Craftsmanship and Comfort Zones

(This post originally ran on The Heroine Addicts in January, 2013, but I'm re-posting it here because now that I'm nearing the end of one book and the start of another, I'm thinking about this again...)

Often when I'm asked by other people to describe a writer's life, I use analogy. I tell them writing is a craft, and that like any craftsperson, a writer starts rock-bottom: as apprentice to the masters.

Like a cabinet-maker learning how to craft a chest of drawers, the writer takes the tools in hand, and learns the use of them, the tricks of them—the way to make a smoother-sliding drawer, to make the joints dovetail more neatly; how to polish and to decorate the piece until it's pleasing to the eye. Learn these lessons, and you'll make the upward climb of any craftsperson, no longer an apprentice but a journeyman, at work upon the masterpiece that will, in time, admit you as a worthy member of the guild.

True Masters

That masterpiece is not, as many think, the greatest work you'll ever make—it's just the first work you produce that's at the level of the masters who have trained you. You still have new techniques to learn (and to invent), and if you are creative and work hard enough, you might just reach the level where a person only has to glimpse a chest of drawers to know that it was made by you.

That's craftsmanship.

Erle Stanley Gardner, a master of the craft himself—creator of that father of the modern courtroom drama, Perry Mason—once advised: "The beginning writer should write all types of stories for all sorts of markets until he has found his particular niche in the literary world. The veteran writer who would keep from going stale must take a fling at new slants, at new angles."

Because that's the challenge, isn't it? Once you've found your niche, as a writer—once you've learned to make that chest of drawers—what then? How do you keep the work from going stale? Sometimes a cabinet-maker tackles this by also making chairs, or desks, or bookshelves...but what if even your best bookshelf isn't quite up to the level of your chests of drawers? And what if chests of drawers are all the public really wants from you?

Well, then, as Gardner says, you have to get a bit inventive. Change the wood, or add an inlay; turn the legs a little differently. Toss in a secret drawer.

With every book, I like to push myself beyond what I've designed before; to try, as Gardner dares me to, new angles.

With the book I’m writing now, for example, I’m juggling not two but three voices in my dual-timeline story, and one of those voices is male—a point of view I haven’t written from since my first (and mercifully long-out-of-print) novel.

I'm never sure I've got the proper tools to do this sort of thing. I have to rummage round to find them, or make new ones, and I definitely have to learn new skills, but that's all part of what, for me, keeps writing so fun and exciting.

But it’s always a balancing act, trying to learn my craft better while still giving readers the things they love best, that they’ve come to expect.

As a reader, do you like it when writers try new angles? And as a writer, what keeps you from going stale?

Comments

[Mary T]

I love Romance, and Historical Romance is my favorite. When you read as many of these books as I do, it feels like a rather narrow genre. So if a new angle is thrown in, that's fine with me as long as it is still a well written story. I like it when characters step out of the box. I usually find it interesting.

[Anne Gracie]

Great post, Susanna. I love reading new books by authors whose works I love, and finding an extra element, something a little fresh and different and surprising.

I've also read books by some writers where they've made a radical new jump, writing in a whole other genre, and some of these I've loved, and others have been less successful for me. With the ones I haven't liked, it's been because I haven't liked the new world, or the way the characters interact or perhaps a radical change of tone or voice to one I dislike. But I think if the writer is really good, they can take me pretty much anywhere.

[Shelagh Merln]

I loved reading this post Susanna. I'm at the very beginning of my writing journey, dipping my toes into the water here and there to see what works. I think I've found my happy place. At least I hope I have. What I do love to do though is to read widely. I love seeing the different approaches authors take when crafting their novels. I've read a few authors from their very first published novel and walked with them on their journey. It's wonderful watching them grow and perfect their craft, and very satisfying both as a reader getting to enjoy better and better stories, and as a writer knowing there is truth in what you have written above.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Mary, taking a few steps outside the box is usually an interesting adventure for anyone (real or fictional :-). I'm glad you feel this way.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Thanks, Anne. I think connection with an author is important, though I have to confess it doesn't always work for me, either. For instance, I love Mary Stewart's romantic suspense novels, but have never really connected with her Arthurian books. I don't know why. And yet, I know for some of her readers it's entirely the other way round :-) So there's no right or wrong to it, really. Just personal taste. And I'm sure she enjoyed writing both genres equally.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Shelagh, I'm SO glad you've found your happy place as a writer :-) It may change a little as you go on, because as you've rightly pointed out, we all grow in our journeys. Age has a lot to do with it, I think, and experience. There are stories and scenes I could never have written as a younger woman (and stories I tackled in my braver youth that I probably wouldn't have the nerve to attempt now--back then I just rushed in headlong and analyzed later :-) Our writing is so much a part of US--who we are, what we are living through, what we are trying to understand--that it's inevitable there will be some change. Writing is how we process life, and life is never motionless. I hope your journey in this craft is every bit as wonderful as mine has been.

[Anne Gracie]

Yes, and I think in that case it's as much a connection with an author's characters and world that matters. Some worlds and characters are more distant to some readers than others. I also prefer her romantic suspense novels, though I enjoyed her Arthurian ones.

And maybe it's also that we've come across other versions of that world and prefer them -- certainly a LOT of authors have written their version of the Arthurian Legend.

Voice is so much more than the way someone puts words together and I'm always striving for a good description/definition. *g*

[Quantum]

Interesting analogy Susannah, but for an established writer isn't mastery of technique a given, a necessary foundation for expressing ideas in a form that will entertain readers. It seems to me that generating ideas for new plots is even more important. I think that in a previous post you mentioned that you went to live in the area where the plot for a new book was located (Pembrokeshire I think), so that your imagination could roam free. Can you comment on how ideas for new novels are generated. Do you have to work at it or do the ideas just float into your mind from the aether?

[Annette Naish]

I enjoyed this post. I do not want to read a cookie cutter book. I love several genres and I know that skipping from one to another helps keep things fresh for me.

To be honest, if the book I am reading is well written and the characters do not act like idiots and the plot is not filled with facts that are not of this world I can enjoy the book. I do not focus on small things which are not precise to the time or area. But, if someone in the 19th century is using an ipad, I generally figure I do not need to finish the book.

[Sue McCormick]

By the time Mary Stewart had begun her Arthurian novels, I had already read my "one-book-about-Arthur" too many, so I never tried them.

I think that is am important point here. When you are dealing with well-know legends (Arthur, Robin Hood, El Cid) you are writing in a very limited box. Certain things CANNOT be changed — explained, yes; new insights as to character and motive, yes, but some must stay. And sometimes the reader will feel "enough, already" no matter how well the author has handed the materials.

I don't go back and reread any of the Arthur stories — no even Rosemary Sutcliff, who opened my eyes to the changes that could be made. Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot are more sinned against than sinning: I want them OUT of that box.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Quantum, what a marvellous idea for another post! If you can bear with me till my next time up at bat here, I will try to take that one for you, because it's a great question.

As for mastery of technique, I have to say I'm always learning something new, no matter how "established" I may have become.

Technique is not a cup that can be filled, in my opinion. One of the things that happens when you're a writer is, the longer you're at it, the less you're able to get lost yourself in the books of another, because you become more aware of the craftsmanship.

If I find myself jumping at a scary scene, for example, I start flipping pages back, asking myself, "How did they DO that?", and examining the subtle structure of the scene instead of just going along with it :-)

And then in my next book, when I want to add more suspense to my own scenes, I try my own twist on that same technique.

That's what I mean about craft. You keep learning and trying and finding your own way to use the tools. It never ends (or at least, in my case, it hasn't ended yet).

But I do really like your other point, and I will try to answer it in my next post.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Or that they're a time-traveller :-)