Adding "Stuff" Is Not Adding Depth

We've probably all experienced this before. You sit down for dinner and your are hungry. Your plate is served and it looks good. When you next look down the plate is empty, but something is missing. (No, it is not your fork). You aren't hungry. The meal was fine, but the meal was lacking in some way. What you are experiencing is what we talk about in writing as depth.

A lot of you have heard many editors and agents talk about adding depth to your stories and your characters, but for too many authors, this is a concept that is really difficult to comprehend. What I often hear from authors, after I pass on a project due to depth issues, is that the author will go and add a few more scenes. "There is still room in the word count area to make those changes."

This author doesn't get it.

Just adding more stuff often creates a mess. It's like those darn packing peanuts some wonderful person created. I get that playing in this stuff may be fun at the time, cleaning it up is not something any of us enjoy. In fact, you often spend the next several month cleaning the darn things up.

Adding depth is not just about adding more stuff to your story. It is not about adding more scenes, or more to your word count. While adding depth may increase your word count, this is really an issue of creating a more three dimensional experience for the reader. You want to immerse the reader in the world of the characters and the lives they are living.

When we think about your characters, a lot of this depth comes from the concept of Goal Motivation and Conflict that we first heard about from Debra Dixon. What is really driving these characters? What makes them tick? How do they react in given situations? When the heroine in a story finds out that the hero has been playing her for the whole time, and yet she has really fallen for him, how is it that she is going to react? What emotions will she experience and see?

Think of the movie, CAN'T BUY ME LOVE... Remember this scene?

We all remember what happens with this? Her reaction when he reminds her this was all an act devastates her. The facial expressions, the look in her eyes and her short, and yet emotional comments agreeing say it all. That is depth.

Where many writers would take this to is not adding depth. They would often add a full chapter, or at least pages of her going back through the whole relationship in her head. They would have her crying in her room, or screaming about it with her friends. Taking this approach is really about telling and not showing.

Now, I get that movies are different because you have the chance for the characters to say a lot without using words due to camera angles and so forth, but in reality, the same can happen when you are writing.

It is a matter of word economy. It is a matter of making the most of every scene you have and every line your characters speak. This can often be done by replacing a full scene of action with just a couple of lines that get us into the characters head for a few minutes. Another approach would be, instead of sending the characters out to vent privately, have those emotions come out while the characters are in the middle of the heated exchange. Blending in that introspection and giving us the reason why they are angry or hurt.

I should also add that increasing the depth of the story is not an issue of putting in a lot of back story for your characters. I have written about that in the past her on the blog. We don't need a story where the heroine had to come from a poor family, an alcoholic father, a mother who was a prostitute and then falls into a marriage where the ex not only was found in bed with someone else, but she finds out he was gay.

Not depth. Just too much.

Go back to what drives this person. If there is a reason she doesn't want the relationship, keep it simple. The depth comes from just having the character express those emotions. Make sure the reader knows it.

So, your homework for the weekend is to work on that depth!

Have fun!!!!!

Using Narrative For Improving Depth In Your Writing

One of the reasons I have for passing on stories is the lack of depth. In other words, the story is lacking a real development of the character and the plot. The end result is a story that feels flat and leaves the reader with a lot of questions. In most of the cases, when I have seen this in the writing, the author has simply not used the narration in the story to the fullest potential. This can be either weak narration that tells and does not show, or relying more on dialogue and having little or no narration.

I do know that many authors tend to shy away from narration because they have been told to keep the story moving, and to show and not tell. Both of these ideas are indeed true and authors do have to focus on this. The problem however, is that authors, in an attempt to fix these problems, they have eliminated the power the narration has to enhance the story.

When we focus entirely on dialogue, we are getting a limited view of the story. We only "hear" what is going on. If, however, we can get into the mind of the characters and let their true feelings and emotions take place, we get a fully developed three-dimensional character. We can learn a bit more of why the characters are acting that way, and what, in their past has shaped who they are. You can now go into greater detail of how they are feeling. Simply using dialogue means you are limited to adjectives, adverbs and dialogue tags. These are fine for a quick pulse check of the character, but that is all that we get.

The narration also gives us a well-rounded view of the world you have put your characters. Using all of the senses will tell us what your Small Town, USA looks like and feels like. The world comes alive for us. Let us walk down Main Street with your character and show us everything your character is seeing and experiencing at that moment. Let us feel the Spring breeze coming over the river bank. Let us hear the food being prepped in the back of the small cafe. Invite us into the used book store and the smell of paperbacks and the coffee brewing in the Mr. Coffee behind the counter.

As I said, many authors avoid using narration for the simple fact they think it will slow the story down. In fact, it does slow things down, but there is nothing wrong with this. By giving the reader a few moments to digest the last dialogue the characters had works. Think of it like letting the prime rib "rest" before cutting into it.

Now, if you have too much narration, you do indeed run into a lot of problems. Readers can only handle so much of this insight. Therefore, you have to find a happy medium between too much and too little.

If you are someone who has avoided this in the past, I encourage you to rethink your approach. You may be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Adding Depth To Your Stories

One of the common reasons I have for passing on projects is the lack of depth for both character development. Sure, the author had a great premise to the story and there was a lot of potential in the project, but as I read the actual story, something just wasn't there. For me, I think I can equate it to having a meal that, when you get up from the table, you still feel like you wanted more.

I should say that when we talk about adding depth to a story, we are not talking about adding additional "stuff" to the story. We don't need more plots elements. We don't need more conflicts. We don't need more back story. Adding all of this information really muddles the story and now just gives the reader more words. Again using the image of a meal, this would be similar to just adding more food items to an already bland meal. More is not always better, 

I do think many writers fall short in this area because they are so focused on the plot of the story. They really want to make sure all of the plot pieces are there as well as the world building. While this is certainly an important element of putting together a great story, it isn't everything. If you think of the plot, it is really the bricks in the story. The added depth of the story comes is much like the mortar holding everything together. 

I also think that many writers miss out on the depth simply because, in their head, they already know all of those smaller elements. They know what their characters think like. They know their likes and dislikes. They know how they feel when things happen around them. Because they know this information so well, it is often hard to convey that information to their readers.

To get this added depth, you have start getting into your characters heads. We need to start hearing their reactions and thoughts of things going on around them. We need to get those feelings and emotions to the things people say and do around them. We might also need to know more of why these characters are doing and saying the things in your story. 

Think of it this way. You and your spouse, friend or significant other are having a bit of an argument over something. It really doesn't matter the topic. That person just said something to you or reacted in someway that really pissed you off. Do you respond with a single line? Probably not. You might go on a complete rant screaming and yelling (hopefully not getting violent). If you don't do this verbally and out loud, the odds are that rant is going on in your head. Your brain really goes for it and maybe, depending on the severity of the conversation, it might go on for hours. Now obviously no one around you hears any of this, but if it was your character, your readers need to hear it. Essentially, what we want you to do is turn up the speakers that are connected to your character's brain and let us inside.

The goal of adding depth to the story is to give the reader a three dimensional feel for your character. The dialogue is the outward thoughts, but we need the internal.

As an activity. take a scene you are working on right now. It doesn't matter what type of scene you have. Now read the lines out loud to yourself. As soon as a character says something or does something, I want you to react. How do you feel? What do you really hear from this person? Is this changing your perspective on the world or your idea of this person. 

Once you get that idea out, dive into your story. You don't need to copy verbatim what you just reacted to, but take that same essential idea and play with that in the story. 

Scott's Dog Takes Over The Blog - Digging to get to the good stuff

I have a confession to make. I am a digger. OOOOOOOHHHHHH, I do love to dig a good hole. Of course Scott really doesn't like where I put my holes, but hey, ya gotta love me.

In any case, I was working on my latest hole yesterday and I started thinking about stories again. I just don't think some of your authors out there have been digging enough with your stories. In other words, you aren't going deep enough to get to the really good stuff about your characters, plots and settings.

I have heard Scott talk about some of these stories where you plop your characters in an Italian restaurant and just describe the delicious pasta with the smell of basil. Come on now. You know good and well there is much more to a restaurant than just that. Even I know that. Use all of your senses and really go for it.

The same goes for your characters. You give them a name, color their hair, give them a job and call it quits. Last time I checked that really isn't three dimensional.

Take it from a digger. You really have go dig to get the good stuff. And then, once you found it, bring it home for the reader. Or like I do, I just track it around the hardwoods for Scott.

Apollo

Dialogue - It's Not Just Talking

I often find that one of the main reasons I reject stories is the lack of depth in a project. In other words, the author has really skimmed the surface with the real character development. In most cases, when I say this to an author, they add more sub-plots and story elements which does nothing more, in the long run, than increase the word count. In reality, the easiest solution is sitting right in front of their face - Dialogue.

Too often, many authors miss the real value of dialogue in a story. For most, the only purpose is to have the characters have a conversation with one another. Now granted, dialogue is a discussion, but what the readers can gain from the use of effective dialogue is huge.

When I used to actively do theater, one of the things I did was to spend countless hours looking over the script reading not just what I said to memorize the lines, but to read, the other stuff in the story. I would see what other people said about my character. I would read carefully to see how my character said things to different people in the story. In other words, was there a difference in tone and vocabulary used with the different situations. These small little elements added a huge amount of depth to the character development.

Over the weekend, I worked with one of my authors a new project she was working on. Depth was one of those elements. She found that she had a character that suddenly had nothing major that had to happen in the story. Still, it was time for this characters POV to show up since she had spent a very larger portion on one of the other characters. So we built in a dialogue.

Now I know what you are thinking. "But Scott, you're just having the characters talk." True, but instead of just having the conversation be mindless, this was a chance to insert a bit of that information dump that we try so hard to avoid in the narrations sections. Since this character was new to the surroundings, she had the character bump into someone that has been around for some time. The conversation could now deal with elements of world building, introspection into the other protagonist, as well as some introspection on the characters and his new surroundings. In this short dialogue, we now were starting to understand the GMC of two of the major characters, got a bit more of an understanding of the plot, and did so in a fun way.

Your job during this week is to really look at your use of dialogue. I understand that you probably use all of the elements I talked about here, but look at what you MOSTLY use it for. I think you will be shocked that for many of you, the dialogue you use most of the time is just mindless chatter. It's simply a time for your characters to be together. See if you can make it so much more.

Scott

Adding STUFF to Your Story Does Not Give It Depth

One issue I frequently see with submissions is the lack of depth in terms of character and plot development. In other words, I am looking for stories that are rich and three dimensional. I want characters that seem like they are in the room with me. I want emotions that I can feel and places I can see. I want plots that are believable. Too often, however, I see stories that are full of mindless and irrelevant "stuff".

I am almost postive that someone who read these authors stories have told them "You know, I like the foundation of what you have here but I feel like I need a bit more to get to know the characters." This is indeed very true. The reader has seen something but at this point, the author has simply created 2-dimensional characters. But, here is where the author heads off course.

Instead of providing the depth to really bring the characters alive, they simply add more scenes with the same character. They add more dialogue, or they start piling on the "telling vs. showing" narratives to supposedly give the reader more of a sense of what the room or scene looks like.

This really becomes apparent when an author, in the attempt to create "a reason for the character to act a certain way" unloads so much back story and additional problems for the character that it becomes simply too much. In cases like this, I often tell writers that the characters have so many other problems to worry about, a romance at this particular time in their life is probably far from their worries.

Think focus here. Pick one issue. Have the character really learn to live with it. Maybe the heroine has lost a job that she has been doing for all of these years. Fine. Work with that. You don't have to suddenly make it that she was fired from the job after her abusive ex has taken over the company and in a jealous fit of rage has manufactured a scheme to make her pay but will first find a way to kidnap her and then burn her dogs in a house fire.

Keep it simple.

Your job this week is to find what that single thing is that you want your writers to get from your story and flesh that out.

Have fun.

Scott

Gimics Don't Make A Good Story

Sure, books like this may be fun, but in the end, a story either built on gimics or full of nothing but gimics isn't a story. Instead, I see this as a written version of a comedy show like SNL. We have a string of funny things happening with no theme.

I am currently reading a very funny romance from one of my favorite historical authors at Avon. For purposes of this post, I want to leave this person nameless because that would cause some to miss the point. The thing is, this voice has some great voice to it and the scenes between the characters are a riot. I keep wanting to read scenes out to people around me, including those that have read the book. We laugh about the scenes but unfortunatley, that is it. We still end up saying, "this is funny, but what is the point?"

My comment yesterday about contemporary romances was an attempt to look at this concept from a slighly different angle. We have to remember that in romances, the key is the relationship. The focal story arc should be the romance and the relationship. An author simply cannot fill it with a lot of other stuff because the end result is we lose focus.

I do think that many people believe stories without action, demons, intrigue and constant plot gimics are boring. Heck, my father-in-law believes this about movies. When I hear this, I often feel it is a real shame. Stories about relationships without all the baggage can be good, IF the story is written well. As I said yesterday, the problem is not that contemporary romances are not selling or that as agents we aren't signing contemporary romances, it is simply that we aren't seeing well written contemporary romances.

As an agent, I look for the story and the relationship. Sure, I see the gimics, and like that favorite author of mine at Avon, I will often talk about it, but I will not be swayed by the gimics. I want a relationship. Hey, when it says Greyhaus Literary Agency represents "romance and women's fiction" that should be a key!

Scott

If You Start Something - Finish It...

O.K., so in the last couple of days, I have seen a lot of stories come across my desk. Unfortunately, many of the stories in this round of submissions is getting the lack of depth rejection. What was interesting though, was the trend I saw with the stories. Many of the authors would get going on a point that really had some potential, and then, out of the blue, they backed off of the issue and didn't go into the depth and detail we needed to fully get into the story. In other words, they started something but didn't finish it.

If you want to start off a story by getting us into the mind of the villain (something I personally hate) then really go for it. Let us see how weird the character is. Let us see why this character is doing this. Now obviously you don't want to throw everything out in the beginning. Teasing us is good, but take the time to study that section of your story. What is your goal? What little tidbit of information do you want to get across to the reader.

I read a story just today that had a character held prisoner by a demon. Sure, the writer did a great job of making it dark and gloomy. Sure, I realized this was a place I wouldn't want to be, but in the end, I was simply lost. I had no idea who the character was that was being thrown around the room by this "demonic" character? I got a name, but that was all. When the story shifted to, apparently, another time, or place, I was still left wondering what I had just gone through. Now I was busy trying to figure out what this new character was doing and how it would all fit together. I knew it had, but I was still in a state of questioning shock.

I have a feeling a lot of writers do this because they believe they are "creating tension" or they are "creating a great hook." Sure, this concept can work, but it needs to be done after we have accomplished something in that section.

Your homework today is really simple. Look at the sections of your book. For some of you, it may be chapters, for others it may be 1/2 chapters. Most likely it is when you shift from one scene to the next, or one POV to the next. As you look at that scene, determine what you want the reader to leave with. It shoul dbe something substantial and something that actually heads you in the direction of your ultimate goal or thesis for the story. Now see if you have left us hanging. If you didn't push it far enough, take the time today to fix it.

Have a fun day!

Scott

Adding More is not Adding Depth

This is an issue that I think a lot of writers face. The base of the story is finished and when they look at the word count, they find the number to be a bit low. Maybe, they have submitted the story to someone and gotten the response that the story lacked depth. So what do they do? Add more words. In the end, this is a huge mistake.

Just adding more of what you have already done in the story is not adding the depth the editor or agent asked for. Along the same lines, if the story is short, just adding more smaller scenes that duplicate the scenes that have already happened, isn't going to work either. The result is just a very repetitive story.

Adding depth to a story involves providing the reader with more information about the characters and the conflict. This is not simply backstory but more of an idea of how they react to situations. Instead of the heroine simply walking over to get a cup of tea, we need to be able to understand a bit about her by the way she does it. Does she measure out her sugar in a refined way or just dump it. If she is angry how does she stir her tea?

The key is to think about giving the reader a three dimensional feel for the story.

Scott

Using Narration

I was talking to one of my authors yesterday about narration and it got me thinking about how it is used in different styles of stories - primarily how it is used to add depth to a story.

When I read stories of many writers the narration is simply that material used to advance the plot of the story. While this is indeed necessary at times, this, in no way adds depth to a story. So what do people do? They start adding more "stuff" that simply gives the reader more of the same. For example, an author has the characters sitting in an Italian restaurant. The narration of something plot driven simply talks about how the heroine smelled the oregano and licked the marinara off his finger. This is just action. There is nothing more here to get us knowing our understanding the characters.

So here comes the second flaw that again leads us to a plot driven story. The writers simply uses the narration to unload a pile of backstory for the readers. Knowing about his troubled past still doesn't get us anywhere. It is just giving us more of the same.

Now, let's talk about adding it for depth. Let's say a character is angry. There are tons of different types of angry. There is a whole range of emotion. So use the narration to show it. In this case, as the hero is sitting there having his fingers licked of the marinara, have him fume at how he really hates when she does this. What is he feeling? How does the slurping of the pasta noodles from the kid behind him grate on his nerves like fingers on a chalkboard. How does he want to just strangle her with is pasta? Build on that emotion and really work with it.

Remember, we don't have to rush the story. We can simply enjoy the moment. Relish the emotion and the feeling. That is depth.

Now, I am off for a great weekend. See you Monday.

Lacking Depth

This is a comment that I am frequently having to put in rejection letters to writers. The story is simply lacking depth.

What do I mean by this? The idea is rather simple. In many ways, it relates back to the idea of telling vs. showing. In other words, the writer has left out a lot of critical information that would round out the story and give it a bit more of a three dimensional feel to it. At this point, it would read more like a summary.

Think about your synopses. These lack depth, but they are supposed to. In other words, you are simply providing the plot to the story and giving the reader an idea of where things are going to. Within your story, we want to know more than simply what is going on. We want to see all that is going on around the story and the characters.

I always like to use the idea of multiple camera angles using cameras with high quality lenses with this. If you are thinking of a movie with depth, the cinematographer has been able to show the audience the small details of everything going on around the characters. Although the characters take the center stage, your eye is getting a full picture of the world the characters live in. I love watching the scenes in the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice when you follow the camera as if you are a person right there in the movie with the characters. The first is in the opening scene but I personally think the party scene is the best. As you move through the ball room, you listen into snippets of conversation, watch actions of people and get everything. This is depth.

Now, where many writers fail in this is what they add to the stories. When we say depth, we don't need more scenes. Granted, adding more of the same makes the story longer, but we still don't have the depth we were looking for. What we want is more with the existing scenes.

To do this, go back to your senses. Use all of your senses to give the reader a 3-dimensional image. Along the same lines, go back to the GMC in your story. We need to really know what drives those characters but please don't just tell us. Show us. Finally, use that narration and introspection to let us into the minds of the characters.

Best of luck!

Scott