Judith Post's Blog, page 122

Writing: which characters stick with you?

I taught school for six years before I had my daughters. Elementary. I went wherever the principal needed me–first grade twice, second grade twice, and fourth grade twice, never back to back. No matter. I loved them all. We bought a house close to the school because I’m not fond of driving. Maybe not a wise choice, because teachers had to stay after school a half hour after the students left the building. Often, when I drove home, a student or two would be sitting on my front steps. Now, I loved my students, but not two minutes after I left the building. But do you know what? My husband would cook pancakes for whichever ones showed up at our house on Saturday mornings. And then they’d sit around our kitchen table and help me grade papers:) That’s what happens when you live too close to where you teach.

I meant to go back to teaching after my younger daughter was in school full days. But life interferes. Indiana changed its laws so that teachers no longer needed a master’s degree before they signed their sixth contract. They didn’t need a master’s degree at all, so no one would hire me. I was more expensive than the new, fresh-out-of-college teachers, so I was out of a job. My principal tried to get me back in his building, but no luck.

I could feel sorry for myself, but I don’t. If I’d have taught, I’d have never started writing. And guess what? I love that just as much, maybe more. So maybe Fate pushed me in a new direction to make me happy. Who knows? But there are students who will stick in my mind for forever. A few, because they were so awesome, so shiny, so fun, so sweet. But some? Because to this day, I wonder if they found a good life, if they’re happy. I’ve told my husband that teachers should be allowed to put tiny chips under the skins of kids they worry about, so that we can check on them after they graduate, after they’ve lived life a while. But only if things turned out well for them. Because if life treated them worse than it already had when they were six or ten, I don’t want to know.

This blog isn’t about education, so all that I’ll say on that subject is that I’m pretty sick of politicians beating up teachers. I think they’re getting a raw deal. But this blog is about writing…or anything that makes me think about it. So this time, thinking of kids I taught made me think about developing characters in our stories. Certain kids stuck with me because they either amazed me or made me worry about them, sometimes both.

I taught Richie in first grade. He was one of twelve children with another on the way. He wandered. He never got to school on time, because he walked up and down streets and alleys before his feet led him to my classroom. He always wore hand-me-downs that didn’t fit. His mind wandered as far as his feet did. He couldn’t concentrate. He drifted. And to this day, I think about him. Another student, Geoff, refused to interact at school in any way. He loved to learn, though. Finally, I asked him why he didn’t want to make any friends or plug in, and he said that every time he started liking a school, his parents moved. They moved a month after he started liking our classroom. A girl in second grade walked up to my desk and informed me that she didn’t have to study and get good grades, because she’d won two beauty pageants and pretty girls didn’t need to be smart. I told her that in my class, pretty girls who didn’t do homeowork didn’t have recess; and she found out she was lots smarter than she gave herself credit for.

Those students stuck with me because they were unique, but I could identify with them. That’s the same thing authors need to do with characters. One way or another, readers need to care about them.

They need to have traits that appeal to us and flaws that make us worry about them. They need to be real.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Writing: writers’ groups

I’ve been lucky enough to be in a few different writers’ groups over the years. When our city had an active, vibrant, independent book store, two friends and I worked together to invite writers we’d met at writing conferences to do book signings and lectures there. Back then, authors were encouraged to travel to different cities for signings. Fort Wayne’s between Chicago and Indianapolis, so often we could get authors to stop at the book store as they passed through town. When we couldn’t find anyone, Dawn, Carl, and I would do panels once a month for the store. We met a lot of different, area writers that way. The experience was fun, and we learned a lot until the crowds got too big, and the store finally hired a publicist to coordinate its events.

My longest membership in a group, though, has to be Summit City Scribes. Each time we meet, three people (who’ve volunteered ahead of time) read, then we go around the table and critique their work. Our focus is on strong writing–hook, pacing, plotting, word choice, etc., but we also talk about marketing and share news with each other. I’ve read and heard almost all of the information before. We all have, but that doesn’t mean we always apply it. And it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. Scribes pushes me to write my best.

There’s a second writers’ group in town that meets once a month in the evening, from 7:00 to 8:30. This group invites a speaker each time who gives a program or a workshop. They’ve discussed Show, Don’t Tell; How To Develop Characters; Different Ways to Build Strong Plots; How To Find Agents and Sell, etc. I’ve attended some of their programs and enjoyed all of them. Plus, it’s nice to mingle with writers I don’t see very often.

Once a year, our main library offers a Fall Author’s Fair, and usually several of us volunteer to do panels with question and answer sessions. It always encourages me to get together with fellow writers and talk craft. Our approaches are different, but our goals are the same–to grow as writers and encourage each other.

Writing: passion

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m a big fan of Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, The Voice, and American Idol. See? I like things besides movies where people lose their heads–like The Thirteenth Warrior and Sleepy Hollow. I love song and dance, too! B.C.–before children–my husband and I would drive to nearby cities if a Bob Fosse program was advertised. That’s how we discovered the joys of weekends in Chicago. Those days are gone now. We’ve gotten busier and our budget’s gotten tighter. Now, my sister and I watch the shows and call each other during commercials when something excites us. I’m a Derek Hough devotee. She’s a Tony and Maks fan, so we argue about which dance was better each week. I know, sad, but what can I say? Also true.

The thing I’ve noticed is that often, when judges critique the dancers and singers, the first line of critique involves getting the basics right–pitch, steps, rhythm. But the second, and maybe more important critique involves passion. Did the dance/song stir emotion? Did the performer connect with the audience? Did he FEEL the dance? FEEL the words he was singing? Those same standards apply to most arts, including writing.

I don’t know much about paintings or sculptures, but I know which ones move me. I can’t read a note of music, but I know which songs stir me. I can’t explain why some art doesn’t work for me. Some of it’s a matter of taste, but some of it depends on technique. I think even amateurs can recognize sloppy work, even if they can’t verbalize it. The same holds true for writing.

Readers might not be able to say, “The writer used too many passive verbs,” but they can FEEL it. Good, solid technique matters. After that? It’s a matter of passion. Did the characters connect with the readers? Did the story grab them and keep them? There’s an art to connecting with an audience, and writers need to master that every bit as well as singers, actors, and dancers.

This is the cover Michael designed for the novella bundle I plan to put online on May 18th. Neat, isn’t it?

Writing: the last fourth

I’ve been working on the third Fallen Angels novel for the last few months.  I’m always excited when I start a book.  The ideas and characters tumble out of my head, chatter about what they want to do, and create new scenes to add to my plot points.  The middle usually starts out good, slows, and then drags as I try to juggle the main plot and subplots, tensions and conflicts, but this time–and it’s rare, so I plan to celebrate–the story just kept zooming ahead.  The characters kept surprising me, and I’ve found myself at the last fourth of the story.  This time, I’m going to dig in my heels.  I usually hit this point and everything in the story begins to snowball until scenes–already set in motion–tumble, gaining momentum, to the last page.  I’m notorious for rushing my endings.  But the big, final battle–whatever it is in any novel– is what the entire book has built to.  It’s the pay-off for all the struggles authors have put their protagonists and main characters through.  It needs to be at least long enough to be satisfying, so I’m going to be cognizant of that.  I’m going to SLOW DOWN.  And hopefully, the first draft will be finished by the end of the month.  But if not, so be it.  It will be finished when the story’s reached The End.

 

 

Writing–habits

It’s spring.  73 degrees outside.  And I’m not sure why, but every year, when the weather turns warm, for at least a week, sometimes two, I’m LAZY.  I just feel like slumping in a hammock, sipping lemonade, and doing NOTHING.  I looked at my flower beds today, got excited about seeing the green sprouts poke higher and higher, but did I rake them?  No.  What did I do instead?  I made two, huge pots of soup.

My daughter, Robyn, called and laughed at me.  “Soup, when it’s 73 outside?”  She and her husband live in Florida.  What does she know?  She doesn’t make big pots of soup on Saturdays to have for lunches during the week.  Because it’s too nice and sunny for her to WANT soup.  My daughter, Holly–a nurse, dropped in on her way to work, and she took a few plastic containers of soup to work with her to eat on supper breaks, because soup’s fast and satisfying.

I know, though, that sometime in the near future–I’ll ease myself from one season to the next–I’ll switch my jeans for capris, and I’ll want salads or sandwiches for lunch instead of soup, but it takes me a while.  My friend, Carl, told me that it takes at least two weeks to even start to break a bad habit or start a good one and at least a month before you can relax your guard.  It takes me two weeks to settle into good weather.

As for my writing?  That’s my constant.  I sit at my computer every week day and hit the keys.  It’s the personal core that the rest of my life revolves around.  So just like the mailman–through rain, sleet, or snow, sunshine or blizzard–I’ll work to write a scene and turn out pages every day.

I hope the Muses smile on you and the sun caresses your soul, and keep writing!

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

P.S.  Michael Prete, who does my covers, came up with a new one for me for Empty Altars.  The old cover fit the story, but the new cover fits it better AND it will blend with the cover for the 2nd Emtpy Altars novel, which should be out soon.  Anway, I love what Michael did! 

 

 

The 10 Commandments of Writing

A friend of mine–a while ago–asked me for writing advice.  She’d fiddled with writing, but had never done anything serious.  She wasn’t quite in the mood for full writer throttle, so I wanted to do something fun for her.  This is what I came up with–and we all know it’s scratching the surface.

I.  Thou shalt not start “At the Beginning.”  Okay, a little play on words, but it’s true.  A novel starts with a hook.  Not with back story.  Back story is for flashbacks, here and there, later in the plot.  The hook is what pulls readers into the story–the event that plunges the character into the event that turns his life upside down, topsy turvy.  It introduces the book’s big question and why the protagonist has to take it on.  If he doesn’t, he’ll never restore order to his life.  If he does, he’ll be a changed person.  His choice.  And usually, he avoids dealing with it as long as he can—or until the first fourth of the book is written.  The hook pulls the reader in and the first fourth of the book provides the set-up for the story.  (Les Edgerton has a great book on the topic:  http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/index.html)

II.  Thou shalt plot Thy book with no holes or soggy middles.  Okay, this admittedly, takes some skill and balance.  You don’t want your plot to move too fast or too slow.  It’s all about conflict.  Plot is the result of cause and effect.  The protagonist wants this…. needs that….and decides this idea will solve his problem….   Except it doesn’t.  No, whatever he tries, makes it worse.   For a novel, I’ve never been able to come up with enough to fill the vast, yawning middle of a book without subplots.  Every plot is character driven.  So are subplots.  If you come up with strong, main characters whose goals/problems mirror the protagonist’s, you can weave in and out of the different scenes like a juggler who keeps all of his balls in the air.  Victory Crayne says, “Conflict is ‘The mental or moral struggle caused by incompatible desires and aims.’  It is the unsolved problems that form the chain of promises that keeps the reader interested.’–Ben Bova.  Les Edgerton, by the way, has a great blog post on plotting, too:  http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2010/12/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html    And:  http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2010/04/outlining.html.  Actually, his entire blog is worth reading.

III.  Thy pacing shall keep readers turning the pages.  Every scene in every novel has to have tension and purpose.  If a scene doesn’t advance the story in some way, it shouldn’t be there.  Something has to be at stake in EVERY scene.  And repetition–of any kind–KILLS tension.

IV.  Thy writing shall have emotional impact.  If the protagonist doesn’t react–reel with horror, laugh with joy, worry and pace with frustration–neither will the reader.  The reader lives these events through the characters.  He wants to EXPERIENCE these events through the characters.  The writer can use internal dialogue or visceral responses to react, but the reader wants to feel what the character feels.  And actions sometimes speak louder than words.  No one wants to read about a protagonist who only reacts.  We want the protagonist to dig into the problem, make plans, suffer when they fail, and pick himself up and try again.  The reader wants a happy ending to be earned, not given to the protagonist.  Or, if the protagonist tries and fails, we want to suffer the pain of defeat along with him.

V.  Thou shalt create interesting, memorable characters.  Readers want their characters to feel real–like living, breathing people.  They want to know what the character wants and why.  What will he do to get it?  He has to have a name that fits his age and personality.  He has to have Goal, Motivation, Conflict.  If different characters have different goals and motivations, that creates conflict.  Every novel needs different type of characters: the protagonist, maybe a mentor, a romantic interest, a friend or reflector, a villain and hopefully an antagonist–different from a villain, but someone who keeps getting in the protagonist’s way, and maybe an opponent, someone who’s competing with the protagonist.  Dialogue, dress, and actions have to be consistent with who the character is.  The characters drive the story.  I’m plot oriented, but no writer can make a character walk through a story and do what he’s supposed to for the plot without making the character a cardboard stick figure who’s not interesting.

VI.  Thou shalt use dialogue to advance the plot, not to fill space.  Dialogue can reveal character, create tension, and foreshadow coming events.  Be careful of tags.  “He said,” “she said,” are fine, but action tags work even better.  Fancy tags are rarely needed–”he proclaimed,” “he insisted.”  Dialogue should fit each character, and it should “feel” real.  It’s not real–not even close–but it can FEEL real if the writer avoids flowery dialogue.  People sometimes use broken sentences.  They usually don’t go on and on.  When they do, that says something about a character.  Les Edgerton has a blog post on dialogue, too, that’s pretty dang good: http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/2013/04/guest-post-at-kristen-lambs-blog-on.html

VII.  Thou shalt choose Thy setting well.  Settings are the backdrops for stories.  Some stories work better in big cities and some work better in small towns or in seclusion.  The setting needs to fit the tone of the story.  If a small town is hiding a serial killer, the town may appear innocent and inviting, but the writer gives clues that evil lurks under its surface.  Settings need to fleshed out.  They’re the foundation that helps hold the story together.   It’s the world the reader’s going to live in from page one to the the last word of the novel.  The reader needs to see the setting, to smell its scents, to know its people.

VIII.  Choose Thy POV carefully.  The character whom the reader follows should be the one who has the most at stake in the scene or story.  First person POV is more immediate.  Everything’s filtered through that character’s eyes and mind.  Third person limited creates more distance, but with internal dialogue can share insights, too, and the writer doesn’t have to try to avoid the word “I.” Multiple POV can create more tension, because the protagonist doesn’t always know what other characters are doing.

IX.  Thy voice and tone shalt suit Thy story.  Voice is a nebulous thing that’s individual to each author.  It reflects our attitudes and our take on the world.  But tone should be individual to each story.  Tone sets the mood.  If the story is humorous, every single word the author chooses should be light or lend itself to funny.  If the story’s dark, every word choice should be forbidding or brooding.   For a scary setting, the author wouldn’t describe a forest with birds chirping and squirrels scampering.  Instead, the trees’ branches should look like gnarled fingers, twisting to ensnare someone or to snag them.  It’s all about word choice.

X.  Thou shalt dedicate Thyself to good, strong writing.  A writer has to master the basics.  Sentence lengths should vary.  Word choice should be specific, not generic.  He should use active verbs, not passive.  Adjectives and adverbs should be used sparingly, opting for strong verbs and nouns instead.  Spelling and grammar should be right.  Wording should be original and unique.

We all know that keeping every commandment is hard.  So is good writing.  And I’ve probably left out a point or two, but this is a start.  The fun’s in the striving.  Enjoy!

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

Writing: series and stand-alones

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that readers love book series.  They’re so popular now, one of my friends complained that she’s having trouble finding novels that are stand-alones, that if a first book does well, the author starts a series.  She likes the “freshness” of new characters and new settings, and she’s having a hard time finding them.

If a series works, a writer has a ready-made audience, happy and anxious to buy his next book.  And just because readers like one series doesn’t mean they’ll like the next one.   I belong to several groups in Goodreads, and when Patricia Briggs came out with her latest Mercy Thompson novel, members wrote about pre-ordering it and taking the day off work to stay home to read it.  I can’t imagine how awesome that must feel (but I’d love to find out).  When Patricia Briggs finishes a new novel in her Alpha and Omega series, though, there’s still lots of pre-book excitement, but it can’t compare with Mercy’s hullabaloo.  The same goes with Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series.  Readers can’t wait for the next book, to the point where Ilona Andrews writes little tidbit scenes inbetween novels to placate their itch.  And even though her other series are popular, they’re not AS popular.

I understand the dynamics of series and why authors write them.  It’s because readers want them.   But for me, there are advantages and disadvantages to writing them.  If readers love them, the advantage is obvious–more book sells.  From a writing standpoint, the author is returning to a world he knows and to characters who’ve walked and talked in his head enough that they become more and more real.  It’s fun to see how much they’ll grow and what they’ll do next…as long as new ideas keep coming.  But I’ve followed some series for a long time, and there’s a point somewhere along the way, when the sameness of the world and the characters becomes a hurdle instead of a blessing.  How many new battles or challenges can the characters face?  How many things can the author come up with to keep the series fresh?  New characters and new plots start to look intriguing.  That’s one advantage of stand-alones.  Everything’s always new.  The first fourth of a book is introducing characters, setting, and a struggle, and it feels like an adventure when everything’s unfamiliar.

My three series are new enough, I still enjoy them.  I’m working on the third Enoch/Voronika novel, and it’s interesting for me to discover new facets of each of the characters, to push them in different directions to see how they respond.  It is my third book in the series, though.   I don’t know how other authors manage it, but my pile of background papers keeps growing.  I have a character wheel filled out with information for each major character I’ve introduced.  I have lists with short descriptions of minor characters I’ve created with an X on them if I killed them in a previous book (it’s urban fantasy, remember.  How embarrassing if I staked someone in book two and then reintroduced him in a later story).  I have a short paragraph on how each major character grew or changed in each book.  For each novel, I compile more and more information.

For Empty Altars, I did lots of research on clothing, foods, weapons, etc., in Norse times, and I seem to add more research each time I write about Tyr and Diana.    I’ve only finished my second book in the series, and I already have a mountain of information to leaf through.  I know I could just look it up each time, but there are so many versions of Norse myths, I want to remember which one I used.

For my Wolf’s Bane series, I thought I’d just have fun, making things up.  But I wanted to keep Reece’s magic consistent, and I wanted it to feel “real.”  So I have a mound of articles and notes for those two books now.  I don’t know how Sue Grafton kept everything straight for twenty-six letters of the alphabet in her mystery series or how Janet Evanovich files things away for her Stephanie Plum novels–which could be infinite, I guess, since it’s based on numbers.

And that’s another thing about series.  Some authors create a specific time frame for them.  Books based on the 7 deadly sins should have…well…7 books.  If the series starts with five brothers and the author intends to follow one in each novel, the reader expects five books.  I don’t have a brilliant plan for my novels.  I intend to write them until I’m tired of them or until readers are sick of them, whichever comes first.  But I realize the more of them I write, the more baggage goes into each one.  When that baggage is too heavy to carry, it’s time to move on.

Are Quickies Good? (I’m talking writing)

I’m supposed to write about the pros and cons of writing a series this week, but I got distracted.  Next week, I’ll post my part 2 for that.  But lately, I’ve been pondering the trend of writing fast.  Lindsay Buroker recently posted a wonderful blog on how she wrote a novel in three weeks–that includes everything–the planning to the finished product.  On one day, she actually wrote over 10,000 words.  That’s over forty pages!  And she gave specifics on how to go about it so that you end up with a good book when you’re finished.  This isn’t her norm, mind you.  Many times, she writes long, involved series with multiple POVs, but this was a stand-alone novel with a straight-line plot, and fast worked for it, maybe even made it better.  Fast writing can add a sense of urgency–a feeling of immediacy–and the author’s energy can flow into the pages.

Right now, I’m actually trying to take more time with my novels.  I’m trying to create worlds by using telling details and relationships that push and pull at my books’ characters.  I’m asking myself: Have I set the scene?  What are the dynamics between the characters?  Can I add more conflict/tension?  Show more motivation or more depth?  Add any foreshadowing?  I’m hoping that by giving my scenes more time to simmer and steep, they’ll have more depth.

I’m polishing more as I go, too.  I’ve never been good at writing a whole novel, getting the entire thing on paper, before I edit the first word.  I know some people have to, or they get caught up in rewrites and never finish a book.  But I’ve always rewritten on the second day whatever I wrote on the first.  Lately, I’ve been taking even more time with my rewrites, so that my scenes almost always get longer, more complex, before I move to the next one.

I’m not suggesting that I’m going to take a year, like I did when I first started writing, to finish a novel.  I was learning then, slogging my way through unknown territory.  Now, I’ve written long enough to have a feel for the rhythms and pacing of storylines.  I intend to finish three novels this year.  I’m simply saying that some books benefit by being written fast and some books need more time.  For me, now, a slower pace is giving me the leisure to fiddle with a few more intricacies.  And that’s my goal at the moment.

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Off subject, just an update, my new Babet & Prosper novella–a little longer than usual–will be up some time this week, hopefully by Tuesday.  A dream wraith comes for Prosper and wants to keep him in her world.  This one has some steam, so enjoy!

Writing: The advantages/disadvantages of a series (part 1)

When I first started writing urban fantasy, I wasn’t sure what would work/what wouldn’t.   My agent was sending out my novels back then.  For Fabric of Life, (which she really liked), I got comments back from editors that mostly said, good writing, not really urban fantasy.  At the time, I thought urban fantasy was taking a setting in our world and adding a paranormal element to it.  Boy, was I wrong.  Fabric of Life was way too much like a cozy mystery with ghosts and destiny tossed in.

I listened to all of the editors’ feedback and read more urban fantasy authors and decided that urban fantasy was really sort of a battle between good and bad, and the main players were supernaturals.  But they live in our world in our time, right?  So I figured they’d have to intermingle with humans.  And Fallen Angels was born.  I decided to have Danny, a mortal homicide detective, mirror Enoch–an angel sent to Earth to battle rogue vampires.   Both men fought the bad guys in their worlds.  After MANY rewrites, my agent loved it.  She sent it out.  And most editors responded with similar opinions–good writing, but the human, mystery plot muddled the urban fantasy feel.  Little did I know that mortals were simply a backdrop–of less importance than the setting–for an urban fantasy novel.

I read more urban fantasies and wrote Wolf’s Bane.  This time, I tried really hard to get ALL of the elements right.  My agent liked it.  She sent it.  And this time, I got replies that said their urban fantasy lines were full, that they were looking for something similar–but different–from what they already had, and that Wolf’s Bane was too much like all of the other books on the market.  Aaargh.  That’s what I was trying for, and this time, it worked against me.  Almost three years had passed, maybe more, and I thought that selling an urban fantasy to a big publisher would only happen if every planet aligned in my sign…or posthumously, if I was lucky.  So I decided to try e-books.

It’s easy to put a book on amazon, compared to trying to snag a big publisher.  BUT, it’s hard to get anyone to look at it.  I joined Goodreads, and moderators and bloggers in urban fantasy groups were supportive and active.  I offered Fallen Angels for the read-to- review section, and I got good responses.  It’s harder now.  More and more writers have joined Goodreads, and there’s a lot more competition to get your book noticed.  I offered Fallen Angels for free days on amazon, and I got even more reviews.   Now, authors are offering free books on all kinds of sites, and that’s competitive, too.  Free days help, though.  People might be willing to try a new author they’ve never heard of if they don’t have to pay for the book.  And sometimes, they even read it (instead of just downloading it for later) and sometimes, they even leave a review.  If you’re lucky, they might buy the next book in the series.  BookBub picked up Fallen Angels, and that made a huge difference.  But BookBub is getting harder and harder to get into.  There are LOTS of indie authors, so an author HAS to market herself, or she goes unnoticed.  And big name authors are starting to use BookBub and other sites to promote their work.

It’s getting harder and harder for an author to stand out from the crowd.  One of the things that helps is to write a series.  I did this wrong.  Hopefully, you’ll do it right.  I wish I had started by writing one series, but I had no idea which series might or might not work for me.  I started online with four different stand-alone books–Fabric of Life, Fallen Angels, Wolf’s Bane, and Empty Altars.  I got decent reviews on all four of them.  I LIKE all four of them.  But now, I’m playing catch-up.  I’m trying to make each one into a series.  For Fabric of Life, I wrote Emerald Hills novellas that highlighted a different protagonist for each one with a different, unique type of magic.  And I made each novella a romance.  Was this successful?  Not really.  Readers would rather have a novel that follows the main characters of the original novel.   Personally, I think novels sell LOTS better than short fiction–unless it’s a popular author who’s writing about a series that readers love.

I finished a second Fallen Angels and Wolf’s Bane novel and have a second Empty Altars with my agent.  This year, I want to write a third novel for each one of those.  It will be interesting to see if having three books for each series makes a difference.

My advice to you?  Write a series.  If a reader likes your book, he’s willing to look for a second one.  If he likes that one, he’ll look for the third.  On Goodreads, members wait anxiously for their favorite author’s newest book to hit the shelves.  Of course, no rules are absolute.  I’m only suggesting that a series has certain advantages.  Next week, I’ll play with this idea a little more–the pros and cons of writing series.  If you have any opinions, share with us.  And if you have any questions, send them my way.

http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

 

 

 

Writing–Walk-on Characters

On my way to our last Scribes’ meeting, I drove through town.  I take this route so many times that usually, it’s boring.  My thoughts wander as I don’t notice the familiar surroundings.  This drive was different.

Our city’s had so much snow that sidewalks are sometimes clean, sometimes not.  Some people shovel them.  Some don’t.  Bluffton Road has plenty of traffic, but a teenager must have decided that braving traffic was better than trudging through snow and ice.  He was walking down the painted lines in the center of the four-lane highway.  Not quite medium height, he wore a blue jean jacket with fleece lining, faded blue jeans, and a chain that connected his billfold to his belt loop.  His dark hair scraped his shoulders, but what I noticed most about him was his swagger.  The kid’s walk almost challenged cars to bring it on.  It gave an immediate impression of his personality.  It made me think.  How well do I do that in my writing?  Everything about this kid screamed cocky.  Do I manage that without an adjective when I have a character step on screen?

To write main characters, I make character wheels and fill in backgrounds, goals, and motivations.  It takes time to make them live and chatter in my head.  But what about walk-on characters?  Do I take the time to paint someone as vivid as that teenager?

I turned onto Broadway and stopped at a red light near the hospital.  A woman, dressed in a purple exercise outfit–matching stretch pants and jacket–with her long, brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail, was marching down the sidewalk, waving her arms in the air and talking to the sky.  At first, I looked for a Bluetooth or a cellphone cradled to her ear, but if there was one, I missed it.  The light changed to green and traffic moved on, but I wondered about that woman.  Was she shaking her fists at the heavens?  Giving herself a pep talk?  Outraged by something?  She’d make an awesome walk-on character in a story.  I probably wouldn’t get the gist of the real person right, but I could sure come up with a memorable scene with her in it.

On the next street over, I passed two, middle-aged, Black men–dressed in jeans and jackets–who were visiting and laughing so hard, their happiness flowed around them.  It cheered me up just seeing them.  I wondered how I’d use them if I put them in a story, because their joy was spontaneous.  Could I mimic it on the page?

I’ve never been able to write about anyone I’m close to.  When I know a person–family or friend–they become too complex for me to condense onto a page.  But impressions of people work wonders.  Writers want characters to feel real, and to do that, we need to make our characters consistent, but real people aren’t always one way or another, are they?  They have little idiosyncrasies and their moods change.  It’s like writing dialogue.  It has to ring true, but real dialogue is full of fits and starts and false directions before we reach the meat of an issue.  So just as for dialogue, writers create  impressions  of real people for their stories.  The more vivid the impression–the mood, the style, or the image–the better.

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*Just to let you know, my novella Midu’s Magic is available for free now on smashwords.  If you read it and like it, DON’T buy the rest of the Emerald Hills novellas.  They’ll be available in about a month in a collection, and you can get all of them for 99 cents instead of 99 cents each:)