytes http://thoughtbytes.gather.com/

GENA SHOWALTER ON WRITING, DISTRACTIONS, AND BEST FRIENDS

New York Times Best-selling author Gena Showalter is my guest Over Coffee. Gena writes Urban Fantasy, Paranormal and Contemporary Romance.

I’ve read and enjoyed her Atlantis series and am looking forward to reading Alien Huntress series next. She has written four series and assorted novels. I think what impress me most about Gena’s writing, aside from her vivid imagination and prolific writing, is the way she builds her worlds. They’re worlds that are so complete that the reader feels as if they could book a flight to them. I also love her strong characters and the research she’s done to make the characters and her worlds believable.

Gena also is a warm and genuinely funny person. I love her sense of humor. She also has a sometimes-mean Muse, who has its work cut out to keep her from being distracted, and thankfully, best friends who work their magic to get her over the 'stupid moment' humps.

Today, she shares with us a typical writing day…

I’m always asked how I write so quickly. So, I thought I’d share a typical writing day for me to better explain my . . . process.

• 7:00 am – Wake up. Wish I could sleep a little more, but drag myself out of bed anyway, threatening to kill all the characters in my book to make myself feel better.
  
  


• 7:10 – Drink coffee. It’s either that or send a family member to the hospital to patch abrasions caused by a flying . . . anything I can get my hands on. Respond to emails.
  
  


• 8:00 – Close email. Drink more coffee. It’s either that or yell at every member of my family for an imagined infraction. Open current Work In Progress document, realize that killing all the characters does not fit the current plotline, grumble about it, accept it, and start writing. Goal: write an entire chapter.
  
  


• 8:30 – Become distracted by thoughts of new emails. Check emails. Respond. Panic that I won’t reach my writing goal. Start writing again.
  
  


• 9:00 – Hit brick wall in plot. Start cutting spilt ends from hair to “think about the plot problem.”
  
  


• 9:35 – Realize the brick wall can be used in plot. Call best friend and fellow author Jill Monroe to tell her how brilliant I am.
  
  


• 10:00 – Check email. Respond. Take picture of myself making a face and email it to other best friend and fellow author Kresley Cole. Panic that I won’t reach my goal. Start writing again.
  
  


• 11:30 – Aching back convinces me to take a break. Go for a walk and – on the special days -- rescue some type of animal who jumps out from behind a tree and scares the crap out of me.
  
  


• 12:30 – Get home. Eat lunch – always the leftovers from dinner -- and check email.
  
  


• 1:00 – Decide I can’t write while I am a sweaty pig, so take shower. Come up with another brilliant idea and leap out of bathroom.
  
  


• 1:10 -- Start writing while dripping wet from shower because I am in a rush to write down this new, brilliant idea.
  
  


• 2:00 – Hit another brick wall. Call Jill Monroe again, this time to tell her how stupid I am.
  
  


• 2:15 – Laugh. Monroe has worked her magic. Check email. Respond. Panic that I won’t reach goal. Start writing again.
  
  


• 3:30 – Finish writing chapter, thereby reaching goal. Luxuriate in feelings of happiness, knowing I can relax for the rest of day.
  
  


• 3:35 -- Answer door. See that a manuscript has arrived for edits. Cry a little.
  
  


• 3:40 – Pick myself up and start editing.
  
  


• 4:30 -- Really feel like I am in a zone. Nothing can distract me.
  
  


• 4:35 – Check email. Respond. Feel guilty for slacking while a stack of papers that literally has my name on every page beckons. Panic that I won’t reach tomorrow’s Work in Progress goal because I didn’t edit enough on this second manuscript. Get back to editing.
  
  


• 5:30 – Wrists and back start to ache, along with brain. Decide to take break and eat a snack. Vacillate between Cheetos Puffs and Wheat Thins. Puffs win.
  
  


• 6:00 – Panic kicks in, demanding (loudly) that I return to work. Get back to work.
  
  


• 7:00 – Decide enough has been done for one workday because, well, the brain has been tapped dry. Collapse on couch. Wish the Puffs had not been devoured earlier.
  
  


• 7:10 – Panic kicks in again, demanding (even more loudly) that I return to work to get a jump-start on tomorrow’s goal. Resist. Or not.
  

And there you have it. A typical workday for me. I do get distracted easily, and I do panic often. But as strange as this sounds, I really do love the process. I love creating. I love watching a story take shape and the characters grow and change. I love twisting the plot so that even I’m surprised. But most of all, I love holding the finish product in my hands, as it’s a culmination of the blood, sweat and tears I poured into it. I hope you enjoy the results!

***
Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of breathtaking paranormal and contemporary romances, cutting edge young adult novels, and stunning urban fantasy. Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan and Seventeen Magazine, and on MTV. The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called “a star on the rise."

Fairy Tales for Adults

"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."

Award winning author, Terry Spear, is my guest today Over Coffee. Terry writes Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romances and Scottish Medieval Romances. She is a lady of many talents, including creating award-winning teddy bears, Wilde & Woolly Bearsmaking. Some of my favorites are the Scot Clan Bears-with the tartan and tams.

One of the things that impresses me about Terry is her knowledge of wolves—their behavior and how they live, interactions within the pack, hunt—which makes her stories even more realistic.

Today, Terry discusses how fairy tales have influenced her writing, particularly in her Werewolf series.

I’ve always loved mythology and enjoyed reading folk tales from other countries, fairy tales, too, that often began as oral stories and eventually differing versions were captured in print so that I could enjoy them also.

Because of the fondness I have for tried and true fairy tales, I slip in fairy tale references in my wolf stories, too…Little Red Riding Hood in To Tempt the Wolf, and a different reference to Little Red Riding Hood in Legend of the White Wolf. When I was looking for pictures to illustrate this, I discovered that some story analysts think that the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood referred to a werewolf. So see, it’s in my stories for a reason. :-)

I had a reference to The Three Little Pigs in well, one of the wolf tales. Can’t remember which now. Maybe in Heart of the Wolf? Or Destiny of the Wolf?

And in the current work in progress–a reference to Alice in Wonderland in Seduction of the Wolf. I’ve also referenced Hansel and Gretel, can’t remember which story now either. But I love to refer to them because they were such a mainstay of what I read as a kid and certain aspects of them really stuck with me!

The morals of the story are still important messages taught today. How about the wolf in sheep’s clothing? Hey, I have werewolves in sheep’s clothing, too. :) Come to think of it, wolves sure have a bad reputation. Ever see a story where the wolf is a good guy in fairy tales?

In some Native Amercian tales, yes. Many tribes, both in Canada and America, revered the wolf, the way they hunted together, worked together, played together, took care of their families…so to them, the wolf was not to be feared but respected.

In my stories, the werewolf characters come in all sizes and all kinds, both good and bad. So my fairy tales for adults, are less…biased, to my way of thinking. :-)

Ever see references to fairy tales in books you’ve read? Some of course are Cinderella knock offs, or other such tales, using the same premise for the whole story, and those are fun to read, too!

I wonder some day if the old classics weren’t read, would fans in the future not even know what the references were to???

If you’re looking for a free read, I’ve started a newsletter subscription where I’ll be sending a weekly installment of a story that’s been published and I’ve received my rights back. For now, it’s: Goddess in Training. I’ve sent the first installment, but can forward the first one to any who sign up later. It’s a way of thanking my fans and giving them something to read until the next book, To Tempt the Wolf, hits their mailboxes or book stores!

Also, you can reach me at the following places. I can always use more friends!
http://www.terryspear.com/
MyspaceTwitterFacebook

Wickedly Romantic

Casablanca Authors

Shapeshifter Romances

• Win a copy of Destiny Of The Wolf. Terry will be giving away a copy of Destiny Of The Wolf to one lucky commentor today. USA only.
  

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Award-winning author of paranormal romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and medieval romantic susense. PW's BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR. Retired LTC with the USAR and award-winning teddy bear artist whose works have been featured in Teddy Bear Review Magazine, Teddy Bear & Friends, The MacNeill Galley, Texas Monthly & Texas Co-op Monthly, Terry Spear writes both for adults and young adults, novels, short stories, fiction and nonfiction.

Originally from California, she’s lived in eight states and now resides in the heart of Texas. She is the author of Heart of the Wolf, Destiny of the Wolf, To Tempt the Wolf, Legend of the White Wolf, Winning the Highlander’s Heart, Deadly Liaisons, The Vampire…In My Dreams (young adult), Deidre's Secret (young adult), The Accidental Highland Hero (2010), two more wolf tales from Sourcebooks, and numerous articles and short stories for magazines.

HOW TO WRITE A HUMOR COLUMN

John Philipp will be sharing a five part series of articles on writing humor.

John tends to teach by example, as you will see.

However he does touch on several good points: how to find humor, developing a concept, and how to stretch the facts.

I have to admit that I don't invent most of my column topics. I'm lazy; I use the newspaper. A recent front-page story in the San Francisco Chronicle stated, "Consumers cruising the aisles of supermarkets this week will find a new green tea beverage with an astounding claim: Drink it and burn calories. Coca-Cola and Nestlé say consuming three cans a day of their new product, Enviga, will burn 60 to 100 calories." With provocative journalism like this, why bother to invent anything myself?

OK. Armed with the concept that the more you drink the skinnier you get, let your imagination out of its cage, point it at the idea in question and let it run rampant, which is a journalistic term meaning, "Damn the facts! Full Speed ahead!"

All you need to write a humor column is a newspaper, a brain that works slightly better than a sloth's and a couple of tried and trite techniques.

One trick to turn the funny screws on anything is to stretch it to its ultimate limit. So, let's extrapolate — which is different than exfoliate, only in that skin is not involved. In this case, if you can burn 100 calories for every three cans of Enviga you drink, what would happen if you drank more? According to nutritionists (never mind which ones), it takes 3600 calories to make a pound; so drinking 108 cans will burn off another ugly pound of you. Or, in the case of a 180-pound man, drinking 19,440 cans will make him disappear. Those are the boundaries of your column about consumers doing what they do best: consuming. In this case, somewhere between 3 and 19,440 cans of Enviga.

Now, apply your imagination to that scenario. Yes, that very same skill your third-grade teacher told you not to use when doing fractions. Imagine how much 19,440 cans of caffeine-laden soda will speed up our 180-pound man. Maybe the Enviga scenario is a man's ultimate defense against the onslaughts of his wife's PMS. It provides him with everything he needs: the ability to duck quickly and then disappear.

This theory has a few practical downsides, but fortunately for you — the budding columnist humor isn't about downsides. Or practicality.

Another technique you can use is the "side-shuffle." Start with Enviga and imagine how that might be extended to other products. If a soft drink will burn calories, what if I apply that technology to other food groups like fruits, vegetables, nuts, pizza or beer? Why a whole testosterone-infused room of Super Bowl watchers eating Enviga-laced pizza washed down with Envigabeer would disappear before the opening kickoff. The ultimate weapon for football widows.

A question people ask me is, "How do you find time to conduct the extensive background research required for a newspaper column?" Those people are confusing humorism with journalism. A professional humorist might occasionally check a fact on the Internet (especially if the topic has anything to do with pornography), while professional journalists have been known to spend all day and night in a bar to wheedle the true story out of another professional journalist. Each lists the other as a confidential source on their expense account.

I do use Google to check the spelling of proper names. You type the name the way you think it's spelled, like "Gerring," and Google will spit back, "Do you mean Goering?" which, of course, is the proper spelling. This use of the Internet assumes a) I don't already have a funny misspelling of the name and b) that I care.

A final note: Nothing gives a newspaper column the ring of authenticity like an interview with an acknowledged expert. I use an Acme All-Purpose Right-hand Puppet, add a few funny voices I do and type whatever I say with my left hand. Then I Google-up a funny name.

My final advice: write at home. Once I have in mind the pieces of a column, I mull them over while I pace through the rooms of my house. Pacing helps my thinking process and allows me to deduct 87 percent of my house for tax purposes. That and my Chronicle subscription.

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John Philipp is a weekly humor columnist for four Marin County, California newspapers and has won numerous humor and memoir writing awards. His humor columns are posted at http://johnphilipphumor.gather.com/.His wisdom (with Phil Frank's cartoons) is posted at Thought~Bytes http://thoughtbytes.gather.com/

I Am Not A Natural Writer

It is my pleasure to introduce to you, award winning humorist, John Philipp. John writes for several California newspapers and aside from those columns, he also has a thought provoking series called Thought~Bytes.

I asked him if he’d be willing to share some humor writing tips with us Over Coffee. Humor is something used in many genres and takes quite a bit of skill to pull off effectively.

John has graciously agreed to share a series of articles on writing humor. So for the next month, starting Friday, June 19th I will be featuring his articles here on Over Coffee.

John shares some thoughts on writing humor:

I am not a natural writer. I am a natural talker or so I thought until I transcribed a conversation I'd had with someone.

OK, I'm not a natural talker or a natural writer. (I am a natural eater and, while important to waist management, which has little relevance here.) I do consider myself a natural humorist. Taking that as strength, my choices were: do standup or write a humor column. I chose to learn how to write.

I wrote a few columns on topics I thought were funny and discovered I had some faults and was missing some skills. For example, I was not grounded in grammar. I felt one should write a sentence the way it sounds best. Turns out this is not true for a large percentage of readers, especially those in the newspaper business. If I wanted to write my own way I should have opted to do standup, but then there's the queasy stomach thing.

There are two relatively easy fixes to poor grammar — and neither of them is to study a grammar book. Sitting down, reading, and practicing the proper timing and placement of commas in sentences is, I am convinced, one of the top ten punishments in the Lower Kingdom.

I got better at grammar by lurking and reading writing critique websites where people edit and correct each other's writing. That experience also made me a more observant reader, grammarwise.

The second solution to better grammar is a semi-magical person called a copywriter. It is their job to correct your grammar, double check facts, correct proper name spelling and steward the use of capitals. Everything published needs a copy editor, if only because every publisher has a set of standards they follow (such as the AP Stylebook) and I guarantee you that you could spend your whole life studying and still never know when you should use a numeric character versus write out the word.

Spelling was another fault, one that surprised me. Either I've been leading a myopic life or spelling of some common words has changed since I was in grammar school (irony noted). Perhaps changing the spelling of words occurs at the same time when the government takes or gives us hours on the clock. Fortunately, there's an easy, electronic fix for bad spelling.

I found plenty of other faults that with practice and a damn good checklist I have pruned down to an acceptable level of occurrence.

The topic of missing skills was harder to overcome...

June 19th: How to Write a Humor Column.
June 26th: Writing Humor—Random Association Part I
July 3rd: Writing Humor—The Art of Exaggeration Part II
July 10th: Writing Humor—Part III

July 17th: How To sprinkle Your Articles (Writing) With Humor

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John Philipp is a weekly humor columnist for four Marin County, California newspapers and has won numerous humor and memoir writing awards. His humor columns are posted at http://johnphilipphumor.gather.com/.
His wisdom (with Phil Frank's cartoons) is posted at Thought~Bytes http://thoughtbytes.gather.com/

Learning to Embrace Whimsy

Many aspiring authors look for the magic formula to get published. Writers work hard to perfect their craft, keep an eye on the market as to what is selling, and analyze books they read with the view to selling their manuscripts. Then there are the workshops they attend, the writing groups joined and a lot of ‘sit your butt in the chair’ time writing. Instead of collecting the paychecks they envisioned, they have a folder full of rejections. Why?

Multi-published author, Libby Malin, is my guest today. Libby shares her journey from prepublication to published author. She discusses the importance of accepting the publishing business for what it is, not what we want it to be.

Early in my writing career, in those prepublication days before The Call, I decided to approach commercial novel writing…. logically. By that time, I’d collected a file full of rejections for a couple manuscripts that I had been confident were absolute surefire sales. And yet they didn’t sell. What was wrong? I knew I was a decent writer (maybe not an exceptional one, but surely as good as published novelists on the market). And I believed with every fiber of my being that the novels I’d lovingly crafted were good yarns with believable characters.

Filled with frustration, I decided to approach the problem with scientific precision. After purchasing a few romantic comedies, I sat down with book, pen, and marble notebook, determined to outline them in my quest for the right formula. Although I was interested in writing across several genres, a couple of my rom coms (as they’re called in the biz) had been rejected recently, and by gum I was going to figure out why. Surely taking an analytical approach to publishing would do the trick.

I don’t remember the title of the novel I applied this process to. It was a Harlequin book, by a multi-published author, if I recall correctly. All I remember clearly was writing the chapter numbers on lined pages of the notebook, followed by some bullet points on what happened in each chapter, major plot points, comedic moments, character developments, etc.

And at the end of this exercise, I had….a notebook full of scribbles. I hadn’t learned a thing about what made that novel publishable and mine not so much. If anything, I was even more confused. My manuscripts seemed to me to contain each element I had meticulously outlined, and were every bit as engaging as the one I just read.

After my outlining experiment, the publishing business seemed even more capricious to me, even more arbitrary. I’m a reasonably intelligent woman, and if there was a pattern here, a formula for success, it wasn’t obvious to me.

But of course there is no formula for publishing success. Sure, some books are “formulaic,” stealing the patriarchal church-conspiracy notes from The Davinci Code or the secondary-historical-figure template of The Other Boleyn Girl. But… for every Davinci Code knock-off that sold to an editor, there were probably dozens of comparable quality that didn’t make the cut.

As I said, there is no formula. There is only personal taste.

Sometimes that taste gets filtered through imprint and marketing demands (such as a fiat from the marketing department to buy Davinci Code-like books), but ultimately, an editor buys a book because she (wait for it) loves it. And whether she loves it has everything to do with who she is, whether she’s into punk or classical, likes American Idol or The Tudors, Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte, or identifies more with Ginger or Mary Ann.

Once an author has achieved a certain level of quality, whether that author’s manuscript gets chosen for publication often has nothing whatsoever to do with the author’s talent or even, sometimes, market pressure. It has to do with what the editor is feeling…about life, as well as about the manuscript you’re submitting at the moment she picks it up to read it.

The moral of the story: if you’re serious about being published, you have to accept this whimsical process, and keep trying, hoping to make that right connection with an editor.

A multi-published author I know recently did an interview with a romance-oriented magazine. In talking about publishing success, she said it really came down to three things – talent, perseverance, and being in the right place at the right time.

I’m convinced my manuscripts in those early days were falling into that third category. Or rather, not falling into it. I was not in the right place at the right time, not hitting the right editor, not hitting her at the right moment.

The business is capricious. That’s all there is to it. You can write the Best Novel of All Time and still not find an editor willing to sign a contract with you. You can write a novel that barely makes it over the threshold of acceptability (and I’ve read a few of these, even tossing one into the trash can after finishing it) and find an editor who will pay you to get it into print.

This was a hard lesson for me to absorb. When I started writing fiction, I figured it was just a matter of time, that once I’d perfected my craft and learned the ropes, I’d be appropriately rewarded. And once I got in—got published, that is—I’d be on my way to huge success.

I did get in eventually, with a YA mystery published by a small press that then went on to be an Edgar nominee, followed by four more YAs and two humorous women’s fiction books.

I started in this business with dreams of financial independence as a bestselling novelist, thinking that all I had to do once I’d reached a certain writing level was have an editor ooh and aah over my effort.

Now, I’ve arrived at quite a different place--- I understand just how much success depends on luck coupled with persistence, no matter how talented you might be. Nonetheless, I feel very happy just to be able to write, doubly happy when a publisher wants to buy what I write, and always hopeful that the “next book” will be the Big One.

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Although writing was always her first love, Libby earned both bachelor's and master's degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and also attended the summer American School of Music in Fontainebleau, France. After graduating from Peabody, she worked as a Spanish gypsy, a Russian courtier, a Middle-Eastern slave, a Japanese Geisha, a Chinese peasant, and a French courtesan – that is, she sang as a union chorister in both Baltimore and Washington Operas, where she regularly had the thrill of walking through the stage doors of the Kennedy Center Opera House before being costumed and wigged for performance. She also sang with small opera and choral companies in the region.She eventually turned to writing full-time, finding work in a public relations office and then as a freelancer for various trade organizations and small newspapers.For many years, she and her family lived in Vermont, where she worked as an education reform advocate, contributed occasional commentaries to Vermont Public Radio and was a member of the Vermont Commission on Women.A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she now lives in Pennsylvania. She is married and has three children.

Libby Malin’s latest book, Fire Me, is a romantic comedy released by Sourcebooks. It tells the tale of Anne Wyatt who goes into work one day ready to hand in her resignation, only to change course when she learns her boss will lay off an employee by the end of the day. Determined to win the pink slip and the severance package that goes with it, Anne engages in wild antics and crazy stunts all designed to catch her boss’ negative vibes. By the end of the day, she’s learned a lot about life and love and the choices she’s made in both. Fire Me has been described as “hilarious,” “inspired,” and “the perfect beach bag” book by reviewers.

Fire Me is Libby’s sixth published novel. Her debut women's fiction book, Loves Me, Loves Me Not (2005), was hailed as a "whimsical look at the vagaries of dating..." by Publishers Weekly, called “charming” by the Washington Post, and dubbed a "clever debut (offering) quite a few surprises..." by Booklist.

Writing as Libby Sternberg, she is the author of four YA mysteries, the first of which was an Edgar finalist and a Young Adult Top 40 Fiction Pick by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. Her YAs have been called “taut, vivid and stirring” (Library Journal), “simply a delight to read” (Romantic Times Book Club), “lively and captivating” (VOYA) and “an entertaining original” (Romance Reviews Today).

You can visit with Libby at her website: http://www.libbysbooks.com/

OBSESSIONS

At the core of all romance is finding true love. As a reader, we want the heroine to have all sorts of 'hot' adventures in the course finding her true love.

Please welcome back, Over Coffee, C. Margery Kempe. She writes hot sexy adventures and is fascinated with interchangable identities, strong heroines, adventure, spies, and...obsessions.

Intriguing list, isn't it?

Margery explains a bit about the power of obsessions in our writing:

Hello from London! Thanks so much, Sia, for inviting me back. I was here as part of the Ravenous Romance Ornery Eleven Blog Tour last month and I had such a great time I had to drop by again.

My novel Chastity Flame

Chastity is the story of a government operative who has a lot of sexy adventures on the way to discovering what might be true love -- she hasn’t quite been able to believe it, but she willing to risk a lot to find out. The novel also provided a chance for me to delve into some of my obsessions.

We have a tendency to look at “obsession” as a negative thing. We’re always hearing about dangerous people who form obsessions with celebrities. But obsessions can be quite beneficial, too. They form the base of any good ambitious project. I remember John Irving giving the advice about writing, “You have to get obsessed and stay obsessed” and it’s true. People ask me all the time, “how do you get so much writing done?” That’s the answer in a nutshell. The fact is that for most of us, no one’s going to pay us to write (except sometimes after we’ve already done it), so you have to want to do it very badly.

And you can use your obsessions to power that: a handful of my long-time obsessions make an appearance in Chastity Flame. My very first novel I wrote in high school was called Ace Spies, Incorporated and was a Mary Sue adventure starring a character who was clearly me and some thinly veiled versions of the Beatles (well, it was the second wave of Beatlemania in the 70s). A bit embarrassing to think of now, but I stuck with it for months and wrote a whole novel just to see whether I could do it (and yes, to have lots of fun dreaming constantly about the Beatles). The only people who ever read it were my friends. One of those friends claim to still have a copy; she’s just waiting for me to achieve real success so she can cash in on it. But it did firmly fix the writing bug into my life, though it took a long time for me to really develop it.

I also find it intriguing that even then I was interested in having all these interchangeable identities with my spy heroine. The story line was that she ordered a sort of adventure holiday as a spy, but then got caught up in the real thing (hey, sounds like a certain Bill Murray film, eh? I should sue!). I even wrote it under a pseudonym. So it’s not much of a jump to Chastity’s constant stream of fake names and identities.

Another obsession in the novel is London, my favorite place in the world ever since I first came here in 1980. I loved using various locations around town that I adore like the Millennium foot bridge and the Tate Modern. The opening scene allowed me to not only use the National Gallery, but to begin in front of a painting closely connected to another obsession: British comedian Peter Cook. Les Grandes Baigneuses is not only one of Cezanne’s most famous paintings (and the wallpaper image of my British mobile phone) but at the heart of a beloved sketch from Not Only But Also, the 1960s television show starting Cook and Dudley Moore. It’s not necessary to know this, of course -- it just makes me giggle. ;-)

My advice is trust your obsessions -- they provide fuel for your dreams and if you want to write, you need all the fuel you can get. Writing itself has to be an obsession if you’re going to get anywhere with it. You have to keep believing through long nights of bad writing and sometimes endless rejections. It always pays off if only in the fact that creating is a great joy. Sometimes that’s enough.

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C. Margery Kempe is a writer of erotic romance. In addition to Chastity Flame, she has a number of short stories with Ravenous Romance as well as other publishers. At present she’s working onthe sequel as well as a number of other projects, while keeping busy in her other life as a medievalist and English professor. Visit her website or her blog or follow her on Twitter.