What's on YOUR dresser: Discovering and Revealing Character Secrets

Characters have secrets. Writers know it. Readers know it. And both are on a mission to uncover the dark (or glorious!) truths of our favorite characters. Readers find out by, well, reading. For writers, the process can be a bit more complicated.

Trait lists can be a useful way to start fleshing out your characters. Here's a great list from Writer's Digest. Once you've filled out a character fact sheet like this one, you know a lot more about your character, their personality, relationships, and motivations.

But sometimes we get stumped. Either our plots tangles up or we just can't quite fathom why a character won't do what we had carefully planned on them doing. This is a great time to dig a little deeper.

Here's a fun tool to help you with your digging. I like to call it "What's on YOUR Dresser?"

I know, what's a messy dresser got to do with your character? Well, let me show you. By the end of this exercise, you'll know tons more about your character and will have a new handy tool to use in future brainstorming! This can also be adapted to cultures and situations that have no dressers, of course. Here's how it works.

1.  Imagery portion: Close your eyes. Imagine a dresser in your character's room. What is the dresser like? Imagine the color and style. Put yourself in that room and see what is on the dresser. Is the dresser tidy or haphazard? Let your mind drift across the dresser. What is propped against it? Is there anything hanging from the mirror? Relax and let details sift to the surface. Are the drawers open or closed? What sounds do you hear in the room? What do you smell? Is it warm or cool? What other details do these sensations bring to your mind?
2. Writing portion: Now, write like mad, recording every detail you came up with while using the imagery portion of this exercise. Don't edit yourself. Just write. More details may surface as you record the information you've already discovered.
3. Analysis and Brainstorming portion: This is the fun part. Now you get to look at your list (or  you could even make a sketch!) and contemplate what it means. What do these details reveal about your character's personality? What can you learn about their history, their relationships, their hobbies? What misleading clues can the dresser details provide? (Devious, I know.) Let's give it a try using the dresser pic from above.

A quick glance at this dresser (and yes, it's mine - don't judge 😆). Anyways, a quick glance at this dresser reveals a lot about personality. Let's examine it as if this were a character in a story. This dresser is cluttered, yet includes a sign that says "simplify." So there's some inherent conflict in this character already.

Several items refer to faith or God (a journal and a plaque), so this character probably espouses some sort of religious beliefs. They are also clearly a fan of Harry Potter, so she probably doesn't attend a church that opposes magic in children's stories.

There's several photos, probably family. Also a wedding pic. Is that recent? Or is it a continued celebration of a happy marriage? Or has the other spouse died? Good questions. You can see how the objects on the dresser can encourage you to dig deeper into your character and their life.

What does the folded laundry and the vacuum by the dresser tell you? Does the character live in a small space or can she just not be bothered with putting things away. (If you guessed the latter, you'd be correct! But you probably already figured that out by all the clutter on the dresser.)

Speaking of the clutter, what types of objects are they? Here's some closeups.

We already mentioned the photos. There's also love notes from two children, a card, children's books, and lots of crafts. This character is probably sentimental and creative. But there's also a pile of papers, which indicates a bit of disorganization.

You may also have noticed the two wine bottles along with the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book (the blue one) as well as the Serenity Prayer tucked in the side of the mirror (also a part of AA). Hmmm...what could that tell us? Maybe this character loves wine or struggles with alcoholism. Or is family to an alcoholic.

This is a great example of misleading clues. There are good reasons why these objects are on my dresser. But I've never drank. And I'm not family to any alcoholics. Despite this fact, both those wine bottles, the book, and the prayer have deep meaning for me.

Situations like this are excellent examples of how objects in your character's life can completely mislead readers. Until you reveal the full truth, of course. In this case, one wine bottle I received when my grandfather died. He'd bottled his own cranberry wine when he was younger. The other was from the champagne toast my parents made when they learned Mom was pregnant with me. Yep, sentimental. The AA literature? Well, let's just say there's a ton of uses for 12 step programs and I highly recommend them.

Every object in your character's life has a history of its own. The objects you choose to include should illuminate your character or advance your story.

We could dig deeper into the clutter on my dresser - a bunch of eclipse glasses, porcelain hearts, a tiny ghost, a miniature handcrafted barge. I know what all these mean and why they are there. The same with the beads and whale tail hanging on the mirror.

But you get the point. Use this exercise and you will find untold treasures in your character's past and present. And you just might figure out why they won't do what you want! New plot avenues and potential red herrings will present themselves to your imagination, enriching your storytelling.

And don't forget, you can easily adapt this exercise to characters without dressers. What's in their backpack? Or under their bed? Or in their three-dimensional purse? Whatever you find, enjoy the process!

The Three Rules of Everyday Magic

Middle Grade Minded is excited to welcome author Amanda Rawson Hill to the blog today. Her debut middle grade, The Three Rules of Everyday Magic, will be published on September 25, 2018, by Boyds Mills Press. Amanda was kind enough to answer the following questions about her inspiration and writing process for her novel: 

1. When Grammy tells Kate the three rules of everyday magic—believe, give, and trust—Kate tries to believe in the power of everyday magic to bring her father back home and heal her relationship with her best friend. What inspired you to write about a girl who believes in the magic of giving?

I discovery wrote this story. And so I didn’t know that it was going to be about the power of giving until after I wrote the scene with Grammy teaching Kate to make the knitted hats. That’s when it all started clicking into place. As I developed the story further, I realized that many of the themes in the story are about letting go. And I think giving as a form of holding on was an important aspect of that idea that needed to be played out. Kate is losing so much against her will. Having her give and letting that giving create relationships was an important part of providing her some relief.

2. The Three Rules of Everyday Magic deals with tough topics—depression, divorce, and dementia. How much research did you have to do in order to portray Dad’s depression and Grammy’s dementia accurately?

I did a lot of research for the portrayal of depression. I’ve never experienced more than a situational depression, so I wanted to get it right. I read articles about how depression manifests in men and then I crowdsourced on Facebook, asking those who have had depression or had parents with depression to message me with some of the beginning signs and what happens as it progresses. This turned out to be a wealth of information and stories that I was able to glen and put straight into my book. People were so wonderful. They came to me with vulnerable hearts and shared their own struggles, the heartache of watching their spouse not admit to having depression, and what a child misses when their parent slips into depression. It was heart breaking, eye opening, and a privilege to get their perspectives.
For Grammy’s dementia, I relied a lot on my memories of my grandpa’s Alzheimer’s. There are several scenes in the book lifted straight from my memories of him. I was also lucky enough to have a reader who had recently cared for a relative with dementia who was able to point out things I got wrong (like how irresponsible it would be for Grammy not to have an identification bracelet.)

3. I love when Grammy says, “You have to trust the magic. That means you can’t give it away expecting a certain outcome. You can’t put demands on it and say it only worked if everything goes how you wanted it to, or when you wanted it to. Magic has its own timeframe and its own ideas about what should happen. You can hope it will cause some event, but sometimes it will do something else entirely. That doesn’t mean it didn’t work.” 

When I read that quote, I immediately thought of my writing journey. For me, the magic was being accepted as a Pitch Wars mentee. Since you were involved in Pitch Wars as well, can you share your writing journey with Middle Grade Minded readers? Did it, as Kate’s friend Jane says in your novel, involve “…lots of practice and waiting for the right moment”?

Yes! So I started writing in April of 2012. By August of 2014, I had a MG fantasy novel that I’d been working hard on and I entered it into Pitch Wars. Miraculously, I got picked! I couldn’t believe it. But my mentor had a bunch of stuff come up and wasn’t able to read or critique my manuscript. When I told Brenda about it (almost a year later because I really needed to learn self-advocacy) she found three fabulous mentors who volunteered to just take me on. But by this time, I’d queried that first book to death and written a new book that I knew was better. So I had them work with me on the new manuscript. 

That new manuscript was titled, WINGS, WRINKLES, AND WRAPPERS, and it was about a girl named Kate, whose dad left the family months earlier when all of a sudden her two long-dead grandmas show up as guardian angels to try and help her fix her life. Well, as you can tell, it got a major overhaul in Pitch Wars. In fact, it got a total rewrite. I got rid of the angels, and replaced them with just Grammy in the early stages of dementia and added in the idea of Everyday Magic. I changed the tense, the format. Phew! I worked my butt off for two months right up to the agent round. About 6 weeks after the agent round, I got an offer of representation and the rest was history, right?

Well, not really.

I did more revisions with my agent. She sent it out. We got rejected. I did more revisions. More rejections. I also wrote another book in the meantime. A book I was SURE would be my debut. I had given up all hope for THE THREE RULES OF EVERYDAY MAGIC when my agent said she had a thought about an editor who might love it and asked if I was okay with her trying again. I said fine, but had zero hope.

And the rest was—

Nope. Not yet. That editor LOVED it. But her colleagues wanted some revisions before they approved it. So I revised again. Rewriting probably 30-40% of it in the process. Almost all over the course of a week because of a few crazy circumstances.

And the rest was history.

Seriously this time. 😊 

Thank you, Amanda, for taking the time to join us today! Kids are going to adore this story about believing, giving, and trusting, no matter what.

To pre-order The Three Rules of Everyday Magic, go here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Indiebound

Our Favorite Writing Resources

Writers are always learning, growing, and developing their craft. So as part of the five year anniversary celebration, the bloggers of Middle Grade Minded have compiled a list of their favorite writing resources to share with our readers.And if you haven't done so already pop over to our blogiversary post and enter to win free books and critiques!

Stefanie Wass

1. Highlights Foundation writing workshops 
2. Local SCBWI conferences and workshops  
3. The Emotion Thesaurus, by Angela Ackerman 
4. Wired For Story, by Lisa Cron 
5. Writing The Breakout Novel Workbook, by Donald Maass

Kim Ventrella

1. Writing Excuses podcast: Great 15-minute podcast with all thirteen seasons online. Focuses on adult fantasy/sci-fi, but applicable to all writers: https://writingexcuses.com/
2. Brandon Sanderson posts all of his lectures on YouTube from his course at BYU. They’re not all in one place, so the best way to find them is just to go to YouTube and search for ‘Brandon Sanderson lectures.
3. Scrivener’s ‘target word count’ function. This brings up a box where you can enter your target word count for the session and the overall manuscript, and Scrivener tracks your progress with an amazing color-changing bar.
4.  Word count tracker spreadsheet by Justin Mclachlan. It allows you to set a monthly word count goal and update daily. It’s on Google Sheets, so your friends can create their own sheets and view yours, giving you an extra boost of accountability, and everything is customizable: http://www.justinmclachlan.com/.../nanowrimo-word-count.../
5.  4 the Words is a website that challenges you to battle monsters and complete quests, all by writing more words. I like that it adds a timed element, so I’m not only pushing myself to write words, but I’m making myself do it within a certain time limit: https://4thewords.

 Shari Green

1. Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert (https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594634727) – so much in this book resonated with me and encouraged me.
2.  Grammar Girl (https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl), because even though I understand the whole lie/lay thing, there are other grammatical puzzles I have to look up _every_ time. 
3. The SCBWI “blueboard” forum (https://www.scbwi.org/boards/) – I haven’t been very active on there lately, but this forum has been a fantastic source of info and a welcoming community of writer-friends for me. 
4. A.S. King’s “Writer’s Middle Finger” blog series (part 1 is here: http://www.as-king.info/.../the-writers-middle-finger-how...) – I read this series of blog posts when I most needed them, when I was struggling to find my place as a writer, and they helped me write what I needed to write, how I needed to write it. They helped me be me.
5.  Literary Rambles (http://www.literaryrambles.com/) – I used this site a lot when I was querying agents. Great interviews, info, and link 

Tom Torre

1. Middle Grade Minded (ahem......lol) : http://middlegrademinded.blogspot.com/
2. Absolute Writer Water Cooler - not sure how it is now, haven't stepped in in awhile, but I used to frequent this in my early days and it helpded me out a ton. https://absolutewrite.com/forums/forum.php 
3. Query Tracker - no better way to track your queries and stalk your agents...lol https://querytracker.net/ 
4. Writers Digest - I used this a lot when I was just looking through a bunch of web sites for tips and tricks http://www.writersdigest.com/ 
5. Twitter - i say this only because you find everyone and everything you need on twitter just by talking to people! Use the hashtags! #amwriting #amediting #MG etc. You'll find so many helpful folks 

 Jamie Krakover

1. Query Tracker for finding agents in my genre and reading about response times https://querytracker.net/
2.  Absolute Write for researching agents to see if they might be a good fit, or if they might be a bad agent 
3. My Critique Partners. Good Critique partners are worth their weight in gold. Not only will they point out the good, the bad, and the ugly, but they are there for you in the good times and the bad. They can talk you off a ledge if need be. So if you don't have good critique partners, I recommend finding some. The SCBWI forums, Pitchwars Forums, Write On Con Forums (in January/February) and some of the twitter critique partner matchup hastags that happen periodically throughout the year are all great resources for finding critique partners. 
4. The St. Louis Writers Guild It was the first group of writers I found and they're local to me. I met a core group of writers that I meet up with weekly to write, share ideas, successes, disappointments and advice. They also hold monthly workshops (that are frequently live tweeted on #slwg), the Gateway Con yearly writer's conference, and also do some virtual writing advice sessions. http://www.stlwritersguild.org/gatewaycon.html 
5. TWITTER, no seriously, I've learned so much from following writers and agents and editors. They share some amazing advice via tweets and blog posts they share. I've probably learned more on there than any other place.

Wendy McLeod MacKnight 
 
Besides all the great choices above I’d add:

1. One Stop for Writers: https://onestopforwriters.com
2. Martha Alderson - AKA The Plot Whisperer - wonderful website and newsletter and
3. Mary Kole’s wonderful website: https://marykole.com Mary is the author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit

What an awesome list of resources! What are some of your favorites writing resources?

Successful Critique Groups

As a writer, it can be difficult to gauge how your words will impact readers. This is where critique groups come in. Critique groups can be a great way to get reader feedback before sending your manuscript out into the big, bad world. Here are some tips to make your critique group great.

When you’re the one providing the critique:

1. Focus on first impressions. Put yourself in the shoes of a reader, encountering this manuscript for the first time.

·       How do the words on the page impact you?

·       Do you feel grounded in the character and setting?

·       Do you connect with the character enough to want to keep reading?

·       What emotions are you experiencing as you read?

These first impressions are so important, because, especially starting out, it’s hard for writers to know how their words will affect readers. You may have intended your latest scene to be a tearjerker, but does it fall flat or come off cheesy? As a critique partner, you are the test group, and your honest emotional responses have value to the author.

2. Avoid playing doctor. Your job is to serve as a test subject, not a doctor. Share when and how the story isn’t working for you as a reader, but avoid phrases like, “Here’s how I would have written that.” Remember, this isn’t your story, and the purpose of the exercise isn’t to reshape everyone else’s stories into your own. You can certainly pass along strategies that have worked for you in the past or share tips, if solicited, but the best gift you can give are your first impressions.

3. Sandwich maker. Be honest, but kind and constructive. Sandwich your discussion of what’s not working for you inside truthful, positive feedback.

4. Read widely. The best way to become better at critiquing is to read widely. You’ll get a sense of what works and why. Bonus: this will make you a better writer too!

When you’re the one receiving the critique:

1. Listen. In my critique groups, we have a rule that, when you’re receiving feedback, you can listen, but not respond or defend. Remember, we’re aiming for first impressions. If someone completely misunderstands your story, that doesn’t automatically make them an idiot. In fact, they are providing you with valuable insight, i.e. your words are not translating to readers in the way you intended. Rather than arguing, absorb their feedback and see how you can revise so that your words successfully convey the story that’s trapped in your head.

2. Possibilities, not requirements. Over time, you will learn how to identify and apply only feedback that is useful to you. In the early days, you may feel the urge to incorporate every piece of feedback you receive, even when it conflicts with other feedback or your gut feeling. Learn from this mistake. The purpose of a critique group is to show you how well, or poorly, your story translates to readers and to help you become better at conveying meaning as you learn and grow. Feedback should open your eyes to new story possibilities, but never be seen as a requirement.

Top Five Reasons We Love Being Writers

We all love to write. That's why we're here. So here's our top five reasons we love it so much. And if you haven't done so already pop over to our blogiversary post and enter to win free books and critiques!

Wendy Mcleod MacKnight

1. Telling stories has always bound us together 
2. The books I’ve read in my life have lifted me up when I needed lifting, filled me with hope when I was lost.
3. Books give me comfort when I'm sad. 
4. Stories help us make sense of the world. 
5. I love it!

Tom Torre 

1. I love being able to escape the confines of a poop-filled world and enter a world where I control the good and the bad.
2. Being part of the writing community is a reward by itself. I have gained some irreplaceable friendships and have teamed up with some amazing people over the years since becoming a writer. 
3. It's a way of venting out the excess creative goo that settles in my brain juices.
4. The feeling of finishing a book and saying "I did that." is amazing.
5. The constant struggle and challenge of the writing industry, while overwhelming at times, just makes me want to keep trying harder and harder. We'll each make it - one day. It's not a matter if, it's just when.

Jamie Krakover

1. I love exploring the what if.
2. I love the community writers have built, the people I've met, and the connections I've made.
3. It's a challenge that allows me to exercise the other side of my brain. It balances out my engineering side.
4. Because the more I write, the more I discover things about myself.
5. When you write, literally anything is possible. There are rules, but some are made to be broken.

Shari Green

1. Because stories connect us.
2. Because I love words/sentences/books, and writing lets me live in words/sentences/books, lol.
3. Because creating something that someday, somewhere, a child may read and either feel a little less alone or grow in empathy for someone else, or a child may read and think "this was written just for me"…well, how amazing would that be? the possibility both overwhelms and inspires me.
4. Because it’s fun (sometimes).
5. Because it’s hard (sometimes), and I do love a good challenge.

There's our reasons for loving to write, what are yours? 

 

Interview with Jonathan Roth, Author of BEEP AND BOB BOOK THREE: TAKE US TO YOUR SUGAR

One of the most delightful chapter books series I've read in a long time is the BEEP and BOB series by author Jonathan Roth. 

And guess what? He's back with book number three: BEEP AND BOB: TAKE US TO YOUR SUGAR this September, so I decided I needed to catch up with him and get the low down on this wonderful series!

The Description:

Beep and his best friend Bob hatch a plan to save Halloween—and their school—in this third book in the hilarious, action-packed Beep and Bob series!

It’s October in space, and Bob is getting excited for his favorite holiday: Halloween. When Bob tells Beep that soon they’ll get to dress up like monsters and get as much free candy as they can carry, Beep thinks he has gone to heaven. But Lani informs them that Halloween isn’t celebrated at Astro Elementary.

Bob cannot imagine life without Halloween! He appeals to Principal Quark, but with no success. Determined to save Halloween, Bob and Lani organize a secret club: SCARES (Scary Costumes Are the Right of Every Student, or, more truthfully, the Society of Candy Addicts who Rely on Energy from Sugar).

As the secret club grows, Halloween fever invades Astro Elementary. Unfortunately, a horde of grotesque aliens, attracted by the treats, also invades the school on the last day of the month. With everyone in costume, no one can tell who’s who. Beep and Bob may have saved the holiday, but can they somehow use their sugar-addled wits to save the school?

1.    Hi Jonathan! I’m so excited that Beep and Bob are back! My first question: how did you ever come up with these wonderful characters?

I wish I knew! It all began when I was struck by the emotion of a boy who appeared to me who was torn between his joy at being chosen to attend a select school in space and his pure terror of everything space related (the tension between joy and fear is a big theme of my series, but I didn’t realize this until much later). I also knew, very early on, that this boy (Bob) would only find the help he needed by helping someone even more in need than he was, and that’s when little lost Beep appeared.

2.   The newest Beep and Bob book takes place at Halloween! Can you tell us about it? What did you dress up as for Halloween when you were a kid?

The first two books featured black holes and the Starship Titanic, but book 3 (TAKE US TO YOUR SUGAR) gets really horrific: the sugar machine in the school cafeteria breaks, and Bob has nothing sweet to eat at all! To make matters worse, he discovers Halloween isn’t celebrated at Astro Elementary, so no free candy in sight. Luckily, they make up a new holiday – Astroween – in which free candy is also passed out. Not so luckily, just as all the kids are dressed like aliens, real aliens attack the school. 

I don’t remember ever dressing as an alien for Halloween when I was a kid, but I did go as Batman, Spiderman and one year, I can’t remember why, as a postal carrier (though I knew it also did make me feel kind of heroic).

3. The Beep and Bob books are early readers, a category of children’s books I particularly love. What made you decide to write for younger elementary school kids?

Writing for that age wasn’t so much a conscious decision as what came out of me when I got frustrated with years of rejections of picture books and middle grade novels and just sat down to write something silly and fun from my heart. It was definitely not something I had any plans of submitting, and when I saw the final word count (around 10,000) I didn’t even know where it would begin to fit. But after some great positive response from first readers, and researching genres, I realized it would work perfectly as a chapter book series (which I would also illustrate) and that’s how I pitched it. To my surprise and gratitude, I soon landed an agent (my second) and about a month into submissions she got us a four-book deal.

In retrospect, I think I benefited from both the power of letting go and from all the practice I had put into my other projects. My voice and humor level also lends itself best to the 6-9 year old crowd, and this project really brought that out.

4. Are you already working on another Beep and Bob book? And hints?

Book four, DOUBLE TROUBLE, releases this December 11. In that one, Beep and Bob accidentally make evil duplicates of themselves while working late at night on a homework assignment. And though the evil duplicates are nice enough to finish the project, they also then try to take over the Earth (like everything, evil duplicates have their pluses and minuses).

5.     Finally, have you ever seen an alien or a UFO?

Only in movies and dreams…but I have seen the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle fly overhead (as bright, fast moving points of light) which was very cool. And I’ve met a number of astronauts, including four from the Apollo moon trips, who I guess would count as a bit other-worldly.

Want to know more about Jonathan and where you can buy BEEP and BOB?

visit Jonathan's website here.

Thank you Jonathan!