That One Thing

I talked about that One Thing in my last post. For me it's not motivation or goal. It's the deep dark secret thing the character needs or maybe even wants. The one thing the character admits to when no one else is around or his/her usual barriers are down. It's the one thing they've been running from, because having it and losing it is the ONE THING they don't know they'll be able to survive.

It's not an easy thing to pinpoint. It may take the fifth draft of the book before it truly hits me. Of course I then go back to make sure it's not just in my head, but also on the page. The only way to find it is knowing my character. Writing is circular in that way. Need a plot? Find out who your character is. Need an overall goal for your novel? Find out who your character is.

So how do you find that one thing? Unfortunately it doesn't show up in the ms color-coded or followed by !!!! to emphasize it's importance. Oh, how I wish, because it can be anywhere. And sadly, it's like porn you know when you see it. I've written or read it and something in me paused. I come across it and all the layers I've surrounded my character with makes sense.

Let me see if I can make this clear as mud with an example:

I have this hero. He's all business. He grew up poor, but his push has nothing do with not being poor ever again. At first I thought it had everything to do with his father being murdered. Losing someone in such a violent and sudden way can skew you in a way that can't be defined. For him it made him focus with a tunnel vision that made him torture himself and refuse the lighter side of life. So, of course he wouldn't stop to smell the roses. And, of course pairing him with someone who manages to do everything but focus would drive him insane.

In a way I was right. Losing his father was the One Thing, but only the top layer.

Father murdered.

Scared of losing someone else he loves.

That fear turns into him not connecting with others in a deep and intimate way.

The heroine's way of living is his idea of worst nightmare. He pushes her away and by doing that pushing away the very thought of intimacy.

Yet when they get closer he tells himself their attraction, their compatibility is out of his control. When it's really him finally rejecting the idea he doesn't want intimacy.

Then I came across this:

He could have Lynne who made him forget reason. Forget his purpose for being in this town. Make Nate forget the grief that wanted to choke him at night when he was alone.

Out of context this makes absolutely no sense, but when I wrote this I had to stop. Yes, he wants intimacy and is sabotaging himself in order to get it. It's something he craves, but in order for him to have it he has to let go of the grief. The same grief that goes away when he's with the heroine.

His One Thing is letting go. He believes if he lets go of his goal (the goal is the physical manifestation of this ---->), lets go of the grief he will somehow forget his father and making his father's life in vain. It's the one thing he admits to himself when no one else is around--he wants to stop grieving for his father. He secretly wishes that constant ache would lessen.

No the realization isn't ground breaking, but everything about my hero made sense--why he was so cold, why he was fighting to death for his goal, why loving the heroine was the absolutely last thing he wanted to do (not for the idea of loving someone is scary, but what he would have to give up in order to love her). The wonderful thing, it also helped me see what the ending needed to be.

Which is the One Thing I'm still looking for with the new story I talked about. Sigh. Needle in the haystack, anyone?

Have you found your character's One Thing?

You Gotta Get Out Of The Way of The Story

So, I've been banging my head on a brick wall with one story. Parts of it is fabulous. Parts of does everything a story is supposed to do. Other parts make me want to select all, hit delete and save the current changes.

Then NaNo happened and that story sucked me in. And that little 'you suck' voice got drowned out by thousands of shiny new words. The problem was when I went back to the MS That Makes My Brain Hurt it still sucked. Yes it had more fabulous parts to it, but the sucky bits took over the ms and left me wondering once if I had it in me to write a good book.

I made the decision to open up a completely different ms and edit that one. It's been sitting on my computer since September. 2 months is more than enough time to come back to an ms with a fresh perspective and for the story to read as if someone else wrote it.

I stayed up all night reading it. The story by no means is perfect, but when I finished I knew exactly what needed to be fixed and HOW to fix it, which is half the battle. I knew it'd take me maybe three days to fix the major parts. Another day to make all the sentences shine and I'd be ready to shoot it off to a CP or Beta.

But more than that I sat back and wondered why this story was so much easier to fix. The first answer is that I haven't spent a month reading it over and over and over again just to keep hitting a new snag. One major reason is that the goal/motivation/conflict is on point. I can't say it was the prep work before the novel. I did A LOT prep work with the other book.

The defining factor is that with the story that's easier to fix I got out of the way and let my characters show their story through dialogue, action, and narration. It's easy to say I'm just here to dictate and to actually dictate what's happening. My, characters, and I'm sure yours do too, become their own people after a while. But the moment I stepped in and wrote what I thought should happen, what I thought they should say, the whole thing turned into a cluster*****. So every time I read a scene that just doesn't jive I see myself imitating the characters and doing a horrible rendition of them. Much like someone doing an impersonation of Elvis and gets it all wrong, you cringe a little don't you? Now imagine hours of it.

Oy, vey.

So as a public service, I'll tell you to just step out of the way. You can save hours of your time. You can keep your sanity. You can prevent the brain bleed from banging your head on the wall day after day after day. The upshot is getting a story that rings true through the character.

A Difference A Year Can Make

I'm in editing mode at the moment so I'm a little introspective. I'm also a little wild-eyed because the story I'm working on is a year old. Remember when I said look at older works? I do practice what I preach.

So in the past 365 days I've learned how to show instead of tell. I'm still not perfect at this, but as I said, I've gotten better. I would like to think my stories are more tangible now that I try to breathe more life into the passages.

For example:

Original Sentence:

She smiled again, more from the warm feeling the alcohol gave her than because of his appearance—at least that’s what she told herself.

Edited Sentence:

She smiled again, more from the warmth flooding through her body, filled at the moment with alcohol, than his appearance—at least that’s what she told herself.

I'm not going to win a Pulitzer Prize for this sentence, and though the change is subtle it has a better impact. I'm describing exactly how the alcohol is skewing her perspective. When I read the original I noted I'd used the word "feel" a dead ringer for when you are telling instead of showing. I should mention I went over this story at least three times last year. I never saw this sentence as a problem. Funny, even now I'm looking at it to see if I can re-word for clarity.

Here's another example.

Original Paragraphs (sentences really):

She got up and made her way to Janice’s office. Janice was shuffling some papers when Hazel entered.

Edited Paragraphs:

Hazel stepped out of her office to find the hub of the company in it's usual state of chaos. The room curved in a semi-circle and the view from the second floor always made her dizzy, not from the height, but of the constant movement below.

The people who made this company work didn't get a moments rest. Phones were always ringing, someone was usually running in or out, and the big boss could step out of her office at any moment to watch. The tension in her neck spread down to her shoulders. She closed her eyes a moment to calm down, but couldn't, not with the constant noise.

She gave up and turned into Janice's office. Her boss was shuffling some papers on her desk when Hazel entered.

Now these passages involve more than describing to the reader where she works. Since I'm fond of lists...

1. The obvious, I'm showing the reader where she works. Instead of an disembodied trek to the Janice's office.

2. It's a busy place and not what someone would call a peaceful place to work.

3. For some reason just standing there puts tension in the heroine's neck.

4. Word choice is an amazing thing. You can create a certain feeling with just the words you use to describe something. "constant movement below" vs. "busy"; "a moment's rest" vs. "full work schedule"; and the one I wanted to convey the most since the heroine is about to go into Janice's office "big boss" vs "the boss, nice boss, Janice."

Going through this book has helped me reevaluate my editing process. I've been looking for any spots in this ms to see when I've missed an opportunity to make it better.

So, the moral of this posts: Watch out for missed opportunities for description, character develop, awkward sentences and telling cues *the five sense: see, feel, hear, touch, smell*. The most important moral is to never stop learning how to write better. If this old dog can learn new tricks and have them stick, then there is hope for everyone. (Trust me, I'm a sssslllllooooowwwww learner.)

It's Kind of Like eHarmony

Whether or not I believe in the current characters HEA or HFN depends on a few things. It also depends on how well the author matched up the hero and heroine. An author can have all the ingredients in the novel that would make me believe these two belonged together. They have some shared interests. It could be as simple as the same t.v. show. Or that they both, deep down, want to save humanity or *insert a shared interest* There's chemistry between them. Maybe in some part of the process of falling in love they changed their status quo for the better.

I'm not one of those people who doesn't believe in love at first sight. I also don't get hung up on the timeline of when the characters first meet and when they fall in love. For instance, Agnes and the Hitman timeline was a week, MAYBE two, but I believed in their HFN.

So what do I believe this IT factor hinges on?

*WARNING THIS IS STRICTLY WHAT I BELIEVE IT MAY NOT HOLD UP IN COURT, UNDER A MICROSCOPE, OR ANY OTHER TESTS*

Do these characters not only compliment each other, but also challenge and/or encourages the other person want/need to be a better person. Could have someone else encouraged the change in the hero or heroine? I think this factor is why I'm drawn to write stories where the h/h are opposites, at least on the surface. There isn't a better way to change who or what you are than pairing up with someone who sees the world differently. You stop to smell the roses. The other person might say, "what roses I was drooling over the car that just passed."

Lastly, the theme of love makes you a better person is what resonates with me. Hence, my warning. A book where I don't believe in the HEA/HFN ending is dependent on the theme that resonates with me.

Why two people fall in love is as different as the MOMENT two people realized they were in love. It could be over a cup of coffee. The first date. A look across the room. Something about the other person moved their soul. Or, the other person cooked a fabulous meal just for that person in their life.

Love is one of those whimsical things that you can't describe, but you can show examples of it. Your examples may be totally different from mine.

Of course, I want to know what resonates with you? What characters are you drawn to read? What characters are you drawn to write?