Category Archives: Aspects of the Novel

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — DECEMBER 2024

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2024 has been a special year on the Craft of Writing blog. The theme of this year’s blog posts was Aspects of the Novel, and each month I interviewed an extraordinary author on a different subject. The results were so full of writing wisdom, I decided to present a snippet from each interview in this, the last post of 2024.

Walking with the Wise - A summary of wisdom from the Aspects of the Novel blog posts Share on X

 

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The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tonight, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

Now, sit back and enjoy walking with our wise friends through Aspects of the Novel. To see the entire interview for any of the choices below, click on the link.

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VOICE (James Scott Bell)

How does an author go about developing his/her own voice?

It’s really a matter of learning ways to let the voice run free. Let it come out naturally as you, the author, are concentrating on the emotion and action and internal lives of the characters. There are various exercises I give in my book on voice, such as the page-long sentence. When I come to a place of high emotion in a scene, I like to start a fresh document and write a single, run-on sentence of at least 200 words. It is free-form, wild text in the character’s voice, not thinking about grammar or structure. It’s just pouring out the emotion as fast and intensely as possible.

What happens inevitably, like panning for gold, is you get a few glistening nuggets. It may even be only one sentence, but that sentence will be choice.

There are other methods, but the great point is that doing this begins to develop a strong “voice muscle” in your writer’s brain, and you get better and better at it the more you exercise it.

 

PLOTTING (DiAnn Mills)

What makes a good plot? Do you advise authors to write to specific plot points (e.g., inciting incident, first pinch point, dark night of the soul)?

This depends on the type of plotter and the method the writer’s brain functions. I’d like to emphasize that the writer must work according to how their brain processes and analyzes story. With that said, I write toward:

  1. The first open doorway which is 1/5 to ¼ of the way into the novel. This is where the POV character determines to go after the goal.
  2. Mid-point, I toss in a wrench. In other words, something about the plot changes the story.
  3. End of middle, the climax.
  4. Resolution

 

ANTAGONISTS (Debbie Burke)

How does a good writer approach creating the antagonist character? Are there exercises a writer can use to develop their villain-creating talents?

A technique I like to use is James Scott Bell’s voice journal. Let the antagonist write out their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. What are their deepest, most secret desires? Give them the opportunity to express their frustration, anger, and hatred. Putting their emotions into words helps the author get inside their skin and understand why they feel their behavior is justified.

Interview the villain/antagonist. Ask questions. What is their background? How did their parents treat them? Were they bullied or abused? What early losses or failures scarred them?

Another Jim Bell tip: have villains argue their case before the jury that will decide their fate. What compelling arguments can they offer to save themselves from the death penalty?

 

SCENE (Randy Ingermanson)

You also say every scene in a book is a miniature story. Explain that.

Every scene in your book needs to work as a short story. Every single scene. It must have a viewpoint character that the reader can root for (or root against). And it must have a single conflict that gets resolved by the end of the scene.

If you have even one scene that doesn’t work as a story, you’re going to lose readers at that scene. They’ll put the book down. And they’re done with that book.

So you need every scene in your novel to be pulling its weight. If a scene doesn’t work, then you have some options. You can kill the scene—just shoot it right in the head and throw its carcass to the wolves. Or you can fix the scene—figure out why it’s broken and solve the problem.

I have killed a few scenes in my life, but 95% of all scenes can be fixed. If you know how. And my book shows you how. One of the main reasons I wrote my book is to teach authors how to diagnose and fix a busted scene. (And also how to recognize a scene that works so you can leave it alone.)

 

EMOTION (Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi)

What part does emotion play in novel writing?

In some ways, emotion is the novel, because the words we choose will steer readers toward what we want them to feel. Is the noise emanating from that dark room a sing-song hum, a melody whispered to a child at bedtime? Or is it a slow, heavy scrape, conjuring the image of a monstrous axe blade being dragged across the floor? As the writer, we choose what we intend readers to feel, and shape our description accordingly. When we do this well, reading becomes an immersive, powerful experience.

To ensure readers are drawn in, though, we must make sure they emotionally connect to our characters first and foremost. We do this by revealing their human layers as they navigate the world around them, showing how they feel, what they need, want, fear, and think. When we do this well, readers connect to our characters because life is an emotional journey, and they find common ground. When we show what’s going on within a character, readers come to see them as someone real. They begin to empathize and become invested in what happens next.

 

DIALOGUE (Larry Leech II)

How does dialogue bring characters to life?

Individuality. Much has been taught about plot, structure, character arc, etc., but I believe readers love to hear a character speak. First, each character must have a distinctive voice. A fifty-year-old white male should not sound like a twenty-two-year-old female person of color. Even two teenage boys should not sound the same. Each has a backstory and moral center that dictates how they speak.

Think of the cinematic voices we know well. Whenever someone says, “Life is a like a box of chocolates,” we hear Forrest Gump. Or “No, I am your father,” we hear Darth Vader. Or “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” we hear Chief Brody in Jaws.

Also, along with what I mentioned above about the importance of dialogue in story, dialogue also reveals worldview, syntax, and what I call “industry language.” For example, law enforcement and military personnel often say, “I’ve got your six (your back).” A plumber wouldn’t say that.

Along with action, dialogue helps the reader understand the character. And if done effectively, allows the reader to “live” the story instead of reading it.

 

DEEP POINT OF VIEW (Terry Odell)

Now, on to Deep POV:

Deep POV can be thought of as writing a first person book in third person. You are deep inside the POV character’s head, providing the reader with not only the character’s five senses, but also their thoughts and feelings. Because you’re deep into their heads, your readers should feel closer to the characters than if you have an outside narrator, as is the case in shallower third person POV. A test. You should be able to replace he, she, or the character’s name with “I.”

When writing in Deep POV, it’s also important to be true to the character. What would they notice? Two characters walk into a room. (No, that’s not the start of a joke.) One’s a cop; the other is an interior designer. They’ll focus on very different things.

 

ANTI-HEROES (Sue Coletta)

How do you define an anti-hero?

An anti-hero is the protagonist of the story, who straddles the law. Good people doing bad things for the right reason. Nothing is black and white. Anti-heroes thrive in shades in gray.

 

ROMANCE IN CHRISTIAN FICTION (DiAnn Mills)

Toss aside your thoughts about simple themes and tepid emotions that water down the love relationship between a man and a woman, Instead, think about how to include “real” elements and write an authentic and believable story.

  • The joy of true romantic love is real.
  • The emotions are real.
  • The physical, mental, and spiritual challenges are real.
  • The heartbreak of broken relationships is real.
  • The struggle of adhering to God’s way of honoring each other until marriage is real.
  • The blessings of obedience and a Christ-filled relationship are real.

Dipping our toes into the waters of writing Christian romance doesn’t mean we swim in shark-infested waters. According to the American Heritage Dictionary romance is “a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.” Love is “an intense feeling of deep affection.”

 

DESCRIPTION (P.J. Parrish)

How would you define descriptive writing?

Wow. That’s a toughie. Well, let’s start with a distinction. There’s explanation and then there’s description. Explanation is you, the writer, just dealing with the prosaic stuff of moving characters around in time and space. Explanation example: The man walked into the room. Simple choregraphy. Gets the job done but pushes no emotional buttons.

But description? That’s where the magic happens. When you work your descriptive powers, you engage the reader’s senses and imagination, maybe tugging on their memories and experiences. The man didn’t just walk into the room.  Rewrite:

The old man stopped just inside the door of the café. He was in his eighties, that much was clear. But as he stood there, erect and with a small smile tipping his lips, heads turned to him. It wasn’t just the panama hat or the seersucker suit. Because the hat was yellowed and his sleeves were frayed. No, we were staring at him because the air around him seemed to vibrate with an aliveness. He caught my eye and started toward me, and my throat closed. It was like looking at my father, the one I had seen only in photographs.

See the difference? The main purpose of descriptive writing is to show the reader a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in their mind. It means paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses. Explanation vs description. When you explain something, you try to make it clearer and easier to understand. But when you describe, you’re tugging on their emotions.

 

FAITH IN FICTION (Chautona Havig)

For authors who are interested in including some faith element in their works, what advice would you give them?

I think the key is to reframe the idea of “putting faith into a book.” Instead, look at ways faith might naturally emerge from a character or situation.  That makes all the difference. Jesus talked about insides and outsides of cups. Polishing up the cup of your book to reflect Jesus doesn’t have the power that allowing Him to spill out onto the page naturally does.

The best way I know to make that happen is to fill yourself with Jesus. You can’t write what isn’t in you. Get into the Word. Study it. Talk about it with other Christians. Listen to godly teachers and then go compare what they said with what the Bible says.  I firmly believe that if you fill yourself with Scripture, it’ll come out in your writing and in your reading. You’ll get spiritual lessons from books that the authors never intended.  I know this because I can’t count how many times I’ve told an author, “When I read this and remembered that Scripture, I realized that this other thing was true.” MANY times the author says, “I never caught that connection.”  I got it because of what I was studying at the time. And God used that.  And that is the beauty of Scripture.

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A NOTE FROM KAY

I’m deeply grateful to all the authors who agreed to be interviewed on my blog in 2024 and to all the folks who dropped by to read and/or comment on the interviews. Best wishes to you all for a Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year!

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If you’re looking for a last-minute gift, each of my ebook mystery novels is on sale in December for 99¢. Click on the image of a book to go to the Amazon sales page.

        

Walking with the Wise - A summary of wisdom from the Aspects of the Novel blog posts Share on X

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — NOVEMBER 2024

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This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. Take a look at the discussions we’ve had so far: James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, Randy Ingermanson on Scenes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on Emotion, Larry Leech on Dialogue, Terry Odell on Deep Point of View, Sue Coletta on the Anti-hero, DiAnn Mills on Christian Romance, and P.J. Parrish (Kristy Montee) on Description. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

Today, I’m excited to welcome back Chautona Havig, the USA Today best-selling author and podcaster. I find it hard to introduce Chautona because I’ve never known anyone exactly like her. She’s an exuberant personality, and she has written—you won’t believe this—over one hundred and twenty books! And she hosts a podcast that airs twice a week. Given all of that productivity, I can only say I am thrilled that she found time to drop by and discuss an important, and rarely explored, topic on the subject of faith in writing.

To give you a hint of what’s to come, here’s a sentence from Chautona’s own website: “I offer Christian fiction without pretense or apology–lived, not preached.”

 

 

So read, enjoy, and engage with Chautona Havig.

 

Faith in Fiction -- a conversation with Chautona Havig Share on X

 

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The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tonight, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Chautona, and thank you for joining us!

Thanks for having me back. I always enjoy our conversations.

 

When did you decide to write novels, and what event prompted that decision?

Um… well, I knew I wanted to write at twelve when I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but what prompted my adult foray into actually writing novels was the (seemingly NEVER ENDING) question, “How do you do it all,” when people found out I had eight kids.  They’d say they couldn’t manage with the one or two they had. No matter how many times I pointed out that I got kids one at a time like everybody else, and I had time to adapt and adjust before the next one came, someone else always came along and asked again as if I was some sort of superwoman. Hint: not even close. But one time after I’d said that (the bit about getting kids one or for some people, two, at a time), I thought… “But what if you didn’t? What if you got eight all at once?” That spiraled into things like: What if you didn’t have experience with young children? What if you were only in your early twenties? What if you not only inherited eight kids… but their over-the-top grandmother (read: mother-in-law!), too???  Aggie was born that day, and her antics with her eight nieces and nephews kicked off my writing in earnest.

Oh, and I had another baby after that since it’s such a piece of cake.

 

Have you always written books that had elements of faith?

All but one. I learn best by reading—story is how my brain works. So since the most important thing to me is faith, it was only natural that it would spill out.  I think if I weren’t a blunt, “say it like it is” kind of person, I might write more subtly and infuse a Christian worldview into my writing. I might. But… that’s not really me. I’m very much an open book, and it comes out in my writing.

That said, I did write one book that is most definitely not Christian fiction. It’s a young middle-grade book about a kid who figures out Santa’s secret and kidnaps the jolly old elf to get all the presents for himself.  Although, it doesn’t quite work out how he’d planned.  I like to say there’s nothing redeeming about the story, but… yeah. The kid learns a lesson or three. So… it has a semi-redemptive thread.

The funny thing is that we never “did” Santa as a kid, and we didn’t “do” it with our kids.  They still tease me for writing about that “creepy guy in red fur.”

 

Why have you commited your writing career to writing stories about faith?

I mostly answered that above, but I’ll try for something more succinct. Jesus is such a part of who I am that I don’t know how I would write any other way.

 

How do you include information about faith in your books without it being preachy?

Mostly by not trying to “put faith” in the book. I let it come out. Characters behave in ways that a Christian might—good and bad—and the fallout follows (also good and bad). I don’t try to write with a theme that “teaches something.” The closest I’ve come to doing that was with my Wynnewood books. I wanted to show ONE thing in those:  that the God known as I AM is real and to be trusted even (or perhaps especially) if people aren’t.

 

What genres do you write in? What’s your favorite?

Let’s go with what I don’t write. It’s faster. I’ve never written horror or erotica.  Never will write the latter.  Not sure I’ve done magical realism and not sure I would, although that’s not because I object to it more than because I’m not sure if I’d enjoy the writing. I do enjoy reading it.

My favorite is probably mystery, although… I really just love writing about people and their lives and interjecting my love of Jesus and humor into it all. So… *shrugs*

 

For authors who are interested in including some faith element in their works, what advice would you give them?

I think the key is to reframe the idea of “putting faith into a book.” Instead, look at ways faith might naturally emerge from a character or situation.  That makes all the difference. Jesus talked about insides and outsides of cups. Polishing up the cup of your book to reflect Jesus doesn’t have the power that allowing Him to spill out onto the page naturally does.

The best way I know to make that happen is to fill yourself with Jesus. You can’t write what isn’t in you. Get into the Word. Study it. Talk about it with other Christians. Listen to godly teachers and then go compare what they said with what the Bible says.  I firmly believe that if you fill yourself with Scripture, it’ll come out in your writing and in your reading. You’ll get spiritual lessons from books that the authors never intended.  I know this because I can’t count how many times I’ve told an author, “When I read this and remembered that Scripture, I realized that this other thing was true.” MANY times the author says, “I never caught that connection.”  I got it because of what I was studying at the time. And God used that.  And that is the beauty of Scripture.

 

You are incredibly prolific. How do you manage it?

There’s no great secret. I write.  I know that sounds simplistic and maybe even arrogant, but it is what it is. I write. And I enjoy writing. I had a slow five years the past five… Some consider it weird when I say that because I was putting out four or five books a year, but when you’re used to nearly double that… it’s odd. But that’s okay. Because God had a plan, and now we’re in a new season where I feel like I’m back to being… ME.  Hopefully, that means lots of new books, but I’m also prepared for life to change again. My mom is getting older, and my husband is also getting older. (Okay, I am, too but I’m still relatively young).  They’ll need me more soon, so what I plan may not be what God plans.  I just have to be ready to pivot.

Practically speaking, I develop routines that get me in the writing zone, and I take lots of breaks so I don’t wear myself out.  I’ve been through burnout once.  Lord willing, NEVER again.

 

What Christian authors do you admire?

How long do you have?  LOL.

I love the Mosaic Collection authors and their love for and commitment to the Lord. They all come from a place of grace and support for Christian authors and readers, which I find beautiful. That’s one good place to start!  Um… genre speaking, I’ll try to throw a couple from each out but if you asked me this tomorrow, I’d give different answers, I guarantee you.

Sara Brunsvold (deep faith stories), Suzanne Woods Fisher (beautiful life application of faith), Chris Fabry (fabulous storytelling that encourages my faith), Elizabeth Goudge (not afraid to show the hard stuff and how it could be handled), Joanne Bischof (stunning writing and storytelling), Amanda Dykes (beautiful writing—I usually don’t enjoy writing that I NOTICE the beauty, but I do with her), Amanda G. Stevens (deep faith welling up from stories and a look at troublesome times ahead), Sharon Garlough Brown (falling in love with Jesus as you learn His deep love for you), Sarah Hamaker (rich faith while reading a gripping story), Lisa Phillips (excellent writing—learn just by reading), Kimberley Woodhouse (more excellent writing with unexpected faith lessons), Angela Ruth Strong (rich lessons woven into hysterical writing. Genius), George MacDonald and Michael Phillips (rich, deep faith that keeps me abiding in Him) and this one gal… ugh, what was her name.  Kay Di…something (she’s got my favorite opening scene… ever). 😉

 

I loved being interviewed on your “Because Fiction” podcast. Please tell my blog audience about the podcast and how they can find it.

Because Fiction was supposed to be a way for me to chat about the books I was reading. It quickly morphed into a chat with authors about the books they’re writing as a way for readers to find new authors, learn about new books coming out, and sometimes learn about ones they missed. I’m a huge proponent of nurturing backlists!

It comes out every Tuesday and Friday (except in December) and should be on all the major podcast apps. Or you can go to becausefictionpodcast.com  (it’s also on my sidebar on my blog at Chautona.com/blog)

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Well, lookie there!  I just mentioned it! Seriously, though, Chautona.com is the best place to learn more about me, my books, and what’s coming.  And now that I’ve written that, maybe I should um… update the site. I kind of got behind this year!

 

Thank you, Chautona, for being with us today.

Thanks for having me! I always enjoy a chat with you—on the podcast or on ‘paper.”

 

Faith in Fiction -- a conversation with Chautona Havig Share on X

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Meet Chautona Havig

Using story to connect readers with the Master Storyteller.

Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours, and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

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A note in a forty-year-old Bible compels pilot Cassie Deakin to join the search for a murderer.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — OCTOBER 2024

Posted on by 32 comments

This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. We’ve had some great discussions so far, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, Randy Ingermanson on Scenes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on Emotion, Larry Leech on Dialogue, Terry Odell on Deep Point of View, Sue Coletta on the Anti-hero, and DiAnn Mills on Christian Romance. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

I’m excited to welcome back P.J. Parrish, the award-winning author of the Louis Kincaid thriller series. For those of you who don’t know, P.J. Parrish is the pseudonym of the writing team of sisters Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. (You can read more about these exceptional sisters in the author bio below.) Kristy is a fellow contributor to the Kill Zone Blog, and she is my guest today on the topic of Description.

 

 

So get your pen ready for a Master class on Description.

Writing Description in Fiction with NY Times Best-Selling Author PJ Parrish - and a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card Share on X

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The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Kristy, and thank you for joining us!

 

How would you define descriptive writing?

Wow. That’s a toughie. Well, let’s start with a distinction. There’s explanation and then there’s description. Explanation is you, the writer, just dealing with the prosaic stuff of moving characters around in time and space. Explanation example: The man walked into the room. Simple choregraphy. Gets the job done but pushes no emotional buttons.

But description? That’s where the magic happens. When you work your descriptive powers, you engage the reader’s senses and imagination, maybe tugging on their memories and experiences. The man didn’t just walk into the room.  Rewrite:

The old man stopped just inside the door of the café. He was in his eighties, that much was clear. But as he stood there, erect and with a small smile tipping his lips, heads turned to him. It wasn’t just the panama hat or the seersucker suit. Because the hat was yellowed and his sleeves were frayed. No, we were staring at him because the air around him seemed to vibrate with an aliveness. He caught my eye and started toward me, and my throat closed. It was like looking at my father, the one I had seen only in photographs.

See the difference? The main purpose of descriptive writing is to show the reader a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in their mind. It means paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses. Explanation vs description. When you explain something, you try to make it clearer and easier to understand. But when you describe, you’re tugging on their emotions.

When should an author include a descriptive section of their book?

Not as often as some might think. Use it sparingly and carefully. It is powerful stuff, a spice to be added to the main ingredients of plot and narrative only to enhance. (I love to cook so pardon the metaphors here!). Too much description, or used too often, and you’ll stall the forward momentum of your narration. You have to keep the story always moving forward. But one of the most common issues I see when doing manuscript critiques is writers not using enough description in the right moments. You have to ground your readers in a sense of place, time, geography and especially character. You have to “world build.” BUT…pick your moments. Be aware of pacing. Save description for the quiet sections of your narrative, those moments when you want the reader to catch their breath. One of worst mistakes I see is tons of description in intense action scenes – stuff like “shards of glittering glass fell around him as he was pushed out of the ten-story window of the gleaming white skyscraper toward the rain-shimmering street below.”  Nope. This is when you use simple explanation: The window shattered and he fell out into the blackness, flailing and screaming.

Should description and action be alternated in fiction? How does that work?

See above! Seriously, again it goes to understanding the difference between explanation, which is utilitarian, and description, which is emotional enhancement. There is nothing wrong with good clean expository (explaining) writing.

Example: The phone rang, jarring her awake. She grabbed it and before she could answer the voice said: “You better be sober. We’ve got another body.”

What you don’t want is description at an inappropriate moment in action:

“The shrill chirp of her iphone penetrated her nightmare and she felt herself drift back to consciousness. She grabbed the cell, almost knocking over the empty bottle of Jack on the nighstand. “Hello,” she croaked. It was all she could manage given her hangover. “Dectective Morris? This is Chief Spencer. We found a new body.”

Ugh, right? And an aside about showing not telling: See how I slipped it in the bit about her being a drinker? In dialogue, not in description. Pick your moments!

One more example. This is from the great thriller movie Seven, where Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are detectives chasing a serial killer. I made this up, just to make a point. They are entering the creepy house where the killer has left a body. Here is simple explanation:

They entered the room. Bare bones furniture overlaid with dust. A quick scan told them it was empty, no sign anyone had lived in the place for a long time. Another dead end.

Yeah, it works. But here is same scene description-enhanced:

John opened the door and walked into the room. The smell hit him — decaying flesh but with a weird undernote of…what was that? Pine trees? The pale December light seeped around the edges of yellowed window shades and at first he couldn’t make out anything. Then details swam into focus — an old coiled bed frame heaped with dirty blankets. And suspended above the bed, hundreds of slips of paper. No, not just paper. Little paper Christmas trees. No, not…then he recognized the pine smell. It was coming from the air fresheners, those things people hung on their rearview mirrors. The heap of blankets on the bed…he moved closer. It was a body. Or what was left of one.

How long should descriptive passages be?

As short as possible. I know, that’s a cop-out answer. But it goes to pacing and somewhat to style. If you are in a quiet moment, your reader won’t mind slowing down and letting you give them the lay of the land or show what a character looks like. But the tighter you can make it and still convey enough info, the better you will be. Be brief, memorable and then get out. (Which is a good advice for a lot things in real life.)

But…every writer is working in their own genre and, most important, every writer has their own style. I got my start in romance, some of it historical, and man, I revelled in description. But when I turned to crime fiction, I reeled in those instincts. My descriptive style is, even now, more lavish than many in our genre. But I never forget: Description should always be in the service of plot and character development. It is the Bordeaux, bay leaf, garlic and thyme – the lovely additions that turn plain old beef into boeuf bourguignon.

Are there common mistakes and pitfalls authors should avoid?

  1. Not enough description to place us in time and space early in the story. Yes, you need a spiffy opening and you never want to lard on too much description too early. But a few well chosen sentences whet our appetite.
  2. Look, I know description is hard. Because it has to be fresh. I don’t subscribe to the idea that you can’t use weather, but boy, it better be original. Metaphors are lovely, but they have to feel easy – even if you kill yourself coming up with one.
  3. Not filtering description through the point of view of your narrator. ALWAYS consider the emotional and experience prism of WHO the description is coming through. If your narrator is a teenager, you must limit your descrption through his limited consciousness. If your narrator is an elderly woman, her way of seeing the world will be different from that of a hardened homicide detective. You MUST get in the brain and emotions of your POV person. And here’s the thing: That narrator is NOT you. There is nothing that pulls a reader out of a scene faster than you, the writer, telling us what you are describing. And there is nothing that bonds a reader more tightly with a story than experiencing (describing) what is happening through your character’s frame of reference.
  4. Using only the sense of sight. What do you think of when you remember someone? I remember the scent of my mom’s Evening in Paris perfume and the candy-cane smell of her dime-store red lipstick. Smell is so powerful. And sound? Any one of you can remember what song was playing at a certain special moment of your life. Or what a seagull’s screech sounds like. Dig deeper when you try to evoke an image in your reader’s mind.
  5. Not describing logically. This is hard to explain but important. Example: Your character is entering a long-closed room in an old mansion where her sick grandmother recently died, sitting in her favorite chair by the fireplace. The girl opens the door. You must describe it in LOGICAL ORDER of how it hits all of her senses. It’s probably dark. I think she first smells something. Mustiness? The soot of the dead fireplace? A dank smell of unchanged bedding? A lingering disinfectant-medicine smell? What does she hear? The tap-tap-tap of a wintery branch on a window? A murmur of voices somewhere else in the house, maybe her grandmother’s viewing? What she SEES would logically come last. Unless you, as the writer, were foolish enough to turn on the light first and leach out all tension. Okay, she finally turns on a light. What is next, LOGICALLY, in your description? I’d give a quick overview of the room that suggests it hasn’t changed since the granddaughter was last there twenty years ago. Why is that important? It establishes a plot point and says something about the characters’ relationship without you TELLING US that Joan hadn’t visited her grandma in twenty years. Through description: Show don’t tell. The girl advances into the room and you logically reveal more details. The last thing she sees is the chair. Why? Because it’s emotionally connective. The chair still bears the imprint of her grandmother’s small body. And there is a footstool off to the side, the very one where the girl sat when her grandmother read to her when she was six. Always save your best descriptive item for last.

Can you give us examples of descriptions you admire?

Oh geez, I can’t think of any off the top of my noggin. It does make me think of another point though. Always look for the “telling detail.” This is a small but important descriptive element that uniquely and quickly speaks volumes about a person or place. I can’t recall which book but I remember Michael Connelly’s use of this. One of his cops is very laconic, always laid back and seemingly unflappable. Yet Connelly has someone notice that the tips of his glasses stems are gnawed down to nubs. Inner turmoil. The man is trying to devour his demons.

I also admire Joyce Carol Oates. Sometimes she really goes short on description. Other times she, well, goes to town. I like how she uses smell to open her description of the one-room schoolhouse she attended as a child in rural New York:

Inside, the school smelled smartly of varnish and wood smoke from the potbellied stove. On gloomy days, not unknown in upstate New York in this region south of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Erie, the windows emitted a vague, gauzy light, not much reinforced by ceiling lights. We squinted at the blackboard, that seemed far away since it was on a small platform, where Mrs. Dietz’s desk was also positioned, at the front, left of the room. We sat in rows of seats, smallest at the front, largest at the rear, attached at their bases by metal runners, like a toboggan; the wood of these desks seemed beautiful to me, smooth and of the red-burnished hue of horse chestnuts. The floor was bare wooden planks. An American flag hung limply at the far left of the blackboard and above the blackboard, running across the front of the room, designed to draw our eyes to it avidly, worshipfully, were paper squares showing that beautifully shaped script known as Parker Penmanship.

So, Oates is leading the reader into the room. Note the PROGRESSION of senses: First, you smell varnish and wood smoke. Next, you become aware of the quality of the light — gauzy from the windows and ceiling lights. Only then does Oates move to sight, and even then we have to squint to bring the scene into focus. Take note, too, of the small telling details she uses that make us build an image-painting of this room in our imaginations — desks in a row like a toboggan, old wood like horse chestnuts, and the one I love because I can remember it — paper squares of perfect Parker.

Can you share an excerpt from one of your books?

It is from Paint It Black. The set up: An FBI agent has been kidnapped and held by the killer:

Blackness. She was floating up from the blackness to consciousness. She opened her eyes. Dark. She gave a terrified jerk.

The thing — it was the thing covering her face. The cloth was still there. She could smell its musky odor, and when she drew in a breath, the roughness touched her lips.

She became aware of a sharp throbbing in her head, and a faint nausea boiling in her stomach. Her heart was pounding.

Think…think! Calm down. Use your head, use your senses.

She tried to move her arms. They were bound at the wrist, palms up. She could feel the hard wood of the chair. She strained to hear something or someone.

Nothing. Just water lapping and a soft groaning sound. Pilings? The air was still and smelled of mildew and fish. And old building of some kind near the docks? Was she still near the wharf? Something kicked on…like a motor, faint.

She tried to stay calm, tried to quiet the pounding of the blood in her ears so she could hear better. Nothing. No cars, no voices. Just the droning motor sound. It stopped and it was quiet again, except for the lapping water.

The floor creaked. She jumped.

I tried with this, not to tell you she was tied up with a bag over her head and left in a fishing hut. It is all filtered through her senses and revealed in logical order of awareness.

What authors do you think handle description very well?

Again, so many. But nothing that jumps out at me at this moment. And all my books are down in my Tallahassee house, so I can’t even cheat.

I do remember this one from Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Mainly because it splendidly makes the last point I want to stress.

My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

Description isn’t something you add to slow the pace, or God forbid, to show off and try to be writerly. If you’re not James Lee Burke, don’t try to be. Be yourself. But remember that all good description is deeply intwined with character. (Doesn’t it always come down to character?)  When you think of Wuthering Heights — or Emily Brontë for that matter — you always think of the moors. That wild, desolate landscape. That brooding darkness and expansive seductive freedom. The moors – as Brontë so vividly described – are Heathcliff.

Where can we find out more about you and your writing?

Well, we’re semi-retired from novel writing now, but all our books, with excerpts and such can still be found at our website PJPARRISH.COM.

But of course, you can find me, along with Kay and my thriller writers, at KillZoneblog.com where we talk about description and all other fun craft things. Thanks for having me, Kay. And thanks for dropping by, crime dogs.

Thank you, Kristy, for being with us today.

 

Writing Description in Fiction with NY Times Best-Selling Author PJ Parrish - and a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card Share on X

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Meet Kristy Montee (P.J. Parrish)

P.J. Parrish is actually two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. Their books have appeared on both the New York Times and USA Today best seller lists. The series has garnered 11 major crime-fiction awards, and an Edgar® nomination. Parrish has won two Shamus awards, one Anthony and one International Thriller competition. Her books have been published throughout Europe and Asia. Parrish’s short stories have also appeared in many anthologies, including two published by Mystery Writers of America, edited by Harlan Coben and the late Stuart Kaminsky. Their stories have also appeared in Akashic Books acclaimed Detroit Noir, and in Ellery Queen Magazine. Most recently, they contributed an essay to a special edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s works edited by Michael Connelly.

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — SEPTEMBER 2024

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This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. We’ve had some great discussions so far, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, Randy Ingermanson on Scenes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on Emotion, Larry Leech on Dialogue, Terry Odell on Deep Point of View, and Sue Coletta on Anti-heroes. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

This month, I’m excited to welcome award-winning author DiAnn Mills back to the blog, and DiAnn has a special treat for us. She’s written an article on The Power of Romance in Christian Fiction in which she addresses many of the aspects of the novel.

And she has a new romantic suspense novel for us:

 

 

Cozy up. It’s time for romance.

 

The Power of Romance in Christian Fiction with DiAnn Mills Share on X

* * *

 

We ran out of our gorgeous propeller pens, but this month the name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. (Not nearly so pretty as the pen, but still a useful gift!)

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Now here’s DiAnn’s article:

The Power of Romance in Christian Fiction

 Have you explored the power of romance in Christian fiction? Toss aside your thoughts about simple themes and tepid emotions that water down the love relationship between a man and a woman, Instead, think about how to include “real” elements and write an authentic and believable story.

  • The joy of true romantic love is real.
  • The emotions are real.
  • The physical, mental, and spiritual challenges are real.
  • The heartbreak of broken relationships is real.
  • The struggle of adhering to God’s way of honoring each other until marriage is real.
  • The blessings of obedience and a Christ-filled relationship are real.

Dipping our toes into the waters of writing Christian romance doesn’t mean we swim in shark-infested waters. According to the American Heritage Dictionary romance is “a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.” Love is “an intense feeling of deep affection.”

Christian writers commit to creating a God-honoring story. Biblical examples since Adam and Eve explore imperfect human traits. Consider Jacob and Rachel, Boaz and Ruth, Joseph and Mary, or the love between Christ and the Church. The positive attributes give us role models that emphasize sacrificial love, commitment, and the blessings of obedience. The mistakes pave the way for the writer to plot their story, suffer the consequences of error, and make amends.

Christian romance inspires the reader to focus on giving and not taking. Characters facing challenges and overcoming them through faith and love serve as role models for readers, encouraging them to seek similar virtues in their own relationships.

Explore the meaning of romance and genuine love to see where it fits in your characters’ lives, plot, dialogue, setting, and ever-present emotions. A character exchanging an “I love you” with another character is on its own flat and unimaginative. The writer’s role is to show the story.

Cultural differences, family dimensions, social status, and diversity can be addressed in a healthy biblically based manner.

Characterization

Your characters are made in the image of God with a unique personality. Know your character inside and out: culture, family, spirituality, education, interests, hobbies, tphysical attributes, backstory, and more. I suggest using a personality test for your character, such as Myers-Briggs.

A character’s spiritual journey provides insight for the reader to grow in their faith or investigate Christianity.

Gary Chapman in his book The 5 Love Languages details how our personalities reflect the way we give and receive love.

  1. Words of affirmation
  2. Quality time
  3. Physical touch
  4. Acts of service
  5. Receiving gifts

Plot 

Decide if your story is a pure romance or a complimentary blend, as in historical romance, fantasy romance, romantic suspense, or a blend of any genre. The genre determines style, theme, voice, culture, setting, vocabulary, and other related specifics.

If your story is romance, your plot is about characters who are attracted to each other, but obstacles are in the way.

A plot that weaves genre and romance is a balance of both goals. For the romance writer, both characteristics of romance and genre show dynamic emotions.

Setting

An often-overlooked technique in writing is viewing the setting as an antagonistic character that stands in the couple’s way of finding lasting romance. Plot your story to include a setting that works against every goal in the protagonist’s POV. The growth and change needed to overcome barriers make the story exciting and engaging.

Dialogue

Readers want to hear what characters say, how they say it, and how it contributes to the plot. Another aspect of dialogue is subtext; this means what isn’t stated means more than what is being said. Body language blends with spoken dialogue and subtext to show what the characters are feeling but are held back from saying. This is often the case of romance and can be used to the delight of the reader.

Emotions

Readers turn pages because the writer has successfully shown emotions, which allows the reader to step into the character’s shoes and experience the story. The reader isn’t reading the story, but they become the character. While this is true no matter what genre, cleverly shown emotions keep the reader involved in the story.

By delving into these ideas, you can offer readers a comprehensive understanding of the power and significance of romance in Christian fiction, both as a literary genre and to convey timeless truths and values.

 

 

Thank you, DiAnn, for being with us today.

 

 

The Power of Romance in Christian Fiction with DiAnn Mills Share on X

 

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Meet DiAnn Mills

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels with threads of romance. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?

 

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards, Selah, Golden Scroll, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, an active member of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, and International Thriller Writers. DiAnn continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, BookBub, YouTube, LinkedIn or her website: diannmills.com

 

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — AUGUST 2024

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This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. We’ve had some great discussions so far, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, Randy Ingermanson on Scenes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on Emotion, Larry Leech on Dialogue, and Terry Odell on Deep Point of View. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

This month, I’m excited to welcome back Sue Coletta, award-winning novelist and fellow Kill Zone Blog contributor.  Sue has chosen the fascinating subject of the Anti-hero as her subject matter.

 

 

So watch your step. We’re going to get close to anti-heroes.

 

Anti-heroes with Sue Coletta Share on X

* * *

 

We ran out of our gorgeous propeller pens, but this month the name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. (Not nearly so pretty as the pen, but still a useful gift!)

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Sue, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you for inviting me, Kay. Pleasure to be here.

 

How do you define an anti-hero?

An anti-hero is the protagonist of the story, who straddles the law. Good people doing bad things for the right reason. Nothing is black and white. Anti-heroes thrive in shades in gray.

 

What are some of the things that differentiate an anti-hero from a hero?

A hero is a law-abiding citizen and basically a decent person. An anti-hero also comes from good stock, but they’re willing to do what it takes to protect and/or save others.

 

Is the anti-hero always the protagonist in a novel?

Yes. At the very least, they’re co-protagonists with another character.

 

Does the anti-hero have a character arc in the story?

Absolutely. All main characters should, including the villain.

 

Can you give us examples of famous anti-heroes?

Dexter Morgan is the obvious choice. Sure, he’s a serial killer, but he only murders other killers. In his mind, and the mind of (most) readers, he’s protecting the community by ridding the world of dangerous individuals.

 

Have you used anti-heroes in your books?

Absolutely. They’re my favorite characters to write.

In my Mayhem Series, Mr. Mayhem appeared like an average serial killer when he first stepped on stage in Blessed Mayhem. And, in fact, he played the villain in Silent Mayhem and I Am Mayhem as well. In the background, however, I peeled layer after layer to reveal his true character and motivation. Readers fell in love with him. So, in Unnatural Mayhem, I turned him into an anti-hero who fights to protect wildlife from poachers, trophy hunters, and animal traffickers.

Also in that series, Shawnee Daniels played anti-hero from book one, Wings of Mayhem. During the day, she ran the Cybercrimes Division at the local PD. At night, she was a cat burglar who righted wrongs by stealing from white collar criminals who ripped off their employees and escaped justice. In Unnatural Mayhem, her love of animals (and other reasons I can’t divulge without spoilers) caused her to join forces with Mayhem to save the Natural World and all its inhabitants. That’s where they are today, fighting the good fight. There’s nothing they won’t do to protect the voiceless. Even murder.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your writing?

You can find out more about me and my work on my website: https://suecoletta.com

For a compact list of all my books, check out my LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/suecoletta

 

Thank you, Sue, for being with us today.

Thanks for having me, Kay!

 

Anti-heroes with Sue Coletta Share on X

 

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Meet Sue Coletta

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone (Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers”) and is a Resident Writing Coach at Writers Helping Writers.

Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series books 1-3, psychological thriller/mysteries, Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction, Pretty Evil New England. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, the Mayhem Series books 4-7 and continuing.

Sue’s appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Learn more about Sue and her books at https://suecoletta.com.

 

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JULY 2024

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This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. We’ve had some great discussions so far, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, Randy Ingermanson on Scenes, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi on Emotion, and Larry Leech on Dialogue. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

This month, I’m excited to welcome back Terry Odell, award-winning novelist and fellow Kill Zone Blog contributor.  Instead of an interview, Terry has chosen to write this post about Deep Point of View, the perspective she uses in her novels.

 

So come close because we’re talking intimate point of view!

 

Deep Point of View with Terry Odell Share on X

* * *

 

We ran out of our gorgeous propeller pens, but this month the name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card. (Not nearly so pretty as the pen, but still a useful gift!)

So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night, so be sure to check back to see if you won. (Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Terry, and thank you for joining us!

Thanks, Kay, for inviting me to talk about one of my favorite writing topics. When I toyed with writing a short story and sent it to an author I had been beta reading for, she sent it back with comments about my “liberties” with point of view. I had no clue what that meant, but I accepted the challenge and learned what I could. Later, Suzanne Brockmann introduced me to Deep Point of View, and I was hooked.

Let’s start at the beginning.

What is point of view?

Simply said, it’s who’s telling the story in any given scene. It’s the character through whose senses the reader experiences what’s going on. There are no ‘rights’ or ‘wrongs’ but choosing the wrong POV can keep the reader from being drawn into the story. Readers need to bond with character, and POV is one tool the writer uses to develop that connection.

What are your choices?

There are variations and subsets, but these are the basics:

Omniscient: Someone outside the story knows what’s going on and reports to the reader.

Examples:

John and Mary lingered over coffee. Little did they know that outside, the Romulans were planning their first attack on Earth.

A melody she didn’t recognize as Mozart came from the room.

If she’d known what waited behind the door, she’d never have opened it.

First Person: Told from the point of view of a single person. The use of “I” can get monotonous for the reader, which presents challenges for the author.

Examples:

I went to the store.

The cloying odor of death wasn’t what bothered me as I signed the patrol officer’s clipboard and ducked under the yellow tape fastened across the door.

Second Person: This one is very rare, and also very hard to pull off. It’s commonly used in things like children’s books where the reader can choose what to do next.

Examples:

You went to the store.

You feel your heart race. The only way forward is to move your feet.

Third Person: This is the most commonly used, and it has many variations. It can be shallow, almost narrated, or deep—almost the same as 1st person—with all levels in between.

Examples:

He went to the store

Gordon Hepler’s face ached from the smiles he’d been forced to display.

Now, on to Deep POV:

Deep POV can be thought of as writing a first person book in third person. You are deep inside the POV character’s head, providing the reader with not only the character’s five senses, but also their thoughts and feelings. Because you’re deep into their heads, your readers should feel closer to the characters than if you have an outside narrator, as is the case in shallower third person POV. A test. You should be able to replace he, she, or the character’s name with “I.”

When writing in Deep POV, it’s also important to be true to the character. What would they notice? Two characters walk into a room. (No, that’s not the start of a joke.) One’s a cop; the other is an interior designer. They’ll focus on very different things.

Pet peeves of mine (not that they’re wrong, they just pull me out of the character’s head) are in this example:

Sally rushed down the avenue, her floral chiffon scarf trailing behind her. She adjusted her Oakley sunglasses over her emerald-green eyes. When she reached the door of the office building, she finger combed her short-cropped auburn hair. Her full, red lips curved upward in a smile.

 

Is Sally really thinking about the specifics of her scarf? Or the brand of her sunglasses? The color of her eyes? I think you get the picture. We don’t think of ourselves that way unless there are good reasons. Maybe Sally just came from the salon and had her hair cut short and colored, so she might be noticing the length and thinking about the color. But that, to me, is a big maybe. And just “no” on the lips. That’s not coming from inside her head, either.

In Deep POV, just as in real life, a character can only observe and make assumptions about what another character is thinking. They can notice facial expressions and body language, but they can’t know what’s really going on in that character’s head.

Stick with what’s appropriate for the POV character. This means you’re writing in the character’s voice, not your own. In short, there’s no narrator.

Don’t show things a character can’t see or know. Likewise, don’t hide things they are seeing, hearing, etc., from the reader.

Don’t use “thought” as a speaker tag. That’s going to distance the reader. If you’re handling the POV correctly, readers will know they’re in the character’s head. I use a lot of internal monologue in my books, and most of the time, don’t feel there’s any need to italicize them. The only time I use italics for thoughts is when a character is thinking to himself—and I’ll shift to second person for those.

Example: You idiot. Why did you say that?

Compare that with: He was such an idiot. Why did he say that?

They’re both ok, but the first example is deeper. In either case, it should be clear these are thoughts and “he thought” isn’t necessary.

Use anchoring words to keep the reader grounding in the character’s head: knew, saw, wanted, seemed to be, obviously, watched, noticed.

 

Why do I prefer Deep POV?

  • We live in 1st person POV.
  • Deep 3rd is as close to 1st person as one can get.
  • It easily accommodates multiple POV characters. Most of my romantic suspense titles use two POV characters, and I use a Deep POV for both of them.
  • It gives the reader an emotional connection to the character.

I’ll be checking back during the day, so if you have questions, ask away.

Where can we find out more about you and your writing?

My website, my blog, my Facebook Page, and recently, my Substack, Writings and Wanderings.

 

Thank you, Terry, for being with us today.

My pleasure, Kay. Any time!

 

Deep Point of View with Terry Odell Share on X

 

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Meet Terry Odell

 

“I love getting into the minds of my characters, turning them loose in tight spots and seeing what they do. Too often, they surprise me.

My published works include the Pine Hills Police Series, the Blackthorne, Inc. covert ops series, the Triple-D Ranch series and the stand alone, What’s in a Name? — all Romantic Suspense, as well as the Mapleton Mystery series, which has been described as a blend of police procedural and cozy mysteries. My current releases in that series are Deadly Adversaries and the first three novels as a box set. It’s called, brilliantly enough, The Mapleton Mystery Novels, Volume One.

Heather’s Chase is a stand alone International Mystery Romance, which I had a blast researching on a trip through the British Isles, soon to be followed up with Double Intrigue, set on a Danube River cruise, where we toured Christmas markets last December. My mystery short story collection, Seeing Red, is a Silver Falchion award winner. I also have a collection of contemporary romance short stories.

When I’m not writing, or watching wildlife from my window, I’m probably reading.”

 

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — JUNE 2024

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This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel. So far, we’ve covered Voice with James Scott Bell, Plotting with DiAnn Mills, Antagonists with Debbie Burke, Scenes with Randy Ingermanson, and Emotion with Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. If you missed any of these, you can go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to read.

This month, I’m delighted to welcome first-time guest Larry J. Leech II to the blog. Larry is editor-in-chief of Bold Vision Books and a writing coach to multiple award-winning authors. With more than forty years of writing and editing to his credit, Larry is the perfect professional to talk to us about Dialogue.

So get out your manuscript and get ready to polish that conversation.

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This month we’ll choose one commenter to receive a $10 Amazon gift card, so be sure to join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night.

(Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

Tips and pointers on dialogue from editor Larry Leech II Share on X

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Welcome to the Craft of Writing blog, Larry, and thank you for joining us!

Thank you, Kay, for the opportunity. I’m honored and grateful to share with your readers.

 

Why is the use of dialogue so important in a novel?

We discover as much, if not more, about a character, through their dialogue. We learn about their level of intelligence, their fears, likes and dislikes, goals, and attitude—in both spoken and internal dialogue.

 

Is there any “rule of thumb” as to what percentage of a novel should be dialogue? (I’ve read different opinions on this one.)

I believe the story needs to dictate how much dialogue. While we, editors and coaches, like to see a nice balance of prose and dialogue in a novel, putting a percentage or word count on the amount of the dialogue suffocates the creativity. Some characters are chatty. Others can be tightlipped. So, let the characters decide how much dialogue there should be.

 

How does dialogue bring characters to life?

Individuality. Much has been taught about plot, structure, character arc, etc., but I believe readers love to hear a character speak. First, each character must have a distinctive voice. A fifty-year-old white male should not sound like a twenty-two-year-old female person of color. Even two teenage boys should not sound the same. Each has a backstory and moral center that dictates how they speak.

Think of the cinematic voices we know well. Whenever someone says, “Life is a like a box of chocolates,” we hear Forrest Gump. Or “No, I am your father,” we hear Darth Vader. Or “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” we hear Chief Brody in Jaws.

Also, along with what I mentioned above about the importance of dialogue in story, dialogue also reveals worldview, syntax, and what I call “industry language.” For example, law enforcement and military personnel often say, “I’ve got your six (your back).” A plumber wouldn’t say that.

Along with action, dialogue helps the reader understand the character. And if done effectively, allows the reader to “live” the story instead of reading it.

 

We’ve all heard the unusual ways authors sometimes substitute words for “said.” (e.g., roared, interjected, whispered.) How important is it to stay away from those?

Readers tend to skip over tags, which are simply a placeholder for those who have spoken. I teach my clients that “said” is preferred (even for the word ‘asked’ with some publishers), but action is preferred over said. People move while they talk. But in many early drafts, I see a lack of action while the characters talk. The characters either feel like they are floating around in space because of lack of setting or if they are anchored in a scene, they sit on their hands and talk with each other.

 

What are some of the other pitfalls writers fall into when writing dialogue?

Great question. The number one pitfall I see is tone after dialogue. If the tone is after the dialogue, the reader doesn’t read with the intended tone. For example: “I hate you,” she said angrily. But by putting the tone before the dialogue, we read with the intended tone. But tone can be substituted with action. For example: She slammed her fist on the table. “I hate you.” Or She giggled. “I hate you.” In each example, we know “she” is mad and being playful.

Second, I often see is the dialogue doesn’t fit the character. A sixty-year-old writing YA usually doesn’t have the language and mindset correct for the characters. The same can be said when someone writes outside their ethnicity or culture. Even if the author has done a lot of research, I encourage them to find someone in that age group, ethnicity, or culture to read for accuracy in the dialogue.

Third, direct address in two-person dialogue is not needed. It’s a waste of words. Remember, projects are based on word count, not page count. An acquisition editor or agent will ask, “How many words is your manuscript?” They don’t ask “How many pages?” So, don’t waste words on unnecessary direct address in dialogue. But, and often there is an exception, direct address between a parent and child can be acceptable.

Fourth, I didn’t think I would spend so much time on this question, most new writers like to include greetings for answering the door or a phone call. Again, wasted words and bogs down the reader. The example I use of how to avoid comes from a Richard Castle novel. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which one. In this scene, the characters Jameson Rook and Nikki Heat meet Rooks’s mother’s at a restaurant. Instead of writing out all the greetings, the author wrote: After hugs and hellos, … In an instant, we see and hear the greetings between the three characters without reading the words.

 

What is a good way to handle internal dialogue? 

Because most publishers I work with don’t want internal dialogue in italics or inside quote marks, action before internal dialogue will set up the internal dialogue. For example, I gave her a sideways glance and smirked. “I hate her.” Obviously, the speaker is talking about someone else, and that looks like spoken dialogue. Without the quote marks, we know it’s internal dialogue.

 

How should a writer approach using dialect?

Some say writing in dialect is like walking a tightrope. The author can turn away readers with too much or oversimplify, which will ruin the impact of the dialect. First, research is important—using the internet, reading books with that dialect, or, if possible, interviewing people who speak in the intended dialect. Second, use sparingly. Don’t overwhelm the reader. Third, as with all dialogue, the dialect should serve the story and, of course, the character.

 

What tips can you give us for writing great dialogue?

Avoid long sentences of explanation. Short sentences and fragments can be a writer’s best friend. Dialogue should be short, snappy, and have tension. Long: “Well, what color dress do you think would be appropriate for a first date with a man I just met online and know little to nothing about?” Short: “Would a blue dress be appropriate? I don’t really know him. We met online. It’s our first date.”

Also, large chunks of dialogue often feel like an info dump. I’ve seen manuscripts with dialogue that tops 150 words. While I don’t like a restriction on word count, that much dialogue will fill up most of a printed page and create a gray blob on the page. To fix that problem, to make the dialogue feel more organic, first make sure every bit of information is needed. Then break it apart with interaction with another character and with action as well.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Readers can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and my website, which is in the process of being redesigned.

 

Thank you, Larry, for being with us today.

Thank you again, Kay. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to share.

 

Tips and pointers on dialogue from editor Larry Leech II Share on X

 

***

Meet Larry J. Leech II

Editor-in-Chief at Bold Vision Books and writing coach of award-winning authors, Larry J. Leech II has spent more than forty years writing and editing. He started his career as a sportswriter in southwestern Pennsylvania where he covered prep, college, and pro sports, including the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers.

 

In 2004, after 2,300 published articles, Larry moved into the book publishing industry. Since that time, he has ghostwritten 31 books, edited more than 450 manuscripts, and coached hundreds of authors through the writing and publication process. You can find him online on Facebook, Instagram, and his website.

 

* * *

The latest novel from Kay:

 

Private pilot Cassie Deakin has plenty to say about her teammate, Deputy Sheriff Frank White in Lacey’s Star: A Lady Pilot-in-Command Novel.

Available at  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — MAY 2024

Posted on by 28 comments

This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. Recently, we’ve had some wonderful guests to help us understand how to use these tools in our writing, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, Debbie Burke on Antagonists, and Randy Ingermanson on Scenes. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

This month, we’re going to address perhaps the most important aspect of novel writing: Emotion. And I’m excited to welcome back two well-known authorities on the subject: Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. As everyone knows, these two authors put together the wildly popular Emotion Thesaurus, and they have recently been working on a related book: the Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

So prepare to ramp up the emotion in your works by joining the conversation with Angela and Becca.   

 

 

* * *

Once again, we’re doing something fun for this interview. The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for the unique “Wilbur and Orville 1903” Propeller pen, hand-crafted by my friend and colleague Steve Hooley. Steve has made several of these pens to celebrate the release of my latest novel, Lacey’s Star: A Lady Pilot-in-Command Novel, and I couldn’t be more honored. The pen is made from Ash, one of the woods the Wright brothers used to build their first aircraft. So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night.

(Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Angela and Becca, and thank you for joining us!

 

What part does emotion play in novel writing?

In some ways, emotion is the novel, because the words we choose will steer readers toward what we want them to feel. Is the noise emanating from that dark room a sing-song hum, a melody whispered to a child at bedtime? Or is it a slow, heavy scrape, conjuring the image of a monstrous axe blade being dragged across the floor? As the writer, we choose what we intend readers to feel, and shape our description accordingly. When we do this well, reading becomes an immersive, powerful experience.

To ensure readers are drawn in, though, we must make sure they emotionally connect to our characters first and foremost. We do this by revealing their human layers as they navigate the world around them, showing how they feel, what they need, want, fear, and think. When we do this well, readers connect to our characters because life is an emotional journey, and they find common ground. When we show what’s going on within a character, readers come to see them as someone real. They begin to empathize and become invested in what happens next.

The Emotion Thesaurus is a very popular writing book. Why did you decide to write it, and when was it first published? Have you added to the thesaurus over the years?

The Emotion Thesaurus was basically born from necessity. As a new fiction writer, I noticed my characters were always shrugging, smiling, and shuffling their feet. I didn’t seem to know any other way to convey those feelings. Meanwhile, Angela’s characters were constantly shaking their heads. There was no resource out there to help us find new ways to express emotions, so we started making lists of possible cues for different feelings. And that’s how The Emotion Thesaurus got started.

When we started our blog in 2008, we decided to feature one emotion each week, and people just went wild. We were getting requests for specific emotions, and many people wanted their own copy of the whole collection in book form. So in 2012, we published it. And we released it again in 2019, expanding the thesaurus from 75 to 130 emotions and revamping the front matter to include more instructive content on how to show (not tell) character emotion.

Lately, you’ve been working on a complementary book, the Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. Tell us about that one.

When Becca and I were exploring different entries for The Emotion Thesaurus, we discovered an adjacent topic – states and conditions that were not emotions themselves, but affected them, causing a person to become more emotionally reactive (so perfect for storytelling). We gave them a name: Emotion Amplifiers.  Amplifiers are an added condition or situational burden that characters must cope with on top of everything else. They’re a challenge, conflict, and emotional destabilizer rolled into one, capable of causing physical, cognitive, and psychological discomfort. Best of all, because they can cause characters to lose control of their emotions, it paves the way for mistakes, poor judgment, and missteps, which is bad for the character, but great for the story!

Can you give us an example or two about how to use the Emotion Thesaurus and the Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus to improve our work?

The Emotion Thesaurus gives authors ideas on how to convey a character’s emotions in fresh ways that readers will instantly understand. Each emotion has a list of physical behaviors, internal sensations, and mental cues that are associated with that feeling so authors can browse the options and fine-tune them to fit their character.

Amplifiers, as Angela mentioned, are states that ramp up the character’s emotions. Pain, illness, exhaustion, intoxication—conditions like these destabilize the character, elevating their emotions and making them more likely to make a mistake, act rashly, or explode. So when you want a character to have a bigger reaction or dig themselves deeper into a hole, an amplifier will often do the trick. They’re also good for providing opportunities for personal growth, since each amplifier situation will generate a choice for the character: continue relying on ineffective methods to deal with what they’re facing, or try a healthier way?

Do you have plans for future craft of writing books?

We are always thinking about the next book – there are so many great topics we like to do a deep dive into to help writers use them more effectively in the story, because this is what helps their books rise above all the rest. We have not yet settled on the next one…it might be on fears, or character tropes and types, or something else. We tend to pick the topic we feel writers need the most help with because there’s not a lot of resources available.

Where can we find out more about you and your books?

The Bookstore page at our blog, Writers Helping Writers, contains information on all our books, including sample entries and purchasing information.

Thank you, Angela and Becca, for being with us today.

***

Meet Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are writing coaches, international speakers, and co-authors of the bestselling book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (now an expanded second edition) and its many sequels. Their books are available in nine languages, are sourced by universities, recommended by agents and editors, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, and psychologists around the world. To date, this series has sold over 1.2 million copies.

Long-time writing partners, Angela and Becca are passionate about helping others, especially writers. To this end, they co-founded Writers Helping Writers, a popular description hub for writers, and One Stop for Writers, an innovative creativity portal for one-of-a-kind tools that give writers exactly what they need to craft unbelievably rich stories and characters.

* * *

 

Cassie Deakin is a talented private pilot, but she finds herself on an emotional roller coaster when she teams up with Deputy Frank White to hunt for a murderer.

Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

 

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THE CRAFT OF WRITING — APRIL 2024

Posted on by 24 comments

This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. We’ve had some great discussions so far, including James Scott Bell on Voice, DiAnn Mills on Plotting, and Debbie Burke on Antagonists. If you missed any of these, go to kaydibianca.com/blog and choose the post you want to revisit.

This month, I’m excited to welcome back Randy Ingermanson, award-winning novelist and craft of writing expert.  Randy’s Advanced Fiction Writing books make him the perfect guest to talk about the subject of Scene.

So buckle up and let’s get ready to write a dynamite scene!

 

* * *

Once again, we’re doing something fun for this interview. The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for the unique “Wilbur and Orville 1903” Propeller pen, hand-crafted by my friend and colleague Steve Hooley. The pen is made from Ash, one of the woods the Wright brothers used to build their first aircraft. So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night, so be sure to check back to see if you won.

(Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Randy, and thank you for joining us!

Hi Kay, thanks for having me back on your blog.

 

You wrote a very popular book entitled How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. Why did you feel it was necessary to follow that one with How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method?

Because they cover very different topics. The book on the Snowflake Method teaches you how to design your novel before you write it. It’s a book on strategic thinking. Big-picture stuff. In Step 9 of the Snowflake Method, you plan each scene of your novel. But how do you do that? It doesn’t come naturally to most writers. So I realized I needed a whole book just to explain how to do that in detail.

The book on writing a Dynamite Scene teaches you how to write one good scene, which is typically 1000 to 3000 words. This is crucial because a scene is the fundamental unit of fiction. You write your novel as a sequence of scenes. A typical novel is anywhere from 50 to 200 scenes. So this is middle-picture stuff.

The important thing to understand is that if you can write one great scene, you can write a hundred. And that’s a novel.

 

You say a book should be an emotional experience for the reader, and you define two essential parts of story that create that experience. Please explain what they are.

A story is characters in conflict. Both are essential. If you’ve got no characters, you have no story. If you’ve got no conflict, you have no story.

But there’s more to it than that. Not all characters are equally good. You must have a character your reader can root for—or root against. If the reader doesn’t care deeply about whether your character wins or loses, then the book isn’t going to stay open very long. It’s going on the shelf and it won’t get a second look.

And not all conflict is created equal either. There’s blah conflict, and then there’s a crucible. You want your character in a crucible, because a crucible shows the reader what your character is made of.

There’s a secret to writing crucible-level conflict that kidnaps your reader right into the storyworld, where they don’t want to leave. Actually, there are two secrets. If you know those two secrets, you can write a dynamite scene about anything. Anything. And your reader will love it.

 

You also say every scene in a book is a miniature story. Explain that.

Every scene in your book needs to work as a short story. Every single scene. It must have a viewpoint character that the reader can root for (or root against). And it must have a single conflict that gets resolved by the end of the scene.

If you have even one scene that doesn’t work as a story, you’re going to lose readers at that scene. They’ll put the book down. And they’re done with that book.

So you need every scene in your novel to be pulling its weight. If a scene doesn’t work, then you have some options. You can kill the scene—just shoot it right in the head and throw its carcass to the wolves. Or you can fix the scene—figure out why it’s broken and solve the problem.

I have killed a few scenes in my life, but 95% of all scenes can be fixed. If you know how. And my book shows you how. One of the main reasons I wrote my book is to teach authors how to diagnose and fix a busted scene. (And also how to recognize a scene that works so you can leave it alone.)

 

In your book, you define two types of scenes: Proactive and Reactive. Can you describe each one? Why is it important to have both?

I invented the terms “Proactive Scene” and “Reactive Scene” about 15 years ago, because there just wasn’t good terminology for them. Words have power, because they give you analytic tools. If you know that there are only two basic structures for scenes, then your first question when editing every scene should be: “Is this a Proactive Scene or a Reactive Scene?”

Here’s how you tell the difference:

A Proactive Scene begins with a goal—some sort of short-term objective which the lead character could plausibly achieve by the end of the scene. But it’s a hard goal, and obstacles leap in front of the lead character to block them from reaching their goal. Most scenes have several obstacles. Then at the end of the scene, just as the lead character is about to reach their goal, something goes wrong. And the Proactive Scene is over. That’s it—a goal, some conflict, and a setback.

A Reactive Scene usually follows a Proactive Scene. The lead character is shocked by the setback of the previous scene. Now what are they going to do? They experience intense emotions, and the reader experiences those with the character. But now something has to be done. And there are no good options. The lead character has only bad options. A dilemma. The lead character sweats for a bit, mulling all the bad options. And finally settles on the least-bad option. It’s not great, but it could plausibly work. And now the Reactive Scene is over. That’s all it is—an emotive reaction, an intellectual dilemma, and a decision.

Please note that not all Proactive Scenes are followed by Reactive Scenes. Sometimes the next step is pretty obvious, and you can go from one Proactive Scene to the next to the next. You use a Reactive Scene when the next step is NOT obvious.

 

Does every scene need a POV character?

Yes.

I’m tempted to leave it at that, but maybe a little explanation is in order. Almost nothing in the universe is obviously good or bad, all by itself. Explosions happen. Rain falls. Babies are born. Explosions are good if it’s the Death Star and you’re Luke Skywalker; they’re bad if it’s your car exploding with your kids in it. Rain is good if you’re in the middle of a drought; it’s bad if you’re caught in a hurricane. A baby is good if it’s your long-awaited child; it’s bad if it’s Baby Hitler.

Stuff happens in every scene. How is your reader to know if that stuff is good or bad? That’s simple. You give your reader a yardstick to measure goodness or badness. The yardstick is called a point-of-view character. You put your reader inside the skin of that POV character for that scene. Your reader experiences the story through the eyes and ears of the POV character.

Please note that your reader doesn’t have to LIKE your POV character. A villain or a hero make equally good POV characters. But here’s the thing. Whether your reader likes the POV character or hates them, your reader has a yardstick.

If your reader likes the POV character, then everything that is good for that character is classified as “good” by your reader. Ditto for bad.

If your reader hates the POV character, then it’s the reverse. Anything good for that character is classified as “bad” by your reader.

So the POV character tells your reader how to feel about what’s happening in the scene. And that’s the whole point of fiction—to give your reader a powerful emotional experience.

 

What questions does an author need to ask him/herself about each scene to determine if it’s working?

I have several questions I ask every scene:

  • Is it a Proactive Scene or a Reactive Scene or is it neither?
  • If it’s Proactive, what is the goal, what’s the conflict, and what’s the setback?
  • If it’s Reactive, what is the emotive reaction, what’s the dilemma, and what’s the decision?
  • Does the scene move me emotionally, especially the final sentence?

I’ll be honest that about 70% of my scenes don’t work on the first try. That’s fine. The diagnostic questions above give me clues on how to make them work.

Remember that a scene doesn’t have to work on the first draft. It just needs to work on the last draft. And once you’ve got it working, stop messing with it. My old writing mentor Sol Stein used to warn against “disimproving” a scene, once it’s done.

 

What do you think is the biggest mistake authors make when constructing a scene? How can they fix the problems?

The biggest mistake is not making the scene pull its weight emotionally. But there are several reasons a scene might be failing. I’ve sketched them out above, but the solution is different in each case. Chapter 14 of my book is titled “Triage—How to Fix Your Broken Scenes”. The chapter is 11 pages long, and it’s very succinct. But I can’t make it shorter, which means it won’t fit here.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your writing?

Visit my website at www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com. I blog there when the spirit moves me. Also, the site has about 17 years of archives of the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine that I published from 2005 through 2021. Most of it is still relevant, and readers are smart enough to know what isn’t.

 

Thank you, Randy, for being with us today.

Thanks for having me, Kay!

***

 

Meet Randy Ingermanson

 

Randy Ingermanson wants to teach you how to write excellent fiction.

He’s been teaching for over twenty years, and he’s known around the world as “the Snowflake Guy” in honor of his wildly popular Snowflake Method of writing a novel.

Randy is an award-winning novelist and published the free monthly Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine for 17 years before moving on to other things. He says that “Fiction Writing = Organization + Craft + Marketing,” so he focused on those three topics in his e-zine.

He now blogs when the spirit moves him. He is trying to get the spirit to move him weekly, but the spirit gets touchy about schedules.

Randy lives in the Pacific Northwest and worked for many years as a manservant to a number of surly and demanding cats. The cats have all moved on to a better world, but Randy has doggedly stayed in this one. Visit him at https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/.

* * *

Private pilot Cassie Deakin flies through scene after scene of mystery to track down a killer. Ebook on sale now for 99¢

Buy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple Books.

 

THE CRAFT OF WRITING — MARCH 2024

Posted on by 24 comments

This year the CRAFT OF WRITING blog is focusing on Aspects of the Novel, such as Plot, Dialogue, Characterization, etc. In January, James Scott Bell walked us through a discussion of Voice, and last month DiAnn Mills gave us insight into Plotting.

This month, I’m excited to welcome my good friend and colleague Debbie Burke back to the blog. Debbie is the multi-award-winning novelist of the Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion series.

When I learned that she was writing a craft book entitled The Villain’s Journey, I asked her to come on the blog and talk to us about Antagonists. Now this should be fun!

Incidentally, Debbie received a major honor recently when her latest novel, Deep Fake Double Down, was named one of the five fiction finalists for the national BookLife Prize of 2023. Congratulations, Debbie!

 

So get ready. It’s time to meet the bad guys.

* * *

Once again, we’re doing something fun for this interview. The name of each person who enters a comment will be put into the drawing for the unique “Wilbur and Orville 1903” Propeller pen, hand-crafted by my friend and colleague Steve Hooley. The pen is made from Ash, one of the woods the Wright brothers used to build their first aircraft. So join the conversation and earn a chance to win. I’ll post the name of the winner after 9 PM Central Time tomorrow night.

(Previous 2024 winners are not eligible to win.)

 

* * *

Welcome back to the Craft of Writing blog, Debbie, and thank you for joining us!

Kay, I’m happy to visit your terrific blog again and reconnect with your readers.

Last month, I was the lucky winner of Steve Hooley’s stunning propeller pen. The quality and beauty are fabulous. Thanks, Kay and Steve!

 

First off, what is an antagonist? Does the antagonist always have to be a person?

Merriam-Webster defines antagonist as: “one that contends with or opposes another : ADVERSARY, OPPONENT”

An antagonist is a character, situation, or event that stands in the way of the protagonist reaching his or her goal in the story. An antagonist can be a mass murderer bent on world domination; or someone as benign as a mom who says no when her teen daughter wants to stay out late with her boyfriend.

Villains are antagonists but antagonists are not necessarily villains.

To answer Kay’s question, the antagonist does NOT need to be a person.

Natural disasters offer great obstacles in fiction, e.g., tsunami, earthquake, wildfire, a meteor hurtling toward earth, or even a great white shark (Jaws).

Political upheaval and war inspired classics like Gone with the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Dr. Zhivago.

Economic and social issues are antagonistic forces that drive great literature. Think of Charles Dickens, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Steinbeck.

Weather can serve as an antagonist. In my thriller, Dead Man’s Bluff, a hurricane knocks out power and causes flooding while the main characters are searching for a missing friend. Storm dangers could kill the heroes before the human villains in the story ever get a chance.

Epidemics make frightening antagonists because deadly disease can strike anyone. Examples are The Plague (Albert Camus), The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton), and Outbreak (Robin Cook).

In my sixth book, Flight to Forever, the pandemic is the antagonist that triggers all complications in the story.

 

What characteristics define a villain?

Villains come in many different flavors—liars, cheats, thieves, backstabbers, stalkers, bullies, psychopaths, killers, etc. That’s why they’re so much fun to write. Author Ruth Harris says, “There are more ways to be bad than there are to be good!”

I think all villains share two basic traits:

  1. They believe they are righteous and justified in their actions.
  2. They are willing to harm others to achieve their goals.

Villains can be brutal like Captain Bligh (Mutiny on the Bounty) or charming like the talented Mr. Ripley. Some are gutless cowards like Fredo Corleone who betrays his brother Michael in The Godfather Trilogy.

Michael himself starts as a war hero who wants to protect his father, Vito. Vito also began with righteous motives of defending his community against thugs. But both become ruthless villains who wield power and wealth to destroy enemies.

 

Does the antagonist have to be introduced early in the story? And does he/she have to be known to the reader as a villain?

In traditional mysteries, villains are generally not revealed until the end, although they usually appear earlier. Readers enjoy working along with the sleuth to solve the puzzle, putting clues together, narrowing down the suspects. The villain should be well disguised but hiding in plain sight, present enough in the story that the savvy reader might figure out his/her identity.

If, at the end, an author suddenly pulls a surprise villain out of thin air (the unknown Great Uncle Charlie who just arrived after three decades in Argentina), readers feel cheated because they didn’t have a chance to solve the crime themselves. An author has to play fair, or readers resent it.

In detective/police stories, solving a crime often means a long, painstaking investigation, following leads. Toward the end, they finally close in on the villain whose identity may not be known until s/he is arrested. That’s fair because of the nature of that genre.

Suspense and thrillers are a little different. The villain is often known immediately. The reader’s question changes from “Whodunnit?” to “How did they do it?” or “Are they going to get away with it?”

 

People love to hate the villain, but is it possible for readers to feel sympathy for or even attraction to the antagonist?

Oh, absolutely! To me, the best villains are the ones who feel like real people, not cartoons. They may have been abused or terribly scarred by someone or something in their past. A tragedy may have twisted them until they view life and other people in a skewed way. They may have experienced a loss they never recovered from.

A villain evokes sympathy when the reader thinks, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

The villain can also represent the secret, dark desires hidden deep in most people. The villain gets to do what we wish we could do if we weren’t restrained by consequences, the law, or moral beliefs.

 

How does a good writer approach creating the antagonist character? Are there exercises a writer can use to develop their villain-creating talents?

A technique I like to use is James Scott Bell’s voice journal. Let the antagonist write out their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. What are their deepest, most secret desires? Give them the opportunity to express their frustration, anger, and hatred. Putting their emotions into words helps the author get inside their skin and understand why they feel their behavior is justified.

Interview the villain/antagonist. Ask questions. What is their background? How did their parents treat them? Were they bullied or abused? What early losses or failures scarred them?

Another Jim Bell tip: have villains argue their case before the jury that will decide their fate. What compelling arguments can they offer to save themselves from the death penalty?

 

Give us some examples of antagonists you thought were well-written.

I like antagonists who are self-aware and tormented. They feel they must do what they must do but are conflicted about it. Michael Corleone is a good example.

Memorable villains stand the test of time. I still remember reading A Tale of Two Cities in junior high school where Madame DeFarge knits her list of enemies. Her family’s destruction caused understandable, righteous anger. But revenge consumes her until she feels justified in punishing even innocent people who never harmed her family.

Anthony Hopkins created an unforgettable Hannibal Lecter in the movie version of Silence of the Lambs, but the book delves deeper into the psychology. Lecter burrowed inside people’s brains, knew their thoughts, and anticipated their behavior. Reading about that personal invasion felt enormously creepy.

 

Can you tell us the status of The Villain’s Journey? Do you have a publication date yet?

Thanks for asking about The Villain’s Journey. A bit of background: The Hero’s Journey (by Joseph Campbell) and The Writer’s Journey (by Christopher Vogler) are classic craft-of-writing books about how to create memorable protagonists. But, to my surprise, there wasn’t a corresponding book about villains. So I decided to write it.
Nonfiction is different from fiction because you don’t have to finish the book before submitting to an agent or publisher. Instead, you write a nonfiction book proposal. That is a lengthy, detailed outline of the idea, including sample chapters and a table of contents of topics you’ll cover.
To give you an idea of how much detail, my proposal for The Villain’s Journey is 30+ pages.
That proposal is now being reviewed by an agent. Please cross your fingers that he chooses to represent it!

Tell us more about you. Outside of writing, what other things are you interested in?

Since writing requires waaaay too much time sitting on my rear, I need to exercise often. Zumba is great because it’s a cardio and mental workout that helps concentration, balance, and coordination. Plus, it’s fun. Interestingly, zumba classmates are big supporters of my books.

Living in Montana, hiking is mandatory. I don’t go as far or as fast as I used to but being in nature is still the ideal combination of calming and energizing.

 

Where can we find out more about you and your work?

Please visit debbieburkewriter.com. There are sneak peeks of each book in my Tawny Lindholm Thriller series. They are available at Amazon and major retailers or support your favorite independent bookstore and ask them to order.

Every other Tuesday, you can find me at The Kill Zone (following Monday posts by my friend Kay). I also write about funny, interesting, or unusual news stories on True Crime Thursday.

Thank you, Debbie, for being with us today.

Kay, it’s always a pleasure to answer your wonderfully challenging questions!

 

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Meet Debbie Burke

 

 Debbie Burke writes the Tawny Lindholm Thrillers with Passion series. She is a regular blogger at The Kill Zone, a popular website about crime writing. Her nonfiction articles have won journalism awards and appear in national and international publications. She is a founding member of Authors of the Flathead and helps to plan the annual Flathead River Writers Conference in Kalispell, Montana. Her greatest joy is mentoring young writers

 

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