Characters (Part I)

As author's we will write stories involving characters. It is important to give depth to the character, making them more life-like and believable. So, as authors, it is our job to incarnate our character's inner life. Give the physical to infer the spiritual. Give the exterior to show the interior. Watching the character act and move around a place allows the reader to see something about the character's inner character.

How is this done?

First, the voices of the characters, what they say, and how they say it, says a lot about the character. We learn about characters by how they talk.

Show the way your character walks. Does your character walk with their hands behind their back? If so, this is very Prince Charles-esque, and the reader would assume your character is very comfortable with themselves. Where else could they hold their hands? Pockets? Back pockets? Arms folded? each says something different about your character.

How does your character sit? Do they sit on the edge of their seat? Or, is the character turned away on their seat, not facing the other people? One shows listening intently. The other shows a lack of caring. There are so many ways your character can sit. But, the question to ask is, does your character have a distinctive  way of sitting that says something about them?

How does your character greet (or say goodbye) to people?

How does your character hold their hands in a social setting. Certain ways send certain messages.

How does your character hold their head? Is it nodding? Tilted? Hanging?

All of these don't have to be used, but they are part of a writers toolbox. As is everything I write about on this blog, these are tools that you can adapt to your own writing needs. You might use all of it; or you might use none of it. Stay tuned for more ideas on character building!

Opening your story

Openings grab the reader's attention, making them want to commit more time to the book. Often, it is said that busy editors with tons of manuscripts will throw away books because of a uninteresting first page, a boring first paragraph, and, even, a bland first sentence. Therefore, openings--and openings with a BANG!--are an important part to a story; because sadly, readers to judge books by their covers (and by covers I mean opening to a story).

Here are some helpful hints; but as always, these are recommendations. If these tips don't help, then don't use them. Writers constantly pick and choose techniques that they think will be useful, creating their own personal toolbox of tips.

• You want to drop your character right in the middle of the action (i.e. think the beginning of the Indiana Jones movies. Even though the action is not relevant to the rest of the story, Indy is dropped right in the middle of action).

• Provide the necessary background to bring your audience up to speed (nothing more though).

• Establish the major dramatic question (it doesn't have to be revealed entirely, though).

• Identify the narrator, or the narrative point-of-view early on.

• Don't paint elaborate state sets, don't have lengthy preambles, don't have overtures (and you get the point).

• Establish a distinctive voice (what is distinctive about that voice?). Make it recognizable.

• Don't be afraid to start right in the action (i.e. "The second blow crushed my nose into a bloody mess."). This beginning gets the reader right into interesting action, asking questions about (a) who is he fighting? (b) what happened in the first blow? etc. etc.

• If the setting has an important role--if it is critical--take that time to describe that picture (AGAIN: Only. If. Its. Critical.).

• Let the audience know something will happen (i.e. "The night before the volcano erupted...")

• A lot of writing is intuitive, write what you feel is an attention grabbing opening.

Plot

The plot is the dramatic question that drives the reader through the book. The readers want to know the answers to these dramatic questions.

Take Lord of the Rings, for example. One dramatic question really driving the story forward is, does Frodo (or even the Fellowship) successfully destroy the One Ring in the fires from which it came? Or in the Twilight books. Readers want to know what is going to happen with the big love triangle going on.

As a writer, it is critical to have that dramatic question in mind with each story. And with these dramatic questions, come three possible answers:

1. Yes (Frodo and the Fellowship successfully destroy the ring).
2. No (Frodo and the Fellowship fail, and the evil Sauron prevails).
3. Maybe (Frodo and the Fellowship succeed, but there is ambiguity to what the definite outcome is).

Stories are about what happens next--asking that dramatic question.

So, in more detail, what do these dramatic questions look like? Here is a sequence of dramatic questions that authors would do well to keep in mind as they write.

• What is it that my character wants?
• Conscious desires v. unconscious desires
• What keeps my character from getting it? What are the obstacles?
• What will my character do/risk/attempt to get it?
• After this, everything falls to the consequences--so, what is the fallout from the choice? What are the consequences?

The dramatic question is not about the meaning of the story. The meaning can come later. Don't focus on the meaning, at first; otherwise, the story can become didactic. Your characters are no longer characters; rather, your characters become walking ideas.

Writing Exercises

Have you ever tried a writing exercise? One that requires a certain style from you the author? For example, take this prompt:

The girl was excited about riding on the elevator.

Now, try to show (not tell) the girls emotion of excitement. As Flannery O'Connor always says, describing someone or something always begins with the eye. As in, show us certain features that would give away her excitement.

For this writing prompt in particular, I would write something about the girl smiling with two big dimples punctuated on her cheeks. Then I would say how she lets out a shriek and is jumping up and down; but I wouldn't say a shriek of excitement, that would be telling, not showing. Instead, the reader should get from the smile and dimples that the shriek is not from fear, but from excitement.

Try a writing exercise out. It can help the brain get flowing and it can help any writer get better at certain aspects of their writing (whatever the prompt is emphasizing).

Questions readers ask

As writers, we have to answer the questions that readers will ask. These questions intrigue the reader to read further into the story. Think of these questions as the "What happens next?" questions. Here is a list of some questions that are important, as writers, to address.

• Whose telling the story? And why are they telling the story?
• Who does the story belong to?
• What characters am I with when the story opens?
• Why does the story begin at this particular moment in the character's life?
• Why is this event different from any other event in the character's life? What is distinct about it?
• Where are you when the story opens? (i.e. season, time of day, location, etc.)
• What is at stake for the main character?
• What do the main characters want? What is it that they are dieing for lack of?
• What do my main characters fear? What motivates or pushes them?

Exploiting any one of these questions will make the reader tick. These questions make the reader want to read more because they want to know the answers.

Movie Review: The Ides of March

The Ides of March

Director: George Clooney


Starring: Ryan Gosling (Stephen Meyers), George Clooney (Governor Mike Morris), Paul Giamatti (Tom Duffy), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara)

Idealistic press secretary, Stephen Meyers (Gosling), believes in playing fair and by the rules. During the middle of the Ohio primary, however, his job is at stake, a scandal has surfaced, and Meyers is thrusted into the kill or be killed world that is dirty politics.

Is it worth seeing? Yes. The movie takes twists and turns, leaving you on the edge of your seat. And these suspenseful moments are not built around mind-numbing, action-packed sequences. No. Actually, there is no violence whatsoever. This is a look inside the world of politics, and it is haunting to say the very least.

New short story

Hello everyone. I am writing, now, to introduce a new short story that I have self-published in Kindle. The short story is entitled The Awake are Dead. It is a mix of suspense, "mystery," and surprise.

I wrote this story awhile ago. As a matter of fact, I wrote it at the same time as Murder on Laodicea Street. Therefore, as you read both stories, you may realize there are similarities with what I am trying to achieve. And, as was pointed out to me before, there are eerily similar details in both. I realize that.

Right now I am working on my first attempt at a novella/novel (I am not sure which it will be... it all depends on how much I have written by the time I am done writing the story). Nonetheless, I am excited to tackle a larger writing project. I don't want to say much about it right now, but as most of it is written I will reveal more details (talking too much about a project disperses the creative energy!).

Amazon's R. W. Morici Author's Page

Hello. I have a breif update. About a month ago I created an "Author's Page" on Amazon. Recently, I actually added stuff to it (whereas before, it was blank). I have added a biography page and an RSS feed from my blog to the Amazon Author's Page. Additionally, you can see all of my self-published works on the Author's Page (and as of right now, by all I mean all one of my stories I have self-published so far).

If you are interested, you can find my Amazon Author's Page here.

Quick tips for writing

Here are some bulleted points that are basics to all writers. Some of the points are ideas that I have talked about in previous blog posts, and some are new. And maybe you follow these already, or maybe you don't. Either way, enjoy!

• Writing is a discipline--find the place and time to work, and make it sacred.
• Set reasonable goals for pacing each day (i.e. 500 words a day). And stop at that goal (leaving yourself a little note of what you want to say next), even if you are on a role.
• Come to the piece that you are working on with some idea of a beginning; because, a blank page is discouraging.
• Don't write for anyone in mind. Just write, and write what you want to write about.
• Don't talk about your work too soon. Those who always talk about their writing never actually finish a project. It disperses your creative energy.
• Take risks even if you think it is not going to be  productive.
• Think about your characters, setting, dialogue, etc. when you are not writing (i.e. think about your project when you are walking in the forest preserve).
• Don't fret about writers block. Develop strategies (i.e. pick up any item around you, and put it in the next sentence you write).
• You cannot write when you feel like it or when the writer muse is great. You learn to write by writing everyday, with your butt on the chair.

Now go out there and write!

Where we write from

Aristotle believed a story does not only have a beginning, middle, and end; but also, a story must have a moment of recognition--"Ah-ha, that's me!"--between the reader and the text. A moment of recognition is any connection the reader makes to the text (i.e. emotional). So, the question is, where do writers write from, in order to write a successful story?

We use our own life experiences
We all write out of ourselves and the world we live. Or in other words, we write what we know. And we connect to people and the universal out of our own peculiar stories. The one problem with only writing what you know is that your stories become parochial, small, repetitive, and any other synonymous adjective.

We, as writers, are wide readers
We begin with a genre we know well and write out of those genres we know well. For example, I tend to read James Patterson, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, etc. and I am working on writing "thriller" type novels. Thriller is the genre I widely read in, and thriller is the genre I am attempting to write in. Anyhow, writing in a genre we know, provides a form that we build off of. Whether we choose to stay within the form or break the genre conventions, we are still responding to genre in some way.

You have to love the material you work with
For writers, the material we work with is words. If we want to be writers, we have to love how they sound, how they look on page, how they create different meanings, and how they create tension. No matter your reason, love the words. What words delight you? What words do you hate?

If you readers of this blog have any other suggestions of where we write from, then, please, leave a comment. Say where you write from.