Yo Mother!

Recruits, you get the day off to treat your ma like Princess Kate.

Characterization Through Fully-dramatized First Dates

Okay recruits.  You got to sleep-in and take it slow, but those slow days can sometimes be your most creative.  Tap into your inspiration today and write.

If you're feeling blocked, here's an idea: Have two characters go on a first date with each other.  In my first book, the protagonist goes out to dinner with an FBI agent.  I used the scene to reveal character and develop tension between the two of them.  You can write out first dates between different characters--even if they will never get together in the book.  Figure out what they have in common and where they clash by going out to dinner, a show, and writing out their conversations--in character, with their appropriate voices. Don't skimp on these scenes--write them as carefully as if they were to be published. Show, don't tell. You might be surprised by the actions and conversations.   

What kind of restaurant would they choose for dinner--would the other character like it or not? What would they order and how much would they tip?

What kinds of questions would they ask each other--favorite music, hobbies, color?  Would these two people get into an argument? Where would they disagree and what would push them from polite conversation into argument?   One question my protag asked the agent halfway into the conversation I like a lot and now use on all my characters:

“What do you like to do while you’re alone on a Saturday, listening to the Cure? I know nothing about you. The real you.”

Make it interactive, between the two of them. Where would they go after dinner? A movie? A show? A cultural festival? Their apartment?

And yes, would these two characters in the right circumstances sleep together?

Stealing from Peter to Pay Paul

How did your Long Run go?  I wrote 4800 words by the end of the day--mostly crap, but there are some tidbits of potential.  Most writers have to churn through some shit to get to the good stuff, that's normal. 

"The first draft of anything is shit."
— Ernest Hemingway

 Today's drill is on interactions, or 'stealing from Peter to pay Paul.' 

Everything that happens in a story affects more than one character.  It is the nature of literature.  If a good story is truer than if it really happened (paraphrasing Hemingway again), then the action should be woven together like a tight mesh.  If you pull on one thread, that pull reverberates through the entire mesh--every thread.

Nothing can happen in isolation.

What does that mean to your story?  I can't find who to attribute, but someone said 'Don't ever let two characters sleep with each other unless there's someone else who's going to be devastated by that.'  If a character decides to eat lobster for dinner, we need there to be a reason he chose lobster and that lobster needs to affect another character--like the restaurant owner who's storing a dead body next to his lobster tank. So the waiter goes back there and finds it.

And if you rob Peter, what happened to the money?  As a former Economics major, I can tell you that in real life, if you want to understand a stream of actions, follow the money.  Is it the same with your book?  Money should follow a path that helps to reveal plot and character.  It's a powerful story element.  USE IT.  

Pick a page of your novel and relate one action of that page to another character in the book.  Write it out as backstory, but you may find that one piece of that AMPS up the tension in your book.

Good luck, Private. 

The Long Run

"Taking the Point" by
US Army Staff Artist Master Sergeant Snowden
US Army Online Art Collection

Thanks !

Did you work on your "suspension" yesterday?  I HOPE you did, because if you didn't, you get to double-up today's assignment.  You're gonna get CRAMPS, idiot.

Today we're headed out for The Long Run.   Pick a writing spot.  Set up a glass of water or whatever, make certain the kids have something to occupy them, the animals are fed, the internet is off, etc.  

Set a timer for one hour. Then close the door and WRITE.

No research, no editing, try to move out of your logical mind into a word-groove.  Don't stop until you hear the timer.

KAPISCH?

Are you with us? The Willing Suspension of Disbelief

So did you do your writing yesterday?  Do you have fifteen minutes of free writing plus some backstory on a character?  If you didn't, then why are you here, Private?  Do you want to become an author, or just dally in writing?  There's nothing wrong with dallying. It's just different.  The first two assignments were easy--today we're starting our real challenge.  If you're NOT serious about your work, if you consider it "just fiction" as I heard in a forum the other day, then you won't want to stay here.  Go home to your mummy, Private.

Today's drill is on the willing suspension of disbelief. 

"What the...?" you may ask.

The "suspension" as we'll call it is an art form, a gift, and controversial.  As writers of fiction, we suspend reality and present a fictional story ... but our readers HAVE to be willing to suspend reality in their minds to take in our fiction, which is really "lies" if you think about it.  Lies that can sometimes bring out gut truths.

The suspension has two sides.  The author and the reader.  We can't suspend to someone who doesn't want to be suspended to.  I've met many people who just don't read fiction, 'cause it's a free country and they don't have to.   As authors, we have to master the art of reaching into the minds and hearts of the people who are willing to suspend their disbelief.  Their willingness is a gift.  The suspension we present has to be close to flawless, or they sit up mid-sentence and say, "This is crap." and they close the book.

We want them to keep the book open.

Work on your suspension with an arsenal of characters that ring true, dialog that sounds natural, and  DETAILS that reflect reality and project it onto our story. If your details seem consistent within the world of the book, the reader will continue suspending their disbelief.  

At the bookshop where I only work occasionally now (sniff), I've noticed that most people perusing the books start out cynical and get drawn in fast or close the book. I think they're looking for a suspension of disbelief they can accept--one that makes their mind explode with ideas.  They want to be entertained or enlightened, not tortured.

The controversy?  Some people think it's up to the READER to suspend their disbelief. As authors we just offer up our "lies" and the reader who doesn't believe them doesn't have a good enough imagination.  I say it's a free country so they don't have to read anything they don't want to read.  It's our responsibility to write well enough that they WANT to read it.  

So today let's work on the details that can help your "lies" seem true.  I'll use my own example again--my plumber mystery. Since I am not a plumber, I'm researching plumbing.  I actually went on a ride-along with my local plumber a couple of weeks ago.  Then I picked up some used books on plumbing.   Today I'm researching drain pipes.  Glamorous.

I need to know all about drains and water flow through sewer lines so I can write a realistic story about a plumber investigating a murder.  If I don't draw the picture realistically, nobody will read it. That's okay for someone who just wants to dally in writing, but I want to be an author.  So I'm wading through sewers of research.

You have to do the same. If your story is about a nun, you'll need to research nuns.  Read about them, speak to one.  I think you'll find MORE ideas from your research, not less.   

So GET ON TO YOUR RESEARCH. What are you waiting for?

Backstory that makes or breaks your characters

So did you write yesterday?  If so, A big HUUUEEY to you (and me).  If not, GIMME FIFTY, Sucker. (Click the link if you don't know what that means--then come back after you've finished the fifty.)

 

The Mystery of Your Protagonist

I want you to pull out the inciting incident from yesterday and reread it. Don't edit.  Now think about clues to your characters that come out of this incident. 
'
Characterization is like slowly revealing a series of clues to a fictional person. Done well, it creates the illusion of seeing into his soul.  An effective character is someone we care about.  And it has to start right here, at the start..  

Choose a character--any character--at the moment of the inciting incident.  How did he get here?  Why?  We need to know his BACKSTORY so we can project effective clues to his soul as we write the book.  This backstory may never appear in the book.  Or maybe just a few words will seep in now and then, but it will be in your head and will come out between the words.

That's it's calling. 

I repeat, it should seep into your story mostly between the words. Through the character's voice, attitude, style and actions, we start to understand his past.  Then when you throw in a tidbit of fact from the backstory, it fills in a gap for us. Like finding out your next door neighbor's hidden past ... scintillating.

So choose one character.  If he's a killer, why?  How come he painted the victim's nails?  If she's the star of your novel, how did she get to this inciting moment?  What kept her from her childhood dreams? --made her leave her husband?  

I'm working with a plumber sleuth in my current WIP so I'll share what I'm working on today.  This guy is thirty-five, pot-bellied and spends a lot of evenings at The Pink Flamingo--the local titty bar.   He was once the star of the football team--ripped and handsome.  He made almost straight As and went off to a good college.  

So what happened?  That's his story.  I need to know that before I can write any further.  

Have a great write, 

Lucie

   

Get your fingers in gear, Private

It's May Day.  And if you're here then you're calling out "MAYDAY, mayday" in your writing career.  You need to get your fingers in gear.

Close down the internet as soon as you read this. Pull up your word processor and face that blank page. I said, FACE IT.

And when your fingers' start scratching that keyboard, revel in every word. You don't need someone to give you a writing prompt. You don't need me to hold your prissy hand.  Just plant your ass at the keys and stay there until something meaningful comes out.

Yeah, it could take a while.  

Here's an early  BEASTIE BOYS clip to remind you that you don't really have to say anything meaningful to start.  You don't need English degrees, state of the art equipment or excuses.

JUST WRITE, dammit.  

I'll assign latrine duty for anyone who doesn't write some crap today--so WRITE WORDS or clean up someone else's shit.  Your choice.