Author: Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction writer. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

The Writing Life- People Watching

What are characters? Your cast, your actors, the most important parts of your story? Well, yes, that’s all very true. But there’s a more basic answer than that. Characters are people. Or at least, they are the way we either wish people were, or secretly think people are.

To learn to write great characters, you need to learn about people. To do that, you must master the art of people watching. Once again we are borrowing from the habits of our fellow artists, visual artists. Sit near an artist in a coffee shop, and you run the risk of ending up in their sketchbook. So it should be with writers as well. If you’ve never practiced people watching, here are some steps to help you get started.

Always have your notebook with you.

You should already have a notebook with you at all times, but try to keep some pages open for taking notes on the people that surround you. When I started paying attention to the people around me, I was shocked by how no one ever seems to be aware of the fact that anyone else is around them. People will have amazingly personal conversations while shopping in the grocery store.

Wear headphones with the music off.

Like a spy, you don’t always want to be observed observing others. That’s when headphones are your friends. People assume that when you have headphones on you can’t hear them, so they’re not so self conscious. Pop on some headphones and settle in at a local coffee shop. People will go about their business, letting you take notes.

Listen more than look

You can see how people look on the internet. You’re watching people to learn how they act, but more importantly how they talk. Remember, I talked about how important dialog is in this post. So, when you’re people watching, you’re actually listening. Close your eyes and listen to how people talk to each other. Talking is like music in a way. You have to listen to a lot of it to develop an ear for it. If a piece of dialog strikes you, jot it down. Why does it strike you? Take notes on how that line made you feel, and how it would have felt if a friend or loved one had said it to you.

Take a walk through the park

Especially if you’re writing with children characters. Kids gravitate toward parks, and so do a lot of other sorts. Besides, it’s probably a good idea to get out of the house when you can. We don’t need anymore of the sun deprived pale geek stereotype.

Take public transportation

If you’ve never ridden on a bus or subway, do it. I have sat on long bus trips and just wrote notes on everything people around me were saying. Yes, all the rumors about people on public transportation are true. Yes, a woman once petted my chest while I was on a bus. Go try it anyway, you will not find a better place for people watching, I promise you.

If you want your characters to sound and act like real people, you’ve got to study real people. So practice people watching every chance you get.

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Character Driven Stories

There are a thousand different kinds of stories, one for every star in the sky.  There’s fantasy, horror, science fiction, historical and all sorts of things that I haven’t the time to list and you haven’t the time to read.  But no matter the style, language, or theme, all stories fall into two broader categories; plot driven stories and character driven stories.  Given a choice between the two, I’ll always go for character over plot.

It can be hard to distinguish between the two at first.  Basically, though, a plot driven story is about something massive happening, like a plague or a riot, or an alian invasion.  This is a story that can be told from the pov of any number of people.  Like a riot, for example.  You can see that from the eyes of a riot officer, a pedestrian, an independent journalist who’s recording the action on her phone.  Each one will be a different story, but in each case the character is very reactionary.  Basically, this riot was going to happen whether your character was there or not.  A good example is Divergent. (Spoiler Alert!)  Even though the main character impacts the story, the whole mess was going to happen even if she’d never been born, let alone if she’d stayed in her original faction.  It just might have had a different ending.

In a character driven stories, though, it’s a different situation.  This is a story that just would not have happened without this character.  The story is about this character.  Think about Dexter, for instance.  The story is about a serial killer hunting serial killers.  Take away the main character, you take away the whole story.

How to build your very own character driven story

Step one- Make your main character.  When I started writing Woven, it sure didn’t start as a series.  It was all about one boy who liked to weave.  That’s it.  Take a person, and decide what makes him or her different from other people.  Devon liked to weave.  Alright, so he likes to weave.  What could possibly go wrong with that?  Well, maybe his weaving is magic!  That was honestly my first brainstorm for Woven.  Everything in the book stemmed from Devon and his sister Lenore, who was also given pov character status.  Without Devon and Lenore, there’s no story.

Step Two- Make your characters impactful.  Seems like a no brainer, but a character driven story needs characters that are, duh, driven.  This is not Shaun of The Dead, where the character just wants to sit back and play video games with his best friend.  Your character has to have something about them that goes against the grain, or a drive to make a difference in their world.  For better or worse, your character has to make the world ripple around her.

Step Three- Make your character fascinating.  I mean this character needs to really grab my attention.  I need to want to know more about him.  I’m thinking like Jonas from The Giver.  I want to know more about Jonas, right from the first.  I wanted to understand why he was so concerned with precision of language.

Remember, in a character driven story your character is in the spotlight.  He or she has to be the biggest selling point of the book.

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Plans for March

Oh, my goodness, it’s March already.  We’re already two months into the year, and I am still not done with my rough draft of Starting Chains!  You know, the one I started in November, then threw away entirely and started over in January.  Ugh.

Anyway, our theme for this month is characters.  I’ve been really excited about this month, as I love characters and character driven plots.  We’ll talk about all sorts of ways to make your cast seem more realistic and loveable.  Or hate-able, if that’s what you’re after.

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Write prompt Saturday, Write a Eulogy.

When you think of a eulogy, the first thing that likely comes to mind is a long, tearful, inspiring speech given at someone’s funeral.  I know that was the first thing I thought of.  This is, however, an actual poetry form.  And it’s a beautiful one, at that.

Like so many other good things, eulogy poems are Greek in origin.  Their set up is standard, three stanzas made up of four lines each.  The first and second, then third and fourth lines in each should rhyme.

The stanzas of a eulogy poem are broken up by topic; the first should be a lament, the sorrow and grief of the loss.  The second stanza is a praise of the one who’s passed away.  The final stanza is solace, something good that can be taken away from this loss.

As always, I won’t subject you to my own terrible eulogy poem.  Here’s one by my favorite poet of all time, Emily Dickenson.

So Proud She Was To Die

So proud she was to die
It made us all ashamed
That what we cherished, so unknown
To her desire seemed.

So satisfied to go
Where none of us should be,
Immediately, that anguish stooped
Almost to jealousy.

If any of you get a chance, tell my husband I want that read at my funeral.

Afterthought- I wrote this post a week ago, like normal.  I had no idea when I wrote it that it would post the day after one of my favorite actors from my childhood passed on.  The world is a poorer place now that Lenard Nemoy has left us.  Let’s remember to pray for his family and friends, and thank him in our hearts for the hours of joy he brought us on stage.

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Markets- Just 100 Words

Want to enter a writing contest! Great, the deadline’s today. It’s okay if you don’t have anything done, though, there’s another one tomorrow. And the day after that, and the one after that too.

The contest’s called Just 100 Words. Self explanatory, you have to tell a story in only one hundred words. Any theme, any genre, dead line every day. So, what kind of story can you tell in 100 words?

Genre- Open

Word Count- One hundred. Hence the title.

Sub date- Every Day.

Wait time- Twenty four hours or less.

Payout- $50.00

Don’t forget to check out the Paper Beats World Facebook page every Monday for a new literary agent!

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Check This Out- Feedly

So, it’s probably a great blinding flash of the obvious that I love blogs and web comics. The internet in general, but these two things in particular. I love them, and I read a lot of them. I’ve got some for creative writing, some for publishing news, some for home care, and some for geek news. I read a lot of them on WordPress, including some of yours.

What I don’t love, and this is a total first world problem, is going back to my favorites list and going to each and every page separately to see who’s updated that day and who hasn’t. Which is why I don’t understand why it took me so long to get an RSS feed reader.

Now there are a lot of them out there, but the one I use is Feedly. Plain and simple, no frills. It just updates when my websites do.

I love this for a lot of reasons. In fact, all the reasons I usually love things for.

It saves me time, because I’m not checking every website. You don’t realize how much time you spend flipping from site to site until you don’t have to do it any more, and your normal hour long new time in the morning only takes twenty minutes.

It means I won’t miss an update. This is important, because I don’t read all the sites I do just for fun. They’re all entertaining, but I try to keep up with the Publishing industry, and my personal writing education. I also read blogs that inspire me, and keep my writing fresh. Many of these I’ve shared with you during the Check This Out post every week. Any that I haven’t are on my list. Also, having a feed of blogs devoted to the publishing industry makes me feel like a professional, someone who really knows what they’re doing. That’s one of those fake it ’till you make it things right there.

So this week, check out Feedly. Stock it with any blogs you already follow, (like this one) and then add some that will help you get the motivation and inspiration you need to reach your writing goals.

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The writers Life- Research Pt 2, Now that you’ve got it.

Assuming you went ahead and did a ton of research after reading part one, you’ve got a pile of facts and figures now. The question is, what do you do with it all?

Part 2.1- Organizing your research.

First you need to organize it in a way that makes it a quick reference. Nothing is going to be helpful if it’s scribbled on a sticky note that ended up on your kids shoe and made its way out into the driveway. Personally, I go back to my book bible. I’ll need it with me anyways, what with its accurate dates and details about my series, so I commit a portion to my notes.

This part I will tab as much as possible, so that while I’m editing a chapter and need to remember what that really cool word I learned for what the feather on an arrow is called, (fletch) I don’t have to sort through five pages of spinning diagrams to find it.

I also color code the hell out of everything. The major color code for me is based on the character pov. I put research notes for that character in his or her section. I do not need to have my krav maga notes out while I’m writing about Victor, and I don’t want to be troubled with them.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of charts and graphs, so I add a lot of them. This is why I’d advise a three hole punch, and a big ass binder.

So now we have all of our notes color collected, color coded and sorted by character. Now, keep it with you while you’re writing. This is why it’s so important to have this all in a binder, and make friends with a nice big writing bag. Also lower back pain.

Step 2.2 Now, what are you going to do with all of this?

Add realism.

Yes, even in a fantasy setting, it’s important to remember that suspension of disbelief is a funny thing. Readers will accept your fantasy world rules if you’ve expressed them clearly. They won’t accept if you’re talking about something simple like baking a chicken and you screw it up by making it in the microwave.

Set the scene.

One of your biggest jobs as a writer is to describe things. Your reader needs to know how things around your characters look to be properly sucked into the story. Well, how are you supposed to do that if you don’t have any idea?

By the way, here’s something I started doing recently that has helped me a ton. I got a tablet for Christmas, and the first thing I did was download the Pintrist mobile app. I started making a pin board for each of my fictional worlds. Then, when I’m writing for that country, I pull that page up for inspiration.

Open yourself up to new ideas.

Speaking of inspiration, you’re sure to find some while doing research. Maybe even the helping hand your plot twist that wasn’t twisty enough needed. Maybe an explanation for why your character does that weird thing. Or maybe you’ll just find out that it used to be common practice for Norsemen to put butter in their tea, and decide that this has to go in the book. Anything you learn about any subject has the potential to inspire your writing, but obviously if you’re looking into things that inspired your stories to start with, the ideas are going to multiply like rabbits

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How many drafts do you need?

This is a burning question, and I’ve seen people do it wrong both ways. Lots of people will write one draft, say ‘wow, this sucks,’ and toss it right out. Others will never get done with that first book, because they must make it perfect before they move on to any other project. Brothers and sisters, hear me; these are mistakes!

I shoot for four drafts, and a final polish. Each draft has a specific job, though. Here’s how you break it down.

Draft one-

My first draft is all about playing. I write whatever I want, pages of um, love scenes that never make it into the book. I write my outline, deviate from it, think of something better, and write that instead. I make up characters, throw them away, forget their names, rename them, decide love triangles, make up brand new plot lines, and sub plots, give characters pets that I’ll forget all together or just forget to name. Long run on sentence short, my first draft is a mess. I’ll be damned if there aren’t some great things there, though. So keep this in mind, your first draft is something that no one is ever going to see but you.

This draft usually takes six weeks to three months.

Draft two-

This is the longest part. My second draft comes only after I have done a lot of research on some topics I didn’t know about. All details about worlds and characters are decided on, and written in my Woven bible. I make major changes in the book story wise in this draft as well. I also type this draft, where the first draft was long hand.

This draft takes at least six months. It is the first one I’ll print.

Draft three-

My draft three has three jobs. The first is the time line. I will write up post it notes as I go through each chapter that have the date, age of specific characters, and how far along any pregnancies might be.

The second job is story lines. With one wall already taken up by my time line sticky notes, wall two is my story line map. I will use very small sticky notes, and make a vertical line of chapters. My plot lines go horizontal, and I just pop a sticky note with a few quick words about how that plot line was moved forward in that chapter.

The third job is tightening my writing. I try to cut the word count as much as I can by cutting redundancies and word count in general.

This is the draft that I give to my beta readers. At this point I think the book is perfect, and I need other people to tell me I’m wrong. It takes about three months.

Draft four-

This is the first draft written with the opinions of other people in my head. At this point my critique group and trusted friends have read the book, told me to zip up my pants and given the book back to me. My darling husband, who does triple duty as my editor and research assistant, has literally gone through the book with a red pen, and had several domestic fights with me about it.

I myself also hasn’t looked at the book for months. I’ve done other things and forgotten about the book for the second time.

So I fix everything. I take care of all the things my readers pointed out, and all the things that are now so obvious to me now that I’m looking at the book with fresh eyes. When I’m done with this draft, I consider the book to be basically done.

Then I print it for the second time.

Final Polish-

Do not underestimate the power of a final run through. In this draft, I am tucking in my shirt, polishing off all the rough edges, inking the picture, chose whatever analogy you like best. This is the point where I am getting this book ready to go to an agent or editor. Hopefully, this lumpy mess I started with now shines.

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Writing Prompt Saturday- What do you love about your first draft?

We’ve talked about what you hate about your first draft. In fact, I believe I asked you to write a great big hate letter to your first draft, and what a big disappointment it was.

Now, I want you to switch it up. While you’re reading your first draft, what did you love? What parts surprised you? Was there a scene, or a line you’d forgotten about but it just shocked you how good it was? Somehow, when I read my first draft again, I seem to have easily remembered all the terrible things I did, plot holes I forgot and terrible fight scenes. I sometimes forget the times I got the writing to sing. Thankfully, I do find at least some of these moments when I read my first draft.

Write a list. Just start writing. Try to get at least 20, but don’t stop there if you don’t want to.

And don’t forget to join the conversation every Thursday on our Paper Beats World Facebook page!

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Markets- Eldritch Press

This weeks market is a new anthology seeking submissions for a steam punk horror book! Even if I don’t get a chance to submit anything, I might have to buy that. It’s by Eldritch Press, and it’s going to be called The Lost Worlds.

Genre- Steam Punk Horror.

Word Count- Up to 20,000 words, which is rather extensive.

Sub Date- Right now, they’ve extended it, until they’ve got enough quality work to fill the book. So, I’d suggest you write something awesome and hustle.

Wait time- Unspecified

Payout- Eight cents a word. Which, by the way, is a raise over their last anthology, which paid only six cents a word.

Please, everyone send great stories to this one! I’ve got nothing when it comes to Steam punk, but I so desperately want to read yours! Their last book looks great, and is on my wish list right now.

For more places to send your work, don’t forget to check out my Facebook page every Monday for the agent of the week.

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