Simplistic vs Tangled Plot Structures

Fiction Lessons:

Most of the books I read have linear plot lines.  Many consider such books simplistic even if the relationships among the primary and secondary characters are complicated.  Must say I rather prefer events to flow in one direction ...  with maybe some time outs for flashbacks.

Then, I read a book that a couple book-group friends praised:  New York Times Bestselling Author Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden.  The book started out with a lovely hook -- a small, pre-school English girl stranded on a boat heading for Australia and the ensuing events when she tries to determine her origins after she grows up.  In other words, a what-happened book instead of a who-done-it.

Most writers would use a nice linear structure to solve this mystery piece by piece, and the character would live happily or unhappily ever after.  Morton hops around in time like a skitterbug.   The time line jumps from pre-WWI to the 70s to the mid 2000s and back again.  In the end, it's the granddaughter who solves the true identity of the abandoned little girl [after she dies] and the dysfunctional family relationships that sent her on her voyage. 

Different sections explore the motives of each of the major characters  How did the writer do it?  With chapters written in different viewpoints in different times and "hatches" [#] to indicate breaks in the action within the chapters.

This all may sound rather lame, but I found the book a satisfying read ... though I doubt if I'd ever write anything that jumbled events [in an organized way] so often.  One thing bothered me though -- the curriculum questions at the back of the book.

Web Promotion and Other Stuff:

Cliches:  Ideas to avoid while writing.  So, why do I have four of them in one book manuscript.  {There Be Demons}  Whatever, I picked up a blog on Twitter by Elizabeth Briggs on major YA/MG cliches.  You might be interested in looking at it since it also applies to adult SF/Fantasy.

Got a lecture recently on how e-self-publishing is the way to go.  Amanda Hocking was given as one of the arguments why.  So, when Writer Beware had a link on Facebook,  I had to look.  You might like to look at her blog too, so I've included a link to her recent blog on her thoughts about self-publishing -- after she just signed with St. Martin's Press, one of the big print boys.  Sounds like she's a writer instead of some icon.

Of course, if your going to promote you have to have something to market.  You have to create something real enough to engage the emotions of your reader.  Nancy Williams did a blog on the elements of Revenge recently.  It's not as simplistic as many writers construct it.  So, take a look at Nancy's comments and see if your characters measure up.

Last but not least, I just discovered why I get so confused about all the publishing possibilities.  Again thanks to Writer Beware, I found a link to a blog by Lynn Price, of Behler Publications, on how the various definitions in publishing are changing.  So, the next time you think writer's have it hard, publishers are in the same boat.  I don't think anyone really knows what's going to happen very far into the future.

Progress:

To add a discussion to e-publishing:  I've submitted "The Noticing One" to Untreed Reads.  Yeah, I totally expect a rejection.  The piece is probably too short [... even though they want short stuff ...] and maybe not written well enough.  It's been out only a couple of times ... and got a long explanation why the editor didn't buy it, so maybe there's hope of a sale. --  If so, that means I'll have two publications up in the e-o-shpere.  Why submit as a short story stand-alone?  Well, in the e-publishing it seems that if you have more than one offering, you get more sales.  [I assume that's if you've told some good stories.] 

Also got "Dark Solstice" out to Angry Robot books.  In case you hadn't heard, the British publisher was taking unagented manuscripts during the month of March.  Guess I'm sort of at the bottom of the heap.  Did re-edit the submitted chapters and was surprised at how well they stood up.  Made very few changes.  Maybe they'll ask for a full.  [That's the height of my ambition.] 

Can't wait to get back to revising Emma. [Psst.  I'll tell you my secret fault.  I downplay my VP characters' emotional reactions to the action, which means I add rather than delete.]

Trivia:

 Nothing much different is going on.  I'm just a little squirrel running in her wheel.

Book Trailer Progress

How's the book trailer progressing?  I think it is.

Yeah,  I'm still sweating the making of my first book trailer.  Sweating, not because I'm worried, but sweating because it's hard work ... and time consuming.  But then, book trailers seem to stay on YouTub forever so it should be worth the effort, someday.  

Did get the music part nailed down ... though not "done", but it's nice to know what I want is possible.

From what I see on AW Water Cooler and from searching "making book trailers", the things seem to be a popular topic.  If you are interested in seeing what the "big boys" are doing, you might check out:  In Search of the Ultimate Children's and YA Book Trailer.  They've got some interesting examples. 

On the personal end:  I'm getting quick responses from a book trailer maker ... who likes my daughter's harp music.  Granted the elf and Celtic harp music is sort of a cliche.  But then, my daughter's playing isn't the usual stuff most harpists pluck from the strings.  [plug:  You can get free samples of her music.]  Funny thing, though.  In my various Half-Elven stories, no one plays the harp ... that I can remember.  Drums.  Fiddles.  Whistles.  No harps.

Has anyone had a positive or negative experience with book trailers?  I'm doing this to increase name recognition ... and hopefully, to sell some "books".  Who knows how successful it'll play out. 

[Books is in quotes since what's being published is a novelette since I think it's too short to be classified as a novella.   Have you noticed that quite of few e-publishers do short stories as singles?]

Moving Your Plot Character by Character

Fiction Lesson:

"The characters are cardboard.  The plot's so simplistic," people have complained to me for years about the fantasy I read.  I've never apologized for reading fantasy.  I enjoy it.  Never joined a literary book group either.  Maybe I'm a reverse snob, but I thoroughly enjoyed my private Anita Blake book fest the last week.  [I took a break from serious reading after attending the Northern Colorado Writers conference.]  

The books I read came from what might be called Laurell K. Hamilton's middle phase before Blake become an all out "sex machine" and where she's learning to control the various vampiric skills infecting her.  The books:  Blue Moon, Burnt Offerings, Cerulean Sins, and Incubus Dreams.

Sterotypes are difficult to remove from people's  minds, but I can't see where Hamilton's books are simplistic on any level.  Even some of her sex scenes take three chapters.

Let me count the ways the character groupings that interact with Blake to move Hamilton's plots forward:

     --  the main triad of Blake, Jean-Claude and Asher, who keep the vampires of St Louis safe from the big bad Vampire Council in Europe;
     --  the were-panther pard with Blake, Micah, and Nathaniel living together with others of the group wandering in and out of her house and Jean-Claude's businesses;
     --  the triad of Jean-Claude, Blake, and Richard Zeeman which is close to non-functional because of personal issues over loathing of being a werewolf, differing sexual parameters, and proper relationship roles among other things;
     --  as Jean-Claude's human servant and as her powers grow, Blake forms her own triad [vampiric servant - animal to call -"dinner"] with three other characters.

Each book develops aspects of these relationships as it progresses.  The different characters grow in each book.

You also have to add various friends and family who pop in and other of Hamilton's plots to complicate things.  Granted Hamilton has a series featuring the same character so there is a time line involved, but she has complicated Blakes these situations in each book she completes.

As if that's not enough, Hamilton develops other relationships that add texture to Blake's life.
    --  the animator business that supports Blake and the people involved with it;
    --  the miscellaneous vampires that form Jean-Claude's empire as the Master of the City of St. Louis and the various weres that guard them;
    --  the cops -- local, federal, and private [including Edward, the arms supplier] -- where Blake acts as the Executioner in her role of solving preternatural crimes;
    --  miscellaneous bad guys passing through St. Louis;
    --  various trips outside of town where she encounters new complications;
    --  the local werewolf pack where Blake has performed various roles through the books;
    --  an organization to protect the 'furry challenged" of St. Louis from hate crimes;
    -- the Vampire church that's run by a master vampire not affiliated with Jean-Claude; 
    -- and last by not least various members and servants of the European Vampire Council who show up regularly to cause consternation and mayhem.

Is Hamilton's fantasy world an anomaly?  I don't think so.  I think I could go through the same process with Karen Marie Moning, Patricia Briggs, and Charlaine Harris among others with the same results.

How does the structure of your books stand up to this standard?   I think the bottom line is that you're most likely to sell if your people live in a real world and interact with the other people within it.  The huge sigh of relief you heard was me.  I write middle grade ... so my world isn't as complicated as the adult world ... but it still needs to be real.

Promotion and Web Stuff:

I'm pulling the bags forward.  Don't have links today since the above was so long and I've been running out of time ... every day.

Progress:

I'm just about to combine two chapters of Emma to make the plot move faster.  Now my guilty conscience is wondering if that'll count as one or two chapters completed.

Got my short story, "The Noticing One", rewritten but still have to dink with it at least once again.  Then there's the pain of submitting it ... somewhere.  ...  Don't mean the rejections are painful.  It's going through the list of the various publications for their current requirements and deciding which one to send it too.

Trivia:

The Christmas cacti are blooming again.  Nice to have them joining the daffodils, squill, tulips, and crocus, even if they stay inside. 

Chasing Book Trailer Makers

On to the next step in promoting "Taking Vengeance" ... the book trailer.

I've been looking for someone to make one for me after my daughter told me her learning curve was going to take too long.  [She'll still help me with the music.]  There are all sorts of links on Goggle and Yahoo telling how I can do my own.  Read enough of them to be tempted to try my hand at doing a trailer.  But, I should hope I'm not dumb enough to use my first effort to promote my book.  If I do decided to waste my time learning, you guys will be the first to know.  Windows actually has a movie ap or some such thing waiting to temp me.

Did turn a little growlly when I emailed ten trailer makers and only two responded.  Guess that's all I need ... but still, there's such a thing as having a professional attitude.  Good news?  One of them was in my price range ... I think.  We're still talking.

One thing is certain.  Researching stuff on the web is a major time-suck.  I had three of them going on at once ... and wondered why I wasn't getting any revising or the update on my projects done.  At least, I think the trailer thing is out of the wheel-spinning stage.  Now, I'm still researching publishers and weird-fantasy agents.

Believe me.  Agents, who've paid their dues and lined up contacts in the industry, are worth their weight in gold.  Even with e-publishing I think this is true.  Has anyone else noticed how the ebook rankings in the New York Times mirror the print book ones?