Wednesday, December 14, 2005
FINDING THE BEST WORDS FOR YOUR STORIES
The Last Word is the Right Word
The Best Word is the Correct word
by
Milton Trachtenburg
copyright, 1998
I find writing difficult, but not necessarily hard. The previous sentence is a takeoff of a posting in which the writer, referring to an exercise she was asked to perform, said, "I find the exercise hard." I replied, "I don't find it hard, but I do find it difficult." I find that cooking eggs for ten minutes makes them hard, while picking up mercury with your fingers is difficult.
Words: Although there are over two hundred and fifty thousand of them in the English language, we find it difficult to get a story right (rather than left?) -- no, what we find difficult is: To construct our story in such a manner that it gives to give reader an accurate portrayal of our thoughts and ideas. In order to accomplish the goal of “getting it right,’ we must select the best word, not some of the time, but, every time.
Contemplate the task of the writer seeking the best words to describe her ideas with that of a physician performing major surgery. Can you picture the surgeon saying, "Oops, well, it was close. The patient will probably survive." The patient may, but the doctor won't. To become a professional writer, we are held to the same exacting standards as the surgeon; we must say exactly what we mean to create the elements of a powerful story or we will not find a receptive marketplace.
When I advise a new writer how to find the best word, I tell her, "Don't use your head to find your best word; use your dictionary, thesaurus and every other tool of writing you can get your hands on. Without the correct and best words, there will be a flat plot, dead dialogue and worst of all. An uninteresting story. Words do not make a story. The correct and best words perform that function.
As a carpenter wouldn't try to drive a nail with a sledgehammer, nor a logger try to cut down a gnarled oak with a paring knife, why would a writer use non-descriptive words that lay flat, give flawed impressions and otherwise leave the story stranded? Starting a paragraph with a word such as "this" may be easy for the writer, but the reader will have to hunt her memory for the reference. The same rule applies when beginning a paragraph with the pronouns “he” or “she.” "Who is “he?" mutters the reader, pausing to remember . . . and perhaps remembering instead that she promised to call a friend and then makes the call, forgetting the book. If William Tell had settled for the same degree of accuracy the stories in this examples did, he would have been serving shish-ka-bobbed son for dinner -- with a pristine apple for dessert.
In an e-mail this morning, I received a newsletter from a writer who I had met on line. He sent a story to me that began: "It . . ." I didn't read past the first word. If the writer was so confident that the world would read anything he wrote that he didn't care enough about his readers to polish his first sentence, then I didn’t have enough interest to waste my time reading his work.
Careless writing is different from unskilled writing. New writers can be taught skills. Careless writing takes place when the writer either avoids attaining skills or is too lazy to edit his work, except, perhaps, to run the piece through a spell checker.
A developing writer needs to accept that the words they first commit to paper in a rough draft are nothing but the first words that came to mind, and rather than stop what she is doing to seek a better word, she typed or wrote the word that came to mind. A lazy writer will stop seeking a word at that juncture, hoping the reader, who herself may be a developing writer, will overlook it. Or worse yet, believe that she has a “right” to use any word she pleases to describe the story.
I agree with the writers who scream about their rights to say what they please. As a writer, we have the right to say anything that pleases us. However, as readers, we have a reciprocal right to stop reading anything that displeases us. When a novice writing group encourages this same writer by posting the following, "You've written a great story. I wouldn't change a word," her opinion that there is no need for greater accuracy is reinforced and she will take a pleasant opinion over one that offers structural or procedural advice.
Writing exciting poetry or prose requires us to convey images as well as ideas to the reader. When we choose less than the best words, we convey less than the complete image or idea. Metaphors, similes and paradoxes allow the reader to visualize our words. However, when we use one of these tools in an inappropriate or less than accurate manner, we leave our story flat, uninteresting or disharmonious. For instance, if I say, "It was colder than a log cabin in December," what have I said? The answer is: Nothing. Where is the log cabin? Wasn't it heated? The reader is now off on a side trip thinking about the nature of log cabins instead of the fact that the character is trapped in a cold place and may forget about our story altogether. Yet, many writers will leave careless mistakes such as the one I demonstrated. Since she knows what she meant, she assumes that the reader will also. The reader may deduce the meaning in a second, but in that second, the reader is out of the story, not immersed within its invisible boundaries. One element that makes a play believable is that the actors treat the props as if they were real. Writers need to show the same care with their words. Stories exist in the moinds of the reader only if we use the proper tools and the proper seeds to plant them there.
Words often have meaning far beyond their dictionary definition. The sounds of words, the rhythm of putting them in certain contexts to creating sentences and paragraphs that fit our story is as important as the words themselves. Editing and rewriting require more than a dictionary and thesaurus. The task of editing also require a “reader's ear.” If the words seem to have proper meaning, but a trained editor takes them apart, her actions should help you understand that you are reading with a preconceived notion that what you said means what you intended. If you hear the words rather than see them, the inconsistencies will appear. We need to weigh each word that we send out. Ask yourself, What is the exact meaning of this word?" and, "Is the word I chose the best word to describe the setting, action, thought, expression or feeling I'm trying to convey to my readers?" Treat each word you use as if you had to pay a dollar for it and you will begin to choose stronger words to represent your ideas.
I believe that anyone can learn to recognize the best words. The difficulty we encounter is that reading word by word takes time and energy. For a novice writer to achieve a tight story, she must care about results and have the discipline necessary to pursue the effects she desires . To get from here (your present level of writing) to there (developing the skill to tell a story that will delight a discriminating audience) requires you to perform the following tasks: First, you must forget every cliche you ever heard. Second, you need to learn new ways to describe action, appearance and intent without overusing adjectives.. Third, you need to eliminate most of the adverbs and replace them with action verbs. Fourth and most important, don't imitate other writers. Those that have great talent are unique and can't be imitated, and those that don't, have nothing you can use.
Write with care and diligence. Be open to opinions that differ from yours. Accept that writing to a level that will be marketable takes much time and even more effort. The writer who attains instant success probably took twenty years to achieve it.
To end where I began, remember, the right word is the last word on the last line only in countries where language is written left-to-right. The correct word is the best word no matter in which language you write.
The Best Word is the Correct word
by
Milton Trachtenburg
copyright, 1998
I find writing difficult, but not necessarily hard. The previous sentence is a takeoff of a posting in which the writer, referring to an exercise she was asked to perform, said, "I find the exercise hard." I replied, "I don't find it hard, but I do find it difficult." I find that cooking eggs for ten minutes makes them hard, while picking up mercury with your fingers is difficult.
Words: Although there are over two hundred and fifty thousand of them in the English language, we find it difficult to get a story right (rather than left?) -- no, what we find difficult is: To construct our story in such a manner that it gives to give reader an accurate portrayal of our thoughts and ideas. In order to accomplish the goal of “getting it right,’ we must select the best word, not some of the time, but, every time.
Contemplate the task of the writer seeking the best words to describe her ideas with that of a physician performing major surgery. Can you picture the surgeon saying, "Oops, well, it was close. The patient will probably survive." The patient may, but the doctor won't. To become a professional writer, we are held to the same exacting standards as the surgeon; we must say exactly what we mean to create the elements of a powerful story or we will not find a receptive marketplace.
When I advise a new writer how to find the best word, I tell her, "Don't use your head to find your best word; use your dictionary, thesaurus and every other tool of writing you can get your hands on. Without the correct and best words, there will be a flat plot, dead dialogue and worst of all. An uninteresting story. Words do not make a story. The correct and best words perform that function.
As a carpenter wouldn't try to drive a nail with a sledgehammer, nor a logger try to cut down a gnarled oak with a paring knife, why would a writer use non-descriptive words that lay flat, give flawed impressions and otherwise leave the story stranded? Starting a paragraph with a word such as "this" may be easy for the writer, but the reader will have to hunt her memory for the reference. The same rule applies when beginning a paragraph with the pronouns “he” or “she.” "Who is “he?" mutters the reader, pausing to remember . . . and perhaps remembering instead that she promised to call a friend and then makes the call, forgetting the book. If William Tell had settled for the same degree of accuracy the stories in this examples did, he would have been serving shish-ka-bobbed son for dinner -- with a pristine apple for dessert.
In an e-mail this morning, I received a newsletter from a writer who I had met on line. He sent a story to me that began: "It . . ." I didn't read past the first word. If the writer was so confident that the world would read anything he wrote that he didn't care enough about his readers to polish his first sentence, then I didn’t have enough interest to waste my time reading his work.
Careless writing is different from unskilled writing. New writers can be taught skills. Careless writing takes place when the writer either avoids attaining skills or is too lazy to edit his work, except, perhaps, to run the piece through a spell checker.
A developing writer needs to accept that the words they first commit to paper in a rough draft are nothing but the first words that came to mind, and rather than stop what she is doing to seek a better word, she typed or wrote the word that came to mind. A lazy writer will stop seeking a word at that juncture, hoping the reader, who herself may be a developing writer, will overlook it. Or worse yet, believe that she has a “right” to use any word she pleases to describe the story.
I agree with the writers who scream about their rights to say what they please. As a writer, we have the right to say anything that pleases us. However, as readers, we have a reciprocal right to stop reading anything that displeases us. When a novice writing group encourages this same writer by posting the following, "You've written a great story. I wouldn't change a word," her opinion that there is no need for greater accuracy is reinforced and she will take a pleasant opinion over one that offers structural or procedural advice.
Writing exciting poetry or prose requires us to convey images as well as ideas to the reader. When we choose less than the best words, we convey less than the complete image or idea. Metaphors, similes and paradoxes allow the reader to visualize our words. However, when we use one of these tools in an inappropriate or less than accurate manner, we leave our story flat, uninteresting or disharmonious. For instance, if I say, "It was colder than a log cabin in December," what have I said? The answer is: Nothing. Where is the log cabin? Wasn't it heated? The reader is now off on a side trip thinking about the nature of log cabins instead of the fact that the character is trapped in a cold place and may forget about our story altogether. Yet, many writers will leave careless mistakes such as the one I demonstrated. Since she knows what she meant, she assumes that the reader will also. The reader may deduce the meaning in a second, but in that second, the reader is out of the story, not immersed within its invisible boundaries. One element that makes a play believable is that the actors treat the props as if they were real. Writers need to show the same care with their words. Stories exist in the moinds of the reader only if we use the proper tools and the proper seeds to plant them there.
Words often have meaning far beyond their dictionary definition. The sounds of words, the rhythm of putting them in certain contexts to creating sentences and paragraphs that fit our story is as important as the words themselves. Editing and rewriting require more than a dictionary and thesaurus. The task of editing also require a “reader's ear.” If the words seem to have proper meaning, but a trained editor takes them apart, her actions should help you understand that you are reading with a preconceived notion that what you said means what you intended. If you hear the words rather than see them, the inconsistencies will appear. We need to weigh each word that we send out. Ask yourself, What is the exact meaning of this word?" and, "Is the word I chose the best word to describe the setting, action, thought, expression or feeling I'm trying to convey to my readers?" Treat each word you use as if you had to pay a dollar for it and you will begin to choose stronger words to represent your ideas.
I believe that anyone can learn to recognize the best words. The difficulty we encounter is that reading word by word takes time and energy. For a novice writer to achieve a tight story, she must care about results and have the discipline necessary to pursue the effects she desires . To get from here (your present level of writing) to there (developing the skill to tell a story that will delight a discriminating audience) requires you to perform the following tasks: First, you must forget every cliche you ever heard. Second, you need to learn new ways to describe action, appearance and intent without overusing adjectives.. Third, you need to eliminate most of the adverbs and replace them with action verbs. Fourth and most important, don't imitate other writers. Those that have great talent are unique and can't be imitated, and those that don't, have nothing you can use.
Write with care and diligence. Be open to opinions that differ from yours. Accept that writing to a level that will be marketable takes much time and even more effort. The writer who attains instant success probably took twenty years to achieve it.
To end where I began, remember, the right word is the last word on the last line only in countries where language is written left-to-right. The correct word is the best word no matter in which language you write.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
INTERVIEWING YOUR CHARACTERS
Interviewing Your Characters to Reveal all of their Hidden Facets
by
Milton Trachtenburg
copyright, 1998
You've written a story about a bank heist; the plot has more convolutions than a licorice twist. The story is exciting from the opening hook to the denouement and you've developed an unexpected ending that will blow away even the most jaded reader. With eager anticipation, you submit the manuscript to editors you discovered by researching the marketplace. You believe that what you wrote is exactly what publishers are seeking. You query editors with a brief plot outline, and to your great pleasure, you get a response from one of them requesting a significant portion of the manuscript. Dreams of sugarplum limousines and ego-inflating book signings dance in your head.
A month goes by . . . The long-awaited letter arrives. The tension mounts as your shaking hands fumble to open the envelope, almost turning your ticket to fame and fortune into confetti. You read the letter:
Dear Sir,
Though you have an interesting plot, the characters don't do much for me. Try rewriting it. It has potential.
John Smith, editor
Your stomach sinks faster than a 747 crash landing in a cornfield. You are too hurt to recognize the free and supportive knowledge he is giving you. This letter isn't a rejection. It is a clarion call to tell you that you have potential as a writer, but that you need to further study your craft to give your manuscript the power it needs to attain publication. The editor is telling you two things in this brief letter: First, he believes you possess the skill required to rewrite your manuscript, and that the manuscript is worthy of a fresh treatment. More important, he is telling you that he is willing to read the rewrite, if you remedy the issue he presented: The issue he presented is: your characters are flat, uninteresting and have nothing to distinguish them from each other; they contribute little to a plot-drawn vehicle.
There are two rules of great writing. The first rule is: Characters must carry the story. The plot is only a malleable wrapping within which the characters act and are acted upon by natural elements, their own shortcomings and other characters. The second rule of great writing is: What you write about a character is guided by your knowledge of his or her life. You know far more about your character than you realize. Later in this article, you will find a list of questions that may help you access your knowledge so that you may power-up your characters to new heights.
Rather than learning only surface qualities, or developing a specific characteristic, I yearn to get inside each character to understand all of his or her nuances. Think of memorable books and movies. Those that are memorable featured a multi-dimensional protagonist who grabbed you and held on to the end. When you reached the conclusion of the story, you wanted more. There is no doubt that creating dynamic, exciting, conflicted characters is a key to getting your story published.
Now we come to the hard part. You ask, "What do I need to do differently to create memorable characters?" Get to know the character before you write about her. The best way to get to know a character is to have her to talk to you before you begin writing the story. Much of what you'll learn from her may not appear in the story at all, but once she’s turned loose on the pages, the information will have a dramatic impact on the story. You will share only snippets of your knowledge with the reader, on a need-to-know basis. The first efforts of new writers are often based on their own experiences in which all the characters are thinly disguised versions of real people. As we grow as writers, we write about characters and situations that have nothing in common with our own lives. Your imagination contains the seeds that will allow you to develop thousands of characters.
Next, you might ask, "How do I get my character to talk to me off the record? Do I dream about her? Do I walk down the street mumbling to myself?" No, you set up an interview at your mutual convenience. Prepare your questions in advance, as a reporter would. Treat your character as a stranger whom you would like to know better. Make her comfortable and ask only questions that will broaden your knowledge of her. Gently and politely, ask her if she would be willing to tell you about her life. If she agrees, give her free reign to talk all day about an issue. Ask her the questions listed below, as well as any others that come to mind in the process. Even background information, which may not appear in the final draft, will help you to write the story.
The questions below represent a prospective outline of some of the information that may help you to get to know your character. When you know her well, you will be able to use her more effectively in your story. The better you know her, the better the opportunity for the reader to get inside her, too. If the reader understands who the character is and what makes her act and react, she will have the answer the question: "Why should I bother reading about her? I've read lots of stories like this one."
You can ask some specific questions to make your interview more productive. Ask open-ended questions. An open-ended question can't be answered "yes" or "no." Each answer you receive will lead you to another question. Continue the interview until you know all the information and character traits you need. What you learn will affect the way she will react to her circumstances and how she will interact with other characters. This complex task needs only to be used in interviewing major characters. With minor characters, you may want to do a partial interview according to their function in the story; remember that it is often a minor character who takes center stage for a few moments and gives your reader an added treat.
When you and your major are comfortable, ask her important questions such as the following:
* What was it like living in your home when you were growing up?
* What was the worst experience you had as a child?
* What is your best memory from childhood?
* Who were the people who raised you and what were their most memorable qualities?
* Who are you today?
* What makes you angry?
* What are you afraid of?
* What is missing from your life?
* What is work for you and what is play?
* What do you have that you would fight for?
* What do you want that you might kill for?
* What do you most like about yourself?
* Where are your friends when you need them?
* What makes you sad?
* What is the funniest thing you remember?
* How do you feel about yourself as a person?
* What experiences have you had with love in your life?
* If you had a free wish, what would you wish for and why?
* What would people not like about you if they really knew you?
* Of all the people in your life who are not here any longer, whom do you miss the most and why?
* Whom do you miss the least?
* If you were celebrating, what would you choose to do?
* If you could be an animal, what kind would you be?
* Do you have a best friend? How does it make you feel?
* What is your secret fantasy?
* Are you happy where you live?
* Describe your family.
* What are your most important traits?
* What would you change about yourself?
* What bad habits do you have?
* Are you religious?
* What have you done that makes you most proud?
* What have you done that makes you feel most ashamed?
The above list is but a sample of the kinds of questions that can help you to create a multi-dimensional character. You do not have to have the character answer all of the questions, but use as many of them as you need to create a character that is whole. When she tells her story, allow her to tell the gritty as well as the pretty. Make her the sum total of her experiences, hopes, dreams, desires, faults and virtues. Allow her to make excuses, lie, or try to deceive you and the readers. The more complex the character, the more exciting the story.
To write a great story, you need to advertise for great characters. No cardboard characters need apply. Characters can have at least as many characteristics and significant events as you would have if you were writing your autobiography.
Now for some additional instructions that will enable your character to grow after you start using her in a story:
* Give the character a voice that is her own, not yours.
* Allow her to speak in her natural voice and her own vocabulary, not yours.
* When you put her in the manuscript, allow her to talk directly to the reader --
Remember, the character and the reader are alone in a room and she must speak for herself. You won't be there to interpret for the reader.
* Don't allow her to hold back -- She needs to tell the important things to the reader even if she is afraid the reader won't like her.
Use the list to practice creating a character even if you have no story in mind now.
To demonstrate how I would go about discovering information about a character’s life and personality, here is a small part of an interview between a female character and me. The character's name is Leslie. The story is about a woman who was abused by her mother as a child and the effects of the abuse upon her adult life. The character was originally developed for a self-help book, “Stop the merry-Go-Round: Stories of Women who Broke the Cycle of Abusive Relationships,” McGraw-Hill. Years later, I used the character in a short story.
Leslie has told me that she is thirty-three years old, with four children. She's been divorced for a number of years. She works part-time and receives support from her ex-husband. That information tells me nothing about her. After I have the basic information about age, sex and marital status, I can begin probing:
"Leslie, who are you?"
"I told you, I'm divorced, I got kids. What else do you need to know?"
"I need to know who you are, not what your labels say. Labels tell me you are like half the women in your generation: divorced with kids. Tell me about who you would be even if you'd never married."
"Oh, you want all the dirt, right?"
"All the diamonds, too."
"All right, but you're not gonna like me very much after what I'm gonna tell you . . . I was abused by my mother when I was a child. I was abused by my husband as an adult. I abused myself with drugs and alcohol. I abused myself by having sex for money, or with men who had no love for me. It felt right at the time because I had no love for myself -- I still don't. I feel unworthy. I want to hurt Somebody. I hate myself." She paused, brushing her long hair from her face.
"If telling your story hurts too much, we can take a break."
"No, it's like dumping a can of garbage. No sense stopping in the middle. I'm not proud of much in my life. I take my anger out on my children. I destroy friendships through my anger and insecurity. I run to sick men to seek comfort and security. I don't know who I am.
“How do you handle all your pain?”
"I cover it all with jokes and smiles and assurances. I can't stop the pain. I'm thirty-three years old and still suck my thumb and play with a piece of satin to try to make myself feel better. Hey, I'm in great shape, aren't I?
“How do you feel about the people closest to you?”
"I hate men and I don't trust women. Sometimes, I even resent my kids because they are there and I want to be alone, or I want to go out and have fun."
"What is fun for you?"
"Fun . . . How about all the wrong things? I have this friend, see? He tells me I'm special and I have all kinds of good qualities. When he says those things to me, sometimes, I just want to rip his face off. Doesn't he know how much I want to believe those words but inside I know it's a crock and he's gonna be just like the others and want something back from me? Maybe if I shut my eyes he'll disappear."
"Leslie, how do you feel about the future?"
"I think I'm gonna be okay soon. See, there's this guy I met. He makes me feel great. He really turns me on. Maybe if we get it on, I can forget my pain and feel good for a little while. I have to keep it my secret though. Too much to lose if I talk about him to anybody ‘cause everybody is gonna tell me I'm not ready for a relationship. What do they know, anyway?"
Can you tell what she looks like from the way she presented herself? What were you able to see in her face when she talked? Sometimes, it is what we don't say to the reader that gives the best description.
The vignette above shows how one character presents herself. You don’t have to use a character who is broken by life. For your story, you can develop a character full of potential whose life is simple, yet her knowledge, perspective and life force make reading about her a must. Think of the protagonist, Scout, in "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee. Scout was a child with insights that carried the story. Her believability came from her experiences. What Scout knew and how she reacted to the world around her allowed Ms. Lee to weave a powerful tale. Only a small part of Scout’s history was revealed to the reader, but a great deal more could be inferred from the context of the story.
In interviewing the character, I created a life for her as well as a voice. In the vignette above, the character uses the word "I" more than any other word. She appears to be self-centered and oblivious to the feelings of others, and as a writer, I felt this speech pattern best presented her. It is important to choose a voice and words that fit your character. Developing the character's voice is a critical part of the task of the writer.
So, if you're game, sharpen your pencils and create a character. Start with a skeleton and then put some meat on his or her bones. Ask her about herself; you will get more information by asking than if you try to invent a life about her. As she speaks to you, she will take on a life of her own. Sometimes, in the process of interviewing a character, a new story idea emerges. Plots are few but characters are without number. The characters you have hidden within you can make the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary story.
by
Milton Trachtenburg
copyright, 1998
You've written a story about a bank heist; the plot has more convolutions than a licorice twist. The story is exciting from the opening hook to the denouement and you've developed an unexpected ending that will blow away even the most jaded reader. With eager anticipation, you submit the manuscript to editors you discovered by researching the marketplace. You believe that what you wrote is exactly what publishers are seeking. You query editors with a brief plot outline, and to your great pleasure, you get a response from one of them requesting a significant portion of the manuscript. Dreams of sugarplum limousines and ego-inflating book signings dance in your head.
A month goes by . . . The long-awaited letter arrives. The tension mounts as your shaking hands fumble to open the envelope, almost turning your ticket to fame and fortune into confetti. You read the letter:
Dear Sir,
Though you have an interesting plot, the characters don't do much for me. Try rewriting it. It has potential.
John Smith, editor
Your stomach sinks faster than a 747 crash landing in a cornfield. You are too hurt to recognize the free and supportive knowledge he is giving you. This letter isn't a rejection. It is a clarion call to tell you that you have potential as a writer, but that you need to further study your craft to give your manuscript the power it needs to attain publication. The editor is telling you two things in this brief letter: First, he believes you possess the skill required to rewrite your manuscript, and that the manuscript is worthy of a fresh treatment. More important, he is telling you that he is willing to read the rewrite, if you remedy the issue he presented: The issue he presented is: your characters are flat, uninteresting and have nothing to distinguish them from each other; they contribute little to a plot-drawn vehicle.
There are two rules of great writing. The first rule is: Characters must carry the story. The plot is only a malleable wrapping within which the characters act and are acted upon by natural elements, their own shortcomings and other characters. The second rule of great writing is: What you write about a character is guided by your knowledge of his or her life. You know far more about your character than you realize. Later in this article, you will find a list of questions that may help you access your knowledge so that you may power-up your characters to new heights.
Rather than learning only surface qualities, or developing a specific characteristic, I yearn to get inside each character to understand all of his or her nuances. Think of memorable books and movies. Those that are memorable featured a multi-dimensional protagonist who grabbed you and held on to the end. When you reached the conclusion of the story, you wanted more. There is no doubt that creating dynamic, exciting, conflicted characters is a key to getting your story published.
Now we come to the hard part. You ask, "What do I need to do differently to create memorable characters?" Get to know the character before you write about her. The best way to get to know a character is to have her to talk to you before you begin writing the story. Much of what you'll learn from her may not appear in the story at all, but once she’s turned loose on the pages, the information will have a dramatic impact on the story. You will share only snippets of your knowledge with the reader, on a need-to-know basis. The first efforts of new writers are often based on their own experiences in which all the characters are thinly disguised versions of real people. As we grow as writers, we write about characters and situations that have nothing in common with our own lives. Your imagination contains the seeds that will allow you to develop thousands of characters.
Next, you might ask, "How do I get my character to talk to me off the record? Do I dream about her? Do I walk down the street mumbling to myself?" No, you set up an interview at your mutual convenience. Prepare your questions in advance, as a reporter would. Treat your character as a stranger whom you would like to know better. Make her comfortable and ask only questions that will broaden your knowledge of her. Gently and politely, ask her if she would be willing to tell you about her life. If she agrees, give her free reign to talk all day about an issue. Ask her the questions listed below, as well as any others that come to mind in the process. Even background information, which may not appear in the final draft, will help you to write the story.
The questions below represent a prospective outline of some of the information that may help you to get to know your character. When you know her well, you will be able to use her more effectively in your story. The better you know her, the better the opportunity for the reader to get inside her, too. If the reader understands who the character is and what makes her act and react, she will have the answer the question: "Why should I bother reading about her? I've read lots of stories like this one."
You can ask some specific questions to make your interview more productive. Ask open-ended questions. An open-ended question can't be answered "yes" or "no." Each answer you receive will lead you to another question. Continue the interview until you know all the information and character traits you need. What you learn will affect the way she will react to her circumstances and how she will interact with other characters. This complex task needs only to be used in interviewing major characters. With minor characters, you may want to do a partial interview according to their function in the story; remember that it is often a minor character who takes center stage for a few moments and gives your reader an added treat.
When you and your major are comfortable, ask her important questions such as the following:
* What was it like living in your home when you were growing up?
* What was the worst experience you had as a child?
* What is your best memory from childhood?
* Who were the people who raised you and what were their most memorable qualities?
* Who are you today?
* What makes you angry?
* What are you afraid of?
* What is missing from your life?
* What is work for you and what is play?
* What do you have that you would fight for?
* What do you want that you might kill for?
* What do you most like about yourself?
* Where are your friends when you need them?
* What makes you sad?
* What is the funniest thing you remember?
* How do you feel about yourself as a person?
* What experiences have you had with love in your life?
* If you had a free wish, what would you wish for and why?
* What would people not like about you if they really knew you?
* Of all the people in your life who are not here any longer, whom do you miss the most and why?
* Whom do you miss the least?
* If you were celebrating, what would you choose to do?
* If you could be an animal, what kind would you be?
* Do you have a best friend? How does it make you feel?
* What is your secret fantasy?
* Are you happy where you live?
* Describe your family.
* What are your most important traits?
* What would you change about yourself?
* What bad habits do you have?
* Are you religious?
* What have you done that makes you most proud?
* What have you done that makes you feel most ashamed?
The above list is but a sample of the kinds of questions that can help you to create a multi-dimensional character. You do not have to have the character answer all of the questions, but use as many of them as you need to create a character that is whole. When she tells her story, allow her to tell the gritty as well as the pretty. Make her the sum total of her experiences, hopes, dreams, desires, faults and virtues. Allow her to make excuses, lie, or try to deceive you and the readers. The more complex the character, the more exciting the story.
To write a great story, you need to advertise for great characters. No cardboard characters need apply. Characters can have at least as many characteristics and significant events as you would have if you were writing your autobiography.
Now for some additional instructions that will enable your character to grow after you start using her in a story:
* Give the character a voice that is her own, not yours.
* Allow her to speak in her natural voice and her own vocabulary, not yours.
* When you put her in the manuscript, allow her to talk directly to the reader --
Remember, the character and the reader are alone in a room and she must speak for herself. You won't be there to interpret for the reader.
* Don't allow her to hold back -- She needs to tell the important things to the reader even if she is afraid the reader won't like her.
Use the list to practice creating a character even if you have no story in mind now.
To demonstrate how I would go about discovering information about a character’s life and personality, here is a small part of an interview between a female character and me. The character's name is Leslie. The story is about a woman who was abused by her mother as a child and the effects of the abuse upon her adult life. The character was originally developed for a self-help book, “Stop the merry-Go-Round: Stories of Women who Broke the Cycle of Abusive Relationships,” McGraw-Hill. Years later, I used the character in a short story.
Leslie has told me that she is thirty-three years old, with four children. She's been divorced for a number of years. She works part-time and receives support from her ex-husband. That information tells me nothing about her. After I have the basic information about age, sex and marital status, I can begin probing:
"Leslie, who are you?"
"I told you, I'm divorced, I got kids. What else do you need to know?"
"I need to know who you are, not what your labels say. Labels tell me you are like half the women in your generation: divorced with kids. Tell me about who you would be even if you'd never married."
"Oh, you want all the dirt, right?"
"All the diamonds, too."
"All right, but you're not gonna like me very much after what I'm gonna tell you . . . I was abused by my mother when I was a child. I was abused by my husband as an adult. I abused myself with drugs and alcohol. I abused myself by having sex for money, or with men who had no love for me. It felt right at the time because I had no love for myself -- I still don't. I feel unworthy. I want to hurt Somebody. I hate myself." She paused, brushing her long hair from her face.
"If telling your story hurts too much, we can take a break."
"No, it's like dumping a can of garbage. No sense stopping in the middle. I'm not proud of much in my life. I take my anger out on my children. I destroy friendships through my anger and insecurity. I run to sick men to seek comfort and security. I don't know who I am.
“How do you handle all your pain?”
"I cover it all with jokes and smiles and assurances. I can't stop the pain. I'm thirty-three years old and still suck my thumb and play with a piece of satin to try to make myself feel better. Hey, I'm in great shape, aren't I?
“How do you feel about the people closest to you?”
"I hate men and I don't trust women. Sometimes, I even resent my kids because they are there and I want to be alone, or I want to go out and have fun."
"What is fun for you?"
"Fun . . . How about all the wrong things? I have this friend, see? He tells me I'm special and I have all kinds of good qualities. When he says those things to me, sometimes, I just want to rip his face off. Doesn't he know how much I want to believe those words but inside I know it's a crock and he's gonna be just like the others and want something back from me? Maybe if I shut my eyes he'll disappear."
"Leslie, how do you feel about the future?"
"I think I'm gonna be okay soon. See, there's this guy I met. He makes me feel great. He really turns me on. Maybe if we get it on, I can forget my pain and feel good for a little while. I have to keep it my secret though. Too much to lose if I talk about him to anybody ‘cause everybody is gonna tell me I'm not ready for a relationship. What do they know, anyway?"
Can you tell what she looks like from the way she presented herself? What were you able to see in her face when she talked? Sometimes, it is what we don't say to the reader that gives the best description.
The vignette above shows how one character presents herself. You don’t have to use a character who is broken by life. For your story, you can develop a character full of potential whose life is simple, yet her knowledge, perspective and life force make reading about her a must. Think of the protagonist, Scout, in "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee. Scout was a child with insights that carried the story. Her believability came from her experiences. What Scout knew and how she reacted to the world around her allowed Ms. Lee to weave a powerful tale. Only a small part of Scout’s history was revealed to the reader, but a great deal more could be inferred from the context of the story.
In interviewing the character, I created a life for her as well as a voice. In the vignette above, the character uses the word "I" more than any other word. She appears to be self-centered and oblivious to the feelings of others, and as a writer, I felt this speech pattern best presented her. It is important to choose a voice and words that fit your character. Developing the character's voice is a critical part of the task of the writer.
So, if you're game, sharpen your pencils and create a character. Start with a skeleton and then put some meat on his or her bones. Ask her about herself; you will get more information by asking than if you try to invent a life about her. As she speaks to you, she will take on a life of her own. Sometimes, in the process of interviewing a character, a new story idea emerges. Plots are few but characters are without number. The characters you have hidden within you can make the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary story.
A CUT ABOVE THE REST
A CUT ABOVE THE REST
by Milton Trachtenburg
Copyright 1998
The word was out on the street before anyone had time to make a single phone call. "The meanest dude ever born must've just moved to town." The talk spread up and down the street filled with decaying brownstones, and the people who inhabited them, faster than a fire in an insured, unsuccessful business. For days all you heard on the street was conjecture, rumor, and the wild exaggerations that accompany too much talk, too much heat and too much cheap wine. It was, "Rodney this," and, "Rodney that." By the time the word got around for the second and third times, the story had the makings of a `B' movie script, a dirty ballad, a cheap detective novel. Maybe no one but me will ever know for certain what really happened. Maybe all I'm doing by telling you the story is contributing to the confusion. The newspapers sanitized it. Neighborhood gossip glorified it. The cops pretty much wrote it off as just another pimp war, though I'm sure they'd tell you differently. The question you might ask, is, what is someone like me doing associating with the likes of Rodney . . . ?
Rodney Webber was perhaps the most prosperous and most successful man who worked in his overcrowded and highly competitive business. People who knew him said, "That Rodney, he was born to be a pimp!" He didn't disappoint any of the well-meaning busybodies who gathered on the brownstone steps and rickety webbed chairs to share gossip and drink cool wine on hot days. Rodney Webber was, indeed, a mean man in a profession that called for mean men. He demanded 75 % of his ladies' earnings - and almost never got a short count. "I'm more than worth it," he would say. His girls had to admit that when they were straight with Rodney, he was straight with them. "Not only does he protect us, but he can be one hell of a good-time man," said Jade, his number one lady. "He was always buyin' me nice clothes and, let me just tell you something, was he some jazz man in the kip, if you know what I mean."
One of the Rodney stories that had been circulated for a long time and contributed significantly to his reputation as a ladies man, told of his first sexual encounter at the age of ten. The story was that four teenage girls from his neighborhood, all with particularly overactive glands, had decided to initiate Rodney as they had so many others they picked out on the mean streets where he grew up. Supposedly, they had lured him into an alley, held him down, pulled off his pants . . . "Lookit that thang!" one of them was heard to exclaim. About two hours later, the four girls left the alley with smiles on their faces. Rodney discovered that night that he had a power over women - and reveled in that knowledge. By the time he was eighteen, he began profiting from his knowledge.
Rodney believed in the eloquence and finality of lessons learned on the streets. Once, one of the customers used a soda bottle in a sadistic fashion upon the body of one of Rodney's ladies. For nearly a month she was unable to contribute to Rodney's accustomed high standards of living. This irked Rodney far more than any concern he might have had for the discomfort suffered by his employee. Shortly afterward, the unfortunate, but deserving customer was found with his brains splattered all over his living room carpet. The police determined without too much difficulty that the damage had been done by a soda bottle which was inserted indelicately into his anus after it was used to separate the top of his head from the remainder of his body.
Rodney knew that occasional exhibits of such violence not only protected the stable of women in his employ, but also served to keep them in line. "Violence swings both ways," Rodney would say. "Just so long as everybody know I'm the swinger! In more ways than one." Rodney liked to hum that old Jim Croce ballad, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Except, he believed he could take both Leroy and Slim! And, up to that time, anyway, no one had proven him wrong.
Rodney was a man of regular habits. One of his habits was to meet his `ladies' in a small, conveniently located, but little used park several times a day to collect the proceeds of their labor and to make certain that they were maintaining productivity levels commensurate with his economic needs. The gentle upward slope toward its center made the park a safe haven because it offered Rodney both a panoramic view of the surroundings and near invisibility from prying eyes. He stood on the crest under a gnarled oak tree. From that vantage point, he was able to see anyone who approached because they stood out in stark relief against the background of the well lit streets. Rodney hated surprises.
It was nearly midnight and the park was deserted. Nobody used the park after dark except people like Rodney and others who were up to no good. "Where the fuck are they?" Rodney said to the still night. "I find those bitches holdin' out on me, I'm gonna slice them one end to the other. They don't like Rodney's razor. Not even a little bit. They don't work for me, they don't work for nobody! They not here soon, I cut them so bad, when they spread their legs, they open clear to the chin!" Rodney smiled sadistically. He enjoyed hurting people - especially women. And, when things didn't go exactly as he planned, he became paranoid and his penchant for violence increased.
Rodney sensed more than saw or heard the presence of someone approaching. Alerted, he kept his hand firmly around the small caliber automatic he kept concealed in the pocket of his baggy jacket. "Hate to think about havin' to ruin another perfectly good $500 suede jacket, but, you know, business is business," he said to himself. He hadn't heard the squeaking of the hinges of the old iron gate on the fence surrounding the small park. That meant that someone had been in the park the whole time. He saw a movement in the shadows. Somebody's out there, he thought. And, whoever it is, better know who they're playing with! Rodney maintained his silent vigil. There was no light under the tree against which he leaned and even close up, Rodney appeared as just another huge gnarl on the old tree.
Rodney watched the woman emerge from the shadows about fifty yards from him. The mercury lamps along the pathway cast a purple glow upon a figure Rodney couldn't identify. Her long, slender, unsheathed legs below her black miniskirt and black leather jacket were juxtaposed against the darkness of the park which momentarily created the illusion of disembodied legs approaching him. When Rodney could see her outline more clearly, immediately he noted that the woman walked with a casual insouciance that told him that she was a working girl - definitely top-shelf.
The woman sashayed, more than walked, directly toward Rodney as if she knew exactly what she was doing. The click of her high-heeled boots ceased as she left the path and walked across the soft grass. Rodney maintained his sense of awareness, but calculated that she believed he was a John and was about to solicit him.
Man, is she in for a surprise, he thought. We'll just see who solicits who for what tonight. She's goin' to be working for a new main man before this night gets much older. Rodney temporarily forgot about his ladies as he concentrated on every movement of the lithe body approaching him. He was disturbed to find that he was becoming aroused. Hey, come on there, Rufus. This is business. You get your turn later. His penis wasn't listening, but simply becoming increasingly tumescent as the woman approached. Rodney didn't like feeling out of control - not even a little bit. His eyes were riveted on the triangle at the juncture of her legs, clearly outlined through her tight skirt. She ain't wearing nothing under that thiing. Damn!
"Got a light, mister?" Rodney had to glance upward to see her face. Even without the spike heel boots, she would have been somewhat taller than him. Rodney was always intimidated by tall women and compensated for his feelings by acts of bravado and coercion which kept them in fear of him.
"Pretty lady, I got anything you want." She stood close to him, her crotch almost rubbing against his pulsating erection. I swear I can feel the heat coming off her, Rodney thought as he reached into the pocket of his now too-tight slacks to offer her his solid gold lighter. Lookit my hand shaking. I'm acting like a twelve-year-old cherry, for Christ's sake! The woman held his shaking hand while she accepted the light he proffered. An electric shock passed through him as she brushed casually against his erection.
"Man! My imagination sure is runnin' in high gear tonight." He felt as if Rufus was going to jump out of his trousers and attack her without him if he didn't take action soon. Staring at her crotch, he became increasingly agitated when she failed to react. "No bitch can stare down Rodney and this one ain't goin' to be the first!" he thought.
"Want some?" she asked, staring brazenly at the obvious bulge in his trousers. "My, my! That is some beautiful piece of manhood you got there, mister."
"Yeah, baby, and I know how to use it to take you to heaven."
"Well, I've been about every place else. Maybe if you're nice, I'll show you some places you've never been before. How would that be?" As she spoke, she placed her forefinger on his lips and began tracing a pattern, first around his mouth, then straight down his center - past his chin and neck, through the center of his chest, slowly, inexorably downward. As she passed along his erection, Rodney shuddered involuntarily. She continued the line between his testicles and as her finger began the long climb up his back, she proceeded to slither between his legs face up making certain that her lips brushed against his testicles. Rodney gasped. He wanted to grab her and have her that moment, but he felt powerless to move. Her finger traced over the top of his head and back to his mouth. She pushed his mouth open forcing him to suck on her finger.
"Man!" was about all Rodney could say.
"Come on, let's go someplace really private. I haven't even begun with you."
A small voice deep inside Rodney was warning him that something was wrong but his throbbing erection was talking too loud for the voice to be heard. Rodney contemplated the security of having the revolver in his jacket pocket and the razor in the back pocket of his trousers. "Hey," he thought, "I've had grown men pissin' their pants when I come into a room. No way I need to worry about this skinny bitch. After I fuck her brains out, we see who's boss. Maybe Rufus deserves his turn first. Anyway, she just some hot-pants bitch lookin' to make some time. She's just pretendin' to be a workin' girl. We'll soon see just how good she is. Hang in there, Rufus."
Rodney remembered leaving the park, but time seemed to telescope after that. He awoke to find he had been transported to a bedroom. The blinking red light reflecting in the mirror above the dresser in the otherwise darkened room told him he was in a motel. Lying naked on the bed, he tried to reach up to scratch his nose but couldn't move his hand.
"What the fuck?" he hissed. By this time, he was more angry than frightened. "I'm tied to the damn bed. Hey!" He heard water running in the bathroom and the sounds of objects being placed on the vanity. Rodney's mind raced. "Maybe she's into kinky. That's fine with me, but don't nobody tie me up. I do the tyin'."
The bathroom door opened. The sudden light temporarily blinded him. When he reopened his eyes, the woman was standing at the foot of the bed.
"What you think you doin' to me, woman?" Rodney said in his most intimidating voice. She smiled and said nothing. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"
"I'm not really in the mood for talk. There's a lot of other things we can do."
"You untie me, an' I mean right now!"
"No, I don't think so. That would spoil everything. You just relax and let me do all the work, okay?" Her voice was calm and soothing and at the same time, the sexiest sound that he'd ever heard. Rufus was beginning to react again.
The woman placed one high-heeled booted foot on the bed. Rodney's gaze was riveted on her long white legs, now fully exposed. Her skirt was raised above her hips. "I was right!" he thought. "She's not wearin' a damn thing under that skirt." In the darkened room, the stark juxtaposition of the dark triangle at the juncture of her legs was more Rodney's imagination than reality.
"Why don't you take off those rags and let me see what you got, baby?" he cooed.
"All in good time, my dear. All in good time. Half the fun is the anticipation, right?"
Rodney relaxed since the more he strained against the ropes which bound him to the bed, the tighter they became. His thoughts returned to the foul-smelling alley where he was initiated into the rites of manhood by a group of `horny neighborhood chicks,' as he came to call them after the incident. "This is more of the same and I'm just goin' to lay back an enjoy it. Then after... man, is this bitch ever gonna be sorry she played with Rodney."
Perching on the foot of the bed, she kneeled and placed her hands on Rodney's bare legs. Slowly, she slid her hands along Rodney's legs and torso, careful not to touch his tumescent penis. The soft touch excited Rodney even more. She proceeded to kiss him, nibbling him all over. He moaned softly, totally forgetting his vow to destroy the woman. He was lost in the ecstacy of the moment.
Rodney thought he would explode before he had the chance to enter her body. His ego wouldn't permit him to lose control in the presence of a woman. He was unable to command his body and prayed that she would stop playing games and let him have his way with her. Just as he was about to ejaculate, she leaned back and stared at him. He was unable to decipher her expression.
"You ready for something you'll remember for the rest of your life?"
"If you are," Rodney answered, his bravado returning.
Without another word, she mounted him, drawing his penis deep inside of her. Rodney felt the muscles lining the walls of her vagina squeezing his ready to explode penis. Feeling the tension building in him. "Slow down, big guy. There's plenty of time. Just lay back and enjoy the show."
Rodney had no choice. He watched the muscles in her limber legs contract as she pushed herself up from him and then down upon him. He wished he could reach out and squeeze her breasts and thighs, maybe enough to put some hurt on her - "Women like that," he thought - but he had to take his time. Sooner or later she would cut him free, and then, "It's my way, bitch!"
The woman leaned forward and began biting his neck; first, tiny nibbles and then harder bites. She kept him tightly inside her all the while. Rodney winced at the pain and thought to himself that soon it would be his turn. Slowly, she sat erect again and while continuing to gyrate with Rodney inside her, slowly unbuttoned her blouse. Rodney could almost feel the soft silk as she pulled the blouse out of her waistband. When it was unbuttoned, she allowed it to hang free. He almost believed he could hear the whisper of the delicate material as it brushed against her nipples. She leaned forward so that her breasts hung free of the blouse. She passed them tantalizingly close to his mouth, but not close enough that he could touch them with his now puckering lips.
Rodney emitted a low moan and felt himself losing control. "Now, baby, now. Yeah, do it!" he shouted, oblivious to anything else. If he had noticed her reaching behind her back, he might have become frightened or cautious. If he had seen the flash of stainless steel as she brought her hand down between their joined bodies, he might have tried to make some kind of resistance. But, as fact would have it, just as he began to ejaculate, he felt a sharp pain at the base of his penis. He was so caught in the throes of ecstacy, that for a moment he did not realize what had happened. When he looked up, the woman was standing across the room, continuing to undulate. The enormity of the pain was beginning to hit him. He felt soaking wet, still not aware of what had just happened to him.
The woman stood at the foot of the bed, smiling. She flicked something wet and shiny on his chest. "Oh, here's your razor back. I won't need it any more. I told you it would be something you would remember for the rest of your life. She reached down between her legs and removed his now flaccid and detached penis from within her. She placed it delicately on his chest next to the razor.
"I'll bet you're asking yourself who, what, why, whatever - right? Well, I'm not the kind of girl who fucks and runs, so I'll tell you." The circle of blood emanating from Rodney's crotch was inexorably spreading. "Bleeding a little there, bunkie? Well, you certainly made enough other people bleed, one way or another."
Rodney was experiencing the kind of detachment that comes with severe shock. He felt more than saw his penis on his chest. "How did you...?" he slurred.
"How did I get you here? Simple. I've been following you for weeks and I know what makes you tick inside and out. That's just the way I am when I want to get someone badly enough. I was laying under a blanket in the park every night just waiting for you to show up. I watched you sit up there under your tree like the king of the hill. I watched you smacking those women around when they didn't give you as much money as you wanted. You know, if I hadn't already decided to kill you, what I saw would have given me reason enough.
"Anyway, to cut to the chase, when I played my little finger game with you, I had a little surprise on my finger. You couldn't imagine how easy it is for a nurse to get just the right prescription for the job. I knew your ego would make you do whatever I wanted you to. When you passed out, I brought you here, and you pretty much know the rest."
Rodney slurred something that the woman barely understood, but she knew what the next question would be. "Jeffrey Holt," she said. Rodney's eyes went wide with terror. "Yes, Jeffrey was a philandering pig and a lousy lay, but he was my husband. And, he didn't deserve to die the way he did with his brains splattered all over my carpet. I don't know, maybe I'm more upset about the carpet, but in any case, the score is settled."
Angela Holt removed her silk blouse which was covered with Rodney's blood and rolled it into a ball. When she exposed her breasts, even in his condition, Rodney had a last sexual reflex and opened his mouth into a wide `O' making it easier for Angela to stuff the blouse into his mouth in a single movement. "We wouldn't want you waking the neighbors - if you get uncomfortable, now would we?" Angela stepped out of the leather mini-skirt. From her oversized carry-all, Angela extracted slacks, a modest sweater, and a pair of Reeboks. She dressed quickly in a businesslike manner. "Now, that's more me."
Angela put the skirt and her spike heeled shoes in her bag and turned to leave. As if it were an afterthought, she turned back to Rodney. "I guess it's okay to take a souvenir of my adventure, isn't it?" She delicately picked up his penis as if it were a confection and placed it in her bag. "Oh, yes, let me leave you this," she said, laying his automatic on his chest next to the razor. "Maybe whoever finds you will get a kick out of seeing you lying there with your little automatic phallic symbol. I have to leave you something, after all!" She turned without a further word and left the room and Rodney's waning life as quietly and much more unobtrusively than she had entered it . . . .
On the mantle over the artificial fireplace in my apartment is a brine-filled jar containing what at first glance appears to be a large, darkened pickle. The contents amuse some of my friends and amaze others. When they ask me, "Angela, where the hell did you get that thing?" I smile mysteriously and say, "That's a long story. But it sure is a cut above the rest, isn't it?"
by Milton Trachtenburg
Copyright 1998
The word was out on the street before anyone had time to make a single phone call. "The meanest dude ever born must've just moved to town." The talk spread up and down the street filled with decaying brownstones, and the people who inhabited them, faster than a fire in an insured, unsuccessful business. For days all you heard on the street was conjecture, rumor, and the wild exaggerations that accompany too much talk, too much heat and too much cheap wine. It was, "Rodney this," and, "Rodney that." By the time the word got around for the second and third times, the story had the makings of a `B' movie script, a dirty ballad, a cheap detective novel. Maybe no one but me will ever know for certain what really happened. Maybe all I'm doing by telling you the story is contributing to the confusion. The newspapers sanitized it. Neighborhood gossip glorified it. The cops pretty much wrote it off as just another pimp war, though I'm sure they'd tell you differently. The question you might ask, is, what is someone like me doing associating with the likes of Rodney . . . ?
Rodney Webber was perhaps the most prosperous and most successful man who worked in his overcrowded and highly competitive business. People who knew him said, "That Rodney, he was born to be a pimp!" He didn't disappoint any of the well-meaning busybodies who gathered on the brownstone steps and rickety webbed chairs to share gossip and drink cool wine on hot days. Rodney Webber was, indeed, a mean man in a profession that called for mean men. He demanded 75 % of his ladies' earnings - and almost never got a short count. "I'm more than worth it," he would say. His girls had to admit that when they were straight with Rodney, he was straight with them. "Not only does he protect us, but he can be one hell of a good-time man," said Jade, his number one lady. "He was always buyin' me nice clothes and, let me just tell you something, was he some jazz man in the kip, if you know what I mean."
One of the Rodney stories that had been circulated for a long time and contributed significantly to his reputation as a ladies man, told of his first sexual encounter at the age of ten. The story was that four teenage girls from his neighborhood, all with particularly overactive glands, had decided to initiate Rodney as they had so many others they picked out on the mean streets where he grew up. Supposedly, they had lured him into an alley, held him down, pulled off his pants . . . "Lookit that thang!" one of them was heard to exclaim. About two hours later, the four girls left the alley with smiles on their faces. Rodney discovered that night that he had a power over women - and reveled in that knowledge. By the time he was eighteen, he began profiting from his knowledge.
Rodney believed in the eloquence and finality of lessons learned on the streets. Once, one of the customers used a soda bottle in a sadistic fashion upon the body of one of Rodney's ladies. For nearly a month she was unable to contribute to Rodney's accustomed high standards of living. This irked Rodney far more than any concern he might have had for the discomfort suffered by his employee. Shortly afterward, the unfortunate, but deserving customer was found with his brains splattered all over his living room carpet. The police determined without too much difficulty that the damage had been done by a soda bottle which was inserted indelicately into his anus after it was used to separate the top of his head from the remainder of his body.
Rodney knew that occasional exhibits of such violence not only protected the stable of women in his employ, but also served to keep them in line. "Violence swings both ways," Rodney would say. "Just so long as everybody know I'm the swinger! In more ways than one." Rodney liked to hum that old Jim Croce ballad, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. Except, he believed he could take both Leroy and Slim! And, up to that time, anyway, no one had proven him wrong.
Rodney was a man of regular habits. One of his habits was to meet his `ladies' in a small, conveniently located, but little used park several times a day to collect the proceeds of their labor and to make certain that they were maintaining productivity levels commensurate with his economic needs. The gentle upward slope toward its center made the park a safe haven because it offered Rodney both a panoramic view of the surroundings and near invisibility from prying eyes. He stood on the crest under a gnarled oak tree. From that vantage point, he was able to see anyone who approached because they stood out in stark relief against the background of the well lit streets. Rodney hated surprises.
It was nearly midnight and the park was deserted. Nobody used the park after dark except people like Rodney and others who were up to no good. "Where the fuck are they?" Rodney said to the still night. "I find those bitches holdin' out on me, I'm gonna slice them one end to the other. They don't like Rodney's razor. Not even a little bit. They don't work for me, they don't work for nobody! They not here soon, I cut them so bad, when they spread their legs, they open clear to the chin!" Rodney smiled sadistically. He enjoyed hurting people - especially women. And, when things didn't go exactly as he planned, he became paranoid and his penchant for violence increased.
Rodney sensed more than saw or heard the presence of someone approaching. Alerted, he kept his hand firmly around the small caliber automatic he kept concealed in the pocket of his baggy jacket. "Hate to think about havin' to ruin another perfectly good $500 suede jacket, but, you know, business is business," he said to himself. He hadn't heard the squeaking of the hinges of the old iron gate on the fence surrounding the small park. That meant that someone had been in the park the whole time. He saw a movement in the shadows. Somebody's out there, he thought. And, whoever it is, better know who they're playing with! Rodney maintained his silent vigil. There was no light under the tree against which he leaned and even close up, Rodney appeared as just another huge gnarl on the old tree.
Rodney watched the woman emerge from the shadows about fifty yards from him. The mercury lamps along the pathway cast a purple glow upon a figure Rodney couldn't identify. Her long, slender, unsheathed legs below her black miniskirt and black leather jacket were juxtaposed against the darkness of the park which momentarily created the illusion of disembodied legs approaching him. When Rodney could see her outline more clearly, immediately he noted that the woman walked with a casual insouciance that told him that she was a working girl - definitely top-shelf.
The woman sashayed, more than walked, directly toward Rodney as if she knew exactly what she was doing. The click of her high-heeled boots ceased as she left the path and walked across the soft grass. Rodney maintained his sense of awareness, but calculated that she believed he was a John and was about to solicit him.
Man, is she in for a surprise, he thought. We'll just see who solicits who for what tonight. She's goin' to be working for a new main man before this night gets much older. Rodney temporarily forgot about his ladies as he concentrated on every movement of the lithe body approaching him. He was disturbed to find that he was becoming aroused. Hey, come on there, Rufus. This is business. You get your turn later. His penis wasn't listening, but simply becoming increasingly tumescent as the woman approached. Rodney didn't like feeling out of control - not even a little bit. His eyes were riveted on the triangle at the juncture of her legs, clearly outlined through her tight skirt. She ain't wearing nothing under that thiing. Damn!
"Got a light, mister?" Rodney had to glance upward to see her face. Even without the spike heel boots, she would have been somewhat taller than him. Rodney was always intimidated by tall women and compensated for his feelings by acts of bravado and coercion which kept them in fear of him.
"Pretty lady, I got anything you want." She stood close to him, her crotch almost rubbing against his pulsating erection. I swear I can feel the heat coming off her, Rodney thought as he reached into the pocket of his now too-tight slacks to offer her his solid gold lighter. Lookit my hand shaking. I'm acting like a twelve-year-old cherry, for Christ's sake! The woman held his shaking hand while she accepted the light he proffered. An electric shock passed through him as she brushed casually against his erection.
"Man! My imagination sure is runnin' in high gear tonight." He felt as if Rufus was going to jump out of his trousers and attack her without him if he didn't take action soon. Staring at her crotch, he became increasingly agitated when she failed to react. "No bitch can stare down Rodney and this one ain't goin' to be the first!" he thought.
"Want some?" she asked, staring brazenly at the obvious bulge in his trousers. "My, my! That is some beautiful piece of manhood you got there, mister."
"Yeah, baby, and I know how to use it to take you to heaven."
"Well, I've been about every place else. Maybe if you're nice, I'll show you some places you've never been before. How would that be?" As she spoke, she placed her forefinger on his lips and began tracing a pattern, first around his mouth, then straight down his center - past his chin and neck, through the center of his chest, slowly, inexorably downward. As she passed along his erection, Rodney shuddered involuntarily. She continued the line between his testicles and as her finger began the long climb up his back, she proceeded to slither between his legs face up making certain that her lips brushed against his testicles. Rodney gasped. He wanted to grab her and have her that moment, but he felt powerless to move. Her finger traced over the top of his head and back to his mouth. She pushed his mouth open forcing him to suck on her finger.
"Man!" was about all Rodney could say.
"Come on, let's go someplace really private. I haven't even begun with you."
A small voice deep inside Rodney was warning him that something was wrong but his throbbing erection was talking too loud for the voice to be heard. Rodney contemplated the security of having the revolver in his jacket pocket and the razor in the back pocket of his trousers. "Hey," he thought, "I've had grown men pissin' their pants when I come into a room. No way I need to worry about this skinny bitch. After I fuck her brains out, we see who's boss. Maybe Rufus deserves his turn first. Anyway, she just some hot-pants bitch lookin' to make some time. She's just pretendin' to be a workin' girl. We'll soon see just how good she is. Hang in there, Rufus."
Rodney remembered leaving the park, but time seemed to telescope after that. He awoke to find he had been transported to a bedroom. The blinking red light reflecting in the mirror above the dresser in the otherwise darkened room told him he was in a motel. Lying naked on the bed, he tried to reach up to scratch his nose but couldn't move his hand.
"What the fuck?" he hissed. By this time, he was more angry than frightened. "I'm tied to the damn bed. Hey!" He heard water running in the bathroom and the sounds of objects being placed on the vanity. Rodney's mind raced. "Maybe she's into kinky. That's fine with me, but don't nobody tie me up. I do the tyin'."
The bathroom door opened. The sudden light temporarily blinded him. When he reopened his eyes, the woman was standing at the foot of the bed.
"What you think you doin' to me, woman?" Rodney said in his most intimidating voice. She smiled and said nothing. "Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"
"I'm not really in the mood for talk. There's a lot of other things we can do."
"You untie me, an' I mean right now!"
"No, I don't think so. That would spoil everything. You just relax and let me do all the work, okay?" Her voice was calm and soothing and at the same time, the sexiest sound that he'd ever heard. Rufus was beginning to react again.
The woman placed one high-heeled booted foot on the bed. Rodney's gaze was riveted on her long white legs, now fully exposed. Her skirt was raised above her hips. "I was right!" he thought. "She's not wearin' a damn thing under that skirt." In the darkened room, the stark juxtaposition of the dark triangle at the juncture of her legs was more Rodney's imagination than reality.
"Why don't you take off those rags and let me see what you got, baby?" he cooed.
"All in good time, my dear. All in good time. Half the fun is the anticipation, right?"
Rodney relaxed since the more he strained against the ropes which bound him to the bed, the tighter they became. His thoughts returned to the foul-smelling alley where he was initiated into the rites of manhood by a group of `horny neighborhood chicks,' as he came to call them after the incident. "This is more of the same and I'm just goin' to lay back an enjoy it. Then after... man, is this bitch ever gonna be sorry she played with Rodney."
Perching on the foot of the bed, she kneeled and placed her hands on Rodney's bare legs. Slowly, she slid her hands along Rodney's legs and torso, careful not to touch his tumescent penis. The soft touch excited Rodney even more. She proceeded to kiss him, nibbling him all over. He moaned softly, totally forgetting his vow to destroy the woman. He was lost in the ecstacy of the moment.
Rodney thought he would explode before he had the chance to enter her body. His ego wouldn't permit him to lose control in the presence of a woman. He was unable to command his body and prayed that she would stop playing games and let him have his way with her. Just as he was about to ejaculate, she leaned back and stared at him. He was unable to decipher her expression.
"You ready for something you'll remember for the rest of your life?"
"If you are," Rodney answered, his bravado returning.
Without another word, she mounted him, drawing his penis deep inside of her. Rodney felt the muscles lining the walls of her vagina squeezing his ready to explode penis. Feeling the tension building in him. "Slow down, big guy. There's plenty of time. Just lay back and enjoy the show."
Rodney had no choice. He watched the muscles in her limber legs contract as she pushed herself up from him and then down upon him. He wished he could reach out and squeeze her breasts and thighs, maybe enough to put some hurt on her - "Women like that," he thought - but he had to take his time. Sooner or later she would cut him free, and then, "It's my way, bitch!"
The woman leaned forward and began biting his neck; first, tiny nibbles and then harder bites. She kept him tightly inside her all the while. Rodney winced at the pain and thought to himself that soon it would be his turn. Slowly, she sat erect again and while continuing to gyrate with Rodney inside her, slowly unbuttoned her blouse. Rodney could almost feel the soft silk as she pulled the blouse out of her waistband. When it was unbuttoned, she allowed it to hang free. He almost believed he could hear the whisper of the delicate material as it brushed against her nipples. She leaned forward so that her breasts hung free of the blouse. She passed them tantalizingly close to his mouth, but not close enough that he could touch them with his now puckering lips.
Rodney emitted a low moan and felt himself losing control. "Now, baby, now. Yeah, do it!" he shouted, oblivious to anything else. If he had noticed her reaching behind her back, he might have become frightened or cautious. If he had seen the flash of stainless steel as she brought her hand down between their joined bodies, he might have tried to make some kind of resistance. But, as fact would have it, just as he began to ejaculate, he felt a sharp pain at the base of his penis. He was so caught in the throes of ecstacy, that for a moment he did not realize what had happened. When he looked up, the woman was standing across the room, continuing to undulate. The enormity of the pain was beginning to hit him. He felt soaking wet, still not aware of what had just happened to him.
The woman stood at the foot of the bed, smiling. She flicked something wet and shiny on his chest. "Oh, here's your razor back. I won't need it any more. I told you it would be something you would remember for the rest of your life. She reached down between her legs and removed his now flaccid and detached penis from within her. She placed it delicately on his chest next to the razor.
"I'll bet you're asking yourself who, what, why, whatever - right? Well, I'm not the kind of girl who fucks and runs, so I'll tell you." The circle of blood emanating from Rodney's crotch was inexorably spreading. "Bleeding a little there, bunkie? Well, you certainly made enough other people bleed, one way or another."
Rodney was experiencing the kind of detachment that comes with severe shock. He felt more than saw his penis on his chest. "How did you...?" he slurred.
"How did I get you here? Simple. I've been following you for weeks and I know what makes you tick inside and out. That's just the way I am when I want to get someone badly enough. I was laying under a blanket in the park every night just waiting for you to show up. I watched you sit up there under your tree like the king of the hill. I watched you smacking those women around when they didn't give you as much money as you wanted. You know, if I hadn't already decided to kill you, what I saw would have given me reason enough.
"Anyway, to cut to the chase, when I played my little finger game with you, I had a little surprise on my finger. You couldn't imagine how easy it is for a nurse to get just the right prescription for the job. I knew your ego would make you do whatever I wanted you to. When you passed out, I brought you here, and you pretty much know the rest."
Rodney slurred something that the woman barely understood, but she knew what the next question would be. "Jeffrey Holt," she said. Rodney's eyes went wide with terror. "Yes, Jeffrey was a philandering pig and a lousy lay, but he was my husband. And, he didn't deserve to die the way he did with his brains splattered all over my carpet. I don't know, maybe I'm more upset about the carpet, but in any case, the score is settled."
Angela Holt removed her silk blouse which was covered with Rodney's blood and rolled it into a ball. When she exposed her breasts, even in his condition, Rodney had a last sexual reflex and opened his mouth into a wide `O' making it easier for Angela to stuff the blouse into his mouth in a single movement. "We wouldn't want you waking the neighbors - if you get uncomfortable, now would we?" Angela stepped out of the leather mini-skirt. From her oversized carry-all, Angela extracted slacks, a modest sweater, and a pair of Reeboks. She dressed quickly in a businesslike manner. "Now, that's more me."
Angela put the skirt and her spike heeled shoes in her bag and turned to leave. As if it were an afterthought, she turned back to Rodney. "I guess it's okay to take a souvenir of my adventure, isn't it?" She delicately picked up his penis as if it were a confection and placed it in her bag. "Oh, yes, let me leave you this," she said, laying his automatic on his chest next to the razor. "Maybe whoever finds you will get a kick out of seeing you lying there with your little automatic phallic symbol. I have to leave you something, after all!" She turned without a further word and left the room and Rodney's waning life as quietly and much more unobtrusively than she had entered it . . . .
On the mantle over the artificial fireplace in my apartment is a brine-filled jar containing what at first glance appears to be a large, darkened pickle. The contents amuse some of my friends and amaze others. When they ask me, "Angela, where the hell did you get that thing?" I smile mysteriously and say, "That's a long story. But it sure is a cut above the rest, isn't it?"
WORDPAINTING - WORDSMITHING - WORDFRAMING
WORDPAINTING - WORDSMITHING - WORDFRAMING
A New Way to Look at your Writing
by Milton Trachtenburg
copyright 1998
Writing is as simple as ABC -- make that WWW -- Wordpainting. Wordsmithing. Wordframing. How will these concepts help us better understand how to write for publication? The three words teach nothing new about the art and craft of writing, however, they may help writers prioritize the variety of tasks we need to perform from the genesis of a story idea through the act of handing a properly boxed manuscript to the postal clerk.
WORDPAINTING
The ART of fiction writing is accessed through the writer’s hidden creativity, which emanates from the same source as dreams, wishes and fantasies and can be opened for conscious examination. Often, we can access our creativity through a few key words and phrases or by the imposition of an idea that can "trick" our minds to allow us to translate ideas into words. Words like 's'posin,' 'once-upon-a-time,' 'what if,' allow us conscious access to our creative muses. Muses never sleep but if we don't plug into them, they don't write, either. The idea that comes to us is raw and full of non-verbal images that need to be translated fore the reader into action. We can smell lilac perfume, but if we tell the reader we smell lilac perfume, the reader is shut out of the experience unless she has the pleasure of the memory of the scent of lilac. Our job as writers is to open the imagination of the reader so that she may share the experiences with us.
Words are the only connective tissue between writers and readers. Not only can we use words to connect with readers in the context of our writing, but we can also communicate with each other as writers using concepts that pique curiosity, stimulate imagination and allow us to visualize the writing process through a new perspective. We can focus on the art and craft of writing through a single concept. To help you to develop a single picture of a complex craft, I have chosen to condense the art and craft of writing into three functions: Wordpainting, Wordsmithing
and Wordframing.
Why did I develop this framework? As a teacher of writing, I developed it to help me spot check my own writing as well as help me understand what the needs of other writers might be. I hear questions such as: "I am writing a book and I want to know how to get an agent?" or, "I have an idea for a story. How do I find a publisher?"
New writers need to understand that the journey between an idea for a story and a completed manuscript that is ready for market is long, complex yet can be accomplished by anyone who is willing to exercise the discipline needed and follow a set of rules that tell editors that you understand writing. Very few, if any, writers "get it right" in a first draft. That is why we call the first writing a rough draft. The first task is to get the idea on paper or into your computer's memory. I call this process Wordpainting because it entails capturing raw ideas written as they emerge from your mind. The ideas turned to words become the material from which a publishable story may emerge. The rough draft is incomplete, not carefully developed, yet it follows an outline that gives it form and direction. The first draft is the basic story as it emerges from your mind. It is far from being ready to market. Even in this early draft, you need to follow rules of writing including:
Developing a plot outline so you know where the story is going.
Introducing strong, believable characters with motivation and goals.
Developing scenes that carry the story forward.
Introducing settings that are real and add to the context of the story.
Choosing a POV that best represents your story.
Wordpainting is the first step of the interaction between your imagination and the craft of turning an idea into writing. There are rules to follow; however, in the wordpainting phase of writing; you allow your imagination to guide the process as the story emerges. The creative process in writing is Wordpainting which begins with the discovery of story ideas within yourself. Wordpainting is memories rediscovered. Memories contain snippets of real conversations, including their sound and furies, incidents, objects, people you've met, real events in your life and information you have learned. When you co-mingle a variety of memories and mix with a liberal dose of "What if . . . ," a story is born in your imagination. Wordpainting is raw, undisciplined ideas that can be converted into words that allow others to share a three dimensional portrait. In the wordpainting phase of writing, we apply a general sense of discipline to our ideas so that a basic story will result in the first rough draft.
WORDSMITHING
Transposing raw writing into a finished manuscript that will allow our readers to access their muses demands that we understand and use the tools of writing. There are few natural writers in the world, writers who never had to study writing to be successful. I guarantee you that they learned their craft after their first success -- an accident.
When you have completed your first rough draft, you have begun the process of writing a publishable manuscript. The second stage of writing is Wordsmithing. Wordsmithing takes the raw material we have written and turns it into a polished manuscript that will capture the interest of an editor or agent. A smith is an artisan who takes raw material and converts it into a unique finished product. As writers, we too, are craftspeople who take raw words and bend them, hammer them, add and delete them and empower them, until they surrender to our command, presenting the reader with a story that takes her for a ride on a magic carpet to a place that is both new and familiar. The elements of writing add dimension to simple grammatical correction.
In this era of visual entertainment, sound bytes and a lowering of standards for reading, writers must employ some of the same techniques that are used in screenplays to engage readers. A published book with dead language guarantees it will be put back on the shelf, never to be seen--and more important-- never talked about again. Sleep with a dictionary and dine with a thesaurus. Make them our servants and masters. Often, the best word is not the fanciest. It is the one that conveys the exact meaning needed to move the story forward. The words you seek must show your story rather than tell it. They must convey to the reader the energy, the action and the breath of life in the characters.
The CRAFT of writing consists of taking our disobedient child of a muse and converting her random expressions into saleable prose. Wordpainting provides a shortcut that can elicit an outline of the steps we need to take from accessing the muse to submitting a finished product to an editor. Wordpainting begins with the first commandment: Thou shalt not accept a first rough-draft as a finished product. The second commandment is: Read with your ears so you may hear what the reader hears. Allow the power of the words to touch you.
To be word smiths, we need to have a thorough understanding of all the elements of crafting a strong story. We need to understand how to write a great beginning, including a hook that keeps our readers moving along with us. We need to understand how to make certain our POV is employed with consistency from the beginning of the story through the denouement. We must choose words that keep the action flowing through the difficult middle of the story and make certain that as we solve the problems, we create new and believable problems the protagonist must resolve. We must make certain that our characters are believable and that their dialogue establishes ongoing conflict and never sounds mundane.
If Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown meet in real life they might say . . .
“Why hello Mrs. Brown. I haven’t seen you in ages. Is everything okay?”
“Why, thank you for asking. I’ve just been so busy. It’s canning season, you know.”
If Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown met on the pages of a book, however, the conversation might look more like this . . .
“Oh! Mrs. Brown. I thought . . .”
“Yes, people are always thinking, aren’t they?”
We need to make certain our locale and setting is interesting, relevant to the story and detailed enough so our characters never appear on an empty stage unless the tale begins . . . "The
last man on earth sat alone in a room, and there was a knock on the door."
The setting we Wordpaint must be researched thoroughly so that a character is not left standing on Fourteenth Street in Philadelphia.. There is no Fourteenth Street in Philadelphia. The street between Thirteenth Street and Fifteenth Street is called Broad Street. That little mistake (and I have seen that very one in a published mystery) could cost us several million potential readers. Once we establish that we don't know what we are talking about, we lose the reader for the rest of the manuscript, perhaps forever.
The tasks of Wordsmithing are too numerous to make an all-inclusive list. However, we might begin with the following tasks:
Checking grammar, spelling and punctuation and upgrading every questionable word.
Eliminating dead adverbs and replacing them with strong verbs.
Checking existing verbs to use the most powerful ones to describe action.
Touring your thesaurus to ascertain that every word is the best one for the job.
Merciless cutting of excess verbiage.
Checking the plot to see that there are no loose ends.
Making certain that every problem you introduced is resolved.
Checking the dialogue to make certain it contains conflict and keeps the story moving.
Reviewing the scenes to make certain they are in proper order so they can move the story forward.
Reviewing flashbacks to see to it that the segues are clearly defined for the reader.
Rechecking you foreshadowing to be sure you weren't too obvious.
Reviewing the manuscript for mistakes in locales.
Checking to make sure the characters kept the same identity throughout the story.
Listening to the manuscript to determine if the words flow smoothly.
In order to develop a thorough understanding of the issues in the above list, we need to “hit the writing books” and learn each element of the craft in detail. My focus in this article is to provide a framework within which the rules and tools of writing can take a great idea and convert it into a publishable finished product. As a matter of fact, each item in the list is represented by volumes on each of the subjects.
WORDFRAMING
Only after the above tasks (Wordpainting and Wordsmithing) have been completed are we ready to move on to the final stage of the writing process, Wordframing. Wordframing is an examination of the tasks of writing that are external to the process of writing, revising and editing the manuscript. Wordframing is packaging your product in a form that will attract the gatekeepers to the publishing world-- editors and agents.
The tasks of Wordframing include:
Knowing how to construct a query that will attract the attention of an editor or agent.
Understanding the protocols of the writing profession.
Researching the marketplace.
Understanding how to format a manuscript.
Knowing what to say in a query, and more important, how to say it
Picking the right agent, editor and publishing house.
Think of Wordframing in the context of visual art. The proper frame highlights a picture and sells it. It is not part of the picture, yet, in the wrong frame, the most wonderful work of art would be difficult to sell. A picture must also be featured in the right gallery. A post-modern masterpiece in a renaissance gallery will not sell. In the same way, you need to pick the best publisher. The wrong publisher will reject your manuscript not because your work is unworthy, but because he doesn't publish that type of book. Even more frightening is the possibility that he will accept
your manuscript but won't have the outlets to market it.
Many new writers are not aware of all the steps described above, and they have not yet discovered the kinds of help that are available to them. Trial and error is a hard way to learn to write. We could spend a lifetime without discovering what editors will publish and what they will reject, especially since many editors change jobs frequently. One of my goals as both student and teacher of writing has been to work towards making it unnecessary for editors to waste their time and energy rejecting us. Letters of acceptance are so much more pleasant to write -- and to receive.
The "secret" to learning how to write well is: there are no secrets. Just like the successful book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," Most of what writers need to know has already been written, either in "how-to" books and manuals or in literature itself. All we need to do is read and use them. Of course, I'm oversimplifying. What we need to do is to translate what we can learn from the "how-to" books, classes and groups and published works of other writers into our own writing. Applying knowledge into writing is far easier to say than to do. Every time we read about writing, talk about writing or practice writing, we learn something new about writing.
When have we learned enough? Never. The demands of the market and the desires of the reader are in a perpetual state of flux, so we must continue to learn and grow to be successful.
The fun part of writing is the part I call Wordpainting. It is the first exposure of our ideas to the printed page. We understand every nuance. We hear the music in the background and hear the sounds of traffic. We smell the fresh mown grass and feel the loamy dirt beneath our fingernails. What every writer must accomplish is to convey the impressions from our private, inner world to the reader. Upon completing a first draft of our manuscript, our job as writers begins rather than ends.
Wordpainting without Wordsmithing and Wordframing is analogous to making a sandwich without bread and then serving it without a dish. You may have wonderful ingredients, but there is nothing to hold them together, nor have you provided a means to carry them away from the kitchen counter.
Learning how to write for publication is an arduous task, but when the first acceptance arrives from an editor, you will know that it was worth all the months of struggling. If you can determine some of what you need to learn through the framework provided in this article,, and if, as a result, you learn to organize and use the tools of writing more efficiently, then I will have accomplished my purpose in introducing you to Wordpainting, Wordsmithing and Wordframing
A New Way to Look at your Writing
by Milton Trachtenburg
copyright 1998
Writing is as simple as ABC -- make that WWW -- Wordpainting. Wordsmithing. Wordframing. How will these concepts help us better understand how to write for publication? The three words teach nothing new about the art and craft of writing, however, they may help writers prioritize the variety of tasks we need to perform from the genesis of a story idea through the act of handing a properly boxed manuscript to the postal clerk.
WORDPAINTING
The ART of fiction writing is accessed through the writer’s hidden creativity, which emanates from the same source as dreams, wishes and fantasies and can be opened for conscious examination. Often, we can access our creativity through a few key words and phrases or by the imposition of an idea that can "trick" our minds to allow us to translate ideas into words. Words like 's'posin,' 'once-upon-a-time,' 'what if,' allow us conscious access to our creative muses. Muses never sleep but if we don't plug into them, they don't write, either. The idea that comes to us is raw and full of non-verbal images that need to be translated fore the reader into action. We can smell lilac perfume, but if we tell the reader we smell lilac perfume, the reader is shut out of the experience unless she has the pleasure of the memory of the scent of lilac. Our job as writers is to open the imagination of the reader so that she may share the experiences with us.
Words are the only connective tissue between writers and readers. Not only can we use words to connect with readers in the context of our writing, but we can also communicate with each other as writers using concepts that pique curiosity, stimulate imagination and allow us to visualize the writing process through a new perspective. We can focus on the art and craft of writing through a single concept. To help you to develop a single picture of a complex craft, I have chosen to condense the art and craft of writing into three functions: Wordpainting, Wordsmithing
and Wordframing.
Why did I develop this framework? As a teacher of writing, I developed it to help me spot check my own writing as well as help me understand what the needs of other writers might be. I hear questions such as: "I am writing a book and I want to know how to get an agent?" or, "I have an idea for a story. How do I find a publisher?"
New writers need to understand that the journey between an idea for a story and a completed manuscript that is ready for market is long, complex yet can be accomplished by anyone who is willing to exercise the discipline needed and follow a set of rules that tell editors that you understand writing. Very few, if any, writers "get it right" in a first draft. That is why we call the first writing a rough draft. The first task is to get the idea on paper or into your computer's memory. I call this process Wordpainting because it entails capturing raw ideas written as they emerge from your mind. The ideas turned to words become the material from which a publishable story may emerge. The rough draft is incomplete, not carefully developed, yet it follows an outline that gives it form and direction. The first draft is the basic story as it emerges from your mind. It is far from being ready to market. Even in this early draft, you need to follow rules of writing including:
Developing a plot outline so you know where the story is going.
Introducing strong, believable characters with motivation and goals.
Developing scenes that carry the story forward.
Introducing settings that are real and add to the context of the story.
Choosing a POV that best represents your story.
Wordpainting is the first step of the interaction between your imagination and the craft of turning an idea into writing. There are rules to follow; however, in the wordpainting phase of writing; you allow your imagination to guide the process as the story emerges. The creative process in writing is Wordpainting which begins with the discovery of story ideas within yourself. Wordpainting is memories rediscovered. Memories contain snippets of real conversations, including their sound and furies, incidents, objects, people you've met, real events in your life and information you have learned. When you co-mingle a variety of memories and mix with a liberal dose of "What if . . . ," a story is born in your imagination. Wordpainting is raw, undisciplined ideas that can be converted into words that allow others to share a three dimensional portrait. In the wordpainting phase of writing, we apply a general sense of discipline to our ideas so that a basic story will result in the first rough draft.
WORDSMITHING
Transposing raw writing into a finished manuscript that will allow our readers to access their muses demands that we understand and use the tools of writing. There are few natural writers in the world, writers who never had to study writing to be successful. I guarantee you that they learned their craft after their first success -- an accident.
When you have completed your first rough draft, you have begun the process of writing a publishable manuscript. The second stage of writing is Wordsmithing. Wordsmithing takes the raw material we have written and turns it into a polished manuscript that will capture the interest of an editor or agent. A smith is an artisan who takes raw material and converts it into a unique finished product. As writers, we too, are craftspeople who take raw words and bend them, hammer them, add and delete them and empower them, until they surrender to our command, presenting the reader with a story that takes her for a ride on a magic carpet to a place that is both new and familiar. The elements of writing add dimension to simple grammatical correction.
In this era of visual entertainment, sound bytes and a lowering of standards for reading, writers must employ some of the same techniques that are used in screenplays to engage readers. A published book with dead language guarantees it will be put back on the shelf, never to be seen--and more important-- never talked about again. Sleep with a dictionary and dine with a thesaurus. Make them our servants and masters. Often, the best word is not the fanciest. It is the one that conveys the exact meaning needed to move the story forward. The words you seek must show your story rather than tell it. They must convey to the reader the energy, the action and the breath of life in the characters.
The CRAFT of writing consists of taking our disobedient child of a muse and converting her random expressions into saleable prose. Wordpainting provides a shortcut that can elicit an outline of the steps we need to take from accessing the muse to submitting a finished product to an editor. Wordpainting begins with the first commandment: Thou shalt not accept a first rough-draft as a finished product. The second commandment is: Read with your ears so you may hear what the reader hears. Allow the power of the words to touch you.
To be word smiths, we need to have a thorough understanding of all the elements of crafting a strong story. We need to understand how to write a great beginning, including a hook that keeps our readers moving along with us. We need to understand how to make certain our POV is employed with consistency from the beginning of the story through the denouement. We must choose words that keep the action flowing through the difficult middle of the story and make certain that as we solve the problems, we create new and believable problems the protagonist must resolve. We must make certain that our characters are believable and that their dialogue establishes ongoing conflict and never sounds mundane.
If Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown meet in real life they might say . . .
“Why hello Mrs. Brown. I haven’t seen you in ages. Is everything okay?”
“Why, thank you for asking. I’ve just been so busy. It’s canning season, you know.”
If Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown met on the pages of a book, however, the conversation might look more like this . . .
“Oh! Mrs. Brown. I thought . . .”
“Yes, people are always thinking, aren’t they?”
We need to make certain our locale and setting is interesting, relevant to the story and detailed enough so our characters never appear on an empty stage unless the tale begins . . . "The
last man on earth sat alone in a room, and there was a knock on the door."
The setting we Wordpaint must be researched thoroughly so that a character is not left standing on Fourteenth Street in Philadelphia.. There is no Fourteenth Street in Philadelphia. The street between Thirteenth Street and Fifteenth Street is called Broad Street. That little mistake (and I have seen that very one in a published mystery) could cost us several million potential readers. Once we establish that we don't know what we are talking about, we lose the reader for the rest of the manuscript, perhaps forever.
The tasks of Wordsmithing are too numerous to make an all-inclusive list. However, we might begin with the following tasks:
Checking grammar, spelling and punctuation and upgrading every questionable word.
Eliminating dead adverbs and replacing them with strong verbs.
Checking existing verbs to use the most powerful ones to describe action.
Touring your thesaurus to ascertain that every word is the best one for the job.
Merciless cutting of excess verbiage.
Checking the plot to see that there are no loose ends.
Making certain that every problem you introduced is resolved.
Checking the dialogue to make certain it contains conflict and keeps the story moving.
Reviewing the scenes to make certain they are in proper order so they can move the story forward.
Reviewing flashbacks to see to it that the segues are clearly defined for the reader.
Rechecking you foreshadowing to be sure you weren't too obvious.
Reviewing the manuscript for mistakes in locales.
Checking to make sure the characters kept the same identity throughout the story.
Listening to the manuscript to determine if the words flow smoothly.
In order to develop a thorough understanding of the issues in the above list, we need to “hit the writing books” and learn each element of the craft in detail. My focus in this article is to provide a framework within which the rules and tools of writing can take a great idea and convert it into a publishable finished product. As a matter of fact, each item in the list is represented by volumes on each of the subjects.
WORDFRAMING
Only after the above tasks (Wordpainting and Wordsmithing) have been completed are we ready to move on to the final stage of the writing process, Wordframing. Wordframing is an examination of the tasks of writing that are external to the process of writing, revising and editing the manuscript. Wordframing is packaging your product in a form that will attract the gatekeepers to the publishing world-- editors and agents.
The tasks of Wordframing include:
Knowing how to construct a query that will attract the attention of an editor or agent.
Understanding the protocols of the writing profession.
Researching the marketplace.
Understanding how to format a manuscript.
Knowing what to say in a query, and more important, how to say it
Picking the right agent, editor and publishing house.
Think of Wordframing in the context of visual art. The proper frame highlights a picture and sells it. It is not part of the picture, yet, in the wrong frame, the most wonderful work of art would be difficult to sell. A picture must also be featured in the right gallery. A post-modern masterpiece in a renaissance gallery will not sell. In the same way, you need to pick the best publisher. The wrong publisher will reject your manuscript not because your work is unworthy, but because he doesn't publish that type of book. Even more frightening is the possibility that he will accept
your manuscript but won't have the outlets to market it.
Many new writers are not aware of all the steps described above, and they have not yet discovered the kinds of help that are available to them. Trial and error is a hard way to learn to write. We could spend a lifetime without discovering what editors will publish and what they will reject, especially since many editors change jobs frequently. One of my goals as both student and teacher of writing has been to work towards making it unnecessary for editors to waste their time and energy rejecting us. Letters of acceptance are so much more pleasant to write -- and to receive.
The "secret" to learning how to write well is: there are no secrets. Just like the successful book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," Most of what writers need to know has already been written, either in "how-to" books and manuals or in literature itself. All we need to do is read and use them. Of course, I'm oversimplifying. What we need to do is to translate what we can learn from the "how-to" books, classes and groups and published works of other writers into our own writing. Applying knowledge into writing is far easier to say than to do. Every time we read about writing, talk about writing or practice writing, we learn something new about writing.
When have we learned enough? Never. The demands of the market and the desires of the reader are in a perpetual state of flux, so we must continue to learn and grow to be successful.
The fun part of writing is the part I call Wordpainting. It is the first exposure of our ideas to the printed page. We understand every nuance. We hear the music in the background and hear the sounds of traffic. We smell the fresh mown grass and feel the loamy dirt beneath our fingernails. What every writer must accomplish is to convey the impressions from our private, inner world to the reader. Upon completing a first draft of our manuscript, our job as writers begins rather than ends.
Wordpainting without Wordsmithing and Wordframing is analogous to making a sandwich without bread and then serving it without a dish. You may have wonderful ingredients, but there is nothing to hold them together, nor have you provided a means to carry them away from the kitchen counter.
Learning how to write for publication is an arduous task, but when the first acceptance arrives from an editor, you will know that it was worth all the months of struggling. If you can determine some of what you need to learn through the framework provided in this article,, and if, as a result, you learn to organize and use the tools of writing more efficiently, then I will have accomplished my purpose in introducing you to Wordpainting, Wordsmithing and Wordframing
A LETTER TO A WRITING STUDENT
Writing Rules
Some time ago, a student in one of my writing classes sent me a letter asking why writers need to follow rules. “Why can’t we simply be creative?” In assessing the issue she presented, I had no simple answer I could provide her. However, the question led me to think about writing in a historical context. We take for granted the benefits and curses of mass communication. It is only in the past century that books have been distributed widely throughout the world.
My thoughts regarding the issue she raised were the subject of a letter I wrote to her. My response was as follows:
April 22, 2002
Dear Nadine,
I hope that your increasing knowledge of writing hasn't gotten in the way of your natural, creative inclination. A deep separation lies between the creative process of writing and the structural work you need to accomplish when the main idea is on paper (or screen). Before you think about revising, first write what you feel. Allow it to come out as you imagine it. Remember, good writing didn't evolve from rules; good rules evolved from writing. When a particular sentence, passage or story proved to be pleasing, scholars examined it to determine what about it pleased the reader’s senses. Every creative and evolutionary act explores new territory. The best writing broke the barriers that preceded it, but the writer had a deep and thorough understanding of writing precedent. My own theory is that the great writers had a natural ability to choose words that opened all of the reader’s senses.
Analysis allows others to understand how a writer used or broke precedent to create her story. Great writers of earlier centuries did not have the advantage of volumes about the art and craft of writing to aid them. They learned basic grammar, spelling and punctuation in school, and had a gift of internal organization that made their words memorable. We attempt to recreate the kinds of wonders they discovered so that we may please our readers.
Few plots are original. Shakespeare rewrote the history of kings and emperors, adding fictional events and characters to the mix, to turn history into a dramatic adventure. Henry Miller depicted portraits of lust, love and the hedonistic/artistic life in Paris. But, the words they each chose to describe their stories and the dialogue their characters spoke lifted their works above the crowd.
As more people became literate, the number who attempted to write grew exponentially; rules became more complex and were given more attention. In earliest times, only academics and clerics wrote -- or read. Few others were literate. For the most part, the academicians and clergy wrote for colleagues, not the general public. Books, until a few centuries ago, were handwritten. Often, only one copy of a book was produced. Oral communication, by necessity, served the masses.
The lines separating painting and sculpture from other forms of communication are blurred at best. The single commonality is that all have rules. What makes Mr. Strunk and Mr. White experts on how words should be aligned? The answer is simple: They were students of the written language. They took principles of language structure that evolved over centuries and codified a set of rules that could be applied to the emerging field of mass communication of published writing. The inventions of the printing press, the typewriter, the computer, and rapid transmission and transportation of ideas and materials created a burgeoning market for the written word; the development of right to education laws in most countries created an informed society that cried out for reading material.
Rules of writing were never meant to stultify creativity. They were developed to organize it in a manner that gave publishers a yardstick by which they could measure new works and writers some guidelines that would help them focus their natural talents.
How do we know when a work is salable? Simple: When it sells it is salable. What do editors look for when they examine a writer's submission? At the intersection of your writing and the editor’s keen eye is where the rules of writing come into play. It is possible to measure a work against a set of constant rules when it fails to flow naturally. Rules allow us to explain why a particular work will not be pleasing to readers. For writers whose work has stood the test of time, such as: Shakespeare, Hemingway, O'Neill, Angelou, Miller (both Henry and Arthur), to name a few, their marvelous ability to organize ideas into powerful manuscripts gave them the ability to know which word or twist of plot would give their writing the meaning they desired it to have. Their writing acumen was analogous to the musical genius of Mozart; he wrote complex musical compositions at such a tender age that he could not possibly have first learned music theory. His works came out whole as if a tape recording was playing in his head.
I remain intrigued by the writing process. Learning how to write isn't about finding answers. Rather, it is about developing more effective questions. It isn't about rote memorization of rules. It is about fine-tuning writing to eliminate sloppy thinking, ineffective choices and obtuse descriptions. I couldn't tell you what many of the complex rules of grammar are off the top of my head. I'm not an English teacher who needs to express rules daily to teach them to others. Both my professional pursuits – writing and the practice of therapy call for the use of words that are specific and leave no unintentional ground for vagueness. I couldn't tell you the rules of tenses, however, an alarm bell goes off in my head when I mismatch them in a sentence or paragraph. The alarm sounds more frequently and accurately as I add daily to the sum my writing output; I am more aware of the kinds of mistakes I tended to repeat.
Learning any professional skill means accepting that there is a need to improve and grow. Writing is neither dream nor chore. It is a calling -- an old and noble one that began as an ability to create pictures that evolved into printed and spoken words. Written language is a latecomer to human evolution. A hot meal was always available for the chronicler of tribal history and the font of tribal legends. Thus began non-fiction and fiction as separate categories of communication. Now you know who to blame. The status of the chronicler was unique and revered. The knowledge carrier was exempt from hunting and war. The carrier of knowledge was as important as the fire that kept away the cold and cooked the food. Would that those early rules still applied. Today, telling stories is not sufficient to attain a hot meal. Today, a story must be crafted into a mold that allows the publisher to assess our work against a table of probabilities. He asks: Will it sell? rather than, “How well written is it?”
In the same way that the lottery has a new winning number every day, new books, magazines, journals are printed, electronically published and distributed to a world that absorbs words faster than we can write them. Like the lottery, for the many who chance to submit, few will win. However, if you remember only one think I say here, it is that good writing always finds a market. Always. The trick? Know enough about the rules of writing to be able to make an accurate assessment of what good is.
Lollipops and Unicorns,
Milt
Some time ago, a student in one of my writing classes sent me a letter asking why writers need to follow rules. “Why can’t we simply be creative?” In assessing the issue she presented, I had no simple answer I could provide her. However, the question led me to think about writing in a historical context. We take for granted the benefits and curses of mass communication. It is only in the past century that books have been distributed widely throughout the world.
My thoughts regarding the issue she raised were the subject of a letter I wrote to her. My response was as follows:
April 22, 2002
Dear Nadine,
I hope that your increasing knowledge of writing hasn't gotten in the way of your natural, creative inclination. A deep separation lies between the creative process of writing and the structural work you need to accomplish when the main idea is on paper (or screen). Before you think about revising, first write what you feel. Allow it to come out as you imagine it. Remember, good writing didn't evolve from rules; good rules evolved from writing. When a particular sentence, passage or story proved to be pleasing, scholars examined it to determine what about it pleased the reader’s senses. Every creative and evolutionary act explores new territory. The best writing broke the barriers that preceded it, but the writer had a deep and thorough understanding of writing precedent. My own theory is that the great writers had a natural ability to choose words that opened all of the reader’s senses.
Analysis allows others to understand how a writer used or broke precedent to create her story. Great writers of earlier centuries did not have the advantage of volumes about the art and craft of writing to aid them. They learned basic grammar, spelling and punctuation in school, and had a gift of internal organization that made their words memorable. We attempt to recreate the kinds of wonders they discovered so that we may please our readers.
Few plots are original. Shakespeare rewrote the history of kings and emperors, adding fictional events and characters to the mix, to turn history into a dramatic adventure. Henry Miller depicted portraits of lust, love and the hedonistic/artistic life in Paris. But, the words they each chose to describe their stories and the dialogue their characters spoke lifted their works above the crowd.
As more people became literate, the number who attempted to write grew exponentially; rules became more complex and were given more attention. In earliest times, only academics and clerics wrote -- or read. Few others were literate. For the most part, the academicians and clergy wrote for colleagues, not the general public. Books, until a few centuries ago, were handwritten. Often, only one copy of a book was produced. Oral communication, by necessity, served the masses.
The lines separating painting and sculpture from other forms of communication are blurred at best. The single commonality is that all have rules. What makes Mr. Strunk and Mr. White experts on how words should be aligned? The answer is simple: They were students of the written language. They took principles of language structure that evolved over centuries and codified a set of rules that could be applied to the emerging field of mass communication of published writing. The inventions of the printing press, the typewriter, the computer, and rapid transmission and transportation of ideas and materials created a burgeoning market for the written word; the development of right to education laws in most countries created an informed society that cried out for reading material.
Rules of writing were never meant to stultify creativity. They were developed to organize it in a manner that gave publishers a yardstick by which they could measure new works and writers some guidelines that would help them focus their natural talents.
How do we know when a work is salable? Simple: When it sells it is salable. What do editors look for when they examine a writer's submission? At the intersection of your writing and the editor’s keen eye is where the rules of writing come into play. It is possible to measure a work against a set of constant rules when it fails to flow naturally. Rules allow us to explain why a particular work will not be pleasing to readers. For writers whose work has stood the test of time, such as: Shakespeare, Hemingway, O'Neill, Angelou, Miller (both Henry and Arthur), to name a few, their marvelous ability to organize ideas into powerful manuscripts gave them the ability to know which word or twist of plot would give their writing the meaning they desired it to have. Their writing acumen was analogous to the musical genius of Mozart; he wrote complex musical compositions at such a tender age that he could not possibly have first learned music theory. His works came out whole as if a tape recording was playing in his head.
I remain intrigued by the writing process. Learning how to write isn't about finding answers. Rather, it is about developing more effective questions. It isn't about rote memorization of rules. It is about fine-tuning writing to eliminate sloppy thinking, ineffective choices and obtuse descriptions. I couldn't tell you what many of the complex rules of grammar are off the top of my head. I'm not an English teacher who needs to express rules daily to teach them to others. Both my professional pursuits – writing and the practice of therapy call for the use of words that are specific and leave no unintentional ground for vagueness. I couldn't tell you the rules of tenses, however, an alarm bell goes off in my head when I mismatch them in a sentence or paragraph. The alarm sounds more frequently and accurately as I add daily to the sum my writing output; I am more aware of the kinds of mistakes I tended to repeat.
Learning any professional skill means accepting that there is a need to improve and grow. Writing is neither dream nor chore. It is a calling -- an old and noble one that began as an ability to create pictures that evolved into printed and spoken words. Written language is a latecomer to human evolution. A hot meal was always available for the chronicler of tribal history and the font of tribal legends. Thus began non-fiction and fiction as separate categories of communication. Now you know who to blame. The status of the chronicler was unique and revered. The knowledge carrier was exempt from hunting and war. The carrier of knowledge was as important as the fire that kept away the cold and cooked the food. Would that those early rules still applied. Today, telling stories is not sufficient to attain a hot meal. Today, a story must be crafted into a mold that allows the publisher to assess our work against a table of probabilities. He asks: Will it sell? rather than, “How well written is it?”
In the same way that the lottery has a new winning number every day, new books, magazines, journals are printed, electronically published and distributed to a world that absorbs words faster than we can write them. Like the lottery, for the many who chance to submit, few will win. However, if you remember only one think I say here, it is that good writing always finds a market. Always. The trick? Know enough about the rules of writing to be able to make an accurate assessment of what good is.
Lollipops and Unicorns,
Milt
