Finish What You Start

I can't say this enough.

It isn't an issue for all writers (or people, for that matter). Some exist who write a story, give it a good once-over and publish that sucker. I can't rightly say I admire that, but I can say they're on the right track.

Some of us agonize over every word. We neglect story for the art of implementation. Every day, sometimes in mid-sentence, we see ways the story could be different, better, deeper, more lyrical, whatever. Yes, my daily experiences add layers to my thoughts like rings on a tree, but that doesn't mean every story has to be the sum total of my entire being. It's not possible.

A newspaper is old news before it hits the stands. A story is the same. It's a snapshot of my desires at the time of writing.

Make an outline. Write quickly in whatever style you prefer. Follow the outline when the muse isn't musing, and make something happen when you're bored. The goal is to finish this story. I recommend stuffing as much melodrama as you can manage into your first draft because emotion is what makes most readers read, and it's nearly impossible to add emotion later.

The young writer laughs at the thought of not being able to write. When I was a youngster, you couldn't keep me away from the keyboard. But you also couldn't make me finish a single story because I got bored and wandered off to the next exciting thing.

Now I am old. An old woman with a dozen half-finished ideas that keep getting in the way when I'm trying to write something worth reading. Had I finished those when I was young, I would know them for garbage and move on. As it is, I keep puking them up and stalling on the chunks.

Sorry. Hope you weren't eating breakfast.

Finish what you start. It is worth the effort.

Push button. Receive bacon.

The Things I Don't Say

During my blog review, I was surprised at how many details I left out. Some of those posts are so vague, I'm not even sure what life events I was talking about.

The same with my paper journals from the last 20 years. Not that I've journaled a whole lot on paper, but when I did, they are fairly general topics, and very few names, unless they are prayer requests.

Pretty sure I learned this as an undergrad. In the therapy field, the written word can get subpoenaed, and becomes part of court history and what feels like the entire world reads it. If that isn't enough to make a person's palms sweaty, well, you're a lemming. Write whatever you want. You won't notice when it bites you.

Of course, it should have been Harriet the Spy and Biloxi Blues that taught me to keep my pen shut, but my adolescent journals are not nearly so close-mouthed. God forbid, should any of them be published posthumously, my deepest apologies to all slandered. I was a child ranting about childish things.

Why don't I destroy those? Shrug. They're part of my history. Perhaps the nieces will realize Aunt Robynn makes mistakes, too, and not just in her close-minded clinging to guns and religion. I come from critical stock. I've worked hard to prune that branch.

Fact is, I write when I'm upset, and that's a terrible time to commit details to paper. Bad enough I say things I shouldn't. Writing them down is as close to permanent as we come in this life. I don't need that following me around like a time bomb.

Push button. Receive bacon.

Bias

I was recently asked how a fiction author avoids bias. The simple answer: she doesn't.

The questioner, who reads political spy thrillers, was irritated with a certain author because the author appeared to have an agenda in some books.

We all know authors write from their own worldviews. We all know authors write about topics that interest them (unless they have a specific reason that they can't, like "need money now so must accept boring freelance work"). Unless the author is a journalist devoted to giving just the facts (and how many journalists are encouraged to do that, nowadays?), bias will be present. I would argue bias is present even for the journalist, based on what facts are presented and in what order.

For the reader, it's not a question of avoiding bias. It's a question of which biases agree with your worldview, or, which biases stretch your worldview. I suspect a reader's favorite authors will demonstrate a close approximation of how the reader views the world, and, contrarywise, his least favorite authors will clash with his worldview in a manner too disconcerting to accept. 

For the author, the question could be "will this presentation of the universe as I understand it enthrall or disgust a reader?" Or, in Christian fiction, "will the CBA/ God/ secular worldview" be OK with my story? You know. The old "who's my audience" question.

Biases will present themselves on paper. A variety of good beta readers will help illuminate them. One or two reviews will illustrate them immediately, if you can stomach reading reviews. The best advice I can give to an author who wants to consistently sell her writing is "know your audience," write to their biases and don't worry about the rest of the world.

Happy Monday, dear readers. New week, fresh start. Enjoy.

Another Way to Flesh Out a Character

Spent a little time last night with Creating Characters: Heroes of Legend by Paul Jaquays and my old gaming dice (and an extremely pupil-dilated Caleb when those dice hit the desktop). With some help from my former DM, I found a clear downloadable version of this out of print book (at least, I couldn't find a recent copy or an old one for less than $50).

Once upon a time, this book helped create Caissa, Kirk, Galena, Rhami, the Harvarkoset children, Raven and Horus. Every character from Star of Justice I first role-played or used as an NPC for a role-played character.

See, some characters spring to life fully formed in my brain. Some need a little help. Like Merritt's mom and siblings. Didn't know he had siblings, did you? Well, he does, but I couldn't quite get them to step out of the shadows of his past and introduce themselves.

We writers are encouraged to know our characters well (some more than others). We're not supposed to write everything we know into the story, but we should know more than we tell you. I can't always pull "fun facts" out of thin air, and a character generator program doesn't give me the specific, hands-on control that I prefer. They also don't go as deep as I like to go into a character's history.

This book is made of tables. Birth Circumstances. Childhood Occurrences. Skill Sets. Blessings and Curses. All kinds of fun and quirky bits that can spark imagination and make a two-dimensional character way more fun.

TT: Remember Raven's reference to her "third birth?" She wasn't talking conversion, folks, but I won't spoil that story just yet.

Merritt's mam is first on the list and coming along nicely. If I want to be slightly more focused on my WIP, I should roll for Gowan Rudebeck next, but Jezreel MacEwan has been bugging me about her backstory anemia longer, so she gets first turn.

Anyway, should be a clickety-clackety weekend as I role those d20 and 2d10 and whatever else Paul wants me to throw.

Happy Friday, dear readers. May your character creation be fruitful and your 20's excessive.

Smaller Bites Equal Bigger Returns

Tuesday night writing went the way of the dodo, not because of social activities, but regular life getting in the way. A grocery trip, an NAF post and raw chicken to cook so I would have food add up to loss of writing time.

Not wanting to "let a missed meal turn me off eating forever," I got back to work last night.

Why haven't I done this sooner? Oh, right, I'm an idiot.

It is so much easier to focus on Rhami when all of Rhami is right there in front of me. The problems are obvious, instead of the vague sense of "something's off." Yeah, it's off and there's why.

I've thought of details I should add, new struggles for him to overcome, even created a few extra people to round out his life so it isn't as empty as the set of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

I may also be messing up the timeline. Meh, who cares? I created the timeline; maybe it needs some messing up. There's no rule stating everybody's stories need to end at the same time. The point is to maintain tension.

I added almost 500 words again last night. That's 1000 words in two sessions compared to 1000 words for December. This was a good idea.

TT: I also noticed this version of the WIP was 66 pages. That makes Tuesday's math correct, which makes me happy. HA! 

Another good idea is breakfast. Jimmy Dean chicken apple sausage and scrambled eggs are calling. I must answer. Turtle needs food badly.

Happy Thursday, dear readers. Enjoy the rain.

Vulcans

I relate to Vulcans. For the record, though, Scotty was my favorite original Star Trek crew member.

I took a personality test in college. You know, the test where all Christians show up as schizophrenic because they talk to God and He answers? It told me I was judgmental.

Yes, some of you knew that, but it's not what you think.

In this case, judgmental is the opposite of intuitive. It means my information processes rely on observable facts instead of feelings. No, my conclusions are no better than anyone else's. No one action is perfectly representative of any person at any one time; therefore, my initial conclusions are as prone to error as someone else's snap judgment (in normal person talk that's to really know you I have to be around you a lot). I simply mean to say I don't have instincts about people: I have observations. Like a Vulcan.

I do not meet someone and feel they are kind or stupid or boring.

I meet someone and watch until they do something kind or stupid or boring. Then I label them.

I say this to illustrate the concept of show, don't tell.

Readers cannot be intuitive about your characters. They do not have sights, sounds, tone of voice or any of the other non-verbal cues they would normally have to get to know a real person. Readers have only what you the author choose to show them.

You can tell your reader your character is kind or stupid or boring. It's a little boring to do so, for you and the reader, but you can.

It is far more interesting to show the character doing something kind or stupid or boring. This encourages the reader to read on to see if his judgment is correct. If he sees more to confirm his conclusions, he will read on because he feels justified. If he sees new actions that contradict his conclusions, he is intrigued and wants to know more (unless your character is as inconsistent as a politician. That's never fun to read).

Readers are like Vulcans, too. They want to see your characters in action so they can put the right labels on them. When they get it right, they feel good about your story and you.

Here's the point. Don't presume on the kindness of your readers. Don't assume they're stupid. For goodness' sake, don't be boring. Show, don't tell. They'll thank you for it.

Unless they are Vulcans. Gratitude is illogical.

Cheating

Many years ago, I read Stephen King's Misery. I would not recommend this book if you do not want horrific images involving rats forever imprinted on your brain. If you enjoy that sort of thing, by all means, have at it.

My best memory from the book involves the idea of cheating. Allow me to set the scene.

The hero in the book is a writer of romance novels about a character named Misery. He has become famous and wealthy at her expense. Growing weary of her and wanting new vistas to explore, the author kills her at the end of what is to be her last book. Much like Arthur Conan Doyle did to Sherlock Holmes. Misery's many fans are outraged, but he doesn't care.

The hero of the book is then involved in a car accident and wakes to find himself a severely injured prisoner in the home of his biggest, and unfortunately, craziest fan. I believe her name is Annie.

Annie recognized him. She rescued him from the wreckage of his car, hid the car wreck, and took him home to nurse him to health. She also wants him to resurrect Misery.

Realizing the woman is insane, he decides, for the sake of his own life, to humor her. He uses the infamous "it was all a dream" to bring Misery back.

Annie will have none of it. "That's cheating," she explains (or something to that effect. This was years ago for me, remember). So the author has to come up with a realistic way to bring Misery back to life. The story progresses from there.

Cheating in writing is a common concept.

A reader knows she has been cheated when the hero solves a problem too quickly or easily. This results in reader frustration, book destruction, and, if you're lucky, angry emails to the author.

An author knows she has cheated when she did not lay awake at four A.M. wondering how her hero will solve his problem.

I am often awake at four A.M. cleaning up hairballs, so working out plot complications is not that far out of my way. It is the price I pay for writing fiction. And having cats.

Not cheating makes for better stories. It makes the reader love you. It makes the reader trust you as an author.

A worker is worth his wages. Work hard. The wages will come.