Writers in the Storm

Just a quick announcement -- Liz Flaherty won the Advanced Reader Copy of Anne Clelland's Historical, Tainted Angel.  Liz, you'll leave her a review everywhere, right?

Charlotte Carter is back, sharing with us her experience as the author of 57 books (no, that's not a typo!) When you talk, Char, we listen!

I was absolutely exhausted the first time I finished a scene with 5 characters on stage at once, and I hadn’t lost a one. Working with multiple characters can be tricky. It’s easy to confuse the reader. You may have more he said/she said than you’d like. And the mother-in-law sleeping on the couch in the scene may vanish amid all the chatter.

Fortunately, there are a few ‘tricks’ you can use to make the scene work.

1. Characters do not necessarily speak in order.

If you listen to a conversation around the dinner table, A doesn’t speak first followed by B and then C and D. It’s more likely that A speaks, then B, A again, C jumps in and D may be too shy to speak at all. So vary the order of speech and make every bit of dialogue work to move the story forward.

2. Characters can move without talking.

Shy character D (as seen by the Point of View [POV] character,) may get up from the table to get a glass of water, answer the phone or walk out in a snit. Or when D sits down again, she may have something profound to say.

3. When a character does talk, the dialogue needs a tag or action to identify the speaker, often by name, if there are several characters present.

Here are some examples. I’ve included the proper punctuation because, yes, in contests I have seen the punctuation done incorrectly. Ack! Talk about a dead giveaway that the author is inexperienced.

Dialogue tag - “I’m going to the store (comma)” Mary said (comma)

holding up her car keys.

Action - “I’m going to the store (period)” Mary held up her car keys.

“I won’t be gone long (period)”

Action first - Mary grabbed her car keys and said (comma) “I’m going

to the store (period)”

If you’re not sure of the punctuation, check any of your ‘keeper’ reference books.

4. The POV character can interpret what the characters are saying or thinking.

He can see that ‘shy’ D may not be speaking but her face is growing redder by the moment because she is so angry. Meanwhile, he recognizes that Mr. B, her boyfriend, is totally oblivious to how his words are effecting D.

5. Last, but equally important, Don't lose the baby or the dog or the mother-in-law.

The POV character may note that D glances at the sleeping baby to be sure she’s okay. Or the POV character may, in internal thought, be glad his mother-in-law is snoring away, or he may slip the dog a bite of meat under the table.

Another tip: Introducing a cast of thousands in the opening scene of your book is deadly. You may want to introduce all the major characters - brothers, sisters, cousins - but the reader does not need to meet them in the first ten pages. Start small. Give the reader a chance to get to know and care about one or two characters. Assorted relatives and friends can wait.

What problems do you have writing dialogue?

Happy reading and writing....

Char.......

www.CharlotteCarter.com

Char frequently visits Harlequin.com forums; watch for her comments and writing tips. http://community.harlequin.com/forumdisplay.php/12-The-Writer-s-Circle

A Quick News Flash! Laura Drake is our local Query Queen. She's shared the knowledge gained from her 15 year stint in the submission wars  in several blogs here over the years. She wanted to let you know that she's teaching a month-long, online class for Margie Lawson's Writer's Academy in March, Submissions that Sell! A submission is much more than just a query -- and you have one shot at a gatekeeper's attention. Make the most of it! You can learn more here.

Now, on to a new guest we're excited to introduce you to!

Today's guest is Kathleen Harrington, is a multi-published, eclectic Historical Avon author. She's written novels set from Regency England, the American West, and Medieval Scotland.  The research alone make me shudder!  But after reading her blog, you'll understand where all her stories came from!  Take it away, Kathy~

There are several fairytales currently playing in our movie theaters. Hansel and Gretel. Jack the Giant Slayer. The Great and Powerful Oz. Along with Beautiful Creatures, a story about Casters, aka witches. (As in the land of Oz, some casters are good and some, not so much.)

Every culture on Earth has its myths. Legends as old as time. Which seems to beg the question: What do we and the cavemen have in common?

Everyone loves a good story!

Those ancient cavemen sat around the fireside spinning yarns to entrance their listeners. As the storytellers of our generation, we sit at our computers instead. But our goal is the same. To captivate our readers.

Where do our own stories come from? They spring from the treasure house within us, that gift of creativity that lies within all human beings.

When I was five years old, my Grandpa Louis built a playhouse for me. A marvelous structure, with a door and windows for light, white siding on the outside, a charmingly arched roof trimmed in red, and a planked wood floor. A house clearly meant for children, for no adult could stand up straight, once inside. A house meant for exploring the world of imagination.

Inside my playhouse, my two cousins and I recreated countless stories of heroes and heroines. Tales of unflinching valor and derring-do, with fire-breathing dragons and that awful green witch from the Wizard of Oz. We took on the roles of pirates, knights, cowgirls, and movie stars. We cooked make-believe meals served on our pint-sized china, dressed in long gowns and high heels that had once been worn by our mothers. We played with our baby dolls, our paper dolls, and our storybook dolls. In endless summer days of pure imaginative delight. Sometimes, we even let our brothers join us, but only if they behaved to our satisfaction. After all, someone had to take on the roles of the villains.

These happy memories bring to mind a quote of Albert Einstein. "If you want your children to be smart, read them fairytales. If you want them to be even smarter, read them more fairytales." (My point is not to infer that I'm smart, because I'm faaar from a genius. Way far!) Rather, it's the vast importance of fairytales in our creative psyches. As Einstein further stated, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." And he, of course, was a genius.

Throughout history, storytellers held exalted positions in their cultures, for they were the keepers of the flame of knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil.

Today, we writers are the keepers of the flame. Through our stories, we tell of the joys and heartaches of the human experience. We show people who stumble and fall, who recognize and overcome their individual flaws, and succeed, against all odds, in returning with the elixir.

My childhood playhouse is the symbol of the treasure house within me. The place where my heroes and heroines conquer fire-breathing dragons. And prove the value of always carrying a bucket of water. Just in case we meet up with that awful green witch from Oz.

Visualize the treasure house within you. What do you see?

Kathleen Harrington is a multi-published author of historical romance. Her latest book, the second in the Highland Lairds Series, Lachlan's Bride, an Avon Impulse, will be released April 30th.    http://kathleenharringtonbooks.com

Today's guest is my writing 'twin.' I say that because we seem to do everything together; we got agents, sold, got our covers, and will release our debut novels, all within a month of each other! She's an amazing author - remember, you heard of her here first! 

Anne has agreed to give away an advance copy of her Regency novel, Tainted Angel , due out in June, to one lucky commenter! (is that a gorgeous cover, or what?)

Take it away, Anne!

I’d like to thank the great and mighty Laura Drake for allowing me this opportunity to introduce myself—thanks a million, Laura!

I have two series debuting this year, a historical fiction series and a contemporary mystery series.  I’ve attended a few panels on the knotty problem of how accurate you have to be when writing historicals, so for those of you who read or write historical novels, I thought I’d pass along what I’ve gleaned.  I would also like to give away an advance copy of my Regency novel, Tainted Angel, which will come out in June.

In Larry McMurtry’s epic Lonesome Dove, the heroes drive cattle from Texas to Montana and never encounter any of the three intercontinental railroads they should have crossed along the way.   In his Comanche Moon, a character has a Winchester rifle even though the weapon was not invented for 10 more years.

The movie Braveheart tells us that the future Edward III was the product of a liaison between William Wallace and Isabella of France.  The problem is, Wallace was executed seven years before Edward was born, and Isabella of France was nine at the time Wallace was executed.

Are the stories any less compelling? The answer probably depends on your perspective. A history professor may reject such liberties, while to someone with a more cursory knowledge of the historical period, ignorance would be bliss.  The trick to writing a story from an earlier time period is to find the right balance between dry-as-dust history and an engaging story, and how accurate you need to be, I think, depends on who your readers are.

So--how accurate does your readership want you to be? If you are writing “hot” Regencies, the answer is probably not very accurate, because nice young ladies didn’t fool around (and were definitely never given an opportunity.)   Along the same lines, nice young ladies didn’t go west in the early-and-mid nineteenth century to stake out a homestead or run a cattle ranch; the huge majority were prostitutes.  This is probably not an interesting storyline for a western, however (unless you are writing “hot” westerns.)  Therefore, the question is not whether to take liberties with historical accuracy, it is how much liberty to take. My own rule of thumb is to never write anything that would “jolt” the average reader out of the story’s time frame—not the average history professor, just the average reader.

Here are some things to ask yourself:

(1)  Have you tied yourself down to a certain year? Is there a commonly-known historic event in your story?  If so, it is probably necessary to be a little more careful in your accuracy, which is actually a lot easier than you think, thanks to Google and Wikipedia. Were there gas stoves, yet?  Was Stetson selling hats?  And be especially careful about weapons--the gun people are sticklers.

(2)  Does the history overwhelm the fiction?  There is always a temptation to include all your bright, shiny, hard-earned research and bog the story down. Does the reader really need to know what kind of candles were used.

(3) What will you do about language?  Do you use the period’s awkward phrasing and now-outdated words, or do you update the language so the story moves along more easily? Do you use cant or slang phrases? My rule of thumb is to use period phrases and words, but only where the meaning is clear from the context—there’s nothing more wooden than having a character explain what she meant.

(4) What will you  do about societal strictures and sex? Courtship usually went according to a strict format—will you ignore this, or incorporate it into the story? One of the reasons we are drawn to the Amish stories, or even Pride and Prejudice, is because the context sets up an immediate tension—there were strict rules about interaction between the sexes.  Will you incorporate it into the story to create an external conflict, or will you inject modern manners into the past?

(5) In writing Young Adult, extra caution is probably needed because the younger readers may not have an understanding of the actual history, and may take whatever you say at face value.

(6)  Finally, will you confess any liberties you take with historical accuracy in an author’s note?  Again, this probably depends on what your readership is expecting. If they are expecting a loose rendition of history, there is probably no need. If they are history buffs, however, then they will expect a detailed author’s note.

What do you expect from historical novels? Can you think of any other examples where an anachronism “jolted” you out of the story?

 Anne Cleeland holds a degree in English from UCLA as well as a degree in law from Pepperdine University, and is a member of the California State Bar.  She writes a historical fiction series set in the Regency period as well as a contemporary mystery series set in New Scotland Yard.  A member of the Historical Novel Society and Mystery Writers of America, she lives in California and has four children.