Chuck Wendig On Straight Lines, Story Structure And Why Storytellers Need To Be Unconventional

I know, in the past, I've said, "You've GOT to read this blog post, it's amazing!" I try not to say that too often because not every good post is going to be oh-my-gosh-you've-got-to-drop-everything-right-now-and-read-this amazing.

This one is (article contains adult language): How Story Rebels Against Expectation, by Chuck Wendig.

Here are some highlights.

The Heart Of Story: Avoid The Straight, The Predictable: Be Rebellious

In his most recent post on story structure Chuck Wendig writes about what lies at the heart of storytelling, it's essence.

Straight lines, he says, are predictable and boring.

The straight path is what a protagonist is on before a story begins. Chuck writes:

It is the life everyone expects of her. Or, perhaps, the life that everyone demands. The line is situation normal. The line is plain vanilla frosting. The line is office parties and yearbook photos.

The line is conservative and afraid.

But a line doesn't have to be straight. We are creators, gods, in the world of story.

A line can be any shape we want it to be. A gentle curve suggests a slow build and a slide downward. A sharp peak is a knife’s blade, a mountain’s peak, a fast rise and a quick fall.

Sometimes lines go wild.

One line falls when you think it should rise.

One line ends when you think it’s just beginning.

Some lines are the snake that bites its own tail, a spiral, a circle, looping back on itself and becoming that thing and that place it was trying to flee all along.

Some lines detonate — a plunger pressed, a dynamite choom, an unexpected gunshot in the dark of the night, a sudden collapse of an old life, a death that is life that is rebirth that is death all over again, a massive avalanche, a soot-choked cave-in, a heart rupture, a giddy explosion.

The lines of our stories and our lives should not be safe, straight walking paths.

They should be electric eels that squirm and shock. They should be the lines in Escher prints, the peaks and valleys of mountains and volcanoes, the sloppily painted strokes of a drunken chimpanzee. The right line, the interesting line, is a line that defies, ... that is shaped like a middle finger aimed squarely at the expectations of others.

The line should not be safe, it should not be predictable, it should not be normal.

This is what the emotional energy of Chuck's post was leading up to:

Storytelling is an act of rebellion. Story is a violation of the status quo.

Everything the straight line tells you to do is how you know to do differently.

When you think you have the answer, defy it with a new question.

When the path seems well-lit, kill the lights and wander into darkness.

When the way is straight, kick a hole in the wall to make a new door.

When everything seems so obvious, close your eyes and look for what remains hidden.

Seek the wild lines.

The straight line is our anti-guide.

. . . .

The status quo is a known quantity and so it does not demand the attention of our description — we know what a chair looks like, a bed, a wall, the sky, that tree. The straight line is as plain and obvious as a pair of ugly thumbs. We know to describe instead the things that break our expectation, that stand out as texture, that are the bumps and divots and scratches and shatterpoints of that straight line. We describe those things that must be known, that the audience cannot otherwise describe themselves, that contribute to the violation of their expectations. We don’t illuminate every tree in the forest: just that one tree that looks like a dead man’s hand reaching toward the sky, pulling clouds down into its boughs, the tree from whence men have hanged and in which strange birds have slept. We describe the different tree. The tree that matters. The crooked tree that doesn’t belong.

I think the best bit comes right at the end when Chuck likens storytellers to shamans, but I'll let you head over to Chuck's blog and read that for yourself. I don't like quoting extensively from another writer's article, but in this case it was just so good I couldn't resist!

Please do head over to Chuck's Website and read: How Story Rebels Against Expectation, but be aware that it does contain adult language.

What shapes are your stories? Straight lines? Triangles? Zany, death-defying, roller-coasters?

Other articles you might like:

- A Pantser Turned Plotter
- Is Writing Your Brightest Fire? Guest Post By Max W. Miller
- 6 Ways To Write Every Day

Photo credit: "red snapper" by paul bica under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

A Pantser Turned Plotter

Writer Unboxed is one of my favorite blogs, and with good reason. Not only does Therese Walsh, co-founder of the blog, write about issues every writer--whether amateur, part-time or pro--wrestles with, she does it in a way that lets her clear, fluid, writing style shine through.

Beautiful!

Therese, a died-in-the-wool pantser, decided to try her hand at plotting her next novel.

Pantser Turned Plotter ... Temporarily.

Therese writes:

Though some pantsers shun plotting, saying the story will end up stale and formulaic if it’s planned out ahead of time, I’ve seen plotters work through outlines and synopses, use Scrivener and the like, and end up with beautiful works of fiction that read as organic and authentic.

So I decided.

I’d control the second book. I’d make the characters do what I told them to do. (Notes From a Desk (2): Respecting Your Process)

Good luck with that! Whenever I try and tell characters what to do they laugh condescendingly at me and go on their merry way, wreaking havoc with my outline.

As you can guess, it didn't work out.

For me, and perhaps I'm a weird hybrid of plotter and pantser, just because I start writing with an outline doesn't mean I'll follow it!

I know that sounds wonky, why create an outline if you don't intend to follow it?

I think Mary Robinette Kowal said it best in her workshop at last years Surrey International Writers' Conference: Use your outline like a road map.

If you decide to take a road trip from Tallahassee Florida to Sacramento California--you plotted your route the night before--you can still change your mind along the way ('Oh, look! The world's largest ball of string. Only 50 miles that-a-way.') and make detours. Of course it'll cost you something. More time, more gas.

You can even change your destination, but that would change a lot of other things on the map as well and the cost would be greater. But you can do it. All a road map does is show you, at any moment in time, where you want to go and where you've been. That's it. Whether you follow it is entirely up to you and your muse.

Ray Bradbury: It's important to get out of your own way.

For some writers getting out of one's way means plotting the story in advance, while for others it means pantsing it all the way through.

Just as no two stories--and no two structures!--are exactly the same, so each writer is different.

How do you know what kind of writer you are? This is a question I had for a long time. I tried various things, read books about structure, and then, somehow, somewhere between wrenching words out of my gut and thinking about plot structure, the way I wrote slowly came together.

But it took years, and I don't think the process will ever be finished. Well, except when I'm dead! But until then it'll be in flux, evolving, the only constant being that I must write.

Well, that, and writing should be fun. At the end of the day, if you're not occasionally having fun there are other, probably more lucrative, ways to make a living.

Which are you, a plotter or a pantser? Have you ever tried to mix it up and try the other way of doing things? Any of you plotters decided to chuck the cork board, shred the index cards, and just write, destination unknown? Have any of you pantsers decided to do what Therese Walsh did and meticulously plot out your novel? How'd it turn out?

Other articles you might like:

- Is Writing Your Brightest Fire? Guest Post By Max W. Miller
- 6 Ways To Write Every Day
- How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story

Photo credit: "Stop For a Minute" by MSVG under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Is Writing Your Brightest Fire? Guest Post By Max W. Miller

Karen Woodward: Today we have a real treat, a guest post from Max W. Miller on finding your brightest fire, your passion, that creative impulse that haunts you if neglected. Take it away Max!

Is Writing Your Brightest Fire?

Max W. Miller: Feeling trapped inside your present career choice(s)? Consider allowing your thoughts to travel backward into your past. Ask yourself, “What is the one creative thing that has stayed with me throughout my life. What is my haunting?”

Yes, it haunts you—everywhere your life turns it’s there, during happy times, during sad events, and even when you’re not thinking about much of anything, the gift of writing is there to bring you stability! You turn to it no matter what state your mind is in.

Creating music through words has been the ‘Brightest Fire’ for many who have yet to fully realize it. Maybe that’s you, if so, you cannot move forward into a fulfilling career choice for the future until this strong creative gift becomes a part of that future. Whether it becomes a full-time career or an add-on to an existing work schedule, your brightest fire must burn. So what exactly is this brightest fire thing anyway?

Your Brightest Fire is your strongest creative gift; sometimes it is hidden deeply inside the core of your subconscious. Imagine what it takes to get to the core of an apple. It takes quite a bit of biting to reach the core. Hopefully, you will begin to realize that in all your times of stress and discontent, peace and love, you always picked up pen and wrote expressions from the heart. Could it be that an unseen hand was guiding you toward your brightest fire?

Life’s circumstances forced me to slide around on the glossy skin of my apple, jumping from career to career—never allowing myself to bite down beyond these jobs that did not satisfy my inner passion. Circumstances can hold you in the ‘Survival Zone’ a place of scrambling to make the rent. It is during these times your head should turn and look back; remember the creative side of you, the thing that when you carve out time to do it, it brings you courage.

If writing is your brightest fire, it doesn’t matter how long or how hard you try to convince yourself that the burn is just a fleeting hobby—something you do when you’re bored. It’s bubbling up at all stages of your life. You know that there’s more to this writing thing, you know that this haunting is actually an appointment in time, a date you must not cancel.

It will take time to bite through to the core of where the “seed of your fire” burns. It doesn’t matter how young or how old you are you must understand. Many are confused about the difference between what they do for a living versus what they simply do—nobody taught them how, they just do it. To distinguish between what you do to survive and what you do because you have a calling/haunting is not always easy.

Remember the seed that springs out of your core. Some people hit it on the head, like Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley; they found their core early in life and became rich and famous on what sprung out of the seed. You have a core that contains a seed. Go back to the beginning and find the thing you've maybe forgotten you have. Is writing your Brightest Fire? Then began migrating from what you feel you have to do, to what you are passionately bound to be. Do something with your writing today!

About the Author:

Max W. Miller picked up a pen when she was in the middle of a personal crisis. In order to survive, she realized she had to re-invent herself in a positive way. The results of her private battle have been the creation of four page turning SCI-FI/FANTASY stories. To learn more about Max and the PARANORMAL worlds she creates. Go to: http://www.scififantasyfiction.com / follow Max on twitter @ MaxWMiller email:bookbaby@maxwmiller.com To WIN PRIZES Play The Legacy of Sadie Mae Stevens BOOK GAME@ http://scififantasyfiction.com/game-the-legacy-of-sadie-mae-stevens/game-intro-page/

Karen Woodward: Thanks Max! A wonderful, and wonderfully inspiring, article.

What is your fire? We all have one. For some of us it's writing, for others it's climbing, or hiking or reading, or ... well, the list is endless.

Other articles you might like:

- 6 Ways To Write Every Day
- An April Fool's Roundup
- Rewriting

Photo credit: "luray carvern" by scott1346 under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

6 Ways To Write Every Day

How To Sell More Stories: Write More!

What is the single biggest cause of writers not selling their work?

Not writing!

It sounds silly, but think about it for a moment and you'll agree.

What do writers need to write?

They need time.

Okay, yes, maybe I have turned into Ms. Obvious.

I've started making the time from waking till 9:00 am sacrosanct and it's amazing how much more writing I've been doing.

Instead of procrastinating writing to blog I procrastinate blogging to write!

Rob D. Young's 6 Strategies To Make Your Writing Schedule Sacred

It was with great glee I read The Write Time: 6 Strategies to Make Your Writing Schedule Sacred by Rob D. Young. Here are some of the strategies Rob developed to make sure his writing time remained sacred:

1. Make your writing time legitimate.

Writing isn't optional.

It's easy to think of writing as less important than cleaning the house, making dinner, spending quality time with friends.

I'm not suggesting these things aren't important, they are, but as Rob points out "tasks tend to expand to fill the time available for them."

Even if you're not planning on making your living from writing, writing is part of you, and writing gives your creative muse a workout--and you know the saying: Use it or lose it. Rob writes:

Your work matters, so stop treating it as "fake." Schedule it in the same way you schedule appointments and work tasks.

2. Invest in your writing ritual.

Ritualize your writing. How? Create rhythms.

Here's mine: I get up, put on the kettle, get out my writing journal--a book which only includes my writing and my notes on my writing, no daily reminders, no to-do lists--and I sit and write for about an hour and a half. After that I launch my day, read my email, research my blog posts and so on.

Later in the day when I'm not quite as fresh creatively I edit my work and do research. (By the way, I never edit the work I've just done--that would be madness, madness I say!--I work on a completely different manuscript.) As part of my work editing (and it is work) I flag passages that need to be re-written but I'll do the actual re-writing in the morning when I'm fresh.

One thing I don't do is look at my email before I write, not even one tiny teensy-tweensy glance, because every time I do I end up blowing through my writing time. It's always, "Oh, just one more thing." Uh huh. And pigs fly.

As Rob mentions, doing the same thing every single day helps to gently wake your muse and get her ready to grace you with her creative magic. Here's his advice:

What I encourage is developing your own rituals that involve things that you already enjoy. From there, a simple investment in your rituals can have a profound impact. It doesn't matter that no one actually needs 16 different flavors of tea (my current total): Buying new flavors is how I get myself excited about the ritual surrounding my writing. Likewise, I regularly invest in instrumental soundtracks (most recently work by Lindsey Stirling) because it makes me excited to get going. 

Any excuse to buy more tea is wonderful!

3. Unplug your distractions.

During the time you've set aside to write a first draft do not for any reason go on the internet. (That is, if you're anything at all like me!) Even to research something. You can do the research later during your editing time.

Research is important but it will often kill the momentum you've built up or, if there is no momentum, it will offer you something else to do besides writing.

But don't stop with the internet, turn off your phone too.

If you're one of those lucky writers who have an office don't be shy about putting a sign on the door telling folks it's your writing time and to please not disturb you.

4. Use peer pressure.

This is part of the beauty of #NaNoWriMo. In his article Rob looks at how writers can use peer pressure all year long to keep our butts firmly planted.

a. Use your website/blog

Put a widget on your site that tells your community/tribe both what you're working on (if you want to be super secret about the content you can label it 'Project A') and how far along you are.

My favorite words-written widget is over at the NaNoWriMo site: NaNoWriMo Word Meter.

b. Use writing groups

Get together with a group of similar minded writers. Rob suggests doing write-ins where you get together, unplug from the world, get maximally caffeinated, and write.

You can do something similar virtually by tweeting an appropriate hash tag (your group could even make one up) to your friends and followers and have them join you. You could even turn this into a game to see who can write the longest.

The suspicious among you--yes mystery writers, I'm looking at you--could use Google Hangouts so everyone involved can see that everyone in the group is indeed writing.

Rob suggests using Word Wars. Instead of seeing who can write the longest, see who can write the most words in a given period of time. Rob writes:

By getting connected with a community of writers that you report to regularly, who have an expectation that you will produce, and who you can "compete" with, you're far more likely to do the actual work. This sort of peer pressure is a way to adopt the role of writer in social settings that reaffirm this portion of your identity.

5. Create a space that's just for writing.

Rob writes:

I have an ergonomic keyboard, a chair with extra lumbar support, audiophilic speakers, a clean desk, and organized drawers. My walls have humorous posters about commonly misspelled words, how to use semicolons, and when to use i.e. or e.g. in a sentence. I do this because I want to make myself comfortable, but also because I want to remind myself that writing is what this space is for.

I have all those things too but, fact is, I do most of my writing (at least, for my first draft) sitting on my couch using a pen and a journal.

When I edit I either sit on my couch or at a kitchen table and use my uber wonderful Mac laptop. 

I do, occasionally, use my convenient and ergonomically wonderful keyboard in my convenient, expensive, and seldom used office, but I prefer (when the felines allow) being in the thick of things, not cut off from the life of the house.

That said, I do think it's a marvelous idea for writers to have a space dedicated to writing whether, like Sheldon Cooper, you have a favorite spot on the couch or whether you have something more private.

6. The desire to write.

Having a desire to write doesn't make you a writer--writing makes you a writer--but it makes it more likely that you'll write. 

If you want to be a writer, the sole requirement is that you write. And if you want to write, you have to create an environment and set of habits that make writing feel like the natural thing to do ... [R]eal writing isn't the sort that happens in tidal-wave crashes a few times a year. Real writing is found in the day-in, day-out practice of a craft we can come to love in the same way we love a home, a spouse, or even our own familiar bones.

All links, unless otherwise indicated, are from Rob D. Young's article, 6 Strategies to Make Your Writing Schedule Sacred.

What is your writing ritual? Please share! :-)

Other links you might like:

- An April Fool's Roundup
- How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story
- The New Yorker Rejects Its Own Story: What Slush Pile Rejections Really Mean

Photo credit: "127/365 "In dreams, we enter a world that's entirely our own."" by martinak15 under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

An April Fool's Roundup

Happy April Fools!

Did you know that Joe Konrath has pulled all his books from Amazon? That's right! And spaghetti grows on trees.

Here are links to some of my favorite April Fool's pranks.

Konrath Flip-Flops
I knew Joe Konrath's success over at Amazon was too good to be true!

The search is over: Fermilab chooses new director
Doctor Who.

Jim C. Hines April Fool's Day Roundup
Jim Hines provides links from an eclectic array of sources ranging from Google's Google Nose to Brent Weeks' NINJA KITTEN.

April Fools: Are folks getting more difficult to trick?
Article by Peter Funt, son of Allen Funt, creator of “Candid Camera.”

April Fools’ Day 2013: A round-up of the best jokes and hoaxes
My favorite: NASA's Curiosity rover quits Twitter after abuse from trolls. This list is from Metro.co.uk.

I'll leave you all with an April Fool video featuring "spaghetti trees" from 1957. Thanks to Sarah A. Hoyt for embedding it in her blog post: April Fool's Day Post One.

What was your favorite April Fools' joke? What joke did you play?

Other articles you might like:

- Rewriting
- Are Libraries 'Sitting Close To Satan'?
- How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story

Photo credit: "*gasp*" by fPat under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Rewriting

Sometimes when a story isn't working the only thing you can do is start over from scratch.

Just typing that made me cringe!

Signs that your manuscript needs a rewrite

How can we tell if our story needs a rewrite as opposed to a re-draft?

Heather Anastasiu talks about her decision to rewrite her novel Override in her wonderful article, The Art of the Rewrite.

I recognized I’d need a rewrite when all of my beta partners, my agent, and my editor seemed less than enthusiastic about the draft. Nobody came out and said it was horrible, but there was a lot of beating around the bush about how bad it was. I think I probably scared my editor with that first draft. I imagined her in the office reading it and being like ‘why on earth did I ever buy this trilogy?’

It's difficult to judge what is wrong with my own stories so I am grateful to have critique partners and beta-readers who can be objective about my work when I can't.

What to keep in mind when doing a rewrite

The nuclear approach

One way of doing a rewrite is to open up a brand new file in your word processor and begin again from scratch.

Heather decided to go a nicer, kinder, less traumatic route.

a. Outline the book as it stands

b. Re-read sections and target the problems.

c. Brainstorm about how to fix the problem.

For instance, Heather recognized that she was having difficulty relating emotionally with her protagonist and so--naturally--her readers were as well.

d. Look at the pacing. Are our character's goals clearly spelled out?

e. At each step, ask what your protagonist wants. What motivates her. What are her worst fears?

We need to figure out what our characters want and then trow obstacles in their path to prevent them from getting it.

f. Know your weaknesses and strengths as a writer.

Heather writes:

So these are the big things to keep in mind when you do a re-write:

Take some time away from the draft. Get feedback and then try to look at it with fresh eyes. And be brutal with yourself—not the self-defeating kind of brutal, aka, ‘I suck and will never be successful at this writing thing!’ Instead, you need the productive kind of brutal, acknowledging that this is a work in progress, that all writers (both published and unpublished) are facing these same problems, and gearing yourself up to dig in to do the work that needs to be done.

What does my character want and what do they fear? Am I crafting the plot to really push these desires and fears to the forefront so I can get a full emotional arc for my characters? Your characters are what stay with a reader, not clever plots. Your character’s emotional arc is what will make readers laugh and cry.

Do I lose tension during any section of the book? Do I keep the stakes high? Usually this ties back into the first point—does the reader genuinely feel like the main character has something important to lose, that their wants and desires are challenged in some way in each chapter? Don’t be afraid to hurt your main character or take them scary places. Being a writer means being willing to gut your main characters and then kick them while they’re down. Conflict is what stories are all about.

Excellent advice!

Question: Have you ever done a complete re-write of a manuscript, starting again from scratch? Please share your wisdom!

Other articles you might like:

- Are Libraries 'Sitting Close To Satan'?
- How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story
- Creating Flawed Characters

Photo credit: "Autoportrait" by *** Fanch The System !!! *** under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Are Libraries 'Sitting Close To Satan'?

Do Publishers View Libraries As Their Adversary?

Did you know that some publishers refuse to sell ebooks to libraries? Or that some publishers have made ebooks impossibly expensive for all but the best funded libraries to purchase?

In publishers’ eyes librarians are “sitting close to Satan”, declared Phil Bradley, president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. He was addressing indignant librarians who recently gathered in London to swap tales of e-lending woe. Some publishers have refused to sell their e-books to public libraries, made them prohibitively costly or put severe restrictions on their use. Although 71% of British public libraries lend out e-books, 85% of e-book titles are not available in public libraries, according to Mr Bradley. In America the average public library makes available only 4,350 e-books (Amazon, an online retail giant, stocks more than 1.7m).

 That's incredible! Especially this line:

Although 71% of British public libraries lend out e-books, 85% of e-book titles are not available in public libraries ... 

(All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from: Folding shelves.)

Owning vs Licensing

If I go to the bookstore and buy a book, a physical book, something I can hold in my hands, under copyright law I'm allowed to lend that book out. We've all done this, we loan books out to friends as well as borrow them. But ebooks are different. When I buy an ebook from Amazon all I have bought is a license to use the book. Unless the author/publisher allows it I can't lend that book out.

Under copyright law, anyone who buys a printed book can lend or rent it, but the same does not apply to digital works. Libraries do not own these outright. Instead they must negotiate licensing deals for each book they want to lend. They put the e-collections on servers run by computer firms such as OverDrive and 3M, which typically charge around $20,000 annually, plus a fee for each book.

Also, publishers often limit the number of times a book can be lent out by a library before the licence has to be re-purchased (see: Publisher's fear of e-books is hurting libraries).

I generally like to put a positive twist on my articles--I love happy endings!--but this particlar cloud seems to come without a silver lining.

But we can make one.

In a recent post Joy Konrath said he would make any of his books available to any library who wanted it for a flat fee of $3.99 per ebook. The library would then own the rights to use that book forever. Here are his complete list of terms:

1. Ebooks are $3.99

2. No DRM.

3. The library only needs to buy one ebook of a title, and then they can make as many copies as they need for all of their patrons and all of their branches.

4. The library owns the rights to use that ebook forever.

5. The library can use it an any format they need; mobi, epub, pdf, lit, etc. And when new formats arise, they're free to convert it to the new format.

That quotation is from: Ebooks For Libraries, a post which Joe Konrath made on August 29th of last year. Here's another post Joe made about the same topic: E-books in Libraries: They Still Don't Get It.

Question: Would you offer any of your books to a library under Joe Konrath's terms?

Thanks to The Passive Voice Blog for the link to the article in The Economist.

Other articles you might like:

- How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story
- Creating Flawed Characters
- Amazon Is Acquiring Goodreads

Photo credit: "Blend - Mistery of the forest - wallpaper - version 2" by balt-arts under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0.

How To Write A Great Opening For Your Story

Few would disagree that the first line of a story is the most important for hooking a reader's interest but how does one do this?

A CHARACTER With A PROBLEM In A SETTING

J.M. Ney-Grimm writes:

There is a structure that consistently hooks most readers’ attention. This “hook opening” won’t be right for every story, but it serves many of them well.

A character with a problem in a setting. (The First Lines)

We want the first line to provoke a question. For instance, here is one of the best first lines I've ever read:

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. (Paul Auster, City of Glass)

This opening line raises a number of questions: Who was the caller? Who did they intend to call? Why were they calling? Why let the telephone ring exactly three times? As long as the reader is interested in answering these questions they'll keep reading.

Use The Senses: Use all five senses every 500 words.

J.M. Ney-Grimm writes:

Ground your reader in what your character is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. Make your opening rich with sensory detail. Your reader will feel like she or he is there, chilled by the breeze, smelling cinnamon, tasting vanilla, hearing chapel bells, and watching the cavalry thunder over the hill crest.

Touch on all five senses in the first three paragraphs and continue to mention them every 500 words. (The First Lines)

Having hooked your reader, keep them immersed with your richness of sensory detail.

J.M. Ney-Grimm's article, The First Lines, is well worth the read. Thanks to The Passive Voice Blog for the link.

Other articles you might like:

- Creating Flawed Characters
- The New Yorker Rejects Its Own Story: What Slush Pile Rejections Really Mean
- How To Design A Great Looking Book Cover

Photo credit: "Aisha" by rolands.lakis under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Creating Flawed Characters

It's difficult to create flawed characters.

I feel protective of my creations, I want them to grow up to be tall and strong and to remember to floss and look both ways before they cross the street.

Instead I have to make them drink too much, or have a temper, or lack compassion. But that's not enough, I must also throw misfortunes at them. My darling characters lose their jobs, their health, their family, their place in society.

Creating Flawed But Likable Characters

If, like me, you find it a constant challenge to make life hard for your characters, then A.L. Sowards article, Creating Flawed (But Likeable) Characters, is a must-read.

But, you might ask, why must we make our characters flawed?

The fact is, flaws make characters interesting. (Also, they leave room for improvement. If the protagonist is perfect at the beginning of a story it doesn't leave her any room to grow, to change.)

Sowards writes:

Chances are, your reader can relate to your character’s Diet Coke addiction because your reader just opened another Diet Pepsi or opened another bag of M&Ms. Does your character have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning? Who can’t relate to that? Does your character spend too much time on Facebook? Maybe your reader does too, or if not them, their roommate or sister or someone else they know and still love. Does your character get nervous talking to people of the opposite sex? If your reader survived junior high, they can relate.

Balance Flaws With Strengths

If a character is nothing more than a bundle of flaws then it's going to be as difficult for readers to relate to her as it would be if she were perfect.

For instance, if a character does something despicable, give them a great motivation.

If, like Shrek, one of your characters is "rude and crude" but he's funny chances are we'll end up liking him.

Character Is Plot

Sowards gives the following examples:

Perhaps your heroine is obsessed with having perfect nails, and while she’s touching up her two-day old manicure, she misses a call from her romantic interest, or lets down her best friend who really needed her right that second. And maybe as part of the climax she has to do something she knows will result in a broken nail, but the trade-off will be worth her sacrifice.

Or does the villain in the novel know your character has a lead foot, or a weakness for raspberry sherbet, or really bad aim with his left arm? Can the villain use your hero’s weakness against them, or somehow force your character to overcome their flaw just in time to save the day?

Excellent points to keep in mind!

I've barely touched on all the riches contained in A.L. Sowards article, I encourage you to read it in full: MBM: Creating Flawed (But Likable) Characters, By A.L. Sowards.

Other articles you might like:

- Amazon Is Acquiring Goodreads
- Janice Hardy Teaches Writers How To Be Their Own Book Doctor
- How To Write Description

Photo credit: "ASTEROID PLANET - digital-art" by balt-arts under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0.

Amazon Is Acquiring Goodreads

Amazon is acquiring Goodreads.

This news shocked me. I hope the wonderful book culture that has developed over at Goodreads doesn't change.

Why Goodreads Wants To Join Amazon

Otis Chandler, Co-founder of Goodreads, says he is excited about the development. He writes:

1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.

2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.

3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture. (Exciting News About Goodreads: We're Joining the Amazon Family!)

The folks over at The Verge point out that ...

Amazon already owns Shelfari, a social and information network described as a "community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers." Together with Goodreads (as well as its own lightweight / somewhat anemic kindle.amazon.com social notes network) Amazon will soon own the major online recommendation and commentary engines for new and old books. (Amazon to acquire Goodreads, a social network for book recommendations)

I guess, also, Goodreads represents a wealth of data on readers preferences and reading habits.

This story is still developing so stay tuned for further news.

(Thanks to +Andy Goldman for mentioning Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads.)

Question: What do you think about this merger? Will it be good or bad for readers and writers?

Other articles you might like:

- Janice Hardy Teaches Writers How To Be Their Own Book Doctor
- How To Write Description
- Mark Coker, Founder Of Smashwords: Six Ways To Increase Book Sales

Photo credit: "The dawn of freedom - digital-art" by balt-arts under Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs 2.0.