The Important Thing We May Forget

 

One little thing we may forget while writing a story could make the difference between a sale and a rejection. So, that little thing turns out to be not so little after all, doesn’t it? What is that little thing; our character’s goal.

Our characters must have at least one goal.  They must each have a dream or a desire; something they are working toward or wish to acquire.

Your character’s goal could be what makes or breaks the story. For example; sometimes the goal is something the character desires so desperately he/she will do anything to get it. This type of goal seems to fit right in there with motive. It makes the reader wonder if  the character wants it so badly he’d kill for it? It also makes the reader care about the character acquiring that goal.

Now doesn’t that add an element of suspense to the story? Doesn’t that keep the reader glued to his/her seat and the pages turning?

In The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction, author Barnaby Conrad writes that:

Memorable characters have goals, attitudes, and qualities which keep them from conventional responses. They are briny, perfervid, driven beings caught up in some quest or vision. . . Les Miserables would lose most of its bite if a laid-back Inspector Javert limited his pursuit of Jean Valjean to weekends and holidays; there would be no dramatic thrust if Captain Ahab was less than full-throttle in his seek-and-destroy mission against the white whale; there would be no Maltese Falcon if Brigid O’Shaugnessey, Caspar Guttman, and Joel Cairo had stopped short of murder and duplicity in their quest for the fabled black statuette.

While the goal of a character may seem like an unimportant matter to some writers, we must see that a character without a goal is equivalent to a book without a story to tell.

Do you agree or disagree? Why? How desperately do your characters want what they want, and how far would they do to get it?

Five Ways To Lose Your Readers

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Want to lose your reading audience? Of course not. Yet, readers make mistakes and do just that. I’ve listed five of many blunders that are guaranteed to cause you either to lose your readers or put them to sleep.

1. Interfere with the story.

I don’t believe anything is worse than an author who interrupts the story. Some feel a desire to stress how intelligent they are by adding additional, unnecessary content to the story. All that does is scream ‘Author! Author!’ It’s nothing more than the writer showing off.  And it’s patronizing. Think of it as telling a joke and stopping before the punch line to explain more because you assume your listeners aren’t intelligent enough to get it. 

2. Create unbelievable characters.

Make your characters look, speak and behave like the characters of another, or many other novels. You know, cardboard or cookie-cutter style.  That will either put the reader to sleep or cause him to toss the book across the room. It sounds like writing 101, however, I’m sure you tell me of many books you’ve tossed for that exact reason. It’s almost as though the author is trying to recreate a popular character with whom readers are already acquainted.

3. Forget about pace.

Who needs to bother with pacing a novel anyway? Let it go where it goes.  You know, stream-of-consciousness. They’ll follow along, right?

Wrong!  Pace is vital to a novel.  Compare pacing to horseracing. According to William Noble in Conflict, Action And Suspense, “The key to good pacing is to recognize that there are moments of acceleration and deceleration in every horse race…in every story.”

4. Leave out conflict and suspense.

Leave out opposing characters, arguments between them, and the sense that something is about to happen, and you’ve lost what could’ve been faithful readers. If you don’t develop a sense of impending doom or have the forces of nature interfere with the story, you have no conflict or suspense.  Your characters must ask questions, search for answers, and stumble upon obstacles (or bodies). And consider having your chapters end with cliff-hangers. That makes it almost impossible for the reader to put the book down.

5. Finally, don’t give your characters any goals to achieve or secrets to keep.

Throughout the story your main character should desire something. There should be something vital at stake, or an important decision to make. Develop a sense that she could lose what’s most important to her if she makes the wrong choice. Maybe give her a shady past, or a skeleton or two in the closet. If so, she would have secrets and that would heighten your story.

What other ways can you think of to lose readers? What blunders have you made?  I’d love to read your responses.

Also, Carol Riggs has an exciting new young adult novel titled: Junction 2020 available http://carolriggs.blogspot.com/: Check it out!

In Response to Rachelle Gardner’s Hair Ripping Blog

This blog is a response to literary agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog and comments on self-publishing. I posted it last November and received such a great response I felt the need to re-post it. (http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com)

If I were Rachelle, I’d be ripping my hair out at the roots. Why can’t we all just agree to disagree?

Can a self-published author find an agent and publisher? Yes and no. The question is: Is the writing good enough? The answer: That depends upon the author. For example: I have three POD suspense novels available through my website: http://www.mj-macie-mysterybooks.com. I have painstakingly edited each novel and put my heart into every sentence. Some self-published authors have not. Some authors slap words on a page, or worse yet stream-of-conscientiousness on a page, and call that a book.

Recently, an author published by Simon & Schuster sent an email asking why I had chosen to go with POD. She stated that my work had been edited, I have a natural talent and that I had captured her interest from the beginning of the book. My answer: I listened to God and my husband. “Get the work out there and they will respond,” my husband said. So, I did and my novels are selling.

One of the responses I received to this blog stated a reluctance to purchase a self-published book because, “They are so horribly edited.” This reader paid twenty dollars for a book and found spelling errors. Yes, we all know Word corrects those for us; however, this author didn’t bother to use the spell-check. Yes, I agree not editing the work does give self-publishers a bad rap.

Another reader responded that books are expensive enough as it is and would rather pay money for one published by a reputable company than take a chance with a self-published author who may not have edited his/her book.

One reader made a contrary response. This one stated that with traditional publishing the author in many cases has to do all their own promotional work. In addition, the author has to sell a lot of novels to earn a return, so unless the publisher was going to pay a large advance, there was no advantage to publishing the traditional route.

Finally, one reader stated that, “Self-publishing doesn't equate second class books. It could. But it doesn't have to!”

What do I think? Can a self-published author find an agent and publisher? Absolutely! Will it happen? Well, that depends upon the author.

What do you think? Do you believe a self-published author can find an agent and publisher? Do you prefer going the traditional route or do you prefer self-publishing? Have you had any luck going the traditional way? I’d love to hear your responses.
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

My Faux Pas

Is it improper to invite someone to check out your blog? To leave your link in a response on theirs?

It seems I’ve committed this major faux pas and was confused as to why. I thought one of the reasons for links was to make things easier for the internet user. In fact, one of the reasons for the internet is to make life easier for the user. I found both links and the internet have made my life a great deal less stressful. I’ve also made a few friends by leaving a link to my blog. New friends in which I have something in common.

I asked myself, what’s the harm? If they leave a link to their blog and I want to check it out, I’ll click, if I’m not interested, I won’t. No big deal, right? Turns out I’m wrong.

So why all the fuss about leaving a link to your blog in a response? I have graciously been informed that many writers don’t appreciate us leaving our link in a response to their blogs. To all those writers I’ve linked, I am truly sorry. I meant no harm. I now understand some writers look at a link attached to a response as advertising our sites on their blogs. I now understand how that would appear as intrusive and offensive.

What do you think? Are you also guilty of advertising on another's blog?