Category: Blog

Editing Rant: For the Win (Genre Expectations)

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

As I mentioned in February, “Romance is Fantasy”, one of the hardest things about editing is understanding underlying tropes/messages contained in your genre. I recently had an epiphany on how American Horror genre works while reviewing a Russian/Slavic style story.

First let me explain how Russian/Slavic stories work. While American stories are all about conquering, winning, being the best, happily ever after, Slavic stories vibrate with survival, perseverance. Endings are rarely happy – Winter is always coming and one day winter will win. A Slavic vibe acknowledges the System is hard to change. Nature eventually wins. Determination and perseverance is what is to be admired, not the actual Winning. Because everything that wins will eventually lose. Trying is what matters. And sometimes we need to hear that. Not everyone can be the best. Not every monster can be defeated. Not ever win is completely clean. The power is in the Trying.

Ivanova on Babylon Five captures the Russian feeling perfectly with “No Boom today, boom tomorrow, there is always a boom tomorrow.” It’s not depression, but an acceptance that eventually everything ends.

But inevitability of losing sets the American teeth on edge, even in the Horror format. In this culture, stories must have a happy ending. A WIN. But how does that work in American Horror? Well, at the end of every horror, book or movie, even when the creator hints at the monster not being fully defeated and will be coming back, we celebrate the Win of today. We get our Winning and Happy Ending. Everyone has the Chance to be President – the Best and Most Powerful. Sparkles and Unicorns.

Now here is where things get interesting. How American Horror finally clicked in my head.

Central to this Win of today at the end of an American Horror is a mirror-flip saying the Monster has a chance to Win someday too. It can and will come back.

Everything has a chance to pull itself to the Top by its bootstraps, even the monsters.

They can be the best they can be, this temporary setback isn’t the end.

I think this difference is why in American Horror the monsters are usually individuals with faces (or masks). Counterpoint, in the Slavic literature (horror and otherwise), monsters are systems and nature – faceless hordes and forces no individual can overcome, but together the group may persevere through the sacrifice of individuals for a while.

I’m a bit bubbly realizing how American Horror works. Happy for the Monsters. They too can do it. They can win, if they just keep trying. Good for them!

Flash: Safe Surrender

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Maturity Tag: Language

Black rain sparkled against the pavement outside the hospital’s emergency room as the automatic doors softly opened and closed, letting in another needy soul seeking care and compassion. The admittance admin glanced over as she worked on assigning the emergency in front of her their place in triage, a few stitches likely would be enough but a fully certified medical professional would need to make the final call. The woman at the door turned sideways, her profile against bright lights immediately jumped her to the front of the line. Pregnancy won most triage sorting battles.

One of the ER staff rushed forward, skipping the normal administrative procedures.

“Hello. My name is Douglas Yu, I am an ER technician. Are you okay dear?” he asked, “Any bleeding or contractions?”

“No,” she said rubbing her belly, a frown etched between her eyes, “I just want it out. I can leave the baby here, right?”

“What, um, is this an emergency? Is something happening?”

“No, no. I am just done with this. I waited seven months, it should be viable, just get it out and I can leave.”

The medical professional blinked. “Ma’am, we don’t just do that.”

“Sure you do, you induce all the time.” The woman pushed her wet hair back, her voice raising. “Just give me the shots, get this fucking kid out, and let me get on with my life.”

“Ma’am while you can leave a baby at the hospital if you are unable to take care of it, your child has to be born first. It has to BE a baby.”

“Look, they said it was a baby as soon as conception, it’s conceived. They said I can’t get an abortion. I’m not asking for an abortion. I waited seven fucking months. I did the time. It can live on its own. GET.IT.OUT.”

The tech waved off the police officer walking towards them from his normal station near the door. “Ma’am, ma’am. Let’s come over here and get you signed in.”

“I don’t want a pysch eval, I’m fine.” She eyed him as they walked over. “I am just done with this bullshit of not allowed to even leave the state because I got knocked up because they cut off my damn birth control. Get this thing out.”

“Can I have your license?” the technician fired up his computer station.

“Nope, John took it because he thought I would hop states on him. The bastard isn’t wrong. As soon as it’s legal, I’m gone. I got a new one ordered and it should arrive next week at a friend’s house so this shit doesn’t happen again.”

“Insurance card maybe?”

“Do you SEE a purse? I fucking walked here because the bastard is out with friends getting drunk tonight.” She sat down in a wheelchair a gray-haired hospital volunteer brought over. “Just call me Jane Smith, no insurance because I got fired for being fucking pregnant, though the boss didn’t word it that way. I was taking too much time throwing up in the bathroom.”

“Sounds like a bad situation ma’am. I am sorry you have had to live with it. Do you have a primary caregiver?”

“Nope, no insurance.” The woman naming herself as Jane crossed her arms, then took a deep breath, one of her hands moving up to grip her shoulder. “Please, I just want this nightmare to end.”

“I’m going to transfer you to OBGYN area. They might have a solution for you.”

“I told you the solution. They said it’s a baby even in a petri dish, they said if you can’t take of a baby to drop it off, they said it can’t be by abortion, so here I am, get it out and let me escape.”

The tech locked his screen after it beeped the second floor nursing staff could accept a non-emergency patient. Pulling a bracelet off the printer, he wrapped it around the woman’s wrist. “Mr. Shepherd here will take you to them. Good luck.”

(words 665; first published 10/6/2024)

Safe Surrender Duology

  1. Safe Surrender (10/6/2024)
  2. Harm’s Highway (10/13/2024)

Magical Words: Therefore

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

What path does a book follow? Is it one step after another, haphazardly finding its way to an conclusion, or is it driven down the inevitable street until it reaches the only ending possible?

Carrie Ryan write about plotting using “therefore” and “but” rather than “and then” in her Magical Words post from August 22, 2012, “Therefore”. The post gives a method to plot more strongly.

If you line up every scene or plot beat in your book, and the only words that connect them are “and then,” you have a problem; instead, each scene needs to be connected with either “therefore” or “but.”

Put simply, your book should go something like: “A therefore B therefore C but D therefore E but F.”  Rather than “A and then B and then C and then D…”

It sounds easy, but the point is to make things flow because they connect. The difference between all the cars on a road going the same direction, and a train with interconnected carts. If you disconnect a train, things fall apart. On the road, a car could take an exit and you might never notice it is now missing from the story.

Boy meets girl. (and then) Girl flirts with boy. (and then) Boy and girl argue. (and then) Boy and girl make up.

We all have read this story. But how about…

Boy meet girl. But girl flirts with best friend. Therefore boy and best friend argue. But girl doesn’t want to come between them and leave. Therefore the males must talk things out. Meanwhile, girl runs into trouble outside and screams. Therefore both males run outside to rescue her.  …

Now every scene escalates. The energy moves.

Ms. Ryan does mention

“Yeah, but I could just as easily replace each ‘therefore’ and ‘but’ with “and then,’” and you’d be right.  But that’s not the issue — the problem comes when you can’t replace an “and then” with a “therefore” or “but.”

Be aware of the connections of your plots, whether at the outlining, first draft, or editing stage. Make sure that every scene and plot beat, when you move from one car to the next is a “therefore/but” and not “and then” – you want a train car, not an automobile.

Again the URL is: http://www.magicalwords.net/really-i-mean-it/therefore/ (The post may not be there. It looks like they finally took the website down.)

Book Review: A Doll’s Life

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Amazon Cover

A Doll’s Life by Alledria Hurt

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

First, Alesha lost him. Then she saved him, sort of. Now can Alesha save both of them when it comes down to a game of magical cat and mouse in a world where everyone has been turned into living wooden dolls? Glance, master magician, knows something Alesha needs to finish saving her brother from death, but Glance is not going to give up the information willingly. Good thing getting things no one wants to give up is kinda what Alesha does. If she’s good, and a little lucky, she’ll leave with her own life and that of her brother. If she’s not, she may be in for a doll’s life.

 

MY REVIEW

(Full disclosure – I helped edit this book, but that was way back in 2019. After 5 years, it’s still a pretty good read.)

FIRST REVIEW 6/26/2020
When a traveler in a portal universe step through a gate – or, more likely, desperately jumps through one of the doorways between worlds – they never know what is on the other side. It could be a planet of meat hills, or a silent world under the booted heel of a tyrant, or one where the ice pellets destroy nearly everything agriculture.

Alesha tumbles through one world to another until her final stop. She hopes it isn’t her final stop, but it just might be. The local ruler, seemingly bored by the few visitors that make it to his world, offers her food and shelter and questions – or inquisition, she isn’t sure just yet.

This book clicks off all the wonderful tropes of a portal story, as well as explores the meaning of death, life, soul, and what costs should one pay to keep others alive. You can explore from the action-adventure aspect. Or a book club can have a lively discussion on the deeper meanings. Whatever level you want to read the book at – you can find enjoyment.

SECOND REVIEW/READ 10/17/2023
It’s 2023 and I’m working on knocking out #23for23 – reading 23 BIPoC authors before the end of the year. Being spooky season, I decided to return to this gem – A silent world, a ghost of a brother, faceless giants, spooky castle, and doll people. Spooky, but more adventure than horror. Exactly what I wanted and as good as I remembered.

Other Cool Blogs: Catapult – Resistance

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

Mr. Matthew Salesses raises some interesting points in his Catapult blog, “On Worldbuilding and the Question of Resistance” (January 19, 2021). The original can be round here: https://catapult.co/stories/matthew-salesses-craft-worldbuilding-the-question-of-resistance

Central to the post is whether reading dystopian novels or watching dystopian movies, where we see the hero win, models a behavior of resistance people then follow in real life.

His observation of himself and others says ‘no,’ usually. The reason why? Because in the movie and books, the hero or heroine WINS. The issue is resolved. There is nothing left to fight.

Why usually, because in some stories, the protagonist rebelling against the system does lose. Those stories leave the consumer of the story angry, hurt, and scared. They see the issue, often an issue they face in real life, and it isn’t solved.

Instead of making people want to start a revolution, American dystopian stories say just wait for the Chosen One to rise and all will be resolved.

Guess what. That is fiction.

If you read non-fiction, dystopian isn’t solved by one person but groups of people acting in concert as scientists and leaders. Against fascists, lines must be drawn in concrete (not sand) and armies raised when they even poke their toe beyond their area allowed by their rights.

Voting is happening in about a month. Do the research. Figure out who is wanting an Empire, who is supporting a dystopia, who is naming people “acceptable humans” and “undesirable animals”.

Humans are humans. Acting together global humanity stopped air pollution and the ozone hole, and together we through treaties and unity can stop water pollution and climate change. And for the Americans out there – we have no king. We have a president.

Our story hasn’t finished. It isn’t a neat little happy ending. Rebel against tyrants. Vote.