The Long-Awaited, Miscellaneous Completion

Well, despite the fact that this is my first post for the month of December, I feel as if I am somewhat living up to the promises I made you --- those concerning my posting more often? I promise, nay, I vow that there will be at least one other post this month. It might be to wish you a merry Christmas, but that is a noble pursuit! 

In this post is the completion of the lengthy, arduous series I have posted about revising works of fiction. It is fairly miscellaneous, pertaining to a wide realm of topics, but I needed a substantial enough post. Again, forgive me.  

POINTS OF VIEW:

Good times to switch points of view are when your hero isn’t in the scene, another character is in the hot seat, or you must convey some overwhelmingly important piece of information your hero doesn’t know. You can use these moments to introduce other characters more fully, but your recurring point of view is to help fully introduce you to the main character.

SCENES:

Each scene must serve a purpose. It must advance the plot or develop character, preferably both. Your scene should also show conflict between characters, create suspense, and show how the day-to-day life in your world is different from your reader’s life.

Puppet scenes: a puppet scene is a conversation whose sole purpose is to convey information to the reader. Convey information through character dialogue.

Static conversations: a static conversation contains dialogue without much action or conflict. Move their conversation to a new setting and disperse the information throughout actions.

CHAPTERS

Prologues: if you have a prologue, it should be no longer than a few manuscript pages. If it is, shorten it. Look for information you can cut or relocate within your manuscript. In addition, your prologue should meet one or both of the following guidelines.

1.     A significant span of time separates the prologue from the rest of the story. Usually the prologue is something that happened before the events in the book.

2.     The viewpoint character in the prologue never appears as a viewpoint character in the rest of the book (until perhaps the epilogue)

CHAPTER BREAKS

1.      You don’t want your chapters to be shorter than three manuscript pages; if they are, the reader won’t have time to become immersed in the story before the chapter ends. On the other hand, don’t write chapters that drone on for fifty or more pages.

2.      Segment chapters by content. Segmenting your chapters by content is more important than segmenting them by page count. Chapter breaks don’t just divide the story; they break it down into logical pieces. Each chapter must serve a purpose within the novel.

3.      End with a hook. When a reader puts your book down, he’ll most likely do so at a chapter break. As such, each chapter must end with a hook strong enough to drive him onward to the next chapter.

SCENES

Displaying emotions:

1.     Use emotional honesty. Emotions are complex, and each is a part of an emotional spectrum. Don’t restrict your characters to one emotion at a time or to emotional extremes.

2.     Understand the source of the character’s emotion and communicate it to the reader.

3.     Avoid clichés like

a.     Mad as hell

b.    Green with envy

c.     Love so much it hurts

d.    Hate with a passion

4.     Use concrete details. Not bugs, but locusts and flies. Not flowers, but crocuses, pansies, or marigolds. If your character is drinking soda or wine, name the brand (real or fictitious). If she’s reading a book or listening to a song, name it. Choose details that reflect your character’s emotional state.

5.     Use internal monologue.

6.     Use dialogue.

7.     Show physical response.

8.     Use external setting to mirror your character’s emotions.

9.     Use character action.

10.  Express the emotion in a way that is specific to the character.

11.  Use comparisons.

SCENE ENDINGS

1.      Cliffhanger: get your hero into trouble, then leave your reader hangings.

2.      Revealing internal monologue: displaying internal emotions that would otherwise be unknown.

3.      Emotional dialogue: manipulate the mood with the character’s feelings.

There! Ha! Living up to promises feels… sleepy. I don't know. Maybe that's just me. I have been sleeping really badly lately. Alas. There, my splendidly enduring readers: it is done with. Wish me well on falling asleep properly and on… well, I actually don't need much luck. Ah well. Farewell, readers, for tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm sorry! I did warn you that I wouldn't get better; I know myself that well. What can I say? I'm a flawed being. Forgive me, blessed readers, forgive me.

I'm afraid that what I have to post will not, in fact, be anything of remote value, making my contrition even more substantial. I take this snippet out of an extremely busy post-Thanksgiving weekend just to say Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers, Happy Thanksgiving. I realize my salute is belated, but that makes it nonetheless sincere, for I wish you all the best of holidays, or I wish that you already had the best of all possible holidays. I hope that you ate enormous portions of delectable food and felt overwhelming gratitude for families, friends, and all the joyful aspects of your indubitably splendid life. And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope that you had a sublime week and laughed at all of us foolish celebrators. 

Again, although my vows ring false, I will attempt to post more frequently and usefully. Bear with me, patient readers, I beg of you. 

Plot

It is possible that my posts have become erratic and bimonthly, at best. Actually, more than possible, as it is backed up with the irrefutable evidence of my posts being erratic and barely bimonthly. I sincerely apologize for whatever inconvenience this may have caused you, as instead of giving up on me, you have proceeded to frequent my blog. Neglect, however, cannot be the best way to get ratings up. Though I have a rather hectic schedule, increased by some major news I recently received, I will endeavor to post more often. (Subtext: don't get your hopes up.)

Today, I proceed to outline a few major points of plot. This is not the basics of plot, just as my previous posts were not the basics of characters or the basics of . . . I've forgotten what the stuff before characters was about, but I bet it wasn't basic! I most likely should have included this earlier, but these are not explanations of what a character is, what a plot is, etc. These are finer tips intended as revisions to experienced or even amateur writing. They just aren't guidelines on how to start a book. 

PLOT

The elements of a plot:

Act I – Beginning – Setup

Act II – Middle – Conflict

Act III – End – Resolution

1.    Exposition

2.    Rising Action

3.    Climax

4.    Falling Action

5.    Resolution

         Don’t forget cause and effect.

         Your hero must go through a permanent, life-altering change, or the stakes are not high enough/personal enough. (This corresponds to the character arc: if the journey does not change them, they fall flat, thus the name FLAT or STATIC CHARACTER. If they do manage to evolve, or devolve, over the course of the story, then they are a ROUND or DYNAMIC character. But this is more about their change effecting the plot, not as much who they are, and who they become.)

Sequence of Events:

1.    Ordinary life. Your story should pull the hero away from his ordinary life. Before that can happen you must show the reader what the life is like. This will help the reader understand the impact the crisis will have on that life and on the hero. Show the reader what kind of person your hero is. Give her a moment to connect with him in a setting she can understand and relate to. Give her a reason to care about your hero.

2.    Story starting point. Something happens to change the course of your hero’s life. Some authors refer to this as the disturbance, the inciting incident, or a call to action. It may be something subtle or something catastrophic. Either way, it signals to the hero, and to the reader, that this is no ordinary day. The story’s starting point should occur as early in the book as possible.

3.    Heeding the call. Your hero makes a decision or a decision is made for him. One way or the other, he leaves his ordinary life to embark upon whatever challenge the plot presents to him. After all, what kind of hero would he be if he didn’t? Nevertheless, he should hesitate to jump in. If the decision to take the challenge is easy for him, the challenge isn’t daunting enough.

4.    Allies and enemies. The hero leaves his normal life and enters unfamiliar territory. He discovers who his allies and enemies are and begins to learn the rules of his new world, new relationship, new case – whatever his new situation may be.

5.    Approaching the dark moment. Your hero goes to confront the enemy, usually on the enemies own turf.

6.    Dark moment or climax. Here, your hero faces his biggest challenge, his most difficult battle. Test him to the limits before allowing him to triumph. Make it seem as though he must lose, as though there’s no way out.

(This is where my story cuts off, but apparently it goes on. What the face?)

7.    Return. The hero overcomes the dark moment and begins the journey home.

8.    Permanence of the change. Just as your story must have a life-altering turning point for the hero, the change they perpetrated must be revealed as permanent.

And, just for good measure, a note on building suspense: 

1.    Make at least one character especially violent or adversarial.

2.    Spring surprises that keep you guessing.

3.    Mislead your reader so that the twists are even more shocking.

4.    Do you worst to the hero to make them tougher.

5.    Take away that which is most important to your hero to make them tougher.

6.    Haunt your hero with memories of a past failure.

7.    Turn the environment loose upon your characters.

8.    Employ phobias and fears to make their issues more difficult to overcome.

9.    Never make anything easy.

10.Show that the danger is real; hurt your hero, kill a good guy, or both.

11.Impose a deadline to keep the suspense up.

12.Prevent your hero from running away; make your hero’s need to stay in the conflict stronger than his desire to escape it.

13.Include a final twist near the end; it must surprise the reader and it must seem inevitable (the ending, that is).

14.Use these techniques in combinations.

That ought to be enough for now, right? I promise, I will be trying to post more, much more. 

Again, I am very contrite about any disturbance my negligence may have incited. Please, don't

give up on me. I will post soon, quite soon . . . maybe some quotes . . . or I'll finish this series 

of novel revisions, whichever. Either way, see you soon, Earth (and any extra-terrestrial readers, 

I don't discriminate.) 

Characters, At Long Last

You may have started with nothing more than a kernel of thought, but now that you’ve created your world, you should have a good idea of who your hero, villain, and supporting characters are. They must not be automatons. Your reader must buy into these characters as real people, with real goals, real relationships, real motivations, ad real emotions.

Your characters must be multi-dimensional. They must have flaws as well as virtues. They must face internal struggle as well as external conflict. They must have past lives and prior relationships. Their previous experiences define how they view their world and their situation and determine how they respond to their emotions. 

1)     Give each character a unique set of physical traits. These traits need not be unique among all humanity, just unique within the context of your story. If you have two or more similar characters, your reader may have some difficulty keeping them straight. (Display through variance in five senses: appearance, perfume, voice, body-types, etc.)

2)     Give each character a unique style of speech. Since you cannot convey tone through writing, you must either describe the character’s style of speech, or give them a unique perspective/cadence that appears through their dialogue. This will make them easier to identify and give another trait that you connect to them, making them more relatable as a person.

3)     Give each character a flaw that the reader can understand. Write about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

4)     Give each character a special skill that they will find useful at some point in the story. Introduce your character’s skill early in the story, well before they will need it, otherwise it will seem contrived¾something you made up to get them out of a fix.

5)     Give each character a definable personality. Optimistic? Pessimistic? Grumpy? Funny? Flirtatious? Adversarial?

6)    You may choose to give each character an identifying line, mannerism, or prop. Giving your reader something to associate with your character besides a name will help you to keep your characters straight. Again, an identifying characteristic could be the cadence or unique physical characteristic.

7)     Give each character virtues. This is particularly important for your hero; the reader must like them. No mater how many internal demons your hero has to overcome, they must have at least one redeeming quality that your reader can latch onto and that makes him say, “I care. I hope s/he overcomes it all because s/he’s worth saving.”

8)    Know each character’s backstory. As a writer, you must know the details of your character’s backstory in far greater depth than you’ll ever reveal in the pages of your novel. Your character’s past has made him the person he is today. His past will determine his emotions, attitudes, and actions. And it will justify them to the reader. His past will make him real.

9)    Know how each character will change throughout the story. The change your character makes and the way that change comes about is the character’s arc. Provide an arc for each major character, not just the hero, but make the hero’s arc dominant in the story. Give your villain an arc too, though his change may be from a bad guy to a dead or imprisoned or crazy guy.

10)  Make your villain stronger than your hero. Don’t make your hero’s victory a foregone conclusion.

1)     Make sure each character’s personality is different from that of every other character.

2)     Make your hero strong willed.

3)     Remove clichéd character traits.

4)     Don’t forget your secondary characters.