Quick chills

By Marietta Miles

I am always up for something scary. No matter the season. However, there is something perfect about settling in for a good fright when the chilly winds of Winter rattle and knock upon the door. As a scare enthusiast I have read, watched and visited a plethora of imaginative terrors. So, in order to keep on keeping on, I’ve expanded my dread-inducing diet.

Super spooky shorts are great when you need a thrill but haven’t the time to truly commit. You need a quick chill, not a long and looming tale. Plus, I believe it is a true challenge to create, develop, and wrap-up a memorable fright fest in less than 30 minutes and I love watching how creatives work around the challenge.

For the creepy cause I have consumed a myriad of shorts films and video. There are plenty to choose from and there are those that I would not watch again to those that I emphatically suggest. Here are my favorite spooky shorts for your viewing pleasure.

Suckablood

Suckablood is the 5th film in the Bloody Cuts Horror anthology, a project created by participants of the British 48hr Film Challenge. Suckablood is a dark, gothic bedtime story directed and narrated by Ben Tillett. The visuals are like a macabre layer cake, beautiful and terrifying. With rhyming narration, a familiar sense of childhood fear, and shocking but gorgeous gore Suckablood reminds the viewer of the dark side of our beloved fairytales.

Curve


Curve is a short film written by Tim Egan and starring Laura Jane Turner. From the very beginning of this short there are questions. Concerns and terrifying mysteries. Laura, her character name is never given, awakens injured and trapped on a smooth, curved surface set above a “sentient abyss.” The entire film is her attempt to swallow her suffering and inch closer to safety while the true and horrifying nature of her reality is expertly revealed.

Attic Panic

Attic Panic tells of a woman tidying an attic, distracted by her chore until she notices a movement nearby. And so, begins the simple and terrifying story. With no score to rely upon, the film uses natural noises and sounds to amplify the growing terror. The not so special setting and the smarts of our protagonist makes the twist all the more scary. David F. Sandberg made his debut with the highly acclaimed Lights Out film. He also directed The Conjuring Universe spin-off film Annabelle: Creation and Shazam!, the seventh installment in the
DC Extended Universe.

Lights Out

And speaking of Lights Out, this short also takes a position on my list. The three minute film tells the story of a woman, home alone, and the creature stalking her. A lean tale with no background or backstory, watching the hunt is terrifying enough, only what happens in the moment.

Snake Slayer

 By Marietta Miles

 

It’s time for a quick shot and this week we’re featuring Oakland writer Rob Pierce. Rob wrote the novels Blood By Choice, Tommy Shakes, Uncle Dust, and With The Right Enemies, the novella Vern In The Heat, and the short story collection The Things I Love Will Kill Me Yet. He has been nominated for a Derringer Award for short crime fiction and has had stories published in numerous crime magazines. His latest release, Snake Slayer, brings together a few of his most popular and most interesting characters. Snake Slayer is about criminals on the run, not just from the law but from other criminals. Two of them are lovers, the third an ex. Deria is psychotic and Vern is her violent ex, who let her go because he thought she lived too dangerously. Russ is the new guy who’s in way over his head. It seems that bad things are about to go down.


What inspired Snake Slayer?

My novella Vern in the Heat, first published in 2015, was about Vern, Deria, their relationship and how she changed. Now, it wasn’t strictly a relationship book, as the plot had a lot to do with criminals and their violent acts, but that was a major part of it for me. This book starts with them separated due to her penchant for violence, which Vern, a violent-when-necessary criminal, considers self-destructive. Deria flat out likes to kill. She also wants to survive, so she can kill more. The specifics of this story started with the beginning, the initial bloodbath from which the rest unfolds. Then the story becomes about what killing does to different people, how they unravel or don’t.



The characters are diverse emotionally and mentally, how do you prepare to write for such different people?

The preparation started while writing Vern in the Heat. I wanted to write a story with different points of view. According to my writing group, I wasn’t always doing it successfully. I was told by a good friend, Sean Craven, to read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. It came to me like providence, in a free bundle of two dozen books but you had to take all two dozen. So, twenty-three books for Little Free Libraries, one for me. Such a majestic work. Chris Rhatigan, who edited that book and this one, had to work with me extensively on conveying those perspectives. He didn’t say a word about them this time around. It’s possible to learn technique. Doesn’t make me McMurtry by any means, but I’m a better writer than I used to be.

That said, I did have to learn one more character, one significantly different from Deria and Vern. Turned out pretty well, I’d say. The character, not his life.


Which character did you find most interesting?

I love writing Deria. Vern, too, but the focus this time was Deria. She’s an exceedingly angry woman; she hates jocks, which doesn’t bode well for any she comes across. I consider the book a radical feminist diatribe. No idea whether any women see it that way. I like women, though, despite how they’ve come off in certain books. Some things are sadly necessary for the consistency of story. In this book, it’s men who don’t fare so well.


Imagine and share where these characters are right now?

After the last page? No idea. Vern in the Heat wasn’t written with a sequel in mind, neither was this one. There were a lot of scenes cut—this was originally a 65,000 word novel, but too many scenes didn’t work—it ventured into the beginnings of COVID and the characters figuring it would all get sorted out quickly. Maybe I can make some of those scenes work. But I’m currently finishing work on another novel, writing short stories between drafts, and anticipate going back to another “novel” rife with scenes that don’t work, but some that work so well. Always a lot to figure out.

Cheers, it’s been swell.

 

Snake Slayer is out August 15.

Another look at the nook

It's time for some Marietta Miles this week from Beau.

“Every page has a lovely line, something to savor, even as the story uneasily slips under your skin. There’s beauty in the violence in this novella about loneliness and the lengths people go to free themselves from its grasp. You read May and imagine Marietta Miles sitting at the edge of the abyss, peering into it and scribbling into her notebook.” —E.A. Aymar, author of You’re As Good As Dead

“Marietta Miles is a unique voice in modern noir, a writer of such dark scenes that only the power of her words can provide the light that releases the reader into a world where hope remains. Showcasing a Southern sensibility that reminds at times of Flannery O’Connor, Miles continually reveals further breadth (and depths) to her characters. A book of dark charms, May adds to the staggeringly beautiful intoxication delivered by last year’s Route 12.” —Rob Pierce, author of Uncle Dust and With The Right Enemies

“May will haunt you long after you close the cover. Its every page is fraught with peril. Its every word oozes with tragedy You know it’s coming, but you won’t dare look away, lest you miss one of the freshest, most scintillating voices in Southern crime fiction.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags and What We Reckon

“May is gripping and yet poignant. May Cosby and the people around her struggle against the present and the past, trying to piece together a life that’s worth living. Set along the fragile Folly Island of North Carolina as a frightening storm approaches, May looks back upon her choices and does her best to come to terms with them. Extremely atmospheric and at times heart-wrenching, May is a story of choosing to leave the wreckage of the past and search for hope in the future.” —Jen Conley, author of Cannibals

“Marietta Miles’s May is an unfiltered, provocative deep-dive into the bleak life of an extraordinarily complex woman. Utterly engrossing and relentlessly heartbreaking, Miles’s sharp, powerful storytelling will have you rooting for May fiercely right up until the very end.” —Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep, Freak, and Wonderland

Buy it here

Today is MAY day for Beau

Today, Beau Johnson takes a look at MAY, from DSD's own Marietta Miles.

“May will haunt you long after you close the cover. Its every page is fraught with peril. Its every word oozes with tragedy You know it’s coming, but you won’t dare look away, lest you miss one of the freshest, most scintillating voices in Southern crime fiction.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags and What We Reckon

“May is gripping and yet poignant. May Cosby and the people around her struggle against the present and the past, trying to piece together a life that’s worth living. Set along the fragile Folly Island of North Carolina as a frightening storm approaches, May looks back upon her choices and does her best to come to terms with them. Extremely atmospheric and at times heart-wrenching, May is a story of choosing to leave the wreckage of the past and search for hope in the future.” —Jen Conley, author of Cannibals

“Every page has a lovely line, something to savor, even as the story uneasily slips under your skin. There’s beauty in the violence in this novella about loneliness and the lengths people go to free themselves from its grasp. You read May and imagine Marietta Miles sitting at the edge of the abyss, peering into it and scribbling into her notebook.” —E.A. Aymar, author of You’re As Good As Dead

“Marietta Miles is a unique voice in modern noir, a writer of such dark scenes that only the power of her words can provide the light that releases the reader into a world where hope remains. Showcasing a Southern sensibility that reminds at times of Flannery O’Connor, Miles continually reveals further breadth (and depths) to her characters. A book of dark charms, May adds to the staggeringly beautiful intoxication delivered by last year’s Route 12.” —Rob Pierce, author of Uncle Dust and With The Right Enemies

Get yours here

The Publishing Industry's Head Is Up Its Ass... and So Is Politico's

Politico published an article that threw David Joy into a Twitter rant of epic proportions.

The article claims that, in the wake of Trump's political victory, the publishing industry is rethinking its approach to publishing.

"Its members are asking themselves how literature became so detached from the contours of American life in so many parts of the country. The perspectives of the white working classes and the rural poor, the demographics that handed Trump the presidency in 2016, have been largely absent from the novels printed every year."

David goes on to list title after title

 

Hell, here at DSD we don't need to look any further than our own Marietta Miles to be able to cite someone who is writing about unconventional protagonists who are poor, desperate and pushed to their limits.

While I have an appreciation for the idea that the publishing industry is waking up to the fact that the self-indulged youngsters who shoe their way in with an MFA and publishing industry connections do not have all that much to say to most of the rest of us who have actually, you know, had some serious life issues and lived, I think the article betrays a lack of awareness within the industry of the full spectrum of publishing. There are a lot of small presses out there doing amazing things and taking risks that the Big 5 will never take because they are solely focused on profit margins and profile.

Frankly, the biggest thing that strikes me about that quote from Politico is the word white. As though making poor white people a new focal group makes them somehow a minority. We aren't. We're the majority. And it concerns me that instead of the publishing industry focusing on its lack of diversity as a whole it's instead focusing on reaching the presumed demographic of Trump voters that it thinks it can make money off of. I mean, in other words, they learned from ABC's move to reboot Roseanne and want to copy the formula.

"On the morning after the 2016 election, a group of nearly a dozen ABC executives gathered at their Burbank, Calif., headquarters to determine what Donald J. Trump’s victory meant for the network’s future.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘There’s a lot about this country we need to learn a lot more about, here on the coasts,’” Ben Sherwood, the president of Disney and ABC’s television group, said in an interview.

They began asking themselves which audiences they were not serving well and what they could do to better live up to the company name — the American Broadcasting Company. By the meeting’s end, they had in place the beginnings of a revised strategy that led the network to reboot a past hit centered on a struggling Midwestern family, a show that had a chance to appeal to the voters who had helped put Mr. Trump in the White House."

The bigger publishers may be on some sort of naval gazing journey that's going to prompt them to think about the heartland for a few months but I expect much of what they come up with will be the educated perspective on escaping the small towns and poverty that they associate with poor white people. And by the time their books hit the shelves the next election will be upon us, with the next social demographic that needs to be indulged emerging and anyone in the industry who only sees this as a wake-up call to focus on poor, white readers will drop that group and move on to the next one. In the midst of the current racist administration let's not forget people who are gay, trans, bi or otherwise. Let's not forget people who are black or Hispanic or Native. Let's not forget Muslims and atheists and Jews.

How about we stop picking the fucking flavor of the election cycle and actually pay attention to all human beings who make up our world?

On the one hand, I'm a stickler for good writing and for technique and I'm my own worst critic on that front. I hate using my phone for things and seeing typos from spellcheck and from my fat fingers end up on Facebook or Twitter.

But I'm almost at the point where I'm not interested in reading a book if the author has an MFA. Publicists, please, don't lead with that. The form letters can be boring enough but if you think education will make me want to read a novel you don't understand me. I'm looking for great stories and authenticity that comes through in the writing. This isn't true of everyone, but studying alone doesn't make you insightful. God in heaven I want the book that is so absofuckinglutely original that I have to read it. I was looking through some review options recently and saw this description:

A romance for sadists. A comedy for sociopaths. It's a male on male urban fantasy tale of horrific attraction between two middle aged men who aren't what they seem. Or what they want to be.

Hell, yes, I want to read a comedy for sociopaths. I want to read something original, fresh, fun. I want to read something that doesn't feel like it's an imitation of anything I've read before. (Just finished the excellent Freeze-Frame Revolution on that score and that was a blast... and who here is talking about Brian Cohn's The Last Detective? Oh, that's right... another book that hasn't gotten its due.)

It's hard to knock an industry for the slim chance that it might be self aware enough to realize there are a bunch of people in this country that don't live in New York City, don't spend 5-7 years in college and couldn't care less about the Oxford comma.

But geez lou-fucking-ise, when are they going to realize that education is not the hallmark of what makes a great writer? The objective is to look for great, compelling stories. The market is there and if they haven't picked that up from movies already I don't even know what to say.

Poor, white woman at the heart of a crime story. 2008. Not 2016; 2008. You'd think with the Academy Award nominations that the publishing world might have noticed...

And I'm sure that between Frozen River in 2008 and Wind River in 2017 there were a ton of movies that could fit into the new demographic the publishing world has apparently just discovered. (edited to add.. What about books like Winter's Bone? Shows like Justified? How can this demographic be a news flash now?)

I welcome all writers of diversity and diverse stories. I don't care if you're with a small press. If you have something new coming out and are seeking some promotion email me via Toe Six Press (sandraruttanattoesixpress @gmail.com). I don't care how mainstream you aren't; I just care about great, authentic stories. I will regularly feature books and writers on the site, no matter who published you.

Hopefully, more people in publishing will embrace the same philosophy, but this is an industry that's slow to change.

Look for the small presses to lead the way.

David Nemeth is a gift to us all

By Sam Belacqua

David Nemeth is doing a thing what needs to be done. He's a one-man machine with his goddamn INCIDENT REPORTS.

Submission calls. Book reviews. Articles. Interviews. Videos of author readings.

Each week this mother fucker is posting an amazing write-up of what the hell is going on in the crime fiction world, mostly in the "small press" realm.

Most of us (yeah, me included. fuck off) have our heads up our asses. Nine out of 10 author newsletters I subscribe to have something like "What Coffee I Was Drinking When I Wrote My Beautiful Words of Beauty Today," complete with links to some schmuck on Goodreads who said some nice words about you and your book because, honestly, why would I care about something that wasn't you, author?? Gawd, we authors can be such self-indulgent cockcanoes, convinced that people want to read the ways whatever goddamn 100-year-old celebrity what died this week influenced said author. Dear Author, No one gives a shit that the first time you wanted to be a writer was when you saw Sir Rupert McDickdoozle in the 1968 film noir "Dark Darknesses." Who gives a shit?

David Nemeth is helping spread the word about other authors, and I give a shit about that. So I grabbed my cup of Death Wish Coffee that I was drinking to honor the memory of Harry Dean Stanton, whose performance in The Avengers: Hulk on a Plane made my balls soft and ever so delicate, and I walked my scabby ass over to the email machine to ask Nemeth some questions.

Sam Belacqua: The fuck made you start this weekly report?

David Nemeth: I don't think I would have ever started "Incident Reports" without the crime fiction community being so welcoming and supportive of the book reviews I was doing. Once I realized that it was impossible for me to keep up with all the new books coming out, a weekly series was a way for me to at least mention them. That was its genesis, but I then I added book reviews, short stories, and articles I read because I'm a glutton for punishment.

SB: What the fuck is it with this weekly shit? That's a fuckload of work, man.

DN: Weekly, damn, yeah it is a lot of work. I did four weeks of dry runs before I published the first one to see if it was a doable thing. It's tough, but I have two things going for me: an understanding and supportive wife who I don't deserve and only one kid, who is in college. So I've got some free time. If anyone cares, technology-wise I am using Newsblur for RSS feeds and Instapaper to store articles. I just started using Scrivener to write the posts using Markdown and that has sped things up.

SB: Yes, people care about that tech bullshit. It's a goddamn nerdfest around here. Christ, in the time it took you to answer that question, seven douchenozzles have written blog posts about using Scrivwhateverthehellyousaid to write their novels that no one will ever publish. Speaking of writing, what kind of creative shit you been up to?

DN: I'm trying to write some short stories, and by trying, I haven't carved out the time just to sit down and write. I'll get there though, but I'm thinking about it at least. Instead, I'm reading, doing lots of reading, and binging Shameless with the Missus.

SB: Shameless with the Missus? Christ, is that some weird sex thing I don't know about? I'm not going to Google that. Sure, it sounds harmless, but I ain't going to have another "pegging" search page again. Fuckin' hell. Ain't enough brain bleach in the world, man. Anyway, what's one of your most popular posts? Some big successes?

DN: The most popular thing I've written on my blog was my post on the death of 280 Steps. I still miss them but hate the way they went out. BTW, can Hinkson ever find a publisher that will stay in business to keep Hell on Church Street in print? That book is the balls. What I really enjoy is when I recommend books and people dig them like Marietta Miles's Route 12, Paul Heatley's Motel Whore, or Lina Chern's Sparkle Shot.

SB: Anyone been a jackass? Any pushy authors? I want names and home addresses, goddamnit.

DN: Luckily, I've been under the radar so I haven't gotten bombarded. Will this article take me to the next level? I will say that the big publishers are the worst at rancid promotion on Twitter. How many times do big-time authors, authors I thought I respected, shill for a book that sucks? I hate that. At least with small presses, if a book isn't fantastic, you can see the effort and talent there. I'll support that over a shit-ass book from a major that was only written for a TV or movie deal in mind.

**

Thank Zeus we have this mother fucking David Nemeth showing us how it ought to be done. He's saying, "Hey, there's this cool thing someone else did. Go check it out." I mean, fucking hell, man. That's the shit right there. Pay it forward, or whatever that bullshit is. 

If you're doing newsletters and you aren't helping readers discover people who aren't you, then maybe you can take a lesson from David Nemeth's INCIDENT REPORTS.

And, by the way, if this mother fucker ever puts up a tip jar on his site, buy the man a drink each month. Hell, he's working his ass off for you people.

http://www.davidnemeth.net/incident-report-no-1/

PS - Dear Author, I didn't mean that your author newsletter was bad. You're a goddamn glorious snowflake & everyone loves you so hard.

PPS - I swear to whatever god you love that if you see Nemeth's blog and your first thought is that you ought to send him your own book for him to review, then you're a goddamn monster.

Watching the Watchers

By Marietta Miles

Folks in town have created a “crime watch” page on Facebook. A great idea, in theory. Mission, keep people up to date on the ins and outs of the neighborhood. The site helps reunite lost dogs with their owners, tracked down missing Christmas deliveries and organized a community meeting at the local elementary school to discuss, with police and other community leaders, the increase in crime on our streets.

I’ll admit, most of the time my interest in the site is less about information and more about amusement. There is something side-grabbingly funny to the random response from an angry armchair hero who, alone too long with his beer, emphatically and repeatedly announces the generous size of his man accessories in response to a bewildered post questioning strange popping sounds on the fourth of July.

I realize the page has a greater purpose. When there is trouble afoot, say tire slashing or mail stealing, involved individuals will post their story in hopes of warning others. It’s a social media version of the general store and we’re the old people talking and complaining on the bench in the front window. Except, the weight of social media chatter has far reaching and long lasting consequences.

For instance, we have our share of teenagers and these teenagers have evolved as all teenagers evolve. Slowly. Very slowly. They do teenage things. Knock over flower pots. Drop trash. Curse loudly. Smooch under on the steps of the church. They act like dogs with the gate left open. Do. Everything. Now.

This is where the execution of the community page gets a bit dicey. People are snapping photos of the kids they believe are taking part in criminal activity and posting to the Facebook page. After pictures are posted a string of comments usually follow stating the police record of said kids, their parents or any other juicy tidbits someone can pull from the archives.

All of this information brought to you directly from the general public, with little to no evidence backing up most of the claims. It all comes down to “I have a friend and they heard from their friend…”

It’s gossip. Gossip that is seen by hundreds of people on a page specifically created to circulate information on local criminal activity, a page that is not associated with the police department or burdened by the requirement of facts. It is gossip and it can haunt a kid for a lifetime.

There is also a certain amount of rabble rousing on the page. Recently, the call to arms has been so urgent I fear for the man or woman unfortunate enough to sell or market door to door.

A typical posting is distrustful and, at times, threatening or violent. “Some guy knocked on my door. Asked if I needed lawn care. Lawn Care? Shit. I told that guy he should run.”

Ugly responses and comments follow. “Better be glad he didn’t come to my door. I’d introduce him to Smith and Wesson.”

A few days ago, a young man knocked on my door, explained his boss would be coming through the neighborhood giving free estimates on gutter and window work. Would I be interested?

“No, thanks,” I said. Visibly relieved with the simple and underwhelming response, he motored on. I felt bad for him. I wanted to give him a juice box, a can of mace and prayers for safe passage.

There is definitely a use for these sites, these new world community boards. We don’t really have block parties or founder’s events. No potlucks or over the fence chats.

Around these parts, most parents work two jobs to make ends meet. The days of Gladys Kravitz sitting in her window, keeping watch on the suburban sprawl are gone. This is how people touch base, remain involved but a mass bulletin, forever filed on the web, probably needs better execution.

I don’t believe this page should be taken down. Please, no. It’s a favorite stop. Frankly, you could arc an entire novel in one post and its kooky replies. The inspiration!

Perhaps the answer is as simple as someone keeping watch over the neighborhood watch. 

Out of Character

Sat July 16 I was scheduled to read at Noir at the Bar event in DC. I'd tried working on a few different projects, but nothing was coming together. My most recent stories were too long and couldn't be pared down to the length needed.

Channeling my inner high school procrastinating skills, on Thursday July 14 I penned a short story. Initially at 2600 words, it too needed to be trimmed. I was confident I could squeeze it down to 1500 or so and be ready for Saturday.

One of my fellow Radioactive Writers read it and sent back notes, and we discussed the story at length over Skype. Rewrite followed rewrite.

For the purposes of Saturday's event I wanted to; a. Keep it to 1500 words or less, b. Keep it crime, and c. Tuck in some inside jokes for Marietta Miles, who was also reading at the event.

The inside jokes were references to The Walking Dead.

As the process of revision unfolded my critique partner suggested a reference to a Tom Waits song. It was a song Beth sang in the hospital.

Now, the song didn't make the cut. That's not the point. The point is, the suggestion got me thinking about Beth. Would sweet, innocent, sheltered Beth sing Tom Waits? Keith Green, sure. Tom Waits? Undecided.

I posed the question to Brian and that's when he pointed out to me that in some of my books I've had characters reading certain novels he doesn't think that character would read. He says it's common for authors to make that mistake to name drop friends' books.

Of course, I argued back with him that despite his and Bry's own views on religion they're all up on Parker Millsap, despite a lot of God references scattered throughout his lyrics. (And, I mean, who isn't all up on Parker Millsap? I guess anyone who hasn't heard of him, but damn, is he talented.)


However, he has a point about the book references in novels. They often pull the protagonist out of character to serve the author's agenda instead of maintaining character consistency.

Now, I'll be the first to say that I think people can be more diverse than story characters often are, and real people are often filled with contradictions that aren't accepted in character development (as I pointed out to Brian). However, both of those aspects of character development involve narrowing the focus on the character in a story. Inserting musical or written references that contradict the perception of the character don't expand that character; they simply contradict how they've been developed.

Maybe after the apocalypse, after the barn and the brutal deaths they'd seen, maybe then Beth would have listened to Tom Waits, but the only way for her to sing that song was if she knew if before the world turned to hell, and it feels like a stretch to me. I just wasn't convinced. Wild child Maggie, sure. Naive little Beth? Hmmmm. Not sold.

Whenever a character does something to suit the author's purpose the risk is that the reader will be pulled out of the story, and when that happens you risk losing them. Works that are character driven flow from a consistency of character with believable choices the characters make that drive the plot forward.

The other end of the spectrum is placeholder people who do what the author needs to follow their plot. The dumb people who, after being chased by a freak with a knife, hear a noise in the cellar and go to see what it is instead of running away. Or, you know, Kevin from Bloodline, who does everything he's told not to do.

This is an issue that crops up a lot in plot-driven writing. When the focus is on outlining and following a formula for storytelling, the compromise can be wooden characters who don't flow organically through the events because the author's more focused on scenes they want to incorporate than telling a story about a protagonist that flows from their motivation.

I was trained in outlining. When I took my creative writing diploma I worked under the tutelage of an author who had several books to her name. I felt apologetic telling her why I'd continued a manuscript (that eventually became Suspicious Circumstances) but abandoned the outline and why.

Her response? "You've a real writer." She credited me for knowing the limitations of the outline and being able to toss it aside when necessary in order to ensure the development of the characters and the story was organic and believable.

Ask if a character would really do something, and if so, Why? What's their motivation? If you can't answer those questions for a novel you're reading or writing chances are the character isn't well developed.