conflict, catharsis and other stuff

I have a three year old. Actually, he'll be three next Monday. Last night, I stayed up till 1:30 working on my WIP. My beloved son woke up at 3:00. He's been sick, I felt sorry for him so I went in to sleep with him, screwed up my bad shoulder and slept--oh, maybe an hour. I managed to sneak in an additional thirty minutes of sleep while he napped, but I'm not at my most lucid.

Forgive me if this post is all over the place. Ha!

I'm pondering a few different things that may or may not be related. I'll let you be the judge. First up, Samantha's post -- A Rookie Writer Contemplates Plot ( Part 1). I thought it was very insightful. When I read it, I totally agreed. Yep. She nailed it. But then, the next day I wondered.

A few years ago, pre-Dante (my son), I took on a part-time job at the book store to support my grad school habit. Within a few months, I was the merchandising and inventory manager. It still remains my favorite job ever. I love books and I love bookselling. I was actually really good at it-- because I read fast and I read a lot, because I'm pretty good at getting to the heart of what people like and recommending it, and because I was good at knowing what everybody who worked at the bookstore liked and read, so if I couldn't come with a good recommendation for someone, I knew who to ask. We were a busy book store so I learned pretty quickly that there are all types of stories and all types of readers.

Here's my quandary-- Isn't it possible that some people just may not care about the internal conflict, the internal drama as much as I or Samantha do? Perhaps they want a light, fun escape that includes lots of kissing -- or sex-- or sexual tension-- or action-- or unusual plot twists -- or high adventure-- or Scots in kilts -- or historical detail-- or humorous escapades-- and perhaps they don't care if the external events are related in some big way to emotional growth. I believe there still needs to be an internal and external conflict, of course. I'm just musing here. As a former law school professor of mine used to say, there are many ways to skin a cat. (Sorry cat lovers!) I still tend to agree with Samantha but it's something I've been pondering, mulling over.

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King talked about the concept of an ideal reader. His wife is his ideal reader. I'm not sure who mine is. It's funny because I'm not sure any of us in our group really has an ideal reader within the group. That doesn't mean our group isn't fantastic because it is-- but I've been pondering who my ideal reader would be. Who would yours be?

Could the notion of an ideal reader be tied to theme? I think a lot of authors have recurring themes. Susan Elizabeth Phillip's books often deal with family, the need to create a family and a place to call home, for example. My theme is probably healing in order to find real love-- the kind that will last and that is based on more than lust. I also like writing about what I know, my own corner of the world in this time and place. I like to throw in some new age elements because I'm fascinated by all that kind of stuff. So I imagine my ideal reader would be into the same themes-- very interested in human nature, growth, healing-- but from a somewhat light, fun, breezy perspective.

In relation to ideal readers, I've also been pondering catharsis. I tend to feel ripped off when the catharsis is soft. I read to become emotionally involved and to get an emotional release. During the course of a book , I want to either make a new best friend (Anne Shirley, Jo March, Elizabeth Bennet, Trixie Belden, Gemma Dante, Penelope Featherington, Anita Blake or any others from our favorite female heroine lists) OR feel and release a gamut of emotions OR both. Once in awhile I just read for escape -- or even to, uh, feel sexy. An ideal reader would probably read for the same reasons that I do, no? Do we write for our ideal reader? Do we write to meet our own needs as a reader?

Probably.

Lastly, somewhat related to catharsis -- tonight we discussed antagonists at our chat. This was in response to a question I posed -- a plotting matter-- with which the others so kindly helped me. (And they helped a lot!) It came up that I didn't really need a human antagonist since my main character has some hefty healing to do and some gigantic fears to overcome. Hmmm. Do you have to have a human antagonist? Maybe not, but I tend to think so--everyone else in my writing group has one! The antagonist doesn't have to be an evil villain, but, in truth, I love to hate a good bad guy and I don't really want some sort of measly compromise between the protagonist and antagonist. I want a show down where the protagonist wins hands down-- in addition to the resolution of the internal conflict. Again, there are many ways to skin a cat ( and again, sorry cat lovers!)

Uh oh. It's 11 p.m. central time which means I have to post if I'm going to get this up on Tuesday.

Oops, I missed Tuesday. Yikes. I have to go get some serious sleep.

Cheers and happy writing, Alyson