Comments on: Don’t waste a publisher’s time on irrelevant character details

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:30:59 +0000

Even though I’m pretty confident that a random selection would lack hair colors, there’s no need to pay me, either. Err, that $100, at least. (We’re still on for the $250, right?)

By: David

David — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:12:58 +0000

i shall find a few anamorphs books and see k lol

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:44:05 +0000

"Some readers tend to ask themselves these questions, though, like hair and eye color."
You might be able to come up with situations where that information is interesting to readers and somehow advances the plot. However, as I noted above (in the title and first sentence of this post), I was talking about what sort of information publishers care about, not readers. Generally, publishers want to know information that is either extremely important to the plot or will help them decide if the book is worth publishing. Hair/eye color is almost never that important. Unless it ties into the premise, as with The Girl with the Silver Eyes, you should probably leave it out.
... "The Animorphs series describes all of the characters at the beginning of every single book."
Admittedly, it's been a long time since I've read any of the Animorphs books, but I don't remember anything like that. That seems kind of implausible, given that the readers can see the characters on the covers. If we picked an Animorphs book at random, I would bet $100 that it would contain zero references to the hair colors of the main characters. Can you come up with any examples?
...
I hate hyperbole.

By: Gurion Omega

Gurion Omega — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:32:03 +0000

Yeah, unless something like their weight plays an essential role in the themes and concepts, its not necessary!

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:35:39 +0000

Im with RW on the details thing. I try to avoid infodumping like the plague now. I recently realized that my first chapter contains something of an infodump in the beginning, where I describe Alex. Although this information serves a purpose (differentiating Alex from “normal” people), the purpose that it serves can be done more efficiently through action and those little details (which I still do want people to know) can be more powerful and effective when they’re spread out more and introduced along with a relevant action. By telling you Alex’s eyes are red, I get across that he has…red eyes. Bid deal. By telling you that the cabbage merchant could not meet the glare of Alex’s burning crimson eyes, I get across that he has red eyes AND that he’s intimidating.

I will post the redone chapter one for comparison in a matter of minutes.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:18:20 +0000

Hmm. I’m not sure that I could come up with 500 words worth of material on how to reintroduce the characters at the start of a sequel. But I could probably do a more general article on something like doing sequels in general.

Some initial thoughts…

–Returning readers will forgive a bit of retreading. However, please do not retread the story by having the narrator point out each character and tell us what we’re supposed to remember about them. Generally, I suspect it would be more effective to introduce the book with a scene where the characters remind us of who they are in dialogue or action. Probably dialogue, because it often requires less setup.

–Briefly, briefly recap what happened in the last book. Focus on what we need to know to understand what’s going on here. If your series is like the James Bond series, with little connection between one book and the next, then you might be able to get away with ignoring the last book entirely. In general, I suspect that most series can explain away the last book in 1-3 pages. Ironically, the more time you spend discussing the last book, the more likely you are to confuse incoming readers. Stay away from details as much as possible and focus on characters more than plot events.

–As much as possible, try to avoid referring back to the events of the last book that don’t affect this one. Incoming readers don’t know what the Death Star is, and as far as understanding the second movie is concerned, knowing what the Death Star is doesn’t really matter.

–Use a glossary for jargon and/or subtly reintroduce readers to the jargon in-story. For example, if I were doing a sequel to a Superhero Nation novel, I’d have to define words and terms like OSI pretty quickly.

By: Marissa

Marissa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:02:08 +0000

I’ve got a similar plan, but there’s a fine line where ‘reintroducing’ becomes ‘telling the readers who read the first book like they were supposed to enough background info to bore them and deter them’. Make sense?

By: The ReTARDISed Whovian

The ReTARDISed Whovian — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:14:32 +0000

Marissa:

My plan is not to do any infodumping, but to simply reintroduce the characters and setting as I have already. As no one will have read the first book when it’s published, they won’t know the characters, and neither will new readers if they pick up the second first. I’ll just use a similar formula as I have for the first book to reintroduce them in the second.

By: The ReTARDISed Whovian

The ReTARDISed Whovian — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:12:01 +0000

I generally describe my characters over a wide area of chapters. For example, in one chapter I may say that “Isaac’s brown hair was slicked against his face by sweat”, and fifteen chapters later I may say something like “his blue eyes watered as he tried to rub the sand out of them”, and another five later I’d put something like “he pulled his jacket tighter around his thin frame”. I try to steer away from paragraphs that accomplish little more than a physical description, but I am often tempted to do that when introducing new characters.

I use character profile sheets to record the details, but that’s just to make sure that any small bits of description I use in-story are consistent.

By: Marissa

Marissa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:36:01 +0000

Hey, that reminds me. B. Mac, I think authors need to know how to keep readers up to speed at the start of a sequel or third book without infodumping. Care to write an article on that?

For what I’m referring to, see David’s Animorphs example, or Maximum Ride. MR says (in Max’s voice) that if the reader is up to date, to just skip the next chapter, but there has to be a more effective way than that?

By: David

David — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:22:27 +0000

Some readers tend to ask themselves these questions, though, like hair and eye color.

The book Animorphs describes all of the characters at the beginning of every single book.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:39:17 +0000

Comic book tangent! In a comic book, it’s important that the artist know how tall everyone is. But, as with novels, that information is generally a waste of time for the publisher.

By: Marissa

Marissa — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:38:54 +0000

Yeah, I don’t even know the height and weight of my characters, aside from the abnormally tall one’s height. I just know their general build.