Jeanne Kisacky

About Jeanne Kisacky

Jeanne Kisacky trained to be an architect before going back to her first love--writing. She studied the history of architecture, has written and published nonfiction, and has taught college courses. She is the author of the recently published book, Rise of the Modern Hospital: An Architectural History of Health and Healing, 1870-1940. She currently fights valiantly to keep her writing time despite the demands of a day-job, a family, and a very particular cat.

What Keeps Your Characters up at Night?

March 1, 2019 By Jeanne Kisacky 11 Comments

I’ve been having insomnia again. I don’t know if it’s an integral part of a creative life, or the consequence of too much stress, but I know that this is a problem shared by many writers.

With me, it’s not just a matter of not being able to sleep, it’s a matter of not being able to direct my mind away from specific worries, whether immediate or distant, specific or abstract. Those thoughts become loops, spinning around the same problem, without resolution.

One night recently, I got sick of worrying about the state of the world, and managed to refocus the thought loop onto analyzing the problem of insomnia itself. Why wasn’t I sleeping? What was I thinking about? What was it that kept my mind churning when it needed to rest? Were they things beyond or within my control? Were they all the same? Were they about the past? The present? The future?

Then, of course, I did what writers who are stuck in a manuscript that has flat and bare spots do with everything—I turned it into a question about my story problems.

I asked myself what would keep my characters awake at night? What would their 3 am thought loops be? That line of questioning proved to be a novel and fruitful strategy for resolving the flat and bare spots in my story.

For me, the insomnia-fueled thought loops start with a focus on specific problems for which there is no clear or immediate solution (leaking pipes; tensions with the teenager; job insecurity). Those specific problems tend to fall into a few, emotionally resonant categories: things I wish I had or hadn’t done or things I wish weren’t happening in the larger world or in my small portion of it. There is obviously regret involved in these thought loops. There is also frustration, a feeling of helplessness in my own lack of action on or ability to influence problems.

The insomniac in me, however, turns those problems into small kernels at the center of spiraling worry loops which progressively churn in memories of related past traumas or fears of future catastrophes. This incorporation of traumatic backstory and future fears encapsulates a current (and initially soluble) difficulty in layers and layers of insoluble worry.

That layering of thought was also a gold mine of understanding who I was–not just in the moment, but in my past, and in the future. The layers of worry laid bare the things from my past that still bothered me; unwanted behaviors that I still had not purged; events that I had still not accepted; fears and weaknesses that I had not conquered. It showed the worst of me, not just the parts that I liked to shine up and present in the light of day.

What if my characters had insomnia? What current moment would be the one that woke them up and occupied their thoughts? What kind of regrets and frustrations would tinge that current moment? What could I learn from them about how they thought about themselves? How would that impact their actions in the daytime? [Read more…]

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Non-Verbal Communication and Backstory

October 8, 2018 By Jeanne Kisacky 15 Comments

My last post discussed nonverbal communication (gestures, expressions, posture) as a means of making scenes stronger, less repetitive, and more immediate. This blog will explore how non-verbal communication provides a means of incorporating backstory seamlessly and integrally into a work of fiction.

Backstory–where the characters have come from, what they have experienced, how they have successfully or unsuccessfully reacted to their past context–is an essential, critical, and desperately difficult element of successful storytelling. Done poorly—in ‘data dumps’, tell-all prologues, or extensive and jarring flashbacks–it pulls the reader backwards, out of the motion of the story and into a closed off past. Done well—integrated into the story–it pulls the past forward, providing clues to the way a character’s past experiences and disappointments influence present choices, actions, and mistakes.

How to integrate backstory into the story present is neither obvious nor easy. There are many writerly devices to do so—through direct communication (characters discussing the past, a character’s internal self-examination, or a narrator’s overview); through discovered records (letters, diaries, photographs), through story consequences from past actions (scars, physical injuries, institutionalization). Many of these devices require a good deal of finesse to make them a believable part of the story rather than a ‘plant.’ Would those characters really have had that conversation about the past? How convenient that the letter explaining everything was found within two pages of the conclusion. Readers are smart, and any time these writerly devices start to feel like authorial manipulation—a lazy means of communicating story information–rather than an integral part of the story, the reader loses a little faith.

Nonverbal communication–which is based on learned, repeated, or automatic responses developed from past experiences–provides a powerful story tool for connecting the present to the past in a manner that can minimize this sense of manipulation. Nonverbal communication offers immediate, visceral information to the reader; often information that the character would not willingly tell; and always information that brings the past into the present. This makes it possible for a writer to incorporate backstory as a part of the present story action, without resorting to exposition, explanation, or ‘telling.’

When a nonverbal reaction is normal, when it matches expectations, it is close to invisible. When it is unexpected or inappropriate it is glaringly visible and creates powerful story questions. Readers (and other characters in the story) instinctively understand that anomalous reactions require examination and explanation. Imagine a character whose reaction to a friend’s tear-filled apology is narrowed eyes and crossed arms. Why did she do that? The reader will typically assume that the answer lies in the character’s past–that at some point her unconventional reaction was a successful response, not an awkward one.

Emojis (which are literally a graphic alphabet of non-verbal communication) demonstrate the visceral power of inappropriate nonverbal response. Have you ever left the ‘wrong’ emoji in reaction to a text or a post? A thumbs up on a friend’s announcement of a deceased pet? A crying emoji when everyone else’s emoji is angry? Have you ever felt like you need to explain that discrepancy? Or delete it? Or edit it? That is the power of the unexpected response.

[Read more…]

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Non-Verbal Communication in Writing

June 11, 2018 By Jeanne Kisacky 31 Comments

The last time I edited some of my work, I was dismayed to discover how many times my characters smiled, sighed, or scowled and how infrequently they used any other gestures. What, I thought, if my characters didn’t just smile, sigh, and scowl? What if they clapped hands and skipped around the room beaming? Or thumped down with a huge outrush of air, to settle in for the long tedious wait? Or leaned threateningly in towards the bully, elbows out, legs stiffened, features frozen? What if my characters could gain a much more nuanced, much more expressive range of gestures and emotions?

As I contemplated fancying up my emotional descriptions, I remembered Keith Cronin’s sage advice about pretentious words and had a reality check. Was I just getting carried away with word-love again?

Then I adopted a former stray dog, and my eyes were opened. She entered the house fully formed, with her own expectations, habits, and history. All I had to go on to figure out what she wanted or needed were her facial expressions, subvocalizations, and posture. I learned the subtle nuances of one dog ear raised, a short whine, a long whine, a big sigh. Figuring out what she was trying to ‘tell’ me had a big payoff (no messes, less chewing of items, a happy dog). This close observation became a habit, and I started watching people in everyday conversations.

Just how much of what is ‘said’ does not occur through words is astonishing. Researchers have estimated that more than half of communication (estimates range from 65% to 90% by various investigators) is non-verbal. The same words will mean different things depending on tone of voice, accompanying facial expression, posture and position of the speaker, even clothing and appearance. First impressions happen within 1/10^th of a second. Or less. And they are mostly based on non-verbal communication.

There has been a lot written on non-verbal communication–even Charles Darwin wrote a book about it. (Links to a few more recent studies can be found at the end of this blog.) A lot of current research appears in psychology studies, an equally large amount appears in guides to business success, since non-verbal communication is a crucial part of making presentations and deals. I found surprisingly little written on the glorious possibilities it offers for writers of fiction. A simple summary of the characteristics of non-verbal communication reads like a checklist of strategies for improving flat scenes:

Non-verbal communication:

Can use all of the senses, not just hearing.
Increases in importance in situations where meaning is uncertain or untrusted or when actions conflict with verbal messages.
Increases in importance and in nuance in emotional situations.

[Read more…]

A Well-Deserved Expression of Gratitude

March 9, 2018 By Jeanne Kisacky

It’s after he’s asked me the question for the third time that I stop following the developing plot line in my thoughts, mentally plug back in to reality, and replay the words that have been spoken repeatedly in my direction.

“Can you pick up dinner on the way home?”

It’s an easy question, with an easy answer, which I give him right away. He’s used to living with a writer, so instead of an argument about my lack of attention, he just gives me an eye roll and a heavy sigh because it took three tries to get that simple answer. Only three. Not five. Or six.

But then, he’s used to the perils of living with a writer.

All the writers that I know have supporters–the people who enable them emotionally, intellectually, professionally, and even financially–to continue the quest for a life as a writer. I’ve had many conversations with other writers that express gratitude for what these supporters provide. I’ve seen many similar posts in the WU Facebook group. Sometimes, however, it is good to acknowledge our supporters—whoever they may be—directly, and to recognize them for their patience and at times bottomless good humor. Below is my gratitude list, acknowledging what my supporters deal with.

If you see yourself in any of these situations, then please take the time today to say thank you to one of your supporters.

Could you Ask that Again?

There are periods in writing when the work takes over a writer’s consciousness. Some call it ‘immersion,’ or ‘flow,’ or being ‘in the moment’. Whatever you call it, it means a writer is more deeply enmeshed in his or her thoughts than in the surrounding physical world. This complicates planning daily existence. It is why my supporter asks me the same question three or more times before getting an answer. And that can get frustrating very quickly. Over the years we’ve learned to minimize arguments with a simple strategy. I tell my supporter when I’m at a stage that requires me to go deep and get lost in my fictive world. This lets him know that slow answers don’t mean I’m ignoring him and he can be more patient. Then he’s able to wait until I plug back in to reality before he asks the question. He isn’t repeating himself, and I’m not feeling neglectful.

Seesaw Confidence.

Friday, 9am. Comment to supporter—I just finished re-reading what I wrote last night and it’s brilliant. I’m genius. I’m the next great writer.

Friday, 9 pm. Comment to supporter—I just re-read what I wrote this morning and it’s dreck. I’ll never finish this. I can’t write. I should just give up this crazy idea and live a normal life. There’s nothing wrong with just living. [Read more…]

(Too) Close Third Person

November 17, 2017 By Jeanne Kisacky

I recently received a critique of a work in progress that suggested I alter the point of view (POV) from distant third person to close third person. It was good advice, but it meant facing another rewrite of what I thought was a completed manuscript. I told myself I could do it—after all, it would just be wordsmithing. I would leave the scenes as is, just go a little deeper into the characters’ psyches. I would not, of course, be rewriting entire scenes or large-scale plot details.

Before I started on the revision, I did a little research to augment my basic understanding of the differences between distant and close third person. I found numerous blogs and articles (links to some of the more helpful ones are at the end of the post) but I came away with three takeaways about close third person POV:

It uses third person pronouns, but moves the point of view from outside of the characters to inside of a single character’s psyche, where emotions, thoughts, and assumptions become available, and where tactile details and actions external to the character are filtered through that characters’ individual experience.
It tells the tale in the individual characters’ voice, not in the voice of a consistent narrator (or author).
In the last few decades it has been gaining in popularity and usage in publishing and writing.

I set a schedule to finish the editing in two months—one chapter every two to three days. Each chapter was told from a different characters’ viewpoint, so I expected the editing would simply bring more life to the book by making each character more vivid.

Editing the first few chapters went smoothly, but they were strong chapters with clear motivations, conflicts, and actions. Three weeks into the editing, I got to a part of the manuscript that was not as strong. In particular, I got to the chapters told from the viewpoint of a female protagonist who had played a decisive and active role in the opening chapters, but who then became passive in later chapters as events played out on larger stages. I had struggled with those chapters and that character’s passivity through many revisions, and while I had given her more to do, the chapters were still flat.

When I started rewriting those troubled chapters, the simple editing became something far more complex. It was as if the closer POV gave that character back the voice that had been suppressed, and she was not about to sit passively still while chaos rained down upon her. She became active, not passive. And every time she chose to do something rather than let things be done to her, she created new plot elements, entire storylines, new possibilities that would echo through the work to the end.

I stalled out on the editing because it was becoming far more change, and far more work than I had bargained for. At a loss to know whether to stop or to continue, I sat down and just re-read the manuscript, to figure out whether it was worth all the work. [Read more…]

The Weight of the Undone

June 29, 2017 By Jeanne Kisacky

I keep waiting.

For a moment when work isn’t so demanding. For an hour when the tween stops putting up full resistance to simple requests for help. For a day when negotiating the family schedule doesn’t take high-tech gadgets, extensive three-way discussion, and caving on core values as to what, exactly, constitutes a good meal. For a week when the to do list actually grows shorter.

Then, I think, when one of those miracles happens, I will have time. Time to enjoy my daughter’s fast-dwindling childhood. Time to travel. Time to read. Time to do everything that I’m not doing now because I have to do other things that other people have asked or paid me to do. But most of all, I think that when one of those miracles happens, then I will have time to write.

I’ve been an idiot. Waiting will not bring any of that to pass.

Life is a roller coaster. My life track is being formed in front of me one second before I careen onto it. I am always one track-second away from the final crash. And that, my dear fellow writers, is the only lull that our delicate beings ever encounter with absolute certainty. That lull does not bring us any closer to doing all the things that we are not making time for now.

A close family member recently experienced that final crash. That jarring tragedy proved without a doubt that death does not bring satisfying closure or tidy completion. Just a passing and a painful pileup of life debris left behind for the survivors. Going through that debris brought me face to face with the inevitability of the daily undone–the cumulative consequences of what an individual chooses to do, and not to do, every hour of the day.

In the aftermath, I have been facing down a life-altering truth. My entire existence has been built on rewarding myself with time to do what I love only after all the work is done. And, after having been raised to be responsible and to believe that hard work will lead to a payoff (someday), I have signed on for far more work than I can ever finish. If I keep on this path—waiting until the responsibilities are all met before there is freedom to do what I enjoy—then that huge mess, the weight of the undone, will hold all the fun. All the joy.

That means that the way to live is to make the time, not wait for it.

I am writing this blog as a means of coming clean, and of having others hear my intentions, and to keep me honest. I am about to alter my life. [Read more…]

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Post-Project Depression and Recovery

February 21, 2017 By Jeanne Kisacky

In the last year and a half I’ve gone through several project milestones on a non-fiction project–completing the manuscript, wading through final edits, poring over proofs, and waiting for it to be published. The milestones came with tight deadlines which were additional workloads on top of the usual day job and family schedule. Getting it all done was exhausting but surprisingly energizing. I had to work at an intense pace, with extreme focus. I got Efficient (Capital E intended) at getting through the daily requirements so I would have time for the manuscript. I jettisoned unnecessary commitments. I let my spouse take on more of the daily chores. As I immersed myself into the writing, inspiration seemed to come hand in hand with the overload. I saw more and more connections, reached better insights. And then, after each deadline passed, I was euphoric, hopeful, excited, . . . sad.

What? Sad? What was wrong with me? I had no reason, no excuse, no justification to be sad. And yet there was no denying it. After each deadline, instead of getting up early to write I was sleeping past the alarm. Instead of being efficient at getting through the day’s requirements so I could have time to write in the evening, nothing got done. Not even the day’s basic non-writing requirements. It was a low almost equivalent to the writer’s high I had been on.

My initial response was to invalidate the sadness. To tell myself how lucky I was and that I should get over it and on with life. Not surprisingly, that approach was an utter failure. It simply added guilt to the lethargy.

It took only a little research to discover I was not alone in my experience. In fact, according to a 1987 New York Times article by Charles Salzberg, I was in exalted company. Writers including Jack Kerouac, Joseph Heller, Larry McMurtry, and Joyce Carol Oates (among others) experienced versions of what Salzberg termed ‘postwritum depression.’ Allison Winn Scotch wrote about it on our very own Writer Unboxed. A google search for ‘post-publication depression’ offered a host of other articles–some satirical, many serious. This brought me to a very helpful realization. Post-project depression is NORMAL. It might even be necessary, a way to replenish the batteries before tackling the next project, the next deadline.

What would change if I called my experiences a post-project recovery instead of post-project depression? [Read more…]

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Protected: Illuminations

October 1, 2016 By Jeanne Kisacky

The Synergy of the First Draft, Whether You Trim or Embellish

July 20, 2016 By Jeanne Kisacky

AtlasSlaveandSofia24 — *Image credits at end of post.*

It is common advice that a completed first draft is far more important than the actual quality of that first draft. Writers are universally urged not to get sidetracked by editing while writing the first draft; all those imperfections will be resolved in the later drafts.

Completing the first draft is essential, but I think that this universal advice needs tempering. There is a synergy in first drafts that needs to be honored, a magic sense of focused story promise that informs the later shaping of the work. A ‘crappily written’ but complete first draft with that synergy is a joy to revise; a ‘crappily written’ first draft without that synergy is an aimless bog of revisions. The goal of any first draft is not just to type ‘The End’ on the last of a sequence of pages, but to have embedded within those sequential pages the details and clarity necessary to make subsequent revisions purposeful.

How to get to a synergistic first draft? Step 1: Know what your writing process is and honor it.

Two Basic Writing Processes—Trimming and Embellishing

In my experience writers, like artists, tend to fall into two basic writing patterns—those who trim and those who embellish. Michelangelo took solid blocks of stone and carved away the extraneous pieces; Degas added clay and materials bit by bit to an armature to build up the forms that were later cast into metal. Writers who are trimmers take a first draft and then tighten and cut until it is focused; writers who are embellishers generate a bare bones full draft and then flesh it out until it is complete.

These differing writing strategies—trimming or embellishing—have consequences for what kind of first draft is needed. [Read more…]

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Basic Tips for Writing an Email Query That Actually Gets Read, All the Way Through.

April 9, 2016 By Jeanne Kisacky

This post is not about what content to include in a query letter, it is about how it should ‘sound’–the professional tone the letter should take. It discusses how to address an overburdened agent, editor, or publisher in a manner that makes them consider you a potential business partner, not a supplicant, a novice, an egomaniac, or desperate. That increases the chances that your query letter will actually get read, perhaps even all the way through.

In my day job, I work with a researcher who gets dozens of unsolicited email requests daily—for a job, for a position, for help, for collaboration, for reviews, for submissions, for purchasing equipment, for endorsements, for public appearances. While these inquiries are not quite the same as author queries, after wading through mountains of these unsolicited requests on a daily basis, I’ve developed a short checklist about what to do and what not to do in basic letter-writing terms to keep your message from getting immediately rejected. If some of the suggestions I am about to offer seem commonsense, or even ludicrously obvious, all I will say is that I have abstracted all of the examples of what not to do from actual received inquiries.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes:

The goal of the query letter is not to tell the addressee what you want or need; the goal of the query letter is to convince the addressee why they might want to work with you. Don’t write about how badly you want to be a writer/make a living as a writer/become a bestseller/change the direction of literature. Lots of us want that (LOTS!). Stating it in a query letter simply puts extra social pressure on the reader, which does not increase the desire to continue reading.

First Sentences/Paragraphs.

The decision of whether or not to read a letter all the way through happens within seconds. The opening should sing, better than the fat lady ever did, and in your voice. The first sentences determine whether any more of the letter gets read. The first paragraph establishes whether you have done your research, are professional, would be someone interesting (and sane), someone who might be a good collaborator, and whether you can pitch your work, not your dreams.

Don’t start with a statement that you are seeking representation or publication. That is obvious. Put that statement (if you must) towards the end of the letter, as a confirmation of your intentions. I know, business letter writing 101 taught us that the opening should start with the goal of the correspondence. Times have changed, particularly for high-volume submission industries.
Don’t waste the first sentence on dry facts—manuscript length, your MFA, your local writer’s club membership, NaNoWriMo stats. If you must include them, put them later in the letter, and make it painfully brief.
Don’t treat the first sentence as a personal ‘introduction’ to you, the writer (unless you have already published well, often, and profitably). Think of it as a personal introduction to YOUR WORK. The personal relationship you hope to develop with the addressee would be a product of working together, professionally, on that specific project. Examples:
- Unhelpful Introductions: “I’m an x-year-old otherwise-employed person who has always dreamed of being a writer.”
- Helpful Introductions: “I’ve written a work on topic x, which I’ve been obsessed with for decades because it affects millions of people, and no one else has ever written the truth . . .”
Do start with the reason you are sending your work to this particular agent or publisher at this particular time. And make it a good, strong, well-researched reason. Show that you have done more than moved on to the next alphabetical listing in the agent directory with the same recycled letter, but that you know what the person represents, wants to represent, how that person wants to be approached, and that you have the product to back that knowledge up.
Do establish that your work is appropriate for and marketable in this moment in publishing time, that you are the only person capable of writing it as it should be written (and why), and that the manuscript is at a stage worthy of seeing the light of day.

[Read more…]

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The Newest Publishing Industry–YOU!

November 15, 2015 By Jeanne Kisacky

The transformation of publishing as a result of the proliferation of e-books and self-publishing is an inescapable topic these days. As well as making every writer face the devil’s choice of whether to go traditional or go independent, this transformation has also created a new spinoff industry–you—the writer and author. Providers of author services are a growth sector of the economy.

As the director of advertising on Writer Unboxed, I’ve been thinking about how the development of author services further changes the job of being an author, adding responsibility for being an educated consumer of those services, but also what it means for blog owners.

Writing advice and advisors have always been around, but now, as well as ‘how-to write’ guides, there are DIY manuals for designing your own cover, formatting your own book, editing your own book, managing your own promotion. If you don’t want to go the full DIY route, you can buy a bunch of author-targeted software or you could hire some help–book cover designers, editors, book promoters, book formatters, packaging agencies, book advertisers, booksellers, marketing advisors, story ‘doctors’, indexers. The list could go on.

Many of these services have existed for a long time, but the providers traditionally worked directly with publishers. Some of these services are brand new, a product of the new e-book revolution.

All of them would like to gain your attention. Yes yours, because you, dear Writer Unboxed reader, are their niche market. Their intended clientele. Their bread and butter. And, yes, sadly, in some instances, their mark.

As with any industry, many of these service providers offer a valuable service and expertise, care about their reputation, and operate according to above board business practices. As with any industry, where there is money to be had, some of the service providers are out for the money. By whatever means they can get it.

Gaining your attention, let alone your patronage, is not easy. In a business where the standard legend is that all it takes to get published (and make millions) is to crank out some content, generate a file, and put it up for sale at one of the on-line booksellers, these author service providers not only have to reach their prospective clientele, they have to convince them that hiring a service provider is more valuable than DIY’ing it. Most people know when they need a lawyer. Not everyone knows when to hire a developmental editor, content editor, copy editor, or proof reader. Whether to hire a book packager or software that will generate the proper format for an ebook ‘automatically’ is equally unknown. That means even legitimate service providers have to be aggressively persuasive about the need for their services. That can make their promotional tactics more extreme–promising more for less or using gimmicks to get the prospective client’s attention.

For the author, this makes it absolutely critical to do due diligence before hiring any service provider or buying any service product. Ask for referrals from previous clients. Ask for a sample of work before you buy the whole package. Be clear about what services are and are not being provided. Advertising is a means of getting your attention, it is not a contract, a promise, a certainty.

Writer Unboxed is front and center in this developing industry of author services. On a daily basis it delivers, for ‘free,’ high-calibre content on writing and publishing to an unusually active and involved writerly community. Since keeping a blog the size and complexity of Writer Unboxed up and running is far from ‘free,’ it also, on a daily basis ‘delivers’ that community to the author service providers who choose to advertise on its website. The advertising revenue offsets the cost of keeping the blog running. Win-win, right? [Read more…]

Musings on Genres, Shame, and Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

March 1, 2015 By Jeanne Kisacky

10208287 — Genre Wheel from Good Reads Wheel-A-Thon

I don’t tell my ‘academic’ colleagues that I write fiction. I don’t talk much about my non-fiction writing to my fiction-writing community. I LOVE e-readers because they don’t reveal whether I’m reading a steamy romance, popular history, angst-ridden literary novel, nineteenth-century article on hospitals, or an idiot’s guide to something technical that even my nine-year-old already knows how to do.

Why do I do this? Why hide my reading and writing habits? Am I ashamed of something? Scared? Yes, of course. But of what?

In switching between genres I’m scared of crossing social boundaries—of entering unknown, perhaps even unfriendly, territory; of not knowing the rules of acceptable behavior; of feeling like an outsider; of being judged, teased, criticized, left out . . . wait, this is starting to sound like conversations I’ve been having with my daughter about playground interactions.

So, does this mean genres are the literary equivalent of cliques? Hmmm. Bear with me for a little while on this.

First off, I’m not saying cliques (or genres) are good or bad in and of themselves. They exist. I’m also not interested in examining the varying characteristics of different literary genres. I do want to examine how we use them, what we potentially get from them, and what we lose by them. [Read more…]

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About Jeanne Kisacky

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