Inklings: Middle, Keep the Story Moving

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the beginning of a story. Once you've set the whole thing in motion, you need to keep the momentum building. This happens in the middle of the story. Middles can be tricky things. Sometimes, your plot can get bogged down or start to wander.

In the beginning, your characters are introduced to some sort of conflict. They're launched into the story and are raring to go. Then they hit the middle. One off two things can happen. Either they scale the mountain, facing challenges and obstacles and overcoming them, or they get stuck inn the mud and sit there going nowhere.

So, how can you avoid getting stuck in the mud? How can your characters climb the heights? Here are a few good things to keep in mind as your story unfolds:

• Keep challenging your characters--Don't let them relax for a second. Keep giving them problems to solve and obstacles to overcome. Maybe they don't always succeed. In fact, they probably shouldn't succeed all the time--after all who does? You don't want to set them up for failure, but you also don't want their journey to be a walk in the park. The more they struggle, the sweeter their victory will be in the end for them and the reader.

• Pick up the pace--Keep the story moving. This can be difficult. Sometimes characters like to talk about things. They can talk about their situation a little, but you want to keep the pace exciting. Shorter chapters that cut back and forth from the main plot to a subplot can help you achieve this. Lots of action is also a good way to keep things moving.

• Add details and history as you go--One of the great things about reading a story is to learn things along the way. Add in bits and pieces of characters' histories as the story unfolds. Sometimes it's tempting to divulge a character's entire life story right when you introduce them--don't. Save some of the good stuff for later in the story where it may have more of an impact. This will help keep the reader interested and provide an "aha!" moment. A reader likes nothing more than the feel they've put the pieces of a riddle together and found the answer. You want them to think "Oh, so that's why they acted that way. It makes sense now."

The middle is an important part of your story. In it you work to bring the characters and the reader through many twists and turns right up to the climax of the action of the story. When does that climax take place? We'll talk about that another time!

A Writer's Week #62: England's Green & Pleasant Land

It's been another quiet week here at Deliverers Publishing Headquarters. Work was hectic, and I've been fighting some form of illness that has left me tired and listless. Thoughts of Lyme disease were floating in my head until my wife came down with the same thing later in the week. While I'm sorry that she had to live my pain, I was strangely happy because it meant that what I was experiencing was just a bug.

Anyway, me being out of sorts made for a dull time on the marketing front. Narrator Jimm Singer and I are working on publicizing the audio version of Sharky and the Jewel. We've got a few reviewers listening to it, including Audiofile magazine, which has put us in their "review queue", so that's exciting. There will be more reviews on the way in the next month or so. I'll keep you all up to date when they appear.

One very nice and slightly surprising development this week were my first two overseas sales of the paperback version of Sharky and the Jewel. I check Amazon's UK store very infrequently, basically because I rarely sell anything (who knows I exist in England?). I've sold a few Kindle editions there, but I had no sales rank at all for the paperback version--that is, until I checked on Sunday. Lo and behold, I was ranked something like 525,000 or so. That meant I must have sold something! Could it be? I logged in to my CreateSpace account and sure enough, I had. In fact, I had sold not one, but two copies! I know that does not sound like much (it isn't), but it was just the idea of breaking new ground. Hopefully, I'll sell a few more going forward.

Of course after that little bit of success, I started check Amazon UK every day, hoping to see more sales. On Wednesday, I was pleased to discover that one reader had posted a 5 star review. Hey, I'm off an running. It's very exciting to have started selling at least a couple copies of my book in England, because I really regard that country as the cradle of great middle grade/YA fantasy. If I could ever manage to gain a following, even a small one, in England I would be one happy caballero.

In spite of being tired and having a couple nights of after hour events this week, I still managed to almost hit my writing goal. I wrote 1,822 words. That means The Golden Dragon of Ang stands at 27,922 words, 122 pages and 26 chapters.

To be honest, I probably would have surpassed my goal if it  had not been for a plot decision that I simply did not feel up to making. Eric and Kate are escaping from a bad situation. It became apparent that they were going to bump into someone surprising. I had to stop, because I really wasn't sure that it was the proper time to reveal that character's true nature. So, before I continue I have to sit and think about it a bit. I don't think it will be a difficult decision once I run things through my head, but it was just one decision too many for this particular week. Oh well, I'll let you know how that turns out next week! Have a good one!

My Favorite Books: The Inside Story of the Miami Dolphins

As I look back on some of my favorite books from when I was growing up, a couple things strike me. One is the diversity of genres--fantasy, history, sports, fiction. The other is that many of them were Christmas presents from my parents. As I think about it, I discovered many books that I may not have found until later in my life--if at all--because my parents suggested them or gave them to me as gifts because they thought I'd like them. Most of the time they were right.

This week's book is one of those Christmas gifts. This book is about my favorite football team, the Miami Dolphins and it's called The Inside Story of the Miami Dolphins by Steve Perkins & Bill Braucher. I think I received it for Christmas of 1974. The book was published in 1973 and revised in 1974, right after the Dolphins had won back to back Super Bowls. I had just watched my first Super Bowl that past January--the Dolphins beat the Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII on a black and white TV set up specially in my room. Man, TV in my room! We only got that when we were sick. Little did I know that it would be the last title the Dolphins would win (so far anyway).

Anyway, my parents saw that I really liked the game, and in particular the Dolphins, so the next Christmas I was given a book about them. Now forgive me if I start sounding like an old man, but 40 years ago there were not a lot of places to read about your favorite sports team--especially if you lived in Connecticut and your team played in Florida. There was no internet, no ESPN. Papers ran stories only on the local teams. Even sports logo clothing was tough to come by. All I could find was a rinky dink Bob Griese #12 Dolphins shirt that I ordered from the Sears catalog. I once found a Dolphins pennant in the local Marshalls that I badgered my mom into buying when I was 10. I still had it when I came back from college 11 years later.

So with that in mind, imagine my fascination as I read this book. The inside story, wow! The writers covered the team during its legendary undefeated season and the following year--perhaps the greatest two year stretch any football team has ever had--and I had a front row seat. I must have read that book about 50 times. The icing on the cake were the seven pages of glorious black & white pictures in the center. Ah, simpler times. 

I've still got that book. It's practically falling apart now. But as I thumb through the yellowed pages and look at those black and white photos of my old heroes, I'm back in the 5th grade drawing pictures of football players during school, breaking in a baseball mitt by stuffing a ball in the pocket and sitting on it during school (ouch, how did I do that?), and trading baseball and football cards, hungering for the players that always seemed to escape my grasp. It really is true books--all books--are magic.

Inklings: Setting, Where Everything Happens

I think I may have jumped the gun a little last week when I discussed the first of the three parts of the story, the beginning. Before doing that, I had meant to talk about the setting, which is where your story takes place. The fun thing about writing fiction is that you can write about anything, anyone or any place.

Your story can take place anywhere. The only limit is your imagination. Setting encompasses a few things:

• Place--Where does your story take place? It could be in your school or your neighborhood or your state. You may want to have it take place in another country. In the case of my Deliverers series, they start out in our world, but wind up taking place on other worlds that I pull from my imagination.

• Time--Your story does not have to happen in the here and now. You can write about another time. Historical fiction novels like My Brother Sam Is Dead do this. Their authors do a magical job of bringing us to another time like the Civil War or Ancient Greece. 

• Society--The types of societies you write about also make up part of the setting. In the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling uses modern day English society as the initial setting, then thrusts Harry into a secret society of witches and wizards unlike anything he--or we--have known before. This society has distinctly different customs from our society. That's one of the things that makes the series so much fun.

So now you have all the basics, an idea, characters, setting and an outline. You've made a beginning. You're off an writing! Next week, I'll talk about the meat of your story, the middle. See you then!

A Writer's Week #61: Calm Before the Storm

Winter is limping to its bitter end this week. We just had what I hope is the final snowstorm of the season. I am so over snow right now. We did not have too many storms this year, but the ones we had were big. So, bring on the sunshine, I'm ready for it!

This writer's week was rather slow and dull, unfortunately. There was not much going on except for some writing. On that front, I was not as prolific as I would have liked to have been. I've been fighting a cold, which has made me a little sluggish. Because of that, although things flowed really well when I did write, I didn't spend as much time as I could have writing. I guess I should relish this slow period, because I'm getting poised for a flurry of activity in the next few months. More on that a little later.

I wound up writing 2,000 words, which has been about my average for the last three or four weeks.. I really wish I could write 3,000 words a week, which is what I had been doing earlier on. Still, right now The Deliverers 3: The Golden Dragon of Ang is at 26,100 words over 24 chapters and 114 pages. It's coming along really nicely, and I'm generally pleased with the way the story is progressing.

I do have one concern, though. In the book, the Deliverers are visiting a place called the Dragon Islands. These are five islands that resemble parts of a dragon. Their adventure takes them to all five of the islands. That's fine, but here's the problem. I'm 114 pages into it and they're only on the second island. If I keep up this pace, this book is going to be even longer than book 2, which I think will wind up being about 270 pages. The way it stands now, book 3 could be over 300 pages easily. That's pretty long for a middle grade novel, unless your name is Rowling.

My wife has read it and says the pace seems to be okay. I have not read it all the way through, but I guess I should. If the pace is indeed all right, then I suppose I can live with whatever length it winds up being. If it does drag, then I can always cut, although for me that's hard.

I'm also a little worried that there is less action than in book 2 so far. Golden Dragon is more like Sharky and the Jewel in that there's a little more mystery to it. Like the first book, the characters have more distance to travel. Oh well, I still think it's good, it's just different. Each of the books seems to be its own animal. While they all have similarities, they are all radically different, and that's a good thing.

So, what's on the horizon? Well, more writing, obviously. Aside from that, narrator Jimm Singer and I are lining up reviewers for the audio version of Sharky and the Jewel so I should be sharing those with you starting this month. If you haven't checked it out you should--the link is at the top of this page. I should finally be getting a glimpse of the cover for book 2--I'll share it with you when I do. School visits will be starting soon and once Order of the Crystal Lion is out, I'll be appearing at some shows. I'll let you know the details as things are set up. Have a great week!