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I love how you took something as routine as converting files in the morgue and made it into a story. Did other aspects of your journalism background affect your creative writing?
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Thanks for coming by, Karla. My journalism background has affected my writing quite a bit, which is most apparent in Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. For example, it mentions in the book how newsroom callers have complained about the crossword puzzle in the newspaper – I got that call once. Kris has felt terrible for making mistakes in obits, and I felt terrible when I made a mistake a couple of times. It can be hard to catch everything when you have 20 obits to type, two hours to do it, and a skeleton crew to proof the whole edition. But still, you feel terrible if the mistake was in an obit.
I also made use of my newspaper background in Sink or Swim, as a local reporter and photographer are following around my reality show contestant Cassidy to do a series on her return home. Writing for a newspaper also taught me how to write on a computer — when I was in college, I used to write my stories in longhand and retype them. My first editor broke me of that habit pretty fast! Lastly, my journalism background has come in handy for doing research. I’m so used to doing interviews for articles that I don’t hesitate to do interviews for my novels. In addition, writing articles taught me how to convey my research in a reader-friendly way that doesn’t bog down the story, and to break up long chunks of material with quotes.
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Had to jump in here, Stacy, ’cause your answer to Karla anticipates Darcia’s comment down there :-)
Be interesting to see what you tell her………………………………
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Thanks so much for the interview, Alexander. By the way, if anyone takes the time to tweet this post, or share on a site such as a Facebook, please come to the Feb. 25 post on my blog and let me know in the comments, as you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift card for every time you share it – the link is at: http://bit.ly/egi4GM Just leave a separate comment to notify me about each share, and you’re also welcome to check out the post and follow then instructions for additional entries.
I will check in here during the day in case anyone has any questions or comments on the above interview. Thank you for reading!
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That’s exceedingly generous of you Stacy :-)
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Stacy, you know that I am a huge fan of your writing. I’m also impressed with your dedication. I need some lessons in your organizational skills., as I’m a scattered mess! :)
Many people would assume that your journalism background would give you a huge benefit. But I’ve read fiction written by other authors who come from a journalism background and have been quite disappointed. The transition from nonfiction to fiction doesn’t always work well. For you, that transition is seemless.
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Thanks, Darcia! Am looking forward to your interview! As I indicated to Karla, I think my journalism background was a benefit, but I’ve also been writing fiction for many years. I’m a huge reader also. Journalists bring a lot of skills to the table and many journalists inject fiction techniques into their articles — for example, I used a lot of description in feature stories. But articles are short. Journalists who are writing fiction also need to train themselves on the elements of fiction-writing – things like characterization, pacing, dialogue, conflict, action, and plotting. Just because you can write an award-winning article doesn’t mean you can craft a publishable novel. And just because you can write a novel doesn’t mean you can craft an award-winning piece of journalism. Both types of writing have their own skills to master, it just takes discipline to learn those skills and practice them.
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Discipline…
I have some ’cause my dad was a perfectionist. But my own nature plus a kid’s normal rebellion have given me an acute taste for letting things unroll so I can see probabilities well-up from my unconscious.
Naturally, I often end up behind schedule and frayed but I do love the surprising internal awareness it reaps.
Dad’s training hasn’t left me though so I tend to get things done :-)
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I tend to get things done also. I’m pretty driven. I need to be more disciplined about giving myself down time. Am working on that!
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O.K., the apparent contradiction of being disciplined about relaxing away from being disciplined made me go look up the etymology: “early 13c., from O.Fr. descepline (11c.) ‘discipline, physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom’, and directly from L. disciplina ‘instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge’…”
Whew!! This explains the stress I’ve felt as I’ve disciplined myself to attack the never-ending tasks of pre-publication promotion–martyrdom, indeed… Reminds me of a maxim of my time on stage: “Anything for Art”.
So, what is the word for a disciplined cyclic withdrawal from discipline?
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I don’t know what the word is for a disciplined cyclic withdrawal from discipline, but the key is to have a a disciplined cyclic withdrawal from discipline without feeling guilty! Maybe the word we’re looking for is Balance.
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Hmmm…
Guiltless Balance
Maybe I should write that novel :-)
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Catchy! I could see that on the NY Times bestseller list and making the talk show circuit…of course, then you’d have no time for a disciplined cyclic withdrawal from discipline.
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WHOOT !!!
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Guiltless Balance is a great title…for fiction or nonfiction. Not to mention something great to aspire to. lol.
And this was a great interview. Well done Stacy and Alexander!
Like Darcia, I’m a fan of your writing, Stacy, and agree that you use all the best from your background. Your fiction experience shines in relatable characters and realistic dialogue, but your journalism background shows in the way you insert such authentic, well-researched details. Well done.
Looking forward to your next book.
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Alexander, I sometimes really relate to what you say.
You give a lot of great information here, Stacy. I’ve sometimes wondered how journalism would have affected by writing.
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Nice interview, Stacy. I enjoyed Sink or Swim (still need to get reviews up, talk about disorganized and needing balance! (My WiiFit tells me I’m totally unbalanced)). I’m looking forward to reading 25 years ago. It’s really interesting seeing where other authors are coming from and how they build their stories. Some things are the same across genres, but others are radically different.
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At least you’re using the WiiFit, Jaleta – that’s a good start! I’m trying to get back into a better exercise program. I’m so glad you liked Sink or Swim. I’m about to start Nexus Point. Thanks for coming by!
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Thanks so much for coming by and taking the time to comment, Lainey and Simone! It’s funny, other jobs have inspired my writing also. I was an exercise science major in college – which mystified my friends and family as they all thought I’d go for writing or English. I didn’t know what sort of job I’d get with an English degree though – at the time, i thought I was too introverted for reporting. I worked in a health club during my last year of college. I drew upon that experience for Sink or Swim, as my character, Cassidy is an exercise physiology major and is a personal trainer for a health club. At least my college education came in handy for something! My work-in-progress reflects my interest in, well, Guiltless Balance and all things holistic as my character is an energy healer and massage therapist. I tend to write about things that interest me.
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Great interview Alexander.
Stacy, your editing process has really caught my attention. Novels are such rainbows of various elements, and I never considered how to see the true mix of them. To hi-lite those things separately, to expose the balance, is just a stroke of genius.
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Thanks for visiting, Joel! I wish I could take credit for the highlighting idea – one of my longtime critique partners learned it in an editing class and shared the technique with me. Once I started doing it, I loved it. It really helps you focus on different aspects of the manuscript, so that once you go back over it as a whole, it’s much more polished.
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