The LITTLE Things by Jerry Simmons

As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten. Another fellow was alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her alarm clock didn’t go off in time.  One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident. One of them missed his bus.  One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change. One’s car wouldn’t start.  One went back to answer the telephone.  One had a child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have. One couldn’t get a taxi.   The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid. That is why he is alive today.

Now when I am stuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone…All the little things that annoy me. I think to myself, this is exactly where I am supposed to be at this very moment…Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can’t seem to find the car keys, you hit every traffic light, don’t get mad or frustrated; take refuge in the fact that someone is at work watching over you.

May your guardian angel continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose. – Author Unknown

Make Writing Your Only Plan by David Farland

During last week’s episode of “The Voice,” a reality television show where young singers compete for a recording contract, one of the judges, rock star Adam Levine, gave a critique of one singer’s performance. He said something that I thought was interesting. He told the young singer, “I love the fact that you give it your all. You have no backup plan, and that’s important. If you’re going to make it in this cutthroat business, you can’t have a backup plan.” This is something that I noticed long ago. Many people want to become writers, and many of them have a tremendous amount of talent. But almost always, the young writer decides that he needs a backup plan. For example, he might say, “I’ll take a job as a tech writer and plan to write on the side.” Or “I’ll take a job as a computer programmer or work as a dentist.” Eventually, the writer finds himself with a career, and his writing gets shoved back further and further in to the corners, never to escape. Very often, after years of regret, the writer will try to make a go of writing, but she’ll often find that the constraints of family expenses and the time involved just don’t allow for a transition to a writer’s life. The dream may soon be gone forever, becoming nothing more than regret. As a college student, I studied several things in my early years. I was a straight-A student in marketing and business management for a year, but then went to pre-med. Though I’d worked as a butcher when young, I found that I didn’t have the stomach to become a surgeon, and so I began looking seriously at my backup plan—writing. Perhaps I could make writing my primary plan and do something else if it didn’t work out. I quit studying medicine and dove into writing, thinking that if I couldn’t sell my writing, I’d perhaps take a job as an editor. Well, the writing career took off much faster than expected, and my “backup plans” were cast by the wayside. Oh, I do still do some editing and teaching but mainly for fun. A guy has got to get out of the house once in a while. But I keep myself focused on writing, and here’s my backup plan: more writing. By that I mean simply, I’m going to write what I like. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll write some more. I’m finishing the last book of the Runelords series, and then I’ll work on the next book in the Nightingale series. When I’m done with that, I have three other novels that I want to write, and a fourth that I’m hatching. I have faith that one of these projects will take off big. I’ve found that this is the only sane way to work in this business. Write, and then write some more. So if you see your writing as a backup plan, figure out how to make it your career. Give it a little more emphasis. Attack your writing with a little more ferocity. Whatever else you may be doing, whatever other occupation you have, start looking at it as your backup plan. If you’re stocking shelves in a grocery store, see it as a means to an end. Remember that you’re a writer first. You only stock shelves to pay the bills until your writing career takes off. Then make sure that each day, your writing takes precedence. That means that you start the day with your writing, when you’re full of energy and fresh ideas. You don’t try to do it just in those few stolen moments when you really “feel like it.” Start making money with your writing, and then make writing your only plan.

Make Every Word Count by Stephen Wilber

Make every word count - or as Strunk and White famously advised in The Elements of Style, "Omit needless words."

Consider this sentence: "Due to the fact that we ran out of gas, we were two hours late for our meeting."

Can you identify the needless words? (My first version of the previous sentence read, "Can you identify the words that were used needlessly?")

Look again. The sentence contains a phrase that, as reported by E. B. White, made his former college professor William Strunk "quiver with revulsion."

Although your reaction may not be as visceral as Professor Strunk's, I suspect you can identify the non-functioning words. To make every word count, replace the wordy phrase due to the fact that with the word because.

How would you revise the following sentence?

"Due to the fact that our profits remained flat in the third quarter, the board reduced our CEO's salary by $50 million and used those dollars to increase the salary of our 500 account managers by $100,000 each."

  

The phrase the fact that can almost always be replaced with a simple but useful word: because. So too can the phrases based on the fact that, in view of the fact that, and owing to the fact that. Similarly, the phrase in spite of the fact that can be replaced with although or even though.

With these patterns of wordiness in mind, how would you condense these three sentences?

1. "Based on the fact that I love snow, I'm eager for winter to come."

2. "Many people choose to live in Minnesota in spite of the fact that they don't like snow or cold weather."

3. "In view of the fact that it snows every winter in Minnesota, and usually in significant quantities, I'm perplexed by their decision to live here."

Do your revisions look like this?

1. "Because I love snow, I'm eager for winter to come."

2. "Many people choose to live in Minnesota even though they don't like snow or cold weather."

3. "Because it snows every winter in Minnesota, and usually in significant quantities, I'm perplexed by their decision to live here."

By the way, if you were taught it's incorrect to begin a sentence with because, you were misled. Beginning a sentence with because is perfectly acceptable as long as you complete the sentence -- that is, as long as you don't put a period after the dependent because clause and create a sentence fragment.

Five Secrets of Success in a Down Economy

Whether your company is large or small, when you offer a valuable product or service you can succeed. Even in a down economy. You may work with a franchise, or promote skills as a consultant. You may work as an employee of a local firm or promote products that are household names. Whatever your labors, apply the following principles and your business will excel.

1)                 Love Your Job: When you really enjoy what you do, you look forward to the jangle of the alarm clock, each morning. If you feel numb, bored, chronically tired or even depressed when thinking about work, change either your attitude or your profession. OK – maybe love is too strong a word. Maybe enthusiasm or respect fit our professional lives better. But, whatever vocation you invest in, make sure it has long-term appeal.   

2)                 The Customer is King: Whatever you do for a living, the customer is always king. Remember, a client will “chat up” forty people about a bad experience but only twenty when singing your praises. Once, I made the mistake of asking a customer to go to the rear of the line to return her product, instead of shoving in front of 8 people that were already waiting ahead of her. It seemed a reasonable request for courtesy, until I got a letter from the corporate CEO…her father! In an effort to get me fired, he sent a dozen “secret shoppers” into my department to test my customer service skills. This backfired and I hit five stars for customer excellence in record time. It taught me an important lesson. When the customer is treated like gold, gold flows into your pocket.

3)                 Get Your Company Name Out: A “down economy” is a great time to advertise or promote PR. Why? Because no one else is doing it. Your company name is emblazoned across the local business horizon, just as others timidly retract all mention of products and services. This pays off with great dividends, over time. And, don’t kid yourself; it has short-term benefits, too. When you follow-up an article, ad or press release with a phone campaign (either B2B or B2C), the chances of closing a sale double and triple. So, don’t hide in the shadows during a down economy. Leap into the spotlight and benefit by being center stage!

4)                 Take Time to Serve: Serving your community during hard times builds loyalty and generates great word-of-mouth. Pick something you really enjoy, like the local Boys and Girls Club, your regional library or the city shelter for family support. You won’t need to donate money, either. Just go dressed in company T-shirts or wearing in-office nametags. Then, you can rake leaves, repaint walls or collect cans of food, while quietly advertising that your company cares! It’s amazing how many appreciative people you meet when serving. Out-of-the-blue your firm may be nominated for an award or receive unexpected encomiums. Most often these acts of service are their own reward.

5)                 Embrace an Honest Work Ethic: This doesn’t mean working harder. It means working with street-smart old-fashioned ethics. During a down economy it’s especially important to give honor where honor is due. Keep an eye out for those that make creative contributions, work overtime or provide consistent cheerful support. When you recognize those that go the extra mile, team members close ranks. They work even harder to make sure your company succeeds. Taking the blame yourself (when appropriate) and giving praise to others when they excel creates an atmosphere of loyal teamwork that sets you firmly on the yellow brick road. By the way, this is a great time to catch “kudo thieves” and send them packing. Employees that stab their fellows in the back to gain points or ride rough shod over other team members (gossip is an overused tool) are better employed by your competitors. During hard times, you don’t need the chaos they cause.

Applying these five secrets can promote lasting success. You may be surprised by the harmony, even the serendipity, which follows! 

Finding the Courage to Write by Dave Wolverton

I decided to begin writing at the age of 17. I bought a used typewriter and began my first fantasy novel--a story about a young wizard who goes to a magic school.

I was terrified that someone might actually read it, so I hid the manuscript under my mattress. I’ve sometimes imagined my mother’s reaction when, upon changing my sheets, she felt that suspicious pad of paper. “Oh, what kind of a twisted little pervert am I raising?” she might have wondered. Imagine her surprise when she pulled out the wad and found that instead of reading Playboy, I was writing a novel!

(I can hear her muttering under her breath, “What kind of twisted little nerd am I raising?”)

A year later, I moved out of the house--mainly so that I could write without getting caught. One day a friend dropped by and noticed my nicely typed manuscript sitting next to my typewriter. “Oh, you’re writing a book!” he said enthusiastically. “Let me see!” But as he reached for the manuscript, instinct took control, and I did a belly flop on the table in order to hide my labors.

That was many millions of words ago. Yet I see people with similar fears every day. Once a father brought his son to one of my signings, a young man who was secretly writing his own novel. Dad knew, and was trying to get him to come out of the closet.

A good friend of mine wrote five novels before he got the courage to submit one to a publisher. (It was a great book, and it became a bestseller!) A young author I met at a panel was shaking when she sat down. I asked if she was all right, and she said, “I’m afraid that they’ll know that I’m not really an writer.”

This fear of showing your work is common. It’s similar to one of our most fundamental fears--that of speaking in public. Oddly enough, surveys show that more people are afraid of speaking in public than of dying. But if you’re going to live your dream, if you’re going to become a bestseller, you need to show your work to the whole world. You’ll need to develop the guts to show your work to a critique group.

You’ll need to find the courage to send your story to an editor. You’ll need to find the inner resolve to read the reviews of critics, and to stand against the tides of public opinion. You’ll need to brave a book signing on a cold winter’s day when no one will show up. You’ll need to dig deep and find the strength to quit your day job and take the risk of making storytelling your profession. It won’t be comfortable. You might even regret it. But I suspect that you’ll regret it more bitterly if you never try.

So here’s writing tip number one: Begin developing courage today. Stop doing swan dives on your keyboard. If you’re really insecure, show your story to someone who loves you. Maybe you could tell your colleagues at work or at school that you want to be a writer. Tell your parents what you’ve got hidden under your mattress. If you feel safe enough, join a writing group. If you’re beyond that stage, send a manuscript out to an editor--a really scary one. But whatever you resolve to do, do it today!

Your Unique Gift

In an age of rush and bustle, it's easy to assume that our words, either written or spoken, have little value. The opposite is true! Today, we can Facebook, Twitter and Blog our opinions to hundreds, even thousands, of people, through the power of technology. We can also influence those we love, one-on-one.

No one is perfect. But, everyone has perfectly inspiring words and thoughts to share.

Your unique gift, your point of view, is expressed in your words. So, write them, speak them, share them. It is generous and kind to share an uplifting thought or tale with others. It can help them more than you know.

Recently, I went through my journals. During my growing  years, my passion for writing was dismissed by certain relatives. I pursued it in spite of strictures to be more practical, slogging through the slough of criticism instead of rising on wings of praise. Yet, in one journal entry, I was surprised to read that my example of writing had inspired my sister to write books.

What greater gift can we give to one another than our words, thoughts and examples? Share your soul through your words. You, and others in your world, with be better for it.

Put Your Story in Motion by Farland

From David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants

Have you ever read a story that just stalled on you? The character isn’t going anywhere, doing anything, or thinking or saying anything new? Did you notice that you wanted to put the book down? In fact, if you’re like me, you probably did put the book down . . . and you’ll never pick it up again. Humans and animals respond to motion. It’s in our DNA. Anything that moves is either a potential threat, potential food, a potential mate, or a potential ally. That’s why you need to keep your story in motion. When it stalls, it’s as interesting as a dirt clod. So how do you keep your story in motion? Here are a few things that you can do. 1) Keep your characters moving. Simply having characters stride purposefully (not wander aimlessly) across a room will add some motion. Putting them to work, having them racing for their lives—all are good options. 2) Create characters who act. Some people in this world simply react. When faced with an imminent threat, they’ll respond, and that alone is enough for a plot to work. But such people are a bit predictable. It’s much more interesting to have characters who set goals, who struggle to achieve, who think outside the box and act decisively. 3) Create emotional movement. A scene where a character’s feelings change dramatically—for example a scene where a young woman’s anger toward her father is replaced by sadness when she learns of his death—is much more interesting than a scene that is emotionally flat. You can create emotional movement in any direction—from envy to love, from humor to horror, from lust to disgust. 4) Create intellectual movement. Many writers have no intellectual component to their tales at all. It seems that the writer almost has no intellectual life. Yet a scene where a character learns something new, makes a discovery, or even just ponders an important theme will engage your reader intellectually and add some depth to your tale. This works best when you deal with universal themes and problems that strongly affect the reader. These philosophical discussions can be handled either as internal dialog, or you can have people arguing, or otherwise exchanging ideas. 5) Move your characters temporally. Too often writers are so “in the moment” that they forget to use temporal motion to their advantage. For example, imagine that your heroine is getting ready for a date. She decides to wear her “lucky” red dress. Why? Because the last two times that she fell in love, she was able to seduce the men that she wanted while wearing this red dress. If you were writing a romance, looking back in time would offer a great opportunity to deepen your character’s personality. In the same way, if I were writing a fantasy, I might want to take a couple of paragraphs to talk about a sword—discussing where it was forged, the conquests of past owners, it’s alleged powers, and so on, all in an effort to engage those fantasy readers who really like to become immersed in a fantasy world. 6) Put your characters together. Too often, I read scenes where a character is alone, but the opportunity for change, for movement, becomes limited. For example, an old woman sweeping her floor is likely to be fairly boring. But if you throw a serial killer in the basement, the level of interest will skyrocket. Whenever you have two characters together, it gives you a chance to let them argue, or even come to blows. Hence, one assignment that I often ask people to do in my writing workshops is to add an argument to your story. Characters should be like balls in a game of billiards—they should bounce off one another, get sent off in new directions in response to opposing forces. Far too often, I read about characters who should get together and they never do. For example, are you writing about a serial killer, and your detective never meets him before the climax? Boring. It’s much more interesting to get them together early on. The same often happens in epic fantasy, where a young hero face a godlike foe that he never sees. Figure out how to put them together in such a way that your hero comes out alive. 7) Change course. In a story, characters are often forced to respond to others, or to stimulate others. Thus, after your character loses a battle, he may have to regroup with his comrades, reconsider his plans, suffer through a dire funk, or make an excursion in order to ensure success at the next meeting. These “course correction” scenes are the meat of your story. 8) Create suspense by allowing your reader to have some doubt as to a probable outcome. When you’re writing, you as a writer usually know what is going to happen next. Your tone and word choice often act as tells, “foreshadowing” the upcoming actions. One great way to create suspense is to foreshadow a different ending. For example, you have a story about a young man who breaks horses for a living, and on a certain day, a horse finally breaks him—literally. It bucks him off and breaks his neck. How are you going to foreshadow this event? You might be tempted to start off with a gray day, with overcast skies and the taste of rain. You might have rumblings of thunder, and your character might feel “off” of his game. But there’s no surprise in that. So rethink how you’ll approach your scene. 9) Combine the techniques listed above. I remember years ago reading Flannery O’Connor’s masterpiece “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” It’s a story about an old woman who has been kidnapped. She’s taken into the woods by a pair of men who plan to kill her, and she thinks furiously about how she might be able to outrun them, outfight them, outwit them. She argues with them and plays upon her captor’s sympathies. She tells her captor that she knows that he’s “a good man,” for he does show her some kindness, and then he proves her wrong. The story has everything—intellectual movement, temporal motion, emotional movement, characters acting and reacting, while the audience is nicely balanced with suspense. In short, I found it absolutely engrossing as a teen. Certainly, there are a lot of great examples for you to look at, but consider your favorite scenes, and you will often find that all of these elements combine in your favorite scenes. In short, whenever your story suddenly stops—whether you do it purposefully or inadvertently—your reader will stop reading. Your challenge is to keep the story moving!

What is a Writer?

A writer isn’t just anyone that can pick-up a pencil and scratch words on paper. A writer is someone with either the skill or talent to write with purpose and power.

Great writing is done in many ways, with literary language or simple words. There is no yardstick for such greatness, except the response of the heart.

Although artistic writing can be done by anyone (meaning poems, meditations, etc.), a professional writer has a passion for the written word. This passion usually expresses itself through skillful communications that make a point, with pure and powerful language.

Children are often more expressive than adults, having not yet learned to be self-conscious. Whether we grew up playing with mud pies or rockets, each child felt a connection with inborn artistic talent. As adults, we should value these gifts, without assuming that our ability to communicate makes us skillful at all forms of writing.

For example, an office assistant may be great at composing newsletters, yet unskillful at PR writing and press pitching. A CEO may enjoy sketching out articles, yet be ineffective at wording said articles to attract the attention of local or national editors.

A professional writer has paid their dues. They know how to write effectively because they’ve been doing it for a long time and know what works.

In short, although everyone can hone an innate ability to write, becoming a specialist in specific fields of writing is the result of experience and study. So, rejoice in your writerly abilities. But, be wise enough to hire a specialist when it comes to those vital ads, infomercials or proposals that make or break your business!

A Powerful Prologue

A powerful prologue can make or break your book. Although most prologues are considered unnecessary these days, there are some prologues that "hook" the reader with images and emotions. Read the following example and compare it to prologues that others have written. You will find it exceptionally attractive to readers that scan the first few pages prior to purchase.

PROLOGUE
A Silence of Three Parts

IT WAS NIGHT AGAIN. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn’s sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with conversation and laughter, the clatter and clamor one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of night. If there had been music…but no, of course there was no music. In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained.

Inside the Waystone a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar. They drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news. In doing this they added a small, sullen silence to the larger, hollow one. It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint.

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar. It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long dead fire. It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar. And it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight.

The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.

The Waystone was his, just as the third silence was his. This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself. It was deep and wide as autumn’s ending. It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

When you distill human elements into your prologue, personal details that intrigue, you guarantee that readers carry your book from the shelf to the cash register. Determine what appeals most to your audience, then include those elements in your prologue. This will ensure a powerful loyalty and interest in your book for both familiar and unfamiliar readers.

Your Three Minute Miracle

When you're stuck, when your writing sense has run dry, try this three minute miracle to get words flowing again.

For the first minute, close your eyes. Imagine that you're blind. When you can't see, what senses become paramount? Then, open your eyes and write down this experience. How did you think and feel for that sixty seconds?

For the second minute, plug your ears. When you can't hear, what happens to your world? Imagine, being deaf for your entire life. What would your existence be like? Envision it, then write it down.

For your third minute, select one of the remaining senses and imagine your life without it. What if you couldn't taste, feel or smell. What if your spiritual senses did not exist?
What if you had no imagination? If you couldn't write with your hands? Imagine it then put pen to paper and record your experience.

These may seem like nightmarish scenarios, but that does not have to be the case. In your mind, other senses may rise and shine, taking over with powers that make up for the sense that is missing.

The point is to use your imagination to experience life without senses that you take for granted.
Each of your senses is a miracle. Without them, what would you do?

Asking these questions acts as a reset button for your writing sense. Try this three minute miracle. Afterward, you may write with more power than ever before!

 

When Content is Key

Quality content is key to drawing readers into your book or story. Almost half of those that used to read have been distracted by alternate sources of entertainment over the last three decades, reducing the pool of fans that used to follow specific authors. Our remaining readers are much more refined. The depth and breadth of education has honed their sophistication and discernment, when selecting literature.

In fact, it’s never been more vital for a writer to write well.

With this in mind, think about the following advice for building great content. 1) Write a lot. Prolific writers are much more likely to hit it big with their works. More books on the shelf translate directly into more sales at the register. But, there is another benefit. The more you write the better you get at writing. Think of yourself as an Olympic athlete. Practice really does make perfect. 2) Select an editor with a mindset that matches your own. Just because you’re a good writer doesn’t mean you’re a good editor. Even if you edit for a living, it’s wise to hire someone else to edit your work. Why? Because personal literary works are the hardest things to view objectively. So, hire an editor. A good one! 3) Learn about and use social media.  A great book for those of us that are social media challenged is The Digital Handshake. Written in simple, easily understood language, this book will walk you through every marketing scenario that may confront you on the web.

By far, the most important counsel is to write every day. Make sure that each moment possible is utilized for the development of your talent. Only then can you rest assured that your content is the best you have to offer. 

Write What You Are

Sometimes budding writers don’t know what or who to write about. If you’re stymied by a lack of inspiration in the “what or who” categories, take a moment to imagine yourself in the story, both as a character and as someone experiencing the new world you desire to create.

Many authors have fielded questions about which character is their character. The truth is that the writer is every character, from philosopher to villain to magician to hero. When you allow your mind to “become” a character, you can see, think, feel and do (in your imagination) what that character would do.

This is a popular technique with actors. It’s not enough to know your lines and take your mark. You must have a running dialogue in your head while delivering your lines, a dialogue that gives “meatiness” to your character and meaning to their words and choices.

This kind of mental fingerprint makes a character real, to both author and reader. It is easier to develop such knowledge about character if we stop worrying, scribbling and trying to meet deadlines.

Relax, lock yourself in the bathroom, and find a way to connect with your inner self where interruptions are more rare than common. When you do this, the “what and who” information you need will simply flow into your mind, with harmony and fascination.

Then, you can clearly and powerfully write what you are!

Developing a Productive “Mindset” by Farland

For today’s kick, I’m pulling a lot of material from an article that I just got from my son’s college. It summarizes the philosophy of Carol S. Dweck, Ph. D., as expressed in her new book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. So let me paraphrase, pulling some sentences from the article, changing others to suit my audience here:
‘There is a common myth in our society that those who achieve in life do so because of superior talent, intelligence, or other forms of giftedness. Scientific discoveries, technological innovations, and success in business or artistic endeavors can come almost automatically to those who “have it” (whatever “it” is). Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck refers to this way of thinking as a “fixed mindset” and suggests that for many students it is the cause of a great deal of anxiety and failure to learn. ‘For students with a fixed mindset about themselves, any setback is evidence that they don’t have “it,” that they are not cut out for the endeavor in which they are struggling, and this creates discouragement. (For example, if writers think that only “gifted” people succeed in their fields, and they struggle, then they presume that they must not be talented enough and often stop trying.) Since imperfection suggests permanent personal failure, they also hesitate to ask for help or look for new ways to succeed. ‘The other side of the coin is what Dweck refers to as the growth mindset. Artists with this perspective see achievement as a process of growing through persistent effort. They know their early works will be fraught with mistakes and may never be “perfect,” but, like an infant learning to walk, they are willing to learn from their mistakes and move forward. They see their writing as a process of continual improvement rather than an evaluation of their character or personal worth; so they are less distressed by setback or failure. They are also less embarrassed about sharing their mistakes or consulting with others in their efforts to improve.’ I like Dweck’s philosophy. It sums up something that I’ve believed for a long time. Too often as writers, we evaluate our work and fail to see our own talent. An author who has a gift for characterization doesn’t even notice it, but yearns to have a stronger poetic voice. Or perhaps a writer whose prose is naturally clean and evocative wishes for a more elaborate style. Or a novelist with a gift for profound philosophical insights wishes that he could write steamy romantic interludes. Whatever. You get the idea. But developing the ability to write is a process. We gain one skill upon another. Even the greatest among us don’t have all “gifts.” Some of Shakespeare’s work seems so beautiful and profound, it’s ethereal. But he wrote pages and pages of drivel to get to that point. Sometimes, he even manages to sink to the level of dreck. Ben Johnson, the greatest of his contemporaries, found Shakespeare’s writing to be almost incomprehensible to the common man, and felt that he needed to learn to rewrite. Johnson was right. But when Shakespeare hit his stride in a passage, no one was better. Every great painter—Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh—has a few epic works. Yet always the “old masters” have hundreds or thousands of pieces that don’t rise to the highest level, and are thus forgettable. Don’t let your own masterpieces go unwritten. Learn to unlock the writer inside. Consciously work at developing your own unique skill set. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.

Pitfalls in Publishing by David Farland

For more than a year now, I’ve tried to avoid talking about the changing book industry. This is a writing newsletter, not an industry newsletter. Publishing has always been evolving, and you’ll see that if you take a snapshot of the industry from the 1880s or the 1990s and compare it to now. But the changes are pretty far-reaching, and there are some people who don’t seem to realize how dramatic those changes will become.

I’m just going to list some of the things that are happening, with very little editorializing. I’m not going to hit every little thing that has happened, so you may need to fill in the blanks.

The world is changing from paper books to electronic books.

This started with Amazon.com introducing the Kindle, an e-reader whose low price was attractive. However, it can’t be overemphasized that Amazon.com was already the nation’s single largest bookstore. The Kindle found an audience of book-buyers who made perfect customers. The new Kindle allowed readers to instantly download their books, anytime, anyplace, and pay less for them. It let readers shop more efficiently—no more long trips to bookstores.

Amazon’s competitor, Barnes and Noble, accepted Amazon’s challenge and created its own e-reader: the Nook. But a little over 18 months ago, Borders, the second largest book chain, was already in trouble, with a shrinking market share.

Hampered by high debts that it had been carrying for years, Borders was forced into bankruptcy.

Many people thought that other brick-and-mortar bookstores would see a sharp surge in sales as shoppers went elsewhere to buy paper books. After all, Borders had about 30% of the market. Instead, shoppers went electronic. E-book sales rose from about 30% of the total sales to over 50% of book sales about 18 months ago.

Barnes and Noble, the second-largest retailer in the market, re-designed its stores so that they could put more emphasis on selling their Nook, along with games and toys. Thus, they cut their inventory of paper books by about 30%, and this move was a success. Their busiest day in 2010 came on Christmas, when they sold more books than on any other day of the year—when all of their stores were closed! So e-book sales were pushed well beyond the 50% mark.

In January 2011, Amanda Hocking became the first person to become a multimillionaire by selling her own electronic books. Several other authors have begun to follow. Even traditional authors are seeing their sales move from print to digital. Paperback book sales are shrinking dramatically as publishers quit re-printing old titles and let them come out only in digital. In the past six months, my own e-book sales have skyrocketed. I’m currently making much more from electronic sales than I am making on paper sales.

This is true even for new releases. For example, in April one author I know released his hardcover novel, one in a series, to good strong sales—7,000 copies in the first week. But the book sold another 11,500 copies digitally that week, even though the price was at $16.95 per digital book. In other words, most of the readers who had faithfully been collecting the books in hardcover for years simply transitioned to electronic format.

With the opening market for e-books, a lot of authors are going Indie, but are finding that with the stiff competition, it’s hard even for an Indie author to sell well. You can’t just have a good book, they’re discovering, you’ve also got to have great marketing.

So the market is tough. In an effort to get good reviews, I’ve heard that a lot of indie authors are trading reviews—asking strangers to give them raves in exchange for their own raves about the stranger’s book. This kind of incestuous behavior is backfiring. I recently heard one attendee at a book conference say, “I won’t buy indie books anymore, because you just can’t trust the reviews.” Another writer said, “Yeah, but you can’t trust the big names, either. They just write reviews for their friends.” So authors seeking reviews have a quandary. Bestselling authors are busy. It’s hard to get one who is a complete stranger to look at your book for book quotes. Even if you get them, readers have learned to tune out.

Of course, you can hire reviewers at places like Kirkus to write reviews, but those reviews aren’t completely unbiased either.

So getting great reviews isn’t necessarily a good way to attract attention anymore, I’m afraid. We need something else. Even if you do get good reviews, there are people on the internet who like to bash good books and movies in order to gratify their own egos. They’ll dis a book that they haven’t read. Even if people love your work, and are vocal about it, it will backfire.

With paper book sales plummeting, many authors are taking their backlists and selling the titles as e-books. This is good for the author and the fans, but it is hurting the store owners. One author that recently went on a book tour mentioned that at the indie bookstores, he had a couple of store owners complain about authors who sell their backlist, cutting out the bookstore owners. These bookstore owners are taking it as a personal insult, and in some cases may be refusing to support authors who publish e-books. I’d love to find a way to keep them in the loop, and Dean Smith’s idea of selling books as e-books using gift certificates at stores is one great way to do this. We just haven’t found a system to implement this plan.

At the same time, publishers are upset about being cut out of the loop, too. The publishers want to sell authors’ titles as e-books, and several class-action lawsuits have been filed by authors alleging that publishers have been accused of stealing e-book rights, under-reporting sales, or fixing prices on e-books.

The publishers want e-rights so badly, that one best-selling author I know who recently published a nonfiction e-book, found that when he took his next fiction proposal to his publisher, it was soundly rejected. Why? As one person on the acquisitions team said, “If the book is any good, why doesn’t he just publish it himself?” So authors who publish their own backlists may be finding that they face a backlash from publishers.

What does all of this mean? A lot of authors are looking at the markets and trying to decide whether to publish traditionally or as indies. I’m not going to make that assessment for you, but you should know that no matter what route you take, there are potholes and pitfalls.

Tread carefully.

Celebrating the Fourth

 

When celebrating the Fourth of July, we often forget the simple freedoms that liberty offers to writers. Instead of distributing our witticisms via underground newspapers, anyone can write anything and post it on a blog, like this one. Instead of enduring government control over what we write about, we can pen original or inspiring thoughts on a plethora of subjects freely, whenever and however we wish. Critics used to control what was published through ruthless editing. Today, there is so little editing that the hunger for a few cleansing edits, here and there, is almost universally acknowledged.

Here are a few quotes on the writing freedom we now enjoy:

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way."

Ray Bradbury

"Nobody can make us write what we don't want to write."

William Zinsser

"Writing is a form of personal freedom."

 Don Delillo

In short, there are more opportunities for writers to express themselves, today, than ever before in the history of civilized man. Take advantage of this grand freedom.

Write…and be grateful for the privilege!   

Five Common Writing Blunders by Kirsten Lamb

Five Common Writing Blunders by Kirsten Lamb

I generally like blogging about the larger issues, namely structure, because that is the killer. If the story’s plot is fatally flawed there’s little hope of connecting with a reader. If we need a Dungeon Master Guide, a GPS and a team of sherpas to navigate our story’s plot, then finding an agent is the least of our worries. So plot matters, but, to be blunt, there other rookie mistakes that can land us in a slush pile before an agent (or reader) even gets far enough to notice a problem with plot.

So today I am putting on my editor’s hat and going to give you a peek into what agents and editors (and even readers) see in those first 5-25 pages that can make us lose interest.

If Your Novel has More Characters than the Cast of Ben Hur, You Might Need Revision...

Whenever the author takes the time to name a character, that is a subtle clue to the reader that this is a major character and we need to pay attention. Think Hollywood and movies. If the credits roll and there is a named character in the credits, then we can rest assured this character had a speaking part. Many characters in our novels will be what NYTSBA Bob Mayer calls “spear carriers.” Spear carriers do not need names.

I did not know this, years ago, and I felt the need to name the pizza guy, the florist, the baker and the candlestick maker. Do NOT do this. When we name characters, it is telling our readers to care. Sort of like animals. Only name them if you plan on getting attached.

We do not have to know intimate life details about the waitress, the taxi driver or even the funeral director. Unless the character serves a role—protagonist, antagonist, allies, mentor, love interest, minions, etc.—you really don’t need to give them a name. They are props, not people.

And maybe your book has a large cast; that is okay. Don’t feel the need to introduce them all at once. If I have to keep up with 10 names on the first page, it’s confusing, ergo annoying. Readers (and agents) will feel the same way.

If Your Novel Dumps the Reader Right into Major Action, You Might Need Revision...

Oh, there is no newbie blunder I didn’t make.

Anastasia leaned out over the yawning chasm below, and yelled to Drake. She needed her glue-sticks and Bedazzler if she ever was going to diffuse the bomb in time. Blood ran down her face as she reached out for Dakota’s hand. They only had minutes before Xing Xio would be back and then it would all be over for Fifi, Gerturde and Muffin.

Okay, I just smashed two into one. Your first question might be, Who the hell are these people? And likely your second question is Why do I care?

Thing is, you don’t care. You aren’t the writer who knows these characters and is vested. We have discussed before how Normal World plays a vital role in narrative structure. As an editor, if I see the main character sobbing at a funeral or a hospital or hanging over a shark tank by page three, that is a big red flag the writer doesn’t understand narrative structure.

Thing is, maybe you do. But, if we are new and unknown and querying agents, these guys get a lot of submissions. And, if our first five pages shout that we don’t understand narrative structure, our pages are likely to end up in the slush pile.  Also, here is the thing about narrative structure. It is hardwired into our brains. Even three-year-olds "get" narrative structure. Don't believe me? Try to skip part of Where the Wild Things Are and see what happens.

If three act structure is wired into the human brain, why mess with what works? Besides, when we are new, we get less leeway about trying to reinvent narrative structure, and the thing is---and I can't emphasize this enough---three-act structure has worked since Aristotle came up with it. There are better uses of time than us trying to totally remake dramatic structure.

It’s like the wheel. Round. It rolls. The wheel works. Don’t mess with the wheel. Don't mess with narrative structure.

Some other picky no-nos… .

Painful and Alien Movement of Body Parts...

Her eyes flew to the other end of the restaurant.

 His head followed her across the room.

All I have to say is… “Ouch.”

Make sure your character keeps all body parts attached. Her gaze can follow a person and so can her stare, but if her eyes follow? The carpet gets them fuzzy with dust bunnies and then they don’t slide back in her sockets as easily.

Too much Physiology…

Her heart pounded. Her heart hammered. Her pulse beat in her head. Her breath came in choking sobs.

After a page of this? I need a nap. After two pages? I need a drink. We can only take so much heart pounding, thrumming, hammering before we just get worn out.  That and I read a lot of entries where the character has her heart hammering so much, I am waiting for her to slip into cardiac arrest at any moment. Ease up on the physiology. Less is often more.

Again, I will recommend Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi's Emotion Thesaurus. This is an inexpensive tool that will keep you from beating up the same words/descriptions. You can thank me later ;).

Info-Dump...

The beginning of the novel starts the reader off with lengthy history or world-building. The author pores on and on about details of a city or civilization or some alien history all to “set up” the story.

In my experience, this is often the hallmark of a writer who is weak when it comes to characters and even plotting. How can I tell? He begins with his strength---lots of intricate details about a painstakingly crafted world. Although not set in stone, generally, if the author dumps a huge chunk of information at the start of the book, then he is likely to use this tactic throughout.

This type of beginning tells me that author is not yet strong enough to blend information into the narrative in a way that it doesn’t disrupt the story. The narrative then becomes like riding in a car with someone who relies on hitting the brakes to modulate speed. The story likely will just get flowing…and then the writer will stop to give an information dump.

Also, readers read fiction for stories. We read Wikipedia for information. Information does not a plot make. Facts and details are to support the story that will be driven by characters with human wants and needs. 

Sci-fi/fantasy writers are some of the worst offenders. It is easy to fall in love with our world-building and forget we need a plot with players. Keep the priorities straight. In twenty years people won't remember gizmos, they will remember people.

I will do more of these in the future, but the points I mentioned today are very common errors. Many editors and agents will look for these oopses to narrow down the stack of who to read. These are also habits that can frustrate readers should the book make it to publication.

To learn more, visit Kirsten at her website: http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/author/warriorwriters/

10 Reasons to Reject Your Story by David Farland

This past week I finished judging the first quarter of Writers of the Future, and now I’m working on the second quarter. Most of the stories come to us electronically, so much of my day is spent opening files, taking a look at them, and then putting in a review--usually one that says “Rejected.”

I hate that “Reject” button, and I may ask our programmers to give it a title that is a little less offensive, something like, “I’m afraid that this doesn’t meet our needs at the current time.”

Seriously, though, I sometimes wish that I could explain to a young writer why I’m passing on a story. So I’m going to talk about it here.

Here are ten reasons why I reject stories quickly—usually within the first page:

1) The story is unintelligible. Very often I’ll get submissions that just don’t make sense. Often, these seem to be non-English speakers who are way off in both the meaning of words, their context, or in their syntax, but more often it’s just clumsiness. I’ve seen college presidents who couldn’t write. But this lack of care is on a gradient scale, from “I can’t figure out what this is about” to “I don’t want to bother trying to figure this out” to “there are minor problems in this story.” For example, yesterday a promising story called a dungeon the “tombs.” Was it a mistake, or a metaphor? I don’t think it was a metaphor. The author had made too many other errors where the “almost correct” word was used.

2) The story is unbelievable. “Johnny Verve was the smartest kid on earth, and he was only six. He was the strongest one, and the most handsome, too. But the coolest part was when he found out he had magical powers!” At that point, I’m gone, and not just because there were four uses of “was” in three sentences.

3) The author leaves no noun or verb unmodified. Sometimes when an author is struggling to start a story, he trys to infuse too much information into a sentence: “John rubbed his chapped, dry, sand-covered hands together grimly, and gazed thirstily over the harsh, red, crusty deserts of a deserted Mars.” I may put up with one sentence like that in an otherwise well-written story. You put two of those sentences together on the first page, and it really bogs a story down. Unfortunately, if you’re in a modifying mood, you might just start looking for reasons to add unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, and that will kill your pacing. People who do this on the first page of a manuscript will do it throughout. Very often these modifications turn into “purple prose.”

4) Nothing’s happening. This morning I read one where a girl, Marcy, gets out of bed, puts on her clothes (after carefully selecting each item), eats breakfast, and goes to the school bus. It was written well enough, but at the end of a couple of pages I start wondering when the story is going to begin. It really didn’t matter. It hadn’t begun yet, and the author had wasted too much space. I call these the “Never Beginning” stories. Often the inciting incident does occur, but I literally see stories that go on like this for 20 pages, as if the author is merely chronicling a day in the life of their protagonist. It really doesn’t matter if something happens or not. If nothing significant occurs in two pages and I don’t have any reason to go further, I have to reject the story.

5) A major element is left out. An “element” of your story includes your character, setting, conflict, theme, and treatment. Yesterday I read a promising story about a young woman who sings magical crystals out of the ground. The author had good penetration, good voice and inner conflicts. Unfortunately, after five pages I still didn’t know where the story was set. Originally I thought the protagonist was mining in a cave, but then found that she glanced up at the sun. Were there trees in the story, mountains, clouds? I’m not sure. The author never mentioned them. Very often, I think that new authors neglect to put in elements like a setting just because they’re unsure how to weave that information in. But that kind of information needs to be there. Here’s a hint—if you don’t tell me your protagonist’s name in the first two paragraphs, I’ll probably reject the story. Why? Because long experience has taught me that if you make that mistake, you’ll probably leave out other vital information, too.

6) The author is unable to “imply” information. Consider the following sentences. Which one do you think the author should use to convey the intended information?

a) She shook.

b) She shook his hand.

c) She reached out and shook his hand.

d) She reached out her hand and shook his hand.

e) She reached out her hand and shook his hand with her hand that she was reaching out with.

You’d be surprised by what people write. Yesterday I had a woman who “shook,” and it wasn’t obvious that she was shaking someone’s hand until three sentences later. That’s a case where the author thought that his sentence implied more than it did. A few stories later, I got option number five, which was vastly over-written. Here’s a tip: since we typically have to reach out to shake someone’s hand, the words “reached out” in each of the above sentences are already implied, and probably are unnecessary. In the same way, when we stand, we don’t need to add the word “up.” If we sit, we don’t need to add the word “down.” If someone “nods,” we don’t have to add the words “his head.” No one ever nods his knee. Authors who are unaware of how to imply information will almost always overwrite their stories, adding entire scenes that don’t need to be there. Either that, or they’ll leave out a great deal of vital description. Rarely will they do both.

7) There simply isn’t a story. You would be surprised at how many pieces come in that are philosophical diatribes, or letters, or reminiscences. Those are rejected instantly.

8) Oily tales. Some authors think that readers like to be shocked, so they struggle to be as bloody, violent, disgusting, or perverse as possible. One must remember that if you’re submitting to a major contest, the winning stories will be published. Any story that you submit that is not fit to be read by a high school student is, in my opinion, fatally flawed and will be rejected. Profanity may be edited out, but if vile content is what the story is about, then you need to be submitting to someone else.

9) Non-formed stories. A lot of people are submitting flash fiction, a few paragraphs that might be interesting but which usually don’t have much to offer. I can imagine a rare circumstance where a flash fiction piece might win, but when placed beside a long, formed story, flash pieces almost always suffer by comparison because the conflicts in the piece never get properly developed and resolved. The same is true with japes (stories that start as stories and end as jokes).

10) The tale is out of chronological order on the micro-level. Some authors love this construction: “John raced out the door, after brushing his teeth.” So I as the reader am forced to imagine John rushing out the door, then back up and imagine the tooth-bushing scene. If I see two of these in a short story, I’ll forgive them. But if I get two on the first page of a story, I’ll show no mercy. The reason is simple: the author almost always makes a lot of other errors, too, which will show up as unneeded flashbacks and as unnecessary point-of-view shifts.

But what if you’re not the kind of author who makes simple, careless mistakes? What if you’re conscientious, hard-working, and have a decent idea for what it takes to tell a story? I’ll go over some other problems tomorrow—the kinds of things that might not get your story rejected, but won’t let it climb above “Honorable Mention.”

Characters that Work

There are many aspects to building character in fiction novels. Melding our characters with real world attitudes helps readers connect to the person and the plot. But, the most important aspect of building character is the character’s ability to change.

By the end of our story, that character needs to grow into a more mature, experienced individual. Their struggles need to have taught them wisdom, which changes their viewpoints, forever.

Writers are creative problem solvers and often pattern their characters’ vital points on themselves. Once, I sat in an audience listening to a very successful writer talk about his lead character, a personality that appeared in many of his most popular works.

“Of course,” he said, “it helps me want to write to know that my character is a middle aged bald man that…” He went on to describe himself, in detail. Everyone in the room related and laughed. We all plant a part of ourselves into our heroic characters.

A living, breathing character has vivid traits, a dynamic purpose, human qualities that justify or explain their failures, are consistent in what they say or do. Their very existence supports the theme of the story. The character’s point of view adds an intimate touch to the storyline and compels a reader’s attention.

Love your characters. Invest yourself in them. Cry when they cry. Laugh when they laugh. As you do so, your characters, and your stories, will come to life!

To Write Well…

When it comes to writing well, much depends on intuition as well as craft. Writing requires using both sides of the brain, left and right. The left brain is our editor. It condenses, revises, corrects and streamlines our writing. Our right brain creates, invents, discovers and “colors” our writing. It is shy and requires gentle encouragement, which is why we should always access our right brain to create the first draft, before editing with our left brain.

Here are a few more ideas that may help your writing rise to a higher level:

1)                 Write about what you feel: Feeling deeply is a prerequisite to writing well.

2)                 Write in short sentences: Short sentences deliver important ideas with punch, especially when all extraneous words are removed.

3)                 Write with verbs: Verbs bring power to each sentence, infusing our ideas with energy.

4)                 Write as fast as you can: When writing your first draft, write as fast as you can, This accesses your right brain, allowing a wonderful, messy piece of writing to spill onto the page…perfect for a left brain polish.

5)                 Practice, practice, practice: Write at every opportunity. Don’t leave it until the end of the day. Do it all the time and your writing will grow polished and powerful!

Why Writers Succeed...

This week, I ran across Kristen Lamb’s Blog (http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/are-successful-writers-just-lucky/). With deep thanks for her inspiring word’s, the following quotation from her article, Are Successful Writers Just Lucky is listed below:

Anyone crazy enough to write 60-100,000 words doesn’t attempt such an endeavor on a whim. Most of us, at least in the back of our minds, envision being the writer who beats the odds. We want to make it to the top. As we head into National Novel Writing Month, it might be a good idea to look at the real chance we stand at being successful. What are the odds….really?

I didn’t even consider becoming a writer until 1999 after my father passed away suddenly. Funny how death can make us take a hard look at life, right? Anyway, I recall feeling soooo overwhelmed. I mean my odds of even getting published were about as good as winning the lottery. And the odds of becoming a best-selling author? Well, mathematically speaking, I had a slightly greater chance of being mauled by a black bear and polar bear on the same day.

It was all I could do not to give up before I began.

But, after almost 12 years doing this “writer thing,” I have a new perspective. Often it feels like we are the victims of fate, at the mercy of the universe, when actually it is pretty shocking how much of our own destiny we control. The good news is that if we can get in a habit of making good choices, it is staggering how certain habits can tip the odds of success in our favor. I have talked about this before, but it is always helpful to get an attitude check. This job is tough, and there is very little validation along the way. We have to keep our head in the game, or we will give up.

Time to take a REAL look at our odds of success. Just so you know, this is highly unscientific, but I still think it will paint a pretty accurate picture. I will show you a bit of my own journey. It has been statistically demonstrated that only 5% of any population is capable of sustained change. Thus, with that in mind…

When we start out wanting to write, we are up against presumably millions of other people who want the same dream. We very literally have better odds of being elected to Congress than hitting the NY Times best-selling list. But I think that statement is biased and doesn’t take into account the choices we make.

As I just said, in the beginning, we are up against presumably millions of others who desire to write. Yes, millions. It is estimated that over ¾ of Americans say that they would one day like to write a book. That’s a LOT of people. Ah, but how many do? How many decide to look beyond that day job? How many dare to take that next step?

Statistically? 5%

So only 5% of the millions of people who desire to write will ever even take the notion seriously. This brings us to the hundreds of thousands. But of the hundreds of thousands, how many who start writing a book will actually FINISH a book? How many will be able to take their dream seriously enough to lay boundaries for friends and family and hold themselves to a self-imposed deadline?

Statistically? 5%

Okay, well now we are down to the tens of thousands. Looking a bit better. But, finishing a book isn’t all that is required. We have to be able to write a book that is publishable and meets industry standards. When I first started writing, I thought that everyone who attended a writing critique group would be published. I mean they were saying they wanted to be best-selling authors.

But did they? Or, were they more in love with the idea of being a best-selling author than actually doing whatever it took to succeed? I would love to say that I was a doer and not a talker, but I don’t want to get hit by lightning. There were a number of years that I grew very comfortable with being in a writing group as a writer…but not necessarily a professional writer. I was still querying the same book that had been rejected time and time and time again.  I wrote when I felt inspired and didn’t approach my craft like a professional. I was, at best, a hobbyist and, at worst, hopelessly delusional.

I didn’t need craft books *snort* I knew how to write. Geesh! b

I was a member of two writing groups, and had grown very fond of this “writer life.” We hung out at I-Hop and drank lots of coffee. We’d all chat about what we’d do with our millions once we were bigger than Dan Brown. We talked about new ideas for books that never seemed to get written. Or if we ever did sit to write one of these ideas, we would get about 30,000 words in and then hit a wall.

Hmmm…and I thought that idea had so much promise.

Yet, after four years hearing the same talk from the same people shopping the same novels, I had a rude awakening. Maybe I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew. Maybe being a copy writer and technical writer and editor didn’t automatically make me a novel-writing genius. Maybe I needed to take this dream of being a best-selling writer a tad more seriously and not rely on bluster, BS and glitter. Maybe I needed to read craft books and scrape up enough money to go to a conference.

So, of the tens of thousands of writers who write a novel, how many read craft books and get serious enough to attend conferences?

You guys are good….5%...

To read the remainder of this article, go to the blog address listed previously. And, remember, persistence is the key to an author’s success…not talent!

Mice - from David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants

Many new writers struggle with characterization. If you’re trained in the literary mainstream, you’re taught that stories are about characters. In other words, the character is the “focus” of the story. That’s simply not true. Some stories do focus on characters, but many of the best tales don’t.
Orson Scott Card pointed this out eloquently in a book years ago with his “MICE” quotient. He suggested that when we tell tales, we often aren’t interested in the characters in a story at all. If you look at classic science fiction stories, for example, sometimes it is an “Idea” that is being explored rather than a character. What if you had a mirror that showed your reflection—but only from fourteen years ago? That was the idea behind a series of tales about “slow glass.” What if aliens invade the earth, only to discover giant creatures called humans? You may have seen the episode on a sci-fi series, where a child finds a “toy” spaceship and promptly destroys it. Is the child the focus of such a tale? Of course not. And he shouldn’t be.
What if a comet was about to hit the earth and destroy it? What would you do? In such a tale, you really want to focus on a character who is an “every man,” someone that the reader can relate to, not a character who is strange and obtuse.
Another type of story often focuses on the “milieu” of the story, the time and place that tale is set. Certain readers love reading medieval fantasy, for example. It may not matter if your wizard is pretty much just like Gandalf. If you create a milieu that is intriguing, it will draw readers. You’ve seen milieu stories in historical novels, in romances, in gothic horror, Westerns, hard-boiled detective novels, and so on. Some critics will often complain that modern stories often seem more like “travelogues” than real novels, and they’re right. Set a love story in Rio, or Rome, or Moscow, and it’s likely to sell well even if your protagonists ain’t all that riveting.
Of course, there are stories where the character is central to the tale. The movie Forrest Gump really is about the character of Forrest Gump, with his simplistic mindset, his naïve optimism, and his heart-breaking loneliness.
Scott Card created his acronym MICE to help readers remember that not all stories can or should focus on character. In his acronym, he uses “idea” and “event” for two of his acronyms, but I personally don’t see them as being much different. However, there is a type of story that I see as vital that he doesn’t mention, and I’ll call that the “Emotion” story. We buy tales based upon the emotions they trigger—romance, adventure, horror, humor, wonder. Sometimes, the tale is more about arousing that emotion than anything else. Years ago, the novel The Bridges of Madison County was a big hit. I read it to see what the fuss was all about. I don’t recall the names of the protagonists. They weren’t that interesting. I don’t recall the milieu, a single bridge, or even what state Madison County was supposed to be in. The milieu didn’t come to life. But the emotion triggered in the tale, the sense of romance and loss in that story, still lingers.
So you can have stories where the characters are only of minor importance. Or you can have tales where only some things are important. You might have a mICe story, for example—where a man finds himself in the center of a bank as it is being robbed, and because of his unique skills and mindset, he becomes central to what happens. Or you might have a MicE story, one where the milieu and the emotion are woven together inextricably.
The real point here is: Don’t get brainwashed into thinking that every character in your story must be fleshed out. Sometimes the doorman in your tale is just the guy who holds the door. I’ve read a number of books and articles over the years about how to write characterization, and while I’ve found a few gems of advice, the truth is that most of the advice that I’ve gotten was just gravel. So over the next few days, I’m going to give you the gems—without the gravel.