Can You Spot the Tertiary Character in This Novel?

I gave the man an aquarium for Christmas and Jackson finally discovered it has living creatures in it. He's quite bemused by the concept.

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is tertiary characters who demand the spotlight.

It's a funny thing about my brain that the word "tertiary" takes me right back to organic chemistry, and not to writing things at all. As far as chemistry is concerned, tertiary structure is when a chain of proteins (for example) is folded up, with disulfide bonds maybe. Primary structure is the basic molecule, secondary structure is when they get chained up. After the folding of tertiary, you might get bundles clumped together to make quatenary structure.

What about the quatenary characters, I ask you???

Really... does anyone think about tertiary characters? I certainly don't as a reader. I don't even really think in terms of secondary characters. Do you, as a reader?

I suppose secondary characters come into play because most stories focus action on one or two protagonists. It's been an interesting game for those of us watching A Game of Thrones who haven't made it through all the books in A Song of Ice and Fire, to see the story wrapping up to show that the sprawling epic with tons of characters - and protagonists - is about the Stark family in the end. And that Jon Snow may be the protagonist after all. Hard for me to tell how much of that is the show runners refining the story that way, however.

But in most books that aren't multi-tentacled monster fantasy epics, there is one protagonist, maybe two. They are the single molecules upon which everything is built. The secondary characters are part of the world they live in, because no person is an island, so those connections create chains of people.

As we all know, secondary characters in one book often become the protagonists in sequels, and all of you readers are adept at picking out who those people might be. But can you spot the tertiary characters?

If I extend the chemistry analogy, those are secondary characters who get wrapped in and cemented with extra bonds. I think, however, that the suggester of this topic wasn't thinking in those terms. Instead, tertiary must mean to them another rung lower than secondary. But if you have the protagonists, everyone connected to them, then the next rung down is.... bit players? Characters without lines? Pets and livestock?

I frankly don't know, so I'll be interested in what the rest of the gang has to say this week. For my part, I'm a believer in the advice that all characters live full lives that begin long before they walk onto the page and continue after they walk off. Some of the best observations on this come from theater.

In this perspective all "tertiary" characters demand the spotlight, because they are all the protagonist of their own tales. Whether the author chooses to spin the POV to show that tale is another question.

But you all tell me, is there a character you've read who you'd regard as tertiary who then became a protagonist?

The Can She Write A Series Challenge

This week’s topic is a challenge or ‘leveling up’ activity we’ve each decided to undertake for 2018. I have to say, my writing is my writing is my writing….as you know if you’ve been reading me here, I’m superstitious about my Muse and my process. HOWEVER, late in 2017 I did decide the time had come for me to tackle an actual series, with an overarching plot arc that would run through the five volumes. Ta da!

 I never used to think I could write such a series, being an as-I-go plotter (also known as a seat of the pants writer) and wasn’t much tempted to try it. I like writing standalone stories set in one universe, be it ancient Egypt or my interstellar civilization, the Sectors. Sometimes I even do a sequel or have the same characters make an appearance in more than one book (usually as secondary characters since they’ve already had their own book). So, I do connected series with no problem and I do have a long term arc in my head, but don’t require each book to move the action forward.

So I came up with a race of genetically engineered super soldiers, the Badari, created by the enemies of the humans in my Sectors. I added to that mix a colony of humans kidnapped in their sleep by the aliens in charge of all this questionable science and brought to the planet where the Badari are held, to serve as subjects in more experiments. The questions in the big arc are how do the Badari gain their freedom, how do the humans ever get home to tell the Sectors about this new threat…and of course how does the romance occur in the midst of all this? The first volume, Aydarr, was released in December and I’ve written the second book, Mateer, and that one is at the editor. I’ve just started the third book, with probably two more to go to wrap everything up. I also have lots of plot ideas in my head for more stories about the Badari, if readers like them, but those would be in my standalone writing style, since the big arc will be wrapped up.

It’s going fine so far, I’d say. I did enough outlining to know what the major plot point to be achieved was for each novel, but not so much detailed planning that my Muse would balk at writing the book. (As I’ve mentioned before, if I plot too much before I write, I lose all interest in doing the actual writing. The creative spark flees – the story is told.)

It’s too soon to say if I’d write another actual series. I really do like the standalone experience of writing, but I’m enjoying this challenge so far. I think my biggest hurdle is that I feel I owe it to the readers to get each book in the series out within 4-6 weeks of the previous book and so I have to write the Badari novels back to back, not stray off and play with some other shiny plot in between.

Here’s the blurb for the first book, if you’d like to see more details:

Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway? Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

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(Stock photos purchased from DepositPhoto.)

The Year of Challenge

A few years ago, based on I have no idea what, I started proclaiming each year as The Year of <Insert a Writing Point to be Worked on Here>. One year was the year of action. Another was the year of getting emotion on the page - or at least seeing if I could up my game on that point. This past year has been the year of taking 'telling' phrases out of my writing. As much as possible. These are the phrases that generally start 'character knew', 'character thought', 'character wondered', or 'character felt'. There might be more. But yeah. That's been my own personal little challenge.

This year is the year of learning to write to an outline. Why? Because I am the queen of overwriting and I would very much like to give up the crown. No. Seriously. Queen of Overwriting. The cut file for the current WIP is longer than the target 100k word count of the manuscript. Literally two novels. One to keep. One to throw away. The *incredible* waste of time and effort. Feel free to picture me shaking my head and knocking back a gulp of tea. This is no way to run a railroad. Or write a novel.

So this year. I learn to plot, outline, and then do my damnedest to not write an entire extra novel in the pursuit of the novel I do want written. Yes. I am still a character driven writer. And I do actually expect a book to drift from an outline, but the thing I'm hoping to get from this endeavor is a means of visualizing the story's skeleton. What flesh I hang upon that skeleton is up to me and the characters, but with the skeleton available to me, I have fantasies of being able to actually finish a novel draft in a reasonable time frame. Say 90 days.  I'd like faster, but I don't want to get ahead of myself here. 

The other thing I hope for is more coherent storylines. See. I'm a little like the writer/artist for Hyperbole and a Half. Give me a story to write and I want to include ALL THE THINGS! With an outline, I'd have a simple yardstick for whether or not my umpteenth subplot actually serves the theme. Again. In my fantasies. 

So yeah. The Year of Learning to Outline. Better stories, less waste. I think I can sell that.

Leveling Up Goal This Year

So, this is going to sound a bit strange, but my goal for this year, as a writing, is to train myself at being more efficient.

Now, I know some of you are like, "What are you talking about, Marshall?  You put out two books a year, you're a machine." And that pace is going to continue, of course.

And while I like the label of, "writing machine", the machine could be more efficient.  I could do better.  More to the point, I feel like I need to.

As I've mentioned before, I kind of fake being "superfast" with planning and outlining.  There's a long building, planning and germinating process that takes me a long time, and much of that for the Maradaine books was frontloaded well before any of you even heard of me. 

So, some of the building, planning and germination for other projects have now reached the point where they're blooming.  Stories that have been just sort of percolating in the back of my head have now starting coming out.  Of course, I also have to do other work, work that's under contract.  Work you all are looking forward to.  Heck, work I'm excited to finish and get moving on.

For example, this week I wrote several hundred words on two different secondary projects, one of which is Maradaine-tangential, they other is something else entirely.  I've also finished hand-written edits on a manuscript, and I'm about to start putting those into final edits.  So I should be sending a finished manuscript out in a couple weeks.  And then I need to start hand-edits on another manuscript.  PLUS drafting another new novel.

That's a lot of creative juggling.  I can do it, but right now, it's clumsy juggling.  I can do better.  And that's the goal for next year.

So, I better get to that.

One Skill to Learn This Year

One skill I'd like to learn this year is...how to format my own books.  Don't get me wrong, I love my formatters. They put up with me despite my habit of finding "one more error." (There's always one more error, damn it). I'm not planning on throwing them over anytime soon; however,  I'd like to get to the point of being able to update the backmatter of my book without breaking all the pretties of the interior at a minimum. Then, level-up to Master of the Formatter Universe as time permits.

Being a Career Writer: What to Focus On

This is one f those questions with a million answers.

I have one, Focus on your craft. Jeffe just said the same basic thing, but not surprisingly, I agree with her.

Listen, anyone can tell you that marketing is key. Or having an agent. Or editing. They are all important. but at the end of the day what you are selling is your ability to  tell a story. If you can
't tell a good story, you are, frankly, in the wrong business. OR, you haven't practiced your craft well enough. As a rule I can scare the crap out of most readers. Why? I've been honing that particular skill for twenty-five years. It's a skill. It's one I practice with a lot, It's one small faction of the craft of writing. I need to be able to tell a good story, make certain that a reader is invested in the characters, make absolutely sure that the world I build (be it local or a vastly different world of possibilities with super-heroes, aliens, or sorcerers) makes enough sense and is tangible enough for the readers to enjoy it. I need to tell multiple perspectives and share enough information to keep the entire affair coherent.

And I only have words to do that with. I might have a book cover, but there's no promise that whatever cover I have will make any sense with the story. You think I'm kidding, but I'm really not, I've had more than my share of craptacular covers that had absolutely nothing in common with the words under that illustration. If you are VERY LUCKY (and I have been several times) then the cover reflects a part of your tale. A fraction. A very small drib.

So, no, the cover isn't important to the tale. Except, of course, when it is.

No I need to tell a story, I need to make that story flow with ease, and to suspend disbelief in my readers. I need to convince them, with just words, mind you, that it's possible for a single man to fight the gods, or that a collection of small, militaristic tribes can possibly be a threat to an empire hundreds of times larger. Or that the world can be changed with a spell that ends all technology and unleashes horrors best never considered. I need to make sure that readers believe a reclusive college boy might get revenge for a girl who is tormented by what a corrupt cop made her do. I need to make certain they believe said cop could get away with his crimes. I need to find the logic that binds those notions and then I need to breathe life into those little golems crafted with nothing but 27 letters set in the right order, used again and again.

All of the rest of it, the editing, the marketing and in rare occasions the movies or shows made from those notions, all of it, is secondary to the tale being told.

With words. Just words.

Yeah, concentrate on your craft and storytelling.

That's just my two cents.

Speaking of Two Cents  (or actually a bit more)

THE TWISTED BOOK OF SHADOWS is coming soon. This will be a completely blind submission anthology of horror tales crafted by writers who may not have even heard about the anthology so far, It will pay professional rates and will also offer royalties. There will be no names on the submissions. Just titles and word counts. So no bias will appear for marquee names. Once upon a time editors like Charles L. Grant and Karl Edward Wagner made it a point to find the stories that affected them the most. These days most anthologies never get a chance without at least half of the stories being written by heavy hitters in any given field. This will be a level playing field. Please, please, please spread the word far and wide. If you like horror that is.

More details and yes, a chance to support this project, can be found here. 

Being a Career Writer: What to Focus On

I dug out this photo from last summer - at Epcot Center after the RWA conference and me all shiny from winning the RITA® Award. Sometimes that still feels as fantastical as my troll friend here.

Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is one writing/publishing-related skill we want to learn/improve on this year. The writing/publishing conjunction struck me because - while I totally get that being a career writer involves both - those two aspects of being an author seem far more distant from each other than a slim slash mark would convey.

Okay, I started to write about something I saw an author tweet about the trials of self-publishing. Though I was paraphrasing, I ended up deleting because it felt unfair to call them out. But what I'm seeing is a LOT of discussion of the business of writing. That right-hand side of the slash mark. Marketing. How to get reviews. Amazon stripping reviews, stripping rank. Piracy. Best-selling rank. Marketing. Covers. How to reach readers. Marketing. Box sets. Series. Ideal release timing and spacing. Marketing.

You get my point.

So, I get that it's easier to focus on marketing. (Did I mention marketing?) There's a LOT of information out there on that stuff. In fact, many writers have gotten into the business in order to have something to market. (I've met these people. "I wanted to take advantage of Internet marketing and so I decided because romance novels sell, I'd write one and use that as my test product.) Also, the business side of the slash mark can feel much more controllable than the writing side.

This is what bothers me, however. For all the discussions I see about improving all the business end, I see maybe a tenth - if that - on improving the left hand side of the slash mark: the WRITING.

In point of fact, some self-publishing authors I know have said they don't care about improving their craft. The reasons vary, but some seem to feel it's beyond their control or irrelevant.

It's also the most difficult aspect of being a writer. Improving craft can be both humbling and infuriating. A writer has to set aside ego and take a good hard look at their work. They have to compare it to work by better writers and see where it falls short. And they have to be willing to listen to criticism without losing confidence. THEN they have to set to the frustrating and often daunting task of attempting to improve.

I get that it's hard. It's hard for me, too.

But I'm going to venture that, if you're losing readers instead of building an audience then the problem may not be with the marketing. We're in the weeding-out phase of the self-publishing boom now. Readers no longer have patience with giving books a whirl just because they're cheap or free. Or, rather, they'll give the author a chance, and if the quality isn't good, they won't try them again. I'm hearing this from many, many readers. This phase has been inevitable. The first week of the cruise is done and people have stuffed themselves with all the free food at the buffet. Now they're pickier, looking for the good stuff.

I should caveat that I'm picking on self-publishing here, because traditional publishing tends to force you to up your game to pass the various levels of tests involved in selling a work to them. However, with many editors in traditional publishing failing to give content edits, making our work the best it can be there, too, is critical.

So, what AM I wanting to improve this year? Craft! Each book is a master class in craft, meaning I learn something new with each one I write. Over the last couple of years, I've been working on my endings. I've been trying to give them as much heft and time as the beginnings - which isn't easy. I've improved, but I'm still not there. I also find I'm rarely satisfied with endings other authors write. I think this is partially why the cliff-hanger ending is so appealing. JUST DON'T EVEN TRY.

But I'm curious - who writes really good, perfectly satisfying endings? I'd love suggestions!

Prioritize the Stress Factors

Good and timely topic as I’m currently dealing with the chaos of moving during a major holiday season. Sigh. Just this morning I was heading down the serious anxiety attack path but a good friend is coming over later to organize and help unpack. I’ve been unpacking a few boxes a day but I swear the pile was regenerating itself overnight. Add to that a cat who was extremely upset and spent THREE DAYS (and nghts) roaming the new place yowling at the top of his lungs, and yup, I was pretty well fried.

The cat is happier now that I’ve got some major things unpacked and arranged. I found one of his favorite cat toys and we spent a lot of time with him sitting on my lap, being petted and admired.

I’m trying to write and release on a much more rapid pace in 2018, plus there’s the ongoing political situation, and so yes, I’d say this is a time frame where I do need to deploy any and all proven techniques for managing my stress and staying productive.

First of all, being a morning person, I eat a good breakfast. Being hungry makes me off balance and less capable.

Then I have my To Do List. I keep a big running, list, where I jot down things as they occur to me, lest they be forgotten, but then I have my prioritized shortlist for the day, which contains only the top 3-5 things that MUST be done today or all Chaos will break loose. Truly. Often I find when I actually sit down to put together the list, the formless black cloud of impending doom and anxiety I’ve been under shrinks to a tiny dustball. It usually turns out that I’ve been wildly overthinking what actually has to be done on any given day. I also break large tasks down into smaller ones, to make the effort manageable. Maybe I make the first phone call about an interview today, then tomorrow I do the followup, then the day after I write the post and so forth. There’s a lot of second tier-organization happening behind the way I work.

I devour magazines and serious news commentary. I love the back to back shows of Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow in the evening…but you know, sometimes it’s all just too much. There’s just a tidal wave of events going on in the world that frustrate me and upset me and scare me (nuclear war anyone?) and I’ve come to realize that on occasion I have to not be the most informed person on all of the breaking news and analysis. I voted, I’ll vote again, I contact my representatives when something really concerns me, I make my donations to candidates and causes I support…so it’s ok if I skip the news cycle some days and go binge watch “Making the Team”. Most of the things that happen in Washington DC, or as a result of events in DC, don’t affect me personally (although some do, of course) and neither can I wave a magic wand and do anything about them, so it’s no use for me to get all spun up.

Social media is the same – I LOVE to be on twitter and also spend a lot of time on Facebook throughout the day. But there are days I have to walk away from it, whether there’s an author kerfluffle going on, or more of the political stuff. If I don’t see the tweets and posts, they won’t create anxiety for me.

I also know when I’m done for the day and it’s time to stop pushing to get tasks crossed off the list. I sit with the cat and read, or watch TV or a movie, and relax. I know I’ll be full of energy again in the morning and ready to tackle the next day’s To Do List.

Best wishes to you for a very happy New Year!

Jake hangs out in the china cabinet during the move