Sports books are action-oriented, fast-paced and full of memorable characters; but the core of a sports book–fiction or non-fiction–is people. Characters make sports interesting. Granted, these characters are constantly on the move and not inclined to deep musings about life. Yet, it is the character interacting with the unique aspects of a sports novel that keeps the reader interested.

Characters: Passion

When you think of sports characterization, think passion. Danny Walker is the basketball player in Mike Lupica’s 2004 title, Travel Team . During the whole first chapter, nine pages, Danny is busy with his evening ritual of practicing defense. He set up folding chairs and dribbles around them. He looks left, but passes the ball squarely to the seat of another folding chair. Lots of actions here, but the deep undercurrent of the chapter is disappointment. Danny didn’t make the “travel team,” and the reason given was, “You’re too small to play.”

The chapter is pure passion–emotion. Lupica never says that Danny was disappointed. But the actions, the ingrained habit of working at his sport, develop a depth of emotion that is rare in sports novels, really, in any book for boys.

It’s the first lesson of writing sports fiction or non-fiction : don’t be afraid of emotion. Lupica’s book hit the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller’s List, not because of reviews, but because of its popularity with kids. Lupica’s 2006 title, Heat , gives kids more dreams of glory, this time in baseball. In May, 2006 was at the #2 spot on the New York Times Best Seller’s List. Published by Philomel Books, Penguin Young Readers Group, these are middle grade literary fiction.

While Lupica begins with pure passion, the character arc, as played out on the field, is important. It’s a cliche that the underdog wins in the end, but writers can distinguish between success in sports and success in growing or maturing in some area. Act I sets up the unequal strengths or abilities of the protagonist and antagonist(s), and the antagonist has the upper hand. Act II has the protagonist learning the skills or character qualities needed to challenge the rival player or team. Act III delivers a final confrontation, and usually the protagonist and antagonist are more equally matched. The protagonist can win the sports rivalry, but that could be good or bad for their character-growth. Or, they can lose the sports rivalry, and that could be good or bad for their character-growth. That gives four options: Win Game/Lose Character, Win Game/Win Character, Lose Game/Lose Character, Lose Game/Win Character.

Even though it’s the most cliched option, Lupica delivers a Win Game/Win Character ending for Danny. It can be done, if the writing is strong enough to carry it. But don’t overlook the other options as a way to surprise your audience, yet still satisfy.

Characters: Action-Oriented

Defending Irene (Peachtree) by Kristin Wolden Nitz, is one of the lively new sports novels for girls. Nitz lived in Italy for three years and used that setting as a background to make her sports fiction stand out in the crowd. Irene was a good soccer player in the United States and when her family moved to Italy, she still expected to play. But in Italy, teams were for boys and she must earn her spot.

One problem common to sports novels is how to keep characterization strong, while dealing with action. Verbs are particularly important in action-oriented descriptions. It’s not enough to say, “I like the sound and feel of kicking a ball.” Nitz puts passion for a sport and action together as Irene thinks about soccer: “I love the sound and feel of the ball exploding off my foot.”

Avoid the “to be” verbs (is, are, has, had, was, am, etc.), in favor of more active verbs. Replace generic verbs with more specific ones. These sentences demonstrate the progression from general to specific action verbs:

The boy ran across the field.
The boy dashed across the field.

The second one gives the reader a more exact image of what is happening.

For the strongest communication, don’t add adverbs or other modifiers, until you have the most exact verb possibly.

Not: The boy ran quickly across the field.
But: The boy dashed wildly across the field

.

Of course, sometimes “to be” verbs are exactly what you need. Use good judgment, but push active verbs whenever possible.

Character: Fast-Paced

Another special problem with sports writing is pacing. Obviously, you can’t give a play-by-play of an entire basketball game. Sometimes, you have to speed up time and summarize as Lupica does describing one game: “Matt picked up his fourth foul halfway through the third quarter. . .” (P. 221) That nicely takes care of half of the third quarter in only half a sentence. The key here is focus. The important thing was that Matt was in foul trouble and we didn’t need to know the rest of that quarter’s action.

On the other hand, at the big moment, you need to slow down action, expand and let it take up more space, so it feels big. Lupica slows down time for Danny: “He pushed off on his left leg, going up hard but laying the ball up there soft. He saw the ball hit the square as if there were a bull’s eye painted on it.” (P. 226) This extra detail lets the moment grow in the reader’s perception, creating ups and downs of reaction. At tension-filled moments, good pacing makes the reader wait to know the outcome.

Full of Characters: Teams and Crowds

Crowd scenes are one of the major problems with sports novels. Often, there’s a large audience and there’s an opposing team. Both need to be described in memorable, yet concise ways. Nitz says, “I always remember that there’s twenty-two people on a soccer field and many more on the sidelines. It’s so important to introduce each new character with a special, memorable scene that will cement that person’s role in the readers’ head.”

The scene usually anchored in the sport. Here’s how Nitz give Irene her first good look at her future antagonist:

A boy with curly black hair, surprisingly blue eyes, and a determined chin was dribbling at top speed. He dashed at players head-on and then cut left or right. I heard boys call out his name in protest: “Matteo!” He was as graceful and gorgeous as Bernini’s statue of David, but he could move like a racehorse.

In Defending Irene, Nitz names only one opposing player in the entire book, because he is the “dangerous player.” For less dangerous, but still important members of the opposition, Nitz often uses jersey numbers: Number 54 hit a three-pointer.

Using the jargon of a particular sport can also help distinguish and characterize characters. For example, you might call one soccer player, “the keeper,” because he’s the goalie. Use that characteristic and make the Keeper a bit of a pack-rat, too, who always has things in his pockets. It’s a small thing but helps the reader track the characters better.

Zooms, pans and scans can also help with crowd scenes. For a zoom, think of pulling in close on a player’s hands holding a basketball. The reader sees the splint around the jammed left pointer-finger, the hang nails, the carefully-printed kid’s name written on the ball in a statement of proud ownership. Zooms thrive on such carefully observed details.

For panoramas, or pans, on the other hand, think of sitting at the top of the bleachers and the football field is laid out in front of you. You get the wider view of the parking lot with the school buses parked in a row, the bright lights shining down on the stadium, the pageantry of colors as the cheerleaders and band welcome the football team onto the field, the swaths of color for each team. With the emphasis on Show-don’t-Tell, writers often rely too heavily on the zoom. The pan offers an alternative focal length with unique opportunities to pull back and set up the environment in which this character operates. What are the larger issues that affect the character? Where do you want your reader to focus their attention?

A final tool for crowd work is the scan. Crowd scenes often are generic: “The crowd was hungry for a score.” With a scan, the writer gives short, intensive zooms on a series of people. Zoom in rapid succession on the quarterback lunging forward to pass; his mother taping the pass play with a digital video camera she bought two hours earlier and maxed out her credit card to buy; the quarterback’s girlfriend–the head cheerleader–chewing on the fingernail of her little finger and not even noticing the taste of red fingernail polish; and the coach writing on his clipboard the quarterback’s name alternately with the second-string quarterback’s name, until the pass is overthrown and he circles one of the names. Suddenly, the crowd is more layered and undercurrents are exposed–all with a simple scan.

Characters: Non-fiction

Sports non-fiction includes how-to-play, trivia, statistics or sports history. There opportunities for writers here. For example, some of the non-fiction series for girls were published in the late 1990s, and could be due for updates. But by and large, sports non-fiction is dominated by characters, too, this time in the form of biographies.

For example, Matt Christopher adds to his Legends in Sports series from Little Brown with titles on Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. The Amazing Athletes series from Lerner adds 2006 titles on David Ortiz, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Freddy Adu, LeBron James, Michael Vick, Sammy Sosa, and Travis Pestrama.

As with fiction, these people are interesting because of the obstacles they have overcome, the passion they display for the sport, and how the sport affected their lives. In short, characterization. It might take research and interviews, but the same qualities in sports fiction can be used in sports non-fiction. Look for places where you can demonstrate a person’s passion. Activate the prose with good verbs.

Unless you describe a particular game, pacing will be more in terms of the player’s career. When and why did they play well? Why did their game fall off for a while? Look for motivations as places to slow down the pacing and give a detailed account. Panoramas of a season can give the player’s success and defeats a context.

Zooms, pans and scans can also help you write about the people surrounding the player. Teammates and family members can be presented in a scan that helps focus on a point you are making.

Most of all, in sports fiction or non-fiction, find the passion. Here’s how Nitz has Irene explain her sport: “Dad had passed his passion for soccer along to me. I loved it!”

30 Days to a Stronger Character

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

Your villain can be strengthened in several ways. Wait. Do you HAVE a villain, don’t you?

Do you need a villain?

One question I often hear is, “Do I really need an antagonist/villain” Usually, these writers have the main character struggling against something like a storm, or an evil empire, or something more abstract. In these cases, no, you don’t have to have a villain; but if you can embody the evil from that abstract opposition in a character, you’ll have a stronger story.

Create a single storm or give the reader a military general to hate (think Darth Vader). Your story will be stronger with a strong antagonist, because it will focus the main character’s efforts. Let’s assume you have a good villain and in the next revision you want to strengthen your villain. In general, you’ll want to look at what you’ve already done and push it to a more intense level. Because villains are a different sort of character, there are some cliches that work when creating them. But be sure to work against these cliches and make your villain fresh and interesting.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE–Two options

1. UGLY Their ugliness outside mirrors their evil inner nature.

• dirty–hands, clothes
• eyes–pale, blue, cadaverous, sinister, stone cold, blazing, uncanny, narrow, oblique, filminess, sharp, strange, awful, flaming with passion, keen, piercing, dark, bold, brilliant, black
• rank breath
• voice–sharp, cruel, think, harsh, often breaks into falsetto
• deformed in some way–hunchback, missing leg (Long John Silver), scars
• fleshy or fat from over-indulgence of fleshly lusts
• hands–short stocky fingers, fat/fleshy, large, white, ruthless, sharp nails, hair on palms
• facial hair–queer whiskers, cruel mustache
• bony
• skin–sallow, sunburned almost black
• physically strong–strong, but not intelligent
• laugh–hyena-like, laughs at odd times

2. BEAUTIFUL Their outside contrasts with inner evil nature

• movements–graceful, catlike
• intelligent–a worthy foe
• sexy
• hero-like, often tries to imitate a hero, a king, a warrior of old, etc.
• voice–melodious, husky, sexy
• hair–thick, beautiful, long
• clothes & accessories–splendidly horsed, impeccable taste in clothes,dashing appearance

CHARACTER QUALITIES

These are some character qualities to consider as you define your villain.

• All villains must enjoy their villainy.
• Cruel.
• established by reputation of past crimes/past corpses
• puts others in position to fail, then punishes when they do fail
• revenge
• no mercy
• Treacherous–no loyalty. Insinuates into positions of trust, then betrays.
• Cunning, sly, conniving
• Bully–physical and mental abuse
• Childhood–unstable, frustrated, unhappy, reform school
• Charisma–mesmerizes the weak (often female)
• Ruthless–gets own way regardless of what it takes
• Frustrated ambitions
• Shrewd business-like sense
• Foul language

OTHER CHARACTERISTICS

• Often foreigners or different ethnic group. (Not politically correct these days, of course, but still often done.)
• Often wears black. (Another politically-incorrect notion, but color can be useful in designating groups. Could also use some other visual tag, for example, gang signs, tattoos, etc..)
• Tools/House–Often these are sinister. In other words, make the setting echo their villainy.
• How is this character larger-than-life? What does s/he do, say, think that would totally shock even themselves?

MOTIVATIONS

Deepen your character’s motivations and emotions by considering these.

• Give the villain an inner conflict. What do they most want? What’s the opposite of that? How could the character want both at the same time?
• Raise the stakes. Even villains can have the stakes raised! What could happen that would make the villain’s goal matter even more?
• Have you plotted the villain?s character arc? Usually, the villain’s character arc ends in tragedy (s/he is defeated!). Do you show-don’t-tell your villain?s emotions at the climax?

30 Days to a Stronger Character

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

As Always, It’s Easy to Stay Connected

• Click here to subscribe to my feed.
• Or, if you’re on LiveJournal, you can add my Feed to your Friends page with this URL: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/revisionnotes/
• Click here to sign up for my occasional newsletter.

Great Villains to Study and Imitate

Harpercollins editor Susan Rich’s favorite villain are those in Roald Dahl’s stories. “I have great admiration for Roald Dahl’s villains. Farmer Boggis, Farmer Bounce, and Farmer Bean come to mind, the evil trio in Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. All three are boneheads, are united in their mission, and all three share that villainous trait of being so single minded about accomplishing their nefarious plot that they lose sight of all reason. Such disregard for logic makes them all the more frightening, and all the more fallible. ”

Carol Saller, editor for Cricket Books, says, “My favorite villain is definitely Arawn the Death Lord in Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. Because we don’t see him directly, but only as he appears in various forms, each reader is left to imagine him as horribly as possible. He is so evil and so powerful that we can’t imagine how Taran will ever defeat him. And his agents the Huntsmen are themselves so unimaginably powerful (since killing one makes the rest stronger), Taran’s task takes on a heroic stature from the start.”

For more examples of villains, study The Oxford Books of Villains, by John Mortimer, the author of the Rumpole of the Bailey mysteries. He provides literary excerpts detailing villainy. These tend to be more the Victorian-type villains, but includes everything from Cain to Moriarty to Captain Hook. To study villainous characters in children’s books, begin with the following list. These villains represent a wide range of “bad guys” from the sympathetic Herdmans to the frightening Cruella DeVille.

• Count Olaf in One Unfortunate Accident by Lemony Snicket
• Voldemort in Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Wicked Witch of the West in Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum
• Judd Travers in Shiloh by Phillis Naylor
• Miss Slighcarp in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
• Archie in The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• Cruella DeVille in 1001 Dalmations by Dodie Smith
• Camilla Capybara in Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester
• IT in A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.
• The villains in the Redwall books by Brian Jacques: Cluny the Scourge, Badrang, etc.
• The Warden in Holes by Louis Sachar
• Charlie Simms in The Well by Mildred D. Taylor
• Artemis Fowl in Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
• The Herdmans in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

30 Days to a Stronger Character

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

As Always, It’s Easy to Stay Connected

• Click here to subscribe to my feed.
• Or, if you’re on LiveJournal, you can add my Feed to your Friends page with this URL: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/revisionnotes/
• Click here to sign up for my occasional newsletter.

Evil is live spelled backwards. The protagonist of a story represents life; the villain, anti-life.

Count Olaf as Villain

Harpercollins editor Susan Rich, who edited the Lemony Snicket series, comments about the villain in these books. “Count Olaf is reprehensible. He has barely any redeeming qualities. He’ll do anything to get what he wants. He reaps joy from his endless pursuit of the Baudelaire children. He’s thoroughly villainous.”

Among all the possible characters to populate a story, the villain is one of the most interesting. The protagonist, or main character, receives the most attention in character development articles and books. But a good villain can bring a dull story to life. Francis Foster, publisher of Frances Foster Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, says, “A story needs conflict. A good villain can make that conflict clear and strong. Villains add interest, excitement, edge.”

David Lubar, author of eleven novels and story collections, including Hidden Talents and True Talents, takes it a step farther. “There are both internal and external reasons to use a villain. Externally, this helps map the real world, which affirms the reader’s suspicion that there are unpleasant people out there. Internally, it raises the stakes. The hero can’t reason with a villain.”

Villain or Antagonist

If nothing interesting happens without a villain, then we need to know what a villain is. Foster says, “Thinking of villains in the most basic, childlike language, he is the bad guy. The people that do evil things. They come in many different sizes and shapes.”

Rich says, “The villain is the nemesis of the protagonist, a no-good nick with ill intent. He’s nasty for the purpose of being nasty.”

How does a villain differ from an antagonist? An antagonist is a general term for the person who opposes the protagonist and villain is a sub-category of antagonists. Foster says, “An antagonist is someone that is against whatever is happening. They aren’t all villainous. You can be an antagonist, but still be good. On the other hand, a villain concentrates on bad deeds, on evil. ”

Are Villains limited to Folktales and Mock-Victorians?

It may seem that the term villain is outmoded. It applies only to folktales (monsters, witches, ogres, evil wizards) or to Victorian (Snively Whiplash) or outdated stories (outlaws like Jesse James). Contemporary antagonists tend to be more rounded, less patently evil. But editors insist that villains still populate contemporary books.

Rich says, “I edited Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan, which is contemporary fiction set in India. The mother-in-law in the story has much in common with Count Olaf. She’s wholly villainous, wholly self-absorbed. She holds the power to undo the hope for the life of our protagonist.” Adding a villain to a story does help make the story more powerful: Whelan won the 2000 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for Homeless Bird.

Foster says an example of a contemporary villain is in Suzanne Fisher Staples’ novel, Dangerous Skies, which is set in Chesapeake Bay area. “The antagonist is pillar of the community, in that he gives money to the library and is from an old, respected family. He’s a bad character even though he isn’t generally recognized as this. What makes it so agonizing in reading and hard for the protagonist is that none of the adults see him as bad. They see him as a good man, but he’s not. He’s a villain.”

Create Antipathy instead of Sympathy

Villains are bad guys who function in stories to escalate the conflict. But how do you create a convincing villain?

Lubar says, “Pure, unrelenting evil gets boring. That’s why Bond villains have pet cats. Give your villain a bit of depth and variety. In his excellent pamphlet, ‘12 Things I Wish I had Known When I Started Writing,’ Ben Bova points out that, ‘No one actually sets out to do evil.’ This is a brilliant observation that has served me well in all my writing. (People who spend far too much time with books might recall the issue was also hashed around a bit by Socrates and Protagoras.) The bad guy isn’t doing bad stuff so he can rub his hands together and snarl. He may be driven by greed, neuroses, or the conviction that his cause is just, but he’s driven by something not unlike the things that drive a hero.”

When you create a villain, you want the reader to feel antipathy toward that character, rather than sympathy. To do this, you use the same tools that you use to characterize any character. Give the character a convincing backstory that explains motivations, then personalize them with depth and variety.

Foster edited Louis Sachar’s book, Holes, which won both the 1998 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the 1999 Newbery award. She says, “One thing about Sachar’s villains is that they are nuanced characters. He has a sort of darkly humorous approach, so his villains?even in Holes?aren’t cartoon characters.”

Foster discusses how Sachar creates both antipathy and sympathy for the villains. “You need enough enough explanation so you can understand the story. In Holes, when you realize what the Warden’s history is, or when you look at Kissing Kate Barlow, you have examples of characters who seems justified in their actions. You understand why Kate turned bad. It makes the story richer if you can follow the line of thinking or reasons for someone’s behavior. That doesn’t mean you always spell it out. But within the needs of the story, you need to know.”

Motivations

Sid Fleischman, author of numerous books, including the Newbery award winning book,, The Whipping Boy, says, “I do think you have to lay in, at least in a single broad stroke, a motivation for villainy. In the Three Little Pigs, we assume the wolf is hungry.”

Why is this character ignoring society’s standards of morality and doing something that is considered evil? Without this information, you run the danger of losing credibility in the story.

While most agree that the villain’s motivations need to be clear, some stories get by without this. Rich says, “Lemony Snicket never gives Count Olaf redeeming qualities. We’ll never learn that Count Olaf was mistreated as a child, or he is lonely, or needs a friend. He won’t be redeemed. He’s thoroughly villainous. I find that a redeeming quality; he’s likeable because he is so outrageously horrid.”

Because of her experience editing Count Olaf, Rich doesn’t agree that you must include specific motivations in every story about a villain. “Resist the temptation to make him or her sympathetic. It’s not necessary. We don’t need to learn that the villain has a soft spot for puppies. That waters them down, rather than strengthens their character.” Count Olaf is a pure villain, through and through. And that is precisely what makes him a wonderful character.

The decision?to include specific motivations or not?must depend on the type story you’re writing, and the specific needs of that story. Lemony Snicket’s stories are sort of mock-Victorian and following the Victorian tradition of melodramatic villains, he gets by with a pure villain. But even Holes, a modern-folktale story, requires a more developed villain.

Depth and Variety

After the broad strokes laying out the evil intentions and motives of the villain, it’s time to make him or her more specific. Look to the needs of the story and the milieu of the story for ideas on specific villainy. For example, the Warden in Holes has rattlesnake venom nail polish. On his website, Sachar says, ” It’s hard to remember where different ideas come from, but I think it first started when I originally thought the Warden was going to be the granddaughter of Kissing Kate Barlow. And Kissing Kate always killed the men she kissed. At the time, I may have even considered that her lipstick might be poisoned. So, I wanted to do something along the same lines. Instead of poison lipstick, the warden had poison nail polish.”

Often writers have a difficult time creating specific evil in a story. The writer is non-confrontational themselves, and it just feels wrong to include such bad things in a story for kids. Lubar says, “To do it right, I think you need to move beyond your own comfort level. If I create a villain who is basically just me at my worst, I’ll end up with a guy who jaywalks and maybe drinks milk directly out of the carton. Real villains do things I’d never do. (On the other hand, they obviously do things I’m capable of imagining and describing. But that’s another issue.)”

Tips

“I think the main danger with a villain,” Fleischman says, “is going over the top. It’s easy to have him twirl his mustaches too much and chortle and sneer too sneeringly. You gotta make him believable. My villains chew up the scenery a bit more than others. I get away with these touches of whimsy because my novels are comedies.” In other words, avoid cliches and melodrama.

Often writers face critiques of their villains and the recommendation is to soften the villain’s evil ways. Foster says, “That usually means that the villain isn’t coming off as quite believable. The writer has put so much energy and emotion into creating the character that the writer has lost sight of how the villain is appearing. Usually, when a writer is asked to revisit a depiction of a character it is to make it fit the needs of the story better. It’s not because the editor is afraid of including an evil character in a story.”

Foster gives an example. “When I worked with Louis Sachar on , There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom, the teacher seemed too harsh to believe in the first draft. He was modeling her on real life experiences, but the depiction wasn’t working. Sachar did soften the teacher a bit, not because I was concerned about being politically correct, or teachers who might read the book or reviewers. But it was important that the character was strong and credible. By going back to look at her again, Sachar took the raw passion of the first draft and refined what he was doing.”

Above all, credibility is the key to creating good villains. Within the story being told, this villain’s evil ways must be appropriate.

“Believe in your villain,” Rich emphasizes, “as much as you believe in your heroes.”

30 Days to a Stronger Character

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

As Always, It’s Easy to Stay Connected

• Click here to subscribe to my feed.
• Or, if you’re on LiveJournal, you can add my Feed to your Friends page with this URL: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/revisionnotes/
• Click here to sign up for my occasional newsletter.

Shh! Don’t tell anyone else, but my character just told me a secret.

Great Way to Find Unusual Secrets

One common complaint about a first draft is that the characterization needs to be deeper. In Sol Stein’s book, Stein on Writing, Chapter 16 talks about the secret snapshot technique. Stein recommends that you think about what secret snapshot is hidden in your character’s wallet. Secrets in general deepen characterization because they provide motivation and emotional depth. Stein says, “I remind you that the best fiction reveals the hidden things we usually don’t talk about.”

PostSecret

So, I was fascinated to find the Post Secret blog. Readers are encouraged to send a postcard that explains their secret. Updated on Sundays, the blog is an interesting look into the hidden life of a wide variety of people. Be forewarned: some are PG-13 or X-rated, but most are general topics. I’m finding it interesting to read them with the idea of possibly adding them to a character’s background. Find any of interest for your work?

There are now three PostSecret books featuring past postings:

• A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book
• PostSecret Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives

The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

After eight years teaching the Novel Revision retreat across the nation, I’m pleased to announce that the workbook developed for that retreat will be available this spring.
Coming April 2!

Galleys are Now Available

If you review books for writers publications, or you head a writer’s organization, please see below.

Here’s the full details of the book.

Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise

• Foreword by Kirby Larson
• ISBN: 978-0-9798621-0-6
• Pub. Date: April 2, 2008
• Retail Price: $18.00
• Pages: 124
• Trim Size: 7.5 x 9.25
• Backmatter: Appendix, Index
• Mims House, publisher

Congratulations! You’ve finished a novel.

What an accomplishment! Now what?
Now, you need a passionate, in-depth guide to revision.

Why Revise?

Before revision: Nice Story
After revision: Richer, deeper–the novel of your dreams.

Novice or Seasoned

. . . For aspiring novelists, mid-list novelists who want to break out, novelists who want to self-publish–successfully, writers who have completed NaNoWriMo but don’t know what to do next, and writing critique groups looking for a way to help each other to the next level.

Revising has never been easier:

• Systematically inventory and diagnosis your manuscript
• Visually manipulate your manuscript to diagnose problems
• Transform dull characters into fascinating, memorable people
• Strengthen the narrative and emotional arcs
• Sharpen dialogue
• Morph dull settings into backdrops that set the mood
• Bring to life narrated events by selecting the right details
• Use language with confidence
• Add depth with narrative patterning
• In-depth professional development
• Plan your novel’s metamorphosis

The Results

A stronger, richer, deeper story, a story that makes readers weep and cry and turn the next page.

Revision Tools

Unlike most books on revision, Novel Metamorphosis turns theory into radical new tools which are practical, tangible, concrete.

• cut straight to the heart of your manuscript’s problem
• develop your writing and editing skills
• understand the critical underlying structure of your story
• learn theory as you work
• spark in-depth discussions in your critique group

Darcy Pattison

In 1999, writer and writing teacher Darcy Pattison created the Novel Revision Retreat to meet the needs of struggling novelists. Since then, her passionate teaching has touched writers nationwide as she encouraged them, “I believe in your story.”

Her books include Nineteen Girls and Me, Searching for Oliver K. Woodman, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman, The Wayfinder and The River Dragon. Her books have been recognized for excellence by starred reviews in Kirkus and BCCB, Child magazine Best Books of the Year 2003, Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Books of the Year 2003. She is the 2007 recipient of the Arkansas Governor’s Arts Award for Individual Artist for her work in children’s literature.

Galleys

If you review books for writers’ organizations or you head a writers’ organization and would like to see an advance galley, email me at darcy at darcypattison.com . A limited numer of galleys are available for this, but we’d like to see them all go out.

Teacher Resource Book

Also coming this spring: Paper Lightning: Prewriting Activities to Spark Creativity and Help Students Write Effectively.

You’ll see more about this one soon, too.

Here’s a current schedule of my speaking. It may change at any time, because I’m in discussion with a couple people about other events.

• February 4 Ft. Smith Public Library, Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Children’s program.
• February 5 Mountain Home Public Library, Mountain Home, Arkansas. Children’s Program with book signing and Adult Writer’s Workshop.
• Feb 9-10 Attend the NYC SCBWI conference.
• March 10 Holcomb Elementary, Fayetteville, AR
• March 17 Maumelle Elementary, Maumelle, AR
• March 20 The Cathedral School, Little Rock, AR
• April 4-6 Novel Retreat in 3 Acts, Nebraska. Contact nlsharpwriter@yahoo.com to ask if any spaces remain in the retreat.
• April 11-12 Arkansas SCBWI Spring Conference, Conway, AR
• June 6 Arkansas Writer’s Conference, Little Rock, AR. Contact hmaustin@comcast.net
• July 23-24 Western Arkansas Education Service Cooperative. Professional development.
• September 19-21 Arkansas SCBWI Fall Retreat, Mt. Magazine State Park, AR
• October 24-26 Act 3 of Novel Retreat in 3 Acts, Nebraska. Contact nlsharpwriter@yahoo.com to ask if any spaces remain in the retreat.
• November 7-9 Western Washington SCBWI Retreat. Voice and Scenes. Contact joliestekly@msn.com

I’m always happy to consider speaking at a retreats, conferences, professional development classes, school visits, etc. If you want to host a Novel Revision Retreat in your area, email for more information: darcy at darcypattison.com

When you write something as long as a novel, how do you make sure the character stays in character? When you revise, there are several ways to check.

Creating Consistent Characters

• Create a Bible for your character. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but have one file, or a couple note cards that list characteristics. Left handed, blue eyes, lopsided smile to the right, hates licorice, loves flannel sheets, wears a cross necklace, right ear is pierced, etc. It’s surprising how such little details can escape your notice. In one of my picturebooks, a character suddenly changed from left-handed to right-handed and the illustrator had to redo that bit of art.
• Create separate dialogue files for each character. More than anything else, a character’s dialogue needs to sound consistent (unless, of course, you’re using it to indicate character changes). By creating separate files, I can read straight through just what a character says and edit, then put it back into the novel.
• If there are long spaces between writing and editing sessions, then be sure to re-read the previous sections. It sounds obvious, but it’s easy to neglect.
• Immerse yourself with a character for a day. For an entire day, walk around and think about what your character would say, do, feel about the world around you. Immerse yourself in your character’s outlook on life. Then, go back and re-read and tweak. (It makes for great conversation: Why are you so weird today? You don’t usually like gingerbread. Today, I’m being Gretel/Hansel!
• Write an obituary of your character. It’s another way to focus on the main character traits, dreams, hopes, goals. What DID your character accomplish during their lifetime? Then go back and make sure your character more or less consistently works toward that goal

30 Days to a Stronger Character

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

As Always, It’s Easy to Stay Connected

• Click here to subscribe to my feed.
• Or, if you’re on LiveJournal, you can add my Feed to your Friends page with this URL: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/revisionnotes/
• Click here to sign up for my occasional newsletter.

First person point of view stories are introspective, selfish, all about me, me, me. Before you write or revise a novel using this POV, you should ask youself a couple questions.

It’s All About Me, Me, Me.

1. Main Character or Observer. Is the POV character the main character or an observer? Often it’s assumed that a first person account has to in the voice of the main character, but that’s not so. It could easily be a sidekick, a sibling, or an enemy telling what happened to a main character. Before you automatically decide that the main character must be the POV character, look around your cast and see if anyone else wants to tell this story from his/her POV.
2. Present in Every Scene. Will the POV character be in every crucial scene? For this POV to work, the POV character must be there. It’s not fair to your readers to report crucial scenes secondhand, UNLESS, the scene itself isn’t as important as the impact of the events on a character. If your POV character is knocked out, asleep, doped up, in another state, visiting relatives, or just plain missing-in-action, s/he can’t narrate the scene effectively. Make sure your plot works with this POV.
3. Compelling, Sustainable Voice.
   Can you create a compelling voice that sounds like an individual character? Can you sustain that voice over an entire novel? While I loved the beginning of Meg Rosoff’s, How I Live Now her POV was wearing because of long sentences and variable punctuation. It was a compelling voice–at first. But, for me, it didn’t sustain its interest over the length of the novel. (Of course, it won the 2005 Printz award, so others disagree. ) (This novel is also available in a Kindle version, if you’re interested!)

   For your novel, make sure it’s both a compelling voice, and that it sustains that over the course of the novel.

4. Reliable Narrator. Is the POV character a reliable narrator? Ah, this is one of the interesting variations of a first person POV. We have a narrator who lies, who shades the truth, who exaggerates, who uses this opportunity to re-write history. If you’re thinking in those directions, this is the perfect POV.
5. Compelling Reasons? Are there compelling reasons for this POV instead of the default third person POV?
   Really. You should be writing in third person POV. Why are you trying first? But if your only reason is that you just thought you’d try it, or the voice is vaguely easier, or it just happened–you might want to rethink. Some answers that make sense: the reader will feel the actions more immediately; the reader will understand the motivations and emotions of the story in a deeper way; unreliable narrator.

   What are your compelling reasons for using a first person POV?

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.

When you write a novel, or revise a novel, the default point-of-view and the most common used is third person. (Though, first person point of view is giving it a run for its money these days. )

The Versatile Point of View

Think about point of view as a camera. In the 3rd person POV, the camera is above a person’s head and you see and hear and experience only what that character can see, hear, experience. That’s pretty easy. The tricky part is the emotional distance of the text. That is, are you so closely aligned with the character that you can say their thoughts and the reader understands that it is the character’s thoughts.

It’s like zooms and pans. With 3rd person, there are times when the POV backs up and gives an overview of the action, a panorama, and almost verges on crossing into an omniscient voice. At other times, the POV goes so tight and deep, a zoom, that you’re close to the 1st person POV.

Which is why I like 3rd person POV. It can very close to omniscient, yet, the next page, very close to 1st and still work. In fact, you can actually cross over into omniscient and it works smoothly and seamlessly. You can’t quite cross over into 1st, but you can create a close imitation. It’s the most versatile POV.

This is part of a series of 30 Days to a Stronger Character, tips to help you as you write a novel or revise a novel. Also, see the companion series, Novel Diagnosis and 30 Days to a Stronger Novel.