Naomi Dawn Musch

There are lots of writers out there. For some of them, their byproduct has been publication. But not all of the published ones are very professional. They've simply been fortunate, and if their unprofessionalism shows up in their work, maybe they aren't even that.

At the same time, there are some unpublished writers who behave very professionally. They are made up of the stuff that marks them as professionals whose day just hasn't come yet.

How can an unpublished writer be a professional? It's all in how they treat their work. Even unpublished, a writer is on the path to a great future if they are doing those things now which mark professionalism.

There are two things that define whether or not you might be a professional. Being published is not one of them. This week in part one of this essay, I'll address the first mark of professionalism.

You Might Be a Professional Writer if You Maximize Your Potential.

I've met a lot of writers who are satisfied with their work much too easily, either because they consider a piece to be finished before it is, because they are tired of it and just want to start something new, or because they give up on themselves. They haven't maximized their potential.

It seems obvious, trite even, to say always do your best. But is it? Every time you finish a piece, whether it’s a blog post or novel, are you prepared to say you've done your best? Have you cleaned and polished until you can't figure out what else to do to it?

Do you study craft with an eye to what makes fine writing? This means you read widely. Believe it or not, I've met writers who say they either don't like to read or don't have the time. What?! You can't be a professional writer if you aren't reading a ton in the area you write. But even reading outside your genre in fields of both fiction and nonfiction will expand your vocabulary, your style, your eye for detail and description, your voice. Without being a widely read writer, you will stagnate, and possibly grow very full of yourself.

Not only should you be reading a LOT, you should be absorbing instruction on writing through books, blogs, podcasts, writers' groups, magazines, and so on. Artists never stop growing and learning, and writers are artists. Be open to new instruction. Even well-known writers -- some of the ones whose professionalism I, for one, respect -- say that they never stop studying craft.

Study publishers. Know the markets. Even if you aren't ready to submit your work, have a good understanding of what it's going to take to do so. Observe which trends are coming and going. Know what's already been done. Most publishers and agents have blogs these days. Pay attention to them.

And finally, another way to maximize potential that may seem obvious is this: professional writers write.They don't just talk about writing. They don't dabble at it. They scoff at notions of writers' block. They overcome and get words on a page, even if the page looks like a mess when they're done. They push on. They work through it. Then they go back to the top of this list. They clean, polish, refine -- or throw the whole thing out and start again if it isn't evolving into the best it can be. Writers who either are professional or long to be, carve out a time, put their backsides into a chair, and make their fingers work the keyboard.

Next week I'll hit the second point of being a professional writer. This one might sting. In the meantime go warm up that keyboard. Maximize your God-given potential.

Write on!

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What sort of novel would you read twice? With so many new books releasing every day, it's not often I consider giving a book a second go-round. Yet, some stay on my shelf because I hope to revisit them someday.

I did that last week. I'm a big Angela Hunt fan, especially when it comes to her historicals. I first read Afton of Margate Castle at least ten years ago, and it's one of those books that will always remain in my library. But when it recently turned up as a free read for Kindle, I couldn't resist downloading. I took a glimpse, remembering the characters rather quickly, and before long I was hooked again.Caught in the story of a young, innocent girl dealt a harsh, evil hand, I was as bound by the tale as if I'd never read it before.

Why? What magic does Ms. Hunt imbue in her style that can hook a reader two times around?

Hunt is one of the reigning queens of Christian fiction, yet Afton of Margate Castle was her first novel written for adults. She'd spent previous years writing in other venues.

So how did Hunt so successfully craft Afton's story? She followed the first two rules of great story-telling.

***Hunt finds what is great and strong in her characters and shows it in large or subtle ways at the onset. Then as she continues rounding out their lives, giving them even further dimension, she drops them into bigger-than-life situations that are seemingly beyond their ability to handle. But the situations serve to nurture those seeds of greatness inside them and force them to grow.

Here is young Afton, a simple villein and eldest sibling in a large family on her lord's estate. Only a child, she is proven to be sweet natured, uncomplaining, and hard working. But her uncommon beauty and poise have caught the eye of the earl's wife, Lady Endeline, who desires to raise another child, a little girl. She takes Afton from her family, as is her right, and raises her as a companion to her own plain, stubborn daughter. But the lady's desire for Afton soon turns to jealous aggravation as Afton's noble nature doesn't seem to rub off on the true daughter, Leinor. On the other hand, it does catch the eye of the mistress's son. But Lady Endeline will not allow a bond to form between her son and the daughter of a plowman. The woman's desire for Afton soon turns to bitterness toward the girl, and before Afton is even a teenager, she is thrust into forced marriage to the town miller, a jealous, brutal man.

I don't want to give anything away. If you haven't read it, you should. But the point is, Hunt's characters are like gladiolas in a sea of dandelions. They stand out. They're vibrant, developed, alluring. Most of all they have strengths that may seem small or common, but dropped into tenuous circumstances, traits such as industriousness or compassion become determination and honor.

***The next rule of good story-telling Hunt follows once she drops her characters into a sea of untoward circumstances, is to send out scenes in rippling waves -- cresting, receding, cresting, receding. Each and every scene moves the story forward, but just as the protagonist seems to balance on the brink of certain joy, Hunt plunges her again into the abyss of misfortune. With each betrayal, heartache, and yearning, we care more and more so that we must keep reading, we must keep riding those waves, hoping for a favorable outcome.

As young Afton is enjoying both the familial chores and joys of carefree childhood, she is ripped from her home to live in the castle and her loving mother is forced to reject her. Then, as she learns to trust lady Elendine and love her son, Elendine casts her into a terrible marriage and her son is sent off to the crusades. When Afton finally finds some measure of peace and joy in raising her own child, Elendine interferes yet again.

And it doesn't stop there. Wars, revenge, secrets and betrayal, the passing of years -- all keep Afton from knowing forgiveness, trust, and true love. As each scene wave brings us closer to the shore of resolution, our tension grows.

Angela Hunt is known for her ability to bring the unexpected to her readers.

More, of course, is required to make a novel sing, but by hinting at greatness in her characters, and by moving the story forward to climactic moments within each scene then pulling back to leave readers breathless with anxiety and hope, the first two rules and perhaps the biggest are accomplished.

May we all learn such craft and technique as we--

Write On!

"...moving and powerful love stories that evoke your emotions and reduce you to tears." - Review

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Readers tire quickly of protagonists that are either too perfect or too ordinary. Have you ever read a book and thought, something about this book seems familiar, as if I've read it before, only to discover that yes, you have read that very book before, but it had been so entirely forgettable that you felt like you were experiencing more déjà vu than a real memory? On the other hand, have you ever had a novel, a character, a plot, stick with you for years and years, right down to its fine nuances?

If you've had either of these things happen, which you probably have, what made the difference? A casual reader might just say that one was more interesting than the other. But what made it interesting? What made you, as a reader, bond with the character of Book A, while the protagonist of Book B dissolved into the mists of memory?

I submit to you that it had something to do with the way the author displayed the character's secret strength within the first few pages of the book.

We hear a lot about "hook". I've written about crafting hook on this blog. But a huge part of making that hook sharp enough to grasp a reader by the vitals is to present a protagonist that has a secret strength. She can be a victim, or he can be an anti-hero, but no matter what, there has to be some compelling part of their core being that reaches into our hearts and burrows a root of strength.

Maybe the protagonist is a bank robber, but he has a special fondness for his young nephew who he likes to spend time playing with at the park. Maybe she is trapped in a dangerous relationship, but she has a huge imagination that helps her to escape it mentally, and eventually, physically.

Have you ever seen the 1999 movie The Straight Story? In it, an elderly Alvin Straight played by Richard Farnsworth is sadly ordinary. He's old. His adult daughter played by Sissy Spacek is challenged and still somewhat dependent on him. He's not allowed to drive a car anymore, and his overall health is in question. All he has is a riding lawn mower that barely runs and his small, non-descript home. His friends are old codgers like himself who seem content to sit around waiting to die. But Mr. Straight is determined. He's very determined, in fact,to see his estranged, 75 year old brother once again. While those around him think he's cracked, Straight rigs his small lawn tractor for the journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. His determination to make amends with his brother is the strength that takes him from ordinary to extraordinary.

If we want our protagonists to resonate with readers past the finish of the book, then we need to reveal what makes them strong, even if they seem weakened by circumstances. We need to plant in them some seed of human vigor and that keeps them going in the face of adversity.

Think long and hard about this when you're working out the characterization of your novel's protagonist. What is his or her secret strength? How are you going to clue your readers in to it?

Write on!

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Art Edwards in his essay This is (Not) My Beautiful Life (The Writer/ Sept.'11) said, "No matter the form, readers are voyeurs. We always want what's on the page to generate subtext, implication, rumor. We want to know what the author doesn't want us to know."

The responsibility to generate such subtext couldn't be more important for Christian writers, not only in regard to writing of spiritual matters without sounding "preachy"or "heavy-handed", but as to writing realism without offending our own and others' sensibilities.

Lack of realism has been the complaint of readers for ages in regard to "Christian" fiction. While this is changing, writing from a Christian world view still remains a challenge because we Christian writers don't want to write graphic depictions of sex and gore peppered by foul language. We long to tell stories about life's harsh realities while at the same time being able to pass them off to our grannies and grand-children to read. We've even invented our own brand for some of our fiction to say, "Hey, we're not avoiding the gritty stuff" and labeled it "edgy". But edgy is hard to define and to some is quickly becoming cliché.

Thus it remains true that much of our writing is done in subtext. And to be honest -- much of any good writing should be done that way. It is our responsibility to craft scenes that allow our readers imaginations boundless freedom to roam and create. A job well done, in my humble opinion, doesn't need to spell out the hideous details of a rape, murder, or adulterous affair. It doesn't need to revel in the titillating highlights of a romantic or sexual moment. But these scenes can be created to arouse intense emotion and clear implication without any of the graphic images being relayed on the page in minute detail.

Two examples that quickly come to mind are Amanda Cabot's Scattered Petals, wherein she tells the story of a woman raped by stagecoach bandits -- a shocking thing to read about in Christian fiction, yet done with extreme taste while allowing the reader absolute understanding -- and April Gardner's Wounded Spirits, wherein she tells the brutal story of an Indian raid on a fort with only enough graphic picture to establish what such a horror would have been like, and yet did not offend, but allowed a canvas for readers' imagination to paint the full picture.

In my own series, I've written about spousal abuse, an adulterous affair, and even a woman facing the possible horrors of life spent in a brothel. But while these topics may have been taboo in past days of Christian fiction, I am finding ways of writing their details in subtext. With subtext less is more. Telling is wiped away. Scenes are centered more on the characters' emotional state rather than on all the physical details. We rely on writing with senses besides the visual to create an impactful moment.

The same applies to spiritual truths. We learn to think and view our characters' situations through the eyes of unbelievers or fallen individuals, writing their thinking onto the page instead of our own. We sift our telling to make sure it doesn't ring of Christianese.

As you write, try this. Forget about writing "Christian" literature, and just write literature -- as a Christian. Allow your characters freedom to express their hearts and morals without your omniscient POV overpowering the scene. Capitalize on those specific moments to craft subtext that peeks through the story without painting a broad stroke of telling detail.Therein lies art.

Write on!

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Myriad of methods exist for writers to organize plot and arrange notes. Some programs are free, some are offered for a fee. The Snowflake Method, BubbleUs, Simplenote, iA Writer, Evernote,Wunderlist, Scrivener, and more, beckon us. And most of them work very well, depending on what you want your tool to accomplish.

If more computer programs aren't your cup of tea, you can still use old fashioned household tools to sticky note, story board, story file, or just spread papers all over your office, hoping to find the elusive all-important detail you want when you need it.

I'm not going to endorse any particular system, but as a hands-on approach works well for me, I'll tell you what I do. I've tried some of the above systems, and found them useful when I'm first developing a plot, but for my basic note organization, by favorite system is still the use of notebooks. Old fashioned, colored compositions books in college rule to be precise.

Every time I start a new novel, I pull out a new notebook. Inside the front cover I list titles of resource book I'm using in my research, including the library's dewey decimal number so I can find it quickly again if its borrowed. My notes from these books go on separate pages in the notebook, and at the top of where those pages begin, I repeat the reference information in case I have to look it up again.

I also put the date I began the notebook on the inside cover so I can chart how long it's taking me to write the book. Beneath the date, I even jot my goal, such as write this novel this year, or 2000 words per week, or 100,000 words this year -- whatever the goal is.

On page 1, I blaze the WIP's working title across the top; then I state the Story Goal and Story Themes. Of course, new themes will evolve, or one theme will take priority as the story develops its shape. But by having the story goal and theme clearly stated at the onset, it's easy to remain focused and avoid meandering all over the place. I refer back to page 1 often during the course of writing.

On the following pages, I begin fleshing out characters. NOTE: Here is where I incorporate other programs or character-building plans I've garnered from fellow writers. I write down the basics on these pages, but I do fuller fleshing in a computer program -- even simply in a word processor file. But in the notebook --  one character per page -- I highlight the basics: eye color, age, personal quirks and tics, character goal. On the computer file I fill out their full goals, desires, black moments, all in finer detail.

After the characterization pages, I use a page that simply summarizes the previous pages with all the characters' names, ages, and a basic timeline. This is invaluable when you begin more books in your series. You'll want a quick way to look back and remember how old a character was in Book One, so you'll be able to age them appropriately in Book Three. You'll forget who was related distantly to who, or the names of minor characters making only momentary appearances. LIST THEM so you can flip back quickly and find them. I sometimes transfer this page to a computer file that I can keep open alongside my WIP.

Now I put a sticky note in the notebook as a marker. Here I begin my actual outline. I outline in scenes, dialogue fragments, as well as brainstormed and then this happens... notations. There's not real clean way that works for me. If you plot at all, do it in a way that works for you.

Sometimes, as scenes and plot points are accomplished in the WIP, I cross them out in the notebook. It's easy to forget if you're writing a long novel, or especially if you're writing a series, whether you've covered a certain story point or not, especially if it's a small nuance you intended to slip in.

I also mark off a section of the notebook with a sticky note for jotting down scenes that come to me out of the blue, stuff I might want to develop later. I cross them out once -- or if -- I use them and also if I decide to scrap them.

Half way through the notebook, I mark off a section (with another sticky note) for all my historical or other research notes. Page after page of research gets jotted here. I star sections that I absolutely have to use in the story. I ask myself questions about it as I go, making notations along the edges. My notebook is both organized and messy at once -- kind of like my brain.

SERIES NOTE: Starting on the very last page of the notebook, working backward, I jot notes that come to mind for the next book in the series. I'm not really ready to go there yet, but sometimes a little something will hit me as an idea I don't want to forget. When I buy the next notebook and begin the process again, I transfer those back page notes into thenew notebook and begin the whole process again. For instance, while I was writing The Red Fury, I discovered that collecting roses became popular during Victorian times, and that was also when giving a flower based on the meaning of its color was in vogue. I jotted brief notes about it in the back of my Red Fury notebook, along with websites to refer back to. This worked perfectly into what is now becoming my next book, The Black Rose.

This may sound complicated, but it works great for me. You have to organize in the way that works for you. The point is to do it. Writing a series, or even a single novel, isn't something that you can really do without a good system of organization -- even if you’re a panster.

One more thing:

As I write the actual novel, I keep another computer file open containing a few of the details from my notebook, like I mentioned earlier. They might be the characters names & ages, the timeline, a few things like that. In the actual WIP, at the bottom of the scene I'm writing, I write a very short outline of where I'm heading so that each day I can remember how to pick up. This is extremely helpful during those times when several days pass between writing bouts. This might be short points, or a paragraph synopsis -- just a little something for quick reference to keep me on track from one scene or chapter to the next.

Whether you're writing a single novel or a series, a good system for organizing your notes will keep you on a path through the chaos of creation.

Write on!

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They say that stories are generally plot driven or character driven. If you are writing a series with a reappearing character, then that character had better be a driving force, by personality and destiny.

The biggest mistake I made in writing the first book in my series was in my first draft. I created a passive character, a character that responded to things happening to her, but not a character that made things happen. Fortunately however, I saw the mistake and corrected it. My protagonist Colette became a woman of determination and choices, even though she sometimes chose wrong -- in fact -- her wrong choice encompassed the theme of the book. But it got things going.

Choosing a character for one book or many takes a great deal of consideration, probably more consideration than any other part of writing the story. While this may seem obvious, it's amazing how many writers still produce protagonists who walk through the pages of their books like puppets rather than people. After only one or two volumes, they are flat, predictable, and utterly forgettable.

PERSONALITY

Therefore, your main character has to be interesting. He should also be decisive, at least eventually. He needs to be involved relationally to all the other characters he encounters. His humanness requires that he has flaws -- maybe lots of them -- and yet we need to find in him some redeeming qualities also. He can be reasonably heroic, or pure trouble with a soft spot and some charm.

GROWTH

If you're writing a series with a continuing character or characters, they must grow. They cannot, cannot remain stagnant. Their story arc is just as ongoing in the drama of the series as our own growth patterns are to our real lives. To create character arc, you need to reveal inner turmoil. The inner turmoil must produce growth or at points, regression -- but ultimately growth. This is important even if the character only appears in one book. A protagonist with no personal story arc has nothing worthwhile to say and does not move the story forward in a satisfying way.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

It is equally important that your main character reveal his or her inner turmoil from a very deep point of view. Deep POV is much talked about everywhere these days, yet it's easy to slip out of it into telling. Telling words like "saw" or "felt" and the use of be-verbs "is", "was", "are", "were", etc. prevent readers from attaching strongly to your character, something you don't want to happen, even if he isn't the main character for the entire series. Keeping in deep POV brings the character to life so that he'll go on living in the reader's imagination instead of them leaving him stuck in the pages of a book.

IDENTIFYING INTEREST

Ultimately when choosing a character for one novel or many, you want individuality honed in a way both you and your readers identify with. Your protagonist may be a Russian spy, a native princess, president of the Smithtown Ladies' Pie Society, or an evil enchantress. But no matter who or what they are, like us, they need to have dreams, goals, and ideals.They need to be vulnerable at some times and strong at others. Readers should be able to cry with them or exult with them, and sometimes they should want to shout at them. If you've taken time to create provoking characters who have something, they will.

Write on!

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There's probably no more difficult aspect to writing any novel than capturing the right beginning. Les Edgerton, in his book Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers, says, "A good quality story beginning is a microcosm of the work entire. If you capture the right beginning, you've written a small version of the whole."

The same thing is true for the first book in a series. If Book One doesn't resonate with captivating characters and a gripping plot, then you won't get a following. We've probably all begun reading a series only to abandon it somewhere along the way. It could be that it was simply not in a genre to our taste. But woe to the author if it was in a favorite genre and yet lacked the ability to make us yearn for more.

See ya. Wouldn't wanna be ya.

It's thrilling to create an idea for a series, but if you don't put your all into book one without the distraction of those other books yet to be written, there's no point. First things first.Write book one. Develop a mind-blowing idea.

Of course, you may be thinking of your Big Idea as being the over-arching vision for the series. For instance, my current historical series is built around the Big Idea of the rise of the logging empire in the Wisconsin wilderness, and how it developed around the lives of one pioneer family over several generations.

But I didn't worry about any of those generations or even how the history evolved when I wrote Book One, The Green Veil. I focused solely on one single story, the tale of a young pioneer woman who loved a handsome woodsman but married a zealous land speculator. I didn't consider what the next book in the series would entail until I was nearly to the end of writing The Green Veil.

I recently played a story-building game with a group of 3rd graders. I set an award (the story goal) on a chair at the front of the room. Then I blind-folded one brave student (the protagonist). Another student gave him directions for retrieving his goal prize. But, I threw down a couple sheets of paper on the floor representing trouble he had to avoid. If he stepped on a sheet -- BOOM! -- the rest of the class responded to let him know. He got to his goal without too much trouble. Only one little explosion.

Then we tried it again, only this time we laced the floor with sheets of paper, all representing a host of problems he could encounter. Boom! Boom! BOOM! We learned that the more trouble our protagonist encountered on the way to his goal, the more adventure he had. Incidentally, his guide was a giggling direction-giver, and at times worked as a bit of an antagonist steering him directly into the paper-strewn path.

That's how gripping stories read.The action ramps up. The character has to face relational trouble, spiritual trouble, physical trouble. There has to be plenty of road blocks to them realizing their deepest desires. And if you want those characters to ring true and capture hearts, those desires have to be deep and universal as well as character specific.

So the first step to writing a series is to really focus on that first novel. Make it great! Write your heart out! Don't get mired down in planning a long chronicle of narratives before you've made a success of the first one. Once you have that first draft well in hand there'll be time to explore the possibilities for book two. Starting with book one, each story must be given your full focus, that "microcosm of the work entire".

Write on!

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I just finished reading Susan May Warren's terrific WWII novel Sons of Thunder from her Brothers in Arms series. It's a compelling story, fraught with tension, layered like a theme-and-character-deli sandwich, and structured on an aching love triangle involving a pair of brothers and the woman they both love.

Interestingly enough, I began reading this as my own novel The Red Fury is about to release from Desert Breeze Publishing (10/15/11). It's also a story spun on the heels of post-war trauma, of past regrets, of searching for meaning --and most similarly -- of a love triangle involving a pair of brothers and the woman they both love. http://tinyurl.com/3qkt4c9

The love triangle is a center-piece theme found often in fiction, whether it's women's fiction, romance, suspense, or just about any genre you can come up with. Why? Because it works. It's a natural ramp to tension. We're told there are only so many plots in the world, and since this one is a biggy, the real trick is to write it in a new way that will make a reader's heart sizzle.

Sons of Thunder and The Red Fury both tackle the classic problem of torn love. While the reader may understand the direction the love relationship ought to go, he or she should deeply feel the plight of all involved. It isn't really a love triangle if one of the parties doesn't truly ache with love and commitment.

Picture a physical triangle for a moment. An object with three straight sides and three angles. The sides and angles don't have to be equal,or they could be. Triangles can be shaped as differently as story plot itself. Character relationships can differ in degrees of love, passion, faithfulness, yearning.

But the closer they are to being equilateral, the bigger the quandary of the characters will be. Building a love triangle's shape will depend somewhat on how you intend to solve the problem -- pulling out one leg (character) of the triangle and allowing the other two legs to fall together and intertwine.

Ways to solve the love triangle problem vary. They might include:

• The death of one lover
• Distraction of one lover by another party
• Unsolved - One party merely goes away, perhaps finds love in another book

Whichever means you use to solve the love triangle problem, it has to make sense. It has to be satisfying. It shouldn't be plainly expected. And it must tear at the heart.

Option #1 - You know how it is when you kill off a bad guy in a book. Sometimes it causes rejoicing. But sometimes the bad guy is redeemed or at least reconciled to the opposing characters, and you feel a sort of sorrow in killing him off. Well, if the death of a bad guy can cause an emotional bump, think of the emotions likely to roil if you're killing off a party in a love triangle. It's going to be a lot more wrenching if he's likeable or heroic. So give him those qualities. Give him some redeeming feature that will help the lover feel the stab of his loss while at the same time finding even greater solace with the love interest that remains.

Option #2 - If the choice for one party in the love triangle is to become distracted by another party (a new love) it shouldn't be that the party being left is utterly relieved to not have to make a choice. Make the reader care that something important has been lost, even though something new and good can now grow. That's just how it is in real life. Seriously, haven't you ever been an eye-witness to the heartache of a true love triangle? Letting go is hard, even if there's someone else to help ease the pain. Pieces of broken heart can mend, but they can never be returned.

Option #3 - It can be compelling if one character simply goes away to nurse his/her wounds. It peels at the heart to watch someone lose at love if they have no other love to turn to. In series stories this is a likely option because it helps readers see growth and maturity in a character who will likely find even greater love in another book.

Writing the love triangle and solving its nuances takes some delicate balance and a real ability to see the situation from all angles. And that, of course, is what makes it so much fun to write.

Write on!

A sure way to ramp up tension in a novel is incorporate more than one antagonist and to give the reader a glimpse into their psyche. I prefer to do this on several levels by using man vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. nature -- all three if possible. As a reader, I enjoy a story more when there are a variety of antagonists as well.

T.L. Higley did this extremely well in her 2011 release, Pompeii: City on Fire. I was spellbound by the number of antagonists in her story, every one of them ramping up the tension with evil presence.

Of course the primary antagonist is Mount Vesuvius itself. But even in this man vs. nature aspect, Higley gave Vesuvius character, telling portions of the story through the eyes of the volcano viewing itself as a mother-god whose children have been ungrateful and would receive the recompense for their neglect. Higley incorporates two very heinous political antagonists whose depravity knows no bounds. She also created antagonists in the gladiator arena who give the main character reasons to worry on several levels. Finally, there is the antagonist of self, which, without it, the story would contain no character arc, no growth.

As I implied earlier, it's important that readers have glimpses into the psyche of some of your antagonists. They should understand what makes them tick, even if it (hopefully does) make them despise or fear the antagonist more.

• Antagonists may be ultra-evil, and if they are evil at all, ultra-evil is even better.

• Antagonists may be merely annoying, but then they should be annoying to the point of causing upset.

• Antagonists can be weak-minded but able to cause huge stumbling blocks to the protagonist's goal.

• In the case of the "self" antagonist, there has to be continued reasons for the character to continue in a pattern of wrong thinking or misunderstanding.

 

Examine your WIP for clearly defined antagonists. Is there another way you can ramp up their hindering ability? Can they become more menacing? Is there another antagonist who can enter the plot? You can deepen your story conflict and provide more layers by considering more antagonism.

Write on!

Book Two: THE RED FURY coming October 15th!

Have you written your book's back cover blurb? How about a tagline? Tackled that synopsis yet? What about a book endorsement? Still trying on that query letter? There's a whole lot more to being a fiction writer than writing fiction. It seems that the closer you come to publication and beyond, the more you must develop a variety of writing skills.

I was pleased recently to be asked for my endorsement on Lisa Lickel and Shellie Neuemeier's new book A SUMMER IN OAKVILLE just released a few days ago from Black Lyon Publishing. Many novelists are old pros at this, but, while I'd endorsed books before through my own reviews and blurbs, I'd never written an official endorsement designed for potential cover use.  

It's kind of like a mini-review though, right? Well, sort of. More than a mini, it's a flash review, really. What could I say about the book that best captured my impression in a mere capsule of words?

If you're writing an endorsement or any other short piece designed to instantly draw a reader's attention, a lot of the grip lays in using strong verbs. An endorsement doesn't really mean much to areader unless it can immediately offer them the promise of an emotional experience. Excitement. Comfort. Laughter. These kinds of emotions and reactions come to mind. Readers want to know what the book will do for them. The rest means pulling out an impression that impacts the reader with the story's core meaning. 

As I reflected on A SUMMER IN OAKVILLE, what really struck me was how this group of 4 stories representing four people, struggling together to save the family farm, could speak to the way families understand one another, or completely misunderstand.

There's a tempted wife whose estranged marriage already hangs by a thread; her grown daughter striving to find purpose and love but falling for the enemy; a widower afraid to let go of the past and begin again; and his son, a young man trying to right his world gone rebelliously wrong.

We can all relate to such dynamics. Here are 8 words I used to describe the impact:

“A SUMMER IN OAKVILLE transports readers deep into the soul of family.”

From there, I wrote another couple of lines, but I spent time carefully crafting this first statement using the very specific verb "transports" because readers are hoping to be carried into a story, and I wrote "the soul of family" because, to me, the novel took a group of people and knitted them together into one unit, one entity, one soul. And anyone who has experienced the complications yet oneness of family knows what that feels like.

One of the best ways to get a feel for writing endorsements is to study them. Watch for verbiage and emotional impact or gut reaction. There were a number of other well-written endorsements for Lisa and Shellie's book. You can see them on the Black Lyon website:

http://www.blacklyonpublishing.com/A%20Summer%20in%20Oakville.html

Write on!

Book 2, THE RED FURY, coming October 15, 2011