N is for Networking

N is for Networking. Writers should help each other out. :)

Today, we're pleased to have an excerpt from Michael Arnzen's "Genre Unleashed" from Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction:

I think it was 8th grade when I first learned that "genre" is French for "type." Genres are kinds of stories, that share conventions (or similar traits) between them. Seems simple enough. And there's a reason for these things called genre, beyond that 8th grade exam. Genres helpfully function to index books in a way that people in our trade can manage and organize texts: from teachers working on their syllabi to publishing houses building their catalogs to bookstores and libraries sorting out their shelves. Genres drive the market and help readers find our books. Communities start to form around them. Genres become a common ground for people with shared interests. They're a culture unto themselves.

We are lucky to have genres, because they give writers an avenue toward finding an audience -- and they point readers in our direction, as well. But they can be dangerous roads, too, because once we start identifying things by their type, we begin to categorize and label them, separating one kind from another, often based on superficial judgments. If a reader doesn't like a genre, they'll pre-judge your book without even looking at the cover. This feels unfair, so some writers avoid genre altogether, hoping to maximize a potential audience and avoid the constraints of their conventions…avoiding the pigeonholes of genre, but never finding a place to roost, and fading into obscurity. Others make the opposite mistake, getting too hung up on trying to control their fate, and play it safe, follow the "rules" of their genre so closely that their work becomes indistinguishable from any other book on the shelf. Uncertain about how to "fit in," they err on the side of imitation, and produce work too derivate to excite an editor who is looking for a unique sales hook for next year's catalog.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that genres are reductive. They reduce an entire body of literature down to one word in order to "index" it -- but in the process they oversimplify it, too. Because genres are labels, they fool us into thinking that genres are less meaningful, less creative, and less complicated than they really are. This is also why they get a bad rap by the literati, who categorically judge them as lowbrow pap. The real truth -- one which successful genre writers and devoted genre fans only know -- is that genres liberate writers, giving them a focus, relieving them of some burdens, and allowing them to play to their strengths and interests. A genre can unleash your creativity, once you get a clear sense of how it empowers you.

Michael A. Arnzen (gorelets.com) is a college teacher by day and a horror writer by night. He has been educating novelists since 1999 as faculty in the Writing Popular Fiction graduate program at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA, where he is currently Chair of the Humanities. Arnzen's energetic workshops on genre fiction writing have been popular at Odyssey, Alpha, World Horror Convention, Context, Pennwriters and the Horror Writers Association's annual Stoker Weekend event. His often funny, always disturbing horror stories have won four Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild award, and several "Year's Best" accolades.

M is for Motivation

Those of you who think M should be for Mystery, see my post from Wednesday: K is for Killer.

Motivation, along with Conflict and Goal are the building blocks of fiction. We already addressed conflict earlier in the month. Let's look at the other two...

Every major character should have a goal, a result or achievement toward which effort is directed. You could say, the goal is the reward or prize the character seeks. Generally, characters should want, no need, something they don't have yet, e.g. getting more money isn't a very interesting goal but getting some money when they have none is more interesting. In fact, the more desperate the character is to achieve the goal, the better. Thus, the goal should be important.

Note, too, that the characters need to act to achieve this goal. Action is very important. Action creates plot.

It is perfectly acceptable for the goals of characters to change during the course of a novel. As a matter of fact, things should get worse for your characters during your novel; in that case, the characters' goals should change. It's usually a good idea for characters to have multiple goals, some small and some large. It's okay if characters do not achieve all their goals as long as they act and something happens as a result. (Sequel, anyone?)

Readers like goals because they want to know what the characters are rooting for; readers want to understand characters. The goal is the "what" of your book.

Motivation is the "why" of your book. Why does the character want to achieve the goals? A motive incites or impels a character to act. Motivations and goals must go hand in hand. Motivations are explained (at least in the author's head) with "because". For example, my character, let's call her Isabella, wants to get off the street because she's cold and hungry. Not bad, but it's better to make the motivations as dramatic as you can. Isabella wants to get off the street because ...a serial killer is targeting homeless girls and she saw him murder her best friend. Much better! So, motivations should be desperate and important, too.

Readers also like motivations because they want to understand the characters. Recall, the ultimate goal is for the reader to have Empathy for the characters.

Authors can step it up a notch by writing both external and internal goals and motivations. For example, Isabella wants to get off the street so she's not brutally murdered by a serial killer (external) AND she wants to reunite with her long-lost dad and earn his respect (internal). In the best books, external and internal goals and motivations are inexorably linked. For example, Isabella wants to get off the street so she's not brutally murdered and she wants to earn the respect of her long-lost dad (a former cop) BY helping the police catch the killer.

Obviously, the final piece of the puzzle is the conflict, the opposition to the characters' goals. Something or someone has to try to stop the character from reaching the goal.

Therein lies the story.

Good luck!

L is for Laugh

L is for Laugh or "How to Write Funny".

I must admit I have a soft spot for writing that makes me laugh.

The basis for humor is surprise, the unexpected. We laugh in surprise at the union of two things that don't fit together. Comedian Steven Wright is famous for this: "All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand." So is author Janet Evanovich. In One for the Money, "Food is important in the burg. The moon revolves around the earth, the earth revolves around the sun, and the burg revolves around pot roast."

A key point is: humor depends on expectations, so is subjective.

Comic elements include:

• Repetition: For example, a little later in One for the Money, "Two years ago, when Grandpa Mazur's fat-clogged arteries sent him to the big pot roast in the sky, Grandma Mazur had moved in with my parents and had never moved out." Notice the pot-roast again? :)
  

  Or, how about this, also from Evanovich, "I was saving myself for marriage, or at least for college. 'I'm a virgin,' I said, as if this were news. 'I'm sure he doesn't mess with virgins.'
  
  'He specializes in virgins! The brush of his fingertips turns virgins into slobbering mush.'"
  

• Switches/Reversals: This refers back to the surprise angle, e.g. Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
  Humor often utilizes expectations to achieve reversal. As an example, when Dorothy Parker was challenged to say something funny about horticulture, she replied, "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think."
  
• Exaggeration/Extremes: In William Shakespeare's King Henry IV Part I, Falstaff tells Bardolph his red nose is "…an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern."
  

  Regarding exaggeration Connie Willis says in "The More and Less of Writing Humorous Fiction" exaggeration and understatement are two of the most important techniques of humorous writing. "To exaggerate is to enlarge or overstate the truth... Stretching the truth makes it funny." As an example, Ms. Willis quotes Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome in which three men in a boat attempt to open a can of pineapple but they've forgotten the can opener: "Then Harris tried to open the tin with a pocketknife, and broke the knife and cut himself badly; and George tried a pair of scissors, and the scissors flew up, and nearly put his eye out. While they were dressing their wounds, I tried to make a hole in the think with the spiky end of the hitcher, and the hitcher slipped and jerked me out between the boat and the bank into two feet of muddy water, and the tin rolled over, uninjured, and broke a teacup."
  

  Regarding the opposite extreme, understatement, Connie Willis says, "Understatement is less—much less. Instead of stretching or coloring the truth, understatement downplays it, describes it with restraint." For example, how does the pineapple episode end? Jerome uses understatement: "Harris got off with merely a flesh wound."
  

• Indecision: This is particularly effective when used with exaggeration or repetition.
  
• Convention Suspension: For example, in Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment: "A woman always has half an onion left over, no matter what the size of the onion, the dish, or the woman." is an example of convention suspension.
  
• Wordplay: e.g. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is the premiere example of literary nonsense and contains a number of nonsensical poems and songs, for example: Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! / How I wonder what you're at! / Up above the world you fly, /Like a tea tray in the sky. / Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! / How I wonder what you're at! Note this is also an example of parody. Malapropisms are a perfect example of wordplay (pun intended!) as well.
  

Historically, literary humor has been satire and parody, think George Orwelll's Animal Farm or Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Modern fiction has seen an explosion of humor with Chick Lit, Urban Fantasy and other genre fiction. Readers love humorous fiction. Many of the most popular authors are humorous, e.g. Jennifer Crusie, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, P.G. Wodehouse, etc. Janet Evanovich has sold millions and millions of books. Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mystery series featuring Sookie Stackhouse is quite humorous (see below).

Literary humor often comes from characterization, from characters' reactions. In Jennifer Crusie's Fast Women: "The man behind the cluttered desk looked like the devil, and Nell Dysart figured that was par for her course since she'd been going to hell for a year and a half anyway."

According to David Bouchier "A Funny Character is a Caricature. Funny characters are unusual, strange, odd, perhaps obnoxious and always extreme."

Voice is very important. Jennifer Crusie says, "Humor in fiction is based in voice, which is why humor is so different from writer to writer and why a strong voice is essential in writing comic fiction."

There are also special genre considerations. In "Take my Wizard…Please! The Serious Business of Writing Funny Fantasy and Science Fiction" Ester M. Friesner suggests writers be aware of the easily recognizable types in their genre and then set readers' expectations on their ears. For example, how would we expect the gum-shoe detective, the naive ingenue, the bitter divorcee, the wizard, the elf, the robot, the pirate, etc. to behave? Have them do the opposite.
For example, in Montrous Regiment Terry Pratchett has a scene in which soldiers conclude the serious military Borogravian National Anthem with "The new day is a great big fish!"

Does anyone have any favorite funny writers to recommend?

Have fun making your readers laugh! :)

Bonus quote from Charlaine Harris's Dead Until Dark:
A handsome vampire with thick black hair combed into an improbable wavy style strolled up out of the woods… The newcomer was husky, taller than Bill, and he wore old jeans and an 'I Visited Graceland' T-shirt. …the more I looked at the vampire, the more familiar he seemed. I tried mentally warming up his skin tone, adding a few lines, making him stand straighter and investing his face with some liveliness.
Oh my God.

It was the man from Memphis.

… 'Sookie,' Bill said warningly, 'this is Bubba.'

'Bubba,' I repeated, not quite trusting my ears.

'Yep, Bubba,' the vampire said cheerfully, goodwill radiating from his fearsome smile. 'That's me. Pleased to meetcha.'

…I said, 'Is that who I think it is?'

'Yes. So now you know at least some of the sighting stories are true. But don't call him by his name. Call him Bubba! Something went wrong when he came over—from human to vampire—maybe it was all the chemicals in his blood.'

K is for Killer

Today, we're going to discuss genre fiction that includes or features one or more killers. Yes, you guessed it: the mystery genre. The mystery genre is a far-reaching category that includes classic whodunits, crime stories, thrillers, police procedurals, private eye novels, and tales of amateur sleuths. This genre is VERY popular, and includes such blockbusters as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series. Thus, notice the mystery genre can encompass comedy and/or fantasy elements! Combining mysteries with other elements such as comedy, fantasy, science fiction or insert-your-idea-here is considered h-o-t. Pretty much anything goes with a few very important caveats...

Although thrillers and crime fiction may be classified as mystery, they each have their own specific requirements. Thrillers--sometimes called suspense--utilize tension and excitement as their main elements. Often they involve time-deadlines, spies, heists, conspiracies, cover-ups, fights and/or chase scenes. The most important point about thrillers is the characters act to stop a crime before it happens. Notice, the protagonist(s) and the reader know what this impending crime is and it is very large in scope. Thus, climax of a thriller is when the protagonist(s) defeats the antagonist(s) to stop the impending crime. Thrillers often utilize multiple 3rd person pov characters and can include the pov of the villain/antagonist. Crime fiction is typically centered on criminal enterprises and is told from the point of view of the perpetrators.

In mystery fiction proper there must be a serious crime--usually one or more murders--in chapter one and the characters try to discover 'whodunit'. Typically, a vital piece of information is kept mysterious until the climax when the investigator solves the crime. Of course, there must also be an investigator who can be a professional detective, a hard-boiled private eye, a forensic anthropologist, a klutzy bounty hunter, a psychic waitress or whatever. :) In recent years, so-called cozy mysteries have abounded, filled with recipes, talking cats, knitting, white-water rafting or you-name-it; these involve amatuer sleuths who have to solve the crimes because of circumstances, they find a body in their garden, for example. Often, mysteries have one first-person pov character (the sleuth). According to the-powers-that-be, the market for straight-up cozies is supposed to be waning.

For historical reasons, it's important for mystery writers to give the reader the chance to solve the mystery. Make sure the reader has the chance, by being given all the necessary info, to beat the sleuth to the finish line. If you don't, readers will be upset! :(

Notice, too, mysteries are very moral. In the end, the bad guy is caught and is, or will be, punished, and the bodies are buried with respect.

A third component of mystery fiction is social commentary. With a signicant crime and a well-characterized investigator, however, a socially-relevant examination of humanity should easily follow.

The Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction. Check it out!

J is for Juvenile

Juvenile Fiction, also called Children's Books are another important literary genre. Children’s books are written for children and meant to be read to and read by children of all ages. Juvenile fiction is a broad and diverse field including board books, picture books, easy to read books, “middle-age” chapter books and novels for young adults. The length of a children’s book can range from one word per page or less for a board or picture book to 50,000 words.

In general, a well written book for young people includes a protagonist around the age of the intended reader or a year or two older, a subtle theme, main idea or human truth and it should inspire hope or some positive attitude by the end of the story although this is not a strict rule. A good children’s book is a book that appeals to children of various ages. It is written by a writer who respects his or her audience and who most often is deeply connected to children, childhood and the child within.

Unfortunately, this genre is also rife with misconceptions: Writing for children is a way to practice so one can eventually write "real" books. Anyone can write a children's book. Writing for children is easier and takes less time than writing for adults. Someone who writes for children is not a real writer and books for children are not really literature. Ugh. As anyone who's seriously tried to write for children knows, this can be more difficult than other writing!

Thanks to the amazing success of Young Adult Fiction (which I'll discuss later in the month), supposedly one of the hot-hotter-hottest subgenres today is Middle Grade Fiction. This is fiction for third to sixth grade boys and girls, and runs between 20,000 and 40,000 words. In particular, publishers are supposed to be looking for books for boys...

The professional organization here is The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI),the only professional organization specifically for those individuals writing and illustrating for children and young adults in the fields of children’s literature, magazines, film, television, and multimedia.

I is for I

With that cryptic title, I will be talking about narrative point-of-view (pov), which determines through whose perspective a story is viewed. By far, the most common points-of-view in literary use today are first-person (I) and third-person (he/she), but there's also second-person (you). Note these povs are all related to WHO is telling the story.

In a first-person pov, the story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story. First-person can be extremely effective because readers easily identify with it. Some genres utilize first-person extensively, such as Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, and Mystery. A drawback to first-person is you can't hide information from the reader if the character knows it. Usually the first-person character is the one who acts and is the most crucial in the story; also called the major character. This doesn't always have to be the case, we can have minor character narrators, for example, the 2005 novel Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, has an every-man narrator, Tyler Dupree, and has the major character die. A famous example of an unimportant first-person narrator is found in which F. Scott Fitzgerald novel? Hint: It rhymes with Trait Tatsby. :)

In a second-person pov, the narrator refers to one of the characters as 'you', therefore making the reader feel as if he/she is a character in the story. An example is If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino. The only benefit to second-person is it's unusal. This is also its drawback. Don't do it. (Notice the implied 'you'. Clearly second-person pov is often utilized in blogs. :) )

In a third-person pov characters are referred to as 'he' or 'she'. Notice in this case the narrator is not a character in the story. This pov is the most common and so is the most accepted by readers. It enables authors to withhold facts from readers, makes comments and flashbacks easier to write, gives the author more scope for characterization, and other benefits. Examples include: look on your bookshelf. ;)

There's also the issue of how many pov characters there are, known as singular or plural pov. This can be utilized with any of first, second, and third. (This is not to be confused with multiple povs, e.g. the author could have more than one 3rd person povs.) For example, first-person plural pov would use 'we'. Can you think of any examples of this? Supposedly I, Robot by Isaac Asimov did this. (I'm going to have to check my copy!)

Another significant issue to consider is how close the perspective is to the character(s). An author can utilize an omniscient, a limited/exterior, or an interior/close pov. This is the cinematography of the novel, if you will, WHERE the camera is. The important consideration here is does the reader get to know the character's thoughts and feelings? Is the camera inside the character's brain, so to speak? Or outside, showing a 'just the facts' perspective?
Again, different genres have different conventions here. For example, Young Adult is commonly a very close interior pov; the reader gets to know all the angst-ridden thoughts and feelings of the narrator.

We're starting to get a bit bogged down in possibilities, but I'll add one more: reliability versus unreliability. The unreliable narrative voice involves the use of a non-credible or untrustworthy narrator. Examples? How about Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye?

These povs can all be mixed and matched in multiple povs! For example, I recently read WWW:WATCH by Robert J. Sawyer and he has multiple third person povs with one first-person pov. The first-person is the artificial intelligence and it does help the reader to identify with him.
So, in summary, I don't know if you've noticed, but we have dozens, if not more, of pov possibilities. I summarize them in a table:

	1st singular	1st plural	2nd singular	2nd plural	3rd singular	3rd plural
interior	.	.	.	.	.	.
exterior	.	.	.	.	.	.
omniscient	.	.	.	.	.	.
reliable	.	.	.	.	.	.
unreliable	.	.	.	.	.	.

Authors can utilize this multiple times within a work.
Have fun with it!

H is for Horror

As everyone knows, horror is a huge genre. Horror is emotional, it tries to provoke a response in the audience. It's the genre of fear; it seeks to shock, scare and thrill audiences with 'the unknown', grotesque images, frightening imaginary creature. Sometimes a horror story is a cautionary tale, involving the audience in fight or flight.

Horror is probably the least understood genre. Common misconceptions include: It's all psycho killers. It's kid stuff or only for teenagers. It's too gross. It's too scary for me. Horror writers (or fans) are creepy/scary/sicko/etc. If I write horror, I can be the next Stephen King. Good luck with that one!:)

All this is really only part of the story. Horror also operates on a deeper level; it explores the taboos of culture and humanity's repressed desires, and it is these explorations that generate both thrills and dread.

Academic and horror author Michael Arnzen says, "...horror is more like a game of peek-a-boo than a gore film. Good dark fiction is a form of seduction--it plays with the desire to both see and not see--tapping into that curious desire we have, to peer between our fingers while covering our eyes. It plays off the ambivalent desire to simultaneously censor and bear witness."

In addition to this strange push-pull dichotomy, "When horror tales explore and speculate about the unknown, they often also teach us about what we do know, even if only to point out the limits of cultural knowledge." and "By staging failures of intellectual mastery, challenging norms, and transgressing social boundaries, horror has the potential to revise and the potency to reshape the way its readers think." according to Arnzen. Wow!

Horror stories have probably been around as long as humans have been. As Arnzen says, "Horror stories document and illuminate the human condition across history and culture as much as any work of fiction." I'm convinced! :)

Horror writers, check out the Horror Writers Association which exists to promote and protect the careers of professional horror writers and host seeking to enter their ranks, while at the same time using its best endeavors to raise the profile of the horror genre in the publishing industry and among readers in general.