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mslovejoy
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My blog posts relatable quote pictures! Follow for more.
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enjoy-the-life-baby
A library is a hospital for the mind.
Source: enjoy-the-life-baby
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Anonymous asked:
I've got a whole manuscript, and just now come to the realization that I don't have an overarching conflict. There's a protagonist who appears at the beginning, disappears while a new minor protag comes in, and then returns at the end--but that ends up creating more questions than answering them. Any suggestions? (I know I didn't give very much detail, sorry ): )
I think you’ve prompted a great topic anon :)
The Overarching Conflict
You talk about a lack of an overarching conflict. Let’s break that down to what that actually means. When we say a story has an overarching conflict, we’re talking about a conflict that is present throughout the whole story and contains all of the “plot stuff.” The plot stuff includes all your characters’ actions (protagonist, antagonist, and any and all minor characters), and any plot events. All of this “stuff” should be happening within your story’s main conflict.
Our anon is suggesting that their story breaks in the middle so that the overarching conflict is split momentarily, before it continues on down to the end, so that it looks like this:
The black rectangle is this interruption from the overarching conflict. It’s divergent plot information that leaves the main conflict and goes off somewhere else to create a brand new arc. Imagine if the black line disrupting our arc here goes straight up and then expands to become the bottom of a new arc. So you basically have a story that branches off into another story and may come back or may not come back.
This is what the anon thinks is going on, and yeah it’s not a great situation. But this may not be where you’re at, at all. Because there’s a difference between an interruption to your plot and an interruption to your conflict. So I’m suggesting that perhaps the anon is dealing with the situation in the graphic below. And if not, this is what they should strive to get to.
You can go off on as many tangents in your plot as you want, so long as it still is contained inside your conflict. What does that look like? Here’s an example.
In the Sherlock Holmes novel A Study in Scarlet, the book begins from Watson’s perspective, as we usually expect. This is the first novel, so he meets Holmes and they begin investigating a case together. But about halfway through, the story suddenly flashes back 30 years to a setting we’ve yet to see with character’s we’ve never met. It seems tangential, unrelated, and distant to the plot at hand. And yet, by the time this diversion comes back around to the present day, we now understand the context and motive of the story’s murder. The “tangent” worked because it was contributing to the conflict - the murder that Holmes and Watson were investigating.
It’s okay to switch points of view halfway through, and it’s okay to delve off into plot points that seem to go off on tangents, and it’s okay to completely turn your story on its head to pursue something unexpected. The key is keeping it within your story’s defined conflict. For all of these black rectangles that try to disrupt your plot, don’t let them break through the conflict boundary. They might form new mini-conflicts, and they might run amok inside the smaller circle under the arc, but as long as they stay inside that blue area in my graphic, you should be okay.
Cleaning up a Messy Ending
As for your concern that you’re raising too many new issues without resolving old ones, that’s just a matter of problem solving. As you’re heading into the downturn of your story’s overarching conflict (around the climax area), list everything that you see as unresolved. Don’t be afraid of how long this list is. A long list doesn’t necessarily mean that the story’s a mess. It just means it’ll take a little more thought to bring it all together. And you can bring it together!
For each item on your list of unresolved issues, think about a specific solution for each problem. Your goal is to develop solutions for each issue individually. Break it down piece by piece. Hells yes it’s overwhelming to plot an ending when you’ve got so many loose strings tangled up together. So isolate them. Try to untangle each string one at a time.
Then, once you’ve figured out how to tie up each loose end by itself, you can start to look at the bigger picture. And at this point, you might be able to see points where you can tie up two ends with one knot. Two unanswered questions may be resolved in one idea.
It’s a lot of work, so be patient with yourself. Immerse yourself in the process, and enjoy it! Working through these problems can be challenging, but also incredibly rewarding.
Good luck!
-Rebekah
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Step-by-step guide to self-publishing your novel from Zack Hubert.
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Core values shape our decision-making. They’re our own moral compass, and each person’s core values are specific to them. Listed below are 36 different Core Values that can shape how your character behaves and interacts with others! Before we get there, a few caveats to keep in mind…
First, there’s no such thing as a “wrong” core value! Maybe it’s something you don’t value, but that doesn’t make it any less important to someone else. Keeping this in mind can be really important in taking your characters and their goals seriously. Don’t dismiss the things they hold dear even if you don’t feel the same way! (Read More)
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fictionwritingtips
Building an Unforgettable Character
Character building is one of my favorite parts of writing a novel. I love seeing where they’re going to take me and where their journey is going to end up. Even though I plot extensively before starting a new novel, I always leave room for the characters to lead me somewhere new.
So, what’s the secret to building an unforgettable character? Here are some tips to lead you in the right direction:
They need to be relatable
If your audience can’t relate to your character, that’s usually a huge problem. We relate to characters like Harry Potter not because we’ve been to Hogwarts and practiced magic, but because we can relate to his pain and to his connection with his friends. He represents emotions that a lot of us have struggled with and he doesn’t quite feel like he fits in. His struggle to find himself is relatable.
Take some time to figure out what your character ultimately represents and don’t be afraid to bring emotion into it. We want to feel connected to your characters and we want to find something in them that matches something in us.
They need to be realistic
It’s important that your character’s actions should remain realistic. Not in the sense of remaining true to our world, but to theirs. Their actions should make sense in context to what they’re going through. If you’re constantly questioning why a character would do something because it just doesn’t make logical sense, you’ll have trouble respecting that character. It’s important that we understand their actions.
They need to be proactive
A good character is a go-getter. I’m not saying they will always make the right decisions or that they’re all good people, but all main characters/protagonists should be able to do things on their own. I’m also not saying they don’t need help, but they need to overcome the big challenges on their own or through what they’ve learned. They can’t just stand around waiting for everyone else to finish things. They need to take initiative at some point, and this should be due to their personal growth throughout the story.
I understand that this point does depend on the story you’re writing. Maybe your character is an unmotivated person. Maybe they’re lazy. This usually doesn’t matter because a story isn’t interesting if that person remains inactive. They can have periods of inactivity and become unmotivated during parts of your story, but ultimately that does need to change at some point.
They need to have flaws
Flaws will humanize your character and are usually what stands in your character’s path to success. A character that does everything right all the time and doesn’t have any growth because they’re already perfect is VERY BORING. They should fail and they should learn lessons. I’m not saying all their flaws should be fixed by the end of the novel because that’s not how people operate in real life, but character flaws should help build interesting layers.
-Kris Noel
fictionwritingtips
Currently outlining and needed a reminder…hope everyone is having a great writing day!
Any topics you’re struggling with?
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I'm looking to create a world and start with geographically plausible terrain, since so much of culture is affected by geography. Do you have any advice and/or resources I can go to in order to do this?
Hello!
In order to understand and create realistic terrain within your fictional world, it will help to have a general understanding of geomorphology, how and why Earth’s land has formed the way it has.
Most of our large-scale land formations (mountains, canyons, etc), formed because of tectonic plate movement. So it might help you to draw out a map of your tectonic plates (this will also influence the location and shape of your continents), and then use that overlay to determine where your mountain ranges will be. Look at Earth’s tectonic plates and how they are so in line with continents and land formations:
Volcanoes, water presence and erosion, and wind will also affect terrain. And terrain will, in turn, affect weather patterns. Forests will grow where there is moisture and the right climate. This will depend on where the rain falls, the proximity to oceans, the runoff from mountains, among other things. Deserts, on the opposite end, are the result of rain falling in other places, when mountains make it difficult for moisture to reach the area.
Look at the history of how the Hawaiian islands formed to get an idea of how influential volcanoes can be in land formation.
Canyons can be formed by tectonic uplift, weathering, and erosion. The tectonic activity of your world plus its age will play a large part in how “torn” the landscape is. Look HERE for some more information.
Ultimately, the elements that go into land formation are within your control. The age of the planet, how lively the tectonic plates are, how volcanically active, how strong the weather patters are…all of that is important and something that you can decide.
Hope that’s helpful!
Happy writing!
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pick-me-ups for writers
for the self-conscious beginner: No one makes great things until the world intimately knows their mediocrity. Don’t think of your writing as terrible; think of it as preparing to contribute something great.
for the self-conscious late bloomer: Look at old writing as how far you’ve come. You can’t get to where you are today without covering all that past ground. For that, be proud.
for the perfectionist: Think about how much you complain about things you love—the mistakes and retcons in all your favorite series—and how you still love them anyway. Give yourself that same space.
for the realist: There will be people who hate your story even if it’s considered a classic. But there will be people who love your story, even if it is strange and unpopular.
for the fanfic writer: Your work isn’t lesser for not following canon. When you write, you’ve created a new work on its own. It can be, but does not have to be, limited by the source material. Canon is not the end-all, be-all.
for the writer’s blocked: It doesn’t need to be perfect. Sometimes you have to move on and commit a few writing sins if it means you can create better things out of it.
for the lost: You started writing for a reason; remember that reason. It’s ok to move on. You are more than your writing. It will be here if you want to come back.
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writerswritecompany
“Write drunk, edit sober.” Ernest Hemingway
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Creating Likeable Characters
Sometimes it’s difficult to make your characters likeable as they are tested and are pushed to further and further lengths. Sometimes they have to make hard decisions, and sometimes the pressure gets to them and they mess up, hurt another character or an innocent bystander. How can you keep them likeable throughout the whole plotline?
- Keep their motivations pure. It almost always comes back to the heart – if their heart is pure, and that’s established early-on, the audience is more likely to root for them.
- Give them flaws – make them human. Not every character has to have some huge problem, like an addiction or a traumatic past or a disability – if your entire cast does, it’s no problem, but it’s not necessary. But every character has to have some flaw(s), whether it’s cheating at card games because he can’t stand to lose or being too-closed minded or closing off when she gets too emotional. If your character doesn’t have a flaw, they start to come off as too perfect, too angelic, pretentious.
- Give them permission to mess up. This ties in with flaws – if your character is inclined to make a bad decision at any point in the plot, don’t steer him away from it because “oh no he’s my protagonist and he must be Good and Whole and Pure and All-Knowing”. Let him walk into that ambush despite the sick feeling in his stomach and get half his army killed; let her rush into a confrontation with a bully and get into a fight with another girl who has a switchblade. Let your characters mess up – it shows that they’re human.
- But if your character messes up, let them own up to it eventually. The general who killed half his army by ignoring the unease in the back of his mind might cry over their makeshift graves long after the rest of the platoon is asleep; the girl sitting in the infirmary might feel remorse for knocking her opponent’s block off. Or your characters might argue and might be stubborn and might not apologize for weeks. But let them apologize eventually. This goes back to the heart, and what the character knows is right.
- Relationships with other characters are vital. That’s not to say a loner character can’t be likeable – but the audience’s perception of a loner character is determined by the thoughts/words of other characters. Characters all color each other and define parts of each other, just like people do to each other in real life. If your character is a jerk to other characters and other characters don’t like him (especially if the characters who dislike him are likeable), the audience won’t like him either. The character’s image depends not just on himself, but on his supporting cast.
Hope this helps! - @authors-haven
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runawaymuse1996-deactivated2019
I love when characters have interesting/odd flaws :) It makes everything so much more interesting.