Lately, I’ve had to tell myself several times a day to “Get Over It!” I’ve said a bazillion times that being a writer is not easy. Well, guess what? Being a marketing director isn’t either. There are a lot of decisions to make: what manuscripts to accept, what book cover designs to use, etc. Then there are titles, fonts, photos, cover blurbs, and more to decide upon. And having one’s ideas vetoed is frustrating. But sometimes teamwork is frustrating, especially when there is none.
Back to the writing tip. In doing some research, I discovered that the phrase, “get over it”, might come from John Behervaise’s book, Thirty-six Years of Seafaring Life by an Old Quarter Master, originally published in 1839 and reissued by Cambridge University Press in 2015. (If this manuscript landed on my desk, I’d push for its publication.) The story is one, big get-over-it maritime journey. Before Behervaise joined the Royal Navy, he’d spent a grueling winter in Newfoundland among Native Americans, did a stint in a debtor’s prison, and was captured by privateers. I haven’t read the book, but supposedly, he used the phrase in regards to an amputation—not sure if it was on him or someone else.
My point is, when writing fiction, you don’t want to make things easy for your character. You want to put them in situations where they have to “get over it” and move on. By getting over it, I don’t mean things becoming rosy, or the character rocking along until another problem occurs. What I mean is the character survives by the skin of her teeth, only to face another major obstacle, then another survival situation, obstacle, and so on. And each situation has to be worse than the last with survival seeming impossible each time.
Tie this to my book review of American Dirt (again, scroll down). The author, Jeanine Cummins, keeps her character, Lydia Quixano Pérez, in constant danger starting from page one. Getting over it for Lydia always seems impossible, but the alternative means she and her eight-year-old son, Luca, will be murdered by a drug cartel.
Book Review: American Dirt
It had been a while since I’d read a can’t-put-it-down book. American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins, took me on a wild, fearful ride from Acapulco, Mexico, to Arizona just north of Nogales, Mexico. It’s the story of a young mother’s desperate flight with her eight-year-old son to escape the death warrant of the Acapulco drug lord and make it to el northe to safety. It’s the story of how one’s life can change instantly; how your family, home, style life can vanish in one horrific moment. It’s the story of immigrants fleeing intolerable situations only to find the journey just as menacing.
I’d heard and read about Hispanic immigrants and their journey, but this story really opened my eyes to their situation. While reading it, I kept thinking back to the night my husband and I were in Roma, Texas, just across a trickle of water known as the Rio Grande River, or in other words, the border between the U.S. and Mexico. There were only three motels in town, and they all looked shabby. We chose the least shabby one after looking at several rooms to find one that didn’t smell of cigarette smoke and had a lock on the door that worked. I was in a cranky mood about having to spend the night in such an unsuitable place until I walked by another room just as the door opened. I couldn’t help but glance inside and see at least two dozen Hispanics crowed in the room. The look of fright and near-panic on their faces made me feel ashamed of my earlier complaining. I was there to go bird watching. These people were there, smuggled into the U.S. because their life had become intolerable. Who are we to judge?