Class of 2K9 ... or Why You Should be Mad at Sarah

I'm a bad person. Michelle reminded me today that this blog post was overdue.  I've already had chocolate, so even the most severe punishment will be survivable ... but it would be also be suitable. You should have heard about these folks before now. 

Please allow me to introduce the Class of 2K9.

The Class of 2K9 consists of 22 middle grade and young adult authors whose debut novels are being released this year. I got a chance to listen to five of them discuss their experience as 2K9 members at the Festival of the Book. They were: 

Ellen Jenson Abbott, author of Watersmeet

Lisa Greenwald, author of My Life in Pink & Green

Edith M. Hemmingway, author of Road to Tater Hill

Ann Haywood Leal, author of Also Known as Harper

Fran Cannon Slayton, author of When the Whistle Blows

They began by reading a brief portion from their debut novels. By the time the last author finished, I was thinking how unusual it was to actually enjoy readings from five different authors. Normally, there's at least one bit that makes you think, "Meh."

(I'm going to digress a moment, but bear with me- it'll make sense in a minute.)

For those of us still trying to finish novels, getting published seems a million miles away. But another panel at the Festival made it very clear that getting published is just the beginning. The publisher publishes your book- but publicity? That's gravy. 

The Class of 2K9 is making their own gravy, so to speak. They pooled resources to create a website, print publicity materials, and hire a publisher. They promote themselves as a whole, and in doing so, have better chances of being invited to various venues. 

What stood out to me most was the comaraderie between these women. You couldn't get one of them to talk about only her book. (Crazy, huh? I'm not even published and my novel is a favorite topic of mine.) Each mentioned other members of the Class. In fact, the entire Class is actively promoting member Albert Borris' Crash Into Me. Albert suffered a stroke several months ago, but that's not kept people from hearing about his book. 

We all know how important it is to have a support group in the writing process. The Class of 2K9 showed me it's possible to have that when published as well. I could go on and on, but I'll not waste your time any longer. 

Go read more about the Class of 2K9 and the women whose stories I enjoyed so much. 

And please don't be mad that you had to wait so long.

Scenes with Many Characters

It's so exciting! I'm writing the final chapters of my book--you know, the ones where all the action happens and everything gets resolved. Practically every character in the book shows up for these scenes and well, I keep writing myself into sticky situations.

I find myself trying to turn each scene into a two-person dialogue and ignore the rest of the characters. They're just standing around the room watching. You'll never miss them, will you?

I think I slip into doing this because two characters, even three, are manageable for me. I'm scared of more people. Maybe this mirrors how I am in social siturations, but let's not get into that.

So, I need help. How do you juggle five, nine, fifteen characters in a scene? They all want to do or say something at the same time, but there's not enough room on the page, or in my brain.

I welcome any and all tips, tricks, advice, or thoughts on how to do it. Or examples of writers or books that do it well. How do you avoid making a tangled mess?

McDonalds and World-building

The one time I was able to travel abroad, I visited Ireland. And I needed the University of Virginia to help pay for it. (Ahhh, a J-term trip.) I was significantly older than many of the students on the trip. Since I'd been of drinking legally for quite a while, getting hammered wasn't at the top of my list.

Nor was visiting McDonald's. Yes, there was a McDonald's in Galway, and yes, some students ate there. But I hadn't come to Ireland to experience the familiar. 

What I remember of Galway is the little pub the locals attended. You had to climb a cramped staircase to reach a second story room. There, musicians would pull their chairs in a circle, settle their pints beneath their chairs, and make music your blood danced to.

There were trees enough in Ireland, but I remember the palm trees on the Claddagh that grew within view of the North Atlantic. I remember an ancient tree that grew beside an even older church. The tree had a holy spring in it, and all sorts of coins and prayers were tacked to its trunk. Tiny baby clothes were fastened there as well. (Travellers believed that leaving a sick infant's belongings at the tree would bring healing to the child.) 

So what does this have to do with writing? We've ruminated on ways to make characters compelling. How can I make my MS's world intriguing?

Bruce Coville quoted another author's observation on the Harry Potter series. He said one of the reasons the series was so popular was that the world was just plain cool- readers always discovered something. Harry didn't just snack, he ate Bertie Bott's Jelly Beans and hoped he didn't get the ones that tasted like vomit.

I have a tendency to just describe the world my characters are in: trees are here, mountains here, house here. First drafts are often mind-numbingly boring because I can look up from the MS and see the exact same things.  I'm learning that making a fictional world interesting means including culture as well. I need:

Unique customs or roles. Lisa's WIP includes magic. Witches have different roles, one of which is healer. No surprise there. But another role is that of secret keeper. Just mentioning that made me feel that I was in a distinct place. Bridget is writing a story about a troop of chimps. I didn't know that only males slept on the ground at night- but they do, and suddenly I'm interested in a little female chimp that's going to spend her nights on the ground. 

Names with history. My WIP takes place in a mountain country, so I've done a lot of research based on Switzerland. Did you know that in one valley, they had different names for three kinds of avalanches? Being that specific gives a word weight- I'm dealing with people who have observed (and avoided) avalanches for generations.

Lore. Someone once pointed out to me that America's mythology includes stories of the immigrant who becomes rich and/or powerful. We don't recognize it because we're in the middle of it, but it's true. Every country has its stories that show people their place in the world and point them towards worthy goals. So, what stories did your characters read/hear growing up?

Regions have their own stories. (Back to Switzerland research again.) Did you know there's an entire portion of (not just Swiss) folklore devoted to people who trick the Devil into building or preserving a bridge? You wouldn't get such stories on flatlands, but you'd expect them in the mountains.

What I remembered most in Ireland was the unique. I remember the pub, not the fast food joint. I saw plenty of trees, but I remember the palms. And I still wonder about the infants whose clothing was left on the tree at the holy spring. 

In the same way, I want to make my story's world unique. I don't want prop trees and mountains and houses because my characters have to be somewhere. I want to take the time to develop a real world, and I want to limit narration that describes ... McDonald's- those things my readers have already encountered. 

If I succeed with that, I think readers will want to linger in the world I've made. Any other ideas about making a world compelling? 

The Voices in My Head

I should have known not to stay up so late revising my submission for this Tuesday's Slushbuster meeting. 

I slept restlessly after 5am- lots of scattered images that were somewhere between dreams and thinking about the day. Anyway, I rolled over at some point and realized that I was listening to two of my novel's characters talking to each other. Pretty cool- sort of like that moment when you dream in another language. Then I muzzily wondered if I should wake up and write the conversation down. 

I thought about it, then realized the conversation was pretty mundane- the equivalent of discussing the shopping list. So I went back to sort-of sleep. But really ... writing and editing before I actually wake up?

It's been that kind of day. 

Compelling Characters

Thanks to the recent flurry of blog postings, I've been thinking a lot about character--the ones I'm writing and the ones I have most adored to read.

Piggybacking on Sarah's post on quiet characters (March 10th), here are a few of my thoughts on what makes characters compelling, quiet or not.

1. They fail and keep trying. We don't want to read about people who get everything right the first time, nor do we like characters who give up too easily. Success in the end is so much more rewarding if we've been with the character through failure after failure. And that's how they learn and grow. Hence, a satisfying character arc.

(Sounds simple, eh? But right now I'm having a hard time allowing my mc to fail. I just don't want to write those scenes, or I rush through them so quickly they become eyeblink failures. I haven't figured out why yet, but I'm working on it.)

2. They have unique reactions to situations. I love it when a character surprises me, when they do something I wouldn't have thought to do. It makes me want to keep reading to find out why. On this, the author must deliver. It's not enough to tell me, "she lashed out because she felt trapped." Show me the buildup, so I feel it physically with the character. Then, when she slaps her own mother, I'm surprised, but I understand what drove Miss Mabel Clark to do such a thing.

3. The strange things that happen when I compare them to myself. When I read a character and find nuggets of myself there, especially those things I'm not proud of (or too proud of) or quirks that I try to keep hidden--that I find compelling, particularly when it's something I didn't even realize about myself until the author worded it so beautifully.

Or, there's the flip side. When a character is so utterly different from myself, their mind working in a completely different way, I want to keep reading to find out what this fascinating creature will do next. Of course, there's lots of in-between, but I'm always looking for myself in characters, and the compelling part is either finding it or so totally not finding it.

Which brings me to the thing I need most from a character in order to like them:

4. I need to understand them. Or at least feel that I'm beginning to. This is what the author must do--make me understand. Because the moment I start understanding a character, I feel connected, and it is this connection that makes me keep reading. (I will keep reading for other things--intriguing ideas, a dynamite plot--but it's not the same as caring about a person.)

Even if the character does horrible things, I can roll with it as long as I understand why (and it's a plausible reason). Even if they're completely wrong, I'll likely stick with them as long as they have some fervor to their belief. In Les Miserables your sympathies are with Jean Valjean, the escaped convict who didn't do anything all that bad. But you can also completely understand Javert, the by-the-book police officer chasing the "dangerous" convict. And it's because Hugo made me understand Javert.

I'm sure I have more criteria for likable characters, but I'll stop for now. And of course, we're all different. I have hated some characters that other people seem to love. (I couldn't stand that mamby-pamby Kite Runner mc and would have stopped reading if it weren't for the story.)

But really, I'll stop now.

The trouble with IDEAS

I'm feeling peevish. I have a cold (again) and as I was running down the comments section of Nathan Bransford's blog, I saw an anonymous comment that didn't improve my mood.*

Nathan mentioned Janet Reid's Query Shark and a new query critiquing blog. Anonymous commented that such sites were a great way for people to get free book ideas by modifying, or even stealing, concepts they saw in a query. 

There are many different kinds of ideas. 

Eating chocolate is a good 'idea'. 

Finally realizing how to write that crucial scene in your MS is an 'Idea'. 

But it seems A is thinking of an IDEA, that IDEA = story.

That's what peeves me. Stories are not just IDEAs or Ideas or ideas. (I've typed 'idea' so many times the spelling is looking all wonky.  But I digress.) Yes, a story begins with an idea (any variety), and a good one, too. 

But a story happens when some shmuck actually gives that IDEA a world to live in, gives that world texture and sound and smell. The author then fills that world with characters whose lives extend beyond the timeline of the story. The author uses her own self- her soul, her heart- to give that story a voice and cadence that communicates the world she created. 

And then she starts editing. She listens to critiques from people who clearly don't understand what she's trying to do. After she eats a bit of chocolate, she realizes they have a point. So she revises her story again, and again, and again. 

We haven't even gotten to the part about finding an agent or editor.

Notice how I stopped writing about IDEA a few paragraphs back? Because IDEAs have little to do with actually writing a story. Two folks could have the same idea (even IDEA) and come up with two different stories because their worlds are different, their voices are different, and their craftsmanship is different.

So please, don't tell you me you're a writer that hasn't actually written anything- but that's okay because you have an IDEA. Please don't worry about someone stealing your IDEA. 

Worry ... think ... sweat ... about writing. That's your story.

*Dear Anonymous, if, for some reason, you wander over to this humble blog, please know that I'm merely using your comment as the stepping stone to a rant about a larger frustration. You may be a decent person and a stupendous writer, and I freely acknowledge that this rant may not reflect you in any way. I sure hope it doesn't... 

More on Character

One question that comes to mind with all this talk about character is: Are the standards for mc likability different in children's fiction or when the mc is a child?

Even with a child we probably won't tolerate whininess or undue stupidity. But as far as character arc goes, aren't most stories about children coming of age stories in some sense or another? The character growth often seems pretty clear, or clearer than with adult characters. Children can't help growing from new experiences. It's what they're built to do.

Adults seem to have to be dragged into it kicking and screaming. And that's the set-up for the reluctant hero. (I'm a sucker for a good reluctant hero.)

Really, my question is: Do we want anything different from our child mc's than our adult mc's?

In some ways I feel our child mc's have a harder time than adult ones. They have to act like children in order to be believable, but they also have to delve into adult problems, concepts and philosophies in order to be interesting to an adult audience (which we also want from our children's literature).

And one more question: Who are your favorite child characters?

I'll start. I love Scout. And as a kid, I especially loved Kate from the Good Master.