Larry Brooks's Blog, page 26

The Fragments of Once Whole Things

A guest post by Art Holcomb

“The beautiful thing about a mosaic is that it is best when made up of the broken fragments of once whole things.”

Your characters are very much like thatWhether we want admit it or not, each of our characters is such a mosaic, made up of those conscious pieces we assemble and those unconscious fragments that we bring to the work.  And how could it be anything else? We are always the real source of all the tools and raw materials for our stories. We bring each character to our stories like a comet, seeing only the fiery tail, but knowing that it is the unseen – the fireball of our imagination and experiences – that is the real cause of that streak in the sky.

But how do we access that?  How can we really get in touch with what we believe?  How can we come to know ourselves?

One way is to look at our writings for quotes from our characters.  Their words are our words too, especially when they seem to disagree with who we think we are, or when they say something unwittingly profound.

If we believe that someday people will be quoting lines from our own works, why not beat them to it, and see what you can learn about yourself.

Let me serve as an example:  In preparing this post, I combed through my personal writing for quotes by my characters that, while seeming natural when I wrote them, now seem to reveal something new about how I might actually feel.

Here are a couple of examples:

From F8 – A Shade Story:

“Circumstances are revealed in the crime; character, in the cover-up.”

“The defining moments in the history of Mankind lie not in what a person CAN do, but in what a person Will or Will Not do.”

“A slap is just a very fast, very hard caress.”

From A Siren of Turbine

“Life is collaboration with victims.

“Beneath every desert, at some reachable depth, lies a spring.”

“Your wounds are like the knives you carry. There’s the one that you’ll show them, the one that you’ll let them find and the one they’ll never know you have.”

From Perfecting Your Premise:

“There has to be a High Country in every story where the derring-do is done.”

“Plot only matters when it is the means to transformation.”“Every character has that one core value – that one unshakable belief – that is their impediment to growth.”
- – - - Through this second look, I found deeper meaning in these quotes than what they meant for the story. Why not pull some out of your own writing and give them a second look. And feel free to share them with us here through the Comment section.

You might just learn something new.

Art Holcomb is a screenwriter and comic book creator.  His new writing book is entitled RE-BOOT YOUR STORY: How to Resurrect Your Abandoned Story and Get It Written NOW!

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Thanks to Art for another great contribution.  I sat down with him in Los Angeles recently at writing conference, and we swapped writing stories and philosophy over $26-a-plate hotel fish tacos.  The guy really knows his stuff.  Notice, too, how his headlines always offer a nuance of elegance, sign of a total pro.

And, he’s the only writer I’ve ever met that I’m not sure I could pin in the first round.  Guy looks like a retired 49ers linebacker.  Just sayin’… this is a guy people listen to.

On another, final note…

An update for those of you who opted into the FREE “ Deadly Faux ” deconstruction ebook… getting there.  Hope to have it out in another week or so.

If you missed that, or would like to get in on this workshop-like opportunity, click HERE for the post (the offer is in the last third of the article)Speaking of DF… you can read the Publishers Weekly review HERE .

The Fragments of Once Whole Things is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

“Deadly Faux”… Launched… Pitched… and Promoted with a Killer Spiff for Writers Who Love a Case Study in Craft

My new novel was released today, from Turner Publishing.  If you’ve experienced such a day yourself, you know the feeling.  And if you haven’t… keep reading, I have something that might help make it happen for you, sooner rather than later.

“Deadly Faux,” is the sequel to my 2004 novel “Bait and Switch” (the reissue of which comes out from Turner in a month).  It’s a hybrid mystery/thriller about taking down bad guys using less than conventional or even reasonable means, with a civilian hero enlisted as the point man in an off-the-books FBI sting that uses seduction as both strategy and weaponry.  Our chiseled hero, you see, while being Grade-A Prime seduction fodder with a touch of attitude, is much more than he seems.

I mention “Bait and Switch,” the earlier book that introduced Wolfgang Schmitt as an unwitting and unaware hero, because it garnered some serious critical chops.  In addition to some enthusiastic reviews, Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, named it their monthly lead Editors Choice (July), and at year-end named it to two lists: Best Books of 2004 (lead entry, Mass Market), and — this next one being slightly paradoxical — Best Overlooked Books of 2oo4… note the second entry).

I mention this in the event that — in the hope of enticing you to give it a go — the premise alone doesn’t quite persuade.

The Concept of Deadly Faux

What if the Feds seek out, and find, a guy with the chops to seduce the right women in the wrong places, for the purpose of eliciting and gathering evidence in major investigations into serious bad guys and darkly duplicitous organizations, all of it covert and off the books?

The Premise of Deadly Faux

Wolfgang Schmitt, having previously assisted the Feds nail a stock-scamming billionaire, is brought back undercover to bring down a corrupt casino owner and his Machiavellian wife while snagging a deadly organized crime lord who has eluded them for over a decade.  And what if, just like last time, nothing and nobody is as advertised, leaving Wolf to sort it all out — and with any luck (because it may or may not be part of the script) survive it — on his own?

So there is it… if you thought this post was strictly about promoting my new title, there’s a quick lesson on the critical difference between concept and premise.  Both, while hierarchically different, should be compelling.

By far the best pitch for “Deadly Faux” was made by James N. Frey, he of the massively famous craft book, “How to Write a Damned Good Novel,” and the two and half decades of fabled writing workshops that followed.  His blurb  can be read directly to the right of this, in the other column.

Here are a couple more A-list author endorsements:

“Deadly Faux is a fast, fun read with plot twists I did not see coming and a satisfying ending.” —Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author of Sleight of Hand

“An absolute must read, Deadly Faux is guaranteed entertainment. In Wolfgang Schmitt, Larry Brooks has created a wise-cracking protagonist who is witty, resourceful, intelligent, and, most surprisingly, vulnerable. Brooks plunges Wolf into a seemingly unwinnable caldron involving Las Vegas casinos, the mob, and femme fatales, then turns the heat up high. I finished Deadly Faux in one sitting, couldn’t put it down, and can’t wait to read the next book. Step aside Nelson DeMille and Stuart Woods—Schmitt happens!” —Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Jury Master

Click HERE for the trade paperback.  If you prefer a brick and mortar bookstore, they may have it, they may not (yet), but they definitely can/will order it for you.

Click HERE for Kindle… or HERE for Nook.

Your support is appreciated.

A Special Offer/Win-Win Promo for Writers

The trouble with novelists who have social media presence (let’s be honest, it’s a strategy) is that it boils down to this: writers tying to sell their work to other writers. If you have a Facebook friend-base comprised mainly of other writers, we get about three t0 five “announcing my new novel!” notices a day.  Each and every one has my empathy and support… but I want a better strategy for this very focused demographic that, quite frankly, doesn’t do all that much you-buy-mine-and-I’ll-buy-yours quid pro quo.

I’d rather show you a real reason — as a writer — to buy and read my novel, beyond the promise that you’ll love it.  So here it is:

I’m writing an ebook entitled, “The Inner Life of “Deadly Faux.”

Basically it’s a detailed deconstruction of the entire “Deadly Faux” manuscript relative to the Six Core Competencies (from “Story Engineering“) and the six realms of “Story Physics.”   Along with a behind the curtain recounting of the novel’s journey from hopeful manuscript to publication, which reads like a thriller spiced with shades of horror.  Let’s just say… the author almost died.

Think of it as the reality of storytelling colliding with the chillier realities of getting and staying published.   Both are inescapable.

This ebook means I can’t hide from the very naked transparency of what I’ve written and how I got there.  I’ve been preaching the gospel of mission-driven storytelling craft on this site for four years now… this ebook is where I walk the talk.  Or not… that’s your call.

Either way, this will be like a med student throwing back the sheet from a freshly sanitized cadaver, with every pore and orifice open for your instection.  Hopefully you’ll conclude that the patient will live to sleuth on the sly for the Feds another day, and why.

To get the ebook — its FREE — just send your online “Deadly Faux” receipt to me at storyfixer@gmail.com… or if you purchased at a bookstore, just tell me where, and your best memory of the stock (how many books, and where in the store it was found).  In about two weeks I’ll be sending it out, via a link I’ll have posted here with a discreet URL for you only.

To my knowledge nothing like this has ever been undertaken or offered.  My goal is to over-deliver, which will lead to good things for both of us.  Thanks for considering.  And if you have a book club and want to work up a presentation, let’s talk.  I’m all ears on what you would suggest for this book that resides outside the box, or if within it, promises to kick out the sides.

“Deadly Faux”… Launched… Pitched… and Promoted with a Killer Spiff for Writers Who Love a Case Study in Craft is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Case Study: Lift Your Story from the Ashes of Mediocrity

Another writer has stepped up to share her experience from the receiving end of the story coaching experience.  I suggested it to her because it presents an all-too-common situation: answering the question “what is your concept?” with a thin and/or familiar premise, rather than something conceptual.

This one thing can make the difference between publishing, or not publishing. 

In fact, it’s one of the leading causes of rejection, even when the writer is competent and the story otherwise well-told.  If an agent or editor is less than compelled because they’ve “been there, read that,” if the story is too familiar right out of the starting blocks, then it’s already mediocre.

And mediocre isn’t enough.  It’ll kill your chances.

So dive in, see if this rings familiar, or simply rings a bell.  Hope so.  Click this – Case Study – Abby  — to engage. 

The Consequences  — and the Win-Win — of over-delivery.

You’ll find there is a lot of here, and it resides at the sweet spot of the entire writing-for-publication proposition.  Based on feedback, on the evoution of how I do these, I”m moving the price of my Kick-Start Conceptual Review to $50.  (Note: the case study sample shows the old price, which was $35.)

And my goal will remain to over-deliver.  I’m adding a “bonus question” to the Questionnaire… your choice.  You’ll see that today’s case study went there, and the answer might save her a year or two of revision.

Feel free to offer your thoughts to this author here in the Comments, as well.  Thanks for playing.

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If you want in on this $50 level of story analysis at the concept/premise level, click HERE.

The full story plan Story Coaching Advenure Program (a longer, deeper level of Questionnaire and analysis), that remains $150… click HERE for that.

Case Study: Lift Your Story from the Ashes of Mediocrity is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

What Every Writer Must Know About “Hero Fact”

A guest post by Jennifer Blanchard

In my work as a writing coach, I come across a lot of stories where the hero isn’t being heroic. Either the hero is being saved by someone else or there’s not enough conflict to force the hero to actually step up and earn the title.

That’s a serious problem. Take note of this fact, because it will save your fiction writing career: the hero must be heroic. (I call this “Hero Fact.”)

Or your story won’t work.

While it might seem nice to have a story where the protagonist (aka: hero) gets rescued by someone else, you can’t do it. Not if you want a story that’s publishable.

In a story that works, the hero must go on a journey.

First he’s just trudging along, enjoying (or not) life. But then something happens (the First Plot Point), and he’s thrust into a journey that’s conflicted and full of stakes. Now he must work through all the demons (inner and outer) in order to come to a resolution of some kind.

Pretty basic stuff, but you’d be amazed how often people get it wrong.

No matter what story you choose to deconstruct, you’ll always find the hero being heroic. He has to be. That’s what it means when Larry says the hero has to be the “Martyr” in part four of the story.

And even when you think the hero isn’t truly the hero, if you dig deeper you’ll see that he is.

Hero Fact In Action

The example I love to give in my story planning workshops is from the movie, Twilight: Eclipse. This is the third film in the Twilight series. Regardless of whether you love or hate the movie, you can’t deny the fact that it (and all the Twilight movies) follows, to a T, the 4-part story structure Larry teaches here on StoryFix.

The hero in the Twilight series is Bella Swann (played by Kristen Stewart on the big screen). Now, she has a lot of help in the series (the Cullen Clan, Edward, Jacob, etc), but ultimately she is the hero. Even when there are two (or more) protagonists in a story, one of them still has to step up to be the main hero.

So in Eclipse, Bella and Edward have a final showdown with the vampire who has been after them since the first movie (or book). It has been argued with me that Edward is actually the hero in this movie, not Bella, because he is the one who kills the vampire. Bella kind of just stands there the whole time.

Or does she?

In the showdown scene, Edward is fighting with the main antagonist, a vampire named Victoria, and her crony, a vampire named Riley. At the end of this scene, Riley is killed, and then Edward kills Victoria.

Which is why it’s easy to think he’s the hero. But step back a little, and you’ll see that it’s really Bella.

Around mid-scene, Riley and Victoria have Edward in a headlock (and if you’ve seen the movies, you know that a headlock is the kiss of death for a vampire). That’s when Bella grabs a sharp rock and cuts her arm, which draws blood, thus distracting the vampires long enough for Edward to break out of the headlock and keep fighting.

If Bella hadn’t done this courageous act, Edward would be killed and she would be next. She is the true hero of the story. It is because of her that Edward was able to defeat Victoria.

What’s even better to prove she’s the hero, is the fact that the cutting of her arm was set up earlier in the movie, when she is told a story about a vampire who nearly destroyed the Quileute tribe, and one brave Indian woman saved everyone. She stabbed herself in the stomach, drawing blood, which distracted the vampire long enough for the Elder Chief to kill it.

Of course, the Indian woman paid the price for it. But that wouldn’t happen to Bella because she’s the hero (and nine times out of 10 the hero doesn’t die), and she has to live to be in the sequel.

Bella never would have gotten the idea to cut herself in order to distract the vampires from killing Edward, unless she was told that story about the Indian woman earlier (don’t you just love foreshadowing?).

Hopefully now you can see that, even when it doesn’t seem like it, the hero is still the hero (Hero Fact). He (or she) has to be. Otherwise it won’t work.

About the Author: Jennifer Blanchard believes we’re all born creative beings, and that everyone has a story to tell. She works with writers on taking their stories from idea to draft, so they can publish and gain a readership, without fear, distractions or disorganization. Grab her free 7-day email workshop to un-stick your stuck words.

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Do you have a writing website?

Or any kind of website, for that matter, that “readers” engage with?

If so, I have an offer for you. (“I” being Larry.)

As you may know, I have a new novel out, “Deadly Faux,” my first in six years.  If you have an established website, I”m offering you a FREE copy with the hope that you’ll review it there.  I’m not asking for a positive review, just an honest one (and because I believe in the book, and have some endorsements that validate that belief, this is a risk I’m willing to take).

Click HERE to see the cover and read the blurbs on the book’s Amazon page.  It’s a hard-edged mystery-thriller with language that your grandmother might not appreciate (though, I assure you, this story is a soft-R rating, not even close to anything more offensive than, say, cable TV… in fact, Breaking Bad makes mystory look like a children’s book in terms of rough language, though in some ways mine is just as dark).

Send a link to your site, with some sense of your subscriber/traffic volume.  And, your preference relative to paperback or digital (Kindle).  No strings.  Thanks for considering.

Larry

What Every Writer Must Know About “Hero Fact” is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

A Perfectly Good Writing Day in L.A.

Welcome to West Hollywood.  I don’t live here, nor am I here to meet with a movie producer about one of my books.  I am, however, sitting in a mall across the street from the monolithic building where that stuff happens, where the agents are, and so I bask in the glorious reflected radiance of their demographic wisdom.

Somewhere in the building, I’d wager, is at least one of the 46 agents who rejected “The Help” before it raised the bar on modern historicals.

It’s gorgeous here.  It’s about 8 in the morning, warm and sunny, and other than a Coffee Bean and a hungover hipster sleeping next to a fountain, the place is deserted.  I’m in town to speak at the Writers Digest West Coast Writers Conference, a presentation I wandered over here from the hotel to actually write.  Nothing like the scent of tacos and piped-in new age music to stoke the creative fires.

Instead I find myself writing this post.  Gotta work on my time management.

The title of my presentation: Storytelling Excellence Through the Avoidance of Mediocrity.

I have 50 minutes to change the lives of 400 writers who have been wondering about this. A bit like getting one hour to deliver a moral compass to the population of a work-release facility.

The time constraint forces me toward theory, I fear, because those 12 buckets I teach from — the six core competencies and the six realms of story physics — barely fit into the UCLA student library, which is just up the street.

Square One, I think, connects to how one defines “excellence” and “mediocrity.”  These are relative terms, but they become less so when one admits they are in this for the money.  Okay, and of course the obligatory nod to art and redemption.  Wrapping one’s head around the difference is the first order of business.  If you raise your hand, you no longer are writing simply for yourself.

The moment one aspires to be a professional, everything changes.  One is suddenly forced to look mediocrity sqaurely in the eye… and then spit in it.

The discussion, I believe, quickly gravitates toward two levels: the Big Picture of a story, and the Execution of a story.  The former resides at the 3-way intersection of Idea, Concept and Premise.  And the latter — Execution — kicks in when you step off that curb.

The premise of a story can lean into excellence by it’s obvious potential for dramatic and thematic chops (again, “The Help” comes to mind) and when it isn’t — about 8 out of 10 of the stories sent to me for evaluation — the writer is left to, if you will, make that steaming pile of story into chicken salad.  Somehow.

Mediocrity happens when writers settle.  When they grab the first hint of a story beat and move forward with it without vetting better options.  When they make it all up as they go and then stamp “The End” on the last page, without introducing the first quartile to the last.

Mediocrity is when you resolve your thriller or mystery with a fist fight that the hero wins.

Mediocrity is when your historical takes your hero on a tour of the land, falls in love, fights a battle (a dragon, perhaps) and lives happily ever after.

Mediocrity happens when your romance  shows a good girl pining for a bad guy, and she gets a chance to change him, because hey, that’s the power of love.

Medicrity happens when in your heart your goal is to allow your writing, your voice, to carry the day because the story is about “real life.”

Mediocrity is episodic.  Mediocrity depicts characters swapping chit-chat over coffee.

Mediocrity is a story about something, without nothing much happening.

You can do everything precisely right, structurally-speaking, and it still might end up in a stack labeled mediocre.

Excellence happens when story physics drive your creative decision-making.

Another reason today is a Perfectly Good Writing Day

At least for me: Amazon is now shipping my new novel, Deadly Faux, a week before the scheduled pub date.  It’s live, in both trade paperback and Kindle (the Kindle link doesn’t show yet on the main book page, but use the Kindle search and it’s there).  Bookstores should have it in a week or three.

Of course, it is on this day when we writers dust off our holiday card list and roam through parking lots putting promotional postcards under windshield wipers… but I’m too old, cynical and been-there-tried-that to go that route… again.  Doesn’t work, by the way.

Instead, I’m going to try something that, to my knowledge, has never been done before.  

I’m going to write an ebook that does two things: it will deconstruct Deadly Faux in detail, turning it into a laboratory for writers looking for transparency into issues such as structure, context, story physics and the optimization of story.  I’ll use pages numbers and describe narrative strategy, story beat by story beat.

In other words, putting my head on my own chopping block to walk the Storyfix talk.  And hopefully, showcase and discuss these storytelling principles for the benefit to others.

It’ll be line one massive Storyfix post.

The ebook will also be a short “making of” story of the creation and selling of the novel itself, which is a thriller in its own right.  If you want to see what this business looks like from behind the curtain, and how it feels to get lifted up, smacked down and then resuccciated (the book has had three agents behind it, for starters), if you want to avoid mistakes and see what works, and why… then this ebook will deliver.

The ebook: “The Inner Life of Deadly Faux” will be free to Storyfix readers who pick up a copy of the novel.  Just send me your online receipt, or if you bought it old school (as in, at a bookstore), just tell me where that happened and what store.  I’ll send the ebook back to you digitally.

For now this is the only way to get your hands on it, and I hope you’ll agree it’s a win-win (because it’s free, and it’s really not relevant until you have Deadly Faux anyhow).  This offer begins immediately… the ebook is being completed and I’ll ship it out to you in a few weeks.  Time enough to get the novel read.

This has never been done before, in this form.  It forwards my goals on several levels, and being a big believer in the win-win, it is designed to forward yours, as well.  I invite you to go to the Amazon page and read the author blurbs about the novel… if you aren’t buying my hype, I hope you’ll believe what two big name authors are saying about it.

Thanks for helping me write my presentation, and for considering Deadly Faux and the free ebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Perfectly Good Writing Day in L.A. is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

How to “Write Like Rowling”

A Deconstruction of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

I don’t think of myself as a name dropper, but I do love to show how famous authors and bestselling books adhere to the principles of story structure.  Especially when those authors are still breathing… I get nay sayers who like to cite Shakespeare and Cervantes as examples of… well, nay saying.

The earth isn’t still flat, either.  But I digress.

They aren’t remotely my principles, by the way, I just put them into instructional buckets that I call The Six Core Competencies.  They are universal.  A sort of inevitable outcome of a process of natural selection within the craft of story telling: stories that work, even if their authors have no idea what they’re doing or what to call the structure when they stumble upon it, end up aligning with these principles… almost every time.

When a draft isn’t working, when an agent or editor suggests a change, that change almost always moves the narrative closer to the universal structural paradigm (the one that optimizes available story physics) that awaits… what it’ll look like when it finally does work.

It’s not formula, it’s story physics.  It’s the gravity of storytelling.

And that includes the Harry Potter books.

Author names don’t come any bigger than J.K. Rowling.  And because of that, readers regularly request a deconstruction of the Harry Potter oeuvre.  Some, I suspect, want to see the theories disproved.  Others simply want to see it exposed, lifted from the pages to becomes an example we can learn from.

So here you go.  And I’m happy to give credit where it belongs: I didn’t do this one.

Today I’m referring you to a great website called Write Like Rowling, which offers four posts on this analysis, in addition to other good stuff on all things Rowling.  This link takes you to the first in that series (they’re all there, a click away from this first one).  The author even cites page numbers of the major story milestones, with rationale showing how these story turns fulfill the mission of each.

It’s creator and author, Carolyn, wrote me recently to introduce herself and let me know that Story Engineering has, in her words, changed her writing life, and to alert me to her application of those principles (a test, really) to Rowling’s books.

No surprise (to me, at least), it worked.  Somewhere out there, a guy named Cervantes is rolling over in his grave.

How to “Write Like Rowling” is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Q3 ’13 Storyfix Newsletter — Explanations, Invites, Goodbyes, a Blurb and a Reboot.

With a couple of killer story coaching deals.  That’s the reboot.

It’s been a while.

Over a month, in fact, since I’ve posted something new here, though this space has been more than suitably filled with great guest posts from my go-to writing gurus.

Where have I been?  Picture me on a beach next to my supermodel wife, margarita in hand, reading the pre-release VIP version of Demille’s newest novel, because they want a blurb from me.

Because that’s how I roll.  Yeah, that’s how it is in the blogging business.

Not.  My wife qualifies, but that’s not how the last month went down.

More like a long trip to the old ‘hood to hang with family (“Gee, you’re funnier in print…”), some bothersome health stuff and a few worthy writing and story coaching diversions.

Missed ya.   Missed this.  Not kidding about that. 

Writers Digest West Coast Writing Workshop – September 27 – 29, Los Angeles

That’s me on the agenda for Sunday (the 29th), 11:10 am to 12:00 noon.  My topic:

 “Storytelling Excellence Through The Avoidance of Mediocrity”

Basically it’s this: do everything like Michael Connelly and Gillian Flynn would do it.  And if you catch yourself saying (to yourself) “I’m really just writing this for myself, I’ll do it however I want because I don’t care what happens to it and I still believe that characters actually DO talk to their creators,” try another strategy if that’s not working for you. 

Which I’m guessing isn’t.

The Writers Digest website invited me to write a blog post to help ramp up for this conference.  You can read it HERE… I hope you will.  It begins with what seems like a joke – “Three writing conference attendees go into the hotel bar…” – but isn’t.

Also, Writers Digest Magazine commissioned me to do a feature article for their January 2014 issue – look for “Stuck In The Middle: A Mid-Draft Fix For Every Story” in that issue.  While they’ve excerpted (a strange word, that) several slices of Story Engineering over the past two years, this will be the first of what I hope will be a continuing presence for me in that magazine.

Farewell to Vince Flynn and Elmore Leonard

We lost two of our best recently. 

Flynn was spectacularly successful in what you might call the homeland security genre, and was taken from us too young.  Always jarring when the news hits.  I have to admit, when I heard he was best friends with Rush Limbaugh I experienced a WTF chill (that’s a bit like Colin Powell hanging with Dennis Rodman), but he was a brilliant storyteller, a writer I admired.

Elmore Leonard was… well, Elmore Leonard.  Maybe he wasn’t your chosen literary flavor, but for millions and for decades he was the Frank Sinatra of modern hard boiled crime, with a voice based on not really having much of one at all, the Chairman of the Board of minimalism. 

If you haven’t read his “10 Rules of Writing,” from a 2001 piece that first appeared in the NY Times, you owe it to yourself.

By the way, I completely disagree with #2.

“Deadly Faux” (Turner Publishing) releases in three weeks.

October 8, to be exact, though odds are (because this is what Amazon does) it’ll be out in Kindle prior to that. 

In case you missed the memo, “Deadly Faux” is my new novel, my first since 2006, and the sequel to my 2004 novel, “Bait and Switch,” which was my critical home run (Turner is re-releasing it in early November ”13)… largely because of its snarky well-chinned hero (who speaks to me when I least expect it; the Limbaugh line above was his).

This is my chance to walk the Storyfix talk.  Haters, load your weapons, my shields are down.  If you have published, or when you do, you’ll know that feeling, it’s like standing on second base naked in Yankee Stadium (for most of us, in the middle of the night).

Then again, “haters” of my work (read my Amazon reviews for Story Engineering and Story Physics, they’re out there; I don’t mind critics or criticism, but some of these yahoos cross the line) tend to divide between not recognizing or understanding the infrastructural physics that make a story work (I think of them as the hey-asshole-the-earth-is-actually-flat-after-all… right? readers, among other things), or they are allergic to my conversational, passion-driven writing. 

I could go on, but I’ll take my – to date –24 to 2 box score (5-star reviews vs. 1-star reviews for Story Physics, and 126 to 6 for Story Engineering) and shut the F up about it now, and moving forward.

The first “Deadly Faux” blurb is out, and it’s really rather… humbling. 

Amazing, actually, if you’re me.  The kind of blurb or review an author waits a lifetime to receive from someone besides his mother (unless your mother is J.K. Rowling – who is younger than me – or Mary Higgins Clark, who isn’t).

This blurb comes from James N. Frey, the esteemed writing mentor and author of the iconic “How To Write A Damn Good Novel,” which remains high on the charts since its publication in 1987. 

Here’s what he says about “Deadly Faux” – 

“Crime novelist Raymond Chandler was widely acknowledged in his day as the Poet Laureate of The Dark Side (he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake). He died in 1959 and ever since there have been many pretenders to his throne. Among the best are James M. Cain, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, James Lee Burke—all masters of the craft, all wordsmiths of the first order, but none of them had Chandler’s gifts. After half a century of being on the lookout for a crime fiction writer with a voice that rivals Chandler’s, one has finally appeared, quietly chugging his way up the bestseller lists with Darkness Bound, Whisper of the Seventh Thunder, Serpent’s Dance, and Bait and Switch. His name is Larry Brooks. The guy has a slick tone and a crackling, cynical wit with lots of vivid descriptions (of both interior and exterior landscapes), and the sparkling figures of speech dance off the page and explode in your inner ear. Though as modern as an iPad 5S, he is truly and remarkably Chandleresque. He’s dazzling. Check out his new one, Deadly Faux—it’s sexy, complex, intelligent; a truly delightful novel with more plot twists than a plate of linguine swimming in olive oil.” 

Heady company.  Heady stuff. 

I’ve been waiting my whole career to use the word verklempt and mean it.  May your inner ear explode, too.  I hope you’ll give me that chance.

And if you’re wondering if this entire post is just an excuse to put this out there… I get that.  Half true.  Honestly, if it was you… wouldn’t you, too?

Two Killer Story Coaching Deals

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to reward your patience and support. 

As you know, I provide story coaching services, and I do it in a unique way that doesn’t require you to choose between this and a trip to Maui.  I offer a Kick-Start Concept Evaluation for $35 (because it’s short, it is what it is ), and a fuller look at your entire story arc, via a challenging and detailed Questionnaire that will test you on your own story, for $150.  

The latter, in particular, covers the majority of issues that put a novel or screenplay in jeopardy, so from that perspective this is, like, the most ridiculously valuable and useful and underpriced story coaching program, like, ever.  (I’ve done about 200 of these in the last 18 months, with only one vocally unhappy client.  Because she didn’t understand the 101-level terminology in the Questionnaire.)

My first “deal” makes it even more affordable.  Because the principles described in my newly released writing book, “Story Physics” are key to the feedback, I’ll incent you to pick up a copy with these two spiffs: 

Send me the receipt from a digital download of Story Physics (dated from today, September 19, through October 31), or tell me which bookstore you bought it from, and… 

-  I’ll send you the actual book proposal sent to Writers Digest that resulted in this book (something you can use to help model your own book proposal), and/or…

-   I’ll discount the $150-level Story Coaching service to $125, through the above date (though, once in, you don’t have to actually send in your Questionnaire answers until, well, whenever you’re ready.)

If you opt in to this, send me an email (storyfixer@gmail.com) with the words “COACHING DEAL” in the subject line.  (For the story coaching part, I use Paypal… feel free to use that email-recipient address to launch there, or I can invoice you.)

The OTHER discount… and this is an EVEN BETTER VALUE…

… is for my most useful and valuable review level of all: the FIRST QUARTILE Manuscript Analysis, which also includes the same full story plan Questionnaire.   Here’s why this is a remarkable opportunity:

By reading your first 100 pages or so (up through your First Plot Point), I can – with nearly 98 percent certainty and accuracy – determine the state of your novel.  Strengths and weaknesses, and issues to address.  Using the Big Picture context of your Questionnaire answers, I’ll know if the concept and premise have been successfully and effectively launched, if your Part 1 set-up has met the criteria for an effective opening quartile, and if the whole thing will float in a sea crowded with grouchy agents and editors and stellar manuscripts seeking the same outcome you are.

The price for this is normally $450 (25% of the full-manuscript evaluation fee).   Get it booked by October 31 and I’ll discount it to $400.  The value is almost identical as that delivered from a full manuscript read… at less than a quarter of the cost.

Do the math on this one.  It pulls the unreachable squarely into the realm of the possible for almost anyone who is serious about writing a publishable story, and leveraging the value of story coaching to get there.

More Storyfix content coming soon.

If you have something specific you’d like to see explored here, or clarified, please let me know.  Thanks for your time today… it’s good to be back online with you.

Larry

 

 

Q3 ’13 Storyfix Newsletter — Explanations, Invites, Goodbyes, a Blurb and a Reboot. is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Making Your Characters Extreme

A guest post from Marjorie Reynolds.

And in case you think I’ve been on a beach popping bon bons… check out my own guest post on the Writers Digest site, called “Confessions of a Story Coach.”  If you only knew.

*****

Name three memorable characters from great literature.

Which ones did you choose? Captain Ahab, Scarlett O’Hara, Jay Gatsby? Blanche DuBois, Hannibal Lecter or the ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace? Or, maybe a character out of William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens?

What significant trait do these characters have in common?

They are all extreme.

If you want to write a novel that readers will remember decades or even centuries later, learn from the masters and populate it with one or more extreme characters. You’ll find they’ll not only linger in a reader’s mind, but they’ll give your story energy and heighten your own interest in writing it. As novelists, we quickly bore ourselves with bland, one-dimensional characters.

When I suggested to one of my students that she push her protagonist, an ordinary young woman with no special traits, out to the edge, she returned to class a week later, her eyes gleaming.

“I’m really excited about writing this novel now,” she said. “My character is so much more fun.”

We love extreme people in real life. How many times have you heard someone say with admiration, “He’s such a character”?

So how do you go about creating an extreme character? Do you add an extra appendage or two, maybe a hump on the protagonist’s back or an eleventh finger? Will that put life in your novel? Not necessarily. An abnormal trait should be significant to your story.

Creating an extreme character is not a matter of tacking on peculiarities the way you would hang decorations on a Christmas tree.  You want a fictional person readers can relate to, not a cartoon — unless your intentions are comedic. If you want your readers to believe in your protagonist, his deformity, affliction or peculiarity must be the driving force in your story. With a secondary character, it should at least have some significance.

Remember Tiny Tim, the crippled boy in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? His handicap is important to the story because, at the end, Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser (also an extreme character) who has learned his lesson about the perils of parsimony, generously provides the money for corrective surgery.

In The Phantom of the Opera, the phantom’s disfigurement dominates the story. His fear that he will frighten off people, especially the woman he loves, causes him to hide in the bowels of the Paris Opera House and wear a mask. How many people like that do you know.

Not all extreme traits show up physically. Some are on the inside. Remember Raymond, the idiot savant in Rainman, and McMurphy, the mentally ill rebel in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest?

An extreme character does not have to be extraordinary in every way. With the exception of his one extreme trait, he might be as normal as your next-door neighbor (assuming your next-door neighbor is normal). A good example would be the character, Elwood P. Dowd, who befriends an invisible, six-foot tall rabbit in Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Harvey. Dowd appears to be an intelligent, respectable, conventional man – until he introduces Harvey.

In the myth-based Hero’s Journey story, described by Joseph Campbell in his book, Hero of a Thousand Faces, and popularized as an unbeatable story structure by Christopher Vogler in The Writer’s Journey, the protagonist is a hero with universal appeal. A hero, by nature, is an extreme character. He may not start out that way, but eventually he does what an ordinary person won’t do. He goes beyond the point where the average person (meaning you and me) would stop. He’s the fireman running up the stairs in a burning building when everyone else is running down. She’s the supervisor of an all-male homicide squad at Scotland Yard who won’t give up her hunt for the killer when everyone else insists she’s tracking the wrong suspect (Jane Tennison played by Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect). A hero may even be willing to break the rules or live outside the laws to get what he wants (Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade). In cowboy movies and detective stories, we’ve seen many a rogue protagonist. Sometimes he’s so flawed, he’s considered an anti-hero.

When you create a heroic character, there’s a real temptation to make her perfect. She’s exceptionally brave, she has the IQ of a genius, she can leap tall buildings. Unless you’re assembling Batwoman or a female Spiderman (both cartoon characters, please note), we won’t believe she could possibly be real.

A hero is not a perfect person who conquers all. He makes mistakes. He usually possesses a tragic flaw (hubris or stubbornness, for example) that makes him vulnerable to his enemies. A hero is someone with all the faults of an ordinary person but with the strength of character to struggle to the point of death. He won’t give up.

He may not have the physical prowess of his opponent (think David and Goliath), but he employs the strengths he does have, usually intelligence and cleverness, to the maximum of his abilities so that he can overcome the enormous tests and obstacles that you, the author, will throw at him. He must work hard.  We don’t admire people who get what they want too easily.

To win at the end, he must struggle and push himself beyond what he believes he can do.  He must go beyond the point where we would stop. You don’t have to tell us he’s a hero. We can see he is.

As the author, you may be tempted to list your hero’s strengths (she’s smart, beautiful, brave, etc.) and her weaknesses (she’s self-centered, untrustworthy, haughty and cruel). Resist that temptation. Show us through her dialogue and actions what she’s like and the lengths to which she’ll go. Don’t tell us. We won’t believe you, anyway, until we see it. By the way, did you notice the character I just described could be Scarlett O’Hara? Not a likable woman but certainly fascinating and extreme. Despite the ultra-extreme qualities of Dickens and Shakespeare characters, they become real to us. We remember Falstaff, Hamlet, Uriah Heep, and Fagen because they have enough truth in them to be believable and because they are vivid and alive and extraordinary.

Make sure you give your extreme character enough motivation to justify his behavior. Give him a history that explains how his wants and needs and goals developed. Even Batman has good reasons for his actions. The ruthless enemies he pursues killed his parents.

In The Accidental Tourist, Macon Leary rigidly structures his life beyond anyone’s bounds of normality, but we understand why. He’s afraid that, if he doesn’t maintain complete control, he will drown in the well of grief left by his son’s death. The first time I read Anne Tyler’s beautifully crafted novel, I thought Macon was a passive character. Then I realized he’s amazingly proactive and strong. He fights his grief harder than any real person I’ve ever known. The depth of emotion and strength we see in well-drawn characters helps us identify with them.

Whatever their extreme qualities, protagonists are most effective when they are admirable. Villains and secondary characters should at least be understandable and can benefit from some redemptive qualities.

For a reader to admire your protagonist, the character must try to overcome or rise above her handicap. She may not win but she must try. A novel is a journal of your protagonist’s struggles against adversity, and a “woe-is-me” character who takes no action to change her situation soon bores us.  If she’s suffering from past wounds, she should try to suppress her pain. Initially, it may seep out in small ways, but eventually it will rush out in a torrent she can no longer contain, forcing her to change. Your job as the author is to put pressure on your protagonist in the form of obstacles, misfortune, setbacks, and inner torment so she doesn’t get what she wants too easily. What results is the character arc that agents and editors expect in a novel these days.

In my recently released collaborative mystery written with two other women, Murder at Cape Foulweather has an abundance of extreme characters with attributes designed for comic effect. My fellow authors, Martha Miller and Susan Clayton-Goldner, and I had great fun writing about five women friends, fortyish, fast and full of hell, who attend a writing workshop at a remote lodge on the Oregon coast, each hiding a secret she’s afraid to spill. The first night, a destructive storm hits, all power is lost and one of their classmates, Orchid L’Toile, meets a fate they consider worse than death: bloody murder without adequate makeup while naked in the bathtub. They must find the killer or become victims themselves. I can guarantee each one of those characters is extreme.

Ask yourself if your characters have extreme qualities. What do they do that the ordinary person won’t do? How hard will they struggle to get what they want? Do we understand the motivations behind their actions? Do they have the emotional depth that will cause us to feel what they feel? By the end of the book, do they gain some wisdom we all value?

After pondering these questions, you may find your characters aren’t extraordinary in any way and don’t do anything the average reader wouldn’t do. You understand the concept but you don’t know how to go about energizing an ordinary character. Here’s a tip: make him obsessed. Take his desire for what he wants and push it out as far as it will go. He’s so obsessed he’ll risk destroying his relationships with lovers, family and friends to find the murderer, rescue his daughter or save his country. He may not always be likable but he’ll be fascinating. He’ll be a character that you and your reader will want to spend time with.

THE PROFILE OF AN EXTREME CHARACTER

1. An extreme character does things an ordinary person won’t do.

Ask yourself, “Does my character do something I wouldn’t have the passion or courage to do?”  Would you risk your life chasing a white whale or endure pain and possibly death rescuing someone you’ve never met before?

2. An extreme character has a clearly defined goal.

Ask what your protagonist wants. Does she want to save her family home? Does he want to find his wife’s killer?

3. An extreme character has strong emotions that trigger his goals and actions.

With Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea, that emotion is pride. With other characters, it might be anger over an injustice, a desire for power or a love stronger than they’ve ever experienced before.

4. An extreme character has a history that drives her and motivation for her actions in the present.

Something significant or traumatic in her past provides the impetus for her actions. She may have been abandoned or abused as a child. She may have lost a beloved parent or suffered a disfigurement. She has a good reason to behave the way she does. Ask why your character doesn’t just quit when she encounters adversity?

5.  An extreme character will stand alone or break the rules if he has to.

He believes so strongly in his goal that he will do whatever is necessary to achieve it, even if it makes him an outcast. Remember the sheriff in High Noon.

6. An extreme character takes action and won’t give up until she reaches her goal or is defeated.

Extreme characters are not passive. They take action and struggle to achieve their goals. We admire Santiago because he endures sharks, exhaustion and injury to catch a fish that will save his pride. He is willing to die before he will give up.

7.  An extreme character is often unusually flawed.

Don’t make the mistake of creating perfect characters.

*****

Marjorie Reynolds is an award-winning author, speaker and writing instructor. She taught advanced popular fiction for several years at the University of Washington Extension in Seattle.

She and two friends, Martha Miller and Susan Clayton-Goldner, recently published Murder at Cape Foulweather, a collaborative novel by the Sun City Sluts available on Amazon. William Morrow & Co. published Marjorie’s two novels, The Starlite Drive-in and The Civil Wars of Jonah Moran, in hardcover and Berkley released them in paperback. The American Library Association selected The Starlite Drive-inas one of the Ten Best Books of 1998 for Young Adults, and Barnes & Noble chose it for its Discover Great New Writers program. It was a Literary Guild alternate selection and a Reader’s Digest Select Editions book. Rights were sold to seven countries. Her novels have received praise in The New York Times, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist. 

Making Your Characters Extreme is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Live Webinar Tomorrow (Thursday 9-5)

A Writers Digest University Webinar: Writing The Story Ending That Gets the Best Deal

Presenter: Larry Brooks

Date: Thursday, September 9, 2013

Time: 1:00 pm EASTERN (EDT, US)

CLICK HERE – for enrollment and content details, the freebie evaluation, tuition, and unlimited access to the webinar. recording.

 

Live Webinar Tomorrow (Thursday 9-5) is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com

Improving Your Fiction: The Relationship Chart — Part 3

A guest post by Art Holcomb.   Read Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE.

*****

Before we pick it up where we left off last time, take a moment to review your work on your own Relationship Chart.  When you’re ready, we’ll move into the Bonus Round, where we look deeper into character and relationships.

On the sheet of paper or file you used earlier, write out your answers to the questions below:

EMOTION -> REACTION:

Let’s take a look at how emotions in one character can trigger emotions and/or actions in others:

Start with the Hero.  Ask this question of each emotion you charted in the Rule Book.

When the Hero is (angry, sad, frightened, etc.) how does ____ react?

Do this for every major character. (This can be quite a list.)

SUBPLOTS:

A subplot is a secondary plot line that supports or supplements the main story.  In screenwriting, it’s referred to as the “B” story or “C” story and helps give rhythm and release to the tension of the main story conflict. All novels and films have them and often they stem from conflicts between other characters.

Now . . . name a conflict/tension that each character has with at least one other character.  What does this suggest to you? Does this develop into or deepen a subplot for the story?

THE BEST POSSIBLE- Make a judgment about the following:

Is my choice for Hero the BEST possible Hero for this story? Why?
Who brings the most conflict in the story?  Is that person the Villain?  If not, then why not?
How is the Villain a worthy match for the Hero?
How will I richly illustrate the Protagonist and Villain?  Are these traits revealed throughout the story?

FLESHING IT OUT

List the most interesting relationships that you found in the Chart that you are NOT current exploiting.

SURPRISE

Consider the following:

Who is the LAST PERSON (aside from the Villain) you could imagine coming to the aid the Hero? What if they did?
Who are you SURE WOULD NEVER turn against the Hero? What if they did?

  EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT

Is the Hero involved throughout the story?
Does s/he control the outcome of the story? If not, why not?
Where is the Hero emotionally?
… at the beginning of the story?
… at the Midpoint?
… at the second plot point?
… at the end of the story?

We’ve only just scratched the surface of the gold that can be mined from a deep understanding of Character.  I encourage you to spend some real time exploring all the possibilities such an examination has to offer.  Powerful characters deepen the effectiveness of the plot, expand the story through relevant subplots, and make your story come alive on the page.

Take the Chart for a spin and let me know what you think.  I hope this series has helped you move closer to your best story.

Art

*****

Art Holcomb is a screenwriter and comic book creator.  This post is an excerpt from his new writing book, tentatively entitled SAVE YOUR STORY: How to Resurrect Your Abandoned Story and Get It Written NOW!

*****

For those who have noticed, I’ve been MIA for a while.  A little traveling, a little teaching, a little family time.  Many thanks to Art, KM Weiland and Kay Kenyon for helping out with some great content.

I’ll back in Storyfix mode soon, beginning with the Q3 Newsletter catch up, then more content.  Lots to talk about you.  See you soon — Larry

 

 

 

 

 

Improving Your Fiction: The Relationship Chart — Part 3 is a post from: Larry Brooks at storyfix.com