Author: karolynsherwood

writer (mainstream fiction), mom (four grown sons), wife (perfect husband), blogger (all of the above)(but mostly writing)
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Who Do You Write Like?

Who or whom? Either way, the rule now says. (Ok, not Strunk & White, but somewhere I read that modern day sloppiness is more and more acceptable, but that’s another post.)

There’s a very cool web site called I Write Like. It “analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.” You can cut & paste your fiction, emails, poems, love letters, anything, I think, except for Tweets.


So I tried it with my WIP, three times, for good measure. My first comparison said I write like Stephen King. Wow! I can see that, but I don’t think Mr. King needs to worry yet. My second comparison: J.K. Rowling. Really? Unbelievable! I’ll start telling agents that. (Even better, for the record, none of my characters’ names are made up words or difficult to pronounce.) My third comparison—I guess I was going for two out of three—Stephen King again. Maybe he should start to worry…

Are you curious to see to whom you compare? I am curious to know if you agree with your results. Please let me know what you find out. I appreciate your comments.

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What’s A Normal Family?

Ah, families. So much love, so much happiness, so much dysfunction.

I just spent a week with my husband and his ex-wife. Well, it was their daughter’s wedding, so it wasn’t just the three of us. More like a hundred of us. And you know what? It was wonderful.

When I was a little girl, my mother answered an ad in our local newspaper. A pollster was looking for a “normal” family to interview. She of course thought we were as normal as anyone, but we didn’t qualify because she was a single mother raising three kids. They wanted a married couple with children. No way could they get away with that today.

And nuclear family? Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Get a group of only blood-relatives together, and it will explode like an atom bomb. Merry Christmas, loved ones.

I fully applaud and support gay marriage, and single men or women who want to raise kids on their own. And with the divorce rate what it is today, my husband and I realize that potentially 3 or 4 of our 7 kids might end up divorced. We hope not, we’re just being realistic. After all, if it weren’t for divorce, he and I wouldn’t be together—this is a second marriage for both of us. Divorce is a hell in which you either lose a lot of money or a lot of friends. And yet, sometimes, it’s still the best option.

So what is “normal” these days?

One of the reasons that people read books is to explore feelings they can relate to. When a writer can put into words exactly how YOU feel, and you can say “Yes, exactly!”, then, in one regard, the book is a success. But another reason people read is to explore worlds they are unfamiliar with—escapism, if you will. While mining ideas, emotions, scenarios and story lines, it’s important for us writers to remember that the definition of family is wide and varied, and to not stereotype or pigeonhole people. In fact, it’s a beautiful story when a “traditional” family evolves into a “modern” family—when people see love instead of prejudice. Yes, it’s been done (from Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner to The Kids Are All Right) because it works, and it’s beautiful.

With any luck, we writers can help erase the stereotypes and pigeonholes for the definition of family. Hello, Webster’s? Are you listening?

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Finding Your Voice

We are not alone. Not only is that a reference to a great book/blog/support group all headed by Kristen Lamb, but it follows with the theory that there is nothing new under the sun. Some of my most brilliant lines, ideas and blog posts (which I think are TOTALLY new), I later discover have been said before. Hmmm.

For instance, in March of this year, I wrote a brilliant post titled My Third MFA. I walked around for a week with a smile about how witty I was. (Unfortunately, you can’t see all the positive comments because Apple erased them!) But just yesterday, I read a post titled My Private MFA by Randy Susan Meyer about the very same thing. Granted, I wrote mine months ago, but hers put me back where I belong. She is—at this moment—singing “Anything you can do, I can do better.” She’s done the same as me, but she’s already published. Bravo, Randy!

The truth about an MFA is this: If you have the time, patience, money and open mind to pursue an MFA it will teach you how to write. If not, you either have to be brilliant or you have to be persistent and self-motivated. (I consider myself two out of those three.) But, perhaps more importantly, a master’s degree in writing will help a writer find her voice by practicing all kinds of writing and then deciding what feels best before starting a 90,000 word novel.

My first novel, Any Day Now, was written in First Person POV by a female protagonist. How in the world did I think of that?! My second novel, On A Midnight Street, was Third Person POV about a male protagonist. (Please see this post to find out why the hell I thought I could do that.) My current WIP is omniscient. I’ve recently read and loved and been influenced by two books (specifically Bel Canto) by Ann Patchett written from the omniscient POV. This is exactly why they say that writers must be readers. And we are not only supposed to enjoy other books, we’re supposed to study, analyze, and learn from them.

Recently, I was speaking to a brilliant young man (ahem, okay, my son Elliott Krause) about the pros and cons about different POVs. Elliott, if I may, just graduated Phi Beta Kappa from KU with majors in English and Psychology. He was accepted at the University of Iowa (#1 writing school in the country) into their Non-fiction Masters program. He’s becoming a writer the traditional (right?) way. I’m trying to sneak in the back door. But what I realized after that conversation, is that I am still—in the midst of my fourth novel— finding my voice. I would like to think that this is the one. It certainly feels better than any of the others, but it remains to be seen if this becomes my writing voice permanently, or if I return to 1st or 3rd POV.

I’ve been writing now, more and more hours each day, for 4 years. Not quite at my 10,000 hours yet, but well on my way. The good news is that I LOVE writing, so I’m having the time of my life.

For you writers out there, how did you find your voice? From school—writing required papers for teachers. Or from reading? Or did you just start writing and assume whatever came out of your finger tips was right? How many of you writers have experimented with all the POVs to find your voice? Is it predicated by the story, or by the author?

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The Trouble With Blogging

Do you know me? If you’ve been following along over the past year, year and a half, two years that I’ve been blogging, you probably know me better than some of my friends (can they really be called friends if they’re not reading my blogs?). I tend to reveal too much. I don’t have many secrets or evil thoughts—and the ones I do have I save for my novels (which you haven’t read yet because I’m too much like Salinger: I like to write too much to stop long enough for publication)(yep, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). But back to my point. If you know me, then you know my trouble with blogging.

I talk too much!

Especially after my coffee, which I call Truth Serum. Which I have just drank drunk consumed.

Take for instance my last post, below, How To Write A Bad Review. It’s not a bad post, but I could have gone on for hours about how it might apply to, for instance, bosses: How to give a bad review to an employee. Or to parents: How to straighten your kids out without alienating them. Or even to friends or spouses: How to tell someone you love something they’re doing wrong and still have them walk away from your conversation knowing you love them and making them think they’re good people who can do better. But then I just stopped writing because…

When I get deep into a really good thought for a blog post, it makes me crazy that I’m not working on my novel! It’s the same with reading a good book. I want to read, but more importantly, I want to write! I know the experts say we’re supposed to blog 3x/week, but I’d usually rather spend that time writing.

Allison Scotch Winn wrote an excellent post about how she does it all: writer, blogger, mom, wife. She is whom I aspire to be. But for now, I’m going to go work on my novel which I love and can’t stop writing.

Does anyone out there feel they have found a good balance with all the activities they like to do? Please tell me your secrets!

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How To Write A Bad Review

In the past year, I’ve become active on both goodreads and Twitter. Each time I record my opinion of a book on goodreads, it gets sent out to hundreds of people via Twitter, sometimes even directly to the author. Earlier this year, I created a small dust storm when I made one slightly disparaging comment about a book I otherwise enjoyed. Since then, most of my reviews have been pretty darn positive. My husband asked me last night if I’d stopped being honest because I’ve been so nice in my reviews lately.

Dishonest? Me? Never!

To look at my list of books on goodreads, it must seem like I’m overly generous with those red stars. But my reviews are swayed by my choices. I rarely read a book that I don’t think I’m going to like. No one else (book club, employer, evil librarian) is telling me what to read. That being said, I do have my opinions and they’re not always nice.

When I was an art dealer, the local Arts reporter from the Des Moines Register gave my gallery a lot of press, including great photo spreads. Nearly all her reviews were extremely positive. I thanked her for that (she was really good for my business), and asked her what she did when she didn’t like an exhibition. Her response was, “I simply don’t put bad reviews in the paper. There are so many good shows, I don’t have enough space to write about the bad ones, too.” (Des Moines has a world-class art scene. Truly.) From this reporter, no review = bad review. Sometimes that works, sometimes not.

Critics are supposed to be critical, otherwise they’d be called cheerleaders. But the tiny brouhaha I found myself at the center of in March taught me one important thing. Authors are people too. Every single book (excluding the unworthy, self-published ebooks) got printed because somebody thought they had some redeeming elements. And every single person has a different set of likes, dislikes, taste, style and expectations. You can’t please all the people all the time.

As we hacks write reviews of novels, it would serve the world well to remember: Be honest but fair. Be objective as well as subjective. Don’t attack the author—they’ve put their hearts, souls and minds out there for your enjoyment, not to be desecrated. It’s okay to criticize, but balance that by pointing out something positive.

We should all be so lucky as to be published. Don’t you agree?

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How To Align Your Own Stars

Recently I was talking to one of my sons about his future. (We talk Big Picture around here.) He’s a bright child and has high aspirations. However, it seemed to me that he was waiting for it to all fall in place one day—a dream rather than a goal. In my most gentle, motherly voice I said, “You have to MAKE it happen.”

I learned that from Twitter.

And Malcolm Gladwell, and my mother, and life in general, I suppose. I referenced Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Outliers, and my son casually pulled an unread copy from his bookshelf. So he’s not clueless, he’s just busy being a kid. I summarized it like this: “It takes 10,000 hours to be really good at something. Spend the first three hours reading the book.”

“I began writing novels in 2007,” she says with a sheepish smile. “Why am I not published yet?”

Every writerly blog I now read describes my story to a T on their What Not To Do blogs. It’s laughable because I know that there is so much more to know, and I hope to keep learning until the day I die (another 30 or 40 years, please).  Years from now I’ll re-read this post and laugh at my self-proclaimed wisdom on 7/18/11. But I am nothing if not persistent. Just today, for instance, I discovered ROW80, and in trying to add their badge to this blog, I discovered bunches of other cool stuff to add. I feel so professional! I’m sure somewhere out there is a blog about how to create blog, but I haven’t found it yet. But today I am one step closer to being a professional writer.

When I was an art dealer, many of my artists asked me how to become rich and famous. My answer was, “The tools are easy; it’s the details that’ll kill ya.” Here are the stars that must align to become successful in any career:

1. Talent: The more natural your aptitude, the less effort it will take, but fortunately talent can be learned. After an honest and concerted effort, consult multiple experts in your field and ask them for advice and if they think you have talent. Whether or not you listen to what they say depends on your passion for your chosen goal. Don’t give up too soon!  However, there are some  instances where it’s better to change your goals than kill yourself trying to be successful at a pipe dream; i.e. a wannabe basketball star might become a coach; a wannabe painter might try sculpture; a wannabe novelist might write non-fiction. Remember: There’s a fine line between persistence and insanity—at some point, reality should prevail.
2. Time: Winning the lottery is the ubiquitous example of people looking for the shortcut. But even those who win the lottery have usually been playing for years and paying thousands of dollars along the way. Imagine if you spent all that time and money on education, training or buying books to read about making yourself successful instead of putting all your hope in randomness. 10,000 hours = 40 hr/week for 5 years. Or, if your doing this in your spare time, 10,000 hours = 20 hr/week for 10 years. READ. PRACTICE. BE PATIENT.
3. Luck: Ah, lady luck. Oprah doesn’t believe in luck. Well, Oprah, I do. Yes, I believe we can make our own luck through preparation, but I was repeatedly amazed in the art world when the right collector stumbled upon the right piece by the right artist; bought the piece; showed it to other collectors and museum people; and the artist’s career took off.

Success. Simple as that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few more hours to put in.

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Are You Drawn To Danger?

Why do people go to scary movies and ride roller coasters?

Why do people read thrillers and watch crime dramas?

What is it about fear and adrenaline that people seek out for enjoyment?
I find this very interesting. If I wrote articles for magazines, I’d be interviewing experts right now. (And hopefully getting paid for this stuff.) I imagine they’d say that humans are getting in touch with their fight-or-flight instincts. Since we no longer encounter lions, tigers and bears on a daily basis, no longer have to tap into that which proves we are survivors and heros, these modern day thrills are the closest many of us will ever get to testing our instincts of survival. That’s important for some people, I suppose. It might even explain why the target audience for really scary movies (think the Halloween franchise), is young people, specifically young males. They are the perfect age for proving their virility. And where there are boys, there are girls. (Otherwise, what would be the point?)
But what’s so bad about calm? What’s so bad about peace and serenity? Yogis are happy people. The elderly (when they’re not worried about health or money issues) are generally happy people. They (we) no longer need to prove themselves this way. Hollywood must have figured this out long ago; I’m only just now analyzing it. The types of movies, books and thrills one seeks out says a lot about a person, if you think about it. Very interesting, indeed. Who needs Meyers-Briggs if you can just analyze a person’s history of choices.
As writers, we need to (we get to) decide what to include, what not to include in our work, and who our target audience is. You can’t please all the people all the time, so you got to please yourself. (Song lyrics for 100, Alex.) That’s the hardest part—what to include and what not to include. That’s also the fun part. In fact, that’s the point of fiction!
Next question: Why do people do drugs and smoke cigarettes? Well, that’s probably escapism… mixed with stupidity.

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Could It Be True?

There’s a first for everything. Is that true?

Yesterday I had to scrap 18,000+ words on my current novel due to information I learned when interviewing my experts. Yesterday was a taste of Hell: Square One. (Thankfully no fire or men in red suits carrying pitchforks).

I have just written a preliminary synopsis for my NEW novel. (It has been highly recommended by many to know how the book ends before you actually begin. Thank you Larry Brooks @storyfix for one.) I actually got to the end of the synopsis and NO ONE got murdered or hit by a car or even went to jail.

Am I slipping? Losing my nerve? I think not. This is crafty. I like it!

But I won’t change my bio yet. You all know how these characters can surprise you before it’s over.

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All Is Not Lost!

In my last post, Meet Me In Hell, I neglected to mention that I ditched The Blue-Eyed Twin because I had a better angle on the same storyline. All is not lost; I rescued the 3 main characters and moved them into a much better novel.

Just thought I’d let you know that. I didn’t want you to feel badly for me. I’m excited and energized ~ even more than the last time I was excited and energized about my last new novel.

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Meet me in Hell?

Okay, have you noticed a pattern here? About every 8 weeks, I declare: I WILL POST ON A REGULAR BASIS FROM NOW ON. And then I don’t. Good thing I’m not signing away my First Born Son, or the 2nd Born, or the 3rd Born, or even the 4th Born with these promises. Then I’d be out of kids! Then I might get more blogging done… but my posts would be all sad and weepy, and you’d quit reading me anyway. So much for good intentions.

All right, no more promises, just more posts, as often as possible. So, here’s today’s Mind Blowing Story:

I’m officially ditching The Blue-Eyed Twin, all 18,000 words of it.

Monday I met with a doctor, a geneticist, and his genetic counselor to get some facts straight for the novel. They were extremely knowledgeable, helpful, friendly, and forthcoming. For 24 hours after my meeting I didn’t speak much. I was processing what they told me. Suffice it to say that I learned the premise of my story was weak. So I changed it. Remember: We hold the lock, and we hold the key! (That’s one great thing about fiction, but it also applies to real life.)

Today is back to square one. Have you ever done that? “Control, A, backspace” is what my son @Elliott_Krause calls it. (He’s 3rd born, the Iowa MFA student.)(Yes, I’m proud.) It’s defeating and liberating at the same time.

I owe a huge debt to Writer’s Digest magazine. In the current issue, one column about interviewing experts for your novel suggests doing your interviews sooner rather than later… so you don’t have to ditch 18,000+ words if your premise is flawed. What if I hadn’t read that, hadn’t interviewed the docs until much later? Thank you once again, WD.

So, I’d better get back to the drawing board, with my notecards, timelines, and character charts. Here we go again! Skippin’ along the yellow brick road ~ the opposite direction of Hell.