Dear O'Abby: How Soon is Too Soon?

Dear O'Abby,

Just wondering if you think it's too soon to think about writing a novel set during a global pandemic?  

Cheers,

Corona Pirate

Dear Corona Pirate,

Firstly, love your nom-de-plume!  Very apt.

Personally, I feel like it's probably too early to write a book set during this global pandemic.  We're still in the midst of it and how things will play out is yet to be seen.  Given the length of time it takes to write an publish a book, if you write something now, you risk ending up with something that will be dated or wildly inaccurate six months to a year from now.  Better to wait and see how things play out before you dive in and try to make sense of the experience.

That said, there is nothing to stop you from writing about a different pandemic.  Maybe an historical piece set during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, or even the years in which the Bubonic Plague swept through Europe.  Alternatively, you could look at writing something set in the future or in a fantasy world where a pandemic is ravaging this, or some other planet.

There are also scenarios where I can see that writing something contemporary, set during this particular time could work as long as the pandemic is more of a background event or the springboard for the story.  Maybe an enemies to lovers type thing where two characters are forced to lockdown together.  I heard from a friend recently about a divorced couple who had to quarantine together in a hotel after returning from visiting their son overseas.  Fertile ground for a romance (or a murder) perhaps?

I think as long as the pandemic and the science around it remain firmly in the background, and you don't try to offer any solution or possible end to what is happening globally right now, you could try and write something. 

The question is whether you want to explore something so devastating while we are still living through it.  I feel that something like this needs time and perspective before we can start writing about it. The full impact of this pandemic is yet to come and it is likely the fallout from it will affect us for many years.

You don't need to rush.  There will be plenty of time to write about 2020 once we're through this and can see how the world has changed as a result of this period.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: I'm stuck. Can you help?

Dear O’Abby,

I’m doing NaNo and I’m stuck.  I’m at a point where there are multiple choices for my MC and I can’t for the life of me figure out which way to make her go.  I’ve tried skipping beyond this point, but because it’s a crucial decision, what happens next depends on this choice and I can’t write what happens next without her making this decision.  I’ve been going back and forth with different ideas for days, but I’m not happy with any of my choices.

Any ideas how to get past this?

Yours,

Stuck.

Dear Stuck,

I know this feeling all too well.  When there are 155,000 options for your character and you’re not sure which one is the right one. 

Well, my advice is to choose the wrong one.

Fiction is better when characters make mistakes.  So whenever your character is faced with a decision, make her pick the one that is going to create the most trouble for her.  Pick the thing you would never select personally if you were faced with the same dilemma. 

I’ve had the same problem with the book I’m writing this month.  As a grown woman, I know the right thing for my protagonist to do in his particular situation is to call the police or some other authority figure and tell them what’s going on.  There will be a whole string of consequences from this choice of course, but all of them lead to the main problem he is facing being dealt with.  So as a writer, I’ve made him stubbornly refuse to go to the authorities, preferring to deal with the tricky, illegal situation on his own.  And of course making that foolish decision will lead to a whole lot of other, trickier situations for him to deal with. On his own.

That's important too.  To be interesting, your character needs to be active and really driving the outcomes from any decisions she makes.  If doing something one way puts the outcome into someone else's hands, choose another direction, one that forces your MC to solve her own problem, or places another one directly in her path.

So be decisive.  Never let your character dabble in her options.  She needs to pick the wrong path and navigate it, however feels natural for her.  And each time she reaches another branch in the road, she needs to choose the direction that leads to the most trouble, the most conflict.  It’s hard, I know.  We grow to love these characters like our own children and it’s hard to send them off in the wrong direction, especially when we know their choices are going to lead to them or someone else getting hurt.

I hope that helps!  Now, I’m off to give my MC some unexpected consequences for his poor decision making. Poor guy!  He doesn't know what's coming at him...

XX 

O’Abby

Dear O'Abby... Scratch that. Dear Readers.

Dear Readers,

O'Abby here.  This week I need your advice because I'm the one with a writing problem I can't solve. So really hope some of you out there might have some thoughts on what I should do.

I can't finish my book.

This is not something that's ever happened to me before.  Usually I know the ending, or something that resembles an ending right at the start of writing a book.  Even if the first scene I write is somewhere toward the middle of the story.  I even usually write the ending early on in the drafting process so I have somewhere to aim for.

I should add I'm not a plotter or outliner.  Writing the ending is about as much plotting as I do, usually.  But for some reason, I left this unfinished manuscript sitting on my hard drive without an ending.  And now I've filled in all the rest of the missing bits, but still can't figure out how to end it.

To be honest, even if I had written an ending back then, it probably wouldn't fit with the story I've written now.  But on the other hand, maybe if the ending had been there, I wouldn't have written the middle parts the way they've ended up.

The problem I have, is that I've taken everything away from my MC.  Everything he has worked toward throughout the book, everything he believed he needed.  And I don't feel like I can end the book with him at such a low place.  There needs to be some spark of hope for him.  I don't need a happy ending, just something that offers some chance that he might actually manage to find happiness or fulfillment in the future.

There are two women who have been a part of his life over the course of the book and I feel like they need to be part of the ending.  But I can't figure out how to write them in without it feeling forced.  The first woman disappears from the story after about chapter 5 or 6 and is only mentioned again once or twice, but I feel like she's the one who could show my MC a way forward.  But I'm not sure how to re-introduce her in a way that feels natural or organic.

The other woman is more consistently a part of the story, but I don't think my MC would go to her at this point in the story.  Not without someone or something else urging him to.  Things between them have become weird for a number of reasons.

So I'm asking for advice.  What do you do if you can't finish a story?  Are there techniques you use?  Do you put it away and leave it for a few weeks?  Let someone else read it and offer suggestions?

I'm asking for your advice.  Apart from not being able to end it, I love this story and my stupidly messed up characters.  And I want to give them the ending they deserve.  Even if it isn't the ending my MC thinks he wants...

X O'Abby

#AtoZchallenge Genre

Genre is a word used to categorize the style of a piece of writing and often dictates where in a bookstore or library you will find a book.

Knowing your genre is important because certain publishers and/or agents specialise in different genres, and there is no point pitching your historical romance novel to a publisher or agent who specialises in science fiction and fantasy. It’s also important to readers because different genres have different conventions and you don’t want to disappoint or mislead them before they’ve had a chance to become fans.

The best way to become familiar with a genre is to read widely in it. You learn the tropes and style the genre requires, the language used and the expected length. Only by being very familiar with a genre can you expect to be able to break its rules successfully and keep fans reading.

A novel-length piece of fiction is unlikely to be just one genre. A thriller may have romance in it. A sci-fi novel may have elements of action and adventure. This is fine. You just need to identify what the primary genre for your book might be. Anything else that’s in there is fine, as long as you still follow the rules for that genre.

But what about breaking the rules? Yes, it’s possible, but you need to really know the rules before you break them. And it’s never a good idea to break all the conventions of a genre in one book, even if you think you’re on to something completely groundbreaking. Maybe you are, but readers of that genre may not be ready to have all the tropes they expect from a genre to be exploded at once.

For example, I recently started re-working a story I had previously called a historical romance. Having finished re-working it, I realised that while it does hit some romance novel tropes, it actually fulfils more of the genre conventions of a western. But it’s not set in the Wild West, or even in America!

So what I have is an Australian western. I’ve twisted the expectation that a western must be set in one of those lawless western American states, but followed many of the other conventions of the genre. And of course, thrown in a romantic subplot. But the romance is not the primary driver of the novel, so therefore, if I was looking for this particular book in a bookstore, I wouldn’t be heading for the romance section, but for the westerns.

Oh, and one more thing.... Contrary to popular belief, Young Adult is not a genre - it’s a category or age-range. Although confusingly, when using the “where in the library or bookshop would I find it” model, you generally will find all the YA books in one place, regardless of whether they are fantasy, horror, contemporary or romance.

Confusing, isn't it?

Dear O'Abby: Why does information about word count vary so much online?

Dear O'Abby,

I was recently trying to find out what an acceptable word count might be for a middle grade novel.  I consulted the great Google, and on the first page found three completely contradictory answers to that question.

Why is something like word count, that should be pretty standard across the industry, just... not?

Yours,

Google-plexed

Dear Google-plexed,

I agree, word count is something that should be standardized. And it largely is within the publishing industry, but this is the internet and everyone has an opinion they want to share, regardless of whether it's right or wrong.  Or up-to-date.  And word count of books change as people's reading habits change.

Partly, I think the discrepancies online are historical. The more pages a book has, the more expensive it is to print and bind.  And to ship. Have you ever noticed that books tend to get longer the further you get into a series?  That's what happens for successful authors; they get more words to play with because the publisher already knows there is an audience hungry for the next title by that author.

But this doesn't really apply when a large number of people are reading books digitally and there is no cost for printing, binding and shipping.

Which probably has a lot to do with the way word count seems to be changing.

I did some research and it appears that in the current climate, any book, regardless of age-level that is over 100,000 words starts making agents and publishers nervous.  A fantasy novel or historical that requires a lot of world building might be able to edge up to 120,000, but any higher than that and you might be looking at an insta-rejection.

Middle grade novels tend to range between 20,000 and 60,000 words, depending on subject matter and whether it's aimed at the upper or lower range of MG.

YA novels tend to range between 45,000 and 100,000 words, with most sitting around the 60,000 to 75,000 word mark.  As a YA author, I'm constantly trying to fight to get my own books to that level because while I tend to write really lean first drafts, my finished books almost always wind up being closer to 85,000 than 60,000.  The one I've been editing the past few weeks is just over 90,000.  Luckily I have a very supportive publisher...

Adult books tend to be between 60,000 and 120,000 with the majority hitting somewhere around the 85,000 to 100,000 mark.

Life seems to be getting busier all the time and there are more and more things competing for our attention.  It will be interesting to see if, as attention spans get shorter, publishers start looking for shorter books.  Certainly there has been an explosion in the popularity and availability of novellas in recent years, particularly in the romance genre, which, at around 20,000 to 40,000 words indicates people are buying and reading shorter fiction.


X O'Abby

Celebration of the Arts by PK Hrezo

This past Sunday was the 87th Academy Awards. Did you watch? I love the Oscars and always put it on my schedule. Why? Because it's not just about celebrities and glamour--although it's a big part of what makes it entertaining--but the entire show is one hundred percent devoted to celebrating the arts.

And the biggest prizes go to the best stories.

That's right, STORIES.

That's what films are, and they don't get awards for being action-packed. They get recognition because a writer or writers put their heart and soul into the story. Sound familiar? That's exactly what we do.

Screenplay writers, adaptation writers, directors ... they all have a vision, and bringing that vision to life to make people feel something is what the arts are all about.

Then there's the makeup artists and costume designers and graphic artists. They create based on the writers' ability to create an image using words. It's all so amazing that they really deserve to be celebrated.

But that's not why I'm writing this post. I mean, it's not like the Oscars need more recognition, right? ;)

Watching the award show always inspires me to get back to doing what I love--crafting a story! And dreaming up characters and worlds and conflict Because a celebration of the arts of Oscar magnitude gives me such a rush of hope and possibility. Maybe we can reach that point one day. Maybe one day, it will be one of us sitting in that audience because an actor was nominated for playing the role of a character we created. Or because the adaptation of our novel to film has just won Best Picture.

Who knows! Watching the Oscars reminds me that art is important and people love it--they NEED it. And we have the ability to offer more of it. It's not beyond any one of us.

Do you remember the movie Juno? The screenplay writer was just an average woman making her way through life and craving experience so she'd have something to write about. She won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Wow!

There are plenty more success stories like that, too. The Oscars prove that there is room at the top for everyone and anyone who works hard enough and is dedicated to their art.

Consider the actors and actresses for a moment. Receiving an Oscar nod is one of the biggest accomplishments of their career, and actually winning is another ball game entirely. Their resume is forever impressive to whoever glances upon it. What an achievement!

But think about what it took for the actor to get there. Many of them started at the very bottom. Like writers, there is a slush pool of aspiring actors out there. I would imagine it's as hard to get a talent agent as it is to get a literary one. And many start with commercials and low-budget films or TV shows. It's a lot like us writers starting out with manuscripts that will never go anywhere because our writing hasn't reached a publishable level. Just as a brand new actor doesn't receive a starring role in a blockbuster film.

We have to work our way through the artistic trenches and earn our ranks.

All part of the process. So next time you feel like your writing sucks or your stories aren't up to snuff, think of the worst commercial you've ever seen and imagine the actor(s) in it. Think they're proud of their work?

The only thing NOT to be proud of is giving up.

By the way, if you missed the Oscars this year you can see the replay on YouTube with a search.

Celebrating the arts is so important. Storytelling is so important. Pursuing our dreams is so important. If you ever start forgetting that, pull up an old Oscars award night and just watch.

Tell me, do you make it a point to watch award ceremonies like the Oscars? Why or why not? Do they inspire you? Can you see yourself at the Oscars? 

Making Good Use of Irony

Do you intentionally use irony in your stories? Or does it ironically happen on its own? I suppose that may depend on whether you're a plotter or pantster, but it never hurts to begin marinating the notion that our stories deserve irony where we can pull it off.

Why? It's satisfying to the reader to notice these ironies, and often, the more subtle, the better. Irony adds a special flavor to the story, much like that tangy lemon I squeeze in my butter before bathing a succulent crab leg into it.

As a plotter myself, I try to add irony into my plotline before ever drafting. For instance, in Butterman (Time) Travel, Inc., the main character, Bianca Butterman, is a futuristic version of a goth-glam girl, who's also somewhat of a control freak. Being as that she's also a time-craft pilot, she has to be. So where is it that the last place an eighteen-year-old futuristic goth chick who spends more time on the web then with real people should end up?

1969 Woodstock ... with free love, drugs, and music, man. Flowers, hugs, and community weed.

And she is 150% uncomfortable. It's why Bianca ended up being the way she is. I knew she'd end up at Woodstock, so I needed her to be the opposite of someone who'd fit in there.

The result is so much fun, and so ironic.

How about a few of these stories and their use of irony?  See if you can name the book, movie, or TV show:

1.  A ruthless serial killer who skins his victims ... and has a cute and cuddly little toy poodle named Precious.

2. A genius diagnostician sought by sick people from around the world for his incredible ability to solve medical puzzles ... and who's addicted to pain pills to the point of being self-destructive and harmful to others.

3. A self-righteous professor who treats students like criminals and inflicts bodily harm on them as punishment for insubordination ... and who has an affinity for sweet little kittens, which she has decorated her entire office with.

4. A recovering alcoholic who owns a bar and serves other people drinks for a living.

5. A single dad whose wife left him, and who also happens to be a divorce lawyer with absolutely no faith in romance or happily ever afters ... and he falls for a beautiful girl right out of fairy tale who sings to animals and who has never said a harsh word to anyone in her entire life.

6. A young scientist with an IQ off the charts, devout atheist, and fully sold on the theory of evolution ... who grew up in Bible Belt, USA with a mother who is even more devout Christian than the Pope.


Some of these are obvious ironies, others more subtle. The point is, they're so much fun, they really give the stories a special twist.

Next time you're plotting or drafting, ask yourself how you can twist it up a little bit and make good use of irony. Try picking it out of the next book, movie, or TV show you watch. The more we notice it, the easier it is to use it in our own work.

So tell me, can you identify these stories? Do you practice using irony? If so, do you have a special technique? If not, what's holding you back? Please share ...