Is Your Fiction Literary?

At Intrigue Publishing we handle pretty specific genres of fiction: crime fiction in all its forms, Young Adult (or you might say New Adult) and romance. We’re clear in our submission guidelines that we do not publish literary fiction. And yet, we regularly receive submissions that fall into that category. I’ve decided that maybe different writers mean different things when they discuss those categories. “There’s a murder in my story” does not automatically mean it’s right for us. After all, To Kill A Mockingbird is definitely crime fiction, but it is also clearly literary work.

So, how do you know if your books is actually literary fiction? Here are three or four clues to look for.

Literary fiction tends to deal with broad ideas and big events. If you’re working more with the ideals an themes than day-to-day action, you’re probably working on something too literary for us. Sweeping social commentary about life in the Middle East? Probably literary. A story about a specific romance or an action-packed story about events impacting a couple of individuals trying to escape a terrorist attack? That’s more likely in our wheelhouse.

Pacing is also a clear giveaway. Genre fiction moves quickly from one plot point to the next. The entire story tends to take place over a fairly short period of time. So if your story takes place over generations, and you have a hard time pinning down the plot points, it may be too literary for us. Big romance may be an exception to this rule, but we also don’t want books over 100,000 words so they’d be cut out anyway.

The biggest difference may be that genre fiction is more plot driven, as opposed to character driven. A literary novel could be all about ideas, philosophies and themes. Genre novels are driven by the events.  So ask yourself, how does the reader learn about my main characters? Is it through introspection and inner monologue? If so, you’re building a literary novel. If you learn about these people by watching what they do, the actions they take, the decisions they make, then you’re in the genre track.

So create strong characters, but force them into interesting, challenging events and keep the pace up! Then you’re ready to submit to Intrigue.

Writing Holiday

For many of us, writing is a discipline. We get up every day with a clear plan to write for a specified amount of time, or to add a predetermined number of words to our work in progress. And we have a sense that to make any kind of progress, it needs to happen every day of our lives.

But what happens at the time of the most popular holidays. In my house Christmas is a time when family members abandon their normal daily routines entirely and gather together for group activities. This could mean board games, watching specific movies together, or entertaining other people’s kids. Shopping, cleaning, and cooking take up more time than usual. So how do we get our writing done.

I’m unwilling to abandon my writing impulses just because of family gatherings. But I have choose to rearrange my plans for two weeks every year. Instead of crafting new paragraphs I designate this time for gathering the raw material from which I will craft the paragraphs of the future.

Great fiction needs great characters. If you’re surrounded by my family, and probably yours, you’re drowning in them. So I try to be in it, but not of it, if you know what I mean. I observe their behavior, their reactions to situations, and silently try to describe them in words. How would I tell someone of this facial expression. I know he looks disappointed / joyful / grateful / bored… but what words would I use to describe that look in my book. Plus, I register how people dress, hairstyles, accents, all the attributes good characters will have in my next novel.

I’m also capturing dialog. Different people use phrases and sentence structures I would not, but everyone understands them. I get to hear people using baby talk to the grandbabies, and speaking in a very different way to the oldest relatives.

And drama? There’s no end to it, and I get to see how those tense situations get started, even among loved ones, and how they get resolved. People in my fiction will find themselves in these situations too, and now I can express it realistically.

So yes, I’m still working at being a writer, even in the chaos of Christmas morning. By mentally recording these experiences, I improve my craft, even if I’m not actively writing.

The Fall and Rise of Independent Bookstores

When Amazon.com  appeared in the mid 1990s I thought it would be the salvation of all authors. Bookstores in my area had little use for local authors and like the major publishers, seemed to only be chasing the blockbusters. In fact bookstores and big publishers seemed to be presenting a united front against local, unique or mid-list authors. Amazon appeared to be a force to level the playing field.

By the turn of the century, I feared that Amazon would be the death of all bookstores. People loved the new way to shop for books, prices were great, and ebooks were available for 99 cents or free. I watched many of the local independent bookstores that wouldn’t carry my books go under. According to the American Booksellers Association (ABA) the number of independent bookstores in the US dropped 43% from 1995 to 2000.

Then, in 2011, the number 2 book chain, Borders, collapsed, and number one, Barnes and Noble, appeared to be on the ropes. I feared the death of retail book selling.

But boy was I wrong. Right about that time, independent bookstores began to grow. Between 2009 and 2015 the store numbers in the US grew from 1651 to 2227, about 35%. Today the ABA reports 2407 locations, making it more like 50% growth since 2009.

One read of those statistics could be that Amazon wasn’t the danger at all, but rather that giants like Borders and Barnes and Noble were crushing the smaller brick and mortar stores.  Maybe browsers who can’t find a store in the mall and don’t live near one of the few remaining B & N superstores have rediscovered smaller stores.

OR, maybe the owners of all those new stores have a different attitude. Independent bookstores I know are working to stress their ties to the local community, emphasizing how they are NOT like Barnes and Noble.

In that vein, they are curating their collections the way libraries do, offering personalized service to their customers by carrying the books their local readers want to read. Instead of just pushing the New York Times bestsellers, they are developing relationships with their customers so they can recommend what those individuals might want, particularly new writers customers haven’t found on their own.

I also notice that the “buy something or move on” attitude I used to see has been replaced with a “hang out here” mentality. To my delight they are hosting local author book signings. Some are also hosting book clubs and lectures, game nights, and reading groups for different ages. They are more of a public gathering place, replacing the bowling alley or skating rink some of us older guys remember as the place to meet our peeps.

Regardless of whether either of my theories is right, independent bookstores are back and that’s good news for up-and-coming writers, as well as for small presses like Intrigue Publishing who want to get their books on store shelves. So we have one thing to celebrate as this year winds up. The next challenge is to find the best way to take advantage of this good news in the new year.

Marketing as you Write

When I sit down to write a novel my mind is on plot structure, character development, pacing and dialog. Still, it would be smart to consider marketing even as we create our stories. It can help a lot after we finish a manuscript. 

For example, most stories can have a seasonal setting. For example, suppose your story is set in the Christmas season. Die Hard isn’t a holiday movie by any means, but because of the seasonal setting it gets a viewing boost every year about this time. The same could happen to your novel’s sales. That one might be obvious, but the same applies to a story set on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Valentine’s or even if the action is specifically set in mid-summer. 

What if your significant character is handicapped in some way? Or maybe he or she is dealing with a significant illness like epilepsy or autism? Real life reader dealing with those situations are one specific audience you can target and, if you got it right, they will probably be happy to help you promote your book. Or maybe your heroine is dealing with spousal abuse. You probably had to do a lot of research to get those situations right. It’s reasonable to push your book in April (Sexual Abuse Awareness Month.)  What if you’re writing about a military family. You can tie in to Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day and depending on your characters, perhaps Military Spouse Appreciation Day (its May 10^th.)

And there are any number of minor holidays that you’ve never heard of. Google what you need and you’ll probably find something that relates to your characters. My own private eye protagonist, Hannibal Jones, is a fanatical coffee aficionado. Next year I’m planning a big push connected to International Coffee Day (September 29).  

While you’re at it, think of other ways you could bring your characters to life. There are ideas that aren’t tied to a particular time or date. Is there a wedding in your book? Maybe wedding boards on Pinterest will get some attention. Is there a birth? You could have fun with a gender reveal. Maybe you’d enjoy interviewing some of your characters. Again, Hannibal Jones maintained a blog for a year, and I think that posts written  by him got people involved with the character.  

So stretch your imagination while you’re writing. In the back of your mind, consider what you can set up in the novel that will make promotion easier when the book comes out.

Little Big Press

Aside from being an author, I’m the editorial director of Intrigue Publishing, a small press in Maryland. Unlike bars, restaurants and car dealerships, people in our business make a clear distinction between “large” and “small” presses. It’s an uncomfortable but unavoidable label.

But what do we mean by small press anyway? To some people in the industry, it’s everyone except the “Big Six” publishers.  Actually, they’re the big five now since Penguin Books merged with Random House. Their peers are Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster.

But is that a fair place to draw the line? Kensington Publishing is a family run company, but they put out more than 500 titles a year and have a healthy handful of NY Times bestsellers in their stable. They have 85 employees and are the last remaining independent U.S. publisher of hardcover, trade AND mass market paperback books. Are they a small press?  

By contrast, Intrigue Publishing is a four-person team that subcontracts some of the work of publishing. We have 21 talented authors working with us and are happy to release 6 titles each year. We are proud of the awards our authors have won, but we haven’t published a NY Times Bestseller yet. We aspire to do what the big guys do in order to be a legitimate publishing company, yet we strive to maintain a personal relationship with our writers and be an author friendly house like a small business.

So, running a small press is a one-way path to an identity crisis.

For example, when one of our authors gets ambitious and schedules a few events on their own without telling me, I’m happy for his or her success but I’m also thinking, “Wish I had known so I could set up a social media push. And don’t they know I need to coordinate with my distributor to make sure there are enough books in the right places in time?” In other words, I wish they treated us like partners.

On the other hand, when one of our authors asks for data on where his books have been sent, who has them in stock, and which stores have returned them, I think, “Would he be asking his editors this stuff if he was published by Random House?” In other words, I with they would treat me like a big publisher.

So, yes, an identity crisis, because we really want to be both things: a publisher that acts, and gets treated like, the big boys, while embracing our authors and treating them like individual who can talk to us anytime about anything. And in my heart, I hope I never stop reaching for both ends of that spectrum. Random House/Penguin is not who I want to be.

Although it wouldn’t bother me to be Kensington someday.

Plotter AND Pantser?

The last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the writer’s choice of being a plotter (working from an outline) or a pantser (writing by the seat of your pants.) I should point out that neither of these approaches is an absolute. Right now I’m working on a novel using a kind of a hybrid approach. Yes there’s an outline but it is very rudimentary compared to what I usually do. It’s only nine pages long, and I’m making up scenes as I go to hit the broad strokes, the high points laid out in that bare bones outline.

Full disclosure: that nine pages of outline includes a character list. Even if I don’t know everything that’s going to happen in my story I need to know the players. I would hate to have to stop writing when a character is introduced to figure out who this guy is and how he’s going to behave. I need to know a lot about my characters, way more than I ever tell the reader. The character’s name had to come from someplace, and it says a lot about his background. I suppose if you’re a true pantser you can have people just appear and learn about them as you go, accepting that they may be a bit unpredictable.  

But as I’ve shown you, there are real plusses and minuses to both approaches. And at the end of the day, you have to accomplish certain things no matter what, if your story is to be a success. Which approach suits your style really all depends on what order you do these things in.

Just remember that no matter how you write, it’s not a story without conflict. Regardless of the genre you like to write in, even if you write literary or mainstream fiction, conflict is what makes it worth reading. Conflict drives your story forward. That doesn’t have to mean a fight. Conflict is not violence. But it is the motivation for the protagonist and antagonist and whether you plan out how they’ll oppose each other in advance, it’s the pivotal point that is needed no matter how you approach writing.

Plotter or Pantser - Which is Better

Last week I showed you how the plotter approach and the pantser approach to writing can take an author to the same story. It really all depends on the writer’s process and their comfort zones. The pantser is open to new events the whole time he’s writing. He trusts the characters to lead him down an interesting and exciting path. If they don’t he can throw an obstacle in the hero’s way to make it exciting or just “drop a body” he’s writing a mystery.

But what if the storyline doesn’t lend itself to such an event? What happens when there’s a lull in the proceedings and the author has written himself into a situation where he really doesn’t know what happens next? The characters aren’t pushing in one direction or another and 40 thousand words into a novel he finds that there doesn’t seem to be anything exciting or fun around the corner?

We call this condition writer’s block and it is one of the potential dangers of writing as a pantser. Maybe three chapters back your story took a hard left and now you can see that a right would have led you to a much more satisfying place, plot-wise. You could be permanently stuck. Or you may decide that the only rational course of action is to (gulp) delete the last three chapters and start over writing from there.

As a plotter, I am virtually immune to writers block. My outline is a clearly stated series of scenes, one leading smoothly into the next. When I finish writing one scene I just look at my outline and begin the next one. I know where I’m going and I have a reliable road map to get there.

But characters develop in the writing. The more you say about them the more you know about them. They develop depth and dimension. And you wrote this outline months ago, before you realized that the cop’s wife would be this kind of courageous troublemaker. Back when the secondary villain was pretty much a blank with no real motivations of his own.

So now, 40 thousand words into your novel, a new idea occurs to you. A truly great idea. But an idea that won’t work in the outline as it exists now. And you’re faced with a painful choice. You either carry on with the story you have in mind, knowing it’s not as good as the alternate universe you just thought up, or…. You delete the last three chapters, make that right turn instead of the left, and then build an outline out from there, forward to the big finish you already conceived. The ending won’t change, but the path to get there is quite different.

The point is, there’s no real advantage to one style over the other aside from the writer’s comfort zone. Next week we’ll consider an alternative to being a plotter OR a pantser.

Write Hard - Plotter vs Pantser examples

Last week I introduced two different approaches to writing fiction: plotters (who like an outline) as opposed to pantsers (who write “by the seat of their pants.”)  I thought it might be useful to give an example of how a plotter like me might approach writing a story.

Perhaps we decide that a terrorist has a plan that begins with kidnapping a group of innocent people at a Christmas party. That’s really just a distraction because his real plan is to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from a vault in that building. We decide that a hero will get involved unintentionally. Then we plan each barrier the hero will face in stopping the villain, each bigger than the last, until the hero finally wins. [Yes, I’m writing Die Hard – from a plotter’s approach.] As I build that plotline, I’m deciding what kind of person would conceive of such an audacious plot. And I’m deciding what kind of hero would be both willing and able to thwart him. To an extent the plot tells me who the characters are.

So why be a pantser? Well I think the pantser likes to be surprised by where his narrative takes him. This is a writer who, instead of finding confidence in seeing the entire sequence before he starts writing, perhaps gets bored if he knows all that’s going to happen. He most likely starts with the characters and a situation.

So, imagine I want to write a story about a cop who’s a real cowboy, a wild card on the job who can’t keep his family life together. I want to show how this guy deals with a serious crisis and proves that he is, in fact, a hero at heart. Suppose I have him go to a Christmas party with his estranged wife. But then a bunch of terrorists takes over the building, endangering the still beloved wife. What will he do, how will he deal with this situation. And how will the villain, a worthy opponent, keep him on the edge of failure?

If a pantser wrote this story, he might not have any idea of the villain’s reason for crashing the Christmas party when he starts writing. But the characters tell him there’s more to it than simple hostage taking because this is a very smart bad guy.

So you can see how these two approached to storytelling could have created the same story. But what if the pantser story line doesn't work? Ahhh, that is a story for next week. 

Plotter or Pantser - Two Ways to Tell Your Story

PLOTTER OR PANTSER – TWO WAY TO TELL YOUR STORY

Last weekend I was chatting with a room full of writers about our process. Every writer is different and one way is that some are "plotters" while others are "pantsers." I am a plotter. 

That doesn’t mean i have anything against the pantser community it’s just not the way I usually work. Here in my blog I will compare and contrast those two approaches to writing, not trying to decide if one path is better than the other, but rather to see which might be better for you, and to see the plusses and minuses of each. 

To start we should define our terms. All writers use plots. But when I say “plotter” I mean a person who creates an outline before they begin creating prose. The outline is the sequence of events, the plot of the story they are writing. The outline is in effect the skeleton of the story. Once that is in place and solid, the writer puts the flesh on those bones in the form of written prose and dialog.

What I call a pantser is a writer who figuratively flies by the seat of his pants. This person begins to lay down his prose without knowing all the details of what will happen later on, or maybe not knowing any of what will happen. He is like a driver on a dark road at night. He can only see as far as the headlight beams go, but he trusts that there is more road out there ahead.

So why would you want to be a plotter? Well, are you a builder? I think for those of us who are more comfortable working from an outline the story starts with the events. We like to construct a neat puzzle or a tramatic sequence, one building block sitting neatly on the one before. We begin with a theoretical straight line from here to there, from the beginning to the end of the tale.

Next week we'll look at some examples of how a plotter works as opposed the the way a pantser works out a story. And please feel free to add your comments and questions! 

Starting Anew

My next Hannibal Jones mystery is finished, and our content editor is working it over right now. But I am always writing. So as soon as I sent my Hannibal novel off to the editor I launched into the next project.

I’ve been asked about the next Stark & O’Brien thriller, and there is interest in a sequel to Beyond Blue. Those were obvious choices. But a writer has to follow his muse, and sometimes a character will call to you.

Three years ago, I wrote a short story called “One of Us” for the anthology Insidious Assassins. The protagonist of that story was a Black female professional killer named Skye. In those 5,000 words we didn’t need to learn a great deal about Skye, not even a last name. But while I wrote two other novels this character was calling to me, wanting to explain herself better. Who was she? How had she become a stone-cold assassin? And how could she justify her actions so as not to see herself as a villain?

So, this week, I begin a new novel telling Skye’s story. I have an outline, but it is not nearly as detailed as mine usually are. Writing is moving very slowly because I am learning about Skye as I write. The character is deep, as they all are, but I have not seen the depth yet. What has surfaced is a brother who died of a drug overdose and a mentor who showed her the killing ropes.

Apparently murder-for-hire is a team sport. Just 4,000 words into the story a driver, an accountant and a computer expert have surfaced.  Oh, and Skye turns out to be in therapy. I can see that’s going to be a complex situation, but the assassin has some unresolved issues she needs to address.

So, this book is building more slowly than everything I’ve done in the past, because while I know the general plot, how things will happen and how Skye will react to the events I foresee are still in flux. It’s going to be an interesting ride, which I look forward to sharing with you.

Are Christian Writers Different?

Saturday, I had the pleasure of teaching the basics of fiction at a small but vibrant writers conference. I’ve done it dozens of times before, but I wondered if it would be different this time. This was the Vines and Vessels Christian Writers Conference. Would I have to present differently? Would there be resistance to my messages?

As it turns out, I had a very welcoming and receptive audience. I explained that while I am a writer, and as it happens I am a Christian, I am not a Christian writer. I write to entertain my audience, to thrill them or engage their minds in a good mystery. Many of the people I spoke to Saturday write primarily to deliver a message, to reinforce or clarify biblical teachings.

Still, it has long been my belief that “Christian” is not a genre any more than Young Adult is. Christian writers have a specific audience, people who share certain values and are looking for a style and approach to writing. For example, they don’t want to worry about finding graphic sex, or violence or profanity in their reading. And they want to read about characters who believe as they do, and whose faith leads them to success.

That said, the key points that make for good dialog are the same whether you’re writing a mystery, a thriller, or Christian fiction. And the same applies to constructing a strong plot. One of my students Saturday shared that she wants to re-write King David’s story in a way that will appeal to today’s readers, but she wasn’t sure how to begin. We discussed clearly defining our protagonist and the antagonists in the story, where to start for a good hook, and how to build a story arc. We talked about finding the central conflict, and how to build suspense to keep people reading. By the end of the class everyone saw that the original Bible story followed all the rules I was giving them.

Ultimately every writer has the same desire: to have lots of people read their work. And many of us do have a statement to make through our fiction, be it political, social, or philosophical. Writers of Christian fiction may have some motivations the rest of us don’t, they need to use the same techniques of the craft to reach their audience and keep them reading to the end.

Writing Reviews

As an author I am always hoping my work will be reviewed. But in the meantime, I write them. I review other writers’ books for the Washington Independent Review of Books and for The Big Thrill, the magazine of the International Thriller Writers. Unlike working on my own fiction, reviews are written on deadline. So why do I take time away from working on my next novel to talk about someone else’s?

For one thing, it provides great exposure. Every review I write appears on line with my byline and a short bio. They usually include a link to my web site. Because the reviews are part of a larger magazine they reach a huge audience. It’s one way for a large number of readers to find out about me and my books. It never hurts for your name to be all over internet.

It is also a great networking opportunity. My Washington Independent work puts me in contact with a team of movers and shakers in the DC writer community. My work with the editors of The Big Thrill makes me, de facto, a member of the ITW staff. In both cases, there are big advantages to these people knowing who I am and what I writer.

There is another, more subtle benefit to writing reviews. It forces you to deconstruct a variety of other authors’ work and through that process, learn more about the craft. Reviewing is much more than saying a book is good or bad. Beyond identifying the book’s genre and describing its content, you have to provide context. You have to be able to support your reaction to the book.

A good review explains what the author set out to do with that book and tells us whether or not he or she succeeded. It tells us how this book compares with similar books recently published. It lets us know what a reader can take away from the book. Most importantly, the review tells us whether or not the book is worth reading. Often you will note other issues or topics that SHOULD have been dealt with in the book. This kind of insight ultimately informs my own writing.

So, to get more exposure to reader, to become better known in the writing community, and to improve your own work, I recommend making the connections to start writing reviews. And, Oh, did I mention the free books?

WHAT An Event! The C3 Con 2018

Sunday we put a cap on the 6^th annual Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con and many said it was the best yet. More than 80 writers and avid readers gathered together to talk about the books we love: mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal fiction. We had some pretty impressive keynote speakers in Jamie Freveletti and Keith DeCandido but the event didn’t hang on them alone. And everyone gets a swag bag full of goodies but I don’t think people come for that. So what makes a geat small literary Convention?

I think a feeling of togetherness and community is key. We emphasize this by maintaining a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/452670518248659/ - that is a year-round place for genre fiction writers and their fans & readers to share news, opinions and idea. We support and enlighten one another, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a NY Times bestseller or just trying to get that first book out.

To further promote togetherness, all meals are included in the registration fee. That means almost everyone eats together. There are no assigned seats so fans and avid readers

As one of the organizers I work at showcasing the authors. That means that the two keynote speakers are treated… well not like kings, but maybe like the honored matriarchs or patriarchs of a big family. Each gives a dinner keynote speech and if they’re willing they offer a class to the group. They are on panels with the other writers which further heightens the feeling of community.

We interview our two local guest authors (John DeDakis and Ed Aymer who is pictured with me) in order to highlight their talents but also give them a chance to share their journey, how they got to where they are in their careers. By holding them up as examples we make them feel special.

Of course the core of the event is panels, and all published authors present on them. Best sellers sit beside newbies. In other ways we promote authors as much as we can. Both groups’ books are available for signing and sale at our two book signings. We list all their names and links on the C3 website, and we picture them all in the C3 program book.

To further focus on our writers we get the Baltimore County Public Library’s video team to shoot interviews. Sure, interviews of the big names are good for promotion, but for everyone else it’s a chance to feel like a star, a taste of the big-name life.

The new addition this year was Noir at the Bar, a reading series that takes place all over the world. In this case, ten of the attending authors read short stories, novel excerpts and in one case, a Halloween story set in an epic poem.

We love our little conference, but more, we love the little community that has grown around it. That, more than anything else, is what makes the Con great! Take a look at what we offered this year, and soon more about next year, on our website – www.creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

Is It Finished?

I have completed the draft of my next Hannibal Jones novel, currently titled The Wrong Time. Or at least I think I have. But then, I thought it was finished two weeks ago.

I typed “The End” and declared victory then. The story worked, the characters worked, and after three thorough rewrites I was happy with the prose. I ran spell checks and grammar checks. I sent the book to first readers. Done.

Then I started seeing this scene in the book. It was one of those bridging scenes, like connective tissue, to get the reader from one place in the plot to another. There was movement, there was dialog and the setting was an easy wraparound. But it kept appearing in my mind, playing over and over like a slice of a movie.

Then my brain started changing the scene. Reformatting it. Characters doing and saying different things. Seeing it from different camera angles. I had to accept that my mind was still writing. I was still in that book. But why?

Then I realized that part of the dialog included Hannibal being told something important. And there it was. The scene was wrong because it was lazy. Hannibal was told something he should have seen for himself and, by extension, the reader should have seen.

It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t broken. It just wasn’t as good as it could have been. It was weak. It didn’t flow with the rest of the book. Improvement would mean cutting that scene and writing a new one. That necessitated rewriting the previous scene, leading up to the one being rewritten. It called for reimagining the events that took place that day in three characters lives. It changed their experiences and memories of that day. It rippled through dialog and thoughts expressed later in the book.

So, I’ve done all of that rewriting and rethinking. And now the book is really, truly finished.

I think.

Writing Contests

As the editorial director of Intrigue Publishing I submit our books for various contests. Today I got to send five of our latest releases to the International Thriller Writers for their annual awards. Could one of our novels be chosen as best paperback original or first novel of the year? And what if they are?

                                                                                                                                         

While I believe that one of our books really might be the best thriller of the year, I harbor no illusions that we are likely to beat out the publishing giants who send all their books in as well (unless one year Deaver, Gilstrap, Heather Graham, et al decide to take a year off writing.) However, the judging is blind and there are tons of books to judge so you never know when an unknown might get placed on the list of nominees. I say this from experience: I was one of the paperback judges one year and it is a monumental job! But aside from ego gratification, what does an author get from such contests.

I don’t honestly think readers really care if your book wins an ITW award, or an Edgar award or a Bram Stoker or a Hugo. I don’t think these awards do much for sales – at least not directly.

What they DO nudge is the industry’s opinion of a writer. Winning one of these awards makes publishers, agents and editors view you differently. They make reviewers more likely to comment on your next work. They make book sellers more likely to want to carry your books. So, they do matter.

These awards also give the publisher a boost. A big win like the ITW awards would enhance our brand in the eyes of all those same industry professionals. It says we know how to pick a winner. It shines a positive light on all the rest of our line. We have had books win conference awards (the Love is Murder Lovey, the Deadly Ink best mystery award, etc.,) so now we’re chasing the bigger wins.

Writers should not be misled by awards that require them to pay a fee to be considered. Because entrants are only competing against others who decided to pay that fee, being named “best” has much less value. Industry professionals pay little attention to those contests.

So, authors, get your books up for the important awards, and encourage your publisher to put you on those lists. And give me a comment if you’ve won something and let us know how it has affected your writing career.

One Step Beyond

Last week I posted a number of tips for building suspense, and here’s one more important one: Always be one step ahead of your readers.

As you write you must constantly be asking yourself what your reader is hoping for or wondering about each point in the story. Your job is to give them what they want, when they want it – or maybe a little later than they want it – or to add a twist so you give them more than they bargained for. How do you do that?

1.      As you develop your story, appeal to readers’ fears and phobias. Phobias are irrational fears, so to be afraid of a tarantula is not a phobia, but to be afraid of all spiders is. Most people are afraid of helplessness in the face of danger. Many are afraid of needles, the dark, heights and so on. Think of the things that frighten you most, and you can be sure many of your readers will fear them as well.

2.      Make sure you describe the setting of your story’s climax before you reach that part of the story.  This is necessary to protect your pacing.  In other words, let someone visit it earlier and foreshadow everything you’ll need for readers to picture the scene when the climax arrives. Otherwise you’ll end up stalling out the story to describe the setting, when you should be pushing through to the climax.

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3.       As you build toward the climax, isolate your main character. Remove his tools, escape routes and support system (buddies, mentors, helpers or defenders). This forces him to become self-reliant and makes it easier for you to put him at a disadvantage in his final confrontation with evil.

4.      Make it personal. Don’t just have a person get abducted—let it be the main character’s son. Don’t just let the whole city be in danger—let the protagonist’s grandma live there.

Work all those elements into your story, and you will give your readers a satisfying journey and always be one step ahead of them.

The Promise of Suspense

Last week I told you about creating suspense by promising things that will go wrong. My favorite scenes in the Star Wars movies grow from one inspired bit of dialog: Han Solo looks around and says, “I got a bad feeling about this.” Actually at least 5 different characters say that in the series but only Han Solo says it more than once.

When Scarlett O’Hara swears s he’ll never be hunger again.  Marley tells scrooge he’ll be visited by 3 ghosts. Or in a romance story when a jilted lover says something like, “If I can’t have her nobody will,” That’s promising bad stuff. In the romance, maybe that guy hides in the bushes until his rival shows up. The bad guy pulls his knife. The good guy looks around, looks right at the bush but doesn’t see the bad guy hidden there. He turns his back to the bad guy… Yep! Milk that moment. That’s the suspense.

But make sure that eventually you show us what happens in front of that bush. You have got to keep every promise you make, and the bigger the promise, the bigger the payoff has to be. A huge promise without the fulfillment isn’t suspense—it’s disappointment. That’s why Frodo can’t simply pull off the ring and toss it. And Rocky can’t knock out Apollo Creed with a lucky punch in the third round.

 

Every word in your story is a promise of some sort. If you spend a paragraph describing a woman’s fabulous shoes, those shoes better be vital to the story. The cliché is, if you show me a gun on the mantle in chapter 2, somebody better darned well aim that thing at someone before the books’ over.

Stories sometimes fail because the writers don’t make big enough promises, or they don’t fulfill them.

Another side of the promise concept is, let the characters tell readers their plans. That doesn’t mean give away all the secrets. It means show the reader the character’s agenda. Readers know something will go wrong because they know, on some level, that the story is about conflict. In the romance story I made up with the guy hiding in the bushes, that scene would be stronger if earlier we had heard the good guy tell the girl, “I’ll meet you by the bushes at 6 o’clock!” Now we’re not only worried about him getting stabbed, we also get to worry that she’ll see it, or that she might be the next victim.

I’ll share more on mastering suspense next week. 

Foundations of Suspense

We’ve been talking about creating suspense in your writing the last few weeks. Narrative suspense is built out of four parts: reader empathy, impending danger, escalating tension and reader concern – or as I call it: worry.

We create reader empathy by giving your protagonist a goal or objective or an inner struggle that readers can identify with. The more they empathize the better. Once they care about and identify with a character, readers will be personally invested when they see that character struggling to get what he wants.

We want readers to worry about whether or not the character will succeed.  Readers have to know what the character wants so they know what’s at stake, and they have to know what’s at stake to get engaged in the story. To get readers invested in your story, make it clear what your character desires, what is keeping him from getting it; and what huge, horrible consequences he’ll face if he doesn’t get it.

Suspense builds as danger approaches. Readers experience that worry when a character they care about is in peril. This doesn’t have to be a life-and-death situation. Depending on your genre, the threat may involve the character’s physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual or relational well-being. Whatever your genre, show that something terrible is about to happen—then postpone the resolution. That’s how you sustain suspense.

To get a truly satisfying climax, you need to escalate the tension. Raise the stakes by making the danger more imminent, or more intimate, or more personal or more devastating. So, if the shire is at risk in in the first film the world better be in danger at the end of the trilogy.  If the tension doesn’t escalate, your suspense will fade.

Next – give us more promises and less action. Suspense happens in the stillness of your story, in the gaps between the action sequences, in the moments between the promise of something dreadful and its arrival.

If readers complain that “nothing is happening” in a story, they don’t usually mean no action is happening.  It usually means no promises are being made. Contrary to what you may have heard, reader boredom isn’t solved by adding action – the solution is to add apprehension. Suspense is anticipation; action is the payoff. You don’t increase suspense by adding events, but rather by promising that something will happen. So, don’t ask yourself “what needs to happen?” Ask, “What can I promise will go wrong?”

Next week I’ll give you some concrete examples of how to build suspense.

What Kind of Suspense…?

Last time I told you that suspense is created by posing a question the reader wants answered. Variety is good, so in my own work I use three different kinds of suspense. 

There is “what’s going on here?” suspense. If you watched the tv show Lost, or more recently Colony, you know what that is. You came back every week trying to figure out what the heck was going on. 

There is also “why is this happening?” suspense.  This is what writers mean when they tell you to start the story in the middle. Perhaps your story opens with someone holding a gun in your hero’s face, saying “This is what happens to people who go poking their noses into my business.” Then you have to answer the obvious questions during the action. 

Btw, in my humble opinion, Stephen King is the best novelist alive and, also in my opinion, King writes suspense, not horror. Every Stephen King novel is a master class on how to write the “why is this happening?” style of suspense. If you don’t have time to read one of his giant books, rent the first season of his TV show Under The Dome. You’ll get the idea.

The most common kind of suspense is probably “will the hero accomplish his major goal?” That can take different forms based on the genre you write. In a mystery, where the violence usually takes place before the protagonist is involved, the question may be “who done it?” You maintain suspense there by keeping your villain one step ahead of your detective, and your reader. In a thriller the reader may be anticipating the antagonist accomplishing his goal, so the question is “how can this impending crisis or crime be averted.” The reader might know about dangers the protagonist doesn’t know about. That creates suspense. In a horror story the question may be “will the protagonist survive?” 

So as we write, how do we ratchet up the suspense to keep readers on the edge of their seats? To an extent this depends on characterization and conflict. The first key to creating suspense is to create characters that readers care about, and then put those characters in jeopardy.

Next week we’ll discuss the foundations of narrative suspense, so don’t worry (that’s for the reader to do!)

Keep Them in Suspense

Last week we discussed the importance of a scene list. While you are making that list you have to remember to set things up to create suspense. All readers love drama, as long as it’s not in their own lives. The key to suspense in a short story is to set up a dramatic question.

In a horror story it could be as simple as “will he survive the zombie apocalypse?” In a romance it could be “will she get the man of her dreams?” The point is to make clear that the protagonist’s fate is in doubt. That’s what makes the reader want to know what will happen next. To do this successfully you need to say less not more. Carefully restrict how much information you give the reader. Nothing destroys drama like telling too much too soon.

 Suspense is what keeps people turning the pages, no matter what genre of story it is.  In some genres suspense may be thought of as frustration.  The reader wants to know something, and the writer keep saying, “I’ll tell you in a minute.” By the time that minute is over the story is done.  If you write thrillers or that subgenre we call suspense, the word worry might work better.

 I first learned about suspense when I read the Tarzan novels.  Edgar Rice Burroughs had an interesting technique for holding his readers’ attention.  After the first book every story featured both Tarzan and Jane.  They always took off on some adventure, and they always got separated. So, you might see Tarzan running thru the jungle – he comes face to face with a lion – the lion roars – he pulls his knife.  The lion jumps at him and…

The chapter ends and we’re following Jane.  She’s lost so she climbs a tree.  She finds herself on the limb with a huge snake.  It gets closer.  She’s about to fall out of the tree.  The snake rises, about to strike and…

The chapter ends. We see Tarzan grapple with the lion, but the whole time we’re watching Tarzan, I’m worrying about Jane. At the time I found this kind of thing very frustrating – but fun.  I learned that people like to be frustrated this way.

So, suspense is created by posing a question the reader wants answered. For variety, there are different kinds of suspense. I’ll spell a few of them out next week.