Last summer, I bought the YA novel Forbidden, mostly out of curiosity, but then didn’t have the guts to read it:

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen, gorgeous, and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

First, there was the Ewwww factor, which made me wonder why I bought the book in the first place. Second, based on the full blurb, I knew there wasn’t going to be a happily-ever-after ending, and those are the ones I prefer.

But last week I decided to finally read the book, and ended up loving it. The problem is I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I was finished. I started to wonder, when I wasn’t sobbing, what made it one of my favorite books, and how could I write such a brilliant story, too. A story that left me an emotional wreck long after I finished reading it. So, I analyzed it with the hopes of applying what I learned to future projects.

Characters You Ache For

This book is told from both the point of view of Lochan and Maya. They are the oldest of five children (the youngest is only five years old). Their father left to be with another woman when Lochan was twelve years old. Their mother turned to alcohol and slowly started to distance herself from their lives. And at one point in the book, she is no longer living with the children. So right away, you empathize with the characters due to the strong backstory.

In addition to raising their siblings, Lochan and Maya do everything possible to ensure social services don’t find out about their situation. If it’s discovered their mother has abandoned them, then their family will be torn apart. This powerful backstory explains why Lochan and Maya never felt like they were siblings, and it provides the motivation behind what happens in the climax. Like the two characters, you don’t see them as sibling, but rather two individuals who fell in love.

Great Writing

But the void yawns open like a cavern inside my chest. I feel so damn lonely all the time. Even though I’m surrounded by pupils, there is this invisible screen between us, and behind the glass wall I am screaming—screaming in my own silence, screaming to be noticed, to be befriended, to be liked.(Lochan’s pov)

The writing in Forbidden is beautiful and the emotion intense. Lochan is extremely shy, to the point that he has anxiety attacks when called on in class. This means he’s treated like the class weirdo. You feel his pain, which makes you want to keep reading.

The writing also helps the reader feel Maya’s and Lochan’s pain as they struggle with their love for each other when they know it’s wrong, and when they make sacrifices to keep their family together, while most of their peers are out having fun and being normal teens. And you feel their pain when their secret is discovered. The writing is rich with symbolism and imagery but is true to who they are as individuals. It’s compelling and makes for a great page turner—even when you’re afraid to turn the next page.

Do you strive to write a book that makes people think about it long after they’ve finished reading it? Have you analyzed a book to see how the author achieved this goal?

Part Two of the post will be go up Wednesday. And then you'll see why the book affected me.

Several years ago, I attended a SCBWI workshop with an editor from Harper Collins. She told us to take a book we love and read it three times, consecutively. Great idea, except I hadn’t read a book at that point that I loved enough to use for the assignment. That changed recently when I discovered the YA contemporary novel Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry. This book not only had me bawling as I read it, I cried a few days later when I thought about one specific scene. I knew I had to analyze the book to see what Katie did to make it my favorite book of the year.

First Read Through
Because I first read the book back in July, that didn’t count toward the assignment. It was too long ago. I had to start again. I reread the book without stopping to take notes. And yes, I cried at the same scene that I cried at the first time.

Second Read Through
This time I focused on story structure. Pushing the Limits (PTL) is a dual POV story, alternating between the two main characters: Noah and Echo. Because I love the book Save the Cat (STC) by Blake Synder, I used it to break down PTL according to Blake’s story structure beats. You don’t have to use STC. There are other great books that also discuss story structure. They’re all very similar and can be applied to most stories.

First, I created a table with three columns. This is because I was dealing with two points of view. I assigned ‘Echo’ to the first column, ‘Noah’ to the second one, and the third column was reserved for the STC beats. For example, in PTL the catalyst moment falls under one of Noah’s scenes. I wrote ‘Catalyst’ in the third column in blue ink (for Noah) and described in one sentence the catalyst moment. I used a different color for Echo.

Next, I wrote the GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) for the POV character of each scene. I also added any notes about plot that I wanted to include. And yes, I cried again at that one emotion-filled scene.

Third Read Through
This time I focused on characterization and the emotional impact of the story. For the main characters (Echo and Noah), I listed:

• Fears

• Key issues (e.g. both have issues of trust and issues with authority, but not in the same way)

• Word to describe them (Noah is self-confident; Echo is insecure)

• Story goal for each

• What Echo and Noah have in common. In other words, the connection that binds them together for the story (since PTL is a romance)

• Wound or fatal flaw

• Identity (how others view them. Their personal armor, so to speak)

• The real them (who they really are when they drop the personal armor).

• Moments that revealed emotion

• Any symbolism used

• Use of the senses

• Small moments with huge impact

• Characterization (for all the characters)

• Hot make out scenes :)

Some of you are no doubt cringing at the amount of time involved for this level of analysis. To me, it was worth it. I learned so much about why I loved the book and how to make my stories (especially my dual POV stories) stronger.

Do you analyze books you love (or dislike)? If so, what do you looked for? How many times do you usually read a book consecutively when you analyze it?

©Stina Lindenblatt

Story isn’t about plot. It’s about emotion. It’s the element that leaves your body tingling in fear or anticipation for what will happen next, and what readers want from the first page to the end. But how do you bring in emotion to add maximum power to your story?

Universal Theme

Universal theme will help your readers connect to the characters and emotions in the story. These are themes that everyone can relate to, even if they can’t relate to the specific circumstances of the story. For example, how many of you know what it feels like to have the mob kill your family? None of you, I hope. Now, what if you wrote a story about how your protagonist’s best friend tells her uncle, who happens to be the Godfather of the local crime family, that she suspects the friend is the estranged daughter of the family he’s been salivating to kill, after her father turned state evidence on his former boss? Depending on how you set up the story, you can choose to focus on the universal theme of betrayal. At one point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the feeling of being betrayed. Now we can relate to the character and the emotion of the story, even though we have never, thankfully, gone through the same experience.

Character Wounds

Another word for character wound is backstory. This is where you create the most painful past possible for your character, and let it guide your character’s actions. The type and depth of wound will be dependent on genre. The wound then plays a part in determining your character’s fears, and it is the wound and fears that make the character vulnerable. Since he doesn’t want people to know his vulnerability (especially the antagonist), he creates a persona that protects him from being hurt. For example, you could have a character who lost his parents due to an accident and is bounced around the foster care system. He ends up in the worst of homes, where the foster parents only care about the money. He’s neglected and abused. He learns not to trust adults, and because he’s bounced around so much, he learns not to develop attachments to other people. He becomes the bad-boy loner, complete with tattoos. Inside, he’s still the caring individual he was before his parents died, but he refuses to let people get close enough to discover this. That is, until he finds the right girl.

Naturally, you would not dump this information on the first page. Write the backstory down in a separate file, and fit slivers of it into your story. Start with the small stuff, hinting of the possible wound, and as the story progresses, hit your reader with the most emotional, gut wrenching parts of your protagonist’s past. Your reader will keep turning the page, because she wants to find out what really happened X number of years ago. It’s a great way to build emotional suspense.

Have you considered universal theme and character backstory when creating the emotion behind your stories?

Part two will be posted on Wednesday.

When creating your characters, consider their humor. I’m not talking about their sense of humor. I’m referring to the concept Hippocrates (the father of medicine) came up with. He claimed the humor was responsible for each person’s typical mood. In Breathing Life into Your Characters, Rachel Ballon described these moods as temperaments and each temperament is made up of various traits. The four temperaments are:

Sanugine (cheerful and optimistic)

source

Melancholic (depressed)

source

Choleric (too aggressive and impulsive)

source unknown

Phlegmatic (Cold-hearted)

source

For a complete list of traits for each temperament, check out this brilliant post by Misha Gericke (it’s the same one from Cool Links last Friday).

Depending on the situation, a different combination of traits will be expressed. This reveals characterization. If you know your characters’ temperaments and traits, it will make writing the scene so much easier. And when you pit two characters together with contrasting temperaments, you create conflict.

Here’s an exercise you can try when creating characters (main and secondary):

1. Select several characters from the story and assign each a temperament and several traits.

2. Come up with an idea for a scene. It doesn’t have to be from your story, but do keep to something similar to what you would find in your book. For example, if you’re writing YA contemporary and your characters’ lives are never at risk, you might not want to do this exercise with a life of death situation. Or maybe you do.

3. Now write the scene, but write it from each character’s point of view. No, I don’t mean you can go head hoping. If you have three characters, write the scene three times, each time from a different character’s point of view. (Hint: Identify the Goal, Motivation, and Conflict for each character first).

Not only will you get to know your characters better, and how they would deal with a situation similar to what’s in your story, it will help you develop each character’s voice for their dialogue. If you’re having trouble getting the emotion right in a scene, you can always try this exercise, too. It will help put you in the secondary character’s head.

(Note: this exercise isn’t the same one in Rachel’s book. Her exercise inspired this one.)

When creating your characters, have you consider their temperaments?

©Stina Lindenblatt

When reading a book, the reader wants to connect with your character. If this doesn’t happen, she’ll probably quit reading.

In addition to inner thoughts, which I covered last week, one of the best ways to help the reader connect with your character is to make sure everything is witnessed through the character’s “eyes”. It doesn’t matter if the story is in first or third person, everything seen, touched, tasted, smelled, and heard needs to be described from that scene character’s point of view.

That doesn’t mean her best friend can’t point out that the liver pâté tastes like road kill that had been plastered on the highway for two weeks before it was “harvested”. It just means if your point of view character doesn’t think like this, she shouldn’t be using these words in her inner thoughts. It’s not her voice; it’s the best friend’s.

The closer the reader feels to the character, the more she’ll be able to connect with her. To do this, you need to cut as many filter words as possible (e.g. felt, heard, saw). This way the reader feels like she’s living vicariously through the character, which makes the story come alive. With filter words, you force the reader to feel like an observer, not a participant.

See the difference:

Mathew heard the bell on the diner’s front door as it opened.
The bell on the diner’s front door rang as the door opened.

Mathew smelled the stench of rotting corpses.
The stench of rotting corpses choked the air.

The bark felt rough.
Brianne traced her fingers across the rough bark.

Remember, by showing things from the character’s point of view, you reveal characterization and her voice will come to life.

Do you have any tricks to help a reader connect with a character?

One of the most common reasons for rejecting a manuscript is when the agent or editor can’t connect with the main character. Sometimes this is subjective; other times it’s not.

First you need a multi-dimensional, sympathetic character. Next you need to examine your Motivation Reaction Units (MRU)*. A Motivation can be an action, dialogue, or description that leads your character to react. For example, if you are walking toward your house and it explodes, the exploding house is the Motivation. The Reaction is what YOU do in response.

The intensity of Reaction needs to match the intensity of the Motivation. If your house explodes, you’ll likely react with more than a mere shrug. If the Motivation is small and the Reaction is over the top, then you’ve got an issue with melodrama.

Reaction can be action, dialogue, visceral reactions (e.g. heart rate), and/or inner dialogue. Visceral reactions (the body’s response that you can’t control) ALWAYS come first. The rest is up to you and your genre. But if you’re finding you are getting rejections because agents aren’t connecting with your character, you might want to examine your inner dialogue. It might not be enough. Remember, though, it needs to move the plot forward, not force it to sit still while your character contemplates the non-relevant.

Read the following three version of the opening from City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare:

Version with no inner thoughts

“Just coffee, please.” (Reaction: the waitress had presumably asked Simon what he wanted to order before the opening of the book)

The waitress raised her penciled eyebrows. “You don’t want anything to eat?” she asked. Her accent was thick, her attitude disappointed. (Motivation)

“Just the coffee.” (Reaction)

With a shrug the waitress took his laminated menu and went to put his order in. (Motivation)

Version with most of the inner thoughts deleted

“Just coffee, please.” (Reaction)

The waitress raised her penciled eyebrows. “You don’t want anything to eat?” she asked. Her accent was thick, her attitude disappointed. (Motivation)

Simon Lewis couldn’t blame her; she’d probably been hoping for a better tip than the one she was going to get on a single cup of coffee. “Just the coffee.” (Reaction)

With a shrug the waitress took his laminated menu and went to put his order in. (Motivation)

Version from the novel

“Just coffee, please.” (Reaction)

The waitress raised her penciled eyebrows. “You don’t want anything to eat?” she asked. Her accent was thick, her attitude disappointed. (Motivation)

Simon Lewis couldn’t blame her; she’d probably been hoping for a better tip than the one she was going to get on a single cup of coffee. But it wasn’t his fault vampires didn’t eat. Sometimes, in restaurants, he ordered food anyway, just to preserve the appearance of normalcy, but late Tuesday night, when Veselka was almost empty of other customers, it didn’t seem worth the bother. “Just the coffee.” (Reaction)

With a shrug the waitress took his laminated menu and went to put his order in. (Motivation)

Do you see the difference? Which gives you a better feel for who Simon is?

HOMEWORK

• Copy a scene from a story in the genre you write (preferably a book you love/admire) and highlight the inner thoughts. Do they move the story forward? Do they give you insight into the character and her goals? What do you like about them? What don’t you like? Compare them to your writing.

• Take a scene from your story and analyze each Motivation and subsequent Reaction. Is the reaction enough? Can you expand on it by combining more than one element (e.g. action and inner thought)? What is your character thinking after the Motivation? Would it help your reader connect with your character if you wrote it down? (Write it down. You can go back later and trim if need be.) You’ll be surprise just how much you can strengthen the characterization by doing this exercise. Better yet, do it for the entire novel. Yes, it takes time, but it’s worth it if readers are struggling to connect with your character.

source

As writers, we spend a lot of time getting to know our characters. We know their traits, their interests, their fears, their backstories. But while we’re doing this, we’re developing a deeper understanding of human nature (especially if you’re not a psychologist).

Several weeks ago, I had to deal with a mother at my kids’ bus stop who went postal (without a gun) on me. This was right after she came close to hitting a kid with her SUV as she tried to park at the stop. Literally at the stop. She forces the bus to park further away because she is determined to be the one to park next to the only stretch of sidewalk (much to the parents’ and bus driver’s chagrin). It happened on the Monday, and then again on the Wednesday.

On the Wednesday, she wanted to talk to me after the kids got on the bus. But she was already agitated and there was no way in hell I was staying around for round two. This is when she started screaming and acting irrational in front of another parent, a toddler, and nine elementary school kids.

I ended up reporting her to the police. It was obvious the woman is dealing with issues and she needed a wake-up call to get help (although it’s highly unlikely she saw it the same way). Her son isn’t liked in school (as my kids have been pointing out for months), and her behavior made things worse for him. But it gave me an opportunity to explain to my kids that they shouldn’t judge him. It’s obvious he’s dealing with a lot in his life right now. His actions are guided by things they don’t know about, including his backstory.

Have you found that being a writer has helped you understand people and their actions better? When you’re in a fight or flight situation (or any highly emotional situation), do you mentally catalogue your body’s visceral reactions for use in a future story? (Yes, I did actually do that!)

©Stina Lindenblatt

Normally, when I do a writing/photography post, I can write about one idea and apply it to both crafts. Not this time.

Writers:

Contrasts are a great way to add dimension to your character and increase conflict, both internally and externally. The interplay between the light (good) side and the shadow will make the character unique from the other characters in your story. Maybe she’s smart and witty, but she fears being betrayed by someone emotionally close to her [insert backstory here]. Can you imagine the conflict (both internally and externally) this can cause if she attract the attention of the hero who is turned on by smart and witty?

Do you develop the light and shadow sides of your characters to make them dimensional and add conflict to your stories?

Photography:

The interplay between a dark background and a single light source on your subject makes for great dimensional photos. However, by the nature of the camera design, the picture might not come out as you had intended. Because the light meter in the camera is designed to assume the average gray scale of the scene is 18 % (don’t worry if you don’t know what that means), a scene composed mostly of dark colors will end up looking much lighter than in reality.

There are several ways to avoid this:

• Use an external light meter.

• You can place the palm of your hand between the scene and the camera lens. This only works if the skin on your palm is not dark. I did this method for the above photo because the battery for my external light meter was dead. *face palm*

• If your camera has a spot meter, determine the exposure based on part of the scene that doesn’t fall in the two extremes.

• Adjust the exposure with a photo editing software.

As writers, we’re constantly reminded to read outside our genre(s). Certain genres are character-based while others focus on plot. If you read predominantly plot-based stories, you’re missing out on an opportunity to see how others develop characters readers love to connect with. Romance, young adult, and horror are a few genres that rely heavily on emotions. Thrillers and suspense are perfect examples for solid pacing. By reading other genres, it will help you further develop your craft, plus they might trigger ideas to use within your stories.

But what about craft books on writing? Have you explored books that don’t focus solely on writing novels and short stories?

We’re all familiar with Writer’s Digest. My bookshelves are crammed full of craft books from the publisher (yeah, I have a little addiction issue). But last year, I discovered a publisher most of us aren’t familiar with—unless you’ve read Save the Cat! by Blake Synder. Michael Wiese Production publishes tons of books that focus on TV and film, and many of these deal with topics relevant to novelists.

The following are books that now live on my bookshelf (all which I love):

Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need by Blake Synder (I recently ordered the sequel Save the Cat! Strikes Back: More Trouble for Screenwriters to Get into ... and Out of at Elana Johnson’s recommendation. It's in the mail.)

(Seriously, how can you resist this cover????)

Story Line: Finding Gold in Your Life Story by Jen Grisanti

Writing Subtext: What Lies Beneath by Dr. Linda Seger

Symbols, Images, Codes: The Secret Language of Meaning in Film, TV, Games, and Visual Media by Pamela Jaye Smith

Inner Drives: How to Write & Create Characters Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation by Pamela Jaye Smith

Have you read any craft books geared toward screenwriters?

(So what does Brad Pitt have to do with this? Nothing. But it got you to look, right? And maybe if you study these books and take up writing screenplays, you might just meet him when you pen his Oscar winning movie. Hey, you never know.)

Once upon I time, I queried a big time agent and landed a partial request*. A month later, a rejection landed in my inbox. My characterizations were weak. After bawling into a box of Kleenexes After deciding the agent was the most wonderful person alive (because not only did she not send me a form rejection, she was right), I searched for ways to make my characterizations kickass strong.

During that time, I fell in love with several craft books on the topic:

Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors by Brandilyn Collins.

I’ve blogged about this book before. My favorite chapter (the first one) contains an exercise to help you get to know your characters better. Better than by simply filling in a questionnaire or conducting an interview. It’s not a quick exercise, and you really have to think. But it will help you delve deeper into your characterizations. It’s a technique used by award winning actors when preparing for a role. And for those of you who aren’t plotters, you can do the exercise after your first draft.

Breathing Life Into Your Characters: How to Give Your Characters Emotional & Psychological Depth by Rachel Ballon

This is another book I’ve blogged about. It, too, is filled with advice and exercises to help you create rich characters (including the bad guys).

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Mass.

The first part of the workbook contains twelve through-provoking chapters with exercises to ensure all your characters are dimensional. They can be done either before you start the first draft or afterwards. Check out thispost for an example of the type of exercises you can expect from the book.

There isn’t one book I prefer over the others. I use all three when creating my characters. I truly do believe they made a huge difference.

(*this book was eventually shelved for good reason)

<<<3

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . .

Three books for kickass characterizations,
Tons of yummy chocolate,
AquaNotes, so you can brainstorm in the shower,
And Margie Lawson’s awesome lecture notes.

*Cringes at how awful that would sound when sung*

Do you have a favorite technique for creating characters?

©Stina Lindenblatt

Dimension. It’s what we seek when creating characters. It can also add interest to your photos.

In the above picture, I turned off the flash and allowed the lighting from the side to form the shadows and add highlights. The photo was taken at the Exploratorium in San Francisco (my nine year old created the design on one of the science exhibits).

When shaping your characters, come up with both positive and negative traits. The protagonist will have more positive than negative traits, and the opposite will be true for the antagonist(s). Some positive traits may become negative in certain circumstance (and vice versa).

Also, give your characters two conflicting desires (wants). By doing this, you will heighten the emotion in your story and add conflict and tension. The “desire” the character decides to pursue at a given time will depend on your character’s motivation and who she is. For example, in The Hunger Games*, Katniss doesn’t want to be picked as a tribune for the games. If she is, the odds of her returning home alive aren’t good. Her other desire is to keep her little sister safe. So when her sister’s name is randomly selected to be a tribune, Katniss’s two desires are put at odds. Her desire to keep her sister safe outweighs her desire not to be a tribune, and she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the games.

Have you used any of these techniques to add dimension to your characters or photos?

*The link will take you to The Hunger Games movie trailer.

When describing the setting in your scene, you want to avoid mentioning everything found there. Only describe the floral wallpaper if it’s important to the mood, characterization, emotion, or plot. Everything else can be ignored. By doing this, those details that are “shown” will have greater impact.
If you’re like me, your setting will take shape over several drafts as you pile on the details. Then you trim away those parts that aren’t essential, leaving you with a stronger setting. Sometimes you don’t know what those details will be until several drafts later.
The same trick can be used in photography. Turning the background black & white, while the object you want to emphasis is left in its original color, will add emotion to the photo. As you can see in the second picture, the red flowers would have been lost with the red dress as the background. (Sorry, the original photo used to create the first picture has gone awol, but this is the same dress.)

What are some of your favorite tricks for dealing with settings (writing or photography)?

I’m curious. What would you do if you’re beta reading (or critting) a book, and you don’t like the main character? Do you tell the writer, especially if you can pin point why you feel this way? Do you play coward and hope someone else (preferably another beta reader and not an agent) will tell the writer (assuming you’re not alone in this opinion)?

What about if it isn’t the main character, but the love interest that drives you crazy (or some other secondary character), but not in a good way?

And if things were reversed, would you want your beta reader or crit partner to tell you this? Or would you rather she kept it to herself, because it really is subjective, and you don’t want to be needlessly freaked out?

(To those I’ve beta read for: Don’t worry, I’m not talking about your novel. *grins reassuringly*)

I’m excited to have YA author Medeia Sharif here today to share with us her favorite writing tip for characterization. I do something similiar. It really does help prevent cardboard characters.

(Btw, am I the only one who wants that cupcake???)

<<<3

My favorite writing tip involves writing character journals before I outline and draft. Who are my characters? I want to know before I put them to action.

I have a plethora of notebooks in my endless stationery collection. So I crack one open and, for a few pages per character, I allow my characters to speak. I write as if I’m them. They bring up their pasts, what they want, how they’re doing in school, relationships with people…they ramble, and this is how I find out who they are. I character journaled for the first time with my latest draft. It was easier to write the outline as well as the draft compared to previous manuscripts. I remember how my other first drafts had shallow characters who I had to deepen with revisions, but through journaling the depth has already been created. I have a good feel for who my characters are after getting to know them inside and out. Sure journaling takes days—when I could be outlining or writing the first few chapters—but it’s time well-spent. I’m actually saving time since the flow of my writing improves with this method.

I’m a blog hopper. I follow blogs, comment on them…I adore the blogosphere. I came across this writing tip from following Paul Greci’s blog. Here’s the blog post that started me on a journaling path. Isn’t it amazing how one blog post can change the way one writes?

How many of you journal in the voice of your characters? Is this something you’d be interested in doing?

About BESTEST. RAMADAN. EVER.:

During Ramadan, we're not allowed to eat from sunrise to sunset, for a whole month. My family does this every year, even though I've been to a mosque exactly twice in my fifteen years. My exercise-obsessed mom—whose hotness skipped a generation, sadly—says I could stand to lose a few. But is torture really an acceptable method? I think not. Things wouldn't be so bad if I had a boyfriend, but my oppressive parents forbid me to date. This is just cruel and wrong. Especially since Peter, a cute and crushable artist, might be my soul mate. Figures my bestest friend Lisa likes him, too. To top it off, there's a new Muslim girl in school who struts around in super-short skirts, commanding every boy's attention—including Peter's. How can I get him to notice me? And will I ever feel like a typical American girl?

Author Bio:

Medeia Sharif is a high school English teacher residing in Miami Beach. Her young adult debut novel BESTEST. RAMADAN. EVER. was released July 2011.

Where to find the author:

Her blog
Twitter
Tumblr

This post is a continuation of Monday’s. I’m going to list the elements that make up each section of the act, and illustrate them with examples from the movie Tangled. Laura Pauling is also continuing her post on structure and Tangled.

(Warning: there are spoilers in this post)

Act Two—continued

(This is part two of the second act)

Pages 55 to 65:

• Emotional defeat

• Loss of faith

• Most vulnerable

• Bonding with co-protagonist (commitment)

• Emotional union

• Changes begin

• Growth is painful


With each conflict, Rapunzel and Flynn find out more about each other. For example, Flynn reveals his real name, and Rapunzel tells him her hair has magical properties (perfect timing for this revelation, which ends up saving their lives).

Each conflict supports the notion that the world is a scary place, just like “Mother” said.

Rapunzel realizes her growing feelings for Flynn. But Mother finds Rapunzel and tells her that he’s only interested in the crown (which Rapunzel has hidden). Once he gets it back, he’ll turn his back on her. Because Rapunzel and Flynn have revealed a lot about themselves to each other, they are both at their most vulnerable.

When Rapunzel refuses to go back home with her, Mother challenges Rapunzel to test Flynn’s feelings for her by giving him the crown and seeing if he sticks around.

Rapunzel and Flynn spend the afternoon together and their feelings for each other deepen. They go out on the water to watch the lanterns being released into the sky (naturally there’s a love song at this point to emphasize this).

Seeing the lanterns makes Rapunzel realize that the world is not how she originally thought. She isn’t scared anymore, and both her and Flynn realize their new dream—a life together.

Pages 65 to 70


• Deepest fears are tested

• Emotional set back

• Break up and give up

• Willing to lose

Rapunzel gives Flynn the crown. He leaves her for a moment to give it to the bad guys. He’s no longer interested in it. He wants to be with Rapunzel.

Flynn doesn’t return. Instead, the bad guys go over to where Rapunzel is waiting and point to him floating away on a sail boat. It looks like he’s leaving, when in reality, he’s tied up and unconscious.

Rapunzel believes he betrayed her trust in him, and returns with Mother to the tower, thus giving up her dream.

Pages 70 to 80

• Rebuild or die

• Higher purpose

• Alone again but aloneness is sad—no longer a comfort

Alone again, Rapunzel knows she can no longer be happy knowing about the beauty and good that’s out in the world.

She realizes that she’s the missing princess. She also realizes that she spent her life hiding from people who would use her for her power, when it was her “Mother” she should have been hiding from.

Pages 80 to 85

• Facing death

• Commit to love

• Faith defeat fear

• Climax

Flynn realizes Rapunzel is in danger. With the help of his ruffian friends, he escapes from prison (where he had ended up when he was captured by the palace guards) and races to the tower, only to find Rapunzel tied up. Mother stabs him as he climbs through the window.

Rapunzel makes a deal with her mother. If her mother lets Rapunzel save Flynn, she’s stop fighting against her and won’t try to get away.

Act Three: “Life as it was” (Pages 85 to 110)

• The climax

• Victory over the antagonist

• Physical euphoria

• The resolution

• Letting go of old self completely

• Embracing co-protagonist

• The emotional battle is finally won

• Honestly facing feelings

• Honesty creates trust

• Trust creates love

• Boy gets girl

Flynn cuts Rapunzel’s hair, knowing it means he’ll die. Anything to save Rapunzel. With her hair cut, the power will die.

With the restorative powers of the hair gone, Mother turns into an old hag (because she was hundreds of years old, as told in the prologue). The old hag dies.

Rapunzel attempts to save Flynn. She sings, trying to get her hair to save him, but he dies. But of course, this being a Disney movie, her tears have restorative powers and Flynn lives.

Rapunzel returns to her family—the king and queen—and the kingdom rejoices, and all the loose ends are tied up.

<<<3

So, there you go, two different take on the movie Tangled, based on two different screenwriting books on story structure.

Emotional Structure also talks about the emotional journey of the story. Using Tangled as an example, I’ll be talking more about it in July.

Theme and internal conflict are important for all genres. But have you dug as deep as you can go with your WIP?
Until recently, I thought I’d figured out my WIP’s theme and the internal conflict of my main character. But when I sent it out to my beta readers, one kept asking me questions about these two elements. Fortunately, I had put a lot of thought into it so I could answer them.
But as my awesome beta reader kept asking more questions, because she wanted to figure out the universal feeling I was going after, we both realized (okay, she realized it first), my theme and internal conflict weren’t quite what I’d originally planned. Yes, my story was still about how revenge is never as clear cut as it seems, but when I dug deeper, that wasn’t the true inner conflict or universal feeling I was apparently going after (wow, who knew?). The one my story dealt with had to do with control, or rather, the feeling of lack of control, something many teens can relate to.
So, what is universal feeling (okay, I’m not sure if this is the real term, but since this is my blog, I can call it whatever my beta reader wants)?
Think of Percy Jackson from The Lightning Thief. Percy’s inner arc is that he has to come to terms with being a demigod and that his father is Poseidon. This isn't your typical inner conflict for a teen. But what is typical is that teens have to figure out who they are and embrace their strengths. That’s the universal feeling of the book.
So my challenge to you is to dig deep. Ask yourself if you’ve really captured your character’s inner conflict, and see if you can identify the universal feeling you’re after (or do you need to dig deeper?).
Warning: digging might cause your story to unravel to the point it’s no longer workable. This is why it’s important to dig BEFORE to plot your novel. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried adding two and two together, I kept getting five. Now I’m no mathematical genius, but even I know that’s a big #mathfail. Lucky for me, while having a shower yesterday, the answer finally hit me on how I could rework the story. *does happy dance*

(A huge thanks goes out to my CP extraordinaire, Christina Lee, for all her brilliant suggestions and cheerleading while I banged my head against the wall. And to Laura Pauling (the beta reader) for asking all the painful throught proking questions. You two rock!)

What do writers do when we watch movies? Yep, we analyze them. And that’s exactly what I did last weekend when I took my kids to see Rio (loved it, btw).

According to one of my favorite writing books, Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot (which I reviewed a few weeks ago), fear is an important element when creating characterization. The character must overcome his fear by the end of the story in order for character growth to occur. But you have to know what the underlying cause is, because this is what he will have to face in the end. This will also be the cause of some of the obstacles the character will face while trying to achieve his goal. His fear will dictate what he will do.

Okay, let’s go back to Rio. (Don’t worry, no spoilers here.)

Blu is the main character. He’s a blue macaw and the last of his kind. But unlike the typical macaw, he can’t fly. Why? Well, in the beginning (the prologue) his mama left him alone in the nest while she went off to get food. He watches a group of red macaw chicks get tossed out of their nest by their mama and start to fly. Something bad suddenly happens in the jungle and Blu knows he needs to escape, so he jumps out of his nest. However, unlike the other macaws, he doesn’t fly. He lands in a bush and is caught by humans.

So naturally, Blu never learns to fly and is scared to try. It’s his inability to believe in himself that leads to his fear of flying. By the end of the movie, he needs to believe in himself in order to succeed (character arc).

Do any of your characters (and it doesn’t have to be just the protagonist) have a fear they need to overcome by the end of the story?

How many times have you read a story in which the characters are boring stereotypes? You can guarantee agents’ and editors’ slush piles are filled with these individuals. And we all know what happens to manuscripts containing them.

Author Mary Buckham recently conducted a workshop through my local RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter. Her exercise had us (including the published authors) salivating at the chance to try this with our own characters.

First, list five character traits associated with your major characters’ careers. If you write YA or MG (middle grade), then pick an activity/interest that’s important to them (e.g. football player, cheerleader, musician, Goth). I’m going to use the examples from the class.

Cop

• Emotionally strong
• Aggressive
• Self-sacrificing
• Cynical
• Gruff

(Okay, I know Orlando Bloom looks like none of these. So sue me!)

Nurse

• Compassionate
• Anxious
• Busy/rushing/stressed
• Intelligent
• Logical

Exotic Dancer

• Outgoing
• Likes to be the center of attention
• Driven
• Easy going
• Mysterious

As you might have noticed, these traits are subjective. Your perception of a cop might be different than someone else’s.

Now switch things around. Take the career title and move it to a different list. For example:

The cop is now:

• Outgoing
• Likes to be the center of attention
• Driven
• Easy going
• Mysterious

Your cop is no longer a stereotype, and how he deals with a given situation will be different than the cop from the original list. And this will make your characters and story less predictable.

Cool trick, huh?

(Note: The Bookshelf Muse announced yesterday their newest thesaurus: Character traits).

(I didn't take this photo.)
Are you ready to get your butt ready for bikini season manuscript in peak shape for querying?

Are you ready to sweat and feel the burn?

Then I have the workout for you. It’s guaranteed* to whip your butt manuscript into shape and leave agents drooling. And a drooling agent = The Call.

First, you’re going to need some equipment:

• Donald Maass’s Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook. You don’t have a copy, you say? Then stay tune. It will be one of the prizes in my upcoming contest to celebrate reaching 500 + followers. (note: if you don’t want to bother with the workbook (though I highly recommend it), you can still do some of the workout. Adjust accordingly).

Workout

Warm up:

1. Characterizations

2. Outline

Some people (also known as pansters) prefer to skip the warm up. I’m not going to make you do twenty push-ups if you do. Just remember, you may need to do more work to get your manuscript into shape compared to the outliners.

Donald Maass’s workbook has some great exercises to do for the warm up (found under Character Development and Plot Development). However, I did them after I finished the first draft of my current WIP. With my next project, I’ll do them during my preplanning, to make sure my characterizations and outline are properly warmed up before I start my first draft.

Light Aerobic Exercise:

1. Write your first draft. I don’t care if you speed through it or if your internal editor is peeking over your shoulder (like mine). Just do it!

2. Read through your manuscript and write notes about things you want to fix (like inconsistencies) or things you’re questioning. Go back and deal with them now if necessary.

Intense Aerobic Exercise:

1. Go through your WIP using the exercises in Donald’s workbook under the section Character Development. With my WIP, I went through the entire manuscript doing this step.

2. Go through the remainder of the workbook (Plot Development and General Story Techniques), completing as many of the exercise as you can. Some will have to wait until you analyze the WIP at the scene level (next step).

3. Now we’re going to do interval training. Divide your WIP into chunks, each containing about three chapters (depending on the length of the chapters). Why? Because after each chunk has gone through the interval training, it’s send off to your CPs. Of course, you don’t have to do it this way. But this is how I did it.

a. Go through each scene doing the exercises in the workbook (under Plot Development and General Story Techniques). Not all exercises will be necessary for each scene. Only you can decide which ones apply to a given scene.

b. After editing the scene according to the above step, do a dialogue pass. I talked about this last week on my Query Tracker Blog post (Strengthening Dialogue).

c. The final step is to Toss The Pages. Okay, I don’t actually toss anything. I randomly select the pages. But the main point is I don’t edit these pages sequentially. This enables me to focus on the writing and not on the story. I also use the RWA handouts list under ‘equipment’ during this part. Doing it this way helps me deepen the layers of the story (setting, emotion, etc). Check out the handout, From First Draft to Final Manuscript, and you’ll see what I mean. Really push yourself on this step. Don’t gloss over it, thinking the page is fine. I bet you can make it better.

d. Continue the above three steps then read through the chunk of chapters you were working on and edit if necessary.

e. Send to CPs (optional but recommended). Edit based on their suggestions.

f. Repeat steps a-e for next chunk of the WIP.

Cool Down

1. Once finished—and after you’ve given it some distance—read through your manuscript and deal with any areas you feel could be further improved on (like pacing).

2. Send to beta readers. Edit as needed.

Celebration

(I didn't take this either)

Yay! You are now ready to query. Just make sure you’ve put your query and synopsis through their own intensive workout.

Good luck!

Any other suggestions? How do you usually edit?

* Fine Print:
1. I’m using this workout with my current WIP, so I don’t actually know if it will work when it comes to querying it. But it has made MAJOR improvements in my manuscript, hence why I’m sold on it. Of course, both the writing and a unique concept are important too. This workout won’t help you there. Sorry.
2. I lied about it being a twenty-minute workout. But it got you to look, didn’t it? ;)

I love to capture on “film” those rare moments. For example, my hubby’s silly side is something most people don’t see. Yet, it’s the part of him that I fell in love with. So naturally, I couldn’t resist taking this photo of him when he posed on the rock.

In your story, maybe your female protagonist meets a guy and, at first, sees the same witty arrogance that everyone else sees. Emotionally, the guy has walled himself off so others can’t hurt him. But as the story moves forward, he discovers something special in her, as a result of the conflicts they face together. In turn, he opens up, revealing the sweet, loving side that no one else has witnessed. And in doing so, he captures the hearts of the readers.

Of course, this can work both ways, and the secondary character doesn't have to be a potential love interest. You can also do this with the protagonist discovering some not-so-wonderful traits about a secondary character .

Have your protagonists ever unearthed a special (or not-so-special) side of a secondary character that no one else has witnessed (or vice versa)? If so, has the secondary character been someone other than a love interest?