Your Path to Publishing

By Jason Evans

Wow.

This is the big one. Today we begin our discussion on paths to publishing. This is a BIG topic. So I apologize now if I forget to mention something, or don’t address a question someone might have.

I remember someone told me in college that people confuse simple with easy and complicated with hard. A hammer, for example, is a simple tool to use, but if you’ve ever swung one for a while, it can be hard on your muscles. The same is true with publishing. So, before we begin, I need to ask a question.

Why do you want to publish your book?

The answer will determine the path you take to publishing as well as how hard you’re gonna work.

I have a mentor who taught at Christian private schools for 40 years. He has self-published five books on Christian scholastic education. For him, writing & publishing gives his small audience something introspective to chew on. It is a service to his community that burnishes his credentials in his field.

On the other hand, I know a writer who has published eight books in four years, has plans to publish at least four more in the next two. He goes to all the conventions and sells books. But for him, fame and the love of the crowd is what he desperately wants. So the bigger the crowd, the better.

Finally, I know a third author who writes schlocky Sci-fi with fart jokes and comic book level violence. He wants to feed his family – and he does. He writes four books a year – each around 100K words – and pays his mortgage with his writing. Is he the next Hemingway, or JK Rowling? No. But his fans love him and buy everything he sells. And that’s enough.

Ask yourself why are you on this journey? Be honest. Talk to your spouse, or closest friend. Talk to your rabbi or shaman. Dig deep for the answers.

For some people, simply having a book published is enough. They had one story in them. It’s a life goal to check off. Others want to write, but aren’t committed enough to figure out how to pay the bills with it. So they write, publish and never sell any books. Some people are passionate about success. They want to write the perfect book. They want people to be moved by their stories, to fall in love with their work. They want it all.

None of these approaches is wrong. Your motivations, however, will determine how hard you’ll work. Just remember that.

OK. Enough with the pre-amble. Let’s do this.

There are essentially, two paths to publishing. Traditional and self-publishing. Both have their struggles, their frustrations and their victories. If you feel like you need mentors along the way, people who know the business and can guide you, then traditional publishing is probably for you.

If, however, you like to learn every aspect of the business. If you are fascinated by color choices and font types (so many font types); if you feel you have to have control of the entire book pipeline – from edits to cover options – then you will want to self-publish.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be a lot of work on either side of the fence – especially marketing.

Traditional Publishing

The one true upside to traditional publishing is about exposure. A publisher can get your book into bookstore chains and stores like Walmart. That kind of exposure is gold, baby. But don’t expect this to happen overnight. I’ve known authors who’ve published dozens of books and their publisher only warmed up to them late in the game. Some never get this kind of love.

But if you’re truly committed to a traditional publisher you have to know about agents and editors.

Editors work for publishers and will take your work, read it, and if they love your story, will fight to get it published with their company. An agent is someone who loves your story so much, they will use their contacts within the publishing world and put it in front of other editors. The editors have relationships with agents and trust them to recommend great stories.

So, how do you find an agent?

Go to conferences such as Pikes Peak Writers.

Agents and editors go to these things to find the next George RR Martin. They want to hear your story. But you can’t be a wallflower here. You’ve got to be charming as hell. You’ve also got to look and act like a pro. Men, put on some slacks and a jacket. Women, get that nice outfit you wear for business stuff out. Dressing well helps.

Also, be clear what your story is about. What’s the hook? In my W.I.P., the Gallowglass, I invert the trope of the rebel Irish being the good guys. My story has the English as the good guys. It’s fresh and different.

When you go, you’ll also want to have your pitch down. What’s your pitch? A short speech about your book. Author Aaron Michael Ritchey’s pitches his Juniper Wars Series like this: “It’s a family of women with machine guns on a post-apocalyptic cattle drive.” When I first heard that, I so wanted to read it.

Blake Snyder’s book Save the Cat has an entire chapter on pitching to agents. Get his book and check it out! He also recommends talking to complete strangers about your pitch. They don’t know you, so they’ll be honest about your pitch. Also, walking up to complete strangers and talking about your book is great practice for walking up to a complete stranger who happens to be an agent or editor, too.

While you’re at this writing conference, make sure to go to classes run by agents on writing query letters. You’ll see the business from the other side and begin to understand why they have the rules they have. I went to a conference a couple of years ago and listened to an agent say that 90% of writers don’t follow their submission guidelines. She then went on to say her staff deletes all of those submissions. This made me extremely hopeful because I know how to follow directions!

Find Agents online and query them

If you can’t afford to go to conference, or don’t have the time, then find an agent online.

The easy thing to do is get a monthly subscription to www.publishersmarketplace.com. Agents on this website want to be queried with new stories. It’s $25 a month and you can cancel any time. Try to find those agents with lots of sells under their name. Sure, you can take your chance with new agent Larry who’s never sold anything, but why when bigger sharks are circling and you can lasso one? Go for the big dawgs!

Do it the hard way

Another option if you can’t afford or don’t want to pay the $25/a month is to do what I did. It will take you about 12 hours to get information on about fifty agents. But it is worth it.

First off start a spreadsheet. Your spreadsheet should have labels for agent names, their agency websites, contact info, and check off boxes for if you’ve queried them and when.

Do you have a Linkedin.com account? There are literally thousands of literary agents on Linkedin. If you don’t have an account, make one, now.

In the search bar, type in “Literary Agent,” and thousands will appear. I know, it sounds overwhelming, but you can do it!

Click on the people tab and start checking these agents out! Find out what agency they work for, open another tab on your web browser and go to the agency website. Read their query policy and find that agent’s bio. Do they represent what you write? If not, move on.

Begin populating your spreadsheet with agents you feel you’d be successful working with. Get their names, email address, when they accept queries, and their query guidelines in your database.

This process took me 12 hours to do over two days but is was worth it. I now have a list of 50+ agents I can query my books to. Agents who accept historical fiction. 

Learn to write query letters

A good query letter can get your foot into the door. Don’t know how to write one? Most conferences offer at least one class about query letters. If you can’t make that class, then visit a couple of websites to help you out.

Super Agent and Pikes Peak presenter Angie Hodapp started a new website called www.tightenyourquery.com. It’s a great resource on how to write query letters. Her information is quite topical and issue specific. If you don’t learn that way and want someone to edit you, then try www.Queryshark.blogspot.com. WARNING: Query shark can be brutal, so make sure to have tough skin. The writing can be very funny and is always insightful.

When you get an agent, do everything they tell you to do

Agents are not perfect. However, they understand the industry in ways we do not. So, if they tell you to make revisions on your W.I.P., DO IT. They already believe in your story, or else they wouldn’t have signed you. Having an agent means you have potential! But now you want to sell your book and make it a product for the market place. You are now in business. So act like it and don’t take revisions personally. Do your job.

One last thing before you sign that contract . . .

Hire a lawyer. Seriously. Hire a lawyer who specializes in copyright and trademark law. They are called literary lawyers. You don’t have to have a retainer, but do cough up the couple of hundred bucks to have them look over your contract. Let them figure out things like royalties, reversion of rights, digital rights and overseas markets. It is worth it for your piece of mind.

If you have an agent or publishing house that doesn’t want you to hire an attorney – that is a red flag.

Susan Spann, author of the Shinobi Mysteries, is also a lawyer. I talked to her about this. Here is what she said about literary contracts.

“Even simple contracts can have missing or sub-standard terms and other pitfalls authors may not notice. Without an experienced publishing lawyer or agent on your side, it’s far too easy to find yourself in a contract you regret.”

If you get the impression the literary world is full of predators, I apologize. That isn’t the point. The point is people make mistakes and errors all the time. Also, some people are predators in the literary world. At the end of the day no one is going to protect your rights but you. Do your homework, hire a lawyer, and always remember to protect yourself.

I know this is a lot to process, but the journey to publication can be labor intensive. This is why I asked you why are you writing a book? I know it is hard because I am in this process right now. But it will be worth it if you put in the work. I promise.

On Facebook, like my author's page at Jason Henry Evans.

Follow me on Twitter @evans_writer.

Check out my web page at www.jasonhenryevans.com

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“And, what do you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.” ~ Ray Bradbury

Source Wikipedia

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. He worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction.

Widely known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and his science fiction and horror story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and I Sing the Body Electric (1969), Bradbury was one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers. While most of his best-known work is in speculative fiction, he also wrote in other genres, such as the coming-of-age novel Dandelion Wine (1957) or the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992).

Recipient of numerous awards, including a 2007 Pulitzer Citation, Bradbury also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted to comic book, television and film formats.

On his death in 2012, The New York Times called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream."

This week on Writing from the Peak:

June 12        Scholarship Recipient Beth Malone

June 14        PPW's History Series by Jason Evans

June 16        Sweet Success Celebrates Barbara Nickless

Your To-Do List After the First Draft

By: Jason Evans

Last month we talked about actually writing your book. If you’ve followed my advice month to month you might be disappointed to realize your masterpiece isn’t done by now.

Don’t beat yourself up. It takes some people years to finish their first draft. Give yourself some time and do it the right way. (But not too much time.)

Juggling plots, character motivations, settings, and themes is a difficult process for even experienced writers. The best way to complete that book of yours is to write a little every day. Start with a page, then try to write two pages. Write six days in a row. Follow that up with a word count goal to make every day. Make writing a habit. Eventually you will have a completed draft. When that day happens, believe me, you’ll be relieved and happy. Of course, you’ll then ask yourself a question.

Now what?

That what today’s blog is all about. What should you do next?

Now even though this is the historical fiction blog on Pikes Peak Writers, please know that the following suggestions apply to all writers of fiction. Sci-fi, Speculative, Romance, etc. Follow these steps once your first draft is complete.

Here are the top five things you should do once your manuscript, or W.I.P. (Work in Progress,) is finished.

1.) Celebrate!

You wrote a dag-blame book! Congratulations. Many people can’t say that. People say they want to write a book all the time. How many even write a line of that book, let alone an entire novel? Not many. How many get 50 pages, or even 25 before quitting? You didn’t. You stuck it out.

Tell everybody you know. Go on social media, tell your in-laws, your kids’ teachers, and the mailman. Bake a cake, or buy some (cheap,) champagne. You deserve to celebrate.

2.) Rest

Now that you’ve written this sure-to-be best seller, walk away from it. I’m serious. Walk Away.

When I was in college, I learned to write a paper well before the deadline, then put it away for a couple of days in order to see it with fresh eyes. Doing this helped me see the faults in my writing. Stuff I thought was pithy or clever turned out to be boorish or just blame awful. A few days gave me some healthy distance so I could give my writing a fair critique. In the end, that distance helped me strengthen structure and clarify arguments. I figured if a paragraph didn’t make sense to me after a few days, it certainly wouldn’t make sense to my professors.  

How long should you take? I would say at least two weeks, but anywhere from a month to six months seems right to me. Now I know many people like to submit pages to conference contests, or query during an agent’s submission period, so maybe six months is too long. I completely understand. Just give yourself some down time away from the keyboard.

3.) Join a Critique Group

Here is where things get scary. I have hermit tendencies at times. I know getting out of the house and wearing pants seems like a lot of effort, but trust me, the effort is worth it.  

Joining a critique group can have several benefits to your writing life. Chiefly, they will read excerpts of your W.I.P., and give you gentle critiques. (Why gentle? I’ll get to that in a moment.) Second, you will develop an eye for good writing, as you will be reading other people’s W.I.P.’s. More importantly, you’ll learn why and how a story can go south, by reading other people’s works. Just the act of reading fiction critically will help you become a better writer. Finally, those critique partners, those people who have seen your worst and your best, will become your writing family. They will mourn, laugh, grouse, and celebrate your writing life. They’ll be your inklings.

4.) Get a good book on Grammar.

A lot of you may not have gone to college. Those who did, probably didn’t major in English. So mastering the grammar monster is something most new writers have to deal with. (I know it is for me.) The relationship between new writers and grammar is akin to a professional football player and pain. Sometimes it will distract you from your job, other times you’ll conquer it. Regardless, you will respect it and have a relationship with it that must be nurtured.

But it’s not just about learning grammar rules. It’s about manipulating the language in different ways, making English stretch and do those things that will wow your readers. It’s learning about meter and rhythm, about word etymology and descriptive verbs. A good book of grammar will help you along this process.

5.) Editing

You’ve celebrated and rested, joined a critique group and bought a good book on grammar.

Now we get serious. Now it’s time to edit your book. Here’s what you do.

Chiefly, buy a BIG binder (or, liberate an oppressed binder from your place of work – theft is such an ugly word). Get ahold of a three ring hole punch (see liberation above). Then print your book out.

Yes. I said print your book out!

You want to print it out for a couple of reasons. You’re gonna want to make notes in the margins –things you’ll get to later. You’ll want to take it outside and read it in the sun. Your eyes will get tired looking at a computer screen all day, so switch to paper.

Finally, there is something tactile and soothing about critiquing your work on paper. There’s nothing to save, or accidently delete. You won’t end up with multiple copies with different edits floating around. Plus, it’ll be pretty cool to walk around with a filled binder of your own writing.

A trick you can do is get one of those multi-colored ball point pens. Use red for grammar, green for character arc or plot points, black for basic edits, and blue for remembering notes for the re-write.

What? Yes, you will be re-writing portions of your book. You didn’t think we’d be done in one draft, did you?

Come back next month as I talk about how and what to re-write in your W.I.P.


About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

Like my author page on Facebook: Jason Henry Evans

Follow me on Twitter: @evans_writer

Visit my new webpage www.jasonhenryevans.com

Writing Your Historical Novel: Blog Four

Editor's Note: Jason Evan's expertise is history, but this article, as in his past articles for Pikes Peak Writers, can be helpful to writers in every genre. Good information for all to consider.

By Jason Evans

Happy Spring! Welcome back!

OK, we’ve talked about fleshing out your ideas. We’ve gone over how to start your research. We have even addressed how to structure your story. This month we’re going to talk about actually writing your story down!

Finally. It’s about time this guy talks about the stuff I wanna know! Why didn’t he do this before?

Why? Because my first WIP was a freakin’ train wreck, that’s why! I did everything wrong. I wanted a Lord of the Rings style adventure, and ended up with Anne of Green Gables with sword fights. I made every mistake. Grammar, point of view, too many compound sentences, etc. I don’t want you to go through that, gentle reader.

Since that awful first manuscript, I have learned that the more prep I do on the front end, the less re-writing I’ll have to do on the back end. So I write a lot about organization, structure and research. The benefit of this approach is so that you don’t have to re-write entire sections of your book. Doing the research beforehand prevents you from making major mistakes when you write.

OK, rant over. Here are some suggestions you might want to do right before you begin writing.

Create a Timeline of Historical Events

In historical fiction, you are usually writing about fictional characters experiencing a real world event, or you’re writing a fiction story about historical characters experiencing a real world event. That event can be a political election, a basketball tournament, the opening of a frontier, or a war. There really isn’t any limitation to what you can write. However, if you mess up the timeline, your book will suffer and people will taunt you.

Example: Let’s say you’re writing a love story about Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne. He met Anne in December of 1927, after his famous flight in Mexico City. If you have them meeting again on Valentine’s Day, 1928, say in New Jersey, you’d better make sure he was actually in New Jersey in February! Again, people will criticize you.

Get a Good Book on Grammar

Listen, English is a messed up language. There is no shame in not knowing all the rules. I read an article once indicating English started as an Anglo-Saxon language that Viking settlers spoke poorly (because they didn’t care.) Add some Latin words from the Roman invasion of Britain. Add some more Latin words, along with some French with the Norman invasion, then sprinkle in some Spanish, Italian (ghetto Latin,) Hindi, Arabic & other words, & you’ve got a mess on your hands.

Get a good book of grammar to help you out. If you can, get a good book on fiction writing, too. It will save you time in the end.

Stick to One Point of View

I know Book series like A Song of Ice and Fire, have made multiple points of view stories very popular recently. However, Point of View can be really hard for beginning authors. (I know it was for me.)  My suggestion is to limit the point of view to one character. Let the reader follow that person on a journey. Give your readers a glimpse of what brings that character joy, what makes them happy, or what scares them.

It doesn’t mean you can’t have awesome supporting characters, you just won’t be able to hear their thoughts. One of my favorite characters in A Song of Ice and Fire is Stannis Baratheon and he never gets a point of view chapter.

Find a good craft book on the subject. I suggest Rivet your Readers with Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. It’s a little booklet with great activities. Its only $5.99 on Amazon.

Accept that Your Writing will have Multiple Drafts

Local Denver area author Stant Litore (who will be attending the Pikes Peak Writers Conference) once told me “Writers write. Professional writers rewrite.” I have found this to be true.

Know that the effort you put out for your first WIP will not be done when you write “The End.”

You’re going to have to rewrite some parts. (Which we will cover in later blogs) You’re going to have to make those fight scenes clearer. You’re going to have to drop more hints earlier in your book so your readers don’t feel cheated when they find out the gardener was the killer.

In my book, The Gallowglass, there is a love triangle between my protagonist, Philip, and a woman trying to get through a war zone to see her dying husband, as well as a camp follower who sees my protagonist as a meal ticket. (Philip doesn’t see it, though.) The camp follower is named Colleen.

The first time you meet Colleen, she is seducing Philip in his army tent. Fionualla, (She’s Irish) stumbles upon the two as they’re disrobing.

After writing 104,000 words I realized as I was reading it, that Colleen was not sympathetic at all. She was a stereotype: The voluptuous Bad Girl, the Temptress. I didn’t want that, so I added a couple of scenes showing Philip’s sincere affection for Colleen and her potential to be an ingénue. Those scenes were a big part of my rewrite.

Perhaps you want to add a subplot, or give the villain more face time. It is in the rewriting where the richness and fullness of your book comes through. So don’t be afraid to write more.

Rewriting is part of the process. Think of it like this.

Draft One: The Dream Draft. Here you can experiment with any plots and subplots you want. Be as experimental as you want!

Draft Two: Plot, Arc, Structure, & Conflict. After you’ve written and read your WIP, go back and tighten those elements of your story that strengthen the plot, the character arcs, the structure and the conflict of your story. Things have to be clear and concise.

Draft Three: The History Draft. All that awesome historical research you did? The information on shoe colors and blouse construction. The stuff on horses and metallurgy, put it in now. If your characters went to an historical building, one you don’t know much about, put those descriptions in here.

Why?

I once wasted two days researching Renaissance Irish Women’s headgear. Yes. I admit that. Don’t be me. Put all your historical research in, the big, the small, in Draft three.

Draft Four: The Polished Draft. This is where you make the final changes, check grammar, and go over the sticky points in your characters arcs.

Congrats, You’re Done!

I sincerely hope this has been helpful. I know it’s a lot to do and think about. But, if you do the work, then you’ll be able to sit down in front of your favorite writing program and not worry about everything else. You won’t get sidetracked and you won’t go down a rabbit hole. You will be able to sit down and write your story with a clear conscience.

If it seems daunting, or overwhelming, remember what Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo said, “The World Needs Your Novel.”

If you find writing itself a struggle, if the motivation to write hamstrings your goal of writing a book, then check out my blog on my website. I’ve got some pretty good suggestions for you there. http://www.jasonhenryevans.com/category/writing-historical-fiction/

Next month we’ll talk about how to use all that awesome research you’ve acquired and why you need beta-readers.

Enjoy your Spring and Happy Easter!

Read more about Jason’s writing life at http://www.jasonhenryevans.com/category/writing-historical-fiction/

Follow him on Twitter @evans_writer

Or, like his Facebook Author Page at Jason Henry Evans

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

Putting the Story Together Historical Fiction Series - Part Three

By: Jason Evans


March brings the worst snow to Colorado while also bringing dreams of sunny Aprils and warm Mays. Welcome back to the Pikes Peak Historical fiction blog. In January we talked about the idea for your story. here In February, we talked about doing preliminary research on your novel. here  Today we talk about how to put the story together itself.

Now full disclosure here: I am NOT a pantser. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then let me introduce you to the writing conflict of our time: Pantser vs. Plotter.

I would normally be described as a plotter. I use Blake Snyder’s screen writing book, Save the Cat, like a religious text. I have a poster-size piece of paper with all my plot points written out. I then write detailed notes on each scene I’m going to write, using 3 x 5 note cards. I carry these note cards with me religiously when I’m working on a novel. I plan out everything. (Yes, I am a little neurotic.)

Pantsers can’t stand people like me. They like to sit down in front of a computer screen, no formula, no outline, and just write. They may or may not have an idea where the story is going. They could start out writing a historical fiction that turns into a paranormal romance. They could start out writing a murder mystery that turns into a thriller. For them, the excitement is in not knowing where the story will take them.

While my OCD kicks in hard when I talk to these people, I do get what they feel. So I’m not going to judge. My advice to you today will be very general, and as always, I’ll get into more details on my own blog later. But there is nothing wrong with either.

Every novel must have certain elements or else it isn’t a novel. This is particularly true in historical fiction. Forgive me if all of you know this, but I want to cover the basics. Here is what you need:

Plot

Conflict

Character development

Genre

Scene craft

Now, I’ve left a lot out of this list, but I wanted to cover the basics with you. The Plot is the sequence of events inside a story and how they affect one another through cause and effect.

There should be highs and lows in the Plot.

Conflict is about what is preventing your characters from getting what they want. Who or what is standing in their way? Usually there are four kinds of conflict: Man v. Man, Man v. Society, Man v. Nature, and Man v. Self.  

The book World War Z by Max Brooks, is Man v. Nature. In fact, every zombie story is a Man v. Nature story. It’s the world and its new rules that the protagonist has to figure out. Once he’s learned to “Live in nature,” he’s conquered it.

A Song of Ice & Fire has several conflicts, but many of the main characters, (Circe, Tyrion, Ned Stark,) are involved in Man v. Society conflict. The world expects one thing from them and they want to do something else. Their struggles are centered in their desire to live one way and society's desire that they live another.

One of the major flaws of all new authors is that of Character Development. New WIPs from green authors usually have perfect protagonists. They are handsome, well adjusted, successful and ethical. (Did I forget rich?) The problem is that no reader will ever identify with characters that perfect. This is why you need Character Development, or a character arc. While commercial fiction does require a likable protagonist, that doesn’t mean perfect. Besides, it’s their flaws that make them charming.

In Nora Roberts Born in Ice (The Irish born Trilogy,) the protagonist Brianna Concannon runs a Bed & Breakfast in Western Ireland. She is a proud, people adverse, introverted, mouse-of-a-woman. Brianna has a heart of gold, but her anal retentiveness and pride in her house become endearing to the reader. Her character development involves her opening up and becoming open to love.

Every character needs a wound to heal or a flaw to overcome. Your reader will root for your protagonists if they learn from their mistakes and grow as human beings throughout the story. A great way to do this is to have your characters call their own problems. Don’t have characters react to external events consistently. Give them flaws and have them face problems created by those flaws. Have your protagonists face their flaws and make amends, overcoming them.

I have a book recommendation to help you with it. Local Denver author Stant Litore has written a book about the character arc called Write Characters Your Readers Won’t Forget. I won’t sugar coat it for you; the exercises in this book can be a little tedious, but they will help you flesh out your characters and give them depth. It is time well spent on your story. I liked the book so much that, even though I write plot-driven stories, I make sure to color coat character arc scenes on my Save the Cat outline board.

The next item on our list is genre. Every genre has its own convention. In Historical Fiction, a clear genre convention is that your story must stay within the bounds of actual history. If it doesn’t it isn’t historical fiction anymore. Whether you’re writing about fictional characters experiencing historical events, or writing a fictional account of historical figures suffering through historical events, the events themselves must not change. In addition, things like costumes, values, social norms and levels of knowledge should be as accurate as possible, or you’ll turn off your reader. (If your novel features Confederates winning at Gettysburg – especially with assault rifles – you’ve written science fiction, not historical fiction.)

Lastly, we have Scene Craft. Scene Craft is about how you present the little stories that make up your novel. How each event hurls the reader down a tense road towards a climatic conclusion. (Will the 10^th Mountain Division take that Italian Monastery from the Nazis? Will Betty & Jake ever get together? Can the plucky rebels defeat the evil dark lord?)

Author Warren Hammond and Literary Slush reader Angie Hodapp talked about this on Saturday, March 4^th. They borrowed the diagram below from author Dwight V. Swain’s book, Techniques of the Selling Author.  The diagram (which they designed) is below. In essence, it’s the PLOT of each scene.

But Scene Craft is also about dialogue writing, describing emotions, the voice of the characters involved. It can be overwhelming.

I don’t mean to scare anybody with this. However, these are things that should be in the back of your mind as you write your historical fiction novel. It’s a lot of work, I know. But if you’ve stayed with me for two months now, then you are clearly not a member of the herd. You have a story inside of you, and it needs to get out. So get it out! Write your novel! Let me give you a couple of shortcuts.

Every story, in my humble opinion, should follow the Three Act Structure.

ACT 1  Thesis

ACT 2 Anti-Thesis

ACT 3 Synthesis

ACT 1: Thesis. The protagonist is living his life, with or without satisfaction. Something happens and he is given a Call to Adventure. Maybe its Gandalf showing up at the shire, or King Robert Baratheon asking Ned Stark to be Hand of the King. The protagonist must think about this request, debate it. Then he must choose of his own free will, to answer the call and leave the safety of his world behind. 

ACT 2: Anti-Thesis. The protagonist is in a strange new world. The old rules don’t apply. He’s had some successes, but he makes mistakes. At some point in the middle of ACT 2, (Which should be in the middle of your book,) your protagonist must have either a false victory or a false defeat.  He must get to the midpoint and realize this is not what he wanted.

Then the bad guys strike back, your protagonist goes through more struggles. At some point he wants to give up. Blake Snyder calls this the dark night of the soul. Here there must be a whiff of death. Maybe oblivion is preferable? He goes through an existential crisis. When he comes out of that crisis, he must choose of his own free will, to continue the fight. This leads them to Act 3.

ACT 3: Synthesis. The protagonist takes everything he’s learned in Act 1 and combines it with everything he's learned in Act 2. He synthesizes his experience and comes up with new solutions to his problems and fixes them. The end.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below and I’ll answer them. Whether you’re a pantser or a plotter, you can take these general guidelines and apply them to your writing. Good luck! Let me know how you’re doing!    

We can continue the conversation over on my website here, http://www.jason-evans.net/2017/03/structure-novel-story-arc-character-arc/

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

You can read Jason’s blog at Jason-evans.net

You can like his Facebook author page, Jason Henry Evans

Or, follow him on Twitter @evans_writer

Research in Historical Fiction--Do it First Blog 2

By: Jason Evans

I was really debating what I should write next. Hopefully, if you read my last blog, you worked on your logline. An extended elevator pitch that really focuses on what your book will be about. If you haven’t, read that blog first, go here. 

Hopefully, you written your logline, talked to people about it and received feedback. Hopefully, you’re excited about your story. I know you want to start writing. So before you do anything else, stop and take a breath.

Did you stop? Did you breathe? Good.

Now it’s time to put your big girl/boy pants on and do some research.

Yes. Research.

But Jason, you say, I want to write my book! I want to put down all these amazing scenes I have dancing in my head! I want to write about swashbuckling pirates, or daring World War II fighter pilots. I want to write about that rapscallion, Mr. Trumbly, and his, ahem, inappropriate affection for the innocent Lady Rothschild.

Take another breath!

Look, I have been there myself. I have had an idea burning me up inside. I have had a story literally hound me for twenty years before I got serious and wrote it. I am with you, friend. But can we be honest? I mean, brutally honest?

As a genre, readers of historical fiction can be quite zealous about historical facts. I’m not talking about major stuff we already know. I’m talking about the little stuff. The minutia. You know what I mean.

1. Whether a historical figure was actually in a certain place at a certain period of time.
2. The fibers used by weavers at the time of your book.
3. The accuracy of military insignia for certain military units in particular military conflicts.
4. How many stays a corset would have for a bosomy woman.

Do you get my point? We lovers of historical fiction will go to great lengths to pick out the inaccuracies in a published book or film. We love to nitpick.

I once had a dear friend explode into a murderous, trembling rage about the film Gladiator, with Russell Crowe. She told me the film was awful. Why? (Wait for it . . .)

The crowd pointed their thumbs down when they should have placed their thumbs up to let the gladiator in the arena know it was all right to kill his opponent. Yes. She was THAT serious about it. Never mind there is 80 years of gladiator films where the reverse occurs. (It would confuse the audience to show otherwise – even if it is historically accurate.) My friend was adamant.

THESE are some of the people who buy historical fiction. Don’t believe me? Go look at reviews for your favorite book of historical fiction. Read the 1 & 2 star reviews. Go ahead, read them. Most of them will have to do with minor historical inaccuracies.

So before you commit yourself to the time, effort and bloodletting of writing a book of historical fiction, please, do your research. It is THAT important. The last thing you want to do is write a wonderful book about a romance between Queen Elizabeth I of England and Philip II of Spain and find out they only met once, at Queen Mary I’s wedding.

Doing the research will not only prevent such pitfalls from happening to your book, it might inspire other ideas.

My first manuscript takes place during the last decade of Queen Elizabeth I rule of Ireland. I had studied the period in college, so I was pretty knowledgeable about the culture, the dress, even the food they ate. When I started to write my second manuscript, entitled Jerusalem’s Menace, I knew I would have to do a LOT more research. (The story takes place during the Crusades.)

As I was doing that research, I stumbled upon a historical figure that would be the perfect mastermind villain. This person was ruthless, cunning and sympathetic. The character was also a woman. I got giddy just thinking about her. If I had started writing first, I would have never discovered her. Doing your research first allows for your story to change according to the history, and not the other way around.

So I hope you’re excited about doing the research on your historical fiction. But, don’t get too excited! Please, please, please don’t go book your vacation to Florence because your book is about Cosimo De Medici. Don’t blow $300 on Amazon about World War I, or the Suffrage Movement. Start small. That way, you won’t feel bad if your ideal book doesn’t pan out.

My suggestion? Wikipedia.

I know. I know. Wikipedia gets a bad rap. But hear me out.

You’re not writing a graduate level research paper on Napoleonic France. You’re sniffing your way through the general stuff to see if your story has legs. Wikipedia is perfect for that.

You’re not researching some hot button issue like the 2016 Presidential Election, or whether climate change is real. Those articles get re-edited by people all the time. The articles themselves are political footballs. The page on English Regency Fashion? Not so much.

That Fashion of the English Regency page, for the most part, is written by passionate amateurs and professional historians. The chances that they are wrong about the broad arc of history is very small.

Wikipedia has a lovely footnote section with book and article titles. Sometimes, there are links to pages where the original source can be found. There are also wonderful historical paintings, diary excerpts, maps, diagrams and photos of what you’re looking for. You can get lost just looking at the photos and their origins. (I know I have.) Wikipedia not only lets you glean the basics for your book of fiction, it points you in the right direction when you’re ready to dive deep into a subject.

I hope I haven’t squashed your desire to write historical fiction. I hope I’ve made research more accessible to you. It isn’t that hard, but it can be tedious.

If you want to learn more, click this link here. It will take you to my site, where you’ll learn more about how to do research and what kind of research to do.

Next month we’ll talk about writing your book of historical fiction.

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. 

You can follow Jason on Twitter @evans_writer.

Like his Facebook page, Jason Henry Evans

Or, you can read his blog and sign-up for his mailing list at his website, jason-evans.net.