Monday, June 22, 2015
Sometimes Pride can save lives.
Please take five seconds and read through Nancy's blog (it might help you and someone you love): http://www.alexncassidy.com/#!VISIBILITY-and-PRIDE-thoughts-from-authors/c1w54/55876b940cf25bae5cac7b9a
On Being Visibly Proud of All I Am, as a Writer.
I am a voracious reader. Books, stories, tales. They really matter to me. Genre and type do not.
I even love reading the cereal box.
Debating whether I was first a writer or reader is too much like the great chicken and egg debate—just pointless mental masturbation; but I believe I was first a reader inspired to write.
At first I didn’t care what I wrote. Anything was fine so long as I was telling the a story that gets at the heart of what it means to be human: a journey of growth.
I actually didn’t care about fame or visibility of any kind, but especially as a lesbian.
In my little heart of hearts, I don’t want who I am to matter to potential readers as much as I want the story I am telling to matter to readers.
But then I realized something very important, for myself as a reader, and in my profession as a writer . . . something I already knew from my work in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, but just failed to translate to other domains of my life . . . stories matter the most to us when we identify and empathize with the people involved.
For some readers, like me, that probably means identifying with the characters; but for other readers, maybe many other readers, that could mean identifying with the author.
While this doesn’t have to happen on any demographic level, including sexuality, it does have to happen on a genuine level. Even if I don’t necessarily view my sexuality as all that important to my personal identity or career, society does. The world does. And that great external force of perception means my sexuality shapes my experience on a genuinely visible level.
I even love reading the cereal box.
Debating whether I was first a writer or reader is too much like the great chicken and egg debate—just pointless mental masturbation; but I believe I was first a reader inspired to write.
At first I didn’t care what I wrote. Anything was fine so long as I was telling the a story that gets at the heart of what it means to be human: a journey of growth.
I actually didn’t care about fame or visibility of any kind, but especially as a lesbian.
In my little heart of hearts, I don’t want who I am to matter to potential readers as much as I want the story I am telling to matter to readers.
But then I realized something very important, for myself as a reader, and in my profession as a writer . . . something I already knew from my work in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, but just failed to translate to other domains of my life . . . stories matter the most to us when we identify and empathize with the people involved.
For some readers, like me, that probably means identifying with the characters; but for other readers, maybe many other readers, that could mean identifying with the author.
While this doesn’t have to happen on any demographic level, including sexuality, it does have to happen on a genuine level. Even if I don’t necessarily view my sexuality as all that important to my personal identity or career, society does. The world does. And that great external force of perception means my sexuality shapes my experience on a genuinely visible level.
As such, my lesbian voice as an author and in the representation of my characters, is much more than a matter of my pride. Visibly living that pride is the only way I can create a story genuine and artful enough to inspire empathy and spread compassion.
Being visibly proud of my sexuality and telling stories involving characters like me may help others connect to my stories and find what they need. I have so many LGBTQ friends who need evidence that someone excepts them, that someone is proud to know them. Some of my friends were disowned by their families and left homeless as teenagers. Some gave their lives with honor to serve their country and were buried without family at their gravesides. Some were passed over for promotions because their organizations were embarrassed by their identity, and one was shot because she looked a little too butch. I now realize that when I claim with pride my LGBTQ status, when I use my lesbian identity to proudly create art, I actively help put an end to these horrors. I change the salient story to one of a lesbian author, writing about LGBTQ characters who grow beyond hate to find health and happiness.
I hope you will join me in being proud of your identity and above all, in being proud of our ability to accept and love many identities. Please, be proud enough to share who you are, because someone else out there (a reader, another writer, a musician, a mother, a sister) needs to know you too, if we are all ever going to discover how love saves the world.
Being visibly proud of my sexuality and telling stories involving characters like me may help others connect to my stories and find what they need. I have so many LGBTQ friends who need evidence that someone excepts them, that someone is proud to know them. Some of my friends were disowned by their families and left homeless as teenagers. Some gave their lives with honor to serve their country and were buried without family at their gravesides. Some were passed over for promotions because their organizations were embarrassed by their identity, and one was shot because she looked a little too butch. I now realize that when I claim with pride my LGBTQ status, when I use my lesbian identity to proudly create art, I actively help put an end to these horrors. I change the salient story to one of a lesbian author, writing about LGBTQ characters who grow beyond hate to find health and happiness.
I hope you will join me in being proud of your identity and above all, in being proud of our ability to accept and love many identities. Please, be proud enough to share who you are, because someone else out there (a reader, another writer, a musician, a mother, a sister) needs to know you too, if we are all ever going to discover how love saves the world.
 |
| "Lacey and Laura's wedding bouquets" -AzulOx Photography |
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The first public reading PANIC
In a few short weeks, I will be reading a five minute excerpt from my novel, A Walk Away.
While this is really exciting and should be fun, I am concerned with reading well. Five minutes can be a long time to read out loud--and no one wants to listen to the most boring parts of a book...so I'm trying to choose. Chapter 14 has been suggested since it has some witty dialogue and reveals one of the explanations to the book's title. Chapter 8 has also been suggested since it features the scene where the two main characters meet for the first time.
1) The Style Variables like pitch, pace, inflection, clarity, and accent.
2) The Content Variables like how much dialogue, action, symbolism, meaningfulness, and closure or emotional bait the excerpt features.
3) The Context Variables like how much and what kinds of set up or explanation I should offer before reading.
While this is really exciting and should be fun, I am concerned with reading well. Five minutes can be a long time to read out loud--and no one wants to listen to the most boring parts of a book...so I'm trying to choose. Chapter 14 has been suggested since it has some witty dialogue and reveals one of the explanations to the book's title. Chapter 8 has also been suggested since it features the scene where the two main characters meet for the first time.
But I'd rather hear from readers... what makes a read excerpt draw you into wanting to read the book most?
I figure there are three main sets of variables I should attend to (this is where the social scientist in me geeks out):1) The Style Variables like pitch, pace, inflection, clarity, and accent.
2) The Content Variables like how much dialogue, action, symbolism, meaningfulness, and closure or emotional bait the excerpt features.
3) The Context Variables like how much and what kinds of set up or explanation I should offer before reading.
Being largely tone-deaf and somewhat shy, I struggle the most with the first set regarding style--but I'd really like to hear what different readers like the most in each realm of variables. So let me know what you think?
And if you want to hear a practice sample for comparison to your ideal, or if it is easier for you to listen to me read and then critique than it is to just state what you like, then give a listen to this short reading from the book on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/lacey-schmidt/hookedmp3 |
| Yes, the cat helps! |
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