Editor and Writer-Rebecca LuElla Miller
Heart Surgery
by Rebecca LuElla Miller
What mother wants to cut out the heart of her child? If not
heart, then kidneys or lungs? Even an arm or leg would be unthinkable, and a
hand or foot, cruel. But what if surgery were the only way to save the child or
to insure quality of life? In those circumstances, a mother might allow a
qualified surgeon to operate. But would she be willing to dive in and do the
deed herself?
Of course not, we think. She’s not trained.
How many of us writers, who surreptitiously consider our
stories our babies, fail to apply the same reasoning to our manuscripts? We may
allow cosmetic surgery, but serious amputation or transplantation? Not for MY
baby! And not if it means learning how to cut deeply or (worse, in some
people’s mind) turning it over to a professional who will do so.
Perhaps I’m the only writer who has had such thoughts, but
I’m guessing I’m not alone.
Here’s the thing we need to consider: if we continue to
receive rejection notices from agents, if we are selling only a modicum of
books, if our editor has passed on our next novel, or we’re not winning awards
for our fiction, perhaps we need to intervene on behalf of our darlings with
some manuscript-saving methods, also known as revisions—ones we make or ones we
hire an editor to make.
The following bit of advice is for those interested in
diving in to learn how to make revisions themselves. As a reminder, I’m not
talking about cosmetic changes—fewer speaker tags or eliminating as many
adverbs as possible. I’m not even talking about a sentence construction
make-over or fixing our comma errors. What we writers need to be willing to do
is heart surgery.
The heart of any story, in my view, is the character.
Consequently, when we sit down to do serious story revisions, the first thing
we should look at is our characters--all of them, but especially our
protagonist.
What about our character should we look at? I believe there
are three vital areas upon which the health of a story depends: the character’s
desires and goals, motivation, and uniqueness.
Characters need to
have desires and goals which fuel their actions. Too many stories have
characters that simply react to the events taking place. At best readers are
left to hope the protagonist survives.
Stronger stories that involve readers emotionally, allow
them to cheer the protagonist on to victory or worry over them as they careen
toward defeat. In other words, the protagonist has a desire and sets out to
bring it to fruition; he has a goal that he believes will satisfy his need and
sets out to accomplish it. Readers can hope he succeeds or agonize that he has
taken a wrong path; they can be shocked by a betrayal that thwarts his plan, or
dismayed at a new obstacle that makes it outmoded.
In short, the question writers need to ask first when they
are ready to revise their story is this: do
my characters want something? Do they have desires and goals?
Characters also need
to be properly motivated. Aspirations and needs—what the character
consciously or unconsciously wants—serve as the backbone for motivation.
But each action he takes must have a reason.
In real life we may act on the spur of the moment, without any apparent logical
connection to what went before, but in fiction such actions come across as
author manipulation. Rather, characters need to act because of. They need to act because of their goals, because of the
obstacle, because of what they heard, because of their past.
The question writers ready to tackle revision need to ask,
then, is why is my character doing what
she is doing?
Finally, characters
need to be unique.
Editors are looking for the fresh and original, but that
does not have to mean the strange or bizarre. Rather, freshness entails three
things—a unique voice, a distinct
outlook, behavior that is beyond generic.
A character’s voice
is composed of her vocabulary, sentence structure, topics of conversation, and
tone. Is she sarcastic, humorous, serious, matter of fact, down to earth, or
pretentious? In addition, her voice should be different from her friend, her
sister, her love interest, and from her boss. She also should rise above
stereotypes. She can’t sound like all the other Southerners in the 1950s or
like the typical school teacher. She can’t be just another female cop.
Something needs to set her apart.
In the same way, a character’s outlook on life, or worldview, needs to be distinct. Certainly
people share commonalities, but a character that is “run of the mill” doesn’t
give a reader reason to care about this particular story. What about the
character’s way of looking at life makes her special or out of the ordinary?
Perhaps she is a romantic—not something that sets her apart.
What might distinguish her from other romantics? Has she decided not to marry?
Why? Perhaps she must care for an aging parent or she is the sole support of
her little sister. Perhaps she has a child from an illicit relationship. None
of these circumstances sets the character apart in a unique way from stories
that have gone on before. What if, instead, she thinks that no man can live up
to her ideals. Now she is a romantic who takes on a different shape from the
average romantic, and she is an independent woman who takes on a different
shape from many independent women.
Thirdly, if a character is to be thoroughly unique, he needs
to have behavior that is particular
to him. Everyone’s heart races at times, and everyone walks or turns or looks.
What action can a character take that is out of the norm, that other people are
less inclined to do? These are the actions that make a character seem like one
of a kind, a real person, a distinct individual. Perhaps she constantly forgets
to take off her sunglasses until she’s in the pool. Maybe he turns off the car
radio and asks people not to talk when he’s driving.
The final question, then, which writers need to ask as they
are about to revise their finished rough draft is have I made my characters unique?
By asking these three key questions, a writer can diagnose
the problem areas in her manuscript that may need surgery. No number of story
make-overs will cure a character who is terminally lacking a desire or goal,
who isn’t properly motivated, or who isn’t unique. Only the hard work of
revision can do that, and doing surgery on her characters should be an author’s
first revision concern.
Author Bio: Best known for her aspirations as an epic
fantasy author, Rebecca LuElla Miller has been working as a freelance writer
and editor since 2004. She has covered high school sports for a Los Angeles
area newspaper group, published articles and short stories in several print and
online magazines, and placed in the top twenty-five in the Writer’s Digest Short, Short Story contest. She currently blogs
Monday through Friday at A Christian Worldview of Fiction - http://rebeccaluellamiller.wordpress.com/
.
Her editing credits include non-fiction and fiction alike,
most notably four titles in the Dragons in Our Midst and Oracle of Fire series
by Bryan Davis. You can learn more about her editing services and read her weekly
writing tips at Rewrite, Reword, Rework - http://rewriterewordrework.wordpress.com/
.
Becky, thanks for sharing!
Readers, thanks for visiting Lagniappe.
What do you think?
Are your characters motivated and unique.
Or even uniquely motivated?
If so, how?
I pray that you find "a little something extra" in each of your days.
Marian
