Supporting Our Craft

Do you support the craft of writing? 

Recently I attended a writer’s conference where an agent suggested a writer should buy books. Buy books for birthdays and anniversaries, for special occasions and for pleasure or research. Buy books for the fun of it or to read to your children. She said we should walk into a bookstore and purchase the several-hundred-page vestiges…ones you can hold in your hand…that have pages you can actually turn. She and the other agents and authors on the panel hinted that we should avoid the new Kindles and ban the ease and cost-saving effectiveness of Amazon and other online bookstores. “Bookstores are closing all over the country and that should strike fear in all writers’ hearts,” they said. I left the conference concerned for the future of our industry and feeling a little guilty for patronizing such establishments. 

Should writers fret over the redirection of buying entertainment? Should we run out and purchase half the bookstore and frown at our children for investing in the newest technology? Could the wave of automated purchasing in our bathrobe and slippers be just as lucrative for a writer as buying books in a bookstore? People still have to buy the downloads they read on their Kindles, right? They still have to purchase the online copies they have sent to their homes. Unfortunately, there are more disadvantages to a writer in the impending wave of book buying than one would expect.

E-Book Publishing:

Sell self-published books. More and more authors these days are gravitating to the self publishing market. All a writer needs to do is create a website, format and pre-publish the book, and then put it up on his website, right? Well, that’s not all this form of publishing requires. If a writer desires to present a quality product, he’d have to hire an editor, a cover designer, and then spend a certain amount to market his book. Do you know how to format a website? If not, add the cost of a website designer and a person to maintain the site. Pay Pal also requires a fee to collect the money. 

Sell through one of the booksellers such as Amazon: In this method you would have to pay the costs of producing the digital book as well as pay the bookseller for storing and selling your book. The bookseller will then pay only once per month whatever is left over…that is, only if you've sold enough.

Sell through a traditional publisher: the third method of publishing a digital book is through a traditional publisher. A publisher assumes most of the risks and the costs of publication therefore rewards its efforts with a greater percentage of the proceeds. A writer would receive an advance on his royalties and then a small amount for each book the publisher sold. 

Online Dangers:

What about the Library e-book checkout programs? This is an online check-out program similar to purchasing a book from Amazon.com. However, the reader can check out the book they want to read, minus the charge. What does the author get from that? Zilch, Zero. Nada.  The UK has it right. They passed the Public Lending Rights Act  mandating that authors receive a royalty every time someone checks their book out of a public library. 

Then there’s piracy and the numerous ways the public can read an author’s work online without paying for the privilege. Considering the hours and blood it takes to right a book, I have to ask, does this seem fair to you?  Maybe instead of fighting the inevitable, authors should spend their energy finding ways to make online purchasing more advantageous or invoke online protection and penalties for unlawful access. Weaknesses in any system can be turned around for the benefit of all. At least I like to think so. 

The payment process is far more complicated than I have explained here, but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say. Buying books at a bookstore far exceeds the benefits of buying them online. And either we accept the way the trend is headed or we can change that process and find a way to make it work for us.  

Call me a dinosaur; I’ll still buy books from the bookstore. A Kindle isn’t research-friendly, and I like the feel of turning pages, the smoothness of a paperback, not hard plastic, nudging the side of my nose when I wake up in the morning and discover I lost consciousness sometime during the night. And I don’t like the inconvenience of having to recharge devices. A book is self-contained, easy to store. Besides, purchasing books supports my craft and that has to be a good thing.

What a Character Looks Like

Writers not only have to think of ways to make their characters’ personalities come alive on the page, but they also have to devise a look that will help the reader envision them. In my last post I described the four basic personality types I learned in a company that trained me as a color analyst. As promised, I will now describe what these four personalities tend to look like. Hair color is less an exact science than eye color and skin tone due to a variety of hair dyes on the market, but unadulterated, hair color will tend to have specific characteristics among the four personality groups.

People who express themselves have a light tawny complexion or a suntanned look with yellow undertones. Their cheeks turn rosy following exertion or embarrassment. Some in this category have pale skin, but they often have a yellowish cast to their complexion. Eye color is clear and usually blue, blue-green, grey or grey-green. If you look closely, these may even have mustard color surrounding the iris. Brown eyes are rare in this group. People who express themselves can have any hair color, but red heads may possess a bit of sandiness and blondes may have a taffy-colored appearance.

Overall look: These people look radiant and alive.

People who analyze possess a skin tone that is cool with rose undertones. Some may possess an opaque whiteness or an olive complexion with a blue cast under the skin. Eye color can be any color, but usually not green. Often those with brown eyes have eye color almost black brown in appearance. Blonde or brownette hair is possible among these people, but most in this category have brown, dark-brown to black-brown hair.

Overlook look: Icy, elegant, regal

People who are driven possess yellow undertones to their skin, however they have more gold or orange tones in their cheeks and more bronze in their overall appearance than do those in the first group above. Their eyes can be any color, however those with brown or green eyes might have gold and brown flecks. Most in this group will have gold or brown coloring around the iris. Their hair will tend to have bronze or metallic characteristics, although the hair can be any color.

Overlook look: Tawny, coppery, metallic, and dramatic

People who are amiable are often quite pale and their skin is transparent in appearance. They don’t hold a tan well. Usually their eye color is light blue, grey, grey-green or hazel. Rarely will they have brown eyes. These people tend to have light brown or blonde hair.

Overlook look: Colorless, soft and delicate, comforting

The look and character of the four personality groups, although as variable as the leaves on a tree, are more accurate than not. A study of the topic may surprise you. A person who falls under one of the four groups will possess at least 50% of the characteristics I have described above. Maybe you aren’t as detailed in character descriptions as this, but the information might provide you with some guidelines as you create believable heroes and heroines.

Giving Personality to Your Characters

Many years ago I learned color analysis and how to determine what colors looked best against a person’s skin. The company that trained me used four separate tests in their analysis: make-up, eye pattern, color draping, and personality. The company’s personality test fascinated me, for although the test possessed flaws, it revealed how people fall into four basic personality categories. I later discovered the Greeks, specifically Socrates, expounded on these four personality types thousands of years ago.

Imagine my surprise when a college English professor asked me to answer a questionnaire to determine my learning style, and I discovered the survey centered on the four personality groups. I have since used the information to better understand my children, the people I work with, and especially the characters I use in my fiction.

This scientific approach to find an individual's learning style is quite a complicated process. The several published theories on the topic are difficult to understand and would take too much space to explain here. To keep this article simple, I’ll only share what I learned about the four personality groups. They are made up of people who are driven, people who analyze, people who express themselves, and people who are amiable. Let me clarify:

People who express themselves love everybody. They enjoy using their imaginations and tend to be emotional creatures with extreme mood swings. They are either happy, energetic individuals or in the depths of despair. They blush at the smallest embarrassment and have difficulty making choices. Don’t ask them to choose an ice cream flavor; they love them all. Many who fall into this category are natural sales people or storytellers. They like to gather information, analyze it, and talk about it from several different perspectives, though they might not want to do the work of solving problems after they gather the facts. They are good at brainstorming and appreciate feedback.

People who analyze use logic to solve problems and require explanation rather than practical application. They take time to think through their ideas, and they are great organizers and lovers of lists. In fact, ideas and concepts are easier for them to understand than dealing with people. They lean toward the dramatic and can appear aloof or cool at times. They can be highly critical people and pessimistic. They make great scientists, engineers, or doctors.

People who are driven are get-it-done, people movers. They know what they want and how to get it. They are good at leading a crowd, although they can be rather severe when dealing with others; they are sometimes tactless and curt. They prefer technical tasks and can solve problems and make decisions without difficulty. They like to experiment with new ideas and can’t understand when other people are closed minded or unwilling to try something new.

People who are amiable are sensitive, kind-hearted individuals who avoid conflict. They are often quiet and soft-spoken, the shyest of any of the groups discussed here, though they can possess a stubborn streak. They blend in well since they avoid making spectacles of themselves, and they love to use their hands. Their common sense approach and drive to complete any task before them often lands them positions as teachers, secretaries, or executive assistants.

Thus are the basics of personality analysis.

While I worked in the color industry, I witnessed the veracity of these four personality types, and they resurfaced continually among my clients. I also found I could determine the specific skin undertone, eye pattern and eye color, and sometimes even the hair shade of each personality type (I’ll explain these concepts in part two, coming up in the next post).

The knowledge I have gleaned from participating in this color analysis company has helped me more than I can say over the years. Although some of you may be skeptical about pegging people into specific categories, I find whether you believe it or not depends on your personality type. Don’t pooh-pooh the idea until you know more about it. An in-depth study of personality analysis just might help you create the most realistic fictional characters you have dreamed up so far.

In the Still of the Night or Sing Me a Tune?

I’m baffled at how some writers need distraction to write. They prefer listening to music or eating snacks during the creative process. Really? How does anyone create something coherent when their iPods are blasting in their ears or when they have to wipe salty crumbs off their fingers?

I’m just the opposite. I’d rather write in quiet so I can hear words forming in my head, so I can read aloud and hear the flow of the day’s musings. And eating takes too much time when I’m working; the task occupies my hands when I could be typing a few more lines. That’s not to say I haven’t written through many a distraction: kids temper tantrums, an ornery husband’s grumbling, and the dog’s incessant scratching at the door. But the stillness allows me to be alone with words and to concentrate on what I’m trying to say. It removes clutter from my mind.

What are your preferences? Inquiring writers want to know!

That Which We Call a Rose of Sharon

Many years ago, my high school teacher assigned my class to read Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I filled that assignment and it was a great read, though I remember only a few things about the experience. I remember how the struggles that family faced pulled on my emotions. The characters came to life for me, even though today I don’t recall everything they did or even their names—that is, all except for one. Rose of Sharon stuck in my mind because I thought it an odd name, especially when the characters’ accents slurred the name into Rosasharn. The name bothered me through the entire novel. Why would Steinbeck choose such an unusual name? I imagine if I did a little research, I’d find that Rose of Sharon was a familiar name to that era and locale. Funny—how Rosasharn is the only name I remember forty years later.

Naming our characters in a way that will cling to our readers’ minds is a vital aspect of characterization. Of course, nothing is as important as creating word images that make your characters walk off the page, but the process falls short if we dub our heroes or heroines mundane or overused names that will fade with time. Nor do we want to use names that go to the extreme, unless our novel is extreme and that kind of name fits. Here are a few things to think about while you hunt for the perfect name for your characters.

Avoid Common-Place Names or Overused Names – Whether a name is common place or not depends on the trend. Names that were frequently used fifty years ago may be fresh for the taking in the current market. Knowing your character will make your choice easier. Is your character powerful or wealthy? Would a name like Melvin Bunny portray those characteristics? Or would Trask Hamilton provide a better picture? You might even use genealogy sources to look up possible surnames. Scour what names are used in current books or on the back of novel covers to make sure you're using unique names and not someone else’s. Especially avoid names that belong to someone famous.

Stay Clear of Names That Sound the Same – Characters with names that sound alike are a distraction. Names don’t even need to start with the same letter to sound similar. If you use names like Jerry and Larry your readers may confuse them throughout the novel. Don't end the first name with the same sound as the last name either. A character whose name is Damon Namouth will keep your reader’s tongues twisting for days.

Use Names That Fit the Period or Genre – Entering your name choices into a web search engine will help you research names common to an era. Make sure these names were used exclusively for males or for females during that time period or used for a specific ethnic background. You can also browse the Social Security Names List for a specific year if your character was born in the U.S. But whatever name captures your attention, keep the names something modern day readers can relate to and something they can pronounce.

Other Things to Consider –When writing your story, note how people who are close rarely use each other's full names. They use nicknames more often than not. Sometimes a specific reason lies behind the naming of a character. Your character's parents loved the movie Star Wars so they named their son Han. If you use that kind of motivation, find out how the name has affected that character throughout his life? Is the name an embarrassment when his parents address him in front of his fiancé? Does your hero go by a different name throughout his life to avoid strange reactions? Let these odd circumstances become a part of your story.

Choosing captivating names for your characters is an art. We’re going for memorable here. The more memorable, the more likely your readers will remember the characters in your novel forty years down the road.