Silk & Shadows

Currently working on: Unpacking
Mood: Contemplative

Today is Memorial Day here. Originally intended as a day of remembrance for those who died in the nation’s service, the three-day weekend also gets used for general remembrances of all departed loved ones as well as for an excuse to barbecue various departed farmyard animals. This year, I used the weekend to attend a cousin’s wedding which was cause for many memories as well.

Memory is an interesting thing. Memory is how we attach meaning and relevance and value to moments no longer in our immediate timespace, and yet memory is a highly unreliable standard, influenced by attention, emotion, presupposition and more.

Memory is even more problematic in the hands of a storyteller.

Lots of stories were told this weekend around the wedding. People sharing stories about the bride and groom, sharing stories about what they’ve been up to since the last wedding/funeral, sharing stories about how they met their own life partners. Silly stories, sweet stories, sad stories.

I wonder how many of them were true. Or “truthy.” Or not true but True with a capital T.

As a semi-professional storyteller, I respect the judicious molding of memory into story. XY often bemoans this vocational hazard of mine.

He says, “That’s not how it happened.” (Or so he remembers.)

I say, “But it’s funnier that way.”

Funnier or sweeter or sadder, depending.

It seems odd to me that poppies are associated with Memorial Day since opium is made from poppies and one of the side effects of opium use is memory loss. But maybe the other side effect (at least according to the Romanticists of the later 18th century) of opium — insight — is ultimately more important than mere memory.

For the storyteller, memory and truth work in service to the story. I noticed this technique in many of the stories told this weekend. I could see the technique best when I’d been part of the original event and got to hear the “story-ized” version told to others.

1. Tell it simple.

Life is complicated. (Nothing like wedding planning to prove that.) The story version of life is simpler. Look for unnecessary complications, redundancies and tangents, and eliminate them. In your stories, I mean. Although I might also try this in real life.

2. Tell it “more.”

Make if funnier or sadder or crazier or whatever-ier. Find the “truth” that the story is telling and bring out the threads that lead there.

3. Tell it again.

While it’s painfully inevitable that some people tell the same story to death, I also see that the best stories get honed to a thing of beauty by regular retelling. I think this correlates to the craft of writing on a couple different levels, whether it’s choosing a familiar and well-loved thematic trope during the brainstorming stage or revising for best effect in later drafts.

Next time you’re at a family event hearing the same old same old or eavesdropping at a coffee shop to strangers, listen to the stories being told around you. What makes them interesting? What makes your attention wander? How can you apply those to your storytelling?

Are you a plotter looking for guidance on how to deliver maximum punch? I’ve got some suggestions for where you might want to look for answers:

1. 3 Act Structure – A plotting method that originated in the theater and is commonly used in movies. It breaks the action into three distinct sections, each with their own turning points, high points and low points. Here’s a link to Alexandra Solokoff’s blog where she discusses the 3 Act structure. Her blog has lots of great tips on plotting.

2. Hero’s Journey – American scholar Joseph Campbell outlined the stages of the Hero’s Journey back in 1949. Chris Vogler later wrote a book based on Campbell’s work called The Writer’s Journey and, with its clear explanations and more modern examples, it has become an iconic writer’s tool.

3. W Plot Method – This method is commonly used in novels and movies. It involves plotting toward a series of high and low points, which occur when the hero meets barriers to his or her goal. The reason it’s called the W plot is because the points go from high to low, low to high, and repeats…creating a W shape.

4. Snowflake Method – This method is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of prep work that may not mesh with your creative brain. On the other hand, some people swear by it. The guy who developed it is a former software engineer, so you can comfortable that it’s a very logical and organized way to create a book.

5. A Mix of Methods — Some writers blend plotting methods to create their own way of working. Some write down a few turning points, then write organically from there. Others blend the W plot with the hero’s journey, or the hero’s journey with the 3 Act structure. Anything is acceptable as long as it gets you to the finish line. Here’s a nice explanation of the W plot blended with the Hero’s Journey.

The good news is you can use any of these methods, or none of them, and still end up with a great novel. We all work differently. But sometimes creativity benefits from a bit of structure, so if you’re tempted, give one of these methods a try.

This article first appeared in the Romance Writers of NZ (RWNZ) monthly magazine Heart 2 Heart.  I wrote it after the newsletter editor there asked if I had an article on character creation and I realized that, gasp!, I didn’t. Now I do. I’m also teaching a class on Creating Creepy Characters for Savvy Authors this week and this post adds to that content.

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Which comes first, plot or character? Like the chicken-egg question, it’s basically irrelevant. For successful poultry — and story — creation you need both. For me, though, plot comes more readily. “What happens” bubbles up in my brain before “who it happens to.” Since character doesn’t come first for me, I have a process to create the people to live (live through!) my story.

Warning #1: Long post
Warning #2: Pantsers/organic writers, back away slowly. This technique may give you contact dermatitis.

1. What sort of person will suffer the most from this particular storyline?

Okay, that sounds a little mean, but conflict is the heart of commercial genre fiction, so the characters are going to have to suffer to earn their happy ending. Story conflict is amplified by building personalities who will struggle most vigorously against (and ultimately for) the lesson they have to learn. Thoughtful character creation is especially important in romance because not only are the characters fighting their way through the plot, the hero and heroine will fight against and for each other.

For me, thinking about the theme helps me find my characters. In my Marked Souls urban fantasy romances with alpha male warriors possessed by repentant demons, the series theme is the shifting balance between good and evil, but each book in the series explores that question from a slightly different angle. For example, in the latest story, VOWED IN SHADOWS, the book theme is about weaknesses of the flesh. Naturally, the heroine is a stripper with a boa (not the feathered kind; the reptilian). Nim’s body is a sensual weapon she uses against an uncaring world…and it is also her weakness because she still carries the scars of childhood sexual abuse. So who would suffer most from such a conflicted heroine? A married man who hasn’t had sex in eighty years! Unlike the heroine, the widower hero holds femininity sacred. I’m being a bit wry by saying ‘holds’ since a maiming in an earlier story left Jonah with only one hand; his weakness of the flesh is quite literal.

I find that it helps to list the characteristics of the hero and heroine side by side to make sure the conflict between them and the plot is inherent in their personalities. I also make sure the seeds of their need for each other is nestled in that conflict by answering the question “What does he/she learn from her/him because of the story?”

2. What made the character this way?

When I first started writing, I took a character-building class where they handed out a twelve-page dossier to fill out. Eye color, okay, but favorite ice cream? Really? It paralyzed me because it seemed so arbitrary. (People with processes tend to dislike arbitrary.) If dreaming up a character to that level of minutia works for you, of course, carry on. I find that knowing the character’s likes and dislikes NOW is less important to me¾and to the story¾than the roots of their discontent. Working backstory into the actual pages is tricky, but knowing the character’s history can help flesh out the present without seeming so random. Not all of it (please, not all of it!) will show up in your story, but hints of those experiences will tint the character at every level.

The rule of backstory creation is: Go deeper. For example, Jonah is an ex-missionary. Of course he is, since Nim is a stripper! I wanted that source of conflict between them from the beginning. But I also wanted to give a reason for their eventual relationship. So I went deeper. Sure, he’s a missionary, but why? He was a religious man (another level of conflict with his demonic possession) and his wife was a minister’s daughter (the exact opposite of his heroine) but what more? Go deeper. Ah, he was a missionary, in part, for the adventure. But why? Going deeper, I find out that as a child he read a penny dreadful with bare-breasted native girls! That spirit of adventure along with a touch of male ogling gave him the history to bond with his heroine. Eventually

3. How will the character get from the beginning to the happy ending?

Once the basic characteristics and backstory are nailed down, I track the character’s growth through the plot. As a plotter, it’s easy for me to let the battle scenes run amok without making sure the characters get something out of it besides bruises. But since our genre is about conflict AND change, I want to make sure the characters are embedded in the experiences on the page.

Time to make another list. I start with Point A: where the character begins the story, which is usually some version of 1. despairing, 2. lost, 3. oblivious, 4. willfully blind, or 5. happily puttering and about to be catapulted into the gleeful hell that is the plot. I end with Point Last, where the character finally “gets it,” whatever it is for the particular story. Since stories where the characters come to unmotivated insights and unsustainable epiphanies are unsatisfying and unbelievable, I chart the clear steps between Point A and Last.

For example, Nim goes from the kind of girl who metaphorically wields a gallon of gasoline and a match to being a powerful positive light against the darkness. A few of the steps between include: selfishly taking on a demon to improve her chances of winning the stripper all-stars; facing monsters in real life and in herself and learning she finally has the power to fight them; finding tentative friendship with other women in the demon-possessed league; admiring the hero for his dedication to fighting evil; believing his love for her means her scars don’t make her damaged goods; valuing the goodness in the world.

Here is where plot and character and romantic relationship intertwine on the page. The forward progression of the plot drives changes in the character, and the character’s changes drive the plot forward, and the hero and heroine push each other. I find that I usually have to move pieces around a few times — can’t have the hero injured in the battle here because that would force the heroine to acknowledge her feelings and she can’t do that yet, etc. Personally, I think that character rules plot because I find you can more easily massage the plot to echo the character’s growth; fudging the character’s growth to fit the plot can feel forced and unrealistic (always funny when you are talking about fiction).

I have other, smaller tools for refining characters¾motto, behavioral quirk, personal imagery dictionary, etc. — but these three steps give me a sturdy launch for a story. You can also write most of a synopsis with these pieces. Pantsers, if you made it this far, you see there’s still a lot of room for on-the-fly characterization, like favorite ice cream. I also use these character notes during revisions to make sure I told the story I wanted to tell.

Although I consider myself a very analytical writer (shocking, I know) in the end, I do believe a character comes alive through some indescribable jolt of magic. But I think it’s a lot like Frankenstein’s monster; Frankenstein had to do a lot of work first — grave robbing, sewing, decanting mysterious bubbling liquids — before the lightning brought his creature to life.

Happy mad scientisting!

After watching the new Marvel movie, Thor, over the weekend—along with thousands of other folks—I expect a surge of interest in Norse mythology. Mythology makes a great basis for storytelling, and it worked for Tolkien and Rowling, so I say embrace it.

There are two ways use mythology in your stories:

- Stay faithful to the legends and be very careful about the details you include, treating your story like a fictionalized historical.

- Play with the mythology—even blend it with other mythologies—to create your own twist on the old stories.

Fantasy authors have been doing both successfully for years. Tolkien and Rowling both played with mythology, creating a unique world that is wonderfully identifiable to their stories. Many have copied them.

Is there a right approach? Not really.

But the reason many authors tweak mythological tales to suit their own needs is that the old tales are restrictive. You can’t stray off the beaten path without a fan of the old tales pointing out your error. If you create your own variation of the old tales, there are no beaten paths. Everything is fresh, new, and malleable.

You don’t need to stick to Norse mythology. Almost every region of the world has its own set of tales, from Hindu to Celtic, from Egyptian to North American Indian. There are plenty of stories from which to draw. I’ve used both Egyptian and Japanese mythology in my Soul Gatherer series so far.

One of best investments a paranormal/urban fantasy author can make is the purchase of a thick tome of mythology. Or several. I haunt the discount shelves at my local bookstore and regularly find texts on Greek myths, the Celtic druids, and Ancient Egypt—to name a few. And I’ve found all of them helpful at one time or another.

Anyone have a favorite mythology reference?

Currently working on: Kicking this nasty cold
Mood: Disgustingly congested

XY and I hike and camp in the summer, often through Eastern Oregon and over and down into Idaho and Nevada, so I was saddened to read about a couple lost after traveling in the area. The wife was recovered alive this weekend after seven weeks missing, having survived on creek water and trail mix; the husband tried to walk out for help and has not yet been found. It’s rugged country, much of it still snowbound this time of year.

According to some reports, the couple had been following some scenic route with the help of a GPS when they became trapped in a ravine.

Which made me think about my writing.

I’m a plotter. Evidence at right. I like tools to help me find my way, whether that’s a GPS or a scene-by-scene beat sheet. When the tools are working, everything can be wonderful, each step proceeding accordingly and to plan, miles/pages whirling by under the feet/fingers.

But when it doesn’t work…

Hopefully you packed extra trail mix.

On Saturday, I drove up to the Seattle area for a romance reader event. (By the way, if you live between the Covington WA Library and Portland Oregon and want a signed copy of VOWED IN SHADOWS, check your local Barnes & Noble; I probably signed it.)  For the three-hour interstate drive, I had the following:

• Turkey croissant with cheese
• Apple (with knife; always have a knife)
• His Bakery chocolate chip cookie
• Trader Joe’s chocolate chip cookies (just in case)
• Trader Joe’s gluten-free ginger snaps (for gluten free just in case)
• Gardettos (garlic to keep vampires away)
• Pringles (because vampires aren’t real)
• York peppermint patties (because garlic IS real)
• Dark chocolate M&Ms
• Organic Valley chocolate milk
• Water

XY asked if I was EVER coming back. [Author's note: I don't usually eat this trashy. Special occasion only.] While I didn’t intend to become stranded on the side of the interstate for seven weeks, you just never know. I find the same is true of my writing: I never intend to become stranded after I fill out all my plot sheets, but it’s best to have a contingency plan.

I don’t know how the lost woman survived for seven weeks, not knowing what would happen to her, still not knowing what happened to her husband. Maybe she’ll write a book someday. But here’s a little bit about what I’ve learned when I’m lost in my writing, and not in a good way:

Don’t get more lost.

Lost people do walk in circles. Actual scientific studies found that, devoid of locational cues (i.e. blindfolded), walkers will end up going in circles less than 100 feet in diameter.

When I don’t know where I’m going with my story, my writing can become equally cramped and pointless. It’s better for me to stop, orient to my last known position in the story, and then make a new plan before moving forward.

Send up a flare
Sometimes I get so lost in my own head, I just can’t see a way out. I need help. Call the Coast Guard! And make sure the Navy SEAL is hot! (Aren’t they all?) Also, bring more chocolate.

My writer version of a distress beacon/sat phone is a brainstorming session with other writers. A lot of times, I don’t even need them to answer me, really, I just need to talk through the path and lay it out for my own mind’s eye.

Letting someone else know where you are going to be and when you are expected back is always good advice when headed into wild country. I think the same applies to writing; having someone else know what I’m trying to accomplish — with deadline included — helps keep me on track. And they can come calling for me if I haven’t been heard from for awhile.

Use your skills and your senses
There have been several stories in the past few years about unprepared people following their GPS units into trouble. Usually, the trouble starts with nice spring weather that degenerates back into winter as they blunder higher and farther. Sadly in these stories, it seems even the sight of multiple feet of snow doesn’t alert them to trouble. Having all the right tools can’t always keep you safe. Worse, sometimes the tools — whether is GPSs, seat heaters and cell phones or GMC, turning points and high concept — add a false sense of safety.

For example, I’ve learned to smell the snow of the freeze-out that usually hits me in Chapter 7. Even when I plot, Chapter 7 is when I hit my “I’m bored of this story, I see a shiny new idea over there” wall. The story could end right there if I’m not careful.

The adventure in the wilderness of the story is worth a lot of risks, I think. Not foolish risks, of course. Being prepared only makes sense. There will be plenty of unknowns to keep me busy even if I plot every step.

I feel for that lost couple. You don’t usually hear a lot of follow-up to the stories of the lost. Getting found (or not) often seems to be the end of it. For the writer, who will be going out again and again, I always want to know what could be next.

What happens next? I guess that IS the heart of storytelling.

Have you ever been lost, in real life or story life? What did you do?

How does one salve one’s conscience when one doesn’t actually feel like writing? I’ve begun to think the answer is books on writing. Maybe not creating them because that’s, like, writing, but COLLECTING them is certainly one of the best forms of procrastination going. I have shelves of the suckers. But how useful are they? Once you’re past the “how to format a manuscript” stage, and you know all about grammar, spelling, and punctuation, what can these tomes do for you besides make one look very writerly?

As far as I can tell, these books fall into a few categories. There are reference works for writers: handy-dandy guides to poisons, what happens at a crime scene, how to survive in the Regency era, etc. It’s pretty easy to figure out which of these you need and they are by far my favourite type. Just the facts in small words that even writers can understand. Here are two I go to again and again:

Then there are writing guides that are structure-focussed books. How to write mysteries/horror/romance/bestsellers, etc. Mileage on these varies hugely. I’ve yet to find a really good one on horror. And, even when these guides are good, they need to be applied with common sense. Take romance for instance: Are you really going to use the same approach for writing a Harlequin Presents as for a dark paranormal romance? Hmm—the Cowboy Vampire Firefighter’s Secret Baby Werewolf Surprise?

For good genre-fiction techniques in general, I personally like Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and Bob Mayer’s incomparable Toolkit.

There are books about finding one’s writing inspiration, but I’ve never been inspired to pick them up.

There are also myriad books about individual issues, like dialogue, description, character and so forth. I suppose that one could fill a book with a minute examination about one of these topics, but I’m not sure I’d want to read it. The best straight-up advice I’ve found is in Stephen King’s On Writing. He has a fabulous way of getting right to the point. I’ve pulled more nuggets out of this volume than any other, and only half of it is how-to.

I’m sure there are plenty of other fabulous choices, and some might be gathering dust, unread, on my shelf. The point is that I think once you’ve found those craft guides that resonate with your process, those are the keepers. It won’t be the same list for everyone, and that’s okay.

I happened to see a short interview with singer ADELE up on YouTube the other day. It precedes a rendition of Someone like You, but gives a bit of background on the song.

As you watch the video, it becomes very clear that she’s not afraid to share her emotions—in fact, she pours them into her songs, heart and soul.

There’s no holding back, not when she’s writing the songs and not when she’s singing them. Her words and her performances are intensely personal—she even admits to having cried as she performed Someone Like You at the 2011 BRIT Awards—yet she doesn’t shy away from the feelings they evoke. She openly bleeds as she sings, and her feelings reach out and grab you by the throat.

As a writer, especially a writer of romance, tapping into real emotions should be your aim as well. Don’t be afraid to reveal a big part of yourself in your writing. Dig deep, find those emotions that wring you out and pour them onto your pages. If you want your readers to feel, make your characters feel. To make your characters feel, look inside yourself. The truth is there.

Don’t be shy. Put it all on the page.

If you’ve never seen the series, but think someday you’ll want to, turn back now. There are a few spoilers in this list…

1. Throw them a curve ball: Take an ordinary high school cheerleader and give her an inescapable destiny as a vampire slayer.

2. Pit them against villains capable of killing them: Such as an ancient vampire who not only sucks the slayer dry, he leaves her face down in a puddle. Caveat: If you do this, you also need to give her friends who can conveniently save her life…

3. Make their nightmares come true: Afraid of spiders, clowns, or public speaking? Good. Because all the bad guys can’t be demons. Welcome to the slayer’s world.

4. Stomp on their hearts: Let her fall in love, only to discover that love can cause serious, earth-shattering problems, like awakening the soulless vampire buried in her boyfriend.

5. Kick them when they’re down: Ensure the only way to save the world is to run said boyfriend through with a very sharp sword.

6. And then just for the heck of it, kick ‘em again: When she finally gets up the courage to date again, have that guy dump her after one night of sex.

7. Take away all their support: Mentors? Fire them. Friends? Turn them into hyenas or magic-addicted dark witches. Mother? Make her a zombie, have her do the nasty with the mentor, then kill her.

8. When in doubt, make them sing: Literally, for a whole episode. And while she’s singing, have her blurt things she’d never say otherwise, wound all her friends, and almost go up in flames. Then blame it on a tap-dancing demon.

Fortunately, Buffy’s ego is never completely shattered by all that happens to her–she’s a terrific example of what doesn’t kill you (or does kill you but you come back to life) makes you stronger.

Any other Buffy fans out there?

Currently working on: Preparing for Chicago book tour
Mood:  Scattered

Writing rules start the moment you pick up your first pencil and stare at your first blank wide-ruled notebook when you are, what?, in kindergarten? Hold the pencil like this. Stay within the lines. Make the letters the same way as everybody else.

How is this creative?!?

Ah, but if you don’t make your letters the same as everybody else, if you make up your own alphabet (Tolkien aside) nobody will be able to read what  you wrote.

So already, we see that some rules exist for a reason. Here’s a good example. I recently received my box of new books from my publisher. Yay! I opened the box and…

Oh noes! They sent me a bunch of books without covers! How tragic! Jonah is such a handsome fellow too. Weep.

Now if I’d followed the rules a little more carefully, I would have seen this:

“Open Other Side.” This particular rule existed for a good reason. If I wanted to see my covers.

But the rules accumulate so quickly, it’s hard to know which are hard and fast and get you closer to your goal (“This Side Up”) and which (“Open Immediately” and “Rush”) are more like friendly suggestions.

I think there are a few rules we can all agree on:

1. Know the rules so you can break them properly.

Breaking rules “properly” seems oxymoronic. But the jazziest freewheeling jam session can be ruined by one out-of-tune instrument, and even the wackiest concept car needs to actually carry a passenger from point A to point B.

2. Do nothing to get in the way of the story.

This includes haphazard or intrusive writing issues (from big picture elements like theme vs. preaching to line edit problems such as spelling and grammar) that might interfere with the reader’s enjoyment of the story.

3. Tend toward the clear and concise.

When I look at the books I put down (and the biggest difficulties in my own writing) I see that muddiness is often the deciding factor. Muddy writing leads to slogging. Clear and concise writing (not necessarily short; concise means free from superfluous detail) moves along.

Just like Tolkien had a lot of rings but only One Ring to bind them all, I think there is One Rule of Writing:

Be Compelling

Compelling is a free pass past a lot of rules. Without compelling, even following every single rule gets you nowhere. What is compelling? Ooh, look, I’m out of space That’s a post for another day.

Do you have any rules you follow? Any you break?

First off — Happy Release Day to Jessa! Vowed in Shadows officially hits the stores today. Although I make most of my purchases via Kindle these days, I think I’ll take a trip to the bookstore so I can see that hot cover in all its glory.

Okay, now that I’ve got you all pumped up, on to my blog topic for this week: editing.

I divide each book into two very distinct phases—the writing part and the editing part. For some people, writing is fun and editing is like pulling teeth. Not for me. Writing is hard, hand-wringing, blood-sweating work. During the writing stage, I leave the computer completely drained and notoriously cranky. I drink too much coffee and eat too much junk food.

But the editing phase is a complete turn-around. I love tweaking and tightening my prose to deliver more punch. I love finding a powerful verb to replace those seven adverbs. I love layering in emotion, conflict, and clues.

Almost everything about editing makes me feel good—except ripping out whole sections, which is rather like pulling off a large Band-Aid. Ouch. But I digress. There’s something very satisfying about the improvement process.

I use two books to help me edit my novels, both of which I highly recommend:

Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Dwight V. Swain — My copy of this book has so many highlighted sections the text almost matches the bright yellow cover.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King — The subtitle of this book is “How to edit yourself into print”. It’s also a surprisingly easy read.

There are tons of other great editing references—anyone want to share one?