Purple Prose [Search results for dimensional] 

©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.

Fortunately photography talk is a lot easier than French and physics. And best yet…there are no verbs to conjugate or mathematical equations to puzzle through.

Aperture really is an easy concept to learn. It relates to the amount of light that travels from the lens to the film or digital chip. Think back to biology and the human eye. In dim light, your pupil dilates so that most of the colored part of your eye looks black. That allows for more light to hit your retina, and allows you to see what’s in front of you before you stub your toe. In bright light, your pupil shrinks to cut down on the amount of light that hits the retina. In photography terms, the camera lens works like the pupil. The film and digital chip are similar to the retina.

For most camera lenses, the aperture ranges between 4.5 to 32. Faster—and subsequently more expenses lenses—go down to 2.8. The smaller the number, the wider the lens opening, and thus, the more light that hits the digital chip—or film. When you select a larger number, the amount of light that hits the digital chip is much less than before.

So what does this have to do with your photos? The depth of field effects how much of your subject and the surrounding area—both in front of and behind the main point of focus—will be clearly seen. A piece of paper is two-dimensional. It can be thought of as having a shallow depth of field—okay, an extremely shallow depth of field. In this example, a cardboard box would have a wide depth of field. If you adjust the aperture to a lower number such as 4.5, your depth of field will be limited. Everything behind and in front of the subject will be blurry. If you adjust the aperture to 32, the depth of field becomes wide and everything in the picture will be in focus, which is why this setting is perfect for landscape photography.

In the above two photos, I focused the camera on Stephenie Meyer’s Novel, Eclipse. I set the aperture to 4.5 for the top photo, and increased it to 32 for the bottom one. Do you see the difference?

Are the numbers between these two extremes really important? Yes. There are some subjects that do better when taken in the middle range. Experiment with a variety of apertures on different subjects, and see for yourself the benefits and disadvantages of both.

And one final point. Usually, so you can see clearly in the viewfinder, the camera is automatically set at a wide aperture (small number) before you take a picture. This allows in more light so you can see the image you’re shooting. It also means that if you’re using a small aperture (large number), your friend might develop a tree growing out of her head that you hadn’t seen before taking the photo. Some cameras have a preview button; otherwise, you’ll need to check out the subject and surrounding area with the naked eye before taking the picture. If you’re using a digital camera, it isn’t as big a deal as compared to with film.

Characters are the core of your story. There’s no doubt about that. Even if you write plot-based fiction, you still need dimensional characters. You also want to create characters who feel (i.e. show emotions) so that your reader can connect with them. And if the reader connects with the main character within the first page, she’s going to keep reading. Right?

This is why you want to check out the non-fiction book, Breathing Life Into Your Characters: How To Give Your Characters Emotional & Psychological Depth, by Rachel Ballon. Whew! Say that five times fast.

In it you’ll learn how to create your characters both inside and out, and I mean beyond the typical interviews you see in most books on writing fiction. You’ll know your characters so well, they’ll become real to you, and that will make it easier to for you to make them real for your reader. You’ll learn through explanations, examples, and exercises to:

• create character backstories and motivations
• infuse feelings into your characters
• determine how they deal with conflict
• work with dysfunctional families
• make your villains believable and non-cartoonish
• create believable characters who have personality or behavior
disorders
• convey emotions through imagery, dialogue, and subtext

This is one of the best books I’ve read on the subject of characterization and emotion (the other two I’ve discussed here and here).

Any questions?

<<<3

I have some contest news. Enter Kate Walton’s contest and you have a chance to win some awesome prizes, including a first chapter critique by agent Sarah LaPolla.

But then again, if you don't enter, if increases my odds of winning. Of course, if one of you wins, I'll be really excited for you . . . so please enter. I'd love to see one of my friends win.

As writers, our goal is to create stories with intricately woven layers that keep the reader on the edge of her seat. But how do you do that?

In his non-fiction book, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (which I highly recommend), Donald Maass talks about the plot layer and the subplot. The plot layer is specific to the main character; whereas, the subplot is specific to the secondary characters. Yep, that was news to me, too.

Ideally, your main character has more than one plot layer. The more the better. So if you only have two, you’d better start brainstorming for some more. One will, of course, be the main story problem. Others, for example, could deal with the romantic storyline and the storylines dealing with the interactions between your main character and various family members, friends, teachers.

Because all our characters are dimensional (right?), each has their own interests, values, secrets, etc. Maybe the potential love interest is training hard to make the high school swim team. Great. As long as his goal somehow interconnects with the main character’s story. And if it somehow interconnects with other secondary characters’ stories, too, even better.

This means the more you know about your characters before you start the first draft, the easier it will be to make sure you have enough plot layers, and that your plot layers and subplots interconnect in as many ways as possible. Even if you’re a panster, it’s worth it to brainstorm first to make sure your story is as rich as possible before you start writing. It will mean fewer headaches down the line—even if you haven’t fully developed each plot layer and subplot beforehand.

Another thing you can do is analyze the novel you’re working on, and see if there are any subplots or plot layers that can be removed without damaging your story tapestry. If the answer is yes, then it hasn’t been woven into the story and is probably unnecessary.

Be sure to check out the exercises in the workbook. They really are worth taking the time to do no matter where you are in the writing process (preplanning, first draft, later revisions).

Note: I’m not getting any compensation for this. But you know, Donald, a ms request would be nice. I’m just saying, yanno. ;)

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?

When shooting portraits, try to capture your subject’s different moods.

When writing, do the same thing with your characters. We all exhibit a wide range of moods. Even within a few minutes, we can go from happy to angry. By showing these different emotions, we make our characters more dimensional. No one wants to read about a character who’s angry all the time. And a character who’s happy all the time eventually becomes boring. Where’s the conflict in that?

Remember, showing emotions is one way to get the reader to care about your character. And showing it in your photos, makes your pictures come alive.

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.