DO YOUR STORY OR CHARACTERS HAVE A TRADEMARK STYLE?
As with any writer, once you find something that works, you get into a groove. You find your place and tend to go with it. Sometimes it’s deliberate, sometimes it’s unconscious and it’s not until other people tell you about it.
The reason I picked this subject is because of a series of books I just read by a British author. His stories are in the DaVinci Code mold, sort of. The hero usually chases after some kind of McGuffin with biblical connotations. Of course, he travels to plenty of exotic places and gets into loads of trouble along the way. What makes these stories unique, or as I’ll define it, the authors trademark, is that though is lots of over-the-top violence sprinkled throughout the story, the hero has little to do with it except usually being on the receiving end or escaping. The bad guys or others perpetuate it. He’s left to keep his sidekick, his ex-wife out of situations, help figure things out (she’s usually the brains), and lead the way. I call him the born-to-be-mild cop (his actual job when he’s not off adventuring). Out of four books, I can only remember him shooting one person. Considering the body count in those four books, that’s quite unusual.
My trademark, at least in my Gold series of stories is that though my hero, Detach goes after gold in each novel, the metal is actually a side issue to a bigger picture. There really is gold to be found in each story, but it’s only the starting point.
In my icky bug novels, since they’re not a series, I guess my trademark would be the humor. In that respect, humor would be the trademark of all of my stories.
For some authors, it might be something annoying, like using million dollar words, or writing in present tense, or other editorial issues I rail about all the time.
For all of you out there, especially those that have more than one novel or are still finding your groove, do you have a trademark you’re aware of? Have you thought of one, or are you contemplating one?
TELLING STORIES THROUGH SONGS VERSUS NOVELS
Being a musician and a writer, I can relate to both worlds. The other day, I pondered the differences between the two. The way I see it, there’s a huge difference. A song (versus a symphony or an opera) is at best, a short story, conveying sometimes a story but to most people, a feeling, an emotion or multiples of both. The written novel or short story, on the other hand, is a word picture told in detail. It may convey the same things, but it’s all in the readers head and it’s up to the writer to place any sounds, emotions or images in it.
As a musician and a writer, I may have a unique outlook on the two. I’ve played in bands since I was in high school, both concert band, marching band, jazz band, rock bands, country bands and even a Latin band. That’s a wide range of music. My preference is hard rock, psychedelic and metal. That’s just something ingrained into me since I first heard bands like Clear Light, Blue Cheer, Bubble Puppy, The Mothers of Invention, Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, Lothar and the Hand People, Spirit, Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, the original Alice Cooper Band, the Stooges and so many others I’m sure you’ve never heard of. These mostly album-oriented bands instilled a sense of musical emotion that put me in a different place with each song.
Each composition told a story. However, none of those bands had their say to me through the words, with the exception of Frank Zappa (The Mothers of Invention). That’s right, the only lyrics I really listened to were Zappa’s because he told funny stories and liked to sneak in dirty words the censors at Verve, his record label, were notorious for editing out on some pressings of his early albums.
Though I knew smatterings of lyrics to many of the songs by my favorite bands, for the most part, I didn’t have a clue what they were singing about. I couldn’t understand what they were mumbling most of the time. Back in the day, most music didn’t have lyric sheets in the album sleeves, so if the singers garbled a line, so be it. AM radio had notoriously bad sound quality and the same could be said for many of the record players and stereos, not to mention the singers themselves.
In some of the rock bands, I sang lead. PA systems were crappy back then so Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater became Bathroom On The Right. I actually thought he was singing that until I saw the title on the 45 and even though I knew the right words from that title, I continued singing it wrong and most people never noticed!
I could list hundreds of examples of misheard lyrics. The point is that I’ve never listened to them to begin with, even the ones that were supposed to be telling a story, something many of the psychedelic songs were not really known for. I listened to the music. The vocals have always been articulated vocal noises, to quote Frank Zappa. The problem with music telling a story versus a book is that many music listeners are the same way. They’re more interested in the mood the song brings rather than the story conveyed in the lyrics. Sure, there are exceptions like the great folk singers and lyricists. To tell the truth, I never listened to their words either. It was either the melody or nothing.
With a book, it’s all about the words. There’s nothing else in the way like a melody or rhythm or the vocal characteristics of the singer or the personalities or drama of the band members behind it. Most people don’t even know what the author looks like unless there’s a photo on the jacket, something that’s not always done anymore. Even then, sometimes the photo shown doesn’t look anything like the real person.
I have nothing against poetry, but there’s an automatic switch inside that shuts off the second I read a line of poetry. I can’t help it. I don’t get poetry at all. It makes no sense to me. Unless there’s dialogue, narrative or exposition, the lines do nothing for me. I can’t explain it. That’s probably why song lyrics do so little for me, unless they’re dirty, comical, or slap me in the face. Then when you only have twelve bars to tell a story, that’s a really short short story anyway.
When an author quotes poetry in a novel, that’s the first thing I skip because it makes no sense to me. In music, they’re just those articulated vocal noises. So, as a musician, I love music but I see songs as a different kind of story than what the lyrics might present. Do lyrics have an impact on a song for me? Sure, but not by telling a story. Chunks of lyrics can give me a mood to go with the music by enhancing the subject matter. Certain words may fit the music at that moment, they just feel right at that spot. The vocalist is using his or her instrument to add to the mood at that moment. All part of the puzzle.
How do you see it?
REALISTIC CHARACTERS
I’m recently finished a novel by what used to be one of my favorite icky bug writers. Once upon a time, he was an author I couldn’t miss. Back in the 90’s, I picked up every one of his books I could find and was only disappointed with one. In that dud, there was no monster or even something supernatural. It was a plain old serial killer and not written up to his best standards.
Since then, he’s continued to upset me a great deal by getting lazy and switching to first person. Later on, at verge of quitting the game in frustration, he found his voice again and came back. Unfortunately, the voice he found wasn’t the one I liked. He continued writing mostly in first-person, turned sappy and became heavy-handed with the moral issues. In other words, a bit preachy. Also, as I’ve talked about in Are You Writing A Story Or A Dictionary, he epitomizes that title perfectly, especially now.
Once in a while, he’d do a novel and switch back to third-person. I even tried one or two of his first-person stories and always came away irritated, disappointed and just plain bored. I wasted my money. As for the third-person “sidetracks,” most of them weren’t too bad except for the part about being sappy, moralistic, and using the dictionary with abandon. Not the old author.
I know, this is a long-winded way to get around to the subject at hand. This well-known and, very rich I might add, author knows his game. He’s been at it for over three decades. He should know all there is to know about writing a good story, right?
The book I just read is in third-person (the only reason I picked it up). It’s recent, as of 2011. I got it on the discount rack so I didn’t lose much money on it.
At first, it looked like he was back in form, writing a supernatural thriller like in the old days. Unfortunately, I found it a struggle just to get through each chapter. He threw the dictionary at me, as expected. In another article I also mentioned writing at a sixth-grade level because it makes for a more pleasurable read. In this case, though I know all of the twelve-dollar words, they got in the way rather than added much to the story.
Okay, so he’s a bit verbose. That’s neither unusual or necessarily a deal-breaker for a well-known author, or a big blunder from someone who should know better. However, there were three kids that were active characters in the story. I dreaded coming to a chapter dedicated to the kids. Why?
Realistic characters.
Remember what I said about those twelve dollar words? One kid was eight and the others were young teens, junior high, early high school age. They lived, breathed and talked in the same twelve dollar words the author used in the rest of the book. I don’t buy the excuse that they were being home-schooled. They may have been well ahead of their peers in certain things, but kids are still kids. They weren’t grad students!
For a best-selling author with three decades of experience, to draw kids such as this is flat ridiculous. Of course, with the power he has, he can pretty much write the phone book (okay, I’ve used that before so call it a cliché if you want!) and his editor will pass it off and go “Yes Sir!”
If one of us were to write a character like that, we’d be called on it in a split second!
From a reader standpoint, if it weren’t for the author dropping key bits of plot info, I would’ve skipped over the kids’ chapters because they were awful to read.
If you write something and your readers want to skip chapters, it’s time to sit back and rethink what you’re doing.
If anyone wants to know who this author is, I’ll be glad to tell them privately. He has a huge following and I don’t want to start a war on line. Besides, I’m still a fan of his early work and hold out hope he’ll wake up.
The story turned out okay in the end, so I gave it a decent review just because of the ending. Boy, I had to suffer to get there. If I wasn’t already a fan, I probably never would’ve made it that far. Realistic characters indeed.
CRAPPY ENDINGS
CRAPPY ENDINGS
The title kind of slaps you right in the face, doesn’t it? It’s a subject I feel very strong about. It’s something I don’t tolerate in a story that I spend my good money, invest time, or become emotionally involved in. The same can be said for movies.
The seed for this article comes from my Saturday evening icky bug on the SyFy Channel, weekend before last. They showed a pretty cool/bad offering called Ghost Storm. I loved it for all of its B-movie hokieness. However, just before it came on, I saw the ending of The Mist.
Of all the horrible endings in a movie, that had to be the worst. If there was ever a story that had so much fun and potential, only to be spoiled but a bummer of a conclusion, that was it. The only other story I can think of in recent memory that comes close is The Ruins. There was no payoff, no reason for sitting there either reading the book or watching the movie adapted from it. All for naught.
For some reason, there’s a group of authors, and I suppose, some readers (and movie goers) out there that love screwed up and bummer endings. There’s all the buildup, the emotional investment, only to have it all thrown away in the end. This seems to be a big thrill for this group. Maybe it’s a big thing for some of you reading this. I just don’t get it.
I was never a big fan of Stephen King for a lot of reasons, even though he’s a literary hero, from a distance. I like most of his movies more than his books. Yet, I also step cautiously, now more than ever with anything he does, especially after The Mist. I’m also highly suspicious of any author he endorses, such as Scott Smith, after he “highly recommended” The Ruins.
Those of you that have read my blogs from the beginning know I hate bummer endings, so this is nothing new. I sometimes get reminded of how much I hate this kind of writing when I see something like The Mist by accident, as I did the other night. It makes me hope there aren’t too many of you out there writing stories like that. In this day and age, especially, we don’t need shocking bummer endings to cheer people up! It reminds me of all those 70’s movies where the heroes always died, like it was an unwritten law or something. Sometimes the 70’s really sucked!
As a writer, is your goal to do nothing more than shock your audience or is it to provide them reading pleasure? Would you rather leave them with a smile on their face, maybe a happy tear? Or, is your sole purpose to leave them sick to their stomach, pissed off, or ruin their day? I love to write scary, even creepy stories, but I don’t like to end them that way. There has to be light at the end of the tunnel. Some writer’s use the excuse that they need to kill off their heroes once in a while to keep up the suspense, keep the readers on their toes. I don’t buy that. I can still get suspense from the character being in jeopardy while knowing full well he or she will survive. Maybe I’m easy to satisfy but I much prefer positive endings. If I want bad endings, I can read non-fiction anytime.
Sure, there’s a place for everything, but I certainly don’t want to be the one contributing to it.
Maybe it’s because I’m a glass is half full person. How about you?
MAKING YOUR CHARACTERS PERSONALITY BELIEVABLE
There’s nothing more boring than having a hero with no personality. What’s the point of reading a story where the main character does nothing but go through the motions? Why care?
The question comes down to how you draw each character. Do you pick random traits or do you model them after people you know? How do you come up with these traits? How do you explain them?
For the good guys they should be likable and the bad guys despicable. Then again, that’s not the real world, which is full of gray.
Meleena is the main character in my fantasy series. She’s a brat. Though she’s the hero and saves the day, she doesn’t do it alone. Sometimes things happen despite her. She’s been on her own since she was eight season cycles (years) old. She’s not someone to take kindly to orders. She has a bratty mean streak, though as her story unfolds, she discovers a hidden moral side.
I recently read a chapter where she reacted badly to finding out news about something personal. The group didn’t think she should react that way. In other words, they didn’t believe it, even though that was exactly how I wanted her to behave. What I wrote didn’t convince them.
They suggested I either change her personality, which I won’t do, or give her internal thoughts or dialogue with other characters to explain why she’s acting so irrationally. That I can do.
I created personality issues with an already developed character (remember, this is the sequel) and didn’t pull it off very well. How about you? Do you have a character, whether good guy/girl or bad guy/girl with some personality trait that could raise an eyebrow? Is it something that would give readers a pause? For most common quirks this is nothing to worry about. However, what about a character that reacts violently to seeing someone spill a glass of water for instance? How about someone that freaks out when someone slams a door? If you don’t properly explain those quirks, give a cause for the effect, you could have a problem with your story.
In my case, I can’t go into details without giving away a key element to my novel. I can say that I am not going to change Meleena’s issue as it is an ongoing key element, but I am going to explain it better. I’m so glad I have a group to read this to. Remember my mantra, forest through the trees! Add this one too it. Different sets of eyes and/or ears!
Nothing in your or my story happens without a reason. You cannot leave anything hanging. Your readers will pick up on it. Even if they don’t, it’s excess baggage if it’s there for no other reason. Wasted verbiage. Clutter.
Happy writing!
EDITING – REPEAT WORDS – TENSES – ETC
I’ve talked a lot about not paying for an editor. Well before you ever get to that stage, as part of learning your chops, you need certain self-editing skills. Let’s call them editing skills because you may be called upon to use them to help friends and colleagues at writer’s groups or when you become advanced enough, others may ask your help.
One of my big foibles, besides showing, not telling is repeat words. You may wonder what I mean by that because with our complex language, it’s almost impossible not to repeat certain common words, especially those that tie our language together. I’m not talking about those words. I’m talking about other words that stand out when they’re repeated.
Sharon walked into the room, flustered. She threw her coat on the chair and stood in the center of the room, not sure what to do with herself.
Can you see which repeated word needs to be fixed? Which one can be left alone?
Okay, I’m keeping this very simple for demonstration purposes. The is there to tie the nouns together, so they are, in themselves, not in need of purging. However, room is repeated twice within the paragraph. One of them should be changed to a different noun. Repeated words like that show monotony. Don’t be surprised if you find paragraphs in your own work that might have that word repeated three or four times!
Sharon walked into the room, flustered. She threw her coat on the chair and stood in the center of the dirty Persian carpet, not sure what to do with herself.
I not only changed it to a different noun, but threw in a little description.
A new friend who just joined my page wrote a piece on tenses. His humorous article mentioned your and you’re. I hope you know the difference. If not, here you go with the following sentences:
“Madam, your table is ready.” The waiter motioned to a table against the wall.
Your is possessive.
“You’re the first person to call me that in years.” Howard tipped his beer in a salute.
You’re is short for you are.
This is basic grammar, but you’d be surprised how many people I know make simple mistakes like that. They usually catch it during a read-through, but sometimes they don’t. There are plenty of other words that can grab you.
Another one is wrong usage. The one my friend Doug got me on was bated breath. I spelled it baited breath. He never let me hear the end of it!
I have a bad habit of repeating tags. Let me explain that. I hate using tags. In fact, I try not to use tags at all. Instead, I use actions or imply who is speaking. That can get dicey when there are multiple speakers. In the heat of dialogue, I tend to throw too many names at the beginning of sentences and though I try to look out for it, I never seem to get it right. My readers are very good at calling me on it. It can be frustrating how much I still miss those repeated tags even after I proofread multiple times.
Meleena snickered.
Baldar tugged on his beard.
Queelan shook his head.
These might be scattered throughout the page, but added up, can appear monotonous. I’ve gone over this a bit in a past article called Dialogue Tags.
As you edit your first, second and beyond drafts, learn to look for these telltale words. You won’t always know they are there until someone else points them out. You can’t use a word search every time to find them. Sometimes yes, but often as not, these are one-off incidents. Don’t get mad when someone else finds them. Fix them and move on!
Hone your chops!
HELPING OTHERS WITH WRITING
Once I used to have the time to help others with their writing. Sadly, that’s no longer the case. At this point in my life, I barely have enough time to edit what I write, maintain this web site and work on my latest novel, let alone help anyone else. All I can do now is dole out what meager advice I can come up with here in these articles.
Case in point is the forum our writer’s group maintains on-line. Members can post their work, open for critiquing from members. If you’re a member of a writer’s group, I strongly suggest you participate in an on-line forum or even start one if one isn’t already available. Our own group’s forum gets a post once in a while. Back in the day, I could go on there, look at what’s up, critique and move on. I never got any hate mail, always a thank you, even if they didn’t agree. Nowadays, I barely have time to check the e-mail messages for any new traffic on the site. I hate that, but can’t do too much about it.
Monday, I was first up to read at our weekly meeting. Afterward, I was able to stay for two more readers before I had to leave. Many times, I don’t get a reading copy and when I listen, I have a hard time, usually drift off, and miss most of the story. I rarely catch anything useful. For that reason, I need a hard copy. This time I had hard copies from both readers.
The second one in particular put me in full-edit mode. I found all kinds of things that I think will really help the writer. I made copious notes on the margins. It reminded me of the good old days when I was editing manuscripts. I’ve certainly done my share. I miss that.
Right now I’d have to be very choosy who I take on, whereas, back then, if someone asked, I’d more than likely say yes on-the-spot. My only goal was to help anyone that asked. My philosophy has always been that we’re all in this together. It still is except now my allotted time for writing has changed.
How has your writing life changed over the years, that’s if you’ve been at this a while? Have you gone through lifestyle changes where you had more time to dedicate to it? Feast to famine and back again? Of course, if you’re new to the passion, you’ll need more experience to be able to say. Take this article as a forewarning!
One day, maybe I’ll be able to dedicate more time to it again and I can take on more editing like I used to. Right now, I’ll have to reserve that for trade or very special circumstances, especially since I do it for free.
Comments, anyone?
HUMOR AS AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT
Maybe it’s just me, but even the most dire and depressing story should have some kind of humor. Personally, I don’t think I could ever write anything like that, but even so, there has to be some kind of comic relief, just to have a contrast to all the depression. All doom and gloom makes for a very bland and one dimensional story.
Of course, anyone that’s read my manuscripts knows my writing is far from that. Being a glass-is-half-full person, my stories have heroes that survive, with happy endings. I don’t write to piss you off or depress you, the reader. I’ll leave that to others. I don’t read that bummer stuff for pleasure either, so why should I write it?
As a consequence, a lot of humor creeps into my writing. I’m not a comedian by any means, but I like to keep things light. I can have some very dark scenes but I prefer to contrast them with something humorous. Even a creepy scene in one of my icky bugs will follow with something to lighten things up. Call it an emotional roller coaster.
How do you handle humor in your writing? I know it has to be very difficult when the subject is something depressing, but I’ve seen writers do some amazing things with their stories. In that respect, I want to diverge from fiction into the world of autobiography. This is where a person (now I’m generalizing from several autobiographies) has led a horrible childhood, yet still finds time for humor. Who would want to read nothing but page after page of depressing situations without some breathing space? These authors which I know personally were able to find that light moment in real life and brought it to the page.
As a writer of fiction or non-fiction, I propose that you practice this emotional roller coaster. The story can’t be all doom and gloom. There has to be moments for your reader to catch their breath… or for that matter, for you as a writer to catch your breath!
The humorous moment doesn’t have to be a stand-up one-liner, a dirty limerick, a whole chapter. You don’t have to be a master comedy craftsman. Don’t try to outsmart your reader either. Lighten the mood with a funny or humorous anecdote either made up, adapted from something you heard, or taken from your own life. If you are one of those with not a comedic bone in your body, don’t be afraid to ask for help with the moment. It can be as simple as the description of a character or a place.
Humor comes easier for some than others. Don’t be afraid to ask for help because it shouldn’t be ignored, no matter how serious or intense the story.
Maybe I’m projecting too much of me into this, but there’s nothing I can’t stand worse than a story devoid of all humor. Even the most dark and dreary icky bug novel I’ve ever read had a few light touches in it. Every book I’ve read that was devoid of any humor I hated, flat out. They were not worth the paper they were printed on. There were plenty I’ve hated that did have humor, but for other reasons.
What do you think? Could you stand to read a fictional story without any humor at all?
The Worlds Of Fred Rayworth 