WRITING OUR WAY INTO (AND OUT OF) DARK FORESTS

Using deep characterization for propulsive storytelling.

- JENNIFER GIVHAN

Send up the red flare from the dense, dark forest if you too beat yourself up when you should be writing because sometimes you become so mired in the muck of drafting-even if you've been writing for years and what pours onto the page from the thick scrub is ugly. Or hazy. Or banal. Or all three.

My hands are raised high (in relentless beseeching) with you. You're not alone.

Recently, a reader asked how I steep the propulsive storylines of my novels with such poetry. How do I keep readers turning the page while turning potent phrases and engrossing meditations along the way?

In answer to their question, I reminded myself what it takes to blend evocative, chilling prose with a propulsive plotline.

GET LOST FIRST

We have to get lost in the forests. We have to allow for the ugliness. We have to invite it, even. In the early drafts, your characters may reveal themselves to you in flashes, whispers, or echoes as you chase them through the trees. They might be lost in the mist themselves. It's OK not to see them yet through the fog. That's part of the process. Keep listening and following, and as their voice becomes more distinct, you'll learn how to listen deeper, and their story will begin to unravel before you.

We're often lost in the forest for months before that path out becomes clear, sometimes years. And yet, when we finally find our way through, it feels like redemption. The transformation in my stories often comes from the most vulnerable places because I journey with (and within) my protagonist. We become inseparable at times. And when the story ends, I must wrestle myself free and open my heart to another character who needs me, and I them.

In my newest novel, River Woman, River Demon, this meant following Eva as she tries to uncover the drowning in the river beside her house and its uncanny parallel to her best friend's drowning when they were teenagers: