Writing Tip # 7

What a Character!

  Seemingly sometimes what a writer writes is not completely clear.  What?!?  Say it isn’t so.  But it is… evidently.  That is what I was told anyway when an excerpt from an earlier post was reposted and someone not familiar with the full text thought I was endorsing “mean people”.

  Now I wasn’t; not that I couldn’t, endorse them in certain cases but it made me think about the characters writers “create”.  And I put the word create in quotes because I have to ask do writers really “create” characters?

         So… This blog is about Archetypes. 

       Archetypes are loosely defined as stereotypes. 

  (From dictionary.com) The original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copies or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype. 

         And/Or 

  (In Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.

  Some years ago I was at a writer’s conference and one of the new books being promoted was a book on character archetypes and how to write them.  Now I knew this writer was not quite a friend but was more than an acquaintance and I still could not bring myself to purchase that book.  And even now I still feel the same about the book, I couldn’t buy it (not that you shouldn’t) because the idea, the very premise that a writer would look to someone else to tell them how to develop a character made me sad.  Really, how can you call yourself a writer and not at the very least KNOW your characters, know their deepest darkest secrets, their greatest joys, their fears and their hopes, how can you not know their GOALS?   And WHY, WHY, WHY would any writer want to be a “copy” of someone else?

  Now certainly there is the necessity for both reader and writer to categorize characters, like the hero or the villain, but a good writer can really muddy those waters so it’s not so easy to say this character or that one is the “bad guy” or the “good guy”.

  I mean let’s go back to one of my favorite examples; the movie “Titanic”.   Pretty quick we pick up on the Jack character as being the “hero” at least to Rose.  But what about that guy, the one she is supposed to wed, the one who by every account is willing to spoil and indulge her.  Who while is very typical of his era is still very proud that such a woman is going to be his wife.  Who is willing to also take care of her mother.  What about that guy?  Do you even remember his name?  I do but only because I love the actor who played him (Billy Zane).  He was Caledon (Cal) Hockley and he was cast as the “villain” but really what were his faults?  He was dominating, but that was the way of men, especially successful men, of his time.  A little condescending, but again it was the era.  And he did throw a bit of a fit, smashing the china and all but really the woman he had been supporting (along with her mother), the one he was intending to make his wife, was stepping out on him AND if our hero had been so inclined to show a bit of jealousy we might have thought it passionate not evil.  In truth I have always felt a little sorry for Cal, I did hope that after he arrived safely back in America he did find a woman who loved him and married him and I am sad still knowing he would eventually kill himself … well isn’t that how all “villains” end? Dead.

  But Cal Hockley is a perfect example of a character that is not a simple archetype.  Now that he devolves as he sees things he wants slipping from him as his manhood is challenged by some street artist and the very people he believes should have had his back are cheering on the “imp” is more about development than archetype.  The writers certainly could have let Cal gracefully step aside, they could have had him ungracefully step aside and demand Rose reimburse him for all the expenses.  But that he, in his way, fights for her makes him far less the villain then most archetype villains are.  And that is good writing.

  So how do we write those characters?  How do you make a hero not seem like someone Walt Disney would be proud of or for that matter make the villain a fav of old Walt?

  I think the answer is to not use stereotypes.  As a writer you have this vision of your characters in your mind.  You know everything about them from which side of the bed they sleep on to which shoe they put on first.  They are not like anyone else’s characters, although they might be like real characters in your life.  So why would you cheapen them by not writing their uniqueness, by not giving them those quirks and nuances? 

  A hero doesn’t have to show up in shining armor, he can show up in scuffed cowboy boots with dirt on his clothes and a scar on his cheek.  And a villain doesn’t have to be out to destroy, murder or completely ruin anyone, they can simply be caught up in their own circumstances and in trying to save themselves they harm others.  That movie “Ghost” (with Swayze) comes to mind.

  A hero can have some bad habits even some really bad habits as long as you leave him at least a toe’s distance from crossing that line.  And a villain well there is hardly any limits to what you do with the antagonist’s character.  He can be a total psycho or someone you might date or both.

  Archetypes are a starting point.  Archetypes are those characters the reader knows but never remembers.  He or she is described as “that guy” or “this woman” by someone when who has read the story and is giving a synopsis to someone. 

  Characters though, characters are the people readers fantasy about, who they seek out in real life.  And a really good character will be in a readers mind every time they pick up a book.  They will name their children or their pets after characters.  When they recommend the story it will be because of the characters.

  So when you are getting ready to write your story, remember your story IS the character’s story.  They are your surrogates your representatives.  They are your readers guides through the story and how deep or shallow you “create” them will be the depth at which you involve the reader in their part of the tale.

  Don’t cheat either your reader or yourself by only sticking with the archetype.  Be daring, be creative, be bold.

  And as always READ ON!!   

Writing Tip #6 Plotting or Pants-ing

Plotting or "pants-ing"

  A few days ago I was “chatting” with a young man who is contemplating trying his hand at writing a novel.  His questions though, about the process, got me thinking.

  See he was asking things such as what kind of “villains” do people like the best, and what story “premise” is most popular?  It occurred to me then that if he was asking these questions and using the answers to direct his story was he really telling HIS story?  And really how often do we as writers do the same thing before we begin our own next great novel?

  Certainly trends in the writing and movie culture will play a part in what writers try to craft.  If vampires are the “in” thing we might try to write a story which includes one.  Still most writers, I think, believe, hope, write what THEY want to write and give trends and popularity only a passing consideration.

  But how do we decide what to write?  Going back to a past tip, we write what we know, we write what we would want to read but beyond premise and heroes and villains how do we get from start to finish?

   For some the only logical way is to plot out the entire story.  Almost as if they were writing a nonfiction book.  They have chapter outlines and designated goals for each scene they have intended dialogs to carry the story forward.  They plan out when a character enters and when the exit they even know all the twists the story will take.  When done with all the planning all they basically need is connecting words to complete the story.

  I think, and this is just me, for a beginning writer this is a very good method.  It certainly allows a writer to determine if they have established a firm GMC upon which to build a story.  Plotting gives the writer a chance to know in what ways the characters will be growing and developing.  Plotting too helps establish writing goals.  A plotter, someone who plots can easy say “today I will write chapter 5” and then they can pull out that outline they planned out and write chapter 5.

  But this organized, methodical, way very professional way of working on a MS isn’t the only way to write.  There is at least one other way to go about it….

  The “pants-er” method.  You know what I mean, the writing by the seat of your pants whatever comes to mind at the moment not really knowing if any of what you write will actually work in the script or if when you stop for the moment you will have written the greatest thing since “Gone With the Wind” or something more suitable for use as kindling in a fireplace.

  This is a valid method though.  I think it’s even in some ways the true description of a real writer.  There is no labor intense manufacturing of plot and character.  No forced meeting of goals or twists or cleaver dialog.  Pants-er just let it flow.  It comes out as fast as it can be imagined and it meets all the criteria of storytelling and novel writing.  Sure the method may require more editing on the back end and maybe even the deletion of entire chapters and scenes but the story gets down before any of the vision gets away.

  There are drawbacks though to this method.  The biggest one would be when nothing comes to mind that day to write.  The dreaded “writer’s block”; when the voice, or voices, in your head decide to sleep in or simply not speak to you.  This is not really a problem of the plotter who can if one chapter isn’t working that day they can skip ahead to the one they “feel” is writable.  Still when everyone in your head is quiet you can get some editing done.

  Now if I sound like I have a bias towards pants-ing it, I do.  I completely believe in getting the story down first.  Getting the words on a page before frustration can set in, before all the things glaringly wrong can be pointed out, before doubt in ability is builds before the actual work involved in writing is realized.  But in no way am I saying one method is better than another or any other besides the two I mentioned is worse.

  The writer’s ultimate goal is to tell a great story.  To tell THEIR story, in THEIR voice.  And if you are thinking about writing and you are not sure how to go about it try several methods.  Try plotting, try pants-ing, try talking into a recording device, and try whatever makes you write.  I guess what I most want to advise you is that no matter how you do it as long as you do write you are doing it right… correct.

Hope you find this encouraging and as always   READ ON!!

Writing Tip #5 What We Write

Writing Tip #5
What We Write

  So this is less a tip and more just something to think about.  This post has come about because of an online discussion that was started with some friends in an online writer’s form known as Nano Writer’s Mecca.  If you are not familiar with the NANO Writing forms I suggest you Google them and join (its free).
I have mentioned before that a good writer writes what he or she knows.  But here is what had us in a frenzied discussion.  How do we know what we know when we are writing what we know and how do we decide if we know it enough to write about it?

Yeah, mouthful.  But it’s a valid question for today’s writers.  How do we know what to write about?  How do we know our genre, know the standards for the genre and when we can “break the rules” for that genre and still be successful?

Old school thought tells us we know our genre because we are avid readers of the stuff.  People who write romance, read romance, people who write thrillers read thrillers and so on.  So we know the fundamentals because someone else laid them out and we followed.  So it begs to question, does this prevent the writers from creating new stories with new plots and new climaxes and new twisted ending for those readers who do not write?  If the standards have been set are they so strict as to restrict us from creating something new and exciting?

I mean think about it?  I use to like both reading and watching the James Bond stories by Ian Fleming.  I mean for the time they were the political, adventure, thrillers and the gadgets were pretty dang cool.  But after a while I stopped because I started to be able to predict the plot, to see the twist before it happened and really know the end before the end.  Reading and watching the same thing over and over is not really entertainment.  And besides, after Sean Connery the sex appeal kind of dropped away.
I think as a reader people are looking for something new, something that hasn’t been really done before, hence the success of JK Rowling and Harry Potter and Twilight fame of Stephenie Meyer.  I mean sure we all know the magic and vampire genres but these two ladies, artists, put a new twist and really shook off some of those “rules”.  Ms Meyer’s vampires are certainly not the embittered, monstrous murdering creature created by Stoker a century ago and yet it was Stoker who set the genre standards and those standards are what people learned before writing their own story.

And to use myself as an example, I write romance, that’s just the genre.  I can sub categorize it five or six times but the genre is romance.  And yes I do on occasion read romance.  I read more when I was younger before I thought about writing it and certainly for the same reasons I stopped liking Bond I stopped liking romance.  It was predictable.  It was the reason I started to write, I wanted to do something new and different with a genre I enjoyed at one time.  But I learned quickly the industry didn’t want “new” they liked their standards.  So I said “Okay” and set aside the idea for a while.  I started reading what I now read most of the time nonfiction history books.  But I still really loved to write romance.  So I did I wrote the historic romance that I as a reader would have enjoyed and when the industry still said NO I said then I will do it some other way.  And of course with the technology age I have found the platform to take that next step.
With so many more inlets and roads available to writers now will genres have to accept changes to their standards?  I think they will.   I know longer think you will have to know what “rules” apply you will be able to paste together your own and define your voice through your writing.  But this doesn’t change the fact you will still have to KNOW what you write.

What will change is how you know it.  It’s more likely you will know what you write from many varying sources.  Not just authors of your genre, but from movie and TV and certainly from the internet and World Wide Web.  You might write an action, thriller that has a sci-fi element.  Or maybe you will write a mystery with a horror element.  The combinations as well as the potential audience you will generate are going to open up for you as long as you have a good voice, solid GMC, developing characters and strong writing abilities.  It’s no longer you have to KNOW mysteries to write mysteries.  You can be a huge fan of sci-fi horror and still generate a great story.  But you will still have to know what you write.

So think about a little, let yourself imagine what kind of story you want to tell and then ask yourself does this story “fit” with eth genre standards or this going to be something that has no perfect match and then decide if you still want to write that story.  It might not fit, you might have to find an alternative way to get it out to an audience but if it’s a good story with good writing you will be successful.

Writing Tip #4 Show Don’t Tell

Writing Tips #4

Show Don’t Tell

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” ~ Anton Chekhov

I have critiqued many manuscripts and had a great many critiqued.  The one remark I have always found most useful and the one I remark often is that the author should “show don’t tell”.  Now are you wondering what the heck does that mean? After all are we not “telling” a story with our writing effort? Well of course we are, but we are not JUST telling a story we are inviting the reader into a world, a vision, an idea unique to us but relatable to everyone who reads.

To make a story relatable we must allow some vision. Your MS is not just words it’s a mental motion picture and if you do not SHOW the read you fail to involve them in the story and that is in reality what they want, to escape into a different life for a short time.

So what do I mean to “show” well let’s stick with the movie reference: Let’s look at a very popular movie with lots of “showing”. TITANIC, most everyone can recall that movie with ease. So I want you to go to the scene where Rose and Jack first become aware of each other. Remember Jack is on the Steerage deck with Frabristio and he looks up and there is Rose at the railing.

Here is what we are SHOWN (no one tells a thing) we know Jack is completely attracted to her and that the difference in their social class makes little difference. And we know that Rose is at the very least intrigued by Jack. How do we know these things? We are shown. We are shown by Jack’s continued bold stare and the expression on his face and we know by Rose’s inability to stop glancing back even while she tries to play the uninterested socialite.

There is no narrator in the back ground telling us “… and then jack spots the pretty young woman and he falls in love at first sight while for the delicate Rose DeWitt Beaucator she cannot understand why the manner less stares of the man below her class makes her feel seen perhaps for the first time” Not at all, no one says a thing and yet the viewer knows all this without a doubt.

Okay so now you know what it is to “show not tell”, but how do we as writers do that? Well it’s not easy I can “tell” you. I have struggled with it for years. Often what I find is that in my first draft everything is a tell. It’s simply easier to get the vision of the story down in a telling voice. But, knowing that is half the fight because when I go back for a first rewrite most of those glaring tells are reveled and easily fixed.

The key is to know what we are trying to put out in a given sentence, paragraph or scene. Often it’s very basic. We are establishing a time, a place, a situation and the character’s (or characters’) physical and emotional state. So here is an exercise in going from telling to showing it’s very basic but that makes it easy to practice.

Everyone think back to the Rhyme Jack and Jill, go ahead say it out loud once or twice I won’t get into the historical significance just give the rhyme a saying and try and visualize it. Okay, you got it in your head… now I am going to write a TELLING scene about what happened the next day between Jack and Jill after the fateful “hill Incident” I will be writing from Jill point of view (POV) simply because it’s easier for me. Remember this is a TELLING scene.

The next morning Jill walked to the doorway of the kitchen and stopped. Jack stood beside the counter next to the coffee pot. He was still angry about the trip to the well and his broken crown. Jill certainly felt guilty and she wanted to tell Jack she was sorry. Jill wondered if their relationship would survive this latest incident.

Okay so I just told you everything you needed to know. I gave you a time, a place, a situation, the character’s emotions I even gave you the “GOAL, MOTIVATION and CONFLICT” (GMC) that being Jill’s wanting to say sorry (G) to save the relationship (M) but worried about jacks anger (C). Reasonable and direct… in other words TELLING.

Now let’s rewrite that in a SHOWING voice: all the same info just shown not told.

A bright shaft of light from the east window cut the room in half. Jill hesitated to enter even as the smell of fresh coffee beckoned. Perhaps it wasn’t just the otherworldly barrier keeping her back. Perhaps it was the way Jack was standing, back stiff, almost guarding the brewer. In profile she could detect the scowl on his face and tears burned the back of her eyes. A knot rolled in her belly and a lump formed in her throat. Here she was again, needing to tell Jack she was sorry, that she never meant for his crown to be broken, but it seemed at the moment that sorry might not be enough.

Okay so it’s not perfect and its way corny… but you can SEE what I did. I showed you it was morning rather hen tell you, I showed you what room they were in, showed you that Jill was nervous and guilty and Jack was at the least upset at the most angry and I still gave you Jill’s GMC…

It is very easy to lay it out for a reader. But that is not our craft. It’s not for us to say its 9AM in the morning. It’s for us to say “a shaft a light through the east window” and let the read choose if its 6AM 9 Am or moving towards noon. And we do not always need to say straight up it’s the kitchen… maybe the reader will be more familiar with a coffee pot in a breakfast nook or in the dining room. We establish it’s a kitchen through the soft descriptive we add like a microwave on the counter or Jack going to get cream from the fridge before noticing Jill in the doorway.

Now, it is your turn to practice. I find it helpful to simply go back and read each sentence. To say it out loud and ask myself do I feel like a 4th grader hearing it or do I feel like a fly on the wall in the story?  I feel that you need to show don’t tell but as with all story matters you need to take what you feel is helpful and leave what you don’t believe fits your story’s vision. 

READ ON!!!

Writing Tip #3 The Professional Writer

Writing Tip #3

The Professional Writer

So, today’s tip is going to be a little different.  Today I want to discuss “writing” as a job or business. 

I know grumble, because as a writer you are doing what you love so how can it be work?  And as the saying goes do something you love and you never work a day in your life.  But if you really do what to finish that manuscript, if your final goal is publication, if you want to be taken seriously by family and friends and co-workers, you must look at what you do as a job.

Therefore, let’s look at some of the aspects of writing as a business.

The place you work:  I can’t say there is any right or wrong place.  If you want to close yourself off in a small room with sound proofed walls and a do not disturb sign on the door, or you would rather sit with your laptop in a park with the traffic and children playing then so be it.  But the one thing I advise you to do is to make the place a place for working on writing.  Do not go to the park and spend the day browsing the net for shoe sales or golfing tours.  When you sit down and pull out a note pad or turn on the computer in your “place” write.  Even if you only get a few lines down while you day dream, write.  If you have to get up a hundred times to answer the phone, write.  Make that place your place to write because every time you go to that place and you write or think about what you will write you train your brain to associate the place with being creative.  And every time you take yourself to that place you will be able to fall into writer mode.  Personally I write in my basement.  I also have my bedroom in my basement so even when I am asleep I am in writer’s mode and if I wake up at 2 AM with an idea I get up and I sit down and I can write.  So pick a place and try to make it your place of business.

The equipment:  Now this is a matter of both personal choice and industry standards.  I think I mentioned I wrote my first several manuscripts in spiral notebooks, and then I used a manual typewriter and finally a word processor.  I have always been a bit behind the technology curve, actually I am still on the dirt road and technology has already left surface streets for the express way.  My advice here is to use what you are comfortable with.  If you like to carry a note pad and jot down a little bit as you eat lunch or if you have some pocket size super computer you can whip out and type a entire chapter into a document file and then dock that small device with a larger system well again whatever you are comfortable using.  However, make sure the equipment is reliable or you have a back up.  Remember that writers work for the most part on deadlines and there is not an editor or audience out there willing to totally forgive a writer who is late in delivery.  Computer crashes and printer malfunctions happen to everyone, they cannot “happen” to a writer.  And if they do they still cannot delay the manuscript. 

  Now while it is your preference where you start the story the industry will eventually require you to end on a computer with internet.  I will not say there are absolutely no publishing houses who will not consider a manuscript done in longhand on notebook paper, I believe even JK Rowling (of Harry Potter fame) started her writing this way, but the majority of agents and editors will want you to submit in a manner only possible through computer technology.  Many agents have even switched to e-mailed quarries and submissions only and editors have gone to requesting rewrites via e-mails and online “chats”.  So if you are an old fashion writer or if you are simply a technophobe (like me)  at least have a plan as to how you will get your manuscript into some type of word document ready for print and review by the people who will move you forward in the business.  In a later post I will talk about how to write a quarry, give a literary “pitch” and submission standards.

The Hours:  Well this is something hard to pin down.  Personally, I spend maybe 70 to 80 hours a week writing or editing on manuscripts.  I am also the kind of writer who can sit down for 2 days straight and complete a 150,000 word story from beginning to end AND I have a family and life which supports me doing this.  Now that I have added this “blog” thing I have decreased my writing time, increased my edit time and still not really adjusted the overall time I spend actually writing. 

  I guess what I am say is you have to MAKE time to write.  If you can only get an hour a day while the triples nap and the washer gets through the spin cycle then spend that hour. If you have one day a week when your mother in law will take the kids and feed your spouse then use that entire day.  The best way I can tell you to figure out how much time you will have to dedicate to your “working” on writing is to set a goal.  Tell yourself you will write 500 words (roughly 2 pages) every time you sit down.  When you find you are taking less time because your GMC is now nailed and the story is flowing increase that to 750 words (or 3 pages) and so on.  Set goals based on the plots and plot twists or character development, write through until you have helped your character or set the scene or finished a stretch of dialog.  But most important, MAKE time to write.

When to take time off of writing:  Well let’s see…. There are children to get off to school, the dog to walk, the bills to pay the laundry to do the plants to water, the neighbor to help, the church pot luck, the dinner and laundry (oh did I say the laundry twice… I should say it again as it’s my personal nemeses). Then there are the doctors and dentists and the shopping and the calling Mom for her birthday and OH MY GOSH the husband who would maybe like to have sex! Phew, now I am tired.

  My point is there are a million reasons to convince yourself you do not have time to write, you can’t give your craft the dedicated time you would give any other chore or job.  But if you want to write, if you want to be a writer, you have to.  You have to set aside some of those other things or give them less of your attention and give that time and attention to your writing.  And know what it’s okay to do that.   There is nothing selfish or inconsiderate about giving yourself the time to do something you not only enjoy but something which could eventually earn you a living.  You may have to explain this to the people who expect you to do all and be all, all the time but it is still alright to take that hour or those 70 hours and do what you want and have to do as a writer

 Writing is a craft but it is also a job, a business and if you want to make it in the business you have to treat the craft as you would treat any other job.  You have to have a work place, you have to have the equipment and you have to have the time.

 I hope this gives you something to think on.  READ ON!