Writing Your Own Style Sheet - Mar Preston

Not knowing any better when I began writing my series set in Santa Monica, I called this document a Character Roster. I’ve always loved theater programs listing the characters and the actor playing the role. Fiction writers struggle with many aspects of plot and story, one of them keeping track of our characters and settings.

The Character Roster is a simple idea, but it will save you a lot of agony, searching back and forward through your manuscript, scratching your head and trying to remember what you called the pharmacist your detective visited to nail down the victim’s timeline. Now he needs to go back to the pharmacist. What did you call him?  Look it up in the Character Roster.

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A Style Sheet is more advanced.  A style sheet is documents the style standards and practices of a publisher of newspapers, books, or magazines. If you were to write for them, you’d know to ask for one before you submitted your piece. I wouldn’t have, so here’s a tip.

A traditional publisher to may adhere more or less strictly to the Chicago Manual of Style and your local weekly follow the Associated Press’s guide. Suffice to say there are many other style manuals for specialty publications.

Style sheets offer the publication's guide to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization practices so you can turn in a manuscript consistent within itself as well as match the style of the publication.

A style sheet can help you as the writer, as well as potential beta readers, and any editor you may hire to develop consistency and reduce errors in story details.

Make your own style sheet

You can make this reference document as simple or complicated as you like. Working simply, you’d list in alphabetical order on a sheet of lined paper (or spreadsheet or word processing document)  any odd spellings or words that you make up as you go along. Stick in place names for example, if you’re writing a mystery set in Wales.  

Use this also to keep track of odd spellings or words that you make up, especially if you're writing fantasy or paranormal. If your beta readers or editor pauses to make a decision over a word or grammatical construction, their attention has been jarred loose from the smooth flow of the story.

Make decisions.

Serial comma or not? Em dash or parentheses? Numerals for all numbers greater than nine or will your cut-off be ninety-nine?

Decide on the use of quotation marks and/or italics, especially for unusual words, or words used for emphasis. If you don’t know common usage for quotation marks and italics, this is the time to look it up and professionalize yourself. Writing down the differences will embed it in your brain.

Time to learn the basic rules of capitalization as well. For example, “seeing the sergeant” and seeing Sgt. Fields.”

List words in foreign languages that you’re using and how to spell them.

What belongs in your style sheet is anything unusual that the beta reader, editor, or copy editor should know as they are reading. Anything that would make them stop and say "What?"

If you’re a plotter you may enjoy this task. A seat-of-pantser may not want to slow down until the first draft is complete. Working on one before that point might get in the way of the pantser’s feverish creativity.

I do urge you, nonetheless, to set up the Character Roster. You may find you’ve referred to an incidental character as Billy, Bobby, and Bob. Get it right and your initial readers will thank you.

And your story will flow like honey when you send off your final manuscript wherever it’s going.

I'm curious if other mystery writers use this tool. Please let me know.

//www.amazon.com/Writing-Killer-Characters-step-step-ebook/dp/B00UXLO91M?ie=UTF8&keywords=mar%20preston&qid=1464630132&ref_=sr_1_4&s=books&sr=1-4

Do You Call Yourself a Writer?

You Don’t Need Anyone’s Permission 

By Kathleen Kaska (Your Fifth Saturday Blogger)

            When people ask you what you do for a living and you answer, “I’m a writer,” how do those words make you feel: proud, shy, boastful, tentative?

            I feel all of the above in a split second after I give my answer. Even twenty years after publishing my first article and three years after retiring from teaching to write full time, I still experience a moment’s hesitation and my answer sounds something like, “Er . . .  I’m a . . . writer.” I can’t help anticipate that look on the curious person’s face, that look that says, “Yeah, right. You’re a writer; I’m a writer; everyone and his dog is a writer. So?” The anticipation of that look, that answer, often has me stammering.

            Then a few days ago, I read Roy Peter Clark’s article in the Seattle Times, “Change Your Idea of Who’s a Writer.” Clark is a writing teacher at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has written several books about writing including Help! For Writers. I have so many How-To writing books on my shelf, one really has to grab me before I purchase it. After Clark summarized his book, I added it to my must-read list. Here’s Clark’s take on being a writer. I hope he forgives me adding my own twist in a three-part nutshell.

1.  It’s Not All About Me

            Clark reminded me of an important lesson I learned all those years ago when I decided to become a writer. Writing is not always a solitary endeavor and in order to grow and learn, it is important to utilize the “spirit of a writing community.” I had to learn to think and act like a writer so I joined the local writer’s league, signed up for classes, and joined critique groups. Writers have to be willing to accept help when they need it, but assist others who ask. And when we respect others written expression, that respect comes back to us.

2.  It’s All About Me:

            Clark writes that writers do not need permission or approval to be writers. The act of writing makes us a writer. Writing does not necessarily mean pounding out words on our laptops. Pondering and contemplating the ideas and emotions we eventually weave into our stories makes us writers. I get my best ideas when I’m jogging or hiking the forest trails near my house. It’s easier for my characters to get my attention when I’m letting my mind wonder. This solitary time also allows me to work through plotting issues, create new characters, and polish dialogue. So, when I’m by myself on the trail in the woods and having a conversation with the invisible, I’m writing.

3.  It’s All About a Better Me

            And here’s a point I never really considered. Clark writes that the act of writing makes us better individuals; it makes us more attuned to the world around us and empathetic to others.

            So, if we write, contemplate writing, ask for help when we need it and give help in return, and cultivate our craft, we are writers.

            I was always taught not to toot my own horn. I now realize if my tooting results in a pleasant melody and not a loud bugle call, it's perfectly fine. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions. I tend to obsess with daily goal-making, so I pass on that annual proclamation to improve myself. But this year, I think I'll make an exception. When asked what I do for a living, I'll look that person in the eye and say, "I'm a writer," and feel proud of my answer.

I write the Sydney Lockhart Mystery Series and the Classic Mystery Triviography Mystery Series.

http://www.kathleenkaska.com/

http://www.kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com/

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?

All writers have a different style – some are plotters, some write by the seats of their pants, some work with a combo of the above or their very own construct. It doesn’t matter how the author creates, but what the author creates – and what the writer creates is a story filled with characters we root for and against.

There is a great deal of information available about heroes – alpha or beta, romantic or hard-boiled. Is he tall, athletic and handsome, or do the ladies adore his geekiness?

Our favorite heroines are generally smart, funny, and accomplished. But then again, there are the Stephanie Plums of the world, too! She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s klutzy!

But villains – where do the villains come from? Are they archetypes, constructs from our days of hearing fairy tales and myths? Are they the product of nightmares or do we pick our boss’ least appealing characteristics and make them bigger than life? Do we build him or her from people we read or hear about in the news? In documentaries? Or are they only a product of the writer's fertile imagination?

As far back as man has created, the villain has been a crucial component of the storyteller’s craft. The villain – or villainess, as the case may be – creates a great deal of stress and angst for our lovely hero and heroine. The villain will thwart them at every turn, for a while, and then their brilliance, bravery and moxie will shine as the villain is conquered.

What was our bad guy’s fatal flaw – hubris, stupidity, inexperience? Whatever it is, it brings him down in the end.

And isn’t that what we all want – to see justice done, the villain stopped and our hero or heroine win the day?

Who is your favorite fictional villain and why?

Libby
Libby McKinmer
www.libbymckinmer.com
Romance with an edge
Find me on Facebook, Twitter & Goodreads

Are You a Procrastinator?

Well, I can be. Never with work, of course…well, hardly ever. But sometimes, when the Muse isn’t pounding down my door with ideas for stories, blogs, articles, etc, I do find it easy to be distracted when I’m sitting at my computer. It’s not just a quick game of Mahjong or Free Cell any more. There are many interesting sites on the web – if you’re interested in tennis, skiing, baseball, horses, flying, cooking – you name it, there’s a site you can find with all kinds of info and some have training videos available – fifteen minutes have disappeared in a blink while you learned how to follow through on your golf swing!

And, of course, those sites often have links to their Facebook page, Twitter, YahooGroups discussion groups. Before you know it, a quick little glance at how to make angel food cake has you signed up for online cooking lessons and you’re fifteen posts into a discussion on the merits of butter cream versus cream cheese frosting.

It’s fine to say, just apply willpower and get to work on that review you’ve promised, the blog that’s waiting to be posted, the first three chapters you told your crit partner you’d have to her last week. Then that email alarm sounds and you see someone has said the only real frosting for a cake is their grandmother’s seven-minute frosting. How can you not look at that recipe?

Here are a couple of suggestions on how to work through the procrastination.

1 – I can write whatever I want on the assignment hanging over my head. I can write the love scene I know is coming up in my WIP, even if my characters aren’t there yet, or the beginning of an article on squirrels or the first paragraph of my column. It doesn’t have to be perfect; it doesn’t even have to be something I’ll end up sending out, but it does get me writing.

2 – I can online browse at a specific time, but not before. That can be tough because you can find yourself watching the time.

3 – This one is a bit of an oddity, but it can work. Tell yourself you’re NOT allowed to write until a specific time. By the time the designated hour arrives, say 7:37 pm, you could be chomping at the bit to get those ideas onto your hard drive.

So…what gets your fingers moving when you’re procrastinating?

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
libby@libbymckinmer.com
Also on Facebook, Twitter & Good Reads

It's Planting Time

Rather than a how-to, this is more of a how-do? We all know one of our favorite parts of reading a mystery is trying to figure out all the clues...can we discover whodunit before our intrepid detective, whether it’s a police investigator or the nice neighborhood grandmother who always seems to be involved? Is there that palm-to-the-forehead moment of "I should've seen that"?

I tend to lay in the clues as I go along – I know what I want my reader to know, what s/he can extrapolate from that and what should be a bit, shall we say, “fuzzy” in an effort to keep the villain's secret as long as possible.

Let’s share what we do: how do you get your clues in there? Do you plot them out before hand? Do you go back through your manuscript and drop them in the right places at the end? Do they surprise you and kind of insert themselves at opportune (or even inopportune) moments?

Let’s dish for our readers!

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
libby@libbymckinmer.com
Also on Twitter, GoodReads & Facebook

Where Do Character Traits Come From by Austin S. Camacho

Each fictional character should have a full spectrum of personality traits based on his or her background and experiences. A character inventory sheet is a good place to start but I must admit I don’t always pull these people out of thin air. I use a number of brain starters - places you can look for descriptions of character traits, and some ideas about what traits generally travel together. None of these is THE answer, just a place to start.

Yourself: Yes, every character will have some of you in him. It’s okay for one or two to be mostly you, but you have to stretch yourself. Add one trait you’d like to have or magnify a trait you dislike about yourself and you’ll be amazed at how different that person becomes. A twisted funhouse mirror image of you is a fun character to play with.

Your family members: These are the real life people you know best. You’ve seen them at their best and at their worst. If you choose a brother or cousin don’t sugar coat them. If you’ve been close to an alcoholic, a drug user, an adulterer or a bigot and still love them anyway then you can show them to your readers in a way that will help the care about that flawed character. Just be sure to fictionalize them enough so that they are not recognizable. You can put that familiar personality into a whole new body, and that’s usually enough.

Public contact: The people you see in bars and restaurants, on the bus or in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles all have stories that we can only guess at. But they each show us a piece of their personality and if we are observant we will see traits that we can add to fictional characters to make them more familiar and believable.

Other People’s Books: I may hear disagreement from my peers here, but I say don’t be shy about borrowing personality traits from your favorite fictional characters. If another writer developed a person with a consistent and interesting personality you can use the same traits but drop your character into a different situation. In some cases you might even use someone else’s character whole. Excellent novels have been written featuring Dr. Jeckyll’s maid (Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin) Captain Ahab’s wife (Ahab's Wife or, The Star-Gazer by Sena Jeter Naslund) and Sherlock Holmes’ favorite woman (The Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas.)

Newspapers and magazines: You can use any interview you find useful as the basis for a fictional character. One plus is that some of the usual research becomes unnecessary. Often people written up in The Washingtonian become thinly disguised minor characters in my work. Magazines like Men’s Journal and Redbook often carry short character sketches as part of a feature promoting clothes or cool new toys. Why not use them.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – This personality test divides humanity into 16 types using four parameters. According to this test we are all either extroverts or introverts, intuitive or sensing, thinking or feeling, and we either make judgments or open our perceptions. I’m not sure if I believe the science, but it doesn’t matter. Each of the 16 types is a collection of personality traits that’s easy to work with. You can create a character by choosing any one of them.

Horoscopes: Personally, I think this is nonsense too, but the typical description of the Ares male does sound an awful lot like me. These are familiar trait sets, and it’s a place to start, which is the point.

What's in a Name? and other character building questions

by Austin S. Camacho

A while back I talked about character inventories - a list of traits and details that you could use as a fill-in-the-blank character starter. Each of those traits tells a bit more about your character and if you remain consistent with all of them you’ll have a great character who readers will take to their hearts because they will feel as if they really know this person.

Character inventories usually start with names and that’s not just for convenience. Superficial as we humans are, we draw a lot of meaning out of a person’s name. My detective Hannibal Jones has a very common last name, indicating an everyman. His father named him after the only African military conqueror he could name, the man who led elephants in his army and almost defeated the Roman legions. Who is your character named after? Who named him, mom or dad? Does she have a name that indicates parental personality expectations? Many common women’s names do: Chastity, Felicity, Hope, and Faith. Such characters often either grow into their names or they may take a stance in opposition to it like fictional adventurer Modesty Blaise?

Last names often indicate nationality with all the assumptions they bring. If you have a fellow named Patrick O’Connor in your cast and he ISN’T Irish, you’d better tell us quickly, because we’ve already slotted him. And in fact if he isn’t, there’s a great story there about how he got that name that will tell us a good deal about him.

Similarly, nicknames tell us a lot about your character, but we need to know if he took the name himself or if someone stuck him with it. If you introduce me to a character named Tiny I expect a giant. But if her pals call her Brain, she might be the one who always has a plan, OR she might be an idiot. Either way, the fact that she accepted that nickname tells us about her confidence level and self-image.

As for backgrounds, consider your own nationality. I think very few of you will say, “American.” We all come from somewhere, or our ancestors did. There are no generic people, and readers won’t care about your characters if they are too generic. Everyone has a race, a nationality and a religious background – even if the person doesn’t practice a religion. Consider how that affects your character’s personality.

Economic background affects personalities too, even if the character has moved on from that background. Habits learned during a poor childhood don’t vanish when your character strikes it rich, and vice versa. Know how she’ll behave in a store, in a restaurant, or in a bar. How much does money matter to her choices?

I’ve said all that before mentioning appearance because I think too many people think looks make a character. A description is NOT a character, friends. It’s probably the least important thing. However, it does matter for a few reasons. It indicates race and nationality, and whether the person is inclined to sports or not. It indicates how often others might be attracted to them.

When describing your characters don’t forget importance of clothing and jewelry. Beyond what we’re born with, consider what the character chooses to change. Has he had plastic surgery? Is she dieting? Do they wear a wig or toupee? All those tell us a lot about this person, just as being bald and proud of it does. How do they dress? How much makeup do they wear? These are all more clues to this personality.

Personally, I consider descriptions to be the most boring part of most books. So this is my personal plea for the use of simile and metaphor for description. He’s as tall as what? As fat as who? Her voice sounds like a… what, exactly? Pretend you’re describing your character to a friend who’s never seen him because that’s exactly what you’re doing.

And remember that, beyond description, characters are best revealed by what they say and what they do.

What's In a Word

Do you have a favorite word you lean on in conversation? We all do – maybe it’s “like” or “well.” Could be “you know” or “um” or even a phrase like “no way.” Well, authors have words and phrases they lean on, too. That’s great in a draft…it's essential to get the story out and on paper, or hard drive as the case is today. Don’t even worry about them at that point.

Then you have to be relentless as you scour your manuscript. How many times do you start a sentence with “but” or “and,” “however” or “although”? Another word many of us are guilty of using as a prop is “that.” Use the “Find” command sometime and take a look at how many times these words sneak into a manuscript.

Don’t get me wrong -- sometimes one of those is exactly the right word choice, but many times those words creep in because our minds are zipping along as we write. It gives us a moment to get the sentence flowing as we go. Kind of like that “um” partway thru a spoken sentence. It seems invisible until you start to hear the other person saying it, like, you know, every couple of sentences. Then that’s all you can, like, hear! You start to sort of tune out…or focusing on it instead of what the person is saying!

So, take a few minutes and check out the repeats in your next completed first draft. Don’t be too worried too at what you find – we all do it as we write.

Next step, though, is to start striking through those handy lean-ons relentlessly.

Libby McKinmer
Romance with an edge
www.libbymckinmer.com
On Twitter, Facebook and GoodReads, too