Adventures in Writing: February 2012

In the opening set piece of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, the hero, Indiana Jones, manages to make it through a complex maze of booby traps and escape the incredible giant rolling boulder. He even saves himself from a tribe of angry locals with little more than a smirk and a bit of sweat although he loses the golden idol to his rival.

Then he gets in the seaplane and freaks out when he finds a snake inside. Our cool and calm hero is afraid of snakes.

But what does he do? He controls himself enough to throw the snake out of the plane.

What does this tell us? Indie can get past his fears to do what needs to be done.

Is that the right message to send the audience?

I don't think so, particularly because, in the last part of the movie, he must make his way through a tomb filled with poisonous snakes to rescue his love interest from certain death. He must face his greatest fear to do so.

But he's already controlled his greatest fear in the first scene in the movie so we know he's capable of it so the tension is lessened.

In that first part of the movie, the snake should have been somewhere where it would have stopped Indie in his tracks, and his fear should have made him fail. If he'd failed then and at another time in the movie to enforce the knowledge that he's scared silly of snakes, his bravery in facing the snakes to rescue the girl would have been that much more heroic.

A hero isn't a hero if everything he does is easy or without challenge. The possibility of failure must be internal as well as external. If he's afraid of snakes, then those snakes must stop him until he's willing to face his fear and move beyond it. And he must face and defeat that fear at the end, not the beginning of the story.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Links of Interest

AVOIDING THE INFO DUMP:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/power-of-explanation-compels-you.html

WHEN THERE IS NO BAD GUY:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/there-is-no-bad-guy-what-to-do-when.html

EMOTION ON THE PAGE:

http://www.genreality.net/emotion-on-the-page

LIST O’ LINKS:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/02/twitterific_19.html

TURNING A SHORT STORY IDEA INTO A NOVEL:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/guest-author-suzanne-van-rooyen.html

CHECK YOUR FOREIGN RIGHTS:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2012/02/selling-territories-publisher-doesnt.html

13 WAYS TO IMPRESS AN AGENT:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/02/13-ways-to-impress-an-agent/

THE KIND OF AUTHOR YOU NEED TO BE TO WRITE FOR HARLEQUIN:

http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/2012/02/writing-for-harlequin-things-scott.html

Monday, February 20, 2012

Archetypes, Symbols, and Images in Your Work

In Jayne Anne Krentz's book DANGEROUS MEN AND ADVENTUROUS WOMEN: ROMANCE WRITERS ON THE APPEAL OF ROMANCE, she explores the archetypal myths or fairy tales behind the most successful romances. She believes that “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” and “Snow White” are often the core plot and emotional energizers for romance novels.

But there's more to the archetype than just the fairy tale, and this extra element can vitalize a writer's work and give it greater depth.

The archetype is also a symbol or image which has a strong emotional resonance for humankind. The archetypal image can raise the hackles (absolute darkness), slow the heartbeat (a babbling brook), or turn the stomach (maggots on a rabbit's carcass). The archetype image can help us push the reader's emotional buttons so we can make them feel what we want them to feel.

Horror writers already know the importance of the fear archetype, and they use it to great effect. Stephen King, for example, can go for the archetypal jugular vein with relentless certainty. It is his greatest strength as a writer. His layering of images provokes an emotional response greater than mere words.

The archetypal image can also be manipulated to express changing emotions. In an unpublished novel of mine, the hero and innocent heroine end up in bed. Afterwards, the hero sends her a dozen white roses, the symbol of pure love and innocence.

As the days pass and the hero doesn't get back in touch, the heroine watches the roses fade as her hopes fade. When she finally realizes that the roses that meant “forever” to her mean “thanks for the great sex and good-bye” to him, she smashes the vase.

Her innocence and love have faded completely, her heart as crushed as the roses on the floor.

The danger with archetypal images is their overuse. Horror and paranormal writing is awash with archetypal images that have become cliches-- the baying wolf, the bat, the open grave. You must discover new old images to bring freshness and creativity to your writing.

Go through dream dictionaries since dreams are filled with archetypal images. Study books like A DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS by J. E. Cirlot. Read books on Jung's studies of the archetype and the unconscious to get a broad overview of the emotional significance of these images. Notice the images that good writers use to push your emotional buttons.

And, especially, consider your own dreams. For they are your most fertile creative garden. They are the true home of the archetype.

I'm of the firm belief that a writer's subconscious is busy planting things the writer is blind to at the moment, and that's particularly true of archetypes.

When I rework a novel, I'll find lots of foreshadowing of events I didn't think I'd planned until the moment I wrote it, and I'll discover that certain types of metaphors or images have kept appearing that fit a theme or event I didn't know was coming.

Part of the trick for a writer is going back over the work and building on the bread crumb hints left by her subconscious so the images create a resonance within the novel.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Links of Interest

WHY YOUR CHARACTERS NEED FLAWS:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/02/why-your-novel-characters-need-real-flaws/

PUBLISHING DICTIONARY:

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2012/02/updated-publishing-dictionary.html

THE FACELESS VILLAIN:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/faceless-villain-what-to-do-when-your.html

THINKING LIKE A READER SO YOUR READER UNDERSTANDS YOUR BOOK BETTER:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/02/thinking-like-reader.html

LIST O’ LINKS:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/02/twitterific_12.html

MAKING YOUR CHARACTER SUFFER:

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2012/02/writing-in-140-making-characters-suffer.html

SHOULD YOU KNOW YOUR GENRE BEFORE YOU START WRITING?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/08/know-before-you-go.html

THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY AND KODAK’S FAILURE, WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THEM:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/02/do-you-know-what-business-youre-in/

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/02/are-we-ready-for-change-2/

DEALING WITH THE FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING:

http://chiseledinrock.blogspot.com/2012/02/speaking-of-public-speaking.html

ARE YOUR CHARACTERS MOTIVATED?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/today-we-have-ya-author-gretchen-mcneil.html

Monday, February 13, 2012

Writing a Psychic Character

Are you psychic? Do you see ghosts?

Me neither. But I write these characters.

One of the ways I try to get into the head of characters like this is research.

A great resource is a nonfiction TV series called PSYCHIC KIDS. Real life kids with psychic abilities are brought together with an adult psychic and a child psychologist who specializes in psychic kids, and they are helped to come to terms with their gifts.

The parents are also helped.

Most of the kids are terrified by spirits who have harassed them for years, and they are afraid to sleep. Some are physically ill from anxiety and stress. Yet they have nowhere to turn except for parents. They are afraid to talk to friends because they will be ostracized, and parents warn them not to talk to other adults. They tend to be loners.

The parents are terrified, as well. They are unable to protect their kids from the ghosts, and the normal routes to help -- doctors, teachers, and ministers -- are closed to them because they fear their children will be labeled as mentally ill and medicated into zombies. They fear that their children could be taken from them by social services who won't believe the child's true problem.

The psychic helps the kids come to terms with their gifts and teaches them to take away the fear, and the psychologist teaches the parents how to cope with their psychic children. The children also develop relationships with the other psychic kids so they no longer feel alone or like freaks.

How would I use this information? A child character is easy enough to create after watching these children. So would a parent of a psychic child.

Now let's extrapolate this information and imagine an adult who had a childhood like this. Fear of discovery would often be a major influence on an adult. She wouldn't trust easily because most people who find out about her gift consider her a freak. Authority figures would automatically be distrusted. Trust and the need to be accepted for what she is would be the central emotional issues in a romantic relationship.

But what if the child grew up being totally open about her gift or if she "came out" as a psychic as an adult?

This character would be very comfortable in her own skin. She'd know herself very well. Her sense of being apart from others would manifest itself in a certain flamboyance -- a look at me I'm different and I don't care what you think attitude.

She would probably see her abilities as a gift rather than a curse, and she would use that gift to help others.

In a romance, she would have problems thinking of changing to help the relationship work because she's worked so hard to be who she is. "Me" has always been more important than "us."

This extrapolation isn't the only way to see adult psychic characters, but it does give you a start on writing a character different from yourself.

If you have no reality source for your character's background, you will have to find a real world analogy.

For example, a child who knows he's gay at an early age would be an analogy of a psychic character. Many is society view both with alarm, and secrecy is often the choice made. A writer would research the problems and emotional toll of being a gay child then use that information to understand a psychic child.

No matter how unusual or magical a character is, the author must use her knowledge of what makes a certain kind of person tick to make that character believable to the reader.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Links of Interest

WHEN DOUBTS PLAGUE YOU AS A WRITER:

http://www.genreality.net/doubt-demons

THE TEN BEST SELF-EDITING TIPS:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/were-ready-for-revision-pre-flight-top.html

KEEPING TRACK OF CHARACTERS’ KNOWLEDGE:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/what-do-they-know-keeping-track-of.html

APPLE CHANGES TERMS FOR THE BETTER FOR THE iBOOK AUTHOR SOFTWARE:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249303/apple_scraps_controversial_terms_in_ibook_author_eula_agreement.html

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOUNG ADULT AND MIDDLE GRADE FICTION:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2012/02/fridays-with-agent-kristin-episode-2.html

IS IT OKAY TO CROSS GENRES:

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2012/02/02/is-it-ok-to-cross-genres/

AMAZON’S DEAL WITH HOUGHTON MIFFLIN AND WHAT IT MEANS TO AUTHORS:

http://behlerblog.com/2012/02/03/consequences-of-amazon-inheriting-the-earth-how-does-this-affect-their-authors/

LIST O’ LINKS:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/02/twitterific.html

BRUSH UP YOUR GRAMMAR, HYPENS:

http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com/2012/02/grammar-abcs-h-is-for-hyphen.html

WHAT TO DO WHEN THE CREATIVITY ISN’T FLOWING:

http://www.allaboutthewriting.com/donna_j_cummings/2012/02/creativity-tune-up.html

MARKETS, MAINLY SHORT STORY:

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2012/02/sub-ops-ten.html

TIPS FOR AUTHOR PHOTOS:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/02/tips-for-author-photos.html

FREE PROMOTION IDEAS:

http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/02/06/write-tip-how-not-to-use-the-9-free-ways-to-market-your-book/

TEN THINGS WRITERS HATE ABOUT WRITING:

http://chiseledinrock.blogspot.com/2012/02/ten-things-about-writing-most-writers.html

MAKING YOUR NOVEL LONGER:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/02/you-must-be-this-long-to-ride-this.html

Monday, February 6, 2012

Viewpoint as Camera or Participant

The most common mistake in writing third person viewpoint is the writer becomes a camera rather than the actor in the scene. In other words, the writer is sitting in the corner scribbling away as they describe the movie going on in front of them.

As a camera, the writer would write:

Faith struck at him with the edge of her hand, but he caught her wrist and held it.

"Don't," he said harshly.

She clawed at his eyes, but he dodged. Yanking free, she came to her knees but paused.

He took advantage of her slowness by throwing himself on top of her and pinning her to the bed.

She kicked at his groin and missed. Screaming and twisting, she tried again.

The correct place for the writer to be is in the brain and body of the viewpoint character. She should describe what the viewpoint character sees and feels to make the scene come alive. Here's the same scene through the filter of viewpoint character, Faith Cody.

Faith struck out with the edge of her hand, but the self-defense blow which should have smashed his windpipe was as clumsy and slow as the rest of her drugged body. He caught her wrist in steel fingers.

"Don't."

His hard-voiced command spurred her from her hopelessness, and she raked at his eyes with her free hand. His hand loosening her wrist, he dodged.

Yanking free, she came to her knees in bed. She wore only a large tee shirt.

Shocked by her vulnerability, she paused before attacking again or fleeing. In that moment, he threw himself at her, pinning her to the bed, his hands manacling her wrists to the sheets.

Her knee seeking his genitals, she twisted, but her knee glanced off his inner thigh. Screaming like an angry jungle cat, she writhed beneath him as she tried to hit him again with her knee.

From THE GAME WE PLAY.

The trick to being in a character's head is to create a reality for the reader. Use visual language. Make the reader SEE what the character sees. Make the reader FEEL what the character feels.

Don't say, "Pamela was afraid." Say, "Shivers ran down her back like cold fingers." In other words, show, don't tell. If a character is angry, don't have him shout dialogue or "say angrily." Use his actions instead. If he's grinding a wadded paper to pulp in his hand while he's talking, you can be darn sure he's mad.

CAMERA AS THE RIGHT VIEWPOINT

Camera or panoramic viewpoint does have a place in fiction, particularly in epic fantasy or historical novels, where the writer wants to show the large overview of a great battle or event. Tolkien in LORD OF THE RINGS often uses the camera viewpoint.

If you are considering using camera viewpoint within most genre, you need to decide if the larger viewpoint is worth the loss of immediacy. In most cases, it isn't.