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“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.”

Stephen King, On Writing

As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing. Although he approaches writing differently than I do (and obviously, his method has brought him a lot of success), I did agree with the point he made about the need to read.

I’ve always been a huge reader…there are books on my Kindle, books spilling off my shelves, books in my huge pocketbook, books waiting for me on hold at the library.

This year, one of my goals is to find more time to read.

Last year, I spent a lot of time writing. I wrote, actually, three books in the space of a year. I promoted two books. Many days, I ran out of time to read.

The last few months, though, I’ve been able to pack more reading in, even though I’m writing a new series for Penguin. That’s because I’ve got a variety of different things to read and I’ve got them available to me everywhere I go.

I’ve got different types of reading: non-fiction, short stories, periodicals, lit fic, and other genres.

I’ve got books in the car, in my purse, in my laptop bag, on my bedside table, and in the kitchen (we won’t talk about my housekeeping right now. Things are looking cluttered.) :)

The #1 biggest thing I’ve done to help me read more frequently? Is buy a Kindle. I’ve got many different types and lengths of books and periodicals on my e-reader, and the Kindle is so small that I can easily take it with me wherever I go.

There was a post this week on the Gatekeepers Post blog that had tips for finding more time to read. I’ll let you read the whole article, but here are some of the tips they provided:

Read on the treadmill at the gym
Take a book to the movies and read during previews
Read to someone else: your students, children or elderly relatives
Download audio books to your computer from your public library and listen while working
Check out books on tape from your public library and “read” in the car
Join a book club.

How do you find time to read?

Each month, I wait for my book club’s pick with some trepidation.

Book clubs are frequently fond of books that make me wince a good many times during the course of the novel. These books are usually pretty popular with readers, though, and do sell well.

I just have a hard time stomaching the content.

I didn’t used to be such a delicate, sensitive, squeamish reader. I’d read just about everything and, while I might skim during some sections, I wouldn’t just stop reading a book because of the subject matter.

I think I started noticing the shift around the time my first child was born. (Yes, we’ll blame parenthood. :) ) It also bothered me when I watched movies. My husband rented Saving Private Ryan and I wouldn’t watch D-Day. “Elizabeth!” I remember him saying, “It’s not gratuitous in any way. You should watch it—it’s supposed to be very much like the actual event.”

Precisely why I didn’t want to watch it! And those guys were too young to have to go through it all—they were practically children. I ended up watching D-Day with my hands mostly over my eyes.

So excessive violence, gore, and child-in-danger stories… I just can’t handle them.

And my book club has taken on a few child-in-danger stories, probably because it’s a group of (mostly) moms.

This month’s pick, to be discussed next week, is Room by Emma Donoghue. As soon as I heard the subject matter, I was worried. The waiting list at the library for the novel was huge, so I bought the book online, downloaded it to my Kindle and hoped it would be something I was able to finish.

The reader who chose the book said that I shouldn’t have a problem with it—although the story revolves around the fact that a woman and her five year old son are held captive in a one-room prison that the child was born in. So far, I’ve found the book really interesting. Disturbing, yes, but not explicitly horrific.

As a reader, my tastes seem to change over time. Right now, I can only handle so much violence against children or animals. And frequently, lately, I’ve been looking for lighter reads—nothing too dark or disturbing.

As a writer, I know I couldn’t write anything really dark right now—I can’t read it, so how could I write it?

I just finished writing the rough draft of a book that included a fairly dramatic death. I’m writing cozies (traditional mysteries where the murders happen offstage), so I’m definitely thinking about my reader—many of whom share my dislike of explicit violence and gore. I wrote very carefully, giving the death a certain impact, but not exploiting the violence by using graphic detail.

But it still bothered me! And I’d made it up!

Are you able to write subject matter that would be difficult for you to read? In other words, does the writing put a filter in place for you or does it make you even more engrossed and disturbed by the material? (I’d like to think I can write with some detachment, but I’m starting to wonder if that’s the case.) And–do your tastes change, in either reading or writing?

It seems like I’ve unintentionally set up this past week as Protagonist Week. :) Can you tell I’ve been working on a new protagonist for the new series?

I’m also reading, at the same time, Stephen King’s excellent book, On Writing. I was startled to read, though, that he never felt any real sense of liking for Carrie White, the protagonist in his first novel, Carrie. He says:

Carrie White seemed thick and passive, a ready-made victim.

I’ve written protagonists that can be difficult (my Myrtle Clover character comes to mind.) But I’ve always liked them. They’re always people that I would want to spend time with. I think it would be tough to write a book when you’re not wild about the protagonist. In fact, it was apparently tough for King, too—he ended up throwing an early draft of the manuscript into the trash, until his wife fished it out.

For me to be able to work with a protagonist over the course of a series, there are definitely some traits I’d like them to have:

Humor: When someone lacks a sense of humor, they’re frequently taking themselves too seriously.

Looks and Means: Average or pleasant looking and living fairly comfortably.

Flaws: I’m a fan of flaws and I’ve mentioned writing my own into my poor protagonist.

Proactive Nature: They attack problems instead of watching to see if someone else will leap into action.

Intelligence or Cunning: If they’re not geniuses, it’s okay—but I do like a clever mind or simple common sense. Or a canny way of looking at problems.

Decisiveness: I don’t like a lot of wishy-washy scenes where protagonists wonder what they should do next.

Dynamic Personalities: The characters grow over the course of the book or series.

One thing that’s important to me is knowing what motivates them. I want to have some sort of idea of what makes the protagonist tick. Otherwise, I won’t really get them and know how they’ll react in different situations.

If you’re in the protagonist building phase right now, yourself, here are some links that I’ve found useful in the past:

Alexandra Sokoloff: Creating character – the protagonist Adventures in Children’s Publishing: Character Worksheet
Eclectics: Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
The Writer’s Knowledge Base (and click on ‘character’)
There Are No Rules: Your Protagonist Must Have a Goal
Guide to Literary Agents: Agent Donald Maass On: Your Tools for Character Building

What are traits that you find easy to work with in your protagonist? (I think many writers would be looking for different traits…and desirable traits might differ from genre to genre.)

I’d heard a lot about the movie The Social Network, and decided to rent it last weekend to see what the fuss was about.

The movie was well done, I thought. One thing that really interested me was how riveted I was by the film when I actually didn’t give a flip about many of the characters in it.

Mark Zuckerberg (as portrayed in the movie) is not exactly the most likeable guy out there. Actually, he comes across as borderline sociopathic.

The Winklevoss twins who claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook? It’s hard to really feel sorry for them. It sounded like their idea was for more of a Harvard dating site.

Sean Parker, the founder of Napster? Major jerk in the movie.

I honestly couldn’t even summon up sympathy for Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend. Who would go out with such a person, anyway?

The only character that I found sympathetic in the film was the former Facebook CFO, Eduardo Saverin. He was only CFO because he was Zuckerberg’s roommate/friend and had money in his checking account.

I wondered why I found the movie so interesting– usually I’m all about the characters.

The main character, Zuckerberg, is just different. He’s difficult to figure out. He’s brainy (usually an appealing trait…except when the braininess is used against you in a scheming way) but was written to be almost petty in his immaturity and jealousy.

So this seems to be a story where the complexity and ambiguity of the main character—and the hopes of a hint at what makes them tick—is what makes it appealing.

Have you watched the movie? What made you keep watching it? Or, if you haven’t watched the film, what makes you keep reading a book when there’s an unlikeable protagonist? Have you ever written one?

I’ve never really thought about it until now, but my friends are very, very specific whenever we set times to meet.

I’ll arrange to pick up a friend for lunch or to volunteer at our kids’ school. “Why don’t you come by at 9:35?” they’ll suggest. Or, “Elizabeth, I’ll be ready at 11:50.”

A friend pointed this out recently, “You know no one else gets precise instructions like that.” I didn’t understand. She said, “No one else is told the exact minute to meet. Most people will say something on the hour or the half-hour. Maybe on the quarter hour. The only reason people tell you that is because you’ll be there at exactly that time. You’re never early or late. If you were late, I’d call the cops because I’d know something horrible had happened to you.”

So, if I were a character (and I’m wondering now if maybe I am), a reader could possibly make some assumptions about me. Some might be right and some might be wrong.

Someone might conclude that I’m a little Type A. They might conclude that I keep an eye on the clock. Maybe they’d just conclude that I’m punctual (although apparently I take it a little too far.)

Of course I’m all about clues, since I’m a mystery writer. The fun thing about character clues is that the reader gets to figure things out for themselves. Editors love showing—and it’s a great way to show.

Frequently, when I think about character clues, I’m using clues that are physical pointers. In other words, I’d have something like a character who opens his car door and a bunch of papers and wrappers fall out. Easy to make assumptions about him, right?

But if I bring in another character, I can show that character’s demeanor when dealing with the protagonist—and add dialogue clues to hint at character traits and the characters’ relationship with each other .

Maybe you have a character that you want to represent as someone who talks too much. This could easily be expressed by interruptions from a second character or their signs of impatience. Or of them putting off a phone call with the character. Much better than pages and pages of chatty dialogue to prove the point.

Since I’m a mystery writer, I might also be interested in planting the wrong impression of a character. I might want to mislead the reader. (Other novelists might want to do the same thing, for different reasons.) Maybe the character is unnaturally chatty because they’re nervous. Maybe the second character is just an impatient person who interrupts—maybe they’re not making a point about the character’s loquaciousness at all.

How do you handle character clues?