Other Than Weepy

The sad news is that the Powers That Be at my publisher are no longer pleased with the title The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre. I suggested Look, This Book Has No Title. Everyone laughed. I’ll keep you posted.

On February 16, 2016, Writeforfun wrote, What are some emotional reactions to lots of terrible changes happening at once in a preteen’s life that don’t include crying? My character, an independent but insecure 12-year-old girl, has gone through a lot within a three-day timeframe; her dad was framed for a terrible crime, someone broke into her house and tried to kidnap her and her mom, she had to go to live with a friend to be safe, where someone tried to break in and kidnap her again, and now she has been sent to live on the other side of the country with relatives she has never met. When I try to write her reactions to all of these events, I find that she just ends up crying! I suppose technically she isn’t crying the whole time, but whenever she stops to think about what is going on, she always winds up bursting into tears. How can I make her reactions seem real without making her cry all the time?

Poppie suggested this: Mrs. Levine should have a post on emotional characters. I recommend reading it. It might help.

That post is called “Weepy.” If you’re interested, you can look it up.

In my last post, I proclaimed the helpfulness of lists in getting to writing solutions. Writeforfun’s question is perfect for the list approach. I’d start by listing possible emotional states. Some may be appropriate and others not so much, but I’d list every one I could think of, and I wouldn’t rule any out right off the bat. And, to give my brain a break, I’d probably research the question. I might google “list of emotions” and see what I got. If that didn’t yield much, I’d rephrase my query. If you have time right now, try it. It’s wonderful to remember that we don’t have to go everything in writing alone. While I’m using the possibilities that the worldwide web gives me, other ideas may also arrive. Everything goes on my list.

Yesterday I heard a short segment on the radio about the neuroscience of creativity. Seems that studies on the generative part of creating (as opposed to the editing stage) show that the part of the brain that pays attention to social norms is dialed way down. We turn off the side of our minds that cares about what other people will think of us or our ideas. I think this is critical. We’re creating! Who cares what anyone else thinks?

I’m not online as I write these possibilities, so I’ll wing it. Here’s at least a partial list:

∙ tearful (which is the problem, but which pops up first)

∙ sad but dry-eyed

∙ angry

∙ happy (we’re writing everything down)

∙ joyous

∙ ecstatic

∙ calm

∙ anxious

∙ hysterical

∙ amused

∙ frightened

∙ cerebral, thoughtful (which probably isn’t an emotion, but who cares?)

∙ disoriented

∙ comforted

∙ satisfied

∙ self-satisfied

Let’s stop here, though I might be able to wring out a few more. And, when it comes to lists, it often pays off to keep going after we think we’ve squeezed out every possibility. Stare out a window. Stamp around the room. Give it ten more minutes before moving on.

In this case let’s look at what we have. Let’s start with the least probable one: happiness. How might that one come into play? Well, let’s make a list. I’ll make it short, just to illustrate how we can keep using lists:

∙ MC Judith arrives at the home of her unknown relatives, and the welcome is warm. She’s so relieved (add relief to our list of emotions) that she feels a brief burst of happiness.

∙ Judith uncovers her first clue to what’s behind her troubles, which she comes about purely by her own brainpower. Briefly again, she feels happy. Her adversary doesn’t know she’s smart.

Looking down our list of emotions we see others that will be easy to draw on: anger, fear, anxiety, disorientation, hysteria. We can use them to vary the weeping. But if we bring in some of the more surprising ones, like amusement or thoughtfulness, we’ll also expand Judith, make her more interesting, deeper, and more varied.

I’ll end with this over-the-top statement: If the only writing wisdom you take from the blog concerns lists and the freedom to generate them, I will have done a good job!

Now for four prompts:

∙ Before Judith leaves for her relatives, at her friend’s house, the friend criticizes Judith for the way she’s handled her many crises. Write the scene and bring in a surprising emotional response from Judith. Use notes and lists in writing the scene.

∙ Judith is picked up by the police for questioning about her dad’s supposed crime. Write the scene and have her run through three emotions, and not all of them have to be genuine–she can play act strategically.

∙ Rewrite the questioning scene and make Judith make everyone, herself included, laugh.

∙ Turns out Judith’s relatives aren’t very happy to have her as a guest. Write the scene when she finds this out and do not let her cry.

Have fun and save what you write!

47 Responses on “Other Than Weepy”

  4. The Florid Sword says:

    That’s so sad about your title! What in the world are they going to go with then???? Thanks as always for the post!

  5. Ellie Reuel says:

    The advice about lists is a great reminder going into Camp NaNoWriMo! Thank you! 🙂 I hope you’re able to get the difficulty with your title sorted out.

    I’m curious about something: Have you ever read any fanfiction written for your books? If you have, what did you think of it? If not, how do you feel about people writing it?

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      I looked at fanfiction for ELLA once or twice a long time ago. I liked that people felt so engaged with the characters and story that they wanted to enter the world. I’m not an expert on copyright, but as long as my work isn’t being infringed, I’m fine with writing fanfiction. You know I like to encourage writing, period.

  6. Kitty says:

    Hi guys! Just a reminder, Camp NaNoWriMo starts today! There’s still time if you want to join, just go to campnanowrimo.org to sign up, and message me (cattus) if you want to join the blog group cabin. Have fun writing, everyone!

  7. Poppie says:

    I have three questions for Mrs. Levine. They concern titles.
    How did you come up with the title for Ella Enchanted?
    What was the easiest book to name?
    What was the hardest?

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      The title I submitted originally was ELLA. The people at HarperCollins asked for a list of possibilities, and among them was ENCHANTED ELLA, and they just reversed the words. The easiest title was WRITER TO WRITER, which my editor loved immediately. Alas, titles for my novels have gotten harder and harder. I don’t know which was hardest.

  8. Writeforfun says:

    Thank you so much for this post! So many great ideas! I don’t know why I didn’t think of making a list before. I read “weepy,” too, and it helped a lot, but this one nailed it. In fact, I’d say you’ve solved my problem! At least, my current problem. Don’t worry, I’ll come up with more in the future, I’m sure 🙂

  9. Writeforfun says:

    I promised I’d come up with more problems, and I did!

    This is on a completely different note. Although I am still working on my novel, I’ve decided to also write and illustrate a young children’s book – about the same age and style as Betsy Who Cried Wolf and Betsy Red Hoodie. I’ve spent most Thursday mornings this past school year letting children at the local elementary school practice reading to my therapy dog, and after hearing so many children’s books, I couldn’t help but be inspired and want to give it a try. My problem is, I’ve seen firsthand now how important word choice is for young readers (I never noticed it when I read children’s books before, but that was because I wasn’t actually listening to the kids trying to read them) – which is turning out to be a problem. I’ve always been a long-winded writer. I like big words, plenty of details, and character development. The story I’m writing only focuses on one main character, but that character does many things in the space of the story and changes by the end (it’s no Knuffle Bunny), and as I’m writing it, I’m realizing that I don’t know if it is simple enough to be a children’s story.

    I guess I actually have a few questions! For one, how do you get yourself to use simple enough word choice for young readers to read, as well as short enough sentences, while still conveying the meaning that you intend? (I suppose I might start by not using the word “conveying”…). Also, is it possible to get across semi-complex tales, in which a character goes different places and grows by the end, for young readers?

    All thoughts and advice appreciated!

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      My BETSY books are meant more as read-alouds, meaning that an adult would read them to a child, than for the child to read on his or her own, although, of course, sometimes that happens. With a read-aloud reading level doesn’t matter as much. I think you’re interested in writing an early-reader, which I haven’t done. However, two books that do go into this are Barbara Seuling’s HOW TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK AND GET IT PUBLISHED and Harold Underdown’s THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING CHILDREN’S BOOKS. Harold Underdown’s book didn’t exist when I was starting out, but Barbara Seuling’s did, and I found it enormously helpful, and it’s been updated since then. As for your last question, I think kids can understand complexity if it’s clearly presented, and certainly characters can change. Both Betsy and Zimmo change by the end of BETSY WHO CRIED WOLF.

      • Writeforfun says:

        You’re right, I need to decide if it’s going to be a read out loud or an early reader. I wanted to make it an early reader, but I’m not sure if I can. I’ll have to give it some more thought. I’ll definitely check into those books! Thanks!

  10. Nessa says:

    Great post! I’ve always found lists helpful–even if they do get a little crazy sometimes. Once I was trying to decide what was chasing some characters through a forest in one of my stories, and I came up with a lot of ridiculous stuff (Large octopus, giant gingerbread man, etc) before I settled on something plausible. 🙂

    I have a question…I’ve been trying to work on my futuristic dystopian Robin Hood story, and it’s kind of important for the readers to know how the government works, but I’m not sure how to explain it. If the narrator does it, it’s probably going to be pretty boring, and I definitely don’t want to use an “as you know, Bob,” info dump. I guess I could add a character from another country or something whom someone could explain it to, but I feel like that might seem a bit forced, especially because I don’t know what I’d do with the character afterward–I’ve already got quite a few characters. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! 🙂

    • Yulia says:

      You could always try introducing it in little spurts. Say the girls in the dystopia aren’t allowed to read. Bob could be hanging with a girl from the dystopia. They’re walking along, and there’s a Keep Out sign on a door. But the girl doesn’t know what it says, so she keeps walking. Bob says, “Didn’t you see the sign?” and the girl says, “What sign? There’s just a bunch of squiggles on a piece of cardboard.”
      (I don’t know how your dystopia works, but if you could share more details about it, I could try to help).

    • Christie V Powell says:

      What about a small flashback? I like to use a one paragraph flashback that introduces something important to the plot. What if your main character flashed back to when he/she first learned the rules, or caught a glimpse of a ruler, or saw someone else punished for breaking a law?

  12. Yulia says:

    This is so helpful because I’m writing about a girl with bipolar depression (in which sometimes she’s on a super high and other times she’s on a low) and in early drafts all she did was cry. Thank you so much Gail for showing a bunch of other ways to write emotional characters.

  13. Emma says:

    Hi Mrs. Levine. This post is so helpful! I’m afraid I have a question unrelated to the post, however. I have almost completely finished the first draft of the first book in my WIP after taking FOREVER on it. I’m so happy I’m finally almost at the end! I love rewriting much much more than writing the first draft, and I’ve heard so do you. Once I’m finished with the first draft, I would really like to make an outline of it so I won’t forget any major events in the story when I’m writing the second draft. Because I will have already written it, I don’t think that will be too much hard to write an outline for it. After deciding that I want to outline the first draft of the first book in the series, I really thought it would come in handy to outline the rest of the series. Roughly. I think it will help with tie ins, where and when I want to introduce characters, and it will also give me an idea of how long this series is going to be. J.K. Rowling outlined the whole Harry Potter series before she wrote it, and her tie ins are amazing. I have a problem, though. One you might’ve already caught onto. I’m a pantser, and I have tried outlining before, and I simply can’t do it. I think I’ve heard that you’re a pantser too, so I was wondering if you’ve ever attempted outlining, or something like this. If you have (or if you haven’t) I’d love your advice. Do you think it’s a good idea for a pantser to attempt outlining, or do you think a pantser’s writing would suffer from outlining? Also, if there are any other pantsers out there who have advice about outlining, I’d love to hear it! Sorry for such a long comment. It’s a little hard to explain in fewer words. 🙂

    • Christie V Powell says:

      I’m not a pantser, but for my series, I don’t have an outline for the books I’m not working on yet. What I do have is a separate document where I write down ideas and some of the information I’ll need to work with later. Here’s what I have for my fifth book (I’ve written the first two, outlined the third, out of six total):

      The Spectra Uprising: Cole kingdom
      Villian/archvillian: Ash/Carli
      Main characters: Keita, Carli, (any others?)
      Season: Spring of 227
      Keita and her friends have sailed around the island and have come to the Cole kingdom. They discover Rose, widow of Carli’s brother, leading a secret band against the Stygian.
      Climax: hidden due to spoilers 😉

      Note: Ash’s illegitimate son Brice was sent to Nomelands to be destroyed (tie in to book 1).

      Idea on theme: Carli makes a bad decision. Even though she repents, she cannot be allowed to remain as queen, but she is the only heir. In the final scene, Keita could bring down a building by crushing the foundation (Ash and Carli both began with good intentions but lost their foundation).

      Idea: Have a theme involving change. K doesn’t like change, points to the forest as unchanging. Then S points out a petrified log and talks about how the land has changed over millions of years, which K has never even considered.

        • Gail Carson Levine says:

          Congratulations on almost finishing your draft! I think you absolutely can try outlining the rest of your series. Maybe you’ll figure out how, and I like Christie V Powell’s suggestions. Fairy tales often give me a rough outline for my stories. I outlined the story I’m working on now, but I’ve started to diverge, so I’m working back and forth between notes, story, and outline. I don’t understand part of your question, however. When you revise, will you start over or work from your existing manuscript?

          • Emma says:

            Thank you for the great suggestion, Christie! Thank you, too, Mrs. Levine. To answer your question, when I revise I start a new Word document, so therefore I do start from scratch. That way I’ll still have the untouched, original first draft. I do reread the part that I’m revising from the first draft, however, and always have that document open when I’m revising. I usually refer to the first draft quite a bit when revising, unless I’m completely changing a scene, of course. So I guess I do start from scratch (I work from a blank document). I do work from the ideas in my existing manuscript, though. I hope that helps, and I’m sorry that I didn’t make that clear before. 🙂

  14. Poppie says:

    Hi everyone! I have a question that concerns romance. (I’ve asked a similar question back in February.)
    I have no trouble creating little “sparks” for my characters. Or fanning the flames once the love get’s started.
    Having the characters actually FIND OUT they’re in love? That’s harder. I don’t know how to write their reactions. I’ve never seriously fallen in love before, so I don’t have any experience to go by.
    How shall I go about writing these realization moments?
    As always, I appreciate your help!

    • Christie V Powell says:

      I think it completely depends on the character. I was kind of strange, in that I felt I had to have a “first choice” of who I’d like to marry, even when I wasn’t anywhere near that stage, even when I knew my choice would change hundreds of time. I just had to know what I would do if I had to make that decision right now (I actually still do that with baby names and house designs). So I was looking for someone right from the get-go, even with crushes in middle/high school, and chose my favorite from who was available, so to speak. When things changed from that to real love with my future husband and I, I’m not sure. It was kind of gradual, everything I found out about him and every time we did more things together, made us more a part of each other’s life.

    • Song4myKing says:

      I’m probably no more experienced than you, as I’ve never been seriously in love either. But one little tid-bit that might be helpful – some of my more serious crushes were influenced partly by a close friend of mine (one who has known me since babyhood). Things like guessing my crush before I had really admitted it to myself, or telling me that she had found the perfect guy for me. This is a friend who knows me really well, and I know her pretty well too – she didn’t tell me who this prince was, but I figured out almost at once who she meant, and soon started to see all the ways he was ideal. So you could have a friend directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally get your character thinking about the state of her feelings.

  16. Nicole says:

    Hi, Mrs. Levine! I have a question not really related to this post, but I was hoping you could help me. I’m a junior author and in the process of writing short stories (and novels), I’m running into problems.

    Q#1-How do I write the beginning and get the ball rolling? I always have exact plans for how I want the plot, middle, and ending to go, but when I plan on paper my beginning always reads something like, “MC Jane sat on her bed eating a donut.” No specifics. I’m blank on how to start the story to get the reader interested. I’ve re-read my old works and they’re always boring and dry in the first few paragraphs.

    Q#2-How much essential information should I include in the first few paragraphs (or chapters) of my story? When I try to introduce essential info, it always comes out in a jumbled mess and makes no sense whatsoever. How do I spread out the info across the plot?

    Q#3- I want to make the beginnings interesting, but sometimes I want to avoid action as an opener and introduce the plot calmly. How do I do that without losing the reader after the first sentence?

    Thanks for taking the time to read this! Also, I finished reading your guide, Writer to Writer, literally an hour ago and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I’m probably going to go back and re-read my favorite sections and do the challenges. You’re a wonderful author and I love your books.

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      Thank you! I’m adding your questions to my list, which means they will be the subject of an upcoming post. In the meanwhile, ideas anyone?

    • Christie V Powell says:

      1 Beginnings are the hardest part for me. The rest of the writing goes okay, but getting started feels like pulling teeth, one word at a time. Sometimes telling myself to just write something, no matter the quality, and I’ll fix it later, helps a little. Another thing that sometimes helps, if you know the ending, is to figure out what opening might start your story heading toward that eventual ending–my WIP starts with the main character sneaking into an enemy camp, which she will have to do again, more dangerously, in the climax.

      2 For introducing information, I’d suggest looking at some of your favorite sequels and see how they summarize the story before and how much they put in. Sometimes it helps to use a “Watson character”, someone who has no idea what’s going on and so needs to have things explained. You can also add short flashbacks if they have to do with the subject at hand: showing her home in flames to explain why she can’t go back, for instance. I found that I knew too much about the story and didn’t know what needed to be said, so I had some new readers look at it and tell me where I needed to explain things.

      3 Ella Enchanted doesn’t start with action. The first chapter is a quick summary of her life and what brought her to this point. And yet we love it. Having an interesting voice helps a lot–I’m not sure it would have worked in 3rd person, for instance. I think the important thing is that there’s conflict, whether or not it involves action. Ella is pitted against her curse–there’s conflict right from the beginning, even though she’s not fighting ogres or something.

  17. Lisa says:

    Hi Mrs. Levine
    This has just about nothing to do with the post, but I just finished reading Ella Enchanted, it has come all the way to Denmark, and i just needed to say that it was absolutely amazing.

  18. Bookworm says:

    Nicole: I have some advice.
    Q1: As for beginnings, here’s my current beginning from my WIP:
    “I never thought I would be anything but normal. Don’t envy me for being able to save more than just the world. I was scared more than half the time, and I didn’t want it to happen. I didn’t even think it was possible.”
    Q2: Information should often be given after some mystery. Make the info that your MC hard to find, but hinted at. Or if you must give info at the beginning, try to put it in your MC’s thoughts, or have someone tell her about it. Or just do something like: “Little did she know that the tyrant (whatever his/her name is) was plotting to destroy her village.”
    Q3: Christie V Powell explained it better than I could.
    Hope this helps!

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