What a Character!

Rising from the mists of imagination, the character took shape

     There are many elements that go into writing a great piece of fiction.  Although I will not go so far as to say that characterization is THE most important element of a story, I will say it's doggone important.  Especially to me.  Think about your favorite books, movies, t.v. shows.  What engaged you?  What kept you reading / watching? What do you remember most about them? Why do you keep watching a t.v. series?  Why do you re-read a book or watch a movie again (or 15 times, as I have done with a handful of movies).  Do you ever watch re-runs?  Why?  You already know that's going to happen.  I'm not saying that plot isn't important. It is.  But I will persevere through a book or a movie that has a so-so plot but great characters.  I'm not sticking, however, with a book or a movie that has a fascinating plot but only so-so characters.  If I don't care about the characters, I really don't care what they do or what happens to them. I don't want to spend time with them.

     Of course, the best stories have BOTH compelling plots and engaging characters.  The Hobbit, for example. I read that book in a day and it had the whole package: great plot, fun settings, a comfortable narrator and a delightful main character as well as some interesting secondary characters. It is a fantastic adventure story--but when I re-read it, it's because I want to hang out with Bilbo.  I'm rather fond of his nephew as well.  The Lord of the Rings is at the top of my lists of the best fiction ever written. That book has so much to offer that I'd like to teach a course on it.  Still, while I can wax long about Tolkien's use of fictional historicity in the novel, about the effective and creative use of linguistics, the theologies, philosophies and themes presented in the novel and, of course, the magnificent plotting, the reason I read 1008 pages PLUS all the appendix information and then sought out every other book related to the novel (such as Lost Tales), is because of Frodo and Sam and a friendship so strong that it saved Middle Earth.  And it wasn't just Frodo and Sam; all of the characters were so well drawn that I loved them all.  Well, maybe not Gollum / Smeagal--but I've got to admit that he was intriguing and the story just wouldn't be the same without him.

     Which brings up a final point: a character doesn't have to be good to be a good character.  Darth Vader could hardly be labelled a "good guy," but he is a great character!  My favorite character from the Harry Potter series is Hermione Granger (who, of course, is good), but my second favorite character (wait for it) is Snape.  Even from Book One / Movie One I understood why Snape disliked Harry.  And while the Professor was sarcastic beyond necessity at times, Harry was arrogant and rude to him.  As a professor myself, I thought Snape showed amazing self-restraint in regards to Harry.  But the best thing about the character is his complexity.  Is he a villain? A hero? Both?  The question is not easy to answer and I will argue that Severus Snape is J.K. Rowlin's best written, most rounded and most intriguing character.  The same is true of the character of Morgana in the BBC series, Merlin.  While Morgan le Faye has come down through legend as the archetype of the villainess sorceress, the creators and writers of Merlin have made Morgana too real for black and white categories.  She has good reasons for what she does (although her methods may, at times, be questionable). And if you've watched the series from the beginning, you can't forget that you used to like her back when she was a compassionate advocate and protector of those who had no rights and / or were treated unjustly. And then she just had a lot of really bad stuff happen to her.  I mean, if a trusted friend tried to poison you, wouldn't you get a little angry?

     Since I love a great number of books and movies and have liked a t.v. series on occasion, this post could go on and on, but I'll stop with the above examples.  Now it's your turn.  Who are your all-time favorite characters and why?  Have you read or would you read a book if you didn't like ANY of the characters?  Have you re-read a book, re-watched a movie or t.v. show just because you enjoy being around the characters? (BTW, I watch Merlin episodes over and over because Merlin [the general one from Arthurian legend] is my all-time favorite character and Colin Morgan's and the BBC series' version of character is my all-time favorite Merlin).

     How important are characters to you? What are some of your favorite books, movies or t.v. series and how much do the characters affect your enjoyment or interest in the story?  Have you ever watched a t.v. series after the writing has gotten old, but you stuck with the series for another season just because you loved the characters?

Writing Fiction Can Teach You Stuff!

     I love to learn!  Always have.  My parents and God gave me that gift.  And I love to do research.  It's exciting.  My parents had a set of encyclopedias and I used to have a great time looking things up--things I saw on t.v. (dinosaurs, for instance) or heard someone talk about (such as Quebec).  It didn't matter. I just wanted to find out more about it. Then after I read the entry, I would read the cross-references. And their cross-references. I spent hours just reading the encyclopedia.  Am I strange? Probably and--I don't care. It was fun! Then, after finding out all the encyclopedia had to offer on a subject, I would go to the library and go through all its books on the subject. The Tudors were and still are one of my favorite subjects.  The great thing about the Tudors is that people love to write books about them (fiction and non-fiction) and people continue to make documentaries (and series and mini-series) about them. At this point, few of the books and documentaries tell me much I don't already know about the Tudors, but there occasionally is a morsel of new information or a new perspective on old information. I live for that morsel. Arthurian legend, particularly anything to do with Merlin, has been another lifelong favorite topic of interest.  The Medieval period and history in general are pretty high on the list as well (I LOVE the History channel and its website).

     So what has any of this got to do with writing fiction?  This: writing fiction is another thing I've done since I was young, another great source of entertainment, but it wasn't until I started writing novels that I discovered that novel writing is a fantastic way to learn something new.  And I have learned about things that I probably never would have thought I wanted to know about.

     Before you start working on a novel, there are things you realize you HAVE to know.  For example, if you write crime drama, you'd better know about police procedures.  The Writer's Digest store has a guide for writers on different types of poison. Now there's a book I would consider a must-have if I wrote mysteries!  (I don't, so I didn't buy it. My apologies to the author.) My psychological mystery (okay, so I AM writing a mystery, but nobody gets poisoned in it) has a main character who was abused as a child and suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka Multiple Personalities). Naturally, I knew I had to research that illness, its symptoms, how it's diagnosed, how it's treated, etc.  The character is a professional singer and his best friend is his artist manager, so I thought I'd do a quick check of what artist managers do. Quick check ha! I discovered all sorts of things that I needed to know in relation to the music business (manager versus agent, types of managers, touring, the difference between a tour manager, a road manager and a stage manager, the difference between a load-out and a load-in, information about booking, PR, etc.). I learned a whole lot more than I needed to for the book, but it was fascinating!  

     When I started working on my fantasy novel, I wanted to give it a decidedly Irish / Celtic bend because that's my heritage. I did extensive research on Celtic myths, supernatural beings, symbols, and so on.  I did not, however, know that, as I wrote the book, I was going to learn about herbs. One of the secondary characters is a human-sized Faerie who doesn't have wings (Faeries come in many sizes and types--check it out!) She lives among humans.  They don't know she's a Faerie. She is a healer who uses herbs, so they think she's an herbalist.  I hadn't planned to do much, if any, research on herbs since the character is just my main character's aunt. However, while I was trying to work how to get the main character(Siobhan) through a dangerous enchanted forest in a believable way, I was writing scenes in which Siobhan spends the summer helping her aunt with the healing practice. Epiphany! In folklore, many herbs have magical properties. So the research began and I discovered that there are herbs that provide protection, give invisibility and even allow one to fly! Cool! Problems solved. In the process, I got hooked on the real life effects and benefits of herbs and now am thinking of starting an inside garden. When I began the novel, I had no inkling that writing it would get me into herbs. 

     One final research joy has been going on virtual trips via Google Earth.  I had to check out a couple of areas in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California for the psychological novel and have taken visual tours of country roads in Ireland as a help to describing settings for the fantasy novel. Thank heaven for technology!

    So if you are yearning to learn something new this New Year, write a novel and enjoy all the stuff you learn along the way!

      Have you ever been surprised by what you've learned about while writing fiction?  What are some of your favorite things you learned from reading fiction?

     Christine

Powering Back Up

     Back in September, I was feeling overwhelmed, working on my YA fantasy WIP, tweeting at least three times a day, trying to think of something to post on a FB page that seemed to be a complete waste of time, reading and commenting on two to three blogs a day and writing two blogs of my own.  Oh yes, and then there was my day job and my life.  One day, Janet Kobel Grant wondered aloud what would happened if some of us writers let social media "go dark" for a while.  Would anyone notice? she asked.  Well, anyone who has read the blogs by the Books and Such agents knows that their blogs certainly would be missed--immediately.  I suspect there would be a general outcry.  However, for me, it was the permission I needed.  Let me just see, I thought, what will happen if I stop posting.  Will it make any difference?  I didn't completely quit; I scaled back.  I stopped spending hours (literally HOURS) going through the comments on Twitter and responding to them.  Now I just check it periodically throughout the week and only go back about two hours worth of comments whenever I log on.  At first, I still tweeted at least once a day, writing a a comment with the hash tag fantasyquest in an attempt to attract followers who are interested in fantasy and might potentially read my book.  I continued writing my fantasy blog, although not every week (one of my faults, not posting consistently).  I stopped writing posts for this blog as wasn't sure that anyone other than my friend, Jennifer, read it.  Yes, there were pageviews, but a pageview doesn't mean the person is following.  It could be that the person arrived at the blog by accident.  FB became merely one of the ways that I shared the link to my fantasy blog. My WIP became my top priority when I was squeezed for time. I continued to follow and comment on the agent blogs because...I those blogs are vital to me--both the information and the people I find there. So I didn't go completely dark, but there was only a nightlight still on.

     A surprising thing happened.  I continued to get new followers on Twitter almost daily.  My Facebook "friends" tripled.  The number of pageviews to both of my blogs spikes up on Friday and Saturday, leading me to believe that there are people who are looking to see if I've posted anything (my post day had been Friday, then changed to Saturday due to my teaching schedule).  And to my complete amazement, this blog, has continued to have daily pageviews even though I haven't posted since September.  Also, the number of followers has increased (thanks in no small part to the Books and Such community). (Welcome and thank you, Heather and Steve!  I'm sorry it's taken me so long to welcome you.)

    What to make of all of this?  I really don't know yet.  I have a couple of thoughts.  First, I think blogging about a topic that interests people (both writing and fantasy seem to qualify) will attract readers.  Of course, then good content is needed to keep them (except for the odd extremely loyal friend).  (Jennifer, you know by "odd," I mean unusual, not strange :) ).  Secondly, networking--especially when you remember to connect with people as people, not as potential followers or readers--is beneficial in many ways.  Thirdly, life goes on even when I'm not there.  Okay, that's not a writing insight, but it's a really good thing to remember.

     A big THANK YOU to all who follow this blog, as an official follower or not.  And to those who've been following it for longer than three months and regularly checking in to see if I have FINALLY posted something--  *Many HUGS*  Thank you for your patience.

Blessings for a peace-filled and joyous New Year!

Christine

Narrative Point of View

     In the last post, I listed grammatical points of view and mentioned that keeping a consistent point of view is important to good writing.  I promised to write next about narrative points of view, so that's what today's post will focus on.

     Spot Quiz: from what point of view was paragraph above written?  Just kidding!  Those of you who read this blog are savvy enough to recognize first person when you see it.  It's the other persons that cause the problems, and especially the mixing of the persons.  NO MIXING ALLOWED!  Again, mostly kidding. Mostly.  The fact is, though, that a writer needs to choose one point of view from which to write and then stay in that point of view UNLESS there is a good reason to change it--and then the change should be brief.

     Last time the focus was on grammatical points of view.  This post is about narrative point of view.  They are related since the pronouns used in first person narrative point of view are the same pronouns used for grammatical first person.  The same goes for second person and third person.  So if you know which pronouns go with which person, you are at least three-quarters of the way to understanding narrative point of view.  There's just a little more to the story.  Speaking of stories, as you already know, stories have narrators.  The narrator is the person who is telling the story--not to be confused with the writer who wrote the story.  Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but Huck himself tells (narrates) the story.  Don't believe me?  Read a bit from the story, then read Twain's "Notice" at the beginning of the book.  What? You don't have the book handy?  Okay, fine.  Here's a sample:

     From the narrative: You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter.  That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.  There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth.  That is nothing.  I never seen anybody but lied one time or another.... (11)

     From "Notice":  Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
                                                               BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR

     These are distinctly different voices and the first one is written from the first person point of view while the second is written exclusively from the third person point of view.  (Did you notice?)  But what about those "yous," you may ask.  Isn't that second-person?  Very astute observation, but actually, no, not with narrative point of view which is slightly different from grammatical point of view.

     First, here are the narrative points of view (and there are fewer than twelve, yeah!):

     First Person 
     First Person Detatched
     Second Person
     Third Person Limited
     Third Person Omniscient

     (Again to the Literary Police and to all English Teachers: I'm trying to keep this as basic as possible, okay?)   

     So what do these labels mean?  Well, this blog has gone on for a bit, so I'll save examples for next time, but here is a brief definition of each:

     A First Person narrator is a character in the story who tells the story from his / her perspective and uses pronouns such as I and me.  Generally, the readers know the name of this narrator / character. A Detached First person narrator tells the story AFTER it has happened and so is in a position to reflect and can provide foreshadowing.  Sometimes a first person narrator will address the readers directly (using the pronoun you).  A Second Person narrator is talking to someone (sometimes writing a letter to someone) OTHER THAN THE READER.  The readers listen in on the conversation, but the you in the narrative does not mean the reader. A Third Person Limited narrator is an anonymous person who knows about the story and can tell it from his / her limited perspective.  So this narrator may know what some of the characters are thinking and feeling, but doesn't know about everyone and can tell only what those other characters say and do, not what they think or feel. A Third Person Omniscient narrator still is anonymous and doesn't take part in the events of the story, but knows EVERYTHING about EVERYONE. A Third Person narrator never uses the pronouns I, me, we, us, or you.  The Third Person narrator appears to be telling the story from an objective point of view (but don't completely trust in that!).  The next post will give examples of what these narrative points of view look like and why and how to use them.

Which point of view do you prefer to write from?

Do you prefer to read stories that are told from a First Person viewpoint or a Third Person one?

Have you ever read a story told from Second Person?  What do you think of it?  
(BTW: many song lyrics, especially those of love songs, are written in Second Person)

Happy Labor Day!
C.F.

So What's Your Point of View?

[Thank you for your patience last week.  The short version of the story is that my brother-in-law got quite ill. I took him to the ER.  His health is improving now.  Thank God.  So I'm back to blogging.]

                 WRITING BASICS TOPIC TODAY: Point of View, Part 1

Many people misunderstand what Point of View means as a writing term.  In everyday conversation, the phrase has come to mean "position" or "stance."  "Well, my point of view on the healthcare system in this country is...."  That is not what a Point of View means in writing.  The literary terms for position, stance or point are thesis (non-fiction) or theme (fiction).

So what then is Point of View?  In writing, Point of View is the perspective from which a story is told or a paper written.  There is a direct connection between this and grammatical Point of View.  In grammar, there are twelve (yes, twelve) Points of View.  They are:

First Person Singular Subjective
First Person Singular Objective
First Person Plural Subjective
First Person Plural Objective

Second Person Singular Subjective
Second Person Singular Objective
Second Person Plural Subjective
Second Person Plural Objective

Third Person Singular Subjective
Third Person Singular Objective
Third Person Plural Subjective
Third Person Plural Objective

Are your eyes rolling back into your head yet?  Actually, it's not as complicated as it looks.  Really.  It all boils down to which pronouns will be used CONSISTENTLY in a piece of writing.  And the good news is: Second Person only uses ONE pronoun.

First Person Pronouns: I, me, we, us

Second Person Pronouns: You, you, you, you

Third Person Pronouns: He, She, They, It, Him, Her, Them  

[Note to the Grammar Police: Yes, I left out possessives.  I'm trying to make this BASIC]

So what's all this got to do with writing Point of View?  All writing, even non-fiction, has a narrator.  There is a voice with which the writer communicates the information or story.  That voice is an entity and it has a perspective.  That perspective is the lens through which the written word is communicated and it is a single lens.  (Remember the first writing basic: consistency.)  In a single piece of writing, the perspective or lens should be changed ONLY if there is a really good reason for doing so.  Sometimes people need to put on reading classes to read more easily.  Sometimes the author can change a POV lens briefly in order to make something clearer.  However, when the author keeps changing the POV, it can make a reader dizzy.  Think about eye exams when the doctor keeps switching lenses on you and saying, "Which is better--A or B? What about B or C?  A or C?"  You get to the point where you have no idea because he never stays on one lens long enough for you to know.  By the same token, a writer who keeps changing POV will either confuse his readers or give them a headache.

Now if you were paying close attention, you may have noticed that the paragraph above was written from the Third-Person point of view with a short change of lens to Second-Person in order to illustrate the point, then back to Third-Person.  If you didn't notice it as you read, good.  Point of View shouldn't distract the reader from what the writer is trying to communicate.  Anyway, look at the pronouns list, then re-read the paragraph and notice not only the pronouns, but the nouns, e.g., a narrator, a voice, the writer.  All of these nouns can be replaced by third-person pronouns.  The Second Person pronoun you (meaning "the reader") only shows up in the example and there is no mention of me or I.

How much a writer has to worry about staying in a consistent POV will depend on the type of writing he / she is doing and who his / her audience is.  If the writing is informal, an email for example, the writer can worry less about consistent POV -- as long as it is an informal email.  Writing an email to a prospective employer doesn't qualify as informal.  If the writing is more formal--a business letter, a college paper, a piece of writing the author hopes to publish--a consistent POV becomes a non-negotiable.

Next time: Narrative Points of View and examples of how to use them.

Have a great weekend.
C.F.

Family Emergency

Due to a family emergency, I am unable to write a post this week.  I'm sorry.   Please check back this weekend for a new blog.

C.F.

And Fiction Too!

     While I pursued my degree in writing, I took a number of writing workshops.  Peer critique was the main element of these workshops. I have few specific memories from those critiques.  There is one, however, that has stayed with me. This memory is from a poetry workshop.  There were two members of the class whose poetry always was incomprehensible.  Now, it's okay for poetry, unlike prose, to be a little difficult to access.  In fact, good poetry should have levels of meaning.  Even so, a good piece of poetry will have something that reader connects with, whether it is the beauty of the words or something in it that stirs the reader / hearer's emotions. Exceptional poetry is visceral.  The reader / hearer doesn't have to understand immediately (or ever) what the poem means as long as the poem moves the person. The poetry of these two classmates, however, didn't move the rest of us; it just confused us. For a few weeks, people were polite and gentle in their feedback, but finally, someone told one of these poets that his poetry just never made any sense.  The author haughtily replied, "It doesn't have to make sense.  I write poetry for myself.  You don't have to understand it." I still remember my reaction to that statement. I thought, "Fine.  Then write, read it, put it in your drawer and don't bother other people with it."  I was offended by his condescension and his callous disregard for his readers.  In last week's blog entry, I said that it's important to keep your audience in mind when you write.  Most of my examples were about non-fiction writing and I promised that I would talk about fiction today.  So here it is.  In creative writing AUDIENCE MATTERS!

     Writing is both a skill and an art, and creative writers tend to be highly aware of the artist aspect.  We tend to think of ourselves as artists, and we are.  That doesn't mean, however, that we need to rebel against all rules and conventions.  Rules and conventions exist for a reason, primarily because they are effective. I'm not saying creative writers should never go against convention and, say, put a unicorn in a science fiction novel.  I'm saying don't do it JUST BECAUSE.  "I'm an artist and I'm free to play it as I feel it" (to borrow a phrase from musicians) may feel good, but make sure to empty some drawers to put your unpublished manuscripts in.

     There is one writing rule that should never be ignored: keep your audience in mind.  What difference does audience make to a creative writer's work?  I'll just address two biggies: age and genre.  AGE: Vocabulary, of course, comes immediately to mind. Most writers know not to use the same vocabulary for a children's book that they would use for an adult psychological mystery.  Perhaps a little less obvious is the fact that a writer who uses vocabulary and a narrative voice appropriate for 9-12 years olds in story written for the hot Young Adult market (approx. 13-18) is going to fail.  Those audiences are different and, if you aren't aware of the difference, either do research or don't write for those markets.  Subject matter is another element to consider when thinking about your audience's age.  It's kind of a duh that a murder mystery / thriller would be inappropriate for 6-9 year olds.  In regards to the YA market, while many adults enjoy YA novels (e.g. Harry Potter), the focus of the YA story should be on the target audience's issues: coming of age, dating / romance, family issues, even sensitive issues such as suicide or abuse.  Of course many adults love romance novels, so if I write a romance novel, I don't have to worry about whether the audience is YA or adult, right?  Wrong.  An adult novel has an adult protagonist.  A YA novel has a teenage protagonist.  Also, sexual intimacy will be handled differently.  GENRE: Of course, entire blogs can be dedicated to the topic of genre, even one specific genre.  So I'll just make a couple of comments.  First, know whether or not you are writing genre, and if so, what kind. Know who your audience is and know that they know about that genre.  That means that you'd better know about it too.  All genres have conventions.  As I said above, that doesn't mean you always have to stick to the tiniest letter of the law of every convention of the genre, but if you are going against convention, know why you're doing it.  And doing it because you're an artist is not a good reason.  Genre readers read a specific genre because they like specific things about it.  There are things they expect to find when they read a book or story in that genre.  It's like when you eat ice cream.  You don't expect ice cream to taste like meat. You buy ice cream; you want to experience ice cream.  So readers of horror novels have certain expectations when they read.  They don't expect the narrator to sound like he came out of a Dr. Seuss book--unless that ties into the horror plot.  If you're clever enough, perhaps you could make it work, but know what you're doing and why you're doing it.  To go back to the unicorn example.  Although Sci-Fi and Fantasy are grouped together, they are two different genres, each with its own conventions.  Dragons manage to fly back and forth between the two from time to time, but unicorns have been consigned, it seems, exclusively to fantasy.  But it might be possible to write a unicorn into a sci-fi piece as long as the writer adheres to one unbreakable sci-fi rule: it must be scientifically plausible.  For example--and just for clarity, I like this idea, I'm copyrighting it and you can't use it.  Sorry :(  -- since unicorns are in folklore worldwide, a protagonist scientist who likes the idea of unicorns could pursue proving that unicorns existed before The Flood, find DNA evidence, maybe find a unicorn skeleton and carbon-date it and all this might ultimately lead to finding a herd of unicorn on a secluded mountaintop somwhere.  But in order for the unicorn to transition into a sci-fi novel, the science must be there and must be plausible. Trust me, the audience will know if it's not--and they will not be happy.  Nor will publishers, editors, agents.  Audience matters.  Really.  Ignore them at your own peril.

In what other ways does audience affect your writing?

Genre writers: in what ways are conventions restrictive?  How are they helpful?