We’re not pleasantly intrigued, we’re baffled—or annoyed. The dreamlike illusion we’ve enjoyed up to that point has been ruptured not in some Brechtian breach of the fourth wall, but through plain bad writing. We scratch our heads, thinking: The character just wouldn’t do that.

As writers, we don’t ever want our readers to feel that kind of disconnect—but that doesn’t mean our characters should be neatly and easily defined, either. Pushing our characters to their limits, in fact, is what makes for compelling fiction.

So how, then, can we determine the limits of what’s believable in how a character behaves?

—by David Corbett

Character in Context

In life, when someone we know acts “out of character,” the subtext is almost always: Something must be wrong. The strange behavior, we assume, must be the result of some strain of which we’re unaware.

Sometimes we learn the person has a health problem. Sometimes we learn he was under the influence. The intoxicant may be drink or drugs, the pressure of fear or the rush of love (or some other kind of rapture), but the result is the compromise of the person’s inhibitions.

In the most unsettling cases, we come to realize we don’t know the person as well as we thought. The behavior we found puzzling resulted from an aspect of personality we simply didn’t know, recognize or understand. (This kind of revelation isn’t limited to others. You may even have shocked yourself on occasion, behaving in a way that made you think: Where the heck did that come from?) One great advantage reality has over fiction is that it doesn’t have to make sense. It just happens. In the case of real people, there’s no stopping the movement of time to say: I don’t buy that.

The great challenge of fiction is creating characters who feel logically, emotionally and psychologically consistent—who make sense—but retain the enigmatic power to surprise.

It should come as no shock that the trick is to learn from real life.

Just like their real-world avatars, characters who defy our expectations are almost always either:

■           Under a strain
■           Feeling free of some customary inhibition
■           Revealing something about themselves they’ve previously concealed.

Put otherwise, the key factor in the seemingly strange behavior is normally one of the following:

■           Conflict
■           Permission
■           Deceit/Disclosure.

Conflict: I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have to.
When the principal motivator for the unexpected act is conflict, the character enters the scene with a strong desire and a plan for achieving it, only to run smack into an equal—or overpowering—counterforce. As the character learns his plan is insufficient, ill-conceived, even ridiculous, he tosses aside this element or that—or pitches the whole thing overboard—and is forced to adapt and improvise.

The limits of what the character can do in the service of improvisation are defined first by the parameters of her mental and emotional makeup. But those parameters acquire elasticity depending on the depth of the character’s desire, the ferocity of the opposition, and the stakes.

For example, in the film Three Days of the Condor, Joseph Turner (Robert Redford) is a mild-mannered analyst. But when he returns from lunch one day to discover his co-workers murdered, he kidnaps Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway) as he tries to find a safe place to regroup. Turner’s not “the kind of guy” who under any other circumstances would abduct a woman. But his behavior is believable because his adversaries are ruthless. He’s not acting as he might; he’s acting as he must. And the real key to the credibility of his otherwise out-of-character behavior is that he himself acknowledges the abnormality of what he’s doing.

Likewise, in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois is desperate to find not just a resting place but a home with her sister, Stella. It becomes obvious, however, that Stella’s heart and home now belong to her husband. Blanche struggles harder and harder to get Stella to come out and say it—“my home is your home”—using flattery, nostalgia, guilt, sisterly simpatico, humor, but her efforts continue to fail. Finally, there’s nothing to do but something wildly out of character; Blanche tells her sister the unvarnished truth: “You’re all I’ve got in the world.” But, being Blanche, she can’t help but add a little manipulative dig: “And you’re not glad to see me.”

These scenes work because the characters don’t improvise wildly; they start with the familiar, using tactics they know well. The level of strangeness rises in sync with their desperation as the conflicts build and those tried-and-true methods fail.

The scenes also succeed because on some level the characters express or recognize the unusualness of what they’re doing. Turner apologizes. Blanche quickly reverts to form.

Permission: As long as you say it’s OK.
Drink doesn’t just steady the nerves. It grants the drinker tacit permission to let her inhibitions down, act as she pleases and say what she feels. And the “uncharacteristic” behavior is usually something that, when the person is sober, is kept under wraps.

Returning to Streetcar: For Blanche, drink isn’t just an intoxicant, it’s an indulgent friend who assures her it’s all right: She can return to her fantasy world of romance and mystery and forget the scandalous realties that have rendered her homeless, penniless and the subject of scorn.

Looked at more broadly, the role of permission reveals how much we frame our conduct around our circumstances. Propriety, duty, conformity, habit—they limit what we believe we’re allowed to do or say. But then we go on holiday—wherever, however—and the rules of gravity no longer apply.

In the film Rachel, Rachel, Rachel Cameron (Joanne Woodward) is a middle-aged spinster in a small Connecticut town. She lives wrapped in a straightjacket of righteous conformity—until a man shows up and she falls in love. She takes her holiday right there at home, finally letting herself feel the pleasure she’s been denying herself for decades.

Here the issue isn’t adaptation in the face of present conflict. It’s exploration or discovery of a suppressed, unsettling or even dangerous side of the personality that’s been there all along, just unexpressed. But that raises the question of why it’s been unexpressed, and that often leads us to past conflict.

You won’t know how far you can push a character’s liberated feelings without exploring her backstory: Why has this side of her personality been denied? When was the last time she demonstrated it? What happened? Who in the character’s past enforced that prohibition? In answering such questions, envision a crucial scene: a self-absorbed parent ignoring a long-anticipated performance; a judgmental teacher launching into a tirade over an innocent mistake; a so-called friend mocking the latest love interest. Let that one vivid scene stand for a history of abuse, neglect or being shut down.

And when the suppressed behavior at last finds expression, keep that internal naysayer in mind. As when faced with present conflict, the character might not suddenly leap from the familiar to the unrecognizable in one reckless bound, but instead experiment, her boldness growing with her confidence. Then again, the behavior she’s kept under wraps may escape with explosive force, as though to destroy the image of that person who, for years, has been saying over and over with insidious force: no.

Deceit/Disclosure: That wasn’t really me.
Here the inexplicable conduct hasn’t been repressed—it’s been deliberately hidden. Of the three types of surprise behavior we’ve covered, this one lends itself best to a sudden, big reveal. It’s also the easiest and most straightforward to portray.

In The Scarlet Pimpernel, Marguerite St. Just is baffled by what’s become of the brave, charming man she married. Sir Percy Blakeney has become a parody of himself, playing the part of the slow-witted dandy. Ultimately Marguerite discovers the foppery is a disguise, intended to conceal Sir Percy’s role as the leader of a band of noblemen dedicated to saving the lives of aristocrats facing death under the Reign of Terror.

In Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, the gentile Maxim de Winter erupts in inexplicable bursts of caustic temper that take on such a menacing aspect that he seems increasingly likely to crack apart. In the story’s crucial revelation, he at last confesses why this is—his wife Rebecca’s death wasn’t an accident after all.

Once we know the puzzling behavior results from something that has been concealed, we accept it readily, unless for some other reason it feels unbelievable. The paraplegic may very well get up and dance, but if he does, it better be magic or deception at play. Anything else is just bad writing.

If I did this more often I’d be better at it.
Regardless of what’s prompting your character to reach her limits, strange behavior shouldn’t come easily. Characters who demonstrate instant skill or comfort with something they’ve never tried before reside largely in the realm of shlock. The less familiar the behavior, the clumsier and more uncomfortable it should be. Trying anything out of the ordinary means complication, difficulty, intensified focus. Portray that in your scenes, and you’ll increase tension, enhance suspense and intensify reader empathy.

The Role of Contradictions

What much of the behavior we’re discussing exemplifies is the capacity of human beings to be contradictory.

Simply stated, a contradiction is something about a person that piques our interest because it betrays what we expect, given what else we know or observe about him.

Once you train your eye to look for contradictions, they crop up virtually everywhere, expressing a paradox of human nature: that people do one thing and exactly the opposite; they’re this but they’re also that.

In Jungian psychology, this largely unexplored, contradictory aspect of the personality is referred to as the Shadow. Psychic wholeness requires integrating into the conscious personality the nebulous traits embodied in the Shadow, and a great many stories are premised on exactly that kind of self-realization.

That said, some of the contradictions that prove useful in characterization are not psychological at all, but physical: the bully’s squeaky voice, the ballerina’s chubby knees. But the most interesting contradictions always reflect something internal, even dispositional: A man is both garrulous and shy, outgoing but suspicious, brutal but childlike. Omar Little from the TV show The Wire isn’t just a shotgun-toting vigilante; he’s also an openly gay man who treats his lovers with startling affection and tenderness. The effect: We never know which half of the personality will assert itself in any given situation. That’s suspense—the best kind.

Some contradictions are behavioral: We feel divided—optimistic and yet wary, accepting and yet guarded. Other contradictions reflect the need to act properly in a variety of contrasting social situations: the dinner table, the office, the stadium, the chapel, the bedroom. We feel differing degrees of freedom to “be ourselves” in each of these environments, depending on who else is present.

Beyond purposes of verisimilitude, contradictions serve two key dramatic purposes:

■           They defy expectation and thus pique our interest.
■           They provide a straightforward method for depicting complexity and depth. Specifically, they provide a means to portray:

•    Subtext (the tension between the expressed and the unexpressed, the visible and the concealed)
•    The situational subtleties of social life (“I must be many things to many people”)
•    The conflict between conscious and unconscious behavior
•    Suspense (we want to know what the contradiction means, why it’s there).

But again, there are limits to what is credible. Contradictions that seem implausible may enhance a
comedic portrayal—the mob boss with the Yorkie, the cop who’s terrified of cats, the chain-smoking nun—but they can undermine a dramatic one if handled carelessly. Ask whether the contradiction draws you, the writer, toward the character, or permits you an emotional distance. If the latter, you’re “looking at” the character rather than emotionally engaging with her, and the characteristic you’re considering is likely not working. If you can justify the contradiction, root it in backstory and unearth scenes from your imagination that reveal how this character developed these seemingly irreconcilable inclinations, it will become less conceptual, more intuitive and organic.

Emotion, Intuition & Trust

The temptation when writing scenes in which characters do the unexpected is to stop and explain what just happened. Many writers think, not without some merit, that to leave things incomplete, ambiguous or untidy is just sloppiness. Though there’s much to admire in this sort of rigor, in the realm of characterization it’s sadly misplaced.

Where rigor is necessary is in how vividly, creatively and comprehensively we conceive our characters. We don’t get to know someone new through a recitation of biological data; we get to know her through interacting with her—especially during emotional or demanding times. So, too, we get to know a character by engaging with her in meaningful scenes that reveal the most significant aspects of her life: her wants and contradictions and secrets and wounds, her attachment to friends and family and her fear of her enemies, her schooling and sense of home, her loves and hatreds, her shame and pride and guilt and sense of joy. As important as a character’s choices and motivations are in any scene—what she does and why—they don’t exist in a vacuum.

This way of understanding the character—relying on emotionally significant scenes, not information—allows us to engage with the character on the level of intuition, not intellect. This permits us to envision our characters clearly and feel as though we’re in dialogue with them, observing them as we observe a dream—not controlling them like marionettes. And it’s precisely “plot puppets” that most routinely exhibit traits that feel “out of character.”

Readers shouldn’t be vexed by a character’s behavior, but they should never feel entirely comfortable, either, or they’ll be several steps ahead of the story at every turn.

Explaining your character kills her. Whatever she does, the reader or audience needs to feel her actions arise not from some single, explainable source, but from the whole of her personality. And the deeper you understand that whole, the more likely you’ll be able to portray convincingly the unexpected in her behavior.

So where is that fine line between being puzzled by behavior and finding it contrived? The answer lies in letting the behavior emerge from the character, not the writer. We need to create enough of a vivid intuition of a character that the possibility for real, unpredictable, unpremeditated action on the character’s part seems credible. And this requires envisioning the character in emotionally demanding scenes, filled with conflict, pathos and risk. In the end, it’s not so much a question of how far the character will go, but how thoroughly you’re willing to connect with her.

************
Follow me on Twitter: @BrianKlems
Check out my humor book, Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl.
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Post your response (500 words or fewer) in the comments below.

Want more creative writing prompts? Consider:
The Writer’s Book of Matches

Each registration comes with access to the archived version of the program and the materials for one year. You do not have to attend the live event to get a recording of the presentation. In all WD webinars, no question goes unanswered. Attendees have the ability to chat with the instructor during the live event and ask questions. You will receive a copy of the webinar presentation in an e-mail that goes out one week after the live event. The answers to questions not covered in the live presentation will be included in this e-mail as well.

ABOUT THE CRITIQUE

All registrants are invited to submit the first 250 words of their manuscript, plus a one-paragraph synopsis and/or a query letter. All submissions are guaranteed a written critique by literary agent Katharine Sands. Katharine reserves the right to request more writing from attendees by e-mail following the event, if she deems the writing excellent.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

Literary agents are always on a treasure hunt. But few writers know what it takes to make an agent yell, “Eureka, I’ve struck gold!” A first glance is all that most writers will get before the agent moves on without ever reading further, and that first glance needs to be a “Eureka” moment. This live webinar will cut through the mystery of getting an agent to want YOU.

Literary agent Katharine Sands will show you the best ways to showcase your writing as a bold, new entry into its category and yourself as a potential author with an intriguing book poised to spring forth. Katharine will explain hooks, selling points, and engines so that you will be able to sum up your entire book with a two-line description—and that’s gold! She’ll dive into best practices that will allow your pitch to either give off sparks or create a moment or pose a provocative question. She’ll show you how you can avoid ‘Querial’ Killers: the easy-to-fix mistakes writers make when querying agents. And, of course, she’ll talk (in detail) about the All-Important-Page-One. Sign up for the webinar here.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• How to make the perfect pitch
• How to deliver the flavor your book to whet the reader’s appetite for more
• How to keep the momentum going through the All-Important-Page-One
• How to start in a logical place—yet from a compelling perch
• How to identify the most exciting elements that illustrate your work
• How to encapsulate (in clear core points) when proposing a book
• The five key takeaways you need to entice an agent/editor
• How to amplify your chances for being selected
• What to do—and what not to do—when summarizing your book in 200-250 words. You want the neurons in the agent’s mind to decide, “Yes, keep reading!”

INSTRUCTOR

A literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Katharine Sands has worked with a varied list of authors who publish a diverse array of books. She is the agent provocateur of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent’s Eye, a collection of pitching wisdom from leading literary agents. Recently contributed “Grey is the New Black” to Fifty Writers on Fifty Shades of Grey, a nonfiction look at the cultural phenom of the bestselling novel. Actively building her client list, she likes books that have a clear benefit for readers’ lives in categories of food, travel, lifestyle, home arts, beauty, wisdom, relationships, parenting, and fresh looks, which might be at issues, life challenges or popular culture. When reading fiction she wants to be compelled and propelled by urgent storytelling, and hooked by characters. For memoir and femoir, she likes to be transported to a world rarely or newly observed.

Sign up for the webinar here!

DETAILS

Clarksville: This 2-day event is hosted at Austin Peay State University, 601 College St., Clarksville, TN.

Lexington: This 2-day event is hosted at the Carnegie Center for Literacy, 51 W 2nd St  Lexington, KY.

WHICH AGENTS WILL BE THERE?

Clarksville:

1. Debbie Carter (Muse Literary): “Debbie is looking for writing with charisma for adults and children. Interests include literary novels; short story and poetry collections by writers who have won prizes or published in literary journals; mysteries/thrillers/suspense novels; multicultural and international fiction relatable to American readers; as well as narrative nonfiction about extraordinary people and experiences in memoir/biography, home & lifestyle, travel, history, pop culture, music and the arts, New York, Americana, nostalgia, antiques and anything not mentioned here that writers think may interest her. Debbie is also interested in children’s literature (picture books and up) and teens’ multicultural fiction, mysteries and thrillers, historical fiction, animal stories, fantasy grounded in reality, narrative nonfiction and serious nonfiction.
2. Gina Panettieri (Talcott Notch Literary): “Gina is currently seeking a full range of fiction and nonfiction for both adults and children. In nonfiction, she is looking for business, self-help, science, gardening, cookbooks, crafts, parenting, memoir, true crime and travel. With fiction, she loves quirky, edgy characters. Pitch her women’s fiction, paranormal, urban fantasy, horror, science fiction, historical, mystery, thrillers and suspense. She loves realistic contemporary YA fiction, and humorous or ‘slightly spooky’ middle-grade fiction.”

Lexington:

1. Jessica Sinsheimer (Sarah Jane Freymann Literary): “Always on the lookout for new writers, she is most excited about finding literary, women’s, and Young Adult fiction, and—on the nonfiction side—psychology, parenting, self-help, cookbooks, memoirs, and works that speak to life in the twenty-first century.”
2. Rita Rosenkranz (Rita Rosenkranz Literary): “Her wide-ranging adult non-fiction list includes health, history, parenting, music, how-to, popular science, business, biography, popular reference, cooking, spirituality, memoir, sports and general interest titles. Rita works with major publishing houses, as well as regional publishers that handle niche markets. She looks for projects that present familiar subjects freshly or lesser-known subjects presented commercially, and is open to new authors with credible marketing platforms.”

OTHER EVENT DETAILS

Clarksville:

• There is a wide variety of authors & speakers at the event.
• On Thursday there is a keynote banquet with the authors.
• Both literary agents will taking appointments (pitches) with writers.
• There are sessions on pitching, reading like a writer, Twitter & blogging, memoir writing, indie publishing, poetry, short fiction, the structure of fiction, and more.

Lexington:

• You can buy a one-on-one consultation with a literary agent.
• There is a student discount.
• Scheduled to appear is the 2012 National Book Award Winner Nikky Finney.
• There are sessions on young adult writing, fiction writing, nonfiction writing, pitching, revision techniques, publishing options today, self-publishing, and more.

LEARN MORE

See the official Clarksville Writers Conference page here.

See the official Books in Progress Conference page here.

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I Will Speak At These Great Writing Events in 2012-2013:

• June 22-24, 2012: Crested Butte Writers Conference (Crested Butte, CO)
• July 26-28, 2012: Midwest Writers Workshop (Muncie, IN)
• Aug. 2-8, 2012: Homeric Writers Retreat & Workshop (Isle of Ithaca, Greece)
• Sept. 13-14, 2013: Chicago Writers Conference (Chicago, IL)
• Feb. 14-17, 2013: San Francisco Writers Conference (San Francisco, CA)
• April 5-7. 2013: Writer’s Digest Conference East (New York, NY)
• April 19-20, 2013: Kentucky Writers Conference (Bowling Green, KY)
• May 17-19, 2013: PennWriters Conference (Pittsburgh, PA)
• May 23-26, 2013: Writers Guild of Alberta “Words in 3D” Event (Edmonton, Canada)
• June 6-7, 2013: Clarksville Writers Conference (Clarksville, TN)
• June 7-8, 2013: Carnegie Literary Center “Books-in-Progress” Conference (Lexington, KY)
• June 21-23, 2013: Agents & Editors Conference / Writers League of Texas (Austin, TX)
• July 5-6, 2013: Hunt Country Writers Retreat (Middleburg, VA)
• Fall 2013: Writer’s Digest West Conference (Los Angeles, CA)

As part of my 10 Questions Series, Dan took a minute to talk with me and answer 10 fascinating questions about humor writing—covering the writing process, finding an agent, important advice for aspiring humor writers and more—that anyone who has ever considered writing humor should check out.

WANT MORE FROM DAN?
Follow him on Twitter @DanZevin and check out danzevin.com.

1. Tell us about the moment you decided to become a writer. Was it an easy decision? Difficult decision?

In third grade, it first became clear that I couldn’t add, subtract, multiply, or divide. Fractions? Made me cry. I was outstanding at book reports, though. Then, many years later, I went to NYU and realized, all over again, that I couldn’t add, subtract, multiply, or divide. Fractions no longer made me cry, though, because they had something there called a “journalism major.” By senior year, I was interning at Rolling Stone.

2. What’s your writing process?

My process is that I must first awaken my muse each morning with a healthy mug or 10 of high-octane espresso, allowing me to get that special spike in blood pressure I need to start the long day of procrastinating that lies ahead. At some point, I will possibly become inspired to begin the pathological process of brainstorming with myself. This entails using piles of scrap paper to jot down any and every funny thing I can think of regarding a certain topic. Then—after a coffee break—I will try to organize these psychotic ramblings (most of which are illegible) into an arch. I literally draw an arch, which is my “story arc,” and I try to fit each of the random funny bits into this arc, so I wind up with a beginning, middle, and end. Then I pick up the kids from school. As I say in Dan Gets a Minivan, having kids gives every writer what they’re truly looking for: an excuse not to write. (By the way, that’s from an essay I poignantly entitled, “On No Longer Giving a Shit.”)

3. What’s the most difficult part of writing humor?

Running out of half-and-half.

4. What’s the most rewarding part?

I do a lot of funny speeches and readings at all sorts of live events, conferences, and obviously bookstores, and I always feel so much luckier than “serious” authors who do these things because I get an instant reaction from my audiences—I get to see them laughing. So often I’ll go to a reading by a brilliant novelist, and the audience just stares blankly into space, hopefully because they’re paying attention, but I’m way too crazy to deal with that uncertainty. With humor, you write it, they laugh at it, boom, everybody’s happy.

5. What sparked you to write Dan Gets a Minivan: Life at the Intersection of Dude and Dad?

I was one of those guys who thought nothing much was going to change once my wife and I reproduced. Then everything changed. I mean, look at me. I was a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. Now I’m a suburban dad driving back and forth to Home Depot in my minivan. And loving it! That’s the kind of stuff I wanted to share in my book—just those small, funny moments none of us ever see coming until we have kids. The way I see it, there are more than enough “serious” parenting books out there, but personally, I think the one thing every parent really needs is comic relief.

6. I found the chapter about your trip to Costco with your father to be not only hilarious but also touching. What is your favorite part of Dan Gets a Minivan and why?

I kind of like that chapter the best, too. It’s called “The Day I Turned Into My Father” and the whole thing is set at Costco, which is his favorite destination on Planet Earth. And guess what? Now, it’s mine too. See what I mean? It’s pathetic. But let me tell you, I get more people writing to my website about that chapter than any other one in the book. At a certain age, we all turn into our parents.

7. Walk us through the story of how you landed your agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, at the William Morris Agency, and how that relationship works.

This is my fourth book, but when I was trying to find an agent for my first one—which is a satirical survival guide to post-college coping—I gave the manuscript to my former Rolling Stone editor, Bob Love. I also gave it to every other citizen in the greater United States of America area, in hopes that they would then give it to an agent, who would then actually get it published. As it turned out, Bob did get it to an agent, but the agent didn’t want it, BUT the agent gave it to another agent (do you see how simple of a process this is?) and that agent was Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. Now I have a sitcom deal with Adam Sandler’s production company, who optioned this book along with my previous one, The Day I Turned Uncool, so I think the woman may know what she’s doing.

8. You’ve taught humor writing at Fordham University and Sarah Lawrence College, and have also led small workshops. What kind of challenges do you face when advising others on how to write funny? Do you find it easier or harder than writing your own humor?

People always ask me if it’s really possible to “teach” anyone how to be funny. The answer, unfortunately, is no. What I try to do is encourage students to use their sense of humor in anything they write. It’s often a radical idea to them, because they’ve spent so many years trying to be “writerly” and have had so many teachers making them “stick to the facts.” I’ve had a lot of students tell me it’s the first time they ever felt allowed to write anything funny. Isn’t that messed up?

9. What writers (or books) have had the most influence on your writing and writing career?

I’m a huge fan of Dave Barry and PJ O’Rourke, and the highlight of my career was when they both wrote blurbs for Dan Gets a Minivan. Dave Barry wrote that he wants to kill me, but I’ve chosen to take that as a compliment.

10. What one piece of advice would you offer to other writers looking to make a career out of writing humor?

You can use espresso beans as regular coffee. That way, you can drink a whole pot of it, not just some dumb little cup the the size of a tea-party toy.

************
Follow me on Twitter: @BrianKlems
Check out my humor book, Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl.
Sign up for my free weekly eNewsletter: WD Newsletter

(Learn how you can support and help a new author with their book release.)

About Emma: “I grew up in New Jersey as an avid reader and the daughter of a literary agent. My mother had her office in our house, and I loved helping her organize her bookshelves, sort query letters, and read manuscripts that she was excited about. After graduating from Kenyon College with a degree in history, I joined The Wendy Weil Agency as an assistant, later became a rights associate, and eventually an agent. After Wendy’s sudden and tragic death last fall, my colleague Emily Forland and I joined Brandt & Hochman in the beginning of 2013, where I’m eager to continue growing my list. I live in Brooklyn and enjoy trying new foods, re-watching old episodes of ‘The Sopranos,’ and spending quality time with my new – and delightfully chubby – niece.”

(Read an interview with literary agent Emily Forland.)

She is seeking: “I am on the lookout for literary and commercial fiction, upmarket women’s fiction, historical fiction, narrative nonfiction, pop culture, memoir, food writing, and YA and MG fiction and nonfiction. I’m open to mostly any project with strong writing, an original premise, and a story that immediately grabs me – and I still think about weeks after I’ve finished reading it. I’m especially drawn to stories that make me cry, laugh, or transport me to a world that’s new to me. So long as the writing is strong, I don’t shy away from dark or quiet stories. I don’t tend to like category or genre fiction.”

How to submit: “The best way to contact me is via email at epatterson [at] bromasite.com with a basic query letter (a bit about the project, the author, and the author’s past publishing or writing history). A few pages of the work can also be pasted into the body of the email, but I won’t open attachments unless I’ve specially asked for one. Due to the high volume of emails I receive, I generally only respond to queries that sound up my alley.”

(See a spotlight with Emma’s co-agent, literary agent Jody Klein.)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• New Literary Agent Seeking Clients: Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron & Associates.
• New Literary Agent Seeking Clients: Pam van Hylckama Vlieg of Larsen Pomada.
• NEW Literary Agent Seeking Writers: Stephen Barr of Writers House.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Author Platform.
• Query Letter Tips and Advice.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

(Meet an agent who reps young adult: Joanna Volpe of New Leaf Literary.)

GIVEAWAY: Kasie is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

 Guest column by Kasie West, who lives with her family in Central
California, where the heat tries to kill her with its hundred-plus
degree stretches. When not writing she loves to wakeboard and
eat lots of mint-filled chocolate. She graduated from Fresno
State University with a bachelor’s degree that has nothing to
do with writing. Visit her online at kasiewest.com. Her debut
young adult novel from HarperTeen due out Feb. 2013 is called
PIVOT POINT. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book
“a fascinating exploration of how life can change with one simple choice.”

1. “The Bachelor Test”

Perhaps I shouldn’t admit that I’m a fan of “The Bachelor” on television. But there you have it. I just admitted it. And since I know none of you would ever watch this show, let me explain a phenomenon that happens often. The Bachelor will sit down with his date and instead of talking about herself or asking questions that matter, she immediately starts saying: “I want you to know, I’m here for the right reasons. I’m here to find love and to get married. I’m here for you.”

This conversation is repeated over and over every time they have alone time together. I often find the equivalent of this conversation in books, when instead of spending time together, the characters just talk about how much they want to spend time together or how frustrated they are that they can’t be together. Wasting “on screen” time having characters lament about why they can or can’t be together, doesn’t show why they actually want to be together. To see how people face real things shows more about how they interact than talking ever will. I’m not saying they can’t ever talk about their relationship. But the majority of the time should be spent developing that relationship.

So test question number one: Does my character think she (or he) is talking to The Bachelor?

2. “The Stalking Test”

Staring at a boy or girl from a distance is fine, every once in a while. Especially if the staring shows something he/she is doing that helps the reader get to know him vs. telling how attractive he/she is. A few mentions of observation/appearance are plenty. If your main character or main love interest spends an unhealthy amount of time observing another person without that person knowing, it’s probably gone a bit overboard.

Test question number two: Is my main character auditioning for a role in the next horror film featuring creepy stalkers?

3. “The Staring Contest”

Speaking of staring, staring into each others’ eyes is super cute and romantic, but unless something else is going on can get sappy and boring really fast. So unless someone is checking out their appearance in that other person’s eyes (which could be a great way to show characterization) then best to leave extensive mentions of getting lost in someone’s eyes out of your manuscript. (Unless they really are getting lost in someone’s eyes….hmm….excuse me while I jot down a plot about hypnotism.)

Test question number three: Are my characters competing in a staring contest? First one to blink loses!

4. “The L-O-V-E Test”

Professing love is great, but much like adding too much water dilutes potency, too much of the L word dilutes its ability to have an effect on your readers’ emotions. This goes for other words too. Too much of any word can dilute its effectiveness. Use words that you would like to make an impact sparingly.

Test question number four: Have I spelled “love” without having to use the word?

5. “The Starry Eyed Test”

Resist having characters immediately like each other. Avoid phrases like: drawn to him, instant attraction, it felt like I had known her forever. These phrases, if necessary, can be used once a real connection has been established. Replace these phrases with actions that peak the MC’s curiosity about the person, that lead the MC to want to know more about the person that they just met. Of course, physical attraction can be an immediate thing, but following that, there needs to be something of substance to keep the main character interested in pursuing the relationship beyond physical appearance. Who is the love interest and why does your MC care about getting to know more about him? Show us.

Test question number five: Can my character see past the stars in her eyes?

GIVEAWAY: Kasie is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before.

Writing a novel for children? Literary agent
Mary Kole, who runs the popular KidLit.com
website, has a new guide out for writers of
young adult and middle grade. Pick up a copy
of Writing Irresistible Kidlit and get your
children’s book published.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• 11 Questions About Money, Book Royalties, Advances and More.
• Who Is Your Target Reader?
• Literary Agent Interview: Nicole Resciniti of The Seymour Agency.
• How to Start Your Novel.
• Sell More Books by Building Your Writer Platform.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and how to write a query letter.

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

SNAPPER details the brief but romantic career of a backwater birdwatcher. It won the 1st Annual Janklow & Nesbit Prize, and will appear from Pantheon (April 2013) and from Tinder Press (UK, May 2013). In a starred review, Booklist said of the book: “Told with precise and memorable prose in beautifully rendered, time-shifted vignettes, Snapper richly evokes the emotions of coming to adulthood … Kimberling writes gracefully about absurdity, showing a rich feeling for the whole range of human tragicomedy. A delightful debut.”

What is the book’s genre/category?

Literary fiction.

Please describe what the story/book is about.

Memoirs of a bird researcher in Southern Indiana, or “a story of one man’s disastrous love affair with the place that made him.” (the quote is UK dust jacket copy).

Where do you write from? 

A kitchen table in Bath, England.

Briefly, what led up to this book? 

I had published some newspaper and magazine articles, and I had written and produced several plays before SNAPPER. That was good training: I began to enjoy writing dialogue, for example, and developed a better sense of scene and comic timing. I have had the usual heaps of rejection letters from little magazines for short stories, stretching over two decades.

What was the time frame for writing this book? 

I wrote SNAPPER in about 18 months total, I think, though the bulk of it came within about 6 months. There was an intense SNAPPER summer. I did an MA at Bath Spa University in England, working closely with Tessa Hadley, and for almost the whole time I was working on something entirely different. But eventually it became clear that what I wrote about Indiana was better than anything else I wrote. Write what you know, et cetera.

How did you find your agent?

My agent is Will Francis in the London office of Janklow & Nesbit. They run an annual contest for the best MS to come out of the Bath Spa University Master’s in Creative Writing programme. The winner receives a cash prize and an offer of representation. I won. The contestants are limited to 30 or 40 people — it’s the ideal sort of contest to enter, if you can find one.

What were your 1-2 biggest learning experience(s) or surprise(s) throughout the publishing process?

The agent and editors and so on who took on my book turned out to be the kind of people I’d hang out with if we lived in the same town. If I were trying to pitch a book now I’d look for people I personally like, and let things like track record and reputable agency sit in the background somewhere. I would look for someone in a Clash T-shirt, basically. Despite the publishing’s glamorous sheen, it is an industry full of — surprise! — people. It’s important to remember that.

Looking back, what did you do right that helped you break in?

I wrote an unusual book. To some extent I had to suppress my inner businessman, who thought that “birds in Indiana” was the least viable commercial proposition ever. I think that as the rejections mount, it’s easy or inevitable to start calculating your way in, and yet this calculation is antithetical to just following your instincts and writing the best story or book that you can.

On that note, what would you have done differently if you could do it again?

I’d like to have written SNAPPER when I was about 22, but I don’t think that was possible.

Did you have a platform in place?  On this topic, what are you doing the build a platform and gain readership?

My US & UK publishers both encouraged me to start blogging, tweeting, set up a pinterest thing, make a Facebook page for the book, and so forth. I do all those things to some degree. I started the blog when the MS was doing the rounds, containing promotional materials from my plays and some published nonfiction and so on. The main reason I did that was so I could obsess over web stats and try to determine when someone somewhere was taking notice.

Website(s)?

briankimberling.wordpress.com

Favorite band?

The Jam.

Something personal about you readers may be surprised to know?

I’m 6’7″, which puts me in the company of very tall authors Michael Crichton, Garrison Keillor, and Jane Smiley.

What’s next?

Another book set in Indiana, for Pantheon.

Sure, his novels are everywhere these days. Bookstores. Airports. Bestseller lists. But here’s how they got there.

As Lindsey O’Connor detailed in our profile of the author, Burke published his first story when he was 19. It did not earn him instant fame.

He worked the oil fields. He drove trucks. He taught.

He’d sold a couple of books, but they never really broke out.

And then he hit a mind-bending snag. He’d written a novel called The Lost Get-Back Boogie.

He submitted it. He got rejected.

… 111 times, over the course of nine years.

He battled alcoholism.

He applied for a Guggenheim grant. He got rejected.

… Fourteen times.

And then, finally, almost a decade after he’d first submitted The Lost Get-Back Boogie, LSU Press bought it.

It was nominated for a Pulitzer.

He got his Guggenheim.

He wrote The Neon Rain (1987) and created his famous Dave Robicheaux character.

Black Cherry Blues (1989) sold for six figures.

He’s now written more than 30 novels; he’s an award-winning bestseller; he’s a mainstay of his genre—and that’s the half of Burke’s story you’re used to hearing. But like most writers, the “Yes” that eventually built his career was built upon the foundation of a thousand “Nos.”

Never give up.

* * *

Here are some of Burke’s insights that he shared with Lindsey O’Connor in WD:

“I started writing and attempting to publish when I was 19. And by age 20 I worked briefly offshore, 10 days on the water, back on land for five days, and during those five days I would write, write, write. I rented a mailbox, and I would send my stories, and I guess some poems, to magazines all over Canada and the United States. Then I would go back on the quarter boat, and come back 10 days later, and my rejections would be waiting for me in the mailbox. But I learned a system and I’ve followed it ever since: Never let a manuscript stay at home longer than 36 hours. It’s that simple. You keep it in the mail, and if you do not you are ensured to fail.”

How did you get through the long period of rejection in the middle of your career?
“Rejection’s not easy. I mean, it’s like somebody, every day of your life, saying, ‘You know, you’re a real loser.’ And you wonder if he has a point. But the truth is that you don’t care. And I never did. I was never bothered by letters of rejection. I never believed one of them. And I received them by the hundreds, over many years.

“You do it a day at a time. You just put your rejection slips in a shoebox and tell yourself one day you’re going to autograph them and sell them at auction.”

If you had stopped with all those rejections over the years, how would that have changed your life?
“Well, I would have resented myself, I suspect, the rest of my life. But my point is an artist will not quit. He doesn’t have a choice. An artist is not going to do other things. It isn’t a matter of being brave. That’s like saying, ‘Well, I was brave because I got up this morning.’ It’s something in your spiritual tissue. You never stop. Why stop? Another thing a person has to remember: If he’s successful, it’s temporary. It’s going to go away.”

What’s the most challenging aspect of the writing and publishing life to you?
“Every writer has a nemesis. For me it’s fatigue. You can do lots of things well if you’re tired, but writing is not one of them. Maybe there are people who can write well when they’re tired, but I think almost any artist would say that it’s very hard to work at a full-time job somewhere else, and then write before you go to work, and write when you come home. That’s when it really takes courage.

“Write for the love of your art. Someplace down the road, the money, the fame, they’ll come, but by that time you won’t be thinking in terms of money or fame.”

What’s your advice for writers inspired by your example of literary longevity and success?
“Don’t ever quit. Never quit. Never show anybody you’re hurt. Grin and walk through the cannon smoke. It will drive them up the wall. You always stay true to your own principles. You always believe in your gift. God doesn’t make mistakes when he presents someone with a gift like that. It’s there for a reason.”

Zachary Petit is the senior managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine. He finally caved in and joined Twitter, and is now hopelessly distracted: @ZacharyPetit. 

For more, check out a copy of the latest issue of Writer’s Digest.

Need some help surviving and thriving in the writing life? Check out James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers. 

Successfully starting and finishing a publishable novel can be like fighting a series of battles—against the page, against one’s own self-doubt, against rebellious characters, etc. Featuring timeless, innovative, and concise writing strategies and focused exercises, this book is the ultimate battle plan and more—it’s Sun Tzu’sThe Art of War for novelists.

Post your response (500 words or fewer) in the comments below.

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The Writer’s Book of Matches