Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Kilian

Foreword by the Author

Developing Efficient Work Habits
Eleents !f A "uccessful "tory
#n the opening$$$
#n the body of the story$$$
#n the conclusion$$$
%hroughout the story$$$
"tyle& Checklist For Fiction Writers
'anuscript Forat
"toryboarding
%en (oints on (lotting
%he "tory "ynopsis
)nderstanding *enre& Notes on the %hriller
"ybolis and all that
%he Natural Cycle
%he Natural +ersus the Huan World
%he Hero,s -uest& 'ysterious or unusual birth
"ybolic #ages
"ybolic Characters
Narrative +oice
Constructing a "cene
"how And %ell& Which #s .etter/
Character #n Fiction
%he Character 0esue
112et,s %alk About Dialogue3,, He (ontificated
"oe Dialogue Conventions to Consider&
Writing A -uery 2etter About 4our Novel
%he 2etter #tself
0esearching (ublishers and Agents
0eading a Contract
Delivery !f "atisfactory Copy
(erission for Copyrighted 'aterial
*rant !f 0ights
(roofreading and Author,s Corrections
Advances and 0oyalties
Author,s Warranties and #ndenities
Copies to Author
!ption Clause
*oing !ut of (rint
A Word of Advice
Afterword by the Author
Foreword by the Author
A little later tonight 5%hursday3 Nov 6 7899:;<3 #, going to start sending in a series of ites about writing fiction for
the ass arket$ "oe of these # posted a few days ago3 provoking a rearkable aount of e=ail asking for copies of
this or that posting$ "o # decided #,d start fro the top and go through the whole batch in a couple of stages$
Altogether #,ll be sending 8> separate 11handouts,, fro y coercial fiction course$ %hey range fro good work
habits to the reading of contracts$ (lease==don,t read the as divine revelation$ %hey coe out of y e?perience3 which
ay not be anything like yours or that of other writers$ .ut if they save you soe tie3 energy and grief3 #,ll be glad$
%he files total about 8@AK==enough for a short book$ #,ll nuber each one as Fiction Advice plus a nuber and
keyword$ #f you iss soe of the3 #,ll try to post the directly3 but soeties people,s addresses don,t ake sense to
y coputer$$$
Why a # doing this/ Well3 a year or so ago soeone e=ailed e with that very Buestion$ # thought for a inute and
then replied to this effect& When you,re young3 and you think you have the talent3 you wonder how you can ake the
talent serve you$ When you,re older3 you wonder how you can serve the talent$ %his is soe sall part of y service$
*od bless3 work hard3 write honestly3 take pride in your craftC
Crawford Kilian
Counications Departent
Capilano College
:A66 (urcell Way
North +ancouver3 .C Canada +>* 8H>
)senet& CrawfordDKilianEindlink$bc$ca
Developing Efficient Work Habits
Different writers face different advantages and drawbacks in foring good writing habits$ %he circustances of your
personal life ay ake it easy or hard to find writing tie3 but tie itself is not the real issue==it,s habit$ Writing ust
be soething you do regularly3 like brushing your teeth$ %he writer who waits for inspiration will wait even longer for
a coplete3 published novel$
Writing habits flourish best in routine3 but the efficient writer also e?ploits opportunity$
0outine& "et aside soe tie every day when you can work undisturbed for an hour or two==first thing in the orning3
during lunch3 after dinner3 whenever you can set aside other deands$ #deally3 it,s the sae tie of day$ 4our faily
and friends will soon build their routines around yours$ With luck3 they will resent your unscheduled appearances
during your writing tie3 and will send you packing back to your desk$
Keep your writing eBuipent 5paper3 pens3 software anuals3 etc$< in your writing place3 close at hand$ 'iniiFe
distractions like interesting new agaFines and books$ %ry to find a writing tie when few people phone or visit$ #f a
cup of coffee and soe background usic ake you feel less lonely3 by all eans enGoy the$
)se household chores as thinking tie& a chance to review what you,ve done so far and to consider where your writing
should go ne?t$ Walking the dog or vacuuing the carpet can provide ore ideas than you e?pect$ %his is really Gust
11controlled daydreaing3,, letting your ind freewheel in a particular direction& What the heroine should do in the
ne?t chapter3 how the hero would respond to escaping a car bob3 how the villain developed his evil character$ .ut the
process doesn,t see to work if you Gust sit and stare at the wall$ 4ou need to be up and oving in soe autoatic
pattern$
Don,t lean on others for editorial advice and encourageent==least of all people you,re eotionally involved with$
"pouses3 friends and rooates rarely have both editorial perceptiveness and the tact to e?press it without infuriating
you or breaking your heart$ Epty praise will get you nowhereH unconstructive criticis can destroy your novel in an
instant$
#nstead3 be your own editor& set aside regular ties to write yourself letters discussing your own work3 articulating
what,s good and less good in it$ #n the process you,ll easily solve probles that could otherwise grow into full=blown
writer,s block$ !n a coputer3 the letters can for a continuous Gournal3 recording your reactions to the evolving work$
Checking back to the first Gournal entries can help keep you on track==or draatically show how far you,ve oved
fro your original concept$
Writing a letter to yourself is especially helpful if you,re beginning to have an?ieties about the story$ "oeties we try
to suppress those an?ieties3 which only akes the worse$ An?iety turns to frustration and despair3 and finally we
abandon the whole proGect$ #f you can actually write down what bothers you about your heroine3 or your plot3 or
whatever3 the answer to the proble often suggests itself$ %he act of turning our chaotic thoughts into orderly
sentences sees to lead to uch Buicker and ore satisfying solutions$
#n addition to these self=addressed letters3 keep a daily log of your progress$ Word processors with word=count
functions are powerful encouragers$ %he log can give you a sense of accoplishent3 especially on big proGects3 and
can enable you to set realistic copletion deadlines$ For e?aple3 if you know you can write 6AA words in an hour3
and you write three hours a week3 you can have a copleted novel anuscript of >63AAA words in 6A weeks$ #f you
write ten hours a week3 the s$ will be coplete in 86 weeks$
Copile a 11proGect bible$,, %his is a list of facts3 naes3 and so on that you e?pect to be using for constant reference$ #f
you have soe iportant research findings you plan to use3 put the in the bible along with their sources$ #nclude
lists of characters, naes 5with descriptions3 so their eyes don,t change color<3 unusual words or spellings3 etc$ %he best
forat for this bible ay be a looseleaf binder you can carry with you$ 5A word of caution& #f your bible gets too big to
carry easily3 you,re defeating its purpose$<
!pportunity& #f you decide you 11can,t write,, unless you,re seated at your *igabyte ## coputer with 'oFart on the
stereo and no one else in the house3 you,re Gust aking life harder for yourself$ 4our ordinary doestic routine will
always contain 11dead tie,,==periods when you,re away fro hoe 5or at least away fro your workplace< with no
other task at hand$ 4ou ight be waiting in a doctor,s office3 on a bus3 or trapped in a large3 dull eeting$ )se that
dead tie constructively by carrying your notebook bible in which you can record at least a few lines of a rough draft$
!r you ight Got down soe background notes about your proGect3 or a self=editing idea that,s Gust occurred to you$ 4ou
can then use these when you,re back at your desk producing finished te?t$
%hese are general habits that will help you at all stages of the novel=writing process$ .ut you ay also find that you
need to understand those stages and adapt your habits to each of the$ 4ou ay not do yourself any good if you plunge
into the writing phase before you,ve worked out a decent outline$ "o let,s take a look at the stages of the novel=writing
process3 and then consider soe techniBues to a?iiFe your efficiency in each of the$
Eleents !f A "uccessful "tory
#f your novel or short story is going to work3 it,s going to need all the right coponents$ )sed without iagination or
sensitivity3 those eleents ay produce only forula fiction$ .ut3 like a good cook with the right aterials and a good
recipe3 you can also create soe pleasant surprises$
'any writers3 like any good cooks3 don,t need to think consciously about what they,re throwing in the pot$ .ut as an
apprentice you should probably think about how your story atches up with the following suggestions$ %hey all have
to do3 essentially3 with bringing your characters and readers fro a state of ignorance to a state of awareness& Can our
heroine find happiness as a Gournalist/ We don,t know3 but we,ll find out$ Can our hero found a faily dynasty in the
Nevada wilderness/ We don,t know3 but we,ll find out$
#n the opening$$$
"how us your ain characters3 or at least foreshadow the& We ight see your heroine,s other getting arried3 for
e?aple$ !r we ight see a crie coitted which will bring in your hero to investigate$
"how one or ore characters under soe kind of appropriate stress$ For e?aple3 if the hero ust perfor well under
eney fire in the clia?3 show hi being shot at in Chapter !ne==and perforing badly$ #f the heroine ust resist
teptation at the end3 show her 5or soeone else< succubing to teptation in the beginning$
"how us who,s the 11good guy3,, who,s the 11bad guy$,, %hat is3 in who should we ake an eotional investent/
Whose side are we on/ Even if the hero is orally repugnant 5a hired killer3 for e?aple<3 he should display soe trait
or attitude we can adire and identify with$ %he villain can be likable but set on a course we ust disapprove$
"how what,s at stake$ Editors and readers want to know this right away$ 5%hat,s why the blurb on the Gacket usually
tells us& 11!nly one person can save the WestIdefend the *alactic EpireIdefeat the vapires$$$,,<What does the hero
stand to gain or lose/ What will follow if the villain wins/
Establish the setting==where and when the story takes place$
Establish the area of conflict $ #f the setting is the Nanaio coal ines at the turn of the century3 the area of conflict
ay be relations between iners and owners3 or within a faily of iners3 or within a single iner,s personality$
Foreshadow the ending$ #f the hero dies in a bliFFard at the end3 a few flakes of snow ay fall in the first chapter$
"et the tone of the story& solen or e?cited3 huorous or tragic$
#n the body of the story$$$
%ell your story in scenes3 not in e?position$ A scene contains a purpose3 an obstacle or conflict3 and a resolution that
tells us soething new about the characters and their circustances$
Develop your characters through action and dialogue$ "how us3 don,t tell us3 what,s going on and why 5not He was
loud and rude3 but 11*et outa y way3 you GerkC,, he bellowed$<$
#nclude all the eleents you need for your conclusion$ #f everything depends on killing the victi with a shotgun3
show us the shotgun long before it goes off$
*ive your characters adeBuate otivation for their actions and words$ Draa is people doing aaFing things for very
good reasons$ 'elodraa is people doing aaFing things for bad or none?istent reasons$
Develop the plot as a series of increasingly serious probles$ 5%he heroine escapes the villain in Chapter 6 by fleeing
into the snowy ountainsH now in Chapter J she risks death in an avalanche$< Establish suspense by aking solution
of the probles uncertain 5How will the heroine escape the avalanche and avoid freeFing to death in Chapter "even/<$
'ake solutions of the probles appropriate to the characters 5*ood thing she took !utward .ound training in Chapter
!ne<$
#n the conclusion$$$
(resent a final3 crucial conflict when everything gained so far is in danger and could be lost by a single word or deed&
this is the clia?3 which reveals soething to your readers 5and perhaps to your characters< which has been iplicit
fro the outset but not obvious or predictable$
%hroughout the story$$$
0eeber that nothing in a story happens at rando $ Why is the heroine,s nae "ophia/ Why is she blind/ Why is
her dog a black 2ab/ %he easy answer is that you,re the *od of your novel and that,s the way you want things$ .ut if
you have a conscious reason for these eleents3 the story gains in interest because it carries ore eaning& For
e?aple3 11"ophia,, eans 11wisdo,, and the nae can provide a cue to the reader$
)se iage3 etaphor and siile with a conscious purpose3 not Gust because a phrase 11sounds good$,,
'aintain consistent style3 tone3 and point of view$
Know the conventions of the for you,re working in3 and break the only when you have a good reason to$ For
e?aple3 if it,s conventional for the private eye to be an aggressive3 hard=drinking single an3 you,re going to shake
up the reader if your private eye is a yogurt=loving3 shy other of three school=age children$ 4ou,ll shake up the reader
even ore if she goes around pistol=whipping peopleH as a private eye3 her behavior will still depend on her personality
and liitations$
"tyle& Checklist For Fiction Writers
As you begin to develop your outline3 and then the actual te?t of your novel3 you can save tie and energy by aking
sure that your writing style reBuires virtually no copy editing$ #n the narrative&
Do any sentences begin with the words 11%here,, or 11#t,,/ %hey can alost certainly benefit fro revision$ 5Copare&
%here were three gunen who had sworn to kill hi$ #t was hard to believe$ or& %hree gunen had sworn to kill hi$
He couldn,t believe it$<
Are you using passive voice instead of active voice/ 5Copare& #s passive voice being used/< (ut it in active voiceC
Are you repeating what you,ve already told your readers/ Are you telegraphing your punches/
Are you using trite phrases3 cliches3 or deliberately unusual words/ 4ou,d better have a very good reason for doing so$
Are you terse/ !r3 alternatively3 are you on the other hand e?pressing and counicating your thoughts and ideas
with a perhaps e?cessive and abundant plethora of gratuitous and surplus verbiage3 whose predictably foreseeable end
results3 needless to say3 include as a coponent part a soewhat repetitious redundancy/
Are you graatically correct/ Are spelling and punctuation correct/ 5%his is not ere detail work3 but basic craft$
2earn standard English or forget about writing novels$<
#s the prose fluent3 varied in rhyth3 and suitable in tone to the type of story you,re telling/
Are you as narrator intruding on the story through witticiss3 editorialiFing3 or self=consciously3 inappropriately
11fine,, writing/
#n the dialogue&
Are you punctuating dialogue correctly3 so that you neither confuse nor distract your readers/
Are your characters speaking naturally3 as they would in reality3 but ore coherently/
Does every speech advance the story3 revealing soething new about the plot or the characters/ #f not3 what is its
Gustification/
Are your characters so distinct in their speech==in diction3 rhyth3 and anneris==that you rarely need to add 11he
said,, or 11she said,,/
'anuscript Forat
!nce your book appears in print3 your publisher will return your anuscript as 11dead atter$,, At that point it,s of
interest only to future (h$D$ candidates$ .ut when it first arrives in the publisher,s office3 it ought to look as inviting3
clean and professional as you can ake it$ 4ou want to ake sure it,s as readable 5and correctable< as possibleH don,t
give the editor an e?cuse to reGect you because you ake her eyes hurt3 and she can,t even find roo to insert proper
spelling$
#deally3 you,ll subit your anuscript in laser=printed for$ #f you can,t afford that3 then use an inkGet printer 5used
with good bond paper3 it,s alost as good as laser<3 a good dot=atri? printer3 or an electric typewriter$ #f your dot=
atri? printer has a pale ribbon and you can,t replace it3 ake a darker photocopy of the original printout$
Consider your choice of font$ A sans serif font is legible but not readable==that is3 you can recogniFe a word or phrase
Buickly3 but reading page after page would be e?hausting$ A boldface font is even worse$ A serif font is ore readable3
so by all eans choose one for the body of your anuscript te?t$ (oint siFe is also iportant$ For the 'ac3 8:=point
%ies isn,t bad3 and it lets you put a lot of te?t on one page$ .ut 8K=point %ies is ore readable$
5%his issue3 by the way3 recently kicked up a big fuss in this newsgroupH soe people argued that only a onospace
font was acceptable$ # finally phoned Del 0ey .ooks to see if they preferred a onospace font like Courier3 or a ore
fle?ible font$ %he editor # talked to obviously thought # was bonkersH they don,t uch care as long as they can read the
anuscript$<
(aper should be standard @$6?883 :A lb$ white bond$ #f you use fanfold paper in a dot=atri? printer3 ake sure it,s
reasonably heavy$ 54ou will of course separate each page and reove the strips on the sides$< *ive yourself a argin of
at least an inch top and botto3 and an inch or an inch and a half on the sides$ Double=space your te?t$ Do not put an
e?tra double=space between paragraphs3 unless you want a siilar gap on the printed page to indicate a change of
scene or passage of tie$ #ndent each paragraph about half an inch$ #f you are using a font with letters that take up
variable aounts of space3 a single space after a period is enough$ #f you are using a typewriter or a onospace font3
two spaces are better$ Either way3 a single space should follow every coa3 seicolon3 and colon$ #f you can3 use an
11e dash,, with no spaces between the dash and the surrounding words$ %wo hyphens == are an acceptable substitute$
)nderline te?t only if you cannot italiciFe it$
Do not use a right=Gustified arginC #t ay look tidy3 but it creates gaps between words that ake reading hard$ Avoid
hyphenations$ Also avoid 11widows and orphans,,==that is3 a paragraph that begins on the last line of a page3 or a
paragraph that ends on the first line the following page$ 'ost word processors can kick such paragraphs onto the ne?t
page$ %his ay create huge lower argins3 but it,s better than breaking a paragraph$
.e sure that each page displays a plain Arabic nueral in the upper right=hand corner$ !therwise3 don,t bother with a
header$ %hey,re not going to scatter your s$ or lose the title page$ And when you send it in3 don,t bind it in a cute
cover$ "end it loose3 in a typing=paper bo?$ 'ake sure you have at least two copies on disk 5in separate locations< or a
photocopy$ #n 89>9 # sent half a anuscript 5:KA pages3 a year,s work< to y editor in New 4orkH he sent it back a
couple of onths later3 but #, still waiting for it$ Fortunately # had a carbon copy$
%he publisher ay want you to send along a disk with the anuscript on it3 as well as the hard copy$ When # did that
recently3 # found that the editor Gust poured y files into a new font and layout and sent e the page proofs for
correction$ %hat eant all the istakes # found were y ownH # couldn,t blae soe clusy typesetter$ %his is the
downside of the coputer revolution3 folks$
"toryboarding
11"toryboarding,, usually eans arranging a seBuence of iages for a fil or coercial$ .ut you can storyboard a
novel also3 and it can be a helpful way to organiFe the plot$
%hat,s because we don,t norally think plot$ We have an idea for a story 5iigrant boy founds faily dynasty in
Nevada wilderness< and a rando assortent of ental iages 5encounter with a griFFly bear3 wild ride to rescue son
fro kidnappers3 gorgeous blonde swiing nude in icy strea3 showdown with eastern gangsters wanting land for
casino<$ How do we get fro these fragents to a coherent plot/
Writing a letter to yourself ay help3 but first try this& %ake a stack of L?6 cards and Got down an iage or scene on
each one3 Gust in the order the ideas occur to you$ #t ight look soething like this&
Messe rides into town3 confronts Caleb .lack about his fraudulent ining=shares deal$ Caleb denies everything3
threatens to shoot Messe if he talks about it$
When you have five or ten or twenty such cards3 lay the out in the seBuence you envisage for the story$ 4ou certainly
don,t have a card for each scene in the novel3 but you have the scenes that your subconscious sees to want to deal
with$
4ou also have nuerous gaps$ How do you get Messe fro his silver ine in Nevada to the deck of the %itanic/ How
does Caleb get in touch with the three hired killers fro "an Francisco/ How does Messe,s grandson respond to the first
offer fro the gangster syndicate that wants to build a casino on the site of the old ine/
Now you turn your thoughts to Gust those gaps3 and new ideas occur to you$ %hat eans ore cards$ 'aybe soe of
the new ideas are better than the original ones3 so soe of the old cards go in the trash$ New characters eerge to
fulfill functions in the story$ 4our research into Nevada history suggests still ore scenes which ight go into this or
that part of the novelH still ore cards go into your growing deck$
%he story ay eventually end up as a series of flashbacks3 but for now stick to straight chronological order$ 'aybe the
whole story occurs during a three=hour siege of a secluded ansionH aybe it stretches across a century and a
continent$ Whatever the 11real tie,, of your story3 you ay see that the cards clup naturally around certain periods of
the plot and you see no need for events to fill in the gaps$ %hat,s fineH aybe you,ve found the natural divisions
between chapters or sections of the story$
Keep asking yourself why$ Why Nevada3 why ining3 why a gorgeous naked blonde/ Don,t keep a scene in your
storyboard unless you can Gustify it as a way to draatiFe a character,s personality3 to ove the story ahead3 to lend
verisiilitude$ #f you absolutely ust have a scene in which Messe,s true love "ophia goes skinnydipping in an icy
creek and then nearly drowns3 what good will the scene do for the story/
!nce you have at least the ain seBuence of events clearly apped out on your cards3 you can begin to transfer the
to a ore anageable synopsis or outline$ 'ore about that in a later posting$
%en (oints on (lotting
Nothing should happen at rando$ Every eleent in a story should have significance3 whether for verisiilitude3
sybolis3 or the intended clia?$ Naes3 places3 actions and events should all be purposeful$ %o test the significance
of an eleent3 ask& Why this place and not another/ Why this nae and not another/ Why this action3 this speech3 and
not others==or none at all/ %he answers should be& %o persuade the reader of the story,s plausibilityH to convey a
essage about the thee of the storyH to prepare the reader for the clia? so that it sees both plausible and in
keeping with the thee$
(lot stes fro character under adversity$ A ild=annered person cannot achieve his goals by an out=of=character
action like a violent assault3 unless we have prepared the reader for it by revealing a glipse of soe suppressed
aspect of his personality that can be plausibly released by stress$ And the stress itself ust also be plausible3 given the
circustances of the story$
Each character has an urgent personal agenda$ %oo uch is at stake to abandon that agenda without good reason$ We
ay not share the character,s urgency3 but we should be able to see why he cares so uch about what he,s doing$ A
character who acts without real otivation is by definition elodraatic3 doing outrageous things for the sake of the
thrill it gives the reader==not because it akes sense for the character to do so$
%he plot of a story is the synthesis of the plots of its individual characters$ Each character has a personal agenda3
odified by conflict or concordance with the agendas of others$ %he villain doesn,t get everything his way3 any ore
than the hero doesH each keeps thwarting the other3 who ust then iprovise under pressure$ #f the hero is oving
northwest3 and the villain is oving northeast3 the plot carries the both ore or less due north==at least until one or
the other gains soe advantage$
%he plot 11begins,, long before the story$ %he story itself should begin at the latest possible oent before the clia?3
at a point when events take a decisive and irreversible turn$ We ay learn later3 through flashbacks3 e?position3 or
inference3 about events occurring before the beginning of the story$
Foreshadow all iportant eleents$ %he first part of a story is a kind of prophecyH the second part fulfills the prophecy$
Any iportant character3 location3 obGect should be foreshadowed early in the story$ %he deus e? achina is
unacceptableH you can,t pull a rabbit out of your hat to rescue your hero$ .ut you can,t telegraph your punch either==
your readers don,t want to see what,s coing3 especially if your characters see too dub to see it$ %he trick is to put
the plot eleent into your story without aking the reader e?cessively aware of its iportance$ Chance and
coincidence3 in particular3 reBuire careful preparation if they are going to influence the plot$
Keep in ind the kind of story you,re telling$ Any story is about the relationship of an individual to society$ A coic
story describes an isolated individual achieving social integration either by being accepted into an e?isting society or
by foring his own$ %his integration is often syboliFed by a wedding or feast$ A tragic story describes an integrated
individual who becoes isolatedH death is siply a sybol of this isolation$ %he plot should keep us in soe degree of
suspense about what kind of story we,re reading$ Even if we know it,s a coedy3 the precise nature of the coic clia?
should coe as a surprise$ #f we know the hero is dooed3 his downfall should ste fro a factor we know about but
have not given sufficient weight to$
#ronic plots subvert their surface eanings$ Here3 an ordinarily desirable goal appears very unattractive to us& the hero
arries3 but chooses the wrong girl and turns his story into a tragedy$ !r the hero ay die3 but gains soe
iproveent in social acceptance as a result==by becoing a artyr or social savior3 for e?aple$
%he hero ust eventually take charge of events$ #n any plot the hero is passive for a tie3 reacting to events$ At soe
point he ust try to take charge$ %his is the counterthrust3 when the story goes into high gear$ #n soe cases we ay
have a series of thrusts and counterthrustsH in the opening stages of the plot3 the counterthrust helps define the hero,s
character and puts hi in position for ore serious conflicts 5and counterthrusts< later in the story$ 4ou could even say
that every scene presents the hero with a probleH his response is his counterthrust$ #n the larger structure of the plot3
the counterthrust often coes after the hero,s original plan of action has failedH he has learned soe hard lessons and
now he will apply the as he approaches the clia? of the story$
(lot draatiFes character$ #f all literature is the story of the Buest for identity3 then plot is the roadap of that Buest$
Every event3 every response3 should reveal 5to us if not to the< soe aspect of the characters, identities$ (lot eleents
draatiFe characters, identities by providing opportunities to be brave or cowardly3 stupid or brilliant3 generous or
ean$ %hese opportunities coe in the for of severe stress3 appropriate to the kind of story you,re telling$ A plot
eleent used for its own sake==a fistfight3 a se?ual encounter3 an oinous warning==is a needless burden to the story if
it does not illuinate the characters involved$ Conversely3 the reader will not believe any character trait that you have
not draatiFed through a plot device$
%he "tory "ynopsis
%he story synopsis or outline can take any forsH it has no rigid forat$ .ut the synopsis3 like the anuscript3
should be double=spaced and highly legible3 with freBuent paragraphing$
"oe synopses cover the whole story3 while others suppleent a portion of copleted anuscript and presuppose the
reader,s failiarity with that portion$ #f you have broken your novel into chapters3 that,s a useful way to divide your
synopsis also$ 4ou ay find3 however3 that what you thought would fit into one chapter will e?pand into two or three$
%he aGor eleent of the synopsis3 and soeties the only eleent3 is the narrative$
)sually in present tense&
!n a fine spring day in 89:L3 2ucy Willias applies for a Gob working for a ysterious illionaire$
Naes and describes aGor characters&
2ucy,s new boss is Donald 'atthews3 a handsoe young businessan scarcely older than 2ucy3 but with an unsavory
reputation as a ruored bootlegger$
"uariFes aGor events in the story&
Hurrying hoe through the stor3 2ucy bups into Kenneth Holwood3 Donald,s forer partner$ Holwood sees
deranged3 and hints at soe terrible secret in Donald,s past$
#ndicates the story,s point of view&
2ucy ails the package despite her BualsH she wonders what it ight contain$ 'eanwhile3 in a shabby hotel roo
across town3 Holwood eticulously plans the death of Donald 'atthews$ 5%his shows us that the story,s point of view
is third=person oniscientH we will skip fro one viewpoint to another as events reBuire$<
Contains virtually no dialogue&
Donald invites 2ucy to dinner at a notorious speakeasy3 saying she,ll enGoy herself ore than she thinks she will$
A list of aGor characters, naes 5with brief descriptions< can soeties be helpful in keeping the story straightH if
used3 such a list usually goes at the beginning of the synopsis$
A background section soeties precedes the synopsis itself3 especially if the story,s conte?t reBuires soe
e?planation$ 5%his sees especially true of science fiction3 fantasy3 and historical novels3 where the plot ay hinge on
unfailiar story eleents$< !therwise3 such e?planation siply crops up where reBuired in the synopsis$
How long should a synopsis be/ #,ve sold soe novels with Gust two or three pages$ !ther writers ay write forty or
fifty pages of outline$ #f your purpose is to interest an editor before the novel is copleted3 and you e?pect the total s$
to run to 9A3AAA to 8:A3AAA words3 a synopsis of four to ten doublespaced pages should be adeBuate$ After all3 you,re
trying to tept the editor by showing her a brief saple3 giving her grounds for a decision without a long investent
in reading tie$
"hould you stick to your synopsis/ Not necessarily$ #t,s there to help you and your editor3 not to dictate the whole story$
2ike the itinerary of a foreign tour3 it should give you a sense of direction and purpose while leaving you free to
e?plore interesting bywaysH it should also give you a Buick return to the ain road if the byway turns into a dead end$
)nderstanding *enre& Notes on the %hriller
11*enre,, siply eans a kind of literature 5usually fiction< dealing with a particular topic3 setting3 or issue$ Even so=
called 11ainstrea,, fiction has its genres& the coing=of=age story3 for e?aple$ #n the last few decades3 genre in
North Aerica has coe to ean types of fiction that are coercially successful because they are predictable
treatents of failiar aterial& the 0egency roance3 the hard=boiled detective novel3 the space opera$ "oe readers3
writers and critics disiss such fiction precisely because of its predictability3 and they,re often right to do so$ .ut even
the hublest hackwork reBuires a certain level of craft3 and that eans you ust understand your genre,s conventions
if you are going to succeed==and especially if you are going to convey your essage by tinkering with those
conventions$ For our purposes3 a 11convention,, is an understanding between writer and reader about certain details of
the story$ For e?aple3 we don,t need to know the history of the 'e?ican=Aerican War to understand why a youth
fro !hio is punching cattle in %e?as in 8@>8$ We don,t need to understand the post=Einstein physics that perits
faster=than=light travel and the establishent of interstellar epires$ And we agree that the heroine of a 0egency
roance should be heterose?ual3 unarried3 and unlikely to solve her probles through learning karate$
As a novice writer3 you should understand your genre,s conventions consciously3 not Gust as things you take for granted
that help ake a good yarn$ #n this3 you,re like an apprentice cook who can,t Gust uncritically love the taste of toato
soupH you have to know what ingredients ake it taste that way3 and use the with soe calculation$
"o it ight be useful for you3 in one of your letters to yourself about your novel3 to write out your own understanding
and appreciation of the for you,re working in$ # found this was especially helpful with a couple of y early books3
which fell into the genre of the natural=disaster thriller$ 4our genre analysis doesn,t have to be in essay forH it Gust has
to identify the key eleents of the genre as you understand the3 and that in turn should lead to ideas about how to
tinker with the genre,s conventions$ And that3 in turn3 should ake your story ore interesting than a slavish
iitation of your favorite author$
As an e?aple3 here are y !wn views about the thriller&
%he thriller portrays persons confronting probles they can,t solve by recourse to established institutions and agenciesH
calling 9883 or a psychiatrist3 won,t help atters in the slightest$
%he probles not only threaten the characters, physical and ental safety3 they threaten to bring down the society they
live in& their failies3 their counities3 their nations$ %his is what is at stake in the story3 and should appear as soon
as possible$
%he solution to the characters, probles usually involves soe degree of violence3 illegality3 technical e?pertise3 and
draatic action3 but not ore than we can plausibly e?pect fro people of the kind we have chosen to portray$
%he political thriller portrays characters who ust go outside their society if they are to save it3 and the characters
therefore acBuire a certain ironic Buality$ %hey ust be at least as skilled and ruthless as their adversaries3 yet
otivated by values we can understand and adire even if we don,t share the$
%he disaster thriller portrays characters who are either isolated fro their society or who risk such isolation if they
fail$ %hat is3 either they will die or their society will fall 5or both< if they do not accoplish their goals$ #n the novel of
natural disaster3 the disaster coes early and the issue is who will survive and how$ #n the novel of an=ade disaster3
the issue is how 5or whether< the characters will prevent the disaster$
%he characters ust be highly plausible and cople?H where they see grotesBue or two=diensional3 we ust give
soe valid reason for these Bualities$ %hey ust have adeBuate otives for the e?tree and risky actions they take3
and they ust respond to events with plausible huan reactions$ %hose reactions should spring fro what we know of
the characters, personalities3 and should throw new light on those personalities$
%he protagonist,s goal is to save or restore a threatened societyH it is rarely to create a whole new society$ #n this sense3
the thriller is usually politically conservative3 though irony ay subvert that conservatis$
At the outset the protagonist only reacts to eventsH at soe point3 however3 he or she ebarks on the counterthrust3 an
attept to take charge and overcoe circustances$
%he progress of the protagonist is fro ignorance to knowledge3 accoplished through a series of increasingly intense
and iportant conflicts$ %hese lead to a cliactic conflict and the resolution of the story$
With the clia? the protagonist attains self=knowledge as well as understanding of his or her circustances 5or at
least we attain such knowledge<$ %his knowledge ay well create a whole new perspective on the story,s events and
the characters, values& A urder ay turn out to have been futile3 or loyalty ay have been betrayed$ We should
prepare for these insights early in the novel3 so that the protagonist,s change and developent are logical and
believable$
"ybolis and all that
'aybe you never got anything out of your literature courses e?cept a strong dislike for 11analyFing a story to death$,,
"oeties the sybolic interpretation of a story or poe can see pretty far=fetched$
Nevertheless3 as soon as you start writing3 you start writing on soe kind of sybolic level$ 'aybe you,re not
conscious of it3 but it,s there& in your characters3 their actions3 the setting3 and the iages$ 5"oe writers are very
powerful sybolists3 but don,t realiFe itH that,s why authors are often poor critics of their own work$<
4ou ay argue that your writing siply coes out of your own life and e?perience3 and has nothing to do with
11literary,, writing$ Well3 no doubt you,ll include eleents of your own life3 but whether you like it or not you,ll find
yourself treating that e?perience like gingerbread dough& 4ou,ll shape it into a old to create a gingerbread an3 or
you,ll have a shapeless ess on your hands$
What you write is really a kind of coentary on everything you,ve read so far in your life$ #f you get a kick out of
roance novels3 and you write one based on your own torrid love life which is Buite different fro ost roances3
your novel is still a coent on what you,ve read$
%his is not the place for a long discussion of the theory of fiction$ 4ou should learn at least the basics of that theory3
however3 and no better source e?ists than Anatoy of Criticis3 by Northrop Frye$ 4ou ay find parts of it heavy
going3 but it will repay your efforts by letting you look at your own work ore perceptively3 and by enabling you to
develop structure and sybol ore consciously$
%o paraphrase Frye very crudely3 every story is about a search for identity$ %hat identity depends largely on the
protagonist,s position 5or lack of position< in society$ A tragic story shows a person who oves fro a socially
integrated position 5the (rince of Denark3 the King of %hebes< to a socially isolated one 5a dead prince3 a blind
beggar<$ A coic story shows a person oving fro social isolation 5syboliFed by poverty3 lack of recognition3 and
single status< to social integration 5wealth3 status3 and arriage to one,s beloved<$
Fiction in the western tradition draws on two aGor sources& ancient *reek literature3 and the Mudaeo=Christian .ible$
.oth sources are concerned with preservation or restoration of society3 and with the individual hero as savior or social
redeeer$ Halet wants to redee Denark fro his uncle,s usurpationH !edipus wants to save %hebes fro the curse
that he hiself unintentionally placed on it$
#n precisely the sae way3 the private eye redees his society by identifying who is guilty 5and therefore who is
innocent<H the frontier gunan risks his life to preserve the honest pioneersH the utant telepath faces danger to search
for fellow=utants$
Now3 you can play this straight or you can twist it$ %he private eye ay find that everyone is guilty$ %he gunan ay
be in the pay of crooked land speculators$ %he utant ay find he is sterile3 that his talents will die surface eaning$
Winston "ith3 in Nineteen Eighty=Four3 is happily integrated at the end of the story3 but we don,t share his happiness$
How you use sybols can also undercut or change your apparent eaning$ 2et,s take a look at soe coon sybols
and patterns3 and how they can coent on your story$
%he Natural Cycle
Day to night3 spring to winter3 youth to old age$ %hese suggest all kinds of iagery& lightNgoodness3 darknessNevil
springNhope3 winterNdespair
girlNinnocence3 croneNevil knowledge3 ipending death
Northrop Frye argues that we associate iages of spring with coedyH iages of suer with roanceH iages of
autun with tragedyH iages of winter with satire and irony$ Note3 however3 that here 11coedy,, eans a story of
social unificationH 11tragedy,, eans a story of social isolationH and 11roance,, eans a story in which the characters
are larger than life and encounter wonders usually not seen in reality$
.ear in ind that iages associated with these cycles are usually all you need& at the end of Nineteen Eighty=Four3 a
cold April wind kills the crocuses that ought to proise hope and renewal$ "iilarly3 autun leaves can syboliFe an
aging person3 a dying society3 or the onset of evil$
%he Natural +ersus the Huan World
Desert versus garden
"inister forest versus park
(astoral world versus city
#n western literature3 the Gourney fro innocence to e?perience is often syboliFed by the protagonist,s Gourney fro
an idyllic world close to nature3 to an urban world that has closed itself against nature$ 5#n .iblical ters3 this is the
Gourney fro Eden through the desert of the fallen world3 to the Heavenly City$< 0eturns to the natural world are
soeties successfulH soeties the protagonist anages to bring the urban world into a new harony with nature$
#n other cases3 an urban hero finds eaning and value through soe kind of contact with nature$
%he Hero,s -uest& 'ysterious or unusual birth
(rophecy that he will overthrow the present order3 restore a vanished order
"ecluded childhood aong huble people in a pastoral setting
"igns of the hero,s unusual nature
Mourney=Buest == a series of adventures and ordeals that test the hero3 culinating in a cliactic confrontation
Death == real or sybolic
0ebirth
0ecognition as savior=kingH foration of new society around hi
"ybolic #ages
A sybol ay be good or evil3 depending on its conte?t3 and the author is Buite free to develop the conte?t to convey a
particular sybolis$ For e?aple3 the tree is usually a sybol of life==but not if you use it as the venue for a
lynching3 or you turn its wood into a crucifi? or a gibbet$ Here are soe iages and their ost coon sybolic
eanings&
*arden& nature ordered to serve huan needs 5paradis is a (ersian word for garden<
Wilderness& nature hostile to huan needs
0iver& life3 often seen as ending in death as the river ends in the sea
"ea& chaos3 death3 source of life
Flower& youth3 se?ualityH red flowers syboliFe death of young en
(astoral anials& !rdered huan society
(redatory anials& EvilH threats to huan order
Fire& light3 life or hell and lust
"ky& heaven3 fate or necessity
.ridge& 2ink between worlds3 between life and death
"ybolic Characters
Different types of characters recur so often that they,ve acBuired their own naes$ Here are soe of the ost coon&
Eiron& !ne who deprecates hiself and appears less than he really isH includes ost types of hero 5)lysses3 Frodo3
Huck Finn<$ %he ter 11irony,, derives fro eiron$
AlaFon& An iposter3 one who boasts and presents hiself as ore than he really isH subtypes include the braggart
soldier 5*eneral .uck %urgidson in Dr$ "trangelove< and obsessed philosopher=ad scientist 5"aruan3 Dr$
"trangelove<$ #n y novel %sunai3 # naed y villain AllisonH although he starts as a ovie director3 he ends up as a
braggart soldier$
%ricky slave& Hero,s helper 5Mi in Huckleberry FinnH *ollu in %he 2ord of the 0ings<$
Helpful giant& Hero,s helperH in tune with nature 5Ents in %2!0H Chewbacca in "tar Wars<$
Wise old an& Hero,s helperH possessor of knowledge 5*andalf3 !bi=Wan Kenobi<$
.uffoon& Creates a festive ood3 relieves tension 5"a *agee3 'ercutio<$
Churl& "traight an3 killGoy or bupkin 5)riah Heep<$
Fair aiden& "ybol of purity and redeption 50owena< or of repressed se?uality 5any nuber of #ce 'aidens<$
Dark woan& "ybol of lust and teptation 5or of natural se?uality<$
Hero,s double& 0epresents the dark side of the hero,s character 5*ed,s shadow in WiFard of Earthsea<$
"ince these iages are uch older than what is now politically correct3 they can cause problesH readers ay see
the as affirations of old3 oppressive social values$ However3 any odern writers now use the ironically to
criticiFe3 not endorse3 the values the iages originally e?pressed$ Nevertheless3 be aware that if your heroines are
always blonde virgins and your villainesses are always seductive brunettes3 you ay be sending a essage you don,t
consciously intend$
.e aware also that you,re perfectly free to develop your own sybolic syste$ Must as the 110osebud,, sled in CitiFen
Kane syboliFes Kane,s lost childhood innocence3 you can ake a sybol out of a hat rack3 a catcher,s itt3 or an old
bus schedule$ 4ou,re also free to ake your sybols understandable to your readers3 or to keep the part of your
private ythology$ #f you associate a catcher,s itt with your the death of your hero,s father3 the reader will
understand==on soe level==what you,re trying to say$ #f the catcher,s itt sees iportant to your hero3 but you don,t
tell us why3 we can only guess at the sybolic eaning$
Don,t try too self=consciously to be 11sybolic$,, .ut if certain iages3 obGects or events see to doinate your
thinking about your novel3 write yourself a letter about the$ "ee whether they ight indeed carry soe sybolic level
of eaning3 and if that level is in harony with your conscious intent$
Narrative +oice
"oeone in your story has to tell us that Meff pulled out his gun3 that "aantha siled at the tall stranger3 that daylight
was breaking over the valley$ %hat soeone is the narrator or 11author,s persona$,,
%he author,s persona of a fictional narrative can help or hinder the success of the story$ Which persona you adopt
depends on what kind of story you are trying to tell3 and what kind of eotional atosphere works best for the story$
%he persona develops fro the personality and attitude of the narrator3 which are e?pressed by the narrator,s choice of
words and incidents$ %hese in turn depend on the point of view of the story$
First=person point of view is usually subGective& we learn the narrator,s thoughts3 feelings3 and reactions to events$ #n
first=person obGective3 however3 the narrator tells us only what people said and did3 without coent$
!ther first=person odes include&
the observer=narrator3 outside the ain story 5e?aples& 'r$ 2ockwood in Wuthering Heights3 Nick Carraway in %he
*reat *atsby<
detached autobiography 5narrator looking back on long=past events<
ultiple narrators 5first=person accounts by several characters<
interior onologue 5narrator recounts the story as a eoryH strea of consciousness is an e?tree for of this
narrative<
draatic onologue 5narrator tells story out loud without aGor interruption<
letters or diary 5narrator writes down events as they happen<
#f the point of view is first=person3 Buestions about the persona are siple& the character narrating the story has a
particular personality and attitude3 which is plausibly e?pressed by the way he or she describes events$
%he second=person ode is rare& 4ou knocked on the door$ 4ou went inside$ +ery few writers feel the need for it3 and
still fewer use it effectively$
#f the point of view is third=person liited3 persona again depends on the single character through whose eyes we
witness the story$ 4ou ay go inside the character,s ind and tell us how that character thinks and feels3 or you ay
describe outside events in ters the character would use$ 0eaders like this point of view because they know who to
11invest,, in or identify with$
#n third=person obGective3 we have no entry to anyone,s thoughts or feelings$ %he author siply describes3 without
eotion or editorialiFing3 what the characters say and do$ %he author,s persona here is alost non=e?istent$ 0eaders
ay be unsure whose fate they should care about3 but it can be very powerful precisely because it invites the reader to
supply the eotion that the persona does not$ %his is the persona of #celandic sagas3 which inspired not only Ernest
Heingway but a whole generation of 11hard=boiled,, writers$
#f the point of view is third=person oniscient3 however3 the author,s persona can develop in any of several directions$
11Episodically liited$,, Whoever is the point of view for a particular scene deterines the persona$ An archbishop sees
and describes events fro his particular point of view3 while a pickpocket does so Buite differently$ "o the narrator3 in a
scene fro the archbishop,s point of view3 has a persona Buite different fro that of the pickpocket& a different
vocabulary3 a different set of values3 a different set of priorities$ 5As a general rule3 point of view should not change
during a scene$ "o if an archbishop is the point of view in a scene involving hi and a pickpocket3 we shouldn,t
suddenly switch to the pickpocket,s point of view until we,ve resolved the scene and oved on to another scene$<
11!ccasional interruptor$,, %he author intervenes fro tie to tie to supply necessary inforation3 but otherwise stays
in the background$ %he dialogue3 thoughts and behavior of the characters supply all other inforation the reader
needs$
11Editorial coentator$,, %he author,s persona has a distinct attitude toward the story,s characters and events3 and
freBuently coents on the$ %he editorial coentator ay be a character in the story3 often with a nae3 but is
usually at soe distance fro the ain eventsH in soe cases3 we ay even have an editorial coentator reporting
the narrative of soeone else about events involving still other people$ %he editorial coentator is not always
reliableH he or she ay lie to us3 or isunderstand the true significance of events$
%hird=person oniscient gives you the ost freedo to develop the story3 and it works especially well in stories with
cople? plots or large settings where we ust use ultiple viewpoints to tell the story$ #t can3 however3 cause the
reader to feel uncertain about who to identify with in the story$ #f you are going to skip fro one point of view to
another3 start doing so early in the story3 before the reader has fully identified with the original point of view$
%he author,s persona can influence the reader,s reaction by helping the reader to feel close to or distant fro the
characters$ %hree aGor haFards arise fro careless use of the persona&
"entientality$ %he author,s editorial rhetoric tries to evoke an eotional response that the story,s events cannot evoke
by theselves==soething like a cheerleader trying to win applause for a tea that doesn,t deserve it$ A particular
proble for the 11editorial coentator$,,
'anneris$ %he author,s persona sees ore iportant than the story itself3 and the author keeps reinding us of his
or her presence through stylistic flaboyance3 Buirks of diction3 or outright editorialiFing about the characters and
events of the story$ Also a proble for the editorial coentator$ However3 if the point of view is first person3 and the
narrator is a person given to stylistic flaboyance3 Buirks of diction3 and so on3 then the proble disappearsH the
persona is siply that of a rather egotistical individual who likes to show off$
Frigidity$ %he persona,s e?cessive obGectivity trivialiFes the events of the story3 suggesting that the characters, probles
need not be taken seriously& a particular haFard for 11hardboiled,, fiction in the obGective ode3 whether first person or
third person$
+erb tense can also affect the narrative style of the story$ 'ost stories use the past tense& # knocked on the door$ "he
pulled out her gun$ %his is usually Buite adeBuate although flashbacks can cause awkwardness& # had knocked on the
door$ "he had pulled out her gun$ A little of that goes a long way$
.e careful to stay consistently in one verb tense unless your narrator is a person who ight switch tenses& "o # went to
see y probation officer3 and she tells e # can,t hang out with y old buddies no ore$
"oe writers achieve a kind of iediacy through use of the present tense& # knock on the door$ "he pulls out her
gun$ We don,t feel anyone knows the outcoe of events because they are occurring as we read3 in 11real tie$,, "oe
writers also enGoy the present tense because it sees 11arty,, or e?periental$ .ut ost readers of genre fiction don,t
enGoy the present tense3 so editors are often reluctant to let their authors use it$ # learned that the hard way by using
present tense in y first novel3 %he Epire of %ieH it was enough to keep the anuscript in editorial libo for
onths3 and the final offer to publish was contingent on changing to past tense$ *uess how long # agoniFed over that
artistic decisionC
Constructing a "cene
%he basic unit of fiction is not the sentence or the paragraph3 but the scene$ Every scene in a story has both a verbal
and a nonverbal content$ %he verbal content ay be a young an fervently courting a girl3 or the (resident of the
)nited "tates deciding whether to go ahead with a nuclear attack on a biological=warfare research center$ %he
nonverbal content appears in the way you present the scene& 4ou want your reader to think that the young an is
touchingly awkward3 or obno?iously crudeH that the president is a shallow twerp or a deeply sensitive an facing a
terrible decision$
#n effect3 you are like an attorney presenting a case to the Gury& 4ou supply the evidence3 and the Gury supplies the
verdict$ #f you tell us that the young an is touchingly awkward3 we ay well disbelieve you$ .ut if you show us his
awkward behavior3 and we say3 11Aw3 the poor lunkC,,==then your scene has succeeded$
Every scene presents a proble of soe kind for one or ore characters3 and shows us how the characters deal with
that proble$ %hat3 in turn3 shows us soething about the characters and oves the story ahead$
Here,s an e?ercise #,ve found useful with y fiction=writing students$ # give the about LA inutes to take the
following eleents to construct a scene that draatiFes the eleents and leads to a decisive resolution&
A ta?i and public=transit strike that,s copletely tied up downtown traffic
Donald .enson3 a L6=year=old businessan& ale chauvinist3 aggressive personality3 with business troubles
Helene Willias3 his ::=year=old secretary& insecure in her new Gob3 able to ake friends easily3 knows the city well
%he need to get Donald to a hotel out at the airport to ake a crucial presentation to a potential investor fro 2os
AngelesH the investor will be flying out in four hours$
*ive yourself half an hour to write such a scene3 so that the reader will finish it knowing all this inforation$ # predict
you,ll be aaFed at how Buickly you can produce the scene3 and at how it leads logically to another scene$ %he key is
Oknowing what you want to show your reader about your characters and their probles$O !nce you know that3
everything else follows pretty easily$ "o consider what,s going on in your own story$ What do you want your reader to
think about your heroine/ %hat she,s shy but deterined/ %hat she thinks no an could ever love her/ %hat she,s
perceptive about other woen but baffled by en/ Whatever those traits ay be3 you should be able to think of logical3
plausible events that could force her to show the to us$
#n soe cases3 your plot will give you soe autoatic scenes$ #f your heroine is flying fro New 4ork to Frankfurt3
aybe her seatate is an attractive an who studiously ignores herH aybe the *eran custos people give her a
hard tie but she insists on her rightsH aybe the heroine sees the attractive an greeted by a woan he sees to dote
on even though the perceptive heroine can see the woan despises hi$ And so on$
How long should a scene be/ 2ong enough to ake its point$ A scene ay run to Gust a sentence or two3 or it ay take
up :A pages$ When it ends3 we should know ore about the characters involved3 and their probles should have
increased$ %his doesn,t ean endlessly increasing gloo3 but it eans that even a success only clears the way for a
ore stressful scene to coe$ %he hero ay disar the terrorist bob in the daycare center3 but the resulting publicity
will ake hi a arked anH now the terrorists will try to kill hi or his loved ones$
How any characters should take part in a scene/ As few as possible$ Even a debate in Congress isn,t going to involve
every last representative$ Here,s a tip in this connection& #f your plot deands a fairly large cast==for e?aple3 your
protagonist is the coanding officer of an infantry platoon3 or the headistress of a girls, school==don,t introduce a
whole ob of characters at once$ .ring in your protagonist first3 in a scene that deonstrates the character,s key traits
5courage3 leadership3 self=hatred3 whatever<$ %hen bring in each of the supporting characters in a scene that lets hi or
her display key traits as well3 while deepening our understanding of the protagonist and oving the plot along$
%his way we build up interest in the story by building up interest in the varied and cople? characters$ %olkien does it
in %he 2ord of the 0ingsH Kurosawa does it in "even "aurai$ 2earn fro the old astersC
"how And %ell& Which #s .etter/
Novice writers 5and soe professionals< often fall into the trap of 11e?positing,, inforation instead of presenting it
draatically$ "oeties e?position is inevitable3 or even desirable$ 2loyd Abbey3 in his brilliant "F novel %he 2ast
Whales3 gives us e?actly one line of huan dialogueH his characters3 all being whales3 can,t speak to one another3 so
the narrator ust tell us what they think and do$ *abriel *arca 'arBueF can also write superb e?position for page
after page$
'ost of us ordinary ortals3 however3 need to draatiFe our characters and their feelings$ !therwise our readers will
tire of our editorials$
Consider the following e?pository and draatic passages$ Which ore adeBuately conveys what the author is trying to
show to the reader/
+anessa was a tall woan of LK with shoulder=length red hair and a pale cople?ion$ "he often lost her teperH when
she did3 her fair skin turned a deep pink3 and she often swore$ "he was full of energy3 and becae ipatient at even
the slightest delay or ipedient to her plans$ 'arshall3 her chief assistant3 was a balding3 ild=annered3 nervous
an of 6K who was often afraid of her$ He was also annoyed with hiself for letting her boss hi around$
==============================
+anessa abruptly got up fro her desk$ A shaft of sunlight fro the window behind her seeed to strike fire fro her
long red hair as she shook her head violently$
11No3 'arshallC *od dan it3 this won,t doC Didn,t # ake yself clear/,,
114es3 +anessa3 b=but==,,
11And you understood what # told you3 didn,t you/,, Her pale skin was flushing pink3 and 'arshall saw the signs of a
classic outburst on the way$ "he took a step toward hi3 forcing hi to look up to eet her gaFeH she ust be a good
three inches taller$ He raised his hands in supplication3 then caught hiself and tried to ake the gesture look like the
soothing of hair he no longer had$ He felt sweat on his bald scalp$
11+anessa3 it was a==,,
11#t was another one of your screw=ups3 'arshallC We,re coitted to a %hursday deadline$ #, going to ake that
dan deadline3 whether or not you,re here to help e$ Now3 a # going to get soe cooperation fro you3 or not/,,
'arshall nodded3 cursing hiself for his slavish obedience$ Fifty=four years old3 and taking orders fro a bitch twenty
years younger$ Why didn,t he Gust tell her to shove it/
11All the way3 +anessa$ We,ll get right on it$,,
11Dan well better$,, Her voice softenedH the pink faded fro her cheeks$ 11!kay3 let,s get going$,,
Coent& A paragraph of e?position has turned into a scene& the portrayal of a conflict and its resolution$ %he scene
has also prepared us for further scenes$ 'aybe 'arshall,s going to destroy hiself for +anessa3 or poison herH aybe
+anessa,s going to learn how to behave better$ 'ost iportantly3 the authorial Gudgents in the e?position are now
happening in the inds of the characters and the ind of the reader==who ay well agree with 'arshall3 or side with
+anessa$
Here,s another e?aple&
Merry was 89$ "ince leaving high school a year before3 he had done alost nothing$ He had held a series of part=tie
Gobs3 none of the lasting ore than a few weeks$ His girl friend Mudy3 eanwhile3 was holding down two suer
Gobs to help pay for her second year of college$ Merry controlled her with a cobination of e?troverted char and
bullying sulkiness$ "ecretly he envied her abition and feared that she would leave hi if he ever rela?ed his grip on
her$
==============================
11Hey3 good=lookin,3,, Merry said as he abled into the coffee shop and took his usual booth by the window$
11Hi3,, said Mudy$ "he took out her order pad$
11Hey3 #, real sorry about what # said last night$ # was way outa line$,,
11Would you like to order/,,
11Hey3 # said # was sorry3 all right/ *ie a break$,,
11%hat,s fine$ .ut 'urray says not to let y social life get in the way of y Gob$ "o you,ve got to order soething for a
change$,,
He snorted incredulously$ 11Hey3 #, broke3 babe$,,
"he stared out the window at the traffic$ 114ou can,t hang out here all day for the price of a cup of coffee3 Merry$ Not any
ore$ 'urray says he,ll have to let e go if you do$,,
11Well3 tell hi to get stuffed$,,
11Merry3 be reasonable$ # can,t$ # need this Gob$,,
11Christ3 you already got the Gob at the ovie theatre$,,
11%hat,s nights3 and it hardly pays anything$ #,ve got y whole second year at college to pay for this suer$ Merry3
aybe we can talk about this after # get off work3 okay/,,
114eah3 right$ "ee you 2abor Day3 then$,,
11Merry3 don,t be a sartass$ "ee you at four3 okay/,,
He got up3 shrugging$ 114eah3 sure$ *uess #,ll go over to the bus station and read coic books until then$,, He glared at
her$ 11Don,t be too nice to the guys who coe in here$ # find out you been fooling around with anybody3 you know
you,re in trouble3 right/,,
110ight3 Merry$ #, really sorry$ "ee you later$,,
Coent& Again we have a conflict that proises to lead to further conflicts and their resolution$ We want to know if
Mudy will ditch Merry3 or Merry will sarten up$ %heir relationship reveals itself through their dialogue3 not through the
author,s editorialiFing$
Note that both these e?aples involve a power struggle$ "oeone is deterined to be the boss3 to get his or her way$
'ost scenes present such a struggle& soeone decides on piFFa or haburgers for dinner3 soeone chooses the date for
D=Day3 soeone coes up with the winning strategy to defeat the alien invaders or elect the first woan president$ We
as readers want to see the resources thrown into the struggle& raw asculinity3 cynical intelligence3 subtle se?ual
anipulation3 political courage3 suicidal desperation$
Depending on which resources win3 we endorse one yth or another about the way the world operates& that raw
asculinity always triuphs3 that political courage leads nowhere3 and so on$ !f course3 if we are writing ironically3
we are reGecting the very yths we see to support$ .y using raw acho bullying i?ed with a little self=pity3 Merry
sees to win his power struggle with Mudy$ .ut few readers would adire hi for the way he does it3 or e?pect hi to
succeed in the long ter with such tactics$
%hink carefully about this as you develop your scenes$ #f your hero always wins arguents in a blaFe of gunfire3 he
ay becoe awfully tiresoe awfully fast$ #f your heroine keeps bursting into tears3 your readers ay want to hand
her a hankie 5better yet3 a towel< and tell her to get lost$ #deally3 the power struggle in each scene should both tell us
soething new and surprising about the characters3 and hint at soething still hiding beneath the surface==like the
insecurity that underlies Merry,s and +anessa,s bullying$
Character #n Fiction
(lausible3 cople? characters are crucial to successful storytelling$ 4ou can develop the in several ways$
Concreteness$ %hey have specific hoes3 possessions3 edical histories3 tastes in furniture3 political opinions$ Apart
fro creating verisiilitude3 these concrete aspects of the characters should convey inforation about the story& does
the hero soke 'arlboros because he,s a rugged outdoorsan3 or because that,s the brand soked by en of his social
background3 or Gust because you do/
"ybolic association$ 4ou can e?press a character,s nature etaphorically through obGects or settings 5a rusty sword3
an apple orchard in bloo3 a violent thunderstor<$ %hese ay not be perfectly understandable to the reader at first
5or to the writerC<3 but they see subconsciously right$ "ybolic associations can be consciously 11archetypal,, 5see
Northrop Frye<3 linking the character to siilar characters in literature$ !r you ay use sybols in soe private
syste which the reader ay or ay not consciously grasp$ Characters, naes can for sybolic associations3 though
this practice has becoe less popular in odern fiction e?cept in coic or ironic writing$
"peech$ %he character,s speech 5both content and anner< helps to evoke personality& shy and reticent3 aggressive and
frank3 coy3 huorous$ .oth content and anner of speech should accurately reflect the character,s social and ethnic
background without stereotyping$ #f a character 11speaks prose3,, his or her background should Gustify that rather
artificial anner$ #f a character is inarticulate3 that in itself should convey soething$
.ehavior$ Fro table anners to perforance in hand=to=hand cobat3 each new e?aple of behavior should be
consistent with what we already know of the character3 yet it should reveal soe new aspect of personality$ .ehavior
under different fors of stress should be especially revealing$
'otivation$ %he characters should have good and sufficient reasons for their actions3 and should carry those actions
out with plausible skills$ #f we don,t believe characters would do what the author tells us they do3 the story fails$
Change$ Characters should respond to their e?periences by changing==or by working hard to avoid changing$ As they
seek to carry out their agendas3 run into conflicts3 fail or succeed3 and confront new probles3 they will not stay the
sae people$ #f a character sees the sae at the end of a story as at the beginning3 the reader at least should be
changed and be aware of whatever factors kept the character fro growing and developing$
%he Character 0esue
!ne useful way to learn ore about your characters is to fill out a 11resue,, for the==at least for the ore iportant
ones$ "uch a resue ight include the following inforation&
Nae&
Address P (hone Nuber&
Date P (lace of .irth&
HeightIWeightI(hysical Description&
CitiFenshipIEthnic !rigin&
(arents, Naes P !ccupations&
!ther Faily 'ebers&
"pouse or 2over&
Friends, Naes P !ccupations&
"ocial Class&
Education&
!ccupationIEployer&
"ocial Class&
"alary&
Counity "tatus&
Mob=0elated "kills&
(olitical .eliefsIAffiliations&
HobbiesI0ecreations&
(ersonal -ualities 5iagination3 taste3 etc$<&
Abitions&
FearsIAn?ietiesIHangups&
#ntelligence&
"ense of Huor&
'ost (ainful "etbackIDisappointent&
'ost #nstructiveI'eaningful E?perience&
HealthI(hysical ConditionIDistinguishing 'arksIDisabilities&
"e?ual !rientationIE?perienceI+alues&
%astes in food3 drink3 art3 usic3 literature3 decor3 clothing&
Attitude toward 2ife&
Attitude toward Death&
(hilosophy of 2ife 5in a phrase<&
4ou ay not use all this inforation3 and you ay want to add categories of your own3 but a resue certainly helps
ake your character coe alive in your own ind$ %he resue can also give you helpful ideas on everything fro
e?plaining the character,s otivation to conceiving draatic incidents that deonstrates the character,s personal
traits$ %he resue serves a useful purpose in your proGect bible3 reinding you of the countless details you need to
keep straight$
112et,s %alk About Dialogue3,, He (ontificated
Dialogue has to sound like speech3 but it can,t be a ere transcriptH ost people don,t speak precisely or concisely
enough to serve the writer,s needs$ *ood dialogue has several functions&
%o convey e?position& to tell us3 through the conversations of the characters3 what we need to know to ake sense of
the story$
%o convey character& to show us what kinds of people we,re dealing with$
%o convey a sense of place and tie& to evoke the speech patterns3 vocabulary and rhyths of specific kinds of people$
%o develop conflict& to show how soe people use language to doinate others3 or fail to do so$
Each of these functions has its haFards$ E?pository dialogue can be dreadful&
11We,ll be in +ancouver in thirty inutes3,, the flight attendant said$ 11#t,s Canada,s biggest west coast city3 with a
population of over a illion in the etropolitan area$,,
Dialogue can convey character3 but the writer ay bog down in chatter that doesn,t advance the story$
11When # was a kid3,, said Mulie3 11# had a stuffed bear naed Mulius$ He was a sweet old thing3 and whenever # was
upset #,d howl for hi$,, 5)nless Mulie is going to howl for Mulius when her husband leaves her3 this kind of reark is
pointless$<
Dialogue that conveys a specific place and tie can becoe e?aggerated and stereotyped&
11(retty hot ootside3 eh/,, rearked "ergeant 0enfrew of the 0oyal Canadian 'ounted (olice$ 11*ood day to get oot of
the hoose and oot on the saltchuck3 eh/ Catch us a couple of skooku salon3 eh/,,
Dialogue that develops conflict has to do so while also conveying e?position3 portraying character3 and staying true to
the tie and place&
11*adFooks3,, said "ergeant 0enfrew as he disounted fro his otorcycle$ 11Wouldst please present thy driver,s
licence and registration3 ada/,,
11Eat hot lead3 copperC,, snarled "ister 'ary Agnes as she drew the $K6 fro within her habit$
"oe Dialogue HaFards to Avoid&
%oo uch faithfulness to speech& 11)3 uh3 y,know3 geeF3 well3 like3 well$,,
)nusual spellings& 114eah3,, not 114eh,, or 114ea,, or 114a$,,
%oo uch use of 11he said3,, 11she said$,,
%oo uch variation& 11he averred3,, 11she riposted,,
Dialect e?aggeration& 112awsy3 'iF "cahlut3 us,s wuhkin, Ges, as fas, as us kin$,,
E?cessive direct address& 11%ell e3 'arshall3 your opinion of +anessa$,, 11# hate her3 0oger$,, 11Why is that3 'arshall/,,
11"he bullies everyone3 0oger$,,
"oe Dialogue Conventions to Consider&
Each new speaker reBuires a new paragraph3 properly indented and set off by Buotation arks$
11)se double Buotations3,, the novelist ordered3 11and reeber to place coas and periods inside those Buotation
arks$,,
11#f a speaker goes on for ore than one paragraph3,, the count responded in his heavy %ransylvanian accent3 11do not
close off the Buotation arks at the end of the first paragraph$
11"iply place Buotation arks at the beginning of the ne?t paragraph3 and carry on to the end of the Buotation$,,
)se 11he said,, e?pressions only when you ust3 to avoid confusion about who,s speaking$ 4ou can signal increasing
tension by oving fro 11he said,, to 11he snapped3,, to 11he snarled3,, to 11he bellowed furiously$,, .ut the dialogue itself
should convey that changing ood3 and ake such coents needless$
Action as well as speech is a part of dialogue$ We e?pect to know when the speakers pause3 where they,re looking3
what they,re doing with their hands3 how they respond to one another$ %he characters, speech becoes Gust one aspect
of their interactionsH soeties their words are all we need3 but soeties we definitely need ore$ %his is especially
true when you,re trying to convey a conflict between what your characters say and what they feel& their nonverbal
essages are going to be far ore reliable than their spoken words$
"peak your dialogue out loudH if it doesn,t sound natural3 or contains une?pected rhyes and rhyths3 revise it$
0ely on rhyth and vocabulary3 not phonetic spelling3 to convey accent or dialect$
#f you are giving us your characters, e?act unspoken thoughts3 use italics$ #f you are paraphrasing those thoughts3 use
regular 0oan type<&
Now what does she want/ he asked hiself$ #sn,t she ever satisfied/ 'arshall wondered what she wanted now$ "he
was never satisfied$
#f you plan to give us a long passage of inner onologue3 however3 consider the discofort of having to read line after
line of italic print$ #f you wish to ephasiFe a word in a line of italics3 use 0oan& #sn,t she ever satisfied/
Writing A -uery 2etter About 4our Novel
%he Buery can be a Buick way to tell whether your novel ight be of interest to a particular publisher==without having
to wait until soe editor finds your anuscript deep within her slush pile$ %he Buery should give the editor an idea of
your story 5and a sense of the way you,re handling it< that,s clear enough to help her decide if it,s worth considering$ #f
the idea sounds good3 you know the coplete anuscript 5or saple chapters< will enGoy a propt and careful
reading$ #f the idea doesn,t sound right for her3 she ay tell you why3 and perhaps suggest either a new approach or
another publisher$
"oe Bueries are very short3 and others are long indeed==novel outlines asBuerading as letters$ Consider the
following suggestions as guidelines3 not ironclad laws&
"upply a short3 pungent description of what the book is about& a desperate attept to escape a narcotics bust3 an
une?pected Gourney that leads to roance and danger in 89LAs China3 an aging gunfighter,s attept to prove hiself
again in the 'e?ican 0evolution$
#f not obvious fro your plot outline3 identify the audience your book is aied at& hardcore space=opera fans3 teenage
girls3 0egency=roance readers$
.e able to tell the editor what akes this novel different fro others in the genre& a twist in the plot3 a new angle on
the hero3 an unusual setting$
4our credentials ay be helpful3 if only as a dedicated and knowledgeable reader in the genre3 or as an observant
resident of the city you,ve set your novel in$ %hese are not trivial Bualifications& #f you don,t know and love the genre
you,re writing in3 it will show$ And if you don,t know the history and folklore of your setting3 the story will lack depth$
Display in your Buery soe of the e?citeent and energy you want to bring to your story==show how and why this story
atters to you3 and it,ll atter to your editor$
%he 2etter #tself
#deally3 your Buery letter ought to run to a page or a little ore3 organiFed soething like this&
First paragraph& %ell us what kind of novel you,ve written3 or are now writing$ How long is it3 when and where is it
set/ Describe the hero and heroine3 and perhaps one or two other aGor characters$ What,s their predicaent/ How are
they proposing to get out of it/ And why should we care==that is3 what,s at stake/
"econd paragraph& Describe what happens in the iddle of the novel==how your characters interact3 what conflicts
arise aong the$
%hird paragraph& %he resolution of the novel==the clia? and its outcoe3 and tying up loose ends$
Fourth paragraph& Why this story interests you3 what your Bualifications are for writing it3 and soe Buestions for the
editor& #f this story interests you3 would you like the whole s$3 or an outline and saple chapters/ Do you have any
specific s$ reBuireents # should be aware of/
!bviously this pattern will vary depending on the nature of the Buery& #f you,ve included an outline and saple
chapters3 the plot suary will be very brief or none?istent3 and the Buery will focus on your background and your
Buestions for the editor$ #f the book is copleted3 the plot suary will be easier to supply than if you have only a
rough idea of where the book is going$
%he Buery letter is a blurb for your novel3 and like any blurb it needs to piBue the reader,s interest and ake the reader
wonder& 11How is that going to turn out/Q %he Buality of writing in the Buery had better be first=rate3 especially if you
haven,t included an elegantly written chapter or two$ #f your Buery is clusy or riddled with English errors3 the editor
will be less than eager to see ore of your prose$
.ecause the Buery reBuires little tie to read and respond to3 it can help you Buickly identify potential arkets and
definite non=arkets$ .ut it can,t pre=sell your novelH at best3 it can only create a cautiously welcoing attitude in an
editor who knows how tough it is to sell a first novel during a recession$
Will your Buery reveal such a knockout story idea that the publisher will steal it==turn you down3 pass on your idea to
one of their hack writers3 and publish it for their own profit/ %his ay be the single ost coon an?iety of novices3
but the sad truth is that your idea probably isn,t worth stealing$ #n fact3 the editor ay wearily see it as the upteenth
standard variation on soe ancient plot3 one she,s seen a doFen ties Gust this week$ %his is not to say your idea
should be positively weirdH ost story ideas in genre fiction are indeed variations on ancient plots$ %he trick is to ake
the variations appear to be fresh3 surprising3 and full of potential storytelling power$ A Buery is a direct approach to an
editor$ .ut you ay well be aware that any3 any publishing houses no longer even consider Bueries or subissions
that do not coe through an agent$ #n y ne?t posting #,ll consider what that iplies in the selling of your novel$
0esearching (ublishers and Agents
%oo any people subit anuscripts to publishers$
"iply to read enough of those anuscripts to Gudge the unworthy would take the full=tie services of several
salaried editors$ 'ost publishers siply can,t afford to plow through the slush pile in hopes of soeday finding a
*reat Novelist$
"o they indicate in Writer,s 'arket that they will consider only 11agented subissions,,==work that a professional
literary agent3 who knows the arket3 thinks has soe sales potential$
%hat siply draws fire onto the agents3 who now find that they too have huge slush piles$ And3 like the publishers3 the
agents can,t ake oney reading unsalable Gunk$
Where does that leave you/
#n better shape than you think$ #f you,ve haered out a credible but surprising plot about interesting people in a hell
of a Ga3 and you,re showing the in action instead of telling us what they,re like3 and your graar3 spelling and
punctuation are first=rate==you,re already ahead of @A per cent of your copetition$
Now the proble is finding the right arket$ %oo any novice writers siply fire off their work to a publisher they,ve
vaguely heard of3 or one that,s supposed to be prestigious3 or even one that happens to be conveniently located right in
town$ 5%hose were precisely y three otives in subitting y first children,s book to (arnassus (ress$ %hey bought
it3 which shows that soeties even ignorauses can get lucky$ .y rights # should have had to send the s$ to a
couple of doFen houses before hitting the right one==if # ever did$<
(ublishers tend to carve out special arkets for theselves$ A couple of sharp editors can doinate a genreH because
they know how to reach a certain kind of reader3 they attract a certain kind of writer$ !r a publisher ay be
passionately devoted to supporting a certain kind of fiction3 but is deeply uninterested in any other kind$ A feinist
publisher wouldn,t have the faintest idea how to arket a en,s action=adventure novel3 and wouldn,t care to learn$ A
children,s publisher won,t care how well=crafted your urder ystery is$ And so on$
"o step one is alost ebarrassingly obvious& Notice which houses publish the kind of story you,re working on$ 2ook
carefully at the story eleents in the titles they publishH Del 0ey fantasy novels3 for e?aple3 reBuire agic as a aGor
coponent3 not Gust frosting or a giick to get the hero soewhere interesting$ !ut of all the publishers in North
Aerica3 only a few are potentially yours$
%hen consult those potential publishers, entries in Writer,s 'arket and see what they have to say about their own needs
and who their editors are in specific genres$ 4ou ay learn that your work in progress is too long3 or too short3 or
needs soe particular Buality like a heroine aged over L6$ 4ou ay also learn how long it takes the to respond to
Bueries and subissions$ Don,t take those stateents as legally binding proisesH responses alost always take far
longer3 especially for unagented subissions$
Writer,s 'arket also lists publishers by the genres they publish$ %his list can lead you to houses you,re not failiar
with3 but don,t Gust rush your s$ off to soe publisher in (odunk$ Check out the entries of these houses also3 and also
track down soe of their recent titles in your genre$ #f they strike you as dreadful garbage3 avoid the$ .etter to stay
unpublished than to be trapped with a bad publisher$
Another useful source of research inforation is the publishing trade press$ -uill and -uire in Canada3 and
(ublisher,s Weekly in the )"3 are uch ore up=to=date than any annual can be$ "o if the top horror editor in New
4ork has Gust oved to a new publisher3 or a publisher is starting a new line of roance novels aied at Asian
woen3 you ay adGust your arketing strategy accordingly$ 'agaFines like %he Writer and Writer,s Digest supply
siilar arket news$
#f every possible publisher warns you off with QNo unagented subissions3Q you then have to go through a siilar
process with literary agents$ 4ou should be able to find an annually updated list of agents in your local library or the
reference section of a good bookstore$ "oe agents3 like "cott 'eredith and 0ichard Curtis3 have even written books
theselves about the publishing businessH these are worth reading$
As a general rule3 you probably need an agent in the city where ost of your publishers are$ %hat3 as a general rule3
eans New 4ork City$ 4ou also need an agent who knows the arket for your particular genre3 so your work will go as
proptly as possible to the ost likely arkets$ 5"oe agents ay subit a work in ultiple copies to all potential
publishersH this can really speed up the process$<
.ut also bear in ind that the phone and fa? can put alost anyone in close touch with the New 4ork arket3 so an
agent in Chicago or 2os Angeles or 'iai ay be Buite as effective as soebody in 'anhattan==and ay also be
failiar with regional publishers$
Consider whether you want a big agent with scores or hundreds of clients3 or a sall outfit$ %he big agent ay have
clout but little stake in prooting youH the sall agent ay work hard for you3 but lack entree to soe editors$ %alk to
published writers3 if possible3 about their e?periences with agentsH soeties a sypathetic author can suggest a good
one$
No agent3 however good3 can sell your work to an editor who doesn,t want to buy it$ What the agent offers the editor is
a reasonably trustworthy opinion about the arketability of a particular anuscript$ #t,s in the agent,s interest to deal
only in work with serious sales potential3 and to get it Buickly into the hands of its ost likely buyers$
4ou ay therefore have to Buery a nuber of agents before you find one who,s willing to take you on$ And you ay
find that soe highly reputable agents won,t look at your stuff unless you pay the to$
%his is not a racket$ #f you agree to the agent,s ters3 the reading ay give you a very frank response$ "oeties
you,ll get a detailed critiBue that ay devastate your ego but teach you Gust what you need to learn$ #n any cases the
agent will waive the reading fee if he feels you,re a coercial possibility and you,re willing to sign on as one of his
clients$ %hat should be an encouraging offer indeed$
"oeties an agent will take you on but strongly suggest certain kinds of revisions3 or even that you tackle a
copletely different kind of story$ 2isten carefullyH you,re getting advice fro soeone who knows the arket and
wants to share in your prosperity$ At least one of y novels greatly profited fro the advice of an agent who thought
y originally proposed ending was a disaster$
4our agreeent with an agent ay take the for of a detailed contract3 or a siple agreeent over the phone3 or
soething in between$ .e sure you understand and accept the ters your agent reBuires& %en per cent of what he
akes you3 or 86/ Deductions for photocopying3 postage and phone bills/ Control over all your writing3 or Gust your
fiction output/
!nce you have an agent3 don,t be a pest$ When he,s got soething to report3 he,ll let you know$ #f you,ve got soething
to report3 like the copletion of the anuscript or an idea for turning it into a series3 let the agent know$ !therwise3
stay off the phone and stick to your writing$
#n soe cases3 of course3 you ay find you,ve sold a novel on your own hook and then decide to go looking for an
agent$ )nder these happy circustances you should find it fairly easy to get an agent,s interest$ #f the publisher,s
already offered you a contract 5and you haven,t signed yet<3 the agent ay be willing to take you on and then bargain a
better deal for you$ .ut you,ll probably do all right even if you negotiate that first contract on your own$ 'ost
publishers are honorable and decent peopleH soeties their integrity is positively intiidating$ Even if they weren,t
honorable3 your first book is likely to ake so little oney that it wouldn,t be worth it to screw you out of spare
change$
0eading a Contract
When you do finally receive a publisher,s contract3 you ay feel your heart sink$ #t runs to several pages of single=
spaced te?t3 highly flavored with legalese and organiFed in a daunting seBuence of nubered paragraphs and
subparagraphs$ Who knows what thorns lurk in such a thicket/
Actually3 not too any$ 'ost of your contract is standard 11boilerplate,, te?t that protects you as uch as the publisher$
#t is often possible3 even for a novice3 to negotiate specific aspects of the contract$
"till3 it helps to know what you,re getting yourself into3 so let us take a look at soe of the key passages you,re likely to
find in your contract$
Delivery !f "atisfactory Copy
#f you,re selling your novel on the strength of saple chapters and an outline3 the publisher wants assurance that you,ll
subit the full anuscript 5often with a second copy<3 at an agreed=upon length3 by an agreed=upon date$ #f your full
s$ doesn,t easure up3 or arrives too late3 the publisher has the right to deand return of any oney you,ve received$
#n practice the publisher is usually uch ore fle?ible$ He ay bounce your s$ back to you with a reinder that you
don,t get the rest of your advance until the s$ is 11satisfactory$,, He 5or ore likely the editor< will tell you in e?Buisite
detail what you still need to do to achieve 11satisfactoryQ,,status$ A late s$ also eans you won,t collect the balance of
your advance until it arrives3 and it ay also cause delays in final publication==as # learned to y sorrow with
*reenagic$
(erission for Copyrighted 'aterial
#f you want to include the lyrics of a pop song in your novel3 or Buote soething as an epigraph3 it,s up to you to obtain
the rights to such aterial3 and to pay for the if necessary$ #f you leave it to the publisher3 he,ll charge youH if he can,t
get perission3 and the novel doesn,t work without such aterial3 the deal is off and you have to repay any advance
you,ve received$ !bviously3 this is an e?tree caseH norally you Gust drop the lines fro the song or poe3 and carry
on$
*rant !f 0ights
4ou are giving the publisher the right to ake copies of what you,ve written$ %hese copies ay be in hardcover3
softcover3 audio cassette3 filstrip3 coic book3 or whatever$ 4ou are also specifying in which parts of the world the
publisher ay sell such copies$ For e?aple3 a sale to a .ritish publisher ay specifically e?clude North Aerica3
leaving you free to sell North Aerican rights separately$
4ou ay also be giving the publisher rights to sell foreign translations3 to print e?cerpts in other books or periodicals
as a for of advertising3 or to sell copies to book clubs$ Norally such sales reBuire your infored3 written consent$
(roofreading and Author,s Corrections
4ou agree that you will proofread the galleys or page proofs of your novel and return the corrected pages proptly$ #f
your corrections aount to actual revision of the original anuscript3 and will reBuire re=typesetting ore than 8A per
cent of the book3 the publisher will charge you for such costs$ %his can very easily destroy any incoe you ight have
earned fro the book$
Advances and 0oyalties
%his spells out how uch the publisher will pay you3 and when$ %he ost coon agreeent is payent of one=third
of the advance on signing the contractH one=third on delivery of a satisfactory coplete s$H and one=third on
publication date$ 4ou ay be able to negotiate half on signing and half on deliveryH otherwise3 you are in effect lending
the publisher soe of your advance until a publication date that ay be over a year away$
0oyalties are generally a percentage of the list price of the book$ For hardcover books3 the usual royalties is ten per
cent of list price$ "o a novel retailing for R:K$96 will earn its author R:$6A per copy$ For ass=arket paperbacks3
royalty rates can range fro four per cent to eight per cent3 usually with a proviso that the rate will go up after sale of
soe huge nuber of copies==86A3AAA sees to be a popular target$ A paperback selling at R6$963 with an eight per
cent royalty3 will therefore earn you about K> cents$ A 11trade,, paperback3 intended for sale in regular bookstores rather
than superarkets and other ass outlets3 will probably earn a coparable rateH the list price3 however3 will likely be
higher and the nuber of copies sold will be lower$
Whatever the royalty rates3 you,re likely to get only half as uch for sales to book clubs or overseas arkets$ 5%his is
especially painful for Canadian authors with Aerican publishers& sales in your own country3 as 11foreign,, sales3 earn
only half the )$"$ royalty rate$<
4ou will also agree to split the take fro certain kinds of licensing sales$ For e?aple3 if your novel is a hardback and
soe other house wants to bring out a paperback edition3 you can norally e?pect a 6A per cent share of what the
paperback house pays$ "oeties a paperback house will license a hardback edition 5in hopes of getting ore critical
attention for your book and hence selling ore copies in paperback eventually<H in such a case you should e?pect >6
per cent of the deal$
#f you can possibly avoid it3 do not agree to give your publisher a share of any sale to ovies or %+$ A fil or %+ show
based on your novel will boost the publisher,s sales Buite nicelyH he doesn,t need a slice off the top of a deal that will
surely pay you ore than the publisher did$ .ut if the book sees highly unlikely to interest Hollywood3 you ight
offer a slice of fil rights in e?change for a richer advance3 with a proviso that an actual fil or %+ sale will also
produce an additional chunk of oney fro the publisher$
%he publisher will norally not charge for the production of versions of your novel in .raille or other forats for the
handicapped$ "o you will get no oney fro this source$
%he publisher should agree to supply you with two royalty stateents a year$ Each will cover a si?=onth reporting
period3 and each should arrive about 9A days after the close of that period$ "o a stateent for Manuary=Mune should
reach you at the end of "epteber$ %his will probably be a coputer printout3 and ay be confusing$ .ut it will
indicate the nuber of copies shipped3 the nuber returned unsold by booksellers3 and the nuber presuably sold$
%he publisher will hold back on soe of the royalty 11against further returns$,, Whatever reains is the actual nuber
on which the publisher owes you oney$
Chances are that your advance will have consued any potential royalties for the first reporting period3 and perhaps
for the second as well$ !nce you have 11earned out,, your advance3 however3 you should e?pect a check with each
royalty stateent$
Do not sign a contract that does not e?plicitly proise you at least two royalty stateents a year$ "oe publishers
proise a stateent only after the novel has earned out its advance$ %his eans you ay go for years==or forever==
without knowing what your sales have been$
Author,s Warranties and #ndenities
Here you are proising that this is indeed your work3 that it isn,t obscene3 a breach of privacy3 libelous3 or otherwise
illegal$ #f you do get into trouble3 you agree to cooperate with the publisher,s legal defense3 and you agree to pay your
share of the costs instead of asking the publisher3 booksellers3 or others to do so$ #f the publisher,s lawyer thinks the
anuscript poses legal probles3 you agree to ake the changes reBuired to solve those probles==or to allow the
publisher to do so$
4ou ay find an insurance rider as part of your contractH this is intended to protect both you and the publisher fro
suffering total financial disaster if you get caught in a losing lawsuit$
Copies to Author
4ou will get a certain nuber of free copies3 and will pay a reduced rate for ore copies$ %hat eans you will still pay
for those copies3 and you should$
!ption Clause
(ay attention to this oneC %his says you are giving the publisher right of first refusal on your ne?t book 5or at least your
ne?t book of this particular genre<$ %he option clause eans the publisher will give the ne?t book a close3 propt
reading$ 4ou should e?pect a response within 9A days3 but soe contracts specify 9A days after publication of your
current book$ %hat eans you ight have to wait for onths3 aybe over a year3 until the publisher sees the initial
reaction to your first book$
#n practice3 though3 you probably will get a Buicker response than that$ #f the publisher does ake you an offer3 you
have the right to refuse itH you can then take your second book to any other publisher you like$ However3 you can,t sell
it to anyone else unless you get better ters for it than your original publisher offered$
4ou ay well find yourself trapped as a result$ #f you need oney in a hurry3 you ay feel you,ve got to accept a bad
offer rather than spend onths or years shopping your s$ around the arket until you find a ore generous
publisher$ And then3 of course3 your second contract will include an option clause for the third novelC
4our best hope in this case is that sales of the first book will warrant a heftier advance on the second or third book$
And if the publisher still won,t cooperate3 you can then go to another publisher with at least soe respectable sales
figures that show you deserve a better deal$
*oing !ut of (rint
0eBuest for it to be reprintedH if he doesn,t want to3 you can then deand that all rights revert to you$ 4ou are then free
to sell the book to another publisher$ 5# have done this a couple of ties$ 4ou don,t ake as uch oney on the resale3
but at least the book stays out on the arket longer$< 4ou ay be able to acBuire the plates or fil fro which copies
of your novel were ade3 aking it possible for a new publisher to bring your book out Buite cheaply$
4ou will probably not ake any oney fro 11reaindered,, copies that the publisher ay sell to a book Gobber at a
deep discount$ #n soe contracts3 however3 the author ay indeed receive soe percentage of such sales$ #t,s also
possible to buy copies of your book at a siilar low price$
A Word of Advice
#f at all possible3 go over the contract with the editor or publisher3 asking whatever Buestions arise$ %hen take your
contract to an agent3 lawyer3 or professional writer$ Chances are that it,s perfectly okay$ .ut even if you don,t find
soething sneaky in the fine print3 you,ll have a clearer understanding of what you and your publisher have coitted
yourselves to$ #f soething arises later on3 like a proble over the option clause or the freBuency of royalty stateents3
it won,t coe as a total shock$
Finally3 bear in ind that if you have read this far3 you are seriously interested in astering an art and craft that
rewards very few practitioners==novices or e?perts$ Fiction in print is still relatively popular3 but only relatively$ For
every reader you ight attract3 %+ or fils or recordings attract hundreds of consuers$ 4ou will work for onths or
years to create a product that is theoretically eternal3 but in practice has a shelf=life of a few weeks$ 'ost of your
readers will3 two onths after reading your work3 be unable to recall anything about the story 5including your nae<==
aybe not even whether they liked it or not$ And you will reach ore readers with a punchy3 witty letter to the editor
of a etropolitan daily than you,re likely to reach with your novel$
#s it worth it/ !nly you can answer that Buestion$ 'y answer has been yes3 and # don,t regret it$ Writing ten novels has
been not only fun but an educationH # can hardly wait to find out what the eleventh novel will teach e$
Afterword by the Author
*ood heavens==8> files in 86 inutesC Ain,t technology grandC
"light correction& the files total about 8AAKH # iscounted$
Doubtless soe postings have typos or noise$$$ but # hope enough got through to do you soe good and encourage you
to take a shot at writing fiction==or another shot at that dan novel you,ve been chipping away at for the last few years$
# hope y coents draw soe responses3 criticis3 rebuttals3 anecdotal evidence3 aspersions on y ancestry3 and
anything else that ay coe to ind$ .ut unless you want to share painful intiacies via e=ail3 why not put your
coents in the newsgroup where everyone can benefit fro theC %hanks for your interest and your patience$
Cheers3 CK
H%'2=conversion by Mohn 2eavitt SIGrrlIT 5GrrlElycos$co Sailto&GrrlElycos$coT<