Preview Soon

Coming soon: a preview of my story that is a work in progress. In this I will hopefully be able to provide a glimpse of how everything that I have shown so far can be used to shape the writing and make the exposition a little more interesting. Anyway, the sneak preview is over... but today I want to talk about setting up the mood of the novel before going into the beginning of the story (aka: talking about back story).

This idea does not work for all novels, but it can also be used throughout the story to make it easier for readers to understand some parts of the story. For example, there could be flashbacks at random intervals so that the reader can understand the character's history better. After all, have you ever wondered why a character has a certain quirk-- why is he or she overprotective, or why does the character get so emotional when people say a seemingly unimportant word or phrase?

Sometimes we cannot fit a lengthy blurb about the past into the novel, and sometimes it is unnecessary. I think that the best way to incorporate the past is in reference to dreams-- the character can relive the past in the scope of a dream, or a dream can provide some sort of insight into why the character behaves a specific way (are they dreaming of the future?) so that the reader can better understand. While it is up to the judgement of the writer on where to incorporate it, if written at the right spot, one can successfully set up a good foreshadowing of part of the plot or give the readers more information to make the character make more sense. My example is the very beginning of my story, which highlights the events that lead to specific plot elements that are revealed later. While the time jumps after it, I feel that it does a good job of setting up the story and some of its elements.

  

There was a rumbling through the ground, and the queen recoiled as if she had been punched in the stomach. The king rushed over to her, and helped to keep her on her feet. “What is the matter?” he asked, and she looked into his eyes.

“Something is wrong in time… but I do not know what it is.” She almost sighed when the tremor passed and slowly unfolded as if the most sudden movement could make her fall into pain again. The king helped her through the halls to doors that opened onto the realm where time manifested itself. When they reached the doors, she froze as she saw a small bundle curled up in front of them.

“Love,” the king had to shake his wife gently before she came back to herself. She bent down and brushed coppery strands away from a sleeping face, and an icy blue eye opened sleepily to look at her.

“Where do you come from, young one?” she asked, but the child decided to close her eyes again and fall back to sleep. The queen sighed and picked her up, cradling her in the crook of her arm. “I guess questioning her will have to wait until morning.”

“Do you think she had something to do with the convulsion of the gate of time?” he asked.

“Maybe; power seems to be flowing through her.” She handed the girl over to the king, “I’m going to check on the gate, and I’ll ask Sam if he knows anything.” She opened the door and stepped through into the realm of time.

Any Thoughts?

Petty Quarrels and Other Such Nonsense

While I was developing the character of Toralu, my male protagonist, I was brainstorming what type of personality I wanted him to have. While I wanted my characters to get along (at least for the most part), I also wanted them to have some moments of random humor, and some small quarrels here and there. Toralu ended up being a funny character who, while still developing, is pretty much the way that he is going to be throughout. As such, he is relatively humorous and sarcastic, and he is somewhat of a flirt (which I find hilarious to write). On the other hand, he has his grumpy moments (don't wake him up, whatever you do), and he has a bit of a short temper. Still, he's cool.

Anyway, since I decided to create the character to be the way that he is, I realized that there were going to be some arguments involved... many of which would involve something ridiculous and develop into a hilarious situation between the two. I feel like this can be one of the ways to almost liven up a piece that is dragging along on the ground behind you like a dead body (not that I would know...). Even some of the larger fights can be incorporated into the story line, as my two main characters are going to have a blowout about something that is going to lead to a key event, but I refuse to spoil it more than that. However, there are some very funny situations that your characters are able to find themselves in.


1. Quibbles: everybody fights, so if there isn't some sort of argument in your story, there probably should be. After all, what is the conflict that needs to be resolved? Do your characters who have different emotions confront one another? On the other hand, small quibbles can end up being pretty funny, not only for you when you go back and read it ("I can't believe I made them argue about potatoes" or some such nonsense), and can be humorous for the reader as well. Unfortunately, depending on the character personalities, little quibbles like this may not always be within the character of the piece.

2. Awkward situations: who doesn't love giggling over these...or at least among the girls. I mean come on, you know that the one character has some sort of crush or something for the other one, and then the clumsy nature comes out... though this can end badly. For instance, if the other character doesn't notice, the character could trip and land face-first in the mud... though that in itself is pretty funny. On the other hand, there could end up being some sort of semi-romantic moment by chance. It's all up to how evil the plot bunny feels.

The biggest thing to do if you want to add some humor is to look at your characters. Now that you know the personality, think about the best ways that you can make the character be humorous and yet not become OOC (out of character). I hope you enjoy my example below, and I am curious to know what other kinds of situations your character might find himself or herself in. Until next time!

Here are just a few examples of my random sense of humor... you may or may not find them funny, but I try to incorporate as much context in as I can:

1. “Arynna,” she heard the voice but mumbled something incoherent and rolled over to go back to sleep. “Oh for the love of…” there was a sigh, and then she was picked up and spilled onto the floor, much to her aggravation.

2. The only thing he will know unless he has some of his court watching is that I am within the Shadows. She smiled and padded over to the banister, nimbly hopping onto it to look at the garden below. When she saw Toralu below her, she cursed and narrowed her eyes. He seemed to hear her because he looked up and waved sweetly at her. Arynna gritted her teeth. That man gets on my last nerve sometimes! Placing a smile on her face, she hopped down, bending her knees as she landed so that she was engulfed by the Cloak of Shadows.

Sorry for the lack of more examples, but I am not yet very far in my story... I will be able to provide more later when I have written farther into the plot, but as of now I am barely beyond exposition.