Archive: Question of the Month

copyright 1998 by Alicia Rasley

Ask me anything.... about writing, that is. It's all I know.

uestion:

Need your help!!!! I was taught in writing, an italacized word must not be entered as such. An underline beneath it designates the fact it is to be italacized. I entered a contest and the judge wrote beside each of my underlined statements: "This must be italacized. " Which is the correct way? Line beneath or italacize? I'm about to send a manuscript off and now I'm wondering if I have to do it over.

June

pencil

Answer:

June, I always italicize italics. I know that some people say to underline, but I think that's a holdover from the typewriter days, when you couldn't italicize. It was a way to tell the typesetter to italicize the words.
But obviously we don't need to use that anymore, since we can just italicize. So that's what I do-- that doesn't make it right! But it is logical. :) I think readers mentally emphasize underlined words differently than they mentally emphasize italics, so I like to reserve underlining for times only underlining will do (such as when I'm shouting).
Not that it will make any difference in the end product. The copy editor goes through and scrawls "ital" next to the words-to-be-italicized either way.
I love questions that can be answered, "Do what you want!"

Alicia

uestion:

How do I know if my book is mainstream women's fiction, or just romance? What's the difference?

Priscilla

nswer:

Priscilla,

Mainstream women's fiction are novels aimed at women, obviously, usually though not always featuring a central woman character whose life is changed by the events of the plot.

That's pretty broad! It could very well apply to romance novels, right? Well, the lines really are fuzzy, and indeed, romance is a branch of women's fiction. So why don't we ask some questions about your books, and see if it falls into the marketing category of mainstream women's fiction.

(This is, by the way, mostly a marketing category. It has nothing to do with quality or depth or prose style, and the audience isn't necessarily non- romance readers. In fact, most romance readers read mainstream women's fiction, and many romance writers also write MWF. But bookstores will shelve mainstream women's fiction in "general fiction" rather than the romance shelves.)

1) First, does your book center on a woman protagonist? Most MWF novels follow a woman's choices and actions at a crucial time in her life. Some center on a group of women-- two sisters, or five schoolfriends, or a consciousness-raising support group from the 70s-- and treat each as a protagonist in her own section.
This focus on the female character is important but not essential. Women writers like Susan Howatch have written WF novels (her Church of England series) with male protagonists, but very much from a woman's perspective, examining their relationships with parents, children, and lovers.
2) How long is your book? There's no real rule here (and anyway, since the Paper Crisis, the word count of most categories of books has shrunk), but MWF novels tend to be longer than most contemporary category novels-- about 100,000 words or more. The additional space is often devoted to subplots, for example, the protagonist's troubled relationship with her mother, or a friend's struggle to escape an abusive marriage, or a teenager's first love. MWF also tends to spend more time on introspection and description: it doesn't need to be as tightly focused or plotted as a shorter novel.
3) How large is the scope of the book? MWF, because of its greater length, tends to be larger in scope than a romance or other genre story. For example, if the main plot is a thriller, as in one of Joy Fielding's books, there's often another major plot, perhaps the heroine's attempt to find a missing relative or reconstruct her broken marriage. Or there might be several strong subplots, each with their own resolution.
The scope of time and place is also sometimes expanded. WF stories can take place over decades, rather than the few weeks or months that most genre novels occupy. The big epic novels and family sagas are more likely to be shelved with women's fiction than with romance or historical fiction. MWF novels might range across continents as well as decades, and so many different settings might require a larger cast of characters, especially viewpoint characters.

4) If there's a romance, does the man have his own storyline? The major difference between MWF and romance, in my opinion, is usually the man's story. That is, in a romance novel, the man very often has his own journey, his own internal struggles, and he and the heroine work together to solve the external conflict. (Or compete over it... at any rate, the external plot brings them together.) The man is usually a major viewpoint character, and he and the heroine are really "co-protagonists". The story is the story of their journey to each other, and this might involve a mystery or thriller plot-- but they travel with each other towards love (whether they think they want it or not!).

MWF, more frequently, is the woman's story. The man might be there at the end of her journey, rather like a reward for overcoming whatever travails she has had to overcome throughout the story. He does not usually get equal time or have his own internal journey to make during the course of the book (or if he does, he's making it offstage).

Now there are "big romances" or "mainstream romances" which have many hallmarks of women's fiction but focus on the romantic journey as the central plot. Avon publishes books like these: Susan Elizabeth Phillips and CurtissAnn Matlock are good examples. They're often shelved with general fiction, but will be reviewed by the romance magazines and websites.

Some popular MWF writers are Joy Fielding, Anne Rivers Siddon, Diane Chamberlain, Susan Isaacs. They're much more likely to get reviews in mainstream publications, especially newspaper book sections.

I find that the Doubleday Book Club catalog is a good source for exploring the various strains of women's fiction. They feature "big romances" by authors like Nora Roberts, but also sell medical and legal thrillers with women protagonists and many "women coming into their own" mainstream novels.

Just a final point-- especially at the edges, these categories shade into each other, and you'll have the option to choose among publishers. It really does help to find a similar book and track down its editor. I'm working on what's probably a mainstream novel but with a strong romance plot, and will send it to editors who edit both romance and mainstream novels-- there are several. I'll let -them- decide which it is!

Good luck!

Alicia

Question:

I've got a sagging middle, and sit-ups aren't helping! What can I do to get the characters more active?

Holly

Answer:

The middle sags when you have static conflict, when the characters either don't get progressively more emotionally invested in solving the conflict, or they keep trying the same way to solve that conflict.
So think about "rising conflict". How can you make the conflict demand more emotional involvement? More LIFE involvement? Can you make each conflict-response more dangerous for the protagonist? And yet fully motivated?

Can you make the internal conflict interfere with solving the external conflict easily?
Say that the heroine's conflict is that she's a reporter and is doing a series on the child ad litem guardian system in the courts. You can first ratchet it up a bit by making the story important to her career. Maybe it's the first multi-story series she's been offered, and she really wants to do well on it. Already, from the first chapters, there's some emotional investment-- her identity as a competent, tough reporter on the rise is at stake.

Then she gets into research and meets some of the guardians and hears their stories. She starts feeling sympathy for one, who is burned out on the job but thinks it's too important to quit. (This could be the Love Interest.) So there's a personal connection that will make this story matter more to her, but will also add a bit of danger: If she's too sympathetic, she might not see the flaws in the system and won't write a really objective article.

Then she goes to a hearing to see how the guardians operate, and sees a little kid assigned to foster care, and how sad he is, and it connects to some internal issue she has-- maybe she's longing to have a child but can't find a man to help, or she's infertile, or she's had several miscarriages and can't believe that anyone lucky enough to have one could mistreat a child.

Or maybe it brings up memories of her chaotic childhood with an alcoholic parent, and how she used to long for a heroic guardian angel to come along to help her. This might make her worry about her sympathetic response to the guardian ad litem-- is she seeing him as a rescuer of her Child Within?

All this internal makes it harder to continue with the article. If she really gets into it, she's going to feel pain she doesn't want to feel, but if she doesn't get into it, she won't write a true story, one that will help those children.

The next step would be the one that gets her to the point of no return, the one where she has to make a choice that gets her so stuck in here that she can't ever go back to the person she was before the conflict came into her life. Maybe the guardian asks her to hide a kid, or conceal something important to the story: to get involved on some drastic level. Whatever that choice is, it will plunge her into the crisis somehow....

and then you're into the last third of the book and the reader is awfully worried about her, and you don't have to worry about the sagging middle anymore.

Just keep the stakes rising as she goes further into writing the story-- emotionally and actually, she gets more involved as she acts upon the conflict. You're aiming at that crisis, when she is forced into a choice that shows who she is-- or rather who she's become, since she started this story.

Good luck!

Alicia

Question:

How many secondary characters are too many secondary characters?

June

Answer:

June, I have to answer this way: Put in the characters the plot needs. Don't put in any others. :) That is, unless you put your protagonist on a desert island, you can't avoid secondary characters. But distinguish between what Jenny Crusie calls "spear-carriers"-- the guy who brings the coffee, the receptionist who lets her into the office-- and characters who because of their positions or actions are instrumental in the plot-- true secondary characters.

Spear-carriers get very little notice. They're generally not named or described beyond a line or two. You should NEVER go into their viewpoint. Why?

First because you don't want to clutter up the story with stray viewpoints and descriptions. But also-- our readers are well-trained to take note of anyone who gets more than a couple lines and assume that person is going to return or affect the plot in some way.

What I'd suggest is filter this through the protagonists' viewpoint. We'll experience the world through them anyway. She doesn't notice the receptionist beyond what you'd notice a functionary. (Sure, the receptionist is a real person with a real life, but do we care?) So she doesn't report much about her. The taxi-driver, on the other hand, gets her notice for some reason. Nothing real obvious. Maybe he talks to her a bit more than a cabdriver ought to. Maybe he doesn't seem to know how to drive on the left side of the road (if this is in the British West Indies). Something should register with her.

That'll clue us in to watch out for his return.

As far as your other characters-- come back to that very ruthless rubric. Which of them affect the plot? Do the parents do or say something that accidentally causes a problem? Does the housekeeper turn out to be in league with the villains? If they're mostly just sounding boards (someone for the heroine to talk to), or background, you might combine their functions somewhat, or limit them to a few paragraphs.

But probably the best thing to do is write it out the way it comes to you, extraneous characters and all. Then go back and play down the "spear- carriers" and minor characters. And of course make sure the hero and/or heroine is in nearly every scene and controls the viewpoint as much as possible. Personally I feel that the larger the cast of characters, the tighter the viewpoint hasto be, or we'll lose track of who's in charge.

I frequently end up combining characters after the first draft, just to simplify things. If the heroine has two friends, one who's sarcastic and the other who is supportive, and neither much affects the plot, I merge them into one sarcastic, supportive friend. I also look at the antagonist and see if I really need more than one. I feel, when it comes to villains, less is more. One villain is going to be scarier than three.

Good luck!

Alicia

Question:

How can I make real characters out of an old-fashioned marriage of convenience story?

Amy

Answer:

Amy, the traditional plots still work precisely because they work so well (in talented hands!) to guide characters into intriguing and educational experiences. That is, a traditional plot can make characters grow and change whether they want to or not. Just define the essential conflict that's going to drive the plot, because it's in conflict situations that characters show their true colors... and learn how they have to change.
For example, the marriage of convenience plot produces the conflict "stranger in my bed!" You were once one, yourself, alone. Now you're two, him-and-her, together... and you hardly know this other person! You are stuck in the most intimate of relationships with a stranger, and it's not because you fell madly in love at first sight. It's because for one reason or another it's convenient to be married. That is, you are getting real real close to someone you don't know because of external reasons. In a romance, obviously, the journey must be towards creating internal reasons for this marriage to continue. The endpoint will be some sort of "re-marriage", this time for the right reasons.
But remember that all the normal problems of "getting to know you" will be complicated by the forced intimacy and the coldly pragmatic motivations for it. They will not trust each other, probably, and won't trust their own growing feelings, because trust and feelings make them vulnerable. They've already corrupted the whole meaning of marriage, by marrying without love, so they're likely to regard each step towards true intimacy with suspicion-- is this a trap? But your plot should force them to rely on each other until they can acknowledge their growing closeness-- and earn through their caring actions a true marriage of love.
So there's the overall conflict, and the overall journey.
Now start personalizing. What does each character need to learn before he/she can accept and give love freely? That's the central question which will help you define the true nature of this person.
EXAMPLE: A heroine. First off, think of where you want her to end up. That is, how has she changed by the end of the story? How does she need to change to accept and give love freely?
If she has learned how to ask for what she needs, for example, then you know all sorts of things:
1) You know you'll have to show that this is a lack for her, an issue for her-- at the beginning of the story, she is not good at asking for what she needs. You'll be able to decide why this has happened-- was she so pampered as a child she never had to ask? Or were her parents so weak that she spent her time taking care of their needs and not her own? Or what? Obviously, the woman who was so pampered she never had to ask will have a different route than the one who never asked because she knew the answer would be "no". Which route fits your story plan best?
2) You'll want some scenes early, or at least one, that show her difficulty in asking for what she needs. Maybe she expects him to read her mind (as she might if she'd been pampered) or maybe she just defers to what HE needs and doesn't mention her own (as she might if she was used to giving and not taking). What sort of incident could highlight that? How can that connect to the marriage of convenience plot?
3) You'll have to show the consequences of her not asking for what she needs, and show them escalating in degree. Maybe at first it's just that he chooses a minister for the wedding and she doesn't get the guy she wants. But later it could be that she finds herself living somewhere she doesn't like, associating with people she doesn't like... because she's never asserted herself.
4) At the same time, you'll want to hint that this is the one guy who can help her overcome this... whether by being supportive of her needs, or so utterly blind to them she finally gets so frustrated she starts leaving him little notes. This would happen after the wedding, probably, but you can show the aspect of him earlier-- whatever it is that make him the guy who will help her deal with this.
Then of course, you have to see what works for HIM... what issue he needs to overcome, and work that in too.
Now this is totally character-driven. Presumably whatever reason they had for having to marry will produce its own fuel... conflict and motivation. For example, if they have to marry so that she can escape from the gallows and he can inherit an estate, her criminal past and his disapproving family will provide some external conflict.
But what mostly matters is to think-- what is the purpose of this relationship in their lives? What will it cause them to do and become? Knowing these factors will help you set up events that provide the necessary incentive for the appropriate character change.
I always suggest concentrating on events-- that is, build your scenes around the most dramatic events that you can within the scope of your book. Don't go with "gradual"-- have emotionally significant events. She finds a letter from her dead mother, he coaches a handicapped kid to hit a ball-- keep it within the scope of the book (light/dark, humorous/serious), but don't wimp out with scenes of just dialogue or introspection. Let the event cause dialogue or introspection, but make sure there's something actually happening in each scene, some event that furthers the plot.

Alicia Rasley
rasley@juno.com

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