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| If I had this pantry, would l can veggies? |
House-hunting and writing have more in common than you'd think. The house hunter opens strangers' pantry doors to gauge how many boxes of cereal and cans of chicken broth the shelves will hold. The writer makes up a story about a mother and child who take refuge in a pantry during a home invasion. Both scenarios require imagination.
The house hunter must be able to picture his/her family living in a particular space. Will the bedrooms please the children? Will the morning sun wake them gently or rudely? The writer pictures the mother and child wedged behind sacks of pet food and set of tray tables. The mother unscrewed the light bulb in the fixture overhead, so she and her little boy have a shot at staying hidden. Unfortunately, the invaders are hungry, and pantries hold snacks.
House-hunting hammers home five basics of writing/querying:
1. Writers get one chance to make a good impression on agents and editors, so our queries should be polished to a high gloss. By the same token, house sellers get one chance to impress potential buyers. Power wash the front entry area, and don't forget the overhang. Is the door clean? Is the hardware in good condition?
2. At first, Hubs and I felt honor-bound to walk through every room of a for-sale house. Now, we check out the view. If it doesn't suit us, we're out of there. Editors and agents reject or ask for sample pages after reading a query's first couple of paragraphs. If the writing, plotting, and characters don't "speak" to them, why should they invest more time? Of course, a view that doesn't thrill me, may be someone else's idea of heaven, and a child-in-jeopardy plot that turns off one agent, may enthrall another.
3. The important-to-the-owners statements stenciled on walls and carved into wood may not speak to potential buyers. Not everyone wants to be reminded to "Live, Laugh, Love" during the house hunt. Similarly, the best fiction doesn't appear to have an agenda and doesn't shout its themes.
4. Homeowners tend to remodel room by room, but each project should suit the house as a whole. Ten different kinds of flooring and wildly different paint colors make the overall effect choppy. Writers proceed chapter by chapter but have to keep the overall storyline in mind or the work becomes episodic.
5. Smart sellers get advice from those who've been there and done that. Someone who's relocated five+ times has a good idea of what buyers want in a house, and real estate agents routinely advise home owners to declutter. When it comes to my writing, it's hard for me to see certain flaws, so I count on critique partners and beta readers to point out mistakes and missteps.
Do you see lessons for writers in the house hunt? Do the whiny house hunters on HGTV make you throw things?
About the house hunt: Where do you stand on carpet versus wood or tiled floors? When you walk into a showing and find scented candles burning, are you charmed or do you suspect a mold problem?
9 comments:
Now here's a topic I wouldn't have to thought to write a comparison about. Good for you, Pat for thinking outside the box yet keeping it interesting and on point.
I like to have a nice scent in the house, but if it's overbearing, I do wonder what someone is trying to cover up.
I like carpet, hardwood and tile so I'm pretty easy to please in that department.
Now I'm wondering what a fiction writer would think about if they happened to explore my home. I guess when I get home tonight I'll see things in a different way as well. Although no one, not even a mouse could hide in my pantry. It's way to small and cluttered.
Patricia Rickrode
w/a Jansen Schmidt
My pantry's really a cabinet, Patricia/Jansen. Other women dream of walk-in closets, but I want a walk-in pantry.
I can't tour a house without wondering about the people who lived there. Some houses strike me as happy places, and others seem sad.
Maybe you'll get a story idea from your house tonight. I hope so.
Interesting post, Pat. Before we bought our house, we must have walked through a couple hundred (yes, 100) over the previous 10 years from old to still in construction, highrises, townhomes and stand-alones. Like books, some were charming and other were absolutely not for me. (At least with books, price is almost never a barrier to purchase.)
When we walked into the house we live in now, I told my husband "I want this house" and we made an offer that day, even though we already had a house that wasn't even on the market yet. The house we bought needed lots of work but it had great bones/spaces so I knew when Steve did his magic, it would be wonderful and it is.
As writers I think we often spend way too much time trying to fix a story that's just not good and never will be. And sometimes we know in our heart that our WIP is worth all the blood, sweat and tears. Figuring out when to renovate and when to move on--that's the challenge for me.
Pat, you come up with the most interesting comparisons. (And I would much rather write--or do just about anything--than even think about either selling my house or looking for another one.)
Pat, you come up with the most interesting comparisons. (And I would much rather write--or do just about anything--than even think about either selling my house or looking for another one.)
Hi, Lark,
You've given me food for thought with this: "As writers I think we often spend way too much time trying to fix a story that's just not good and never will be. And sometimes we know in our heart that our WIP is worth all the blood, sweat and tears. Figuring out when to renovate and when to move on--that's the challenge for me."
Meanwhile, if your experience with the 100 houses holds true for me, I only have 40 to go. Yikes!
Hi, Kay,
I've done nothing but write and look at houses in the last week, so it was this topic or nothing. Wait, I'll amend that to say I considered critiquing the free-in-the-lobby coffee at hotel chains like Hampton Suites, Candlewood Suites and La Quinta. I may save that sizzler for next week.
Kay, if I lived near the water like you do, I wouldn't be moving.
I did a little research on house selling for a character. For her, the thing that stood out was having to remove the "life" from her house, ie changing the bright happy colors to something more neutral. I love how you made the comparison with selling fiction!
Hi, Coleen,
Voice is important, and we shouldn't (and maybe we can't) muffle it, but we have to consider tone and its effect on readers. I'm reading chapters for a friend and was stopped dead by the heroine's comment about her co-workers' sexual orientation. The tone was one of disdain and makes the heroine unlikeable. I realize learning tolerance may be part of this heroine's character arc, but I'm afraid readers will close the book before she gets there. I've got to convince my friend to neutralize that comment or may it clear the comment is a reflection of the heroine's narrow-until-now life.
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