I’m at a writers conference today, so I’ve pulled out a great guest post from the archives, which originally appeared as part of the writing resources series.

by Samantha Clark

I love going to writing conferences. There’s something so inspiring about sitting in a large of group of people who all share your same passion. No matter whether it’s a big conference or small, both have their advantages.

My first writing conference was a biggie. Back in 2007, I was living in Los Angeles and attended the big summer conference for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators there. Three days of information, inspiration, fun, jokes, motivation and creativity. I sat in the big and small gatherings and soaked up everything I could, every word from the speakers as well as the every ounce of excitement in the air. By the end of the conference, I was hooked. It was like drinking a giant Slurpee cup of creativity, and I wanted more.

Since then, I’ve moved away from Los Angeles, but my love of conferences has continued. In my current home near Houston, I’ve found wonderful single-day conferences that give me just as much as that big summer conference, with the added benefit of a more intimate setting. At these smaller conferences, there’s much easier access to the speakers. Generally, at the summer conference, the attendance is so huge, the speakers are swarmed after every appearance. But smaller events are much more relaxed. Our annual Houston SCBWI conference holds a dinner where attendees can chat with the invited speakers over fajitas. What better way is there to get to know someone?

From conferences, you obviously get access to the information the speakers provide, which could be anything from an editor telling you what they’re looking for to an agent giving query letter writing tips. But there are lots of other benefits:

• Friends. Writing is solitary, and conferences give us an opportunity to get together with other people like us.
• Writing help. As well as the writing tips speakers often give, conferences usually offer critiques with professionals, including agents, editors and published authors. These usually require additional payment, but they can be worth.
• Contacts. Conferences are a chance to meet agents and editors you might work with later. Writers have made connections with editors at conferences and later sold them a book or been asked to write on assignment.
• Inspiration. Every writer has bouts of doubt and times when our creativity pool dries up. Going to conferences is like getting a shot of inspiration in the arm. This is a business of passionate people, and that passion brims over to attendees at conferences. Without fail, even if I haven’t heard anything new at a conference (which is rare), I’ve always left feeling energized, and that was worth the price of entry.

How do you prepare for a conference?

1. First, research the conferences in your area. The SCBWI website has a list of the group’s events, but you can find others with an Internet search. Research the speakers and make sure they’re people you’d like to hear. There’s no point going to a conference focusing only on picture books if you write novels.
2. Once you know which conferences you want to attend – and can afford – register early. If you plan to get a critique, registering early means you’re more likely to get the person you want. Also, many smaller conferences sell out, so registering early secures your space.



3. A few days before the conference, research the speakers again. The conference will have their basic bio, but look around on the Internet for interviews and read their blog, if they have one. Jot down some notes in the notebook you’re planning to take. This way, when you see them speak, you’ll have a better idea of who they are.
4. If there are any speakers you would like to talk to, perhaps to ask a question or just compliment them on one of the books they’ve worked on that you’ve read, seek out this person in a nice, polite way (i.e. not in the bathroom, not while they’re eating unless you happen to be sitting at their table, and not interrupting their conversation). If they’re talking to another attendee, stand by and wait your turn. Once you have their attention, introduce yourself, tell them what you love about their work, ask them your question, then thank them and say goodbye. Keep it short, sweet and professional. In my experience, speakers are more than happy to talk to attendees as long as it’s on a professional level.

Going to conferences can be a very rewarding way to boost your writing life. Take advantage of the conferences offered in your area, and when you get home, your brain will be begging you to start writing.

About the author
Samantha Clark writes middle-grade fiction and blogs about writing, children’s books and writing conferences at DayByDayWriter.wordpress.com. You can subscribe to DayByDayWriter to read more.

Photo credits: SCBWI conference—Rita Crayon Huang; click—Jordan McCollum

Each book, each character and even each scene requires you to make choices about what POV to use. If you have more than one POV character in a scene—as you will in many of your most pivotal scenes—you have to decide which character should control the scene, or whose eyes your reader gets the scene through. The way you use the POV in a scene and in a whole book affects the way your characters and your story are perceived. It’s important to get it right!

Today we’ll look at one aspect of POV: choosing the right POV character.

Choosing POV Characters

Sometimes it’s very easy to pick who to use as the viewpoint character—they’re our only viewpoint character in the scene. But quite often, we’ll have more than one viewpoint character in a scene and we’ll have to choose between them. Whose scene is this?

First, you must choose which characters need to be viewpoint characters. I will guarantee that 98% of the time, not all of your characters need to be viewpoint characters. And many, many successful books—even series—have been written with a single viewpoint character (and not even one those third-person omniscient setting-the-groundwork-when-the-POV-character-can’t-be-here scenes).

Most of the time, I love to get multiple characters’ takes and perceptions. In general (since I’m writing romance), I need both the hero’s and the heroine’s perspective. I sometimes need another POV character—the villain to add the necessary sense of suspense and urgency to the book, or to make his/her agenda clear. Maybe even a sidekick character’s POV (because he would be privy to information the hero would only be able to receive second-hand—and, thus, boringly).

Once you’ve figured out which characters need POV scenes, now you have to decide which ones get which scenes (when they’re together, of course). There are a few standards I’ve seen for this, and you can use whatever works for you.

The character with the most to lose

This is the general advice: pick the character with the highest stakes in the scene. Your readers will be more emotionally engaged if we’re viewing the scene through the eyes of the person with the highest emotional investment.

The character with the most to convey

I’ve recently found it much easier to settle on a viewpoint character when one of my characters has more information that he or she needs to tell the reader so that the scene will make sense, or to convey a sense of dramatic irony (where the reader knows something the characters don’t).

I love how one of my writing friends, Marnee Bailey, described this difference in talking about one of her works:

I tried to write [the black moment, the pivotal low point in a romance] from my heroine’s point of view, but she was the one who was really hurting in the scene (she already knew she was in love with the hero, she’s just waiting on his thick-headed self to get with the program).  Writing her pain first hand was a little too overdone.  So, I switched and wrote it in my hero’s point of view.

It worked for me (I hope) because my hero acted like a real jerk.   He said some things that, as one of the pirates pointed out, would have been hard to forgive if we hadn’t seen his motivation from his perspective.

Then we watch my heroine’s pain from his POV, where it’s still apparent, but not so hit-you-over-the-head as to be overdramatic (I hope).

At the end, I cried, railing at him for being so stubborn and trying to tell her that it would be alright if she just didn’t give up on him.

Hopefully that’s how my reader feels about it after their read as well.

The character with the most important—or hardest to understand—response to the events of the scene often makes the best POV character.

For another example, also in a black moment, I had both of my POV characters present, the hero and the heroine. Originally, I thought I would use my hero’s POV as he obtained a confession from the bad guy without realizing the heroine was observing him. Having the reader surprised right along with him seemed too good to resist.

But when I got to that scene, I realized that the hero didn’t have all the information we needed to convey—and it was going to be very tough to establish why the heroine was there, when she got there, etc. Basically it was going to be tough to make it believable.

While my heroine’s emotional response was obvious in the context, it was better to have her POV, to set up her watching the confession, to track the events of the scene along with her. The bad guy doing the confessing might have had the most information—and the most to lose—it was the heroine that had the most to show to the reader.

The character we just don’t get

This is similar to the previous, but it goes beyond the events of the scene. If you have a character whose core beliefs are incompatible with your audience’s—whether this character is a hero or a villain—you might need more of their POV to help win the reader over.

This also affects the POV “person” you use. I’ve found that some things—such as character’s beliefs that we wouldn’t agree with—are much less convincing in the impassive reporting of third person than the more impassioned first person. In third person, arguments and thoughts rooted in a belief system we don’t agree with on its face—whether that’s communism or ritualistic human sacrifice—may seem so patently ridiculous that we can’t sympathize with the character.

In first person, if it’s done right, the character doesn’t necessarily convince the reader to agree with him or her, but we can see this is something the character truly believes, and we can at least grant them that.

Choosing the right POV character for a scene can be tricky—in fact, just last week I was working on a short story, and while I knew the basic premise very well, I just couldn’t settle on the right POV: character, person, tense—anything! So I ended up writing the story four ways (I know, I’m crazy) and handing it off to a trusted writing friend who could be impartial. (She gave me great advice!) Sometimes, you just have to try it more than one way, or the wrong way, to understand how to do it right.

What do you think? How do you choose your POV character for each scene?

Photo credits: Conflict Diamonds—Markus Thorsen;
Perspectives, not truth—Alex de Carvalho; If you’re not confused—Brian Talbot

Yep, I have character arcs on the brain. It happens every time I finish a book and think about how I can better align the internal journey and external plot climaxes. (I think I have it for this last one. Still have to hammer out the details.)

Since we revisited character arcs last week, it seemed like the perfect time to compile the PDF of the series, including last week’s post. Even though I didn’t look back at the original series as I was writing the new post, I was surprised at how well the new material meshed, expanding on some topics I mention in passing.

So if you’re having trouble figuring out how to found, form or finish your character’s emotional journey, check out the PDF version of Character Arcs!

More free PDF writing guides.

Photo by Riccardo Romano

Part two . . . sort of

Character arcs are vital in most fiction. We read to connect with people emotionally as they grow and change on the journey. We’ve already covered character arcs in a series once, but I’ve been thinking about and working with and digging deeper with character arcs since then, so I collected all that (and others’ thoughts, too) to put them together.

This “omnibus edition” post covers some of the same topics as the series, but this is a new look at character arcs, digging deeper into some of the things we didn’t cover the first time around. Hooray!

Why characters should arc

In most fiction, character arcs are a vital element. A character who doesn’t arc (with specific exceptions) isn’t nearly as fulfilling to read about. In Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwritding You’ll Ever Need, Blake Snyder describes character arcs (italics in original, bold mine):

Arc is a term that means “the change that occurs to any character from the beginning, through the middle, and to the end of each character’s ‘journey.’” . . . But when it’s done well, when we can chart the growth and change each character undergoes in the course of a movie, it’s a poem. What you are saying in essence is: This story, this experience, is so important, so life-changing for all involved—even you, the audience—it affects every single person that is in its orbit. From time immemorial, all good stories show growth and track change in all its [sic] characters.

Why is this?

I think the reason that characters must change in the course of a movie [or book] is because if your story is worth telling, it must be vitally important to everyone involved. This is why set-ups and payoffs for each character have to be crafted carefully and tracked throughout. (135)

Character arcs aren’t just nice for readers—they show that the events of our story are worth reading about. The impact of the story is shown in the character arc, almost like a corollary to the “why does this story matter?” question that few people voice, but most people at least subconsciously wonder.

Answer that question, and your fiction doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

Finding your character arc

There are dozens or perhaps hundreds of character journeys for arcs. (Alicia Rasley lists a bunch with some tips on plotting out that journey.) Think about how your character grows and changes over the course of the story. It doesn’t have to be a drastic 180-degree U-turn all the time. For example:

Romance fiction, and most of its sub-genres, the hero is also the villain to the heroine. He’s a grump or a tyrant or a renegade. Maybe he’s the Rochester to your Jane Eyre, a married and bitter man to a sweet and innocent, though world-weary, ingenue. The point of the book is for him to “get” the heroine, which means the hero’s villainy must be “overcome.”

The hero has to change—not from actually evil to good, but from rude/inattentive/not interested/self-absorbed to its opposite.

But plotting this out from the beginning isn’t the only way to do this.

Developing the character arc

You can find your character’s arc at any point in the writing and editing process. When I first began writing, I didn’t give much thought to character arcs. If they got in there, it was either a coincidence or something I added in revisions.

After that, about the time I wrote the first series on this topic, I figured out the character arcs halfway through a first draft, and I often stopped to go back and adjust what I had.

Lately I’ve thought more and more about my character’s arcs before starting my story, and that helps me to the broad strokes in there. It does make a big difference in the quality of the first draft—my most recent book was <7 weeks from idea to finished novel, but it has those broad strokes. But, as always, there’s plenty of work left to be done in the next draft.

In a guest post on Writer Unboxed, A. Victoria Mixon talks about rethinking your character arcs and their motivation after the first draft, starting with the end of the book:

Now, what deep inside this protagonist is pitted against them in that Climax? Not external forces—internal. What do they love and believe that’s irreconcilable with their first need? What’s the equal-but-opposite fire in their belly in this Climactic scene that’s fighting back?

Remember to focus only upon the climax scene of the Climax. . . .

Now we’ll ask ourselves, “Exactly how could these two needs have gotten this protagonist into this dreadful calamity?”

Yep, it’s okay to find or or develop or change your character arc after you write the book. Sometimes it’s easiest that way: you see what your character learned and then go back to the beginning to make it match the conclusion better. (Victoria’s article talks about circling back through your character’s internal journey to the beginning of the book. Deep stuff!)

Testing out your character arc beginning

If you don’t plot out your character arcs in advance (or even if you do), the beginning of the character arc often needs the most work. We have to match and offset the ending and make the change as dramatic as possible. Or, turning to Save The Cat by Blake Snyder again, use the “Take a Step Back” principle (emphasis mine):

Take a Step Back applies to all your characters. In order to show how everyone grows and changes in the course of your story, you must take them all back to the starting point. Don’t get caught up in the end result and deny us the fun of how they get there. We want to see it happen. To everyone.

This is just one more example of how movies [and novels] must show the audience everything: all the change, all the growth, all the action of a hero’s journey. By taking it all back as far as possible, by drawing the bow back to its very quivering end point, the flight of the arrow is its strongest, longest and best. The Take a Step Back rule double-checks this.

If you feel like your story or any of its characters isn’t showing us the entire flight, the entire journey… Take a Step Back and show it all to us. We want to see it. (156)

Dig deeper in the beginning and show a big change! If your hero learns to show appreciation to his wife in the course of the story, don’t just have him be somewhat rude to her and pay more attention to the TV than her (not intended as a hint, Ryan). Have him be a total jerk.

Taking it a step back also makes the middle of the character journey more challenging for the writer—but if it’s handled well, it makes the whole journey more realistic for the reader.

The middle of the character arc

I think most writers have trouble with middles, and character arcs are no exception. The basic guideline here is to show the character making real choices between the beginning point and the ending point, and gradually moving toward the ending point—without making a full commitment to change yet

Or, as Alicia Rasley says in her article “Changes and Choices: External Action and Internal Reaction“:

If we keep presenting him with the choice to move closer or farther away from family [the character journey she's using as an example (definitely worth reading!)], and make each choice an authentic one, then his growth will come out of his own actions and decisions. It’s best to make every response somehow different, and then assemble them in the order of emotional risk (no big deal to build his own house instead of one with them… but very big emotional risk to decide he’s responsible for the kid’s welfare at the end). But they have to be real choices, and he has to make real decisions and take real action.

This gradual change shows the journey better than thinking or pontificating about it could. (Though those are both part of the process, usually.) It also is a great opportunity to show the characters’ resistance and reluctance, making the final choice even more satisfying (and HELLO, CONFLICT!).

Ending the character arc

For me, this is the trickiest part, and the source of the biggest challenges and revelations I’ve had in the last couple years. There are two aspects to the end of a character arc: the climax and the rest of the dénouement.

The climax

At the climax of the story, we have to do more than just defeat the external plot forces. We either have to show that the character has learned his/her lesson and can use it to defeat the bad guy, or force the character to make the BIG choice to change, to take a leap of faith into the U-turn, post-arc state.

And that really affects how your climax goes.

I’ll give you an example: in a MS I wrote last year, the heroine’s journey was one from disbelief to belief. The external plot had to do with bad guys chasing them and a physical confrontation with a psycho (obviously this is vague, but it’ll take too long to explain the rest, you know?).

In the first draft, the hero and heroine work together to defeat the psycho and the bad guys. And that was it.

I knew it wasn’t as good as it could have been. I needed the external and internal plots to hit their high points at the same time. That balance is HARD. After pondering and brainstorming, I finally found a way to bring those to stories to a head at the same time: I had the psycho challenge the heroine about what she believed, telling her she was foolish to believe in the hero (who is separated from her right then). But despite the imminent danger, she still chooses to believe and throws her lot in with him instead of compromising

The rest of the dénouement

After the climax, it’s still important to show the results of the characters’ final choice, to confirm that change is real and permanent, not just an act of momentary convenience to beat the bad guy at a critical moment.

I really like how Alicia Rasley talks about this, again from her article “Changes and Choices: External Action and Internal Reaction“:

One last tip– readers will believe in the internal change only if they see it manifested on the external level. So we need some last little event that affirms the choice he made to become part of this family [the specific journey in the example]. Maybe the last sight we have of him is surrounded by the kids as they work together move his hut across the stream into the family compound– and Julie helping to set the hut on a new foundation.

We have to show that the character has changed, even if it’s a one-line post script.

Character arcs are challenging, and sometimes we leave them to chance. But if we execute our character arcs well, they make our fiction fulfilling to our characters—and our readers.

What do you think? How do you write character arcs? What are your favorite character journeys to read?

Photo credits: character arc logo—Ruth and Dave; St. Louis Arch—Matt;
starting line—Jayne and D; finish line—Aaron

It’s not just for research (and procrastinating) anymore!

Back in November, we ran a whole series on little ways to psych yourself up for your story. Since then, I’ve found another way I really like.

I recently switched my browser from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome. It’s a few months in and I’m still getting used to it, but there is at least one feature I really like: an add-on called Incredible StartPage. Whenever you open a new tab or empty web browser, it loads a set of links/information that you might need: your bookmarks, your Chrome apps, your recently closed tabs, a set of notepads, links to your email and calendar, and a picture.

You can use the default picture from Flickr, or you can set up a custom picture. I decided to set up my Incredible StartPage to help fire me up to write. Since I like making covers for my WIPs, I resized the cover for the book I was writing or revising at the time:

Notice the little note to self: Shouldn’t you be working? It shows up every time I open another tab for more research.

There are lots of other ways to use your browser to get you back to writing. When I was on Firefox, I used an extension called LeechBlock to limit the time I spent on time-sucking websites. I loved how flexible it was: you could allot yourself a certain number of minutes per hour to use your web-based email or social networking sites (you specify which sites to block!), pick the days of the week, select the time of day, or block certain sites altogether!

I haven’t tried any of the similar apps in Chrome, but StayFocusd comes highly recommended.

What little tricks do you use to get excited for your story every day?

PS: a special reveal today. This month as part of the Authors Incognito March-a-thon, I set a goal to write a new book. And of course, I made a cover. So here’s a tiny peek at the book I should be finishing tomorrow!