Step three - Creating characters

Invite Your Characters Into Your Book!

You know the premise of your story, now it’s time to create a character bible for profiling each of your significant characters. Devote at least a page to each character and include the following:

Name and photograph. (Photo optional), but if you come across a picture of someone in a magazine or an old family photo that reminds you of your character, add it to the page for an effective way to spur creativity and flesh out character.

Physical characteristics. The basics of height, weight, hair and eye color, etc.

Age. Actual birth date if it’s relevant.

Personality traits and their source. For example, is the character lazy because her mother always picked up after her? Does he love baseball because it’s the only game his father ever played with him?

Quirks. Imperfections that make your character human, such as a tendency to hum when nervous; the more original the better.

Goals and motivations. What your character wants and why he or she wants it.

Conflict - list the obstacles, large and small, that the character faces in achieving his goals.

General story line. Draft a three to five sentence summary of the character’s story arc; this will be a character-specific version of your novel summary from step 2.

As an author you always need to know more about your characters than your reader ever sees. This allows you to create a multi-dimensional, internally consistent population of characters for your novel. Remember to keep your character outlines to one page per person so the process doesn’t morph from novel writing to scrapbooking! Although you may need to keep another list of tangibles about your characters, e.g. car, car color, home details, timelines of jobs, etc.



Dear readers,

This step is the most fun. Watching your characters take shape is a rewarding part of the creative process, and critical to the success of your novel. They say there are no new storylines, just new ways of telling them. And for a new way to work, the reader needs to fall in love with your characters!

Have a great week and an exciting fourth! 


MARLA


Note: The Pyramid approach to novel structure was developed by Jess Lourey, www.jesslourey.com

STEP TWO

The Pyramid on a Point Method for starting your novel

STEP TWO – EXPAND YOUR ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY INTO A FULL PARAGRAPH

That first sentence, or logline, you wrote in step one, is the foundation of your novel. I know it was hard to write. You probably rewrote it dozens of times before you were satisfied. But what a good feeling after it’s done! You’ve got a great idea and now you’re ready to turn that spark into a full-fledged novel.

You’ll use that first sentence to build from, laying the groundwork for an entire paragraph. It should include the status quo at the beginning of the novel, add what obstacles the protagonist encounters, and how the novel ends. You can use key names or phrases from your summary sentence as a starting point. Unlike a blurb advertising your book, this paragraph is for your eyes only since the ending will be given away.

Using the one-sentence summary step we developed for The Time Machine as an example for writing a logline, here is how it could be expanded.

            The book opens with the Time Traveler dining with peers in the late 1800s England, where he is trying to convince them that he’s invented a time machine. His guests are naturally skeptical. They arrange to dine again in a week, and when they return, the Time Traveler tells them he’s visited the future. He discovered two humanoid races remaining on the planet: the beautiful and childlike Eloi, and the subterranean, haunted Morlocks. He explains his idyllic time eating fruit with the Elois and exploring the area, followed by his discovery that the Morlocks raise and harvest the Eloi like cattle. He ends by describing his escape from the time period, including his burning of the forest, the wresting of his time machine from the Morlocks, and the loss of Weena, his Eloi friend. Distraught, he travels further into the future where he witnesses the death of humanity and the planet. Finally, he returns to the time period he left, providing an exotic flower from Ween as proof of his travels.

            Notice that the ending must be given away to make the paragraph work for you. You’ll be the only one seeing it and you’ll be returning to tweak it as you continue working through the seven steps. Revising as new ideas occur is an important element of writing.

Dear Readers,

I received a comment that these steps were being posted too slowly. I apologize if you feel that way too, but I believe there is value in looking at them individually and following along, applying them to your work. I usually post weekly, but I’ll try to get the steps to you on closer intervals.

Again, this approach was developed by author Jessi Lourey.

Thanks for visiting,

Marla

STARTING A NOVEL? HATE STRUCTURE?

STARTING A NOVEL? HATE STRUCTURE? 

How to jump-start the process! 

Have a novel in your head that you secretly are dying to write and don’t know how to start? Are you a writer contemplating your next project, but stuck in low gear?
     Here is a simple way to tackle that first step toward making your next novel, writing project, or first attempt, a reality. The first step sounds simplistic, but it becomes your galvanizing point, prompting your novel to completion. It also works as a descriptor for your novel after it’s published.

1. Summarize your novel in one sentence.

     Sound easy? It isn’t. But it’s critical to rounding up all the ideas that have been whirling in your imagination and melding them into your final product. Think of all the steps and ingredients that go into making a banana cream pie. The result, the pie, only becomes a dessert on your table after all the steps and ingredients have been accomplished and would never have been there had you not opened the recipe book.
     A good one-sentence descriptor contains the essence of your story. Don’t pack too many details in that lone sentence. Leave out specific names or places: the idea is to be purely conceptual. If you’re looking for ideas, try reading the movie listings in your local paper. They’ll have short descriptions of  two-hour movies just as your one sentence will describe your novel.
     An example using H.G. Wells’ novel The Time machine: An English inventor travels thousands of years into the future, discovering the devolution of humanity where he had hoped to find utopia.
     Another from Jess Lourey’s November Storm: A newly minted Minnesota PI investigates a suspicious hunting accident, uncovering a brutal small-town secret.
     If you craft this sentence well, it will not only give your entire writing process a boost, but you’ll have a powerful selling line to use with a future agent or potential readers.



Dear Readers,

Last Saturday, I attended a workshop for writers put on by MWA, Mystery Writers of America. It took place in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The group of authors who put on the different classes repeat this program at different locations across the country. I attended it with a friend who’s also a writer and we both thought it was extremely beneficial to our writing. I recommend it highly if there is one in your area.

This step is one of seven from The Pyramid on a Point Method by Jessica Lourey. Her introduction to this simple process was the first class of the day.

I plan on continuing the steps weekly. Next week will be step 2. I hope you will find them as helpful as I did.

Thanks for visiting,
Marla

SUMMER BUMMER?

SUMMER BUMMER? – OR IS IT JUST ME?

(Slowdown on Twitter activity since Memorial Day)

      When my Twitter response emails (things like email notifications of RTs, Favorited tweets, Direct Messages and Follows),  took a long trip south on the Memorial Day weekend, I panicked. What was wrong? I frantically changed my browser, contacted Twitter, and checked all my settings. Nothing made a difference, and my normal email response traffic hasn’t returned. A friend of mine, another author, has had the same experience.

       Is everyone except us diehards out sun tanning, swimming and lying on a beach? Or maybe at weddings, graduations and taking the kids to summer camp? (Photo is how we spend summer here on the lake! Pontooning with friends or our dog!)

       I thought everyone stayed in touch these days with their Ipads and Smartphones. If they’re staying in touch it’s not on Twitter. Maybe only with friends?

       Are they buying eBooks for their beach reads on their Kindles? Sales haven’t dropped dramatically, but have slowed down.

       Please help me with this, Twitter friends! Anyone out there know what’s causing this phenomenon?

Dear Readers,

       I hope you’re all having a wonderful beginning to your summer. Unless of course, you live somewhere where it’s winter! We’ve had a couple super-hot days here in NW Wisconsin. I’m waiting eagerly for things to cool down.

Thanks for reading and for your contributions,

Marla

Writer Critique Groups – Friend or Foe?

Writer Critique Groups – Friend or Foe?

A critique group is a lifeline for the new writer. It can assist him in forming good habits before poor ones set in. Without the aid of the group I belong to, my work would not have advanced beyond the sophomoric stage it was at four years ago. I’m a self-published writer, my suspense book She’s Not There is on sale on Amazon and has sold nearly two thousand copies since it came out last August. Would that have happened without the encouragement of my friends in the group? I’d never have gotten there on my own.

            One of our members, Donna White Glaser, author of The Enemy We Know, was the first of our members to ePublish. Her experience and assistance encouraged the rest of us to do the same. I think many would-be authors daydream about the kind of book they’d like to write someday, and that daydream never becomes a reality.  For me, being in a group made that dream come true.

Joining a writer’s group can benefit the new author in many ways:

1.     Improve style and quality of your writing.

2.     Improve grammar and punctuation.

3.     Act as a regular motivator, forcing you to keep up with your writing. Our group meets every two weeks and the members must submit 1500 – 2000 words to each member of the group.

4.     Support you on the journey to your novel’s completion.

5.     Members of the group share experiences with things like marketing, conferences, social media, contests and events.

6.     Gives you a regular sounding board for your work.

Our group consists of only five writers. We limit our meetings to two-and-a-half hours, so it would be difficult to have a larger group and still give each other’s work an in-depth critique.

There are other writer’s groups, larger than ours, who have no regular requirements, instead members share passages of their work by reading aloud, and readings are done on a voluntary basis. We had occasion to read a writing sample from a member of one of these groups and it was clear that a smaller group with regular submission requirements contributes more to writing quality. For a motivated writer, a smaller group provides the greater benefit.

Detractors of the writer’s critique group believe that it stunts creativity. This could possibly be true in the case of a very seasoned author, but in my opinion, the opposite is true. If my work is boring, the group is not shy about letting me know I have to up the creativity to hold their interest. 

Dear readers,

In an interview, when asked what advice I'd give a new author, joining a critique group is always my first point. Please let us know if you have experience with being in a group and how it worked for your writing. Always enjoy hearing from you!

Marla

             

Mystery vs. Suspense

                      Mystery vs. Suspense – Immediately related or twelve-times removed?

The answer requires defining the two genres. Although the two are related, they are more like shirttail cousins than brother and sister. The main difference is perspective. Both deal with a crisis event to hook the reader and keep the plot moving, but the storytelling approach is completely different.

A famous actor is murdered in Chapter One. In a mystery the rest of the story would center on two things: discovering who committed the act and the person or persons responsible for solving the crime. A good mystery writer often spends his time setting up suspects and clues, revealing little until the end of the story.

 A suspense story creates drama before the crisis event occurs. For a good suspense story to work, what’s at stake is generally stated at the beginning of the story, and often the reader knows important details such as the who, why, and when, early on. The suspense writer must create tension by inserting a strong protagonist and developing inventive story paths that avert a certain outcome. Unlike a mystery writer, he can write from the point-of-view of the antagonist, pitting him against the protagonist throughout the story.

While the above outlines the traditional confines of the two genres, as an avid suspense reader I have to say not all books categorized as suspense fit the definition exactly, as do their mystery counterparts; there is frequently a lot of overlap between the two genres.

Today’s Indie writers have a whole new realm of genre freedoms not always available to the author who chooses a more traditional publishing route. And we are seeing the birth of more and more cross-genre novels, which gives readers a much wider selection of novels to choose from, and has the added bonus for writers of seducing a new generation of readers to their stories.

Dear readers,

Thanks for visiting my blog. I love reading suspense. My first novel, She’s Not There was written as suspense but also has elements of mystery. Which do you prefer? I find the traditional mystery plot not as satisfying as suspense or a combination thereof, but that is what makes the new wave of crossover genres so compelling—it offers so much more variety to readers.

Please take time to let us know your preferences! I’d love to hear from you.

Marla

Note – Some of the above is taken from Simon Wood’s article, “9 Tricks to Writing Suspense Fiction."

Prologues and Epilogues

Prologues

–      To have or not to have, that is the question

Last week a member of my writer’s group asked the rest of us if we thought the novel he was working on needed a prologue. The answer was unanimous—no.  The other question he raised was if a book had a prologue, did that mean it required an epilogue? That question also got a unanimous, negative response—one does not necessitate the use of the other. Epilogues, like prologues, are done at the whim of the author.

            As a reader I like prologues. The ones I don’t like are italicized and make it difficult for me to tell how far back in time they’re going, if at all. I hate prologues that involve a dream sequence, or long dream narratives anywhere in the book unless they’re short and meaningful to the storyline.  But that’s my own taste as a reader.

            Epilogues? I love epilogues. They’re very satisfying to readers like myself who enjoy knowing how the characters fared after the mystery is unraveled. Prologues and epilogues are most common in the mystery/suspense/thriller genre. If you’re writing in one of these genres, a prologue gives you the chance to begin your story twice, at two different points. But adding a prologue can work for or against your story.

Before adding a prologue, ask yourself three questions:

 -  Do you really need a prologue?

-  What do you need the prologue to do for the story?

-  Will it get the job done for you?

The prologue needs to be an integral part of the novel by offering the reader a compelling hook that will propel him into the first chapter. The prologue generally takes place in a different timeline from the rest of the novel. This timeline needs to be made clear in the prologue and again in the first chapter.

            Advice from the pros is most often against using a prologue. Before including one in your novel, I’d advise doing some research first, and again I’d suggest adding Don’t Murder Your Mystery, by Chris Roerden, to your how-to library. The entire first chapter is devoted to the use of prologues.

Dear Readers,

I hope all of you had a nice Mother’s Day. I’d like to hear from everyone on the topic of prologues. Readers, do you like them? Writers, do you use them? If not, why?  How about the use of italics? I find reading italicized sections annoying, so when I write I try to avoid using italics for lengthy sections. Any suggestions on how to set something apart from the rest of the story without them?

As always, I look forward to your input.

Have a happy and healthy week,

Marla

Tribute to Special Mothers

Dedicated to A Special Group of Mothers

My memories of Mother’s day as a child are filled with orchid corsages, hidden presents bought with small change saved from our allowances, and three-generation, family dinners. Everyone went to mass where all the mothers proudly displayed their floral décor. I miss my mother on Mother’s Day.

When she died three years ago, I cried at her funeral for all the memories her death evoked, but while my mother played an important role in my life, her role wasn’t always a positive one.  People like myself, whose relationship with this important woman in their life was less than Hallmark-card perfect, will be nostalgic today, remembering the good times, leaving the others locked away like old love-letters hidden in the attic. Since I won’t be reminiscing about my own mother, I’d like to write a tribute to the woman who raised my oldest son.

At sixteen, I was a child having a child. I gave my baby up for adoption. My parents took charge of all the arrangements, and adoption felt like my only choice. For eighteen years after giving him up, I worried about him and daydreamed about the if only—if only I had kept him. I looked for faces in the crowd of boys his age, wondering if he looked anything like I imagined.

I am one of the fortunate women who met and got to know the child I gave up when I was too young to take care of him.

            Before his eighteenth birthday, I contacted he adoption agency, requesting that I wanted to be on record as open to meeting my son. When they called me months later to say his adoptive parents would give him my name when he turned eighteen, I was thrilled. More months went by and I did not hear from him. I was frantic, fearing it would never happen. Then I got a call from his mother, who along with his father, drove hours to meet me. They brought me dozens of photos of him and assured me that their son would contact me when he was ready. And he did.

            Today, more than thirty years later, he and I stay in touch by phone and visit at least once or twice a year. His mother is a wonderful woman who raised him to be a kind, giving person. She remains a good friend and daily email buddy.

            I’d like to take this opportunity to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the women who have lovingly and selflessly raised an adopted child. And to all women like myself who’ve had to give up a child, I hope someday you’ll be as blessed as I have been to have my son and his parents be a part my life.

Ranting, Raving, Reviews!

Ranting, Raving, Reviews!

Readers, do you leave reviews for the books you read?

There’s no way around it; your reviews can make or break the success of an independent author’s novel.  Getting reviews is a major hurdle for a new novel.

            I don’t believe readers realize how important they are in a novel’s fate. All the advertising in the world, even expensive reviews by professionals, cannot replace the value of good reviews by the readers themselves.

            So readers, get busy and support your favorite reads!

Where to leave reviews:

            Amazon, Smashwords, or any site where the book is sold. They all have places to leave a review. Goodreads is an excellent place to leave a review, as are any of the many sites that promote books.

Don’t know what to say?

1.     You don’t have to write an entire synopsis of the story. A few sentences say it all: How much you enjoyed the book, the characters, the ending.

2.     Don’t worry about being or not being a wordsmith. Say it simply, and in your own words as if telling a friend about the book.

3.     Be careful not to reveal too much of the story line. If you absolutely hated the ending, don’t explain why! But if you find you have to talk about the storyline or ending, I've just learned that some reviewers add a large "SPOILER ALERT" notice above the review. Something to keep in mind when reviewing, especially if your reviews tend to be lengthy.

4.     If there was something you didn’t like, explain why. Not everyone has problems with the same things, e.g. endings that close with a question.

Dear Readers,

            Reviews are precious gems to authors. If you get in the habit of leaving them, you will be making authors very happy, which will encourage them to write more books for you. Keep reading!

Have a happy and healthy week,

Marla

Serial killer or Serial books?

       Your first novel is published. Is it set aside, forgotten like a serial killer who’s gotten the “book” thrown at him? Or, as you're starting a new book, is your first thought that fan who wanted to see more of your characters? With him in mind, do you continue the first novel as a series?

            Serials and trilogies are all the rage. As a reader, I tend to be quite judgmental of them, since they are difficult to do in a manner satisfying to both the readers who requested the sequel and  to new readers who have yet to bond with the characters. It’s not easy to get it right. I read a lot of series books. Jonathan Kellerman bears mentioning, his famous duo Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware are a team I never tire of following as they unfold countless murder mysteries in the streets and surrounding areas of Los Angeles. Kellerman uses very little carry over from book to book, endearing his writing to my taste.

            My list of grievances with series’ is as follows:

1.     One of the worst offenders is the second (or fifth) of a series that assumes the reader has not only read the first novel, but has read it yesterday. The reader feels as left out as a spouse at the other spouse's class reunion.

2.     My personal worst is the sequel that spends 50% of the book in a giant laxative dump, explaining every detail of what took place in the first book.

The reader feels like he is still at that reunion and being dragged around and introduced to everyone who could care less about meeting him.

3.     The one I'm getting very weary of is the dreaded, evil killer who always survives to make a comeback in the next novel, succeeding in being more annoying than recurring post-nasal drip. Patterson is fond of this repeated reincarnation in his Cross series. And I don't think Patricia Cornwell could write a book without a villain from a past novel playing a starring role, or at the very least the son, daughter, cousin, mother, father, or adopted child stepping in to repeat the pattern of the diabolical relative. What happened to creativity?

I do follow the series of my favorite authors. I’m their biggest fan and worst critic! I must give a mention here to Jeffrey Deaver who, along with Kellerman, does both stand-alones and series equally well, his Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance characters keep me spellbound from start to finish.

      As critical as I am of series, I’m reluctant to attempt one myself, although two of the characters from my first novel will be making cameo appearances in my second. I’m leaving the door to a series open!

Dear readers,

Once more I’d like to ask for your input; Do you read books in series’? Anything about reading them you find annoying? Favorites? Do you think today’s readers prefer books in a series?

Lots of questions. Pick one or two. I’d love to hear from you.

Happy reading,

Marla

Chapters—The long and short of them

             In my suspense novel, She’s Not There, I kept the chapters short, ranging from one page to five or six. As a result, the novel contains 123 chapters, along with a prologue and an epilogue. Too many?

            I have to confess I originally modeled the book after James Patterson’s style. His chapters run from 2-5 pages long. Why so short? The popular answer is that today’s reader reads on the run, and short chapters make for a convenient break.

            Interestingly, my critique group has chastened me for doing such short chapters, and in the novel I’m working on now, I’ve acquiesced to longer chapters, seldom using one that is less than five pages long.

            But recently I received feedback from a reader who said she really appreciated the short chapters because a vision problem limits her reading time. Now I have to ask—if short chapters are convenient for many readers, are they annoying to the others?

            Some considerations:

1.    Long chapters. Writing style and genre need to be taken into account. Unlike Patterson, many authors are reluctant to break up a scene in the middle of a chapter. Part of this consideration for chapter length is decided by knowing your target audience and what they enjoy reading. In general, genre novels have shorter chapters than their literary cousins, but there seems to be no hard and fast rule governing length.

2.  Short chapters. Many readers prefer them. One thing to keep in mind, is if your manuscript is to be a print book, not just an eBook, short chapters will add to the length of the book, making it more costly to publish the print version. The first time I read one of Patterson’s books I remember thinking I was glad it was a library book. If I’d bought it I might have resented paying for all those blank pages between such short chapters.

3.   Chapter beginnings. Keep in mind, especially if you’re writing short chapters, that today’s average reader doesn’t spend a lot of time reading during one sitting. So remember to start chapters with a reminder of where the reader left off if the opening is ambiguous.

4.     Genre. I write suspense. I believe it’s safe to say the majority of suspense writers keep their chapters to what I’d call medium length, maybe in the eight to fifteen page range. Some author’s chapter length varies greatly, while others keep them all a rather consistent length. As a reader, I don’t really care, although I don’t like extremely long chapters.

5. Chapter endings. Traditionally, cliffhangers at the end of chapters have been recommended  as the right way to end a chapter in the mystery/suspense genres. They are indeed tantalizing to the reader and encourage him to keep reading. Food for thought: if today’s reader prefers short chapters due to his busy lifestyle, will he be frustrated by constant chapter-ending cliffhangers?

Dear visitors,

Please take time to answer two questions: First, do you find reading short chapters annoying? And second, if you enjoy short chapters, do cliffhangers at the end of chapters frustrate you if your reading time is limited?

Thank you for visiting this blog. Here’s wishing you a healthy and happy week to come.

Till next week,

Marla

Suspense - With or Without a Shot of Romance?

Suspense – With or Without a Shot of Romance?

         I write suspense. When I was writing my first novel, one of my critics accused me of having written a romance novel because there was an element of romance within the story. I objected vehemently but changed the ending from happily ever after to maybe happily ever after.

Now I’m writing my second suspense novel and agonizing over the ending. The protagonist finding love seems to be a nice way to wrap up the story, but again, I’m being sensitive to possible genre-labeling. As a reader, I enjoy a romantic subplot and wanted to add that to my suspense storyline. That said, how much is too much?

            It becomes necessary to look at how the differing genres are defined.

1.     Romance. This hardly needs description. The romantic progression is the main theme. The lovers meet, there is conflict between them, they grow, they (in most cases) live happily ever after. No ambiguity.

2.     Romantic Mystery/Suspense. By definition, this category includes any mystery/suspense story in which the romance is the main plot but which also contains a large element of mystery/suspense. Today, this category has many offshoots, very often with the mystery and the romance getting equal billing, which is done frequently by some of the big names in romance writing. 

3.     Adding a romantic element to a mystery or suspense book. Want a touch of romance in your mystery?

a.     The romance has to remain a sub-plot and cannot dominate the story. The mystery/suspense must be the main focus of the story line.

b.     I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am weary of male protagonists who bed everything that moves. I read a book recently where on one page alone, the hero was mourning the death of an old girlfriend (One with whom he’d had goodby sex two weeks previously), getting ready for a romantic (sexual he was hoping) evening in his apartment with a new woman, a client in an investigation, and he was also regretting the fact that a woman he worked with and had formerly had a long time relationship with, had just refused to get back together with him because he’d had sex with the woman who’d gotten killed. It was a bit much for me, but I suppose male readers would be vicariously cheering him on.

c.      Long story short, romance entwined in a mystery/suspense novel should be believable. (Unless your target reader is male.!)

d.     I’d appreciate your feedback on this, but I’m thinking the final chapter should be suspense related and the story shouldn’t end with the culmination of a romance that developed within the novel.

Dear readers,

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter weekend. 

We just survived Friday the 13^th and the world is still functioning. I got some bad news on the thirteenth; a friend whose opinion I value told me my published ebook/printbook still had too many errors. This is a book that has been proofed multiple times, so it was a terrible blow, since redoing it will be costly in time and money. I’ve gotten great feedback about the story, however. Maybe those that get caught up in the story don’t notice. I’ll need to make a decision what to do about it, but meantime I’m trying to wrap up my second suspense book. The current dilemma is the ending, which inspired today’s blog.

Happy reading and writing,

Marla