Rise of the Just

Where do you turn for help?

Alex guards the border against Donal and the Lorcan hordes with his found family, a handful of wolves, and a few human allies. But danger lurks in the shadows. Religious zealots and a pair of unscrupulous doctors harass Alex's flank.

He's hemmed in, yet he can't secure two fronts alone. Nor can he ask for human assistance. The one time he did, someone close paid the ultimate price. Alex won't risk that again. He must protect himself and his loved ones on his own or die trying.

Rise of the Just is available now to purchase in e-book or paperback on amazon.com OR FREE from Kindle Unlimited. Books 1-3 are on sale. Don't miss out before the sale ends.

Amen, Sister

Deliver What You Promised

Recently, a writer "liked" one of my blog posts. That doesn't happen as often as you'd think, so I clicked on his name to find out more about him. He's got three novels out, self published. I read his bio and LOVED it! The writing was excellent. It had wit, charm, a bit of sarcasm, and it was a joy to read. So I clicked on the link to his books. The first two didn't really appeal to me, but the third book caught my attention. The synopsis of the book was written in the same style as the bio, with wit, sarcasm, and fabulous word-smithing. Excited that I'd found an awesome style, I bought the book (Kindle version).

The dream faded as chapter one sped by. That wonderful style I'd read in the bio and the book description were lacking in the text. The writing was fine--setting, characters, all that stuff was well done. But the wit, the sarcasm, the sense of humor, were conspicuously absent. I made it to chapter five before I gave up. The plot is fine. The characters are fine. But the humor I thought I'd find wasn't to be found. I didn't recover from that disappointment.

It's ultra important to deliver what you promise to your readers. If the back-of-the-book blurb contains humor, there'd better be humor in chapter one. Conversely, if your book description is fast-paced with world-destroying stakes, there shouldn't be page after page of slapstick humor. Or worse, puns. Reader disappointment is a killer.

I'm not going to tell you this author's name because I have high hopes that he'll discover (on his own) that his laid back, humorous bio style should be incorporated into his next book. And I will finish the one I bought. The story questions raised were enough to keep me interested, and I'll probably end up liking the book. It just doesn't have any humor in it.

Would that bug you the way i bugged me? Share your thoughts.

-Sonja

Introducing Microtension

In the September 2014 issue of Writer's Digest, Donald Maass has a short but interesting article on Building Microtension Into Every Scene. The article was a fast read, and full of useful information, but I'm not going to share all of it. I want to pick out a bit at the end and discuss what he says. He offers three ways to deliver microtension to scenes.

1. "Pick a passage of dialogue and increase hostility between the speakers. It can be friendly ribbing, worried questioning, polite disagreement, snide derision, veiled threats, open hostility or any other degree of friction." 

Of the three ideas, I think this one is the easiest. When you have two characters who spend any amount of time together, tensions will automatically mount. Little things like misunderstandings, misaligned goals, or hurt feelings can easily produce juicy dialogue. Instead of internalizing the pain, have one character lash out with words. It doesn't have to be negative, either. Good-natured teasing (or an ill-timed tickle-fest) can escalate into tension, especially if there are unspoken resentments or unknown variables (that lovely sense of mystery must be made clear to the reader for this to work, though). 

2. "Pick a passage of exposition. List all of your POV character's emotions and find emotions that conflict. Grab what creates unease, uncertainty, fresh worry, new questions, a deeper puzzle or an agonizing dilemma. Rewrite the passage."

This one takes more work, as you've got to establish the conflicting emotions first. For example: in one scene, your female character thinks her husband is planning a surprise party for her. She's feeling a bit excited, but let's be truthful, it's too boring to devote an entire scene to it. Now add an emotion that conflicts. Simple: she hates surprises. Now she wants to find out if he's really planning it, who's involved, where it'll be, how they'll surprise her--and the whole time, she doesn't want her husband to know she's found out. (It's still pretty boring, but if you weave all this conflicting emotion into the main thread of the story, the potential for interest will raise.)

3. "Pick a moment when your protagonist is still, simply waiting or doing nothing. List three setting details that only this character would notice. Detail her emotions. Find those that conflict or surprise her. What's this moment's personal meaning?"

This is the hardest one, especially for me, as I'm not that great at detailing setting. However, it can be done. I'm thinking of J.D. Robb's In Death series. The protagonist, Eve Dallas, is a homicide detective. When she walks into a crime scene, she immediately notes the things that others wouldn't necessarily notice: hiding places, forensic evidence, misplaced items (like moved furniture or pictures askew). Her emotions are almost always under control. But once in awhile, the scene is personal to her--she knew the victim, or feels extra compassion for a survivor, or something about the crime reminds her of an emotionally trying time from her past. That's when the viewing of the scene takes on more meaning. The emotional connection to the setting produces tension.

If you've got a boring passage in your WIP and don't know how to fix it, try using one of these three ideas to increase the tension. 

Questions? Comments? Do you have better examples than what I came up with?

-Sonja

True for me

When in doubt, post something humorous. True for you, too?

Plotting a Mystery

Sorry I haven't been around lately. I'm plotting a new mystery. I'm taking a quick break today to share something I found on Pinterest (yes, I wasted some of my plotting time with a visit to Pinterest--since I only spent five minutes there, I'm not feeling guilty at all). The pic said this:

"To uncover the plot of your story, don't ask what should happen, but what should go wrong. To uncover the meaning of your story, don't ask what the theme is, but rather, what is discovered. Characters making choices to resolve tension--that's your plot. If your protagonist has no goal, makes no choices, has no struggle to overcome, you have no plot." -Steven James, from Story Trumps Structure

What I love most about this quote is the part "What should go wrong." I don't know about the rest of you mystery writers, but I plot my story by figuring out the murder first. Who did it? Why did he do it? How did he do it? How does he think he'll get away with it? How much planning did he put into it? Most importantly, how will he be caught and brought to justice?

At some point in here, I'll also figure out everything about the victim: who he is, why he deserved to die (in the mind of the murderer), how to make him sympathetic (so the reader cares about solving his murder), and all the other little things that go into crafting a great victim.

Once I have all that nailed down, I create my protagonist (she's been in the back of my mind all the while, anyway) and figure out: How does she stumble across this murder? Why is it important for her to solve it? How will she solve it? What are the stakes if she doesn't solve it? What's her inner flaw that she must conquer before she can be in a position mentally, physically, or spiritually to solve the crime?

That's where the "what can go wrong" comes into play. If it's too easy for my protagonist to solve the murder, it's a boring story. If it's too hard, the reader will be frustrated. There's a fine line between Believable and Throwable (as in "throw the book across the room and never read another book by this author ever again so-help-me-God"). Granted, my murderer wants to get away with his crime, so he'll probably try to make things go wrong for the protagonist. But she also faces other problems. People lie. Evidence gets misinterpreted or languishes in a crime lab somewhere for horrific amounts of time. Budget cuts limit personnel availability. Family members want some quality time with the protagonist, so she can't devote her entire day to crime solving. Attitudes and expectations get in the way. Feelings get hurt. Drama distracts.

The "what can go wrong" part can be fun to plan, but if I go overboard, the story isn't believable or fun to read. Balance is the key.

Any comments? Questions? Observations? Share your wisdom with the rest of us, please, and use the comments section to do it.

-Sonja

My Story is Boring

I think this is a problem most writer's face. You get to that spot in the story where everything slows down and you're certain it's boring. What to do? I'm facing that problem today. One solution is to raise the stakes. There are at least five different kinds of stakes that I know of, and any one of them can pull the story out of the blahs. Let's look at them.

1) Spiritual. My character's religious beliefs can be thrown into question somehow. Is it okay to steal food if my kids are hungry? Will God really be displeased with me if I tell a lie (we all lie in real life, so characters should lie, too--and not just when it's convenient. A good whopper out of nowhere can really shake things up). Does kissing this guy who's not my husband mean I'm an adulteress? Is it still murder if the thing I killed is a life form from a different galaxy and I'm not even sure it was sentient? Okay, I'm getting silly now, but you can see where I'm going with it.

2) Emotional. Just when my character thinks life might be going fine, introduce an element that causes an extreme emotional response. Her child almost got run over by a car (or DID get run over--that'll shake everything up for the rest of the novel). His co-worker stole his great idea that lead to the co-worker's promotion--and there's no way to prove it. Her sick Grandma just won the lottery, and that money would be ultra useful to get out of a jam--and then the guilt kicks in for getting greedy over Granny's money. Those emotions can be fun to play with, so slather them on thick.

3) Mental. Thoughts, attitudes, understandings, expectations, we all have these things in real life. So does your character. Explore one of them, then twist it up so it's no longer useful. She thought he loved her and would buy her a ring--until she saw the new pick-up truck he bought with his savings. He truly believed he'd get chosen to be on the team, but when the roster was posted, his name wasn't on it. Misunderstandings can be especially useful to shake things up.

4) Community. Family members are the best for mucking things up, but there are also friends, neighbors, and that guy at the park you see every time you go jogging and you don't know his name but you recognize his face and smile at him. And because they are all people, they can shake up a character's carefully ordered world. Maybe your character is planning on going into business with younger sister, but she elopes and moves to Cancun. Or your protagonist is planning to spend that tax refund on a new golf cart, then one of the kids spills a gallon of paint on the hardwood floor in the living room and lets it dry instead of cleaning it up. Of course, all this physical excitement will lead to mental and emotional stresses, which raise the stakes even higher.

5) Global. Your character is cruising along through life, everything's going good, then out of nowhere, Canada declares war and bombs Seattle. Or maybe it's the Koreans. Or the Rusikans from Theta Seti 5. Or a tornado touches down and rips up the neighborhood. Unless your character is the president of the country, there's nothing that can be done about a national or international crisis. 

Now I must go fix my boring story by raising some stakes. Are there any helpful things in here? Any other stakes you can think to raise?

-Sonja

An Interesting Character

I enjoy Pinterest for a bunch of reasons, and one of them is the humor. I find funny sayings, pictures, posters, quotes, you name it. Today I saw this photograph:

It was easier to post the picture than try to explain a sandwich-board sign coated in chalkboard paint... or maybe not. I don't know who took the picture or where it's from, so if anyone knows, fill me in and I'll give due credit to the source. For those who can't read the tiny font, it says, "Congratulations, you made it out of bed. Come in and celebrate."

My first reaction was to smile. That's pretty cute. Then I thought, does this person really exist? We all like to joke about how hard it is to get up in the morning, or how we don't function until we've had our first cup of coffee, but most of us aren't really this extreme. 

This would make an awesome character in a novel!

I see story elements in nearly everything I see, do, and read. Have you ever driven by a remote spot and thought, "What a great place to hide a body!" Have you ever seen a child laughing so hard they quit breathing and thought that scene had to go into a book? Have you seen a T-shirt with a sarcastic saying on it and knew which of your characters would proudly wear it?

Am I all by myself in this? What would you do with this character who must buy a coffee in response to successfully getting out of bed on time?

-Sonja

Writing Prompts

Over on Pinterest, interesting writing prompts pop up once in a while on my feed. One especially interesting one caught my attention, so I followed the link. It's called Reddit Writing Prompts. Go check it out, I'll wait for you.

The one that jumped out at me on Pinterest is this:

> On your eighteenth birthday, you shoot a mystic bow that is said to kill whoever is destined to kill you, three seconds before they do. Eight years later, your arrow strikes your SO's heart, right as s/he says "I do."

A little melodramatic, but intriguing. And heart-breakingly sad. I don't like sad stuff, but this one got me. Wouldn't that make a great short story?

I haven't investigated the site well enough to know if these prompts are supposed to help you come up with a new novel idea, or spark a short story idea, or just get your creative juices flowing. There is a place for you to share the story you made up, contests, and a chat room. Maybe one of you has perused the site more than I have and can enlighten us all? I was thinking they'd be great prompts to get my son writing.

Let me share a few more interesting ones:

> You're a monster hiding under the bed. You're just about to burst out and frighten your victim when the father bursts into the room and starts mercilessly beating his own child.

> You are the first person ever to enter a black hole. When you come out the other side, you are back in the world exactly as you left it, but nobody seems to remember you.

> You'd always thought your house was haunted. One night, you're attacked by an intruder, but something defends you.

> You are the Chief Magical Officer at a retirement home for wizards witH Alzheimer's disease.

That's just a sampling, and I tried to grab different genres. There are TONS to choose from. Maybe someday when you're feeling writer's block or can't come up with a great idea for your next novel, give this site a try and see if that helps.

Comments?

-Sonja

What Is a Log-Line, and Do You Need One?

Kristen Lamb wrote an awesome blog post yesterday called "How to Tell if Your Story is On Target--What is Your Book About in ONE Sentence?" It's awesome. Go read it (I put the link in there), then come back. Or just stick around, because I plan on hitting the high points and adding a few bits of my own.

The meat of Kristen's blog is that every author needs a log-line. Don't know what that is? It's a one-sentence pitch that summarizes your story. It's the one sentence you can tell people when they ask, "What's your book about?" Don't ramble on for 20 minutes giving a play-by-play of the plot. Give the log-line. Go to IMDB (that's a website) and look up your favorite movies. Odds are, there's a one-sentence summary to get you to watch the movie.

Here are some examples:

"The Green Mile is about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of a black man accused of rape and child murder who has the power of faith healing."

"A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child may be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land." (That's Maleficent, and I've heard nothing to great reviews about this movie so far.)

"A reluctant hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home--and the gold within it--from the dragon Smaug."

The log-line tells the core idea of your story in a way that is emotionally intriguing and piques a reader's interest. It can take time to get it right. Kristen suggests trying it out on lots of people, even strangers in the coffee shop. If their eyes glaze over, your log-line isn't ready yet. If they lean forward and ask when that baby will be published, you know you're on track.

Here are the components of a successful log-line (according to Kristen--I didn't come up with this on my own):

1) a protagonist

2) an active verb

3) an active goal

4) an antagonist

5) the stakes

Check it out in action: 

Luke Skywalker (protagonist) joins forces (active verb) with a Jedi knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookie, and two droids to save the universe (active goal) from the Empire's world-destroying battle-station (the stakes), while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia (another goal) from the evil Darth Vader (antagonist.)

Here's another one, from the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past (which I saw last weekend and thought was pretty good):

The X-Men send (active verb) Wolverine (protagonist) to the past in a desperate effort (active goal) to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants (stakes). 

Notice the antagonist isn't mentioned in this log-line, but it's kind of implied in "the event."

Now let me try it on one of my own stories, Cassandra's Curse:

Cassandra Christofides uses her gift of precognition to stop a sniper who intends to kill Cassandra.

I'm fairly happy with this one. The hard part is knowing what stakes to put in there, as the sniper kills a bunch of people in the book, but I thought the most pressing stake in Cassie's mind is her own demise. This comes at the end of the book, though, so don't use your log-line as the blurb (that's the sentence on the front of the book or the paragraph on the back of the book that's supposed to entire readers to buy/read the book).

Now try writing a log-line for your book. If you feel brave, share your results in the comments section. You might get some helpful feedback.

Questions? Comments? Frustrations? Share them all!

-Sonja

Reading Truth #297

Excellent Quote

"I don't have a muse. I have a mortgage."

-Jim Butcher


No commentary necessary.

Research for a New Novel

My good friend Aggeloi asked me to blog about a recent research venture. It began, as it usually does, with an idea. This one happens to be for a children's story. I've never written for children, but that's a topic for another blog. The story needs to be set in a small town, preferably in Washington state so I don't have to stray too far out of my comfort zone. The small town needs to be large enough to have an elementary school nearby but secluded enough to have a large (5 acres or more) old-growth forest nearby. After taking multiple trips to Seattle to research sites for previous novels, I decided that the small town in my newest novel needs to be within easier driving distance: thirty miles max. That'd make life much easier for me.

I've been driving up and down the Hood Canal all my life (family used to live up north), so I have a basic familiarity with all the small towns along Highway 101. I thought of using Lilliwaup, but it's too small. So I went south just a bit and chose Hoodsport. It met all my criteria, as far as I knew. So last Memorial Day, with nothing better already planned, I asked my husband to drive me up to Hoodsport to look around. Normally before field trips of this sort, I'd use Google maps and Google Earth to scout the area to make sure it was close enough to what I wanted. I didn't have time to do that this time. We packed the kids in the van and headed out.

Hoodsport is a wonderful and unique town. The first thing we did was drive down the main drag and find a parking spot somewhere in the middle (it's a really small town). Before we even got out, we checked Google maps and found out that Hoodsport doesn't have a neatly planned grid-like system of streets. It's got one main street (Highway 101) paralleling the canal, and two other main streets that run up into the hills, perpendicular to the highway, for a couple of miles until they join up and run out to Lake Cushman. There are several smaller side streets, most of which dead-end, and no "neighborhoods" of houses parked in a row with front and back yards and alleys and whatnot. That's a big deal for my story, so I made note of it.

(This is the dock at Hoodsport)

We got out of the van and walked down the main drag, stopping in all the stores that were open. Most of them catered to tourists. I found two great history books on the area: one is the story of one of the original settlers to the town of Hoodsport, and the other is an account of the early settlement of Lake Cushman. They were pricey, but I bought them anyway. During our walk, my husband took tons of photos: store fronts, the view of the water, a panorama of the main drag, and all the interesting, unique things you don't find in other small towns. The Hoodsport dock is amazing. The walkway shoots out over the beach and the water (by the time you get to the end, you're 20 feet above the water), then a steep ramp shoots you down to the docks. When the tide is in, that ramp isn't quite as steep, but when we were there, the tide was out and I was too chicken to try walking down that ramp. Anyway, back on shore there was a box for mooring fees. Yep, just a box. So trusting to leave something like that out in the open and unguarded. Hubby took a picture of that. There was also a unique circular concrete table with attacked benches (also circular) that was rustic, charming, and would fit wonderfully into my story. 

(This is the bench)

After that short tour of the "downtown corridor," we got back in the van and headed up the hill on one of the side streets. We saw a few houses tucked back into the woods, then came across the visitor's center. We parked and I headed inside. A friendly elderly man and his dog greeted me. It told him I was writing a story set in Hoodsport and asked for a map of the area. He didn't have a street map of Hoodsport, but he gave me several maps of the entire area. Then he told me a story about how a local place got it's name. If I didn't have hubby and kids waiting in the car for me, I'd have taken a seat and listened to that guy talk all day! Sometime soon I'll have to go back with a picnic lunch and hear more stories, as I'm sure that kind of background would be useful.

When I left the visitor's center, we shot down a little side street, but seeing nothing but trees and a few scattered houses, we went back to the highway and found a realtor's office. She was so friendly! She had this fat book full of street maps that she used for selling properties. When I told her I was writing a story set in Hoodsport, she got excited about helping and started photocopying pages from her book. I ended up with two street maps of Hoodsport and one of Lake Cushman. She told me where to find the elementary school (it was 15 minutes down the road), and wished me well with my book.

We left Hoodsport and drove to the elementary school, just so I could see where it was and what it looked like. Then we drove to the Skokomish Tribal Center. My story features a Skokomish grandmother who tells stories, but I don't know any Skokomish stories, so I was hoping to meet someone at the Tribal Center who could help me. Sadly, it was closed for the holiday. I later sent an email to the center and asked for contract information. So far I haven't heard back, but when I do, I'll drive out there to interview some people and look around a bit more.

When I got home, I took all my maps, books, and ideas to my computer so I wouldn't lose them. That's when I looked at the area using Google Earth. I found a fabulous spot to my my protagonist's house, not too far from an immense stand of timber (I don't know if it's old-growth, but I'm allowed to make stuff up in a story, aren't I?) and within walking distance of the downtown area. For a spur-of-the-moment research trip, I gathered a lot of what I needed to make my story work.

Have you ever visited the town where your story takes place? Did you interview locals to get a feel for the community? Did you take pictures and try to imagine your protagonist (and antagonist) living and struggling there? Lastly, did this summary of my research venture help you in any way? I appreciate your feedback.

-Sonja

Am I a Writer?

This week, I'm a waiter. Or a procrastinator. Or maybe just lazy. 

The Creative Process

When in doubt about what to post, make it something funny. 

Funny but true

Especially for mystery/thriller writers. Not so much for romance writers...

The Joy of Lists

I want to finish my overview Marc McCutcheon's book  Building Believable Characters today, despite the fact that there's still a lot to cover. The entire second half of the book is lists. Lots of lists. I love lists, so this is a great book for me. Here's what you'd find if you bought the book:

Need a Society or Association for your protagonist to belong to, but you can't think of one? McCutcheon has 3.5 pages of them for you to choose from. Does your protagonist need a college degree, but you don't know which one? There's a list of them in the book, along with their appropriate abbreviation. 

(this barista courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

The next list is an Occupations Inventory. Does one of your characters need a job, but you want something uncommon? You'll find it on this list. Along with the standard accountant, bank teller, and waitress, you'll also find gems like these: allergist, antique dealer, bagel maker, B&B owner, cartoonist, diver, grifter, hypnotist, loanshark, midwife, panhandler, radio deejay, septic tank cleaner, and tree surgeon. There are 11 pages to thumb through, so chances are, you'll find the perfect occupation for your character.

Chapter 3 is all about Facial Expressions, Body and Vocal Language. Need to show your character is angry without saying "he's angry?" Look at the list in this book. Need great body language to convey pain? There's a list in this book. Need a facial expression for someone who's in love? You get the point. This chapter is full of stuff that you might not need every day, but when you need a different way of showing someone's facial expression when they're drunk, this book can help. Then there's a list of all the ways to show Smiles and Grins. I'm not kidding. It also covers laughs, movements and gestures.

Chapter 4 is simply called Dress. Need the word for that contraption women wore in the late 1800's that made their butts look massive? That word is in this book. Need to know the name of a short evening dress with a low neckline? This book's got it. I didn't realize there were so many ways to name skirts, pants, shorts, jackets, undergarments, foot gear, head gear, and eye wear, but this book has got a ton of great words related to anything you could put on your body AND the description. It's kind of fun to browse for new words.

Chapter 5 is Dialects and Foreign Speech. If you've got a character from the southern US, there's a short list of useful words and their pronunciations. Need a Brit in your story? There's a list of uniquely British words and what they mean in American English, as well as a handy pronunciation guide. There's also a small sample of words in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian, but there isn't a pronunciation guide to go with those. 

Chapter 6 is a dandy list of Given Names and Surnames from Around the World. There are 25 pages of names to choose from, both last names and first names. I've seen entire books devoted simply to names, so this is pretty slim. It doesn't give the meanings of the names, either. It's just a list for you to mix and match, and it could help if you need a quick something for a secondary character.

The last chapter (7, if you're following along) is a 2-page list of Homes and their descriptions. Need to know the name of a clay and straw brick home common in the American Southwest? It's adobe, and it's on the list. Need to know the slang term for a saltbox? It's a catslide house. Need to know what a saltbox is? Now you know where to find it.

I love having this book in my resource library. I don't need it often, but when I do need it, I find my answers. 

-Sonja

Being lazy, need a laugh

I'm being lazy today, so here's my daily post: something to laugh/agree with.

Self-Doubt and Whining Don't Work

I'm taking a quick break from my series to talk about something many of us struggle with. I'm in the process now, and I'm working on making it go away.

Here's the set-up. I wrote a novel called CASSANDRA'S CURSE. At the time, it was the best novel I'd ever written. It was my favorite of all my works. Then I wrote another novel, and IT took the coveted spot of 'favorite.' It was stronger than the Cassie story, the writing was smoother, the pacing was perfect. I'd learned a bunch of lessons from the Cassie story and used what I'd learned on that next novel. Then, like all awesome writers, I wrote another book after that. Can you guess what comes next? Bah-dum-bum: it was better than the previous. Not by a mile, but slightly better.

Just like my kids, I love all three of those novels. (Okay, I'll admit I love all nine of my finished novels...) I can re-read them and feel the passion I felt when I was in the midst of struggling through them. I still love the characters I created. I remember the lessons I learned from each one, and I take all that knowledge into my new projects.

Here's the problem: I'm working on a sequel to CASSANDRA'S CURSE, and it's Not Going Well. In fact, it stinks. I struggled every day to open the file and add more to it because I was certain something was Horribly Wrong with the story and it'd flop. I whined about it to my husband: "It's not working!" I debated scrapping the whole thing and working on something else. In fact, I started two different projects, then came up with a THIRD that I wanted to work on. I found my sequel shelved to work on other things, which also weren't going as well as could be, and I felt that I accomplished nothing with my time. So I went back to the sequel. I'm only a quarter of the way through with it, and re-reading it verified what I already knew instinctually: there's a fatal problem with the book.

I'm not a quitter, so I had to figure out a way to fix the problem. I looked at my outline again (yes, I'm a fanatical outliner). Nothing seemed to be wrong. The story should work. So I sent the first eight chapters to another writer friend. She, bless her heart, identified the problem immediately. (The problem with the book isn't the main focus of this post, but for those who are curious, I had misidentified the early antagonist as a stalker, when in reality, the antagonist is fear and self-doubt. Now that I'm on track with that, I can start over and take a different direction).

The point of this post is: Self-Doubt and whining didn't fix my problem. Studying what I already had didn't fix the problem. I needed outside eyes. I don't say unbiased, because my critique partner really isn't all that unbiased. We've become friends, and she always has words of encouragement for me even when there's a whopper of a goof she has to point out, like an incorrect antagonist. But she figured out what the flaw was and told me what she thought would fix it.

Authors are generally solitary, but we need each other. (We also need to write every day and meet a word count goal, but I guess that's a topic for another day.) If you don't have a critique partner, you need one, preferably someone slightly ahead of you in the learning curve who's good at finding both the big picture problems and the misplaced commas. Usually spouses and parents don't work, because they love you so much and they're so swelled up with pride that everything you write is golden. A stranger is best, I think, although they don't remain strangers for long. My two longest-running critique parters have become good friends, and I love them to bits.

Am I the only one who's noticed this need for critique partners? What do you readers think? Do you have a good one? Do you have a rotten one and don't know how to shake him/her? Share your thoughts and wisdom with us--we're all still learning.

-Sonja

Hobbies and Sports

Unfortunately, I'm sitting around today wasting time instead of writing. My self-discipline seems to have headed for higher ground, and it only bothers me a little bit. A mental health break to play with Facebook and my iPad seems fitting. But back to business. I'm picking some of the good stuff out of Marc McCutcheon's book  Building Believable Characters to share with you. Today's topic is HOBBIES AND SPORTS. I know it doesn't sound exciting, but stick around.

McCutcheon gives a four-page list of hobbies and sports that your character could be involved in. When I'm creating a character, I don't generally try to figure out how they spend their free time. After all, I'm going to be putting them through a crucible, so when will there be time to relax? But people in real life have things they do to de-stress, unwind, and relax, so fictional characters should, too. But I'm going to skip the standards (reading, jogging, going out with friends) to pick the more unique hobbies and sports listed in the book.

Amateur Archeology is the first one on the list, and immediately I thought of how fun that would be. It'd also be stressful, with all the permits and government agencies and private property problems that go along with it. But it could still be a fun one to put in a book, as it's not been overdone by any of the best-selling authors (that I know of). Or what about Antique Bottle Collecting? It's not just for old ladies. I think it'd be charming to see a young male protagonist searching antique shops for old Coke or perfume bottles. Not manly enough for you? How about Barbershop Quartet Singing? Butterfly Hunting? Ceramics? Now I'm just being silly, but these are fairly unique hobbies.

Geology (or rock collecting) isn't something you see every day in a novel. And we've all seen characters who are authors, but what about Greeting Card Writers? Or Jingle Writers? Or Letters-to-the-Editor writing? Here's one that ticks me off: Magicians. I used to have a friend who could pull a fuzzy red ball out of my hair when I least expected it, and it drove me batty. Why do sleight-of-hand artists think everyone will be impressed with their abilities? That one has great comedic potential. A few others from the list that stuck out to me are Nature Walks, Pottery/Ceramics, Spelunking (cave exploration), Taxidermy, and Whittling.

(Skater photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

As for sports, try to by-pass baseball/basketball/golf and let your character discover the joys of Archery, Billiards, Cricket, Curling, Frisbee, Gymnastics, Lacrosse, or Mountain Biking. Those aren't extreme enough? What about Rock Climbing or Race Car Driving? Sky Diving, Ski Jumping, and Windsurfing are also up for grabs. These extreme sports aren't just for men. Wouldn't it be fun to create a female character who drives in a demolition derby? And aside from Tony Hawk, how many adults do you know who skateboard?

Hobbies/Sports aren't the most important qualities in a character dossier, but don't overlook them because they're minor. Did anything stand out to you as interesting? Can you think of ways to use a hobby as a major plot point? Please share in the comments section.

-Sonja