Halfway Through Your Novel? Time to Revise, Revise, Revise

I'm approximately halfway through the manuscript for my next Marina Martindale novel, The Deception. My two leading characters have, at long last, consummated their relationship and I've developed a temporary case of writer's block since I haven't quite figured out what curve balls to throw their way. In the meantime, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to go back and review and revise my earlier chapters.

A funny thing happens while you write novels. Even if you start with a specific plan in mind, new ideas will come along as you put pen to paper, (or words to screen.) Your characters will also start to develop and take on lives of their own. Oftentimes this will result in having to go back and make some revisions in your earlier chapters. Don't fret. It's all perfectly normal. In fact, one author recently told me that she always goes back and completely rewrites the beginnings of her stories.

In my experience I've found that my stories are living, breathing things. They mature and develop as I write, and they are constantly changing. Sometimes that great scene in an earlier chapter might not work so well later on because one of my characters ended up evolving in different way. In this case, my leading lady thought that I was making her look too much like a loose woman in some of the earlier chapters. She wanted me to go back and restate the fact that she really is a good person. She just happened to get caught up in a bad situation, forcing her to do something that she really didn't want to do in order to keep a roof over her head. Now that I've gone back and clarified that fact the later parts of the story read better. It's all about going with the flow.

My tip for the day.

GM (aka Marina Martindale)

You Know You've Created a Good Villain When...

Got a call the other day from a lady who is interested in doing the final proof-reading for my latest novel, The Reunion.  She wanted to see a sample, so I sent the first three chapters to her.  When she called to go over it with me, one of the first things she said was, "That Ryan is a real S.O.B."

The Ryan she's referring to is a character named Ryan Knight.  Ryan is the first of many villains who appear throughout the story.  I'll admit, I had fun when I created Ryan.  He was inspired by an old boyfriend who was extremely moody, along with my ex-husband, a good friend's ex-husband, and every bad date I ever had.  With a cocktail like that you know you're going to have a good villain. 

So my soon-to-be proofreader tells me that she printed out the pages, and was going over them in the laundry room at her apartment complex.  She says she actually started yelling and cursing at Ryan, and then she laughed when she said she noticed some of the other neighbors in the laundry room were giving her strange looks.  I had to laugh as well.  This tells me that the character I created is three-dimensional, believable, and, most importantly, makes an emotional impact on the reader.  Hopefully, the rest of the cast will have turned out as well.

In the meantime, remember that a good villain is essential to create the conflict that drives your plot lines, and real people in your life whom you have had conflicts with can be good inspirations.  Just be sure not to make any of your characters, good or bad, a clone of any real person.  Be creative.  Give your villains a unique look and personality, and, most importantly, have fun while you're creating them.


I will keep you posted on updates for The Reunion.  I hope to have it available on Kindle by Christmas, and the printed version is scheduled for release sometime in March.

Enjoy.

GM

aka Marina Martindale

Quitting While You're Ahead

Sometimes as a writer I sometimes have to make decisions that may not always be popular with my readers, and I've just made one of them.  I have decided not to write anymore books in the Luke and Jenny series.

At one time I had considered writing five Luke and Jenny books, and number four was going to be about the Lost Dutchman's Mine.  I started it about a year, maybe a year and a half ago, and got about four chapters written before I hit a brick wall.  While the lore of the Lost Dutchman is certainly intriguing, there just isn't that much historical data out there.  Most of what we think we know is hearsay at best, and there just wasn't enough material available for me to put together a 40,000 word novelette. Then there is the creative aspect to what I do.  The fictional account of the two modern day kids on their summer vacation was concluded at the end of Riding with the James Gang, and there is such a thing as overwriting it.  If any of you have ever read the Dune series by Frank Herbert you know what I mean.  Dune, the first book, was outstanding, and the sequel wasn't bad.  However, halfway through the third book the story starting getting over the top, and it got so bad that I couldn't even finish it.  So, rather than ruin the characters for my readers, I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Yes, I will continue writing.  I'm finishing up  manuscript for a new novel, but it's a different genre, and written for adult readers.  Luke and Jenny will remain in print, and there are Kindle versions of all three as well. The trilogy will be out there as long as their is an interest, but Luke and Jenny's adventures are done. 

GM

How to Create an Interesting Villain for Your Stories

It seems like I spend so much time thinking about who the good guys are when I write my fiction that I sometimes forget that bad guy needs love too, so to speak.  Since plot lines revolve around conflict there has to be a source behind that conflict, and that would be the antagonist, more commonly known as the villain.

There are different approaches to creating a good villain.  One way is to have him or her truly evil and completely irredeemable, sort of like a Count Dracula.  Your readers will hate him and root for the good guys to wipe him out.  That would be a the sort of villain you can kill off at the end of the story, and your readers will leave feeling relieved and satisfied.

A more complex, and interesting, approach would be to create a, "conflicted" villain.  Instead of a purely evil Count Dracula, you could create a villain more like a Barnabas Collins, the reluctant vampire of Dark Shadows fame.  Barnabas had been a good guy until the vampire curse was placed upon him, and once that happened he was left despising what he had become.  He both hates, and deeply regrets, all the things he's had to do along the way in order to survive.  Thus he becomes a "hero/villain;" an antagonist whom the audience could root for, because they too wanted to see him cured of his affliction and end up with the girl, be it Maggie, Vicki, or his true love, Josette.  In the interim, they sure get to see him wreak a lot of havoc.

Some storytellers like to take chances by having their protagonist, or hero, go bad.  That can be a tricky approach.  If you're going to attempt it you need to have a character with plenty of redeeming qualities, otherwise your readers won't be able to make a connection and they will not root for him or her.  By the end of the story he or she will have to renounce all the bad things they had done earlier, and as well as be willing to do whatever has to done to make up for the sins of the past. If not, your readers will not be satisfied with the ending, assuming they stayed with your story until the end.  

Anther way to conclude your story would be to end a tragedy with tragedy, especially if your hero/villain did some really bad things in the past that he or she really can't walk away from.  At the very end of the Star Wars saga Darth Vader does renounce the Emperor and turns away from the dark side of the force, but in so doing he has to sacrifice his own life in order to save Luke.  It certainly made for a dramatic, and satisfying, end of the conflict.

So there you have it.  With a little imagination, and a few character quirks, you can create develop interesting and memorable villains who can keep your readers engaged.  And that's what good storytelling is all about.

GM

"Fan" Fiction and Copyrighted Characters--Treading on Thin Ice

I had an interesting chat with one of the other authors at the recent Wild Wild Western Convention.   He was telling me about some writer who apparently got into a some serious trouble with Paramount over some "fan fiction" he had written about Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.  The story went that the writer had written a very adult Star Trek story, and Paramount had taken issue with the way their copyrighted characters had been used.

I remember when I was a teenager, Star Trek fan fiction was very popular, and, as I seem to recall, one of the reasons why Star Trek conventions started up in the first place was so the fans, or "Trekkies," as they called themselves at the time, could share their fan stories.  Of course, back then times were different.  Authors wrote their fan fiction in conventional paper notebooks, so very few people probably ever read them.  Traditional publishing, be it a book or magazine, was the only option at that time, so permission would have had to been obtained from the copyright holder before any fan fiction could be published.  There was no Internet, no blogs, no self publishing, and no e-books. 

Times have indeed changed, so it's probably very tempting for the amateur writer of today to write his or her own Star Trek story in a blog or to post it on a fan forum.  And while their motive may be one of sincerely paying homage to their favorite television show, their devotion could, potentially, get them into some very serious legal hot water.  While I'm not an attorney and not purporting to be giving legal advice, it's pretty much common knowledge that the legal rights to any artistic creation, including works of fiction, belong to the person who created it, or to a third party who may have purchased the rights from the original creator, and that would include rights to the characters as well as to the story.

Most of us who write fiction probably model our characters on people we know, or perhaps we base them on other fictional characters.  Either way we do it, our characters should be very loosely modeled.  For instance, the other day a friend and I were discussing the Steve McGarrett character on Hawaii Five-O.  She mentioned that the original Jack Lord version of the character was a "Joe Friday" type, while the new interpretation of Steve McGarrett is much more original.  I don't know about other writers, but I would really hate it if someone called one of my characters a "Joe Friday," type. 

Regardless of whether your character is modeled on someone you know, or inspired by a favorite fiction character, make sure they have plenty of other characteristics to make them unique.  If your inspiration is Captain Kirk, give your character a different age, background, physical description, or even change the race, ethnicity or gender.  And above all else, be sure he, or she, has a different name.  But if you really have your heart set on writing a Star Trek story, or using other copyrighted characters, make sure you get permission first.  Even if you're not writing your story for monetary gain, it could still be considered copyright infringement.

My tip for the day,

GM

How to Name the Characters in Your Stories

I listen to Coast to Coast AM, and one of the guests last night was an expert on names who helps parents pick the best name for their children.  It was a fascinating discussion on how the names parents choose will effect a child for life.

As a fiction writer I have the sometimes daunting task of choosing the names for the characters in my stories.  I think about what that character's role in the story will be, and then I more often than not pick the first name that pops into my head.  Now, after listening to last night's Coast to Coast AM, I know a lot of subconscious forces must come into play as I do this.

I remember once reading an article somewhere that said that children with more generic names, like Nancy or Bill, tend to be happier and more well adjusted people than people with unusual names, such as Asa or Prudence.  Makes sense.  Kids can be cruel.  It's really easy to pick on the kid on the playground with the weird name, so obviously that would have a lifetime effect.

It's interesting too how certain names create certain images in our minds.  For example, to me the name "Mike" conjures up ideas of the nice guy in the office who's friendly and easy going and gets along with everybody, while the name "Julie" sounds like a beautiful, demure girl who's too shy to notice when men find her attractive.  So if I was going to write a romance story, I might be inclined to write about shy Julie and nice guy Mike who's trying to win her over, but then bad guy Asa appears on the scene.  He tries to thwart Mike's efforts while his intentions for Julie are less then honorable.  See how much fun this can be.

My advice for naming your characters is to keep in mind their roles in the story and think about what kind of images or ideas come to mind with different names.  Also try to avoid using names of people you already know, particularly the names of family members, spouses, ex-spouses, or close friends.  They may or may not be flattered.   They may feel exploited. 

My tip for the day.

GM

If You're Looking for Books About the Occult You'll Have to Look Elsewhere

This past weekend I was signing my books at the Wild Western Festival in Glendale, Arizona.  It was a nice, family-friendly Old West event, and a lot of families stopped by my table to say hello.  One person, however, was a bit unnerving.

She was looking for a book suitable for a pastor's daughter.  My Luke and Jenny books are indeed family-friendly, and along with teaching young readers about history, they also teach lessons about morality and doing the right thing.  However this woman decided that they were "occult" books because some of the characters are ghosts, so she refused to buy them.  I'm surprised she didn't tell me I was going to burn in Hell for writing them.

Let's set the record straight here and now.  The Luke and Jenny books do not, in any fashion whatsoever, endorse witchcraft, the occult, or devil worshiping.  The ghost characters in the books are the catalysts who take the children back in time, and they act as guides to help teach the youngsters about the life and times they lived in.  Hey, I do living history presentations, and that's what I do with my historic personas.  Gee, do you think this could be a coincidence?  I think so.

I've been careful not to endorse any particular faith, religion or sect in my books because I want readers of all different faiths and religions, including Christians, to read and enjoy the books.  They are meant to teach history and good old-fashioned morals and values.  If some want to be closed minded that is their loss, however there are other good Christians out there who have read and appreciated my books. 

So if you're looking for a book to teach you're kids about the occult you'll have to look elsewhere.  Occult teachings are not included in the Luke and Jenny books.

GM

The WWII Housewife is Alive and Well

The other night I had the pleasure of driving up to Chandler, (a suburb of Phoenix) to perform my living history presentation, "Anna Ferguson, WWII Housewife & Defense Worker."  This was for a quilting group studying WWII history.  Performing "Anna" again was like reconnecting with an old, long lost friend.

I originally developed her for The Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe.  She even got her name from two of the people I knew at the museum.  One of the museum's galleries, Views From the Home Front, chronicles Arizona's contribution to the WWII home front, and the contributions of those who stayed behind and fought "The War Back Home."  This composite character was created to augment that gallery.  She represents the typical wife and mother of that time.  "Anna" also incorporates some of my personal family history with her anecdotal stories.   She was inspired in a lot of ways by mother, and the stories she used to tell around the family dinner table while I was growing up.  "Anna" was also the inspiration for my first book, Anna's Kitchen, a WWII ration cookbook.  She was a special friend indeed.

The WWII Housewife & Defense worker was officially launched in January, 2001, and for a number of years "Anna" visited schools, seniors, and other groups.  Then the reality of current economic times caught up with her, and she became a casualty of years of school budget cuts.  Sadly, I rarely get the opportunity to perform her anymore.  


Anna still has a story to tell -- that of patriotism, sacrifice, and the ability of a generation of Americans to unite and do the job that had to be done to lead our nation to victory during a dark and uncertain time in our not-too-distant past.  Hopefully I'll get to tell her story again--someday.

GM

Artemus Gordon - The Ideal Man

I've been watching the old 60s TV show The Wild Wild West on DVD. I've been a fan of this TV (quasi) western ever since I was a kid. My favorite character was Artemus Gordon, played by the late Ross Martin. And even though Artemus was the sidekick, it seems that over the years just about every Wild Wild West fan I've met agrees that Artemus was their favorite too.

Part of the reason is because Artemus was the real brains on the show. Sure, Jim West was supposed to be the hero, but Artemus was the one who invented many of the gadgets Jim used, and he was always there to back Jim up.

But I think the real reason why Artemus appealed more to women than Jim did was because, in a lot of ways, Artemus Gordon represented the ideal man. He was good looking but not overly handsome. He was a sharp dresser. He was witty, articulate and funny. He was smart, if not brilliant, but he was never arrogant or conceited, (like Jim). Ross Martin made Artemus warm and fuzzy. And he was dependable. You could always count on Arte being there when the chips were down. Now what woman wouldn't want a guy like that? For that matter, what woman wouldn't want a guy with even half those traits? That said, how come Jim always ended up with the girl?

Oh well, that's one advantage I have in being an author. I may not meet a real-life Artemus Gordon, but I can always create a character like him in one of my books.

GM