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Cross-Genre Critiques

29 Mar

“I hate this genre!”

Not the first thing you want to hear when receiving a critique.

“But, I loved the story.”

Okay, now I feel a little better. 

I have a great deal of respect for the individual giving the critique so I am willing to hear what she has to say. We all have our likes and dislikes. Variety is the spice of life.

What followed was a very interesting dialogue about genre clichés, knowing who your audience is, and the difficulty of providing a critique outside of your genre. I realized that just because I’m writing for a fantasy-reading audience does not mean everyone that reads my story knows what a couatl is. Or, that a tooled leather jerkin is a piece of clothing. Now I’m not going change these things because the audience I’m targeting will know. However, having a reader from another genre critique your work is very interesting and, in my humble opinion, very beneficial. 

Even though phrases like; “A shock of red hair” or reference to “A dangerous sea crossing with marauding dragonturtles” seem like minor clichés and no one in my fantasy writers’ group commented on them, they drew this reader out of the story. That is not good. I have reviewed the “fantasy clichés” she pointed out and will rewrite the few sentences involved. They seem like minor changes but as I am reminded, the devil is in the details. I think I will add a few more non-fantasy readers to my list of betas.

The other realization I came to, is that it can be difficult giving a good critique on a piece that is written in a genre I am not familiar with. I find the need to concentrate more on specific elements and reread some sections to ensure I’m not missing something. It is becoming easier but it has been a challenge. Overall, I think it has helped my self-editing.

The bottom line here is this, even though you need to be acutely aware of who your target audience is, don’t hesitate to cross genres and sit on either side of the critique table. Whether you choose to take the critique to heart or not is still your choice.

Any thoughts?

 
10 Comments

Posted by on March 29, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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And this too shall pass…

20 Mar

Some of you may have noticed that my novel progress bar has remained stationary for  some time. Progress has been made. However, the word count has remained relatively static. Progress was made with characterization. I now know who my main character is and what makes him tick, at levels he doesn’t even know exist. Also, #1 antagonist is ready to enter the fray at a similar level of understanding. This information has given me the tools to move forward with the story. Time well spent, I say.

Reason number two for static word count comes in the form of a first chapter rewrite. A few weeks ago, I submitted my draft first chapter to my writing group, TC Fantasy Guild. As usual the comments were helpful and I made a strategic decision to rewrite chapter one so I have a strong beginning to work from. I made the recommended changes and though it still needs some work, I feel comfortable where it is at.

 Now, “If the good Lord is willing and the creek don’t rise”, I will finish up chapter three by the end of the month. After that, I will need to get busy. I would like to attend a writer’s retreat on Lake Superior in September. But I will need considerably more content than I have now before I register. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s time to write. I will give you the back cover summary in a future post.

 
11 Comments

Posted by on March 20, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Recent Woes

17 Mar

To begin, I’m going to take a page from a Blog I follow: Writing By the Numbers.

Number of family members or close friends recently diagnosed for or treated for cancer:     6

Number of hours sleep lost due to the above:   More than I can count.

Number of hours spent writing on my novel in the last two months (excluding this blog and a business trip):    6

As my brother told me before going into surgery, “God has decided now is a good time to test us.” He then added, “After I wake up, whatever you do, do not make me laugh.”

Yeah right! He knew better than to expect that.

You see, I try real hard everyday to laugh. It might be a joke a friend e-mails to me, or a favorite sitcom, or my wife being her crazy self. But, sometime during the day I will find a way to laugh. I believe the main reason my wife and I are well into three decades of marital bliss, is because we laugh together everyday.

Please do not take it that I find anything amusing about the statistics listed above, quite the contrary. These are people I would take a bullet for and it tears me up everyday that they are in pain. However, I have seen first hand that, “laughter is the best medicine.” Laughter tends to dry the tears and heal the broken heart. Medical research has shown that laughter is one of the best stress reducers.

Many times, as a youngster, my mother would get mad at me. When she finished yelling at me, I would begin to laugh. She would become more angry and I would continue to laugh until finally she would shake her head and start laughing with me. I did not laugh at her anger. that would have been foolish and probably ended with me sitting on a sore butt for a few hours. No, my laughter was a defense mechanism. It was how I tried to diffuse the situation. When I lost my mother a few years back, I cried until I started to laugh. It was her way of getting back at me.

My writing has suffered and I’m okay with that for now. I know “this too shall pass” and soon I’ll get back to the keyboard. So, hug your family and do something fun. Tonight, I’m going to open a bottle a snazzy beer. put the cat fight from Puss ‘n Boots in the DVD player, and ROFLMAO!!!

Tomorrow’s a new day.

 
8 Comments

Posted by on March 17, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Character Traits

13 Mar

Last week I provided some commentary on the use of character descriptive tags. I promised that I would follow that up with one regarding character traits. So, let’s clear up the question that I know has kept you awake every night since my last post, “What is the difference between a tag and a trait?”

The correct answer is: It depends on who you ask. But, since this is my post you will get my opinion. Tags are primarily, descriptors of a character’s appearance. These are words you might use to describe a picture of your character to someone else. Hair color or style, eye color of shape, general body type, height, weight, clothing worn, tattoos, scars, jewelry, tools carried, weapons, are all examples of tags.

Traits on the other hand, are those descriptors that make your two-dimensional character jump off the page. In most cases they are action or sensory oriented. Traits help the reader create a motion picture that affects all five of their senses.

Physical:

How does the character move? Does she limp? Does she have grace? Is she a good dancer? Does she routinely trip over her own feet? 

What is the character’s mannerisms, gestures, and expressions? Two of my favorite bloggers have already addressed this, so here are the links to their posts. Carlie Macullen  wrote a wonderful post relating to this group of descriptors. Also, Nicolette Jinks wrote an interesting post on body language. They are certainly must read material.

How does the character sound, smell, feel, and taste? What does his voice sound like? Does she wear perfume or does she reek of garlic? Is his handshake cold and clammy? Does her throat taste like the apricot scrub she used this morning? The more senses you can include, the more real the character will become.

Psychological:

This where you should go back to the volumes of character information you generated at the airport, (See previous post) and dig through your character personality, family history, back story, life crises, etc. What you want to do is find quirks, oddities, phobias, likes, and dislikes that will give your character that extra spark of interest and make them REAL! If you did your home work you should have a boatload to choose from. Decide on a couple to use that help clearly define your character. Clearly, this is where you insert flaws into your character.

Some notable examples include: Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes. Dr. Robert Langdon had claustrophobia from being stuck in a well as a child. Felix Unger was a neat freak. Ocean Eleven’s, Rusty Ryan was constantly eating something.

Don’t be afraid you will hurt your character by making them unusual. Trust me here, we are all unusual. Even identical twins are not truly identical. Otherwise, my trip to the airport would yield a blank notebook.

Like tags, traits can be overused. If a character has too many flaws, the become unbelievable and the reader will get bored. On the flip side, if you don’t use them, your characters will come off flat and uninteresting. This results in the reader getting bored. We all know what happens when a reader gets bored, the book closes. Just like chocolate and alcohol, use tags and traits in moderation.

One more thing, while I’m on the subject, Do not forget your supporting cast. Unless your main characters are interacting with crash-test dummys, add a few tags to your minor characters. It would not be the first time that the ogre”s spanish accented, sword-wielding side-kick cat, became the star of his own story. (I love that movie.)

So, go forth and flaw your characters. Make them real. And please, let me know how it works for you.

 
16 Comments

Posted by on March 13, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Character Tags

08 Mar

The last week or so has been busy to say the least. Sunny southern California looses something when the only time you are outside is to drive from the hotel to the office and back with just enough time to grab a quick dinner and collapse into unconsciousness. The upside of the business trip was the seven and a half hours of plane travel.

Yes, if you follow this blog and you were at the Lindberg Terminal, you know that I was the strange man watching you and taking notes on the way you dress and your behavior. There are some real interesting people out there. 🙂  Now back to the flights.

Having spent two hours collecting “data”, the task before me was to create two in-depth characters. Core personality types soon were expanded to include: family histories, tragic situations, love languages, physical looks, costumes, education, etc. All told there is twenty to thirty pages of notes for each character. This page count will go up dramatically as the writing unfolds. However, it is a good start.

Somewhere over Nebraska, at 36,000 feet, it struck me. From all of this material, what six or seven words or phrases would I use as tags for the characters.  Those descriptive words that help the reader identify who the players are. How do we as writers decide what, of the volumes of physical description, psychological detail, back story, and personal background will we use to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind? Tags are the physical descriptors. I will discuss Traits in a later post.

Physically descriptive tags can create a cliche’. For example: a witch with a wart on her nose, a pointed hat, a broomstick, poison apple, and a black cat familiar. How many stories have you read where the villan has beady eyes and wears black clothes? Or, how about the villan’s bodyguard is a hulking brut with the IQ of a slug and hands like meat cleavers? What turns my stomach is the hero with blond hair, blue eyes, strong chin, six-pack abs.

However, tags can also give the character…well…character. Doesn’t the villan become more disturbing when he looks like the boy next door, wears designer clothes, and is a great cook to boot? The fact that dinner consists of the census taker’s liver and farver beans just adds more flavor to the story. 🙂 Why can’t the hero have a wicked scar across her face, a crippled leg and dress in thrift store cast offs?. The hero in one detective show I watched as a child was short, always wore a rumpled trench coat, smoked a cigar, and came across as extremely forgetful. Yet, he always figured out who the murderer was and usually got a confession.

Try to stay away from the cliché’s unless you have a very good reason. To me, cliché’s are boring. I have the attention span of a gnat when I read. If I get bored during the entrance of the main characters, the chances of my finishing the book are slim at best,  

So, use the volumes of character details you have worked so hard on and pick out the most unusual descriptors you have. If you don’t have anything that is unique, go back to the airport and sit there until you do. It should take you all of about two minutes.

Now that you have six or seven interesting  tags, use them. Not just the first time you introduce the character, but often throughout your story. I am not saying to use all six every time the character shows up. but, one or two inserted within the action, help your reader create a picture in their head. When you are finished reading this post, go pick up a book where you really liked the characters and find where the main character is introduced. Look for the tags the author uses. Then flip back a chapter or two and see what tags the author is using. Are they the same tags? Go back a few more chapters and see if the tags are still being used. I will bet you a magic acorn that the author is using the same tags throughout the story. The repetition reinforces the character’s image.

Take a look at your current project and see if adding a few tags will help bring color to your story. Let me know if it works for you.

In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about traits which are the psychological and action descriptors that really bring your character to life.

 
14 Comments

Posted by on March 8, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Goldmine for Characters

27 Feb

I love airports. The hustle and bustle of people from so many different places. Where do they all come from? Where are they all going? Why do they dress the way they do? What language are they speaking? I can think of few places better to study people. A large shopping mall would be a second option.

Take your notebook and sit down with a cold drink where you can see people as they pass by. Pick one and describe them, in detail. Be sure to include small details, not just their height and weight. Do they have any scars or visible tattoos? Might they have some hidden? Go ahead take a guess. I do not recommend you go up and ask them, unless of course, you are an extreme extrovert and don’t mind a hard slap in the face.

Now, think about what they are doing in the airport. Where are they going and why. C’mon, you’re creative. It’s easy. What sort of intrigue are they involved in? Did they just have a fight with their boss? Spouse? Stranger? What about? What conflict drives them? OMG isn’t this fun?

With a little luck you can hear them talk to someone else. How does their voice sound? Is it high or low? Does it have texture? Is there a dialect you can pick up on. What are they talking about? Business, Family matters? Corporate politics? Write it down. Don’t sit there staring at them. You don’t want to be arrested for stalking, do you?

Sometimes you have to write fast. They move in and out of your life so fast. That’s okay, there are lots more. If you can’t fill up a notebook during a two-hour layover in O’Hare or La Guardia, you are not trying very hard. Now the hard part is over.

Here is the fun. During the two and a half hour flight to anywhere, look through your notes. Try to regain the image of each character. Think about the story you are writing. Where can this character fit in? Some times it’s hard. But remember, there are lots of characters in your story. They may be minor but why not let them have the back story you created. Most of the time I come up with several good to great characters that can easily be inserted into my story.

I will leave you with one piece of advice. The next time you are traveling through an airport and you happen to see a man scribbling away in a notebook who occasionally glances your way. Have no fear. It is only me, adding to my list of characters.

Have a nice day!

 
8 Comments

Posted by on February 27, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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Islands vs. Outlines

20 Feb

I make lists. Lists for groceries, lists for travel, lists of honey-dos, lists of camping gear, lists of plants, lists of writing topics, lists of characters, lists of places (both real and imagined), and lists of lists. The CEO of my domicile has informed me repeatedly that I have too many notepads, file drawers, and binders filled with lists. Add to that several years as a corporate trainer and it should be easy to see why using an outline to develop a novel would be a logical choice for me. Honestly, that was how it started. I sat down and created an outline of chapters for my first novel. When I finished, I was so proud of it. I thought, “Wow this is going to be so easy.”

Starting at page one I proceeded methodically thinking that the best approach. A few months later, reality set in. Four chapters in and I had no idea where I was going. Somehow I had gotten off track and was at a dead end. The characters had not done what I originally thought they would. (Imagine that!) I saw no way to get them back to the outline. I lost interest and ended up setting the whole project aside. The process repeated itself several times. Each time, I could see scenes I wanted to include in the story but never wrote them because the characters left the outline behind.

As it happened, I picked up a book on screenwriting by  Blake Snyder entitled, “Save The Cat!”. In it, he talked about something called “story boards”. A few weeks later I took a class from Mary Carroll Moore called “Your Book Starts Here.” Two days of the class were devoted to developing a story structure using story boards and something she called “islands”. The lightbulb came on!

Okay, some of you are rolling your eyes. But for me, this was new toy I had never seen before. The great part is, I can create a list! I can create my list of (islands) that are scattered throughout my head. I then scribble them on post-it notes and place them on my story board.  Once I determine what my most critical scenes are, the rest of the islands fill in the blank spaces of the story board. With the initial story board in place, I go back and write the scenes in any order I chose. If I find that a scene needs to go someplace else in the story, I move it. The transitions between scenes can be a little tricky but that can be cleaned up later.

The freedom of not having to stick to the outline has let me focus on getting words on paper (hard drive). I no longer worry about how it will all fit together in the end. Yes, I have over simplified the process. Yes, I will end up writing scenes that may never be used in the final story. BUT, I am writing more! I also feel that my writing has improved.

So, I would like to hear from you. Do you write from an outline or from scattered islands? Perhaps you do both as each has a place in our writers toolkit.

 
12 Comments

Posted by on February 20, 2012 in Other Strangeness

 

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