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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Sarah is writer looking for an agent. She is currently working on novel # 4, editing novels 2 and 3, and querying novel # 1. For more insight to her work, visit: http://legendoftheprotectors.wordpress.com/ or http://legendoftheprotectors.blogspot.com/

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For all the writers out there, one of the criticisms that often comes back from an agent or an editor is a lack of voice, or a voice that is not strong enough: “You need to find your voice,” they say.

It is just one of those things, quite abstract, and infinitely more difficult to fix than “passivity” or “run-on sentences”, for instance.

So what is a “voice”, exactly, and where/how do you find it?

Here are two opening passages from two different novels:

“It was the middle of a bright, tropical afternoon that made good our escape from the bay. The vessel we sought lay with her main-topsail aback about a league from the land and was the only object that broke the broad expanse of the ocean.”

“Call me Ishamel. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”

The second one of course, is immediately recognisable. That is how Herman Melville  begins Moby Dick. But the first is by Melville too. It is from his first novel Oomo.

When you read the two, the second one is stronger, more interesting, demanding of the reader’s attention. And that is the difference a strong voice can make. It is the way a writer speaks, whether through the narrator, through the characters. It is a certain authority, not intrusive, but certainly not indiscernible.

From these examples, you could draw a conclusion that the second voice is more mature because the author has matured over time, and through his work. You would be right. A seasoned writer does have a more authoritative voice than a beginner. She has also probably mastered the craft, and learnt to give different voices to all her characters.

But for those beginner writers who would like to have a strong voice from the word go, all is not lost.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts to help you on your way to find your voice:

DON’T

-read writers with brilliant voices and emulate them to create your own.
-try to impose style on your writing, so that you artificially generate tension, create a strong voice, but are unable to sustain it throughout your work.
-make the narrator’s voice so individual and distinctive that it overwhelms your story and characters, unless that is the idea behind your work.

DO
-read writers with brilliant voices and analyse why the voices work
-read some of your own work, written a month or two ago, so you can be objective.

IMPORTANT: Underline the bits that impress you. Read them aloud. These are the parts that give you the best idea what your voice is like at the moment.

Now, take a different colored pen and underline the bits you do not like. Read these parts aloud and figure out why they seem worse than the parts you liked. Is it abstraction? Is it too much “tell” and very little “show”? Is it because the characters are not well fleshed out by your writing? Take these faults one by one and address them.

By doing the underlining and reading exercise, you would be mechanically feeding your unconscious, training it to be the most honest part of you, to be sensitive to your own natural voice.

Always remember that a voice is the expression of who you are as a person and an artist. The more you write, the stronger it will be. And in the meanwhile, you can always help it along using the tips given here.

Lean in with further tips in the comments, and we’ll add them on and credit them to you.

And good luck with finding your voice!

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I read a great YA book yesterday, Donut Days by Lara Zielin.

It was one of those stories that I sat down to read, and didn’t get up until it was finished. I love those sorts of books!

I’m not usually one to jump on a book with a religious undertone, but there was something about this story that made me smile-so I decided to give it a read and I’m glad I did.

I think the thing I liked the most was the voice. Readers and writers talk so much about voice, because it’s just that important. So many time I’ve read a book with a great plot that fell short because I didn’t think the voice was authentic enough, but not this book. The voice really stood out for me.

I loved the main character and loved watching her own personal growth through the story. I highly suggest grabbing this book and giving it a read.

Speaking of just grabbing this book… that was one of my favorite parts- this book is already available on the Kindle! I wish all books came out immediatly on the Kindle. I would be like a gazillion times more likely to purchase them.

(Oh, and hey Amazon–if you’re listening- I would totally pay hardcover price for this earth saving convenience.)

If I haven’t already convinced you to buy this book, then check out the Author’s editing letter video here. She’s just as cute as the book!

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When I started writing, I admit, I knew little about narrative styles. I simply started telling the story from the voice in my head–that of my seventeen year old narrator, Grace Ann Miller.

When I submitted my manuscript to my pre-editor at The Editorial Department for editing, I learned something I had never considered or expected. My narrator, Grace is unreliable–and that is a professional term. Apparently, writing in first person is difficult enough without adding the point of view of an ‘unreliable narrator’ on top of it.

To paraphrase the more than forty-five minute discussion I had with my pre-editor, an unreliable narrator is someone who cannot be relied upon to recall the true or best version of events. This can be for any number of reasons and will depend, of course, on your story. In my case, Grace is confused, somewhat incoherent, unaware of her surroundings and suffering from a wicked headache. Thus she cannot possibly be considered a reliable narrator–yet, there she is, filling us all in on her version of rather important events.

Being thrust into the mind of an unreliable narrator can be jarring for a reader. As such it is important to stabilize the reader to ensure that (s)he is not lost in the mind of the narrator and eventually trust the narrator’s version of events. OR, even if the reader never comes to trust the narrator’s version of events, (s)he can learn to trust her own instincts about what is happening because you the writer has grounded her and made her feel as if she can in fact trust her own instincts about what she is experiencing.

By doing so, you make it easier for the reader to believe in the story they are being told and in many cases, believe in and root for the character. Without that very important piece, your reader will not feel a connection to the story or the main character thus limiting her ability to fully engage with your book.

Remember, you know what you’re talking about, your narrator knows but you don’t want your readers scratching their heads. Below are some tips you can use to make your unreliable narration easier on your reader.

1. Let your readers know upfront that your protag is an unreliable narrator as early in the story as possible by making sure they know that not everything that comes from the person’s mouth is to be trusted. This creates a sense of trust between the author and the reader. Remember, your narrator may consider her/himself completely reliable.
2. Use creative methods to confirm or deny the unreliable’s accounting of what is happening for the reader when something is in question. This can be done using dialogue (other characters), epilogues, journal entries, flashbacks, flashforwards, etc. Sometimes simply describing a character’s physical response to the unreliable narrator can do the trick.
3. Whatever you do, don’t take the easy way out and say, “it was all a dream.”

Have fun with your unreliable narrator. Don’t be afraid to experiment with her/his POV.

Good luck!

www.georgiamcbridebooks.com

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Georgia used to produce websites for a living. Then she quit that job to follow her passion and manage rock bands and market music.

She is an avid music lover, a songwriter and singer. So, when she writes, music finds a way in her stories.

She did lot’s of freelance work feeling completely out of sorts and utterly without direction. So in August 2008–Praefatio was conceived and her official life as a young adult author began. Now, she writes urban fantasy/paranormal books for teenagers.

NOT OFFICIAL COVER

photo credit: Mariana Britto

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How many characters are too many?

Well, I guess that depends. How many can you keep up with and how many can your readers?

70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes by Bob Mayer, from The Writers’ Digest Writing Kit, states “If the curtain on a play opened and there were thirty people on stage and all of them had speaking roles, would you be able to identify and keep track of everyone? Or if you went to a party and opened the door and the room was filled with people you’d never met before, would you have a good time? Throwing too many characters at the reader creates the same sense of bewilderment and diminishes the reader’s ability to empathize with any of them.”

I can usually remember two to four people when first introduced. Usually faces, and names if they interest me. The rest go into the blur of new people to be sorted out later. Even if they interest me, it takes me at least one more visit and good conversation to remember their name.

So why is it in writing we think we have to introduce all our characters up front? And why do we feel that if we don’t have ten plus people in our books, that no one will want to read them?

I’m not saying to limit your novel to 4 people, I have many more than that in mine, but everyone does not need to appear on stage at the same time, and they don’t all need speaking parts. I have been an extra on Touched by an Angel (yes, a long time ago) and was just that, an extra. Background. I have had speaking roles on stage that added to the scene, and been on stage again as background.

There will be background characters. Give them life, make them move, shift, walk stage left to stage right, but they don’t all have to speak, they don’t all have to show up at important scenes.

Writer’s Digests tip for the day goes on to say, “Larry McMurtry can do it in Lonesome Dove and win the Pulitzer Prize, but we’re not Larry McMurtry. He’s able to do it because he makes each character distinctive. It’s a question of how much you’re able to change personalities with your characters. Most of us can only take on a handful.”

So in order to have more than one character, they need to have personalities different from each other. Know your characters, even the background ones.

In theater, we were required to do character analysis of who we played. Not only did we know their first name, given to us by the playwright, usually, we had to know their last name. What their favorite ice cream was. Who was their best friend? We were asked to read the play with that one character in mind and learn as much as we could about them. Even if we were background and off stage most the time.

What did that create? A play people wanted to watch. Actors that knew and understood why they moved where they did.

The importance of knowing our characters is so important, if we don’t care enough about a character to get to know them, our readers won’t either.

Bob Mayer’s solution: “Before you start writing, decide how many characters you feel you can handle in the story. You will have your protagonist and your antagonist. Then you will have your named supporting characters. Named characters will be those who appear throughout the story.”

This is helpful if you know your story before you put Uniball pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, but as you’ve read, I don’t do that. I don’t know my story before I start writing. So I have to figure it out as I go. Often, I get to parts of my story that require me to go back to an earlier part and share more about characters, put in what I’ve learned about them, change their profile. (If you want a good Character Profile sheet, email me and I’ll send it.)

Often, I get to know my characters as I write. I get rid of characters that aren’t important, giving their lines to someone else, if they’re worth keeping. I’ve even added new characters, or made background characters more important, replacing someone who I thought might have played a larger role. So for me, I role with the punches. But if you outline and plan, this is something to plan for.

Mayer continues, “It’s probably not a good idea to give names to characters who appear only once. Those characters might be described as spear carriers, analogous to those people on stage in the opera who stand in the background, carrying—you got it—spears. They’re window dressing, and you can describe them by their roles, such as “the taxi driver” or “the desk clerk” so as not to confuse the reader.

“Make sure the reader can keep track of your named characters, and keep focus on the protagonist and antagonist.”

I agree wholeheartedly. Even though I knew my name when I played background, the audience did not. You can know them, or not, but know why they are there, if you don’t, the reader won’t either. It’s been said many times that we should know 95% more about our novel than the reader; this is one of those things to know more of.

So know your characters. Introduce them with the reader’s memory in mind. And if you’re going to start all your characters with the same letter, know that the reader, at least this one, will be confused as to who’s doing what and saying what. Made up names are fine, but remember your reader when making them up. Just saying.

*Writer’s Digest offers great advice to its subscribers. Worth checking out.

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Sarah is writer looking for an agent. She is currently working on novel # 4, editing novels 2 and 3, and querying novel # 1. For more insight to her work, visit: http://legendoftheprotectors.wordpress.com/ or http://legendoftheprotectors.blogspot.com/

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Oh, I know this looks like I am about to give you some tutorial… but nope.

I’m asking you, dear reader… how?

Here I sit starting at a query, and I know the story is a good one. I know it has a good hook, a great conflict, and frakkin awesome characters. So how do I summarize it and get an agent to read it?

A month or so ago Nathan Bransford did an agent for a day experiment on his blog.

Basically, there were 50 queries, and your task was to go through and decide which ones were actually published books. I got about three into the list and realized something. Queries are kind of boring, and they shouldn’t be!

Now, I’m frustrated because I don’t want to bore with my query. How can I hook them reader?

How can I get the voice of my smackin story into these two teeny tiny paragraphs?

How do you do it? I am dying to know!

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