Bill Conrad's Blog, page 36

Writing Radical Fiction

Authors are constantly pushing the boundaries of reality. For example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein completely opened up horror, science fiction, and drama. The result caused people to think about themselves and their viewpoints.
I define radical fiction as a story that takes a large leap from reality. This means readers are required to accept concepts like impossible physics, alien values, crazy morals, and a society with inhuman rules. Authors like Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke all pushed the views on what is possible. They made us believe in distant worlds, faster than light travel, blue aliens, magic, time travel, and ray guns.
For example, Spiderman’s world has radical biology. He uses a silk gland to leap from building to building. Readers must overcome many hurdles to accept that kind of character. At the very least, the silk gland would be near his butt and it would shoot out three feet. How far can a man pee? It’s the same biological mechanism.
I approached radical fiction with caution. For example, in my first book, I explored the impossible concept of immortality. I explained how it worked with pseudo-science as opposed to proven medical facts that astute readers thoroughly understand. My immortality process utilized “harvested human organs” placed into a host body. This provided the immune system the ability to destroy the “parasites responsible for old age.” In order for this concept to work, readers must take a blind leap into fantasy.
Is my immortality concept plausible? Sort of. Using harvested organs to achieve eternal life is pure fantasy. Having the immune system indefinitely repair the body is almost plausible. Overall, my concept would not warrant a scientific study. However, it’s a good plot tool that “could work” with a little imagination. Wink, wink. Now, if my process required “magic wand” then readers would have to take a leap into implausible fantasy.
My second book has aliens. In the real world, some anecdotal evidence has been uncovered to support the existence of aliens. However, aliens certainly haven’t been on 60 minutes to discuss their political views.
My approach to discussing aliens was basic. The aliens were invisible at the beginning of the story and they briefly interacted at the end. Their visual appearance was “human-like” and they had no special abilities. I was careful to keep their exact details vague. I did this by putting them into invisible suits.
I feel a gradual introduction led the readers into accepting alien characters. The story “could happen just like that.” This approach allowed the plot to build in a realistic manner. This also avoided many questions. What do aliens like to eat? How does the alien ship work?
My second book touches on the concept of telepathy. Science has completely debunked telepathy, so I took a careful approach. Only two characters had telepathy their interaction was difficult, awkward and incomplete. Of course, I skipped over the technical explanation.
I can imagine mentally communicating with somebody. There have been times when I got coordinated with a person’s thoughts. So that gives me something to write about. For me, that is not too far of a leap. Despite all the science telepathy could be possible.
In Star Wars, there were many characters with different backgrounds. Wow, that would be difficult to organize. Star Wars gets away with radical fiction by taking the leap without explanation. Luke Skywalker presses a button on his light sabre and slices away. Never mind the concept of a “light sabre” is completely impossible by every known law of physics, thermodynamics, electronics, and optics.
As an author, I approach radical fiction with care. To me, it is like a gun with only one bullet. You wave the gun around and act tough, but you only get one shot. So, aim carefully. Of course, other authors approach radical fiction like it’s raining bullets. They attract readers who instantly “get” the altered reality.
Harry Potter uses his wand and the water freezes. For me, that’s a bridge too far. My plot has to make sense or at least be almost plausible. In all the technical reading I have done, scientific experiments I have done and Discover Channel science shows I have watched, a “magic wand” has never frozen water. First law of thermodynamics! How could I imagine a world where a magic wand could ever work?
I certainly have a lot of respect for the authors that write radical fiction. They have the wonderful gift of creating a story out of nothing but their imagination. I am trying to push my personal envelope. My present book centers on an alien world. Society, physics and the “people” are different from humans. It has been challenging and fun. I also have a short story idea about a magical world. Someday I might take this leap. In the meantime, I have a lot of ground to cover here on plain old boring earth.

Where my Ideas Come From

When people learn that I’m a part-time author, they often ask, “where do you get your ideas?” I have touched on this topic before, but I thought it would be interesting to cover the subject in depth.
Thought my life, I have created stories. These fantasies served as mental distractions to get me through the day and help me sleep. My ideas often start as a thought experiment. What would happen if my car wheel fell off, and I was stuck in the middle of nowhere? What is the story about that guy with the funny hat? What if aliens landed? What would happen if somebody gave me a million dollars? Side note. After taxes, I would pay off my house because I’m practical, conservative and boring. If someone gave me 10 million dollars, I would start a business. I’m not that boring.
My ethics and personality guided my creative thoughts, which causes me to avoid certain concepts. What would happen if I killed that guy with the funny hat? Easy. I would go to jail and my family would hate me. What if Elvis came to my house? I would tell the local news and let them deal with it. What if vampires… Nope. Not real.
There are many ideas without follow through. What would happen if somebody stalked me? I would go to the police. What if I became a firefighter? Easy, I would fight fires.
I dislike characters like Superman and Luke Skywalker because I would have to explain their “world.” In Superman’s world, super beings can fly and are strong enough to lift trains. What if the mutant spider from Spiderman bit Superman? Gahhh. Too weird.
I’m not that good at forcing a story. For example, Rocky was a popular movie. Bill, pretend you want to be the best fighter in the world. Go! Gahhh. That’s so hard to relate to. What do I know about boxing? Serious physical training? Pushing beyond the pain? I have no desire to jump into the ring and start punching. The result would be a weak story.
How about something more plausible? What if I was at my normal Engineering job and I discovered that the owner of the company was Batman? My job was to design radar for the batmobile. That sounds interesting and perhaps plausible.
This premises could become an interesting plot. A solitary figure behind the scenes helping to stop crime. Batman is an established character with a lot of history. [He even time traveled to ancient Japan.] To make a story like that workable, I would have to tweak the base premise. Not Batman. Hmm. How about the CIA? That might work.
For the concepts that stick, I build up the lead character and explore the plot. I then distance the character away from my life because my life is boring. Not that I am complaining, but readers would not experience the same joy I feel over getting a circuit to work. Side note, Zener diodes are really cool.
Unemployment offered the opportunity to bring my thoughts to reality, and I took the leap. To date, I have had six major “lines of thinking.” I wrote about my three favorites.
Will I ever write about the other three? Unfortunately, no. In grade school, I had an idea about a boy [obviously me] with a pet Cheetah. This premise is far too convoluted to become a novel. The second idea is very similar to my second book except it centered on banking and not immortality. The character relationships are the same as my second book and there is no new ground. My third idea is set in the Star Trek Universe and there are serious legal issues involved. I respect those issues because I would hate it if somebody stole my character/plot ideas. Someday, I might write the story for free.
What about starting out in a different direction? A cowboy novel? 1800s romance novel? Mystery? That is not a direction I want to take. Essentially, it would not be fun to write.
However, I like to watch westerns, dramas mystery, some horror, and crime. Someday, I would like to write about a bank robbery. I also have an idea similar to the movie Starman where an alien man arrives and tries to survive in our society. I have thought about a book of short stories. That is a distant future project and often books of shorts stories don’t do well. For now, I have at least five books ahead of me in the present three plot lines that I want to complete. That will keep me busy for years.
Well, there you have it. I daydream about my life and occasionally, I think up something that seems plausible. I imagine many writers use this same technique.
XKCD Comic that explains my process:
https://xkcd.com/337/

When Your Best Isn’t Good Enough

It’s hard to put yourself out there. Sometimes it’s even hard to get up in the morning and face the day. Some days I succeed and some days I fail. Of course, I know that the painful lessons in life are the most important. However, that doesn’t make overcoming a major failure any easier.
At times, I have concluded that a project wasn’t good enough. That, no matter how hard I worked, it would never succeed. I have tried to get several businesses ventures going, wrote several patents, failed classes in school and had relationships end. In these hopeful endeavors, I did my best to make them successful. I asked for help, invested money, worked late into the night, lowered my morals, made sacrifices, got hurt, and thought outside the box. Some of these failed endeavors went on for years. However, I can trace each failure back to a single day when I admitted defeat. I had tried every option to make the project succeed, and I forced myself to move on.
Did I learn anything? Of course. Would I have done anything differently? Of course, but the result probably would have been the same. Sometimes, an endeavor isn’t meant to succeed and sometimes others are destined to achieve the glory of its success. For me, the worst part is when I had to admit that I didn’t possess the means to achieve success. That’s life.
My first big business venture was to make a digital audio mixing board. I put in a crazy amount of effort into making it happen. The problem was that the early 90s were an awful time to start a business; I lacked connections, and I obviously didn’t have major financial backing. To compound matters, I must now admit that I didn’t have the technical, business, organizing, marketing or personal skills to achieve success. In retrospect, success was never possible. I distinctly remember the day when I admitted defeat. I went to the beach and walked around for hours. It was a crushing blow, and it took a long time to attempt to get another business venture off the ground. Side note, that new venture rapidly failed.
Now, I am trying to be an author. This is a daunting task. I went into it knowing I would never be a great success like Tom Clancy. I can live with that. However, I hoped to at least break even. At the very least to have the opportunity for success. I’m now two years into this adventure and I have faced the harsh reality that my idea of becoming author overnight was wishful thinking. It’s now clear that the real effort behind every great author is marketing. My past business ventures have revealed my lack of marketing skills.
Does this mean defeat? Should I give up writing? That decision would certainly free up some time. I have concluded that this potentially profitable venture is now a costly hobby. Well, there is a bright side. It’s less expensive than golf. It would be nice if, I was discovered. However, I can live without fame. My new goal is for a few people to read my works and say, “That was a good book” or at least, “That was not a bad book.”
What I cannot live with is a wave of criticism. Just like being discovered for being a good author, I could be discovered as a bad author. A YouTube personality could make my work the subject of a negative video or a popular blog could launch an awful rant. This would be a huge blow to me and wave of negative comments would probably push me out of the game.
Does this mean that I’m a quitter? I like to think not, but I’m an easygoing person. I avoid the negatives and focus on the positives. With that in mind, I will keep writing until it’s no longer rewarding.

Character Attachment

People do all kinds of activities. Some really get into gardening, bird watching or fixing cars. Activities can range from minor hobbies to full-time obsessions. For example, Jane Goodall become so involved with chimpanzees that she lived in the jungle for years.
Well, what about authors? How deep do they apply themselves? A nonfiction author can get so involved with the research that they actually become the story. What about a fiction author? That gets a bit more interesting. If the plot takes place in say Scotland, an author can travel there to get a feel for the local scene. Otherwise, there is not a whole lot that an author can do externally other than sit in front of a computer.
What about fictional characters? How involved do fictional writers get involved with their characters? Writers have the option to base characters on people they know. For example, I based one of my minor characters on my Uncle Al. This choice made the dialog fun and relatable to me. However, for my main characters, I would never base them on a real person. There has to some detachment to allow the freedom to explore all plot possibilities. For example, I could never allow Uncle Al to kill, fall in love or behave badly [be a protagonist.] That would be wrong on many levels. Uncle Al flying an X-Wing fighter like Luke Skywalker? Nope.
To build a character, I give them a set of traits and I use this foundation to form reactions to situations. In order to determine their reactions, I have to adapt their mindset and get inside their personality. This is even true when this character has a vastly different personality than my own.
Overall, it’s fun and interesting to briefly become another person. I like getting characters into trouble and then pulling “myself” out.
Let’s take an example in my first book. The character Grace had to decide if the character James was worthy of her secret. This is a big choice required that required a lot of soul searching on her part. There would be consequences for revealing her secret and extreme consequences if James abused her secret. As an author, I knew what her choice was going to be because the entire plot of the book was about revealing the secret. However, the reader was unaware of this. In order to keep the reader's interest, I had to prolong her decision. This required me to “think like Grace” by getting deep into her mindset. I went over her motivations and her trepidations many times. Eventually, she had to blindly trust James, and this was pure agony.
At the same time, I had to get into the mindset of James. He wanted to know the secret, but he was afraid of her. He had to overcome his fears of her to go past the point of no return. It was a deep and gritty decision that resulted in great dialog and insight into his decision process.
Because of the severity of the decision, Grace acted uncharacteristically reserved and James acted uncharacteristically bold. After the decision, Grace felt empathy towards James and offered to call the whole thing off. James ignored his fear because he wanted to learn her dangerous secret.
Now, I have to take a sidetrack. In the Facebook Group Writers Helping Writers, I posed the question: “What is the difference between an imaginary friend and a character that an author is writing about?” I got many responses to my post and the overall opinion, was “Not much.”
It started to make me wonder. Are the character Grace and James real to me? In a way, they are. In the above paragraph, I wrote about their “feelings.” Obviously, they are not physically real and they have no feelings. However, they do exist in my mind. When I am not writing, I mentally interact with the characters at a deep level. I think about what they did and what they should have done. I think about their dialog and the way they look. I also think of future plots and unrelated events. I even let my mind drift, “If Grace was at Home Depot with me, what color paint would she use for the den?” Yes, that is a bit creepy.
Do I dream/daydream about my characters? I must admit that I do. When I first watched Star Wars, I had a nightmare about Darth Vader. Is that the same thing? To me, that is a different category because I did not create Darth Vader. He randomly entered my life and I have no control over him. In a way, Darth Vader is just like a mean kid I met for two hours.
The characters I create are built from the ground up and they only exist in my mind and my writings. There is a lot of personal effort to perfect their traits and limitations. Does this mean that I am attached to them? I suppose it does. When I am self-editing and I get to a part where the main character fails, I feel bad. It is as if a friend is failing.
How deep is my attachment? I know the characters aren’t real and I could never meet them in person. It is clear that my writing is at best personal entertaining and at worst an escape. Yet, I fully admit that I have an emotional connection to my characters. I guess that’s part of being an author. If a person commented online, “The character of Grace is weak.” I would feel sad in the same way as when I read negative comments like, “The band Rush does not play good music.” It is an attack on something that I cherish.
How do these characters I created effect my life? Being an author has changed me in several ways. I suppose if you take a high-level view of my emotional attachment to characters, it would result in more friends. I would like to think that I have a good mental outlook and realize that my characters aren’t real. I suppose that as long as I keep this perspective, my life will be just fine.

My Ethics Hinder Good Story

Five years ago, I was working at Sundstrand on a project that resulted in a report. Issues were uncovered and the report conclusion pointed them out. My boss asked me to change the conclusions to cover up the flaws and I refused. To get around this dilemma, I re-wrote [faked] my conclusions and had somebody else submit it under their name. I suppose that made me a ghostwriter. So far, that is the only time that I have allowed this to happen.
On a side note, Sundstrand had extensive “ethical training” and they went out of their way to stress their “core ethical values.” Despite this fact, Sundstrand was a very unethical place to work. I still liked my boss. He was just passing along the poor ethics of upper management.
The entire incident made me feel conflicted. It was a minor lie, but my core personality hated lying. I considered quitting my job. Looking back upon what happened with a global perspective, the reality was a minor fudge of the implied requirements.
At the time of the incident, my coworkers all said, “It’s what the boss wants. Just do it.” I simply couldn’t bring myself to agree and I felt they were being unethical just for suggesting such a course of action.
Since that lie, I have reflected upon the ethical aspects of my life. I came to an unexpected conclusion. I am a deeply ethical person. I had thought that my ethics were normal or perhaps a little below normal. Sure, I don’t steal or abuse people, but all of my friends are like that. I speed, takes some risks and occasionally push the envelope. However, I am fully aware that I am not a saint and there are many people with higher ethics.
After working at Sundstrand, I began to write. The plots that I choose to write about were the same types that I like to read. The characters are of course ethical and the protagonists are of course unethical. However, the protagonists have ethical lines they don’t cross. I feel it’s important that readers connect with the protagonist as if they could be bad people in their own lives. It’s an enjoyable moment when a protagonist fails and a sad moment when they succeed. However, I feel that if the protagonist is too bad then the reader will not continue reading.
For example, my protagonists would never use racial slurs. Such terms are important tools for authors to rouse up the reader. The terms show ignorance and a lack of respect. I just cannot use a racial slur in my writings or any other aspect of my life.
I also noticed that my lead characters are normal people with good morals. They rarely do the wrong thing and they regret their mistakes. That choice vastly limits their “dynamic range” in what they can do and where the story can go. This makes it impossible for me to create an antihero.
I mentally set a limit as to the plotline and subject matter. I cannot write a horror story where people are treated badly for the sake of being treated badly. My protagonists need a reason to be awful; they cannot simply be awful people. To that end, I make sure they don’t benefit from their poor behavior.
Well, can I tell myself “this is just fantasy?” Go ahead, write a good raw gritty unsavory story. Readers will understand; they know the definition of fiction. The author of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” has never killed anybody. It was just a story. To me, that is a bridge too far. However, I do appreciate great books that reach far into the depths of anger, hate, abuse, and immorality. I like anti-hero movies like Deadpool and Mad Max.
Does this mean that my books will always be limited? Regrettably, yes. A large portion of literature and character type will be off limits to me. Is this bad? Great writers challenge themselves to come up with fantastic plots. Great authors use shock value, they push the envelope and love to get readers out of their comfort zone. I am aware of what my writing could be, but I have to live with myself. I don’t feel that the sum of my life’s achievements should be an unethical character. I would much rather be a complete failure as an author than to be known as the author who created Hannibal Lecter.
I do understand that Hannibal Lecter is a really amazing character. Thomas Harris can be proud of that sadistic creation. However, I could never approach that level of cruelty. My ethical foundation simply will not allow it.
I now feel that I have a better understanding of my ethics and I know how they affect my writing. I am going to try to push my personal envelope as much as my ethics will allow. I think there is still a lot of good ethical area to have a great plot. I hope that readers will appreciate my characters and plots even if they don’t push the boundaries of evil.

Using Grammarly

The program Grammarly is a great tool that saves time, money and makes my life better. Its purpose is to do a better job of grammar checking than the built-in grammar checking programs. The result is a document that reads better due to less grammatical errors.
There are of course critics and they point out that all grammar-checking programs make mistakes. They also point out that the result of these programs make documents read bland and they lack the raw spark of an un-proofread document. Anti-big brother critics also point out that Grammarly sends the document to a server to be processed which is a security and privacy issue.
For me, I am grateful for any help I can get. Good documents show readers how much effort an author puts into their work. Bad grammar trips up readers and causes negative comments.
On a personal level, it is no secret that my grammar is at best fair. The term “fair” is an upgrade from “poor.” I attribute this upgrade to two factors. The first is that my writing efforts have improved my grammar abilities. The second is that the English language bar has been lowered by the internet. Anybody to publish, post, unintentionally share their work. As a result, every conceivable document is available for public viewing and the vast majority of them haven’t been proofread.
When I use Grammarly, I use it like any other tool. I evaluate its suggestions and make changes where I feel appropriate. Overall, I like its suggestions and it is clear that the tool is getting better.
Grammarly does have its drawbacks. It’s very slow and it has big gaps. For example, it trips up on using the word “who” as opposed to “whom.” It also misses the big picture such as putting in paragraph breaks or adding quotes. Grammarly also does not process slang, intentional poor grammar or technical terms.
Even with its drawbacks, I see a big improvement in my documents. They look more professional and I find the errors they catch to be true mistakes. I see a big future with programs like Grammarly. AI is going to make a massive contribution in this area. Microsoft now has a big gap exposed in its product and I look forward to their response. With some luck, the overall quality of all documents will be raised.

Most Authors Are Goodhearted People

Years ago, I recall a coffee mug “Workers got to do what they got to do and authors write about it from the sidelines.” In essence, it was implying that the authors were backseat drivers. I thought it was funny at the time.
I have since reflected about what it takes to be an author and I have read many posts on the Facebook group Writers Helping Writers. This has given me a deeper understanding of the mindset of authors and I now have a better grasp of that type of person.
With this newfound perspective, I have concluded that most authors are goodhearted people. I think this is because they create an ideal mental world for their plot to unfold. For this unfolding to properly occur, there needs to be hope. The real hope that an author has is to make sure their plot will be enjoyable to the readers. In my opinion, this kind of undertaking is only suited to a person with a good outlook on life. It is also suited toward a person who wants to add to this wonderful world.
Now, a person reading this blog might think there are books about: horror, conflict, criminals, death, imprisonment and all kinds of unpleasant topics. Some of these stories are trashy, have bad morals and overall treat people poorly. All true.
Let’s take an example of the popular novel Frankenstein's Monster by Mary Shelley. In its day, this book was considered a horrific gory display of terror that crossed every ethical boundary. How did the story end? The monster died, people kind of learned from their mistakes and everything went back to normal. Dracula, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, The Shining, It and the Silence of the Lambs all follow the same pattern. There is an overall drive to make the world a better place in the face of danger.
Why didn’t Frankenstein's monster dig up a bunch of bodies, animate them and take over the world? There are some books with plots of this nature, but in my opinion, that is just not how authors think. Even the bad books have characters that overcome adversity, survive, thrive and help others.
What about truly awful authors? Or the authors who intentionally create deplorable works? Well, of course, there will always be exceptions to the rule. Some authors don’t fit the mold of being good people. What about books that are written for revenge, shock value, manipulation or terror? That’s also an exception. An evil person is simply using another tool to spread their hate.
When a person sets out to be an author, I fell they have an overall goal to contribute. The authors I have encountered want to add to the world in some way. Their contribution may not be successful, but there is an honest attempt at being positive.
Does that truly make an author a person with a good heart? Do they have better ethics when compared to the average person? Let’s take another group. I am an Electrical Engineer and I find people like me to be logical, driven and passionate about their profession. Overall, we try to make the world a better place. Have we created weapons that have killed thousands of people? Sure. Have we created devices that have made our lives much better? Of course. Do we have better ethics and values when compared to the average person? In my opinion, yes.
Well, I am kind of writing myself into a hole. If you pick any group of people, I am sure the same argument would apply. The sailing club, rose growers, street racers, target shooters… Anybody except drug dealers could make that same argument that their group contains mainly goodhearted people.
I think the point that I was trying to make was that I noticed a deep inner core when I began reading the posts on Writers Helping Writers. There was a drive to contribute, perfect and make the world a better place by creating a good book. In essence, my opinion changed from thinking that authors were people on the sidelines commenting on life to people who wanted to make life better.
As a result of becoming a writer, I think more about my life and the people around me. I can see a change for the better in how I perceive people and what I wish to accomplish. An interesting revelation.

If Aliens Arrive, Science Fiction Will Change

We all like stories like Star Wars with its amazing reality full of crazy creatures. We also like earth biased science fiction such as Back to the Future. How amazing would it be to travel through time?
Science fiction is loosely based on the possibility of amazing technology such as warp drives, transporters, cloaking devices, time travel, holographic people, intelligent robots and phasor rifles. It is accepted that there are all kinds of crazy lifeforms could be possible like Chewbacca, green blooded Spock, the half-robot Borg or the all-powerful Q who can do anything. At the other spectrum are the characters like Superman who can fly, Iron man who has a nuclear reactor in his chest or Deadpool who cannot die. We also have the magic characters like Harry Potter with his magic wand.
However, there is a potential problem. Someday, an alien spaceship might land and a bunch of people from another world walks out. On that day, we are going to learn a bunch of facts about how the universe really works. That will be an amazing day full of fantastic discoveries.
However, it will be a bad day for science fiction writers. Scientists have already proven that many of the technologies we interweave into science fiction don’t exist. Transports, time travel? Probably not. Amazing aliens? Biologists have clearly shown that evolution prefers basic beings with practical features. Green blood, telepathy, X-ray vision? Never. Half robot cyborg? Impractical. Superheroes with super abilities? Nope. Magic spells? Definitely not.
The day after the aliens arrive, humans will be faced with a stark reality. The science fiction concepts we cherish will be proven incorrect. Readers and movie audiences will suddenly have to make a big change. Beloved story’s like Star Wars will instantly become an outdated awaked comedy. The powerful image of Superman will be relegated to an amusing children’s story of the past.
Does this mean that all science fiction writers be out of a job? Or will they have to make a huge adaptation to the new facts about the actual universe? The core strength of being human is the ability to adapt. The likely outcome of an alien landing will be a renaissance of “earth fiction” where science fiction writers have to radically adapt their “universe” to the correct reality.
For example, the “Star Trek Universe” would get a reboot and confirm the boring technology that’s actually possible and limit the scope the few actual alien worlds. The superhero universe would be limited to characters like Batman who is an actual person with no superhuman abilities. For those remaining fans who appreciated superheroes, magic and “nostalgic science fiction,” it would take a much further leap to enjoy works of this type. For example, Superman would only exist in a completely different universe where there is no earth and super abilities are possible.
To me, this possibility is scary because my first and second book series have science fiction aspects. This included including aliens and alien technology. Would my books become as obsolete as the typewriter? Would they be relegated to the new book section called “not recommended classics?” Yes, they would. Wow, is that a depressing thought. Maybe on the day after aliens land, all science fiction authors could attend a book/comic/DVD burning event. Bummer.
At the same time, I would love to know how the universe actually works. Meeting lifeforms from other worlds. What an epic learning opportunity. I guess in the end, I’m torn. Alright, truth. I worked hard on my books. Hey aliens. Stay away from earth!!!

Writing A Character Biography

In my last blog, I examined how an outline helps the book writing process. In this blog, I will attempt to show how I define characters at this early stage. As an example, I created three characters loosely based on my fourth book outline. So, let’s begin in an incorrect way. The character biography for James is: American, 31 years old, 6’ 2” tall, brown curly hair, black shirt, thin, in great shape, walks tall and lives in a modest home. While this is a good sentence for a book, that isn’t what we are looking for. What we need is overall details and interaction with other characters. With that in mind, here are three basic character biographies:

Grace
Type: Strong, smart, middle-aged.
Interactions:
* James. Likes him, loans him money, wants to take their relationship further.
* Pincushion man. Avoids him, talks down to him.
Traits: Talks with a Russian accent, dresses well, likes good food.
Strengths: Has a great perception, art/music expert, a good business person.
Limitations: Can’t get over the loss of her husband, unknown health issue.
Background: Born Russia, grew up on a rural farm, has a summer house that James has been to.
Occupation: Buy/sell art and music.
Desires: Make more money, get control of Pincushion man shipping operation.


James
Type: Average guy, not too bright, middle-aged.
* Pincushion man. Taken prisoner by him, intimidated by him.
* Grace. Met at the bookstore, initially intimidated by her, now at a basic level of respect.
Traits: Has a low opinion of himself, always complaining.
Strengths: Street smart, a good writer, great at getting information out of people, easy to talk to.
Limitations: No money, terrible friends, bad X wife, not good with money.
Background: Lives Seattle in a small house, moved around a lot as a child.
Occupation: Best Buy.
Desires: Write a great book, make enough money to make it through the day.

Pincushion man
Type: Greedy, driven, dominating, old.
* James. Wants to get secret from him, treats him as a servant.
* Grace. Does not understand her, cannot relate to her goals.
Traits: Addicted to acupuncture, cheep, appreciates art, arrogant, selfish.
Strengths: Great at organizing, can immediately spot weakness.
Limitations: In poor health, bad at business, cannot relate to others.
Background: Born a long time ago in China, unhealthy.
Occupation: Independently wealthy, shipping.
Desires: Gain as much power and land as possible.
At this stage, I did not have a name for the “pincushion man” character and I used this as a placeholder.

As you can see, there is an of detail lot missing, including their appearance. At this early outline stage, we are only concerned about the aspects that directly affect the plot. When the writing begins, the fine details will be created.
When creating a character, I like to start with somebody I know. This could be a fictional character or a real person. I then think about their traits and expand on them to fit the story. The key is to build a mental picture and then use the character biography as a reference.
A big part of the character is how they interact with each other. From the above example, it is clear that the characters aren’t friends, but they have commonalities. That particular type of interaction was dictated by the plot. Friendly characters would have more personal interactions and background. Such as, James is married to Grace’s brother, Pincushion man.
Not all characters need a detailed background. Let’s look at a more basic example.

Smith Family
Mother: Tara; Fun, open-minded, kind.
Father: Greg; Reserved, easy going, knows baseball.
Daughter: Sarah; Pretty, dresses well.
Dog: Spots.
Relationships: They live next door to James.

Minor characters
Patrick: James friend from a baseball game
Julia Rogers: Graces helper
Mr. Crowley: Pincushion man’s butler

It is key to record short biographies like this. This keeps all the character names separate and shows the relationships between the characters. For example, it would be difficult for the reader if the father Greg Smith was named James Smith. Readers might think: Main character James is married and has a daughter Sarah? When did that happen?
Now that we have established the character biographies we can see how they interact with the plot outline. At this stage, plot experiments can be conducted and major changes can be made. For example, a character can change gender, occupation or their background. This allows for a targeted character that fully compliments the plot.
Now that we have the character biography’s, we can begin writing. When it comes time to introduce “pincushion man,” we have the foundation and can give him a proper name. As the book progresses, character additions are made. For example, James needs to have next door neighbors. The author then creates the Smith Family. A quick biography addition is made with their background.
At the end of the book, all the characters should be captured in this biography. A quick check will show that all the names are distinct and the interactions make sense. It will also help in the editing process to keep things straight.
Overall, a character biography does take a small amount of time to create, but it is a key development tool. It makes the writing and outline process a lot easier. This allows the writer to focus on creating a great story that flows from one character to the next. I have had great luck with this technique and I plan to make better use of it in the future.

Writing A Book Outline

I have followed the Facebook group Writers Helping Writers for a while. Often, new authors ask the same basic question: Where do I start? I always post the same answer: Start with an outline. While this concept seems like an obvious step, it was not obvious to me. Now, I begin every book project with a complete outline and go over it for weeks before formerly beginning the actual writing.
I thought it would be an interesting blog idea to describe my outline process. So… what is a book outline? Its essence is to capture the entire plot. From there, the author can review and make radical changes without consequences. The result should be a basic story that can be used as the framework for writing an entire book.
The process starts with a plot concept. How do I develop my ideas? I’m at my most creative before I go to sleep and while riding my bike. I don’t use an outline to develop a basic plot. That would be too formal and would limit my creative process.
How much basic plot is needed to start an outline? About a paragraph. Essentially a topic that has a beginning, middle, and end. There are many formal methods of creating an outline such as the flower method. Some people use: whiteboards, post-it notes, 3x5 cards and some have circles with lines connecting them. However, I do not use the formal methods. My mind just does not work that way. My outlines are rambling notes.
When I am confident enough in the basic plot, I start at the beginning and just go. I encourage myself to: explore, experiment, change, move, delete and add. At this stage, I have complete freedom to make major changes and push the envelope.
Once a basic outline exists, I go over it a bunch of times with questions like: Does the story make sense? Are the characters interacting enough? Does the action need more conflict? Would rearranging the sections lead to more drama?
In parallel with an outline is a character description. This basic tool fills in the details and interactions between characters. In my next blog, I will describe this in detail.
When I am ready, I show the outline to my beta reader to get feedback. Granted, this is a rough concept and it takes lots of explaining. My goal is to make sure that I have an understandable plot that others would like to read.
In the next paragraph is an outline section from my upcoming fourth book. I intentionally didn’t make any edits for this blog. You will see missing capital letters, big run on sentences and bad grammar. That’s just fine because this outline was just for me. However, you should see a wisp of a plot, a bit of dialog and some of the overall flow.

Go to Russia, find grace, difficulty with culture, wonder around woods for two days, find grubby apple tree, building remains, ponder life, gets the feeling that grace knows I am looking but refuses to show herself. men at apple tree, take to china on weird Russian plane, taken to Chinese palace, describe, lots of servants, meet Chinese harvester “pincushion man,” his history: land owner, horses, agriculture, gold mining, communism took much of it, no land now, still had gold, built relationship with communists, owns 3 party members, they leave him alone, has a lot of dirt on them. Ask a few questions, claims to have developed his secret process. angry at James for letting the secret out. Angry at Cleopatra, did not know Grace, angry that grace told james secret, secret reserved “only for the divine, not worthless people like you.” pincushion man pressure James to reveal total secret. pincushion man has years of experience with torture, threatens james with death. James begins to talk and they compare notes.

Wow, what a rabble. However, from that mess, I made 4 chapters. You can see a slight amount of dialog: “only for the divine, not worthless people like you.” That dialog gives intent. It shows what the character is thinking. I refer to a character as “pincushion man.” I did not have a name for this character. My idea was that this character had a bunch of needles sticking out of him as if he was constantly using acupuncture. That concept didn’t work in the book.
Overall, the plot is beginning to take shape and there is enough direction to begin writing. Here is an outline section for my upcoming fifth book:

Kim returns form daycare and finds Jason at their home eating, drinking beer “We don’t allow alcohol at our house. I clearly had a problem.” wait for Gabe to get home, ask questions. Jason upset, mad about prison/yoga. “Made a decision for you. You are going to clean up your mess.” Why mess is bad, [mess is spreading, “my boss cannot allow this.” “Who boss?” “Not telling you.”] Tells James to fix the mess, otherwise, all involved dead including Kim/Gabe. Reveals that his job was to kill Kim/Gabe but injection needle in Toyota seat, malfunction, due to anti-virus, virus should have taken 3 weeks. Did not have the manpower to complete murder, because no-talk, Jason spared them. Watched closely and kept quiet, appreciated.

This outline section probably makes little sense to anybody but me. The result of this section became one chapter that explained: “Why mess is bad.” Mentally, I knew all the details of “Why mess is bad.” Thus, I didn’t have to go into too much detail in my outline. In essence, the main part of this outline section was how and when to present “Why mess is bad.”
The next part of the process is converting the outline to a book. Let’s take the first paragraph as an example. “Go to Russia, find Grace, difficulty with culture.” I would begin writing about the character James and how he takes the trip to Russia. This would involve filling the blanks such as buying an airline ticket, getting time off work, coming up with the money for the trip. All the while, I am thinking about setting up the next section of “finding Grace.”
Now that James had landed in Russia, he encounters the typical difficulties of adapting to a foreign country. Again, I was setting up for this concept. Before James leaves his home, he “remembers” to pack a translation book. When he lands, he realizes that he forgot his book which leads to issues. This is the beauty of the outline, you know what you are about to write about and can set up the story in advance.
Let’s looks at a huge example of why an outline is so useful. Using the second outline as an example, let’s say that at the outline stage, the character Jason does not work. Let’s fix it by making him a woman. How easy is it to change the outline? One simple word replacement and Jason becomes Jackie.
Now, let’s make that change in a completed book with a word replace. Here is a simple example: “Jason entered the room and he was wearing his muscle shirt. He had an angry expression.” This gets with a word replace to: “Jackie entered the room and he was wearing his muscle shirt. He had an angry expression.” Do you see the problems? Jackie is a woman and she is referred to as “he” twice and “his” once. The other problem is that a woman probably would not be wearing a muscle shirt. Changing the main character from a man to a woman is a massive change. Even with a lot of edits, the reader would probably think that overall, Jackie is an oddly masculine character.
This example highlights the power of an outline. Massive changes can be made, huge sections can be moved, motives altered and epic ideas explored without consequences. For me, the best part is working out the finer details of how the plot should flow.
When finished, I have the entire book’s plot in about 3 pages of outline. From there, I just expand upon the basic story. The first two times I used an outline, I got to about 60% and then the plot drifted away from the outline. That’s because as I wrote, the story took on a life of its own. However, it converged to the same ending.
In conclusion, dedicated authors use an outline to develop their works. I am getting better at creating them and utilizing them. Probably a good thing.