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Daily Archives: November 25, 2012

Writing In The Crosshairs: What Makes a Good Novel Ending?

A great post on what makes a good ending:

An inept ending can kill your otherwise great book. So what questions do you need to ask about yourending? 

1. Does it resolve the core conflict of the novel? 

This is the big “this is what my book is about” question that your protagonist has spent the entire book trying to achieve. 

This is a biggie for series books, as there’s a larger story arc across multiple books. But the goal in that one book needs to be resolved.

2. Does it satisfy the major questions posed in the novel? 

You don’t have to tie up all the loose ends, but there are probably a few major things in the story readers will want to know answers to.

Read the rest at Writing In The Crosshairs: WHAT MAKES FOR A GOOD NOVEL ENDING?

Help! I’m Just Starting #NaNoWriMo! (Emergency Tip Day 2)

“Hero” by martinwiklund.

For those of you on the Gonzo NaNoWriMo, here’s Day Two.

Day Two: Expand Your Idea. 

You’ll want to make the leap from Beat Sheet to Scene Outline as quickly as possible, but to reach the richness scenes will require, you’ll need to know more about your characters. Knowing your characters better will allow you to deepen their personalities and spice up your plot.
What’s your character’s dark secret?
What’s your character’s worst fear? 
What’s your character’s most important need?
What’s your character’s overarching goal?

Hobbies: Murder, Torture, World-Conquest and Playing with Kittens. He’s well-rounded.

 

Example:

My original idea for Clare, the heroine of September Knight, was pretty shallow. She was a badass beauty (it’s that kind of book), she knew her way around a gun, and she came from a long line of ghost hunters. She became giggly and insecure, however, around cute boys.
Considering that the hero of my October Knight novel is dealing with heroin addiction, I felt I needed a more serious aspect of this book, a deeper problem for Clare to struggle with. At first, I decided her parents were getting divorced. Maybe that’s why she moved to a new town (the story begins with her attending a new high school). 
I already knew a ghost would try to take over her body, and that at first, Clare’s reaction to this would be unexpected: relief. The ghost, at first, seemed to doing a much better of living her job than Clare herself. 
That’s a strange reaction, so I asked myself why. That’s when I discovered Clare’s dark secret: she’d tried to kill herself.
That led me to asking why…
And so on.

Here’s some other steps to do on Day Two:

NaNoWriMo Tip #25: Quick and Dirty Guide to Scene vs Summary

Adeena

These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works.

Show Don’t Tell. Show Don’t Tell. Show Don’t Tell. Yada, yada, yada…

If you’ve heard that so often you want shove the words into a piñata and beat it with a stick, I don’t blame you. Also, what the heck does it mean? I’ve seen it explained poorly WAY too many times.

For instance, I’ve seen the advice, that if you say, “John was furious,” that’s Telling. Whereas if you write, “John clenched his fists,” that Showing. So you should always talk about John’s fists and never say flat out, “John was furious.”

Er, not necessarily.

Ok, yes, technically, telling the reader that John was furious is telling, and showing his clenched fists is showing, at the sentence level. If your writing is full of simplistic sentences like this, then it’s worth looking into other ways to show emotion through body language and action. Make each sentence as strong as it can be. Strike cliché from your writing wherever you find it.

But don’t confuse the old adage Show Don’t Tell for turning your characters into drama-queens who are constantly stomping their feet, clenching their fists and flashing their eyes. Sometimes, a little telling goes along way: “John was furious. He smiled politely, gesturing his mother-in-law into the drawing room. ‘Yes, please stay to dinner.’”

Context is everything.

If you are writing a rich outline / rough draft of your novel, particularly if you are trying to finish it in a month—meaning you want to scratch out your ideas in the white heat of inspiration and worry about refining the writing later, this level of Show Don’t Tell doesn’t even matter. Later you can go back over the paragraph and change, “John was furious,” to, “John clenched his fists,” easily enough if you want to. Sentence level improvements are not that hard, and can be a real pleasure.

What you cannot change so easily, and what you should take the time to get right even in the draft (if you can) is choosing when to write in Scene and when to write in Summary. Changing Scene to Summary or vice versa can involve restructuring you whole novel, and it’s seldom a pleasure. It usually feels like being stuffed into a piñata and hit with a stick.

Scene is another way of saying, “Show,” and Summary is another way of saying, “Tell,” except at a higher level of story, at the level of paragraphs, scenes and whole chapters. Both are necessary. Newbie writers, however, often write Summary when they should write Scene, and write Scene when they should write Summary.

Analysis of Scene vs Summary in a Sample Novel

As an example, I’ll refer (with permission) to a manuscript I was looking at for a friend of mine. She began her book with a terrific opening paragraph, but then, in a classic newbie mistake, veered into First Person Summary. (I’m not going to quote directly, but will indicate the style for each paragraph.) I’ll also label which ones are Scene and which are Summary.

Paragraph 1: [Summary] A three day storm had swept over the city like a jealous bitch, leaving debris to trip up the unwary all over the streets. [More description]
Paragraph 2: [Summary] My name is Alice Munroe, and I’m a 34 year old housewife. I’m not fat, though I could stand to lose ten pounds. My shoulder length blonde hair is starting to show a few gray hairs. … [blah blah blah]… [a couple paragraphs of self-description]
Paragraphs 3-5: [Summary] I grew up… [blah blah blah]… [a couple paragraphs of backstory]
Paragraphs 6-7: [Summary] I married …[blah blah blah]… [more paragraphs of backstory]
Paragraphs 8-9: [Summary] I’m pretty sure my husband is cheating on me because …[blah blah blah]… [more paragraphs of backstory]
Paragraph 10: [Scene]  This afternoon, I waited outside my husband’s office. As soon as I saw his red Chevy pull out, I peeled out of the parking lot and followed him all the way to the Cheery Buster Motel…

Every paragraph until 10 was Summary. Now, you might think I advised this writer to cut all of them, but no. I advised her to cut all but one of them. The first paragraph, although it was Summary, although it was Description and although it didn’t introduce a character or a conflict directly, was a great paragraph. It established us in a time and place, it was dynamic description, and importantly, it foreshadowed the conflict to come (the jealous bitch was about to hit her husband like a storm and leave their marriage in debris). Some Summary is worth keeping.

Paragraphs 2-9, however, stopped the action cold to give us a boring and static description of the woman, her past, her marriage, etc., and completely sucked any tension or mystery out of the next scene (when the woman followed her husband’s car). Basically, the author told us what the protaganist was going to do [Summary], she did it [Scene], and then (in the second half of the chapter), the author slipped back into Summary to recap what had just happened.

Repetition like this is useful in business writing (this author had a long non-fiction resume), where it’s safe to assume your readers are dolts with little interest in the subject, but it’s deadly in fiction. Fiction readers are geniuses and should be respected as such by authors.

Wally Reading vs. Reading Wally.

Is it Scene or Summary?

Unfortunately, there are no Hard and Fast rules about when to use Scene vs Summary. But here’s a Quick and Dirty guide to Scene vs Summary. Please don’t whine that you’ve seen good writers break these conventions. Of course you have. Good writers are like politicians. They know how to break rules and get away with it.

Summary:                                                     

Backstory                                                       

Short flashbacks                                             

Summarized dialogue (no quotes; He told us that…)             

Habitual events (Usually he would…)

Covers long periods of time

Scene:

Immediate action

Long flashbacks

Dialogue (quotes; he said, she said)

Unique events

Unfolds in “real” time, beat by beat

Examples of Scene vs Summary

Description

Summary: Over the years, she had collected a dozen different pieces of diverse tea sets from garage sales.

Scene: She sipped from a white tea cup decorated with roses and set it down on a dark blue Limoges plate fringed with gold loops.

Journey

Summary: Paragraph or two describing the trip over the mountains

Scene: Two characters have a dialogue as they pick their way over the trail

Confrontation

Summary: The boss gave me the pink slip that morning, in the afternoon Jenny asked for a divorce and told me I couldn’t sleep in ‘her’ house anymore, and by evening I’d ended up punching some guy in a bar. At least I had a place to sleep that night after all; the cot in the jail cell wasn’t as hard as it looked.

Scene: “We value your contributions as an employee,” said Mr. Schmuck. “Don’t come back on Monday.” [Etc., followed by individual scenes with Jenny, the bar brawl and the arrest.]
As you can see, these actually work best if you mix and match them. You can describe the woman sipping from the tea cup and also mention how the pieces were collected over the years. You can show the characters chatting on the trail and summarize the rest of the journey over the mountains.

Final Quick and Dirty Questions to Ask

Here’s a final question to ask yourself if trying to decide to write Scene or Summary?

Is this a pivotal turning point or important conflict in the story?

If yes, write Scene. If no, write Summary.

Is this merely something the characters have to do to get to the next part of the story or is it tangential to the main plot?

If yes, write Summary. If no, write Scene.

Suppose your novel is complete or nearly complete and as you’re looking back over it, you realize there are a number of Summaries that should be Scenes and a couple of Scenes that could be deleted and re-condensed as a paragraph or two of Summary. That’s fine. These changes can also be made in revision.  

 If you prefer these Tips as an ebook you can buy it here for $0.99:

 

Update on #NaNoWriMo 24 – Outlined Scene to Draft

This is why Da Vinci never wanted to show his drafts to anyone.

I realized today why my Thanksgiving was so conflict free. My mom wasn’t there. She arrived today to make up for the lack of exciting family drama. Yay! (Just kidding, Mom, if you’re reading this…)  Despite that, I’m going strong on my NaNo novel, and I’m more or less on schedule. (*snort*)

I’ve built up the novel by accretion from the bones of an outline, creating richer and richer outlines as I go.
I promised a sample of moving from a Scene Outline to a Draft. Here it is:

Scene Outline / Notes:

Chapter Five, Scene One:

– Knight’s Lounge – Meet all the Big Players 
– They summon Walida to ask her about the Key
– She says they have a bigger problem; someone is has used the October Key
– Tiffany says she knows who has the Key: Kenny Snow
– Maybe Snow killed Walida?
– Clare stands by her other theory, that it was Dorcas
– Must do everything to safeguard the Key
– Arkane looks right at Brandon

Here’s how it came out in the wash. Keep in mind that this an extremely rough draft, not the final version. However, I’ve gone ahead and used full sentences, quote marks and as much of the correct Voice as possible, even in the draft, on the off-chance that some of it is usable. Much, much rougher drafting is possible, but I’ve found that it’s not worth it to forgo quotation marks, for instance, because putting them in during revisions is a pain in the bahunkus.

I chose this scene because it’s a Bridging Scene not a Juicy Scene. Juicy scenes are the ones you can’t wait to write. You might not even need notes on those, because you’ve already run them so many times in your head. Bridging Scenes are the sinews of the novel; they do important work, but they’re not as sexy in their own right. This makes them harder to do, but fatal to skip.

Sorry for the length, but I wanted to include everything touched on in the notes, to show how the wordcount unfolded. Whether you read it or not, you can scan down and see how just a few notes were enough to keep me going for a full scene.

Draft of Chapter 5, Scene 1:  

–>

SCENE 1 – Earth; Cleargate High School; Lounge Room

The secret lair of the mystics on campus turned out to be the locker lounge behind the Small Gym. The décor a stand of extra lockers, some cabinets, and four thrift-store reject couches arranged haphazardly around a shag rug. The place smelled like Channel Number 5 mixed with eau’d’sock, which wasn’t surprising because the metal two doors in the back wall led to the Girls and Boys locker rooms respectively.

The room had magic however. Deep, old and strong. Also, one entire wall was lined with mirrors…magic mirrors.

Leth entered ahead of me, and then Myron. I could see Leth’s ears and faint glow clearly in the mirror. Myron’s reflection showed a faceless black silhouette.

Shit.

I knew what the mirror would show if I entered that room. If I balked now, though, it would look suspicious in itself. My masque would never hold up….

What about the Key?

The Key was to Dust what a wind tunnel was to a handy vac. It kicked magic ass. I didn’t know how strong the spell on the mirror was, but maybe the Key’s magic was stronger. It was my only shot. I clutched the Key in my pocket and murmured silently, Masque! I stepped into the room, glancing at my reflection…

For a moment, my skin shimmered and looked greenish, but then it was gone, and my human masque reflected back at me. Oh, hell, yeah! I just hoped no one noticed the flicker.

Damian and Tiffany were already waiting, seated on opposite couches. In the mirror, Tiffany glowed, while Damian… had a black silhouette. He wasn’t a ghost, though, so what did that mean? Tiffany didn’t seem bothered by it, or at least, she didn’t seem surprised by it. As always, she acted jittery around Damian, as if he were a lap dog she expected to show signs of rabies any second now.

“This is the Knight’s Lounge,” said Clare. “It’s where the Knights of the Year used to hang out. This year… we’re trying to get the Knights going again.”

“The Knights of the Year?” I repeated. “That sounds really…”

Clare crossed her arms and glared at me.

“Fey,” I concluded, grinning.

“Are you going to explain what that means?” asked Leth.

“I’ll let the grown-ups do that,” said Clare.

Two adults entered the lounge. One was the guidance counselor, Mr. Cambiel, and the other was Mr. Arkane.

There was no doubt whatsoever that Arkane recognized me. He looked right at me, then at my human reflection in the mirror, and then at me again, with one eyebrow raised. I noticed that his reflection in the mirror looked human too…except for his jet black eyes. He lowered dark sunglasses and smirked at me. Our little secret, his expression seemed to say. We both bat for the other team.

Mr. Cambiel noticed me, and a frown appeared on his brow. “I don’t remember seeing you here before, young man. Your name is….?”

“Brandon,” supplied Arkane smoothly. “Transfer student.”

The two men exchanged a glance, Cambiel somewhat arch, as if issuing a challenge, and Arkane firm, as if answering it.

“Same with us,” said Myron, including Leth in his lie.

Cambiel looked at Arkane, who shrugged.

“We are here to convene the Knights…”

“It’s really just me,” said Clare.

“…to discuss the murder of Wahida [lastname]. Was her spirit about to tell you anything?”

“We were questioning her when she dashed off after her cat. Then her Door came, and poof, she was gone.”

“I will call her back,” said Mr. Cambiel.

“I thought your kind weren’t supposed to do witchcraft?”

“My kind do not need to do witchcraft.”

“What do you call this?”

“A miracle.”

A glowing door appeared in the wall, and Wahida stepped out.

“Can you tell us who killed you?”

“No.”

“That was useful,” Damian remarked.

“I have not been sent to tell you of my own killer,” said Walida. “But to warn you of a much greater danger to all the planes of the Omniverse. The Key has been used.”

I jolted. Oh shit.

But they spoke about it as though they had no clue I had it and I began to wonder if they meant some other key. Maybe there were hundreds of keys wandering around with the power to travel to different dimensional planes, create showers of candy and overpower magic mirrors.

“I know who has the key,” Tiffany said unexpectedly.

I stiffened.

“Kenny Snow.”

You could have smashed me with an anvil.

“Have you seen him?”

“No, be we know he’s been seeking it. He must have succeeded.”

“Perhaps,” said Cambiel, taping the side of the chair.

“Did Snow kill Wahida?”

“Why would he kill a Homecoming Queen aspirant?” Clare asked.

“She was also a witch. With her power… I must be frank. We were considering the possibility that she would be chosen to become a Knight.”

“Oh. Maybe my theory was wrong.”

“What was your theory?”

Clare explained about Dorcas and discussed her plan to draw Dorcas out by posing a Homecoming princess. I squirmed a bit when she came to the candy rain. Cambial shook his head disapprovingly.

“We discussed this when you became a Knight, Clare. You aren’t supposed to use magic openly.”

“I don’t use magic secretly. Blame Brandon.”

“I didn’t…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

The adults didn’t have any Wisdom Of The Old Ones to share with us, just nodded and murmured, “Carry on.”

I thought I had escaped unscathed, but Arkane cornered me at the last minute.

When no one else remained, he grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and shoved me up against the wall.

“I thought better of you, Brandon,” he hissed. “When did you start working for Kenny Snow?”

“I’m not!”

“How’d you get here, then?”

“I don’t know!”

“Are you using?”

“Using what, Mr. Arkane?” I blinked at him innocently.

He snarled and let me go. “You may fool the humans, but you don’t fool me.  You don’t fool Cambiel either. He’s more likely to kill you than I am.”

“Is he a demon too?”

“Oh, he’s something much worse than a demon. He’s an angel.”

No wonder Mr. Cambiel was such a stuffed shirt.

“I’ll be watching you,” Mr. Arkane added. “One misstep, I and will make you wish you never heard of Earth.” He glowered, but I must not have looked sufficiently terrified, because then he got nasty. “And don’t think you’ll get out of that geometry quiz on Friday!”