Writing Tips I Got from Orson Scott Card

4. Viewpoint: Why Third Person Limited Deep-Penetration is the Default

You ought to know the basic viewpoints: first (I), second (you -- usually found only in "choose your own adventure" stories and instruction manuals), and third (he/she).

Limited means one is written from one person's viewpoint, although the Author can switch (though in first person this can create confusion). But this switch can be jolting for the Reader. Therefore, such a change is marked with asterisks. (These can also mark a passage of time or a new setting.)

Omniscient allows the Reader to bounce from view to view without any concern, or know things none of the characters know at all. However, this has the effect of distancing the Reader from the characters, for by seeing inside all the heads, the Reader enters none of them.

To really get into the character's head (which is the aspect novels show best), there has to be third-person limited deep penetration -- which means really going inside the character's head and showing what the character sees, thinks, and feels -- or first person. But first person creates a distance in time; it's like looking back. But I did read one novel called "Black Rain" about the bombing of Hiroshima where the central event was so horrific the Reader needed that distance. Third-person, on the other hand, creates a distance in space -- putting the Reader a bit further from the character -- but deep penetration counters this effect.

That is why it's almost always third-person limited deep penetration. If it isn't the best one for your novel, show it right away.

One of the earliest exercises I did for Card's class, in fact, was writing a story based on a personal experience -- an hour of our lives, any hour -- using third-person limited deep penetration, and then we'd make special note on if our classmates ever left that viewpoint. Sometimes the character knew things that weren't shared -- such as some friends were arguing about a movie, but they never mentioned which movie. I figured it out (since I'd seen "Pirates" more than once), but almost no one else did. Personally, I was amazed at just how deep I could go inside a character's head. Especially when the character was, basically, me. All the story showed was me debating whether or not to head over to the first dance of the semester. But it revealed so much about me; I remember feeling exposed when my class determined how much of an introvert I was. Okay, I'm convinced. Third-person limited deep penetration it is.

However, I still use other viewpoints. I'm working on a story in first-person -- and since he has magic, I show right away that he can know things that most people wouldn't.

5. Past Tense is Usually Best

Past tense, for people in our culture, is the natural way of telling stories. Present tense is used if you're telling a joke. Past makes it more believable, and believability is usually the goal of the novelist. Past tense is also almost unnoticeable, so the Reader pays attention to the story, not the tense.

6. How to Give a Critique

When Card gave us our classmates' writings to critique, he had us note down three things: "Huh?" "So what?" "Yeah, right."
"Huh?" means that the Reader missed something, feels confused, or doesn't know what's going on. Perhaps a sentence got left out or something.
"So what?" means that the Reader is bored and would rather do something else at the moment.
"Yeah, right" means that couldn't really happen. It's too out of character. People don't act that way. That goes against the laws of physics/magic/nature.
As the class went on, he did say we could include "wow!" It was well done, impressive.
Don't tell them how to fix it, just where a trouble spot is located.

I myself have extended this to include the basic emotional response. When do I laugh? When am I almost in tears? Do I want to reach in through the pages and strangle the characters, bash their heads together, or hug them?

7. How to Take a Critique

Don't comment, Card said, just sit there and make notes. Don't show a reaction.

If one uses the above mentioned method, then there's no need for any personal comments. The critique shouldn't reflect what people thought about you. Actually, the only time I included "you suck!" in a critique followed the sentences: "You killed him?! How dare you! I like that characer."

Now, you don't have to do what Readers say all the time, but at least listen to them. Be open. Part of being a good writer is knowing how to rewrite.

8. Go Back and Start Over.

I tended to hear this a lot. I turned in a chapter; he said, "It has some potential. Start over." I rewrote it and turned it in again. He said, "I'm not teaching you right, am I? Read at least the prologue in this book by G. R. R. Martin to figure out novel pacing, and then start over." I rewrote it and turned it in again. He said, "Now you're getting somewhere, but your second chapter . . . not good. Start over." So I rewrote it and turned it in again. I must have spent over two months on one chapter! Two months before he was satisfied (even pleased).

Card actually does this quite a lot. He likes to work on the book until he hits a snare, and then goes back to the beginning and rewrites it from there. I'm not entirely sure if this is the best strategy (and it certainly isn't the only way to write a book), because then I get stuck around chapters four and five -- chapter one looks great; I don't need to rewrite chapter one. And the later chapters of the book don't look as polished as the earlier ones if this strategy is used. But still, I have learned that it takes me about five drafts before it starts to look really nice.

9. Characters Come From the Story.

Who's in the story? Card had me figure out exactly how many people lived in the castle, what they were doing, their relationships, and so on. And this was just for the setting my main character would leave fairly early in the story. In fact, in my earliest draft (the one which I will never, under any circumstances, show to him), my main character had already left.

9. Minor Characters Are Characters, Too.

Not only did Card want me to write a list of everybody who lived in the castle, he wanted them to become more than just names on the page. A minor character needs a personality, background, relationships, hopes, fears, and feelings, to really become real. This was especially important with characters closest to my main character. Of course, it takes time to flesh out the characters, but it really is worth it.

Oh super kewl thread! Type on.. I am learning tid bits and ah-ha's. On fleshing out characters, is that done on paper? Do you use a certain format for a character sheet?

On another note, outlining. Do you do a linear list of what happens chapter by chapter or character by character or scene by scene? I'd love to know what Orson says (hehehe.. I'm calling him by his first name!) about making an outline. If you eventually answer these questions on down the list, you can skip my questions for the time being.

jade

Lean on and be leaned on.

Fabulous, thanks for sharing!

As for this:

this is TERRIBLY difficult. the critique group I'm a part of has a rule; you may not comment or ask questions beyond simple clarifications (such as "did you mean this character or this character?") while the others are critiquing your novel. You have to sit silently while four or five people pick your baby apart. ;) It's hard, but it's so worthwhile. It helps avoid defensive reactions, and gives the critiquer a chance to cover all their bases and get through without worrying about backlash. Makes the critiquers more honest, and the critiquee less defensive. AWESOME advice, if difficult to take. :) We basically would write down questions we had... and found that more often than not, patience answered those questions before we could ask them.

This is amazing, larelmian!

Thank you for sharing all this wonderful information. :)

Thank you so much, larelmian, for taking the time to share this. I hope many pop in here and read and learn from it. It's good to learn writing stuff and always interesting to see what published authors have to say about writing! And, yes, I've seen many new writers infodump. Me, I tend to leave out too much, but I'm working on it.

It is difficult to take a critique, as Dragonchilde said, but it is one thing I learned in that class, and perhaps one of the most valuable lessons I took from it. For a while, I called turning in an assignment "throwing it to the wolves." It was hard. To hear your story ripped apart and your weaknesses pointed out, but then I just turned around determined to prove that I could become a good writer. I also kept thinking about the story and how to improve even when my classmates were reading it, so by the time my turn at the table came around, I might have some of these problems already worked out.

And jade, Card's friends call him Scott. He doesn't really like the name Orson. When I addressed him, I usually called him "Professor Card" or "Brother Card."

There wasn't a specific layout for character development. When we brainstormed an idea as a class, everything would be scribbled all over the board. Brainstorming is a good way. If you have an idea for a story, try to come up with something that fits. And then I write. This brings me to another point:

11. The Most Important Question is "What Else?"

There are lots of threads on this site about avoiding cliches. Card says a cliche is the first idea a person pulls off the shelf in their mind. By looking at other possibilities, other motives, other consequences, other reactions, then the Author should not have this problem. Explore the possibilities of who, what, when, where, why, and how, especially the why and how. After all, what motivates characters greatly define them.

12. The Beginning of the Story Determines the End.

I don't know how detailed Card makes his outlines. I might have to check my books to see what he says about them, but I think his feelings are fairly neutral. Personally, I write out what happens in each chapter.

However, he is very firm that the beginning of the story should lead up to the end. He mentioned one story he'd read that started with a character finding a briefcase of money in a cheap motel and fleeing to Europe. Then this character dropped out of the story in favor of another one, who died, and then everyone felt sad. He hated it.

How then do you know where the story begins? It depends on the type of story. He likes to show it with MICE.

Milieu -- the setting. The story is like "The Hobbit," there and back again. It begins when the character ventures into this strange, new place and ends when he returns. I wrote one story where it began with my main character packing up to leave home, on his way to see the world.
Idea -- a mystery or question must be solved. It begins when the question is presented -- likely when the main character first learns about the situation, and it ends when the mystery is solved.
Character -- the character is unsatisfied with his or her role in life, and it ends when the character finds a new role, or settles back into the old one.
Event -- something is wrong with the world. The story ends when this wrongness is ended . . . or the world is destroyed (but most people don't like that one). A lot of fantasy stories are like this. It begins when the main character is brought into the event. But then, I remember reading "Elfstones of Shannara" and the main character didn't show up until about 50 pages in. But since this was an event story, and we started out seeing what was wrong in the world (the magical tree was dying), I saw nothing wrong with this.

I still have trouble finding the exact right beginning point. I almost never get it right in the first draft.

13. Make Characters Use the Bathroom.

I can't tell you how many times Card went off on that particular tangent. And I'd sit there laughing and thinking, "This is so gross." While it can add realism, I find it rarely helps advance the story. Usually I skip over this. But I do remember one story where it started to bug me when I realized none of the characters hadn't slept in about three days, so I understand why it's necessary to include things all humans do. After all, we want to convince Readers the characters are real humans.

14. Read Other People's Crap.

I remember him actually saying that. Card is convinced that his time as an editor for a church magazine ("The Ensign"), trying to make articles by people who don't usually write readable, made him a much better writer. While we don't all have a chance to work as editors, I think becoming sensative as to what makes writing good or not as good is important. This requires a lot of reading. careful reading -- for character development, plot structure, seeing how the pieces fit together, the flow and ebb of writing. Seeing how successful (and unsuccessful) writers have done it or failed does help. But I'm still experimenting to see if hours of pouring over crap really helps me.

The beginning determines the end ... duh! Yet I never once thought about it when I made my plan! It just so happens that it fits because I hurt and killed too many people in the middle not to have a nice wrap up at the end! LOL

Speaking of making your characters go to the bathroom, I always felt funny doing that. WAIT--- I never sat them on a toilet; I'm talking about them doing mundane things like showering, grocery shopping, going to the eye doctor. Anyway, I now find a tidbit about their personality to give away at that little scene so that's really my focus. It might be a thought, a memory, a quirk, an emotion, or a revelation!

OMG how am I going to stay off these forums when November gets here?!!

jade

Paraphrasing Stephen King, he says you shouldn't write if you don't read! He says you're going to need to increase your vocabulary to be a great writer, but put down that vocab builder- put down that dictionary- simply pick up a book and read it to increase your vocabulary!

15. Plant Weeds Between the Rows.

I admit, I often paraphrase Card in these tips, or sometimes I can't remember exactly what he said. This isn't one of those cases. He used those exact words, and this was one of the most important lessons I learned from him.

When I started writing, my pacing was horrible. In my earliest fantasy story, I crammed a novel's worth of material into about 15k. I kept wanting to move ahead to the most interesting and exciting parts. Who really needed a character's whole back story or a detailed setting we'd soon leave behind?

I did. How could I make the Reader CARE about what was happening to my characters if they didn't already know and like them?

I brought this line up in another thread concerning subplots. The weeds are the little details that liven things up -- a minor character with his own goals and motivations, an interesting setting even if it is for one small scene, the main character's relationships and childhood and what really makes him tick.

This is a novel. There is time to explore a few other paths than the most direct route to the main points of the plot. It adds life to the landscape. I can spend a few chapters before I get to the most important point in the plot, so that when it does happen, the Reader knows what is at stake, who the characters are, and why this is important.

16. An Author Must Know Everything About Everything.

If you want to become a novelist, Card recommends studying history instead of English. This made me feel great, since I was a history major. English classes look at symbolism and analyze meanings, instead of teaching plot structure and character development. He doesn't like armature stories stuffed with symbols, because that's all they know. He wishes he had studied more history.

Authors have to know everything, so that in case someone who would know better reads the story, they would not throw the book aside in disgust. Isn't it nice that this site has a place just for asking all those little questions about these details?

History shows what happened, and in college especially, history majors look at reasons why things happen the way they did, although historians don't always agree. Authors look at these things as well. So read history. Find out what makes people tick, why they do what they do, causes and multiple and unexpected effects.

Another thing Card did was made me question my world's own history and culture, which I have since developed into a much richer and deeper culture -- and this offered even more ideas for stories. When I started writing for his class, my highland culture had two warring kingdoms, that had been warring for a long time. Now I still have that, but I can tell you a lot more: why they fight, how these countries came into being, what led up to this culture taking on the shape it did. Because he made me ask myself these questions.

I feel like I'm getting my own free tid-bits course, only the tid-bits are huge, giant rocks!

Card me! I dare ya!

jade

Thanks for the tips, Em. They're really helpful. I already do most of them, but others...

For example, I seldom have characters use the bathroom - but they eat, they drink, they sleep (Keenan sleeps a lot), they bath, they even get sick. It adds realism and depth to them. I'm not sure I'll ever have my characters use the restroom as anything other than a covert meeting place (they have done that. It reached the point in one story that Keenan referred to it as "Bertram's office"), but it's definitely got me thinking.

I have serious trouble finding the balance between info-dumping and withholding too much. I see now that my pace is a bit shoddy and I have to work on it. Naming minor characters, though... God above, if I knew the name and backstory of every minor background character in Keenan's life, they'd all want me to write them down. >_< On the plus side, I'd never run out of material. As it is, everyone I've named ends up with their own story - except for the ones I kill.

Oooo, I messed that quote up bad. hehe.

It's easy to fix, though. ^_^ Also, thanks!
___
NaNo 2006: Steel Bars - 59,233 words
Screnzy 2007: The Enchanted Forest - won
NaNo 2007: Turning Beetles into Buttons - 51,949 words
Screnzy 2008: Simple Gifts - 43 pages total & Butterfly - 9 episodes

17. Know the Rules.

If you're writing speculative fiction (like about three-quarters of my class even though he said we could write anything), then you must know the rules of magic, space travel, time travel, whatever. Obey the rules. If anything is possible with magic, why would the Reader care? Even magic has limitations. Magic has its price.

Card had me write out all my rules of magic -- he didn't actually read any of it; he just wanted to make certain I had rules.

Rules can open up some interesting story possibilities. If magic is strictly herdeditary, passed down from parent to child, what happens if . . .
A parent keeps the magic secret from the other and then their children start displaying these strange and feared abilities?
Someone attempts to wipe out magic by hunting down all the magic users?
Someone seeks out a sorceress as a wife in order to bring this power into his family line?
A young orphan of unknown parentage suddenly displays magical powers?
A nobleman falls in love with a sorceress? Would others let them marry? Or fear the power coming to that family?
Someone meets other people with the same rare magical talent and begins to suspect they're actually related?

Yes, that is one of my rules. One of them. And look at all the story ideas I can come up with from that. In fact, the last one was the basis of my first NaNo.

I hope this goes to 100! I have a feeling it's going to end soon.
What's next larelmian?

jade

=)

18. You Determine What the Reader Feels about the Character.

You can make the character likable, or not likable.

Characters are likable if they're attractive, if we feel sympathy for their suffering, if they have plans and ambitions and dreams, if they're brave and honorable, if they have a good attitude, keep their promises, and are clever. Carefully mixed with some dislikable traits, they can become even more endearing.

We dislike characters who are sadists, bullies, selfish, usurpers, oathbreakers, over intelligent, and insane.

(See "Characters and Viewpoint" for further details.)

:D This is great! Keep it up, I'm so loving this right now!

19. Be Willing to Change Anything.

Change anything, change everything. You don't have to go with the first idea. Card said you shouldn't go with the first idea. You might find that it's not really accurate or believable. You might find an even better way of doing it, but only if you look. As you develop the characters and they take on greater shape, some things will seem out-of-character -- the Reader won't be able to believe what the character is doing . . . unless it's justified. But this can take time.

20. Make Your Character Heroic.

There has to be some heroic trait, something that will make the Reader like and admire this person enough to spend hours and hours reading about them.

This can be overdone. (Heck, anything can be overdone.) When someone is so heroic it defies credulity, this is what people around here call a "Mary Sue." (But I never heard Card use that term.) If you go the other way and remove anything unremarkable about them, there's another name for it -- "Who-are-you-talking-about-again?"

21. Ideas Are Fair Game.

When we do brainstorming sessions, he said we could all write a story based on the same idea or character. And they'd all turn out different. Of course, the publishers might notice and wonder what was up with all the stories about jealous pet chinchillas.

So, if you're afraid of ripping off an idea from somewhere else, don't worry about it. You thought it, and therefore it is your idea. This doesn't mean you can use other people's characters or worlds without permission. Of course, Card was the one who did deliberately and blatantly rip-off the Book of Mormon, and then he said that the editors didn't like it when the hero beheaded the bad guy after said bad guy had passed out in the street.

22. When Making Up Words, Use Only Words with New Meanings.

Now, a lot of fantasy and sci-fi writers want to make up languages. I mean, the people/aliens/elves clearly aren't speaking English here, and they won't all speak the same language. And Tolkien did made up languages. But I'm not like Tolkien, who actually knew many languages, how they evolved, and their relationships with each other, making him rather uniquely qualified to make up languages. He also took the time to do so properly, including grammar.

Now, even if the characters aren't speaking English, usually the Reader will just assume everything has been translated into English. So why leave a word or two untranslated? Especially one when it can easily be replaced by a word in English.

Now we come to the trick. Can it be easily replaced by a word in English? To paraphrase Card's example (see "How to Write Science-Fiction and Fantasy"), if "magubashuga" means bread, call it bread. But if "magubashuga" means the seed used to make bread which may be the cause of the telepathic powers, then you are justified in calling it "magubashuga."

And if you are using a real foreign language, make certain you get it right.

Larelmian, is this from his lectures and classes?

I realize that part of these may be in his book.. How to Write F and SF, but what percentage is from the book in your best guesstimate?

jade

I write white on white. That way, the editing is much easier! LOL

SCOTTY!!

These are really good tips. I might just have to find that book :D Or get my bumm on the Hatrack forums... I DO already have an account, I've just never felt like using it... and I already personally know a bunch of the members... Sorry, rant...

In answer to your question, jade, a lot of this can be found in his books. But I heard quite a bit in lecture first. A lot overlaps. In fact, I've heard him, in lecture, use examples I pretty sure he made up for his "how to" books.

How to give and take critiques -- especially the taking critiques -- I learned through experience. I remember turning in early drafts and talking about throwing it to the wolves. Now I beg people to rip my stories to shreds. And the tip "Plant weeds between the rows" was said to me concerning my story. That was one of my weakest points in writing -- pacing.

Card has an opinion on pretty much everything. And he'll happily share his opinions. In fact, he often goes off on tangents. But then, we can still learn, even from his tangents . . . this was a class on how to write novels.

Thanks. I think this will help.

23. Different People Will React in Different Ways.

Having everyone react in the same way to a situation is not the best way to write. Giving people different reactions to the same situation makes it more real. I recently read a book and I didn't like it that every last person in the world turned against the main character, especially since the Readers are supposed to feel this isn't really fair. I had a hard time believing it.

I learned this during a brainstorming session, when we had a fourteen-year-old second chair sax player with a crush on the first chair sax player. And the question was -- how will the rest of the band react to their relationship? Does someone tease them? Does someone tell them to just shut up and kiss already? Does someone get angry because he had a crush on the second chair? Now the minor characters are actually characters and not just place holders. And it adds to believability, which is the goal of the Author.

I learned about tip #23 on the forums this summer. It made me remember that our characters are individuals EVEN WHEN they are stereotypes! They can still break away at any moment because of their situation.

More larelmian. More.

jade