Skip to content

Month: April 2023

Writing a Blurb

Are You in the Middle of Writing a Blurb?

Have you ever written a blurb for a book? Here’s how.

Grab the Reader’s Attention

The most effective blurbs are:

  • short
  • specific as to genre (don’t be coy; if it’s horror, then say so!)
  • open about who the protagonist is
  • spoiler-free
  • not a rehash of the first chapter or the entire plot
  • neutral about the quality of your work (don’t say: this is an incredible book. Your saying that does not make it so. Sorry.)

So keep in mind – these are not the same as the summary you write for a query.

Blurb Samples

In this fantasy tale, Dorothy is whisked away by a twister to an unknown magical land. But first she has to deal with the quite literal fallout of her house falling on, and killing, a wicked witch.

Blurbs give us an idea about the story, and they make us want to read more. Also, a blurb for The Wizard of Oz would likely be longer than the above, better reflecting the work’s complexity and length. It would likely cover more than just the opening scenes.

While a long book does not need to have a long blurb, it at least could conceivably support one. However, a short novel probably would not.

Unless, of course, you’ve written The Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Reclusive millionaire Jay Gatsby leads the good life in 1920s New York. As his friend Nick Carraway watches, Gatsby’s life takes a turn with the all-too appealing but also all-too married Daisy Buchanan.

Or –

Scout and Jem Finch live in Alabama with their widowed father, Atticus, the town’s leading lawyer. It’s the 1930s, and Maycomb seems far from sophistication or enlightenment. And so the trouble starts when a black man is accused of raping a white woman – and Scout’s father agrees to defend the accused.

Blurb Practice

We all have to start somewhere, and we have all got to practice. This is a skill like any other. Or, rather, unlike any other. And a lot of us can become paralyzed with fear and self-doubt when we try. That is totally understandable.

After all, a lot is riding on just a simple blurb.

So, start small.

I honestly think practicing on classic novels is a good idea. It’s not fraught with meaning because you’re not trying to sell anything.

In fact, I bet it would make a pretty cool game. That is, write a blurb, don’t give away the title, and then ask the other player to Name That Book.

Back to you.

Leave a Comment

Reading the Writing Social Signals

What are Social Signals?

The social media landscape is vast and varied. But one thing the sites all seem to have in common is algorithms. And those algorithms work by way of counting and weighing what are called social signals.

In our offline lives, we emit social signals all the time although some are muddier than others. If you proactively join your school’s alumni association, then you are emitting a signal which says you value either your education or your school or maybe the friends you made there. When you insist on referring to yourself as Doctor … then you are also discharging a signal.

Other signals come from our choices of everything from mates to dining establishments to screen names or even to how we decorate.

Let’s Go Online

So, the truth is that the way social signals get an interpretation depends, in large part, on whether you’re a human or a bot/computer.

So, let’s look at both means of interpretation in turn.

Social Signals for People

Human beings are essentially wired to prefer what the group likes. And there is a very good, evolution-style reason for this! Fitting into a group means you have help with everything from child rearing to food gathering.

Yes, of course there are hermits out there. And the crowd is not always right. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And when a crowd turns into an angry mob, well, all bets are off.

But as a species we love popularity. And, at the same time, we also love positive things. Usually. So, if everyone else loves X, then we can often feel the need to check out X, whatever it may be. Signals of positive appreciation are meaningful to us.

These signals include:

  • Star rating systems
  • Rankings
  • Number of positive reviews
  • A lack (or a dearth) of negative reviews
  • Endorsements from people we listen to and admire
  • Shelf space or “want to read” lists
  • Prominence on a shelf or in a collection
  • Number of followers/admitted readers

An online seller or social media platform will often put its virtual thumb on the scale. Hence, a certain number of reviews of any stripe might result in Amazon delivering your book to more pages. Also, rankings are likely to generate more suggestions for readers. E.g. if you liked X, you should check out Y.

Apart from newness and uniqueness, this is the way many algorithms work online.

Rankings on Amazon in particular also offer up another signal—the happy orange ribbon that says “#1 bestseller”. Amazon also gathers together bestsellers for their own grouping, which is at the top—prime real estate.

How to Use ‘Em

To take advantage of some of these signals, watch your rankings on Amazon. If you ever hit #1, take screenshots! You can easily use them in your marketing materials.

In April, 2023, my book was #1 in the ___ category. And then just add the screenshot to whatever you like—tweet, FB post, newsletter, blog post, Instagram image, etc. Even a year later, that can still look impressive. And no one really needs to know that your genre is tiny and your category is even tinier.

This is one manner of leveraging the signals. Further down, I’ll get into some more ideas. But for now, let’s turn to the bots.

Bots/Apps/Algorithms/Search Engines/Computers

I’ve already alluded to some of this. If there is a line of code in the algorithm that says something like feed more profiles this book if there are a lot of reviews — it’s probably going to be very numbers-oriented. The code (in English) would be something like:

If a book has 10 reviews, feed the info to 5% more profiles. Change to 10% profiles if there are 30 reviews. For 100 reviews, change to 25% more profiles. And for 1,000 reviews, double the number of pages where the info is fed.

Are these numbers accurate? Probably not. And I am deliberately being somewhat vague here because Amazon and any other site guards these secrets closely—and they test and change them, anyway.

But no matter what, a bot or other non-human won’t be able to follow social signals unless they are extremely well-defined.

Another signal, in addition to the ones above, is tags.

Tag, Tag, What is a Tag?

It’s a subcategorization system more than anything else. When Amazon was first in business, it’s highly likely that no one had come up with the idea of anything like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. So, when it was published, where was Amazon supposed to put it? With Austen’s Regency romances? With Stephen King’s horror? Miscellaneous?

The answer to both may very well be yes. And with proper tagging, readers can find it. Also, they can get an idea of what’s inside the book. If someone needs a trigger warning, tags (and even categories) can provide some assistance to readers.

Proper tags and categories clue in readers. They also provide a means of comparison. If you loved Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, you might like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer. But it’s less likely (albeit not impossible) that you’d like a pair of fuzzy slippers for your dog.

Leveraging Social Signals

First and foremost, ask for reviews! I found that the best thing to do was to respond to people. That is, if someone messaged me and said they liked Untrustworthy, then I asked them to review it. And I made it clear—even a short review is fine.

For people who would not review (or even didn’t like it!), I just asked them to rate a review as helpful to them. Whichever review it was, even a somewhat negative one, that would work for me.

On an Amazon author page, shoppers can sort by (among other methods) number of reviews and average customer review. Making it possible for shoppers to view my list of works a few different ways is, in a way, another of the social signals. It creates a bit of novelty, and that attracts people. We’re also hard-wired to like variety and novelty.

Sales drive up rankings. But rankings can fall fast. So, why not talk to people who have expressed an interest in buying your book? Ask if they’ll buy within a particular time frame, or if they’ll preorder (yet another of the social signals!). Offer a discount for a limited time. Any of these can, legitimately and ethically, drive up sales.

And, in turn, sales will drive up rankings.

Beyond Amazon, social signals also take the shape of likes on Facebook, retweets on Twitter, and even reblogging on Tumblr.

Speed, positivity, and novelty are your best friends, when it comes to social signaling.

Takeaways

Ethics are paramount. Don’t jack up social signals as a means to cheat readers or platforms. But there is nothing wrong with having good timing. Oh, and your characters? You can even use a character questionnaire to try to inform their virtual, fictional social signals as well.

Social Signals – can YOU read them? #amwriting


Leave a Comment

Can a Character Questionnaire Help Inspire You?

What is a Character Questionnaire?

At its essence, a character questionnaire is a set of questions about a character. Seems obvious, right? Master Class has a good one.

A character questionnaire is not strictly necessary when putting together characters. But it can be very helpful. This is particularly the case if you are early in the process and still getting to know a character.

Some questionnaires seem to be overly complex. Or the questions address one area of a character’s personality in depth but not others.

Hence you will want to add some depth but probably some randomness as well. So, let’s look at the whole thing in pieces.

Here are some questions which might help.

Background

Of course you want to know some basics about the character. What is their name, and how old are they during the story? Gender is often important. But sexuality may or may not be. Educational level is probably also something you want to know.

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Gender assigned at birth/current gender if different
  • Sexuality
  • Height
  • Weight
  • Educational level
  • Siblings, if any
  • Place in the birth order (if applicable)
  • Whether parents or other close relatives are still alive
  • Socio-economic background

Details for Your Own Personal Character Questionnaire

There’s more to a name than just … the name. Was your character named after someone? Are they a junior, a senior, a seventeenth?

Beyond going into horoscopes, a date of birth can inform a few things, not just whether someone is the eldest in a group. After all, if like me your character was born in early September, then if they’re in the modern world, school probably started right about the time of their birthdays.

Gender, gender roles, and gender changes all matter. If a person has body dimorphism, that is far different from if they just don’t like being (for example) female and upset that society keeps them from making more money.

Height isn’t just a yardstick. It’s also whether your character can reach stuff on high shelves or needs to duck through doorways. Weight? These days, you can be rather quickly and unfairly judged about your weight.

Educational level will inform how a character speaks, and perhaps also what you have them read. Are they quick on the uptake? Do they solve the puzzle first—or should they?

Siblings and place in birth order can give you an idea of whether a character feels overly responsible, or seems horribly spoiled, or doesn’t feel like they belong anywhere.

Parents—living or dead—will loom large. Is your character estranged from their parents? Orphaned? Is Mom or Dad in jail? Did the character kill one of them? Was one of them deadbeat, never known by your character? Or is your character adopted?

Socio-economic background can inform your character’s opportunities in life. It can also define if their growth was stunted, if they hoard food, or if they waste money.

Relationship Queries

Even if a piece is not a romance, understanding a character’s relationship history can prove fruitful.

  • First serious relationship
  • Also, the first serious relationship after coming out, if applicable
  • Marital status
  • Have they ever been in love?
  • Are they ace/aero (asexual or aromantic)?
  • Do they let anyone get close to them?
  • Do they have any kinks?

Details

Beyond the parental and sibling relationships listed above, how does your character relate to anyone they’re interested in romantically? How serious did they get, and how soon? Are they a virgin? If not, when did they lose their virginity? Are they happy with that?

Is their sexuality set or fluid? Or is it repressed or so closeted that they don’t even realize they’re closeted?

Have they ever been married? Divorced, separated, or widowed? If so, what was the wedding like?

Have they ever loved anyone? Was it romantic? Chaste? From afar? Unrequited? Or was it some borderline stalking?

Has anyone ever gotten close to them? Also, are they vanilla, or are they in a dom/sub situation, or something else?

Work and School

Again, even if you never show work or education, it will help to inform the piece.

  • Highest level of education attained
  • Age when classes ended (that is, were they a dropout, or did they graduate?)
  • Current employment
  • Industry
  • Basic tasks/duties
  • If a supervisor/manager, number of direct and indirect reports

Details for This Part of Your Character Questionnaire

So, can you call your character doctor or professor? Or are they even literate? Did they drop out to help the family or because they were failing?

Where do they work, or are they unemployed? Also, do they even need to work? Are they perhaps an unpaid caregiver of some sort?

If they work outside the home (so, not necessarily literally for work from home and hybrid jobs), what’s the industry? Is it creative? Caregiving? Something in business? Do they work with their hands?

When the working day ends, how tired are they? Are they injured? Or are they so stressed out they can barely see straight? How does the commute (if any) treat them?

Can anyone call your character boss? Also, what kind of a boss are they? Do they rule with an iron fist, or are they empathetic? Sexist? Absent?

Favorites

So, after you’re about the age of eight or so, people stop asking you what your favorite dinosaur is. It’s as if they don’t even care! But you can always ask your characters!

Their faves can also include:

  • Person
  • Food
  • Place
  • Workout or place to walk
  • Season
  • Subject in school

And so on and on. Musicians can have a favorite guitar or glockenspiel. Carpenters can have a preferred hammer. The sky is literally the limit here.

Personality

Rather than listing various personality traits, it makes more sense to instead ask questions. Pretend as if you’re interviewing your character for some reason or another. Maybe it’s for a newspaper article, or a job. Whatever the pretense is, ask about things like:

  • So, are you a morning or an evening person?
  • In a group, do you lead, follow, check out, or something else?
  • If you found a wallet full of money in the street, what would you do?
  • Do you believe in God? Also, do you follow any religion?
  • Who has been the most influential person in your life so far?
  • What’s the most daring thing you have ever done? And would you ever do it again?
  • How’s your mental health?

Takeaways

So the truth is, the more you treat your characters like people, the more your readers will see them as people. Adding depth will also help you write them, and know when you’re having them say or do something out of character.

If you don’t know your characters, who else could possibly know them? So, ask!

Oh, and another thing. This kind of a questionnaire can even help you with getting story ideas. No lie!


A character questionnaire can help. Just don’t treat it like gospel.

Leave a Comment

How to Make Main Characters

Let’s look at how to create main characters.

Main Characters, the Lifeblood of any Story

Of course you have an MC, sometimes called a protagonist. Without one, then your book or short story is … what, exactly? A travelogue, perhaps. Or maybe it’s an instruction manual. Or maybe it’s just a mishmash. Because with no chief character, what are you doing, anyway?

Notice I Didn’t Say There Were No Characters

A bunch of characters can be lovely. But an utter lack of focus isn’t just odd. It’s also likely to be something that a reader would not like. The reader may be wondering—who is it I’m supposed to root for, anyway?

When that is not clear, it creates confusion. This kind of confusion gets readers to not finish. And it also gets publishers and agents to not want to pick it up. Therefore, you will need to create a focus and a point of view.

The Single Focus Character

In The Enigman Cave, Marnie Shapiro is such a singular focus that I felt I could not show anything ‘on screen’ unless she saw it. I even ended up tying myself in some knots to make certain that she “saw” something on the screen so I could include it.

But in The Real Hub of the Universe, while Ceilidh is the single focus character, I wasn’t as strict.

The Dual Mains

Or maybe I should refer to them as dueling mains? In the first Obolonk trilogy, Peri Martin is the main, but Tommy 2000 gives her something of a run for her money. We never really get inside Tommy’s head. But he’s there, in nearly every scene. He would have made for a fascinating POV character. But I preferred Peri, and I still do.

And unlike The Enigman Cave, there were a few moments where Peri is just not with it. Yet I still felt comfortable including it on screen.

Multiple Main Characters

Welcome to the Mettle Universe, where there are multiple points of view. The character who I showcase the most is Craig Firenze. He has the most chapters devoted to him—even though I had originally thought of Noah Braverman as the MC. But the characters, as they so often do, had other plans.

The easiest way to keep it all straight is what I did. That is, each chapter was for a different character’s point of view. For example, in more than one chapter, we’re inside Nell Murphy‘s head. And so, by definition, the italicized thoughts can only be hers. And, I don’t get into anyone else’s head. In order to be able to do that, the current chapter would have to end.

In some ways, a multitude of main characters meant that I needed to find a purpose for all of them. Therefore, for Mink’s only chapter, I get to tell what happened when she was separated from the rest of the group. It’s the only occasion that I had to convey that.

Getting into Olga Nicolaev’s point of view was also fun and key, because she goes through the story sounding like an illiterate most of the time. But the reality is, she’s rather sharp.

Perhaps the toughest POV to get into was Eleanor’s. I had to show not only her thoughts, but also how they jumbled and coalesced into, eventually, a form of coherence. This made her more of a main-ish character than she would have been. Otherwise, she’s just a burden on the group.

Main But Not Quite So Main After All

Within Mettle, the people with the most POV chapters are the true main characters. These are essentially Craig, Noah, Nell, Elise, and possibly Mei-Lin (she kind of straddles the line). But this group does not include Eleanor or Mink, as they each only have the one point of view chapter apiece. Dez and Olga kind of also straddle the line. And as for Kitty, she never gets a POV chapter.

Although I will most likely write one for her when I write the prequel for this one.

Hanging Back With Main Characters

How far into characters’ heads are you willing to go?

In Untrustworthy, I refer to Tathrelle and Ixalla’s thoughts, but I never actually show them on screen. Peri was originally like that, but I have decided I prefer being deeper in her head. Same with Josie. But with Marnie, I never get that far into her head. With Ceilidh, I do, but like with Peri it was because I changed my mind and opted for a more intimate relationship.

With the multiple POV characters of Mettle, I held back. But that’s also a choice for clarity’s sake. With so many people, getting into heads would mean that readers would not necessarily immediately realize whose head they were in.

Details and Whatnot

You do not have to go overboard with details. In fact, in the Twilight books, there’s a conscious effort not to overly describe Bella Swan. Why? Because that way, just about any girl can picture herself in Bella’s shoes. This was a big part of the success of that series.

Should you do that? Or should you describe every nuance of your main characters? There is more than one school of thought. What it all boils down to is—you do you.

But make sure that your descriptions and inner voices have a meaning and a purpose to the overall story line. Telling your readers that your MC has split ends is probably too much. Unless, of course, that turns into some sort of a plot point.

And for gosh sake’s, don’t just describe people of color. This gives forth an extremely strong impression that you feel your POC characters are different and, perhaps, do not quite belong. Keeping white as the default is not a good look, for either you or your characters, main or otherwise.

Anchor your prose with main characters who feel real to your readers.

And never forget to have fun with it!

Leave a Comment

How to Make Characters (Side Characters)

Do You Want to Know How to Make Characters for Your Writing?

There are all sorts of ways to make characters. But no matter what, a character with more than a few lines (e. g. the barista at a coffee shop where our heroes go to decompress) need a reason for existing. For any character which isn’t main, the questions tend to be:

  • How does this character relate to the main character?
  • Do they showcase them, make them look better or worse?
  • Help them grow?
  • Kick off the action (inciting incident)?
  • Amp up the conflict?
  • Work to facilitate exposition?
  • Enable the ending (including HEA if appropriate)?
  • Love interest? Or the one that got away?
  • Bring the story to its climax/crisis?

Characters which don’t do at least one of these things need to be changed, nixed, or combined.

In my 2016 NaNo, for example, Devon and Alexander help drive plot and exposition and Devon in particular helps to facilitate the ending; Jake is the love interest; Frances and Bessie both showcase the MC; Johnny kicks off the inciting incident, etc.

Make Characters Believable

Too many quirks, and characters just plain will not feel real. Instead, they will feel like a mishmash of characteristics and foibles.

Also, too many perfect bits threaten to convert any character into the dreaded Mary Sue. So does an author insertion. Although you’d be hard-pressed to find books where the author doesn’t get into it in some way.

Long as things are imperfect.

But!

The reverse is also true. That is, if you make characters with so many flaws and horrid tragic backstories that they are just like the biblical Job, then those, too, are a form of Mary Sue. And don’t think for a minute that this is confined to just female characters and authors. There are a ton of Marty Stu characters out there as well.

Make Characters Better Than Mary Sue

Strive for a balance, if you can. Ask yourself: would this character be the kind of person I would just want to punch in the mouth for existing? If so, then you might have a Mary Sue on your hands.

I (for real) had a sorority sister who was kind of like this. Now, being unflappable is one thing. But this girl was cheerful and enthusiastic in the face of nearly anything. While, of course, the rest of us had problems and dreams and were imperfect.

So yes, Little Miss Perfect (or Mister Perfect) can absolutely exist in real life. But they are hardly the stuff of believable fiction. Even a character based on a real life Marty Stu should have some sort of flaw or issue. Or at least a comeuppance.

How Does the Character Relate to Your MC (Main Character)?

Let’s set aside how to make characters who are the focus for a moment. What are the sidekicks and side chicks like?

As noted above, they should have some sort of a point for the plot. But let’s distinguish a character with a purpose versus a fill-in character necessary but not important. Here’s an example.

In the second of the books in the first Obolonk trilogy (The Polymer Beat), and in the third (The Badge of Humanity), main character Peri Martin spends some time in the Washington Megalopolis on a few separate occasions.

In the second in particular, she hangs out with Greg Shapiro. Greg is a character who requires some depth. He serves a few purposes:

  • Expository mouthpiece
  • Ending enabler

But in the third book, Peri spends some time in a coffee shop. There is a barista there to take her order and make her coffee. But do we really care what the barista looks like? Not really. I think I just describe her as a young woman of Asian extraction. And that’s enough. Unless I had made it a self-serve place, the coffeehouse needed a barista. But that person could be anyone.

What if You Create Characters That Deserve a Promotion?

Side characters can be fun to write. You can pour a lot into them, and the stakes feel lower. They feel like a place where a writer can experiment. But sometimes they are so vital that they steal the show.

What happens when you realize the side character really should be the main one?

In Untrustworthy, that went down (a bit) in that Ixalla turned from an expository mouthpiece into a driver of the action and a facilitator of the ending. Frankly, I found I preferred writing her to Tathrelle, the actual main character.

Now, that book suffers from some head-hopping. I get the reader into Tathrelle’s head for the most part, but also into Ixalla’s at times. For me, the trick was to keep the balance tilted a lot more heavily toward Tathrelle’s point of view. It was only when I could not use Tathrelle that Ixalla’s POV came front and center.

Another instance is Trinity Hawthorne in Time Addicts. Trini isn’t much of a side character. But I realized I wanted to write a prequel to serve the entire Obolonk universe. And so, I turned to Trini to run that particular show.

Character Interactions and Intersections

When you use a method such as the snowflake, the intersections of characters is at the forefront of creation. I have also found that it helps me to avoid creating a character who is unmoored from the MC.

Make your side characters work for you!


Leave a Comment