When a Place Becomes a Character

 The places where stories happen matter, and not just because a story has to occur in something other than the ether - unless you are writing that kind of steampunk/Victorian thing. Setting becomes a character when it evokes a feeling in the reader. It becomes an active character when the setting foreshadows or foretells events. Setting can mirror events - the photo to the right is Pike Place Market - a setting I used in Bound by Ink. It's a cramped, claustrophobic place to meet a serial killer, don't you think? It was a great mirror for the tension in the scene - and that the ramp slops down, possibly into hell, foreshadows a few things that crop up later in that story.
 

The other option is to have the setting contrast the story action and/or the protagonist's mood. Looking at this photo of one of the lovingly restored Victorian homes in Port Townsend, WA, you can see either a beautiful old home, or a frightening, likely haunted, old mausoleum. It entirely depends on your protagonist's frame of mind - which is another great point. Setting is brilliant not just because you get to flex your descriptive muscle in the prose, but because it is a glimpse into the depths of your characters' states of mind. The protagonist and the antagonist aren't likely to see this pretty blue sky and roofline the same way if the house is the antagonist's mad scientist lair. All the sharp wrought iron will look menacing to whoever is being dragged into the  house while bound in chains. The person doing the dragging may be whistling a cheery tune because he adores how well constructed this old house is - no one can hear his victims scream! It's charming!

When you visit a place, any place, and you have an emotional response - good or bad - take a picture. Always take a picture. Even if you take terrible photos - you're storing up not just setting options - you're storing up those emotions. Your aim is to look at something like this rock formation in Ohio and recall what you felt while you were there. If you can do that, chances are you can capture that feeling on the page for your characters when you need it. (In my case, it was 'OMG, I'm looking at the passage of x number of years per layer of rock and that is the coolest thing EVER.' Yes. I'm a dork.)

This photo at left is an old gun battery emplacement in Port Townsend, WA. Fort Warden State Park. Can you not see the zombies shambling up that dirt and grass track toward you? Fine, sunny day. Warm concrete. The undead approach and you go cold. Maybe that's the other reason to take photos of places that evoke a powerful response in you - they suggest their own stories. And when that happens, it's a really good indication that the setting in question IS alive and stepping forward to help drive a character and a story.


Setting matters, but only so much as it evokes emotion, drives characters, and/or moves the plot in some fashion. The fastest and easiest way to get those things is to use a setting that already moves you. Unless you write scifi. Then please. No attempting to breathe vacuum.

The Not Writing Creative Outlet

The things I do other than writing:

1. Sing - sang professionally for a short bit, mostly for a medieval minstrel troupe. I can, indeed, still sing a couple of songs from right around the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This is galling, mind you, because I went to an arts college. But not for music, where I made far and away more money than I ever made in my degree field which was:

2. Acting. Ah, yes. The much vaunted BFA in acting. Did some acting. Mostly extra and bit parts in commercials, TV shows and films that were in town. That faded as most shows moved north into Canada where it is apparently cheaper and easier to film. So then I went back to stage shows, mostly Shakespeare. Even helped choreograph fight scenes since I did come away with a certification in staged combat. Another skill that I'm sure will come in handy some day. Zombie apocalypse, maybe. Most of my acting these days is relegated to staging and playing out contentious scenes in a story. Helps to be able to get up, get into a character and look at a scene that way.

3. Taking pictures. This is the only place I actually have photos to offer up. And please note that while I *like* taking pictures, I make no claim that I'm actually any good at it. It's just a way to force my vision from the interior of my head to the world outside. Dead useful.

 

This first shot, left, is sunset over the Olympic mountains. The rocks in the foreground are the breakwater protecting our marina. Forest fires in California and in Eastern Washington threw smoke high into the atmosphere and gave us a summer of unbelievable sunsets.

 

 Then I had to get a moon shot. Everyone else was getting the super moon, but my camera and I aren't equipped to get shots of the brilliant full moon. That takes tripods, stability, and filters. Far easier and far more effective for me to go for a dimmer gibbous. This image is impressive because I took it from the transom of the boat. On water. Love my Nikon.

 

The last image is from a beach walk. I found a great blue heron just off shore, taking advantage of the low tide. While I'd really wanted a shot of him snagging his breakfast from the water, his fishing expedition wasn't much of a success. He made a few grabs, but failed to bring up the goods. What I do like about the shot is the detail in the feathers on his wing. Contrast isn't the greatest, but hey. This is why I'm not attempting to make any kind of living from taking pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally. There's this thing happening Tuesday 11/18. The second installment in Isa's adventures comes out. May I ask for your assistance on Tuesday? I could use the help getting the word out. I will certainly post to Twitter and Facebook and the like, but my reach is limited. If you'll do this, I promise I'll stop singing.

 

"Like to a friar bold Robin Hood disguised himself one daaaaaaaay..." 

What I Did for Love. Of Writing.

It's like you guys imagine I set out to do weird shit on purpose or something. NO, I DON'T! C'mon. The sad truth is I am just weird. It kinda spills out when I'm not paying attention. So it's hard to say I've done anything specifically for writing. Everything is for writing.

 

That said, it's possible I've sought out a few experiences for story purposes. Kitting up and going into a cavern where I learned to rappel, got to zip line, and walked the same path, in a limited fashion, as Mayan sacrificial victims. Yep. This cave was an active archeological site and included human remains in caverns below us. We remained on the first level of this particular representation of Xibalba - sacrifices were made in this part of the cavern system, but they were all agricultural. People brought offerings of corn. Some of the clay containers still remained - with intricate art still visible on them. The most disconcerting part? All of the containers tested, tested positive for human and/or animal blood. Apparently, one didn't enter these caves without paying one's way.

It's possible I smeared a little blood (from a scrape, I swear) on a stone. What? Old gods would be mighty hungry, don't you think? Besides. Little did I know I was sponging up details to use in a series I hadn't yet started when these photos were taken: Nightmare Ink and Bound by Ink.  

 

But really, deliberately weird? I don't know. Was going to a tiny, expensive college in order to break open my emotional life so I could pour that out on the page as needed weird? I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time. And there's my problem. Nothing I do for writing seems weird to me. So I asked my family. "Hey. What's the weirdest thing I've ever done for writing?" Each of them looked at me for several seconds, and then looked away, pressing their lips tight. Never did get an answer.

 

Wonder why.

Cover Reveal! Oh. And Maybe Sidekicks.

Look at what showed up in my in-box this week. The cover for Bound By Ink. Isn't it pretty? Creepy. Lovely. It makes me so happy. It's apropos that the cover showed up in time for this post, because it's in this book where I got the whole secondary character thing wrong.

 

Most heroes and heroines are pretty self-sufficient. So why do they even need a cast of supporting characters?

Well. How many of us exist in splendid isolation IRL? Sure. Depending on the day, any of us might *wish* we did, but the truth is we have family, friends, and coworkers no matter how dysfunctional. We’re social animals and we are products of our mostly shared human experience. (Yeah, okay, Dexter and Hannibal are notable exceptions…) There’s a psychological hypothesis that suggests most of us spend our lives building a family that cures the wounds acquired in our family of origin. No family of origin can be everything to each kid and that’s without any egregious dysfunction in said family. According to this theory, we come to our lives slightly injured. Winged and vulnerable. Searching for someone(s) enough like us to give us whatever acceptance we crave. We speak in terms of finding our tribe.

It is likely, then, that our characters are in the same situation. Either they are looking for a tribe that can bring them healing, or they are already surrounded by the people who can challenge them to become better.

All well and good, right? But why are these secondary characters necessary to the story at all? No matter the story-telling medium, secondary characters should be holding up mirrors to your MC. Each of those secondaries should show your MC some different aspect of him or herself. Secondary characters are forcing the MC to step up to whatever challenges need to be faced – they urge the MC to change – to acknowledge their shortcomings and overcome them.

Most of my stories are about alienated heroines searching for a place to belong. In the first two books, Ari and Jayleia each know that’s what they’re after. In their cases, they were each cast out of one tribe and are flailing while seeking another. Enemy Within and Enemy Games have big casts of secondary characters. Reasons: War. Five book series. Three cultures in conflict. Heroines expelled from family on one side, forced to cross political boundaries in order to find their places in the sun. The cast of secondary characters for those books are supplying the heroes and heroines for the rest of the series. There’s just a lot going on there and the cast of thousands really is necessary. Besides. War. People die. This requires that you have enough cast in place to accommodate the die offs.

In Nightmare Ink and Bound By Ink, Isa has no idea she’s seeking family. The whole family thing hasn’t worked out well for her and she’s frankly terrified of caring or being cared for. But when she ends up gravely wounded, she finds out she’s already surrounded by a group of friends who have made themselves her true family without her having realized it. Yet another group of unlikely allies orbit a little farther out, but they rely upon her. She finds out she can count on them, too, when the dying starts.

 

As for what I got wrong in Bound By Ink? How much is too much. My own tribe had to urge me to pull back on the extended posse appearances. So about the point that secondary characters are on the page simply because I needed to remind you they existed - that is posse gone wrong.

 

 

The Immutable Law of Canceled Series

Ah, yes. The canceled series. Have one of those. The SFR Enemy series was canceled after book two in a five book arc. And I'm currently writing a series that is open ended enough to on forever or end where ever. Canceled series can and do happen to anyone. The publishing world is littered with the corpses of perfectly good books that just didn't sell well enough. Fortunately, for readers and for authors there are now options for wresting victory from the claws of CANCELED defeat.



1. Shop the rest of the series to another publisher (hard, but it can and has been done).
2. Self publish - this includes all sorts of permutations like serializing the remaining novels on your website (think a chapter a week posted), Ebooks, web comics - whatever makes sense for your story and your interests.

The only caveat is: You DID read your contract before you signed it. Right? I ask because some publishers don't just buy the rights to the novels you present to them. They tie up your characters and situations. If you signed such a contract, then your only option is to stick a fork in that canceled series, cause it's done. Any attempt to self pub or go to another house with those characters you adore could get you sued. So, please. READ your contracts. If you don't understand them, find a contract lawyer, paralegal, or agent who can explain what you're signing. Ask questions. Make sure you aren't selling rights you want to retain.

Bonus: The Little Known But Immutable Law of the Canceled Series - any series canceled before the story has run its course will be canceled on a cliffhanger ensuring that readers and critiques alike curse the poor author's name for years to come.

I don't know what to do except shrug and say this is an immutable law. If you decide to write a series, keep it in mind as you decide how to end each novel. If you decide to read a series, I beg you to keep this law in mind as well because I assure you the author is banging his or her head against a wall about it, too.

What do *I* intend to do about my canceled SFR series that did indeed end on a cliffhanger at the end of book two? Write the rest of the series and get it out into the world by hook or by crook. In fact, finishing up book three is next on my slate. Right after the proposal for book three of the urban fantasy series (Nightmare Ink and Bound By Ink). With luck, book three will be available in some form or another by the end of the year.

I won't lie. It is a major kick to the ribs to have a series rug yanked out from under you. Scream. Cry. Consume mass quantities of chocolate. But then get to planning and writing. Because you have options and your readers may threaten to hunt you down and beat the story out of you if you don't avail yourself of them.