The Emperor's New (Media) Clothes

This past weekend, I attended—for the 4^th consecutive year—the La Jolla Writers Conference. I have always come away from this small conference with a renewed enthusiasm for the art of writing as well as the business of publishing. I have met some wonderfully generous authors, agents, and industry professionals who served on the faculty—without compensation. People like Robyn Carr, Mark Clements, Jane Green, Alan Russell, Steve Berry, James Grippando, Margaret Weis, Linda Lael Miller, Ken Kuhlken, Lisa Gardner, Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush, Warren Lewis, David Morrell, Stephen J. Cannell, Eldon Thompson... to namedrop but a few. There are more. Many more.

In past years, self-publishing received a wee bit of attention from self-made mogul Greg Godek.  Print self-publishing, that is. Print-on-demand might have been mentioned… in passing.

This year, however, was the first time digital publishing appeared—officially—on the agenda.  I was thrilled. In fact, the new media session went a step further than even I'd anticipated, bypassing small press and epublishers completely. Author and podcast guru, Steven R. Boyett adamantly forecast a time in our NEAR future when the layers (agents, publishers, distributors) between artist and consumer would go the way of the dodo.  It's already happening in isolated instances. He should know. His podcasts are a good example.

Having just launched my own self-publishing label, Purple Prosaic, a month ago, this was—as you can imagine—music to my ears.  In my first month of operation, I earned SIX TIMES my last royalties check* just on re-packaged and re-released short stories, so I know first hand the accuracy of Boyett's assertion: the savvy new media consumer doesn't give a rat's ass about the so-called stamp of legitimacy bestowed by a middleman. That's just what we've been led to believe by those who have a vested interest.  Whatever services those middlemen do provide (and there ARE unquestionably value-added services in the mix), legitimacy in the eyes of the new media generation is not one of them.

At a time when most authors are still defining the formula for success as the traditional agent plus New York contract, this news might sound ominous. To the new media entrepreneurs and consumers, well… it can't happen fast enough.

I'm ready.

peace and passion,

~ Alessia Brio

* One third of the way into its 2nd month, Purple Prosaic has earned two-thirds of its 1st month revenue.

Interviews

I've done my share of 'em. The single most common question asked of me (and, I believe, all authors of erotic fiction) is some variant of: Do you write from experience?

My somewhat evasive response is typically: I've never had a reader accuse me of not knowing what I'm talking about.

The question itself (and its prevalence) tells me that folks reading erotic fiction (be it erotica or erotic romance or whatever label is applied this week) want to know they're getting accurate information. My experiences--sexual or otherwise--are my business. If I choose to share them, that's also my business.

Now, however, some are saying, "Whoa! TMI!" in regard to that very same information and are casting aspersions on those who choose to share. It has me scratching my head. These people seek--SEEK--information about authors from blogs, chats, workshops, etc. but recoil when they get it. Some even go digging for it in the places authors socialize online so they can point to it and hold it up as a dripping example of depravity. WTF? Further, they paint an entire community with whatever color offends them the most.

It's like a cavalcade of repressed church ladies with their steamy novels tucked into their handbags. They find all those menage scenes titillating, but when they learn that the author has admitted to experience with menage, they're aghast: "OMG, what a total slut! I'll never read her work again!" or "I'll never submit to her publisher."

Smacks of hypocrisy, dunnit? When it comes to other authors, in some cases, it also smacks of desperation. The genre has undoubtedly grown more explicit. Those accustomed to writing "traditional" romance feel increasingly pressured to include sex scenes that fall outside the realm of their experiences just to stay in the game. So, they research. They seek information--just as one researches weaponry or historical fact. It seems the first place they look is to other authors. Personally, if I want information about a sexual (or any other) practice with which I've no experience, I'm not gonna ask a fiction writer.

However, in that vein, I recently presented a Passionate Ink workshop along with Eden Bradley and Lillian Feisty entitled Everything You Always Wanted to Know about (Writing) Sex but Were Afraid to Ask. We covered a lot of subjects and openly answered questions about a wide variety of experiences with the intent of helping authors achieve authenticity. Alas, no good deed goes unpunished.

No author can force someone to read their words--be they on a blog or in a book or on a website. No one can force another to attend a workshop. So I question the integrity of those who react negatively to such things.

Anyway, speaking of interviews. Here's a lesson from the 2006 La Jolla Writers' Conference by Sara Lewis. I attended two of her sessions that year. She provided one exercise to jumpstart your writing that I found interesting, and I've used it for stalled works in addition to launching new ones.

It's kind of a "trick your muse into cooperating" approach. The rules are thus:

a. Write longhand. (No typing.)
b. Write continuously for 20 minutes. (No stopping to "think.")
c. Write script-style as if you are interviewing a character.

Author: Who are you?
Character: My name is ____.
.
.
.

We did this as an in-class exercise, and at the end of 20 minutes I had 6 hand-written pages of character development for a pre-teen girl who'd been abandoned by her mother & was now living in a broken down VW van with her older sister whose pimp beat her. Surprised the hell out of me. I had no idea that little girl was milling around in my subconscious waiting to be written. (Okay, yes, she's STILL waiting ... but I've got her on paper now. I won't forget her.)

One thing I noticed as each of the attendees read their scripts aloud was that there was a distinct point where the character kind of "took over." The author's questions became fewer & further between ... and the character emerged. Way cool.

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What's going on in there?

In my continuing effort to share nuggets from LJWC, I'm copying a post I made in the Literotica Authors Hangout in November 2006. (We don't spend all our time discussing our deviant and promiscuous lifestyles, after all. *rolls eyes*) I hope the spacing shows up nicely. The tables are giving me fits on this blasted blog.

~ ~ ~

I recently attended the La Jolla Writers' Conference. As I sift through my notes, I hope to capture some of the tidbits I found interesting/helpful. (Kudos to the AH, though. Based on what was reinforced there by agents and best-selling authors, I can attest that we have one hell of an exceptional resource here.) Anyway, the following is from a session presented by Doug Lyle entitled The Psychology of Character Motivation:

Characters are defined how they fit into several arenas or domains: emotions, life skills, creativity, intellect, sociability, work ethic, morality, and spirituality.

Within each arena, a character fits somewhere along a spectrum between two poles:

EMOTIONS	TOUGH GUY	.............................	WHINER
LIFE SKILLS	TEAM PLAYER	.............................	REBEL
CREATIVITY	DOER	.............................	DREAMER
INTELLECT	SMART	.............................	DUMB
SOCIABILITY	OUTGOING	.............................	WALLFLOWER
WORK ETHIC	GRINDER	.............................	LAZY
MORALITY	GOOD GUY	.............................	BAD GUY
SPIRITUALITY	BELIEVER	.............................	DOUBTER

A character will, to varying degrees, tend toward one pole or the other. The opposite polarity will be his "shadow side," which is what gives him depth and credibility. Without a "shadow side," the character will seem flat/one-dimensional.

Character arc is the shift from one pole toward the other. It is usually most pronounced with your protagonist. The antagonist is the "pole around which everyone else dances." The plot applies stressors to the characters and pushes them off balance, and in the process of rebalancing, the characters arc.

To demonstrate, he plotted a couple of well-known characters along the continuum between each pole at the beginning of the book/movie and again at the end -- showing how they changed (and thereby made the story more interesting/engaging): Clarice from Silence of the Lambs and Sarah Connor from Terminator.

He said that the problem with serial characters (James Patterson's Alex Cross, for example) is that they can only arc so much before they appear wishy-washy to the reader.

~ ~ ~
This is the example he made of Sarah Connor from Terminator.

At the beginning of the movie:

EMOTIONS	TOUGH GUY	......................X....	WHINER
LIFE SKILLS	TEAM PLAYER	....X......................	REBEL
CREATIVITY	DOER	.......................X...	DREAMER
INTELLECT	SMART	....................X......	DUMB
SOCIABILITY	OUTGOING	...X.......................	WALLFLOWER
WORK ETHIC	GRINDER	....................X......	LAZY
MORALITY	GOOD GUY	.....X.....................	BAD GUY
SPIRITUALITY	BELIEVER	..........X................	DOUBTER

At the end of the movie:

EMOTIONS	TOUGH GUY	.X.........................	WHINER
LIFE SKILLS	TEAM PLAYER	........................X..	REBEL
CREATIVITY	DOER	..X........................	DREAMER
INTELLECT	SMART	..X........................	DUMB
SOCIABILITY	OUTGOING	......................X....	WALLFLOWER
WORK ETHIC	GRINDER	..X........................	LAZY
MORALITY	GOOD GUY	.......................X...	BAD GUY
SPIRITUALITY	BELIEVER	........................X..	DOUBTER

She did a complete about-face along almost every continuum.

~ ~ ~

Another Litizen suggested the addition of a couple of erotica-specific polarities:

COMMITTMENT	SLUT	.............................	MONOGAMOUS
OUTLOOK	PRUDE	.............................	HEDONIST

I don't think it's absolutely necessary for a character to arc along every pole, but it makes for interesting discussion.

~ ~ ~

La Jolla Writers Conference

I am a writer. Imagination is my garden. I pluck succulent images from it and wrap them in sensual words for readers to savor. If I do it well, they experience things they might not otherwise experience. Hopefully, they are satisfied but at the same time, hungry for more of my fruits.

Where, then, do I seek sustenance? What feeds me as a writer?

This past weekend, it was the La Jolla Writers Conference. I will be rolling its many flavors around on my tongue for quite some time. No other conference or convention provides such a comprehensive menu.

The Romantic Times BOOKLOVERS Convention is a promo salad and raucous party dessert.

EPICon is an appetizer of craft followed by an e-publishing buffet.

But the La Jolla Writers Conference is a full-spread banquet prepared by some of the top word chefs in the world from a wide variety of cuisines. Wildly successful authors of many genres, publicists, screenwriters, editors, agents, booksellers all add their specialties to create a feast of art and craft. Then, they sit at the table and chow down with you.

They share their favorite recipes as well as taste your fare and offer constructive advice on how to improve your cooking or presentation. There is more food than any one author, no matter how big her creative appetite, can consume in one weekend.

Decisions on which dish to sample are downright agonizing. There is no way to stop, even when full to the point of bursting with fresh ideas. You simply must keep eating, stuffing everything you can possibly fit into your mind-mouth.

I'm home now, trying to digest everything I ate. I feel both gluttonously full... and ravenously hungry. Going through my notes (sparse, because I was too involved in the interactive meals to put pen to paper), I am overwhelmed and empowered. It's beyond invigorating. I can't wait to do it again next year!

...

The quality of the attendee's writing simply blew me away. It was so much fun to hear them read parts of their stories aloud, and then all of us jump in for a discussion afterwards. ~ Linda Lael Miller

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