cj Sez: Bouchercon was
amazing. I heard there were about 2,000 people there. The first lady I met at
the check-in desk was from Aukland, New Zealand. I met a panelist from Wales,
and another from Iceland, and still others from England. On Saturday, on my way back to my
hotel for the day, I spoke with a lady from Toronto, Canada. And those
were just a few of my encounters. I can’t imagine how many countries I missed.
Fans of best-selling authors were everywhere, and on Saturday,
they were en masse. Michael Connolly interviewing Harlan Coban in a
crowded-to-the-walls ballroom was a highlight for me.
And, and, and there were two ballrooms filled with tables
and tables and row after row of books…made me feel like a kid in a candy store
whose mother had given her a quarter to spend.
If you can swing it, mark your calendar: Next year in
Toronto, October 12-15, 2017.
Today, I’d like to chat briefly about the amount of
preplanning necessary to bring a scene to life and ultimately the story. Every
chapter ought to answer these questions: Who did what when where why and how? Ultimately,
any novel with a satisfying ending has answered them as well.
Let’s start with who and what. Character and conflict. Almost
always an intriguing scene/story begins with the action of a character in
conflict, either on the page or in some narrative. This is true whether it’s a
memoir or a mystery. To be interesting, to be the character a reader can relate
to and commiserate with, s/he needs conflict.
Conflict doesn’t have to be an argument or a threat. It can
be as simple as having a flat tire when s/he gets ready to leave for work.
Knowing how a character should react to any and all conflict is an author
imperative. Since the conflict is stronger when it’s internal—a part of their
personalities—authors need to spend time creating characters’ bios before they
start writing.
What makes characters the way they are is the same thing
that makes real-life people the way they are.
Where were they born? When were they born? Any siblings?
What was the home situation like? Is s/he a loner? If so, what caused that? Are
they vain? Ego-driven? Church-going? Each one of these questions has the
potential to cause conflict, and conflict is what is needed for a great novel.
And for the real emotional drama, there needs to be internal conflict...conflict
that arises from the way these people look at life.
The hero and heroine—just like all of us—have habits that were
decided long ago…before your story started. The hero may have decided that no one
is going to help him succeed. If anything, they’re going to help him fail, so he
has to look out for himself. His way of dealing with that is to never trust
anyone. As a character in the story, he must react that way in all of his scenes
until the story’s character arc changes that attitude. The heroine may have become
the proverbial middle child who thinks the way to succeed is to become the
center of attention. She will always say and do things to achieve that goal
unless her character arc changes.
Remember though, lengthy backstory dumps are both disrupting
and unnecessary. Readers are carried along on the characters’ actions.
When you're building conflict into your characters, you have
to know who they are and what they want and how far they’ll go to get what they
want. The answers are an ideal place for the conflict to begin
Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do
the same.
cj
PS: Got your perfect Christmas present right here—for you
and the BFF who loves reading a good story. Choosing Carter is in the bundle of six romance novels,
“More Than Friends,” launched on Sept 19—it’s available until February 2017 for 99 cents. It’s not too
early to be thinking of Christmas presents, and here’s hours and hours of
entertainment for less than a buck!
Check it out and after you’ve read them, please leave the authors an Amazon
review. Thanks.
cjpetterson@gmail.com
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