Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘characters’

Reflections on Voice

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on September 26, 2012| 4 Comments »

Voice in writing is very hard to describe, except to point to examples that illustrate it. It’s also something that develops over time–one of the reasons that many of us have to write a few unpublishable things before we reach that magical level. Sometimes, it’s the thing that allows you to recognize the work of one author over another.

But voice is more than just authorial voice. There’s also the voice of a story (a fable should sound different than an adventure story) and the voices of characters.

There’s no doubt that voice is important, especially in young adult stories, but it’s not more important than the story. In my opinion, nothing is. And the voice has to match the story.

A story told in first person is almost always going to have a stronger voice than one told in third person. In fact, in my opinion, it should, since in essence it purports to be the character telling the story. Done right, it should sound like that character. I’ve seen several novels that used first person without making it sound substantially different than a narrator’s voice.

In contrast, a story told in third person is mainly going to be in a narrator’s voice (and probably a lot closer to the author’s voice). Even in third person, though, the closer the story is to the point-of-view character, the stronger the voice.

But, that doesn’t mean that in order to have stronger voice, every story should be told in first person or even close limited third person. That depends on the demands of the story.

For example, stories that have two (or more) point of view characters can be difficult to pull off in first person. First, it’s confusing to read if both characters are written in first person. Who “I” is changes from chapter to chapter or even from scene to scene. Second, two first-person point of view characters probably ought to sound different from each other–which is probably pretty difficult to pull off. I say that, because I haven’t yet seen an example that really did pull it off.

I’ve written a couple of short stories in first person.–one because the subject just seemed to demand that closeness to the character and the other because I just started hearing the story in first person in my head and decided not to fight it. I haven’t–yet–written a whole novel in first person. I probably will some day, when a story tells me that’s what it needs.

In the meantime, I think of all the great stories I would have missed if I’d demanded that everything I read had the kind of voice found in a first-person narrative.

Read Full Post »

Multiple Versions of Queries

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2012| 2 Comments »

First, a little status.

I made it into the first round of the GUTGAA Agent Pitch! Yay! Man that was competitive–in the sense of being able to click on send really, really fast. Now it’s fingers crossed that I make it through to the second round.

Also, I’m within a chapter of writing “THE END” at the bottom of the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT. Whew! TBG will be my ninth completed novel. (We won’t talk about the first three, okay? I’ve got to work on revisions of two others while TBG cools. And one has been tabled for the time being.) It still feels great to get to “THE END”–or even close to it.

Now to the main topic.

I’m currently contemplating the possibility of working up–and polishing–another version of the query for FIRE AND EARTH. Not a new version to replace the current one (version number seven), but a whole new and separate query. After all, you do it for resumes, rght?

See, FIRE AND EARTH has two point-0f-view characters. I’ve consciously written the query from Casora’s story but, if I’m honest, Tiaran has a strong story, too, even though he didn’t even show up until Chapter 5.

And now, as I research agents to query, I find that at least some are actively looking for boy stories. Well . . . but to get their attention I’d have to write another version of the query. And then the fact that Ti doesn’t come in until Chapter 5 could be a problem. He probably wouldn’t even be in the sample pages.

Hmm. Probably not. I’ll just wait until I get the revisions to MAGE STORM completed. That’s a legitimate boy story, with a single point-of-view character.

Read Full Post »

Bringing Characters Together

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on May 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Oops. I got busy writing and almost forgot to blog. And you know what? I’m not sorry, either.

I’m at a particularly tricky part of the story. I’ve got two characters who want to get together. I’ve got to find ways to get them to spend more time with each other until they’re so wrapped up in each other they can’t see anything else. This, of course, is right before I separate them–by a whole ocean–and force them to try to find a way back to each other. Well, only one of them is going to have to cross the ocean. I’m not doing the “they went thata way scene” where they both cross and then miss each other. But they’re both going to have trials to face before they can come back together. And they won’t be quite the same people when they do.

The tricky part is, I don’t want to spend too much time getting them together. I want to get on with the story, which is not only about the love story. There are other things going on, too. Of course, it doesn’t have to be perfect this round. This is the first draft. It’s supposed to need work. That’s one of the rules.

Part of this is in the world building–which is really research, not world building, in an alternate history. I have to try to figure out what are appropriate ways for them to interact and what the consequences might be.

Anyway, it’s an interesting part of the story to be in, leading up to that first kiss.

Read Full Post »

Time Management and Getting Unstuck

Posted in Uncategorized, writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2012| Leave a Comment »

This last week has not been a very productive one. There are a couple of reasons for that.

On one hand, I’m just a little bit stuck on my current WIP. It’s a problem I anticipated, but it’s still a problem. THE BARD’S GIFT is about Astrid, a shy girl who finds that she’s been given the gift of storytelling–but the gift comes with a catch. Sometimes, even when it embarasses her or when people don’t want to listen to her, she’s compelled to tell a particular story. It’s potentially a very powerful gift, but not a very comfortable one.

Well, the problem with this story is that I have to put in those stories that she tells, which is almost like stopping the flow of the main story and writing a short story in the middle of it. That’s proving a little more difficult than I anticipated.

By preference, I’d like to have Astrid start with traditional stories, then maybe start finding that the story she has to tell has some variations from the traditional story, and then telling entirely new stories. This is an alternate history, so that means I need to find a traditional story from her culture (Norse or Icelandic) that fits with that point in the story. I have some more research to do. The books arrived yesterday.

Now, there are a couple of ways I could deal with this. I could just go around and come back to fill in the story. Or I could work on something else while I figure out the story Astrid needs to tell. I have a novella “The Music Box” that needs work before it’s ready for e-publishing and a short story “Apocalypse Cruise” that might be worth revisting because I might have figured out how to address a couple of its issues. The problem with that is that it typically takes me a day or two to really switch stories in my own head.

The other reason I’ve been having trouble with my writing this week is interruptions. They are, I think, going to turn out to be good interruptions, but I’m going to need to find a way to deal with them without losing productivity.

If you’ve ready my “About Me” page, you know that I take care of my mother, who has advanced Alzheimer’s disease. For several years, Mom attended an adult day care run by the Salvation Army and I had my writing time worked out around that. Last year, that day care closed and Mom had a one-week hospitalization. For someone like Mom, an event like that often results in a drop in functioning. Mom was no exception.

So, for the last year, I’ve been basically going it alone with Mom at home 24/7. Now, I’m deluged with potential help. Mom’s doctor switched her over to the home care portion of her HMO, which means nurses will come out to her instead of me having to try to get Mom back and forth to the doctor (not a smal task, believe me). Great. The home care people suggested that maybe she should be on hospice. In the last week, I’ve had the home care nurse, a social worker, another nurse to draw a test sample, and the hospice intake person out. And the hospice people are coming back today. I’ve not been very successful switching back and forth between these roles.

The house is a mess. I’ve never been a great housekeeper. It’s just not where my interests lie. I can always find something more interesting to do–like getting lost in my current story. But it finally does reach a point where I have to stop and deal with it. Those efforts usually run aground in the clutter.

But now I need to find some documentation. And so far, I haven’t been able to. (I have found some other things that I’d misplaced, but not what I’m looking for right now.) So, I’m going to have to start attacking the clutter and the semi-hidden stacks of paper lying around this house.

Looks like I’m going to have to make a plan. I might even *shudder* have to make a schedule.

Read Full Post »

Characters and Stories that Are Not for Me

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , on May 1, 2012| 12 Comments »

Blogging a touch early because tomorrow morning is going to be too busy.

Over the last couple of years I’ve read several stories that just didn’t work for me. I want to be clear: this isn’t a judgment of whether these stories are good or not, just whether they’re the kind of story I like to read.

Of those that come immediately to mind–and no, I’m not going to name names or titles–two are by well-established and well-loved authors and one is a debut novel.

The thing all these books have in common and that makes them not work for me is a relatively inactive protagonist. It’s an inactive female protagonist in each case, but the fact is that I can’t think of a novel with an inactive male protagonist. I don’t really think that’s coincidence. These stories make me absolutely crazy.

Now, what I mean by an inactive protagonist is that this character doesn’t seem to be taking the lead in trying to solve the problem of the story, whatever it is. For one reason or another, this putative protagonist isn’t the real hero of the story. And that bugs me. It bugs me so much that it ruins the whole story for me. It bothers me even more when the story is aimed at a YA audience.

The one I’ll talk about was a very famous fantasy trilogy. Some of you may even guess which one it was. There’s no doubt the author is one of the premier fantasy writers of our time. The story was just wrong for me.

The first book was great, with a really kick-ass female protagonist. The second book was very hard for me to finish, in large part because that female character placed herself behind a much less capable male character (and love interest). They were actually, potentially, a very good pair–each providing strengths the other lacked. He was the thinker, she was the fighter. Cool!

However the male character’s agenda was allowed to overwhelm the female protagonist’s. Even though she knew there was something she should be doing, she hung back, letting the male character take the lead. I had to force my way through that book, telling myself that the second book in a trilogy is often the worst. The third book would be better, I was sure, because I had liked the first so much.

At the end of that second book, the male character was magically given the same abilities that the female had. Not only that, he was stronger. Ugh! And once again in the third book, the female protagonist sublimated her goals to his. To me, they were essentially fiddling while their world burned. I couldn’t even finish this book because I frankly just didn’t care what happened to these characters anymore.

The other books I referenced above have similar patterns. Female characters waiting for some guy to come along and make a plan and lead the problem solving. I don’t care if the protagonist has to enlist allies. That’s fine. I don’t even care if the allies turn out to have special skills that place them in leadership positions during part of the story. I do very definitely mind when the protagonist is not the one trying to solve the problem of the story. Oddly, that only seems to happen with female protagonists, which really burns me.

I want my protagonists to be active in trying to solve the problem. Now you know what kind of story you won’t be getting from me.

Read Full Post »

First Kiss

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on February 12, 2012| 2 Comments »

In honor of Valentine’s Day, here’s a teaser from SEVEN STARS. This is Tiaran and Casora’s first kiss. They’re traveling through some caves that have a strange, energizing effect on Tiaran. But Casora (usually the strong one) has a fit of claustrophobia half way through.

He handed his torch to Mordan and put a hand on both of Casora’s shoulders. “Shh, shh. Don’t fight so hard. Remember your enyoro. Let the darkness wash over you, flow with it, not against it. There’s nothing to fear. This place is sacred to the one you call Gaiara. Can’t you feel it?” He lifted her to her feet and, without thinking about it, tilted his head to kiss her quickly, gently on the lips.

As he flushed warm down the length of his body, the sound that had been just at the edge of his hearing swelled into music and rose to a crescendo. It resonated with something deep inside him. Along with the music, the deep voice and the words of his dream came back to him. He smiled at the thought. If this was what Gaiar wanted of him, Tiaran would be only too happy to comply.

Tiaran had kissed a fair few girls in his other life, back at the palace. He’d gotten rather good at it, he thought. But none of those kisses had been like this one. He wanted to try it again, longer this time and much, much slower, but he heard Mord’s sharply indrawn breath and Hemrod’s huff. Maybe somewhere with less of an audience next time.

There was surprise in Casora’s eyes as he drew back, but the fear was less. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Keep hold of my hand. It won’t seem as bad.”

Read Full Post »

Characters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 1, 2012| 5 Comments »

So, as I said last time, part of my revision to MAGIC’S FOOL has been to bring another character on stage earlier. In writing the couple of scenes or expansions of scenes that really show her character, I’ve remembered how much I really love this character. There’s a reason I wrote a whole novelette (“Becoming Lioness”) from her point of view. I might actually start to worry that this character is going to try to take over the series in later sequels.

I remembered so well that I went ahead and submitted that novelette to another market. I’d been holding back on it while I worked out how the middle grade series was going to go.

I actually have considered the possibility that, as this series advances, it may move from middle grade to young adult. In that case, Kiara’s somewhat backwards (Kiara goes at most everything in an unconventional way.) little love story would work very well as a foil for the larger story. Of course, that’s assuming Kiara doesn’t just take over that book and make it her own. She’s been known to be stubborn and venturesome.

Read Full Post »

Progress Report

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Well, I’ve made good progress so far with my significant plot changes to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’m up to chapter seven. The changes involve bringing one character in much earlier (the beginning of the book instead of the very end) and making her older than she was before by about eight years. Towards the end of the book, one plot element will have to change, too.

I like this change. I think it will read better for the age group. (That’s mostly the change that will come at the end.) Plus it’s going to be a big help moving forward. MAGIC’S FOOL is intended to be the first of a series of (probably) four books. (Tentatively titled MAGIC’S FOOL, MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, MAGIC’S JOURNEYMAN, and MAGIC’S MASTER.)

This character (the main character’s little sister, Kiara) will now be in a much better position to take her intended role in the later books. She was going to be a little young for it, otherwise. Plus, now I get a (very) little conflict with the older boy not wanting his baby sister tagging along all the time. But, hey, every little bit of conflict helps.

Yesterday, I made the most major revisions so far to give Kiara a much bigger role in one chapter, so she can be seen as something other than just the pesky kid sister. She’ll have a bigger role as the series goes on. In fact, I have an unpublished short story about her that I may have to do something with in conjunction with this series. Maybe a free ebook or maybe I’ll just put it up on this blog. Or both. It’s called “Becoming Lioness”, which might give you a hint as to Kiara’s character.

Of course, after I finish this revision, it’s going to need at least one more read through before it’s ready for readers in March. But, this is my third straight time through. I think I’ll give it a bit of a rest before I go through it one last time before the Pied Pipers get it.

Read Full Post »

Replotting on the Fourth Draft

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 25, 2012| 6 Comments »

I’ve almost finished the third draft of MAGIC’S FOOL. And I just now decided on a fairly major plot revision.

This draft was supposed to concentrate on improving descriptons, but as I near the end (where most things have already been fairly well described), I started wondering about a particular plot element. It had worked just fine in the original version, before the rewrite. But now I’m targeting a different audience and I’m not at all sure it works for the new market.

Fortunately, I think I see a pretty good solution. One that will, fortunately, actually help to solve a time-line issue that bothered me even in the original version. I think I’ll like this version even better.

Now, I was planning what I was going to work on after I finish this draft: revision notes to BLOOD IS THICKER based on reader input, starting to work on the query for SEVEN STARS, working on that neglected short story I’ve barely started. I still need to do all those things, but I guess they’re going to be delayed a bit.

My readers get MAGIC’S FOOL in March. I’ll need to have it ready for them.

Read Full Post »

Getting Back in the Swing

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2011| 2 Comments »

Well, last month I finished up the first draft of MAGIC’S FOOL and turned my attention back to BLOOD IS THICKER.

BIT had run off into the weeds about half-way through November and I had to figure out how to get it back on track. It’s a first draft. These things happen sometimes. Sometimes, even if you outline–which I do only in very broad strokes–you get to a place in the story and realize your characters simply refuse to do what you’d planned for them. Then you have to break out the carrots or the whips and try to drive them back out into the storm.

In this case, I’d brought my main characters back to something that is endangered that they are trying very hard to protect. (No, I’m not going to tell you what. You’ll have to wait and read it.) Anyway, one of the people who had promised to guard this something for them so they could go out and seek a solution had let them down. They came back just in time to avert disaster. It was an important point for the two main characters, who had been somewhat at odds, to come back together again.

Now, the problem was to find a way to get them to leave again. Obviously, they can’t put their faith in that character again. Their obvious motivation would be to stick right there. The quest so far hadn’t really required their particular talents; others could do it just as well. So, I needed to figure out how to push them out of the nest (so to speak.)

I needed some inspiration. By letting my subconscious turn this problem around, I found a complication that makes their quest more urgent. It also ties in neatly with a subplot I’d set up earlier. I also found a way to use their peculiar talents–something the other characters can’t do as well.

So, all’s well with BLOOD IS THICKER again. All I need to do now is build some momentum.

I will say, though, it’s interesting switching gears between a middle grade fantasy and a paranormal romance.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »