Thinkin’ on Thursday: Thinkin’ Up More Mayhem

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

Did you try it? What??? Writing tense, exciting, possibly even mayhem-filled chapter endings?

This past Tuesday, I suggested that you do so and gave you examples of several books which used this technique to carry you past the last line of a chapter and into the next chapter — whether you wanted to go there or not!

I also quoted a number of ideas which ending each of many chapters in his The Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner. This set was literally a group of three books you could not put down at the end of a chapter. And THAT’s how to keep your reader, well . . . READING!!!

Here are more of Dashner’s examples ‑‑‑ but hopefully, no spoilers. I’ll name several types of events at chapter ends — not in order and not telling you which of the three books they’re from. Additionally, I’ll keep them as general as possible. Think about what you can dream up to do to your characters that will hurt them the most, that will keep the reader going, even if it IS time for dinner, or bed, or (maybe) even homework! If you end each chapter with ideas like these, you may have a real page turner, or even that page burner:

• a kid wakes up, in a huge “elevator:” NO memories of any past life (I know, I gave this one Tuesday too, but I sets the stage)
• a kid fighting a losing battle with a mechanical monster is caught in a lightning storm which morphs into an invisible power field leaving him vulnerable to a white heat
• a kid is promised a place of safety, but when a group gets there, they are met with only a sign that this is the right place: nothing else is there.
• a kid is told that all current test subjects may be given their memories back; they must choose to participate or not; then choice is taken away
• a kid discovers a small insect‑like device which spies on all of them in this strange place — meaning someone is watching them, probably 24/7
• a kid in the midst of battle is hit with a burning power equal to 1,000 bolts of lightning, falls convulsing and with a total loss of vision
• a kid finds out survivors have to go back to the beginning where they all met, were challenged, tortured, intimidated or even killed
• a kid is frequently dazed by a rapid changing of loyalties among friends: who can he really trust?
• a kid, after horrendous battles and fatigue, is warned in a dream state that things are “about” to get bad for him
• a kid sees that everyone who’s been here for a while picks on the newbies ‑‑ even a sweet little kid who becomes his only friend
• a kid is made to choose which of two friends will die immediately: he chooses, knowing the enemy will do the opposite — only he doesn’t
• a kid is attacked, seriously injured by another boy who seems to have gone completely crazy
• a kid, in an audience of survivors, is told that the rampant disease affecting and eventually killing much of the population also affects many of their number
• a kid notices frightening sounds and smells, confronts a mechanical monster with the fate of another boy in his hands

If you didn’t try to write compelling chapter endings before, get to it!!! (And how do you accomplish this kind of angst in romance? Or fantasy? Or historical? Etc., etc., etc.?)

See you next for Spellbinder Saturday!

Key words:

 

TUESDAY’S TUTOR: Hungry for the Hunger Games?

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

Last February, one of the panels at Life, the Universe and Everything (LTUE) took on an interesting question: why the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins had become so popular.  Patricia Castelli, Bree Despain, Allison Hymas, Diann T. Read, and J. Scott Savage all had interesting opinions.

Have you read the series?  Actually read all three?  Personally, I couldn’t put it down—which was amazing, as I was pretty traumatized at the time, having just found out I had cancer . . . again.  After 25 years of being clean.  I handled it well on the outside: teaching, participating in my life, taking care of business.  But on the inside I was apparently a bowl of quivering jelly.  And that gripping series got me through the biopsy, the surgery, the beginnings of radiation, along with the Holidays—Thanksgiving on into Christmas/New Year’s.  Well, they didn’t take me that long to read, but they stayed with me.

As writers, we can learn something from that.

The panel in question opined that YA is usually about HOPE.  One reason for popularity within dystopian literature is that in a dysfunctional, broken world, the reader can HOPE for even the little people to effect a change.  The Hero/Heroine will have the strength/skill, etc., to change his or her world.

The Hunger Games series offers several lessons:

— Katniss was sympathetic, volunteering in order to save her little sister

— The role “reversal” made it interesting: the girl with the bow and arrows; the boy with the bread

— Even with the female author and heroine, boys still liked it because fighting, etc., were so strong; while the “romance” became less and less important

— The “triangle” was handled believably

— Damage to survivor characters was realistic: after such traumatic incidents, they would be damaged

— Katniss is broken down in a different way in each book because of the difference in her trials

Spoiler alerts: (I’ll be a non-specific as I can.  READ them!)

— an Assassination was well done

— when one major character dies saving another, the motivation was brilliant

Which of the points above can we writers emulate today, without being derivative?  Appeal to male and female readers with sympathetic characters; keep the story riveting; handle human relationships in realistic, believable ways; be sure characters’ reactions synchronize with the events happening to them; give your major characters a variety of challenges throughout the story; keep your characters motivated in a consistent way.

There was some opinion that the series was modeled after Spartacus.  As a teen, I think, I read the book before the movie starring Kirk Douglas was made—yikes, I’m old!  I kept waiting for something to “happen” in the book, which I hated.  But I remember the film as being one of the few ever that was better than the book—so I had a rather visceral reaction to that opinion, though I might change my mind now if I either read or saw them again.  Well, I’m not going to.  But they recommended a few other books which might serve as models: the “early” dystopian, The Giver, by Lois Lowry (though the sequels weren’t considered as good); The Book Thief by Markus Zusak; and Suzanne Collins Overlander series.  Happy Reading, Happy Learning, followed by Happy Writing!

See you day-after-tomorrow for Thursday’s Thirteen!

Monday Moans: Fighting a Losing Battle

Easy as A, B, C . . . from BB

My husband, transplanted from Alabama only about a year-and-a-half ago, keeps complaining about Utah’s weather.  Mind you, he was actually born in Salt Lake.  Twenty years at sea level with the United States Navy, followed by work in Texas, California, Alabama, etc.,  made him “un-used” to the altitude and he had trouble breathing when he arrived.

Luckily, that first winter was mild, he eventually became more accustomed to the rarity of air, and the summer was mostly pretty pleasant.  And we spent much of it traveling around the state.

Then came the winter.  Coldest, most miserable we’ve had in years.  To say nothing of the lethal pollution levels—worst in the U.S. multiple days?  What’s with that?

Well, thank goodness, spring finally arrived.  And disappeared again—which day was that, again?—only to leave us with a scorcher of a summer—and, at this writing, it’s still JUNE!  Well, OK, it’ll be July in the morning when you read this.  But what’s with this heat?  This past week we were in Cedar City, then St. George, to see plays at the Shakespeare Festival and one at Tuacahn.  118 degrees???

Thank the heavens we could come back to Salt Lake where it was only 104 or 105!

I keep telling him Utah has a pretty temperate climate.  But he ain’t buyin’ it.  I’m fighting a losing battle here.

See you day-after-tomorrow for Wednesday’s WIPs!