by

Mary Deal

A scene ends when the action ends or the conversation can add no more to that part of the story. Maybe one scene is in the grocery store; the next scene is outside on the docks. Usually when a huge shift in location happens, you begin a new chapter.

(Don’t try to write a sequel to “My Dinner with Andre” which happened totally in one scene at the dinner table. It’s been done and was successful because the actors were good.)

When you end a scene, leave the reader wondering what could happen next and wanting to read further. It’s called a cliff hanger. Leave something unfinished, like a threat of action yet to happen and we can see one character gearing up to do some dirty work. The reader wonders what could possible happen next? And so they keep turning pages.

Or maybe it’s a romance and you end the scene with two people simply staring into each others’ eyes wondering if they could work as a couple.

When you move to the next scene, jump into the middle of it. Use very little narration to set the scene. Best is to knit the action, narration and dialogue together.

Depending on how you present your story, you do not need to have each new scene be a result of another. In other words, that cute couple I just mentioned are staring into each other’s eyes. You wouldn’t and shouldn’t start you next chapter with them in a new location, still cuddling up to get to know each other. Once you introduce that they are mutually attracted, the next scene (the whole story middle) should have action that pulls them apart. Every couple has baggage to air before they become a couple. Regardless what background or location you place them in, the action must be lively.

Keep the idea of a cliff hanger in mind when you finish your chapters.

Cliff hanger = An exciting hint of things to come; something to make the reader want to know more.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

by

Mary Deal

Want to wake in the morning with more creativity? Then pay attention to what’s on your mind when you fall asleep.

Research has proven that the mind uses its most recent daytime images and thoughts to create dreams. So, too, the mind produces the mood with which you wake after sleeping.

No matter what story you work on, do not think about it as you fall asleep. Instead, before going to bed, do something to put you in a relaxed state. Play some soothing music, preferably without vocals, which can plant new thoughts. Yoga, maybe? Or walking? If you’re one of those people who fall into bed exhausted, then concentrate only on your breathing. Then trust your mind to work on what’s necessary since you’ve put it at ease.

The state you wish to create for your mind is one that you have not directed. The mind knows what’s necessary, better than you know what’s important. Get into the habit of allowing your mind to work for you.

You’ve heard the saying, “I’ll sleep on it.” Then the person goes about doing something else. In the morning, the answer comes. It’s the same principle. Trust your mind. Your writing and creativity will be better for it.

Please visit Mary Deal’s website for more wonderful articles like this one: Write Any Genre.

Her book, The Writer’s Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages, covers the full creative writing process from which she draws lessons for her classes. The Writer’s Compass teaches the writer how to develop and focus their ideas, the use of a story map, and building the story through 7 productive development stages. Published by Writer’s Digest Books, the book was released in June 2011.

Dodd has received numerous awards for her writing, which includes screenplays, plays, short stories, short films, and novel-length works, as well as inspirational writing. Some of her short stories have been read on public radio. She also studied writing with several successful, award-winning writers: Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Paul Zindel; playwrights Velina Hasu-Houston, Oliver Mayer, David Milton, and Lee Wochner; screen and television writer Sy Gomberg; and international poet James Ragan.

Currently on faculty at the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University, Dodd serves as academic editor of the Graziadio Business Review, an online peer-reviewed business practitioner’s journal with over 500,000 page visits per year, 35% of those international. She also produces and edits video and audio interviews for the journal. Dodd’s journalistic career includes publishing more than 130 articles in local and national publications including interviews with celebrities and business leaders.

Well, that’s a pretty impressive background! It’s obvious that writing has been a major part of your life.

NED: For more than 25 years I’ve studied writing in all forms. This led me to having several articles and some short stories published, then to two master’s degrees in writing. From there I’ve had some of my work produced and received several awards and acknowledgements for my writing. It also led me to two stints as editor of two magazines and now academic editor of a peer-reviewed journal as a faculty member at Pepperdine University. Plus I teach screenwriting to undergraduates and graduate students there. I write in all forms: fiction and nonfiction; novels, screenplays, plays, short stories, and some inspirational prose. Most recently I’ve written The Writer’s Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages, about the creative writing process for developing stories based on what I’ve learned from thousands of hours of lectures, books, seminars, and two graduate degrees. The book teaches how to use a story map as a tool for developing your story and how to write your story more efficiently in seven stages.

MA: You have such a variety of writing experiences. Tell us, from your perspective,  what is the difference between writing a novel and other forms of writing?

NED: People often ask me what my favorite form of writing is. I think it is always whatever form I’m writing in. That being said, there is something special about the novel. You can really evolve and develop the characters and the setting and the emotions in a novel. You can write it however you want. It can be formulaic or completely different from anything else out there. You can write sequels to infinity, or confine the story to a couple hundred pages. A novel gives you an intimate look at the story and characters in a way no other form can quite match. Other forms of writing have more rigid requirements for how the story is written on the page and different challenges and are much more restricted.

MA: How do you see character development, and do you address it in your books about writing?

NED: I’ve heard it said that most of our writing is a reflection of the people we know, of our selves, and also from our own experiences. Characters are often compilations of characteristics that we find interesting from what we’ve seen in others, or read, or watched on television. Unfortunately, if you draw your characters too much from fictional sources, as opposed to real people, your characters are flatter and more two-dimensional. In The Writer’s Compass there is a large section on characterization to help you draw out a fully rounded character that feels real—like someone your readers could know.

MA: What is your advice to writers about how to approach developing their protagonists?

NED: The development of the protagonist is something that takes time. We start with a glimmer of who the character is, but to write the truth about how he or she would behave takes knowing your character better than you know anyone else, perhaps even yourself. To write a gripping character you have to know what motivates her or him, what would destroy the character, what would force the character to take action, and what the character would do when their back is to the wall. When you know your character that well, and you have developed that character in your writing, you can take the story to the next level and surprise your reader with what your character does next, instead of the expected, and make it believable.

MA: How important is it t have strengths and weaknesses when developing characters for a novel?

NED: The strengths and weaknesses you give your character are critical to making your story believable. I recently read a book, published by a major publishing house, in which the author kept telling me that the protagonist was this disciplined martial arts expert and showed me the character spending time every day practicing with a sword in the back yard and freaking out the neighbors. However, the character did not act or react with the discipline that someone this focused on martial arts would have. His daily routine was to get drunk and eat poorly. He couldn’t stay focused on the task of finding his kidnapped girlfriend and his decision-making process was very faulty. The character and the book were totally unbelievable because the author told me who this character was supposed to be, but the entire novel showed me that the character’s behavior did not match who the author wanted me to believe the character was.

A hero should have weaknesses or a vulnerability, even Superman was allergic to kryptonite, but those weaknesses should be organic and make sense in the context of who the character is supposed to be. And the hero’s strength or weakness can be the opposite to what the reader anticipates or even the unexpected, as long as the writer gives the character a strong reason for having that flaw or that strength. If the reader doesn’t buy what you are saying, then neither your hero nor your story will have credibility. Which, of course, takes us back to knowing your character well.

MA: Great insight! You must have something to say about developing an antagonist.

NED: Creating an antagonist or a nemesis for a story is an interesting process. Often my students will say they don’t have one, and it’s true, some stories don’t need a particular “bad guy.” However, having a specific nemesis usually brings more tension to the story and creates obstacles for the hero to overcome or fight against, creating the action in the story. It may not be a person. It could be natural forces such as a hurricane or being lost in the heat of a desert. It could be an animal like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park or a bear in the Alaskan wilderness. It could be the protagonist is her or his own enemy, fighting addictions or emotions or a change in their life. It can be an organization that is trying to destroy the protagonist or that the hero is trying to stop from doing something bad. The antagonist could also be a good person trying to keep the protagonist from making a “mistake” or wrong decision in their life, even if it turns out not to be one. When you turn a vague problem into an actual thinking (or appears to have the power to think) enemy, you will find more ideas for building your story.

MA: What about using real-life experiences in the plot?

NED: Writers often have interesting stories to tell or to interpret through fiction, but it can be very difficult to have the perspective needed to tell the story, without the passage of time and the benefit of knowing the outcome down the road. I think it is very difficult not to incorporate some facet of our real lives and experiences into everything we write, even if we fictionalize them. Which can be a way of working through the incident or changing the outcome.

My students sometimes want to write about real events that happened to them or their family. I try to discourage them from doing so. The problem is that in one semester they only have time to scratch the surface of what can be a very traumatic experience for them. I don’t want my class to end and one of my students to be in the middle of an emotional crisis. In some cases I tell them that I will only allow them to write that story if they agree to get some counseling while they are doing so.

MA: What are you planning for your next writing project?

NED: Currently, we are in pre-production for one of my screenplays. I’m also working on a final rewrite of one of my plays and of a novel I’ve been working on for some time. I’m also putting together a collection of short stories. There is no shortage of projects, it is time I find difficult to come by.

MA: Any final thoughts or advice for my readers?

NED: This is an amazing time for writers. There are so many ways to get your stories out there. Cut yourself some slack. If you read successful authors’ work consecutively from their first published piece to their most recent, you will see development and growth in their writing. Unless you are a genius at writing, you will have to go through that same process of development—writing, learning, writing, learning. Don’t be like I’ve been in the past and always have one more draft that keeps you from putting your work out for public consumption. On the other hand, don’t put your work out before it is the best you can make it; and had a good edit.

You can find more writing tips at http://thewriterscompass.com and visit my website: http://nancyellendodd.com

MA: Thanks, Nancy! I appreciate the time you took to be my guest today, and I know my readers will enjoy reading your advice and insights.

Talk Uppity

by Mary Deal

Someone once asked, “I was told to write how I speak in order to make my stories conversational. So why can’t I get them published?”

I took a look at that woman’s writing style and it instantly triggered a memory of my own experience.

The language with which we’re most comfortable doesn’t always produce the best writing style.

I grew up among middle-class everyday folk. Language was one thing that separated groups of people as I had come to know them. When I was young, every once in a while I’d hear someone say, “Oh my! She talks so uppity!”

Hearing such remarks from people that I liked made me wonder what uppity might mean. What I heard when those others spoke was language that seemed too proper, maybe too perfect.

As children, my siblings and I used to imitate at play. We’d throw our hands on our hips and accuse one another, saying, “Oh my! You talk uppity!”

I decided that I didn’t want someone saying anything like that about me. I didn’t want my friends and family to think I put on airs. I continued using the language I grew up with, until I began to write.

Then, every time I looked, my thesaurus kicked out words and phrases that, when spoken, sounded like speech I had heard long ago. Uppity speech. Yet, it all sounded so good when I used those terms and phrases in my stories. I started getting published more. I graduated to using a Chicago Manual of Style. My former language nuances enhance my writing style, but now what I say is more grammatically correct.

What I realized was that the language errors in the ways of my common-folk upbringing kept me using simple language and colloquialisms in my writing. The proper language I had heard from others and shied away from was just that: Proper.

So in order for me to write stories to the best of my ability, I had to learn to write and speak uppity. And guess what. Doing so improved my stories beyond anything that I could beforehand have imagined. And all it really was, and had been all along, was correct grammar usage. So go ahead. Talk uppity.

GM: I served in the Air Force for 24 years, 22 of those in various Security Force assignments in Europe and the Balkans, which gave me a great background for writing my first novels.  I also hold advance degrees in History and International Relations specializing in the Balkans where my novels take place. Knowing the history of a region is a plus when trying to write a war and political thriller. I have also held teaching positions at the university level.  I currently teach part time for a junior college. I also work as an Information Security Officer for a major financial institution. I presently reside in Florida with my wife and two sons.

MA: With that background, I can understand why you would want to write political/military thrillers. I imagine you must also enjoy reading that genre.

GM: I always enjoyed reading historical and action adventure war novels so I finally decided to try my hand at it.

MA: Excellent. So tell us about your novels.

GM: My debut novel is a military action adventure war thriller called Operation Medina: Jihad. My second novel is Operation Medina: Crusade which is the grand finale to the Jihad. Both go hand in hand. Both are about an attack against a US ally and terrorist attacks against US forces.

MA: How did you develop your main characters, your protagonist?

GM: I had a basic idea of what I wanted the protagonist to be when I started the story. As the story developed he developed and matured around it. Because my book encompasses a war on several fronts involving several nations there are a couple of characters that could be called heroes. But my main hero, Colonel Jack Logan, is a professional and combat skilled pilot. His strengths are that he is very sure of himself and good at what he does. His weakness would be under estimating the enemy, which causes him to get shot down, and falling in love with one of his pilots/subordinates which will play a major part at the end of the story.

MA: Terrorists, huh? So is there one main bad guy?

GM: Yes there is. General Muhammid Kemal, the dictator of Turkey, who wants to replicate the old Ottoman empire at his neighbor’s expense.

MA: With your background in the USAF, and your education in International Relations, did your real-life career or experiences influence your fiction writing?

GM: Yes my military career did and through my experience I am trying to convey military life and operations as accurately as possible. The characters in my novels are original, but I have pulled from my life experiences with the many people I encountered and some characters may be a slight medley from the people I shared experiences and worked with.

My career as a Law Enforcement and Force protection professional did play a role as it provided me with the knowledge and insight to write my story and accurately portray the role that a security Force Shift Commander and an airbase ground defense team could take in time of war.

MA: Will there be a follow-on story to the Medina series, or will you write something new, different?

GM: I am presently working on an adventure novel that takes place during WW II starting with the Nazi invasion of the island of Crete in 1941. I am developing a whole new set of characters. It is possible that a couple of my current day character’s grand dads may be in it since they did fight and meet in Greece during WW II as allied agents.

MA: Thanks, George. My very best to you for a successful writing career. My readers can learn more about George Mavro by visiting: https://sites.google.com/site/operationmedina/home

Repetition Offends Your Reader

by Mary Deal

When descriptive words are used repetitively in writing, it makes the reader wonder why they have to be told something they’ve already learned earlier in the story. Repetition can kill your reader’s interest.

On Page 2 of my new novel, River Bones, the reader learns that Sara, the protagonist, is blonde when the real estate salesman describes her to someone else:

“Some middle-aged blonde woman—a real looker out of Puerto Rico—just bought that damnable eyesore down along the river.”

On Page 9 I say,

“The breeze whipped her hair across her face and wrapped it around her neck.”

I had originally written that sentence like this:

“The breeze whipped her long blonde hair across her face and wrapped it around her neck.”

Because I mentioned Sara’s hair color on Page 2, no need exists to mention the color again anywhere else in the book, with rare exceptions, of course.

Notice, too, her hair length was not mentioned on Page 2, but on Page 9 if her hair is long enough to whip across her face and around her neck, no need exists for the word “long” to describe it. Surely from reading that one corrected sentence, a reader knows Sara’s hair is not cropped off at the nape of her neck.

The word “long” was not needed due to the description of how the hair reacted in the wind.

To further prove the point, read the sentence from Page 2 with the correct sentence from Page 9. Then go back and read the sentence from Page 2 with the incorrect sentence from Page 9.

Analyze your sentences for superfluous words. Cut ruthlessly, or improve the action in your sentence to show what you mean. Your readers will love you for it.

It sounds like writing is a major part of your life. Why novels?

BW: I have always written. I have written poetry and songs. Of course, I spent 42 years writing legal briefs, but that’s not supposed to be fiction — although sometimes, as you might imagine, the line gets blurred. Anyway, it’s a lot more honest to just admit you are writing fiction. The best part about novels though is you get to play God.

MA: Have you found inspiration for fiction from your personal life?

BW: Most of the novels I write draw on personal experiences. Even “The Flight of the Sorceress,” a historical novel set in the 5^th Century, A.D. draws on personal experiences I had when I studied at the University of Manchester and visited Bath and other Roman historical sites. But my 1970s Trilogy actually includes vignettes and events that are close to things that happened to me. I am into verisimilitude.

MA: So tell us what you’ve written!

BW: My debut novel, “Bring the War Home!” (2001) is about anti-war Marines at Camp Pendleton, either going to or returning from the Vietnam War. I was a civilian defense attorney at Pendleton in 1970 and 1971 and represented a lot of Marines who were having moral and political conflicts over the war. I made it into a novel to protect the privacy of the men, but the stories are very real. It received great reviews and was endorsed by Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

“Flight of the Sorceress” (Wild Child Publishing, 2010) took 8 years of research and writing. It is the story of resistance by two women (one fictitious, the other Hypatia of Alexandria) against misogynistic clerics of the newly-empowered Catholic Church to restrict their rights to be healers, teachers, librarians and philosophers. Their heroic struggles culminate in the cataclysm events of Lenten Week, 415 A.D. that ushered in the Dark Ages. Can anything be saved?

“Burning Questions,” Part One of my 1970s Trilogy tells a story about the corruption that changed a fishing town into a tourist destination.

MA: So who are your protagonists?

BW: In “Bring the War Home!” the protagonists are sort of fictionalized versions of myself, my wife, Bonnie and composites of the Marines I represented and befriended.

In “Sorceress,” Glenys was constructed from accounts of classical Celtic healers. Hypatia, being a real person, was kept as true to history as possible, given the fact that the Church destroyed all or her writings and all accounts of her are second-hand by men with agendas.

In “Burning Questions,” I got a lot of material from some case files about a teenage suicide I investigated, plus I lived at that time and in that place and “borrowed” characteristics from people I knew, not to mention myself.

MA: What are your heroes’ strengths and weaknesses?

BW: Let’s just deal with “Sorceress.” There is only one person who even approximates a “hero” so I will go to heroine and use Glenys of the Silures, a fictional Celtic healer. Glenys is strong, stubborn and determined. She wants to be an independent woman in the ancient Celtic tradition and will not compromise on the issue of her independence. If she has a weakness, it is that she is willing to use other people to accomplish her objectives, even though they may not approve of her goals. She has her fears and is vulnerable. Sometimes she is naïve. But she sees the consequences of surrender to be very dangerous, not just to her but to women who will follow in the years to come.

MA: And the antagonists?

BW: There are some particularly odious bad guys in my books. In particular, there is the fictitious Ignatus, an ambitious and unscrupulous bishop in “Sorceress.” He hunts Glenys across the Roman Empire, much in the way Inspector Javert hunts Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.  There is also Archbishop Cyril, a real person, who was sanctified, primarily because he successfully orchestrated the murder of Hypatia and the forced expulsion 70,000 Jews from Alexandria in 415 A.D.

MA: You mentioned being influenced during your time at Camp Pendleton to write one of your novels. Tell us more.

BW: I certainly couldn’t have written “Bring the War Home!” or the 1970s Trilogy otherwise. I could have probably done “Sorceress.” However, I have seen how poorly sheltered or inexperienced people fare when they attempt to create fiction in any form or genre. They just don’t know what facts or events will move people to do the things they do, so accounts of actions and behavior lack believability.

MA: What’s in store for your next writing project?

BW: I have two more novels to come in the 1970s Trilogy. Both are written and in a final draft form. I am in the process of submitting a contemporary novel that I don’t want to give away just yet. I also just finished an intermediate draft of a novel made up of five connected novellas that involves the influence upon the later lives of each of the five protagonists that derived from knowing a murder victim who was their neighbor. A lot of that one came from experiences I had growing up near Boston.

MA: So you will continue to feature the same protagonist in future stories? Will any other characters migrate over to future books?

BW: I don’t think I’m going to feature the same protagonists in future books. They may be peripheral characters, but none of them are going to be in the spotlight. I don’t want their egos inflated. Most of them already have narcissism problems and I am not going to be an enabler.

MA: (Laughing) Yes, those pesky protagonists think they own their own stories! What do you consider the most difficult aspect of being a writer?

BW: One of the things I think we all find hardest about this writing gig is the promo. (After all, that’s what we’re doing here, isn’t it?) There are so many books out there, and so many good ones, it is almost impossible to get your stuff noticed. I HATE promo. What I’d like to see is some Sci-Fi gizmo where you just feed your manuscript into a reader-thingy and it somehow comes out with a rating. Then Thingy spits the MS into a series of tubes like the internet, (Ha Ha) and shuffles them to a cyber-promotion specialist machine that electronically sends your stuff to all the people on the social network that say they might like to read or listen to the kind of stuff you write. It gets dropped on their computer doorstep like the milkman used to do, in the form and format they prefer. And if they like print, there is a low cost printer option on your computer that produces a bound, full-color cover copy in five minutes or fewer, depending on page count. And of course the author gets to keep a 90% royalty. My idea of heaven.

MA: (Smiling) Well then, on that note, I want to thank you for stopping by, Barry. For my readers, please visit Barry’s website for more information: www.agauchepress.com.

A False Sense of Value

by Mary Deal

When we writers select a topic on which to expound, chances are, we choose that topic because of its emotional impact on ourselves. We feel something strongly and want to let the world know our opinion. If we felt nothing, what’s to write?

Once the essay or story is finished and we’re feeling good about having gotten our brainstorm on paper, the next step is to decide if what we’ve written is important enough to send out to get published. Or have we simply committed a lot of weak personal opinion and gibberish to paper?

If we thought about the value of our topic before we wrote, we may write nothing. It’s the emotional value of a topic that rouses our muses; that makes us feel we have something to say.

With great certainty, a topic of little interest to the public, but which sparked something in us, will get rejected, unless we can turn the article or story into a spectacular piece of prose. If lackluster but you still think it shows promise, only after submission might such a piece connect with an editor who just might be able to fit it in or ask for a rewrite first. Editors must also feel your enthusiasm through your writing. If not, the many rounds of submissions aren’t worth it.

What a writer must do is to make certain the topic they choose has some value for the reading public, and fit a market. Just because we feel a lot of emotion for something doesn’t mean the reading public will feel the same.

Choosing a topic we feel emotionally charged about is a natural priority in selecting what to write. Just as important: We must ask ourselves if we’re the only person, or among the few, who feel that way. Emotions in writing are necessary, but they can also lead us astray. It’s quite possible to create a spectacular article or story out of a topic few care about. The quality of the writing will be what makes a dull topic come alive. It’s easier to choose a topic that’s both something we feel charged about and which the reading public would find of interest.

Emotions can give us a false sense of value, leading us to think because we’re excited about something others will be too. Unless we’re excited about a topic that has a specific market, our prose could end up on the endless wheel of multiple submissions and rejections. If that happens, the only way to save the piece is to rewrite again and again and make it exciting or exacting. Or simply put the piece aside until the muse provides a way to make it more desirable. Move on to another project.

Emotional Release

Through Character Conflicts

by Mary Deal

Writers must allow themselves to experience all the emotion they create as they write.

Sometimes the lyrics in certain songs get deeper into my psyche each time I hear them. The accompanying instrumentals can accentuate that too.

An example I like is Joy Enriquez’s vocal from the movie Anna and the King. Her squeaks and voice-breaks and near-crying tone at the right moment reach deep into my emotions and opens them up. When the song is over, I know I have heard words and music that have touched a deeper part of me and I feel immensely satisfied.

It is one thing to hear a pleasing melody, another to have the words of a song put you in touch with your emotions.

As an author of words, you should strive to go as deeply into your reader’s psyche, to dredge up emotions and perhaps rake them over fiction’s flame. If you can do this, ultimately you leave your reader with a sense of satisfaction at the story’s end.

In today’s world, it’s not enough to write a story for the sake of telling a plausible tale. As purveyors of emotional satisfaction through words, writers must appeal to the reader’s need for a sense of fulfillment. Like music, a good story is a good story. But music or a story that enables the reader to experience a gamut of emotions will be a better sell.

A simplified difference in story telling is that a good romance, perhaps, shows the reader the attraction between two people, their differences and how they overcome them. They end up together and, voila! The story ends upbeat in spite of it all.

In order to make that story linger in the memory of the reader—which will make them yearn for your next book—your characters must not only have differences but they might be irreconcilable. Certainly two people in love and having those kinds of problems ache inside. You as the writer must ache with them. You must write that story so that you feel all the pain. If you do not feel the pain, you have not presented a plausible enough reason to keep these two people apart. More importantly, you probably haven’t written convincingly enough for your reader if you cannot convince yourself.

If you can write so that you ache for your characters, then can come up with a solution that alleviates your own pain, your reader will feel that same duress and subsequent relief for your characters. You will have raked the reader’s emotions over fiction’s fire, presented a viable solution, and enticed your reader to remember your byline.

Notice that I said “viable solution.” Your ending doesn’t have to be the perfect solution, only an acceptable one. Perhaps, it is some situation that both people must learn to live with if they are to be together. They swallow their pride; they compromise something of great importance to themselves and they hurt because of it—all so that they might remain together. Or perhaps the story ends with them going separate ways and that might be the proper ending. But they still hurt inside. Didn’t your heart ache when you heard Rick (Humphrey Bogart) utter those famous words to Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) in Casablanca before he walked away: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

When creating conflicts, check in with yourself and see how your heart aches for your characters. If you recognize that as something you feel as you conjure your plots, you will convey it to your reader who will absorb it and yearn for it as they gobble up your books.

JR: Raising my daughter with Down syndrome has made me uniquely qualified to write this book, and I have witnessed the effects of Alzheimer’s on a family member. As for the espionage-related topics in A Spy At Home, I prefer not to disclose the source of my knowledge.

My daughter, wife, and I live in Tennessee. I look forward to releasing another ebook in the near future, as I have written seven others that deal with a variety of characters.

Thank you again for taking the time to help me promote my book and myself on your blog. I have always felt the writing community is a very generous and altruistic one, and bloggers like you have proven me correct.

MA: It’s my pleasure to have you here today. Tell us how you came to write.

JR: The actual impetus for me to begin writing came while I was reading Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. When I got to the part where he received a million-dollar advance, I thought, “Holy cow! He’s a good writer, but I know I can do this, too.” I’ve been writing since that day in 2004.

Eight years prior to reading about the million dollar advance I had only considered writing once in my life. Living alone, I hand wrote a page that I later read to my girlfriend, who is now my wife. She said the characters didn’t really tell the story, and that she heard me reciting rather than the voice of the main character. I wadded up the sheet of paper and threw it away. I never forgot what she said and believe I have corrected those mistakes in A Spy At Home.

Now, by day I work as Credit and Financial Manager for a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning distributor. When I first started writing, I thought being a numbers guy would make me an oddity as an author. That’s proved to be wrong. The more people I meet in this industry, the more I run across accountants and CFOs. Apparently, creativity infects a variety of people. Of course, I have the same dream as other writers. I hope my book sells a million copies and becomes a smash hit movie. Selling ebooks isn’t the get-rich-quick scheme I thought it was before being published. It’s been a lot of work.

MA: That’s something many people who begin writing don’t realize at first. Getting published is a business venture, and while craft is important, so is a healthy understanding of the work that goes into marketing and advertising, for example.

In your story, did you frame any characters on real life people whom you’ve known?

JR: A Spy At Home recounts the life of a CIA operative which means I cannot answer any questions about a career as a spy that I may or may not have had. Generally, I think of the characters in my books as being completely separate people. The characters don’t interact with me, let alone stem from me. At least that’s how it is in my mind. None of my characters are “based on” a person I know. They are combinations of traits from many people, and some imaginary traits are thrown in to keep my friends from recognizing themselves. Just kidding, the characters live in my head, and I write down what they say and do. Hopefully this doesn’t sound too bizarre.

MA: Tell us about the story. Is it a mystery or a thriller or something else?

JR: The genre of my books is very hard to pin down. My wife and I have searched numerous times for standardized publishing industry definitions with no success. As silly as that may sound, especially for a person who wants to deal in words as a career, genres are hard to define. A Spy At Home could be considered contemporary fiction, mainstream (this sounds like a synonym for dull), thriller, suspense (what’s the difference between thriller and suspense? Shouldn’t you be thrilled reading a suspense novel, and shouldn’t you wonder what will happen next in thriller?), drama (any book without intense turmoil probably won’t be worth reading), or adventure (my main character travels to another continent; that’s adventurous, right?). I honestly don’t know where my books fall in the narrow definitions of the publishing world; I do know I have tried to make the characters interesting and multi-faceted, moving through difficulties in their lives. A Spy At Home is my debut published novel.

MA: Fair enough. Tell us, then, about your main character. I assume you crafted him/her by design before you began writing?

JR: I didn’t. That probably sounds absurd, but I don’t intentionally mold a protagonist. The characters live their lives in my head, and I write it down. During the editing process, I might smooth a rough edge, but I try not to do that very much. I mean, for example, instead of having the protagonist cuss out his girlfriend, he simply yells at her. However, I keep his anger, frustration, or whatever in full view of the reader.

Some books I’ve read develop a character like a precise mathematical equation. The character may say, “I hate the Rolling Stones. They’re like nails on a chalkboard.” The reader now knows that he or she will be trapped into listening to Brown Sugar and Satisfaction at some point. To me this detracts from the story because the character becomes too formulaic.

MA: So who is he? What are his attributes?

JR: Garrison in A Spy At Home loves his wife and son with every fiber of his being. That’s his greatest strength. This keeps him going through several ordeals. His biggest downfall is failing to accept life as it comes. As a spy he manipulated people and events to better America’s position in African countries. As a civilian he struggles and often fails to accept life’s messy obstacles. Without revealing too much, Garrison steals a little under ten million dollars before retiring. A stronger person would have taken his pension and left the spy life behind.

MA: And the “bad guy?”

JR: That’s a tough question to answer.  A Spy At Home doesn’t have a traditional villain. The reader decides for themselves who’s evil and heroic. Some might find the protagonist, Garrison, deceitful. Others might see the U.S. government as cruel. Garrison worries a great deal about his own death and what will happen to his mentally retarded son after it. This overwhelming worry could be considered the book’s villain. The “bad guy” is in the eye of the beholder.

MA: I know you have a personal connection to your hero’s life and his family circumstances. Talk about that.

JR: Like Garrison, I have a child with Down syndrome. People with Down are living much longer than ever before, which means my daughter might outlive my wife and me. Who would take care of her as well as we do? This question haunts every parent with a dependent child. My wife wrote a short story based on this concern. I blatantly stole her idea and added a spy, stolen millions, a beach house on a Caribbean island…

MA: That’s really interesting! So what comes after A Spy At Home?

JR: Another book, Hazardous Choices, has been professionally edited and will be released in the near future.  We’re waiting to release it until we’ve promoted A Spy At Home as fully as we can. I have seven more books waiting to be professionally edited and released. As we save the money for more editing, we’ll get the others done, too. At present I have three books floating around in my head but can’t find the time to write them. Hopefully, A Spy At Home will be made into a movie, and I’ll have Garrison’s boat where I can write all day long!

MA: Do you have a sequel planned?

JR: I can’t think of anything more boring than writing a sequel. Mr. Potter has proven what a great success they can be, but following the same characters from one book to the next doesn’t interest me. Once the book is finished, the characters are done with me.

MA: What are your thoughts on historical research when writing novels?

JR: I was at a writer’s conference, and a woman was telling me about her historical novel. She found the menu for the heads of states dinner that actually happened, and she was using it in her novel. While she said this, I kept thinking, ‘That has got to be the most uninteresting book ever if you’re telling the reader what they had to eat.’ Research can be good and bad. Research can make the book come alive and seem real. It can also come across as if the writer is bragging about all he/she knows. If your reader wanted to read a textbook, she/he would’ve bought one. For writing novels the most important thing is being believable, not scientifically accurate.

MA: Thanks, Joseph. Folks – please visit Joseph Rinaldo’s website: www.josephmrinaldo.com, and his blog: http://wwwjosephmrinaldocom.blogspot.com.