J.B. Garner's Blog, page 60

Looking at Character: Storytime with Mary and Gary!

It was inevitable that this topic would come up, as it’s one of the most common topics when it comes to characters and plot out there.  Yes, it’s time to look at Mary Sue and her Spear Counterpart, Gary Stu.  So much has been said that I don’t feel it’s necessary to recount all the details as I normally would.  I could go over all the common Mary Sue and Gary Stu markers, all the usual tell-tale signs you can find all over the internet.  Even better, I could put together yet another Mary Sue litmus test so that you can wind up doubting your characters and writing.  Instead, I’m going to go into the true problem with the ‘Mary’s and ‘Gary’s and how it extends past a simple list of characteristics.

I myself generally just read the lists and listened to the tests myself until, a few days ago, I would up reading some more in-depth analysis of the Mary/Gary character on a couple of sites that got me thinking more analytically about it.  All of that led me to this important conclusion:  A Mary Sue or Gary Stu isn’t one by their common characteristics (though those may contribute).  The real determination of what is or is not a Mary Sue or Gary Stu revolved around their effect and place in the plot of the piece.

By dint of their very existence, a Mary Sue or Gary Stu warps the plot and turns all (or a majority) of the events in a plot line to be about themselves.  The description of the character, no matter the unusual characteristics, ‘kewl’ powers, purple prose details, or exotic and tragic background, has little effect on this, other than to provide obvious markers.  The most insidious and damaging Sues/Stus are the ones that have the serial numbers filed off, so to speak, leaving the reader in an even greater sense of dismay as the totally normal and average person becomes the pivot of an entire literary world’s plot lines.

Take, for example, a perennial writing critic punching bag, the Twilight series.  I’ve actually read it, so … yeah … this isn’t coming from a misinformed viewpoint.  The main character, Bella Swan, is a Mary Sue …. really she is!  But not because of looks or talent or skills.  In fact, she has plenty of informed flaws: clumsy, supposedly plain, that sort of thing.  However, despite her ‘flaws’ and ‘normal’ stature, everything in the plot revolves around her.  She attracts admirers by the handful (including normal boys before Edward sees her), all major action turns around her, entire conflicts are fought over her, and she becomes the pivotal piece later on.  On top of that, she is revealed to have unique properties, becomes a better vampire than most every other vampire almost overnight once she’s turned, and has the unique child that becomes the plot point of the third book.  No matter how normal or plain or clumsy or average she is depicted to be, in the end, Bella becomes the center of that literary universe and nothing of import happens unless it involves her or targets her.

Now, you could argue that is the case in most pieces that center on one main character.  To a degree, you may be right:  Obviously much of a book may pivot around a single main character.  However, a non-Sue/Stu lead will not have EVERY thing in the plot be all about her/him.  Other characters retain agency and make decisions and events can alter the plot that have nothing to do with the main character.  It is keeping that sense of universal free will and character agency that truly differentiates a piece with a strong lead character versus a piece with a Sue/Stu lead character.

A final good indicator of Sue/Stuness that lies outside of character traits is a study of the character’s arc.  Does the character in question follow an identifiable characterization arc during the piece?  Do they change, grow, or regress in reaction to the events of the plot and their choices in it?  If there is a real character arc and the character changes over the course of it, the character is likely a fine one.  It is the Sues and Stus that are most often immutable.  After all, why should they change when they are, or are thought of by their authors, as in the right, or perfect, or infallible, whatever superlative you wish to use?

So, to me at least, what makes a character into a Mary Sue/Gary Stu is, in the end, their toxicity to the plot and the piece over all.  Understanding this can let you create a unique character, perhaps one very exotic for the setting of your piece, but still dodge the Mary Sue pitfalls and make that character a special and intriguing one.  Remember, you don’t have to be totally mundane to avoid Sue/Studom!

Pre-Orders of Indefatigable are now available!

Three months ago, the Whiteout changed the very nature of reality across the globe, spawning in its wake superhuman beings, both good and evil. For every day since then, Irene Roman, armed only with a strange immunity from the powers of the ‘Pushed’, has donned the guise of Indomitable to try to reverse that change and protect the normal people from the worst excesses of the Pushed. She may never have wanted to be a hero, but she had no choice in the mater.

Unfortunately, Irene is still only mortal. Her never-ending duties have pushed her to a breaking point. Now, what began as a simple kidnapping investigation catalyzes overnight into the worst threat the city of Atlanta has had to face. An unholy plague, old enemies, and new challenges are coincide at once, landing squarely on Indomitable’s shoulders, despite the help of her small cadre of allies.

How much burden can any one person carry and how much strain can she take? Will Irene crumble or will she prove to be indefatigable?

You can now pre-order a copy of Indefatigable, the sequel to Indomitable and second novel in The Push Chronicles, now, for $2.99, at Smashwords and Amazon.com!

Indefatigable goes live on 9-25-14!

Indefatigable, the second novel of The Push Chronicles, is going on sale next week on 9-25!  You’ll be able to pre-order, if you wish, earlier … I’ll let you know when the pre-sales are officially open (probably Saturday or Sunday, depending on the speed of Smashwords/Amazon).

To get the second book out the door feels really good.  I feel like I have momentum on my side now!  At the beginning, certainly, there was a lot of doubt in me as to whether I would actually follow through with these big, ambitious plans, but the proof is in the pudding!

Thank you for everyone who has read and supported so far!

Late Night Sneak Peek – The cover of Indefatigable!

Another piece of incredible work from Felipe de Barros!  Expect the second book in The Push Chronicles to be available next week.  I should have the exact date for y’all tomorrow.

Kickstarter TAKE 2: Now with a Video and Life-like Expectations ™!

So it’s on now.  I’ve revamped the project with up-to-date art and info, as well as a project video.

Also, I lowered the goal to under what we raised last time so ….

Let’s do it!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1021763596/the-push-chronicles-and-three-seconds-to-legend-ta

Plot and Motivation: A Room Full of Chekhov

Today’s Plot and Motivation article is about a classic principle of drama: Chehov’s Gun (though it applies to far more than firearms, as we will see).  The best way to put it is to let the codifier of the principle, Anton Chekhov, put it this way:

Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.

What this means in broader terms is that you shouldn’t devote time to description or characterization that isn’t important to the plot of the piece.  It seems, like many rules of drama and plot, to be common-sense; why would any writer devote energy and pages to unimportant matters?

The problem is that sometimes what the author thinks is ‘important’ really isn’t, at least not to the plot and characterization of the story.  We are often blind to our own problems and anyone who has attempted to edit their own work will attest to this.  An author may decide that it is vital to the plot, for instance, that extra details need to be added to a character when, at the end of the plot, those details are never used.

Take, for example, an author is writing a story and decides to spend a whole chapter developing and describing the protagonist’s parents and their relationship.  One would figure, by the end of that chapter, that the parents will either be vital to the plot or that the plot (or a major sub-plot) might be the relationship between them itself or changes to that relationship.  And yet, the author then plows into a space travel yarn with the protagonist leaving the planet and never again are the parents or that relationship figured into the equation.

Why was it even included, yet alone taking up a whole chapter?  Perhaps the author had originally intended to reference it again, but the plot moved away from it.  Perhaps he/she thought there was some elemental characterization that needed to be shown but, in that case, would it have been better to find another way to do it using story elements that would be more important to the novel?  The point remains that once you introduce a plot element, especially if you devote real page space to it, you need to find a way to use it.

In a way, the principle of Chekhov’s Gun is closely tied with foreshadowing, something we talked about earlier.  They both serve similar purposes, so most principles using one should be applied to the other.  Both are vital tools and important rules to remember to use in your writing.

How many Chekhov’s Guns do you use in your stories?  Do you find there are exceptions to the dramatic rule?  If so, what are they and how did they work out for you?  Talk about it in the comments below.

Close but …

… no cigar.  The Kickstarter has just ended and we came up short.  I’ll be honest, though, I am impressed that we did raise over $750 US … not bad for a starving author who has only just been published.

There’s hope for the future, though.  And as many of you know, we authors are nothing if not resilient.  Picking myself back up and getting back on the bike, here are the plans for the future:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1021763596/the-push-chronicles-and-three-seconds-to-legend/posts/988062

Kickstarter Update: You are probably sick of it but … 24 hours to go!

I’ll be frank.

I’m sure you don’t read this blog to hear me beg and plead for Kickstarter donations.  You want to read about writing, politics, or my novels, right?  So, with that said, I apologize ahead of time for this, but …

OMFG!  24 hours to go!  Not there yet!  *runs in circles, pinwheeling arms, until collapsing in a twitching heap*

If you had ever considered donating, even a little, but were procrastinating, now is the time to stop that and chip in.  We aren’t to the last minute yet but …. that isn’t far off.

Writing is a Bad Habit: Show and Tell isn’t for kids anymore!

It’s time, as I anxiously wait down the hours to the end of the Kickstarter (yes, the plug!  IT IS SHAMELESS!), to start a new segment of articles (and to some day properly categorize all of them) with Writing is a Bad Habit, a general series of articles on good and bad writing habits.  I figured I would kick things off with one of the big cardinal rules of good writing: ‘Show, Don’t Tell!’.

On the surface, the meaning of that rule isn’t entirely apparent.  In essence, we are story-tellers, so isn’t everything we do telling?  How do you ‘show, not tell’ with the written word?  A lot of pictures?  Obviously not, something that most, if not all of you, probably already know.  What the phrase means to an author is that it is better to ‘show’ characterization and plot through action and reaction instead of directly ‘telling’ the reader about it.  This particular rule crosses over into countless bad writing tropes, such as Informed Ability and Designated Hero/Villains and the like, but for tonight, we’ll stick with the basics.

Think about it from the reader’s perspective and take a very glaring example.  If you’re about to go into, let’s say, the major climax scene of the book, the ultimate resolution of that book’s conflicts, would you, at that point, cut to a third party observer in the room, who then narrates to the reader the scene he sees?  No, obviously not, you would want to go through that scene from the point of view of the protagonists, to provide the proper emotional investment.  Even worse, would you then cut to AFTER the end of the action, and have the protagonist describe the event while filing a report or dictating to his/her assistant or writing about it in his/her journal?  Again, obviously not, but these extreme examples serve to showcase how this kind of activity can hurt your novel.

Let’s take something more subtle and a much more common misstep.  Let’s say the protagonist has a very bad temper and you want to make sure the reader knows this, as that bit of characterization is vital to your plot.  To absolutely make sure they don’t miss it, you create a scene where two associates of the protagonist begin to talk about him/her and one of them makes note of his/her hair-trigger temper.  You have now just broken the ‘Show, Not Tell’ rule and almost certainly lessened the interest of the reader.  The reader isn’t an idiot and most readers do not appreciate being treated as one and hand-held through every bit of characterization.

Now if instead you depict a scene with the protagonist at work and he/she crashes into a co-worker while trying to deliver a report.  It was an honest accident on both sides, but the protagonist starts yelling and cursing, flustered with rage.  Any reasonable reader would then instantly infer the protagonist has an awful temper for flying into a fit at such a minor and innocent incident.  That is ‘showing’, not ‘telling’.

Now, there may be times when you feel that you have no choice and, perhaps, you may be right.  Even the best of writers has to sometimes do a short info dump or a quick explanation handed out here and there … it’s better to have your readers able to follow your work than to be totally lost.  However, you should make every reasonable attempt to avoid it.  The more you have to ‘tell’, the more of a disconnect you will suffer with your readers.

The best way to avoid this bad habit is simple practice and patience.  Re-reading and editing can also help spot areas where you may delve into being too ‘tell-y’, allowing you to rewrite those sections before they become published or distributed.  Never hesitate to rewrite a scene multiple times if you have to.  You won’t regret the extra time invested to increase the quality of your work.

What experiences have you had with the ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ rule?  Have you ever had to skirt around it and do you feel it was vital, or have you since regretted not finding another way around it?  What are acceptable breaks from this rule?  Talk about it in the comments section.

Sneak Peek: Indefatigable cover art (first sketch)

Here is the first sketch of the cover art for Indefatigable, the second book of The Push Chronicles, due out at the end of the month.  Once again, the ever-talented Felipe de Barros flexes his artistic muscle.  I was floored that this was a ‘first sketch’.

Seriously, if you need a cover artist, I can recommend no one more highly than Felipe.