The Psychological Thread, Part IV by Nancy Rue

Hey writers, Annette here. Did you know: Every word out of a character's mouth has the potential to reveal her psychology? Whether you have a character in therapy and include the counselor's POV (as in Nancy's Sullivan Crisp novels) or not, this Mixing-it-Up Monday series will help you with characterization. Want to know how to avoid writing "skimmable" introspection? Read on!

The Psychological Thread, Part IV

by Nancy Rue

Every time I stare at my outline for a new novel, I choke on the same question: How in the WORLD am I going to bring this character to life on the page? It’s the scariest thing in life, next to snakes.

But once I get past the Ican’tdothisIcan’tdothisIcan’tdothis phase, I remember the three things that will weave that psychological thread into the reader’s imagination, the same three things I learned in high school English. (From old Mrs. Norris, who has probably passed on to that heavenly place where every student cares about such things).

What the protagonist thinks. In first person, that’s a no-brainer, but it’s just as important in third person. To pull that off, simply stay in the protagonist’s head, so that you naturally share those thoughts. Just be sure to make them a part of the forward-moving story, rather than save them all for one big reflecting-while-sipping-tea scene. If a train of thought goes on for longer than about five lines, you’re giving your reader a reason to skim ahead to the action. An example from Healing Waters:

The empty kitchen met me with its arms open. Arms that beckoned with promises of comfort, and in spite of the hope that Sullivan Crisp could help me with Bethany and Sonia, I still had such an empty place to fill.

Notice that it isn’t: I feel empty inside, she thought.

In the third person, being inside the brain looks like this:

Dr. Sullivan Crisp didn’t know what he was doing. But then, that was his basic MO these days.

There’s no need for I don’t know what I’m doing, Dr. Sullivan Crisp thought. I’ve taken you straight into his head.

What the protagonist says. Every word out of a character’s mouth has the potential to reveal her psychology. So does the way she says it, as well as what she doesn’t say. Attitude, pauses, the body language attached–you have limitless options. If you’ve dialoged with your protagonist in the journaling phase, this’ll be like reporting a conversation you’ve overheard.

(Sully) “You have buried some things, some very hard things, deep inside you where you won’t have to feel them. How am I doing so far?

(Lucia) She nodded.

“But they aren’t dead things. They’re still alive, and because you’ve buried them alive, you have to feed them.”

“Because if I don’t, they come out and scream at me.”

“What does it feel like for you?”

“Like I’m going to explode. Like if I don’t get myself numb, I’m going to burst open and land like confetti all over the place.”

What the protagonist does. Disobey the show-don’t-tell rule at your peril. Every move your character makes is his psychology in action. Again, if you weave the thoughts into the action, you avoid those tea-sipping scenes of silent reflection or conversations about things we already know. Going back to the Lucia-in-the-kitchen scene:

I licked the salt off of the first chip, softening it to dissolve like a Communion wafer in my mouth. As it turned soggy, I added another one and another one, until I had to gulp to swallow them. A few more and the pain would disappear and I could stop. I ate the next twenty without ritual, faster, with the fear that they wouldn’t fill me up.

After about the first page, I forget to be scared about writing a psychologically satisfying novel. Finally, after all the planning and puzzling, this is the fun part, the rich part. Enjoy, my fellow writers. Enjoy.

~~~~~

Nancy Rue is the author of one hundred and ten books, including nine novels for adults, seventeen for teens, and sixty for tween readers, as well as two parenting books, thirty-two non-fiction books for tweens and teens, and the features for the FaithGirlz Bible. Her Lily Series, published by Zondervan, has sold well over one million copies. Her ability to relate to a wide audience has made her a popular radio and television guest and an in-demand speaker and teacher for writer’s conferences across the country. Her latest titles include The Reluctant Prophet and Unexpected Dismounts for adult readers (David C. Cook) Limos, Lattes, and My Life On the Fringe (Zondervan) for teens, and That Is SO Me (Zondervan), a year-long devotional for tweens, in addition to a book written with her husband entitled What Happened To My Little Girl: A Dad’s Guide to His Tween Daughter. A student of the Academy for Spiritual Formation, sponsored by the Upper Room, Nancy continues her own spiritual journey even as she writes and speaks for mothers, daughters, and would-be writers about theirs. For more information, visit her website at www.nancyrue.com.

The Psychological Thread, Part III by Nancy Rue

Hey writers, Annette here for another Mixing-it-Up Monday. Nancy Rue has returned today to continue her series on including a psychological thread in your novel. I love her tip on following a thread through the ms. Read on!

The Psychological Thread, Part III

by Nancy Rue

We authors tend to enjoy the psychological research part we talked about last time because it’s like procrastinating without the guilt. Eventually, though, we have to stop gathering and start plotting. Our question for today is: how do you weave the psychology into the story?

I’ve always been a planner – of everything from my outfits to the amount of chocolate I can consume. Naturally I plan my novels in detail before I start the second draft. Calling the outline the first draft has staved off many a nervous breakdown. Even if you’re a seat-of-the-pants writer (though I’m not sure such a person exists), some form of the following is essential in the psychological development of a protagonist. These are not linear and will overlap, but they’re all necessary.

Know things about your character that may never appear on the page. Whether you discover this by journaling or having your protagonist fill out an application to appear in your book or determine it as you go along, you need to know that character’s background, formative childhood experiences, basic personality traits (which sometimes serve her well and sometimes don’t), adult traumas, and relationship history. Know the fun stuff, too: How does he take his coffee and how many cups does he have to consume before anyone can talk to him? Does she like theme park rides or do they make her puke? Whatever you do in your daily round, consider how your protagonist would do it. Then you’ll never have to wonder, “How would she react to that?”

Establish your protagonist’s goal. This usually happens at the end of that first act, about a quarter of the way into the story. A change has taken place in his ordinary world that causes the character to set a goal. That’s the spine of the plot. What that objective is and how he’ll pursue it depends on the protagonist’s inner world that you now know so well. That thread will remain strong, even as it weaves its way through the subplots and the supporting characters.

Understand how your protagonist has to change. This is where it gets tricky. It’s one thing to know that character down to the nose hairs, and another to allow her to grow. If the character doesn’t transform in some way as a result of what happens to him, you’re writing a Hardy Boys mystery. The skill comes in keeping that change consistent with the character’s God-given traits—the true self. Early on, I look at the plot skeleton and determine specific turning points where the protagonist has to make a decision, has a realization, changes direction or moves on with greater intensity. I mark those with a TP in the outline and read them through one after the other to make sure that thread hasn’t frayed or tied itself into a square knot.

This is not the easy part, especially if you freak out about how you’re going to actually write it. We’ll talk about that next time. For now, just sit down with your protagonist over a couple of lattes (you can drink hers, too) and say, “I’d like to get to know you.” It will be time well spent.

~~~~~

Nancy Rue is the author of one hundred and ten books, including nine novels for adults, seventeen for teens, and sixty for tween readers, as well as two parenting books, thirty-two non-fiction books for tweens and teens, and the features for the FaithGirlz Bible. Her Lily Series, published by Zondervan, has sold well over one million copies. Her ability to relate to a wide audience has made her a popular radio and television guest and an in-demand speaker and teacher for writer’s conferences across the country. Her latest titles include The Reluctant Prophet and Unexpected Dismounts for adult readers (David C. Cook) Limos, Lattes, and My Life On the Fringe (Zondervan) for teens, and That Is SO Me (Zondervan), a year-long devotional for tweens, in addition to a book written with her husband entitled What Happened To My Little Girl: A Dad’s Guide to His Tween Daughter. A student of the Academy for Spiritual Formation, sponsored by the Upper Room, Nancy continues her own spiritual journey even as she writes and speaks for mothers, daughters, and would-be writers about theirs. For more information, visit her website at www.nancyrue.com.

The Psychological Thread, Part I by Nancy Rue

A few years ago, I (Annette) toted a very specific book on a business trip. This novel had gotten a lot of buzz. People raved about how the story was so strong, so raw they couldn’t put it down. I have to admit, I was intrigued. Then, I picked it up, read just the first page, and I was hooked too. Check out this first sentence: I sneaked down to the boat that night to say this couldn’t happen anymore. See what I mean? Healing Stones is the title. The Sullivan Crisp novels are full of real-to-life characters whom Sully counsels. I was so impressed with Nancy Rue’s and Stephen Arterburn’s treatment of “characters in therapy,” I’ve asked Nancy to write a series for us this month on including that psychological thread in your fiction. She graciously agreed. No matter what you’re writing, I believe you’ll glean many nuggets from these posts. Read on.

The Psychological Thread, Part I

By Nancy Rue

I have to admit that when Steve Arterburn asked me to write a trilogy of books about a psychotherapist who works with women in dark places, I was intimidated. Not by Steve, and not by the issues of infidelity and betrayal and loss, but by the “psychological thing.” Getting inside the heads of both the hurting and the healer was enough of a challenge. Getting it “right” seemed comparable to scaling Half Dome. Not getting it right just wasn’t an option.

My first step was to enlist the aid (perhaps rescue is a better word) of a professional psychotherapist as my consultant. More on that in next week’s post. My second step was to realize that I have been delving into the psychology of my characters ever since my first teen novel in 1984. Every author who creates a work of fiction has to understand what makes the characters do what they do, or the story has no heart. Where we tend to choke is when we think we have to cover every aspect of every character’s personality—a thought that has landed many an unfinished manuscript in the recycle bin.

That doesn’t have to happen if we keep it simple. Here’s how I accomplish that. Let’s use Healing Stones, the first in the Sullivan Crisp trilogy, as an example.

I start with a word. Just one. It’s always a large word, an important word that’s been niggling at me for a while. For Healing Stones, that word was forgiveness.

Since volumes have been written about practically any word-concept we come up with, it has to be narrowed down, so I next ask a specific question about that word— the question I want to answer or at the very least deal with in the course of the story. In Healing Stones I asked: 

“What do you do when you are repentant of grievous sin, but Christian forgiveness is not offered to you?” That not only focused Demitria’s story but allowed me to explore how she, with her distinct personality and history, would respond to being rejected by everyone whose forgiveness she asked for. There is freedom in limitation. It’s the difference between shopping for something to wear, and shopping for a great pair of gray pants.

The final step in this preparation is to discover the answer to that question. That involves spiritual research, which I’ll also delve into in next week’s post, and it’s worth doing because this answer determines your protagonist’s hidden need, the one that must be met in the end if yours is to be a satisfying story. Demitria needed to come to the place where she realized AND lived this answer: You have to accept God’s forgiveness and use it to redefine yourself. You may have to move on without the forgiveness of others; forgive them for that.

Those three steps create the psychological thread that establishes your protagonist’s story. 

We could all write books based on the answer to the question I asked in Healing Stones and each of our characters would get there in a different way. How to know what that way is—I’ll talk about that next time. Meanwhile, relax. You don’t have to be Sullivan Crisp to figure this out!

Blessings,

Nancy Rue

~~~~~

To learn more about Nancy, visit her website at www.nancyrue.com. Her latest release, Unexpected Dismounts, follows the award-winning book The Reluctant Prophet in the series of the same name. I've read the first in this series. Fantastic. I highly recommend the Sullivan Crisp novels as well.

You Can Do This IF ... by Nancy Rue

Do you have romantic ideas of what a writer’s life should look like? We’ve probably all had them at one time or another. But what does it really take to be a writer? This Fortifying Friday, author Nancy Rue is here to share what she’s learned in her own career.

You Can Do This IF . . .
by
Nancy Rue

Whenever I meet a new person who asks, “What do you do?”, and I say, “I’m a writer,” –about 8 times out of 10 the person goes straight from there to, “I’ve always wanted to write.”

I love that in one sense. It makes my career sound like something other people want to do. I don’t think if I answered, “I’m a prison warden,” many folks would say, “I’ve dreamed of doing that myself!”

Still, I always have to decide whether to pursue that conversation or go with, “SO how ‘bout those Mets?”, because the person who wistfully expresses the desire to write can actually be saying one of a number of different things:

(1) “I think it would be a glamour gig.”
(2) “I think it would be fabulous to see my name on the cover of a book.”
(3) “I would actually do it if I had time.”
(4) “I’m trying to change my life situation so I can spend time doing this thing that’s in my soul.”
(5) “I am at this very moment spending every spare moment working on a piece that comes from someplace deep within me and won’t leave me alone.”

Since I would rather talk about writing than just about anything else except my new granddaughter, I usually try to tease out which kind of would-be writer I’m chatting with. Because here’s the deal. Being an author has almost nothing to do with book tours, signings with lines of people trailing out of the bookstore and down to the corner, and interviews on Oprah. After 110 books, I have yet to do any of the above. Seeing your name in print is definitely a rush, but getting it there is a long, sweat-producing, hair-pulling, housework-neglecting process. It’s like eating an artichoke, you know? You have to decide it if it’s worth it.

As for doing it if you had time? That leads us to the crux of the matter. If you are truly a writer, you don’t wait until you have time. You make time. You do Number Four and rearrange your schedule, your priorities, and your furniture—whatever it takes so you can focus in a significant way on this gift you’ve been given to share. And if you are born to be a writer, created to craft words to change lives, you don’t wait until you’ve made those changes. You do it anyway—in the car while the kids are at soccer practice, in the doctor’s office even when People Magazine is calling your name, at five in the morning before everyone else is up.

And if you come up with excuses why none of that will work for you, you’re not a writer.

I don’t actually say that to people I meet on airplanes or backyard barbecues. But I’m saying it to you, who yearn to be writers. You can do this thing—IF you know in every part of yourself that this is what God is calling you to do—IF you’re willing to give up anything other than your spiritual practices and your family and your financial survival to do it—IF you can’t imagine yourself doing anything else with the rest of your life.

Without that kind of passion in your soul, you can still dabble, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is also nothing wrong with channeling your heart cry for writing into work you do for newsletters, stories for your kids, memoirs for your own satisfaction. All I’m saying is, pay attention to what’s going on in your heart of hearts. If it’s there, this relentless drive to speak on the page, don’t let anything stand in your way. Because that, my writing friends, is God talking.




Nancy Rue is the author of 110 books, including 9 novels for adults, 17 for teens, and 60 for tween readers, as well as 2 parenting books, 32 non-fiction books for tweens and teens, and the features for the FaithGirlz Bible. Her Lily Series, published by Zondervan, has sold well over one million copies. Her ability to relate to a wide audience has made her a popular radio and television guest and an in-demand speaker and teacher for writer’s conferences across the country. She has been a regular keynoter for The Young Writer’s Institute and Virtuous Reality Ministries, and now anchors Zondervan’s Beauty of Believing Tour for FaithGirlz, which draws thousands of tween girls and their moms. Nancy is also the founder of the “Writing for Children and Youth Conference” in Glen Eyrie, Colorado. Her latest titles include The Reluctant Prophet for adult readers (David C. Cook) Limos, Lattes, and My Life On the Fringe (Zondervan) for teens, and That Is SO Me (Zondervan), a year-long devotional for tweens. A student of the Academy for Spiritual Formation, sponsored by the Upper Room, Nancy continues her own spiritual journey even as she writes and speaks for mothers, daughters, and would-be writers about theirs.

For more information, visit her website at http://www.nancyrue.com/.
And her blog at http://tweenyouandme.typepad.com/in_real_life_/