Nicky Peacock's Blog, page 53

Information Dumps

Information Dumps – Don’t be a fly tipping writer!

What’s an Info Dump? Well they’re the paragraph, usually at the start of story, which gives lots information about what’s going on in one big vomit-like spew. The physical equivalent is – going on a first date, shaking hands and saying, “Hi I’m Nicky. I’m a shopaholic horror writer with control issues who loves dogs, hates politics, is obsessed with nail polish, and will only eat yellow food on a Friday. I have an awful sense of direction and drive a lime green car. I dress up at Halloween to scare little children. I own a twelve foot snake called Hubert and can’t walk in heels higher than an inch.”  (Only my best friends can tell you which of these statements are really true!)

TOO MUCH INFORMATION! In one long drawn out speech I’ve revealed so much that my poor date will be either physically taking notes or scanning for an exit (depending on how good I look that night!)  The same is true in stories. If you feel the need to set up a scene with a mass of information at the front of your story by all means do this in your drafts – but they should never slip through the editing process and end up in your final manuscript. If they do it’ll make your story seem amateurish and worse, boring. A clever writer weaves the information through the story allowing the reader to naturally pick it up as they need it. An easy way of doing this is using dialogue and action. Here’s an opening scene to a story as an example of how this can be done.

INFODUMP

Lance and Cindy hated it when their parents would leave them alone at night. Ever since Cindy was little and had imagined a monster in the closet she had been afraid of the dark. Fortunately her older brother Lance had always been there to protect her, although he too had a feeling that the monster in the closet was simply bidding his time. Through the years their fears were found to be irrational and now they were teenagers studying Maths and Science they rarely gave the closet monster a thought, unless Lance felt like teasing Cindy.

WEAVING IT IN WITH DIALOGUE AND ACTION

“Hey, do you remember when you were little and scared of the dark? Oh and the closet monster? You have to remember him.” Lance smiled at his sister over his maths book.

“Shut up! I was little and everyone’s afraid of the dark, and monsters, when they’re little,” Cindy yelled back.

“Don’t be like that sis, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Sorry Lance.” Cindy looked thoughtful, “I remember you always being there to protect me.” Cindy glanced at the closed closet door then picked up her science homework.

Lance nodded his acceptance of the apology and his eye caught the closet door, which somehow had now come ajar.

See the difference? The Information Dump is clunky and heavy handed – lots of information to set the scene up but giving too much away in an obvious intelligence insulting manner. The second still gives all the information of the first but in a much more readable way that is fluid and leading you into the story in not such an ‘in yer face’ way. It’s kind of like the old ‘Show don’t tell’ writing rule. If you read back an Information Dump in your manuscript – re-write it to weave that information in; don’t be lazy folks, think of your reader.

This brings me nicely to my next blog…a writer’s responsibility to their reader.

 

Include a Theme

So why should you be bothered to include a theme in your work? Well mainly because, without a theme, most stories will come across pointless and boring (unless of course pointless and boring is your theme)

A theme is really the reason for the story’s existence whether it is ‘good VS evil’ or ‘love conquers all’ it doesn’t matter – what matters is that its there and can be identified. Strangely most writers will subconsciously weave a theme into their work without even realising it – or even, when drafting, discover a whole new theme that they never even intended to write. This happens a lot to writers who are avid readers, to quote Hannibal Lector, ‘you covet what you know’ so by reading themed stories you naturally echo this through your own work.

There are literally hundreds on themes to pick from but here are some examples to get the ball rolling:

In Suzanne Collins’ ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy the main theme is about political oppression. The Capital created the Hunger Games to manipulate the other districts into doing what they’re told, to flex their power and prove they are in charge.  

Charlaine Harris’ ‘Harper Connelly’ series was all about facing adversity and using a negative to an advantage. Harper is struck by lightning in her teens and can hence forth find dead bodies – she uses this skill to forge out an unlikely career for herself and ultimately achieve her own goals.

‘The Morganville Vampire’ books by Rachel Caine start with our protagonist Claire being mercilessly bullied because of her nerdy ways, pushing her to find a new home in the Glass House and start her epic vampire riddled adventure. Her brain becomes her biggest asset and throughout the series it’s held in higher esteem by the vampires than even her blood – theme here – be yourself, don’t hide who you are. It’s only when Claire truly accepts herself that her real adventures begin.

So the big question…how do you ensure your theme is identifiable and present in your work? Well it is simpler than you might think. Firstly, identify the theme or themes you want to include. For example let’s say I’m writing a story about a boy goblin that falls in love with a girl elf (I know, this would practically write itself!) so my main theme here is the old ‘love conquers all’. So I’d have my basic story down then make sure that some of the key events lend themselves to this theme – for example: Boy goblin has a long-standing best friend who hates elves and desperately tries to turn him against his girl – boy goblin won’t be turned and says to his friend, ‘a true friend would stand by me no matter who I love’ – he’s willing to give up his best friend for his elf lady-love – all together…Aaaah! The key to this is to link your theme to scenes in your story that have to happen anyway and move things along; what’s a good love story if there are no obstacles.

My short story ‘For Audrey’ that’s included in the zombie anthology ‘So long and Thanks for All the Brains’ is all about a zombie dog who goes above and beyond to protect his young owner Audrey from the rampaging flesh hungry hoards. My theme was loyalty – everything the dog did was out of loyalty and even though he was a zombie too, he was caretaker to her safety first and foremost. To highlight this theme through the story I had numerous incidents when he could have eaten Audrey or could have sided with his zombie brethren – but didn’t.

So OK, you have your theme that you are going to weave into your story – but whatever you do, do not fly tip masses of information in there! No Info Dumps! What’s an Info Dump? Well, I’ll talk about these in the next blog, but I promise I won’t include a horrible photo of a rubbish dump alongside! 

 

Choosing the right perspective.

 

 

POV or Point of View can have a dramatic effect on your story telling. Picking the right one is crucial – knowing what’s available to you – even more so.

First Person: I personally use this one more than any other. It’s all ‘I’ and ‘Me’; for example,

‘I saw the shadow lurking in the corner’.

You are the character, in your writing you talk like them, act like them and react as the character. Some people will argue that with First Person the character is more likely to be just a facet of the author themselves rather than a separate being. If you have ever read any of my work, I really hope that’s not true! Writing horrors and supernatural romance the majority of my protagonists are kind of mean and warped and have a wicked sense of humor… ok, ok, I’ll admit to being a little warped!

The bonus of writing First Person is that there is almost an instant connection with the reader. It’s easier for a reader to slip on that character and live in your world. They get to hear all those crazy thoughts, experience all those bizarre feelings and also meet your supporting characters first hand.

The downside is that your scenes are limited only to when your main character is present; they can’t describe a scene they were never in – they can be told about what happened by another character, but they can’t give the reader a first hand account. Your reader is limited to the information your character has; but remember, you the writer don’t have to be limited to this! There are subtle ways of giving information to the reader that perhaps the character has not even picked up on: a sly comment by another character, an object that the main character didn’t even notice (but the reader would) there are a number of subtle ways of wedging in information for the reader, but not for the character.

Second Person is the lesser used perspective. It’s all ‘you did this’ and ‘you saw that’ – used a lot in songs and hard to make work in prose. I read a book once that used this perspective and found it hard to wade through, it came across really clunky and accusing – I think the only genre that this works well in is horror. Making the reader the center of the story can create an incredibly tense atmosphere from the get go. For example:

“You saw the shadow cross the hall. It dipped and ducked through your old furniture heading straight toward you…”

Third Person Limited is:

‘She saw the shadow dance across the stained walls.’ or ‘He felt the darkness grow cold around him.’

However its still limited to only one character’s perspective. It’s one of the most popular POVs in modern books and although has the benefits of both Third and First, it also has all the negatives too – no extra characters, no scenes without them etc. It can be fun to use and great if, as a writer, you want to distance yourself from your main character.

Third Person Omnipotent is where the prose knows all and tells all. Here you have total power over all the information that your reader is presented with. Great for when you want to include multiple character perspectives to enhance the story, but writer beware, by indulging in this you can very easily be drawn into a never-ending info dump that can lack cohesion and more importantly heart. If so much is going on with so many characters you need to be a very talented story-teller to make the reader feel for what’s going on, not get lost along the way, and be able to subtly find your theme.

Theme is sometimes the poor relation in creative writing so my next post will talk about the importance of having and choosing the right one for your market.

Oh, and by the way, as you’ve been reading this, that shadow has moved right behind you! 

Sympathy for your character

The quickest way to achieve character sympathy in a story is to set it first person. When the reader is the mind of the protagonist it’s hard for them not to feel for the character as they travel on that epic journey with them. First Person perspective allows the reader to be privy to all those inner thoughts and funny quips without the cumbersome ‘she thought’ lines cluttering up the flow. Don’t forget First Person is also much easier for the reader to imagine themselves as that character.

I don’t know about you but I love reading and I especially love reading books that take me away from this awful dull reality and chuck me head first into amazing and other worldly situations. It’s one of the reasons that I write paranormal literature – I love reading it. The problem with this genre can arise from the fact that your protagonist is often supernatural in origin so you need to address their more villainous nature along the way. A great example of this is Isaac Marion’s ‘Warm Bodies’. The book is written First Person from the zombie’s point of view and goes into great detail to express his frustration of being a zombie, his need to feed on humans, and also injects snippets of memories from his consumed victims and his own past. Within the first few pages I was totally on his side and enjoyed being in a zombie’s braaaains…Lame joke I know but I’m going to do it again…braaaains!

Also make your main character relatable.  How? Well, give them problems that readers can relate to – the most obvious problem is romance. We have all had our hearts broken and/or shattered someone else’s heart at some point. The most obvious example is of this is Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight Saga’. Moving aside the supernatural vampire and werewolf shenanigans; Bella falls in love, has her heart-broken, breaks Jacob’s heart and then falls in love again with her ex Edward. These problems alone make her instantly relatable to girls and women alike.

Know the gender and age of your market. Having a 12 year old boy the first person protagonist of an adult book aimed at a female market might seem ‘out of the box’ thinking, but in reality the character is almost completely foreign to your intended market. There’s a box for a reason and trying to cram a square peg into a round hole isn’t going to work and will ultimately frustrate your audience and probably you as the writer too. If you are writing YA make sure that your main characters are between 15-24 (good rule of thumb is work the age up from your intended market – girls of 18 rarely like to read about 13 year olds) Chick Lit = woman, Guy-Lit = man – it’s not rocket science. There are exceptions here, hey nothing is ever black or white, and there’s the whole muddy ground of general literature and thrillers – however I would strongly advise for a writer to actually pick a genre with a market in mind – it’s one of those magic questions that publishers and agents tend to ask nowadays.

Sympathy for the Devil – villains! Antagonists are one of my favourite things as a writer. They can be so much fun to write that they end up overshadowing the hero. Most of the time they are more interesting and quite frankly have a right to kick off and cause mayhem – Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ for example. Poor pieced together guy had severe abandonment issues that, ok didn’t give him the right to go on a killing rampage, but at least gave the readers a reason behind the deaths; he wasn’t killing for killing sake.

If you are going down the first person protagonist route, then you are limited as to what you can show of the motives of your villain, and of course the other supporting characters around them. In my next blog I’m going to go into a bit more details of the joys and limitations of the different perspectives: First, Third, Second and Third Limited.

Oh and one more thing…Braaaaains!

Do you know of any other techniques for creating sympathy for your characters? If so share them here.

Welcome…

Hello there!

Welcome to my blog. I’m Nicky Peacock: Author and part time evil genius. I write paranormal romance, urban fantasy, horror and YA supernatural stories and novels.

This blog is dedicated to readers, writers and stalkers of these genres and, well anyone who has an interest in general creative writing.

Topics covered will be: writing tips, my work, and general musings from my favourite topics, horror and the supernatural.

Thank you for stopping by and feel free to press that ‘follow button’  you know you want to…

Nicx