Gome World

Tips on writing in the Gomeworld Universe

I am working with several middle school and high school classes to help them to create their own fiction.  For some we are going to try to create several short stories involving existing or brand new characters (gomes, humans, or otherwise) and put them together as an anthology.  The most successful of these projects will be published by Orchard House Press so that these budding young authors can get to see their own fantasy fiction appear in print.  Here are a few tips that I give to anyone wanting to try to write good fiction:

Characters: 

Make your characters memorable and authentic.  A good way to do this is to ask yourself a lot of questions about the character and force yourself to answer them so that you have an in-depth understanding of what they are really like.  Here are some suggestions:  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/07/detailed-charac.html

Don't have too many characters in any scene or your readers will get lost.

Give the main "good guy/good gal" character (the protagonist) some vulnerability.  Someone who is rich, beautiful, handsome, smart, athletic, thoughtul, and flawless is boring and hard to get your readers to relate to.

Plot line:

Have some conflict develop (an unpleasant surprise for the protagonist, for example) and resolve it in a surprising and satisfying way.

Start with a "bang."  I describe this in more detail here http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/11/creating-a-memorable-opening-scene.html

Have a "boffo" finish.  I have no idea what "boffo" actually means but a great literary agent who used to work with me used that phrase.  She said that if you are writing "commercial fiction" (stories that you want lots of people to buy and read) then no matter how exciting or compelling the story has been for the first three quarters of the book the finish has to be even more exciting and amazing so that your readers are left breathless by the end and eager to find more of your stories to read!

Key elements/golden rules:

Write about something you know.  That way the details will be more authentic and believable.

Describe scenes in all five senses.  I give a few examples here http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/07/describing-scen.html

Don't throw in irrelevant details, or have too many side trips and detours.  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2007/06/side_trips_and_.html

Other considerations:

If you include any of the existing characters from the Gomeworld Universe try to make their behavior and conversation be in line with what your readers have already encountered.

If you create a new gome character follow the rules of the Gomeworld Universe (which I detail in the various Gomeworld Universe Sourcebooks)  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2009/01/gomeworld-sourcebooks.html

If you are writing as a group (like a class project, for example) consider writing around a similar theme (The worst school trip ever, the Science class that went wrong, A summer vacation to remember, etc.).  That way your anthology of stories will seem more professional and well thought out.

Have FUN writing.  Although some aspects of creative writing are hard work (editing, checking for spelling and grammar mistakes, re-reading your first draft, reading it out loud to friends, re-writing to make it more clear, getting rid of unnecessary words, editing it again...) the whole point is to create something that a stranger will enjoy reading.  If you get excited about your story it increases the chances that your readers will get exctied about it, too!

Creating A Memorable Opening Scene

If you are writing an adventure or mystery story you want to try to "grab" your readers in the opening chapter.  Even better if you can "grab" them in the opening paragraph, or even the opening sentence or two.  Here is how i started The Rusty Pelican.  You can decide if you think it "grabs" you:

The boy sitting at his desk was unaware that he was being watched.  but two angry eyes were fixed on him, burning like red hot coals in the damp night air.  The dark watcher was growing impatient.

When I talked to several hundred young readers in Bend, Oregon, about the story several of them commented that they found the first chapter exciting, but also confusing.  We are not told who "The Dark Watcher" is, or what he and the whining Dutchman are waiting for.  We do not know who the eccentric gentleman is who arrives and bounces out of the taxi to disappear into the house of the boy who is sitting by his bedroom window.  While the dark watcher and the Dutchman are waiting some strange events happen.  A dog walks past and lifts its leg to urinate on the car.  The dog's owner does twenty push-ups on the damp sidewalk before disappearing into his own house, next door to where the boy lives.  In three short pages the firsts chapter comes to an end and we are left confused... and I hope intrigued.  In a good mystery adventure story you don't want to be told everything all at once.  I want my readers to have to try to figure out what might be going on and to pick up clues along the way.  

 

One of my younger readers was troubled by the image of "The Dark Watcher" and drew a picture to try to imagine what he/she/it might be like.

Several other students were shocked and amused by the image of the dog urinating on the car.  I have received several pictures about that part of the story!

   

 

Some of the students have tried to draw the whole opening scene as a kind of wild collage of all the images that are going on.  The results are certainly memorable:

   

So if you are wanting to write a story that draws your readers in right away try to write a memorable opening chapter that "grabs" the attention of your readers right away and gets them hooked and eager to read on...

Detailed Character Descriptions

When you invent a new character in your story I am sure you have an idea of what he/she/it is like.  Maybe you have a very vivid idea.  but maybe you don't.  Here is a good technique to help bring your character to life.  Make yourself answer all of these questions about your new character.  Even if some of them don't make sense for your character and even if you think some of these details don't matter for what you character will be doing in your story I have found that it really helps to make myself fill out everything.  By the time you are done you have really made yourself look deep inside your new character.  You will find that you really know what he/she/it would do in a certain situation.  You know how they would think, act, or talk.  You will find that it really brings your characters to life.  Here is the list that I use:

Age, place of birth, residence, occupation, physical appearance, dress, strengths, weaknesses, obsessions, ambitions, work habits, hobbies, illnesses, family, friends, pets, politics, tics (or strange mannerisms), food preferences, drugs, favorite drinks, favorite books, favorite movies, favorite music, desires, fears, most traumatic event in the past, most wonderful experience in the past, major struggle (past or present)

By the time you have answered all of those questions about your main characters you will find that they begin to take on a life of their own in your story.  You will simply know what they would say or do in a particular situation.  This will make them come to life and seem much more authentic to your readers.

Describing scenes in all five senses

Here's a great piece of advice that I got from reading some books and articles on how to write fiction that really grabs your readers.  When you describe a scene think about all five of your human senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight).  Imagine the scene and make a list of as many things as you can think of in each of those categories.  Then, when you start to describe it try to include one or two of the best ideas in each sense.  It can be hard, of course.  When your main character walks into a room it may be hard to think of what the room tastes like!  but if you force yourself to go through the exercise you will bring a much more vivid description to your readers.  Let me share two examples from my Wullie stories.  In The Rusty Pelican when Finn and Hadley climb down into the scary lower level of the huge barge that is moored out in Elliott Bay I describe it like this:

Slowly and quietly they descended below the upper deck of the barge. The trapdoor in the wheelhouse felt exactly like what its name said - the door to a trap. Wisps of thick black smoke followed them back down through the hole in the floor. The smoke gave off a suffocating, choking smell that caught at the back of Finn’s throat. It was so dark below him that he couldn’t see what lay ahead. Each step seemed to be pulling them farther into a dangerous unknown. Finn wanted to turn back but Hadley was coming down behind him so he kept going until his feet hit the floor below. It was damp, musty, and warm. The air felt stale and bitter, thick with coal dust that made Finn’s eyes water. It left a gritty, salty taste in his mouth. He felt surrounded by evil. With Hadley by his side Finn peered out into the gloom listening intently as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. The huge boat creaked and moaned as it moved gently on the swell of the waves. He could hear metallic clanking. It sounded hollow and eerie. Drips fell nearby, landing with a sharp splash that echoed off distant unseen walls. The low rumble of voices came far ahead of them in the murkiness.

Does that give you a sense of what it would be like to be in that awful place?  Here is a totally different scene.  In The Scourge of Catalonia, part one of The Twilight Cave trilogy Finn and Hadley travel to Spain.  Hadley describes stepping off the bus into the courtyard of a magnificent mansion in the middle of a blistering hot summer's day.  I describe it like this:

Hadley kept her eyes closed as she stepped off the minibus so that she could appreciate the Catalonian Mountains with all her senses.  A wave of thick, dry heat brushed her cheeks, burning like sandpaper.  The babbling conversations, in a strange tongue, mingled with unfamiliar bird cries, the hollow clopping of horseshoes, and somewhere off to her right, the frivolous laughter of water falling.  She caught a whiff of horses along with burnt grass and fresh lavender.  Hadley opened her mouth to see if she could taste the warm Spanish air.  She opened her eyes and gasped in amazement.  Nothing had prepared her for what she saw.  On the journey from Barcelona airport in the minibus Finn's dad had explained that Signor Mendoza owned the Segovia Estates, famous for their vineyards, olive groves, and lavender fields.  These covered the hillside for miles along the coast in this part of Spain, he said.  The main house, stables and gardens stood on top of a hill.  The grounds were surrounded by high walls, laid out in the shape of a long cross pointing north.  As the bus had chugged up the mountainside, grinding its gears and complaining at every sharp turn, they had weaved back and forth along dozens of switchbacks climbing through the vineyards and olive groves.  These were laid out in neat rows across the undulating slopes as far as the eye could see.  The road was narrow, with thick green hedges lining each side.  The bus driver had honked his horn and waved his fist at children working in the fields who ran to catch a glimpse of the visitors.  Hadley smiled.  The varieties of bushes were very different from the ones she and Finn had seen in Scotland last summer.  There were no wet miserable blackberries, nettles, and beech hedges shivering below gray-black rain clouds here.  Instead exotic succulent shrubs rushed past the windows of the bus with multicolored birds sitting confidently on the cactus spikes.

Side Trips and Detours

If you are on vacation, have plenty of time, and know where you want to get eventually, it is really fun to take side trips and add in extra things to amuse yourself along the way.  You may choose to take a slower side road to explore interesting new places.  The same is true for storytellers.  If you know how your story will end, and you don't care how long it takes to get there, you can amuse yourself by inventing several twists and turns, new complexities and characters, as you meander along.  But what about your passengers?  What about the readers that you want to bring along on your journey?  If they get bored or lost and disinterested they may decide to get off the bus when you slow down in some particularly tedious, self-indulgent hairpin bend.  If you end up at your destination with an empty bus you may feel lonely and dissatisfied.

When I read a story I enjoy interesting side trips, so long as they add to my understanding of one of the characters, or increase the tension and complexity of the plot in surprising ways.  I don't like them to be too long, complicated, and slow.  That might be fine for a travelogue - a book where the whole point is "the journey itself" and how it changes the person or persons wandering through the new places.  But if you want to write an adventure story your readers will want to feel that the tension keeps building, the pace keeps quickening, and that a scary, exhilarating climax is just round the next bend... like being on a roller coaster with the biggest scariest drop left for the last few seconds of the ride.

So be careful as you indulge yourself in side trips.  They can add wonderful spice to your journey if you choose them well.  But if you get distracted and wander away from the main highway too long you may not only lose your own way, you may lose the interest of your readers as well.

Getting Started

As I mentioned in "The germ of an Idea" http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2007/04/the_germ_of_an_.html the idea of a rock creature (or gome) that could wreak havoc and mischief on humans, but then turn back instantly into a lifeless rock, at will, had been sitting in my subconscious for several decades before I had the courage to say to myself, "Well, what if creatures like that really did exist?  How cool would that be?  What would they be like?  What would they eat?  What would they care about?"  I let my imagination wander and wrote it all down.

To make things interesting I went back to my list of things that I like when I read a story (see Ambitious "Sausage Making" http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2007/05/ambitious_sausa.html ).  I needed to create situations where my gomes could surprise and delight and flourish.  I asked myself a lot of "What if?" questions.  I dreamed up an outline of roughly what would happen in my story, how it might rise to a climax and then be resolved.  I set it down, left it alone, came back to it, scored stuff out, added new twists, put it down again, went for a walk, slept on it...  By the time it was looking even vaguely interesting it was still only about two pages long; two pages of vague ideas and characters.  How could I turn that into something interesting?

I decided to re-read some of my favorite stories and see how they started.  Most of them "grabbed me" from the first page with a scene that was vividly described, and had tension, mystery, and atmosphere.  Maybe I could try that.  Even if I couldn't write a whole novel, maybe I could write an intriguing first chapter.  That seemed less intimidating.  Could I write a few pages that created tension, atmosphere, mystery, humor... maybe even all of those things?  I'd give that a go.  You can see if you think I succeeded by listening to the first chapter of The Rusty Pelican.

Ambitious "Sausage Making"

I hesitate to write anything about the process of writing.  I am no great expert.  You will find many more erudite texts on every detail of how to become an accomplished writer.  Even if you enjoy reading my stories you may not have the slightest interest in hearing how I go about it.  After all, there are many people who like eating sausages, but would enjoy them a lot less if they knew how the sausages were made.  My main reason for writing this section of the blog is to encourage you to try writing for yourself.  If you have no interest in this, don't read on.

I have had no formal training in writing, at least not since I was in high school back in Scotland in the 1960s.  I have not taken any creative writing classes and do not belong to a writer's group.  I have always loved hearing people telling stories from their own life, and telling some from my own.  I read a lot; fiction, non-fiction, murder mysteries, fantasy, science fiction.  A few years ago I was stuck in Chicago's O'Hare airport for several hours with nothing to do. I browsed the bookstore's "Best Sellers" list and found that many of the books on display didn't appeal to me.  Many of them didn't seem very original or well-written.  Some of them seemed complacent, arrogant, and dumb.  I made the fateful mistake of muttering to myself, in exasperation, "I could write a better story than some of these!"  So as I sat quietly waiting for my plane to arrive and the fog to clear, so that I could fly back to Seattle, I challenged myself.  Could I write a decent story?  What were the things that I liked to see in a good story?  I made myself a list.

I like stories that have quirky, interesting, believable characters who have some depth to them.  I like humor.  I like adventure, and suspense, and mystery, and danger... so long as I know that there will be a "happy ending" if I hang in there through the rough times.  I like stories that take me to unusual and interesting places that are described in all five senses, so that I can really imagine being there; I want to be able to smell the place, feel the tension, hear the water dripping, feel the roughness of cave walls brushing my skin.  I like stories that draw me in with twists and turns that make me want to read on.  I want stories to surprise and delight me and leave me looking forward to more.

So when I challenged myself to try to write some stories myself, I had all of these goals in mind.  You can judge for yourself if I have been successful.  For what it's worth I'd like to share with you some of the process I go through as I come up with the ideas for new scruffy, rude, bad-tempered mystery adventures.  In no particular order of importance I'll share some of the lessons that I have learned and mistakes that I have made.  I hope that they encourage you to try writing for yourself.

The germ of an idea

I suppose that the original idea for "Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome" came to my mind in the wilds of southwest Scotland around 1958!  My dad was the schoolteacher (or schoolmaster) of a tiny country school in Wigtownshire, Scotland.  The place where we lived wasn't even a village.  It was barely a hamlet.  There was Mahaar farm, about half a mile up a country lane from Mahaar School (built in 1817).    Here is a picture of the farm:

The school came with a schoolhouse attached to it.  There were two rooms in the school; one for Primary 1-3 (K-2), and another for Primary 4-7 (Grades 3-5).  The entire student body was probably about 60, mostly the sons and daughters of farmers, farm workers, ministers, and fishermen from the surrounding coutryside.

There was no supermarket, or even any shops within several miles.  My mom used to phone in her order for butcher meat to a butcher shop in the nearest town of Stranraer.  A few hours later, when the local bus drove past, the bus driver would toot his horn, my mom would wave from the window, and the driver would heave a brown paper parcel, tied up with string, onto our step, and drive off.  My mom would then go out and bring it inside before the crows, or cats, or foxes tore into it and got the meat that was wrapped inside.  Here is a couple of pictures of the Mahaar school:

Every evening one of my older brothers and I would be sent up to Mahaar farm to get the milk.  We carried a half-gallon enamel milk can as we sauntered up the lane towards the farm.  There was a dense wood on one side of the lane and a stone dyke and a thick hedge on the other side with a field full of dairy cattle on the other side of the hedge.  When we got to the farm we headed for the dairy where one or two of the dairymen would pour fresh milk into our can.  As I look back I suppose they probably enjoyed dealing with these two innocent wee boys from the schoolhouse down the road.  At any rate, they passed the time by telling us stories and jokes while they filled our milk can.  One recurrent theme was of "Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome."  No great details were ever given about this mischievous and sinister creature.  The dairymen simply fed our imagination with a lot of vague comments like this.  One of them would look out the door of the dairy, and comment, "Aye, it looks like a storm's coming in.  You'd better hurry home, young Davie, for it's on nights like this that Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome is often out and about, looking for trouble."  The other dairyman would look anxious, agree with his friend, and then add, "Aye, you're right, there, Alec.  Wullie will be hiding in the hedge just waiting to see who he can snag on the way past.  You'd better hurry home tonight, Davie, lad.  You don't want tae mess with Wullie when he's in a bad mood."  Over the days, weeks, months, and years the dairymen embellished their tales.  I got a vague impression that Wullie could disguise himself as a rock or a stone, that he was almost always in a bad mood, and that he would take great delight in scaring young boys as they tried to hurry home without spilling the milk.  On more than one occasion I remember creeping very quietly and slowly back down the lane towards the schoolhouse that was my home, and hearing strange, wicked, gleeful, gurgling, chattering sounds from the hedgerow that I passed.  It would make me and my brother jump, squeal with terror, and go tearing back to safety, spilling half our can of milk on the way.  I sometimes wonder if those sounds were caused by one of the young dairymen sneaking out on the other side of the hedge to have some fun at my expense.  But, on the other hand, maybe that was not who made the sounds.  Maybe there really was a scruffy, rude, bad-tempered little rock creature lurking in the bushes waiting to jump out and attack me.  That thought stayed in my mind and grew in my imagination for the next several decades...