TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – What are your characters saying?

In a continuing attempt to help new (and not so new) authors better understand the mechanics of writing, we are offering our twist on writing tips. Today, it’s DIALOG.

Dialogue (or it can be spelled ‘dialog’) – what your characters say in your story – can be a crucial component of your fiction. However, it can also be one of the most difficult things for a writer to write well. Many beginning writers are afraid of dialog, and some just plain don’t get it. Even some experienced writers go overboard with dialog and use it when it might not be the most appropriate choice for a particular segment of a story.

What’s so complicated about dialog, and why is it so darned important anyway? Dialog is an excellent way to break up monotonous narrative, show interactive tension, ramp us suspense, delivery story surprises, and demonstrate characterization. Done right, it can make a story sing. Done wrong, and it can tell a reader you don’t know what in the hell you’re doing.

DISSECTING DIALOG. The first problem many writers have with dialog is that they don’t understand how it’s structured. The truth is, dialog can take on many forms when narrative delivery descriptions or ‘tags’ are added. Basically, dialog consists of the quoted matter (words that are actually ‘spoken’) and the delivery part or ‘tag,’ if present. Things can get dicey when it comes to figuring out how to correctly punctuate dialog.

The US rule is, what is spoken by a character is bracketed by double quote marks, like so:

“I don’t really want to go on that trip.”

Add a tag like he said to it, and the punctuation instantly gets complicated. The US rule is, the tag must contain a transitive speech-delivery verb (like said, yelled, cried, etc. – NOT laughed, smiled, nodded, or other actions that don't deliver spoken words) in order to be connected to the dialog with a comma or lowercase tag as part of the total dialog sentence like so:

He said, “I don’t really want to go on that trip.”

“I don’t really want to go on that trip!” he yelled.

“I don’t,” he said with a sneer, “really want to go on that trip.”

Note that in all three examples above, the tag is connected to the dialog so the quoted matter and the tag together form a complete overall sentence. The transitive verb allows that because transitive means the verb, by its meaning, requires an object, a what, a something to act upon. He said what (what is the object of the verb said, or more precisely the quoted dialog portion of the sentence – “I don’t really want to go on that trip.”)

Note that the following example using spoke instead of said changes the structure because spoke is not a transitive verb that requires an object. Therefore the tag and the dialog would not be joined together as one sentence because spoke cannot take an object in the sentence structure:

He turned and spoke. “I don’t really want to go on that trip.”

AS IF THINGS WEREN'T ALREADY COMPLICATED. Dialog can be just one sentence or sentence fragment or even just one word. It can be several paragraphs long. There is no limit on how much speaking a particular character can do in a story, but common sense dictates that writers should not allow their characters to have a monolog that is pages long, because it can become quite tiresome to read.

The trouble starts when you have two or more characters speaking. Then you have to give visual signals and other clues to let your reader know that a speaker is changing in the scene. That is done by putting everything a different speaker says in a different paragraph, like the following example:

Lydia clapped her hands together. “Okay, everybody! Let’s get started. Please pay attention.”

“Wait,” George interrupted. “Before you start bossing everyone around...” He stood and circled around the table to face Lydia. “I just want to point out that you are not the jury foreman. Dick is.” He pointed at the small man adjusting his thick glasses.

Note that in the US, when quoted dialog is broken into more than one paragraph, the convention is to not put end quotes in the first paragraph, but to start the new paragraph with beginning quotes and include end quotes only when the dialog is interrupted by a tag or other narrative content. Example:

Lydia clapped her hands together. “Okay, everybody! Let’s get started. Please pay attention.”

She turned to her right. “George, would you do the honors and pass out an instruction packet to everyone? 

“Now, people, before you open your folders, please pay attention to the following instructions...”

“Miss Garner,” George interrupted, sounding a bit puzzled. “I don't see the instruction packets anywhere.”

A lot of common advice will tell you never to vary your tag verbs from said with the reasoning that it is so common a word that it is virtually invisible. But that really isn’t true. If you used he said or she said in every line or paragraph of dialog, it will get monotonous. But if you don’t use enough tags, the reader may not be able to follow who’s talking. So you have to use common sense and make some judgment calls. Used sparingly, I think it’s perfectly alright and even recommended you change your speech delivery verbs to fit the dialog occasion and use yelled or whatever when appropriate. However, the dialog content itself should give the reader plenty of clues as to how the conversation is going, whether it is subdued or heated. So use tags only when necessary to remind the reader who is speaking or to give clues as to what’s going on while the characters are speaking.

NO TALKING HEADS. Narrative that accompanies your dialog should show readers what your characters are doing and where they are while they are talking. Otherwise you just end up with disembodied voices – talking heads. Have your characters interacting with their environment, objects, each other, whatever. Just don’t have them yacking and not doing anything while they’re yacking. Here’s what I’m talking about:

“Have you seen Zach yet?” Bo said.

“No, man,” Koz said.

“He was supposed to be here by now,” Bo said.

“Dude, chill, will ya? You’re blockin’ my light and bustin’ my buzz,” Koz said.

Now, let’s try it again with some environmental interaction:

Bo opened the patio door and walked out by the pool. “Have you seen Zach yet?”

Koz shifted on the poolside lounger, trying to avoid Bo’s shadow. “No, man.”

“He was supposed to be here by now.” Bo checked his watch again.

“Dude, chill, will ya?” Koz waved him off. “You’re blockin’ my light and bustin’ my buzz.”

With a few references to the surroundings, you present your reader with a more detailed picture of the environment where the conversation is taking place. With some body language, you give your reader a better impression of what your characters are doing and what their attitude is. Of course the dialog alone should help give some idea of attitude in word choices and delivery. Just don’t go overboard with body language and external details, or you will overwhelm your dialog. Let the content of the dialog carry the scene and add the extra narrative clues sparingly, just to add spice to the dialog.

WHAT DIALOG CAN – AND CAN’T – DO FOR YOUR STORY. Beginning authors oftentimes try to make dialog do too much. They try to sneak in backstory infodumps by using the all too familiar technique commonly called ‘As You Know, Bob.’ This basically consists of two characters talking to each other, one explaining to the other key elements of backstory or plot development – oftentimes when the listening character already knows what’s being explained (thus, ‘as you know...’). Here’s an example of ‘As You Know, Bob,’ riddled with beginner errors like spelling out too much for the reader, assuming the reader can’t follow simple clues to come to his/her own conclusions. This underestimating the intelligence of the reader can be off-putting and downright insulting for the reader to wade through. Supposing this is a murder mystery, taking the approach of telling everything to the reader in this step-by-step method takes all the fun out of it because it does not allow the reader to think for himself and draw conclusions on his own – because the author is too busy telling him what he wants him to conclude. Bad for the author, and bad for the reader. Also, some needlessly repeated words and unnecessary ‘conversational’ phrases are thrown in there too, just because beginners also do that a lot too. See if you can pick them out.

Ted turned to his partner, Bob, and said, “As you know, Bob, we just started this investigation and have no clue about the identity of the murder victim. However, evidence surrounding the body in the hotel room strongly suggests that the woman was a prostitute hired by the visiting dignitary, Chancellor von Dreschel.”

Bob nodded his head. “Yes, Ted, I was there when we found the girl’s calling card from Kelly’s Escort Service in her handbag.”

“So, Bob, I think we should pay a visit to Kelly’s Escort Service right now.”

“Yes, Ted, I think you’re right. They can tell us who they sent on this ‘assignment.’ Then we will have a better idea of how to confirm the murder victim’s identity.”

Now let’s try a do-over with a little tweaking and more finesse:

Ted pulled off his latex gloves and frowned. “Chancellor von Dreschel appears to have been a very naughty boy. With issues.”

Bob sighed and nodded. “I’ll call the number on that card we found in the vic’s handbag. Somebody at Kelly’s Escort Service ought to be able to give me a name to go with the body.” He shook his head as he looked down at the hotel room’s blood-soaked carpet where the mutilated corpse had been found. “Damn shame. She must have been a beautiful girl – until that kraut bastard got hold of her.”

Note that both samples above have the same characters saying basically the same thing but in drastically different ways. The second example gives a lot more detail but actually uses fewer words (95 vs. 122 in the first example). If you’re new to writing dialog, study the differences between these two passages carefully. This may help you recognize what’s considered good dialog – and what’s not so good. Your objective should be to write the good stuff.

Sometimes what characters don’t say is just as important as what they do say. You can add a lot of personal tension with what you leave out of your characters’ dialog. See the second example below and note how little the characters actually say. How they don’t say a lot of stuff becomes much more meaningful than if they had a full-blown argument with volleyed insults. The first example is the full-blown argument. The second is more subdued, with fewer barbs exchanged. Both have attitude, but depending on the mood of the scene you’re trying to create, one approach may work better than the other.

Gary stepped back. “I don’t like what you’re saying, Jolene.”

“Too bad, so sad.” Jolene flipped him the bird from across the room. “You don’t get to tell me what I can say and what I can’t.”

“But ... but I thought we were together.”

“Think again, sucka!” Jolene propped her hands on her hips and wagged her head side to side in that defiant stance he had absolutely grown to hate. “I’m with Tom now.”

“Tom?” Gary felt the blood drain from his face. She’d been cheating on him with Tom? “He’s a loser!”

“Hey!” she shouted, thrusting an arm in the air. “Who you callin’ a loser? Tom’s my man!”

“You ... you deserve Tom!”

“Damn right I do!”

Here’s the more subdued version with less verbal jousting, but no less emotional:

Gary pulled his hands from the tabletop and folded them in his lap. “What are you saying, Jolene?”

Jolene sipped her coffee slowly, darting a glance at him and then quickly looking away.

“I ... I thought we were ... together.”

Jolene sighed heavily and set her cup down in the saucer. The unexpected clatter made Gary wince as if she’d slapped him. He knew what was coming ... he knew.

“Gary...” she said softly, staring at her cup. “I’m with Tom now.” She looked up sharply, her eyes pleading. “I-I wanted to tell you before, but–”

“But you didn’t.” He huffed, suddenly close to crying, but he choked it all back. Why should I even care? Tom is such a loser. And if she’d rather–

He shook his head and clenched the napkin lying in his lap. Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself and dropped the napkin on the table. He couldn’t make himself look at her as he grumbled, “You deserve Tom.”

“Thank you, Gary,” Jolene said, sounding relieved. “I was so hoping you’d understand.”

Whichever version you prefer over the other, you can see how differently the same scene can be played with a few subtle changes in body language and dialog delivery. Which brings up the next topic...

MAKING IT SOUND REAL. Every character you write should have a unique voice. Sometimes that’s not entirely possible, because many characters of the same ethnic and economic background will talk similarly and use the same type of vocabulary and cadence. However, when one social group meets another, differences immediately become apparent due to accents and colloquial expressions, along with vocabulary and modes of speaking. The trick is to make your written representation of dialog for people with accents or unusual speaking habits readable while still conveying that uniqueness of character. For instance, a British nobleman’s attempt to get a woman’s attention will be quite different from the same attempt by an LA gang member. Can you guess which is which?

“Pardon, madam, could you please step aside and allow me to pass by?”

“Yo, bitch, move!”

 Many authors take care listening to real people talk so they understand the cadence of everyday speaking and learn how to write halting and impromptu dialog. However, every author should take care to edit out all the ‘ahems’ and ‘uhs’ and ‘you knows’ heard when real people speak, and just put a few pauses in for the desired effect. Never overdo an accent either. The Southern accent is the one most abused in writing dialog, and in the hands of an inexperienced writer, it can be rendered almost unreadable, like the following example:

“Ahh wahhnchall ta know ahh wasn’t thar the night mahh bruthahh wuz kilt.”

Here’s the translation with just a hint of the accent:

“I want y’all to know I wasn’t there the night my brotha was kilt.”

Comprenez-vous du français? Adding foreign phrases can enrich your dialog, but take care to do that sparingly and only when the meaning can be inferred by surrounding context. Also, make sure the addition of language that would be foreign to your target reading audience is really necessary for the story. Don’t just throw some French in there because you took three years of French in high school and want to impress your readers with how cultured you are. And last, take extra care to use the correct spelling and syntax for your foreign phrases so that a reader who is familiar with the language won’t catch you having your character say ‘stinky soap’ when you wanted to convey ‘beautiful day.’

And last, resist the urge to create an entirely new language for your sci-fi alien or Middle Earth fantasy characters. It’s an incredible investment of time and has already been done by others. And really, who speaks Klingon, except at geekfests? Most of your readers will not want to wade through a bunch of gibberish just because you want to show them how clever and industrious you are to write your whole novel in your own made-up language.

IN CLOSING, dialog is the heart of most fiction. Make sure you understand how to make it work for you and let it help enrich your writing. Every character has something to say, just make sure it’s what you want your readers to hear.

Pat Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – Tell me something I don’t already know

The standard marketing advice for authors is to get a web page going and start a blog, along with Twitter and Facebook and a host of other online presences.

WEB SITE – THE GO-TO PLACE. A web site makes sense for a variety of reasons, the best of which is that it allows readers to find basic information about you and your books that stays put and stays basically the same with timely updates. A web site is usually the first place readers visit to find out more about you and your books. It is your core piece of promo as an author and should reflect your personality and the type of books you write, so that readers can get to know you and your branding. The mood and visual theme of a web site should reflect the type of books you write. Dark and spooky for gothic or paranormal, rich and vibrant for sassy romance, gritty and graphic for murder mysteries. You get the idea...

BLOGS OFFER MORE DYNAMIC INFORMATION IN AN INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT. A blog may be part of your web site or located on a different site. While a blog may have the outer shell look and feel of a web page, it offers the chance to present more dynamic and constantly changing information that allows you to present a lot more than just blurbs about your books. If you have comments enabled (and you should), you can allow visitors to your blog to interact with you about what you post. You can talk about anything you want on a blog and direct it toward subjects you are passionate about. You can feature guest bloggers, talk about others’ books, and basically do just about anything you want. Look at this blog, for example. Check out the archives and see all the topics and articles it contains.

BLOGGING IS NOT A WALK IN THE PARK. With so much inherent freedom to dispense information and engage potential readers, blogging can quickly become a daunting task. You have to decide first of all what to talk about, how often to post, and how you can expect to attract readers. But before deciding all that, you have to define the purpose of your blog. Many people start up blogs for no good reason and talk about a variety of different subjects that end up not being of particular interest to anyone. The result is, these bloggers talk to an empty virtual room. As an author with a goal of trying to attract people to your blog and engage them with witty repartee in an attempt to convince them they will enjoy reading your books, you need to have a more focused and realized reason for spending your time and effort keeping up a blog. You should never blog simply for the sake of blogging, because that is counterproductive to your main goal – to be a writer. It is counterproductive because it creates a new situation where you have to write, but not necessarily write what you set out wanting to write when you decided to be an author. A blog can be a fun outlet if you have lots and lots to say, but it can also distract you with the relative ease of posting as opposed to dedicating yourself to a larger writing project like a novel. A blog in comparison is an easy escape from the work of writing a novel.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY? A lot of authors who start blogs without a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish end up talking about a whole lot of nothing. Why my dog chews my shoes. Searching for four-leaf clovers. What I read to my kids for bedtime. Do vampires make better lovers than werewolves. There is nothing wrong with blogging about topics such as this, as long as you can tie them to a consistent and compelling reason for people to want to find out what you have to say. The potential problem lies in talking about completely random things that have nothing to do with a common overall theme, with you, your author goals, or your desire to engage readers to buy your book. That’s not to say you should run a blog plead every week that screams, Buy my book, buy my book, please, please, please! That’s certain to run people off. But you should blog with a purpose in mind for each post. You should endeavor to make a point and bring something to your readers’ attention, or champion a cause. But say it with flair and originality. Tell your readers something new about your subject or put a new spin on it that your readers will find inventive and refreshing. Whatever it is you do with your blog posts, make them mean something to your readers rather than posting a whole lot of nothing. Because if your visitors get a whole lot of nothing from you, they won’t come back for more.

FUN VS. DREAD. Blogging should be fun, not a chore. If you dread blogging, you’ll put it off until the last minute every week. And sooner or later your posts will become ghosts of the posts that should have been. Blogging should not take up so much of your time that you don’t have time to write new books. On the other hand, you can’t just whip up something off the top of your head. You need to plan. You need an overall theme. Start with analyzing what kind of readers would likely read your book(s). Think of what kind of blog articles would attract those readers. And remember, you don’t always have to write about the same thing in every post. That will get old fast. Built-in variety will help your blog stay fresh and interesting. The objective is to keep visitors coming back and keep attracting new visitors. You can mix things up by varying topics and varying the length of your blogs, and posting graphics that will enhance your articles. You can search for images on Google, but sometimes those images are copyrighted, so take care in what you choose to replicate on your blog. You can also read other blogs to help you maintain a more well-rounded view of the social world. Inviting guest bloggers will help relieve the pressure of having to always come up with your own content. And don’t be afraid to repurpose your own content. Get creative about how you post teasers about your book. Sometimes the best way to do that is to guest blog or do a blog tour on a host of other blogs, then on your own blog refer to the varied content you’ve created for those blogs. You can even tweak a post for one guest blog to recycle it on another blog. Just make sure that cross-posting similar articles doesn’t happen on blogs that frequently share information.

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG. One of the most important considerations in starting up a blog is to analyze yourself and your habits honestly. If you are not going to keep up with blogging for the long haul, don’t even start. There’s nothing worse than making a half-hearted attempt that self-sabotages your efforts. It will disappoint you as well as the few followers you might actually attract to your blog. Know your limits and accept them, or endeavor to change them. Some people are not adept at witty repartee. They are uncomfortable cutting loose and joking around and letting their sense of humor show. Maybe some don’t even have a sense of humor, or at least don’t have a social thermometer that tells them when they’re going beyond tolerable extremes. Attitude is everything in a blog, and if you have a crappy outlook on life, it’s going to blot out the sun of your blogging world and give your visitors a bad vibe. That’s the last thing you want to do, because it will drive away potential visitors faster than anything else you could possibly do. So be honest in assessing your strengths and weaknesses before you commit to all the work and time involved in creating and maintaining a blog. Maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t have a whole lot to say. If that’s the case, you can serve your self-promo needs a lot better by doing the occasional guest blog on someone else’s blog, and visiting comment forums where your books are sold so you can engage with readers that way. The simple truth is, not every author is suited for sustained blogging, and not every author should attempt it. Play up your strengths and make those work for you, whether or not you’re a born blogger.

And with that, I’ll close. For some of you experienced bloggers, none of this will be new and earth-shaking information, but for the many budding authors out there, I hope this saves you a lot of time and trouble trying to figure out what the heck you’re supposed to do with a blog!

Happy writing,

Pat Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – Moving Beyond Stereotypes

STEREOTYPES IN FICTION

We all know what STEREOTYPE means, right? This definition from dictionary.com sums it up: A simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group: The cowboy and Indian are American stereotypes.

Note the key words in this definition. A stereotype is SIMPLIFIED. It is a STANDARDIZED CONCEPT. It holds special meaning to members of a GROUP or subset of the population. So this inherently means that a stereotype may not be recognized by everyone, but it will be recognized by a specific group of people with shared or similar experience or ideology.

We all know some examples of stereotypes used in storytelling (novels, movies, short stories, comics, and so forth). A few come to mind ... the hooker with a heart of gold, the mustache-twirling villain epitomized by cartoon character, Snidely Whiplash, the greasy drug dealer, the perennial dumb blonde girlfriend, the rich old lady with the small yappy dog. There are many others, but this is sufficient to get the idea across. Again, note that these stereotypes mentioned may be quite familiar to certain populations in Americas, but to others they may not.

WHY NOT USE STEREOTYPES?

So, what’s wrong with using stereotypes for characters in your books? They’re easily recognized by almost every reader you may be targeting, and pulling a ready-made character out of the writing grab-bag would save you tons of work character-building.

For one thing, stereotype characters are standardized by definition and are therefore one-dimensional – one size fits all. The hooker with the heart of gold could be literally any hooker in any city, but that stereotypical hooker wouldn’t be unique to your story. Likewise, while your drug dealer in your book may be smart and cunning, the stereotypical drug dealer to many readers may just be some soulless creep who frequents street corners, waiting to sell to anybody. Maybe the drug dealer in your book is more like Breaking Bad – a dad with cancer and a chip on his shoulder who’s going for broke to save his family from financial downfall. That’s certainly not a typical drug dealer – or what many of us may think is typical. And what may be stereotypical to me may not be to the next reader. So you may not know what you’re suggesting to your readers when you don’t know for sure who all your readers are. That’s another good reason to make your characters unique and not stereotypical.

Putting a cardboard cutout character in your book and not ‘filling out’ the details is like giving your reader a brief introduction of your character with a name and a handshake. “Hi, dear reader, this is my villain, Stefan. He’s an Eastern-European maniac who has not one ounce of decency flowing through his black veins. He’s set on destroying the world, and only my hero can stop him.” Stefan is a stereotype you’ve personalized with a name, and that’s all the information you give the reader about your character, except perhaps for a few scenes of mustache-twirling punctuated with evil laughter. This kind of character is just a place-holder waiting for a real character to appear and take over in the story.

The problem arises precisely because everyone’s familiar with stereotypes. It’s like filling up your writing with cliché phrases. His hair was black as coal. Unless HE (your character) is a coal miner (and especially if he is a coal miner), you should not use this cliché phrase to describe your character. Why? Well, who handles coal anymore on an everyday basis except for people who work at a power plant? Coal is not the first thing that comes to mind as something that is thoroughly black, but the phrase, ‘black as coal’ is still familiar because it has been used so many times for so many years that it is absolutely not original. And using it is just borrowing. When a reader finds your story full of borrowed and reused phrases, ideas, and characters, the reader’s going to start wondering why she should even bother reading your story. It will be just like reading other stories she’s already read that were perhaps a lot more original in execution. If a one-dimensional stereotype character is not fleshed out with background and motivation, that character will not seem real, no matter how many times the mustache gets twirled. And reading about a one-dimensional character like that will simply be a waste of time for the reader.

WHEN STEREOTYPES ARE NOT FUNNY

Many times, stereotype characters are used as a source of derogatory humor. The dumb blonde joke, the Polack joke – how many Polacks does it take to screw in a lightbulb? The fat lady shopper at Walmart, the redneck do-it-yourselfer (famous last words before dying from self-inflicted stupidity – ‘Hey, y’all, watch this!’). Illegal immigrants, homeless people, poor people, rich people, obese people, cuckolded husbands, handicapped people ... the list goes on and on. If you’re not of Polish descent, if you’re not a natural blonde, if you’re not a native of Tennessee, if you’re not a divorced middle-aged woman, if you’re not handicapped, then many of these ‘humorous’ references may seem funny. But what if you don’t fit in with a group that thinks some stereotypical derogatory reference is funny?

Humor is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak, (yes, a cliché), because everyone’s background and experiences and personal situation is different. So, what may seem hilarious to one person may actually be quite offensive to another, and treading the PC (politically correct) line can be treacherous if writing humor depends on making fun of a specific class of stereotypes. If you’re writing for an audience that will appreciate your brand of humor and the subject matter, then perhaps all’s well. But what happens when someone not in your target audience happens to read your book? It’s a given they won’t like it.

For instance, stand-up comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has a routine with a skeletal dummy called Achmed who is a deceased terrorist. He gets a lot of applause from his terrorist jokes, but I’ll bet you won’t find any people of Middle-Eastern descent in his audience who are laughing. Terrorists are stereotyped by the events of the current time. Before Muslim extremists became the villain in every derogatory joke or fiction thriller, it was Russian extremists, or German, or ... well, you get the idea.

Every writer has to ask himself if using crutches like poking fun at stereotypes is worth alienating a good portion of his potential reading audience just for a laugh. As a writer, you may think it is perfectly fine, but as a person, do you have to bother caring whether you alienate a selected portion your potential readership? Most humor writers write what appeals to them personally ... what fits their experiences and knowledge base and personal attitudes. Some writers even have an ax to grind (yes, another cliché phrase) in regard to specific portions of the population based on stereotypical (and perhaps bigoted) criteria. If enough other people share the writer’s attitudes, then the writer will attract an audience with his work. And if the purpose is to cater to that audience that shares his attitudes, then no, he’s probably not going to care about the rest of the people out there who won’t like his work because their demographic is portrayed unkindly within the work. In this instance the writer is writing specifically for his chosen market and ignoring everyone else. This writer will certainly have to weather the inevitable storm of naysayers who find his work offensive. Only a writer with a thick skin and an attitude of ‘I don’t care’ will succeed with polarized writing that makes fun of stereotypes or incorporates them in his writing in a way that is derogatory or portrays them negatively.

PROFILING STEREOTYPES

Another problem with using stereotypes based on racial, ethnic, or appearance criteria, is to automatically assume that a certain segment of the population will invariably be involved in certain nefarious activities because of the racial, ethnic, or appearance criteria. This is what is commonly referred to as PROFILING. For instance, the writer who always makes his criminals black or Hispanic without considering that lower-income whites can also be effective criminals is profiling a stereotypical character archetype by racial criteria.

Law enforcement is often accused of profiling by automatically arresting someone of a racial or ethnic background with the assumption they are more likely to be guilty of a crime – any crime. The reverse assumption is that other races that are not targeted are being showed preferential treatment by not being harassed with routine traffic stops or arrests on suspicion.

In writing, it is common and even expected that the author will write about characters he/she is familiar with. Sometimes that includes racial assumptions based on the writer’s personal experience or collective knowledge. For instance, a black writer may write about all whites as uncaring or evil capitalists who live privileged lives, simply because that particular writer came from a background where that situation was a reality for him. And conversely, a Caucasian upper-class writer may portray gardeners and maids and other service people as Hispanic because he came from a situation where such service people were predominantly Hispanic due to income levels and job availability. But that certainly doesn’t mean that a Hispanic lawyer cannot have a fine house for his family in a gated community, or a black doctor cannot have a white person as his children’s nanny.

AVOIDING STEREOTYPES

Try avoiding stereotypical thinking by mixing it up in your writing to deliver the unexpected for your readers. It will be a refreshing change and give you an opportunity to personalize your characters for the reader. The best way to avoid using stereotypes is to be able to recognize when your characters are stereotypical. Analyze your characters and ask yourself some key questions as you do so.

Do you know why your villain wants to destroy the world? No? Then maybe you don’t have enough background established for him or her not to be a cardboard cutout. It is usually not enough to say ‘he is evil.’ A villain that has real aspirations – and perhaps had those aspirations ruined by the hero – will have a real grudge to bear. That will give your villain motivation for doing bad things to the hero. If your villain does peculiar or perverse things, there should be an explanation for why he does these things. Maybe this is part of the unfolding mystery of your fiction tale, but it should be explained at some point so that the reader gets a well-rounded view of your villain – nearly as detailed as your hero.

Do you know why your hero is risking his life to beat the villain? ‘Because he is a good guy’ is not an adequate reason. You have to show your readers why he would do what he does in the story. A hero who is simply a victim of circumstance is not much of a hero at all – unless he has the guts and motivation to rise above circumstance, take the bull by the horns (OK, sorry, another cliché), and face the villain head-on.

Writers who blatantly fill their work with folly such as overused stereotypical characters, cliché phrasing, and mundane dialog will quickly be labeled as lazy and laughable. What writer wants that reputation? To avoid that, you must add depth and meaning to your dialog, to your character development, and to the scenes in which your characters interact.

Obviously these examples don’t cover every story situation, but hopefully you get the idea from this that you just can’t pick the first idea that comes to you when designing a well-crafted story with well-rounded characters. You should really put some thought into your characters and their motivations and backgrounds. Once you do this, you can rest assured that your characters will be far more than cardboard cutouts in your story.

–Patricia Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – Shaking Your Reader’s Faith With Unanswerable Questions

Guest post by Penumbra Publishing author Willa Kaye Danes

A couple weeks ago I read a romance that turned out to be an older inspirational that was reissued in ebook. It was free, but at the time, if I had realized it was inspirational, I would not have downloaded it. Not because I am anti-religion, but because inspirational books oftentimes can be very ‘preachy’ – and having an author tell me what to believe, or how I should believe, can quickly become annoying because it implies the author knows better than I do what is ‘right’ as far as faith in God is concerned. And, before I go further, let me say emphatically that this article in no way is meant to disparage anyone’s religious beliefs, nor it this an invitation to open discussion on religious beliefs. It is simply an analysis of what happens when an author raises questions in a story that cannot be answered with definitive demonstration or explanation. As an example, I am going to use the story I recently read, Finders Keepers, by Catherine Palmer.

Unanswerable Questions Inherent in Some Genres

The story started out fine and became quite engaging and entertaining. But then about a third of the way through, the author started introducing the Bible-thumping. Don’t get me wrong, the author did a great job with the story. It’s just that she put in a lot more religious references to faith and God’s will than I felt the story needed. But then, after all, it was an inspirational, so who am I to say how much religion was needed? It was the author’s story, the author’s choice. And I do realize inspirationals fill a market need that other genres simply can’t. Deeply religious people oftentimes like to read stories, other than those found in the Bible, for entertainment, but I assume they do not normally choose books that present a view of the world without faith as a required component. For instance, paranormal romances featuring witches and magic, or erotic romance featuring sexual encounters, and other books of that sort, would not satisfy the reading expectations of religious readers in a way they could approve, because I’m assuming they like to stay grounded in their own world of belief in God, and that is what inspirationals are all about. The issue of faith is central in most inspirationals. The devout must believe without evidence or proof that something will come about, even when there is no rational justification that it will. This inevitably raises questions no author can answer in a logical manner that makes sense to me. And that is why I choose not to read inspirationals. (This reading instance was accidental, and by the time I realized it was inspirational, I was already invested in reading it.) For discussion purposes, Finders Keepers is a fine example to demonstrate the pitfalls of books that deal with unanswerable questions.

The story features a single woman running an antique store in the charming small town of Ambleside, Missouri, who has adopted a Russian orphan and butts heads with Zachary Chalmers, a man from ‘big’ Jefferson City, who has inherited the old mansion on the town square and is determined to tear it down. Elizabeth is clearly a woman of faith who treasures personal relationships and wants to preserve the heritage of the past and the mansion in particular, in memory of her recently deceased friend, Grace Chalmers. And now Zachary Chalmers, Grace’s nephew and direct descendent of the town’s founder, breezes into town with plans to tear down Grace’s legacy because he values only what is new and modern. The central theme of the story is ‘surrendering to God’s will,’ and the author goes to a great deal of trouble to contrast Elizabeth’s will to preserve the mansion and the memory of her friend against Zachary’s will to replace the decrepit structure with something that will serve his architecture business needs and showcase his award-winning building-design skills. Instantly these two people are attracted to each other, but their wills stand in the way of a lasting and fulfilling relationship that would presumably lead to marriage. (Living in sin is not an option for Elizabeth, although Zachary, not quite so devout, has sown his share of wild oats.) The gist is, according to the author, that both Elizabeth and Zachary must sublimate their will to allow God’s will to run their lives.

The Problem – Where Do the Answers Come From?

The problem with this is, neither Elizabeth nor Zachary knows what God’s will is, because there’s not a burning bush handily around the corner to speak to them about this issue. So they do a lot of soul-searching and outright praying in the course of trying to figure out if what they want to do is in conflict with what God wants them to do. Still, stubborn hard-headedness creeps in to keep things out of kilter. Ultimately, God’s will (how things turn out) ends up being the author’s will, so that everything – well most everything – works out just fine for everybody. We are then led to believe that whatever the author feels like is a good way to end the story is indeed God’s will. I find that problematic for several reasons – especially when another of the most vexing problems in the story results after a neighbor child and friend of Elizabeth’s adopted son loses her mother to cancer, despite everyone’s fervent prayers to God that this woman pull through and survive to see her daughter grow up.

And that is where more unanswerable questions come up. Why does God answer some prayers and not others? Why would a loving and logical God indiscriminately choose to allow a good woman who is needed by her family to die? Can any author adequately answer that? I don’t think so, any more than it can be explained why God ‘saved’ some people from a tornado, and not others. Many people attribute everything bad that happens to the Devil. But really, if the Devil is able to accomplish so much evil on earth, the question must be asked, where is God, and why doesn’t He intervene, if he’s really there to answer our prayers and make sure good triumphs over evil? Of course there are many religious doctrines and secular books that attempt to answer these puzzling and troublesome questions. In my opinion, they all fall short in the logic department. So, is it really a smart move for an author to try to answer these unanswerable questions within the confines of a story, when questions of faith invariably arise?

Skirting the Answers – Will That Work?

In inspirational books, characters wrestle with temptations and questions of faith, just like people do in real life. In the mind of the author, perhaps these stories are an attempt to help people cope with the results of these unanswerable questions, rather than actually provide the answers. In Finders Keepers, author Catherine Palmer does an admirable job of raising questions of faith and then skirting answers to them all, except for the obvious: ‘They prayed, and they gave themselves over to God, and everything worked out in the end.’ But what about the neighbor that died of cancer? All the reader can assume is that ‘Things happen, but it is all the will of God, whether or not we understand.’ We mere mortals are not privy to the inner workings of the will of God. He has plans that are obviously on a ‘need to know’ basis – and we don’t need to know. Period. That’s one way to handle the inevitability of not being able to provide answers for unanswerable questions. And for fans of inspirational stories, this may be enough. But for other readers, I don’t think it is.

Typical Reader Expectations

When I read a story that raises questions, I expect the author to eventually answer those questions and tie everything up. I do believe most readers have the same expectation. But for some authors, leaving unanswered questions dangling at the end of a story might seem like a surefire way to encourage readers to read a sequel in a series. That works only if it is a cliffhanger question that arises at the very end of the book. Only overall questions that affect the entire series should be left unanswered until the final book of the series. In the case of a standalone story, ALL answers should be provided for any questions that arise in the course of the story. Of course, some situations may give rise to ambiguous answers, especially in the case of right versus wrong. Not everything is black and white morally, and leaving interpretation to the reader is perfectly acceptable. I am talking about questions like what happened to the support character who disappeared halfway through the story. Who put the treasure map in the cave in the first place? Or, more importantly, how can a celestial event signal the birth of a member of a special race – when the very connection between these otherwise unrelated events suggests that some all-powerful entity is consciously directing celestial events to time them to a specific birth. (Yes, I actually read a story that postulated this, and there was no religious connotation involved. Annoyingly, the author did not explain how the connection to celestial event and a birth could even function.)

Building Your Reader’s Faith in Your Storytelling

The goal in storytelling is not to give rise to questions that you cannot answer within the course of the story. To do so and not provide answers will annoy and vex your readers. So, when you raise questions, you’d better have answers for them. And you’d better be prepared to think like a reader while you’re writing so that you can anticipate what questions will be going through the reader’s mind while the story progresses, so you can be ready to answer them at just the right time. This approach will go a long way to building a story that is believable and will make your readers have faith – in your storytelling skills.

Willa Kaye Danes

Pixie

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS – Writing for the Market

Most writers know that sage advice warns against ‘writing for the market.’ What is ‘writing for the market,’ and why does everyone say it’s bad, when maybe it is the smartest thing a writer can do – if it’s done right?

WRITING FOR THE MARKET means, basically, the writer takes a cursory look at the existing genres and picks one that seems hot, and then churns out a book as fast as possible that is similar to what is selling well.

Twilight was all the rage a couple years ago. Now look at the teen vamp market – it is totally saturated. According to her own blog archives, even Amanda Hocking discovered, to her dismay, that the teen vampire market was already saturated when she began writing her young-adult vampire series, My Blood Approves. Her books had very little in common with Stephanie Meyers’, but the inevitable comparisons were still drawn. And with less than stellar editing, Hocking’s entry faired well only because of inventive and relentless self-marketing efforts. Hocking quickly moved on to other genres and came up with what is now a winner for her – young-adult trolls. The self-published Trylle series has been picked up by a major publisher and is now re-released with new covers and new editing. Hocking took home an advance of a couple mill on that one.

The Hunger Games is another commodity that is now very hot, with the first movie soon to hit theaters. Suddenly there are spoof books popping up to cash in on this market. Clearly some of these authors (Bratniss Everclear’s The Hunger but Mainly Death Games: A Parody) are churning out schlock for the sheer hope of making money off a concept another author has worked very hard for several years to make popular. Copycat authors’ work usually fades into the distant past without even a last sigh as they expire. And does any reader take them seriously? Obviously 52 readers on Amazon read the book and went to the trouble of giving it a 5-star review. But others, like Meagan Hightower, clearly thought it was a cheap rip-off, according to her review excerpt taken from Amazon...

I usually love reading parodies (like Nightlight); however Bratniss Everclean's THE HUNGER BUT MAINLY DEATH GAMES has to be one of the worst parodies I have ever read. I thought I would like it because of how many 5 star reviews there were, but sadly I could not like it. The only good thing is that I bought it on my Kindle and won't have to look at it ever again. Unlike the original HUNGER GAMES, this particular parody had almost no action. It didn't even logically follow through on the plot points because many points were negated repeatedly. The characters were very Out of Character to the point that I felt certain that I wasn't reading a HG series parody, except for the fact that title of the book is used so many times that it is obvious it's trying to be a HG parody. The humor wasn't even funny to me because fart and trash jokes aren't my thing...

Obviously I am not advocating that any writer take this approach in ‘writing for the market.’ What I am advocating is this: study the market.

STUDYING THE MARKET. Your experience as a writer will drive what you decide to write about and how you will write it. While seasoned writers may feel they’ve earned the right to take license with their subject matter and try something new (new at least for them), many beginning writers will choose subjects to write about that are closer to home, meaning they write about what they are familiar with or are fascinated by. Those writers first entering the writing market may choose any number of processes or combinations of them to decide what to write.

Emulating a favorite author or genre is a good way for a writer to teach herself to write and at the same time produce a marketable book. Presumably the beginning writer chooses a genre she enjoys reading and will have read everything in the genre she can get her hands on. She will thereby know what’s the hottest and the latest in the market, and know what’s already been done so she can avoid a trite redo of a popular author’s work. The smart writer will come up with something that sticks with the genre’s staples but brings in something new and exciting and not already done to death. The writer who’s not so market-savvy won’t fair as well, and will churn out another same ol’ kinda book that readers have already read and are tired of. Even if the story is basically the same, (historical Highland romance where the heroine must save her people from a warring interloper, for instance), the clever beginning writer will add a new twist that’s never been seen before.

But the larger the market and the older it is, the less likely a new author will be able to come up with new twists. (Time-travel? Been there, many times. Magical Druid spell-casting healer white witch ghost hero reincarnated? Already seen it all.) So the challenges are ever greater for the newer writer to come up with something unique to the genre. In the same vein, the seasoned writer may find a favorite genre saturated with copycats and simply choose to delve into another genre less populated. But the less populated genre may be less populated for a reason – the readership is small, and market profits are likewise small. Still, a genre that has not been done to death but remains to be explored with new ideas may be just the ticket for any writer, regardless of experience. Innovative ways to tap hidden market potential are every writer’s dream.

To learn what is innovative and what is passé, every writer must study the market. That means reading older books – which may mean browsing used bookstores or library sell-offs to find books 10, 20, even 30 or 40 years old, just to get a feel for what’s already been done. Thanks to digital reissues, the job of market study is becoming easier.

Does this mean a writer hoping to break into a favorite genre has to read everything that’s ever been written in that genre before writing? No. What this means is that the writer should be aware of what’s already been done, and know what books and authors are considered ‘standards’ in the genre. Usually these are the authors who pioneered the genre. But that doesn’t mean a writer new to the genre should write like them or even try to read everything out there – which could literally take years. That level of market research is not required or advised. Reading a few ‘revered’ older books is advisable to see what was done and how it was done, while keeping in mind that reader tastes change as readers change. What may have been popular 10 years ago might be sneered at now.

A good way to gauge the efficacy of a genre is to join some reader groups or forums where people chat or comment about their favorite reading experiences. Amazon has many reader forums, and you can start your own thread to get reader comments about what you’re researching. Keep in mind, however, that you may get a lopsided or uneven response, depending on who might be populating a particular forum at a given time.

HOW MUCH RESEARCH IS NECESSARY? Only you can decide that. If you feel you’ve investigated the genre thoroughly enough to get a feel for what has been popular and may no longer be because it’s been overdone, then you’ve got important usable information to work with. But remember, even a favorite story can become something new and different and exciting in the hands of a new writer - especially a writer whose tastes are a mix of other genres. Those writers can almost always bring something new to a tried and true storyline. So don’t shy away from doing a storyline that’s already been done – as long as you can add to it in a unique way.

WRITE WHAT YOU WANT TO WRITE. In the process of researching what’s been written, don’t ignore what you want to write. There is absolutely no reason to write something simply because you think it will fair well in the market – unless you are ghost-writing for someone else, or are writing a work for hire. Remember why you wanted to write in the first place – because you have something to say to your readers. Figure out what that something is and make it uniquely yours. Maybe you’ll come up with a whole new genre that doesn’t yet exist, simply because what you have inside you to say to others is different enough to not have already been said. Maybe the market wasn’t right until now for someone else to say it. Maybe now the time is right for you to say it.

But only when you take a little history tour to find out what’s already been done can you decide what’s left to be done. Then you can put on your creative thinking hat and start trying to figure out a unique twist for your particular writing project – and tell it in your own words in your own way. Hopefully enough other people will identify with it to want to read what you’ve written, to make you a trailblazer in whatever genre you choose to enter or create. So ... do your research, then get busy and write!

Pat Morrison
Penumbra Publishing
http://penumbrapublishing.com