Adventures in Writing: September 2012

I have never written strictly comic stories, my writing tends toward darker or more serious stories, but I like to add comic elements. These elements are situational, not in the sense of a situation comedy filled with punch lines, but the humor lies in the situation.

Humor changes the pace of the story, can reflect on what is happening, or gives the reader another side of a character.

One type of humorous scene has one character totally misunderstanding or not having the right information in a situation.

This example is from an unpublished category romance of mine called COURTING DISASTER. The hero and heroine work at the same sporting goods store during the Christmas rush, and they’ve finished a full day of work. They chat in the parking lot at their cars. Cody is very interested in Maggie, but she’s not interested in any man because she wants to remain true to her late husband. For the first time, she’s beginning to see that maybe this isn’t quite as easy a life decision as she thought.

Cody sighed loudly. "On a night like tonight, I'm glad I don't have to go home to an empty house. Nothing’s worse than an empty house and a dinner for one."

Maggie’s heart twitched more painfully than her feet. That was exactly what was waiting for her. An empty house. “You have a housemate?"

"No. I was talking about Molly." They stopped by Maggie's car, and Cody grinned inanely. "I must admit Molly turns me into a pile of mush when I'm around her. I never expected to be as crazy over her as I am."

Cold settled in Maggie's heart. "That's nice."

"I really miss her when I'm working. I promised her I'd spend tomorrow morning with her. I can already guess what will happen. She'll curl up against me in bed early tomorrow morning, rest her head on my chest, and stare at me with those big brown eyes until I wake up."

Vivid images flashed through Maggie's head. A beautiful woman naked against Cody, her head resting on his magnificent bare chest--he probably had curly auburn hair on it--and he'd..., and she'd... Maggie fumbled for her keys in her purse, her head down to hide embarrassment and envy.

"Later, we'll go for a run in the woods and find some fallen leaves to play in. She loves fallen leaves. We'll play in the leaves, then I'll scratch her tummy, and her tail will really wiggle. Then we'll snuggle."

Considerably more than her tail would wiggle if he scratched her tummy. But she didn't want her tummy scratched! Not by him, not by anybody. She was an adult, she was Jeff's widow, she was.... She was jealous of Molly.

Flustered by that knowledge, Maggie unlocked her car door. "Well, have a nice day off."

"I intend to."

The punchline of sorts is that Molly is Cody’s golden retriever puppy. In this case, the reader is “in” on this joke because Molly was in an earlier scene with Cody, but the reader can also be fooled.

I didn’t want the reader to think Cody was deliberately fooling Maggie about Molly’s identity so I had him tell her about his puppy earlier although he failed to mention her name which was an honest omission on his part, not a mean joke.

I also didn’t want Maggie to be an idiot about this mistake so I let her realize her error a few paragraphs later when Cody shows her the new collar he got for Molly. This also allows her to question her own feelings about Cody and her determined decision to remain a widow.

To make this light moment more than a throw-away joke, I made Molly an integral part of the plot through the novel.

For a light moment to work in a novel, it should never be a throw-away joke.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Links of Interest

FIVE TOOLS FOR OUTLINING YOUR BOOK:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/5-tools-for-outlining-your-novel_b57542#more-57542

PLANNING AND WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/04/start-me-up.html

HOW TO USE AND NOT USE AMAZON FORUMS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK:

http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/making-amazon-forums-work-for-you/

HOW TO CREATE A CHARACTER:

http://hollylisle.com/how-to-create-a-character/

FANTASY WRITING RESOURCES:

http://harrypotterforwriters.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-favorite-research-resources-for.html

GETTING THE MOST FROM STORY CRITIQUES:

http://writingnovelsthatsell.com/story-critiques-when-to-ask-for-evaluations-of-your-novel/2012/08/

MAKING UNLIKEABLE CHARACTERS LIKEABLE:

http://www.fromthewriteangle.com/2012/08/how-unlikeable-characters-likeable.html

LOVE THAT VILLAIN!

http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/love-your-villains/

MAKING READERS CRY:

http://romanceuniversity.org/2012/08/24/emmie-dark-returns-to-ru/

IMPROVING YOUR BOOK RANKINGS ON AMAZON:

http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/author-interviews/how-to-increase-your-books-amazon-rank/

SIX REASONS FOR USING AN EPILOGUE:

http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/six-reasons-for-using-an-epilogue

YET MORE ON SECONDARY CHARACTERS:

http://writingright-martin.blogspot.com/2012/08/walk-on-and-secondary-characters.html

SUSPENDING BELIEF AND WHY IT CAN FAIL:

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2012/08/5-ways-youre-preventing-readers-from.html

BAD GUYS NEED LOVE TOO:

http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2012/08/5-ways-youre-preventing-readers-from.html

GIVING YOUR BOOK EMOTIONAL GLUE (AND, NO, I’VE NEVER HEARD OF THIS TERM, EITHER):

http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2012/09/17/ask-the-editor-an-agent-said-my-novel-needs-emotional-glue-help/

WHERE DOES NARRATIVE TENSION COME FROM?

http://elflands2ndcousin.com/2012/09/18/some-mechanisms-underlying-narrative-tension/

BAD GUYS HAVE THEIR OWN STORIES:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/09/19/bad-guys-have-a-story-to-tell

MARKET NEWS INCLUDING A HARPER YA LINE THAT WILL LOOK AT UNAGENTED MANUSCRIPTS FOR A SHORT PERIOD:

http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/new-fiction-contests-calls-for-submission-and-more/

MARKET NEWS, YA CHRISTIAN LINES:

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2012/09/two-christian-ya-ops.html

Monday, September 17, 2012

Minor Characters

A minor character is one who makes one or two appearances in a story, or if he has more appearances, he has no real character growth. He can be anything from the stable boy who tends the horses to the best friend’s brother who has a few comic moments.

Here are things to consider when you have minor characters in a scene.

If all the characters in a scene are minor to the plot, you need to ask yourself whether you need the scene.

If the scene is only there to tell readers something about the main character, then you should move it to a scene that is necessary with characters who are more important.

If the person is familiar to the point-of-view character, very little physical description is needed unless the physical description has importance in the scene.

For example, Jim studies his friends and decides to take Fred with him to meet the bad guy because Fred is built like a linebacker and is good in a physical fight.

However, if it's in the heroine's viewpoint, and she's introduced to the hero's friends, she will pay attention to what they look like and their names so more physical detail is needed.

If the scene needs a waitress who adds nothing to the scene beyond taking the food order, you can use some line like "the waitress took their order and left."

If the hero is flirting with the waitress to make the heroine jealous, then a bit more of a physical description may be needed and a bit more personality if the character flirts back.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Links of Interest

REVISING THE NOVEL:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/09/guest-author-alex-hughes-how-to-revise.html

LOW COST WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BOOK:

http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2012/09/5-low-cost-ways-to-market-your-mystery.html

CREATING YOUR OWN MARKETING PLAN:

http://chiseledinrock.blogspot.com/2012/09/marketing-savvy-and-modern-writer-write.html

WRITE YOURSELF INTO A CORNER:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/03/put-baby-in-corner.html

YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS, WHY BEING IGNORANT OF CONTRACT CLAUSES IS A DANGEROUS THING:

http://kriswrites.com/2012/09/05/the-business-rusch-a-good-offense/

DANGEROUS TOS CONTRACTS FROM CONTENT AGGREGATORS MAY TAKE YOUR COPYRIGHT:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2012/09/guest-blog-post-writers-be-wary.html

HOW MASTERS OF LITERATURE WROTE THE FINAL LINE OF ONE OF THEIR MASTERPIECES AND WHY IT WORKED:

http://litreactor.com/columns/the-top-10-best-closing-lines-of-novels

MARKET NEWS:

http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2012/09/sub-ops-ten.html

WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/09/ugh-what-do-i-write-about-struggle-for.html

GIVING YOUR BAD GUY VULNERABILITY:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/09/12/bad-guys-arent-all-that-bad/

SOME REALLY GOOD MARKET NEWS:

http://cindimyersmarketnews.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/editor-info-ekensington-and-more/

NOT ALL CHARACTER CHOICES HAVE TO BE EMOTIONALLY DRIVEN:

http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-much-internal-conflict-do-your.html

TWENTY FIVE RULES TO LIVE BY (FUNNY, BUT BAD LANGUAGE ALERT):

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/09/11/25-writing-rules-i-presently-live-by/

Monday, September 10, 2012

Defeating the Bad Guy

In a novel I read recently, the heroine faces a human villain and a major supernatural villain. She spends the novel avoiding being killed by the human villain’s minions while the supernatural villain lurks in the background waiting to destroy the world.

Toward the end of the novel, the surviving minions show up for a final showdown with the heroine and her supporters. A huge battle ensues, and the heroine is trapped. The human villain reveals himself, and he’s killed within a few paragraphs by one of the heroine’s friends in an offhand manner. That’s it.

The heroine had a longer scene with a sales clerk selling her a magical weapon than the final confrontation with the human villain, and she didn’t even take a shot at the bad guy. He’s killed by a secondary character.

Meanwhile, the supernatural villain, a god no less, who has been the lurking big bad for the whole series, finally decides to show up to kill the heroine then wipe out life on Earth.

He rates half a chapter, most of it a chase scene, before he’s killed in a mildly clever manner.

If you have a villain, you have to give him a major confrontation with the main character, and it has to be long enough to give the reader a sense of anticipation, a sense of fear that the bad guy may win, and an awareness the hero is worthy of being the hero by having him fight with everything he has and then some to defeat this monster.

Think of all the great confrontations in the movies. Luke Skywalker against Darth Vader. Jake Sully and the Na’vi against the human forces and the Marine commander in AVATAR. The sheriff’s confrontation with the outlaws in HIGH NOON. All involved struggles against the bad guy’s forces then a final confrontation between the main character and the bad guy. All involved enough screen time to make that final confrontation epic.

Make your own final confrontation epic.

NOTE: Even if your novel doesn’t involve violence and the main antagonist is your character’s bitchy mother, you still need that final confrontation. That moment when the main character stands her own ground and says, “I’m not your little girl anymore, I’m my own woman,” and walks away to live her own life.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Links of Interest

FIGHTING SYTLES ACCORDING TO PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND:

http://chiseledinrock.blogspot.com/2012/08/and-now-its-time-for-beatdown.html

SELF-PUBLISHING SCAMS:

http://kriswrites.com/2012/08/29/the-business-rusch-a-warning-to-all-writers-who-need-help-indie-publishing/

HUMOR, WHAT KIND OF READER ARE YOU?

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/08/what-kind-book-reader-are-you-diagnostics-guide/56337/

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN IN A SCENE?

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2010/09/find-your-plot-fridays-come-on-whats.html

BUILDING A READERSHIP FOR YOUR BLOG AND BOOKS:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/08/how-to-build-a-readership-for-your-blog-and-books/

WHEN IS THE FBI CALLED INTO A CRIME?

http://forensics4fiction.com/2012/09/01/the-fbi-and-crime-scene-response/

MAKING YOUR MINOR CHARACTERS STRONGER:

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/questions-to-ask-strengthen-your-minor-characters

MAKING ORDINARY CHARACTERS EXTRAORDINARY:

http://www.livewritethrive.com/2012/08/15/ordinary-characters-can-be-extraordinary

WHY SO MANY SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS LOOK SELF-PUBLISHED:

http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/08/why-self-published-books-look-self-published/

USING BODY LANGUAGE:

http://www.darcypattison.com/characters/10-body-language-tricks-for-deeper-characterization/

POSSESSIVES:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-principles-of-possessives/

MAKING YOUR STORY BIGGER:

http://carrtalks.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/writing-tips-for-making-your-story-bigger/

BACK UP SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR DATA:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/whats-the-best-backup-solution.html

EDITING FOR CHARACTER:

http://wordservewatercooler.com/2012/08/18/top-5-self-editing-tips-character/

CHARACTER NAMES:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/09/the-name-game-do-all-your-character.html

SUCCESSFUL NETWORKING:

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/09/6-tips-for-successful-networking/

Monday, September 3, 2012

Worldbuilding Isn't Plot

In a novel I read recently, the heroine is in the middle of a paranormal political mess. Some of the supernatural races want to control her power, others want to kill her because they can’t control her power, and all of them are fighting against the others to gain the upper hand in controlling the world. Meanwhile, the big bad mythological super villain is in the wings waiting to strike at all them.

Sounds like the recipe for an exciting novel, doesn’t it? It wasn’t. I struggled to keep reading because the heroine was like a ball on a field being bashed around in different directions with no real goal or control on her part. She spent the entire novel fighting to stay alive or keep her friends alive at each new attack. She was reacting, not acting, which made her a passive and boring heroine.

No matter how complex the worldbuilding in your novel is and no matter how Byzantine the politics are, they aren’t the plot of your novel. The main character’s struggle to obtain her goal is the major plot of your novel. Don’t forget that as you create the complexity of the world that main character lives in.