Beware of Dog and Other Things to Remember
Terry Odell
People like dogs. Readers like dogs. So, when I was starting my current wip, without much conscious thought, this appeared in the first 400 words of the manuscript:
“Evvie snatched the envelope from Roger’s hand, wrestled the cart to the door, and not waiting for him to offer to help, pushed the cart—none too gently—against the door to open it. She maneuvered the cart, fighting the universally requisite out-of-alignment-wheel, down the sidewalk to her SUV. After arranging her photos on the towels she kept in the back for Baxter, not concerned about his sheds of black dog hair, she slammed the hatch. She left the cart next to the nearby red maple—let Roger come get it—and drove home.
As she entered the kitchen of her little house near downtown Colorado Springs, Baxter greeted her. Bouncing, shimmying, his stump of a tail wagging as if she’d been gone a month, not thirty minutes.”
Okay, so Evvie has a dog. Dog loving readers will connect.
Then what? First, this isn’t a cozy, and these dogs don’t talk or have a POV role. The book is a romantic suspense, which means it’ll fall into the romance category. That means a hero. And they have to meet. Per reader expectations, very soon. Being a good dog parent, Evvie takes Baxter for a walk, and they end up at the neighborhood dog park. Enter the expected hero. With his dog, a golden retriever named Sammy.
All should be good. Hero and heroine have a connection. Their dogs. Although they’re not in a relationship at this point (Chapter 2), the hero has a dog, he likes dogs, and that scores points with Evvie.
Now, here’s the problem. It’s a romantic suspense, which means Bad Stuff Has to Happen. Whether they’re working independently or together, if they go anywhere, they (meaning me) can’t forget about the dog.
I’ve read books where a dog was introduced, and then hardly shows up on the page again. This is unacceptable. You put a living, breathing being on the page, and it has needs. Food. Water. Walks. And you have to take this into account in Every Single Scene. How much time has elapsed since the last scene? Where were the dogs?
In my writing, I try to keep time moving forward in real time, more or less. If I jump ahead, I make sure that’s noted. Here, I give readers credit for assuming that if it’s much later in the day, or the next day, or three days later, that the characters have gone about the normal day-to-day events, and that the dogs have as well.
Now, if I’m with my characters, then all those normal day-to-day events need to be covered somehow. Not a minute-by-minute, but at least a mention to readers can keep track of elapsed time. “After lunch” is good enough unless something important happens that moves the plot forward.
Since my characters are in the ‘getting to know each other’ stage, they need to be together. I don’t know about you, but back in my day, that was usually along the lines of dinner and a movie. Movies don’t make for good page time, but as long as some plot advancing happens, I have no trouble showing them in an eatery, where they’ll interact with servers—because how else will their food appear?—ordering, eating, etc., along with discussing those plot advancing topics.
But now I have to remember that they’ve got dogs at home. Did I skip the time where they were tending to them? It’s okay to tell rather than show everything—“After feeding and walking the dog…” but you put them on the page, so you can’t neglect them.
Likewise, if your characters have children, or are caring for an elderly parent, you can’t pop them in and out when you think of it. They’re part of the story and can’t be neglected.
JSB talks about the shadow story to keep track of other characters, especially the villain. Most of my books don’t have the kind of villains that more traditional “murder mysteries” have, so any tracking of bad guys tends to be minimal for me. However, secondary characters both human and otherwise, require tracking.
So, when the Real Trouble starts and my characters have to leave town in a hurry, they (meaning me) have dogs to deal with. Kennel them? Do they have dog sitters? Or do the dogs have to come along?
A sticky note on my computer saying “Don’t forget the dogs!” is the equivalent of my dog coming into my office and staring at me when one of her daily routine boxes needs to be checked.
(Side note, along similar lines. If you say a character needs to pee, I want to see that they’ve had a chance to hit a restroom. I’ve seen authors ignore this step, too. Drives me nuts.)
Basic “rule.” If you mention anything, it becomes a thread that has to be followed. Don’t leave readers hanging. Or thinking your characters are less than likeable because they’re not taking care of the dogs (or people) they’re responsible for.
What about you, TKZers? Do you avoid pets because of the complications they throw into the work? If your characters have pets (or other humans they’re responsible for), how do you deal with the requisite “care and feeding”?
Find me at Substack with Writings and Wanderings
Deadly Ambitions
Peace in Mapleton doesn’t last. Police Chief Gordon Hepler is already juggling a bitter ex-mayoral candidate who refuses to accept election results and a new council member determined to cut police department’s funding.
Meanwhile, Angie’s long-delayed diner remodel uncovers an old journal, sparking her curiosity about the girl who wrote it. But as she digs for answers, is she uncovering more than she bargained for?
Now, Gordon must untangle political maneuvering, personal grudges, and hidden agendas before danger closes in on the people he loves most.
Deadly Ambitions delivers small-town intrigue, political tension, and page-turning suspense rooted in both history and today’s ambitions.
Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”
Terry, totally agree that dogs (all pets) and kids need care and feeding, The only time I include either in my thriller series is when they are integral to the plot.
In my second book, Stalking Midas, a cranky old guy has nine rescue cats that are central to the story. It’s definitely not a cozy and no cats were killed in the book! (Killing a cat can wreck an author’s career!)
In my current WIP, a newborn infant is at the center of a plot about legal custody and kidnapping. Talk about high maintenance. She’s already caused problems my critique group busted me on: “It’s against the law to drive with a baby w/o a car seat.” “She should be in NICU with a feeding tube.” Etc., etc.
We’re watching Person of Interest. A likable dog was introduced partway through the series but is conveniently forgotten except for occasional scenes. We keep looking at each other and asking, “Where’s the poor dog?”
I learned the don’t kill the cat lesson early on from the late Barbara Parker, who had hate mail for dispatching a feline in her book. My protagonist in Finding Sarah had 2 cats, and I needed something bad to happen as a critical turning point in his character arc and his relationship with his co-protag. I’d planned for one to die, but changed that to ‘sick but recovered’ and didn’t see any flak.
My wife and I were semi-pro dog sitters. The one issue was Pablo was an AKA registered standard poodle. He didn’t understand the whole dog not person thing. We had keys so if something happened to his humans, we could move in and take care of him.
Dogs can do so much in a story. Not like the new guy in the neighborhood. Need more food. Need special food. Dig up the hidden gun.
Oh, never, ever let harm come to the dog.
Thanks, Alan. I agree that pets/animals can add to a story as long as you don’t forget about them when you’re writing.
Nothing throws me out of a book faster than a disappearing pet. I’m worrying about it starving to death at home while the jerks are out having a sexy adventure. The few times where a pet worked in my plot, I made sure they affected the plot in a natural way and were safe and taken care of when they weren’t.
Agree with you on all counts, Marilynn.
I’ve included pets in all my books. Readers love them. Since animals/pets play an important role in my life (I like them more than humans), I never forget where they are or what they need in the storyline. They play such important roles, sometimes they steal the scene.
Two dogs in my Grafton County Series — Colt and Ruger — I based on people I knew. I simply envisioned the “dog-version” of them. LOL Worked great!
Clever idea, Sue!
This made me think of the dog in the movie “A Boy and His Dog. ” The dog, Blood, was definitely not left out of the story by Ellison.
I would think with a title like that, the dog would definitely play an important role, or people would protest.
I see a lot of books where there is no “pee” breaks, or showers, or doing anything ordinary. I love animals and if you have one in your book, you need to take care of it. That means feeding, walks or cleaning the litter box, bathing, etc. Use those task for thinking or meeting or other things your character needs to do. But if you have a pet, it better be there for the whole book.
If bodily functions aren’t mentioned, I’m okay with assuming all the ‘daily life’ stuff is going on. But if there’s a pet in the book, I need to see it being cared for. I’m dealing with two in the current WIP (plus a few more are showing up as ‘extras’) and it’s important I don’t ignore them. They demand attention on the page.