Plodding along or Pugging Away?

This will be a short post to make up for the length of the last one- but I wanted to give ya'll and update on Book of Breathings. For MONTHS I have been plodding along, and now things are clicking. I mentioned that I filled in some broader conflicts, and what a difference it's making! Before I was struggling to put words in characters' mouths, straining to see them interact. That's all changed!

I still draw out the same conflict table I learned in high school English class-
Character vs. self
Character 1 vs. Character 2
Character 1 vs. Character 3 (etc.)
Character vs. Nature/setting
Character vs. Society

You can also look at all the different relationships a character has and make sure that each has different needs and expectations. Parents, teachers, employers, friends, romantic interests, friends with questionable advice...there are so many possibilities!

It;s important to focus on the antagonist just as much as the protagonist- What do they for themselves, what do they want from the people around them, what do they want from society and the world? What's standing in their way? (The answer is usually the protagonist, right? I sure hope so or you might want to choose a new MC!)

My take-home- if you don't have enough tension, look for missing levels of conflict. Make sure your characters aren't playing *too* nicely!

Happy writing!
Glutton for Punishment?

The Harold and the Hero

In his pop psychology bestseller "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell talked about a few things that relate to how writers make decisions for their characters. The book is about the way our brains thin-splice the available information to help us make decisions better, in some cases, than if we spent hours or days gathering info and doing tests. He basically says, based on various studies (and they are varied- he goes from police shootings to art forgery to the Pepsi Challenge.) that people's brains make judgements behind closed doors. It's normal, but we should be aware of when those processes are likely to get us into trouble and what we can do to be more reliable in our snap decisions. You have to know what the really inmportant info is to make the particular decision. And practice can help. (I think there's some relevance to the Outline Vs. Pantser debate, and it gives some credibility to the Pantsers!)

A specific example: Improv groups will perform a skit called a Harold, where the actors get up on stage without lines or a setting or even a conflict, and based on a prompt from the audience, just start acting. (It reminds me of one of my favorite shows from back in the day, "Whose Line is it Anyway?")

Gladwell explains that the improv shows are often insighful, funny, and while not seamless, much more coherent than one would think. To explain why, Gladwell compares the actors to a basketball team. They've practised together so much that they understand and anticipate what will happen. They have a feel for the game and they follow rules. (Even improv has rules!) From "Blink-"

"A very simple way to create a story--or humor--is to have characters accept everything that happens to them. As Keith Johnstone, one of the founders of improv theater, writes: 'If you'll stop reading for a moment and think of something you wouldn't want to happen to you or to someone you love, then you'll have thought of something worth staging or filming...In life, most of us are highly skilled at suppressing action. All the improvisation teacher has to do is reverse this skill and he creates very 'gifted' improvisers. Bad improvisers block action, often with a very high degree of skill. Good improvisers develop action.'"

Very interesting book, loved it, as I have loved all of Malcolm Gladwell's books that I've read.

I think this is why (as Dave Farland pointed out in his writing seminar) a hero never acts in self-preservation. A normal person, at some point in the story, would block action. (Think of Captain Kirk in the recent Star Trek.)

I think most of us have heard the tip "get your character up in a tree and throw stones at him until the last page" but this says that the hero is also the kind of person taunting the stone-throwers, and he might even moon them, metaphorically speaking. He throws gasoline on the fire by being who he is.

Does this fit any other heroes you can think of? I think of Eugenides in the Attolia books by Megan Whalen Turner, and many others.

Happy Writing!
Glutton for Punishment?

What'd Ya Do That For?

In a previous life, I worked as a behavior specialist. Basically, I would teach parents or caregivers how to encourage better behavior from children and adults with developmental disabilities. Think Supernanny, without the accent.

One of the most important things to changing someone's behavior is to understand why they're doing it. There are five categories of motivation to pick from (I refreshed myself on these on the wiki page for "Behavior Modification, functional analysis. Check it out if you want to learn more.) They are:

Access to Attention
Access to Escape
Access to Automatic Reinforcement
Access to Intangibles
Sensory

I'm going to use head banging (actual hitting of one's head on another surface, not the "dance!") as a typical behavior I've worked with. Then I'll give examples from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix of these same motivations at work.

Access to Attention- Child hits his head on the desk, the teacher comes over, rubs his back. She might ask him please not to do that, warn him that he'll hurt himself, etc. but everything she does/says is giving the child what he wants: attention. (The proper response here is to ignore the behavior.)

Access to Escape- Worksheet gets distributed. Child hits head on desk, maybe even hard enough to start bleeding. The teacher reacts by sending the child to the nurse. The child escapes having to do the worksheet. (A better way to deal would to have the nurse come to the classroom, and to establish a reward program for completing work.)

Access to Automatic Reinforcement- There is a substitute teacher. The child is nervous because of the change in routine and bangs their head on the table to relese this tension. (The best way to do this is to avoid stressful situations, and to give the child a constructive outlet when stress occurs. Having a pillow or stress ball to squeeze would provide a better way to release stress.)
Access to Tangibles- The child bangs their head, and the teacher brings them an ice pack. The child now has what they wanted: an icepack. This is a simple one to stop: don't give the child what they want. The behavior may increase for a time, but once the child is sure that their behavior isn't working, the headbanging will stop. This is why I never ever ever buy whiny kids candy in the checkout line.

Sensory- Child hits head on the desk because he likes the way it feels. Maybe he has a headache, or maybe it's just a strong sensation. Once medical reasons are ruled out, the best way to deal with this is to interrupt the sensation. If the head banging is severe, the child may need to wear a helmet. Maybe it would be better for the child to sit in a bean bag chair or otherwise make the environment unfriendly to head banging. This is, in my opinion, the hardest type of behavior to stop.

Okay, let's look at Harry Potter. I picked this book because most of you have read it, and the movie comes out this week. Yay! (Unfortunately for me, I'll have to wait a week to see it because Nathan is having his hernia repaired on Friday and won't be up to going to the theater for a few days. He claims that it would be desertion if I went without him. And he won't go to the midnight showing on Thursday, even though he's just going to be in surgery and sleeping all Friday. Sometimes I just don't understand him, lol)

Okay, back to Harry and his varied motivations: 

Access to Attention- This is the one that Harry is least likely to do, since he gets plenty of attention just for being the Boy Who Lived, but there are times when he wants attention from his friends. His tantrums in the beginning of the book about having been left alone all summer would be such a time.
 
Access to Escape-Harry says he's feeling ill so he can leave class and take Hedgwig to the infirmary. All of those Skiving Snackboxes Fred and George make are helpful to students motivated to escape class. Harry doesn't continue with Occlumency lessons even thought everyone around him tells him he should because his motivation to escape Snape is so strong.
 
Access to Automatic Reinforcement- At the end of the book, Sirius has died, and Harry is raging at Dumbledore. Harry is not seeking attention, he is releasing stress. Incidentally, Dumbledore handles it just as he should- calmly, without yelling back. Dumbledore remains the adult. Good job, Dumbledore! I think this would also be why Harry has a "thing about saving people." It's a reaction to who he is and not a sensory motivation.
 
Access to Tangibles- Harry does all kinds of things to get things he wants. He enters the Great Hall at the appropriate time so he can get food. He does homework so he can get decent grades and maybe become an auror some day. Note that "behavior" does NOT mean "bad behavior." The behaviors can be good or bad. 
 
Sensory- Harry has some pretty nasty headaches in this book, and he's always rubbing his head afterward. Kissing Cho has a sensory motivation, as does riding a broom. Avoiding Stinksap also has a sensory motivation.    

The important thing is that there are 5 basic motivations to behavior. You can also count NOT doing something as a behavior, for instance, Harry and Ron often don't do their homework because they want to pratice quidditch. If Hermione really wanted to make them study, she wouldn't give them planners, she'd take away their brooms!

This isn't the only way to look at character motivations, but perhaps it will add a layer as you think about what your characters are doing and why. Anybody have any idea what motivates Voldemort?

And I forgot to link to this fantastic article on pacing and dialogue last week. My friend Teresa Frohock picked the brain of Lisa Mannetti, winner of the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for her novel "The Gentling Box." The book trailer is on there, and it's way too scary for me, but Teresa says it is amazing!

Happy Writing!
Glutton for Punishment?

Giving your characters character in the first three pages

Remember Fizzgig from The Dark Crystal?

Another strong character. 

We like 'strong characters', right? Here's a look at how Suzanne Collins got my attention in the first few lines in 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins.

• Katniss wakes up and looks for her sister, who snuck into bed with their mother.
• A big, ugly yellow cat is curled up on her sister's feet.
• Cut to Katniss's memories of when her sister found the cat, flea-bitten and wormy and her sister begged Katniss not to drown it.
• Back to present- now Katniss feeds it entrails when she cleans an animal she's killed. The cat has stopped hissing at Katniss.  
• "Entrails. No hissing. This is the closest we will ever come to love."

I loved that line. I realized I could trust this writer to tell me a story. I love that relaxed feeling and don't get it too often, since compulsive editing has ruined most books for me (only kind of kidding.)

This is a strong character. Yes, Katniss is physically strong, but that's not the point. She tried to drown her sister's cat out of practicality. She didn't think about it, or consider it, or *almost* put the cat in a bucket. She did it and her sister was begging her to stop. And the cat still remembers.

I had that same 'I can relax' feeling when I reread "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.

It was December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No, wrong word. Frightened meant that deep, sickened feeling of something terrible about to happen.

Jonas is extremely careful about naming his feelings. It made me wonder why. That's all it took to hook me.

Have you ever met a character and thought, "Wow. This is going to be good."? What line got you?
Glutton for Punishment?

Likeable Characters

How to take silly, whining, self-absorbed, and/or weak main characters and make them thrive!

Have you watched 'The Wizard of Oz' recently?

Dorothy is a bit of a brat in the opening. And she develops an opium habit.

I've been reworking my query and realized that I have the same trouble explaining the premise of the story as I do in the actual manuscript. There's not enough action inside the MC in the first section of the book. Things just happen to her and around her for the first forty pages.

My MC is introduced as limp as a piece of spaghetti because her character arc is to learn to stand up for herself. She has to start out as a bit of a push-over so that she can learn to make her own decisions.

Enter protagonist: Mother uses Lara's empath against her, using guilt to force obedience. Lara even helps Mother to 'delve' her sisters so they will follow the rules, too.

I had some reviews on early chapters that said that they didn't connect to the MC because she was spineless. But that's the point, so how do I get around it?

She yearns to be stronger. That's it.

We imperfect human beings tend to have a lot of sympathy for people who want to do what is right, who want to control their destiny, rescue their friends, save the world, etc. BUT can't do it...

Yet.

Or they can't do it alone, or they can't do it until they care about others more than themselves, or they could do it all along if they'd only believed in themselves, or whatever moral is being expressed.

Still, you want to find out how they succeed, so that you can believe it's possible for you, too.

I've added some blurbs of Lara trying to resist Mother. Here's a section I adjusted recently. You tell me if Lara is likeable or not.

“Please, Mother. Don’t.” I squeezed my eyes shut. I wouldn’t look.
“I have to be sure.”

I opened my eyes and glared at her shoulder. I wouldn’t look any higher.

“Lara,” she chastised. “You will not go near the orchard. Or inside it.” Her eyes narrowed on me, and I leaned away, tilting the rocking chair back as far as I could. I looked up into the skylight, letting the sun scorch my eyes. She pressured me and my breath caught in my throat. I lowered my eyes to her face, letting her look. Her face was blotted out of my vision by the sunspots, but I could feel her probing, finding my fears and crowding them out of my mind with contentment.

She relaxed. My throat opened and I gasped, quietly, though. I didn’t want to make her feel bad; her guilt would infect me, too. Besides, she didn’t like to force me, but we both knew the welfare of the geroth was too important. She dropped her eyes and stood, then laid my veil across my knees. She left as silently as she’d come.

I hope this isn't too far out of context to make sense and please remember this is a middle draft! (could I use the word 'look' more?!) I also see some areas where I need to be more specific about what Lara is experiencing, but I think she is relatable now. That the reader might root for her.
 
How do you balance your characters?
Glutton for Punishment?

The Price We Pay

This was written yesterday. Today is Friday. I'm almost certain.
Here’s my story with a sobering moral. It’s okay to laugh.Eli had a dentist appointment this morning (he had five cavities- Thank you unfluoridated water of Western PA) -at least I thought so until we were halfway across town- I literally take three interstates to get to our fantastic, cheap dentist. And then I couldn’t figure out if it was Wednesday or Thursday. Then I was sure it was Wednesday. Because we went to April’s house on Monday, or was that Tuesday? And Eli met a kindergarten teacher (not necessarily his), we went to the library…but which thing on what day?

The real problem is that yesterday I wrote all day and stayed up again until 3 AM.

I couldn’t figure it out, so I turned to the ultimate mental calendar- what did we eat? Rice and étouffée last night. And what did I scrape off of the plates the night before? Bean burritos? Yeah. That’s it. So it must be Wednesday.

I turned around and headed home. One exit later, I remembered asking Nathan if he was playing basketball tonight, and he said yeah- so it must be Thursday. Really? Maybe.

I didn’t have my cell, so I turned around again and headed back towards the dentist. Once I was off the interstate, I stopped at a gas station and took a peek at a newspaper. Today was Thursday. ALL DAY, if you can imagine. We got to the dentist two minutes late, but they weren’t ready for us, so all’s well.

Which brings me to...What have I given up for my writing?

A clean house? No. I was never fastidious.

Time with my kids? Somewhat. But I almost always make sure we have a family activity like the library or swimming . The pictures are proof that we spend time together:)

Working out? Well, that comes and goes anyway, but I’m there 4-5 days a week right now, so I’ll say no.
TV? Yep. Evening is prime writing time.

Sleep? Yes, but I can only go so long.

None of that really feels like a sacrifice.

The real sacrifice has been getting a knock on the door and wondering who could it be, and it’s ladies from church arriving right when I said they should.

Or late Tuesday night remembering that today was Boy Scouts, and Isaac missed again. Or “Oh yeah, we’re out of toilet paper”.

In its defense, my brain is really busy right now.

I’m on the elliptical machine, wondering what my character, David, will say to his dad when he finds out about his mom. I’m sautéing onions, and Lara is inside me, trying to forgive David for tricking her. I’m lying in bed, trying to burn an important plot point into my memory because I don’t want to get up and write it down, but I get up and write it down anyway, because I can’t sleep otherwise.

I hope that readers will believe my characters are real. Because otherwise, I’m just ditzy. And if they're not real, then how can they be causing so many problems?

PS, I go on awesome dates with my husband, too.

Glutton for Punishment?