Guest Blogger - Layla Lawlor

[jana_denardo]

Hi Everyone, let's welcome Layla. She's been here before and should have been here last night but I messed up. My apologies. I think at this point Layla knows I'm scatterbrained and was busy making myself nuts last night. So a little delayed but here none the less, here's Layla:

Hi Jana - thanks for having me back! I'm currently blog touring to talk about my novella Homespun, released Sept. 18 from Dreamspinner Press. During my blog tour, which runs 'til Oct. 8, I'm giving away a handmade scarf, knit or crocheted by me specially for you, in a style and yarn color that you get to pick! (This would also be a great holiday gift for someone else!) More details here - you just need to comment on any of the posts in the tour to be entered.

Today's topic is a bit of an odd one: invading characters' privacy. I wonder if I'm the only author who struggles with this. It's silly, I know. They're fictional! And yet that was something I wrestled with while I was working on Homespun, especially during the revisions.

Every new project is a whole new process for me, and in Homespun's case, I ended up fleshing it out by several thousand words on the revisions. For the most part, I was not adding new scenes so much as expanding areas that had been sketchy the first time around, such as the characters' thoughts on each other and their situation.

But then there are the sex scenes.

I don't necessarily have a problem writing sex. I've written it before. I really struggled with it in this novella, though, maybe more than anything else I've written. I really wasn't sure whether to fade to black, or to include some sex, or a lot of sex ... I think in most other projects I've worked on, it's been fairly evident to me from the story's tone and plot if there would be sex, and if so, how much.

This one, though? OMG. For the most part, writing the rough draft was comparatively effortless; this story just fell out of my head, maybe more so than anything I've written. But it made up for it by fighting me on the revisions.

I didn't actually write any sex in the first draft. The main reason that I added more explicit sex to the finished version is because the novella felt unfinished without it. When I went back and reread the rough draft, it really felt like I was shying away from some of the messier aspects of the story: digging into the characters' heads, their pasts, their bedrooms.

A writer can't be shy.

But I still felt it. Possibly it's the shyness that many younger women feel in the presence of older men, because both of the protagonists are quite a bit older than me. (Well, Kerry's not that much older. Owen is old enough to be my dad.) I tried the tactic of avoidance, but that just felt like I was ... well, avoiding. An author can't afford to be shy, or to avoid writing things because she feels like she's intruding. So I did research (not enough; a gay friend caught a major oopsie that I'd made regarding condom-dissolving lubricant, and saved me from embarrassment) and buckled down and wrote those parts because they needed to be written -- and I feel the story is much stronger for it.

I'd be interesting to know what others thing about this. If you're a writer, have you struggled with scenes that felt too personal to the characters to stick your authorial camera into their lives? (It doesn't necessarily have to be sex-related; sometimes other things are far more intimate.) As a reader, are there times when you feel like an author is oversharing -- or perhaps going the opposite way, and failing to show you everything that you, as a reader, want to see?




Homespun
by Layla M. Wier

Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novella/104 pages
Release Date: Sept. 18, 2013

Blurb:
For twenty years, Owen Fortescue, a down-to-earth farmer in upstate New York, has had an on-again, off-again relationship with volatile New York City artist Kerry Ruehling. Now that same-sex marriage is recognized in New York, Owen wants to tie the knot. But Kerry responds to the proposal with instant, angry withdrawal. Owen resolves to prove to Kerry that, regardless of the way his family of origin has treated him, family ties don’t necessarily tie a man down. With help from his grown daughter, Laura, who loves them both, Owen hopes to convince Kerry that his marriage proposal isn’t a trap, but a chance at real love.

Buy at Dreamspinner Press:
here

About Layla:
Layla M. Wier is the romance pen name of artist and writer Layla Lawlor. She was born in a log cabin in rural Alaska and grew up thirty miles from towns, roads, electricity, and cars. These days, she lives in Fox, a gold-rush mining town on the highway north of Fairbanks, Alaska, with her husband, dogs, and the occasional farm animal. Their house is a log cabin in a birch and aspen forest. Wolves, moose, and foxes wander through the front yard. During the short, bright Arctic summer, Layla enjoys gardening and hiking, and in the winter, she writes, paints, and draws.

Where to find Layla:
Blog: http://laylawier.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Layla_in_Alaska
Tumblr: http://laylainalaska.tumblr.com

Stops and topics on the Homespun blog tour (Sept. 16-Oct. 8):
Monday, Sept. 16: Zahra Owens (http://zahraowens.com/) - autumn
Tuesday, Sept. 17: Tali Spencer (http://talismania-brilliantdisguise.blogspot.com/) - sharing passions
Wednesday, Sept. 18: RELEASE DAY! Party at the Dreamspinner Press blog!
Thursday, Sept. 19: Charley Descoteaux (http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/) - location scouting in central New York
Friday, Sept. 20: Chris T. Kat (http://christikat.blogspot.com/) - interview

Monday, Sept. 23: Charlie Cochet's Purple Rose Tea House (http://purpleroseteahouse.charliecochet.com/) - doing research
Tuesday, Sept. 24: Helen Pattskyn (http://www.helenpattskyn.com/) - bisexuality in Homespun
Wednesday, Sept. 25: Garrett Leigh (http://garrettleigh.com/) - interview
Thursday, Sept. 26: Skylar Cates (http://skylarmcates.wordpress.com/) - rural life
Friday, Sept. 27: Madison Parker (http://madisonparklove.com/blog/) - interview + review

Monday, Sept. 30: Jessica Davies (http://jessicaskyedavies.blogspot.com/) - learning to spin, part 1
Tuesday, Oct. 1: Anne Barwell (http://anne-barwell.livejournal.com/) - learning to spin, part 2
Thursday, Oct. 3: Michael Rupered (http://rupured.com/) - writing respectfully from outside a subculture
Friday, Oct. 4: Jana Denardo (http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com/) - invading characters' privacy

Monday, Oct. 7: SL Huang (http://slhuang.com/) - interview
Tuesday, Oct. 8: PD Singer (http://pdsinger.com/) - central NY photo tour

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a sweet story!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

thanks for dropping by

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

:D :D

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

No worries, Jana! This week has been so nuts for me that I hadn't even noticed (should probably have dropped you a reminder email, but woops). Anyway, I really appreciate you having me back!

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

I assumed that when you didn't ask about it.

Not a problem. Happy to have you

[slhuang.livejournal.com]

Oy. I do the exact same thing! With some of my characters, I know there are things I'll never show (and which things those might be is different for all of them). And if anyone ever asked me about them, I think I'd say, "Hey! That's private, yo!" :D

But then there comes a time when the story needs it, but even thinking about it I'm wincing -- "Sorry! Sorry! I have to know -- sorry!"

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I know!!! I think you're right that there's a sort of sliding scale of appropriateness for different characters and different situations -- there are some characters for whom I'd show everything, and others where I'd choose to pull the curtain down. Theoretically, as writers, we shouldn't have anything off limits, but in practice it sometimes feels better to leave them a little privacy between the lines ...