Authors use all kinds of phrase that means the same thing. Grab the reader, hook the reader, create a page-turner, or write a keeper. Obviously all of these phrase mean an author wants to engage readers to the point that they can’t put down the book and once it’s finished, they can’t let it go. They put in on their bookshelves, often not loaning them to anyone, in case the borrower doesn’t return them. Writing a Keeper is what each author wants to do.
So then, the question is how do you write a book that grabs the reader and hangs on? A book is a keeper, first, when the story relates to the reader’s experiences. When they can say, I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I’ve felt that. Next, the book is a Keeper when the reader relates so well to the characters he wants to continue reading their story. I’ve received many letters from readers, and hopefully you have to, when they ask if I’m going to continue the story in another book. I’ve even had a reader write and ask me if Annie and Ken ever had a baby and how was Grandma Ellie’s health now. These were all story characters. I laugh but then I am flattered that the reader loves and remembers these characters as real.
Writing a Keeper means you will need to analyze your novel by story elements and ask yourself questions. The story premise or theme is the first, followed by characters, plot, and setting. Here are some thing to ask yourself.
Premise, Theme, or Message
• Is your premise realistic and yet special? Have you added a twist or a surprise?
• Does the theme or message tug at the readers emotions? If a reader laughs or cries you’re on the right track to a keeper novel.
• Is the message or theme strong and meaningful? Does your novel tackle realistic problems and issues that people face in their own lives? Does the resolution make a significant difference in the lives of the main characters?
• Does the theme or message cause readers to relive times of their own lives or offer them experiences they’ve always wanted but have never experienced.
Identify the main theme or message in your novel and review it against these questions. If you find a weak area, ask yourself what you can do to make it more meaningful and realistic
Characters
• Do your main character reflect real life people not stereotypes? Do they have admirable qualities as well as flaws?
• Are they vulnerable—showing weaknesses common to others? Are they strong despite their vulnerability?
• Do they have goals that are significant and important to others as well as themselves.
• Are their motivations realistic? Did you create a past with their strength and weaknesses documented by life experiences and their upbringing? Family, friends, talents?
• Are the character’s realistic and consistent in their emotional and psychological attributes?
• Do the characters have realistic fears and phobias that are their nemesis?
• Are these qualities your reader can relate to?
Plot
• Are the character’s goals and motivation clear and meaningful to readers? Is this something to which readers can relate?
• Are the character’s behaviors and attitudes psychological realistic and are the story problems real?
• Does the story open in a dynamic way that grips the reader from page one?
• Is backstory used to build characterization but not plopped in the first pages of the story?
• Does the plot allow the reader to participate—to speculate, to cheer, to warn?
• Does the story keep moving with good pacing—a few slower moments for readers to digest what’s happening and then moves ahead with dynamic action?
• Does the plot reinforce the theme or message of the story?
Story Setting
• Why did you chose this setting? How can it be used to add deeper meaning to your story?
• Does the setting enhance the plot?
• Does the setting create nuances in the characterization—added stress, feelings of home or loss?
• Does the description bring the setting to life?
• Do the setting aspects relate to the story’s mood, heighten emotion, and serve a purpose beyond offering a sense of place?
If you can answer these questions with positive answers, wonderful. If you find that you need to make changes, then do so. The more realistic and compelling these four elements of your story, you will create a page-turner, a book that grips the reader and one they want to keep.
Showing posts with label Setting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Setting. Show all posts
Friday, April 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Looking Again At Setting And Its Many Uses
I was asked to do an article for the ACFW Newsletter. The article is concise and covers things I've talked about before. Setting is sometimes the neglected element that's used for sense of place alone and not always used in a creative way that will add so much more to your novel. Check out this article provdes much information consolidated in one place.
It will be the third article on the newsletter - http://www.acfw.com/ezine
It will be the third article on the newsletter - http://www.acfw.com/ezine
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Part VII Suspense - Setting and Atmosphere
Besides a sense of place, the right kind of setting offers the reader an atmosphere conducive to creating tension. Certain settings bring established mental images of frightening settings or ones open to danger. Think of a rundown farmhouse, a lonely cabin in the woods, a Gothic mansion, a hospital ship, an abandoned building, a park at night, a cemetery, or a gloomy parking garage. You have seen movies and read books with settings like this that set you up immediately for bad news.
Even a familiar setting can create fear. A night shift stock boy working when the store lights go out. Visiting your place of employment at night. Entering an empty church at night. Losing power in your own home during a storm. All of these locations, normally familiar, add an unknown element of darkness, gloom, or loneliness.
Each of the sense images you create for your setting came be affected by the time of day, weather conditions, and mood of the character. In this case, setting can become a character in itself or can reflect information about the character you place in the setting. Think of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks. Characterization comes alive when we see the person in a setting of its making. Picture a woman sitting in her parlor filled with bric-a-brac and doilies. Imagine a different women in a modern apartment with limited decorations and everything in place. Imagine a man in his organized, pristine garage, and then picture another man with greasy tools and dirt under his fingernails.
The settings help describe the characters. In the parlor we have a woman who treasures her belongings. To her, they are cozy and comfortable. In the modern apartment, we have a no fuss business women or socialite living in a world that’s restricted by the her narrowness and control. The pristine garage owner prides himself in being organized, while the other man prides himself on repairing cars.
Now return to the parlor and have the modern business women studying the setting. She selects one of the many adornments, eyes it with a look of disdain and replaces it on the table before wiping her fingers on a pure white handkerchief. Same setting but different characterization. Use settings in this way to bring out the strengths, weaknesses, values and attitudes of your characters.
Details in your setting can foreshadow future events. A man’s den shows a display of antique rifles and revolvers covering one wall. Allowing your readers to see this display will alert them—even casually—that these weapons will reappear later in the novel. They will expect the weapons to play an important part of the novel. So be careful with what you describe or you will disappoint readers if the item is significant to your plot.
Use setting details to around reader’s curiosity and to draw them into the stories tension. My novel, A Love for Safekeeping, (which I preferred to be titled See Jane Run) is a good example of a novel with multiple red herrings and many of the techniques mentioned. Jane, an elementary school teacher, is being stalked. On a school field trip one of her students is missing, and she receives a message that he is in the barn and she leaves the lodge to find the child.
Jane raced from the lodge, praying nothing was seriously wrong. Her heart pounded as she rushed toward the barn, fearing the worst.
The door stood ajar.
Adrenaline fired her action. She took a deep breath, tugged back the door, and stepped into the dim interior. When her feet hit the straw-covered floor, terror charged through her. She faltered, peering into the shadows. No one was there. Nothing.
Yet from inside, she heard a childlike whimper. “Danny? Danny, are you in here?”
Her voice faded into the dark corners.
Overhead, she heard another sound.
She peered upward toward the dark loft. “Danny?” Jane held her breath. Fear prickled up her quaking limbs.
From above, another muffled moan reached her ears. Her chest tightened against her thundering heart.
“Danny!”
Terror tore through her as icy tendrils slithered through her veins. She stumbled backward.
No. Not here.
Engulfed by panic, she tried to run from the gloom, but her legs, as if nailed to the floor, held her immobile. Her throat constricted, paralyzing her scream.
Out of the blackness, a body hurled through the air and swung from the rafters.
Her legs buckled, and Jane faded into the darkness.
This is a good example of ending a scene with a hook.
Give serious thought to your settings in all fiction, but particularly in suspense novels, and use the setting to bring characters to life, arouse readers curiosity and create tension that grabs the reader and doesn’t let go.
Even a familiar setting can create fear. A night shift stock boy working when the store lights go out. Visiting your place of employment at night. Entering an empty church at night. Losing power in your own home during a storm. All of these locations, normally familiar, add an unknown element of darkness, gloom, or loneliness.
Each of the sense images you create for your setting came be affected by the time of day, weather conditions, and mood of the character. In this case, setting can become a character in itself or can reflect information about the character you place in the setting. Think of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks. Characterization comes alive when we see the person in a setting of its making. Picture a woman sitting in her parlor filled with bric-a-brac and doilies. Imagine a different women in a modern apartment with limited decorations and everything in place. Imagine a man in his organized, pristine garage, and then picture another man with greasy tools and dirt under his fingernails.
The settings help describe the characters. In the parlor we have a woman who treasures her belongings. To her, they are cozy and comfortable. In the modern apartment, we have a no fuss business women or socialite living in a world that’s restricted by the her narrowness and control. The pristine garage owner prides himself in being organized, while the other man prides himself on repairing cars.
Now return to the parlor and have the modern business women studying the setting. She selects one of the many adornments, eyes it with a look of disdain and replaces it on the table before wiping her fingers on a pure white handkerchief. Same setting but different characterization. Use settings in this way to bring out the strengths, weaknesses, values and attitudes of your characters.
Details in your setting can foreshadow future events. A man’s den shows a display of antique rifles and revolvers covering one wall. Allowing your readers to see this display will alert them—even casually—that these weapons will reappear later in the novel. They will expect the weapons to play an important part of the novel. So be careful with what you describe or you will disappoint readers if the item is significant to your plot.
Use setting details to around reader’s curiosity and to draw them into the stories tension. My novel, A Love for Safekeeping, (which I preferred to be titled See Jane Run) is a good example of a novel with multiple red herrings and many of the techniques mentioned. Jane, an elementary school teacher, is being stalked. On a school field trip one of her students is missing, and she receives a message that he is in the barn and she leaves the lodge to find the child.
Jane raced from the lodge, praying nothing was seriously wrong. Her heart pounded as she rushed toward the barn, fearing the worst.
The door stood ajar.
Adrenaline fired her action. She took a deep breath, tugged back the door, and stepped into the dim interior. When her feet hit the straw-covered floor, terror charged through her. She faltered, peering into the shadows. No one was there. Nothing.
Yet from inside, she heard a childlike whimper. “Danny? Danny, are you in here?”
Her voice faded into the dark corners.
Overhead, she heard another sound.
She peered upward toward the dark loft. “Danny?” Jane held her breath. Fear prickled up her quaking limbs.
From above, another muffled moan reached her ears. Her chest tightened against her thundering heart.
“Danny!”
Terror tore through her as icy tendrils slithered through her veins. She stumbled backward.
No. Not here.
Engulfed by panic, she tried to run from the gloom, but her legs, as if nailed to the floor, held her immobile. Her throat constricted, paralyzing her scream.
Out of the blackness, a body hurled through the air and swung from the rafters.
Her legs buckled, and Jane faded into the darkness.
This is a good example of ending a scene with a hook.
Give serious thought to your settings in all fiction, but particularly in suspense novels, and use the setting to bring characters to life, arouse readers curiosity and create tension that grabs the reader and doesn’t let go.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Outlining #3 – Setting that makes a difference
From the list of screenwriting techniques from the Gideon Media and Film Festival, the third technique you can work with to enhance your story is using setting to make a difference in your story.
3. Setting should be specific and used to deepen characterization and conflict, not just a place to plop characters. Setting influences the storyline because it influences the lifestyle of the characters, and it affects their needs and wants or their ability to reach these goals.
All Writers know that in fiction “setting” means establishing a sense of place. You don’t want “talking heads,” characters having a conversation where the reader can’t envision where the characters are. Not only in a little town or the bustling city, but the kind of town and what part of the big city is important. Take the TV show and movie, Sex in the City, and move it from the bustle of Manhattan---Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Wall Street—to the Bowery or to Harlem. The story would change. Crime might be more prevalent, the women’s glamorous, professional lives would be downplayed, and the situations might be dealing more with lack of money or fear of being out at night. They would be dropping by sleazy bars, approached by panhandlers, and eating in diners. I think you can see the difference, and that’s just taking them from one part of the city to the other.
So where you set your story also provides a “tone.” A small town atmosphere, where everyone knows everyone, would create a story much different from an urban area where the person is lucky to know the neighbor. In a small town, gossip, nosey neighbors, people helping people, secrets, tradition, fighting change, etc. would be characteristics that would influence the plot and the conflicts. Secrets are easier to hide in the city but not in a small town where everyone knows everything.
Setting allows you to create unique secondary characters who bring with them interesting subplots---the nosey neighbor in the next apartment to the crotchety old man who runs the candy shop.
Beyond a sense of place, setting can deepen characterization by allowing the reader inside the head of the character reacting to the setting---a young woman who feels stifled in the small town, the man caught up in a high-powered job who longs to open a garage in his small hometown in the mountains. It reflects the attitudes of the characters played against the attitudes and social/political influences of the. And finally, use setting to reflect the character’s mood and emotions. I’ve written on this before. A woman gazes at the sun as a cloud passes over it, and shadows fall over her. She shudders, knowing that her own sunny spirit has been darkened by the abandonment of her husband. This is one example but I know you can think of many.
Think of movies you’ve seen --- rain in sad scenes, sun in happy ones, panning cameras over the sweep of landscape to reflect loneliness, dark basements or attics to reflect fear, a shadowy figure through a shower curtain (think Psycho). The impact of setting on plot and characterization can be very effective.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Research For Contemporary Fiction — Part IIIA
Though it might seem that contemporary fiction is not as complex to research as historical, it is still important and can take much time depending on the novel's plot. While some elements are commonplace and easy to research, the novel's setting can still require time-consuming research.
Because I believe that setting influences a novel’s plot as well as the mind-set of characters (such as small town/metropolis or northern states/southern states), I tend to do extensive research on setting. Here are the methods I use that will help define setting and often plot details in contemporary fiction.
1. Visit the location. When possible, I visit locations of my novel, and while there, I pick up
materials at the Visitor’s Center. Besides brochures and maps of the area, I like the activity magazines that shows sites and places of interest, restaurants, community and seasonal events, anything that will help me make the story more real. Visiting the location allows me to take photographs which later help me describe and recall what I saw. Being there allows me to experience the sensory elements and take notes. The local newspaper is also a worthwhile resources.
2. Chamber of Commerce. When visiting isn’t possible, I write or call the Chamber of Commerce of cities or geographical areas. I ask for the same things that I would obtain by visiting there — maps, events, celebrations, attractions, topography, sections of town, street names, businesses, and fliers. Once wen I researched a city by telephone, the woman at the Chamber of Commerce tore pages from the local telephone book that had detailed maps of the city. They can be very helpful.
3. Town’s Library: Libraries in the town you're researching often have local events boards that list activities and events in the area. Make sure to talk to the librarian. They often prove to be a great resource of town history and current information.
4. Email contacts: Friends and acquaintance are often a great resource. I often use email to request information. This works especially well if you belong to organizations that have loops or group contacts. Many social networks offer opportunities to send out bulletins or notices, and you can use those to ask questions about setting, careers or any kid of information. I’ve used loop contacts looking for someone who knew a Hispanic migrant worker who could help with the everyday Spanish language. A woman came through, and I had small amounts of authentic language in my novel.
5. Travel guides can be purchased in libraries or obtained through AAA or other auto clubs. I keep all my travel information. It provides excellent information about important sites and events as well as hotels and even restaurants in the area.
6. Internet - For your novel’s setting, use the Internet to check out city information , the local real estate with photographs, restaurant menus, newspaper name, the flora and fauna, town details, and its environs They often provide a calendar of year-round events which can add authenticity to your novel.
7. House plans and style: I purchase magazines like Home Plans and other architectural magazines that provide blueprints and drawings of homes. I make a copy of the houses I select for the characters in my books, and then I can visual them as they move through their home. It provides me with realistic details and layout.
8 Nature Information. Details about weather in various seasons, stages of the moon are available on the Internet. Also the flora and fauna of an area can be more realistic.
9. How To: You can find websites on how to do most anything. I’ve learned how to saddle a horse, ride a snowmobile, and do so many things by going the an Internet search engine and type in How to . . . ? (whatever you want to know) or check out these websites: http://www.howtodothings.com/ , http://www.howstuffworks.com/ , or http://www.ehow.com/
10. Ask people: As I mentioned earlier, ask people you know or contacts you have through the Internet loops or social networks. Having knowledgeable sources provide you with information is the best.
11. Telephone: The telephone is my friend. I call hospitals set in the location of my novels to ask many questions—nurses and doctor’s shifts (12 hours on or 8 hours?), information about the maternity ward procedures. I call clothing stores to make sure they sell the items I want to purchase in my books. Restaurants will describe their decor (if you can’t find it on line) or a popular entree, and the Chamber of Commerce set in the locale of your novel, as I already mentioned.
12. Tours: Visit a museum and experience life in another century, business, farms, coal mining, and so many other venues offer tours to help you use your senses to make your book come to life. I hired a fishing boat captain to give me a tour of the Les Cheneaux Islands, the setting for my January 2008 novel, Family In His Heart. Not only did I see the area close up, but he provided me with historical and current information that was invaluable to making my story real.
13. Experience It: I went on a hot air balloon ride this summer, because I wanted to know what it was like to be a mile above the earth in a wicker basket attached to a balloon. I’m afraid of heights, but it was worth the trip, and our landing added so much excitement that the event will broaden my novel. Obviously we don’t want to experience murder, but you will have so many things in your books that you can experience. You can sit in on a court trial. If you go to San Francisco, you can tour Alcatraz and find out what it feels like to be in a cell or in solitary. Going out with the police a ride, sky diving, roller skating, looking at dinosaur bones being excavated, and on and on.
14: Interviewing professionals: Writing suspense (which I’ll cover in more detail later), I contacted a detective and learned much about him as well as researched numerous pieces of detailed information I needed for my novel, Finding Christmas. When interviewing, respect the person's time. Have your questions listed and make sure to say thank you and ask if you can call again if necessary.
Respecting people's time and effort is always important in whatever way they provide it. Be sure to thank them personally and if they permit, you can thank them in the acknowledgements of your novel.
Next: Researching Characterization and Plots for Contemporary Fiction
Because I believe that setting influences a novel’s plot as well as the mind-set of characters (such as small town/metropolis or northern states/southern states), I tend to do extensive research on setting. Here are the methods I use that will help define setting and often plot details in contemporary fiction.
1. Visit the location. When possible, I visit locations of my novel, and while there, I pick up
materials at the Visitor’s Center. Besides brochures and maps of the area, I like the activity magazines that shows sites and places of interest, restaurants, community and seasonal events, anything that will help me make the story more real. Visiting the location allows me to take photographs which later help me describe and recall what I saw. Being there allows me to experience the sensory elements and take notes. The local newspaper is also a worthwhile resources.
2. Chamber of Commerce. When visiting isn’t possible, I write or call the Chamber of Commerce of cities or geographical areas. I ask for the same things that I would obtain by visiting there — maps, events, celebrations, attractions, topography, sections of town, street names, businesses, and fliers. Once wen I researched a city by telephone, the woman at the Chamber of Commerce tore pages from the local telephone book that had detailed maps of the city. They can be very helpful.
3. Town’s Library: Libraries in the town you're researching often have local events boards that list activities and events in the area. Make sure to talk to the librarian. They often prove to be a great resource of town history and current information.
4. Email contacts: Friends and acquaintance are often a great resource. I often use email to request information. This works especially well if you belong to organizations that have loops or group contacts. Many social networks offer opportunities to send out bulletins or notices, and you can use those to ask questions about setting, careers or any kid of information. I’ve used loop contacts looking for someone who knew a Hispanic migrant worker who could help with the everyday Spanish language. A woman came through, and I had small amounts of authentic language in my novel.
5. Travel guides can be purchased in libraries or obtained through AAA or other auto clubs. I keep all my travel information. It provides excellent information about important sites and events as well as hotels and even restaurants in the area.
6. Internet - For your novel’s setting, use the Internet to check out city information , the local real estate with photographs, restaurant menus, newspaper name, the flora and fauna, town details, and its environs They often provide a calendar of year-round events which can add authenticity to your novel.
7. House plans and style: I purchase magazines like Home Plans and other architectural magazines that provide blueprints and drawings of homes. I make a copy of the houses I select for the characters in my books, and then I can visual them as they move through their home. It provides me with realistic details and layout.
8 Nature Information. Details about weather in various seasons, stages of the moon are available on the Internet. Also the flora and fauna of an area can be more realistic.
9. How To: You can find websites on how to do most anything. I’ve learned how to saddle a horse, ride a snowmobile, and do so many things by going the an Internet search engine and type in How to . . . ? (whatever you want to know) or check out these websites: http://www.howtodothings.com/ , http://www.howstuffworks.com/ , or http://www.ehow.com/
10. Ask people: As I mentioned earlier, ask people you know or contacts you have through the Internet loops or social networks. Having knowledgeable sources provide you with information is the best.
11. Telephone: The telephone is my friend. I call hospitals set in the location of my novels to ask many questions—nurses and doctor’s shifts (12 hours on or 8 hours?), information about the maternity ward procedures. I call clothing stores to make sure they sell the items I want to purchase in my books. Restaurants will describe their decor (if you can’t find it on line) or a popular entree, and the Chamber of Commerce set in the locale of your novel, as I already mentioned.
12. Tours: Visit a museum and experience life in another century, business, farms, coal mining, and so many other venues offer tours to help you use your senses to make your book come to life. I hired a fishing boat captain to give me a tour of the Les Cheneaux Islands, the setting for my January 2008 novel, Family In His Heart. Not only did I see the area close up, but he provided me with historical and current information that was invaluable to making my story real.
13. Experience It: I went on a hot air balloon ride this summer, because I wanted to know what it was like to be a mile above the earth in a wicker basket attached to a balloon. I’m afraid of heights, but it was worth the trip, and our landing added so much excitement that the event will broaden my novel. Obviously we don’t want to experience murder, but you will have so many things in your books that you can experience. You can sit in on a court trial. If you go to San Francisco, you can tour Alcatraz and find out what it feels like to be in a cell or in solitary. Going out with the police a ride, sky diving, roller skating, looking at dinosaur bones being excavated, and on and on.
14: Interviewing professionals: Writing suspense (which I’ll cover in more detail later), I contacted a detective and learned much about him as well as researched numerous pieces of detailed information I needed for my novel, Finding Christmas. When interviewing, respect the person's time. Have your questions listed and make sure to say thank you and ask if you can call again if necessary.
Respecting people's time and effort is always important in whatever way they provide it. Be sure to thank them personally and if they permit, you can thank them in the acknowledgements of your novel.
Next: Researching Characterization and Plots for Contemporary Fiction
Sunday, July 27, 2008
What about brand names and real places?
Recently, writers have asked questions about read places and brand names, and I decided to share the information with you rather than keep them hidden in comments on the blog.
Question:
I am in the process of writing and publishing my first children’s novel. I have been dabbling with a second book as a sequel, but my focus is finishing the first. I have been worried about using actual restaurant and business names. I didn’t want to break any trademark or copyright laws. Would you happen to know what laws this situation would fall under and where I might find documentation dealing with my legal rights to use these names and locations for setting purposes only?
Answer:
Most authors use actual places in their writing and most publishers will allow this with one major rule. What you say is positive and not negative about the place. The main problem is putting the real restaurant or business in a bad light could open the door for a law suit so publishers are very careful - but anything in a positive vein or just a mention is not a problem at all and provides them with free publicity which they love. I've even noticed some coffee shops have displays of books in their showcases, and I'm guessing the shop is mentioned in the book.
I often send a book to the places that I mention. I don't have a specific law number - but some of my writer friends are lawyers, and they and my publisher's lawyers assure me that this isn't a problem. After forty novels, I've never heard anything negative from people living in real places I've written about, and some have contacted me to say thanks. Well, now that I think of it, I did have one woman angry because in a book set in Michigan, I called soft drinks soda instead of pop. She said I should do research better. I live in Michigan and I call it pop. For some reason, I used the word soda. (So kill me)
Just make sure that if you use a brand name, you capitalize it. If you say Kleenex instead of tissue or drank a Coke instead of Coca -cola, make sure you capitalizing the name. It's easy to forget that some words we use, like Kleenex, is a brand and not what tissues are called. Words like Frisbee and Band-Aid.
Question:
I would like to use a restaurant in a major league ballpark as a location in my novel -- actually a private suite in the ballpark. The description is very positive but exaggerated -- I made the suite more lush and the food and service Four Star. Do you think this is okay?
Answer:
If you are saying only positive things about a real location, you can't run into trouble unless the place has a trademark symbol beside the name and then you will want to use the symbol as well. A ballpark wouldn't have one -- but Kleenex does. If you want to be totally realistic, then you need to stick to realism. Anyone who's been in a box like that will know you're not accurate -- but you could indicate that this is a special box in the park -- a VIP box for example -- and then that will cover it for the average reader. You shouldn't run into a trouble with that. I often create fictitious towns near real ones, and people know it's not real so they accept it -- but the people who live in the real town are thrilled when the characters go there for various reasons. I also use this to my advantage but letting the town bookstores know that the book has scenes from their town.
Question:
I am in the process of writing and publishing my first children’s novel. I have been dabbling with a second book as a sequel, but my focus is finishing the first. I have been worried about using actual restaurant and business names. I didn’t want to break any trademark or copyright laws. Would you happen to know what laws this situation would fall under and where I might find documentation dealing with my legal rights to use these names and locations for setting purposes only?
Answer:
Most authors use actual places in their writing and most publishers will allow this with one major rule. What you say is positive and not negative about the place. The main problem is putting the real restaurant or business in a bad light could open the door for a law suit so publishers are very careful - but anything in a positive vein or just a mention is not a problem at all and provides them with free publicity which they love. I've even noticed some coffee shops have displays of books in their showcases, and I'm guessing the shop is mentioned in the book.
I often send a book to the places that I mention. I don't have a specific law number - but some of my writer friends are lawyers, and they and my publisher's lawyers assure me that this isn't a problem. After forty novels, I've never heard anything negative from people living in real places I've written about, and some have contacted me to say thanks. Well, now that I think of it, I did have one woman angry because in a book set in Michigan, I called soft drinks soda instead of pop. She said I should do research better. I live in Michigan and I call it pop. For some reason, I used the word soda. (So kill me
Just make sure that if you use a brand name, you capitalize it. If you say Kleenex instead of tissue or drank a Coke instead of Coca -cola, make sure you capitalizing the name. It's easy to forget that some words we use, like Kleenex, is a brand and not what tissues are called. Words like Frisbee and Band-Aid.
Question:
I would like to use a restaurant in a major league ballpark as a location in my novel -- actually a private suite in the ballpark. The description is very positive but exaggerated -- I made the suite more lush and the food and service Four Star. Do you think this is okay?
Answer:
If you are saying only positive things about a real location, you can't run into trouble unless the place has a trademark symbol beside the name and then you will want to use the symbol as well. A ballpark wouldn't have one -- but Kleenex does. If you want to be totally realistic, then you need to stick to realism. Anyone who's been in a box like that will know you're not accurate -- but you could indicate that this is a special box in the park -- a VIP box for example -- and then that will cover it for the average reader. You shouldn't run into a trouble with that. I often create fictitious towns near real ones, and people know it's not real so they accept it -- but the people who live in the real town are thrilled when the characters go there for various reasons. I also use this to my advantage but letting the town bookstores know that the book has scenes from their town.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Setting: Beyond A Place
Readers want to have a sense of place instead of having infamous floating head conversations. Setting lends authenticity and a sense of place, but it is more than naming a the city or state or describing a room or building. Setting includes weather, month, year, time of day. An author can accomplish this task in one line. On the Miami shoreline, Edna looked into the stormy May sky and watched the late afternoon sun sink behind rippling water. Lines like this provides the reader with basic information needed for each scene.
Sometimes the information is provided even more simply. The next day, Edna curled her feet beneath her on the sofa and forced herself to focus on the vacation brochure. Notice this provides information but it does so much more. It raises questions—a key way to hook the reader.
Enhancing Characterization and Mood
Even more dramatic, setting can create a mood and enhance characterization. In fact, setting is most effective when it is used for this purpose, another method that causes readers to ask questions. In an excerpt from my novel, Upon A Midnight Clear, the reader can not only gain a sense of place, but the setting sets the tone or mood of the story.
Callie regarded her surroundings as she slid the coat from her shoulders. She stood in a wide hallway graced by a broad, curved staircase and a sparkling crystal chandelier. An oriental carpet covered the floor, stretching the length of the entry.
Two sets of double doors stood closed on the right, and on the left, three more sets of French doors hid the rooms’ interiors, leaving Callie with a sense of foreboding. Were the doors holding something in? Or keeping something out?
Again the readers are left curious and questioning. Notice how the next example sets the scene but allows the reader inside the character to experience her emotion.
Outside, the cool wind whipped against her and sent a shiver down her back. The wind or fear? She climbed into the car, turned on the lights, and backed out of the driveway. The night lay dark over the landscape, the moon hidden behind a heavy bank of clouds. Too soon for snow, she thought. Yet, the dark, dire sky matched the feeling inside her.
Here setting not only gives the reader a sense of place and an awareness of the character’s emotion, but it also creates an ominous mood and moves the plot along by leaving the reader with questions.
Using setting to capture characterization is effective. In this paragraph, notice the vivid image of the setting but how well it adds to Francie’s characterization.
Francie adjusted the baby carrier on her shoulders and rang the bell. While waiting, she studied a delicate spider web that spanned two vertical shafts of the porch’s wrought iron railing. The spider was still at work and Francie was captured by the beauty of the iridescent threads glinting in the afternoon sunlight. Beautiful, yet distressing. She felt trapped in a web as intricate and lovely as the spider’s.
Francine is trapped and we see the discepancy of her discription. How can being trapped be compared to something intricate and lovely? This leaves readers asking questions. . .and they are hooked.
Finding the Right Setting
Every location can provide the perfect backdrop for certain stories—large cities and small towns, the wintry cold of Minnesota or the sandy beaches of Jamaica. The author must select the location that will best advance the story. Readers are drawn to exotic places and foreign countries but an author can write a better novel if he or she has first hand experience in a similar location.
Small towns lend themselves to friendly neighbors and eccentric characters who pop in and out of the story as they are needed. A suspense might find more opportunities for excitement on a lonely island or in the backwoods. But a reader can make even a familiar location interesting and unique by the perspective. Think of someone’s own home at night in the dark. The familiar becomes strangely unfamiliar. Shadows cause the person to jump or cry out. How the author treats any setting is the key to good writing.
Setting As Character
Setting not only enhances characterization but setting can be a character in the story. If you think of classic westerns where the rugged landscape becomes as important as the rugged cowboys, or think of Jack London’s novel, Call of the Wild, where the setting becomes the enemy and wins. Setting tends to mold and shape characters and often sets up inevitable consequences such as in the story ideas mentioned above.
But this is so even in a small town where gossip grows like fungus and fear of big city life can result in set values for the community and fear of the big city evils. Characters are products of the settings in which they are placed. They begin to think in the style of their social setting, their values are formed and their behavior is created. Change the setting and the story may not work in another location.
Settings set up expectations because of its history and its population. Some settings are important in a novel set in the fashion world and other settings work for a rugged outdoor adventure story. The dangers in both of these settings are different but are alive and influential.
Avoid Common Scene Locations
Writers have a tendency to place their characters into the same settings. Sitting around a table eating a meal can be found in most novels, perhaps because meals are often the main times families get together to hold conversation. Another common scene is riding in a car. It’s a time when the character thinks about what happened or plans their next course of action. Nothing is wrong with these locations, but as you write, try to find new and unique places to place your characters. Or if they are in the kitchen, have the heroine do dishes rather than sitting at the table eating a meal. Be creative—tobogganing, riding on a carousel, sitting in a canoe, riding in an elevator, hiding in a pantry. Surprise your readers with original locations.
Avoid talking heads but establish each scene by letting the reader know time and place as well as how much time has past since the last scene. Use the scene to enhance mood or the character’s emotions. Look for settings that come alive as a unique character of its own. If you accomplish this, you will have mastered using setting to not only create a sense of place but a story element that catches readers and holds on.
Sometimes the information is provided even more simply. The next day, Edna curled her feet beneath her on the sofa and forced herself to focus on the vacation brochure. Notice this provides information but it does so much more. It raises questions—a key way to hook the reader.
Enhancing Characterization and Mood
Even more dramatic, setting can create a mood and enhance characterization. In fact, setting is most effective when it is used for this purpose, another method that causes readers to ask questions. In an excerpt from my novel, Upon A Midnight Clear, the reader can not only gain a sense of place, but the setting sets the tone or mood of the story.
Callie regarded her surroundings as she slid the coat from her shoulders. She stood in a wide hallway graced by a broad, curved staircase and a sparkling crystal chandelier. An oriental carpet covered the floor, stretching the length of the entry.
Two sets of double doors stood closed on the right, and on the left, three more sets of French doors hid the rooms’ interiors, leaving Callie with a sense of foreboding. Were the doors holding something in? Or keeping something out?
Again the readers are left curious and questioning. Notice how the next example sets the scene but allows the reader inside the character to experience her emotion.
Outside, the cool wind whipped against her and sent a shiver down her back. The wind or fear? She climbed into the car, turned on the lights, and backed out of the driveway. The night lay dark over the landscape, the moon hidden behind a heavy bank of clouds. Too soon for snow, she thought. Yet, the dark, dire sky matched the feeling inside her.
Here setting not only gives the reader a sense of place and an awareness of the character’s emotion, but it also creates an ominous mood and moves the plot along by leaving the reader with questions.
Using setting to capture characterization is effective. In this paragraph, notice the vivid image of the setting but how well it adds to Francie’s characterization.
Francie adjusted the baby carrier on her shoulders and rang the bell. While waiting, she studied a delicate spider web that spanned two vertical shafts of the porch’s wrought iron railing. The spider was still at work and Francie was captured by the beauty of the iridescent threads glinting in the afternoon sunlight. Beautiful, yet distressing. She felt trapped in a web as intricate and lovely as the spider’s.
Francine is trapped and we see the discepancy of her discription. How can being trapped be compared to something intricate and lovely? This leaves readers asking questions. . .and they are hooked.
Finding the Right Setting
Every location can provide the perfect backdrop for certain stories—large cities and small towns, the wintry cold of Minnesota or the sandy beaches of Jamaica. The author must select the location that will best advance the story. Readers are drawn to exotic places and foreign countries but an author can write a better novel if he or she has first hand experience in a similar location.
Small towns lend themselves to friendly neighbors and eccentric characters who pop in and out of the story as they are needed. A suspense might find more opportunities for excitement on a lonely island or in the backwoods. But a reader can make even a familiar location interesting and unique by the perspective. Think of someone’s own home at night in the dark. The familiar becomes strangely unfamiliar. Shadows cause the person to jump or cry out. How the author treats any setting is the key to good writing.
Setting As Character
Setting not only enhances characterization but setting can be a character in the story. If you think of classic westerns where the rugged landscape becomes as important as the rugged cowboys, or think of Jack London’s novel, Call of the Wild, where the setting becomes the enemy and wins. Setting tends to mold and shape characters and often sets up inevitable consequences such as in the story ideas mentioned above.
But this is so even in a small town where gossip grows like fungus and fear of big city life can result in set values for the community and fear of the big city evils. Characters are products of the settings in which they are placed. They begin to think in the style of their social setting, their values are formed and their behavior is created. Change the setting and the story may not work in another location.
Settings set up expectations because of its history and its population. Some settings are important in a novel set in the fashion world and other settings work for a rugged outdoor adventure story. The dangers in both of these settings are different but are alive and influential.
Avoid Common Scene Locations
Writers have a tendency to place their characters into the same settings. Sitting around a table eating a meal can be found in most novels, perhaps because meals are often the main times families get together to hold conversation. Another common scene is riding in a car. It’s a time when the character thinks about what happened or plans their next course of action. Nothing is wrong with these locations, but as you write, try to find new and unique places to place your characters. Or if they are in the kitchen, have the heroine do dishes rather than sitting at the table eating a meal. Be creative—tobogganing, riding on a carousel, sitting in a canoe, riding in an elevator, hiding in a pantry. Surprise your readers with original locations.
Avoid talking heads but establish each scene by letting the reader know time and place as well as how much time has past since the last scene. Use the scene to enhance mood or the character’s emotions. Look for settings that come alive as a unique character of its own. If you accomplish this, you will have mastered using setting to not only create a sense of place but a story element that catches readers and holds on.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Setting: How do you handle using a real location for a novel?
In my last blog, I encouraged you to send questions that you've often wondered about or issues that you're dealing with in your work in progress. I'm still eager to hear from you so please leave a comment with your question or email me at authorgailmartin@aol.com and I'll add your question to the topics I'll cover.
Today the question has to do with setting and mainly the concern about using the names of real places and real streets.
Here's my advice:
One of the exciting things in writing about a real place is connecting with not only your faithful fans but readers who live in the area of your setting or even those who live in the state. Many of my books are set in Michigan, because it's a state I know well. I've traveled all over Michigan as a lifetime resident, and I've enjoyed many of its wonders. I hear from many readers who either live in Michigan or lived in Michigan once and who love to read street names they know, restaurants where they've eaten, businesses they've visited and sights they've seen. I have used many real places, and I have also create fictitious towns based on real ones.
How I've done this is to set my book in a fictitious town neighboring a real location. For example, my Loving Series contains seven novels set in Loving, Michigan, a fictitious location which I patterned after Grand Haven, a tourist area on the shore of Lake Michigan. I did this to avoid errors about Grand Haven. No one could challenge anything about Loving, but my characters often went to Grand Haven where I used real restaurants, real street names,real festivals and annual events in the community. I was able to do this, because I had visited Grand Haven numerous times and had actually visited these locations and eaten at the restaurants. I am still receiving letters from people who loved that series.
Using real places works well, as long as you don't say anything negative about these places. My editors had no problem with my doing this, but if I would have said something negative, then they would have asked me to create a fictitious restaurant or business for that scene rather than using the name of an actual place.
In my book With Christmas In His Heart set on Mackinac Island, I used real names of everything. Although I had stayed on the island every season---spring, summer and fall, I'd never visited in winter when the island is fairly bare of tourist. Because of my lack of information about that time of year, I asked a year-round resident of the wonderful and unique island to provide me with all the things I needed to know about Mackinac Island during the winter months. I knew what corner residents purchased their Christmas trees and how they got them home -- in an isalnd without motorized vehicles -- as well as how they disposed of the trees after Christmas. Again this book was loved not only by Michiganders and visitors of this island but by many readers. It sold very well and won a National Readers Choice Award this year for best inspirational.
I prefer to know a location fairly well before using it as a setting. I have written a few books set in places I'd never been, but I did tremendous research and, in most cases, knew someone who lived near the setting and could ask that person for details. In fact, one friend took videos of the town, sent photos and so much more to help me.
So don't be afraid to use a real location, especially one you know well. If you're already published, make sure your editors allow actual locations, and then, do good job researching so that you can provide real facts -- but caution: don't contrive a scene just to use a well-known location in that town. Make sure every place your characters go is relevant to the story and helps to move the plot forward. That's the secret to good writing.
Today the question has to do with setting and mainly the concern about using the names of real places and real streets.
Here's my advice:
One of the exciting things in writing about a real place is connecting with not only your faithful fans but readers who live in the area of your setting or even those who live in the state. Many of my books are set in Michigan, because it's a state I know well. I've traveled all over Michigan as a lifetime resident, and I've enjoyed many of its wonders. I hear from many readers who either live in Michigan or lived in Michigan once and who love to read street names they know, restaurants where they've eaten, businesses they've visited and sights they've seen. I have used many real places, and I have also create fictitious towns based on real ones.
How I've done this is to set my book in a fictitious town neighboring a real location. For example, my Loving Series contains seven novels set in Loving, Michigan, a fictitious location which I patterned after Grand Haven, a tourist area on the shore of Lake Michigan. I did this to avoid errors about Grand Haven. No one could challenge anything about Loving, but my characters often went to Grand Haven where I used real restaurants, real street names,real festivals and annual events in the community. I was able to do this, because I had visited Grand Haven numerous times and had actually visited these locations and eaten at the restaurants. I am still receiving letters from people who loved that series.
Using real places works well, as long as you don't say anything negative about these places. My editors had no problem with my doing this, but if I would have said something negative, then they would have asked me to create a fictitious restaurant or business for that scene rather than using the name of an actual place.
In my book With Christmas In His Heart set on Mackinac Island, I used real names of everything. Although I had stayed on the island every season---spring, summer and fall, I'd never visited in winter when the island is fairly bare of tourist. Because of my lack of information about that time of year, I asked a year-round resident of the wonderful and unique island to provide me with all the things I needed to know about Mackinac Island during the winter months. I knew what corner residents purchased their Christmas trees and how they got them home -- in an isalnd without motorized vehicles -- as well as how they disposed of the trees after Christmas. Again this book was loved not only by Michiganders and visitors of this island but by many readers. It sold very well and won a National Readers Choice Award this year for best inspirational.
I prefer to know a location fairly well before using it as a setting. I have written a few books set in places I'd never been, but I did tremendous research and, in most cases, knew someone who lived near the setting and could ask that person for details. In fact, one friend took videos of the town, sent photos and so much more to help me.
So don't be afraid to use a real location, especially one you know well. If you're already published, make sure your editors allow actual locations, and then, do good job researching so that you can provide real facts -- but caution: don't contrive a scene just to use a well-known location in that town. Make sure every place your characters go is relevant to the story and helps to move the plot forward. That's the secret to good writing.
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