Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Crafting a Story, Part THREE(Creating a Protagonist Part B)

Today we will be continuing our forging of our protagonists. We will cover powers, character descriptions, and what to do after we have a fully crafted character.

Powers


Let's start with powers. First and foremost, powers aren't just for superheroes! When I talk about powers, I'm talking about anything that gives your character an advantage over everyone else in your story. In Doctor Who, it would be the sonic screwdriver. In the Bourne series, Jason Bourne's insane level of expertise. In the "Christmas Carol", Tiny Tim's power was kindness. In Superman... well, for Superman it is everything. (Side note: Did you realize that Superman was given the power of superknitting. That's right, superknitting. Ah, the early ages of comics.)
With great power comes great responsibility.
Well, when giving great powers there comes an even greater responsibility.
To start with, let's split powers into different categories: innate, magical, technological, or skill-based. Why is this important? Well, each one defines a power sets inborn strength and weaknesses. Let me explain.
  • Innate - Innate abilities are something that your protagonist can use without an outside force. They are his and no one can knock it out of his hand or stop him from saying the incantation. He isn't necessarily born with it, but it is something that is now a part of him during the story. Innate powers tend to be more reactionary than other powers. Examples would be Superman's flight, Spiderman's wall crawling, or Riddick's ability to see in the dark.
  • Magical - Magical covers a wide variety of power sets. They can be talismans or spells. These powers can typically be stopped by depriving the protagonist of the talisman or somehow disabling their ability to "cast" the spell. This type of power tends to rely on a characters intuition. Examples would be King Arthur and Excalibur, Merlin, Green Lantern and his ring, or the different forms of martial arts in Naruto.
  • Technological - This type is very close to magical. It relies heavily on objects to supply the "power" for the protagonist. These types of powers, many times, rely on intelligence more than anything else. Examples would be Rocketeer and his jetpack, Punisher and his guns, Batman and his utility belt, and Dade Murphy (Zero Cool) and his computer from Hackers.
  • Skill-based - These are abilities that a character has trained to do. Such things like martial arts, deciphering ancient runes, or chemistry. These skills can range from physical to mental. Examples are Jason Bourne ('nuff said), Bruce Lee and his martial arts, Daniel Jackson from SG-1, and Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
Understand, not every protagonist will need powers but they don't have to be limited to Science Fiction/Fantasy. Every genre can have powers, you probably wouldn't call them powers. So, for Theresa and Ghost Dog, I've given them both powers. Now, my very first concern will be how it will affect the story? Secondly, do the powers add to my character or do their powers become the characters.
How can powers effect your narrative? Well, their very existence can create major plot holes in the skein of your story. In use, they can lead to lazy writing. Many powers become deus ex machina within storylines. So, how do we avoid these?
Let's address the concern of plot holes. What is a plot hole? It is a gap or inconsistency in the narrative. Remember the giant eagles from the Lord of the Rings? That is a power (don't argue, being able to summon giant eagles to rescue you is a power!) that was not only an inconsistency but also a deus ex machina. Why was it an inconsistency? Look at the story... I'll give you a minute. Ok, done? Why couldn't the giant eagles fly Frodo to Mt Doom at the beginning? The whole story would have been solved. Other powers can do the same thing! If my quest hinges upon an object that is hidden behind an impregnable door and part of the narrative is taken up by them finding a way to open said door, I probably shouldn't give someone the ability to teleport. Or can I? You can, you just have to give the power a limiting factor. What is that? Take the above situation. A character with an ability to teleport would trash that storyline, right? What if he had to see where he was going? Suddenly, by limiting his power, I get to have my cake and eat it, too! He can still pop around but now he won't create a plot hole within my narrative! You can find examples of this all over the place. Superman's powers are dependant on our yellow sun, Moon Knight's powers are dependant on the moon (gasp!), and Rogue's power is always on. These limiting factors provide the writers with workarounds to said characters powers within a story arc.
Now, how do you make sure your character's power becomes a deus ex machina? To start, a deus ex machina is a literary device that translates literally to 'god from the machine'. It is when an unsolvable problem is suddenly conquered by some character, event, ability, or object. Voila! Happy ending. Does it resolve your story? Yes, it does. Does it do it satisfactorily? Probably not. Deux ex machina is the plot device of the lazy writer. Don't ruin your story and the struggle of your protagonist by going for the quick and easy fix to everything. Stories are about overcoming hardship, that's what makes them engaging! Batman's utility belt, Superman (no, seriously, the whole character is a deus ex machina), Reed Richards hyper-inventiveness are all examples where powers become deus ex machina. You will please your readers more if your characters had to struggle for a solution beyond I punch it really hard because I'm Superman.
Now, we want to make sure that the powers are just a tool in our protagonist's arsenal and not everything about the character. While a power should be cool, it shouldn't be a defining characteristic of your character. Meaning, if the power was taken away, the character should still be able to stand on its own. Without the Hulk, Bruce Banner is still one of the smartest people on the planet. Taken down to the bare bones, your character should be fully fleshed out, not just a vehicle for whatever power you've given them.
Let's craft our powers. For Theresa, I'm going to give her the ability to slow down time. That is way too huge! Now, let's consider how that will affect our story. Well, if she was able to do this all the time, no one would ever get close to her. So, I need a limiting factor. How about duration? She can only do it for a maximum of thirty seconds at a time. Still, what's to stop her from using it back to back? Hmmm... what if the use of the power exhausts her? Suddenly, her power to slow down time becomes something she would have to use much more carefully. Not only does she have just thirty seconds but at the end of that time, she will be exhausted and vulnerable. I will also give her the ability to heal fast, be immune to disease, and fast reflexes. Looking at my story, these powers should only have a negligible impact. Looking over Theresa, do her powers define her? Would she still be an interesting character without them? I'm going to give that a confident yes.
On to Ghost Dog. I want to go for broke. Now, he is very nature's warrior, so I'm going to give him something primal. His powers are going to be based on several tattoos. Bear provides him strength, Wolf leaves and becomes a guardian that will fight alongside him, Hawk will take off and scout from the eye giving him overhead vision, Dolphin allows him to hold his breath for long periods of time, Mouse detaches and can squeeze through spaces to scout out places where only small things may go, and snake makes him immune to poison. Wow, those are some cool powers. Being immune to poison isn't a big deal, so will make that power always active. Water-breathing? Potentially down the line, he could be put in a situation that he needs it. I'll make it able to be used once a day for six hours max. That way, he can't just stay underwater the whole time. Mouse can be called whenever and can stay out for however long. I don't see that ability to be potentially world shattering. Now, we come to Bear, Wolf, and Hawk. I'm going to limit Bear the most. Super-strength is just such a lazy power. He'll be able to call upon it for five minutes but then Bear has to rest for two hours. Wolf, six hours but can't be called for that long. Hawk, one hour and not back for two. He will also have superior healing, immunity to disease, and fast reflexes. We will even say it is because of common ancestry. Looking Ghost Dog over, I think it makes him awesome without unbalancing him.
At this point, you can give your powers interesting stories that explain them. Think about the two power sets. Don't you think that Ghost Dog's powers are just a little bit cooler because the powers are from the tattoos and not some nebulous reason? That isn't to say you have to always explain powers, some are just going to be cooler than others. I'm going to leave Theresa's as is because everything in moderation. When everyone's got cool powers, no one has cool powers. Except for Iceman.


Character Descriptions


Most of a character's description is for the writer and not the reader. You can know that your MC has a scar on her right butt cheek that she got when her dermatologist removed a mole but is that pertinent to the story? If not, then your reader doesn't need to know. So why come up with a detailed character description if the reader isn't going to hear most of it?
A full and rich character description can make a character come alive in your mind.
Notice how my descriptions aren't limited to physical. I've included her anxiety and the fact that she bites her nails. Because this helps me form an image of Theresa in my mind. When it comes time to write the story, this will be very important.
Now, when writing up a character description, I would stay away from making their features match their attitudes unconsciously. On purpose and with purpose, this is fine. Make sure to understand why you are giving a character certain features. Making a thief look like a rat or giving a guard hawkish facial features. People don't usually have features that define their temperament.
That being said, recognize features that are common to people because of how they act. Being shy can't affect bone structure but it can influence a character's haircut. A character can't help that they have long fingers but can control that their fingernails are well-manicured. Just remember that not every anxious person is a nail-biter and not every well-dressed man is a neat freak.


Going Beyond the Character's Creation


Now that we are done with character creation, I'm done with these guys until I begin to write my story, right? I can just shelve them until it comes time to start writing?
No.
Now that you have that image in your mind, you don't want to lose it now, do you? Do you know everything there is to know about your characters? More than likely, these characters aren't jumping off the page with life. Less so if you shelve them for later use. Have some fun with them. Personally, I would suggest writing a two to five hundred word prompt daily about something mundane your character(s) encounter. Theresa takes Ghost Dog donut shopping. What is her favorite? Has Ghost Dog ever had a donut? I feel like he would be more of a fruit flavored donut guy versus a chocolate donut guy. Stick your characters in mundane situations and see how they would react and you'll come close to making them alive in your head.

This concludes the protagonist part of our program. Stay tuned next when we discuss the making of a villain!

Monday, November 27, 2017

Crafting A Story, Part THREE (Creating a Protagonist, Part A)

I'm going to go more in depth in what I did to craft my two protagonists. In another article, I will tackle what it took to craft my antagonists. But for now, let's start with...

Crafting my Protagonists



Creating a protagonist is a process. There are a few steps that I will go through that leads me to my protagonists and I will lead you through them. It is important that your protagonists stand out and don't just blend into the framework of your narrative. The first rule is they need to be interesting to you! If they aren't interesting to you how can you expect them to be interesting to anyone else?

Giving Them Archetypes




What is an archetype?
I think of an archetype like the creamy center of a piece of candy. It is the basis for the motivations of your characters and their interactions with the world. It is a broad set of characteristics that the character has, sort of a foundation we can build upon. These are some of the common types of archetypical characters that I look at when creating my characters:
  • The Hero - This one is easy. Brave and true, he quests to improve the world. The hero has filled the pages of comic books since the beginning of time. He stands up for what is right and does not allow evil to fester. Examples: Sir Gawain(Arthurian legend), Superman, Optimus Prime(Transformers), Aragorn(Lord of the Rings).
  • The Everyperson - This is the normal person. Someone that your audience can relate and connect to throughout your story. Essential the average joe thrown into extraordinary circumstances. They tend to have an overwhelming need to belong. Examples: Terry McGuinness(Batman Beyond), Rogue(X-men), Ron Weasley(Harry Potter), Bilbo Baggins(The Hobbit).
  • The Caregiver - Character that is motivated by a need to assist others. They tend towards altruism and lend a hand with no expectation of repayment. Examples: Mother Theresa, Obi Wan Kenobi(Star Wars), Marry Poppins, Leigh Anne Tuohy (The Blindside)
  • The Innocent - This character is full of eternal optimism and boundless energy. They tackle life with the purest of intentions. They are paragons of virtue. Examples: Kaylee (Firefly), Kronk(Emperor's New Groove), Giselle(Enchanted), Forrest Gump.
  • The Orphan - These characters are pragmatists. They have had to grow up fast and are independant. Orphans seek safety and security but tend to have gruff exteriors. Now, most people bundle this in with the Everyman, but I think of them as two different archetypes. Examples: Peter Pan, Oliver Twist, Dean Winchester(Supernatural), Batman.
  • The Wizard - Someone with extraordinary abilities, not necessarily magical. But then, not necessarily unmagical. These characters are visionaries and wish to evoke change in the world around them. Examples: Gandalf(Lord of the Rings), Merlin(Arthurian legend), Darth Vader(Star Wars), Reed Richards(Fantastic 4).
  • The Explorer - This character is a seeker, always looking to find its true self. They are characters that will always want to do things themselves. They need no motivation to find out what is just around the bend. Examples: James T. Kirk(Star Trek), Indiana Jones, Alan Quatermain(King Solomon's Mines), Captain Nemo(20,000 Leagues Under the Sea).
  • The Lover - They seek true love. It is in them that we see that love is possible and even hopeful. These characters can go beyond a traditional "lover" and represent the love of life or friendship also, for example. Examples: Prince Charming(Snow White), Samwise Gamgee(Lord of the Rings) Lassie, Romeo and Juliet.
  • The Sage - The wise old cook, the hermit, or the sage upon the mountain. Also known as the Mentor, the Sage is a character with information to impart. Examples: Luke Skywalker(The Force Awakens), Bishop(Waiting), Professor X(X-men), Dumbledore(Harry Potter).
  • The Outlaw - The loveable rogue. The man who stands against the establishment for the common man. These strike a chord with the part of us that wishes to defy the world. They are known for using questionable means to achieve their goal of liberation. Examples: Billy the Kid(Young Guns), Robin Hood, Tris(Divergent), Moon Knight(Moon Knight comics).
  • The Jester - This archetype uses humor to highlight the hypocrisy of the world around us. Often we can take hard truths when given to us through the mouth of the Jester. Examples: Austin Powers, Dori(Finding Nemo), Random(Chronicles of Amber), Jane(Firefly).
Now you are telling yourself those aren't all the archetypes, not even all the common ones. This is absolutely true. These are the main ones I focus on while creating a protagonist. Others, like the Ruler, are better suited for either side characters or antagonists.
Understand that a character doesn't necessarily fall into only one archetype. Many of the archetypes overlap often with one another. Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire was not only a Caregiver but a Jester.
So, let's look at my character Theresa. I'm going to make her an Orphan. She will be a realist, which makes it hard for her to accept her destiny. Underlying this will be a need to belong to something greater than herself so she will be secretly excited. Her pragmatism will manifest itself in her willingness to suspend her disbelief while her life is threatened.
Ghost Dog will be different, he will combine two archetypes: The Hero and the Destroyer. I know, I didn't mention that one. It is because I feel that it is usually a villain archetype. Ghost Dog will be the Hero, straight and true, willing to risk life and limb to accomplish his goal and make the world a better place. He will also have issues with anger control. This makes him the Destroyer. His actions and words will sometimes be dictated by a rage that he cannot always control.


Defining my Characters Goals




But my characters already have a goal, it is the plot of the novel! While that may be true, characters also have goals defined by their personalities. Think of an organization like Greenpeace. Overall, they have the same goal, yet each individual will have personal goals that, while remaining within the purview of the overarching goal, will be different from person to person.
My characters are individuals and as such have their own wants and desires which effects the way they do things and go about their lives.
For Theresa, her goals will be survival and belonging. Now, I have to ask myself why does she wish those things. Survival is a bit self-explanatory. While she wishes to attain her goal, her goal is to survive this fantastic adventure. Belonging is not so self-explanatory. Part of the reason I've chosen this is because of her age. As a teenager, one of the major goals is to feel like one belongs. We never really lose that trait but it becomes less noticeable as we get older. The second reason is that she lives on the fringes of her peer social group. Not really an outsider but not really fully accepted. That makes her thirst to belong.
Ghost Dog. Oh, Ghost Dog. He is the Hero so his ultimate goal will be to complete his quest. One of his minor goals includes showing up those around him. We will discuss this more fully during the next part, but suffice it to say that he is prideful. He will also have the goal of redeeming himself. Sometime in the past, he failed and almost everything about him centers around this one goal. He is driven by it.


Character Quirks, Flaws, and Traits




We are getting to the fun stuff! Creating a character is more than crafting witty dialogue or extensive character description. I want my characters to live and breathe. To do that, I have to give them more than two dimensions.
Let's start with quirks. Quirks are something that identifies a character easily. One Firefly, Zoe was always shown cleaning her guns. Not only was this a character quirk, it showed that she was always preparing for battle. These are habits, eccentricities, etc... that are the characters. For Theresa, she has a huge online presence. She spends most of her time online thus she has accrued a list of skills and associations from that. This will show itself in her always posting things or when she is in doubt, finding an online compatriot to assist her. Ghost Dog, on the other hand, is more of a Luddite. Not entirely, but he relies on nature and his own skills more than technology. These aren't all the quirks, but in the interest of space, I'm not going to go into them. I believe that a good character has one or two quirks they can be identified with easily. Don't overdo it, or your character will go from quirky to just plain weird.
Flaws. Flaws can make a story. How many of us would read if Superman didn't have a weakness to Kryptonite? To start with, flaws should be real. Let me specify. If you are going to give a character a flaw then it should actively hinder the character in some meaningful way. Otherwise you are just tricking your audience and eventually, they will catch on. Theresa will be socially awkward and deal with a high level of anxiety. During the story, this will manifest in her having panic attacks and freezing during crucial moments. She will also sometimes say things just to get the attention off of her. Ghost Dog suffers from an ignorance of social niceties and rage. This makes it harder for him to convince others to help. His rage monster also shows up at times when he needs to react rationally to a situation.
Traits are different from quirks in that they are not something specific but a broader attribute. The reason I separate traits from quirks, I think of quirks as something identifiable while traits show character commonalities. When I say quirk, only one character will have it, when I say trait, multiple characters will show a common strain through that trait maybe. Many characters could be taciturn but only one character is mute.
For Theresa, I will make her inquisitive, a dreamer, and a skeptic. Ghost Dog will be taciturn, serious, and without humor.
To put this all together, Theresa is the Orphan. She is driven by central desires to belong to something. This manifests in a life that she has created for herself online because her anxiety makes one in the real world hard. She doesn't like to be the center of attention. Her anxiety also manifests in her choice not to overextend herself and try new things. She fears to fail, especially around other people. Because she is pragmatic, she lives her life mostly online, it is where she has the most friends but she always dreams of doing something that will make other people accept her even though she's scared to death of failing such an endeavor. From spending much of her time online, she has learned not to trust anything and is skeptically of anything that she cannot see facts about. Online has opened her eyes to some wonderful things and she loves learning new things all the time.
Ghost Dog failed sometime in the past. This is the driving characteristic of his personality. He is taciturn because he doesn't believe that much of anyone has anything worthwhile to say. The failure in his past also gave him a deep-seated rage that he finds hard to control at times. He is somewhat of a Luddite, only using the convenience of transportation in the form of a motorcycle, but otherwise loves relying on his own skills. Looks down on people and their addiction to technology. Is reckless because he failed once and that broke him, now he has vowed that he shall not repeat such a thing. He is dogged and will not stop, even on pain of death, until he has succeeded.

I think that is enough today, in the next few days there will be a second part that will deal with powers and physical descriptions. Hope you will all catch it when it comes out!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Crafting a Story, Part TWO

So, now I've got my inspiration, I've expanded upon it, and started creating characters. I've created two protagonists, a few supporting characters for each, and an antagonist to face against. Now is the time for me to start asking important questions about the different elements of my story. Let's look at the questions I start asking myself:
  1. THEME - When I was expanding my inspiration, I decided that I would have a theme of racing against the clock. I'm going to further this by making it Time is not an ally. I also want an element of sacrifice in my story. How will I show those themes? Now that I have decided, I will pepper my narrative with things like the ticking of a clock, alarms going off, characters asking for the time. The theme of sacrifice will be seen in the characters and their actions.
  2. PLOT - We already have our plot, don't we? Sure, we have what the story is about but now we have to look at the different elements of the plot and make sure that we are giving them their just dues. First is Exposition, the information necessary to understand the story. During the story, I need to explain that there is a great evil sealed behind a barrier that has a warden who is dying. Furthermore, my main character Theresa is destined to take this warden's place. This information will be peppered throughout the story, but at the beginning, you will only know about Theresa and that she is sixteen in twelve days. Next, we need the complication, the event that sets off the plot. That one is easy, it is when she reads the prophecy written on the wall of the bathroom. After that, it is the Climax. This is when the characters try to resolve the conflict. This will happens when she and Ghost Dog start on the road to Ireland to keep the great evil sealed away. Lastly, we come to Resolution. This will be when they finally arrive and fix the problem with the warden. Whew, that was easy!
  3. POINT OF VIEW - Time to decide what we are going to write the story in... Since this is going to be a longer narrative, I will definitely be choosing third person omniscient. I've chosen this style because I want to be free to be in everyone's heads during my narrative. This will allow my freedom since I don't have one protagonist but two, to dumpster dive into each of their heads at any point.
  4. SETTING - Well, since I chose to make this Urban Fantasy, most of this will happen in a city setting. Now, I could do a bunch of studying up on another city and try my best to make it sound authentic, but I think I'm going to go with Kansas City since I live in the area. Of course, they will eventually travel to Ireland where I will have to research a good area. Beyond physical location, I should start thinking about things like time period (modern), societal conditions (current), and any weather conditions that may affect the story.
  5. CONFLICT - Now I have to work out my conflict for the story. There will end up being two types of conflict in my story. The first and most obvious will be HUMAN vs HUMAN. This will be the pitting of Theresa and Ghost Dog against Gary. This will be the major conflict of the story. A minor conflict that will also be part of the story is HUMAN vs SELF. It will be Theresa's internal struggle against the belief that she can't do what she is being asked to do. It will also be present in Ghost Dog when his confidence is shaken.
  6. TONE - This is the emotional content of the story. I'm going to go for a somber/anxious tone throughout the story, which will help with the themes of sacrifice and time working against them.

Character Arcs



I've asked myself the essential questions, I've got the scaffolding up to build a great story structure. So, now I have to start really designing the architecture of my story. The first one I'm going to tackle is my character arcs.
Part of building a fascinating character is giving them powerful character arcs. Character arcs are the spiritual or emotional journey that a character must endure through the course of the story. Like in real life, they can be positive or negative, sometimes both. So, let's figure out some character arcs!
So, for Theresa, I'm going to have two character arcs, each one resolved through the course of the story. The first one will be her battle against her anxiety and low self-esteem. It will cause her to not act within the story, torn by indecision. By the end of the story, through her journey, she will be a more confident, capable, young woman. The second will be a minor bit of unrequited attraction to Ghost Dog. Theresa falls for him because she has spent her entire life in a fantasy life within her head and Ghost Dog seems to be the knight in shining armor that she has been waiting for. This has a negative impact on her throughout the story as she acts like a starry-eyed mooncalf. It will be resolved before the end of the story but I will keep that under my hat for now.
Ghost Dog will have one major character arc which will be a negative arc. His unwillingness to compromise and his willful use of brute force to answer situations will lead to problems for the character within the story.
Now, these are by no means the only character arcs within the story, some of the minor characters have their own arcs, but I can't reveal everything to you! I want you to read the story at the end.


Subplots



Subplots are secondary stories that are happening during the narrative that does not necessarily intersect with the main plot. It is important that you do not have too many subplots as they can distract from the main plot. Even when they intersect with the plot. I will have two subplots. One will be running concurrently with the main plot line. It will have to do with the Princess Eversil. I will have her subplot intersect the main plotline towards the end of the story. The second plotline will be a romantic subplot between Theresa and her friend Jessica that will mirror Theresa's character arc with Ghost Dog. I am doing this to call attention to the absurdity of her lamenting her situation with Ghost Dog, who doesn't notice her desires. We will discuss this further in the next section.


Literary Devices


Literary devices are techniques writers use to produce a special effect in their writing. Examples of literary devices are alliteration/assonance (the repeating of sounds in words that are closely grouped together), metaphor (comparisons made of unlikely duos "Passive voice is a witch in Salem to some writers"), or foreshadowing.
At this point, I'm going to look at some of the literary devices that I would have to set up use. In the previous section, I talked about a minor subplot of Jessica's infatuation with Theresa and using it as dramatic irony for Theresa's own infatuation with Ghost Dog. I have also decided to pepper the story with motifs of time and sacrifice. Finally, I have decided to use foreshadowing within my story.
Now the reason I am deciding whether I am using these literary devices here is that I want to be consistent with my usage of them throughout my narrative. The motif of time and sacrifice needs to be shown from beginning to end to actually have an effect on the audience. It would not be good to put the foreshadowing in a chapter before the resolution of the story.
There will, of course, be literary devices that you use on the fly, onomatopoeia comes to mind, but these benefit by you knowing that you are going to use them ahead of time.

Tomorrow I will start plotting my chapters and working further on fleshing out my character arcs, subplots, and literary devices to fully integrate them into the story.

Friday, November 17, 2017

Crafting a Story, Part ONE

So starts a journey that I will endeavor to bring you along. I will be plotting, writing, then editing a story that will eventually be posted to this blog. In these series of posts, I will be detailing the steps I take to writing the story. Hopefully, you will enjoy the ride and find it helpful!

Inspiration



Where do we get inspiration? Well, for this story, the bolt of mental lightning came in the form of a conversation with one of my local librarians, Lisa. I find that the local library staff is a wonderful resource of information and underused by the vast majority of writers. It may be worth the trip to the local library to chum it up with your local staff.
Lisa loves to keep me abreast of novels that are coming out and tell about the newer ones that she's read. My eureka moment didn't come as she was detailing the plot of a story but when she told me the name of a book that she had seen, "Words on Bathroom Walls".
Bazinga!
(For those of you that don't understand, that's the sound of mental lightning.)
What was the idea, you ask? Well, it was a really simple one: Young girl finds prophecy on a bathroom wall. That's it, now let's see where we take it.

Developing the Idea!



Ok, the first step in developing the idea beyond its nascent stage is to flesh it out a bit. Let's expand!
First of all, we need to decide what kind of story we are writing. Science Fiction? Literary fiction? Well, we have a prophecy, so probably Fantasy is best. I decide to go with Urban Fantasy. That gives me a guiding principle. Now, there needs to be conflict. We can use the prophecy to set this up. What does the prophecy say and what does it motivate the main character to do? I start with asking myself some simple questions. What form does the prophecy take? What does it reveal?
I've decided that I want my prophecy in the form of a poem. It will be broken up into six quatrains, with every two lines dealing with a different time from one to twelve. So the prophecy will be heavily laden with the concept of time passing. This means that I will have to infiltrate my story with the concept of time: clocks, watches, people talking about it, etc.
Now that we have the form of the prophecy construct, we move on to the content of the poem. What does it show that the main character must do? My prophecy is counting towards an awakening. Each hour is metaphorical, not an actual hour. It tells of a seal that is breaking because of the dying of the warden and the need for a replacement. So, that's our main character.
So, now we have our conflict: Girl finds prophecy scrawled on a bathroom wall that starts her on a quest to replace a dying warden before a seal can be broken and an ancient evil returned to the world.

Characters



So, the last thing we will work on today is characters.
So, let's start with a little bit about the process. I've taken the day and just thought about the characters. Really brought them up in my head. My usual process is having a conversation with them. I find that it is illuminating when I talk to my characters, I find out all sort of fun stuff about them. Along the way, if they come up with something I don't know about, I familiarize myself with it. I don't hold with "write what you know", I hold with "write what you've researched well".
While those characters are brewing inside my head, this is where I'll start my plotting spreadsheet. First page: Characters.
I set it up to contain five points for every character in this story. These are character name, physical desciption, character motivation, powers, and notes. So, we start with the main characters. Well, she's a girl that reads some writing on a bathroom wall. What else is there about her?
I started with her name. Given that we are dealing with fantasy, I wanted to give her a normal name, because I have an inkling we are going to be dealing with Fey and there will be odd names aplenty. I settled on Theresa "Terry" Smith. I proceeded to give her a character description and motivations. One of the things I decided was to make her a teenager. She just turned sixteen. Also, to make her relatable, I decided that would spend a lot of time online because she suffers from social anxiety.
Now, someone needs to come to motivate Terry to follow the prophecy. So, I create my half-faerie warrior. I fall back on faeries because it is a subject that I'm well versed in. I like the idea of a half-faerie warrior, something that symbolizes the joining of two worlds, the mystical and the modern. His name should not be normal, I decided. I settle on the name Ghost Dog. I not only like the name but it will also be integral to one of the literary devices I will be using later. What powers can I give him that will make him stand out? He can't just be a warrior. Well, he could but I want to go for broke. How about a warrior with the power of tattoos? I describe him as being covered head to toe in Pictish runes and the tattoos of six animals. Under powers, I further define what each tattoo does and their limitations.
I create a few side characters. Friends of Theresa, Ghost Dog's campatriots and contacts, the faerie king he must deliver Theresa to, and my antagonist. Now, this will not be a complete list. I will continue to work on characters throughout plotting and may even find myself adding to the character list as I'm writing, but this gives me a good character structure from which to pull from. Decisions have to be made. Like, how many friends does Theresa have? She's a shy girl but also a teenager. I decide that in the real world, she'll have two. Online, she'll have several more but other than maybe one, they'll just be online monikers. I will not be detailing those here, I want to leave something of a surprise. I don't spend a lot of time, just getting the protagonists, the antagonists, and a few essential characters out of they way. When I start plotting out the actual story, more characters will make themselves known to me.

I will tell you one thing, the main antagonist of the story will be a guy named Gary. I decided that I wasn't going to name him anything crazy and would avoid the letters V, S, and Z. Apparently there are way too many villain names that start with those letters. Ok, we've got our basics, tomorrow we will start plotting!
A sample of my character spreadsheet.

Monday, November 13, 2017

The Power of the First Line

The first line.
Yup, I really just made my first line 'The first line'. It is like a handshake with our readers. So, what makes a good first line? Well, there are a few things that you have to do.
  • Capture your readers attention!
  • Set the tone for your novel.
  • Introduce readers to your 'voice'.
  • Hook your audience (I know that is the same as the first. It bears repeating.)
So, why should you start out with a bang? Most publishers and editors say that they decide within the first three pages. The truth is much worse than that. You may have the first few paragraphs. Worse still, you may have only one sentence!
Make it count.

So, how do we start a novel off running instead of walking? Well, let's look at some of great writers for guidance.

A first line should make readers ask questions
The strongest openings always make a reader question. Let's take Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451". Its first line is: It was a pleasure to burn. Immediately as a reader, I'm asking myself what is a pleasure to burn? Why is it? Wait, is the narrator the one burning? And bam! I'm down the rabbit hole. With such a simple line, he's captured my attention in so many ways.

It can give us universal concept
In Leo Tolstoy's classic "Anna Karenina", we are given this concept: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Not only are you given something to chew on, the line sets the tone for the novel to come. Be careful! Make sure that the plot supports the concept. This would not have been such a great line if Anna had been happily married in the book.

Be surprising!
In J D Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", we are treated to: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. Why is this line so great? It introduces us to the voice of the narrator in style. We are surprised by the narrator's candor when telling us he doesn't really want to go into it.


Start it by being meta!
You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. In this, we are treated by the main character talking about a book he was in! Woah! Makes his character kind of jump off the page, doesn't it?


Hook 'em with a joke!
I don’t know how other men feel about their wives walking out on them, but I helped mine pack. That is the opening line from "Breaking Up" by Bill Manville. It is irreverent. It pokes fun about a sensitive subject. Most of all, it stays on task. We laugh and we get the tone the narrator is going to take the story.





Drop us right in the middle
This one is harder to show from an opening line. But you start it right in the middle of the story. The inciting incident is behind everything that is happening but we never cover it. Neil Gaimen's "American Gods" is a good example. The story starts with: Shadow had done three years in prison.

So, hook them high, hook them hard! Get them into your story so that all those words you have after the first line aren't going to waste. There are certainly more ways to start a story than I've shown here but these are a few to get you started. Happy writing!

Monday, November 6, 2017

Don't stand in your way: Don't let your inner struggle keep you from writing!

I give you permission to suck.
No, really. Quit staring at the blank screen and just start typing. Whatever will do, I'll wait.
Are you still staring at a blank screen? I'm going to go over a few reasons that you might be and some methods to jump these hurdles. We'll start by tackling an easy three: fear, perfectionism, and low self-esteem.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "Only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He was a smart man. But to overcome your fear, first you have to identify your fear. You aren't scared? Are you sure? Have you revised a section of your work for the billionth time? That may be fear talking. Do you keep putting off that book in favor of other things? Like watching that TV show you've seen like 20 times? You might have fear on the line.

That isn't enough to keep the vampire you call perfectionism at bay. You gave yourself permission to suck but do you ever really listen to yourself? To get this monkey off your back, you have to do more. Being part of a writing community could be a huge help. People that you can show your work to and ask if you are being too hard. Because you are too close to it to accurately judge. The flaws you see are glaring but are they really the crater-sized potholes that you are envisioning? Probably not.
If that one didn't kill you, this one certainly will. Publish it. Wait there's more. Publish it...even when it isn't perfect. Do you need to run and get a paper bag to breath in? Then you definitely need to do this. If you are caused distress by the thought of publishing something that you don't define as perfect, that is the very reason you need to do it. You are poisoning your own well because nothing will ever be perfect.
The final reason we will discuss today. Self-esteem. It is the rejection before you get the rejection. It has more than likely derailed more novels than any other reason out there. There is no easy fix for this. If your self-esteem issues are externally caused, avoiding the catalyst is an easy fix. Really, part of being a writer is acknowledging your own self-worth and the worth of the words you write. At some point, before committing words to a page, you must have thought that they were worthy of being heard. Run with that. Practice. Surround yourself with people that bring you up rather than tear you down. Most of all, believe in them.
There are many things outside of yourself that can stop you from writing. Don't defeat yourself before you have a chance to succeed.






  

Confidence, Fair Writer!

I have three stories published. One novella. I have a blog that gets a mediocre fan base. Nothing too wild. And I have folders on my comput...