english | Katja Rammer

Here we go – I finished Part II of How NOT to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to avoid at All Costs if You Ever Want to Get Published – which concentrates on character development and character representation within your novel.

The authors, Sandra Newman and Howard Mittelmark, raise some very interesting points and include a Pop Quiz at the end of this part. I took the quiz – and apparently I suck. Way to much stereotyping and it seems my characters would behave to predictable, too. Dang! But hey, first step to solve a problem is knowing there is one. Now I know I will have to look into this and become better.

What did I learn? Here are some points I think are most important:

Don’t over-describe, don’t stereotype, no perfect people with perfect manners, thoughts and traits – they would be boring.
Ideas and mindset of the character has to fit into the time-setting of the story.
The villain needs a reason for his actions. The reader should be able to at least understand, but not necessarily relate to it – e.g. opportunity, money, revenge… . And the foe can’t be other-worldly smart nor a low-key opponent.

Additionally I learned new things about the roles of lovers/friends of my character and how to weave them into the social web of my story. I especially loved the box with the bulleted list naming traits and items that might make the reader dislike my character instantly.

I am German – so naturally one would think I would write in my native language. But I do not – or at least not always. In this blog I will mostly write in English but there will be posts or texts in German as well. If you wonder why, let me explain it like this:
I think in English. Not when I am going about my day-to-day business or while grocery shopping. But often when I am in this place in my head where the stories are – I do think in English. At the moment. For the story I picked a while ago to be the one story I really want to tell.

I believe that to be a consequence of the literary choices I made in the past ten years. Maybe 85 percent of the books I read were in English. Once I realized how much of the authors voice and phrasing gets – literally – lost in translation of a book, I started reading the novels and stories I was intrigued with in the original language. Most times that was English.

Maybe for another text or story I will choose German. I will depend on the topic and the setting. Right now, the storyline I am pursuing comes up in English. I tried to “translate” it to German– but that felt wrong and sounded totally off. I could never find the right German word to express what I wanted to write. So I went ahead and started over. In English. Which is still a touchy subject for me. For I am aware that I am far from perfect and believe me, I am concerned that what I write sounds just a little weird. I do have a master-plan to address this issue in the near future. I will keep you all updated.

Meanwhile – when I will post something I wrote just for the sake of exercise, like writing challenges or writing prompts, it will most likely be German. I guess it will depend on the topic and setting. Makes no sense to write in English if the story is set in rural Bavaria, don’t you think?