Behind the Lines: Shannon Stacey on Exclusively Yours

Welcome to the second installment of a new feature, Behind the Lines, in which I ask an author to reflect on a scene of her choice in her work. Here’s Shannon Stacey, talking about a book I really enjoyed, Exclusively Yours:

My writing process is somewhat messy and difficult to nail down in a few words, but one thing it’s definitely not is analytical.

I’m analytical neither as an author nor as a reader. My reaction to a book I’ve read is often a simple emotional one: I didn’t like it, it was meh, I liked it, or I loved it. If you were to press me, I’d find it hard to articulate why I had that reaction, which is probably why I can’t write a decent review, but enjoy reading analytic reviews written by others of books I’ve read.

I write the same way. A scene either works or it doesn’t. How do I know if it’s not working? When I’m reading through it and I’m twitchy with the urge to check Twitter or make a phone call or fling some Angry Birds on my iPod Touch, I assume a reader’s going to feel the same way. I don’t worry about themes and symbolism and all those other things I didn’t pay attention to in high school English class. I write the way I read: emotional gut reaction.

So when Jessica first mentioned this idea for her blog to me, my immediate reaction was a brain cramp. Analysis and introspection aren’t really a part of my process. But then a scene popped into my head from Exclusively Yours that I think illustrates how my subconscious mind steers the crafting of my books.

In this scene, Mike and Lisa (brother and sister-in-law of Joe, the hero), are having an argument about the possibility of having a fifth baby after the subject was brought up in front of the family by Mike and Joe’s dad. Mike doesn’t want another child, but Lisa thinks she does. (Joey is their oldest of four sons.)

But everybody froze when Mike made a frustrated growling sound and plowed his fist into the side of his camper. Joey was on his feet in an instant, freeze pop dropped in the dirt as he stepped in front of Lisa.

Joe watched the boy—so tall, skinny and scared shitless—facing off against his dad, and felt an odd tightening in his chest. Lisa wasn’t in any danger. Mike had a bit of a temper, but he’d throw himself under a bus before he raised a hand to his family.

But his oldest nephew had just taken a giant, irreversible step toward the man he’d become, and it was an awesome and yet incredibly sad moment to watch.

On the surface, this scene could be considered nothing more than the catalyst for Joe’s emotional confession during a subsequent conversation with the heroine, Keri:

Joe smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes or make his dimples pop. “Do you want kids?”

The question flew at her from left field and she didn’t even have time to get her glove up. “I don’t know. I guess I stopped thinking about it at some point. By the time I meet the career goals I set for myself and then go daddy shopping, I’ll have to deliver in the geriatric ward. How about you?”

“I guess not.”

“Why not? Family’s always been everything to you, and you’d make a great
dad.”

He shrugged. “I was pretty self-involved for a while. Drinking and writing were my entire world. And then, after Lauren, I… I’ve got Steph and the boys, and being Uncle Joe’s been good enough for me.”

But there was an unhappiness in his eyes that she’d never seen before, and
it went deeper than concern for his brother’s woes.

“They’re growing up,” he said abruptly, pacing in front of the fireplace. “Joey tonight…I was so damn proud of him. And it hurt that he’s not mine to be proud of. I almost hated Mike right then, for getting to be Joey’s dad.”

But it was much more than a catalyst to me. Joey’s scene was one of the most emotional for me to write and to edit, and I think it was because a child’s transition from boy to man was much on my mind.

One day I was walking in the Wal-Mart parking lot with my sons. A car started to back out of a parking space in front of us and my teen stepped forward and put his arm in front of me to stop me. It was a simple gesture, something I’d done to him countless times, and it was over in seconds, but it shifted my entire world.

In those few seconds, I saw a glimpse of the man my son is becoming. I remembered my husband doing the same with his mother. Telling her to watch for a crooked step. Taking her elbow to steady her if the sidewalk was icy. My son, with that one gesture, had taken that first irrevocable step toward becoming a man and the emotion of that moment carried through into writing a scene in which Mike’s son took that same step.

That’s almost like a theme, isn’t it? And the freeze pop dropped in the dirt? Symbolism! I wish I could say I did it purposely, but that’s simply how the scene formed on the page. It wasn’t until I considered talking about my process that the emotional underpinnings of that scene really coalesced in my mind.

I suppose my process is to be aware of the elements of craft, plot and motivation and character arcs and such, and think about them while driving and showering and whatnot, but when it comes to sit and write, I trust my subconscious to bring it all together, as it did with Joey.

Thank you, Jessica, for inviting me to share a peek behind the scenes of Exclusively Yours!

Shannon

Thank you Shannon!