Writers in the Storm

Aimie K. Runyan

As an author of historical fiction, my work must—almost by definition—begin with a concept. Am I going to write a gritty saga about the women who flew as combat pilots for Russia in the Second World War (I did and it was great fun)? Am I going to write a sweeping fictionalized biography of Joan of Arc? A dark and twisty Tudor-era mystery? I have to be grounded in that first to know what I’m doing. That’s the easy part in many ways. But as many writers will tell you, a story isn’t just something happening. It’s something happening to someone. Even in the case of a Joan of Arc biography, you have to decide who your Joan is. Bold and fearless or tentative and unsettled? These are all decisions you have to make.

I was recently asked if I could change direction on my work-in-progress. As in, shelve what I was working on and start over on something very, very different. Fine by me, I can come back to the other project when the market is right for it. I’m every bit as excited about the new project, and being flexible is definitely an indispensable trait for anyone in this crazy business. I was set to chat with my new editor the following week to discuss the new idea, so I had work to do. In order to nail the call I’d have to figure out one thing: Who is my protagonist?

I spent half a day driving around trying to get hold of a research book I’d need to get a better sense of the history. You might wonder why I needed the research book to figure that out. My protagonist—an invention of my own brain--had nothing to do with the dates, facts, and figures that I’d find in the book. But as I read about the life and times my unknown protagonist was living in, my brain would automatically try to figure out the type of woman who would be daunted by, and eventually thrive, under the stressors I would put on her. As I read, I began to ask myself what she looked like, what she wore, where she lived. Definitely a place to start. She also insisted that her name be Ruby. Sure thing, girl, you’re the star of the show.

But I had to ask her some deeper questions.

What do your days look like? Who are your friends? Do you have any friends? What is your secret pleasure? What embarrasses you? What annoys you? And even bigger: what do you want out of life? I’m not one to necessarily spend a lot of time writing character sketches, though I almost always take some notes. I prefer to have these ideas in my head and let them come out as I actually draft the story. Sometimes my characters really add another dimension in the second draft and that’s always a fun discovery. I’m a voracious plotter, so this organic development is how I regain the thrill of discovery that I lose by knowing the general direction of the narrative.

So once I have some ideas in my head, I open up my trusty OneNote Workbook that I use for everything (timelines, lists of names, interesting articles, and so on) and make a sheet for the protagonist. I Google for pictures to find someone who looks as I envision my character would, perhaps searching for images of some items in their life that are important as well and paste it all in the page. I might throw together a few paragraphs about my protagonist’s thoughts on life and goals we’ll see unveil in the story. Maybe some bigger goals we won’t see. Then I get to work clickety-clacking on some chapters.

Seems easy, right? Well some characters are easier to crack than others. A prime example of a difficult character is the protagonist from my upcoming novel, Daughters of the Night Sky. My protagonist, Katya, is an officer in the Red Army. She’s driven to learn how to fly from the time she’s a child because life has forced her to grow up before her time. She was focused, determined, and married to her work. She and I didn’t have a lot in common, and she was pretty closed-lipped (as any good officer in the Red Army would have been), so coaxing the character onto the page took some time.

I spent a lot more time doing freewriting exercises when I couldn’t reflect her personality on the page. Writing letters from Katya to important people in her life was one that helped a lot. Even then, my redheaded pilot was a character that really needed a second draft to add the final dimension into her personality. Even tweaks in drafts six and seven brought out some spark in her. It was a challenge, but I think she came into herself at long last. It was definitely worth the struggle, but thank goodness this new girl, Ruby, is a whole lot chattier than Katya ever was.

So, what tips and tricks do you use to breathe life into your protagonist?

Share with the crowd!

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Aimie K. Runyan is a historian and author who writes to celebrate history’s unsung heroines. She is the author of two previous historical novels: Promised to the Crown and Duty to the Crown. She is active as an educator and a speaker in the writing community and beyond. She lives in Colorado with her wonderful husband and two (usually) adorable children. To learn more about Aimie and her work, please visit www.aimiekrunyan.com.

 

Greer Macallister

A few years ago, if you’d asked me about the building blocks of great novels, I would have yammered on endlessly about sentences. They can’t be too long or too short or all the same; they can’t be so complex or descriptive that they get in the way of the story; they are demanding little creatures, able to reel readers in or drive them off, and you need to crack their code for each book all over again.

All that is still true. But I’ve come to believe that sentence management isn’t the only key ingredient to making your writing irresistible to readers – chapter management is just as important.

I confess that I have no natural talent for managing my chapters. While I’m in first draft mode, I tend to just write scene after scene in whatever order they come to me – not necessarily in the order they happen – and the shaping takes place afterward.

Chapters don’t have to be any particular length, though the general advice is to keep the length more or less consistent throughout the book, rather than following a three-page chapter with a twenty-page one, or vice versa.

These are the guidelines I use to shape my chapters to hook readers and keep them hooked:

1. A killer start.

Much like the advice to start your book with action, the idea of starting your chapter with a great first line is solid. While I was working on my most recent novel, GIRL IN DISGUISE, my editor pointed out that my chapter-opening lines weren’t always knockouts, and when I looked back through the draft, I quickly figured out why. GIRL IN DISGUISE covers many years in the life of Kate Warne, the first female detective in Americ, and I was using the beginning line of each chapter to mark how much time had passed since the last chapter. In theory, this helps keep the reader anchored – but, to muddy up the metaphor, an anchor is a double-edged sword. An early chapter of GIRL IN DISGUISE used to start like this:

A year into my employment, I was a new woman. I paid off my debt to Mrs. Borowski and left her boardinghouse for a smaller, finer one in the Garden District. 

In the finished book, the chapter begins this way instead:

I had been a Pinkerton operative for more than a year before someone tried in earnest to kill me.

That’s just a wee bit more exciting, isn’t it?

2. Rise and fall.

If you have a 20-page chapter followed by a 20-page chapter, but one is all action and one is all description, that’s a red flag for your pacing. Each chapter needs to balance action and description.

It doesn’t necessarily matter if you’re covering one scene or multiple scenes, but it matters how those scenes feel. The fix might involve moving a chunk of reflection. Often, at least in my case, it involves deleting that text completely.

Compressing the existing text into chapters is a key part of my editing process and an excellent way to put each scene under the microscope – are things moving too fast? Not fast enough? Are there key characters whose whereabouts are unclear because too much time is spent with other characters instead? Problems with the chapter are problems with the book, and one way or another, you’ll need to solve them.

3. A thought-provoking end.

Yes, you might have heard the advice to put a “hook” at the end to convince the reader to turn the page, and yes, that works sometimes. But ending every single chapter with some variant of “Little she did know what would happen next!!!!” eventually fatigues the reader.

Sometimes the right chapter-ender has a sense of closure to it, which would seem to fly in the face of the “hook” advice, but readers need mini-closure too, along the way. Whether the reader is thinking about what’s to come or what just happened, you want them thinking.

Some examples from GIRL IN DISGUISE:

“Your first case, then, Mrs. Warne,” he said, sliding an envelope across the desk.

But I could keep secrets, even one as potentially incendiary as this one. And so I would keep it, for a while. 

And so I watched his face turn hard, crushing my heart with every passing moment, and finally, I just stopped watching.

 I had planned on a month of this type of education. My plan was derailed.

Pinkerton told me I was needed elsewhere, and what could I ever say to him but yes?

So now that I’ve shared my chapter-shaping secrets, what are yours? What goes into your decision-making process as you shape of your chapters – or does it just come naturally?

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About Greer:

Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister is a poet, short story writer, playwright and novelist who earned her MFA in Creative Writing from American University. Her debut novel THE MAGICIAN'S LIE was a USA Today bestseller, an Indie Next pick, and a Target Book Club selection. It has been optioned for film by Jessica Chastain's Freckle Films. Her new novel GIRL IN DISGUISE, about real-life 19^th-century detective/bad-ass Kate Warne, was an Indie Next pick for April 2017 and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “a well-told, superb story.”

I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I love seeing what friends are up to. I love connecting with people I don’t otherwise get a chance to “see” on a regular basis. And I love interacting with other authors and readers and like-minded folks (you know, animal lovers, wine drinkers, coffee addicts).

What I love less is the emotional energy suck. The last few months have been harder to play on social media than usual. Between personal things and political things (we’ll leave it at that), I’ve found myself spending less and less time on Facebook. And, at time, flat out dreading checking my feed.

I know a few people who deleted their accounts. Others who took breaks from Facebook for a healthy chunk of time. But I had a book coming out in May which meant I actually needed to be spending more time – or maybe I should say smarter time – on Facebook. And I did. It wasn’t always fun, it wasn’t always easy, but the job required it.

I thought I’d pass on a few of the lessons I learned during that time …

1) Filter. Just because you’re friends with someone or in a group, doesn’t mean you have to engage. At the beginning of the year, I flat out avoided posts from certain friends. Not because I didn’t want to be friends with them anymore or even because I didn’t agree, but because their passion on certain topics was draining what little emotional energy I had at the time. There were also a few people who were overly exuberant about their own success at a time when I was struggling to keep my head above water, and while I was happy for them, the over-gushing started to zap my enthusiasm.

On the flip side, there are people who can almost always make me smile and groups that offer interesting discussions. One Facebook group in particular has become my happy place. The people in BLOOM are supportive and enthusiastic and it’s like taking a coffee break with friends.

I learned to filter my Facebook feed. It was the only way I could manage both my limited time and limited energy.

2) Censor. You’ve heard this before but it bears saying again … not everything needs to be said, or in this case written. As an author, you probably have an equal number of Facebook friends you’ve never actually met as those who know you personally. Before you unleash a rant, think about who will see it and what the ramifications could be from hitting “post.” You may still decide to send it out to the world and that may be exactly what’s needed. But don’t forget to first a deep breath, then post with a clearer head.

There’s a flip side here, too. I’m one of those people who clam up when I’m stressed or upset. I learned that Facebook can actually be a good place to release some of that stress. I’ll post something that makes me happy and, as corny as this sounds, the interaction that usually results from those posts helps.

3) Discern. You’ve heard the old cliché: Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it’s fake. That applies to Facebook posts as well. Remember the censor comment about putting a positive spin on things? Here’s the thing, most people will post their happiest moments, their biggest accomplishments on Facebook. They will rarely, if ever, post the disappointments or failures (except maybe in select private groups but those are … wait for it … private).

Whatever stage of writing you’re at, take in the Facebook posts with a discerning eye. Don’t compare yourself to the gushing success posts from others.

Before anyone jumps up and down on my keyboard, I am NOT saying those success posts aren’t legit and we shouldn’t be celebrating. I squee with everyone else when an author friend has fabulous news to share.

But I’m human and there have been times, especially at my most vulnerable like, ahem, release day, when I had twinges of comparing myself to others. Those were the times I had to remind myself that many of those posts represent the shiniest moments only and even those authors had their doubts and gripes at one point or another.

4) Unplug. Are you done shuddering in horror that I would suggest this? Can I continue?

I removed the Facebook app from my phone for a few weeks. The first day was twitchy but here’s the shocking part … after I got over the initial panic, I realized that the world kept turning if I didn’t respond to a tag immediately and it really didn’t matter if I liked or commented on a post a few hours after it was posted instead of the moment it went up.

Unless I’m on deadline or have pressing messages to deal with, I’m not on my computer much in the evenings or weekends. That’s family time. And even though I’ve reinstalled the Facebook app on my phone, I find that I’m on it much less frequently than I used to be. The result has been that I now look forward to my morning check-ins again.

I’ll give you a bonus tip …

5) Enjoy. Do what makes you happy with Facebook. Find that in between of what you’re comfortable posting and how long you can spend on Facebook. Come to terms with the fact that some people can stress you out while others bring joy. It took me time to find that sweet spot, to adjust my expectations of Facebook as a tool, but once I did, I was able to turn most of the hate part of the relationship to at least like if not love.

As an author, you need Facebook. And it is your friend. Friendlier for some than others. But either way, it’s a great place to connect with other authors, readers, and friends.

So? What do you think about FB? Have any other tips for us?

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About Orly

Orly Konig is an escapee from the corporate world, where she spent roughly sixteen (cough) years working in the space industry. Now she spends her days chatting up imaginary friends, drinking entirely too much coffee, and negotiating writing space around two over-fed cats. She is a co-founder and past president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and a member of the Tall Poppy Writers. She is rep’d by Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency LLC.

Orly’s debut, The Distance Home, released by Forge on May 2, 2017.

You can find her on on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, or on her website, www.orlykonig.com.