Coincidences



Wild Mountain Goats - Glacier National Park - 08/2010


My father has always stated that he doesn't believe in coincidence.  Unless, of course, it's a real coincidence.  He then goes on to explain the difference between a real coincidence and an event masquerading as a coincidence.  The comparison goes like this:  A real coincidence is when you go to China on vacation and run into your next door neighbor--who's also on vacation (and you didn't travel together or discuss vacation plans in advance).  A coincidence is not when you're on your first date with a guy and his favorite color is the same as yours.

Dad is skeptical of any type of seeming coincidence that doesn't contain an element of the bizarre--such as the vacation in China thing.

When we writers tell our stories, we need to avoid calling contrived events "coincidences."  For example, what are the real chances of the the father of your secret baby returning to town ten years after he abandoned your pregnant self and stumbling upon his nine year-old son...and recognizing him immediately?  And suddenly wanting to be a dad?  I doubt it's happened in real life, but it's happened in fiction--and it's not a coincidence.  It's baloney.

And how about the slasher movie when the hero shoots the bad guy with a single bullet?  Coincidence?  Yeah, right.  All of us can shoot a moving target and kill it with one bullet.  Then the weirdest thing happens: the hero is so sure of his marksman ability (just like we are, right?), he turns his back on the dead slasher...who then leaps from the floor, dripping blood and guts, and makes yet another attempt to kill our hero.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  For Pete's sake, everyone knows that if a slasher tries to kill you, emptying the gun, reloading, and emptying it again is the only real way to kill him.  Cripes.

Our characters' actions have to be motivated.  They have to make sense.  And sometimes it's really hard to come up with sufficient motivation to write the really terrific scene that's been playing in your mind for the past three days.  (Guess what I'm stuck on?)

So, here's a real coincidence in my life these days.  BACKGROUND:  One of my two blogging buddies in Scotland recently revealed on his blog (May Contain Nuts) that he's a tremendous fan of the author James Lee Burke.  Oddly enough, JLB lives about twenty miles from where I live.  I don't know JLB personally and have never met him, although he was a speaker at the Montana Festival of the Book that I attended last month.  COINCIDENCE:  I taught two insurance seminars today and just happened to mention to my students that my newest book, Taking the Mystery Out of Business, is being released in January.  I was then asked about my "writing career" and one of my students mentioned that her next door neighbor is a writer.  She's never read anything he's written, and she doesn't know if he's famous or anything, and her 11 year-old son has occasionally been hired by this writer to do yard work.  Guess who this writer-neighbor is?  You guessed it.  James Lee Burke.  Now that's a coincidence!

Guess I'm going to have to buy one of his books.  Or stop by his next book signing at Fact and Fiction Books in Missoula.

Now it's YOUR turn to share a REAL coincidence.  Tell all...

What Did I Ever Do to Deserve This?

Notice the very important message on Laurie's left hand?  She's referring to me.  This picture is a reminder that I should NEVER underestimate the power of a word or the importance of a relationship.

Laurie jumped out of an airplane to raise funds for a an organization that's very important to her, and while the day had tremendous meaning for on her so many, many levels, she still spent considerable time thinking about me.  Wow...

When we write, even those of us who write plot-driven books and stories, the fundamental messages we send are communicated through our characters--via their motivations, fears, memories, loves, hates, and relationships.  Our fictional relationships need to reflect the powerful emotions that drive them in order for us to impact our readers--the way real people impact us in real life.

I spent the first part of this Mother's Day missing my mother; I spent the second half of it being so greatful for the fact that I am a mother.

One More Reason to Write

I write because I have to:  that's my driving motiviation.

Since being published in newspaper and magazine a number of years ago, I've received the occasional fan mail and comments from readers who like my work.  Those kind words have been know to buoy my spirits for a day or two.  (Okay, or ten!)

But there's nothing like having a reader of one of my novels rave about it.  I was fortunate enough to receive a 5-star review from a fan on Amazon today.  Not only did she love my book, but she's looking forward to reading more of my stuff.

How's that for motivation?

What motiviates you to write?  And how do you feel about those raving fans?

It Pays to Have Smart Kids

Not that I actually had anything to do with the quality of my kids' brain cells--even I know genetics isn't something we can control.  I do choose, however, to believe that my kids inherited their good looks from my ex-husband and their brains from me...

Anyway, getting back on track, I'd like to share with you the brilliance of my youngest daughter.  She is not yet thirty and the level of her intelligence and professional savvy boggles my mind.  She is a recruiter...of salespeople.  And not just any kind of salespeople, either.  She recruits people who sell financial services.  Talk about being behind the eight-ball these days!  I guess she hasn't heard the news that the financial services industry is facing challenges and consunmers aren't investing like they used to:  she's recruiting like crazy.

A couple of years ago, she informed me about a number of online services she'd joined to help her with her job.  In sales, in case you didn't know, the really important thing is to broadcast your name all over the place.  The single most important aspect about making important contacts when you're in sales is the number of people who know who you are and what you do.  (It's not, as many people believe, the number of people YOU know, although there is some correlation.)

More to please her than because I believed posting professional information about myself online would actually benefit me financially, I joined Linked In.  This is where I tie my story in to the blog post title:  IT PAYS TO HAVE SMART KIDS.

I received an e-mail from a fellow in California three weeks ago who was looking for a person with precisely my professional qualifications--which is odd, since I pursue three different professional endeavors in two separate industries.

To cut to the chase, I secured a lucrative contract doing something I love:  writing.  Yes, it's about insurance but, hey, I know that subject really well.  And, did I mention, I'm being paid to write?

If you have smart kids, listen to them.  It pays. 

Literally!

Why do You Write?

The hoopla with Harlequin's new self-publishing venture got me thinking about two really important subjects.

1. Writing is a creative effort; publishing is a business effort. 
2. My desire to write is totally independent of my desire to be published.

I'm one of those people who began writing when I was a kid:  I recall creating a story in grade school about a frog named Throckmorton.  Puberty contributed greatly to the death of a number of trees and reams of maudlin poetry.  I completed my first romantic suspense novel in the late eighties:  St. Martin's Press loved it but said it was too formulaic.  The editor suggested I send it to Silhouette.  Silhouette loved it and said it was too mainstream.  Sigh.  It's sitting in a box with my next four novels.

When divorce, remarriage, and several other signifiant life events seriously curtailed my fiction writing, I spent years writing in trade.  No, insurance magazine articles are not my favorite things to write--neither is a business column in a newspaper.  Since I'm one of those people who writes because I have to write, that's what I did.  When life once again permitted me the time and freedom to pursue writing fiction, I did so with a vengeance:  hence the completion of Second Time Around.

Publication, now, that is an altogether different thing.  It involves ego.  It involves validation.  It involves knowledge of the publishing indistry.  It also involves a great deal of business savvy--either one's own or the kind one can hire in the form of an agent.  Preferably both.  Since I have a healthy ego, a competitive nature, and a desire for approval, seeking publication has always been the next step after I complete an article, short story, or novel.  It will always be the next step.

I may never publish another novel.  If that becomes an unfortunate reality, it will not stop me from writing.  Heck, I kept at it for twenty years, I can do it another twenty!

Writing is a pursuit unto itself.  Which is why I do it.

Publishing is a business.  It's a choice.

I believe that many writers who've written for years without achieving publishing success do not fall into the category of being lousy writers.  My opinion is shared by a  prominant published writer (I'm pretty sure it's Lawrence Block, but don't quote me here) who said in his writing-advice book that he believes more mediocre writers with excellent business marketing skills get published than do excellent writers with mediocre business marketing skills.

Choosing the route of self-publishing because you've been rejected numerous times is NOT the way to go.  If you can't get the attention of a NY agent or publisher, try a small press before you pay someone to publish your book.  If you've been writing for years and have never joined a professional writer's organization, I've got a hint for you:  JOIN ONE OR THREE!!!  The members and resources of professional writer's organizations provided me with more information and insight into the publishing industry, both the creative and business ends of it, than the sum of all other resources combined.

You might also want to seriously consider why you write.  If it's because you have to, pursuing the goal of publication should be the icing on the cake,

Yeah, being published is sweet.  No doubt about that.  But if you're like me, the meat and potatoes of writing keep my belly full, not the icing on the cake.