The Sound of Story

By Suzanne Y. Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

The cool music director of my daughter’s 5^th grade band goes for classic rock ‘n roll and traditional marches— the stuff that sounds good really loud. The young people haven't yet developed the ability to play a range of sounds through their shiny new instruments, so these pieces sound good the louder the better!

Does your work-in-progress sound too one-note?

• Is your writing packed with lightning-paced action?
•  Do you play tour guide for your readers, meandering through description (and avoiding nasty things like confronting your beloved character with bad guys and car chases?)
• Is witty, contemporary dialogue your thing?
• Do you stay in your comfort zone by relying heavily on one of these elements?

A radio hit tells us we’ll “miss the sun when it starts to snow” and we'll know you "love her when you let her go.” Without contrasts, it is difficult to recognize what is sometimes right in front of our noses. In a good book, readers are more compelled to turn pages when emotional highs and lows pull them along. Who doesn't like to cheer in the stands when a favorite character is the underdog?

Layer notes in your composition

•          Make satisfying “ups” by writing worst-case “downs”
•          If your story flies at a fast pace, how will the climax stand out?
•          If the characters don’t slow down to offer their thoughts, when will the reader identify with a character and process what is happening?
•     Talking-head characters need feet grounded in reminders of setting, so a reader can walk along. 

Musicians grow in talent when they add notes and technique to their repertoire. The conductor guides an ensemble through the score to convey the composer’s intended volume and feeling: soft pianissimo, loud forte, dramatic rhythm, or soothing flow. Music can play upon emotions like a dance, a falling in and out of love. My other talented daughter is singing this weekend in a production of Les Miserables with Colchester Community Theater. The music in Les Mis has the power to make one feel hope, anger, love, determination, longing and despair—and I’m probably missing another half dozen emotions in this list! Who doesn't love a good show (OR BOOK) that makes us laugh and cry, often at the same time?

Warning: One-note novels can be boring and exhausting to read.  

For a more interesting balance, alternate scenes with moments of contemplation—a quiet opportunity for your main character to reflect on what has gone down. More importantly, it will give your reader time to worry about what comes next. 

Have you enjoyed a book especially "musical" in its emotional complexity? When you read, do you like to feel you are in the competent hands of a good conductor? Share some titles!

Lessons from the Golf Course

                                    By Suzanne Y. Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

For the third week in a row, a female executive in an expensive suit hops onto the driving range ten minutes late, balancing on a 4-inch stiletto heel while shoving her other foot into a stiff golf shoe. She nods at the instructor while speaking into the cell phone pressed between her ear and shoulder.

            The golf pro has lost patience, but not her sense of humor. She poses a question. “Are your clients expected to be on time for appointments? Early, right?”

            The executive nods and mutters ‘call you back’ into her phone.

            The pro holds out her hand and says, “Next week, you will arrive ten minutes early for my lesson. You will be dressed for a golf course. You will hand over your phone the minute you arrive, which will be how early?”

            “Ten minutes,” the exec replies, dropping her cell phone into the pro’s open palm.

My neighbor talked me into golf lessons this summer. When we figured out the key to a successful swing was to relax, I asked the pro, “How do CEO types relax enough to enjoy this game?” The story above was my instructor’s reply, hilarious when she acted out the details. That was the day I scored writing lessons along with my first par 3.

Writing Lesson from the Fairway

Keep true to your characters no matter what they are doing. 

People have different personalities and motivations. Characters should approach activities accordingly, whether they are skydiving, washing dishes or being treated in a hospital. How would your characters react to new situations? Brave and daring? Or timid and shy ?

If I put a team of characters together on the golf course, the individuals might:

            -Have brilliant beginner’s luck

            -Be riddled with self-negativity and despair with every swing

            -Sign up out of a golf widow’s desperate attempt to keep up with her missing husband

            -Be frustrated and curse every hole for its unfairness

            -Beat a hasty retreat to the clubhouse bar or befriend the beverage cart driver

            -Bask in the lovely scenery and quiet peacefulness of the course

Much more interesting writing fodder than a simple reporting, "Joe met his friends on the golf course every Saturday."   

More Writing Lessons     

Remember it is a game. Relax, have fun and your writer’s voice will emerge.

Each course, hole, and story is unique; approach each blank slate with confidence and the right tools.

Expect bad shots and rejections. Your best might be around the next corner!

Stop Whining, Already!

by Suzanne Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com


Are your characters a bunch of whiners? Characters who whine are like static blizzards on TV. The white stuff adds a lot of noise, but it sure isn't entertaining.

My critique partners pointed out the static in my work-in-progress after reading a scene with a typical brother-sister spat. The dialogue? Believable. The action? Lifted from life. Well then, I opened my mouth to debate their thumbs-down verdict. What’s the problem? A total lack of value to the story. Ouch!

Look at these similar scenes:

            “Give it back,” demanded Jon. “It’s mine.”

            Julie ran around the room, the key dancing from her fingers. “You’ll have to catch me.”

            “Give it back OR ELSE!” Jon grabbed at her hand and got a fistful of long hair.

            “MOM, Jon pulled my hair!”

            Mom came to the door, an angry expression denting her brow. “What’s going on?”

OR

            “Give it back.”

            Julie danced the key out of reach from Jon’s grabbing fingers. “Only if you show me.”

            “If I open the box,” said Jon, “can you keep a secret? Can you handle the truth?”

            Jon and Julie shook hands. Mom came to the door, eyebrows raised. “What’s going on?”

           

Which story would you keep reading? In the first example, I wanted to tell the kids to settle down--The End. The scene contains “loud” action. Running, grabbing, pulling hair. Yet what does it add but a sibling relationship scene that is already familiar to just about everybody? No surprises. No story.

The quieter example propels the reader into a story filled with conflict and tension. Conflict does not have to involve spectacular car chases and fist fights. I want to turn the page to discover answers: What’s in the box? Can Jon trust Julie? Can Julie keep a secret? Can she handle the truth? What truth? How will they answer Mom? All of that in fewer words than the first example!

The more surprise and tension, the faster readers will turn your pages. Check scenes for these points:

            Is the dialogue a time filler?

            Would it change or harm the story if cut?

            Is there tension on every page? In every paragraph? In every sentence?
            Can the action or dialogue be blended with another scene?

            Does the scene add value on multiple levels? Characterization? Plot? Setting? Mood?

            Does the scene conjure questions that compel readers to turn pages?

Questions for you: 1) Did you ever cut a major scene for the sake of a story? Were you glad you did?
                             2) Any guesses what's in Jon's box? 

Turn Up the Heat and Win BIG

Turn Up the Heat

                                                                                                                                                                     By Suzanne Cordatos

                                                                                            www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

One of the best ways to spend a summer afternoon is watching a sailing regatta. Lovely and peaceful, there is nothing quite like a fleet of colorful spinnakers billowing over sunlit waves, cool breezes kicking through the summer heat. As a bonus, no engine noises mar the view.

If you tally up the bruises afterward, participating in a race might be more akin to tackle football. My brother-in-law returned from two E-Scow regattas in one week proclaiming “My bruises got bruises!” With a wide smile, this sailor showed off his thighs streaked with multiple marks in shades of purple. Beaten up by a boom, apparently.

This sailor’s pride in accomplishment got me thinking as a writer.  Main characters need “bruises on their bruises” to bring their challenge to a satisfying conclusion.

     Are you too easy on your characters?

Beginning writers tend to love their characters too much and hesitate making their situations awful. Readers identify with characters and live through them: How would that character deal with something that, in real life, would be too scary to face?  

Real writing fun starts when you dig holes deep enough to make your characters show their stuff. From the first pages, plant seeds—personal qualities—that will eventually help him or her save the day. One of my main characters wants to learn how to whistle just like her father. She works hard at it, puckering over and over. Perhaps your character has an uncanny ability to communicate with animals or throw his voice. A girl’s hair-braiding skills can be employed to rope-weaving. That whistle turns into a life-saving signal in the book’s climax.

No matter how outrageous the situation, your characters’ challenges will be met in a way that is believable if you have planted the seeds to their success early on. Your readers will root for him or her to jump figurative or literal chasms.

  Is your villain nasty enough? Has he/she/it gone soft?

Think of any villain you love to hate. My current favorites are the actors on ABC’s Once Upon a Time series. Lana Parilla plays Snow White’s Evil Queen. Her colleague, Robert Carlyle, plays a delightfully devious Rumpelstiltskin.  Both seek to fulfill their own agendas at any cost. Sparingly, authors can use superlatives to add weight. If Voldemort was merely trying to give Harry Potter a bad day once in a while would his triumphant end be worth reading thousands of pages? As the darkest wizard in generations, with a name people feared to speak, Voldemort was a worthy opponent for the good vs. evil quest.

Your readers deserve the smartest hero or heroine (even if they don't start out that way) and the toughest nemesis you can dream up. Well-earned victory over a true villain makes it worth the effort to bang up your character with a boom. 

Pile on bruises on the bruises! 

Your readers will forgive you—and enjoy the ride.

Writer, Can You Spare a Dime?

Writer, Can you Spare a Dime?

By Suzanne Cordatos

www.suzannecordatos.blogspot.com

Are some of your characters standing on street corners with their hands out? Do you have jobs for everybody in town? Are they puppets, simply cardboard cut-outs holding a sign? Convenient buggers, aren’t they? Need a taxi driver? Here you are. Teacher. Kid on bike. Red Herring. Our characters get a literal “job”— but is it meaty enough? Will it satisfy?

Writer, you are CEO and chief employer of the fictional world you’ve created. How do you divvy out character roles? Do the best jobs go always to the protagonist and villain? Any spare change left for the unemployed but ever-present sidekick?

Don’t get mugged!  

It is loads of fun plotting and putting together a novel with as many pieces as a jigsaw puzzle. The more complicated the plot, however, the darker the alley of keeping every character’s job in mind. I got “mugged” recently by my cousin’s daughter, Ann. At ten, is the first official kid to read my work-in-progress manuscript. I sent her a hundred pages; she recorded it on her school reading log, and I resisted the urge to ask every ten minutes what she thinks. Two weeks later, I got an email with three magical words: “What happens next?” She wants MORE!

Ann’s email was a loaded gun, pointed at me and filled with questions. Questions that caught me unguarded in this dark alley of who-does-what. The most painful: OOH, I  can’t wait to see if [minor sidekick character] gets to do something special later on!

WHAT? BACK UP THE TRAIN.

In importance to the story, this cutie-pie sidekick character she’s referring to doesn’t rank in the top ten. Remember, if we’re doing our job, readers care about the characters. It keeps them turning pages. This sidekick’s puppy had a job. A good one. A fun-to-read, momentous-moment kind of job that only the puppy could do. The puppy’s little master, however, did not. How can she help the plot move forward? I had to think quickly to save myself, before disappointing 100% of my readership—the one kid in the world who had entered my newly-minted world!

In the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling developed several minor characters. They were fleshed-out  with strengths and flaws; virtually none were just filling the hallways of Hogwarts. The author NEEDED those characters to pick up the ball and run with it in the final novel, Deathly Hallows, while the hero, Harry, was preoccupied in the Forbidden Forest with the villain Voldemort.  If JK Rowling had not taken the time to lovingly develop her minor characters into fully-formed beings, Harry’s fate might have been different.

Writer-boss, don’t let crimes of character happen on your watch. To prevent slips, try a Cluster Diagram.

Cluster Diagrams Show Poor Spots

If you are not familiar with a Cluster Diagram, do a quick Google search of Cluster Diagram images. Essentially, draw a circle in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. I wrote a quick summary of the climax scene in the center: Summer Festival. Draw lines extending out like rays of the sun and attach each line to a character name. Circle the name and add a couple lines indicating that character’s main job in the scene. Don’t leave anybody out.

Ask yourself: Who isn’t busy enough? Is that character a place holder? If they don't have a meaningful job, add one or fire them from your book. Take them out. Your writing will be tighter and your characters more memorable as a result.

Walking Through Walls Honored with the Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval

As a 4RV Publishing author, I'm thrilled and honored to announce that Walking Through Walls has been awarded the Children's Literary Classics Seal of Approval!

This is the second award for my fantasy adventure based on and set in ancient China: In January 2012, Walking Through Walls won 1st Place in the Editors and Predators Readers Poll, in the Children's Novel category!

I want to thank Vivian for taking a chance on my MG/YA fantasy adventure book.

To check out the amazing illustrations done by Aidana WillowRaven, reviews and more information on Walking Through Walls go to: http://walkingthroughwalls.blogspot.com

If you'd like to get your own copy for your children at home or in the classroom, click the link:

4RV Publishing Book Store

You can view the Children's Literary Classics Review of Walking Through Walls at:
http://clcreviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/walking-through-walls-by-karen-cioffi.html

Contests and Exposure

I recently had a guest post on my site by award-winning and multi-published (80+) author Nancy Sanders. Working with her publicists and publishers, she learned a thing or two about generating exposure for her books, and one great way to do this is through contests.

Obviously, each author will need to determine their individual marketing budget and see if contests can have an allotted amount, but even if you’re on a tight budget, there are things you can do to generate visibility.

Nancy suggests first making a list of those award sites you’d like to submit to, keeping the free ones up first. Then, follow the guidelines of each and enter you book.

Try to keep in mind that it’s not necessarily about winning. Nancy advises that just getting your book “in the hands of judges” is important in itself. Many of the judges are important people in their own literary circles.

To find out more of what Nancy has to say on entering contests go to:
http://www.karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com/2012/01/submitting-for-awards-by-nancy-sanders_25.html

You can also check out Nancy’s site for even more information:
http://nancyisanders.wordpress.com/awards/

Since, I think contests are an important promotional and visibility tool, I allotted as much as I could to enter those contests I thought would make a difference. Contests I entered the end of last year include:

Boston Globe Horn Books Award (No fee, 3 books)

SCBWI Golden Kite Awards (No fee, 4 books)

Newbery Medal (No fee, 2 books)

IRA Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Awards (No fee, 1 book)
International Reading Association

The Eric Hoffer Award ($50, 1 book)

USA 2012 Book Awards ($69, 1 book)

Children’s Literary Classics ($95, 3 books)

Notice that the first four award contests have NO fee. You can definitely be a cost-conscious marketer. And, again, whether you win no awards, or one, two, or three awards, it’s the exposure and having the book seen by influential people that’s as important as winning.

Just a side note: one librarian I spoke with mentioned that the Newbery is one of the 'biggie' awards. After that comes the state awards. So, check these contest areas out!

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Learn about writing and marketing with Karen Cioffi at http://karencioffiwritingandmarketing.com. Sign up for her free newsletter, A Writer’s World, and get TWO free site-related e-books for subscribing. For professional and affordable writing services check out http://dkvwriting4u.com

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