Dee Garretson's Blog, page 4

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 9 The link between theme and character development

In previous posts I’ve talked about outlining and plot and a little about character development, (post 1 is here) so I wanted to delve a little more into starting to develop the main character.  Besides the little details about the character which will be discussed in a later post, how your character changes over the course of the story is often the theme of the book, and something that is helpful to decide up front as part of the outlining. I didn’t realize when I got my first book published that I even had a theme. I just thought I was writing an adventure. It took a reviewer to point out that the main character (Luke, the president’s son in WILDFIRE RUN) went from an unsure, somewhat immature kid to someone who became more confident and resourceful to survive the disaster in the book.

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It’s true, I did write it that way, I suppose because I was somehow aware that’s what I liked to read in stories-characters overcoming difficulties and becoming stronger people because of their ordeals.

Here’s the thing with middle grade and young adult fiction though – young readers don’t like it if you are obviously trying to teach them a lesson, so you have to be careful that the theme of your story doesn’t tip into so meaningful, kids will roll their eyes at the book. Such lesson books might be pushed on kids by parents, etc., but those aren’t the books kids will read over and over again and write you fan letters about.

So have your main character grow in some sense during the story, but don’t tie it all up neatly in some Victorian-era type morality screed.

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The character growth ties back into the Hero’s Journey article I linked to in the post on outlining resources here.

Becoming more sure of oneself, more confident, less self-centered, recognizing personal weaknesses and facing fears works as a theme because it is a seen as a what is hoped will happen to people in real life as they grow older. Your character doesn’t have to turn into a perfect being, but think of how you want them to be different at the end than they are at the beginning.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 8 Don’t let your character run the show

Some writers start off with developing a character before they work on the plot. I don’t do this- I have a basic idea of a type of person I want to write about, but I don’t come up with a complete character until I have an almost complete plot worked out.

I do this because in my stories, plot comes first. I want page-turners, and characters have to serve the plot.

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That is not to say the characters are unimportant-they are vitally important, but they have to be adapted to make the plot work, and that means their specific strengths and weaknesses are chosen as to how well they fit in the story. I’m not one of those writers who claim their characters steer the story, as if they’ve come to life and taken over the writer’s typing fingers.

In the post where I talked about outlining, I suggested people list at least four obstacles the character will have to overcome along the way to trying to obtain the ultimate goal of the story.

If I’m outlining my own stories, I consider those obstacles and then I consider what specific personality traits my main might have that would make it difficult to overcome those obstacles.

 

It’s all too common for beginning writers to write Mary Sue characters, those characters that may be wish fulfillment in the author, someone who can do all the things they can’t or who are so perfect you want to gag. Think Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. Those characters are boring to read, as are characters who never struggle. (Except in certain adult thrillers. There are certainly tough guy characters some people love to read about, who can be like Tom Cruise and never break out in a sweat while dangling from a skyscraper.)

Even Katniss Everdeen, tough girl of the Hunger Games series had her flaws. She couldn’t be charming and attract allies before the game started, which was a vital part of surviving the games.

So what kinds of flaws am I talking about? They could be specific fears – fear of heights and the character has to walk along a narrow path on the side of a mountain. Fear of water and what’s in it. (I have an irrational fear of giant squid so if I was a character in a story, I’d make me go down into the depths of the ocean in a tiny submarine to retrieve my true love who was trapped in another tiny submarine and I’d run into a GIANT SQUID!

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It could be your character is shy and has trouble talking to people, and the plot demands that they talk to lots of people to find out clues or find their way. This may not seem like a major obstacle until you start writing it, but then every single conversation becomes an ordeal, and the reader has to root for the character to succeed.

I’ve had characters who were unsure they could be the ones to lead, characters who judged their companions too quickly and didn’t trust them enough to band together, characters who were too impulsive, characters who were so focused on something that they didn’t realize the rest of the world was falling apart around them, and characters who were too stubborn to admit they made the wrong choice.

So the main point of this post is don’t stay welded to a character until you are sure that character fits in with the story you are trying to tell. There are always other stories where a character might fit better. It’s not like you are going to write only one story, though I know before a writer is published it often seems this way, but trust me, once you finish one story, others will call to you.

If you are interested in other writing and publishing tips, the Day 1 post is here. And I started writing these posts because book three of my YA sci fi trilogy is out now.  Here they are:

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30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 7 Resources to help you plot books that will sell

Very short post today because of some life issues, but I wanted to post about some resources writers might not know about. I often have people ask me how I manage to write and sell books written in several different genres (contemporary adventure, historical and science fiction.) The answer is that I plot them out much the same way no matter what the genre. I use a combination of something called Save the Cat, along with aspects of The Hero’s Journey. These two resources have helped me get eight books published so far, not counting the Boxcar Children series.

*of course, I, being a cat person, love the title of Save the Cat.*

The Save The Cat method, which was originally written for screenplays. It lays out a sequence of types of plot points to write an engaging screenplay. There is now a version for novel writers: SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL: The Last Book On Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody. In the novel version, the author lays out ten different types of basic plots and what you need within those plots to hook a reader. Once you read it, it may help make outlining seem less like something that is a big muddle of ideas to a clear path to a complete story idea.

I also use aspects of The Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey is a classic structure used for thousands of years in storytelling in which a person goes on an adventure and overcomes a crisis to succeed, becoming changed in the process. It still works today because it’s very satisfying for the reader to read. We follow along with the main character, rooting for them, and celebrate when they are successful. Joseph Campbell wrote of the hero’s journey (though he wasn’t he first) in his book THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. George Lucas was influenced by Campbell’s book in developing the Star Wars series. If you don’t have access to the book or just want an overview, the Wikipedia article on this is surprisingly good.

People have been listening to stories for thousands of years and certain stories appeal to broad segments of readers more than others. I like the idea of following in the path of generations of storytellers who once sat around campfires enthralling their audiences.

And I did put a literal Save the Cat scene in one of my books, ALL IS FAIR, based on a real life cat who lived on British navy ships.

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If you’d like to read more writing and publishing tips, the post for Day 1 is here.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 6 Does your story need a ticking clock?

This is day six of my posts for writers having trouble writing their stories or attracting an agent or an editor. The first post is here.

I’ve read many stories by unpublished writers that were very good, but the writers were unsuccessful in attracting an agent or an editor. Sometimes it’s because the readers don’t get caught up enough in the story to make it stand out from similar stories. One way to give a story an edge is to add in a ticking clock element.

The ticking clock – if your main character doesn’t overcome the obstacle or complete the goal in a set time, all is lost. This doesn’t mean every story needs a bomb with a timer attached and the main character manages to cut the wire just in time but it does mean adding in something that forces the main character to strive for the goal.

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Does every story need one? No.

Does it help certain kinds of stories sell? Absolutely!

I love stories with ticking clock elements, both to read and to write. When writing them, it focuses my storytelling so that the time frame is set, and I don’t meander about adding in subplots that may be fun to write, but aren’t really all that important to the main story.

Think of exciting movies like Star Wars A New Hope. There is no better example of a ticking clock than the ending of that movie. Luke literally blows up the Death Star at the last second before the Resistance’s planet is obliterated.

Now of course most stories don’t have such a dramatic plot, but if you like those sorts of stories and are writing fantasy, sci fi, paranormal or thrillers, you might be able to add in a ticking clock element. It works in other types of storys too, like historicals – I’ve got them in both ALL IS FAIR, my historical out now, and my next one coming out next January, GONE BY NIGHTFALL. My other middle grade and YAs have them too.

It doesn’t have to be a ticking clock element that means the end of the world, or death, but there are ways to add in a time frame so that the main character is forced to act. It can even be in a romance-let’s say the main character is only going to be in a certain place for a specific amount of time, and after that, they won’t have a chance to connect with the love interest. I just checked in with my daughter who is reading a romance right now and asked what the ticking clock was in that book – the main character wants to find a date to a friend’s wedding.

Ticking clocks of any sort add tension, and tension keeps readers reading. Maybe this is just what your story needs.

And here’s my sci fi trilogy, ticking clocks in all three books, though it took several revisions and thought to come up with them!

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30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 5 The All-Important Stakes

If you missed Day 1, it’s here. If you missed the post on outlining, you probably want to read that before you read this one. It’s here: Beginning to Outline Your Story

This is going to be a short post, but it is about one of the most important elements when you are plotting out and outlining a story. Many years ago, I went to a writing retreat (my first and only) and at the end of it the 12 writers there had the opportunity to pitch to an experienced agent, a woman who was Tom Clancy’s first agent. We were all petrified but I also had the misfortune of going last. The poor woman’s eyes were glazing over by the time I sat down with her.

She rallied though, and asked some very tough questions. The most important thing she asked me was “Why is your character doing all this? Why are they putting themselves in this position if they don’t need to?”

The story she was referring to was a historical mystery I went on to self-publish after her feedback, THE GARGOYLE IN THE SEINE. I realized the agent was absolutely right when she said my main character didn’t have a good enough reason to put herself in danger. I am a plot-focused writer and it takes effort for me to focus on character-building, but the stakes for the character are critical. It’s easy when you have a ‘save the world’ or “save my life” plot, but when it’s less obvious, you need to make sure you give the character some very good reason why they are doing what they are doing, and you need to make that clear both early on in the story, and also in the query.

My books after that historical mystery all tend to be more obvious in terms of the stakes, either the character saving their own life or those that they love, or trying to save the world, but my latest work-in-progress is one in which it may not be any of those, so I’m still working out the stakes in my outlining attempts.

Here’s just a few possibilities for a character is throwing themselves out there:

Obligatory cat picture of cat throwing themselves out there:

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If the character doesn’t do anything:

They’ll survive but either they or someone they care about will be miserable, or face serious repercussions (legal, social, familial), or be limited in their choices for the future.

Again, as in previous posts, I’m sure there are many other possibilities but these are some of the more familiar ones to get you started on thinking about your own s

If you are doing the simple outline in post 4, add this question at the bottom and answer it:

Why is my character doing this and what happens if they fail:

The next post will be more about how you add to your outline and continue to develop your main character.

If you like high stakes stories, check out my sci fi adventure series:

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30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 4 Beginning to Outline Your Story

(If you missed Post 1 of Writing Tips, it’s here.)

If the thought of outlining makes you freeze up so you can’t even write a grocery list, (*raises hand*) you’ve come to the right place. I’ve learned to outline in small basic steps because I’ve never going to be one of those people who sees the whole story before I begin to write it. My brain just doesn’t work that way.

What I can do is break it down into something simple so I can at least start writing instead of staring at a blank computer screen forever. First, I list:

Main Character:

Character’s ordinary World:

The inciting event that changes their ordinary world:

What the main character now needs to overcome:

That’s the basics and usually the easy part. It’s filling in enough of the rest of the story to make it both long enough and interesting enough to keep the reader reading so we have to start thinking about the other barricades or setbacks that the character will encounter as the story progresses and as they are trying to solve that major problem.

Start brainstorming with a simple list. Jot down all possibilities that could make it difficult for your main character to triumph in the end.

Timeout for a cat picture first!

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Okay, back to work. For example, if the villain has stolen an important object, lots of things could make it difficult for the main character to get that object back: For example, the object could be in a building surrounded by a moat full of genetically enhanced alligators. And if your character manages to get across that, they will of course run into bad guy minions with super sensitive hearing. And if your character gets beyond that, the object is in a secure room with a security system that will vaporize anyone moving within 6 feet of it.

But if you aren’t writing an action thriller, Mission Impossible-type story, here’s a bunch of other ideas, some of which should work for most stories:

Character’s illness or injury
Character’s own doubts or fears. More about this in another post.
Ordinary physical limitations-for example an ordinary person has a hard time climbing a steep mountain.
Lack of money! A big one.
Lack of food, sleep, water.
Lack of a safe place to live.
Lack of transportation, either no transportation, not the right kind, or whatever they are using breaks down.
Other people either trying to stop the main character or competing to get to the same goal.
Weather! Blizzards, floods, avalanches, extreme heat, extreme cold.
Random creatures or bad people character may stumble upon. Let’s say your character has enough money but then gets robbed because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A lost or stolen map or directions or something else main character needs to get to a place or to find something.
Other characters not necessarily standing in their way, but not believing them or not helping them. Or a situation in which the main character must lie or not tell the whole truth either to protect someone or so they can do what they need to do. A very common barricade in middle grade fiction would be those pesky parents not wanting kids to do something dangerous.
A secondary character who needs help and because of that ties up some of the main character’s freedom of action
Wartime, or government restrictions on movement.
The need for some sort of identification which the character does not have.

I’m sure there are any more. Either from this list or your own ideas, pick four.

Now write up a few sentences with more detail about how exactly these difficulties are going to cause problems for your characters given your specific plot.

Once you finish that, write a couple of sentences about how your character might overcome each difficulty. These ideas aren’t set in stone. Often the ideas I have initially change as I start writing and other ideas pop into my head. This is just a starting point and once you develop your character more, their own skills and talents will come into play in terms of overcoming these difficulties. Doing this list may help you envision what kind of character you need to better fit the plot.

Now order these four from least dramatic to most dramatic, because you want the most exciting parts near the end of the book, as you are trying to rachet up the tension.

To recap, list:

Main character:

Their ordinary world:

The inciting event/problem that changes their ordinary world and will move them to action:

What the main character wants after they encounter the inciting event:

Barriers to the main character succeeding and how they will overcome:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Number 4 can be the last barrier or event before they succeed. Once you start writing, you may add in many more, but remember this is just to get you started.

We still need to cover the stakes, the idea of a ticking clock and the character’s own internal journey, but those are all for other posts. Like I said earlier, it’s less overwhelming if you break it down in small steps.

I’m going to take my own advice and do this for my work-in-progress, which right now is mainly only in my head.

And a reminder, here’s my YA sci fi space adventure:

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30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 3

If you haven’t read the earlier posts, here’s a link to the Day 1 tip. There is some method to the madness of the order in which I’m posting, so even if it isn’t obvious now, it wouldn’t hurt read them in order.

This particular post is to help writers who struggle with how to pull together a coherent story, or who still struggle with being able to explain their story, either to others or to themselves, even after they know their genre and the characters and what happens. This can happen before you begin to write it or even once it’s finished and you are trying to edit the beast.

Here’s the obligatory cat picture for the post, a scary beast that is a metaphor for a story needing to be edited.

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You may have heard there are only seven basic plots in stories. This came from a book by Christopher Booker (nice last name!) called, of all things, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. There have been many criticisms of the book which I won’t go into, but I thought his idea was very, very interesting. Here’s the 7 he identified:

Overcoming the Monster – Books that are Person against Nature, or Person against Evil Person fit this category. My first two books, WILDFIRE RUN and WOLF STORM are both kids against Nature with a capital N. I put some surviving war stories in this category too, so many dystopians and historicals fit this, though some are more of a Voyage and Return story.
Rags to Riches – Wikipedia describes this plot as the poor protagonist acquires power, wealth, and/or a mate, loses it all and gains it back, growing as a person as a result and uses Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, and A Little Princess as examples
The Quest – That’s an easy one. Many fantasies fit this.
Voyage and Return – Similar to a quest, but focused on the main character taking a journey, gaining wisdom along the way and then returning home. I put my war story, ALL OR NONE, in this category, because even though the war is looming over the characters like a monster, they aren’t going to be able to overcome it.
Rebirth – Again from Wikipedia: An event forces the main character to change their ways and often become a better person. Example: A Christmas Carol
Comedy – lots of romances fit this, but any genre story could be written mainly for its comedic effect.
Tragedy – I don’t really read tragedies, but there are certainly many out there. Obviously many Shakespeare plays fit this as do tragic love stories, etc.

Not everything fits in these categories, including many great works of literature, but for a writer who is trying to plan out or finish a story, being able to put it in one of these categories may help, or to adapt a useful cliché, see the forest instead of just a bunch of trees.

Does your story fit one?

And yet again, a picture of my sci fi trilogy, which are definitely quest mixed with overcoming the monster books.

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30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 2

This tip may seem obvious to some but I didn’t know it back when I was querying, so I’m including it here. If you are an unpublished writer seeking traditional publication, make sure your story fits its genre expectations, especially if you are trying to publish middle grade or young adult fiction. When you query your story, agents and editors want to know how they can sell it. You’ll have much better results if you can describe it as a particular genre and have a story that actually fits that genre.

I’ve had a few unpublished writers of adult fiction tell me their story is unique and can’t fit into a category. This is when I gently try to explain that they never want to say this to an agent or editor. “Unique” translates into “I think I am a special snowflake and the most amazing writer ever” which also translates into “I may possibly be a diva who won’t work well with an editor.”

Here’s a picture of a diva cat just because I like cat pictures:[image error]

I’ll list genres below, but first the following pictures are something I used to use when I taught landscape design, I’d show my students this first picture and ask if they could guess who painted it:

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Then I’d show them this picture:

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Yes, both were painted by Picasso. Picasso painted the first one when he was about 15 and learning his craft. The point of showing those pictures was to impress on students that even great creative people worked hard at learning the basics. One of those basics in writing to publish is understanding genres.

I want to list possible genres just in case you haven’t already put your story into one. Start with a time period: Contemporary, Historical, Alternative history, Science Fiction-meaning future time period, or Fantasy-meaning you have created a time period in that world.

Once you have that pinned down, add additional descriptions: Mystery, Magical realism, literary, space opera, near future, dystopian, thriller, outdoor adventure, suspense, horror, romance, paranormal, urban fantasy.

Most of these genres have some clear elements that need to be there. One of the most important is if you label something as a romance, it’s going to need to have romance as the main focus, not, for example, a subplot to a murder mystery, and it’s going to need to either a happily ever after ending (HEA), or a happily for now ending (HFN). The HFN ending is common in young adult fiction because we don’t have 18-year-olds getting married and planning to spend the rest of their lives together in most stories.

Therefore, if your story has romance in it but romance is not the main focus, don’t label it as one. You don’t want an agent rejecting you because they expected a romance and you didn’t give them one. Just call it a contemporary, historical, or whatever, and within the description of the story talk about the romance element.

Deciding if a story is horror or a paranormal can be a little more difficult. Things I might label as horror because I’m a big wimp are often not actually horror, If you think that’s what you are writing, make sure you’ve read other books in that genre that have been published in the last five years. One horrific scene will not make it horror.

If you label your story as a mystery, make sure it has the elements of a traditional mystery: a crime, someone who is trying to solve the crime/find the culprit, a series of clues and enough suspects with possible motives to keep the reader guessing. If your story doesn’t have all these elements but includes a crime and someone who wants to know who did it and is in danger, it may better fit the suspense category.

The literary category is one of the hardest to define. People argue over the definition all the time and I don’t want to fall into that trap. I have never published literary fiction though I do have an unpublished story I consider that fits in that category. It focuses less on plot and more on the main character as a coming of age type story, so that in the end the character better understands the world around her. If your story doesn’t fit in one of the obvious categories above, think about whether or not it might be called literary fiction. I am not qualified to write a whole long essay on literary fiction but I found this link useful.

https://nybookeditors.com/2018/07/what-is-literary-fiction/

So to sum up, it’s too easy to spend a lot of effort on a story and when you finish it, have something that may be well written, but too difficult to sell. Don’t let all your hours of work go to waste.

And since I’m writing these posts because the third book in my sci fi series is out now, here’s a pretty picture of them:

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If you missed the Day 1 tip, it’s here: https://deegarretson.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/30-days-of-writing-and-publishing-tips-day-1/

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips -Day 1

[image error]Since I signed the contract for my first book ten years ago and PARADOX HUNT, the third book in my YA science fiction series is out today, I thought it was time to pull together everything I’ve learned and share it in the form of thirty days of writing/publishing tips. It took me many, many years to get an agent and a book deal and it would be great if other writers wanting to be published didn’t have to spend quite so much time at it!

Caveat: This is what has helped me. Any writing advice is just that-advice that may or may not work for you. It’s kind of like all the range of of advice you get about how to give a cat a pill. Some of them seem doable but you may still end up with scratches up and down your arms still holding the pill while the cat grooms its paw and ignores you.

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Tip 1. This may be the most important exercise and piece of advice I have to give to writers who have struggled for a long time to get the attention of agents or editors.

Go to bookstores or go to an online retailer and read the back cover blurbs of at least a dozen books in the genre you are writing in, but only books that you haven’t heard of before. (This is important. You don’t want your views influenced by having already heard a book is good or bad.)

Which ones sound most intriguing? Why? Is it the plot or something about the main character or is it the setting or something else?

Write it like a back cover blurb for your own story, even if you haven’t started it yet. Once you have it written, figure out what about it might make a stranger want to read it rather than another book in the genre. It can be an unusual setting, a unique character, the time period, or something about the plot that stands out. If you can’t find something in the description, think about how you can add something into the story to make it more interesting. Your story may be wonderful and exciting and exactly what a reader or agent or editor is looking for but if you can’t get them to start reading it, they’ll never know.

I did this for my own books and listed what I thought intrigued an agent or an editor:

WILDFIRE RUN: The President’s son is trapped at Camp David after a wild fire when the security systems go haywire. The unusual element: The setting-Camp David.

WOLF STORM: Young actors on location in the mountains filming a movie face a blizzard. The unusual element: The type of character: Young actors

ALL IS FAIR: Upperclass British girl gets mixed up with spies and a secret mission. The unusual element: The juxtaposition of a sheltered girl facing wartime hardships.

GONE BY NIGHTFALL: American girl in Russia at the start of the revolution has to get her family out. The unusual element: The time period

STATION FOSAAN, REYET TRAP, PARADOX HUNT: Young friends on a mysterious planet find danger comes in many different forms and from all directions. The unusual element: mysterious planet.

You can see it doesn’t have to be something completely unique; it just has to be intriguing. See what you can come up with and check back tomorrow night for another post.

And if you like science fiction, the first book in the Torch World series is on sale at the moment in ebook form for only $0.99 at most online major retailers.

Here’s the book trailer:

 

World Building Worksheet for Historical Fiction and Science Fiction: Part 1 – Big Picture Elements

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Readers sometimes ask if it difficult to write in different genres, but I’ve found there are many similarities between writing historical fiction and science fiction, especially in what you need to consider to build a convincing world. I’ve created a worksheet to help me figure out the details I might want to incorporate in the story.

This information can be downloaded by clicking on this link: Historical Fiction and Science Fiction World Building Checklist

To make a reader believe in the world you’ve created, engage their senses and add in world-specific details. This checklist will help you get started, but as you write, you may find these items need to change, to tie into the story better. Even if you don’t end up using some of this in your story, having a more complete world in your own head will help you. In most cases, just a few basic ideas about some of the big picture parts of the world will suffice to get started.

Political Systems

How many different political systems are there? What is their structure? Some form or combination of democracy, socialism, communism, feudalism, dictatorship, monarchy? If there is voting, who gets to vote?

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Economic System

How do people get what they need and who decides what jobs they have? Is it a free market economy where people decide what to produce or is it run by the government? Do individuals have a choice in their occupations or is it decided some other way?

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Military

What part do they play in the political system, and who joins the military? Draft, Volunteer, or required short service?

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Religions

How many different religions are there? What are the beliefs of the different religions? Is there an official religion approved by the government? How do believers of each religion view other religions?

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Ethnicities or Classes of people

How do different groups of people get allow? Is there discrimination?

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