Incorporating Experiences into Books

As I've been proof-listening to my narrator read BREAKING THE MOLD, something jumped out at me that made me laugh.

Characters often take on attributes from people I've met or have known or stories people have told me. Years ago, when I wrote LIVING CANVAS, I borrowed a situation I'd run across about a not-so-good friend/good friend, someone who could be your best friend or your worst enemy. Unfortunately, I did a poor job showing this friend's good side, and people responded accordingly. Ugh. Toxic friend! So I had to write a book to redeem that character. Fast forward to THIS book. That same character makes an appearance, and then I wrote another "friend" who I realized is based on the same person! Funny the impact that story had on me, that the friend in question is now the model for not one, but two people in the same book (one "good" and one "evil")!

I was tossing around ideas for the new book and tried outlining a couple different plot lines based on another experience. I settled on a roundabout approach to the story and decided the best way to think it all through was to take a walk on my treadmill (it's cold and snowy outside, after all). And then it hit me (no, not the treadmill). The obvious answer was right in front of me. Suddenly, my "who are you" heroine turned into a character I already know from Hoffman Grove, and the struggle she's dealing with is obvious. (can you hear the "A-HA!") I love when things come together like that. The conflict I was struggling to present, the questions I have about how different things affect different people, have fallen into place very neatly. 

This is a good time to point out I do NOT project myself onto my characters, but that doesn't stop them from seeing things I've seen or experiencing things I've experienced. Things like a walk through a farmers' market. People-watching on the train. Visiting a maybe-haunted house. Sight-seeing in New Orleans--or another country. Meeting new people with interesting personalities or stories. In the story I'm currently writing, I'm borrowing a goofy personality trait from a physical therapist I met. The things we see, the things we experience all find their way into the stories we write and the characters we create. 

 

There's magic all around us

Something about authors that's a given - we all have a vivid imagination. 

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about the magic in the world around us. I'm not talking about hocus pocus this time, I'm talking about beauty and history and those unique things that make us stop to ooh and ahh. What is the aurora borealis if not magic? 

And this is where the conversation takes a turn. The scientifically minded among us will argue that it's a scientific phenomenon (the aurora) and there's nothing magic about it. While technically true, it comes down to the way we see things. I'm sure there's a neurological description for our varied responses to the same stimuli, and even those with "less" imagination can still be impressed with the view.

One of the things authors have struggled with during the past two years is the lack of "magic" stimuli. In its place is a daily diatribe of people attacking one another's differences, their uniqueness, their viewpoints and belief systems. Even the way they look. It's exhausting for people who want to show the world the magic we see in these same things. The magic is under attack. During these times, sometimes it's easy to forget the magic is still there.

Which brings me back to the conversation in question.

We got to talking about work trips and I commented on how those trips must have impacted this person, but no... they didn't really find them remarkable (which I find interesting, since they chose to talk about them in the first place!). And then I mentioned a trip I'd taken several years ago chasing the magic.

The Birks of Aberfeldy

I'm sure many of you have read or watched the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, about an army nurse from the 50's who happens upon a stone circle and finds herself transported 200 years into the past. The books so captivated me that I went to Scotland in search of an escape from the real world. No, I didn't want to end up in Jacobite Scotland, but I did go in search of the elusive something different. And I found it. For four days, I actively searched out those things that called to me through Ms. Gabaldon's writing (for the record, there is no such place as Craig na Dun). What did I find? An old-time village that might have been straight out of Brigadoon (except it didn't disappear at the end of the day). An unexpected nature walk across the street from the inn I stayed my first night, dedicated to Robert Burns. The River Ness - complete with the ruins of Urquhart Castle and tales of the Loch Ness monster. The haunted feel of Culloden Moor. A stone circle (very small) and burial cairns near the moor. An inn in Inverness made up of several buildings that interconnected with hallways that seemed to lead nowhere and staircases up and down where you could easily lose your way. A gondola ride up Ben Nevis (the tallest peak in Scotland). A drive past Rannoch Moor, shrouded in mist, with a warning not to hike a moor in the mist lest you get lost. A waterfall beside the highway where people hiked in Glen Coe. Walking the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. To some people, these are just tourist destinations, pretty sights to see. For me, I was transported with each new thing I saw. Sure, when I walked through the Birks of Aberfeldy that first evening, I felt like I could just as easily have been in Wisconsin, but there was something more. This was a place Robert Burns had drawn inspiration from. The entire trip was one magical scene after another. 

Glen Coe

As I related everything I'd seen to the person I was talking to, they commented they could actually see me change while I talked about it and asked if I wanted to go back. That's a definite... yes, and no. My response was to ask if they'd ever been someplace transformative. If there was anything that touched them on a visceral level. The answer (sadly) was no. Back to my answer. Do I want to go back? Yes. There are lots of things I didn't get a chance to see on my very abbreviated trip, but for the time I was there, I was allowed to experience every minute of the magic. Give myself completely over to the sparks of my imagination. Too often, we don't take advantage of those opportunities, weighed down by responsibilities or anxiety over how to get to the next point or what we're going to eat and where and when. Aside from two meals on the trip, I don't remember anything that I ate. The downside to immersing myself in the experience, for me, meant crashing back to earth when it was over. And I did crash land (for a number of reasons, first and foremost the reason I needed the escape in the first place.)

I wrote about some of the magic I found in LIVING CANVAS, but that's my job as an author, finding the magic in the ordinary--or what some people see as ordinary. I've had many trips since that first "great adventure" in search of the magic, both at home and abroad, and I've tried to convey many of those experience in my writing. On some trips, the magic was harder to find, even when it was right in front of me, but it reveals itself in the quiet moments, when the everyday isn't weighing me down and my imagination can take flight.

That conversation? It reminded me of that weightlessness that goes with experiencing the magic that exists right in front of me. 

And now I need to find a way to incorporate that in the next story I'm writing!

Happy Birthday to the new book!

Buy it now!

It's finally here! BREAKING THE MOLD goes on sale today. The hope was that the audio would be available at the same time, but due to some delays, it is still in production (although it shouldn't be much longer). Kayleigh is finally fighting back against the manipulation she's grown up with. She's ready to take the reins of her life, and a fake boyfriend isn't part of the plan. But since he's offering...

Here's a little taste for you:

He slowed when he recognized the woman he’d met at the B&B yesterday. Her head was bowed, as if to avoid being seen. A reunion function? Who was she avoiding? Rafe stopped and scanned the group. Nearby, a man watched her with more than a casual interest, something the woman next to him was aware of, judging by her scowl and the way she leaned into him to get his attention.

Rafe walked his bike past the man in time to overhear the woman suggest a private meet-up at her hotel after the ride.

“Sorry,” the guy said, still staring at the woman from the B&B. “I was hoping to catch up with Kayleigh.”

The woman shot a glare at Audrey’s guest, who Rafe assumed was Kayleigh.

“You had time for both of us when we were in high school,” the woman said.

The man turned toward her, his brow stern. “We aren’t in high school anymore.”

“No, we’re not, but do you think she’d like knowing you were cheating on her?”

What a prince.

Rafe pushed off toward the bike path to get ahead of the group. As he neared Kayleigh, he caught sight of her face, which was flushed. The guy who’d been staring at her rode up beside her and she dropped a leg on the opposite side of her bike, leaning away from him. Something told Rafe Kayleigh knew about the high school shenanigans.

“Do you want to get an ice cream cone after our ride? Or a drink? Where are you staying?” the guy asked Kayleigh.

Kayleigh pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked away. Not eager for a reunion with this guy?

She deserved better than a guy who’d cheated on her, and if she needed an out, Rafe could give her one.

“There you are,” Rafe said. “I was worried you’d already be gone.” He smiled at the cheater and extended a hand. “I’m Rafe. You must be one of Kayleigh’s classmates.”

She snickered, then composed herself. “Rafe, this is Brandon.”

“That Brandon?” Would Kayleigh play along?

“You ready to go?” she asked Rafe.

“I thought we were all going in a group,” Brandon said.

Rafe looked around. “Seems as if the group is all here. You need a starter’s whistle?”

Kayleigh settled on her seat, pushed off and they were on their way. They rode a few minutes in silence before she finally asked, “How do you know my name?”

“Heard him talking about you on my way to the bike path.”

She heaved a sigh. “So you thought you’d ride to my rescue?”

“Is that what I did?”

Using Five Senses when you write

While I often write about a sixth sense, today I'll reflecting on the five senses we all share.

I recently read a couple of blog posts about the sense of smell, and about the use of our senses when writing. Too often, authors forget to include simple cues that can bring the reader more deeply into the story. Let me start by pointing out an author should make these experiences direct and not distance the reader by saying "I could smell," or "I saw." From the character's point of view, they are actively experiencing these things. So rather than "I could smell raw onions in the kitchen," the more direct approach would be, "Judging by the onions and garlic that assaulted me when I walked in, I guessed she was making something Italian for dinner." Or instead of "I saw a cat on the porch," something more like "as I approached the front porch, a black and gray striped tabby arched its back in an exaggerated stretch and stalked off into the bushes." Yes, you can see the cat, but it's more active if you can see what it's doing and convey that. Okay, enough about HOW to use those senses, let's move onto why.

• 
  Sight
  
  What your characters see is generally a given. Most books will point out everything that comes into line of sight. Using the sense to evoke a feeling means using what they see to your advantage. What do they think of when they see something? For instance: The woman's skin was as white as paper and she wore a headwrap. Mary walked up to the stranger and squeezed her hand. "Keep fighting," she said, knowing all too well how ill the woman must be. Show. Don't tell. Visual cues communicate much more effectively than telling the reader Mary saw a woman who looked like she was struggling with cancer.
  
  
  
  
  
• Sound
  While we take for granted our characters see the world, we don't always stop to hear what's happening around them. For instance, where I live, they test the warning sirens the first Tuesday of every month at ten a.m. I'm not sure this would ever come up in a story, but it would be a clear signal to the reader (at least a reader in Illinois) of the date and time. (I don't know how widespread this practice is.) If the story is set in a city, the sound of a train or subway rumbling which puts a reader firmly into a sense of place. A church bell ringing in the distance, or a carillon. For that matter, a song on the radio, or a choir that transports the character to a different time and place. Music, in particular, often recalls an associated memory--good to use sparingly for flashbacks. When she walked into the department store, It's Too Late to Turn Back Now played on the Muzak system, filtering through the crowd noise to remind her of the one job she should have walked away from. She'd learned her lesson. It was never too late to turn back. 
  
  
• Taste
  
  
  I've discovered I tend to get stuck on a certain flavor in each of my books. There was the bread pudding in ENCHANTED MEMORIES. Mallorca bread in BREAKING THE MOLD. The bread pudding reminds the main character of her aunt, who served it as comfort food. When your characters go out to eat, you'll want to include the flavors that resonate with them. Are they favorable? Bitter? Enhance the mood or detract from it? Some foods can be a source of conflict. The hero likes asparagus, but the heroine chokes on it every single time. Or cilantro. Some people appreciate it, while others liken it to eating soap. Jose sprinkled the cilantro liberally into the taco meat, the way his mother used to. Alecia cried out in horror. "If I wanted my mouth washed out with soap, I'd carry a bar with me. Ease up, will you? How do you expect me to eat that now?" Or, here are a couple excerpts from ENCHANTED MEMORIES:
  

"...bread pudding, the cure-all Auntie Arlene had given her after the first time Madeleine had shared someone else’s thoughts and feelings."

"She didn’t bother cutting off a slice, digging into the 8x8 pan of bread pudding—extra points for the vanilla sauce on the top. When it practically melted in her mouth, she closed her eyes and hummed her appreciation. Pure heaven. Nothing restored her chi the way bread pudding did."

• 
  Touch/Feel
  Consider how something feels. Walking down a deserted London street, cold and damp seeping into your bones. Okay, now consider a romance novel and a hero with rock-hard abs. Warm skin. Or holding someone's hand. Clammy? Papery skin? What feeling do you want to convey? The way it feels sets a mood, or a response to that character. Chills of dread when someone walks into a cold basement? Claustrophobia when they walk into a hot, stuffy attic, the air making it difficult to breathe? Texture. Running fingers across a smooth/coarse surface. Spilling a cold drink, or a cup of coffee. How does the character respond to these sensations? TELLING a reader these things happen is superficial. Experiencing it - her scalded skin turned red where the coffee sloshed onto her hand, and she rushed to the sink to rinse the burn with cold water, which raised gooseflesh all over her body. Her hand throbbed from the violent temperature extremes.
  
  
• 
  Smell
  Back to the onions and garlic. Make the reader smell what the character does. In LIVING CANVAS, Audrey walks past the lilac bushes (thank you, Deb Larson) and up the front steps of the B&B, smelling the delicate fragrance. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you're writing a whodunit and somebody done died, a character might come across a decomposing body which would make them gag and possibly even "lose their cookies." Strong smells prompt strong responses. Delicate smells tease at memories or hint at peaceful settings. Olfactory senses can often transport people to another place and time. In THE UNINVITED, the scent of mimosa is an indicator that the ghost of Stella's mother is nearby. The twist is that her mother isn't who she thought she was. Or maybe an author might use a scent when a character thinks of their parents. Old Spice for their father, or Windsong for their mother, etc. I've seen movies where a child buys a fragrance simply to remember his mother because he's worried he'll forget her. It's his way of keeping her close. 
  

Again, with all of these senses, it's important to use the experience directly, and not distance your reader with "he saw..." We're in the character's point of view, so we see what he sees. Telling the reader is sort of like saying "I said to him, I said..." (Bugs Bunny cartoons, anyone?) Likewise, by adding "could" in front of the sense also distances the reader. They want to experience what the character is experiencing, no "could" about it. What is the character seeing? Smelling? Tasting? Experiencing? Hearing? Show the reader. Don't tell them, and make it a three-dimensional experience rather than a flat collection of words. 

The world of audio

 Well, I did it!

LANDSLIDE is officially an audiobook. It is still making its way to all the outlets. Newsletter subscribers can download the e-book free (there are benefits to receiving my newsletter!). 

As I mentioned in my last post, the recording isn't perfect. It was a learning curve, and for a free novella, it's reasonably well done. If you should happen to listen to it, I'd love to know how badly I did (or if I'm my own worst critic). I've learned a lot about normalizing, limiters, peaks and RMS. I've checked the silence gaps. There are still places you might hear me breathe, although I think I got the majority of places where I slur my words or truncate them (dialect patterns). I made a "pick-ups" sheet for myself, a list of things that needed to be fixed/corrected, and while going through it, there was one word I thought I'd slurred through, but when I went looking for it, the pronunciation was correct, so now I'm curious if anyone else hears it the way I did when I marked it for correction.

Now that I know what I'm doing, I'm considering producing one of my full-length novels.

Time to get back to the new book project, which is still giving me fits. I'm sure once I dedicate some time to it, everything will come together, but in addition to the audiobook recording, I've also been working on marketing for BREAKING THE MOLD (the ebook is available for pre-order, the paperback is live! and the audiobook is still in production). Busy woman, over here. 

The Question of Dialect

Here's today's English lesson. Do you refer to someone as having a Southern Accent? Is it accent? Or is it dialect? World Atlas explains it this way:

The process of forming a dialect from the main language may also lead to the acquisition of a new accent. However, it is possible that when a person speaks in the dialect of a given region, they will likely speak in the accent of that particular region. But when a visitor speaks the same dialect of that particular region, he will most likely do so in a different accent. Therefore a different dialect has a greater impact than a different accent. This also happens to people who have emigrated ... from their country to another country. They may develop a dialect from the main language or speak the same language in a different accent.

Confusing? Double speak? Technically, it's a Southern Dialect, not accent. Why am I splitting hairs today?

I've taken on a new project. Often, people want to hear authors read their own work - audiobooks narrated by the original author. I attempted to do this once years ago and gave up. I didn't have the patience, didn't have a process in place. After venturing in the podcast realm, I thought I might give it another go. I'm currently recording the audiobook version of Landslide, my romance novella. I figured I could start out with something short. I'm pleased to say it's going well - better than my first foray into narrating an audiobook. I am, however, hearing my Midwestern dialect. As annoying as it is, I'm not sure I know how to correct it without adopting something completely different.

I've always been a good mimic. I can do several other accents or dialects easily, although when a Scottish friend of mine dared me to try a Scottish accent (no, I can't do one), they teased me for sounding Irish. I can distinguish between Scottish and Irish and English and Australian and even South African, but that doesn't mean I can mimic all of them. I've seen some brilliant videos of people switching seamlessly between them as they read a scripted newscast. I also have an affinity for foreign language. I've studied several, can converse passably in a couple of them, but if someone speaks to me in those languages, my brain struggles to keep up. 

Which brings me back to the audiobook. This project is a learning experience, and while I may be doing a creditable job, I know I can improve on the process. The question is, should I? 

Are you one of those people who want to hear your favorite author reading/acting their own work? 

(Did you know you can download the ebook of Landslide by signing up for my newsletter?)

Getting to Know You

Sometimes starting a new book is easy. I have a clear picture of my main players and what they're after. Sometimes it isn't so easy.

Example. When I started writing BREAKING THE MOLD (Less than a month until release day! Woo Hoo!), the plan had been to start with Yolanda from COOKIE THERAPY. She worked in the bakery next to the bookstore. Yolanda is in the new book, for sure, but it's her family that takes center stage more than her, and her big brother who is my hero. As for the female lead, well, she stumbled into the story when I wasn't paying attention and stole the show. Wait. Wasn't I talking about clear pictures of main players? I suppose what I'm getting at is the two leads in BREAKING THE MOLD stepped right up to tell me their stories. 

When writing a series, main characters tend to be easier because you already know them from previous books, or at least you have an idea what's going on with them. Examples of when main characters aren't so easy? When I started EPITAPH, I couldn't seem to get Amy right. It took me several years before I finally discovered what was missing, but once I did, it launched the series.

Which brings me back to where I am today. I've written a first chapter, which introduces my main character, and I have a reasonable idea of who she is. Then there's the hero. I don't know anything about him other than his name, and two other peripheral facts about him - one of which even he doesn't know. Often, it can take me at least three chapters to get to know my characters and their journey, but I'm struggling with Chapter 2. I need to know more about this character. Blame it on taking a holiday break and giving my brain a chance to power down for a couple of weeks. It's time to jump start things.

When creating a character, it's good to start with a character sketch. What does he look like? What are his goals, his motivation in the story, and his conflict? Where does he live? What kind of car does he drive? What do you see when you walk into his house? Is he easygoing or structured? What's his fatal flaw or biggest weakness? What is his distinguishing characteristic/trait? What does his voice sound like? What does he smell like? What does he do for work? And then I need to worry about his support system. His family, friends and enemies. How is he going to grow over the course of the story? Does he have a catch phrase? (I'm actually hearing "yeah-yeah" with this guy, but considering how little I know about him, I could be wrong.)

These are the basics to help make a three-dimensional character - a person. When I've run into problems creating characters (like Amy), it's often because I've overlooked some of these basic questions. In her case, it was siblings. Once I discovered her brothers, the whole story/series opened up. 

So off to the drawing board to find out all about "Ryan." Very likely, once I've answered all these (and more) questions, I'll discover I've missed the boat on some of the answers and will have to make adjustments based on what I discover while writing his story. Characters can be cagey that way. They withhold something, or give you the wrong answer. 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and here's to health and new adventures in the coming year.