When Introducing a New Character...

#TipfulTuesday

Of all the zillions of characters introduced since the first book published eons ago, several probably stand out to you. You could probably rattle off several, right? Sure.

On the other hand, we've read--and probably have written--some characters that have evaporated from readers' minds the second the page was turned. 

I'm thinking about the many characters who are introduced like this: a man wearing blue jeans a brown jacket and round glasses ...and blah, blah blah...his hair was brown, walked into the room. 

Usually, these character introductions droll on for a whole paragraph, and sometimes more. I'm bored. Seriously, the unique glasses did not help me see this guy as anyone interesting.

**Authors don't need to specifically describe a character when introducing them. A character simply needs to stand out from the crowd.**

Say my established characters are sitting in a restaurant and a waitress enters the scene. She is important (after all she is the one who killed the detective, but the readers won't know this until page 273.) She is wearing the same uniform as all the other waitresses in the restaurant, so why bother mentioning her black pants, white shirt, and company tie? She also has her hair pulled back like all the other waitresses and has a name tag that no one can read until she stands at the table. All of this can be summed up with a waitress burst into the room. 

What makes her interesting is the tattoo above her wrist. Ah, now we know which waitress. Your turn. Tell me what the tattoo looks like. Where have readers seen similar markings before? Uh-huh. Now you have it. The seed introducing this waitress has been planted. 

Such a unique description initiates a good character introduction. What other striking details say something about the waitress's personality? 

While the reader is distracted by the action, he/she later remembers the way this waitress scanned the restaurant. A typical waitress focuses on her tables, her orders, her food that is ready to be delivered, but the waitress with the tattoo kept tabs on the entire restaurant. Why? Now that the clues are all in on page 273, we remember that it was the waitress with the tattoo who kept tabs on the entire room who happened to pick up a steak knife from the floor, twirled it around to sit point side out on her tray. Like a knife pro.

Since this is a suspense story, we, the writer, will let this waitress, the one with the tattoo, fade after the introduction, not totally disappear from the storyline. She will make tiny, periodic appearances before page 273, so insignificant the readers will be shocked in the discovery, aghast they hadn't seen the clues laced in story after a fabulous introduction. muwhahaha. 

I am a suspense author. You may write a different genre. You too can introduce characters in a memorable way. Look back at the moment when your hero or heroine first stepped on stage. He may seem like the amazing handsome hero...but aren't all heroes? What caused the heroine to take notice of him and only him? What helps the hero notice the heroine over all the other girls. Something is different. What is it?

~Mary Vee

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Fifteen days before Christmas, the staff at Sylvia Duvet's mansion discover she is missing. Her daughter arrives at Detective Carhill's office in a panic, concerned the gossipers and media will create their own story, embarrassing the family name. After all, a wealthy widow only disappears if...she simply can't bear to think of the possibilities.  

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LET IT GO--- FROZEN writing tips

I've now seen the movie Frozen about 1,243,438 times.

Okay, maybe not that many.

But it's close. Much too close.

I've even seen it once in French, because my eldest daughter is facinated with the language and has vowed to learn how to sing ALL the songs in French.

I can't tell you how much that excites me. (Insert sarcasm here)

For some reason, this movie has taken hold of the hearts of children and adults alike. While there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, what is it about the movie that has made store shelves empty of the DVD?

And what can we learn from that for our writing?

Well, the first thing we can't replicate. Frozen has some amazing songs that caused even some super fun weatherman to mimic.

But catchy music aside.... there were several WINNERS about Frozen that helped make it the HIT that it was.

1.) Comedy. While most Disney "princess" movies have a few slices of funny in them, Frozen had more than most. It was FILLED with them, even though the movie itself wasn't a comedy at all. Some of our families favorites:

Olaf. Need I say more?
Ana walking like a penguin in her frozen dress.
The talking Sven.
The adorable trolls trying to matchmake:-)
"What if you hate the way he picks his nose.... and eats it?" "EWwww" "All men do it."

Those are just a few:-)

Regardless of your genre (except maybe thriller...), putting a couple natural giggle moments is a fantastic way to retain your readers attention. Giggle moments stay in our head almost as much if not more than deep emotional moments.

2.)  GREAT dialogue. I don't think there was one moment in the movie where the dialogue seemed unnatural. There were some GREAT lines in there...

"Just roll with it..." (Kristoff talking after the rocks rolled in and turned to trolls)
"If only there were someone out there who loved you..." (The turning point where we find out that the prince is not so prince-like afterall)
"Someone has to tell him..." (Kristoff talking to himself after Olaf's Summer song)

And probably my favorite... "Some people are worth melting for."

There were so many great lines in the movie, I couldn't possibly list them all.

Great lines are memorable. And we want memorable lines of dialogue in our books too!


3.) Romance. I've said this for years and I still remain true to this point. Romance makes every story just a little bit better. Obviously I write romance, so my books are going to have this as a central theme, with other things such as suspense and drama playing an important secondary roll. But even if you aren't writing romance, adding a sprinkle of romance to your novel can serve to be a wee bit of zing that helps your book be memorable.

4.) A takeaway. Spiritual theme. Frozen's theme was that an act of true love is more than true loves kiss. It is sacrifice. Risking ones self for the sake of another. That true love can thaw even the most frozen of hearts. While romance is a lot about love... love isn't all about romance. It's one of the things I loved about the movie, the hero's love didn't save the day (although he absolutely helped) but Ana's love for her sister is what saved the day.

5.) Speaking of heroes.... Kristoff was pretty cool. A GREAT example of an imperfect hero that you grow to love. He's an orphan and super rough around the edges. He begrudgingly helps Ana instead of being the over the top prince who dashes off to save her. (In fact, THAT guy ends up being a total dweeb.) He's real and has real issues... and loves his sled just a wee bit too much... but his redeeming qualities totally make up for it.

6.) A REAL heroine. She wasn't perfect. She's flightly and impatient and a bit cocky at times. But she's also fun and energetic and has charisma. And in the end, she lays down her life for her sister.

7.) A loveable villain. Elsa. A villain of sorts... but we love her. We don't want her to get hurt, but we want her to fix her mistake. She has a reason she is how she is, it's not really her fault, but then again, it is. If she'd just told Ana... then her sister would have understood and not provoked her, right?

8.) Suspense. Just like Romance, a little suspence, even if not the main thread, makes every story a little better. How were they going to stop winter? We thought we might know.. until we realized who the TRUE villain was.

9.) Body Movements. This is one of the things I noticed in Frozen that I don't remember in a lot of other animated movies. One moment in particular, when Elsa had just built her castle of ice, she was walking out to the balcony and her hips sashayed as she sang. That little movement told me more about what she was thinking than even the song itself. She was owning her power, her womanhood. It was her moment of throwing off everything she'd been taught and deciding she was her own woman.

That is something we can definitely do in our writing, and I confess. I forget about it myself. The importance of a flick of a wrist, a hand on a hip, a chest puffed up, shoulders sagging, or even a simple clenched fist. These all can SHOW our characters feelings without having to tell them. 

10.) And yeah. Great songs. I think maybe I need to make my song-writing hubby write me a song for a book trailer or something. It probably won't be Frozen quality... but hey, never hurts to try, eh?

Let it go... Let it go......

Sorry.

Discussion: Did you catch the Frozen craze? What are some of your favorite dialogue or comedy moments? Any story-writing lessens you learned?

The Hero and Heroine of Your Readers' Dreams

What separates a good book from a great one?

Many things (ha!). But at the very top of that list is an exceptionally-crafted hero and heroine. You know the kind I'm talking about. The stories you read ten years ago that you still remember. The woman you spent two months imagining yourself as. The man you wished had an existence outside of a fictional reality!

Last time I spoke with my agent, Karen Solem, about my newest novel, she said something so wise. She told me to spend time crafting a heroine my future audience would want to imagine themselves as. Instantly it clicked for me, because so many times I've caught myself doing this very thing. As a teenager, I fell absolutely in love with Robin Jones Gunn's Christy Miller series. I can't tell you how many times I imagined myself as Christy, or how I secretly pretended she was a real life friend. Then years later, I found out that one of my best friends in college had done the same thing when she'd read these books! Maybe you did too. If not with Christy Miller, I'd be willing to bet that if you're a writer, you've been impacted in this way by a character somewhere along the line.

And do I even need to mention the power of a well-crafted hero? Romance just doesn't work if we don't like the guy. I, for example, am not going to spend 300 pages with an alligator-eating, woman-demeaning redneck unless I know he's got it coming in the end. I would, however, spend another 700 pages with Mr. Darcy, any day of the week. Especially the BBC version. What is it about Colin Firth, anyway? (I hope everyone appreciates that I expanded the image above to "large" size. It's almost like he's staring into your eyes, right?)

So we know the draw this kind of hero and heroine can have upon the reader. But the question is, how do we create this appeal, this tension?

Creating An Appealing Heroine...

1) Give her a flaw we can identify with. Is she deathly afraid of shoe shopping? If so, I'm sorry, but your average woman can't identify with that. Being afraid of public speaking, on the other hand, is a different story. This kind of flaw resonates with us and makes us empathize with the character because we already know how it feels to be in her shoes (the same ones that she liked shopping for and got a stellar deal on).

2) Make her brave, unique, strong. Something about your heroine has to be larger than life to encourage the reader to aspire to new places in her own life and faith journey. While you do want your heroine to be relatable and believable, she should also convey an inner strength that is unique to her, just as the gifts of God in our own lives are unique.

3) Make her likable. I chose a picture of Meg Ryan from You've Got Mail to exemplify this because really, who doesn't want to be Kathleen Kelly? Your heroine might have a great conflict and might be very realistic, but if we don't have a reason to like her, we aren't going to care what happens to her in the end--whether she ultimately finds love or not. Try to find ways to endear your heroine to your reader. My heroines, for instance, tend to love animals because that's something that's close to my own heart and is easy to write. Maybe your heroine will help the homeless or work with autistic children. The possibilities are endless, but we need a reason to cheer her on.

Now On To Those Boys.... Creating A Hero Who Makes Us Sigh


1) Make him strong. Self-confession time--I like to write sensitive men. I can't help it. I've always gone for the artsy musician type. Blame the literature-lover in me. So when I say your hero needs to be strong, I don't mean he has to be built like a football player and grunt a lot. Maybe in your book he does. And if that's the case, his character arc can be learning English. Just kidding! But in all seriousness, women like a strong man. We do. It's just a fact. We like someone who's capable of rescuing the heroine but who's also sensitive enough to wait for her to choose his rescue.


2) Give him an "awww" moment. I learned this concept from Rachel Hauck and Susan May Warren. Early on in your book, your hero should do something active that endears himself to the reader. Maybe he helps an elderly lady cross the road or teaches kids how to read in his spare time. Maybe it's as simple as donating a few dollars to the baseball team raising money outside Publix. No matter what you come up with, we need to see his kindness in action so we know his heart and can forgive any insensitive moments he may have with the heroine after that point.

3) Make him good at something, and make him suave. Have you ever seen Tristan MacManus on Dancing with the Stars? I'm loosely basing my hero off of him for the reason I'm about to discuss (and let's face it--being Irish means extra points). Like the heroine, your hero should have a strength that is uniquely his. It could be something about his personality, his career, his family, a talent he has, etc. The important thing is, we need to see his skills in action so that we feel like he's competent to take care of the heroine (who we already love), and also so he wins us over as readers. And this is romance after all, so it needs to be... well... romantic! Even if you aren't writing straight romance, if you have a romantic thread, make sure you spend time really developing the reader's attraction to the hero, not just the heroine's attraction to him. One way to do this is to make him, for lack of a better word... sexy. Dancing, kitchen-cleaning, fire-fighting, dog-loving sexy.


Your turn! I want to hear who your favorite hero or heroine is (they could be from a book, a movie, or real life!) and why these people left such an impression on you. How can we strive to create those qualities in our own writing?

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Ashley Clark writes romantic comedy with southern grace. She's dreamed of being a writer ever since the thumbprint-cookie-days of library story hour. Ashley has an M.A. in English and enjoys teaching literature courses at her local university. She's an active member of ACFW and runs their newcomer's loop. When she's not writing, Ashley's usually busy rescuing stray animals and finding charming new towns. You can find Ashley on her personal blog and herTumblr. She's also on Facebook and Twitter. She is represented by Karen Solem.

Photos from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4001426/, http://chickflickchic.blogspot.com/2012/03/tuesdays-with-nora-youve-got-mail.html, http://www.threedonia.com/archives/47783