Your Character's Fatal Flaw

As you all know...I'm neck deep in two deadlines. So I decided to pull up an older post as this week's writing blog. I read through this and laughed. Just what I needed to hear myself!

I hope you enjoy Segment 2 of the RWA Nationals Workshop, Flaw ...

Happy Monday, and welcome back to our notes for the CREATING THE PERFECT HERO workshop I gave with Jenna Kernan and Deb Mullins at RWA 2011.

Today's segment is your character's flaw...Enjoy.

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I don’t like the term fatal flaw. Because it sort of gives us the sense that our character should have a big, awkward, sometimes disgusting, flaw that prevents or precludes him or her from loving or being loved.

That can be true. There are plenty of successful “scar” or “wound” romances out there. But a huge flaw isn’t necessary for a successful story. A HUGE CONFLICT IS…but that’s our next segment.

For right now, let’s talk flaw.

What is a flaw? Something unique to your character that can be perceived as negative. A fear. A habit. An addiction. An attitude. A physical imperfection.

Why have a flaw?

Because no one is perfect. Seriously. I once heard a speaker tell a story of a book someone sent to her for a critique. The manuscript had been rejected by EVERYONE in the early 80’s when no one was getting rejected and the writer couldn’t figure out why.

The book begins with the heroine graduating from nursing school. She lands the perfect job. Finds the perfect apartment. Her landlords are a loving old couple who dote on her. She finds a great car, cheap. And the most handsome doctor in the hospital falls for her.

Sound interesting? Maybe. But is it a compelling story? Not even a little bit.

A great story is four things. Interesting, compelling, credible and consistent.

For something to be interesting it simply has to catch our attention. Credible…it only has to make sense. Consistent…if the guy is afraid of heights on page 12, he’d better at least shiver at the possibility of scaling a wall to save the heroine in chapter 12.

But for a book to be compelling, readers really want to be able to connect with and root for the main characters.

Do we root for perfect people? Sometimes. But they don’t resonate with us. We don’t connect to them because most of us have flaws, quirks.

But if you have a hero who longs to be understood after a past riddled with mistakes – lots of readers can identify. If you have a straightforward, strong, smart hero who drinks (like Robert Parker’s Jesse Stone) and can’t quit his addiction (thought he manages it) you have a character who intrigues us. Especially those of us who aren’t alcoholics. We’re curious about what makes this guy tick. Why would he risk everything for the contents of a bottle?

A flaw can be something as simple as someone who hates spiders (adding interest or maybe humor to a story) or something as intense as Jesse Stone’s alcoholism. But whatever you choose, the flaw needs to fit the story.

A hero with obsessive compulsive disorder like Monk’s on the TV show Monk, added humor but it was also the reason he was the great detective that he was. He saw things others didn’t. Because he was always looking.

But flaws don’t always have to be something you can use for good. Sometimes they are part of what the main characters have to overcome to achieve their happily ever after.

Whitney Ross in my book THE BABY PROJECT could not move beyond her husband’s suicide because he also killed their child. She had to overcome that. Jesse Stone’s alcoholism interferes with his life. And though he can’t seem to overcome it, he manages it.

So your character’s flaw has to have a purpose.

The purpose we see most often is the one where the hero (or heroine) has a flaw they have to overcome to save the heroine (or hero) from the villain.

The fear-of-heights hero who must scale the wall in chapter 12 to save the heroine – proves his love.
The hero who quits smoking for the heroine, proves his love.

But those kinds of sacrifices also demonstrate character growth…one of the biggest bugaboos for beginning writers.

Every editor, every agent…every reader…whether they know it or not, wants to come away from a book with the sense that the hero and/or heroine have grown -- that LOVE makes us more. Makes us better. Or if you’re not writing romance, that our challenges make us more…make us better!

Correction of little flaws can be used along the way in a book to show the hero and heroine adjusting to each other or their situation. Committing to each other.

Because we cannot resolve the CONFLICT that keeps them apart, (or the book would be over) these smaller steps of flaw correction throughout the story can demonstrate the hero and heroine becoming committed to each other.

I just read a book wherein the heroine was a workaholic. The first time she skipped out on work to see the hero, we all knew she was seriously falling for him.

Now, she didn’t totally correct the flaw. But she took a step. A big step and that spoke volumes.

So don’t give your hero a limp just to satisfy one of those things on the list of things every romance novel must have.

THINK THROUGH YOUR FLAWS. Think about how you will use them. Think about what they will say about your character. Think about how they will affect plot. Think about what purpose they will serve in character growth.

And think about what it will mean if they don’t correct the flaw. Will it be more important for the heroine to accept the hero’s flaw? Sometimes rather than fix it, the heroine’s acceptance will be the greater plot point!

Which takes us to incorrect core beliefs.

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We'll talk about incorrect core beliefs, or internal conflict, next week.

Until then...Happy Writing!

Scenes

One of my favorite lessons in the CAN THIS MANUSCRIPT BE SAVED workshop is the lesson on scenes. I believe scenes are the place writers have the biggest opportunity to shine. They are the building blocks of story. So it's in scenes that you get to SHOW the romance, or scare readers, or fascinate them, or demonstrate the vagaries of life.

Your characters can't exist without scenes. Oh sure, you can put your characters in a sentence, but without the action of a scene, they're just words on a page.

Your story is nothing but an idea until you divide it up into scenes.  Scenes, their length, their order, create pacing. Scenes determine whether your story will be a breathless adventure or ... well, a journey walked through knee-deep oatmeal.

The unsung heroes of storytelling, scenes are like the organized assistant behind the successful businessman. They do most of the work in your book but get very little of the credit. LOL Characters hog it all.

Scenes blow me away. They are so full of power and potential.

So today, when you sit down to do your day's writing, don't just think about hitting your word count. Think about your scene/s. Think about the purpose of the scene or scenes you're going to write. Think about the best length for maximum drama. Remember, you're showcasing character through action. Remember that a scene poorly written slows down a book. Remember that the order of scenes determines how exciting, emotional or intense a book is.

Pause before you write. Think about the power of your scene.

And have a happy Monday. :)

susan meier

Why I will ALWAYS need an edtior...and you probably will too.

Writers in my classes always love it when I tell the story of how I once told an editor, "No, I won't make that change," and then the book went on to be one of my biggest sellers -- with readers specifically commenting on that one aspect, saying, "Holy cow, I loved that." I get lots private emails with praise and applause.

But I've published over sixty books. So, technically, though I said no to one change...I have accepted the advice, editing, suggestions of editors on at least 59. :)

Thinking it through, I realized there are four reasons I will ALWAYS need an editor.

1. Typos. My favorite is missing words. I apparently believe I type prepositions and I believe so hard I actually see them when I proof. Not so. I seem to type so fast that some words get skipped. And if not skipped, for some reason or another, I type of for or, or for for of. I will always need someone to find those.

2. Can't see the forest for the trees. A few years ago, a friend told a story about proofing someone else's book. The author had typed "green and yellow make blue." Well, it's actually yellow and blue make green. The author knew that. We ALL know that. Only the Lord knows why she typed it the other way. Only the Lord knows why she didn't see it when she read it over and over and over again as she worked on the manuscript. It took a proofer to find it.

But there are bigger forest-for-the-trees reasons to have an editor. It's very easy to get so wrapped up in the mystery, romance, suspense, science, thrillingness of your story that you don't see a mistake. Timelines can be wrong. (I once had 2 Wednesdays in the same week.) Story threads can be unraveling. But, focused on your main story, you don't see that.

3. Marketability. Lots of  people hate it when I talk about marketability, but, hey, that's the reason I'm still here. My books/stories have always resonated with readers. I give them what they want. That means my books sell. But I'm not always on top of what's selling. Lots of times my editor will see my idea and say, Why don't you make the hero her boss?  I'm no dummy. I know there's a reason she made this suggestion.

On the other hand, editors have said, Um...take out [something stupid, wrong, icky] that I didn't know was stupid or icky. There are some things readers just don't want to see. Don't kill a pet. Readers hate it. Don't have a hero who had an affair. (Romance readers hate that...they'd never trust that dude again. LOL)

I love getting advice that makes my story more marketable and/or less icky to readers.

4. Just plain wrong. We kind of tipped over into this when we talked about having things in a book that readers wouldn't like, but there's more. Sometimes we get an idea into our heads and we write it out and the editor says, Um....did you do your research on this because I'm not quite sure that could happen?

You see this a lot in books/hooks/storylines that are dependent upon wills. EVERY STATE IS DIFFERENT. Sorry, did I shout that? LOL Seriously, not all laws are created equal. State laws vary. If you've researched adoption for the state of Wyoming and your setting is Texas...you need to take another look.

I've read so many books wherein the structure of the hierarchy of a corporation is questionable at best. There are procedures police must follow. There are privacy laws hospitals, doctors, nurses must follow. Things lawyers would and wouldn't do. Because of a little things called ethics. Yeah, yeah, yeah...some lawyers stretch their ethics, but most don't. If your lawyer is generally honorable, be careful on having him make a move that leaps over the line. Tiptoe maybe. But not leap.

Editors live in the real world too. Some have husbands who are doctors, lawyers, corporate executives, investors. Most read the newspaper and news on the Internet. If you have something in your story that doesn't really work, consider yourself lucky if they spot it.

So that's why I'm glad I have editors. Personally, I love them. I think they make me look smarter than I am. And who doesn't love that?

(Because I wrote this so fast, I'll bet some of you are thinking I should have had an editor for this too. LOL)

Happy Monday and Happy Reading...

susan meier

Can This Manuscript Be Saved?

No. Sorry. Not giving you the workshop. LOL I am doing it for the New England Chapter of Sisters in Crime -- which is why I'm thinking the way I am today. In fact, it starts this morning...if you're interested here's the link.

http://www.sincne.org/events/online-class-susan-meier-can-manuscript-be-saved-0

Back to my point...

Into every writer's life falls a book or two that can't be saved. I had 3. Basically, two were only in the beginning stages. I had ... probably ... 6 or 9 chapters before I realized no one (especially not me) cared about this hero or heroine...or there was no plot...or there was no conflict.

In fact, one of my funniest rejections from Silhouette before I was published read something like: Dear Susan...we are soooo sorry to have to reject this manuscript. The characters were wonderful. The sex scenes were hot. Your tender moment made us all cry. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a plot.

LOL!!!

Right now, I could go in two directions with this blog. First, I could warn you all about self-publishing something that has been rejected. Editors are looking for good, publishable manuscripts. They don't reject something that is publishable -- unless it doesn't fit what they publish. They do sometimes have to reject things that are SALVAGABLE. But you have to know how to fix a manuscript that's close but not yet publishable to take it to the level it needs to be to be published...even self-published.

But I don't feel like going there. I'd rather talk about knowing when it's time to say goodbye.

Clearly, I believed the rejected manuscript above was ready to publish or I wouldn't have submitted it to Silhouette! LOL Yet it wasn't. And I couldn't see that.

So I guess we need a list. How to know when it's time to let go.

1.  Your book's been rejected by everybody and you don't know how to make it work or making it work requires huge changes.

That usually means there's something "fundamental" wrong with the story or the writing. I wrote an entire manuscript about a hero who was vice president of the United States and a heroine with superpowers. It was rejected everywhere. Years later when I pulled it out and read it, I realized the heroine wasn't right for the Vice President. She belonged with one of the secondary characters, a former lover. Now... Right now, you are all saying...but that can be rewritten. Exactly. It can't be revised. Too much would change. But it can be rewritten, which, in this case means starting over and if you're starting over...it's not the same book. It's a new book. Shoot the old one and bury it. Start over.

2.  You have a big glob of story types, character flip-flopping, scenes you put in just to make it fit a trend. (Perhaps you've added a little titillating sex because you heard that sells...or at the last minute you made your hero a super secret angel because you heard angels were hot...)

Chasing trends will frequently end up with a book that's a gob of gook. You have a little suspense, a little traditional romance, the heroine talks to God -- making it inspirational, the hero's a secret angel, and it's all set in a small town.

But your book has no focus...no heart. Every book has to have a story that pulls every aspect of the book together. If your super secret angel is sent to earth to help the heroine who talks to God (from her small town...in Texas...Syracuse people should be laughing right now) then you could have a cohesive clear story.

But if your heroine is super religious one minute and climbing all over the super-secret angel the next, her character is all over the board. And though we know people like that in real life, unless the heroine's conflict is that she's kinda crazy, inconsistent characters don't work. In fact, they ruin books. Can she be fixed? Can this manuscript be saved? Maybe...but, again, it would require so much REWRITING (nine chances out of ten) that you'd probably end up with a new story. In fact, in a case like that I'd advise the author to take a breath, write a NEW one-paragraph story summary, and start over. True, she might be able to pull a scene or two from the original version, but...again...if you are only pulling a few scenes you aren't saving a book...you're writing a new book.

And that's it. Two things. Something fundamentally wrong and gobs of gook. The only two reasons manuscripts can't be saved.

I believe most manuscripts CAN be saved. Which is why I wrote the workshop! LOL But I also believe you need to be honest about what's wrong. You have to take a breath and read your manuscript with an open mind and be tough on yourself.

About a year before I sold my first manuscript, I was looking at the scene I had written the night before and (tired because I'd worked that day and was raising three kids) finally I just said, Oh, it's good enough.

And I paused.

I thought...what if it isn't?

What if good enough isn't good enough?

And from that point forward every time I said, Oh, that's good enough...I'd stop and rethink the scene or change the description or fix the character. I never let "good enough" dictate my work...and guess what? I sold that book.

So, only two reasons a manuscript can't be saved. Something fundamentally wrong or gobs of gook...but the real lesson here is don't be too easy on yourself. We're in an age now when anything can be published, but remember the Internet is forever. Just as that picture of you mooning from the sun roof of the limo for our best friend's bachelorette party will be around for your next potential employer to find...everything you publish or say will be out there in the ether.

Ask yourself...Ten years from now, will I be happy people can find this and read it? Is this how I want to be known as an author?

Yikes.

Happy Monday and Happy Reading

susan meier