Plot, Story and Tension

Plot and character are the two forces at the heart of every story.

I'm reading 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B Tobias. It is brilliant!

In the first third or so of the book Ronald B Tobias asks the questions: What is plot? What is character? What patterns make up plot?

What follows are some of my notes.

Plot Is A Force, A Process, Not An Object

Plot is about creating expectations in the reader.

We often hear the metaphor that plot is a skeleton that holds your story together, and this metaphor makes sense, but there's a problem:

Plot isn't a wire hanger you hang the clothes of a story on. Plot is diffusive, it permeates all the atoms of fiction. It can't be deboned.

Tobias writes that plot is like electromagnetism, it's "the force that draws the atoms of the story together. It correlates images, events and people."

[Plot] is a force that attracts all the atoms of language (words, sentences, paragraphs) and organizes them according to a certain sense (character, action, location). It is the cumulative effect of plot and character that creates the whole.

Plot isn't dead, it isn't static. "Plot isn't an accessory that conveniently organizes your material according to some ritualistic magic. You don't just plug in a plot like a household appliance and expect it to do its job. Plot is organic. It takes hold of the writer and the work from the beginning."

Story: A Chronicle Of Events

Here's the distinction Tobias draws between story and plot: story is composed of a series of events but plot has to do with the causal interactions between the events.

In Why Detection? P.D. James writes:

E. M. Forster has written: 'The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died and the queen died of grief is a plot.'

Ronald B Tobias writes:

Story ... is a chronicle of events. The listener wants to know what comes next.

Plot is more than just a chronicle of events. The listener asks a different question: "Why does this happen?"

Story is a series of events strung like beads on a string. (This happened and then this happened and then …)

Plot is a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that constantly create a pattern of unified action and behavior. Plot involves the reader in the game of "Why?"

Story requires only curiosity to know what will happen next.

Plot requires the ability to remember what has already happened, to figure out the relationships between events and people, and to try to project the outcome.

Where story is "a narration of events in the sequence that they happened" plot "is a story that has a pattern of action and reaction".

Aristotle's concept of unified action lies at the heart of the plot. Cause and effect. This happens because that happened, and so on.

The Three Parts Of A Story

A unified action creates a whole made up of a beginning, middle and an end.

Part 1: Setup

In the first part of the story you present the problem that must be solved. This is the initial action.

Here you define your characters and what they want, what they need. This is their intent.

What your characters want is their motivation, it is WHY they do what they do.

Part 2: Rising Action

"Whenever intention is denied, the effect is tension."

Tension is created through opposition.

Characters DO things, they act on the want/need set up in Part 1. That was the cause, now in the middle of the story we see the effect.

Problems/Reversals

In the second part of your story characters run into problems that keep them from successfully completing their intentions.

Your protagonist is motivated by her wants, her desires, and she acts to fulfill them, but something prevents her from doing this, from attaining her goal.

Aristotle called this something a reversal. Tobias writes, "Reversals cause tension and conflict because they alter the path the protagonist must take to get to her intended goal."

Recognition

Recognition is "the point in the story where the relationships between major characters change as the result of the reversal."

A reversal is an event but recognition is "the irreversible emotional change within the characters brought about by that event".

Part 3: The End

The ending is the logical outcome of all the events in the last two parts.

Three things happen at the end: the climax, falling action and the denouement.

Tension

We've already seen that tension = conflict but there are different kinds of tension.

Local tension 

Local tension is the result of a conflict of the moment. Local tension doesn't have much of an effect outside the immediate circumstances that created the tension. For instance, consider the following story:

Boy meets girl.
Boy asks girl to marry him.
Girl says no.
Boy asks girl why.
Girl says, "Because you smoke."

The girl's refusal to marry the boy because he smokes creates a local tension. It is the result of a conflict of the moment. As the name suggests it doesn't have much of an effect outside the immediate circumstances that created the tension.

Because of its localized effect you can't write a novel based on local tensions. It wouldn't work. We need something bigger. Even stringing together local tensions wouldn't work. We need to dig deeper into the character and find out what makes him or her tick.

For instance, we could write a novel about the boy's internal struggle whether to quit smoking for the girl. It could be that her father died because he smoked and she doesn't want to risk losing her husband the same way. This would pit the boy's desire to smoke in direct conflict with  his wish/desire to marry the girl. Why is smoking important to him? Yes, it's an addiction, but perhaps there is a deeper reason.

Ultimately the boy will have to choose between smoking and the girl. Those are strong, or relatively strong, opposing forces that are grounded in character.

Make tension grow as opposition increases

A story requires constant tension and this tension needs to build as the climax approaches. This is another reason we need strong tension, something that can exist in the background.

Also, though, the protagonist needs to encounter a series of obstacles/conflicts, each of which deepens the opposition and builds intensity.

As we saw in the previous section, local conflict/tension can't do this on its own. If you throw a series of local conflicts at your character your readers will just be bored. Tobias writes:

The serious conflicts, the ones that are the foundation of plot, are the ones that deal with the character in fundamental ways.

At the end of the story, in the third act, the tension, the crisis, needs to deepen.

"You must continually test the character through each phrase of dramatic action."

Every time something happens the stakes grow. For instance in Fatal Attraction, "The effect of action is to snowball, increasing tension and conflict from the mundane story of a man who has cheated on his wife to one who is battling a psychotic woman who is willing to kill to get her man".

#  #  #

Well, that's it! Those are my notes so far. 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B Tobias is a terrific book, I recommend it if you want to read something about plotting and the craft of fiction.

What do you think of Tobias' view of plot as inseparable from story?

Other articles you might like:

- Patricia Cornwell Vindicated In Court, Wins 50.9 Million Dollars
- Story Structure Provides A Framework For Meaning
- 6 Ways To Get Rid Of Infodumps At The Beginning Of A Story

Photo credit: "Against the wind | Chennai Marina Beach" by VinothChandar under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Patricia Cornwell Vindicated In Court, Wins 50.9 Million Dollars

The best-selling crime novelist brought the case against Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP and its former principal, Evan H Snapper. She had paid the company about $40,000 per month for four years to handle her finances.

But the author claimed the company had mismanaged about $89 million of her money, improperly investing it and allegedly misappropriating her funds.

She alleged that, on one occasion, Mr Snapper used her money to write a $5,000 cheque for his daughter as a Bat Mitzvah gift, purportedly a gift from Cornwell.

She also alleged the company had made unauthorized, illegal donations to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign on her behalf.

Mr Snapper has admitted doing this, but told jurors it was on behalf of Cornwell and her friends. He is currently on probation for this offense. (Crime writer Patricia Cornwell wins $51m lawsuit against accountants)

A federal court jury has awarded Patricia Cornwell $50.9 million in damages, finding her former financial company cheated her, her wife, and her company out of tens of millions of dollars. A federal judge could increase the award.

For the last seven weeks, Boston has had an uncensored view of Cornwell’s life as it has played out at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse, after she sued Snapper and his company for negligence in the handling of her finances.

She has been forced to lay out her lavish lifestyle and her struggles with depression and bipolar disorder. With the words of a writer, she speaks of how she “has been eating ­arsenic for weeks,” and how “a whole mountain of rocks has been lifted off me.”

But by Tuesday afternoon the fight — an “autopsy” of her life, as she put it — had been worth it, she said. She had felt it was her responsibility to bring legal action, knowing there are people who would not have the resources to do it if they were in such a position, playing a leadership role as her heroine, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, would have.

“I tend to be outraged by ­injustices,” said Cornwell, 56. “It’s about as complicated as one of my novels; that’s for sure.” (Author Patricia Cornwell awarded $50.9m in suit)

"Outraged" is exactly the word for it. Although Patricia Cornwell and Staci Ann Gruber never discovered exactly how much money Ms. Cornwell had lost, they knew she had made "more than $89 million in her four years with Anchin, only to find she was worth little more than what she had when the relationship began".

If you would like to read more about the verdict, here are a few articles:

Link to the written verdict
Author Patricia Cornwell awarded $50.9m in suit, Boston Globe
Crime writer Patricia Cornwell wins $51m lawsuit against accountants, The Telegraph
Author Patricia Cornwell wins $51M in suit against management firm, National Post
Patricia Cornwell wins $50m in damages, The Guardian

Other articles you might like:

- Joe Konrath Made $15,000 dollars over 7 days using Amazon Select
- How To Write Short Stories
- 7 Tips On How To Get Your Guest Post Accepted

Photo credit: "::Books have knowledge, knowledge is power, power corrupts, corruption is a crime,,,::" by » Zitona « under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Story Structure Provides A Framework For Meaning

PJ Reece in How to Create a Story Structure to Die For writes that a story is really made up of two stories and a middle. What happens at the middle of the story? In a word: death.

Death

In the middle of your story the hero dies, though not literally.

Figure 1: 10 of Swords

Like the tarot card of the same name, his death isn't literal. If there is a death card in the tarot I think it's the 10 of swords (see Figure 1). The death card (see picture at top)--the 13th card of the major arcana--is more about change. It signifies the end of one story, or way of life, and the beginning of the next. More than anything, it's about rebirth.

Heroes Have To Fail Before They Succeed 

In genre fiction, heroes usually succeed in their quest. We want to see the good-guy (or gal) win and triumph over their obstacles.

But in order for the protagonist's victory to mean something there has to be an ever present sense of the possibility of loss.

The way we give the reader this sense is by making it clear that the hero can fail. In fact, failure should be much more likely than victory.

How do we do this? How do we convince our readers that the protagonist can fail? By showing him fail, repeatedly, earlier in the story. As PJ Reece writes:

[In the Oscar winning movie, The Artist, a] silent movie star watches in dismay as talking pictures become all the rage.  George Valentin finds himself with no job, no girl, no more adoring fans.  He takes up the bottle and slips into oblivion.  Most protagonists would straightaway fall into the dark heart of the story and wake-up to the facts of life.

But not George.

Our hero continues to believe in yesteryear, which lays himself open to more punishment.  The screenwriter pushes George to rage and all the way to self-loathing.  His beliefs are literally killing him.  It looks like George might actually commit suicide.

That’s a story!

That brings us to the midpoint, the "dark heart of the story". This is where the hero relinquishes his old belief system--the symbolic death--and embraces a new way of viewing the world, and his problems.

Why The Hero Needs To Suffer

In each story there is a truth. Perhaps this truth is covered by the theme (for instance, 'liars never win') or perhaps it's something the hero needs to find out before he can accomplish his goal (this is his external goal, the story goal).

For instance, in The Firm Mitch McDeere had to re-discover the truth that he loved the law, and not just the money he could make from practicing it. It was that truth that let him to steer his way through the Scylla and Charybdis of the FBI and the mob.

The point is that the hero's suffering has to be connected to this truth, the truth that they need to uncover to overcome the obstacles before them and achieve their goal.

For instance, in Shrek the truth was that he had built up layers of protection around him to keep the world at bay because he didn't think anyone could love him. He was scared of getting hurt. Shrek had to confront this fear and overcome it in order to win the hand of the lady he loved. He had to come to a point where he realized the truth--that he wanted a companion, that he wanted Fiona. Shrek's failures helped him realize this.

Or so I would argue.

Other articles you might like:

- 6 Ways To Get Rid Of Infodumps At The Beginning Of A Story
- 8 Tips From Chuck Wendig On How To Read Like A Writer
- Author Solutions: The New Carnys?

Photo credits:
- Top photo (13th card of the major arcana in the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck): "RWS Tarot 13 Death.jpg" by Pamela Coleman Smith. File is no longer under copyright in US.
- Figure 1: 10 of Swords in the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck, "Swords10.jpg" by Pamela Coleman Smith. File is no longer under copyright in US.

6 Ways To Get Rid Of Infodumps At The Beginning Of A Story

There are two entrenched ways of thinking about story openings.

Folks either think a story needs to open with setting and a detailed introduction to the characters or they think that any description in the first, say, quarter of the story should be bare-bones and that backstory (/infodumps) should be kept, by and large, for the last half of the story.

I tend to agree that infodumps should be avoided at the beginning of a story but that often leaves the writer with a problem. How do we work in backstory when it's needed at the beginning to set the stage?

John Yeoman (@yeomanis) has written what has to be hands-down the most useful article on how to work backstory in at the beginning I've ever read. Which comes as no surprise since he was guest posting on one of my favorite blogs--Elizabeth S. Craig's blog, Mystery Writing Is Murder.

6 Ways To Work Backstory In At The Beginning

1. The naive stranger

A favourite device is to have a stranger ask a naive question. “‘Sir, why is the village school built next to a jail?’ Old Tom smiled. ‘It’s a long story,’ he began...”

Only, don’t make the story too long!

2. The helpful gossip

Whenever that great rival to Sherlock Holmes, Dr Thorndyke, was presented with a village mystery he - and his foil, Jervis - would dine in the local pub. Inevitably, a garrulous maid or landlord would volunteer a vital clue.

Postal workers, shopkeepers, doctors, priests and other community insiders are great volunteers of background ‘stuff’. (But avoid prurient old ladies who lurk behind curtains. The world has room for only one Miss Marple.)

3. The ‘official’ tour guide

If somebody is playing host, they can plausibly entertain their guests with anecdotal histories. A tree on a hill, a book upon a shelf, any object that draws attention to itself can provoke a story.

‘My grandfather carried this with him at the Somme...’

A tourist brochure, newspaper clipping or public poster can also disclose 'stuff' in a casual way, without disrupting the narrative. ‘Official’ information appears to come to the reader unmediated by interpretation, so it has a high truth value.

This can usefully mislead the reader - say, in a mystery story - where the official information, accepted by everyone, turns out to be wrong.

I have just had great fun writing an historical mystery tale (soon to be on Kindle, Amazon permitting). It proves, indisputably, that Queen Elizabeth I of England was not a red head. The records are wrong.

4. The chance remark

.  .  .  .

[L]et the background details unfold in dialogue, by way of chance remarks.

“‘You don’t want to go there,’ the garage attendant said as he checked my oil. ‘They never did find her body.’”

Further remarks can develop that back story - and any small event whatever can cue a chance remark.

.  .  .  .

5. Break it up with action

If granny really must dump the whole history of the family on the reader, break it up. Add conflict or action. Perhaps an exasperating child keeps changing the subject. Or a pet cat gets tangled in her knitting.

While granny copes with the distractions, the reader will stay with the story - if only to see the wretched child or cat get their comeuppance. (Five Ways to Handle Stuff and Other Nonsense)

John Yeoman closes by writing:

‘Stuff’ doesn’t have to be nonsense. We need ‘stuff’ to create a context. What the reader doesn’t need is a lot of digressive details that are unrelated to the plot and that they’ll never remember anyway.

I hope John Yeoman won't mind if I add a sixth way:

6.  Honored, yet grumpy, guest/Talk to a reporter

This is similar to John Yeoman's #3, the official tour guide, but I thought I'd include it anyway.

In one of my works-in-progress, I needed to insert an information dump at the beginning. It didn't work--I knew it didn't--and if there had been any doubt my beta readers firmly, but kindly, removed it. (Love them!)

Then I read a novel in which the protagonist talked to a reporter and necessary information was introduced. I thought the devise worked. (This demonstrates the importance of reading like a writer.)

In my WIP my protagonist, a zoo director, gives the Mayor a tour around the zoo and has to explain no end of things. I also use this tour to set up the Mayor as an antagonistic force which allows me to introduce one of the core problems facing the protagonist.

There are many different ways to sneak information in at the beginning of a book. Which ones are your favorites? 

Other articles you might like:

- 8 Tips From Chuck Wendig On How To Read Like A Writer
- Author Solutions: The New Carnys?
- Structured Procrastination: Procrastinate And Get Things Done

Photo credit: "read on the wall" by MarioMancuso under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

8 Tips From Chuck Wendig On How To Read Like A Writer

Posts like this--How To Read Like A Writer--are why I love Chuck Wendig's blog.

Chuck Wendig has identified something I've felt in a hazy kind of way and shined a spotlight on it. (After reading his post I'm tempted to write 'shined a #@*#! spotlight on it'. Color me impressionable.) He writes:

You can’t just pick up a book, read it, and have its wisdom absorbed into you. Eating a microwave burrito doesn’t make you a chef. Sitting on a chair doesn’t make you a ... carpenter. And reading doesn’t make you a writer. (How To Read Like A Writer)

Makes sense! Of course the saying--A writer must read and write--is true as far as it goes, it's just not terribly helpful due to its generality.

Chuck Wendig gets beautifully specific.

Chuck Wendig's Tips On How To Read Like A Writer

1. Be present in the text

I have trouble with this. For instance, I'm currently reading Kim Harrison's latest book in her Hollows series--Ever After--and whenever I start reading it I'm sucked in.

Every time I try to snap out of the story and examine the words she's using--examine how she's able to submerge me in her world--I get sucked in again!

But, yes, being present in the text is something I strive for. Though, tragically, it is easiest to achieve when I'm reading a book I'm lukewarm about.

2. Read to understand; dissect the page

Chuck Wendig writes:

[A] chef doesn't just eat to enjoy. A chef watches how another chef operates. A chef wants to look at technique and then wants to see how that technique translates to the food on the plate: what ingredients are present? What textures and spices? What ancient shellfish from beyond space and time?

A Chef wants to understand how the other chef creates his culinary magic.

Chuck Wendig doesn't specify, in this section, what precisely he has in mind by 'dissect the page', but in his article 25 Things I Want To Say To So-Called “Aspiring” Writers, he writes:

And, when you do read something, you learn from it by dissecting it--what is the author doing? How are the characters and plot drawn together?

That reminds me of something I wrote down in my writing journal earlier today: Create a goal for your character that will eventually force them to deal with their unique weakness.

I think that's a paraphrase, not a direct quotation. It's from a three minute YouTube video about characterization: How To Make An Audience Care About Your Characters by John Truby. (The 3 minute video is excellent.)

So, for starters, I need to ask myself things like:

- What is the protagonist's weakness?
- What is her external goal?
- How will the protagonist achieving their goal resolve the character's weakness? (Sometimes the weakness is called the characters 'wound', or their 'internal goal'.)

I think that the stories I would rate as mediocre probably don't do the above well.

3. Read with questions in mind

Here are Chuck Wendig's suggestions:

- How did the author write this?
- Why did the author write it this way? Why did she choose the words she did?
- What is the ratio of dialogue to description?
- How does the author handle character? Setting? Action?
- How would you do it differently?

4. Read to critique

As Chuck Wending notes, a critique is an analysis. I came across an excellent article the other day about how to structure a story. One idea I had for a blog post was to take a classic short story--a very VERY short story--and analyse it in terms of character development, pacing and story structure.

I think doing that sort of analysis would benefit me more than reading any number of books solely for pleasure.

5. Read deeply

Chuck Wendig advises us to "look beyond the words".

- What themes are at work?
- What ideas are expressed?
- What were the author's childhood traumas? Look for the author's personal contribution to the unfolding story.
- What is the subtext?

6. Understand the interplay between writing and storytelling

This is another reason why I love Chuck Wendig's blog posts. This is SO true! But I can't recall anyone else ever saying it, at least not this clearly. CW writes:

Those are two separate skills (or crafts, or arts, or magical leprechaun incantations or whatever you want to call them) — the story comprises all those narrative components and the writing comprises the language that communicates those narrative components. Both have structure. Both utilize the other. Separate but then ask: how and how well do they work together?

7. Read from the screen

Be eclectic in your research, don't just read novels. CW writes:

Watch television. Films. Games. Get scripts. Read those. You’ll learn a lot about dialogue and description. You’ll learn the architecture of story.

8. Read beyond the walls of your pleasure dome

I'm bad at this. Atrocious. I read what I like, I should get recommendations from my writer friends and read those books even if they don't, initially, seem like my cup of tea. Chuck Wendig writes:

If all you do is read in the genre in which you write and/or enjoy, you’ve created for yourself a narrative echo chamber — your own authorial intentions are boomeranged back to you. You gain nothing.

Chuck Wendig ends his article by writing:

[I]f this writing thing is what you want to do with some or all of your life, then accept that reading is part of the job. And this job demands that all the lights in your brain are turned on, not dulled to a dim room in order to passively absorb the haw-haws and ooh-aahs of entertainment. Read like a writer, goddamnit.

Amen!

Do you read like a writer? What questions do you ask when you read?

Other articles you might like:

- Author Solutions: The New Carnys?
- Structured Procrastination: Procrastinate And Get Things Done
- Joanna Penn's Tips For Writing Realisitic Fight Scenes

Photo credit: "Week #1 "New" [1of52]" by Camera Eye Photography under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Author Solutions: The New Carnys?

I love carnivals and respect the hardworking folk who run them, but ever since I read Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz I've associated the word "carny" with "benign shyster". Like Vegas, no matter what you do, the house always wins.

We accept this if we gamble, but would feel quite differently if the guy who came to fix our refrigerator sold us parts we didn't need and inflated what would have been a $400 charge into a $4,000 one.

That's not cool.

Here's the definition of fraud, courtesy of Google:

1. Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
2. A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.

I'm not a lawyer, but I've often marveled that at a time when traditional publishing houses are closing their doors forever, Author Solutions isn't just surviving, it's thriving.

Author Solutions: Why It Should Be Called 'Author Problems'

Recall that Pearson, Penguin's parent company, bought Author Solutions in 2012 for $116 million. Why did Penguin buy Author Solutions? I'll let David Gaughran explain:

What does Author Solutions bring to the table? Well, for starters, around $100m in annual revenue. Roughly two-thirds of that money comes from the sale of services to writers, and only one-third from the royalties generated by the sale of their books.

Pause for a moment and consider that statistic. Penguin isn’t purchasing a company which provides real value to writers. They are purchasing an operation skilled at milking writers.

That's right. Author Solutions makes most of its money not from selling books but from selling services to authors.

Here's an example of what this means for authors.

Jean Rikhoff's Experiences With iUniverse, a subsidiary of Author Solutions

Jean Rikhoff is a celebrated writer (see Jean Rikhoff's Wikipedia entry).

Jean Rikhoff has written seven novels and two young adult biographies, collaborated on two anthologies, and founded "Quixote" an Anglo-American literary review. She also helped found The Loft Press, taught English, and served as an English department chair at Adirondack Community College. Rikhoff, now retired, lives in Upstate New York. (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: A Memoir)

 Here are a list of Jean's formal complains against iUniverse:

- iUniverse assured her they could embed the pictures she wanted included in her book. They gave her a contract and took her money, but later told her their machines were not able to print her books as she had requested.

- Once Jean was turned over to the editorial staff at iUniverse, she received numerous phone calls about services not covered under her initial package. They told her she would want to take them because she had been awarded Editor’s Choice, a tactic Jean charmingly refers to as a “buttering up for the skinning.”

- Jean was sold copy editing services from iUniverse that she was told would cost close to $400. She agreed, and her credit card was charged $3,794.33. She disputed the charges with her credit card company.

- She went over the “editing” iUniverse provided and found more than 100 errors.

- Jean attempted to get resolution for her issues, but iUniverse employees stopped responding to her. She emailed at least four different employees. Finally someone named Joseph said he couldn’t help, but he’d try to get someone who could. Her original contact was gone, there was a “reorganization” within the company.

- Jean eventually got a final proof that was riddled with formatting problems and copyediting errors, even though they’d charged her nearly $4,000 for editorial review. When she complained, the response from iUniverse was, “The designers do not go page by page looking at the formatting.”

- Jean got one softcover and one hardcover book; she never received the remaining author copies she paid for as part of her initial publishing package.

- They spelled her name wrong on the jacket, despite her correcting this on the proof numerous times.

- Royalties were never paid. (Jean Rikhoff Takes iUniverse & Author Solutions Complaints to Indiana Attorney General)

That's an impressive list! Jean was told editing would cost her $400 and then iUniverse charged her $4000, wow. That's incredible.

David Gaughran reminds us that over 150,000 writers have suffered at the hands of Author Solutions and that number is sure to grow now that Penguin has given them a patina of respectability.

DG points out, though, it's not just Penguin who seems comfortable with Author Solutions' business practises.

Presumably Random House has no issue with Author Solutions, given that they are merging with Penguin, and operations are expanding.

Simon & Schuster must feel the same way, given that they hired Author Solutions to run their own self-publishing operation, as did Harlequin, Hay House, and Harper Collins-owned Thomas Nelson.

That’s four of the “Big Six” involved with Author Solutions in some form or another – along with the biggest Romance publisher in the world.

And now Author Solutions is expanding into India (see: Penguin India Launches Partridge – a Self-Publishing Service for Suckers). 

Buyer--or in this case writer--beware.

Have you, or anyone you know, had business dealings with Author Solutions? If so, was the experience positive?

Other articles you might like:

- Structured Procrastination: Procrastinate And Get Things Done
- Joanna Penn's Tips For Writing Realisitic Fight Scenes
- Story Craft: Five Important Questions

Photo credit: "'Children's Carnival' - Paul Landacre - Wood Engraving - 1946" by Thomas Shahan 3 under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Structured Procrastination: Procrastinate And Get Things Done

Writers are often world-class procrastinators. Rather than writing now, we write later. The good news is that you can be a world-class procrastinator and still get things done.

John Perry writes:

[T]he procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.

Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.

.  .  .  .

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being.

At this point you may be asking, "How about the important tasks at the top of the list, that one never does?" Admittedly, there is a potential problem here.

The trick is to pick the right sorts of projects for the top of the list. The ideal sorts of things have two characteristics, First, they seem to have clear deadlines (but really don't). Second, they seem awfully important (but really aren't). Luckily, life abounds with such tasks. In universities the vast majority of tasks fall into this category, and I'm sure the same is true for most other large institutions.

To learn more, read Structured Procrastination.

Other articles you might like:

- Story Craft: Five Important Questions
- Joe Konrath Made $15,000 dollars over 7 days using Amazon Select
- Screenwriting Software: Adobe Story

Photo credit: "¿¿¿???" by Luz Adriana Villa A. under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Joanna Penn's Tips For Writing Realisitic Fight Scenes

All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.
- ERICA JONG

Tips For Writing Realistic Fight Scenes

Jarrah Loh is an international kickboxer and here are his tips for writing realistic fight scenes:

(1) Watch some fights, not just movies. Jarrah does recommend UFC as the closest to a street fight.

(2) Go get in a fight – but in a controlled environment, for example, a martial arts class. You will be shocked by how you feel. I mention that I went to a Krav Maga class (as Morgan Sierra, my protagonist, is ex-Israeli military). They kicked my ass and it took me days to recover!

(3) Don’t explain the fight too much, but describe the heat and fury and emotion of a fight rather than the exact physical movements. Keep the pace moving.

Gender differences in fighting. UFC are just introducing a women’s division and there are women fighters. Jarrah explains that the female fighters he knows have a lot of self confidence, for example, Bec ‘Rowdy’ Hyatt, has 2 children and went from overweight to a champion fighter who turned her life around with martial arts.

To read the rest of Jarrah's tips click here: On Violence And Writing Fight Scenes With Jarrah Loh

Other articles you might like:

- Story Craft: Five Important Questions
- Roleplaying Games, Writing, And The Creation Of Magical Systems
- How to record an audiobook at home

Photo credit: "Devotion" by Bert Kaufmann under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Story Craft: Five Important Questions

The most useful advice I've ever read was Stephen King's admonishment in On Writing that, above all else, one's writing must be clear.

But how can we cash this out? How can we ensure that our writing paints a vivid picture?

C.S. Lakin, in her recent article, 5 Key Questions to Ask as You Write Your Novel, talks about the importance of asking questions.

Questions Create Story

Why are questions important? C.S. Lakin replies: because questions create story. After all, what is a novel except one huge "what if" question?

Here are 5 questions that C.S. Lakin asks whenever she writes a novel.

1. Where is the scene taking place?

One thing I love about Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series are his descriptions. I don't think I've ever had the feeling of being 'blind' when reading about one of Harry's adventures. The first time JB takes us to a new location we get a detailed description, after that a few well-chosen words suffice to reorient/remind us where we are.

Don't forget to include smells, sounds, textures, and so on, in your description.

I find that doing a short warm-up exercise before I begin writing for the day can help put me in the right frame of mind. I try and describe a place using information from at least 3 senses.

2. How much time has passed?

Whenever a change of place occurs so does a change of scene, but a change of place often coincides with a time jump as well. Make sure it's clear whether 5 minutes or 5 days have elapsed.

3. What is your character feeling?

The goal of writing--at least, why I write--is to entertain. In order to entertain readers with a story they need to care about the characters our story is about. How do we accomplish this? By showing the reader our character's emotions.

Yes, absolutely, the characters thoughts are important, but we need to know how story events affect our characters emotionally.

Think of the last movie you saw. How many times was the main character afraid? Worried? Happy? Vengeful?

Let me put it another way. Why would your readers care about the antagonist's eventual defeat (or victory) if the main character doesn't seem to?

Show what your character is feeling, show their reactions.

C.S. Lakin writes:

For every important moment, your character needs to react. First viscerally, then emotionally, then physically and finally, intellectually. Often a writer will show a character reacting with deep thought about a situation, when their first natural reactions are missing.

If you get hit by a car, you aren’t going to first think logically about what happened and what you need to do next. First, you scream or your body slams against the sidewalk and pain streaks through your back.

Keep this adage in mind: for every action, there should be an appropriate, immediate reaction. That’s how you reveal character.

4. What is the point of the scene?

How does this scene move the story forward?

Your point of view character has a goal. Chances are, they're not going to accomplish this goal, or if they do, they'll have to defeat various obstacles in their way. If the protagonist never has to struggle to get what he wants we aren't going to care very much when he,  eventually, gets it (or fails to).

We need to see character under stress, we need to see them improvising, scheming, hoping, developing other ways to achieve what they want, a way that might not work.

A terrific example of the hero being blocked and improvising ("Yes, but .../No, and") happens in Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark: 

Conflict: Do Indie and Marion survive the pit of snakes?
Setback: Yes, they use torches to keep the snakes at bay BUT the torches are about to burn out.

Conflict: Do Indie and Marion escape the pit of snakes before their torches burn out?
Setback: Yes, Indie crashes a pillar through a wall providing them a way to escape BUT the room they enter is filled with skeletons that--for Marion at least--seem to come alive.

Conflict: Will Indie and Marion escape from the ancient burial vault they've been entombed in?
Setback: Yes, BUT the bad guys have the ark and Indie needs to get it back. (Making A Scene: Using Conflicts And Setbacks To Create Narrative Drive).

Bottom line: If the point-of-view character doesn't have a goal, or the goal is unrelated to the story goal, then the scene can't move the narrative forward.

5. What is your protagonist's main external goal?

Your protagonist needs a goal. No goal, no story.

The protagonist's goal will likely change over the course of the story. For instance, Mitch McDeere's goal in The Firm changes midway through from making partner at of Bendini, Lambert & Locke to staying free and not getting disbarred.

C.S. Lakin writes:

That goal [the protagonist's main external goal] should drive the story and be the underpinning for all your scenes. That goal is the glue that holds your novel together. It may not be a ‘huge’ goal, and in the end your character may even fail to reach that goal—you’re the writer; you decide. But have a goal.

These aren't the only questions to ask, there are many, many, more. One book I find immensely useful is Donald Maass' Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook. For instance, here are the questions at the end of his first chapter:

Step 1: Who are your personal heroes? Write down the name of one.
Step 2: What makes this person a hero or heroine to you? What is his or her greatest heroic quality? Write that down.
Step 3: What was the moment in time in which you first became aware of this quality in your hero/heroine? Write that down.
Step 4: Assign that quality to your protagonist. Find a way for he or she actively to demonstrate that quality, even in a small way, in his or her first scene. Make notes, starting now.

When you write, what questions do you ask yourself about each scene?

Other articles you might like:

- Joe Konrath Made $15,000 dollars over 7 days using Amazon Select
- Screenwriting Software: Adobe Story
- Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Write What You Know

Photo credit: "buh buh buh baby" by Vato Bob under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Joe Konrath Made $15,000 dollars over 7 days using Amazon Select

It looks like Joe Konrath has returned to blogging. And what a return! He writes:

In the past seven days, on Kindle, I've made about $15k. I currently have two ebooks in the Top 100 Free list--the same ebooks I blogged about two days ago. Dirty Martini and Trapped are #3 and #4, and Tiemcaster will hit Top 100 later today. I also blogged about four other ebooks by my friends Barry Eisler and Blake Crouch. Both of Barry's ebooks hit the Top 100, peaking at #3. One of Blake's did, and it is still #1 in the UK.

In the past 60 hours, I've sold 2200 ebooks in the US, and had over 400 borrows.

Why?

I have a hypothesis.

Here's Joe's Hypothesis: All things being equal, when you're looking for a book "You're going to take what is right in front of you, currently under your nose". He writes:

I have no doubt that bestselling authors have a lot of fans. But it's one thing waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out, and its another seeing the latest Patterson on the new Release table and picking it up because it is there.

I'm not knocking Patterson. The guy is a genius, on several levels. But how many fans have read every Patterson book vs. every Potter book?

Joe Konrath's Secret For Selling $15,000 in 7 days

Joe attributes his huge bump in sales to Amazon KDP Select. He writes:

So what am I doing differently? I have no new releases out. Yes, I self-pubbed my Jack Daniels series for less money than my previous publisher had, but during the first few days those sales were steady, not explosive like they've been.

What's changed has been making titles free using the Kindle Select program.

To wit: there are millions of people with Kindles, and the majority of them haven't heard of me, haven't come across my titles, haven't read me before. So by getting three ebooks on the Top 100 Free list, I am making myself known to them.

I am a tasty, free morsel directly under the nose of hungry readers. And they snatch it up.

Not all will read the free ebooks they download. But I still benefit, because the more ebooks I give away, the higher the bounceback will be on the paid bestseller lists. And when I'm on the paid lists, I'll be seen be those who have never seen me before.

Also, I have a hunch some people are reading the freebies immediately. This is why my sales are booming. A rising tide lifts all boats, and some people snatching up the freebies are also buying some of my other ebooks.

Whiskey Sour is #529. Bloody Mary is #411. Rusty Nail is #1121. Afraid is #586.  Endurance is #1439.

Last week, most of these were ranked at #10,000 or higher.

That's quite a bump!

Joe Konrath's Tips For Independent Authors

Here's Joe's advise for how indie authors can improve their sales:

1. Publish books with Amazon Publishing. They do a lot to announce their ebooks to readers.

2. Use KDP Select to make your ebooks free. I suggest using all five days at once. The more ebooks you give away, the higher the bounceback.

3. Have a lot of IPs. The more ebooks you have available, the more virtual shelf space you take up, the likelier it is for a customer to see one of your titles.

4. Cultivate fans. Have a newsletter, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, so people can follow you and get the announcement when you put something new on sale. But remember this will be supplementary, not primary, and no one will follow you if all you're doing is advertising.

5. Announce via third parties. I found BookBub.com to be effective in helping me give away freebies. So is Pixel of Ink.

6. Keep at it until you get lucky.

I can't stress #6 enough. It is easy to get discouraged with promotion, because it may not get the results you seek. You have to have the right book in the right place at the right time, and cross your fingers.

Publishing books through Amazon KDP Select can be intimidating! You worry about whether folks will hate your work, whether anyone will download it, whether you'll get horrible reviews. Don't forget, though, you can publish anonymously and, even if the whole thing's a disaster, use your failures to hone your writing and publishing skills.

Have you ever published through Amazon KDP Select? If not, has Joe Konrath's experience of making 15 thousand dollars over 7 days through Amazon Select changed your mind about the program?

Other articles you might like:

- Screenwriting Software: Adobe Story
- Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Write What You Know
- Writing A Feel Good Story

Photo credit: "Sloth in the Amazon" by Praziquantel under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Screenwriting Software: Adobe Story

Adobe Story

Most people I've talked with don't know Adobe has developed Sreenwriting software: Adobe Story. Of course, saying Adobe Story is screenwriting software is a bit like saying a smart phone can make phone calls. The statement is true enough, but it barely scratches the surface.

 Here are a few things Adobe Story can do:

 - Reduce shooting time. Adobe Story works with other Adobe tools--programs such as OnLocation and Premiere Pro--to speed up production time. For instance, Adobe Story can automatically generate shot lists, dialogue, and so on.

- Collaboration. Often more than one person is involved in the creation of a script. Adobe Story allows everyone involved to collaborate online by tagging and tracking whatever changes are made.

This shortish video (7 minutes and 54 seconds) gives a great overview of what the software can do:

Instant Adobe Story Starter by Christopher Tilford

One of the reasons I'm posting about Adobe Story is that Packt Publishing asked me to review Christopher Tilford's book, "Instant Adobe Story Starter" (they sent me a review copy of the book). Although I normally don't do reviews, I have fiddled around with Adobe Story and it seemed like the sort of tool I would want to consider using if I were a screenwriter. That said, I don't know how it compares to other screenwriting programs (for instance, Final Draft or Movie Magic).

As computer programs become increasingly complex I sometimes find myself wishing I had a manual, but these days comprehensive users guides don't come with software programs, you have to buy them separately.

This is where Christopher Tilford's book, Instant Adobe Story Starter, comes in. Christopher has written a nuts and bolts guide to navigating Adobe Story. His book gets right to the point and doesn't include a lot of filler (here's an example).

I feel I should mention that Adobe Story has an online manual that, from what I've been able to see, covers everything that Christopher Tilford does and it's free! (See: Using Adobe Story)

The Bottom Line

I wish I could have been enthusiastic in my endorsement of Instant Adobe Story Starter but the bottom line is that Adobe puts out a free document that covers the same information. That said, Instant Adobe Story Starter isn't a bad book--I would give it three out of five stars--it just needs more original content. I look forward to reading Christopher Tilford's next book.

Have you used a screenwriting program? What did you think of it?

Other articles you might like:

- Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Write What You Know
- Writing A Feel Good Story
- How To Write Short Stories

Photo credit: "With great powers comes great responsability" by Juliana Coutinho under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Write What You Know

I was going to post an inspirational quotation having to do with writing but then I saw Chuck Wendig's latest Flash Fiction Challenge (Flash Fiction Challenge: Write What You Know) and it was just too good not to post about!

Here's the challenge:

I want you to grab an event from your life. Then I want you to write about it through a fictional, genre interpretation — changing the event from your life to suit the story you’re telling. So, maybe you write about your first hunting trip between father-and-son, but you reinterpret that as a king taking his youngest out to hunt dragons. Or, you take events from your Prom (“I caught my boyfriend cheating on me in the science lab”) and spin it so that the event happens at the same time a slasher killer is making literal mincemeat of the Prom King and Queen.

Length: 1,000 words

Due by: Friday, February 22nd, noon EST.

How to enter: Post your story on your blog or website and leave the link in a comment to Chuck Wendig's post.

Photo credit: "Project 50 - Day #1 (Moleskine)" by seanmcgrath under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.