2012 November | Best Fantasy Novel

McGuffin Found In the Wild!

A few posts back, I mentioned ever-useful the McGuffin plot. If you pay close attention, you will often see Hollywood writers wink slyly at the viewers in the know by mentioning the McGuffin right in the script. It’s a meta-McGuffin!

Here’s one McGuffin I recently found in the wild on The Penguins of Madagascar (Season 2, It’s About Time):

Kowalski: (Sighs) Oh Skipper, I don’t think you’re seeing the big picture here. With the Chronotron we’ll be able to visit any period in history!  

After taking a sip, Skipper throws his cup of joe to the side, and punches his open hand while talking.

  Skipper: Outstanding! Finally those hippies can be stopped! C’mon Rico! 

 Skipper and Rico slowly advance towards the Chrono-tron.  

Rico: (Angrily) Hippies! 

Kowalski: Hold on Skipper, the Chronotron needs just one more thing before it’s fully functional. Five ounces of Macguffium-239. Fortunately I know where to find some right here in midtown.  

Kowalski pulls out a City Map and points to the center of it.

by Tara Maya

What Is Bad Writing?

Nathan Bransford wrote a controversial post in which he defended, not the content but the prose of 50 Shades of Grey. (Honestly, I don’t think anyone needs to defend the content either. Sexist? Sure; also the plot of pretty much every erotica novel ever. And since these are books by women for women there’s something else going on besides anti-feminism.) But let’s say that you loathe the content, does it follow the writing itself is also pure trash:

Nathan Bransford, Author: What People Talk About When They Talk About Bad Wr…: One thing about my Fifty Shades of Grey post that inspired some mild controversy was my insistence that it’s not that badly written.

What’s interesting about talking about “good” writing and “bad” writing is that when people use those terms, different people often mean different things.

When I talk about “good” writing and “bad” writing, I mean the prose. Is it readable on a sentence-to-sentence level? Is there a flow? Is there a voice? Do I get tripped up by a lack of specificity in description or are the details evocative? Is the hand of the author too apparent or am I able to lose myself in the world of the book?

This is all mainly accomplished on the sentence level. It’s not about character or plot or plausibility or whether the book is compelling or not and not at all about whether I like the book, it’s whether the author can write a paragraph….

Well, I completely agree with him, and I see this error in logic all the time. The error looks like this:

1. The content is bad / stupid / morally repulsive

THEREFORE:

2. The prose is awful.

Oh, friends. That’s Cartoon Logic. That’s like saying that you can tell a Villain by what color spandex he wears.

This is a really important point for self-published authors to learn too, because I see so many self-published books with the opposite problem. The content is original and fun and interesting but the prose is ghastly. If you try to point this out, you receive a rant about the conspiracy of Big Six publishers to squash new ideas. It isn’t Big Six publishers…It’s dangling prepositions and unclear antecedents. A book can shoot to the top of the charts with a hackneyed plot but not with a lack of periods at the end of sentences.

by Tara Maya

NaNoWriMo Tip #20: Scene Helper

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These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works. This is a new and streamlined post about Scene Helper, revised from an earlier post.

What is a scene?

A scene is the usual unit of writing for me. I sit down, begin a scene and keep writing until I finish it. If I am interrupted before I finish the scene, say by the requirement to cook dinner for a hungry hoard of munchkins, those munchkins better like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m not good for much else until I finish my scene.

Ok, but what is a scene? How do you know where to start it and where to end it, or whether to include it at all?

A scene is a story. Think of everything you’ve heard about writing the first sentence of a book…it should draw in the reader, it should intrigue, excite, show character and conflict… the beginning of every single scene should do the same thing.

Think of everything you’ve heard about a story arc for a character in a novel…the character should have a goal, should grow and change over the course of the novel, should achieve or fail to achieve both an inner and outer goal… the middle every single scene should do the same thing.

The only difference between a scene and a novel is that a scene should always end on a hook, whereas a novel should have resolution. If possible, the hook should be an actual cliffhanger, in which the emotional and/or physical health of a major character is in jeopardy, but if that’s not possible, at least a new threat, riddle or intriguing clue should be introduced to lure the reader on to the next scene.

You can beef up weak scenes in editing, but here’s a Scene Helper formula to add to your Chapter by Chapter Outline, to make sure your scenes will be strong before you ever even write them. If you sit down and find there is no story-arc for this scene, consider deleting it.

CHAPTER:

POV:

LOCATION:

HOOK:

CHANGE:

HANGER:

EXTRAS:

Now I’ll break it down in more detail:

CHAPTER: Book #, Chapter #, Scene # – Chapter Title

This is important just to remind you where in the book you are. If you are giving your chapters names, it’s a good time to name them… it can be fun.

POV: Character, Person, Tense

If your book follows a character, in the same person and tense—say, First Person, Present Tense, like the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow—you might skip this step because it’s not going to change scene to scene. Although, it can work as a reminder, you don’t accidently slip out of your chosen tense. That happens much too easily when one is caught up in writing, and it’s a pain in the neck to fix.

If you are writing from multiple points of view or using more than one tense, this is where you note what you’ll be using in the scene. Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin is written in multiple Third Person, Past Tense.

LOCATION: Time and place

When and where does the scene take place? Locate this scene on your calendar and your map. Have the characters been here before? Has it been onstage to the readers (and therefore described) before?

HOOK: The first line or paragraph of the scene.

The first line or paragraph of your scene is like the first line of a book or short story. It must draw in the reader by asking a story question. The first or second paragraph must establish who the PoV character is and what he or she is doing, where and with whom. The sooner the logistical information is conveyed to the reader, the clearer it is. If the reader is confused about what’s going on, no amount of mystery is going to help. So: clarity first, then mystery. Make sure your opening establishes the PoV and the action, and then primp up your prose to make it intriguing.

CHANGE: How the character/s change over the scene.

Each scene exists for a reason, and that reason is to show the characters striving for some goal, conflicting with one another, and growing or changing in some way because they either fail or achieve their goal. You could call this section, “Goal” if you prefer. Either way, remind yourself that your character needs a goal, a struggle and a change over the course of the scene.

HANGER: The Cliffhanger

Every scene should end on a new cliffhanger. No problem should ever be solved without a new problem being introduced.

EXTRAS: The Cast Onstage

Who besides the main character is onstage during this scene? Note not only the other major characters, but any spear-holders or extras. For instance, if the hero and the villain are enjoying an unpleasant lunch together at an outdoor café, note that there are people at the other tables—is it a lunch crowd, families with noisy kids? Or a dinner crowd, sophisticated couples and clinicians from the Pharmacists’ Convention at the hotel? How about the server, a chirpy waitress with curly red hair or a gay man with strong opinions on the pasta?

Set Pieces

I used to include descriptions of the locations in my Scene Helper Outline, but it became repetitive, since many scenes took place in the same location, which didn’t need to be described over and over. I did need a few sensory reminders each time, however. I found a better approach was to create, in advance…now, at the outlining stage, if possible… a few set pieces.

Now I look through my Scene Helper Outline and identify all the locations (and sometimes characters, including bit characters). I write set pieces for these. A set piece is a bit of description that doesn’t really move the story forward except to ground the reader in the location, or to give a physical appraisal of a newly introduced character. Set pieces can also be used, more rarely (and sparingly) for thematic tangents and rants. (Cough, Atlas Shrugged, cough.)

Look back to your Seed Scenes. If your characters and sets haven’t changed too much since then, you can loot that material for set pieces. Use your Scene Helper to figure out where each piece would work best. Richer description should be more heavily weighted toward the beginning of the novel, when places and people are being introduced, and lighter toward the end, when the pace accelerates.

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

by Tara Maya

Update on #NaNoWriMo 19: Length

Control the length of your writing, or this could happen to you.

It’s ironic. I wrote my Tips ahead of time. The order of writing tips is an not exact science (which is why I’m offering them as a complete ebook for those who want to “cheat” and read ahead.) As it happens, however, when I woke up this morning I was worried about two things, (A) how to cook a turkey, and (B) that my NaNo novel was going to be too long.

Also, I think I’m going to put the shoe scene back in. (A decision not unrelated to the wordcount worries.)

I’m still wavering between a three act structure (with 15 chapters) or a four act structure (with 12 chapters). The 12 chapters don’t seem to be working, but I’m attached to it because I like the number twelve for this series.

I told myself when I started this book that I wasn’t going to obsess about either (A) the number of chapters or (B) the length of the chapter. I would let the words and chapters flow as they willed.

Hahahahaaha.

Many writers write that way, but me: I obsess. You might think, well, if Chapter 3 is too long and Chapter 4 is too short, just move some of the stuff from 3 into 4. How hard, Tara, seriously? But nooooooo. I can’t. Because I write each chapter as its own mini-story, with certain things that MUST happen in that chapter, a specific beginning and a specific end, and I can’t simply take the Ironic Ending of Chapter 3, which references the Hook at the beginning of 3, and put it in Chapter 4.

There’s another reason too. I’ve found that, as agonizing and frustrating as it is to fit the story into X chapters of Y words each with a novel no longer than Z…. It usually forces me to improve the novel. When there’s flab that doesn’t fit, there are two possible problems. One, the flab is fat and must be cut. Or two, there is more meat the the material than I considered in my original Outline.

Examples:

Cut? There are a couple of characters I wonder if I need to cut, for instance, his two junkie friends. They have purpose–they betray him to his stepfather. Hm. So I won’t cut them, but maybe I can still cut down the scene they are in, or move it so that these friends are not as prominent.

Add? I read over my first Act and, although I liked a lot of it, I felt that it wasn’t “Halloweeny” enough. I already have ghosts, demons, masks, ritual murder, a witch with a cute kitten familiar, a geometry quiz, houses with decorated with lawn cemeteries, satanic schemes, a trip to hell and Trick Or Treating which will include an army of ravaging goblin teenagers. Hm. What major component of Halloween was still missing? Ah! Candy. Duh!

by Tara Maya

NaNoWriMo Tip #19: 7 Signs Your Book Is The Wrong Length…and How To Fix it

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

Seven Signs Your Book Is Going To Be Too Long or Too Short…

1. Your outline calls for 3 scenes of set-up, but it’s turned into 9 scenes…and you hero has still not even answered the call to adventure yet.

2. Several scenes you thought would take up whole chapters each have turned out to work better as a paragraph or even a line of summary. (“The mule caravan arrived at the ford by spring.”)

3. A new character turned up who wasn’t in your outline.

4. A minor character has proven more important than you realized.

5. You added or dropped a subplot.

6. Your scenes are running a lot longer or shorter than you expected.

7. You’re halfway through the outline of what should be a 70,000 word book but only have 10,000 words.

…And How To Fix It

Now let’s get to solutions. Not surprisingly, Too Short and Too Long are mirror image problems, so the solutions are interrelated. Length is primarily controlled by five things.

Subtasks

Is your hero driving the story or sitting around passively waiting and worrying about stuff? After your hero accepts the call to action, your hero should be constantly driving the story toward the main goal.

If Your Book Is Too Short: If the story is moving toward the end too rapidly, in a boring and linear fashion, you might need more Sub-Tasks. These are things your hero needs to do to reach the final goal. However, they must be exciting and important in their own right, not superfluous distractions. Brainstorm more Sub-Tasks as needed and add these to your outline to make sure they fit into the larger story arc before you commit to them.

A related problem is that your protagonist might not be interesting enough. Show another side of her through a Subtask or Subplot (more about those below).

If Your Book Is Too Long: If the story is meandering and the hero is not making progress toward the main goal, you may have included too manySub-Tasks. Does the hero really need to find all Seven Magic Gems? How about only Three?

Look for things to cut. Candidates are any scenes which don’t directly contribute to the main story goal, journey scenes and “boring” scenes.

Subplots

There are two kinds of Subplots. In one kind, the protagonist is pursuing another goal in addition to the main story goal. For example, the hero’s main goal is to win an Olympic race. A subplot is his goal to win the heart of a runner on a rival team. Or take the governess hired to look after the daughter of a duke. The main plot is heroine’s winning the romantic affections of the duke. The subplot is the heroine’s winning the familial affections of his daughter.

The other kind of subplot involves characters besides the protagonist. For example, the hero is an eremitic monk who has come out of his ascetic solitude to play detective and exonerate a fellow monk accused of murder. The subplot is story of the Venetian princeling who hired him to marry the daughter of a political rival and avoid assassination by his rivals. In Initiate, the first book of The Unfinished Song, the main plot revolves around the heroine’s attempts to pass her Initiation and become a Tavaedi (magic warrior-dancer). Subplots involve the hero’s exile, a mother trying to protect her daughters, and a mysterious woman who lost her memory (told in flashbacks).

The key to effective subplots is that although they seem irrelevant at first to the main plot, they always tie into it by the end.

If Your Book Is Too Short: Add subplots. Add a McGuffin, a mystery or a relationship. Count up how many characters your protagonist has important relationships with so far. If it’s only two—the romance and the villain—or less, then there’s room for more. The relationship doesn’t have to be a romance either. It could be a friend, a roommate, an ex, an authority figure. To make sure you’re not just filling pages with Yawn, give the other person in the relationship a conflict with your protagonist. Use this relationship and this conflict to show another side of your protagonist.

If Your Book Is Too Long: Subtract or contract subplots. I know it’s hard, if you’ve set up also sort of delicious side-stories, to snipe them out of the picture. Here’s the secret to painlessly cutting Excess Subplot: Keep It For Later. A later book in the series, a new set of characters in some other series, a stand-alone short story, a novella tie-in to your main book. Nothing need be lost. Keep telling yourself that…then cut.

Scene and Summary

Scene is “showing.” Summary is “telling.” I won’t elaborate here because you can find lots about the difference between these too. If you’re not sure of it, definitely study up, although be aware there’s a lot of dumb advice around “Show Don’t Tell.” Sometimes it messes you up more than it helps.

If Your Book Is Too Short: You may be conveying too much of your book through Summary rather than Scene. Look over your novel and see if you’ve skimmed over any potentially juicy scenes. It’s also possible that you’re writing too many “white room” scenes that are almost entirely dialogue, with no sense of setting.

If Your Book Is Too Long: You may be conveying too much of your book through Scene rather than Summary. Believe it or not, sometimes it IS better to Tell than to Show. See if some scenes can be reduced to a line or paragraph of summary at the beginning of the next scene or somewhere else, and cut the fat. You may also be overexplaining. Do you tell the reader what your going to tell them, show them, and then tell them what your going to tell them? Do your characters plan their actions in one scene, worry about whether their plan will work in the next scene, carry out the actions as they planned or fail they worried, and then talk about it or think or fret about it afterward? If so, you can probably cut all but one of those scenes. Don’t bore your reader with repetition.

Cast of Characters

It’s a simple rule: The more major characters you have, the longer the story needs to be. This is especially true if you have multiple PoV characters.

If Your Book Is Too Short: Add a character, or give a minor character a bigger role. Adding a character has the benefit of usually involving more Subtasks or Subplots.

If Your Book Is Too Long: Remove a character, reduce a major character to a minor role or combine two different characters into one. Cutting a character is often the easiest way to cut excess Subtasks or Subplots.

Passage of Time

The more time passes in your novel, the harder it is to flow smoothly across chapters. That’s because scenes take place in a sort of imagined “real time,” which isn’t real at all, but necessarily contains a certain heft and pace. If you skip ten years between chapters two and three and another year between chapters nine and ten, it’s going to be tricky. Skilled writers can do it, and some stories require it, but be aware it can play havoc with the wordcount of your novel as you wrestle with it. This is related, but subtly different from the problem of Scene vs. Summary.

If Your Book Is Too Short: Are you skipping too much time? Do you skim over long intervals of things like, “Over the next six months I learned fluent Spanish and earned black belts in five martial arts. At last, I was ready to take down the Yakuza gang that killed Grandma.” Consider showing some of this time in Scene.

If Your Book Is Too Long: Do you have your characters onstage too often in an effort to show time passing? Waiting, studying, journeying, empty dialogue, waking up, going to sleep, eating at feasts where no one is poisoned, these may all show the passage of time, but not in a good way. Skip more.

Important note:

Whether your book is too short or too long, it can benefit from cutting boring scenes. Even the shortest book is too long if it’s a drag to read.

Boring scenes are usually there because the plot “requires” them, for info-dumping, setting the mood, reaction shots or moving characters around, but they are… boring. Target scenes that involve nothing beyond your protagonist worrying, waiting, travelling or planning. Look for the nugget of necessary information or action contained in the scene—the reason you allowed it into your manuscript or outline in the first place. Then extract that nugget and place it into another scene, combine two boring scenes into one more interesting scene, or just cut it altogether.

Or turn a boring scene into a thrilling scene. More on that later.

Finally, if all else fails, if you’ve scoured your book and don’t want to add or cut a thing, rename your Too Short novel a novella, or split your Too Long book into two books. Voila! Now it’s the perfect length!