When thinking about characters, we always think about the protagonist and antagonist, love interests, sidekicks, and other people who play major or minor roles in our story. We seldom think of the forgotten character: setting.
We think about setting in other ways. We consider the place and time as part of the framework of our stories. But a good setting does more than provide a stage where the story takes place. A good setting affects the story in all the ways a character does by providing conflict, plot elements, and all the emotions that accompany a relationship.
People react to our surroundings in complex ways, just like we do our personal relationships. We feel differently about the town where we grew up than we do about the places where we live later. And those who moved around a lot, for example in a military family, are affected by the lack of a real home town as much as the lack of a long-term childhood best friend.
A story set in say, Chicago, is going to be different than the same story set in Miami. The main plot points may be identical, but the landscape, the attitudes, the priorities, and the weather are different. All of those differences affect the human characters in the story.
The same is true of time. San Franciscans reacted to their surrounding differently in the years just before the 1906 earthquake and fires than they did during the dot com boom or at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
All of this holds true as well in fictional worlds. The hobbits of The Shire are not the same as the hobbits of Bree. They have different concerns and are affected by their environments in very different ways.
When setting your story, think about how the time and location affect your character. It's one thing to to mention landmarks and other elements that set up the location. Those are very important. But equally important, and maybe more important, are the ways your character interacts with the other influences of a location. Research (or create) the outer elements of the location, but also look at the inner workings. What do the people think about? How do local politics and trends affect the way people live? How does a city's history affect the attitudes of its current residents? How does your main character react to his surroundings? Is your character a local who shares the inner feelings spawned by the place, or an outsider who finds the town foreign and has to deal with the shock of a different culture, or a newcomer who wants to fit in but has to fight the conflicting ideals of where he is from and his new town?
Treat time the same way, and consider not only the timepoint of the actual story but the time when the human characters were raised. Consider generational differences in attitudes, speech, and ideals and the problems that arise when those differences conflict with the human character's sense of self and how he fits in with the world.
Where we are, and when, are among the most powerful influences that tug at us as real people. The same is true of the people in your fictional worlds. As a result, time and place affect the emotional stories of your human characters as well as the external plot points.
Setting is more than the stage. It's a real, breathing, living character that pervades every aspect of your story.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Revision tips
It’s been about a month now since NaNoWriMo. Perhaps it is time to drag out that November endeavor and see what can become of it.
A recent article by Allen Eskens addressed revision. In 3 Tips For a Better First Revision he says the first revision is probably the most important factor in sculpting your novel. One of his favorite quotes on the idea is by Shannon Hale who wrote: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” Eskens says the first revision is the building of those sand castles. Though there are numerous tips to a successful rewrite, his three to make a novel better are: conflict check, transitions, and the “was” edit.
Conflict Check:
As Terry Pratchett says, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story,” so it is centered on getting the main storyline established. Eskens says that Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that every character in a scene should want something, even if it’s only a drink of water. In his second pass, Eskens asks what does every character in each scene want, and what obstacles are standing in his or her way, trying to add suspense. Rarely does a first draft take advantage of all the opportunities for tension and conflict. They can be added in the revision.
Transitions:
Quite often in the first draft we may tend to jump abruptly from one plot point to the next. Eskens says transitions should be eloquent and have wait on their own, not just move the reader from one scene to the next. He compares reading a novel to kayaking a river, sometimes shooting through rapids, bound up in the excitement of the action. At other times, one floats peacefully, admiring the landscape. “The pace of a novel is the balance between those two competing forces (between plot and scene),” says Eskens. If your transition floats, maybe you can go off on tangents that deepens characters or enriches the scenes. If you’re shooting through the rapids, the transition will be shorter.
The “Was” Edit:
I’m guilty of including passive language and probably nowhere as much as in my first drafts. Esken uses a word find function to look for instances when he’s used “was,” then tries to find a way to rewrite the sentence to make it stronger. “He was taller than me,” may be revised to say “he stood three inches taller than me.” Other times, “was” may work just fine, but at least the “was” edit forces one to examine their word choices.
If you’re ready to dust off an old first draft and start revising, incorporating these tips may be of use.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
It's Christmas Eve
It's Christmas Eve, and I wish each of a very Merry Christmas. May you have a wonderful holiday with your family, a day filled with love and happy memories of those who can no longer share the day with you.
And, if Christmas means extra time off work, may you find some good writing time!
And, if Christmas means extra time off work, may you find some good writing time!
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Merry Christmas
This bears repeating. A Canadian airlines, WestJet, went out of their way to spread the joy of the season.
WestJet did it again this year for a Dominican Republic community.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good write.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Random, Possibly Helpful, Thoughts
One of the problems with regular blogging is that you sometimes feel like every single post should be breathtaking, new, insightful, and most of all exciting. But, truly, none of us has anything new or exciting to say. Maybe different ways to say the same thing. Or new-to-us insights into the same old material. Disclaimer: this is one of those mundane posts that may not have anything new to say, but perhaps it at least offers a new twist on the same old stuff.
Random Thought #1: Strategies for first draft writing come in all different sizes. Some like outlines, some prefer complete plot diagrams, some are pantsers (writing by the seat of your pants). I'm usually a pantser. I frequently know where I'm starting and where I'd like to end up, and maybe a few scenes in the middle, but beyond that, my first drafts are where I discover how I'm going to get from start to finish. I have a lot of fun with rough drafts, even though it's agonizing to create something out of nothing. Here's one thing I've discovered that helps me keep the momentum going--I stop writing before the scene or chapter is over. I send the character into the midst of the problem of the moment, build the tension, and then leave the character there while I go make dinner or whatever. A lot of my writing takes place in the synapses of my brain while I'm doing other stuff, so I let the character be in trouble for a day or two or three and when I come back to the writing, often the character has figured out a great maneuver or solution. I can write that scene, which moves me into the next one, and then I leave the character hanging off the edge of the cliff for a while again.
Random Thought #2: Things not to say to writers. Most of you reading this are writers, so if you'd like to cut and paste this section into an email to all your family and friends, you have my blessing.
Random Thought #1: Strategies for first draft writing come in all different sizes. Some like outlines, some prefer complete plot diagrams, some are pantsers (writing by the seat of your pants). I'm usually a pantser. I frequently know where I'm starting and where I'd like to end up, and maybe a few scenes in the middle, but beyond that, my first drafts are where I discover how I'm going to get from start to finish. I have a lot of fun with rough drafts, even though it's agonizing to create something out of nothing. Here's one thing I've discovered that helps me keep the momentum going--I stop writing before the scene or chapter is over. I send the character into the midst of the problem of the moment, build the tension, and then leave the character there while I go make dinner or whatever. A lot of my writing takes place in the synapses of my brain while I'm doing other stuff, so I let the character be in trouble for a day or two or three and when I come back to the writing, often the character has figured out a great maneuver or solution. I can write that scene, which moves me into the next one, and then I leave the character hanging off the edge of the cliff for a while again.
Random Thought #2: Things not to say to writers. Most of you reading this are writers, so if you'd like to cut and paste this section into an email to all your family and friends, you have my blessing.
- "That's cute." No, cute isn't what I was going for. I don't do cute. So "cute" to me just means you're not getting what I'm writing. Or else you're illiterate and have no idea what you read. Or maybe you didn't really read it at all. Typically for me, the people who describe what I've written as cute are, in this order: 1) my mother, and 2) any of my mother's friends. So I don't show them my writing anymore. It is now my policy that anyone who calls my writing "cute" will never again have the privilege of reading it.
- "How's your great American novel coming?" I hate this for several reasons. First, it implies that I am ignorant of the publishing industry and I think my novel is the ONE and ONLY important piece of literature of my age. Second, it assumes that I have only one novel in me, ignoring the many others I have already written. Also, it suggests that I'm never really going to finish this thing (despite the fact that I have already completed others), because I'm not really working at it, nor do I really have any serious intent of writing professionally.
- "I like it." Okay, I know, we all like to hear this--once the thing is published and public. But until then, if I'm sharing my writing with you, it's because I want your feedback, your critique. When you have nothing useful to say, I know you aren't a helpful critiquer, which means, again, that I probably won't be sharing with you anymore. I need critique, by golly, not admiration. I'll call you when the book is for sale, since I know you'll "like it."
Random Thought #3: Why do others want characters to act consistently? People aren't consistent, are we? Nobody I know is consistent. Sure, someone might highly value honesty, say, but they sometimes fudge the truth or tell a "white lie," rationalizing it by saying it spares the feelings of others. I know some people who are definitely one persona when out in public and quite another when they're at home. I think the secret of writing characters who aren't consistent is to make sure the inconsistency doesn't appear just at the moment of highest tension or just jump up when it suits the situation. You have to build the character's inconsistency into the persona and voice of that character from the beginning of the book, so that when the moment comes for that inconsistency to rear its ugly head, it is not a surprise to the reader. Plus, most of us here are children's writers, and kids are constantly changing--sometimes for the better, but not always. So the characters in kid lit should be, I think, inconsistent too. It's a way for them to learn about themselves, see ways that the characters grow, and contemplate their own path.
There you have it--all the wisdom floating around in my brain today. Well, I do have lots of other wisdom about all kinds of other things, but I don't think you want to here that right now.
by Neysa CM Jensen
up in Boise, Idaho
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
What Makes Your Sidekick Interesting?
Recently, I've posted about how to make your protagonist and antagonist interesting. Today I'm going to write about a character who never gets as much attention as those two, the sidekick.
First of all, your story might have multiple sidekicks. Both the antagonist and the protagonist might have a sidekick, and they might even have a different sidekick in different scenes. I'm going to focus on the hero's sidekick, his bestie, but what I say applies just as much to other sidekicks.
Have you ever read a story where the sidekick is just an extension of the hero, a helper character who sees the world in much the same way as the protagonist? Of course you have. It happens a lot. But to write a sidekick that way is to rob a ton of potential from the story.
A sidekick, like the protagonist and the antagonist, is her own person. Like all people, she has her own objectives and perspectives. She might be helping the protagonist win the day, but she's doing it for her own reasons. Sure, a big part of it might be loyalty to her best friend, but that loyalty only goes so far. As a person with her own views and needs and wants, she does everything to further her own agenda. Remember, every character has an agenda, and those agendas create conflict.
Just because two characters are best friends and are helping each other doesn't mean they always agree. The best sidekicks are an additional source of conflict. Think of Frodo and Sam, two characters whose affection for each other is almost sickening. They both want to get to Mt. Doom at all costs. And yet, there's conflict between them. As Frodo sinks into ring-induced paranoia, he no longer trusts Sam, and this causes trouble and, more importantly, enhances the plot.
The same is true of Luke and Leia, Harriet and Sport, and many other characters. In fact, the sidekick often seems much like another antagonist.
The sidekick provides help and shows the protagonist other ways of thinking, but at the same time, the relationship is often strained by conflicting goals and differing views. In many stories, the protagonist and sidekick aren't even friends. They might not even like each other. They might be reluctantly traveling the same road.
Remember, stories depend on conflict. There shouldn't be anything in the story, including your hero's sidekick, that does not add more conflict and peril. There is probably no other character who gives you more opportunity to add emotion and heartbreak as the sidekick.
As the hero's life goes out of control, she needs to be steadied by her sidekick. But the sidekick has his own ideas, and is sometimes unable to offer the support. He might even oppose the hero's goals and actions. Best friends, siblings, and spouses all oppose each other sometimes.
One of the most important things to remember as you write is that every character is a person, and every person has his or her own story. That the stories intersect in the one you are telling doesn't mean their individual paths are any less distinct. This is true whether characters appear to ultimately be on the same side or not.
First of all, your story might have multiple sidekicks. Both the antagonist and the protagonist might have a sidekick, and they might even have a different sidekick in different scenes. I'm going to focus on the hero's sidekick, his bestie, but what I say applies just as much to other sidekicks.
Have you ever read a story where the sidekick is just an extension of the hero, a helper character who sees the world in much the same way as the protagonist? Of course you have. It happens a lot. But to write a sidekick that way is to rob a ton of potential from the story.
A sidekick, like the protagonist and the antagonist, is her own person. Like all people, she has her own objectives and perspectives. She might be helping the protagonist win the day, but she's doing it for her own reasons. Sure, a big part of it might be loyalty to her best friend, but that loyalty only goes so far. As a person with her own views and needs and wants, she does everything to further her own agenda. Remember, every character has an agenda, and those agendas create conflict.
Just because two characters are best friends and are helping each other doesn't mean they always agree. The best sidekicks are an additional source of conflict. Think of Frodo and Sam, two characters whose affection for each other is almost sickening. They both want to get to Mt. Doom at all costs. And yet, there's conflict between them. As Frodo sinks into ring-induced paranoia, he no longer trusts Sam, and this causes trouble and, more importantly, enhances the plot.
The same is true of Luke and Leia, Harriet and Sport, and many other characters. In fact, the sidekick often seems much like another antagonist.
The sidekick provides help and shows the protagonist other ways of thinking, but at the same time, the relationship is often strained by conflicting goals and differing views. In many stories, the protagonist and sidekick aren't even friends. They might not even like each other. They might be reluctantly traveling the same road.
Remember, stories depend on conflict. There shouldn't be anything in the story, including your hero's sidekick, that does not add more conflict and peril. There is probably no other character who gives you more opportunity to add emotion and heartbreak as the sidekick.
As the hero's life goes out of control, she needs to be steadied by her sidekick. But the sidekick has his own ideas, and is sometimes unable to offer the support. He might even oppose the hero's goals and actions. Best friends, siblings, and spouses all oppose each other sometimes.
One of the most important things to remember as you write is that every character is a person, and every person has his or her own story. That the stories intersect in the one you are telling doesn't mean their individual paths are any less distinct. This is true whether characters appear to ultimately be on the same side or not.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Writers' Conferences
Writers' conferences are so valuable. Some of the best Utah
Valley ones are coming up in the next several months.
I just finished registering for the LDS Storymakers conference
that’s going to be in Provo in May. I entered the drawing for a manuscript
consultation with an editor, kind of assuming there was no way I would get it
since I never “win” anything. To my surprise, I found out this weekend that I
did get lucky this time, and I need to have 10 pages of my newly-finished
manuscript perfectly polished by the beginning of March so that an editor from
a publishing company can look it over and critique it.
Ensue panic.
Probably I should do my best to have my whole manuscript
polished by May just for the tiny chance this editor will ask to see it. This doesn’t
help my panic.
But in the end, this will be great because it forces me to
really get my MS edited and consult with the experts that are available to me
and force down my pride and my fear and fix those dang things that need fixing.
The value of writers' conferences in general is often that
they kick me back into gear. When I’m feeling myself in a lull or when I’m even
a little bit ready to just give up, writers' conferences get me excited again. In
this case, it’s even giving me a deadline to work for with my manuscript. That
alone will be so helpful.
So, I’m excited. This writers' conference is already doing
its thing.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Fried
During the month of November, I was a writing fool. For the last two weeks, there’s been a rebellion.
It was an exciting month, watching a story develop under my fingers on the keyboard. If I had a solid direction for where the story was going, I could put down 600-800 words per hour and could find three or more hours a day to write. The month ended before the story did, and after 50,000 words had been reached. So exciting was this story, I figured another week or two was all it would take to finish.
Then December hit. Admittedly, there were a few items around the house, neglected for thirty days, that needed attention. People included. Yet for some reason I seem to be fighting myself to get back into writing. It’s not writer’s block or anything. It is more like writer’s enough-is-enough, or writer’s take-a-break.
It is worrisome to me, this lack of motivation. I had a coupe of stories in various stages and with NaNo, now there’s one more. I almost skipped the November writing marathon, just to keep moving on the other two projects. I even found a writing craft book on characterization last month that I became excited about. Now none of them holds my enthusiasm.
I think we writers need to back off every once in a while. I’m trying to give myself permission to let up and take a break, but it is hard.
On the other hand, Carol Lynch Williams talks about acting like a writer, and writers write. Thus to act like a writer, one should plant themselves down at a computer and plunk out words.
So easy to say. Sometimes so hard to do.
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
Monday, December 8, 2014
Description is also Voice
By Julie Daines
I keep hearing people talk about descriptive narrative as though it's something different from internal dialogue. I suppose if you're writing some kind of literary fiction from an omniscient POV, it might be. But for the most part--especially in children's and YA fiction--it is the same thing.
Interiority and description are the same. It's all in the POV voice. It's all about what the POV character is thinking. Sometimes they're thinking about their feelings and motivations, sometimes they're thinking about what they're seeing/hearing etc.
All of it needs to be written from the mindset of the POV character.
Remember this poem by Wordsworth?
This is good practice to think about description in your own writing. Imagine a huge field of daffodils. Now ask yourself, how would a lonely or depressed person see that field verses an angry person, a betrayed person, or a happy-go-lucky person. Then write the description through their eyes and in their voice.
I keep hearing people talk about descriptive narrative as though it's something different from internal dialogue. I suppose if you're writing some kind of literary fiction from an omniscient POV, it might be. But for the most part--especially in children's and YA fiction--it is the same thing.
Interiority and description are the same. It's all in the POV voice. It's all about what the POV character is thinking. Sometimes they're thinking about their feelings and motivations, sometimes they're thinking about what they're seeing/hearing etc.
All of it needs to be written from the mindset of the POV character.
Remember this poem by Wordsworth?
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
It's easy to try too hard to write a snarky narrative voice, but then when it comes time for description, wax into an eloquent Dickensesque voice.
It should be all the same voice.
All writers struggle with this, so practice and always keep it in mind.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Now what?
It’s over. The annual November writing marathon is a thing of the past. We’re done.
Almost, at least for me.
I hit 50K words but I’m not yet done. It was more of a Na3/4NoWriMo thing for me, with a quarter more to go. The final few chapters are done. To muddle through the murky middle melancholy, I jumped ahead, knowing how it was to end, and wrote the ending. Then I doubled back, filling in the story with short summary chapters that helped march the story toward the end. Once the general direction had been established, I went back and expanded on the individual chapter summaries. I’ve still got about ten or so chapters to flesh out.
The question is what to do with it now, other than to finish it? Once it’s complete, then what?
I suppose there are varying strategies. These imaginary characters have been a major part of my life for the last five weeks. They and their issues are on the brain and I’m very aware of what kind of things need to be resolved. I’m in a groove, the keyboard is tapping, the story is flowing and I’m not sure I want to let that go. Plus, I want to workshop it this summer at WIFYR and it’s not ready for that.
On the other hand, forgetting about the whole thing for a few months is not a bad option, either. Hide it away on a flash drive and let it stew in the subconscious and view it later with fresh eyes and a refreshed head.
I’ve ignored the story somewhat this week. I was steady with it and dedicated up through November 30. Once December hit, the urge to keep up with it wasn’t as strong, and other obligations have been ignored for a while. I’ve been more sociable with loved ones this last week. And reading. I didn’t get much of that done in November and have been enjoying that again.
So, what is your strategy? Make December NaNoRevMo - National Novel Revision Month, or give yourself a break?
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
What Makes Your Antagonist Interesting?
Last week, I explained some of the ways to make your protagonist interesting. This time, I'm going to turn the tables and talk about the protagonist. I've written about the antagonist before, but this is a subject that can not be talked about enough. The antagonist is every bit as important as the main character.
In some ways, the antagonist may even be more important. Your main character cannot become sympathetic without an opposing force. The antagonist is more than just a bad guy who tries to stop the good guy. A good antagonist actually pushes the protagonist to action. The bad guys gives the good guy a reason to behave like a good guy.
Because he is so important, your antagonist has to be every bit as real, every bit as well-rounded, as the protagonist. So how do you do this?
The Antagonist is Evil
No. The good antagonist is not evil. OK, he could be, but not for the mere sake of being evil. The antagonist truly believes he is the good guy. Everything he does has a reason, and to him, those reasons are Right. They are Correct. They are Good.
Few characters are as flat and dull as the arch-villain who is evil just because being evil is evil. People aren't like that. Even people with a warped sense of reality (and here's a little secret: we all have a warped sense of reality, shaped by our own histories and imperfect perceptions), do things for a reason.
There are truly evil actions, and your bad guy might do some of them. But we humans have an almost unending supply of rationalizations for our actions. If we're honest, we recognize that sometimes the way we rationalize our actions is often, at best, flawed, and at worst, just plain delusional.
Just like you want your good guy to have flaws, you need your antagonist to have positive characteristics. In some stories, the reader might even start to wonder just which character is the good guy and which is the bad guy. The line doesn't have to be a thick one.
A Rebel With a Cause
Your good guy is on a mission, a quest to accomplish something. The same is true of your bad guy. Your antagonist has his own character arc. Character development is as important to your antagonist as to your protagonist.
So give your antagonist a cause. She wants to accomplish something, wants that more than anything else. And, like your protagonist, she is prepared to do what she has to do to achieve it, because that's what people do when something is of ultimate importance.
Even a bad guy who wants to do something truly awful, like, say, blow up a stadium full of innocent people, does it because he believes it has to be done to achieve the goal. He probably doesn't enjoy doing it, but feels it is necessary and does what has to be done to achieve the end result, which he believes to be for the ultimate good.
Most antagonists act in smaller ways. It's easier to justify the actions of somebody who is competing with your protagonist for the position of Head Cheerleader or who wants the powerful amulet for himself.
A Hero in His Own Mind
Because the antagonist believes what he is doing is the right course, he believes he is the hero. Or, at least, he is trying to become the hero. Your protagonist, who stands in his way, is the villain. My favorite example of this principle comes from politics. No matter what your political position is, you view the other side as wrong. Maybe even evil. The thing we don't always accept is that the other side looks at you the same why. Why? Because each side believes it is right. Each side believes it is the hero, and if they were only allowed to have their way, the world would be a spectacularly better place.
The other side is only "wrong" because you happen to believe in your own candidate. Chances are, you don't admit your own candidate's flaws, or at least not the big ones that the other side tries to highlight. Whether you want to admit it or not, the other side probably has a point, and the criticisms may well be justified. But you're committed to your side, so whatever faults your guy has, the other side is exponentially worse.
It's the same with your hero and villain. Switch to your villain's point of view and he is clearly, obviously, without a shadow of a doubt, the hero. Let your reader see that.
Let your reader sympathize with the antagonist, and understand why he wants what he wants, and maybe even see his point. Maybe you don't want your readers to agree with the antagonist (or maybe you do), but if your reader can sympathize with both characters, the conflict becomes more real, the stakes are raised, and your reader is more engaged.
In some ways, the antagonist may even be more important. Your main character cannot become sympathetic without an opposing force. The antagonist is more than just a bad guy who tries to stop the good guy. A good antagonist actually pushes the protagonist to action. The bad guys gives the good guy a reason to behave like a good guy.
Because he is so important, your antagonist has to be every bit as real, every bit as well-rounded, as the protagonist. So how do you do this?
No. The good antagonist is not evil. OK, he could be, but not for the mere sake of being evil. The antagonist truly believes he is the good guy. Everything he does has a reason, and to him, those reasons are Right. They are Correct. They are Good.
Few characters are as flat and dull as the arch-villain who is evil just because being evil is evil. People aren't like that. Even people with a warped sense of reality (and here's a little secret: we all have a warped sense of reality, shaped by our own histories and imperfect perceptions), do things for a reason.
There are truly evil actions, and your bad guy might do some of them. But we humans have an almost unending supply of rationalizations for our actions. If we're honest, we recognize that sometimes the way we rationalize our actions is often, at best, flawed, and at worst, just plain delusional.
Just like you want your good guy to have flaws, you need your antagonist to have positive characteristics. In some stories, the reader might even start to wonder just which character is the good guy and which is the bad guy. The line doesn't have to be a thick one.
A Rebel With a Cause
Your good guy is on a mission, a quest to accomplish something. The same is true of your bad guy. Your antagonist has his own character arc. Character development is as important to your antagonist as to your protagonist.
So give your antagonist a cause. She wants to accomplish something, wants that more than anything else. And, like your protagonist, she is prepared to do what she has to do to achieve it, because that's what people do when something is of ultimate importance.
Even a bad guy who wants to do something truly awful, like, say, blow up a stadium full of innocent people, does it because he believes it has to be done to achieve the goal. He probably doesn't enjoy doing it, but feels it is necessary and does what has to be done to achieve the end result, which he believes to be for the ultimate good.
Most antagonists act in smaller ways. It's easier to justify the actions of somebody who is competing with your protagonist for the position of Head Cheerleader or who wants the powerful amulet for himself.
A Hero in His Own Mind
Because the antagonist believes what he is doing is the right course, he believes he is the hero. Or, at least, he is trying to become the hero. Your protagonist, who stands in his way, is the villain. My favorite example of this principle comes from politics. No matter what your political position is, you view the other side as wrong. Maybe even evil. The thing we don't always accept is that the other side looks at you the same why. Why? Because each side believes it is right. Each side believes it is the hero, and if they were only allowed to have their way, the world would be a spectacularly better place.
The other side is only "wrong" because you happen to believe in your own candidate. Chances are, you don't admit your own candidate's flaws, or at least not the big ones that the other side tries to highlight. Whether you want to admit it or not, the other side probably has a point, and the criticisms may well be justified. But you're committed to your side, so whatever faults your guy has, the other side is exponentially worse.
It's the same with your hero and villain. Switch to your villain's point of view and he is clearly, obviously, without a shadow of a doubt, the hero. Let your reader see that.
Let your reader sympathize with the antagonist, and understand why he wants what he wants, and maybe even see his point. Maybe you don't want your readers to agree with the antagonist (or maybe you do), but if your reader can sympathize with both characters, the conflict becomes more real, the stakes are raised, and your reader is more engaged.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
What Lead Richard McEwan to Write a Children’s Picture Book
What lead me to write a children’s picture book?
Until this Spring, I had no idea I would be writing a
children’s picture book. My wife and I had recently moved to North Carolina and
since I was mostly retired, many of my days were filled with projects. However,
I believe the good Lord decided it was time for me to direct my efforts
elsewhere.
Little did I know this was happening until I started to
write my first book, and one day, I stopped and reflected on what was taking
place…I was actually writing a story!
Crazy as this may sound, I was taken aback
by this realization, but once I thought about it I knew it was God.
I believe the book came together for a number of reasons:
(1) Our grandchildren: we moved to North Carolina to be near
two of our three children and our grandchildren whose ages are 4 and under.
Their love of books is more than evident whether being read to or pulling a
book off the shelf to thumb through it by themselves, studying the
illustrations or photography and relating the story.
(2) Our dogs: my wife and I have a great love for dogs in general
and, specifically, for own. They are an integral part of our lives. Their
antics lead to writing about them. Plus, they are both foster dogs.
(3) Fostering dogs: my wife for years would pick up a stray
dog and either find its owner or a new home. With this passion, we became
involved with the Animal Welfare League where we lived in Virginia. Over a five-year
period we fostered about 50 dogs at our home until each was adopted. The dogs
came to us via many sources including AWL, County Pound, and, of course, strays
picked up by my wife!
(4) Children learning: picture books are a great vehicle to
convey a message even before a child can read. As with this story, it is so
important to instill in children at a young age the importance of caring for
pets…I believe it is the first step in caring for others.
It has been a joy to write the book. My hope is this
story will encourage children to think about the story when they come upon a
stray or lost pet, and with an adult’s involvement, help find it’s home or
foster home or forever home.
***
About the
Author: Richard McEwan retired to the Outer Banks of North Carolina after a
long career in sales, marketing and advertising. He lives with his wife,
Christie, and their two dogs, Buddy and River, one cat named Oyster and many
photos of foster dogs. He was inspired to begin writing because of his
grandchildren's love of books.
The
Adventures of Sir Buddy and Mr. Pupples: The Rescue
Written by
Richard McEwan
Illustrated
by Amy Rottinger
Publisher:
Halo Publishing, Int.
ISBN Number:
978-7-61244-307 -2
Genre of
Book: Children’s Picture
Places where
book will be available for sale: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram
Author
Website: www.twodogstales.com
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Eleven things I learned during NaNoWriMo
1. Fifty thousand is a lot of words to throw down.
2. Not all 50,000 have to be good words.
3. 50K does not a story make.
4. Notes to self to fix something keeps pesky internal editor guy hidden.
5. Notes to self boosts word count.
6. Pesky internal editor guy is persistent, is a narcissist, insists the rough draft can’t be done without him.
7. I write more words per hour when I know what I’m writing about.
8.Plotting is better than pansting, even if it takes away from writing time.
9. If it’s late and the day’s word count hasn’t been met and I’m tired, it won’t be met.
10. It is possible to slap down a rough story in thirty days, as long as internal editor guy is kept at bay.
11. Fifty thousand words is a lot of words.
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
What Makes Your Protagonist Interesting?
What makes your protagonist interesting? Sparkling blue eyes? Rippling muscles? Brains? Money? Clothes?
Let's reword that. What makes a real flesh-and-blood person interesting? All of the things I mentioned above could be part of what draws your attention in the first place, but they aren't what holds your attention.
Just like a real person, the most important thing about your protagonist is that you have to care about him. I don't mean you have to like him. Many of the great protagonists aren't particularly likable. Ignatius J. Reilly, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Scarlett O'Hara, Hamlet, Humbert Humbert and countless others are deeply flawed, sometimes to point of being straight-up unlikable. But the authors make us care about them. There has to be something sympathetic in the way even "bad" characters are portrayed, so we want to stick with them for a few hundred pages.
Some of the things that make a flawed character sympathetic are described below.
Action
A character who is not very active quickly becomes boring. A protagonist needs to protag. The things that happen in the story have to largely be due to her own actions. Maybe she makes the wrong choices, but those choices raise the stakes. We might not like the character's choices, but we want to know how she is going to get out of her predicament, or whether she even will. She can win or lose, but she has to put herself into situations that draw us in, and then through her own actions, get out of them or deepen the peril. When your main character is always a victim and relies heavily on others to solve her problems, she's not likely to be very interesting, or to grow (or fall) during the course of the story.
Wit
A clever character who pulls us along with his unusual or profound way of thinking, his humor, and the unique way he looks at the world can make us care about him, even if his actions aren't always (or ever) admirable.
Relatable Problems
Yeah, OK, your readers might never be expected to slay the dragon, defeat the evil wizard C'na'ard, and make the world safe for the Nine Peoples of Gerkin, but they will care more about your protagonist if he has to face problems they can relate to. Disloyalty, unrequited love, school or work or family that create problems, dealing with a world that is too big to handle, and many other problems can be worked into your story, problems your reader does have to face. If we relate to your character's issues, we care more about spending hours looking at the world through his eyes, watching
Strength of Character
Your character should always take a stand. She should have a goal and do whatever she needs to do to accomplish the goal. The character's journey doesn't need to be a straight line. In fact, it shouldn't be. But it should trend in a general direction defined by her values, whether the reader (or writer) shares the values or not. Her actions don't have to be predictable, but when we get to the end of the story, we should be able to look back and see that the characters actions were consistent with her values.
Vulnerability
We have to believe your character can fail. There are so many books, well-reviewed books, that have disappointed me because I never believed the protagonist was in peril. This tends to be a problem in YA fantasy, especially. A "Chosen One" character who is destined to defeat evil is not going to lose, and in some stories, the possibility of failure is never seriously raised. Every dangerous situation is easily defused without any serious peril. The character is perfect for the situation, and, well, let's face it: perfection is not very interesting. While it is unlikely that the protagonist is going to die, failure needs to be around every corner. The odds need to be against him. Death might not be a likely result, but it doesn't hurt if it does seem possible. Failure, however, might be worse than death, and with rising peril and a real likelihood of failure, we can't help but stay interested. It's like the proverbial train wreck we can't stop gawking at.
If your character creates the story through her actions, views the world through somewhat familiar eyes but in a unique and interesting way, is in real danger of failure or worse, and acts in a consistent-but-sometimes-surprising way, we'll be drawn into her world and her life, even if we don't always like her.
Let's reword that. What makes a real flesh-and-blood person interesting? All of the things I mentioned above could be part of what draws your attention in the first place, but they aren't what holds your attention.
Just like a real person, the most important thing about your protagonist is that you have to care about him. I don't mean you have to like him. Many of the great protagonists aren't particularly likable. Ignatius J. Reilly, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Scarlett O'Hara, Hamlet, Humbert Humbert and countless others are deeply flawed, sometimes to point of being straight-up unlikable. But the authors make us care about them. There has to be something sympathetic in the way even "bad" characters are portrayed, so we want to stick with them for a few hundred pages.
Some of the things that make a flawed character sympathetic are described below.
Action
A character who is not very active quickly becomes boring. A protagonist needs to protag. The things that happen in the story have to largely be due to her own actions. Maybe she makes the wrong choices, but those choices raise the stakes. We might not like the character's choices, but we want to know how she is going to get out of her predicament, or whether she even will. She can win or lose, but she has to put herself into situations that draw us in, and then through her own actions, get out of them or deepen the peril. When your main character is always a victim and relies heavily on others to solve her problems, she's not likely to be very interesting, or to grow (or fall) during the course of the story.
Wit
A clever character who pulls us along with his unusual or profound way of thinking, his humor, and the unique way he looks at the world can make us care about him, even if his actions aren't always (or ever) admirable.
Relatable Problems
Yeah, OK, your readers might never be expected to slay the dragon, defeat the evil wizard C'na'ard, and make the world safe for the Nine Peoples of Gerkin, but they will care more about your protagonist if he has to face problems they can relate to. Disloyalty, unrequited love, school or work or family that create problems, dealing with a world that is too big to handle, and many other problems can be worked into your story, problems your reader does have to face. If we relate to your character's issues, we care more about spending hours looking at the world through his eyes, watching
Strength of Character
Your character should always take a stand. She should have a goal and do whatever she needs to do to accomplish the goal. The character's journey doesn't need to be a straight line. In fact, it shouldn't be. But it should trend in a general direction defined by her values, whether the reader (or writer) shares the values or not. Her actions don't have to be predictable, but when we get to the end of the story, we should be able to look back and see that the characters actions were consistent with her values.
Vulnerability
We have to believe your character can fail. There are so many books, well-reviewed books, that have disappointed me because I never believed the protagonist was in peril. This tends to be a problem in YA fantasy, especially. A "Chosen One" character who is destined to defeat evil is not going to lose, and in some stories, the possibility of failure is never seriously raised. Every dangerous situation is easily defused without any serious peril. The character is perfect for the situation, and, well, let's face it: perfection is not very interesting. While it is unlikely that the protagonist is going to die, failure needs to be around every corner. The odds need to be against him. Death might not be a likely result, but it doesn't hurt if it does seem possible. Failure, however, might be worse than death, and with rising peril and a real likelihood of failure, we can't help but stay interested. It's like the proverbial train wreck we can't stop gawking at.
If your character creates the story through her actions, views the world through somewhat familiar eyes but in a unique and interesting way, is in real danger of failure or worse, and acts in a consistent-but-sometimes-surprising way, we'll be drawn into her world and her life, even if we don't always like her.
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