June is one of my favorite months. In Western Pennsylvania where I currently live, the April and May rainy season has moved on. The hillsides and meadows are lush with fresh greenery and wildflowers. Even the air smells green. I have a hard time keeping to my daily writing word count schedule because all I want to do is to get outside.
Full Disclosure:
This is Western Pennsylvania. I didn’t have this issue in February.
June is
also the month for graduations and weddings. I couldn’t be prouder of the new
crop of youngsters as they settle in and start building their adult lives. Even
though I was there when they came along, and I know we adults didn’t know what
we were doing, it’s refreshing to see that we seem to have done alright.
It’s a
circle of life moment for me in more ways than one. On the writing side, I
signed up to mentor a newbie author through the Sisters in Crimes SinC Connect
program. This six-month program matches the common interests of mentors and
mentees who meet usually once a month via Zoom. This will be the third year
I’ve participated, and I can honestly say that I think I learn more from my
mentees than they learn from me.
Each
mentee has brought a different writerly issue to the table for consideration. My
first mentee was stuck in a Chapter One death spiral loop. She kept repeatedly rewriting
the first chapter of her manuscript trying to perfect it. My tough love advice
was a lesson I had learned (more than once): Jog on, because chances are you
may cut the chapter out entirely down the road during the editing cycle. I’m
happy to report this mentee finished her completed draft manuscript in time to
pitch it to agents at SleuthFest.
My
second mentee scared me a little because she hadn’t started writing yet. She
came to the Zoom call with only the burning desire to “be a writer.” We spent
our calls talking about identifying the requirements of her preferred genre,
setting up sacred writing time and space, and the discipline of making daily
writing a habit. By the end of the program she felt confident enough to sign up
for and attend her very first writer’s conference.
This
year’s mentee has been a real eye-opener because she’s Gen Z. I’ve written Gen
Z characters before, but interacting one-on-one is a different animal. It’s
more than slang usage and different grammar structure and vocabulary. Gen Z
makes me feel like the last T-Rex, because they have a completely different
mindset. They actively interject political activism, fluid sexual identity, profanity,
and social issues into their genre writing in a way that shocks my Boomer/Gen
Jones sensibility. I catch myself saying: Are we allowed to write like this?
Which
in the end relights my fire because it makes me question and reexamine my
personal writing constraints. Has my writing become moribund? Have I fallen victim to comfortable habit? And as I continue with my latest manuscript, what
can I do to shake things up?
Enjoy the last week of the month. Living farther north, my end-of-the-month is roughly equivalent to your early-month. I still have lilacs in bloom!
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Jim! I watch the flower to follow the changing seasons. Right now we're seeing the wild orange lilies and the yellow mullein. The blue cornflowers are next!
DeleteInteraction with other writers expands our worlds and gives us different perspectives. Good on you for both teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathleen! I need to be reminded that different perspectives make the story (and the characters) more interesting!
DeleteMartha, I would be terrified if faced with your mentee! You are not the last T-Rex. I'm right there next to you! But I agree SinC Connect is a wonderful program. I, too, am in my third year as a mentor and learn as much or more than my mentee does.
ReplyDeleteHi Annette - I am analog and I'm not ashamed to admit it! I did love reading her sample - her vocabulary is better than mine and her characters are diverse. It gives me hope for the new generation of reades - although I feel like she thinks I voted for Lincoln. LOL.
DeleteEnjoy summer in all its glory.
ReplyDeleteHi Margaret - I will! I see your Facebook posts. I think we share a love for flowers!
DeleteI consider myself from what might be considered an older generation.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, I feel that I am open minded enough to read stories that may not be what used to be traditional. My issue is when some of the current vocabulary that I consider offensive takes over the story but doesn’t add anything to it.
I come in contact with people from a variety of ages, generations, and orientations and very few of them feel the need to make a point to emphasize how they differ from others. Some do get offended if they are not addressed by the right pronoun. They need to realize that they usually look like everyone else and others may not understand that just because they feel different it doesn’t mean that others perceive them that way. The whole idea is to accept everyone for the way they are not how they are not.
Perhaps the new authors who come from diverse backgrounds whether it is racial, religious or some other orientation could incorporate that into what they write and create a better way for readers who don’t share these common bonds to understand these differences.