3 Ways To Create Incredible Characters

I love Joanna Penn's blog over at The Creative Penn. After writing one post today about the business of writing (Amazon's KDP Select: The Best Long-Term Strategy?) I was happy to read something about the craft of writing. As I read, ideas popped into my head, points I needed to keep in mind as I begin a rewrite of my latest story. So, for better or worse, here are 3 ways to create incredible characters:

1. Create a detailed backstory for each of your main characters
Readers want to know that you know the details, the minutia, of the fictional world you've created. You don't have to tell readers the entire backstory--in fact it's best if you only reveal the minimum needed to carry the story along--but you need to know it.

Why? Well, for starters, it will keep you from contradicting yourself (hair blond in one scene, black in another, a name spelt differently in different places, and so on), and it will give you a deeper understanding of your characters.

Nowadays when I begin a story I create a file for character names and descriptions and another for general world history. Character biography sheets are great aids (here's another, and another). There are also character tests and quizzes you can use. Your characters backstories don't need to be extensive, you just need to give them enough verisimilitude to bring them to life on the page.

2. Be mean to your characters in order to create change
In Changes, Harry Dresden finds out--surprise!--he has a daughter and that she is in mortal danger. Harry turns his life inside out to save her life. He does things he swore he never would, things that would, if he did them to achieve another goal, mark him as a bad guy. Jim Butcher takes Harry through a character arc so extreme that, if it were written by someone less skilled, he could have made the character unbelievable. Broken him. As it is, Jim Butcher succeeded in rejuvenating the series and taking it, at least for a time, in a different direction.

How did Jim Butcher do this? He gave Harry something that meant a great deal to him (a child) and then took it away (the child was to be ritually sacrificed). Find out what your characters want, what they would die for, and take it away from them--or give it to them and arrange for them to lose it.

I know it's hard to create wonderful characters that are real to you and then make horrible things happen to them, but you have to. The struggle against odds, against the bad guy, against injustice, and so on, that's what makes us root for a character, it's what makes us want to see what happens in the end.

3. Show who your characters are through action
You've heard this before: Show, don't tell. I believe sometimes telling is just fine, especially if you want to move from point A to B quickly. That said, just as in real life, what your character does shows a reader what kind of a character they are. What would we think of Harry Dresden if he discovered he had a daughter in mortal danger and he shrugged his shoulders, told us how devastated he was, and then went to drink (warm) beer at McAnally's? On the other hand, what would we think of Harry if he did everything conceivable, no matter how ethically dubious, to save his child from being killed?

How characters react to the challenges you present them with, how they reach their goals, that tells a great deal about a character. But you all know this. If a person tells you one thing and does another, which are you going to believe?

4. Learn from what you like
I've used Harry Dresden as an example of a well-written character. Harry lives. (He even has a Twitter account!) Perhaps you love the Dresden Files as much as I do and perhaps you don't. It doesn't matter. Choose your favorite book, or books, put on your editor's hat, and study how the author made you care about her characters. Perhaps you love them, perhaps you hate them, study how they shaped their characters to be what they wanted.

Well, that's it! There is a lot more to say about character development, but I need to go and practise what I preach. :) Good writing everyone!

Other links you might like:
- Writing Resources
- 7 Common Self-Publishing Fears And How To Banish Them
- Amazon's KDP Select: The Best Long-Term Strategy?

Photo credit: dorena-wm

Amazon's KDP Select: The Best Long-Term Strategy?

Last week I discussed how Kris Rusch, in her weekly business column, urged writers to prioritize their writing and only check sales of their books once a month. She also called Amazon's KDP Select program bad for writers and laid out why. She writes:

The million words are under my control. The number of sales, once a book is released, is not under my control. Not when you look at the worldwide market, at all of the distribution channels. I can get the work out there, then I have to trust it to sell.

Write more. Fret less. Stop watching your sales numbers. Beat my million words this year.

As you can imagine, this created a terrific discussion in the comment section. Dean mentioned this on his blog but, since I was on vacation at the time, I didn't read it. I have now, and want to share a few of the comments with you. I don't feel right posting an entire comment without the author's permission, but I'll post enough of it that you can get the gist of what is being said. (Also, I've embedded a direct link to the comment in each subtitle, below.) If you'd like to go directly to the comments section and read them for yourself, click here: Watching The Numbers, Comments.

Two main, and interrelated, discussion threads developed, both centered around questions. First, should writers spend most of their time writing as opposed to, say, marketing? Second, is using Amazon's KDP Select program the best long term strategy? Kris says yes to the first and a resounding no to the second. Here's why:

1) Writing versus Marketing

Kris: Writers should write what they like, not write what they believe will sell.
This was what kicked off one, sometimes heated, conversation:

Writers should write what they want to write even if no one wants it. Because the latest break-out book is always a surprise. We readers never know what we want until we see it. (That was in response to William Ockham.)

Blanche: Writers need to eat

It’s easier not to worry about your sales numbers when you have a day job or when you’re established enough to have enough income saved up that you don’t depend on them for rent.

I went into this year with four months of income saved up, and I’m very good with money. I’ve done the best I could with what I had. I made budgets and I stuck with them, even when it looked like I had more money that I could spend. I saved it. But it doesn’t matter how much you save when your sales dry up and they don’t revive. When they keep getting worse. At some point, there’s just not going to be enough money.

This is just the beginning of Blanche's comment, it is truly excellent. If you are a writer trying to make ends meet, you need to read this. It won't provide any answers, but it'll show you you're not alone.

Kris: We've all been there

Unfortunately, Blanche, what you’re going through happens to all writers at various stages in their careers. Sales drop off for unknown reasons. Read Lawrence Block’s essays. He couldn’t sell a book into traditional publishing for (I believe) two years, after years and years of making a living at writing. I’ve gone through those downtimes. Other writers have too. Back when we taught the Master Class, we had writers participate in a role-playing game that showed them the ups and downs of a freelancer’s career. There are always periods of no money, periods of too much money, and almost no periods of steady money.

I wish I could be more encouraging than that. The key is to get a part time job to go through the lean times and to keep writing. You’re right to have only one career–writing–but sometimes you must support it with supplemental income. If you read back through my blogs, you’ll see that I considered doing the same thing as recently as six or seven years ago. It happens. It’s hard.

Again, this is just the start of Kris' answer and the rest is absolutely worth reading.

That was an interesting exchange but it soon transformed into an, at times, heated debate about the thorny question of whether Amazon KDP Select was worth the price of exclusivity.

2) Is Using Amazon's KDP Select The Best Business Strategy?

Here is what Amazon's KDP Select offers writers:

1. Your ebook is available exclusively on Amazon for 90 days.
2. You have the right to promote your ebook for free for 5 out of the 90 days.
3. Your book is automatically enrolled in the Kindle Owners Lending Library from which Prime members can borrow one book per month.
4. You are paid for each time your book is borrowed from the Kindle Owners Lending Library. The payment varies from month to month, depending upon how many books are borrowed, but typically is a little over $2 per borrow, so it’s pretty close to the royalty generated from selling an ebook for $2.99.
5. The most recent change is that KDP Select enrollment allows you to earn 70% on ebooks sold through Amazon’s new Indian store. (From: KDP Select – Worth the Exclusivity?)

Kris: Bargain hunters don't become loyal readers

[B]argain hunters are rarely long-term clients of anything except the bargain store. Wal-Mart has done hundreds of studies of this. It’s found that customers who shop at Wal-Mart want the lower prices, not the brand names. So if the brand doesn’t show up at Wal-Mart, the discount customer buys something similar.

Good point! Or so I thought ...

Lisa: Amazon KDP Select helps sell books. Period.

My novels priced at $2.99 and $5.99 after a free run have helped me to sell in the one thousand to four thousand dollar range in the months following the free run.

And yes, sales on the rest of the books in my series which have never gone free and are not in Select, pick up dramatically after a free run.

So a free run can positively affect the sales of all books in a series and enable a new self-publlished author a chance to make real money. There is nothing bargain priced about my books. I sell several hundred (and one month broke a thousand) of my titles.

Very impressive! What is the key to success? Lisa offers that it is discoverability. She writes:

Discoverability is key.

Select, if used correctly, can assure your book is in several of those short stacks on the front row. Hot new releases, also boughts, best sellers in your genre, popularity, Koll Lending Library, suggested for you, and emails of the top ten best sellers they send out to genre buyers.
The chances of making these lists goes up when releasing a book through the Select program. Making any of these lists increases sales because suddenly a reader has your book in front of them at full price after the free run.

If my emails are any indication, I’m building up a loyal fan base for both my series. Select does help bonafide buyers “discover” books after a free run because now they’re on the lists.

Kris: Amazon's KDP Select is a way for Amazon to promote its brand
Kris wasn't responding to Lisa when she wrote this, but I thought it was instructive:

Of course we’ve explored Select, and saw it for what it is: a way to promote Amazon’s brand. That a few writers are making money on it is good for them. But Select benefits Amazon more than it benefits anyone else. Not that that’s a problem: Amazon has the right like all of us do to improve their business. But it is something that writers should realize.

Breakaway: KDP Select Works
Breakaway knows a thing or two about marketing and he holds that Select works not because those who download the book for free reading it, love it, and search out your other books but because it gets your book in front of the eyes of people who do buy books. He writes:

Those who claim (in the few comments I did read, as well) that most people won’t read the freebies are 100% correct. Those who do search in the bargain bin will probably always search in the bargain bin, I agree as well. Those who use this as a mark against Select fail to understand the true power of Select. I recently gave away 26k books in 4 days. I don’t expect most who downloaded it for free to ever read it. That is not the goal. I use their bargain bin mindset, to utilize the promotional power of the Amazon algorithms and their calculation of free ebooks, to boost my books in the catalog/store shelves/bestseller lists/popularity lists on Amazon… TO GET MY BOOK IN FRONT OF THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE WHO DO BUY BOOKS, via the bestseller lists. THAT is how I use Select free promotions, to great effect. Not to Konrath or Grisham effect, but to enabling me to make 2x more monthly than I did at my highest-paying job ever, with less than 10 books published total, publishing my first book in March of 2012. That is success in my eyes, even if not compared to a Konrath, a DWS, or others.

 That is just a small part of Breakaway's comment and the rest is well worth reading.

Kris: The flaw in Select

[H]ere’s how it happens. The writer writes a very good book. He puts it up on Select, gets great word of mouth, and gets lots of other readers from Amazon/Select to find/read his book. Then they go to other books by the same author.

Here’s the problem. The book is what’s causing the growth in sales, not Select. If the writer used Select as a tool, and then dropped Select after 90 days and went to other markets, the writer is using Select correctly. But if the writer says the sales are because of Select, and then throwing everything into Select, the writer is making a mistake.

The writer isn’t crediting his good work, and isn’t believing in it, letting it grow over time. Sure, he jumpstarted it, and then he’s driving around the neighborhood and never seeing the world. If readers on Select are buying it in large quantities, then it stands to reason they’re discussing it with readers not on Select. Those readers will want the book and won’t be able to get it causing a loss of sales.

And that’s what I’m arguing against. Essentially writers are crediting Select when, in fact, it’s their own work that continues to bring in the readers–not the platform.

I'm stopping there. This is the best discussion of KDP Select I've seen and it just keeps going! Again, you can join the fun here:  Watching The Numbers, Comments.

If you don't read Kris' weekly business post on the business of writing, you're mission out. And don't forget to read the comments, often the blog post is just the beginning.

Cheers!

Update: PG has a great post about Amazon's KDP Select program over at The Passive Voice Blog: KDP Select – Worth the Exclusivity?. A lot of great comments, too.
PG also recommended: Risks and Rewards of Kindle Select Publishing

Other articles you might like:
- How To Start A Blog
- How To Build A Platform: Why Every Writer Needs A Website
- Writing Rules! Advice from The New York Times

Photo credit: Unknown

A Creative Shift Is As Good As A Vacation

Today I wanted to pass along the link to: Why You Need A Creative Shift Instead Of A Vacation, As Explained By Joss Whedon. It seemed appropriate, especially as this is (sigh) the last day of my (very fun!) vacation.

Perhaps that's true. Perhaps all one needs is a creative shift--write a humorous short story between 100,000+ word fantasy sagas, paint something. Learn to knit. Although I do think a creative shift can rejuvenate our muse, sometimes there really isn't anything like getting away from one's daily routine and traveling somewhere you've never been.

Like Portland! :)

Other articles you might like:
- Want Help With Editing? Try Free Editing Programs
- 8 Tips For Blogging Success
- Are You Writing The Right Book? 5 Ways To Find Out

Writing Rules! Advice from The New York Times

So far my vacation has been delightful! It's my first time in Portland and I'm sure it won't be the last. The food has been villainously great, Powell's Books was completely and utterly amazing. If you're any kind of bookworm, it's heaven. The place is enormous, I actually got lost! (They gave me a sticker, 'I got lost in Powell's'! It was great to know I wasn't the only one.)

After I get back I'll post some pictures of Powell's and other notable destinations. Today I'm visiting Voodoo Donuts. I went by yesterday but the line up would have reached from one end of a stadium to the other. A couple of public events had just let out, so I hope the line will be shorter today. They're open 24 hours (imagine, 24 hours!) so I'm confident I'll have consumed their dark delights before coming home.

In the meantime, here's a link to an utterly fantastic article from The New York Times by Amanda Christy Brown and Katherine Schulten: Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well.

I hope you all are having an amazing weekend!

Other articles you might like:
- Learning Story Structure: Deconstructing a Novel
- The Key To Success: 3000 Words A Day
- Want Help With Editing? Try Free Editing Programs

Photo credit: Uniquely Portland Oregon.
(This site has a great description of Powell's Books and many more pictures.)

Save The Cat! The Importance Of Sympathetic Heroes

I love Blake Snyder's book Save The Cat so I was delighted to read Elizabeth Craig's blog article on the subject. When I first came across the book I wondered about the title. It seemed like an odd choice for a book on screenwriting. Here's how Wikipedia describes it:

The title Save the Cat! is a term coined by Snyder and describes the scene where the audience meets the hero of a movie for the first time. The hero does something nice—e.g. saving a cat—that makes the audience like the hero and root for him. According to Snyder, it is a simple scene that helps the audience invest themselves in the character and the story, but is often lacking in many of today's movies. (Wikipedia, Blake Snyder)

Elizabeth Craig writes:

Snyder said that it was incredibly important for your audience (he, naturally, means filmgoers, but it works for readers) to like or at least pull for your protagonist. He casually mentions the importance of making your protagonist do something likeable in one of the first scenes of your film/novel.

This sounds incredibly simple (and is incredibly simple), but I’d never thought of it in such a concrete or deliberate way before.

.  .  .  .

But you want readers to at least pull for your character. You don’t want them to give up on your book. So, Snyder’s advice is to throw in a scene that displays the protagonist in a good light….early.

So, when readers are trying to decide if they want to invest their hard-earned free time with your character for the next few days or week, we’re giving them a reason to stick with them.

Before reading this book, I’d definitely thrown in a scene or two with a softer Myrtle at some point in the mystery. But usually it wasn’t near the start of the story.

Excellent advice! Red the rest of Elizabeth Craig's article here: Save the Cat

Other articles you might like:
- John Locke Paid For Book Reviews
- Tips For First Time Writers
- 19 Ways To Grow Your Twitter Following

Photo credit: Unknown

Away On Vacation!

I am off on vacation! A short vacation. I'll still blog--I've been squirreling posts away so I don't have to sit in my hotel room typing while my friends are off exploring the city. One thing I am going to do--or at least that I'm going to try to do--is treat this time away from my desk as an opportunity to see how easy it is to blog from the iPhone 5. (Not mine, a friend's. I haven't taken the plunge yet!)

I'm a bit of a foodie who loves street meat so I'll be prowling the city sampling the wares of food trucks and, generally, looking for good eats.

Before I go, let me leave you with a link to a terrific article by Joanna Penn: Lessons Learned From 1 Year As A Fulltime Author Entrepreneur:

I am seriously happy in my new life, but there have been some real challenges and lessons I’ve learned along the way that I wanted to share, as well as some action points if you’re considering making a similar move.

As ever, I just try to share honestly with you guys so I hope this helps you on your journey. I’d love to hear from you so please leave a comment at the end of the post with your thoughts and ideas.

Cheers! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. :)

Other articles you might be interested in:
- The Key To Success: 3000 Words A Day
- Learning Story Structure: Deconstructing a Novel
- Branding: Not As Painful As It Sounds

Photo credit: kaoruokumura

7 Common Self-Publishing Fears And How To Banish Them

From Copyblogger.com:

You keep telling yourself that you will write an ebook someday … just not yet. And it’s almost certainly the case that one of the seven common fears in this article is holding you back.

Staying stuck isn’t any fun, so let’s get right to it …

Fear #1: I’m not ready
This is the biggest worry I hear from bloggers: I’m not ready.

All too often, the bloggers saying this are more than ready.

They’ve been blogging for six months, or a year, or longer.

Or they’re subject matter experts.

Or they’ve been writing for years or even decades.

Even if the longest thing you’ve written so far is a blog post, you probably are ready (or at least a lot closer to ready than you think).

Tip: Pick a date when you will begin your ebook, however unready you feel. Put it in your calendar.

Fear #2: I don’t know what to write about
This fear comes in two forms:

I have no ideas at all
I have so many ideas, I don’t know which to pick

The best way forward is to ask your audience.

Give them a list of your potential ideas and ask them to vote on their favorites. Even better, ask them what they’re struggling with, using open-ended questions.

Tip: Though open-ended questions are always best, you can use SurveyMonkey to run a multiple choice survey — it’s free at the basic level, and quick and simple for your audience to use.

Great advice! Here are the rest of the fears:

Fear #3: Nobody will buy it

Fear #4: It won’t be good enough

Fear #5: I don’t understand the technology

Fear #6: I don’t have a big list

Fear #7: I hate the idea of marketing

To have your fears dispelled, read Ali Luke's entire article: How to Beat 7 Common Self-Publishing Fears.

Other links you might enjoy:
- Want Help With Editing? Try Free Editing Programs
- The Key To Success: 3000 Words A Day
- John Gardner: You Aren't Fooling Yourself, You Really Can Do It

Photo credit: Yuliya Libkina

The Key To Success: 3000 Words A Day

There are writers and then there are writers. In a recent post Kris Rusch reveals that she wrote 1,000,000 words last year. One million! That means she wrote nearly 3,000 words a day, each and every day.

My mind boggles! I think I might be able to do 3,000 words a day, but I'm not sure what else I'd have time for--but perhaps that's the point. One has to prioritize and non-writing related pursuits fall by the wayside. Specifically, fretting over and tweaking ones sales strategies.
 
Kris Rusch admonishes writers to concentrate on their writing as opposed to their sales since writers make money from the creation and sale of new work.  She writes:

Stop trying to tweak your numbers on one platform in one or maybe two countries on a daily basis, and write more books. Publish more books. Use all of the opportunities available to you.

Stop watching the sales numbers and start watching your personal production numbers.

I wrote one million words last year, despite a pretty serious illness, some major personal setbacks, and problems of others that my husband and friends are still dealing with.

The million words are under my control. The number of sales, once a book is released, is not under my control. Not when you look at the worldwide market, at all of the distribution channels. I can get the work out there, then I have to trust it to sell.

Write more. Fret less. Stop watching your sales numbers. Beat my million words this year.

Wow! One million words. I can't get over it. I doubt many writers have been able to match her output. But that ties in with her other advice:

Your writing career isn’t about this month or next month or last month or even five years from now. If you do this right, your career should last for your entire working life. We’re all different. I’m 52, and I hope to have as many more working years as Jack Williamson had. He was still writing up to his death at the age of 98. That means I get another 46 years of a writing career. On top of the thirty I’ve already had.

I’m planning for that.

Why do I have the image of Kris Rusch in a Superman outfit? I marvel that she has any time left to read!

Kris' post (The Business Rusch: Watching The Numbers) has both inspired me and made me feel like a complete slacker! Okay, gotta stop chatting with you folks and write. :-)

Other articles you might like:
- Tips For First Time Writers
- Query Tracker: Keep Track Of Your Stories
- Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management

Photo credit: WordRidden

John Gardner: You Aren't Fooling Yourself, You Really Can Do It

I subscribe to AdviceToWriters.com, a site that shares quotations from well-known writers, and had to share this one with you because it really hit home for me:

In my own experience, nothing is harder for the developing writer than overcoming his anxiety that he is fooling himself and cheating or embarrassing his family and friends. To most people, even those who don’t read much, there is something special and vaguely magical about writing, and it is not easy for them to believe that someone they know—someone quite ordinary in many respects—can really do it. (John Gardner)

It can feel presumptuous in the extreme, the thought, the belief, that others would care to read our words, the stories we dream up and scribble down. The idea, if taken out and examined for too long or too often, can seem ludicrous. And that thought can, more than any other, dry up our inspiration, dissolve our will to write.

Others do want to read what you write because no one else has your particular view of the world, your particular set of experiences. The unpublished writer is an unmapped, uncharted, country awaiting exploration.

Or at least that's what I think. :)

Other articles you might like:
- Learning Story Structure: Deconstructing a Novel
- 8 Tips For Blogging Success
- Writing Resources

Photo credit: mikebaird

Learning Story Structure: Deconstructing a Novel

Lately, the writing world has been a twitter with the Department of Justice lawsuit and we have read more than we ever thought likely of sock puppets, or at least sock puppet accounts. And that's fine. Those were, and are, important issues, but let's talk about the act, and art, of writing.

Which brings me Kathy Steffen's terrific article, 10 Steps to Deconstructing a Novel (or How to Learn From Great Authors). Folks, this is a terrific post! Kathy advises us to:

Read first as a reader to enjoy the book, then go beyond the “magic” and take a look behind the curtain to discover how the writer enthralled you. Get that other part of your brain working—not the imagination part, but the analytical part. Read as a writer. Deconstruct your favorite novels.

So let's do it! Look at your bookshelf and pick a book, or books, you've read and enjoyed.

1) The Blurb/Jacket Copy
Look at the blurb, otherwise known as the jacket copy. If you chose an ebook, the blurb isn't always included, but you can look it up on Google Books, or at your favorite on-line bookstore. For instance, this is the blurb for A Discovery of Witches:

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

As soon as I read that blurb I knew I wanted to read the book, although I didn't get around to it for some months. Kathy Steffen writes:

When you go beyond your emotional reaction to the copy and look at it with your analytical brain, notice what jumps out at you and what excited you about the story and the characters.

For me, it was the mention of witches, a library and a bewitched alchemical manuscript. But what really got me was the last line: "Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell"

2) Prising apart the universal and the unique
What are the familiar/universal elements? What is unique? What is the hook? Kathy writes:

The familiar element gives your story mass audience appeal and connection. Ask yourself, how is this story universal or something people will connect with and understand?

The unique angle is just that—unique, fresh, or something familiar with a twist—and unique appeals to people. These two opposite aspects pull readers into the book.

Finally, add the hook. The hook is exactly what it sounds like, the reason someone gets intrigued. Think of the hook as the catalyst that pulls the reader into the book. The “closer” for the “familiar/unique” deal.

Here's an example:

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (yep, was made into a television show, Dexter.)

Familiar: Dr. Dexter Morgan, a highly respected police lab technician is a nice guy. But this isn’t just another CSI or serial killer fiction because…

Unique: Dexter (the protagonist) is a sociopathic serial killer (an example of been there, read that—serial killer—with a twist).

Hook: He’s the hero! It’s actually fun to see him figure out how to mimic emotional behavior so no one will guess he’s a sociopath. As you read, you find yourself rooting for a serial killer. (Writing a Page-Turning Novel: What’s the Big Idea?)

3) Goal, Motivation, Conflict
A book is generally about the goal of the protagonist, whatever that is. Can't quite bring that into focus? Try Kathy's fill-in-the-blank sentence:

Protagonist wants _____________ (goal)
because _____________  (motivation—why he wants it)
but _____________  (conflict—why he can’t have it).

For instance, in A Discovery of Witches, all her life Diana has wanted nothing to do with magic because magic killed her parents but she can't stop using it because magic is a part of her. (Or something like that.)

4) The hero's goal versus the hero's need
I'm sure I'm making a mess of this, but--again using A Discovery of Witches--I would say that while Diana's goal is to stop using magic entirely, her need (arguably) is to incorporate magic into her life and, in so doing, accept herself for who she is. It works nicely when the hero's need and the hero's goal conflict since that helps create conflict and conflict is interesting.

5) The story dilemma
Here is where you have to be mean to your characters. The characters you have lovingly created and are emotionally invested in. I feel toward my characters a bit like how I imagine a mother hen feels toward her chicks. I want to protect them from harm, not thrust them out into the cruel world and subject them to brutal story dilemmas! But, alas, we must if we want to create a great story.

In The Hunger Games if Katniss achieved her goal then bad things would happen to people she cared about. Specifically, she'd have to kill them. That's bad. That creates conflict. Tension. What is bad for your (beloved) characters is great for your story.

Or look at The Firm. Mitch McDeere wants to become a rich through practicing the law but it turns out that would mean being a lawyer for the mob, something that would put himself and his beloved wife, Abby, in mortal danger. Not good. And then Mitch's choices get really complicated when the FBI enters the picture. Great story, but I wouldn't want to be Mitch.

6) Your character's moral compass
In The Firm, I think the most important thing to Mitch was getting as far away as possible from the poverty and squalor of his youth. Showering his wife with gifts, providing for her, for their family, these were the things that drove Mitch to accomplish his goal of becoming a lawyer.

7) Don't forget your antagonist!
So far we've only been talking about hero's but a hero is nothing without an antagonist. Antagonists have goals, motivations and conflicts, just like heroes do (#3). They have needs (#4). They have a moral code (#7).

Granted, the antagonist's moral code is usually skewed in interesting ways, but they usually have one. In The Firm Avery (who I view as Mitch's nemesis) has adopted the morals of the firm and sold his conscience. But not entirely.

Avery is conflicted between accepting the danger of turning his back on the firm and accepting the poverty, accepting the loneliness, that would come with doing the right thing. He wants to, but he can't. In the end he does and saves Abby's life. Avery is a interesting, and exquisitely human, character.

8) Turning points
There is generally at least one turning point in a story. (In The Firm there are at least three, or so I would argue.)

One usually occurs when the hero answers the call to adventure. Another occurs at about the middle of the novel, the point of no return. For Mitch this was when there was no way back to his previous life. He was told he either had to side with the FBI or the mob. Either way he could never go back to his old life. Another generally occurs just before the end at the "all is lost" moment where the hero's schemes unravel and it seems he/she will never reach the goal. (Michael Hauge has a great article on this: The Five Key Turning Points Of All Successful Scripts. Also--I have this on a bookmark I've hung above my desk--here is Michael's Six Stage Plot Structure.)

Read the rest over at How To Write: Ten Steps to Deconstructing a Novel (or How to Learn from Great Authors).

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Photo credit: CillanXC

Speaking of Grammar: "Affect" Versus "Effect"

I must be thinking of grammar more lately, either that or there are just more great grammar related articles floating about the internet. Ever wondered whether you should use "effect" or "affect"? Wonder no more! Rachel Berens-VanHeest has written a (terrific!) post about just this.

Let’s start with at “affect” vs. “effect.” Many people use these worlds interchangeably, rather than correctly.

So what do they mean? By definition, you “affect,” or act on something, and something that you do causes an “effect.” In other words, “affect” is a verb, and “effect” is a noun. Or think of it this way: “affect” is something you DO, while “effect” is something that IS.

EXAMPLE: Susan wondered if David’s compliments were starting to affect her self-confidence. (The compliments are doing something, acting on, Susan’s self-confidence.)

EXAMPLE: Bob waited to see if his joke would have the same effect that it did the last time he told it. (The verb is “has,” while “effect” is a noun.)

That's just the beginning. There are many more gloriously simple and easy to understand examples in Rachel's article: Short and Sweet: Grammar Cake Pops – Affect vs. Effect.

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Photo credit: Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Branding: Not As Painful As It Sounds

Branding is a mystery to me. Those in the know say a writer must do it, but I never knew what 'branding' meant or why anyone would commit their precious time and resources to it. It could just be me, but doesn't branding sound uncomfortable? Isn't that something done to cattle?

Today I read a post by Copy Blogger that did the impossible, it explained branding to me. Here are the parts that did it:

"Branding is just another name for creating a perception."

"A brand is a promise. It's an expectation of an experience."

 

 That I can understand. For instance, Stephen King is branded as a horror writer. It doesn't matter that he writes a heck of a lot more than horror (Stand By Me for instance), when Jane Doe hears the name "Stephen King" she thinks horror.

When Stephen King's name is on a novel we expect it to be a horror story, that's the promise, that is the experience we want.

The very essence of brands doesn’t lie within your brand colors or site design, even though those are important.

The essence of a brand lies within its meaning. And words have meaning. Words matter.

As we all know, the goal of writing is the manipulation of your readers' emotions. That makes it easier to understand branding because when we brand ourselves we take ourselves as the subject of our own story. This story creates an expectation of an experience. A Stephen King novel? We expect to be scared, terrified, creeped out.

Sometimes, like Volvo, we don't know what our brand is going to be when we start out. I'm pretty sure Stephen King didn't think about branding when he wrote Carrie.

I'm glad I read Why Content Marketing is the New Branding. The article talks about more than what I've discussed here, but the revelation for me was in thinking of a brand as a story, my story. It is the mask, the persona, I hold up to the public. I find the idea both gleefully mischievous and sinister.

Other articles you might like:
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Photo credit: Daniel Schwen