5 Tips to Creating Characters

Characters are the life blood of any good book. I say that when teaching all my writing classes and it is always the first place I start when developing a storyline. Without characters the reader cares about the story is going nowhere.

So how you go about making your characters different, especially when you are writing multiple books? How do you keep them all from sounding and looking alike, or heaven forbid, sounding like you?

1. Start with a good name. I always find that my characters begin to come alive as soon as I name them. I always love to tell the story of how my brother began writing a book, but he couldn't be bothered with naming his characters. As a result they all sounded alike. When I asked him what they looked like, he didn't feel the need to describe them either. As a result the story sort of died. We had all these shapeless lumps speaking, but they were all the same. That was fine if he was writing some sort of space adventure, but even then no one was going to read it if the only definition was Char (character) 1 or Char 2 with no sort of personalization. Names can define a character and as soon as you name the character, they will begin to become a person. Think of it this way a Frank is going to be different from someone named Franklin or Frankie. 

2. Build a character profile. That can begin with the character name. From there you can begin to see that shapeless lump move from an anonymous being to a real person. Keep it simple if you want, but think of them as you might create a building. Start with size, and then become more precise. Color of eyes, color of hair will all make a difference in making your characters different.

3. Create a personality. No two people will face a situation the same way. Think of your story question and then consider how different people might handle it. Give the character something to go after--a goal--and then you can see what kind of character you want to tackle the situation. If you want the character to have a really hard time, make your character weaker in that area so they can grow and eventually succeed. Or perhaps you don't want them to succeed. Either way, the kind of character you put into the situation will determine how the story flows.

4. Teach your character a lesson.  No one wants to read a story where the character is going to be able to accomplish everything they set out to do from the get go. If the character can't suffer at least a little and be tested in the story, who will care. We want our characters to struggle and we want the struggle to be worthy of the character. 

5. Make your character individual.  Remember no two people sound exactly alike or react the same way to situations. Be sure that the various characters within your story are very different people and make them unique in their own way.

5 Tips to Improving Pacing

Have you ever read those books where you can’t seem to put it down and you find yourself staying up all night trying to finish it or getting up early the next morning so you could read all day?  I have found myself doing that so many times and with so many of my favorite writers. It is why they are my favorites. We want to get to the end to see what happens, though it is usually sad because it means I have come to the end of a really good story that I didn’t want to end. I think that might be why I read so many different mystery series. It means I get to read about those characters again in the near future.

Do you ever wonder how writers get you to keep going? Do they have some secrets that make you want to keep reading? After hearing from some of my favorite authors I see that they each do many of the same things that keep us coming back and make us want to keep reading. As authors we can take some of those ideas and use them in our own stories.

1.      Make the story about a character

2.      Make something happen quickly

3.      Keep the stakes rising

4.      Let the action rise and fall

5.      Write a bang up ending

Let’s look at each of those and see how that works.

1.      Make the story about a character. We might have lots of great plot ideas, or plot devices, but let’s face it. The story always comes back to the character. No matter how good the plot might be, and how action packed, if we as readers don’t care about the characters, we’re not going to want to keep reading.  We will be ready to close that book any time we want. We can get back to it sometime later.  On the other hand, if we are really invested in the character we want to know what happens to that person. We are in the story along with the person. Invest the character with human foibles and make the character someone the reader can cheer on.  No one wants to read about the perfect character who wins every time out. That is boring. Let your character suffer some so the character can grow.

2.      Make something happen quickly.  That means getting the Inciting Incident up as close to the beginning of the story as possible. As we begin to read a book we want to have something happen to your character right away.  Recently I heard romance author Cassie Miles say that when she is writing her popular Intrigues she always gets the hero and heroine to meet and then sets up the adventure they are going to go on. She also cautioned against having the heroine driving somewhere and reflecting on the past. Put her at the beginning of a trip or at the end, but don’t spend endless pages of her thinking things through. Make something happen.

3.      Keep the stakes rising. Just like making something happen no one wants to read a book that just stays in the same place. By increasing the tension the reader will begin to not only see the main characters tested, but the reader will also become involved in that struggle. Things are getting worse and worse. Of course you might want to include some small battles the main character can win along the way. But don’t make the character invincible from the first and keep that action rising until it looks like all will be lost if the hero or heroine doesn’t win the final battle.

4.      Let the action rise and fall.  As you increase those stakes, don’t make it all keep building and building without any chance to let the reader catch their collective breath. Create some distractions or slower periods to let the characters reflect or let the reader think about the story too.  All action can be so exhausting the reader might think they have to put the story down because they have become breathless from all the action. It’s better to slow it down for a big before plunging on to the next problem.

5.      Write a bang up ending. This is a good way to keep the readers coming back. Make the main characters win some sort of prize, even if it isn’t the goal they set out to reach. Solve the crime even if the bad guy gets away – this can be done very nicely if you are writing a series. Make certain the reader knows that the threat is gone for now at least and that there is some other issue that has been resolved. Give the reader a good ending that will have them putting the book down, knowing they must pick up your next book.

 These are just a few ideas for making your pacing work. More to come in the future.  

 

 

5 Writing Tips from a Master

This past week I had the opportunity to hear the great David Morrell speak twice – first for the Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers and then at Genre Fest, which was sponsored by RMMWA, along with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and Colorado Authors League.

Both times he really blew me away with both his knowledge of the writing world and what it takes to become a bestselling author. He would know something about being a bestselling author as the father of Rambo. (he even told us the story of how he came up with that iconic came for his character in First Blood).

I’ve heard him speak before at the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference and this time was as great as the first time I listened to his ideas and thoughts on writing.

1.      Don’t chase the market – This makes sense because so many people today seem to think that it makes sense to go with what is already out there. But if you think about it, the most successful writers are the ones who find something new. Suddenly it hits and takes off and that first writer might become a bestseller. The imitators are seldom remembered and don’t make it big. Instead of aspiring to be the next J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or E. L. James, go after your own bestseller with your own original ideas.  By the time you try to catch up with whatever is hot today, the market will have moved on to the next big “thing” and that author will be famous

2.      Write for yourself – Write what you want to write and your own personality and style will come through. Just like following the market, you can’t make yourself into someone else. There are certain things you know, certain style that you bring to your writing that allows your work to be different. Pursue that and you will find you can become a better writer and you will also have an individual book you can be proud of.

3.      Write to your emotions – Morrell discussed his life and how his life journey has always dictated his writing.  As a child and young adult he was struck by the television program Route 66. His comments spoke to me because I not only recall that television program about two young men wandering through the country but I remember our first big family trip that made me want to travel more was along Route 66. To him, the fact they were both orphans spoke to him as an orphan who also wanted to get out and travel around. But those beginnings took him from Canada into studying to be a writer at Penn State. My own writing journey took me traveling to various cities around the western US to work. But as he said, his life and his emotions still play into his writing. And I find that mine do too. If I don’t cry over the happy ending to my romance novels I feel like I’ve let my readers down. I want them to leave the book with some sort of feeling and if I can’t feel it, then I’m not putting my all into my writing.

4.      Listen to your daydreams – He said that writers are notorious day dreamers and that is so true. When he said that, there were so many people nodding their heads in the room. We all knew what he meant. These stories come into our heads and they won’t go away. We have characters coming to us and asking to have their stories written. People who don’t relate to their characters or their stories don’t become writers. He says to listen to those daydreams, think about them and what they mean and then write, write write.

5.      Study the craft of writing – His final point was to study the craft of writing and to continue to study it. As a teacher he is always learning and he is also always teaching. He recommended we look for the books in our field and learn more about what we are writing. His enthusiasm had me wanting to re-read the work of Hemmingway as well as my old favorite mystery writers. 

The other thing I witnessed, though he didn’t say it, but I’ve seen it at other conferences and even in the time he took to talk with me, was his willingness to chat with the other writers and  to just talk the craft with them.  I remember the advice he gave to and other writer about writing short stories and using them to learn to hone the craft.

He also talked about research and how much time he devotes to it and he has done that with his latest books, Murder is a Fine Art and Inspector of the Dead. Both are obviously well researched and he discussed how he read so many books from the 1850s as well as studying that time period. But he not only read books, he used what he learned from those books to bring his own stories to life, using that information in his setting and bring it to life for his own readers.

What great information! As I have told others, I could just listen to his ideas and his knowledge over and over. By studying other writers and how they work, we can all become better writers. As David Morrell says, we must always be learning.

5 Tips to Writing Dialogue

“What do you mean we need to know how to write dialogue? Isn’t that simply people talking? It’s simple.”

But no, it isn’t always the simplest thing to write. There are things you need to consider as you write dialogue.  Sometimes we need to pay closer attention to how we write dialogue so that it doesn’t come out sounding like all our characters are the same people or so that our characters don’t sound stilted.  Here are five quick tips to try or to keep in mind as you write dialogue.

1.      Always read your dialogue to yourself as you write it or after you write it. Why would you need to do that? You can hear it in your head as you write it, correct? Well, yes, but if you don’t read it aloud or even with someone else reading the other lines, you might not write the words as dialogue at all. You might simply be writing what you think sounds right. But can someone actually say those words? Speak them, read them and find out.  I actually read my dialogue out loud as I write it.

2.      Remember no two people talk exactly alike.  You might have pet words that you personally use all the time. You might even put them into the mouth of your main character. But don’t put them in everyone’s mouth or all your characters will end up sounding alike. Too many times I have seen characters all taking alike, speaking in the author’s voice, not their own. Let your characters have their own pet words. Or their own way of speaking. A teenager won’t talk like an adult and a child often won’t talk like a teen. But don’t over exaggerate either. No one wants to read a book with “Excellent!” written on every page.

3.      Listen to others around you speak to pick up cadences and get ideas for writing dialogue. I’ve heard from so many authors that they love to eavesdrop on others’ conversations just to get ideas for ways to write dialogue or to study different cadences. That can be very helpful next time you sit down to write a scene.

4.      Remember different professions may speak in different ways. I remember going to meeting with educational leaders and becoming aware of much more correct and stilted language. I’d always worked in a quick moving profession where simple words worked best and we didn’t speak of cumulative scores or clientele safeguards or demonstrative  demographics. Okay, I just put all those words together, but I wasn’t certain what I was listening to either. I just wanted the facts, straight and simple. But sometimes you might have an academic in a book who speaks that way.  

5.      Don’t overuse dialect.  Yes, you want to get the point across that perhaps your heroine speaks with a Scottish accent or your detective is Hispanic and tosses in Spanish words every so often, but don’t overdo it to the point that the reader gets distracted or loses sight of the main story.

 As you write dialogue remember you are speaking for your characters. Let’s make them sound like the individuals they are.

5 Tips to Promotion

These days so many authors get bogged down with how to prmote themselves.  Promotion has become the name of the game.  I don’t know about you, but I have never been overly excited about promotion, especially having to promote myself.  I can promote campaigns or even news stories since I did that job for many years as a TV producer and public relations writer.  But having to say great thing about me as an author, well, sometimes I fear it comes off as bragging.

Still it must be done. So how can you do it without sounding too phony?

1.    Try using a blog. These have been around for a while and a good many writers are now blogging, either personally or with other writers. Blogs are great because you can be very folksy with them and write about your life, or one of your interests or interesting things you learn as you work on your story. Use historical or useful information you learned while researching a story as a basis for a blog. I see some of the most successful blogs for getting comments is when someone lists their top movies, songs or books of all time and then they start a discussion of what others think or what their lists might be. But if you’re going to have a blog, try to make it as consistent as possible. Decide if you are going to blog once or twice a month  or set up a schedule and stick to it as closely as possible.

2.      Answer or comment on other people’s blogs. As I just mentioned, some writers will do those  blogs where they mention their favorite books and movies. What about your own? Why not list those for the group. The more people commenting the better and you might just get noticed. I’ve heard agents and publishers suggest getting your name out by commenting on other blogs as a good way of letting possible readers know you are ut there.

3.      Create your own website. Like blogging websites have been around for a long time and you are advised to have one as an author so that readers can learn about you and about your other books. The best thing about having your own website that you build is that you can do it as a third person, or someone else talking about you, so you can promote yourself without sounding like you’re bragging. Unlike a blog, websites can be static so that you don’t need to update them often.

4.      Be on Social media. That means getting a Facebook account or on Twitter and then making certain you at least join in a few conversations so that it doesn’t look like every time you post it is about your book. It’s also a good way to let readers get to know you better.  I like using Pinterest too because it lets me show off some of my pictures while looking around for other pictures f things that interest me. Again, it can help readers to get to know you.

5.      Check with other writers  on their promotion. See what others are doing and what works for them and why.  It can save you a lot of time. Some authors are betting at various forms of promotion and if you ask enough people, you can come up with a variety of ideas so that you can decide which one works best for you.

Finally, though, I would say remember your main goal is to write. If you spend too much time on promotion, you will find you don’t have time to write. Don’t let promotion overwhelm you. Be a writer first!

5 Tips to Editing

This month I have been teaching a class on short stories as well as working on edits for two projects. While I thorough enjoy letting go with my writing and just letting it take me wherever the muse wants to go, editing is work. Hard work. When it comes to editing, I always find myself looking for easy answers and there really aren't any. There are so many different things to consider when editing so I went through to find a list of things that sometimes get forgotten, but are easy to do to begin the process or when you feel like editing is getting you down. Here are some quick tips to keep in mind as you begin the process or if you get stuck in the middle of the process:

1. Look for your "weak" words.  This might also be called your crutch words. We all have them -- things like

usually
just
really
often
always

On your first editing pass, throw your crutch words into search or find and track them down. If you can do without them, then do it.

2. Look for filter words or phrases. This is something I had not thought about when I first started writing, but why use extra words or put more room between the reader and the characters.  Instead of saying She saw the man get into the car, simply say: The man got into the car. If we are in her head, seeing things from her viewpoint already, then just let her tell the readers what she sees.

3. Watch for padded words.  Just like filter words, these are words that aren't necessary.

Sit down
stand up
drop down
follow behind
rise up
dash quickly

If you sit, you are down, if you stand, you are up.  There are probably more words you can find to add to this list. They might even be crutch words for you. Look for them and get rid of them.

4. Check your opening and your ending.  You should re-read them over before you consider your editing completed, but it is also a good way to start the process.  Make certain that the idea you started with makes sense with how you are ending your story. Do you fulfill the promise of the beginning?  Is your character changed, but still believable?  Is there a scene you need to add or delete as a result of what you wrote at the beginning but now that the story is finishing you find you don't need that. Go back and get rid of it.

5.  Read your story aloud.  This is my favorite editing tip.  Maybe it's because I spent so many years in television newsrooms where so many of us were reading our stories aloud as we wrote them. If you write for TV news you want to know how it's going to sound when the words are read. You want to make certain they work together and the thought is not so complicated that the reader (or listener) will get lost in the middle.  Reading a story aloud can really help you see problem areas.  It can be an absolute must when writing dialogue. If you can't read the dialogue aloud, then I doubt people can speak it.

Most of all as you edit, don't let it get you down. The story is written and you have words on the page. Simply make certain they're the right words. (I was about to write Just make certain -- then I edited it out -- that is one of my crutch words)

5 Tips to Writing Villains

Almost any story you write needs a bad guy or woman, someone to be defeated or whose deeds have thwarted the hero and heroine.  Sometimes they can be a machine, an alien race from another planet, a deadly bunch of vampires or a whole slew of zombies.


But more often than not, your protagonists are taking on one dastardly dude or some underhanded woman. How can you make them come alive without meeting all the clichés.

Try some of these ideas and you might find yourself coming up with new villains.

1. Use your hero/heroine goals to build a villain – This is rather simple. What does your hero want? A new job? To learn who killed the boss because he is being suspected?  If you use those goals, the villain will be diametrically at the opposite end of the spectrum. This is the person who is keeping your hero or heroine from getting what you want. That is what happens in most stories, but take it one step further. Make it personal as well. Bring that villain to life with his/her own backstory which shows why they might be battling the hero and why they want to keep the hero from attaining his goal. Hannibal Lector was an overall bad guy as a cannibal, but he zeroed in on Clarice Starling and Will Graham. He made his battle personal with both of them.
2. Try the 7 Deadly Sins to create their bad traits – This is a good way to create a villain. Give your villain the sin of greed, pride, wrath or even gluttony to make him want to come down on your poor hapless heroes and heroines.
3. Make villains loveable, sympathetic or redeemable – this can be a fun way to write a villain. Not everyone needs to be killed off and vanquished. Sometimes it is more fun to simply put the villain in his place or put a mirror to him and show him for who and what he is. This can be a real lesson for him. Or defeat him and make him wish he hadn’t been so bad. As for the sympathetic villain, I always find the Phantom of the Opera as someone who is very sympathetic. He is hideous and that has made it impossible for anyone to love him. Doesn’t it make it more understandable that he might go to any lengths to get his true love, Christine?
4. Make your villains memorable – We all want our heroes and heroines to be remembered by the reader, but what about the villain?  If we are going to make our heroes strong, then the villains should be too.  Anyone can overcome a normal bad guy.  If you want to make your heroes come off as invincible, given them a worthy opponent to defeat and that should be the starting point for your villain. Make them so strong the reader doubts whether your heroine will beat him or her.
5.  Keep future stories in mind – do you want your villain to survive and come back to fight another day?  Find clever ways or reasons for why the villain might survive this time around.  But if you choose to do that, let the hero or heroine still solve some sort of issue in this story. You don’t want to leave the reader hanging. Something must be resolved.
    
   But mostly when writing a villain, have a good time with them. You can make them as mean and dastardly, or cowardly as you want. Remember you get to destroy them at the end so make it an exercise that stretches you as a writer.