First off, Carpelibris, I can’t find the Humpty-Dumpty story. Can we see it online yet? What’s the title? Is there a URL that goes straight to it?
And now, a reminder: Please post writing successes on the blog. Anything published? Anything won a contest? Any other form of success?
Also before I start I want to share a sad (in a minor way) discovery I made this week. At one point in Stolen Magic I wanted Elodie to say something about a large vegetable, and I was thinking of a pumpkin but I suspected that pumpkins originated in the New World, which wouldn’t do, because I’ve been deriving my fantasy middle ages world from Europe, so I looked it up online and found that not just pumpkins but all squashes originated in the Americas. Whoa! I thought. Didn’t I put squash (not a pumpkin) in A Tale of Two Castles? I checked, and I did. Then I went to my book, Daily Life in the Middle Ages by Paul B. Newman, to see if it said people ate squash back then, way before Columbus, and yes, it did say that. The book was wrong! How could it do that to me?
It doesn’t matter much. This is fantasy. It isn’t even true historical fantasy, since the kingdom of Lepai doesn’t exist on planet earth. But still, I like to find some of my details in the real world. I would say that the lesson is to double-check everything, but I won’t say that. Everything is tedious, and fantasy doesn’t demand it. Yes, I should double-check anything I’m not sure of, or use an absolutely dependable source, like the Oxford English Dictionary, but in the case of squash other than pumpkin, I accepted the accuracy of my book.
If you’re writing historical fiction set in a real time and place, I do think you should be confident of all your details, and if you depart from reality, say so in an Author’s Note. And if you’re writing non-fiction, then everything should be rock solid – unlike my book. Shame on you, Mr. Newman!
For the large vegetable in Stolen Magic I wound up going with a cabbage. I had no idea they can grow so big. Some weigh 130 pounds! There are photos online. They throw off one’s sense of scale. People standing next to these cabbages look like elves! If you’re in the mood, check it out online. Or maybe you’ve grown such a monster cabbage – and eaten a lot of coleslaw!
Now for today’s topic. On May 27, 2013, WriteKnitRead wrote, I’m having a problem with my book in that though I’m in love with my plot and can see exactly where I want it to go, I can’t actually… write it. I feel like I’m skimming over everything interesting, like description and giving my characters, well, character, in order to write down the plot. I keep telling myself that it’ll get better once I’m through the first draft but my writing is so bland and boring right now I can’t stand it. I feel like I want to give up but I still love the plot, just not the writing. Is it just first-draft blues? Or do I really need to start over?
When I said I was adding this question to my list, I also wrote, I’d suggest getting interested in your characters. Then see what happens.
Let’s imagine a quest plot. The golden scale of justice has gone missing from the kingdom’s grand courtroom, which is right next to the king’s throne room. Without it, the royal magistrate can’t rule on criminal cases or make judgments in civil disputes. The magistrate’s daughter, Lara, can’t bear to watch her mother’s indecision, her sinking into depression. Moreover, bad people are taking advantage of the situation. Lara decides to find the scale and bring it back – that’s the quest. We plan out these plot points:
• the disappearance of the scale and when it’s discovered
• consequences of the disappearance
• decision to quest and plan to visit the local oracle for starters
• overcoming the creature that guards the oracle
• posing a question to the oracle
• the oracle’s answer, which reveals that the scale has been stolen by an evil magician who lives in a forest fortress
• failure to enter the castle of the duke, who owns the sword that is essential to recovering the scale
• enlisting the aid of the duke’s eight-year old cousin, Peter, who can sometimes read minds
• trying again with the castle, and this time succeeding
• sailing across the yellow sea to the island of the wood nymphs, with the sword in the boat
• persuading the wood nymphs to follow Lara into battle against the magician
• the capture of Peter by the magician
• the storming of the fortress
• the final battle between the magician and Lara
• recovery of the scale and Peter
Lambs and calves! I’ve written a rough outline!
Let’s pick one of these bullets: overcoming the creature that guards the oracle. If we regard this as just a step to the next bullet, the oracle, things get boring pretty fast. Lara is told by one of the king’s advisors that the creature guarding the oracle adores bread pudding, so she shows up with two crocks of bread pudding. If the creature will let her in she’ll give it one on her way in and the other on her way out. The creature is mollified; she enters without incident. We can cross that step off on our list, but we’re feeling sleepy, and we can hardly type or write.
There are two problems here, which you may have guessed. The first is that we’re making things too easy for Lara, and the second is that we haven’t explored who she is and who the creature is. Maybe we have explored Lara’s character by now because we’ve already seen her decide to go on this quest, but we probably haven’t gone into the creature.
So let’s invest some thought in the creature. Here are a few possibilities:
• It’s mostly teeth and stomach, and its tiny brain cells are focused on its teeth and its appetite. Lara will never get by it with the second pudding crock. She better give the creature all the food she has on the way in. Then we and the reader have to worry about how she’s going to get out again.
• The creature is afraid of only one being: the oracle. After it lets Lara in, it’s consumed with fear of the oracle’s anger. What does it do to protect itself? What are the repercussions for Lara?
• The king’s advisor was misinformed or lied. The creature has no interest in bread pudding, but it will let Lara in if she’ll do a favor for it in return. Whatever the favor is (maybe winning the creature’s freedom), it makes her quest more difficult.
• The creature adores bread pudding and falls in love with anyone who provides it. The creature starts following Lara everywhere, and sometimes its behavior is problematic.
By the time Lara reaches the oracle, she may also want his advice on dealing with the creature!
Then we have to consider the oracle, who he is, what he wants, whether his prediction is truthful or not. We want to cut Lara (or WriteKnitRead’s MC, or yours) a break every so often, generally an unexpected one, but mostly we want to make every step in our plot outline as hard for her as possible, and we want to pave her way with the most fascinating characters we can come up with.
As we write, we have to develop the setting so we can see (and hear and smell) everything play out, and if we can think of ways for the setting to make matters more difficult, we should. For example, suppose the walls in the oracle’s house are covered with trompe l’oeil paintings. Lara can’t tell the painted stairways from the real until she attempts to climb them. It may take her days to find the oracle, and time is ticking. If the setting contributes to the plot, we’re sure to get interested in it.
WriteKnitRead, I’m not sure if you need to start over, but if I’ve diagnosed the problem correctly, I do recommend that you go back and expand your scenes. If I’ve entirely missed the boat, please write again to set me straight.
The prompt today is obvious. Fool around with my outline. Pick one of the bullets and expand it into a scene or scenes. Invent the setting. Develop the character. Make Lara’s quest harder. If you’re ambitious, write the entire story.
Have fun, and save what you write!
Athira Abraham says:
I LOVE your prompt idea with Lara!!!!!!! Sounds so interesting! I am definitely going to use this as a prompt. And who knows? Maybe it will turn out to be a full-fleshed novel!!
Athira Abraham says:
I was wondering, what does "unsolicited manuscript" mean?
gailcarsonlevine says:
A solicited manuscript is a manuscript a publisher has asked for. For example, Disney Publishing asked me to write a novel about the fairies of Neverland. When I submitted it, my manuscript was solicited. An unsolicited manuscript is one no publisher has requested. That doesn't mean it won't eventually find a home. Many books start out unsolicited. ELLA ENCHANTED did.
carpelibris says:
(And just to add a bit of trivia, unsolicited manuscripts are called slush, and most editors have a "slush pile.")
Gail, thanks for asking! "Scramble!" is the Featured Story today, and after this it'll be in the archive. It may be a wee bit disturbing: http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/twisted-fairy-tales/melissa-mead/scramble
gailcarsonlevine says:
Very cool! I was completely taken by surprise. Congratulations!
carpelibris says:
Thank you! The whole series is in the archive now, BTW.
Michelle Dyck says:
I loved this post, Mrs. Levine! You make coming up with inventive plots seem so easy.
By the way, the idea about the oracle-guarding creature falling in love with Lara was hilarious. I imagined a big rubbery blob of a beast, with a massive, toothy mouth, following her around adoringly. 🙂 Slobbering over everything. Being highly temperamental. Behaving like a puppy.
Anyway, thank you for always giving us writers such wonderful advice!
gailcarsonlevine says:
Thank you!
writeforfun says:
I love this post! I have this problem part of the time when I write, so I will definitely be able to use some of this advice!
(And I love your outline. You've got the material for a whole book right there! Did you seriously make that all up off the fly?)
gailcarsonlevine says:
Yes, I made it up on the fly. It's much easier to write an outline for a book you don't intend to write than for one you do!
Michelle Dyck says:
Gotta agree with you there!
gailcarsonlevine says:
From the website:
In my story, I have a girl who I decided the moment I created, which was a long time ago, that she would marry her best friend, but as I thought of more ideas, I created another character who I like, and now I think it might be best for her to marry him instead. But I've planned since I've thought of these characters, which was a very long time ago, that they would get married. I usually like change, but with this I just can't since I like her best friend better anyway. My writing critics, my sister and my best friend, have different opinions on which way it should go. I'm actually thinking of killing the guy she doesn't marry so it won't be so awkward between the three of them since they're so close. So have you ever didn't want to change a story's plot if it was something you thought of a long time ago and if you didn't want to let go of it? I'm sorry this is so long. Thanks!
Sarah
gailcarsonlevine says:
I think Aspire to inspire's comment below is for you, too.
Yes, I often hate to give up my original ideas, but sometimes they have to go. In this case, you can try it both ways, all three ways, counting the dead character way. Then you can decide which you prefer.
Elisa says:
By all means, if you like the best friend, go with him. It would be wonderfully un-clichéd. I don't know if you're aware of this, but lots and lots of books have plots where the girl has this good friend who loves her, and then she goes off with the "new guy". Who, for some reason, likes her better than all the others that are swooning over him. Blech blech blech. Sickening. Maybe that's not what is going on in your book, but that's hat happens quite often. Also, killing the guy would be an age-old solution. Having him disappear to nurse his wounded heart is also common. Do something unique. Like, I dunno, have him actually be in love with the neighbor's cousin, or something different and interesting. Although, thinking about it, how many girls actually have dozens (or even two) admirers? (That, by the way is an excellent rhetorical question. I'll have to think on that. How many really do?) Oh, and I mean no offence what-so-ever. I am a very opinionated person, and this happens to be one of my pet peeves (meaning the whole best friend/new guy thing).
Aspire to inspire says:
I had a problem with this a few months ago, got up to 20,000 words and had to start again…
I would say go at it with an open mind, unless you like to plan out your entire story and ending depends on it.
Another idea is to keep writing, see how it plays out.
What I did was have what I call a character picnic. I went outside, made us morning tea and sat down. I imagined I was interviewing my character, and tried to get her to answer which isn't easy.
So maybe learn a bit more about your character. See who she would lean towards. Once you know what your character's hearts desire is, you can work from there.
Hope I helped and didn't just confuse you.
Aspire to inspire says:
Dear Mrs. Levine
I have a problem with seriousness in my stories. I think the reason I get bored with them is because they are so serious and slightly depressing.
In Ella Enchanted you manage to make it serious but funny, not making it weigh on the readers mind. The story is sad at some points and although we feel that, as the story does not weigh on us, our feelings soon disappear at the next scene, so we can be more involved with the story instead of with our feelings. (In a good way.)
How do you manage this?
gailcarsonlevine says:
Interesting question! I'm adding it to my list. In the meanwhile, can anyone else offer suggestions?
Michelle Dyck says:
Aspire to inspire: Including one or more humorous characters helps to lighten the mood. An eccentric old man who mutters under his breath, a prankster who sees the possibility for hilarity in any situation, an MC with a sarcastically witty voice, an animal with amusing characteristics, etc… Then even if something as sad as somebody dying happens, you have characters to provide comic relief. Amusing situations snuck in between the heavier scenes help too.
Elisa says:
ADD CHARACTER QUIRKS!!! Oh, I love character quirks, there are so many ENDLESS, fun, possibilities. I have this one character, (I had to change her almost completely after my story fell apart, sadly, she was a fun, odd thing) she was a magician, and she was nearly four-hundred years old. And she was odd. Meaning she talked to herself, and her house was a wreck. Or most of it was. Her kitchen was spotless. She was also slightly forgetful. Another character hated having her hair touched, wile a third collects old silverware. (Those two are staying just the same.) Oh, and let's not forget Bennar, who has a fear of squirrels. (yes, squirrels.) And there are countless others, the crazy lady who owns thirty-seven cats, the old peg-legged sailor, who thinks people are always trying to assassinate him and carried twenty-three fully-loaded pistols around, the eight year old neighbor boy who keeps a collection of dead bugs, all lined up in perfect alphabetic order according to their scientific names on his dresser, the pianist who can play three instruments at once…the list is, quite literally, as I mentioned before, endless. Not all of them have to be odd, but a book without quirked characters is no longer a book. Trust me on this. I figured this out the hard way. Anyhow, quirked characters have their own personalities, and get themselves into all sorts of comical scenes because of their quirks and (drumroll) that makes for a lighter mood. Hope I helped. Have fun!!!
carpelibris says:
I love that list of characters! Are they all in the same book?
Michelle Dyck says:
I totally agree with carpelibris — I love that list! I laughed just reading it. The peg-legged sailor afraid of being assassinated is especially funny. I would thoroughly enjoy reading about that mix of quirky characters! If that book is ever published, Elisa, tell us! 🙂
Athira Abraham says:
I found this picture (the first one) on a blog of a writer named Zoe Barton. From the comment right under the picture, I got an idea for the story. Would I be able to use this idea for a story? Or will I need permission of some sort? Here is the link:
http://neverlandwillneverbethesame.tumblr.com/search/mermaids
By the way, Zoe Barton is a big fan of your story ELLA ENCHANTED.
Athira Abraham says:
I mean, would that be ok?
gailcarsonlevine says:
Gee, this is weird. I thought I did my best to guess an answer to your question last night. You mean the mermaids in the flooded basement, right? Remember, I'm not a copyright expert, but if this is just an idea, ideas can't be copyrighted. The art, however, is copy protected, and you can't use it.
Athira Abraham says:
So could I write a story with a story line of mermaids flooding in the basement, or something along those lines? Maybe, my own twist on that?
gailcarsonlevine says:
I THINK so. Your own twist is best.
Jenalyn Barton says:
Mrs. Levine, I have a question for you. I love to write, but I have ADHD, so I have a difficult time sticking it out until the end of a story. Instead, I end up writing whatever I'm currently interested in, so I have a lot of beginnings and very few endings. Sometimes I revisit a story that's been on the "back burner" for a while, but I still have trouble finishing them. What might you suggest to help me stay interested long enough to finish a story?
gailcarsonlevine says:
I like Athira Abraham's suggestion. I have no expertise with ADHD, but people often write in about how hard it is to finish a story. You have a lot of company.
Athira Abraham says:
Jenalyn Barton, Mrs. Levine has a couple of posts under the label "finishing stories". You might want to check them out.
Jenalyn Barton says:
Okay, cool. Thanks for the suggestion. (^_^)
Aspire to inspire says:
Sorry, another question…
I find it really hard to right the before-part in the stories without getting bored. You know, the part where you get introduced to characters, setting etc before anything actually happens. I think that is partly why I abandon stories before they even start, because I get bored with explaining.
I don't want to write it after I have finished it either, and my stories don't seem to work with the immediate problem, so is the a way to make the immediate problem seem less forced?
Thanks
gailcarsonlevine says:
You may find my posts on back story (also spelled backstory) helpful.
Aspire to inspire says:
I don't mean back story. although I do have problems with that as well. I mean that you know the build up before the story starts.
E.g. in ELLA the few chapters before she goes away to finishing school, and even then I find the part before the climax hard to find interesting.
Elisa says:
Add something really interesting in the beginning to introduce your cast. Like a scandal, or a kidnapping attempt, or a mystery that was never quite solved. Make it vital to your plot, and introduce your characters in that. Let's use the kidnapping. Lets say your MC was nearly kidnapped (It could be anyone known by your MC really, but lets make it the MC) but without knowing it, she put a kink in the kidnapper's plans by standing too far rom a certain window. When the kidnapper bursts through the window, he can't grab her at the right moment, and MC's brother nocks him flat with an encyclopedia he was just reading and excerpt from, while MC's sister ties him up with the scarf she's knitting, and the butler appears, carrying a, engraved butter knife that he's never without (and this will appear later in the story). You see the secondary characters through their actions. Afterwards it is suspected the second cousin who was visiting at the time had something to do with it, though nothing was ever proved, and there, you have portrayed your cast of characters. Your reader knows who to trust, and who not to, (or at least, ho you want the to trust or not) and your not bored. I hope this helped portray what I'm trying to say. Fell free to ignore me if I misunderstood your question.
Aspire to inspire says:
Thanks Elisa! That really helped. I am trying to work it into my plan. 😉
WriteKnitRead says:
Thank you so much, Mrs. Levine! I went back through my story and realized that I'd been WAY too easy on my characters. Lana's, my MC, personality didn't show through at all because she hadn't had to solve her problems, coincidence did. I've got to let her solve problems the way that she actually would. Thank you for the advice!
Eliza says:
I'm in a rough patch with my manuscript, so this post helped. I grew a giant cabbage back in third grade. You're right, they can get huge. People mistook it for a bush all the time.
Michelle Dyck says:
Totally off topic, but I have a question. I just started editing the first draft of a novel I wrote many months ago, and I realized that several locations in the story are barely described. I have my characters traveling the world, stopping in places like Russia, Ireland, and Australia. Problem is, I've never been to any of those places, and I didn't research enough when I wrote the first draft. So the result is a severe lack of description when it comes to scenery and stuff. It's like my characters are walking around in a soupy grey fog.
Any ideas for how I can accumulate the necessary knowledge to flesh the settings out? Research isn't exactly my favorite thing to do, but it needs to be done for this book. 🙂
Athira Abraham says:
If your story is fantasy, then there is no problem! Fantasy writers can create whatever they want. So if their Eiffel Tower is in India, it wouldn't matter!
But if your story is a bit more historic or realistic, you would have to research about the place, or ask someone you might know who has been to these places. Even if you don't like researching, your story will benefit from the information and you'll be glad you did! 😀 Good luck with your book!
Michelle Dyck says:
Yes, my story is fantasy… but the fantasy part of it largely occurs in another world. The MCs are from Earth, and during this book, they have to do some globetrotting in order to help that other world. So everything that happens on Earth needs to be as close to real life as possible.
Thanks for the advice. I definitely will research all I can, I just wondered if anyone had ideas about how to go about it.
Thanks again, though! 🙂
writeforfun says:
I wrote this whole comment, and then my computer glitched and deleted it before I could publish it, so let me try one more time…
My last book was about globe trotters, too, and I've never been anywhere, either! I've only left my home state twice, and I've never been out of the country. Obviously, this caused a problem when my spy novel led my characters to travel all over the world!
For my first country, Italy, I quickly discovered that researching Italy until I knew it like I know my own home town was NOT an option, or I'd never finish my book! So, this was the method I formulated. First, I looked up popular tourist destinations in Italy. Once I had selected a city, I looked up photos of that city (travel and tourism websites almost always have pictures of the cities they're advertising). I also looked up google maps to see the types of houses, layout of towns, amount of highly populated land and farmland, and so on. This way, I had a really good mental picture of what this town looked like, even though I hadn't spent hours researching it.
Then, of course, when I needed to know something specific, like what type of clothing was commonly worn in the area or what type of transportation was used, I could look up that specific thing, without having to read pages and pages of irrelevant information.
Maybe this method won't work for you, but I know it's the only way I managed to get through my book! Hope this helps!
writeforfun says:
Now that I think about it, I should probably add that in my book, my MC's were helping out some spies and basically being dropped off at their destinations, accomplishing their missions, and getting out. I didn't really have to know too much because they didn't get many chances to explore and learn about the culture. If your globe trotters are going on a vacation just to learn more about the different cities, you probably will have to do a lot more research. I guess it depends on your story.
Michelle Dyck says:
@writeforfun: Thank you so much! I hadn't thought of Google maps. Your ideas have given me so great places to start my research.
My characters won't be lingering anywhere either. They're racing against the bad guys to find five important people hiding in different locations across the globe. So I don't need a huge amount of info on any one place, just enough to flesh out the scenes.
Thanks again! This really helped.
writeforfun says:
Great! Glad I could help!
Elisa says:
I am having problems with making up my cultures. Don't get me wrong, I love it, very much, but I'm having a really hard time. I feel they are not clearly defined enough, and try as I might, I can't come up with truly interesting, DIFFERENT cultures. They seem too close to other ones, or real ones, and I don't want that. It's not as though I'm really bad at it or anything, but they seem to lack definition. Can Anyone help me?
Elisa says:
Ooh, can anyone even understand that?
Writer Person says:
I find that doing research and reading about real things helps me to come up with fake ones… perhaps you could do some research on some old, little known cultures (such as American Indian tribes and Indian religions) and use elements of each. I think using little known cultural tidbits in your own culture will make them seem more your own… do you mean a culture as in a religion or a lifestyle… or is it a religious lifestyle? Hope I helped…
gailcarsonlevine says:
I'm adding your question to my list.
Aspire to inspire says:
I know what you mean, well, at least I think I do. Correct me if I am wrong.
You can't seem to come up with a culture different to the ones you know, e.g. Catholicism, Judaism etc and you are frustrated. I get that too. Maybe try and mix-and-match parts of some cultures. Just an idea. Also, there is nothing wrong with fantasizing a real culture. Many authors such as Shannon Hale also do this. I think Mrs. Levine did a bit of mix-and-match for her story Ever, but I am not sure.
Elisa says:
Well, yah, I do that too. The whole, mixing cultures. Though, it doesn't seem to help now. One of my problems is, they're all the same practically. I have three separate countries, that are supposed to be quite different, but they have ended up being almost the same. And they are hundreds of miles apart, so no, the customs couldn't have leaked together. They all depend on the sea, heavily in fact, and two of them are very warlike. They just seem stereotype and flat. Is there a way to fix that? It's not as though I'm bad at this or anything, it just feels like I've run out of ideas. I get plenty when I'm not trying to think of them, but when I REALLY need to solve a problem, my mind goes blank and I can't think of a single thing. I just keep on reusing what I've already used. Is there a way to push past that?
Elisa says:
Oh, and Aspire and Writer person, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful, I'm very glad you took time out of your day to answered my questions. Thanks so much. I just don't know if your answers answered my particular question, which is not either of your falts, because I hardly even know what I mean. make sense? (No, it probably doesn't. I'm confusing myself. Maybe I'm having a nervous breakdown and don't know it. That would be something.)
Writer Person says:
No, I totally know what you mean by the whole sameness problem… that's something I have trouble with too. Here's a question though, are they all part of the same seas? Do they have to be dependent on the sea? If they do, maybe they each have a separate way of fishing and going about their excursions on the sea, maybe some spear fish and others have boats. Also, their resources could be different, perhaps one civilization is near a forest, or uses drift wood while another makes their houses out of mud. And with the warlike ones, how are they each warlike, what's their motive? If it's that kind of story, does one of them have powers that make them that way? Is it tradition? One way that helps me plan out my civilizations and such is to write out everything I know about them, wedding customs, government, and whatever else. Perhaps they do have some in common, but only because of the sea. Hope this one helps….
Aspire to inspire says:
Ahh, I THINK I might understand now. No, probably not, but this will help someone else at least, hopefully.
SO your Make-believe kingdoms seem to alike? Is that right? Anyway, maybe you could make one water based, around hundreds of different gods, like the greeks, one culture with only one god and one culture with no god who thinks themselves the supreme race. Then they could have conflicting opinions etc. Also, like I said, you could base one around water and fish, the other around say, deserts and stuggling for survival. Hope I helped someone!