I think I've pinpointed my POV issue.
While at the nursing home the other day, I borrowed two Danielle Steele books, Full Circle (read several years ago) and Mirror Image (not read until now). I began reading DS's books in college, with my first one being Remembrance. I've read nearly thirty of her books in the past 25 years, and started writing my own in 1985.
One of my problems with getting published is I tend to head-hop, which a glaring no-no to some publishers and editors. If you're not familiar with the concept, and I know my blogmates are, it's when the POV shifts every paragraph, rather than in scene breaks. But now I know where I got the idea.
DS does this! For the first time EVER, I read a book with my 'edit' cap on, and spotted many instances when she would start out in one POV, and halfway down the page, switch to being inside another character's head. I also spotted similarities in the way she would 'glide through time' in a single chapter, much like the same way I wrote the final chapter of Elicia's story.
So while it's nice to finally understand where I got my writing style, my voice is definitely NOT hers (unless you count the frequency in my use of the ellipsis, lol!).
I have several of her books in storage, although J has borrowed several and not returned. Some of the more memorable DS books are:
Remembrance
Passion's Promise
The Crossing
Full Circle
Family Album
Secrets
Wanderlust
Kaleidescope
Zoya
Star
Daddy
Message From Nam
No Greater Love (I made the unfortunate choice of trying to read this one immediately after the birth of my first child; it made me cry, so I had to wait several months before reading the rest of it!)
Lightening
Five Days in Paris
Those are the ones where the characters/plot jump into my mind just by reading the title. What about you? Have you discovered a certain author's writing style which influenced you?
Left Out of Yesterday's Post:
Where were you forty years ago yesterday?
In my grandmother's photo album, there were several pictures of my 3-yr-old self, standing in front of Grandma's TV. My stuffed green snake is draped over the cabinet, and I am 'posing'. I always thought Grandma was taking pictures of her adorable grandchild.
When she died in 1995, that album came out again, and I realized the pictures were really of the lunar landing. I just happened to be clowning around!
On The To-Do List for Today:
-Vacuum the floors
-Find my blue and white pj pants; they've mysteriously disappeared. I'm wondering if I accidentally tossed them down the laundry chute??
-Start cooking the chicken in the slow cooker and thaw the biscuit dough
-Write another two pages
-Drive K to football camp so I can have the van
-Leave instructions for S to finish dinner
-Laptop Society
-Pick up K from camp and drive him home.
-Bathe W (or send to shower with K)
Want to read a crazy dream? Go over to Kelly's blog. You're not gonna believe what came out of her brain last night!
3 comments:
Funny, when my gram died I took her DS books, which made me decide to be a writer. I started with Star and gobbled up about 30 more. I haven't read her in a long time, but I'm sure that's where my head hopping came from too! :)
Hm. This is interesting. Unlike a lot of writers, I didn't cut my teeth on Danielle Steele. I'd never read a single one of her books although I almost always liked the mini-series stuff. I picked up one of hers for the heck of it a few years ago and I couldn't get passed the first couple of chapters because the head hopping was so bad. I haven't tried to read her since.
See there? The head hopping doesn't bother me; I have no trouble keeping characters straight. Is that the general issue? Too confusing for the reader? Or am I still missing something?
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