Julie Kenner's Blog, page 114
June 6, 2012
Nice review for The Honeymoon
“I so did not see any of the twists in this one coming.” From Proud Book Nerd in the review for Love is Murder and my story, The Honeymoon. Cool!
June 5, 2012
Taking Your Money? That’s So Rude!
Yesterday, I heard from my agent’s assistant that the Pub Payment for WHEN PASSION LIES (the portion of a book’s advance that comes when a book hits the shelves) had arrived at the agency. Let’s eavesdrop on the conversation that transpired in my family, shall we?
INT. MINI-VAN – DAY
JULIE
(eyes on road)
I heard that the pub payment arrived today. I’ll get the check soon.
HUSBAND
Great!
FASHIONISTA DAUGHTER, AGE 10
So we can get me some new summer clothes?
SPENDTHRIFT DAUGHTER, AGE 8
How much?
Julie keeps her eyes on the road and reveals the amount.
SPENDTHRIFT
Wow!
(Don’t get excited; she thinks anything over 100 deserves a “wow”)
JULIE
But I won’t get all of that. The agency will keep fifteen percent.
SPENDTHRIFT
Of your money?
JULIE
That’s right.
SPENDTHRIFT
But that’s so rude!
Bwahahahahahaha!
So what do you think? If I tell my agent my 8 year old thinks their commission is rude, can I get that extra fifteen percent?
June 4, 2012
From Supreme Ruler of the Universe to Girl Next Door: How to Write Believable Characters
First things first: There is no right or wrong way to create a character. Where your book is concerned, you’re God. So that’s my caveat. If you like what I have to say, great. Use it. If not, then just toss it. You’re the boss here. You’re in charge. (Feels nice, doesn’t it?)
All characters have to have a goal, and you as a writer have a goal too. That goal is to create memorable, larger than life characters that have a life of their own (and often, that life is even greater than their story!)
(If you’re not familiar with the concept of characters having goals, I highly recommend Deb Dixon’s excellent Goal, Motivation, Conflict. Unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive these days, but check your library or ask your writer friends if you’re looking for a copy. Robert McKee’s Story also does a great job dissecting the components that make up compelling characters. It’s a much denser read, however, so be prepared to really sink your teeth in!)
In other words, your character needs to be real. But not so real (not so detailed) that complexity turns into a muddle.
Characters are a simulation, and we parse out the bits that the reader needs to see in the writing of the story.
Okay, but then what do I mean by real and larger than life? Your goal when you’re writing your novel or screenplay or short story is to find a character that fascinates you. If you’re not wowed by your character, your readers sure as hell won’t be either.
Need some examples? Have you heard of Lord Stark? Or Stephanie Plum? Or Indiana Jones? Or Harry Potter? I’m guessing you can tell me more about the character than you can about the details of the various plots they move through.
That’s not to say plot isn’t important — it is! But plot and character are inextricably intertwined (that’s the former lawyer in me shining through). That’s all well and good, but if you’re just starting out with a blank piece of paper, which comes first? Character or plot?
Frankly, it depends on you. As it should. You’re God here, remember? The god of your world.
Maybe you mind have a character burning a hole in your head (I was that way with Kate from the Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series).
Or you might have a story idea you love (that was the Shadow Keepers for me — started with the idea of a paranormal judicial system and and the first case my heroine would prosecute. The world came first … the characters later.
Either way, you’re going to meld character and story to get the end result. But what result? Well, the traits and characteristics of the folks peopling your stories. And remember, characters are tied to context.
What do I mean by that? Well, Romeo and Juliet wouldn’t be who they are without the feud. And the details and idiosyncrasies that make Sherlock Holmes so fascinating wouldn’t be nearly as effective if he was a baker.
Hitchcock had a very workable approach in my opinion: First you decide what the characters are going to do, and then you provide them with enough characteristics to make it seem plausible that they would do that.
So. What are our characters going to do?
Well, they need to care about something (maybe they don’t realize it right off the bat, but they need to care…and it can change. Think of Han Solo in Star Wars. Caring about saving his own neck and getting money changes to caring about his friends and the rebellion). 
And, of course, caring ties into a goal. The goal drives the story and it’s what makes the reader care.
If your heroine is a runner, is the reader going to be more engaged if she’s just running in her neighborhood or if she’s training for the Olympic trials?
Somehow the character gets thrust into action — if they don’t act, there’s no story. In my demon hunting soccer mom series, for example, Kate is happily living as a suburban soccer mom. But she’s thrust back into action (and back into the role of professional demon hunter) when a demon crashes through her kitchen window.
In Die Hard, Bruce Willis is thrust into action when terrorists take over the building.
In Star Wars, Luke is thrust into action when the Empire kills his aunt and uncle.
So, we’ve got forward motion in our story and we have a goal. How much the character wants to accomplish that goal is important. The more the character wants, the more interesting the character is. More drive equals more interest.
Fair enough, but what if your character just isn’t that driven? Hello? Have you not been reading? You’re the god of the story. Make him care. Rip out his backstory, destroy the life he thought he knew, replace it with one that gives him something that drives him forward. 
Remember, your job is to create interesting people doing interesting things in a believable way. The key to that is “create.” Your characters aren’t real. They don’t exist independent of the situation you’ve put them in.
So if the character doesn’t care and you have no action, then you need to change something. How? Look at the character’s motivation. The “why” of what they’re doing.
And that, Dear Reader and Dear Writer, is something we’ll talk about on Wednesday in Part 2.
(And speaking of books and characters … I’ve got a new book out this month, WHEN PASSION LIES, a Shadow Keepers novel with some pretty intense characters. I’ve also got the re-release of a light paranormal romance, THE CAT’S FANCY, priced for a limited time at only $2.99. The books themselves are wildly different, but they have one thing in common: the characters know exactly what they want, and are determined to get it.)
Now it’s your turn to tell me — who are some of your favorite characters (either heroes or villains) from either books or from movies. I’m always looking to watch and/or read about really fascincating folks!
May 31, 2012
May 30, 2012
Butt that’s so inappropriate!
As I mentioned on Friday, my little one just had surgery. Perhaps it was the codeine. Perhaps it was the kid. Frankly, I’m thinking the kid.
Another episode of Heard at Our House:
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
The television is tuned to Real Housewives of Orange County. The PARENTS sit on the couch, watching the train wreck that is RHOC.
ISABELLA enters, wearing a nightgown.
ISABELLA
Can I watch?
PARENTS
(pausing the show)
Sorry, sweetie. It’s inappropriate.
Isabella makes a face. Stands between Parents and the television.
ISABELLA
THAT’S not inappropriate!
(she whips down her underwear, bends over, and moons the parents)
THIS is inappropriate!
Ah, good times. I won’t mention the “inappropriate dance” that came later.
Thanks so much to everyone who made yesterday’s Release Day for WHEN PASSION LIES so much fun!
And more release week goodness today! I’ll be guest blogging over at Paranormal Haven today! Come say hi!
If you missed the newsletter I recently sent out, you can read it here. Lots of cool stuff coming this summer!
So, how about you? Feel like sharing your kids’ embarrassing stories? Come on now, don’t be shy. Let’s not leave my poor kid’s, ah, rear, hanging out there all by its lonesome!
May 29, 2012
RELEASE DAY: When Passion Lies and Love Is Murder!
It's out! It's out! It's finally out!
I’m so excited, because today is Release Day for When Passion Lies! You can snag your very own copy here or at your favorite bookseller:Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Random House
Lots and lots of stuff going on today. As always, you can find me on the web by checking the calendar on the Where’s Julie Page (it’s under About on the header bar) or looking in the sidebar of most of the pages on the site.
Today, I’m doing interviews and giveaways at three awesome blogs. Please be sure to drop by and enter for a chance to win!
Book Monster Reviews
Literal Addiction
Books-n-Kisses
And I’m super excited because tonight I’m doing a live chat with Bookmonster Reviews and Literal Addiction. It’s at 8:30 CST and I’m pretty much on deck for whatever you want to talk about. Yes, my fingers are ready to fly! Here’s the link: http://www.literaladdiction.com/author-chat.php#/general/
It’s also release day for the LOVE IS MURDER anthology edited by the amazing Sandra Brown, and I’ve got a fun, nourish short story in it — The Honeymoon. I hope you check it out!
I also just released a newsletter with all sorts of information in it. If you didn’t get one in your mailbox yesterday, you can read the Newsletter here. And be sure to follow the link at the top of the page so you don’t miss future news.
Thanks for helping me celebrate release day!
May 25, 2012
Back in the saddle next week
Love Without Boundaries is an awesome organization that helps kids in China by, among other things, financing cleft lip and palate repair surgery. Even a small donation can help a child.
Just a quick note to let tweeps, Facebook friends and blog followers know that I’m more or less out of the cyber-loop until early next week.My youngest is having surgery today, and though we expect it to go smooth as silk, I’ll be busy being Mom. (That’s not to say I’ll be completely absent; there’s wireless at Dell Children’s Hospital, and there will be those 4 or so hours where we’re doing the waiting thing.)
Isabella’s having her second lip revision. We did the first one two summers ago, and though I think it looks great, the new surgeon at the cleft clinic thinks he can get it even prettier. And at the same time, he’ll be doing a nose revision to open up the left side so she’ll be able to breathe out of it. These are pretty easy surgeries as surgery goes; it’s this fall that I dread. That’s the bone graft–taking bone from her hip to rebuild the cleft through her gum line. My poor little trooper!
Feeling nostalgic today. Hard to believe it’s been over five years since we adopted Isabella! Her first surgery (with us; they repaired her lip once in China) was to repair her cleft palate. I blogged in detail about her cleft palate repair surgery, and I’ve linked to that post in case other parents of kids with cleft lip/palate want to read about the process.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
May 23, 2012
Indiana Jones and the First Rule of Writing Fiction
As in life, first impressions are everything in writing fiction, and writers can learn a lot from the classic, stellar film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. That movie is, frankly, a wellspring of examples of great story-telling. Right now, I’m focusing on only one.
First impressions
Who is Indiana Jones? Well, he’s the hero of the movie. He’s an archeology professor. And he’s an archeologist. He spends much of his time in a classroom, as we learn about fifteen minutes into the movie. But what would have happened if the movie had opened with Professor Jones instead of with Indiana the action hero? Would the audience (reader) have believed that a guy that has girls writing messages to him on their eyelids, who stumbles out the door with papers spilling out of his arms, could manage all the swashbuckling coolness that Indie throws at us? No, they could not (just as Darth Vadar working at an animal shelter in scene one would not set the stage for the Darth that wreaks havoc on the ship the Princess is traveling on in Star Wars).
First impressions. Make ‘em count. Make ‘em define your character in ways that are key to the character’s development and story arc.
In Raiders, for example, not only is our first impression one of a swashbuckling adventurer, it also sets the stage for:
a) the series of failures (ever noticed that Indie pretty much loses through the entire movie, truly winning only at the end, and even then he doesn’t get what he thought he wanted all along?)
b) the encounter with the snakes in the Well of Souls, a huge dramatic and character moment
c) the relationship with the bad guy
d) Indie’s value system (museum or personal glory)
e) the humor we come to know as part of Indie’s personality
In other words, that first impression of Indie is packed full of punch.
If you’re a writer, does the intro of your main character set him/her up well? If you’re a reader, can you think of other examples from books or movies of stellar character set-up?
