Livia Blackburne

Point of View and Freewheeling Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:47:00 +0000

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone for your well wishes and congratulations. I’m super excited about bringing Midnight Thief into the world, and I’m looking forward to sharing more details about the deal and process (BTW, if anyone has any specific questions, lemme know!). But first, for today, something different.

My freshman year of college, I took an expository writing class. One of the most important skills we learned was how to transition smoothly between different ideas. It was good, solid, advice, and improved my writing greatly. But like all writing rules, it doesn't always apply. I was reminded of this when I read Victoria Schwab's The Near Witch.

Take a look at this passage, in which the main character Lexi takes her sister Wren into town (the town is called Near). Everybody is talking about a stranger who showed up the night before.

Wren has strayed far ahead now, and Otto casts a look up at me, giving a sideways jerk of his head. I turn and go, making should note that Bo lives on the western edge of the village, so the stranger must have circled Near in that direction. Catching up to Wren, I pass by two families from the southern part of town. I slow my pace, careful to keep my sister in my sight.

"No, John, I swear he towers like a bare tree…" hollers an older woman, holding her arms wide as the scarecrow.

"You're daft, Berth. I saw him, and he's old, very old, practically crumbling."

"He's a ghost." "No such thing as a ghost! He's a halfling – part man, part crow."

[More dialogue…]

"Crows are terrible omens!! You've lost your mind, John. I know I said it last week but I was wrong. To Dave really lost it…"

I've lost Wren.

I look around and finally see a slip of blond hair vanishing into the nearby circle of children. I reach the cluster and find my sister, a good head shorter than most of them but just as loud and twice as quick.

I love the abrupt transition from the dialogue of the villagers to the thought "I've lost Wren." If I’d been writing it myself, I would've been tempted out of habit to smooth over that transition with something like, "Suddenly I stop and look around. I've lost Wren." But our minds don't smooth over transitions in real life, and there's something about the abrupt switch that deepens the point of view and pulls you inside Lexi’s head.

Here's another example. In this scene, Lexi is watching the witch Magda arrange her cabin.

Magda collects her pieces of the world daily. I imagine it's all for charms. Small craft. Now and then a piece of the sisters’ work will find its way into the villager's pocket, or around their neck, even if they claim not to believe in it. I swear I seen a charm stitched to the skirt of Helena's dress, most likely meant to attract Tyler Ward's attention. She can have him.

Again, I love that last sentence. First she's talking about the charms villagers carrying them, and suddenly it skips to a much more personal comment about Tyler Ward and Helena. It's a neat technique to keep in mind.

What about your writing? Do your characters transition smoothly between thoughts, or do they let them run free?

Today is actually the paperback release day for The Near Witch. To celebrate, Victoria Schwab has written a prequel novella called The Ash-Born Boy, and it's available for free download at the Disney Hyperion website. I've just started reading it, and it's fantastic.

Also, I'm giving away a free hardcover edition of The Near Witch. To enter the drawing, do one of two things:

1. Share this post on twitter and leave your username in the comments.

2. RSS subscribers will see a secret code at the bottom of the post. Send an e-mail to liviablackburne at gmail com with the secret code in the subject line.

I will draw a winner on May 22 , 2012.

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The Other Reason I Haven't Had As Much Time to Blog Lately

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:03:00 +0000

From Dystel and Goderich's latest deals roundup:

Livia Blackburne’s MIDNIGHT THIEF, a debut YA fantasy novel about a talented thief who joins an assassin’s guild only to find that what she thought was the perfect job is much more sinister than originally imagined was sold to Abby Ranger at Hyperion by Jim.

More details to come...

Operation Chest Hair Part I: In Which I Look at Girls Through a Manly Lens

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 09 May 2012 05:03:00 +0000

Photo by Stephen Poff

I write about teenage girls. That's my comfort zone, but I recently got an idea for a story from a man's point of view.

This made me nervous. I'd written boys before (not without difficulty), but this new story was about a Man’s Man. You know, the kind of guy that drinks black coffee and crushes rocks with his bare hands. To be honest, I didn't know if I had the balls to pull it off. And thus, Operation Chest Hair was born, in which I analyze Man Books in an attempt to raise my testosterone level.

I had two criteria for books to analyze. First, the book had to be narrated by a man. Second, it had to be written by a man (a manly man, if you will), to ensure accuracy. On my dorm room bookshelf, I had two books that fit: Barry Eisler’s Rain Fall *, about half Japanese assassin John Rain, and Alex Bledsoe’s The Sword-Edged Blonde, about freelance sword jockey Eddie Lacrosse.

Now I know that men are complicated, multidimensional, creatures, but for the sake of analysis, I needed to focus on specific themes. Today's topic: women (an important topic for men). I wanted to see how these characters looked at potential love interest. To narrow things down further, I focused on early encounters when they're getting to know the gal. So when you're ready, grab a beer, slather some Rogaine on your chest, and let's dive right in.

[Actually, one more clarification. I want to be clear here that I'm not attempting some kind of complex analysis of the male psyche. This is a writerly exercise focused on picking up aspects of voice from a certain type of male character in the specific situation of meeting the future love interest, so please don't read more into this than I intended... ]

Okay, now we really can begin.

In Rain Fall, John Rain first sees jazz pianist Midori when she performs.

I watched Midori's face as she took up her post at the piano. She looked to be her mid 30s and had straight, shoulder length hair so black it seemed to glisten in the overhead light. She was wearing a short sleeve pullover, as black as her hair, the smooth white skin of her arms and neck appearing almost to float beside it. I tried to see her eyes but could catch only a glimpse in the shadows cast by the overhead light. She had framed them in eyeliner, I saw, but other than that she was unadorned. Confident enough not to trouble herself. Not that she needed to. She looked good and must have been aware of it.

Later on, they meet and get a chance to talk. Here's how Rain describes her this second time.

For the first time, I was in a position to notice her body. She was slender and long limbed, perhaps a legacy from her father . . . Her shoulders were broad, a lovely counterpart to a long and graceful neck. Her breasts were small, and, I couldn't help but notice, shapely beneath her sweater. The skin on the exposed portion of her chest was beautiful: smooth and white, framed by the contrast of the black V-neck.

What about Eddie Lacrosse? He first sees Liz from afar as she's fighting off three bandits.

In the center of the triangle stood a slender, redhaired girl, as tall as me though with that willowly quality so many country girls possess. She had short hair and was dressed like a man, which actually made her look more feminine. But this was certainly no helpless maiden.

After he helps her in the fight, he takes a closer look.

Then she faced me, and I got my first close look at her. She had wide shoulders and the kind of trim narrow body that spoke of hard muscle beneath her baggy clothes. A deep scar cut through her right eyebrow and touched her hairline, where a streak of white sprang from it.

Here’s what I noticed.

1. The men are looking at both the woman's face and body.

So it's interesting. In both books the guy sees the woman from far away at first. Then she moves closer, and in both books, the guy makes a point of taking a closer look.

In terms of physical description, it’s very precise language, often mentioning specific body parts (long and graceful neck, small breasts, wide shoulders, hard muscle). Which brings me to point two.

2. The men are looking at clothing in relation to the body.

For example, Midori’s black clothes contrast with her skin. Liz’s clothes make her look more feminine. And sometimes, it seems like the guys are more interested in looking through the clothes then at them. :-)

I was curious about how this compares to YA heroines, so I grabbed a pile of books off my shelf. It seems like teenage girls are much more about the face. A few do mention the guy's body, but it's very general language, usually referring to build.

For example, Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns gushes about her King Alejandro’s friendly smile and beautiful teeth. Aly from Trickster's Choice spends four sentences describing Nawat’s face and then mentions that he is "6 feet tall, with a wiry build." Cate from Born Wicked sees Finn’s freckles and notes that he's no longer scrawny. As for her other suitor Paul, he's taller, has a mustache and beard, and “looks quite the gentleman in his frock coat.” Katsa from Graceling notices Po’s gold earrings, his rings, his dark hair, and his eyes. The only allusion to his body is that the neck of his shirt is open.

I was curious as to whether the focus on face rather than body were more because of the YA heroines’ age or their gender. So I picked up Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever. Darkfever is an adult romance, and the Mackayla Lane is no innocent flower. What does she notice in the first meeting between her and Jericho Barrons?

He didn't just occupy space; he saturated it. The room had been full of books before, now was full of him. About thirty, six foot two or three, he had dark hair, golden skin, and dark eyes. His features were strong, chiseled. I couldn't pinpoint his nationality… He wore an elegant, dark gray Italian suit, a crisp white shirt, and a muted map patterned tie. He wasn't handsome. That was too common a word. He was intensely masculine. He was sexual. He attracted. There was an omnipresent carnality about him, his dark eyes, and his full mouth, in the way he stood. He was the kind of man I wouldn't flirt with in a million years.

So there's certainly nothing shy or innocent about this description, but even Mac describes the Jericho’s body with less detail than his face or even his clothes. (Note also, that Cate from Born Wicked also describes Paul’s frock coat and other clothing in detail.)

It's not like these women never look at a guy's body if it's there in front of them. In Graceling, there's a delightful scene in which Po takes his shirt off and Katsa makes a heroic effort not to gawk, and Mac gets quite a few eyefuls in the Fever series. But in general, there's less of an effort to develop x-ray vision.

There was one notable exception to this trend: Bella Swan from Twilight. Bella notices early on that Edward’s forearm is "surprisingly hard and muscular.” In later scenes, she gushes over his “sculpted, incandescent chest,” and his “scintillating arms.” Does this have something to do with Twilight's mysterious ability to drive teenage girls into a hormonal craze? Hmmm…

Okay, moving on ...

3. Both John Rain and Eddie LaCrosse specifically mention the woman's attractiveness early on. And not just that she's good looking, but also whether or not she knows it.

“. . . she was unadorned. Confident enough not to trouble herself. Not that she needed to. She looked good and must have been aware of it.” – Rain Fall

“She was cute rather than pretty, and I just bet eshe knew that and it bugged the hell out of her.” -TSEB

YA heroines were less straightforward about physical attraction. Elisa does mention that Alejandro is beautiful, and Bella definitely notices Edward. Other heroines, however, simply note a pleasant face or don’t mention that the guy is attractive at all (thought it’s implied). As to whether or not he knows he’s good looking, the closest I found was from Graceling.

Then he raised his eyebrows and hair, and his mouth shifted into a hint of a smirk. He nodded at her, just barely, and it released her from her spell. Cocky, she thought. Cocky and arrogant, this one, and that was all there was to make of him.

And one last observation.

4. Both men mention how the woman's attractiveness affects and/or distracts them.

“What the hell is wrong with you? I thought. You've got nothing to do with her or her father. She's attractive, it's getting to you. Okay. But drop it.” -Rain Fall

“Yes, she was attractive. And yes, I noticed, and yes, it had been a while for me. But besides the fact that she was not very encouraging (she insisted we always sleep with the fire between us), I just wasn't motivated that way.” -TSEB

So in this case, I do see similar things happening with the YA heroines. Bella falls all over herself over Edward’s beauty. Katsa is distracted by Po’s eyes, and Elisa by Alejandro's good looks. However, the girls are usually not really thinking about whether they'll make a move. Could this be due to the social script of the women as the pursued rather than the pursuer?

So here ends my somewhat haphazard sampling of men and women in romance, and I'd now like to enlist your help. What do you think? Do you have any supporting examples, or counter examples, on your bookshelves?

[*Editor's note: Barry Eisler’s ex-CIA status and penchant for posting wrestling videos make his books a natural pick for this blog series, but there have been recent rumors that he is secretly a male model. Operation Chest Hair takes these allegations of nonmanliness very seriously and will investigate them thoroughly before the next installment.]

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar.

Also, friend of the blog Linda Poitevin recently released her urban fantasy Sins of the Son. Check it out!
A detective with a secret...
When homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis sees a photo of Seth Benjamin on a police bulletin, she knows that Heaven's plan to halt Armageddon has gone terribly wrong. As the only mortal who knows of Seth's true nature, she's also the only one who can save him.

An exiled angel turned assassin...
Aramael was a hunter of Fallen Angels until a traitor forced him into earthly exile. Now, with no powers and only a faint memory of Alex, his mortal soulmate, he will stop at nothing to redeem himself--even if it means destroying Seth in the name of the Creator.

A world with little chance of redemption...
As Alex's need to protect Seth sets her on a collision course with the determined Aramael, the conflict between them may push the world over the edge--and into the very chaos they're trying to prevent.

Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest: Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest. My husband, the original Lukewarm Blurber, has chosen his favorites, and without further ado:

Tied for third place are Unpublished Guy and Dan.

Unpublished Guy's entry:

A giant lateral leap in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Mutton Chops chronicles the way the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles rational theories of human history.

Dan's entry.:

I do not regret walking into the bookstore the day I bought this book at a discount.

In second place, Nate Wilson:

This is a book that no one else on earth would even have conceived of writing. The author's word choice is stunning, and his plot twists boggle the mind. I couldn't get through it fast enough.

And the first place winner is Dan again, with nicely cynical entry.

Minimal spelling errors, characters with consistent names, fewer than six plot holes: perfect for the tired high school English teacher in your life.

Winners: Please contact me at liviablackburne at gmail dot com with your mailing address. Thanks to everyone for participating!

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Announcing the Lukewarm Cover Blurb Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:23:00 +0000

We’ve passed the 1500 RSS subscribers mark! Thank you all so much for sticking around and participating in our discussions of all things writing. As has become tradition here, we'll celebrate with a contest. And I have a good one.

A while back, my dad asked my husband (aka astronomer and literary snob J Blackburne) if he liked Midnight Thief. J’s response was something along the lines of, “Yeah, I did! A lot of first novels have cardboard characters and plots that fall apart halfway through, but Livia's book was not like that.”

Later on, I teased him about having liked my book because it “was not horrible.” At which point, my secretly-supportive-but-very-mischievous husband got a glint in his eye.

“It's… serviceable fiction,” he said. “With every element needed to become a runaway bestseller amongst undiscerning readers.”

And that dear readers, is how I got my very first cover blurb. I can just see it now, in italics across the top of the cover, just above the picture of Kyra vaulting over a palace wall.

In honor of this occasion, I now announce the Luke Warm Cover Blurb contest. Because good cover blurbs are boring, and bad ones are too obvious. I'm looking for the ones that make you step back and scratch your head -- do a double take.

Here are the rules:

1. Leave as many entries as you want to, between now and end of the day April 14, 2012.
2. My husband can get away with this because we have the same sense of humor and I think he's adorable, but for the sake of good karma, let's limit this contest to imaginary book titles and authors (or your own, if you're the masochistic type).
3. On April 15, the original Lukewarm Blurber himself will choose the winners. Each winner will get a book, with the first-place winner getting first choice, and so on. I'm not quite sure how many books I'll give away, but they will include at least:

Alright, folks. Happy blurbing!

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What Makes A Story Persuasive?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:21:00 +0000

Poking my head out briefly to say hi. Dissertation writing is taking quite a bit of time... (surprise surprise)

What was the last time a work of fiction changed your view on an issue? For me, it was Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, which made me think seriously about government intrusion on privacy. Fiction to make a point is nothing new. But what makes a story persuasive? A study from researchers Melianie Green and Timothy Brock points toward one ingredient.

These researchers were interested in what they called "transportation," the extent to which someone is absorbed and engaged in a story. They wanted to know if transportation made readers more likely to take on story-consistent beliefs.

Green and Brock had participants read a story about a college student whose little sister was stabbed to death by a psychiatric patient at the mall. After participants read the story, they answered a “Transportation questionnaire,” which included questions like "While I was reading the narrative, I could easily picture the events in it taking place," and "The narrative affected me emotionally."

The researchers found that readers with higher transportation scores had more story-consistent beliefs. They were more likely to think that stabbings were common in the United States, and that psychiatric patients should be supervised when they go out into the community.

Of course, correlation does not equal causation. It could be that transportation encourages story-consistent views, or it could be the other way around, that people who already held story-consistent beliefs were more easily transported into the story. So the researchers did some follow-ups. In one experiment, they surveyed participants about their views 5 to 9 weeks before they read the story. It turns out that initial beliefs did not predict transportation. In another study, the researchers manipulated transportation by having participants circle difficult vocabulary words while they were reading. As expected, this task distracted the readers. They reported both lower levels of transportation and less agreement with story-consistent beliefs.

So the bottom line to persuading with your fiction? Draw people in. Make them emotionally involved. In other words, write a good story.

Have you read any fiction that changed your views?

Hope you enjoyed this post! To get regular updates from this blog, use the subscription options on the sidebar.

Also, friend of the blog Passive Guy a.k.a. David Vandagriff a.k.a Darius Acheson recently released his novel The Titanboar Touchstone. Check it out!

When Jager touches a dead titanboar in the forest, a fierce power blazes into him. From that moment, his girlfriend, Rolinda, is condemned to a lingering death at the hands of corrupt Emperor Dragene. Jager’s titanboar magic is as changeable as his moods, working with breathtaking power one moment, but failing when he needs it most. The titanboars call him Bright One as he struggles to understand their cryptic expectations. An old man in the village, Wazdan, has a collection of talking cats and talented vultures. Wazille appears to be a gentle grandmother who enjoys cooking, but she also delights in green explosions in the midnight sky. As Dragene seeks Jager, Wazdan and Wazille try to prepare him for the dangerous challenges ahead. The secretive titanboars are drawn from their clandestine life in the forest by a need to protect Bright One from his expanding collection of enemies. Terrifying night creatures track Jager by a glow only they can see. Shadow Man appears in his dreams and Dragene sends flying orrocks to hunt him down. The titanboars are a riveting new magical creature in this epic fantasy. They are vastly superior to humans, but they desperately need one human, Jager, to ensure their survival.

Green, Melanie C.;Brock, Timothy C (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Starting the Second Novel: What I'm Doing Differently

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:09:00 +0000

It's crunch time in dissertation land. I’m aiming to graduate this June, so blog posts won't be as frequent this semester. Hopefully I'll come out the other side without too many dead brain cells. :-)

With the new year, it’s a good time to talk about new beginnings. Now that I’ve finished revisions on Midnight Thief for agent Jim, I'm starting a new novel.

It's a very different experience this time around. Three years ago, I was blissfully ignorant about the whole process. Seven revisions, two years of critique group meetings, and 178 blog posts later, I’ve learned a few lessons.

These some things I've learned and/or am doing differently the second time around.

1. I have a better understanding of point of view (POV). When I first started writing, I mistakenly misinterpreted “show don't tell” as "never say when a character feels.” My scenes were written from a distant viewpoint -- like a camera looking at the characters from the outside. While there's objectively nothing wrong with this approach, I've since learned the advantages of a deeper POV. After all, one perk of novels over movies is that the reader gets access to a character's thoughts. I now know more about incorporating internal narration and shading narration through a character’s eyes and worldview.

2. I'm spending more pre-writing time on characters. When I started Midnight Thief, I approached the characters mostly as "peopleI need to further the plot.” Characters in the first few drafts were pretty flat, and I spent a good deal of revision time rounding them out. This time, I'm building them up before I start writing. These are some of the exercises that I've been using.

3. Instead of thinking about how to keep readers hooked, I'm thinking about how to make readers care. I relied a lot on cliffhanger endings for Midnight Thief. While I love my cliffhangers dearly, they can only take you so far. I now see cliffhangers as part of a larger set of tools to keep readers invested. If readers build an emotional connection to the character, they'll keep reading -- plus, they'll keep thinking about the book after they finish. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this in practice. Some ideas are building emotional depth, making your character the underdog, and save the cat moments. Cheryl Klein has also a nice list of attributes that make a character likable. Any other suggestions?

4. In addition to plot arc, I'm thinking about character arcs and relationship arcs. Again, my first few drafts of Midnight Thief focused heavily on plot. The second time around, I'm also thinking about character journeys and the push-pull of character relationships as the story develops. The latter is especially good for building tension.

5. I'm using more setting to enhance the story. I didn't include much setting description in Midnight Thief because I'm the type of reader who skips over descriptive passages. But I've since learned ways to include setting details in non-obtrusive ways. For example, in props used by the characters, and small details that fill the beats between bits of dialogue and action.

So how is book 2 going? Well, for all those noble aspirations, the first draft is still pretty darn bad. But that's what first drafts are for, I guess. I do have to work a lot harder to silence my internal editor, but on the other hand it's very exciting to see a new story take shape.

So readers, what about you? What do you do differently now, compared to when you first started writing?

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Also, friend of the blog Gina Penn recently released her new novel The Dark Layer. Check it out!
Annemarie Lukas Bredahl has recently left her husband and moved into a small but cozy house in the lower middle-class city of Holly, Ohio. Alone except for her dog and scared of being on her own, she tries to adapt to her newly single life. As if things couldn’t get worse, she starts noticing items moving around on their own and the plumbing in her new place needs work. On a recommendation she calls Jackson Terry, a local plumber, and he proves to be the perfect distraction from her failing marriage. Annemarie knows something isn’t right with the house. Crosses appear and disappear on the walls. Her dog goes missing. She consults her long-time priest and although at first unwilling to personally help, he tells her that her house may be filled with souls trying to escape Hell by slipping through a hole in the dark layer-a layer between Heaven and Hell. This is too much for Annemarie. She only wants a normal new life and new relationship with Jackson. Instead, she must learn why the dark souls slipping through want her and her alone to guide them to what any damned soul wants-salvation.

How to Incorporate Backstory That Hooks The Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:21:00 +0000

Spoiler warning: Spoilers for the John Rain series by Barry Eisler. Also, The Detachment reached #1 on the Kindle store this week. Congrats, Barry!

I don't often read series out of order, but Barry Eisler was kind enough to send me a review copy of The Detachment when he visited the blog. The Detachment can be read as a standalone, although there are references to events from previous books.

While I often find “here’s what you’ve missed” sections boring, I enjoyed the backstory passages in The Detachment. They actually made me eager to go back and read the previous volumes. Now why would that be? Time to dig out the old magnifying glass.

Here are some sample sections. They center on the relationship between the assassin John Rain, his hitman buddy Dox, and his ex-lover Delilah. [Note: I don't actually know for sure if they describe events from a previous book, since I haven't read them yet, but it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog entry.]

Passage 1 (John Rain narrating):

The three of us had been through a lot together: first, as opposing players on hair triggers; then, when Mossad had brought me in to take out a rogue Israeli bomb maker named Lavi, on the same team; and then, most improbably, watching each other's backs for reasons that had nothing to do with national interests and everything to do with personal allegiances. What had bloomed between Delilah and me, I knew, was as improbable as it was precious.

Passage 2:

I wound up telling [another character] about Hong Kong, and Hilger, and how Dox had walked away from a $5 million payday to save my life, and how I killed two innocent people just to buy time to save Dox's life.

Passage 3:

[Another character speaking] "You told me [Dox] saved your life."
[John Rain speaking ] "That was the obvious part. He also proved to me that I could trust somebody. Of the two, I think the second had more lasting effect."

These passages made me want to know more. But what was it about them that caught my attention?

Some thoughts:

1. They described critical decisions Someone walking away from a $5 million payday to save a friend? Killing two innocent people to buy time? The loyalties and emotions promise an engaging story. (As a side note, the way these passages tell just enough to make you want more is this is a good example of how to get someone's attention by introducing a knowledge gap.)

2. They describe key points of change. Passage one outlines how the relationship between the three characters developed over time – from enemies to allies. Passage three describes how an event fundamentally changed John Rain’s world view. These are pivotal moments that let the reader understand characters more deeply.

So what lessons to draw from this? Well, at the surface level, boiling down backstory to key decisions and points of change is a good trick for your writer's toolbox.

But on a broader scale, it's a lesson on what makes a story. Good stories are about life's inflection points, the times when a character’s personality, relationships, or situation change, and the decisions that bring that to pass. These moments are so full of emotion, drama, and conflict that we want to hear more even if we know how things turn out. (This ties in to last week's discussion of spoilers.)

So readers, your turn. Any examples of decision moments or points of change, either from your own writing or from other books?

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Spoilers: Good or Bad?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:50:00 +0000

One of my favorite Threadless T shirts

I hate spoilers. Once I turned on the TV and accidentally watched last 10 min. of The Usual Suspects (I hadn't seen it before). Whoops. I also figured out the ending of The Sixth Sense halfway through and was grumpy the rest of the movie because I'd missed out on the surprise.

But do spoilers actually decrease enjoyment?

Spoiler alert: A recent study says no.

Researchers at UCSD conducted an experiment to see how spoilers affect readers' enjoyment of a story. They had students read three types of short stories: ironic twist stories, mysteries, and evocative literary stories.

The stories were presented in one of three ways:
1) In its original form (unspoiled condition)
2)With a spoiler paragraph presented before the story (external spoiler)
3)With a spoiler paragraph incorporated as the first paragraph of the story (incorporated spoiler).

Participants rated each story for enjoyment on a scale of 1 to 10.

The result was counterintuitive. For all three types of stories, subjects gave higher ratings for externally spoiled stories than for the unspoiled stories. Interestingly, incorporating the spoiler in the opening paragraph did not raise enjoyment. In those cases, the enjoyment was the same as for the unspoiled stories.

Given these results, will I be less careful about avoiding spoilers? Probably not. The enjoyment rating used in this experiment was a coarse measure, and I don't think it quite captures the delightful surprise of a good twist ending. You might indeed enjoy the story better overall the second time, when you have a better idea of what to look for and aren’t distracted by curiosity, but you can only be surprised once. For me at least, that first naive read is still worth protecting. On the other hand, if a story is accidentally spoiled for me, I probably won't feel quite as gypped as I would have before. And the does change my intuitions about what makes a story enjoyable.

Finally, It's interesting that the external spoiler increased enjoyment, while the incorporated spoilers did not. The researchers suggested that this was because an incorporated spoiler led the reader to believe there was still more to the story that the author would reveal later. So maybe readers weredisappointed when they found out that there actually wasn't anything more, or perhaps the external spoiler allowed the reader to relax and enjoy the story without constantly thinking ahead. More on this next week, but for now, what do you think? Do you avoid spoilers?

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Also, friend of the blog Catherine Stine recently released her YA novel, Fireseed One. Set in a near-future world with soaring heat, toxic waters, tricked-out gadgets, and fish that grow up on vines, Varik Teitur inherits a vast sea farm after the mysterious death of his marine biologist father. When Marisa Baron, a beautiful and shrewd intruder, who knows way too much about Varik’s father’s work, tries to steal seed disks from the world’s food bank, Varik is forced to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold and venture with her, into a hot zone teeming with treacherous nomads and a cult who worships his dead father, in order to search for a magical hybrid plant that may not even exist.

Leavitt JD, & Christenfeld NJ (2011). Story spoilers don't spoil stories. Psychological science, 22 (9), 1152-4 PMID: 21841150

Top Five Book Picks of 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:56:00 +0000

I usually don't do book reviews, but once in a while, it's fun to blog as a reader rather than a writer. Here are my favorite books that I read this past year. I read many other fantastic books as well, but if I have to limit myself to five...

(Listed in the order in which I read them.)

1. Plain Kate by Erin Bow

I have already gushed about Plain Kate -- the poetic language, the heartbreak. I loved this book so much that I bought two copies – one to keep and one to underline and analyze. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytales and bittersweet stories.

2. Push by Sapphire

Push is not an easy book to read. It's told from the point of view of a girl who was sexually abused by both her father and her mother and becomes pregnant twice by her father. The narrator's voice is very strong, and despite its dark subject matter, the story is surprisingly hopeful.

3.Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

My writing group reads a young adult book once a month, and this was the first book since The Hunger Games that all five of us loved. I couldn’t figure out how to blog about it though. I remember trying to draw principles about why it worked, and the only thing I could come up with was “be interesting and hilarious,” which, while true, isn't exactly the type of concrete advice that makes for useful blog entries. So yeah, still no idea how it works -- I mean, as far as I can tell, there isn't even a plot for the first few chapters. But I was still turning the pages, and laughing my head off.

4. Vicarious Pleasures and In Sickness and in Health by Jacob Appel.

Okay, so this is technically two, but they are short stories so I'm counting them as one. I don’t often read literary fiction, but I was really drawn to these stories. I love Appel’s characters -- he paints incredibly vivid, complex, yet identifiable people in just a few pages. And both the stories had endings that left me thinking.
(FTC Disclaimer: I received these two as review copies from the publisher, but that had nothing to do with their inclusion on this list.)

5. The Fever Series by Karen Marie Moning

I had an interesting experience with this series. I actively disliked the main character Mac in the first book – I mean, seriously wanted to punch her in the face. The next two books felt like a lot of set up and not really books in their own right. But the series had an addictive pull. Mac grew as a character over time, and all the setup from the earlier books paid off on a grand scale in books four and five. The series itself is hard to put in a genre. It’s a paranormal romance at the core, with lots of action, plus the cast size and world building of an epic fantasy. Ultimately, your opinion of the series will depend on your reaction to the male lead Jericho Barrons. If you enjoy romances involving conflicted and dysfunctional, yet intriguingly sexy men, you’ll probably like the Fever series. (Parental Advisory: This series is not family-friendly. At all.)

So, dear readers, your turn. Have you read any of these books? What are you own picks from the past year?

Tips On Responding to Public Criticism (Inspired by Steve Jobs)

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:47:00 +0000

The Internet is an interesting place. When people interact through computer screens, it increases anonymity and decreases inhibitions while dehumanizing the person on the other end. This is why online interactions tend to be so polite and respectful.

Um, right.

The truth is, if you spend enough time on the Internet, you’ll eventually take your turn as a punching bag. As a blogger and future author, I'm very interested in how people react to public criticism. A while back, I ran across this video of Steve Jobs during a question-and-answer session. A man asks an insulting question, and Jobs’ response was quite impressive. It's worth taking a look.

Let's break down this response see if we can come up with some generalizable tips for dealing with public criticism.

1. You don't have to respond right away. When someone criticizes you and everybody’s watching, there's some pressure to say something right back. But resist that temptation. Take some time and think things over. But should you respond at all? I can't answer that for you, but a few questions to consider.

Is the criticism worth dignifying with a response? My levelheaded husband talks me out of a flame wars by asking that very question. If someone is raising reasonable objections, it might be worth responding. But if someone is just being snarky or immature (On the internet? No way!), it may not be worth sinking down to their level.
Are you being criticized in a hostile environment? Generally, the more hostile the environment, the more carefully you have to consider your response. If you're a part of the traditional publishing establishment, being lambasted on an virulently indie blog, or if you’re indie author trying to defend self publishing on a pro traditional writer’s forum, it may not matter how well reasoned your responses are. If the audience is already predisposed to hating you, they may not listen, and you'll just end up getting even more frustrated.
Think twice about responding to reviews I recently saw this blog post asking whether authors should respond to reviews. Several commentors mentioned that it was awkward when authors responded to bad reviews, even if it was in a nice way. Sometimes readers need a safe place to discuss books without feeling like the author is looking over their shoulder.

2. If there is truth to the criticism, acknowledge it. Hard to imagine, but sometimes your critics might be right. If that's true, then you’re better of acknowledging it than digging your heels in and denying everything. I'm often surprised that how effective an acknowledgment or apology can be for diffusing a tense situation. Several times, I’ve seen an angry commenter march onto a blog demanding blood for a perceived insult. But the blogger apologized, and it all smoothed over. In more than one case, the angry commenter ended up apologizing for his own initial rudeness as well.

3. Maintain your composure and sense of humor. People tune out when they see angry ranting. You come across as much more reasonable and mature if you stay calm.

4. Elevate the discussion. As they say, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." In the video, Steve Jobs took a thinly veiled insult and redirected the discussion to something more productive. Rather than discuss whether or not he was an idiot, he focused on the importance of looking at the big picture.

Have you ever been criticized in a public forum? How did you respond?

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Do Re-readers Tend to Be Revisers?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:44:00 +0000

So today on twitter, agent Holly Root proposed a theory: Editors tend to have been re-readers as kids; agents were rarely re-readers. (via Molly O'Neill)

I don't know about agents and editors, but that made me wonder how re-reading and re-writing are related for writers. I proposed my own hypothesis: Writers who like revising were re-readers as kids. Writers who like first drafts, not so much.

People on twitter started weighing in, some who fit this pattern, and some who didn't. Which made me curious enough to put up a little unscientific poll.

What are your rereading and revising preferences? (Email subscribers and people reading in feed readers will need to click through to the web page to take the poll.)

poll by twiigs.com

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The Psychology of Attraction: The Intertwining of Sex and Aggression

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:39:00 +0000

"His gaze flickered to my lips. I got that. He was once again furious with me and once again perfectly ready to have sex with me. The conundrum that was Barrons. Apparently it was impossible for him to feel anything as far as I was concerned without getting angry about it. Did anger make them want to have sex with me? Or was it that he always wanted to have sex with me that made him so angry?"

--Shadowfever, by Karen Marie Moning

So I’m looking back over the "Psychology of Attraction" series, and so far we have fear, uncertainty, and now aggression. Which makes me think I should clarify some things before y'all stage an intervention. This series is not meant to be a picture of how healthy relationships work, or even how the majority of relationships work. They’re interesting tidbits that might be useful for a novelist. As often is the case, the healthy cases don’t always make interesting stories.

Actually, that's an interesting thought -- that the pathological makes for more gripping stories. Is it true? Is it desirable? Which dovetails nicely into today's post.

When I was researching the article on fear, I ran across some old studies exploring the relationship between aggression and sexuality. The basic idea was that the experimenters made test participants angry and then tested them for sexual arousal.

In one case, the experiment was conducted in a class on the day a midterm was supposed to be returned. The instructor told the students that almost everybody had failed and then went on to lambaste the class on their bad performance. Then, a visiting lecturer from a prestigious Ivy League university gave a guest lecture in which he was very condescending toward the students in the class. (The students were enrolled in a less prestigious institution).

After the anger manipulation, students were given pictures and asked to write stories based on the pictures. As you may have guessed, the angry students had more sexual imagery in their stories than students in a control condition.

Now I'm not sure if there's anything special about aggression and sex. It could be, that any strong emotion (like fear) will cause an increase in sexual drive. However, as a storyteller and a reader, I still thought it was worth discussing.

Many stories mix aggression into their romance threads. In the Fever Series quoted above, Jericho Barrons and MacKayla Lane have a very combative relationship, which increases the sparks when they finally get together. There are so many other examples: Katsa and Po in Graceling, the fight scene turned sex scene in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. My own novel features a conflicted relationship between my main character Kyra and “dangerous-yet-intriguingly-sexy-assassin.”*

So how do I feel about this? Well, on the one hand, it's clearly effective -- I found all the examples above to be very compelling.

On the other hand, I'm of glad that the YA genre doesn't tend to take this too far. Because while situations like these may seem sexy on paper, many women (and men) do learn the hard way that the aggressive and unpredictable alpha type is not so sexy in real life.

So, readers, I turn the question to you. How do you feel about the mixing of violence and sex in literature?

*BTW, it's ridiculously hard to write co-ed close-combat scenes in a PG way. I got so many fight scenes back from my writing group with phrases like “It’s ridiculously hard” circled, and “Lol!” scribbled the margin. Hence, the inspiration for this post.

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Barclay, A., & Haber, R. (1965). The relation of aggressive to sexual motivation1 Journal of Personality, 33 (3), 462-475 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1965.tb01398.x

Showcase The Sexy, But Don't False Advertise (and other lessons I learned when writing my book pitch)

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional slush reader, nor am I a veteran indie author who’s A/B tested dozens of cover blurbs. But I do love writing query letters! And agent Jim did use my unmodified query to pitch Midnight Thief in the DGLM newsletter. (Jim also asked to use it as an example in his classes on query writing, which did amazing things for my ego, until Secretly-Supportive-But-Very-Mischievous-Husband asked if the class was called “How Not to Write A Query.” Ah, what are our loved ones for, if not to keep us humble.)

These are the lessons I learned while I was writing my query. Hopefully you will find something helpful for your own queries, book blogger pitches, etc...

1. Showcase the sexy

You’d think that a writer would know what’s sexy about her novel, but that wasn’t true in my case. My first query draft began:

“In a city besieged by vicious barbarians, Kyra struggles to clothe and shelter her two adopted sisters. Then she meets James, the deadly yet intriguing assassin with his eye on Kyra’s extraordinary grace and agility. If Kyra will infiltrate the palace for him, he'll pay her more than enough to meet her needs. ”

Okay, fine, but could you tell that my heroine could scale six-story buildings without a rope and sprint along narrow ledges in total darkness? Not really. Thankfully, my critique partners pointed out that I had summarized the sexy right out of my story. For later drafts, I emphasized Kyra's abilities. The final version started like this:

“To Kyra, high walls and locked doors are not obstacles, but invitations. She specializes in nighttime raids, using her sharp senses and extraordinary agility to break into Forge’s most well-guarded homes. Then she meets James, the deadly but intriguing Head of the Assassin’s Guild. He has a job for Kyra: infiltrate the supposedly impenetrable Palace compound. The pay is good, and the challenge appealing. It’s the perfect job for someone of her talents.”

2. Decide how much you want to reveal

Pitches are a tease, showing just enough to entice. When I was drafting my query, I obsessed over how much was the "right amount" to reveal. Agent X said 50 pages, but Editor Y said to tell everything up to the very end. In hindsight, I was being silly. The correct answer, of course, is that it depends on your story and what you want your pitch to accomplish.

The first few drafts of my query letter only covered the first third of the story. And if I were to self publish my novel, I would probably limit the cover copy to the first third as well -- it’s enough to attract the right type of reader, but it doesn’t give away any of my plot twists. My novel actually ends up in a very different place from that initial setup, but my instinct is that a casual reader would rather discover the twists as she’s reading.

But as it was, I wasn’t writing my pitch for a casual reader. I was writing for an agent with a huge slush pile, and I wanted her to know that my book was more than a simple thief story. Therefore, I made a trade-off – revealing a few plot twists in order to show a more complete picture of what happens. Did my approach work? I don’t know, since I didn’t test different query letter versions. But that was I was aiming for, at least.

3. Sexy is good. False advertising, not so much.

Among the numerous drafts of my query letter is “the draft that shall never be spoken of again.” This was the one where I made a big deal about the sexy mysterious assassin, and Kyra’s dangerous yet growing fascination with said ZOMG sexy assassin. Totally hawt. I’d read that book!

Unfortunately, this version of the query made my book sound more like a category romance than a young adult adventure. So while the pitch might have enticed some readers to pick it up, it probably would have enticed the wrong type of reader. And that reader would have been sorely disappointed at the lack of, um, “action” in my action adventure. Thanks again to my critique buddies for saving me from myself.

4. Be a Pessimist, and Don’t be a Slave to the Summary

A typical narrative can be thought of as a series of successively larger obstacles. You run into obstacle one, and then it resolves. And then obstacle two comes, and then that resolves. Lather, rinse, repeat.

To make up an example: "Stacy loses her favorite puppy, but thankfully tracks it down after several days. Then she realizes that a dog-napping ring was behind it all. She works out an arrangement with the neighborhood dogwalkers, and together they disrupt the ring."

When writing a pitch, it can be tempting to summarize both the conflicts and the resolutions equally. But instead, try emphasizing the problems more than the resolutions.

"Stacy loses her favorite puppy, and her investigations lead her to a horrible dognapping ring. Now, her only hope is to work with the annoying and unfriendly neighborhood dogwalkers, and if she doesn’t succeed, all the dogs in her city will die."

So those were the main lessons I learned while writing my novel pitch. How do you go about writing yours?

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SFFWRTCHT and How To Do A Social Media Event

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Today we have a guest post from Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Bryan runs #SFFWRTCHT (Sci-Fi writer chat), a weekly twitter chat that interviews science fiction and fantasy authors. He blogs about the event's origins here, and today, he shares some tips about how to run social media events.

In late October 2010 at World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, I found inspiration for utilizing social media and my past experience in entertainment and journalism to bring authors together to discuss and learn about the craft and business of writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Knowing I wouldn’t likely attend many conventions the following year, for budget reasons, I decided to bring the panel to us and created SFFWRTCHT, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat. My little idea grew within months to a major platform and has cemented my reputation and network in the industry, leading to opportunities I had only dreamed of. So Livia asked me to blog a bit about how to do a social media event, and I offer the following tips.

1. Manage Social Media Events Like A Professional – Whether your intent is a casual setting or a formal one, run your event as professionally as possible. This means start early with planning and get organized. Promote it well and enlist the help of others in doing so. When it’s occurring, be professional in keeping things flowing as much as possible. Keep people on topic, avoid trolling, and generally steer things by using your comments to redirect discussions and set the right tone. For #sffwrtcht, I write out all my 140 character questions in advance. It saves stress and time during the fast moving chat, allows me to send them to guests if requested, and enables me to adlib follow up questions and interactions with guest and attendees during the live event without having to stress about questions.

2. Do Your Research – Others are doing Social Media events. Study up. Lurking is an acceptable SM past time, so use it to watch what others are doing and how they do it. Especially look for events similar to your own in theme and/or approach. Make notes if necessary. It’s always good to learn from what works and what doesn’t by observing it in action before you take it on yourself. Also, don’t be afraid to find out what people enjoy and want by asking those you know or even those you don’t. The SM community is usually more than happy to engage about such things and good research helps you hone your event for greater success. Additionally, research the guest, their work, etc. The more knowledgeable you are, the better your event will be.

3. Community Is Key – Being organized and professional should not prevent you from sticking to the core draw of Social Media: community. It’s called “social” for a reason. Don’t be too stuck on your plans or too rigid in your expectations. Be prepared to take charge and guide things when needed but be flexible to accept if they unfold differently. I started the chat like a TV interview with me asking most of the questions. I found that people were more interested if they could participate, so I made the change. I still ask most of the questions but others get involved and interest has really grown. It’s also a lot more fun for everyone, including the guests.

4. Promote Early And Widely – Don’t just promote your Facebook event on Facebook, make use of every outlet you can find from other Social Media outlets like Twitter to blogs and more. The more interest you generate, the more fun the event tends to be for everyone. And it’s never too soon to get the word out. Just be sure you don’t overdo it. Obnoxious publicity is worse than none at all. Here’s a few tips I offer on Promoting With Social Media. Still, to be successful, people do need to know about your event so start early and promote as many places as you can.

5. Prepare Guests – Part of being organized and professional is making sure your event guests are also prepared. The more relaxed they are, the better your event will be. They will also enjoy it more. If you’re doing an interview, offer to send questions in advance. Make sure they understand the format. Accommodate special requests when possible. Be warm and inviting and help them feel at ease. All of this will make your event shine and go smoothly.

6. Rest Up – Try and plan your event at a time when you can be relaxed and ready. Build some time prior to the event into your schedule to review notes, research, and even just relax quietly so that when the event starts, and things get crazy quick, you’re at your best. Especially with live events, things move rapidly and it can be hard to keep up. It’s even worse when you’re already tired or stressed. So don’t set yourself up. Rest Up and prepare.

7. Network, Network, Network – Social Media are the best networking tools invented and part of your success depends on your network. You need others to help spread the word, to attend your event and to help point you to potential topics, guests and research. Start early with this and when the time comes, you’ll have built in resources. Promote other people and they’ll promote you. Spread the word about their events, and they’ll spread the word about yours, often without you needing to ask. Some of the best PR I get for chat and my book has been from people who took it upon themselves to help me just because I helped them in the past. Being a good Social Media citizen is key to your success in every aspect of your Social Media activities.

Well, there’s a few tips to get you started if you’re considering a Social Media event. There’s plenty more. Perhaps you can suggest some in comments. Livia and I would love to hear from you. If you’re interested in learning from Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat, we have a blog here or you can search the #sffwrtcht hashtag on Twitter. Thanks for reading. And best of luck with your events!

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novel The Worker Prince, the collection The North Star Serial, and has several short stories forthcoming in anthologies and magazines. He’s also the host of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter, where he interviews people like Mike Resnick, AC Crispin, Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via his website. Excerpts from The Worker Prince can be found on his blog. 1 5-star & 5 4-star reviews THE WORKER PRINCE $3.99 Kindle
or Nook $14.99 tpb

On Turnips and Routines

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:28:00 +0000

Me: I added something to my novel that I love.

Secretly-Supportive-But-Very-Mischievous-Husband: [Tears eyes from computer screen.] What?

Me: In the second scene when Flick and Kyra eat dinner, he takes the turnips out of his bowl and absentmindedly pushes them to Kyra, and then she EATS THE TURNIPS.

SSBVMH: I see.

Me: That adds like sooooooo much. Do you know like HOW MUCH that adds?

SSBVMH: That . . . Flick doesn't like turnips?

Me: Well, yes but what else?

SSBVMH: [shrugs]

Me: What????

SSBVMH: I got nothin’

Me: Well you OBVIOUSLY aren't cut out to be an author then. I'll explain it to you.

SSBVMH: Wait, no! Anything but that! I take it all back!

Me: Then what does it tell you?

SSBVMH: . . . . That Flick reeeaally doesn't like turnips?

Me: [stare]

SSBVMH: That Kyra does like turnips?

Me: OMG. It means like they have such a long history of eating together and know each other so well that they’ve worked out this seamless routine based on their food preferences.

SSBVMH: Oh. [Pause] Well it's not that good if you have to explain it.

Which is all a long way to say that blog posts have been scarce because I've been revising like an obsessed madwoman. But more soon, and a guest post on Monday from Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

What kind of conversations do you have with your family members about writing?

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The Psychology of Attraction: Uncertainty

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:05:00 +0000

A while back, I was reading a romance. In the story, the girl meets a charming, handsome guy, and things are proceeding as usual. But then, out of the blue, a boy she’d hated for years suddenly kisses her and runs away. ZOMG! I was mildly interested in guy number one, but when guy number two showed up, I really took notice.

Jump cut to another story, where a girl meets an old flame. He's distant, but sometimes shows flashes of interest. As the shared moments continue, I’m avidly turning the pages. Soon, he's actively courting her -- bringing her lunch and supporting her through emotional trauma, and . . . I lose interest.

In both cases, the guy who might have been attracted to the girl was more interesting to me than the guy who definitely was attracted to the girl. Which got me to thinking. What is it about uncertainty and attraction?

Well funny I should ask! In fact, there was a recent study . . .

This study was done on female college students. They signed up in advance and gave researchers permission to show their Facebook profiles to others. When the women arrived, researchers told them that they were testing Facebook as an online dating site and that male students from other universities had reviewed their Facebook profiles and rated how much they thought they would like each woman. Then, the women were given Facebook profiles of four men to rate.

And here's the important part. One group was told that these four men had given them the highest ratings (the liked-best condition). One group was told that these four men had given them average ratings (the average-like condition). And yet a third group was told that the four men gave them either high or average ratings (the uncertain condition). In truth, the four men were fictitious.

So which group was most attracted to the men? Participants in the liked-best condition were more attracted to the men than participants in the average-like condition. Women were more attracted to guys who like them.

But here’s the kicker: Participants in the uncertain condition were more attracted to the men than women in either of the other groups. They also reported thinking about the men more often.

So looks like there is something to uncertainty. Perhaps the sheer excitement of wondering is enough to make that hot guy that much more desirable. So if you're looking to inject some romantic tension into your story, consider making things more uncertain.

Have you read any romances lately that did this?

Whitchurch ER, Wilson TD, & Gilbert DT (2011). "He loves me, he loves me not . . . ": uncertainty can increase romantic attraction. Psychological science, 22 (2), 172-5 PMID: 21169522

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Revision Adventures: Building Strong Characters and Emotional Depth

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 03:53:00 +0000

I’m currently revising my manuscript in response to editorial suggestions -- mostly from my agent Jim, but also from feedback I received during my agent search and from my second round of beta readers.

The focus is on increasing emotional and character depth, and I thought I'd share some themes and tips from my revision notes.

1. Relationships should include both tension and harmony

Relationships will be more compelling if they include a balance of conflict and cooperation. For example, my villain is a pretty ruthless guy, but his evil deeds would have more impact if my protagonist (and my readers) believed that he was also capable of good. Therefore, I’m reworking some passages to show his nicer side. Likewise, there’s an “older brother” figure who acts as a emotional anchor. That's all well and good, but making him less unconditionally supportive and more human adds depth to his relationship with my protagonist, and the conflict actually strengthens their emotional bond.

2. Present backstory early to increase character depth

Several readers mentioned having trouble connecting to one of my point-of view characters. I’ve been doing several thing to address this. First, I’m going through and fleshing out his emotional reactions. Also, Jim suggested moving his backstory earlier in the narrative so readers can get a better sense of who he is. My opinions of backstory have changed quite a bit over the past year. I used to avoid it because people so often warned against backstory overload, but I'm coming to realize how important it is for character bonding. Also, an analysis of some favorite books showed that backstory was actually more prevalent than I thought.

3. Everything should be connected

When a big emotional event happens, it should echo through the later scenes, in the character's thoughts, and affect her later actions. Also, characters that have a strong emotional bond with the protagonist should appear in her thoughts at appropriate times.

When I revise, I give myself writing exercises to see the manuscript with fresh eyes. This is what I've been doing from scene to scene.

1. Write out each character’s motivation going in.

2. Ask whether any of these developments in the scene make the character think of previous events, future events, or other characters.

3. Jot down the POV character's emotional state from paragraph to paragraph.
This has been both entertaining and enlightening. I started off eloquently, with notes like “confused”, “worried”, “uneasy.” Halfway through the book, notes have disintegrated into “Gahhh!”, “ZOMG”, “Run!!!!.”
But I’ve found this exercise useful for pinpointing places where the emotion didn't quite make it onto the page. It also maps out dramatic tension. My most exciting scenes have emotions that change every paragraph. Sometimes however, I will only mark one emotion for an entire page -- and surprise, surprise, those are usually the scenes that test readers have told me were emotionally flat.

Thus far, I'm really excited about how revisions are going. I feel like this round is really stretching me as a writer and forcing me to work on my blind spots.

Now readers, it's your turn. What are your tricks for increasing emotional and character depth?

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From St. Martins, to Self Publishing, to Amazon: Q&A With Barry Eisler

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Livia: Barry, good to have you here with an excerpt from The Detachment on the day it goes on sale.

Barry: My pleasure, Livia, and thanks for having me.

Livia: It's impossible to consider The Detachment without also considering the story behind it. You announced back in March that you had walked away from a half-million-dollar offer from St. Martin's Press to self-publish the book. Then, at BEA in May, you announced that the book would be published instead by Amazon's Thomas & Mercer imprint. Can you tell us a bit more about the unusual path to publication for this book?

Barry: Well, it's a long story, told more fully in Be The Monkey, my online conversation with Joe Konrath available for free download from my website. But the gist of it is, I was looking for a digital split (legacy publishers offer authors only 17.5% of the retail price of digital books), a level of control over packaging and pricing, and time-to-market that's impossible with a legacy publisher. Those three items are of course entirely possible with -- indeed, they're the essence of -- self-publishing, so I decided to self-publish The Detachment.

But when Amazon heard about my decision, they approached me and essentially offered me the best of both worlds: the kind of split, control, and time-to-market I wanted from self-publishing, combined with Amazon's marketing muscle. Also, no ridiculous non-compete clauses, and I'm still self-publishing short stories, the odd book on publishing, and political essays, and have complete freedom to do what I like with all future works. In short, Amazon offered a better way of achieving my objectives, so I went with Amazon. This disappointed a few self-publishing ideologues -- that is, people for whom self-publishing is the end, rather than a means -- and I get that, but publishing is a business for me, not an ideology, and I'll use whatever means seems best-suited for achieving my objectives.

Anyway, so far, it's been a terrific experience. All the Amazon people I've worked with are smart, creative, and a lot of fun. I knew I was in for a different kind of publishing experience from the beginning, because the draft contract they presented me was the best publishing agreement I've ever seen -- and they were open to my suggestions for how to make it even better. They seem determined to build a publishing arm that's predicated on what's best for readers and authors, and I think they're off to a great start.

Livia: Here’s Chapter 2 of Barry’s new thriller, The Detachment, available today exclusively from the Amazon Kindle Store (and in paper in bookstores everywhere on October 18). You can read other chapters, and Q&A with Barry on other topics, at the following blogs:

Chapter 1 – Truthout: The Politics of The Detachment
Chapter 3 – Buzz, Balls & Hype: The book’s image system
Chapter 4 – Jungle Red Writers: Combining the series worlds of Rain and Treven
Chapter 5 – A Newbie’s Guide to Writing: Publishing a book with Amazon

* * * * *

Chapter 2

Ben Treven and Daniel Larison sat on stools at the window counter of a Douter Coffee shop fifty yards south of the Kodokan on Hakusan-dori, sipping black coffee and waiting for the two contractors to return. Treven had wanted to join them, to get a firsthand look at the man whom up until the week before he’d thought to be a myth, but Larison had insisted there was no upside to sending in more than two of them, and Treven knew he was right. It bothered him how easily and naturally Larison had established himself as the alpha of the team, but he also had to admit that Larison, in his mid-forties, ten years Treven’s senior, had seen more of the shit even than Treven had, and had survived heavier opposition. He told himself if he kept his mouth shut he might learn something, and he supposed it was true. But after ten years in the Intelligence Support Activity, the deliberately blandly named covert arm of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command, he wasn’t used to running into people who acted like his tactical superiors, and even fewer he thought might be right about it.

Treven was facing the window in the direction of the Kodokan, and saw the contractors, whom he knew only as Beckley and Krichman, approaching before Larison did. He nodded his head slightly. “Here they come.”

Larison had instructed all of them to use their mobile phones as little as possible and to keep them shut off, with the batteries removed, except at previously agreed-upon intervals. The units were all rented, of course, and all under false identities, but good security involved multiple layers. The CIA’s careless use of cell phones in the Abu Omar rendition from Milan had led to the issuance of arrest warrants from an Italian judge for a bunch of CIA officials, including the Milan station chief, and Treven figured Larison was applying the lessons of that op to this one. Still, the current precautions struck him as excessive—they weren’t here to kill or kidnap Rain, after all, only to contact him. On the other hand, just as with sending only the two contractors into the Kodokan for the initial recon, he supposed there was no real downside to the extra care.

The contractors came in and stood so they were facing Treven and Larison and had a view of the street. Treven had seen plenty of foreigners in this section of the city, but even so he knew they were all conspicuous. Treven’s blond hair and green eyes had always been somewhat of a surveillance liability, of course, but he figured that to the average Japanese, such features wouldn’t much distinguish him from Larison, with his dark hair and olive skin, or from any other Caucasian foreigner, for that matter. What the natives would notice, and remember, was the collective size of the four of them. Treven, a heavyweight wrestler in high school and linebacker for Stanford before dropping out, was actually the smallest of the group. Larison was obviously into weights, and, if Hort could be believed, maybe steroids, too. And the contractors could almost have been pro wrestlers. Treven wondered if Hort had selected them in the hope their size might intimidate Rain when they made contact. He doubted it would make a difference. Size only mattered in a fair fight, and from what he’d heard of Rain, the man was too smart to ever allow a fight to be fair.

“He’s there,” the man called Beckley said. “Training, just like last night.”

Larison nodded. “Maybe we should switch off now,” he said in his low, raspy voice. “Two nights in a row, he’s probably spotted you. Treven and I can take the point.”

“He didn’t spot us,” Krichman said. “We were in the stands, he barely even glanced our way.”

Beckley grunted in agreement. “Look, if the guy were that surveillance conscious, he wouldn’t be showing up at the same location at the same time every night in the first place. He didn’t see us.”

Larison took a sip of coffee. “He any good? The judo, I mean.”

Krichman shrugged. “I don’t know. Seemed like he had his hands full with the kid he was training with.”

Larison took another sip of coffee and paused as though thinking. “You know, it probably doesn’t really matter that much whether he saw you or not. We know he’s here, we can just brace him on his way out.”

“Yeah, we could,” Krichman said, his tone indicating the man found the idea hopelessly unambitious. “But what kind of leverage do we have then? We found him at the Kodokan. Tomorrow he could just go and train somewhere else. Or give up training, period. We want him to feel pressured, isn’t that what Hort said? So let’s show him we know where he lives. Brace him there, make him feel we’re into his life in a big way. That’s how you get people to play ball—by getting them by the balls.”

Treven couldn’t disagree with the man’s assessment overall. He was surprised Larison didn’t see it that way, too. But Larison must have realized his oversight, because he said, “That makes sense. But come on, he must have seen you. Treven and I should take the point.”

“Look,” Beckley said, his tone indicating the tail end of patience, “he didn’t see us. Krichman and I will take the point.” He gestured to one of the buttons on his damp navy shirt. “You’ll see everything we see, through this. If he spots us, and I doubt he will, we’ll switch off like we planned. Okay?”

The button was actually the lens of a high definition pocket video camera that shot color in daylight and infrared-enhanced black-and-white at night. Each of them was similarly outfitted, and each unit transmitted wirelessly to the others on the network. A separate unit, about the size of a pack of playing cards, could be held in the hand to display what the other units were transmitting. It was nothing fancy, just a stripped-down and slightly modified version of the Eagle Eyes monitoring system that was increasingly popular with various government agencies, but it enabled a small surveillance team to spread out beyond what traditional line-of-sight would allow, and also enabled each team member to know the position of all the others without excessive reliance on cell phones or other verbal communication.

Larison raised his hands in a you win gesture. “All right. You two cover the entrance of the Kodokan. Treven and I will wait here and fall in behind you when you start following him.”

Beckley smiled—a little snidely, Treven thought. And it did seem like Larison, maybe in a weak attempt to save face, was pretending to issue orders that had in fact just been issued to him.

Beckley and Krichman went out. Larison turned and watched through the window as they walked away.

Treven said, “You think he’s going to come out again at the same time? Hort said he was so surveillance conscious.”

Larison took a sip of coffee. “Why do you think Hort sent those assholes along with us?”

It was a little annoying that Larison hadn’t just answered the question. Treven paused, then said, “He doesn’t trust us, obviously.”

“That’s right. They’re working for him, not with us. Remember that.”

Colonel Scott “Hort” Horton was Treven’s commander in the ISA, and had once been Larison’s, too, before Larison had gone rogue, faked his own death, and tried to blackmail Uncle Sam for a hundred million dollars worth of uncut diamonds in exchange for videos of American operatives torturing Muslim prisoners. He’d almost gotten away with it, too, but Hort had played him and kept the diamonds for himself. Treven wasn’t entirely sure why. On the one hand, Hort’s patriotism and integrity were unquestionable. A black man who might have been denied advancement in other areas but who was not only promoted, but held in awe by the army meritocracy, he loved the military and he loved the men who served under him. Yet none of that had prevented him from fucking Larison when he’d needed to, as he’d once tried to fuck Treven. He’d told Treven why: America was being run by a kind of oligarchy, which didn’t seem to trouble Hort much except that the oligarchy had become greedy and incompetent—grievous sins, apparently, in Hort’s strange moral universe. The country needed better management, he’d said. He was starting something big, and the diamonds were a part of it. So, he hoped, would be Treven and Larison, and this guy Rain they’d been sent to find, too, if he could be persuaded.

So of course Hort didn’t trust them. They weren’t under duress, exactly, but it wasn’t all a positive inducement, win-win dynamic, either. Larison had to be looking for payback, as well as a chance to recover the diamonds. And Treven had wised up enough to recognize the strings Hort had been using to manipulate him, and to know he needed to find a way to cut them, too. There was the little matter of some unfortunate security videos, for example, that could implicate Treven in the murder of a prominent former administration official. It didn’t matter that it had been a CIA op and that Treven had nothing to do with the man’s death. What mattered was that Hort and the CIA had the tapes, and might use them if Treven got out of line. So for the moment, the whole arrangement felt like an unstable alliance of convenience, all shifting allegiances and conflicting motives. Hort would never have sent them off without a means of monitoring them, and under the circumstances, Larison’s injunction that he remember who Beckley and Krichman were really working for felt gratuitous, even a little insulting. Maybe the man was just chafing at the fact that the contractors didn’t seem to give a shit about what Larison assumed was his own authority. Treven decided to let it go.

But what he wouldn’t let go was that Larison had ignored his question. “Same place, same time, same way out, two nights in a row?” he said. “That sound like our guy?”

Larison glanced at him, and Treven could have sworn the man was almost smiling.

“Depends,” Larison said.

“What do you mean?”

“Rain spotted them last night for sure, when they were there for longer. Very likely, he spotted them again tonight, too.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I would have spotted them. Because if this guy is who Hort says he is, he would have spotted them. Because if he’s not good enough to have spotted them, Hort wouldn’t even be bothering with him.”

Treven considered. “So what does that mean, if he spotted them but comes out the same way at the same time anyway?”

This time, Larison did smile. “It means I’m glad it’s not us walking point.”

How to Self Promote Without Selling Your Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Note: **If you see any pop up ads upon entering my site, I apologize and please email me at liviablackburne at gmail dot com. There aren't supposed to be any.***

My parents own an import business, and we often talked about their work around the dinner table. I remember a conversation about “Brian,” one of the sales reps. When Brian first moved into sales from accounting, he had a hard time because he felt like he was forever pushing merchandise onto people. But eventually he began to see his role differently, as a service provider who guided people toward products that matched their needs.

At the time, being my cynical high-school self, my reaction was "Uh huh, whatever makes you feel better, greedy capitalist." But I've been thinking about that conversation recently, after reading Nathan Bransford's recent article on self promotion. The gist of his post is that self-promotion is uncomfortable and somewhat unpleasant, but as a modern author, you have to do it anyways.

Now Nathan has more social media and marketing ninja skills in his left pinky than I could ever hope to obtain, and I can definitely see where he's coming from. It’s hard to step out of your comfort zone and tell people about your book. But whereas many authors see self-promotion as a necessary evil, I actually enjoy it. Perhaps because I'm the daughter of entrepreneurs, perhaps because I'm an only child and attention-monger, or perhaps because my stunted MIT social skills prevent me from realizing when people are annoyed at me.

Whatever the reason, I'd like to present a more sanguine view of self promotion.

Catchphrases like marketing, target audience and branding, have a negative connotation among artists. There's the stereotype of the money grabbing capitalist, out to get money while true artists just focus on their art and let people (the deserving ones at least) come to them. But the thing is, in a good business transaction, everybody ends up happy. The seller feels adequately compensated. The customer feels like she has obtained something of value. And that's the first point that shy authors tend to forget. You’re not asking for donations. You're offering something of value for a fair price.

So if selling is not inherently evil, then you're home free right? Forget your qualms, grit your teeth, and start tweeting.

Well, not quite. Instead if you're feeling guilty about self-promotion, try stepping back and ask yourself these three questions.

1. Are you offering a quality product?

If you’re truly convinced that people will gain value from your book, you’ll be less shy to tell people about it. Are you up to industry standards for copyediting, layout, and cover design? Have you had test readers? (See my beta reader series here) You don't have to have a book that everybody loves, but you should have a book that resonates with a certain segment of the population, which leads to the next point…

2. Are you marketing to the right people?

Go door-to-door selling pinup magazines at a frat house, and you'll likely get high-fives and an invitation to beer pong. Do the same thing at a convent, and you'll end up with restraining order. These are extreme examples, but they show how the same methods of self-promotion can be welcomed by one group and loathed by another.

And again we have idea of target audience, which we recently discussed. You want to reach people who, upon hearing about your book, will think “Hey, that’s right up my alley.” We often discuss target audience with a focus on the sale, but more important is what customers do after they read your book. If you have a strong platform to a non-target audience or have loyal friends with money to spare, those folks might buy your book just to support you. But if you only concentrate on those people, you lose out on one of the most important aspects of book growth: word-of-mouth. It's not enough just to sell that first book. You want to sell it to someone who will read it, love it, and pass it on.

One last thought about target audience: It doesn't have to be a yes or no thing. It can be a gradient, and you can adapt your marketing efforts accordingly. When From Words to Brain first came out in December, I blogged about it but didn’t tell my friends and family. Most of them aren't into neuroscience or writing, and I didn't want to pressure them into buying an essay that wasn't really their thing.

But when my essay went on sale for $.99 last February, I did do the e-mail blast to friends and family. Most of them liked me enough, and were curious enough about my “writing thing”, to want to spend a dollar and check it out. And in the following weeks I got lots of grinning friends coming up to me and saying “Hey Livia, I read your book!” Some of them read the whole thing, enjoyed it, and told other people about it (Thanks, K, C, G!). Some read a few pages and moved on, but for a dollar it was a worthwhile risk for them.

3. Is your method of self-promotion adding value?

It's been said 1 million times, but only because it's so true. The most important question in marketing is "What's in it for me?" You can get on a mountaintop and shout “Plz check out my new book available now on Amazon” all day, but you’ll be roundly ignored unless there is something in it for the person on the other end. It's no coincidence that the marketing campaigns that go viral are the ones that offer something -- either entertainment, inspiration, or advice. See Old Spice Guy, The Noticer Project, John Locke’s blog entries, for examples.

There are also more conventional ways, like building a platform with an entertaining or useful blog (see The Internet is a Playground, Unclutterer, The Simple Dollar). And there are plenty of blogs in the writing blogosphere that do this as well. J A Konrath, Joanna Penn, Kristine Rusch, Bob Mayer and many others write valuable blog posts teaching people about the process of publishing while also getting the their own books out there. Moses Siregar cohosts a podcast on science fiction, and also recently launched his novel. (Note: Though, again, think target audience here. Both Joanna and Joe have mentioned that they don’t think their writing platforms overlap heavily with their fiction audience.)

And don't forget free samples! Many authors find their audience through podcasts, online comics, etc. Zoe Winters offers her first book for free download for joining her mailing list. I recently bought Girl of Fire and Thorns after reading 85 pages on the HarperCollins website. Come to think of it, there are few products as conducive to free sampling as novels. I mean, if someone reads half the book and still doesn't want to continue, then they're probably not a good fit.

So in conclusion, yes, self promotion can be uncomfortable. But you can do more than just grit your teeth and forge ahead. Just as there are concrete steps you can take to fix a sagging plot or flat characters, there are concrete changes in approach that you can take to make the process less awkward.

What do you think? Is it possible to self promote without selling your soul?

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The Psychology of Attraction: Fear

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:04:00 +0000

Happy Labor Day! If you haven't looked at the comments in my critique styles post, take a look. People have left quite a few amusing comments. Also, I forgot to mention that the five profiles I posted are actually caricatures of the five members of my critique group. Can you guess which one is me?

I've been reading some articles on the psychology of attraction and thought it'd be interesting to write about ways to attract the opposite sex. As writers, our interest in this is of course strictly academic -- we want to write more realistic romances (right? :-P).

Imagine that you're a young man crossing a rickety suspension bridge. It's not exactly sturdy. It sways and twists in the wind, and there's only a low wire handrail to protect you from the rocks 230 feet below. As you cross, you're approached by an attractive young psychology student. She asks you to fill out a survey and write a short story. After you finish, she tells you that she'd be happy to talk further about the experiment, and then she hands you her phone number.

Got that? Now a slightly different scenario.

You're still young man, but now you're crossing a different bridge. It's built of solid wood and stands 10 feet above a small creek. Again, a pretty young psychology student asked you to fill out a survey. Again, she has you write a story and slips you her phone number.

It turns out that the young men crossing the two different bridges behaved differently in two crucial ways. First, men crossing the rickety suspension bridge were more likely to call up the female interviewer afterwards. Second, the scary bridge group also included more sexual imagery in their stories. It appears that men who crossed the scary bridge were more attracted to the female interviewer.*

Why might this be? Well, what happens when you cross a scary bridge? Your heartbeat goes up. Your palms get sweaty. You start breathing quicker.

And what happens when you really attracted to someone? Hmm, your heartbeat goes up. Your palms get sweaty…

So you’re crossing the bridge, your brain is getting all these fear messages from your body, and in the meantime, your brain also notices that you’re talking to a sexy psychologist (I love that phrase). And your brain thinks, “Wow, my heart is speeding up, my palms are sweaty, I must really be attracted to this girl!”**

The takeaway message: fear will sometimes lead to an illusion of romantic attraction. And we actually see this a lot in books and movies. Think about pretty much every action movie that transitions from scary chase/fight/brush with death scene to a love scene.

So, dear readers, can you think of any examples of this in recent books you've read? Or in your own writing?

* On a side note, the psychologists also did the same experiment with the male interviewer. In that variation, there was no difference in how each group behaved.

** Another interesting aside. It seems like the presence of a hot young thing will actually trick your brain into thinking that you're less scared than you actually are. In a similar experiment using the threat of electric shock instead of a scary bridge, men reported being less scared when the pretty girl was around, presumably because their brains misinterpreted their bodies fear reactions as attraction for the girl.

Hope you enjoyed the post! To receive updates from this blog, please use the subscription options on the left sidebar.

Dutton, D., & Aron, A. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30 (4), 510-517 DOI: 10.1037/h0037031

What's Your Critique Style?

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:03:00 +0000

Five members of a critique group look over a familiar fairy tale...

The Language Connoisseur: “Little Red Riding Hood.” That's a great name! Such great imagery, with just a hint of alliteration.

The Character Empath: I loved the twist when the grandma turned out to be the wolf. Holy Cow! But maybe we'd appreciate the surprise more in Red’s point of view instead of the Wolf's?

The Pace Setter: You could stretch out the tension after Red gets swallowed. The woodman shows up too quickly. Milk the drama!

The Plot Critic: Eh, I didn't buy that whole development with the wolf dressing up as the grandma. I mean, is Red really that unobservant? Come on!

The Potty Brain: I dunno about all those references to the woodman's "axe." I mean, this is supposed to be MG! Let's not go there.

What other critique types are there, and what do they say?

How to Make Your Reader Cry: Anatomy of a Death Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:41:00 +0000

Spoiler warning: Major spoilers for Plain Kate in this entry.

I recently fell in love with Plain Kate by Erin Bow. Every sentence is beautiful, and the story is impossible to forget.

Plain Kate is also a very, very sad book. A major character dies at the end, and Bow pulls no punches. I cried when I read it. And being a sucker for punishment, I reread the ending the next day and cried again. Then I started thinking. People die in my books as well. Why don't my beta readers cry? So, being the cold, analytical psychologist that I am, I went through Plain Kate’s death scene line by line to tease out the elements that tugged at my heartstrings.

For those who haven’t read it, here’s a condensed version of the scene. Plain Kate, the main character, has a talking cat named Taggle. In the climactic scene, it becomes clear that the only way to stop a great evil is for Taggle to die.

“You can survive it,” said Taggle. “And that is all I want. You do not need me. You can find your own place, with your strength alone. . . Katerina, Star of my Heart. Be brave. Lift your knife.”

. . . . And Taggle, who was beautiful, who’d never misjudged a jump in his life, leapt toward her with his forelegs outflung. He landed clean on the blade. There was a sound like someone biting into an apple. . . .

“Taggle,”whispered Kate. His heartbeat slowed under her hand.

“More . . .” His voice was only a breath.

“More than a cat.”

“And I do not regret it.” His eyes clouded. “Could you . . . This itchy bit. . . ”

She scratched his favorite place, where the fur swirled above the hard nub of his jawbone. The heat from the fire lifted tears from one side of her face.

[Taggle dies, and Kate escapes the city with her friends. They run into a man named Behjet.]

Behjet tottered to his feet. [His shaving knife] fell and sank its point in the wet earth with a sound that made Kate wince. . . .

“Linay is dead,” Katie said. “And those people in front of the gate, and the ones in the square. And Stivo, and Ciri, and my father, and--” she could not speak Taggle's name. “My – my heart is dead. . . .”

[Kate pushes past him and takes Taggle's body inside.]

[Taggle's] beautiful for was matted with blood. He would hate that. She got out one of the horse brushes. She brushed until the bristles were thick as if with rust, and his fur was perfect. . .

She sat beside him, numb, forever.

She had never been the sort for ghosts, though she had seen too much of them. But she would have cut off her carving hand to glimpse one now. It wasn't there. There should at least be a ghost. But there was no ghost. Only Behjet . . . .

“Plain Kate,” [Behjet] said. . . .

“Just Kate.”

“What?”

“Kate.” She was as plain as she had ever been. And over that she was burn scarred and half bald. But Taggle had thought she was beautiful. “My name is Katerina Svetlana. Kate.”

I'm not sure how much of the emotion comes through in the snippit, but believe me, the scene really packs a punch. And without further ado, here’s my list of death scene elements that make your reader cry.

1. Emphasize the good qualities of the dying character.

Taggle tells Kate. “You can survive it . . . And that is all I want. You do not need me.” The narrative then continues. “And Taggle, who was beautiful, who’d never misjudged a jump in his life. . ” For the reader, it's gut wrenching to be reminded of just how selfless and special Taggle is as he leaps to his death.

2. Draw a connection to a previous tragedy.

When Plain Kate's father died in the beginning of the book, his last words were “Katerina, Star of my Heart.” And this is what Taggle calls Kate in this scene as well.

3. Remind the reader about the character's journey -- how he's grown.

Taggle starts the book as a regular cat, but a spell gave him the ability to talk. Over the course of the book, he becomes less catlike (self-centered and proud), and learns about love and self-sacrifice. At a few points in the book, Kate tells Taggle that he has become “More than a cat.” And this sentence is echoed as Taggle lays dying.

4. Emphasize close relationships.

Remember my post on how to convey closeness between two characters? One technique was to have them complete each other's sentences. And that's what Kate and Taggle do with the “More than a cat” line.

5. Remind the reader of good times.

Some of the book's comic relief involved Taggle's insistence on being scratched. And here, as he dies, he requests this one last time.

6. Show how the survivors are traumatized by the loss.

When Behjet’s shaving knife hits the ground, Kate winces at the sound because it reminds her of Taggle landing on her knife. She also has trouble saying Taggle's name.

7. Rituals of putting the dead to rest.

Kate brushes Taggle's fur and prepares him for burial.

8. Show how much the other characters miss the deceased.

Kate is an extraordinarily talented woodcarver who depends on her knife for her livelihood. So it's no small thing when she says that she would cut off her carving hand to glimpse a ghost of Taggle.

9. Have the dying character leave a legacy.

Plain Kate was called by that nickname her entire life. But because of Taggle's sacrifice, she realizes that she deserves a better name.

So readers, tell me. What book made you cry, and why?

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From Words to Brain is 99 cents this weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 02:03:00 +0000

Hello all. I'm running late on a blog post (hopefully will have it up by tomorrow), but I just heard from my publisher that From Words to Brain is 99 cents this weekend at the Kindle store, so it's a great time to check it out if you've been meaning to. Take care!

Yes, Reading About Edward Cullen Will Make You Sparkle

noreply@blogger.com (Livia Blackburne) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:18:00 +0000

Every once in a while I present some tools in the writer’s arsenal for taking over the world. We've talked about writers as brain manipulators, and storytelling as Vulcan mind meld. Today, I will show you how Stephanie Meyer and JK Rowling are actually Borg queens, assimilating all unsuspecting readers in their path.

Reading assimilation is a common experience. Perhaps you're walking to work after reading Harry Potter and find yourself wishing for a broomstick. Or you step into the sun after reading Twilight and half-expect your skin to sparkle. Psychologists Shira Gabriel and Ariana Young have coined the term narrative-collective assimilation for the idea that reading a story will cause the reader to assimilate into the “collective”, or people-groups, described in the narrative. And now they have experimental evidence.

The study they ran was a fun one for bookworms. Gabriel had 140 undergraduates read a passage from either Twilight (Chapter 13, Confessions), or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Chapter 7, The Sorting Hat, and Chapter 8, The Potions Master). They predicted that people who read Harry Potter would identify more with wizards after reading, and that people who read Twilight would identify more with vampires. After the participants read the passage, they took several tests to measure how much they had assimilated.

The first test was called the Implicit Association Test. It's a bit confusing, but I'll do my best to explain it. The task was to categorize words at a computer. For example, they see a display like this:

WIZARDS                                         VAMPIRES

                             wand

The top line is just a reminder to press the left button for words having to do with wizards, and press the right button for words having to do with vampires. Then, words like "wand" appear underneath, and in this case, the correct answer would be to press the left button to categorize it as a wizard word.

Okay so far? Then, the participants do the same task with different categories. For example, a display like this:

ME                                                  NOT ME

                           myself

This time, they press the left button for words having to do with “me” (myself, mine, etc.), and the right button for “not me” words (they, there's, etc.).

Now comes the important part. They do both categorization tasks at once. For example:

WIZARDS                                     VAMPIRES
ME                                                 NOT ME

fangs

They get vampire, wizard, “me,” or “not me” words on the screen, and they have to categorize it to the correct side. They key is this: if the participant self-identifies as a vampire, they will be faster if the vampire words and the "me" words are on the same side. On the other hand, participants who self-identify with wizards will be faster if the “me” words are on the same side as the wizard words.

So by swapping whether the "me" words are on the same side as the vampires or the wizards, psychologists can get a measure of whether a participant identifies more with vampires or wizards. As predicted, Harry Potter readers identified more with wizards, and Twilight readers identified more with vampires.

The implicit association task is a strange one though, because it's very artificial. It's hard to take some data about reaction time differences for categorizing words and drawing any strong conclusions about what it actually means. So it's nice that the experimenters also rounded out their study with an explicit measure. They gave participants a questionnaire called The Twilight/Harry Potter Narrative Collective Assimilation Scale (Ah, I love psychology). Mixed in amongst filler questions were some key questions like “How sharp are your teeth?”(vampire), “How British do you feel?” (Harry Potter), and “Do you think, if you tried really hard, you might be able to make an object moved just using the power of your mind?” (Accio horcrux!). Again, Twilight readers rated more highly for the vampire questions and Harry Potter readers rated more highly for the Wizard questions.

Not all participants were equally likely to be assimilated into the "collective". Participants were also tested on a scale that measured their tendency to fulfill their social needs by fitting into groups, with questions like "When I join a group, I usually develop a strong sense of identification with that group.” It turns out that the people who were more likely to assimilate into groups in real life were also more likely to assimilate into the books they read.

So writers, go forth and assimilate your readers into your respective narrative worlds. Resistance is futile.

In the meantime, tell me. Have you ever read a book that made you want to jump in and become one of the characters?

Gabriel S, & Young AF (2011). Becoming a Vampire Without Being Bitten: The Narrative Collective-Assimilation Hypothesis. Psychological science PMID: 21750250

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