| You know, I really hate it when someone | | | | on a minute.To make us really care, why not |
| catches me crying over a book.I | | | | take a little bit of extra time? Get into |
| surreptitiously dab at the corners of my eyes | | | | that character's mind. Help the reader to |
| with a finger. I turn away from anyone else | | | | slip into his skin... to settle in, finding |
| who might be in the room. Darn it! Why was I | | | | out some of the history. This is what will |
| born such an emotional sponge?The good part | | | | make us care.It need not take up much story |
| is, of course, that the author has succeeded | | | | time or space: sometimes just a few extra |
| admirably. I am really involved with those | | | | paragraphs. Sometimes a couple of pages. You |
| characters. When bad things happen, I'm | | | | don't have to go into flashback or spend |
| aghast. I can feel their pain. I want things | | | | pages telling the backstory. A few hints are |
| to get better for them - as soon as possible! | | | | enough.Don't start with the explosion - show |
| I can't turn those pages fast enough to find | | | | the happiness of the victims a few moments |
| out what happens next.We'd all love to think | | | | beforehand. THEN have the big bang, when we |
| that our prose is powerful enough to have | | | | know enough about them to care. Foreshadow |
| readers reaching for the tissues. But how do | | | | the danger, or the approaching disaster, |
| we do that? What's the secret to putting | | | | while we're getting to know the characters. |
| words together to make our readers cry?If We | | | | THEN show things going wrong.Here's an |
| Don't Know Them, We Don't CareSome of you | | | | example from a published book: Demolition |
| probably sob regularly over sad stories on | | | | Angel by Robert Crais |
| the nightly news. Others are more | | | | |
| hard-hearted - it really takes a lot to make | | | | Code Three Roll Out Bomb Squad Silver Lake, |
| you cry.Let's imagine you're sitting down in | | | | CaliforniaCharlie Riggio stared at the |
| front of the TV set. You're only | | | | cardboard box sitting beside the Dumpster. It |
| half-watching the news; flipping through a | | | | was a Jolly Green Giant box, with what |
| magazine at the same time. Then up comes one | | | | appeared to be a crumpled brown paper bag |
| of the night's big stories - a major road | | | | sticking up through the top. The box was |
| accident. You gaze at the mangled wreck and | | | | stamped GREEN BEANS. Neither Riggio or nor |
| shake your head. There are some awful | | | | the two uniformed officers with him |
| accidents...Then the announcer gives a name. | | | | approached closer than the corner of the |
| You sit bolt upright, and take another look | | | | strip mall there on Sunset Boulevard; they |
| at the car. Your heart sinks like a stone. Oh | | | | could see the box fine from where they |
| no... oh no. That's Janet's son they're | | | | were."How long has it been there?"One of the |
| talking about. That road fatality - that | | | | Adam car officers, a Filipino named Ruiz, |
| STATISTIC - is the youngest son of one of | | | | checked his watch."We got our dispatch about |
| your neighbours; so proud of his first car. | | | | two hours ago. We been here since.""Find |
| Your hand flies to your mouth, and tears | | | | anyone who saw how it got there?""Oh, no, |
| spring to your eyes. Oh, poor Janet...There's | | | | dude. Nobody."The other officer, a black guy |
| a lesson here. Bad luck is infinitely more | | | | named Mason, nodded."Ruiz is the one who saw |
| tragic if we know the person concerned. We | | | | it. He went over and looked in the bag, the |
| put ourselves in the place of his/her family | | | | crazy Flip.""So tell me what you saw.""I told |
| members. We start thinking about the | | | | your sergeant.""Tell me. I'm the sonofabitch |
| repercussions.We HURT.How can you apply this | | | | who's gonna approach the damned thing."Ruiz |
| knowledge to your writing?Give The Reader A | | | | described seeing the capped ends of two |
| Chance To Get To Know Your CharacterYou've | | | | galvanized pipes taped together with silver |
| probably been advised many times to plunge | | | | duct tape. The pipes were loosely wrapped in |
| the reader into the story right away. Start | | | | newspaper, Ruiz said, so he had only seen the |
| at the point of change. Dive into the action; | | | | ends.Riggio considered that. They were |
| involve the reader.This is good advice - to a | | | | standing in a strip mall on Sunset Boulevard |
| point.I've read far too many books (published | | | | in Silver Lake, an area that had seen |
| and unpublished) in which the author has | | | | increasing gang activity in recent months. |
| begun with Something Bad happening to the | | | | Gangbangers would steal galvanized pipe from |
| main character. The idea is to get the reader | | | | construction sites or dig up plastic PVC from |
| hooked from the first sentence. Oh my | | | | some poor bastard's garden, then stuff them |
| goodness... how will Jane get out of this?The | | | | with rocket powder or match heads. Riggio |
| bad news is, it doesn't always work. And | | | | didn't know if the Green Giant box held an |
| almost always, the reason it doesn't work is | | | | actual bomb or not, but he had to approach it |
| because we're reading about strangers. To | | | | if it did. That's the way it was with bomb |
| become really involved you have to 'become' | | | | calls. Better than ninety-five percent turned |
| the viewpoint character. Then you will feel | | | | out to be hairspray cans, some teenager's |
| her pain!Let's dig into this a bit more. | | | | book bag, or, like his most recent call-out, |
| Living in your own skin, you have a whole | | | | two pounds of marijuana wrapped in Pampers. |
| slew of background experiences to call upon. | | | | Only one out of a hundred was what the bomb |
| If 'something bad' happens to you, there's a | | | | techs called an "improvised munition".A |
| history all waiting.Case OneYou support a | | | | homemade bomb. |
| talented child all the way through to Olympic | | | | |
| success. You've lost count of the sacrifices | | | | |
| the family has made. Then at the crucial | | | | |
| moment - that child loses his balance on the | | | | This introduction of Charlie Riggio takes up |
| swimming blocks at the Olympic selections | | | | roughly one printed page. The author spends |
| meet and is disqualified. Years of training | | | | another three and a half pages letting the |
| down the drain. (OK, it happened to Ian | | | | reader get to know Charlie. We see how |
| Thorpe... but it could have been anybody: the | | | | careful he is; how much experience he has. We |
| years of training and sacrifice are the | | | | are led through the procedure of checking out |
| same.) How does a parent feel? How does the | | | | the bomb prior to its disposal.And when the |
| athlete feel?Case TwoYou scrimp and save for | | | | bomb detonates at twenty-eight thousand feet |
| years, sometimes working three jobs, and | | | | per second and kills Charlie, do we care?You |
| finally build a successful business. At last, | | | | better believe it.Let the reader get to know |
| you are financially secure - you can have | | | | your character before you wield the axe... |
| anything you want. Then your partner, having | | | | and the tears will flow.(c) Copyright Marg |
| siphoned off all the money, leaves the | | | | McAlister Marg McAlister has published |
| country. You're bankrupt. At nearly sixty | | | | magazine articles, short stories, books for |
| years of age, you have nothing.So? you're | | | | children, ezines, promotional material, sales |
| saying. Wouldn't either of those two | | | | letters and web content. She has written 5 |
| scenarios be good openings for a novel? | | | | distance education courses on writing, and |
| Losing your balance at the crucial moment? | | | | her online help for writers is popular all |
| Going to work one day to find you'd lost | | | | over the world. |
| everything?Yes. Both could work. BUT... hold | | | | |