The ClassicAndCozy blogging group is made up of writers
who were all published by Avalon Books, well-known as a publisher of clean and
sweet mystery, romance, westerns, primarily for libraries. Now, that option has
expanded but the premise, for most of us, has stuck.
My particular genres are romance and
women’s fiction. I like a happy ending. I like building a world where things
work out for the best, no matter what traumatic events my characters have to
face. Whether it’s infertility, child custody battles, professional jealousy,
office bullying, ethnic prejudice (Salsa
Dancing with Pterodactyls), or divorce and lost love (Wait a Lonely Lifetime), abandonment, the death of a parent, losing
a job (Nights Before) or seeking a
home, war, oppression (as in my historical novels), my characters triumph.
And that is not always a simple task, even for the writer of
the story. There is no guarantee that characters behave as you expect, nor that
their difficulties have a believable solution. The objective is verisimilitude
or, at least, plausibility. The exceptions are Fantasy and SciFi but, even then,
there are rules and conventions.
As a reader, I want to be included, drawn in and given an
opportunity to learn something new, experience a new world. As a writer, making
that possible for readers is hard work, especially if we want it to look easy.
I once heard a writer describe himself as “a difficult poet,”
taking pride that his work is obscure, intentionally beyond the comprehension of the
reader. To me, that reeks of arrogance and a wish to appear superior. A former
colleague told me she did not trust the audiences of her dance performances to
understand so she explained everything—talking down to them. What is the point of either position?
We all have a story to tell, our story, important to us. The
impulse to tell our stories is part of our primordial DNA, from the first
recognition of a common language, from the first fireside chat, our species has
told stories and every one of them has been told and retold in a thousand
different guises over the millennia of human history. And yet, we still tell
our stories, whether they are about our own experience or based on the seven plots of humankind,
or twenty or thirty-six depending on who has written the analysis!
Here are the seven basic stories: 1) human versus nature; 2)
human versus human; 3) human versus environment/society; 4) human versus
machine/technology; 5) human versus supernatural; 6) human versus self; 7) human
versus god/religion.
We love these stories because they are about us. We all face
these conflicts: ask my husband about #4!
Vladimir Propp defined thirty-one functions of a hero’s journey beginning
with ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the
home environment and ending with WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne
(is rewarded/promoted).
Where is your story in the scheme of human storytelling? What
do you expect from a writer when you enter the world of their story?
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This is the 100th blog post for Classic & Cozy. Happy Centennial Blog!
