Mystery blogger: nine things about me

When I first started this blog in 2009, blog "awards" were all the rage. I think 2010-11 was a peak period, in which I received and passed along more than a dozen. By 2013 no one was doing them any more, and it made me a little sad. I can see how they might seem like public chain letters, but by golly they are fun. They give you something entertaining to blog about when all your creativity has gone into finishing a fantastic chapter the night before.

So I will not be joining the anti-blog-award brigade. Nope. I'll be having some fun. So here goes....

There are rules to this award, of course…
Rule 1: Put the award logo/image on your blog.

Rule 2: List the rules.

Rule 3: Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

Big thanks for the nomination to awesome A-Z Blogging challenge co-host J. Lenni Dorner, who I knew on Twitter for some time before becoming blog buddies.

Rule 4: Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well.
About the creator: Okoto Enigma’s blog 
The creator’s name, Enigma, means mystery, thus the title of the award.

Rule 5: Tell your readers three things about yourself.

1) I can identify nearly any early 1980s pop song within five measures or less. I was obsessed with America's Top 40 in my misspent youth. (I could have been memorizing Pi to the 400th decimal place or all the world capitals or something a little less frivolous). My husband sometimes makes me demonstrate my skill for guests.

2) I did props management and set decoration for about a dozen college productions, as well as for some community theatre shows. Once I'm an empty nester, I will likely take it up again. It is so much fun to build the material culture for a play.

3) I'm convinced that one of my childhood homes was haunted. We often heard movement in distant rooms, and one of the bedrooms had a distinct cold spot. I sensed the presence of our ghost more than once, particularly in the daytime when playing alone. My sense was that it was a young woman who'd perhaps died in childbirth and continued going about the business of taking care of her family, as if unaware she was dead.

Rule 6: Nominate other bloggers. (I'm going to cheat a little on this one. Twenty is a bit much).

Faith Hough
Jean Davis
Nick Wilford
Samantha Dunaway Bryant
Tyrean Martinson

Rule 7: Notify those people.

Rule 8: Ask your nominee any five questions of your choice, plus one weird or funny question.

The questions I have for my nominees are:
1) What are three things on your "bucket list"?
2) Which authors have influenced you in terms of genre, style, or theme?
3) What book's milieu (place, time, culture) would you most like to live in?
4) What are your favorite writing resources?
5) What's the best book you've read recently?
Fun/weird bonus:  Have you ever developed a "book crush" on a fictional character? Who and why?


I was asked
1) What is the most memorable trait or visual oddity of a fictional book character you’ve read?

Anne Shirley's intense flights of fancy into imaginary worlds (Anne of Green Gables series). I didn't read the books until post-college and felt like L.M. Montgomery could have been writing my girlhood (minus the orphan thing, and living in the 1880s, obvs).

2) What most motivates you to buy a new book to read?

New printed books are a purchase I have to justify because of the space issue and the expense. I have to be convinced I will read it more than once, use it as a resource or model text, or will likely share it. A great sale might also convince me. I'm freer about picking up used books and ebooks--the former aren't as big an expense, the latter less a clutter creator.

3) How do YOU make an educated guess as to if a book by an author you haven’t read before will be “good” BEFORE you read any of it?

The description has to grab me. I can more quickly get past an ugly cover than this. And I never buy or download stuff--even freebies--without reading a sample. Because a great cover blurb of an interesting premise sometimes doesn't translate into style that draws me in. I'm a voice-driven writer and tend to be a voice-driven reader also.

4) What’s your favorite comfort food?

Mashed potatoes. My husband has a killer technique of boiling garlic cloves with the potatoes, then hand-mashing the cooked garlic into the cooked potatoes, along with sour cream, butter, and white pepper.

5) Where do you look for blogging inspiration?

My monthly critique group meetings often provide fodder, as does Twitter--sometimes a random post will catch my eye, sometimes a grammar or spelling error in a tweet will inspire an editing topic.

Weird/funny question: Do you have a celebrity encounter story you can share?

I am almost phobic about rubbing elbows with someone famous and doing something stupid, so I tend to go out of my way to avoid contact, even when given special access, like at comic conventions. So if there's a celebrity around, I will be trying to quietly creep away.


Rule 9: Share a link to my blog’s best post.
Rebel that I am, I'll share two. :-)

One of my analyses of Harry Potter characters continues to get the most hits. It's third in a series

What makes a villain? Part 3: Hero in Villain's Clothing

A newer post with nearly as many page views is this one on my revision process:

How I Do It: Identifying Story Weaknesses

Q4U: Do you miss the "good old days" of writing blogs (before 2012)? 
Answer any (or all) of my six questions listed under "rule 8."

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Fifty fabulous questions to ask an author

Author interviews are a consistent staple of book blogging and writer blogs. But sometimes the questions posed are a little generic, not inviting deeper engagement, or not showcasing well what is most interesting about this author or the book s/he is trying to promote.

With that in mind, I've put together a list of some great interview questions I've been asked by book bloggers or created for guests here--with a bunch of additional new questions sure to get thoughtful and thought-provoking responses.

1. Tell us a little about your story and the story world you've created.
2. What are some comparison titles of books or movies similar to this book?
3. What books, films, and TV shows most inform the aesthetic of this book?
4. Tell us a little about how this story first came to be. Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma or something else?
5. What special knowledge or research was required to write this book?
6. What research methods have been most fruitful for you?
7. How did you go about developing the setting(s) for this story?
8. What's the strangest thing you had to do to create this story?
9. Who are your main characters? Tell as a little about what makes them tick.
10. If a film were made of your book, who would you cast in the leading roles?
11. What is something about your hero/ine that only you know?
12. Which character was most challenging to create? Why?
13. Are any of your characters based on real people you know? 
14. Which scene or chapter in the book is your favorite? Why?
15. Which scene was most difficult to write? Why?
16. Which scene, character or plotline changed the most from first draft to published book?
17. What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
18. Are there particular themes or motifs wrestle with or address in your story(ies)?
19. How does your faith life/ethical outlook inform your writing?
20. Were there scenes you ended up cutting you wish you could've kept? Describe them and the decision-making process.
21. Who are your favorite authors and why?
22. What book from your childhood has shaped you most as a writer?
23. If you could choose a book character to be for a day, who would it be and why?
24. What led you to start writing? 
25. What life experiences have shaped your writing most?
26. Were you a young writer, a late bloomer, or something in between? What advice would you give to others who took up writing at a similar life phase?
27. What aspect of writing have you most improved in over time? What resources helped you most in this area?
28. What is your writing process like? 
29. What other projects are in the works?
30. Have you ever rescuitated a project you'd shelved? What helped it work better the second time around?
31. What special support people (critiqe partners, writing group, beta readers, editor, agent, author's assistant) do you rely on? How do they help you?
32. How do you balance the demands of writing with other responsibilities? 
33. What attracted you to the genre(s) you write in? 
34. What are some must-read titles in your genre?
35. What are some trends in your genre that excite you?
36. What are some elements that are becoming cliche in your genre?
37. What special challenges did you face making your story stand out from others in the genre?
38. If you were to genre-hop, which genres would you most like to try writing?
39. What aspects of your creative process do you enjoy most? Which are most challenging?
40. Do you prefer writing in silence or to music?
41. Does this story have a soundtrack? A playlist that inspired you while writing it?
42. What technologies do you rely on most when writing?
43. What writing resources have been most helpful to you?
44. What warm ups do you use to get your writing flowing?
45. Do you believe in the concept of a muse? What is yours like?
46. What is the best investment you ever made in your writing?
47. What's the worst writing/publishing advice anyone ever gave you?
48. What do you know now that you wish you'd known at the beginning of your writing/publishing journey?
49. What would you advise young writers trying to build a publishing history or an author platform?
50. What marketing strategies have borne the most fruit for you? 

Any other questions to add?

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Call for questions: how can an editor on call help you?

The new school year has begun, which always feels to me like a time for me to start new things, or in this case, restart old things.

Back in 2009, one of my critique group friends called with an urgent punctuation question. It was something pretty simple about quotes within quotes. This got me wondering if any of my blog followers have burning questions about some matter of grammar, usage, or style.

From there, I started a little series called Editor-on-call, in which I answer your burning questions. It has been a long time since I put out a call for more questions, so I thought I'd do so again. I want to keep this blog relevant and a helpful resource for you, dear readers.

Perhaps first you'd like to know what topics I've already covered. There are quite a few, as it happens, though this hardly exhausts all the concerns I hear come up at my critique group and in the author collaborative I belong to.

• Help! Critique partners bash my use of dialect
• Tips for using numbers in fiction.
• Mine! Help with possessives
• Why so tense? Tips for handling verb tenses
• Three bad babble habits and how to fix them: conquering run-ons
• Funky favorites and how to spell them: quick primer on whoa, voilá, psych, trawl, ado, copacetic
• No lie: why we misuse lay--getting a handle on lie vs. lay
• It's your day to master tricky possessives: tips on possessive pronouns
• Don a cap if you're proper: tips for when to capitalize nouns
• Bored with / by / of gaffes: correct idiomatic use of bored
• And then...derailment at conjunction junction: using then as a conjunction when it's really an adverb (and other grammar checker issues).
• Semi-serious punctuation help: using semicolons (and why I hate them)
• Tempting titles: tips on titling your fiction
• If I were you: using subjunctive mood to express wishes and hypotheticals
• Editor-on-call: misplaced modifiers--tips on improving clarity with word order.
• Editor-on-call: tips for critiquing an overwriter
• Overwrtiting (part 1): What is overwriting?
• Overwriting (part 2): Diction
• Overwriting (part 3): Babbling
• Overwriting (part 4): Tangents

Tell me, readers, what burning questions do you have about grammar, punctuation, or fiction writing problems you don't know how to fix?

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How I do it: identifying story weaknesses

In a previous post, How I do it: keeping revisions organized, I discussed my method for tracing particular revision threads throughout a  novel manuscript, tracking them, developing a running list of changes, and methodically tackling those changes.

One of my young writer friends, after reading the post asked, "but how did you figure out what the problems actually were?"

Image credit: clairer at morguefile.com

I rely a good deal on my intuition when it comes to writing decisions, but I also have a pretty strong analytical side that I call on when editing especially. So when it comes time to revise, I have to get these two impulses to play nice.

Once I've wrapped a piece, be it a short story, poem, or novel, I take a break from it for a bit. Catch up on chores. Read. Stream TV shows or movies. Not too long a writing vacation, mind you--just a few days to week.

Then it's time to do a critical read through, scene by scene. The critical read has several components: gut responses, intellect responses, craft concerns. As I read scene by scene, I contemplate the following questions.

Gut responses

• Is this scene boring? 
• Does it feel silly or improbable?
• Am I engaged? Do I feel something or think something after reading it?
• Does the scene feel too slow in spots? 
• Does it feel too quick, not escalating naturally, but blowing right past natural reactions and sequences of events? (More on escalation HERE.)
• Do I buy what the characters do? Do they seem needlessly stupid, thoughtless, malicious, overreacting, under-reacting, etc.?    (Note: The adverb "needlessly" is important, because bad behavior is a key component of dramatic storytelling, but unmotivated or out of the blue behavior that can't be accounted for is more often a sign that something needs to be fixed.)

• Does the scene feel like I picked the first idea that popped into my head, rather than the best one?
• Does the scene feel cowardly, like I've written away from a difficult or controversial reality?
• Does the scene give me a sense of deja vu, like it's a rehash of something I've seen somewhere else? 
• Does the scene make me want to keep reading?
• Does the scene as a whole feel on target?

Intellect responses

• Are the actions here natural? Do they make sense?
• Am I certain I have the facts straight? Have I adequately researched this to be sure?
• Are characters acting in a way out of alignment with how I've conceived them?
• Do the characters' responses connect with what came before?
• Are the characters' responses and actions the best ones to lead toward my climax and resolution?
• Is the protagonist blowing his/her chance at being likable?
• Have the relationships shown change and growth?
• Have any new characters shown up? Is this the best place to introduce them? Have they appeared out of nowhere late in the story and need to be "seeded" in earlier?
• Are the characters acting at their maximum capacity (more on this concept HERE)? If not, does their reason for holding back or messing up make sense and do something useful in the story?
• Is there tension? Is it only one kind (say only romantic, or only physical danger)?
• Are characters using different tools to negotiate to get what they want (more on negotiation tools HERE)? Or is the interpersonal conflict too much of the same scene after scene?
• Is the scene pulling its weight? Do the actions here add enough forward motion? 

Craft concerns

• Is the protagonist's emotional pulse (the driving desire behind his/her arc) coming through?
• Is this scene happening at the right moment in the overall story arc? Would it work better somewhere else?
• Does the scene have a discernible beginning, middle and end--a mini arc? If not, what's missing?
• Is there too much "stage business"--unnecessary descriptions of boring movement here to there?
• Have I given enough detail to ground where and when the scene is happening?
• Is there variety in the settings where scenes occur?
• Has a new subplot popped up here? Does it add anything?
• Have I missed any opportunities to more deeply develop theme or symbolism?
• Have I missed opportunities to develop existing conflicts?
• Have I used too many of the same kind of scene in a row? Am I regularly mixing dialogue scenes with action scenes and narrative summary scenes?
• Does this scene deserve to be dramatized? Would it work better as summary?
• Are the most important moments given the most page space? Are there unimportant bits running too long, out or proportion to their importance in the overall story?

As you can see, these three levels or layers of thinking draw on one's emotion and intuition, one's natural intellect, and finally the "best practices" advice of writing craft books. At times, it takes more than one read-through to engage each part of one's self--the feeling reader, the thinker, and the trained craftsman.

How do you identify major threads of revision needed in your work?

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Caring for your creativity during the holidays

Photo credit: danielemusella from morguefile.com

December is here, and with it comes a lot of rush and bustle. Shopping, decorating, parties, concerts, recitals, bake sales, visiting family and friends, preparing for visitors, more shopping, more baking, more parties, etc. All the festivities can be pretty draining, not only of your bank account and time, but of your creativity, too.

"Caring for your creativity" might sound a little strange, but think of it like a muscle. It needs both consistent exercise and protection from injury. Holiday busyness provides both unique opportunities and unique dangers for your creative powers.

Deeply engage socially

The times I've been most blocked with my writing have not been for want of time, but want of ideas--specifically interesting stuff for the characters to be doing that move forward their arcs of change. Busy seasons provide an opportunity to fill up with ideas. Getting butt out of chair and living life can help, as can being exceptionally curious and nosy.

During the holidays, you are thrown together with lots of people in all sorts of venues, so take advantage of it. Everyone who crosses your path has an interesting story to share, so make it your mission to access those stories. Some folks will be quick to share their best adventures, others have to warm up a bit. Here are some conversation starters that can help you get people talking:

• What is your favorite holiday memory?
• What happened on your worst Christmas ever?
• What is the most memorable gift you ever received? 
• What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?
• What unique traditions have been passed down in your family?
• What do you love most about your family? Dislike most?
• How are you like your parents? How are you different?
• What was your most precious childhood possession?
• Are you a collector? What do you collect and why?
• What is the weirdest secret you ever discovered?
• What is the funniest thing you’ve ever done?
• What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Was it worthwhile?
• What is the coolest place you’ve ever visited? Scariest? Most disgusting?
• What mishap turned out better than you ever expected?

Once you ask, listen, not only to story ideas, but also how the story is told. Note the storyteller's tone of voice and be alert to unique turns of phrase. Watch their expressions and gestures. Jot down the best stuff. Get a copy of Emotions in the Wild, a guided journal I created to help you collect data about how real people express emotions, and use it to keep your observations organized.

And if you're a party host, your guests just might love a structured time of storytelling, in which they take turns sharing a funny or touching memory with the group.

Seek pockets of stillness

Busy seasons also have a way of filling our minds with a lot of noise. This can be a big cause of post-holidays burn-out. The more you can give your mind pockets of quiet and stillness, the more mentally healthy you will feel during and after the holidays. Here are some ways to reduce noise and introduce peaceful moments into your day:

• Pare back on social media. Most of what you'll find there is buy, buy, buy anyway,
• Set your phone and computer aside more often.
• Limit TV watching
• Take far-away parking spaces and walk more
• Begin and end the day with a few minutes of silent reflection or prayer
• Journal: write away some of the noise of the day, then write about your childhood
• Snuggle with pets and loved ones
• Cook something that has to be constantly stirred
• Listen to soothing music while doing gentle stretches
• Walk, preferably during daylight hours to get vitamin D
• Swap a few showers for baths
• Copy poems or inspiring prose into your journal
• Write snail-mail letters to distant friends and family
• Improvise with a musical instrument
• Doodle, draw or color
• Build Legos with or without your family

Balancing out the hustle and bustle with quiet should make for a happier holiday season, and keep burn-out at bay.

What special challenges make writing difficult for you in December? Which ideas above appeal to you most?

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The stirring conclusion: how do you wrap up a story with drama?

Denouement can involve untangling and weaving
(photo by DodgertonSkillhause from morguefile.com)

I'm in currently in the midst of drafting the final chapter of my WIP, that this, the denouement section. I have the scenes roughed out, but my concern is how to handle weaving the threads without the chapter feeling like a series of info. dumps.

I realize that by nature, denouements have an info-dump-ish quality built in. Here are some of the ways the term is defined:

Oxford dictionaries:

The final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Brian Klems at The Writer's Dig

The denouement is the final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot. Often it’s where all the secrets (if there are any) are revealed and loose ends are tied up.

Merriam-Webster Word Central (the online kids' dictionary)

the final solution or untangling of the conflicts or difficulties that make up the plot of a literary work

The word's etymology is from the French, meaning "the untying." That term makes me think especially of mysteries, when the sleuth reveals how all the various plot elements you'd just read actually worked together, and s/he clears away all the false assumptions and red herrings to reveal just "whodunit" or perhaps, why the terrible crime happened. In many of the classic texts, like those of Agatha Christie, the sleuth monologues for pages, with occasional interruptions from his/her captive audience.

My fear is that some of these scenes could end up feeling like that. At the moment, I don't have tips, just questions for you:

How do you avoid info dumps in your final scenes? What books model well how to bring multiple threads to a satisfying conclusion without dragging or feeling too tell-heavy?

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Need to raise more questions in your fiction? Try starbursting

Journalists are trained to always ask six core questions when developing a news story: Who? What? Where? When? Why?  How? The corporate world has a clever way of visualizing them: on a six-pointed star. For corporations, the center of the star would list a new product or service, and executives would use the “starburst” to develop key questions to help them think through the practicalities of creating it: Who needs it? What do they want from it? Where do customers ask for this kind of thing? Why might they want it? When can we develop it? How would we manufacture it? The point of the exercise isn’t to develop answers, but merely to generate as many quality questions as possible.

How might starbursting help you generate ideas for your fiction? One of the most effective ways of developing tension in a story is to continually raise questions. Starbursting can help you figure out the kinds of questions to raise for readers, as well as sort out which are the most compelling. From there, you can begin to shape your material around raising those questions and artfully and parsimoniously providing answers.

Here are some examples of questions you might generate:

Who questions

• Who has the most to lose in this situation?
• Who might be secret allies?
• Who would have the most trouble keeping this secret?
• Who should the protagonist trust?
• Who should the protagonist suspect?
• Who would be the best eyewitness?
• Who might sabotage the protagonist?

What questions

• What does my protagonist most want in this scene?
• What outcome does s/he most fear?
• What usual coping mechanisms will s/he draw upon?
• What emotions will s/he hide?
• What skills does s/he need to achieve his/her goal?
• What tools does s/he need?
• What connections will s/he need to make to achieve his/her goal?
• What traits could bring him/her into conflict in this scene?
• What traits, good or bad, could hinder the protagonist in his/her quest?

Where questions

• Where could I set this scene to maximize the tension?
• Where would readers least expect this kind of scene to take place?
• Where does the protagonist feel most comfortable and confident?
• Where does the protagonist feel most uneasy or incompetent?
• Where might my protagonist hide something valuable?
• Where would s/he most naturally seek for the lost thing or person?
• Where would s/he go for advice?
• Where would s/he most stick out as an oddball?

Why questions

• Why would the protagonist choose this course of action?
• Why does s/he feels so passionately about this cause?
• Why does s/he fear this person, place or situation?
• Why would s/he trust or distrust this character?
• Why might s/he choose to keep this information secret?
• Why might s/he let this character get away with wrongdoing?

When questions

• When might this argument happen?
• When could this scene be set to add the most potential for change and growth?
• When does the character’s normal world change?
• When is this character apt to be most stubborn? Most pliable?
• When might this character most naturally first meet my protagonist?
• When should I place the “ticking clock” deadline?
• When would my character reach a decision?
• When would forces in the story most fittingly come to a head?

How questions

• How does this situation follow what came before?
• How could I best set up the next plot action?
• How might these characters hinder each other?
• How will characters obtain the skills and tools they need?
• How will the protagonist escape?
• How will s/he win back another’s trust?
• How will s/he attempt to hinder the antagonist?
• How will the antagonist react to this event or action?

If your critique partners frequently point out lack of tension in your stories, it might be due to a failure to keep curiosity piqued. Stop and think like a journalist (or detective). Starburst any big plot point you have planned. You’ll have suddenly have questions to raise as you build up to that moment.

Does raising questions come naturally to you? How might starbursting help you enhance a scene you need to revise? 

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8 Tips for Writing Standout Titles

Kimberly Joy Peters, 2010; School Library Journal

Titles are tricky, no doubt about it. Your title, like your cover art, is an important marketing tool. A good title should communicate in such a way that it appeals to your core audience.

Here are a few things I've gleaned, largely from my experience as a reader.

Intrigue by raising questions

Titles that spark curiosity because they raise a question are often very effective. Consider these examples

Chaim Potok's The Chosen: Why is this person chosen? For what purpose?
Larry Woiwode's Beyond the Bedroom Wall: What is beyond it? Something good? Something scary?
Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried: Who are they? Why are they carrying things? What sort of things?
Terry Pratchett's Shall I Wear Midnight: How could someone wear a time of day? What could that mean?

Juxtapose unexpected things

As a reader, I'm quick to click through to a description if the title intriguingly pairs things I don't expect to see together. Some examples:

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
War in Heaven by Charles Williams
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari

Use loaded terms 

Words with a heavy history--whether negative or positive--or an ominous double meaning can similarly intrigue

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Water's Edge by Robert Whitlow

Juxtapose the title's tone with your content

This technique will require some finesse with choosing cover art to bring the dissonance to full force. Consider these examples:

Empress of the Splendid Season  by Oscar Hijuelos: a once-prosperous Cuban woman must rebuild her life in the US working as a cleaning lady.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson: The church pageant goes hilariously wrong in every possible way when a family of tough, bad kids are cast in some of the roles.

Allude to other works

Some titles effectively compress an important theme by calling to mind another book, poem, song, etc. in which that same theme is explored.

Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch calls to mind a Bible/Torah passage from Exodus 20 about generational patterns of bad behavior
Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard references an R.E.M. song about suicide ideation
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner references a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth, "a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing," indicating some of the unusual narration experiments that will be part of the experience.

Highlight an evocative line, image or concept used in the story

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore highlights protective measures that fail
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery highlights a line by the precocious tween narrator about self protection
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson highlights a moment when the protagonist's conception of her place in the universe is altered and enlarged

This can sometimes fall flat, if the pet phrase doesn't reflect well the content of the story. Sarah Dessen's Keeping the Moon is an example. Neither of the key words in the title appear much, and it gives the impression that the book will heavily feature stargazing or some nocturnal adventures, or alternately that the story is SciFi/Fantasy when it is in fact realistic fiction about a teen girl's summer gone wrong.

Be cautious about using names

Titles like Julie's Song or Josh's Journey or Eloise don't really tell me anything about the genre or content because I don't know who these people are. In fact, these titles are so vanilla, I expect the book to be similarly bland.

Names can work if they're unusual, like My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok,  Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, or Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, because they hint at another time or culture that will be explored in the story.

Famous people's names will always be a draw, because they anchor your work in a specific set of referents (time, place, area of expertise), giving some sense of what the story is about. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman, Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger McDonald, Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet are some examples.

Including an unusual element with a name will make it stand out. For example, Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.

Remember that copying has risks and rewards

If you discover your perfect title has already been used, can you go ahead? Well, yes and no. There are a number of things to consider before taking the plunge.

As far as I know, it's fairly unusual for a title to be trademarked, but it pays to check so you don't get sued. If there are a dozen other works with the same title, you will have trouble standing out. If you copy an unusual title of a well-known work, say The Thorn Birds, expect lots of hate from fans of the original. If the only other work with the same title is by a bestselling author, you can get a boost in visibility in searches BUT (big caveat) if people pick up your work by mistake, they may leave scathing reviews and engage in other trollish behavior because they'll feel duped.

That doesn't mean that mix-ups can't happen that aren't your fault at all. Author Emily Schultz published a book about a decade ago called Joyland. Then Stephen King released a book years later with the same title. Schultz got a big bump in royalties because of reader confusion, but also some big headaches. You can read her story here.

What are some book titles you consider "standouts"? Why do they appeal to you?

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Who are you really? 52 questions to go deeper with characters

Photo credit: GaborfromHungary from morguefile.com

Characters ought to be more than a name and job title, like Joan Bunderson, special operative or Kyle Kowalski, hockey star. To breathe on the page, your characters need to have an outer life that's relational beyond work and an inner life of passions, drives, attitudes, memories, wounds, and fears.

Below is a fairly exhaustive list of questions to brainstorm when developing a new character, especially the protagonist. Obviously you don't need to know all these things about him or her to proceed with a story. However, wrestling with some of these questions might open up new avenues for inner and outer conflict to arise, or suggest interesting plot or setting elements you hadn't before considered. So choose a few from each menu or tackle them all, your choice.

If interviewing is your favorite research method, you might find it beneficial to find real people with similarities to your character and ask them a few of the questions. Even if your character is quite different personality-wise, a peer of your characters could give you helpful insights.

I suspect some of these questions might be useful for getting to know just about anyone if you're ever at a loss for conversation ideas.

Likes

1. What are your longtime interests or passions?

2. What do you like to do to relax? Have fun?

3. What are your favorite foods?

4. What scents do you love most? Which ones draw up specific memories for you?

5. What textures appeal to you most? What feels nice on your skin?

6. What kinds of music appeal to you? Why?

7. What sounds do you find soothing? Irritating?

8. What shows, movies, or books do you watch and reference over and over?

9. What words of phrases do you find yourself saying all the time?

10. What was your most precious childhood possession?

11. Are you a collector? What do you collect and why?

Experiences

1. What is the coolest place you’ve ever visited?

2. What is your favorite holiday memory?

3. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever observed?

4. What is the funniest thing you’ve ever done?

5. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

6. What accomplishments are you most proud of?

7. What’s the worst illness or injury you’ve ever had?

8. What is the kindest thing anyone has done for you?

9. What is the most memorable gift you ever received?

10. What’s the meanest thing someone has done to you?

11. Have you ever posted, emailed, or texted something you wish you could take back?

12. What’s your most memorable moment with eavesdropping?

13. What is the weirdest secret you ever discovered?

14. What pranks, jokes, hoaxes or tricks have you ever fallen for or perpetrated?

Relationships

1. Do you find it easy or hard to get to know people?

2. What do you love most about your family? Dislike most?

3. How are you like your parents? How are you different?

4. What unique traditions have been passed down in your family?

5. What qualities do you value most in a friend?

6. What makes someone attractive/dating material to you?

7. Who are your role models? Who do you admire and look up to?

8. Who do you fight with most? What do you fight about?

9. What kinds of people do you feel awkward around? Why?

10. How do you feel about people in authority?

Inner life

1. What do you worry about most?

2. Do you have any phobias? What kinds of things scare you?

3. What makes you feel most at peace?

4. How do you calm yourself when you are upset or anxious?

5. What bad habit do you most wish you could give up?

6. What injustices make you most upset?

7. How do you react when you are provoked?

8. How do you relate to money and possessions? How important is wealth to you? Why? Are you carefree or worried about gains and losses?

Dreams

1. What crazy adventure do you dream of taking?

2. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

3. If you could magically acquire a new talent, what would you choose?

4. What would your dream home be like?

5. If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose?

6. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

7. If you could time travel, what time period would you like to visit?

8. If you could have a superpower (or two), what would you choose?

9. If someone could magically cure one of your deepest fears, which would you choose?

Which of these questions strike you as most helpful? What other favorite character development questions do you use? 

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