Ah, culture. One word that can encapsulate so much. It’s nice and bendy, too, which is fabulous for story ideas (or for injecting more conflict in a story that feels flat). Put more than two humans together and somewhere, somehow they will find something to fight about.

They might be from the same country, but a different region (a New Yorker and a Texan) or from the same state but different part (Manhattan versus Buffalo). Even if they are from the same city, they might have a different heritage (Latino versus German). Maybe conflicting occupations. Think engineer and yoga instructor.

There are a gazillion ways that we humans can stumble into conflict. Age, sex, race, religion, socioeconomic status, education, hobbies, political views, on and on and on invariably impact our perspective. It’s a clash of cultures, so to speak.

One of the main reasons I love the idea of a “clash of cultures” is because this allows us (Author God) to create tension that feels organic and begs for us to keep turning pages (or watching). In fact, it is a long time staple of some of the most successful stories.

What is literally every Hallmark movie? The workaholic executive (insert Type A high achiever here) meets the down-to-earth organic grocer (insert chill Type B/recovering Type A here). A crowned prince falls for the everyday girl. Billionaire falls for the wedding planner. Heiress falls for the activist. Or flip that.

Why do we love these stories? Because they are fun. One world trying to understand and work around the other, butting heads, but then finally coming together at the end and being better for knowing one another.

Audiences cannot get enough of….

The Odd Couple

This trope works wonderfully for romance, comedy, romantic comedy. You guys remember the show Dharma and Greg? For those who have followed my blog for a while, I hammer on log-lines. Can you tell us what your story is about in 1-3 sentences?

You can almost SEE the book/series/movie with just that snippet.

How is this for a great log-line?

You can see the delicious conflict right off the bat with just the couple, but what about their respective cultures?

Dharma’s father is a paranoid pothead who doesn’t trust the government and her mom is an Earth mother hippy who reads chakras and cures all that ails you with a crystal. Her parents are very bohemian. Contrast that with Greg’s parents, who are elite, moneyed, and politically conservative, and….

…the jokes practically write themselves.

Notice in that wonderful IMDB log-line, whoever wrote it goes on to explain why this odd couple works. They each have something the other party needs. Therein lies the rub. We humans can sense what we need intuitively long before our brains catch up.

Very often we are attracted to the very people who make us crazy. We gravitate to the culture that makes us bonkers. Frankly, I think it is why most writers are married to an engineer or an engineer-type personality.

***You know who you are.

Whether it is Green Acres, The Odd Couple, Dharma & Greg, The Big Bang Theory, or every Hallmark movie ever made, it WORKS.

And culture is a FABULOUS area with a lot of unexplored terrain. Guess what? This trope also works for mysteries (Sherlock Holmes), science fiction (Star Trek) psychological thrillers (Fight Club), action movies (The Bourne Identity), kid movies (Finding Nemo), fantasy (The Witcher) etc.

The Fish Out of Water & Culture

We all recognize the “fish out of water” story, right? Whether it is a rags to riches (Goodwill Hunting) or a riches to rags (Uptown Girls), or a little of both (Trading Places) audiences cannot get enough. And it works for every genre from campy comedy (Green Acres) to action-thriller (Safe House).

I recently discovered a new favorite movie, The Farewell. If this movie doesn’t make you cry a little…you might not have a soul. When it comes to clash of culture this story hits on ALL cylinders and I promise NOT to ruin it.

Though there is plenty of drama, there’s also loads of laughs. Not only do you have a clash of culture between young and old, but the literal clash of cultures between…well, cultures.

Granddaughter Billi is a typical Chinese-American girl living in NYC with her immigrant parents. Though Billi lived in mainland China when she was a child, she’s been in the USA so long she is thoroughly American.

Her parents try to act as a bridge between the old country and new. When Billi’s grandmother gets a diagnosis of Stage Four cancer, Billi is utterly mystified why no one in the family will tell her. Yet, Billi’s mother says it perfectly:

Chinese people have (a) saying. When people get cancer, they die.

Lu Jian in “The Farewell”

Culture Shock

The family plans a trip to China, telling the grandmother that the spur of the moment gathering is for a wedding. Secretly it is a way they can all see her one final time before she dies. Billi is not welcome to come along because the family is afraid she will blow it. Then, add on TOP of that family that has immigrated elsewhere. One of the uncles moved to Japan and his son (groom) has a Japanese bride.

All of this makes for a beautiful, heartwarming story that will make you laugh and cry and—regardless where your family is from—maybe hug them a little tighter.

The Generation Gap

Regardless where we are from, our occupation, our gender, there is one conflict that transcends them all…AGE. This is true with siblings, relatives, bosses, or just LIFE. If there is an age gap, there is fantastic room to grow an amazing story.

Some of our most timeless stories capitalize on this trope. The Joy Luck Club (both the book and the movie) is a wonderful tapestry of three generations of Chinese women. In present-day the mothers and daughters seem to do nothing but fight. Why? The mothers only want what is best for their daughters. They were once young, too and they also saw their own mothers struggling with the same issues.

The moms want the best for their daughters and yet the daughters cannot seem to “see” anything but their mothers’ disappointment, disapproval, or disdain. The point of the story is to iron out the wrinkles that keep coming between two generations of women and make a way for a better future.

Mentors & TOWANDA!

Who doesn’t love a good mentor/mentee story? The mentor is a mentor because that person has more experience and, therefore, is likely older. There is a generational gap and a culture clash. A great example is the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (based off the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe) .

Evelyn Couch is a middle-aged doormat who puts up with far to much bullsprinkles from her husband and family. When she meets a mysterious nursing home resident, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Ninny Threadgoode spins a tale (set in rural America in the 20s) about love, loss, life…and even some murder.

Over time, those stories serve as a beacon in the dark that leads Evelyn on a journey of self-discovery, evolution, and finally…empowerment. #BestSceneEver

The good thing, again, about a generation gap is that it works for all genres. Fried Green Tomatoes is a drama with elements of comedy. So is Steele Magnolias, The Karate Kid, and (the book) A Man Called Ove or the movie.

Though we wouldn’t, per se, classify any of these stories as a straight up comedy, they cannot help but make us laugh when generations collide.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!

Talk about a story that also hits on all cylinders when it comes to the culture clash. Today, we will stick to the original Beetlejuice because the new one merits a standalone post.

It…is…AWESOME.

There are all KINDS of perspectives log-jamming with each other. The Living (the Deetz family) and the Recently Deceased (the Maitlands), edgy sophisticated NYC/versus L.L. Bean, teenager versus parents, dead people who want to be alive and a teenage girl who wishes she were dead. Everywhere you turn in this movie, there is conflict and tension.

Which is why the movie is still fantastic…34 years later.

Everyone wants something different, yet who they are/where they are from (perspective/culture) creates problems. Whether it’s the newly dead Maitlans who need answers yesterday. Or the overworked and long dead social worker from the other side, Juno who measures her schedule in decades.

Nothing comes easily.

Charles Deetz wants a rural escape, but his high-strung, neurotic wife needs to create…starting with his house. Lydia, the teenager who wants to disappear is the only one who can help the Maitlands, who want nothing more than to be SEEN.

And, if that weren’t enough drama, toss in a lunatic unemployed trickster spirit. Nothing like mayhem to generate some teamwork, right?

Can’t Have CULT, Without CULTure!

Culture is a word with a lot of variegated meanings. It can also be as broad or narrow as we want or need it to be, as you can probably tell from the wide range of examples I gave from virtually every genre. If you are trying to create a story that is “same” enough to resonate, but “different” enough to spark interest…try starting with a culture clash.

I used that technique to fix my first novel, The Devil’s Dance.

When I wrote my original story idea, all the beta readers…hated my MC. They loved all the supporting characters, but something just wasn’t connecting with the MC.

Sigh. *bangs head on wall*

My idea: Riley was a combat vet, recently home from Afghanistan who’s family unintentionally runs afoul of a major cartel.

Problem was? According to the beta readers, though they liked the idea, my MC wasn’t relatable.

I rethought my approach, shifted from third-person close to first-person and then used my campy blogging voice.

The Devil’s Dance

Instead of Riley Romi being a bad@$$ but damaged character who was more than capable of handling a cartel, I changed her into a hot mess fish-out-of-water up against impossible odds (and that’s just her FAMILY).

Romi grew up white trash in a tiny town on the road to nowhere. She “escapes” and gets her education and a premium job in tech sales…only to be left holding the metaphorical bag when her rich fiancé pulls an Enron-like scandal, disappears, and leaves her as the FBI’s prime suspect.

Broke, blackballed and out of options, she has no choice but to slink home, defeated and humiliated, to her Jerry-Springer-crazy-as-a-bag-of-frogs family…and THEN she and family run afoul of a cartel.

To make matters worse, the FBI thinks she’s making a run for the border (not Taco Bell).

LOADS of worlds colliding that makes for a hilarious, nail-biting read (if I do say so myself *gets cramp patting own back*).

See how I had a story that was “meh” but was able to save it simply by pivoting a little toward the zone with the most conflict? Culture saved my story idea. Though I kept the same kernel of an idea—a small town with a dark secret, a family up against the cartel—the story was 180 degrees different and a million times better.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Do you see how culture is far more influential that a lot of people might imagine? Nerds versus Normies? Old versus young? The jaded versus the neophyte? Can you see how just even on a micro-scale, you could inject more dramatic action, tension and subtext by simply playing up each character’s cultural perspective?

What are some other movies, books, or series that you now see executed the culture clash with particular brilliance? In a world being deluged by same old same old, what are some crazy cultures you might be able to force together in a story? Same…but DIFFERENT?

REMEMBER: Last post How to Create YOUR Audience: Identify, Connect, Convert, we talked about how to make the author brand more manageable and authentic. How do you connect to then curate your unique audience? I am still eager for victims volunteers for when I post on what exactly we do with that word cloud. This is to help you work smarter not harder. Though my other personalties are happy to help, this is a sweet chance to get free consulting for those brave enough to post their word clouds in the comments.

Remember the longer the cloud the better and also tell me what GENRE you write.

Until next time!

The post Culture, Conflict & Creating Fresh Stories People LOVE appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

The Johari Window can be one of many powerful tools for crafting dimensional characters. It can also help creators develop layered stories (plots) that will resonate long after the audience reaches “The End.” Why?

Because great fiction is even better therapy. And after the past four years in particular, who DOESN’T need at least a little lot of therapy?

Yes, I’ve talked about the Johari Window before, but it’s been ages. Since I figured most of us have slept since 2021, it seemed like a fantastic topic to start off the year (especially for those who’ve set a resolution to write a book…preferably a GOOD book).

Too many believe fiction to be a fluff, an escape, a fantasy getaway (while, ironically, spending almost all disposable income consuming it).

Some fiction does this for sure. Yet, the stories that hit the market and continue to ripple for decades, centuries, or even for millennia share a common denominator.

Stories offer the audience deeper insights into themselves, their beliefs, and the world around them. It trains empathy and gives us the easiest way to “walk a mile in another person’s shoes.”

Additionally, great stories have timeless messages. It’s why we can take a Shakespearian play and set it in modern times and the story and message are just as powerful.

The characters might wear modern clothing, fight with machine guns instead of swords, but we identify with their hopes, dreams, hurts, struggles, blind spots and weaknesses just as much as the audiences from centuries ago.

What is the Johari Window?

American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham developed this model in 1955 as a way to improve group dynamics. The Johari Window is a technique used to refine and boost feedback, prompt disclosure, and ultimately deepen self-awareness.

“Johari Window” derived its appellation using a combination of the two psychologists’ names.

The model is founded on two fundamental ideas.

First, that trust is earned when one reveals personal information to others.

Second, that this information then leads to feedback from others which can then give the person a more accurate “reality.”

Using feedback, we can become more self-aware and change accordingly.

The Johari Window Structure

The Johari Window consists of four “panes.” Two panes reflect the self and the other two represent blind spots and areas unknown to the self but visible to others.

The first pane is the most open. This is information a person knows that others know as well.

The second pane is the blind spot. Often this is what others can see, that the person (character) cannot.

The third pane is a hidden area containing information the person knows, but hides from others.

The fourth pane is the Unknown area, the place where all parties are completely in the dark.

Creating a Character

The blind spot is critical for creating a dimensional protagonist who can arc to becoming a hero. Ideally, we want to design a story problem that forces the MC (main character) to finally see their blind spot and how it’s negatively impacting their lives (and others).

The story problem is the crucible. If our MC had never encountered the story problem, they would have remained ignorant of a critical weakness.

Other characters in the story (mentors, allies, antagonists) represent the sounding board that drives that final self-awareness and group understanding.

Ideally, by the end of the story, the MC has dealt with the blind spot, and the Unknown Quadrant will be markedly smaller.

Applying the Johari Window for Fiction

Now that I’ve explained what the Johari Window IS, how can we apply it practically if we don’t work in HR?

Instead of using a movie or book, I’ll riff a quick example. It’s rough and imperfect but most novels are in the beginning. The key is that we at least get off to a sound start with a solid story foundation.

Let’s say I want to write a Young Adult Urban Fantasy about a teenage girl, who, after a bad accident, starts having nightmarish hallucinations.

She’s unaware that she can actually see into the future.

Pane #1

This is information my character knows mixed with what others also know. This is usually very surface.

For instance, the character, her fellow students and teachers know her name is Sarah Smart, that she has lank dark hair and is spindly thin. She’s a sophomore at Small Town High who performs just well enough to pass her classes.

Sarah is a loner who sports combat boots, spiky jewelry, and concert shirts from various heavy metal bands.

She doesn’t have friends, lives in a rundown area of town, and rarely talks to anyone. Though she doesn’t cause trouble, she goes to great lengths to push people away. Perhaps she answers any questions with closed-ended, yes-no answers.

Maybe she cuts class, or retreats to the library whenever there’s a pep rally. She also constantly chews aspirin.

All this “information” is obvious to Sarah and those around her.

Pane #2

This is Sarah’s blind spot. Others might see areas of the blind spot, but Sarah will be oblivious.

Sarah fails to see herself the way others do. In her mind, she’s not hurting anyone and wants to be left alone. Others, however, find her caustic, abrasive, stuck up, or just plain weird.

Sarah thinks she’s crazy, her headaches and visions a remnant from a head injury suffered in a bad car accident.

Pane #3

This is what Sarah knows that others do not.

Her mother who, after almost twenty years sober, now drinks every waking hour. Mom fell apart after her only son (Sarah’s brother) drove the family car headlong into a tree and died.

The tox screen indicated he was well over the legal drinking limit. Also, witnesses claimed to have seen him swerving and driving erratically, thus the town rumor was that he was driving under the influence.

His body was so mangled, Sarah and her mom had to hold a closed casket funeral.

The town gossip grew so bad, Sarah and her mother had to move. No one in the new town or school knows about her brother, the accident, or her mother’s severe drinking problem.

Right after the hospital released Sarah, she suddenly started getting bad headaches coupled with terrible and confusing visions. She has no idea what’s happening and believes she might be going crazy.

Perhaps, she believes the headaches are from the accident, the visions are due to her guilt. Why did she let her brother drive? Why did she not see he was unfit to drive?

She hadn’t even seen him drinking. He hated alcohol because of what it had done to their parents. But the tox screens don’t lie, right?

His death is all her fault and these headaches and nightmarish visions are her due punishment.

Pane #4

This is the information unknown to all parties involved (at least in the beginning). Sarah isn’t going crazy, she actually has the ability to see into the future.

Her brother wasn’t drunk at all. He, too, had the same gift—he could see into the future—and was hit with a vision while driving which caused him to lose control of the car.

This is also what will form the basis for the story problem (more on that in a moment).

Sarah actually wants friends, to be part of a community, but is too ashamed and afraid. The story problem will change this and shrink the Unknown for Sarah as well as those around her.

Story Problem

Using this quick exercise with the Johari Window, it’s now easier to construct a story that will force Sarah to face what she fears (that she’s going crazy) and to make peace with her inner demons (guilt about brother’s death).

Ideally, it will drive Sarah onto a path where she’ll gain mentors and allies. The more awareness she gains, the more information she shares, the closer relationships she will form.

Story Problem: What if Sarah’s brother actually is NOT dead?

If we take a page from to hit Netflix series Stranger Things, maybe some black bag government operation had been watching her brother.

He’d been in counseling, discussing his visions and someone with a lot of power realized they weren’t hallucinations at all. Rather, the young man could actually see future events.

At the time of the accident, this agency saw the perfect opportunity to abduct the brother. They substituted another (badly mangled) body, forged the tox screen and dental record match, then helped spread rumors the young man died drinking and driving.

This agency is now using him in some underground bunker to predict terrorist attacks.

Normal World

We get to know Sarah in her regular, but broken, world. See her picking up empty bottles of cheap vodka and putting her mom to bed before she heads off to school. Maybe she prizes a photograph of her “dead” brother out of Mom’s hands as she tucks her in to sleep off the booze.

At school, Sarah sits on the sidelines wanting to be part of the group, but pushing away anyone who tries to be friendly. Maybe she runs into a new substitute teacher who sets off all her spidey senses, but she has no idea why (he’s an agent following to see if Sarah, too has the gift).

The substitute teacher is a proxy, and how we introduce the Big Boss Troublemaker—the black bag agency that has her brother hostage and wants her, too.

Sarah later talks to a teacher, only to have to cut the conversation short because of one of her headaches. In the bathroom she’s knocked to her knees with a vision of a fellow student run over by a jock speeding through the parking lot, but dismisses it.

Only a nightmare. A hallucination.

She firmly believes this until she’s leaving school and the leading action preceding up to the event plays out exactly as she’d seen it happen in her vision.

This time is different. She takes action.

Sarah dives after the kid, preventing them from being run over. The fellow student likely will be her first ally.

Yet, her direct intervention into a future event will also be the signal that lets the enemy know Sarah does have the gift they seek.

This is a turning point for the BBT—she’s like her brother and they want her, too. It’s also a turning point for Sarah—maybe she isn’t crazy after all.

Plotting from the Panes Pains

See how using the Johari Window we’ve created a dimensional character with a lot of baggage, issues and self-doubt? This knowledge also offered a clear way of seeing a solid story problem that would make Sarah grow.

Also see how the plot practically FALLS into place?

What would our Sarah want more than anything? To have her brother back.

If she starts suspecting she isn’t crazy, this propels her on a search that will begin revealing that she actually does see the future, her brother had the same complaints, and if he had her gift? Maybe he isn’t dead.

She’s propelled down a path searching for answers, a road that will inevitably lead to finding out the truth.

We also have an accurate picture of her in her community in the beginning and a good map of where the story needs to go.

If it begins with Sarah as a loner, wracked with guilt and shame and alone?

Then it should end with the family restored and those responsible for taking her brother defeated.

She also won’t do this all alone because as she grows, gains feedback, and information flows freely, the Unknown—there is a secret agency that abducted her brother—shrinks significantly.

Sarah, freed from false guilt and shame, should be a far different person at the end.

Also, those around her, will see her with different eyes.

Sarah isn’t some weirdo jerk with a chip on her shoulder. She’s their friend, ally and she has very special powers. The entire group has new knowledge, which creates a powerful and unique bond.

There really IS a world of black bag operations, underground bunkers and dangerous men in suits willing to do anything, even kill, in order to abduct teens with special abilities to use or weaponize.

The Johari Window Story as Therapy

Most good fiction is a journey to self awareness. We have a protagonist in his/her normal world. Everything is fine…but not really.

There is a critical missing piece keeping the protagonist from being self-actualized. This is plainer to see when we realize that most beginnings and endings of novels (and movies/series) are actually bookends.

Normal world is their world with the wound festering and hidden. The denouement? The world is restored but whole, wounds exposed to heal.

All of us have blind spots. If we didn’t, therapists would go bankrupt and have to get a “real job.” Truth is, most therapists know exactly what our problem is the first day we sit in their office. Problem is there are all kinds of other emotions clouding our vision.

This is one of the reasons shrinks do a lot of listening, nodding and asking questions. And probably a lot of doodling and playing tic-tac-toe on their notepads to stave off the boredom while they wait for us to catch up to the obvious.

Our story problem in a sense is extreme therapy for the protagonist. Instead of our character spending years on a couch being probed with uncomfortable questions and given homework to write letters to her inner child?

She is thrust into a bank heist, an alien invasion…or her brother is abducted because he has visions of the future that others want to use for their own ends.

The “Johari Window” as Writing Tool

There are countless methods for creating a cast of dimensional characters. Yes, it is a therapy technique as well as a tool to improve communication. It is also AMAZING for crafting plots and characters (unreliable narrators especially).

But, I hope my example above showed you how you might employ the four panes to craft deeper, more layered characters. How it can also help us make sure we’re choosing the best story problem that will drive the most change.

What are your thoughts on the Johari Window? I LOVE hearing from you?

Had you ever heard of the Johari Window? Are you eager to give it a try? I’d only tinkered with the concept mentally until I wrote this post, but I was able to create a character and a pretty decent plot problem in about an hour.

I’d love to hear from anyone who tries this and your results! Or if you’ve used it before and how it worked out. I know it’s a rather odd leap from a tool used by many companies as more of an HR tool, but writers are masters of repurposing .

The post The Johari Window & Character Blind Spots appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Silencers. Yes, today our visiting expert, Piper Bayard from the writing duo Bayard & Holmes is here to do some myth-busting. The movie industry seems to believe one can use a silencer on everything.

***Yet another peeve for many who are even remotely knowledgable about the gun world and how things actually work.

I get that fiction is supposed to be over the top, especially with spies and thrillers. It doesn’t matter that most spies actually do boring office work and are usually as ‘sexy’ as our 6th grade librarian. Hollywood doesn’t care that most intelligence operatives and assassins are more likely to drive a Mazda than a Maserati.

In reality, drawing a lot of attention and being SUPER memorable is a BAD thing.

This said, we don’t care when it comes to fantasy. Spies and assassins are sexy in fiction. And it is TOTALLY possible to hold onto a bullet train traveling at up to 200 miles an hour….in fiction.

So how can we keep our fiction imaginative, over-the-top and sexy AND gain at least a modicum of respect from those who are savvy about this topic? *drum roll* Well this THURSDAY y’all can take my class The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller (sigh up HERE). This is a TWO-HOUR class and obviously we can go into a lot of detail. You also get a free recording, which is super handy.

For the moment though? Here’s a quick fix to help you maintain the magic without blowing your cover credibility.

Take it away, Piper!

Silencer Movie Magic

Movies and books do absolute magic with firearms and their targets! Sniper rifles fire with a whisper, bodies silently crumple to the ground, assassins shoot successive shots from silenced pistols without a hiccup, and all other manner of . . . fictions.

In our last post, Firearms: The Writer’s Guide to “Knowing Your Weapon! we looked at the various types of firearms espionage and crime characters might use and took a bit of the fiction out of fiction. Now let’s turn our attention to silencers and what cannot be silenced. For simplicity’s sake, we will use the terms “suppressor” and “silencer” interchangeably.

The purpose of silencers in the field is to keep anyone from recognizing the sound of a gunshot and screaming, calling 911, or returning fire.

In most cases, the shooter doesn’t care if someone hears the shot as long as they don’t recognize it as a shot. People will normally ignore noises that they hear but don’t associate with gunshots or other dangers. Because of this human tendency, the level of “silencing” our characters need with their firearms depends on their situations.

For example, if a character intends to walk into a functioning steel mill and shoot someone, they don’t need much in the way of silencing. On the other hand, if they want to shoot someone in a library without being noticed, they will want the best silencing available.

So how do we attain maximum silencing?

We’ve all seen characters with cylindrical silencers screwed onto the barrels of pistols which, in fiction, range in size from a Saturday night special to Dirty Harry’s .44 Magnum. Then they fire with a pftzzz so quiet that it wouldn’t wake a drowsy guard dog. But a silencer on the barrel is only the first step. For maximum silencing, one must also consider the things that cannot be silenced.

A Silencer Can’t Quiet a Slide

Suppressors can be used on revolvers, but with much less effect than can be achieved with a semiautomatic pistol; therefore, a shooter would most usually use a semiautomatic handgun. (See Firearms: Know Your Weapon!) Semiautomatic pistols have a slide along the top.

This pictured .40 Smith & Wesson has the slide locked open. Note the round in the chamber. The slide comes back when a shot is fired. The spent brass is ejected, another round is fed in, and the slide comes forward, readying the pistol for the next shot.

This motion of the slide can’t be silenced.

So what is a shooter to do?

When it comes to dealing with slides, size matters, so let’s talk about size for a moment.

Ever wonder why Bond always uses the Walther PPK .380 in the field? It’s not just because it’s cute and German. It’s because the .380 semiautomatic provides enough energy for close-up assassination while still being capable of effective and inexpensive silencing.

In fact, the only more powerful mass-produced auto-loading weapon that can be efficiently and cheaply silenced is the Russian knockoff of the Walther PPK, the Makarov .380, which is like a regular .380 on steroids.

With a bullet slightly wider and heavier than that of the standard .380, the Makarov has the maximum energy of any subsonic cartridge that the Soviet firearms specialists could put into a straight blowback semiautomatic design.

***We’ll get back to that “subsonic” part in a moment.

The other benefit of the .380 is that it has a straight blowback design, unlike larger handguns. With the straight blowback design, the pistol can be modified to manually lock the slide in a closed position so the weapon can fire without causing the rounds to jam. The locked slide prevents the noise of the slide operation along with the sound that escapes the ejection port when the pistol cycles.

The slide of a semiautomatic cannot be silenced except by locking it in place.

So you might be wondering at this point how anyone gets to fire a second shot if the slide is locked in place.

To fire successive shots in real life, a shooter of a silenced pistol must manually unlock the slide, cycle out the cartridge, and then re-lock the slide. Locking and unlocking is accomplished with a small lever that would resemble the safety lever on a slide. With a bit of practice, a pro can operate it in approximately one second without much effort.

While a pistol with a manual slide lock does not allow for the quickest successive shots, it can be quite discreet, making it ideal for some situations.

For example:

if the shooter intends to assassinate an individual who is walking home on his usual route after work, the shooter could get a close-up head shot on a side street, and someone walking twenty yards ahead of the target would not notice it.

Another example is if the shooter catches the target alone in their hotel room, home, or office. In such circumstances, a trained assassin could easily take the time to deliver a second “insurance” shot on a high-value target without a hotel maid in the hallway or people in the next room hearing anything.

Writing Tip Regarding Silencers:

One danger to silencing properly with a handgun is that the shooter will forget to lock the slide after cycling in the second round. The weapon will still be suppressed, but it will still make more noise than it would if the slide were locked. If you need a character to make a mistake while firing with a silencer, this is a logical one to make.

The Sonic Boom

Note the emphasis on the word “subsonic” in the section above. That’s because the crack of a bullet breaking the sound barrier is impossible to silence. That is true no matter what firearm or suppression equipment is used. As a result, for the maximum silencing, it is important to use subsonic cartridges.

The Falling Brass

The sound of falling brass is also impossible to silence. Only shooters in movies don’t have to worry about that ping of flying brass hitting objects or the floor. To prevent the brass from falling, shooters can carry specially designed brass catchers that they can attach to the pistols.

However, the act of attaching them can slow down a shooter. Also, the catcher, itself, is one more piece of evidence that can be found on a shooter, and less evidence is always better.

A more down-and-dirty trick, so to speak, is to use a sock as a brass catcher. However, there are three problems with this method. First, it blows out the end of the sock, which could lead to the brass falling anyway. Second, the sock could catch in the slide and jam it. And third, the sock covered in gunpowder and residue is one more piece of evidence. So as a general rule, most professionals risk the sound of falling brass.

But isn’t the brass evidence?

Not so much as one might think. That’s because an intelligent professional uses “clean brass.” Clean brass is brass that would not be identified to the country of origin, and it would have no fingerprints, so the shooter doesn’t have to worry about leaving it behind.

The Falling Body

The third thing that cannot be silenced is the sound of a falling body. Dead bodies drop, and they aren’t always conveniently located in an open space with a thick carpet. They can smash into furniture and knock things over. They can break glass and thump into floors and walls. If in a bathroom and the body falls against a cast-iron tub, it makes a loud, heavy ringing sound.

Catching a body to prevent the noise of the fall poses the equally risky problem of the shooter being covered in blood. Bloody people tend to have trouble blending in when walking out of a building or down a street. It’s just an inconvenient truth that bodies fall where they die.

Writing Tip:

An assassin’s inconvenient truth is an author’s plot line. While you could have dead bodies collapse in neat little heaps on a shag rug, you could also use them to punch up your plot. Get creative. Let them break things, tip out of windows, fall onto hot stoves, or even create a domino effect that leads to widespread disaster on the set. You’re not likely to go too far with it.

Bottom Line about Silencers:

Three things cannot be silenced—the shells being ejected, the crack of the sound barrier, and the drop of a falling body. Which brings us to the fourth thing that cannot be silenced—the savvy reader who sends angry e-mails if an author gets this wrong.

Thank you, Piper!

Piper has one more post in this series later this week. Make sure to ask any questions you might have about your work in progress or even about something you might be pondering for NaNoWriMo while she’s here. Now is the time to be bold. Also make sure to check out the new classes below. The podcasting bundle is still available. We had a FABULOUS first class so the ON Demand of that will come with the bundle is the only difference.

Another NOTE: I also moved my Log-Line workshop to THIS WEDNESDAY because I was losing my voice last week. So if you want to get your book/series boiled down into ONE sentence to act as a prototype or to pitch to an agent? Sign up and you get two hours working with ME!

Back to spies, assassins and other people who like to wear a lot of black…

Do your characters use silencers?

What sort of problems do your shooters have with sounds?

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What do the main intelligence agencies do and where do they operate? How do they recruit personnel? What are real life honey pots and sleeper agents? What about truth serums and enhanced interrogations? And what are the most common foibles of popular spy fiction?

With the voice of over forty years of experience in the Intelligence Community, Bayard & Holmes answer these questions and share information on espionage history, firearms of spycraft, tradecraft techniques, and the personalities and personal challenges of the men and women behind the myths.

Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

Classes!

Writing for Podcasting 10/22/21

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Practice Your Pitch: Master the Log-Line 10/20/21

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The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller 10/21/21

The post Silencers: Outside Hollywood Movies, Not Everything Can Be ‘Silenced’ appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Plot twists are very common in all forms of fiction from a short story (The Lottery) to novels (Gone Girl) to the screen (Vanilla Sky). Mysteries, by their very nature, demand the author understand plot twists and be able to use them well. The ‘kissing cousin’ genres—thriller, suspense, horror, and their many iterations—also rely heavily on the author’s ability to keep readers guessing.

Commercial fiction aside, most genres can benefit as well.

Plot twists are helpful for many reasons, though obviously we can’t cover them all today. We are a media-saturated world. As we talked about in my last post, we are a culture addicted to binging.

Humans have always had a propensity for gluttony. But, for the first time in our history, we finally have access to enough content to keep us mainlining story after story until we’re practically hungover.

This is great news, good news and bad news for storytellers. The great news is that storytellers are in high demand, and the higher one’s skill level, the better the payoff. Good news is people are consuming content in a wide variety of mediums from serial podcasts, to small screen series, to novels, to movies and on and on.

What’s the bad news, then? The bad news is that, because of this entertainment paradigm shift, audiences are far more discerning and savvy than ever. The ‘sacred knowledge’ only oracles (storytellers) once noticed and understood has flown the coop.

Audiences consume so many stories that they’re more attuned to any story that’s ‘formulaic’ to the point of predictability.

Plot Twists of Old

In the pre-digital era of stories, audiences could only binge so much. I remember the 90s when my entire family was addicted to the Tony Hillerman mysteries. We’d pre-order the hard-back then fight over who got to read first, then heckle each other for taking too long.

But we could only get a Hillerman book about ONCE a YEAR. Sometimes longer.

Until about ten years ago, the small screen was mostly soap operas, daytime shows, network sit-coms and television dramas. Until Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the like, we had to wait a week between episodes. I once landed at DFW airport on time…only the plane had no gate open and we were forced to sit on the tarmac. We nearly had a riot on the plane because people didn’t want to miss the season finale of 24.

Seriously.

Suffice to say, with a week or more (or even months between new seasons) to cool off and forget details, audiences could only recognize/retain so much. Now that I’ve spent MONTHS binging NCIS, I see a WHOLE NEW show, simply because I now have the luxury of watching episodes back to back.

New-and-Improved Media

In the modern era, this ability to inhale content as fast as we want to has made audiences hungrier (YAY!). While this is great, the overwhelming exposure to story has also made it far tougher to keep audiences engaged. We have ‘new-and-improved’ writer problems. They are essentially the same problems, just taken up a few hundred-thousand notches.

It’s always been a challenge to hook an audience. But, these days, we have a far shorter amount of time. People have the attention span of a meth-addicted ferret with severe ADHD. They also have a gazillion other options if we fail to hook early and hook DEEP.

When we understand the fundamental changes in our audience, it then becomes clear why plot twists can offer major advantage.

For anyone who’s actually finished a novel or screenplay, you understand how the ‘sagging middle’ is an ever-present problem. When it comes to plot structure, most stories are three-act Aristotelian structure. The first act (beginning) and third act (resolution) are relatively short. The second act (all that connects in-between) is the longest act. Being the longest, it’s also the easiest place to bore and lose people.

Plot twists are a way of ‘shaking things up’ with the unexpected to keep the audience engaged. Also, since people have inhaled so much media (books, series, movies, serial podcasts, etc.) they’re much better at predicting the plot points and guessing the ending.

When we deploy savage plot twists, we keep audiences on their toes. We can also deliver an ending they never saw coming (but, in retrospect, should have). That is KEY, and we’ll talk more on that in a bit.

So what are common types of plot twists?

In the interest of time, today, we’ll discuss these four:

The Sleeper Agent

The Red Herring

The Sudden Detour

The Unreliable Narrator

As I mentioned earlier, some genres hinge on great plot twists (mystery). But even genres noted for being ‘formulaic’ can benefit as well. Romance is formulaic when it comes to structure.

Give me a minute before shouting me down.

If we watch/read a romance, we KNOW that two separate people initially at odds WILL EVENTUALLY come together and there will be an HEA (Happily Ever After) or the more modern HFN (Happily for Now) at the end.

If the couple does not end up together at the end, it is NOT a romance. It might be general fiction or women’s fiction but, by definition, it is NOT a romance. Just because our audience will KNOW the couple will end up together, however, doesn’t mean they should be able to predict precisely HOW.

Do romance authors need to use plot twists? Not to the same degree as other genres. But they are a great literary device to help your work stand apart.

Moving onto types of plot twists.

Sleeper Agent Plot Twists

This is our Judas Iscariot. An ally close to the protagonist turns out to either be working for the opposition or is, in truth, the ‘bad guy.’ The sleeper agent can be used to throw off the protagonist and ratchet the tension should it start to sag or lean toward becoming predictable in Act Two.

The protagonist is learning, growing, cooking and booking to solving the core story problem…then comes the sucker punch that sends him/her reeling. Not only can this character create havoc, but their betrayal will rattle the main character because they no longer know who they can trust.

In this case, the sleeper agent is there to shake up the second act, but they are merely an extension of the core antagonist (Big Boss Troublemaker). Their purpose is to add misdirection and make it harder for the protagonist to succeed.

The second way we can use the sleeper agent, as I mentioned above, is to activate them at the end. All along the protagonist relies on a certain character as an ally, only to realize they’ve been misled/used/betrayed. The movie Minority Report, is superlative example of this. The movie is loosely based off the 1956 novella by iconic sci-fi author Philip K. Dick.

Plot Twist EXAMPLE:

Chief John Anderton is head of a unique crime-fighting division known as pre-crime, where (presumably) murderers can be stopped and arrested before ever committing the actual crime.

John’s mentor and father figure, Lamar Burgess, wants to take pre-crime national and plays on John’s loyalty and emotions. When the Feds send in Danny Witwer to look for flaws, Burgess immediately pits John against the federal agent.

Thus, when John finds himself on the run, accused of murdering a man he’s never met, Burgess fuels John’s suspicion and paranoia that SURELY Danny Witwer is behind it. Witwer wants to take down pre-crime and what better way than ruining John’s name?

In the end, we realize Burgess has been using John all along. He doesn’t want to retire, especially now that pre-crime is going national. Additionally, he has to cover up crimes he committed in the early days and John is the perfect patsy. In Act Three, John has to take down the man he loved like a father who was happy to let him rot in prison.

Red Herring Plot Twists

Y’all have all probably heard the term ‘red herring,’ but do you know where/how the term originated? The controversial journalist, pamphleteer, and politician, William Cobbett popularized the term when he relayed a story about how dog trainers would use a smoked strong-smelling fish to mislead hounds into following false trails. Over time, the hounds learned to better distinguish the false trails from the real deal.

If one writes mystery (or similar genres) red herrings should abound. Done well, the audience might believe EVERYONE ‘did it’ before the big reveal. False trails should be, first and foremost, believable. Red herrings can be tricky, though. First, use too few and readers will easily find their way back to the proper trail. Use too many? The audience becomes lost, confused or frustrated.

Red herrings must all be introduced as red herrings by around the 3/4 mark of Act Two. Since we’ve probably all read great books or seen great movies with red herrings done well, I’ll take a different tack. What happens when they’re done poorly?

Example of Botched Plot Twist:

Last night, we finished a new limited Netflix series called Clickbait. This series did SO many things brilliantly that I might post on it another time. The only criticism I have (and I won’t spoil it completely) is there was NO POSSIBLE WAY for the audience to figure out the ‘whodunnit?’

A crime takes place in the beginning (standard for mystery-suspense). Each episode follows a different character, many who either have a motive to commit the crime or they at least help solidify suspicion toward another character (red herrings),

I’ll tell you ahead of time that Clickbait seriously is worth watching for so many reasons. But…

Though the writers did a fabulous job with conflict, drama, character, and even red herrings, the ending smacked of an M. Night Shyamalan GOTCHA!

Granted, once the final episode reveals what actually happened and why, we see how it was a reasonable ending. It worked, but fizzled.

What irritated me was that, is even though the guilty party was introduced early on (a prerequisite), this character was presented as a mere fluff background character. In my POV, there was NO POSSIBLE WAY the audience could cull through the misinformation and figure out the WHO (the real culprit) or even the WHY (motivation).

On that? I call, “FOUL!”

The movie Horsemen pulled similar nonsense, only worse. I talk about it HERE. Again, Clickbait is TOTALLY worth watching, whereas Horsemen was two hours of my life I can never get back.

Sudden Detour Plot Twists

This is when we lead the audience to believe the protagonist has resolved the conflict, only to swerve hard left and reveal a totally new and unforeseen conflict in need of resolution.

We’ve all been there. The good guy seems to have won, but there’s still 20 minutes left in the movie or 30 pages left in the book. Often this plot twist works in tandem with the plot point we commonly refer to as ‘The False Victory.’ All stories should have this plot point because the next point ‘The Darkest Moment’ comes right as the protagonist morphs from main character to HERO.

This doesn’t imply that there is ALWAYS a plot twist, though. Often, the MC has a character flaw that has yet to be fully recognized and addressed. They’ve not grown enough to realize they need a team, they’re prideful, they have to forgive, whatever. If the MC fails to change, then they cannot ‘win.’

The sudden detour plot twist is different. The MC frequently HAS changed and DOES have a victory…only it is either incomplete or misguided.

Example of Plot Twist:

The iconic horror movie The Ring executed this sort of plot twist very well. When teenagers start dying mysteriously exactly seven days after watching a strange VHS tape, investigative journalist Rachel Keller is on the job. She has a personal reason to get involved. Her perfectly healthy niece was a victim.

She’s skeptical, but once she finds the tape, watches it and receives the same eerie death threat, “Seven daaaaays,” by phone, she has to figure out the mystery to save her own life. Instincts tell her there are clues in the video that are key to breaking the curse.

She’s partly correct.

Her sleuthing pays off. Rachel discovers one CAN break the curse if you convince another person to watch the tape, thus taking the curse onto themselves. But that’s more than a bit cold-hearted. She feels there HAS to be a better answer.

She also uncovers the identity of the girl from the video and what really happened…BUT she gets it wrong.

Despite warnings from those who knew the child (Samara) and claim the child was evil, kind-hearted Rachel refuses to believe it. She follows the clues, locates the well, and discovers Samara’s remains. She also finally understands the ‘seven days’ reference. It’s how long it took for Samara to drown after her adoptive mother pushed her into the well.

Rachel BELIEVES once she uncovers the truth and brings justice to the murdered Samara that the curse will end.

NOPE.

Samara is not the innocent victim Rachel believed her to be. Unless she figures out and complies with what the vengeful spirit wants (making more copies of the tape and spreading the curse), Rachel and her son are dead.

Unreliable Narrator Plot Twists

Writers are devious, and excellent writers are borderline psychopaths. Don’t believe me? Check out my post, 13 Reasons Writers are Mistaken for Serial Killers.

Anyway…

The audience automatically trusts the main character/narrator of the book. It’s a lot like a baby duck imprinting upon the first animal/person it sees upon hatching. Once someone begins a story or starts watching a movie, they imprint on the MC and will, by default, assume the MC is ‘the good guy.’

We, writers, can use the audience’s blind trust to our advantage.

MUAH HA HA HA HA *coughs, sputters*

Moving on…

We weave a story with a perceived villain/threat that actually doesn’t exist, at least not in the way the audience believes. In Fight Club, we fully believe that the narrator’s frenemy, Tyler Durden, has betrayed the MC and gone completely psycho, dragging our beloved protagonist into his twisted plans.

This is all well and good except, we gloss over one tiny, but critical, detail.

In the book and the movie (both narrated in first-person), the narrator never TELLS US HIS NAME. By the end, we figure out the narrator and Tyler Durden are one-in-the-same.

The clues are there, though. This is what keeps us from screaming to the heavens at the end.

Early on, our protagonist seeks medical help for his crippling insomnia, but he’s brushed off. We notice his vision distorts, he’s losing gaps of time, and crazy girl Marla Singer keeps showing up dropping clue after clue that something is VERY wrong with our narrator friend.

What we come to realize is that the MC, at some point, suffered a psychotic break from lack of sleep, and his repressed alter ego (Id) manifested in real life. The MC very literally IS his own worst enemy,

Examples of Unreliable Narrator Plot Twists:

The unreliable narrator has many different forms. There is a person suffering from some form of a psychotic break, which I feel was done brilliantly in the movie Black Swan and Vanilla Sky.

Some might want to include The Sixth Sense as an excellent unreliable narrator, but I am hesitant there. It smacked too much of the newbie writer’s, “It was all a DREAM!” ending.

In my opinion, there weren’t strong enough clues for one to figure out we were possibly dealing with an unreliable narrator. We had NO way of knowing what the color red meant, only that it was odd. Granted, Shayamalan pulled this story off brilliantly, but he ultimately ended up a victim of his own success.

The misdirection he used in The Sixth Sense could only work well ONCE on a totally naive audience.

Also not that not all unreliable narrators are the same. Rachel Watson from The Girl on the Train is an alcoholic who drinks until she blacks out. She claims to be a key witness in a murder, but can she be trusted? Is she a witness, a victim or is she a delusional attention-seeker?

The movie, The Usual Suspects offers yet another flavor of unreliable narrator. The story takes advantage of inherent human biases. Who IS the infamous Keyser Söze? Well, just like the other examples I’ve given, there ARE strong clues. Those paying attention have the trail of breadcrumbs, but only if they stop to notice them.

In Conclusion

Plot twists are a fantastic literary device that can help bring on the BINGE! Writers who use this device well can turn audiences into acolytes.

But BE WARNED! The plot twist is a double-edged sword. As authors, we MUST understand plot structure and character well enough to to properly set up and deploy these twists and do all this WELL. In the hands of an amateur, plot twists smack of ‘trying to be clever.’ This can be a death sentence for a story, and audiences aren’t as prone to forgive in a world offering a gazillion other options.

I simply don’t have the time to cover HOW to execute these plot twists well, so we’ll leave it for another day or y’all can take advantage of my upcoming classes.

Like other literary devices, I strongly recommend doing a TON of studying, reading, get training, and practice, practice, practice.

Classes!

Sorry for the delay. Event Espresso took a couple days to get back to us and this was a known bug *great gnashing of teeth*. Apologies for any inconvenience, but I am offering an additional DISCOUNT for the log-lone classes, $10 off using Pitch10 and extending the deadline for the discount of Binge20, $20 off for the plotting class.

And, in the Bring on the Binge class, WE WILL DEFINITELY be discussing how to use misdirection and plot twists to keep your series fresh and make it highly addictive. I have ALSO added a new class The EDGE, another class where you can also learn more about plot twists.

Practice Your Pitch: Master the Log-Line 10/14/21

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Bring on the Binge: How to Plot & Write a Series 9/30/21

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The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller 10/21/21

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What are your thoughts?

Can you think of some great examples/types of plot twists I didn’t mention? What are some of your favorites? Are there any that fumbled so badly you would have tossed the story across the room but smart phones and flatscreen televisions are too expensive?

What made the plot twist sizzle or fizzle?

I LOVE hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of SEPTEMBER, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

The post Plot Twists: Types of Twists & Why They’re AMAZING for Stories appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Transformation is an integral part all great stories. The trick, however, is to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to show how a character has either progressed or regressed. Few things can be more disappointing than reading a story where SUDDENLY, POOF! The MC has some grand epiphany at the end how they really needed to change in order to win.

This is the stuff of cartoons not grand fiction.

Last week, I offered some tips for creating dimensional protagonists. When we are new writers, especially, we tend to be shy. We want our main character (MC) to be good-looking, smart, make all the right decisions…and be able to sing while birds wrap ribbons in her hair.

Okay, maybe we aren’t THAT bad, but pretty close. At least I was.

When I wrote my first ‘novel’ my MC was everything I wanted to be and more! Why? Because, aside from being absurdly insecure, I had zero clue how to write a novel. I was playing what I now call ‘Literary Barbies.’

There were lots of ‘scenes’ and ‘adventures’ and my MC could do everything I never could do. Making her ‘rough around the edges’ felt like showing the world my dirty laundry.

Thus, the first thing we need to learn when we want to write a REAL novel is that, though our characters—even our protagonist—can’t help but have elements OF us? They are NOT US.

We have to put in that psychic distance because, for transformation to occur, we need to roughen them up to make them super interesting.

Transformation for Everyone

I’ve been blogging since 2007 and the world has changed a lot. One massive change has been how we view media. I’ve generally used a lot of movie examples along with books. Why? Namely, because it was easier and quicker to make a point.

Yet, modern audiences prefer to, “Netflix and chill.” In ways, this is a good thing because series, in my POV, are more reflective of novels. I believe the depth series offer has spoiled us.

Movies simply can’t offer us the intimacy we crave.

This said…

It takes an average of 12-15 hours to read a full novel. A full television series is about 12-15 episodes at an hour per episode. One of the reasons I believe audiences prefer not only television series, but book series, is because they offer so much more DEPTH.

We get to witness transformation in everyone. In a well-written novel, the transformation process should be ugly, painful, and prolonged. This is a large part of what keeps us hooked into the story. We should be able to see the MC gradually evolve over time, and it shouldn’t be a nice, clean arc because nothing in life is nice and clean!

In particularly good novels, series, movies, television series, everyone undergoes transformation. Or, as the late, great screenwriter Blake Snyder said, “Everybody arcs!”

If I think of my favorite series Stranger Things, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, The Last Kingdom, to name a few, the tug-of war in each of the characters is a major part of what kept me riveted.

One episode I’d hate one character only to be rooting for them the next, then back hating them three episodes later and AHHHHH!

Same with books and especially series. Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth, Robert R. McCammon’s The Matthew Corbett Series, Carole Lawrence’s Ian Hamilton Series, Will Thomas’s The Barker & Llewellyn Series, Robert Galbraith’s mystery thrillers, and Frank Herbert’s Dune are among my favorites.

Since everyone arcs, this means the antagonist should also experience transformation, though their arc will lead in the opposite direction of the MC’s.

Genre will dictate how this crossing of arcs plays out.

Power Shift

In a genre where the antagonist is a villain (I.e. thriller, mystery, suspense), if the MC were pitted against the villain in the first chapter, he/she would lose…badly.

The story trials are what will create the transformation necessary for the MC to become a hero who is capable of solving the core story problem and defeating the villain.

Conversely, the villain begins the story in a far stronger position. Over time, however, the crucible works against the antagonist. The trials strengthen the villain’s opposition (our MC), weakens/unravels the villain’s plan, dwindles resources, scatters forces, and/or fractures resolve.

This progresses to such a point that, by Act Three, the MC is now a HERO and the villain (while still in a position of superior power) can’t crush the opposition like a bug.

Transformation Ain’t Pretty

Transformation sounds like such a pretty word, doesn’t it? Yet, if we think about it realistically, it’s a rather ugly process.

Imagine a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Once in the cocoon, if we slit open the chrysalis we’d a) witness a half-formed pile of goo b) stop the transformation process c) kill the creature.

The same can be said of our MC. Once the MC agrees to the journey, they’re effectively entering a chrysalis. Until the butterfly (hero) emerges in Act Three, our MC is an unformed pile of goo with promise. Interrupt this process and we kill the story and effectively stop a hero from ever coming into being.

The Tug-of-War of Transformation

All right, so I’ve used this transformation word a lot thus far, but HOW do we pull this off? Not only to make it believable, but to make it interesting and generate that nerve-shredding tension that keeps audiences riveted?

Today, we’ll focus on the MC for brevity’s sake. In my post on ways to create dimensional protagonists, I mentioned three key ingredients.

• Weaknesses/Flaws
• Wounds
• Blindspots

There’s a fourth factor we can add in today…SECRETS. To quote the great Dr. House, ‘Everybody Lies.’ Put a pin in this .

When creating our MC, ideally we want to give them enough flaws that the audience wonders how on EARTH this guy/gal could EVER prevail in the end. Interestingly transformation is all related to FLAWS.

The First Trick About Flaws

First, flaws can actually be strengths in disguise. For instance, in The Barker & Llewellyn Series, Thomas Llewellyn is a very small, slight Welshman who was wrongfully sent to prison while earning his degree at Oxford College.

He comes from a poor background, is riddled with shame, and his skills are better suited for academia than for hunting criminals in the dark underworld of 19th century London.

He’s out of money. Because of his time in prison, no one cares about his skills writing, researching, or taking shorthand. No potential employer can see Oxford COLLEGE, only Oxford PRISON. He flat out cannot get a job and is on the verge of literally starving to death and succumbing to the elements.

When we meet Lewellyn, he’s standing in line for one last job interview. Plan B is to kill himself. Out of desperation, he’s answered an ad from an inquiry agency with the heading, ‘Some Danger Involved.’

Llewellyn is so down, he throws away his cardboard suitcase with the handful of belongings into a trash bin before he steps inside for his interview, already believing he won’t get the position.

Who is he against all these tough brawlers who are twice his size and look as if they could break a man over their knee?

Yet, ironically, and somewhat miraculously, Llewellyn is chosen because of his flaws. Cyrus Barker, his employer, thinks Lewellyn’s time in Oxford College as well as Oxford Prison make him incredibly valuable as an investigator.

Also, his size and unimpressive appearance let him blend in, make him forgettable. Again, ideal. Cyrus noted Lewellyn was also very observant and resourceful (something one needs to be to survive prison, especially back in 19th century England). His employer-to-be ALSO saw Lewellyn throw away the suitcase and senses this is a man with nothing to live for, thus unafraid to DIE.

Thus, Lewellyn’s flaws begin his first step in surface/superficial transformation of his situation. He goes from being down and out, planning to kill himself to suddenly becoming an inquiry agent,

The Second Trick About Flaws

Flaws can be changed. Humans aren’t static unless we choose to be. Fiction teaches us that we can rise above our lesser natures and become our best selves if we choose to do the hard work.

In Lewellyn’s case, he can’t do anything about his height or build, but he can learn how to use them to his advantage. Cyrus Barker, his new employer, can train him in areas of weakness.

Lewellyn, in order to survive as an inquiry agent (let alone triumph against the villain in Act Three), must undergo an external physical transformation. No easy task.

***This is where allies become critical in the story arc. The mentor character is vital.

No, Lewellyn isn’t a giant, but there are plenty of fighting forms that favor those who are smaller. Lewellyn also has a major confidence problem (birthed from his shame and his secret). Yet, this also can be overcome.

He can grow stronger learning to fight, but also more confident in his skills as an inquiry agent. How to move unseen, observe, listen, watch for tells, body language, follow unseen, lose a tail, spot a tail, notice if he’s being followed, learn how to interact with many different cultures and subcultures and follow hidden codes and rules, etc.

He has a steep intellectual learning curve when it comes to how the underworld of London operates and how to maneuver it with finesse under the guidance of Cyrus Barker.

This process is ugly, though. Lewellyn doesn’t get a montage. He fails, flounders, gives up, fumbles, but he always goes back and tries again and GROWS (key to transformation).

The Third Trick About Flaws

Flaws are directly related to wounds.

If our MC is arrogant, arrogance is false confidence. Somewhere, somehow, something tore the world from beneath our MC and made them feel the need to overcompensate. To make others believe they’re strong when they’re, in truth, weak and afraid. They’re less lion, more pufferfish.

If our MC is dour, certain everything will always go wrong, likely they’ve encountered events that have given a false sense the world is against them. Since this is what they see, it is what they expect and project. Until they learn to reinterpret events, everything will be doom and gloom.

This is what we encounter with Lewellyn, and it’s key to his internal transformation process. The internal transformation process is also integrally tethered to SECRETS.

Everybody lies.

This is one of the many reasons I LOVE the Barker & Lewellyn series. Not only does Lewellyn have secrets, so does Cyrus Barker. And so DOES EVERYONE in the cast we come to know, love, and deeply care for over the course of the series.

We don’t know WHY Lewellyn went to jail, is melancholy, dour and assumes the worst immediately. We’re given glimpses into some hidden past, some pain, a deep and throbbing shame he can’t let go that propels him forward almost as much as it drags him down.

This is why being a secret-keeper is key not only to telling a good story, but to hooking readers into a series .

Transformation in Action

Though I know most of you reading this post haven’t read this series, I hope you do. But, if you think to your favorite movies, books, television series, transformation didn’t happen along an neat predictable curve.

In fact, it’s often when the MC falls back into bad habits that we wail, “NOOOO! You can’t do THAT! You’ve come so far!” But what about in more complex stories, with dimensional villains/antagonists? I LOVE those. In fact, I think they are my favorite.

In the last craft post, I mentioned Stranger Things. While Eleven was a great MC, the preppy bully Steve Harrington was so much more interesting. He’d do some horrible thing that made you loathe him, then he’d give you whiplash by softening up and showing his humanity.

Watching his struggle back and forth to find himself and who he was? How was he going to define himself? Who was in charge of his choices? Would he do what the ‘cool kids’ expected or what was right? THAT was transformation that kept me riveted for all three seasons.

And Billy Hargrove? Talk about HEARTBREAKING transformation. He goes from being this loathsome villain, to sympathetic, to a puppet, to a tragic hero and OMG I still tear up when I think of how that season ended and RIP Billy.

Bonus Material on Transformation

Here are some other posts to help you out.

Secret-Keepers: Generate Page-Turning, Nerve-Shredding Tension

Inner Demons: Soap Opera Drama vs. Story Drama

Flawed Characters vs. “Too Dumb to Live”: What Makes the Difference?

What Are Your Thoughts? I LOVE Hearing From You!

Do you see how transformation has to work on multiple planes? It needs to be situational, external (skills, strengths, allies), as well as internal (dealing with baggage)? Is it clearer how this needs to be folded into the story? How the stronger the tug-of-war the better the story?

I know it’s fun to write the perfect character…as in fun for US. But we really do need to torture our characters and our audience for them to have the best thrills and chills at the end.

What are some of the stories, series, movies that tormented you the most? The characters that made you want to scream (good and bad)?

Um…Spike.

I LOVE hearing from you guys! I put a lot of work into these blogs so I ALWAYS appreciate knowing that y’all are getting something out of them.

The post Transformation: Actions Speak Louder Than Words appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Story structure is a HUGE deal in all stories. The last couple of posts, I’ve mentioned memoirs and how they can utilize a variety of structures. This said, there are so many variegations for the memoir, that I just can’t do them all justice here.

Since I am at least sharp enough to know when to defer to people much smarter than me…AND because I am #1 at HUMBLE…

At the end of the post, I’ll give y’all some links to people who ARE memoir experts and can do a much better job explaining all the structural styles available.

This said, if you’ve read my last two posts The Quest: The Hero’s Journey Meets Memoir and Narrative Style: The Heart of Storytelling we didn’t ONLY talk about memoirs. Rather, we discussed where some fundamentals for writing great memoirs apply across the board to other types of storytelling.

Whether we’re writing a memoir, novel, short story, essay, or even screenplays…structure matters.

If we keep starting out with great ideas that ultimately end up haunting our hard drives unformed and unfinished?

Structure.

Or, maybe we finish books, but no one seems to want to read them. It could be the glut in the market. OR it could be that the core idea is GOLD, but the structure isn’t such that it fully reveals what our story has to offer.

There are many reasons our writing might be stalling, stumbling, fumbling or failing. Yet, in my 20 years editing? It’s almost always, always a problem with story structure.

Story Structure and FLOW

The first obstacle we authors face—when writing anything—is subtly embedding a strong enough hook. How can we at least get the readers’ attention when there is so much cool stuff on YouTube to watch?

Yet, even when we hook the reader, the next challenge (and possibly the toughest) is to coax them into a state that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi referred to as “flow.”

In the Wired article Go With the Flow, Csikszentmihalyi defined flow as, “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

Anyone who’s ever started a book, planning to simply read a few pages…only to end up still awake at three in the morning because we just NEEDED TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS!

That’s flow.

Flow is intentional and inherent in the design.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

Structure, sadly, is probably one of the most overlooked topics even though it’s the most critical.

Why? Because structure is for the reader (even with memoirs). The further an author deviates from structure, the less likely the reader will be lulled into flow.

When structure is missing, incomplete, or flawed, the easier it is for readers to become confused, frustrated and finally give up. Structure isn’t simply for function, but for beauty as well (refer to jacked up Ikea fail above).

Sadly, too many emerging writers want to get to the ‘fun’ stuff (for them). Pretty prose, descriptions, characters, using new words are great imaginative play. Unfortunately, that’s all it is. Play.

Structure can be tough to wrap your mind around and, to be blunt, most pre-published writers don’t understand it. They rely on wordsmithery and hope they can bluff past readers with their glorious prose.

Yeah, no. Prose isn’t plot.

Great Stories: Back to the BASICS

Today we are going to go back to some story structure basics, before we ever worry about things like Aristotelian structure (non-linear structure), turning points, rising action, and darkest moments, etc.

Now before you guys get the vapors and think I’m boxing you into some rigid format that will ruin your creativity, nothing could be further from the truth.

Plot is about elements, those things that go into the mix of making a good story even better.

Structure is about timing—where in the mix those elements go.

When you read a novel that isn’t quite grabbing you, the reason is probably structure. Even though it may have good characters, snappy dialogue, and intriguing settings, the story isn’t unfolding in the optimum fashion. ~James Scott Bell from Plot and Structure.

Structure holds stories together and helps them make sense and flow in such a way so as to maximize the emotional impact by the end of the tale. When it comes to memoirs, structure directly relates to the TYPE of memoir we want to write (more on that later).

The Micro Scale of Story Structure

We’re going to first ZOOM IN and place the novel under a literary electron microscope.

The most fundamental basics of a novel are cause and effect. Super basic. An entire novel can be broken down into cause-effect-cause-effect-cause-effect (yes, even literary works). All effects must have a cause and all causes eventually must have an effect (or a good explanation).

I know that in life random things happen and people die for no reason. While life often IS stranger than fiction, fiction ain’t life.

So if a character drops dead from a massive heart attack, that ‘seed’ needs to be planted ahead of time.

Villains don’t just have their heart explode because we need them to die so we can end our book. Our MC can’t suddenly discover a journal that EXPLAINS EVERYTHING in the middle of Act Two because we failed to properly plot an actual story and painted ourselves in a literary corner.

Even in memoir, there needs to be a sense of cause-effect-result or readers will struggle to not only follow along, but to “get” the point of what they’re reading.

Now, all these little causes and effects clump together to form the next two building blocks we’ll discuss—the scene & the sequel (per Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure). Many times these will clump together to form your ‘chapters.’

Order Matters: Scene & Sequel

Word order matters, or we end up with confusion (refer to above image).

Structure’s two main components, as I said earlier, are the scene and the sequel.

The scene is a fundamental building block of fiction. It is physical. Something tangible is happening. The scene has three parts (again per Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure, which I recommend every writer buy and read and study).

• Statement of the goal
• Introduction and development of conflict
• Failure of the character to reach his goal, a tactical disaster

Goal –> Conflict –> Disaster

The sequel is the other fundamental building block and is the emotional thread. The sequel often begins at the end of a scene when the viewpoint character has to process the unanticipated but logical disaster that happened at the end of your scene.

Emotion–> Thought–> Decision–> Action

Link scenes and sequels together and flesh over a narrative structure and you will have a novel readers will enjoy.

Oh but Kristen you are hedging me in to this formulaic writing and I want to be creative.

Understanding structure is not formulaic writing. It is a story delivery system that makes sense on a fundamental level.

Formulaic writing refers to the execution of story structure. It’s a reflection of skill, or rather, lack thereof. So relax, structure is your friend. It will make writing and finishing books easier, and it comes with the added bonus of not confusing the bejeezus out of the readers.

The Macro Scale of Story Structure

Yes, I know I began with the micro scale of stories. Why? Because I am being INTENTIONAL.

The macro scale (story structure) can take on a lot of different forms. With novels, we can use the tried-and-true Aristotelian three act structure, a four-act or five-act structure, parallel timeline structure, non-linear structure, looping timeline structure, etc., etc., etc.

The macro story structure we choose should be deliberate. For instance, most novels use traditional three-act structure. Beginning, middle, end. Bada bing, bada boom. Why?

Because it is what most readers are familiar with and it’s the easiest to read and also the easiest to write well.

Non-linear structure uses the flow of time as a literary device. It IS a cogent and deliberate design. What it IS NOT? A crap ton of flashbacks thrust into the story to EXPLAIN.

In fact, non-linear structure should do the exact opposite. Executed properly it should intensify conflict/tension instead of diffusing it.

For instance, non-linear timelines are fabulous when we want to employ an unreliable narrator.

Gone Girl , Girl on a Train, and Fight Club all shift back and forth in time, but every shift only serves to ratchet the tension higher, to generate even MORE questions. Over the course of the story, the writer might sprinkle in answers, but usually they’re incomplete.

And, every ‘answer’ usually sparks three new questions to take its place.

The reader has to KEEP reading to know WTH is going ON! With nonlinear structure, the story picture will only come into sharp relief in the final chapters of the story.

I LOVE non-linear structure, but it takes a lot of skill to write and, unlike traditional three-act structure, it has a comparably smaller fanbase.

Micro Meets Macro

Why did I talk about the tiny bits of story first? Because regardless which narrative structure we choose for our novel, those micro story structure elements will remain the same.

We’ll still be using scenes and sequels.

Scene: Goal–>Conflict–>Setback/Disaster

Sequel: Emotion–> Thought–> Decision–> Action

These micro elements are what keep readers turning pages. Every sentence becomes a hook that propels the reader to the next sentence and the next. Every chapter should end in a way that compels the reader to keep plunging ahead to get the answers they seek.

What About Memoir?

Some memoirs, as I mentioned, are structured in ways that are very similar to a novel. Excellent memoirs adhere to the same principles that make for excellent novels.

They have a theme, are written for the readers (not the author). They’re structured in a way that ideally lulls readers into a flow state as quickly as possible. Strong memoirs have potent author voice that resonates with the readership. On and on.

This said?

There’s a LOT that goes into writing memoirs, so I’ve gathered a list of what I felt was the best information from those who have FAR more expertise than I do.

Types of Memoir Structure by Dave Hood

How to Structure Your Memoir via Episodia

How to Structure a Memoir That Works by Marion Roach Smith

How to Write a Memoir: 7 Creative Ways to Tell a Powerful Story by Brooke Warner at The Write Life

Literary Structure & Why It Matters to Your Memoir

How to Write Your Memoir With Fun Easy Lists over at my awesome pal Jane Friedman’s site

I could list a dozen more, but this is more than enough to get you started and keep you going for a while. There are plenty of sites out there that can help you learn more about memoir, and many offer templates, books and classes.

Take advantage!

In the end, structure isn’t sexy. You know what else isn’t sexy? Rebar. But without rebar, buildings, bridges and highways collapse. Lots of needless agony, screaming, and suffering…

Kind of like all those books we never could finish *wails*

Structure is that hidden element that holds everything together so our stories can SHINE. When we fully understand how all the pieces go together? THAT is when we can start doing some seriously creative and crazy stuff!

I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!

I hope today’s lesson helped. I’d wanted to at least introduce y’all to the memoir, because it’s not only an increasingly popular genre, but many of you have stories that need to be preserved.

For the rest of us who don’t dare write a memoir until everyone we’d write about dies? We’ll just have to fictionalize them and put them in a novel .

What are your thoughts? Questions? Suggestions for posts?

If you have other resources for memoir, feel free to post in the comments so long as we don’t get too spammy.

I read through as many articles as I could and chose the ones that didn’t seem to be trying to mainly sell stuff.

Anyway…

I love hearing from you!

The post Story Structure: Why Some Stories Fall Apart & Fail to Hook Readers appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Last post in our ‘Introduction to Writing’ series, we discussed how stories are namely a collision of IDEAS. I also introduced the core antagonist, what I call the BBT…or Big Boss Troublemaker.

Sorry for the delay in posts. This quarantine has been…wow. Who knew March had 666 days? It’s like 2020 was doing just fine, then March came flying in screaming, ‘Leroooooooy JENKINS!’

There’s been good reason for the delay. First, I have part of my family quarantined in Northern Italy, and then last week my nephew went to the hospital and tested positive for COVID19. And he lives with my 67 year old mom. *face palm*

Last week I just…didn’t get to the blog. Btw, everyone is fine for now. Nephew home and better. Mom and family in Italy so far have not gotten sick. *fingers crossed*

Moving on…

Like a lot of the cooped up world, seems we can’t help but have heard all about the Big Boss Troublemaker, Carol %$#&!@ BASKINS. Even if Carol Baskins is a BBT conjured in the meth-addled brain of megalomaniac Joe Exotic, without Carol?

Hundreds of millions of bored quarantined people would never have heard of a bat$#!@ crazy gay zookeeper from Oklahoma or the train wreck that is Tiger King.

*evil laugh* We’ll get there…

Anyway, the BBT is our central opposition. This is the force responsible for creating the core story problem in need of resolution. While stories have all sorts of ‘antagonists’ we’ll get to them another time.

The CORE (IDEA)

The BBT is a wholly unique sort of antagonist. This specific antagonist, the Big Boss Troublemaker, is the Baskins BRAIN of all great stories. Why? Because all great stories involve an IDEA that must be defeated. We talked about this last time.

Fantastic. But, how do we do this?

Great stories are almost like living creatures. Like all living creatures, there are critical limitations when it comes to structure. What this means is not all ‘components’ are equally necessary for an organism to be considered ‘alive.’

If a kitten is born with no hair? We call it a Sphynx then sell it for big bucks to people who adore cats that resemble space aliens.

If our kitten is born with unusable back legs, it’s sad. But, we humans get creative and craft a Lego ‘kitten wheelchair’…producing a kitten now drunk with power. ZOOOOOOM! LOOK AT HIM GO ALL THE PLACES!

Ah, but a kitten born with no brain stem? Little to do but mourn. We can’t work around this missing ‘organ,’ no matter how much we may want to. Regardless how creative we get, actual life requires a brain that directs every other system.

The Living Story

We can say the same about story. It, too, must have a brain (core story problem/IDEA generated by BBT).

Some ‘elements’ of story are not, per se, required because they’re NOT the brain. These ‘components’ might simply be a matter of stylistic choice.

Loads of detailed description and weighty prose? Unnecessary. For instance, Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway chose literary austerity to elicit a highly specific ‘feel’ in his work. Bold, exposed, nowhere to hide. No flowery exposition to ‘cover’ any plot weakness.

I happen to love flowery prose, which is why I don’t care for Hemingway’s stories but can respect the art.

***Bet you never thought anyone would put Ernest Hemingway and Joe Exotic in the same blog post. Did ya? Did ya?

Linear plotting, as in Point A to Point Z in sequence and in order? Not necessary either.

Sure, this three-act linear Aristotelian structure is the most common and the best place (in my POV) for emerging writers to begin and to master FIRST. It also happens to be the easiest structure on readers, which is why it’s the structure most commonly used.

But, again? It is not imperative for our story to progress linearly in time. This, again, is a stylistic choice and will often be employed for a purpose. There’s a specific effect the author desires to create.

Examples of Structure as Art

Purple prose and a hundred-page lexicon of new terms, kingdoms, creatures are not the only ways (or even the best ways) to transition a story into art. Structure, when truly understood, is extremely powerful.

For instance, Chuck Palahniuk deliberately used nonlinear plotting for Fight Club. Gillian Flynn also employed nonlinear structure in Gone Girl.

Why? These authors chose these advanced plotting methods for excellent and very specific reasons: to craft the unreliable narrator. 

Anthony Horowitz uses a timeline within a timeline in The Magpie Murders. Horowitz threads a fictional and prototypical Agatha Christie-style British whodunnit into a real life murder mystery.

When Alan Conway, mega-author of the runaway successful Atticus Pünd series—and bread-and-butter top-earner of the publisher—dies mysteriously, the final chapters of his latest manuscript are missing. Is it an oversight or a clue that something far more nefarious is afoot?

The dueling timelines are woven together brilliantly. Solve the fictional murder and solve the real one and vice versa.

Brilliant stuff.

Yet, we must grasp the BBT or it’s impossible to create a simple linear plot. Forget about the fancy tricks. It imperative to fully grasp the power of the BBT or characters fall flat and stories will struggle to break out from the ‘meh.’

So, basics first.

Dead or Alive?

It doesn’t matter if we choose to use tons of detailed description or almost none, if we plot linearly or nonlinearly. We can include maps, made-up languages, on and on.

These are all stylistic preferences which can all work so long as at the center of it all, the story must have a BRAIN (the idea).

The BBT is the IDEA that creates the core problem in need of resolution/defeat. Every book mentioned above has a Big Boss Troublemaker (and corresponding proxy/proxies).

Problem is, far too many emerging writers spend far more time pondering the color of their main character’s eyes (amethyst or peridot…no jade!) than they do considering what the heck the MC is even up against.

WHY does he/she/it exist?

The BBT is the sole reason for our MC (main character) to exist. Period.

Whenever I blog about the BBT, inevitably I get the whole ‘But my MC is his/her own worst enemy’ counterpoint (which really isn’t a counterpoint at all).

Let’s go back to Joe Exotic to make my point because he does this so well. You don’t even have to watch the show to get the story. If Carol Baskins had never entered Joe’s life, likely we’d never have heard of him.

But, she did and Joe cast himself as the hero and her as the villain to be thwarted.

Without Carol’s desire to shut down Joe, there is no story. We’d be left with The Jerry Springer Show with tigers. Yet, by adding in ONE element—Carol Baskins—now we have more.

Also, this ties into my preference for a BBT. I like for the antagonist to make a really good case. When it isn’t easy-peasy black and white, it makes for a better story (my POV).

In the Joe Exotic saga, the memes have been flying (like above). Joe is SO OVER THE TOP upset with one person and taking zero responsibility for his own bad choices. No, it’s all another person’s fault.

Sure.

But, if we look at Carol, she brings an excellent argument to the table, which is WHY she is such a good foe.

Joe believes in breeding tigers. He feels that people won’t part with money to save what they can’t see, touch and have a personal experience with.

Conversely, Carol and her organization is there to pick up the mess of what happens when people are reckless with owning exotic animals. She wants to stop the breeding because she’s seen the dark side of the animals being neglected or harmed and she’s had to bring in animals who’ve been abused.

Both Joe AND Carol make very good points…which is WHY this is a seriously interesting story. That and just about everyone involved in this drama pileup is crazy or a sociopath.

Sigh.

The MC as BBT

I would also like to use Joe to shut down the ‘my MC IS his/her own worst enemy and thus the antagonist’ argument. First, a properly crafted MC always is his or her own worst enemy, especially in the beginning. It’s what makes stories interesting. If Joe made good decisions, Tiger King wouldn’t be hitting #1 on Netflix.

But let’s get back to the world of fiction. We don’t know if Joe will ever arc, though I suspect it’s a morbid mob curiosity to wait and see if he DOES mend his ways that keeps people watching.

This is why the character must arc in order to win. If our MC is flawless and fully self-actualized and able to overcome the BBT from the starting gates, this is not a story, it’s a sedative.

Bad decisions are the beating heart of great fiction.

We don’t pick up a book or watch a series to see people who make all the right decisions in life. That is the realm of self-help and non-fiction. When it comes to telling a really good story, the messier the better.

Granted, we have to balance that fine line of flawed and ‘Too Dumb to Live’ but perfect people make for lousy stories.

This is generally why most video games don’t translate well into movies. The characters are too flat and have nowhere to grow.

But the central point I want to make is that the BBT is the best place to start with your novel/story. Once you have the BBT pegged? Everything else falls into place a LOT easier.

Remember, Tiger King without Carol Baskins is just The Jerry Springer show with lions. Carol Baskins is the key ingredient that transforms what could have just been a bunch of meth-addled vignettes into a revenge-and-cocaine-fueled story.

Rules of a Strong BBT

BBTs manifest differently depending on genre. This is why it helps to have at least a basic idea what genre you’re writing when you’re coming up with your plot. Genre is VERY helpful. It will help you find readers and readers find YOU.

Genre will impact your BBT, namely because a rule of the BBT is that your MC must defeat the BBT in Act Three. Once our lowly protagonist has learned all the lessons and evolved into a hero, he/she is then finally equipped to face down the opposition.

If you’re writing romance, then you need a Happily Ever After or at least the more modern Happily For Now. Utter defeat not a great start for a relationship.

This is why romance written in what is referred to as a ‘buddy love structure’ where the two come together to defeat the BBT in the end.

Overall though, the ‘rules’ for the BBT are pretty simple. The BBT needs to be introduced early either directly—Carol Baskins—or via a proxy or an effect.

In mysteries, the BBT is introduced via the dead body. Thrillers it might be an attack on an embassy. We see early on some extension of the BBT and his/her/its agenda.

The BBT must be far stronger than your MC can handle in the beginning. In fact the entire point of the story is to refine SOME characteristic your MC lacks that is critical for the final showdown.

If it is a mystery or thriller, then the MC is lacking in information. The BBT knows all the information and the MC is in the dark. This genre generally doesn’t have a lot of character development and is heavy on procedurals and fight scenes and a race to figure out what happened.

Other genres, there can be some personal flaw, a blindspot, a secret, a shame, which we’ll go into at another time. Some personal demon that has to be dealt with in order to rise to the occasion and defeat the BBT.

Just remember, the greater the odds of failure, the better the story. We want to be on the edge of our seats wondering how on EARTH the MC is going to pull it off. If everything comes too easily? We’ll wander off and go watch Tiger King.

What Are Your Thoughts?

I do love hearing from you. Where you struggle, because we ALL do. What you want to know more about? Where you get stuck, etc.

I look forward to helping you guys become stronger at your craft. What are some of your biggest problems, hurdles or misunderstandings about plot? Where do you most commonly get stuck?

I love hearing from you!

My goal is to get back on track with regular post. If there is some area that is particularly a sticky wicket you’d like me to address, toss it in the comments!

The post The BBT: Meet the Big Boss Troublemaker & Brain Behind All Stories appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Today we’re going to chat about log-lines. Some of you might be wondering if I was trying to give you a heart attack with my title. Maybe you think this feat is impossible. AN ENTIRE NOVEL IN ONLY ONE SENTENCE?

Maybe something simple, plebeian and commercially formulaic *flips hair* but ART cannot be forced into a box.

Yes. Yes it can.

I know, I know. Your novel is over four-hundred pages with made up technology and wizards and folding space using enchanted Thigh Masters….

I hear you. Calm down.

A log-line is a lifeline that will allow you to pitch a novel (or series) in ONE—YES ONE—sentence. The log-line is going to save you time, energy, and sanity (save the crazy for the fiction).

We’ll get to how a log-line is going to do ALL this AND give you six-pack abs in only five minutes a day in a moment…

***Legal Disclaimer: Consult your psychiatrist before believing any writing tool will give you six-pack abs. The giant pink bunny in the corner lies, too FYI.

Anyway…

I used to try to teach story structure from the perspective of an editor, but I found that my approach was flawed. Why? Because editors are like building inspectors. We have skills best used on a finished product. We’re trained to look for structure problems.

Is that a good skill? Sure. But do building inspectors design buildings?

No.

Architects do. Architects employ creativity and vision to create a final structure. Hopefully, they will have the necessary skills to create and design a structure that will meet code standards.

Creativity and vision are not enough. Architects need to learn mathematics and physics. They need to understand that a picture window might be real pretty, but if they put that sucker in a load-bearing wall, they won’t pass inspection and that they even risk a fatal collapse.

Aestheticism must align with pragmatism.

This made me step back and learn to become an architect. When it comes to plotting, I hope to teach you guys how to have the creative vision of the designer, but with the practical understanding of an inspector.

We’ve discussed how plot works on a micro-scale (scene and sequel). After that, we panned back for an aerial shot, and discussed how great stories–like amazeballs rollercoasters—are addictive by design.

I’ve also covered how the single most important component to plot is the opposition, and l even have a tested method to make sure your core idea  is actually solid enough to be the foundation for an entire novel.

So what’s this log-line thingy?

Basically, we should be able to tell someone (an agent) what our story is about in one sentence. That is called the “log-line.” Log-lines are used in Hollywood to pitch movies.

In fact, a book that should be in every writer’s library is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. It’s a book on screenwriting, but every writer can benefit enormously from Snyder’s teaching.

In the world of screenwriting there is a tenet, “Give me the same, but different.” This axiom still holds true when it comes to novels.

Our story cannot go so far off the deep end that readers cannot relate, but yet our story needs to be different enough that people don’t just think it’s a retread.

We as writers have to negotiate this fine balance of same but different, and that is no easy task.

So let’s look at components of a great log-line:

Great log-lines are short and clear.

I cannot tell you how many writers I ask, “So what’s your book about?” and they take off rambling for the next ten minutes. Often why writers are so terrified of the pitch session is that they cannot clearly state what their book is about in three sentences or less.

Here is a little insider information. When we cannot whittle our entire story into three sentences that is a clear sign to agents and editors that our story is structurally flawed. Not always, but more often than not. Your goal should be ONE sentence. What is your story about?

A good log-line is ironic. 

Irony gets attention and hooks interest. Here’s an example:

The Green Mile is about the lives of guards on death row leading up to the execution of a black man accused of rape and child murder who has the power of faith healing.

What can be more ironic than a murderer having the power of  healing? Think of the complex emotions that one sentence evokes, the moral complications that we just know are going to blossom out of the “seed idea.”

A good log-line is emotionally intriguing.

A good log-line tells the entire story. Like a movie, you can almost see the entire story play out in your head.

During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.

Didn’t you just see the entire movie play out in your head with that ONE sentence? Apparently Steven Spielberg did, too and that’s why he took Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park and made it into a blockbuster movie.

A good log-line will interest potential readers.

Good log-lines exude inherent conflict. Conflict is interesting. In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder relays stories of how he would take his log-line to Starbucks and ask total strangers what they thought about his idea.

This is a great exercise for your novel.

Pitch to friends, family, and even total strangers and watch their reaction. Did their eyes glaze over? Did the smile seem polite or forced? If you can boil your book down into one sentence that generates excitement for the regular person, then you know you are on a solid path for your novel.

Yet, if your potential audience looks confused or bored or lost, then you know it is time to go back to the drawing board. But the good news is this; you just have to fix ONE sentence.

You don’t have to go rewrite, revise a novel that is confusing, convoluted, boring, arcane, ridiculous, etc.

Think of your one sentence as your scale-model or your prototype. If the prototype doesn’t generate excitement and interest, it is unlikely the real thing will succeed. So revise the prototype until you find something that gets the future audience genuinely excited.

You have your log-line. Now what?

Your log-line is the core idea of your story. This will be the beacon of light in the darkness so you always know where the shore is versus the open sea. This sentence will keep you grounded in the original story you wanted to tell and keep you from prancing down bunny trails.

The Fear Factor

Fear is probably the most common emotion shared by writers. The newer we are the more fear we will feel. A side-effect of fear is to emotionally distance from the source of our discomfort.

This is why so many first-time novels fall apart.

I can tell everything that is wrong in a novel with a single glance at the log-line. Conversely, I can tell a writer what precisely needs to be fixed by looking at the log-line.

Does the story have a core problem? Is it a large enough/interesting enough problem to merit a whole novel? What are the stakes? Is there a ticking clock or have we given the MC forever to get around to accomplishing the goal?

If you’re like me and botched your first (hundred) attempts to write a novel, RELAX. It takes time to develop the level of sadism required to write spectacular stories. Not everyone is a born psychopath like George R.R. Martin.

New writers (in particular) tend to shy from any source of conflict, but conflict is the life blood of fiction. Log-lines can show us our story is flat-lining and WHY.

One of the best ways to learn how to write log-lines is to go peruse the IMDB (Internet Movie Database). Look up your favorite movies and see how they are described.

You can even look up movies that bombed and very often see the log-line was weak and the movie was doomed from the start. Look up movies similar to the story you are writing. Look up movies similar to the story you want to tell.

Solid novel log-lines will have 1) your protagonist 2) active verb 3) active goal 4) antagonist 5) stakes 6) ticking clock.

EXAMPLE: Here is a log-line I wrote for Michael Crichton’s Prey.

An out-of-work computer programmer (protagonist) must uncover (active verb) the secrets his wife is keeping in order to destroy (active goal) the nano-robotic threat (antagonist) to human-kind’s existence (stakes/ticking clock).

Hopefully you can see how this log-line meets all the criteria I set out earlier.

This log-line is ironic. An out-of-work programmer will uncover the robotic threat.

It’s emotionally intriguing. The main gatekeeper to the problem is his wife. This spells logistical and emotional complication to me.

Also, the MC doesn’t have forever to get around to stopping the threat. If he doesn’t ACT, humanity is doomed. Also, the price of failure and success is the same…everything he knows and loves.

It will interest potential readers. Considering it was a NYT best-seller, I think Crichton did okay.

So here is an exercise.

See if you can state your novel in one sentence. It will not only help add clarity to your writing and keep you on track, but when it comes time to pitch an agent or hook readers to BUY, you will be well-prepared and ready to knock it out of the park.

Practice on your favorite movies and books. Work those log-line muscles!

If you’re struggling, I’m giving a class next Thursday, September 20th, Pitch Perfect: How to Write a Query Letter & Synopsis That SELLS.

Part of this class is my special recipe/formula for amazing log-lines to impress your friends and, hopefully an agent. The first ten sign ups will get ME repairing your log-line, shining it up the snazziest it can be for FREE. Grab your slot ASAP. You can register HERE.

I LOVE hearing from you!

What are some problems you might be having? Do you find you wander too far off your original idea? What are your struggles with remaining focused?

What do you WIN? For the month of SEPTEMBER, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

***Chris Parrett is August’s winner. Please send your 5000 word Word doc to kristen at wana intl dot com. One-inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman Font, double-spaced. Congratulations!

***FYI: The Speculative Fiction Saturday has been moved to THIS COMING SATURDAY (9/15/18).

The software that powers our virtual classrooms kept crashing our servers #NotFun. Thus, we spent the entire weekend upgrading/updating all the tech and it looks fantastic!

I HIGHLY recommend The XXX Files Bundle (all three classes—world-building, character, advanced plotting—for the price of two). Speculative fiction includes sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, utopian, horror and basically all the weird stuff. Sign up and we can be weird TOGETHER!

It will be FUN!

Upcoming Classes for September

Brand Boss: When Your Name Alone Can Sell

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: General Admission $55.00 USD/ GOLD Level $175
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, Thursday September 13th, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

The XXX Files: The Planet X Speculative Fiction 3-Class Bundle

Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $110.00 USD (It’s LITERALLY one class FREE!)
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m. EST.

REGISTER HERE

Purchase includes FREE recording of all three classes.

Building Planet X: Out-of-This-World-Building for Speculative Fiction

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Populating Planet X: Creating Realistic, Relatable Characters in Speculative Fiction

Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 1:00—3:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Beyond Planet X: Mastering Speculative Fiction

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2018. 4:00—6:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Pitch Perfect—How To Write a Query Letter & Synopsis that SELLS

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $45 USD Standard
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, September 7:00 PM E.S.T. to 9:00 P.M. EST

You’ve written a novel and now are faced with the two most terrifying challenges all writers face. The query and the synopsis.

Query letters can be daunting. How do you sell yourself? Your work? How can you stand apart without including glitter in your letter?

***NOTE: DO NOT PUT GLITTER IN YOUR QUERY.

Good question. We will cover that and more!

But sometimes the query is not enough.

Most writers would rather cut their wrists with a spork than be forced to write the dreaded…synopsis. Yet, this is a valuable skills all writers should learn. Synopses are often requested by agents and editors and it is tough not to feel the need to include every last little detail. Synopses are great for not only keeping your writing on track, but also for pitching your next book and your next to that agent of your choice.

This class will help you learn the fundamentals of writing a query letter and a synopsis. What you must include and what doesn’t belong.

So make your writing pitch perfect with these two skills!

The post The Log-Line: Can You Pitch Your ENTIRE Story in ONE Sentence? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Those who’ve followed my blog long enough know I’m no fan of the Schrodinger’s Writer Game. Is the writer real or unreal? What IS a real writer?

For ages, we quibbled that a real writer had an agent. A real writer scored a legacy publishing deal. One had to pass the NYC gatekeepers to be a real writer.

On and on and on.

Now that writers no longer regard self-pub and indie as publishing mutations that escaped an Amazon basement (mostly), the debate has lost heat.

Publishing existentialism is soooo 2013 *flips hair* .

Yet, I wonder if this new publishing paradigm is hurting more than helping. And that is a hard thing for me to say since three of the five books I’ve published never would have made it to print if legacy remained the only model.

Even though I signed with one of the most prestigious literary agencies in NYC (in 2012), the big publishers regarded a book on author branding and social media with as much enthusiasm as Ebola.

Maybe I was ahead of my time. Perhaps the stars were not in alignment. It doesn’t matter.

The only thing I know is that I would never have become a “real” writer without the other forms of publishing. Indie and self-pub are highly effective for “test marketing” new concepts, voices, and genres.

Alas, despite so many incredible benefits, I’ve been around long enough to see the long-tail. How has the digital age changed the WRITER? Some changes have been for the good. Others? Don’t bode well for our kind.

Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist, full disclosure. I might have a finger pointed at y’all, but I also have THREE pointed back at myself.

Entropy is alive and well. We all slip if we fail to maintain vigilance. Excellence is tough, and can be easily mistaken for the shill…perfectionism.

Um…OUCH. *hangs head*

A REAL Writer WRITES

Seems so simple and yet, it is the hardest part of what we do. I know social media is a powerful tool. TRUST ME, it is why I wrote a book about how to do it well.

I wrote Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World to be evergreen so a writer could build a brand that actually sold books…and have time to do the most important part of our job. WRITE MORE BOOKS.

Write BETTER books.

My premise was that, if writers understood people—what makes them tick—then branding and social media is a piece of cake. Why? People don’t change.

Read Shakespeare or look up your ex if you don’t believe me.

If, however, we writers had to keep up with every time Google tooted a new algorithm, or InstaSnapFace added a gizmo? We’d burn out. Writing good books was tough enough without adding fruitless distractions.

I find it comical and depressing that in 2008 I had to BEG writers to even use email. Facebook was the devil and “nobody blogged anymore.” These days? It seems like writers contribute more word count to book spam, current events ranting, and pointless Facebook fights than to their novels.

November is the only month I can count on seeing writers actually WRITING a novel.

It’s as if we’ve caught digital ADD and have the attention spans of a fruit bat on crystal meth. With self-publishing being an ever-present option, deadlines don’t mean what they used to. Might not mean anything at all, actually.

The modern writer must be extremely self-disciplined. I’d venture to say the modern writer has to be even MORE self-disciplined than 15 years ago, because there is no agent that will drop us or publisher who’ll hand us a pink slip if we tweet more than type.

The point I want to make here is that the self-discipline required to set aside all other fun and chores to actually finish a book or novel is ridiculous. Rank it up there with running a full marathon or competing in triathlons.

But too many “writers” are playing writer.

A REAL Writer Has High Standards

Years ago, when I started blogging, I was unpopular (and probably still an acquired taste). In the early years, I was hard—really hard—on writers, especially anyone who wanted to take a nontraditional path. Our work had to be as good if not BETTER than anything coming out of NYC.

Indie and self-publishing could offer us a lot of benefits, but we needed to take the new powers we’d been granted seriously. Many writers did, and that is exactly WHY these routes have thrived.

Thing is, I’ve been editing since before the Kindle was invented, and have witnessed a steady decline in the overall quality of writing. What writers deem acceptable to turn in as their best.

Case in Point

I regularly run editing specials so writers can get professional feedback on their stories. This saves time and aggravation for a number of reasons.

For instance, a writer might be fixing something that isn’t even broken (description) while ignoring serious problem areas (no plot). Or, a writer may possess talent, but be WAY too green to even consider querying let alone publishing.

The story might be nebulous when it comes to genre, or breaking genre rules in unforgivable ways.

YES, unforgivable ways (like making the love interest the main villain in a category romance). I get many folks don’t care for words like “rules” but rules exist for a reason.

RULES help us sell more books.

If we have no idea what genre our book even is, how do we sell it? How can we connect it to readers? FYI, rules also keep readers from hurling our books across the room.

Yet, the same people who grouse about rules and constraints are often the same ones complaining to me about lackluster book sales.

I’ve been running my pages contest (for comments) for ten years now. I’ve discovered no less than six writers with talent who I then connected to agents I knew (who then scored these writers contracts). I do the same sort of scouting with my editing specials.

If I see REAL talent and promise? I pass it to an agent (*makes note to ask for commission*). The problem? These days I am lucky if a writer takes time to properly punctuate. I can’t even make it to the STORY because the grammar issues alone are giving me seizures.

This is a craft.

It’s a profession, not a playpen.

A REAL Writer is ALWAYS Learning

Come on….LAUGH! Lighten up .

Writer Unboxed, Jane Friedman, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi over at Writers Helping Writers , Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn, Icy Sedgwick’s Blog, Anne R. Allen’s blog, and Elizabeth Craig’s blog are GOLDMINES of information and professional help.

I can never thank all of these people enough for how much they helped ME in my developmental years. How they CONTINUE to inspire me and help me grow as a professional.

When I decided to become a “real” writer myself back in the dark ages, publishing hadn’t changed since radio shows were the hottest form of entertainment. Seriously, publishing had NOT changed in almost a century. The formula was exactly the same.

Write, query, get rejected, drink heavily, question one’s existence, and try harder. Repeat this process enough and eventually the “publishing gods” might grant favor.

Might.

I remember breathlessly waiting for the new Writers’ Digest Magazine to hit shelves and hope the magazine was covering something salient to what I wanted to learn or write. I collected dogeared magazines in binders. Gathered photocopied articles, punched holes in them and added them to my resource list.

A REAL Writer Studies

I bought and read every craft book I could find. My personal favorites include (but are not limited to) Les Edgerton’s Hooked, James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure, Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering, Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, Aristotle’s Poetics, David Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama , Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure, Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art,  and Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel.

Before Web 2.0, the only way an unpublished “aspiring writer” had a hope of connecting with the pros was to sacrifice and save money to attend a conference. The Internet wasn’t bursting with quality blogs, affordable classes, and on-line conferences or Gabriela Pereira’s amazing DIY MFA.

If we wanted to learn from professionals, the price of entry started at around $500. Unless one went for the Old School M.F.A. and that cost the same as a CAR. Yet now that it’s finally affordable and the quality is INCREDIBLE, how much do we take this treasure for granted?

Now that becoming a “published author” is so easy anyone can do it, how hungry are we to learn more about the craft? How much time and money are we investing in being better…or even the BEST writers?

Not investing in being the best at marketing or promotion, or in learning how to sell books using InstaSnapFace, but the best at telling an amazing story.

How much has Web 2.0 made us comfortable, complacent, or dare I say…lazy?

A Real Writer is ALWAYS Reading

So many of the samples I’ve received over the past two years have left me shaking my head wondering if the contributor has ever even read a book. Not only craft books but novels IN the genre they’re writing and—God help us all—the genre where they are publishing.

I get it. I’m mean and cruel.

I can live with that.

Yet, I cannot for the life of me imagine how anyone could be an avid reader and yet have NO idea how to use the most basic punctuation.

And bear with me.

I understand there are writers with learning disabilities, dyslexia, etc. and we all rely on editors for where we’re weak (and even where we’re strong). We become so immersed in a work we cannot see the forest for the trees and need fresh eyes (skilled fresh eyes).

This isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m referring to a blatant disregard for the craft.

Yep. This has been me.

Because in samples with poor grammar or spotty punctuation, I should at least detect a STORY if this is ONLY a result of being new. In fact I’ve run across samples where authors were weak in technical areas, but showed real promise with a strong storytelling voice.

I was willing to invest in developing these writers (and still do) because a) voice usually is a sign the person has at least inherent talent and b) and voice demonstrates a person who might be new, but who READS.

They’re willing to honor the profession.

Though loathe to mention this, it is not uncommon for me to encounter writers who want to be mega-authors yet will loudly boast they never read books (and don’t even like reading). Brag about never reading craft books.

***So who wants to hire an attorney who brags he’s never read a law book? Just uses Google, trial and error, and is really great at advertising. No takers?

This is, in large part, why traditionally published authors suffered such horrific apoplexy in the emerging years of self-publishing. One can only take the likes of John Locke comparing books to cheap cheeseburger so many times before we SNAP.

(Granted, Locke made a sound business point—and a small fortune—and good for him and his success.)

Yet, how much has this mega-capitalization diminished novels as art? We’ve lowered the bar so low most of us no longer can see if one exists. A bar (standard) that once required heroic efforts to hurdle, now? Doesn’t even register as a speed bump.

A REAL Writer Owns It

Aaand…this had been me, too.

Excuses are for hacks, poseurs and amateurs. Just so y’all know, this is what I say to myself when I hear excuses tumbling from MY lips. So I am no harder on you guys than I am on myself. I don’t serve anything I won’t eat.

Yes, life is hard and things happen. Trust me, I get it. For those who don’t know, I’ll be brief. In 2012 I had a very large (but aging) family. We had to RENT space large enough to fit us all. It’s now 2018 and I can count on one hand who’s left.

And you should have seen some of the pity parties I’ve thrown.

To be clear, I’m not minimizing. Being a caregiver for terminal loved ones is brutal. Death is painful. Losing a job can crack your world in two. Grief and loss should be acknowledged and tended with the greatest care.

But I’m all about transparency and so I’ll be honest.

I’ve often used my losses as an excuse to hide, my pain as permission to be a pessimist. I spent a long time being—feeling—completely discouraged and STUCK with no clue how to get UNSTUCK.

But I’ve learned two crucial lessons in my journey from wanna-be-amateur-know-it-all-hack to being a professional. The lessons?

1) Never underestimate the power of showing up.

2) You can’t DO THIS alone.

No, I didn’t have the answers and was hurting but I kept showing up on-line (W.A.N.A.Tribe sprints mostly). There, I had accountability. There were other writers I could encourage or who could even encourage me. I wouldn’t have made it without this strong support system.

In the meantime—in the middle of the pain—I kept reading craft books, kept reading authors in all genres, writers far more skilled than I was. Even when it felt like pulling frog’s teeth, I kept blogging, studying, kept doing SOMETHING trusting one day…I’d wriggle free.

Pain isn’t permanent and I knew one day I’d heal enough to use it. But I HAD to stay in the game, even if it meant being stationed at the @$$ end of literary left field.

Real writers make mistakes. We fail. A lot.

If you aren’t failing, it means you’re not doing anything interesting. You’re taking up space.

But, while we screw up…we OWN that we screwed up. We admit when we could have done better, then we do.

Part of being a REAL writer goes beyond never giving up. We must evolve and grow and learn and improve and that only comes with humility, hard work, and (if we have any sense) professional training. Oh, and a TON of practice. Writing stories. Finishing them.

What This ALL Means

There is nothing wrong with writing for fun, for a hobby. That’s what I do with drawing, painting, knitting and crochet.

Dr. Who’s “Empty Child” via K. Lamb.

It’s play, a release. But I’m not expecting people to buy my art or my scarves. We need to make a choice. Are we in or out? Stop griping about Amazon and algorithms and how it was so much more awesome before Amazon. Value those who are taking time and investing resources to make us better.

Roll up our sleeves and the DO THE WORK.

I believe in you guys and I know this transition in publishing has been NO cake walk. There have been times even I wanted to throw in the towel. But most of being successful in anything takes place in the mind because the mind forges the will and will is what yields results. Keep your eyes on the art and remember who you are.

You are a REAL WRITER. It’s a CHOICE.

Now go check out some of those incredible blogs I linked you to and treat yourself to some books or classes. Sure, I’d love you to take our classes (listed below and on classes page). But, if I’m not offering what fits your needs, go check out the other people I linked to. They’re the best of the best. Invest in yourself for a change.

The kids can wait .

What Are Your Thoughts?

Have you grown jaded over the past several years with the changes in publishing? Feel like it doesn’t mean much of anything to be “published writer”? Have you found yourself steadily lowering your own bar without even realizing it? All because it seems TOO MUCH? Hey, I have. No shame here.

Are you excited to get back to writing as a craft and an ART?

I love hearing from you!

What do you WIN? For the month of AUGUST, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

UPCOMING CLASSES! Scroll down or click over to the Classes tab.

NEW CLASS! Beta readers are crucial, but how do we find good ones…when they are pretty much as rare as unicorns? Cait is teaching a class on that TOMORROW NIGHT.

***Remember all W.A.N.A. classes come with a FREE recording included in purchase price.

Go Fish: Finding the Right Beta Readers

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Friday, August 24, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m.

REGISTER HERE

Whoever said that writing a book is a solitary job is an idiot.

It takes a village (or at the very least a Facebook group, some friends, and possibly a bottle of wine) to write a book. As writers, we need other writers…and non-writers. But, how do we find the right mix of people to support us? What do we do when they don’t? How do we communicate what we need effectively to beta readers and crit partners? And what the heck is an alpha reader?

What’s more, how do we take the feedback from beta readers and use it correctly?

It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of spinning our wheels on endless edits of the draft of the first draft, to react big and badly to criticism, or to drown in the obligations of reciprocating beta reading for our seventeen new best friends and their manuscripts.

Fear not! This class is going to show you how to hunt down beta readers like big game, befriend them in a way that puts Dale Carnegie to shame, and create long-lasting, mutually-beneficial beta and crit partnerships that are so Hufflepuff/Gryffindor, it makes my Slytherin soul cringe.

This class will cover:

• Wherefore art thou?: Where to find beta readers;
• Alpha betas, beta betas, omega betas: The different types of beta readers, and why we need them;
• Fish or cut beta: What to do when a beta reader relationship isn’t working – fix, fight, or flight?
• I’m looking at the beta reader in the mirror: Are you the best beta reader you can be, and why improving your own skills will make you a better writer;
• Gospel vs. grain of salt: How to balance thoughtful consideration of critique with Pavlovian instant tweaking, and why beta readers should never be the one holding the map on the hike.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

MORE CLASSES!

(Check out our page of current classes!)

Also, a small house-keeping note: if you’d like to see more of our shenanigans, check out our video page! 

When Your Name Alone Can Sell

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: General Admission $55.00 USD/ GOLD Level $175
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

LEARN TO BE A BRAND BOSS!

All authors need a brand, so this class teaches how to locate and cultivate your audience into passionate fans who BUY YOUR BOOKS!

How can you grow your platform and turn your name alone into a bankable asset? Not as hard as you might have been led to believe.

You DO NOT need to be a tech guru/mega-high-pressure-sales person to excel at this. In fact, best you aren’t.

Yet, the reality is that in the digital age of commerce, consumers rely on brands more than ever in human history. They’re overwhelmed and we can help them out….by finding US.

Consumers (which is code for readers) buy from who they know, like and trust. In a sea of infinite choices a powerful NAME is a tremendous asset.

Can you say “James Patterson”?

The single largest challenge all writers face in the digital age is discoverability and connecting with our audience is a challenge but nothing we can’t handle.

This class will address:

• What is a brand? How to make one uniquely your own.
• How to BE YOU! You’re a writer, not an insurance salesman!
• Harness your imagination & creativity for better results (No one likes SPAM, so don’t serve it!).
• How to use this information to locate, engage and cultivate an audience.
• Myths about exposure.
• Common scams that will wreck your brand and earning ability.
• Why most promotion is a waste of money.
• A list of expensive and not-so-bright ideas for reaching readers.
• Knowing when and HOW to promote.

Overall this class is about working smarter not harder. This class is to teach you to think strategically so all energy is focused. Sure, we have to hustle, but why not hustle and there be an AUTHENTIC PAYDAY for all that hard work?

GOLD LEVEL AVAILABLE: This is you working with me (Kristen Lamb) for 90 minutes building, defining, refining your brand and putting together a PLAN! Time is money and professional consulting saves BOTH.

****A FREE recording is included with purchase of this class.

More Than Gore: How to Write Horror

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $40.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: THURSDAY, August 30th, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Humans have always been fascinated with what scares them which is why horror fiction is a staple genre. It is also, quite possibly, the most challenging genre to write. Giant bugs and chainsaws just don’t get the screams they used to.

Blood, guts, gore and shock factor are low-hanging fruit (and always have been) and worse than that? They simply don’t have the impact they used to.

Audiences are too desensitized. This means we need to work harder to dig in and poke at what REALLY frightens/disturbs people.

Though this genre is extremely challenging to write well, there is an upside. The horror genre lends itself well to the short form (novellas and short stories).

Believe it or not, some of our staple horror movies–and the BEST horror movies—were actually adaptations of short stories and novellas (1408 by Stephen King and Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker being two examples).

Meaning, if you want to go Hollywood? Hollywood loooooves horror.

In this class we will cover:

• The science behind fear and why people crave it. Why fear is even healthy!
• Psychology of fear, thus how to locate the pain points.
• Why audiences are craving MORE horror (Yes, this actually does go in cycles).
• The different types of horror fiction.
• The importance of character in horror.
• How horror can actually resonate much like literary fiction.
• How to generate page-turning tension that will leave readers with a story they can’t stop thinking about…and that might even give them nightmares.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

Keywordpalooza: Tune in, mellow out, and learn to love keywords for Amazon

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Friday, September 7, 2018. 7:00—9:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

It’s one of the universe’s great mysteries… the same word can both boost and drown your book in a category (mind BLOWN, man!).

Keywords also seem to evolve every five minutes…or are we the one evolving, like a butterfly having a dream of SEO (trippy, dude!)? Like gravity and Jane Fonda’s hair in ‘Barbarella,’ the popular rules for using keywords value over-inflation and the slavish following of fads.

But, like Talbot’s tweed and mother’s pearls, certain marketing strategies and techniques are enduring classics that stand the test of time. They’re not flashy like bellbottoms, nor do they yield dramatic overnight results like ironing your hair. Yet, ignore trends, and we risk getting left behind…kind of like buying electric typewriter ribbon because that whole ‘computer word processing’ thing will never take off.

This class won’t just help you turn on, tune in, and drop out of the keyword rat race. We’ll also cover:

• Fully body contact SEO: when and where to use keywords, and what publishers know that you don’t;
• Fantastic keywords and where to find them: which websites, lists, search engines, and Magic 8 Balls yield the best keyword research results;
• Mix and match like a Parisienne: no, seriously, how to mix consistent ‘classic’ keywords with the latest trends like a Frenchwoman wears a crisp white shirt with this season’s Hermes scarf;
• Same bat genre, same bat book, different bat keywords?: learn the differences between keywords for ebooks, print, and audio;
• And so much more!

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

Building Planet X: Out-of-This-World-Building for Speculative Fiction

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 8, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Speculative fiction may be a way of seeing the world ‘through a glass darkly,’ but it can also be one of the clearest, most pointed, and even most disturbing ways of seeing the truth about ourselves and our society.

It’s not just the weird stuff that makes the settings of speculative fiction so unnerving. It’s the way ‘Normal’ casually hangs out at the corner of ‘Weird’ and ‘Familiar.’

But it’s trickier than it seems to get readers to this intersection without letting them get bogged down in the ‘Swamp of Useless Detail’ or running them into the patch of ‘Here be Hippogriffs’ (when the story is clearly about zombies). How do we create a world that is easy to slip into, absorbingly immersive, yet not distracting from the character arcs and plots?

This class will cover:

• Through the looking glass darkly: How to take a theme/issue/message and create a world that drives it home to the reader.
• Ray guns and data chips: The art of showing vs. telling in world-building.
• Fat mirror vs. skinny mirror: What is scarce in the world? Valuable? Forbidden? Illegal? What do people want vs. what they have vs. what they need?
• Drawing a line in the sand: What are the laws, taboos, limits of this world? What is unacceptable to you/the reader/the character? How are they the same or different, and why it matters.
• Is Soylent Green gluten-free and other vital questions: All the questions you need to ask about your world, but didn’t know…and how to keep track of all the answers.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

Populating Planet X: Creating Realistic, Relatable Characters in Speculative Fiction

Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 8, 2018. 1:00—3:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

It’s a time-honored tradition in literature to take an ordinary person out of his or her normal life and throw them into a whirlwind of extraordinary circumstances (zombies/tyrants/elves/mean girls optional). After all, upsetting the Corellian apple cart is what great storytellers do best.

It’s also that very same ordinariness and normalcy that first gets the reader to identify then empathize with the characters and stick with them (and the book) through to the end.

But, what do we do when…

Our ‘ordinary’ protagonist lives with a chip implant and barcode tattoo, and our antagonist happens to be a horde of flesh-eating aliens…or a quasi-fascist regime bent on enforcing social order, scientific progress above ethics, and strict backyard composting regulations (those MONSTERS!)?

How the heck is the reader supposed to identify with that? I mean, seriously. Regulating backyard composting? It would never happen in a free society.

This leaves us with two challenges in creating characters for speculative fiction: 1. How to use the speculative world-building to shape the backgrounds, histories, and personalities of characters, and 2. How to balance the speculative and the relatable to create powerful, complex character arcs.

This class will cover:

• Resistance is futile: What does normal look like for the characters? What’s different or strange, and how to get readers to accept that retinal scans and Soylent Green are just par for the course.
• These aren’t the droids you’re looking for: What are the discordant elements around the characters? What are their opinions about it? What are the accepted consequences or outcomes?
• You gonna eat that?: Whether it’s running from brain-eating zombies or fighting over dehydrated space rations, what is important both physically and emotionally to the character? What is in short supply or forbidden?
• We’re all human here (even the ones over there with tentacles): The basic principles and techniques of creating psychological touchpoints readers can identify with.
• Digging out the implant with a grapefruit spoon: In a speculative world, what are the stakes for the character? The breaking point? The turning point?
• And so much more!!!

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

Beyond Planet X: Mastering Speculative Fiction

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 8, 2018. 4:00—6:00 p.m. EST

REGISTER HERE

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term used to describe narrative fiction with supernatural or futuristic elements. This includes but it not necessarily limited to fantasy, science fiction, horror, utopian, dystopian, alternate history, apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction.

Basically, all the weird stuff.

Gizmos, gadgets, magic, chainsaws, demons, fantastical worlds and creatures are not enough and never have been. Whether our story is set on Planet X, in the sixth dimension of hell, on a parallel world, or on Earth after Amazon Prime gained sentience and enslaved us all, we still must have a core human story that is compelling and relatable.

In this class we will cover:

• Discovering the core human story problem.
• How to plot these unique genres.
• Ways to create dimensional and compelling characters.
• How to harness the power of fear and use psychology to add depth and layers to our story.
• How to use world-building to enhance the story, not distract from it.

***A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

The XXX Files: The Planet X Speculative Fiction 3-Class Bundle

Instructors: Cait Reynolds & Kristen Lamb
Price: $110.00 USD (It’s LITERALLY one class FREE!)
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Saturday, September 8, 2018. 10:00 a.m.—6:00 p.m. EST.

REGISTER HERE

Recordings of all three classes is also included with purchase.

About the Instructors:

Kristen Lamb is the author of the definitive guide to social media and branding for authors, Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World. She’s also the author of #1 best-selling books We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer. She’s just released her debut thriller The Devil’s Dance.

Kristen has written over twelve hundred blogs and her site was recognized by Writer’s Digest Magazine as one of the Top 101 Websites for Writers. Her branding methods are responsible for selling millions of books and used by authors of every level, from emerging writers to mega authors.

Cait Reynolds is a USA Today Bestselling Author and lives in Boston with her husband and neurotic dog. She discovered her passion for writing early and has bugged her family and friends with it ever since. She likes history, science, Jack Daniels, jewelry, pasta, and solitude. Not all at the same time. When she isn’t enjoying the rooftop deck that brings her closer to the stars, she writes.

The post This is Gonna Leave a Mark: What Makes a “Real” Writer? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image courtesy of Kevin Wood via Flickr Creative Commons

I put in a lot of work and study when it comes to honing my writing skills. This means I’m always searching for ways to become a stronger author and craft teacher. Want to get better at anything? Look to those who are the best at what they do and pay close attention.

This said, wanting to deepen my understanding of drama, I enrolled in David Mamet’s on-line course for Dramatic Writing (which has been superlative). In one of the lessons, Mamet said something that challenged my thinking regarding characters.

I won’t directly relay what his assertion was because it’s very much a class worth taking, and I’d hate to spoil it for anyone. Regardless, his commentary regarding character creation made me extremely uncomfortable.

At first, I balked. Big time. Challenging ideas do that.

I thought, Yes, well Mamet’s referring to stage and screen. With written fiction we have narrative. Actors don’t possess this.

Which IS true, yet Mamet’s unconventional opinion stopped me long enough to give his angle some serious consideration. Did his assessment relate to our sort of fiction?

Craft Crossover? 

Written form stories hold some major advantages, the largest of those being internal narration. The audience knows what’s going on in the head of the character (or can believe they know).

On stage or screen, it’s up to the actors’ abilities to accurately portray the internal, which is a tough order. It’s also why if a book is made into a movie, watch the movie first.

Otherwise…

This largely has nothing to do with the quality (or lack thereof) regarding the play/film. Internal narrative allows for a far more intimate psychic distance that is ONLY possible in the written form.

The medium is different and thus should be judged differently…though we still gripe the book was WAY better.

Stage and film rely on the screenplay which is very BASIC. It’s all dialogue and up to the director’s vision and the actors’ talent. Character creation for stage and screen cannot help but differ from written form, yet by how much? What can we learn from our sister mediums?

****Other than Sister Mediums is a way better reality show concept than Sister Wives? #SquirrelMoment

Character Creation

Image courtesy of Kevin Wood via Flickr Creative Commons

I thought back over works I’d edited, earlier stories of my own and had a moment of revelation. Why were some characters so flat? As interesting as some form-molded widget popped off on an assembly line?

Conversely, what made other characters almost come ALIVE?

What was the X-factor?

Now that I’ve noodled this, I’ve revised some of my thinking. Multi-dimensional characters are not something writers can directly create. Rather, these lifelike people are forged from the crucible of story.

Dramatic writing uses a core problem (fire). The core problem generates escalating problems (the hammer). The trials (increasing heat/hammering) reveal, refine, define, and ultimately transform the narrative actors into characters.

Story alone holds the power to bestow resonance.

Fill-In-The-Blank People

Sure, we can do all the activities of filling out a character profile. But, these character sheets alone are about as telling as a ‘fill-in-the fields-profile’ on a dating site. Height, weight, build, nationality, attractiveness, education level, how many kids, previously married, hobbies, etc.

Dating profiles also provide blank spaces for additional ‘deep, character-revealing statements’ such as: I’m not a game-player, love Mexican food, and my favorite activities are crossfit and hiking.

FYI: ALL of that is likely a lie (other than enjoying Mexican food). Anyone who starts with I am not a game-player is almost guaranteed to be a game-player. It’s Shakespeare’s Rules of Romance. Or, as I call it, ‘The Lady/Dude Doth Protest Too Much’ litmus.

Anyway…

No School Like Old School

….or not.

Do I create character profiles? Sure. I also put a lot of thought and research into what ‘people’ I want to cast in a given story. It’s a great activity, but be careful. We can’t camp there. Activity and productivity are not synonymous.

Ultimately, fictional characters reflect the real human experience in a distilled and intensified form. This, however, doesn’t give an automatic pass on authenticity.

Aristotle might be Old School, but his observations regarding drama resonate even into the 21st century. In Aristotle’s Poetics he asserts:

Since the objects of imitation are men in action, and these men must be either of a higher or a lower type (for moral character mainly answers to these divisions, goodness and badness being the distinguishing marks of moral differences), it follows that we must represent men either as better than in real life, or as worse, or as they are. ~Aristotle

This gives three schools: Polygnotus (more noble), Pauson (less noble), and Dionysius (real life).

Even today these three schools of story thought are alive and well. Marvel’s Captain America movies proffer the larger-than-life hero, the man better than real men (Polygnotus).

Westworld and Game of Thrones provide a vast assortment of villains who are worse-than-life, an exaggeration of evil (Pauson).

Then, movies like Training Day or Glengarry Glen Ross show men as they really are…flawed. They’re not entirely noble or ignoble (Dionysis).

Granted, this is a vast simplification, but we can see novels fall into these schools as well. Genre dictates a lot of this. Harry Potter, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and A Man Called Ove could reasonably be placed in each category.

Talk is Cheap

Why do I mention these ‘schools’ of story? Depending on genre, readers will have expectations when it comes to what they’ll find entertaining. As writers, our primary job is to entertain. This said, stories are for the audience. This means we need to either serve them what they enjoy, or serve them what they don’t yet know they will enjoy .

As a general ‘rule,’ readers who gravitate to stories like Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy are fundamentally different than readers who prefer stories like Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. What readers are looking for—regarding story and characters—will be specific to the genres they gravitate to.

It’s critical to define what kind/flavor of story we want to tell, because an idea can be delivered any number of ways (parodies prove this).

Also, telling a story audiences don’t yet know they will love must work with the boundaries of preference. Take the boundaries and push them or deliver them in a new, fresh way.

J.K. Rowling didn’t completely ignore reader expectations and preferences for YA fantasy. She merely delivered her stories in a brand new way. She cast a boy (Harry Potter) as her lead protagonist.

At the time, the YA fantasy world was dominated by female protagonists. The genre’s audience expected one approach, but only because they didn’t yet realize they’d LOVE something else. An unwanted boy living under the stairs, unaware he’s a wizard destined for greatness.

Talk the Talk & Walk the Walk

Earlier, I mentioned character backgrounds. These are a good start, but they’re only that. A start. Characters aren’t who we (the writer) say they are. Characters are composed of what they do or don’t do.

Go back to my analogy of an on-line dating profile. Someone can talk a great game on some dating site. Yet, it won’t be until that first awkward meet at a coffee shop—in person—that this profile is put to any real test.

Sure, he might say he’s a nice guy and have loads of pics of him with puppies and kids. But, how does he respond when the barista knocks a scorching hot venti Americano all over his best shirt? Does he laugh it off and try to calm the hysterical barista? Or, does he throw a fit, demand the barista be fired, and threaten to sue?

She might claim she longs for friendship and intimacy in her profile. But, at coffee, how often is she checking her phone? Her Facebook? Does she engage and listen, or does she have the attention span of a goldfish with severe ADD…who just smoked some crack?

Same in Stories

We can tell the reader a character is a certain way, but how that character acts matters more. For instance, I did an edit not too long ago and the writer said the female protagonist was a strong alpha female. Problem was, the MC didn’t act like one. I called the writer on the lack of continuity.

This is part of what we (editors) mean when we use the phrase, ‘Show, don’t tell.’

The writer can TELL me (the reader) all she wants how this character is an alpha take-no-prisoners gal, which the writer did in the set-up. Fair enough. But three pages later, when this alleged ‘alpha female’ is essentially begging for a chance at contract? I called FOUL. If she’s an alpha personality, then she needs to act like it. Actions speak louder than words.

We can TELL readers a character is anything, yet how that character acts is all that matters.

Talk is cheap and, adding to that…

Humans Are Liars

*hangs head* Yep. Probably.

We’re all liars. We might lie to others (to one degree or another). Mostly, though, we lie to ourselves. Wow, the dryer really shrank my pants!

No judgement. Goes with being human.

We all want to believe if something horrific happened, we’d act heroically. Maybe we would. But, perhaps not. We all want to believe we’d NEVER do X (kill, run, hide), but there’s only one way to know for certain.

Trial by fire.

Problem is, what we believe about our own character (integrity or lack thereof) is all theory until we’re faced with some crisis that puts that belief to the test. Only a test can reveal our belief as truth, half-truth, or a lie (self-delusion). Crises show us what we are made of (or not).

The hero-in-his-own-mind may, when faced with an actual trial, turn out to be a complete coward. Conversely, the person who wholly believes she could never be heroic might, in reality, be the most heroic of all.

It’s the same with characters in a story.

Character Crucible

Structure (story) acts as the crucible and how we put the story together is what steadily turns up the heat on all parties involved. Next time we’ll focus in on the components of story, the scene and the sequel. But here’s a preview and how it relates to character.

The scene is a fundamental building block of fiction. It is physical. Something tangible is happening. The scene has three parts (per Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure, an invaluable resource which I recommend every writer buy and study).

• Statement of the goal
• Introduction and development of conflict
• Failure of the character to reach his goal, a tactical disaster

Goal –> Conflict –> Disaster

The sequel is the other fundamental building block and is the emotional thread. The sequel often begins at the end of a scene when the viewpoint character has to process the unanticipated but logical disaster that happened at the end of your scene.

Emotion–> Thought–> Decision–> Action

Notice how the scene presents the problem, which then provides a way we (readers) can witness how a character acts/responds externally.

The sequel permits audience access to the internal. We can peer into the thoughts of that character. This is where we’ll witness how a character evolves/or devolves over time. For bonus points, internal narrative—in scene and the sequel—is a fantastic way to mess with readers’ heads (I.e. the unreliable narrator).

In the End

Everyone has his or her version of the truth, but we as writers must tangibly demonstrate this. This means, when we strengthen the story, this automatically can strengthen the characters.

Everything in dramatic writing is and should be intentional. No extra screws or bits. Granted, practice will make us all better at this, but in great stories there are NO free rides. Period. No thought, setback, bit of setting, snippet of dialogue is there to simply take up space.

It ALL serves a vital/integral purpose.

And, if any character’s actions do not line up with who we (the writer) says he is? It better be intentional .

For anyone who longs to accelerate their plot skills, I recommend my On Demand Plot Boss: Writing Novels Readers Want to BUY. Two hours of intensive plot training from MOI…delivered right to your computer to watch as much as you like .

Or to make stabbing motions at my head with a pen. Die! Die! Kristen we loves you but hates you!

I also am offering The Art of Character (March 22nd 7-9 EST). Advanced material, lots of FUN! Who better to teach character THAN a character? LOL.

I’m also offering my Bullies and Baddies: Understanding the Antagonist on March 29th (7-9 EST) recording included with purchase if you can’t make it. Both are advanced-level material to take your writing to another level.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Is the saying, ‘Show, don’t tell‘ making a bit more sense? Can you see how problems are the ONLY way to really deliver character? How actions can be used in all sorts of ways, even as a way of misleading the audience for WHAMMO twist endings?

Where do you struggle? Because we ALL do. What you want to know more about? Where you get stuck, etc.

I look forward to helping you guys become stronger at your craft. What are some of your biggest problems, hurdles or misunderstandings about plot? Where do you most commonly get stuck?

I love hearing from you!

And am not above bribery!

What do you WIN? For the month of March, for everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

***February’s winner is Gabriella L. Garlock. Please send your 5,000 word Word document in a doc.x file, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins to kristen @wana intl dot com. Congrats!

By the way, yes I also offer classes, and so does my partner-in-crime USA Today Best-Selling Author Cait Reynolds does, too. We both want y’all to write amazing books because that means more word of mouth sales, and a world with better books.

NEW CLASSES (AND SOME OLD FAVES)!

You can sign up HERE!

The post Character Building: How Story Forges, Refines, and Defines Characters appeared first on Kristen Lamb.