We all have our weaknesses, but I'm not
talking about craving dark chocolate or
cheesecake. I'm referring to a
personality weakness, a particular aptitude I have which is probably not good.
While finishing my bachelor's degree in
education and biology (at age thirty), I inadvertently signed up for a class
that sounded like classroom management. It appealed to me, not only for the
content, but because a man I knew taught the class. In my thinking, if this
gentleman, who had been a military man, taught anything about managing people,
he would undoubtedly be an expert.
However, when the class began and each
of us had an opportunity to introduce ourselves, I was startled by the reasons
for taking the class. Most were males, and each once spoke of needing to learn
more about "how to be a school principal and keep order."
No! Not me. I had no intention of being
a school principal.
At the end of the first session, I spoke
with the professor.
"I think I should drop this course.
It's not for me, and I don't know how I misinterpreted the class
description."
He answered, "No, Celia, you don't
need to drop. You will find the information and discussions valuable in
managing students. Plus, I'd like to have you in the class."
I remained.
Throughout the teaching and discussions,
in which each of us spoke in response to a particular scenario, I thought I was
doing really well. However, half-way through the semester, this professor spoke
to me privately. What did he want? To point out my major weakness.
My greatest weakness, as it turned out,
was "giving individuals the benefit of the doubt too easily."
Really? What's wrong with this? In my
mind, nothing, but he tried to explain that for whatever infraction a student
might incur, I had the tendency to say, "I'll let it go this time" or
"I know you didn't intend to break a rule or act inappropriately, so I'd
like you to think about what you did."
He said, "When I heard your answers
in class, I imagined you patting the student on the head, saying, 'now, now,
let's be nice. Please don't do this again.'"
I taught high school students for
twenty-something years. Yes, I gave many the benefit of the doubt. In some
cases, there was no doubt the student had to face some kind of punishment for
his severe infraction.
It wasn't that I believed the story a
student--usually a male--told me, it was that I weighed the costs of seeking
punishment against the value of discussing the problem with the young man.
My professor and most of the men in the
class saw things in black and white. You break a rule--you pay the price.
What does this have to do with writing
romance novels? Or writing in general? Probably nothing, except it might come
in handy when writing a scene that includes some sort of crime or situation.
In the WIP, TEXAS DREAMER, Emilie
McDougal King must take over the ranch business and the drilling of a possible
oil well, and she's facing men who aren't too happy. Her husband's life was
threatened and he is injured such that he must stay in bed and medicated. She's
not a particularly soft-hearted woman, but she has no taste for being harsh,
either. Instead, she uses charm--as much as she knows how--and compliments the
men on their willingness to carry on and take orders from her.
But along in the story, another
secondary character tries to harm her behind her back. In this case, she
stiffens her backbone and does not give an inch. No benefit of the doubt for
this person.
In conclusion, I think our characters
sometimes act as we do in real life.
I think I'm an Emilie McDougal King. I
don't jump to conclusions, but I don't let anyone run over me, either. In other
words, nothing is black or white.
But most of those men and the professor
in the class saw the world as just that--black or white, right or wrong, no in-between.
It was a lesson well-learned for me.
The Wizard of Oz was released in1939, a
year before I was born. The movie was a wonderful cinematic event, a movie that began in black and white and
changed to color. It also included a perfect set of characters, as we all still
know and love today. It received an Oscar nomination for
Best Picture of 1939, but it lost out to the grand Civil War epic, Gone
With the Wind.
Today, in September 2013, seventy-four
years later, film producers have converted The Wizard of Oz to 3D. Frankly, I
don't want to watch anything in 3D.
Why mess with a perfect movie?
At around age ten or eleven, I think,
Mother allowed me and my younger sister go to the movie theater to see The
Wizard of Oz. Yes, it was several years old, as was I, but what did that
matter? Today, the seventy-four year old movie still holds the allure it did
back then. Making it into 3D won't make
it any better.
When my little sister and I settled in
the theater and waited for the movie to begin, I couldn't wait to see a film in
color. Before this, we had gone to the Rose Theater to watch Saturday Afternoon
Matinees starring Western cowboys--Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Lash LaRue, Hopalong
Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger.
The movie began with a grand entrance,
but all in black and white. I watched with great intensity, waiting for the
color to begin. But it didn't. After a while, through my near-sighted eyes, I
squinted. Maybe I saw a little color.
I punched my little sister's arm.
"Do you see color?" No, she said. I told her , squint your eyes. I
think I see color when I do that.
Well, we convinced each other this was
true. But when the real color came on the screen, I almost fell out of my seat.
From then on, I sat forward on the edge of the seat to make sure I didn't miss anything.
However, being a natural born fraidy
cat, the flying monkeys scared me silly, and I curled up in the seat and closed
my eyes.
Many years later, when our son and
daughter-in-law brought the grandsons to Texas, I rented the movie The Wizard
of Oz. I think they were seven and six. I let them drag old sleeping bags and pillows into
the living room so they could sit or lie down and watch the movie. Their
dad--our son--got on the floor with them, and I popped the video into the
player.
The younger one lay down besides his daddy and watched every minute of
the movie. But the older one became frightened right away, and he chose to
stand behind me in my recliner and watch from afar. When those flying monkeys
came screeching out, the child ran around into the dining room and hid in a
corner. Talk about a fraidy cat! I tried to get him to sit with me, but he'd
have none of it.
Imagine the flying monkeys in 3D.
I'd be the one to hide in a corner.
I just don't understand re-making any
classic movie. An old black and white should not be colorized. A silent movie
should not be made into a "talkie." And a excellent classic such as
The Wizard of Oz should not be in 3D.
Next thing I know, the movie people will
colorized all those old black and white Westerns, and add 3D.
They've already gone too far when they
allowed Johnny Depp to be Tonto.
And that's a wrap.
Whether
an author or not, we all face moments of indecision. Sometimes these moments
stretch into long periods of time.
~*~Go
to work, or be a stay-at-home-parent.
~*~Keep
the old minivan a couple more years, or buy a new SUV-After all, life is short.
~*~Buy a new dress for the anniversary party, or
wear last year's--who would remember anyway?
~*~Stay
with the old job for security, or launch into unknown territory to do something
you love.
Some
decisions are trivial and some are life-changing.
Consider,
though, decisions based on a problem
that is purely personal. These decisions won't change my life or destroy the
way I live.
At
this moment, my problem concerns my writing and which direction I'll take. I
could do one or the other, or perhaps both eventually. But for the moment, only
one can take center stage.
My
first novel was Western Historical Romance, and so were the next three. Writing
this genre is fun, almost like fantasy, and filled with action.
But
along the way, I wrote several contemporary romances. While I enjoyed writing
those, I couldn't wait to return to westerns with a romance set in the Old
West. Since the return to this genre, I've written six novellas, and almost
have a full-length finished--another "Texas book."
Now,
I'm at the crossroads again.
I
have made one decision--that is to write novella length for a while, whether
contemporary or western historical. If I yearn for prints, I can always put
them in a collection, as I did with the Dime Novels--titled Lone Star Dreaming,
or put them in a boxed set.
Here
are my two possibilities:
I.
Western Historical Romance:
Mail
Order Bride Series titled "Trinity Hill Brides." First one concerns a
man eaten up with guilt and has separated himself from the community to live
and survive in the hills alone. A citizen of the town, a wealthy, elderly lady,
takes it upon herself to order a bride for him. I could use the same lady as
the source for other brides.
Question:
Is this category of romances still viable? Do Mail Order Bride Series still
sell? I have loved every one I've read over the years, but are authors still
using the vehicle? Are readers still reading them?
II. Contemporary Romance:
Small
Town Texas Series titled "Welcome to Del Rey, Texas." First
one--maybe--is now titled Lily Marie, but should be something else--concerns a
young university professor in a small college. She is rather prim and proper,
and her best friend is another professor. They teach the same thing, so they
spend time together. He's somewhat of a nerd, but they get along well. Enter
the new football coach in town, and he moves into the small empty house across
the street. Now, her life changes.
Question:
Are
novellas selling as well as I think they are?
Of
the two options above, what is your opinion of which would draw the most
readers?
If
you're an author, do you write in more than one genre?
If
you're a reader, do you stay with one genre, or cross over to another some of
the time?
~*~
Thank you for visiting my blog. Comments are not only welcome, they are wanted!
Celia Yeary
Romance...and a little bit 'o
Texas
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/celiayeary
My Website
My
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Sweethearts of the West-Blog
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Note: Photo of Couple: Connie Breton and Kyle Chandler from "Friday Night Lights."
