How to Write a Novel 6: Dialogue

Quote: “A dialogue is more than two monologues.”
Max M. Kampleman.

Song Playing: Word that We Couldn’t Say from the Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack (yes, that was on purpose too)

Here is an example of how separate, yet related things can come together to make your novel.

I watched this video by one of my favorite bands, called Apoptygma Berserk. The song is called “In this Together” and it’s about a hostage situation at a bank.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Jg_CvHVaY

(sorry about the crappy link guys, I STILL can't get my link button to work)

I thought, “Wow, Detective Brewster is dealing with a hostage situation. Funny that.” If you watch the video, you will see there’s a twist ending, and a bit of a double cross. Maybe that doesn’t jive with your idea of the end of the book. Maybe you want Dective Brewster to live, and obviously, he’s not one of the hostages. But it could spin more ideas for you. Like, what if one of the hostages was in on the robbery? What if it was one of the cops who were in on the robbery? What if this guy was Detective Brewster’s mentor, and there’s a speech at the end that the mentor makes like:

“You were never supposed to take that call, David (Detective Brewster’s first name). You were supposed to let someone more experienced handle it.”

“Cripes, John, my sister is in there. My sister.”

“I know. And I am sorry for that. An unfortunate coincidence—“

“I don’t believe in coincidence.” David said, wiping his face with his hands.

***

You get the point. I could go on. This is actually a good lead in for today’s topic: Dialogue.

Today we’re talking about talking. Or rather, how to use dialogue well. I must admit, I personally think dialogue is an area I excel in. Not that I don’t still have loads more to learn about dialogue, but I seem to have an ear for it.

Which brings me to my first point. Some people believe that you either have an ear for dialogue or you don’t, and there’s no real changing that. Not that those who do dialogue poorly couldn’t improve, but it will never be a strong point for that writer.

I don’t know how I feel about that idea. I would like to think that people are naturally good at some aspects of writing, but what they aren’t good at they can learn. It feels elitist and snobbish to say some people are just “born” with magical writing pixie dust and other people aren’t. But there is compelling evidence, namely the quality of writing, and how short or long of a time it takes that person to write well, that speaks to the contrary, that some people are naturally born with talent, like some people are naturally born with amazing basketball abilities.

So there you have it: food for thought.

The bottom line is I believe even if you aren’t talented with an aspect of writing, it doesn’t mean you can’t be good at it, just that it’s going to be work. I was always particularly good with dialogue, but trust me, I am an abyssal failure at other, almost MORE important things *cough*grammar*coughcough*. Just because you suck at something doesn’t mean you should sit back and say, “Oh well, I’ll just pay an editor to fix all my spliced commas and run on sentences.” because that’s lazy, and how will you ever learn and improve if you don’t stretch yourself? So yes, moral for today ramble: writing is hard, and you should know your strengths and weakness, and try to improve both.

People theorize that writers who are good with dialogue also spend more time talking to people, so they know how natural speech sounds like. In my case, at least, this is true. I can talk a blue steak if I want to, and spend a lot of time with people, and listening to how people talk. So if you want to get better at dialogue, hit a mall or public place, and listen to how people are talking.

1. An Ear



When someone says you have an “ear” for dialogue, it means that you can effectively capture what your characters are saying down on paper, without it being boring, or talking about something know one cares about. It also talks about the way these sentences are typed, too. Basically, how effectively you simulate speech in a novel.

For example, the following bit of dialogue would be laughable from the character’s three year old:

“Mother, I would like some orange juice.”

This would be closer to the truth:

“Juice! Juice! JUICE!” The child screamed, and threw his Sippy cup at his mother.

See the difference? A three year old would not be that formal. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but you get the point.

This example, while technically correct, is not good dialogue:

Detective Brewster: Hello sister, how are you?
Shelly (his sister): Fine, how are you?

Detective Brewster: I am okay. Just graduated with honors from Hostage Negotiation School.
Shelly (his sister): That’s wonderful. I am so happy for you. When will you start work again?

Detective Brewster: Soon, I think. How are Mom and Dad?
Shelly (his sister): Oh, they are fine. Dad’s cholesterol is up, but who’s surprised?

SNOOOOOOOOOZE!

Boring! It’s not that your characters can’t talk about menial stuff, or they have to be at each other’s throats to make the dialogue interesting, but it should be going somewhere. Just like you shouldn’t randomly describe a potted plant or have a character pop in that doesn’t serve some purpose, neither should you have long bouts of dialogue where nothing happens. The best dialogue makes you feel like you’re eavesdropping on an important conversation.

Here’s a secret: dialogue isn’t actually an exact replica of speech.

Try it. Write down someone’s conversation word for word. See how many extra stutter words you have, all the “umm” and “uh” and “well”, how people repeat themselves a lot, how the conversation meanders through several subjects without ever making a point? You don’t want your dialogue to look like that. Just like you’re writing an abbreviated version of a few events in someone’s life, so you do the same thing with dialogue.

Sol Stein has a good method to use regarding dialogue: give the characters opposing goals. If two characters have different objectives for the conversation it will be more interesting. It doesn’t mean that they should be at each other’s throats, just want a different thing from the conversation from the other. Like when your mom keeps asking you about when you’re going to settle down and have kids, and how all YOU want to talk about is your great new job.

In the above example between Detective Brewster, and his mentor, they are both talking about the same thing: the mentor’s betrayal. But they have different goals for the conversation. The mentor wants Brewster to see why he is right, and Detective Brewster wants his mentor to see that his is wrong.

Try it. Pick two characters and give them different objectives for the conversation, and see what happens. This works even if the two characters like each other, and are on the same side.

2. Beats

Beats are the action indicators that tell your readers what the character is doing while the conversation is taking place. Some writers use them all the time, and others only throw a couple in there.

While it’s generally advisable to use a couple, too many will slow down the dialogue. Try to keep beats simple, and to the point. If they are too complicated, the reader will spend too much time trying to figure out the position your character is contortioning (take that spell check!) himself into.

3. Some Housekeeping

Some housekeeping bits about dialogue:

*Use the word “said” whenever possible. It’s an invisible word that the reader skims over just to follow the conversation. Most of the time, the action of the scene will carry how the speaker is talking.

*Try to avoid getting fancy with the dialogue tags when not using “said”. “Muttered”, “whispered”, and so on are more visible than “said”, but not as visible (and therefore distracting) as word like “stormed” and “grated”.

*Adverbs in dialogue are considered a sin. Use them carefully, if ever. “said quietly” should be changed to just “said” or if you have to tell us how it’s said, “whispered”. Remember, no extra words!

Ultimately, how you use dialogue and dialogue tags is a personal choice. Every writer does it slightly differently. Try to find what works best for you and the story, and move on from there.

So what do you guys think? Are you good with diagloue? Horrible at it?

(Pictures from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net)

How to Write a Novel 4: Plot, Part III

Quote: “Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You only see as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
~E.L. Doctorow

Song: Helpless, by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

So I am deep in the editing trenches, and it’s heartbreaking. Once you start to see some of the flaws, you see them ALL, until you’re correcting post it notes to yourself. Did you ever see that cartoon, where Bugs Bunny sees a gorgeous woman (or bunny? Bunny-woman? Ack, no furries!) from a distance, so he chases her all through the episode, only to find out when he catches up to her, she’s dead ugly?

THAT is what editing is like. You tell yourself you’ve written a masterpiece, but you start to edit you realize how appalling your lack of ability to string a series of sentences together is. Of course, this is just me. I am sure all of your books are works of art, and you won’t have to edit them at all.

On the bright side, I bought some more red pens yesterday.
I like to edit with Sharpie ultra fine point permanent markers. They have felt tips, and bleed slightly through the paper, but my goodness does it show up well. I went to Wal-Mart first (please don’t hate me, I am broke), but could only find the multicolor packs. You would think red is the second most common color, but nooooooo there weren’t any packs of just red pens. So as I was driving away, I noticed an Office Depot that I completely forgot about. I pulled in, and spent more money on writing supplies. They have all KINDS of Sharpie colors, but I still like red the best for editing. It looks like blood. I feel like I really am murdering my darling (also, I think all this editing has driven me slightly insane. *cough*)


I edited my scene for the blogfest “Whoops”. I am very, very, very, very excited, because it has some of my favorite characters in it, and I can’t wait for you guys to met them. But again, my appalling lack of grammar was apparent in the first draft, so I have cleaned it up a bit so you guys don’t know how illiterate I truly am (drat, said that out loud. Inside voice, Elizabeth, inside voice).

But I digress. For now. Onward brave steed!

9. Title, Genre

This is pretty basic. You need to title your story. ;)

I like titles that are metaphors, or interesting in some way. I try to come up with titles that will make the reader want to pick up the book. While there’s nothing wrong with a book called “The Writer”, it doesn’t really say anything about the book either. Nothing that intrigues me, anyway.

Let’s face it: there are a lot of books in the bookstore. You might consider titling your book something eye catching. If you like simple titles, that is your little red wagon. It’s just something to consider.

Examples of titles I like:

“The Lovely Bones” I thought: How can bones be lovely? What the heck? So I picked up the book…
“Heart Shaped Box” Very evocative, and alludes to the song.
“Tunes for Bears to Dance To” Again, very evocative. Bears dancing? To what tunes?

And so on.

Your genre is important because it tells the library and bookstores where to shelve your book. Oh yeah, and editors and publishers are mildly interested in it as well. This tells them, vaguely, what sort of events are in your book.

Some people feel like genre is a yoke that stifles them and they should be able to write whatever they want. And they aren’t wrong. Write whatever you want. But if you want to sell your book, as most writers do, you’re going to need a genre for it. Just saying.

10. POV

Point of view. What tense and from who’s perspective the story is being told. We learned about POV in English, and you’re probably already aware that most books are either written in first person (I saw, I went), or in third (Detective Brewster saw, Detective Brewster went to kick some robber butt).

I like to write from both, and I don’t believe that one view is more limiting or close than another.

Observe, from my Blogfest Love at First Sight (with zombies!) Scene:

First:

We are all in the process of dying. If I concentrate hard enough, I think I can feel the death of my skin cells, flaking off one by one.
I can sense the zombies circling around us like slow vultures, always on the back of my subconscious. It helps me survive the zombie apocalypse, but robs me of sleep and peace of mind. Still learning to cope, I woke up in a foul mood, which for once had nothing to do with zombies.
It was Valentine’s Day, and no one knew it.

Third:

We are all in the process of dying. If Lilah concentrated hard enough, she thought she could feel the death of her skin cells, flaking off one by one.
Lilah could sense the zombies circling around them like slow vultures, always on the back of her subconscious. It helped Lilah survive the zombie apocalypse, but robs her of sleep and peace of mind. Still learning to cope, Lilah woke up in a foul mood, which for once had nothing to do with zombies.
It was Valentine’s Day, and no one knew it.

Now, it will take you a little while to get used to the main character tags “I” or “Lilah” but a hundred pages into the book, you aren’t really paying attention to “I” or “Lilah”, you’re paying attention to what is happening to her.

You might disagree, but I really don’t think there’s a difference. You might have a personal preference for one POV or another, but again, experimentation is fun, and you should try it. I wrote a short story in second person, and it was a PAIN, but it was also FUN.

Mostly, I use third if I am rotating POVs, that is, if I have more than one main character telling the story, and first if it’s only one person. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have rotating POV in first person. You just need to make sure you let everyone know when you change perspective.

11. Journey

Noah Lukeman talks about journey in his book, The Plot Thickens, which is another way to say character growth. You want to make sure your character does that by the end of the story.

It’s the most satisfying to read about people that are affected by the events of the plot. You want a character who changes, who grows, who learns things about themselves, and others. This give your story deeper meaning, and helps it become more universal. It’s why I can read about an elderly man, and still relate. I relate to what he’s going through in the story, his life experiences.

It’s also how you can make your non-human characters more relatable, if the reader can relate to Bobo the troll barbarian’s inner turmoil over his dead parents.

12. The Nitty Gritty

Now that you have considered all of that, if not figured some it out (for me this is a rotating process, going back and forth between all of the different elements, tweaking as I go), it’s time to actually decide on your plot.

Yikes! Decisions! Oh noooos!

I know, it’s scary. Each decision you make it yet another way your story isn’t going to turn out. But take heart, because if you just stay in this phase of thinking, tweaking, and brainstorming, you will never get the story written. A lot of people stay in this phase, without ever writing a book, so it’s up to you to take the plunge and go for the gold, and *insert metaphor for taking a risk here*.

So, start figuring out the events of your story. By now, you might have a lot of ideas, and just need to put them in order and fill in gap.

Or, like me, you’re totally clueless and don’t know what to do next.

What I do is go back to the characters. I work on them, flesh them out, and figure out what sort of situations would challenge them, and find a way to make that happen in the story. I find that things just start falling into place afterwards.

Using our example, you could develop Detective Brewster and his sister further, and mirror their inner struggles. Maybe she becomes the second main character.

When I have more than one main character, I normally have three. Odd, I know (literally-----zing, didn’t expect that pun, did you?). Once I wrote a book with just two main characters, but there was just too much back and forth between them, and not the rest of the story. It felt very claustrophobic, and got really static. Once I introduced a third person with loose connections to the other two MCs, everything cleared up. The scenes were dynamic and interrelated, without being overcrowded. Or you could switch to an antagonist or a secondary character who isn’t present for some of the other events of the story.

Continue to develop your characters, and try to develop their inner struggles, their lives, their hopes, and fears. Think about the worst thing that could happen to them, and then make it happen. Brainstorm, talk to the wall, your dog, your mom, about what could happen, what would make people hold up a bank, and what people might do when that happens.

You’re looking for a slice of the human experience. Don’t be afraid to bring your personal feelings into the matter. Why do you think people do bad things? It’s not that your novel serves as a vehicle for your opinions, but rather a way to express what is on people’s minds. Remember, you’re saying what other people can’t articulate.

Little by little, the plot will come. We are about to talk about setting, and that also helps with the plot, believe it or not.

So, next time, Setting! A noble hero of novels, but so underappreciated.

How to Write a Novel 4: Plot, Part II

Quote: “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.”
~Anaïs Nin


Song Playing: Ain’t It Fun by Guns and Roses

How’s everyone doing? Good? Good. I have signed up for another blogfest, probably because I am glutton for punishment. It about an embarassing scene involving your characters, and it takes place during February 22nd, on Laurel’s blog at: http://laurelgarver.blogspot.com/2010/02/whoops-blogfest-coming-222.html

I know exactly the right character for this too…hehe, she always manages to hideously embarrass herself, in front of a large group of people no less.

Again, let me remind everyone that these posts are just one way of doing things, meant to make you think about your writing process…if you take one useful idea away from these posts, then I am happy. Remember Pirates of the Caribbean, when they are talking about the Pirate’s Code? And they say: “They’re more like guidelines, really.” I laughed so hard…so yes, these are more like guidelines.

Without further ado, I give you today gripping continuation on Plot:

3. The Inciting Incident



A complete premise will include the inciting incident, the event that knocks over the first domino of story events. You should start the book as close to the inciting incident as possible. The inciting incident can sometimes give the reader an idea on what this story is going to be about. It’s like a restaurant sign in that respect, it displays what sort of food is served here. That’s why so many romance novels start with the two lovers meeting, because the inciting incident for the romance is the meeting of the two lovers. Not always, but many times. Figure out the event that kicks everything off, and you won’t have to worry about the book starting too “slow” (for the most part).

The inciting incident can be stated as such: When something happens, it leads to other things happening, resulting in this ending.

Jim Butcher calls it a story question: WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS*, *YOUR PROTAGONIST* *PURSUES A GOAL*. But will he succeed when *ANTAGONIST PROVIDES OPPOSITION*?

See how neat that is? Your plot, in two sentences. It’s a thing of beauty, really. It’s almost like a magic wand. Struggling with a book that isn’t doing anywhere? Try to plug your events and characters into this question. If it’s hard, then it’s possible you’re struggling because you don’t really know what your story is about yet.

The inciting incident for Detective Brewster’s story would be when the robber’s walked in and held up the bank. This one was pretty obvious, but you can see the logic: there would be no hostage situation until hostages were taken. Detective Brewster wouldn’t have been tested through trial by fire if this happened ten years after he graduated from his hostage negotiation class, so it occurs soon after he graduates.

Maybe, if you go with a theme or subtheme on family, you could even have his sister arguing with Brewster about being a hostage negotiator, and maybe even (ironically) feel like people shouldn’t give into the demands of robbers, no matter what. As you might have thought already, this could play beautifully into your theme of honor and duty. Will his sister stick with her morals now that she’s in a position to stand up for them? Or will her self-preservation kick in? How will she feel afterwards, if she survives, but only because her brother gave the robbers what they wanted? Grateful? Like a hypocrite? As you can see, I am getting on a tangent. But you could follow all sorts of trains of thought, and incorporate several subthemes if you wish.

A theme isn’t a pigeonhole for your book: there can be subplots and ideas and questions and all sort of complex bits in the novel, but usually one theme will umbrella them all, and the subtheme and subplots will connect in some way shape or form to the main theme, like how a tiger and a house cat are still cats.

4. Conflict



The lifeblood of your book is conflict. Once you know you’re story’s conflict, many other pieces will fall into place. Characters, theme, setting, stuff that I have been blathering on about for a while now can fall into place once you decide on the conflict.

But conflict is a fickle mistress, which is why I didn’t put it first. I have to chew on an idea for a little while before I decide on the conflict, and it’s usually by this point, after thinking about characters, and theme, and premise that the conflict starts to rise to the top.

You have the obvious conflict of the hostages at the bank in our example, but that’s the easy conflict, the crucible that pushes the first domino over. The real conflict will be between people.

When you put the protagonist’s and antagonist’s deepest desires in sharp contrast, you have the key to conflict. Think about what your main character wants the most, and then give your antagonist the power to thwart this. This is why your main character should want something really badly. Without wanting something, you can’t take it away from him, and create conflict. As Sol Stein states “The essence of dramatic conflict lies in the clash of wants. You need to be certain that then conflicting wants are connected significantly and are over something that the reader will view as important.”

I like to think about the protagonist and antagonist’s wants as a see saw. When one of them has what they want, the other doesn’t. Your antagonist doesn’t have to be a person, though. It could be the elements, as a man stuck on a deserted island is at mercy to the elements. It could be the hero himself, if he is sufficiently internally conflicted.

Ideally, you will have several different types of conflict in your book. It’s what makes the reader turn the page to find out what happens, and one single event in conflict can feel too overbearing, and unrealistic. Every character in the book will have goals, and should be actively pursuing them. Character attaining these smaller goals will help the reader feel a sense of accomplishment, so the book isn’t one big series of failures. You ever watch a movie or read a book like that? It’s maddening, to sit there and watch the main character do nothing but fail. It makes you lose faith that the MC can actually resolve the main conflict, and a lot of times, I stop watching/reading. Remember, small victories. Your book should be a series of ups and downs, not one big down and then one up, or all up and one down. It should be a give and take.

In our hostage situation, there can be many different types of conflict:

*the hostages are force to stay there against their will, and fear for their lives

*the hostages themselves disagree with how to respond to the robbers. Some want to fight them, and others want to behave and keep their head down.

*Detective Brewster feels trapped into being the hostage negotiator because it’s his first time, but worries that if he passes, he’ll never get another chance. (this is internal conflict)

*Detective Brewster finds out his sister is inside, and worries that they won’t let him be the negotiator anymore, because of his personal involvement.

*There is the implied conflict of time: Detective Brewster has to resolve this, and soon, because the robbers aren’t going to wait forever

There are more conflicts, but those are just what I have come up with off the top of my head. It’s best to be aware of these conflicts, because it helps you tighten up the slack when the main conflict isn’t doing much of anything.

The very best way to create conflict when you aren't certain what to do is to ask a simple question: What can go wrong now?

And these stakes, these complications doesn’t have to be huge, either. Despite my love for explosions, and gunfire, there is the same potential for conflict in a coming of age story as there is a spy thriller. Bad weather at the wrong time can be an obstacle, or someone’s kid brother showing up, or someone’s mother needing to be taken to the hospital. I like to try and think of inventive ways that things can go wrong, instead of just going straight for the obvious. It’s how you can keep the book from being predictable.

5. The Great Swampy Middle



This term was coined by Jim Butcher, and he has a full article on the middle, that I will link at the end of this series. But the basic idea is to have a good idea what the middle end is. The middle is the beginning of the end, the events the knocks the first domino over, and starts wrapping up the story. Many writers have issues with the middle, and all I can say, is Butcher’s technique works.

6. The Climax

(I am not googling "Climax" for a picture, thank you very much)

How are you going to end everything? How are you going to resolve the events? Jim Butcher has a great template at his blog to use for climaxes, that I will again link to as I wrap the series up (I am planning an entire post on resources for writers, aren’t you excited?)

The climax is very important. You have been leading the readers on for hundreds of pages now. If you give a cope out ending, and just wrap things up quickly, they are going to feel really let down, and probably hate you. Just saying. ;)

One thing to remember when it comes to the climax is to not pull punches.

Let me explain.

As a writer, you will eventually have to make some decision as to what sort of writer you are. I have already talked a little about this, about writing from the heart. No matter what genre you chose to write, some people will make assumptions about you. If you write YA, people will think it’s easy and you can’t write well enough for adults. If you write fantasy and science fiction, people will assume you want to escape the real world, and these are just your vicarious fantasies on paper. If you write romance, people will think you’re a girl just playing out her sexual fantasies on paper. And so on. These are generalizations, of course, not every single person you meet will think this, but it does happen. The same thing will happen in any genre. If your characters swear, some readers won’t read your books. If you write a sex scene, some readers won’t read your book. If you write a really gorey scene, or your subject material is really taboo, some readers will think you’re a sociopath, and not read your book.

Why am I rambling about this, you ask gently?

Because it’s all about pulling your punches. Some writers, because of these outside influences, and their own internal ones (people will think I am stupid/silly/demonic, I am just too tired to write this scene out), will pull their punches. A really important death will happen off stage, the climax wraps up a little too neatly, and so on. I am not saying in every book where this happens, the writer pulled his punch, this is entirely a matter of context. But these places—the tough places that writers go to in their novels—are the most common ones where we feel like we want to shy away.

Personally, when I come to an emotionally charged scene, especially if I have already been writing for awhile, I just feel really drained. Really tired. Like I don’t want to go on. Like I just want to wrap the scene up, and move on to happier ones. But if I did that, I would be pulling my punch, I would be shying away from the truth of the story. It takes a lot of courage to write a really messy break out scene, or a really emotional death scene, or a scene with the character breaking down. We feel it as much as the characters to.

But I have found the best writing comes from when I am uncomfortable, when I am squirming in my seat. This is the most emotional writing, and as a readers, some of the most memorable scenes I have read. I just finished a book where a girl’s friend gets kidnapped, and then murdered, and the murderers air the DVD of the guy’s death. It wasn’t really gruesome or bloody. The author gave you enough details that you could all to well imagine the rest. While I was reading that scene, I wasn’t myself anymore; I was the main character. I felt like my friend had been kidnapped and then murdered on national television. It was a tough scene to read, and I can’t imagine what it was like to write it, but it made the book that much more real for me.

I am not saying you have to write terrible scenes to write a real book. It takes just as much courage to write about a character confessing their love as it does to write a break up. The point is to not shy away from the tough spots of writing, especially your climax. You’re going to want to; you’re going to wanting to look away from the sheer emotion of all your conflicts and characters and events colliding together in a momentous moment, but I encourage you not to.

Well, I suppose I will get off my soapbox now. You may disagree with me; you may think I am utterly crazy, and climaxes are the easiest thing in the world for you to write. If that’s true, then I salute you. But for those of you who would rather get a root canal than write your climax, take heart. You can come back to it in the first draft if you need to.

7. Tone

This is the “flavor” of your novel. Is it funny? Sarcastic? Gritty? Dark? Nostalgic?

Tone is really difficult to convey, and most of it comes out during revision for me. But it’s the feel of the novel, and most of it comes from your word choices, and events in the novel. When I make funny comparisons and use endless parenthetical asides, all of this helps cultivate a relaxed, slightly jovial tone for my blog. Your characters and their attitudes on the events that are happening can also help reinforce your tone. I like to figure out ahead of time what I want the general tone to be.

8. Voice

Ahh, voice. Another fickle mistress of novel writing. Voice is YOU. It’s a combination of how you write, the words you chose, the types of characters you write about, the genre you write in, and the themes and ideas you gravitate towards. It’s what lets you recognize a book by an author you’ve read a lot of. Think of voice as the sound of the person’s voice telling the story, committed to paper. It’s your unique way of putting ideas down on paper.

Writers are always told to develop their voice. This is something that develops over time, and in my experiences, more quickly when you are writing for “you” and not worrying about other people seeing your work.

I am a perfectionist. I like things to be perfect. I used to try to make my first drafts perfect, worried that if someone read it, they would point out typos and grammar guffaws (this blog makes me a little neurotic, because I KNOW there are mistakes somewhere no matter how hard I proofread what I am about to post).

It was only until I started writing something “for fun” and “on the side” that I really developed my voice, because I allowed myself to be myself. I didn’t worry about what other people would think, because I was just goofing off with a story idea. Also, I developed a lot of my voice while writing emails back and forth to my friends (long emails, not just “hey how’s it going?” emails), because I wrote the emails the same way I would say it out loud. Blogging helps me develop my voice too, because I do more or less the same thing, and type as though I am speaking out loud.

The trick to writing a story is to write from the main character’s point of voice, so not every single book sounds the same, but you will naturally bring your voice into the novel by virtue of what happens, and who’s there, and all the other elements of the plot.

Show of hands: how obvious was it that I just learned how to use the picture function on blogger?
Now if only hyperlinking would cooperate...every time I insert a link, it doesn't show up. I have to copy-paste it manually, and it looks ugly.

Well folks, that's a wrap for today. Take a breather, hug a baby, and get back to that novel!

How to Write a Novel 3: Characters, Part II

Quote: “Motivation depends on desire and—like everything else in fiction—is most vividly conveyed through action. If a character’s desires are vague and abstract, the first part of your job will be to render them concrete and specific… As a fiction writer your task isn’t to tell us what characters want and therefore who they are, but to show us how far they are willing to go to get it, and by what means.”
~Noah Lukeman

Song playing: My Hero by the Foo Fighters

So, now you have an idea of who your main character or characters are. You’ve used character sheets, or just spent a lot of time thinking about them (or both, like me).

You’re good to go, right?

Not quite…

1. Motivation and Desire

Here is something vital to your story I feel that gets skipped over way too much: character motivation.

Motivation. Say it with me, mo-ti-vation.

Your character’s motivation is also linked to their Desire and the Crucible of the story. Remember how I said character and plot should support each other? Here’s where that comes in.

Your character should want something really, really badly, more than I want a Snickers, right now. That’s Desire. Your character will go through all sorts of stuff in order to get what they want. This goal can literally be what ever you want it to be, but it’s linked to the main conflict at hand. The character really wants something, whether it’s a Twinkie (a la Zombieland), a person, or a job, and someone or something is keeping them from getting it. A well executed character with a deep Desire will never come off as being passive. You’ve heard about needing Active instead of Passive characters, right? But no one really elaborates on the matter.

Well, I am elaborating on the matter.

A passive character is someone who stuff happens to. Picture your atypical damsel in distress. Princess Peach that Mario has to come and save every minute, the wimpy kid that always gets picked on and does nothing about it. These are passive people. They don’t do anything in the plot, they let things happen to them. For a main character, this is not a good idea. It’s not that you can’t have passive or weak characters in a story (I have pleeeeeeeeenty), but in regards to the plot, these people still need to want Something. Maybe your wimpy nerd wants to ace his math test. Maybe he pines for his English teacher. Whatever the case is, he wants something, and wants it badly. That is Desire. Desire fuels motivation.

Motivation, simply put, is the reason(s) why a character is doing what he is doing. A character’s Desire is usually part of their motivation, usually the main source of their motivation, but not all of it. A character’s motivation will also come from outside pressures, and expectations of them, either through family, society, themselves, or their community.

So, Detective Brewster from our hostage situation might have a lot of different motivations for being a cop in general, and staying at the bank scene specifically. Maybe Brewster’s dad was a cop, so he wanted to be one too. Maybe he was a wimpy math nerd, but filled out to Vin Diesel proportions between tenth and eleventh grade (boy were those bullies surprised!) and vowed to protect the weak from bullies. Maybe he liked the novelty of getting to walk around with a gun all day, and all the hot chicks he would pick up as a cop.

Because of his motivation and desire to be a good cop, when Brewster gets the call about the hostages in the bank, he doesn’t play sick, doesn’t pass it off on someone more experienced. Brewster goes to the crime scene, where people are wondering if someone so new to hostage negotiation should be the one to take this call. Now he’s motivated to stay there because his pride, and maybe his job is on the line, and because there are innocent people inside.

It’s important to remember that motivation mirrors the stakes being raised. As you increase the drama of the situation, motivation should go deeper and deeper, forcing the character to continue to act, despite the personal cost to them. If you have ever read a book or movie, and wondered why a cop doesn’t just walk away, or why the character puts themselves in danger all the time, or why they don’t just let the cops handle it, then that character isn’t properly motivated. And much worse than that, if the character isn’t properly motivation, it seems like they are just a pawn of the author, that they are doing things because the author said so. You might read a book, and go along with events just to see things through, but you won’t remember it later, or if you do, it’s not favorable. Poorly motivated characters piss me, and most readers, off quicker than a lot of other sins you could commit as an author, because it feels cheap. If you do nothing else as a writer (other than, you know, learn how to write), make sure your characters are properly motivated.

And this isn’t to say that your characters should be mentioning their motivations out loud to every hobo on the street, either (Cop: “Hello good sir, I am a cop because I have a chip on my shoulder the size of Montana!” Hobo: “Jolly good, jolly good. I am a bum because I was a war vet, and I have guilt for all the citizens I have killed, so I am doing penance by living a life of poverty.” They have British accents, too. I don’t know why). Most people have only a vague idea of why they do the things they do. Your characters might think, “I’ll show dad that I can be a better cop than him.” But unless they are really self aware, they aren’t going to think about their motivations in terms more precise than wanting to show their parents, or wanting to impress their coworkers and friends. You as the author should know exactly why the characters are doing what they are doing (Cindy has abandonment issues, and Frank is the first person to come along that made her feel loved, so she’s not going to just let his wife come between them).

But you don’t have to spell out a character’s motivation to get it across. Readers are very intelligent, as far as human beings go, so all you really have to do is SHOW why the character cares, and the reader will intuit the rest from there.

So, Brewster starts out relatively motivated to resolve the situation, but once he finds out that his sister is inside (thereby raising the stakes), his motivations increase. We aren’t wondering why Brewster doesn’t just evacuate with the rest of the pedestrians and half the police squad when the robbers reveal that they have the entire city block wired with enough explosives to bomb them all to the stratosphere, as a matter of fact, we EXPECT his resolve to fix the situation to increase. Now he can’t leave, his sister is inside, he’s made friends with one of the other hostages (your other main character), he HAS to make this right. All I had to say was “His sister is inside” and (probably, but if not, what, are you heartless? ;) ) you immediately understood that Brewster would see this situation to the end. There is no walking away for him.

And that, loyal minions, is when you have your crucible leap into the story, Superman cape a-flying.

2. The Crucible

A crucible is a vessel that you pour different ingredients (normally melted metal) into in order to melt them together under white hot heat. In fiction, it means a severe test. Essentially, the crucible is the “container” that holds your characters together as you continue to raise the stakes.

If your characters are sufficiently motivated, and the stakes are high enough, it will impossible for them to quit, no matter the cost. This situation is called the crucible.

Therefore, Motivation + Stakes = Crucible. This is a rough formula, but it works for most situations.

Some crucibles are:

*For a father and son, their crucible could be family. You can’t escape family, even if you move away and never talk to them. You still have the memory of them.

*For a poor office worker with a lecherous boss, her (or him if we reverse gender roles!) crucible is the job. She has to stay there because she can’t get paid as much elsewhere, and she has a sick son to feed.

*For a couple, their love could be the crucible tying them together.

It’s my theory that anything can become a crucible if the character is sufficiently motivated. In the above example of the office worker, I thought that money wasn’t a sufficient enough reason to subject yourself to harassment every day. It didn’t feel strong enough to be a crucible, so I adding in the bit about the sick son. I could go even further, as the stakes raise, and say she has a low self esteem, so she is keeping herself there because she doesn’t think she can get a job elsewhere (never underestimate the power of your character’s internal struggles. Internal motivation is some of the strongest motivation there is).

The crucible for our example is the hostage situation. The robbers can’t walk away, the cops can’t walk away, and the hostages certainly can’t walk away. Every single one of them is stuck together until something gives.

To me, a strong crucible also gives heavy implications to the outcome of the story, and instills that morbid curiosity in readers to see how it turns out. In the example with the hostage situation, you’re wondering what is going to happen, aren’t you? But you’re almost afraid to find out, right? Yeah, that’s a good, strong crucible hard at work. And for the record, I did not start out intentionally making this example into a strong crucible, it happened organically. You watched me throw out example after example that I literally made up off the top of my head as I went. Remember, it’s the character choices I made through these posts, and the personal stakes I used that makes this idea so compelling now. Let’s pretend that Brewster’s sister isn’t in the building, and all the hostages are his worse enemies.

Not so compelling now, is it?

Part of a good crucible is the implied ending. There doesn’t seem to be a way for this hostage situation to end well, right? Well, not and keep up the tension. I could have the robbers decide to change their minds and come out with their hands raised, all “Just kidding” and stuff. But that’s not a real ending, and we all know it. A good blend of characters, crucible, and conflict will make it so the reader can’t see how things are going to turn out favorably for the main characters, but they have to find out. And that’s a good thing. It keeps you from being predictable, and keeps the reader reading. As you raise the stakes, they are more and more invested in finding out how the characters claw their way out of this situation. It doesn’t happen every time, and it’s easier with such external examples as a hostage situations, but a plot works best when there’s the implied ending that if someone wins, the other person will automatically fail. If the robbers win, and blow the block to kingdom come, then Brewster fails. Period.

A good ending is more like an ultimatum.

A conflict will rise naturally if you have characters who are sufficiently motivation, in a tight crucible, and high stakes. And as you have probably noticed, our old friend Plot is trying to crash the Character party. This is a good thing, this back and forth between the two means we’re weaving something strong and interconnected.

Don’t think this conflict—crucible—motivation stuff works just for trashy thriller novels (Detective Brewster is appalled that you think his genre is trashy, by the way). There is conflict at the heart of every novel, even if it’s about a young woman’s coming of age in a new world. There’s actually a lot of conflict in that example. The conflict of her fears of the new world, her getting to know the customs, her missing home, I could go on and on.

Characters create conflict, and conflict breeds plot. Your plot should be the proving grounds for your character. If you are stumped as to what to do for your plot, make sure you have a fleshed out character, and then put them in situations that would elicit a strong reaction from them, either good or bad. Put them into situations that directly go against their inner natures. Character who is shy and mousey? Force them to give a speech. Character who is deathly afraid of water deeper than a glass? Stick them on a rickety boat. In the middle of a lake. Force them to stay there for a long time.

The fun thing about doing this to your character is it also serves as a test for their motivation. Your character would have to have strong motivation to give that speech or be on that boat, just as they would need strong motivation to put themselves in constant emotional and/or physical danger throughout your plot. If the character isn’t sufficiently motivated, he’s not giving that speech/getting on that boat. If he is well motivated, like say loss of a job if they don’t give the speech, or their daughter is on the other side of the lake, and there WAS no boat, well…they just might swim.

3. Wrapping things Up

I have barely scratched the surface of characters. I might post my shorter character sheet up here later, but I think this covers the gist of what you need to know in order to go forth into the adventure of novel writing.

There are other tidbits, like finding a picture of your character online, or finding their theme song, or watching a movie with someone who reminds you of your character, but again, it’s your little red wagon. Whatever works for you.

Tomorrow we’re going to be talking about Plot, and some different elements that make up a good one, like conflict, and suspense.

So, did anyone find that helpful? Confused? Let me know what you think!

How to Write a Novel 3: Characters, Part I

Quote: “I would never write about someone who is not at the end of his rope.
--Stanley Elkin

Song playing: My Hero by the Foo Fighters

I hope you all enjoyed my Love at First Sight Scene! It was a lot of fun to write.

Today is Progress Report Day. I am still doing the editing slog, that seems like it will never end. Of course, it will end someday, but right now there is no end in sight. *sigh* It will get better.

I had a great Valentine's Day. I saw Legion yesterday with my finace, and it was awesome! I LOVE Paul Beatty (Chauncer from A Knight's Tale, Silas from the Da Vinci Code). It's about angels coming to Earth to bring the apocalypse as directed by God, and Micheal (played by Paul Beatty) decides instead to protect the unborn child of a waitress. If he is born, mankind has a shot. If not...

Anywho, without further rambling from yours truely, here is the next installment of "How to Write a Novel":

You could chose to develop the plot next (more so than what I talked about in How to Write a Novel 2: From Idea to Plot) depending on the idea you have. If the idea is a situation (what if there was a hostage situation in a bank?), I normally continue to work on the plot. If the idea I have stems from a character (a woman is pregnant and her best friend helps her through the pregnancy), then I delve further into the characters.

I am going to talk about characters first because a) because it’s my blog, and my reign here is great and terrible, and b) because most (read: 99%) of my ideas have at least the inklings of a character in them. I actually had think really hard about the example I use for a situational plot that didn’t have a least a little bit of a character in them (the half and half ideas are something like: what if two friends are racing cars against each other and one of them gets badly hurt? The situation of the accident is there, but there is a strong suggestion of character as well (the two friends).

Due to the length of the post about Characters, I am breaking this sucker up into two posts. So here’s Part I:

1. Characters and Plot

Characters and plot are conjoined twins. You might work on one separately and then the other, but in the end your readers really shouldn’t be able to tell which came first. The plot serves as a vessel which you test your character in. Basically, think of the plot as a large swimming pool, and you, the writer, are tossing your character into it, in order to see how the character gets out. Does he swim? Does he let himself drown? Does he grow gills, and make a home in the pool, ruining your summer block party plans?

But, if the character is underdeveloped, no one is really going to care who gets tossed into the pool. You can tailor your plot to really bring out your character, but you need to know first what would get a rise out of them to begin with. If your character is indeed a mermaid, tossing them into a pool really isn’t going to test them. Yanking them out of the pool, however, will.

A novel is about someone getting into trouble, and finding their way of out it. Even the classics have some character in some sort of trouble, and detail how the character finds a solution. The trouble doesn’t have to be external, like being tossed into a pool. It could take place entirely within one room. But the character is still being tested, still pushed to their limits. And if we don’t care about the character, we don’t really care what is happening to them either.

So first we need to make a character, one that you can stand being with through hundreds of pages, and many revisions, and one that your readers will enjoy reading about.

2. Creating a character

If you start out with a character in mind, great. If you don’t, no problem. Remember, nothing during the process of writing it set in stone, no, not even after you write the first draft. Getting the book published is as close to being set in stone as there is, and even that isn’t as permanent as you think.

I’ll give you an example, just to hammer the point home: Years (and several more books into the series) after publishing the Dark Tower 1: the Gunslinger, Stephen King ret-conned (a geek term to mean that someone changes what was previously established to make it fit with the most current material. TV shows do this A LOT) the first book. After he had the series developed more, the first book didn’t seem to fit quite as well, so he released another edition of the first book, to include the new ideas that he came up with in the later books.

This is not an excuse to be lazy, and say you’ll just fix that issue later, just an example to help you understand that things will change as you work on your novel, even after you write the first draft.

So let’s say you don’t have an idea for a character at all, your story idea is almost entirely situational. We will use the hostage situation at the bank scenario, because who doesn’t love a good Characters Force to Be with Each Other conflict? I know I do! First, figure out who has to be there. Since it’s a hostage situation, there will be robbers, hostages, and probably bank employees and the police outside. Depending on what sort of book you want to write, you might chose from any of the above characters, or someone who isn’t listed yet. With each choice of a main character comes a different focus for the story. A main character from the hostages will bring the focus on being trapped in a dangerous situation, and what a person might do to get out of it. A main character from the robbers will bring the focus on what reasons a person might commit such a crime. Your main character doesn’t have to be a good guy, but the reader should be able to relate to him. Chuck Palahniuk is very good at creating main characters that I don’t necessarily like, but are interesting enough for me to want to know what happens to them. Your main character could be a cop, and the focus could shift to the outside of the bank, and his attempts to negotiate with the robbers. You could chose a main character who has nothing to do with the immediate situation, like the mother of one of the hostage victims, and the focus shifts to how helpless and powerless she feels, and what she does about that.

Or, you could have more than one main character, and shift from one character to another. Whatever choice you make will impact the sort of story you tell, so try to keep that in mind. It’s not that you can’t tell the same story with any one of the characters, but there is normally a better choice for the main character who can best gets across what sort of story you want to tell.

That choice is: the person with the most to lose.

Who would be the most devastated by the events of your story? Who would stand the most to gain, to lose? The answer to that question is normally the best choice for the main character. Of course, you might have a brilliant idea that defies all conventions, and if so, God speed good fellow! Remember, take what you find useful from these posts and discard the rest.

So, let’s say we’ve decided to write from two different people’s point of view (POV for short): the cop and one of the hostages. Now you start figuring out what sort of people they are. You do the same sort of brainstorming process you did with your idea, asking yourself what if? and trying to figure out what you find the most interesting. My first thought for the cop was he just got out of hostage negotiation school, and it was his first day back. Ouch. I could decide to put that idea aside, or just go with my first thoughts. Depending on my mood, I might do one or the other. Sometimes the character pops up in my head, I can see them perfectly and hear them talking. If that’s the case, I leave the character concept alone, figuring that this character has decided to adopt me (I am picturing a young detective in a beige trench coat). If the idea is still sort of hazy, I usually continue with the questions, just to be thorough.

Usually when I have a character in mind, I am like a terrier with a chew toy. I work on the idea or element that feels the most real to me, and let things spin out from there. In this case, it’s Detective Brewster, and his Very Bad Day. I could vaguely flesh out some of the other characters, like figure out the robbers, or who the other hostage is. Here is something neat: your character choices will directly influence the genre and sub-genre of story you are telling. If I wanted a romantic story, I could make the hostage character a female, and she uses her cunning to get the robbers to let her talk to Detective Brewster, and at the end, manages to help diffuse the situation. If I wanted a book closer to a buddy cop story, I could make the hostage character a Regular Joe, and he and Detective Brewster go have drinks at the end. If I wanted to really put Detective Brewster in a bind, I could make one of the hostages, either the other main character or one of the other hostages, someone he knows personally, like his sister or daughter.

3. Character Sheets

At this point, I usually start with a quick character sketch for the main characters. Ahhh, character questionnaires. Another topic of hot debate for writers. Despite their existence, I don’t actually know a writer, outside of myself, that uses in depth character sketches. Most of writers I know, and have read about, feel like they are too stifling, and a waste of time. I can see where they are coming from.

But, indulge me and my soapbox: I LOVE character sheets. I used to feel they were a waste of time too, who care’s what my character’s zodiac sign is?, until I read Noah Lukeman’s The Plot Thickens. Talk about life changing.

Lukeman has three ENTIRE chapters on characterization. He has pages, and pages of questions for your characters, but the point of those questions isn’t to just check off some boxes, or fill it out, and then never look at it again, but to think about how a trait will affect your character. I feel like this is where the point of character sheets gets lost. It’s not that you fill out a laundry list, but you are trying to dig deep into your character, to find out who they are. At the end of the major sections in Lukeman’s characterization, he asks questions about how the decisions you just made about your character (Detective Brewster is a republican, but his parents are Democrats) will affect them.

Even if you don’t answer all of the questions, just thinking about how character traits will influence the plot is helpful. Maybe your character moved from the mountains but has a thriving business in the Keys. She longs for the mountains, but doesn’t want to move her seashell business, where she knows she won’t do as well. This detail might not be important to the story, it might not have any bearing on the outcome of your plot, but if you have that in mind while writing about her, it will deepen your understanding of her. It might only be mentioned once that she grew up in the mountains, but if this detail helped YOU the writer see her as a person, than it did it’s job.

Character traits are relative. Most authors know a lot more about their characters than ever makes it into fiction, but the point isn’t to cram every character detail into your story, or conversely, to only use the details that apply directly to your story. The point is to feel like your characters are living, breathing people. Because if they aren’t real to you, your readers aren’t going to believe they are real either.

Some authors can write perfectly real, fleshed out characters without ever using a character sheet, and some authors (holds up her hand) think that character sheets are little gifts from heaven. Whatever works for you.

This covers the basics of who your characters could be. There is loads more information about your characters, but I have tried to stick with what I felt was the most pertinent.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk more about the psychology of your character, the inner workings that really makes or breaks a character.

If anyone has any questions, or comments, feel free to post in the comments section. How do you come up with your characters? How do you make them seem real?