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Writers’ Craft 4: Character Development

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An essential skill

One of the most powerful and essential skills in your writing arsenal is the ability to develop and write believable characters who step off the page into the minds of your readers. But it would seem it’s also one of the hardest skills to effectively master. Do it well, and you haunt the thoughts of your readers. Do it wrong, and your reader closes the novel, likely never to return either to that novel or any other written by you. Good character development drives plot, action, environment and mood. Good character development is of profound import.

Who is this person?

In my opinion, the only way you can write a believable character is to know that character, and that starts with a detailed character sketch, and that works back to the third installment of this series: Outlining.

While creating a character sketch isn’t necessarily part of creating your outline, in my experience it runs in tandem, because as you’re evolving your story, you’re also discovering more about who your main character, and even subsidiary characters, are. There are no ultimate methods of creating those character sketches. What I’ll present here are some methods I’ve found work for me. Adopt or adapt as suits your needs.

The genesis of all my novels always involves a main character as one of the main ingredients. At first I have just a nebulous understanding of who this person is. As I develop my outline, and write, I come to better understand who this person is, and that’s when I sit down and develop a character outline. It often becomes quite detailed, with extraneous information which will never make it into the novel, but it does inform how I present that character, why they do what they do, how they feel, their raison d’etre, if you will. I list things such as:

  • physical description, age and gender
  • nationality
  • religion or spiritual belief if that is germane to the story
  • how they survive, as in how they earn their living, if they’re self-sufficient, or beholden to someone/thing for their existence
  • are they in a relationship/s
  • what is their place in the society in which they live
  • fears, likes, dislikes
  • soft and hard skills; i.e. are they adept at communication, negotiation, or inept? Can they nurture, or are better a destruction, apathetic, or narcissistic? Can they code programming? Can they sail a ship? Wield a hammer? A sword? A gun? Can they sew and maintain clothes? Make shoes? Grow a crop? Tell what kind of rock they’re walking over? It’s this part of the character sketch which often becomes the bedrock of how I choose to have the plot unfold through my character’s viewpoint.
  • are they well-travelled, or not, and if not do they have an understanding of the world or environment beyond them?

From those essential details develop others which allow me to fully understand who is this person. If I understand them intimately, am able to have an informed conversation with them, then at that point I know my reader will believe that character to be real as well.

How to convey that character to your reader

Too often I’ve read a manuscript in which the opening paragraphs describe how their main character looks and feels. That method, in my view, immediately sets up a cool distance between me and the character, because I’m aware of the writer, not the character and their world. The writer is telling me what’s going on. The character isn’t.

I’ve also, to my dismay, come across too many instances in which the character has been completely eliminated from any environmental description, thereby effectively diminishing the importance of character. It’s character which drives your story, or should be if you want to fully engage your reader.

Allow me to use an example I created in an earlier post about submissions.

In the post I used a well-known clumsy opening statement:

It was a dark and stormy night.

Which I suggested could become:

She stood there shivering, rain sheeting down her face, wondering not for the first time what she was doing out on such a night, in such a storm, with the wind howling like her own thoughts.

Now the weather is part of the character. There’s tension because she’s shivering. Is it from cold? Is it from fear? Perhaps fear because we are then given the clue she’s distressed as indicated by the phrase: howling like her own thoughts.

That’s just one very basic example of good character development, let alone a good opening paragraph.

Or take a look at this example:

She was tall, dressed in green taffeta that rustled against her petticoats and hoop, her long hair pulled into a crown of dark, chestnut curls. There were pearls at her throat. She unfolded her fan and said in a husky voice to the gallant approaching her, “My dance card is full, but I could make an exception for you.”

This is all kinds of wrong, yet we see this sort of writing so often in many period romances which flood the market. It’s consumable, forgettable, and could definitely be better. If this story is being told from this antebellum femme fatale’s point of view, the third person observations are out of character. Certainly the gallant approaching her might observe these physical details, but it is unlikely she would. Better not to describe any of this, allow your reader to fill in the gaps in this case, because the fact she’s tall and speaks in a husky voice are all irrelevant, extraneous points which do nothing to develop her character. Instead, it might be better written thus:

When she saw him approaching, she knew immediately he’d observed the quality of her green taffeta gown, the expanse of its skirts. She’d chosen her attire carefully, knowing she’d have to be the perfect bait tonight. Everything depended on it. And to secure this traitor’s attention, she offered another enticement when she pre-empted any introduction by saying, “My dance card is full, but I could make an exception for you.”

Now the narrative is entirely in her head, a very tight character point of view, which develops clearly and with interest who and what she is. I chose to eliminate any description of her hair, because it’s not germane to the action or her point of view. We know she’s involved in some sort of subterfuge or scheme, and that further develops her character because it raises the question: is she a spy, or a Scarlett O’Hara on the hunt for a husband? We know she’s an assertive person, willing to take chances, because she’s just breached etiquette, and we know this without being told. We know this because it’s just part of the action. We haven’t been told by the writer intruding upon the narrative.

From Mountains of Ice

Allow me to dissect for you a passage from my novel, From Mountains of Ice. 

The porter at the gate of Portelli’s home, once Sylvio’s, immediately admitted his former employer, bowing, uttering greetings. The man rushed before Sylvio, letting fly commands to servants as he passed to have Sylvio taken to the Sindaco’s study, to have refreshment brought. With as much grace as he could muster Sylvio followed the servant he was handed off to, trying to alleviate the discomfort he knew these people felt on the rare occasion he entered his confiscated, reallocated, ancestral home.

What do we infer from this short passage? We are told Sylvio enters Portelli’s home, which was once Sylvio’s. We are shown how the porter reacts in a fashion of deference to Sylvio. And we are given a revelation into Sylvio’s character in the fact he’s mustering grace, feeling uncomfortable with the attention and respect he’s being shown. That may indicate a humble person, someone self-effacing, and also someone who takes into consideration the feelings of those around him because of the fact he does attempt to muster grace instead of feeling this attention was his due and therefore the servant beneath his consideration or care.

Be your character

How you convey your character to your reader has to come from your own deep well. You have to know your character so well that you can speak with their voice. Or put another way, be your character. 

That can be difficult and uncomfortable for some writers, because it means you allow yourself to open up and let your own emotions, feelings, and responses flow out into the story. It creates a certain vulnerability at times. But it also allows you to write characters who are true, and real, and believable. So, if you’re writing a tense scene, get inside your character’s head so deeply that you feel your heart skipping. If it’s a tragic scene, allow yourself to cry. If it’s a moment of halcyon, allow yourself to slide into the beatitude of the environment your character is experiencing, and then let those feelings, imaginings, flow out from your mind into the mind of your character, and from there into your scene. There is truth in this process. There is believability. And in doing so you will have built upon the development of a character who will be memorable, someone your reader will want to know, and will think about long after the last page has been read.

You can follow me at my website: fiveriverspublishing.com
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Derek Newman-Stille Interviews Mark Leslie (Lefebvre)

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SF Canada is pleased to share a new interview from Derek Newman-Stille. They spoke with fellow SF Canada member Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) on subjects ranging from researching werewolf books to spending the night in a haunted hotel room.

Interview with Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) on Writing Werewolves and Haunted Houses

By Derek Newman-Stille

 

Derek Newman-Stille: “To begin our interview, could you tell readers a little bit about yourself?”

 

Mark Leslie (Lefebvre): “I’m a writer, editor, bookseller, storyteller with about twenty-five or so books out there in the world. I tend to drift toward the darker realms of speculative fiction in my writing; and most of my non-fiction books are explorations of haunted locations. I have also written a few books about the business of writing and publishing under my full name, tacking “Lefebvre” back on.

I started writing when I was about fourteen years old, received my first rejection at the age of fifteen, and have, of course, collected thousands of rejections since then. My first short story was published in 1992, the same year I started working in bookselling. I’ve grown up within the industry learning about both the author side and the book industry side of things, which I believe has afforded me a unique perspective over the years.

Because I wear many different hats in the roles I’ve played over the years, I often find that the term “Book Nerd” fits quite nicely.”

 

Derek: “I like that term “Book Nerd”. That is fantastic. You have published in a lot of genres and even extended from Speculative Fiction writing into non-fiction explorations of haunted narratives. Do you find that your explorations of stories about hauntings influences your Speculative Fiction?”

 

Mark: “Oh yeah, for sure. It’s difficult to turn off the speculative fiction writer mind when I’m doing research for haunted locations. Several of my fictional pieces have been inspired by some of the ghost walks, tours, and reading I’ve done to learn about haunted locations.

That’s the beauty of writing both fiction and non-fiction. I can be doing research on a location that I’m writing about for one of my “true ghost story” books, and something within the stories I’m learning about trigger a thought or an additional “what if?” that inspires me to imagine something. Riffing on true tales is a great source for my writing. Of course, almost everything I experience is prime to be plucked for my writing at one time or another.”

 

Derek: “I like that inspiration of the “what if”. Do you find that your work is often inspired by the “what if” question and what are some situations where you have asked yourself “what if” and it has planted the seeds of a new story?”

 

Mark: “If I stop to think about it, “What if?” is likely the most common underlying fundamental of most of what flows from my pen. And not just for the fantastical tales where I inject speculation and wonder; but even for my non-fiction.

It’s easy to see where I took research or something I saw or heard and then went off in a specific “what if” direction.

For example, my Canadian Werewolf stories and novels came from wondering what it might be like to be living in a large metropolis while suffering from lycanthropy. How would a werewolf have to organize his time? What are the logistics involved when one wakes up from a night of howling at the moon and needs to find clothes to get back home? Those questions birthed the novel A Canadian Werewolf in New York.

Some of my ghost stories were also based on wondering odd things, such as: if objects can be haunted, what might happen if a collector of haunted objects thrust a bunch of haunted items into a personal at home museum. Would these ghosts, now forced to share the same space, act like children forced to share a bedroom?

I think many of my speculative musings often involve dark humour.

One of my most popular stories to read in front of an audience, “That Old Silk Hat They Found” was born from wondering what might ACTUALLY happen if a snowman came alive.

An example from non-fiction might be when I’m researching to write about haunted locations, I approach the research with an open-minded skepticism. I’m a believer, but I also look for plausible explanations for different alleged hauntings. But there’s always a part of me that clings to the “what if this there actually is a ghost? And what if the ghost is this historic figure? And what if….” etc etc.”

 

Derek: “I can imagine looking out on the world of 2020 and now 2021 there must be a lot of “what if” material to inspire you. How has this past year inspired your writing? What narratives do you see potentially arising from the events of this year?”

 

Mark: “Interesting question.

I haven’t done a lot of fiction writing about the events of the past year or so, but I imagine that there will be things that will subconsciously inject themselves into my writing. For stories I’ve written in that time period, I’ve purposely avoided pandemic or anything associated with it.

I have incorporated some of the modern political landscape into a novel in progress that’s coming out in February 2021. FEAR AND LONGING IN LOS ANGELES, the latest in my “Canadian Werewolf” series, involves the rise of a terrorist neo-nazi group. Interestingly, that premise was scripted back in 2016. The manuscript was put aside until late in 2020 when I started working on it again, and surprised myself that those elements were in there.

One of the things that the global pandemic, lockdown, and all the accompany elements have done for me, is inspired me to re-engage with other forms of entertainment, and storytelling; especially parody.

I’ve long enjoyed writing parody lyrics to pop songs, and often used that as a writing warm-up activity. But the pandemic and lockdown inspired me and my partner to collaborate on a few pandemic parody videos, where we recorded the song and created a video.

Two of those were “Stuck in This House Here With You” (a parody of “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealers Wheel. And then we followed that up with a K-Tel commercial parody, which was a collection of short pandemic-themed parody song clips, including “Sharing Broadband Streams” which was a parody of the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song “Islands in the Stream.”

If I were to look for positives in the current global situation, I think it would be that it was a reminder to me that I am a born storyteller, regardless of the media it comes out in.”

 

Derek: “You have mentioned your Canadian Werewolf stories and I am really looking forward to reading them. I used to teach a werewolf course at Trent University, so the werewolf is something that I am incredibly fascinated by. What inspired your interest in the figure of the werewolf?”

 

Mark: “It’s funny because for the longest time I tried to avoid writing using the “classic” monsters of horror like vampires and werewolves, because so much had already been done with them.

But it was reading the guidelines for an open anthology call that inspired my “Canadian Werewolf.” The editor had been looking for stories about the human side of a “monster” and that’s what sparked me to think about what it might be like for the human living in a big city and trying to engage in a normal life despite this hiccough.

With his affliction, he has no memory or conscious control of the wolf. So when he wakes up, he has no idea where he is or what he was up to. That premise was intriguing me, as my main character writes in his first tale, upon waking up naked in Battery Park with a bullet hole in his leg, the taste of human blood in his mouth and no memory of the night before and says: “What the hell had I been up to this time?”

I ended up giving my human wolf-inspired enhanced senses; modelling them off of Wolverine and Daredevil from the Marvel comic books. Of course, my character, Michael Andrews, was, himself (like me) a huge fan of Spider-Man, and therefore adopts a “great power/great responsibility” moral compass that guides him along. He can’t help but use his powers to stop and help others, even when he’s in the middle of some personal desire or goal.

I also had a lot of fun playing with the concept of alpha dog, or alpha wolf. Because, while, as a wolf, he might be the alpha, he is definitely a beta human, or a bit of a pushover. I played up the polite, Canadian stereotype in his character, as well as my own naive nature of having grown up in a really small town in Northern Ontario.”

 

Derek: “The werewolf is such a fascinating figure because it occupies that space of being both human… and not human at the same time. It opens up so many possibilities for being an outsider who is also an insider. I find it interesting that you set your story in the United States. Was this at all inspired by the insider/outsider quality?”

 

Mark: “Oh, that’s a great question.

Funny, I set it in the US because when I wrote the first short story that eventually turned into the novel, I had visited New York City for the first time. I was fascinated with how such a larger city as New York could be so urban, and yet have unique natural landscapes in so many neighbourhoods.

I was also fascinated at how the neighbourhoods themselves were so interesting and dynamic, and could each have their own distinct feel of “home” and comfort despite being part of this bustling city that never sleeps.

I only played up the insider/outside qualities as an after-thought, rather than as a fore-thought. I didn’t realize Michael was a beta human until an early reader of the manuscript complained that an “alpha wolf” would never drop onto his knees and sob in front of the woman he loved and lost. When I reflected on that, I knew that would be part of what made him unique, and allowed me to use that alpha/beta contrast. Perhaps this is a similar contrast to Michael being a small town country bumpkin making his way in the Big Apple.

And now that you mention it, I’m starting to reflect on the first person narrative where Michael (who happens to be a writer), is very reflective on making note of observing specific things about his situation and the people around him.

For example, he recognizes that wolves do not kill for sport, like humans; they only kill for food, or over protecting their pack or territory. Humans are a far more frightening creature, when you think about it.”

 

Derek: “Speaking of the supernatural, I have to ask about some of your nonfiction work on hauntings. What inspired you to start researching and publishing about hauntings?”

 

Mark: “I blame historic ghost walks. I fell in love with history through ghost walks in Ottawa and Hamilton, ON. And, prior to that, I enjoyed history about as much as I enjoyed walking golf. I mean I put it right up there with watching paint dry.

But going on a tour and learning about local and Canadian history from a guide who was dressed in Victorian garb and carrying a lantern brought such a uniqueness and immediacy to the experience that I realized that we walk upon lands that are rich with history, rich with the tales of those who came before us.

It was shortly after moving to Hamilton and going on several of the local ghosts walks that I was inspired to want to capture some of these tales and share them. I learned that Dundurn, Canada’s largest independent publisher, had always wanted to publish a book of ghost stories about Hamilton. I did some research, leaned there had never been such a thing — ie, there was a hole in the market — spoke with the folks offering the tours about the idea of a book, and they gave me full access to their research and archives, and the rest was history.

I pitched the book, Dundurn sent me a contract, and I set about writing it.

I’ve since written other books based on looking at potential holes in the market combined with locals and subjects I’m interested in. So I’ve covered cities I’ve lived in (Hamilton, Sudbury, Ottawa), cities I love (Montreal), as well as other locations (haunted bookstores and libraries, haunted hospitals).”

 

Derek: Do you visit the spaces where people report ghost stories and, if so, what is that experience like?

 

Mark: “Yes, I do, whenever possible, visit the spaces. Ideally when I’m researching and writing them. Sometimes, though, it’s after I’ve already written about them.

I’m actually a big chicken, so I’m often quite nervous visiting such locations.

Though I’ve never had anything paranormal or something I can’t explain happen to be when doing that research, I’m still quite the chicken.

I typically marvel at the history of a specific locale, even if it’s not at the ghosts or hauntings the place is known for.

But I do often approach such visits with a sense of quiet respect and honour. Often times the location is the site of some horrific tragedy or murder, and I sometimes feel as if I’m visiting a grave.

So there can be a great deal of high emotions that come with visiting particular locations. Fear, excitement, quiet reflection, sadness.”

 

Derek: “I recently got a copy of Haunted Hospitals that you published with Rhonda Parrish and I was wondering what got you fascinated with hospitals as particular spaces of haunting. They strike me as places that are already uncomfortable for people. Do you think that this discomfort and the uncertainty around life and death may inspire people to create ghost stories about them? Or is the fraught nature of these spaces a possible reason why ghosts linger?”

 

Mark: “Great question.

Hospitals, are, in an of themselves, a place where people come and go out of the world, where all kinds of the heights and depths of human experience happen. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts or spirits or supernatural elements, you can’t help by marvel at the power that a location like a hospital holds.

There were plenty of doctors and nurses who had been willing to share tales about inexplicable experiences they had at the hospital where they worked, but when it came time to me asking permission to use these stories (even if I were to make them anonymous), they declined. While slightly disappointed, I also completely understood their decisions, and saw it as a sign of respect they held for their colleagues, patients, and perhaps also the previous tenants of the buildings where they work.

I also found it fascinating that, when you go back in history, there was this odd blurry line between hospital, and asylum, and prison. In some cases, like in terms of Canada’s oldest jail, you had pickpockets and murderers sharing the same space with folks who needed to be hospitalized for a mental disorder. In much of the research I did, there plenty of elements of a “hell on earth” environment for many of the downtrodden and less fortune of society.

But considering the depths of horror, the extremes of emotions, wouldn’t hospitals be a spot that is rife for either hauntings or at the very least some sort of echo of the intense energy and emotions experienced there?”

 

Derek: “You know I have to ask – have you seen any ghosts or do you have any personal haunting stories that you are comfortable sharing here?”

 

Mark: “It’s funny that you ask that. For years, whenever I was asked this question I would be able to laugh and say. “Nope. Good news is that I’ve never seen a ghost or experienced anything paranormal. But I still believe in ghosts. I mean, I don’t have to have seen an atom myself to believe in them.”

But I can’t say that any more.

A few years ago, my partner Liz and I were traveling back home from a work related trip to Orlando where I had to speak at a writer’s conference. We decided to take some extra time and drive, exploring different hiking spots and breweries along the way. (We are also still researching to write a book about haunted bars and breweries, so that was part of the trip).

But on our way back, we planned a stop in Weston, West Virginia at the Trans Alleghany Lunatic Asulym. That appears in the book Haunted Hospitals, and this was about a month after the book was released. This was a case where I visited the spot AFTER having written about it. In fact, this was a chapter that Rhonda wrote, so I wasn’t as intimately familiar with it as she was.

But the night before, we arrived in town on a foggy night around midnight, and had been driving all day, having left Orlando in the morning. The first hotel we stopped in at was full. No rooms left. So we went down the highway to the next one. Liz was driving, so I ran in.

They had a single room. “But,” the clerk said. “It’s two double beds. No Queen. No King.”

“That’s fine,” I said. We just needed a place to drop into sleep, get up in the morning and go on the tour of the local historic haunted building, and then head back home.

We went to bed immediately. Liz took the bed closest to the washroom, and I took the one nearest the door. She had a hoodie on, threw it over her head and fell fast asleep.

It always takes me longer to fall asleep, and, because I’m a big chicken, if often takes a bit longer in a strange hotel room, despite being tired.

But I finally fell asleep.

I woke, some time later, to the sound of Liz getting out of bed and shuffling to the bathroom. I cracked an eye open to see her moving past the end of her bed toward the washroom, listening to the shuffling of her feet on the carpet.

I laid there waiting for her to turn on the bathroom light. But it never went on.

Then I heard something in the bed beside me. The sound of her breathing in her sleep.

“What the hell?” I whispered, sitting up. There was a woman in our room!

I looked at the door, saw that the security bolt was still latched.

How was that? How did she get in?

I looked over at Liz, she was sleeping in the bed beside mine.

I figured I must have likely fallen asleep after seeing her move to the bathroom, then woke up a few minutes later, thinking only seconds had passed; and that explained what I thought I’d seen.

I eventually convinced myself my imagination was running overtime and fell back asleep.

Only to be woken again to the sound of something clacking on the table at the end of my bed where my laptop bag and our passports were.

I sat up again. There was something in our room! A thief, maybe, trying to steal our passports, my laptop!

Again, there was nobody there. Liz was still fast asleep.

It took me longer to fall asleep the second time. But I did.

In the morning, I asked Liz if she’d gotten up at all during the night. She said, NO, she had slept through pretty much the whole night. I then said: “Wow, because here’s what I thought I saw and heard last night.”

I relayed the story to her, and her face went extremely pale.

Liz is not a believer in ghosts. She’s fascinated by the tales, but unlike me, she doesn’t believe.

The look on her face told me she was having second thoughts.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

“Well,” she said. “I wasn’t going to say anything because I thought maybe it was a dream, but here’s what happened to me last night.”

She relayed that she had been asleep, facing the wall, when she felt a presence standing over her. She knew it wasn’t me, the way a person just knows. And then she felt a hand press onto her shoulder; it felt like a woman’s hand. Because she is a feisty person, the alpha in our relationship, she steeled herself up to spin around and punch the stranger standing over her in our hotel room.

But when she spun, there was nobody there.

In a nutshell, we both felt the presence of a woman in the room with us in different ways.

It was a bit eerie. But not scary. She was just a presence. So we made sure to wish her well and say good bye to her when we left.

Then we went to one of the most notoriously haunted asylum in that part of the country, and didn’t see a single ghost or unexplained activity.

But I suppose I can no longer say that I’ve never seen a ghost; or, at least, some sort of thing that I can’t properly explain.”

 

Derek: “What is it like to interview people about their experiences of hauntings?”

 

Mark: “Interviewing people about ghosts and hauntings is quite interesting.

In some cases, they are excited to share some unique and thrilling experience. In other cases, they are sharing something profoundly emotional and disturbing.

I find that it’s important for me to tread cautiously and respectfully as much as possible.

They might also be dealing with worries over being made fun or or not believed, so there’s that element too.

Also, I always ensure that those who share their stories have the option of me changing their name and identity.

I also realized that I can’t always just take the story that people share with me. Even true stories need to have some sort of story arc. So I’ll often write down their story and then, when I write the tale out, I’ll elaborate and flesh out the story with additional details that make sense based on my research and the setting, even if it wasn’t part of their original tale.

And then I usually share that chapter with them after the fact to ensure I’ve capture the details accurately, and respectfully.

In some cases, I’ve had stories I’ve written where I really had to elaborate and injected my version of what I thought the dialogue might have been (where the person sharing the story didn’t give “line by line” dialogue explanations) – I merely fleshed out the story with what I felt would be realistic elements.

Most of the time, they’ll come back with a “wow, it was like you were right there!” response, suggesting I managed to flesh out just enough detail to be close or accurate or authentic about the experience.

Because it’s that type of authenticity that I believe resonates with the reader.”

 

Derek: “Having done a few ghost tours of cities and being someone who is passionate about history, I have always found it fascinating the way that ghost stories are often ways of beginning narratives talking about the history of a particular location. Do you find that the narratives you record inspire you and your readers to learn more about local history?”

 

Mark: “Oh yes. One hundred percent.

While I started off not being interested in history at all, it was through my exploration of ghost stories that I learned to love history. In fact, when I visit new locations, I look for historic tours so I can learn more about the locale, the people, the buildings, the architecture, the culture, all of it, even if there aren’t any ghost stories to share.

I’ve heard from readers who said that one of the elements in my ghost stories have intrigued them enough to continue to do research on a thing I perhaps only touched upon, because in a ghost story book, you have to stick to the chills and thrills.

When I was writing Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries, the book nerd in me often took over (I think he and I share this same body in a lycanthropic manner) and went whole hog writing about the history of various bookstores and library locations. My editor and I actually fought over how MUCH detail I wanted to inject. She reminded me that people were there with a willing suspension of disbelief to read about ghosts, and I was harping on about bookish history. We finally compromised, and I cut a significant amount of that out of the chapters, but managed to get some of it back into the book in these little side-bar segments that appear in some chapters. That way, the true believer ghost lovers would still enjoy the chapter, and the bookish folks like me could dig into and enjoy the in depth book history insights.”

 

Derek: “Thank you for a brilliant interview and for sharing so much with us. As we finish the interview, is there anything you want to mention here or any current projects you want to let us know about?”

 

Mark: “Thank, you, Derek, for a fun chat.

I appreciate the conversation, and the only other thing I’d add is that if people wanted to find out more about me, or check out the various things I’m up to www.markleslie.ca has info, links to my books, and all my exploits on social media.  Thank you!”

 

 

Mark Leslie (Lefebvre) has been writing since he was thirteen years old and discovered his mother’s Underwood typewriter collecting dust in a closet. Under the name Mark Leslie, he has published more than a dozen full length books. He pens a series of non-fiction paranormal explorations for Dundurn, Canada’s largest independent publisher. He also writes fiction (typically thrillers and horror) and edits fiction anthologies, most recently as a regular editor for the WMG Publishing Fiction River anthology series.

Between 2011 and 2017, Mark worked at the Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations for Kobo where he was the driving force behind the creation of Kobo Writing Life, a free and easy to use author/small-publisher friendly platform designed to publish directly to Kobo’s global catalog in 190 countries. Mark has spoken professionally in the United States and Canada, in the UK and across Europe, specializing in advances in digital publishing and the vast and incredible opportunities that exist for writers and publishers.

 

Derek Newman-Stille, MA, PhD ABD (They/Them) is a Disabled, Queer, Nonbinary activist, author, artist, academic, and editor. They edited the anthologies Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales from the Margins (Exile) and We Shall Be Monsters (Renaissance Press) and are the 8 time Prix Aurora Award-winning creator of the digital humanities hub Speculating Canada. Derek has published in fora such as Uncanny Magazine, The Playground of Lost Toys, Quill & Quire, Fireside Magazine, Diamond Book Shelf, The Town Crier, Exile Quarterly, and Nothing Without Us. Derek’s art work has been published in fora such as Feminist Space Camp, Lackington’s, Postscripts to Darkness, and Aging Activisms.

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Writers’ Craft 3: Outlining

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Technical issues

I was going to make this entire Writers’ Craft series as vlogs. However, I have a problem with my ISP, in that they have not upgraded the lines in our wee village, and so uploading to YouTube is problematic. The first two videos required an overnight upload, with nothing else eating up broadband. The third one has been a bust, I’m afraid. I’ve tried four times now. The first three attempts resulted in 3% upload after 24 hours. The last attempt stalled at 26%. And I’m out of patience. So, I’m back to the written word, which I suppose is appropriate given I’m supposed to be imparting wisdom on the creation of the written word. Life is full or ironies, say what?

Creating an Outline, or why bother?

I know of a good many writers, be they novice or experienced, who ask that question: Why bother outlining? In my experience, outlining is an essential tool if you’re going to write.

  1. Outlining saves time, because the need for extensive revision will be reduced. You’ll know where you’re going with the story, and why, rather than employing the ‘panster’ method of just writing without any idea at all where you’re going with the story.
  2. Outlining adds cohesion to plot progression, because you’ve thought out your story ahead of time.
  3. Outlining helps you to solidify character development.
  4. Outlining allows you to develop literary devices throughout your story by way of foreshadowing, pacing, and when to introduce a character or plot element.
  5. Outlining helps to identify any further research you’re going to require.
How to create your outline

I use Word or Excel, depending on the complexity of my plot. Normally I use Word, and lay things out by chapter or section, and often pre- or append character sketches as well as world and environmental details. However, when I wrote The Rose Guardian, the story was a bit more complex, employing three different voices in three different timelines, and because of that I used Excel so I could easily scan and organize, as well as keep the continuity of the overall storyline. That also allowed me to clearly define character sketches which allowed me to use those influences in other sections.

I remember well interviewing Marian Fowler, a great Canadian biographer (Blenheim, Below the Peacock Fan, In a Gilded Cage) who was a stickler for accurate research. She used 3×5 cards to outline her biographies and research, and then pinned the cards to a board, or laid them out on a table in her office. I did often wonder what she did if a strong breeze blew through the window. But it was a system which stood her in good stead for many decades.

Other writers I know have written points out by hand on sheets of paper, and then organized those sheets in binders of folders. Others yet have used sticky notes on a wall near their computer. Some have even gone to the trouble of creating visual sketches, working out an actual storyboard.

Just find a system that works for you and use it. You’ll be grateful you did when it comes time to do your revision.

An Outline is a guide, not a monument

It’s important to remember, as you write, your outline is a guide, not a rigid format to which you must adhere. Things occur to you as you’re writing, new ideas, change in plot, change in character, and that’s the way it should be. Just make note of that in your outline and adjust accordingly. I think of an outline as a recipe, if I may be allowed to use a cooking analogy. It often occurs I don’t have all the ingredients for the recipe, which means I liberally substitute. So, I may have started out to make a lasagna, but found I had neither tomatoes nor ground meat, but I did have cream, an abundance of cheese, greens and mushrooms. I still made a lasagna. It was just flavoured differently.

Same with writing and an outline. But it’s important to have at least that basic structure of an outline in place, otherwise you may end up making salad instead of lasagna.

You can follow me at my website: fiveriverspublishing.com

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Writers’ Craft Video Series

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First video in Writers’ Craft series

Over the next weeks I’ll feature short videos in which I discuss writers’ craft, dispensing knowledge accumulated over the past 40 years in the field of publishing. This first installment is Workspace and Equipment.

You can visit me at my website: fiveriverspublishing.com

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Derek Newman-Stille Interviews Nathan Caro Fréchette

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Derek Newman-Stille

Writing and publishing during a pandemic has been challenging to say the least. Small presses are closing. Conferences are going online. And yet, opportunities still exist.

So, we’re excited to both introduce SF Canada’s newest member, Derek Newman-Stille, and to share their latest interview. In the Q&A below, Derek talks with Renaissance publisher Nathan Caro Fréchette to explore the origin and development of a small press.

Keep reading for a fascinating and very personal perspective on creating and promoting work by and for marginalized authors. Including Nothing Without Us, an anthology co-edited by Talia C. Johnson and SF Canada member Cait Gordon.

You may recognize Derek as the author of the Aurora-winning blog Speculating Canada, as well as numerous short stories and anthologies. Both Derek and Nathan’s bios are included at the bottom of the interview.

 

Interview with Nathan Caro Fréchette About Small Presses and Canadian SF Publishing

By Derek Newman-Stille

 

Nathan Caro Fréchette

Derek: Welcome to another interview Nathan. I am looking forward to catching up and seeing how you are coping with the COVID world. To start our interview, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Nathan: Sure! I’m a queer, transgender dad, and I’m also an artist, a writer, a publisher and one of the people in charge at Renaissance Press.

Derek: I’m glad that you mentioned Renaissance Press. I was wondering if you could share a little bit about how Renaissance Press started?

Nathan: Absolutely! So what seems like another lifetime ago, I used to teach creative writing. I did this for a few years, and a couple of my former students and I formed a critique circle when I stopped teaching. A year or two into this critique group, two of our members got publishing contracts – one with a really big publisher. They brought the contracts for me to look over, and they were terrible contracts: the publishers wanted things like lifetime of copyright without any possibility of reverting the rights back, wanted print and audio rights even though they explicitly only wanted to publish an ebook version, things like that. The contracts were so terrible that I had to recommend they pass on the opportunity, which broke their hearts – and mine.

I ranted to a friend about this, saying I didn’t understand why publishers weren’t friendlier to their authors, because I saw it as a partnership, and my friend just looked at me and said, “Why don’t you start your own company?”

So with the help of a few friends, I did.

Derek: Wow! That must have been tough to see. And I have to say, terrible contracts seem to be pretty regular in the publishing industry. I’m so glad that you created a press that would better represent authors and support them.

Nathan: Thanks! It was really the primary goals of Renaissance – we wanted a place where authors would be truly supported and understood, and be able to have some creative control even though they would be traditionally published.

Derek: Small publishers play and important role in Canadian SF publishing. What do you feel are some of the benefits of being a small publisher, especially in the Canadian SF market?

Nathan: One of the benefits is definitely the very personal relationship we have with our authors. We can have honest discussions about what they want, and because there aren’t a whole huge team working on the book, every step can be personalized to reflect what the authors really want. I wouldn’t want to give up that close relationship for the world; there’s just something magical about being the person who gets to be there when they see their cover for the first time and see their reaction when you’ve done it just right.

As for other advantages, it allows us to publish more hybrid titles, or titles that don’t fit neatly in one genre, because we don’t have a huge catalog of titles to market, we can really focus on each book’s possibilities instead of only worrying about which book shelf it’s going to be on, if that makes sense.

Derek: That personal touch is so important!!

What are some of the hybrid titles that Renaissance has published?

Nathan: For example, one of our most recent titles, Murder At The World’s Fair, is a young adult steampunk murder mystery set in an alternate past. Or, one of our upcoming titles, Cypher, is a sci-fi mystery, and because of its preoccupation with puzzles, the book itself is filled with actual puzzles to solve, so it’s a book, but also kind of a game.

Our anthologies also tend not to be limited in genre, but are multi-genre, such as Nothing Without Us, which is centred on positive disability representation, but has everything to humour, to hard sci-fi, to slice of life.

Derek: I really like that space for writing innovation and imagining new possibilities.

Nothing Without Us actually brings me to my next question. Originally Renaissance Press billed itself as a small Ottawa publisher, but a few years ago the press changed to highlight the fact that you publish marginalized authors. What inspired the change in focus or perhaps change in how the press was represented?

Nathan: Well, after a few years of publishing books, we sat down and tried to narrow down our editorial policy so that we could make more informed decisions about what we published. So far, the only criteria was books we fell in love with, but we started falling in love with too many of our submissions to publish them all. So we took an actual look at what really drew us in most of the time, and what really made us excited to publish a book, and we realized we were naturally drawn to stories that were by and about marginalized people, which at that point had mostly been disabled and LGBTQIA2P+ people. We were also noticing that a lot of the complaints from authors around us included the fact that there was a lot of gatekeeping in the publishing industry preventing marginalized authors from publishing, and since Renaissance was made to elevate the voices of those who were often left behind by the industry, it seemed like a natural conclusion that we would focus on marginalized authors.

Derek: Often the larger presses tend to be more conservative and are reluctant to adopt books about marginalized people that are written by marginalized people. Do you feel like small presses have a stronger ability to do this and how so?

Nathan: I’m not sure I would say a stronger ability, because the truth is these are choices that we make as a business and any business can make that choice. But I think that being a smaller business perhaps helps us do it right, because the close personal relationships we can have with our authors helps us understand their goals a bit better, and the fact that we try to cultivate a close relationship with our audience helps us find the right public for the book, I think, because we market each book differently.

Derek: Well said. I think that close personal relationship is essential for supporting marginalized authors, particularly from groups that are often silenced.

Are there some examples of that personal touch that you are comfortable sharing?

Nathan: Well, I don’t want to get too much in the details because it can get quite personal, but for example I’ve had authors who have felt comfortable enough to come to me with questions and speculations about their gender and sexual orientation, about their mental health, and a lot of other things, and I think I can safely say I’ve developed a lot of close friendships with my authors. On top of that, I know of a few who have ended up finding support and a community in their audiences, as well as other Renaissance authors. Our author community is very tightly knit, and I think each Renaissance author has made friends and grown not only their audiences but their communities by publishing books with us.

Derek: What does it mean to you, as a marginalized person yourself, to be able to provide this space for other marginalized people? What is it like to elevate voices and do social justice work while also entertaining people with great books?

Nathan: It means more than I have the ability to say. It’s so special to me to be able to transform these incredible stories into beautiful books that the authors will be proud to hold, but also to be able to place them in front of readers, and top off all that joy with actual money for the authors. There are few things that thrill me more than seeing a picture of a happy author holding their new book for the first time, or sending nice royalty payments when a book is doing really well.

Derek: You and I are both Queer and Disabled, so this may seem like a question with an obvious answer to both of us, but, why do you feel it is so important that we have marginalized representation, especially in Canadian SF?

Nathan: So often, our stories are told by people who’ve never even met a person like us. It’s not just a question of it being annoying or disappointing: it can be downright dangerous for us to be misrepresented. Mentally ill people like myself are often depicted as serial killers; it’s actually hard to find a depiction of someone like me in fiction that ISN’T a serial killer. This makes people afraid of me, and I’m much more likely to be harmed because of that fear because people might attack me thinking they are defending themselves. The same can be said of transgender people, people of colour, and most marginalized communities. A lot of hate crimes stem from fear, and that fear is often born from and stoked by misrepresentation in fiction.

Derek: I often feel like marginalized people have a unique ability to write speculative fiction, especially since so many of us are already alienated from the very straight, cis, ableist, racist society that surrounds us. Do you feel like we have insights that we can provide to society through our marginalization?

Nathan: Absolutely. As marginalized people, we tend to come up against huge and frequent barriers in everyday life that prevent us from doing a lot of things, or even existing in some spaces. Because of that, we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about solutions and possibilities that people who have fewer or no barriers would never think about, because those possibilities aren’t missing for them. So I think we have a natural ability to imagine worlds where these barriers are removed or worked around in original fashions.

Derek: I’ve been thinking a lot about COVID and its relationship to disability, especially since so many people are still saying “it’s ONLY disabled people who are dying from COVID” as though our lives matter less than others, and I can’t help but think about Renaissance Press’ book Nothing Without Us by Cait Gordon and Talia Johnson. It seems like a well-timed book to elevate disabled voices at a time when the mistreatment of disabled people is so visible in our world. What are your thoughts about COVID and Nothing Without Us? And especially about the need for disability representation?

Nathan: I think that good representation matters now more than ever. I’ve heard it so much, this “It’s only disabled people” and “It’s only old people” as if our lives were somehow disposable. People don’t think of us as people, because they are used to seeing us used as mere tropes with two-dimensional characters in fiction, which is where a lot of people are exposed to folks who might be different than themselves. I often wonder, if stories like the ones in Nothing Without Us were more commonplace, if most people would still see us as disposable or not human enough to be worthy of living.

Derek: Very well said!! Disability representation is so incredibly important!!As a way of creating community while we were all social isolating during COVID, you and Renaissance Press decided to hold a virtual convention. What inspired the convention and why are online conventions like this so important during COVID, but also in general for public access (especially accessibility for disabled folks)?

Nathan: The one comment we got the most often from our audience was “Thank you for doing this, I can never come/stay as long as I want to these conventions usually.” So many people were able to attend and stay longer just because it was online, and they didn’t have to spend spoons dressing, commuting, hire help or sit in uncomfortable (which can translate as painful for some disabled people) chairs in cold rooms with loud ventilation that prevented them from hearing, etc. We made this convention because of COVID, but it will be something we will continue to have for sure, just because so many people were thankful for the accessibility. And we are having our next edition of it this October, in partnership with SF Canada!

Derek: That is incredibly exciting. In addition to all of the horrors caused by COVID, it seems to have opened up some new opportunities for re-thinking things.

Nathan: Yes! I hope future events might take the opportunity to do hybrid events which are partly online partly not in the future

Derek: How do you see COVID changing small presses in Canada?

Nathan: There have definitely been challenges, that’s for sure. But one thing that’s been easier is organizing things with authors who live really far. We have an author in Vancouver, for example, and organizing launches was going to be difficult because we were looking at long travel times, but now with online events it makes everything smoother and easier to organize. I think it’s going to make us closer as a community of authors and presses.

Derek: That is fantastic!! I love the way that these new changes are bringing people together in unique and exciting ways!

Where do you see Renaissance Press going from here? What are some of the next steps for the press?

Nathan: We have our next big event in October, and after that, we will be having more online events twice a year. We have wonderful, amazing books that are coming out later this year which I’m very excited about, and in fact, our publishing calendar is full all the way to 2022, so we have lots of exciting things coming!

Derek: How about your own writing – are there any exciting new projects coming up?

Nathan: Well I have a book of queer fairy tale retellings coming out soon with an fellow author. We’re illustrating the book, and it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous. Other than that, I’ve been working on a graphic memoir of my transition and my relationship with my partner.

Derek: Your memoir sounds fascinating!! Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Nathan: Absolutely! So it talks about all the times in my life where I thought I might be transgender, starting from when I was five years old. It’s told in small vignettes, and it incorporates all of my 16-year relationship with my partner, since her own transition was hugely impactful on my transition.

Derek: That is incredibly powerful!! I look forward to reading it.

As we wrap up our interview, is there anything further you would like to mention or anything I missed talking about with you?

Nathan: I think that’s all I wanted to say!

Derek: Thank you Nathan. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and share your insights.

 

Nathan Caro Fréchette is a queer transgender sequential artist, publisher, and author. He has published over a dozen short stories, both graphic and prose, as well as five novels, three graphic novels, and two works of nonfiction. He has taught creative writing over a decade, and has a degree in Film Studies and another in Sequential Art. He was the founder and director of the French Canadian literary magazine Histoires à Boire Debout, an editor for the French Canadian graphic novel publisher Premières Lignes, and is a co-founder of the Ottawa-based publisher Renaissance.

 

Derek Newman-Stille, MA, PhD ABD (They/Them) is a Disabled, Queer, Nonbinary activist, author, artist, academic, and editor. They edited the anthologies Over the Rainbow: Folk and Fairy Tales from the Margins (Exile) and We Shall Be Monsters (Renaissance Press) and are the 8 time Prix Aurora Award-winning creator of the digital humanities hub Speculating Canada. Derek has published in fora such as Uncanny Magazine, The Playground of Lost Toys, Quill & Quire, Fireside Magazine, Diamond Book Shelf, The Town Crier, Exile Quarterly, and Nothing Without Us. Derek’s art work has been published in fora such as Feminist Space Camp, Lackington’s, Postscripts to Darkness, and Aging Activisms.