Post #132 July 30 2018

Character, Action and Tom Swift, Jr. (Part II)

One of my great joys as a teenager was Tom Swift, Jr. books.  In the early and mid-1960s, they were produced as trade-sized hardcovers, priced at $1.25 and came out every four months.  I’d buy the latest one on a Saturday morning and be finished with it that evening.

I loved them for the science adventures and for the fact that there was lots of action.  And story action is the subject of this post.

Action should be thought of as what the main characters do to solve their problems.  Some stories are marketed as action-adventures, where the action is all there is…continuous action, without the characters spending a lot of time contemplating their navels or expounding on deep philosophical matters. 

One of my goals in writing Time Jumpers was to involve the reader in lots of action, right from the start.  To make this happen, the main character(s)…in this case Monthan Dringoth…has to be an action-oriented person, or a person in an action-oriented position.  Dringoth and his crew are time jumpers with Time Guard so they’re always fighting off bad guys like the Coethi and spies and trying to keep the peace in the world of interstellar time travel that is Time Guard’s theater of operation.  Keeping Dringoth and his crew involved in some kind of action hasn’t been too much of a stretch.

But action for the sake of action actually gets old, after a few chapters.  The action has to be in the service of the story, it has to advance the story.  Which means that in addition to fighting off bad guys, time jumpers like Monthan Dringoth have to occasionally run into roadblocks, problems he can’t resolve in his usual head-banging, slam-‘em- up- side-the-head fashion.  The action has to have a purpose.  In these cases, the purpose is show Dringoth as a person and how he reacts to different situations and scenarios, in other words to reveal and develop character.

Action doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  It happens or is caused by character.  I found this on Wikipedia concerning adventure stories and the role of action:

Critic Don D'Ammassa, in the Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction defines the genre as follows:

.. An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist's ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action. Adventure stories almost always move quickly, and the pace of the plot is at least as important as characterization, setting and other elements of a creative work.^[1]



D'Ammassa argues that adventure stories make the element of danger the focus; hence he argues that Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed, whereas Dickens' Great Expectations is not because "Pip's encounter with the convict is an adventure, but that scene is only a device to advance the main plot, which is not truly an adventure."^[1]



So danger is an important element of action adventure stories.  In Time Jumpers, there are several sources of danger.  Monthan Dringoth is often at risk to life and limb from Time Guard’s principal enemy the Coethi.  Sometimes, the time travel technology at the heart of the series comes back to bite him, and his fellow troopers.  Sometimes his own actions and headstrong impulses cause bad things to happen.  And ideally, as this serial story advances through its planned 12 episodes, Dringoth learns his lesson from being in all this danger and approaches future conflicts and problems with a smarter approach.  In other words, the main character is changed somehow as he encounters problems, conflicts and dangers. 



This is one of the reasons, though we don’t always like to admit it, that so many readers like action adventure stories.  They can live and experience vicariously the action and dangers of the main character and still live to read another day.  In fact when you get right down to it, this is one of the key reasons why we like stories period. 

Another aspect of any good action-adventure story is the pace, the speed of the action.  Our hero is constantly in and out of hot water, one close escape after another.  How do you keep the reader from going numb or zoning out through all this?  Vary the action.  Vary what happens.  Make the reader care about the character.  This means that the pot-boiler action sequences should be interspersed with quieter moments…the character reflects on what he has just escaped,  tells his buddies what just happened, gets laid or goes to the grocery store…things that can endear the character to the reader…hey, he’s just like one of us…I’ve done that very same thing.  An interlude between rock-‘em, sock-‘em action is necessary for the reader to take a breath, for the character to recoil and reset before the next escapade, and most importantly, for the character to gain some perspective on what is happening…in other words, to grow and change.



If this doesn’t happen, the reader won’t buy it and will find your character just a cardboard cutout to which things happen.  The story won’t be very satisfying.  Even furious action becomes tiresome if the character lets the same damn things happen to him again and again and doesn’t learn from the experience.  Different things have to happen, or the character’s own actions to resolve a problem cause a new problem…that’s real and your readers will experience it as real.



Action and character are closely intertwined in any fictional story and particularly so in action-adventure.   But the action has to have a purpose and the main purpose is to lead the character to growth, change or valiant defeat…not just fighting off the same monster day after day.

Just ask Tom Swift Jr. and his Super-Duper Electrohydraulic Flamajing.  He couldn’t have defeated those pesky Brungarians without it.



The next post to The Word Shed will focus on more details from the Time Jumpers series.  In fact, I’ll give you a peek at the first episode, which I’ve just finished.



See you on August 6.

Phil B.

 

 

Post #131 July 23, 2018

“Evaluating Story Ideas”

How do I (or any writer for that matter) evaluate story ideas?  Say you’re out mowing the lawn.  An idea comes to you.  Is it a good idea?  Is it worth pursuing?  Or is it some feverish hallucination caused by the rock your mower just slung at your shins?

Here is a systematic way of evaluating story ideas.  It’s pretty much what I do.

1. Does the idea stick with you?   Write down the basics.  Let it alone for a day.  For me, if the idea’s even minimally worthwhile, it won’t go away.  I’ll find myself going back to my memo pad (I write down everything) a lot, jotting down words or phrases that expand on the idea.  Maybe a title will suggest itself, or several titles.  If the idea doesn’t evaporate over several hours and you wind up with a fistful of memo pages, you may be on to something.
2. Has the idea been done before or done to death?  If the idea is one that has been developed to death in a million different permutations, you may want to file this one way.  Unless you’re sure you’ve got a different take on an old idea.  To ensure that your take is truly different, do some market research.  With the Internet and Wikipedia, etc, that kind of research isn’t hard to do now.  Who else has written a story in this vein?  What did they do?  Consider, if you can find the stories, reading your competition to get a feel for what the market has accepted before.  Years ago, I had an idea about a story called “The Time Garden.”  In it, there’s a nursing home and the residents discover that in their gardens out back there’s a time machine.  I could easily imagine what nursing home residents might do with a functioning time machine.  I couldn’t find any other time travel story like this idea (there may be some, I just haven’t found them), so I wrote the story.  I never placed it in print, but today it’s part of a collection called Colliding Galaxies, which has had about 500 downloads from various ebook sites over the last year.  This was one idea that just wouldn’t go away.
3. Can the idea sustain your interest for a long time?  This is related to number one.  After wrestling with the idea, you should have a better notion of whether it’s a short story, a novella or a full-fledged novel.  Even if it’s a short story, it may take a while to flesh the concept out and knock out a first draft.  Maybe a few days.  Maybe a few weeks.  Earlier this summer, I completed a short story called “Cloudchasers.”  It’s circulating around print magazine markets now.  I wrote the thing in a week, but it had been percolating around my mind for over a year.  Plus I spent weeks doing outlines and background research.  When the time came to write, it came out in a torrent…that’s the advantage of letting good ideas simmer for awhile.  But every writer is different.
4. Does the idea have the meat and potatoes to become a real story?  This is all about writerly nuts and bolts.  Is there some kind of memorable character involved, to which memorable things happen?  Is there an obvious flow or arc to the idea…can it be developed and expanded?  Is there a beginning, middle and end, with rising tensions, obvious conflicts, plot twists, etc?  Can you describe the plot in a sentence or two?  If your idea doesn’t have these things or you can’t see them as inherent in the idea, with time and development, file it away for later.  It’s not a story.
5. Does the idea scale?  I borrowed the notion of scaling from the world of tech startups.  They have ideas too.  Jeff Bezos had an idea of building an online bookstore.  He named his company after a big river.  Look at Amazon today.  Does your idea scale into a story…with enough plot complexity and room for character development to make it worthwhile, worthwhile to write and worthwhile for a reader to spend time with?  Can you create something from this idea that will make a reader pause and say, “Ah…I never thought of this before.  I’m glad this isn’t happening to me.  Wonder what I’d do in this situation?”  If your idea can grow enough to take on these responsibilities and requirements, that means it scales well.  Moreover, it means your idea is worth pursuing as a potential story.

 

Every writer evaluates stories a different way, but I’m willing to bet most of them do most of these things most of the time.  A key point: don’t be shy about writing stuff down, even if it’s some late-night musing that doesn’t pass inspection the next day.  Ideas come in all sizes, shapes and colors.  Don’t ever do anything to turn the spigot off.

And be sure to keep reading…a lot.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on July 30.

See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

Post #130 July 16 2018

“A (New) Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures”

In this post, I hope to make the case that a good new word is worth a thousand pictures.  What do I mean by ‘new word’?  Any word that a writer makes up for the purpose of his story, a word not in any dictionary, but springing solely from the feverish mind of the author.

A word like kip’t.  What’s a kip’t, you may ask?  It’s an underwater powered sled, from the planet Seome, and from my series The Farpool Stories.  It’s how the Seomish get around at long distances across their oceanic world. 

Writers of fiction love to invent new words or phrases.  Every writer would love to invent something that winds up in the dictionary for all time.  But why are writers (especially science fiction writers) like this?  Why invent new words?  Don’t we have enough English language words as it is?  The Second Edition of the OED contains 171,476 words in current use and over 47,000 obsolete words.  Surely that’s enough for any would-be writer.

1. Writers invent new words for numerous reasons.  Here are some I could think of:
   1. To provide a sense of place.  Say your story is set in Germany.  Why not sprinkle in a few German words?  Or maybe it’s set on the oceanic world of Seome.  Use a few Seomish words or phrases.  But remember, a little goes a long way.  Which leads me to:
   2. To reveal character.  A good writer with any sense of dialogue will use certain words and phrases to describe a character and then have that character talk in a certain way.  Think Scarlett O’Hara.  Nobody would confuse her with the Joad family from Grapes of Wrath. Speakers of language invent words all the time.  Maybe the way a character mangles a certain word or phrase can provide some insight into that character’s makeup and background, even their upbringing.   It’s all part of making that character seem real to the reader.
   3. To imply a connection or trigger a certain reader response.  Perhaps your main character is a recent immigrant from Bangladesh.  Why not throw in a few Bangladeshi phrases or words or better yet, concoct a weird concoction of part English-part Bangladeshi words for them to say.  What does that say about the character?  Maybe this: they’re immigrants and they’re trying to adapt and learn the language but their past and their conditioning causes them to slip into the mother tongue when they’re mad, stressed, or in a hurry, etc. 
2. How many new words are needed?  This boils down to two questions: how much is enough and when should new words be used?
   1. How much is enough?  Using new and unfamiliar words should only be used to meet the conditions or needs indicated above.  A little goes a long way.  If your character is an immigrant from Germany or much of the story is set in Dusseldorf, sprinkle a few German words in the prose…an exclamation, say: Gott in Himmel!  You’re not writing the story in German (presumably) so one or two words a page ought to do it.  Otherwise, it becomes annoying and increasingly unreadable. 
   2. When should new words be used?  New words should always be used in context.  Otherwise, the reader is confused and disoriented and you’ll have to provide a dictionary, which sort of interrupts the flow and the enjoyment of reading the story.  New words should be used sparingly.  The whole purpose of using new or unfamiliar words is to give the reader a flavor of a new unknown place or to illuminate character. 
3. Do I need a whole new language (in other words, more than just a few words)?  If you’re writing science fiction and it’s set in the future or on other worlds, as many sf stories are, you may.  Here are some reasons to invent a whole new language (or enough to make the reader believe it’s a real culture).
   1. You have aliens
   2. You want to describe the culture in detail.  C.J. Cherryh does this very well, by the way.
   3. You want your story to be believable and consistent in its otherworldly setting. 
4. Here’s what I said in The Farpool about the Seomish language (I didn’t invent a language in its entirety…just enough to meet the conditions above):

The Language

Seomish is designed phonetically to carry well in a water medium. Hard, clicking consonants are common.  The ‘p’ or ‘puh’ sound, made by violent expulsion of air is also common.  Modulation of the voice stream, particularly at high frequencies (sounding much like a human whistle) produces the characteristic “wheeee” sound, which is a root of many words.  Translation from Seomish to human languages like English requires some inspired speculation, since so many Seomish phrases seem to be little more than grunts or groans, modulated in frequency and duration.

Most Seomish words are grouped according to several characteristics: (1) Who is speaking (the personal); (2) who is being spoken to (the indicative); (3) state of mind of the speaker (the conditional); (4) the kel-standing of the conversants (the intimant).

Each classification has a set of characteristic pre-consonants, to indicate the nature of the coming words, etc. Thus:

1. k’, kee, t’
2. tch, g, j, oot
3. m’, p’, puh’ (both anger, dislike, distaste, etc), sh, sz (both joyful)
4. each kel identifies itself with a unique set of capitalized consonants, like a vocal coat of arms.  Example: t’milee, or CHE’oray…Seomish  versus Timily or Chory…English.
    
   No question, inventing new words can be fun.  The key is not to overdo it.  Properly placed and in context, new words can give a reader an acute sense of a place and a people, that normal words of description might not.  In fact, a well-chosen new word can actually do the work of a paragraph or more, in highlighting character and place.  But remember, your readers are still human.  Your new words have to look and sound like something alien without actually being alien.  Therein lies the real art.
    
   The next post to The Word Shed comes on July 23.  In this post, I want to describe how I evaluate story ideas and decide what ideas to expand and write about.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.
    
    
    

Post #129 July 2, 2018

“Outlines”

As the summer of 2018 rolls on, I am in the middle of planning and outlining a new series for 2019, entitled Time Jumpers.  I wanted to share a few words and thoughts about the business of outlining a story before you start writing.

1. Why outline?

I can think of several reasons to do this, although every writer is different.  First, a good outline (and I know this sounds like high school English, but some things you learned in high school really are true) gives you structure and a solid foundation.  You don’t build a house without a foundation and the same is true of a book.  The details are in the details, as they say.  Also, an outline helps with what I call the ‘blank’ page’ moment of panic.  You sit down at your work station and immediately you’re confronted with a blank page.  What should I say?  How should I say it?  An outline can get you started.  It’s like a map, pointing out the way to go.

Outlines can help with plot problems, before they become serious problems.  Doing an outline helps you find those bad old logic holes.  They’ll often show up in a good outline, before you ever start writing, so you can deal with them then and the writing hopefully goes a lot more smoothly.  Sometimes problems with characters will reveal themselves in an outline.  Does this character have sufficient motive to move the story and react to events the way I want him to?  Outlines will give you the ability to identify and fix this early on.

1. How much outline is enough?
    
   The best answer to this question is to state it like this: your outline is detailed enough when you understand the story well enough to write it comfortably.  For me, that’s about 3-4 pages per book chapter.  That’s enough detail for me.  That’s what I’m doing in the outlines for Time Jumpers.   When the story flows and plot developments seem believable, consistent, even a little surprising, you’ve got a good outline.  Often, writing an outline will even suggest new and unexpected plot directions you hadn’t thought of before.  It’s a lot easier to integrate these into the story at the outline stage than later.  Plot changes and logical problems may still develop later (that’s for another post) but outlining will catch a lot of the obvious ones, if done well.
    
2. What if the story wants to go beyond or outside the outline?
    
   Let’s face it, this happens.  Ask yourself this: how far off do I want to veer?  Is this a completely new direction, at total variance with my concept of the story, or is this just a side trip? Does veering off make sense?  It makes sense when it can (1) illuminate character in some way; (2) advance the story in an entertaining and engaging new direction; or (3) when veering off makes a point that needs to be made. 
    
   Can I get back to the main plot line okay if I take the story in this direction?  Or do I have to wave my hands, cobble something out of thin air, rely on magical intervention or something else completely unbelievable to get back to the main plot line?  If the main plot line is sound and yet you can justify this unexpected new direction, then go ahead and explore the road less traveled.
    
   In a word, if it feels good, do it.  Just remember, the reader may or may not feel the same way.  Try asking a friend or a fellow writer.  You have to be straight and play fair with the reader.  And maybe, if this new direction seems like a good idea, go back to an earlier spot in your outline and slip in some hints that this change could happen. 
    
   Below, I reproduce a chapter outline from Episode 1 of Time Jumpers, so you can see the detail I go into…what works for me.
    

Chapter 1 “Storm Warnings”

1. Start with Cygnus and the crew of 1^st TD landing on Kinlok Island, on the planet Storm. It’s time stream T-077.  The crew consists of Dringoth, Golich, Acth:On’e, M’Bela, Yang and URME.  Their mission: deploy, set up and test the new weapon Time Twister.
2. We follow the crew as they go about this task, which will take several weeks.  They are not overly happy about being on this hellhole sewer of a planet. 
3. One day, Yang and M’Bela witness the emergence of what seems to be an intelligent marine creature onto the beach.  They try to communicate with it, only to find it has some kind of sound suppressor weapon and they are both rendered unconscious for a time when the creature becomes alarmed at their approach and uses the device.  After coming to, the creature is gone.  They report this to Dringoth and find none of the other crew believes their story. 
4. But before the discovery can be explored further, sensors indicate that a small formation of Coethi ships have just jumped out of a local time stream and seem to be in orbit around Storm. Dringoth makes a command decision: Dringoth will take Golich, URME and Yang aboard Cygnus and take off to engage the Coethi.  Acth:On’e and M’Bela will stay on Storm and finish deployment of the Time Twister. 
    

That’s all I have done, to get off and running on my story, when I sit down to start writing.  You may be different.  But this is an approach that works well for me, for the reasons identified above.

Try it. 

The Word Shed will take a one-week hiatus over the week of July 4, to celebrate our nation’s birthday. The next post to The Word Shed comes on July 16, 2018.  In this post, I’ll share some thoughts about short fiction and short stories, novelettes, etc. vs longer forms.  I recently submitted a science fiction short story to a print magazine, so I’ll describe that as well and provide any responses I’ve gotten (none yet).  Also, by the way, the latest title in my series The Farpool Stories, entitled The Farpool: Convergence, is now available for download at Smashwords.com and other fine ebook retailers.

Enjoy the Independence Day holiday.

See you then.

Phil B.