Magical Words

I either have the attention span of a gnat or a…thing which is opposite of a gnat, depending on how I want to look at it. On one hand, I am profoundly enamored and excited by new projects. On the other, when I get my teeth in something, I am exceedingly unwilling to let it go. To wit:

About five and a half years ago, Marvel Comics announced it was beginning a creator-owned line and invited writers and artists to submit their material. It happened that at the time I was about to start on a comic book project to work on my own sequential art (ie, comic book) art skills. Instead, I wrote a script, got artist Ursula Vernon to draw the first five pages, and submitted it. After about five months, Marvel gave up on their idea, but I didn’t.

The result is that my first comic book, “Take A Chance”, a superhero comic about an ordinary woman who turns vigilante after her son is killed in the crossfire of gang warfare, is launching this December. I’m incredibly proud and excited about this, and I’m going to discuss behind the cut, in great detail, how it came to be.

Above the cut, though, I’m going to add that the first issue is a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and that 50% of any profit I make on the issue will go to them, as will 10% of the proceeds from the graphic novel it’ll eventually be in. I’d therefore like to encourage people to dash out and pre-order the comic. If you don’t have a pull list at your comic shop already, you can use this order form to order it.

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Tags: C E Murphy // 5 Comments »

I wanted to post this earlier, but I had some trouble logging in today.  Problem seems to be fixied now, so here’s today’s post.  Better late than never, right?

I’m currently reading Ysabel, by Guy Gavriel Kay.  Kay is one of my favorite authors, and Ysabel may be his finest work yet.  One aspect of the story that makes it so effective is the constant tension between ancient and modern, past and present.  The story itself is an anachronism in its modern setting.  This is a difficult thing to do, and, of course, Kay does it brilliantly.

Reading the book got me thinking about how we as fantasy authors blend setting and character and plot:  a delicate balance that is so elemental in our genre.  Specifically, it reminded me that while Kay uses anachronism as a storytelling tool, most authors need to avoid anachronism in all its forms.

What is anachronism?  It’s defined as “a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other.” Basically, for the purposes of this discussion, it’s anything in a story that does not belong, that jars your reader out of setting and narrative and character.

How does it manifest itself in fantasy writing?  For the sake of simplicity, I’ll say that the anachronistic mistakes I’ve seen made by beginning writers fall into one of three categories:  worldbuilding, language, and dialogue, both internal and external.

In terms of worldbuilding, authors need to be careful that they don’t establish a level of technology for one aspect of their story, and then undermine that decision by establishing a different level of technology for another.  For instance, I’ve read stories (excellent in most other ways) that have characters using medieval weaponry, but then taking hot showers.  I’ve seen authors write about preindustrial societies that have electricity or steam power.  Sorry, folks, but you just can’t do that.  Or rather, if you’re really determined to do it, you’d better have a REALLY good explanation for why it makes sense.  These types of problems are simple to avoid, but they require some research and some logical thought.  One book I’ve found useful is called Ancient Inventions.  It’s by Peter James and Nick Thorpe, and it offers some basic discussion of when a wide variety of technological innovations came into use.

Anachronistic language is a bit trickier to deal with, but again care and research can help.  The issue here is that most of our writing is done from a certain character’s point of view.  This is true even if you’re writing in third person.  You are still letting your readers view the world and the story through one person’s eyes (or, if you’re like me, many people’s eyes).  These people are limited in what they can know by their experiences and by their cultures.  So a medieval knight shouldn’t say that something is “as big as a bus” since he doesn’t know what a bus is.  He shouldn’t say that someone is being “paranoid,” because paranoia is a nineteenth century psychological term that he couldn’t possibly know.  And unless his world has the same Judeo-Christian traditions and cultural touchstones as ours, he shouldn’t curse by saying, “Oh Hell!” or using the name of Christ.  A couple of other sources:  for the sake of straight chronology — knowing when words entered the lexicon — I use Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition, hardcover) which gives a date for every word, and another book called English Through the Ages, by William Brohaugh.  Technically for my books, I shouldn’t use any word that entered the language after, say, 1400.  But that gets VERY tricky.  I limit myself to words that entered the language before 1600, and even that can be tough.  But it keeps my worlds feeling real.

Finally, dialogue.  Some of the same points that apply to prose apply to dialogue as well.  You don’t want your lead character in a medieval fantasy calling his best friend “Dude” or “Dawg”.  But here I tend to fudge a bit, because you also don’t want your characters talking to each other in stilted or obscure language, even if that language is entirely appropriate for a thirteenth century setting.  So I have my characters speak using contractions and somewhat colloquial language.  I love Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but I find the dialogue tiresome because it is so authentic.  In the end, I’ve decided that in the interest of keeping my books flowing and easy to read, I’ll sacrifice this small bit of authenticity.

The issue of anachronism in books is one that I could write about at greater length, but this is at least the beginning of a discussion.  As I indicated at the outset in regard to Kay’s book, anachronism can be used as a literary device.  But you’d better know what you’re doing before you try it.  Otherwise, if you’re trying to build a coherent fantasy world and set your story in it, anachronistic writing is something to be avoided.  You’ve worked hard to submerge your reader in your world; the last thing you want to do is jar him or her out of it.

Tags: David B. Coe // 5 Comments »

As a writer, I’ve always ever had one true hope for my work, and that was that it might someday make a reader feel the way my favorite author’s books always made me feel. I wanted my readers to come away from my stories breathing a satisfied sigh of time well spent.

When I was a child, I used to write letters to authors whose work impressed me, people like E L Konigsberg, Elizabeth Enright (and was broken-hearted to learn she had died some years before my letter arrived), and Marguerite Henry. Most of the time the only response was a form letter of some kind from the publisher, thanking me for my interest. When I was 10 or 11, I wrote a letter to my favorite author (at the time), Alexander Key. I’d just finished his fantastic novel Flight to the Lonesome Place, and I had a question about one of the characters. Everyone told me not to expect a personal response, since he was a famous author and I was just a kid who read his book. Imagine my excitement when a letter arrived a few weeks later, with “A. Key” in the return address corner. I read his charming, thoughtful, personal response to my question at least one hundred times. My favorite author had taken the time to write to me, a mere reader. How amazing was that?

These days I’m the one getting correspondence from readers. It’s a good deal easier here in the 21st century, what with email and blog lines. No one has to search very diligently before they find a way to contact me, which is nice for both of us. Yesterday, for example, I opened my email and found a delightful note from a young woman who had just finished reading Mad Kestrel, and wanted to tell me how she felt about it. As I read her gushing email, I began to cry, because I realized that I’d done what I wanted to do. I had given at least one person a story that became real, a cast of characters she could care about, and a world she didn’t want to leave behind. As writers, we all hope for award nominations and bestseller status and seven figure advances, but honestly, when it all comes down, what we really want is to touch someone else’s soul with our work. That’s what being an artist is all about.

Tags: Misty Massey // 4 Comments »

The friend I wrote about a couple weeks ago when I shared the poster-board and crayon method of scene writing, has made another milestone. First, she must have finished that pesky battle scene that was making her so nuts. Because this week she wrote and shared another milestone. I thought I’d take it and share the progression of thoughts with you guys. Anonymously, of course, for her.

Her letter…

Ok, so here’s the thing. I THINK I just finished my book. Does that
make sense?
I had planned on writing a few more scenes, but it feels like this is
the end. I’ve got the tears (mine and hopefully the readers’), the
emotion, the hope for survival. Will another scene ruin that? I think it will.
OK, I think I just convinced myself, but feel free to respond with
your thoughts.
So … I finished it! Now I really am crying!
Anonymous Writer

My reply…

OMG!
Yes! Cry and whoop and jump and dance!
You have now become a writer.
A *real* writer. You finished a project. A whole book!
Might you eventually add another scene?
Maybe. Who knows. But savor this now. The first time only happens once.

Me

So, why am I choosing to write about this today? Simple. It is a huge milestone. *Really huge.*

General numbers (made up but oft quoted) about writers go:

One in a 100 people want to write a book.

For every 100 people who want to write a book, one will start.

For every 100 who start, one will finish.

For every 100 who finish, one will be commercially published.

Anonymous just became one of a very small percentage of people on this earth. She should celebrate – dance, laugh, go out to dinner, run in circles barking. No, wait. That’s my dog. *grins*

But then I felt like running in circles when I finished my first book. And barking and wagging my tail too. I felt lighter than air, full of joy, as if angel wings were beating all around me. I sat on the couch for a moment, taking it all in. And I celebrated by, well, working some more. Which pattern of behavior became my reaction to milestones ever after.

As it turns out, that was really dumb, and the result of the stress I put myself under was dangerous to my health. It is long-lasting and very negative. So every time you pass a milestone, celebrate. Rest. Enjoy the moment. There are so few moments of true accomplishment in life. Remember to savor each.

No one is a writer until they finish a work, be it short story, article, or novel, just like no one is a bricklayer until they cap off that first wall. It takes accomplishment to don the cap and robe and cross the stage. Anonymous did it. She finished a book. She should celebrate.

Cheers, girl!

My question to the other writers here (are there any folk here who are not writers?)

How did you celebrate on that first big milestone? And any other memorable ones thereafter?

Faith

Tags: Faith Hunter // 6 Comments »

I had one of those rare moments this morning where I realized how much I love my job. Actually, that’s not so rare. It’s just that it doesn’t often hit when I’m sitting down to do revisions.

I’d cleared off my desk of the last set of manuscript papers so I could spread the new ones around. For about two seconds everything was tidy, and then I put a 717 page manuscript on the left side of the keyboard tray, fifty pages of editorial cuts on the right side, and the revision letter on the desk itself.

And I thought something very much like, “This is gonna be great.”

Some time ago I ran a “What would people like to hear about writing?” poll on my LJ. One of the choices was the nuts and bolts of line edits, copy edits, and revisions. As a result of that combined with my extraordinary good cheer about tackling these revisions today, I’m going to subject you to running commentary of the first few chapters/several pages/however long my attention span holds of edits.

I’ll be nice, though, and put it behind the cut.

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Tags: C E Murphy // 5 Comments »

A Different kind of post this week:

For those of you who somehow missed it in the news this weekend, actor and activist Paul Newman died on Friday at the age of eighty-three.  Newman has always been one of my favorite actors, and even knowing that he had been sick, I was saddened by the news of his death.  Over the last few days, I’ve been trying to think of what made him so good at what he did, what it was I loved about his work and admired about him as an artist.

The realization I’ve come to is both simply and profound:  Paul Newman was the kind of artist I’d like to be.

My favorite Paul Newman movies include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Verdict, Absence of Malice, The Hustler, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Color of Money, The Road to Perdition.  I could go on — I’ve enjoyed so much of his work.  But that’s probably a good enough list for now.  So, what do these movies have in common aside from Newman’s involvement?  Well, all of them were great movies, but all of them were also accessible.  Newman didn’t do high cinema; he didn’t do movies that were longer on symbolism and art than they were on plot and character.

What else do we know about Newman?  He was a humanitarian who donated in the neighborhood of a $100 million from the sales of his organic food products to various charities, without taking a penny for himself.  He sponsored a camp designed for child cancer patients.  He was also deeply political, and made no effort to hide his progressive leanings from the public.  Indeed, he was proud of his political work.  He was a devoted family man, who remained married to Joanne Woodward for fifty years despite living and working in Hollywood, a place not known for being kind to celebrity marriages.  And finally, he liked to have fun — his idea of having fun happened to involve racing cars, but hey, he enjoyed it and that’s what mattered.

From an artistic perspective, I also strive for that balance between excellence and accessibility.  Every time I begin a new project I set out to write the best book I can.  I want it to be as great as possible in every way, naturally.  I also look to address important issues — race, ethnic identity, prejudice, environmental degradation, among others.  But mostly I try to remember that what I write is entertainment.  I want people to think when they read my books, but first and foremost, I want them to have fun.

I try to give back to my community and my country through volunteer work and charitable contributions (though I don’t have the resources at my disposal to do very much).  And no one who has read my personal blog will be surprised to learn that I’m an active progressive.

Finally, I have always tried to find a balance in my life between my work on the one hand and my family and happiness on the other.  I love what I do, but I love my wife and daughters more.  And I have many hobbies — photography and birdwatching, to name just two — that I enjoy and pursue whenever I have the chance.

Look, I’m not trying to compare myself to Paul Newman.  Far from it.  Nancy will be the first person to tell you that I’m not nearly that good-looking.  I haven’t been nearly as successful, the quality of my work can’t compare to the quality of his, and my impact on the world is tiny by comparison.  But I think that Newman set a terrific example for artists everywhere, and as I contemplate his life and his achievements, I see that he gave those of us who are pursuing our passions as he pursued his, much for which to strive.  This isn’t to say that an artist has to emulate Newman.  Not at all.  But for me he was, and will continue to be, a wonderful role model.

Tags: David B. Coe // 5 Comments »

Once upon a time, just for the laugh of it, I wrote a story in which the main characters of all the works-in-progress in my writing group all went on strike. Some of the characters were demanding more “screen time”. One character insisted he should have a scene with two bikini-clad ladies in a hot tub. Another wanted a different boyfriend, and one more wanted to be able to paint her toenails. I made fun of myself as well - my striking character, Lyristus, was complaining that he’d been beaten up several times but hadn’t had any lovin’ to balance it out. As I said, when I began, I thought I was writing it for the fun of it, but along the way I realized my character was trying to tell me something. He’d been harboring a secret love of an unattainable woman for nearly the whole book, and that love needed to be a central focus of the story. Lyristus wasn’t a secondary character - he was a protagonist, and I hadn’t noticed until I let him go on strike.

I’m sure you’ve all heard writers say that they had a perfectly clear idea of what would happen in their novels, until the characters got going and changed everything. It’s true, at least for me. Once the characters are created and the story gets going, they will cry and get drunk and spend too much money and dance like fools in front of the Duke of Burgundy, all the things real people do. And sometimes when they take that sudden left turn, it may drive the author nuts, but it makes for a more brilliant story.

So here’s your homework, kids. Tell me about a character you’ve written that turned your story upside-down. (Readers, you can play, too - tell me about a character you read that you think might have done something like that to his author.)

Tags: Misty Massey // 7 Comments »

Catie couldn’t think of a thing to say and here I am posting a day early. But I have Internet access, and it may be gone by morning….Soooo….

David started me off on Monday thinking about how I build a new main character. And…I don’t really know. I’m feeling my way through this one.

Like David, it’s not just a character I build, but a world, and in the case of fantasy, a magic system. All of it has to blend together, fit like the chinks in the logs of a log home. Some of it I want to be totally new, never done, and fresh as a new penny. Some I want to be almost trite, close to what Misty called a trope. Like David pointed out when we spent time on tropes earlier this summer, it’s the way a tried and true subject is presented that makes it work or not, not how tried or true it is. Also, the expected makes us comfortable with a character, and the quirky parts make us interested.

Take House—Dr. Gregory House. The things we all want in a diagnostician are there: intelligence, never giving up, driving fascination with a patient and his problem. This is expected and desired. But…let’s face it. House is an SOB. I’ve known uncompassionate MDs like him and they are little more than medical-torturer henchmen. I actually heard one such guy say, “Oh it hurts? How about that? Or this? Does *this* hurt?” And laugh and shake his head. Yet, House is an interesting character. He works in the storylines presented.

But back to character building. David’s creative method is much like the way my hubby used to build a home, thoughtful, linear, almost painstakingly careful, and elegant. For me, it all comes together oddly. A little slapdash. Okay, a lot slapdash. Here’s how Jane Yellowrock worked.

I had just discovered that I have a lot of Cherokee in my lineage. A *lot*. The first Prater (my family name) came to this country in the 1600s as a bond slave, worked 20 years for his freedom and then took off for the hills, where he bought himself a Cherokee wife. His sons followed daddy’s lead and also bought wives from the Cherokee. This went on for a lot of generations. On mama’s side, I had just found out that I was Nansemond and Choctaw. American Indian themes were on my mind.

Because of this, I had been reading Cherokee legends and stories and was especially attentive to the skinwalker myths. That’s the background.

I was having tea with…I think it was Kim, and I said, “I have this idea for a character, a Cherokee skinwalker. And there’s this phrase I can’t get out of my mind. Katie’s Ladies.” And suddenly I knew… It all fell into place. I said, “Like in a house of ill repute.”

Kim (Arrg. Was it Kim?) said something like, “You want to write about a whore?”

I said, “No. But Katie owns the whore house and her Ladies need protection from a vampire. Maybe a rogue vamp. And my character is a skinwalker, who kills rogue vamps.”

“I like,” saith she. “What’s her name?”

“Jane. Vamp killer and muscle for hire. Have stakes will travel.” (You saw it first here.)

At which point we both giggled.

And with that I had Jane’s ethnicity, age range (must have advantage of youth to kill vamps,) magical nature, moxie, physical description (American Indian Cherokee but with something extra) no family or pets (how else can she travel, but fast, light, and alone) and all the building blocks just fell into place. I had probably been working it out in my subconscious mind for days, though the conscious creative parts took about a minute. After one and a fourth books in her series, I am still discovering who the character is. Am still being surprised by her, and taking pleasure in uncovering her backstory. It is a job of discovery as much as one of building or creating. It is also the lazy way to build a character. I don’t recommend it to anyone else. I’d never tell someone to try it my way. David’s is much more sensible and teachable and elegant. But it has worked for me for the last 17 books. Will I change my method? I could. I might. I probably even should. My way is haphazard, and such things tend to fall apart after a while. But I haven’t changed my method-less method yet. I am enjoying the journey too much to try something different right now.

Faith

Tags: Faith Hunter // 7 Comments »

I have spent more or less the whole day trying to come up with a good solid writing topic to discuss on Magical Words today. Mostly what I’ve come up with is a backache, because I’ve also spent a significant chunk of time hunched over a laptop and a printer while I turned a 700+ page manuscript from pixels to paper.

Man. Sorry, guys. Today I’ve just got nothing. I’ll try to be extra-brilliant next week to make up for it. :/

-Catie

Tags: C E Murphy // Add Comment »

Today, I begin a two part discussion of character development.  Tomorrow, I’ll post the second part at www.sfnovelists.com, and I hope that after you check in here at magicalwords to read Catie’s post, you’ll come over to sfnovelists and read part two of this discussion.

Whenever I’m on panels or in workshops talking about writing fantasy, I try to convey the same basic point:  No matter how terrific a world you’ve created for your story, no matter how complex and clever your plot twists, no matter how gorgeous your prose, successful fantasy, like successful fiction in all genres, comes down to character.  If you create compelling, fascinating, multi-dimensional characters who fascinate your readers, your book or story will be successful.  If your characters are flat, boring, or unbelievable, or if they don’t captivate your readers, your book will fail.  That may seem like an extreme statement, but I believe it’s true.  A book with a flawed world can work if the characters and plot make up for the world’s shortcomings.  A fascinating world and terrific characters can carry a less-than-stellar plot. But if the characters don’t work, the world and plot won’t save you.

So, if you want to write a book that works, just create great characters.  It’s that easy, right?  Right.  Except that creating those believable, fascinating characters isn’t easy at all.  And while I’d love to be able to give you the ABCs of character creation there is no such thing.  Creating characters is as individual as . . . well . . . as any other endeavor in writing.  We each have to find our own way.  But I can at least tell you some of the things that I do when I’m working out characters.

Ideas for new projects come to me in a variety of forms.  Sometimes they begin with a character or group of characters, but other times they begin with magic systems, or plot points, or some other aspect of the worlds I’ve begun to imagine.  In all cases though, my new ideas quickly become character-driven, much like my books.  Not surprisingly, I will begin by focusing on the character who I envision as my main protagonist.  My approach to developing this character goes through several phases.

First, there’s the “Introduction” stage.  I start with a name.  Yeah, I know that sounds pretty basic, but finding a name I like for a main character can take me days.  This is a person with whom I plan to spend a great deal of time.  I’ll probably type his or her name thousands of times.  I’d better like it.  I then start to work on this person’s physical appearance.  This may sound shallow to some, but think about how important physical appearance is in most human interaction.  It’s usually the first thing we notice about a person, and it can often have a profound impact on the way someone interacts with the world.  (For a dramatic example of this, I offer Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan books.)  I jot down how I envision the character — face, build, hair, eye color, distinguishing marks.  If I see the character having scars, I give some indication of the source.  I then think about secondary characteristics — voice quality, manner of speaking (clipped, verbose, nervous, confident), physical tics or habits.  Does this person move or carry him/herself a certain way?  IN short, I focus on all the things you might notice the first time you meet someone.

From here I move on to the “Getting to Know You” stage.  I begin to fill in background information:  What do I know about the character’s family history?  What were his/her parents like?  What did they do with their lives — were they soldiers, farmers, nobles?  What were they like as parents and what was the main character’s relationship with them like?  Does/did the character have siblings?  How many?  What were they like and what kind of relationship did the character have with them?  Did the character have a happy childhood or a difficult one (or both)?  Where did the character grow up?  Yes, this is going to be dependent on some worldbuilding, but even if the information is limited to “a small fishing village on an island far removed from the great event of the character’s time” or, conversely, “the largest wealthiest city in the most powerful realm in the land” that is significant information.  And of course, I need to know what this character does for a living, or what role he/she plays in society.  Usually that’s a pretty simple piece of information to fill in, since it’s often central to the plot I’m planning and the character’s role in that plot.  But still, it is important.

Finally, I move on to the “Psychoanalysis” stage.  What is this character like?  What kind of personality traits does this person have?  Is he/she confident or insecure?  Friendly or standoffish?  Arrogant or humble?  Quick tempered or unflappable?  What kind of relationships does he/she have with the people around him or her?  And (this is very important) what personal traits and faults will this person have to overcome in order to deal with the problems I plan to throw at him/her during the course of the book?

I can go on and on, but I figure you get the picture.  Is all of this background work necessary?  Maybe not.  But I like to know as much as possible about a character from the outset.  Sometimes I’ll even write out a character sketch incorporating all of the information that I’ve listed here.  The important thing is that I know a great deal about this person before I begin to outline the plot in a serious way and before I start working on the people around him/her.  This is not to say that I neglect other characters in favor of this one, or that I don’t take as much time and effort with other characters.  (All right, with some characters I take far less time — bit characters need depth and substance, too, but not nearly as much.  But major secondary characters — the supporting cast, if you will, need to be complex and well thought-out, or else the relationships they have with the lead character won’t work.)  But the main character is the one that matters most, the one who has the greatest potential to make or break the book and/or series.

So start with these tips, and tomorrow I’ll talk a bit more about where I like to go from here.  Check out tomorrow’s post at www.sfnovelists.com.

Tags: David B. Coe // 2 Comments »