But Do You Have a Plot? Bad Girl whittles Popular Fiction Bootcamp down to 10 minutes…

As seen on SLEUTHSAYERS today, repeated here for my regular readers:  

By Melodie Campbell (Bad Girl) 

Last month, I wrote about Endings, and reader expectations for each of the main genres.  The response was positive, and some people have asked that I bring more stuff from class onto these pages.  So here are some notes from the very beginning, class 1, hour 1.

People often ask what comes first: character or plot?

Do you start with a character?  Or do you start with a plot?
This is too simplistic.

Here’s what you need for a novel:
A main character
With a problem or goal
Obstacles to that goal, which are resolved by the end.

PLOT is essential for all novels.  It’s not as easy as just sitting down and just starting to write 80,000 words.  Ask yourself:
What does your main character want?  Why can’t he get it?

Your character wants something.  It could be safety, money, love, revenge…

There are obstacles in the way of her getting what she wants.  THAT PROVIDES CONFLICT.

So…you need a character, with a problem or goal, and obstacles to reaching that goal.  Believable obstacles that matter.  Even in a literary novel.

There must be RISK.  Your character must stand to lose a lot, if they don’t overcome those obstacles.  In crime books, it’s usually their life.

So…you may think you have a nice story of a man and woman meeting and falling in love, and deciding to make a commitment.  Awfully nice for the man and woman, but dead boring for the reader.  Even in a romance, there must be obstacles to the man and woman getting together.  If you don’t have obstacles, you don’t have conflict, you don’t have a plot, and you don’t have a novel.

Put another way:
When X happens, Y must do Z, otherwise ABCD will happen.
That’s what you need for a novel.

GIVE YOUR CHARACTER GOALS

1. Readers must know what each character’s goals are so they can keep score.

2. Goals must be clearly defined, and they must be evident from the beginning.

3. There must be opposition, which creates the possibility of losing.
   >>this conflict makes up your plot<<
4. Will the character achieve his goal?  Readers will keep turning pages to find out.

If you don’t provide goals, readers will get bored. 
They won’t know the significance of the ‘actions’ the hero takes.

To Conclude:
Until we know what your character wants, we don’t know what the story is about.
Until we know what’s at stake, we don’t care.

NOW AVAILABLE! The B-Team, ebook and paperback, from Orca Books

'They do wrong for all the right reasons...and sometimes it even works.'

If you liked The A-TEAM television show, you'll like
 The B-TEAM! (so says Library Journal)

THE B-TEAM!

'They do wrong for all the right reasons...and sometimes it even works.'
Perhaps you've heard of The A-Team?  Vietnam vets turned vigilantes?  They had a television show a while back.  We're not them.
But if you've been the victim of a scam, give us a call.  We deal in justice, not the law.
We're the B-Team.

Available at Chapters/Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and independent bookstores.

Ebook available at all the usual suspects.

on AMAZON

Comedy ain't so Light (in which Bad Girl explores the other, more serious purpose of humour)

Everyone likes comedy, right?

Wrong.

I’ve written comedy professionally since 1992.  I got my start writing stand-up. In the 1990s, I had a regular humour column in the Toronto region, and I now write humour for The Sage (a Canadian satire magazine.) 

Any seasoned humour writer will tell you that consistently writing comedy is difficult.  What looks easy doesn’t write easy.  The old actor saying, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,” stands for writers too.  In books, not only do you have to pay attention to plot, characterization, dialogue, viewpoint, motivation, etc. like every other author, but you also have to add an additional element, comedy.  It’s like there is an addition test for you that others don’t have to pass.  And you don’t get paid any more for doing it.

And it gets worse: Comedy writers take risks that other writers don’t.

For here’s the thing:  comedy is by nature dangerous.  It (often) makes fun of things that other people take seriously.  In fact, it’s almost impossible to write comedy and not offend someone, somewhere.

Even the most seemingly inoffensive broad comedy (the sort of thing I write) will attract criticism.  The Goddaughter is the first in a series of five comic capers from Orca books.  These are meant to be humorous entertainment. Nothing blatantly didactic.  No preaching.  I am hoping for smirks and laughter to lift your mood.

It’s satire.  A loony mob family is chronically inept.  A reluctant mob goddaughter wants to escape the business, but is always pulled back in to bail them out.  What results is a series of whacky capers and heists-gone-bad.

What could be offensive about that?

But ah.  The heroine of the story is a mob goddaughter, even if she doesn’t want to be one.  “You don’t get to choose your relatives,” she says.  I’m writing stories about the mob, in which we are actually compelled to want certain members to succeed in their crazy plans. 

I’ve found that even writing about the mob can invite outrage.  Operating outside the law is bad, even evil, a reader wrote recently. How dare I make light of serious crime? 

Which brings me to the point of this post (get to the point, Mel).  Comedy, done well, has a secondary purpose to making us laugh.  (Some would say primary purpose.)  It has the ability to threaten power.  Throughout history, writers have used comedy to satire and gently (or not so gently) ridicule the people who have power over us.

If we were to limit the ability of authors to write about certain subjects or groups of people in light and humorous ways, we would lose the ability to ‘bring them down to size.’  To show their weaknesses. 

My satire is gentle.  But it is there, all the same.  In my humour columns and books, I poke fun at people and organizations that seek to have power over us.  To maintain that power, they must be taken seriously.

And boy, do they hate comedy writers like me.

The Goddaughter books are sold at Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon, independent bookstores, and all the usual suspects. Please buy them, so our Bad Girl can continue to go straight.

If The Goddaughter moved to other Genres (a seriously non-serious post)

Last year at about this time, my publisher gave me a challenge. 

“We want to try some women’s fiction for the Rapid Reads line,” she said.  “So I need a book from you by June.”

Huh?  Me, the scribe of mob comedy, write Chicklit?  Romance?  Okay, can I make it funny, I asked?  Luckily they went thumbs up.  And so Worst Date Ever comes out in September this year.

More on that later.  This column is about something else.

Point being, all this writing-out-of-genre caused me to think about what would happen if Gina Gallo, the original mob goddaughter, were to be dragged kicking and screaming out of crime, and plunked right down into another genre.  Or three.  So here goes.

Western:

(on a stage coach near you)

Gina:  “Please move over.  You’re taking up two seats.”

Bad guy Cowboy: “Hey little lady.  You can sit right here on my lap.  What’s a pretty little thing like you doing with that mighty big revolver, anyway?”

Gina (demonstrating):  <BLAM>

Cowboy drops to the floor.

Gothic Romance:

(in a seriously spooky old manor)

Fiendish male character, rubbing hands together:  “You’ll never escape me, my pretty.  Never!”

Gina (looking around): “Are you sure this isn’t a set for The Rocky Horror Picture Show?”

Fiend:  “Enough!  You’ll be my wife with or without the church.”

Gina (sighing): <BLAM>

Fiend drops to the floor.

Literary:

(at a slam poetry evening)

Male Poet:  “Stop.Cry.Laugh.Love not war.Peace not profit.Climate change.Capitalists.Love crimes.War crimes.Killing oceans.Killing whales.Every other cliché you can think of.Pain.I’m in pain.A pain so great.

Gina <BLAM>

Poet is out of pain, and so is everyone else.

To be continued…

It's HERE! THE GODDAUGHTER CAPER Now Available in stores and online

THE GODDAUGHTER CAPER!

Book 4 in the hilarious award-winning series featuring mob goddaughter Gina Gallo,

who is having a hard time leaving the family business.

Now Available in Chapters, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and all the usual suspects!

Strange things are happening in Steeltown. 

A body shows up in the trunk of Gina's car. 

Another is mistakenly delivered to her cousin Nico's store.
And then Gina and Nico stumble across a stash of empty coffins! 

Worse, everything points to her own retired relatives at the Holy Cannoli Retirement Home....

What critics have said about The Goddaughter:

“Just right for Janet Evanovich fans…impossible not to laugh”  Library Journal

“Hilarious”  Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

On Amazon

Chapters/Indigo 

"Laugh-a-minute with some truly side splitting humour" - Brit reviewer Helen Beaufort on THE GODDAUGHTER!

Occasionally, one gets a review that just Rocks!

Helen Beaufort lives in London, England, and I have no idea how she found me.  But she did, and I am delighted.

My Crafting a Novel students at Sheridan College will be studying this as an example of 'how to do it.'  Thorough, and thoroughly entertaining.  There are clips in here so catchy, they are going in my promotion file.

Thank you, Helen. YOU Rock!

A Review of The Goddaughter: Gina Gallo #1

by Helen Beaufort

Part one of The Goddaughter series (Gina Gallo: #1) seems to have readers talking for all of the right reasons. Combining clever comedy, thrilling suspense and fast paced narrative in this tale of the misadventures of the title character, Melodie Campbell really has crafted a novel which can be enjoyed in it's own right as well as setting up the coming novels in the series beautifully. Marketed as a 'rapid read' at a fleeting 136 pages, this laugh-a-minute book is a great way to spend an afternoon and could make a perfect Christmas gift for the bookworm in your life this year. Here are my thoughts.

The story

You can choose your friends but not your family, right? Gina Gallo knows this only too well. Gina has tried to distance herself from her mob family in Hamilton and concentrate on her career as a gemmologist but when you are the 'Goddaughter' trouble seems to track you down and saying no to your Godfather Uncle is no easy task. Gina finds this out for herself when her cousin is whacked and she finds herself drafted in to transport some priceless gems in her killer heels (?!) with her unsuspecting love interest Pete in tow – some way to spend a first date! But when the gems are stolen the unwitting pair find themselves embroiled in an epic road trip across the country to steal the stolen stones back before Uncle Vince finds out and dishes out some mob style retribution. Expect comedy and calamity from this modern day Bonnie and Clyde as they deal with debauched politicians, armed robbery, angry mobsters, dead bodies and shoe fetishists...and that's just for starters.

The characters

In short stories and novellas it can be hard to form attachments to the characters and sometimes it can feel like the story is just too short for character any real development to build successfully. In The Goddaughter this wasn't the case. There is enough detail for the reader to learn about the characters without becoming to bogged down by their respective 'baggage' but still come to care about them and become enthralled in their journey. It's hard not to like Gina who is clearly moral and hardworking yet still loyal to her family and willing to break the rules if necessary. Pete is a genuinely good guy who knows about Gina's background and still wants to help her and has great sex appeal to boot. Best of all, both characters are witty and fun. Some of my favorite scenes include those where Gina's family are quizzing (aka threatening) poor Pete in the humorous, if slightly clichéd, way that you'd expect a mob family to react to a daughter's new date.

The writing

Melodie Campbell's writing style really is outstanding. With her unique brand of wit and humor she has crafted an incredibly well written novel that is fast paced, packed full of action with a touch of romance and plenty of suspense. Add a hefty dollop of hilarity into the mix and you're onto a winner – to cram all of this into a mere 136 pages in a massive achievement for this Canadian writer. Her writing style is short, snappy and straight to the point. The plot is very tight and the action never lets up. But best of all her humor encompasses everything from the subtle to the absurd and then back to knowing, familiar humor that will have readers resonating and nodding their heads in recognition. She even manages to cleverly draw in characters from her other books while elusively trying to persuage the reader to buy more of her work. From some authors this could appear arrogant but Campbell has a knack of writing in a humble, almost self deprecating tone which is as endearing as it is entertaining.

In conclusion

I really enjoyed this novella. It doesn't take itself too seriously but is entertaining from start to finish. It literally was laugh-a-minute with some truly side splitting humor that I wasn't expecting from a jewel heist novel. I can imagine that many readers will plough through this novella in one sitting because the action is constant and the narrative fast paced so there never seems like a good moment to put it down and as a rapid read, why would you need to? A really great read and I'm excited to see what's to come in part 2 of the series.  

The Goddaughter is available in Chapters, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Zehrs, and online retailers.
On Amazon
(Sale price of 2.59!)