Real World

If your fiction is set in the real world, you’ll want to include setting details that give your story color and depth–verisimilitude. The best way to create that is to research the location you choose. Where in Oklahoma City is that park in relation to the State Capitol? Just how cold does it feel atop Pike’s Peak in July? How long would it take to stroll across Golden Gate Bridge?

Nowadays, Google makes it ridiculously easy to do this type of research…but of course, the best way to do it is to go there. I set my novel Colors of Deception on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond, Oklahoma. Conveniently enough, I live about twenty minutes from there, so I was able to spend several days a week there while writing my first draft. I wrote in a student lounge or outside on a bench, all the while soaking up the sights, scents, and sounds of my surroundings. Many of those details made it into the book. I wouldn’t have known to include them had I not experienced them firsthand.

Contrary to what you might think, you’re not doing this kind of research to placate those readers who are familiar with the location you’ve chosen. Many students and alums of Oklahoma Christian University have contacted me with feedback on the novel’s setting–and not all of that feedback has been positive. Some took exception to my changing the layout of a building to fit a certain scene. Others simply found it uncomfortable to read a story set in a place where they live or have lived. Of course, the fact that the storyline includes demons stalking students might contribute to the discomfort. ; )

No, when you research your setting, you’re not doing it for the readers who know the place inside and out. You’re doing your homework research for the readers who’ve never been there. They need to see what your characters see, smell what your characters smell, hear what your characters here, touch what your characters touch. When you research your location, you find out little details that take your setting from flat cardboard backdrop to 3-D IMAX. Setting research enables you to immerse your readers in what is, to them, another world.

Otherworld

Oh, did I not mention? Yes, writers of sci-fi and fantasy, I’m talking to you as well. You didn’t think setting research is the job of only chicklit, lit fic, or urban writers, did you? Nay, my hearties, though you set your stories is worlds unknown, still you must research your settings, lest your stories lack the lustre they might otherwise have possessed.

“But wait!” you say. “How can I research my setting when my setting doesn’t even exist?”

Bell tower of St. Annenkirche, Annaberg-Buchholz, Saxony

Well. That’s why I’m here to help. See? This is me. Helping.

And the best way for me to do that is to share another personal example, which will also include another gratuitous link to one of my novels. Sorry ’bout that. ‘Tis just how it goes.

My epic fantasy novel Rethana’s Surrender is set entirely in another world, one where magical powers and dragons and elves exist. In building that world, I invented a crapton of stuff and made rules for how it all works. None of that required research; I made it all up. Boom.

But.

My heroine, the redoubtable Rethana Chosardal, spends half her backstory growing up as a bellringer in a tiny southern town. She and her family live in the top of the belltower. I knew what that should look like, because I’d already visited the belltower that inspired Rethana’s story. But in order to add more tasty tidbits as I wrote, I needed more details.

Enter Wikipedia. Suddenly, I found myself reading about bell metal.

Seriously? Bell metal? I’m a fantasy writer who enjoys painting and hiking and weird word games…and now I’m reading about something as mundane as bell metal*? Really?

Really.

Researching your setting will take you all sorts of peculiar places and give you all sorts of new ideas for your story. So go on. Do your homework. Give your characters a real place to live and breathe in, with real sensory input. If you keep your fiction real, your readers will live and breathe there, too.

*It’s actually kinda interesting, as chance would have it.

A few weeks back, we talked how-tos, wherefores, and what-nots of writing romance and chick lit. This week, it’s all about taking those sighs and heaving bosoms and transplanting them into your paranormal or fantasy romance.

The Sighs and the Heaving Bosoms

I have a good reason for linking to that previous article on romance. The reason is that I recommend you go read it. Since that one was all about the romance, for me to repeat it here would be exactly that: repetition. And I don’t think any of us want that. So go ahead and click the link and read the post. I’ll be here when you get back. I promise.

See? I’m Still Here

Toldja. ; )

The Ghosts, the Gnomes, and the Goblins

In order to find helpful hints on paranormal/fantasy romance in particular, I consulted my trusty sidekick, Ye Olde Google. The following are my favorite points from the two most informative articles I found, as well as my remarks upon them.

From “Writing Paranormal Romance: 5 Tips to Remember”

1. Solid mythology

This is worldbuilding, y’all. And it’s essential. In fantasy and paranormal anything, your world has to be believable. Yes, you’re making it up, but you’ve also gotta make up rules for it and stick to them. If you want your vampires to sparkle, fine–but give your readers a good background reason for it. On the other hand, if you want your vampires driven and bloodthirsty and vulnerable to sunlight, maybe you should make demonic possession of an Egyptian queen and king part of your world’s backstory. Tell a background story that has its fingers in all your foreground’s pies, and you’ve got a mythology your readers will believe.

2. Strong female lead

She might be a damsel, and she might be in distress, but that doesn’t mean she needs the hero to come swooping in to rescue her every single time. She needs to be active. She needs to know what she wants, and she needs to be able to go out and get it. Let her. Don’t hold her back, waiting for a man to come save her. Yes, he should also be a strong character who plays a role in answering the story question. But his character shouldn’t be so strong that his overshadows hers. Consider being bold enough to let her rescue him once in awhile!

3. Sex appeal (The Return of the Heaving Bosoms)

These characters must have their flaws. They can’t be perfect inside and out, because your readers won’t be able to relate to them.

BUT. In addition to having flaws, they’ve gotta be smokin’ hot as well.

Ahh, conundrum. How I do love thee.

Actually, I’m not kidding. The sexiest people I know? They’re physically sexy because of the little flaws. The cute little crooked tooth. The slightly hooked nose. The quirky upper lip. Symmetry is nice, but it’s kind of boring. Especially when you’re a reader and you have to read the word “perfect” over and over again.

Aside from physical smokin’-hotness, there’s the smokin’-hotness of personality as well. Don’t let a single one of your characters be just another pretty face (unless the character’s particular role is to be just another pretty face, and then you’d better have a rock-solid reason for writing them this way). Add depth and nuance to these people. Give them backstories. Give them inner paradoxes. Make your hero irresistible to your heroine because he says exactly what she needs to hear at exactly the right time. Make your heroine the kind of woman who demands that your reader sit up and take notice.

It’s about more than voluptuous curves and cascading hair and sweeping lashes. These people must have presence. That’s sexy.

3. Violence in service of the Greater Good

If your hero must be violent, then he’s gotta be the “good-guy” kind of violent. Protecting the innocent. Standing firm against all comers. Pursuing the evil. In romance, you want to avoid the hero who’s so flawed that he’s basically a bad guy doing bad things to worse guys. In romance, your hero can be violent, but only because he has no other choice; the Good will suffer if he refuses.

From “Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romances”

4. Think Aragorn, Arwen, and Éowyn

This article provides what sounds to me like the best definition of paranormal/fantasy romance:

think Lord of the Rings with the focus shifted away from the battles and toward Aragorn and Arwen (via Anne Marble).

I would add that if you drop a determined Éowyn into the mix for a love triangle, you’ve got a pretty good heart-throbbing set-up. How would LotR have turned out if Éowyn had refused to let Aragorn go?

5. Remember the romance.

This seems a rather duh statement, but for realz: When writing paranormal/fantasy romance, don’t get so involved with your ghosts, vampires, or elves that you let their otherworldliness overshadow the romance. The core of your tale is the relationship between two characters, or the triangle of relationships, if that’s what you’re writing. Who ends up together and why and how? That–and not the origin story of your vampires–is the heart of your tale.

6. Don’t forget the laughs.

Romance is funny. Sex is funny. Romance and sex between a human and a non-human (whether dead or undead or ghostly) has the potential to be downright hilarious. (Or gross. But that’s another blogpost.) Exploit the slapstick in your characters’ romances–which sounds a whole lot dirtier than it probably is.

Maybe.

7. Hot sex

Should you include hot sex in your paranormal/fantasy romance? Well, that’s really up to you. Be aware that sex is actually pretty difficult to write, at least if you want to write it interesting and believable (READ: not cheesy; also, see “potentially gross” above). You’ll want to be very clear in your own head who your audience is and what they’re expecting. If the sex you write is too hot, you might cross over from romance into erotica, and that might be a very different readership. So, as you consider “to sex or not to sex,” keep respect for your characters, your genre, and your audience.

But if you do decide to write the hot sex, have fun. ; )

No, wait. That’s Tuesdays.

Today, we’re going to talk about the lovely people who populate your stories and how you need to figure them out before you dive into writing them. After all, you’re going to have a much easier time staying in character and moving these characters along to the climactic conclusion of their tale if you’ve spent time beforehand figuring out who they are, what they like, what they dislike, and–most importantly!– what they want.

To accomplish this, you’re going to need a Character List.

Character List

Protagonist

Start with your main character, aka protagonist, aka Our Hero/ine. In 300 words, describe your protagonist. Briefly describe her age, physical appearance (this will keep you from making her a redhead in Chapter 1 and a brunette in Chapter 11), vocation, nationality.* Describe her day-to-day life before the story starts. Not a lot of detail, just what she expects out of life (which the Big Event interrupts). Then define the Something that she desperately wants. This will be what she fights to get during the whole course of the story. (And you won’t let her get it until the end, you cruel thing, you).

Antagonist

Spend another 100-300 words describing your antagonist: age, physical appearance, vocation, nationality.* Define his relationship to your protagonist. Then name the Something he wants — which should be in direct opposition to what your protagonist wants. Your antagonist desperately wants to make sure the protagonist doesn’t achieve her goal. You need to define his motivation. (Separate from the Character List, you’ll need to name at least five obstacles your protagonist must overcome during the story–and these should be obstacles the antagonist places in her way.)

Supporting Characters

In 100 words each, describe your most important supporting characters: age, physical appearance, vocation, nationality.* Define their relationships to the protagonist and/or antagonist.

*Character Profiles

In addition to your character descriptions, you can also do in-depth character profiles. This is entirely optional! Not in the least because it’s a ton of work, and you won’t want to do this for every single character. If you do want to use this list, I’d recommend limiting yourself to the protagonist and antagonist. The in-depth profile can include the following:

BASIC INFORMATION
Name:
Sex:
Age:
Age appearance:
Birthdate:
Birthplace:
Height:
Weight:
Eyes:
Hair:
Ethnic Background:
Marital Status:
Address:
Phone Number:

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Nickname:
Religion/Religious Background:
Political Affiliation:
Social Class:
Education:
Date Graduated:
Major:
Name Of School:
Where:
Residence (Type):
City/Country Background:
Describe Furnishings:
Children:
Health:
Physical Condition/Disabilities:
Friends:
Allies:
Enemies:
Most Significant Other(s):
Community Status:
Pets:
Languages Spoken:
Intelligence:
Sexual Orientation:
Sexual Habits:
Sexual Experience:
Type Of Friends Preferred:
Type Of Lovers Preferred:
What Hometown Was Like:
Smoker/Drinker:
Biggest Accomplishment/Best Known For:
Talents:
Hobbies/Pastimes:
Favorite Book:
Favorite Magazine:
Favorite Newspaper:
Favorite Music:
Favorite Movie:
Favorite TV Show:
Favorite Actor/Actress:
Favorite Place:
Favorite Color:
Favorite Entertainment:
Favorite Food/Diet:
Favorite Drink:
Favorite Sport:
Clothes/Accessories:
Personal Possessions/Toys:
Taste In Art, Literature, Decor:
Name Transmits First Impression To Reader:
Reason/Meaning Behind Name:

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Forehead:
Jawline:
Lips:
Mouth:
Eyebrows:
Hands:
Fingers:
Shoulders:
Limbs:
Complexion/Skin Tone:
Face:
Breasts/Chest:
Waist:
Hips:
Neck:
Ears:
Nose:
Teeth:
Feet:
Build:
Distinguishing Marks:
Posture:
Appearance:
Hair Texture:
Hairstyle:
Predominant Feature/What Noticed First:
Physical Aids?:
How They Walk:
Eye Shape:
Sensitivity To Others Demonstrated Through The Eyes:

FAMILY BACKGROUND
Father:
Profession:
Residence:
Living/Dead:
Mother:
Profession:
Residence:
Living/Dead:
Parents’ Marital Status:
Brothers:
Sisters:
Home Life/Childhood Experience:
Family Relations:
Family History:

PROFESSION/OCCUPATION
Profession:
Union:
Education In Work:
Job-Related Skills:
Favorite Subjects (School):
Poorest Subjects:
Grades (School):
Quality Of Work Performed:
Reputation:
Hours Worked:
Income:
Vocation, Discover New Territories:

MILITARY SERVICE
Branch:
Nationality:
Enlisted Rank:
Highest Rank Achieved:
Service Dates:
Unit/Legion:
Served Under What Ruler:
Campaigns:
Decorations:

PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS/CHARACTER TRAITS
Morals:
Ambitions, Aspirations, Desires:
Major Traits:
Minor Traits:
Outstanding Qualities:
Character Flaws/Weaknesses:
Character Strengths:
Habitual/Favorite Expressions:
Habitual Mannerisms:
Fears, Anxieties, Hangups:
Frustrations:
Complexes:
Temperament:
Emotions:
Attitude Toward Life:
Attitude Toward Death:
Leader/Follower/Dropout:
Most Cherished Beliefs/Values:
Worst Habit:
Highest Hope:
Preoccupations, Worries:
Biggest Source Of Pride:
Biggest Source Of Shame Or Defeat:
Dialogue:
How They Talk/Speech Patterns (Diction, Tone, Speed, Pitch):
Direct Statement Of Thoughts:
Body Language/Posture:
Gestures:
Perception Of Others:
Evaluations Of Others:
Reactions To Others:
Involvement With Objects:
Attitude Toward Opposite Sex:
How They Handle Crisis:
Memories, Dreams:
How They Protect Themselves:
Public Persona:
Daily Habits:
How They Dance:
Pet Peeves:
Ways Of Dealing With Children Or Those In Inferior Positions:
Eating Habits (When, What, How):
Heroes:
Motivational Patterns/What Gets Them Going:
Landscape Observations–We Are A Product Of Where We Live:
Point Of View (Neurosis, Self-Absorbed, What Noticed First In A Room,
Perspective):
Degree Of Intensity = Pace Of Life:
Attention To Detail/Degree Of Concentration:
Confidence Factor:
Generosity:
Handicaps:
How They Treat People They Like:
How They Treat People They Dislike:
How They React When Angry/Upset:
Self-Value/How They See Themselves:
Personality Type:
How They’d Describe Themselves:
Do They See Themselves As Happy/Satisfied?:
Do They See Themselves As A Hero?:
Sense Of Humor:
Most Instructive/Meaningful Experience:
Attitude Toward Sex/Sexual Values:
Attitude Toward Religion:
Attitude Toward Politics:
Attitude Toward Authority:
Ethnic Considerations:
Attitude Toward Money:
Attitude Toward Work:
Attitude Toward Play:
Attitude Toward Their Looks:
Opinion As A Soldier/Fighter:
Feelings Toward Family:
Feelings Toward Friends:
Feelings Toward Enemies:
Secrets:
Philosophy Of Life (In A Phrase):

Disclosure: I’ve had that in-depth profiling list in my digital documents for years. I have no idea where it came from, but I know I didn’t compose it myself. If you recognize it and know where it originated, please let me know as I’d love to give credit! Thanks.

Hide and Seek

Hide

In your story, things happen “onscreen” and “offscreen.” Onscreen, your readers see your main character settling in for a cozy evening, when suddenly a ton of dwarves show up on his doorstep. Onscreen, your readers see your main character frantically trying to contain the situation while the dwarves make short work on his pantry and then get down to the business of plotting a hazardous quest. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read this and this.)

Offscreen, a wizard is marking your main character’s front door. Offscreen, a scrawny creature is using a magic ring. Offscreen, a necromancer is amassing his power. Offscreen, a dragon is dreaming.

“Offscreen” is another term for “hidden story”: all the things that happen in your story that the reader doesn’t see. You could also call it the “offstage action”: costume and set changes that move your character along in the plot. The audience doesn’t get to see these things happen, but when the curtain rises again–when you, the writer, bring your characters out before their audience again–your readers see that your characters have moved from one place to another, time has passed, changes have taken place.

Hide and Seek

Seek

So why is any of that behind-the-scenes stuff necessary? If the reader is never going to see it, then why in heaven’s name should you, busy wordsmith that you are, have to hammer it all out?

Well, y’all, “hidden story” is important because what we’re really talking about here isn’t an extra set of stories behind the scenes. What we’re really talking about is solid structure. Your hidden story anchors your “onscreen” story so it can feel realistic to your reader. Your reader doesn’t need to see all the behind-the-scenes or between-the-scenes stuff. Show all of that, and you’re going to take all the magic and suspense out of your tale. Your readers will get bored. Why play the game when nothing’s hidden and you’ve taken all the fun out of seeking?

There. You’ve told me all the details of how he ate his breakfast and drove himself to work. By the time his path crosses with Tawanda the Amazon Queen in the mailroom, I’m bored.

There. You’ve told me everything her singing rival has done to sabotage her audition. So when she gets up and can’t croak out a single note, I already know who and why and how. No mystery here.

There. You’ve told me all about the goblins’ hidden passageway. I’m going to skip the part where they abduct Bilbo and the dwarves, because I’ve already guessed that’s what would happen.

Strategerie

What happens in the hidden story has a direct impact on what happens in the visible story. If you don’t work out the hidden story, the visible story is going to make very little sense.

You’ve got to strategize. If Our Heroine is to encounter an assassin in Chapter Three, you have to know that her antagonist hired the assassin in Chapter One. You don’t have to show the hiring process, but you do have to know when and where it happened so that the assassin and the antagonist can show up when and where they’re supposed to.

If you don’t plot out the hidden story–if you don’t know when and where the assassin was hired–it’s going to feel very deus ex machina to your readers when Hired Goon leaps out at Our Heroine and tries to knife her. If you’ve plotted your hidden story, you’ll have dropped all the hints necessary for building suspense and letting readers know that something is going to happen without boring them by detailing what the something is.

________

Whether you’re prewriting a story or already smack dab in the middle of one, you need to evaluate your hidden story. Figure who is pulling what strings. Make sure characters’ choices are logical within the story context. Know what’s happening between your hero’s feats of cramazingness. Manage your antagonist’s contributions without letting the audience (or your hero) peek behind the curtain.

Tell your visible story well…but put at least as much effort into the story you’re not telling. And when your readers are poring over your work at 3:00am with flashlights under the covers, they will thank you.

Just Tell the Story

“My only job is to tell the story. I think that if more writers focused on that, they’d be better off and probably more successful.”

~Nora Roberts

As far as I’m concerned, Roberts hits the nail on its proverbial little head and pounds that sucker so deep into the ground, it might as well be Excalibur wedged into rock of legendary proportions. Tell the story. It’s just you and your story, people. It’s just you and your storypeople. Roberts says you “go into a box” with that story, and you don’t come out until it’s done.

Until the story is done, you don’t worry about what it looks like to other people. Until the story is done, you forget about all the trappings and trimmings that will eventually help you sell it. Until the story is done (if even then), you don’t concern yourself with its possible themes and morals. Just tell the story. That’s your only job.

Obviously, this applies to writing any genre, not just romance!

It’s All About Relationships

According to Roberts, the most important part of writing romance is the relationships.

“It’s all about the relationships…interesting, dynamic people…developing a relationship with its problems and its complexities and its conflicts…. Whatever plot there is…it is all about who these people are and what they’re going to bring to each other.”

~Nora Roberts

Okay, so I fibbed a little in my first paragraph. I said that romance isn’t in my wheelhouse, implying that it’s not a genre I’m familiar with. But I kinda am familiar with it…because I spent my entire teenhood reading Sunfire Romances.

If you’re a 30-something female, chances are pretty good you know what I’m talking about. The Sunfire Romances were a series of YA novels that had three things in common:

1. Each title was its heroine’s name.
2. The background plot was a major historical event.
3. Each heroine spent the course of the novel overcoming the adversities inherent in the historical event and choosing between two vastly different love interests.

It’s been almost twenty years since I’ve read any of those stories, but I still remember those girls and their dashing guys. Danielle had to choose between pirate Geoffrey and richboy Paul. Merrie had to choose between pilgrim Zachariah and sailor Luke. Victoria’s guys were landowner Luis and Texas Ranger Cade. Megan felt torn between fisherman Ivan and emporium boy Adam.

In each of these novels, the author introduces the heroine and the love interest she “should” choose if her life goes as planned. The historical events complicate matters, as does the introduction of the alternate love interest. Whom does the the heroine choose? Well, sometimes it’s the first guy, sometimes it’s the new guy. Sometimes, her decisions about how to weather the historical storm affect her choice of love interest. Part of the fun in these stories was not being able to predict the course of each relationship.

But though the historical events created complications for the heroine, the driving force of each novel was her relationship with the two guys. Each offered her a different kind of validation and a different life. Twenty years later, I still remember those relationships–they were that vivid and that well-written. I remember the fierce joy in reading how these smart, resourceful young women thought for themselves and made their own choices, instead of getting “swept off their feet.” Well, Danielle kind of got swept off hers for a while. But she came around and stood up for her principles in the end. ; )

Stormy, passionate, believable relationships are memorable. Novels crafted around such relationships are also memorable.

Back to Your Storypeople

“Character is key. Character is plot–character is everything and the story wraps around them. Your characters have to jump off the page. …It’s all about who these people are.”

~Nora Roberts

You can’t write believable, memorable relationships if you don’t have believable, full-of-life characters.

These people need to live, y’all. You have to find out who they are so that you can communicate them heart and soul to your readers. Each character must have a driving motivation, the thing s/he wants most. Make this desire crystal clear and let that be what moves your character through every situation, every interaction, every decision.

Give each character at least one distinct, defining trait. A habit (good or bad), a quirk (verbal or nonverbal), a foible, an obsession–something that distinguishes that character from all the others. Know in your mind from where in the character’s backstory that habit, quirk, obsession originated. This personal history might or might not end up as part of the story…but either way, it will help you paint your character at least a dozen shades of more believable.

Even more important than quirks and foibles, though, are your character’s flaws. Maybe her quirk is always wearing the color red, her foible is being a picky eater…and her flaw is extreme jealousy. Maybe his habit is picking his cuticles, his obsession is coin collecting…and his flaw is consistent self-destructive behavior. Picky eating and coin collecting aren’t likely to catapult a character into an adventure (although I daresay it could happen)…but green-eyed monsterdom and self-sabotage can be strong determining factors in the course of relationships.

Especially in the relationships Roberts encourages us to build our romances around.

* “Romanced by Nora Roberts,” Writer’s Digest Vol. 81, #6

And then, I think I say, “Nope.”

Today we’re not talking about your Story Idea or even your Ideal Story. Today we’re talking about your Ideal Reader.

Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why

A couple weeks back, I waxed eloquent on how to choose your target audience. If you haven’t read that article, I do recommend it to you, as everything I said about choosing a target audience also applies to targeting an Ideal Reader:

• know your genre
• know your readers’ defining characteristics
• write toward your readers’ expectations
• pay attention to critiques.

You should also come back tomorrow and read Rachel’s article about using your cover art to target a reader. What she says about demographics and psychographics is crucial in writing toward and marketing toward a specific audience.

As you write your novel, you need to keep your target audience and their needs/expectations in mind. (Please note that this is not “selling out.”) But, more than a specific audience, it’s also helpful to keep a specific reader in mind: your Ideal Reader.

Ideal Reader loves your genre.
Ideal Reader looks exactly like the kind of person who would love the story you’re writing.
Ideal Reader needs and expects just what your story has to offer.

Why do you want an Ideal Reader? I feel like a broken record, but even those are right twice a day. Once again it boils down to that simple word: clarity. If you’re writing to an Ideal Reader, you’ll communicate your story more clearly.

You’ll know if a word or phrase is the right one, because you’ll know whether or not it would resonate with Ideal Reader. You’ll know if a character’s development comes across clearly, because you’ll know whether or not Ideal Reader can relate to that character. You’ll know where your story’s structure is clear and stable (and where it isn’t), because you’ll know whether or not Ideal Reader is confused by said structure (or lack thereof).

The Part Where You’re Pygmalion

Back to Pygmalion. If you don’t know the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, it goes something like this: Pygmalion swears off women and carves himself a marble statue of the “perfect” woman. In answer to his prayer, Venus turns her into a real woman. Boy gets girl, happily ever after, ba-dum ching.

You, dear fellow writer, needn’t swear off members of the opposite sex. But you still get to carve yourself a perfect counterpart and make sure it receives the breath of life. Ideal Reader is your perfect reader, the one your story is meant for. Ideal Reader is the answer to your prayer for someone who will simply love your work.

Ideal Reader is a construct to help you hone your writing skills — but if this were a real person, Ideal Reader would also give you the kind of critique you need (praise for the good stuff, honest feedback on the not so good stuff, and helpful suggestions on how to fix it).

Ideal Reader perfectly fits the demographic and psychographic you’re writing toward: in age, gender, education, social class, thinking style. Ideal Reader is that one person your story connects with on an intimate level, creating that magic moment in which immersion in the story is complete. Ideal Reader is the person who not only reads your story but lives it, in that moment forgetting that she even exists in the “real world.”

You can’t make all of your readers happy all of the time. (Face it, write enough stories and eventually you’ll write something that doesn’t even make some of your readers happy some of the time. It happens to all of us.) But if you write toward your Ideal Reader every time, you come ever closer to writing stories that your readers would want to read. If you’re writing to make that intimate, magical connection, then you will make it with readers in your wider target audience. Because there’s a little bit of Ideal Reader in all of them.

Writing a novel is like joining a passel of dwarves on a quest to kill a dragon.

Neglecting your prewriting is like arriving at the dragon’s doorstep without the handy map that shows you how to sneak in the back door.

The result is getting fried to a cinder before you can write your happy ending.

As recently as “The Short Synopsis,” I mentioned that whilst engaged in your prewriting, you need to play around with it and make it useful to you. Add notes here and there. Delete things (or, rather, strikethrough, because you never know when you might need something). In my mind, this is equivalent to turning your map upside down or sideways to get a different perspective on your route.

Speaking of the short synopsis, it’s probably the best example I have of how I personally repurpose prewriting as I go along.

Making a Mess

My current WIP, Elevator People (working title), once boasted a short synopsis of just over 300 words. As you can see below, it didn’t stay “short” for long:

At some point after diving into writing the actual story, I referred back to my short synopsis and realized that I wanted more detail. So, as needed, I fleshed out characters, described more action, and even broke down the synopsis chapter-by-chapter. And then I  struck through “Short” in the synopsis title. As one does.

Eventually, I relied less and less on my synopsis, drawing instead on memory and letting the characters determine the direction of the story. The next time I skimmed the synopsis, I realized three things:

1. The story had gone off on a tangent that wasn’t in the synopsis.
2. Some of the changes were good.
3. Some of the elements of the original synopsis still needed to be in the story.

What to do? I didn’t want to take the time to rewrite the entire synopsis. That sounded like just so much busywork, and besides, I was nose-deep in this story I was having so much fun writing. Thus, instead of rewriting the whole synopsis, I highlighted the things I’ll need to go back and change in the story after I’ve finished the first draft:

And now, you see why in the first image, there’s an “only partially corrected” following the title.

Over the course of several months, my synopsizing (can I say that? it’s so much more fun than “synopsis-writing”) devolved from the penning of sentences to the simple jotting-down of bullet points as they occurred to me:

As for the story itself, I’m now in the final chapters but haven’t yet caught up to the notes in the image above. Some of those plot points will make it into the story, some won’t. I’ve made a little bit of chaos out of my once organized synopsis–but at least it’s organized chaos, and I can harness it anytime I need it.

Musing on the Mess

What I’ve done with my short synopsis I also do with the rest of my prewriting package. I revise chapter titles to inspire novel scenes. I rework my list of scenes and sequels (there’s not a post on those, yet, but we’ll get to it). I add to my character descriptions as the story reveals more nuances about my story people.

In navigating the world of your writing and the world of your story specifically, you often need a fresh look at the topography. Turning your map upside down–molding and remaking your prewriting–gives you that fresh look. As I’ve said before, us your prewriting material however you need to. Make it work for you. Run with it!

Or: Choosing a Target Audience

This is my story. From start to finish, I’ve written it for me. It doesn’t matter if anybody else likes it–I wrote it for myself. It came from the heart, and that’s all it really needs.

If you want other people to read your story–if you want your novel to sell*–you can’t afford to include any of the above phrases in your writerly worldview.

One of the main challenges in writing is narrowing your focus. Keeping your story on-track. Ignoring the side paths that would let your tale meander into a swamp. Characters must stay in-character. Scenes must move the story forward. Plot threads must tie up in the end. If you pay attention to these principles, they’ll let you craft a compelling tale from start to finish.

In the same vein, you need to target a specific audience as you write.

Squinting into the Wind

I’ve only shot a bow and arrow a few times in my life. It’s great fun, and I want to make time for an archery class or two at some point (you know, when I have time, har har). But the little practice I’ve had so far has taught me that when I’m shooting, I have to pay attention to my target.

“Well, duh,” you might say. “Who’d be dumb enough not to pick a target before they shoot?”

*ahem* My point exactly. When I’m sighting along the shaft of an arrow, I have to ask myself: Is the target close enough? Is the target big enough? Is the wind blowing? Is my stance solid? I squint at my target and try to get an accurate feel for these elements before I loose my arrow.

It’s the same in writing. When I’m writing, editing, finalizing, and marketing a novel, I “squint” at my target audience and ask myself similar questions: Who am I writing for? What does my audience expect? Have I chosen a wide enough audience? Have I chosen a narrow enough audience so that the book doesn’t go off on what might be just crowd-pleasing tangents? Is my writing solid? What else do I need to work on before I can loose this book on the public?

Examine Your Target

As I wrote the previous paragraph, I was thinking of you, dear reader. If I were writing for a highbrow literary magazine, I might’ve phrased my question, “For whom am I writing?” But here at UnSyl, our tone is a little less formal. Our readers aren’t looking for ultimate grammatical sticklerism (although we and you should do our collective best to get the grammar right 98% of the time). Our readers are (mostly) writers looking for help in getting their stories out of their heads and into the hands of their own readers. Our readers want advice they can relate to and implement, and they need us to present that advice without a lot of nitpicky fuss.

So instead I chose a less sticklery question: “Who am I writing for?” My tone is informal to match the informal atmosphere you’ve come to expect from this blog. Instead of “advice to which you can relate,” I want to give you “advice you can relate to.” And if I do throw in a “highbrow” phrase here and there, I do it to get a chuckle instead of a stoic nod of approval.

But on to noveling. If I’m writing for young adults, I avoid using words like “perspicacious” or “unguent” in my story. Not because kids are stupid, but because I recognize that they’d likely relate better to “shrewd” and “ointment.” If I’m writing sci-fi, I bear in mind that my audience will expect a certain amount of scientific lingo. Paying attention to my target audience means I’m considering their needs and expectations in every sentence and every word.

Confession

For my fantasy novel series Legends of the Light-Walkers (currently comprised of Rethana’s Surrender and Rethana’s Trial), I invented a language I call “Lirren Eamnaya.” Lirren Eamnaya has now been twenty years in the making, with dozens of pages of notes, a dictionary, and a functional grammar. Considering the effort and joy I’ve put into this, I’m sure you can understand my desire to use it as much as possible in my novels.

Well.

Readers have other ideas.

I took my beta readers’ and my editor’s advice and chopped a bunch of Lirren Eamnaya out of the manuscript. But judging by reviews since publication, I didn’t chop enough. What was my mistake? I wasn’t properly targeting my audience. I wrote the Rethana novels with an ideal reader in mind…who looked a little bit too much like me. I *love* reading fantasy stories in which the world-building is so in-depth that it includes other languages. Having to puzzle them out doesn’t distract me from the story; instead, it pulls me farther into that world.

But I’m learning that the wider fantasy audience doesn’t enjoy that challenge as much as I do. So, for the rest of the Legends of the Light-Walkers series, I’ll be taking the critical reviews to heart and making the stories more readable. I’ll target an audience that will accept some foreign language elements but doesn’t want to do a full linguistic analysis while they’re trying to enjoy the story.

Fair enough. ; )

Discovering What They Want

So, how do you find your target audience and figure out their needs? Well, trial and error is one way–and a painful one, as you can see above. It’s effective, but it means taking a risk and having a pretty thick skin (some of those reviews are hard to stomach).

You also need to keep up with your reading. Look at what’s hot in your genre and work backward: Based on what you’re reading, what are the kind of people who are reading it? What elements do these novels have in common that are making them so popular? What are the characteristics of readers who enjoy these elements?

Know your readers, and you’ll clarify and tighten up your writing. And they will thank you for it.

__________

*There’s nothing wrong with being in the noveling business for the money. Writing might be your beloved passion, but you’re not betraying any kind of ethereal Bohemian spirit by wanting to be paid for all of your hard work.

“FIRST! LAST! PAGING THROUGH BOOK TO FIND UNDERLINED THINGS!”

And I said, “Huh?”

My brain just rolled its eyes at me. But then it explained.

First Things

As I page through my well-read copy of King’s On Writing, I find that the very first thing I’ve underlined is:

“…(E)very aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style [by Strunk and White]. Rule 17 in the chapter titled Principles of Composition is ‘Omit needless words.'”

Aha! The plot thickens. But zere iss moar….

Last Things

As I page through the final fourth of the book, one of the last things I’ve underlined is:

“…(C)utting to speed the pace…that’s what most of us end up having to do (kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings).

“…You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd draft = 1st draft – 10%. Good luck.

Ahh, my dears. With that, we’ve come to the scary part.

Kill Your Darlings

The concepts of precision and brevity in writing form bookends within King’s On Writing, and for good reason. Writing a novel is not our excuse to ramble. It’s not our excuse for infusing our manuscripts with whatever words we want, assuming all the while that people will happily read them. Yea verily, we might pad our wordcounts for such endeavors as NaNoWriMo, but when it comes to crafting a novel that somebody will want to read, we must needs pound that padding flat and toss it out.

Kill your darlings.

Your “darlings” are those flowery turns of phrase you fall in love with. Your darlings are those landscape descriptions that paint a gorgeous picture of setting but have no connection with the main character. Your darlings are those adverbs you’re attaching to your dialogue tags instead of showing the reader your characters’ body language.

Kill your darlings.

They are yours, these darlings. They belong to you. You imagined them, created them, birthed them onto the page. In your eyes, they are beautiful because they are part of you. They are tiny essences of your very soul. Killing them would be sacrilege.

Kill your darlings.

Trim. Cut. Slice. Chop. Hack. Destroy.

Kill your darlings.

They’re pretty, yes. They are of you, yes. But they clutter up your writing until your novel resembles the narrow-path-honeycombed house of a Victorian hoarder. Believe me, readers will not want to come visit.

The Perfect Murder

Here are 5 ways you can go about “killing your darlings.” These methods aren’t all pain-free…but they’re worth it.

1. Change your thinking
First drafts are drafts. They are not the be-all, end-all of noveling. Finishing a first draft is a great accomplishment, but the work doesn’t stop there.

Your first draft is a statue with rough edges. It’s got odd lumps in peculiar places. Its face isn’t well-defined. When you type “The End,” the story might feel finished, and it might feel perfect. Sadly, it is neither.

To smooth out this statue’s lumps, you first have to accept that it needs smoothing. This mindset is vital to the whole process: the crafting of a story and your growth as a writer.

2. Get beta readers.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: You gotta get beta readers. We writers are chronically unable to view our work objectively — especially when it comes to trimming it down! Forest-For-the-Trees Syndrome strikes again.

You can’t see the Forest of Necessary Trimming because you’ve got your writerly nose shoved up against the bark of the nearest tree. And that’s where the writerly nose tends to stay. You need somebody outside to look at your story and identify excess branches and superfluous shrubbery.

Writing can be lonely work, but we can’t do it alone. That’s a paradox I’ll save for another post…but maybe you get the picture anyway.

3. Edit for simplicity.
Break up long sentences into two or three sentences. Replace flowery phrasing with straightforward description. Choose simple action verbs over the ones that sound high-falutin’.

Simplify. This applies to characters and (sub)plots, as well. You might be completely in love with a supporting character…but your beta reader asks, “What is this guy’s purpose again?” Or one of your subplots just doesn’t fit with the rest of the story. These are great things for slicing out of your manuscript without hitting anything vital.

Simplify. Your story will thank you — and your readers will too.

4. Get rid of adverbs.
Okay, brief grammar lesson. And yes, I am keeping this very simple, and my explanation here is not complete. But I don’t want to put people to sleep, so the purists are gonna have to deal with the incompleteness of my instruction.

Adjectives describe nouns. Blue, hot, solid, wet, and shiny are adjectives.

Adverbs describe verbs. In point #2, I used the phrase “view objectively.” Here, “objectively” describes the how of “view.” Other examples of adverbs are: lustily, happily, worriedly, and sideways.

“I got a new bike for my birthday!” she said happily.

Okay, so she said it “happily.” What does that look like on her? Don’t tell me she said it happily; instead, tell me that her eyes are wide, her smile is huge, and her teeth glisten in the sunlight like tiny bottlecaps.

Yes! Make it a hideous description, if that’s what it takes. I’ll read anything, just get rid of that clunky, boring, milquetoast adverb!

“But wait,” you say. “Wouldn’t adding description actually increase my wordcount?”

Well, yeah. Probably. But adverbs weaken your sentences, and overusing them will make your novel unreadable. I’m picking on adverbs because they’re a bad habit and because this is my list and I can.

5. When all else fails, re-write.
This one’s kind of self-explanatory. If you’ve trimmed and trimmed and trimmed, and the novel is still too Victorianly (see what I did there?) cluttered, it might be time for a complete re-write.

I hate even thinking those words, much less typing them and putting them where people can see. But sometimes, it’s the only choice we have. Maybe the story took off in the wrong direction in Chapter 2. Maybe there’s a side character who needs to be cut. Maybe there’s a side character who’s supposed to be the main character. Maybe the climax should’ve happened five chapters before it did.

Whatever it is, a re-write might fix it–and fix it well enough that your wordcount “magically” decreases by whatever percentage you require.

Alpha and Omega

In the beginning, Stephen King recommends that we omit needless words. In the end, he recommends the same thing, and I concur. In every chapter, scene, and sentence, ask yourself: “Does this belong?”

If it doesn’t, you’ve identified a darling.

Time to kill it.

The Mock Turtle Soup Table of Contents

The Mock Table of Contents is a chapter list with titles attached to it. Like the short synopsis, it gives you a clarifying overview of your story. It’s a reference point you can use time after time as you write your first draft — and even as you work through 2nd, 4th, or 5th drafts.

Unlike the short synopsis, the Mock ToC distills individual chapters down to their simplest essence. The most basic ingredients look like this:

Chapter 1. Big Event

• the unusual happening that catapults your character into the story

Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4. First Plot Point

• an event that increases tension, gets your character farther into the action, sends the story in a new direction

Chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 7. Midpoint
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9.
Chapter 10. Second Plot Point
Chapter 11.
Chapter 12.
Chapter 13.
Chapter 14. Climax

• the most exciting part of your story; the whole story points toward this

Chapter 15. Denouement

• resolution (how it all turns out)

Now, this is an arbitrary number of chapters. Your story might require fewer chapters or more. If you’re writing children’s fiction, maybe you’ll only need ten chapters. If you’re writing epic fantasy, you might need thirty. On the other hand, you might write an epic with chapters that are 10,000 words long, in which case maybe *you* will be the writer who requires but ten chapters. But I wouldn’t recommend it. ; )

So far, my published novels have fit into the 15-25 chapters category. There are no categories, really; I just made that up. But say I do 17 chapters with roughly 5,000 words each. That’s 85,000 words, a comfortably-sized novel. Some writers prefer their chapters be approximately the same length. Me, I like to mix it up a little — 4,500 words here, 7,000 words there. Some readers like same-length chapters; others prefer the variety. Personal preference rules here.

But we’re not going into detail about chapter lengths today. That was just a little side dish for you.

Chapter Titles

Part of the main course are the Mock ToC’s chapter titles. In brief, each chapter title describes what that chapter is about. You can use the chapter title as a summary, or you can just mention the main event(s) of the chapter. One of the first times I ever wrote a Mock ToC, my chapter titles looked like this:

Mock ToC for Tapped Out (working title) by Courtney Cantrell

CHAPTER 1 — In the Secluded Nook
CHAPTER 2 — The Royal Family
CHAPTER 3 — Dilemmas of a Princess
CHAPTER 4 — Wizard’s Pets
CHAPTER 5 — Preparations
CHAPTER 6 — Wedding Bells
CHAPTER 7 — Unexpected Companions
CHAPTER 8 — Of Travels and Taverns
CHAPTER 9 — Bonding
CHAPTER 10 — Thief/Pursuit
CHAPTER 11 — Sacrifices at the Dock
CHAPTER 12 — Dungeons of the Heart
CHAPTER 13 — Changing Minds
CHAPTER 14 — Reunion

You don’t need to know the story to see that I’ve boiled these chapter titles down to a single concept per chapter. Sometimes this concept is a location (“In the Secluded Nook”), sometimes it relates to characters (“Dilemmas of a Princess”), sometimes it’s a particular event (“Bonding”). In each case, the chapter title is just enough to focus me on the central theme of that chapter. That central theme keeps me on track as I write, so that I don’t stray into the terrible realms of Distraction and Writer’s Block.

By the way, I’m considering taking the “Mock” out of this ToC and actually using most of these titles in the finished story. I’ve never written a novel with real chapter titles before, and I think this one would lend itself well to that. So, you see, it’s possible to repurpose the Mock ToC for your final manuscript. As the indomitable Bob Ross so often said, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” This applies to Mock ToCs as well as oil paintings.

But Tapped Out (working title) is a simple, lighthearted fantasy with a simple, straightforward plot. For a meatier story, I need some meatier chapter titles. Here’s a good example:

Mock ToC for Stains of Grace (Demons of Saltmarch, #3) (first draft; paranormal fantasy) by Courtney Cantrell

1. Anne Makes A Phone Call (Driving)
2. For We Are Many in Des Moines (Do Not Disturb; Nora Shows Up)
3. 1000 Miles Or One Step (Diner Diversion)
4. Showdown In A Rhode Island Driveway (Nora Shows Up, Redux; Owin’s Relief)
5. The Baneguild (Anne Talks; Thomas Repeats Himself)
6. In The Gazebo (Peter’s Dreams, Owin & Anne, Daniel & Peter & Thomas)
7. Rebekah Makes A Phone Call, Peter Reads the Colors, Gina Casts A Grayscale
8. Down The Rabbit Hole (Wounded Gadrell Helps)
9. The Zombie Apocalypse (Saltmarch Is Really Screwed Up)
10. Of Dismembered Zombies and Unexpected Temptations
11. Of Flight and Finding Lodgings
12. You Shall Know The Truth (Thomas’s Confession, Redux; Pol Pays A Visit)
13. Colors And Deception (Peter Seeks Reading Material; Degeneration; Your Mom Goes to College)
14. Save The Clocktower! (Seirim & Dante; Down the Rabbit-Hole, Redux)
15. Return To Innocence

Even in its first draft, Stains of Grace was a more complex story, so I needed more complex titles for clearer reference points as I worked. Again, I used concepts, events, and characters to anchor me.

But this time, I put extra reminders in parentheses. The published Stains contains no chapter titles, but some of these could well have made the final cut: “The Baneguild,” “Rebekah Makes a Phone Call,” “Down the Rabbit Hole,” “Colors and Deception,” “Return to Innocence.” But of course I wouldn’t have included the parenthetical remarks. “Your Mom Goes to College,” while amusing to me, wouldn’t really fit the tone of the story.

To Sum Up

Consider a useful number of chapters. Phrase your chapter titles around each chapter’s central theme/event or main character action. If you want to take the “mock” out, craft each title for final manuscript purposes. Make the Mock ToC work for you.

So, there’s your recipe for mock turtle soup. Eat, write, and be merry!