Saturday, October 12, 2013
Dialogue... Why do we Writers make it so hard?
RAKESTRAW BOOK DESIGN LIVE EVENTS!
http://rakestrawbookdesign.com/
Talking Dialogue with 'Nail Your Novel' author +Roz Morris
> How Do We Get the characters talking?
> Dialogue needs to be visuals... how do we make the conversation come to life?
> Where do we throw in good non-talking responses?
> How is subtext built?
> When is a monologue the right choice?
> Where does showing not telling work with dialogue?
and much more!
Get your hammers and nails (I mean pencils and pens) ready for some work with this brilliant lady from the isle of Doctor Who and the Beatles!
Where to find Roz on the web:
Blog: http://rozmorris.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NailYourNovel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roz.morris.7/about Google+: https://plus.google.com/103746106305898379966
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Roz-Morris/e/B00D8XTAKM/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Her books:
Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence
Nail Your Novel: Bring Characters To Life
My Memories of a Future Life
#Writing #writingtips #writingadvice #amwriting #WritingDialogue
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Creating and Understanding Your Villains
Podcast of our conversation on the baddies we love to hate!
Lynn Bohart writes paranormal mysteries and deals with villains in her many books. We have fun talking Super Villains or Super Antagonists in our 45 minute conversation on BlogTalkRadio.
Find Lynn and her wonderful books on the web:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynn.bohart
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lbohart
Blog: http://www.bohartink.com/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Bohart/e/B0058QRJPU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/johnrakestraw/2013/09/14/creating-and-understanding-your-villains
#Villains #SuperAntagonist #Baddies
Monday, September 9, 2013
Villains Aren't Totally Evil Just For The Pure Sake Of Being Evil
One way to build your villain’s life is to write a biography. Get to know this evil person’s parents and siblings. What kind of life led them to villainy? All villains believe they’re in the right. We hear "everyone is the hero of their own story.” Villains understand that they're being bad in the eyes of the rest of the world around them and they just don’t give a crap... or they value their goals and wants more. They truly know that they are not doing good, they just love being the bad guy. Or, are they the hero in their own story?
These iconic shadowy villains hanging out in the corner looking scary or curling their mustaches have never worked for me. I want my evil villains to have a deliberate interpretation of being evil. I want to see and feel the actual harm they have caused other characters, what their evil actions have cost people and society at large. All of this plot and story building should show us why the heroes are better. Don't just tell me, "these guys are evil, that’s why... and the heroes will win in the end." Give me reason to care and some evidence to prove their worth to me, the reader.
I really like stories where the heroes encounter the same problems, the same story arcs as the villains... but each make different choices, which in turn show us how each affects those characters and shows why the heroes are on the side of right and the villains are on the side of wrong.
Really good writers, like James Butcher, the author of the Dresden Files, show how human their villains can be. Some are wonderfully crazy, some are seeking fantastic power or money or fame. Some believe they're the lesser of evils out there, and some are so far beyond humanity that they legitimately do not understand what's wrong with their actions, because we’re nothing to them. But they are never evil for evil’s sake... there's that compelling reason. We want and need more from our villains than just being evil.
#Villain #Villains #Evilactions #Hero #heros #Evil #Evilness
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Get the Most Bang for Your Editing Buck!
RAKESTRAW BOOK DESIGN LIVE EVENTS!
http://rakestrawbookdesign.com/
We"ll talk shop with Professional Indie Editor Toni Rakestraw and my merry band of wonderful minds.
Get the Most Bang for Your Editing Buck!
Where to find Toni Rakestraw on the web:
Blog: http://rakestrawbookdesign.com/
Facebooks: https://www.facebook.com/unbridlededitor?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToniRakestraw
Google+: https://plus.google.com/111031409666199205316/posts
See our last fantastic Hangout On Air with Toni...
Why An Editor? With Professional Indie Editor Toni Rakestraw
When you’ve done all you can on your own, it’s time to get some help. Go ahead and send your baby out to your beta readers… they can give you some good advice. They may not all agree, however, and you’ll need to pick and choose what will work and what won’t. Still, when you’re done reworking the story for the tenth or hundredth time… it’s good to have eyes on it that know what to look for.
What can a professional editor do?
> Help you find the glaring issues in your story
> Fix timeline problems others may have missed
> Get rid of the annoying errors readers will be sure to mention in their reviews
> Tighten your writing
> Polish that manuscript and make it shine
> Make you look good
Doesn’t that sound worth it? Especially that last one. Your book is your baby. You’re putting it out there for the world to see. You want it looking all pretty and clean, not all messy, right?
And what does the editor get out of it? The satisfaction of helping an author and some money to pay the bills. Do we like it when we’re mentioned in the acknowledgements? Sure. We appreciate your thanks. Do we demand it? No. We’re happy even if you don’t mention us in public. We’re happy because we were able to help you get your book ready for the public. That’s what makes us tick. What makes us get up in the morning. We don’t necessarily need the accolades. We just like what we do.
#writingtips #writingadvice #amwriting #amediting
Monday, September 2, 2013
The Art of Character by David Corbett Giveaway
by Toni Rakestraw
Today we're doing something special. Not only do we have a fabulous interview with author David Corbett about characterization (everyone should read this interview... you'll learn a LOT!), but if you post a comment, you'll be entered for a chance to win a copy of his book, The Art of Character. That's right!
Spread the word, and don't forget to post. I highly recommend this book to any writer. You could be the one!
The drawing will be held on Monday, September 9, so stay tuned. If the winner lives in the US or Canada, they will have their choice of a print or digital copy; if they live anywhere else in the world, a digital copy will be given. Okay, let's get started!
I am so excited to have David here. He is a former private investigator and a New York Times Notable author.In The Art of Character, David offers a unique and indispensable toolkit for creating characters that vividly come to life on the page and linger in memory.
I've read his book and it now holds a place of honor on my desk with my other treasured writing references. Yes, it's that good.
Toni: Welcome, David! Let's get right to it, shall we? How did you learn your characterization techniques?
David: I studied acting in my 20s, and learned a lot from my teachers as well as the texts on acting by Constantin Stanislavsky: Creating a Role, Building a Character, and An Actor Prepares. Theater made me appreciate the profound, clear-cut advantages of dramatization over description in depicting and developing character.
When I began writing fiction, I first relied on the advice of Lajos Egri in his wonderful text, The Art of Dramatic Writing, and I wrote extensive character biographies analyzing the physical, psychological, and sociological aspects of my characters’ natures. But I soon realized I’d fallen into a trap, turning my back on what I’d learned before. I was writing static, descriptive passages about my characters that failed to bring them to life the way scenes could. And so I began to develop the methodology I outline in the book, which is to build a biography not from information but from scenes of emotional risk and helplessness that have defined the characters’ lives. This has proved to be far more useful and valuable to me in my own writing, and I’ve seen excellent results in the work of my students who employ this approach.
Toni: What advice would you give a writer having trouble finding the core desire for their main character?
David: Well, the first thing I’d do is ask the writer: What makes your character happy? What would happen if the source of that happiness was taken away forever? Is there something else, something deeper that the character considers gratifying? I’d continue this process of elimination until I found the thing the character simply can’t live without, the thing that makes life meaningful and worth the struggle of existence. The character will be facing considerable conflict in the story (if it’s written well), and he will have to come to some kind of reckoning: Why continue this struggle? Why not simply relent, give up, go home? The answer lies in what the character truly, deeply needs and wants from life. That’s what he’s fighting for, even if he doesn’t realize it at first, or tries to deny it.
If this process fails to get the writer in touch with his character’s core desire, then I’d have him ask these questions of himself: What makes you happy? What would happen if the source of that happiness was taken away, and so on. What gives your life meaning? What would render your life meaningless? Young writers especially tend to avoid answering such questions, but avoidance is a form of denial, even cowardice. If you can’t answer these questions for yourself, how can you hope to answer them about anyone else, especially your characters?
Toni: You often hear about flawed characters. Why is it so important that characters be flawed and vulnerable in some way?
David: Being flawed isn’t the same as being vulnerable, though the two are related.
Vulnerability is key because we instinctively empathize with someone who’s vulnerable – unless we shrink from the basic concern for others that defines decency. Few things draw us closer to a character than the knowledge that he’s wounded or hurting in some way.
A flaw, however – or a weakness, a wound – takes us back to the core desire. To identify the character’s flaw or weakness or wound, you need to know not just what his core desire is, but why he doesn’t have it in his life. The answer to that question leads you to the aspect of his nature that is holding him back, that creates the lack at the core of his existence, and that lack feeds the desire that, consciously or unconsciously, motivates his action within the story. Normally the character is in some way blind to how his flaw or weakness or wound is holding him back, but the conflict he endures through the course of the story strips away his pretenses, awakens his self-awareness, and that insight guides him to a deeper understanding of his life, and the stakes of not accomplishing the goal at the heart of the story. He at last understands what he has to lose, and what he’s been trying to avoid admitting until that critical epiphany, that moment of insight.
Great stories normally concern a character who, through the insight prompted by great conflict, correct the flaw or overcome the weakness or heal the wound that has been crippling their capacity for fulfillment and happiness, and guided by that insight they find a way to change themselves and the way they live.
Toni: How does point of view help with characterization?
David: Point of view establishes the distance you’ve decided to take between you, the writer, and your character. It will define the extent to which you can avail yourself of the more subjective tools such as inner life and even stream-of-consciousness, or whether you decide to reveal the character more through more objective methods: description, action, dialog.
Point of view also can determine how intimately the reader bonds with the character. First person generally inspires a profound and specific sense of intimacy, but it also risks spending too much time in the character’s head as he tells us the story instead of living it. Third person allows more convincing dramatization without narrative intrusion, but unless the point of view is close, this dramatization can risk creating a certain distance that feels cool and remote.
There is no “best answer,” though editors are swooning over first person these days, to the point they automatically ask: How could this story be told in first person? This kind of artificial preference makes me itch, but such is the way of things.
Toni: Thank you for your interview, David. I appreciate your time and your book.
David: Thanks for your interest and support, Toni!
David Corbett is the author of four novels: The Devil’s Redhead, Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), Blood of Paradise (nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar), and Do They Know I’m Running? The Art of Character is his latest book. David’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Mission and Tenth, The Smoking Poet, San Francisco Noir and Best American Mystery Stories (2009 and 2011). He has taught both online and in classroom settings through the UCLA Extension's Writers' Program, Book Passage, LitReactor, 826 Valencia, The Grotto in San Francisco, and at numerous writing conferences across the US. He lives in Vallejo, CA.
Find David Corbett at the following places online:
Website: www.davidcorbett.com
Goodreads: http://www.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/
Twitter: @DavidCorbett_CA
Facebook: https://www.
This post is also located at our sister site, http://rakestrawbookdesign.com. Winner will be chosen from all comments posted at both sites.
#artofcharacter, #characterization, #davidcorbett, #giveaway, #interview
Spread the word, and don't forget to post. I highly recommend this book to any writer. You could be the one!
The drawing will be held on Monday, September 9, so stay tuned. If the winner lives in the US or Canada, they will have their choice of a print or digital copy; if they live anywhere else in the world, a digital copy will be given. Okay, let's get started!
I am so excited to have David here. He is a former private investigator and a New York Times Notable author.In The Art of Character, David offers a unique and indispensable toolkit for creating characters that vividly come to life on the page and linger in memory.
I've read his book and it now holds a place of honor on my desk with my other treasured writing references. Yes, it's that good.
Toni: Welcome, David! Let's get right to it, shall we? How did you learn your characterization techniques?
David: I studied acting in my 20s, and learned a lot from my teachers as well as the texts on acting by Constantin Stanislavsky: Creating a Role, Building a Character, and An Actor Prepares. Theater made me appreciate the profound, clear-cut advantages of dramatization over description in depicting and developing character.
When I began writing fiction, I first relied on the advice of Lajos Egri in his wonderful text, The Art of Dramatic Writing, and I wrote extensive character biographies analyzing the physical, psychological, and sociological aspects of my characters’ natures. But I soon realized I’d fallen into a trap, turning my back on what I’d learned before. I was writing static, descriptive passages about my characters that failed to bring them to life the way scenes could. And so I began to develop the methodology I outline in the book, which is to build a biography not from information but from scenes of emotional risk and helplessness that have defined the characters’ lives. This has proved to be far more useful and valuable to me in my own writing, and I’ve seen excellent results in the work of my students who employ this approach.
Toni: What advice would you give a writer having trouble finding the core desire for their main character?
David: Well, the first thing I’d do is ask the writer: What makes your character happy? What would happen if the source of that happiness was taken away forever? Is there something else, something deeper that the character considers gratifying? I’d continue this process of elimination until I found the thing the character simply can’t live without, the thing that makes life meaningful and worth the struggle of existence. The character will be facing considerable conflict in the story (if it’s written well), and he will have to come to some kind of reckoning: Why continue this struggle? Why not simply relent, give up, go home? The answer lies in what the character truly, deeply needs and wants from life. That’s what he’s fighting for, even if he doesn’t realize it at first, or tries to deny it.
If this process fails to get the writer in touch with his character’s core desire, then I’d have him ask these questions of himself: What makes you happy? What would happen if the source of that happiness was taken away, and so on. What gives your life meaning? What would render your life meaningless? Young writers especially tend to avoid answering such questions, but avoidance is a form of denial, even cowardice. If you can’t answer these questions for yourself, how can you hope to answer them about anyone else, especially your characters?
Toni: You often hear about flawed characters. Why is it so important that characters be flawed and vulnerable in some way?
David: Being flawed isn’t the same as being vulnerable, though the two are related.
Vulnerability is key because we instinctively empathize with someone who’s vulnerable – unless we shrink from the basic concern for others that defines decency. Few things draw us closer to a character than the knowledge that he’s wounded or hurting in some way.
A flaw, however – or a weakness, a wound – takes us back to the core desire. To identify the character’s flaw or weakness or wound, you need to know not just what his core desire is, but why he doesn’t have it in his life. The answer to that question leads you to the aspect of his nature that is holding him back, that creates the lack at the core of his existence, and that lack feeds the desire that, consciously or unconsciously, motivates his action within the story. Normally the character is in some way blind to how his flaw or weakness or wound is holding him back, but the conflict he endures through the course of the story strips away his pretenses, awakens his self-awareness, and that insight guides him to a deeper understanding of his life, and the stakes of not accomplishing the goal at the heart of the story. He at last understands what he has to lose, and what he’s been trying to avoid admitting until that critical epiphany, that moment of insight.
Great stories normally concern a character who, through the insight prompted by great conflict, correct the flaw or overcome the weakness or heal the wound that has been crippling their capacity for fulfillment and happiness, and guided by that insight they find a way to change themselves and the way they live.
Toni: How does point of view help with characterization?
David: Point of view establishes the distance you’ve decided to take between you, the writer, and your character. It will define the extent to which you can avail yourself of the more subjective tools such as inner life and even stream-of-consciousness, or whether you decide to reveal the character more through more objective methods: description, action, dialog.
Point of view also can determine how intimately the reader bonds with the character. First person generally inspires a profound and specific sense of intimacy, but it also risks spending too much time in the character’s head as he tells us the story instead of living it. Third person allows more convincing dramatization without narrative intrusion, but unless the point of view is close, this dramatization can risk creating a certain distance that feels cool and remote.
There is no “best answer,” though editors are swooning over first person these days, to the point they automatically ask: How could this story be told in first person? This kind of artificial preference makes me itch, but such is the way of things.
Toni: Thank you for your interview, David. I appreciate your time and your book.
David: Thanks for your interest and support, Toni!
David Corbett is the author of four novels: The Devil’s Redhead, Done for a Dime (a New York Times Notable Book), Blood of Paradise (nominated for numerous awards, including the Edgar), and Do They Know I’m Running? The Art of Character is his latest book. David’s short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Mission and Tenth, The Smoking Poet, San Francisco Noir and Best American Mystery Stories (2009 and 2011). He has taught both online and in classroom settings through the UCLA Extension's Writers' Program, Book Passage, LitReactor, 826 Valencia, The Grotto in San Francisco, and at numerous writing conferences across the US. He lives in Vallejo, CA.
Find David Corbett at the following places online:
Website: www.davidcorbett.com
Goodreads: http://www.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/
Twitter: @DavidCorbett_CA
Facebook: https://www.
This post is also located at our sister site, http://rakestrawbookdesign.com. Winner will be chosen from all comments posted at both sites.
#artofcharacter, #characterization, #davidcorbett, #giveaway, #interview
Sunday, August 25, 2013
A Champagne Business Plan on a Beer Wallet by guest Joe Giacalone
The Fantastic business plan that Joseph Giacalone has developed and lives by... has five distinct parts. He uses an acronym (cops love them) to keep himself focused... Competition MGMT.
Competition
*M*ission Statement
*G*oals
*M*arketing
*T*arget Audience
Read Joe's post on Rachel Thompson blog. We succeed when we truly write down our plans, that wonderful, simple act cements it into our psyche.
http://badredheadmedia.com/2013/07/18/a-champagne-business-plan-on-a-beer-wallet-by-guest-joegiacalone/
Explore more ===>
Watch a great video of Joe talking about writers and his business plan:
Joe Giacalone Discovered That There Was a Whole Other Market for his Book... Writers![Video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5gZHhJD7uU
#businessplan, #Writing, #writingadvice, #amwriting, #Creativity, #writingtips
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Writing Historical Novels with author Suzanne Adair
I had a fantastic conversation about the craft of writing and building your characters in a historical context with Suzanne.
Award-winning novelist, Suzanne Adair - is a Florida native who lives in a two hundred-year-old city at the edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, named for an English explorer who was beheaded. Her suspense and thrillers transport readers to the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, where she brings historic towns, battles, and people to life. She fuels her creativity with Revolutionary War reenacting and visits to historic sites. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, dancing, and spending time with her family.
Where to find Suzanne on the web:
Her blog: http://suzanneadair.typepad.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Adair.Author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Suzanne_Adair
Suzanne's Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Suzanne-Adair/e/B003WH8Q36/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1188958.Suzanne_Adair
Explore more ===>
Two great podcast shows I did with Suzanne before:
7/16/2011 Interview with writer Suzanne Adair
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/johnrakestraw/2011/07/16/interview-with-writer-suzanne-adair
10/22/2011 My Second Interview with writer Suzanne Adair
http://unbridlededitor.com/platform/audio_blog/suzanne_adair_tbp.mp3
#RevolutionaryWar, #SuzanneAdair, #Thrillers, #amwritingfiction, #HistoricalFiction, #StrongWomen, #writingadvice
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