Theme

This will be the last of parts of story blog posts. Not because I have written everything there is say about them or that I have added some great new thing to the conversation but I just out of parts to write about. So I do not know what I will be writing about next week; so I'm back to be being a pantser. My last post is on Theme. Theme is something that I think every writer and reader should be aware of. Theme is more than just the basic idea of a story but is something that aids the plot. Theme is mostly seen in poetry. It is something I use when I am writing my poetry because it is a good way to help your poem get where you want it to go.

Now my poetry is mostly dealing with my grief but my stories are more about isolation. About the hero/heroine being forced out of their natural society into a larger world with a mission to do. Theme is a great way to get started when you are writing a new story. I did not notice that about my writing until I started talking about with a fellow writer. My friend is a writer and she is an editor, so we were talking about what we were working on at the moment. So I was talking about a new story and she looked at me and said; 'You know everything you write about is really about being alone and finding yourself...'. She just trailed off from that. That got me to thinking. She is right, everything I write about in my fiction is about being alone and learning to overcome that.

So if you want to get a good idea about theme and how it works watch an M. Night Shyamalan movie. Now I know he gets a lot of flak about his twists and the very sad Avatar movie but I'm not kidding. For example Lady in the Water is about hope, Signs is about faith, every one of his films is about some basic theme. Now I am not saying take writing cues from him but he does tell a great story. If you want your story to have some emotional pull having a theme is a good way to do it.  You should think about your theme if you are smarter than me. Books that have a theme that I have read recently- Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (hope), The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce(self-acceptance), pretty much all the classics have themes and maybe that is what makes them classic. Thanks for reading and I will write you next week.

Point of View

Hello dear readers. This week's post I am going to discuss Point of View or POV. POV is the way that the story is told. I will try to give good examples of them in the next few paragraphs; also these descriptions are just my way of understanding the following terms. The Internet is a wonderful resource so please look up the terms for yourself if you have any questions or please leave me a comment and I will response. There are three main expressions of POV. First-person where the reader is trapped within the eyes of one speaker. Second person where the story uses the 'You' pronoun to tell the story. Third person where the reader can see things that the main characters cannot. Within third person there are two more types. Third person close where the reader follows one to two characters through out the story. Omniscient third person is the other where the reader knows things that not only the characters not know but they have access to information that may not even exist yet.

First person POV is the I POV. Novels that use that are telling the story from the perspective of only one character. That can be good or bad depending on the writer. One of my favorite authors who uses first person is Edgar Allen Poe. Poe uses POV to help create the horror and suspense of his stories. Because the reader cannot see what is going on in the other room we have the narrator's fear in our minds. Other books that use first person are- The Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost, The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey, and many more than I have read and have time to list. Something to notice about first person is that it is used in every form of literature.

Second person POV is the You POV. Now this is not used very much for good reasons. This is how it looks- You wake to the sudden sound coming from the kitchen. You feel your heart pounding as you slowly get to your feet. You moves as quietly as you can to the closed door between you and the sounds. You pull open the door when'. You get the idea don't you reader? Odd to read but if used wisely it can be effective. I can think of only one series of books that use the second person and that the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. I have only read one fanfiction that used the second person. I do enjoy it when I read it but it is very easy to mess it up. It is a useful tool in the planning of works or at least it works for me because it gives me a different way to look that the characters, plot, setting, everything about the story.

Third person POV is one that is used the most in the writing. It gives the reader a birds eye view of what is going on.  Of the two ways to do third person there is close and omniscient. Third person close is where the reader follows one to two characters as the story goes. Omniscient gives the reader gods view of the story. The reader can not only see things that the main characters cannot see but they have access to information that the characters may never see. As I said it is the most common way to tale a story but that does not make it the best. I could name many stories that use it but if you do not know any please go to your local library and just pull out a book. More than likely you will get one that uses third person close.

So those are the most common ways to tell a story. I like them all, I have read them all both well done and not. I personally write in third person omniscient because I like to have the most information about the world. What is your favorite? Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Plot

Plot is what I would like to discuss with my readers today. Plot is generally seen as the most important part of any story. Now I am not saying that plot is not important but I do not that think that it is the most important. But first I will give the reasons why I think that plot is important then I will discuss why I do not think that plot is the most important element of any story.

Plot is not just the story going from point a to point z. Plot is main reason that new readers will pick up a new book. It is normally what sales a book to an editor or a publisher. Plot is the thing that most writers have at the start of the writing process. By that I mean I have an idea about an interesting story; for example a fussy little man who solves crimes because is he so fussy about details that he sees everything. Now Ms. Christie did not just stop there but that is more than likely where she started with just an idea about a story. Now I realize that you may think that the idea is a character but I see it as the start of the plot.

Now I think that plot is seen as the easy how to make a sale. Any and every plot can and has been sold. It has been published and it has done well. But why do some plots do better than others? That is something that only a reader can decide that. I think that it comes down to a few things. Luck is a big one, unfortunate for me because I only have bad luck, but there is something to it. Then there is the combination good characters, pacing, and plot to make something really special. But do not let your plot drive the bus. There is a charming children's book called "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus". Basically the story is about a pigeon who wants to drive the school book. He keeps begging and begging to but only bad things will happen if he does. Now replace the pigeon with the plot and you have one of my writing classes. The plot can be interesting and awesome but if the plot drives the bus then you will have characters acting ways that are not believable or worse yet the reader will just not care about the characters. If the reader does not care about what is going to happen to the characters then they will put the story down. They will talk about how it had a great idea but they really could not just get into it. I have heard and said that very thing myself many times before. It is a sad thing for a good plot to have weak characters.

I leave you with this saying from me. Strong characters can carry a weak plot but a strong plot cannot carry weak characters. Thanks for reading!

Dialog

Today I want to talk about my favorite part of any story or game or movie/tv show. Dialog can make or destroy a story. Dialog can make a character come alive or fall flat. In my book review blog dialog makes its way into my review every time. I think that dialog is the single more important part of character development. The reason I believe this is because what makes a character memorable? Is it the way they dress? Unless everything is on the clothes in a story then no. Is it the way that they solve the murder? Even Mr. Monk was not known for that. No it is the way that the character talked with the world around them.

All of the characters that I love best have unique voices. All of Jane Austen's character can be identified by just their word choice. Now I know that word choice is another blog but that is word choice in the descriptive parts of the story not the character voice. The character can say things that the writer would never say or do in the writing itself. For example character's can and do use contractions. That is fine, follow the character's voice, no matter where it goes. But as the writer do not, and I repeat DO NOT, use contractions in the non-dialog parts of the story. It does not work, it never will. I have read stories where the author has used contractions in a paragraph and I have stopped reading. It pulled me out of the story so fast that my head was spinning from the blood rush.

Now about word choice in character voices. 9 time out of 10 I do not argue with what the author has the character saying or how they say it. But the one time I do this one. When the character uses words that they would not know or use because of their character. But that I mean this- I was reading a steampunk novel not the best one I have ever read but it had potential. Now I had some problems with the plot but nothing too bad so I was going along reading the story until this happened. 'Then you made yummy sounds.' Can you hear my mental wheels locking up? I am not kidding. My head came up, my mouth was open and my mind was just stuck. The problems I have with that word choice are these- The character was a very formal person who did not use any form contractions, the society is very heavily based on Victorian society so the word was not something said, and it was the only thing like that in the whole book. The author did this again and again both in dialog and in descriptive paragraphs.

So be careful about what you say in your writing because you can make or break the whole story by it. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Setting

So because I have decided to try and be a good blogger who talks about the important things in writing. I will try to cover all the things that everyone sees as important but I will explain why I think they are important. All the parts of the story are important. I say the parts of the story are character, plot, setting, point-of-view, and theme. I know that some say conflict are but I see that something that is born from the five I have listed. I am going to try and explain why I think they are important. If I am really good I will give examples.

Because I am not picky I wanted to start with setting. I googled the definition of Setting in a story and this is what I got.
Setting, quite simply, is the story’s time and place. While setting includes simple attributes such as climate or wall décor, it can also include complex dimensions such as the historical moment the story occupies or its social context. Because particular places and times have their own personality or emotional essence (such as the stark feel of a desert or the grim, wary resolve in the United States after the September 11th attacks), setting is also one of the primary ways that a fiction writer establishes mood. Typically, short stories occur in limited locations and time frames, such as the two rooms involved in Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour," whereas novels may involve many different settings in widely varying landscapes. Even in short stories, however, readers should become sensitive to subtle shifts in setting. For example, when the grieving Mrs. Mallard retires alone to her room, with "new spring life" visible out the window, this detail about the setting helps reveal a turn in the plot. Setting is often developed with narrative description, but it may also be shown with action, dialogue, or a character’s thoughts.

I have to say that I like it. I think that it short and true. Setting is very important in all writing but genre writing setting becomes more. Imagine, if you will, Poe with the fog, the crows, or the darkness coming from all around. Now he is just like so many of his peers; nothing special. But when he made setting important to the telling of his tales then we have fiction gold. Setting is something that writers and readers use to inform about the story before we even begin. By that I mean when I am in the mood for something like hard sci-fi knowing that before I pick up the book. For the writer knowing that you are writing a urban fantasy is something that should be done long before the book is in the hands of the reader. I say that with the knowledge that most writers do think about those things but not all. An sad truth is not every writer sits down and thinks about their story. Now I am not saying know every little thing about your story before you start writing. But having a good idea about where the story is happening is something that you should know. It is very useful to both of us. I may add to this later but for now I am done. If you want to talk with me about this please leave a comment. I would love to talk with others about what is important about Setting. Write you next week!

 

Most important element

What is the most important part of a story? That is something that all my of classes, writing friends, and fellow readers talk about. I have heard and been a part of many; I do not see that changing any time soon. I think that is something that is personal to each of us. I have reasons for thinking that and I am going to list them before I talk about what I think is the most important. From person to person everyone likes different things. Some people love thick plots with many twists. Others love characters but they have to have something interesting going on around them. I have heard my fellow readers talk about how great a character was but that the story did not go anywhere. Next theme is a big draw to some readers. I see all these and the other parts of the story as important to me character is the most important.

I have thought that for years. I was about nine when I was talking to some classmates about why I did not like a book we had to read for class. Everyone else liked it because it had a flashy ploy but I was bored because I did not care about the characters. When I said that my classmates looked at me like I was crazy. Now I am not trying to say that I am some super-reader who from a young age just knew what good or not. I think that is because my mother reads, read to me and asked me about my reading from a young age. I think that she taught me to think about why I liked or disliked something in a book. Back to my opinion on character, because that is what it is my opinion, think about the last Dan Brown you read( if you have read anything by him). Now I read Dan Brown but I am not reading him for Robert Langdon. I know that Langdon is going to discover who the bad guy is, that all puzzles will be revealed and understood by the reader, and that he will have a new girlfriend per book. I read Brown because the puzzles are interesting but when the last puzzle is solved I am done with the book. I take it back to the library and move on.

But I have a few authors who write character pieces. By character pieces I mean stories that do not really go anywhere because the plot is secondary to the character development. Now I know that does not sound fun to read but they really are. For example Carrie Vaughn's "After the Golden Age". It is about the world after the superheroes and villains are past their prime. The daughter of (basically) Superman and Wonder Woman is looking who she is. Everything about herself has been defined by who her parents are. The plot is slow moving but the way that the main character changes over it is just awesome. I think that Dialog is part of character so when dialog is done right it is just wonderful because with dialog you can tell so much about the character just from the way that they say or mis-say a word.

So in my opinion character is the most important element of a story. Thanks for reading and see you next week.

Dragon*Con report

So this past week-end I made my yearly pilgrimage to Atlanta aka Geek-Mecca. There I dress-up, I talk to authors and I find out what is coming out in the next year. I go to all the publishers panels so I now have a pretty good idea about what I am going to be buying for this next year. But the most amazing parts of the Con are talking with my authors. Like every other reader in the world I love my authors. They help me make it from day to day, so when I can sit in the same room as them and talk about their works, hear from new books that are coming out, and just in general bask in the glow of cool.

So my first author I saw on Friday was Kevin J Anderson. Now I have met Mr. Anderson five years ago at Dragon*Con. He has been one of my authors for many years before that but after meeting him, he became even more so. He is a good reader, he likes his fans, and he is willing to answer questions about up coming books and the like. While over the past two years because of Facebook he and I have talked a lot. Now I realize that 'a lot' to me is really nothing to him but he is nice. So we talk about books, publishers and just about everything to do with writing. Last year when he read the first two chapters of his book 'Death Warmed Over' I was there. When he talked about it on Facebook, I responded. Well long story short he gave me a ARC copy of it over the summer. Super cool and the book is hilarious. You should read it for yourself and see. So when my spouse and I get some time on Friday to go to the vendors for about an hour we head to Mr. Anderson's table to get some books. He sees me, comes around the table and hugs me. In public. Like I'm someone he likes. My face was so red. It was and is very flattering and awesome. Then when we went to his reading, as per normal, he hugged me again. I still blush just remembering it. So Mr. Anderson is awesome and nice and one of my authors.

The other author I met this past week-end was Robin Hobb. She was on a writing panel and when the panel ended I walked to tell her how much I enjoyed her novels over the years. She, my spouse and I end up having a 20 minute conversation, where she gave writing advice and we helped her with Dragon*Con. Because if you have not been to Dragon*Con then you will get so lost in it all. Dragon*Con is over five hotels and has about 60,000 people on average. So she was a little lost but nothing serious and we told her where to find what she was looking for. Her reading was good too but she only had one chapter to read so the last 30 minutes of the panel was Q&A. Not bad for her first Dragon*Con. I really hope that she comes again next year.

The publishers panels of course were great but the best coming soon panel really is the YA Lit. That is because the panelist give a hand-out with all titles, the publishers, when and if it is a series the other names of the books to everyone there. It is run by four librarians from the Atlanta area and is always great. There are some really good stuff coming out this year just to warn you. Dragon*Con was wonderful and I wish that I could go to it again this week-end but I'll live for the next year until that most magical time of the year comes again. Thanks for reading and see you next week!