M.D. Wiselka's Blog, page 9

Less is Less: the Unsophisticated Plot

Being a bad (maybe lazy) cook, I was tempted to pick up one of those cookbooks that contains recipes that require no more than three or four key ingredients to throw together a “meal”. Two slices of whole wheat bread, a piece of honey cured ham, and a slice of Swiss cheese. Voilà! Lunch!

Less preparation time equals less work. But it also gives you a product that is, sorry to say, less interesting to eat. Now, if we just squirt a little mustard onto that sandwich or add a pickle, maybe even a few slices of turkey, we instantly alter the taste of our lunch—and hopefully improve it.

The lesson is a great idea—like an ingredient—doesn’t make a meal. Your novel needs to have more than one idea to make it tasty. Improve its flavor by adding other ingredients into it.

If it’s a romance, add a hint of mystery. If it’s a mystery, add some drama. If it’s nonfiction, add a little light comedy. Obviously, TOO much of even a good thing can be bad. Imagine a chocolate-chip cookie recipe that calls for ten cups of sugar and you get the idea.

A chocolate-chip recipe is a judicious blending of several ingredients, including the all-important sugar. Flour, baking soda, salt, an egg, vanilla extract, butter, and those savory chocolate pieces that give the cookie its name. If any one of these ingredients were left out of the mix, you’d know it in a single bite, even if you couldn’t put your finger on exactly what was missing.

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The “Guiding Angel” Love Interest

Recently, I read two vastly different romances where the authors used “guiding angel” love interests to help the heroes overcome a tragic character flaw. The first of these books had two male leads; the second, a male and a female. One was a contemporary gay romance; the other, a Christian fiction romance written more than a century ago.

Before we compare these two books, we ought to talk about the pros and cons of doing this kind of “change for the better” story. The love interest obviously needs to be in some way better than the lead, but the question is in what way is he or she better and just how much better? If you make your love interest a veritable saint, there isn’t going to be a lot of room for him or her to grow in the story.

In the case of the contemporary gay romance, the lead was struggling with his sexuality. Once he embraced it, he had to overcome his fear of being openly gay. His love interest helped him to do this because his love interest had already conquered his own fear of being openly gay (or never had it to begin with because of a network of supportive family and friends).

In the case of the Christian fiction romance, the lead was struggling against a sinful nature, one that would appear, to modern eyes, grossly exaggerated in supposed blackness. Be that as it may, his love interest endeavored to bring him to the Lord—and he, in return, set out to rid her of a false-hearted suitor who was cleverly concealing his sins from her.

Both of these books had an HEA, but only one felt truly satisfying in its denouement. And here’s the reason why:

If your guiding angel is a flesh and blood person, he or she ought to have some flaws, even if he or she is helping a faltering fellow creature along the path to personal satisfaction or salvation, as the case may be. In the Christian fiction romance, the hero at first believes his angel is truly heaven-born. Then he sees her lose her cool, when her nephew loses an important letter. After this scene, the hero finds his love interest singing some hymns to soothe her spirit and realizes that she isn’t perfect—no one is—but she has found a way of correcting herself when she goes off the path. She turns to God for guidance.

Unfortunately, the love interest in the gay romance isn’t given an opportunity to show his feet of clay. He is so perfectly okay with himself, that his only fault may be loving someone who ISN’T.

For a romance to be exciting, the barriers that stand between the hero and his love interest must SEEM nearly insurmountable. In the contemporary gay romance, the lead’s own inadequacies were the only obstacles to his happiness. Nothing else stood in the way of his HEA, except possibly a subplot threat that never truly materialized. In the Christian romance, the man’s lack of faith obviously stood in the way of his happiness, but he also had to contend with the love interest’s own prejudice—she was looking for a guiding staff in a husband, not a broken reed—and her long-standing engagement to a man who once swindled the hero out of a fortune. Naturally, the love interest’s fiancé used every opportunity to make the hero look bad in the eyes of the love interest. The love interest was unwillingness to listen to the hero’s warnings about her fiancé because she had a blind faith in the one she loved—a character flaw that contemporary fiction writers ought to use more often in their stories, because it is sadly underdeveloped.

Think of all the romances that BEGIN with the discovery of a sinning spouse/lover. Far too few stories exploit the false-hearted lover as a villain. Perhaps because it would be awkward, to say the least, to have hot and heavy bed scenes between the leads if one of them is already engaged to someone else.

If you decide to put a guiding angel in your story, give him a blemish or two. It will not only make him real to life, but infinitely more interesting.

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The Short, Shocking Opener

Like the first line of a newspaper article, a short, shocking opener in a blurb can be a great way to draw readers in. Check out these examples that I found on book listings sites like Ereader News Today, SweetFreeBooks, and ebooks Grow on Trees:

“In the world of Allwyn, humans are almost extinct.” – The Cradle of the Gods

(Book 1) by Thomas Quinn Miller

“Adenine is blind and isolated in her small attic bedroom.” – The Healers of Meligna Series Box Set by K. J. Colt

“Cheyenne Elias has inherited a child.” – The Bequest by Hope Anika

“How far will a man go to protect his family?” – Over My Dead Body by Bruce A. Borders

Now, check out a blurb for an imaginary book that we’ll call Man of Sorrows, about a Civil-War-era charlatan who makes his way through the ravaged South, raising the spirits of deceased Confederate soldiers for grieving loved ones. To show the power of a short, striking lead, pay close attention only to how I open, because that is the only part of the blurb I will change the second example:

Man of Sorrows

by M.D. Wiselka

Genre: Horror, Speculative Fiction

Cyprien Fell can raise the dead. And he does so, nightly, for the grieving widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers that perished in battle. Provided, of course, that the said grieving widows and orphans are capable of paying his exorbitant fees for services rendered.

When an embittered young man who lost his father in the war offers Cyprien a strange family heirloom that he believes will “enliven” his parlor act, the charlatan medium readily accepts the gift, thinking the more bells and whistles the better. But he soon learns that not all magic is mere trickery, when he unwittingly summons a malevolent spirit bent on raising an army of undead that will conquer the world.

If this blurb were a newspaper headline or the first line of an advertisement, it would certainly draw attention—“MAN RAISES DEAD” or “MEDICINE CAN RAISE DEAD”. We may not be willing to believe such extravagant claims, but, curious, we read a little further.

Fairly quickly, we learn that Cyprien Fell is in fact a traveling showman, who only PRETENDS to raise the dead for shamefully large sums of money. Our hero is something of a creep, but he’s about to get a dose of his own snake oil, when one of his customers gives him the means of doing what he only claims to do. Without intending to do any harm, Pandora opens the box and let’s the bad things out. The question is, will Pandora find a means of luring the evil back into the box and tightly sealing the lid? We’ll have to read the book to find out.

I’ve shown you how a good lead sentence can capture the attention of potential readers. Now, I’ll show you what a bad one can do to my imaginary story.

Man of Sorrows

by M.D. Wiselka

Genre: Horror, Speculative Fiction

Reprobate and unrepentant rake, Cyprien Fell, loses his inheritance at a gambling table and is pitched out of his home by his angry wife, who can no longer bear the sight of him. To keep himself from starving to death, he begins hoodwinking naïve locals into believing that he’s a medium. Nightly, he comforts grieving widows and orphans by raising the spirits of Confederate soldiers that perished in battle. Provided, of course, that the said grieving widows and orphans are capable of paying his exorbitant fees for services rendered.

When an embittered young man who lost his father in the war offers Cyprien a strange family heirloom that he believes will “enliven” his parlor act, the charlatan medium readily accepts the gift, thinking the more bells and whistles the better. But he soon learns that not all magic is mere trickery, when he unwittingly summons a malevolent spirit bent on raising an army of undead that will conquer the world.

Cyprien Fell, clearly, is no civic leader, but this lengthy introduction to his character is largely unnecessary. We can guess, without being told, that he is greedy (he is overcharging for his services) and unprincipled (no GOOD person would sustain himself at the expense of his suffering neighbors). Does it really matter that Fell wasted an inheritance or spoilt his domestic happiness by infidelity? That’s character building best left for the book.

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Editing Your Work

If you’re an indie writer on a tight budget, you may also be acting as your book’s main (perhaps only) editor. Here are some useful tips for polishing your novel:

1. Carefully check the accuracy of any factual information you’ve used in your book. Not sure what year the Civil War ended? Check. Not certain if a particular word is used the way you are using it? Check.

2. Search for inconsistences and any unanswered questions. Did Uncle Conley die in the Chapter 2 of your book, only to reappear at an ice cream social in Chapter 3? Did Nancy Sleuth ever discover what happened to that missing classmate in Chapter 6?

3. Remove libelous or unobjective statements. This is especially true if you are writing a nonfiction book, but it can also be applicable when your fiction is populated with real persons, living or dead.

4. Use standard English and avoided unnecessary slang/offensive language.

5. Review your story to be sure it is logically arranged. Getting cute with order for the sake of style may confuse and estranged potential readers. NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE TO STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND YOU. BE CLEAR AND CONCISE.

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Self-Sufficiency in a Book Series

So, you’re on book three in your twelve-book series, Pasteboard Castles, which follows the lives of twelve friends after high school graduation. You’ve got Sibyl, the pint-sized scatterbrain, who marries a smooth-talking salesman with a closet overflowing with skeletons. Then there’s Rona, who draws boys like a porch lamp draws moths. If only she could get her BFF, Rikki, to take notice of her. Then there’s Felicie, who dreams of being a poet, while her parents insist she get a degree in something practical, like medicine or the law. Etc. Etc.

While each book in your series focuses on the life of one particular character, each book also features guest appearances from one or more of the other characters in the series. For example, Felicie may open her door to Sibyl, after Sibyl discovers one of her husband’s many indiscretions. Or a miserable Rona may go to Felicie for advice, after she learns that Rikki has started dating the man of her dreams.

Such crossovers are a great way to further build your characters, but they can also be confusing to readers, particularly if you don’t take the time (re)introduce them. Don’t assume that your readers have read ALL or even ANY of the other books in your series, even if you are on book twelve. Treat each book as if it were the ONLY one your readers will ever read in your series. If you pick up the strand of a plot line from one of the other books in your series, take the time to briefly outline it. Since Rona and Rikki began living together, etc… Since Sibyl left her husband, etc…

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Mistakes That Spoil Your Book’s Magic

Don’t let the following mistakes spoil your book’s magic.

1. Lead characters who are so much alike your readers can’t tell one from the other. Give your leads distinctive voices, so that readers can tell who’s speaking, even when you don’t use tags.

2. POVs shifts within the same chapter. Sometimes within the same paragraph. Make it clear to readers who is speaking/thinking, etc.

3. A story that is based largely on coincidence. The hero just happens to rescue the daughter of his prospective boss from drowning in a public pool the day before hero goes to the interview. The boss just happens to have a little cottage behind his house that the hero can rent, providing him easy access to his love interest.

4. A story problem that is solved with little fuss or muss. The villain dies in a car accident on the way to the hero’s house. The hero suddenly gets balls and stands up to the bully he’s been hiding from the whole of the book—and without the least difficulty or consequence.

5. An unwillingness to show full frontal evil, prejudice, etc. A fear of being called onto the carpet by the PC police may tempt you to avoid putting bad words in the mouths of your baddies. Or, worse, cigarettes. Unless you’re writing for a grade school audience, G-ing your book is robbing it of its ability to confront the very wrongs you are presumably attempting to expose.

6. A badly timed moment of intimacy. Some writers feel the need to insert frequent (often gratuitous) sex scenes into a story and often at places where these scenes have the least capacity to titillate. Think of the scene in the movie, Gremlins (1984) when the lead and his girlfriend try to make out in a Montgomery Ward store while a maddened Stripe is lurking somewhere in the shadows. Who would think of getting busy at a time like that? Worse yet—a striptease sort of intimacy, where the leads progress through a variety of heated petting sessions before going ALL THE WAY. I will spare you the details of that scenario. Suffice it to say, unless you are writing pornography, you shouldn’t toy with your readers like that.

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“It’s-good-enough” attitude

Writing is hard work. You may be tempted at times to throw in the towel and say “it’s good enough”. But good enough isn’t great–and that’s what you need your novel to be if you want it to fire your readers. Of course, a time will come when your novel will be the BPP (best possible product) you can produce, but don’t let it out of your hands until you feel that deep down IN YOUR GUT. Two key pillars to ensure that your book is truly the best it can be are (1) accuracy and (2) completeness.

Accuracy: have you checked the facts in your fiction to be sure you haven’t made any embarrassing blunders?

Completeness: have you tied up all the loose ends? Does the boy get his girl? Is the villain sent packing, with a swift and satisfying kick in the arse?

Read your book through as a writer, an editor, and a reader. If it’s a mixed genre (dark fantasy/romance) story, review it once to make sure all the dark fantasy elements tie up nicely, then look at it strictly as a romance.

Your attention to detail will make a good story a great one!

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The Anchor Character

I recently read a literary novel called Whirlpool, written in 1947 by James Leal Henderson. The novel, set in Mexico, portrays the lives of several characters who are struggling with personal demons–a disillusioned war hero who can’t fit back into society, a down-on-his-luck con man who’s about to fall into the gutter, an aged drunkard who can’t let go of his lost youth, an ambitious if naive young Mexican girl who is willing to sell herself to a lecherous old man for the fine things he can give her.

During the course of this novel, the characters’ lives grow steadily worse, that is until the central figure (an evil man who has clawed his way to the top) receives his condign punishment for his many sins. Then, as if by a lightning storm, the foul air is cleansed and all the characters begin to turn a corner in their lives.

As the title implies, the evil central figure was a whirlpool, sucking in the hapless men (and young woman) who came into close contact with him. Since only the young girl was directly affected by the evil central figure’s schemes (and ultimate demise), the reader is left with the impression that a dark soul can cast a long, unhealthy shadow over those around him, whether he plays a role in their personal stories or not.

An interesting concept–and one that ought to be explored in future stories by writers of today.

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Understanding Words

Very few people understand words. The uneducated man, for instance, may have only a local and limited meaning for a word which brings up dozens of idea to the more educated man. Take a very simple instance. “Food” to a baby means milk or, at the most, two or three articles; “food” to a laboring man has a somewhat broader meaning because he is accustomed to a wider variety than an infant; but “food” to a chef calls up thousands of delicacies prepared in many different ways and as something primarily to prepare rather than something for himself to eat.

– Samuel Crowther, “John H. Patterson: Pioneer in Industrial Welfare”, 1923.

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A New Year – A Blank Sheet

A new year brings a whole new slew of self-imposed tasks to complete. For me, that includes the third and final installment of my Dark Brethren trilogy, entitled Coming of Day, a contemporary romance, a time-travel story, and my first attempt at a young adult novel.

A recent webinar I attended on writing teen fiction opened my eyes to several serious flaws in my YA novel story outline. Sadly, I didn’t attend this webinar until after I had written several chapters of the book, but better now than two months down the road when I had to scrap most of my first draft.

The first problem I discovered was with complexity. There is nothing wrong with that in a teen novel, per se, but the more complex a story gets, the longer it’s going to be, and I needed to keep the word count below 75,000 words. My story, in the initial outline, followed the lives of two teens, Judah and Tommy, who’d traded places for a short period of time. Each had to be given equal screen time. Throw in a love interest for each, new best friends, etc., and you can imagine how long the story would have ended up being.

The second problem I discovered was with my characters. After I had made a few changes in the plot, Judah’s love interest, Andrew, suddenly became the most interesting character in the novel. If I thought that, then, undoubtedly, my readers would think it too. Because I wasn’t yet ready to shift Judah to a supporting role, I toyed with the idea of running a parallel story, with Tommy and Judah taking one half and Andrew and his family the moiety. See paragraph above for why that wouldn’t work.

The third problem I discovered was with plotting. Tommy and Judah’s story revolved around mistaken identity. Since Andrew also had a similar problem, I believed, at first, that this was a nice echo–theme-wise. Then I started to think–maybe not so nice. I want Judah and Andrew to share something, but a coincidence is not it.

The fourth problem I discovered was with focus. I had created a great twist to Andrew’s backstory that made him a compelling character. Why was I wasting screen time on anything or anyone but him? He was, in essence, the center of this story’s universe. All things should revolve around him. So I decided to drop all chapters that were set from any POV but his.

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