Making Characters Sing… Figuratively

Posted on 03/13/2012 by nathanseim

Gary Gentroft, photographer, character - Portrait by Gavin Seim, 2010.

By the Brothers Seim: We’ve learned that  creating a natural character is one of the more challenging aspects in writing. We do struggle with it at times, but have discovered some things along the way.

Let Them Grow: Characters tend to develop a personality by themselves as we write. Planning is good, but forcing an instant personality on an important character is good for little more than filler until you have them laid out and can rewrite them as needed. That’s not necessarily bad, but we should be prepared to craft our characters slow and naturally.

3D! More or Less: Single and multi-dimensional characters are both valuable. Your primary characters need to have dimensions. They need to have depth and personality. Unexpected quirks, strengths and weaknesses. Their not one of those movies with the red and blue glasses. These are the deal deal.

But Minor and cameo characters should often be a bit more single sided. They serve one purpose and that is to fill a space in your story. The reader may only see a few aspects of their personality. That’s a good thing, because if you have a cast of hundreds making with deep intricate personalities , it would probably clutter up your story. Readers can be frustrated by “too much” information (A lot of readers feel this way about certain books in The Wheel of Time Series, for instance). So yes, that much information can be successful, but it’s risky.

Emotion: Important characters should have a method to their madness. A way they react to things, but also a breaking point. A great character possess both positive and negative aspects. At some point the walls come crashing down and they have to stand naked in front of the crowd. When that happens you had better have a solid foundation for that character.  The reader needs to “feel” what they feel (see Kaladin, in Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings).

Quest: I know it’s a fantasy term, but most people have a primary goal in whatever they are doing. Usually characters should as well. That said it doesn’t have to be grand, or even abnormal. You can make the most mundane of things fascinating by writing them properly. Ask yourself what your characters goals are, their hopes and dreams. Blend that with the reality of their situation and their personalty, then watch them form before your eyes.

That’s all for now… The Brothers Seim

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A Very Simple Note

Posted on 10/17/2011 by nathanseim

Dear writers,
it is no longer revolutionary or daring to have a culture that is so “enlightened” or “loving” that they have sex with anyone and anything whenever they feel like it. In fact, it never was. College kids and animals totally had that idea first.

That is all.

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Trauma, Hollywood style

Posted on 09/16/2011 by nathanseim

You know how people die in movies? They get shot or stabbed in the chest, grunt, fall down, and summarily expire. That irritates me. I was watching The Magnificent Seven the other day (Good movie, by the way), and at one point James Coburn’s character chucks a knife with a blade no more than four inches long into an enemy. It hits significantly below the man’s right breast, and it does not sink in to the hilt. It misses his heart by about ten inches, and probably didn’t reach deep enough to pierce the bottom of his lung and almost certainly not his liver. Nevertheless, the man grunts in pain and collapses, apparently in his death throes.

Now, I realize the guy messed with James Coburn. That always results in death, of course. But realistically, there is very little chance that wound would have been fatal at all, and certainly not that quickly.

I imagine he would have gone into shock almost instantly unless he had been stabbed a lot in the past. In my experience, this means he probably would have sunk to his knees and spent a moment or two totally dazed before realizing he had better get serious and take care of that wound. Then the real pain would set in.

The point here is that movies and books very often do a very poor job representing injuries and their effect on a person. Low profile actors die of badly stubbed toes, but the star takes a couple of rifle rounds to the chest and stomach and ignores them, ’cause he’s busy.

I am not pushing for long, drawn out death scenes. My point is, do a little research about the wound your portraying, and make it at least somewhat realistic. You might be surprised at how much is survivable (something like 10% of heart puncture wound victims make it) but how little is debilitating; if you get shot in the arm or leg, you had better be on a massive adrenaline rush or you are down for a long time. Also, dying instantly is extremely rare. Unless the victim is completely calm, to die instantly they probably need to be beheaded or the equivalent.

All I am really saying is do some research, think about the effect of the wound (i.e. Chest injury = blood loss and shock.) I am no medical expert, so if you are (or even if you aren’t), feel free to point out any errors I made. Please do your homework, though, just like you would for anything else. Your story will be the better for it. At least, that’s my take on it.

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BLOOD AND THUNDER!

Posted on 09/14/2011 by nathanseim

Have you ever been reading a fantasy story set in another world, or in a pre-historical version of this one and been stopped by a modern profanity? You stop and think “I get the point, but didn’t that expression only become an exclamation in the past xxx years?”

If you haven’t, that’s probably because you aren’t me and don’t have my odd quirks. Nevertheless, it’s still anachronistic.

Let’s take a popular one: “Damn!” Most of us know that this word means to cursed to hell, to be condemned, or to suffer eternal punishment.

At first, it doesn’t seem to be anachronistic. People, no matter their faith, have pretty much always believed in eternal reward or punishment, and it’s a powerful thing, so why not curse with it?

The thing is, I believe the phrase originally simply meant “to judge.” Also, it did not appear until the 13th or 14th century, which was after the invention of firearms. Most High Fantasy stories are not aiming to emulate that time period. Generally, we usually have worlds that exist between 300 BC to 1000 AD.

My point is this: High Fantasy or old world authors, invent your own curses! Whether you can explain them away or not, modern curses just don’t feel right in a wrong setting, just as words like “Dude” are unlikely to work. It has far more ring if you invent something relevant to your world. For example, in Brandon Sanderson’s The Way Of Kings, the characters often exclaim “Stormfather!” If you have read the story, you probably know that it works. It fits the world. And it sounds a whole lot better than an armored Knight exclaiming “Crap!” At least, that’s my take on it.

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Writing Great Dialogue & Five Tips for Making it Crackle.

Posted on 09/08/2011 by nathanseim

By Nathan Seim

At first, writing dialogue was extremely difficult for me. No matter what I wrote, when I actually went back to read it, I found what I had written was usually lifeless, dry, and boring. I thought for quite a while that dialogue was the hardest part of writing fiction, but I just figured I would improve with practice.

Months of practice did help, but there was still something missing. Gavin might have been a little better than I, but really he had the same problem. Our dialogue just wasn’t alive.

Finally, “when all hope seemed lost” (dramatic effect), we figured out the issue. We didn’t know our characters, and if you don’t know someone, how can you know what they would say or how they would say it? We hadn’t known it, but in our first draft, our characters lacked dimension and personality.

At that point, we really started cracking down, and, by the time we went through are first chapter again, they were already fleshing out, and, sure enough, our dialogue was starting to crackle. We were getting things like personality, undertones, implications, and (Gasp!) inflection.

The moral here is if you feel something is wrong with your dialogue, but you don’t know what, check and see if you really know your characters. Not just what they do and look like, but what they want and need, what they detest, why they do things, and the way their mind works. Speech tells someone’s life story in implications and hints, and if there is no life story to tell, their speech will probably be dry as a scorched pork chop. At least, those are my thoughts on it.

5 Tips…

1. Take the time you need to build a real character. Scenes in which people casually talk and interact are great for this, because one’s personality under incredible pressure is just a magnification of one’s personality in normal circumstances.

2. If you are trying to write in dialect, and it isn’t working, try writing in your native accent.

3. If possible, try to write in such a way that you do not need to narrate how your character is speaking. (i.e. he shouted, she said softly, she stated, he intoned, etc.) It’s better if your context shows how they are speaking, and beyond that it is left to the reader’s imagination.

4. If one wording feels more grammatically correct but a different wording fits the character better, always fit it to the character. In real life, dialogue isn’t usually grammatically correct. Say it aloud. Feel it.

5. Try to think of someone you know who is similar to your character, and imagine them saying your line in the situation you have built.

All these things will really help make your dialogue feel real, at least… That’s my take on it.

Nathan

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A Short Story – Sixth Floor, 2AM | 2011 WOTR First Place Fiction.

Posted on 05/14/2011 by Gavin Seim

This is the first of our growing collection of short stories to actually get posted on our journal. There will be more to come. We also have plans to start posting them on Kindle and beyond.

This is the story that took first place at the annual Write on the River short story competition.  Needless to say we were stoked, not to mention honored, by this recognition. Heck, it was first conceived in a checkout line at Safeway. (It had a long way to go at that point.) Please feel free to post your lavish praise (as well as critiques, comments, hate and whatever else) in the comments. Gavin and I read them, Honest! So much for introduction, now here’s our story…. Nathan

 

Sixth Floor, 2AM.
A short story by the Brothers Seim.

He was seventy-five and she was seventy-two. They had fallen asleep last night in the king-sized bed of their sixth floor condominium.

He woke to the smell of smoke. She to the sharp intake of his breath as he came awake.

“Something’s burning.” He said, still groggy. He rose, pulled on his robe and went into the living room. She saw him walk to the door, touch the knob and recoil. Rising from the bed she pulled on her own robe and followed him out, then went to the window and looked outside.

He walked back to the nightstand and took the towel from it. Returning to the living room, he wrapped it over the knob and cracked the door to peek out. Flames and a billow of smoke clawed into the oxygen-filled room and he snapped the door shut. Belatedly, their smoke alarm began wailing.

Through the smoke outside she saw the dark sky alight and flames spewing from the floors below. She could feel the heat through their closed window and she stepped back.
He walked to her side. She turned to look at him, hazel eyes questioning.
“We can’t get out that way. Hall’s on fire.” She could hear the hint of fear in his voice.
“I’ll check the phone” she said, walking to the kitchen and lifting the receiver. She looked at him and shook her head.

He groaned, then took a chair from the kitchen table. “Why didn’t the building alarms go off?” He wondered aloud, as he pulled the wailing alarm from it’s place on the ceiling. It fell silent as he removed the battery. Stepping down, he placed it on the table.
Walking over to her, he took her hands firm in his own. “There’s nothing we can do but wait and pray.” They wrapped their arms around each other and swayed gently back and forth as the song of sirens, fire and machines raged outside.

“They’ll probably come in time.” He whispered in her ear.

She laughed softly. “You don’t sound very convinced.”

“I can’t lie after all these years. You’d know. It could be our time.”

She ran her hand slowly down his back. “I’m not sure I care.”

He laughed gently. “I’m not either.”

She wondered how their children would cope if help came to late. She nearly said something to him, but stopped.  Their children were all grown, with children of their own. She smiled to herself. The time was long past when they were lost without their mother.

“I love you,” He whispered in her ear.

“I know. I love you, too.”

He went and took their iPod off the nightstand in the bedroom. He set it to repeat and docked it into the speaker on the end table. She felt a thrill go through her as an old-time rock and roll tune began to thump from the speakers. She knew the song before the voice of Elvis rang out. “Lord Almighty, I feel my temperature rising…”

More than thirty years ago, on their anniversary, she remembered the first time they had danced to this song. They had been so young.

They tossed their robes into the corner. He extended his hand and she took it. He warmed up with the basic step, then spun her quickly under one arm, let go and caught her other hand.
She had never been able to get interested in what they called “Old Fogey Dancing.” They were old, but they didn’t have to move like it. As they finished the movement, he pulled her close and she looked into his eyes. Smoke had begun to seep into the room as the flames raged outside their front door, but the heat was building from more than just the fire outside.

He began the next move and when she realized what he was doing she cocked an eyebrow at him. He nodded confidently and both his hands dropped to the level of her hips. She locked her hands behind his neck, then leapt towards him and he took her weight, swinging her past his right hip, then back and across his left. On the third swing she parted her legs as to wrap around his waist. Using the momentum from their movement, she pushed back as he lifted her upwards until she was vertical, head down, above him. He held her there for an instant, then brought her down, still in time with the music, and spun her under one arm.

The flames that had seared away their door had begun licking up the walls as smoke poured into the house. She wrapped her arms around him as Elvis sang “And your kisses lift me higher, like the sweet song of a choir…” they kissed, both feeling as in love as they had on that day. They were not so old after all.

 

As the sun started to rise, a group of firemen sat around the station kitchen, talking about the couple they had found in unconscious embrace on their living room floor. They had managed to quell the flames enough for two of them to reach the balcony and break into the living room.

“By rights, They should be dead.” Said one of the men. “That room had been full of smoke for way too long, but they were both awake when we put them in the ambulance.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” said one of the others.

“Tell me about it.” said the first. “And just before the ambulance left, Gill asked the lady how they breathed in there.”

“What did she say?” Asked another.

She smiled at him and said — she wasn’t sure they had.

<<<<<>>>>>

(c) 2011 The Brothers Seim. Please do not copy this story. Please share it by referring readers this this page.

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Writing Competitions

Posted on 02/01/2011 by Gavin Seim

This year Nathan and I will be entering our first writing competition. As I’ve talked about on the FB page, we’ve been learning a lot by doing short stories and we though it would be great to put some of them neck and neck with our peers and see how we fare.

From the photography world, I’ve learned how beneficial competitions can be. It gets us thinking. Makes us demand more and yes, puts us head to head with other writers work. Sometimes it’s exhilarating, sometimes disappointing. Sometimes you disagree with judges and wish you could give them a piece of your mind.

In the end however we gain experience from competition. There’s nothing like it. Instead of seeing ourselves as we imagine, we often get to see ourselves a more realistic light. I think competing really makes us buckle down and become a better writers.

We’re starting with the short story contest at the annual Write On The River conference this Spring. We’ve also started a list of conferences with competitions on the maps page. I really think that a successful writer is about more than just writing. It’s about selling and about marketing. That includes getting involved, learning and challenging yourself to raise the bar. Competition (and conferences) help you do just that.

Don’t make excuses this year. It can be daunting, but take your best, and put it out there. Win or lose you’ll learn something from that experience and you’ll walk away a better writer… Gavin Seim

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Writers Couch Maps.

Posted on 01/25/2011 by Gavin Seim

We’ve added something to the site that I think will be really useful. Wc Maps is a Google map of writing conferences and workshops all over. It’s not fully fleshed out, but we’re working across the US and then beyond.

We’re also using different pin styles to indicate different events. For example conferences that include literary contests. Also you can mouse over each pin to learn more about the event such as the time of year it happens and visit it’s official website. We think this will be a simple effective way to help us all find writing events. If you know a great writing event or conference, get in touch and let Nathan and I know so we can add it to the map… Gav

You can view the map here… http://writerscouch.com/maps

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On Learning to Write Better.

Posted on 12/23/2010 by Gavin Seim

by Gavin Seim:

There’s something I’ve learned from being a photographer that applies perfectly to writing and that’s learning. I’m twenty five years old and I’ve been serious about photography for about 13 of those years. Looking back on that experience, there’s one thing I can unequivocally say makes a difference. Absorbing as much relevant information as you can hold. It takes years to be a master at something, but at the early stages one can almost double their knowledge in a weekend. Podcasts, blogs, day workshops, written books, audio books whatever form tickles your knowledge bone, use it.

This may seem like basic stuff, but it occurred to me that we often assume we need expensive training to become experienced. Now if a writing school is the way you learn best, that’s great. Just don’t overlook things that are right in front of you and can boost your skills like a steam rocket in a lava flow.

Other writers have probably been through the save things you’re dealing with and they probably shared it somewhere. If you crave the knowledge it’s out there. For me the iPad is huge because I can subscribe to blogs and journals, then glance over large amounts of information whenever I have extra time. I can get Kindle books, write down sudden brainstorms. You name it. I’ve pounded out one of my best chapters on an iPad, while siting in a photography lecture.

Bottom line is this. Make a plan. Whether it’s an iPad, and MP3 player or a three ring binder. Get a plan to always have your favorite resources available so that when the knowledge craving comes, you’re ready to eat. I’ll have many more to share in the future, but for today here’s a few favorite resources I’ve found. Share your favorites in the comments. Happy learning… Gav

Books…

Writing Fiction for Dummies – The reviews say it best, but this is a solid learning tool. Even if you’re more experienced, reviewing essentials and the many tips in this one will keep you on top of things. It’s also available in Print or Kindle form.

The Elements of Style – Very few of us like reading grammar books. Holly this one is short and powerful. If you want to write better, then read it. It’s really that simple. For those like me that are on the run, there’s even and Audible version.

Techniques of the Selling Writer -  One of the best reviewed books you’ll find on the topic. From writing to selling.

Websites…

Advanced Fiction Writing – A good blog ran by one of the guys that Brought you Fiction for Dummies.

Story Fix – Larry brooks is a fun guy and has loads of knowledge. This active blog will keep you thinking and take you from writing better prose, to marketing essentials for your work.

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Writers Couch Is Here.

Posted on 09/25/2010 by Gavin Seim

This project has been in the works for awhile now, but life if busy and it’s taken more than a while to get it rolling. I’m Gavin Seim and Writers Couch is a writers journal and a short podcast. This is a place by writers for writers. I’m starting the project, but at will be headed by by brother Nathan who is my writing partner for four starting books that we have in progress.

Writers couch is about getting us thinking as writers and having a bit of fun in the process. It’s a place to look at writing, marketing and the sometimes crazy things we go thru as writers. It’s informal, so we’ll be having fun and sharing experiences. In the future we have have guests writers post content as well.

This is a work in progress. I’m an experienced podcaster and writer in the photography world that is my day job. I plan to bring that experience of sharing to Writers Couch as well. It may take a little time to refine it all, so stay tune as Nathan and I will get things rolling around here like setting up the podcast on iTunes and starting the conversation.

Finally if you’re interested in checking out the other  projects I have going (mainly photo related) you can visit my website…. Gavin

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