Be True to Your Characters & Their Story

There are times when we are writing and the story seems to go nowhere & everywhere all at the same time. I recently ran into this problem while writing the third book in the trilogy, Rough Hewn. I was struggling with the direction the characters had taken. I felt as though I was flapping in the wind every time I sat down to type out a paragraph. I ultimately realized the problem I was having was not with the story itself but with my interpretation of it. I was holding back. Trying to save the characters from the pain I saw coming, as it were.

You see, I was trying to guide my characters rather than allow them to guide my writing of their story. In that, I was telling their story from the point of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wing for protection. What I should've been doing was being honest in the telling of their story. After all, it seldom happens in real life that we can protect those we love from all the bad in the world around us. Therefore, Carolyn and her friends will have to endure more of the bad while recognizing and celebrating the good - just like in real life.

As writers, we cannot be a buffer between our characters and the bad things that come their way any more than we can prevent our own loved ones from experiencing sadness in real life. We are not here to protect our characters; we are here to tell their story.

My advice to you would be to try not to absorb the hit for your characters. Write honestly and expose the entire story. The bad comes whether we want it to or not. If we are lucky, the good will outweigh the bad. Being that we are the ones writing the story, we can choose the ending - good or bad - and like in life, we strive for a good ending.

Last night I did one of the hardest things I've had to do as a writer. I went back and deleted approximately 20,000 words from Carolyn's story. That left me with 20,092 words in the third book of the trilogy and a feeling of defeat. I felt as though I was starting over, even though a third of the story remained intact. In the end, I realized that it was better to remove what was not working than to tell only part of the story. Besides, your readers want the whole story - not butterflies and blooms on every page.

 

How many of you have had to rewrite a large portion of your story or stories?

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Social Media, Passion, Goals, Restart

 
It is hard to believe the first week of March in nearly over. Where does the time go? Who else finds it hard to keep up with all the social media sites you've joined? Surely, there is a better way to keep track of what, when and where in the seemingly endless chasm that is online promotion and marketing. Admittedly, I am about as scatter-brained as they come these days. I make notes - many, many notes. I begin each month with very specific plans and notes - can't forget the notes - only to find myself thrashing about in the dark waters of the dreaded over-scheduled month. How did that happen, again? I did it to myself.

Does it seem impossible to write while trying to connect and keep up with that long list of social media sites you've joined? What happens when we can't keep up? As I see it, we doom ourselves to fail. I don't see this failure as some horrid dream-ending monster. No. I believe we can take a step back and look at what we have done to ourselves - self-imposed failure, as it were. The good news is that this type of failure is simple enough to correct. You see, if we do/did it to ourselves, we are the ones in control of the outcome. No outside entity has swooped in to steal our time away. We - YOU - are in control.

I would suggest taking a day away from technology of all sorts. Unplug from the world around you. Find a quiet spot where no one will interrupt you, grab a tablet and an ink pen and elucidate your goals. It is important that you know and write down your goals. I'm not talking about daydreams. I mean those goals that you intend to work toward with a burning desire fueled by your passion. Once you know what they are, you can set them down on paper and decide what you will do to realize them. The course is different for each of us.

For instance, let's say you'd like to write a short story by the end of next month. That is doable, right? Of course it is, until you are swamped with work from your day job, bombarded by requests from volunteer groups or family members who have decided this is the month they'll find something to fill your every waking moment. On top of this, you have normal home/yard chores to complete. Oh, you almost forgot the the promotion you need to do for your last book. Exhausted yet?

Now back to your goals list. It can be as short or as long as you'd like it to be. There are no rules here; it is your list - your life. I have to admit, I find it best to work on short-term goals. When the list is too long or too far out, it seems less attainable. Of course it isn't, it just seems that way. This is why shorter lists work best for me. In order to complete a short story by the end of next month and do the other things that don't fall under the umbrella of author tasks, you'll have to decide what days you'll write and how many words you'll need to write before typing 'The End'. Let's say your story will be 12,000 words and you are only able to write two days out of each week between now and the end of next month. That comes out to be approximately 750 words per day or 1500 words each week. Not hard at all when you break it down like that. Looking at this post alone, to this point it tallies near 600 words. In this instance, I'm praying my lack of mathematical skills is not showing.

So, clear your calendar for part of those two days each week and set a goal to write a given number of words per day. Some days you'll write more and some you'll write less. It should balance out in the end. You may even surprise yourself and write an entire novel. Carry a tablet, recorder or laptop to doctor's visits, children's soccer games and wherever else you go. You'll be able to write while waiting.

Social Media

This is where I struggle. It is increasingly difficult to keep up with all the promotion and marketing it takes for an author to be seen in the sea of new authors out there. We have to be careful that the undertow doesn't pull us so far out that we lose sight of our passion. Writing is the passion. More often than not, social media is how readers discover authors today. That means, no matter how you feel about it, you must be out there interacting with people online.

I'm no expert on social media. However, there are those who are quite adept at standing out online. These are a few, there are many more out there. Follow them on Google +, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads, AUTHORSsB, Pinterest or wherever else you can find them. They offer great advice for nothing and if you find you still cannot keep up, many have an affordable plan to help you.

• Master Koda Promotions (Publisher, Marketing & Promotions +. Master Koda Select Publishing is also the publisher for my upcoming Rough Hewn Trilogy.)

• Kim Garst Social Media Coach (Coaching, Branding, Social Media Training +)

• Kristen Lamb (Author of We Are Not Alone - The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer.) 

• Advantage Marketing for You (WP Customization, Webhosting, Websites Services, Consultation, Virtual Assistance, Podcasting, Voice Overs & Audio/Video Editing, Magazine Ad Creation, Ebook and CD Cover Creation, Banner and Button Creation) 

 

A simple online search will uncover numerous social media experts who freely share tips on creating an online platform.

 

 

We need to adjust our lists, not our passions or dreams. Again, YOU are in control. If you've fallen behind, give yourself permission to 'restart'. Create a path to reach your goal that is doable for you, one that fits into your life plan. Remember to ask for help when you need it. Let's face it we are only human.

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Writing in the Shadows with Randy Ingermanson & John Olson

This Randy Ingermanson interview with John Olson was published in Randy Ingermanson's Advanced Fiction Writing E-Zine in December 2009 and is used here by permission. Please keep in mind that any offers in this article will have changed since its original publication date. Nonetheless, the wealth of information found in "Writing in the Shadows" and "Powers" are a great help to the beginning author with or without a special promotion.

That said, let's get to the good bits.
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Creating: Writing in the Shadows

I met John Olson at a Christian writing conference in 1996. Both of us were unpublished novelists with a background in science.

I soon learned that John had a yen to write novels based on the vampire mythos and an uncommon ability to write spooky stuff. John soon learned that I like scary fiction.

That weekend, we forged a friendship that's lasted for over thirteen years. We've coauthored two books together. We've climbed corporate ladders and abandoned them. We've held each accountable as we pursued our dreams. I've learned boatloads about the art of writing fiction from John, and also a bunch about the art of living, and I hope I've paid him back by teaching him a thing or two also.

A bit more than a year ago, I sat in on a major track John taught at a writing conference on the subject, "Writing in the Shadows." I enjoyed his talk tremendously and kept thinking, "Darn! Why didn't I think of that?"

John's latest novel, POWERS, is just now hitting the bookshelves. I got my copy last week and am reading it now. It's a prime example of "writing in the shadows."
I've asked John for an interview so I could introduce you to his ideas. Here's the result:

RI: I really enjoyed your lecture series last year on "Writing in the Shadows." In a nutshell, what is "writing in the shadows" and why would an author want to do that?

JO: You've heard of reading between the lines, right?
Well, writing in the shadows is writing between the lines. It's a set of techniques for creating mood and evoking an emotional response in such a way that readers aren't consciously aware of why they are responding the way they do. The words on your page all have shadows. Once you learn how to harness these shadows for your own purposes, you can use these techniques to add creepiness to dark scenes, dread to action scenes, joy to celebration scenes or chemistry to relational scenes.

RI: Editor often tell us to "show, don't tell," but they rarely show us what they mean by that. What does "show, don't tell" mean to you?

JO: It's pretty easy. It means to... uh, show and er... not tell. Okay, maybe it isn't so easy to explain. Let me give you some examples. As a novelist I'm often tempted to write something telling such as: Hailey was scared.

But if I do this, I don't give the reader a chance to experience that fear emotionally along with Hailey. Readers know intellectually Hailey is afraid, because I told them she was (and foolish readers that they are, they trust me), but they don't get to experience the fear along with her unless I actually show Hailey being afraid:

Hailey froze. The vampire's teeth were only inches away from her neck. She held her breath and tried to think, but her pulse throbbed like kettle drums in her ears. She had to make her stupid heart slow down. It was only encouraging him.

See? I never once told you Hailey was afraid, but you probably figured it out anyway. That's showing.
Okay... I know what you're thinking. I totally cheated. Of course Hailey's going to be scared with the sharp end of a vampire pointed at her neck. But what if your story doesn't have any conveniently located vampires? What if you need to show fear, and the reader doesn't even have a reason to be afraid yet?

That's where writing in the shadows comes in. It's possible to write a scene in such a way that your readers will pick up on the fear without knowing the reasons behind it.

Your POV character doesn't even have to realize she's afraid. In fact it's often better if she doesn't. If she knew she should be afraid, she might not walk into that dark basement we need her to walk into. We see this technique used all the time in movies. Our clueless heroine walks into the dark basement and suddenly the background music changes. We know right away what's going to happen, and we start yelling at her, telling her to turn her flashlight on, but she doesn't seem to hear us. It can't be because the background music is too loud, because if she could hear the music, she'd know the vampire was hiding behind the artificial Christmas tree waiting to jump out at her and make us wet our pants.

Stupid heroines. If only our novels had soundtracks to go along with them, showing in the shadows would be so easy! But if you think about it, our novels do have background music. It's hidden in the shadows of the words. Sentences have flow and rhythm and cadence. Words have connotations that evoke mood and emotion and tone. Characters have autonomic responses that happen whether they're aware of them or not. We have all kinds of tools to work with. We can go beyond showing and show in the shadows like this:

The door closed behind her with a sigh. Hailey shivered as a chill brushed across her mind, leaving behind the aftertaste of decay and wet rat. She hurried toward the elevators, fighting the urge to break into a run.

Hollow footsteps echoed loud and lonely in the empty marble hallway. Stepping into a waiting elevator, she punched the ninth floor button and leaned back against the wall. The door shut with a clank, sealing her in.

See? Words like "sigh" and "aftertaste of decay and wet rat" and "sealing her in" create an emotional subtext that shows the reader what to feel without telling them why we want them to feel it. That's showing in the shadows.

RI: You're a strong proponent of giving readers "partial information." What do you mean by that, and what have you got against giving readers the full scoop on things?

JO: Giving the full scoop ruins all the fun -- at least it does if we're talking about novels. Ice cream is a completely different subject. Imagine a murder mystery where the author tells us who the murderer is the second we're introduced to him. Or imagine a romance where the author tells us all about the couple's future life together as soon as the male lead is introduced. It kind of spoils the fun, doesn't it?

Well, that's what we do any time we give the reader too much information. We take away the mystery and anticipation. So if Dash Totallyripped McMoneybags throws up the second he sees our heroine, don't tell us why. Let it be a mystery we can look forward to solving. And if Sydney Hottiepants is in love with Dash, don't ruin the romance by telling us. Let us interpret what she's feeling by the way she agonizes over her decision of which flavor of lip gloss to wear. Remember, when we meet people in real life, they don't come with fact sheets pinned to their shirts. We have to "figure them out" by interpreting their words and actions.

Let's face it. We humans are really good at interpreting things. It's one of the things we do best. By giving our readers too much information, we deny our readers the pleasure of interpreting and figuring things out for themselves. Not only does it take away from the fun, but it feels shallow and contrived. Why? Because that's not how reality works. We may think that giving ten pages of backstory on the history of Sydney's attraction to losers is going to make her seem more real, but it will actually have the opposite effect. In reality we never have access to all the information. We have to interpret the clues we're given and figure things out for ourselves. It's more fun that way -- even if we get everything wrong.

RI: Pace is a critical element in modern fiction which is rarely taught. Can you give us your top three tips on pace?

JO: Sure...
Tip 1) Slow. Tip 2) Medium. Tip 3) Fast.
How's that for a fast-paced response? Of course I could have picked up the pace by writing "Slow, medium, & fast." Or I could have slowed it down by using a plethora of multisyllabic adjectives and obscure, seventeenth century, Latin-derived inkhornisms -- which brings me to my fourth point.

Readers subconsciously assume that reading time is proportional to the timing of the events they're reading about. If a writer takes time to describe the wildflowers beside the trail, the readers will infer a leisurely pace. If the story gives a quick succession of vague impressions, the readers will assume a rapid pace -- like the POV character is moving too fast to process all the visual information streaming past her eyes.

That's why you should never describe the wildflowers while a vampire is chasing your heroine through the woods. That's also why words like quickly and rapidly should be avoided. Not only are they evil "telling" –ly adverbs, but they also work against what they're trying to convey. Inserting them into a sentence actually slows down the sentence (which slows down the action in the reader's mind even though it's supposed to make the reader think the action is speeding up). The word slowly, on the other hand, doesn't work against itself, and is much more acceptable even if it is also an evil "telling" –ly adverb.

Pacing is tricky. There are hundreds of ways to inadvertently slow down a fast-paced scene. One of the worst culprits is what I call "order out of" which is when the author presents information to the reader in the wrong order. Take, for example, the following sentence:

A gloved hand burst through the wall and clawed at Dash's face.

On the surface this looks like a perfectly good sentence, but if you look at what's going on in the reader's mind, you'll see why it slows the action down. When readers read the words "a gloved hand," they picture the gloved hand in their mind. Then, when they read further and read that the hand bursts through the wall and claws at Dash's beautiful face, they get confused and have to readjust the pictures in their minds.

Their first impression of the gloved hand was on the wrong side of the wall. They could see it in their minds, so they automatically put it in Dash's view, because he's the POV character through whose eyes they are viewing the action. But when it bursts through the wall and claws our hero on the face, they have to back up and readjust the picture so that the hand is on the other side of the wall. These kinds of readjustments break the flow of the narrative and slow the pace down -- usually at times when we're trying to speed the pace up.

RI: One of the things you and I have always agreed on is that fiction is about giving the reader a "powerful emotional experience." What are the main emotional drivers that propel a story forward?

JO: Besides the inherent pleasure we all get from reading beautiful, well-written prose, I think there are five main drivers that make our readers want to keep turning the pages. I could tell you what they are, but that would spoil all the fun. Instead, I'll give you a hint. They're so central to fiction that they're written on the shelves of most book stores. That's right. They're the genre labels. See if you can figure it out. What emotional driver is central to each of these groups of genres?

* Mystery
* Romance
* Action/Adventure
* Thrillers, Suspense and Horror
* Historicals, Science Fiction and Fantasy

RI: Any question I should have asked and didn't?

JO: I never know how to answer this question. I suppose it's because I always think through all the questions I know the answers to and then reject those questions, because they're too easy. And I avoid all the questions I don't know the answers to because, well... I don't want to look stupid. Which means I always end up looking stupid -- whether I'm stupid or not.

Stupid question.
Okay, here's a question you should have asked me:
Q: Who is the best author and writing instructor you've ever cowritten a book with?

A: The answer can also be found on book store shelves.
(Hint: Search for the word "DUMMIES" written in big bold letters.)

RI: Thanks for the plug, John, but it may be a wee bit superfluous. I already mentioned my new book, WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES, about 5000 times last month, and I'm going to mention it further down the page in this issue. But it never hurts to have you mention it too. Thanks for your thoughts on Writing in the Shadows!

PS: John Olson has a new audio course, "Writing in the Shadows," which will go on sale on my Web site soon. Before that, though, we'll give you a chance to get it free -- if you buy John's latest book POWERS, which happens to highlight all of John's ideas for writing in those pesky shadows.

Why would we give away a two-and-a-half-hour-plus audio course to you just for buying a book? For the answer to that, see the marketing article just below, "How to Run a Book Rush."

This article is reprinted with permission of the author.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 18,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.
Randy Ingermanson
Publisher, Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine


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Word Count Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Everyone

Today is Word Count Wednesday. I've been working so many hours on other things that the third book in the Rough Hewn Trilogy, Return to Kilmservy Village, is still sitting at 18,335 words. This, after I deleted a chapter and half of another. They simply were not working for me and so I cut them out. I'm certain there will be more of that along the way. For now, I'm comfortable with the direction of the final Rough Hewn book. Of course, these words will receive a once-over (and over and over, perhaps) from a brilliant editor, yet to be named, before it is published.

Here is a snippet from book three.

Raymond sat in the passenger seat while Gabriel steered the bus out of town. “If you had told me one week ago that the lot of us would be heading to the beach in a fine bus like this one, I would've said you were dreaming.” He watched through the window as the village where he grew up shrank away in the rectangular side mirror. He thought of his and Charlotte's plans to see their own child enter the world in that disappearing village.

“I wish we could've done it under different circumstances, Ray.” Gabriel looked at the clock on the dash. It glowed 10:05AM, much later than he intended to get on the road but he knew it couldn't be helped. It meant they would arrive well after dark at the beach house. “We’ll be late getting in down there Ray. I still think it'll be better to drive straight through rather than stop and move Carrie into a motel. I suppose we could stay in a campground somewhere along the way. What do you think?”

Raymond looked at the clock. “There are plenty of spots for us to lay down back there if you want to stop at a campground but I think driving straight through would be better. Really, it's up to you. I can help drive if you get tired.”

“We’ll just go till we get there. It's only about twelve hours, give or take an hour. I’ll be fine for that length of time but I’ll let you know if I need a break.” Gabriel reached back and pulled the armrest on his seat down.

∞

I have the night free of other work but instead of working on Rough Hewn, I will be writing the ending to the short story that I started in late January. It is a paranormal story with a bit of humor thrown into the mix. I'm calling it Ziggy Returns. The word count on it stands at 10,448. I expect to wrap it up around 20,000 words.

Here we have Ziggy and Minna interacting after an avoidable accident.

Minna's gaze fixed on the hand. His forefinger looked like ground sausage, the blood still pouring out from around the shredded meat and splintered bone. "I'd have to agree with you. It's not good at all. Come on and get in the truck. I'll take you to the emergency room."

"No, no, I'm not going to the hospital." He rolled his arm over and rested his hand on the butt of the pistol in front of him. "Go in there and get me one of those panty liner things you use and wrap it up for me."

"What?" Minna tried to hide the giggle threatening to escape her throat. "You have to go to the hospital. You can't just wrap this up and expect it to heal especially with one of those." She watched as his eyes began to glaze over. "I think you need to get down on the floor there before you fall out of that chair, Ziggy." She grabbed a cushion from the sofa in the living room and dropped it on the floor beside the table. "Get down there." She urged.

 

∞

 

Until next time ~ Keep smiling & reaching for your star
 

∞

 

 

 

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Summer 2012 - The Journey Begins

Happy Monday Everyone

It has been a shameful five months since the last update on this blog. I will be breathing some life back into it with regular postings this year. This being Monday, I will kick start it with what has happened in my life since my last post.

Summer 2012

I spent some time on a beautiful mountain during the summer. My sister blessed me with a 30' travel trailer early in the summer. There was only one problem - the travel trailer was in the state of Missouri - needed to be moved to the state of Tennessee - I was in the state of Florida without a truck. It seemed, for a time, as if I would not be able to move it from point A to point B. Then, family and friends came together from four different states. It was a remarkable sight. I hitched a ride to Tennessee and met friends from North Carolina who had borrowed a truck powerful enough to haul the travel trailer from Missouri to Tennessee. By the time it was over, the trailer was in Tennessee and was not going any further without some serious repairs. It was an adventure, indeed.

Why tell y'all about this adventure? Because of the time I spent in that travel trailer on the mountain, I wrote the second book in the Rough Hewn Trilogy. My intention was to finish a novel before returning to Florida. At the time, I had not intended to write more than one Rough Hewn novel but Carolyn's story kept speaking to me and I decided rather than write an extra long novel, I'd split it up into a trilogy.

When I returned to Florida, I wrote the prequel - a little backwards, the first written after the second, but that is how it has happened.

Autumn 2012

Skipping ahead into mid autumn, the second book of the trilogy complete, I submitted it to a publisher. A small independent publishing house operated by an intelligent, goal-oriented and compassionate woman who has chosen a team of editors, cover artists and marketing experts who, like herself, are keen on details. These professionals insist on nothing less than the best from themselves and the authors they publish.

Once again, I feel blessed. This time, blessed to have my manuscript accepted by Master Koda Select Publishing.

Valentine's Day 2013

I signed the contract for the first part of Rough Hewn at 5:22PM and hit the send button at 5:48PM, 14 February 2013. How is that for a Valentine's Day present?

I know the real work begins with the first revisions/editing proposed by the editor who has been carefully reading through my manuscript with red ink at the ready. I can say with all certainty that I am prepared to do what is needed to bring Carlolyn's story to life. In fact, I'm looking forward to it.

Below is a scant timeline from my facebook page.

Oct 25
Rough Hewn submitted to publisher along with a silent prayer.

Nov 9
When does two weeks feel like an eternity? After you've submitted your 'baby' to an agent or publisher. Busy, busy, busy and still the doubting Thomas thoughts creep in...

Dec 2
Finally.

With this line, "Myrna Glass would never give up the search for her daughter." the prequel to Rough Hewn is written. Now, to go back and *try* to edit out the bad bits. I still haven't heard anything from the publisher/editor concerning the Rough Hewn Trilogy.

However, I will continue to plod on with hopes and prayers. There is still much work to be done before it sees the light of day but I do love these characters and look forward to finishing their story.

22 Dec
I've been spending some time with family recently. This has given the prequel to Rough Hewn time to sit and stew - or me the time to sit and stew on it before I go in and clean it up. In the interim, I've been working on a short story for another publisher (or, perhaps I'll take it straight to Kindle -decisions, decisions). It's a paranormal/romance with a few laughs thrown in.

I'm awaiting input from my beta readers on this one.

6 Jan
I've come to the conclusion that having your manuscript read by an editor/publisher is quite like having your skirt blow up around your waist in public. What was once only known to & understood by you is now on display for everyone to see. The combination of excitement and nervousness make for a serious case of nausea.

18 Jan
I am working on a book trailer today. I should say, I am learning how to create a book trailer today. ... Then again, I have yet to master the process.

30 Jan
Weeks after submitting a manuscript to a publisher or agent and you think - that entire bit should have been rewritten or, I used a character name too often or....

6 Feb
At this moment, bones are being removed from their dark hiding places in the mountain. Evil is beginning to creep into the light. Were the miles put between good and evil far enough to protect those who narrowly escaped? We'll soon find out.

14 Feb
Happy Valentine's Day everyone. My heart is full today, full of the love of life and the exciting things happening in my world. I'll be sharing some good news with y'all soon.

16 Feb
I would like to share with you all that on Thursday, the 14th, I signed a publishing contract with Master Koda Select Publishing for the first book in the Rough Hewn Trilogy.

I'm so very excited that Carolyn's story will be published. I've grown to love these characters & hope y'all will, as well.

Now, the real work begins.

∞