CRITIQUE GROUPS AND MORE

 

Hi Everyone:

When you make up your mind to write something, be it short story, novel, or essay, how do you know if it is any good?  When one is both author and critic, it is only natural to favor a positive outcome.

Sometimes, I read material several times while it is still on my computer screen, looking for errors that I can quickly correct, but I find that it is not until I have printed it out that I find some of its more obvious flaws. Just reading it a-loud helps me to locate other mistakes. I often read to my dog, but Pumpkin isn’t much of a critic, she yawns at my attempts at humor and sleeps through suspense scenes.

Some writers read their drafts to close friends and relatives. Unfortunately, many of these merely tell the author what they think he wants to hear, instead of those things he really needs to hear.

i.e. “I loved it!”

Or, “That’s very nice.”

I’m very fortunate, my wife, who is my first reader, has a great eye for mistakes, and often takes me to task when she thinks that something I’ve written is not realistic, or is too wordy.

 I’m also fortunate in that I am a member of an excellent critique group, The Writer’s Studio. I have been attending its weekly sessions for over ten years. Meetings last for about two and a half hours, during that time, writers read a portion of their material and listen as the members offer suggestions as to how it might be improved.  The comments typically include:

 Plot-- (It isn’t plausible);

 Setting-- (Are you sure people in that time behaved that way?)

 Characters-- (Your protagonist sounds one-dimensional),

 Dialogue-- (Your characters need to have different rhythms and vocabularies), and Action-- (Where is the conflict?)

After the meeting, I come home and review my notes. Do I take all of the suggestions? No. I’m still the author; it’s still my work.  I have to decide if the suggestions will make my work better. In truth, I consider them all, and usually find a way to include most of them.

While the large Publishing Houses and some of the smaller Independent Presses employ editors to review accepted submissions during the pre-publication process, some writers employ a professional editor to help polish their manuscripts in hopes of attracting a Literary Agent (the publisher’s gatekeeper) and ultimately a publishing contract.  

There are no professional requirements for advertising as an Editor (and Editors need to charge for their services) so the writer should be careful. In addition, not everyone can afford to pay for the service, making critique groups such as The Writer’s Studio all the more helpful.

You can read Cocoa Baby, a vignette written by Janet Kleinman, a member of The Writer’s Studio and a published author, by going to my website, joshswritingroom.com and clicking on the Short Story tab. Janet recently published Flirting with Disaster, a romantic thriller that includes love, adventure, and enough sex to make it exciting. She is busy working on a family saga. You can learn more about Janet and her novel at livingtheliterarylife.blogspot.com

Lights

Hi Everyone:

Every now and then, one of my friends will ask me, “What are you working on now?” and I reply something like this: I just finished writing chapter twelve of my current writing project. It is historical fiction. I am aiming for an audience of teenage readers, a first for me.

 Now, it bears a working title: The Adventures of Silent Sam, and takes place during the American Revolutionary War.  I have always been interested in history, especially American history, and while I once toyed with the idea of writing a novel around General U. S. Grant’s siege of Vicksburg, this will be a first for me. When I write, there is often a certain amount of research that needs to be done, but nothing like what I am doing now; it’s a challenge.

When it is finished, I shall dedicate it to my granddaughter, Jennifer, who was the cause of my first historical tale and to my daughter, Terry who suggested I use the tale I invented to interest her daughter in American history as a springboard for this novel.

 

“Lights !  Action!  Camera!”

Those are famous Hollywood commands; in writing, we only have one such command, but in a way, we try to obey all three. The reader craves action and we strive to deliver it by our awareness of those things that slow or stop action. We turn on the lights when we are able to keep the reader focused on the action of our story and of course, we, and through us the characters are often the eye of the camera.

When watching a movie or story on television, everything is right there in front of the viewer’s eyes; action, dialogue, and setting are simultaneously experienced. However, even in Hollywood, the story sometimes requires giving the audience information about the past.  To do this, the film editor may insert a sign notifying the viewer, it proclaims:

“3-YEARS EARLIER”

Then what we call: back-story is shown in flawless action giving the viewer what is needed to make the plot more understandable. The next time you see this, note how little it negatively influences your enjoyment of the story. The reason for this is that it is visual and immediate.

Unless handled carefully, two of the things that can stop the action in written form are description and back-story. One way to handle description is to make it part of the action. Here is how I handled it in a short story, Fruits of Labor. Ex-bank robber, Jack Snyder, enters a bank in Brazil to rent a safe deposit box. There, he is escorted to that department by Antonio:

          With a firm grip on his briefcase, Snyder followed the slender, young man past the many teller windows toward the rear of the bank. His professional eye took in the two armed-security men and the half dozen video cameras mounted on the walls. . . . 

          He noted with pleasure, the sharpness of his reflection on the polished marble floor. Beyond the tellers, a soft, dark green carpet cushioned the sound of their footsteps. Snyder observed that Antonio’s trousers were the same color as the carpet. Must be some kind of uniform, he decided. The other guys are wearing beige jackets and dark green pant too. They didn’t do that at the branch of this outfit that I knocked over.

You can read the entire short story on my website: joshswritingroom.com

Another literary problem writers encounter is that of Narrative summaries, the recounting of things that happen out of the readers sight or hearing. While narrative can move from point A to point B faster than dialogue, if it’s long, it stops the action.  For that reason writers often remind themselves, show don’t tell. Narrative summary if kept brief can transport the reader from one immediate scene to the next.

          “Sam jumped on his horse and rode over the hill.”

“Sam jumped on his horse,” is the immediate action, while the last part of that sentence, “and rode over the hill.” is narrative summary, beyond the readers sight. It can be used to transition to a scene on the other side of the hill.

Characters needed

Hi Everyone:

Casey Stengel said; “If you want to play baseball, the first thing you have to do is go out and get a bunch of fellers.”

Casey’s pronouncement also applies to creating a story; you need some characters. Mark Twain, whom many consider the first of the modern American novelists, declared; “If you invent two or three people and turn them loose in your manuscript, something is bound to happen to them—you can’t help it; and then it will take you the rest of the book to get them out of the natural consequences of that occurrence, and so first thing you know, there’s your book all finished up and never cost you an idea.”

Good stories start with interesting characters. A bridge falling down is of interest for a moment or two; it becomes a riveting tale when we learn about the people who were on it at the time. Thornton Wilder’s acclaimed second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, is just such a story. It opens with this line: “On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.”

A friar, Brother Juniper, witnesses the event and journeys on a quest to prove that Devine intervention rather than chance led to the five deaths. His quest reveals each of the characters and leads him to uncover the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition.

Good authors are aware of the importance of character development. While some of the characters in a story may appear to be normal and therefore believable, they often try to endow a main character with some eccentricity in order to make him or her more memorable. Elwood P. Dowd comes to mind. While fond of drinking, he was no alcoholic, but his closest friend was a giant rabbit, invisible to most, called Harvey.

In my novel, Palm Beach Style, the main character, Dugan, is a pistachio eating detective, who frequently offers to share with those who help him nail the bad guy. This may not be as unusual as a giant rabbit but it sets him apart while letting him function in his profession.  Eccentricity will not, in & of itself, create a memorable lead character; for that the author must endow the fictional protagonist and antagonist with emotional and psychological depth—feelings, passion, and desires. Most of that comes to the author from digging deep within and I believe it is what makes writing an art like no other.

As an author, I find it helpful to develop personality studies for all my main characters (while limiting these developments for minor players).  My descriptions include physical attributes (that I may or may not reveal) as well as mannerisms and in some cases, favorite expressions (allowing the reader to identify a speaker without benefit of a tag line naming the source). Recently there was an interview published in Writer’s Digest. When asked about his 6’5” protagonist, Jack Reacher, the author, Lee Child, who has written seventeen books about him commented, “…I leave him undescribed a lot of the time, I leave him unexplained, and so he can do pretty much what he wants.”  Note the last phrase, “what he wants;” the author knows his character so well that in constructing the story, it is the character that dictates his actions and reactions. Authors often feel that the characters dictate the story.

According to Sol Stein, the author of Stein on Writing, “In a novel it is common and desirable for the principal character to change by the end of the book.” He also states; “A change can be surprising, but it should not seem out of sync with what we know about the character.”

Short story writers face the same challenges, except that conflicts must be resolved, or quests fulfilled in fewer pages. My good friend, Frank Lohan does this so well. I invite you to read Frank’s short story, Don’t Forget Pastrami and see for yourself. You can find it by going to my website at:  joshswritingroom.com