The small town I live in now is a wonderful community. Each day someone says or does something at the convenience store, the post office, or elsewhere that I will use in a novel. But it is in the more meaningful close relationships in them that lead to complex and nuanced characters on the page with a specificity found in real genuine exchanges. 

A few years ago, I volunteered to coach my seven-year-old son’s Little League team. I’d never coached at any level and was in over my head. So was the other father who volunteered for the first time. We quickly learned that wrangling a dozen seven-year-olds on weeknights when the kids, and we, were exhausted is not easy, even for a Detective-Lieutenant of the Major Crimes Unit who oversees all homicides across Vermont, which the other father is. We’d never met before, but soon learned each other’s careers. He: the state’s lead homicide detective. Me: a “crime writer.” 

As we struggled together with the learning curve of coaching kids, we became friends. I’d ask about his job and he began to offer me ideas for good crime novel plots. I’d ask how to handle a certain murder case in a book and he gave me the answers. What I learned from him was invaluable. Not just procedure and the law, but about him as a father and husband, a high school soccer game emcee, youth baseball coach, and a homicide detective who sees the ugliest side of human behavior.  

One Friday night after a practice, our families were heading to the parking lot and he said, “See you at the game tomorrow.” But before we got in our vehicles he got a call, said a few words, and hung up. He wouldn’t be able to coach the next day. He’d been called to a murder investigation. His daughter was upset, his wife was disappointed. The murder had taken place hours away in northern Vermont. He had to head out straight away. He had a go bag ready in his truck. It was a three-hour drive north to the crime scene, and once he got there he would spend several, 16-hour days before he came home. His job meant leaving his family for an indeterminate amount of time, without notice, anytime at all times, whether it was 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve or while on vacation in Maine for the 4th of July.  

Another time when we were picking up our kids at school, he said he had to head out right after. When I said it must be hard dealing with violence and murder, he said what was hard right then was finding a babysitter for the next few days, and someone to pick his daughter up and drop her off at school because his wife’s schedule didn’t allow it. He had to find a mom and pop motel to stay in for three days up north in rural Vermont. It was supposed to snow hard, making a three-hour drive a treacherous five-hour drive.  

These, and many more practical real-life considerations inform how I write detectives now. I have a genuine insight into the pragmatic and emotional challenges and stresses, and the coping skills needed to navigate them and a family and small-town life. It’s not even information you can get in an interview and definitely not by just doing research. It’s made my characters richer and more realistic. 

When I was working on the early draft of Remote: The Six, my novel that’s out now, a friend asked me casually about it and I told him it involved FBI agents and I had no clue what I was doing regarding the FBI. Well, he had a friend who knew two career FBI special agents. He set it up for us to speak. They are a married couple with long careers as Special Agents. I was very fortunate. They spent hours on the phone with me and answered every question I had about their profession, from the gear and weaponry used to surveil and swarm a house in very specific situations, to chain of command, warrants and flak jackets, hi-tech surveillance and going undercover, and what their ordinary family lives are like and how their careers impact them, and how real life impacts their careers. Without randomly talking to this friend one day, I’d never have found these two particular agents who were so generous and specific. They made Lukas Stark, the FBI agent and protagonist of Remote, authentic and believable in a way I could never have done with my imagination or online research.  

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Another, darker, instance where community gave me insight into believable characters was when a close childhood friend robbed a Denver bank at gunpoint and fled in his vehicle. He was chased by a CNN helicopter and the police. This was the late 1980s. It was the first live fugitive chase in history. While I was watching it unfold, I had no idea the fugitive was my friend. He ran down and killed an officer going 80 MPH, then crashed his vehicle. He attempted to kidnap a mother and her baby and commandeer her car but she got away as he fired his handgun at her. He took an elderly man hostage and had him drive. The helicopter eventually cornered the truck in a parking lot and my friend was shot 13 times and killed, on live TV.  

I had no idea this was my friend until after he was killed and they showed his mugshot and said his name. He’d escaped a Texas prison where he was serving a life sentence for kidnapping. I had no idea about that either. This friend had always been an easy going, charming, and funny teenager when I knew him. A good friend. Generous and down to earth. Athletic and handsome. Ever since then, I’ve explored what happens along the way to turn some people to violence and crime.  

In this case, I learned a traumatic and horrific event happened to him regarding his father’s suicide before he moved to our neighborhood. This stuck with me my whole life. It gives me great insight into how I write certain criminals whose backgrounds are traumatic and very hard to escape, who would not be criminals at all if not for that trauma that triggered it years prior.  

Every day, everywhere we writers go in our communities, the people we meet, every friend and co-worker and stranger, every fellow citizen is an opportunity to discover how a person’s voice and mannerisms and beliefs and appearance can help create realistic and nuanced characters to inhabit the communities in your fiction. 

The post The Character Next Door: How to Tap Into Relationships and Communities to Create Realistic Characters appeared first on Writer's Digest.

You are half of the relationship. If you don’t know what you want, your partner sure won’t. What do you believe in? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Your dreams? Spend time reflecting and share your thoughts with your partner so she can know you better too.

2. Get healthy. 

Know that hurtful baggage you’re carrying around from your last relationship? Dump it. Get counseling, take the time to forgive, contemplate your life … do what’s necessary to bring a healthy you into the new relationship. You deserve that and so does your partner.

3. Love is a verb. 

Okay, it’s also a noun, but when it comes to a relationship, we need to treat it as a verb. It’s active. It’s washing dishes at the end of a long day. It’s being there for your partner when you don’t feel like it. When that kind of love works both ways, it’s a wonderful thing.

(How to Write a Love Poem.)

4. Your partner is going to mess up. 

It’s not an if, but a when. If the apology is sincere and there’s an effort to change (and the behavior wasn’t heinous), you’ll need to learn how to forgive and forget—which means no fair throwing it back in his face next time you’re upset.

5. You are going to mess up. 

Learn how to deliver a heartfelt apology that doesn’t place blame or justify your behavior. Go ahead. It doesn’t hurt too much. Setting things right can feel so good—and foster healthy relationship habits that sustain you for many years to come.

6. Conflict can make you a better person. 

Did your partner let you down? Did you let yourself down? What can you learn from the experience to make the road smoother next time? After your next argument is resolved, take a moment to reflect on what you can each do better next time. Then put it into practice.

7. Communication is key. 

If you have a legitimate complaint, speak up—but not when tempers are flaring. Choose a time when you’re both calm, and state your grievance in a non-threatening way. Focus on the way the behavior makes you feel and aim for a resolution you can both live with.

8. Listen. 

Your partner may have a grievance now and then too. Or maybe she just needs to vent. Put your book down and listen with the same focus you’d want. Resist the urge to try and solve her problem unless that’s what she’s asking for.

9. Make time for each other daily. 

Put down your cell phone—or better yet, turn it off—during meals and other connection times. Be deliberate about setting aside time together or other priorities will crowd in, and soon you’ll wonder who the person across the breakfast table even is.

10. Have fun together. 

Is there a hobby you both enjoy? An activity or sporting event? Life is hard. A little fun and laughter can go a long way toward lightening the load. Plus these happy moments have a way of making you remember just why you fell in love in the first place. And that’s a win for both of you.

Check out Denise Hunter’s Before We Were Us here:

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(For more on the way Lolita has been recast in pop culture, listen to the wonderful 10-episode Lolita podcast hosted by Jamie Loftus, recorded in 2020, in which she traces the journey of literary character to cultural icon in film, TV, music, and fashion.)

In a more critical condemnation of the novel’s content Rebecca Solnit concluded in her 2015 essay “Men Explain Lolita to Me,” why including the novel in any canon of required reading was problematic: “[Because] You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us.”

In my novel, Daughter of a Promise, I retell of the legend of David and Bathsheba. Originally printed in the second Book of Samuel in the Bible, it is a rather succinct story of another controversial coupling that has influenced readers for thousands of years. It has been the subject of many plays and even famously dramatized in a 1951 film starring Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward. Was David abusing his power in summoning the beautiful young woman he saw bathing from his rooftop? Was Bathsheba a temptress? Rabbis have been debating for centuries as to whether the relationship was consensual. 

Check out Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg’s Daughter of a Promise here:

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However, in the Bible there is no room made for Bathsheba’s voice, leaving me, and I would think most female readers, yearning for her point of view. Did she desire David, did she have a choice when it came to having sex with the great king? The plot intensifies after their first liaison, but we are denied Bathsheba’s thoughts and reactions, even when her baby dies at seven days old. To address the very thing Solnit found so problematic, I needed to write a version of Bathsheba who could not be silenced and was anything but disposable.

I turned the tale into a modern one, set in the high-stakes world of investment banking where David is the powerful dealmaker in Mergers and Acquisitions and Betsabé Ruiz is a recent college graduate and analyst. In order to inform my understanding of the attraction between a woman and a man with a 30-year age difference I observed a handful of couples but also read various novels and memoirs. 

Unlike Lolita, those I chose were penned by women and, for the most part, written in the first person. Although any compilation of books featuring this archetypical relationship should include Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brönte, and Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, I am focusing here on contemporary works, those having to reconcile with the feminist movement and #MeToo.

Asymmetry, by Lisa Halliday

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Although this is a novel in three distinct parts, I include it in this round-up because of the first section, which is rumored to closely approximate the author’s sexual liaison with Philip Roth. Offering a meaningful glimpse into a young woman’s world, the novel explains why a romantic relationship between people of disparate generations might come to be. He is her mentor as well as her fan. She appreciates his quirky intellectualism. The novel destigmatizes their age difference, emphasizing the fact that every relationship is unique and can’t be judged from the outside.

My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell

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In this haunting novel, a young woman is seduced by a boarding school teacher who makes her feel special. She continues, as an adult, to feel “one of a kind” with this man despite the fact several other women are making allegations against him. This protagonist narrator is certainly unreliable and her mental gymnastics—her justifications, her despair, her jealousy and anger—are masterfully written. This story is a testament to the fact that relationships, for better or worse, shape us.

Timeless: Love, Morgenthau, and Me, by Lucinda Franks 

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A work of literary memoir in which Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Franks writes of her marriage to Manhattan DA, Robert Morgenthau. She was 26 and he was 53. The insights this memoir offers regarding how such different types of people, he the establishment and she anti-, form a bond that grows and endures. This novel was eye-opening as much as it felt relatable.

My Last Innocent Year, by Daisy Alpert Florin 

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A campus novel where the protagonist, Isabel, has an affair with her professor that will have ramifications throughout her life. Isabel is not a perfect girl. She is sympathetic, yes, but makes some bad choices and behaves in ways she later regrets. How refreshing to read about a young woman who doesn’t always do the right thing. One of the great things about contemporary novels that explore sex and romance from the woman’s point of view is the permissibility of female desire.

Vladimir, by Julia May Jonas 

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The protagonist is a 58-year-old female English professor married to the former head of the department in a small college in upstate New York. The action begins with the husband being relieved of his duties after eight former students accuse him of sexual impropriety. The telling occurs at a moment in time when the unnamed protagonist is coming unhinged, ultimately hatching a plan to kidnap and seduce an attractive young, male professor. Jonas writes with excellent nuance, the novel serving as a commentary on modern-day contradictions around sex and power dynamics. 

The post Beyond Lolita: 5 Books Showing Relationships With Age Gaps appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How to Write a Romance Novel: Keys to Conflict.)

The characters include the numerous people who live and work at Ravenswood, the inhabitants of the nearby village of Boscombe and the surrounding countryside, and family and friends from more distant places. The seven-part format allows me to individualize a good number of these people as they develop over the 15-year span of the series and interact with the main characters. Consistency is important here. They must remain essentially the same people in each book.

This is especially true of the family members, each of whom will be a minor character in six of the books and the romantic lead in one, a tricky balancing act. Devlin Ware, the earl’s heir, is hero of the first book, followed in the second by his sister Philippa, then by his half-brother, Ben Ellis, then by his mother, the now-widowed Clarissa, Dowager Countess of Stratton. Nicholas, Owen, and Stephanie’s stories remain to be told. As the series grows, I have to take particular care over the development of these characters. It will be too late when it comes time to write their own love stories to change anything significant in their past, no matter how much I wish I could do so, for those details will have appeared in already published books. Although I have little idea of their stories in advance, I need to shape them into the people I believe I want them to be in their own love stories. It is all part of the endless challenge (and joy) of writing.

The whole of the writing process is stimulating, especially as it relates to the couple at the heart of each book, for the development of character and the growth of a powerful love relationship always go hand in hand with me. Two people, very different from each other, must grow from indifference or even hostility, through liking and friendship to falling in love, and ultimately to the fullness of lasting and unconditional love. Happily-ever-after is not enough in itself. The reader must be left with the conviction this couple shares the sort of bond that will last a lifetime and even beyond.

How do I set about accomplishing all this convincingly? Readers must be drawn into the world of the story and into the lives and minds and hearts and very souls of the two lovers. They need to be emotionally engaged to the degree that the real world recedes around them, and in imagination they almost become these lovers—both of them, for the hero and heroine are of equal importance to me.

The characters, then, must seem like real people with whom the reader can relate and empathize. They cannot simply be cardboard figures with little depth beyond some life history and personality traits I have given them in advance. They must have all the complexities we know from ourselves and the people around us.

Check out Mary Balogh’s Always Remember here:

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One way to delve deep into character and pull the reader in emotionally is through a careful use of point of view, that is the eyes and mind through which a particular episode of the story is being told. It is possible to narrate the whole story in the first person, told by one of the lovers, though in that case the events can be experienced only through the mind and emotions of that one character (just as in our own lives). I prefer to use what I call third person deep interior point of view. I alternate between the hero and heroine, telling one episode from his point of view and another from hers. This way the reader gets to experience the story through the minds and emotions and viewpoints of both main characters, though not at the same time.

If you think about it, everything that happens in our lives has an emotional component. We are the ones who experience everything that happens to us and in the world around us, and everything that happens is colored by our own character and values and background and emotions. Especially our emotions. Very little happens to us that does not carry some emotions with it. They are everywhere! My aim as a writer is to duplicate this reality with my fictional characters. If their story is told from deep within them, then the reader will be there too, experiencing everything with them and feeling what they feel—living and suffering and loving with them.

Creating this emotional connection of writer, character, and reader is one of the greatest challenges in the writing of a love story. I need to make readers laugh and cry with the characters and feel the whole gamut of human emotions with them—and fall in love with them, as individuals and as a couple.

I find repeatedly as I write that I must stop, go back, and rewrite certain episodes because I have learned more about one of the main characters and need to make the necessary adjustments. I find it impossible to know either one of them well enough until they come alive in the narration itself. Crafting a whole story never comes easily to me, because I am not satisfied until I feel I have a complete understanding of the hero and heroine. I constantly struggle with them until I feel I have uncovered everything there is to know about them.

Sometimes this means discovering where their deepest pain lies hidden. Once I know, then I can set about bringing the characters healing so they can reach the point of being able to both give and accept love in a meaningful relationship. But this must happen for both main characters and involve both. One must never be simply a prop for the other.

Let me illustrate these points with Remember Me, Book 2 of the Ravenswood series, Lady Philippa Ware’s story. In Book 1, Philippa, as a minor character, is a pretty, sunny-natured, uncomplicated girl who is looking forward to leaving the schoolroom, being presented at court during a London Season, marrying a man of suitable rank and fortune, and living happily ever after. But then her father is involved in a public scandal during a summer fete at Ravenswood, when Devlin, his eldest son, discovers him under compromising circumstances with one of their guests and refuses to keep quiet about it. As a result, both Devlin and Ben leave home abruptly and stay away for six years, the countess becomes reclusive, and everything in the seemingly charmed lives of the Wares changes for the worse.

Philippa tries to keep her focus upon the future of which she has long dreamed, but, during a dance in the neighborhood, she overhears the very handsome house guest of one of her neighbors insult her horribly when he learns that she is the daughter of the Earl of Stratton. The guest disappears the next day, but the damage has been done. Philippa loses her confidence, and all her dreams are shattered as she imagines that the family is forever disgraced. She refuses to go to London for a come-out Season and becomes even more reclusive than her mother. Remember Me begins three years later, when Philippa has finally been persuaded to gather up her courage and go to London after all with her now-widowed mother and Stephanie, her younger sister. She is not the sweet innocent she once was. Her dreams are more modest and practical, but she is determined to meet society and perhaps make a decent marriage.

Lucas Arden, Marquess of Roath, has been heir to his grandfather, the Duke of Wilby since the death of his father when he was in his mid-teens. He has been carefully educated to take on the responsibilities of the dukedom when the time comes, and he has remained obedient to that commitment. He loves his grandparents and his sisters, the elder of whom is contentedly married while the younger, Lady Jennifer Arden, has been effectively crippled and wheelchair bound since suffering a severe bout of polio in her childhood. Now the old duke is ailing and has demanded that Lucas marry and produce an heir before he dies. He and the duchess are going to London for the Season to choose an eligible bride for him.

Lucas does not like the plan, but he accepts it. He does, however, go to London ahead of his grandparents in the hope of choosing a bride for himself before one is chosen for him. He is a pleasant, quiet man, who always does his duty but acts from a position of love. When he meets Philippa on the very day of his arrival at a party his aunt and sister are giving, he is strongly attracted to her. It is only when she asks him rather icily when they are alone together for a few minutes if he remembers her that he does remember how he once insulted her, how the friend with whom he was staying was outraged, and how he left abruptly the following morning.

And so begins the love story of these two, against the backdrop of a social Season in London and with the addition of Lucas’s relatives and associates to the cast of characters introduced in Book 1. There is much to know about the characters of Philippa and Lucas and how they will react to circumstances—especially after the stubborn Duke of Wilby sets his heart upon Lucas’s marrying Philippa and will not take no for an answer. There is much Lucas and Philippa must learn about themselves and about each other. Almost everything that is wrong with their lives concerns the other, yet the obvious solution—to stay away from each other—proves to be not so simple, for they seem strangely destined for each other.

In the course of the book, then, they must work out who exactly they are and what they want of life. They must work out what can be forgiven and what cannot. They must learn when capitulation is weakness and when it is strength. They must come to a point at which they not only love each other but trust each other too and are able to give and receive with no conditions and no doubts.

Perhaps most important of all, I have to convince readers that Philippa and Lucas really do belong together. Readers may find it hard to forgive Lucas even after the truth behind that long-ago insult has been revealed. They may consider Philippa weak for forgiving him and marrying him anyway. It is my job to make the reader understand that Lucas is no villain and that Philippa is no weakling. They must be shown that this is indeed a powerful and convincing love story in which two flawed, but basically strong and worthy individuals come together in a love relationship that will stand the test of time.

The post Building Character and Interpersonal Relationships in a Novel Series appeared first on Writer's Digest.

She teaches writing and is a member of the steering committee of New Directions, a writing program for scholars and psychotherapists offered by the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. At Politics and Prose, she co-leads sold out workshops helping writers find the imagery–and language–that is uniquely theirs.

The mother and stepmother of three foodies, she has been married for 38 years to her rye bread co-conspirator, John Melngailis, a retired professor of electrical engineering at the University of Maryland. The couple live, cook, and entertain in Chevy Chase, MD. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

In this post, Michaele explains how she discovered the structure of her memoir, what she rediscovered during the writing process, and more.

Name: Michaele Weissman
Literary agent: Eleanor Jackson, DCL
Book title: The Rye Bread Marriage
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release date: August 15, 2023
Genre/category: Literary Memoir/culinary history
Previous titles: God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee; Deadly Consequences (with Deborah Prothrow Stith); A History of Women in America (with Carol Hymowitz)
Elevator pitch for the book: The Rye Bread Marriage is a memoir that explores the roots of my husband’s obsession with Latvian rye bread; while telling the story of his dramatic wartime childhood; and plumbing the complexities of our marriage with this question in mind: How do partners who are opposites, live together without wringing each other’s necks?

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What prompted you to write this book?

The Rye Bread Marriage found me, as books sometimes do. The title popped into my head one morning as I woke. I didn’t know what it meant. That, after many false starts, I would write a literary memoir exploring the meaning of rye bread and the meaning of marriage, while recounting my husband’s story and my own, was beyond anything I could have imagined when I began.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

John and I traveled to Latvia (with side trips to Estonia and Lithuania) in 2010 and 2012, but it wasn’t till 2013 that I produced a partial, very boring first draft. Only slowly did it dawn on me that I was writing a memoir not a journalistic food narrative.

I wrote many drafts between 2014 and 2018—some of what I wrote (in my opinion) was beautiful, but the whole did not cohere. In 2018, I realized that my problem was structural: My chapters were too long, preventing me from moving nimbly among my three subjects.

Reading Abigail Thomas taught me that when it comes to structure there are no rules. I broke the book down into segments—chapters—of varying length, interweaving longish chapters and very short ones; narrative chapters and chapters in which I commented on my own experience. This enabled me to return time and again to the subject of the bread without getting bogged down.

My agent, the wonderfully patient Eleanor Jackson sent the book out in 2019. It didn’t sell. I rewrote a bit and she sent it out again in 2020, just as the pandemic brought the world to a halt. The book sold in February 2021. Two publishers were interested, and I got a decent deal.

Due to the pandemic and the assiduousness of the Algonquin’s editorial process—the book will be published on August 15, 2023. Happily, this delay meant that I will be able to market the book live, meeting readers in person.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The Rye Bread Marriage is my fourth book, so I had a pretty good sense of the publishing process. I was surprised, however, and delighted by the quality of my editors at Algonquin. The acquiring editor, Abby Muller, was only 26 when she bought this book describing a marriage that has lasted many more years than she has been on this earth.

Despite the differences in our ages, Abby got me and my book. She became its inhouse champion. When Abby was recruited by another publishing house, she made sure that my book, rather than being an orphan, became the property of Algonquin’s brilliant editor in chief, Amy Gash.

Amy was respectful of Abby’s fine editing. I will forever be grateful to Amy, however, for honing in on something I had missed: in several key spots I had glossed over the implication of my own words, my own story, chickening out from fully knowing myself. Amy encouraged me to think again, and I had the brains to take her advice.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Memoir requires a depth of focus, a condensation of language, and a discovery of imagery and structure (the material determines the structure) that go far beyond a simple recounting of facts and a telling of stories. I hadn’t known if I were capable of working at this deep level, until I did it.

The other happy surprise: I rediscovered—and fully owned—my own humor. A million years ago when I was single, I had written humor for Cosmopolitan Magazine: first person humor pieces about my life as a single woman in New York City. Writing funny came naturally, but I felt these magazine pieces only skimmed the surface. I had a sense that someday, when I was a better writer, more able to write in depth, I would return to writing in the first person and writing humor.

And, in fact, that is precisely what happened.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

This is a tough one: Readers get what they get, and I respect that, although sometimes it is a bit surprising. In an ideal universe, I would like readers to come away with a new understanding of and appreciation for the impact of history and of stories on all of our lives. I would like them to understand what it means to be a refugee, a displaced person. I would love it if they were able to view their relationships, all their relationships, with a new understanding of—and tolerance for—psychological complexity. I want them to have a deeper understanding and appreciation of food in general and of bread, this first and most fundamental food, and I would like them to laugh.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Allow yourself to experiment. Allow yourself to play. Understand that overcoming your fear of your own literary insufficiency, is part of the writing process. Work hard, but don’t rush. The book will take as long as it takes.

If you feel stymied. Take writing courses—but only from teachers who know their stuff and are kind. Hang out with other writers when it works for you, but allow yourself to (temporarily) withdraw if that is what you need.

Learn to trust yourself and your own story. Oh and this: Having an agent is great (I am infinitely grateful to Eleanor Jackson), but your agent cannot save your life. By which I mean, you have to find your story by yourself. No one else can do this work for you.

[Click to continue.]

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Most vampire tales are allegories about sex or being marginalized in society. The protagonist is often the vampire or one of their soon-to-be exsanguinated victims. My book, Night’s Edge, changes the protagonist’s relationship with this supernatural entity.

Mia is a 10-year-old girl whose mother contracts a vampiric disease. She is her accomplice. She has no choice in the matter, because she is a child, and a child needs a parent. In turn, Mia’s mother needs HER in order to stay hidden and satiated. She feeds from her daughter’s own veins each night.

Order Liz Kerin’s Night’s Edge today. 

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By changing the relationship our main character has with the vampire in question, I was able to look at this popular trope in a whole new light. Themes about codependency and enmeshed families emerged, something typically reserved for literary fiction and memoir as opposed to vampire lore. But that was the story I wanted to tell. Vampires just so happened to be the vessel.

Flipping the script on relationships can help us, as writers, find a refreshing angle on old tropes. Take the classic haunted house story. Most of the time, our characters abhor it. They want to escape. But what happens if this wicked place was your childhood home, filled with nostalgia and old longings, like in The Haunting of Hill House?

What if returning was the only way you could make sense of the evil that had come to invade your inner world, like the incredible and subversive Tell Me I’m Worthless? What if this house is your salvation and you need it as badly as it needs you? Changing the character’s relationship to the supernatural provides an entirely new way “in.”

Alien invasions are another ubiquitous trope that springs to mind. Films like ET and District 9 offered audiences a distinct and refreshing point of view because they changed the relationship the protagonist had with this otherworldly invader. The alien was a friend who helped a child recapture his lost innocence. A refugee who forced a small-minded man to confront his prejudice (and provided a wealth of commentary on South African apartheid).

Simply put: There’s no reason to avoid writing about the lore you know and love. To keep things interesting, ask yourself about your own unique relationships. What questions are you probing? What needs unpacking? Then, see how those relationships look when you superimpose them upon popular tropes.

Is it an exact science? No way. There are still plenty of tales that use classic archetypes in beautiful, timeless ways. But if you’re looking to turn the tables and make it personal in the process, ask yourself what (or who) is haunting you.

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(7 Tips for Developing a Compelling Middle-Grade Premise.)

An admiration for these classic friendships led me to my middle grade debut, The Midnight Brigade, a novel about three lonely kids in Pittsburgh who become friends while discovering (and ultimately befriending) a 25-foot-tall grumpy troll living under a bridge.

Through my work as a writer, and my day-job helping to develop and produce all-audience films for Disney—not to mention the countless middle grade novels I’ve read in my life—I’ve identified five useful tips for writing friendships in middle grade:

1) Establish the set up

Details bring fiction to life and can make even the wildly fantastic feel real to readers. Sometimes something as simple as explaining how two characters met can do much of the early heavy lifting in establishing a relationship. And it’s an easy thing to forget if the characters became friends before the story began—but giving that extra detail of how can make the friendship feel that much more real, which will make your readers that much more invested. With kids, sometimes proximity can be the initial reason. Bobby and Kristen lived next-door to each other. Chris and Jake were on the same soccer team or forced to partner on a class project. 

It can be helpful to draw from your childhood experiences. Did someone make you laugh in class? Did they have a special talent that you admired? Did the two of you share an interest? Decide what made your characters initially right for each other and share it with your readers.

2) Show what each friend brings to the table

After you’ve brought your characters together, be clear about why they stay friends. What does each add to the relationship? Is one of them thoughtful? Funny? Supportive? A good listener? Up for anything? A problem solver? Once you’ve identified these traits, find ways to weave them into your narrative to advance the plot. 

(Why We Should Read Middle-Grade Fiction as Adults.)

But rather than telling your readers that “Leon and Jessica were friends because they made each other laugh,” show your readers in scenes. Allow your readers to see and feel what your characters experience so they become emotionally invested in the relationship.

Check out Adam Borba’s The Midnight Brigade:

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3) Figure out how your characters could be better friends

Nobody is perfect. Your characters and their relationships shouldn’t be either. Figure out what the weakness (or weaknesses) is for each friend in the relationship and share it with your audience in your scene work. 

Is Billy untrustworthy? Is Christina overly critical? Does Tom always launch into his own problems when Pat tries to vent? Does Steve not reply to texts? Does Sarah constantly expect Erin to do their math homework? Is Kelly a bad influence? 

Establishing these traits won’t only make the friendship feel more real, they’ll provide opportunities for conflict and drama in your story.

4) Determine how much strain a friendship can handle

Along these lines, it’s often helpful to decide where the breaking point of a friendship resides. What would one friend have to do to make the other(s) call it quits? Is it a case of “one last straw,” or a single unforgiveable act? Knowing this will help determine how far you can push the conflict in your story. 

(How to Write Middle-Grade Fiction That Is Compelling and Compassionate.)

It can also be helpful in brainstorming paths for your narrative to develop. And in many cases, you may find that breaking your characters apart is the perfect plot point for the end of your second act, or a useful device for your protagonist to face as they get lost along their way. But be sure the action is in-character for the offending friend, so your audience believes it.

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5) Find what would make their friendship stronger than ever

I’m a firm believer in the adage that you should leave a place better than you found it. And I think we can apply that spirit to relationships in middle grade as well. 

If you’ve driven your friends away from each other, how can you bring them back? A grand gesture? A small apology? Often you may find that a friend making the effort to correct a weakness you’ve established works best. 

And obviously, you don’t need to drive your friends apart for their relationship to improve—shared experiences, adversity, and fun can fuel their relationship instead (or as well)—but consider having a character’s personal growth or arc be the catalyst for the stronger relationship. Doing so can create an impactful, emotional payoff at the end of a great story.

I can’t wait to read all about the friendships you’ve created!

The post 5 Tips for Writing Friendships in Middle-Grade Fiction appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(Back to Basics: Writing & Publishing Memoir)

She is an award-winning author and photographer and has been studying elephants in the wild for the last 30 years, having written dozens of scientific papers and numerous feature magazine articles and two memoirs about her experiences. She taught creative science writing for Stanford and The New York Times and co-developed the award-winning Smithsonian documentary, Elephant King.

O’Connell is currently developing a new elephant docu-drama, Elephant Crown, and working on several feature movies and television scripts aimed at getting real science into popular media. She has authored eight popular books about elephants, including an award-nominated thriller series about the ivory trade that is also being released as a graphic novel.

In this post, O’Connell shares what prompted her to write a book about animal rituals, what surprised her in the writing process, and much more!

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Name: Caitlin O’Connell
Literary agent: Tina Seelig
Title: Wild Rituals: 10 Lessons Animals Can Teach Us About Connection, Community, and Ourselves
Publisher: Chronicle PRISM
Release date: January 12, 2021
Genre: Nature Prescriptive
Previous titles: The Elephant’s Secret Sense; Elephant Don; The Elephant Scientist; A Baby Elephant in the Wild; An Elephant’s Life; Ivory Ghosts; White Gold
Elevator pitch for the book: Ritual forges new connections and strengthens bonds in both human and nonhuman animals. Engaging in rituals strengthens not just our own relationships, but rekindles our connection to the natural world.

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What prompted you to write this book?

In such a divisive time in human history, I felt compelled to remind ourselves of our similarities, not just between human cultures, but between ourselves and other social animals and how ritual is the key to bringing us together.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication?

From idea to publication was about two years, which may seem slow from the outside, but if you factor in all the steps, it’s actually pretty fast. 

(20 literary agents actively seeking writers and their writing.)

I brought the idea to my agent and we iterated and developed a proposal that we pitched to publishers. Then there was the process of iterating with publishers and finding the perfect editor and home for the project. Then signing with a publisher. All that took about six months, which is pretty fast given how involved proposals often are. 

The drafting took about a year in between professional responsibilities. Then came the process of editing and iterating to settle on the final narrative and tone. And then the artwork and captions and layout decisions. 

And then there is the inevitable wait for printing and delivery—as you can see, there are a lot of steps to the final six months of the process, so from idea to publication for this book was actually remarkably fast!

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I learned more about the power of ritual and its importance than I had originally anticipated—particularly in relation to group rituals. For example, group rituals were thought to have evolved in humans to galvanize hunting parties so that they would be more successful at orchestrating and coordinating the taking down of very large animals. We needed the group cohesion that engaging in ritual provided in order to survive. 

Rituals that bind groups together are so psychologically powerful, however, that wielding the power generated from these rituals requires our responsibility to steer that power for good and inclusivity. If group rituals that focus on exclusivity are unchecked, they can lead to malevolent ends such as racism and dangerous cults of personality, which have troubled many nations throughout our political history and have resurfaced today. 

It surprised me that my explorations were so on point to current international and national politics.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

When I first came up with the idea for this book, I was determined that my vision was important, but I was nervous about exactly how I was going to pull it off. The surprise came when the connections that I was exploring between humans and nonhuman animal rituals turned out to be richer and even deeper than I had expected. 

(Telling Our Family Stories.)

The examples that I had found with respect to mothers of many different species carrying or attending to their stillborn (or sick) babies long after death, and the psychological and hormonal benefits to doing so, were particularly striking. The lessons that I found for humans about grief and loss were equally as poignant.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope that readers will gain an understanding of just how connected we are with other social animals and discover new insights into the importance of ritual in our lives.

If you could share one piece of advice with other authors, what would it be?

Write what you are passionate about because writing a book is a long journey and you have to enjoy the subject matter and the iterative process if you are going to succeed at writing something you are really proud of.

The post Caitlin O’Connell: Finding Connection and Community in Animal Rituals appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(On Writing Dysfunctional Families)

5 Tips for Writing About an Established Relationship

Characters in established relationships know each other’s habits.

They know how they take their morning beverage of choice, where they work, and what they like to do afterward. An investigator on the trail of a repeat offender they’ve caught before will know the criminal’s MO. This understanding extends to the less obvious habits, too: Characters in established relationships can accurately predict how bad news will make the other character react, and they know what form that reaction will take. Now you can skip the boring “Oh gosh, my partner is mad, how did that happen?” scenes and get straight to the good stuff.

Characters in established relationships know what they can trust each other with.

This is not the same as trusting each other implicitly. I’m going to use my current characters as examples, so I am not referencing “Characters A and B.” Adda’s been known to tell Iridian to be somewhere fifteen minutes before she actually has to be there, to make sure that Iridian arrives on time, but she knows that when she asks Iridian to go somewhere, Iridian will go. Similarly, Iridian trusts Adda to solve important problems in their lives, but not to eat, bathe or sleep while she’s working on them. When people have known each other for a while, they learn those strengths and weaknesses and act accordingly.

Characters in established relationships have fewer misunderstandings.

They know what the other character means, even if the other character’s words and actions don’t communicate their intended meaning clearly. Note that I said fewer misunderstandings. Some characters are secretive by nature, even around people they know well. And some characters carry mistaken assumptions about their partners for years, just because it’s never been a big enough deal to fight over. However, if Adda says “I’m going to plug in,” Iridian knows she’s not talking about a mobile device that needs charging, even though that’s a perfectly reasonable assumption which a stranger who overheard Adda might make.

Characters in established relationships share a lot.

They may live together, or work together, and see each other every day. They make plans with the other character in mind, or they only make plans together. They talk about the other character in casual conversation, possibly using the possessive “my.” Some of them even share food, money, chores, pets, or children. And if they’re romantic partners, they share even more. The lives of characters in established relationships are intertwined. And that’s why…

Characters in established relationships would be devastated if something happened to one of them.

The “something,” and the devastation, can take many forms. Physical trauma and illness are extremely difficult, but usually, there’s a well-established way for the healthy character to help. Partners make sure that their significant other gets medical care, and even arch-rivals will absolutely notice when their nemesis is not around. Other catastrophes are tougher to handle. Disappearances, break-ups, loss of loved ones, or employment… The character that isn’t suffering these things directly may not know exactly how to help. And that can cause anger, frustration, fear, depression… All the drama you need to create an excellent story.

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