6/10/2010
BRAINSTORMING AND THE THROW AWAY CHARACTER
By Lynde Lakes
“What?” Why in the world would anyone write in a character they plan to throw away? The reason is psychological. The writer’s brain will consider this intrusion a challenge and try to find a use for them. The writer may not be aware of the mental gyrations, but suddenly this potential-reject is interesting and becomes an important part of the novel that cannot be discarded.
The writer comes up with this person by brainstorming. What kind of character might the hero or heroine find especially irritating and perhaps even dangerous?
The writer has done their character chart, and as they flesh out the problems and background of the H/H, they gain the ability to brainstorm what kind of individual will complicate things simply by their presence in the story.
Some main characters who are interesting opposing matches might be: A nun and a convict, a lawyer and a murderer, a rancher and a Hollywood star, a baseball player and a woman who hates sports, or a league owner, a detective who hates reporters and a reporter, or a ranch owner and a woman who likes town living, a preacher and a prostitute, a vampire and a doctor, a werewolf and a detective who wants to prove werewolves don’t exist.
Say the story is about a werewolf who has lived many lives and has a very old soul and a rockin’ hard body, and a detective who, although she admires a hard body now and then, still believes only in hard evidence.
What throw-away character can use to complicate things? An archeologist? A wolf expert? A spiritualist? This perhaps quirky spiritualist or wolf expert, originally meant to be a walk-on, walk-off character, could develop into a crucial part of the story solution.
Get your critique group or a few writer friends together to brainstorm just for fun. When they throw out ideas, the room will come alive with electrical energy—and perhaps magic will happen. Give it a try.
Happy brainstorming, Lynde
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
TRIED AND TRUE & SOMETHING NEW
TRIED AND TRUE OR SOMETHING NEW
May 2010 By Lynde Lakes
Personally, I’m comfortable writing romantic suspense, but I’m always tweaking it in one manner or another. I love brainstorming and try to ratchet the excitement and action up a notch in each new book. I’ve done paranormal romantic suspense, and now I’m doing a wolf romantic suspense. My publisher strongly suggested that I give it a try because the darker side is selling well now. I don’t like trends, but darn it, it was a challenge and I’m a sucker for a challenge.
I learned it is great fun to stretch my comfort level. I didn’t know I could get so excited about a werewolf and his life of torture and pleasure seeking. Although the world is against him, he keeps his sense of humor and doesn’t let his “little” transformation problem get him down. Shoot, werewolves need love, too.
So I paired him up with a great gal who could be sympathetic to his problem. Not too sympathetic. She’s a clever chick who is smart enough to suspect his feral self and sometimes even his everyday rather amorous self. I mean what girl in her right mind wants to be out with a guy who is great until the moon comes out and all hell breaks loose? Well, yeah, lots of guys are sorta like that, but hopefully they don’t spout fangs and howl at the moon. Although I think we’ve all been out with a guy or two who did something just as bizarre.
Now, back to the story. Next, I put my characters into a castle spooky enough to become a character. But that isn’t enough, I needed a villain. No, I need two villains. And some trouble-making busybodies. And some poor advice-giving best friends. And a storm. And maybe throw in a Holiday. Yeah. Halloween. That fits the spooky atmosphere. Oh, wow and let’s throw in some heavy astrology and a fortune teller. Hey this is fun. If you haven’t started your story for the year, do some brainstorming. Try wolves, vampires, witches or lump them together and make them all try to exist in the same world, tripping over each other for supremacy. Challenge yourself…stretch…try it you’ll like it. Rainbows, Lynde
May 2010 By Lynde Lakes
Personally, I’m comfortable writing romantic suspense, but I’m always tweaking it in one manner or another. I love brainstorming and try to ratchet the excitement and action up a notch in each new book. I’ve done paranormal romantic suspense, and now I’m doing a wolf romantic suspense. My publisher strongly suggested that I give it a try because the darker side is selling well now. I don’t like trends, but darn it, it was a challenge and I’m a sucker for a challenge.
I learned it is great fun to stretch my comfort level. I didn’t know I could get so excited about a werewolf and his life of torture and pleasure seeking. Although the world is against him, he keeps his sense of humor and doesn’t let his “little” transformation problem get him down. Shoot, werewolves need love, too.
So I paired him up with a great gal who could be sympathetic to his problem. Not too sympathetic. She’s a clever chick who is smart enough to suspect his feral self and sometimes even his everyday rather amorous self. I mean what girl in her right mind wants to be out with a guy who is great until the moon comes out and all hell breaks loose? Well, yeah, lots of guys are sorta like that, but hopefully they don’t spout fangs and howl at the moon. Although I think we’ve all been out with a guy or two who did something just as bizarre.
Now, back to the story. Next, I put my characters into a castle spooky enough to become a character. But that isn’t enough, I needed a villain. No, I need two villains. And some trouble-making busybodies. And some poor advice-giving best friends. And a storm. And maybe throw in a Holiday. Yeah. Halloween. That fits the spooky atmosphere. Oh, wow and let’s throw in some heavy astrology and a fortune teller. Hey this is fun. If you haven’t started your story for the year, do some brainstorming. Try wolves, vampires, witches or lump them together and make them all try to exist in the same world, tripping over each other for supremacy. Challenge yourself…stretch…try it you’ll like it. Rainbows, Lynde
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
APRIL NEWS--DEADLY INFLUENCE AVAILABLE NOW
Hi, friends, my good news--DEADLY INFLUENCE, A ROMANTIC INTRIGUE, by LYNDE LAKES IS AVAILABLE NOW.
DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.
DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.
WRITING THRU THE STRESS
WRITING THRU THE STRESS
LYNDE LAKES
The Double Whammy
Things are going along nicely and then whammo we are hit with a double whammy. Things fall apart around us, family responsibilities pile up. We are running around like a chicken trying to avoid the axe. When time is scarce, the writing is pushed aside and just when we may need it the most to relax and replenish our well.
Personality Traits Needed To Be a Writer
It may help to look again at the personality traits needed to be a writer. Besides having a great imagination, we as writers need to be a self-starter, determined, like reading, love books, have a curious nature, like research, have a willingness to share our creative vision of the world, and love challenges. And when our life starts unraveling, we’ll need that love of challenges.
Fighting the Stress Devil
We all know the stress devil well. He jumps into our lives with a bag full of conflict and suffering and unleashes it on us until all we want to do is go to bed and cover up our heads. But that doesn’t help, at least not in the long run. So we make a list. What are the problems? Which ones can we take care of today? Some we can never solve. Some just have to be lived through. The ones we can handle, we can check off on the list as we do them. Maybe set a goal of one a day. And for mental and physical health we add daily exercise. Yes, exercise. It makes us stronger and better able to handle the red guy. We also add fifteen minutes a day to write. Every day. That is to replenish our mental balance and get us over the rough spots. We can’t think about our troubles if we’re making trouble for our characters. Perhaps we can sling some of our trouble at them. They are heroic, like us and they can handle it.
We Say It Isn’t That Simple.
Right it isn’t! But in our fantasy world we are in control. We deserve to let ourselves enjoy that for fifteen minutes a day, don’t we? It will probably save our lives and make us stronger.
Rainbows, Lynde
LYNDE LAKES
The Double Whammy
Things are going along nicely and then whammo we are hit with a double whammy. Things fall apart around us, family responsibilities pile up. We are running around like a chicken trying to avoid the axe. When time is scarce, the writing is pushed aside and just when we may need it the most to relax and replenish our well.
Personality Traits Needed To Be a Writer
It may help to look again at the personality traits needed to be a writer. Besides having a great imagination, we as writers need to be a self-starter, determined, like reading, love books, have a curious nature, like research, have a willingness to share our creative vision of the world, and love challenges. And when our life starts unraveling, we’ll need that love of challenges.
Fighting the Stress Devil
We all know the stress devil well. He jumps into our lives with a bag full of conflict and suffering and unleashes it on us until all we want to do is go to bed and cover up our heads. But that doesn’t help, at least not in the long run. So we make a list. What are the problems? Which ones can we take care of today? Some we can never solve. Some just have to be lived through. The ones we can handle, we can check off on the list as we do them. Maybe set a goal of one a day. And for mental and physical health we add daily exercise. Yes, exercise. It makes us stronger and better able to handle the red guy. We also add fifteen minutes a day to write. Every day. That is to replenish our mental balance and get us over the rough spots. We can’t think about our troubles if we’re making trouble for our characters. Perhaps we can sling some of our trouble at them. They are heroic, like us and they can handle it.
We Say It Isn’t That Simple.
Right it isn’t! But in our fantasy world we are in control. We deserve to let ourselves enjoy that for fifteen minutes a day, don’t we? It will probably save our lives and make us stronger.
Rainbows, Lynde
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Lynde's Latest News
LASSO THAT COWBOY is now available in print format.(also E-book format)
LASSO THAT COWBOY By LYNDE LAKES
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Ryan Ranch Trilogy Book #2
TWO TROUBLED PASTS EQUAL DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR THIS
WIDOWED FATHER WITH QUICK FISTS,TRIGGER REACTIONS
AND A PASSION TO FOLLOW THE RODEO CIRCUIT.
Oh, did I mention his controling brother?
Desperate, Luke hires a nanny with no credentials. Amber, is the only prospect for the job on his remote South Texas ranch. He might not be so quick to hire her if he knew she had a loaded .38 in her purse. Her secrets could destroy everything he's worked so hard to develop--and get him and his daughter killed
****
New romantic intrigue, DEADLY INFLUENCE coming in mid-March in Print and E-book format.Romantic Intrigue
DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.
LASSO THAT COWBOY By LYNDE LAKES
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Ryan Ranch Trilogy Book #2
TWO TROUBLED PASTS EQUAL DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR THIS
WIDOWED FATHER WITH QUICK FISTS,TRIGGER REACTIONS
AND A PASSION TO FOLLOW THE RODEO CIRCUIT.
Oh, did I mention his controling brother?
Desperate, Luke hires a nanny with no credentials. Amber, is the only prospect for the job on his remote South Texas ranch. He might not be so quick to hire her if he knew she had a loaded .38 in her purse. Her secrets could destroy everything he's worked so hard to develop--and get him and his daughter killed
****
New romantic intrigue, DEADLY INFLUENCE coming in mid-March in Print and E-book format.Romantic Intrigue
DEADLY INFLUENCE—Sparks fly when An “Officer and a Gentleman type, Air Force Intelligence Lieutenant Jay Corning, is tackled by the female version of “The Bodyguard.” When he finally learns that the “supposed tart” is really his grandmother’s bodyguard, Lisa Dixon, they join forces. Together they struggle to keep his grandmother and each other alive while trying to uncover the person trying to kill the strong-willed matriarch. Complications arise when the escalating danger closes in from the dark corner of the small community, stirring fears and steamy emotions.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
BRAINSTORMING & PLOTTING
BRAINSTORMING AND PLOTTING
If stories come to you faster than you can write them down, brainstorming can still be useful tools at many stages of the novel. Start now wherever you are in the process.
But suppose you want to start a new book. One way to start a new book is to grab a random idea and see where it takes you. In my novel BILLBOARD COP, I was waiting in Aina Haina parking lot for my buddy. A shiny Mercedes entered the lot and parked. A handsome, well-dressed man (a 15 in a range of 1-10) got out of the car and walked over to a rusty dented Ford. He looked around, then wrote something on a card and placed it under the windshield wiper. When he returned to his car, he stood outside, looking indecisive, then finally climbed back into his car. Before he exited the lot, I was already dreaming up stories to explain what was going on and what he’d written on the card.
The nice car versus old car made me think of Cinderella. But no, that wasn’t where this story was headed. The whole story began to fold in my head. Yet, it had nothing to do with the card, the card had turned into a billboard. I was going to Boston that weekend and the idea churned in my mind. I knew the story would be a romantic intrigue, because that is what I write, and the setting would be Boston. I had experience with gas-leaking service stations, land acquisitions, and government. Hmm. The story would include those elements, I decided. Then I started the wild brainstorming, putting down ideas, good or bad, as fast as I could. That was while in flight. By the time I arrived in Boston, I had pages of brainstorming. Then, after week in a hotel room, BILLBOARD COP was born.
BRAINSTORMING TYPES
WILD BRAINSTORMING
Wild brainstorming works great in groups or alone. The idea of wild brainstorming is to dump ideas onto paper as fast as you can. We use this process to trigger ideas when we have nothing in mind. But I know most of us always have something churning in the brain cells. It is helpful to start with a stack of blank 3x5 cards. Take one card and write down any topic that comes to mind, love, hate, adoption from a foreign country, adoption of a handicapped child, divorce, loss of money, finding a suitcase full of money. Or go with animals, cats, dogs, wolves, horses. Or relatives, aunts, uncles, mother, step-mother, sisters brothers, cousins. Then, if the novel is an intrigue, someone has to die or someone has to murder them. Try a place, Russia, Hawaii, Utah, Las Vegas. I’ll bet each of you can grab any of those dumb ideas and weave them into a story. If not, start putting down more things, silver, gold, veils, kings, brides. Still no trigger?
Take your next card and write down as many conflicts as come into your mind, maybe use something from the first card.
Now on a third card, make two columns of unlikely characters. A nun and a convict, a lawyer and a murderer, a rancher and a Hollywood star, a baseball player and a woman who hates sports, or maybe she is the league owner, a detective who hates reporters and a reporter, or a ranch owner and a woman who likes town living, a preacher and a prostitute and so forth--you get the idea.
STRUCTURED BRAINSTORMING
This is the process used when you already have an idea, but are searching for new possibilities. I used structured brainstorming in my last job. In our inter-agency meetings, we knew what the outcome had to be, but we wanted input on how best to achieve it in the most inventive and less costly way. In seconds, we would catch fire with enthusiasm. You can do the same thing with a firm idea. You toss the idea out, say what you hope to accomplish and then sit back and let the group take the idea and build on it.
Structured brainstorming takes more thought, but the ideas still have to gush out fast. Say you want to write a woman’s fiction story to help others. Maybe you have gone through the ordeal yourself and have helpful things to say about the topic, but you want some ideas on how to present it. Should it be set in the ghetto, in a hospital, on a ranch? Should there be a love story along with it? What two unlikely characters would be guaranteed to butt heads?
Great characters are often a little wacky, colorful, theatrical, exaggerated, flamboyant, ditzy, dizzy and contrary. Look at the Wedding Singer. He flashed through extremes constantly. The creation of wacky characters can be fun. One way to exaggerate a trait is to make it way out there: a fanatical love of pickles with peanut butter or hatred of snakes, bugs, or sharks. Or an obsessive love of trains, or electronic eavesdropping, or a compulsive need to climb up on high places to think and a hero who is afraid of heights. Extremism in anything will serve. Maybe pit a character who believes in living life to the fullest, and damn the consequences with a character who is ultra cautious.
Wacky characters add spice to serious characters. They act as a foil. The use of foils is a literary device for enhancing the traits of one character by contrasting them with the opposite traits of another. Brainstorming can help with this.
PLOTTING YOUR STORY
This is where the “story arc” is developed to keep you on track. The conflict must be ever-present. Menacing your characters is the name of the game. What is the worst thing that can happen at this moment? Brainstorm this. How many characters do you need to tell the story and make the lead characters shine? What will be the reoccurring theme? What kind of setting do you need to show this story at its best advantage? What kind of weather? How can we gain sympathy, empathy for and identify with our characters? Virtually any predicament that brings physical, mental, or spiritual suffering to the character will earn the reader's sympathy: Loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, deprivation, repression embarrassment, danger. As we plot, we need to keep all of this in mind. We thrust our characters into crisis, then light the fuse.
When we plot a story, we must have memorable characters and plot twists. Brainstorm plot twists, unique characters, and the desperation they need to fire them up and push them into action. Dynamic characters have conflicting emotions and destructive desires. Such emotions as: ambition, love, faith, lust or whatever inner emotional fires are raging are the forces that are pulling dynamic characters in more than one direction. Dynamic character resolve these inner conflicts by taking actions that will lead to more story conflict and more inner conflict.. Brainstorm inter-conflicts.
Brainstorming, character contrast and setting. Rube in city. City girl on farm. Poor girl in elite clique. To set your characters off and plunge them into immediate difficulties, put them somewhere where they don't belong, where the action forces them to deal with new and possibly frightening circumstances. Give your characters intriguing backgrounds, make them have unusual ideas and insights, let some of them be wacky, contrast them well with each other and their setting, maybe even give them a dual nature. It is great to brainstorm this and let the group take some risks and see what develops.
Brainstorm the ruling passion. A characters central motivating force is the sum total of all the forces and drives within him. The ruling passion might be to commit the perfect crime, or become a great preacher, or pickpocket or art forger. It might be something less specific, like to be a good husband, wife. The ruling passion determines what the character will do when faced with dilemmas he or she must overcome in the course of the story
Our character has a dormant and an active ruling passion. The dormant one still defines his character for the writer, but is not what motivates him. For instance, if he is suddenly accused of murder. At all times, the characters must drive themselves with at least one ruling passion. However, what motivates him in one scene may not be the original passion but he may return to it once the present crisis is past. Brainstorm the chain reaction where something happens to the character that sets off a series of events, leading to some kind of climax and resolution.
It is easy to see that brainstorming can helpful at many stages of the novel to spice it up and do the unexpected and give our readers the surprises they crave. Aloha, Lynde
Reader Comments
Allow
Post date and time 1-17-2010 3:36 P.M.
If stories come to you faster than you can write them down, brainstorming can still be useful tools at many stages of the novel. Start now wherever you are in the process.
But suppose you want to start a new book. One way to start a new book is to grab a random idea and see where it takes you. In my novel BILLBOARD COP, I was waiting in Aina Haina parking lot for my buddy. A shiny Mercedes entered the lot and parked. A handsome, well-dressed man (a 15 in a range of 1-10) got out of the car and walked over to a rusty dented Ford. He looked around, then wrote something on a card and placed it under the windshield wiper. When he returned to his car, he stood outside, looking indecisive, then finally climbed back into his car. Before he exited the lot, I was already dreaming up stories to explain what was going on and what he’d written on the card.
The nice car versus old car made me think of Cinderella. But no, that wasn’t where this story was headed. The whole story began to fold in my head. Yet, it had nothing to do with the card, the card had turned into a billboard. I was going to Boston that weekend and the idea churned in my mind. I knew the story would be a romantic intrigue, because that is what I write, and the setting would be Boston. I had experience with gas-leaking service stations, land acquisitions, and government. Hmm. The story would include those elements, I decided. Then I started the wild brainstorming, putting down ideas, good or bad, as fast as I could. That was while in flight. By the time I arrived in Boston, I had pages of brainstorming. Then, after week in a hotel room, BILLBOARD COP was born.
BRAINSTORMING TYPES
WILD BRAINSTORMING
Wild brainstorming works great in groups or alone. The idea of wild brainstorming is to dump ideas onto paper as fast as you can. We use this process to trigger ideas when we have nothing in mind. But I know most of us always have something churning in the brain cells. It is helpful to start with a stack of blank 3x5 cards. Take one card and write down any topic that comes to mind, love, hate, adoption from a foreign country, adoption of a handicapped child, divorce, loss of money, finding a suitcase full of money. Or go with animals, cats, dogs, wolves, horses. Or relatives, aunts, uncles, mother, step-mother, sisters brothers, cousins. Then, if the novel is an intrigue, someone has to die or someone has to murder them. Try a place, Russia, Hawaii, Utah, Las Vegas. I’ll bet each of you can grab any of those dumb ideas and weave them into a story. If not, start putting down more things, silver, gold, veils, kings, brides. Still no trigger?
Take your next card and write down as many conflicts as come into your mind, maybe use something from the first card.
Now on a third card, make two columns of unlikely characters. A nun and a convict, a lawyer and a murderer, a rancher and a Hollywood star, a baseball player and a woman who hates sports, or maybe she is the league owner, a detective who hates reporters and a reporter, or a ranch owner and a woman who likes town living, a preacher and a prostitute and so forth--you get the idea.
STRUCTURED BRAINSTORMING
This is the process used when you already have an idea, but are searching for new possibilities. I used structured brainstorming in my last job. In our inter-agency meetings, we knew what the outcome had to be, but we wanted input on how best to achieve it in the most inventive and less costly way. In seconds, we would catch fire with enthusiasm. You can do the same thing with a firm idea. You toss the idea out, say what you hope to accomplish and then sit back and let the group take the idea and build on it.
Structured brainstorming takes more thought, but the ideas still have to gush out fast. Say you want to write a woman’s fiction story to help others. Maybe you have gone through the ordeal yourself and have helpful things to say about the topic, but you want some ideas on how to present it. Should it be set in the ghetto, in a hospital, on a ranch? Should there be a love story along with it? What two unlikely characters would be guaranteed to butt heads?
Great characters are often a little wacky, colorful, theatrical, exaggerated, flamboyant, ditzy, dizzy and contrary. Look at the Wedding Singer. He flashed through extremes constantly. The creation of wacky characters can be fun. One way to exaggerate a trait is to make it way out there: a fanatical love of pickles with peanut butter or hatred of snakes, bugs, or sharks. Or an obsessive love of trains, or electronic eavesdropping, or a compulsive need to climb up on high places to think and a hero who is afraid of heights. Extremism in anything will serve. Maybe pit a character who believes in living life to the fullest, and damn the consequences with a character who is ultra cautious.
Wacky characters add spice to serious characters. They act as a foil. The use of foils is a literary device for enhancing the traits of one character by contrasting them with the opposite traits of another. Brainstorming can help with this.
PLOTTING YOUR STORY
This is where the “story arc” is developed to keep you on track. The conflict must be ever-present. Menacing your characters is the name of the game. What is the worst thing that can happen at this moment? Brainstorm this. How many characters do you need to tell the story and make the lead characters shine? What will be the reoccurring theme? What kind of setting do you need to show this story at its best advantage? What kind of weather? How can we gain sympathy, empathy for and identify with our characters? Virtually any predicament that brings physical, mental, or spiritual suffering to the character will earn the reader's sympathy: Loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, deprivation, repression embarrassment, danger. As we plot, we need to keep all of this in mind. We thrust our characters into crisis, then light the fuse.
When we plot a story, we must have memorable characters and plot twists. Brainstorm plot twists, unique characters, and the desperation they need to fire them up and push them into action. Dynamic characters have conflicting emotions and destructive desires. Such emotions as: ambition, love, faith, lust or whatever inner emotional fires are raging are the forces that are pulling dynamic characters in more than one direction. Dynamic character resolve these inner conflicts by taking actions that will lead to more story conflict and more inner conflict.. Brainstorm inter-conflicts.
Brainstorming, character contrast and setting. Rube in city. City girl on farm. Poor girl in elite clique. To set your characters off and plunge them into immediate difficulties, put them somewhere where they don't belong, where the action forces them to deal with new and possibly frightening circumstances. Give your characters intriguing backgrounds, make them have unusual ideas and insights, let some of them be wacky, contrast them well with each other and their setting, maybe even give them a dual nature. It is great to brainstorm this and let the group take some risks and see what develops.
Brainstorm the ruling passion. A characters central motivating force is the sum total of all the forces and drives within him. The ruling passion might be to commit the perfect crime, or become a great preacher, or pickpocket or art forger. It might be something less specific, like to be a good husband, wife. The ruling passion determines what the character will do when faced with dilemmas he or she must overcome in the course of the story
Our character has a dormant and an active ruling passion. The dormant one still defines his character for the writer, but is not what motivates him. For instance, if he is suddenly accused of murder. At all times, the characters must drive themselves with at least one ruling passion. However, what motivates him in one scene may not be the original passion but he may return to it once the present crisis is past. Brainstorm the chain reaction where something happens to the character that sets off a series of events, leading to some kind of climax and resolution.
It is easy to see that brainstorming can helpful at many stages of the novel to spice it up and do the unexpected and give our readers the surprises they crave. Aloha, Lynde
Reader Comments
Allow
Post date and time 1-17-2010 3:36 P.M.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER, PART 1
INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER
By Lynde Lakes
8/6/2009
AUTHOR & CHARACTER INTEGRITY
Writing wizards warn us to vault into our bestseller with a hook. Sensational advice, but we need more. Our story must have integrity and honesty. Spencer Johnson says, “Integrity is telling oneself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” How does that apply to our books? Do our characters always have to tell themselves the truth to be individuals of integrity? They may yearn to, but because they are hiding from it, avoiding it, they just can’t. However, by the end of the book, they should have finally faced their demons. Do our characters always have to tell others the truth. Some characters live a life of deception to stay alive or keep others alive as in my novel COWBOY LIES.
Example one:
With Yellow Rose of Texas playing in the background, we two-step into the world of the Ryan Ranch and meet Molly—and Matt, the lying cowboy:
Molli stared at the Stetson-wearing hunk of testosterone pacing next to the fireplace, and shook her head. “I don’t like this. Nothing seems right!”
The possibility that she’d ever loved this man, let alone married him, was as remote as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, yet it was exactly what he wanted her to believe.
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Molli,” he drawled and headed out of the room. Rule: when someone says trust me, consider it carefully.
***
Example Two from MIDNIGHT DESTINY:
“Trust me,” Rick, the stranger she called Midnight said.
Mele couldn’t stop trembling. “Trust you? I don’t even know you!”
Either man could be the bad guy. Maybe even both. Midnight looked like the cliché bad boy: tall, dark and dangerous—the type revealed on the cover of a rugged pin-up calendar. His heavy black biker boots and black leather jacket, scuffed and dirty from the brawl, only added to his appeal. A wide black leather belt with an ornate silver buckle hugged his trim waist. His black jeans fit like latex. His shirt, ripped open during the fight gave a glimpse of sleek, taut and powerful muscles.
“See that Mickey Mouse watch Dom’s wearing?” Midnight asked. Without waiting for an answer, he rushed on. “The cops found the five-year-old boy he stole it from lying bloody and dead in a Kailua park barbecue pit.”
Mele’s heart froze. Horror burrowed deep into the marrow of her bones. Tears flooded her eyes. (Feel the empathy? I’ll talk about that below.)
Is Rick telling the truth? Our characters can toy with the truth, but for our story to have integrity and honesty, we must believe that our characters are real. And that they. will learn and change from the first page to the last.—even the villain—and we must transport our readers to the land of suspended disbelief.
EVOKE SYMPATHY FOR THE CHARACTERS
Our villain does NOT have to be admirable. In BILLBOARD COP, The faceless strangler had been an abused child. We can’t forgive him for his rein of terror, but we understand it. Although all people abused in childhood don’t grow up to be cold-hearted heartless killers, when he lets the little boy live, we garner up a pinch of sympathy for his tortured soul. His predicament of constant physical, mental and spiritual suffering earns a touch of reader's sympathy. The author can also show sympathy evoking emotion with desperation, loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, mental sickness. Anything that makes the reader understand him better.
IDENTIFICATION
Identification comes when the reader has both sympathy and supports the characters goals and aspirations, and roots for the character achieve them. In LASSO THAT COWBOY, we wonder if Luke Ryan’s wild past and determination to follow his own set of rules will destroy him and those he loves. When we meet Amber Doe, we wonder if discovering the truth about herself will cost her life. Luke is trying so hard, hopefully, the reader feels drawn to support his goals to stay sober and save his daughter. But will Amber’s goals clash with his? Can he support her fearless steps to stop the terrorists who plan to blow up Boulder Dam and kill the many daily visitors? Luke and Amber both have admirable goals. And no matter what Luke has done in the past, the reader will take his side, no matter how much of a womanizing hard-drinking cowboy he was before. When he has the decision to save his daughter or Amber, who he has come to love, who will he choose? The reader must feelthe torment of this decision.
Once in a while, we can take a bad character with no redeemable traits, and link them with a character who has suffered from another person’s deeds and make the bad character hurt people in their behalf. This has not been the case so far in any of my published books. But it is a useful tool.
EMPATHY
In MIDNIGHT DESTINY, we not only feel sorry for Rick because a killer is on his tail, but we feel empathy for him because the man is the one behind kidnapping his only daughter. If he stops and faces him as he yearns to do, the villain will kill him and there will be no one to save his daughter. We are pulled apart by his lose, lose choices and feel his desperation. Empathy is the most powerful emotion. The reader feels sympathy of course, but he/she suffers actual anxiety and physical pain with the character who is plunged into a no win situation. As you learn more about Rick, you empathize more. He is a good father and his daughter is the only joy in his life. Can you feel the power of empathy?
Use sights, sounds, pains, smells etc to reveal what the character is feeling—the feelings that trigger emotions.
Mele Keliikuli hung upside-down, suspended in her seatbelt. Blood rushed to her head. She fought dizziness and the crush of the straps squeezing her chest. Other than uncontrollable trembling, she felt okay. That was more than could be said for the occupant of the other car.
When she felt the impact, Mele had hit the brakes but her car was already out of control. It rolled once before finally coming to rest upside-down, dangerously near the cliff edge, which she could clearly see in her vehicle's headlights. In the turmoil, she had a flash image of the car crashing through the barrier and going straight over the cliff.
An explosion rocked the ground and momentarily lit up the darkness. Mele closed her eyes to block out the blinding light. Lord, bless the poor soul in that car. Fog swirled around her, circling like phantom sharks. She jabbed repeatedly on the seatbelt release button. Jammed. She took a deep breath. Stay calm.
Can we feel her fear and her determination to get through this?
MAGIC CARPET & TRANSPORTING THE READER
If the author has made the story real enough, the reader is hypnotized and involved, allowing the real world to disappear. Throughout the page-turning story, the reader feels the inner conflict and the raging storms gripping the character—the misgivings, the guilt, remorse, indecision. Decisions of a moral nature have grave consequences for our character. His or her honor or self-worth is at stake. Throughout the story, there is an equal pull in two directions, a heart-wrenching battle between reason and passion.
One of my yet –to-be-published books shows this push and pull: Jill stared at the door. Her boss had told her to avoid Dane like the plague. To ignore Dane's knock would buy time. Maybe even save her job. But was she really such a coward? Such a puppet? She sighed. It wasn't really her boss she was afraid of, it was her heart. Maybe Dane had news about Tess. Darn, she was grasping at straws, any excuse to justify opening the door. As though her hand had a will of its own, it clutched the door knob and turned. Now, to keep reader transported—heighten the suspense.
SUSPENSE HEIGHTENED
What is it that is undecided or undetermined? Not the author or reader—it is the story question. Story questions are statements that require further explanation, problem resolution, or are forecasts of crisis or the dark moment.
Suspense creates story questions, putting the sympathetic character in a situation of menace, and lighting the fuse.
Examples:
An hour before sunset Lani walked the beachfront site. The few persons who glanced her way regarded her with a sort of apprehension. Why? What about her would make them wary?
In a book, chapter or short story the author must raise a story question in the first or second sentence.
In Jaws, the great fish moved silently through the water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. Q. Who will be his lunch?
Rumors spread around Oahu like wildfire. Q. What kind of rumors and will someone be hurt by them?
At midnight, he walked to the edge of the bridge, his steps slow, hesitant. Q Was he thinking of suicide? If so, would he jump?
(INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER to be continued another day.) Hugs, Lynde
Posted
By Lynde Lakes
8/6/2009
AUTHOR & CHARACTER INTEGRITY
Writing wizards warn us to vault into our bestseller with a hook. Sensational advice, but we need more. Our story must have integrity and honesty. Spencer Johnson says, “Integrity is telling oneself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” How does that apply to our books? Do our characters always have to tell themselves the truth to be individuals of integrity? They may yearn to, but because they are hiding from it, avoiding it, they just can’t. However, by the end of the book, they should have finally faced their demons. Do our characters always have to tell others the truth. Some characters live a life of deception to stay alive or keep others alive as in my novel COWBOY LIES.
Example one:
With Yellow Rose of Texas playing in the background, we two-step into the world of the Ryan Ranch and meet Molly—and Matt, the lying cowboy:
Molli stared at the Stetson-wearing hunk of testosterone pacing next to the fireplace, and shook her head. “I don’t like this. Nothing seems right!”
The possibility that she’d ever loved this man, let alone married him, was as remote as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, yet it was exactly what he wanted her to believe.
“You’re gonna have to trust me on this one, Molli,” he drawled and headed out of the room. Rule: when someone says trust me, consider it carefully.
***
Example Two from MIDNIGHT DESTINY:
“Trust me,” Rick, the stranger she called Midnight said.
Mele couldn’t stop trembling. “Trust you? I don’t even know you!”
Either man could be the bad guy. Maybe even both. Midnight looked like the cliché bad boy: tall, dark and dangerous—the type revealed on the cover of a rugged pin-up calendar. His heavy black biker boots and black leather jacket, scuffed and dirty from the brawl, only added to his appeal. A wide black leather belt with an ornate silver buckle hugged his trim waist. His black jeans fit like latex. His shirt, ripped open during the fight gave a glimpse of sleek, taut and powerful muscles.
“See that Mickey Mouse watch Dom’s wearing?” Midnight asked. Without waiting for an answer, he rushed on. “The cops found the five-year-old boy he stole it from lying bloody and dead in a Kailua park barbecue pit.”
Mele’s heart froze. Horror burrowed deep into the marrow of her bones. Tears flooded her eyes. (Feel the empathy? I’ll talk about that below.)
Is Rick telling the truth? Our characters can toy with the truth, but for our story to have integrity and honesty, we must believe that our characters are real. And that they. will learn and change from the first page to the last.—even the villain—and we must transport our readers to the land of suspended disbelief.
EVOKE SYMPATHY FOR THE CHARACTERS
Our villain does NOT have to be admirable. In BILLBOARD COP, The faceless strangler had been an abused child. We can’t forgive him for his rein of terror, but we understand it. Although all people abused in childhood don’t grow up to be cold-hearted heartless killers, when he lets the little boy live, we garner up a pinch of sympathy for his tortured soul. His predicament of constant physical, mental and spiritual suffering earns a touch of reader's sympathy. The author can also show sympathy evoking emotion with desperation, loneliness, lovelessness, humiliation, mental sickness. Anything that makes the reader understand him better.
IDENTIFICATION
Identification comes when the reader has both sympathy and supports the characters goals and aspirations, and roots for the character achieve them. In LASSO THAT COWBOY, we wonder if Luke Ryan’s wild past and determination to follow his own set of rules will destroy him and those he loves. When we meet Amber Doe, we wonder if discovering the truth about herself will cost her life. Luke is trying so hard, hopefully, the reader feels drawn to support his goals to stay sober and save his daughter. But will Amber’s goals clash with his? Can he support her fearless steps to stop the terrorists who plan to blow up Boulder Dam and kill the many daily visitors? Luke and Amber both have admirable goals. And no matter what Luke has done in the past, the reader will take his side, no matter how much of a womanizing hard-drinking cowboy he was before. When he has the decision to save his daughter or Amber, who he has come to love, who will he choose? The reader must feelthe torment of this decision.
Once in a while, we can take a bad character with no redeemable traits, and link them with a character who has suffered from another person’s deeds and make the bad character hurt people in their behalf. This has not been the case so far in any of my published books. But it is a useful tool.
EMPATHY
In MIDNIGHT DESTINY, we not only feel sorry for Rick because a killer is on his tail, but we feel empathy for him because the man is the one behind kidnapping his only daughter. If he stops and faces him as he yearns to do, the villain will kill him and there will be no one to save his daughter. We are pulled apart by his lose, lose choices and feel his desperation. Empathy is the most powerful emotion. The reader feels sympathy of course, but he/she suffers actual anxiety and physical pain with the character who is plunged into a no win situation. As you learn more about Rick, you empathize more. He is a good father and his daughter is the only joy in his life. Can you feel the power of empathy?
Use sights, sounds, pains, smells etc to reveal what the character is feeling—the feelings that trigger emotions.
Mele Keliikuli hung upside-down, suspended in her seatbelt. Blood rushed to her head. She fought dizziness and the crush of the straps squeezing her chest. Other than uncontrollable trembling, she felt okay. That was more than could be said for the occupant of the other car.
When she felt the impact, Mele had hit the brakes but her car was already out of control. It rolled once before finally coming to rest upside-down, dangerously near the cliff edge, which she could clearly see in her vehicle's headlights. In the turmoil, she had a flash image of the car crashing through the barrier and going straight over the cliff.
An explosion rocked the ground and momentarily lit up the darkness. Mele closed her eyes to block out the blinding light. Lord, bless the poor soul in that car. Fog swirled around her, circling like phantom sharks. She jabbed repeatedly on the seatbelt release button. Jammed. She took a deep breath. Stay calm.
Can we feel her fear and her determination to get through this?
MAGIC CARPET & TRANSPORTING THE READER
If the author has made the story real enough, the reader is hypnotized and involved, allowing the real world to disappear. Throughout the page-turning story, the reader feels the inner conflict and the raging storms gripping the character—the misgivings, the guilt, remorse, indecision. Decisions of a moral nature have grave consequences for our character. His or her honor or self-worth is at stake. Throughout the story, there is an equal pull in two directions, a heart-wrenching battle between reason and passion.
One of my yet –to-be-published books shows this push and pull: Jill stared at the door. Her boss had told her to avoid Dane like the plague. To ignore Dane's knock would buy time. Maybe even save her job. But was she really such a coward? Such a puppet? She sighed. It wasn't really her boss she was afraid of, it was her heart. Maybe Dane had news about Tess. Darn, she was grasping at straws, any excuse to justify opening the door. As though her hand had a will of its own, it clutched the door knob and turned. Now, to keep reader transported—heighten the suspense.
SUSPENSE HEIGHTENED
What is it that is undecided or undetermined? Not the author or reader—it is the story question. Story questions are statements that require further explanation, problem resolution, or are forecasts of crisis or the dark moment.
Suspense creates story questions, putting the sympathetic character in a situation of menace, and lighting the fuse.
Examples:
An hour before sunset Lani walked the beachfront site. The few persons who glanced her way regarded her with a sort of apprehension. Why? What about her would make them wary?
In a book, chapter or short story the author must raise a story question in the first or second sentence.
In Jaws, the great fish moved silently through the water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. Q. Who will be his lunch?
Rumors spread around Oahu like wildfire. Q. What kind of rumors and will someone be hurt by them?
At midnight, he walked to the edge of the bridge, his steps slow, hesitant. Q Was he thinking of suicide? If so, would he jump?
(INSIDE THAT GREAT COVER to be continued another day.) Hugs, Lynde
Posted
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