Building Secondary Characters

Valerie had a great post yesterday about people and their many layers. It got me thinking (see how awesome it is to have great crit partners?) about my secondary characters. Do they really have all those layers? In my head, sure, but am I showing that on paper? **See Kristi's post on Being a Visual Writer** 


My protagonist and her love interest, even her parents have all these layers. They see themselves one way, but are perceived differently by others, they have different mannerism, great motivation for their actions, even though the reader doesn't fully see it right away. But what about the best friend? The boy who wants the girl, but surely won't get her? Why does the cop do what he does? I mean, what's in it for him?

Every character is important. If they aren't, they probably shouldn't be in your story. Even if your reader never reads about why this minor character finally decided to come forward and admit that he's a cyborg, they need to feel that motivation. See it in his actions, even if your protag doesn't. Truck loads of backstory don't belong in your manuscript, but you should know every detail. Some authors even suggest that you sit down and interview every character. Ask them questions both big and small and see what they say. It'll give you a better understanding of who they are, why they do what they do, and that will reflect in your writing. If you don't know these people, they'll feel like paper to your readers. But you already knew that because you're awesome. ;)

Now. Back to adding those layers.

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On a side note, I want to wish my agency sister Miranda Kenneally a very happy book birthday! Her debut novel CATCHING JORDAN hits shelves today! *confetti*

Visual Inspiration

When I get stumped in a project, or just need to get back in touch with my characters, I turn to music, something that fits the characters or the mood of the scene I'm writing, and www.weheartit.com.

If you haven't wasted spent some time browsing the collection of images there, you totally should! I've found so many that are PERFECT representation for my wip. Like this one, for example:

That is so completely Jack and Charlie! It could only be more perfect if her dress was green. Really, this post was an excuse for me to share that picture with you. The downside is that I have no idea who the owner is. Is it yours? 

What's your favorite procrastination inspiration exercise?

Failure Isn't Everything

One of my favorite quotes ever (and unfortunately I can't remember where I heard it, a movie I think) is:

"If you're going to fail, fail spectacularly."

And no, that doesn't mean do a crap job. It means go for it. Don't hold back, or play it safe, in the hopes that you won't make a huge fool of yourself if you get it wrong.

If you shoot for the middle, all you'll get is mediocre. That and the knowledge that you could've tried harder but you didn't.

So the next time you sit down to write, or work out a plot, or anything else in life, ask yourself. Am I doing everything I can to make this great? Am I trying to make my story fit in with what everyone else is doing?

Is there a crazy idea you have for a story that in your gut, you know it could work, but you're afraid to try it? Are you shoving it aside to write something more mainstream/"now"/generic? Ask yourself it that's really what you want to do, and if it's not, go for it. And even if you fail, it will be the kind of glorious failure that shows your heart, and what's wrong with that?

Get a Life.

Carrie Harris had a great review of Jeri Smith-Ready's book SHIFT over at her blog today and it got me thinking about paranormal books and the common trends we see there. Yanno, stuff to avoid.

"But one of my big pet peeves is when the characters in books like this seem to have no lives whatsoever. I'm left with the impression that they pretty much just floated through life without engaging in ANYTHING aside from maybe an occasional party. Their life doesn't start until they meet the sparkly mutant wombat/were-yeti/frankenthulhu/whatever."


We've all read books like this, right? So obviously there not bad books. Some of my favorite books include one or more of these common trends. But there are definitely some pitfalls in paranormal fiction to avoid.

• The boring protag who falls in love with hot paranormal guy
• The best friend who is completely oblivious (and usually ignored when hot boy comes in)-but I can see this one as being realistic with a lot of girls, so not such a HUGE no-no to me.
• Parents that are MIA or have no idea their daughter is dating a monster
• Protag chasing after hot paranormal guy even though he's a complete a-hole to her.
• The first half of the story the protag is trying to find out what's going on with strange hot guy--but you, the reader, already know because the back cover told you he was a vampire/fallen angel/werewolf/ghost/something-someone-just-made-up
• The awesome human boy who is totally into the protag never gets the girl

These are the biggest trends that I've seen and attempted to avoid, even though I can understand why the character(s) do these things. It's just been done enough. I'm sort of guilty of that last one, but he might get her later, you never know. What are some of the big trends you've noticed in fiction? Anything to add to my little list?

On an unrelated note, we've hit 500 followers! You guys are amazing. We want to do something extra special to say thank you, and we'll let you know as soon as we get the details hammered out. Seriously, you guys are awesome. 

Building a Fantasy World

I don't read a lot of high-fantasy (read, none), so I can't say much about that, but I do read a lot of paranormal and lately dystopian. In a great paranormal or dystopian novel, the author has emerged the reader in her world and she's done it organically. Without dropping a load of backstory bricks on us.

The first book that comes to mind is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and I think it's a perfect example because we've all read it. At least I think we have. If you haven't, go do that.

Katniss doesn't go over all the details of her world, how things used to be, what caused the shift, and how things work now, but she does give us a bit of information about things like the tracker jackers, so that we can see what they are and very briefly what they were created to do. She lets us in on the history of a revolution against the Capital that ultimately spawned the annual Hunger Games--important information that is interesting to the reader. She doesn't dwell on it. She tells us exactly what we need to know and only when we need to know it.

Think about the mutts. Imagine how much that scene would have been slowed down if Katniss would've pushed pause and explained in detail how and why they were originally created. We figured out very quickly what they are, or as much as Katniss knew about them, and we moved on with the action.

I think the most important thing to remember when creating a fantasy world is what is natural for the characters. If your MC doesn't know how the monster was created, then she shouldn't be telling the reader. The reader should be discovering this information with her, but only if and when it's necessary. If she's never seen an ipod, then she shouldn't be telling the reader how her music player compares to one. As writers it is up to us to find a balance between information and action, and it is never not always easy.

WriteonCon Chat Recap

Monday, February 28th, the fabulous ladies that run the writeoncon website hosted another awesome chat, this time with literary agent Suzie Townsend of Fine Print Literary, and Harper Collins editor, Maria Gomez. The full recap of the chat is available at writeoncon.com but I wanted to talk about a few of the topics that interested me.

At one point, the guest panel was asked if there were any manuscripts they were tired of seeing, and/or what they had seen a lot of.

*Cringe waiting for the dreaded V word*

Suzie said: I'm actually really tired of the "teen girl is happily going along in life and then meets a smart, funny, charming, cute boy who shows her that life isn't fair and then she rebels against society." I'm sort of sick of girl influence by the smart boy routine. I want smart girls too.


Not what I was expecting, but an excellent answer.

Maria added: Paranormal and Dystopian are the ones that are landing in my inbox on a daily basis...but the market is still hungry for it. However, I'm definitely more cautious with manuscripts in those genres now that the lists are so glutted with them.


This was the answer I had expected. But do not fear, paranormal and dystopian writers! As long as you have a compelling story with fantastic characters, someone will fall in love with it. Someone will. Someone. Right?

Suzie: I'm also really over plain Jane girl meets mysterious boy who might be trying to kill her but is also in love with her and he's a vampire/werewolf/angel/harpie/gryphon/unicorn/zombie/something else.


Zombie love interest? Ew.

Suzie also pointed out that mermaid love interests kind of creep her out. Dan Krokos (author of FALSE MEMORY, Disney Hyperion 2012) went on to defend his love of Ariel the little mermaid and her hawt seashells.

Both panelists said they'd love to see a great contemporary but that they are a bit harder to sell in today's current market.

Someone asked what sort of high concept contemporary would grab their attention.

Suzie had this to say: A supernatural twist is an easier sell right now (in both genres) but obviously it still has to be a good story. Don't just add a supernatural element for the sake of it being there.


Great advice.

She added: for a high concept contemporary...I want a thriller or something really suspenseful.

Maria: Supernatural twist is easier now, but contemporary should be making a comeback soon--I hope!


Yay! For contemporary! :D

Maria: Ooh...a mystery would be great. Or a really amazing love story--there are so many unexplored aspects of this. I'm tired of the lonely outcast girl falls in love with popular boy story. 

Okay, so I'd love to recap the whole thing for you, but that's kinda why they put the transcript on the write on con site. So, I will just skip down to my own question.

I asked if shorter manuscripts were harder to sell than longer, and what they felt was considered too short for YA. There was much love for well-paced shorter fiction from the attendees, including the hosts. :)

Suzie's answer: Anything under 50-60k for contemporary is a really tough sell.  
Anything under 75-80k for something with worldbuilding is a really tough sell

Maria said: It's harder to sell novellas (really short books) because people are paying $$ and want to get their money's worth, for sure. Especially after all of these 400+ page novels have been so successful. 

And then I apparently broke the chat box because it started acting wonky for a few minutes. Oops! 

So there you have it, my quick recap of the last writeoncon chat. If you haven't been to one of the chats you really should try to attend. They're entertaining, with Shannon Messenger and her jazz hands, and always very informative. If you can't make a chat, the transcripts are available. 

If you did attend, what were some of the topics that stood out most to you? Anything to add to the few I recapped on here? 

Sometimes Your Characters Outsmart You

You've all seen those cheap horror films with the busty blonde babysitter, right? You know the one where she hears strange noises in the attic that can only be an evil killer-zombie-ghost with fangs? And she grabs a flashlight, because the electricity suddenly went out, and she climbs the stairs to investigate, armed with nothing but her um...wit.

***I tried to draw a cartoon here, but the girl looked like she had two watermelons stuck in her throat and a spaghetti noodle where an arm might be. I am not an artist.***

It might "work" in those movies, but it doesn't work in your book. Unless that's the kind of story you're writing. In that case, just turn away now.

Your character needs to have brains to make your story interesting and believable. When revising one of my manuscripts, I kept bumping up against this wall, trying to make my MC do something that she really didn't want to do. Something she would never do, because she's witty and clever, and what I was trying to force her into was stupid.

If you're trying to force your MC to put out a fire with a garden hose, instead of calling the fire department, she better have a darn good reason for it. If she doesn't, you might need to try a different approach.

Happy revising!

Reading to Escape

Did you ever get into that mode when you're writing where that annoying little voice starts to tell you that this is silly, that these characters aren't real? And it really puts a cramp in your creativity because how can you possibly care about these people if you just know they aren't real and they don't matter?

No?

Just me then? Okay. When this happens, the best thing for me to do is put down the document and walk away, right into the open arms of somebody else's fictional characters. When I start to read, especially if I've met this author or I know anything about her/him, that same thought nags me--she created these people. They're not real. But as I keep reading, I'm inevitably pulled into their story. They feel real. They do matter. And I care about what happens to them.

The same can be said about my own characters, your own characters. Someone is going to love them and care about them almost as much as you do. Face it, you love them. They're real to you in some way. Sometimes all it takes it a little reminder. A little remembering what it feels like to be a reader, and to escape in the written reality that some amazing writer has created for you.

That's all I can say today because I miss Amy and Elder and I have to know what happens to them.

Happy Thursday!

Rules to Remember

We're reusing older posts here at SIS this month, and this week I'd like to re-share a few simple tips to remember when writing.

When writing fiction:

• Every scene needs to move the plot forward, needs to accomplish something
• Every
  scene
  page needs tension
• Don't be passive! Make things happen to your main character, not through a third party
• Ask yourself if this could be dramatized
• "Substitute the word 'damn' every time you are inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and your writing will be as it should." - Mark Twain
• "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." - Stephen King
• When writing an action scene, don't slow it down with descriptions

These are just a few things I keep in mind when writing, most of them have been drilled into my head by my lovely Sisters. I'm sure there's more, but these are probably my most important. I try to keep them in mind with every line I write.

Do you have any little rules you try to write by?When writing fiction:

And don't forget to enter our December giveaway for 3 autographed YA books! 

Books on Writing

I'm knee deep in revisions, so I thought I'd pick up a couple of books on writing this week, and both of them (so far) are excellent. I believe Valerie may have recommended one of them once before, but here they are.

Stephen King's On Writing

Part memoir, part cheerleader. Not so much a how-to book on writing, but more of an empowering and entertaining read from one of America's most beloved writers.

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
This is the first book in this series that I've read. So far I'm really enjoying it. Some of the steps in this book might seem like a no-brainer to you, but some of us need it spelled out. If you're part of the former, it never hurts to have a good reminder.

There are a lot of great examples in here on scene structure, building suspense in dialog, creating a bond with your reader via your main character, character arc, plotting, revising, etc. There are different activities you can try out on your own to see what works and why.

I've been told this is a great series to go with and so far, I'd have to agree.



I'd like to hear your recommendations. Read any great books on writing recently? Something we haven't covered in past posts? Have you read either of these two books?