by

Mary Deal

Selecting a point of view for your stories is the first step in finding your “voice” in writing.

When you begin to write a story, whether a short story or a novel, you first need to know from which point of view (POV) the story will be told. You can always change this once the story is written or just doesn’t work out the way you had intended, but it’s best to plan from the beginning.

You cannot successfully write a story unless you’ve chosen your point of view.

1^st Person POV – The story is told through the mind of one character. 1^st Person is also used when the author is telling a story or nonfiction experience from his or her own POV. When writing this way, what unfolds in the telling can only be what the point of view character perceives. The author cannot provide a point of view from another character’s mind.

2^nd Person POV – The writer speaks directly to another character using “you.” 2^nd Person is the least favored and most difficult point of view to use in fiction. The reader then becomes the protagonist; the hero or heroine. Joyce Carol Oates writes in 2^nd Person.

3^rd Person POV – Stories are usually written through the main character’s POV.  Use 3^rd person to replace the tightness of 1^st and 2^nd Person in a story. 3^rd Person can be broken down into varying styles of points of view. Here are three:

• 3rd Person Limited – This means that the entire story is written from the main character’s POV and everything is told in past tense. The reader gets to know only what the main POV character knows. I find this stimulating because it can hide the obvious and keep the climax a secret till the riveting ending. This is the POV that is easiest to read and is readily accepted by publishers.

• 3^rd Person Omniscient – The narrator takes an all encompassing view of the story action. Many points of view can be utilized. This can be quite an intricate way to write because too much detail needs to be included and may over-complicate the story. A poorly written omniscient story may inadvertently give away the ending thereby deflating a reader’s enjoyment. A well-written story in this POV was And then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

•3^rd Person Multiple – The story is told from several characters’ points of view. This has an effect to heighten drama and action if successful at writing from multiple characters’ points of view. Tony Hillerman’s Coyote Waits is a perfect example here.

No set rule for points of view applies when writing. A writer usually sticks to the POV that feels comfortable.

If you are a beginning writer, try writing several paragraphs, including dialogue, from each POV. You will know immediately what feels right for your way of storytelling.

I suggest you stick with one character’s POV to begin with. Even successful writers risk giving readers whiplash when pinging back and forth between points of view.

Nora Roberts head-hops but does it with such skill the reader barely notices the jumps.

Once you have established your favored POV, get busy writing your story. Your “voice” will develop as you write. “Voice” is your storytelling ability; it identifies your style.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

by

Mary Deal

Tip #1 – Store Your Notes

Usually when I see great writing tips, I have a file set up in Word called – what else? – “Writing Tips.” I copy and paste the advice into my file to refer to when needed. Any handwritten notes I’ve made as reminders also get posted there.

Tip #2 – Be Prepared to Write

Keep writing materials handy no matter where you go. That one item you forgot to write down, and then forgot completely, could have been the one fragment that made your story memorable.

A true writer makes notes everywhere they go. If we’re without a laptop, as I am, we carry note pads and pens. JK Rowling used paper table napkins because she used to sit in her favorite cafe lamenting on her jobless plight – till a shift happened in her mind and she started penning the notes for her first novel.

Tip #3 – Beginnings

Avoid using empty words to start a story. Some empty words are:

There  – refers to a place

They  – refers to people

That -  refers to a thing

It – refers to almost anything

Without first knowing the content your story, we have no idea to what each refers. For example, one person may write:

There were four of them. Without yet knowing the story, ask yourself: Where were they? Who were they? A better way to bring the action forward would be to say, Four of them appeared. Or get directly into the meat of your story and say, Four men dressed in black mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. You can write much more succinctly if you will use descriptive words, and not empty ones to start a story or sentence.

Exceptions are:

The Charles Dickens line: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. I see no way to improve on that – or emulate it.

Also:  It was a dark and stormy night, coined by the Victorian writer, Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Surely, you wouldn’t write: A dark and stormy night had overtaken us. Or would you?

Tip #4 – The First Word of a Story

The first word of the first sentence of the first paragraph under the story title must grab attention. The first sentence must sustain the attention, and on through the first paragraph. If the first word or sentence is boring, or says nothing in particular, the readers’ expectations of a good story are killed.

What if you wrote: It was a quiet town with quiet people. Does that give you any idea at all as to what the story might be about?

You can use the word “the” to begin anywhere, but what follows “the” then becomes the attention grabber.

Here’s an example of starting with “the” from my adventure novel, The Tropics:  The jagged scar on Pablo’s belly wriggled like a snake when he ran.

Here’s the attention grabber from my Egyptian fantasy, The Ka: “Witch!” Randy Osborne said as he strode around the room wearing a contemptible smirk.

And from my thriller, River Bones: Blood-red letters filled the top of the monitor screen: Serial Killer Victim Identified.

Then from my latest thriller, Down to the Needle: “The perp torched himself…”

Start your stories with words and action that pull the reader in.

Tip #5 – Use of the Passive Voice

Passive voice should be used with serious consideration as to how it affects your story.

A bad example: The house was cleaned by someone else. Here, the object of the action is the subject of the sentence.

A good example: Someone else cleaned the house. “Someone else” did the action. They should be the subject of the sentence. Ask yourself who or what is doing that action. They are the subject of the sentence, not the action.

Passive voice can best be used, and sparingly, when writing in first person. Example: I was hit by the car.

Tip #6 – A Rejection for a Comma

My publishing house editor returned my manuscript again after I made most of the changes suggested in the first edit. The editor referred me to the Chicago Manual of Style and told me to get it right.

What’s wrong with this sentence? He mumbled as if confused, tried the knob, grunted and tried again.

The Chicago Manual of style says (Page 173 of the 14^th Edition):

5.57 – In a series consisting of three or more elements, the elements are separated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma is used before the conjunction.

Therefore the corrected sentence is: He mumbled as if confused, tried the knob, grunted, and tried again.

Did you spot the correction? Can you sense the difference as you read it?

In order to avoid rejections, the grammar in your story must conform to the rules if you know a certain publisher adheres to the Chicago Manual of Style.

Tip #7 – Avoid Splitting Infinitives

Be conscious of any form of “to be.” A great example of a split infinitive is “To boldly go where no man…” Everyone knows that line. It just doesn’t sound right to use: “To go boldly where no man…”

Look at these two:

“To be, or not to be.”
“To be, or to not be.”

Though split infinitives are a matter of style, incorrect usage at the wrong time can ruin a good story.

Tip #8 – Edit and Revise

We MUST edit and revise as many times as necessary to get it right. Otherwise, what could we expect but another rejection? Knowing if a story is right comes with experience of editing our own work as if it were someone else’s.

Once writers think their stories are finished and polished, even though they may have had a great edit, they refuse to go through another rewrite. Then, I ask, what’s the sense of having the piece edited? I edited my entire “Ka” novel manuscript – 885 manuscript pages (410 book pages) – a MINIMUM of 30 times over four years and stopped counting after that. Point is, the story had to be right before anyone other than my personal editors saw it. All of that happened before the publisher’s editor saw it. Then there were two more edits following that person’s sage advice.

Most of us writers are not English majors or PhD’s. No matter how good we believe our writing to be, editing is the only means to perfecting our craft.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

by

Mary Deal

Writing prompts and story ideas can be found in numerous lists on the Internet, but the best ones are found right around you.

How many times have you searched to find topics that might serve to shake a story out of your Muse? A list of words or phrases just might jog your Muse into action. Then, when you find such a list, you are not enthused by its offerings and you continue to search for more.

Story starters that encourage descriptive writing abound around you. Everything you see day-to-day is a writing prompt. If you don’t see life that way, I encourage you to take another look.

Take new interest in the things you take for granted. Let your mind wander from the probable to the improbable. Fantasize about things and events. Give them new life.

Here are a few samples of story ideas taken from everyday life that might help you see what’s around you in your world.

Imagine you’re walking down a road. Normally you see rocks and you side step and walk on.

If you’re a fantasy writer…

What would happen if all those rocks lying dormant for eons suddenly came to life? They pop. They explode. Wow! Would they be friendly? Or would they be alien, just waiting for the right moment to change the universe?

Want to write a mystery?

Suppose one of those ordinary rocks had fresh blood on it?

A romance?

You find an envelope caught under a rock along the road. It’s open and money is sticking out. You want to get the money to its rightful owner so you return it promptly and find yourself looking into the fiery eyes of…
See where I’m going with this? Writing prompts are everywhere.

In my day to day life in Hawaii, just this morning, I saw or heard the following writing prompts out of my window from where I sit composing this bit of descriptive writing at my desk.

~ The man across the street is trimming branches off a tree with a buzz saw. He stops suddenly and tries to see into the window of the house. (Someone from inside that house may have called to him. But as a mystery writer, I can make a real thriller out of that teeny bit of action.)

~ A kid runs down the street, like he’s real scared. Now I hear a siren coming close.

~ A dog limps across my yard. It has a broken leg, or its favoring an injured leg, and hobbling. A moment later, another dog crosses the yard. Looks as though it’s had one leg amputated.

~ A car passes by on the street. The girl looks like she’s gushing all over her guy, the driver. She’s almost in his lap. They look blissfully happy.

~ I hear a strange sound and it doesn’t sound like any of the neighbors using power equipment as they repair their houses and structures. The sound is most curious and I can’t get it out of my mind.

~ I hear a loud bang, like a gunshot. It comes from the next group of homes adjacent to this small neighborhood. I hear another.

~ The woman in the house to the left is standing out in her yard. She never just stands there. She’s always on the go. Her husband comes out. They talk. They hug. She cries. He comforts.
The best writing prompts are right around you. However, if you wish only words or phrases to trigger your Muse, then here are a few samples.

Buried money and valuables in a box

White powder in the kitchen and you don’t bake

Loving a married person, learning he is divorcing

A child who leaves alien footprints

An ugly knot growing on your body

Learning your spouse is a murderer in hiding

A horrific recurring dream that gets closer and closer

Lightning always striking only your house

The neighbors on your left practice swinging with the neighbors on your right

A rock containing clear facial images that seems to pull you in

A grotesque Halloween mask

A drop of acid rain

Unidentified creature footprints
This list is just a sampling. I could go on and on.
When searching for writing prompts, keep in mind that it is said only twenty types of stories exist. All stories have been written. This is true, but every story contains a different setting, unique characters, and unusual occurrences and endings. That is how we’re able to create new stories all the time.

As you seek mental stimulation through prompts, begin by having an idea in which genre you wish to write. Genre is what you need to decide first. Take for example, this prompt listed above:

~ A car passes by on the street. The girl looks like she’s gushing all over her guy, the driver. She’s almost in his lap. They look blissfully happy.

A romance writer will turn that scene into, perhaps, one of a happy couple of kids. Then life pulls them to opposite ends of the world. They meet again years later, only by chance, depending on the circumstances of the plot, and realize that they still love each other.

A mystery writer could turn writing prompts such as this into a thriller where the girl is gah-gah over the guy, but he’s got other plans. He turns out to be a serial rapist!

A science fiction or fantasy writer would have the guy taking the girl out to a deserted field, she thinks for a bit of petting. Instead, he beams her up to a hovering ship and whatever fate waits.
Know your genre and then, as you read prompts, determine what appeals to the type of story line you wish to create.
Begin to make a list of story starters that you notice. They are innocent gestures and occurrences that you might find in any good novel or short story. Make a list of anything that strikes your Muse.

Allow yourself to dwell on story ideas that may come to mind. Loosen your imagination. Do it now. You will need to free your Muse to write any story. Begin with your writing prompts.

Any story starters that you discover can also be used as occurrences and highlights in the story itself. Story starters need not only start a story. Starters can also fill in the story middles and endings.

I have used many instances from my life and ancient family history as writing prompts. You might wish to read “Grandpappy’s Cows” in the Flash Fiction section on my website to see how my Muse hilariously stretched the truth.

Or you may wish to read what my Muse made of seeing a boy out in the dead of night with a scissors in “Boy at the Crossroad.”

Writing prompts, story starters, or story ideas, wherever you find them, can trigger descriptive writing if you will loosen the reins of your Muse and let your mind wander on things sometimes best left alone. But then, after all, it’s only fiction. Right?

Mary’s stories mentioned above are further analyzed in the Flash Fiction section of her website writeanygnere.com.

by

Mary Deal

When starting to write your story, don’t begin at the beginning, please! One of the main reasons writers fail to get their stories written is that they don’t know where to begin.

Once we have a story in mind, we’ve most likely created our fictional characters, to a degree. We know what makes them the people they are. We may even know how they will play out their parts in the plot, and therein lays the pitfall.

Many writers want to include a character’s life history. They feel if they do not include all of that information, the reader will not build empathy. This thought is a fallacy. How many times have you met a person you’d never met before? When he’s introduced, he wise-cracks, but in a manner that leads to like him right away. You don’t know his history, but you know that you and he will get along.

Thinking along the lines of presenting a character’s history, a writer may try to include much personal history, known as back story. If this has happened to you, have you asked yourself why you’re writing all this information and you haven’t yet begun the story? My advice here is that if you try to include at the beginning – don’t.

Here’s an example:

You’re writing a romance and your protagonist, a lady, is much sought after and can have her pick of suitors. But she hesitates to allow anyone to know her because she’s been jilted more than once.

So you, the writer, feel you must clue your reader about what makes her timid and hesitant before you can continue with the story you wish to tell. You think a Prologue would do the trick. Don’t even try it. Unless you’re an experienced writer with an established following who don’t care what or how you write, a prologue comes across as a new writer’s inability to incorporate back story into the plot.

Any back story included should pertain to the action of the real story you wish to write. The rule is that if whatever you include in the telling of the tale does not move the plot along, it should be cut. Since all that history stalls the plot and keeps it in the past, it has no purpose for being included.

Getting back to the example above, in this case the reader should be told what makes this much sought after beauty so fickle. The way to include relevant information is….

Let’s say she is interested in a man but fights an inner battle with fear of rejection again. The way to show your reader her fear is to have her come in contact with one of the men who jilted her in the past. This keeps the story flowing in the now.

Can you imagine the duress of her wishing to fall in love, and then at the moment of truth she must interact with the person who was the cause of her previous hurt? Are you able to see the back story coming into play when readers begin to understand her anxiety? And it didn’t take a prologue to set it up. It happens naturally in the course of the story.

Back story is easily incorporated through other characters, thoughts and brief memories, or occurrences that remind of past events. You want your story to move continually forward, not stall while you explain the past of it all. When you embed your character’s thoughts in the scenes and dialog, it keeps the reader inside that character’s head and within the resent story.

When I say don’t start at the beginning–you know your story–choose an action scene that you plan early in the first chapter. Jump into the now, the present time of that scene. Introduce your characters through their activities within the scene and let the story move on from there. You will have many chances to include memories, motivation and purpose as each new scene unfolds.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

Deborah Shlian, MD, MBA practiced medicine in California where she also taught at UCLA. She has published nonfiction articles and books as well as medical mystery/thrillers. Her first two novels, Double Illusion and Wednesday’s ChildRabbit in the Moon is an international thriller and has won the Gold Medal for Genre Fiction from the Florida Book Award, the Mystery Book of the Year Silver Medal from ForeWord Magazine, an Indie Excellence Award, a National Best Books Award Finalist from USA Book News and First Prize in the Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association.

Yolanda “Linda” Reid Chassiakos, MD, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. After graduating from and completing her residency in Pediatrics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Reid Chassiakos served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy, and as the Assistant Head of the Ambulatory Branch of Pediatrics at the Naval Hospital, Bethesda and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. She then moved to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and served as a medical editor and feature reporter for the evening Eyewitness news at the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Dr. Chassiakos joined Lifetime Medical Television as a medical editor, writer, and host of educational programming for healthcare professionals and the public in Los Angeles, and developed and hosted programs and features for media such as the NBC Network Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll, Lorimar-Telepictures, and You TV.

During her thirteen-year tenure as an Associate Physician Diplomate at UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Health Center, Dr. Chassiakos also served as a staff writer for the television series, Family Medical Center. She is currently the Director of the Klotz Student Health Center at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Chassiakos’ features and essays have been published in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Woman’s Day, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily News, and Tribune International. She has recently co-edited a text on Collaboration Across the Disciplines in Health Care. Dr. Chassiakos has also written a fantasy novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, for imaginative young adult and adult readers. Dr. Chassiakos and her husband are the proud parents of three teenagers and live in Los Angeles.

I’m continually amazed at the high-caliber people who appear as guests on my blog.  You both have exceptional backgrounds, so much so, that I can’t believe you have time to write fiction!  Tell us more about your backgrounds and prior writing experiences before the collaboration on Dead Air.

Deborah: My previous earlier novels are co-written with my husband Joel, who is also a physician. We met and were married after a six-week courtship, while we were in medical school at the University of Maryland. Because we wanted to maintain the closeness of our relationship, Joel dropped out of ophthalmology so that we could practice family medicine together.

We did our residencies in Los Angeles, where we eventually joined a large group practice and worked in side-by-side offices. But you can’t live in L.A. for very long without getting bitten by the entertainment bug. Everyone you meet here does something else–your dentist is an agent, your lawyer is a producer, and, of course, every waiter is a would-be actor. Even though Joel and I wrote Double Illusion–originally published by Putnam under the title Nursery–as a novel, we always envisioned our story as a screenplay. The second novel we wrote was Wednesday’s Child, published by Simon and Schuster. Both these books, which are now out in reprints, were optioned for film, although, as is par for the course, the options lapsed. But the stories are written in a very fast-paced, rather cinematic style. Our third novel, just published, is titled Rabbit in the Moon.

In the 10 years between writing Wednesday’s Child and Rabbit in the Moon, Joel and I graduated from UCLA’s Executive MBA program, started a healthcare consulting and recruiting company, and wrote several books and articles on healthcare and medical management issues.

Linda:  I began my own neighborhood newspaper at age 10 and continued to write in high school and at the University of Maryland, where I also worked at the campus radio and TV stations. In medical school, I became “The Doc Around the Rock” on radio until I started my clinical training. Then, after my residency, I wrote for the Washington Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and the Washington Post. I later worked as a medical feature reporter for the CBS-affiliate in D.C., and as a medical editor and host for Lifetime Medical Television. I feel truly blessed to be part of the brotherhood of physician-writers.

Mike: Fascinating!  So why novels?  Your resumes are packed with superb credentials that would enable you to write non-fiction, especially medical articles for journals and the media, which you’ve had some experience with already.

Linda: Debbie and I met at the Student Health Service at UCLA and we discovered that we shared common interests in both creative writing and health education.  I had taken a sabbatical from practice to serve as a staff writer for the TV series Family Medical Center, and, after the series ended, I returned to UCLA and Debbie and I developed several project ideas together. Among the projects we discussed was a medical thriller, which has evolved into Dead Air.

Deborah: I had just finished writing Rabbit in the Moon and while waiting for it to be published, began to get a little itchy to write another novel.  I was Director of Primary Care for the Student Health Service, and Linda, one of our specialists, approached me about writing something together. We decided on a plot that involved a less-than-ethical experiment on a Vermont university campus. The protagonist is a 20-something college student named Sammy Greene, a journalism student with her own campus radio talk show. Sammy uses her show as a forum to solve the mystery of why students are suddenly dying and ultimately expose the experiment. Linda and I have just completed the second book in what will be a series featuring Sammy. Its title is Devil Wind and it takes place five years later when Sammy has moved to Los Angeles.

Talk is cheap, but when this radio host takes action, she may pay the ultimate price. An outspoken, brash, native New Yorker, Sammy Greene isn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers at Ellsford University, her traditional New England Ivy League college. Host of “The Hot Line”, a talk-radio show on campus station WELL, Sammy tackles the toughest, most controversial issues facing Ellsford’s students. When Sammy discovers the body of Dr. Barton Conrad, one of Ellsford’s most esteemed professors, her journalistic drive kicks in and she sets out to discover what happened to the beloved professor. But when several Ellsford students mysteriously disappear, Sammy realizes she’s uncovered the seamy, terrifying underbelly of this prestigious institute of higher education. With the entire campus in peril, and demons from her past close behind, Sammy Greene must race to find answers. Along the way, she’ll discover some unlikely allies-and even more unlikely enemies. If Sammy isn’t careful, someone is going to make sure that she signs off-for good.

Mike: That sounds like a seat-of-the pants thriller.  Given your medical backgrounds, did any of your real-life experiences make their way into the story at all?

Linda:  Very much so.  Deborah and I have both spent years in academic settings across the United States as students and then as physicians, staff, and faculty.  Our perspectives allowed us to bring a realism to our fictional Ivy League campus, and to describe the challenges of surviving in an environment where “Publish or Perish” has, in tragic cases, become literally true. Additionally, many of us had friends whose children were leaving for college. Saying good-bye to your son or daughter is difficult, but you hope that his or her college experience will be safe. What if it isn’t, and what if the people responsible are the very ones to whom you entrusted your child? Add a look at cutting edge medicine and modern university politics and you have the seeds of our collaboration.

Deborah: We felt that in the context of a novel we could expose some of the corners that academic researchers are willing to cut in order to gain fame and fortune.  I think there has been some slippage in morality and how people see “crossing over the line” in society in general. Unfortunately, since doctors are human like everyone else, they, too, may fall prey to the temptations of fame and fortune. The other issue is funding of research. As in our story, Dead Air, more and more research is funded by private interests. Consequently, at least the possibility of allowing bottom-line pressures to creep into the picture exists. Our character in the book, Dr. Palmer, is a well-known, respected scientist who has always had access to university and/or government research monies. When the university decides to co-venture with a Japanese biotech company, he is suddenly faced with some significant moral and ethical dilemmas.

Linda: Economic constraints on physicians lead them to make difficult choices, but, on the whole, most physicians practice a high standard of both medicine and ethics. The potential for larger scale abuse of ethics in medicine and society is there today, however, because of economic pressures and is facilitated by the improvements in science, technology, and communications in our global economy and world that allow a greater use and misuse of power.

Mike: Tell me more about your protagonist.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy Greene shares some traits with both her creators, but is her own young woman, who now tells us what she is going to do and say.  We started to develop her as a voice for the moral, political, and ethical concerns we wanted to address in the book, and she grew to be a fully fleshed out dynamo bursting with passions, energy, and joie de vivre.  Sammy has elements of each of our personalities, but is much more courageous and outspoken than either of us felt we were at her age.  In book two, and now book three, it’s Sammy who is writing her own life script and we, Deborah and Linda, are taking notes so we can share Sammy’s adventures with all her readers and friends.

Mike: That’s a nice perspective on your character…seems to be writing her own story for you as the authors!  Describe Sammy more.

Deborah/Linda: Sammy is a bright, dedicated young woman who grew up in Brooklyn under the strict tutelage of her loving grandmother, Rose, from whom she learned the Yiddish that she sprinkles into her exclamations.  She is five feet tall and slim, with curly red hair and green eyes. She has a crackling personality—never afraid to dive into adventures, experiences, new directions.  That strength can sometimes lead her into danger—her determination, feistiness, and curiosity can annoy or even alarm those running from her quest to pursue “Truth and Justice.”

Sammy’s father left her mother when she was a child—her mother’s subsequent suicide has scarred her deeply.  Sammy hides her vulnerabilities and fears behind a tough exterior; as love knocks on her door, will she have the courage to let emotional intimacy enter her psychological firewalls?  Readers will find out in Dead Air.

Mike: I imagine with your plot, about an Ivy League campus and all the intrigue you described, that you must have one or two particularly evil antagonists that Sammy must deal with?

Deborah/Linda: Everyone at Ellsford University is a suspect in the disappearances and murders of students and faculty.   Corrupt University administrators, ambitious professors, unethical researchers, jealous students, and politically manipulative outsiders could all be playing a role in the conspiracy that Sammy uncovers step by step.  Even the Chief of Campus Police isn’t beyond suspicion.  Sammy’d better find out who’s behind the campus murders before she herself becomes the next victim and her radio show is silenced—Dead Air.

Mike: You mentioned books two and three.  What are they about, and does Sammy come back for more adventures?

Deborah/Linda: We have finished the sequel to Dead Air and are currently plotting our third book in the Sammy Greene thriller series, an international thriller.  Meanwhile, Deborah and Joel Shlian are working on a sequel to Rabbit in the Moon, and Linda is working on a sequel to Where Angels Fear to Tread and writing for newspapers, magazines, and blogs.

We expect Sammy has lots of exciting adventures in store ahead.  Police Chief Gus Pappajohn will join Sammy again in Devil Wind, and she is likely to re-kindle (no pun intended) her romance with Dr. Reed Wyndham.  With each book, we’ll learn more about Sammy and thrill to watch her grow.  In Devil Wind, for example, we witness her rocky reunion with her estranged father and his third wife.  Readers love Sammy and want to share her life, including her joys, challenges—and thrills.

Mike: Dead Air has already had some great success and wonderful book reviews.  I’d like to finish your guest-blog with a list of those and anything else you want my readers to know.. Before I turn it over, I want to encourage everyone to visit Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid at their website: http://www.sammygreene.com/Sammy_Greene_website/THE_BOOK.html

Deborah/Linda: Thank you for the opportunity to introduce you to Sammy Greene—we hope your readers will love her as much as we do.  Dead Air has had wonderful reviews, and was selected as the Best Adventure/Thriller in the 2009 USA Booknews Best Books Awards.  Some comments from Sammy’s fans below:

“A brash college talk-show host uncovers a terrifying conspiracy as she seeks the killer of an esteemed professor.”

San Diego Union Tribune

“A fascinating reveal about the dangers that arise when big business influences medical research.”

Mystery Scene

“Both authors have medical backgrounds, and the story reflects this. The characters are interesting, and their intrepid heroine, Sammy, looks as if she’s ready for a sequel.”

The Oklahoman

“A fascinating read, full of action. Dead Air is a breath of fresh air—well written, riveting plots and subplots, and enough action to keep the reader interested until the end.”

I Love a Mystery

“Dead Air is the perfect prescription for readers looking for a good medical mystery with a little Yiddish and Greek mixed in for good measure.”

Review the Book

“A series-worthy heroine. Fans of light mysteries with a hard edge will enjoy this one.”

Booklist

“Dead Air is a chilling tale guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat.”

Midwest Book Review

“Shlian and Reid have created a plausible, plucky amateur detective in this fast-paced medical murder mystery.”

Monsters & Critics

“Excellently written, Dead Air ratchets up the suspense from scene-to-scene with twists and turns beyond the usual medical or campus mystery.”

Fresh Fiction

“(Shlian and Reid) have done for academia what Patricia Cornwell did for forensic science. A great book.. Dead Air is sure to be in high demand this season.”

Blogcritics

“A lively novel of secrets, lies, and betrayal, Dead Air captures the very essence of college life and mixes it with a plausible conspiracy.  This one is sure to make the dean’s list among avid thriller fans.”

Vicki Landes

“Excellent and will keep you turning pages all night long.”

Mainly Mysteries

Given your academic background – forensics and criminology, criminal profiling, is it safe to assume you’ve worked professionally in some aspect of law enforcement?

JC: My working background has been primarily in the corporate world of accounting and business management.  I’ve had experience in screenwriting and article writing in the past, but I’ve really wanted to write novels for some time now.  My interest in forensics and criminal psychology drove me to go back to school to earn a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology.  I felt that going back to school helped me to begin a writing career in crime fiction.

MA: I’m surprised to hear you have worked in the corporate world and not in some dimly-lit police department, in a stale interrogation room trying to sweat out confessions.  It sounds like your academic interests intersect more with your writing, as opposed to your other career interests.

JC: I’ve loved writing and books for as long as I can remember.  Reading novels has always been a big part of my life.  I’m a fan of thriller, mystery, and suspense stories.  It wasn’t until a personal experience of living next door to a violent sociopathic individual that I decided to write my first novel.  It seemed to be a perfect time for me to write my first novel.  With the academic background along with some much needed confidence helped to propel me through my book projects.

MA: Tell us about your stories.

JC: I have two thriller novels out, Compulsion and Dead Game.  In Compulsion, Emily Stone doesn’t have a badge. But that hasn’t stopped her from tracking down some of the West’s most dangerous child-killers. Armed with a digital SLR camera, laptop computer and her trusty Beretta, Stone uses her innate gift for detective work to identify the perps — and then anonymously e-mail the evidence to the cops.

Now, the hunt for two brazen serial killers on the loose right in her own coastal California town threatens to expose Stone’s identity — unraveling her carefully constructed cover and jeopardizing her life’s work. But when she gets too close to the action, this razor-sharp hunter becomes the hunted. Cooperating with the handsome local police detective could be the only hope for stopping the rampage directed at unsuspecting young women — and saving herself. Can they piece together the clues in time?

Compulsion mixes CSI-style investigation with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot and a dose of romance for a keeps-you-guessing, fast-paced and savvy thriller, right up until the shocking finale.

Dead Game is another Emily Stone Novel.  In her independent efforts to catch child killers, Emily Stone discovers the evidence that the cops can’t—or won’t—uncover. Now, this covert investigator is back on the hunt for the world’s most sick and twisted murderers. But even with help from ex-police detective Rick Lopez, this time she’s facing her most dangerous opponent yet.

The headlines in the San Jose Mercury News blare updates on a serial killer who seems able to slaughter with impunity. Men, women—it doesn’t matter; the victims serve only to satisfy a perverted need to kill.  The killer watches the moment of death on multiple computer screens, over and over again. The only connection is that they’re all devotees of the latest video-game craze—a sophisticated brain-puzzler called EagleEye.

When the killer goes after Lopez’s law-enforcement mentor, Lopez and Stone decide to give the cops a little extra, unsolicited help. What follows takes them deep inside a shocking high-tech world, a kind of social-networking community for serial killers. But when they start getting too close to the truth, all hell’s going to break loose.

Now, Stone and Lopez become the killer’s next target as Stone must make a difficult decision to leave the ones she loves in an all-or-nothing effort for survival. Can they stay alive long enough to blow the whistle on this unlikely perpetrator?

MA: EagleEye? That sent a chill down my spine.  When I was a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, we had a special program called Eagle Eye.  Too coincidental!  How did you create Emily’s character?

JC: I wanted to create a character that would hunt down serial killers and child abductors in a way where she would be completely anonymous.  After I saw the startling statistics on missing children in the US every year, I decided to make her more proactive in tracking down child abductors.  This is what drives her character.  My heroine Emily Stone evolved from this concept and I wanted to up the stakes by having her as a petite, clever, and capable woman hunting the most hideous criminals in our society – alone.

I know that many police departments are overworked, understaffed, and underfunded, so I thought that creating this fictional character would help to assist the police behind the scenes and would create some suspense with a thrill quality to it.  She is a type of phantom detective helping the police without their knowledge and then she emails the information directly to the detective in charge.  However, she does get into some scary situations along the way, while catching these killers before they are able to strike again.

MA: Emily sounds like a tough woman.  What else should we know about her?

JC: Emily Stone is a strong and noble character.  She gets things done and uses her natural ability and instincts to catch killers and pedophiles.  She knows the psychology of criminals and uses it to her advantage.  Her weaknesses are her vulnerabilities of being alone in her quest as well as her drive to push her abilities to the limits tracking killers.  She wavers between justice and vigilantism.

MA: Sounds like you have a full cast of antagonists for Ms. Stone to go toe-to-toe with.  Are there any in particular that seem to give her a greater challenge than others?

JC: Dead Game has a high-tech serial killer stalking victims through the video games they play on computers and cell phones.  He’s a bit of a unique serial killer because he craves the images of his victim’s deaths on video over and over again.  He doesn’t get his hands dirty, but can relive their deaths any time he wants.  He hasn’t had to meet up with Emily Stone yet and that’s when everything changes in this story.

MA: I’m almost afraid to ask if you had any personal experiences that helped shape your writing, especially since your professional life has been in the corporate world.

JC: I can’t say that I’ve had any experiences with serial killers, but I did have a neighbor who was definitely a violent sociopath that threatened my life for several years.  It was bad enough for me to have to move.  This experience made my writer’s imagination kick into full gear and that’s how Emily Stone was created.

MA: That had to be creepy, and I’m glad you were able to get away from him.  Do you have any more Emily Stone Novels planned, or perhaps a whole new line of mysteries?

JC: I’m currently in the process of writing a suspense thriller with a working title, Silent Partner, from a screenplay I wrote about a K-9 cop that becomes involved with an agoraphobic woman accused of murdering her sister.  He finds himself caught in a web of lies and deception that leaves him wondering if he can protect her from her fears, both real and imagined, before it’s too late.

I’m having a great time writing the Emily Stone series and I will continue with this character for other books.  Also, a character from Dead Game by the name of Jordan Smith seems to be receiving quite a bit of attention.  I’m toying with the idea of writing a book with him as the main character.

Finally, I’m outlining and researching the third Emily Stone Novel that I will begin writing before summer.  She will be tracking down a serial killer on the beautiful garden island of Kauai. The story will answer the question of how Emily will stop a diabolical serial killer on the quiet island paradise.

MA: Sounds like that will require some field research in Hawaii…to get the setting just right for the plot, of course!  Thanks for visiting with us today.  Please visit Jennifer Chase’s website to learn more about her and the Emily Stone Novel series: http://jenniferchase.vpweb.com/default.html

by

Mary Deal

In order to flesh out a character it’s a good idea to make lists of attributes for each character. However thorough, you must then write scenes to fit each character. That is, each scene that you write when this character appears should reveal what you planned for him or her when you made your list.

Of course as the story develops, any character may take on a different persona than you first imagined. That’s not a problem. Amending the original sketch will suffice, keeping in mind how the new character image affects all the other characters and the story overall.

I’ve always been interested in how characters are set up in stories. However, it’s no longer good enough to list features and attributes in paragraph or outline form, which seems like we’re looking at a person from head to toe and describing what we see. That’s vital, but characters do something while they act out who they are. Sometimes one thing they do can set up the reader’s impression of them for the entire story.

Here’s my list of traits for my minor character Randy Osborne in my paranormal Egyptian suspense novel, The Ka:

• Highly educated
• Physical anthropologist
• Works with biochemistry and genetics
• Mama’s boy
• Totally insecure
• Sneaky
• secretive
• Jealous
• Always eating
• Overweight
• Short brown hair, always greasy and matted
• Clothing always wrinkled
• Kinda short
• Embarrassing to be around
• Obnoxious, to cover insecurities
• Opinionated
• Not very well liked
• Dislikes Chione (the protagonist)
• Thorn in everyone’s side

Here’s Randy’s character sketch in paragraph form:

“Everyone looked to Randy, who stood supported with a hand on the back of a chair, flagging a leg back and forth as if his underwear might be caught in the wrong place. Then he lifted the leg a couple of times in a last ditch effort to end his discomfort. His personal habits were reason for a good snicker among the tight knit team, who could politely ridicule one another, then laugh. At times, criticism from any of them seemed all in jest, a way this group of high-strung colleagues dealt with stress. At other times, Randy’s behavior was repulsive. He seemed to take great pleasure in eating all the time and, thanks to his mother packing his lunch, he always had an ample supply nearby to pick at. His continual weight gain and lack of personal hygiene turned people off. He always looked sweaty and wrinkled, and his hair matted. No one relished the idea of sharing a tent with him in the heat of the desert. Finally, he reached behind himself and gave the seat of his pants a tug. Not the kind of professional posture one would expect from a Physical Anthropologist who worked with genetics and biochemistry.”

This is similar to the paragraph I wrote soon after making the list of attributes for Randy. When I got to the part in the story where I wanted to show him in action and give the reader the full blast of what they could expect from him, I was shocked to find I had already written what I needed!

This paragraph appears soon as Randy appears in the story. We know full well what to expect from him as the story proceeds.

Readers know that all characters go through what is called a character arc. That’s when the character starts out as one persona and then changes to another before the end of the story. Sort of like the good-guy-gone-bad or vice-versa. Randy goes through a shocking metamorphosis but, well… I think I’ll leave that for the article on character arcs.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

by

Mary Deal

Proper use of “said” and the use of “beats” will keep a story flowing smoothly.

Books and articles turn up touting the value of replacing the use of the word said. She said. He said. Many claim said is overused and tiresome. They supply an endless plethora of verbs, nouns and adjectives to use instead. But my opinion is that, in most cases, there are no substitutes, given what said does when used properly.

Said is acceptable enough to hide in the background and not call the reader’s attention to dynamics of speech that would best be shown with proper punctuation. Said is simply a speaker attribution and tells us who said what in the course of conversation.

However, said can become grossly overworked. This is why many people have tired of it. This is an example of overuse:

“Hola, Papi,” Pablo said. “When do we eat?”

“About ten minutes,” his father said.

“I’m going back to the street then,” Pablo said. “I’m winning all the races.”

“Hey-hey,” Rico said. “Be on time for dinner.”

“Si, Papa,” Pablo said.

Taken from my novel, The Tropics, this conversation flows much better when written this way:

“Hola, Papi,” he said, eyes eager and smiling. “When do we eat?”

“About ten minutes.”

“I’m going back to the street then,” Pablo said, starting to run away. “I’m winning all the races.”

“Hey-hey,” Rico said. “Be on time for dinner.”

“Si, Papi.”

Each sentence, both dialogue and narration contains slight variations. The description of actions included with dialogue is referred to as beats. The characters are not only talking. They are involved in doing something at the same time they speak.

When the actions of characters are included, the writer must be careful not to overuse beats. They serve the purpose of avoiding dialogue with a running string of “saids” or speaker attributions.

I wholeheartedly agree with Renne Browne and Dave King. In their book, “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,” they say:

“If you substitute the occasional speaker attribution with a beat, you can break the monotony of the ‘saids’ before it begins to call attention to itself.”

A beat is not necessary in writing, but it makes for smoother reading and understanding of the characters.

For example, if you are speaking in live conversation with someone, you hear their words and watch their body language, or watch what they direct your attention to. The beats are their gestures.

In reading, beats allow for a silent pause; a moment to digest what is being said and the action emphasizes the dialogue.

On the page, a speaker attribution identifies who is speaking. The word said is accepted because it remains in the background. It does not make us pause to visualize or try to understand the way that the character speaks. Here’s another example when said has been replaced:

“What more?” Ciara questioned. “I know what I have to do. Rico also had a sister he never talked about. Help me find her—”

“Senorita,” Lazaro interrupted. “There’s a reason why he never spoke of her.”

“You know about her?” Ciara quizzed.

“Si, si. She had breast cancer,” Lazaro sympathized.

Now the same conversation from The Tropics, written another way:

“What more?” Ciara asked. “I know what I have to do. Rico also had a sister he never talked about. Help me find her—”

“Senorita,” Lazaro said. “There’s a reason why he never spoke of her.”

“You know about her?”

“Si, si. She had breast cancer.”

Another aspect of smooth writing is that when only two characters speak, you need not identify each by name each time they say something. You also need not include any speaker attribution at all, unless the dialogue string is too long. Simply establish who spoke first, who responded, and the reader will follow along. Also, a good place to insert a few beats is in any string of dialogue where speaker attributions are not used.

This gets more complicated when you have three or more people sharing conversation. A few more speaker attributions are acceptable, and a beat both aids in showing us the characters actions and prevents a string of attributions each time a new voice is written in dialogue. Here’s another example of over-use:

“I haven’t seen Larry for months,” Ruby said.

“I thought you two were tight as thieves,” Brad said.

“Not that tight,” Ruby said.

“Guess we all had it wrong,” Denny said.

“You guys and your assumptions,” Ruby said.

Here’s a better example:

“I haven’t seen Larry for months,” Ruby said.

“I thought you two were tight as thieves,” Brad said, as he pressed a hand against the gun inside his jacket.

“Not that tight!” Ruby looked around the room, all the while feigning nonchalance and looking like any other customer in the bar.

“Guess we had it all wrong,” Denny said as he took another sip of his drink.

“You guys and your assumptions….”

In the revised example, when a speaker attribution is not included, we still know who is speaking. Using a beat makes it easy to know to whom the dialogue belongs, so leave off the attribution.

Notice, too, that “chimed in” or “quipped” or “volunteered” or “whispered” and such other attributions did not substitute for the word said. What really happened among the “saids” in the second example is that the word said receded into the background and allowed us to fully comprehend the urgency of the conversation. Because of the punctuation, we didn’t have to be told about voice inflection or any other way that the speaker spoke, which would have made us stop and visualize the action or the tenseness of the conversation.

The choice of words and punctuation in the dialogue did that for us, with the help of said, which quietly did its part, as it should. Our eyes read the important words, while said registers only subconsciously. All we need to further the action is to read on.

Attributing dialogue to certain characters need not be overdone. Proper punctuation does that for us. For example:

“You klutz!” he exclaimed.

The exclamation point tells us the remark was an exclamation and not a quiet statement or a question. It is not necessary to repeat to the reader that it he exclaimed. Readers do not like redundancy. It’s very off-putting; as if the writer is sure the reader won’t get it. In that incorrect assumption lays the erroneous motivation for writers to use attributions other than said. An experienced reader comprehends the first time through with proper punctuation.

Many writers make the mistake of thinking they can add impetus to dialogue by including many and varied attributions. This is as bad a practice as using your hands and arms in front of your face when you speak. When talking, words and intonation speak for themselves and most hand gestures, at best, are rude. So, like hand gestures, a writer may irritate a reader through redundancy.

Yet another incorrect usage of attributions has become quite common:

“I hope you like it,” she smiled.

“It’s way over there,” he pointed.

“I’d like to take you home with me,” she lilted.These are unemotional sentences that do not need further modification. “Smiled,” “pointed” and “lilted” did not speak those words. Such verbs have no place as speaker attributions. Only in a few instances can said be replaced correctly. One way those sentences can be written properly, and sparingly, is given below. Notice the punctuation:

“I hope you like it,” she said as she smiled.

“It’s way over there,” he said, pointing.

“I’d like to take you home with me.” Her voice was low and lilting.

Here are two last examples of incorrect punctuation and attributes that just don’t convey what they were meant to:

“Fire…,” she exclaimed.

“Fire,” she screeched.

And correctly written if we already know who is speaking:

“Fire!” he said.

Or simply…

“Fire!”

With many other places writers can get creative, speaker attributes are best left to the time-tested said, accompanied by proper punctuation in the dialogue.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

Her day job involves an inflatable planetarium, numerous school children, and starship simulators. Her summer job involves cooking alien food for space camp. She writes a regular column in Abandoned Towers Magazine–fancy dinner menus for themed parties.

Her first novel, Nexus Point (www.nexuspoint.info), is now in print from Cyberwizard Productions. She has stories published in Bewildering Tales, Abandoned Towers, and Darwin’s Evolutions.

Jaleta lives in Utah with her husband, a horde of her own children, and two ancient, toothless cats. She wants to be either Han Solo or Ursula the Sea Witch when she grows up. If she ever does.

She also detests referring to herself in the third person, but sometimes she bows to necessity.

(Chuckling) So, you mentioned to me earlier that you were a geek.  What’s that about?

JC: I’m a geek, always have been even before it was popular. I’ve been reading science fiction and fantasy my whole life. Astronomy and space travel fascinate me.  I spent all three years in high school taking electronics, usually as the only female in the class, so I’m comfortable in my geekiness. I ended up with a BS in Geology, Earth Science Education, and a Minor in Math Education. I currently work at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center introducing school children to physics, astronomy, science in general and science fiction in particular. Yes, I do fly a starship! I also love telling stories, which is what we do in the starship simulators.

MA: Ha! I love space.  Before I retired from the USAF, I was the Commander of OSI Region 8 at Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, CO.  I used to say, “If it enters or exits the atmosphere, I have a dog in the fight!”  What brought you to write novels?

JC: Self-therapy. I spent quite a few years as a stay-at-home mom to my eight children, many with special needs. I had to do something to stay sane. I escaped into my imagination and wrote quite a few novels and stories. I learned how to write by doing. I fell in love with the process and can happily say I am now addicted to writing.

MA:  (Still trying to get my head around EIGHT kids!)  We have three children…a handful; I can’t even imagine eight, but I can understand the need to find some escape.  I imagine with your love of writing , and love of space, that there was a good marriage between the two?

JC: My novels are science fiction, space opera adventure – lots of action and just a touch of romance. The short stories I’ve published are all comic horror and fantasy. My website has links to all of them plus some stories for free download.

MA: I’ve not read much of your particular genre in the past, but you mentioned a hero before, someone named Dace?  Tell us more.

JC:  Dace has evolved since the first draft of the first novel. She sort of grew into the part. Most first-time novelists write what they know – themselves. The trick is to get the character to become someone separate and distinct from the author. Finding her voice was a matter of trial and error and numerous drafts.

MA:  I hear that…been told by close friends that they see too much Mike Angley in my protagonist, Patrick O’Donnell.  What makes Dace unique?

JC:  Dace is tough, she has to be. She’s been on her own most of her life, fighting for everything. It’s also her biggest weakness. In Nexus Point, she gets into trouble much too deep to handle by herself but she has a hard time trusting anyone or admitting she can’t handle it by herself.

MA:  And is there a particular evil nemesis that Dace must face?

JC: Nexus Point has several “bad guys.”  I won’t spoil things by mentioning who because part of the plot revolves around finding out who is and who isn’t. Dace’s actions have repercussions in future books. Some of them come back to haunt her.

MA: Ahhh, a bit of a mystery, too, I see.  In Nexus Point, does art imitate life?

JC: I’ve never crash landed an escape pod, run away from knife/sword fights, investigated drug smugglers, lived in a medieval society, shot anyone, been sold as a slave, burned at the stake, or shoved over a cliff. But I’ve got a great imagination and I know what it’s like to feel lost and overwhelmed. I’ve got some experience falling in love.

MA: (smiling) So what comes after Nexus Point?

JC: Nexus Point is the first in an eleven book series. I’ve got a contract for all of them. One a year until they are all published. And I promise, all of them are complete stories. I hate it when authors leave their readers hanging off a cliff until the next book comes out. I’m also working on some middle-grade science fiction and a few fantasy novels. If I’m not in the middle of at least five different projects, I don’t feel busy enough.

Dace is the protagonist for the entire series. Many of the characters from Nexus Point do appear in other books, especially Tayvis. The underlying story arc for the series is her relationship with him, so he’d better be in the books. Yes, the series is a romance, but in a very understated way. Book 2, tentatively titled Priestess of the Eggstone, should be coming out about this time next year.

MA:  Your series sounds fascinating, and I’m sure my readers will enjoy learning more.  Folks, visit Jaleta’s two websites for more information about Dace and space:

http://www.jaletac.com and, http://www.nexuspoint.info

by

Mary Deal

Understanding a form of writer’s block.

My experience has been that when I write, I must allow the plot and characters to go where they may. We are all told that a story will write itself. I heartily agree, but this only happens when we go deep into our creativity and let things unfold naturally. As writers, we are products of our experiences and that’s the fertile ground from which we create.

The norm for me is that I don’t know where the story will go, which action or direction to take or how the characters will play out their parts. I don’t know this even if I begin a story knowing how it will end.

Our muses will do a lot for us if we allow. Writing is like rearing a child. We discipline and nudge in the right direction, but should never be so controlling that we stifle the natural development of the child and as the child grows, it takes on a life of its own. So it is with writing. All aspects of our stories can write themselves.

One way this will happen is when we allow our characters to play out their parts. When we’ve gotten our protagonist or other character into a situation and don’t know how to get them out, we should not quickly back out of the scene and take another course.

What writing teaches is that the writer should put her or himself into the action of the character. Play like you’re faced with this dilemma and ask yourself what you would do in such a case. This takes you deeper into yourself and your own creativity where you can root out the answers. Allow yourself to face these situations as if you were the character backed into the much-clichéd corner.

If you have your villain in a tight spot and can’t see yourself ever getting into such a place, or being that villain, then you should play-act the gestalt of the situation. Look into a mirror and be the villain who is talking to you. Based on how you’ve created this character, and the action of the plot, you have only so many choices to make and that’s all.

When I wrote many of the scenes in my novel, “The Tropics,” at times I found I didn’t know where to take a character. One example in the first story, “Child of a Storm,” is that when Ciara is trying to keep Rico awake and treat his concussion and near drowning, I didn’t know what to have her do. I couldn’t apply knowledge that I know today to a situation that took place thirty years ago, and that was my key.

In the late 1960s, my limited knowledge is that one had to keep a person with a concussion mostly awake, maybe moving around but not jarring their head. As far as the near drowning, if you got some water out of their lungs and the person is able to walk, they were assumed to be okay. So that’s all I could put into my story—partly because that was not only my knowledge back then but also the general knowledge of most people at that time. I couldn’t say much about respiratory therapy as we know it today because back then it was just being studied as a possible treatment.

So the part of me that went into the story was what I knew during the 1960s and nothing more. It ended up being the truth of the plot action. What my protagonist did to help her fiancé’s condition, albeit limited, helped me to further build my protagonist’s character and resolve. She did as much as she possibly could. So I wasn’t stuck in the plot anymore.

In the second story, “Caught in a Rip,” when Lilly is facing death at sea and suddenly spots a turtle snagged in a drift net, I wondered how I would give Lilly stamina enough to do what she wanted to do. She wanted to photograph that turtle knowing her waterproof camera would float to shore after she died and someone would find it and hopefully develop the photos.

What could I do with Lilly? I had already nearly killed her off and her energy was depleted. It would look awfully contrived having her energetically swim down and take those photos and then die. Then I asked myself, if in that situation what would it take for me to rally my resolve and get those photos? That’s when I was forced deep into my own psyche to compare notes with my muse.

Exactly what would I do? The answer was simple. I slowed the speed of the story in order to show Lilly’s resolve. I did it with her inner thoughts, some momentary flashbacks that made her take a look at her strengths and weaknesses, and showed the reader how she convinced herself to do it. Had I been in that situation that’s how I would have reacted.

I could have written in that a tour boat came along and rescued her, and that the captain photographed the turtle, but that was too easy. She had to do it on her own in order to become this much-admired heroine and only I, the writer alone with my Muse, could think it through.

Truth is, if I knew I was going to die and I wanted to leave something behind to show the plight of that turtle, I would muster everything I had left as one last great gesture to amount to something in my life. You can bet that I would be thinking about my strengths and past successes in order to hype myself before diving down to take that photo.

Finding the character’s motivation was my motivation as the writer that helped the character to decide what to do.

Another writer might look inside themselves and feel a bit of writer’s block and say, There’s no way out of this! Then they might back up in the plot and rewrite it to go in a different direction.

Our characters and plot decisions come from deep within us. Something in us has made us bring the story dilemma to light. Facing and solving our characters’ dilemmas allows us to take a deeper look at ourselves and find inner strengths that have never been challenged in our daily lives.

If we, as writers, allow our Muses free reign and we do not soon back out and change the course of the story simply for an easier way out, we will find more exciting resolutions to the dilemmas we create. We may also come in contact with personal strengths we never knew we had.

At times, my Muse says, “This is the only way to go. You figure it out.” So if we don’t wish to rewrite an entire section of the story, we must dig deeper into ourselves to create the plot remedy.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.