Since I talked about Stephen King in my last blog, I found this video where Stephen King gets his ideas. I think he’s a great writer and he definitely gives you insight into his career and ideas on how the jump start yours.
Our blog topic today is a little different than what I’ve been talking about. I have a lot of beginning authors tell me that they don’t have time to write, that life gets in the way. If you are serious about finishing your first novel or any novel then you have to write even if life gets in the way. I have discovered that anyone can find fifteen or twenty minutes to write each day.
Jamie Todd Ruben states that he has written every day for the last 373 consecutive days. Check out his website at www.jamierubin.net
In her article 12 Workplace Skills to Apply to Your Writing Career, Lisa Tener gives some good advice to writers who are truly serious about writing. For example the first skill is:
1. Show Up: Yes, it’s a skill. Did you show up on time in previous jobs? How about for writing?
Success Strategy 1: Schedule Writing: Set a time to be in your writing space. Pretend you’ll get fired if you don’t show up on time. In a sense, you will! Check out the rest of the article on
http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/12-workplace-skills-to-apply-to-your-writing-career Her website is lisatener.com
Randy Ingermanson talks about how to become a writer. He says: Nothing is more important to your writing business than making an annual plan.
Even if you don’t follow it completely. (You won’t.)
Even if your year takes a drastic left turn. (It will.)
Even if you bite off way more than you can chew. (You greedy dog, you.)
Those pesky motivational geeks constantly tell us that “if you don’t have a target, you’ll never hit it.” It’s a platitude, but they’re right, curse them.
It may take you five years to do all the stuff you foolishly cram into your annual plan. That can be frustrating, but so what? Life is full of frustrations, and then you die. Being frustrated is better than dying, so don’t sweat the frustrations. For more information check out his ezine. The link is www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/ezine/
In the article 5 Authors Share the Quirky workplace Skills That Make Them Successsful in their Creative Writing Careers, Tama Kieves, was an attorney before she became an author and speaker. I asked Tama about a workplace skill she did not have that she had to learn once she became a writer. Tama says, “I had to ditch the ‘billable hour,’ the idea that I could produce something like clockwork. My muse took off her watch, kicked off her shoes, and wanted to walk barefoot in a park in the middle of the day. I had to unlearn my old idea of productivity, showing measurable results immediately. The more I set myself free and wandered off the clock, the more I nabbed spectacular outcomes, moments of genius, connecting dots I didn’t know needed to be connected. I came to understand that relaxing and not forcing myself to work helped me unlock a level of brilliance I could never have tapped in any other way.” Read this article at http://www.lisatener.com/2015/02/quirky-workplace-skills-for-creative-writing-careers/
Stephen King even gets into the act with his article
titled:
Stephen King’s “Everything You need to
Know About Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes” Mr. King says: “I am going to tell you these things again because often
people will only listen – really listen – to someone who makes a lot of money
doing the thing he’s talking about. This is sad but true. And I told you the
story above not to make myself sound like a character out of a Horatio Alger
novel but to make a point: I saw, I listened, and I learned. Until that day in
John Gould’s little office, I had been writing first drafts of stories which
might run 2,500 words. The second drafts were apt to run 3,300 words. Following
that day, my 2,500-word first drafts became 2,200-word second drafts. And two
years after that, I sold the first one. You can read the entire article at: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2015/02/24/stephen-king-everything-you-need-to-know-about-writing-successfully/
So here it is, with all the bark stripped off. It’ll take ten minutes to read, and you can apply it right away … if you listen.
After reading all this, I’m sure you’re wondering if you really are a writer. I found this interesting article that answers that question. The title is How to Know If You are Really a Writer. The author is Chantelle Atkins. In the final paragraph of her article she says: “Ultimately it comes down to this one fact. This is the crux of it. If you are a writer, you write. Whatever it is. Poems, fiction, non-fiction, blogs. Whether you share it or not, whether you publish it or not, whether you think you are good at it or not. You do it anyway, there is no choice.” To read the entire article click on this link: http://www.authorspublish.com/how-to-know-if-youre-really-a-writer/
Writing isn’t just about finding time to write, it is about emotion or what we are feeling at the time we write on our novel. I’ve noticed that if I’m depressed, it shows in my characters feelings as expressed by their dialogue. Like us readers bring their feelings to the book they are reading and the characters they are identifying with Donald Maas says: We connect to fiction by association. We bring our biases, baggage and opinions to what we read. We say things like, “I hated that character”, or “I didn’t buy that character’s choices, I would never do that.” We argue with authors in our heads. We wish for different outcomes. We discuss and judge the stories that we read, placing higher value on stories that stir us up than on stories that soothe us and too easily affirm our feelings.
The goal, then, is not necessarily to get readers to feel more of what characters’ feel but simply to feel more themselves. The link for the rest of the article is http://writerunboxed.com/2015/04/01/emotional-work/
Running out of ideas. I found an article titled: The Greatest Advice for Science Fiction Writers: “Ask the Nest Question”, however, I think this is one of the best ways to stave off writers block: ask what happens next. You can read what Theodore Sturgeon said at this link: http://io9.com/the-greatest-advice-for-science-fiction-writers-ask-t-1688303702
Once your get your ‘great American novel’ written then you need to find an agent and get publish. Dam Blank takes an irreverent look at getting an agent in his article: It Turns Out, All you Need to do is Write a Great Book. The link is
http://writerunboxed.com/2015/03/27/it-turns-out-all-you-need-to-do-is-write-a-great-book/
There are other alternatives to the traditionally published novel. An agent I talked to told me I wrote a great book, but that publishers wanted new authors to already have a platform. She explained that meant that people were already reading my work. When I looked into self publishing, I found that it was very expensive. It was also difficult to find self-publishing companies that didn’t want to rip me off. I finally decided to publish on-line or what is called Indie publishing. There are a number of sites that support Indie authors. At this point in time, I have 3 books on Kindle: The Murderous Puzzle, Stalked to Death and Sun, Sand and Murder. I have been paid royalties every month for the last four months. It isn’t a lot, but the amount increases each month.
I found a great article on indie publishing by Joanna Penn who has a super great website. The article is titled Author Entrepreneur: Increase Your Revenue. She says: There’s a learning curve for all indie authors, which I have covered before in the arc of the indie author. But once you get the hang of the process – writing, editing, publishing, marketing – then you start to think about the business side. The link is: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/03/26/increase-revenue/
As you can see there is more being a writer than just writing a book. I hope you enjoyed this blog. If so, please comment.
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Here’s a great video on First Chapter Mistakes. But don’t stress about the mistakes yet. It’s far better to get your words down on paper. Even when you outline, you still need to revise. Many great authors claim to revise as many as 30 times with each revision getting smaller and smaller.
Now that you’ve finished your outline, you’re ready to start writing. If you ran out of ideas before you finished, don’t worry, as you begin to do the actual writing, you’ll start getting more ideas that you can add to the plot.
That all important first page
The first page of your book will get you off to an awesome start or it will kill your novel deader (is that a word?) than last year’s roses.
Most writers think that the first page is what gets your novel going. But that’s wrong. Your book needs to start with a bang. It needs to capture your reader’s attention and it needs to set the tone for your book. If you’re writing a romance, and your first page starts with a murder, you may need to rethink that first page. Okay, I can think of ways to make this work, but I can also see you looking your romance readers rather quickly. A first page that starts with a murder could be a good starting place for a murder mystery or a thriller.
Ellen Brock in her Novel Book Camp compares the first page of your book to a movie audition. If the director likes your audition, then he’ll give you a call back. This is a chance to show more of what you can do.
Your first page is your audition. If the reader likes your audition, then they’ll keep reading giving you a call back. If your novel doesn’t deliver what your first page promises, then the reader will be disappointed. If the reader is disappointed, they’ll close the book and put it back on the shelf. If an agent or an editor likes your first page, he or she could request either additional pages or the full novel. This request can be compared to a movie callback. This is what you want your first page to do—it needs to sell your novel to an agent, an editor and finally the reader.
Does your first page set the right tone for you novel?
Ms. Brock says that amateur writers set the wrong tone for three reasons.
1. The writer doesn’t know what the tone of the novel is when they first start writing. When they finish the first draft, they don’t go back and correct the beginning. This is a real problem for amateur writers who are pantsers. They don’t know where their novel is going so it is difficult for them to know what tone to set.
2. The writer thinks that the logical place to start their novel is boring so they makeup what they think is a better beginning and it doesn’t match the book they’ve envisioned.
3. The writer is too busy cramming information on to the first page to write an on-tone first chapter.
To set the tone of your novel, decide what the novel is going to be about. Is it a horror novel, science fiction, romance? Once you know this, you can find ways to integrate this into your first page and first chapter. If you are a pantser, you can write the scenes that are in your head. I know of one writer who wrote her book backwards. She wrote the final chapter because that was all she could see, then she wrote the next to the last chapter and so on. I don’t know if that would work for anyone else, but it’s something to try.
Since you want your novel to build in intensity, you don’t want make your first page the most intense part of your novel, but you do want it to be gripping and attention getting.
So follow Ellen’s steps as you write (and rewrite and rewrite and probably rewrite) your first page. And remember, writing is work. You wouldn’t expect to do successful brain surgery without schooling and practice. It isn’t fair to expect to sell your novel without schooling and practice.
1. Identify the tone of your novel.
2. Identify the external and internal conflict.
3. Consider whether your first page reflects the overall tone of the novel.
4. Does your opening mirror the conflict, either internal or external in your novel?
5. Write a new opening or make notes on what changes you need to make.
Have a great week and enjoy your writing.
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This week, we’re going to take your time line and make it into a chapter outline. Now, this isn’t an outline with Roman numerals and letters. This is a paragraph about each chapter and what will be happening in the chapter. I really love chapter outlines. When I start writing chapter outlines I feel like I’m finally getting to the meat of the book. And for those of you who are struggling to do an outline because you’d rather pants it, this is the final step in the outlining process. Once we get the chapter outline finished, I’ll explain how I combine pantsing and outlining. Of course, what works for me might not work for you. As a beginning author you will have to experiment, try, fail and try again to find what works for you. I have been doing this for a number of years and I still try and fail, and then modify and try again. The key is to keep trying.
Now you will be using the colored index cards you purchased a few weeks ago. I know that a lot of people recommend that you do this part using a marker and the colored index cards, but I like to use a computer on this part. I’m a bit impatient and when I get to this point in the outlining process, I just want to write my hook sentence and get started.
Take your timeline and type up each point. Once that’s done, change the formatting so that each point will fit on one of your 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 cards. Pick one color for your plot, then cut out each point and glue it on the card. I number my card in pencil, because you may discover once you start your novel that you want to rearrange the plot. Once the cards are done, you’ll want to set up a story board.
You can use a bulletin board or the wall. I know that some authors use a notebook. I don’t like this method because I can’t see my plot at a glance. I wanted a big bulletin board so I ordered a 5 ft x 8 ft bulletin board for WalMart. That was a bad idea. The first board came and it was bent. So they sent it back and ordered a replacement. When it came it was in worse shape than the first board. So I went down to Staples, although any office supply story will do and ordered 2 three (3) foot by five (5) foot boards. I had my husband hang them together the long way so I now have a 5 ft x 6 ft board and I love it. Then get some inexpensive ribbon or string and divide the board into either 3rds or 4ths. The first third is the first act of your novel. The second third is the second act of your novel. And the third third, is, you’ve got it, the third and final act.
Some authors prefer dividing their storyboard into fourths. The first fourth is the first act. The second fourth is half of the second act. In this section, you build to your first climax. This is where your hero looks like he’s going to win. The third fourth is downhill all the way to the fourth fourth which is where you start building to the finale.
I have several colors of index cards on my story board. I use pink for the plot. Then (and this is where the pantsing part of the outline comes in.) if I come up with something that isn’t on the outline, I plot it in orange.
In Sheba’s Gambit, I wanted my hero, Debbie, to be more sympathetic (see Blake Snyder’s Killing the Cat). So I decided to have her rescue a blind woman who had lost her seeing-eye dog. Then later on in the plot, I needed someone to help Debbie find her kidnapped nephew. I decided to use the blind woman, Helen, to help Debbie. I thought it would be an interesting plot twist, if the Helen was the sister to the hit man who had kidnapped Debbie’s nephew. This made for some interesting scenes in the middle of the book. I made Helen’s cards orange. The bad guy’s cards are green.
I hope you have fun with this part of outlining.
Next week, we’ll actually start writing the elusive novel.
Well, I hope you did your assignment from our last post. Some of you may be ready to kill me because you want to get started on your novel. Go ahead, you don’t have to do the exercises unless you want to. However, when you get hit with writer’s block, feel free to do the assignments to get your creative juices flowing.
Now that you’ve got your ideas on paper. I want to say congratulations and great job. Most people resist doing this and it slows down their writing.
For this blog post, I want you to get out the butcher paper that you brainstormed on. Then tear off another piece of butcher paper and get your pencil and eraser. You are now starting on writing your novel.
1. Look first at your main idea. There should be some a number of lines from that main idea to subsidiary ideas.
2. After you have read those subsidiary ideas, decide which idea needs to come first, then which idea comes second, and so forth. Begin to number the ideas in the order you want them to appear. Once you have your ideas numbered in the order you want them to appear in your novel, go to step 3.
3. Now, take your clean sheet of butcher paper and your pencil and place your main idea at the far left of the paper. Then draw a short line and write in your idea that you’ve labeled number 1, draw a line, put in idea #2 and so on. Now you have a time line. This is the next step toward a chapter outline.
I’ve put another video that shows how to make the time line. Just remember that you don’t have to write this fast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThOPVs8s958
Your assignment for this week is to get all of your ideas written in your time line. If you have some ideas that you’re not sure of, put them in with a big question mark. You may find you need the idea and then again, it just might not work for this book. NEVER, EVER, EVER THROW AWAY AN IDEA. Because you might just need that idea on your second book.
If you have any questions, comments or complaints please post below. I’ll be glad to answer your questions. And if you have something you want me to cover, please let me know.
Have a great week.
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As I said in my last blog:
Plot is a series of cleverly arranged events that get your hero from where he is at the beginning of the story to the end where he either triumphs gloriously or fails miserably. If you are plotting a series that where each book can’t stand alone, your hero will need to succeed in some aspect of his quest, but fail in the major part of the quest so that he has something to go after in the next book.
The first part of outlining is brainstorming. I found the following YouTube video which will give you an idea of how to brainstorm.
Video HERE
This method of brainstorming is fun to do. For this type of brainstorming, DON”T BRAINSTORM ON THE COMPUTER. For some reason writing things down on paper gets the creative juice flowing faster.
1. Get a big piece of paper. I’d suggest going to the grocery store and purchasing a roll of butcher paper. You can find it with the wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap. Tear off a good sized piece—I’d start with one that’s 20 inches long.
2. Get a fine pointed marker or a pen with a heavy point. (Don’t worry, I’ll give you a grocery list at the bottom of this post) As you saw with the video, write your main novel idea in the center of the paper and then circle it so that it stands out. I like to use a colored marker for my main idea—this is your story’s premise—its tagline—it’s what goes on the back cover so make it an important color.
3. Don’t use a pencil because one of the rules is that you can’t erase.
4. Everything that comes into your mind goes on the paper. Draw lines from the main idea to the ideas that relate directly to it. Then draw lines that relate to the ideas that relate to the main idea. Eventually your ideas will dry up and that’s okay because you got everything on the butcher paper.
I would suggest blocking out a good hour or more. (Turn off the phone and the doorbell, send your kids to the babysitters and your husband bowling so you won’t be interrupted.)
When I have a real solid idea of where I want to go with one of my mysteries—one that I’ve been thinking about for a long time, I’ll tear off a really long piece of butcher paper so that I have plenty of room to get all the ideas down. I’ve been known to put it on the kitchen floor and flatten it with books. (It’s a good idea to sweep the floor first, so the grit doesn’t tear the paper when you write on it.)
I’ve also taped the paper to my hall wall (my husband hates this because the tape can tear the paint off the wall.) I’m sure you get the idea, though, give yourself plenty of room to get all the ideas out of your head and on to the paper.
Grocery List
Butcher paper (the kind with the waxed paper works really well because the marker doesn’t go through on to your writing surface, but it is a little more expensive.
Sharpie markers in colors—I got the set that had 14 colors. Don’t worry, you’ll eventually be using all the colors
Eraser—you won’t use it this week, but you will next week
Pencil and a pencil sharpener or a mechanical pencil—again you won’t use it this week, but you’ll save time if you get it now.
Colored Index card—3 x 5 or 4 x 6—I’d get 3 or 4 packages.
Glue Stick—get a big one or a set of three
Candy or trail mix for sustenance—I’m allergic to chocolate so I stock up on Tropical Dots
Something to drink
Your assignment for this week, it to brainstorm your novel. Get the ideas that have been rattling around in your brain down on paper. Don’t worry if you run out of ideas because I’ll be showing you how to handle this later on. Also, if you get some more ideas after you’ve finished your first brainstorming session, feel free to write those somewhere on the butcher paper.
Next post, we’ll get your ideas from the butcher paper into a time line. Once this happens you’ll begin to feel like a real writer. But the great thing is that you won’t have trouble with writer’s block. Your novel will flow and you’ll give your hero so many problems that your reader won’t dare put down your book until the very end.
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Hi, everyone. Sorry, I haven’t been really faithful in getting my blog posted on Thursdays. The cold I could handle. The flu I could handle—but the gombooie—well, that did me in, but I’ll post today and then again on Thursday. I hope you enjoy this blog—and please free to leave comments, questions, complaints or let me know if you want me to cover a topic you have questions on.
Let’s review before we get started on plotting with an outline.
What is a #plot?
Most people will tell you that a plot is what happens in book and that would be the correct answer for the reader, but for the writer, it’s a little more complicated which is why I recommend outlining rather than pantsing (seat of the pants writing) or a combination of outlining and pantsing.
A plot for the writer needs to have four things.
1. A plot MUST have conflict. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing the ‘Great American Novel’, a murder mystery, a romance, or the next fantasy best seller. Science fiction must have conflict. EVERY NOVEL MUST HAVE CONFLICT OR YOU DON’T HAVE PLOT!!!!
2. You must have a clearly defined hero. Your reader must be able to pick out your hero from all the other characters in your novel. You generally introduce your hero in the first chapter.
3. You must have a fascinating bad guy. Don’t fall into the trap of making your bad guy all bad. If you do, your audience will think your bad guy is a fake and lose interest because everyone is a mixture of good and bad.
4. And finally, your hero must be on a quest of primal goal.
What’s a #primal goal?
Abraham Maslow said that a primal need is something that a person must have. He lists four primal needs.
1. Desire for survival is the first primal need. The desire for survival also includes the desire for survival of the hero’s family. There are four (have you noticed that four seems to be the optimum number in this blog) survival needs.
A. To survive a person must have food.
B. The person must have protection from the elements and from other predators. Once these two needs are met then
C. There is desire for sex and last of all,
D. The final desire is to be protected from death.
2. Safety is the second primal need. Once a person has met the first primal need, your hero will have the need to protect his environment, not necessarily the world, but his own piece of the world. He will want to protect his and his family’s health and he will want to protect his financial well-being. Of course, everyone realizes that we are also referring to women when we talk about hero’s.
3. The third primal need is Love. This is your hero’s need for intimacy, friendship and family.
4. And finally your hero needs a sense of self-worth. He or She needs to be respected, accepted and valued by others.
Which of these primal needs is your hero going go after? In a romance, your hero may be the least liked girl in school, church or office. She may need self-esteem and love and the plot of your novel moves her from her current state of despair to the arms of a man who will love her.
In a mystery novel, the detective’s primal need may be safety or survival or both. The hero has to find the killer to protect himself or his family. However, in a mystery novel, the result can be self-esteem. He needs to find out who done it, because he believes that truth is the most important thing.
Science fiction and fantasy can use any or all of the above needs. You space ship captain may have crash landed on Planet Zicron and must find a way to protect his crew and himself from the Zicronians who adore humans for breakfast.
And in the ‘Great American Novel’, the hero still has these needs. This kind of novel is more difficult to plot so you have to have a very detailed backstory and really know your character because this novel is totally character plotted.
As you read about these needs, try to figure out your hero’s primary need. This is the need that will drive your story.
In my novel, Sheba’s Gambit, Debbie, my hero, must decide between two needs, that of fulfilling the dream she’s had since age seven or rescuing her nephew from a psychotic killer. Of course, the primal need will need to win out over the fulfillment of a dream.
Plot is a series of cleverly arranged events that get your hero from where he is at the beginning of the story to the end where he either triumphs gloriously or fails miserably. If you are plotting a series that where each book can’t stand alone, your hero will need to succeed in some aspect of his quest, but fail in the major part of the quest so that he has something to go after in the next book.
This week, decide what your hero’s primal need and quest will be. Next post, we’ll talk more about ways to cleverly arrange events to keep your reader enthralled clear to the last page. (Of course this is where the different ways to plot come in.)
This is a phenomenal video on plotting rather than pantsing. It introduces story arc, conflict, and theme. I hope you enjoy it. We’ll talk more about the ideas that she introduces in my next blog. However, don’t panic if a lot of the things that she talks about are confusing. This is just an introduction.
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5 posts!
Hi, everyone! I just want to let you know that my third Suzette Bishop novel, Sun, Sand and Murder will be available on Kindle later on this month. I’m hoping for February 20th, but that depends on my graphic artist getting my cover finished.
What is an Antagonist?
Like I said last week, the Antagonist is the person who is trying to stop your Protagonist or your good guy from reaching his goals. This can be the murderer in a mystery, the girl next door who is after your heroine’s boyfriend in the romance novel you are planning, or the monster that is keeping your hero from getting the Amber Stone of Protection for the Kingdom of Nuff in your latest fantasy novel. Your antagonist MUST BE more ruthless than your Protagonist, but there should also be a fragment of good in him also or he won’t seem human. For example, Wormtail, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series, is a slimy, manipulative creep who causes the death of Harry’s parents, but at the end of the series, he has one moment of good, where he hesitates to kill Harry. It makes him more real.
You will need to write a backstory for your Antagonist. What causes the Antagonist to become what he or she is in the story? Did he grow up in an abusive family or is it just his personality that makes him what he is? Remember that in real life, bad people grow up in good families and give their parents all kinds of problems. You need to know about his or her personality because it will come out throughout the novel and make your characters more real.
For more information on Antagonist check this link: http://literarydevices.net/antagonist/
Other Major Characters:
These are characters that have a major role in your novel. For example, in the novel I’m writing currently, Braden Spencer is my Protagonist’s nephew. He appears throughout the novel. Also, in this novel, Michael Slatter does the dirty work for my Antagonist, Nathan Breckridge. He, too, appears throughout the novel. I wrote backstories for both Braden and Michael. Michael even has a blind sister who appears in different parts of the novel. She would be considered a minor character.
Minor Characters
Minor Characters are those characters that support either your hero or your villain. These could be family members, colleagues, friends or enemies. They only appear occasionally.
Walk-on Characters
These are characters that appear only once. Generally there won’t be much on them. They tend to be two dimensional where your other characters need to appear three dimensional.
You should keep a list of all your walk-on characters, their names and what happens to them because it will save time later when one of your main characters mentions them. On my list, I have their name, whatever characteristics I give them in the story and the page number or numbers where they appear. It saves a lot of time later even though you will probably grind your teeth each time you have to write them down. In my first novel, The Murderous Puzzle, I had two children who were minor characters. In one scene I gave their ages and 10 and 12, in another scene they were 4 and 6 and in another scene they were 6 and 8. I had to take the time to go back and make the corrections when one of my beta readers caught the age discrepancy. Since then I’ve found that making a list is a real time saver.
Be aware that you will pick up more Major Characters, Minor Characters, and Walk-on Characters as your write your novel.
Next week we’ll finally begin talking about plotting which is my favorite part of writing a novel.
Thought for the Week:
I love this poem by that famous author Anonymous:
FACE THE SUN
Don’t hunt for trouble, but look for success:
You’ll find what you look for—don’t pray for distress.
If you see but your shadow, remember I pray
That the sun is still shining, but you’re in the way.
Don’t grumble, don’t bluster, don’t dream and don’t shirt;
Don’t think of your worries, but think of your work.
The worries will vanish, the work will be done,
No man sees his shadow, who faces the sun.
About Me!
My name is Kristine Frost. I love to write and I love to teach and combining the two is great fun. I have read dozens and dozens of books as I’ve worked to improve my writing. My blog will focus on tips that will help both beginning and advanced writers. I look at myself as a…
How many characters do you need for a novel?
I get asked this question quite often and I often respond: as many as you need which generally upsets the person asking the question. However, it is a true answer, but you must have a protagonist and an antagonist. You will have important characters who aren’t the protagonist or the antagonist and then you will have minor characters. All other characters are less important and the protagonist and the antagonist because your plot will revolve around these two major characters.
What is a protagonist?
The protagonist is your hero. The protagonist can be either male or female. But they must be a male or female with a desperate problem, a compelling need or a passionate (and I’m not referring to sex here) desire or there is no plot.
An antagonist is the person who is trying to prevent your hero from solving the problem, resolving the need, or accomplishing the passionate desire. The antagonist can be called the villain or the bad guy or girl.
Since these two characters are so important your reader must be able to identify with them.
How do you craft characters that your reader will identify with?
Most writers ask this question at one time or another during their writing career. Sometimes a character will appear in your mind, fully grown, but this doesn’t happen very often. A writer has to imagine the character and then fill in his or her characteristics. It’s like seeing a person through frosted glass. You know they are there, but you don’t know what they look like. As I look at my character, vague and unformed, I decide if the character is male or female. That’s the first big step. Generally woman will write about a woman protagonist and a man will focus on a man. Why? Because we know how our own sex thinks and feels. Often when a man writes about a woman, she becomes a man with breasts or she ends up being subservient and nearly ignored by the man in her life. When a woman writes about a man, he is either too masculine to be real or a wimp. Occasionally, one can write about the opposite sex and make them life-like and realistic but I haven’t see it happen very often and I’ve read thousands of books.
When I was working on Suzette Bishop who is the protagonist in my Suzette Bishop Mystery series I decided that I wanted my character to be an orphan who was searching for her biological parents. I didn’t know what she looked like, how old she was or what her occupation would be. I just knew that she was an orphan. I like to use my novels to teach or enlighten without the reader knowing that’s what’s happening. Both of my children are adopted and I understand their need to find their biological parents so I wanted to help my readers understand how an adopted child feels.
Once I had decided that, I needed a name. I tend to use family names and one of my favorites is Bishop. So now I had a last name and a desire. Then the name Suzette just popped into my head. Suzette Bishop. I liked that combination. Now that I had a character with a name and a desire, a compelling need, I needed a personality.
In one writing conference that I attended, the speaker said that we should ask our character questions to understand their personality. This didn’t work for me. It actually took me over a month to develop her personality and this came about as I began to write her back story.
What is a Back Story?
A back story is what happens to the character before they show up in your novel. My protagonists always have a longer back story than any of my other characters including my antagonist. My supporting characters may only have a paragraph of back story and minor characters—the walk-ons in the novel may only have a brief description—maybe one or two words.
Suzette’s parents were killed in a fiery car crash when she was six months old. She was found forty feet away from the inferno after the fire was out. Because the fire was so hot, nothing was left to identify her even though her picture was on the front page of most newspapers, no one claimed her. She lived in a series of foster homes until she was adopted at age 13. There is a lot more on her back story but you get the idea.
The back story doesn’t appear in the story unless it’s a series like mine and I intentionally include clues to her life and what is going to happen as she works through each mystery. It’s one of the things my readers like about my novels. They have identified with Suzette and what to know more about her.
What is an Antagonist?
The antagonist is the villain or the bad guy. He or she is the one who is trying to keep the protagonist from achieving his or her goal. The antagonist is the person who makes the book into a page turner.
We’ll talk more about the antagonist, supporting characters and minor characters in my next blog.
Thought for today:
Thomas Edison said about his research on the electric light bulb, “I have not failed 1,200 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 1,200 ways would not work. When I have eliminated those ways that will not work, I will find a way that will work.”
Writers need the same persistence that Edison showed in his search for the electric light bulb.
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