Daniella Brodsky and Caravan teamed up to make book people the new black. As a stylish read, guests to the official Style 360 Spring 2011 Starbucks-sponsored EXPRESS YOUR LOVE show featuring Caravan, Boy Meets Girl, and bobi, at New York’s Mercedez Benz Fashion Week on September 14th, received a copy of Daniella’s new novel release Vivian Rising. The idea was inspired by Daniella’s first fashion week experience, which led her to write the successful series, The Girl’s Guide to New York Nightlife: “The energy I felt at that first catwalk show—the music, the models, the makeup, the clothes, the set—was palpable. I left knowing I had to do something creative, something great. By the time I got to my subway stop, I had the idea for The Girl’s Guide. The effect was that powerful,” says Daniella. Two great worlds, better together. The New York Fashion Awards named Caravan Best Boutique in 2008.
fiction
Which Stories Make You Cry?
Thursday was such a spectacular day that I have to share it with you. I took the drive to Sydney to meet the staff at Simon & Schuster Australia, who are publishing Vivian Rising here in my new home this February. It’s my first launch here and I feel like a virgin at this business. So far it’s a dream. You will just die when you see their cover. It’s gorgeous, just like the people there that I have the amazing luck to work with…they even gave me one of those divine pigeons for the cover. How did they know how much I love that pigeon? And what kind of a sign was this divine rainbow (pictured) that formed in my path as I left their office?
The role of place in fiction
Lately I’ve been pondering the importance and influence of place in fiction. When I first started out, I was living in New York City, a struggling journalist from unglamorous roots, making her way in the most glamorous scene in the world—making mistakes like drinking out of a brandy snifter and having no clue how to use a fish knife. Naturally, my fiction was inspired by this world. In my fiction, I’d tried to revisit the landscape of my childhood back then, but I hadn’t been ready to do so properly, and the draft I’d worked up felt forced and phony. I’d shelved even the topic—which, in essence a coming of age story, was certainly universal—for nearly six years before I revisited not so much the topic, but as I was to learn later, the important bit: the condensed feeling of the experience, in an abbreviated sense, in THE VELVET ROPE DIARIES. It was much easier to explore this landscape—both physically and emotionally—because I’d distanced myself from it, and this made all the difference. So, you see—distance from a place is one way you can impact your use of it.
The intersection of characterization and plotting
One of my favorite lessons from the last creative writing course I taught at ANU CCE was about the relationship between characterization and plotting. When you start thinking in terms of how your individual character would uniquely move the story forward you can really start getting into some complex motivations and some really authentic, original conflicts and resolutions. When your character starts telling you what happens next, you know you’ve reached the character/action integration sweet spot.
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of psychology and anthropology books. They’ve been calling out to me at the used booksellers, with their promises of new knowledge and insight, new ways of thinking. My next novel is very much focused on the relationship between mother and daughter, and so I’ve also been reading some seminal feminist texts on the conflicts of the mother’s role in society. As I’m reading, certain sections pop out as concerns that would work well for my character. If you don’t know where to go with your plot, this is also a great way to forge ahead because once you find the conflict for her, it’s not a very far stretch to work out a situation in which to play out this conflict. In fact, that’s the fun part, isn’t it?
This can work for any genre. For thrillers, the internal motivation of the characters is just as important as the external motivation. But you need to plant these seeds early on, rather than conveniently dumping a new fear of spiders just at the moment when your hero will have to crawl through a tunnel of, guess what, er, spiders, to save his wife and face his greatest fear. The best way to set this kind of scenario up is to get to know your character inside and outside from the very beginning. You can find many character charts online to help you out. Here is a really thorough one: http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html. You don’t have to fill it all out, but it gets your brain working in a more holistic way, thinking of your character as a fully-fleshed out, acting individual, rather than a guy with blond hair and blue eyes. .
When you get to the point where the characterization and the plot are so dependent on each other that the next scene is a no-brainer to you, you know you’re on a good path. It’s an exciting point to be at—when the book begins to write itself.
I’d love to hear your experience, opinions, or questions on this topic.