Alphas are in, but can we pick them out of a line-up?
April 4, 2012 • No Comments
Just about every protagonist in romance these days is supposed to be an alpha—and this often means a dominating male who prefers action to words and is never so happy as when there is a damsel to save. At his best, he’s a true knight in shining armor. At his worst, he’s a big swaggering guy who drinks the milk without replacing it, drags the girl off to his cave, and never lets anyone else use the remote.
But how do we draw an accurate portrait of an alpha in our books? We’ve all seen people trying to fill that role, with varying degrees of success. Which ones are the real deal?
There are leaders who are all about hoarding information and power like dragons, not trusting anyone to do anything themselves. That might be mistaken for alpha, but I think that’s not leading staff so much as keeping it like slightly dimwitted pets.
There are leaders who cheer loudly, have a lot of rah-rah sessions, and talk teamwork all the time. I’m okay with this as long as there is substance underneath the hype. However, I’m not sure real alphas need to work that hard to inspire loyalty.
Then are leaders who invite the opinions of their team, give them what they need, and then get out of the way so their trusted workers can do their thing. They understand the details of the work almost as well as the workers. They’ll step in if needed, but the measure of their success is if everyone gets to go home on time with the work done and minimal drama. They’re not necessarily flamboyant leaders, but they tend to attract the best talent.
In my opinion, the last example is the closest to a real alpha. They’re thoughtful about their decisions and confident once those are made. They put the team’s needs first and will defend them tooth and nail. They’ll often pick ambitious, almost impossible, projects because they know how to get excellence from their staff. They inspire trust, but largely because they give it.
It’s something to remember when creating an alpha character—they’re first and foremost hard workers and good decision-makers. They may or may not be the ones with the power suits and expensive cars, but they will have a lot of people looking up to them. Responsibility is their watchword, and they never delegate a task they wouldn’t do themselves. Rather than being a party animal, it’s tough to get them to stop pushing themselves and cut loose.
Boring? No, not when it’s time to make them fall in love. They may be all about trusting their hand-picked lieutenants to patrol a boundary or design a bridge, but the one type of control they never share (remote control notwithstanding) is self-control. Strip them of that, and their identity goes to pieces. And what tests self-control like a steamy romance?
Finishing touches
April 3, 2012 • No Comments
Historical novels are all about the details, and there is nothing so easy to get wrong or bypass altogether as accessories of dress. Part of the problem is that things like shawls and reticules are not as abundantly “written up” in costuming books as entire dresses. Instead, they’re consigned to footnotes or collector’s catalogues where price at auction is more relevant than how they were worn. A shame, because how and when such items were used are an easy touchstone for the writer when getting into a character’s physical presence. Your heroine is going to feel very different wearing a knitted shawl versus a silk mantelette versus a foxfur stole.
Hence I was thrilled to find Ladies Vintage Accessories: Identification & Value Guide (Laree Johnson Bruton) at the library. I took it to my hairdressing appointment and nearly lost it to the staff, who loved the elegant hats and bags from the Forties and Fifties. The book focuses on the author’s collection, which dates from late Victorian and through the Twentieth Century with a lot of North American content. Many of the illustrations are from period advertising and give excellent social context for the accessories. If you’re writing Dieselpunk, there’s some nice pieces here.
My favourite tidbit from the book:
Glove length is measured by button lengths, which equals about one button per inch. The measure starts from the base of the thumb and goes up toward the elbow. Wrist-length gloves are one-button gloves. Eight buttons are for a deep gauntlet. Twelve get you to the elbow. Sixteen buttons are over the elbow and up the arm.
Things I wish someone had said to me
March 28, 2012 • 2 Comments
Oh, joy, it’s teaching time again! How do you take what I’ve learned over decades and boil it down into a half-hour presentation? That’s the hard part of preparing a workshop for beginning writers. I’m not saying that I know everything, or even a lot, but I have been at this for a while and I’ve picked up a fair bit of information about how to write well. Whether I follow it or not is a topic for another day.
However … I have to come up with something for next week. I’ll be reading at the Ladner Pioneer (April 3) and White Rock (April 4) libraries at around 7:00 pm, so come on out if you’re in the area.
So what can I say? I may as well start with a few tidbits I wish I’d had under my belt at the beginning. This would be tidbit number one.
As I see it, if you’re going to sit down and write your first book, just go for it. However, it’s a bit like hiking. If you take along a bit of equipment, you’ll enjoy the experience a whole lot more.
The fact that you’ve got some nugget of inspiration is a given, or you wouldn’t be edging up the keyboard with that glint your eye. I’m not going to talk about inspiration, because it’s unique and precious and it can never be wrong. My only advice here is to hold it tight.
However, there are a couple of things to check into at the same time that you’re writing. Note that I say at the same time and not instead of. Lots of times it’s more fun to talk about writing than to actually do it. Bad author, no cookie. Your first job as a writer is to set a schedule and to actually put words on paper. The rest, including laundry and your day job and maintaining healthy relationships with your friends and family, is secondary to that, at least when you’re on deadline.
So when you’re not writing your pages for the day, think about this: How important is it to you to get published with a conventional publisher? Are you writing for yourself and maybe a few friends? Are you writing for the self-published market? All of these are legitimate goals, but keep in mind that the wider an audience you’d like for your work, the more attention you’ll need to pay to the publishing marketplace and how it works. An author actively pursuing commercial success—whether they’re self-published or writing for a big New York house—has to do a lot of thinking about where their book fits with current trends. That’s not to say it has to be exactly on trend, but you should know what makes your baby the same as or different from everyone else’s baby. Once you know where you fit in among all the genres and sub-genres, you can decide whether or not you’re happy with that choice.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you whether it’s you’ll be more commercially successful if you are original or stick to a tried and true formula. I can say that traditional publishing is usually more comfortable with something they know has appealed to book buyers in the past.
So, it’s never too early to start looking around at what other writers are doing to appeal to the kind of reader you want. Find writers whose work is kinda sorta like what you want to do. They are a great jumping-off point for your research. As well as reading their books, you can go look at their web sites, read magazines like Publishers Weekly or Romantic Times, and get involved with discussion groups on places like Goodreads. When you go to pitch your book to an editor or agent, one of the first questions they’ll ask is, “Who do you write like?” This is how you start getting ready for that moment.
Because, trust me, if you keep at it and do your homework, that pitch appointment will come.
Splat and Splatter
March 27, 2012 • No Comments
It’s research Tuesday! Yup, today I had to confront my complete lack of science cred when dealing with the WIP. Not only am I dealing with science, but nineteenth century science—and physics to boot, which I never took in school. We got to choose between Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. I picked the first two and did very well, but never dealt with catapults or nerf balls or whatever it was the hard core science guys did.
Ergo, I am confronted with the fact that I know an object dropped from a height goes splat, but am ignorant of the rate of splattage—or, more precisely, how to calculate it. Research to the rescue!
Sir Isaac Newton came up with three physical laws relating to the forces acting on a body and the motion that causes.
First law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless an external force acts on the body (witness a cat sleeping in your chair).
Second law: There is an equation: F = ma. The acceleration (a) of a body is parallel and in proportion to force (F) and inversely proportional to mass (m). This could also be written very loosely as aka splat = mass x speed. And there is probably a reason I shouldn’t write it that way, but that’s how I can get my head around it.
Third law: Action and reaction between two bodies are equal and opposite (smush!)
And that, kiddies, is our lesson for today!
Writing a Crispy Plot
March 25, 2012 • 2 Comments
Here’s a method I came up with for remembering the key elements to good plotting:
CONFLICT – gotta have it.
What is conflict? The collision of opposing goals. The more central and personal to the characters, the better. It’s what puts the romance in the romance novel, the thrill in the thriller. How successful a book is depends on how invested the reader becomes in the resolution of that conflict.
External conflict is the easily visible action of the book: the murder mystery, the runaway train, the farmer and the cattleman fighting over the same plot of land. The higher the stakes, the more exciting the conflict. This is why so many thrillers seem to involve mass destruction.
Internal conflict is equally if not more important. What do the protagonists have to overcome within themselves in order to resolve the external conflict? This is the EMOTIONAL driver of the story. This is what makes us care about the characters and want to see them win. Do the farmer and the cattleman have to come to terms with their feelings surrounding the death of their father before they can stop fighting over the family acres? Does the heroine have to come to grips with her feelings of inadequacy before accepting the love of the hero? Does the detective have to forgive himself before he can seek justice for someone else?
Ever read a book that should have been good but you just didn’t care? Internal conflict was probably missing.
RESPONSE – Make sure your characters respond appropriately. Snarky and flippant can be funny, but have them in the right places. Make sure responses are emotional, described in a visceral way. It’s far more interesting to say: “Tears ached behind her eyes” than “she thought she might cry.”
INITIATIVE – Make sure your characters drive the action rather than just react to it. You can really see this in the way female roles have changed in popular fiction over the years– we look for a Buffy, not a girl who will stand on the sidelines and let the hero save the day. She’ll want to work together to kill the zombies.
A character’s decisions are an important part of the plotline and tell us a lot about their strengths and weaknesses. For example, Frodo accepts the challenge to take the ring to Mordor, even though no one really expects him to. His decision directs the next steps in the story and, just as important, makes the reader want to cheer him on.
STAKES – Keep rising throughout the book. Make the protagonist and the villain have to commit more and more in order to achieve his/her goal. The police detective may start out with a routine crime scene, where the stakes are significant but fairly localized. By the end, his soulmate is tied to a bomb about to blow up all of Manhattan and the villain is poised to release bubonic plague in a worldwide shipment of baby formula. Each chapter of the book ratchets up the consequences of failure.
PLOT – A big topic, but the basics include a beginning, middle and end. If we have conflict, response, initiatives, and high stakes, the rest will write itself with a little tweaking.
YIKES! – hooks to keep the page turning. Every chapter ending and beginning should have a question or teaser that propels the reader forward.
In summation:
Conflict
Response
Initiatives
Stakes
Plot
Yikes!
If you look at the first letter of each word, you get CRISPY. And that’s what we all want, right? A fresh, tasty plot!
Friday cuteness
March 23, 2012 • No Comments
Demon Lord of Kitty Badness hides in the upholstered jungle waiting for an unsuspecting posterior.
Cold Vengeance & (hopefully) hot photo
March 22, 2012 • No Comments
My weekend highlight was finishing the latest Pendergast novel Cold Vengeance by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston. I still enjoy this series, although I’m still waiting for one to match my enjoyment of Cabinet of Curiosities, Brimstone and Still Life with Crows. Those were exceptional. I don’t reread books as a rule, but I’m hanging onto those for a repeat after enough time has passed.
Otherwise, my time was spent in less inspired ways. I ended up doing a lot of housecleaning, laundry, and paperwork (Taxes! Ugh!). My living space now looks slightly less like a student dorm during mid-terms. On the other hand, not a great weekend for book production, although I did get out for a photo shoot on Saturday (thank you, weather gods, for the sun!). Finding a good author pic always seems to take an inordinate amount of time for me. Perhaps a new head is in order. Maybe two heads, so I can multi-task more effectively.
I also got dug in on the second Nocturne, which felt good. I have to write this one fast, so feeling settled into it is a big plus.
Going places
March 21, 2012 • No Comments
I do love it when a cunning plan comes together.
So, even though I don’t like talking much about books in progress, here we go. It’s my second Nocturne. I haven’t left myself a lot of time for this draft, but that’s okay because for once I think I know where I’m going. Better yet, my characters do.
Last fall, a friend and I took a trip down the coast to go to a convention, but decided not to go through Vancouver and down the I-5, but to take the Port Angeles ferry and some of the less highly-travelled roads. This has three advantages: less of a border wait, less traffic, and more scenery. Plus, some of this is the route my characters travel in this story, which is a bit of a chase story.
If you live in the Pacific Northwest (or have seen the Twilight movies), you’ll recognize the landscape. The further south one goes, the more the trees shift from conifers to deciduous trees, which in the fall (when my book is set) provides some splashes of colour. The other brilliant thing is the number of ferries involved with some routes through Washington. Plenty of opportunities for near-misses with bad guys.
Another setting I’ve already scoped out is the ubiquitous fall fair. I’ve always thought there was a slightly creepy element to midways. Because the story involves a mom and her little boy (as well as a dog, a vampire having a crisis of conscience, and some evil scientists) I thought a fair was perfect for this kind of story. Lots of places to lose a child.
What happens next? That would be a spoiler. Plus, it’s all subject to change. But I have my map, a plan, and plenty of photos, so I’m good to go. I’ll let you know more when I get there!
You can sleep when you’re undead
March 14, 2012 • No Comments
I’m behind getting this blog up because I had a stressful day yesterday which morphed into a no-sleep zone. I’ve reached the stage of life where staying up all night is no longer entertaining, even for a first-class freak-out. Today I feel—and probably look—like road kill hopped up on bad coffee.
I’m not sure I should be driving a computer under these conditions. Sleep-deprived blogging may have similar effects to drunk dialling, causing right-minded people to flee in dismay. A cautious approach would be to adhere to the safest of topics. A recipe, say, or favourite television shows. However, there’s a limited fun-factor in being completely safe—although I have to say I love having both the US and UK versions of Being Human on at the same time. They’re both brilliant fun.
Failing food and TV, I could make pithy observations, if I had any. I don’t. No grand insights, nor even a little one. As I lay awake grinding my teeth, I tried creating possible slogans/bumper stickers for the occasion:
· In case of stress, take two C-4 and call me in the morning.
· Darth Maul is my therapist. Annoy me at your own risk.
· Do fast zombies drink Starbucks?
Yep, I’m tired. Definitely not my best work.
So, instead of being my ruthlessly clever self, I got up, bought flowers on the way to work, and got busy. The demons win if they make you stumble, and they don’t lie awake worrying about it.
After I post this, I’ll fall on my face for the night. To misquote George Herbert – sleeping well is the best revenge.
Shhhh!
March 7, 2012 • No Comments
Are libraries what they used to be?
Opinions abound. I’m not a librarian, but I am a patron and an author so I find myself listening with intense interest. And it’s not just the tax dollars/budget part of the discussion I take note of. It’s the very nature of libraries that’s fascinating to me.
This past summer, I had the opportunity to visit the New York Public Library and say hello to the famous lions. All the little collections want to grow up to be this marvel. It’s more than a collection of books; it’s a breathtaking monument, a gallery of historical treasures, and a repository of knowledge so vast it’s breathtaking. NYCPL is far more than our typical definition of a place to go borrow books. Like New York itself, it’s a destination.
On the other end of the spectrum were my childhood libraries. Way back then, the Edmonton Public Library children’s section had a little petting zoo with doves, rabbits, and guinea pigs. As a kid without pets, I was there every weekend for my bunny fix. The outing was always as a family, and everyone walked out with a stack of reading material. I think this is one reason why I became a great reader—some households did the mall or the skating rink, we did books and that little collection of furry friends.
My school library was no less important. The school was an open plan, the library at the centre. Any assemblies—whether for singing carols or holding parades or (for some reason I can’t recall) rolling giant string balls around—happened in and around the shelves of books. It was at the middle of everything. Okay, so these childhood libraries weren’t New York, but they were every bit as significant in their own way. They reflected and formed a huge part of my school years.
The thing is, libraries aren’t just books, or ebooks, or DVDs, or whatever else we decide to loan. Done right, they’re an expression of the community they serve. Some will be an expression of civic pride. Some will be a place for kids to play. Others, like the one across the street from my workplace, will be a place where office workers like me can catch a breath on their noon hour. Everything moves faster in that branch, like the whole building is caught up in the downtown bustle. And let’s not forget the collections springing up on-line. Where we go, so too go our libraries.
So I wonder when folks say these institutions aren’t what they used to be. Of course they aren’t, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We change. They change to mirror us. It’s up to us, as a community, what we see. Our responsibility is to ensure they reflect our values.