You may wonder from time to time how to get your foot in the door of this business. There is no easy answer, but I want to help make it a little easier for you. And I'll tell you why I want to help you. I don't want anyone to take as long as I did to become a success. It's as simple as that.
First of all, there is no magic secret. No secret formula, no special directions, no how-to's. It's just not that simple. If it was, I'd have been published long before now. There are however, things you need to know. I've often wondered why writers at conferences and workshops never get into what it really takes. I say that because they tell you about plotting, characterization, managing your time, all of which help to make you a better writer, but none of which will help get that perverbial foot in the door. I want to expand on that to help all the unpublished writers out there understand that it is no one magic ingredient. It's a combination of things, and the biggest ingredient is absolutely free. Ninety percent of what you are going to need in this business now and later is perserverance. I know, you've heard this before and you think I'm kidding. I'm not. DON'T GIVE UP. NEVER GIVE UP. Because this is a tough business and you've got to be tough to make it.
You have to start writing--and finish what you start. Sounds easy, but not so. Sounds familiar too, doesn't it, your teachers probably taught you this in grade school. Some people actually start and find it isn't as easy as it sounds to write an entire book from start to finish. It's hard work. Unless you enjoy doing it, I don't advise you to try it. In most real writers there is a drive that forces you onward in your task. There is no timetable for how long it takes. It takes until you finish the manuscript. I don't care if you write a page a day, a sentence a day, just write the darn book.
Now, once you've accomplished this, relax for just a while, so that you have some time to celebrate what you have done. You have accomplished something. Celebrate. You deserve it.
Next, I know what your thinking, send that puppy out, huh? Wrong. No, next you've got to let someone read it. I wouldn't advise sending it cold turkey to a publisher unless you've polished, rewritten and put it away for a while--and rewritten again, unless you've got a strong constitution. So who DO you let read it? NOT A RELATIVE! Why? Because relatives have a way of bending over backwards to be kind, or killing all hopes of getting published in the first place. So what's the answer? Find a published author, or a critique group and let them read it. Let them pick it apart. WARNING:: This may hurt some. NO! THIS MAY HURT A LOT! Let it, it's part of the learning process. Now go home, after you've cried because someone said your plot won't hold water. Or your hero isn't heroic enough. Think about what you've been told. Consider the possibility you may be wrong. Consider an editor might think the same thing and won't buy it. Then rewrite. Do this until you know you have a good manuscript. Now send it in, after you've polished it till it shines. To which Editor you ask? Well, first you need to have done your homework along the way. And that my friends means joining writer's organizations to learn more about the marketing end of your new business. Now you start to realize that writing isn't just writing, you've got a whole new bag of skills to learn and they aren't always easy. I recommend RWA or WRW organizations, both romance writers organizations. Consider E-Publishing, too. Join listservs. Chat with other writers. They have much to learn from. Another step, network with writers and conferences and workshops. Talk to people in this business. And by all means listen. Because if you don't listen none of the things I've just said will do a bit of good. For all the things you do know, there's always something you don't.
But above all, submit. So you are scared, of what? Editors can't hurt you, you'll be the same tomorrow whether they love your writing or hate it. Rejection hurts, but consider it your stepping stone. It's a challenge and you must take up that challenge if you want to succeed in this business. Sure, there are some that get published right away, but consider those statistics few and far between. Rejection is merely a step forward in this business, learn that. I'm sure you've probably heard that before, why? Because with every rejection you learn something new. Pay attention to the kind of rejections you get, take notes. Remember them when you are rewriting.
Submit, and submit again. Cry for your rejection, but don't let it stop you. This is the biggest key I can give you. Don't stop submitting. Don't give up. If the men in the Alamo had given up, think where Texas might be today. Yeah, I'm from Texas. And proud of it. But the biggest step you will take is submitting to another after you get that first rejection. Do it.
Learn your trade, network, work hard, write one, then write another. Keep writing, keep submitting, keep networking, keep learning, and one other small detail, teach yourself to be flexible, because without it you won't last. Example, if an editor likes your book but hates the ending. Be flexible. It could mean the difference between getting published and not. That's what it takes to turn unpublished into published. That's the big secret. So now you know--go for it! Now you are probably wondering where I'm coming from. Just what makes me such an expert.. Well, that's just it, I am. I've been trying to put my foot in that same door for years. How many years, try 40 for starters. I've worked hard. But I have one quality that set me apart from some others, I have perserverance. This, and this alone will get you published. Sure I wanted to give up. Sure, I felt I wasn't good enough. Still do. I had every symptom you can think of, but I didn't quit. And I urge you not to quit.
Talent? Yes, you must have a talent for writing to some degree, but talent can be developed, just like a dancer must learn the moves, so must a writer. If you don't have a natural flair, then it must be cultivated. Learn from the people you admire most. Read, and read some more. So you can't quote a line, so you can't remember a name. All that is not necessary, although I wouldn't go around forgetting the editor's name. The only thing you have to remember if you really want to be a writer, is: DON'T GIVE UP!!
Good Luck and good writing!!
Before I ever start writing a book, I basically know what my characters are going to be like. I see them in my head, like a movie. Perhaps you do too. So what makes for a good character?
First of all, in writing a romance, the hero must be heroic. Does this mean he is perfect? Heck no! That's the biggest mistake a writer can make is making that character perfect. People are not perfect and therefore making your character so would not make them seem like real people.
And you want your characters to realistic enough that the reader can identify with them. You want that reader to laugh, cry, and get mad about your characters. You want her emotions just as keyed up as yours are when you write the story.
Characters are not made from makeup. Rather it is their individual makeup that makes them. Perhaps the best examples of characterization today are in Robert Newton Peck's "Fiction is Folks". In this easy to read, easy to understand book you will learn more about drawing your character out than any other book written. Newton is the Twain of the century. In fact he won the 1982 Mark Twain Award.
Chapter after chapter Newton gives you examples of how to draw your character into your reader's mind. Think of it this way, it's not the perfection of humanity that makes a character perfect, it's the imperfections. How would we perceive Ahab in Moby Dick had he not had that gosh-awful wooden peg leg. A leg whose "thump" we could hear even after we close the book. Can you imagine Captain Hook without that hook for a hand? Of course not.
However don't rely on physical attributes alone to draw your character. This alone won't make up your character. Part of making a character is how your character is going to react in any given situation.
Everyone knows what a bully is, the big kid on the block who threatens to knock Johnny's head off if he doesn't give over his lunch money. Okay we know the bully is probably bigger than Johnny. We know he's mean. Why, because the word "bully" tells us that much.
Think of the picture you conjure in your head when one says the word "bully". But just being mean doesn't make him a very good bully. No, what makes him a good bully is knowing why he is so mean. The bully never has lunch money of his own, because his dad lost his job last summer and his family is barely making it. The bully's name is Marion, and to keep from having others laugh at him, he gets tougher than anyone in his class. Everyone knows Marion is his name, but no one would dare call him that. So he's got a girlish name, and he's poor, so to cover up those problems Marion becomes the "bully". Now we understand why he's a bully. We still don't like him, but at least we understand him. Marion has become a character. So we want to enlarge Marion. Perhaps Marion has a sister, and she has no lunch money either. Marion isn't old enough to work for the money, so he must devise a way to get the money. He beats Johnny up, takes away his money and gives it to his sister. Instantly what character comes to mind, robs from the rich and gives to the poor--Robin Hood. Now Marion is looking more like the hero!
You can clearly see how we can draw upon images in our minds and transform what looks like one thing to be another.
Now we begin to see him as less a bully and more a protector.
So do we tell everyone all the details of Marion's life. No, we slowly leak it out through the story. Through dialogue, through actions.
We don't know he has a sister, till we see him giving her the money he took.
Suppose Johnny is a little too small for his age, and his dad owns the factory where Marion's dad was fired. Johnny has all kinds of money. Marion knows this and only picks on Johnny. And Johnny has no sister.
No one actually knows Marion's dad lost his job until he says something to Johnny just before he beats him up. Through dialogue and action you can explain without explaining. Characters are drawn by an image in your mind.
Does anyone know what a fireman looks like that dashes into the fire a third time just to save a howling puppy from a nearly destroyed building?
No, you don't see his transparent blue eyes, nor the shade of his mahogany hair. You don't know he's barely twenty years old, when he risks his life. But you are with him in that fire and you root for him to save the puppy. He is a character.
You see a man, who's principles and priorities are that of a hero. Therefore he has already, without knowing his physical attributes been burned into your memory. This is what makes a character. When you can burn a character into the reader's head, you know you have succeeded.
So one of the best ways to draw a character is to pick that character apart and find out what really makes him tick. In Peck's book, "Fiction is Folks" you'll discover example after example of how to draw upon a character. Listen how he describes Clunie, one of the most difficult characters he ever wrote about. "Thus, I began to think of myself as Clunie Finn, an odd combo of physical might and mental retardation, in a high school society where boys and girls are perhaps too rapidly straining to be men and women. A healthy body now battles a childish mind that could be perhaps, too limited to discipline desire."
Do you get the picture of Clunie now. In one paragraph Peck has created a character that neither you nor I will soon forget.
Why did we love Scarlett O'Hara? She was mean, despicable, even dishonest, but we all loved and rooted for her in the end. Because despite what she had done, we knew she did it for a purpose, we knew she grew as a character throughout the book, she became real to us. And when she in the end saw her own downfall, how could we not sympathize. Why, because she didn't give up, to the end she was a strong character in her weakest moment. "After all, tomorrow is another day."
How could we not empathize with Rhett Butler when he finally saw he had lost her, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"
Throughout Gone with the Wind, we hated Scarlett for her treachery, and yet we empathized too. Why, because despite her bad qualities, she was human. Margaret Mitchell made Scarlett O'Hara very human to us.
No matter how well plotted your story may be, if there is no emotional pull toward your characters, then the reader just won't care how the book comes out.
Even when drawing your villain, you must give us at least one good attribute for us to believe he is who you say he is. Where better to discover this than "Silence of the Lambs". In the end, what did you think of the doctor? Did you have mixed emotions? Did you sense his intelligence, yet fear his deadly calm. Character.
Secondary characters are just as important as your heroine and hero. They can enhance the entire book with laughter, anger, or keeping the pace going. Don't cheat your readers by not giving them a personality.
If we all wrote romances with Ken and Barbie's who would read them? Good looks are only an attribute but they won't carry your story. You must give them flaws to overcome. Let them grow through your story.
In Dream Lover my hero looked very much like a drifter on a Harley. Nothing heroic about that, but a judge from a contest had this remark about my 'Cooper Johnson' in the last chapter. "He's too perfect." Well he didn't start off that way. He grew through the story and became an icon. But had that judge read the beginning of the book, instead of the end, she might have had an entirely different opinion of him. So even though I didn't win anything in the contest, I had made my character grow.
If Rhett Butler had not come to the conclusion that Scarlett didn't love him, and kept doting on her, would Gone With the Wind have satisfied you? No, of course not. So in order to establish a character, that character must be allowed to grow.
In your hero and heroine, find a flaw or flaws that make them a human, a real person, and make them grow from that point. In your villains find a good characteristic that makes them more human and you will have your readers coming back time and time again.
How do we make them more human. Let's take Scarlett since she is already well established in most people's mind. Scarlett would go to any length to get what she wanted. She was hateful, dishonest, and coniving. But what made us watch, stick with Scarlett despite all this? Okay, on the other hand, Scarlett loved her parents, she loved her Mammy, she loved the land upon which she was born. And she actually took care of all the people on that plantation with her strong will. This in itself is heroic. Melanie if you remember was sweet, but what did Melanie do to help all the people on the plantation. She was sweet, and as such that's how we thought of her throughout the book. So the thing that keeps people interested in a character is the complexities of that character.
Had Scarlet been mean as sin itself, and Rhett lilly white, we would have been bored in minutes. But Margaret Mitchell did not allow this. She made us like Scarlet despite her bad qualities, she had us rooting for her in the end. And wishing we could talk some sense into Rhett too.
Never look for the perfect to begin your story with. No one cares if Barbie meets Ken, they fall in love and get married. Internal conflict comes from the characters own makeup. Internal conflict is your character and why they react to certain situations the way they do. It is also the basis for characterization.
In my manuscript Wandering Heart I made Angela, my heroine jealous, and made her come to grips with this emotion. In the end she was more real because she acted upon this emotion. Emotion and characters go together. Give them plenty of emotions to play with.
In "Last of the Mohicans" what made you fall in love with Hawkeye? Was it when he talked to Cora about his folks, or quoted the poetry of his Indian father to her. Did your heart warm when you saw an ultra tough guy tell his Indian father he loved him and his brother? Or did you love him even more when he told Cora, "They stay as they lay." In his eyes was the emotion he felt as he spoke the words. As though it hurt him to say that to her. This is what makes the character, his or her emotions ruling actions sometimes. Just like a movie, the reader has to see those emotions coming to life in that book. Don't be afraid to use them to your advantage.
How do we see emotion? Think of all the movies you've seen that brought emotion into play. It wasn't necessarily when someone broke down an cried, but maybe when they didn't. Remember Bogart in Casablanca?
Mannerism plays a role. Robert Newton Peck called them tools. Give your character a tool. "Tools make sounds." Peck said. Remember Captain Ahab and that confounded loud thudding of his peg leg. "Let your reader hear it, feel it; rattle his skull and bones with the beat of its poetry. Pierce his ears." Peck says. Ever seen a person run around with a toothpick in their mouth, not necessarily a noticeable thing. But what if they had the habit of sucking air with that toothpick. What if a man carries too much change in his pocket and is always jingling it. Do you remember these things about them? Yes!! Because you hear that jangling on the nerves as you read and you don't forget this. There are obvious tools, but it's more fun to invent your own. This is characterization.
Creating a character is as simple as remembering things about people that annoy you and making a character with that kind of habit. Ever sit on a street corner and watch people before. Try it, you'd be surprised how much you learn about characters. What are their mannerisms. What annoys you about some, what makes you laugh about others. Why do you feel sorry for yet even others. Characters, that's why.
I once had a teacher in Houston that brought a whip to class. I kid you not, she brought it to class. She slapped it against her desk to get everyone's attention. Everyone was scared of her. But I guess because I always wrote in my head,even back then I soon realized that this was merely her tool. And I never forgot her, or the whip. She lingers in my mind. She's the only teacher I ever had that I can remember almost down to the last detail. Try giving your characters a tool, an unexpected, surprising kind of tool. Something oddly out of place, and the reader will remember it forever.
Use it and you will color your pages. And your readers will remember your characters! Just remember there is no greater gift for a writer than to have his characters remembered. It's those special characters that are remembered long after the author is dead.
How many times can they make the movie, Scrooge? About a million, because he was a character. How many times can they replay, "It's a Wonderful Life". A million because George Baily is an unforgetable character. What about "I Love Lucy". Her reruns have run longer than any show on earth. Why? Because Lucy was a character that everyone identified with. Create that kind of character and no one will put down your book. Characters are what books are all about. Unforgettable characters are what history is made of!