Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays With Story
July 23, 2013

Writer’s quotation . . .
“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tuesday at Barnes & Noble . . . (thank you, Carol)
Tuesday night at the bookstore it was all about Girl Power! And we had plenty to talk about.

Report from Camp: Katelin Cummins is approaching 30,000 words in the NaNoWriMo Boot Camp! Says she’s having fun but has waaaaaaaaaaaay too much information for a single novel. This is definitely an ongoing series. Still, the work has been very exciting, and she hopes to share some of it with us soon.

Rebecca Rettenmund debuted the first scene of Hale Tales. Carol loved the canaries, but also thinks we should get Phyllis’s last name (Hale) right away. Good catch phrase for Ma (“Oh for Heavens sake”) but keep it to only once or twice in the scene. Holly wanted more atmosphere. Terry really enjoyed the voice, but also wondered if the name of the town should come up sooner. Jen pointed out some passive sentences to fix, which would tighten up the scene. She also said to be aware of how people spoke in that era, which prompted a fun discussion on phrases and terms that are uniquely Wisconsin.

Terry Hoffman began the daunting task of condensing The Great Tome into a synopsis. Rebecca thought it got a little bogged down in the middle, too much “she did this” and “she did that.” Katelin wondered if the section with Ace was needed? We did suggest yes, but also said the Tome itself needs to be more prominent. Holly felt the term “swat team” was too matter-of-fact and wanted more of the resulting fear and emotion. Jen said the ending seemed to trail off – that the last line of the second-to-last paragraph is actually a great way to end it. Rebecca found the description of the climactic scene on the boat to be the most engaging.

Carol Hornung read a short (for once) scene from Ghost of Heffron College. Mostly had logistics issues – why did Kyle assume the threatening text was from someone off campus? Wouldn’t he wonder more about people around him? Would he really need to go to five different ATMs, or could he use different debit cards all at once at a single ATM? The original text, too, in the previous scene was kind of vague about what it wanted – be more clear about the money and the fact that Kyle has some. There’s also a lot of third person narration which could be shifted to first person internal monologue and that would liven up the scene a bit.

Erin Syth brought in a couple of playful kid’s poems. “Pool Pirate 1856” was a lot of fun, though Rebecca questioned whether some of the words were too difficult for kids. There was some confusion about the optional parrot – was he the one being mischievous? Maybe reword the line about the accessory. Loved the images, especially the cat being held for five dollars ransom and being forced to walk the plank…. “The Tidal Wave of Doom” was something we could all relate to as kids – who hasn’t created a “sudsy tsunami” in the bathtub before? We also appreciated the effort put into the poem to make the lines rhyme. Sometimes that seems like a lost art these days.

Who’s up next . . .
Jerry is now posting the list of who’s up next on the TWS Yahoo site on specific meeting date sub-files.

July 30: FIFTH TUESDAY!
7pm Panera store, University Ave., 3416 University Ave Madison, WI 53705. Check recent newsletters on TWS site for list of fortune cookie fortunes. Select a fortune from the list, then write a story, poem, essay, or film scene in which you use the fortune in some way. Maximum length: 250 words. Email to Jerry by 7/26/13.

August 6: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Rebecca Rettenmund (chapter, The Cheese Logue), Andy Pfeiffer (novella/part 1 rewrite, Pilleum), Ruth Imhoff (chapter, Motto of the Hound), Pat Edwards (poems), and Amber Boudreau (chapter 17, Noble).

August 13: Ray Woodruff, “Fringe Benefits” (was originally scheduled for 7/23); Erin Syth (essay); Terry Hoffman (synopsis rewrite); Rebecca Rettenmund, Hales Tales; and Carol Hornung, Ghost of Heffron College.

August 20: Lisa McDougal (chapter, Tebow Family Secret), Bob Kralapp (???), Millie Mader (chapter 46/part 2, Life on Hold), Judith McNeil (chapter 3, My Mother, Savior of Men), Amber Boudreau (chapter 18, Noble), and Alicia Connolly Lohr (novella, scene, Lincoln’s Other War).
From our members . . .

TED talks
If you don’t already know about TED (Technology Entertainment and Design), I recommend you go to the website or subscribe to their podcast.
It is the most delicious soup of ideas, science, art, and humanity!

Take three minutes and listen to this young poet recite “High School Training Ground.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_london_high_school_training_ground.html
After this one, search around and get inspired
— Pat Edwards

About Writing . . .

(Other Side of the Story blog)
Guest Author Jordan McCollum: 5 Steps to Better Character Arcs
By Jordan McCollum

Full article and links: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2013/07/guest-author-jordan-mccollum-5-steps-to.html
Character arcs, or internal character journeys, are integral in fiction. While it might not be strictly necessary in building a book that works, an effective internal journey helps to create fiction that resonates with readers long after the events of the plot are forgotten.

Of course, anything that powerful can be very tricky to execute. These five steps to better character arcs outline the easiest, most basic things you can do to start showing your characters’ growth.

1. Show the broken beginning.
Every character, and every character, has to start somewhere. We know that in the ordinary world, something is missing from the protagonist’s life. That doesn’t just mean a love interest or a murderer that needs to be brought to justice—there’s something deeper, on an emotional level, that the character needs.

But you cannot just tell us “HERO HAS THIS PROBLEM.” You cannot just have other characters tell us “HERO HAS THIS PROBLEM.” We need to see the problem in action to understand the full effect on the character and his/her life. If our hero is looking for stability (slash AFRAID), we need to see that fear dominating his life. Maybe he decides not to do something he really wanted to do because of his fears.

This should be negative—either the character sees it hurting him or we see it as a negative attitude or both—because the character really does need to change (though he won’t until external events force him to).

2. Tailor the antagonist.
For an effective character arc, we need to see the antagonist working against the character’s internal journey as well as the external journey (the plot). Just like the broken beginning might not be a conscious problem for the protagonist—they do, after all, cope with whatever their fears or problems are, and they have for a while—the antagonist’s internal attack might be under the surface.

My favorite way to do this is to align the antagonist with this fear, this mistaken belief, this problem. If the heroine’s weakness is a lack of trust, perhaps the perfect antagonist for her has that same weakness, an inability to trust. In some way, that should be his downfall. Maybe he can’t delegate some task to his minions, he has to do it all himself, but he just physically can’t.

3. Make REAL choices.
The character will grow as s/he makes choices throughout the story, choosing how to act and react to the external plot events. Alicia Rasley, RITA-award winning author, points out that if the character’s choices are too easy, they can’t force the necessary growth: “If the choice presented is too stacked in one direction, then it’s not a choice.”

A stacked choice is one that any decent human would make. It’s not easy to run into a burning building to save a child, but I hope any decent human would at least want to help. Unless your character is journeying from . . . ahem indecency to decency, we need to see the protagonist making choices that are hard for him.

A real choice in our journey of learning to trust others might be as simple as asking for help. A friend offers, but the heroine can’t accept help, or is too afraid to share her problems. The good of the world isn’t resting on the choice, only the good of the character.

Finally in this area, sometimes the character is going to get it wrong. They’ve spent significant time—maybe their whole lives—not trusting, living in fear, or whatever your journey may be. It’s worked for them. It’s been an effective solution to their problems until now. So it’s natural for them to try to continue to do that. It’s hard to change. Don’t make it too easy for your character—give us a reason to root for them!

4. Use the new strength at the climax.
At the climax, our protagonist and our antagonist reach their final showdown. It’s here that we—and the protagonist—see the real cost of fear/belief/problem. When the antagonist can’t let go, can’t grow, that becomes their weakness.

In our example above, the antagonist has trust issues. So he refuses to let anyone help him, since they won’t do it right. He has to do everything himself. But who can manage everything? Who can control everything?

Because of the events of the story, the protagonist has learned and grown. Now s/he is strong enough to defeat the antagonist. Maybe our heroine has learned to trust someone else, and as a team they’re able to overwhelm our overstretched antagonist.

At the climax, the character uses and finally proves the lesson they’ve been learning throughout the story to defeat not only the external antagonist, but their own internal doubts.

5. Show the changed man.
The climax of the story might be the proof for the protagonist that this lesson has been worth it, but we readers often need just a little more help. After the climax, we must show the results of the characters’ final choice, to confirm that change is real and permanent, not just an instant convenience to beat the bad guy at a critical moment.

So in the final moments of the story, look for some little gesture your protagonist can make to show that she’s really learned her lesson. Maybe she has the chance to go off on her own to do something she normally would have done alone, but she looks back at her team and nods for them to join her. Show that change has really taken root, and leave your readers happy. . .

Self-publishing FAQ
By Tracy Garvis Graves
http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/2012/10/self-publishing-faq.html

As of November 2011, Tracy Garvis Graves’ self-published novella, Uncharted, sold 360,000 copies —
and that was as of June last year. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304870304577490510259012828.html). She has some interesting insights about self-publishing success which she detailed on her blog. http://www.traceygarvisgraves.com/2012/10/self-publishing-faq.html She strongly encourages hiring a good professional editor and offers her experience on how she found one. She had one for “developmental editing,” another for copy editing and a third for e-book formatting. Tracey advises registering your copyright and obtaining an ISBN and taking much care in creation of a cover. Part of her marketing approach was to self-publish in multiple places: “I uploaded directly to Amazon (via Kindle Direct Publishing for the e-book and CreateSpace for my paperback), Barnes & Noble (via PubIt!), and Smashwords. On the Island [an earlier book] was formatted according to the Smashwords guidelines and was accepted into the premium catalog. This meant that the e-book was also distributed to Sony, Apple, Kobo, and Diesel.” Check out the recent mediabistro interview with Tracy Garvis Graves at http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/

Conflict Makes The Story
by Cheryl St. John
http://socialpolitan.org/fiction-writing-craft/m/articles/view/Conflict-Makes-The-Story

. . . In order to understand conflict and how to develop it, we must first understand what conflict is, what conflict is not, and what conflict can be. The elements that make up a story are so closely meshed that at times it becomes difficult to dissect and make a firm delineation between them. Characterization, plotting, and conflict are all intricately entwined in a masterfully developed story.
Conflict is not delay. Anything that helps or hinders your character’s effort to get what he wants should go into your story. Anything that doesn’t, shouldn’t. We do use incidents now and then to show frustration or characterize or flesh out the story and make it seem real, but even though these incidents are useful, they don’t complicate the situation or make it worse, therefore they are not conflict.
Examples of incidents: the protagonist can’t find someone or something; he falls in a mud puddle; he misses a bus; he arrives at an important event late.
Conflict is not anger or bickering or foot stomping. This is probably one of the most widely misunderstood elements. Getting mad and yelling at another character without reasonable believable motivation only makes that character childish or just plain mean. This behavior is acceptable for antagonists, because it characterizes them, but your protagonists should have more depth. There are always exceptions to the rule, for example The African Queen and High Road to China, are movie plots in which the characters argue relentlessly, but for these particular characters and situations, it works. The key is to make your characters’ personalities work for your story.
Conflict is not the characters fighting with each other. It’s them fighting with themselves. Misunderstandings are fine and many of the novels we read start out that way, but misunderstandings between adults are easily discussed and cleared up. There must be conflict beyond the initial misunderstanding or that misunderstanding must be the catalyst for something more significant. Often, when a person is angry, he’s angry with himself or with an unresolved situation. Dig deeper.
Conflict can be relative. The character’s motivation and reactions are what bring the conflict to life. What constitutes conflict for one person may be taken in stride or perhaps even be an ideal situation for the next person. If you were a writer with a bad knee, and you required surgery and had to stay off your leg for a couple of months, of course you would be inconvenienced. Someone would have to shop for your groceries and walk the dog, but on the up side, you’d get in a lot of writing time.
If you were a mailman, requiring the same surgery, then the time off your feet presents an entirely different dilemma because your livelihood is at stake.
The reader must know why this situation is important and why he should care.
Conflict must be an intolerable state of affairs; It must be problems or situations that your characters cannot ignore or explain away. From the very beginning, start off by pairing or grouping characters in sharp contrast to one another; develop well-motivated characters that by their very nature will feed the conflict and drive the story forward toward the resolution. Give them many sides and varying traits, good as well as bad. Interesting people have layers of values, convictions and faults.
Make it important that your character do something to remedy his situation.
Create the characters with built-in conflict. Build it in as you personify them and give them diversity. Use their past, their needs and their fears. Use their strengths and their weaknesses against them.
Their backstory, combined with characterization, will be motivation for everything they do. It will shape their goals and define the way they react to situations. Weak superficial motivations lead to weak superficial conflict, resulting in weak superficial characters.
Conflict is what reveals your character’s emotions, and it’s the emotion through which your reader identifies. If the conflict isn’t emotional for the character, it won’t be emotional for the reader. If you want the reader to care about these people, and you do, engage his feelings.
Conflict can be simple or complex. A simple conflict can be every bit as powerful as a complicated one; how the characters react and resolve it makes all the difference. A simple conflict relies more on internal conflict and characterization.
. . .
Conflict is not a plot device. It’s your character. Document what makes this person who he is today.
Conflict is divided into two separate, but linked categories: Internal and external.
Many writers get confused over these two types of conflict, but neither must be complicated. Both internal and external conflict need to be in opposition to the character’s internal and external goals. Let’s look at these goals first, since you can’t have conflict unless there’s something to oppose.
If you’ve studied Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer, or if you’ve studied writing much at all, you know there are three parts to a scene: 1) Goal, 2) Conflict, 3) Disaster.

Food for Thought . . .
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.” ― Franz Kafka