Randy Ingermanson's Blog: Advanced Fiction Writing, page 16

Values, Ambitions, and Goals for Your Character

How much can your lead character change over the course of a novel? Can his values, ambitions, and goals change — or should they remain locked in place?

Beka posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

Hey Randy [image error] I’ve got a question I’m hoping you can help me with. I’m reading through your “Writing Fiction for Dummies” book and am having trouble understanding the whole “values - ambition - goal” thing.

I understand what each of these mean in regards to character development, and I can come up with a good set of conflicting values that branch into ambition and goals. My problem comes when I start thinking about those goals as they pertain to the inciting incident.

It seems like the character’s values, ambition, and goals can be one thing at the start of the story, and then something completely different once that first plot point comes around that changes everything for the character.

In creating a character’s values, etc., should we be thinking about what his goals are after that first plot point, at story start, or both? I’m stumped.

Randy sez: Beka is referring to Chapter 7 of my book WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES. I should say here that my thinking on all this was heavily influenced by the book GETTING INTO CHARACTER, by my friend Brandilyn Collins.

As a side note, the May issue of my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine had a long article on the values, ambitions, and goals of the two lead characters in THE HUNGER GAMES. If you’re unfamiliar with values, ambitions, and goals, this article is a good place to start because it’s free.

The essential question here is what changes in the character over the course of a novel? Values? Ambitions? Goals? All of the above? None of the above?

Let’s start with values. I define values to be the essential “core truths” that a character believes.

As an example, the Godfather in Mario Puzo’s novel THE GODFATHER has one core value that I would express this way: “Nothing is more important than respect.” The Godfather is a man of respect. That’s how he earns his living. If you take away his respect within his community, then you take away his life.

I believe that values are so central to a character that they are rarely going to change. They may have to defer to some other value. The character may have some radical, life-changing epiphany that causes him to reevaluate his value.

But a value is a very deeply held belief, and it’s not going to change willy-nilly as the plot of your novel unfolds.

What about ambitions? An ambition is an abstract thing that a character wants to have or to do or to be.

In the Godfather’s case, his ambition is simply to be a godfather to his community — a man of respect who provides for his people and protects them from the malicious and capricious government, which cares very little about poor Sicilian immigrants.

The Godfather’s ambition follows naturally from his value. If nothing is more important than respect, then it’s a fine thing to be a man of respect. And a man of respect takes care of those who pay him the honor of their respect. The Godfather’s relationship to members of his community is a patron-client relationship.

Once again, I think that ambitions are so central to a character that they’re rarely going to change during the course of the story. It’s possible, of course, but this is rare.

What about goals? I define a goal to be a concrete thing that represents the ambition. What does it mean for Vito Corleone to be a godfather?

It means that when a poor widow comes to him for help when she is evicted by her evil landlord, Vito intervenes at his own expense, at no charge to the widow.

It means that when a baker in his community needs proper immigration papers for his future son-in-law, Vito finds the correct Congressman to bribe and makes the needed connections.

It means that when a Sicilian trusts in the American justice system and finds himself cheated, he must come on his knees and beg forgiveness from the Godfather — and only then will he get the justice he could have had from the first, if only he had shown proper respect from the beginning.

Each of these is a minor working-out of the Godfather’s ambition. Each of these is a small goal appropriate to a single scene in the novel.

As for the large-scale goal of the novel, that can and does change as circumstances change.

Early on, the Godfather’s primary goal is to find a suitable heir for himself. His two older sons are made of the wrong stuff to be a Godfather. His youngest son, Michael, is made of the right stuff but he has morals, and the Godfather sees that it’s hopeless to try to change him. The Godfather must look elsewhere for an heir, and he needs to act soon.

But goals can change. When the Godfather is shot and nearly killed by his arch-enemy Sollozzo, his clan vows revenge. Nobody has a good idea exactly how to get it. Then that pesky moralistic third son, Michael, volunteers.

Michael offers to murder Sollozzo, and his corrupt cop ally. Michael has morals, yes, but one of Michael’s values is that blood is thicker than morality.

Michael succeeds, and now he’s on the run, because a cop-killer can’t get off with a little bribe to a congressman. Michael goes into exile in Sicily. The Godfather gets well and regains control of his business.

That now resets the Godfather’s goal for the rest of the novel. He will bring Michael home. He will get him off the hook on the cop-killing charge. He will make Michael the next Godfather. This is in line with his original ambition. It’s in line with his original values.

Goals often change over the course of a novel. But ambitions don’t change very often. And values hardly ever change.

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.

Writing in the Point of View of a Five Year Old

How do you write in the point of view of a small child in a novel for adults?

Derrick posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

I’m working on a story that begins with a five-year-old girl lost in the woods, and I’m trying to use third person limited POV. People I’ve shown this to (critique partners and such) have commented that the language I use in these scenes is “too advanced” for such a young girl.

For example, if she’s walking through the forest past the magnificent trees, but her vocabulary wouldn’t include “magnificent,” am I stuck using a simpler set of words for her POV? Or can I use my words for describing the environment, and her words for interior monologue and emotion?

How can I keep the scene with my very young character from sounding like a Dr. Suess book?

(PS, she doesn’t stay 5 forever — that would be a tough book to write.)

Randy sez: This is tough. Your goal as a novelist is to give your reader the illusion that she is your point-of-view character.

You have one advantage here: Every adult on the planet was once five years old. So your reader can well identify with that stage in life.

The problem, as you say, is to avoid giving it a Dr. Seuss feel. This is similar to the problem writers always have when writing dialect. If you’ve ever struggled through UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, you know how hard it is to read excessively realistic dialect.

The usual solution when writing dialect is to be realistic on the grammatical patterns but to use correct spellings for all words. So you get the flavor right, even if it’s not precisely accurate. Feelings here are more important than literal accuracy.

There are a couple of novels you ought to read, because they are best-selling novels by major authors and they feature young children. Here they are:

THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, by Jean Auel. An orphaned four year old girl in Ice Age Europe is adopted by a clan of Neanderthals.

ENDER’S GAME, by Orson Scott Card. A six year old boy is taken to an orbiting Battle School to be trained to save mankind from the coming invasion of alien “Buggers.”

Read them both and see how each of these authors did it.

Jean Auel wrote her story in omniscient voice, which let her use adult language to tell the story and to occasionally shift into the child’s mind when necessary.

Orson Scott Card used a character with an extremely high IQ. Even so, when inside Ender’s head, he used simple words and simple sentence patterns. You don’t need big words to tell big ideas.

Either of these ways works, Derrick. Take your pick.

But first things first. Read both of these books. Get a feel for the rhythms these authors use.

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.

Managing Stage Directions In Your Novel

How do you handle “stage directions” when writing your novel? Is there one rule that always works, or is it more complicated than that?

Davalynn posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

I have followed your blog and newsletter for several years and have learned a great deal. In your recent blog post about managing interior monologue, I locked in on one of your comments in the rewrite: “Eliminated the stage direction about walking across the room, which isnít all that interesting.”

Exactly. I’d like to hear more of your thoughts on “stage direction.” I know some is necessary, but I often stumble over it in my own writing. So much can be assumed (as dangerous as that word is). As in, “She drove away.” Do we really need to say that she got in the car, fastened her seat belt, and checked the rear-view mirror? Sometimes we need a “beat” and one of those actions might fit.

Your thoughts?

Randy sez: Davalynn has been one my Loyal Blog Readers for a long time and it was nice to meet her a couple of years ago at a conference where I was teaching.

When I talk about “stage directions,” I mean those little bits of action that fill in the picture and show people coming onstage for a scene, incidental motions while onstage, and then exiting. They’re not essential to the story, but they fill in some detail. They also serve to reveal your character’s personality.

In my view, the purpose of stage directions is to flesh out the visuals of a scene. They function in the same way as description.

When do you show stage directions? How much do you show? When do you leave them out?

I think it all depends on the speed of the action.

In a high-intensity scene, you focus on the bright and shiny parts of the story — exploding helicopters, interrogation scenes, heaving bosoms — whatever it is that makes your reader’s heart rate zip. There’s just no room for stage directions here, so you show only essential actions.

In a low-intensity scene, you are giving your reader a chance to catch her breath. You need these scenes once in a while for contrast. To slow down the pace, you intentionally add in needless words. Stage direction, descriptions of scenery, exposition, longer passages of interior monologue — all of these will serve your purpose.

In a medium-intensity scene, you take a middle road between these two extremes.

Let the pace of each scene dictate the amount of stage direction and you won’t go far wrong.

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.

How To Do Interior Monologue In Fiction Writing

How do you correctly go inside the head of your lead character when writing a scene in your novel?

David posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

As always, thanks for your time. The question on your last blog post about “Camera Management” brought to mind a similar question. How should one format a switch from POV camera angle to POV inner monologue? Do you put the inner monologue in to italics? Does it need it’s own stanza/paragraph/line? An example I’m having trouble with is below:

Paul walked across the room and picked the neatly organized pile of papers up off Todd’s desk. He shuffled them out of order and turned some upside down and backwards. That’ll get him (Italics? Add “he thought”?). Paul left the room with a sense of vindication.

This is a simple example, but I find that there are many sections of my writing where I face this dilemma. Ultimately, my question boils down to this, when writing in the different POVs, when should you follow inner monologue with “he/she thought”? When should it be in italics? How should it be formatted?

Randy sez: Handling interior monologue (or interior emotion) is like riding a bike. Once you get it, you’ve got it forever and can never have a problem with it again. But until you get it, the whole thing might seem awkward.

There are two kinds of interior monologue, direct and indirect.

Direct interior monologue tells you the exact thoughts of the character, using exactly the words he is thinking. Many writers prefer to write direct interior monologue using italics. (I’m in this camp.) The trend in recent years has been to eliminate the italics if it’s clear that these are the verbatim words going through the POV character’s mind.

Indirect interior monologue tells the approximate thoughts of the character, without giving the exact words he’s thinking. So far as I know, nobody ever writes these using italics.

Most novelists use both direct and indirect interior monologue, mixing them well, because it just feels better when you do so.

Now how do you insert interior monologue into a scene?

Follow these simple rules of thumb, and you’ll get it exactly right 95% of the time:

Each paragraph should focus on either the POV character for the scene or on anything else in the scene (one or more of the other characters, the setting, etc.).
If a paragraph focuses on the POV character, then you have four tools at your disposal, which you can mix and match as you like–Action, Dialogue, Interior Monologue, and Interior Emotion. If the paragraph goes on too long, it’s fine to break it up into multiple paragraphs. The Action and Dialogue should show what the POV character is doing or saying. The Interior Monologue and Interior Emotion should show what the POV character is thinking or feeling.
If a paragraph focuses on anything other than the POV character, then you have three tools, which you can again mix and match as you like–Action, Dialogue, and Sensory Description. The Action and Dialogue will show what non-POV characters do and say, but you should only show them if the POV character can actually see them or hear them. The Sensory Description will show anything that the POV character can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. However, you should NEVER bother to say that he is seeing them, hearing them, smelling them, tasting them, or touching them, because the reader knows who the POV character is, so it’s a waste of words to say so.

Now let’s look at David’s example. It’s pretty good as it stands but we can juice it up a bit to get more inside Paul’s skin.

Paul picked up the neatly organized pile of papers off Todd’s desk, shuffled them out of order and turned some upside down, some backwards. That’ll get the little dweebhead. Paul strode out of the room. A surge of adrenaline kicked through his veins and his feet felt light. If this didn’t vindicate him with the boss, nothing would.

If you compare David’s original to this one, you’ll see that I did the following:

Eliminated the stage direction about walking across the room, which isn’t all that interesting.
Joined the words “picked” and “up.”
Combined the action sentences into a single comma-separated list of actions.
Italicized the interior monologue and changed “him” to “the little dweebhead” which might be a term that Paul uses a lot, and which therefore feels like it’s his verbatim thoughts.
Juiced up the verb “left” to “strode”.
Changed the expository phrase “with a sense of vindication” into some interior emotion (the feelings of adrenaline in his veins and the lightness in his feet) plus some indirect interior monologue about vindicating Paul in the eyes of his boss.) I’m guessing here on who Paul wants the vindication from.

Interior monologue is one of the most powerful tools the fiction writer has. Mix it well with Action, Dialogue, and Interior Emotion and it’s hard to go wrong.

This has been a quick overview of interior monologue. My Loyal Blog Readers know that my pesky book WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES has quite a bit more detail on how it’s done.

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.

Managing the Camera While Writing Your Novel

How do you manage the “camera” when writing scenes in your novel? Or do you even have to think about that?

Dane posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

Hi Randy, Do you recommend any sources that help to teach ‘camera’ patterns for staging scenes? For example, within 3rd person pov, starting the view from a distance about the environment, then moving closer in, and finally focusing on some important details? To illustrate, if we lock the pov into 3rd person, then we were to fasten a ‘very flexible’ rubberband to the camera. As Scenes and Sequels play out, the camera is ‘rubberbanding’ around to important ‘views’ that emphasize our intent. I know there are patterns of ‘far, medium, close,’ or the other way around, but it’s tough to find some clear information with recommendations to build tension and release it.

Any input would be great!

Randy sez: Managing the camera is something you have to worry about when creating a movie. The camera always has to be somewhere.

This is not such a big problem in writing a novel, because often you can just park the camera right behind the Point-of-View character’s eyes and you’re done. Then you don’t have to think about it anymore.

You don’t always do this, of course. You have other options:

You can write in Omniscient POV, in which case the camera takes a God’s-eye view of the world. That’s not very intimate, but it can sometimes make excellent sense.

You can also write in Third Person Objective POV, in which case you put the camera outside your focal character’s head and show him from the outside. Again, this isn’t very intimate, but it has the nice advantage that it makes the novel very cinematic. The disadvantage is that you can never get inside your focal character’s skin using Interior Monologue or Interior Emotion. These are key techniques that we novelists can use that the movie people can’t.

Most novelists, most of the time, use one of the POV choices that show the world from the inside of a character. These POV choices include Third Person, First Person, Second Person (very rarely, but it can be done), and the much-criticized Head-hopping POV.

Of these, the two most popular are Third Person and First Person. When you do these right, the camera is inside the POV character’s head, looking out through his eyes. But there’s not just a camera, there’s a microphone inside his head, listening through his ears. The reader sees what he sees, hears what he hears, smells what he smells, tastes what he tastes, touches what he touches, and feels what he emotes.

For more details on this, see my article on Writing the Perfect Scene, which gives a quick overview on the basic method of alternating between interior and exterior camera shots. If you want even more detail, I’ll refer you to chapters 10 and 15 of my book Writing Fiction for Dummies, where I explain how to write a scene and then how to edit it.

I sometimes hear this referred to as “Deep POV,” which always surprises me, because it makes it sound like the author is going above and beyond the call of duty by writing this way.

I don’t get that. Putting your reader inside your character’s skin is normal. This is the way fiction ought to be done for most books most of the time. This is your main advantage over the movie people. Use it.

Now back to Dane’s question on managing the camera. Yes, there are times when you’ll want to slip the camera out of the POV character’s head and move it around. You might show us the whole room, including the parts our POV character can’t see. You might zoom out further to show the whole setting. You might show the whole city from the 50,000 foot level. Or show the whole planet, or the whole galaxy.

None of those are very personal. Showing those may be crucial for connecting with your reader’s mind, but they don’t do much to connect with her heart. And readers read fiction for the emotive part. If you want facts, you read wikipedia. If you want feelings, you read a novel.

Dane, I wouldn’t stress too much on your camera technique, unless you’re doing screenplays. If you’re writing a novel, park that camera right behind the POV character’s eyes and don’t move it unless you absolutely have to.

If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.

Want To Take a Trip on the Titanic?

A friend of mine, Janice Thompson, is running a virtual Titanic cruise on Facebook to promote her forthcoming book about the Titanic. I ran into Janice at a writing conference this past weekend and she told me all about it.

The captain for this cruise is the great-great-niece of Edward Smith, who was the captain of the Titanic on its ill-fated first voyage.

If you want to join this virtual cruise, which debarks on April 10, 2012, you need to hurry, because it'll all be over on April 15, 2012. Join the Queen of the Waves virtual cruise on Facebook!

You can choose to travel first class, second class, or third class. Or you can choose to sign up as a member of the crew. I don't think you can choose to be Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet.

Have fun!

Goals and Motivations in Fiction Writing

When we talk about a character's "motivation," exactly what do we mean by that?

Diane posted this question on my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page:

I just recently found your blog love it. I am really hoping the snowflake method will work for me, because I struggle with planning — and, therefore, finishing — my novels. My difficulty right now is step 3, the one-page character sheet with motivation, goal, etc. I don't really understand the difference between the motivation and the goal: they make sense in my head, but when I write them out, they seem to be almost the same thing. And I assume the one page is one typed page, or about 500 words. Does the motivation, goal, etc., discuss the motivation through each Act (in the three act structure) of the character's personal timeline?

Randy sez: Different people mean different things by the word "motivation." It's an amorphous concept and I prefer to break it down into several parts which I can clearly define:

Values. The beliefs a character has which he considers "self-evident."
Ambition. The abstract thing that the character wants to get or achieve or become.
Goal. The concrete thing that the character wants to get or achieve or become.

To figure out a character's values, interview him (in your mind) and ask him to fill in the blank in as many ways as he can in this sentence: "Nothing is more important than _________."

Typically, most people can give you two or three things that they think should go in the blank. If they have 20 things, then something is wrong, because some of them are going to be more important than others. But most people have two or three that they would judge to be equally important. A strong story comes from putting those in conflict.

For example, in THE GODFATHER, Vito Corleone would say instantly that "Nothing is more important than respect." Vito is a man of respect. That's how he lives.

But after half a second of thought, Vito would add, "But nothing is more important than family."

Now what happens when Vito's oldest son shows him disrespect? Not intentionally. Without thinking about it. In front of one of Vito's competitors. Now Vito has a problem, and this is what drives the novel.

So much for values. What about ambition? What do we mean when we say that ambition is "abstract"?

That's easy. What does every Miss America contestant say that she wants? Everybody knows the answer to this question. They all want "world peace." Whatever that is.

The problem is that "world peace" is abstract. You can't hold it in your hand. How do you get it? What does it look like?

World peace is a fine ambition, but it's abstract, and an abstraction is not enough to drive a story.

In order to fully define the motivation for Miss America (or anyone else), you need to know what they want concretely. If Miss America says, "We'll have world peace when all nuclear weapons are abolished," now we know what her concrete goal is. You know exactly what it looks like to eliminate all nuclear weapons. You'll know when you achieve that goal, because there won't be any more nukes on the planet.

Somebody else might say, "No, that's not it. We'll have world peace when every person on the planet who wants a job has one." Once again, that's concrete. You'll know when you achieve that goal.

Obviously, it's possible that even if you achieved either one of those goals, you still wouldn't have "world peace." That's not the point. The point is that the character THINKS that achieving that concrete goal will be the same as achieving the abstract ambition. So the character puts all his energy into reaching that concrete goal.

Your character can have fine values and a noble ambition, but until she has a concrete goal, you don't have a story. The goal will the concrete realization for some abstract ambition that is built on one or more values.

When you understand your character's goal, ambition, and values, then you have a very good handle on your character's motivations. If your character has multiple values that conflict, then you also have an unpredictable character. Actions are dictated by values. When your values are in conflict, it's anybody's guess how you'll act.

If you've got a question you'd like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page and submit your question. I'll answer them in the order they come in.

Some Special Problems in Writing First Person

Gracie posted this question on my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page:

I LOVED LOVED LOVED your precis of Downton Abbey (in your newsletter) and why it rocks. Having everyone with secrets and goals certainly keeps things hopping.

My question is: If I'm writing first person POV how do I convey the goals and dreams of my other characters in a way that makes the story as exciting as (if not more exciting than!) a multiple third person POV story.

Randy sez: Gracie is referring to the article WHY DOWNTON ABBEY ROCKS in the March, 2012 issue of my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

When you're writing in first person point of view, you can't get inside the heads of any other characters. So how do you let your reader know their hopes and dreams and goals?

That's a good question. Remember that in the movies and on TV, we see all the characters from "outside." It's very rare to do a voiceover that lets the viewer in on the thoughts of the focus character.

The answer is by looking at their actions and listening to their dialogue.

In Downton Abbey, one of the young housemaids, Emma, wants to quit service and work as a secretary. This is extremely important to her. But we never get to hear the thoughts inside her head about this.

Here's how the makers of Downton Abbey showed us this dream of Emma's:

First, we see her in the post office sending off a letter. We don't know what's in the letter, but she acts secretive about it when she runs into Mr. Bates. So we know this is important to her but it's also something she can't share with anyone.

Later, Emma returns to her room, which she shares with another maid, Anna. Anna is rummaging around in Emma's things, and Emma gets angry and asks what she's doing. Anna asks what's in that big case, and she won't quit asking until Emma admits that she's taking a correspondence course in typing and shorthand because she wants to become a secretary.

There, the secret's out. But we still don't know why. That comes later, in a scene where Miss O'Brien has found Emma's typewriter and brought it down to the servant's dining room for inspection by the butler, Mr. Carson. Emma bursts in on them and demands to know why they're violating her privacy. Carson insists on knowing why she has a typewriter in her room.

Emma then explains more fully her dream and why she wants to leave service. She has nothing against being a servant. There's nothing wrong with it. But it's not what she wants to do. She wants to be a secretary, and that's that.

Eventually, word gets back to the Crawley family. Some of them are appalled at the idea of a servant leaving service. Others think she has a perfect right. The youngest daughter, Sybil, is a huge fan of women's rights, and she argues that Emma should be allowed to do what she wants.

Then Sybil goes the extra mile. She finds Emma and tells her that she'll give her a reference which is suitably vague on her work experience, so it won't be obvious that she's just a housemaid. For several episodes, Sybil actively looks for job opportunities for Emma, makes her send in applications, and goes with her to interviews.

That's how you show a character's hopes and dreams when you can't go inside their head. You use actions and dialogue. You use conflict to force the character to explain her motives in dialogue.

Notice that when Sybil comes into the picture to help Emma achieve her dream, we learn more about Sybil's own dreams of a world where women have the right to vote and work and do whatever they want.

If you've got a question you'd like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page and submit your question. I'll answer them in the order they come in.

Chapters, Scenes, and Fiction Writing

What's the best way to write each individual chapter of your novel? Or … is that the wrong question?

Dusty posted this question on my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page:

I planned out every chapter of my novel but I can't seem to make the magic happen.

I can't seem to write the individual chapters.

What's the best way to write chapters?

Randy sez: Planning is good, if you're the kind of writer who needs planning. I would guess that half of all writers make a plan before they write, either by creating a synopsis or by using the Snowflake method or something similar. The other half just write.

I'm going to rephrase Dusty's question, because the fundamental unit of fiction is NOT the chapter, it's the scene. Chapters are not related to story structure. A chapter typically contains one or more scenes.

The scene is the important thing in writing fiction. Each scene needs to be its own story. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. When your reader finishes each scene, she should feel a sense of completion.

Dusty, it's a little unclear what's holding you back. I can think of two possible reasons, each with its own solution:

It's possible that you don't understand scene structure. If that's the case, then the easy fix is to learn what makes a scene work. Once you know the three essential elements each scene MUST have, it's not hard to plan those out and then write the scene. Let me refer you to my article Writing the Perfect Scene, which explains in detail how to write a scene.
It's also possible that you're overthinking things. Some people get so knotted up with anxiety that their first draft won't be exactly right, they're afraid to type a single word. If that's the case for you, Dusty, then the easy fix is to take off your Editor's hat and put on your Creator's hat. When you wear the Creator's hat, you get to be sloppy. Just type. Don't edit. Slam out the words. You can always fix it later. In fact, you will fix it later when you take off the Creator's hat and put on the Editor's hat. It's a lethal mistake to wear both hats at the same time. This is like driving your car pressing both the gas and the brake. Don't do it!

Of course, there may be some other reason you're having problems getting your scenes written, Dusty. I don't have enough information, so I've given you a couple of guesses based on my experience in talking to thousands of writers over the years.

What do you think, Loyal Blog Readers? Is there something I may have missed? What might be holding Dusty back? What is a possible solution? Leave a comment here and we'll see that our combined wisdom is better than just mine alone.

If you've got a question you'd like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page and submit your question. I'll answer them in the order they come in.

Must a Novelist Promote on Those Pesky Social Media?

Tami posted this question on my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page:

I'm not on Facebook, I don't tweet, and other than email, I don't follow any of the other social media available. (I do follow your blog and two other authors) Do you think a first-time author can successfully promote a novel in today's market without using these formats?

If not, what do you think is the most effective use of my time using social media and/or a website? There are so many available and each one seems to require a large time commitment.

Randy sez: You're asking the right questions, Tami. One should never jump into some marketing scheme without having some reason to believe that it actually works. An author is in business, and business people ask hard questions about anything they do. There needs to be a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI) for any marketing action you take.

First let me say that there are two kinds of marketing:

Active Marketing
Passive Marketing

By "Active Marketing" I mean anything that you do that needs to pay off right away because it has a limited time that it has an influence. This is like working a day job, where you do some work and then you get paid, and that's the end of it.

By "Passive Marketing" I mean anything that you can do once that will continue to pay off for weeks, months, or years. This is like investing in real estate or stocks (in a rising market), where you do your homework once to decide on the investment and then it earns you money for the rest of your life.

It should be obvious that Passive Marketing is inherently more efficient than Active Marketing. When you are doing Active Marketing, you'd better make sure it has a decent immediate Return on Investment, because it won't be earning you money very long. When you're doing Passive Marketing, your immediate ROI doesn't need to be as high, because you expect it to earn money for a long time. What you care about with Passive Marketing is your long-term ROI.

A recent study showed that the average length of time that a Tweet or a Facebook post hangs around is a few hours. After that, they no longer do any work for you. This means that a marketing plan based on you Twittering or posting on Facebook needs to have a high ROI, because it's Active Marketing. It also means that you need to keep at it continuously. If you go on vacation, your marketing campaign swiftly dies and you stop earning.

Blog posts and articles on the web, however, are indexed by Google and can bring you visitors forever. A marketing campaign built around writing interesting blog posts or articles on your web site (or anything that is indexed by Google) is by definition Passive Marketing. If you go on vacation, your web site continues working for you around the clock, while you lie on the beach or relax.

Note that you can effectively use Twitter and Facebook as part of your blog or web site. Just include a Tweet button or a Facebook Like button on your blog or web site. You do this job once (or your webmaster does it) and then anyone who visits your site or blog can Tweet about you or Like you and this can bring more traffic to your site without you doing the work. The people doing the work of marketing you are the people who like what you have. These are the best people to be marketing on your behalf. Far better for others to toot your horn than for you to toot it yourself.

I have much more to say about marketing, but I'll save it for another day. Please note that there's a monthly column in my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine on marketing that deals with issues like this in more detail.

If you've got a question you'd like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my "Ask A Question For My Blog" page and submit your question. I'll answer them in the order they come in.