Story Sensei

Here’s another great quote from Dwight Swain on characterization: The key to effective character presentation is contrast. Think about it. If your heroine is just like a typical heroine in your genre, she’ll be boring and two-dimensional. If she’s just like a minor character in your story, she’ll again be boring and two-dimensional. Contrast your characters both against other books, and against other characters in your book. The first is harder, but I keep in mind Donald Maass’s advice to make your characters larger than life. Make them do things you wouldn’t do. Make them better than who you are, make them even better than your real-life heroes. I’m not saying to make them perfect, but to make them richer. The most memorable characters in fiction are those who are out of the common mold, with multiple facets and a dominant impression on the reader. Also make sure your characters aren’t too much like the other characters in the story. The most obvious method is to make sure their dial...

As a writer, you need to take care of your body. If you are in good health, your blood is feeding your brain so it buzzes faster and the writing comes easier. I know it’s hard when you’ve been chasing kids all day and/or working a full-time job, but a few minutes and a couple small changes can make all the difference between blazing creativity or writer’s block. Take a ten minute stretch or walking break every hour. This can not only help a bad back, it will get your heart pumping lightly to send more oxygen to your brain cells. Another option is to stand as you work, whether with your laptop on a shelf or elevating your monitor and keyboard so you can stand at your desk. Drink lots of water. Keep a water bottle by your writing area so you can remember to drink enough. If you’re hydrated properly, your brain works more efficiently and fuels your creativity. See? Just a few small changes can help your writing tenfold!

Dwight Swain made a point in Techniques of the Selling Writer that is a truth which endures today. How do you shape development of your characters? Stress is the formative factor, the thing that makes or breaks a man. So, plunge your people into conflict. Let pressure strip away the gloss and reveal them as they really are. No matter how much writing styles have changed through the years, this still holds true for all characters. Conflict and stress is what reveals their personalities to your reader. A character who seems rather two-dimensional can often be fleshed out more by putting him in an extreme situation. What are your character’s hot buttons? What are his fears? What are his weaknesses? Slam him with one of them in a difficult scene. Readers tend to root for the underdog, so putting pressure on your character can add to her appeal. Pressure can reveal more about the character’s inner depths and motivations as the character reacts to the conflict, which helps the reader unders...

After I was contracted on my Asian chick lit novel, I had what’s called macro edits or developmental edits. And one of the biggest problems I had to address in my macro edits was TOO MANY CHARACTERS. Trying to be cute—well, as cute as I thought I was being, anyway—I had named practically every person my heroine interacted with, from the receptionist to the talent scout she had to call. I had a quandary, because while I could get away with writing, “Lex talked to the talent scout on the telephone” in a synopsis, it was hard to make her dialogue with Mr. Nameless Talent Scout in the actual manuscript. Lex dialed Talent Scout, who picked up on the third ring. “Hello?” “Hi, Talent Scout. My name is Lex Sakai, and I work for SPZ Sports Zone.” The problem with too many characters, however, is that if you drop names of people who are never heard from again, it can confuse the reader and make the story seem “crowded.” They’ll have a hard time remembering the names of the minor characters who a...

Names mean something. Everybody knows that. Your reader, however, will not always know that Amaterasu means “shining over heaven.” Be sensible in naming your characters. It’s good if you can pick a name that means something significant to the story or the character’s personality, however don’t go overboard. Most readers don’t really know what most English names mean. Also think about how that name falls in a historical context. A name like “Agatha” was popular many years ago, whereas “Kaitlyn” is more modern. Therefore, the initial picture in a reader’s mind when they see the name “Agatha” might not be the buxom teenager she actually is (and my apologies to any buxom young teens named Agatha). Don’t take alliteration too far. It can be humorous, but don’t make a name that will cause your readers to stumble in their reading flow. “Petunia Petrucci” might be funny, but if your reader is taken out of the story every time they see the word Petunia (especially if she’s some hulking Nurse R...

When creating your characters, make every aspect of their lives mean something to the story. That includes their occupations. A person’s job says a lot about their personality, their likes and dislikes. One of my Sushi Series heroines, Alexis “Lex” Sakai, chafes in her engineering position. However, when she’s offered a job working for a huge sports information website, she jumps at the chance because she’s a sports nut. Lex’s job reflects her interests, and her coworkers and responsibilities at work impact the storyline in various ways. The job is not just “a job,” but also a plot point and almost a character trait. Think about your characters’ jobs, and brainstorm how they can influence the storyline in some way. That will make a more tightly woven story.

The key thing an editor will want to know early in the synopsis is each major protagonist’s external goal. This should be obvious within the first 1-3 paragraphs. The external goal must be concrete and specific, not something vague like “Jane wants to become a successful rock star.” A good external goal has a definite end to it, where there is a point when the protagonist knows exactly when they’ve succeeded or failed. An external goal is typically something physical that can be touched or held, although not always. For example, a good external goal for Jane would be “to get my picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine” because that’s the point at which she knows she’s become a successful rock star. Then all her actions in the story will be aiming toward that goal of getting her picture there. The goal is not always specifically stated like this in the manuscript. For example, in your manuscript, you might show Jane fingering Rolling Stone and dreaming about her picture there, ...

Do you have any lines of dialogue in your synopsis? Even if they’re key lines, cut them and tell what’s going on instead. You can usually trim by telling instead of showing. For example: Luke hangs on the overhanging metal strut, armless and vulnerable. Darth Vader reaches out to him and says, “Luke, I am your father.” “No! That’s not true!” Luke denies, then falls down the duct to what he believes will be his death. Vs. Luke hangs vulnerable on the metal strut. Darth Vader insists he’s Luke’s father, which Luke denies. Luke drops down the duct. Be careful about the climax of the story—that’s usually the place where writers are tempted to include key dialogue lines which the story pivots upon. However, in trimming a synopsis, it’s better to cut those dramatic lines in favor of “just the facts” and a shorter synopsis.

There was a two-part interview with my Zondervan Senior Editor, Sue Brower, over at Novel Journey with Gina Holmes. Sue used to be Senior Marketing Director before she became Senior Fiction Editor, so she brings a lot of extra background to her editing. She thinks not only about the writing, but also the marketability, the author's brand, etc. She's been really great to work with. Check out the pearls of wisdom from the woman who “discovered” me . ;) Part One Part Two

If you have something you’re aiming for, then it can motivate you to be efficient and productive. I’m not talking about goals like “get an agent” or “get a publishing contract” which are not things you can control. I’m talking about concrete goals for you to achieve. Things like “finish my manuscript this year” or “research and query ten agents.” Set deadlines, if you can: “finish my manuscript by December 30th, 2007” or “research and query ten agents by January 31st, 2007.” If writing is something important to you, then spur yourself on in your writing career. Set goals and work toward them. This is kind of funny, but this type of setting goals is just like giving your characters external goals. The goals are concrete, with a deadline, and not something dependent on things out of the character’s control.

I just got this e-mail from Randy Ingermanson, who publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine : Hi all, For nearly two years, the most popular feature in my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine has been my monthly column on marketing. Some of my readers don't even write fiction! Some of you read this e-zine only for the marketing information. I'm delighted to tell you that I'm launching a new free e-zine dedicated to teaching advanced internet marketing methods to writers of all stripes, whether you write fiction or nonfiction, whether you have been published or not, whether you are techie or not. The new e-zine will be called THE MAD GENIUS WRITER. (My friends came up with this name, and I defer to their near-unanimous opinion, the wretches.) THE MAD GENIUS WRITER is for writers ONLY! (And your editors, agents, publicists, and publishers.) I do NOT want anyone else reading it. I hope to unleash your inner "mad genius" to help you market your work as effectively as ...

The three Barbour editors, Rebecca Germany, JoAnne Simmons, and Susan Downs, have a blog! It’s called The Edit Café , and it’s FABULOUS. The blog posts offer great insight into the action behind the editing process, and they answer questions, too! Head on over and say hi. Tell them Camy sent you!

HEARTBEAT INTERN CONTEST for Pre-Pubbed, Pre-PRO Romance Writers Accepting entries starting January 1, 2007! This is a brand new contest aimed at beginners. In other words, if you’ve been published in any format at any time, or have achieved RWA-PRO ( Romance Writers of America ) status, you’re not eligible. CATEGORIES & JUDGES Romantic Suspense: Patience Smith - Silhouette Suspense. Erotic Romance: Alicia Rasley - Red Sage Anything Romance w/ Medical Elements: Sheila Hodgson - Harlequin Mills & Boom Medicals Inspirational Romance: Melissa Endlich - Steeple Hill Series Romance (long & short): Scott Eagan - Greyhaus Literary Agency Single Title Romance: Hilary Sares - Kensington First place winners in each category will receive a critique from Lois Winston, Agent with Grayson Literary Agency. TIMELINE 1. Entries accepted from January 1 - February 1 (Entries with a postmark of February 1 or before will be accepted until February 6). 2. If a deadline falls on a Saturday/Sunda...

Oh, goodness! Sara’s heart pounded in her chest. “Josephine! I didn’t even see you there!” While just 10 years ago, books had tons of exclamation points all over the place, these days, most editors prefer limited use of exclamation points, especially in dialogue. They typically suggest using them only if someone is screaming or shouting, rather than just a raised voice. Some are nazis about it, some aren't. I would suggest getting rid of as many exclamation points as you can just in case you come across someone who's picky about it.

Separate from your own unique writer’s voice is each individual character’s voice. Sometimes writers will not make each character’s own dialogue distinct enough to be able to tell characters apart. Many times, if you remove the dialogue tags and action beats from a scene of dialogue, the two characters will sound exactly alike, whether it’s two men, two women, or a man and a woman. Each character should be so individual that even their speech patterns are distinct. I’m not talking about dialect or slang. Lots of things can contribute to character voices--pacing and rhythm, word choice, grammar, sentence length, casual versus formal. Don’t cop out and give one person a lisp or a dialect—try to make them unique just by their words alone. You, as the writer, know who is who as you hear each character talking in your head. The challenge is to convey the distinction on the page to the reader. One exercise I like to do is to take an incident and have different characters tell it. Often, I ca...

When reading contest entries or manuscript for critiquing, sometimes dialogue goes on for too long. This can affect pacing, and it can also disengage the reader if the dialogue isn’t necessary to character development or the plot. Look through your own manuscript to see if a few interchanges in a scene of dialogue might be unnecessary. Sometimes things like that are needed to set tone, or reveal character, but look through your dialogue to see if anything can be cut. You as the writer have a good feel for what's vital to your voice and the tone, and what might be just fluff. Most writers say that anything that can reduce word count will usually only make the story better. Anything that can speed up the pace a bit during action scenes (dialogue) will help glue the reader to the page.

Rather than listening to me talk, why not read a few good articles on dialogue: http://www.jamesscottbell.com/Site/Dialogue%20Tips.html http://www.sff.net/people/alicia/artdialogue.htm http://www.pammc.com/dialogue.htm (good examples of proper punctuation for dialogue) http://www.charlottedillon.com/Articles.html http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/index.shtml These last two are websites with several articles on various topics, including dialogue. These links were current as of the publishing of this blog post. If any are broken, please e-mail me or leave a comment to let me know.

Mark Goodyear made a great point that one way to learn to write good dialogue is to read good dialogue, and one of the best resources are good plays. Specifically, the Tony winners, since aren’t those the best plays written in America? If you go to his blog post about it , he gives the website of the Tonys and how to search for plays to read. Plays can be found in your local library. They might also be in the drama department of your local high school and available for loan, so send your child on a recon mission. Another good resource is online stores where you can buy cheap used copies (which you can then flag and mark up with notes). Look for dialogue that moves you, then look through it again to discover why. Look at pacing, sentence rhythm, word choice—especially word choice specific to certain characters. Judicious use of sentence structure and sentence length also make up good dialogue. Once you analyze good dialogue, you’ll find you’ll be more critical of your own writing as y...

All dialogue should have some type of conflict. Exchange of information or small-talk is boring and slows the reading flow. The characters don’t need to be fighting with each other, but there should be something one of the characters is fighting FOR. Fighting to hide information, fighting to obtain information, fighting to right a wrong, fighting to convince the other. In the words of Randy Ingermanson ( Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine ), “Dialogue is war.” A dialogue with two strong forces has the energy to propel the story forward. It tends to be highly emotional, but at the same time very simple and direct (unlike actual conversation in real life). The best way to have both emotion and simplicity is to lay the dialogue down first and then go back later to refine, cut, clarify. Because dialogue is emotional, it also tends to be more give-and-take, more back-and-forth. In our modern publishing industry, it’s rare to have a character go on and on without the other character responding....

“I know you did it.” He slammed his fist on the table. She fingered her long necklace with manicured fingers. “I never said I did.” “We have you on tape.” He reached out to touch the micro-recorder. “I told you, I was only joking when I said that.” She wouldn’t look at him. He crossed his arms and glared at her. “People don’t joke to kill someone.” “That’s not true. People joke about killing their friends all the time.” She crossed her arms and stared him down. Even though we vary the sentence structure and the position of the dialogue, the action beats in this conversation are a bit much. You don't need to identify the speaker every time he speaks. You can have back and forth a bit and still know who's speaking. Action beats should have a purpose --to show inner emotion or characterization, not just as filler in between lines of dialogue. “I know you did it!” “I never said I did.” “We have you on tape.” “I told you, I was only joking when I said that.” She wouldn’t look at him...