Post #251 March 29, 2021 “Characters, Characters, Characters” Today, we enter our story lab once again and look at what makes good fictional characters. Even if you have a plot-driven story, your characters are what make a story really shine. A bland or passive protagonist makes for a boring story. Interesting and unique characters are memorable, if not timeless, even when relegated to smaller roles. Go the extra mile to give each character distinction, depth, and history. Consider writing character bios for each member of your cast and see if it gives you further insight into how to portray them. Let’s look at some of the details. 1. Remember that readers live vicariously through your characters. It’ll be easier for them to identify with a character if you’ve done your homework and made the character seem real to them. But the devil is in the details. Don’t spend so much time describing the character and his or her background that you forget to tell the story. Perhaps the best way to remember this is to remind yourself that character is best revealed through action and how the character responds to the challenges he faces trying to achieve his goal. 2. In developing your character(s), strive for the unique and memorable. What sets this person apart from others? Why should I care about what happens to this character? A unique and memorable character is a little different, a bit off-beat, perhaps, displaying attributes such as physical characteristics or attitudes or a manner of speaking that sticks in your memory. Toward that end, one way to do this is to— 3. Recall from your own life people you have known who really stick out. I remember my senior-year typing class teacher in high school. One: she was black (unusual in Atlanta, GA in the late sixties). Two: she was extremely friendly and encouraging. Three: (most important) she knew I was smitten with a girl in the class and pestered me to ask her to the prom. Her name was Miss Simms. I recall her fondly even today for all these reasons. Ask yourself this: why is James Bond so memorable? Or Harry Potter? Or Tarzan or Tom Swift, Jr? They are well described. They act consistently across a number of stories. With series characters, all the author has to do to invoke a character is mention a few traits, just a few words…”shaken, not stirred,” for example. We remember these characters because they are well-drawn, they are different in engaging ways and unique in their outlook on life, not to mention in their actions in the stories. 4. How much detail should you put in your story? I strongly recommend writing character bios for your main characters. You don’t have to use every single word or incident from the bio in your story but at least if Og and Grog both have blond hair and moles on their left cheeks, you’ll be consistent in how they’re described. Readers notice that sort of thing. Even better, some times in the process of developing a character and writing a short bio, plot points will jump out at you and suggest ways of steering the story that you might not have considered. 5. Here’s an example from a science fiction novel called Monument I’m writing now that illustrates what I’m saying: Octavio Morales Patron Age: 50-ish Height: 5’9” Weight: 285 lbs Hair: Bald Face: Olive complexion, round and red, splotchy with nanoderm patches that aren’t working Other Distinguishing Features: huffy, wheezing kind of breath; crushing hand grip; small slits for eyes, lost in extra folds of fat around the eyes; smile that vacillates between a smirk and a sneer. A Short Biography: Octavio Morales Patron (aka O.P. or Octo) fab lord, scope dealer and smuggler, scoopship fleet operator and shipping magnate, transmuting plant owner, terreta developer and influence peddler in the halls of the InFed Council. Patron is the one who gives Dugay the commission for the Outer Ring project. Many words could be used to describe Patron: larger than life, boisterous, rambunctious, loud, obnoxious, annoying. All of them would be true. Patron lives aboard a luxurious personal terreta called Zanzibar, orbiting in a cycler orbit between Earth, Venus, and Mars. It is a pleasure palace worthy of Kublai Khan, whose history has often fascinated Patron and whom Patron often fashions himself after. He sometimes thinks of himself as a latter-day 23rd century Khan. Patron’s initial fortune came from his father Julio, an early sunpower investor. One of Julio’s legacies was to will ownership of several sunpower stations to his children. OP has a sister Eugenia and a younger brother Oscar (now deceased). He owns ten sunpower stations—known locally as the Sunflower Group—which beam power to customers all over InFed. Most of the Sunflower stations are inside Mercury orbit. These stations are the source of his original wealth. OP was born on Earth itself, in Buenos Aires, to Julio and Constanza Morales Patron, in the year 2195 CE. But as a child, he was relocated to the family terreta Cordoba in halo orbit around Earth-Moon L3 and this is where he grew up. Patron is a creature of space, or at least non-Earth and now can no longer return to Earth due to its powerful gravity well. Today, Patron’s most lucrative business after sunpower is smuggling, something which InFed tries to control but mostly winks at, for OP has supporters even among SpaceGuard and Frontier Corps. His smuggling includes scope, illegal fabs (nanobotic fabrication systems) and many contraband goods to a variety of settlements especially along the borderlands of InFed, along the inner ring of the asteroid belt. Another source of wealth for Patron are his multiple shipping lines…. I don’t need to have any more details on this character to have a good feel about what type of person he is. And I only do this for major characters in my story. With this, I have enough background on Octavio Patron to reliably and consistently sketch him out whenever I need him to show up on stage. This concludes our brief story lab. I hope discussing these points of good character development in your storytelling practices will help you in all your future writing endeavors. The Word Shed will take a one-week hiatus for the Easter holiday next week. The next post to The Word Shed comes on April 12, 2021. See you then. Phil B.

Post #250 March 22 2021 “Reviews: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” Way back in 2014, I uploaded an alternate history novel called Final Victory to Smashwords.com. One reviewer from Goodreads had this to say about it, after giving the story 4 out of 5 stars: “It is a little known fact that the Manhattan Project assembled four nuclear weapons before the end of the Second World War. One, of course, was tested at Trinity Site, New Mexico and one each was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as we all know. The last was held in secrecy in the event Japan did not unconditionally surrender. Philip Bosshardt postulates how close to catastrophe we might have come if the Russians and the Japanese had cooperated on information gleaned from the sieve-like security surrounding the mad dash to perfect an atom bomb. This epic-length saga tells a chilling tale that rings true at every convolution of the plot. The historical backdrop is expertly woven, the characters fully developed and the pace nearly perfect. All fans of historical fiction and alternate history are going to love Final Victory.” Then another review came in just a few months later, on my series Quantum Troopers. This reviewer offered no words, but gave the episode two out of five stars. So much for reviews. Actually, book reviewers and reviewers are a godsend to any author, regardless of what they say or whether they love the book or just can’t stomach it. Why? 1. It’s feedback, man, from an actual reader. Writing is by nature a mostly solitary art. Musicians and actors (especially stage actors) can get nearly instant feedback on their performance. Not so, writers. You often feel like you’re working in a vacuum. Reviewers tell you whether the story is any good. Reviewers tell you how your efforts and your words have struck them. It’s often bare-knuckles stuff…I like this, I don’t like this, it put me to sleep, the author should be up for a Nobel, whatever. All feedback, however well or ill-intended, is useful. Just seeing your story through another reader’s eyes can give you a new perspective on what worked, what didn’t, what could be improved, what really got their blood pumping. It should make you a better writer and story-teller. 2. It’s a form of advertising. One Hollywood wag once said all publicity was good publicity. Just ask Madonna or Lady Gaga. Reviews can be used to promote your work to others. Word of mouth and unsolicited testimonials are even better than advertising in many ways. Whose opinion would you trust more on what book to read: you’re Aunt Ada or a paid professional on TV or the Internet? Reviews give you some guidance on what’s trending, what’s hot, what you ought to be looking out for. Of course, blogs like this one as well as Twitter and Facebook carry some of the same freight now for authors. More on that later. 3. Every review is a conversation. Most reviewers are predisposed to write something, good or bad, because they feel strongly about what they just read. In another words, they’re passionate. It’s a truism today that authors need to do whatever it takes to identify their readers and engage with them, in other words, start a conversation. There are valid marketing reasons to do this. Some websites like Wattpad encourage a writer-reader connection, where the writer can post sections of a work for immediate feedback. Many readers are very interested, even thrilled, to be able to contribute to fleshing out a story, suggesting possible plot lines, characters, settings, whatever. A reader who invests time in a review is a reader who wants to have a conversation. It may be a suggestion for how to do things differently in the future. It may be a poke in the eye, or the literary equivalent of a Bronx cheer. Regardless, accept it for what it is…an attempt to engage with the author in some kind of interchange. Authors should never let an opportunity for interchange with their readers go by. The next post to The Word Shed will come on March 29. See you then. Phil B.

Post #249 March 15 2021 “To Outline or Not to Outline, That is the Question” In my second post to The Word Shed, I said this about outlines: My outline drives everything, including the people (what I used to call characters), even details of the setting. From the few sentences I’ve already written, if this idea continues to hang around and doesn’t go away, I begin a process of elaborating and structuring that takes anywhere from a few days to a few months. I’m a big outliner. I can’t write a story without having some idea of where the story is supposed to go. Other writers try to ‘wing it’, and let the story evolve organically. More power to ‘em. I need the structure of an outline. Having said that, though, doesn’t mean I don’t deviate from the outline. You deviate when the story pulls you in another direction. When an idea crops up. When a character just won’t do what you want. When there’s a new idea or emotion or conflict you want to explore and dramatize. There’s nothing wrong with this at all. But I still write it down. Reasons to Have an Outline 1. Consistency. It’s like framing for a house. It holds the story together, gives it a skeleton to hang scenes on. A strong plotline is vital to keep moving the story forward, to give the players believability and to keep the reader interested (probably the most important of all). It’s possible to draw characters who are so compelling that they’re interesting in and of themselves. But it’s better to give them something to do. Some critics say plotline is nothing but character in action. I agree. 2. Keeping Order. Novels often have multiple plotlines. John’s story. Mary’s story. The trip to London. The abduction by aliens. An outline allows you to maintain continuity from one scene to another, so that in Scene 1, John has red hair and in Scene 12 he still has read hair and now two heads. Novels have lots of details. Readers notice details. Outlines help you keep some order among the details so that mistakes and obvious inconsistencies don’t creep in (as much). 3. Keeping the End in Sight. With an outline, you know where you’re going. The scenes and conflicts necessary to get there are already established, in theory. If the ultimate resolution of all the action is firmly set up ahead of time, you’ll find you can write scenes that work toward that resolution, perhaps from different angles and with plenty of complications, but always knowing where you want to end up. I once watched my dog demonstrate just how powerful his sense of smell really was. He veered to one side of the street, then another, then back, in ever-tightening arcs until he finally homed in on the target of his interest. Following an outline to a previously established resolution is kind of like that. And sometimes the target turns out to be the same thing my dog was after…and I won’t go into any more detail on that. Reasons to Deviate from an Outline or Have No Outline 1. You think up a new plot complication. Every writer is a crockpot of bubbling ideas. Sometimes, an idea surfaces that just won’t go away. Ask yourself: is it believable the character could run into this or experience this? Does it advance the plot or reveal a side of the character that otherwise wouldn’t be shown? Would it be neat and kinda fun to have this happen? If the answer to any of these is yes, go for it! Just make sure it doesn’t lead you down an off-ramp to some dismal swamp of storyland you can’t write your way out of. In other words, think it through. 2. The outline is no good. Ah, now we come to the great Berlin Wall of all writers. Everything I’ve done so far is mush. I need to start over. Well…maybe…maybe not. Perhaps, you didn’t work out the story details properly in the beginning. You start to get the feeling that the words in front of you are just words going nowhere. You’re sure nobody will believe what you’re writing. You don’t believe it yourself. Well, don’t despair. This is why Microsoft Word has an Undo button…or a Delete button. Trust your instincts. Where does the story want to go? Go there. You might want to jot down a few notes, just in case, just to keep this new plotline on track. Probably, the original problem is a poorly-conceived outline from the start. Only you can decide whether it’s worth re-outlining or just winging it. 3. I need elbow room to grow the story. Outlines cramp my style. This is okay, as I said before. Let’s face it: our writerly muses work differently, from writer to writer. Many writers value the spontaneity that comes from winging it. They like to be surprised when they sit down to type. They’ve done enough research and so internalized their characters’ motivations and backgrounds, that they can type away, inside the virtual world of the story, and be confidant that what comes out will be readable, believable and fresh. There are times when writing works this way for me too. But for me, it comes from when I’ve done a lot of preliminary work. Let’s face, every writer lives for that artistic moment when the story just flows and you can’t type fast enough to get it all down. That’s when writing is a joy. But a pro needs to be able to put words on paper (or on screen) when the words don’t flow and still have it all hang together. That’s why I outline. Next week’s post to The Word Shed will be on a subject common to all writers, one that gives every writer thrills and chills, sometimes at the same time. I’m talking about Reviews…the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. See you on March 22. Phil B.

Post #248 March 8 2021 “First Lines and Why We Need Them” “Call me Ishmael.” These words, the opening line of Moby Dick, have immortalized this story for a century and a half. What makes for good first lines? Are they really that important? Here are five well known ones: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.” 1984 (George Orwell) “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens) “Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.” The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner) “All this happened, more or less.” Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut) Here’s one of my own, from a science fiction novel: “On Europa, there is only ice…to the naked eye. Ice cliffs and ice valleys. Ice ravines and ice canyons. Ice bergs, buttes, badlands. Ice continents. Above the ice is the vacuum of space. Below the ice is a vast ocean, black as night. Normally, the two don’t mix.” Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary (Philip Bosshardt) First lines are vital to any writing. I can’t think of any type of writing—fiction, nonfiction, news writing, sports writing, even technical writing (which I did for years) in which the first lines aren’t important, even critical. Why should this be so? Below are some ideas on why first lines matter a great deal to any writer. 1. First lines should intrigue the reader. These words should capture attention, grab the reader by the shoulders and say, “Hey, pay attention! Something important, something different is about to happen. You don’t want to miss this.” Of course, there are an infinite number of ways to do this…just look at the list above. One of my favorites from the list is the selection from 1984. From this short sentence, you can intuit that something strange is going on, or about to happen. 2. First lines should set the stage. They should establish a tone or at least some atmosphere. Look at the selection above from Tolstoy. It indicates the upcoming story must be about families. And specifically, about families in both good times and bad. Then there’s the distinction between happy and unhappy, implying that we’re about to see how bad things can get. 3. First lines (ideally) should pose a problem…or introduce a character. Look at the selection from Slaughterhouse-Five. This is a more or less satirical, semi-autobiographical account of Vonnegut’s experience as a German POW in World War II, when the city of Dresden was firebombed. The opening line is just six words. With these six words, Vonnegut implies a true story is coming, but there may be parts that are more true than others, which is the nature of satire…a greater truth buried in the minutiae of strange, unbelievable goings-on. I read these opening words the same way I read the Orwell selection…something’s just a little bit off. The problem posed is to figure what’s true and what’s not really true. Or take the Dickens selection. “The best of times, the worst of times.” What’s the problem being posed here? Maybe nothing more than how to survive when Life or Fate or the Universe constantly throws curveballs at you every day. First lines set up the reader for what is to come, be it a story, a non-fiction article, an essay, or whatever. The first words you write are like the cornerstone of a house foundation. Everything else is built from and on that. The next post to The Word Shed comes on March 15, 2021. See you then. Phil B.