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Writing Tips

Guest post by Elena Hartwell — Mystery series vs. standalone

April 3, 2018 By Terry 2 Comments

Three Strikes, You're Dead by Elena HartwellMystery Series vs. Standalones: Pros and Cons for Authors and Readers

By Elena Hartwell

Whether to write a series or a standalone is an important decision for a writer. It’s a lot like whether to commit to a monogamous relationship or stay active on the dating scene. There are pros and cons to both, for the author and their readers.

Mystery readers love series. We love hanging out with our favorite private eyes, our tough-talking police detectives, and our intrepid amateur sleuths. Like all love affairs, we form a shorthand with our authors. We know the characters, the locations, the language the stories are told in. We are surprised by the twists and turns of the story, but we pick up each new book with certain expectations. We have a loyalty to the writer, but they have a responsibility to live up to their side of the relationship. The stories should surprise us, but through the plot, not through the actions of the characters. The characters remain true to the people introduced to us in the first book. They can develop and mature, but we don’t want them to become someone new.

Staying true to character is complicated. First of all, it means the author must conform, to some extent, to reader expectations. The writer could potentially come up against resistance to change. We may not want our favorite characters to move or break up or die. Sometimes we don’t even want them to age. We certainly don’t want them to ever quit investigating. On the one hand, this allows the writer to stay in a known universe. Each book builds on the stories that have gone before, no need to recreate the wheel.

But, it’s not without challenges. Each book in a series has to stand by itself. It’s virtually impossible to get reviews on older books, so new readers are introduced to the current release, not the first in the series. To add new readers, the author has to write each story so a reader doesn’t require background from the previous ones. Simultaneously, authors have to include just enough information from past books so those who have read them experience the arc of the series. It’s a balancing act to show a character has a history without giving away too much for readers who start in the middle.

Elena Hartwell
CREDIT MARK PERLSTEIN

A writer risks readers “breaking up” with them if expectations aren’t met.

Reviewers are often less excited about covering books in a series. So while everyone who reads a series knows that author, with a year or more between books, readers aren’t always actively looking for the next title, making marketing difficult.

Readers also love to read standalones. Stories that are fully wrapped up by the time they read “The End.” A favorite author will still be followed, even if the books aren’t related. We love a great first date, and standalones are first dates, over and over again.

But standalone novels have challenges as well. Each time an author writes a book, they must convince readers to come along on a new journey. The writer may also struggle if they want to shift in tone or genre. Readers who loved an author’s thriller, may not want to read the same writer’s romantic mystery. A paranormal mystery won’t have the exact same audience as a straight up private eye. So while on the surface, an author writing standalones has more flexibility, in terms of marketing, it’s just as tricky. Readers will go on multiple first dates, but not if the dates fall outside their “type.”

Some publishers are actively searching for series authors. When I signed with Camel for One Dead, Two to Go, they only wanted the first book if I planned to write a series. Luckily for me, that was my intention. I was already thinking about future books when I pitched the first. For other publishers, an author may be able to sign a book deal for multiple standalones, but they may have to describe in advance, what they are going to write for future books. For a lot of us, we’re so wrapped up in what we’re writing now, the thought of having to write a synopsis for the next book is overwhelming. So having to come up with two additional synopsis while rewriting and going through edits on the first can lock a writer into writing books from concepts they threw together fast, just to sign the contract.

Another way for a standalone writer to go is to contract for one book at a time.

Writing without a contract can be terrifying. Not knowing if a one- or a two- or a ten-year project will actually get published is like going on a blind date. You have no idea what to expect. The writer might be faced with finding a different publisher for each manuscript. Agents aren’t always interested in pitching everything an author writes, leaving a previously agented and published author back at square one.

Timing also plays a crucial role. With a series, there is often an expectation of publishing a book a year. That’s very hard to do well. There are some authors who have the ability to turn out quality novels every year, sometimes even more than one, but most of us struggle to keep up that kind of schedule.

But momentum is important to an author. Readers don’t want to wait between books in a series, or to find out what new exciting world their favorite author has created for their latest venture.

Some authors manage to balance the best of all worlds. One of my favorite authors, Dennis Lehane, writes a contemporary series, a historical series, and multiple standalones. From Mystic River and Shutter Island, to the Kenzie and Gennaro series and Joe Coughlin’s world of the 30s and 40s, he manages to juggle a little bit of everything.

But we can’t all be like Dennis Lehane, with the perfect marriage to his writing and followed by readers through all his various combinations. Right now I’m just thrilled to be launching book three, and hoping all my readers enjoy the third date.

Learn more about Elena Hartwell on at arcofawriter.com

Filed Under: Guest Post, Writing Tips

Writing Distinctive Dialogue by Joanna Campbell Slan

June 4, 2017 By Terry 5 Comments

Happy Homicides 5 - Joanna Campbell Slan

Writing Distinctive Dialogue by Joanna Campbell Slan

Good writers create distinctive dialogue, a way of speaking that is specific to each character. Distinctive dialogue occurs when the words and phrases used by one character are unique to that character, and that character alone. Writing distinctive dialogue is not easy, but it definitely is a skill worth mastering.

Benefits of distinctive dialogue

There are many benefits to distinctive dialogue.

  • Distinctive dialogue brings a character into crisp focus, making him/her more real to the reader.
  • Character-specific dialogue creates personalities who are both memorable and entertaining.
  • When dialogue is distinctive, the writer does not need to tag every bit of dialogue. The reader can clearly identify who is speaking.
  • With distinctive dialogue in place, the writer no long needs to do an “info dump” to flesh out the character. Word choices imply certain details, such as a character’s age, educational level, and ethnicity.
  • Distinctive dialogue intrigues the reader. For example, if a character never curses, but suddenly lets loose with a stream of obscenities, this action is unexpected—and the reader will want to know more.
  • Distinctive dialogue lends itself more naturally to conflict, because it’s more likely that characters will have misunderstandings, real or imagined.

Joanna Campbell Slan - Writing Distinctive DialogueFactors that influence speech patterns

Obviously, human beings are not born with the ability to talk. Therefore, our speech patterns are a function of external factors, such as our life experiences; internal factors, such as our personality and world view; and physical factors, such as speech impediments. When developing characters to inhabit our fictional worlds, the author gets to play God, using internal, external, and physical building blocks to create personalities on the page.

External and physical factors are easy to use

Most authors find it easy to imbue their characters with external and physical factors that are reflected in dialogue. For example, a well-educated character might speak with a big vocabulary, using a lot of multi-syllabic words. A well-traveled character might sprinkle in foreign phrases. A character with a hearing loss might not enunciate words clearly. These are fairly simplistic tricks, shallow ways of developing characters. Unfortunately, because they are superficial, using them creates the risk of crafting stereotypes, instead of unique personalities.

Using internal factors to create more complex characters

By going one step further, an author can use internal factors, such as personal/social style preferences, to build richer interior lives that can be expressed in the dialogue of our characters. Because all of us recognize these personality types  – although often on a subconscious level — our readers form deeper connections with characters when they are constructed using the personal/social styles method. Dialogue can now do double-duty. It both reveals and reinforces a character’s personality.

A useful personal and social styles matrix

I like to use a combination of several personal and social style models. I’ve been trained in the DiSC Personality Assessment, but I am also familiar with the Social Styles Model. Here is the quadrant matrix I have developed to help me create compelling characters:

 

Social Style Matrix

Using the quadrant matrix

When crafting a character, I now have four discrete choices. A character can be Tell-Assertive and Task-Oriented; Tell-Assertive and People-Oriented; Ask-Assertive and Task-Oriented; or Ask-Assertive and Task-Oriented. Each of these different characters will look at the world differently –and thus, he/she will speak differently. Rather than relying on superficial differences when I craft dialogue, I now choose words and phrases that are in accordance with my characters’ unique ways of seeing the world. As a side benefit, the differences among these styles cause ongoing, intrinsic friction. When I craft a cast of characters like this, each person has different wants and needs, as well as different ways of expressing him/herself. By keeping these differences in mind, it is much easier to write distinctive dialogue.

By using a personality matrix such as the one I’ve developed, any author can create characters that are much more authentic, and therefore, more memorable and compelling.

Learn more about Joanna Campbell Slan at joannacampbellslan.com.

Filed Under: Writing Tips

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