Do you Mary Sue?

I'm taking nine classes for the upcoming residency at Pine Manor College.  One of the classes focuses on speculative fiction, which, if you didn't know, is anything out of the normal realm.  It covers science-fiction, fantasy, horror, dystopian, and much, much more.  For this class, the professor assigned us all to take the Mary Sue Test prior to attending the residency.  It's actually a pretty cool little test.  I took it for my Death Man character and scored a 14.  I recommend everyone to take this test for at least one of their favorite original characters, and I doubly recommend this for those who dabble in the world of fan-fiction.

For people who don't know what Mary Sue means it is essentially inserting oneself into a story and creating a character that is impossibly perfect.  I think there is a masculine form of this term but just as Brony (a seemingly masculine term applied in general to those who enjoy My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) covers everyone in the gender spectrum, so too does the term Mary Sue.  So take the test and see if your hero/in is too good to be true or too bland to be possible.  Post your scores if you like what you see or post them if you don't like then and give a comment on what you want to change for the character or if you feel that the score is unjustified for the specifics of your character.  Happy writing everyone and Happy Holidays, too!

This Deviant Artist hit the nail on the head in her depiction of a typical Mary Sue story.

Amanda LaFantasie © 2013

An Update & Possible Genre Change

Tomorrow I leave for my second residency at the Solstice MFA program in Boston.  My first time around left me with a whirlwind of ideas as well as a fantastic bunch of writers to count as friends and comrades.  This time I head back with one semester under my belt, a yearning to catch up with my Boston buddies, and a strong desire to learn as much as I can.

For the first semester I read twelve books and wrote around fifty pages (more than that but fifty semi polished pages) for my Dystopian novel.  This novel does have the potential of being marketed as YA but I'm not going to push that at all.  However, this time around, I have a list of several YA books that I want to read and I am suddenly inspired to work on a very clear cut YA story.  I actually wrote out this story in screenplay format several years back.  I never finished the screenplay but I did chart out the entire ending up to the 'FADE OUT' via long notes.  One reason I'm wanting to rekindle this story is because of the strong female lead (and I don't write many females even though I am one), and another reason is because it's already plotted.  This plot may change here and there but the fact that it is plotted will help me write out scene after scene and also give me a chance to really tackle writing a synopsis. 

In order to work on this however, I would need to change my major from Fiction to Young Adult Fiction.  From what I understand this is totally doable and that it's only in my third semester that I have to decide on what genre to graduate out of - some people switch in their second semester and never go back, but I think I will return to Fiction a better person for having honed another side of my literary interests.  

Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) 

Notes on Dystopia

At the Solstice MFA Winter Residency, I attended a class on writing Dystopian literature taught by the wonderful Laura Williams McCaffrey.  We discussed a few novels during the class (The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi and 1984 by George Orwell) and delved into some of more intricate characteristics of Dystopia.

Firstly, we discussed the idea that there is no such thing as objective time.  It is relative in every way (the experience of time), regardless of the ways we have discovered in measuring it.  When you extract all rigidity from time itself you open yourself up to alternative time-lines and alternative nows.  In one 'now' you are married, in another 'now' you are not.  How many nows, how many yous?  The possibilities are endless.  The alternative nows are what Dystopia is all about.  True, these stories are often placed in the future, but that is a future that 'could' happen in the now, or a future that the 'now' is helping to create, or, most vitally, it is a now that is already happening this very moment, but we just don't or won't realize it.  In Bacigalupi's story, the backdrop of war and child soldiers is terrifying and upsetting, but it is also a reality: In several parts of the world, there are children who live this life everyday.

Dystopia is a juxtaposition of the possible and the actual, the future and the now, the there and the here.  It is wrought with all the things that keep you up in the night.  Not just monsters, but broad ideas and abstractions that chill you to the bone.  The goal of this type of writing is to make the strange familiar and make the familiar strange and to upset habituality. Suddenly going to the market place to buy apples becomes a dangerous and alien experience, while searching dead bodies for gold teeth becomes just part of the morning routine.   Dystopia draws its power from destabilizing characters, events, settings, and even language. For more information on this concept, Laura recommends an essay by Charles Baxter called "On Defamiliarization" from Burning Down the House.  Another source, one that I highly recommend, that some might find valuable are Anne Bogart's essays from A Director Prepares.

In terms of the overall concept of a story, it should be rooted in something concrete that your audience can relate to or at least understand.  Essentially, find the Hurricane Sandy in your story and make people respond to your abstract idea.  Think to yourself, what might be the worst outcome of 'now,' and study history and human nature because plausibility is what makes Dystopia such a frightening genre.   Study regimes, dictators, and hegemonic power systems.  Ground the 'now' of your novel with the horrors of things that have already happened.  And never forget that your characters are the key.  Put your main characters in the center of the problem, don't skirt around the society through the eyes of a casual observer.  In 1984, the main character works in the records department that allows him to see clearly all of the corruption and censorship around him that others might not be privy to.  In The Drowned Cities, the characters are directly caught up in the conflicts of the war lords and the direct fallout of unsuccessful peace keeping missions.  Show us this unrecognizably familiar new world from within.

Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) © March 2013

Craft Choice: Tone

Made in MS Paint

Something in craft that can often escape the writer's train of thought is, tone. What is tone? To put it simply it is the voice your writing takes on, the mood it exudes. How do you want to make the reader feel? Do you want to grip their heart with an emotional roller coaster, or do you want to make them laugh out loud at witty humor? What feeling are you trying to portray? That is tone; but why is it important?

Tone is what draws a reader in, what makes them sympathize with characters and settings and what makes them cry, what makes them laugh. Tone to put it simply, is the backbone of your writing, and it is what helps get the meaning of the story across. So what can a writer do to get the tone across? Is it all emotion? Or is there an  rubric towards immaculately writing a story with good voice? That's not so easily answered, and every writer's opinion will differ on the topic. Below are some suggestions of my own that I've picked up during my time as a writer, as well as the advice from my professors and other great writers.

One method, that I spoke about earlier on in Detangled Writers, is verb consistency. Everything in your story is going to work to create your tone, including the tense you use, so yes, in a way there is a rubric. How does your character relate to time and place? How does he/she respond to the reactions around them. Another hint towards tone is internal dialog. A characters thoughts and feelings can set the tone for the entire story. Another thing about tone to consider is your own feeling as the author when you're writing and how your own emotions can influence the story. It is sometimes a real challenge to actively influence while at the same time trying to proactively keep yourself from influencing your story. However the real challenge is knowing when to consciously and subconsciously pull in the reigns.

Sounds like a breeze doesn't it?

Try thinking of writing as a labyrinth. There is a beginning, there is an end, and then there are a million and a half wrong turns and challenges you will have to face between the two. However, with enough diligence and a good dose of  humor, you can make it past the hurdles and you will find the end. That's where the real work begins.

Many an acclaimed writer would tell you for your rough draft, just write! And this is good advice, great advice in fact. Just write, get it out, don't care how horrible you think it is, or how wonderful you think it is. Your second draft will be nothing like your first draft, and this is because that's when the real work begins. That is when you as the writer will have to make the tough decisions, and tone is one of those decisions. It will be your job to make sure the tone is consistent and flows, and moves the story. It will be your job to make sure that you're saying everything in a way that is tangible to the reader, while keeping the story true to its roots. It is during this phase that you will really have to make choices about your craft, and this is where you'll have to pay particular attention to tone.

Questions you can ask yourself during your revision/rewriting phase in regards to tone:

• What is my message? Is there a message?
• Do you have an agenda in your story? If you do, be it personal, political, etc, your prose will take on a tone to match that agenda.
• What is my genre? 
• For example, Mystery writing tends to have a very different tone than romance.
• What kind of characters am I employing for my story? 
• How do the characters interact with the world, interact with each other? Do they look at the world with optimism, pessimism, indifference? How do their interactions affect the world around them?
• What is the setting? 
• Setting can play a HUGE role in tone. For example, are you in a fast paced city where it just feels like you never get a moment to breathe? Well then your tone will probably be quick, with twists and turns that leave the reader's head spinning. This is okay as long as you don't lose the reader in the processes. On the contrary, if you're writing a story that takes place on a smooth, languid lakefront, your tone will probably be slower, perhaps more philosophical. 

There are many other questions you can ask yourself too, but not to overwhelm you, I'll leave it there. The point of these questions are simple: What are you trying to say? And really, that is the purpose of tone. Writing is an art form, and just like a painter will paint and expressive piece of work to invoke feeling into the viewer, that is what you're doing in your writing. Tone is how you do that. So next time you write, ask yourself the tough questions, and when you finish a draft, read through it. How is the story moving? Is it consistent? Does it feel right for the story? If not, well you might have to rewrite it, but understanding the role tone plays can certainly help. 

Finally, consider the elements of your story piece by piece. Consider the symbolism, the atmosphere, the setting. Consider how your world works on it's own, and then how the world works integrated with the characters. Lastly, consider the senses, how do the senses work to influence tone? How does your character see? Hear? Feel? Is your character deaf or blind? Are they emotionally detached? Does the world exude a feeling all its own? Is the setting its own character? These are all things to consider during your revision phase. You might be surprised by how your story changes.

So here is my question to you: How often do you think of tone in your writing? Does it play a role in your writing? Is it conscious or subconscious? Has this helped you re-evaluate the role of tone/voice in your own writing?