The Basics: The Muddy, Meandering Middle

There isn't anything SPECIFIC I'm addressing today.  Really, this is more of a warning about one of the biggest pitfalls in novel writing -- particularly by those with less experience.  It's the dreaded muddy, meandering middle.

Sometimes it's really easy to come up with a SUPER inciting event.  We're all, "Wow, what if THIS happens, and it leads to THIS! I mean, WHOA!!"

Sometimes it's really easy to come up with an amazing, satisfying ending that began with our super inciting event.  "WOW! It'll all explode and come together JUST LIKE THIS!"

Thus, armed with an amazing beginning, an amazing ending, and some ideas in between, we write the novel.  Heck, we might even have an OUTLINE first.  (Well, not if we're ME, we won't.)

But somehow along the jeweled way, the middle of our story loses focus.  It meanders.  Stumbles blindly along. Rambles about nothing. Expounds on minutia.

In short, it's a train wreck.

And honestly? It's more common than you might think.  More often than not, the author is the last one to realize there's a problem. But when crits come back with comments like, "Huh?" Well, you've got a problem.

So here are some important things to think about:

1.  MOTIVATION  Everything your characters say and do needs clear motivation behind it.  If, for instance, your villain is motivated by an insatiable need for revenge against your main character for stealing his girlfriend, then everything this villain does is going to be motivated by that.  Everything he does will MAKE SENSE.  Without clear motivation, characters meander.  And then the whole story does the same.

2.  LOGIC  This has everything to do with story arc.  Event A needs to lead logically to Event B and so on.  When your story devolves into a series of (albeit brilliant) non-related events, your arc is broken.  Logic is also directly related to MOTIVATION, because a character's motivation makes his actions logical.

3.  GOALS  Your characters--good guys and bad guys both--need clear goals.  And especially from the viewpoint of the main character.  If your MC doesn't know EXACTLY what he wants, EXACTLY what he's doing, and EXACTLY why...well, he's not going to propel the story forward.  At worst, he will utterly confuse the reader, or cause the reader to lose interest.  We can't root for a MC if we don't know WHY we're rooting.  Without clear goals, we won't have a clear story trajectory.

4.  PLOT POINTS--CLIMAX--RESOLUTION  The story tension should build via a series of logically placed events, culminating in a climax that is exciting AND believable.  The tension shouldn't let up until the wind-down at the end, where we get our happily-ever-after (or not).  A quick search on line will reveal a wealth of information, including all sorts of cool graphs and pictures, that will help you *see* the basic shape of a story.  It's fairly fail-proof.

I guess this was more specific than I realized it would be!  Bottom line?  GET GOOD CRIT PARTNERS.  A slumping middle-of-the-story is a diagnosis that will come from fresh, unbiased eyes.  And if the diagnosis does come? Don't despair. MUDDY, MEANDERING MIDDLES ARE REPAIRABLE!

There you have it.  Nothing's impossible to fix when you put your mind to it.

On the Horizon

Hi folks!

I know, I know.  I still haven't got my act together around here.  But I do have an announcement that'll prove I'm at least PLANNING things for you.

Starting on the first Friday in August, WRITE ON! will boast a new feature called FROM THE TRENCHES!  These Friday posts will be about life as a teen writer, covering everything from daily struggles to plotting techniques to dreams of greatness and beyond.  And, since I'm not a teen, I won't be writing them.  Here's the schedule:

FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH:  Lizzy
SECOND FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH: Mad
THIRD FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH: Taryn

Look for our first installment on Friday, August 5.

Happy weekend!

The Basics: The Passive Protagonist

It seems obvious--a protagonist should be strong, propelling his or her action forward by decisions and actions born from motives and goals that make sense.

Yet writing a passive protagonist seems to be one of the insidious traps that writers-in-training (and even writers-with-lots-more-experience) fall into.

Recently, I read a YA novel in which the protagonist pretty much waited around for others to tell her what to do.  Mind you, it wasn't that blatant.  She had strong emotions, so she didn't seem passive.  But when it came right down to it, she didn't really do anything, so I never really cheered for her.

She allowed a tough-girl character to lead her around, and didn't demand answers when the girl refused to answer simple questions (such as, "Where are we going?").

She followed her (jerky) boyfriend around and didn't argue when he had questionable behavior (like getting drunk and sort of forgetting about her at a party).

She had hard questions she needed to ask certain people, and she never really came out and ASKED them.

You're probably nodding your head as you're reading this, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to write protagonists this way.  We make things *happen* to them, which makes us think that things are all kinds of exciting.  Except, when things are happening to our protagonist without any definitive action from him, we've got a passive protagonist.

Boring.  Non-cheerable.

So, what to do?

Well, take a hard look at important scenes in your story--major plot points, revelations, twists, etc. What is your protagonist DOING? Following someone else's lead?  Running away?  Waiting for instructions? Asking for help? Engaging in long, mind-numbing internal dialogue?

Or is he DOING something? Is he asking hard questions? Demanding answers? Is he making a hard decision and sticking to it? Running into the thick of the fray? Killing someone? Saving someone's life? Saying "no" when everyone expects him to say "yes"? Or visa versa?

A protagonist doesn't need to be a superhero (unless, yanno, you've written a superhero story), and, in fact, won't be believable if you try to make him into one. But he's got to be bigger than life in the sense that he propels the action--makes the choices--brings on his destiny.  Nobody wants to read the story of a mamby-pamby wallflower.  (And even if your story is about a wallflower who succeeds against all odds, you can still make him ACTIVE instead of PASSIVE--by giving him the actions that propel the story, instead of following the supporting characters and all their shenanigans.)

So revisit your protagonist! Make sure you've written a character for whom we WANT to cheer. Who draws us in and makes us think, "Why don't I think of things like that?"  Not someone who climbs down the fire escape because her best friend told her to.

Got it? Now go make sure your main character is positively kick-butt!

Back to BASICS next week...and a big, squooshy I'M SORRY

Okay.  I should have said good-bye before I left.  But that's not the squooshy apology part.  I mean, I figured most, if not all, of you follow Miss Snark's First Victim and knew I'd be leaving for vacation.

What writer wants to be redundant, right?

Anyway...I'M BACK!  *big, cheesy grin*

Here's the apology part:  I haven't done much around here!  Other than the weekly BASICS, I mean.  I've got all sorts of ideas and even a plan or two, but to be honest, running two blogs is more overwhelming than I'd anticipated, even with the AWESOME HELP I'm getting around here.

*pauses to beam at MAD, LIZZY, and TARYN*

Anyway, I'm sorry.  Remember a month or two ago when I asked you to tell me your favorite MG/YA authors?  That's because I'm going to start trying to round up a few of them for interviews and other fun things around here.  And we're going to do more in-house critting, too; we just need to grow our community a little more first, so we don't keep reading the same things from the same people.  Over and over.

The FORUMS are the lifeblood of this place, at any rate.  I AM BLOWN AWAY BY THE AWESOMENESS OF THE COMMUNITY YOU'VE CREATED THERE.  Seriously!

So.  Bear with me.  And keep being your amazing selves.

(Have I mentioned how cool I think you all are?)

Also?  Please use this comment box for sharing your dreams and ideas.  What would you LOVE to see on this blog?  What would help/encourage/stretch you as a writer?  What would entertain you?  What would make you dive out of bed head first every morning JUST to see what's been posted?

Share!  Share lots!  I always read everything you have to say.

The Basics: The Inciting Incident

We're going to move away from grammar this week (try not to weep) and focus a bit on story structure.  Because, yanno, that's important, too.

You may or may not have heard the term inciting incident.  In screenplay terms, it's known as the catalyst.  Basically, it's the THING THAT HAPPENS that creates CHANGE and STARTS THE STORY.

Notice I said CHANGE and not ACTION or CONFLICT.  Of course you want conflict from the get-go; it's what creates tension and intrigue in your opening pages.  But it's the incident that creates CHANGE for the main character that drop-kicks your plot forward.  And it's important to time it well.  As in, no later than the end of the second chapter (which seems to work well for me).

Some familiar examples:

The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis:  Lucy discovers that the wardrobe actually leads to Narnia.

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by Rowling:  Hagrid tells Harry he's a wizard and says he's come to take him to Hogwarts.

Hunger Games by Collins:  Katniss takes her sister's place as the District 12 tribute.

Admittedly, it's easier to pick out these Moments of Great Change in novels that have already been written.  But it's important for you, as a writer, to identify the PRECISE MOMENT when something in your main character's life changes dramatically, thus setting the rest of the story in motion.  The event is life-changing in some aspect, and without the event, the story wouldn't happen.  So it's important to know exactly what this incident is, and how it leads to the unfolding of everything that happens afterward.

Examples of inciting incidents:

• Someone dies
• Something is won -- or lost
• Something is discovered (not any old something -- a life-changing something)
• Something happens that is the exact opposite of what was expected
• Something is decided (by the main character) that changes the course of his life

Once you've got this incident nailed, it acts like a springboard.  Sure, it's easy to get derailed or defocused even if you DO have an excellent inciting incident.  But that's the beauty of this journey--we just keep learning and growing, one step at a time.  So make sure your inciting incident is clear and well-placed.  The rest of your novel depends upon it.

The Basics: Antecedents and Pronoun Placement

You're dying to talk about pronouns some more, right?

Actually, this one's pretty easy to cover.  It has more to do with clarity than with grammar, though there's a bit of grammar involved, too.

Here it is:  A misplaced pronoun causes confusion.  That is, the random use of "he" or "she" or "they" when the reader has no idea who he, she, or they might be.

Pronouns always have what's called an antecedent.  An antecedent is that which comes before.  So the antecedent is the word (usually a proper noun) that comes before the subsequent pronouns that refer to it.

To wit:

Deborah burst through the door.  She realized at once she was in the wrong bathroom.

Deborah is the antecedent for both uses of she above.  Without the "Deborah" in the first sentence, we would not know who "she" was.

Note that the antecedent is not necessarily found in the same sentence as the pronouns that refer to it.

Pretty clear, right?  Things start to get muddy, though, when there are more than one character in a scene, and the hes and shes begin to proliferate.  That's when we have to be especially careful with pronoun placement.

For instance:

Maria stared at the woman on the porch.  She raised her hand to her left nostril in the ancient greeting, hoping she would understand.

In the above, there are two antecedents:  Maria and the woman.  When we get to the second sentence, we don't know if the first "she" refers to Maria or to the woman.  Which one is raising her hand to her left nostril?  And then, of course, we don't know to whom the second "she" is referring, either.  The entire thing is unclear.

In this instance, rewriting is probably your best option, because you don't ever want to start two sentences in a row with the same word:

Maria stared at the woman on the porch.  Maria raised her hand to her....  (You see my point.)

Instead:

Maria stared at the woman on the porch while raising her hand to her left nostril in the ancient greeting. She hoped the woman would understand.

Another tricky business is dialogue tags.  There are times when "he" or "she" can be perfectly clear.  There are other times, however, when we may not know who is actually speaking.  So be careful with that.

It comes down to asking yourself, "Am I being clear?"  It's easy to forget, sometimes, that we know EXACTLY who we're talking about, but the reader does not.  So be extra careful in the placement of your pronouns, and extra picky when you go back to edit your work.  Any time you've got a sentence with only pronouns in it, go back and FIND THE ANTECEDENT.  Does it come DIRECTLY BEFORE the pronoun?  (Note:  That doesn't mean it the word right in front.  It means the NOUN or PROPER NOUN directly before the pronoun.)  If it doesn't, your pronoun reference is most likely unclear.

The Basics: Singular-Ending-In-S and Plural Possessives

Ready for some more apostrophe fun?  Let's talk about possessives some more.

1.  Singular nouns that end in "s"


It tends to confuse people when a singular noun ends in "s" but needs to show possession.  Often, the temptation is to simply stick a dangling apostrophe at the end of the word.  The CORRECT thing to do, however, is to add the apostrophe-s to the end of the word, just as you would if the word did NOT end in an S:

• Rufus's backpack   NOT Rufus' backpack
• the boss's wife  NOT the boss' wife

There are 2 notable exceptions:  It is generally accepted that JESUS' and MOSES' are correct possessive forms, simply because Jesus's and Moses's sound like you've got a speech impediment.

2.  Plural possessives


A plural possessive is a word that shows ownership by more than one person.  Here are the rules:

If the plural noun ends in an "s", simply add the apostrophe at the end.

• girls' (belonging to more than 1 girl)
• teachers' (belonging to more than 1 teacher)
• friends' (belonging to more than 1 friend)
• foxes' (belonging to more than 1 fox)

If the plural noun has its own, special form, add an apostrophe-s the way you would with a single noun.

• children's
• women's
• firemen's
• brothers-in-law's

That about covers it.  I highly recommend Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots, and Leaves for an entertaining and definitive source of apostrophe (and comma) wisdom.

The Basics: Possessive Pronouns

Time to call out another extremely common mistake:

ITS vs. IT'S

It boils down to a simple rule.  Which is:  POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS NEVER USE APOSTROPHES.

Admittedly, this rule means nothing to you if you don't know what a possessive pronoun is.  So let's spend a minute on this:

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS are pronouns that show ownership.  As in, something BELONGS to someone or something.

In a sentence, a possessive pronoun acts as an ADJECTIVE, because it will always modify a noun:

HER novel
THEIR team
MY chocolate

So, here they are, in all their glory:

First person:

MY, MINE
OUR, OURS

Second person:

YOUR, YOURS

Third person:

HIS, HERS, ITS, THEIR, THEIRS

There it is, right in the middle of the last list:  ITS.  Meaning, "belonging to it."  NO APOSTROPHE.

NONE of the possessive pronouns have apostrophes.  NOT EVER.

So, what is IT'S all about?

IT'S is a CONTRACTION that stands for IT IS.  The apostrophe in a contraction always takes the place of missing letters.  In this instance, it takes the place of the letter i.

IT'S raining today.  (Meaning:  IT IS raining today.)

IT'S hard writing novels.  (Meaning:  IT IS hard writing novels.)

Clear?

If so, you'll see why it's ridiculous to say:

The baby fell asleep in it's crib.

The meaning of which is:  The baby fell asleep in IT IS crib.

And there's your litmus test.  Since IT'S always means IT IS, check by substituting IT IS for the IT'S in your sentence.  If it doesn't make sense, YOU'RE WRONG.

Because...POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS NEVER GET APOSTROPHES.

I understand why it's confusing.  "Normal" nouns get an apostrophe-S to connote ownership:

Authoress's chocolate
Lizzy's chocolate
Mad's black belt

But if you can remember that POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS NEVER GET APOSTROPHES, you will never use IT'S when you're supposed to use ITS.

Capiche?

Whom Do You Love?

Okay, it's time to grab the comment box and tell me who your favorite contemporary YA and MG authors are.  (As in, they're not dead and they're publishing books right now.)

I'd like to invite more authors here for you to learn about and ask questions of, and I'd love to supply you with folks you really WANT to see here.  Obviously I can't promise you JK Rowling, but I can do my best to rope in a few authors who aren't richer than the Queen of England.

Post 'em!  I'll be reading with interest.

The Basics: The Subjunctive Mood

Did you know that verbs have moods?

Yes, they do.  Which makes me feel better about my OWN moods. *grin*

So one of my (many) pet peeves is the misuse of the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.  In fact, I'll bet you've all made this mistake countless times, both in your writing and in your speaking.  The misuse is so common that most people don't even realize it's a mistake.

But you are all WRITERS.  So you want to do things right.  Right?

So.  I give you THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD:

Basically, the subjunctive mood is used when something is being declared with a WISH or a DOUBT.  In other words, if the outcome is uncertain, our verb gets MOODY.  The word "subjunctive", in fact, means DOUBTFUL.

So if the verb in your sentence has "IF" or "WISH" before it, it needs to be in the subjunctive mood.

As always, examples work best:

*WRONG* He would be taller if he was older.
*CORRECT* He would be taller if he were older.

*WRONG* I wish I was a better writer.
*CORRECT* I wish I were a better writer.

*WRONG* If it rains tomorrow, our plans will be ruined.
*CORRECT* If it should rain tomorrow, our plans will be ruined.

*WRONG* He spoke as if he was the only one in the room.
*CORRECT* He spoke as if he were the only one in the room.

*WRONG* If you are quiet, you will hear the baby birds.
*CORRECT* If you be quiet, you will hear the baby birds.

*WRONG* If it is hot, we'll go swimming.
*CORRECT* If it be hot, we'll go swimming.

Okay, I'll admit it.  The last one sounds like pirate speak.  I mean, who TALKS that way?  Yet technically it's correct.  One hundred percent.  (However, if you make your characters talk that way, I'll have to glue your fingers together for a while.)

But really, the most common error is the was/were confusion.  The rule is:  If "if" or "wish" comes before the verb, than it is "were" and NOT "was".

Clear as mud? I wish there were a simpler way to put it!