Details Make (or break) Your Novel

I know you’ve heard the saying “it’s the little things that count,” or “the devil’s in the details.” Well, never has that been more true than when writing a novel.

Finely crafted details develop the reader’s world and keep them under your story’s spell.

Too many details or using the wrong ones, and your readers are flipping pages in bored and confused frustration as they search for meaningful information and a return to the plot.

If you want to talk about the omelet the sexy chef is making, we probably need to know about the ingredients but not intricate details about the pan. We may need to know about the stove if it is extraordinary (wood burning?) but not the convection oven. See?

Here are rules I’ve learned on what details to include, how much and when:

DO include details that support your character’s life as long as it helps us understand the personality or motivation. Maybe an assassin once won an award in archery in school.  DON’T describe looks that have no importance. We want to identify the villain soon as possible but maybe all we need to know about is the odd scar on his neck or tattoo on his finger. No need to get into detail about the gray eyes if we never see them or they don’t matter to the story.

DO concentrate on emotions. When people speak, they move. Eyebrows go up. Lips purse. Jaw muscles tighten. DON’T spend so much time emoting that we forget what we’re supposed to be doing or where we’re going. Emotions need to fit the scene and the people important to the moment. Forget the shock of the bus boy and consider the robber’s shock when he realizes he’s been captured. DO interject humor or pathos whenever you can. DON’T assume that because you don’t feel it that we will. If you don’t, we probably won’t either. Your passion must translate to the story and if it does the readers will feel it.

DO go for details that set you above the fray. Be original. Be unusual. DON’T be afraid to break tropes and set your world apart from what’s out there. Every witch has the same items and the same spell book. But instead of a cat or a gargoyle, who has a pet moth? The soaps show women always walking around their homes in high heels. What if your thing is a pair of 60’s go-go boots?

Most often forgotten are the senses. We readers love to know what the world is like, but how does it smell, or what colors are there? How does it feel? Silk or sandpaper? DO give us a complete sense of what the world is and DON’T give us more than we need for the moment. Share the rest of the details as we move through the story and experience what we need when we need it.

Too many details can be your story’s undoing. Give your readers richness and make your readers crave more. Give them too much and the gluttony will drive them away. Being sated on details is good. Being bloated is bad. (and they don’t make a Gas-X for that).

It is very true that details are the key to everything: a good suit, a tasty lasagna, and a book you can’t put down. Choose your details wisely and use smartly. And the result might produce a bestseller (I’m still trying!).

Thanks for coming by and keep writing!
Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

Name Your Fear

I’ve written about fear before now–how fear can motivate and even inspire you. We’ve looked at writers’ fear of being rejected by publishers, laughed at by readers, scorned by fellow writers, and even the dread that fills up our Halloween daymares.

This is different. Sometimes we are afraid of things and we don’t even realize we’re afraid until we are faced with the moment and YIKES! Suddenly we discover we are afraid! And fear can cause us to react in strange ways. Plus not everyone’s reactions are the same or even logical. But we can learn and understand them.

Take me for instance. I am afraid of heights. I get weak in the knees and dizzy if I am up to high without safely assurances. I have a hard time looking over a railing into any abyss. When I went to the Eiffel tower in Paris, I was surrounded by so much metal and I had plenty to hold on to while I peered down. But when I was on a cruise ship, I stepped out onto my balcony and, as my husband leaned over the railing, I hung back, peeked over the edge and backed up into a balcony chair. All I could envision were the people I’d heard about who fell off a cruise ship from their balcony. No thanks!

But what are those fears? Wouldn’t you like to understand what is the name of the fear that makes you want to scream? Well, I did and here are some of my favorites. 

Almost everyone gets bug-eyed when they hear Arachnophobia. See that spider? RUN! Seriously, some people do run when they see one. 

Anyone see the movie IT? Ah yes, the clown that terrifies! That’s known as Coulrophobia. And it’s one reason why the circus stopped having clowns run amuck through the audiences — because children seem to have a natural wariness of the weird smiling, face-painted person who is big and tall and seems to leer at them. (SHUDDER). Then along came Stephen King. (GULP)

Would you like me to tell your fortune? Yes? Give me your last three address numbers. What? No? Afraid of numbers? Ah yes, that’s known as Numerophobia. People suffering with this odd fear have a difficult time in school because math is scary. (I hated math too).

What about people who are afraid of everything in general? These folks jump at everything because they don’t know what’s coming. It’s a real fear of the unknown and called Xenophobia.

And how about the people who insist they wear sunglasses? No, they aren’t vampires or just being cool. No, they aren’t hiding swollen pupils from drugs (well, I guess they could be any of those). You might be surprised to learn that they are afraid of —— colors. Yup, and it’s real and its called Chromophobia. Imagine being afraid to see the world in all its glory. Kinda makes you sad, doesn’t it?

There are many others, fear of heights is called Acrophobia. It is especially nasty because it strikes even when you aren’t very high up and can be terrifying. It happened to me once standing on a regular 6 ft ladder and I was only on the third step.
Here are a couple more that may make you raise and eyebrow but are truly terrifying to whomever is feeling it:

Arachibutyrophobia – the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

Allodoxaphobia – the fear of people’s opinions (this usually goes with a fear of confrontation).

Didaskaleinophobia – the fear of going to school (usually in children 7-10 yrs) and usually comes from a result of bullying.

* *

Fear can strike anyone for any number of reasons. Being anxious is not the same as being afraid and it is important to know the difference. Overcoming our anxieties is doable alone. But if you, or someone else, suffers from a deep fear (even triskaidekaphobia which is the morbid fear of the number 13), I encourage professional help and never laugh. Ridicule strengthens fear. Compassion and understanding are the only aids we can, and should, offer.

Whatever your fears are, learning to know them and deal with them is important. My mom used to say, “if you give your fear a name, you take away its power.” I tried that with my fear of heights, and it didn’t take away my fear but I didn’t feel silly anymore because I knew what I felt was real and not imagined (phobophobia is the fear of fears).

And when something is real, it can be beaten. So, what are you afraid of?

Thanks for not being afraid to come by.
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

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I am delighted to be among the first to announce this exciting new release, ITHANI  by J. Scott Coatsworth

The final MM sci fi book in Coatsworth’s trilogy releases February 19!! 

Time is running out.

After saving the world twice, Xander, Jameson and friends plunge headlong into a new crisis. The ithani–the aliens who broke the world–have reawakened from their hundred millennia-long slumber. When Xander and Jameson disappear in a flash, an already fractured world is thrown into chaos.

The ithani plans, laid a hundred thousand years before, are finally coming to pass, and they threaten all life on Erro. Venin and Alix go on a desperate search for their missing and find more than they bargained for. And Quince, Robin and Jessa discover a secret as old as the skythane themselves.

Will alien technology, unexpected help from the distant past, destiny and some good old-fashioned firepower be enough to defeat an enemy with the power to split a world? The final battle of the epic science fiction adventure that began in Skythane will decide the fate of lander and Skythane alike. And in the north, the ithani rise…

Ithani Buy Links

Book 1: Skythane:

Book Two: Lander:

Giveaway

Scott is giving away a $50 Amazon gift card and ten copies of “The Stark Divide,” the first book in his other trilogy, his other trilogy, “Liminal Sky,” with this tour. Enter via Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d4753/?

Excerpt

Venin stood under the dome of the chapel, the waters of the Orn rushing past the small island to crash over the edge of the crater rim, where they fell a thousand meters to the broken city of Errian below.

The Erriani chapel was different from what he was used to back home. The Gaelani chapel in Gaelan had sat at the top of a tall pillar of stone, open to the night sky, a wide space of grass and trees that intertwined in a natural dome through which moonlight filtered down to make dappled shadows on the ground.

This chapel, instead, was a wonder of streaming sunlight, the columns a polished eggshell marble with glimmering seams of gold. Red creeper vines climbed up the columns, festooned with clusters of yellow flowers that gave off a sweet scent.

Both were bright and airy, but the Erriani chapel lay under a dome supported by fluted marble columns, a painted arch of daytime sky and the rose-colored sun blazing overhead.

The last time he’d gone to chapel had been with Tazim, before his untimely death.

Long before the troubles that roiled the world now.

Something drew him back. A need to reconnect with his past. To bridge the gap between then and now, between who he was and who he had become. Taz would have liked this place.

The chapel here had survived the attack, while much of Errian had not. The city below was a jumble of broken corrinder, the multistory plants that were the main building stock for the city. They would grow again, but the sight of the city’s beautiful white towers laid low struck him to the core.

So had Gaelan looked, after the flood.

Venin turned back to the chapel and unlaced his boots, baring his muscular calves before he approached the fountain that splashed at its center. The cool flagstone beneath his feet sent a shiver up his spine, and green moss filled the gaps between the stones.

Some builder whose name was lost to time had tapped into the river itself to make the fountain run, and the water leapt into the air with a manic energy around the golden statue of Erro, before falling back down to the pool.

Venin knelt at the fountain’s edge on one of the well-worn pads, laid his hands in the shallow water, and let his wings rest over himself, making a private place to pray.

Erro and Gael, spare us from danger and lift us up into the sky with your powerful wings. He gave Erro deference, being that this was his chapel, but he hoped Gael would hear him too. The god of his own people had been known to intervene in mortal affairs before, and if what Quince had told them about these ithaniwas true, they would need all the help they could get.

Venin’s wings warmed.

He looked up in astonishment to see the statue of Erro giving off an intense golden glow. His mouth dropped open, and he stood and stared at its beautiful male curves and muscles. Maybe the gods were answering him.

Venin reached up and touched the statue’s outstretched hand. The shock knocked him backward onto his ass, and he hit the ground hard, slamming into one of the marble columns.

Venin groaned, stunned, and reached back to feel his wings and spine. He seemed to be in one piece.

Taz would have laughed his ass off at the whole thing.

After a moment he sat up cautiously. He wrapped his arms around his legs and stared up at the statue, his chin on his knees.

The glow was gone.

Did I imagine it? He stood and felt the back of his head. A lump was already forming there. That’s gonna leave a mark.

Something had changed. Venin didn’t know what yet, but he was sure of that much.

He pulled his boots back on and laced them up. With one last suspicious glare at the statue, he turned and stepped out of the chapel, taking a deep breath of the moisture-laden air.

Then he leapt into the sky to soar down to the broken city.

Author Bio

Scott lives with his husband of twenty five years in a Sacramento suburb, in a cute little yellow house with a brick fireplace and two pink flamingoes out front.

He inhabits in the space between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into science fiction and fantasy by his mom at the tender age of nine, he quickly finished her entire library. But he soon began to wonder where all the queer people were.

After coming out at twenty three, he started writing the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Crown Books. If there weren’t many queer characters in his favorite genres, he would will them into existence, subverting them to his own ends. And if he was lucky enough, someone else would want to read them.

His friends say Scott’s mind works a little differently than most – he makes connections between ideas that others don’t, and somehow does more in a day than most people manage in a week. Although born an introvert, he forced himself to reach outside himself, and learned to connect with others like him.

Scott’s stories subvert expectations that transform traditional science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something different and unexpected. He runs both Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark.

His romance and genre fiction writing brings a queer energy to his stories, filling them with love, beauty and power. He imagines how the world could be – in the process, he hopes to change the world, just a little.

Scott was recognized as one of the top new gay authors in the 2017 Rainbow Awards, and his debut novel “Skythane” received two awards and an honorable mention.

You can find him at Dreamspinner here, Goodreads here, on Amazon here, on QueeRomance Ink here, and on Facebook here.

Thank you for coming by.
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry