Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

I was on a tight deadline last week, which is now mercifully past. I made it, just barely, but I was working on it until Saturday afternoon before I finally got it done. I don’t love deadlines, but they do make me awfully productive.

Today, I made three purchases, two of which were intended and one of which was not.

Purchase #1: The first purchase was the new Amazon Kindle 2.0. I actually paid for the Kindle awhile back, but it wasn’t available just yet. I got an email from Amazon this morning telling me that my Kindle has shipped. I know there is a lot of debate about whether the Kindle is a good deal or not. I think it will meet my needs, one of which is to allow me to read Word documents away from my computer. I find it uncomfortable to read Word documents on the computer for long periods of time. I’m told by my many Kindle-owning friends that the Kindle is very easy on the eyes and it allows you import Word docs easily. So I bought one. This way when I read manuscripts for endorsement, I can just have them email me the Word doc and I can read it anywhere.

Purchase #2: A few minutes after I got that email, the UPS man knocked at the door with a box containing something I ordered last week. It’s a small monitor stand that holds my iMac up just high enough that I can slide my keyboard under it. I wanted this because I often need to get the keyboard out of the way so I can write something on paper or pull my laptop over. I got this on the Macessity web site. It took minutes to install, and has the added virtue of having a powered USB dock with 4 USB connectors. The monitor stand looks great and is exactly what I wanted.

Purchase #3: The third purchase I made was accidental. A year ago, I signed up to receiving a paper newsletter by a marketing genius named James Brausch. James is the guy behind a number of unique and excellent products, such as MuVar, RaSof, and Glyphius. I have bought all of these and I think they are terrific. So a year ago when James ran a special on his new Testing Newsletter, I signed up for it at a reduced price of $100 per year. The only problem is that I only ever got 2 or 3 issues. For whatever reason, most of the issues never arrived. I’m a busy guy, and I basically forgot about it. Out of sight, out of mind. But it’s an annual $300 subscription. So this morning, I got an email from PayPal to notify me that I had just spent $300 on a renewal of a product that I have not been getting. Dang! I hate when that happens! I got on PayPal and cancelled the subscription. Then I emailed the current owner of the Testing Newsletter (James Brausch has rebranded his business under the name “Diego Norte” and it now is run by employees) asking if they would refund my subscription, given the circumstances. Will the folks at Diego Norte do the right thing here? I expect they will. James always treated me well, and I expect that the systems he’s left in place at Diego Norte will continue to do that. I’ll keep y’all informed.

Tomorrow, I’ll pick up where we left off last–our analysis of the characters in STAR WARS.

In my last blog post, I claimed that there is ONE thing that you must know in order to create good characters. I challenged my loyal blog readers to tell me what that ONE thing is.

Rob nailed it:

Every character is the hero of his/her own story.

Randy sez: Correct! This is absolutely fundamental to getting three-dimensional characters. When somebody tells you your villain is “cardboard,” the problem is almost certainly that you don’t give a dang about that villain because you cooked him up specifically to be the villain in your hero’s story.

The solution is Xtremely simple. Ask your villain what his story is. If you ask, he’ll tell. And if you give him a little time to explain, you may find that he has a point. In fact, it’s only when you realize that he has a point and start believing that he has a point that he’ll become a real character.

Ditto on all the other characters in your story. When you quit thinking of the hero’s sidekick as a sidekick, and start thinking of him as having his own story, that’s when he’ll come alive in your mind. If he’s alive in your mind, then he’ll be alive in your reader’s mind.

It really is that simple.

Let’s illustrate this by looking at Han Solo in STAR WARS. We’ve already worked out the one-sentence summary and one-paragraph summary for the movie, which essentially tell Luke’s story:

“A young farm boy joins a princess in the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire.”

“Luke Skywalker meets two mysterious droids who lead him to an old Jedi master, Obi-wan Kenobi. When Obi-wan asks him to help rescue Princess Leia, Luke refuses — until he finds his aunt and uncle murdered by Storm Troopers. Luke and Obi-wan join forces with Han Solo and Chewbacca to rescue the princess — at the cost of the old man’s life. Luke and his friends escape and journey to the rebel planet, where they learn that they have been tracked by the Death Star. In the final battle, Luke uses the Force and some help from his friends to destroy the Death Star.”

Notice that Han Solo doesn’t play at all in my one-sentence summary, although he gets some air-time in my one-paragraph summary. From Luke’s point of view, Han is the bus driver to get him to the action. And he’s a pretty irritating and selfish bus driver, at that.

But how does Han see things?

From his point of view, he was minding his own business, trying to earn the money he needs to pay back Jabba the Hutt, when in came this snotty kid Luke and this pie-in-the-sky old man Kenobi, offering him money for a ride off the planet. They’re a bit of easy money, but to be honest, they’re kind of flakey. Luke thinks he’s a hot-shot pilot, but he’s a farm kid with too many hormones clogging his brains and no experience in the real world. And Kenobi is clearly a quack.

So Han gives them a ride to the place they want to go, which unfortunately no longer exists when they get there, because the Death Star has inconveniently shot it to bits. Before he can react, the Death Star is pulling Han’s precious ship in with a tractor beam, and now the old coot has some whackball idea about how he’s going to get them out. Oh yeah, right.

And once the old guy has gone off to try his little magic tricks, this idiot kid Luke wants to go off saving the princess from under the noses of about seven billion HEAVILY ARMED Storm Troopers. Where’d this kid study logic? Against his far superior judgment, Han gets talked into making a stab at rescuing the princess, but only because she is rich and rescuing her would solve Han’s financial problems.

Thanks to Han’s great shooting (and no thanks to the dratted kid, who just hasn’t got a single brain cell more than necessary to support complex life), they do rescue the princess, who turns out to have a major league attitude. When they finally get back to the ship, they find out that the old man is duking it out with good old Black Sheet Vader himself. Too bad the old guy’s a little slow and gets a light saber in the gut, but that was his choice. Now the thing to do is get out of Dodge.

Once again, thanks to great driving AND great shooting by Han, they escape the Death Star. Yeah, sure, the old man did his part by shutting off the tractor beam. So he found a lever somewhere and threw it–big whoop-de-doo. The important thing is that Han Solo, the greatest pilot ever to fly the galaxy, got them out, evaded the chase, and took them safely to the rebel planet, earning the bucks he badly needs to pay back Jabba.

What gets weird is that Luke then thinks Han is SELFISH for wanting to go pay his debts! What kind of double-think is that? A guy needs to pay his debts. It’s the right thing to do. And anyway, right now, Jabba the Hutt has every bounty hunter in the galaxy out looking for him, so it’s also the smart thing to do. Han is never going to be free until that debt is covered. And Luke wants him to hang around and shoot up Imperials? That is just too stupid for words. What’s even more stupid is that Luke goes and gets himself in the thick of the battle, and ends up with one shot to take, Lord Vader on his tail, and no way out.

Han is a decent guy–ask anyone. He sticks up for his friends, even when they do stupid stuff. So he comes back, takes a shot at Vader, and knocks him into the next county with unbelievably great shooting. Luke squeezes off a lucky shot and takes out the Death Star. End of story. Except that, oh yeah, it’s pretty clear the princess has a thing for Han. Which is only natural, considering. Han’s not so sure he likes her. She’s kinda snooty in exactly the wrong sort of way. But he’ll think about it.

So that’s Han’s side of the story, and from his point of view, he’s the hero of it. Luke (quite literally) is a guy who just came along for the ride.

Given all that, here is Han’s one-sentence summary:

“A dashing young smuggler takes on Lord Vader in the battle to destroy the Death Star.”

16 words, and it makes clear who’s the REAL hero of this story.

Next time, I’ll work on Han’s one-paragraph summary, which makes clear what the REAL disasters are in this story–and here’s a hint: they aren’t what that snotty kid Luke thinks they are.

My loyal blog readers will be gratified (and astonished) to learn that this blog has been listed in the “Top 100 Creative Writing Blogs.”

The rankings are divided into several sections. If you scroll down to the “Fiction Writing” section, you’ll see the Advanced Fiction Writing Blog listed at the top of that particular group. Part of what makes this blog special is my loyal blog readers, so I thank all of you for participating.

I’d like to continue our analysis of STAR WARS (Episode 4) which we began a few weeks ago. In our last few blogs on the subject, we came up with a nice sharp one-sentence summary and a one-paragraph summary of the movie. Those are good high-level analyses of the storyline, but it’s now time to look at the characters. Which raises the rather interesting question, who are the principal characters in STAR WARS?

Luke Skywalker is obviously the lead character. But who should go second on the list? Is it Leia (the love interest)? Or Han Solo (the buddy)? Or Obi-wan Kenobi (the mentor)? Or Darth Vader (the antagonist)?

Each of these four has a claim to be the #2 character in the movie. It all depends on what kind of movie you think you’re watching.

If you see the romantic storyline as very important, then Leia has a claim. This is of course before we learned that Leia is Luke’s sister. For sure in the movie, Luke had a thing for Leia, as did Han. Which made it convenient when Leia turned out to be off-limits to Luke so there was no need to have a goat-fight between Luke and Han in Episode 6. That would have been a little unfortunate, because everybody comes out stinky from a goat-fight.

If you see the male-bonding storyline as more important, then you might argue that Han Solo is the #2 character.

If you see the story as a Hero’s Journey kind of story, then Obi-wan Kenobi might have a claim, even though he dies halfway through the movie in a shocking disaster that forces Luke to grow up in the Force. Obi-wan does kind of hang around a bit afterward (or else Luke is hearing some seriously bad-news-for-your-mental-health voices in his head).

If you see the story as a Good-versus-Evil kind of tale, then Darth Vader is a good choice for the #2 character.

I think that the reason the movie had such broad appeal is that the movie was really all of the above. This is kind of risky in a movie, because people like to know what a movie is. When it’s a little of this and a little of that, then it better be awfully good at both this and that.

As it turned out, the movie was awfully good at all of the above. I’d say it’s about evenly balanced between the various kinds of story, so it drew in a broad spectrum of people. There was a synergy between the storylines that transcended genre. (I can’t believe I just wrote that sentence. I’m going to leave it there to prove that I can buzzword as horribly as anyone else.)

In any event, in the next week or so, I’d like to analyze the storyline for each of the 5 characters listed above: Luke, Leia, Han, Obi-wan, and Darth. What we’ll learn is something absolutely critical for the fiction writer who wants to create strong characters. There is ONE thing you must know in order to have some hope of succeeding.

What that ONE thing is, we’ll discuss next week. But you already know what it is, don’t you? You have it within you. Trust your feelings . . .

Today I’m working on the next issue of my Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, which will go out tonight.

In lieu of blogging today, I thought I’d just post a link to my latest humor column on fiction writing, in which Sam the Plumber decides to build “The Road To Heck.”

You may also be interested in a guest blog that I did which appeared yesterday on the “Routines For Writers” web site. The subject of my guest blog is “That Pesky Goal Setting.”

Have fun!

Today I’d like to wrap up my discussion of writing conferences by responding to a couple of comments that my loyal blog readers posted.

Ben asked:

My current novel is still in the early stages (I have almost 100 pages of a rough draft and a skeletal outline of the rest of the story). What should I focus on getting done if I do end up going to the conference? Should I try to polish the first twenty pages for critique? Pull a proposal/summary sentences together (not to pitch to editors, but as a way of having the elements of the story in a concise, easily discussable form)?

Any recommendations? I have limited time to work on it due to a full-time college schedule, but I set aside a little time each day to write.

Randy sez: I think your best bet is to try to polish the first ten pages. Make it as good as you’re capable of making it, and then stop. DO NOT obsess on it for the next three months. After a few rounds of editing, most writers hit their peak and then they start disimproving their work.

When it’s as good as it’s going to get, take it to the conference of your choice and sign up for a critique with a published writer. Most conferences allow you to do this instead of showing it to an editor or agent (who is likely to give you a yes or a no, and maybe a few comments. Editors and agents are overworked, so they basically triage the manuscripts they see, sorting them into the very few that are really good, the larger number that have potential, and the majority that are not close.)

I have seen editors at conferences get 60 manuscripts. Let’s face it — an editor who gets that many has to fly through them.

Whereas real authors generally get far fewer. I think I’ve never gotten more than 9 at any conference. So authors have a bit more time to do a decent critique, and they may even have time to meet with you in person. At some conferences, you can get a paid critique of 15 minutes for $25. This may be the best $25 you ever spent. At other conferences, you can get a critique for free.

One of the most valuable critiques I ever had was a paid critique of my public speaking skills at a writing conference in Colorado where I was teaching. I spent half an hour with a speaking coach who gave me some tremendous insights and also reassured me that I’m not nearly as bad as I had feared.

At the Mount Hermon conference, there is a walk-by critique table that is free. I’ve often seen as many as 10 authors there simultaneously, some of them best-selling authors, others winners of major awards, all working over manuscripts with a red pen. This is, in my view, the biggest bargain in all of publishing.

Morgan wrote quite a long comment on going to a couple of conferences where I taught. I’ll quote just a bit of her comments here:

After listening to Randy, I went to his site afterward and learned loads more about writing. At that point, I had been writing for 3 years and wanted to see just how far I had come in my writing, along with wanting to learn more about the publishing world.

So with added encouragement from my husband, I signed up for Mt Hermon last year and specifically for Randy’s mentoring track. And my writing life has changed ever since.

Randy sez: Wow, I didn’t realize, Morgan, that you’d heard me speak before signing up for my mentoring track. I have to say that running a mentoring track is one of the most delightful things I’ve done at any conference. Last year, the group I worked with had tremendous chemistry. I could have sat there and said nothing, and the group would have critiqued each other very effectively.

I had 10 writers in my group, with a wide range of experience. Morgan brought her fantasy novel and we had a wonderful time working through her first chapter. I expect to see several of the novels we worked on last year get published in coming years. One of the guys in the group was working on his Master of Fine Arts in writing and brought the novel that will be his thesis project.

I always make individual appointments with each of my mentees for about half an hour outside the main class. The reason is that some of the writers need career guidance, and in some cases I want to talk about things that we missed in the group session or say things that need to be said without an audience. And sometimes it’s good just to brainstorm new ideas.

One of the things that made me happy with last year’s group was that they asked me to set up a Yahoo group after the conference, and they continue to keep in touch with each other and give advice and critiques to each other.

This is part of the magic of a conference — forming those connections with other writers that you click with. You will meet many writers, editors, and agents in your career, but the ones who will be most important to you are those writers in your “cohort.” These are the writers you’ll “grow up” with. These are the writers you’ll cheer on when they get published. You’ll fight to stifle your envy when they break in ahead of you. And they’ll be there to cheer you on and stifle their own envy when you break in.

My own “cohort” includes people like John Olson, Rene Gutteridge, Marlo Schalesky, Cindy Martinusen, Brandilyn Collins, and many others. Our career paths have varied widely, but we keep in touch. When you have survived years of uncertainty and self-doubt together, there is a special closeness that can’t be faked and can’t be destroyed, ever.

I hope all my loyal blog readers find a “cohort” of like-minded writers to break in with.

In my next blog entry, I’d like to return to our ongoing analysis of STAR WARS to see what more we learn about the structure of this story.