{"id":697,"date":"2016-01-20T08:41:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T13:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=697"},"modified":"2016-01-20T08:41:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T13:41:30","slug":"lemme-out-convincingly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/20\/lemme-out-convincingly\/","title":{"rendered":"Lemme out!–convincingly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am proud and relieved to announce that the Two Princesses<\/em> prequel has a title. Alas, the dragons in sales and marketing nixed all other suggestions, including excellent choices from the blog, and I had to cudgel my head again. But finally, I came up with this one, which they like, my editor likes, and I like, and I hope you will like, and which I don\u2019t think I gave you enough information to come up with. Here it is: The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre<\/em>. Hooray!<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s a lesson in this for all of us: We needn\u2019t seek the perfect title until we have a publisher, because publishers have final say anyway. We can go eponymous and just call our book by the name of our MC and then dig deeper when the time comes.<\/p>\n

And, if not a lesson, an idea: To loosen myself up and get out of the title groove I was mired in, I googled \u201cpopular fantasy novels for children\u201d and clicked on a selection from Goodreads, which helped me realize that almost anything can be a fine title. Thus freed, my mind started wandering and got me where I needed to go.<\/p>\n

Thanks again, many thanks, to all of you who posted title possibilities! I\u2019ll probably ask for your help again.<\/p>\n

Now for this week\u2019s post:<\/p>\n

On November 20, 2015, Kitty wrote, I need some ideas for a way for my MC to escape a prison cell. However, I would like to avoid anything involving the following:<\/em>
\n1. Cliches (air vents and the ol\u2019 fake escape gambit are out).<\/em>
\n2. Mary Sue-like abilities (so no \u201cOh, I just happen to know some obscure physics\/chemistry fact that I can totally apply to the situation, plus I can pick locks and dangle from walls). The MC is twelve, so anything that would be obviously beyond the ability\/knowledge of a 7th grader is a no-go.<\/em>
\n3. Outside help. She has to do it alone. Her friends are in different cells, so she\u2019s not going to get any help from them, or anyone else. And<\/em>
\n4. Excessive violence. PG 13 is probably okay. R is probably not. I\u2019ll let you use your best judgement on that one.<\/em>
\n5. Deus ex machinas. No \u201cOh, look, somebody left the door unlocked! Lucky me!\u201d, or \u201cLook, I happen to have a magical door unlocking device with me! I grabbed it when I got kidnapped, but I guess they didn\u2019t notice!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The cell is modern day with fairly heavy security (though I\u2019m willing to make adjustments on the exact nature of the cell\/security system), something that perhaps the CIA or FBI might have at their offices. There probably will be security cameras, though I\u2019m flexible about that one. I don\u2019t need her to escape the whole compound (I already have that planned out), just to get out of the cell she\u2019s stuck in.<\/em><\/p>\n

NPennyworth suggested: It sounds like the only way she\u2019s getting out is if someone lets her out. Maybe she can use her age to her advantage and trick a guard into taking her out, maybe something like she says she has a stomach bug and pretends to throw up, or insists she needs to go to the bathroom. Once the guard opens the door maybe she could stomp on his foot and incapacitate him, and take it from there.<\/em><\/p>\n

And Poppie said, I agree with NPennyworth about your escape scene: being let out is the only logical way to get away. I have never written about breakouts, so the only other thing I can recommend, is reading and watching some appropriate books and movies about the subject.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m with Poppie, in that research may be useful. We can google \u201cfamous prison escapes,\u201d and even try \u201cescapes from juvenile facilities,\u201d since Kitty\u2019s MC is twelve. Then we can mix and match what we come up with to suit our circumstances.<\/p>\n

Kitty seems to be after originality in solving her incarceration problem, and the key, in my opinion, to original solutions is character.<\/p>\n

Who is our MC? What characteristics that we\u2019ve already established can she use to get herself out? NPennyworth suggests she pretends to throw up to get out of her cell. This becomes more plausible if she has a history of feigning illness to evade going to school, and the reader knows she\u2019s really good at it. She\u2019s discovered ingenious ways to make herself look pale and clammy or turn green or pink with fever. We have her decide which illness will \u00a0most likely get her out, possibly make the guards uneasy and unlikely to scrutinize her closely. This can be a lot of fun to write\u2013and to read.<\/p>\n

But we can give her other useful qualities. She can be artistic or persuasive or over-the-top charming. Let\u2019s go with artistic. There isn\u2019t much to work with in her cell, but she pulls a few strands of horsehair out of her ratty mattress and fashions a convincing tarantula in the corner. It won\u2019t bear close examination, but from across the cell, it\u2019s a stunner. The reader already knows that the prison is in the desert, so tarantulas aren\u2019t an impossibility. Then she starts screaming. Guard rushes in, stands in the doorway, annoyed, says, \u201cWhat?\u201d She points. He runs in or runs out, leaves the door open.<\/p>\n

This escape, or any escape, will be most believable if our MC has tried once or twice before and failed.<\/p>\n

When we use character, the qualities we exploit have to be revealed earlier, when our MC is established. If she becomes artistic in her cell half an hour before she makes the fake spider, the reader is likely to be unconvinced and may shout \u201cMary Sue!\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Kitty\u2019s Mary Sue example typifies the problem of the solution that pops out of nowhere. We may be able to pull off a knowledge of obscure physics or chemistry principles if the reader knows she\u2019s a genius in those subjects, and this is established very early in the story. But scientific brilliance plus the ability to dangle from walls, even if set up early, will probably be too much for a reader to buy and may move our MC from a real \u00a0girl to a young\u00a0super-heroine.<\/p>\n

Our MC isn\u2019t the only character we can use. If she\u2019s observant (a really handy quality that we can give to almost any MC, along with whatever else we give her), she\u2019ll pay attention to prison routine, the personality of this guard and that and of her fellow prisoners (which Kitty suggests she already knows). She can plan to use the nice guard in one way, the one who does everything by the book in another. Any other characters in her prison life can also be brought in to serve her\u00a0purpose.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to make the escape too easy. In the same way we use our MC\u2019s character to let her escape, we can use her character to cause her to fail in an early attempt or to almost fail in her final successful one. Suppose she\u2019s the spider artist, but she needs her creations to be admired, she may give herself away the first time. The reader will be terrified for her. An added benefit of an MC\u2019s flaw is that it will counteract any Mary Sue\u2019ishness the reader may have detected in her.<\/p>\n

In the same way we use character we can also use the prison setting to develop the escape\u2013although character will usually be part of it. Here again research may help. We can google prisons: maps, routines, personnel. It may be useful to search on well-run prisons and badly run prisons. Think about how your MC can use what you discover. Again, we need to set this up as early as possible so that whatever she turns to her advantage doesn\u2019t seem too convenient to the reader. If there happens to be an abandoned aqueduct, for example, just outside the prison walls, our MC and the reader need to know about it before escape planning begins.<\/p>\n

A lovely aspect of writing is that time inside our story doesn\u2019t behave for us as it does for our characters. We can realize as we\u2019re writing her escape that she doesn\u2019t realize a crucial fact she needs to realize. Zip! We jump back three days and twenty pages and sew the fact in seamlessly so it\u2019s there when she has to have it.<\/p>\n

Obviously, these strategies apply not only to prison breaks, but also to any pickle our MC may find herself in.<\/p>\n

Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Design an escape for a character using another quality other than artistic ability. Make one up or pick one or use one of these: persuasiveness, charm, taciturnity, short attention span, high energy. Write the escape.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Rewrite the scene, but this time make it fail because of a character flaw. Keep her alive, though, and have her try again. If you haven\u2019t before, bring in secondary characters and use their personalities in the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Write an escape in which the prison itself, its routine or layout, possibly its computer system, is crucial to success.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am proud and relieved to announce that the Two Princesses prequel has a title. Alas, the dragons in sales and marketing nixed all other suggestions, including excellent choices from the blog, and I had to cudgel my head again. But finally, I came up with this one, which they like, my editor likes, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,291,301],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":698,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}