Read back issues of b.read.crumbs.
I met Yvonne Ventresca at school, where she impressed me as both funny and cooly professional. I am so grateful that Yvonne was willing to join us this month. There are a ton of people who are afraid of this gift we have of writing, but she’s one who has done something special with it.
YVONNE VENTRESCA
FACING (FICTIONAL) FEAR
October is the perfect month to analyze fear in fiction. What is your main character afraid of? How do they confront what scares them? This can be a useful lens to examine what’s at stake for a protagonist.
A worthy antagonist can certainly inspire terror. In Elana K. Arnold’s Red Hood, Bisou must ultimately confront the big bad wolf. Nora must challenge a psychopath in Meg Medina’s Burn Baby Burn. I’m forever scarred by the call coming from inside the house in When a Stranger Calls. An eerie setting can serve to magnify the fright, as in Stephen King’s The Shining or Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
Sometimes the concern is more internally driven. In my YA novel, Pandemic, Lil stockpiles food and emergency supplies as a way of coping with past trauma. I hate to admit it, but in an early draft, she faced the deadly pandemic with a closet filled with helpful supplies. In later versions (that’s what revision is for!), her supplies are stolen. Writers can’t protect protagonists from alarming situations. Just the opposite!
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” As writers, we must make sure our characters face their fears as well.
Some Spooky Reads for October:
- Picture Book—Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown
- Middle Grade—A Properly Unhaunted Place by Will Alexander, Almost There and Almost Not by Linda Urban
- Young Adult—The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby, A Room Away from the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma
- Short Story—“October in the Chair” by Neil Gaiman
- Adult—The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Yvonne Ventresca’s debut YA novel, Pandemic (winner of a Crystal Kite), continues to be a timely read. Her other works include the thriller Black Flowers, White Lies and several creepy short stories, such as “Lonely Boy” published in Crow Toes Quarterly and “Raven Heart” in The Quiet Ones. Learn more at YvonneVentresca.com where she blogs about writing productivity and features resources for teen writers.
Yvonne’s Links: Instagram | Twitter | Blog | Facebook | Pinterest
JULIE WRAY HERMAN
FEAR
Early in my writer’s life I joined my local Sisters In Crime chapter. An early speaker’s topic was Facing Your Fear.
I almost didn’t go. Because, well, afraid. But I did. And I’m glad.
Note that the topic was Facing Your Fear, not Conquering Your Fear — because, gentle writers, we don’t ever actually defeat fear. Writing is a series of Facing Fear Moments, and every word we put on the page takes courage. And a writer with courage is a powerful being.
I was not alone in being anxious about that meeting. We all looked nervous, even the folks who had already had books out in the world. The speaker paired us up and had us face our partner repeating “I’m afraid of…” without stopping for air until we ran out of trivial things to say, and we blurted out our real fear. I expected it to be fear of failure. It wasn’t. I am afraid of success. I really, really wanted to write a whole book and get someone I’d never met to read it. What if I put my heart and soul into the story and people read it and liked it enough that I HAD TO DO IT AGAIN. (It happened. I didn’t die. I did it again, four times so far!)
It took me twenty or more rounds to get to my real fear. Maybe it won’t take you that long. Maybe you’ve already faced your fears and pushed right past them. Or maybe you haven’t identified your fear and pushed past it…yet. Your courage is greater than fear. I have faith in you.
- One Good Thing: OK, Two…
ART & FEAR: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of ARTMAKING by David Bayles and Ted Orland will fill your heart with the knowledge that you CAN do this crazy thing called writing.
And if you haven’t read Shirley Jackson, please do. WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE is a masterwork. But really, she couldn’t write a bad book if she tried. I’m sure she felt fear, because she writes about it so well, but if she was afraid of writing, of success or failure, her work does not reflect that at all.
Julie Wray Herman and her husband live outside of Austin, where the wind howls over the canyon almost every night. She’s still afraid of a lot, but writing still gets done. She has gathered another ten stars for her rejection chart just this past month alone, a new record. Visit her website at juliewherman.com or follow her on social media: @juliewrayh for FB, Twitter and juliewherman.com
DEBORAH-ZENHA ADAMS
WRITERS FEAR
Going public with a form we’ve never tried before, like a list essay.
Never being published. Never being published again.
Being published, then ridiculed for lack of writing ability.
Being published, then gaining respect for what we know in our hearts was a fluke. Being exposed as a fraud.
Never having an original idea. Having such original ideas that no one can understand what we’ve written.
Asking booksellers to arrange a signing event. Actually having a bookstore signing event. That no one will show up for the signing event.
Being unable to write. Writing.
Facing a blank page. Finishing a book/story/essay/poem/other and realizing that what we’ve written is rubbish.
Beginning. Again.
- One Important Thing: You don’t have to live in fear. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides free and confidential help and resources. Call 800-799-7233 or SMS: Text START to 88788 — Be aware that abusers may monitor your phone and internet activity.
Deborah-Zenha Adams is an award-winning author of novels, short fiction, CNF, and poetry. Speaking of fear… Deborah’s essay They Only See Us While We Wear the Mask appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine.
Get your FREE monthly b.read.crumbs as soon as we drop it by subscribing.
Read back issues of b.read.crumbs.
