New Directions

Hard to believe it's been almost two months since I posted last.  When I'm honest with myself, I have to admit there are two reasons.  One is the usual complaint about how busy we've been at the B&B.  But the other is I'm deep into rewrites on a new project, a YA set on Long Island during the McCarthy Era. As I continue to research that period, I'm discovering all sorts of fascinating stuff, and the Middle Ages has sort of gone on the back burner (where its simmering hopefully with a new story.)

So rather than give up blogging entirely, I'm expanding the scope of this blog to Camelot and Other Stuff.  Expect to see interesting things I come up with as I report on things I'm learning from writing a YA.

For those of you aren't familiar with the term, by the way, "YA" stands for "Young Adult".  Quite a euphamism, considering these are books targeted at the reader age 12 to 16.  The protagonist is usually 14 to 18 years old.

YAs require a different craft from the fantasies and historicals I've done in the past, even this YA, which, with its 1950's setting, is what I consider semi-historical.  Technically historicals end with WW2, but let's face it, if you're 16 years old, anything of your grandparents' era is going to be history.

• Plot dominant. Even if it's a romance.  Yes, the emotions are there, but they're not what drives the story.  Teens want interesting plots that take them into a world of adventure, even if the adventure is within their own schoolyard.
• Fast pacing.  Teens get bored fast.  This means world-building has to be incorporated into the action or dialog, rather than stopping the action to set the scene.
• Teen POV.
• Teen concerns.  The underlying issues the story deals with have to be things of concern to teens.

Is is hard to write YA?  Well, my CPs for The Dark Edge of Camelot series suggested that I have a YA voice, which is why I'm giving it a try.  And actually, I'm finding it very easy to slide into my protagonist's mind, because many of the issues Sophie is dealing with, and the pain she feels is stuff I've experienced. (No, my parents did not go through a nasty divorce.  But I do know how it feels to desparately want to be popular.) 

One of the speakers at last years RWA conference put it best when she said, "When you write YA, you're writing for the teen you were."

Considering the grief I'm putting my protagonist through, writing YA makes me grateful that I never have to be a teen again.

Interview with historical author Miriam Newman

Miriam Newman, who’s been successful with fantasy historicals has just released her first historical novel, The Comet, through DCL Publications. I was lucky enough to get a sneak-preview of her novel, which is set in England during the Norman Conquest, and was captivated by her spunky heroine, who takes her fate into her own hands. I’m pleased to welcome Miriam aboard my blog today for a chat.

 

Vicky: Hi Miram.  You've been successful in sci-fi/fantasy. What made you decide to try historicals?

Miriam: My futuristic romance, Scion, has been my best seller to date. Yet even in that I found study of Byzantine culture essential to the world building. My award-winning fantasy historicals, The King's Daughter and Heart of the Earth, likewise involved intensive study of Roman Britain, Irish and Nordic history and mythology. For Spirit Awakened, I immersed myself in Native American, Tibetan and Mongolian lore, especially tales of the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan. So finally I decided if I was going to be reading history all the time anyway, I might as well write it.

Vicky: Why the Medieval time period?

Miriam: When I was a small child--maybe about six--I was very sick with what was feared to be appendicitis. I knew that involved an "operation," so I was one scared kid! Well, to calm me, my mother (a rather unusual lady) read me a grisly poem by Longfellow called "The Skeleton in Armor." It's the story of the ghost of a knight who fell on his sword for love of lady fair and now is condemned to wander the earth searching for her. I think today they would call that counter-phobic therapy...you know, if the kid's scared of surgery we'll give her something to REALLY be scared of. Didn't work. I shot straight to the romantic heart of the poem and conceived a love of Medievals on the spot! I was six years old and had a thing for guys in chain mail. I still do.

Vicky: There have been rumours the Medieval period is "dead" publisher-wise, unless you're writing Medievals set in Scotland. The Comet is set in Southern England during the Norman Conquest. Did you have any feedback from your publisher with the setting you chose?

Miriam: My publisher loved it. She has always given me leeway to write whatever is in my heart at the time. The book is selling, so she's happy!

Vicky: What gave you the idea for The Comet?

Miriam: Researching the Bayeux Tapestry twelve years ago. I was fascinated with the portrayal of William the Conqueror and his men crossing the Channel and conquering England! I have one of those brains that goes darting down every possible alley and, sure enough, it ran away again. It took all those years for the idea to thoroughly percolate, but when it did there was no stopping it. I sat down to write something else and out came The Comet. I had no control.

Vicky: The Comet has really two love stories in it. How do you see those mirroring each other?
 
Miriam: They really are mirror images. Neel, the hero, can be condescending and arrogant--or at least he comes across that way to Rowena, the heroine. And Rowena has a temper of her own. Daughter and niece of Saxon thegns, she has a sense of her place. Neel's best friend and fellow Norman knight, Gilles, is basically peace-loving and a diplomatic sort. When he encounters Isolde, cast-off mistress of Rowena's late uncle, his heart is touched by her plight. Isolde has accepted, as Rowena never will, that she is at the behest of men She can't really believe it when she finally meets one strong enough to be gentle.


Vicky: The Comet has a spunky heroine who takes her fate into her own hands. What lesson(s) do you think she needs to learn?

Miriam: Rowena starts out a bit too stupid to live, to be honest. But she is very young, as most brides were in that era. She hasn't yet learned to foresee consequences. And once she starts the ball rolling through an act of sheer self will, those consequences and lessons are not long in coming.

Vicky: What made you decide to e-publish?

Miriam: It was sheer chance. I had survived my first hundred rejections from New York--barely--and realized I was writing so far outside their box that I might never get an acceptance from a mainstream publisher. Right about that time, I was on a loop started by a friend and she mentioned that an editor was on there as well and looking for excerpts. I threw one out just for the heck of it and within minutes got an invitation to submit to her epub. The editor was very forthcoming about what I could expect from epub versus print and careful to see that I understood what they could offer. Even so, when the book was accepted, I checked out everything . The publisher was extremely patient, answered all my questions and proceeded to do an excellent job with the book.

Vicky: You've been publishing with DCL Publications for a while now. What made you decide to go with them?

Miriam: I have found them to be kind and ethical. They don't sugar-coat anything, but deal with you fairly. They're supportive, responsive, promote their authors and their quality control is excellent. And I love my editor.

Vicky: Any advice for writers who want to go the e-pub route?

Miriam: Realize that you won't get the exposure and distribution you get through mainstream publishing, at least not yet, and that your earnings may not be high unless you write erotica. Research the pub, look at their other books with an eye to good cover art and editing (both crucial to sales). Be wary of any offer of a quick release date that's established almost before the ink is dry on your contract. If you're a newbie, that may look impressive. Often, it isn't. Go over your contract carefully, preferably consulting an author who is thoroughly experienced in epub. Be sure the epub has a distributor. You'd think that would be a no-brainer, but sometimes they don't. All this being said, I believe epublishing and POD print is the wave of the future. So if you want to get on board, find a publisher who will show you the ropes and go for it.

Vicky: Thanks, Miriam, for your time and your advice!

To E (book) or not to E

These days my closest companion seems to be my Kindle. I got it late in January – it was supposed to be a Christmas present but there was a backorder – and, though I’m still reading conventional print books, I’ve become a convert.


Just for you who e-readers are still alien technology: my Kindle is about the size of trade paperback, but half the thickness of an ordinary book. And half the weight. On the other hand, it can store hundreds of books within its slim frame. When you shut it down, the e-reader remembers where you were in the book and starts it up again on its page. “Turning pages” is easy. Just push a button.

In addition to the standard ability to download and read hundreds of thousands of books, most e-readers also have a few other features that make them in some ways superior to standard print books.

First, you can adjust the size of the print to your eyes. This makes it an attractive option for older readers who need larger print (but don’t want the bigger, heavier book.)

Second, you can highlight passages and bookmark them. This is really convenient for taking notes. For example, Phil and I are thinking about moving to France and bought an e-book about buying a house in France. As I read it, there were things I wanted to mention to Phil. All I did was bookmark them. When it came time for us to talk about what I’d learned, all I had to do was click on the “Read my bookmarks” command and it brought them up, so I could quote to Phil chapter and verse.

Third, there are literally hundreds of books that you can download for free or for only pennies.

On the other hand, downloading a book is so easy – just push the “buy” button and the book is delivered via your wireless network – that it could become a real nightmare for bookstore addicts such as myself. I’m rationing my purchases and reminding myself that my print library still contains 50 to 100 books I haven’t read.

Is print going to become obsolete? With e-book purchases only 6% of current sales, I’d say not in the near future. There’s also the issue of finding a common platform. Different e-readers take different platforms and this is becoming a nightmare for publishers committed to providing books for all their distributers.

But everyone I know who has them has become hooked. (Our household will have a second e-reader by the end of the week, as I’ve gotten one for Phil for his birthday.) And everyone I know who’s had a chance to “play” with one becomes a convert, as well. I think we’re looking at a trend.

Linking Character Arc and Theme – Part 2 (Revisions to my worksheet)

I’ve been working my way through Stan Williams’ book The Moral Premise. This week I finally got to the part where he explains how it’s done.

 

As I see it, Williams’ concept of a Moral Premise takes theme a step deeper. Theme can be described in one or two words. For example, the theme of Titanic is love. But that’s also the theme of The Notebook, Shrek, and even Lassie Come Home. What makes these movies different is how the theme of love is handled, and that’s where the Moral Premise comes in.

 

The Moral Premise is the author’s take on how the universe works. In the case of love, it’s the author’s take on how the theme of love works.

 

Williams gives a formula for how to describe a Moral Premise. It goes like this:

 

[Vice] leads to [defeat], but
[Virtue] leads to [success].*

 

Williams gives some of his own examples of how this works, but let’s takes the examples of the love theme I gave above. In Titanic, the Moral Premise would play out as:

 

Controlling love leads to death, but
Liberating love leads to a fulfilling life.

 

In Shrek, the Moral Premise is,

 

Self-loathing leads to loneliness, but
Self-acceptance leads to love.

 

Same theme, but see how different the approach to love is?

 

But if you look at both these Moral Premises, you see in them the core of the protagonist’s character journey. The character starts from the position of the vice (being controlled/hating himself) and through the experiences she/he undergoes learns enough to move to the position of the virtue.

 

Williams points out that the Moral Premise always has two parts. One is the virtue and its consequences; the other is the corresponding vice and its consequences. While in writing a proposal or synopsis, it’s possible to shorten the premise into one part (for example, Titanic’s moral premise could be shortened to “Liberating love leads to a fulfilling life”), ultimately, in developing the structure of a novel or film script, you need to have both. While Williams gives his own reasons for this, for me there’s another reason that’s equally compelling: describing the consequences of the vice, shows the cost of failure. In other words, it makes clear the stakes.

 

A vice, by the way, doesn't always have to be a vicious trait.  In a comedy or a romance, it could be some character quirk.  For exmaple, in Shrek, Donkey has his own character arc.  His vice is not only that he constantly runs off at the mouth, but that he rattles on with whatever he thinks will please the person he's talking to.  In other words, he's not sincere.  In the end, he changes and tells Shrek what Shrek needs to hear, even though it's not what Shrek wants to hear, "because that's what friends do."  Donkey's own Moral Premise could be described as:

 

Insincerity leads to loneliness, but

Honesty leads to friendship.

 

Two weeks ago, in my blog on Tips for Creating a Character Arc, I described the chart that I use. After reading Williams’ book, I now see how I can expand that chart to a deeper level. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• Original wrong world view – This is the Vice.
• How this keeps them apart – This is how the Vice leads to Defeat.
• Beginning – What does it look like when they’re “doing their thing?” (i.e, practicing the Vice)
• What happens to force them to do it differently (“Differently” = the Virtue) 
• They try the different thing and begin to become confident
• What’s the reward for doing the different thing? (This is the Virtue leads to [temporary or partial] Success)
• Major setback in doing it differently (because they haven’t applied the Virtue fully or learned it completely)
• Go back to doing it the old way (which leads to renewed conflict between the hero and heroine and a sense they’ll never get together) (This is a return to the Vice with accelerated or expanded defeat consequences.) 
• How does this cause them to fail in achieving their non-romance goal? (This is the crisis)(This is the consequences of the Vice).
• What causes them to take a chance, and do it the new way (This is reapplying the Virtue, only this time with new understanding and awareness.) 
• Success (this is the climax) (and the consequences of the Virtue)
• New world view (This is how they’ve changed to incorporate the virtue in other parts of their life and the resulting success in other parts of their life.)
• How this allows them to get together (dénouement) (In other words, Virtue leads to a happily ever after ending.)

Williams goes into more detail than this, in showing how to fit the Moral Premise into the plot structure. I’ll blog on that next week.

 

*Location 1784 of my Kindle copy of The Moral Premise by Stanley Williams.

Character Arc and Theme

I’m currently reading Stan William’s The Moral Premise on my new Kindle (Phil’s Christmas present to me.) It’s a book that was recommended by veteran literary agent Natasha Kern at the 2009 RWA conference, and thanks to Kindle, finally accessible to me in New Zealand at an affordable price. (I’ve already blogged on the ridiculous price of books here in New Zealand.)

The Moral Premise is about the core of every book: its theme. Actually, Williams says the Moral Premise goes beyond theme to the message the writer wants the reader to carry away with them about how the universe works. I’m only a third of the way through the book, so I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of William’s ideas. But, as I plot out my new novel, it seems to have come into my hands at just the right moment.

 

When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.

 

Williams is writing for filmscript writers, but his work, he assures us, is equally applicable to novelists. He has a totally different approach to planning your book. According to Williams, the first thing a writer needs to think about is what message he/she wants the audience to come away with in the end.

 

Every scene, then, becomes one more piece of evidence that draws the audience to the author’s inevitable conclusion. I’m not talking just about mysteries, and their ilk. According to Williams, the same process works for every genre.

 

Take the movie, Titanic. Its message is “True love frees you to be yourself.” When we first see Rose, she is being forced into a marriage she deplores in order to save the family fortune. But beyond that, she is forced to live by a code that is uncomfortable and restricting. We see the effect on her when she almost commits suicide and realize solving this problem is a matter of life and death. (Evidence No. 1). When Jack comes along and shows her a new way of life, she throws herself into it. Her dancing on the table – on her toes in bare feet – shows us she is ready for that life. (Evidence No. 2) But there’s also other bits of evidence thrown in – the art pieces in the cabin, which are the early works of then unknown but now great artists. It shows us that she can see and appreciate things her rich peers can’t. (Evidence 3.) And so on. By the end, she is so changed that when the survivors are picked up by the rescue ship, she chooses to stay on the lower deck among the lower class passengers, rather than take advantage of the comforts she could enjoy if she admitted to others who she is (one of the final pieces of evidence.) And the final pan across the photos in old Rose’s cabin is the last piece of evidence that shows Jack’s love has changed her so much she had the courage to live out her dreams.

 

Williams says this message has to be universal and credible. Universal means it must appeal to all, no matter what nationality. Well, Titanic came out the year Phil and I went to China to teach English. My students there were as crazy about the movie as young people in the US. Why? Because life-changing love is a universal theme. The idea goes beyond the circumstances of a rich girl and a poor boy on a doomed ship and hits something deep inside of us. Everyone dreams of experiencing that kind of love.

 

The theme lifts the story beyond its time and place and circumstances and puts it into a plane to which we can all relate.

 

The “credible” part of the author’s message has to do with how the story is constructed. I haven’t gotten far enough into William’s book to verify this, but it looks like he says this begins with characterization. The characters are the core of your evidence. It is their experience within the book and the internal change they undergo that proves your message.

 

So character and theme are inexorably linked. In planning Me and the Alpha Jerk, I need to start with considering  

• what message do I want my readers to come away with,
• what kind of change(s) are possible to come to that conclusions (there are many possible ones, which is why there can be so many novels about the same theme), and
• what kind of characters would/could undergo that kind of change?

A couple of weeks ago, when I blogged on "Tips for Developing a Character Arc", one of the first points I suggested defining was the character’s mistaken or faulty world view. As I think about theme, I see that the mistaken world view needs to somehow be linked to the theme. This is the character’s starting point. But unless the character starts from a point that can lead them to the conclusion I want, the story isn’t going to have what Williams calls credibility.

 

So I’m back to looking at the character arc with fresh eyes and seeing how it relates to a theme.

More Thoughts on Developing a Character Arc

Last week I blogged on my method for developing a character arc. This method, by the way, works for any genre of fiction, not just romance. Just eliminate one of the character columns. The big difference is that in any other genre of fiction, the character arc centers around the internal issue that keeps the character from achieving her/his goal. In a romance, having a happily ever after ending with the love interest IS the goal. In a well-crafted romance, the same issue that keeps the characters apart, also keeps the protagonist from achieving his/her non-romance story goal.


Ari Thatcher commented, “One chart I use asks for the epiphany - what the character needs to realize to deserve their happy ending. I think that equates to your "What causes them to take a chance" but it makes me think about their mental processes rather than something that happens to them.” I like that and will add it to my chart. I think, though, that the moment of epiphany is actually a two-step process. First, some external circumstance or event shakes up the character enough that she/he has to rethink his/her actions or way of doing things. Then the character goes through a mental and emotional process that leads to committing to the new way of doing things.

I’m having my own epiphany, by the way. I’ve been getting a lot of praise from my critique partners on Exiled in the Sweet Land of Liberty, my YA set on Long Island during the post-McCarthy Era. Their comments were that I’d really hit hard with the emotions of a teen going through the pain of being left out. When I think about it, I was writing from my own pain as a young teen. It wasn’t hard to show Sophie’s pain because I’d been there, done that. That was me sitting outside the guidance counsellor’s door.

What I need to do with Me and the Alpha Jerk is find that same pain (well, a different pain but just as painful). Dig into my teenage years and find it.

Not hard. Being a teenager is like walking around with an open wound.

Not that any of this comes as a big revelation to me. Nor should it to any writer. We’re constantly being told to dig inside ourselves and translate that into our character’s pain.

A marvelous RWA on-line workshop given by TJ Bennet a couple of years ago, titled “The Black Moment” asked the participants to imagine the worst thing that could possible happen to ourselves and describe how we would feel. I did the exercise, but didn’t get much out of it. I now know why. I was answering the wrong question. Because, for me, the worst has already happened. I’ve lived though putting a cherished aunt in a nursing home, being fired, having cancer, learning a boy friend was gay, near bankruptcy, having a beloved parent die just as we were growing close. For me, when I look at the future, I can’t imagine anything worse than what I’ve already experienced. The best is to come…

But I can dig into what I felt then. In fact, my best stories have come from that. So what I need to do with Me and the Alpha Jerk is find the link between Emily and me, and let her live through my pain. 

Getting back to my planning chart, that pain is linked somehow to her Mistaken World View.  Interestingly, the Mistaken World View is a result of pain, but also causes more.  Because it's not the right response.

Lots of opportunities for some good writing here.  And Em is becoming real under my fingertips.

Tips for Creating a Character Arc

I’ve been plotting my new novel, “Me and the Alpha Jerk”. It’s a contemporary YA set in Arizona. My main characters are an animal rights activist from the East and a young rodeo cowboy, the son of a rodeo stock contractor.

This is the first time I’ve created something totally from scratch, without having either a legend to build it around, as my Arthurian trilogy, or an incident from real life, as in my dramas produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Company and Exiled in the Sweet Land of Liberty. By now I’ve learned quite a bit about novel writing, which includes building the plot around a character arc. I thought I’d share my experiences and what I’ve learned. Hopefully, if you’re struggling with character development, this might give you a few ideas.

Basically, a character arc is the change in the character from the beginning to the end of the novel. Any novel worth its salt has it. Novels, in fact, are about character change. The plot provides the incentive and opportunity to change.

In the past, my stories have been plot driven. I’ve said to myself, “OK, here’s what happens. Now what kind of character would get involved in this kind of situation and how would it cause her/him to change?”

Because the idea for “Me and the Alpha Jerk” came from the title, the book basically started with the characters, not the plot. An alpha male and a woman who can’t stand alpha males. Since I’m experimenting with YA’s, I’ve made them teens.

Now I need a teen alpha male. And not your usual football jock. Well, there’s only one alpha male who’s more alpha than a football jock. A rodeo cowboy. And as I happen to love rodeo, I’ve got the perfect setting, one I know a lot about, even though I’m now here in New Zealand.

But novels are about conflict. I’ve read over and over again that the best way to create conflict between your hero and heroine is to make them exact opposites.

So what kind of woman is likely to hate rodeo cowboys? Ding! An animal rights activist. Make her from the East, so she looks down on “rednecks” from the West. Make her a horse lover, too, but one who does dressage. No, even better, one who does Combined Driving, my favorite sport, something else I know a lot about.

At this point I’ve got two static characters. The thing that gives the plot life is their growth. Now, I could just say, “OK. She changes and sees his point of view and he changes and sees hers.” But that really doesn’t give much depth to the novel.

I’ve taken a number of workshops on plotting, and one of the things that stuck with me is the idea that the character is driven by a belief, a view of the world, that is essentially flawed. In order to be successful, the character has to change that mistaken world view.

I’ve also heard numerous times that romances (ok, this is a romance, what else could it be with a title like that?) work better if the hero and heroine are basically dealing with opposite ends of the same internal conflict.

So what could be driving both my hero and heroine to take the stances they do? Why does one become an animal rights activist and the other a high school rodeo cowboy dreaming of making “Pro”?

How does this keep them apart and how do they need to change if they’re to ever get together as a couple and have the obligatory “happily ever after”?

At this point I started to put together a table with three columns. The left hand colum covered the turning points in the characters’ growth. The other two columns were headed with the hero and heroine’s name. Here are the turning points that I listed in the left column:

• Original wrong world view
• How this keeps them apart
• Beginning – What does it look like when they’re “doing their thing”
• What happens to force them to do it differently
• They try the different thing and begin to become confident
• What’s the reward for doing the different thing?
• Major setback in doing it differently
• Go back to doing it the old way (which leads to renewed conflict between the hero and heroine and a sense they’ll never get together)
• How does this cause them to fail in achieving their non-romance/story goal? (This is the crisis)
• What causes them to take a chance, and doing it the new way
• Success (this is the climax)
• New world view
• How this allows them to get together (denoument)

As I filled in the two columns, I focused on how each character’s action would cause conflict with the other character, adjusting the action to cause maximum conflict. For example, in the beginning when they’re “doing their thing” I have her outside the rodeo arena, carrying a placard, protesting cruelty to animals. He, of course, as he enters the showgrounds, says something insulting to her. But what if she ups the ante and does something to cause him to lose the event?

I won’t go into how I’ve filled in the boxes, but by the time I was done, I could see what had to happen to make each of my characters change -- events which can be turned into scenes. This doesn’t give me the whole plot, but it gives me an overall arc that I can fill in with the rest of the story. Even better, it gives my story direction. Plus, as the structure of all novels is predictable, it gives readers a sense of where they are in the story as they read through the work.