Fleshing Out Your Story by Betsy Ashton

Every time I speak to book clubs, I hear the same question: where do you get your ideas? It usually comes halfway through the talk and before the reading. I don't have a stock answer, so I'm going to walk you through how I built a character for a new series.

Back in grad school when dirt was young and dinosaurs were slowly fading away, one of my friends got into trouble with her family when she started dating a guy named Sa-Li Ma.

Hmm, great name. I filed it away at a time when I never thought I'd write one book, let alone plan out a series. Fast forward to now.

I decide to set a novel in Roanoke, VA. I want a stranger in town, someone who will stand out and not fade easily into the local population. I want him to have a prominent position in law enforcement. And I want him to be called Sa-Li Ma.

I have a name. It's a Chinese name. What does this skeleton of a character look like? Well, he's tall because his ancestors come from an area in China where most were horsemen. Why horsemen? Because "ma" in Chinese is horse. He has black hair and eyes, is muscular in a lean sort of way. His face is a land of planes, not at all round.

Good, this name now has a body and a hint of a profession. Let's make him a DEA agent leading a multi-jurisdictional task force charged with slowing or stopping the opioid epidemic sweeping through many southern states. It's an important job, prominent, dangerous.

His age? Ah, he has to be around forty-five. Not much older. Is he married? Here comes a chance for character development and conflict. His wife is dead when the series opens, an FBI agent killed in the line of duty a month before he shows up in town. Does he have children? One. A daughter aged five.

So, where are we? We have a widower in a dangerous job with a princess for a daughter. What opportunities to humanize the tough guy when he has a tea party for her birthday, plays knight-in-shining-armor, and reads her to sleep at night. He needs someone to take care of the little girl, whom we will call Maggie Rose (named after a fellow writer who lost her battle with cancer a few years back). Enter his sister, who has no name right now. Having a Chinese woman living in his house opens the way for misunderstandings about her role in the family.

With this, we have a protagonist who can carry a single novel or multiple novels. His first challenge will be...

Oooh, that would be telling.

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences and Uncharted Territory, A Mad Max Mystery. She has a new short story, "Midnight in the Church of the Holy Grape," in 50 Shades of Cabernet. Her works have appeared in several anthologies and on NPR.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back by Alison Henderson

Sound the trumpets! Ring the bells! I finally finished the first draft of the first three chapters (approximately 16%) of my new book. I've been terminally distracted the past few months, and sitting down to write has been like volunteering for a root canal. I've found dozens of other things to fill my time.

Another part of the problem has been my process. I'm a plotter by nature, so the idea of leaping into the creative unknown terrifies me. To beat back the paralysis of fear, I start every book with fairly detailed character profiles and a chapter-by-chapter basic outline. The outline isn't too detailed--just a paragraph for every chapter. It's mainly to prove to myself that I have enough story for an entire book. My books are all about the same length (82K-85K words), so I plan for 20 chapters of 20 double-spaced pages each. Some chapters may end up a bit shorter and some a bit longer, and I might end up with one fewer or one more, but that's the basic structure. 

My process is similar to that of writers who use note cards, except I put the outline in a single document I later manipulate at will. I usually have several plot points in mind, along with a rough idea of where they fall in the story, so I begin with those, assigning them to a chapter. This process continues until I've used up my initial ideas. That always leaves a few holes. For example, I'll bop right along for the first four or five chapters, then have a blank until Chapter Nine, when I know there has to be a turning point. If I don't already know what that is, I figure it out. Then the same thing happens again for a few chapters in the second half until the three or four chapters at the end. 

As I write, more ideas come to me, and I insert them into the outline where I think they should go, knowing I can always move them later. During the course of writing the book, some ideas will expand, taking up more space than I'd originally expected, and some will be discarded. After six books, I trust myself to ultimately fill all the blank chapter headings in the outline, but those blanks still make me nervous at the beginning.

One reason this book has been slower to get off the ground than others is that, despite my preliminary profiles, I had to get to know my characters as they began speaking and interacting with each other. My heroine in Child's Play is a newly-minted PhD in Child Psychology who had made brief appearances in the first two books in the series, so I thought I knew her. However, a visit to my daughter last month and a couple of days spent around her friends who are PhD students gave me new insights into their deeper feelings and the things they worry about. When I got home, I had to stop and go back to the beginning of my manuscript to correct and strengthen my heroine. The upside was I found I'd written some stuff I really liked. The downside was it took an extra week. Fortunately, I don't have and editor or contract breathing down my neck, so however long this book takes is how long it takes. It's more important that I get it right. 

Of course, after I devoted more time and space to proper character development, I realized I had shortchanged the suspense plot. Time to go back and plant a few clues. After all, it's always something!

Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com 

Where did that character come from?

As I've noted before, I usually try to get a good idea of my characters before I start to write. I like to know some of their background, their history, any quirks and oddities lurking in their fictional closets.

The other day I was working on my current manuscript and I was working on a Snip Scene: this is a scene I know I'll use at some point in the ms, I'm just not exactly sure where or when. The heroine and hero are talking and the lights go out. The lights should not go out. Bad guys are coming.

The hero goes to his desk and takes out a gun. The heroine asks if he has a backup. I gave her some knowledge of firearms, so this is not unusual. Then she proceeds to talk through an escape plan that's really pretty darn good. He says, "You're not a typical governess." And she says [wait for it], "No, I've done quite a bit of security work."

Well, damn -- that's the first time I heard about it! Suddenly a whole new realm of possibilities opened for me with this woman. Maybe that explains why she did so-and-so in the past; maybe that's why she reacted that way to a previous scene. I knew the events of her past, but now I know the why of them.

Did my unconscious mind know that this was going to come out of the blue like that?

This has totally changed the plot line (in a good way, I might add) and I am having fun with this 'new' character in my book. I really can't wait to see what happens next.

What I Learned from a First Kiss by Alison Henderson

Not my first kiss. That kiss taught me thirteen-year-old boys have no idea what they’re doing. I hope that boy has learned a thing of two in the intervening decades, but that’s another story. Or maybe not.

No, I’m talking about the hero and heroine in my current WIP, Boiling Point. As I’ve complained before, these two have given me fits from the beginning. My heroine has been breezy and confident on the surface, hiding only her qualms about her qualifications for her current job. She had refused to divulge, even to me, her romantic history. All I could do was keep writing and hope she would spill the beans when the time came.

My hero was even worse. I knew his sister thought he was a putz when it came to knowing what women want, but how many sisters are truly familiar with their brothers’ intimate relationships? I knew he was scarred by an undercover police operation gone wrong, but that’s all. Nothing about any former wives or lovers. And he’s so reticent, I feared he would never tell me.

All that changed with their first kiss.

When he took her in his arms and their lips touched for the first time, I expected the usual fireworks but no real surprises. Wrong! My heroine caught me completely off-guard. Her first reaction wasn’t lust; it was surprise and relief. She had expected fear and panic, a sense of suffocation. I had no idea where that came from. Suddenly, as I continued to write, she shared her secret with me. She had been assaulted in the past—not raped, but physically overwhelmed and terrified. It explained so much—her previous choice of a military career, her use of witty sarcasm as a weapon, and especially her determination to hide it from me.

An even more amazing revelation occurred when I switched to the hero’s point of view in the next scene. I had been worrying about the source of conflict between these two. They were both working toward the same objective. As soon as they revealed this to each other, what was left to keep them apart? Finally, the hero told me. In his former job as a detective, he’d been involved a clandestine relationship with his female partner. At a critical moment during the pursuit of a drug dealer, he’d failed to shoot out of worry for the safety of his partner, and an innocent civilian had been killed. The resulting guilt had led to their break-up, and his leaving the force. He swore never to let emotion affect his work again. He hasn’t told the heroine yet, but at least I know!

I’ve never had characters keep secrets from me like this before. I’ve also never had them bare their souls so suddenly. And all because of one little kiss.

Alison

www.alisonhenderson.com

If Vladimir Putin Married Mother Teresa by Alison Henderson

Most of you are familiar with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I'd venture a guess that you know your type and perhaps those of your loved ones, too. The test, based on the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, was devised by Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, beginning in the 1940's. It is now a standard personality type indicator, used in everything from career counseling to Internet quizzes. If you haven't done it yet, just Google "Myers Briggs" and take one of free online tests. They might not be as accurate and detailed as a complete evaluation by a trained professional, but they can be impressively accurate.

Out of curiosity, OG and I recently took one of the more detailed on-line quizzes. He got what he always gets - INTJ. Mine was a bit of a surprise. I though I knew my type, based on a career book OG had bought several years ago. It turned out I was just fooling myself. I had answered a number of questions the way I presented myself to the work world, not the way I truly am inside. Removing that bias and looking deeper, I discovered I am an ISFJ - much more the real me. 

After the test there was a list of famous people who had the same personality type. OG and I discovered our union is the equivalent of Vladimir Putin marrying Mother Teresa. Really. That explains a lot. It also didn't come as a big surprise to many of our friends and family. What surprised me is how we've made such glaring incompatibility work for thirty-two years. Must be my saintly nature. LOL

Interesting, you say, but what does this have to do with writing? I've used the Myers Briggs personality types for many years to create characters. I start with one character - usually the heroine - and write down everything I know about her. Then I try to match her with one of the sixteen personality types. That gives me a head start creating the hero. 

I've never been a big believer in opposites attracting - not complete opposites, anyway. I try to give my couples at least one or two similar character traits so they'll have something in common. Two opposite traits create plenty of opportunity for conflict. Trust me. Just look at me and OG. You can't get much more opposite than Putin and Mother Teresa, and we have two traits in common.

Using the MBTI personality types also helps flesh out characters. If you're wondering what your hero or heroine would do or feel in a particular situation, re-read their personality type info for a clue. You might worry that using "types" will turn your characters into flat stereotypes, but I've found the opposite to be true. People, and fictional characters, are much more than four personality characteristics, but these categories are broad enough to encompass the infinite variety of humanity. For me, typing helps keep characters consistent and realistic. 

Have you tried this method? What are your favorite tips for creating vibrant characters?

Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
http://alisonhenderson.blogspot.com 

He's Not That Into You by Betsy Ashton

I'm thinking about the male characters I write. Some are strong. Some are weak. All, until now, are secondary characters.

In my Mad Max series. the main character has a boyfriend who is strong, funny and loving. Her son-in-law could be better drawn. If I had a chance to rewrite book one of the series, I'd flesh out the SIL better. I gave him short shrift. He gets better exposure in the second book in the series. From a shadow provider for his family in book one to a co-parent with his mother-in-law in book two, he grows and develops. I'm now comfortable more with him.

I have a work in progress with a female main character. All but one of the male characters are insignificant until they end up dead. What? They end up dead? Yes. The main character is a woman who is also a serial killer. She's complex. She's narcissistic, sociopathic and at times psychopathic. She is always interesting, according to my beta readers and critique group. Did I mention I'm writing in first person singular? Yes, from inside the mind of a conflicted serial killer. I'm finding it a tremendous challenge and worthy of a shout when I get a chapter balanced between conflict, coldness and elation.

For the past few weeks, one voice is growing inside my head. It's a he. You read that right, a he. Maybe the early male characters weren't into me enough to take charge. This one is. He is a single parent with a young daughter and a sister who helps raise her. He's all about the outdoors and team sports. His daughter is into fairies and tea parties. He's an alpha male; she's a girly girl.

He's a stranger in a strange land, in that he's transferred from where he grew up to a different city in a different state. He can't blend in, because he looks different. He's in law enforcement with a position of authority, but his team distrusts him due to his outsider-ness. He has to prove himself worthy of leading them.

His name has to say something about me, though. It sounds female. Letters are often addressed to him as "Dear Ms. ..." Am I just not that into male characters that I have to give them female names? Thoughts?

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The second book in the series, Uncharted Territory, will be released in June 2015. She lives for words and writing.

Facing Fears in Fiction by Alison Henderson

This month we're talking about what scares us most. What about our characters? What scares them most, and how do we deal with it in our stories?

Fear is a basic component of the human experience and one we need to consider when developing and challenging our characters. A few years ago I attended a workshop by best-selling author and story consultant Michael Hauge. One of the questions he insisted we ask about our characters was what do they fear most. If you know the answer to that question you can use it as an integral element of the conflict of your story. Does your heroine fear abandonment? Is your hero claustrophobic? Why? How can you use their fears to help them grow?

In my latest book, Unwritten Rules, my heroine Madelyn Li left the FBI in part because of a terrifying near-drowning incident. Her fear caused her to lose confidence in herself, as well as question her colleagues' confidence in her. In a major turning point in the story, one of the villains pushes Madelyn off a ship into San Francisco Bay, bringing her face-to-face with her fear of before she's fully ready to confront and deal with it. Later, in the climax scene, she is forced to choose whether or not to dive into Lake Michigan to try to save the same villain. This time she's ready. 

Here's the first scene:

Shoes in hand, she picked her way down the steps. A waiter balancing a tray loaded with empty glasses approached, heading toward the galley, so she turned sideways and pressed up against the outside rail to let him pass. She’d only taken a couple of steps when glassware clattered behind her. She started, dropping her shoes and purse. Before she could turn to investigate, a heavy blow struck her from behind, launching her into the deck railing. The metal bit into her stomach as she frantically tried to grasp it, but momentum propelled her over the side.

She barely had time to breathe, much less scream, before she hit the water and plunged beneath the inky surface. Needles of pain shot through her limbs as the cold sucked the heat from her body. Her eyes were open, but she couldn’t see. She hung suspended in impenetrable blackness, dazed and disoriented. Her lungs burned from an urgent need for oxygen.

Fear, ugly and familiar, pushed its way through the fog surrounding her brain. She’d been in this situation before and barely survived. This time she wouldn’t be so lucky. Patrick was in Chicago. No team of agents raced to her rescue. No one even knew she was gone. She was on her own.

Panic gripped her. There was no air. Tendrils of deepening cold squeezed her chest like a giant octopus as she drifted downward.

Then instinct took over. With one powerful kick, she exploded upward. Her head broke the surface, and she gasped.

As she sucked in more oxygen, the fog cleared. She registered the searing cold, the glowing lights of the ship above her, and the salt of the sea on her lips. Her arms and legs stroked in rhythm to keep her head above water, bobbing with the waves.

The yacht was steadily pulling away from her. She waved one frantic arm and called out, but the drone of the engines drowned out her puny shouts.

How soon would Carter notice her absence? Ten minutes? Twenty?

Lights twinkled on the distant shore. She’d never make it to land. A wave slapped her in the face, forcing water into her nose and mouth. She choked and sputtered.

And here's an excerpt from the second scene:

Madelyn hesitated at the edge of the pier, staring at the spot where Laura had gone in, watching for a telltale stream of bubbles. At the Academy, Laura had been a strong swimmer, but what if she’d hit her head? She knew she should dive in and pull the woman out, but could she make herself do it? Could she force herself back into the same cold, black water that had nearly taken her life?

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. No, no, no! She refused to be a victim again. Ever. She’d had no choice when Laura pushed her overboard, but she had a choice now.

       Before fear could stop her, Madelyn dove into the lake. 

Madelyn is no longer the same person she was at the beginning of the story. She's grown and changed, and that's what we want.