Tip of the week: focus on the important things

Whenever I work with a client, I try to help them tightening their manuscript: erasing unnecessary paragraphs, scenes, yes, even characters. Why? Because the tighter the book, the better. I know from own experience how easy it is to fill a chapter with unnecessary fluff; when I wrote No Wings Attached, I worked towards a certain word count: 120. I managed, but it wasn't necessary. I was inexperienced and had no idea that what I was doing would only result in deleting 40k in the next two years.

Yesterday night, I stopped reading a book which, quite frankly, bored me stiff with the many viewpoints of several family members and friends when it was basically the story of one main character and how she dealt with her boyfriend hitting her and an abortion. Unfortunately, I had to read her parents' point of view, her boyfriend's, her friends', her boyfriend's mother and if the author could have crammed even more into the book, I'm sure I'd also know the dog's point of view. The result was that the main character's viewpoint came far too short and missed the depth and emotions I'd hoped for. I wouldn't have missed any of the 'development' if those viewpoints wouldn't have been there in the first place. That'd be a good half of the book, I'd say. And it was a short book already. I do like character driven books, but if you chose to write such a novel, you need to go deeper. The book just scratched the surface, and as a result I couldn't connect with the characters. At all. In my opinion, the story would work great from two point of views: hers and her boyfriend's with flash backs into the past, to make the reader understand why both acted the way they acted. There was a lot of potential in that premise, but it didn't deliver.

There was also something I see in many new writers' manuscripts: the over-explaining of even the tiniest dust particle. If a couple goes for dinner, I don't really care what the waitress serving them looks like or what her name is. Unless she plays a bigger part or causes a particular reacting to the main characters, it's just 'the waitress'. Such minor characters can easily be cardboard cut outs as they don't need to stick with the reader. Better to concentrate on what's important: what does the restaurant look like (scene setting)? How do the characters feel (emotional setting)? What do they talk about (action)? Show me how they interact, their smiles, what they see in each others' faces? These are the things a reader needs to connect with the scene and the characters.

If you write a thriller, make sure to keep the reader on his toes. Place hints and move the plot forward quickly. Strip it from all unnecessary ballast, unless it enhances the plot and gives depth to a character. For example: a man visits a close friend in Paris only to find out she's a secret agent. He recalls some odd behaviour of said friend in the past. Or a woman is packing up her and her husband's belongings after she found him dead in their house. She remembers the good times. There is so much potential in such scenes and room for plenty of in-depth character development. Having the viewpoint of her mother, remembering how the couple met would be unnecessary fluff.

The main thing to remember is that a novel has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Everything should run smoothly into each other, without long-winded passages of empty scenes. All scenes should move the plot forward, or, in case it's a character driven novel, take the relationship to another level, push the thoughts of the characters closer to a solution.

I love you; I love you not!

How many times have you heard people say 'The perfect man for me doesn't exist?' I'd say plenty. With the few lucky ones, who have/live with their soul mate, it's still the exception of the rule.
The beauty of writing fiction is that you can create your characters like you want them to be. Men oozing with sex appeal, humour, intellect and a voice that has you dizzy as soon as they open their mouth. You can create a plot where the most popular girl or the woman in your clique doesn't get the man, but the ugly duckling instead. You can make the arsehole go through hell, for everything people did to you in the past, even kill them if needed. The possibilities are huge.
In No Wings Attached, I created Tom, the perfect man; he's good looking, yet down to earth; he has buckets full of humour, he's smart, warm and caring, he's got a wonderful best friend, he loves cooking and eating and he lives in my dream home. (I hate him for that!)
Candlelight Sinner has Sam, and damn, I adore him! He has this aura of danger around him, tattoos and he's fit. A typical bad guy you can't help but like, despite being obnoxious he's a massive flirt.
It was a lot of fun spending time with both men, as different as they are; they made me laugh.

In my current WIP, I'm making my main characters suffer. It's wonderful and strangely enjoyable having finally the chance for pay back. But there's a pit fall: because I don't like the people the characters are based on, I am in danger of making them unlikeable. Not on purpose, though. It's the closeness to the real events that makes it more difficult. Creating characters you want to see happy in the end, is much easier. I know the characters of this book will be in pain, tortured, end up unhappy, but I need the reader to care for them to begin with. They are victims after all. While writing, I realised that I made one character look like a silly cow, though it's my opinion on her, if the reader wants to slap her, I've lost him or her. Realistic is all very well, but if one can't relate to her, I didn't do a good job.
Then again, I have a soft spot for Gary, who is a shy nerd, and has one of the supporting roles. So here's hope.

Writing is for masochists

There wasn't a day in the past three months I didn't feel like banging my head against the wall. Hard. If you saw me complaining and whining on Facebook or Twitter, you can now click the top right corner: it's the dreaded thriller again.
For weeks I'd not come up with a decent plot line. My first idea was to have a book in a book; a character writing about it all which would have been revealed in the end, but my friend smashed it immediately saying, nope, I hate that. And I see where she's coming from. It's like the whole book being a dream. Not good. It caused me a lot of grief, because I couldn't come up with anything realistic, believable, something which would be a smooth outline or suspenseful which has the reader turning the pages. As with my short fiction, I like to keep a surprise for the end. I must admit, this was a tough one. I'm not normally a plotter, but for this book, I started with the torture scenes first, then with some other scenes and I had to think of a way to combine them to make a story. When I couldn't come up with anything decent, I was ready to give up. To me it's important that the story is neat, that I can make the reader believe it could happen, that the it's real. The editor in me is always looking over my shoulder, slapping me if I try to venture off the roads.
It's the first time I really struggle with a book and I even questioned myself: Am I really a writer. To me the answer is no. Or maybe yes, but perhaps I'm not so much a story teller. One of those who bursts with stories. I don't. Though I certainly have quite a few more stories to tell, it's not like I can't write fast enough to get them all out. But then, is it important? I write stories people enjoy, that's what writing is all about. At least to me, it is.
I love a challenge, but wondered if this one isn't a bit too much for me. People kept telling me they believed in my talent and that I will finally find a solution, but I started to get more and more frustrated. My perfectionism being a bully. So much, that I almost decided to give up on that book and continue with the next one I have in the queue. Funnily though, I quit a lot of things in my life, but when it comes to writing, I'm rather determined. And it paid off. I finally made it, I have a plot I'm happy with and will continue to write. Hope it's all worth it, but that's for the readers to decide when the book's finished.

To all of you who let me whinge and howl, thank you for your encouragement. You know who you are.

In the meantime, I've also continued to write on the second book of funny shorts, stay tuned. :-)

Happy weekend, everyone.

Why I hate third person omniscient POV

Because it puts me into a position of an observer, rather than connecting with the character. One reason I can't stand the best-selling novel One Day is that it's written in this POV. Personally I think it would have worked much better with two limited third person POVs, rather than hopping heads.

Many new writers accidentally slip into this POV, where they report from one character's perspective and suddenly jump into the other character's thoughts. While I just felt for the first character, I'm ripped out of the perspective and thrown into the other one; basically, I'm told to stand back and watch. Something, I personally don't like as a reader.

The other thing is that it takes away a lot of suspense and secrecy. I also often feel that the characters end up a little flatter than those who have to work hard to find their answers.

To name an example:

Judy tells John that she is in love with him. John loves her too and is delighted, but doesn't say anything or denies his feelings for her because he is in a relationship. Key is: the reader knows John feels the same and can get frustrated because he doesn't act on them.

Third person limited would be Judy being in love and wondering if John feels the same, or vice versa. Judy would have to read his expressions, weigh his answer.The reader keeps wondering and you have a great page turner, because you want them to be together in the end.

Those who read my books know that I'm a big fan of second person POV (you), though my Branded series is in first person POV (I). Although I love a challenge, I don't think I'll ever attempt third person omniscient. Limited, yes, but not the former. I think it's extremely difficult to do it well.

What's your favourite POV; whether it is as a reader or as a writer?

Are your scenes believable?

For most of us who write fiction it's plain fun; you can create a world, a story, characters and scenes, anything you would like to do or anyone you would like to be or meet. It's fantastic, isn't it?

So far, so good. But since we're not writing from memory, meaning something that happened to us, we rely on imagination. A lot. Especially in genres like Fantasy or Science Fiction we have to make sure that it's believable, realistic and logical. In a world that doesn't exist, the reader wants to be convinced that everything that's happening could be reality. Let's take my novel No Wings Attached as an example. My character Celia hears a voice, she turns around and looks at different people, anyone could have said something, as it always happens in public places, either in the supermarket, in the park or in the pub. If she would have been at home and hear voices, it would take the suspense away, make it unrealistic. Well, maybe not entirely, but then she'd be a case for the straight jacket.

Recently, I edited a friend's manuscript; he had a character in need to get out of a dangerous situation and the possibility to do so via a device, but my friend let his character hesitate for ten seconds, which would have been enough to be killed, so I recommended him to let him hesitate for only two seconds, which would be enough to shout a command and escape. Try counting slowly till ten, it's a long time.
Little things like that let readers stumble.

If you have a character that can jump (beam) from place to place and it's not wise to let him or her appear in a public place and walk around as if nothing happened. I bet you would be rather surprised, if not shocked if someone appears out of thin air in front of you. So check on how you would react and transfer it into your scene. Screaming, kids pointing at the person, fainting, running away in panic, people taking pictures, etc.
Think Superman, who always appears in an empty street. 

Same goes for books like romance or crime, thriller.
In case you  have a murder, what would happen in reality? How would the procedure be?
When an airplane drops out of the sky after one engine exploded and it's torn into half, what would the scenario be like? Would the air-hostess really make an announcement that they're about to die and everyone needs to remain calm? Try to imagine how naked  panic creeps up the passengers and crew, try to hear them screaming, crying, reaching for their safety kits.

The husband has a stroke in the shower, the wife comes in and finds him on the floor bleeding heavily because he's hit his head hard. Instead of calling an ambulance, she's trying to wake him up, cries and strokes his face.
Would you behave like that? Of course not, you would do it the other way round: first call the ambulance, then attend to the person.

If you try to feel and think like your character, then you should be able to make your scenes real, meaning fiction turns into reality for the reader, and that's what he or she asks for.