Four Tricks to Improve Your Fiction in Ten Minutes

I didn't intend for this to be Mass-Blogging Wednesday, but I'm finding so many great things to share! Victoria Mixon posted this blog two days ago, and I'm so far behind in my blog reading that I just got to it this morning. It's four tricks to improve your fiction in one day, but I think it really should be "Four Tricks to Improving Your Fiction in Ten Minutes" - because that's how long it'll take you to read the blog and figure out how to implement it in your Work-in-Progress. Check it out.

-Sonja

Malicious Mischief (Mischief and Mayhem #1) by Marianne Harden

My friend Marianne Harden has a book coming out on October 22, 2013. Not only am I pitching the book to you today, but I'm also revealing the cover art for this new masterpiece! So without further words from me, here's everything you need to know about Malicious Mischief:

Book Summary:

Career chameleon Rylie Keyes must keep her current job. If not, the tax assessor will evict her ailing grandfather and auction off their ancestral home. When a senior she shuttles for a Bellevue, Washington retirement home winds up dead in her minibus, sticky with a half-eaten s'more, head clad in a cellophane bag, and a pocketed complain letter accusing her of driving by Braille, her goal to keep her job hits a road bump.

The deceased was thought to be a penniless Nazi concentration camp survivor with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, the victim has enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their part in the murder a secret.

Forced to dust off the PI training she's kept hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie must align with a circus-bike-wheeling Samoan to solve the murder, all the while juggling the attentions of two very hot police officers.

 

About Marianne Harden:

Marianne loves a good laugh. So much so, she cannot stop humor from spilling into her books. Over the years she has backpacked through the wilds of Australia, explored the exotics of Asia, soaked up the sun in the Caribbean, and delighted in the historic riches of Europe. Her goals in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the do-not-mess-wiht-me look. She divides her time between Switzerland and Washington State where she lives with her husband and two children.

Find Marianne Harden: 

Website  Twitter  Facebook  Goodreads

Book Links:

Goodreads  Amazon  Barnes&Noble

 

Gift Card Prize:

Marianne is giving away a $25 gift card to the book retailer of the winner's choice, but being the tech-moron that I am, I can't figure out how to include the link for it here. However, some other tech-savvy blogger (Aileen Fish) figured it out just fine, so I'll send you to her link if you want to enter for the prize. You'll also find an except from Malicious Mischief at Aileen's site, so head on over and check it out. I'll use that time to play with my newest blogging tool and figure out how to use it properly for next time.

-Sonja

You're Not Alone

Kristen Lamb posted this brilliant message on her blog yesterday, and it's a must read for any author who has a life outside of writing. Check it out. It'll  inspire you and remind you that you're not the only one out there trying to juggle kids and house and job and laundry and everything else that makes life meaningful. 

-Sonja

Writing Advice

I came across this writing advice and knew I had to share it:

"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

– Mark Twain

Cat Literature

Henri the Angst-Ridden Cat has written a book. While this has nothing to do with profiling, I give it five stars for the brilliant use of the word "ennui." Go on, watch it. You'll be inspired to open your work-in-progress and do something with it.

-Sonja 

Creating a Victim

I'm studying the book The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker about profiling in an effort to create believable antagonists. Today's chapter led me in a slightly different direction. I found a brief section in chapter six about victims that I'd like to share.

 (The "Cross Country Killer" Glen Rogers)

Most of this chapter details real-life crimes, and in the midst of a section about Glen Rogers (a sexual murderer), Douglas mentions briefly why one woman who was connected to Rogers was not victimized by him. The woman in question managed a bar. She knew how to take care of herself, she had contact with lots of people, and she didn't let anyone walk over her. She stood up for herself. Because of these traits, Rogers was unable to dominate her, thus she was not an attractive target to him. He wanted people he could control, who were vulnerable, who had little self-esteem, who were in the midst of a major life trauma. Because he was good at reading people, he could look around a crowded bar and spot those women who met his criteria.

While this is sick and twisted for real life, it paints a fabulous picture for writers. If your victim is assertive, self-assured, and confrontational, that will speak volumes to detectives when profiling her killer. However, if your killer goes after a victim who is quiet, non-confrontational, shy, feels low self-worth, and is going through a nasty divorce, that points to a totally different personality type. Keep both victim and perpetrator in mind when building crimes and crime scenes. Nothing's more unbelievable than mismatching victims and perps.

-Sonja

When People Snap

In my on-going study to create more believable antagonists, I'm studying the book The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The chapter I'm in now deals with people in the workplace who, for no apparent reason, snap and kill their co-workers, bosses, even themselves. It also applies to students who enter their school campus and go on killing rampages. A large portion of this chapter is case studies, but I found a section that's useful for writing purposes.

Douglas says that most people don't snap. It's not a common occurrence. So when it does happen in your novel, it needs to be as realistic as possible. To figure out if the antagonist is going to snap, you can't have your protagonist sit down and interview him. Most people won't open up about personal problems to anyone, not even close friends, so it won't be realistic. Instead, have your protagonist analyze the antagonist's behavior.

"What is this person's normal behavior? Is that what we're seeing? Have there been changes? Is he suddenly becoming obsessively religious after having been unobservant in the past? Was he a social drinker who is now either displaying signs of inebriation or, alternately, criticizing others who are droning and not going to church? Is he complaining about others in a way he never did before? Is he obviously eating more or eating less? Is there a change of pattern?"

You're looking for someone who's life is no longer in balance. If you're creating this character, you'll need to be subtle enough that tons of people don't notice and get scared, but not so subtle that no one notices. Most of the time, motive in these cases is anger and revenge. They are always quick to blame someone else for the tragedy, and are usually organized. They plan their killing sprees, as opposed to one day rising from their chair and grabbing a weapon of opportunity. 

This chapter didn't help me much in my writing, as I'm not planning to have a character snap in any of my books. But some of the information can easily be applied. Behavior watching nets a ton of useful information about a person. I image the normal everyday behavior of a serial killer is vastly different from a soccer-mom housewife. Or maybe it isn't. That's the scary part.

-Sonja

Poison is for Ladies?

Creating believable antagonists is vital for fiction writers. I have an advantage over some writers in that my husband is a crime analyst and criminologist, so I can go to him and ask him to profile my bad guys when I'm first creating them. He comes up with awesome stuff! For those of you who don't have a profiler living in your house, you need outside help. The book The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker is a good start. I'm reading it and sharing some of the most useful information. There's a bunch I'm skipping, so if you find this series of posts useful, you might consider buying the book. It's a wonderful resource for your reference library.

(photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

I'm in chapter four, which deals with product tampering. The author says, "Is poisoning a female crime? Not particularly." That came as a surprise to me. I thought it was. I thought I'd read statistics proving that most poisonings are committed by females. Guess I was wrong. Douglas says this: "The great majority of poisoners are going to be males, just as other types of murderers are. But because of the non confrontational aspect of it, if a woman is going to attempt murder, poison is one of the means that would likely be near the top of her list. And if a man is the perpetrator, then we'd expect him to be a shy or cowardly, emotionally submissive male who would be equally uncomfortable with confrontation. If we were called in on a new poisoning or product tampering case, we'd begin by suspecting a white male, but if the scenario and victimology suggests a particular, rather than a random, target, this is one type of crime which we might easily shift our focus to a woman UNSUB."

Mathematically, that makes sense. Most homicides are committed by males, so the percentages should reflect that. Douglas bring up two case files that contrast sharply. The first one is a woman who killed her husband, her daughter, and her mother with arsenic. Her motive was freedom from a family she found oppressive. She fled the area before she could be arrested and found a new husband under a false identity. When she felt oppressed in that relationship, she faked her own death and took on yet another identity.

The second case was a man who tried to kill his neighbors because they were too noisy and they wouldn't pipe down, even after repeated death threats. He felt contempt for his neighbors and felt intellectually superior to them for "winning the game." True to Douglas' profile, this UNSUB was a non confrontational male with a high IQ and a social misfit.

This is the last post about poisonings. Next is people who snap at work. 

-Sonja

Rule-breaking Rebel Writers

In an attempt to create more believable antagonists for my works, I'm studying the book The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. Douglas is an FBI profiler, so he knows his stuff. I'm in chapter four, dealing with product tampering and poisoners. I found a couple of paragraphs that helped me, so I'll pass them along for you. He's talking about the motives of people who tamper with products in an attempt to kill or extort money.

"The general rule is that organized offenders extort for money and disorganized offenders for all the other reasons." Those other reasons were listed in the previous paragraph: love, sex, vengeance, punishment, recognition, excitement, guilt, satisfaction, hate, and attention. Using this information, you can know if your antagonist is organized or disorganized (I discussed the different profiles for these guys in an earlier post) depending solely on his motive. Then Douglas adds even more great stuff.

"There's an old saying in law enforcement: 'Killers don't call, and callers don't kill.' What this means is that you can tell a lot about motive by the UNSUB's approach. If he calls first, or otherwise declares his intentions, then we start looking for a profit motive. If there isn't a call but people start dying, then we look to revenge and rage as motivation forces. Of course, this is a generality."

Then the book offers a case that defies that general rule. I remember this case, as it happened 60 miles to the north of my home. Susan Snow was killed with cyanide-laced Excedrin. Shortly after that, Stella Nickell called police and said her husband, Bruce, had died recently after taking an Excedrin. His death had been labeled accidental, but she wonders if he was also the victim of product tampering. That phone call lead to her conviction: she'd taken out multiple life insurance policies on Bruce, then killed him. When his death was ruled accidental, she didn't get her payout. She had to kill another person, a complete stranger, then direct the authority's attention back to her husband. She'd have gotten away with the murder of her husband if she hadn't been so greedy. 

The fun thing about these 'rules' is that you can break them in your fiction if it makes logical sense. If it's not believable, you're sunk. That's why studying profiling and motives is so rewarding for me--knowing my bad guys and how law enforcement expects them to act helps in several ways. First, I know if I'm way off base when I create a disorganized killer who calls his victim to warn her that he's coming after her. That wouldn't happen in real life. Disorganized killers are too spur-of-the-moment to make a phone call. Secondly, knowing what law enforcement expects can lead to great twists: having something unexpected happen (if it's believable) really excites readers and makes them come back for more. 

Try profiling your bad guy. Is he organized or disorganized? What's his motive for his evil deeds? What should readers expect from him, and how can you twist that into a surprise?

My next post will discuss poisoning as a female crime. Stay tuned.

-Sonja

What Kind of Guy Tampers with Tylenol?

Chapter four of The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker is called Name Your Poison. It covers cases that may look like product tampering but involve different types of offenders with different motives. Why am I cover this, you ask? To help create more believable antagonists. If your bad guy isn't believable, it doesn't matter how awesome your plot or how lovable your protagonist, the reader won't like the book. Can't have that. Let's get started.

Product tampering is basically a poisoning. The evil queen used it on Snow White's pretty red apple. The Tylenol poisonings in Chicago killed through over-the-counter pain meds. That case also brought about the pamper-proof packaging we all curse when we're desperate for the pills but can't get the bottle opened. This is the case Douglas profiles in the book, and I'll share it with you today so you can use it if you need a poisoner antagonist.

 (These capsules are courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

Poisoning is all about killing from a distance. It's the act of a coward, someone who can't face their victim but feels great anger. Usually a poisoner experiences bouts of severe depression and despair. "He'd feel inadequate, helpless, hopeless, and impotent, but at the same time he'd be convinced that he was always being unfairly maligned by those around him or by society in general. There would be a long list of personal failures throughout his life, and these would include education, employment, social experiences, and relationships with women of his own age and intelligence level." He may have a physical ailment or disability. For an occupation, this poisoner would lean toward positions of authority like security guard, ambulance driver, or firefighter. He may join the military, but he'd probably get booted on discipline charges. He would not be able to pass the test to enter a police academy, but he'd love to be a cop. Whatever he does, he'd have a hard time holding onto whatever job he could find. He's a nocturnal loner who suffered a significant loss right before he started right before he began killing: loss of job, spouse, girlfriend.

This killer will revisit his crimes, maybe even the graves of his victims. He'll follow the story in the newspapers and on-line with great interest. He loves seeing his handiwork, and even more, he loves seeing law enforcement scramble to figure it out. Because he seeks strength and power but doesn't possess them, he'll compensate in other areas. For example, he'll drive a large older model car that resembles a police vehicle. As he's not very organized or efficient, he'd seek targets within his comfort zone.

He'll also be extremely curious about the results of his product tampering. He'll talk to other people in bars, drug store clerks, even police officers, looking for information. His ego has been given a significant boost, and he loves it. He may even keep a scrapbook or a journal. Police should use the media to appeal this guy. By profiling the victims of the crime, it's possible the poisoner will identify with his victims as humans instead of objects and develop a sense of guilt or remorse. If the medial publishes the burial sites of victims, police can surveil those sites as there'd be a good chance the poisoner would show up to apologize to his victim and claim it was all an accident. It's also likely the poisoner would show up at a nighttime vigil for the victims. 

The motive for poisonings/product tampering is usually revenge or extortion. Revenge against the society that treated him poorly, revenge against an employer who fired him, revenge against the mindless civilians who allow these types of atrocities to continue. When it's extortion, the poisoner kills a few people then sends a letter to the manufacturer, or the government, or someone else with deep pockets and demands payment or more people will die.

Douglas wraps up this section of the chapter with a note that no one was ever convicted of the Chicago Tylenol tampering crimes, although they had a strong suspect. They just couldn't prove it was him. That's disheartening if you're a justice junkie like me, but it's good news if you want your antagonist to escape at the end of the book. It's believable because it happens in real life. I'll continue this discussion in my next post.

-Sonja

 

 

Introvert? Extrovert? Does it Matter?

Kristen Lamb's blog about introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts is quite interesting. What does it have to do with writing? Tons! You're creating protagonists and antagonists, major and minor characters, walk-ons… and they all have a personality. I've covered personality types and love language before, but I've never done a post on introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts. If you're asking what an ambivert is, read Kristen Lamb's post. Or keep reading.

I took the little "test" and discovered I'm not as ultra-introverted as I thought. I'm marginally in the classification of ambivert. I think I learned how to do that from my dad. He's a Type-A mega-extrovert. Watching him over the years, I've learned to talk to people and how to behave in a crowd. Also, being a performance nut, I've grown accustomed to singing in front of large groups of people. But I still draw my energy during alone time, and since being with people draws energy from me, I'm firmly entrenched on the introverted side of the scale. I've merely learned how to "look" like an extrovert (when I have the energy to do so--when I'm drained, I'm heading for the nearest shadowy corner). 

Look at the protagonist in your work-in-progress. When he's stressed out, does he head for home and a good book? He's an introvert. Does he head to the noisiest bar he can find? He's an extrovert. Or maybe he's an ambivert: he heads home and turns on a gaming system where he meets up with a few buddies on-line to shoot/maim/kill baddies. A little human interaction is what he craves, but not a ton. 

Now turn the scenario around. When your protagonist is feeling relaxed (which should only happen at the beginning and ending of the book), where does he go for a good time? Out to dinner in a quiet restaurant with his best friend (introvert), out to a conservative bar with his three closest friends (ambivert), or to a boisterous party with 400 of his closest buds (extrovert)? These things matter, so take the time to figure it out. 

Keep in mind that not all introverts are shy. They can be just as talkative and open as extroverts. Introverts are usually better listeners, so they make better cops, salesmen, and attorneys than extroverts. Not all the time, mind you, but as a grouping. Extroverts make awesome entertainers, self-help speakers, and bureaucrats. If you can think of other occupations more suited to one personality type, leave me a comment. I'd love to hear other ideas about this.

-Sonja

How Criminals Use the Media for Gain

I'm back to the book The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker and deep in the chapter on how media fits in with violent offenders. I'll admit, when I got to the section I'm covering today, I couldn't figure out how to use it in my writing to create a believable antagonist. Then it came to me. Let me share.

Douglas shared several real cases of criminals, once convicted and jailed, of using the media to manipulate others. You may recall that most violent offenders are interested in the thrill of having power over someone else. They love to manipulate. Even when they're caught, that love doesn't slip away. So they use the media for whatever they can get out of it: writing articles for magazines about how the "mind" of a murderer works; contacting reporters for TV or magazine interviews; writing letters to the families of the victims. Douglas even cited one example of a murderer offering to disclose the location of his still-missing victims if he could have a cash reward for the information. Some convicted murderers enjoy being interviewed by police and FBI officials--just having someone to talk to about their crimes is satisfying.

(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

What does this have to do with creating a believable antagonist? The key is their desire to manipulate, to seek the limelight, to see their "accomplishments" acknowledged by someone. This trait exists even before they're caught. Your antagonist might not necessarily contact the media, but he'll love to see newspaper articles about him (even if he's not identified by name). He'll love to watch police try to create a profile (thought he might not get to see the process going on inside police headquarters, he'll get to see whatever the media covers regarding the profile). He will most like brag to someone about his crime, or portions of it--it's just too exciting to not share. Granted, not all violent offenders will share what they've done--having a non-sharing antagonist is definitely believable--but many criminals are caught because they simply can't keep their mouths shut. They brag to their girlfriend, their best friend, their greatest enemy (in an effort to appear "tougher")… you could get creative and have your antagonist blabber to a homeless man, thinking no one would believe a homeless guy if he repeats the story. It'd be totally realistic.

So use this love of attention in your antagonist and see how it messes up his fine-tuned plans. Creating a self-centered, manipulative violent offender who loves to see his "handiwork" in the newspaper is definitely believable. Maybe its a sketch artists rendition of an eyewitness. Maybe its a TV report of the crime. Maybe its a detailed profile offered by the police. Whatever it is, your antagonist will love the attention. 

-Sonja