In our continuing quest to write 750 words per day for a month, today we will look at unlikeable main characters.

Which One is Unlovable? The Eye of the Beholder

Donald Maass, in How to Write the Breakout Novel, says to make this type character self-aware. They know what they are doing is wrong, they acknowledge it. They take the sting out of the behavior by telling the reader they understand it is unacceptable. Nevertheless, they must do it. And of course, you’ll then add in the reasons why this behavior is reasonable.

The date jerk was dumped when he was 13 and has never gotten over it.
The guy in anguish is grieving over the loss of his family to a drunk driver. The guy who hurts puppies–oh, that’s a hard one! How WOULD you justify that? Oh, isn’t that the story, OF MICE AND MEN?

A second way to turn a jerk into a lovable character is to have someone demonstrate that they do indeed love him or her. Scarlett O’Hara is jealous, conniving and a drama queen. But the family’s nanny still loves her. Because the nanny loves her, we feel more tender toward Scarlett.

Today, write about an unlovable character.

• They must say, do and think awful things.
• Then, soften the character by having someone do a loving act toward them.
• Soften the character farther by having him or her acknowledge the errors of his or her ways.

Think like a writer: make me want to read about that unlovable character.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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I am trying to keep up with my friend, Charlie, who has ridden his bike over 25 miles a day for over 3000 consecutive days. I want to write 750 words a day and I’m using 750words.com to keep track of everything. The point of this exercise is to make sure I am Thinking Like a Writer, doing my scales, keeping up the practice needed to be a great writer.

For today’s creative writing prompt, look for an object around your house, something you can pick up and hold. It might be a camera, a needle and thread, a baseball glove, a salt shaker, a frying pan, a hair dryer, a favorite book–anything.

Now, put that object in the hands of your character and write. Be sure to use lots of sensory details, what you see, hear, taste, touch, feel. If you need to, stop and make a list of those details first. Put the character in motion with that object in his/her hand and see what happens.

It might precipitate a flurry of action, perhaps cooking a favorite meal. It might evoke a poignant memory. It might be the grounding for a scene you couldn’t make work before.

Post a comment–what happened when you gave your character a solid object?

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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I’m on a 4 day streak, after messing up a 36 day streak of writing daily on 750words.com. Sigh. Why did I mess up? Too many family issues going on.

If you’re writing 750 words daily, too, part of the goal is to learn to think like a writer. Character relationships are important to establish, but the relationships must be natural. In order for that to happen, you must not put too much on top of the text. In other words, you must have subtext.

Subtext is the real topic of discussion, whatever is going on in the relationship.
For example, a couple might be making apple pie together, peeling apples, mixing up and rolling out pie crust, popping it in the oven. Their dialogue might be:

This green apple is sour.
That’s why I got half green, half red.
It’s too sour.
Then add sugar?
Yes. Sometimes you need to sweeten things up a bit.

Straightforward, talking about apple pie. But the subtext could vary. Maybe they had a fight that morning and when one says “sour” they really are talking about the fight. When the other offers to add sugar, maybe it’s a subtle apology.

This green apple is sour. She hesitated, waiting for him to speak.
That’s why I got half green, half red.
It’s too sour.
He took the knife from her hand and turned her around.
Then add sugar? He bent to kiss her.
Afterward, she said, Yes. Sometimes you need to sweeten things up a bit.

The text is still talking about making apple pie, but the subtext is the couple making up after a fight.

What if it is two brothers?

His mouth puckered: This apple is sour.
Tight lipped, his brother said, That’s why I got half green, half red.
He shook his head and dropped the apple in the trash: It’s too sour.
His brother pulled it out again and slammed it onto the counter and glared.
Quickly now, hoping to avert the anger, he stuttered, Th-th-then add sugar?
Yes. His brother’s eyes gleamed red and he rolled up his sleeves and flexed his fist. Sometimes you need to sweeten things up a bit.

You get the idea. It’s not the dialogue, per se, that carries the weight of a relationship. Sometimes, it’s the subtext. Often that is in the dialogue itself, but often it is in the beats or actions, thoughts and emotions responding to the dialogue. Think like a writer: what is really going on in a relationship?

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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This month, I am trying to Think Like a Writer and write 750 words a day, practicing my writing, much like a musician plays scales daily.


When you introduce a character, do you say something like this?
John Doe, age 37, trotted down the street.

The question is how old is the character and how does the reader KNOW the character’s age?

Today, write about 5 characters, that’s about 125 words for each character. Make the characters ages 5, 15, 25, 55 and 85. The reader should know the ages simply by the description. It might be physically how they look, how they move, something they say, or where they are found on a Saturday night.

The cliche is wrinkled skin and gray hair, of course, But we will go beyond the cliches, won’t we? Because we are thinking like writers!

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Book Trailer: Archived Video and Purchased Music

Today, I’m officially unveiling a new book trailer for Prairie Storms, my nonfiction picture book.

I’ve done tons of research for the past two years ago and wrote The BookTrailer Manual, which will be totally revised in time for the 13th annual SCBWI Winter conference on January 27, where I’ll be speaking at the pre-conference Marketing Intensive on the topic of book trailers. So, check back in at www.booktrailermanual.com about then or sign up for the newsletter at the site to get notification of when it is available.

I created this trailer myself. The old film comes from public domain video that I found at archive.org. When I saw the ice skating bison, I knew it could be an interesting video, so I looked for something humorous to go with it. Research says that humor is the most often shared content on videos, so I’m searching for funny things. For the music, I bought the track at istockphoto.com for about $5. NEVER use copyrighted music; besides the obvious reasons why, I just saw that YouTube can recognize some instances of copyrighted music use and they have permission from the copyright holder to insert ads on videos that use their music. So, you may get unwanted ads when you do this.

I use SonyVegas HD software. There are tons of free software packages out there, including free ones that come on every computer (iMovie or Windows Movie Maker) and those from YouTube partners at www.youtube.com/create. But I like the Vegas program because it has great tutorials, I can burn a DVD and thus show the trailers at conferences, and it has more flexibility than many of the free programs; for example, it records my voice when I need to do voice overs.

When I want to shoot my own video, I use the Kodak Zi8 camera because it is light weight and mostly because it has an external microphone jack, the only small camera like this to have that option. I just plug in a cheap lavalier microphone (clips onto your shirt) and record that way and it has good sound quality. I like the Zi8′s HD quality, too.

To upload, you create a YouTube Channel and basically follow instructions. For the Vegas software, I make sure the video is edited as I want and then it’s a simple matter of clicking the option that I want to upload to YouTube. It then creates the video in a format optimized for YouTube, accesses my channel and uploads it. Once uploaded, I can log into YouTube to edit, annotate, fill in descriptions, etc. as needed. Most software has a similar option, so you don’t have to worry about the technical specs of YouTube–they all assume you want to upload to YouTube and make sure it is easy.

You can also do something as simple as use your iPhone’s video and upload that. It can be as simple or complex as you want. I guess what I emphasize is that with some basic experience, you can quickly get up to speed on creating the video files. But it’s the ideas that will grab people and make them want to share your video. Rarely does a simple rehash of your story’s plot line get many views. The YouTube audience wants entertainment. The manual has 14 types of videos and more suggestions on combinations of text, sound track and images.

The Bison v. Woman Skating Competition

This new video is an example of a YouTube Aesthetic Book Trailer , an informal, humorous video that only addresses the content of the book tangentially, but nevertheless, creates interest. The humor is meant to be shared! I chose this aesthetic, instead of the Movie Trailer Aesthetic or the PowerPoint Aesthetic, because I believe it has more potential for drawing in viewers on YouTube.

Please watch the video. Enjoy, laugh. And pass it along–I need your help to get lots of eyes on this!

If you can’t see this video, click here. *|YouTube:oRle8t3dHLs|*

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

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In today’s installation of Think Like a Writer, we’ll look at creating a certain mood for your story, novel, or picture book.

Writers know that readers want a certain experience and part of that is creating emotion or feeling. In other words, we need to create a setting that has a certain mood.

How to do that? Creating a mood is fairly simple, if you start with the basic idea of sensory details. Now, the writer’s eye kicks in as you select details. Once again, think about your story and what sensory details your character would be experiencing. What do they See, Hear, Touch, Taste, Feel?

But this time, you want to select details that support your mood. For example, if you want a scary beach, the sky is dark, brooding; the waves crash so loudly that you can’t hear the gulls; the cold wind grounds all seabirds and cuts through your flimsy sweater; the wind blasts your face and you can’t get away from the taste of salt; you smell nothing but the wool scarf wrapped around your face.

If you want a happy beach, you choose different details; soft wind ruffles your hair, sunglasses slide down the sweat on your nose, the smell of sunscreen brings back memories of that time on the beach in Jamaica, the mojita tastes perfectly minty, and the sea is a glassy swell.

Writers notice sensory details. Then, they choose the right details to create a mood.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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The Think Like a Writer series continues here with an exhortation to continue thinking in sensory details, the basic exercise of any writer. Today, think about how a person moves as a way to characterize him or her.

Action and Metaphors of Action

She is as lithe as a jaguar.

That simile evokes a certain type of grace and perhaps, stealth, in the movement of a woman. Today, watch everyone around you and record their movement in words. Use strong action verbs. Not walk. Instead, think about stumble, stagger, dance, pirouette, stroll, amble, etc.

And, hardest for me, is to think in terms of metaphors of some type. But metaphors can be some of the most evocative of descriptions.

Here are a couple videos to watch. How would you describe this beginning waltzer?

If you can’t see the video, click here. *|YouTube:l1wPywALl5U|*

Contrast that with these 8-year-old dancers in a competition. You can describe the overall FEEL of the dancer, or take a ten second section and try to describe IN DETAIL exactly how he moves.

If you can’t see the video, click here. *|YouTube:uUPSQYmZqZs|*

Contrast the above with these Tango Soloist.

If you can’t see the video, click here. *|YouTube:C8WkA1ja2-w|*

After writing about each video, read your work over. What does the DESCRIPTION say about your character? How does it make this person come to life in a way that could not be done with interior thought?

750words.com Features

If you are using 750words.com, you can see interesting stats about your writing. At the end of the day’s writing, click the green word count at the bottom and look around the stats about what you just wrote. Pay particular attention to whether you are using lots of visual, auditory or tactile senses. Try to vary your writing to include as many senses as possible.

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Character Emotions MUST Spill Out into Big Actions

Characters, even supporting characters, should be bigger than life. No flat characters. Fiction demands round, “fleshed-out” characters. I’m working on a revision and I know this. Yet, when a friend read my revision, her response was that I needed big actions for my characters.

In the revision, I had noticed that the supporting character (Father) didn’t have much reaction to the main character (Laurel). I revised, adding in actions. But the actions were small: fist clenched, raising eyebrow, turning away.

Nothing wrong with those actions if Matt Damon was doing them on the big screen. There, the small actions would mean more. But think of him as Bourne and you’ll remember the BIG actions.

Revise for Emotions that Spill Out into Action

Revised: now, Father picks up a blanket and shakes it, snapping it up and down. He throws it onto a bed and when it falls off, he wads it up and throws it at the wall. It’s not the huge actions of an action-thriller, but in the context of the current scene, these are big actions. (Make sure you keep everything relative and in context!)

Even supporting characters need big actions. So, why didn’t I use them before? I think it’s because I’m a very restrained person myself. I keep a tight rein on emotions, not letting them spill out into big actions. That means for my characters, I need to push them to build emotions so strong that they MUST spill over into big actions.

And yes, the revision is much stronger. My early readers report that the Father is starting to come alive. Hello, Dad!

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Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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How Does Your Character Change?

You know your character must change somehow over the course of your novel. But how? And more than that, how do you sync the changes with the external plot? The middle of a novel can suffer from the dreaded “sagging middle” and it’s mainly because you don’t have a firm handle on the character’s inner arc and how it meshes with external events.

I’ve found three approaches to the inner arc, each trying to laying out how the character changes. While these overlap a lot, there are differences in how the emotional changes are approached.

Hero’s Journey: Quest for Inner Change

In the Hero’s Journey, laid out so well in Christopher Vogler’s book, The Writer’s Journey, a character receives a Call to Adventure that takes him/her out of the normal and ordinary world into a world where they must quest for something. One of the key moments in this paradigm is the Inmost Cave where the character faces his deepest fears.

Melanie as an Example

So, we’ve got Melanie who wants more than anything else to get her mother’s approval, but can’t because her mom’s a chef and Melanie can’t cook worth a flip.

In the Hero’s Journey, Melanie might get a Call to Adventure: a challenge to create the world’s largest hot fudge sundae. Her darkest moment will come when she realizes Mom think’s she’s real goof-up and she’s not up to the task. Of course, she wants to give up, but somehow manages to rally (perhaps, recruiting friends to help, learning to make a sundae, etc.) and create something that makes Mom proud.

Iron Sharpens Iron – Friendships

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17
In this paradigm, two characters cross paths in Act 1 and usually hate each other, but Act 2 throws them into a situation where they must act together. Here, the characters’ strengths and weaknesses work to create change. It’s an up and down battle of learning to trust each other and ultimately find some sort of love, whether it’s platonic, romantic or maternal. Key moments are the midpoint when they totally lose faith in one another and a re-commitment to each other as they move from Act 2 to Act 3. Act 1 and 3 focus on the external story, while Act 2 follows how the friendship affects the characters.
For more on this paradigm, read, Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot by Peter Dunne.

Back to Melanie:

Melanie agrees to participate in the Biggest Sundae Ever contest, but as the contest starts she’s assigned a dunce to work with, Phillip RunnyNose. They clash immediately and have different ideas on how to create the required masterpiece: Melanie wants total creative control, while Phillip wants to just take pictures of the masterpiece. During their practice run–about the middle of act 2–Phillip leaves the ice cream out to soften up, but it melts, ruining the practice sundae. Of course, they fight and demand new partners, but that’s denied. Finally, they find that Melanie is great at building the base of the sundae, but Phillip is better at decorating it (characters have changed, because they accept different roles: Melanie does the basic work, Phillip the artistic/creative work– but they are better together than alone.) They go into Act 3 still unsure of each other’s roles, but committed to trying to create that Great Sundae in the sky and eventually Melanie earns her mother’s approval.

Flawed Way of Coping

Jeff Gerke, in Plot versus Character, describes a different way of dealing with the inner narrative arc. For him, the main character has developed a coping mechanism for dealing with a situation and it’s flawed, inadequate. The change that comes through the course of the novel exposes that coping mechanism as flawed and insists that the MC find a new way of dealing with things. It’s a journey from dysfunctional to functional (or at least some improvement in the way of functioning.)

Melanie as Dysfunctional

Melanie agrees to participate in the Greatest Sundae Contest in order to impress her mother, who runs a bakery that is slowing going out of business because of lack of customers. Mel practices once and gets 100 scoops one on top of each other, then stops to take pictures of the project, but it falls apart just as she snaps her pictures. Mom is furious at the mess in her bakery, but Mel’s pictures are interesting and catch the attention of the newspaper, who publish them, resulting in more business.
When Mel tries again, her masterpiece again falls apart when she starts to take pictures; Mom is even more furious; this time the pics get picked up by a state magazine, resulting in even more business.
Mel persists. A key moment comes though, when she realizes she likes the photography process and decides to do more of it, moving into Act 3. She creates the masterpiece, but this time takes pictures of the entire process from start to–inevitably–collapse. (of course, you’ll add lots of conflict: icing on the camera’s lens; dead battery; etc.) By now, though, Mom is excited by the pictures and realizes she’s got a goldmine in advertising revenue. I’m proud of your photography, she tells Mel. Will you photograph me while I decorate a cake and we’ll use it in advertising.
In short, Mel tried to impress Mom with her skill in creating a sundae, when what really impressed Mom was her photography. She’s replaces an inadequate way of coping (impress Mom with her cooking) with an adequate one (impress Mom with her photography).

Comparing the Paradigms for Character Change

Each paradigm comes with different requirements and different key moments that your plot must provide.

Required Characters

• Main Character Alone: In the Hero’s Journey, it’s a lonely quest where the main character changes him/herself. Yes, there are supporting characters, but they are secondary to the internal arc.
• Friends: The Friendship arc requires two people who appear to be polar opposites, but eventually change each other.
• Either: In the Dysfunctional arc, you can feature another character, or it can be against a situation or event.

Key moments:

• Fears. Hero’s Journey requires an Inmost Cave, the moment when the character faces his/her worst fears and comes out changed.
• Difficult Relationship. The Friends arc requires a blow-up in a relationship, with some compelling reason to later recommit to that relationship.
• Coping. The Dysfunctional arc has that moment when the dysfunctional coping crosses paths with the functional coping and one takes precedence over the other.

What I like best about these paradigms is that they give me a way to navigate the difficult Act 2.

What other types of character arcs are there? Probably several. Do you have a favorite way of thinking about the character arc? Do you naturally think in terms of one or another? I’m still trying to think about this whole topic and would love a discussion.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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We all know that a character must grow throughout the course of a novel. But how do they grow and how do you Show-Don’t-Tell that growth?

It helps to know the beginning and ending points. And often, I like going straight for the end to see where I’m aiming. Let’s say that a person needs to decide to become a doctor. The opening scene is going to entice them somehow: they react to a medical emergency and do a good job.

Great. But something compelling–internally–also needs to keep them away from the medical profession. It can’t be just outside factors such as, my parents don’t want me to be a doctor. If this is the internal arc, it’s got to be something else.

For example, it might be that I want to be a great novelist instead. That was Michael Crichton’s dilemma: he went to medical school and paid for it by writing novels.

What readers want is to experience with the character the internal struggle: art v. medicine. Entertain v. heal.

Once you know the conflict that must take place, then you must devise intermediate steps. The enticement to heal v. enticement to develop your artistic skills can take several forms. IF you want the character to say YES to the medical field, then s/he needs to be firmly committed to the artistic field and fighting against every encounter with the urge to heal. S/he will only give into that urge when the situation demands it: perhaps, dear ol’ Dad is sick and the character must help heal him. (Or course, our character can’t do it entirely alone, since s/he is untrained, but s/he can do something to stave off an infection, give first aid, etc. until real help arrives.)

Once you know those intermediate steps, then you can go back and make each decision extremely painful for your character by playing with the plot.

It’s not easy to see this progression sometimes; but it’s essential.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win