Giving literary agents our best pitch

 (Updated 10:59 a.m. May 26, 2021, to add NoveList Plus information)

Which is scarier – writing a novel or pitching it to a literary agent? I would rather write 400 pages than a one-page query letter. Or, worse still, spend ten minutes talking to an agent about the project. The sensible thing would be to spend the rest of my life hiding under a rock. Instead, I signed up to make multiple pitches to agents at conferences this coming summer, knowing that some of them may (gulp!) ask me to send a written query.

Image by David Mark for Pixabay

It was enough to make me riffle through everything I’ve ever posted about pitches and query letters. I’ve sat with some of the best of the pitchers and queriers and know I can’t do better than to share their words, beginning with writer/organizer supreme, Adriane (Tex) Thompson, from her stint at last year’s WORDfest.

***

Tex organized query elements into: openings (1-2 sentences); hook (or as Tex noted helpfully, the “movie trailer” and story overview, 8-20 sentences); book data (title in capital letters, word count, genre and comp titles – 1-2 sentences); relevant author qualifications (1-2 sentences of  “what makes me uniquely qualified to write this”); and closing (thanks for consideration, etc., 1-2 sentences).

On comp (comparative) titles, “Show you know what’s happening in your genre,” Tex said. Don’t list more than two titles, at least one of which should be a book, published within the last five years. (Hint: unsure what titles to compare to? Ask your beta readers. Or see the second part of this post for more suggestions.) 

On the question of relevant author qualifications, Tex’s litmus test was to ask, “does this make me uniquely qualified to write this?” Things that are relevant include membership in professional organizations and even a local writing group, “which shows that a person is serious.” (Hint: be sure the group’s online site will make it – and you – look good for being a member.) But if writers feel they truly have nothing, Tex assured, “It’s OK to skip this part. It’s better to go too little than too much.” 

Things she urged us not to include: bio fluff (kids, pets, hometown); value judgements (“groundbreaking,” “thrilling,” etc.); your mailing address or phone number (it’s email, remember); the agent’s mailing address or phone number; and any unnecessary white space. Don’t make the agent scroll any more than she has to. 

Tex’s six-point guide to the body of the query – the story overview was:

·       Status quo (ordinary world)

·       Disruption (inciting incident)

·       1^st big choice/solution

·       Consequences/fallout

·       2^nd big choice/solution

·       Stakes/ “or else” (But don’t give away the ending!) 

Keeping these elements in mind, Tex said, will also help when the time comes to write back cover blurbs. In fact, she recommends writing (but not send) queries even before the book is completed, to be sure the story is meeting all the needed elements. “It’s never too early to encapsulate the story!” 

***

 Even before hearing Tex’s presentation, I had dipped into the editors’ posts from a Revise & Resub #10Queries competition. And though it sometimes seemed as if, for every 10 editors in a room there were 20 answers on how to write a perfect query, some issues in the submitted query letters appeared often enough to generate consensus. 

Issues such as: conflict – whether it’s a fistfight or a galactic war. And stakes – what will be gained or lost by the conflict. Conflict and stakes are the heart of stories, but one editor after another posted comments like: “conflict is unclear. What’s at stake?” Or, “motivation and stakes for the main character need to be upped. What are the personal stakes if they don’t succeed?” Or, “focus on conflict and stakes and what makes them unique.” 

But can’t a writer just narrate to the reader – agent or editor – what happens in the novel? Won’t that cover the issues of conflict and stakes? 

Sorry, as any reader of this blog – or attendee at the Dallas-Fort Worth Writers Conference infamous query gong shows knows -- spending significant query real estate on plot still may not make clear why the characters are running around like Energizer bunnies. 

#10Queries editors weren’t as brutal as agents at the gong show contest about saying that what they read was sometimes too darn long. They used more diplomatic language such as “heavy on setup and introducing characters but. . .” And “too many details about the story but at the same time is too vague on the important points.” Or, “feels more like narrative than tight, concise query.” Or the just plain, “simplify.” 

So far, it may sound as if the editors were focused on the what than the who of authors’ queries. Not so. Remember those “personal stakes” mentioned earlier? So, editors also included such comments as, “give us more of (the main characters’) motivation,” and “tell us why they care about the particular event in the query.” Or, “Clear goals but no motive. . . goals are nothing if the character doesn’t have a reason for the goal.” 

Editors also wanted to meet the characters who have those goals right away. (To fit this into Tex Thompson’s formula mentioned earlier, name the characters in the opening first or second sentence, or even in the hook.) One editor gave a “hm” to a writer who didn’t mention the main character until the second paragraph (but recovered with sharp voice and wit). 

And on the issue of the unlikable character one editor noted, “the woe-is-me character right from the get-go makes him a bit unlikable. . . I want an emotional connection before I can agree that him dying would be a bad idea.” 

One editor also posted a “random thought” about two issues that have always bothered me – “the importance of hooks and comp titles.” 

Obviously, a hook is something that will immediately catch a reader’s attention, but what does it take to do that? As someone who’s tried starting with action only to receive a “meh” response, I dug further and found this answer (of a sort) at the site  Literary Devices: “. . . not all hooks are based in action. They can also present a character, or group of characters with interesting traits, a thematic opening statement, or a mysterious and intriguing setting.” 

Beware though – in a query letter, that hook had better be short! 

And comp – that is, comparison – titles? Editors at #10Queries could say that a writer’s comps were “amazing!” as well as note that they were “a bit unfamiliar.” 

Probably like most writers, I feel that my stories are unique. What can we possibly find to compare them to? Reedsy – among other resources – makes suggestions, including dos and don’ts for comp titles. 

My personal suggestions are to check Goodreads followups of the “you finished X, now what” variety, and Amazon listings of books bought by those who read the books we loved to read. And then, of course, to actually look at the suggested books.
 

And then there’s the easy stuff – sometimes easy to forget. Don’t make the query, as one editor noted, “difficult on the eye,” with small fonts and chunks of italics. And don’t forget to include – early on – the age of the target readers, the book’s genre, word count and title – the last in all capitals.

***

Why do I always find this stuff AFTER I post a blog? The absolutely, no contest, hands down, best locator for comparative (comp) titles for literary queries -- NoveList Plus. Customizable "appeal" search with multiple options. And it's free with your library card (at least at Dallas Public Library). Go to your account, click on Database Descriptions and Links. Limit by readership age, fiction/nonfiction, genre, character, publication date. . . and more!

WORDfest’s virtual incarnation + WRiTE CLUB mayday

I remain awed by human ingenuity in the face of disaster. Scarcely had last weekend’s North Texas 2020 WORDfest been cancelled by quarantines to combat the COV-19 pandemic than its organizers put up an online version so amazing – with multiple days of workshops, games and word sprints -- that I’d root for it to be an ongoing phenomenon. 

True, participants weren’t able to gorge on freebie candy from authors and vendors, but we could sign in, not just from North Texas but from anywhere in the world through Zoom and multiple social media outlets. And though nothing quite beats being shoulder to shoulder with fellow writers, not to mention being sneezed on by them or having to line up for restroom stalls, may I plead with next year’s organizers to consider hosting a virtual WORDfest alongside the in-person one?

Shayla Raquel

Whether virtual or in-person, there’s always too more than one person can take in, so I’ll only provide snippets of a few workshops. Please excuse the even less than usually perfect pictures – they’re screenshots of often in motion presentations, beginning with Character Sketches: Know Your Protagonist Inside & Out, by writer/editor/marketer Shayla Raquel.

To the writer’s version of the chicken vs. egg conundrum – character vs. story – Raquel’s answer is both. “I’m going to talk about your story because characters drive story. . . a character sketch is an outline that asks and answers questions about your novel’s character.”

Admitting not everybody does this, she feels it’s important even for pantser writers “to know how your character will behave and react in any situation.” 

She breaks character sketches into The Basics (name, gender, age, nationality/ethnicity, religion); Backstory (including family); Physical Characteristics (height, build, hair/eye color); Distinguishing Physical Characteristics (mannerisms, habits, physical flaws such as scars and tattoos); and Emotional Characteristics (personality type, using Myers-Briggs or similar tests).

For physical characteristics, Raquel is a fan of online images, admitting having built entire Pinterest boards of characters’ features. For help with emotional characteristics, she suggests the personality types listed at truity.com. Writers in search of interesting characters can browse lists of famous people who shared aspects of particular personality types. Think your character might be an-2 INFP (introspective, intuitive, feeling, prospecting) type? Consider famous INFP’s most likely Princess Diana, Fred Rogers and William Shakepeare!

***

And then there’s writer/organizer supreme Tex Thompson. Take a look at this shot of her leaning into the screen, characteristic red cowboy hat on head, and you know for sure she’s no introvert! Besides moderating the chat and doing dog know what else, she went online with A Query Home Companion to discuss the oft-dreaded topic of literary query letters (and why it’s never too early to think about them). 

Tex Thompson 

Tex organized query elements into: openings (1-2 sentences); hook (or as Tex noted helpfully, the “movie trailer” and story overview, 8-20 sentences); book data (title, word count, genre and comp titles – 1-2 sentences); relevant author qualifications (1-2 sentences) “what makes me uniquely qualified to write this”); and closing (thanks for consideration, etc., 1-2 sentences).

On comp (comparative) titles, “Show you know what’s happening in your genre,” Tex said. Don’t list more than two titles, at least one of which should be a book, published within the last five years. (Hint: unsure what titles to compare to? Ask your beta readers!)

On the question of relevant author qualifications, Tex’s litmus test was to ask, “does this make me uniquely qualified to write this?” Things that are relevant include membership in professional organizations and even a local writing group, “which shows that a person is serious.” (Hint: be sure the group’s online site will make it – and you – look good for being a member.) But if writers feel they truly have nothing, Tex assured, “It’s OK to skip this part. It’s better to go too little than too much.” 

Things she urged us not to include: bio fluff (kids, pets, hometown); value judgements (“groundbreaking,” “thrilling,” etc.); your mailing address or phone number (it’s email, remember); the agent’s mailing address or phone number; and any unnecessary white space. Don’t make the agent scroll any more than she has to.

Tex’s six-point guide to the body of the query – the story overview was: 

·       Status quo (ordinary world)

·       Disruption (inciting incident)

·       1^st big choice/solution

·       Consequences/fallout

·       2^nd big choice/solution

·       Stakes/ “or else” (But don’t give away the ending!)

Keeping these elements in mind, Tex said, will also help when the time comes to write back cover blurbs. In fact, she recommends writing (but not send) queries even before the book is completed, to be sure the story is meeting all the needed elements. “It’s never too early to encapsulate the story!”

***

Still to come from WORDfest, genre bending with Amber Helt, and conversely, not reinventing the wheel with Michelle Stimpson, the best ever book launch, again with Shayla Raquel, and how to write and market short fiction with Nebula award-winning author William Ledbetter. 

But first a plea. For all writers and readers who love DL Hammons’ annual WRiTE CLUB contest, now is the time to come to its aid. Hammons had planned to announce the contest Monday, only to find that he lacked the necessary slushpile readers to make it happen. WRiTE CLUB needs 15 readers to winnow the offerings from the writers who sent nearly 200 submissions last year. As of this writing, he only had 10.

After entering as a writer for a few years, I signed up to read last year. Yes, it’s time consuming – each submission is a 500-word excerpt – but worth it. The reads were fascinating and I made numerous virtual, sometimes real-world friends from the experience. Contact his site and let him know you want WRiTE CLUB to continue!

The finale – readers favs of 2018: bring on 2019!

Talk about beginning 2019 with a bang – two of my (and readers!) favorite posts of 2018, are combined here in a double edition! Today’s post combines the fast and furious recaps of the inimitable Tex Thompson’s Juice Box Hero format, published here first on September 25 and October 1, 2018.

***

Boy, does Tex Thompson know how to put new twists on creative writing issues – witness such discussions as her analogy of book revision to Dante’s tour of the Inferno which I blogged about earlier this year. She didn’t disappoint with a world premiere of her newest program – Juice Box Hero: Squeezing Plot from Character – at this month’s meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas .

Because nothing can equal the actual experience of being in the same room with Tex, I’ll only provide a brief summary in this post. If you want to hear the full deal, you’ll have to urge your own writing group to book her next performance.

Which comes first in creative writing – character or plot -- she asked her audience. The fact is, both are essential, but putting too much emphasis on either results in a story as dry as a squeezed-out lemon. 

Enter Tex’s “10 Big Ideas” for extracting the maximum juice from both elements:

1.   Dial up the contrast

Whether it’s contrast between the main character and another, between characters and their environment, or a character’s “other self” – the person they want (or fear) to be, “this works for any manuscript problem,” Tex assured us. “If the contrast has been sitting at a 3, try dialing it up to 11.”

2.   Turn “and then” into “but” or “so” (or “therefore”)

If the plot has turned into what I once heard an editor call “a bus ride” (“A happens and then B happens”) try changing the format to “A happens, but then B happens.” Or “A happens, therefore B happens,” to create a domino effect of consequences.

3.  Take away the “reasonable” option or add a conflicting gain

mage: pixabay

Either forget that old “lesser of two evils” choice by taking the “right” choice completely off the table. Or, set up “mutually exclusive good” choices. And yes, you can do both! 

4.   Add a different kind of conflict

Given the three major kinds of conflict characters can experience -- internal, interpersonal, and external – give them more than one. The effect of internal and interpersonal conflicts is to elicit sympathy from readers. External conflict elicits admiration for the character. Now juice things up by adding a temptation or cost for each decision the character makes during the conflict. Think: “is there something a character would never do but that he/she must do to accomplish a goal?”

5.    “Force the wizard to throw a punch”

That thing your character is absolutely worst at? Make that the thing she must do. Tex noted that when a masculine character is forced to perform a job with feminine associations, the conventional result is comedy, i.e., Kindergarten Cop. On the other hand, when a feminine character must perform an act conventionally considered masculine, the usual result is a drama, i.e., Aliens or Kill Bill. Tex of course, being Tex, urged us to subvert these conventions. 

***

Today it’s the conclusion of the inimitable Tex Thompson’s Juice Box Hero: Squeezing Plot from Character presentation. And since nothing beats hearing Texas in person, I’ll only give the barest skeleton of the writerly techniques which received their world before the recent meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas. Want more? You’ll have to persuade your own writing group to host Tex herself for the full meal deal!

Now – are you ready for the final five ideas? Ta-da!

6.     Use the four stages of competence 

Uh, what? Right, that’s how I felt. Like, you’re either competent or not, aren’t you? So Tex expanded this concept for us. She also graphed it, which I’m sorry I can’t show you. But as I said – consult Tex herself for the whole show. 

Here are those four stages of competence: unconscious incompetence (the we don’t know what we don’t know stage); conscious incompetence (we’re at least aware of our own inadequacy); conscious competence (we can do it, but we have to think about it); and unconscious competence (the never forgetting how to ride a bike stage). 

Tex also mapped these onto the three-act plot structure, remembering that Act 2 has two parts, with a major change in the middle: Act 1 – the character is unaware that a problem exists until, boing! his incompetence reaches his conscious level. Act 2 – the character starts to figure things out (moving from conscious incompetence to conscious competence), with numerous falls off the bike. Act 3 – ride the heck out of that bike! 

7.     “Jump before you’re pushed” 

Which in Tex-speak means, “that awful thing that happens to your character is something she brought on herself.” (Review the three forms of conflict and “choose whichever one most advances the story.”) 

New Year's countdown of readers’ favs of 2018: day 1

What – 2018 is almost over? No worries – for this final week of the year, I’m rerunning a sample of readers’ (and my) favorite posts, starting with a post first published January 26, 2018.

*** 

There was a full house at Interabang Books this week as Dallas’s newest independent bookstore and the Writer’s League of Texas hosted a panel discussion about community building for writers. And we hadn’t even known there would be cupcakes! (Those arrived courtesy of irrepressible panel member, author and community organizer, Arianne “Tex” Thompson, decorated with the names and logos of local writers’ communities.)

No, we were there because, despite the Hemingwayesque stereotype of writers as antisocial loners – possibly hard drinking ones at that – the local authors on the panel –Thompson, Kathleen Kent, Melissa Lenhardt, and Blake Kimzey – extolled the necessity of connections.

“It is so important for every industry to own its issues,” Thompson said. “For football, it’s brain injury. For ballet dancers, it’s eating disorders. For us it’s –”

“Hemorrhoids,” an audience member shouted.

Well, at least anxiety, Thompson acknowledged, when the laughter had died down. “You writers, there’s something seriously wrong with you!” (More laughter, some slightly self-conscious.) “It’s important that we need a counterbalance to the word hamsters running around in our heads. You need a writing community if you’re going to stay healthy and stay in the game.”

l-r, Lenhardt, Kent, Kimzey

And that, if in more chaste language, was the tone of the discussion moderated by the League’s member services manager, Jordan Smith. 

“Why is it important for writers to be in a community?” Smith asked. “And how do you find a community?”

Kimzey agreed. Now a prolific short story author and founder/director of Writing Workshops Dallas, he confessed to starting his writing career as an alternative to his day job.

“I was nodding off in a cubicle 10 years ago,” the author of “a lot of vignettes,” but no completed stories until he found a creative writing workshop at Brookhaven Community College. 

“It was transforming for me. There I was, getting feedback for the first time.”

He and the other students – mostly college freshmen and sophomores years younger than he was – took a second course together because they formed such strong bonds. (Kimzie would even take the course a third time, and end with nine completed stories.) “Now I have my gang of four, all at different stages. It’s important to have a cohort.”

“I started by going to the DFW Writers Workshop,” Lenhardt said, where she was able to grow her Stillwater mystery series and award-winning historical novels. “They ‘got’ me in a way my family didn’t.”

The stay-at-home mom went to her first workshop meeting and thought, “Oh, my God, nobody asked about my kids.” It wasn’t that workshop members didn’t care about her kids, she said, but that her relationship with them was being built as a comrade, not on the family connections which had previously dominated her life.

Kent, on the other hand, already completed the manuscript that would become her New York Times bestseller, The Heretic’s Daughter, on her own. She has said in other contexts that she kept her writing a secret from almost everyone except her mother, fearing the eyeball rolls if she confessed to it, with another career and well into middle age. “I wish I’d had a group like that.”

Which doesn’t mean it’s ever too late to start, either with writing or finding a community.

“Unlike, for instance, downhill skiing, writing is something you can begin at 50,” she quipped.

Put up your dukes! Writing action scenes that punch

Although author Scott Bell's discussion at the recent meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas was titled "Writing Action Scenes." But although "action, technically, is anything except dialogue and description," what he had in mind was "action that involves some level of peril."

And yes, specifically fight scenes. But whether they involve micro or macro levels of peril--think a fist fight versus the Battle of Waterloo--fight scenes are some of the most difficult in a writer's repertoire.

So why write such scenes? Like all action, fight scenes are the stuff of character-building--the number one concern of every writer. They also are huge building blocks of suspense--the element that keeps readers turning pages long after bedtime. 

And since anything this important--whether it's a minor street fight or a full-blown battlefield--is worth doing well, Bell identified four elements for writing fight scenes that take readers' breath away:

1. Characters we care about
2. Consequences 
3. Choreography
4. Conclusions

"If you don't care about (the characters) the action falls flat," Bell told his audience.

I couldn't agree more. One of my biggest gripes about action narratives is the opening with violent action involving anonymous victims. A bad example I remember from a book whose title is best forgotten was, "The killing began at noon." Wait--killing of who? Or what? And why? Book closed, and without even the guilt I might feel about turning away from a news story of an atrocity because--it was fiction. These weren't even real people!

Besides occurring with characters we readers actually can care about because, though fictional, their authors have done the heavy lifting of characterization, "the action has to be expressive and organic. . .it comes naturally in the story," Bell said.

image: pixabay

It also must be within the character's range of capability. Unless we already know the character is Superwoman, it's no fair suddenly bestowing her with muscles of steel. Remember that issue of "characterization"? If not, check out my posts on writer Tex Thompson's tips for combining character with action.

And just as readers need to care about the people involved in the perilous action, they also need to have reasons to care about the consequences of those actions. What bad things will happen if/when the hero fails? How will the story's tension escalate? 

And just as it's not fair to endow a character with unexplainable powers, Bell also warned against interrupting the suspension of disbelief required from our readers. Remember the truism of Chekov's gun? That if a gun appears in the first act, it must be fired by the end of the story? Similarly, if a gun is fired late in the story, that story's author must have prepared the reader by introducing the gun earlier in the narrative. The gun (or whatever is necessary for the resolution) cannot appear out of the blue.

Are you asking by now, when will we get down to actually writing the action? Have I kept you in suspense long enough? Here are some of Bell's suggestions about choreographing that action you're panting for.

Write it in short, choppy sentences. Or the opposite--long and breathless sentences. Sometimes we can even use them together, Bell said. (Personally, I favor short sentences for the beginning, some long ones in the middle, with short sentences again at the end to put the brakes on.) 

How short? "I don't usually tell you to violate the rules of grammar," Bell said, but sentences consisting of only one word can be effective. And consider how the visual layout of the scene on the page, with frequent paragraph breaks and even one-word paragraphs. 

And while we're discussing breaks, remember scene breaks as well. These can also be places to change point of view characters, most especially when writing with multiple points of view.

Even though it’s a scene of peril, don’t forget to add in sensory information and even dialogue.

And forget "filtering"--that insertion of the author between herself and the audience. Maybe it works in some situations, Bell said, but not during action!

Unsure what "filtering" is? It's what occurs when the author adds tags such as "he felt," "she saw," "they heard," to the scene. In well-written action scenes (with peril!) there should be no doubt who's seeing, hearing and feeling the action. If a punch hits someone's gut, we'll know who's feeling it!

Speaking of punch, "exercise your verbs!" Bell urged his audience. Nothing against adverbs, "but in action scenes you probably want to avoid them," he said, recommending thesaurus.com to locate punchier versions of too-tired verbs.  

Finally, take a deep breath. Think about the conclusion of this wonderful action scene you've written. Who won? Or did they? What shape are they in? ("No magical healing," Bell warned, perhaps anticipating another of my pet peeves--the tough guy who underwent multiple head blows without consequences. What, no concussion? No swollen eyes, no broken nose, no missing teeth?) 

At the end, what shape is the character's world in? Or her street? Or his marriage? Leaving readers a conclusion they can sigh over, cry over, and, best hope of all, read the next chapter. Or even the next book.

Squeeze character to develop plot & keep juice flowing!

Today it’s the conclusion of the inimitable Tex Thompson’s Juice Box Hero: Squeezing Plot from Character presentation. And since nothing beats hearing Texas in person, I’ll only give the barest skeleton of the writerly techniques which received their world before the recent meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas. Want more? You’ll have to persuade your own writing group to host Tex herself for the full meal deal!

And although you’re welcome to see last week’s post, here’s a brief review of the first five of Tex’s 10 big ideas:

1. Dial up contrast between characters and/or characters and their environment

2. Turn “and then” into “but” or “therefore” to create consequences for character actions

image: pixabay

3. Eliminate “reasonable” choices and/or add mutually exclusive gains for character actions

4. Add multiple kinds of conflict – personal, interpersonal & external

5. Force a character to do whatever he/she is worst at

Now – are you ready for the final five ideas? Ta-da!

6.     Use the four stages of competence 

Uh, what? Right, that’s how I felt. Like, you’re either competent or not, aren’t you? So Tex expanded this concept for us. She also graphed it, which I’m sorry I can’t show you. But as I said – consult Tex herself for the whole show. 

Here are those four stages of competence: unconscious incompetence (the we don’t know what we don’t know stage); conscious incompetence (we’re at least aware of our own inadequacy); conscious competence (we can do it, but we have to think about it); and unconscious competence (the never forgetting how to ride a bike stage). 

Tex also mapped these onto the three-act plot structure, remembering that Act 2 has two parts, with a major change in the middle: Act 1 – the character is unaware that a problem exists until, boing! his incompetence reaches his conscious level. Act 2 – the character starts to figure things out (moving from conscious incompetence to conscious competence), with numerous falls off the bike. Act 3 – ride the heck out of that bike! 

7.     “Jump before you’re pushed” 

Which in Tex-speak means, “that awful thing that happens to your character is something she brought on herself.” (Review the three forms of conflict and “choose whichever one most advances the story.”) 

8.     Include a well-intentioned catastrophe

Think “Gift of the Magi,” Tex urged us, in which each character, with the best of intentions, fails to realize what the other is doing. (Note: Catastrophes that can be averted by five minutes of honest communication don’t count. Our job is to prevent those characters from having those communications!)

9.     Use “so” to turn emotion into action  

Haven’t we all been at some point letting our characters wallow in their emotions? Tex’s solution aims to keep those emotions from descending into navel-gazing, while providing “kindling to make your plot catch file.” Her example of the solution: “. . . he’s upset. How upset? So upset he decides to (fill in the blank)”  

And the final idea is like unto it: 

10.   Use “so” to turn virtues into faults

“She’s generous. How generous? So generous that she takes on too much, gets overburdened and then . . .”

And then, as a special treat for us, her original audience, Tex shared a bonus idea, but I’ll let you in on it as well: Let the worst thing happen.

We’ve probably all heard this one, but how often do we act on it in our writing? Maybe because we thought that worst thing was unbelievable?

“We have to rethink about what happens not only to the story but to the character,” Tex said. “That forces the character to rewrite his own identity.”

Squeezing plot to develop character – or vice versa!

Boy, does Tex Thompson know how to put new twists on creative writing issues – witness such discussions as her analogy of book revision to Dante’s tour of the Inferno which I blogged about earlier this year. She didn’t disappoint with a world premiere of her newest program – Juice Box Hero: Squeezing Plot from Character – at this month’s meeting of the Writers Guild of Texas .

Because nothing can equal the actual experience of being in the same room with Tex, I’ll only provide a brief summary in this post. If you want to hear the full deal, you’ll have to urge your own writing group to book her next performance.

Which comes first in creative writing – character or plot -- she asked her audience. The fact is, both are essential, but putting too much emphasis on either results in a story as dry as a squeezed-out lemon.

Enter Tex’s “10 Big Ideas” for extracting the maximum juice from both elements:

1.   Dial up the contrast

Whether it’s contrast between the main character and another, between characters and their environment, or a character’s “other self” – the person they want (or fear) to be, “this works for any manuscript problem,” Tex assured us. “If the contrast has been sitting at a 3, try dialing it up to 11.”

2.   Turn “and then” into “but” or “so” (or “therefore”)

If the plot has turned into what I once heard an editor call “a bus ride” (“A happens and then B happens”) try changing the format to “A happens, but then B happens.” Or “A happens, therefore B happens,” to create a domino effect of consequences.

3.  Take away the “reasonable” option or add a conflicting gain

image: pixabay

Either forget that old “lesser of two evils” choice by taking the “right” choice completely off the table. Or, set up “mutually exclusive good” choices. And yes, you can do both! 

4.   Add a different kind of conflict

Given the three major kinds of conflict characters can experience -- internal, interpersonal, and external – give them more than one. The effect of internal and interpersonal conflicts is to elicit sympathy from readers. External conflict elicits admiration for the character. Now juice things up by adding a temptation or cost for each decision the character makes during the conflict. Think: “is there something a character would never do but that he/she must do to accomplish a goal?”

5.    “Force the wizard to throw a punch”

That thing your character is absolutely worst at? Make that the thing she must do. Tex noted that when a masculine character is forced to perform a job with feminine associations, the conventional result is comedy, i.e., Kindergarten Cop. On the other hand, when a feminine character must perform an act conventionally considered masculine, the usual result is a drama, i.e., Aliens or Kill Bill. Tex of course, being Tex, urged us to subvert these conventions.

 Whew! How about allowing yourselves (and me) time to consider and practice these possibilities? I promise to return later this week with the final five of Tex Thompson’s 10 juicebox ideas, including her final bonus idea. But first, a few words about coming attractions.

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Fresh in my inbox this week: a chance to win a free writing workshop or novel edit from editorial guru Lorin Oberweger’s Free Expressions group. To promote the group’s Breakout Novel Intensive program (with author/agent Donald Maas) in San Antonio, TX, and its Emotional Craft of Fiction workshops in Philadelphia, PA and Las Vegas, NV, Free Expressions offers to pay with workshops and/or editing for promotional services, with the possibility of commissions in the near future. If you're a writer in/near these cities plugged into your local writing community and willing to do some legwork, or a social media whiz comfortable on multiple platforms, write to Lorin at lorin@free-expressions.com.

Also:  registration is now open for the 2019 LoneStar.ink writing conference in the Dallas area, February 28-March 2, at the DFW Airport Marriott North, 8440 Freeport Parkway, Irving, TX. This little conference that could will be greatly expanded after its debut earlier this year. Discounted admission applies for registration through January 31, 2019. See the site for details. 

And a final promo: my podcaster son-in-law Kevin Phelps was delighted to meet Tex Thompson at last weekend’s FenCon sci-fi/fantasy convention. Check out his upcoming podcasts at Assuming Positions for more Tex!

At the bottom of the deepest circle of revision hell

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. – Elie Wiesel

We have met the enemy, and he is us. -- Pogo

Finally, on our writer’s quest for redemption from The Seven Deadly First Page Sins (as devised by author/editors Tex Thompson and Laura Maisano), we have reached the end. That’s right, the lowest depths of revision hell. And the good news, once we reach bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up!

In Dante’s version of hell, the lowest circles were occupied not by the most lecherous or violent. Those sins, although deadly, he considered the ones most tied to our earthly, bodily nature. He reserved the lowest depths for the fraudulent, the seducers, the flatters. Those who sinned against our intellect, with the devil at the very bottom. Thompson and Maisano call their writerly version of these ultimate intellectual sins, the sins of indifference. Although the sinners of Dante were without hope, there is redemption for even the worst sins of a writer’s craft. But writer beware – the sins of indifference are the most difficult to repair.

In the interest of knowing the enemy (especially when she is us), Thompson/Maisano name the sins of indifference clichés, confusion and – worst and deadliest of all – boredom.

The problem with clichés is, they once worked so well! Like Lucifer, they originally bore the aspect of angels. Some were quick and easy forms of shorthand that packed a lot of information into small packages. Is that crystal clear? Plain as the nose on your face? Does it make you mad as a hatter? Do we even know what these tired phrases mean anymore? 

Some flattered us into the sins off excess with the lure of genre-specific clichés – endless, and endlessly trite descriptions of magic, romance, or bad behavior. 

image: pixabay

Some will try to insert themselves into any genre. Anyone who wants the full course on writerly sins will need to contact Thompson/Maisano (or have your writing group leader do so), so I’ll only provide snippets from their list of the tired but still filthily sinful “dirty dozen” of opening page clichés: character waking up, character addressing the audience, dream sequence, flash forward to something actually interesting from much later in the story (annoying prologue syndrome). 

Stop! I can hear readers crying. Didn’t Metamorphosis (1915) open with a character waking up? Didn’t David Copperfield (1850) and Catcher in the Rye (1951) open with a character addressing the audience? Didn’t Rebecca (1938) open with a dream sequence (not to mention flashing forward to an interesting event later in the story)? And weren’t they successful, now classic, tales?

Remember though, clichés weren’t born that way. They were tactics so brilliant that everybody and her dog used them. Only not so brilliantly. Notice the dates on those original stories – none of them are recent. And a century after Copperfield, the direct address to readers had become so banal that Catcher had to make a deliberate attempt to subvert it. Daphne du Maurier gets additional mileage from her dream opening in Rebecca by telling us directly that it’s a dream, not pulling any tricks. And though it’s also a flash forward, there’s actually even more interesting stuff in the book than the fate of an old mansion.

And for everyone whose critique group has told them never to open with a character waking up, I’ve got to say that waking up to find yourself transformed into a giant insect has got to be out of the ordinary course of a character’s life. It makes me wonder what Kafka’s critique group had to say about it.

Still, before anyone becomes too discouraged, Thompson/Maisano urge us to be as hopelessly dull and cliched as we like on our first drafts. Then . . . do something else.

“Take your first, second, and third ideas and place them carefully in the garbage!”

Clichés, though, aren’t the only sins of indifference. There’s also confusion (who did what to who and where and when?) Leaving questions in a reader’s mind can be a good thing. Or a bad thing.

Good if it makes the reader wonder what comes next, or whether the character will get what she wants, or even wonder what’s in that strangely shaped, ticking parcel? Questions go bad when the reader can’t picture the scene, doesn’t know who’s speaking, or who did what to whom.

And finally, the baddest of the bad, the greatest writerly sin of indifference is . . . boredom. 

Speaking to a meeting of Dallas Mystery Writers, Thompson warned that there is no way to completely boredom-proof a story. There will always be somebody who just doesn’t get it, just doesn’t care. We can, however, make our stories boredom-resistant, by providing them with a unique character, a daunting task, a strange place or thing, an intriguing mystery or an unexpected reversal. 

There’s not room in the opening pages for us to do justice to them all. Pick one and do it well. And save the rest for the rest of the pages of our book.

(Coming – revision doesn’t always need to be hell. One author/editor finds it the part of writing he enjoys most.)