Symbolism Helps Readers Remember Our Characters

 

I think we can all recognize this photo as Michelle Obama at President Joseph Biden's inauguration. I was actually looking for a meme that I had seen on the Internet, with Mrs. Obama wearing this outfit and carrying a Jedi-type laser sword in her hand. Unfortunately, I could not find it. At any rate, I knew that Michelle Obama would be THE person to use as an example of showing symbolism in our characters.

As writers, we paint pictures with words. Our characters come to life through our words. Pretending that we know nothing of her background as a lawyer, mother, wife, or former FLOTUS, what can we see in this literal picture? She is conversant with COVID rules/regulations and follows them. Looking at her hair, we know that she takes care of herself. She is tall, and she stands tall. She can wear clothes that make a statement without having the clothes walk in the door before she does. Her belt buckle makes a subtle fashion statement, as does the length of her coat. This lady personifies power in subtle ways. Taken together, all of these symbols tell us that in a story her character has strength, integrity, and a boatload of self-confidence. And she is wise - she would know the right people.

Symbolism in writing allows us to present a complex picture of an individual character. It can be the small things - the colors they wear, the movies they watch, the style of furniture in their home, the type of food they eat, where they work, or where they went to school. Symbolism can be a theme that runs through a story - my immediate thought as a mystery writer is that this theme can help leave a trail of clues as to what happened, who did it, and why. 

Symbolism can be the thread that holds our stories together!

Happy writing!

(c) January 2021 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.

When Your Characters Take Over

What in the heck do we do when our characters take over the story? (Don't tell me they don't, because they do! LOL) This most often happens to me when I am in the flow, when I allow the story to tell itself. When I go back to reread and edit, sometimes it is as if I am reading it for the first time. I have no clue what I wrote, but it seems to work. This is the good side of my characters taking over the story.

The bad side comes when they stop me from writing, when they insist that their character needs to do something else, be somewhere else, interact differently with the other characters - and they are adament about getting their way! Sometimes I can do what they want, other times I have no clue how to create their version of life.

When I have no clue how to create their version of life, I generally end up going back to the beginning of the story, and editing it to fit the storyline that my characters want. 

Bottom line - we need to honor our characters, who they are, how they act, what makes them tick. If our characters are real, the story will be real ... and will more than likely sell!

(c) October 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author. 

Beginning, Middle, & End

All stories need a beginning, middle, and end. Otherwise, we are wandering around aimlessly, gathering information but not necessarily having the knowhow to put that information together into a cohesive picture. 

So how do we take the story that we carry in our head and make it come alive on paper? We have to create a strong beginning, a middle that developes both the characters and the storyline, and an ending that pulls it all together and leaves the reader wanting to read more.

A strong beginning makes a promise to the reader. I write mysteries - my promise to my readers is that their time will be well spent reading my books, that they will relate to and enjoy the stories, and that they will have a great time intellectually trying to figure out who did what to whom before the end of the story.

The meat of the story is the middle - where characters are developed, clues are dropped (I write mysteries, remember!), conflict rears its ugly head, and the storyline begins taking twists and turns.    

The ending litrally pulls all of the twists and turns togther, and makes sense of them. What you promised your reader is taking form. It is a logical conclusion, in line with both the story, who the protagonist is, and what their beliefs are. 

How do you feel about your story?

(c) September 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

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A Writer's Muse

As a Cappie, I have a somewhat unique sense of humor. So yes, I think the cartoon above is funny! In reality, I think that all writers go through this from time to time. Whatever is getting in our way, we just need to work our way through. We just need to "Write the %&!$@# story!". 

So what exactly is this magical muse that is going to come along and save our butts? Where do we find him/her? And at what cost? Our muse supposedly helps us to be more creative, to put the ultimate spin on things so that our work sells. (That is the point, after all!) One way of looking at our muse is that we are simply connecting with our inner child. I don't know about you, but my inner child needs help from time to time! 

We need to do two things - allow ourselves to be creative enough to come up with amazing plots that have not been worked to death, and characters that our readers can connect with. So what if our characters have a fatal flaw - they are real! Our readers will cheer for them! Then we take all of this bizarre, creative stuff and visit the logical side of our brain so that we can place everything in proper order so that it at least looks like it could actually happen.

By this time we are starting to feel as if we might be developing multiple personalities. As long as no one else realizes this, we are okay. We can pull this all together by recognizing that our creative muse resides in our unconscious - that it can access our dreams, and our hidden memories.  Our muse will appear to us however it wants to - we just need to go with the flow. 

Our muse (our unconscious self) and our critic (our conscious self) have to work together to meld everything into a story that makes sense, has depth (without falling off the edge), and entertains. Above all, to sell, our stories need to entertain.

Never be afraid to allow both your muse and your critic free reign. They will come to an understanding, and you will be putting amazing stories out there!

(c) May 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author. 

How To Get Characters To Interact

You have your plot worked out, and you have defined your characters. The next step is getting your characters to play nice and interact well with each other. The point here is to make sure that they interact in a realistic manner - one that flows, that does not seem forced. How do we do that?

 Look back to how you defined the character - what do they like, what do they dislike, what is important to them. How do they see themselves? Are they leaders or followers, are they educated or blue collar, ar they risk takers, or do they fade into the woodwork? Our characters have to be true to themselves. Readers that can identify with the characters will stay with the story, they will become part of it. And they will look for us to be putting new stories out there.

Characters must be multi-dimensional. A one-dimensional charcter will lose the reader quickly - they are boring, and they really don't have a story to tell - either their own, or the one they are creating with the characters they are interacting with. Each character must also be a  unique individual - a stereotypical portrayal wil also lose the reader, because they will know what the character is going to do before they do it.

The easiest way to get your characters to interact well is to take examples from your own life -  people that you have interacted with, or how you have observed people interacting with each other. Take into account things like body language, and what that says about the person. Build a back-story into your character so that your readers will understand why they are acting as they are. Adding traits that are even a little annoying to the other person creates both humor and tension in a story. Relationships are not static - they change slightly with the events in the story. This reflects the reality of life.

Include lots of details! Who your characters are, why they act as they do, what their fears are, and how the environment plays into the story are very important. Make sure that the dialoge reflects the character correctly. Then there is the internal dialoge - where your characters are basically talking to themselves. Here we see the characters thought process, and their fears and anxieties.   

Characters that interact well with each other, and are backed up by solid minor characters, will write your story for you!

In my next blog, I will be talking about how far we want to develop supporting characters.

(c) June 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission.

Developing A Character

Developing a character - whether it is a main character, or a supporting character, is a process. We want to make them real, and we want the relationships between them to be real. They can relate in all kinds of ways: they can be siblings, co-workers, boss and employee, rivals, partners (business partners, romantic partners, partners in crime), human and pet (I didn't use the term "owner" because it is very quetionable whether we own animals, or they own us!) ... the list goes on! How these relationships will flow depends on the relationship, the environment, and the storyline. Characters should be opinionated, willing to take risks, and clearly be a part of a group dynamic. The storyline can be moved by a bit of ambiguity in a character, as well as the power of long held grudges (business or personal).  

There should be a motive for everything that your characters say and do. Sometimes not revealing the motive until close to the end of the book will allow for some interesting side-trips and false clues - things that spice up your book! 

A book bible will certainly come in handy, because as writer's we need to understand our character's history (and keep it straight), so that our readers don't see one thing on one page, and another thing two chapters later! This holds true for a stand alone book, but even more so if you are writing a series.  Your characters need to show some attitude - and there has to be a reason for it. You need to give your readers a reason for liking your characters - and continuing to purchase your books!  

Things to watch out for when developing your characters: (1) Do not make them one dimensional - this is boring, and they won't seem real to the reader. (2) Imperfections in our characters is what makes them interesting - don't make your character Mr/Ms Perfect! (3) Don't allow your characters to fall into a stereotype - it just isn't interesting when the reader can tell way ahead of time what a character is going to say or do.  (4) Don't try and create the best version of yourself as one of your characters - for one thing, this doesn't exist, and for another thing, yhou may become way too vested in the character.

Characters should be developed in detail, and they should appear to be real people. As you are developing your characters, remember that they need to be realistically based on the history that you have given them. Make your secondary characters just as interesting as your primary characters, as they are either supporting the storyline, or moving it along.

In my next blog, I will be talking about how characters interact.

(c) June 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author. 

Questions To Be Covered By Beta Readers

Before you even get your Beta readers lined up, you might want to think about what questions you want them to respond to. What is important for you to get feedback on? What will help you firm up your book so that it will sell? The following questions cover some areas that you might want to consider. Reword them to fit your tone, and exactly what you want covered. Add questions that might not be here, but that you want covered. Take out questions that do not really interest you.

Storyline:

Does the story engage you? If not, why not?

Does the storyline flow well? If not, why not?

Are there certain sections of the book that drag a bit, or are bogged down? If so, which sections, and why.

Were there enough false clues to make the story interesting? If so, why.

Was it too easy to guess the ending? If so, why.

Was the ending interesting? If not, why not.

Was there enough conflict/tension to keep things moving? If not, why not? 

Characters:

Do the characters show depth? If not, why not?

Do the characters interact well with each other? If not why not?

Are the characters consistent? If not, why not?

Do the characters have enough "back story" that you feel that you know them? If not, why not?

Background:

Were there any discrepencies in the timeline, the environment, or in character detail? If so, where and why specifically.

Was the locale believable? If not, why not.

Did the dialogue flow, and was it intresting? If not, why not.

Were there a signficant amount of grammer, punction, or spelling errors?

Do you feel that this book represents its genre well? If not, why not?

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission.

Where Does Time Go?

Time really has been flying by! I had hoped to put more work into a chapter that I am writing for a book that I am co-authoring, but that is not to be. I realized, albeit a bit late, that I had set a goal last week to write the outline for the Christmas themed novel that I plan to write in September. (That will get done, becuase I need to have it edited before I can put it up on Create Space and Kindle.)  

I have the bones of the book in my head. It will take place all in one night, at a Christmas party. I intend to introduce my main character, and two or three supporting characters, as I have fond hopes that I can turn this into a series. 

I also hope to introduce a bit of the nuance between my characters, how they know each other, and just what they have the power to accomplish.  Cats - as well as a dog or two - will have prominent roles. This will be a vry loose outline, as I am not what coult be considered a "plotter" - one who creates a plot and then sticks to it. I am a "pantser" - someone who writes by the seat of their pants! My work goes with the flow - which is sometimes good and sometimes ... challenging. 

What this series is going to be like has changed drastically over the past two weeks - primarily because how it "could be" flew full blown into my head! I will be introducng the characters,  creating a light tension between certain characters, placing a few false clues, and letting the ending evolve. Well, I know what the ending is, but getting there is where the evolution comes from.

I would like to mention that I have just started writing a monthly newsletter aimed at writers, and am running a contest through the end of August. Anyone who signs up before the end of August will have their names tossed into a hat, with the winner receiving a copy of Barbara Berger's "Find and Follow Your INNER COMPASS". You can sign up for my newsletter here. (Look on the right hand side, under apps.)

(c) August 2017 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written consent of the author.

Writer's Templates

Working with writing templates is really becoming a whole new world for me! I created a Bible for my mystery in it's first incarnation (as a NaNoWriMo effort), and fine tuned it for this incarnation. Starting with my characters, I combined what I was already doing with a free downloadable template that I found on the Internet. One thing that I learned from working with someone else's template is that each of us works differently! I kept what I had of my own, expanded on it, and learned to look at my characters in new ways. Part of this included asking them questions, and then allowing them to answer in their own voice. I changed tghe questions from the Internet template, and dropped those which didn't relate to how I think.

Next in order, I am developing a template for describing buildings - professional (offices, restaurants, bars, churches, etc.) and personal (homes, vacation homes, and properties). I had fun with this one! Some of the categories that I used were:

* Physical location. * Neighboring buildings. * Ease of access. * Quality of atmosphere surrounding building. * Quality of atmosphere within the building. * How the building is decorated. * People associated with the building. * How the building fits into a story. * The dates the building appeared a story. * The people that were associated with the building each time it appeared in a story.

I am sure more categories will be entered into this template, as my intention is to turn the first book into a series. Timeline will be all important, or the author (namely me!), will be in a load of trouble!

(c) August 2012 Bonnie Cehovet

The Planning Stage

I keep saying that I am a "pantser" - that I write by the seat of my pants. And that is very true. But it is also true that I like to have at least a bare bones outline, so that I have a clue where my story is going, and how my characters relate to each other. Without that, they could get into all kinds of trouble! Knowing where I am going (and yes, this can change as I write) creates boundaries for me to work within. They don't stifle me, but they do give me a grid to work within.

If I try and stay within the confines of this grid (which can get very complex!), I have to do less rewriting. It is not at all fun when you realize that your chapters don't hold together ... and that they aren't holding together in a very glaring fashion! Definitely a "How could I have done that!" moment. Hopefully, I have learned from my experiences.

I work with a bare bones outline - but it is an outline. It not only keeps me organized (very important for us Cappies!), but it allows me to revise in a timely manner, without having to look things up, or sit there wondering how I got to where I am in my story. I actually love to do the outlines for my stories - it is a wonderful way for me to get into the creative process. I put down whatever comes to mind, then go back and edit it to bring the elements together, and take out elements that obviously are not going to work. Saves me time, saves me headaches, and my fur kids have a happier mommie!

What can your outline do for you? For a mystery writer like me, it can help establish clear motives. (Readers tend to wander off without finishing a book when things like motives are not clear.) The primary plot and the sub-plots are able to sort themselves out. (The sub plots make the story, IMHO. I just finished reading "Stranger In The Room", by Amanda Kyle Williams, and the sub plots are so finely woven in that the story just flows - one never questions what is going on, or why.)And ... your story stays on track ... no wandering off into its own little world!

One last word on outlines - you can do them however you please! Write them in a file, in traditional outline format. Get out the junior high index cards and work with them. Go high-tech with a spreadsheet (very cool, but not for a non-techie like me!), or use writing software of some type (there are plenty of options out there!).

It doesn't matter how you plan your story ... it just matters THAT you plan it!

(c) July 2012 Bonnie Cehovet

Backstory & Flashbacks

I am in the process of completely reinventing a story that I began several years ago. I started out by fleshing it out, then recognized that tossing the majority of the material out, and beginning anew was the way to go. One of the things that I kept, aside from the major character, was the theme that the basis for the current issues was lodged deeply in a very murky past. Now the issue is - how do I bring the past into the present in a way that it doesn't overwhelm it?

At this point I am researching flashbacks, and how they can be woven into the story. One of the first pieces of information that I read was that they need to be used wisely. The article noted that beginning writers (I still qualify here) tend to bring the backstory in too early, to give too much away too soon. Point taken! When the story is in the past, it can be difficult to move it forward. I need to be careful here for another reason - I intend for this particular mystery to be the first in a series, so I want to leave it very open to movement and characters.

The next piece of information that screamed out at me was that the backstory must be shown, not told. Had I not seen this, I would have jumped in, head first, talking about the past, rather than showing it. Again ... point taken! If we show the past, we take t he reader their and involve them emotionally. They want to read more, which is what we want them to do!

There are many ways in which backstory can be shown. The primary method that I have chosen is recollection - my characters will remember bits and pieces of the story, until it finally becomes a whole, clear picture. I haven't decided if I am going to write full scenes into the recollection. Perhaps once or twice, but not more than that. I may also include letters, journals, diaries, or pictures. Whatever will make the most impact on the story at any given point int he story.

(c) July 2012 Bonnie Cehovet

Writing A Mystery

I am so pleased that after this week I will be able to place my focus on my WIP - my lovely little mystery! I am stopping to think about how I want this process to go - I want to define the process, even though I know it will get fine tuned along the way. I took the first step already - I started the writing. Actually, I started the writing in 2010 for NANOWRIMO. I made several attempts to fine tune what I had written, which lead nowhere. I finally decided to keep (most) of the characters, change the setting, and tweak the plot line.

I am going to write my bible first - thoroughly detailing my characters, their backgrounds, the environment they move in, and how they are inter-connected in the web of their world. Then I am going to outline my plot, and allow the writing to flow!

One thing that I do know - I tend to edit to a small extent as I write. This is not something that holds me back, it is something that allows me to have a nice, clean manuscript in front of my face. Spelling errors checked, punctuation checked - life looking good!

Another important thing to decide before beginning to write is what voice do you want your book in? Who is going to be telling the story, and how are they going to tell it? First person? Third person? Do whatever you are comfortable with. Go back and reread your favorite authors. What voice do they write in? You are not trying to be a mini-me, you just want to sound real, and consistent.

My characters are already part of me - they are pushing my current project so they can get their chops out there! I know they will interact in a manner that is unique to them. I have often found that my writing takes on its own edge - it writes itself. I will have to reign in my characters, rather than trying to flesh them out! They will be the best of the best of all of the people that have moved through my life, or that I have observed along the way. My characters will "have" character, and they will "be" characters!

Some stories never get written because the writers who imagine them never move them from the imaginal world into the real world. Spend time working at your craft, people! Sit down and write! Every day!

Have fun with this! I know that I am going to!

June 2012 Bonnie Cehovet

Writing Believable Characters

This is really a continuation on last weeks blog about creating characters. One thing that we need to see in characters, as well as in the story line, is believability. If a character does not seem believable, even in a fiction story, then you are not going to retain the reader's interest, and you are not going to be able to build your story. if you try to do so, your characters themselves will simply refuse to fit together the way that you want them to.

Start with their name. Names are everything! They reflect our cultural background, our family background, and the times that we were born into. Our name, in a sense, IS who we are. So give your characters names that reflect who they are, and where they came from. If you like their name, but they don't ... change the name! Characters are powerful people! Your characters names need to have a rhythm, a cadence of their own. And it probably is not a good idea to have different characters int he same book with the same name. This ends up somewhere between boring and confusing for the reader. Remember ... both the reader and your character have to be able to accept and relate to the character's name! As I revise my first attempt at a mystery, I decided to start over again on both location and character names. The story line will remain basically the same, but tweaked to remain in the area of possible/plausible.

One thing that I had to remember is that some of the characters from my first book will be carried forward, as I want this to be a series. As the series grows, my characters will grow. To do that, they need a firm foundation, and viable connections to each other. They have to be able to function through varying story lines, which is making me stop and think about what I want them to say and do. My main character I have firmly in mind. I know who she is, how she thinks, how she acts/reacts. The protagonist is another thing. The protagonist in my first story may be my main character ... that seems to work for me. The role of the hero (the person who saves the day) is not relegated to one person in my book. it is a group of friends that function well together. My antagonist - the ultimate "bad guy", is a combination of a single person and the group behind him. The obstacle is not a character, but a belief. it is something that affects all of the characters in some manner. Logic and emotion find their balance in my character's world. The archetype of sidekick for the series I am writing doesn't seem relevant, as the main character works to solve the issues of the story with other people.

Taking all of this into consideration - as well as the story bible that I discussed last week, I feel that I am well on my way to creating a viable story line!

(c) June 2012 Bonnie Cehovet