New Year, New Decade, New Direction

by AB Plum

Welcome to the New Year, a New Decade, and a New Direction

No writer's block here. 

Gazillions of potential blog topics cry for the Stiletto Gang's "insights" over the next 365 days. This year, the Gang has decided to add a new subject: the craft of writing fiction. We expect to learn a lot from each other. We hope you'll learn a lot about what goes into writing word after word after word to evoke an emotional connection between writer and reader.

First Wednesday of each month

Look for a new craft post the first Wednesday of the month.

I'm up first—sort of like the first baby born each New Year.

Not characters but names …

For me, the quintessential element of all stories is characters (not necessarily human). We could do twelve months on developing fictional characters, but I'm going with names—a subset, really, of that fictional element.

Also, I'm sort of a names nut. I collect unusual names—from fiction, celebrities, and movies—pop culture at large. Magnus, The REal McCoy, Risa, Ryn, Pierce, Detective Nick Ketchum, Bo "Peep", The Stoned Wall, and Lavender comprise some of the characters I've introduced in various of my books. Here are a few basic ideas that drive me in finding the "right" name: 

Names bring characters alive.

I have never written a novel or a short story for which I didn't have the main character's name before I started writing. Knowing that vital information adds dimension to other aspects of that character I'll introduce to readers almost from page one of the novel. Examples of what a character's name reveals to me: inner drive, personality, goals, past secrets, childhood, disappointments, celebrations, etc.

Two of the best examples of characters whose names fit, IMO, appear in Gone with the Wind.

Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler leap off the page when we meet them. The meaning of her name is obvious (to native English speakers). His Old English name means "small stream."

"Small stream" for a force of nature? Scarlett for a woman whose reputation as a flirt grows worse throughout the novel.

Hmmm. You decide if the names fit the characters.

Names connote animals, places, position, status, ethnicity, and more.

Wolf, Paris, Judge, Yuri.

I'm still waiting for a character to step forward for whom I can use Wolf. I know the character type, but I've yet to meet the specific fictional bearer of the name.

Names reflect culture, time, power, ambiguity, certainty, subtlety and quirkiness.

Octavia, Charity, Reina, Madison, Moxie Crimefighter, Eulalia, Audio Science

I'd love to tell a story featuring a character named Audio Science (the first-born son of actress Shannyn Sossaman). Maybe he and Moxie in a romance?

Names reinforce gender, family, history, religion, values, trends, imagination.

Caesar, Murphy, Napoleon, Lourdes, Peace, Hannah, Pilot Inspectkor

Pilot Insectkor apparently comes from an indie song and definitely sparks my imagination. I am still waiting for the right character to claim the moniker.

Deciding on a name for a character—especially for the Main Character(s)—is like naming a child. Making the name meaningful is my first criterion in choosing a handle.

Risa, the heroine in my romantic comedy Prince of Frogs, means smile in Spanish. A pediatrician, she's never met a kid she didn't like. Her smile is so big and genuine that her patients never cry when she gives them their shots.

Nicknames and pet names can add depth, complexity and insight to a character.

Risa enters the world with a mop of orange-red curls. The nurses tie a big pink bow on top of her head and present her to her mother with a flourish, proclaiming: La Ti Da! From then on she's called La Ti Da because she's so full of life, energy, and joy.

A few of my favorite names for fictional characters include:

Elvis Cole (Robert Crais)

Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich)

Spenser (Robert Parker)

Temptation, OH (J. Crusie)

Chili Pepper (E. Leonard)

Scarlett O'Hara (M. Mitchell)

Sookie Stackhouse (C. Harris)

Hannibal Lector (Thomas Harris)

What about you—what are some of your favorite characters' names? Any you hate?

Check back on Wednesday, February 5^th for the next blog on Writing Craft.

****** 

AB Plum, aka Barbara Plum grew up in Southern Missouri. She knew she was in trouble whenever her mother used her first and middle names in one breath. All three names (usually yelled) meant a potential time-out until age 21. Her love of names may have begun with her first puppy, Pickle Puss. Later, ThatCat and YourCat became favorite felines.

Check out her dark psychological thrillers and riveting mysteries :  https://abplum.com/

In the mood for mood for paranormal or contemporary romance:    https://barbaraplumauthor.com/  

How Much is Too Much? The Art of Subtly --by T.K. Thorne

 

      Writer, humanist,
          dog-mom, horse servant and cat-slave,
       Lover of solitude
          and the company of good friends,
        New places, new ideas
           and old wisdom.

“Don’t give too much information” is one of the tenets of “good” fiction writing, i.e., writing that avoids the slush pile. A positive way to phrase this is—write subtly.

According to Noah Lakeman, author of The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile:

•    An unsubtle MS will have an inflated feel—inflated with superfluous words, phrases, dialogue, and scenes that are far too long.

•    Less is more; Leave some things unsaid; be a minimalist.

•    If you underestimate your reader, you alienate him/her.

•    Discipline yourself to withhold information.

•    Embrace confusion; leave a little mystery.

But now we are back to the dilemma—how much is too much and how do you know when to stop? For some people, that skill comes naturally, but others struggle with it. Recently, I was reading over my latest novel manuscript and decided I wanted to drop some back story in the first chapter of book three of a trilogy. Backstory is always risky because too much can pull the reader out of the story world. They “hear” the author “filling them in.”

Setup: Rose, a police detective, responds to a homicide scene where a construction worker has fallen seven stories to his death. She looks at the body and hopes she isn’t going to get sick. 

I inserted: “The only time I’ve been sick at the sight of a dead body was the night I had my first vision, a glimpse of the future that made me fire two bullets into a man’s back.”

Works.  Why? 

1. It’s relevant and fits the context. It’s a natural thought proceeding from her hope that she won’t get sick.

2. It doesn’t give too much information. It leaves the reader with questions—Why did she shoot a man in the back? Why wasn’t she fired or convicted of murder?

3. It adds to plot or character. We now know that Rose had a traumatic incident in her past and that bodies don’t usually make her nauseous. Important stuff.

What if Rose looked at the body and thought instead: “This reminds me of the time when I had a few drinks with Harry and got sick all over the floor.”

It’s shorter, so “too much” is not about question of how many words you use. This version also flows from her thinking about getting sick, but it is too much information, because–who cares if she got sick drinking with Henry? It is not important to the story and adds nothing to the plot or character development. Unless it is an important part of her character that her mind wanders willy-nilly, it pulls the reader out of the story narrative.

Not every piece of narrative has to do all three of these things, but if you have a suspicious piece of writing, analyze it to make sure it is (1) relevant and in context, (2) leaves questions open, and/or (3) adds to the plot and character.

P.S.  HOUSE OF ROSE, a paranormal mystery/thriller and the first book in a trilogy is coming out in November.  Rose is a Birmingham police officer who discovers she's a witch of an ancient House, the prey of a powerful enemy and the pawn of another.  I've had such fun writing this!  Sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop and receive two free short stories.

T.K. has written two award-winning historical novels, NOAH'S WIFE and ANGELS AT THE GATE, filling in the untold backstories of extraordinary unnamed women—the wives of Noah and Lot—in two of the world’s most famous sagas. The New York Post’s “Books You Should Be Reading” list featured her first non-fiction book, LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE, which details the investigators’ behind-the-scenes stories of the 1963 Birmingham church bombing case. Her next project is HOUSE OF ROSE, the first of a trilogy in the paranormal-crime genre. She loves traveling and speaking about her books and life lessons. T.K. writes at her mountaintop home near Birmingham, Alabama, often with two dogs and a cat vying for her lap. She blogs about “What Moves Me” on her website, TKThorne.com.  Join her private newsletter email list and receive a two free short stories at “TK’s Korner.”

Heroes Vs Villians

by J.M. Phillippe

There is a saying that no villain really knows that they are a villain. We are all heroes in our own minds. But in fiction, it is also often true that heroes don't know they are heroes. They resist the title. They push back against the events that would take them to heroic destiny. The good ones, the ones we relate to most, never really feel heroic so much as overwhelmed by the circumstances they face.

I have broken the main rule of the Internet: never read the comments. In reading the comments I find, over and over again, people so opposed to each other, they resort to insults, each side assuming the other is the biased one, the stupid one, the one who refuses to get it (or is incapable of getting it). Each side has painted theirs as the one full of heroes, the other the one full of villains.

How can this be?

It is enough to give me pause and wonder how I see myself, how I live my life, even how I write my characters. How have I decided what is heroic and what is villainous? What criteria was I using and why was I so sure I could tell the one from the other?

Maybe it was just circumstance -- the heroes had the most bad things happening to them. Maybe it was just perspective. The heroes are the ones that get the most time spent on their thoughts, feelings, and motives. Heroes are the ones whose pain audiences are supposed to relate to, their reactions more justified, their mistakes made smaller with familiarity. They are allowed remorse, guilt, shame, and insecurity. They are the ones fighting for hope.

Or maybe it's just about likability. Heroes are the ones we like -- they have the charm, the talent, the special magical ability to make audiences want to find out more. 

If I can't say for sure which characters I have created are truly heroic, how can I say which people in life are truly villainous? Particularly when people on both sides are so determined that theirs is the side to be on?

After much thought and consideration, I finally came up with the only definition (and a working one at that) which could even start to help me make sense of the world: heroes are the ones that are willing to admit they are wrong, and they are the ones most likely to change and grow over time. Heroes are the ones looking to be redeemed, in whatever way they feel they need to be. Villains are the ones who aggressively refuse to change.

It's not a perfect definition, and the distinction between heroes and villains, as much as there is one, is, I'm sure, much more nuanced than can be contained in one simple line (or three). But I need some measure, some way to determine if I actually really am on the right side, something that isn't an appeal to authority or tradition. I need to know that flawed people can be heroic, and that not all villains have to stay that way.

Because the truth is that things in the world often feel very overwhelming. Life often feels full of obstacles I feel less than equipped to overcome. And I don't feel like a hero. Yet I also know my thoughts and views have easily painted as me someone else's villain. It gets murky, here the middle, in the real world, away from fiction (and non-fiction) organizing events to make one side seem better than the other. It's hard to know what side I stand on, and I suppose throughout my life I will flit from the heroic to the villainous and back again, depending on circumstance, perspective, and context. Just because I think I'm right doesn't necessarily mean that I am. 

I'm prepared to be wrong though. And I think that is a good sign that maybe, just maybe, I lean toward the heroic. At least, that's what I hope. 

***

J.M. Phillippe is the author of Perfect Likeness and the short story The Sight. She has lived in the deserts of California, the suburbs of Seattle, and the mad rush of New York City. She works as a family therapist in Brooklyn, New York and spends her free-time decorating her tiny apartment to her cat Oscar Wilde’s liking, drinking cider at her favorite British-style pub, and training to be the next Karate Kid, one wax-on at a time.