When Things go South...

Have you ever realized how rare it is for a character in a book to go to the bathroom?

Once in a great while, I stop during a particularly long scene that covers a large period of uninterrupted time and think, "Man, that character must REALLY have to pee!"

If you think it's weird that I notice these things, please realize it isn't often, and that I'm a mother of 4 children, 3 of them potty trained. It's my JOB to notice bathroom habits!

Then what is the reason we don't see characters go to the bathroom (besides the obvious gross factor?)

Because....

IT DOESN'T ADD TO THE STORY!

Unless your scene needs to have a portion take place IN the bathroom (which I actually have read before) there is no need to go there.

Now, this blog post isn't just about not taking your character to the bathroom. Because that would be kinda weird.

It's about the fine line between showing enough of our characters life to immerse the reader and make it realistic without boring them to tears.

It is realistic for our character to go to the bathroom.
It is realistic for our character to burp.
It is realistic for our character to far.... er, pass air through their digestive system.
It may be realistic for our character to file their nails, do their makeup, take a shower, get dressed, do laundry, clean the house, bake cookies, mow the lawn, surf the Internet, watch TV, get a pedicure, pick a piece of food out of their teeth, blow their nose and accidentally get a booger on their shirt.

There are a TON of realistic things our characters do, day in and day out.

But we can't show them all. Otherwise our story will be...

BORING! And gross.

Although we need to show SOME of them, otherwise our story will be...

FAKE!

The key is to show these realistic things in the course of a scene where it ADDS TO OUR STORY. Where it enhances instead of distracts.

If you're in the middle of a discussion between hero and heroine and the heroine suddenly stops and says, "Hold on, I have to go to the bathroom, be right back." Yeah, totally ruins the moment. Although when a girls gotta go, a girls gotta go!

But a scene where a villainous antagonist who is trying to seduce the hero away from the heroine escapes into the restaurant bathroom to collect herself and primps to make sure her dress is showing all the right curves and shoves past someone else coming into the restroom.... it potentially shows her intention, character, and motive through "action" verses telling dialogue.

Or a single heroine who drags out the lawnmower on a Saturday morning only to be accosted by her elderly neighbor who forces her to take custody of the woman's huge fat cat even when heroine HATES animals, then the cat becomes a constant figure throughout the book and shows the woman's loneliness when she resorts to telling her woes to the mammoth feline.

Discussion: What "realistic" scenes do you have in your novel, or have you read in a novel recently?

(Note: this is a repost from a few years ago. And considering I'm reposting because I've been dealing with a daughter who has C Diff... a spore that infests your digestive system and causes some not so pleasant, uh, symptoms... it seemed appropriate!)

Trumanizing Your Life...Your Story

I watched The Truman Show last night and it made me sad. This one man, Truman, had lived his whole life in a controlled environment. He was born on the show and was the star of the show. On a special set that included a whole town, Truman was the only person who didn't know they were on a TV show...a show that had been going for 30 years. The poor man lived a life that wasn't really real. His best friend was an actor who acted like his friend. His mother wasn't a real mother, but just a woman acting like a mother. Even his wife wasn't in love with him - she pretended to be in love.

And Truman wasn't content. And the audience was uncomfortable.

It got me to thinking how we are often like the creator of The Truman Show. We want to control everything in our lives. We want our children to be perfect and successful. We want our house to be spotless and "model-home-decorated". We think if we write a certain number of manuscripts, read great books on writing, or attend as many conferences as we can, we will finally get a publishing contract. We want to control the outcome of our lives.

I don't know about you, but isn't it hard...even impossible...to make our lives like we want them? There comes a point when we have to release control, let God be God and trust Him for the path He wants us on. We live life fully, trusting that God has our best just around the corner.

I think sometimes as writers, we are much like that creator of The Truman Show. We have a path lined out for our heroine and methodically write the words to take her down the path we have created. Sometimes though, we have to let our characters really live and go the way they want to go. Characters take on life when we let them breath and experience all that the pages have for them...whether good or bad.

Good fiction needs a compass, but a great story needs life and freedom. Freedom to fall hard. Freedom to live big. Freedom to love with abandon. So let your characters live free on the page and see what happens. Trust God for His timing in finding your story a home. The journey is just as important as the destination.

Are you letting your characters really come alive on the page? Do you allow them freedom? Or do you like to keep them on the straight and narrow?

TWEETABLES:

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born an

Writing Real

Photo by graur codrin
freedigitalphotos.net

Realness is such a vague term, though it shouldn't be. Real means something that exists, not imaginary...tangible and understandable.

I've been told several times that I am not like the normal preacher's wife. When I first heard someone tell me that, I was not sure if I should be offended or not. I want to be a good preacher's wife! But then they said other preacher's wives they had known seems too perfect, too good...and hard to relate to. I was told I was "real".  Yeah, I've got a lot of flaws and I guess I'm not good at hiding them. While I regret that I am flawed, I am glad that others don't think of me as "too good" for them or "un-relateable".

But what does being real have to do with writing? I'm glad you asked.

Writing real involves being real. We write from the experiences, trials, joys, hopes and dreams that are uniquely ours. Every turn in our life journey gives us wisdom to build upon. Each step we take gives us layers of character that makes us who we are. We become more real each and every day.

How do we incorporate this realness in our writing?

Remember that you are a sinner who was given grace by a gracious God. Sometimes we Christians forget where we have come from and tend to gloss over our need for a Savior. Use that need, that longing for grace, in your writing. Your character needs something...and ultimately needs the Lord. Use your knowledge and feelings to make your character "real".

Energize yourself with the presence of God. You need His touch on your life to write the story He has placed on your heart. Take the time to stay in the Word and pray about your writing. Join a Bible study or fellowship with other believers. Those like minded people will encourage you and lift you up.

Ask for help. Just as we need God's help and guidance in life, we definitely need help in our writing journey. Yes, it is sometimes difficult to ask for help, but from what I have learned is that the writing community has the biggest heart and wants to help! I would imagine if you posted on Facebook that you need help in a certain area, then I bet you would get a list of people willing to help out. Just ask!

Lay down your mask. God sees through the masks that we wear. We may try to mask our pain, our sin, our hurt, our temptation, but God knows it all...and loves us anyway. In writing Christian fiction, we need to make sure our characters lose their masks. Yes, they can "try" to keep up appearances, but real life can be a messy life and our characters need to be messy in order to grow and find freedom in Christ.

These are just a few ideas to help you write real.

What would you add? How do you write real?

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.

Writing What you Know....and What you Don't Know

It's another VLOGGING day - because I don't want to just write about what I know, I want to SHOW you! Watch out! It's 5 short vlogs to take you into MY WORLD. What I know :-)
Let's start with family.

It gets pretty crazy around here, but I'm so thankful God's made my mind in such a way that I can still write in the midst of chaos. Times like the scene above are usually short, because I work during the week, so writing time happens at night or on weekends. It's important for me to be in the middle of what the kids are doing, so I come down to join the chaos - and they don't seem to mind too much either :-)

Next, I write about small towns.

Telling stories is at the heart of my Appalachian culture. Whether I'm writing historical or contemporary (or spec), I love using my heritage as paint for the page of my stories. Here's a very small peek into one place of inspiration.

And last - but certainly not least, is a view from the mountains. My family have been in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina for generations - now we live in the mountains of Tennessee. The rich heritage and culture (as well as the humor) play a big part in my novels.

When I don't know more info about what I'm writing, there are several places I go.

1. The internet - Youtube is a favorite of mine. I watched 7 calf births before I wrote my first calf birthing scene in my recent contemp romance.

2. Great sources - A friend of mine (a cattle farmer) also gave me important tips - even read through the scene to make sure it had the right info. My mom is a nurse, my dad is a cop, they provide lots of wonderful detailed info. My dad helped me design a gun for my spec fiction so that my heroine could shoot a special kind of explosives, he also told me how long it would take someone to drown in a crashed car in the tributary of a dam. Mom helps with my medical info.

Recently I interviewed a Resort Manager for a mountain lake to get information for a future novel. If you can, go to the source, or next best thing.

3. Historical Research & Family History - Because a lot of my stories are from family history, I draw from information in history as well as old photographs. With only photos, I'd truly be left in a black and white world, but I also have a rich oral history passed down through generations, so the pictures become much more colorful.

So - how do you write what you know?
What do you do to help write what you don't know?

Story Setting: How to Make It Unique and Realistic

Nothing can bring a book to life more than a great setting. Sure, the characters are important, but setting is a close second.

Take Anne of Green Gables, for instance. How many "kindred spirits" want to travel to Prince Edward Island as much as they want to meet Anne? They want to paddle across The Lake of Shining Waters and experience The White Way of Delight in all of its beauty.

We choose the settings for our stories in different ways. But regardless of how they originate, I've noticed there are three primary types of settings writers deal with. I'll break them down below, as well as provide tips for how you can make your setting stand out.

Well-Known, Highly-Visited Settings (for example, New York City)

- Find a unique angle to freshen it up. Don't settle for generalities or cliches. Hone in on a particular neighborhood, a particular store or shop, a park, etc. (Think Breakfast at Tiffany's. Or how about Sleepless in Seattle, when they meet at the top of the Empire State Building?)

- Make sure the setting details are accurate. Since your readers have likely been there, they'll notice any inconsistencies or misportrayals. And you don't want to pull them from the story with a setting flub that's easily fixable.

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Real Settings That Lend Themselves to Uniqueness (for example, Sandwich, Illinois, in Alley-Cat Krista's book ----> )

- Play up the unique aspects. Whether it's the town name, like Krista's book, or a unique geographic location (a beach town, for instance), bring those things to the forefront in the story. Let them be key players. Think of the setting as another character in and of itself, with its own quirks and personality.

- Present the setting from an authentic viewpoint. It might mean you've already spent time there, or it might mean you need to go on a research trip (or do a virtual visit online). Look at the setting from fresh eyes and seek out the traits that first get your attention. Your readers are relying on you to transport them there, and they want the full experience, not a high-level skimming.

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Fictional Settings Based on Real Settings (For example, The town in my book is set in the same geographic area as a town where I grew up. I gave it a different name to give me creative liberty with the story details.)

- Even though the setting is fictional, make sure you get the details right on a general level. If you've created a fictional town in Minnesota, it's not realistic to have 90-degree weather in December. Consider the general geographic area and keep it true-to-life.

- Create unique details, but avoid making them too over-the-top. Readers want to be transported to a great story setting, but they also want it to be believable. Once you cross the point of being too outrageous, the reader may give up on the book altogether.

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No matter which type of setting you write, the key is to keep it unique and realistic. A well-written setting will enhance the story, not detract from it, and it will likely create lifelong fans. All you have to do is visit Prince Edward Island to see the proof. :)

What types of settings do you typically write? How did you end up planting your stories there? What are some of the quirks or unique "personality traits" of your settings that play a role in the story?

*Special note: There's a fourth type of setting I didn't cover here--fictional story worlds created by fantasy writers. Since I have no expertise in this area, I'm leaving it to the capable hands of the fantasy experts. :)

**Green Gables photo from www.anneofgreengables.com.
***Deer photo from http://minnesota.publicradio.org.

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Sarah Forgrave is a stay-at-home writer-mom who feels blessed to pursue her calling and passion. She writes contemporary romance for the inspirational market and is a contributor to the webzine Ungrind.

To learn more about Sarah, visit her personal blog at:
http://www.sarahforgrave.com/blog

The Importance of Being Polished: Character Inconsistency

Have you ever watched the first episodes, maybe even the pilot, of your favorite t.v. show? Mine is/was Friends. I cringe as I see the early years...it seemed like the actors weren't quite as comfortable in their character skin...pushing the lines like they were still trying to decide exactly “how” their character would say them. And if you know the series really well, you'll see that the writers may have created history for the character in the second or third season that doesn't quite match up with what they originally showed in the first season.

Just like t.v. shows beginning episodes may have inconsistencies with their characters' storylines and personalities, after you type "The End" and go back to the beginning of your manuscript, you'll want to watch for the characters' inconsistencies. I'm not necessarily talking about character arc, but about believability in who your characters are and what situations they find themselves in, from beginning to end. Unlike a T.V. show audience, a reader is less forgiving of hiccups like these.

For most of us, those first chapters are written months before the final ones, so your characters take on a life of their own once you get into the story. As I go through and polish my manuscript, certain things my characters said and did at the beginning, were way out of character after knowing who they really were by the end of the novel.

For example, if your character starts out as being confident and outspoken, but you develop later in the story that she has some past issues that give her some major insecurities, you are going to want to be sure to at least hint to those from the beginning so the reader doesn't think you pulled it out of thin air to spice up the story. Believability is jeopardized when this happens.

When you polish your manuscript, be sure to keep your characters in check, and even though they should grow throughout your story, be sure they are still “themselves” from beginning to the end.

Have you discovered hiccups among your characters as you polish your manuscript?

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across cultures. She is an ACFW member and CEO of a family of six.

Books and the Bathroom

Have you ever realized how rare it is for a character in a book to go to the bathroom?

Once in a great while, I stop during a particularly long scene that covers a large period of uninterrupted time and think, "Man, that character must REALLY have to pee!"

If you think it's wierd that I notice these things, please realize it isn't often, and that I'm a mother of 4 children, 3 of them potty trained. It's my JOB to notice bathroom habits!

Then what is the reason we don't see characters go to the bathroom (besides the obvious gross factor?)

Because....


IT DOESN'T ADD TO THE STORY!

Unless your scene needs to have a portion take place IN the bathroom (which I actually have read before) there is no need to go there.

Now, this blog post isn't just about not taking your character to the bathroom. Because that would be kinda weird.


It's about the fine line between showing enough of our characters life to immerse the reader and make it realistic without boring them to tears.

It is realistic for our character to go to the bathroom.
It is realistic for our character to burp.
It is realistic for our character to far.... er, pass air through their digestive system.
It may be realistic for our character to file their nails, do their makeup, take a shower, get dressed, do laundry, clean the house, bake cookies, mow the lawn, surf the Internet, watch TV, get a pedicure, pick a piece of food out of their teeth, blow their nose and accidently get a booger on their shirt.

There are a TON of realistic things our characters do, day in and day out.

But we can't show them all. Otherwise our story will be...

BORING! And gross.

Although we need to show SOME of them, otherwise our story will be...

FAKE!

The key is to show these realistic things in the course of a scene where it ADDS TO OUR STORY. Where it enhances instead of distracts.

If you're in the middle of a discussion between hero and heroine and the heroine suddenly stops and says, "Hold on, I have to go to the bathroom, be right back." Yeah, totally ruins the moment. Although when a girls gotta go, a girls gotta go!

But a scene where a villainous antagonist who is trying to seduce the hero away from the heroine escapes into the restaurant bathroom to collect herself and primps to make sure her dress is showing all the right curves and shoves past someone else coming into the restroom.... it potentially shows her intention, character, and motive through "action" verses telling dialogue.

Or a single heroine who drags out the lawnmower on a Saturday morning only to be accosted by her elderly neighbor who forces her to take custody of the woman's huge fat cat even when heroine HATES animals, then the cat becomes a constant figure throughout the book and shows the woman's loneliness when she resorts to telling her woes to the mammoth feline.

Discussion: What "realistic" scenes do you have in your novel, or have you read in a novel recently?