by Lynne | Dec 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
Enough is Enough
One of the first things I learned in writing classes was the importance of giving your characters flaws as a way of making them distinctive and memorable. Your characters, particularly the main character, need to stand out from others in your book. They also should stand out from characters in other books.
However, the more books that are written in similar genres, the more difficult this becomes. How do you make your character stand out? Are more “flaws” the answer?
We humans all have a variety of flaws and quirks. (Animals do too, although often not as fatal as their two-legged counterparts.) As writers, we sprinkle our characters with obvious imperfections. They bite their nails, wear lopsided glasses, eat too much Hagen Daz. They dress funny or cut their hair weird or paint their bodies with tattoos. Then there are the stereotypical attributes we’re all tired of. Cops who drink too much and lawyers who work twenty hours a day, both to the detriment of their family life. Women who have an ordinary job during the day but have a secret life at night. I’m sure you can name many more.
I just finished a mystery about a woman cop who was so tough and hard-boiled, she was blinded by her obstinacy. So much so that she wasn’t even close to being real to me. I stopped reading John Grisham when I had enough of his characters’ bleeding-heart liberal attitudes. And I’m a liberal. Enough is enough.
Cops, lawyers, streetwalkers are humans too. Why not give them more realistic qualities? Don’t get me wrong. Characters need to stand out or we will forget them the minute we put the book down. Here’s an example of a character I think could be a role model for all characters. She’s from a movie, so think screenplay not book, and drawn so artfully that I think the title will become part of our lexicon. “Blue Jasmine.” Writer: Woody Allen.
Jasmine is a woman having a really hard time. She married a rich man, but he’s cheating on her. I don’t want to give away any more of the plot than that but suffice it to say she’s freaking out in her new life as a no-longer rich woman. Cate Blanchett is stellar in this role and we feel her pain, her anxiety, her angst, right down to our core. She has the jitters, she has the dropsies, she talks to herself. She’s deeply blue. And, although we don’t always sympathize with her, we feel her blues.
Woody is a master at character development (in all his works.) Sure he exaggerates the flaws, but we all know so well the person he is describing. The characters resonate with us because we’ve met them in real life. Maybe not exactly like the movies, but close enough. “He’s just like my uncle Joe. She’s like my best friend, Susie. He’s like the grocer on the corner.” Damn, he’s good.
How does Woody do it? If I knew, perhaps I’d be selling more books. He is a superb teacher.
There are many writers who can help us hone this skill. If only we would listen.
by Lynne | Dec 23, 2013 | Uncategorized
THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE
When it started, World War I was predicted to last only a few weeks. (The same was true of the Civil War, by the way.) Instead, by December of 1914, WWI had already claimed nearly a million lives. In fact, over fifteen million died in a war that dragged on for four miserable years.
But a remarkable thing happened on December 24, 1914. The front fell silent except for the singing of Silent Night. A truce! There are many examples of truces during wars, but none as famous as this one. The Christmas Truce of 1914.
In the Ypres region of Belgium on Christmas Eve, guns stopped, leaving a deathly silence across the fields. Then suddenly the British watched in astonishment as Germans began to set tiny trees along their trench lines. Soon a familiar tune with unfamiliar words carried across No Man’s Land, the battered and desolate space between the enemies. Silent Night. Stille Nacht.
Soon the British were singing along with the Germans. Soldiers on both sides crawled out of their trenches to meet in the middle and greet their enemy. They exchanged cigarettes and souvenirs. Perhaps a drink or two. And they collected their dead and wounded, carrying them back to their respective sides.
Peace for the day. Only one day because the next day they were back killing each other. Is there something wrong with this picture?
The story of the Christmas Truce came to my attention after reading the non-fiction, To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild, an amazing story of WWI. I highly recommend. http://www.amazon.com/End-All-Wars-Rebellion-1914-1918/dp/B008PIC0T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356046840&sr=1-1&keywords=to+end+all+wars
I’ll leave you with this thought. If Christmas can bring together mortal enemies for a day, why not for a week, a month, a year or longer? Or forever?
I hope you click on the youtubes below. They will make you sad and happy but most of all hopeful. Wishing you a happy holiday and a prosperous and healthy New Year.
Belleau Wood: Christmas Truce by Garth Brooks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy9lg0aAhlE
Christmas Truce 1914, Music with captions to tell the story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsCpLMPI7IY
Behind the Christmas Story: The Christmas Truce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgLcvjA8NDk
Christmas Truce of 1914. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p05E_ohaQGk
by Lynne | Dec 16, 2013 | Uncategorized
Build Your Characters’ Character
I admit it. I’m an animal person. I love them all but am partial to dogs and have had many and still do. I’ve read many “animal” books and find them endearing. Today’s blog, though, is not about writing animal stories, but about integrating animals into your novels to give your humans depth, compassion and vulnerability.
Comic relief is one reason writers insert animals into their stories. I recently watched (again) Lonesome Dove on television and laughed (again) at the scenes of the two pigs following the wagon out of Lonesome Dove to embark on a journey north. The journey would be fraught with drama and trauma, and the pigs added a light aspect to ease the tension. But they actually did more than that.
These two sweet little pink creatures gave us insight into one of the main characters of Lonesome Dove, Augustus McCrae. Sure, he hollered at them, kicked dirt at them, spit at them, but he also smiled at them, enjoyed their antics and encouraged them to join the entourage to Montana. What did that say about Gus, a former Texas Ranger who would hang an old friend for breaking the law? He had a definite soft side.
Characters that have a seriously dark job, like a cop or detective, need to have a way to show their human side. Relationships with the opposite sex, kids and family, even friends and colleagues can work. But so can animals. Take my NYC homicide detective, Frank Mead, in The Triangle Murders. In a dialogue, with his sergeant, Mead explains how he came to own a blue and gold, extremely noisy killer macaw named Dexter.
“What’s with the bird?” Jefferies said.
“Dumb move.” Frank sighed.
“I’m listening.”
“Brought my car into a garage out in Canarsie. The bird was in the back of the shop squawking up a storm. Real nasty place, they didn’t give a shit about him. He was covered in grease. So I took him. Fifty bucks. They sold him just like that. I figured I’d clean him up and give him away, to some good home or something.” His face reddened.
“So?”
“Kinda got used to the company. He’s incredibly smart, talks and, well, never mind. Stupid ass bird.”
Mead, a hard-boiled homicide cop, has a gruesome murder to solve, a dead wife always on his mind, an estranged daughter he feels guilty about. And yet he saves this kooky parrot. Would you have expected that of him? Or are you surprised?
Animals have played similar roles in mysteries for decades. Think Raymond Chandler’s The Thin Man. I can never forget the first movie and my introduction to Myrna Loy as the character, Nora Charles. Picture the scene: Nick Charles is in a nightclub bar being asked by a young woman to take a case, when Nora bursts in carrying Christmas packages and trying to hold onto Asta, her mischievous terrier, by the lead. Asta barrels into the room and Nora winds up face down on the floor, packages strewn everywhere. Unfazed, she gets up, brushes herself off and carries on.
Her dog was the perfect device to show us Nora’s personality. And it was dead-on. Nora is generally unfazed by embarrassing moments like these. But how would you know that without tedious narrative? By using Asta.
Other well-known authors use animals in similar ways. In Robert Parker’s Spenser books, you meet his dog, Pearl, and can picture her lying on the floor on her back with four feet in the air. How many of us are familiar with that pose? She’s entirely comfortable, not fearful or concerned in this position about any danger. What does that say about Spenser and his relationship with Pearl and the environment he provides for her? Safe, sheltered and most probably well-loved.
Elizabeth George, another dog person, has inserted a Longhaired Dachshund, Peach, into her stories. How does she integrate Peach with her characters to give them depth and breadth of human qualities. Yes, this is a quiz.
I know I will personally continue to use animals in my books. I encourage you to consider doing the same. They can add a sympathetic, sensitive and loving element to your humans . . . in ways other humans simply can’t.
And researching animals is a kick!
by Lynne | Dec 2, 2013 | Uncategorized
You Can’t Fool Your Readers
I started serious work on my fourth book this weekend and ran into a snag almost immediately. You might remember my books are historical mysteries that are solved today by modern technology. Well, in “Pure Lies” I move back to 1692 and the Salem witch trials.
You probably think I got caught trying to figure out how my main character, who’s a digital photographer, analyzes photographs from 1692, when photography didn’t exist until the mid-1800s. She can’t. But she does examine old documents from the trials. Aha. Gotcha!
Here’s the snag I ran into. I was writing about a character putting wood in the wood stove in their house in Salem Village. Wood stoves weren’t invented until Ben Franklin, gosh durn it. So I had to change it to a fireplace. This got me to thinking how important these details are. Now the Franklin stove wouldn’t be considered “technology” today, but it certainly was a form of technology in the past.
Which brings me to my modern story. This one takes place in 2006, not 2013. There have been significant changes in technology in those intervening years. For example, in one scene, a 13-year-old boy refers to his Sony Play Station. Now, I had to think, when did those come on the market? Apparently the first were launched around 1994. For my book, it didn’t matter which one my teen had (1, 2, 3, etc.), so I just called it a Sony Play Station. Whew.
I started thinking about phones and computers and computer technology and began looking up the timelines. Check this out:
The World Wide Web was born in 1990.
The first answering machine, 1971. (See photo.)
Yahoo was founded in 1994.
First hybrid car (Toyota,) 2000.
The first Apple iPod, 2001. (See photo.)
Youtube, 2005.
The first iPhone, 2007.
The first Android Cell, 2008.
The first e-reader, Kindle, 2008.
If you look at these dates, you’ll see I couldn’t refer to iPhones, Androids or Kindles in my latest book. So, be careful how you use technology. Make sure it existed during your book’s timeline.
The witches of Salem would have been mortified.
Jasmine is a woman having a really hard time. She married a rich man, but he’s cheating on her. I don’t want to give away any more of the plot than that but suffice it to say she’s freaking out in her new life as a no-longer rich woman. Cate Blanchett is stellar in this role and we feel her pain, her anxiety, her angst, right down to our core. She has the jitters, she has the dropsies, she talks to herself. She’s deeply blue. And, although we don’t always sympathize with her, we feel her blues.
