Photo © 2008 Quinn Dombrowski CC BY-SA 2.0
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In yesterday’s post, I distinguished between the “indie author” and the “self-published author.” A reader named Wendy commented, with a question.

This is a distinction that I originally got from Bob Baker, author of 55 Ways to Promote & Sell Your Book on the Internet. Bob got his self-publishing start with a book about indie music marketing, back in the mid-90′s. He told the story in a recent interview about self-publishing:

In 1996, I self-published the first crude version of the Guerrilla Music Marketing Handbook… one of the first books to advocate self-reliance and taking your music career into your own hands (as opposed to “getting signed” to a record label, which most music business books were all about back then).

My DIY perspective came in handy when the traditional music biz began to crumble around 2001. Before long, going the “indie” route became the way to go…

Eh. So the book industry is 10 years late.

Anyhow, (a few years ago, as I recall) Bob pointed out that most people don’t care who published your book. But if someone does ask you who, you can say, “I’m an indie author,” rather than saying, “I self-published it.” He got the “indie” tag from the music industry, where “indie” is no longer looked down upon as less legitimate than being signed by a big record label.

I took his advice to heart. When I talk about “self-published authors,” I’m usually referring to authors who use modern publishing technology in pursuit of their hobby. When I talk about “indie authors,” I’m referring to those who take their writing seriously, take their books seriously, and treat them as part of a business plan.

(I’m not sure if that’s what Bob originally had in mind. But that’s the gist of what I wrote yesterday.)

In reply, Wendy wrote (and I paraphrase):

Hi, Tim.

I’ve never contacted you before but I have read your blogs and comments on Holly Lisle’s blogs… My question is how does one start/run her own publishing company? Any information or resources you could point me to would be greatly appreciated?

Wendy C. Boston

Hi, Wendy. Thanks so much for commenting. This answer is going to gloss over a lot of material, but I hope that I at least provide a useful link or two.

The easiest way to get started is to publish ebooks under your own name using Smashwords and/or Amazon KDP. Smashwords’s site is designed to be author-friendly; that is, you don’t have to be a publishing expert to use it. (However, once you are a publishing expert, you’ll probably learn to hate it. Ba-dum bum.) Amazon has also designed their site to be used by authors, but you’ll need to convert your ebook appropriately for their system. Both sites have good help guides, and Amazon has user forums as well.

You can also set up a small business, file a fictitious name, and use that as the publisher name. Whether and how to do that is the same for a publishing business as for any other business. Nolo Press has some great self-help legal books on how to start a business legally. Starting a modern small publishing business is easier than starting many other businesses, because you don’t need a storefront, and you don’t need any government licenses or permits (at least not here in the U.S.). You don’t even need to deal with publishing contracts, if you’re only publishing your own books (and if you are publishing your own books, you should probably think twice before you also publish someone else’s… but that’s another topic).

Even if you use your own name, the key, I think, is to treat your authoring and publishing as a business or career, not as a hobby. That is, engage it seriously, put into it the time and effort it demands, and plan well in order to ultimately succeed. Of course, hobbies are wonderful. I have hobbies, too. And I think everybody should write stories as a hobby—at least everyone who isn’t pursuing it as a career. But you were asking about self-publishing as a business. The real difference is in attitude, whether it’s a hobby or a career, because that difference will help you make certain decisions and affect your level of commitment, especially over the long haul.

I can also recommend Aaron Shepard’s book POD for Profit: More on the NEW Business of Self Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books With Print on Demand by Lightning Source. Lightning Source is the printer/distributor that many boutique and indie presses use (even Lulu and CreateSpace use them, at least sometimes). Lightning Source is not “self-publishing company,” like Lulu. Rather, they offer book printing services (both POD and offset) and distribution services (through Ingram), and they work with publishers, not authors. In fact, when I filled out their client application form, it seemed to me more to assure them that I was a publishing company, and not just an author.

Aaron Shepard in POD for Profit also goes into some of the business aspects of running a small publishing company. You might be interesting in the first book in that series, Aiming at Amazon, too. (I personally think those two books are out of order. Lightning Source first, because that gives you something to sell to all your readers who have been interacting with you via your blog and email and Twitter and Facebook. Then Amazon, because you want your book to look as good as possible on their site. But most people seem to think in the opposite direction: Amazon first.) In any case, you should check out Aaron’s self-publishing site.

(I should also add that I have not myself read POD for Profit, but it clearly has some of the information he was originally planning to put into the second edition of Aiming for Amazon, which I did review. In any case, I can personally vouch for Aaron’s status as a bona-fide self-publishing expert, because I’ve been following his work for some time. And so I trust that he knows what he’s talking about, even if I haven’t personally read the book.)

Hope this helps. Best of luck in whatever you endeavor.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2009 The Ewan CC BY 2.0

First of all, a clarification: when right-wingers talk about “closing the borders,” this isn’t what they mean.

The big news over the past week is that Borders Books is officially going out of business.

Book lovers have expressed grief and dismay. One Borders fan called it “a case of internet outsourcing.” He’s not too far off the mark. And this has been coming for a long time. (The photo above was taken a year and a half ago in Oxford.)

But Barnes & Noble continues to succeed, because there’s a difference between Borders and Barnes & Noble, a difference in how the two companies approached the book industry. Barnes & Noble has embraced the ebook—a little later than Amazon, but at least they did. Barnes & Noble has embraced online ordering. You can even special-order copies of my books at Barnes & Noble stores. And Barnes & Noble got the Starbucks deal, too. Barnes & Noble probably sells more coffee than books.

A friend recently asked me whether books would completely disappear. I had to correct her: ebooks are books, too. Now, I don’t think paper books will ever completely disappear. (That’s a different post.) However, ebooks present a number of advantages to authors, not only in what ebooks do for authors, but also in the market changes they portend.

Everyone keeps talking about the demise of the book industry, because people no longer buy books at bookstores. But if you include ebooks and online sales, the book industry is most certainly not dying. And if you include all reading of all online content, the writing industry is more active than ever. And the book industry is changing in ways that portend more and more good things for authors.

The Transformation Has Completed

It used to be that if you wanted to build a fan-base and share what you’ve written with the world, you would find a publisher. If your writing showed promise, the publisher would help you whip it into shape. And as you wrote more books, your new fans would go back and buy books from your growing backlist. Your publisher would make money by helping you further your writing career.

Then there was the Thor Power Tool court case against the IRS. And it was no longer cost-effective to keep inventories of non-selling items (such as an author’s backlist), against the hope that some of them would indeed sell. And so publishers stopped stocking mid-list authors’ backlists. Only backlists of famous authors continue to remain available for purchase.

And then big-box book stores, like Borders and Barnes & Noble, started ordering to the net. And that gave you exactly one chance to become a best-seller, because only best-sellers got reordered. And that killed the career of the mid-list writer… at least of the traditional mid-list writer.

And then print-on-demand made it possible to “stock” titles without actually keeping a physical inventory. Indie publishers and indie authors flocked to this technology, and even some larger publishers started making some authors’ backlists available via print-on-demand. But not enough to save the career of the mid-list writer. Most publishers resisted change, because they were wed to the big-box mass-market model. They couldn’t see any value in the long tail, in serving the mid-list author with a large backlist.

And now with the rise of ebooks, the transformation has completed. Big publishers still resist it, because they resist change, and so they’re terrified of ebooks. But they do so to their own demise. In this new market, ebooks represent cheap, low-risk, impulse purchases. And they sell. Now, any author can publish her growing backlist on the Kindle and on Smashwords, with almost no publishing investment. And she can build her fan-base, risk-free. And she can make a larger royalty doing that than she ever had before with a traditional publisher. And the career of the mid-list author has begun to rise from the ashes.

The Only Reason to Get Published

An extended family member asked me a year or two ago about getting published. I explained that I ran my own publishing company, but that wasn’t for everybody. And I really didn’t have any good advice for her, any strategy that I felt I could recommend without possibly leading her astray. I couldn’t in good conscience tell her to publish her manuscript on the Internet, because if it didn’t work out, I couldn’t tell her it would still have been the right thing to have done. But should she try to get a publisher? Getting published is still a dream, alive and well, with many aspiring authors. But the traditionally published route is hard and painful and isn’t really a good way for most people to build a writing career. Getting published is more like being the rube of honor in a reality TV show. (But that’s a different post.) I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, most of all a family member.

So I had nothing to tell her. But since then, epiphany struck. I learned that some mid-list authors make less money off their books than even I do, because they sold their souls to their publishers, who are keeping their backlists off the market (out of print and unavailable as ebooks). And now I do have something to tell my family member.

There’s only one real reason to “get published.” — Correction: there are several emotional reasons why someone might want to get published, such as a desire for status, the feeling of being an insider, social recognition. But there’s only one business reason to get published—and if you’re talking about building a writing career, this is all that counts. The only business reason why you’d want to get published is if you’re going after the mass market.

And by “mass market,” forget Barnes & Noble. I’m talking Walmart. If you have a plan to see your book on grocery store shelves, and you honestly feel you can pull it off, then pursue traditional publishing, because that’s the only chance you have to realize that dream. You want to sell a gazillion copies. You want everyone to read your book, and you’re willing to write down to the lowest common denominator in order to see that happen. If true, as science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon wrote, that 90% of everything is crap, then you dream to be counted amongst that 90%.

For most of us, that’s not what we want. As for myself, I’d be embarrassed to see one of my books ranked among the tripe I see stocked at the local drugstore. Because I have so little respect for that market.

Most of us, we have a passion for what we write, and this passion sustains us in our writing. We don’t just write to the lowest common denominator. We write to specific readers. We write for those who will share our passions with us. We write to make a difference. We are mid-list authors, but only if we keep writing and keep sharing what we write. It used to be that the only way to share was to find a publisher who would support your career. But that’s no longer true.

The End of Borders

Borders tried to hold on to a bygone era, and that’s why they failed. They didn’t embrace ebooks, and they didn’t even embrace print-on-demand. (You couldn’t even special-order a copy of one of my books through Borders; call me vindictive, but I’m not all that unhappy to see them go.) I don’t think they were trying to snub ebooks, but they overlooked the future in the changing book market.

Most aspiring authors will do just as Borders has done. They’ll continue to seek publication through a “respectable” publishing house, not realizing that this route—if they’re lucky—will mean the rapid demise of their writing careers. Because whether you get published or self-publish, you—and you alone—are responsible for your own success. No “respectable” publisher will look out for your writing career, not anymore.

There are indie publishers who may help you with your career. Niche publishers. Boutique publishers. They don’t get into Barnes & Noble, either. (Nor into Walmart.) You might find one who has developed a business model and market that works well with what you want to write and who you want to write it to. In terms of “getting published,” they are part of the future.

The other part is the indie author. Not the self-published author, who’s only publishing her own stuff so that she can see it in print, or so that she can give copies to friends and family, or as an experiment or stop-gap measure until she can find a “real” publisher. But the indie author, who pursues self-publishing as part of her business model, who runs her own publishing company, and who thereby manages her career for her own ultimate success.

The end of Borders doesn’t portend the end of the book industry. It announces the arrival of the new book industry. Be proud to be part of it!

Keep writing!
-TimK

I’ve been working on-and-off on this outline for over a year and a half now. I could go down the list of excuses and reasons why it took so long. – And it’s still not “finished” yet, but I can’t stand it anymore, so I’ve started on the “zero-draft.”

I’d like to share with you my outline for the novel, and some stories around it, how I’m using my process on this novel. I’m hoping this will give you some ideas or inspirations for the story you’re working on.

The Summary

The process I follow starts with a one-sentence summary of the story, as many writers do. My original sentence went like this:

A newlywed bride, at a romantic, seaside cottage on her first wedding anniversary, as the onset of economic depression threatens to tear her marriage apart, finds joy.

I didn’t really like that. Too vague. Too blasé. Too blech. But it was enough to keep me focused on what I wanted the story to be about.

However, I revamped the sentence when I started the zero-draft. Here’s how it stands now:

A devoted newlywed wife struggles with her marriage when a recession threatens her husband’s career, and finds an unexpected source of strength.

Better, eh? Partially because I’ve better defined the characters and focus of the story, partially because of changes in the way I formulate my one-sentence summaries since a year and a half ago. I didn’t mention the setting, although it’s a key part of the story, but instead alluded to the story’s message of hope. The main character now is “devoted [to her husband]“— Please don’t judge her; she doesn’t know what she’s doing (yet). And when a recession threatens her husband’s life and identity, it affects their marriage, throwing her own life into turmoil.

The Characters

I started with bulleted lists of notes on the characters. For Devon, the main character, I added more details in paragraph form. But her husband David, I didn’t feel I needed to flesh him out any more. Why not? Because he’s going through a deep depression, and depressed characters are incredibly one-dimensional and full of surprises (because of common myths people hold regarding depression). Don’t get me wrong; he has a past, and his past will come into play in the story, but I think I can make it up as I go along. I’ll probably end up going back to his character and fleshing it out more, as I draft his part of the story.

David Richardson

• Nickname: Skeeter (or “Skeet” for short). Wants to be called “David.”
• Associates his nickname with the factors that caused him lose his job. (He got laid off, but he still blames himself for not being “indispensable” to his employer.)
• Needs to feel secure, and he depends on the perception of a firm financial footing to meet that need.
• Needs to feel useful, and he depends on having a regular job to meet that need.
• 23 years old
• His previous employer handled the layoffs poorly, announcing them at a company meeting. Some of the employees started shouting back during the meeting. Memories of the hurtful shouts haunt him.
• He runs into an old girlfriend at the mall, begins talking to her.
• They have negative value in their home, and they have a mortgage and expenses.
• Everything reminds him of his situation, pulling him deeper into depression, because of the perspective he puts on everything he perceives.

Devon Richardson

• 21 years old
• thinks poorly of her own value
• afraid that her husband might leave her
• wants to talk to her husband about all that they are facing (but he doesn’t want to)
• avoids talking about her marriage with friends (Why?)
• has always been “good” (but at root—unknown to her—not for religious reason; rather, because she has been afraid of taking risks in her relationships), and feels God “owes” her
• has a spiritual awakening, which begins when she admits that she’s afraid of losing the things that money can buy — a divine revelation? through an experience that she attributes to God?
• begins to act out because of the stress
• abuses her checkbook, going antiquing etc., when she feels her husband isn’t connecting with her
• wants to tell her husband what’s on her mind, because she needs that connection
• Devon’s sister is critically injured in a car accident. She’s worried, but David doesn’t even want to hear about it.
• [Someone] looks at her, touches her arm, hugs her, in a way that makes her feel uncomfortable.

Devon seeks stability and trust in relationships, because it boosts her self-esteem. So she needs self-esteem, and she pursues it by seeking signals of esteem from others. She invests her self-esteem in the esteem of others, which she perceives in the stability of her relationships. This is why, for example, she fears that her husband may leave her, if things between them get bad enough.

She also enjoys collecting antiques and restoring her old house, because the oldness she associates with stability. Devon first developed an interest in antiques when her grandmother gave her an old knickknack, which reminded her of her grandmother.

She finds self-esteem in possessing old things, and when she perceives her relationships shaking, she goes antiquing. This is especially true when circumstances make her feel she’s losing control, because shopping gives her a way to assert control over those needs.

Devon’s father threatened to withhold his love from her, unless she was “good.” But in reality, it was his perception of her that was “good” or “bad,” and she perceived this as closeness between them. This set up a pattern, that she perceived love and self-worth when things were going well in her relationships, especially with the opposite sex. (This has not made her a wuss, because she learned to put on airs of confidence in order to gain her parents’ approval; but she does tend to adopt views that she thinks will increase the closeness she perceives.)

She frequently second-guesses (and cares about) others’ impressions of her. Devon also assumes that if someone doesn’t respond positively to her, that it’s her fault (even though most people respond to circumstances, not to those around them).

She works at a Build-a-Bear Workshop retail location.

Devon loves kids and is good with them. She treats them differently than her parents treated her and promises to raise her kids with different values (even though she and her husband have no immediate plans to start a family).

The Plot

When plotting, I start by defining a number of story threads, each of which thickens as the story progresses, each of which interacts with the others in various scenes.

Then I number out the scenes and describe them each briefly. This is a short novel, so I only have 40-50 scenes, each of which will average 1000-1250 words (4-5 manuscript pages) in the final rendition of the story. As you can see, I haven’t really thought through every scene yet, so I’ll need to go back to this summary and expand it as the shape of the plot becomes clearer. I’m also not too happy with some of these scenes, as they currently stand, so I’ll no doubt be modifying them as I write up the zero-draft (which contains 100-200 words per scene, or 4K-10K words—just enough detail to tell me whether I’m on the right track or not).

Story Threads

• (a) Devon wrestles with her need for self-esteem, finally finding it in a belief that God loves her unconditionally.
• • (1) Devon grew up learning to find her value in the things she possesses, including the people in her life (as possessions).
• (b) David wrestles with depression following the loss of his job.
• • (1) David has always tended to respond negatively when things don’t go well for him.
• (c) Devon and David wrestle with their marriage: Devon fears David will leave her, acts out by antiquing, which angers David, because she is wasting money they don’t have.
• (d) Devon and David wrestle with making ends meet financially.

Scene Summaries

Note: Present-time scenes are written in third-person omniscient (but only WRT David’s & Devon’s thoughts), while past-time scenes are written in first-person subjective from the perspective of a given character (David or Devon).

Each scene is identified by the story threads it affects. Scenes marked with ✮ are major plot points.

1. (a) (b) (d) David, laid off and suffering from depression, arrives at an Ardor Point cottage with his wife Devon, on their one-year wedding anniversary, a trip they had booked before he had lost his job.

2. (a) (c) David wants to lay on the couch and watch DVDs, but Devon badgers him into a romantic walk with her to the beach.

3. (b)(1) (POV David) A go-get-’em up-and-comer, he lost his job as the result of a bitter political split within the company.

4. (b) (c) Mistakenly leading him the wrong way (away from the beach), they come to the playground, kids playing, mothers gabbing, and Devon immediately joins in, while David stands by and stews at the inane conversation, itching to escape, finally walking off and leaving her there.

5. (a) Devon chats with the others about antique shops, hears that there are some great “bargains” available in such-and-such a store.

6. (a)(1) (POV Devon) [a memory about her grandmother & their antiques, contrast the connection Devon had with her grandmother against her relationships with others, including her husband]

7. (c) David begins to watch a movie and falls asleep on the couch. [The movie he chooses and his interpretation of it reflects his perceptions of their marriage.]

8. (b)(1) (POV David) David and Devon meet, and David flaunts his family background and education, and Devon swoons.

9. (b) David wakes up, alone with his thoughts. Can’t do anything right. Even the DVD fails to play correctly, and he can’t fix it, and can’t handle it, and takes it personally.

10. ✮ (a) (b) (c) Devon tries to seduce David, but in his depressed state, David is not interested, which Devon interprets as a message that he’s getting fed up with her and their relationship. She mentions the last time they had sex, weeks ago. (“What an awful thing to say!” moment, but it should be clear that David is acting out and blaming himself, and that Devon’s perception is colored by her own needs.)

11. (a) David and Devon spend a rainy afternoon at Mr. and Mrs. Potter’s. Mrs. Potter, like a mind-reader, begins to hit on issues that have been bothering Devon, which wigs her out. (Mr. & Mrs. Potter also mention in passing the church they attend while they’re staying at the point, St. Matthew’s, in town.)

12. (a)(1) (POV Devon) []

13. (b) David begins to open up to Mr. Potter about how he feels. Devon walks in and redirects the conversation, embarrassed that David is sharing their personal business with strangers.

14. (d) Devon suspects that she might be pregnant, when she starts experiencing headaches, nausea, and other symptoms. But she’s afraid to tell her husband about her pregnancy, because she’s afraid of his wildly shifting moods.

15. (b)(1) (POV David) [something about his old girlfriend]

16. (a) While in town at Walmart with Devon, David runs into an old girlfriend, who moved to the Brunswick area. (Devon also notices a pregnancy test while shopping there.) David’s ex is touchy-feely with him, and David seems happier chewing over old times with her than he does with Devon.

17. ✮ (b) (c) David’s thoughts advise him to leave Devon. “She’s not good for you.” List all the reasons why. (“She’s out of control. She’s always trying to manipulate you. She’s not interested in you, just in your money. She has emotional problems, over-controlling, over-demanding. You can never satisfy her. It would be better if you had never gotten married, better for her, better for both of you. It would be better if you were not there to make her life miserable.” He even blames himself for her now constant nausea.)

18. (c) (d) Devon makes some excuse, escapes to the store to buy a pregnancy test. Ends up passing an antique place, stops in and ends up buying an item.

19. (c) David just frowns, that angry scowl, when he discovers Devon’s antique purchase. She wants to talk to him about the pregnancy test, but she doesn’t, because of his mood. (David watches TV all the time.)

20. (a) (d) As Devon waits for the test, she considers the option of abortion, to ease the pressure on David, but she doesn’t feel very good about that possibility, because she likes kids and wants to have a family. The test comes out positive.

21. (a)(1) (POV Devon) []

22. (b) Devon receives a phone call telling her that her sister was critically injured in a car accident. David doesn’t even want to hear about it (because he’s already overloaded with his own worries, but that’s not how Devon takes his reaction).

23. (a) Devon comes out to her hubby, admitting her fear that he might leave her, telling him that she no longer cares, because she has “something better now.” [Talking about the baby.] David is annoyed that she would think he would leave her. Doesn’t she know she’s not the only person on the planet!?

24. (a)(1) (POV David) []

25. (c) David loses his temper when Devon calls him “Skeet” once too often. Pained, she relents, carefully.

26. (a) (c) Devon talks to her newfound friends at the point about her marriage. They theorize that David may be suffering a delayed reaction from a concussion. [source? college sports?]

27. ✮ (a) (b) (c) After Devon macho-flashes the idea to David, they decide to separate. (black moment) [breakfast scene]

28. (a) Devon stops at a coffee shop in a book store and encounters numerous young women with small children, talking about their kids, comparing names, ages, developmental milestones, schools & preschools, daily routines, &c. She blames herself for not being more patient with David; after all, it’s “not his fault.”

29. (b) David walks out to the dock, and he thinks about jumping in and swimming out into the abyss, like Esther Greenwood. Except that he’d actually succeed in not coming back. [Reasons why ending his life would be a solution to his perceived problems.]

30. (a) Devon stops alongside the road, trying to find St. Matthew’s on her GPS. Someone asks her for money. She forgets (then later remembers) that she had shoved some cash into her pocket. Then he asks if she has a phone he could borrow to call. In the grips of sudden fear, she lies and says, “No.”

31. (b) David visits Mr. Potter, who tells stories of similar situations in his life. [Family?]

32. (a) (b) David figures out that Devon is pregnant, and his mood brightens.

33. (a) Devon finds herself at St. Matthew’s, talking to Father Reilly.

34. (b) David’s depression lifts, as he awakens with a new hope and vigor, seeing all kinds of possibilities in his future.

35. ✮ (a) (b) (c) [turn the corner: David begins to woo Devon, who is still reeling from the fight and still pondering Father Reilly’s words]

36. [Devon’s sister]

37. []

38. [how are they going to afford a family?]

39. []

40. []

41. [finale]

Yeah, I know. Info-dumps suck.

But I’m actually looking forward to how this story is coming along.

For one of the story’s themes, I started with a quote attributed to Jim Laffoon: “If you have been reduced to God being your only hope, you are in a good place.” Hope stands as the important word in that sentence, for this story, because hope is what pushes us forward, even when all around our lives seem to be lost. And I wanted to push my characters to the point where their entire world seemed to be falling apart, each in her own way.

But I couldn’t figure out what that quote really means. How is that “a good place”? I’m still not certain of the answer. But I’m hoping I’ll discover it as I finish this story.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2005 Jenn Calder CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Click here for the original image.

Related to last week’s extensive post on book-cover design for indie authors and publishers, Roger C. Parker posted over the weekend a few more tips for better book covers.

He also linked to a page of interactive book-cover makeovers at Dunn+Associates Design’s web site. For a kick, check out a few, and think about how the “before” and “after” designs use the 10 elements of book-cover design that I talked about last week. Pay particular attention to the title and front-cover graphics. How do the new designs use these more effectively than the “before” covers. Especially if you’re wrestling with a book cover right now, this little experiment should inspire you, if not give you a spark of enlightenment.

-TimK

P.S. With at least one of the book covers in Dunn Design’s exhibit (Mark A. Williams’s Your Identity Zones), the author rejected the book cover that his publisher preferred. Traditionally published authors should understand book-cover design, too, in order to use whatever influence you have with your publisher to ensure your book gets an effective design. (Although, as far as I can tell, both the “before” and “after” covers of that book were good covers. The “after” version was marginally better, because it had more focus—less clutter—and highlighted the title more. So it might split-test significantly better than the “before” version. Yeah, at some point, I’ll have to write an article on how to split-test a book cover.)

P.P.S. [update] Kristen Lamb posted over on her blog an interesting guest post by Maria Zannini, a list of Down & Dirty Tips for Creating Cover Art. I’m not sure I agree with all of her advice, e.g., to necessarily put something visually stimulating on the left side to guide the viewer’s gaze toward the right—I would usually start in the middle and work toward the edges, keeping in mind the rule of thirds… but that’s a whole other blog post. Her tips will certainly get you thinking.

-TimK

Cover for "From the Ashes of Courage," so that you can see how I made use of cover elements, and how I could have made better use of them. (Click for a larger view.)

As an indie author, you probably need to understand book-cover design. Traditionally published authors have their publishers’ experts to design their covers (whether or not those experts are worthy of the designation). Self-published authors, just printing up a few copies for family and friends, will probably be satisfied with the très kewl cover design tools at Lulu. But us indie authors need something more than a bare-bones, stock cover. And we don’t have the budget for a professional designer. And even if we do, we don’t have a publishing company helping us choose the designer. So we need to understand book-cover design, if not to design a decent cover ourselves, at least to know what to work on with our designer.

So what makes a good cover?

The cover is the first thing a prospective reader will see of your book. This is true whether she’s looking online or whether someone hands her a copy, or even if she happens to see a copy in a bookstore.

When someone picks up a new book for the first time, watch them. Here’s what they do:

1. The examine the front cover.
2. If they like what they see, they turn the book over and read the back-cover copy.
3. If they still like what they see, they flip the book open to the first page.

This is the order in which you should design your book cover. The front cover must pique her interest and make her want to find out more about the book. And that’s all it should do. The only function of the front cover is to make the prospective reader want to read the back cover. The only function of the back cover is to make her want to crack open the book. And the function of the first page inside the front cover is to set her on a “slippery slide” (to use Joe Sugarman’s terminology) that will end with her buying and reading your book.

The front cover should contain prominent elements—like the title and cover image—that catch the eye and pique the interest. The back cover leverages those elements with descriptive text, to excite and hook the potential reader. The inside-front cover and first page contain additional sales elements, such as bulleted features or testimonials, to close the sale if the cover failed to do so.

Book-cover elements

To make this sequence work, you have a number of elements you can use:

1. Title – This is probably the most important element of your book (unless you’re Nora Roberts or Stephen King—more on that later), especially if it’s a non-fiction book. The purpose of the title is to make your reader look at the subtitle, and the purpose of the subtitle is to make her turn the book over and read the back cover.

   For From the Ashes of Courage, I began with a list of words that related to the theme of the story. Then I combined them in various ways: adjective + noun, noun + preposition + noun, and so forth. I chose my three favorites. Then I actually tested the prospective titles and subtitles in Internet ads, to see which one provoked the most interest.

2. Subtitle – All non-fiction books should have a subtitle, and most fiction books as well. The subtitle expands on the title and helps incite your reader to turn the book over and read the back cover. Your book’s title and subtitle must make the right prospective reader want to know more, and you should probably ad-test them to verify that they accomplish that purpose.

   The subtitle of the Ashes of Courage book is “An Ardor Point Novel.” I actually ad-tested this with the title, knowing that I hoped to reuse it over a series of books.

3. Photos or drawings – A photo adds visual richness and an emotional dimension to a cover. This is especially true for novels, but no less so for non-fiction books. The purpose of the photo is to get your reader’s attention, hook her with an emotional subtext, and lead her to the title and subtitle. Glancing at the cover photo, you should be able to tell whether the novel is a romance, a thriller, a fantasy, a murder mystery, a space opera, or whatever. For a non-fiction book, a well-chosen front-cover graphic should support the main theme of the book and serve as an icon for its content.

   In the Ashes of Courage book cover, I used a stock photo for the front cover. You can license high-quality, royalty-free, stock photos from several sites, for less money than you’ll spend on your first box of books, and such a photo adds a pro flair to your cover design. For the back cover, I found a shot that a photography enthusiast had taken of Merepoint, Maine (the real-life location that inspired Ardor Point). I licensed this photo from her, manipulating it slightly to fit in with the rest of the cover design.

4. Color scheme and fonts – Some graphic designers swear by their favorite colors and fonts, and swear against other colors and fonts. I don’t know that it’s quite that big of a deal, but you should definitely be aware of your color and font choices. The color scheme and fonts on your cover should first of all be legible, and second of all, they should support the feeling you want to evoke. A fantasy-romance, for example, would probably use a different font than a business textbook, but there are any number of fonts that each of these might use.

   The font and colors of From the Ashes of Courage, I chose them thinking “a romantic sunset on the beach,” which is also the theme of photo, coincidentally (or maybe not so coincidentally).

5. Author – If you’re Stephen King or Nora Roberts (or Kathy Reichs—as in the book cover example below), your publisher will put your name top and center on your front cover, in huge letters. That’s because your name is what’s selling the book. On popular novels, the author’s name is usually more important even than the title of the book. Maybe everyone knows that Stephen King has a new book out, but maybe they don’t all remember what it’s called. I’m not convinced that this rule holds for indie authors (or even for mid-list authors). And I’m certain it doesn’t hold for non-fiction books. While you might still want to put your name on the front cover, you probably want to keep it subservient to the title and subtitle.

   As you can see, I kept my name at the top of the cover, but off to the edge and in a smaller font than the title. I reasoned that it would probably be important someday to my die-hard fans, but that the title and photo were the central elements that should dominate the cover.

6. Front-cover text – You may have opportunity to include snippets of text on the front cover, to reinforce the front cover’s mission. If you do have such an opportunity, take it. This is why books often have words like “New York Times best-selling author!” in a smaller font on the front cover, because the author’s name is selling the book, and any little bit of “Ooh! Aah!” you can add to reinforce that strategy, you Ooh! it and you Aah! it.

   You can see that I put no supplemental text on the front cover above, not even a glowing quote from an unknown nobody. Change of strategy: publicize the next book at least to fellow indie authors, and ask for a marketing one-liner.

7. Back-cover heading and text – The back cover should tell the reader something about what’s in the book— unless you’re selling the book solely on popularity, in which case you should fill the back cover with testimonials. For most of us, the back cover should begin with a heading that leads into a block of text. This text is an advertisement for your book. I don’t have the space in this short (and quickly growing longer) blog post to talk about what makes a good ad. However, I can say this: the back cover is not a description of the book; it’s not a book report for your fifth-grade school teacher; rather, it’s a teaser, something that must make a prospective reader want to read the book.

   I started with my single-sentence description of the novel, which was designed to highlight the “I gotta read this!” points of the story, and I expanded on it. Since the book is a romance, I said something about the characters, and their problems, and the hook, and a hint that there might be an unexpected twist in their story.

8. ISBN – In your cover design, remember to leave room for the ISBN bar code, at the bottom edge of the back cover. Most books put it in the middle, but it is acceptable to put the bar code off to one side or the other. And while the bar code can be on a field of any light color, the more contrast (white and black), the better.

   In my process, this bar code is added later, after the cover is designed. But I still had to allocate a 1.75″ x 1″ space for it, which I marked with a white-filled rectangular.

9. Spine – The spine is what a prospective reader will see first if he doesn’t see your front cover first. So the spine has the most important elements from the front cover, usually the title and author name. Sometimes, publishers will also include a selling point, like “#1 Best-selling Author!” on the spine, because in a bookstore, most books are spine-out. A prospective reader will browse book spines on the shelves, looking for one to pull out and look at more closely. So in that context, the purpose of the spine is to make the reader want to look at the front cover.

10. First-page text – The first page, just inside the front cover, even before the title page: oft-overlooked prime real-estate. Here you can include bullet points describing features the reader will find in the book, or reviewer testimonials, or even an author bio (if you think it’ll help sell the book). You can even include reviewer comments regarding an earlier book in the series, or another book written by the same author. Anything that didn’t fit on the back cover can go here.

    For Ashes of Courage, I didn’t forget about the first page. Rather, I ran out of material, a definite lack of marketing foresight. (For my previous book, I filled this space with bullet points and reader testimonials.) As I said, for the next Ardor Point book, I’ll have to get more feedback from fellow authors and ask for testimonials.

Death du Jour, by Kathy Reichs

Another example, this time by a pop author, that demonstrates the principles above.

• The two most important elements are the author’s name and the title, in that order. These two elements dominate both the front cover and the spine.

• There’s no front-cover image to speak of—there’s no room after the author’s name and the title. But in the background is a map of Montreal and the surrounding area, where the story takes place.

• The large, capitalized, serif font and the black-and-red-and-white color scheme enhance the feel of a mystery thriller (which this novel is).

• Front-cover and spine text: “New York Times Bestselling Author…” and “#1 International Bestselling Author,” as well as a quote from People magazine and an announcement of an upcoming TV series based on the novels. Even the publisher’s logo on the spine. All these help reinforce the impression that this is a well-read and well-liked popular book. And if everyone else is reading it… Well, my personal gut reaction is that if everyone else is reading it, that probably means it falls into Sturgeon’s 90% that constitutes “crud.” And my momma always told me, if everyone else jumped off a cliff, does that mean I should, too? But that’s one of my unusual quirks. Most people go with the more instinctive reaction: if everybody’s reading it, then I have to, too.

• Similarly, on the back cover, more praise for Kathy Reichs, along with a one-sentence hook about the novel’s story, followed by the title. That kicks off a more elaborate teaser. I myself would have omitted the title from the back cover, and put the sentence at the top in boldface… or at least I would insist on split-tests that proved that the way they did it was better.

• The back cover also has a quote from USA Today. And the raves continue inside the front cover, with more quotes about Death du Jour, some reviewer raves for another of Kathy Reichs’s novels, and a smattering of cover images for other books, along with short quotes about those books. All of this supports the impression that Kathy Reichs is a prolific, well-published, and popular author. Everyone is reading her books, and her books keep getting published and keep selling. Therefore, if everyone is reading her books, I gotta read them, too!

• One side note: On the back cover, just above the ISBN barcode, the publisher has included a note: “Register online at www.simonsays.com for more information on this and other great books.” I would be interested to know how many people actually see this note and respond to it. It’s in completely the wrong place, and it’s not specific enough. The note should be on the book’s title page or on the last page, after the story, in a location a satisfied reader is more likely to see it. And if you pull up that URL in your web browser, you simply see the publisher’s web site. Nothing about “registering,” at least not prominently displayed there. It’s a good idea to use your physical book as a calling card to connect with readers online, and a strategy I include in every one of my books. But I’m not convinced that cover real-estate is best used for that function.

Talyn, by Holly Lisle

And one more example, one of my favorite novels of all time (which is why it’s so well-worn), by mid-list author Holly Lisle.

• Title: “Talyn.” Author: “Holly Lisle.” Subtitle: “A Novel of the [sic] Korre.” (Oy vey. Korre is a place, not a thing.) Holly is a mid-list author, so her (rabid) fans (among which I proudly count myself) will notice her name. But most new readers will be swayed by the graphics, title, teaser, and testimonials.

• Graphic elements: A semi-nude Talyn, with her warrior’s braids and tattoos, standing before an altar of candles; the wall of a primitive structure in the background; a sword; red and brown and yellow colors; a sword-like stylized font. Could it be a fantasy about a beautiful female warrior from an exotic culture? Yeah, it just might. All of these front-cover images have special meaning to fans of the book, as well, since they’re prominent elements in the story universe.

• Front-cover text: a testimonial by a “New York Times bestselling author.” Because we all know that New York Times bestselling authors have more valuable opinions on books than, say, you or I. But again, it triggers a human instinct, that if a well-liked celebrity author loves this book, even if I’ve never heard of her or her work, then it’s gotta be worth reading. Note also that including the name “Jacqueline Carey” and the title of her bestselling novel “Kushiel’s Dart,” these pieces of information add credibility to the testimonial, even if you’ve never heard of Jacqueline before or her novel.

• Back cover: Highlighted header leading into a teaser. And another testimonial. (All this should be old hat to you by now.) Leading into the first page inside the front cover, which displays more testimonials, including— Hold on! Haven’t I seen that quote from Robin Hobb somewhere before?

• The only thing they could have done better, perhaps, is to include a brief author bio in the empty space on the first page: “author of over 30 novels, two-time Campbell Award finalist,” and so forth.

I haven’t gone into any of the nuts and bolts, what software to use and how to create any of the effects you see here. That is so another post (or two or three or ten). But hopefully, if you’re serious about indie-publishing your books, this will give you an idea of how to approach the design of the cover.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2009 Carsten Tolkmit CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
(Click here for the original image.)

Max, a young writer, asks:

I am writing a story and need a visual description for a female “seductive” (if you know what I mean) antagonist. Or should I even describe her? I’ve seen that done well. This is actually one of my deeper characters.

Hi, Max. The easiest answer I can think to give is: Think of what you like to see in a woman. Then write it down.

I know that sounds simplistic, and it is. But each of us, to some extent, has pre-programmed into him the building blocks for sexual attraction. So the first step is probably to ask yourself, “What would make me feel and think and act the way I want my protagonist to feel and think and act?”

With most writers, this is where writing begins, inside. You empathize with your characters, tap into that part of yourself that feels and acts the same way they do, so that you can understand their story.

But while you’re doing this, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Description is an action verb. (Okay, description is actually a noun, but bear with me.) What the seductress does and says is more important than how she looks. A picture is worth a thousand words. Or as writers say, “Show; don’t tell.”

• A story comes from character action, not fictional molecules and light rays. Remember the First and Second Laws of Character Action. Start with your characters’ needs, and determine how they use their resources to act to meet those needs.

• Use all your senses. Description is not only visual! How does her voice sound? How does she smell? Do you feel a breath of air across your face as she passes? Growing up with television, we tend to see stories in terms of the visual. But breaking that mold is one of the easiest ways to add spice to your descriptions.

• It may be about sex, but that’s not where you need to focus. Writing an evil seductress is similar to writing a sex scene. We think of her as using sex-appeal to achieve an end, but we can’t ever actually say that. We can’t say that she’s sexy. And we can’t describe the conflict that results. We must feel it instead.

• Focus on the characters. How does she make the protagonist feel? What does he think? What does he want? And how do those create conflict inside of his mind? What changes are in store for him if he chooses one path or the other?

• For more information… Explore the truth behind the fiction. Research human sensuality to add to your idea-base. Read non-fiction. Watch non-fiction. Use Google. Research the obvious. If you have NetFlix, check out a documentary called The Science of Sex Appeal for more ideas. (Resist the temptation to infuse your descriptions with scientific explanations. That’s a different—though important—topic.) But don’t pay attention so much to the scientists; pay attention to the ordinary people they interview for the documentary and to those they recruit as guinea pigs for their experiments. In general, a healthy diet of non-fiction is one of the best sources of nourishment to feed your fiction writing.

Well, Max, I hope that’s enough to give you some ideas.

I also hope it’s not so much that it overwhelms you. Remember that this story does not need to be the end-all and be-all of your writing career, wherever that career takes you. I know there’s a lot there. But I didn’t put together this list as a set of requirements that your story must meet. No writer can ever meet every requirement every potential reader has, anyhow. You have to meet the requirements that you yourself feel are important. So think of this list as more of a menu of ingredients: choose the ones that intrigue you, and experiment with them, and grow through the experience.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2011 Amy Clarke CC BY 2.0
Click here for the original photo.

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “Never a frown, with golden brown.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ISFP.
3. A need: the need for emotional intimacy.
4. A quirk: Always writes in 1337-5p34k (leet-speak).

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © Nikos Koutoulas CC BY-NC 2.0
Click here for original photo.

Happy birthday to me! (Yup. Don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.)

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ENFP.
3. A need: the need for attention.
4. A quirk: Loves to dance, and does not have to be on the dance floor.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2009 Thomas Heyman CC BY-NC 2.0
Click here for the original image.

Let’s say you’re writing a scene in your story, a scene that takes place in a beauty salon. Now, if you yourself have spent 20 years working in beauty salons, maybe you can write that scene off the top your head. But if you’re like most of us, you have only passing exposure to life in a beauty salon. And if you’re like me, you’ve never actually gone inside one.

The classic way out of this, of course, is to “write what you know.” So if you don’t know beauty salons, don’t write them…

Yeah, right. <sarcastic sneer and rolls eyes>

Don’t get me wrong: it’s nice when you can write in a field in which you have some expertise. But if you plan to write more than one or two stories, you’ll need to get into the details of many fields and situations, settings and cultures, in which you have little or no direct knowledge. To some extent, this is always true of a fiction author, because you’re writing events that never actually occurred, in places that may not exist, in cultures that you may have made up, using technology that may never be developed, in times that have not even happened yet. How, pray tell, in the nature of reality do they expect you to “write what you know”?!

The best that we can hope for is to get it as close to plausible as we can.

One way we can accomplish this is by researching areas we’re unfamiliar with, then describing and explaining them to our readers. The problem is that we tend to assume we “know” things we don’t.

For example, this may come in handy the next time you have to write a drowning scene: Neil Shurley posted on Facebook a fascinating article explaining that real-life drowning doesn’t look like movie drowning. Who would’a thunk it? Our widespread popular misperceptions of what a drowning person looks like and acts like— You could be swimming, and your kid could be drowning only a few feet from you, and you would never know it, much less how to save him. So how would your fictional scene play out? What would your average, everyday character see and perceive? But a lifeguard character would know what drowning looks like, because he’s been trained. And if you needed to describe the scene from the drowning character’s perspective, you’d need to understand the realities of drowning, what happens to the human body and mind.

Never assume you know how something looks, or acts, or what the rules are. Because our perceptions have usually been distorted by popular television and movies (and novels, too), for dramatic effect. If you’re a Mythbusters fan, you’ve seen them tear apart numerous movie myths, documenting the reality of each situation. Why these movie dramatics seem plausible in the context of the original fiction, that’s a topic for a different post. But if the unrealistic dramatics can be made to seem plausible, how much more so the reality?

The first time I wrote a scene that involved a gun, I was proud to have gotten the details right. Just a little research, on gun technology, types of guns, real-world best practices, things that anyone who has taken an introductory gun course would know. And integrating this knowledge into the scene did not compromise the integrity or drama of the scene; in fact, it enhanced it.

Even if you decide you want to stick with the dramatic myths, you should at least know what the truth is. Because this research can uncover related information that you can use to improve your story. When I was writing “The Widow’s Granddaughter,” my first idea for the hero character, Jeffrey, was to make him a repo man. But the only reason he’d be in a job like that was to be successful, and when was the last time you heard of a “successful” repo man? So I made him a bank executive instead. He hired the repo man. That worked for a while. I got several manuscript pages into the story, and then I needed to look up a detail about repossession. So I asked Google, read some stuff, and ran across a piece of advice written by the owner of a small dealership that self-finances many of its sales. That means the owner himself has to repossess some of the cars he finances. That’s it! I thought. That’s the perfect job for my character. It had an aspect of success, as well as a hands-on aspect that was perfect for my story. So I changed Jeffrey’s career once again. I’m still happy with the way the story ultimately turned out.

When it comes to research for my stories, Google is my friend. Whenever I realize that I need details on a setting, profession, activity, or situation, I pull up my web browser and start typing queries into my favorite search engine.

I’ve also found Holly Lisle’s “33 Mistakes” series of ebooks invaluable for broader subject areas. These ebooks aren’t actually written by Holly, but by authors, experts each in his subject area, whom she’s signed to share their knowledge. Each ebook in the series lists 33 common mistakes fiction authors make when it comes to disappearing in the U.S., blindness, camping, guns, hostels, ballet, construction, San Francisco, or whatever.

Now, don’t go research-crazy. You don’t have to become an expert in every field you write fiction in. We’ve all gotten into research mode, where we keep studying a topic, delving deeper and deeper into it, like there’s gonna be a test on it later. One reason we do this is that it feels good to discover new truths about realities we previously didn’t know about. And that’s cool, and I think every author should allocate time in his schedule to study non-fiction, and to study people.

(As I write this, I’m half-eavesdropping on a pair of obviously successful businesswomen—one of whom apparently owns several Starbucks franchises, if I understood correctly, and the other who is wearing an engagement ring the size of the Pink Panther. They’re hobnobbing loudly at the next table, chatting about their histories, experiences, business values, best management practices, organizing techniques, and so forth. They’re talking at 90 miles an hour, moving from topic to topic at lightning speed. Someday, I’m going to have to write a character based on them.)

So, reading non-fiction is fun. Watching documentaries is also fun. Watching people, way fun, if you can get away with it. But when you’re writing a story, you need to focus on getting the story written. That means, you research until you know enough to write or revise the part of the story you’re currently working on. Then you put the research back up on the shelf and…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2005 Sylvia Wrigley CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Click here for the original image.

I found this photo on Flickr. Entitled “The Problem with Character-Driven Stories,” the photo had an amusing story to go along with it.

As the story goes, there was a writer who was auditioning characters for her next novel. Characters lined up all the way out the writer’s waiting room and around the corner. And most of them, unfortunately, were about the same as all the others. Here’s an example that exemplifies what I’m talking about:

A character named Jean entered, sat down.

“Okay, then, Jean,” said the writer. “Tell me about yourself.”

“I’m 24. I have medium-long mousey-blonde hair. I drink vodka and Coke. I’m pretty boring.”

“And you’d like to be in a story?”

“Yes, please.”

“Any particular subject matter?”

“Well, lost love is sorta done to death, I think. Epiphanies are always good. Some life-changing event, basically.”

“Changing your life from boring to interesting?”

“If you could.”

“Well, I do like character-driven stories, but you really don’t seem to be… well… driving this.”

Jean shrugged. The author continued.

“You don’t have any obsessions, don’t appear to have ever been involved with anyone, aren’t particularly religious. I just really fail to see how I can make a plot from that.”

They went on like that, talked about Jean’s smoking and drinking habits—she didn’t have any and had even made up the part about vodka and Coke. Talked about her friends—again, didn’t have any. Talked about her fluffy, white dog that she walks in the evenings, until it came out that Jean had imagined the dog in order to appear more interesting.

“I’m sorry, Jean,” the writer said. “I really don’t see how we can go anywhere with this. Feel free to come by again once you’ve got a life.”

“Well,” said Jean, “I was rather hoping you’d give me one.”

It’s all in how you tell it

Now, I’ve modified that story slightly, because I think it demonstrates a common misconception about character and what drives character stories, and I wanted to focus on that misconception.

There’s a myth among writers that “interesting” characters make for a compelling story. And that’s not exactly true. Because usually what they mean by “interesting” is characters with family problems or psychological dysfunctions or bizzarre quirks that make them so unlike normal, average, real people. Indeed, many wonderful stories feature such characters. But that’s not what makes those stories compelling.

At core, what makes a story compelling is how a character perceives her needs, and how she seeks to meet those needs. This principle works hand-in-hand with the First Law of Character Action:

The First Law of Character Action
Everyone acts to fulfill their perceived needs.

And everyone has needs. These needs motivate the character, and how she perceives them determines how she will interact with the world around her. Even if a person is living in complete comfort, with all her physical and emotional needs met, she still has a need to grow, to become something more than she already is. And she might, for example, turn to study, or perhaps to a dangerous hobby, or maybe she’ll turn in on herself and sink into depression because her needs aren’t being met. Or she may audition for a part in an author’s upcoming novel.

But Jean above isn’t living in complete comfort. For example, she has no friends. Not even a dog to hang out with. Everyone needs friends, because having friends helps us meet several core human needs.

So yeah, maybe Jean thinks her life is boring, and maybe she thinks she needs a writer to give her some qualities that someone would want to read about. But as a character, it’s not her job to figure out what makes a compelling story. That’s her author’s job. And the character author will ask, “Why does she want a life? What needs is she pursuing? And what can I do to her in order to exacerbate those needs and bring them to crisis, in order to make a more interesting story?”

Yes, character authors are cruel beyond words. We have to be. It’s our job.

In all the dark places you must walk

“May the Gods stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk.” That’s an ancient Egyptian blessing, appropriate to speaking of character arc, which is the second core component of a character story. This blessing is appropriate, because a character arc is all about bringing your character through her own personal hell.

Why? Because of the Second Law of Character Action:

The Second Law of Character Action
Extraordinary changes require extraordinary forces,
and extraordinary forces produce extraordinary changes.

And character change is what makes a character arc. A character arc takes shape when a character changes in how she perceives her reality. The reality itself doesn’t change; only the character’s perception of reality changes.

Jean’s perception of her reality will determine her thought process, what choices she makes, what actions she takes, and how she will rationalize these decisions. And as these change, they’ll shape her story.

Why your character’s changing perception is so important, the reason may not be immediately obvious, because the reason is fairly complex, involving the nature of story conflict and how it interacts with the psychology of your characters. I don’t have space to go into it in this article (though I am going into it in Character Fiction 101). Suffice it to say that if you can convince your character to change the way she thinks about her world, you will be well on your way to plotting out a character arc.

Other variations

These two laws, I believe, comprise the fundamental aspects of a character story, because they define character motivation and character arc. Most authors will add plot that doesn’t result in character change, overarching themes and moods, a favorite setting or character trait. An author might write a story starring a teenage girl, because she’s writing her story to be read by teenage girls. Or she might write a story that includes a bigger-than-life villain who places the hero in mortal danger, because she’s writing a suspense novel. Suspense novels are not necessarily character stories, but there’s no conceptual reason why your suspense novel couldn’t include character change. Plenty of plot-based, suspense TV shows certainly try to do character arcs, some more successfully than others. And there’s usually a character-arc component to romantic suspense, because the romance usually involves character change.

Some authors go on at length dwelling on their characters through slow sections of the story in order to “build” the characters. This is unnecessary, and I myself prefer stories that reveal character through compelling conflict. Scenes that stop the story from moving forward, in order to let the characters talk abstract philosophy or political ideology, not so interesting (unless the discussion is effecting a compelling story conflict). Even so, a character story, by my definition, can take either path.

A simple definition: To write a character story, start with your character’s perceived need, and set about changing how your character repsonds to that need.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2011 Lina Hayes CC BY-NC 2.0
Click here for the original photo.

1. A photo: see the top of this post. (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: ESFJ.
3. A need: the need for security.
4. A quirk: Names his many tropical fish all after characters from his favorite novel.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Image © 2009 ViaMoi CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Click here for original image.

Holly Lisle in her writing tips newsletter today wrote about plagiarism and being a “real writer.”

I put “real writer” in quotes not for sarcastic effect. I put those words in quotes because those are the words Holly herself used, and I agree with them completely. She talks about some would-be aspiring authors, as it were, looking for an easy way to rip off 100,000 words of others’ work, run it through an automated computer program, and come out with a supposedly original story. These are not “real writers.”

Then Holly said, “People who live their lives always looking for ways to get their hands on things they have not earned never do anything worthwhile. Never create anything worthwhile.”

Coincidentally, this morning, I rewrote the blog post “Writing as a Spiritual Walk,” for the intro of Character Fiction 101.

Image © 2008 Thiago Silvestre CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Click here for the original image.

I’m convinced that one of the core reasons writers write is for spiritual fulfillment. But there are two aspects of spirituality.

Some writers focus on the external: more words, more books, more publishing contracts, more fans, more fame, more money. At the extreme, this pursuit can result in plagiarism and other ethical lapses. Remember James Frey’s “semi-fictional memoir” A Million Little Pieces? When the “semi-fictional” revelation came out, how many people felt betrayed beyond the ability of a full refund to make amends? But Frey wasn’t the first to fictionalize his memoir, nor will he be the last.

Now, I’m not claiming to have a direct line into James Frey’s psyche. I don’t actually know why he fabricated parts of his life and then failed to include this little tidbit of information in the original publicity information packets. I do know that if we only focus on the external rewards of writing, we may find ourselves selling our values to the devil for a little temporary fame or fortune.

Other writers focus on the internal, on observations and thoughts and feelings, on a Zen-like understanding of nature, on refining and enhancing our perceptions. On finding the perfect word to describe what we feel. Some of us spend years planning our “next book,” and years more writing and editing and revising and rewriting and reediting and rerevising and rerewriting and rereeding and… And sometimes, I admit, I’m guilty of going down this path, because I agree with King Solomon: “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding… Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.”

Now, of these two aspects of spirituality, I spend an inordinate amount of energy lambasting the former and pushing the latter, because the industry tends to glorify the external, sometimes so much that it appears there’s no other yardstick of “success.” We look up to those writers who sell lots of books, to raves from a broad array of cheering fans, no matter how profane the work may be. At some level, we seek spiritual fulfillment in this brand of “success,” because we instinctively believe that if that many people knew of us and looked up to us—the way that we swoon over other top-selling authors—then we’d be part of something bigger than ourselves. And we dream that if only we could have a best-seller, “breakout” novel like that, then we’d be happy and fulfilled. But ask the writers who have “made it.” That kind of fulfillment is only skin-deep. True spirituality comes from within, not from without.

Nonetheless, only when we engage both the internal and external, each in balance with the other, will we find true spiritual fulfillment in our writing. Only when we find the truth boiling away inside our souls and bring it to the world in concrete form, only then will we have completed the cycle.

The first step, I believe, is to admit that you are not going to be as “successful” as Stephanie Meyer or J.K. Rowling or Stephen King or Neil Gaiman— or Holly Lisle. That’s a liberating admission, because then you are free to follow the path that fate has laid out for you yourself…

But that’s another blog post.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2008 Jervis Salvador CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Click here for the original photo.

“Show; don’t tell.” Writers take great pride in passing on this standard advice. But what does it mean to “show” instead of “tell”? What does “show don’t tell” look like? And is that a hard-and-fast rule or just a rule of thumb? Are there any situations in which you should “tell,” not “show”?

If you’ve asked writers these questions, they may have left you more confused than when you started. But I don’t think the topic needs to be couched in secret knowledge and disclaimers of “It depends.” Here is my attempt to demystify the topic.

What Is Show and Tell?

Telling, they say, summarizes the action and states blandly what the character is made of. Showing, on the other hand, reveals the character through drama, allowing you to experience her story.

For example: “She was sad.” (That’s telling.) Instead, try: “She wept.” (That’s showing.)

I guess that’s a good enough definition. But it’s incomplete at best. Consider the following further variations: “Her sadness overwhelmed her.” (Showing? Telling?) “Tears streamed from her eyes and dripped from the tip of her nose—an embarrassing sight, but she didn’t care.” (Showing?) “She cried bitterly.” (Telling? Compared to what?)

Indeed: Compared to what? There is no such thing as “show.” And there is no such thing as “tell.” You can’t really point to an expression of an idea and say, “That’s showing!” or “That’s telling!” Because really, it’s showing or telling compared to what? Each of the above examples you can call “show” or you can call “tell,” depending on the context. Each reveals more or less detail from the scene. And if that detail affects the conflict of the scene, then it’s detail you want to include, otherwise it’s detail you want to omit.

Consider:

Why did my one and only true love have to die? I sat staid at the funeral, but I would cry later. For now, a friend cried for both of us, kneeling, face in her hands, weeping in streams of tears that dribbled from the tip of her nose, as mourners are wont to do. From a package beside her, she pulled tissues, which served as well as a sponge to sop up the great Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, she rocked back and forth, chanting to herself over and over a prayer to comfort the living in the midst of the dead. Friends stopped by to comfort her, offering heart-felt condolences, some weeping along with her. Many tried to offer some logic, some greater reason in this vast unexplainable universe, for my love’s unexpected death. Others merely sat next to her and rested a warm hand on her shoulder for a time. Some paused for a silent prayer for comfort. That’s all I’ll say of her, because she is not relevant to my story.

There’s plenty of “showing” in that paragraph. But none of it matters. It doesn’t even say anything about the main character, because he never reacts to what he sees. You get the sense that there’s a story in there to tell, somewhere, but we’re not telling that story right now. So why lead us on like that?

Why the mantra, “Show; don’t tell”? Why did they drill this into our young writers’ minds, as though it was a rule? Because many young writers tend to tell when they ought to be showing. The mantra, “Show; don’t tell,” is an attempt to swing the pendulum back the other way. But how do you find the right balance?

A Matter of Perspective

When you watch TV, you’ll see shots of different distances. For example, at the beginning of a scene, the director will usually include a very-wide-angle establishing shot that shows you the location (e.g., an office building or a home) where the next scene is taking place. As the scene progresses, you’ll see shots that show multiple characters at once. Some shots that show what a single character is doing. And even some shots that show a character’s face, to portray the nitty-gritty of what he’s feeling.

I look at show and tell in the same way. Show and tell are not goals, not places, as it were. They are directions, like “zoom in” or “zoom out.” In a film, there is no “close shot” or “wide shot,” there’s only “zoom in” and “zoom out.” And as a director, whether you zoom in or out depends on what you’re trying to portray in the scene. It would make zero sense to start a scene with a close-up shot of some random action happening in an office cubicle that’s completely unrelated to the story. That’s why the first shot of a scene is usually an establishing shot, showing the office building, whether it’s day or night, whether it’s sunny or raining or snowing, and so forth.

Similarly in written fiction, at the beginning of each scene, you usually place the setting and connect the scene as briefly as possible to the story so far. That means telling, not showing. Then you get into the relevant details, which means showing the relevant parts of the story, in as much detail as you need, and no more. For example, you wouldn’t zoom in on the villain’s face if he serves better as a shadowy figure that’s forever threatening the hero’s wellbeing.

Tips: How to Show and Tell

Here are some things to look for to tell whether you’re showing more or telling more:

Moving you closer to the characters’ and reader’s senses is “showing,” that is, zooming in. Moving you toward generalities and glosses is “telling,” that is, zooming out.

Here’s where your creativity and self-expression come in: You want to zoom in and zoom out, in order to make sure the reader has a complete picture of the relevant happenings in the story. It’s not all about extreme close-ups: you can’t tell an effective story using just extreme close-ups. And it’s not all about establishing shots: there’s no story at all in those. It’s about using wide shots and extreme close-ups and everything in between, each to convey some part of the whole picture, in order to guide the reader through the drama in the story you want to tell.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2010 Brandon Christopher Warren CC BY-NC 2.0
Click here for the original photo.

1. A photo: top of this post, which the artist has entitled, “Please Don’t Go.” (Click for a larger view.) Of the photo he says, “This was a shot I took during Alyssa Barajas’ production of a music video for the song ‘Please Don’t Go’ by Barcelona. It was an amazing night, so many emotions and a ton of inspiration in the air. Cali Lowdermilk was the model for the shoot.”
2. A personality type: ESTP.
3. A need: the need for alone time.
4. A quirk: Sleeps on a polyphasic schedule.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2006 Volker Neumann CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

They say that novelists write millions of manuscripts each year. I’m not sure what the exact number is. But I might believe any number between 1,000,000 and 25,000,000. Of these millions, less than 100,000 will make it to print.

That’s when the real fun starts. Of those, only a fraction will end up on the shelves of the local book superstore. And out of those, only a portion will sell enough copies to make any money. And out of those, only a handful of authors will be able to sustain a writing career. And those who do, they spend years working to push their books, for the privilege of handing over their copyrights to the publisher.

Given the odds, you are more likely to die from a lightning strike than to “make it” as a published author.

Why, then, does just about every writing book, resource, author, and coach out there promise to help you “get published”?

That’s like promising to help me “get naked, drenched in honey, and sit my bare butt down on an anthill.”

The Standard Excuses

Again, almost every writing resource and coach will tell you that you have to “improve” your writing if you want to get published. They say that only “good” books get published. I myself even used to believe this.

Then a certain book was published that changed my entire point of view. This novel did more for my self-esteem than any other published book ever has. It began with the scintillating intro: “My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue.” This book bolstered my self-esteem, because no way would I ever have started a story with a line that boring.

It gets even better. This novel uses the word angrily no fewer than 10 times, and the word beautiful 33 times. And clearly 35 times, certainly 13 times, perfect 30 times, obviously 17 times. And really 114 times, and very 168 times. (And no, I’m not making any of those numbers up. you can check them all out with Amazon’s “Search Inside This Book” once I tell you what the title is, if you haven’t figured it out yet.)

This novel also contains spellbinding, vibrant, heart-wrenching, randomly-chosen gems like:

We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet…

It was hard to believe that someone so beautiful could be real… I waited for him to say something that made sense.

His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.

Her cold, stone grasp was just as I expected… It was like meeting a fairy tale—Snow White, in the flesh.

Their walk was catlike, a gait that seemed constantly on the edge of shifting into a crouch.

There was a point of pressure against my head. It hurt.

A howl of rage strangled on the angel’s lips. I felt a sharp stab in my side. This couldn’t be heaven, could it? There was too much pain for that.

I was distracted then by the sound of a phone ringing.

I swear, I found these just by flipping through the book at random and looking for any snippet written poorly enough to make me laugh. The exercise required no planning whatsoever. You can try it yourself.

Not only was this book published by a major publisher, it became a best-seller. And it is adored by many young women, whom I can only hope in 20 or 30 years will look back on it the same way I look back on Lost in Space: “I can’t believe I used to like that. Boy we were silly when we were kids, weren’t we?”

The novel is, of course, the best-seller Twilight, a title to which I owe an unbounded debt of gratitude, because it has proven once and for all, beyond all reasonable doubt, that whether or not your novel gets published has nothing to do with how “good” a writer you are.

Why We Seek to “Get Published”

We writers tell each other that we need to develop our writing skills until our work is “publishable.” All the while, we freely admit the big myths of publishing. Why?

We all need a sense of status, social recognition of our achievements. We all want others to think well of us. And in the world of novelists, “getting published” is the accepted means.

In the words of psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell, in their book Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking, “We can [even] be greedy for status… and this can develop into an aggressive drive to dominate others in order to extract status through power.” Like what baboons do to establish their social hierarchy… what some published writers do to assert their worth over their “unpublished” fellows.

And we humans often collect symbols of our status: jewelry, an expensive car or suit, and— publishing contracts?

If you doubt this, consider Mike Duran’s question: “Does traditional publishing validate an author?” He didn’t think of the question himself. Rather, he was echoing reader responses to Rachelle Garnder’s post, “Why are you pursuing traditional publishing?”

Fascinating. As you know, both traditional and indie publishing are valid ways to go, depending on your values and your skills and what you want to accomplish. Traditional publishing, for example, has made an art out of targeting the least common denominator, the mass market, and chain bookstores. On the other hand, some impressive indie authors have made their name by writing alternative works that a traditional publisher would never touch. Neither indie nor traditional is intrinsically easier or better than the other; they’re just different.

So asking a bunch of authors and aspiring authors why they’re pursuing traditional publishing, you’d expect answers involving words like “business model” and “marketing contacts” and “target reader” and “trendy” and “Twilight.” Indeed, there were some such responses to Rachelle’s query:

J. Koyanagi said…

I want the chance at wider print distribution than what I’d be able achieve on my own, professional cover art and design (that I wouldn’t be able to afford on my own), to work with an experienced editor (again, that I wouldn’t be able to afford on my own), and whatever marketing support the house will offer, even if it’s not much…

Malin said…

I wouldn’t try my hand at start up a building business on my own just because I’m good at making doors. I’d love to work for a building business, but not run it. I understand that some want that, but it’s not for me.

Publishing is a trade – and I don’t have time or interest to become an EXPERT in it…

magolla said…

Editors and agents simply weren’t interested. Most thought it had ‘potential’ (std query rejection lingo), but it wasn’t post-apocalyptic, vampire, “boy”, (insert current ‘must have’) book.

Far outnumbering them, however, were—and this is just the tip of the iceberg—comments like:

… I want the affirmation from publishing professionals that my novel is good…

… I still don’t respect the self-pub industry. The books aren’t written well…

… Besides once you been published traditionally you know you’ve accomplished something big. At least that’s how I see it…

… The heft of the publishing house name–whatever it might be–would also help sell books on its own…

… Traditional publishing brings credibility, distribution, and promotion that self-publishing doesn’t…

… an editor looking over my work, challenging me to make it even better…

… traditional publishing is an acknowledgment that you have actually crafted something worth reading. Who else is going to tell me that my book is ready for the general public? …

… validation, for lack of a better term, from professionals in the industry. The stamp of approval from people who have given that same stamp to others I respect…

… I don’t just want to be published, I want to be published well…

… I’m pursuing traditional publishing for the legitimacy that it would give me and my book. I believe in standards…

… for my first novel next year. As a fiction writer with sights set on a writing career, I want the legitimacy of acceptance into the traditional publishing industry…

Oh poor, naïve, unpublished first-novelist, remember Twilight.

A Call to Action

In Hans Christian Anderson’s story “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” two charlatans prey on the desires of a vain emperor. They claim to have invented a fabric so finely woven, that “it is invisible to anyone who is too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its quality.”

He gives them a bag of gold coins, and silk and gold thread, so that they’ll weave him a garment of this fine fabric. And one by one, each member of the court—including the Emperor himself—proclaims their admiration of the non-existent garment, because they all fear being branded as stupid and incompetent.

The Emperor displays his new clothes in a grand parade to all the people. And they too all admire the fine garment. Until finally a small child remarks, as children are wont, “The Emperor is naked!”

“Fool!” his father reprimanded, running after him. “Don’t talk nonsense!” He grabbed his child and took him away. But the boy’s remark, which had been heard by the bystanders, was repeated over and over again until everyone cried: “The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It’s true!”

The Emperor realized that the people were right but could not admit to that. He though it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn’t see his clothes was either stupid or incompetent. And he stood stiffly on his carriage, while behind him a page held his imaginary mantle.

Fellow writers, the emperor is naked.

Ask any group of writers why they write, and they’ll tell you it’s because they feel a deep need to express themselves—which is a spiritual need. In other words, they are the stories they write, and those stories reflect part of themselves.

Ask the same group of writers why they want to be published, and they’ll say it’s because they want to try on the Emperor’s new clothes.

Please stop it already.

The most valuable exhortation I can give, uncomfortable and controversial and painful. But I believe it must be given.

Telling stories has value on its own merit, value to each of us and value to the world around us. But only if we share those stories with the world around us. You don’t have to “get published” in order to contribute to society. You just have to write your heart. Now, if you truly believe that a traditional publishing contract is the best way to get those stories to the world, you should go for it! But for most of us, not even close.

Give up any hope of becoming the next Stephanie Meyer or J.K. Rowling, because you’re not. Uncomfortable and controversial and painful, but infinitely liberating. Imagine what you could accomplish if you didn’t have to worry about seeking the validation of the publishing industry?

Instead, write the stories that reflect what is in your heart to show the world. And share your stories with the world around you.

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2011 Andres G CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Click here for the original photo.

It’s Memorial Day (here in the US). That’s not a story prompt, just a note. Here are today’s story prompts. Use one or all of them to inspire a story.

1. A photo: top of this post, part of a group of photos the artist has entitled, “Mis 25: Pasando la franja etaria.” (Click for a larger view.)
2. A personality type: INFP.
3. A need: the need for community.
4. A quirk: no matter how different she is, perceives commonality with everyone around her.

Feel free to comment below with a link to your story if you use any of these prompts. (Or even if you don’t.) You can also submit your story to the Carnival of Storytelling, which is posted on Thursdays. And whatever you do…

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2008 "Sunny laid back L.A." CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Finishing out these posts on character needs, extracted from Character Fiction 101: How to Write Fictional Characters and Character Stories. Today, a basic need that provides motivation for many powerful stories, the need for autonomy.

Each of us needs to feel in control over his own life and his own choices, a measure of independence and freedom, a corner of the world that is “mine, all mine, to do with as I wish.”

A character may seek to obtain direct control over her own destiny by rebelling, perhaps even if there’s no reason for her to rebel. She might object to a rule against smoking for example, even if she herself does not smoke, even if smoke and dust aggravate her allergies. Or she may seek out ways to control her space in ways that others will not or cannot challenge. An office worker who drinks out of her own special coffee cup that she brought from home, or sets a picture of her family on her desk. Or she might respond to a stressful situation with deep breathing or other relaxation techniques.

Just asserting a token bit of control can make the difference between going on and giving in. Tales have even been told of prisoners who survived torture by exercising control over how long they held out before screaming or losing consciousness.

A character can sometimes gain a feeling of autonomy if she merely obtains information about the future. She might see a psychic for that reason, although she herself may not reason that her need for autonomy is the driving force. The same logic applies if the knowledge seeks her out. For example, she might feel better about an operation she is about to undergo if the surgeon and anesthetist discuss with her ahead of time everything that will happen to her and everything she will experience, and then lets her control her own dosages of postoperative pain medication, all of which is standard procedure now in many hospitals.

A person can become overwhelmed by too much responsibility, but too little can produce as much stress. Lack of autonomy has been associated with physical illness, fear, anxiety, sensitivity to pain, and depression. Feeling helpless can cause despondency and depression, and conversely control over one’s own life is a core weapon against depression.

Changes that we can’t control also tend to generate fear and threaten our sense of autonomy (as well as our sense of security). And our modern obsession with global news doesn’t help, because most of it we can’t control. Politics. Wars. Natural disasters. And the ever-looming prospect of losing your job in the midst of an economy we perceive as uncertain. Broad social and natural phenomena, because they take place within complex systems that no one really understands, all provide potential challenges to your character’s sense of autonomy and security.

If a character is desperate for autonomy, or if she pursues the need in a dysfunctional manner, she may reject her family or community (threatening her sense of community, intimacy, and security), “rail against the world,” or engage in crime or other antisocial behavior.

If you look at your favorite stories, you should see the need for autonomy pop up everywhere, from the rebellious teenager to the demoralized prisoner (or office worker).

Keep writing!
-TimK

Photo © 2009 mrmayo CC BY-NC 2.0

I’ll fess up and say I’ve avoided teaching about character, because, well, it’s complicated. And everyone has their own process. So I have to ask myself: How do I write character? Because I do write it. But how? What’s my internal process?

Let’s start with the main character. The process is basically the same for all the secondary characters.

First of all, after thinking and planning out my story, I get a sense just through my imagining, what the main character looks like. (And of course, whether male or female. For this study, I’ll go with female.) I nail down the basics: height, weight, hair. Then I give her a name. This is subject to change as I get to know her and what the story demands. In fact, all my first assumptions about my characters are subject to change— and they usually do… in more senses than one, because that’s what a Character Arc is.

I know a lot of people will do character study lists at this point, including deep emotional questions like what’s their biggest fear, what’s their favorite food, etc. And it works for them, but for me, I can’t do this up front. These kinds of deeper questions are answered in the writing of the story, so I like to do those deeper lists on the second draft.

So for the first draft, besides basic looks and name, I try to determine the Felt Need. This is a concept that I seem to understand better than simply motive or motto. Felt Need to me is that deep underlying need that propels them through each day. I can usually figure this out easily once I’ve mapped out some of the story, even if that information is all in my head.

For instance, in Clockwise, the protagonist’s felt need is to be “normal.” We all want to feel included and to fit in, but she laments because she can’t control the fact that she’s a time traveler— and how inconvenient this “gift” is!

Once I determined her felt need, I gave her other problems or self-perceptions that fed into that belief system. She’s too tall, too skinny. Her knees are knobby. Her hair is too big and curly. And because of these personal problems, she believes she’s unworthy of the “cutest boy in the school.”

Other examples of felt need: the need to belong, the need to feel safe, the need for acceptance, the need to find something, like a loved one or the truth.

Finally, I can determine the Character Arc. Characters need to change as the story progresses. My character in Clockwise can’t be the same person by the time the book ends. All of the conflicts and crises she goes through in the story must bring change to her character. This happens gradually over the course of the story. By the end, she sees herself much differently. She’s grown into her scrawniness and likes her new curves; she doesn’t mind her hair; she’s accepted her brand of normal and that she is worthy of the cute boy’s affections. I try to nail down the basic character traits and the arc path before I start writing. However, sometimes these are revealed as I write. Or at least, become more clear.

How do you approach writing character?

Photo © 2007 Jennifer König CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

One thing I try to figure out before starting a new book is my main character’s felt need.

What do I mean by felt need? Some people might call it the character’s motivation, but I think it goes deeper than that. For instance, a character may be motivated to do his father’s bidding because if he doesn’t he’ll get a beating. He obeys to prevent something harsh from happening. He’s motivated to please his father to preserve himself. His felt need goes beyond motivation: his felt need in this situation may be to be accepted by his father. What he really wants is unconditional love. This felt need drives the character not only in how he acts and reacts but in how he feels.

For instance in my book Clockwise, my main character’s felt need is to be normal. She will never be normal according to the world’s definition, but by the end of the book she has defined her own normal and accepts it.

In another manuscript my character’s felt need is to belong.

Felt need doesn’t eliminate character motivation—it enhances it. Motivation drives a character’s action, felt need drives action and emotion.

Felt needs are pretty basic to humanity and you’ll find that there’s a short list of needs that really drive people. The need for acceptance, to be normal, to belong, to be loved unconditionally, to prove oneself, the desire for justice, to be safe.

In The Cay by Theodore Taylor, Philip’s felt need is to be safe. He wants to reunite with his family, get away from Timothy and he wants his vision back. A lot of his drive—his actions, reactions and emotions are the result of not feeling safe.

In the movie Napoleon Dynamite, to use the same illustration as last week, Napoleon’s felt need is to be taken seriously. He’s belittled or ignored by everyone except his new friend Pedro and this drives him to help Pedro win student council president.

How about you? Do you know you’re main character’s felt need?

Photo © 2009 Ahmad Hammoud CC BY 2.0

In How To Write Page-Turning Scenes, Holly Lisle tells the story of a writer who lived SF. He decided to write a fantasy-comedy, just because he thought he could sell it. And sell it he did. And then he sold another one, and then again and again and again… ten titles. Except it made him miserable.

As Holly tells the story, “he hated the book, hated the readers for being so stupid that they liked that crap (his words, not mine), hated the fact that fantasy comedy was the thing that had done well for him, because he hated fantasy, he hated comedy, and he’d just done it because Robert Asprin and Piers Anthony were at the time raking in the dough with fantasy comedies… When I talked to him at a con one year, he was one miserable dude. He’s doing work-for-hire now.”

I’ve never forgotten that story.

Holly has filled Page-Turning Scenes with excellent advice about how to, uh, write page-turning scenes. Ironic, that in the midst of it all, this sidebar story has glued itself to my memory.

Then today, R.A. Evans told his story, with a flip-side theme:

There was a time when I ran from the label of being a “horror writer”. It’s tough enough as a self-published author to be taken seriously, but adding the extra burden of a horror tag to my bio made the chances of people rolling the dice on my projects even scarier – and not in a good way!

Like Holly’s mystery-author, R.A. thought about switching genres. In his case, it didn’t even require writing another book.

My plan was to adjust my author platform, but instead of labeling my books as horror I would check the box next to Urban Fantasy. I just couldn’t pull the trigger on it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not nearly the genre snob I appear to be – to each their own is my philosophy. But then a funny thing started happening – my books started selling…

The problem hadn’t been that I had written a horror novel. The problem was that I hadn’t embraced being a horror author.

(Go read his entire story over at Joanna Penn’s blog: “The Stigma Of Writing Horror: How The Genre You Write Matters As Much As The Story”.)

At some point, at some level, we all identify with the stories we write. How to do that safely and successfully is a different post. But to do it, period…

How can we help but be what we write? What do you think?

Keep writing!
-TimK