Charlotte Lesemann

Part I: How It’s Done & Why

Murder finds a place in most literary genres. After all, it’s a great means of demonstrating the lengths that people will go to to have what they want and to stop anyone who stands in their way. In Gothic literature, murder plays an especially prominent role. That’s for a good reason, not because Gothic writers have dark predilections (though that may be true as well….mwahahaha… we’ll never tell). In this post, we examine murder in Gothic writing — how it tends to be committed and why these methods work so well.

I’ve included attempted murder in this list because success or a lack thereof doesn’t detract from how apt a given method may be for the genre. Also, note that many of these may be plot spoilers as it’s almost impossible to discuss the subject without giving something away.

If you’re not a regular around here and/or are less familiar with the genre, it will help to read this short article explaining the use of irrational themes in Gothic writing: What is Gothic Literature. All that we’ll discuss below follows from an understanding of the purpose of the genre.

Vampires

Let’s just get the cloaked villain in the room out of the way. The most prevalent source of murder in Gothic literature is undoubtedly vampirism. That fatal kiss that seals one’s fate as either dinner or newly-undead-diner shows up more often than any other source of death. We see it in Dracula, Salem’s Lot, The Passage trilogy, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, Let the Right One In, Fevre Dream, The Moth Diaries, Black Ambrosia, etc.

Gothic writers use vampirism so often because it works oh so perfectly. It’s steeped in symbolism. To drink another’s blood is always, always, always a reference to something else. It could be a desperate desire to assimilate another’s identity; to control someone so that that person is never able to leave the relationship; to battle against one’s own darkness; to give into temptation; to mix one’s culture with another’s; etc. You name it, a writer has probably done it.

These types of desires become tangible in the act of the vampire, making it a perfect fit with the genre’s use of visible tropes to elucidate unseen themes.

Poisoning

Poisoning is unfortunately much less common. It shows up in We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Count Fosco’s obsession in The Woman in White. It also featured very dominantly in the Robin Hobb’s dark fantasy Farseer trilogy and in the dark fantasy Nevernight trilogy, but neither of those are Gothic examples. In the past I’ve written about the dearth of this type of murder in Gothic writing: Where’s the Poison in Gothic Literature.

It surprises me that poison doesn’t feature more strongly in the genre. It’s a perfect fit. If there’s one thing that poison is, it’s underhanded. Secretive. Sly. It’s the tool of those who like to remain detached from their crime, who want to remain in the shadows, who pride themselves in leaving no trace of their fingerprints.

That fits so snugly with the genre’s exploration of irrational themes. For example, in Shirley Jackson’s novella, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Merricat battles the poisonous influence of the collective on the individual. Thus, her choice of poison is an apt one—she fights poison with poison.

Drowning…plus some

Drowning is by far the most complicated of all of these. I say that because the cause of death is rarely drowning despite the fact that drowning plays a significant role. It shows up in an attempted murder in The Gates of Evangeline. However, in other cases such as in Rebecca, Malcolm first shoots Rebecca and then drowns her body. In Daughters of the Lake, the murderer stabs Addie and afterwards leaves her body in the lake.

[Note that I’m using the word drowning/ drowned to include being lost at sea/ underwater regardless of whether or not it was the cause of death.]

Even if it isn’t the principle cause of death, the drowning is important. For instance, in Rebecca, leavning her body at the bottom of the sea wasn’t strictly a matter of hiding the crime. Rather, it parallels the sea of false ideas that the second Mrs. de Winter holds about her husband’s first marriage.

The truth about Rebecca is a deep and dark journey below the surface of what appears to be the case to what really is. Thus this means of murder highlights and manifests the theme that a person who compares herself to someone else and lives under that shadow is living on the surface of an unfathomable sea of knowledge to which she may only have the most superficial access.

Stabbing or shooting alone wouldn’t necessarily carry the same weight as drowning does although next we’ll look at a couple of examples of the former.

Shootings/ Stabbings

In Child of God by Cormac McCarthy, Lester Ballard tends to murder by shooting people with a rifle. From a distance. I emphasize that because that’s the point. In the novel, McCarthy presents readers with a man who’s treated as an outcast and excluded from society. And it’s true that Ballard becomes a vile, monstrous man, but McCarthy’s point is that Ballard is what all of us have the potential to be under the right (meaning: wrong) circumstances. McCarthy tells us that Lester is “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.” The greatest crime is that the rest of the people see themselves as something better, something at a great distance from someone like Lester. That is why shooting works in this case [and often wouldn’t].

There’s a stabbing in My Soul to Keep, which reads as striking since it’s [sort of] a vampire novel. However, rather than killing in a typical, vampiric manner, the vampire stabs the character in the back. I’m sure Tananarive Due did this on purpose. It’s jarring to readers as it conflicts with her presentation of this undead man as a loving, doting husband and father. It foreshadows a significant truth about him that the main character (his wife) doesn’t see yet. And, again, it mirrors the theme about the ones to whom we entrust our souls when we don’t know who they truly are. [There’s a strong spiritual component to this book.]

Other

There are many other cases of murder in Gothic writing. There’s the supernatural carriage accident in The Woman in Black, Bertha’s attempt to murder Mr. Rochester by burning down the house in Jane Eyre, and unknown means of murder such as those in The Turn of the Screw and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We don’t have the time to look at every one of them.

However, the key takeaway is that each of these works because it parallels the Gothic theme’s work to bring an irrational concept to light. I can picture other types of murder such as suffocation or immolation working just as well given the right theme.

We’ll take a look at those next time!

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What to Read

2023 may have been the Year of the Vampire, but the calendar has turned. Now it’s 2024 and I’m calling it the Year of the Apocalypse. That’s right—a year of destruction and death. [Don’t blame me. I just call it like it is.] However, never fear! If your apocalyptic toolbelt is a bit rusty I’m here to help. In the spirit of preparedness, here are 10 apocalyptic books to get you into the right mindset and give you the mental tools that you need to face whatever firestorms come your way.

The added beauty of so many of these is that most of them are the first in a trilogy or series of books. That means that there’s that much more apocalyptic/ post-apocalyptic training in store for you!

The Stand by Stephen King

The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin

Swan Song by Robert McCammon

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Wool (The Silo Trilogy) by Hugh Howey

One Second After (the John Matherson Trilogy) by William R. Forstchen

World War Z by Max Brooks

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Alas Babylon by Pat Frank

Edge of Collapse (Book 1 of 7) by Kyla Stone

Conclusion

There you go: 10 apocalyptic/ post-apocalyptic books to enjoy over 2024. Hopefully none of these scenarios will actually play out in the coming year(s), but you’ll be all the more prepared regardless.

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A Review of Grady Hendrix’s Kirkus-Starred Novel

Summary

Grady Hendrix said that in this story he wanted to pit Dracula against his mom. The novel takes place in the late 1980s in an upper-class area of Charleston in which the homes bear the history of the region and the women work at home, keeping their families, the region and the country running smoothly on the backs of their unseen labor. It’s a story of housewives pitted against evil.

The main character, Patricia, attends a true-crime book club in which the women read about serial killers and discuss how murders were and should have been accomplished. But when a newcomer, James, comes to town, the book club faces the kind of evil they never expected off the page. Worse, this man tests their loyalties to each other and the strength of their families. In the end, there’s blood. Lots of blood.

Kirkus

For his work, Hendrix earned a positive Kirkus review, one of the most prestigious reviews in the world. Not only that. He received a starred review, the highest Kirkus honor.

It’s a gold stamp in the literary world. It tells everyone in the industry that this is a stellar novel. We might expect that from any number of literary works, but this is solidly genre fiction, something to which you and I can aspire.

Genre-Consistent

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires falls within the Southern Gothic subgenre, a category with a long history and certain reader expectations. For a refresher on this genre, check out my post, The Southern Gothic Subgenre. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for genre-bending…we’ll get to Hendrix’s unique approach below. However, a genre writer should aim to deliver at least some of the things that the genre’s readers want to see.

Hendrix included a number of classic Southern Gothic references in very subtle ways such as the following.

• Old South vs. New South – the contrast between the the demure, old homes of the Charleston residents and the new monstrosity that James builds (and between those residents and James himself)
• Repression – the clear differences between the white and black characters’ lives whether they be resources or the response times and involvement (even interest) of law enforcement
• Violence – the American obsession with violence in the book club’s focus on the worst crimes and the most heinous offenders

In all of these things, the book rings true to the genre.

Unique & Socially Relevant

And yet Hendrix approaches Southern Gothic writing in a fresh and relevant way. For instance, he uses dark humor, which is relatively unheard of in Gothic writing. At times it’s laugh-out-loud funny, but still maintains an atmosphere of anxiety.

He also features a vampire, as the title suggests, but alters the manner in which the vampire hunts from his literary predecessors. In a sense the vampire doesn’t bite his victims (although he certainly does something that I’ll leave for you to find). He also doesn’t technically kill them, although they die.

Through his unique approach, Hendrix raises questions about many social issues such as pedophilia, racial oppression and the nature of suicide.

Tension & Pacing

Hendrix also masterfully evokes moments of extreme tension. He lays on the heat…raises it…raises it some more…and raises it further. When another author would quit, he continues on and it works. At some points in the book, readers will be entirely convinced that there is absolutely no way out.

And yet the novel features a number of very interesting character moments. He leaves space for those and works them into the plot in such a way that the pacing is flawless and the balance of plot and character is perfectly executed.

Character Voices

Many of these moments come out through his use of dialogue. For a fairly typical size book (400 pages or so) chock-full of action, there are many character voices and they’re each startlingly unique. When I started reading it, one of the first things I noticed is that he writes his characters so well that he could omit the dialogue tags and the reader would still know whether James, or Patricia, or Grace, or Carter is speaking.

He uses those voices. Within them, he says so much about the generation of 1980s housewives who bridged the past full of southern history and the borderless global future which threatens to blur the definition of every culture.

My favorite character is Grace Cavanaugh, the most rigidly southern of all of the women. Her manners are flawless, her speech artfully laced with subtext, and her home impeccably kept. She’s the one who, in one of Patricia’s moments of extreme duress, not knowing how to face down the monster, tells her:

“Vacuum your curtains,” Grace said. “No one ever does it enough. I promise it’ll make you feel better.”

P. 156

As simplistic and humorous as this seems, it speaks volumes about the southern tendency to maintain appearances over all else. Of course much in Grace’s life isn’t what it appears to be. This parallels southern Gothic writing in which the romanticized south is pitted against its troubling history.

Conclusion

This book has it all: relevant themes, a a unique approach to a genre-specific style, fantastic pacing and tension, and larger-than-life characters. It’s no wonder that Kirkus gave him a starred review.

It may seem like a stretch to you or I, but Hendrix is a wonderful reminder that those of us who write genre fiction can still do so in such a way that it’s worthy of the highest honors.

Let me know if you’ve read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and what you liked about it!

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Magical Realism vs. Gothic Writing

It’s December. This is the season I wish I could freeze and hold forever, but alas, the winter is always so short, especially where I live. This year I chose a number of books – some Gothic, many not – that I’d like to read before the end of February. First on the list was The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. It’s a beautiful tale and, despite it being a retelling, is a unique approach to the Magical Realism genre. Since I’ve already finished it, I thought I’d give you a review of The Snow Child along with a summary of the purpose that Magical Realism serves and how it’s different from the Gothic genre.

Spoiler-Free Summary

The story is a retelling of a Russian fairytale, Snegurka (“The Snow Maiden”). In Ivey’s version, a middle-aged couple moves to Alaska after suffering from the stillbirth of their child. There they hope to build a homestead far from the pain of the past. Instead, they find themselves alone with each other and the memories they had tried to bury. Until one winter evening when the snow begins to fall. In the magic of the moment, they craft a child out of snow. The next day, their snow child is gone, but they begin to see a young girl running through the snowy forest. Before long she enters their lives and brings them a new beginning.

This story is Magical Realism because it’s set in a real-word setting and features a magical element—the snow child—throughout. But what purpose does this serve? Could Ivey have thrown a magical child into any winter story and called it Magical Realism? No.

Magical Realism – The Purpose

In Magical Realism, the magical elements always illustrate an internal reality. They make something readers might struggle to see or understand more accessible. Over a year ago, I wrote an article about the genres of Gothic vs Magical Realism. In the article I stated that:

“…in Magical Realism, the magical elements are symbolic of an internal reality for the protagonist.”

This is certainly true in The Snow Child. The child, Faina, shows readers what the main characters, especially the woman, Mabel, are feeling. Imagine that Ivey had wanted to convey the sadness and sense of loss that comes with both childlessness and the death of a child, but had done so without any fantastical elements.

She would have told us about Mabel and Jack’s backstory, about the silent newborn that he buried and she regrets never holding. The story might have shown their passage of time without the joys of childhood glee at Christmas or the pleasure of having a young one to provide for. But it wouldn’t have been the same.

In Mabel’s interactions with Faina we see Mabel’s inability to touch anyone, her reluctance to hope, her desperate need to be occupied with caring for a child and her stilted approach to life. We see it in those moments that are grasped but lost, or hollow, or filled with fear. Readers follow her journey to trust and find joy in life as we watch Mabel re-learn how to laugh and dance and play in the snow. I could say similar things about Jack.

Without Faina and the magic that she brings to their lives, we would struggle to understand what it feels like to be Jack and Mabel. But with her, their inner reality becomes something tangible that we can experience.

That’s the magic in Magical Realism.

Versus Gothic

This is where Magical Realism and the Gothic genre overlap. Both tend to be set in the real world and both use various elements—magic in Magical Realism and gothic tropes in the Gothic genre—to make an unseen reality more tangible to readers. However, these tend to be used in very different ways and to very different ends.

For example, in Magical Realism the fantastical components of the story usually speak to a political reality. This isn’t the case in The Snow Child, in which the magic illuminates the characters’ internal state. However, notice that whether it’s the lives of a select group of people (childless or grieving parents) or a national/ political situation, the themes in Magical Realism tend to be somewhat localized. They’re important and hard-hitting, but not usually universal.

In contrast, in the Gothic genre the tropes and any fantastical components such as vampires and ghosts serve to make an irrational universal truth—spiritual or psychological—tangible. We can see this in works such as The Turn of the Screw by Henry James in which the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint symbolize the corrupting influence that adults, wittingly or not, exert in the lives of children.

The Review…Also Spoiler-Free

But what did I think of The Snow Child???

In short, the story is captivating, filled with wonder and yet deeply emotional. As I suggested earlier, Ivey brings Mabel and Jack’s emotional journey to life through Faina. I took a look at some of the negative reviews on Amazon (there aren’t many; most people loved the book as much as I did) and there seem to be two common complaints:

Animal Deaths

There are the people who disliked the hunting and trapping and corresponding depictions of animal deaths in the story. I get it. I’m an animal lover too. But first, these things are very realistic for those who live in a homestead environment.

And second, the more graphic instances were deeply symbolic and very important to the story purpose. For example, there’s an animal death that triggers an extreme change in the characters. It acts as a bridge between the world of magic and wonder that’s filled with joy and hope but can’t truly be grasped and the cold harsh reality of life that can be held. This event was heartbreaking but absolutely crucial to the book.

Plot Shift Midway

There were a number of readers who didn’t like the events that transpired after the midpoint in the book. They loved the wonder and magic at the beginning but commented on the shift that transpired later in the story. As I implied in number one, this wasn’t an accident. Ivey is bringing Jack and Mabel back to healthy, functioning reality by taking them through a period of wonder in which they have the capacity to heal.

Ultimately though, they have to emerge into the world in which things aren’t as magical. They have to be ready to live with pain and loss without shutting down as they’ve done in the past. That’s what happens in the second half of the book. I understand why some readers wanted the book to remain solidly in the world of wonder, but that’s not the point of Magical Realism. These readers would most likely prefer Fantasy stories instead.

To Summarize

I can empathize with these concerns, but I can also see why Ivey did what she did. In the end, she tells a story about loss and recovery and she tells it well. She doesn’t give us a story about a couple who retreat from reality (even solely when they’re away from others) and remain in a magical world of wonder, as intriguing as that would be. Nor does she remove Jack and Mabel from the harsh truths of life. Faina’s ability to live in the real world came at a cost. It came on the heels of tragedy, as did Jack and Mabel’s.

Ivey writes with such a captivating sense of wonder and beauty, but she also writes about the deep inner world of a person and how loss affects us. This was a shockingly brilliant debut.

I highly recommend it.

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A Spoiler-Free Review

If you recall, early in 2023, I declared this the year of the vampire and set out to read ten different vampire novels. Of course these aren’t my first vampire novels. I’ve been a vampire fan for years—both on the written page and on the screen. However, I had seen a post on Twitter in which someone asked what people’s favorite vampire novels were. I scanned through it and saw a number of compelling options that I hadn’t read. Thus sparked the idea and here we are. Having finished, I’m going to give you a summary of my year of the vampire in review.

I’ve already reviewed Black Ambrosia and The Moth Diaries in detail—click on the titles to open those articles. You can expect to see more book-specific reviews in the near future, but here’s a fairly high-level, spoiler-free view of what I thought of all of them.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

The story is very well written and surprised me in its ability to grab my attention and to maintain suspense throughout. Some readers will find this one depressing and Lindqvist’s depiction of the [I believe exaggerated] crime and depravity of Stockholm is shocking. It’s not a happy read or a vicarious stroll through the exciting world of vampires as some of the flashier vampire books such as Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Diaries are.

However, Lindqvist takes on some huge political and social issues such as transgenderism, bullying, urban development, and pedophilia. This is a weighty book with a strong sense of pacing. If you have a taste for vampires cast in relevant issues, this one is for you!

They Thirst by Robert McCammon

This book read like a lesser version of The Stand – an epic battle of good versus evil – but on a smaller, more localized scale. Some fans of the other tale report loving this one as well. I liked it well enough to recommend it. And I particularly loved his implicit denunciation of Los Angeles, whether tongue-in-cheek or not.

The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein

I would recommend this book to anyone. If you’ve read some reviews likening this to Twilight, disregard them. The two have nothing in common other than teenage vampires. I enjoy a good Twilight viewing, but this is a book for those who like a riddle, who enjoy stories that don’t hand them everything and who love to plumb for hidden meaning.

If that’s you, start here. It’s a novella and is easy to delve into at any level of depth you prefer. Just know that there’s likely more than you see at first (or seventh) glance!

Black Ambrosia by Elizabeth Engstrom

This is not for those who have suffered trauma and/or are particularly sensitive. Though Engstrom leaves almost all of the truth and the dark details of Angelina’s story in the book’s negative space, it’s there. The sensitive will pick it up. However, for those who aren’t as sensitive, especially those who love psychology and psychologically-rich characters, this is the book for you!

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

The psychology is there to some extent but it seemed predictable and so much weaker than tales like Black Ambrosia which are so heavy and laden with meaning. However, this one isn’t as dark and potentially trauma-inducing [if you’re sensitive], so I can see why it’s favored by many. It’s an accessible look at what it would mean to be the last person alive and how much human interaction and connection humans need to thrive.

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin

You won’t find layer upon layer of meaning or deep wells of psychology, but you will find a well-crafted novel that’s true to Martin’s ability with both character and plot. This is a story I would recommend to a wider audience including both vampire and non-vampire lovers.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

I was absolutely shocked by how much I loved this book. It was, by far, my favorite vampire book of the year! I don’t often read humor, hence the surprise, but I do love dark humor. Regardless, I had expected the story to be lighter and less intense than it is. How wrong was I?! It’s actually wonderfully intense and suspenseful, terrifying even, for prolonged periods.

It’s the story of a vampire, but it also isn’t. Hendrix keeps the vampire details light and the sense of a nefarious intruder high. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a thriller. It’s brilliantly executed, his approach the vampires is novel and relevant and his humor is pitch perfect. I’ve decided to read more of his work—everything I can find.

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

If I had read the one-star reviews I would have discovered this prior to reading. However, I typically avoid them since they tend to be full of plot spoilers. Needless to say, many other reviewers who did finish the book said that yes, it deals with race and discrimination. However, it’s also a very graphic tale of a ten-year-old having multiple sexual encounters with adults.

As one reviewer pointed out, Butler could have accomplished her discussion of race and discrimination with adult characters. The child sexualization was entirely unnecessary and thus points to another intention. I agree.

Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu

This is the book that predated and inspired Dracula. It’s about the protagonist, Laura, who comes into contact with a vampiress, Carmilla, after a carriage accident brings the girl into her life. The two enter into something of an obsessive friendship all while Carmilla begins to wander by night and Laura grows weaker by day.

I went into the story thinking that I’d find it predictable and that I’d read it simply for the reference point. However, I truly enjoyed this one. It’s a lovely little tale primarily because the way in which LeFanu tells it is so evocative and endearing that it transports the reader to another [very enjoyable] time and place. It’s the setting and the style that make this story so worthwhile. I plan to revisit it periodically and would recommend it to any gothic reader.

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

Set in Miami, Jessica and David have the ideal marriage and a beautiful young daughter. However, when people around Jessica begin to die, she discovers that he is part of an Ethiopian sect of immortals and is over 400 years old. Members from this secret group come calling for David, demanding that he return to Ethiopia. However, this time he refuses to give up his wife and child and decides to go to forbidden lengths to keep them.

The book deals heavily with Jessica’s Christian faith since the author has juxtaposed it against David’s immortality—the loss of his soul and an eternity with God (though he doesn’t hold these beliefs). In many ways this is as philosophical and spiritual as Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. I liked this book very much. The character voices are well-executed and the plot is reasonably fast-paced. However, it won’t appeal to everyone. This one is for those who like heavy spiritual themes and are fans of books like Interview with the Vampire.

Conclusion

Whew! What a year. It was fun to have a theme to pursue and to have a common threadline in my reading list. I read a whole lot of other books, but what’s so interesting about these ten is how very different they each are. This is a wonderful example of how rich and nuanced the vampire trope can be and how many different ways an author can use it.

If you’ve read any of these or have other vampire novels that you love, let me know!

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How to Take Your Writing from Good to Great

There are so many skills that go into being a great writer: a strong and unique voice, an intuitive sense for pacing and sentence structure, a healthy knowledge of vocabulary, the ability to craft richly compelling characters, a vivid imagination and so many more. It would be easy to focus on these to the exclusion of what may be the most underrated and yet crucial writing skill: stamina.

Stay with me! I think you’ll see what I mean, why we all could use more of this skill and how to go about building this writing skill for yourself.

Writing is Rewriting

I’ve done my fair share of beta reading and far more than my share of reading for pleasure. I suspect that you probably have as well. Those of us who love to write do a lot of reading and we often do a lot of collaborating with other writers. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that the difference between a book that’s awkward and amateurish and one that feels traditionally published (regardless of whether or not it is) is due to rewriting.

Those skills we mentioned before matter. We need to be able to craft novel stories with characters that readers love. We have to have a good sense for foreshadowing, tension and pacing. However, if we don’t know how to rewrite, none of that will matter. The story won’t come together. Authors such as Hemingway, E.B. White, Truman Capote and Roald Dahl have all reiterated the fact that there’s no such thing as a well-written book without extensive rewriting.

How to go about that is a subject I’ve already addressed from my own methodology. Find it here! In that post I address the [huge] difference between editing and rewriting. I then explain my process for rewriting. If you’re interested, I highly recommend checking it out. I learned this process as I worked though my own writing journey. It isn’t the only way to go, but it has helped me immensely.

When you read it, what you’ll probably notice though is that it sounds exhausting…because it is! Hence the essential skill that we all need to build: stamina.

Start Small

One thing that I’ve experienced and have heard from other authors, especially earlier in their writing careers, is to start with writing short stories.

I wrote a lot of short stories when I was in school, but in more recent years I’ve moved onto novels. However, one thing that has helped me a lot is to still write short stories on the side. I sometimes do that through writing contests. They provide me with a great prompt and a deadline and often fall outside of my own genre. That makes for great practice. In the process, I’ve noticed that my writing skill has improved dramatically.

It might surprise you to know that Ray Bradbury, a man who was known as a pantser—one who wrote by the seat of his pants, without an outline, began by writing short stories. He had a method. He would come up with an idea on Sunday, would write the first draft on Monday and then would write drafts two through six each day from Tuesday through Saturday. When he finished the last draft on Saturday he’d submit it. He did that every week of the year. That’s a lot of stamina!

Novel Off-Shoots

Another practice that can be invaluable in building this writing skill is to practice writing off-shoots of your novel. These can be things such as: writing a side story about the character that helps you to get into her head and understand her motivations better; taking a scene out of the novel and reworking it as a stand-alone snapshot until it’s as refined and clean as it can be; or writing a character’s backstory as a separate short story [or flash fiction] so that you have a more developed understanding of this and can write the character more convincingly.

These suggestions are often useful for the reasons mentioned above, however they also develop our (re)writing ability. Think of short stories or novel off-shoots as sprints.

When I ran cross-country in high school, my coach would often require us to run sprints. As a distance runner, this seemed like a silly waste of time. I valued the twelve-mile runs that seemed to do the most to build the stamina that I needed. However, the sprints always surprised me. I came away much faster and able to finish stronger because of them.

Break Up the Work

Lastly, after you’ve written your first draft and you’re ready to pursue the rewriting process, refrain from editing for grammar, spelling and punctuation. Trust me, it’s not time for that. You’ll just end up either wasting your time or settling for a lower-quality finished product.

Instead, I recommend dividing the rewriting process into layers. I start with the most foundational and build up towards the surface. That means that I start by considering things such as: is the plot complete (no holes), are all of the scenes in the right place, are some missing, or unnecessary, or redundant? Then I might move onto character development and voice. I talk about all of this in great detail in the article that I referenced earlier. Find it here.

The point is not to tell you what rewriting method will work for you. Rather, this type of method can keep you from becoming daunted by the overwhelming number of things that go into a novel, all of which need to be addressed in the rewriting process. It can also help you to develop the writing skill of stamina by giving you a roadmap to work through from the bones of the story to the final edit. As you navigate the many rewrites necessary to produce a beautiful, polished novel, you’ll discover your own method.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, how you go about a rewrite is up to you, but you won’t do it well without a lot of stamina. None of us do. Writing is hard, but at the end of the process, the sense of accomplishment is huge! I love reading my own stories. After all, I took the advice I heard and wrote the stories that I wanted to read.

But more than that, I rewrote them over and over, paying attention to the smallest details. I built up my stamina and plan to continue to do so for the rest of my career. Because stamina is the difference between good and great!

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Balancing the Intuitive Mind

November is my favorite month. There’s something mournful, quiet and introspective about this month. This time of the year fills so many authors with a desire to hunker down and fill page after page with our deepest understanding of who we are and what moves us. At the same time, its fleeting beauty reminds me of how easy it can be as an intuitive personality to miss the present moment in the world outside of our imagination. Lately I’ve been thinking about how we, as writers, can celebrate the present and find some balance.

Grasp the Season

Have you noticed that some writers seem to latch onto certain seasons? Elin Hilderbrand is almost synonymous with summer even though her books aren’t all set in the summer. Stephen King and Kristin Hannah have written numerous books set in the winter.

You and I don’t need to set all or even most of our books in one given season. However, there’s a lot to be said for writing a book that’s set in the season in which you’re writing [the first draft]. This works well for me since I tend to write in Fall and/or Winter, both of which feature well in Gothic literature.

This won’t work for everyone, and some of our books span multiple seasons. However, writing in the season I’m experiencing helps me to stop and take in what’s all around me.

Find Yourself

The most frequent writing question I receive is, “How do you come up with a story idea?” But the second is usually some iteration of: “Do you base your characters off of people you know?” or “Do you base the main character off of yourself?”

It makes sense. Most people sense something that I also contend is true: the best characters reflect pieces of ourselves. Perhaps it’s only a fraction of an emotional response to a life-altering situation, or a similar type of memory, but we write what we understand. And we understand things that we share if only at the most basic level—the emotion it evoked.

In each character that you write, ask yourself how you relate to this character. Does he have a similarly painful past? Is he struggling to overcome a hurdle that reminds you of what you felt at a difficult point in time? Do his core values mirror your own? Does he have a similar response to situations like being in crowds or feeling pressured to meet a deadline?

Whatever it may be, find a relatable point and pour yourself into every character you write. I think you’ll find that you work through a lot of your own struggles and come to understand yourself more deeply. And your characters will jump off of the page.

Write What’s Now

If you ask most writers, including myself, how they come up with story ideas, the most prevalent answer seems to be that we write what we encounter in our own lives. It may be a news story that sparks a question in our minds, or a comment that someone makes that we chew over and unpack, or a dream or personal experience. Writers work through real questions by building stories in which all of the characters have to face that question, make choices and determine what they believe about it.

For example, I’m currently working on my second book, The Monster of Vienna. It’s about a young boy who’s a violin prodigy in Vienna during the middle of the 19th century. The story came to me when I encountered two separate things:

1. Certain men including a friend’s husband who took the desire to be respected to an unhealthy level. For them it was no longer a desire, but something to be demanded and required.
2. Various news articles about people who commit violent acts, in which the journalists pointed to a bad experience in the person’s youth or a bullying incident in grade school. The assumption in many of these articles/ reports is that an experience, not the perpetrator, is always to blame when someone does something wrong.

I set out to write about monstrosity—about what causes a person to do horrific things. And I gave myself a large enough cast of characters to be able to examine the issue from a number of different viewpoints. Further, I deliberately crafted a main character who, although he has disappointments and challenges in life, has no definable trauma. Sure, others have disregarded him or even teased him. His life is realistic and relatable.

And yet, whereas others develop into solid, responsible adults, he becomes a monster…why?

That’s a question that we ask more and more frequently in our modern world. And it deserves an answer.

Real-Life Details

You may have noticed that the prior three examples are still very intuitive-focused. They’re deep and introspective. When we write about the autumn season, we’re still delving into what autumn means in the life of a person. Is it our attempt to grasp and hold onto the fleeting joys of our short time on this earth? Is it about the things that we take for granted that are here one day and gone the next?

In the other two, we dive into a deeper understanding of what we believe and who we are. We speak to the heart of challenging questions and experiences—what we believe about them and what we want others to consider and understand as they wade through similar questions.

So this last one is a bit of a sensory relief from those. And it’s simple: include something that you can also do in real life. If you’re love baking, or playing rugby or foraging for mushrooms, put that in your book. At the same time, make sure to get out (or stay in) and spend at least a little time actually doing those things. It’ll bring new color and a richer tone to your writing and it’ll ground you in the real world in a way that will help you to celebrate the present.

Conclusion

We’re writers. The writing process is intrinsically inward-focused. It’s a process that suits an intuitive mind. But most of us, like other people, could still use more balance in our lives. We could benefit from things that take us out of our heads. Just a little bit. Just enough to celebrate the present so that we can relish the best in life and then take that back into our writing.

Let me know what works for you? How do you find balance in life?

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A Look at 20 Popular Gothic Titles

Sometimes a title jumps out at you when you’re writing your book, or even beforehand. Such was the case for my second novel, The Monster of Vienna, which is currently in process. Other times, pulling a title out of the work is a desperate search for the lost city of Atlantis. Nothing seems to land in the right spot and and even your best sources of insight and advice come up empty-handed. What do you do then? How do you find that perfect title?

The short(est) answer is that the title should be a good summary of the theme—the purpose or meaning of the novel, but there are several ways to do this. We’ll look at twenty popular gothic titles to see how the authors chose that perfectly memorable caption. Though these are gothic examples, the principles below can apply to other genres as well.

The Titular Protagonist

When the story is heavily if not exclusively based on the character journey of the protagonist, the title should reflect that.

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a great example of this as the story is entirely based on the growth and development of the titular character.
• Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is another. In this case, Shelley chose two titles—one a reference to the struggles and changes of Dr. Frankenstein; the other a more thematic allusion to Frankenstein’s war against death and his attempts to create human life.

The Antagonist

Other times, the story is primarily about the antagonist and the effect that character has on the protagonist. In that case, naming the story after the villain is entirely appropriate.

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier tells the story of an unnamed protagonist and her internal war living in the perceived shadow of the titular antagonist.
• Readers have speculated about the meaning of Dracula by Bram Stoker, but the one thing that each of these interpretations share in common is that they center on the interpretation of Dracula’s character.
• The Woman in Black by Susan Hill is a ghost story. Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor, is haunted by the titular ghost, but at its heart, the novel is about the woman in black, what she suffered, and what suffering she, in turn, wreaks in the lives of those whom she encounters.
• Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice is the third story in her Vampire Chronicles. In this one, Rice traces the vampires’ history back to its origins—to the original queen of the damned. Hence the title is an aptly chosen reference to the story’s focus and purpose.

Mood/ Voice

Sometimes a story, especially a gothic one, is so emotionally driven and those emotions parallel the story’s theme so adeptly that the author chooses a title that highlights this fact. The following are three such examples.

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is both a reference to its principle setting (on a windy, “wuthering” hilltop) and to the tempestuous nature of the characters.
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a beautifully haunting tale of a boy who, in the wake of his mother’s death, sets out on a journey to uncover the fate of the lost works by his favorite author. It’s a story about the things and people that leave an indelible mark on us though they may and often will be lost to us.
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James reflects the nature of story itself. The involvement of the two children, Miles and Flora, is what James refers to as the turn of the screw—the thing that takes a terrifying ghost story to a point of greater horror.

Style

Once in awhile it’s appropriate to reference the novel’s style. This is used very infrequently and only when the style or nature of the story is so contrary to reader expectations that it says something compelling about the nature of the novel.

• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is novel in concept, not because it’s southern gothic, which has a long-standing and respectable history, but because it’s funny. Yes, it’s [very well-executed] dark humor mixed with a southern gothic story and the title reflects that.
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is just that: a gothic story set in Mexico. It’s a new and intriguing idea, thus the simple title works to capture readers’ attention.

Story Element or Structure

In a number of instances, it’s some element of the story, or the structure itself that the author references in the title. These are only a fraction of a step away from being a direct thematic reference, however, there is clearly a distinction as you’ll see below.

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson directly alludes to the duality of the titular character and the battle that he undergoes as his good nature both caters to and wars against his propensity for evil. This is thematic, but is written as if it were an investigation or a scientific inquiry, which suits the structure of the work.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde references the portrait that Dorian commissions and which bears the face of his true nature—his unseen soul. The picture is crucial to understanding the story; without it the story is simply one of a playboy rather than a soul-searching philosophical question.
• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is just that. Rice has stated that she set out to write the book in order to explore the nature of the life of the vampire. Rather than simply being a villain without a backstory, she set out to ask what the vampire’s life and history meant to him. The book begins and ends with the interview and thus the title fits perfectly with her intentions.
• The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein is told through the unnamed main character’s diary entries. Throughout the story a subtle thread refers back to the luna moth the protagonist witnessed with her father, the countless moths in Ernessa’s room, and the implied moth-like nature of the girls at the school. Like the moths, each is in a state of transformation.

Direct Thematic Reference

And lastly, but most importantly, there are the works that pull directly from the story’s thematic purpose—what the author is exploring. These are always very strong, often the best, choices for titles.

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters features Dr. Faraday, a country physician who begins to care for the family at Hundreds Hall, shortly before things go progressively awry. What (or who) the little stranger is would be a plot spoiler, so I won’t give it away. However, if you’re looking for more information on this story (with plot spoilers) along with my review of Waters’ use of the uncanny, see the following article: Stepping Into the Void: A Look at the Uncanny. Suffice it to say that the little stranger is the entire point of the story.
• Child of God by Cormac McCarthy tells the story of Lester Ballard, a man who devolves from the loss of his home in the first scene to a vagabond and gruesome murderer. But McCarthy’s dominant point is one of warning—Lester, like each of us, is also a child of God. We could very easily find ourselves in his shoes.
• We Have Always Lived in a Castle by Shirley Jackson seems like a cumbersome title, and yet I can’t think of a better one. It’s the story of Merricat and her sister Constance and their journey to insulate themselves, both literally and figuratively, as individuals in their home—a castle or fortress of sorts— from the hostile community beyond their front door.
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury has a carnival feel about it. It fits the voice, setting and plot of the story and yet the title is also an allusion to man’s fear of aging and death—the something wicked that comes for us all.
• ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King tells the tale of Jerusalem’s Lot, a town in Maine taken over by vampires. On the surface the title appears to be nothing but a place reference. However, the abbreviation of Jerusalem to ‘Salem (a clear reference to the witch trials in Massachusetts) and the double meaning of the word lot (“parcel of land” versus “destiny”) lead us in a different direction. This is a story with a strong spiritual meaning to it, like many of King’s works. The title hints that this is a story of good versus evil.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a number of ways to title a book. However, some are more applicable than others. You’ll want to step back and assess which of these scenarios fits your manuscript most accurately and then brainstorm until something fits better than the others. It also helps to get feedback from beta readers and your editor. My editor was a great sounding board for my first novel, The Death of Clara Willenheim, and was able to confirm what fit best with the story.

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Your Fall Movie List

We’re halfway through October! Where I live, the weather has only very recently started showing the signs of fall—the orange maple trees a flame behind the veil of the cool, foggy mornings. It’s the season for cozy indoor activities: for making mulled wine and hot apple cider and curling up with a blanket and a great movie. And with that I give you my list of 10 of the best gothic movies for fall to inspire your cozy viewing.

The Interview with the Vampire

The Crow

Sleepy Hollow

Dark Shadows

The Village

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

The Addams Family

Hotel Transylvania

The Phantom of the Opera

The Lost Boys

Conclusion

There are so many others out there such as the original (1931) Dracula, Gaslight (1944) and Red Riding Hood (2011). Any of these will give you wonderful, gothic fall feels. Enjoy them over the next couple of months. Let me know which one is your favorite and why!

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Personality Types versus Genre Preferences

Lately my life has been crazy! If you don’t know, I live on a farm. It’s a small family [non-commercial] farm. We’re in the middle of harvesting all of the crops we planted this year. In addition to that, we preserve all of the fruit that grows on the trees and in our modest little vineyard. It’s wonderful, but it can be exhausting. All that to say, recently I haven’t been able to write every week. I didn’t want to stay away much longer, but I craved a lighter topic. Since I can feel the weather finally shifting into Autumn, I thought that it would be fun to examine what you should read based on your favorite season.

I’m basing this assessment on the stereotypical correlations between personality types and seasons. These assessments won’t be universally true, so take this all with a grain of salt, have fun with it and feel free to disagree!

Spring

If spring is your favorite season, you have something of a sanguine personality. Think of this as a sense of wonder and imagination that sees the possibility in all things. You understand that challenges and hardships come with life, but you want to focus on what can be learned, gained or enjoyed (when possible) in each situation. The spring personality wants a story that ends in an uplifting way and books that open their minds to new worlds.

Spring personalities love Fantasy tales, Folk stories and Fables, Romance including Romantic Comedies, and books in the Magical Realism genre.

These types of books include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Anne of Green Gables, The Notebook and The Ten Thousand Doors of January. Look for books such as:

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Book of Hidden Things by Francesco Dimitri

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

Summer

If summer is your favorite season, you have a lot of energy and love to both experience new things and share life with other people. Summer is often associated with the choleric personality—the determined person who’s an extroverted, determined, go-getter. You like to explore, to take the new road, to push yourself to new heights, to test your limits and to achieve big goals. From alfresco dinners to neighborhood block parties to group camping trips, for you life is an opportunity to gather with others and to share new adventures.

The summer personality would love emotive relationship-based novels whether these are lighter beach reads or deeper explorations of how people grow alongside one another. This personality would also love Comedies, Thrillers (all of them—political, legal, military, you name it), Action Adventure, Westerns and Science Fiction.

Books for this person include things such as Summer Sisters, Gone Girl, The Hunt for Red October, The Stand, Fahrenheit 451 and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Check out the following contemporary options:

Red Rising by Pierce Brown [the first in a six-part series]

Summer Island by Kristin Hannah

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Autumn

If autumn is your favorite season, you have a deep-thinking, introspective personality. Fall personalities are often reflective and artistic. They understand the things that aren’t said, the subtext in action and dialogue. In fact, they thrive on looking for deeper meaning and unspoken truths. They possess an exceptionally high level of emotional intelligence and clearly see the motives behind people’s actions and words.

The autumn personality thrives on Literary Fiction with all of its deep exploration of truth and meaning. This person also loves Psychological Thrillers, Gothic, Horror and Suspense. Genres such as these are loaded with underlying meaning, hidden intentions and nuance—the sorts of things that appeal to the melancholic autumn soul.

These are books like The Haunting of Hill House, Rebecca, Summer of Night, Swan Song, And Then There Were None and The Remains of the Day.

The following are some newer options to add to your reading list.

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe

Winter

If winter is your favorite season, you’re calm, emotionally consistent, controlled and dependable. You’re introverted and prefer to spend time alone or with a small group of close friends or family. You prefer a smaller amount of great depth in your life whether that’s relational, experiential or personal growth, over a shallower but broader range of these things. This personality craves comfort and things that feel good.

The winter person loves the Mystery genre (both traditional and cozy mysteries), heart-warming Romances, Historical Fiction and the Classics. These genres are each loaded with depth that’s [usually] more comforting than the autumn version of depth that can be unsettling.

These books include Little Women, The English Patient, All the Light We Cannot See, Shutter Island, The Name of the Rose and A Tale of Two Cities. If these are your cup of tea, try these as well:

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Conclusion

These are simply a starting point. The key is to understand the heart of the person behind the season. Spring people long for the hopeful adventure and new worlds; summer people want to explore and conquer their world alongside other people; autumn people seek to understand hidden truth no matter how raw it may be; and winter people want comforting depth and complexity of both character and theme.

Look for books that fit these criteria and you should be off in the right direction.

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