That 'Oh Crap' Moment

By now, most of us have heard of that 'Aha!' moment popularized by Oprah. It's the term used when you receive a life-changing epiphany--a new thought or understanding that you didn't have before. It's very cool when it happens. Sort of makes you feel smart and special when you understand something on a deeper level.

In my Indigo Eady Paranormal Mystery series, I use something similar, only it's more like, 'Oh Crap!'.

That 'Oh Crap' moment is when my main character, Indigo Eady, realizes trouble is afoot. That both she and her gang of teenage paranormal investigators are in deep doo doo and the task ahead is not going to be easy. In fact, it's going to be hard.

I like to make it clear to my readers that doo doo is happening, so at the end of the first chapter in each book, when Indigo understands what the problem is, she actually exclaims,

 "Oh crap!"

In Givin' Up The Ghost, it's that moment when Indigo realizes that her missing friend's father is a ghost, and therefore, not only dead, but murdered.

In A Guilty Ghost Surprised, it's when Indigo realizes that her little cousin has returned--from heaven.

While I use the term Oh crap! literally, it works like the thesis statement of an essay that directs the focus or point of the paper through to its final conclusion. It's a writing device that says, here's the problem, how are you going to solve it? When you write mysteries, that's what the book is about: how to solve the problem.

And of course, when you're writing for tweens and teens, words involving excrement of any kind is always good for a giggle.

I didn't consciously set out to employ the oh crap! writing device, but now I really enjoy using it.

What about you?

 

Do you use writing devices, either consciously or unconsciously?

 

What are they?

Characters And Creative Control

Writers always get questions about their characters and whether or not they’re based on a real person, someone the author knows. The answer is often that the characters are a combination of personalities of different people the author knows. It’s definitely safer not to name names, but I have a few that I want to share.

In my Indigo Eady Paranormal Mystery series, my main character, Indigo Eady, is half English, half Native American. It was no accident that she shares a last name and characteristics (black hair, blue eyes, similar ancestry) with my grandmother, Juanita Gwendolyn Eady. My grandmother was Scotch-Irish and Cherokee. Having raised my sister and me a lot of the time, she was a big influence in my life. I wanted to honor her, and that was the best way I knew how. I also have a church in Givin' Up The Ghost named after my mom, and a bartender with the name and physical attributes of my dad.

Now take my character Badger, the love interest of Indigo Eady. I knew he had to be cute, but a little scruffy. And real; kind and tough, but with a little hot-headedness in order to get by in the world. He had to be like Sam (Jared Padalecki) on Supernatural.

 

Then there’s Chance, from A Guilty Ghost Surprised. He’s a ghost dog that hangs out at a haunted mansion to protect the ghostly owner, who can't move on. The character Chance is based on my daughter’s real life dog, also named Chance. Of course I sought her permission to use Chance in the role. It might have been strange to see your dog on the cover of a book, not to mention between the pages, as a ghostie.

Luckily, I have an awesome illustrator, Corona Zschusschen, who understands my quirkiness with such things as putting my granddog on the cover of my book, and making Badger look like the hunky Sam.

 

Check out the likenesses from A Guilty Ghost Surprised on the left, compared to the photos on the right:

 

Jared Padalecki photo courtesy of Creative Commons

The illustration of Badger is uniquely him, but with the similar facial features of Jared Padalecki. Much as I'd like Jared/Sam on my cover, there could be some copyright issues if the likenesses were too similar.

 

With the illustration of Chance, I had no copyright worries. As you can see, it's completely Chance, facial features and all.

 

Creative control of this sort is the best part of being an indie author; we can put loved ones in our books and on the covers.

 

What about you?

Do you base characters on
people (or pets) you know?

Symbolism, Friends And What's In Your Trunk?

I had the wonderful opportunity recently to meet up with a couple of authors from the Untethered Realms group, Angela Brown and Graeme Ing, here in San Diego. Over Mexican food and margaritas, the conversation turned naturally to writing and sequels. I was asked if my main character, Indigo Eady, would ever unpack her trunk.

 

For those who haven’t read Givin’ UpThe Ghost, Indigo had just lost her father and was forced to move from America to England to live with an uncle and cousin. She’s welcomed warmly into their home, and yet she refused to unpack the trunk that holds all her belongings. She hasn’t accepted the death of her father emotionally, although she knows intellectually that he’s dead and not coming back. But she’s quite insistent that it isn’t her home and pointblank refuses to unpack, even after six months.

That got me to thinking about symbolism. I acknowledged that Indigo’s trunk is really my trunk. I once lived in a house for five years without hanging a single picture on the wall. It’s true! My reason? It wasn’t my home. (don't judge me, LOL!)

You probably don’t want me to get started on what’s inside my trunk, either. But let’s just say that every once in a while I’ll take something out. Turn it over, study it. Once in a great while, when I’m ready, I’ll toss something in the garbage. But mostly, it goes back in the trunk until I decide to take it out and examine it again. Trust me, there are some things in that trunk that only God and I know about. Those things will never see the light of day.

Here's another example. Are there any Friends fans out there? If you’re a fan, you know that Monica is the quintessential perfectionist. Everything she does has to be perfect--and clean--and organized. There’s one episode after she and Chandler got together. He moved in with her and of course he accepted her organizational quirkiness. But Monica had one locked closet and nobody was allowed to see inside. So of course Chandler broke in and got the shock of his life: a hoarder’s closet, stuffed with clutter and crap and a monolithic mess that Monica would never have allowed out in the open. Chandler teased her that she was really a messy person at heart. Monica told him he wasn't supposed to see it. She claimed that while organizing, the stuff in the closet didn't fit into any category.

 

And so symbolism is a way of addressing an issue but still keeping it at a safe distance, or even hidden. Sometimes it's conscious, sometimes not.

 

We're human. I think we all have our issues (I mean, someone who won't hang pictures? WTH?!), and that we all have a trunk or closet or somewhere we hide the crap we don't want anyone to see. 

These issues spill over into our writing.

Maybe it's even the reason we write.

 

Writing and Symbolism are perfect ways to hide things in plain sight.  

Do you use symbolism in your writing?

Care to share?

 

Dare I ask if you have a trunk or closet?