Memorial Day

In spite of who I am, a naturalized German, I celebrate Memorial Day.  Why?  Let me give you some history that will explain my feelings about this holiday.

My father was an officer in the German Army and because of who he was, was rewarded with a post in Stalingrad, Russia.  One evening he took his men out on a patrol and my father stepped on a fragmentation mine.  The majority of his patrol died instantly and the survivors were injured and maimed in the process.  Due to his injuries, my father was put on a plane for transfer to hospital behind the fighting lines.  He was fortunate, because his plane was the last one to leave Stalingrad before the city was overrun. 

America resoundly defeated Germany and I am eternally grateful to the many Americans that died in the process of liberating my country.   This does not negate the service of my father because I can separate the two issues.  One, the service of a soldier and the other, the leader that caused the war.  A comparison would be the very unpopular Vietnam conflict.  Americans could not separate the act of a soldier from the leaders that created the conflict.  By the time Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan came, the American people understood that you may disagree with the policy of the government, but you still must honor the service of the men and women fighting the wars.

In the eighties, my father came to visit America.  Driving around the country, he said very quietly, "How could Germany defeat a country like this."  He admired the friendliness and acceptance he was given by people where ever we stopped.

This is why I celebrate my adopted country's Memorial Day.

The Art of Writing, Characters II

Your Protagonist

This is a brief continuation of my protagonist comments.  In the previous writing I stated that the protagonist must be the center of the action and not a sideline participant.  In the fourth book 'Liars all,'  of the Brodie Farrel Mystery, written by Jo Bannister, she again made Brodie a supporting character.  Like in the other three books I read, she made Daniel and Jack the focal points of the story while Brodie wrestled with religion and faith.

Additionally Ms. Bannister has several author's intrusions, something her editor should have caught.  Simply put, it's knowledge of a scene, action etc. only the writer would possess, not the character. 

The Art of Writing, Characters I

Your Protagonist

Many years ago, the first principle of writing drummed into my head was: the reader must like your protagonist.  If the reader does not feel empathy for the hero, the reader will not purchase your second book and will not speak kindly about you.  My basic assumption, you do want people to read and like your writings, if not, skip the entire segments on characters.

Your protagonist can have flaws, shortcomings and in general be a rude person, but the reader must be able to identify and have empathy for him/her and must be the central character of the story.  I just finished reading three books by Jo Bannister who authored the Brodie Farrell Mystery.  The first one, 'Reflections,' was a disappointment, however since I had three additional books from the same writer I figured maybe the other novels will get better.  As a rule, when I get a book that is part of a series, I generally get all of them and read the books in the order of the published year.

In the Brodie Farrell Mystery, the protagonist, Brodie is not a very like able person.  Although the author tries to explain what made the character this way, it does not come across as reasonable or acceptable.  In 'Flawed,' the main character driving the story line was not the protagonist, but her best friend Daniel and part-time lover Jack, a policeman.  Brodie entered the story in a deus ex machina mode and solved the problem.  In 'Closer Still,' Brodie participates and solves the conflict.  However the story line is propelled by Daniel and Jack, yet improbable as it is, Brodie solves everything.  This kind of ending is difficult and leaves the reader unsatisfied.  In fantasy, soft core and hard core sci-fi, the reader will generally accept this king of ending, providing the foundation had been properly laid and is logical.  Examples: Lord of the Rings trilogy, when Gandalf the Grey, later known as Gandalf the White,  returns as dawn rises and changes the losing battle turn to a winning one.

Two points always to remember, your reader must like your protagonist and and the protagonist must be the center of the story, not a side line participant who at the end resolves the conflict.

To read a detailed explanation of the deus ex machina in literature, movies, television, etc. and Lord of the Rings trilogy, please go to:

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina;  www.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

The Art of Writing, Protagonist Line II

This chart is an even bigger mess than for protagonist I, but so is the story line for protagonist II.

Again, let's look at this analytically. Briefly, the straight line is our daily life (black), the line going up at an angle (blue) begins at the star (green).  Conflict enters our protagonist's life at the peak, pale yellow star.  The line drops down to join the straight line (yellow and black), when our protagonist has resolved the conflict and is ready to resume daily life.

The squiggly lines (red), are the valley and peaks representing the protagonist's struggling to find the antagonist.  This is why you have all of the ups and down, because if you don't have the conflict and just have a straight blue line, what is the point of writing the story!   After all, the protagonist does not arrive at the scene and knows who caused the demise of the person.

The yellow star, as English teachers like to say, is the Denouement when your protagonist has found a solution, except in mystery writing, were the attempt at resolving the problem starts right at the beginning and at the end the hero can prove the who is the antagonist.

This type of story line is generally used in mystery, murder and spy stories.  Example, a murder occurs and the protagonist must solve the who done it.  Along the way our protagonist encounters all kinds of problems before he/she can unravel the puzzle. 

One final note, the person who invented this basic story telling structure for mysteries is non other than Edgar Allan Poe.

The Art of Writing, Protagonist Conflict Line I

I know this looks like a big mess, but whose life isn't?

Let's look at this analytically.  The straight line is our daily life (black), the line going up at an angle (blue) beginning at the star (green) is when conflict or conflict enters our protagonist's life.  At the peak (yellow star), where the line drops down to join the straight line (black), our protagonist has resolved the issue or issues and is ready to resume his/her daily life.  

The squiggly lines (red), are the valley and peaks representing the protagonist's struggling in his/her life  while working towards an acceptable resolution.  As of today, I have never met a person who can resolve issues instantly.  This is why you have all of the ups and down, because if you don't have the inner struggle and conflict and just have the straight blue line, what is the point of writing the story! 

The peak, yellow,  as English teachers like to say, is the Denouement when your protagonist has found a solution and resolved the conflict or conflicts in his/her life.

Example, in The Regulators, the heroine goes to the bank to deposit her checks and a bank robbery occurs and her life is changed.  At the Denouement, she finally accepts how she can never return to the life she had prior to the bank robbery.

 One final note, the person who invented this basic story telling structure is non other than William Shakespeare.

The Art of Writing, U-Turn

Driving down the road to visit the local Winery, I missed the turn into the parking lot.  I informed my passenger, not a big problem, I'll just make a youie.  Her response, you're pretty good at this.  Well she's right.  I have no problem making a U-turn.  Now segue this principle to writing.

A Heavenly Revolution, my latest novel and about forty percent completed.  Overall, I'm happy how the story line is progressing, but!  It just didn't feel right, something was missing.  U-Turn.  By going back to the beginning, I discovered the missing element, added a few hundred words, and voila.  Suddenly it all jelled.

In writing as in life, when your instinct tells you, something is amiss, U-Turn.  There will be no points taken away from you and just like in writing, it will make the story line better, because deep inside of you, you knew something was amiss.

The Art of Writing - Reading is fundamental

Reading is fundamental, the title of this post.  This is so basic that it's worth repeating, especially to a writer.  One caveat, try not to read in the genre you are writing.  The reason, you will not even accidentally include thoughts, ideas or passages in your writing that are not yours. 

Now to reading.  When you read a novel read the novel from several points of view.  The basic one, to be entertained by the story.  The second view point, see what you can learn from the author.  How does he/she handle dialogue, scenes, introductions of characters, etc?  Are his paragraphs short, long, or broken up.  Each writer has a certain style, the point of learning is not copying a style but to see how the writer handled the writing technically.  You may find fault with everything because the writer did this wrong, forgot this and should have included that, but remember you are reading a published book.  Never become so jaded or envious of this fact.

As mentioned previously, writing is technical and the more techniques you learn the more proficient you become.  My first writing teacher informed me very sternly, "learn all of the rules of writing and after you have learned them, you can break all the writing rules, and not before."

Trust me, I disagreed with him greatly, however, in retrospect and as much as it pains me to admit, he was one hundred percent right.

The Art of Writing, Theme

When you google Theme you will see the following sentence.  “In contemporary literary studies, a theme is the central topic, subject, or concept the author is trying to point out.”  This is an excellent explanation and now let's put this to work.

In 'The Regulators,' the premise is, 'no one escapes justice.'  How you show this in the course of the novel is the central theme and how your protagonist deals with the central theme makes compelling story telling.  My protagonist was not happy how justice was dispensed and this created a conflict in her.  She had one idea of justice and the writer, me, had another point of view.  However, at the end of the novel, the character reconciled with the way justice was dispensed. 

Some literary people often call the theme 'leitmotiv' when referring to the story and the development of the thematic meaning, yet in the end the writing stands by itself.

One of the first things I learned years ago in my writing class was something that our writing group  always told a new writer wanting to join our group.  "Your writing must stand by itself.  You will not be in the room to explain the meaning of what you have written."  This sound easy but holds so true.