It's About Character

Thought for the day: 

 “The difference between the right and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug.”

~ Mark Twain

A gift for my writer friends. Writers’ Digest sends me e-newsletters all the time with links to articles. Some are good and some are not worth much time. I think the following two links are very good. Enjoy!

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/7-simple-ways-to-make-a-good-story-great?et_mid=563087&rid=3028165

http://www.writersdigest.com/tip-of-the-day/writing-a-mystery-novel-creating-a-villain-5-ways-to-justify-a-crime?et_mid=563087&rid=3028165

The WINNER of the copy of Seeing Cinderella from my last posting is Carolyn Pile. I will be getting this to you right away, Carolyn. Congratulations!

I’d like to talk about character today. This is prompted by a couple of middle-grade books I reviewed recently for the Sacramento Book Review. As Donald Maass says in his instructive book, Writing the Breakout Novel, “Most of us do not for very long tolerate people who make us feel frustrated, sad, hopeless or depressed ― not in life, not in books.” Well, that is exactly what I experienced in these two books – the most obnoxious, unlikable main characters I have encountered in a long time, characters who made me feel frustrated most of the time I was reading the books. Honestly, if I hadn’t agreed to review the books, I’m not sure I would have finished them. The stories were not compelling enough to overcome the unpleasantness of the main characters.

I remember hearing at a workshop that writers need to create characters readers will want to cheer for. The main characters in both books were bratty, selfish, and downright mean-spirited nearly the whole way through. I found myself not only cheering for the other side, if you will, but saying out loud more than once, “Are you kidding me?” I wanted someone to come in from the sidelines and straighten those girls out.

Both these books came from large, reputable publishers. This is the kind of mistake I’m not too surprised to see in a self-published book by an anxious new author or from an extremely inexperienced writer, but I can’t imagine how this got past an editor at a big house. For one of the authors, it is her debut novel, but for the other, it is her seventh published book! I won’t be spending any of my time on her other books.

So what is it we can do as writers to build characters who make readers want to get their pom-poms out and jump out and down. According to Donald Maass, “It just requires identifying what is extraordinary in people who are otherwise ordinary.” This, of course, is not nearly as easy as it sounds. Unless we are writing fantasy or science fiction, we want our characters to be believable, which means they need to be fairly ordinary and very human. But I also believe most people have extraordinariness within them, and that is what we need to mine to build characters for whom our readers will want to cheer. I wish I had a good answer to offer here about how to do that, but I don’t. I can only tell you what I do. I try to look for the vulnerability in my character. That will lead me to what gives the character the best chance to become extraordinary by overcoming something that is frightening and difficult for him or her. And that’s where I think the writers of the middle-grade books I read last week missed the mark. They didn’t have characters who overcame anything difficult. Heck, they couldn’t even overcome their own brattiness and selfishness. They never would have even tried. The characters were just plain ordinary. So, writer friends, take a close look at your main characters and make sure the voices you hear in your head are cheering!

I’m not giving away a book this week. I didn’t read anything I want to pass along. Isn’t that sad? You will fare better next week. I have a very funny book to review and pass along. But please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.

Seeing Cinderella -- A Review and Giveaway

Thought for the day:  

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revis­ing a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” ~ Stephen King

A gift for my writer friends. Great reminders for manuscript revision : http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/2012/06/devils-in-detail-at-least-when-it-comes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fkidlit+%28Adventures+in+Children%27s+Publishing%29  from author Susan Sipal

The WINNER of the autographed copy of What She Left Behind from my last posting is Jennifer Rumberger. It pays to link my post somewhere for extra entries. Jennifer did and she won! I will be sending that out to you right away, Jennifer. Congratulations! By the way, Jennifer is also a children's author and has a great blog. You can check that out by clicking HERE.

Since today is Father’s Day and I have some family things to do, I’m going to simply post my review for a wonderful middle-grade book I read recently while wearing my hat as a reviewer for the Sacramento Book Review. I was happy to get my hands on Seeing Cinderella by Jenny Lundquist after reading a little about the concept. Sometimes I will read about what I think is a terrific concept for a book and be terribly disappointed by the book itself. Not in this case. Seeing Cinderella delivers. Here is my review from the Sacramento Book Review.

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Callie will be starting middle school tomorrow, and now she has to get glasses! She is given temporary hideous, black-rimmed glasses. Everyone will make fun of her. It’s bad enough she has frizzy hair and freckles. The first day of school doesn’t go well when she finds she is stuck sharing a locker with a Goth girl. When Callie tries her new glasses, she finds she can see people’s thoughts. This is pretty helpful in math class, since she can read the correct answers in the teacher’s thoughts, but other times it’s not always fun to know what people think. When Callie’s best friend, Ellen, starts to pull away and seems to be making a new best friend, Callie is really unhappy with what she sees in other people’s thoughts. Callie is offered the lead in the school play but asks the teacher to give it to Ellen. Then Ellen decides she likes Scott, and Callie has liked him forever!

“Sometimes I really hated wearing the glasses around Mom. A lot of days I felt like she didn’t even see me. Even if she was looking right at me, she was too busy thinking about my dad to really see me. If Mom hated him so much (right now, anyway) and I reminded her of him, then how did she feel about me?”

Jenny Lundquist

Jenny Lundquist has written a gem of a middle-grade novel that examines so many problems faced by kids in that difficult stage of life. Girls especially will love the story, characters, and situations, all of which ring true.

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If you haven’t seen this issue of the Sacramento Book Review, you can click HERE and be magically taken to it. It’s a HUGE issue this time with a large section of reviews written by kids along with the usual reviews of all kinds of books. There’s something for everyone. By the way, the cover review, which is well worth your time, is written by my friend, critique partner, and regular blog reader Elizabeth Varadan. So give it a look.

If you would like to receive a gently-read copy of Seeing Cinderella, just leave a comment on this post, and I will put your name in a drawing. If you would like to have your name in the hat more than once, post a link on Facebook or on your blog, and let me know. I will put your name in once for each. That was lucky for Jennifer Rumberger! But please leave a comment no matter what. I’d love to hear from you. Remember, if you have trouble leaving a comment, click on the title of the post and it will give you just this post with a comments section on the bottom. Also, if you haven’t signed up by email, please do. Just look in the upper right-hand corner of this page, pop your email address in, and you will receive an email each time I put up a new post. Your information will not be shared with anyone.