Falling in love is like a roller coaster ride. Filled with anticipation and a little scary to think about, exciting turns and dips precede the grateful sigh when the car stops and you can unbuckle the restraint. Trouble is, there is no safety harness when you fall in love. And those screaming moments aren't guaranteed to end with laughing and weak knees when you walk away from the ride.
If the reader doesn't believe the transformation process for your characters, your next book isn't going to sell. In this three part series, I've got some tips on tying backstory to your characters' traits and mindsets and how those difficulties can be realistically resolved for that happily ever after ending. But these same tips can be used for any genre to make your reader fall for your flawed character. Hans Solo was a space grifter, but I bet more than a few of us fell for him! And we sat through three movies to see him finally win.
As a writer, whether you're crafting a romance or a story with romantic elements (Shannon Donnelly does a great job of explaining the romance genre in this post), your characters come to the stage with baggage (backstory) and habits (character traits and a mindset). When we--and our characters--fall in love, the sparkle and newness of our situation can obscure the negatives. Until we've already "fallen."
Today we'll deal with a character (could be male or female) with the following traits:
Non-availability
Denial of his/her own needs and resentment of partner having or expressing needs
Harshly judging the partner for having needs and labeling it as weakness or despising other’s emotional behavior
Not showing up or being present in the relationship
Averting gaze, expecting harshness, rejection, or abandonment when engaging with significant other
Difficulty with contact – visual, as in eye contact, or physical, as in touch.
Remember, you get to make up the specific backstory that brought this kind of character to this unlikeable point. But you want to show these behaviors and later, after we care about the character, spool out little bits of backstory.
Besides putting your characters in situations, particularly at the beginning of the story, to show what they're hauling around behind them, take advantage of secondary characters to show that your hero or heroine:
Minimizes the importance of relationships. "Oh, she never calls me, I always have to call her."
Is a loner. "No one in the town knows where he went to school, or even if he graduated."
Fears risking, wanting or longing because she/he feels overwhelmingly vulnerable. "After her first husband ran off with that young dancer..."
Emphasizes non-relational endeavors. "He's the best sniper in the unit."
Has difficulty experiencing and expressing emotions or needs. "She holds everything inside." "I've never seen him get angry--before."
Has given up on humans and relates mostly to animals, “spirits”, nature, etc."He's so good with animals. And so bad with women."
May have many friends and engage on a somewhat superficial level. Most issues may not arise until he/she enters a partner relationship where deeper needs may begin to surface. "She has no trouble attracting a man, but after four months he disappears."
Fears risking, wanting or longing because they feel overwhelmingly vulnerable. "I've known him since grade school, and I don't have a clue what kind of a woman he'd want to settle down with."
May feel alien, mechanical, dissociated, outcast, or lost in their world. "When he walked into the restaurant with his new girlfriend, she just sat there and drank her coffee like he was invisible."
Is brilliant but has difficulty experiencing emotions. "You'd think for a heart surgeon, she'd have some feelings."
So how do you help your reader fall in love with these seemingly unloveable people?
Show vulnerability with other people having wants and needs.
Show developing trust. Let them accept a human support systemand experiment with reaching out.
Throughout the book, show your character developing empathy without judgment for his/her own needs as well as others’ wants, needs, desires, and emotions.
Let them participate in life rather than just observe lifelike they did in the past.
Give them a sense of belonging--in their community and in a relationship.
What other ways do you use to "hook" your reader into loving your characters and rooting for them?
Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes that she can live anywhere but the present.
Punished, no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of arithmetic lessons gone wrong.
Fae began writing after reading her favorite author’s entire backlist in three weeks and couldn’t bear the thought of waiting nine months for the next book. A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now enjoys sharing her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.
Just a quick announcement - the winner of the drawing for the online course at Lawson Writer's Academy is . . . Jamie Beck!
Writers in the Storm welcomes Shannon Donnelly to clarify what a book needs to land on the romance shelf. If your WIP a genre "fence-sitter" or if your romance could be shelved in another area, Shannon has answers and help.
by Shannon Donnelly
This recently came up on a message thread. A writer had her manuscript kicked back for not being a romance. I also just read a book recently that billed itself as paranormal romance, and while it was paranormal, it wasn’t a romance. Just what makes novel a romance?
The confusion comes in that you can have sex in your story, you can have a relationship in your story, but you still might not really have a romance novel. Why is this?
1-The most important factor is that the romance has to be the main plot line—all conflict and all tension need to come from “will they or won’t they make it as a couple.” This means if you have two characters having sex, but the real conflict comes from the world ending, or werewolves taking over the world, or spies out to bring down the country, you don’t have a romance. You have an action story with some sex in it. Same goes for having a relationship between two characters, but having all the conflict exist outside that relationship. So if you have a pair of vampire hunters in a relationship, or a pair of cops, or a married couple solving mysteries in Victorian London, chances are you have an Urban Fantasy, or a police procedural or a mystery with some romantic elements—but it’s not a romance. And if you have a couple in a relationship, but lots of stuff going on around them, you might have Women’s Fiction, but not a romance.
Just remember—the romance, the notion of “will they or won’t they make it as a couple” must be the core, main plot line. If your two main characters are not struggling to figure out how to make a relationship work between them, it’s not a romance.
2-Now what about married couples—can you have a romance there? Sure. Think of all the marriage of convenience stories or the second chance at love stories with a couple who has divorced. Those stories work as a romance because the core plot line is “will they or won’t they make it as a couple.” Other subplots can exist, but they serve to support or weave into that main romance plot line. The romance is always about a character that may not be able to fall in love and be happy with his or her partner.
3-In a romance the conflict for “will they or won’t they make it as a couple” needs to focus on one protagonist. Why? Because this makes for a stronger romance. In any romance, the main character needs to be unable to have a happy relationship at the start of the story and needs to change enough that the reader believes that character can now stay with his or her partner and be happy. That is the core story arc for a romance. This is why you have so many rake reformed stories—it’s a redemption story within the romance. This is also why you have so many stories of a woman’s emotional awakening—it’s a redemption story again. If your protagonist does not change enough, the reader will not believe the romance.
4-In a romance, the main protagonist needs to have internal issues that cause the romantic conflict of “will they or won’t they make it as a couple.” This is where you get the damaged hero who cannot commit, or the starchy heroine who doesn’t know how to connect to her own emotions. Without internal conflicts, it’s too easy to fall back onto external action only—and all of a sudden the story becomes about the aliens taking over the world, or the murderer, or the battle between good and evil and the romance is no longer the main focus of the story. This is why you have to be very sure your internal conflicts are stronger than all the external conflicts—you want that core question to always remain “will they or won’t they make it as a couple” and for this to focus on that main character who needs to overcome his or her internal issues in order to have that great relationship.
5-The best romances manage to have external and internal conflicts peak at the same time. Read the best romantic suspense authors and you’ll see this happen over and over. The suspense story never overwhelms the romance, but instead the suspense and the romantic conflicts both come to a crisis at the same moment. This is very, very hard to pull off—and if in doubt and you’re writing a romance, stick to the romance first.
6-Romances are about characters. They are about our little quirks of personalities—and how do we make them mesh with another person’s quirks. How does the logical person fit with an emotional person? How does the messy person fit with a neat freak? It’s not just opposites attract—it’s about how do personalities work together. Think of the “bromances” you see so often in stories. The reason these get called that is because you see a relationship building on personality differences that happen to click and work. This is fun stuff—and you want this in your romances. The reader wants to see personality clashes and how these become something that works for the better of all. (I love the Hepburn/Tracey romantic comedies because they illustrate not just great, snappy dialogue, but romances where you see all the clashes of personality, internal issues, and external conflicts.)
7-Use your external conflicts to force your characters together. External conflicts work best to drive a couple who would never get together into spending time together. Don’t think about external conflicts as pulling the couple apart—or testing their relationship to make it stronger. Think about external conflicts as the engine that sets the stage for making two people come together and be forced into asking that question of “will they or won’t they make it as a couple.” If you use your external conflict to force togetherness, then you can use all the internal issues to drive the couple apart. This push/pull will give you a romance that sparks—because the main focus will be on your characters and if they can make it as a couple.
How do you know a book is a romance? Which of Shannon's tips makes a romance a keeper?
Shannon Donnelly
Shannon Donnelly’s writing has won numerous awards, including a RITA nomination for Best Regency, the Grand Prize in the "Minute Maid Sensational Romance Writer" contest, judged by Nora Roberts, RWA's Golden Heart, and others. Her writing has repeatedly earned 4½ Star Top Pick reviews from Romantic Times magazine, as well as praise from Booklist and other reviewers, who note: "simply superb"..."wonderfully uplifting"....and "beautifully written."
She’s at work on her next Regency romance, a sequel to Lady Scandal, and will be bringing out the next book in the Mackenzie Solomon Demons & Warders Series, following up on Burn Baby Burn and Riding in on a Burning Tire.
A huge THANK YOU to the amazing Laura Drake for inviting me to be her guest today!
Don’t put BS on your pages!
Write back story that is fresh and compelling.
Readers need some back story. They need to know a few critical points that happened before your story opened. Those points are the motivators for your POV character’s decisions and actions. Those back story points drive your story.
Way too often, back story is stagnant. Flat. Boring.
Agents quit reading.
Aack!
Writers may think the reader needs all the cool history the writer created. They share it in chunks.
But when back story is shared in chunks, it stops the momentum. Stops the story. Tempts the reader to skim.
When a reader skims, they’re not engaged. They’re not connected to the characters. They’re not hooked.
They don’t care what happens. They can quit reading.
The best way to include the absolutely required back story and keep your novel fast-paced, is to sprinkle it in your story.
The reader needs to know a few hits of back story, just enough to understand your story.
Mark Sullivan (mystery/suspense/thriller writer) has a smart plan for back story management.
I call it: How to Manage Your BS.
How to Manage Your BS
Make a list of back story points you think the reader needs to know.
Grab a highlighter and circle what the reader absolutely must know. Let go of points you thought were important, but don’t need to include. Only circle the points the reader absolutely must know.
Picture the BS points you circled etched on a sheet of glass.
Got it?
You’re imagining those points imprinted on a rectangle of glass.
Imagine carrying that sheet of glass to a brick patio.
Imagine standing on a brick patio, holding that sheet of glass.
You know what’s coming!
Drop that sheet of glass. Watch it shatter.
Imagine picking up one shard of glass at a time – and slipping each sliver of back story in your first 100 pages.
Slip shards of back story in dialogue. Or use a cadence-driven rhetorical device to share several hits of back story. Write fresh. Keep it short. You’ve got the first 100 pages of your book to fit in each sliver of back story.
You’ll be so good at slipping in back story that you’ll have a smooth, fast-paced, compelling read.
When I heard Mark Sullivan share that manage-your-back-story visual, it resonated with me. Great visual. Great plan.
Let’s dive into some examples of finessing back story.
The Woods, by Harlan Coben. Prologue, first page, third paragraph:
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Please read it again. This time, read it OUT LOUD.
I have never seen my father cry before—not when his own father died, not when my mother ran off and left us, not even when he first heard about my sister, Camille.
Analysis: What did Harlan Coben accomplish, and how?
He used the rhetorical device, anaphora. He gave the reader several hits of back story in one eloquent sentence.
What were his back story points?
Our POV character had never seen his father cry before
Our POV character’s father didn’t even cry when his father died
Our POV character’s mother ran off and left them
Something bad happened to his sister, Camille
Four hits of powerful back story in thirty-three words.
No chunk of back story the reader is tempted to skim.
Plus - that one sentence introduces the story questions. Always important to get on your first page.
Why is his father crying now?
Why did his mother run off and leave them?
What happened to his sister, Camille?
Anaphora is a powerful cadence-driven rhetorical device. It’s one of thirty rhetorical devices I teach in Deep Editing, Rhetorical Devices, and More. It starts Feb. 3rd.
But Jasmine’s thoughts were so focused on what was in her lap, she couldn’t even raise her hand. She’d made that bracelet as a gift for her little sister. She remembered Kimberly’s delight when she’d unwrapped it on her eighth birthday, her last birthday before the tall man with the beard entered their house in Cleveland one sunny afternoon and took her away.
Analysis:
Look at that smooth passage. In just three sentences, Brenda Novak covered multiple hits of back story.
She showed how seeing her sister’s bracelet impacted Jasmine.
She tapped emotion by sharing that the POV character made the bracelet for her little sister.
She shared her sister’s joy.
She slips in her sister’s age and the city.
She shared this critical story point. Her sister was kidnapped.
The cadence is strong. The words drive the reader through the paragraph.
“Did he bring her with him when he picked up Tommy?” Sue asked.
Kathy wished she could pretend she didn’t understand the question. Wished she’d never told them that Tom had married TOW, “The Other Woman.” But during the last Jack Daniel’s night—at which, quite unfairly, neither Sue nor Lacy could imbibe—Kathy had accidentally spilled her guts. Or at least she’d spilled a bit of them. The big secrets were still in the bag. And they could stay bagged. It would take more than a couple shots of Jack for her to hang out her dirty laundry. Even to her two closest friends.
Analysis:
Christie Craig shares her humor and her talent in this fast-paced addictive romance. This passage is a light read that carries humor hits and a big hit of mysterious back story.
Kathy has secrets, big secrets, so big that she won’t divulge these secrets to her two best friends.
Hmm – makes you want to read more. Right?
When back story is finessed, it draws you in. Keeps the story moving. Makes the read more compelling.
Share slivers of back story in fresh and compelling ways.
Analyze your writing. Deep edit your scenes. Make your back story carries style and power. Make your back story boost your writing onto a best seller list!
We’ll wrap up with examples from two more books, both by Margie-Grad, Laura Drake!
The homing beacon in the Valium bottle next to the sink tugged at her insides.
She sipped a glass of water to avoid reaching for it and glanced out the window to the spring-skeletal trees of the back yard.
Her gaze returned to the two-foot wide stump the way a tongue wanders to a missing tooth. Tentative grass shoots had sprung up to obscure the obscene scar in the soil.
She hadn’t thought that an innocent tree could kill a child.
She hadn’t thought that an innocent coed could kill a marriage.
And if those pills could kill the thinking, she’d take ten.
Look how many hits of back story Laura Drake shared on page one in that squeeze-your-heart passage.
She needs Valium, but she’s trying not to take it.
Something horrible happened right outside her kitchen window, and that two-foot wide stump is a constant trigger for her emotional pain.
Somehow that tree killed a child. Most readers would assume, her child.
Her husband had an affair.
She wishes she could stop thinking.
Laura’s passage shares critical back story. Her writing is fresh, strong, emotive. Not an invitation to skim!
Nothing Sweeter, by Laura Drake, was just released three days ago.Laura worked on Nothing Sweeter in an Immersion Master Class she took from me in May, 2011.
Nothing Sweeter, Laura Drake
The Opening:
Her “new” life was going to be so much better than the last one. Aubrey Madison would make sure of that.
She savored the sight of a solitary saguaro standing sentinel on the flat Arizona landscape. She savored the red-tipped ocotillo branches that waved in the stiff breeze of the Jeep’s passing. She even savored the chilled air that swirled in, raising the hair on her body in an exquisite shiver.
God, it’s good to be out of prison.
Her face felt odd, until she realized she was smiling.
Glancing at the gas gauge, she vowed to stop soon, only long enough to get gas and use the restroom. She had to keep putting on distance.
What if it’s not possible to outrun your own conscience?
The pull from the road in front of her was as strong as the push from the vision in her rearview mirror.
From Page Two:
Her gaze locked on the black-flecked mirror. The ropey scar twisted from behind her ear to the bow of her collarbone, looking like something out of a slasher movie. Shiny. Raw. Angry. She jerked her gaze away, turned the water on full force in the sink, and tried once again to wash away the shame.
In her mind, she saw the sign she’d woken up to in the prison infirmary, hanging on the wall across from her bed.
If you’re going through hell, keep going. ~ Winston Churchill
Beautiful writing. Laura slipped in critical back story, but it’s fresh and smooth, intriguing and compelling.
Analyze your writing. Deep edit your scenes. Make your back story carry style and power. Make your back story boost your writing onto a bestseller list!
What hits of back story did Laura share? You tell me. It’s your turn now! Chime in. Post a comment!
If you like, post two or three hits of back story in your comment.
Or – dig deeper, and share some back story points the reader infers. Not something Laura wrote, but something the reader picks up.
Or – post a comment that just says Hi!
You’re here. Go ahead and click on the small font below that reads: Comments. Don’t be shy!
If you comment, you’ll be included in a drawing for one of my online courses on writing craft offered through Lawson Writer’s Academy.
Laura here: Margie will draw the winner on Sunday, 8PM, Mountain Time.
Margie Lawson—editor, international presenter— teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners.
Margie has presented over eighty full day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Writers who have studied her material credit her innovative deep editing approaches with taking their writing several levels higher—to publication, awards, and bestseller lists.
To learn about online courses through Lawson Writer’s Academy, Margie’s 4-day Immersion Master Classes (in 2013: in Colorado, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Columbus, and on Whidbey Island), her full day and weekend Master Class presentations, keynote speeches, Lecture Packets, and newsletter, visit www.margielawson.com.
