Bonus:

Josh talked to Eric over breakfast at a greasy spoon by the highway — or rather, Josh mostly listened, because Eric’s shock at having a gift had resolved into a need to try to piece the last night’s revelations together.

“Josh, I’ve had this all my life. I called them ‘hunches’ to cover up the fact that I didn’t just suspect, I saw what was going to happen,” Eric muttered.

“Like with Glenn,” Josh noted. "When he tried to kill himself."

“Like that. And — I never get speeding tickets. Never.” 

“How fast do you drive?” Josh exclaimed.

“Let’s say that when I figured out this precognition thing, I did some reckless things knowing I wouldn’t get caught. In other words, I led a normal childhood despite my military dads.” Eric drank his cup of tea and grimaced. “This is not tea. This is brown water with a side of brown.”

“The coffee’s not better. It’s an oil slick.” Josh replied.

Eric took another swallow of his brown water. “When did you know about me?” he rumbled in his rough basso voice.

“About you?”

“About my gift as you call it.” Eric sighed.

“Since about fifth grade, when I couldn’t figure out how someone who was better at me than aikido couldn’t read the opponent. Then I realized that you could, more than most, and the shock at being able to kept you from responding in time. Like a stutter.”

“Good way of putting it.” Eric paused. “What exactly is your gift?”

“I think I see themes. Usually in symbolic form, to cram in all the possible message in the smallest amount of time. But then I get to interpret them. Good thing I’m an English major.” Josh frowned at his coffee, then changed his mind about drinking it. 

“What good does that do?” Eric groused.

“I don’t know. I think it points me in a different direction. And maybe I could point others in that direction through my writing.” Josh peered over Eric's head . “There’s also the other thing.”

“Other thing?”

“I think I can help Jeanne do what she does. Amplify it. I’m not really sure.” Josh thought back to the time in the park when Jeanne made grass grow, and the pulling he had felt in his gut when he did so.

“Huh.” Eric drained his cup of tea and shook his head. “So like if you keep hanging out in the greenhouse, JB94’s going to devour the both of you.”

“I hope not,” Josh snorted. “Though I expect Jeanne would be thrilled.”

A young, gangly waiter arrived with their food — Eric’s Trucker’s Breakfast, and Josh’s flapjacks with strawberries and whipped cream with a side of sausage.

“You eat like a kid, Josh,” Eric snarked.

“And?” Josh grinned.

“Oh, nothing.”

More on Revising

I'm currently editing my first novel, Gaia's Hands, for perhaps the fourth time. Most writers would have delegated this to a drawer forever, but I'm going to use it as a learning tool. And, damn it, I'm stubborn.

The biggest thing I have had to do so far is remove two main characters, Annie and Eric. Not completely, mind you -- they remain in the story, but not as main characters. I had read somewhere that more than two main characters distracts from the story, because we experience the story through the main characters. So we're down to the seemingly mismatched couple I've mentioned before -- Josh Young, the English major exploring his Asian American heritage and Jeanne Beaumont, the much older college professor who lives in the world of science.

Removing the first person POV for two characters resulted in removing two subplots, which I could do. But it also lost maybe 15,000 words, and publishers in SF/Fantasy now expect 75,000-110,000 words in their submissions. (Tea with the Black Dragon, which was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula the year it came out, would not pass in today's market).  Adding 15,000 words to an existing novel without it looking added on? Slapping two chapters in won't do it. However, I've gotten the opportunity to look through the document with wiser -- and older -- eyes, identifying places where I erred in the following ways:

• Loaded Chekhov's Gun and dropped it (foreshadowing wasted)
• Left plot holes (or as my grad advisor said, "I can't grade you on what's in your head"
• Missed opportunities to develop secondary characters (although they're not primary characters, they deserve not to be two-dimensional)
• Added more menace (poor Jeanne. Death threats, rocks through her window, and a break-in at her greenhouse.)

The writer will never catch all of these in the writing stage, because the writing stage is about unabashed writing without the burden of editing. Of course, the writer can exercise some constraint -- such as paring things that are out of character for a character. I've told you readers that I love the writing stage because I can restrain the part of me that says "flying robots? Really?" and write the flying robots in. (Ok, no flying robots, but I am inspired by the lack of restraint in shoujo anime.)

Lots of work, and I have temporarily abandoned a work in progress right after a major dramatic point to do so. Wish me luck -- I need it!

Short poem

If a writer sits in a forest

And the tree doesn’t fall,

Does anybody hear?

Too late, skip that,

Hey there, nice hat,

How you been, good day,

Hope you feel better soon

If the bird sits in the forest,

Keeps his song to himself –

Does anybody know?

No time, too rushed,

Gotta go catch my bus,

Still don’t know why

I don’t have any time.

If a forest lives

In the heart of a writer

And nobody sees it,

Does anybody care?

Character Sheets and Why You Need Them

One of the best ways to keep your characters from becoming one big blur such that you can't tell the difference is the character sheet. I have seen character sheets developed in a notebook in colored ink (What're you up to these days, Ashley?), as templates for Word, or in software programs such as Scrivener.

At the very least, a character sheet for each main character will help you remember their traits and how they affect the story. Otherwise, it's entirely possible to have one of your characters fall out of -- well, character. For example, one of the themes in my writing is how pacifism has always been a minority position in the US. Therefore I have a lot of pacifistic characters living at the ecocollective that houses many of my novels, and other characters who are not pacifists but have agreed to non-violent rules to live in the collective. And then there's Gideon, who was brought up by a Quaker mother, but couldn't resist throwing a punch from time to time. I have to remember which ones are which to be consistent; thus, character sheets.

Character sheets also keep authors consistent from book to book. Case in point: One of my favorite books, one that makes me happy-weepy to read, is Tea with the Black Dragon, by R. A. MacAvoy. One of the protagonists is Oo Long, a mysterious Eurasian man who is more than he seems. Without giving away the plot, Oo Long, besides being the name of a tea, translates to "Black Dragon".  One of my least favorite books is Twisting the Rope, the sequel to Tea with the Black Dragon. My reason for disliking the latter book is because the character of Oo Long changes drastically with no explanation. In fact, his skin is described as "black" in the latter book. At the very least, the author needs to explain why a protagonist has changed color.

The first time I saw a character sheet was 30-some years ago, long before I started writing novels. It looked much like this: (Dungeons and Dragons, 2017).

Sorry for the mouse print. Anyone who has played an RPG recognizes this sheet, or something much like it.  (My character was a female half-elf wizard with extreme beauty and maxed-out charisma. Hello, wish fulfillment!)

More pertinent to the discussion -- this character sheet does a pretty good job for writers despite its obsession on quantifying character skills and its focus on fighting. I could see this working for sword and sorcery or even urban dystopia with fight scenes.

This next one I looked up on the Internet, a veritable treasure trove of character sheets. I love this sheet:

This sheet has so much detail, it would almost work as an intake assessment form in case management -- all it's missing is the mental status exam. I think I could use this form while discussing with my husband the fine points of a character over a three-hour coffee date. On the other hand, I have a novel with 65 characters, for which I have at least partial character sheets. Imagine filling this doc out for 65 characters!

The third character sheet is what I use, because it's electronic and because it's bundled with my storywriting/formatting software, Scrivener:

I prefer the simplicity of this document -- I can fill this out in 20 minutes or less and get back to writing. My favorite part of this document, however, is that I can drag and drop a picture to remind me of what the character looks like!

If you were to ask me, though, which character sheet/method is the best, I would not answer with Scrivener's document, although it's my favorite so far. As with many other things in life, the best character sheet is the one you'll use.



As always, sources:


Dungeons and Dragons (2017). Character sheets. Available: http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/character_sheets [September 6, 2017].

Lerner, T. and Walker, K.  (2017). The epiguide.com guide to character sheets. Available: http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html

Scrivener [Computer software]. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php.

Self Images.

I am a whirlwind, awhirlwind, doling out fire and storm.
Wretched, I hold my head as I type this.
I ask you the question, "Tell me your meaning." I hold you to the answer.
You watch me stride across the classroom, my hands shaping a concept as I speak.
My dimples show when I smile over my glasses at you.
You can't stop looking at me. You can't stop wondering. You don't know why.
In my office, there is a collection of stuffed toy Internet-famous cats.
I clutch the railing, lest my leg gives out.

Tell me your meaning. All of your meanings.
If you can, you can create three-dimensional characters.

Editing is like popping pimples

(Trigger warning: Footnotes below)

The first stages of a novel -- the writing -- send my heart soaring. Discovering my characters' quirks, finding their voice, finding MY voice, inserting moments of foreshadowing ... it's like a primitive ritual that spins into communion with Erato*.

Maybe I exaggerate. At any rate, creating a new world with new characters and new surroundings thrills me. I want to talk about writing with my husband, my friends, and anyone who will listen, all of whom react with "that's nice" while they wonder if I've kept up with my lithium**.

Editing, on the other hand, feels like an exorcism. Looking through the draft for demons hiding between the sentences, suffering from boredom because there's eighty thousand words to look through, and then finding something that doesn't look like it should be there and wondering if it's a demon or a cute cuddly spotted owl.

Or another extended metaphor with a side of simile: Editing feels like popping pimples -- gross but necessary***. The great thing about this metaphor is that it has a happy ending: there is a certain satisfaction to popping pimples****. I'm not going to extend this metaphor any longer because -- gross.

I've been editing for several days ***** and I can vouch that the extended metaphors are true to a point: I've read pages and pages the past several days with the following simultaneous charges: Make sure you take out that experimental technique the last agent who rejected you told you to take out. Make sure things still make sense from the previous changes. Make sure everyone's still in character. Make sure the story captures people's attention -- how do I know what catches people's attention? I'm weird. All of this while maintaining that people should be interested in agricultural back to earthers vs corrupt ag concern only with visions, Gaia-given powers, and a December-May love affair.******

But oh, when I fix something and I feel it's right -- which isn't often --  it's so satisfying. Like popping -- eww, gross!




* The ancient Greek muse of erotic poetry/lyric poetry. Why Erato? Because the ancient Greeks appeared not to write prose. None of the other muses worked -- Urania, honestly?

** Lithium is the gold standard for treating bipolar disorder, particularly the manic/hypomanic stages. Currently, my lithium is trying to kill me with side effects mimicking acute toxicity, and I'm trying to get my shrink to see that my lithium is trying to kill me.

*** Dermatologists like Dr. Pimple Popper -- not kidding! -- would prefer you let them pop your pimples at exorbitant prices.

****  If you don't believe this, Dr. Pimple Popper's videos have almost 8 million views on YouTube.

***** when my lithium hasn't been trying to kill me

******I meant "December-May". She's 50; he's 20. I like making you uncomfortable with things like older women and younger men.

Viewpoints and meaning

One of the big decisions a writer has to make when writing a novel is viewpoint. Viewpoint determines whose "voice" carries the novel or how much of the action is revealed. There are several viewpoints, courtesy of Orges (2011) that can be used.

I'm going to attempt to illustrate examples using things I've written (in a book or off the top of my head) because none of you have read the same books, and I tend to read genre fiction because Umberto Eco hurts my already aching head. The viewpoints below are proposed by Orges; the examples are mine.

• First Person Protagonist -- the hero of the story narrates the story. I usually write first person because I love getting into people's heads:

                  I stood at the railing of the ship. The wind disturbed me, as there were no clouds in the sky                   or on the horizon to cause it. What the devil could it be?
                  I yelled to my Captain, who stood beside me scrutinizing the sky. "This looks to be a most                   unusual storm.
                 "I see that, ye idiot!" he yelled; I hardly heard him. "You're the genius -- what the hell do                       you think be causing it?"
                  I walked off, lest I lose patience. I peered at a corner of the sky where I spied a large,                           rather gaudy balloon.

• Secondary Character -- the narrator tells the story of the hero. Secondary character narration tends to emphasize how heroic or 

                   I watched Bob at the railing of the ship, looking toward the calm western horizon.                               "Captain,"  he shouted to the captain, the wind swallowing his words. "This looks                                  to be a most unnatural storm."

                  "I see that, ye idiot," the Captain bellowed back. "You're the genius -- what the hell do you                   think be causing it?"
                  Bob walked off, peering at a corner of the sky where he spied a large, rather gaudy                               balloon.
                                 

• Third Person Intimate -- the viewpoint follows one person, as if sitting on his shoulder watching him, but cannot get into his head.

                  "Bob stood at the railing of the ship, looking toward the calm western horizon. "Captain,"                   he shouted to the man next to him, the wind swallowing his words. "This looks to be a                         most unnatural storm."
                  "I see that, ye idiot," the Captain bellowed back. "You're the genius -- what the hell do you                   think be causing it?"
                  Bob walked off, peering at a corner of the sky where he spied a large, rather gaudy                               balloon.

• Third Person Limited --  the viewpoint follows the action but cannot get into people's heads.

                   Bob stood at the railing of the ship, looking toward the calm western horizon. He was                          not the only one; the other men above deck peered and muttered in the wind that had                             suddenly blown up. Belowdeck, men bounced off walls as the ship began to list.
                   "Captain," he shouted to the man next to him, the wind swallowing his words. "This                             looks to be a most unnatural storm."
                   "I see that, ye idiot," the Captain bellowed back. "You're the genius -- what the hell do                          you think be causing it?"
                   Bob strode off, peering at a corner of the sky where he spied a large, rather gaudy                                balloon.                

• Third Person Omniscient -- the viewpoint follows the action, can get into people's heads -- there's no limit to what the viewpoint sees

                     Bob stood at the railing of the ship, looking toward the calm western horizon. The fact                        that the winds worked themselves to gale force without any clouds disturbed him. Was it                      magic? he wondered. He was not the only one; the other men above deck                                              peered and muttered in the wind that had suddenly blown up.  Belowdeck, men bounced                      off walls as the ship began to list.

                    "Captain," he shouted to the man next to him, the wind swallowing his words. "This                              looks to be a most unnatural storm."

                    "I see that, ye idiot," the Captain bellowed back. "You're the genius -- what the hell do                          you think be causing it?"
                     Bob strode off, peering at a corner of the sky where he spied a large, rather gaudy                                balloon.

• Commentator (works with any of these): An uninvolved third person, but with a first person insert that gives opinions, observations, etc. 

                   Bob stood at the railing of the ship, looking toward the calm western horizon.                                      "Captain,"  he shouted to the captain, the wind swallowing his words. "This looks                                to be a most unnatural storm." Quite heroic diction for a protagonist, although                                      inappropriate for the circumstances.

                 "I see that, ye idiot," the Captain bellowed back. "You're the genius -- what the hell do you                  think be causing it?" On the other hand, our Captain seems almost stereotypically                                illiterate. Now's a good time to pull out his grog and swig it, amirite?
                 Bob strode off, peering at a corner of the sky where he spied a large, rather gaudy                                balloon.  

• Somewhere in-between:
• Interviewer -- an after the fact, detached interviewer who gets one or more characters to tell the story. This allows the writer to slip between present and past:

                         "Bob," the newsperson asked, shoving her microphone in the tall, rugged sailor's face                          as she surveyed the wreckage of the ship, mingled with the broken                                                        carcass of a balloon and what looked to be storm clouds and lightning bolts wrapped                            in glittery fabric.

                         "Well," Bob replied, staring at the garish wreckage, I stood at the railing of the ship.                            The wind disturbed me, as there were no clouds in the sky or on the horizon to cause                            it. I wondered what the devil -- pardon, ma'am -- what the deuce it could be.

                         I peered at a corner of the sky where I spied a large, rather gaudy balloon...

• Secret Narrator -- a person who appears to have nothing to do with the plot, but is revealed later to be one of the main characters (good or bad) That means you won't know the significance of this till later.