Have you ever watched a play, tv show, or movie where background characters did nothing but stand around and watch? It gets old and boring quick. The same is true for background characters in your writing.

How your characters react in everyday situations is as important to how they respond in the “big scenes”. Without secondary responses, the pages of a book take on the same droll sense that watching someone on stage just standing there has. Boring.

We would like your thoughts and advice on how to up the background, yet still keep it in the back. Because even though it’s necessary, it still must not over power the importance of the scene it is in.

Okay, Anica had such a great comment, that I decided to add it to this post.

I think a lot of it is about knowing how your point of view character would look at the background characters and their activities. That’s the level of detail they should get.

Sometimes scenes seem to stop while the protagonist describes everything that other characters are doing – as you say, the background overpowers the scene. Mostly, I think the issue is that showing activities (e.g. what some character in the background is doing) implies (a) the passage of time, and, (b) that your protagonist spends the aforementioned time being aware of these activities, which means s/he’s paying enough attention to describe them at the level at which they’re described.

This can be especially problematic in big fight scenes. Often the author has introduced a bunch of characters over the course of a book or even a series, and s/he then wants to show the reader what all of them are up to during the big fight, but reading paragraphs on what other people are doing during an action sequence makes me think, “What about our protagonist? Is she just standing there watching?” (If so, there had better be a good reason, because that isn’t a very active or interesting course for her to take.)

Background details can be included; they just have to make sense in the context of what the POV character is doing at the time. In the fight scene example, maybe she could be fighting her way across the room, trying to ask each of her friends an important question, which would mean she would see what each of them is doing.

Thanks, Anica for your thoughts on this subject, I agree completely!

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Writers in the internet age have a tremendous depository of resources available at the click of a mouse. Sometimes it can be a whole lot of information, and if you’re anything like me, you tend to get buzzed with reading too many sites.

Nonetheless, I find I’ve learned a lot by visiting writing-related websites, and thought maybe I could share a few of the sites I’ve found useful.

The list is completely subjective and random, and reflects my own interest in the genres I like. Some are related to book reviews, some provide writing advice, others help with writing markets, some are by renowned editors and agents. This is by no means a complete list of all the sites I visit, they’re just off the top of my head.

Here’s the list, and feel free to point us towards other sites writers could find useful in the comments to this post. Happy browsing!

Guardian Books

Nathan Bransford

Stroppy Author

Alan Rinzler

Help! I Need a Publisher!

photo credit: Iza & Audrey Love !

Have you lost your joy of writing? Do you question the insanity of pursuing a career in publishing? Do you obsess over certain milestones—contest wins, judges’ comments, rejection letters? Do you wish you could give it up and just walk away?

A few months back this happened to me. I had lost my joy. My stomach was in knots over self doubt. I cried at night at the thought of walking way and equally over the thought of walking the “unpubbed” road for years to come.

How could something I love so much cause me so much pain?

But this was the crux of the problem. I knew I couldn’t give up the dream of writing for a living. I’ve wanted to give it up, Lord knows I tried, but once I’d scraped up enough courage to start this journey I knew there was no going back. Writing is as much a part of me as my right arm.

As profound as this realization was, that still didn’t mean I was happy about it. I was still joyless. But I realized something. This moment, this day, were all parts of my life, and I had the responsibility to cherish it. I needed to find a way to be okay with the possibility of never being published, of winning or bombing a contest. I needed to find my center, a truth that wouldn’t be dependent on outside factors.

The good news is that I found my joy again. How? There is no cure-all, but a process. I re-read my earlier writings and patted myself on my back on how far I’d come. I gave thanks for a great critique group and took advantage of my monthly RWA meetings.

I put writing back into perspective.

I strived for balance, and believe that I’ve found some. I need to write, but also need my family and an outside life. I’d never be able to get the years back of my children’s life if I was spending all my time obsessing about being published or not. I want to look back over my career with no regrets, and thus accepting what I can do and what I can’t.

I try not to compare my journey with anyone else. The paths to success are numerous. There is no one right way.

Positive affirmations. Positive sayings have saved my life from spiraling into a deep black hole. If you tell yourself you are a success, then eventually you have to believe it. And the first person who has to believe that you have talent, is you.

Yes, I’ve found the joy again, and that happiness has spilled over into my daily life. My heart speeds up at the end of a well-written scene. I carry a smile around when I figure out the “missing” piece to my WIP. But I am ever on alert to the veering off the well-balanced, joyful road.

What about you? Have you lost your joy? And if so how did you get it back?

KC Klein is the author of Dark Future, a sexy futuristic time-travel. She became serious about writing three years ago and was as surprised as anyone when her stories took a turn toward dark and snarky. Today, she divides her time between taking care of her family and driving in circles around Arizona, too busy creating stories in her head to pay attention to mere road signs. KC would love a visit at kckleinbooks.com.

We would like to hear from those of you with agents. Tell us what the next step for you has been. Is it rewrite after rewrite? Starting your next novel? Or simply playing the waiting game?

Share your joys and frustrations with us, so we’ll know what to expect when we hear those glorious words, “I’d like to offer you representation!”

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