HOT OFF THE PRESS! We love to share our information with writers, and we’re happy to pass some of our INSIDER’S SECRETS along to you. Feel free to print these posts to use as a reference. Pass the links along to your writer friends. It’s packed with great information this month. DEADLINE-DATED lists of anthologies, theme issues, and contests are included at no charge!

In This Issue:

* * We'll help you develop a believable character for your story in CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

* * SPLITTING INFINITIVES—bad grammar or not?

* * Have you read about the GRAMMAR VANDAL?

* * We’re giving away a FREE REPORT that outlines industry-standard Manuscript FORMAT Guidelines when you order our E-book entitled REJOICE IN REJECTION. Go to: http://www.WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Rejoice-in-Rejection-e-book.aspx.

* * LOTS OF HELP for CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS—100 CONTACTS and Everything You Need To Know To Submit Your Children’s Book. Click this link to get our insider's tips and tricks: http://www.WritersReliefBlog.com/post/For-Childrens-Book-Authors.aspx.

* * MEET A STAFF MEMBER—Buddy's profile is included below.

* * You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming ANTHOLOGIES, SPECIAL-THEMED JOURNALS, and CONTESTS. Visit: http://WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Anthologies-Contests.aspx.

↓ Scroll Down to Read These Exciting and Useful Articles!! ↓

It can be hard to develop a believable character for your story. Most of us don’t have close relationships with dashing heroes or beautiful yet gutsy medical examiners named Desiree. This makes it tempting to take inspiration from people we actually know, and often the resulting characters are thinly disguised versions of ourselves or our friends and relatives. Your wacky Aunt Mabel may be familiar to you and a hoot at holiday get-togethers, but as anything more than a minor comic relief character, Aunt Mabel is going to be an unlikely heroine. It might be better to enlist the scary guy who lives down the street and develop a villain (or an unlikely hero) based on him. Sure, all you know about him is that he rides a loud motorcycle, and his biceps are frighteningly large and tattooed, but boring he’s not!

Successful writers usually develop a detailed character sketch and biography in advance, noting physical, as well as personality, traits. The greater the detail of the sketch, the greater dimension the character develops.

Think about your biker neighbor. You don’t know him, but you can assume that he probably isn’t the son of two college professors, he probably doesn’t attend the opera on a regular basis, and he isn’t likely to be meek and shy. It’s more realistic to assume he’s the son of working-class parents, prefers football to the opera, and he’s pretty brave and tough. And if we’re working on avoiding stereotypes (which is usually our goal), this character could surprise us and become our unlikely hero, despite the prison tats.

The personality needs to fit the fiction. If you’re looking for a hero to save the world from destruction, you can choose the dashing and dapper John Q. College Graduate with broad shoulders and a deep, calm voice, or the scruffy biker dude, who saves the day despite his looks. If you want Aunt Mabel to be the heroine of your novel, you better develop some interesting traits that would support her superhero ways—perhaps she’s not as frail and wobbly as she looks! Just don’t leave Aunt Mabel exactly the way she is in real life, or her character may fail to deliver.

The point is to get to know your characters and make them three-dimensional. Be familiar enough to be able to predict what each character would do if he or she were faced with a certain choice or put into a certain situation. Every person has a darker side or a secret. Give the warmhearted schoolteacher a secret vice, a bit of a temper, or a scandalous past. When you’re sketching your character, include a basic history, his/her dreams and ambitions, obstacles and hurdles, social status, and sexual and economic power. Also include physical characteristics, so that you can make sure Desiree stays a redhead throughout her adventures and Biker Dude’s tattoos stay on the correct shoulder.

The short story presents a different problem. There simply isn’t time or space to let the reader get to know your main character, so you have to present them with as much information as they need to know as succinctly and subtly as possible (show, don’t tell!). If it’s not relevant to the plot, we don’t need to know that the warmhearted schoolteacher is allergic to shellfish or has a degree in Russian literature. We might, however, need to know that she’s a closet smoker, addicted to chocolate truffles, and harbors a long-standing grudge with her sister. For the short story writer, it’s essential to have a fully developed character in mind; but rather than giving us a bulleted list of traits, let your character’s actions demonstrate who she is. Hold back a secret or two about your schoolteacher and surprise the reader.

As writers, we are asking our readers to visualize our characters and relate to them. We want our characters to be realistic so that our audience can connect to them—we want the reader to cheer them on as they surmount obstacles and shed a tear when they fall. Readers care about people, and a fantastic plot populated with bland or one-dimensional characters isn’t enough to hold their interest. Your audience should feel involved with your characters, so that they become vivid and real people. And this isn't easy. If you can get your readers to fall in love with and cheer for the scary biker dude, you can consider him a successful character.

We’ve been told not to split infinitives (or to not split them!) ever since grade school, and the reason goes way back. In Latin the infinitive form of a verb is one word, and as 19th-century grammarians were big Latin fans, they decided that the rules of English should conform to those of Latin. Hence, splitting an infinitive would be akin to splitting a word in half. But in modern times, when we are not translating Latin, splitting an infinitive is not necessarily bad grammar.

For example:

Before it careened out of sight, the car managed to just make the corner.

In this sentence the infinitive is "to make," and inserting "just" between the infinitive puts the emphasis on the fact that it was a near thing.

Another example:

Our goal is to further cement relations between the two countries. Here the infinitive is split to emphasize "further."

The more "correct" form changes the meaning of the sentence: Our goal is to cement further relations between the two countries.

Or: Our goal is further to cement relations between the two countries. In this case, not splitting the infinitive leads to awkward phrasing and a clumsier sentence.

Another example is the famous Star Trek title sequence: To boldly go where no man has gone before!

Again, this phrase loses strength when the infinitive is not split. To go boldly where no man has gone before just doesn’t pack the same punch.

Most writers strive to keep their infinitives cozily joined together out of fear of looking ignorant of basic grammar. And it’s true that, most of the time, the infinitive functions best as a whole unit. However, the writer should always err on the side of comprehension and flow rather than the conventions of 19th-century Latin afficionados. George Bernard Shaw said it best when he wrote to The London Times:

"There is a busybody on your staff who devotes a lot of time to chasing split infinitives: I call for the immediate dismissal of this pedant. It is of no consequence whether he decides to go quickly or to quickly go or quickly to go. The important thing is that he should go at once."

Have you ever wanted to change those signs with the incorrect punctuation? Kate McCulley, the grammar vandal, is doing just that! She’s taken action in Boston and has moved her locale to the Internet as well: http://www.thegrammarvandal.com. She’s received press from The Boston Globe and NPR (links below).

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/15/stop_sign_travesties/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12173654

As you can see, Buddy is hard at work in our library. He is a Border Collie mix, about 13 years old. He was rescued by our staff member Hermine, who found him on adoption day at PetSmart. She was told that he was vicious, which, as you can tell, must be true. But Hermine, being a dog lover and skeptical of the story, put her fingers into the cage; Buddy leaned on her hand, and the rest is history. That was Christmas, 12 years ago. When things get stressful here at Writer’s Relief, Buddy is the calm in the eye of the storm. The delivery people love him and so do we. Buddy loves everyone! (He also loves to swim and chase squirrels.)

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UPDATE: In April of 2009, Buddy passed away. The entire staff is thankful that Hermine was kind enough to allow us all to share in Buddy's life every day at the office. He was a gentle, happy soul who would "make the rounds" when he came in, going from one desk to another to say "good morning." We all will miss him.

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