Complications of the Bechdel Test in Writing

Courtesy publicdomainpictures.net

The Bechdel Test can best be described as a litmus test that is applied to movies to evaluate the role or presence of women in the film.  To pass the test, the movie must have two female, named characters, that speak to each other during the film about any subject other than men.  It is a striking simple test, and yet a vast majority of films fail to meet it.

In literature, you don't have screen time and the rules should be somewhat different.  In theory, with writing, it should be easier to have the Bechdel Test requirements met.  Yet, I've found that depending on the factors behind your story, this can be surprisingly difficult to pass, despite the fact that the number and significance of the female characters in the story exceed the number of males.

In Extrication, the story is told first person through the eyes of a thirteen year old boy.  He has several female characters that he interacts with, three of which are a significant part of his life.  He has his mother, the neighbor, Gail Rosenberg, and his long distance friend, Claire.  Also, being a thirteen year old boy, he is attending school during the day with countless kids his age of both genders.  So, with all of these female characters, it should be easy to have the Bechdel Test passed, right?  Wrong.

One of the problems with writing, is that every scene should carry with it a purpose.  Having an abundance of female characters in the story makes it possible to have two of them interact.  But, they need to interact in such a way to advance the story.  In the case of Extrication, the story is about a young boy finding that he has an extraordinary power.  This greatly limits the options available for two female characters talking to advance the story.

Fortunately, in my bag of tricks, I was able to find a way to work this out.  Part of telling a story is setting the scene of the world.  One way to learn about the world is with conversations between characters.  If the piece of information is important to the reader, but not something your character would necessarily talk about, you have a perfect opportunity.  You can have your character overhear two characters discuss this in front of your protagonist.

If you have a piece of writing that does not meet the Bechdel test, you should look closely and ask yourself why doesn't it.  Adding in a scene where two students talk about an important piece of world news isn't a major change.  You can also look at your existing scenes where a group of characters are holding a conversation and see if you can switch around who's talking to whom to make the story pass the Bechdel test.  This small bit of effort takes nothing away from the story and makes the book just that much more accessible in a world where Bechdel tests are needed.

The Extended Break

I took a break from blogging.  For a while now, I felt that my blog posts were short, forced, and lacking useful content.  I not only want to be a published author, I want to make myself a resource for the writing world.  For this reason, it is important that I focus on making my blogs meaningful and thought provoking.

I hadn't forgotten about this blog.  I'm only two behind my King of the Hill movie challenge.  After catching Hunger Games, I basically stopped watching movies.  A friend was able to convince me to finally sit down and watch Titanic and I'll be doing an in depth discussion of that movie later.  I also recently watched A Little Princess.  But, beyond this, I needed time off.  It also doesn't help that my grandmother passed away and I got a promotion at work.

Breaks are important, even in writing.  One of the best times to take a break is after completing a novel.  My good friend, fellow SWAG member, and author of Uncross Your Heart, Taryn Elliott, had to remind me of this rule.  I finished writing the first draft of Extrication last week.  During the writing process, something happened with Scrivener and I lost an entire chapter.  While I promised not to go back immediately into the story, I felt like I hadn't completed the novel without that lost chapter.  I attempted to redo the chapter and got a harsh reminder why you need to step away.

Stories are a journey.  You have a character who starts at Point A and travels down the path of the story until they reach the end of the story at Point Z.  With writing, you get into the head of a character and put him through this journey.  If you are doing things right, the problem should be obvious.  After finishing a novel, you are in the head of a character at Point Z.  A Point Z character is not going to be the same person as the one a Point A or even a Point W.  Character growth leads you with a completely different person.

This was what happened when I tried to fill that missing chapter.  Peter Smith, in my head, is a Point Z character.  For me to go back and write this scene, I need to wait, let the character have some time off and go back to the story after that break.  When I return, I'll have to start from Point A and work my way through to the missing chapter.  Then, with the proper character in my mind, I can write the scene.

Just so that we are clear, I'm not talking about plot.  I know exactly what happens in the chapter that I lost.  After all, I wrote it once before.  The issue is that I need to be in the character's state of mind.  That's not that easy of a shift to make.  So, for now, I'm focusing on other things while I wait for another week to pass when I'll try this again.  After all, Tara Elliot said that the minimum time limit is two weeks. I'll trust her judgement; she writes good shit.

Go buy her book.

How To Write An Unsolicited Query Letter

On Friday, I submitted my first novel to an agent. While this act does not make me an author, it does bring me a step closer to that goal. I've reached the the longest of the six requirements outlined in my Writing Is Hard entry. I must wait. I have no idea how long to expect for a response. If this were a normal case of an unsolicited query letter, I'd expect five to six months, possibly a year. In this case, the agent had indicated she was out of unsolicited queries and was requesting more. Hopefully, this puts me near the top of the pile and will give me only a couple of months of waiting.

Sending a query letter was a process. I've never done one before, and I can't be completely certain I did this correctly. What I can tell you is that the internet is full of conflicting advice. I used several different resources on the internet to piecemeal together my final query letter.

What is an Unsolicited Query Letter?

A query letter is a letter outlining your interest in publishing your novel and information about the novel you'd like to see published. Most query letters will be unsolicited; that is to say, query letters that were not directly requested by the agent or editor. In my case, I was made aware of an agent looking for submissions. This was still an unsolicited query letter. She asked for submissions, but did not ask ME for submissions.

Step 1. Outline Your Story

This step is listed first because it can be completed long before you should be hunting down an agent or writing a query letter. If you write your stories by outline, this step should have been completed long ago. If you are a pantster, I recommend doing this during a read through of your novel. Break the story down into chapters and outline the major events of each chapter. This will be a reference later. You can skip this step, but I recommend against it. I got this tip from Writing World.

Step 2. Determine the Agent/Editor's Submission Guidelines

Every editor and agent is going to be different. Be certain you check what they prefer before you send an unsolicited query letter. These guidelines are your first in. You are being told exactly what they want for information. Figure it out. Find what they want. Search around. Ask. Trust me when I say that this is for the better. I couldn't find two articles online that agreed on how you should do a query letter otherwise.

Step 3. Write the Components

The best I can figure out, there are three parts to most query letters. You have your initial query, the story synopsis, and your writing excerpt.

Step 3, Part 1: Hook, Mini-Synopsis, and Biography

My research in query letters led me to a site that defines them as being three paragraphs long and a single page. This page does contain information that should be included in any submission. You need to have information on your hook, you need to have a mini-synopsis, and you should include a biography. I recommend going with the advice I linked earlier in the paragraph. However, for the hook, you do have a bit more flexibility (or at least, so I've been told). The hook doesn't have to be a one-sentence summary of your story. It can be a statement as to why you think your story should be published. In the case of my query, I pointed out that fairy tales are in and that the story will do well in the current market.

Step 3, Part 2: The Synopsis

If the agent or editor you are submitting to wants a synopsis, now is the time to write it. Do not use the outline you wrote in Step 1. You will instead be using that outline to aid you in writing your synopsis. The agent I submitted to was looking for two pages double spaced. That left me little room to work with. I had to condense it and still allow the story carry through. My first draft of my synopsis was two and a half pages long. I rewrote the synopsis twice. In the end, I felt my synopsis hit the important elements.

One trick that I found useful during the two page synopsis was eliminating minor characters. It takes a sentence to explain how the minor character interacted with my main character and I spent another sentence explaining why it was connected to the plot. By eliminating as many minor characters as I could, I was able to put down a more concise synopsis.

Step 3, Part 3: The Excerpt

Find the excerpt you are using for you query. Copy and paste it into a new document. Have a friend or a loved one read it over. Read it over again. Read it out loud. Make sure it is free of any grammatical issues. Make sure it is captivating. Read it once more to be absolutely certain. The first two parts of your query are where you sell your skills at plotting and making a book that an editor/agent wants. This third part is where you have to sell your skills at writing.

Step 4: Put Together the Email

Never send attachments. If you refuse to not send an attachment, save your document in a Microsoft Word format unless they specify otherwise. Even if you send an attachment, be sure to include the text in the body of your email. I used hyphen breaks to make it easier to find each section of the email. Make sure you include a greeting in the front and to thank them at the end.

Step 5 – 999998: Build Up the Courage to Click Send

I'm not going to lie here. I had a very hard time clicking send. I closed my eyes, listened to the music that was playing. Ironically, it was my favorite song, Army of Love by Kerli. When I had convinced myself that this was the next logical step for me, I clicked send. My eyes were still closed at the time.

Step 999999: Click Send.

Click Send. Reward yourself with something. You've earned it.

Step +1

Tweet.

Writing is Hard

“When I retire, I'm going to perform brain surgery.”

This is a joke shared by some of us in our writing circle. Outside of writing circles, there is this perception that writing a book is as simple as sitting down in front of a computer and pounding away at the keyboard. It isn't. It's never easy. If anyone tells you it is easy, they are lying or have a misconception about the writing process.

From my personal understanding and experience, there are six requirements to write:

• You have to know the writing craft.
• You have to commit to writing and actually write.
• You have to be able to look at your story and make changes.
• You have to be willing to send your story to other people.
• You have to be able to wait for long periods of time.
• You have to be willing to make changes that other people tell/suggest you to make.

You have to know the writing craft.

In order to be a writer, you have to know how to write. This might sound simple. It isn't. I've wanted to be a writer since I was thirteen. I've devoted almost my entire life to creating stories, developing them, and writing. Despite all of this, I am still learning. I make obvious mistakes. I'm willing to bet that my wife will find at least one grammatical error in this blog post. I know the rules, but I let them slip. And this is just the grammatical rules. You need to know how to work with dramatic tension, the structure of a story, character development, and a hundred other elements of a story. Fortunately, you don't need to be a master of these rules, you just need to know them and continually strive to improve at them.

You have to commit to writing and actually write.

Anyone who has actually written can tell you that it is easy to claim you are going to write, but the act of getting yourself to do so is surprisingly difficult. There is a world of distractions just beyond the range of your word processor. You have the vast internet. There are shows on television that you are trying to keep up with or, perhaps, catch up on. You might have a pile of books on your night stand that you need to read. The dogs might need walking. The dishes might need doing. You might decide that now is the time to get to that pile of mail, currently sitting on your desk in such a massive pile that it has toppled over, covering a remote control that shouldn't be there in the first place and the whole pile needs to be picked up this second. The only way to write, is to stop making excuses and make the time to write.

What a writer's desk MIGHT look like.

You have to be able to look at your story and make changes.

Completing a story is difficult and congratulations are in order to anyone who gets the story down on paper. The feeling of accomplishment is powerful and I find it very difficult to draw a comparison to anything else I have done before. While completing a story leaves you feeling accomplished, it isn't enough. The story is going to need revisions. It won't just be a single revision, it is often going to be several revisions. In the case of my novel, The Rose and the Crown, I just finished my fifth draft a few days ago. That makes a grand total of five times I've gone through the entire novel from start to finish. Is it done? No. There are changes that still need to be made, but the changes that remain aren't as serious as previous drafts. You will have to cut scenes. You will have to remove characters. You will have to correct continuity errors. And you will have to repeat this process all over again to fix the scenes that no longer fit the changes of your previous draft. I have never heard of an author doing it right the first time. It is simply unheard of.

You have to be willing to send your story to other people.

This is another one of those steps that sounds easy in theory, but is difficult in practice. Feedback is both necessary and difficult. Eventually someone is going to have to look at your manuscript. They are going to have to read it. And, eventually, someone is going to have to tell you what they thought of it. Will they judge you? Will they hate it? Will they compare it Twilight, forcing you into a fit of justified homicide? These are thoughts that go through the writer's head before they hand it out. It can take a bit of willpower to get over this obstacle.

You have to be able to wait for long periods of time.

In an alternative reality, there is a world where authors write a story, click “send”, and after a few minutes, they check their bank account and find that the balance has gone up a hundred thousand dollars. In reality, the book publishing process is slow (and pays much less). You will have to write your story, edit your story, and muster the willpower to send the story to someone. Then you must wait. And, let me tell you that waiting is a very difficult thing to do. It's like Christmas, only you have no idea when Santa is coming and you have no idea if he's leaving you the present you wanted or a lump of coal.

I currently have a short story I'm waiting to hear back on. I sent it out over four months ago. Every single time I check the mail, I'm hoping the letter will be there. At this point, I don't care if it's a rejection. I just want to hear something back.

This isn't the only time you have to wait. If you've been accepted for publication, you still have to turn in the manuscript and wait for the editor to give you changes to make. And, if you have turned in your final manuscript, you have to wait once again for the book to go to print and hit the shelves. All told, you may spend as much time waiting as you spent writing.

You have to be willing to make changes that other people tell/suggest you to make.

This can be a very, very hard thing to have to deal with depending completely on the suggestion. Yet, it is something you must be able to face in order to progress forward as writer. At some point in time, you are going to get a credible suggestion for a change to make to your story. This will not be a change you initially want to make. This may come from someone in your writing group with a very good point or from five beta readers saying the exact same thing. This very well might come from an editor who knows the craft well. Sooner or later, you are going to have to change something that you do not want to change.

This can be one of the hardest decisions you ever make. It is impossible to know what form this will take, until it transpires. It might be a scene that needs to be deleted. It might even be removing a character. Whatever the change is, it will be for something that you think is important or necessary for the narrative. Part of the writing process is, unfortunately, being able to recognize that something needs to change or go.

So yes, writing is hard. Still, I love every second of it (no I don't). And when I retire, I'm going to perform brain surgery.

The Second Cliche

For my second blog post, I'm going to take about cliches and the developed character. I won't go so far as to say well-developed characters; that would require a much more in-depth analysis. Cliches work better when the characters are developed. When a show or a piece of fiction has two-dimensional or underdeveloped characters, the cliches will stand out.

Before I can get into the interaction of a cliche with a developed character, I need to talk about what a cliche is. A cliche is a basic story concept that has been used so frequently that my eyes have started bleeding. It's easy to think of examples with little or no effort. Looking around my apartment, I can find lots of examples. Eureka, while a great show, uses the "smart geeky boy who can't talk to girls", the "protagonist in a land where everyone gets the world around him but him", and "father can't talk to his child" cliche. The DVD boxset of Jeeves & Wooster has the "the butler is smarter than who he works for" cliche. To demonstrate the common place of cliches, look at Terra Nova. The show is rife with examples of the same, "father can't talk to his child" cliche that is found in Eureka.

Side Note: If you want the official terms for these cliches, you are welcome to head over to TV Tropes. I must confess I don't browse the site very much.

The difference between the good use of a cliche and a bad can be attributed to many factors. For me, the biggest difference is character. A well-written character is going to pull the reader or viewer to the character's reaction and away from the formula being used. Sheriff Jack Carter and his daughter Zoe conflict with each other on a regular basis in Eureka. This, at the most basic level, is no different than Jim Shannon's conflict with his son Joshua on Terra Nova.

Zoe is a troublemaker with no direction. She's taken up a life of petty crime and her father has just hunted her down at the start of the show. Her issues stem from the parental situations in which her dad, a US Marshal, and her mom are divorced. Carter is embarrassed that, as a law enforcement agent, he's transporting his own daughter as a fugitive. In Terrible Nova, Jim and his family have violated a world's law limiting families to four. His family has five. Jim punches out an enforcement agent and is sent to jail for breaking the family count act. For some reason, this puts Josh at odds with his dad. This rationale is never explained well. In later episodes, Terrible Nova plays out the relationship between Josh and Jim. It makes things better, but the detachment from the show from the initial, obvious cliche use never fully healed.

Take my story from the last blog post. It wasn't particularly good. The characters were flat. In order to soften the effect that the cliches have on the story, I need to develop the characters more. I broke out Rory's Story Cubes and rolled the dice. I'm not making a full story this time, so cherry picked five dice to create a some ideas for character development. Here is the new draft of the story.

There was once a happy couple that lived in a house. Thomas had decided to do something special for Kelly to show his appreciation. After counting his pennies, he realized he didn't have enough to buy the set of dolls that Kelly had loved. Frustrated, he went out looking for a way to earn some extra money. He spoke with a neighbor and was able to make the rest of the money he needed by working in the neighbor's garden.

He gave Kelly the present that night. After spending a moment to ponder the package, Kelly unwrapped a pair of dolls. The night was suddenly interrupted by a dragon from out of town. It landed on the guard's tower and setup camp in the parapet. The appearance of the dragon created a bit of drama for the family. After a heated conversation with his wife, Thomas decided to go to investigate. From the top of the tower, he saw the dragon hanging out on a parapet below. Thomas took a giant ball and tried to drop it on the dragon's head. In retrospect, the act was a bit of a reach. The ball missed. He decided it had been a case of bad judgement to try and slay the dragon. He was upset, but after dancing a jig at home, he felt much better.

The story still has the same cliches. They are still obvious to the casual reader. Only now, Thomas is better developed. You can almost see why he might want to go out and defeat this dragon. He was, after all, having a special night at home when the dragon appeared. This development and motivation could make some readers see his character and focus more on him and his desire to show Kelly his appreciation. Unfortunately, this development is limited to one section of the text. It will take many rolls of the dice to fix this story up.