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 – Writing Good Bad Guys

Readers love to hate villains – they like to boo the bad guy and cheer on the good guy. It’s human nature, a natural side-effect of our society. A great villain can make for a great story. There’s no one right way to craft the perfect villain, because each story will have different requirements and nuances in the traditional heroic tale, but here are a few general tips.

BALANCE. As in nature, the fiction writer should strive to maintain balance in the way the villain and protagonist are portrayed, so that neither has a consistently lopsided advantage in the story. If your hero seems to have everything going for him (or her), the antagonist must have some other kind of advantage that balances the hero’s attributes or skills. As the story progresses, for every gain the protagonist seems to make in overcoming the villain, there should be a setback so that the villain still has a good chance of winning the battle. This tinkering with balance naturally creates suspense.

THE UNDERDOG FACTOR. It may seem like a good idea to make your villain incredibly all-powerful and impossible to beat, so that when your hero finally does whip the bad guy, the victory seems all the more sweet. Readers will naturally cheer for the hero who appears to be victorious over impossible odds. However, if you forego believability to ramp up the over-the-top ‘oh-no’ factor, you may lose your readers. Danger must be balanced with credible details.

SYNCHRONIZED MOTIVATION. The background and motivation for the villain should be well-defined and evenly balanced against the motivation and background of the protagonist so they seem to be appropriately matched for the battle ahead. However, as a general rule, this match-up of motivation should not seem obviously planned or prearranged. Oftentimes, a mutual history can be built for the hero and villain so that the past plays a part in shaping their present conflict, and the story and the central conflict can be enriched when the hero encounters an old nemesis with whom he shares a dark past. But more important than anything else – the villain must have a good reason for being bad, and the hero must have a good reason for being the one to bring him down. As a general rule, these two central characters should be uniquely matched.

PERSONALITY DISORDERS. A believable hero is one who has flaws, but not so great that he/she is unlikable. The villain does not need to be balanced psychologically, but everything he does should make sense in within the rationale of his own psychotic world. A villain who is rational and logical to a fault can be just as scary as one who rants and raves like a lunatic. And it certainly isn’t necessary for a villain to be crazy to do bad things. Sometimes people with the best of intentions end up doing very bad things in the name of good.

The novelist who delves equally into the background of both the antagonist and protagonist gives a more thorough picture of motivation and development for the good-versus-evil flip sides of the story. Not every story lends itself to a deep character treatment for the villain, but that doesn’t mean the author shouldn’t use every opportunity to reinforce the villain’s character so that he comes off as real, well-rounded, and believable instead of a laughable cardboard cutout twirling his mustache. The author can’t just invent a villain and put him in the middle of a story, doing a bunch of dastardly deeds for no reason. Everyone acts a specific way for a reason, and villains are no exception. The author who’s most successful portraying a realistic villain is the one who is not afraid to get into the mind of his villain and find out what makes him tick.

DESPICABLE ME. Some authors are afraid to have anything really bad happen in their stories. And not every story calls for a villain whose atrocities reach the level of war crimes. The awful-factor for your villain should fit the story. If you plan to have your villain be a serial killer, then some murders are necessarily going to happen. Be prepared to handle the details with all the sensitivity and aplomb required for the style of story you intend to write. But as heinous as your villain’s crimes may be, you can go a long way to making your villain sympathetic and even likable. Just don’t make your villain so likable that he steals the spotlight from your hero – although if he comes close, that could spell a sequel if you play your cards right. The emotional intensity of your reader will be charged up if you create the tension of liking someone who’s supposed to be bad.

REMEMBER these simple tips – give your good guys a bad edge and your bad guys a likable edge to keep your readers on edge – and you’ll have a killer story that readers will love.

Pat Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS - What Else Have You Written?

Today’s TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS asks the writer a very serious question ... Where’s your sequel? Obviously this question does not apply to those writers not writing a series. But then the alternate form of the question still begs an answer ... Where’s your next book? Or ... What else have you written?

This fundamental question in any form is important to the typical author for the simple reason that, as an author, you know your work, your livelihood, is your writing. If you’re not writing, you’re not working. And if you’re not getting your writing published, then you’re not getting the product of your labor into the hands of customers. Without a commodity to sell, you’re not going to make a living, or even earn extra spending money from your chosen career as an author.

Many authors think that all it takes to become a best-selling celebrity is just one book. But one book is just the beginning, because you have to keep your customers (your readers) hungering for the next product. If they like your first book, they’ll certainly be looking for more from you. Knowing this, you can’t sit back with the unrealistic expectation of making a living off the sales of just one book. The truth is, most authors build a reputation one book at a time. Most new authors won’t see steady sales, due to word-of-mouth recommendations and name recognition, until their fourth book. So if you only have one book out there, readers will probably overlook your work until they know you’re serious enough about writing to continue producing worthy, readable work.

Of course there’s always the occasional exception – notably, Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. But being the exception is like winning the lottery ... it only happens unexpectedly, and the odds are millions to one. Does any author want to leave his writing career to those odds? Of course, who’s to say that writing just one book is not a worthy goal? Maybe as an author, you have just one book in you. But if you’re like most authors, you yearn for more than the satisfaction of saying you’ve written a novel. Savvy authors build a readership through good marketing and people skills. But no author will get anywhere without writing, because writing is what makes a person an author.

Stop and think about that last time you read a book. What made you decide to read that book? The title, the cover art, the story summary? Or even the first few pages sampled to see how the story would go? More often than not, most readers buy and read books based on author name recognition before considering other criteria. When faced with choosing between a first book by an unknown author or the twentieth book by a recognized author, the typical reader will go with the recognized author and save the unknown author’s first book for future consideration, only after other known commodities have already been consumed.

So, if you’ve got only one or two books out there, or have a series with just the first book published, get busy working and write that next book. If you haven’t gotten your first book published yet – what are you waiting for? Do what it takes to finish a worthy, readable book. Then do what it takes to polish it until it’s publishable. Then do what it takes to market it, to let readers know it’s out there and make them want to read it. Name recognition and sales will follow – along with your next book!

Patricia Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS - What's on your menu?

AUTHORS - WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU?

Suppose you’re opening a restaurant. (Just go with it. Hopefully, I’ll make a valid point by paragraph three or four...) Besides location and where you’re going to get your start-up capital, the most important decision you’ll have to make is what to put on your menu. And how do you decide?

Authors are like restaurateurs in many ways. As an author, when you write books, you should be thinking about your menu – what you’re offering your customers, and how you intend to serve it to them. As in running a restaurant, you, the author, must make some important decisions about your writing.

Will you offer your own specialties – favorite personal dishes that are new to just about everyone else? Or elegant cuisine that’s time-consuming to prepare and an expensive luxury for your diners? Or maybe just the standard tried-and-true burgers and fries?

What about in a couple months? Will you offer new entrées on your menu to attract new people and ensure your loyal diners won’t get tired of the same old thing? Will your new entrées be the same food type, or will you indulge your sudden whim to try serving some kind of ethnic menu and completely scrap what you used to serve? (If you do that, imagine how your loyal diners will react...)

Below are some typical eatery types and their menus, that compare to writers and their book offerings...

The KIOSK writer writes only one book – ever – which is akin to opening a funnel cake stand. The problem with that is, your one offering may only be suitable for the traveling carnival season, and your sales will be sporadic at best. You’ll have nothing else to offer your readers except one sticky, calorie-laden item that many may pass up in favor of the nearby burger grill, where they can get a slightly more substantial list of offerings.

The BURGER GRILL writer is a fast-food machine than manufactures quick, high-calorie, fat-laden food that is not really nutritious but is great for people on the go who want a tasty favorite they’re familiar with. The problem with this kind of writing menu is that there are literally thousands more out there, available on every corner. So, no matter how fast you churn out those burger combo meals, and no matter how many different condiments, dressings, and sides you offer to mix things up a bit, you’re still only going to attract a few customers who are ready to consume more of the same old thing already out there. So what you need to do is make your fast food stand out from the rest by giving it a new twist – like, maybe, pita burgers with soy meat, or something really unique that still has a great taste. (I’m not too sure about the soy meat – it doesn’t sound tasty to me.)

The HAUTE CUISINE writer attracts a very slim audience indeed. The time and skill required to prepare meals in a fine-dining atmosphere are often overwhelming, limiting the number of meals served. You may be showered with awards for your cooking skill, but only the snooty and wealthy will bother sampling what you have to offer. The regular-Joe populace will go for fare that’s cheaper and easier to digest.

The FAMILY DINER writer offers a menu of just about everything for everybody, oftentimes with a kid’s menu too. There won’t be any trendy quiches or spinach salads on this writer’s menu. The cuisine might not be the best around, but there’s a lot to choose from. The only problem is, sometimes it’s so hard to categorize this kind of restaurant tucked away among other businesses, it goes largely unnoticed, because it tries to cater to everyone, but no one in particular.

The ECLECTIC WINE BISTRO writer offers everything from wine and cheese and elite sandwiches for discriminating adults, to hotdogs for kids – a difficult sell when you consider that most wine connoisseurs aren’t going to be dragging kids into this hard-to-classify eatery to sample the hotdogs. People who walk by may stop for a moment to stare though the window and try to figure out what is really the focus of this bistro bar, but few will actually walk through the door and order something.

The FRANCHISE EATERY writer, whether offering high-class dinner fare or fast food, always seems to know the best way to attract customers. The name is branded and well-known across the nation – and sometimes worldwide. Customers don’t really ask what’s in the newest creation on the menu ... they just buy it because it comes from a franchise they know and trust. They recommend it to all their friends, and that’s why the franchise is the most successful eatery of them all – it serves the masses and stays true to its brand without trying to reinvent itself with every new entrée it puts on the menu.

The restaurant business is high-risk, as well as labor- and time-intensive. The same could be said of being an author. The risk comes in putting yourself into your work, exposing your thoughts and feelings in your writing, and then laying it out for others to read and judge. Many authors toil years without ever reaching the point of becoming published. However, many have bypassed the publishing route by choosing to self-publish. With either choice, the result is the same. They still have to sell their books.

Not every writer is the same, nor are the books writers write the same. What kind of writer do you want to be – a one-book wonder, or a steady producer of generic fare in a genre that pleases but doesn’t necessarily wow readers? Or are you the type that writes on a whim, producing a children’s storybook here, and an erotic romance there? If you don’t have what it takes to pick a popular genre and make your mark in it (or create a new one), and stick with that genre to develop your franchise so people instantly recognize your name and buy your books on name-recognition alone – then forget about becoming a bestseller.

What kind of customers do you want to attract? Do you know what kind of books they like? Do you know where they hang out so you can chat with them and show them what you’ve got? Despite everything else you’ve been told, books are sold one reader at a time. When many readers buy your book at the same time, over and over again, then you’ll become part of that successful writer phenomenon known as the bestseller.

Don’t ever kid yourself into thinking writing is easy, because selling is part of that profession. You must either sell your writing to a publisher, who will then sell it to the reader, or you must sell it to the reader yourself. If you want to succeed at it, you have to treat it like running an eatery – as a business. It requires planning, hard work, dedication, and perseverance. Once you recognize that and accept it, you’re one step closer to being the writer you want to be. So, get started on your menu now – and bring my order. I’m hungry!

Pat Morrison, Penumbra Publishing

Welcome Guest Blogger Rainy of the Dark: What Reasons Would You Not Read Past The First Chapter?

3 Reasons I Won't Read Past Chapter One

Like most readers, I go into a book expecting—even wanting—to like it. The cover art satisfied my frivolous side. The blurb piqued my interest. So, I make coffee, grab a blanket, and dive into the first chapter. Then the moment is shattered. Why?

Grammar. This has become a prominent debate lately. Does a good story need good grammar? No. But does a good book need good grammar? In my opinion, yes. Knowing the basic use of verb tenses and punctuation isn't too much to ask of a writer. Really, it isn't.

Point-of-View. Few things shatter the moment more than the point-of-view changing a half-dozen times in the first ten pages. First-person and third-person limited are popular for a reason: it helps the reader attach to the main character. I'm not opposed to third-person omniscient, but not every writer pulls it off. This isn't to be confused with multiple first-person or third-person limited point-of-views.

Dialogue. Yes, dialogue should mirror real life conversations, but it should also be moving the story forward. I don't want the “good morning” exchange, and I don't want the characters to describe in dialogue something that just happened in the narrative. In the first chapter, that can be a death sentence.

Once I've made a commitment to a book, I try to keep it. Sometimes, it just doesn't outweigh the to-be-read list. Most of these issues can be fixed with a little effort. If you're a writer, I advise going over your manuscript and seeing if you're guilty of any of these. Then, see if you can improve it.

Your readers will be happy you didn't shatter their moment.

What reasons would you not read past the first chapter?

*Visit Rainy's Blog at Rainy of the Dark 

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS #3

READER IMPRINTING

In the study of animal behavior, the term IMPRINTING describes the tendency of a hatchling to learn behavior by following and mimicking an individual it identifies as its parent figure. The term is applied similarly in psychology to describe rapidly learned behavior during a critical developmental period.

As a reader, I find myself naturally wanting to ‘imprint’ or identify personally with the main character of a novel I’m reading. This tendency is generally a desirable effect that most authors hope for, because if the reader is identifying with the main character, the reader will likely feel a kinship or familiarity with that character and, by association, the story. If all the crucial elements of the story fall into place correctly, that association translates to reader enjoyment of the story and appreciation for the author’s storytelling ability.

However, it’s obvious many authors deliberately sabotage that reader tendency to imprint on the main character by opening the story with a throwaway character that at first appears to be the main character. This ‘bait and switch’ technique is often used for shock value, or to introduce the setup or premise of the story. Unfortunately, when the author does not make it clear that the opening story character will soon be killed off or will not be seen again, it sets up the reader to be disappointed. This is akin to arriving early at a restaurant for a blind-date first meeting, seeing an attractive person walk in and imagining that’s the date, only to watch the possibility disappear when that person greets someone else.

This is essentially what the author does to the reader with a throwaway character the author takes the time to introduce to the reader without giving clues that this character is indeed making a temporary appearance in the story. Some authors go to the trouble of providing some family or background information about the throwaway character, or even showing the reader that character’s hopes and dreams – only to dash them against the wall like breaking glass when the character suddenly gets shot or run over by a car or blown up in an explosion.

This type of technique can be an effective way to show how high the stakes are in a story. But oftentimes it just ends up being an instance of the author pulling a fast one on the reader, or making the reader the butt of a bad joke. Not every reader is going to enjoy or appreciate the author’s sleight of hand. Some readers may subconsciously get angry at the author for deliberately tricking them by introducing a likeable character they’re eager to get to know better – and then pulling the virtual rug out from under their feet.

In my reading experience, this bait-and-switch technique is used mostly by writers of science-fiction, mysteries, thrillers, or horror. Romance writers rarely chance misleading their readers, because the romance story typically depends on the reader identifying quickly with the main character in order to help cement the romantic bond the reader is expected to vicariously enjoy. In other genres, especially murder mysteries, it’s pretty much understood that somebody’s going to die. And if the author decides to give a little background info on the victim to show the reader that character shouldn’t have died, that’s OK – as long as the author plays fair and doesn’t try to trick the reader into thinking some person is going to be the star of the story, not the victim. If a startling opening scene is used, the author should make it obvious, or at least give little clues to warn the reader that somebody in the scene is going to be killed. But many authors do just the opposite.

My irritation as a reader stems from the fact that most of the time there is no good reason NOT to warn the reader that an opening character is a throwaway character. For example, I happened to start reading a science-fiction story recently where a man in charge of a space station feared his career would go down the tubes when the artificial intelligence running the station got out of control and started shutting down all the systems integral to the station and the survival of the humans occupying said station. He briefly touched on the disappointment his family would experience because he was the only one of all his siblings to rise above the public dole to achieve career success. And now it was all coming to a swift end. His AI tech, a woman he didn’t particularly like, assessed the situation and recommended evacuation. The conditions deteriorated faster than even she realized, and she ended up ordering the evac shuttle pilot to shove off, even though they were waiting for two other people. The station manager was one of those people.

So, what happened here in this first chapter was a disaster in space. But what also happened was that the author got me to start caring about a character with whom she opened the story – then took that character away from me just when I was trying to get to know him better, and put another character in place of him (another character that HE didn’t like). Am I going to want to read more about this other character whom the first character described as analytically intelligent, and who calmly ordered the ship she was escaping on to leave before others could board? Hmm. Nope. I stopped reading after that.

I can see that the author wanted to set some difficult writing parameters for herself to overcome and turn around. She wanted to start off by angering unwary readers by using the old bait-and-switch routine, and then she wanted to up the ante by making the real protagonist someone who saved her parrot but let two people die, and didn’t even break a sweat doing it. Granted there were other things going on in the story to intrigue me to want to read more, but golly, by now I don’t like the main character, and my dislike is strong enough not to want to read further to find out about the big mystery presented in the opening chapter.

My point in going through all this is simple. Authors, DON’T annoy and antagonize your readers with cheap tricks and sucker punches (like the character bait-and-switch routine) unless you have a very good reason for doing so. Pick your battles and make those battles worthwhile to the reader, because unless you have a surefire way of making your readers stick around, you may lose them. When a story starts off on the wrong foot, many readers will decide it’s not worth their time to start over and give the author another chance by reading the second chapter. They’ll just get up and walk away, leaving that book – and that author – behind.

Pat Morrison Penumbra Publishing

TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS (#2)

WHAT NAME, THE ROSE?

3/22/11

I’m Dana Warryck, author of science-fiction romance and paranormal vampire romance. I’m guest-blogging today in Paranormal Wire’s TUESDAY TIPS AND TIDBITS spot. Since Pat Morrison of Penumbra Publishing started off her post last week with a quote from Shakespeare, I’ll do the same...

“A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.”
–Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Paraphrasing here, Juliet is telling Romeo that no matter what his name is (Montague or something else) he would still be the same man, the man she loves. While the comparison I’m going to make isn’t exactly the same, I think it’s close enough. I’m referring to novel titles. A book would still be the same, even if the title were changed – but it might not be as marketable, just like Romeo and Juliet weren’t a likely couple because of the issue of their names prompted by the ongoing feud between their families.

Titles aren’t normally copyrighted (except in the case of the ‘for Dummies’ books, which are actually trademarked). What does this mean for the typical fiction writer in regard to naming a book? Say you’ve spent days, weeks, maybe even months trying to come up with a great title for your book. Something catchy, something that sounds familiar, but with a special twist that makes it absolutely perfect for your particular story. But then, to your horror, you find that someone else has used the same idea and published a book with the exact same title!

Case in point, I have a book titled The Dead of Wynter, which I started about three years ago and, for a variety of personal reasons, haven’t finished yet. Foolishly I posted the ‘coming soon’ info on my web site. (Let that be a lesson to you. Don’t ever leak information about your next book until it’s in production for publication. Why? Because ideas can’t be copyrighted either. And if you give away the heart of your book, or even a great title idea, some other author hungry for new ideas could conceivably take what you’ve got and run with it.)

So, now I see there’s a recent book out with the title Dead of Wynter. The storyline for this book is nothing like mine, but the title is almost exactly the same, playing on an alternate spelling of ‘winter’ that harks back to the familiar saying, ‘dead of winter.’ The author has even named the family of characters ‘Wynter,’ pretty much like I did my main character in my novel.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am certainly not accusing this author of anything. It could very well be a coincidence, because if I came up with the idea, it’s a sure thing someone else would think of it eventually. Take the invention of the telegraph, for example. Or the light bulb. Or the radio. Whoever gets the patent filed first wins, no matter who came up with the idea first. But with book titles, it’s a bit different – no copyrighting, remember? I admit I should not have allowed life to get in the way and stop me from finishing my book three years ago, because now this puts a ding in my spiffy, shiny idea for a book title and attendant story. But I’m not going to let that stop me from getting my story published eventually, with the exact same title I originally came up with – even if somebody else beat me to the punch.

But in regard to choosing a title for a published book, not every author can make that call. The real test comes when a publisher offers you a contract on your novel, and your book’s got a great working title until – dang! – some other publisher releases a book with a title so similar, your publisher doesn’t want to make it look as if they’re copycatting the competition. So now you and your publisher have to come up with a different title that is hopefully just as good. But you’re set on that original title because it was so perfect for your book! What are you going to do? Well, if your book is not in the same genre as the other book, and yours is going to come out sometime later, maybe you can convince the publisher to just go with the original title. But really it’s up to the publisher at this point. (Marketability, and all that.)

So, what happens when you come up with a great catchy title, but it doesn’t fit the tone or genre expectations of your story? That happened to me too with my novel The Protectorate: Patriarch. Originally when I started that novel, with the idea of a suave and sexy vampire having to take care of a human baby, I intended for it to be a humorous story and came up with the working title Vampire Daddy. Well, by the time I finished that story, it turned out to be a dark erotic romance. The baby was still there to provide a bit of humor, but not in the way I originally intended. So, when it was accepted for publishing, the publisher naturally wanted to change the title and came up with the much better title that the book now has. The point of this is, if your title doesn’t fit your story or do it justice, you’re simply going to have to pass on that title and come up with something different. The whole point of a book title is to elicit interest in your book – not unintentionally mislead the reader.

Speaking of that, what if you have this really long title that has a long subtitle attached to it, mainly because you couldn’t come up with a really good short and catchy title, so you just sort of used the paraphrased short summary line of your book as the title? (You know, kind of like that big ol’ run-on sentence I just laid on you.) Well, in that case, the common advice is to dump that title and come up with something else. Or use part of the main title as a series title (if you plan on doing more books of the same type, or with the same characters in the same world you’ve built). The thing is, if you’re going for humor, and you want your title to be a funny run-on sentence that makes people scratch their head and laugh, then your title can be as silly and long as you want. (Example: Jamie Wasserman’s just-for-fun ebook series, Night of the Guppy, Book 1 in the series, Sylvia Chesterton, Vampire Guppy Hunter.) But if you’re trying to attract a traditional readership in a genre where titles are within the common parameters of five words or less, your best bet is to go with the shortest possible title. That way it’s probably going to be easier for readers to remember. (Example: Amanda Hocking’s series volume titles like Switched, or Fate, or Torn, etc.) And use the same pattern in your titles. If you use one-word titles, make them work by picking a word that is a perfect summary of your book’s storyline.

In closing, I’d like to stress a few important points...

First, the title of your book is important for marketing reasons, so don’t take the choice lightly. Put as much thought and planning into your title as you do the actual writing of your book (and then the marketing of said book).

Second, if you’ve got a really good idea for a book or a book title, don’t tell anybody until it’s in publishing production with an expected release date – then you can tout it all you want. The reason for this is twofold. You don’t want to give away your ideas, and you don’t want to promise a book to your readers if you’re not sure you can deliver.

And finally, if you’re going to be a writer, WRITE. Stick with it, no matter how hopeless your dream of becoming a successful author may seem at the moment. Finish your writing projects and do what you have to do to get them published. Don’t put it off, because you never know what life’s going to throw at you next. You may not get another chance to finish that project you started so long ago...

Dana Warryck
http://www.danawarryck.com
Crystal Clear: Storm Ryder
Lucifer’s Last Lover
The Protectorate: Patriarch