Writers in the Storm

by Sharla Rae

Recently, at one of our WITS critique meetings, we found ourselves asking why one of our partner’s characters was doing something that appeared illogical. The writer explained it wasn’t illogical at all. It fit her character’s motivation. To which we replied, “what motivation? Shouldn’t you clue us in so we’ll understand her actions?" She frowned a little and said, “I really didn’t want to reveal everything up front, for fear of spoiling the story.”

I proposed that she should reveal all the character’s motivations to the reader, but leave the other characters in the story ignorant. Thus, readers know what the other characters don’t. This actually heightens the tension in the story for the reader.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We’ve all made the mistake of holding too much back. In fact it’s a very common mistake when starting a new story. That said, leaving out character motivations can turn a potentially great book into a corpse.

Characters can walk and talk, cry their eyes out and howl with laughter and still be pronounced dead on arrival. Unless readers know why characters are doing all those things, that is, what motivates them, the story lacks a heartbeat.

Motivation is not just the heart of every character; it’s the heart of the story. It breathes life into characters and pumps the action that moves the characters toward their goals.

Don’t roll your eyes yet. I know that all writers understand the importance of motivation. But I also know after judging many contests that some authors hold back on motivations for the wrong reasons.

Two Most Common Reasons for Hiding Character Motivation

• “I don’t want to give away the character’s secrets too soon; I want to surprise the reader at the end.”Readers are surprised all right! The characters run amuck, acting, reacting and saying things for no apparent reason. Without clear motivations, the book and its characters are as soulless as wooden puppets on strings.

Readers don’t empathize with puppets and won't read far enough to find the "surprises."Knowing character motivations allows readers to identify with them, root for or against them and experience the story’s adventure through them.

• “I’m afraid the suspense or the story tension will be lost.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, knowing character motivations heightens story tension because often the motivations and goals of one character interfere with those of another. Part of the fun of reading a story is discovering how everything knits together  in the end.

Yes, there are exceptions to the rule. We’ve all read mysteries where a secondary character turns out to have unknown motivations that upset the apple cart. The author gets away with this technique by never allowing the reader into this character’s point of view. However, through other characters, and discoveries made along the way, the author will drop clues that all is not what it appears on the surface.

Still, the above scenario is not the norm. In most cases, it’s not only okay for readers to know “all” character motivations, it’s necessary to understanding their actions. It’s necessary to keep the story's heart beating.

So how ’bout it? Has your story’s heart ever skipped a few beats? What was your mistake and how did you fix it?

By Monthly Contributor, Shannon Donnelly

We’ve all heard “show, don’t tell” and there is value in that advice. If all you do is tell a story, how does the reader participate with his or her imagination? However, a book is not a movie. While a movie requires everything to be shown (or an often awkward voice over to be added if it’s not showing enough), a book has the luxury of being able to use narrative. And that’s where I usually get folks who are utterly confused.

Narrative seems to have gone out of fashion. It's not often taught, and no one seems to really get what it is. So let’s make it easy.

Merriam-Webster gives us the root for narrative/narrating as the “Latin narratus, past participle of narrare, from Latin gnarus knowing; akin to Latin gnoscere, noscere to know.”

This means it’s basically the author telling the reader the information the author knows, which the reader also needs to know. And now you ask, what does the reader need to know, and when does the reader need it, and how much does the reader need. This is where narrative becomes an art.

There is no exact formula for what is enough telling.  However, readers always need to know:

* Where are we? (Place and world – the reader needs to be placed into the scene, otherwise it’s confusing to the reader. Do not throw your readers into the deep end without giving them some help.)

* When are we? (What’s the era, the time of the year, the month, the day, the hour? We need everything that helps the reader settle into the scene as if this moment in time really exists.)

*Who is here? (An introduction to the characters, particularly to the main characters for that scene, and for the story.)

* Why are we here? (This doesn’t have to be greatly detailed information, but you need enough details to make a reader care. Think of it this way—too little and you starve the reader’s imagination; too much and the reader quickly fills up and drops the book down.)

All this needs to be woven together, stitched in with careful threads, not dumped on the reader in big clumps. Or, to put it another way, feed the reader your telling—your narrative—with a teaspoon, not a soup bowl.

Good narrative does a lot of things for you:

*  It condenses information, which helps keep the pace of the story moving forward.

*  It weaves in backstory and plot exposition, so you don’t have to have huge info dumps.

*  It allows touches of your author voice to add atmosphere and mood to a story.

*  It allows you, the author, to set the scene for the reader, thereby setting expectations about the story—you’re basically setting up the reader to enjoy the story (and not have to work too hard).

Bad narrative also does a lot of things for you, but worst of all, poor narrative is awkward, verbose and  tends to make a reader put down the book.

So how do you know if your narrative—your story telling—is working?

*  Have someone else read the story—and just have them make an X on the page every time their attention starts to wander. That’s a place where the telling is probably getting to overload.

* Look at the balance of action (showing) to telling—go through with a colored marker and make sure you’re not telling too much.

* Use the story telling to move into and out of scenes (for transitions.) Within a scene, cut the telling and only show your characters in action. Only tell if you must to clarify action, intent, or motivations (and even then look for better ways to show this instead of tell).

Most of all, if it works, don’t fix it. But if it doesn’t work, time to get back to edits to make the story work for the reader.

Shannon Donnelly regularly teaches an online workshop on Show and Tell: An Interactive Workshop. She’ll be giving this workshop again in June 2012 for Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. 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."

Her latest Regency Historical Romance, Paths of Desire, can be found as an ebooks on Kindle, Nook and at Smashwords, along with her Regency romances. Shannon is a regular speaker at writing conferences, and will be speaking at the 2012 RWA  National conference in Anaheim. She gives online workshops and is the author of Story Telling; Story Showing, an ebook that compliments her popular online class Show and Tell: An Interactive Workshop.

Writers In The Storm welcomes back Kara Lennox, a.k.a. Karen Leabo for some more plot-fixing magic. Kara is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than sixty novels of romance and romantic suspense for Harlequin and Random House. AND she’s a 2012 DOUBLE RITA Finalist!

Problem #4: A lack of clear-cut goals for your characters

In a mystery, the protagonist's goals are usually pretty easy to figure out: Solve the mystery. Catch the bad guy. Keep from getting killed. Maybe not in that order.

In a fantasy, there is usually some quest. (Lord of the Rings--retrieve the ring and toss it into Mt. Doom)

In romance, however, figuring out the goals of your main characters is a bit trickier, because usually, at the beginning they don't want love. Falling in love is the last thing on their minds, and would in fact interfere with their plans. So they have to have some other goal. They have to want something, and they have to want it passionately. This is how you create conflict--someone wants something, but something (often their future love) is in the way.

Another reason romance is tricky is because you usually have two main characters with equal or almost equal weight in the story, so you have to give each of them a goal, and the goals should conflict with one another. I'm sure you've heard the old Nora Roberts chestnut of advice: "If the hero is an arson investigator, the heroine better be an arsonist." Or something like that.

In a romance, both goals should be sympathetic. The reader should be able to understand why each of them wants what they want, which means you must motivate those goals.

The goals should be primal -- something anyone from any culture can understand. If a heroine wants to keep her child, that's primal. If a hero wants to prove himself to his demanding father, that's primal. Even wanting a pile of money relates to survival. Make the goal personal, really important, a matter of life and death if at all possible.

Here is an example from a paranormal I'm currently working on: A lonely woman who wants a family accidentally comes into possession of a stolen dragon egg. When it hatches, she and the baby dragon form a mystical bond--she isn't going to give it up easily. Along comes the hero, whose mission is to reclaim the baby dragon and return it to his queen. If he fails, he faces death. Hero's and heroine's goals are diametrically opposed (one of them has to lose) and, I hope, well motivated.

As the characters grow and change, their goals can change, too. Think of the Anne Hathaway character in The Devil Wears Prada. At first, she just wants to be a journalist. She takes the job at the fashion magazine because she believes it will open doors for her. Her goal is to survive a year, and she thinks fashion is pretentious and all her coworkers shallow. Eventually, though, she realizes that to succeed at this job, she must fit in, and she sets out to dress and act the part and to not just survive, but excel. She succeeds at this all too well--at the expense of her romance and her co-worker's career. When she realizes what she is becoming and where she is headed, she changes back to her original goal of wanting to be a writer and she turns her back on fashion, older and wiser.

In ONE FOR THE MONEY, Stephanie Plum at first just wants a paying job so she can get her repo'd car back. Then she wants to bring in Joe Morelli--at first, strictly for the bounty, then, to prove she can best him. THEN ... after she learns a few things, she also wants to find and catch the real murderer.

However, in my current WIP, from the very beginning the heroine wants to catch a murderer so she can earn the respect of her colleagues, and in the last scene she has solved the mystery and is basking in the admiration of her co-workers.

Remember, conflict on every page. No conflict without desires. Make your characters want stuff. The villain has to want stuff. Secondary characters have to want stuff.

Look at every main character in your story. Identify what they want. Does this change as they grow? (It doesn't have to, but often the character, as he or she grows, either learns to accept that they might have to compromise, or discovers what they want isn't what they need.)

Don't miss Kara's latest book, Outside The Law (part of the Project Justice series for Harlequin Super Romance) and her soon to be re-released classic Bantam Loveswept novels, written as Karen Leabo.

Kara's website