Do Your Characters Live on the Edge?

Why should readers read your stories? Because you're a nice person? I'm sure you are, but I'm not so sure about my myself. Still, I'd like people to read my stories. Thinking about this, I've hit my head against a basic idea: Will your characters survive their trials and tribulations. 

[This is a little difficult with my Half-Elven, but I need to address the principle in some way. Maybe asking: how much skin do your characters stand to lose in your story, might help?] 

Last Friday, I finished Karen Marie Moning's Shadowfever, the last of her Fever series. The almost 700-word-book spent too much time in the head of Mackayla, the main character, for my taste. But still, the book managed to move instead of spin. The Rainbow girl, oozing with Georgia sunshine, is no more ... and has turned into something darker ... and has to cope with that transformation ... and survive, if not live happily ever after. The series is a paranormal romance, after all.

Actually, the Fever series is longer than the five books listed. Moning included characters and situations from her Highlander series. Hints appeared here and there in previous books, but Shadowfever had the Keltar clan playing a major secondary role. Found it kind of amusing that the hyper-virile Keltars had to play second fiddle to Mackayla. Still, they got to snap and snarl at Barrons and his crew.

All in all, she managed to create a great twist on the Fae. Not the cutsie fairies. But the terrible inhuman Fae of serious legend. I thought her ability to give strange creatures understandable motives one of Moning's more striking achievements. 

Moning managed to tie up the loose ends, as far as I can remember, while throwing in some twists which I didn't see coming. I had suspicions that some of the characters weren't exactly what they seemed, but the "reality" Moning presented wasn't exactly like I thought. Moning has two series on my keeper bookshelves.

An Aside:

A good share of my time on Sunday mornings is spent reading the book reviews in the New York Times. Yesterday, they did their children's book insert. Elizabeth Bird's review gave me the most to think about. Consider this beginning:

"Imagine the difficulty of creating an active crime-fighting protagonist in the age of helicopter parents." 

One writer solution would be to put your characters into a historical time, which is what Greg Ruth (City of Orphans) and Chris Moriarty (The Inquisitor's Apprentice) do. Baker's take:

"And for today's readers, finding themselves caught beneath the omnipresent, not to say suffocating, love and attention of their hovering parents, reading about children free to go anywhere and to solve crimes, not to say their own problems, may offer them the escape they understandably crave." 

[Please excuse the typos. NaNoWriMo is really eating into my time.]

Fast Start, Slow Start.

The Read ...

 Fast or slow, the start of your novel and its speed off the blocks are always a problem.  A breaking point for agent, publisher, and reader.  My latest read has me puzzling this question ... because the start of next year's "novel" is breathing down my neck.   

I bought Cricket McRae's mystery, Lye in Wait, at a local author's reading.  She read such a vivid characterization of an interfering mother getting her way within the context of a brother's mysterious suicide that I thought she was worth buying a trade paperback for ... the first in the series.  Then, I read the first chapter and wondered if I'd lost my mind.

Oh, the book started great.  Opening sentence:  "That Thursday morning had been going so well until I found the local handyman dead on my workroom floor."  

A wonderfully simple opening line that'd warm the cockles of any critics heart.  But, the character turned out to be something of a dip.  In the first chapter, she committed two stupidities the likes of which'd get any teen in a horror movie killed ... or at least, lose a finger when she put it in an unknown substance by a dead body.

Since McRae didn't strike out with a third goof-up ... and then, used the protagonist's bad decisions as a point of humor in the book ... I kept reading and was rewarded with a neat, intricate plot that illustrated that having a family can be dangerous to your health.

Web and Other Stuff ...

Tamela Burhke at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer's asks a question I often ask myself:  basically Why blog?.  One of the first things she mentions is what a time-sink it is.  Many of her comments seem to apply to non-fiction writers more than fiction ones.  Still, you should make note of her comments.  Oh, I've followed the blog too so I can read the next installment in the discussion.

Overwhelmed by all the tweets on Twitter?  Roni Lauren over at *Fiction Groupie* has a simple way to organize your Twitter "follows"?  -- "Authors on Twitter".  You might go over and take a look.

Did you catch the Thursday (12/9) front page article on e-books in the New York Times?  Romance readers seem to be buying the most e-books.  (Link courtesy of the AW Water Cooler.)   Seems like they don't have the courage to show the semi-salacious print covers in public.  ...  Don't quite understand it, but then, I've always thought Favio something of a turn-off.  Maybe shy away for displaying erotica?

One more media networking thing.  David Wisehart is doing a promotion experiment on Twitter -- #Sample Sunday.  Visit his blog, Kindle Author, to get the details.  Published, work-in-progress, short stories -- the categories are open.  This is listed as an experiment on AW Water Cooler.

Progress ...

If cleaning is progress, I'm making it.  So far, it's only manuscripts ... but I have loads of paper piling up again that needs to be sorted and filed and recycled in the printer.  Now ... if only some of the places where I have long standing submissions would start cleaning up their files.

Guess, I just as soon have a rejection after three months as let a submission continue to hang in the nether regions.

Trivia ...

The rest of the house needs sorting and dumping and cleaning too.  Part of it gets done today and tomorrow.  A friend who's allergic to cats is coming to visit.

 

Killing Your Villains

The Read...

Villains have a bad habit of sneaking back into the story line after they have been killed, especially in series.  Patricia Briggs' Wolfbane gives us a great example of this plot element, one that greatly increased the tension about half-way through the book -- since the main characters were still seeking answers but you, the reader, had been given enough clues to know a disaster could be in the making.  About two-thirds of the way done, the characters not only knew the major villain had found a way to return from death ... but he was "haunting" the secondary semi-villain who had the power to see that the main characters were killed for "breaking the rules".

Brigg's gives a writer a lesson in introducing several possible villains to increase the tension in the story line.  After all, isn't tension the means of keeping the reader hooked?  This book is again on the NYT Best Seller List ... and deserves to be ... even if it's a relatively light read.

I think I like Briggs because of her light touch -- which goes a little ways towards explaining why I've reviewed so many of her books.  --  Also, the Mercy Thompson books are set in the eastern corner of Washington/Oregon where I've spent many a lunch time while traveling to the Cascades.

Web Links and Comments ...

Just got home from the seasonal shopping and decided to kill time before cooking dinner by reading blogs.  

Kevin Hearne's blog, "Write More" sat at the top of the blog roll.  It's a blog you need to read if you think you've got it made ... if your revisions on your novel are done ... if you got an agent ... if you've published a couple books.  --  From what I've read, I think there are fewer secure author perches than there are bird perches on our feeder.

Guess I can't run away from querying agents.  Want to clarify your thoughts on the agent-finding-thing, Kaitlen Ward at YA Highway has an untitled post giving lots of insights into the process of finding an agent.   --  Yeah, I'm ambivalent about the process ... but I also think a good agent is necessary if you want an enduring career as an author.

Christmas is chewing through my writing time, but I did want to mention something  --  in case the New York Times puts their Science News on the web.  Today's section has an article explaining why the USA gets so little health care for money spent.  You do know that US citizens spend more on health care than any of the other 200-some countries of the world?  I get mad every time I realize we have now sunk to 49th in delivery of health care on that list.  That means a fourth of the countries in the world get better health care for less money.  --  Okay.  The cheapskate's rant's done.

Progress ...

I really recommend you join a local writer's group if your area has one.  Went to the Northern Colorado Writers' coffee this morning -- another reason why I'm behind.  But it was worth it.  I put a question on the table about the parts of a writer's website they wanted to read most -- to those attending.  Several people said at once: the author's bio.  

So, if you're contemplating a writer's website ... remember that tidbit.  I've gotten it from other people as well.  --  Result?  I expanded my bio and put in a link to this blog.

As for writing, I'm critiquing more than writing.  But, I did get my Dark Solstice manuscript edited again.  Ended up making about five to ten changes a chapter ... mostly tightening verbs.  Why use flabby verbs, even if they aren't passive, when English gives you so many pin-pointing choices?

Trivia ...

The Christmas baking is upon me ... and my hips ache.  Good thing I only have two more batches of cookies and the baklava to go.  [My Christmas shopping's done ... and I managed to do it all locally!!!]

Fiction Formulas

The Read ...

Follow all the rules and formulas, and you increase your chances of being bought and read.  Again, I have two books to comment on since their covers were turned out on the bookshelves, and I liked them enough to buy them after reading the cover copy.  Two cozy mysteries by the "National Bestselling Author" Cleo Coyle: On What Grounds and Through the Grinder.

I'm still puzzled at the number of serial killers that turn up in "cozies", and the MC always seeming to slip through the killer's fingers with ease.  [Maybe that's their purpose.]  But both books made adequate who-done-its with enough twists and suspects to make the reader work to solve the mystery before the end.  There's at least one more in the series, but I'm not going to go searching for it.  I'm reading the Hunger Games.

As usual with cozies, the lives of the characters are important as well as the backgrounds.  In this case, you may learn a lot more about coffee than you ever wanted to know.   The "formula" here:  A little prologue that let's you see into the killer's mind (a bit).  First chapter opens with the main character.  After that, they follow the general formula for writing a mystery which the major complications appearing in about the "right" portions of the book -- with nicely drawn characters -- without making me pause to appreciate the author's skill or get out my mental red pencil. 

Web Stuff ...

Is the effort worth it?

New York Times best selling author Allison Winn Scotch has a blog on What an author owes her readers?  While I grit my teeth to agree with her, I found the comments especially illuminating.  You might want to pop over there if you're wondering if social media is worth it.  [Remember, I hate computers.]

This is a little late for some, but:  Maybe even more important illustration is my friend Pam Wolf's experience of what can happen with the right search labels.  She wrote a blog about a koret cat which the Animal Planet picked up for a segment.  Yeah, a national television crew in our town because of her blog.  The example?  Pam only has 7 followers but made a national splash.

If you want to read more comments on this read Pat Stoltey's blog and what her readers said in response. 

Progress ...

I'm still editing Dark Solstice.  I have a choice:  to complete rewrite it to follow the current fiction structure or leave it as its semi-literary-navel-gazing-while-the-characters-save-their-country ... and, for Mariah, save her grandchild ... self.  Maybe, it'd be better described as woman's fiction crossed with high fantasy.   I'm sure there are parts were I don't make things clear, but I'm liking it the way it is.

Another reason I'm not getting much reading done:  Watching the second season of True Blood.  I can understand why the cinematography is so dark, but I wish it was lighter [ lumins not atmosphere] so I could see more of the background.

Trivia ...

The wisteria is blooming.  It had to crawl over the rose of sharon to be seen, but it's there in all its spindley glory.  Who says the stuff doesn't grow in Colorado?

Finding Story Ideas

Where do you get your story ideas?  The lack of new story ideas in my files -- until yesterday, the New York Times (8 June 2010) delayed my morning routine -- had been bothering me.  Suddenly all sorts of ideas bounced against each other in my head -- all inappropriate for "fantasy writer".  After all, I write the serious make-believe stuff.

On the front page, a headline gives the bare bones of a great novel pitch:  "Army Leak Suspect Is Turned In, by Ex-Hacker".  Add a few names, motivations (anti & pro), a setting, and reduce it to "A wants x more than anything in the world, but D stands in the way because ..."   Need a situation to surround these combatants?  How about the implications of Estonian language police patrolling classrooms for signs of Russian being spoken?  --- Change the cause and you could have a dozen novels.

If you need more ideas to flesh out your idea, the Business Section has an article about how the US Air Force is using savvy social networkers in the war efforts.

The first story structure that grabbed me:

This story idea leapt at me as soon as I picked up the Science Times.  An entrepreneur, named Robert T Bigelow, may be providing the world with a viable, moduale space station -- that would work in space, on the moon ... and, hopefully, on Mars.  Bigelow bought the exclusive rights to unused NASA patents for inflatable spacecraft and ran with them to create what might become a commercial space enterprise.  The biggest hole in his plans at this point seems to reliable transportation.

Besides transportation, other possible glitches exist -- like supplying food, water, air, sanitation, etc.  Think of all the things that could go wrong from bureaucrats to asteroids, and you have a hundred stories or more, once you got your world set.  Still, this is the first time I've been hopeful about the space program since Nixon castrated it.

Then, for those who are wondering 

why they are

in debt for a humanities degree,

I offer David Brooks, New York Time columnist and PBS News Hour commentator.

"Over the past century or so, people have built various systems to help them understand human behavior:  economics, political science, game theory, and evolutionary psychology.  These systems are useful in many  circumstances.  But none completely explain behavior because deep down people have passions and drives that don't lend themselves to systemic modelings.  They have yearnings and fears that reside in an inner beast you could call The Big Shaggy."

Isn't that a nice, polite way of saying people are messy?  And, we writers get to slog through all that mess.

The Read ...

Am thoroughly immersed in Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper, Bloodhound and wish for the days when I could just sit down for a couple hours and a stretch and read.  I guess if you nit-pick publishing categories, you might say Beka is a fantasy police procedural.  To me, it's a fantasy and a darn good read.

Half-way through the book and enjoying how she develops her cast of primary and secondary characters.  Has two real good villains, old standbys from the first book, and a cast of new allies.  Keeping a series fresh tip:  Pierces locates the book in a new city where Beka and her partner are at a disadvantage. 

Progress ...

I put another Half-Elven story on the desktop to work -- a sword and sorcery romance which answered Linden's question about what the blazes his Defender of the West saw in her ring-mate.  I'm sending it to WolfSinger Publications -- even though it might be a mistake -- because I have some ideas on marketing I want to try on something small.   If they reject it, I get to start water-skiing at 60 miles per hour.

Voices ...  Am finally getting words down on the computer screen ... and not revising (very much). 

Trivia ...

Wiggles got totally disgusted with me yesterday.  While I sipped coffee and read the paper, he waited on the kitchen table stool.  Glared at me as if to say, "Why isn't your butt in the chair?"  By the time, I wandered into the living room, he was no where to be seen.  Though his brother hopped on my lap for a quick pet. 

Finders, Keepers?

The Read:  One of the delicious things about used book stores is finding new authors.  The books are cheap enough for this cheapskate to be willing to take a chance on buying -- even if it ends up on the trade pile before it's read.  The question:  "Will the book be a trader or a keeper?" adds a little excitement to the read.  --  I get the added the added value of a possible discovery.

So, the find: Caitlin Kittredge,  Night Life ... set in an imaginary place called Nocturne City where a war between weres, witches, and humans left a huge "non-functional" hole in the middle of a uber-planned community.  The MC is an isolated were who's a detective on the police force who has problems with her boss and colleagues.   So, what's new?  These are the minor nuisances.  Her real problem is a blood witch who's trying to raise a demon and has a were minion to do the serial killings needed for the offering. 

Kittredge has a nice lean style -- with the back story well contained by the action.  1) By the end of the first third of the book, we know she's "unpacked" were with family problems which don't all come from her being a were and why.  We also know she has problems on the job with both the power structure and colleagues.  2)  The middle third, laces murders with clues of who's doing what and reveals the bad guy as being more powerful, socially and occultly, than first thought.  [Personally, I thought he should be shown in action more than being referred too, but that's a quibble.]  3) The ending starts within the last 20% of the book and not only wraps the loose ends, but leaves lots going for the sequel ... including a developing love interest.

I suspect that this may have been one of those super-long drafts chopped into three novels.  Yeah, I'll probably read the sequel in spite of the YA novels waiting on the table and Beka, Terrier on order.

Web Notes:  Didn't really do much web browsing over the week-end.  Easter dinner was at my house so my back/hip creaked along between rests until I managed to get dinner on the table.  Way too much food, but the F2 units have their vegies all clean and ready to stuff in their lunch bags.  --  Doubt that, but I have my lunch vegies in a container waiting.

A couple New York Times articles did raise an interesting question that all writers need to answer.  Is writing fun?  Especially, liked the article about David Remnick, the editor of the The New Yorker, who wrote a book about Obama in his spare time.  Was he worried that editing a major magazine would get in the way of his book writing?  No.  (Coffee took care of that.)  

The guy worried about whether his curiosity would last long enough for him to get the info out of his head.  I guess he liked it enough to finish.  The article mentioned a book called "The Bridge".  [5 April 2010, the business section]

Progress:  Maren's still twisting in the breeze.  Oh, I've shifted words here and deleted words there and added words every where.  But, to what purpose?  Who knows?  Nothin's jelling yet. 

Got a rejection of a short story I'd written last year when I was tried on the "dictum" [that it helps to have sold short pieces to catch an agent's eye] would lead me.  I know I can't write short fiction -- though I've gotten some nice comments on rejected submissions, even for a couple flash fiction pieces.  Whatever, this rejector thought I had "great potential as a writer and shouldn't give up" but that I hadn't developed my villain's character enough.  Guess what?  She was right.  [At least, I think it was a she from the handwriting.]

One problem with writing Maren: I've been wallowing with my search for a villain to carry the story.  I've got my minor nuisances.  I've got my heros.  I've got my side-kicks.  Now I think I've found my friend-enemy villain sitting in a short story.  At least, I'm going to run with it and see where it takes me.

Trivia:  Easter happened with all sorts of jokes about lamb intestine soup.  [A Greek Easter delicacy.]   The hamburgers were great.  Something nice about getting the grill going in April.  My question: why do grill hamburgers taste so much better than pan burgers?