Rob Bignell's Blog, page 267

Four writing prompts: Masquerade

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise from maintaining a persona or wearing a mask. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on the theme of the masquerade.

Man vs. nature
The main character takes the place of another person (perhaps by pretending to be him) to ensure the latter is not captured or placed in a difficult situation. Our hero escapes but is ill-equipped to survive the wilderness he must make his way through (as eluding his former captors) to return home. What virtues does our hero possess that allows him to succeed?

Man vs. man
A new neighbor acts mysteriously, and our main character investigates. What secret does our main character discover? What does the neighbor do upon discovering he���s being investigated and when his secret is found out?

Man vs. society
A family is falling apart, as each member ��� perhaps one suffers from alcohol addiction, perhaps another is suffering from a forced reduction in pay during a company downsizing, perhaps another is seeing a therapist for depression ��� fights with one another. If there���s one thing they all agree upon, though, it���s that their problems and disagreements must be kept secret from others. Can such a fa��ade be maintained, or is it the catalyst of their undoing?

Man vs. himself
Your main character, caught up in the events of some war, is coerced into committing an atrocity. Years later, how does he deal with his personal guilt for those horrors while at the same time keeping his culpability secret from others?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Think of plot as set-up, build-up, pay-off

One way to think of a story���s plot is in three parts ��� the set-up, the build-up and the pay-off.

The set-up is like the inciting incident. In addition to introducing the main character and the setting, the set-up also establishs the main conflict that our protagonist must overcome. There must be something at stake for the main character, a reason why he must deal with this challenge.

The build-up by and large is the rising action in which the main character attempts to resolve the conflict. It is the bulk of the story. The situation should grow increasingly more tense and dire for our protagonist. The entire build-up must point toward the how the main character will overome the challenge placed before him.

The pay-off by and large is the story���s climax, in which the tension is relieved when the main character resolves the conflict. For the reader, some pay-off typically is necessary because without it the build-up was pointless (Though thematically the author might decide to have the main character fail just to make a statement about an idea or issue; this often occurs in dystopian novels.). The falling action and denouement can be lumped into the pay-off as they tie up loose ends in the story (providing minor pay-offs) and end the tale on a hopeful note.

A rule of storytelling is the larger the build-up, the greater the pay-off must be. That is, the story���s conflict can���t be resolved too easily but must be done with more tension than seen so far in the tale. In short, the greater the danger to the main character, the greater the rrisk he must take to resolve the conflict.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Five Great Quotations about Storytelling

���I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.��� - Sherman Alexie

���The principles of storytelling do not change. Going home. Coming of age. Sin and redemption. The hero. The journey, The power of love. They are hardwired into us, just like our taste buds process sweet, sour, bitter, and salt. Can a new voice come up with something startling and creative and unprecedented? Absolutely. Can they invent a fifth taste? No. No, they can���t. Can they make it so we don���t like sweet anymore? No, no they can���t.��� - Chris Dee

���Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.��� - Hilary Mantel

���Sooner or later every writer evolves his own definition of a story. Mine is: A reflection of life plus beginning and end (life seems not to have either) and a meaning.��� - Mary O���Hara

���An awful lot of storytelling isn���t really about making people understand ��� it���s about making people care.��� - Steven Moffat

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Which story setting to use? Backdrop vs. integral

All stories contain a setting ��� a time and a place in which the plot occurs ��� but not all settings are all that important to a story.

Sometimes a story occurs against a generic background, such as a modern city in modern times. This is called a backdrop setting. The location could be either Los Angeles or New York, the year could be now or a couple of years ago. All that���s vital for the reader to know is that the story occurs in a modern city. The cultural and historical events of the setting ��� who���s president, which war we���re nationally engaged in, the popular songs the characters listen to ��� generally are not provided because they���re irrelevant.

In contrast, some settings affect the plot, characters and theme of the story. This is an integral setting. The story���s location and/or time period (but not necessarily both) ���restrain��� the story by placing boundaries on what can occur. For example, a story set in the 1950s requires that female characters act and behave differently than they do now, as the sexual revolution has yet to occur for them. Such restrictions, however, can help writers make statements about the present by guiding the story���s actions and characters. Generally, genre stories ��� particularly science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction ��� utilize integral settings. When done well, such settings (like J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth or Star Trek���s United Federation of Planets in the 23rd-24th centuries) can carry a power of their own that fascinates readers.

Which type of setting you use depends on how specific you get with the place and time to make the work. If ���corporate office building��� is satisfactory without knowing what products or services the company provides, you���ve got a backdrop setting. If the fact that the company sells clothing for hip urbanites is vital to the development of a character or the action ��� for example, the company strongly encourages its employees to wear its own line of clothing but one worker prefers to don decidedly unhip apparel, setting her apart from the others ��� then you���re using an integral setting.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Swap sample chapter with another author

One way corporate publishers of genre novels promoted their books before consolidation of the industry was to offer sample chapters of an author in another of their writer���s works. For example, at the end of a science fiction book by Isaac Asimov might be a sample chapter by another novelist the company published. The ideas was to introduce an audience to authors (especially new ones); hopefully, readers would be impressed and purchase the full book.

You can do the same thing as a self-published writer. Your mutual goal will be to introduce your unique set of readers to one another, resulting in increased sales for both.

To accomplish that, a little coordination is required. Preferably, you���d want to include the opening chapter of your most recently published book. You���ll have to provide one another with text and agree to which books the samples will be printed in, as well as the day when those printed books will come out. In addition, you���ll want to include at the beginning of the sample chapter some introductory material about the other author and book, and at the end a link where that book can be published.

When determining who would be a good author to swap chapters with, always look for someone from the same genre. Rarely do readers cross over between genres. Further, find someone who writes something similar but is different enough from you that you aren���t competitors. So if you write cozy mysteries about a female detective who solves mysteries, a sample chapter from an author who writes about a male detective or historical mysteries about a female police detective might work, but a dark mystery full of gore and violence probably isn���t a good match.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Trademark registration is overkill for new writers

Authors who���ve written a series of books or who���ve created a publishing house (also known as an imprint) to publish their books sometimes purchase trademark protection in an effort to protect themselves. This almost never is necessary, though.

A trademark is a symbol, word or phrase that represents a company, product or service. It only exists if it has been legally registered or established by use. For example, if your company���s name were ���Snowsports Publishing,��� which published a series called ���Snowsports 101���, both of those names can be trademarked. It differs from a copyright, which is the contents of the book. So, the text of any book in the ���Snowsports 101��� series, such as the nonfiction volume ���How to Ski,��� would by copyrighted. You can���t trademark or copyright a book title, however.

Trademarks need not be registered in the United States. In fact, as soon you publish books using the series title or that imprint name, you as the owner of the series or imprint then own a common law trademark.

The more successful your books and imprint are, the more likely you will want to actually register the imprint and series name. Doing so creates a legal presumption of ownership nationwide, so should you wish to shut someone down for using your series name, your path in the courts will be easier.

For a small writer just starting out, a common law trademark should be sufficient protection. Someone is much more likely to pirate your books than they are to print their own books that use your imprint and series names to take advantage of your fame. And even if some crook did the latter, unless you���re extremely well known, the time and cost of litigation will far outweigh any damages you might collect. So, if you���re Coca-Cola, trademark protection makes sense. If you���re Snowsports Publishing that sells a couple of books a day, it���s simply not cost-effective.

Should you decide to register your trademark, in the United States you will need to apply to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Community Trade Mark System is used in the European Union.

You also can apply for a trademark before even publishing your books. An Intent to Use (ITU) application would be filed in the United Sates with the USPTO.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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An error for many years: Supercede vs. supersede

Some errors just keep sticking around. Supercede is one of them.

Supersede is the correct spelling. The verb ��� meaning to replace or substitute ��� comes from a French word, which came from a Latin word, and both of those languages also spelled it with an s.

As with modern English, some French and Latin writers of the past misspelled it with a c! In English, several other words end in ���cede rather than ���sede, so at least modern writers have an excuse for making the mistake.

Because the error has been so pervasive for so long, a few dictionaries now list supercede as acceptable. To be strictly in the right, through, use an s.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Four Writing Prompts: Tracked Down

Good stories center on the clashing of characters��� goals and motivations. Sometimes a character���s goals and motivations arise when tracking another or when being tracked. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on the plot of being tracked down.

Man vs. nature
Your main character is hired to capture some creature ��� a dangerous escaped animal, a monster of some sort, a beast on an alien planet. How does the main character go about capturing this creature? Elevate the power of this story by having the main character discover something about the creature that leads him to believe it should not be captured.

Man vs. man
The main character is hired to capture someone ��� a man wanted for a crime, an escaped convict, someone who holds a dark secret. How does our main character go about finding this person? What lessons about himself does the main character learn as he fails through the story���s rising action to capture the person?

Man vs. society
Turn the man vs. man conflict around: What if your main character is wanted by law enforcement or an intelligence agency? How does he avoid being caught by that organization? What does he learn about himself as the organization closes on his capture?

Man vs. himself
What if your main character, whose job is to track down someone, uncovers clues about the hunted that leads him to doubt his assignment? Focus on his internal struggle to rectify his assignment against his morals and the truth.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Consider using The Journey for a mythic plot

One of the most common plot forms in modern fantasy and science fiction novels is the mythic structure. Often called a quest, in the mythic structure the protagonist undertakes an expedition that carries some moral significance or deeper meaning. Typically our hero seeks some definitive object, which usually is symbolic of some abstract moral ideal; this object sometimes is referred to as a grail, a treasure or an elixir and in modern stories often is called a grail substitute.

The prototype quest is Homer���s ���Odyssey���; indeed, most ancient Greek hero myths follow this structure. It often can be found in many other historical epic works, though, particularly the King Arthur tales. Today, ���The Lord of the Rings��� and ���Star Wars: A New Hope��� closely follow this structure.

Joseph Campbell has outlined 12 steps in such mythic stories; he calls this process The Journey. Anyone planning to write a quest story would do well to read Campbell���s works. The steps include:
��� Ordinary world ��� The hero���s mundane world is revealed
��� Call to adventure ��� Hero is presented with a problem/challenge/adventure to undertake
��� Refusal of the call ��� Hero refuses to accept this call or to go on the journey
��� Mentor meeting ��� A mentor prepares hero to go on the journey (and surreptitiously to accept the call)
��� Crossing the threshold ��� Hero commits to the adventure
��� Test/allies/enemies ��� Hero encounters new challenges and learns the rule of the road
��� Approach to the Inmost Cave ��� Hero at edge of dangerous place, usually villains��� lair
��� Supreme Ordeal ��� Hero���s fortunes hit bottom, meaning he may not survive
��� Reward ��� Hero takes possession of a treasure (e.g. elixir/grail substitute)
��� Road back ��� Hero deals with consequences of confronting dark forces
��� Resurrection ��� Death/darkness have one last chance to defeat hero
��� Return with elixir ��� Hero returns with a treasure or lesson

In modern novels, these 12 steps typically are overlaid onto the standard five-part plot. The ordinary world is in the inciting incident in which we learn of the hero���s displeasure with some condition of his existence; this condition can only be corrected through possession of the grail/treasure. The call to adventure through the road back is the rising action; often the call to adventure through the crossing the threshold occur within a couple of chapters while the test/allies/enemies is lengthened to be the bulk of the book consisting of several smaller scenes. The resurrection actually is the climax because the hero���s defeat of death/darkness ensures his possession of the grail/treasure. The return with elixir is the falling action and denouement, though in a mythic structure it can be a bit longer than in the standard novel.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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Five Great Quotations about ���Show Don���t Tell���

���What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.��� - Logan Pearsall Smith

���No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time.��� - Lewis Carroll

���Vigorous writing is concise.��� - William Strunk Jr.

���Don���t explain why it works; explain how you use it.��� - Steven Brust

���Don���t say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we���ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers Please will you do the job for me.��� - C.S. Lewis

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.



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