Are we too “domesticated” to write truly great stories? This might seem like an odd question, but bear with me. I’ve been incredibly blessed over the course of my life to travel all over the world. While I did get to check out some of the resorts, my favorite travel stories seem to always involve places no one in their right mind would go…on purpose.

Note I DID qualify with “in their right mind.”

Like the time I lived in Syria, went out into the desert to look at ruins but failed to pack enough water *face palm*. This ancient Bedouin shuffled past me wearing a huge glass bottle full of water…that he was selling by the sip.

I have no shame.

I bought the WHOLE BOTTLE.

Or when I was on the Mexican border and had to go to the ladies’ room. As I am sitting there…a chicken just walks in and decides to be my friend. Still funny.

In the jungles of Belize, I spent all day wielding a sledgehammer to pull up a sidewalk at a school (humanitarian mission). The entire day it rained on me. I spent seven hours slogging through mud in the rain carrying buckets of cement, ripping up rebar, and patrolling—machete in hand—for snakes.

End of the day? All I wanted was a shower. I strip down to everything but my seriously stupid lime green flip flips with big goofy flowers on the toes, turn on the water…and SCORPIONS RAIN DOWN OUT OF THE SHOWER CURTAIN.

Apparently goofy flower flip flops make an excellent weapon.

Why are these some of my favorite stories? Especially since none of them cast me in a particularly good light. Whether it is me being too dumb to pack WATER in the SYRIAN DESERT or naive enough to not watch for SCORPIONS in a JUNGLE, there is a common thread.

I was far too domesticated.

Domesticated Writers

There is a strange cognitive distortion we can all experience being a part of First World living. We really don’t know what it is like to worry about most of that really important stuff at the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

I mean FOOD? Me? Hunt? *hair flip* I don’t even know how to track tacos. Are burritos migratory? Do pizzas travel in packs?

***If you know, please answer in the comments.

Please understand. I am seriously grateful that I am an American, that I live in a wonderful country and enjoy incredible blessings. Yet, how often do we take these blessings for granted? How much can modern life lull us into a form of sensory sleepwalking that make our writing come across as dull, colorless or inauthentic?

Case in point.

One of my favorite classes to teach was Beyond Bulletproof Barbie. This class covered combatives (various forms of martial arts), guns (everything from pistols to long arms), and bladed weapons. I enjoy teaching it because, while I “get” we write fiction and can’t be 100% accurate, a handful of really great details truly enhances authenticity.

When reading any fight scene, I can almost instantly tell a writer who has a) never been punched or b) has never thrown a punch.

How?

Easy.

Punching suuuucks. I know! News flash. Either way. Honestly. Sucks to be puncher or punch-ee. And I get that it is easy to believe the person doing the punching gets the better of it but no. FUN FACT! Unless one is a professional fighter, odds are pretty good you will break or dislocate something in your hand.

Am I suggesting we start Writer Fight Club? No…because I can’t talk about Writer Fight Club. Also, pain sucks. But, I do believe the answer is simpler.

Domesticated Distortion

Sometimes, just recognizing we have a blind spot is a great start. This is where, first of all, being a prolific reader will be seriously helpful. We can only do and experience so much, so why not rely on the experiences of others? The more we read, the deeper creative well we draw from.

I have no idea what it is like to live in the aftermath of a war (and pray I never do). But I can read works from people who have. I’m not a man, a child, a space alien, a battle hardened Marine, or a geriatric, but I can be all those things because I can use empathy and imagination. That said, empathy and imagination, like other writing muscles, need strength training.

If we believe we might be too domesticated, then how might we ratchet up the story intensity? I recommend practicing deep empathy. Try writing in Deep POV.

Refer to: Deep POV: What IS It & Why Do Readers LOVE It So Much?

Deep POV is not only a fantastic way to hook readers into the story experience at a whole other—visceral—level, but it will also help us be aware of our domesticated blind spots.

Try doing some short writing pieces on the same topic. Same story prompt but from as many different POVs as you can think of. Maybe change the setting, too.

Most of us tend to—at least in the beginning—write as ourselves. Hey, I did it! Still do. When they say “write what you know” then this is kind of a “no duh” thing right?

But can you take a story prompt then write from the perspective of someone who is NOT you? Empathy is a fantastic skill in life and in writing.

Experience Informs Perspective

We can take a simple scenario and do a fun thought experiment/writing exercise. Take our domesticated brains into a domesticated situation that suddenly is anything BUT.

There is a bodega on the corner of a major city. It’s late at night. There is an Uber driver, an elderly person, a young mother, and a juvenile delinquent. Someone decides to rob the bodega.

Who is it? How do the others react? Who “saves” the day? Should it have been “saved” at all? Are things not as they might appear? Do we end up with an unlikely hero? An unintended tragedy?

Could you write the story where each person is the robber and make us empathize with their motives? Note I said we had to empathize not agree. That is an important distinction. In life, we are all good, law-abiding citizens so cognitive dissonance like this stretches our brain muscles.

The key to having a reader empathize is to show who the character is and relay their why (motive).

Under normal circumstances, robbing a bodega is unacceptable. But great stories leave normal in the dust. Additionally, those around react correspondingly using their frame of reference and life experiences. They can help ratchet the tension in the story.

Say our would-be robber is the Uber driver. A half hour earlier, he picked up the Ride from Hell. Unfortunately for him, his fare took a page out of the noir classic Collateral and our poor Uber driver is actually a hostage, himself.

He has to hit a certain number of bodegas before midnight or his family will die.

That’s already a bad night, but what if the senior citizen is an ex-Green Beret and decides to be a hero? What if the teenager is actually a twenty-eight-year-old Vice officer? Or the young mother is actually part of the cartel and was there to collect extortion money from the owner?

What if the cashier just found out his wife was leaving him for his brother and they’d emptied all his savings. All he has left is this crappy job and he just can’t be pushed one…more…step.

We can make these people as benign or interesting as we want. There are plenty of everyday people who do extraordinary things—good and bad—with the right lever. Conversely, there are plenty of folks walking around who seem ordinary at first glance but are anything BUT.

Eg. Spies never look like spies unless it’s the movies.

Psst, neither do aliens.

This is where fiction becomes FUN.

Domesticated Imaginations

I know what it is like to get caught up in the humdrum of life. Whether it is the day job, the WIP that we have been working on for months, life, family, health issues. We can forget how important it is to shove ourselves out of our comfort zone to knock the dust off our imaginations.

Maybe you can do this in your own WIP. If you are stuck, pull out a supporting character and write an experience from their POV. When in a scene, think from all angles. Sight is the weakest of all the senses yet writers (in my experience) rely on it too much. Can we see if we can put ourselves even deeper into the scene? FEEL the cold, TASTE the heat, SENSE the danger?

What Are Your Thoughts?

I know I was suffering from being too domesticated. After working from home for almost twenty years, I took a temporary job in November to get out of the house. You know you’ve been working at home too many years when you eat your lunch like you just served a dime in the pen.

It’s been a lot of fun and has gotten me out of my comfort zone, but the schedule has been a mess trying to fit it with homeschooling and other work. FINALLY it seems to be leveling off. I’ve been working in fashion marketing and the holidays was just BONKERS crazy and January is the start of a whole new year and and and and. LIFE.

BUT it really did show me how many experiences I’d forgotten about working on my own with only my imaginary friends to bug me. VERY different being in a corporate setting.

But I am still here. Still weird. Weirder by the day. So any of y’all have tips on hunting those burritos?

What are our thoughts? Do you think maybe you hold back too much in your work sometimes? Maybe you could push a little harder but have gotten out of the habit?

Also, feel free to drop a try at the bodega story in the comments. I always love seeing y’all show off!

The post Are We Too “Domesticated” to Write Great Stories? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

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.

Wounds matter in life and in fiction. We’ve all been hurt in some way and to some degree. Just goes with being human.

Admitting weakness, failure, mistakes, and flaws isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be downright terrifying for even the ‘strongest’ of us. It’s an especially daunting task in a world that idolizes something none of us will ever be…perfect.

Wounds are part of the human experience. When we understand the nature of wounds, our fiction becomes all the richer just by adding in these layers.

All genres and all stories require wounds. No wound and no story. Even The Little Engine That Could had self-esteem issues and a confidence problem .

Wounds provide friction vital for conflict. No conflict, no story. Conflict turns pages, sells books, and cultivates fans. Remember, last time, we discussed how the market is BEYOND GLUTTED with BAD STORIES? How can we possibly stand out in against millions of titles, when even the ROBOTS are competing?

No one wants literary meatloaf. Boring=DEATH

One tried and true way to stand apart is the ‘No, duh.’ Tell AMAZING stories. We MUST come up higher. Again, no one wants literary meatloaf. This said, one of the BIGGEST weaknesses I see as an editor is writers holding back. You cannot afford to be meh. Definitely not in fiction. Wounds are THE best way to sell a story and cultivate an audience, especially these days.

Which is fine, because we are all feeling a bit damaged lately—writers & readers—so it is wonderful to escape in a story where a) the characters are wounded, too b) we can relate and maybe work through our demons and drama and c) there is resolution (and maybe even a happily-ever after!).

The entire point of stories is a flawed character overcoming some internal issue (damage) in order to triumph over an external problem. It’s why readers read fiction.

Undamaged characters aren’t simply boring, but the audience won’t be able to relate with them. How can we empathize with someone who lacks a past? Who’s never made a mistake, has no regrets, or has lived a charmed and problem-free life?

Short answer? We can’t.

In fact, the more messed up a person (or character) is, often the more interesting they become. Give them a shameful past, enough secrets to stress out Homeland Security, and more skeletons in the closet then a royal family. Audiences LIKE messed up people because they are a) the same but different (usually) b) they are unpredictable c) they inject excitement/drama into the everyday.

Remember Fight Club? When we meet the narrator and MC, he is dull as dirt…until MARLA. Who makes TYLER DURDEN emerge. So even if your character is a Safe Susan or Dull Dave, toss a lunatic character (and their peaceful, quite lives) into a blender then hit HIGH and watch the FUN.

Suffice to say that, today we will talk some about craft, and next time I have some completely new content regarding how to build your platform, identify your readers then connect with them and build a thriving fan base. It is a topic I have kept solely for classes and conferences, so should be fun.

Moving on!

Wounds: Genre Dictates Damage

All this said, the wounds we (writers) create need to fit the genre because genre acts as a guideline for reader expectations. Our goal as authors should be to meet then exceed reader expectations.

Stories are all for the reader or should be, which is why genre constraints can be very helpful for writers.

No one expects a cozy cupcake mystery to explore the nature of evil. Readers who gravitate to this genre are wanting a lighter read and will resent us playing Dostoyevsky.

Conversely, if a reader is in the mood for a story that probes the depths of the human condition, they’re probably not picking up a novel about a cupcake baker who solves local crimes.

Many emerging writers often shy away from damaged characters and use genre as an excuse to avoid the uncomfortable. Big mistake.

A cozy cupcake mystery can give the reader the light entertainment she craves and also offer emotional resonance she needs…without being Crime, Punishment and Cupcakes (though that’s a killer title, LOL).

When we understand wounds better, it helps us cultivate layered characters who’ll make for page-turning stories, regardless of genre. Let’s look at some common sources for wounds.

Pain of Perfect

First, what is perfect? Good question. Humans all across time and in every culture idolize perfect (always have and always will) though what perfect is varies vastly and changes all the time.

Just take a moment to google female beauty standards across the ages and it’s easy to see how, while the world around us might change, people don’t.

We are still ridiculous.

The ancient Incas thought being cross-eyed was super sexy. RAWR. They often fitted infants with a plank between their eyes to artificially create this ‘natural’ beauty for those unlucky enough to be born with ‘normal’ eyes. Ancient Greece was hot for the unibrow.

From ideal body type to what constitutes success to what constitutes normal or abnormal is in constant flux, and is different everywhere. It even varies from household to household depending on culture, and you got it…wounds.

This is where writers can have a lot of fun creating mayhem in fiction.

Wounds: Pain of Falling Short

No matter what genre we write, a character failing to ‘live up to’ some ideal is gold.

Maybe your character has spent a lifetime being measured against the ‘perfect’ older sibling, and struggles with self-esteem. This character might flounder trying to create his/her own distinct identity.

Or flip it.

What if the character happens to be the ‘perfect’ older sibling? This character didn’t ask for family or outsiders to pick on his or her younger sibling for not being as smart, talented, pretty, ambitious, etc.

This character never asked to be the standard unit of measurement to judge another human being. How much guilt might come with that? Think of the pressure or even the fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud’?

Also, we have another ‘person’ who lacks a distinctive identity. While we have two very different ‘people’ both characters are defined in relation to the other.

Outsiders have denied agency to both. It’s amazing how something as simple as birth order can create a wound that drives characters and their decisions (good and bad). And notice how this works no matter the genre. From pulp science fiction to an epic Joe Abercrombie A Little Hatred high fantasy (mixed with a smidge of steampunk), this formula WORKS.

Retell an old story using just this framework as a mental exercise, and you’ll see what I mean.

How does Little Red Riding Hood change if she has an older sister who usually does the deliveries to Grandma? What if the Three Little Pigs are actually embroiled in a desperate war of sibling rivalry? Who are they building the houses to impress? How would Sleeping Beauty feel from the POV of the illegitimate and (TRUE) first daughter of the king, condemned to always be in the shadow of the beautiful, cursed little sister?

Just LOOK at how fun these old worn out stories become with a fresh new spin! Take all those battered, broken parts the world likes to throw away and refashion them into something powerful.

We see this sort of sibling wound explored in everything from The Joy Luck Club (literary fiction) to Game of Thrones (epic high fantasy) to one out of every three Hallmark movies .

Wounds & the Diseased Family Tree

Since we’ve all managed to survive a pandemic, many of us recall what it was like to be trapped in close quarters with loved ones. How we might have even become more hyperaware of old wounds that hadn’t healed at all or had healed improperly.

BOOM!

We touched a bit on family damage a moment ago in regards to ‘perfection.’ Family damage can come in many forms.

Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box does a brilliant job of exploring the ‘anti-goal’ which is a common fruit of the diseased family tree.

Judas Coyne is a famous rockstar, wealthy beyond imagination who has everything (including a lot of emotional baggage). Hate, anger and resentment fueled his incredible success, yet false guilt and profound shame keep him from enjoying any of it. A vengeful ghost determined to destroy him body and soul might be the only thing with the power to liberate Coyne from his emotional bondage.

Sometimes the diseased family tree is not as obvious. Often, parents believe they’re giving their children the best, but are actually deluded about the nature of their motives….

Rich Girl Problems

In The Luckiest Girl Alive, TifAni’s mom is superficial, materialistic, and self-absorbed. Her father is an emotionally absentee ghost who resents his life. Her mother pushes for TifAni to attend an elite prep school to give her daughter all the opportunities she missed (code for ‘marry real money’). Dad doesn’t have the spine to stand up and say ‘no.’

Both parents are too self-centered to realize TifAni in that school is a ticking bomb.

Of course, not every character needs to grow up in Season Ten of The Jerry Springer Show in order to take on some damage. The road to therapy is paved with good intentions.

Parents are human, too.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty explores how the best of intentions can poison everything.

Life Wounds All

Life has 100% fatality rate. No one gets out alive. Also we’re all going to get hurt somewhere by someone (and hurt others, too). Thing is, life is all…pointy.

If family doesn’t make us bleed, then school, peers, romantic interests, work colleagues, social media, well-meaning editors, book reviews, or plain bad luck will.

I know. I missed my calling writing inspirational cards .

Why am I talking about all this? Because of what we JUST talked about. Writers have more ‘competition’ than any other time in human history. With no gatekeepers, discoverability is a nightmare. There are a gazillion choices for books and most of them (like cable channels) are a waste of what little free time we have.

More is Not Always Better

From movies to television to books, audiences are deluged with tired tropes, boringly predictable plots and characters with the emotional depth of a goldfish. We can see this ‘glut of meh’ as a problem or use it for our advantage.

If we know why readers read, what they want, then we can work hard on what matters.

Readers long for emotional connection and stories that help them deal with pain, ease their pain or maybe even solve/release their pain. They want hope that messed up people overcome big problems in spite of, or perhaps because of, wounds and flaws.

Audiences yearn to believe that, on the other side of their problems, there is joy, peace, true love, freedom, fulfillment, healing, understanding, wholeness!

Wounds are healed and victory sealed. Who doesn’t want more of THAT?

What Are Your Thoughts?

Getting tired of the same old same old? From Hollywood to books it feels like it’s just the same stuff over and over. I get giddy when I discover something truly excellent. Some of my best therapy and a-ha moments have come from fiction.

What about you?

I love hearing from you!

What are your thoughts? We need to write the stories that change the world because, if one looks back? That’s what writers do. The world is ailing and our stories provide the medicine, if not the cure.

Global politics, the economy, work, one crisis after another! The world needs an escape. WE NEED AN ESCAPE. So can you think of ways to put that imagination to use in ways that will help those Normies out there cracking up?

What are some ways that you can reimagine wounds? Have you had to narrow of a definition? Are there some ways you can think of to delve deeper than the surface? Who are some of your favorite wounded characters from the page and/or the screen?

The post Wounds & Characters: The Damaged REBORN! appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Bad decisions make the best stories.

If we want to write about people who make the right choices, who plan their work and work their plan, who always keep a cool head, then that is the realm of self-help not fiction. Fiction is about good people—who mean well—doing selfish, foolish or downright dumb things.

When we have characters who have all the looks, skills, talents, and can be counted on to always do the right thing—and do it with poise and grace. This can morph into what is called a Mary Sue Character.

Granted, in the greater scheme of things, some decisions are better than others. Not all decisions are bad decisions if we have the right context.

Sure, if someone abandons a baby at our door, one might think that lighting up said baby with flamethrower is a bad decision…unless we learn that it isn’t a baby human, rather a baby demon (left there to kill us and eat our soul).

Context can make a huge difference.

This said, I imagine most of us don’t wake up and think, “You know what? I think I will do something epically stupid today.” The same thing goes for our characters.

Thus, while we need our characters to make bad decisions, we have to be really careful how and why they do this or we can inadvertently either make them tedious or Too Dumb to Live.

Both types of characters are hard to root for.

So, how can we organically create a character who makes bad decisions?

Use Emotion Amplifiers

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, creators of the incredible set of resources The Writer’s Thesaurus series (I strongly recommend buying them ALL) are releasing a new Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus in May.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea of emotion amplifiers because, if we even look at our own lives, how many times have we lost our cool, cut off a relationship, quit a job, or just made a royal mess out of everything because we were in a bad emotional spot?

Any other time, we might have handled adversity with dignity and aplomb. The problem is, when we happened to show our metaphorical butt, it wasn’t any other time.

Let’s say this is the week our lowly MC might have been struggling with a bad cold. But since people were relying on him and he’d never once been late or missed a day, he chose to go in anyway so he didn’t place an unneccesary burden on his coworkers.

Unfortunately, on the way to work, his car unexpectedly broke down and stranded him in triple digit heat. Since he’s been sick, he forgot to charge his cell phone, meaning he had to walk in dress shoes to get help.

Which, of course, made him late.

All that was bad enough, but then his boss chews him out in front of everyone on the floor and accused him of being—of all things—lazy.

I am banking that you guys are not perfect people. Perfect people are not my audience. So I’m fairly certain all of us can completely relate to this poor imaginary soul I just described.

Decisions and Dimension

Emotional amplifiers can make our characters a) far more relatable and b) far more forgivable. Writing fiction is hard. Yes, I know the rest of the world believes what we do is super easy, but yeah…no.

It can be really easy to fall into simply getting our MC (main character) from this point to this point to that point almost like we are following an instruction manual. And that is possibly fine for a first rough draft.

But then ask, “How can we deepen these characters?”

Throw in emotional amplifiers. They aren’t making decisions from an ideal place where everything is going well. In fact, in Act One, our characters should be, by and large, mostly, if not totally reactive.

They can be dealing with sickness, the climate (unusual heat wave), the strange/unfamiliar, stress, etc. etc. This is going to cloud their judgement and, when they do make “bad” decisions, the audience forgives them.

Remember, it isn’t as important how the MC starts a story as much as how they END one.

That is what makes a hero.

Aside from emotional amplifiers (going through a divorce, kids acting out, loss of a job, recent death, etc.) we can also remember that whatever scenario our MC faces…they should not be prepared to ideally handle it.

Even something as simple as a migraine or toothache can make life derail with a quickness.

Also keep in mind that your character is not the only on in your story with stuff going on. Yes, my imaginary MC above got a royal butt chewing from a normally reasonable boss. But, maybe unknown to the MC, his boss just found out his wife was leaving him right after the company owner gave the promotion he desperately needed to his hard partying kid to “teach him responsibility.”

Yes, bad days have a funny way of colliding with spectacular results and mayhem.

Ignorance and Bad Decisions

I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I look back at my life and wish I had a time-traveling DeLorean so I could zip back in time to kick my own @$$.

Now, back in 1995, did I think doing X, Y, or Z was a great (if not good enough) decision? Duh! Obviously. That is the b!t*h about maturity.

We only gain maturity through experience, and only gain experience by screwing up. The more we screw up—and learn from those bad decisions—the more mature we become. Which is all well and good once we’ve made it through the trial by fire in one piece.

Obviously, once we are on the other end of any catastrophic period of life, we can look back and slap our foreheads. The “right” answers seem so obvious.

Hindsight is 20/20.

In the meantime, our characters (like us) simply have to choose the best they know how and muddle through. They might have limited information, limited skills, or limited options.

Regardless, the MC believes at the time they are doing the best they know how.

The Best Decision Among Crappy Decisions

Here is another gem y’all might have faced. When we look at our life of the lives of those around us, we have to be careful. It can be easy to get all judgmental (or maybe that is just me). We like to think we would have done things differently.

Maybe.

This is where fiction is wonderful for developing human empathy. Sometimes all decisions suck. All that is left is to choose the least sucky of the list of sucky decisions, right?

This is where those emotional amplifiers can really come in handy. When humans are stressed, our bodies shift into what is referred to as “Lizard Brain.” This is survival mode and our mental drop-down menu limits us to three options: fight, flee, freeze.

If our character is under enough stress, they very literally may not see other options that, at any other time, would be obvious. So, while fight, flee, or freeze might be excellent options for outrunning a swarm of bees, it might be less of a bright idea when dealing with that difficult coworker.

Time is NEVER on the MC’s Side

Whenever I do book coaching, I have all my clients do a log-line. This is where you tell me your entire story in ONE sentence. Using this one sentence, I usually can spot why and where the author is struggling with their story.

Here is the formula I use to create a solid log-line (story).

Intriguing protagonist + active verb + core story problem (antagonist/Big Boss Troublemaker) + stakes + ticking clock.

If any of these elements is missing or weak, it will muck up a story. One of the most common pieces writers overlook? TIME. It is never your friend. Ever. Not in life and not in fiction.

Being rushed is one way a character can make bad decisions. Not only might the character be reacting (fear) but if they don’t have the necessary time to do the research, ask wiser mentors, war game out possible ways their decisions could go to hell in a hand basket…they are almost guaranteed to be making a “dumb” decision.

Bad Decisions Fire the Crucible

This applies to pretty much all characters, even when we are dealing with a series. Yes, in Book One, our MC will arc to a certain degree. In the beginning of the story, they should be missing some critical knowledge, training, maturity, etc. that would make them fail. The story crucible is what fires out the character impurities.

Yet, even if we have a series, our characters should ideally keep growing. Last post I mentioned one of my favorite epic high fantasy authors, Joe Abercrombie.

Abercrombie has some seriously bad@$$ characters. Yet, maybe the fighter with a reputation that withers his opposition still needs to learn a thing or five. Put him in a situation where those skills that served so well in a different time and place are actually a handicap.

Redeeming Mary Sue

Characters who always have the answers, who do and say the right things all the time are dull as dirt. Many new writers begin with a Mary Sue and then I have to go in and have them take away some of the shiny perfection.

That is normally what I recommend. Yet, there are ways Mary Sues can become fabulous characters. Maybe in their world they are perfect and know how to do everything expertly. But what happens when we toss them into a place that those “assets” are not only “detriments” but could get them and others hurt or killed?

The new Amazon series Fallout is wickedly great fun. Amazon MGM has done a fabulous job of employing a Mary Sue character in a wonderful, unique way that will have you on the edge of your seat.

Fallout is based off a video game and is a diesel punk fused with a post apocalyptic story. I promise not to ruin anything because at least the first season of the series was brilliantly executed (which, if you’re a die hard gamer, you know that is highly unusual for stories based off video games).

The MC Lucy MacLean grew up in a very 1950s world with almost a campy exaggeration of 1950s traditional American values. Good citizenship, manners, politeness, excellent hygiene, and friendliness are highly valued attributes and Lucy excels at all of them. In fact, she might even be viewed in her society as a “perfect” success.

Now, take this very clean, very naive and optimistic young woman and cut her loose in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Suddenly all those Mary Sue qualities that scored her top marks in Vault 33 very well could get her and others killed on the surface.

This (below) isn’t exactly what Lucy likely imagined when it came to her knight in shining armor….

Remember I said good and bad decisions rely heavily on context?

But, if Lucy hopes to survive in a world that has gone mad, then she will have to grow, change, and adapt. This is even more critical when considering, in this world, there aren’t really any good decisions…only the one least likely to end in disfigurement, dismemberment or death.

Yes, it has plenty of violence but it is that raw brutality juxtaposed to silly idealism that actually makes the Fallout story (and the characters) too good (or bad) not to love.

Thus, when you are creating your world, another great way to turn up the heat on a character is to give them some exemplary skills…that just do NOT work in the world/story they must navigate.

Just like Abercrombie’s Logan Nine Fingers, most ruthless fighter in the North, has to relearn how to get around when thrust into “civilization,” conversely Lucy MacLean learns pretty quickly that “Please” and “Thank you” and taking turns just ain’t going to cut it when everything from the mosquitos to the locals are trying to rob you, kill you, and maybe even eat you.

Any Thoughts About BAD Decisions?

Do you find yourself being too nice to your characters? Does it frustrate you when stories make it too easy on the characters? Can you see how emotional amplifiers can take a relatively normal situation and escalate the tension for some great story drama?

Any experience in life?

I LOVE hearing from you! What are your thoughts? Opinions?

The post Bad Decisions: The Crucible of Great Stories appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Why are there certain stories we just can’t get enough of? Why do some stories fade away while others become staples for every generation? Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been made into all kinds of movies, plays, cartoons, musicals and there are countless variations of Dickens’ original story: A grumpy old miser who is transformed by the power of love.

Dickens used symbol, theme & allegory to create enduring stories….

Full disclosure. A week ago, I slipped and cracked my head open on the corner of an end-table (Did I mention I can be clumsy?) For the record, I am fine *left eye twitches*, just a big banged up and sore.

Anyway, since I couldn’t do much with a concussion, I sat and listened to the audiobook of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which I strongly recommend.

Today, we are going to explore the many brilliant layers of a very simple and timeless tale and maybe even extract some lessons to make our own writing even better.

One of my all-time favorite movies for the holidays is The Muppets Christmas Carol. I believe I’ve seen this movie a few hundred thousand times.

I’ve worn out three VHS tapes and at least three DVDs. I play the movie over and over, mainly because, well, duh, MUPPETS! I drive my husband nuts playing this movie over and over…and over.

***And, for the record, Henson Productions did a superlative job of sticking to the original story.

Christmas? I’m worse than a three-year-old.

Muppets aside, I also can’t get enough of the music. I love the story of A Christmas Carol no matter how many times I see it, no matter how many renditions, and I am certainly not alone.

Charles Dickens’ story of a redeemed miser is a staple for holiday celebrations around the world and across the generations.

This story is virtually synonymous with “Christmas,” but why is it such a powerful story? Why has it spoken so deeply to so many? Why is it a story that never grows old? Today, I want to talk about a couple of the elements that speak to me, because they rest at the heart of great writing.

Christmas Carol & A Little Background

A Christmas Carol is a beautiful story, but I find it’s true beauty when it’s explained in the Christian context that inspired it. Many years ago, Toddler Spawn was watching Bubble Guppies and they tried (dismally) to tell the same story inserting “holiday” so as not to offend anyone, I presume.

Yet, the story fell flat.

The PC had ruined the beauty of this tale and made it more of a lesson about embracing shallow commercialism once a year than a story of love’s power to redeem the irredeemable.

Thus, this post will use scriptural and religious references to explain why I believe this story is so moving and timeless.

Charles Dickens was a Christian and his beliefs are wound all through the story. To remain true to the literary intent, this post will explore the story in light of that reality.

Instead of Dickens preaching his beliefs, he created the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Then, through theme, symbols, motifs and allegory drove home very powerful lessons I believe we all can embrace regardless of our spiritual beliefs.

Christmas & The Power of Names

Naming characters can be vital. Great writers use the power of parsimony. Each element should serve as many purposes as possible.

I recall the moment I was first introduced to what would become my favorite hymn, Come Thou Fount of Many Blessings. One verse stood out:

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Here by Thy great help I’ve come

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home.

Ebenezer? Raise an Ebenezer? I needed to know more.

Ebenezer is actually (in Hebrew) Even Ha’Ezer, which literally means stone of help or monument to God’s glory and is referenced in the book of Samuel.

Thus, when Dickens chose a name for his protagonist, he chose the perfect name for the redeemed sinner. What is a better testament to a God of grace, than the hardened heart melted by the power of love? The current climate of political correctness aside, A Christmas Carol is most definitively a Christian story and the theme is reminiscent of Proverbs 25:22:

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat

and if he is thirsty give him water to drink

for you will heap burning coals on his head

and the Lord will reward you.

Very often this verse is misunderstood.

“Yeah! BURN ‘EM! THAT’LL TEACH THEM TO MESS WITH ME! COALS! BURN BABY BUUUURN!” Yet, if one looks to the ancient Hebrew, the heaping burning coals is literally the holy fire of LOVE that melts the hardened heart so it can be remade (think of melting a weapon of war to remake it into something of beauty or a tool for healing or farming).

The path to redemption is love, for only love holds the power to redeem those who have committed grave wrongdoings. Only love can repair what’s been broken and “remake” it into something entirely new.

The Christian story is a story of love, of redemption, of second chances and not because one has earned it or deserved it.

Scrooge is a dreadful man, yet as the story unfolds, not only does Scrooge’s heart begin to melt as he’s faced with the truth of who he is, but our hearts melt toward Scrooge as we travel through the past, present and future and see what has created such a embittered, cruel person. We empathize and start to have compassion and love the unlovely. We see him less as a monster and more as a person with deep, unhealed wounds.

Scrooge has done nothing to earn redemption, but his redemption is precisely why we cheer at the end.

The spectral visits serve to show Scrooge the truth, which again is reminiscent of scripture; and then you will know the truth and it is the truth that will set you free (John 8:32). Scrooge cannot change what he cannot see. The three ghosts come to reveal what he’s failed to see on his own.

Repentance is not the mumbled and counterfeit “Sorry.” Rather, it is finally seeing the truth of who we are and what wrong we’ve done. It’s a decision to make things right and turn away from wrong.

By the end of the story, Ebenezer is authentically repentant. He’s a changed person determined to share the love and grace that was freely given to him when he didn’t deserve it.

Again, what a wonderful testament to God’s love. What a lovely “Ebenezer.”

Jacob Marley is another symbolic name. Jacob Marley is the name of Scrooge’s old business partner, and it is he who intervenes to try and redeem his old friend before Ebenezer is sentenced to share Marley’s fate. The name “Jacob” actually means “thief and liar.”

In the Bible, Jacob stole his brother Esau’s blessing, then manipulated, lied, stole and connived until it came back to bite him multiple times (Jacob later wrestled with an angel until he could be given a new name, Israel and eventually became the father of a nation).

What better name to give someone sentenced to roam as a specter for eternity carrying the weight of his ill deeds than a name (Jacob) that literally means thief and liar?

Christmas & the Power of Symbol

When the ghost of Jacob Marley visits Scrooge:

The chain he drew about his waist was clasped about his middle. It was long and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel…

Why cash-boxes? Or legal deeds? Why purses?

In life Jacob was a money-lender. He was ruthless in his dealings and never forgave a debt. Yet, Matthew 6:12 (part of The Lord’s Prayer) reads: Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.

Jacob forged his chains in life. He refused to show mercy, compassion, or kindness. He was ruthless and legalistic, thus he has sealed his fate. God has promised to forgive us the same way we forgive others, which is why the scripture pleads for grace, compassion and mercy. Also, forgiveness of debts is the heart of what Christmas is about, for unto us a child is born.

Christians believe God sent His only begotten son (God in the form of Man) to pay a debt we cannot hope to pay. God loves us as His children, and our actions have left us hopelessly out of our depth, incapable of paying our debts.

Yet, Love cancels the debt.

Christ’s last words on the cross, “It is finished” uses the word tetelestai.

Jacob Marley turned away from the grace freely offered, so now he wanders, burdened forever by the debts he cannot pay.

Jacob now finds opportunity to warn Scrooge of the chains he is now forging with his actions (and inaction), chains that are longer and heavier than even his. The only way for Scrooge to free himself is to learn to value himself and his fellow human beings.

Smaller Truths Reveal Larger Truths

Dickens makes it a point to show us that Scrooge is a miser. Scrooge shows no mercy, has no warmth, shares none of his wealth…with anyone, including himself. Scrooge is a very wealthy man, yet he wears old clothes, lights no coals for warmth because coal costs money. His home is threadbare and his food measly and meager.

The full story of redemption is that Scrooge not only sees his fellow man differently—worthy of compassion, love and generosity—but in changing how he views his fellow man, his view of himself changes (and heals) as well.

The three spirits not only heal Scrooge’s relationship with his Maker, but with himself and others. Scrooge, for the first time, becomes part of the human experience, no longer content to be “solitary as an oyster.”

Christmas & the POWER of WORDS

This point should resonate particularly with writers. There is a REASON the Ghost of Christmas Future refuses to speak. Words have creative power. We authors should grasp this better than anyone. We use combinations of 26 letters to create worlds, people, places, technology, other dimensions, religions, races, and on and on.

SPELLing, anyone?

If one looks at the first chapters of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth and all living things by speaking. “And God said…”

He only breathed life into humans. God spoke everything else into existence. Throughout the Old and New Testament, there are countless scriptures referencing the power of the tongue, of words, and warning they carry both the power of life and death.

This idea carries into Ebenezer’s story because, by the time he has this final visit, he still has choice over what his future will be. The specter cannot speak because words would cast Scrooge’s future and thus render it unable to be changed. Scrooge’s fate isn’t for the Spirit of Christmas Future to decide; it is up to Scrooge.

Happy Ending

Scrooge deserves the death he’s shown by the Spirit of Christmas Future. He deserves to die alone with those “closest” casting lots for his garments. This is what he has sown with his lifetime of greed, hate and spite.

Yet, he is pardoned.

Scrooge is the resurrected heart, the dead brought to life. When God promises “everlasting life” it isn’t a promise that we get to float around on a cloud in Heaven after we die. Rather, it’s a promise that life begins at the moment we decide to accept His divine mercy and love.

Scrooge has been “alive” but not “living.” He was existing. When he is redeemed, given a new chance, he decides to change. Out of gratitude for the mercy he is given, he reaches out to give what he’s been given. LOVE, MERCY, GENEROSITY.

Christmas & Restoration

Sure, God could have rained down a miracle that healed Tiny Tim and landed Bob Cratchit a better job with a better boss, but Dickens saw God as a partner with humanity. He saw God in the business of finding and changing the lost, miserable and broken. Instead of giving the miracle to Cratchit and his family, God, instead, gives it to Scrooge, the least deserving of a miracle.

Why?

Because God is about working through people. Many of His miracles come from ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of kindness and sacrifice. By changing Scrooge, God could create a man who would become a benefactor. Scrooge got a miracle only to become a miracle for those around him.

If you read the book, you see a lot of why Scrooge is “angry.” He’s actually never dealt with deep losses and he failed to grieve. When his experiences with the three spirits remove the scales from his eyes, he then can heal that grief and ipso facto, let go of his anger.

Cratchit now has a kind and generous boss, the community now had a passionate philanthropist, and Tiny Tim lives. The family thrives because one man’s heart could be melted.

It is no great feat to love the lovely. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much (Matthew 5:46). This story is so powerful namely because it shows that every human has value and is worth an opportunity for redemption.

Christmas is About Love

God is in the business of changing hearts, and Dickens wanted to show that. A Christmas Carol is a masterful exploration of the true nature of Christianity, what it should be, what it was meant to be. Love. Above all.

It is also a brilliant explication of what the Christmas season is really all about. It isn’t the commercial nonsense, the “stuff” the parties and gifts. While those can be great, they are empty without love as the driving force behind them.

Christmas can be a very hard time of year for many people, myself included. So maybe we can take the lessons from “A Christmas Carol” to remember to give ourselves grace, love, compassion, and forgiveness. For when we allow these INTO US, all these can then flow through and from us as well.

Grieve what we’ve lost, then embrace and be grateful for what we have. Joy is a decision and so is love, which can be a super tough thing to remember.

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas! Sending love to all of you who keep me going day after day and year after year.

I LOVE Hearing From YOU!

Which is your favorite version of A Christmas Carol? What do you love about this story? What is your favorite part? Do you now see the story in a different light than previously? I find it incredible how much Dickens packed into such a short story.

*sings Marley & Marley*

What are other Christmas movies that resonate with you and why? Can you see the symbols and themes that make those stories so beloved?

The post Writing Lessons from “A Christmas Carol” appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Redemption is a much more prolific theme than most might realize.

Whether it is a fun, romantic Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones Diary), a gritty Cormac McCarthy (The Road) or a therapy-inducing Ken Follett (Pillars of the Earth), they hold one common thread.

Redemption.

Will Bridget finally see the truth of herself—that she’s shallow—before she commits to loving the wrong man?

In a world gone mad, can the actions of a Man and a Boy redeem faith in humanity?

In a world of unspeakable violence and savagery, will justice ever be served? Is Tom Builder—a man who abandons his newborn by his wife’s grave—worthy of redemption?

Whether the story is a short cozy romance or an epically long historical, we still see this embedded desire that even bad people deserve another chance. I believe this is a good thing, and demonstrates that hope springs eternal with us humans.

Thus, today, we’ll explore the notion if all characters can be saved? Should they be? And how far can we push the line before readers no longer care? What does the undertone of redemption add to story and what do we risk losing without it?

***Feel free to skim for what applies to you. My blogs are long, but I guarantee you they are a LOT shorter than the thousands of pages of reading I use to boil down for this “bone broth.” Moving on….

Flawed Characters ALL Require Redemption

This weekend, Spawn and I (horror junkies that we are) watched Emesis Blue on YouTube. Overall, enjoyable. Some INCREDIBLE imagery. Very well executed. But, since once an editor always an editor, it is almost impossible for me not to find SOMETHING that could have been done a bit better.

So far I have only discovered about 5 perfect books in the thousands I have read that I wouldn’t change a word (FYI: None are mine). Same with movies.

The ONLY thing I could pick on was the film didn’t make it really clear WHO I needed to “root” for. Horror can, like literary, be a genre that is ALL BAD PEOPLE. You literally find yourself simply siding with the least bad, bad guy…which is fine.

But do you want your story to be “okay” or “fine” or “Good enough”? Or do you want it to go to that next level?

This is where character arc can be a game-changer. When I mention “redemption” it implies the character needs to learn, change, grow or evolve in some way.

When characters are “too perfect” or the converse “too horrible/stupid to live” the story can stall. This isn’t the 1950s. Shock value and BIG THINGS HAPPENING are okay, but they’re sorely lacking when it comes to hooking an audience for the long-haul.

We can have the most amazing writing, prose, setting, and even clever plot, but if readers don’t CARE about the characters, they grow easily bored. Bad things need to happen but….

BAD THINGS Alone are NOT Conflict

Conflict is simple. Two people with different levels of POWER wanting their own thing…collide.

That is it. Simple, but not easy.

In police procedurals, the BBT (Big Boss Troublemaker) is the CORE ANTAGONIST responsible for creating the story problem in need of solving by THE END. Often it is a killer, criminal, thug, or someone breaking the law in some way.

BUT….

Where the MC will often experience the MOST pushback will be from those closest. Every scene needs an antagonist. We need to make the audience worry. If everything is too happy-dappy and everything is sunshine and rainbows, that is not a novel. It is an overly long Hallmark card.

Back to the police procedural and uneven power.

Detective Hardnose WANTS to hunt down KILLER.

Police Chief Blowhard WANTS to win an election.

Detective Hardnose’s methods are unorthodox because that is only way to catch the killer BUT Chief Blowhard is getting bad press. HE wants the killer caught…but with kid gloves that don’t upset voters.

See the power imbalance? Detective Hardnose STILL needs to stop a killer. He STILL knows conventional policing won’t work, BUT he needs to use his skills and brain to figure out a workaround.

Whether it is conflict with a superior officer, Internal Affairs, the Feds, meddling politicians, or even the detective’s own FAMILY…note the power struggle. THIS is what turns pages.

CAN the detective catch the killer, please his boss, keep his badge and maintain his marriage and relationship with his kids?

We WORRY and WORRY IS FICTION GOLD. Regardless the genre, your reader needs to worry every single page all the way until THE END.

An EVEN BIGGER KAIJU!

There is a great little flick called Pacific Rim. And forgive me because it will seem like I am contradicting myself, but bear with me. Pacific Rim is a fantastic flick for young boys. I grew up on anime (Voltron, Transformers, Robotech, etc.) so it was a fabulous throwback to that.

This said….

The entire plot is basically some inter-dimensional rift has opened up along the—you guessed it—the Pacific Rim, where giant monsters wriggle through to unleash mass destruction on large cities (popular back when we still found CGI fascinating).

Mankind creates basically giant robot suits to battle Godzilla-esque creatures.

The ENTIRE plot is really just…a BIGGER KAIJU! Then a BIGGER KAIJU! And, in a totally unexpected plot twist…the BIGGEST KAIJU EVER! (Until the next movie).

That is it.

And if you’re writing campy stories/movies that appeal to predominantly young boys, teen boys and/or middle aged women with the sense of humor and tastes of a 9th grade boy…FABULOUS.

LOVE SHARKNADO! Almost as much at Lavalantula.

But these are B-movies people enjoy for the precise reason they are so wonderfully BAD. I bet you most folks couldn’t NAME a single character from any of these kinds of movies. We also really never worry in any of these “stories.”

When it comes to BOOKS? Here’s the problem.

Most People Don’t Like to Read

It is an old post but a lot of my content is evergreen. Check out Why Traditional Marketing Doesn’t Sell Books for a more in depth breakdown. Everything in that post from 2011 is true today. Actually much MORE SO since we have so many other mediums of entertainment all clamoring for our attention.

But, when surveyed, something like 94% of people admit that reading is something they want to do more of in theory, but never DO. If asked to list the top 10 or even 20 things they believe they’d like to do with their spare time…reading doesn’t make the list for MOST literate people.

That’s the “bad news.” The “great news” is people LOVE to read…they just don’t know it yet.

If you don’t believe me, how many people have you told you were a writer and the FIRST WORDS out of their mouth were, “Have you read 50 Shades of Grey?”

They might not read ANY OTHER BOOK, but “regular people” (code for “future readers”) are absolutely CULT-LIKE when they find a book (or series) they fall in love with. They’ll genuinely believe they still hate to read…but they love everything Harry Potter, Hunger Games, 50 Shades, etc.

They’ll practically have a SHRINE with all the hardbacks, the merch, the movies, etc.

What this means is we writers have to do better. We can’t hook like 1950s pulp novels that sold like hotcakes because what else would someone do on a long bus ride, in a waiting room, during bad weather, etc. What this ALSO means is that stuff that hooked 20 years ago, just will not work today. Apps and games and YouTube are low-hanging and shiner/easier fruit.

Readers are Narcissists

HUMANS are narcissists. Use that. Why do we (the nerdy readers who cannot FATHOM NOT loving books) get hooked on certain books or series? Usually, it is because we see something of ourselves. We cling onto particular characters because they reflect us in some way for good or bad. What we are, what we wish we weren’t, what we aspire to be.

This is why that redemption aspect is SUCH a game changer.

We cannot relate to super perfect people. In fact, there is a human psychological phenomenon referred to as Schadenfreude that explains exactly why we’re more prone to root against perfect people.

I get it sounds horrible, but back in the day of tabloids, what sold more copies? Super Hollywood Starlet with cellulite? Or Super Hollywood Starlet looking freakishly and inhumanely gorgeous?

Cellulite obviously.

It’s nice to nice to knock perfect people “down a peg,” WHY? Because it humanizes her. It wasn’t per se we wished anything horrible on her, only we couldn’t see her as one of “us” so long as she had unfathomable natural beauty, the perfect body, a gazillion dollars, and was even NICE!

***Feel free to insert whatever superstar/rockstar, etc.

We were fascinated not by “bad things happening to her” as much as realizing she was a person just like us.

So, if we KNOW humans are wired this way….

USE IT!

Make Characters NEED Redemption

Even if we go to the Hallmark movies, please appreciate that millions and millions of people love watching every year, especially at Christmas. We can easily see the human need for redemption. Hallmark (as formulaic as it is) still offers super perfect but FLAWED characters.

Obviously the plots are usually over the top because, while Hallmark might be formulaic, the formula WORKS.

Same with cocaine, FYI.

Even if the main love interest is the heir apparent to some tiny country no one’s heard of, something in him is missing/damaged/broken that only the love interest can fix. Is he too serious? Has he become unbalanced? All work and duty and no fun? Does he take his role for granted?

Same with the gal. Maybe she is a spunky assistant who’s pretty and clever and kind…but she is usually a hopeless klutz, is super insecure, is socially oblivious, is overshadowed by a sibling. Whatever. OR, she could be the one who is the “ice queen” who is all work and no fun.

Doesn’t matter.

It does mean your characters need to be their own worst enemies and the PLOT is all that can save them from themselves.

Redemption to Scale

The great part about thinking in terms of redemption (instead of “character arc”) is that it makes it a) practical and b) scalable.

Obviously if I am writing a cozy mystery, then an MC with a habit of cocaine and hookers is a poor choice. Instead? A hopeless busybody who’s meddling comes back to bite.

If, however, I am writing a gritty action thriller, then a well-meaning busybody is a poor choice. And cocaine and hookers for the win!

For those who want to do or even TRY NaNoWriMo (which I always recommend), this “redemption” idea will be important to keep you going for the long-haul.

I recommend starting with a NEW idea (especially if you struggle with finishing). Seems like bad advice, but bear with me. I’m going to offer you a new process to try.

Get your “idea” then whittle it into ONE SENTENCE.

What is your story ABOUT? I have a walk through here HOW to do this.

Pitch Your Story in ONE Sentence

Once you have that sentence, think about what would make your character emotionally intriguing? Sure, they’re a 100th degree blackbelt, know 15 languages, do parkour like Jackie Chan and all that is great…

But the more superlatives we add, oddly enough the less interesting the character becomes.

All those “bad@$$” qualities aren’t what make the character interesting. What makes them interesting is they have 100 superlative qualities but THIS FLAW lays them low.

Will They EVER Succeed?

Okay, so flaws. This is where we have to do some of the more delicate work in our craft. AGAIN, genre will inform this. Hallmark-style romance is NOT about hard-boiled terrible people doing terrible things to even more terrible people. Converse is true as well.

Y’all got that because you’re super smart.

With the lighter reads, we have to be careful we don’t make everyone too perfect. When it comes to other genres, this starts to scale.

On one end of the spectrum is Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Former M.P. who lives off the grid for whatever reason and always seems to find trouble. His flaws? People skills are often terrible, he pisses off authority figures, and his personal life is…yeah.

The other side of the spectrum are your anti-heroes. They’re SO BAD but you cannot help rooting for them. Think Lestat in Interview with a Vampire.

So get your idea into ONE sentence then CAST appropriately. What does THIS story problem (plot) have that will serve as the crucible to refine that flaw?

The HBO Series True Blood did this phenomenally! Eric Northman is the oldest of the vampires and he’s lived SO LONG life has no meaning…until he falls for Sookie. BUT, his Viking/Vampire ways, while his greatest asset, also create the most problems.

With Redemption, Balance is KEY

This is where a LOT of intentional reading is your friend. You do not have to reinvent the wheel. The wheel works. And odds are, if you read enough, you’ll have enough pieces to create something wholly unique. The same but also totally NEW! Reading will also train you in certain techniques.

Back to balance.

We cannot write a book everyone loves. EVERYONE is not my audience or yours. I absolutely loved The Girl on the Train. The MC is a really, really bad alcoholic, thus an unreliable narrator. I had no problem with her, but she wasn’t for everyone.

Conversely, I read a “suspense/thriller” that was traditionally published and had a gazillion 5 star reviews…and the character was too dumb to live. I finished it because I am stubborn and I think we can often learn more from bad books than good.

It was as if the author had never read the genre and all I wanted to do was scream and throw the book…which I would have done except I read on my phone and that’s too expensive to break.

Proving my point that everyone is different.

How to Redeem the Seemingly Irredeemable

So for those who read the lighter genres, make sure to give them some relatable flaws. For everyone else….

Anti-heroes are difficult. There is a fine line we have to tread. We will not be able to make everyone happy. My new anthology WTH Did I Just Read? has a sampling of my writing. I LOVE anti-heroes and unreliable narrators. Will some love EVERY character in every story?

Duh, obviously *hair flip*

Kidding. Even I know that I might totally turn readers off on ALL of them or some of them or one of them.

If, however, you want a gritty character, tips for “redemption”….

1. Make them the lesser of evils.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter might be terrifying, but not nearly as terrifying (or reprehensible) as the men he takes down (Eg. Mason Verger).

2. Give them a glimmer of a characteristic that is deeply likable.

Jessica Knoll’s The Luckiest Girl Alive features Ani, who is a scheming, shallow, conniving “Mean Girl.” At first glance, she is a horrible human being. She’s vain, gold-digging, and will do almost anything to get ahead professionally. Yet, in one of the opening scenes, Ani is interviewing for the very coveted position as her intern at a super prestigious fashion magazine.

How does she choose? She takes the applicants for coffee downstairs at the little newsstand where a disfigured immigrant named Loretta works. When the stand first hired Loretta, people complained because she was unsightly (burn scars), spoke broken English, and had a bit of body odor.

ANI, however, noticed all the coffee was fresh, including the creamers (even the soy milk). The store was always spotless and the magazines were artfully displayed.

Ani not only notices what others do not, she JUDGES others on how they TREAT Loretta. The minute they whisper anything cruel or degrading, Ani blackballs them.

She is deliciously awful.

3. Make them sympathetic.

Yes, in The Girl on a Train, Rachel is a spiraling alcoholic…BUT when you learn what she survived and WHY she is using booze to cope, it “can” soften you enough to give her the benefit of the doubt hoping she’ll get her act together with the addiction.

Structure can also be your friend.

IF you struggle to make them sympathetic, then have another character who sees the good in them. This worked with Sookie and Eric.

I just finished listening to an audiobook that is among those elusive “perfect books” I mentioned earlier. Old Country is a ghost story/psychological suspense/horror that left ME shaking. I vacillated between I dreaded to read more, but also could not read FAST ENOUGH.

One of the reasons I LOVE the horror genre is it is the toughest genre to write well. For the story to work, you really kind of need characters to do dumb, counterintuitive or even self-destructive things.

How did Old Country pull this off without characters falling into unlikable/too stupid to live? There are two MC POVs, one the husband and the other the wife (a.k.a. the “Buddy Love” structure).

The husband is belligerent, stubborn to the point of ridiculousness, self-destructive, impulsive, etc, etc. which the story demands for plausibility and also for one HELL of a knockout ending.

We “get” he’s a combat veteran in the opening scene, so we already forgive A LOT.

But not everything…

THIS is where the author did a brilliant job by adding in the WIFE’S POV. Wives have a way of seeing in ways we cannot, in ways their husbands cannot. True in life and in fiction.

The wife serves as a foil. She’s a sort of an advocate there to tell us (the reader) as well as other characters that “this reaction was over the top, even for him.” Or that “something had to be terribly wrong because, while he definitely had an anger problem, he’d NEVER ONCE raised his voice like that, so he HAD to be TERRIFIED.”

The only thing I would caution here is that this partner character needs to serve the story more than just being there to “explain away” bad behavior.

But the cool thing is…they can explain away bad behavior. They can smooth the rough edges that might, otherwise turn a reader totally off our story.

Think Frodo and Samwise or Dr. Watson and Sherlock.

The “Buddy Love” structure is fantastic if you need to balance out a particularly irascible character. They can also help the other character arc because that character is just too blind/damaged to do it on their own.

Redemption is wonderful in life and it is fiction GOLD.

***Why else would we have rooted for SPIKE all those years in Buffy?

Redemption makes characters fascinating. They’re such a danger to themselves and others we wonder if they’ll ever get their act together. We want them to because if THEY can do it, so can we.

I LOVE Hearing from You!

What are your thoughts on redemption? Do you see how common this theme really is? Does it add that little extra je ne sais quoi to a story for you, too? Who are some characters you never thought could be redeemed? Are there others you wish HAD been redeemed?

To prove it and show my love, for the month of OCTOBER, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

***I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

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 (and maybe even time with an agent).

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). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

The post Redemption: Can All Characters Be “Saved”? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

“Woobie” is a funny word I recently discovered when researching for this post. Funnily enough, the concept of “woobie” is nothing new. As a Gen-Xer, we called these people “emo” back in my day *waves cane.*

This character is also referred to as the “Piti Anti-Villain.” They don’t want to be evil, but life has been so cruel they have no choice. *cues super sad music*

Or do they?

We can see how the “Woobie” anti-villain can easily create some amazing dramatic tension.

Emo protagonists and antagonists have been around for a long time. If I recall correctly, the “tortured character” rose to popularity during the early 19th century.

***Think “Darcy” for protagonist and “Frankenstein” for antagonist.

The emo, wounded souls are bound by their own perpetual torment and just waiting to be saved from themselves. Or are they?

Last time, we discussed what an anti-villain is, and why they can make for some of the most fascinating characters in fiction. First and foremost, anti-villains are fabulous to create…

Stories of Substance

When I wrote The Devil’s Dance (which is a romantic mystery-suspense), I intended for it to be a fun book a potential reader might inhale in 1-3 sittings, such as on a plane flight or over a weekend by the pool.

My GOAL was to tell a good story and to entertain, not hold a mirror up to humanity’s/society’s flaws. Which is FINE. A quick glance at the reviews and mission accomplished!

This said, even if we are simply wanting to spin a great yarn, audiences want stories that resonate. Most of us cannot wrap our heads around those who commit evil acts for the sake of—MUAH HA HA HA—being “evil.” We want a reason.

A simple way to add some layers to your story is to view the core problem through the eyes of the core antagonist. Remember, antagonists (and villains) are usually the heroes in their own stories.

What is their POV, and can we make their case a little sympathetic? Can we at least create a situation where we rattle the reader enough to dig down to THINK about what they actually believe?

Is it possible to have…

Sympathy for the “Woobie” Devil

When I introduced the anti-villain, I gave Dr. Hannibal Lecter as an example. There are many reasons why Hannibal is one of the most fascinating villains in modern fiction. The notion Hannibal is redeemable is arguably one of the top reasons audiences like him.

Deep down, we know love has incredible power. I feel that—rightly or wrongly—it’s why we cannot seem to get enough of the Beauty and the Beast trope. We yearn to believe that with enough time, patience, love, understanding, we can “save” anyone.

While this can be a noble human trait, it can be a deeply foolish/flawed one as well.

Since I have slept since I read Harris’s books I will defer to the cinematic iterations. Part of how Hannibal keeps Special Agent Clarice Starling AND the audience off-balance is his lawful evil sense of right and wrong (and the romantic/sexual undertones that crackle throughout).

It is hard not to cheer for Hannibal when he’s taking out way-badder-bad guys. We find ourselves unwittingly rooting for him when he jeopardizes his freedom to return to the States and defend Clarice. Heck, the man cuts off his OWN HAND rather than hurt Clarice to escape.

HIS HAND! Not HER HAND!

Talk about mixed messages.

I Love You…to DEATH

The Netflix series Hannibal further expounds on this deeply toxic “love” using Dr. Lecter and his therapist Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier (a character created for the series and not found in the books).

In Season One, the storyline intimates Dr. Du Maurier retired suddenly after a criminally insane patient attacked her (a patient Hannibal referred).

She barely survives, but the attacker does not. One guess on his fate?

Hannibal protects his own.

Even Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier struggles to accept/admit what Hannibal really is—that he is an apex predator in a “human suit”—until MUCH later in their relationship. Why?

Sympathy for the devil. We simply do NOT want to give up on people. Again, noble quality, but one that can easily be our undoing.

Did Hannibal protect Du Maurier out of genuine care for her? OR did he see her as a useful tool to have in HIS toolbox? Remember, malignant narcissists do not inherently value other people; they value what others can do for/offer them.

Refer to: Weakness: Blood in the Water & Narcissist Sharks

Note I said that Hannibal referred the violent patient to his colleague. Was this an innocent referral that went terribly wrong? Or, did Hannibal a) know good and well that guy was a ticking bomb, and b) it was only a matter of time before he attacked/tried to kill, so c) Hannibal could be the right “hero” in the right place and time?

***Though I cannot be 100% certain, I’m fairly sure it’s really hard to turn on a person who’s saved you from a brutal death.

If, however, Hannibal is playing 3-D chess, we begin questioning his motive. Is there some glimmer of humanity within him waiting to be saved, or is it all a deepfake? When that question is never answered to our satisfaction, hope springs eternal.

“Woobie” Joker

My all-time favorite Joker is the Heath Ledger iteration in the 2008 movie, The Dark Knight.

In The Dark Knight, “woobie” Joker insinuates that his life, in some way, has been horrifically unjust (e.g. the grotesque scars across his face/mouth). There is a powerful scene where, for a moment, Joker ceases to be this unknowable madman and is a helpless, damaged child.

Or is he?

Can’t Bruce Wayne also relate to tragedy and gross injustice? HELLOOO??? How did he become Batman?

This is where we can start seeing the difference between the anti-hero and the anti-villain. One is redeemable, whereas the other is not.

Both Batman and Joker have tragic backstories, so where did they part ways? They parted at how those experiences ultimately shaped their worldview and goals.

Joker believes the world (Gotham) is broken, worthless and beyond redemption. Since the corruption is systemic, all that remains is to burn it all down and start over. And, if we’re gonna burn it all down, why not roast marshmallows on the flames? YOLO, right?

One doesn’t need to watch much of the news to at least empathize a little with Joker’s POV.

Joker believes there is nothing good about his fellow humans. Goodness is a facade. With the right lever, everyone can be moved off the bedrock of what they claim to believe.

***Harvey Dent proves Joker right. Good thing Dent is not the HERO of this movie.

What About “Woobie” Batman?

Batman (Bruce Wayne), also believes Gotham is corrupt and awful and maybe even irredeemable…but chooses to fight anyway. Unlike Joker, Batman refuses to give up hope and has faith in the unexpected goodness of his fellow human beings.

We see this dichotomy play out brilliantly in the story.

In the final act of The Dark Knight, Joker reveals two evacuation ferries—one carrying innocent civilians and the other hardened prisoners—are rigged to explode at midnight unless one group sacrifices the other. To Joker’s great vexation, the passengers prove out what Batman believes about humanity when they steadfastly refuse to kill each other even to save themselves.

Why I particularly like The Dark Knight is that Batman technically “lost” if we look at the story from a strict genre fiction expectation. In strict expression, the MC MUST take on the core antagonist in Act Three and prevail.

Yet, Batman didn’t do this as neatly as in other movies, all mano a mano. In a sense, he has victory by proxy. When prisoners and everyday people prove there is something about humans worth saving, it demolishes Joker’s entire argument.

This movie is more about beliefs than some showdown with a bunch of CGI and explosions at the end.

Batman even goes so far as to take the blame for the crime his friend, the corrupt(ed) D.A. Harvey Dent committed—AND give him the credit for saving the city—in order to preserve his friend’s memory as well as the hope of everyday citizens.

Batman’s (plot) loss is ultimately a win because he and the hostages disproved Joker’s raison d’etre that all humans are ultimately selfish and irredeemable.

“Woobie” Doobie Do….

“Woobie” anti-villains are complex and relatable, which is why they’re a fan favorite. So was does the “woobie” do? The woobie anti-villain brings up so many age-old philosophical arguments we humans never can fully answer.

Are we a product of nature? Nurture? Both? Which is more important? Do we really have free will?

If we take two characters with similarly tragic backgrounds, why don’t they consistently choose the same paths? Not ALL people with traumatic childhoods become, say, serial killers and not all serial killers came from traumatic backgrounds.

For instance, with serial killers, one can argue that nurture drives behavior (Ed Kemper’s abusive mother).

What about nature?

There is a LOT of evidence to support that Jeffrey Dahmer suffered a TBI (traumatic brain injury) in early childhood when he had emergency surgery to repair a double hernia. Not just a TBI, but a TBI in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for emotions, empathy, and self-governance.

After the surgery, sources claim Dahmer was never the same, never “right” (we know this from reports from teachers, relatives, and those in his life). In light of knowing that information, do we blame nurture or nature? In his case, a traumatic childhood with a damaged brain.

Did Dahmer have the capacity to know right from wrong?

What about Frankenstein’s monster? The monster didn’t ASK for Dr. Frankenstein to play God. He never asked to be created and had zero choice in that decision.

Dr. Frankenstein, out of hubris, played God then abandoned his creation to a world where that creation would be forever feared, reviled and hunted. Was it orally acceptable for Dr. Frankenstein to play God while dodging his responsibilities, or should he “pay”?

Ultimately, who is the REAL villain?

Thoughts on “woobie” anti-villains?

Other than “woobie” a very strange word? From Frankenstein’s monster to Sweeny Todd to Hannibal Lecter, it seems there’s no end to the fascinating twists and turns these characters deliver. Who are some of your favorites? Now that we are unpacking what an anti-villain is, does it clarify why certain tropes endure the test of time?

I LOVE COMMENTS!

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 (scroll down for August’s Winner).

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

***It’s been a short holiday week and I will post the winners next blog. Apologies.

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 (and maybe even time with an agent).

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). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

AUGUST WINNER! Sydney Baily. CONGRATULATIONS! Thanks for the blog love and the support! Please send your 5,000 Word doc to kristen at author kristen lamb d0t c0m. Double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman, one-inch margins (helps my eyes).

The post “Woobie” Anti-Villains & Sympathy for the Devil appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Darkest moment is a term you’ll hear a lot, especially when learning how to plot. Last post, we discussed how critical normal world is for hooking the reading audience early, then never letting go until THE END. Every piece of the “plot” serves a critical function and understanding that function, I feel, makes us better writers.

Oddly, as many years as I’ve been blogging, I don’t recall ever dedicating an entire post to exploring the “darkest moment,” what it is, why it matters, and the difference it can make in the overall quality of our stories.

Why “darkest moment” as a topic?

I can’t talk about it, but my family was hit with a major tragedy unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

At close to fifty years old, I’ve been through many losses, but nothing like this. Just imagine bad, then multiply that by a factor of a thousand. I only thought I understood the darkest moment until this summer.

***It’s okay. We’ll get through it. We are slowly righting from the blow, but it is/was…bad.

And, since we writers are a thrifty lot, nothing in life ever goes to waste…especially trauma.

What is the Darkest Moment?

Seems like a simple answer, but is anything but. Commonly, we hear that the darkest moment is that point in the story, close to the end of the book/movie, when the main character (usually the protagonist) loses all hope. We ALL know this point, even if one is not a writer.

All of us have watched a movie where it looks like the good guys totally have it handled, the plan is brilliant and SURELY they’re going to win.

But wait…there’s thirty-five minutes left in the movie.

We (the audience) inherently sense something is up.

The team is ready, we have had the montage and are ready for ANYTHING!

*sings* If you need to learn a lot in a really short time, you need a montage! A montage!

Or we read a book. Same thing happens. SURELY the character(s) have this down! What can go wrong? Except there’s another fifty pages remaining. Something definitely sus is going on there.

So WHY?

Everybody Arcs

A novel has a LOT of moving parts. Nothing about writing fiction is easy. We are tasked with creating a captivating story that can span anywhere from 50K to maybe as many as 200K words (think Lonesome Dove or Pillars of the Earth).

We need to have a plot, tension, conflict, relatable characters, great dialogue, immersive prose, pacing, theme, world-building, character arc, plot arc and on and on.

Also, the difference between reality and fiction is that everything in fiction has to make sense.

*nods to Tom Clancy*

In life, random bad things happen ALL the time. There is no rhyme or reason. In fiction, however, everything is cause and effect. Everything has to be planned (at least from our end, the author).

Whenever we come up with a plot/story idea, we have to cast the story. Ideally, the MC/protagonist lacks some critical element that would mean immediate defeat. The MC must endure the story gauntlet to even hope to succeed against the antagonist.

Maybe they don’t have enough knowledge, training, or confidence. Think newbie FBI agent, Clarice Starling, in Silence of the Lambs. Perhaps they’re a loner who needs to be better at relying on a team (E.g Tony Stark/Iron Man).

Perhaps they’re too clingy and need to venture off away from toxic “support” that is actually holding them back. Think Evelyn Couch in Fried Green Tomatoes (based off Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe) .

They have no choice BUT to evolve and grow. As the late, great Blake Snyder said, “Everybody arcs!”

False Gods

When I teach character creation, I challenge writers to ask one question about all the characters, but the protagonist and antagonist in particular.

What is their false god?

Can you name what THING the MC falsely believes is the solution to all their problems?

Is it more money, status, power? How many stories have we seen where an MC loses their way chasing power? Devil’s Advocate is a great example. The most powerful law firm on the planet recruits Kevin Lomax, a small town, idealistic young public defender who’s never lost a case.

Ultimately he has to choose between unlimited power and his conscience.

What about someone who’s false god is “freedom” which actually isn’t freedom at all, rather it’s really just avoiding responsibility?

In Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer, defense attorney Mickey Haller is terrified of responsibility. He never defends ANYONE he even remotely thinks is innocent and only takes cases for (basically) scumbags.

Why?

Because he did defend an innocent early in his career, lost the case, and the kid he defended is sitting on death row. He cannot bear to go through that again. Haller worships his self-delusion that he doesn’t actually care about innocence and guilt…but does he?

In Bridget Jones Diary, Bridget (NOT a lawyer) genuinely believes losing weight and finding love will make her whole. Her false god is this rather superficial view of life, love and romance.

Why False Gods?

If we look at all civilizations throughout human history, it’s easy to see that we are wired to worship something. What do “gods” usually have? Altars. What do worshippers place on an altar in return for “favor”?

Those things they prize the most.

Thus, if we have an MC who dedicates his life to being the best, the richest, the most powerful, whatever…what is he likely sacrificing on that altar?

Anything that actually is worth having: love, family, friends, relationships, etc.

Because he is (possibly) operating out of a WOUND (growing up poor), his vision is distorted as to what exactly he needs and what would ultimately make him happy/safe/fulfilled.

And I just gave y’all the plot to probably fifty Hallmark movies.

No shade on Hallmark, because they do a brilliant job of telling stories audiences love and can relate to. Even me, the gritty, weird horror/speculative fiction writer.

We all cheer when the filthy rich workaholic FINALLY has an epiphany that he’s empty and alone and has been accepting a shill over true bliss. His net worth might be billions, yet it is all meaningless without (insert whatever HERE).

And we can do this with all kinds of “false gods.”

Bridget Jones eventually sees the truth about Daniel Cleaver, the man she’s been obsessing over. He’s narcissistic and shallow (and, to her eventual chagrin, a reflection of who SHE is). Over time, as she matures as a person, she sees the “antagonist” Mark Darcy in a new light.

Darcy, a man that initially drove her to madness, actually is the real deal. He represents a romance with roots, one that can endure. Love isn’t always shiny with bows and ribbons and loving for the long haul requires learning to accept flaws (like her extra few pounds and Darcy’s often acerbic nature).

Darkest Moments are Pivot Points

Why the darkest moment is so critical is because it marks the point in time just before the breakthrough. Everything our MC has relied on–connections, money, power, family, bright ideas, super powers, good looks, charm, etc.—FAIL them.

When I teach structure, I “joke” that Act Two is really a bunch of increasingly dumber (smarter) “Bright Idea Fairies.”

The MC is still trying to do things the old way. BUT, if we do our jobs, we, as Author God, should craft an antagonist the MC cannot defeat until they gain a designated level of self-awareness.

If they are a loner, they cannot win unless they have a TEAM. If they’ve always used money to get out of everything, put them in a world where money means NOTHING (E.g. The Game).

In fact, the 1997 movieThe Game (image above) is a fantastic study in this brand of darkest moment. Nicholas Van Horten is just stupid wealthy. Everything (externally) has always fallen in place for him because he isn’t merely wealthy, he also comes from wealth. Problem is, he’s never dealt with his father’s suicide and how that impacted him.

We see his money and power as assets, when in truth, they’re a shell he can use to hide from his inner demons.

When his little brother, Conrad—the family screwup—gives him a GAME as a birthday present, Nicholas has no idea what to think about such a seemingly odd gift.

When does the game begin? How can he know?

This movie is from 1997 and it is still incredible because we watch Nicholas lose everything. In the beginning, he’s the guy with the private jet that can get into any restaurant without needing a reservation. By the end? He’s literally buried alive and has to claw out of a shallow grave (MESSAGE!).

Once free, he is dirty with no money, no shoes, no nothing. To get home to San Francisco, he must humble himself enough to beg for even the most basic of “luxuries” like food or a ride home. All these “things” he took for granted, he now must humble himself enough to grovel for if that’s what it takes to get answers.

Yes, spoiler alert, but y’all have had since 1997 to see it . Also, that isn’t the whole story so totally worth a watch and a study.

You Have NO IDEA Who You REALLY ARE

And neither do I.

Until we are tested, we have ZERO idea who we really are. I know that might not be popular to say, but it is true.

I would LOVE to believe that, if aliens invaded, or the zombie apocalypse hit, or whatever, that I would be noble, kind, just and brave. That is being human. We don’t want to think we’d be the one hiding under the bed, running away, or using that obnoxious neighbor as a human shield.

Should have picked up yer dog poo off my lawn, Buddy.

All kidding aside, we tend to have a far rosier view of ourselves than is usually accurate and that is okay. We also, conversely, underestimate what we might be capable of under the right circumstances.

Maybe we will be courageous. Perhaps we will do the right thing even when it will cost us everything. We simply don’t KNOW until those beliefs are tested.

For a great example? Bird Box (movie and book). The character, Douglas, though a hard pill to swallow, makes a lot of great points about this exact topic.

We have no idea what we are capable of doing—good and bad—until tested. Thus, the point of every (good) story is to show this aspect of life in distillate.

Audiences yearn to see that regular people can do extraordinary things or even extraordinary people have to learn lessons we mortals struggle with.

Come on! Even the Norse god THOR battles with pride, ego, arrogance, entitlement and being fickle and shallow. Yes, even the Norse god Thor loves his brother, hurts that his family is estranged, wants love and acceptance, and seeks deeper meaning to his existence.

Darkest Moment in Action

In my opinion, the darker the darkest moment, the better the story. This is the part where we cannot hold back. When I train writers, I have a saying, “Make it worse until you make it weird.”

We should throw everything including the metaphorical kitchen sink at our characters (the MC in particular). The story is the the fiery forge that is going to remove those character impurities and mold a lump of undisciplined, clueless blech and then allow conflict to hammer that MC into someone magnificent.

What refuses to bend eventually will…with enough heat.

We pile everything onto the MC (and allies) and at the end of Act Two, when the Bright Idea Fairy fails them all, we strip everything away.

The darkest moment is the critical point when the MC finally has a Damascus Road experience. The scales are removed from their eyes and, for the first time, they see the truth about themselves and others and how to be authentically triumphant.

Right after the darkest moment is when our MC finally transitions from a mere protagonist to being worthy of the title HERO.

We Develop in the Darkest Moment

Darkest moments are like dark rooms in photography. Very counterintuitively, we must immerse ourselves in the blackness to reveal the true picture.

I imagine most of us cannot make it too long in life without tragedy visiting. All of you have your stories, which is probably why you’re here. Writing is cheaper than therapy, right?

We love working through our traumas, heartaches, disillusionment by telling stories.

Which is great because humans are a story people!

Whether it is a cozy romance that reminds us love is still alive and romance still possible or an action-packed thriller where bad people get justice not plea deals.

We need catharsis!

Fiction operates in extremes. We love the characters who stand a snowball’s chance in hell (E.g. the Hobbits in LOTR), who have so much to learn that we have NO idea how they’ll survive. But they do. And they WIN.

Yet, we ALSO love the stories involving characters with everything going for them, who finally come up against a problem/foe that demands more than the obvious trappings of power (Dr. Strange, The Game, Stepford Wives, Game of Thrones).

Stories matter. What we write matters. Writers carry the torch of hope and, as long as there are stories, people will have footsteps they can follow from the pages into their own lives.

When We LOSE, We WIN

Fiction shows us that, no matter how bad things get, there is always a chance at a new beginning.

Ultimately, I believe hope springs eternal so long as there are writers in the world. Ideally, now that we’ve taken a deeper dive into what the darkest moment is, what it means and why it is SO important, you’ll look at your stories with fresh eyes.

Maybe people need to remember there is still goodness in the world, that good guys win, justice can happen, the odds are never too great, one is never too old or too young or whatever.

The darkest moments in life—and in story—often mean more than we realize.

The darker the night, the more spectacular the dawn.

What are YOUR Thoughts?

I’ve missed y’all! What are some of the most profound darkest moments you can think of in cinema or books? Have you ever had something happen in life SO AWFUL that the only way to make it make any sense was to turn it into story? What are some of your favorite comebacks? Any thoughts on the darkest moment at all? Y’all always have such brilliant perspectives.

I LOVE COMMENTS!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of AUGUST, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

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 (and maybe even time with an agent).

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). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

The post Darkest Moment: Why Losing Everything Matters appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

The beginning of any story is, by far, the hardest part. Well, except for that sticky middle pain in the @$$ ACT TWO that goes on FOREVER. Total nightmare not getting stalled there. Then, we need to make sure to knock it out of the park at the END lest readers curse our names for giving them such high hopes only to let them down.

Okay, let’s just say ALL parts of writing a novel are difficult and present unique challenges. Yet, a story beginning is the kindling that starts the fire that (hopefully) makes readers burn through a book like a wildfire through dry field.

For the record, this post IS a bit long BECAUSE I am including examples toward the end. Feel FREE to skim as needed. Just, in the comments, make sure to write how you LOVED every last word for bonus points in the contest.

Yes, I am shameless. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Moving on…

In the Beginning….

Other than a smashing cover, the opening lines of a book are among our strongest selling tools. We WANT potential readers to skim those sample pages or open the front of the book and be rendered helpless.

They simply MUST know what happens next!

Before we begin…

Beginning a new project, novel, story is a lot of fun, but it’s also where too many writers find themselves stuck. This is because, as I just mentioned, we are keenly aware just how important that opening is. It’s also because it can fall under what I call “productive procrastination.”

We keep going back over our opening until it’s perfect, but that is the lie. First, there is no such thing as a perfect beginning. We simply cannot please everyone.

Secondly, we can end up stuck in the quicksand of our opening because we really don’t know what our story is about, so we don’t know what logically should happen next.

Thirdly, maybe we do have a solid idea of what our story is about, but we are afraid of success. If we never finish, we can never fail.

I’ve been writing professionally for over twenty years and have edited literally thousands of works by other authors. Authors of all levels from pre-published newbies to internationally best-selling household names (yes, they need help sometimes, too).

I will grant you, there is a lot of pressure to nail the beginning, but here is a tip from an old pro that might help you loosen up that death grip.

Accept that 99% of the time, your beginning will change.

We can spend valuable writing time camping out on the one section of the book that is most likely to be cut, moved or rewritten altogether. OR we can do more productive activities, like actually finishing.

Now, if you are already churning out polished novels with no problem and your process works like a well-oiled machine? Feel free to ignore me.

If, however, you keep getting in a jam? Try something different and maybe take my advice.

Once you get started, keep moving. Relax and just continue writing until THE END.

What is the worst that can happen? You will have another method that doesn’t work. Big deal. But what if my advice DOES work?

Yes, I know you’re probably going to at least think your beginning sucks. That’s fine. Just envision it as a place-saver. Resist the urge to go make major changes. If you understand story structure, have a good sense of what your story is ABOUT, then press forward. It is a lot harder to revise what doesn’t EXIST.

Perfect is the enemy of the good, and it is also the enemy of the FINISHED.

As I’ve said countless times on this blog, no half-finished “perfect” book has ever been a runaway global phenomenon, but plenty of “‘terrible’ but finished books have.”

When we keep moving our prose around, expounding, compressing, adding, removing, we can very literally edit all the life out of a perfectly good story. We also can develop a bad habit for the rest of the book, where we’re condemning ourselves to Revision Hell before we’ve even finished.

With all that out of the way, what are some key elements to excellent openings?

Begin in the Action

If you’ve been writing any amount of time, you might have heard the term in medias res. This can be a bit confusing, because many instructors/editors will also toss around phrases like, “Start in the action.”

This confused me for YEARS when I was a n00b.

Okay, so I added in terrorist and a bomb and a car chase, which is kinda weird since I’m writing a Women’s Fiction…

When we say to “begin in the action,” we mean dramatic action. When it comes to a modern audience, I would venture to say we have ONE minute to capture attention. We have about three sentences, a paragraph MAX.

Yes, we (readers) have the attention span of an ADHD goldfish with a closed head injury. But there is a lot more than we are some spoiled generation who can choose from a billion titles.

Not much more, but at least a little.

In Medias Res & Dramatic Action

First, there is a difference between “bad things happening” and “dramatic action.” When I teach I give this example.

Let’s say I drive down I-20 (interstate that runs east and west in Texas and across the U.S.). Traffic slows. A car accident. Like everyone else, I look to see what happened. Oh no, a fatality. There are emergency vehicles everywhere and a minivan on its side and there is an American flag sticker and a family of stick people on the back window.

And there are tarps. One adult-sized form, two little forms and a tiny form are all laid out under blue tarps. Judging by the sticker, Dad and the dog are about to have the worst day of their lives.

Am I saddened? Unless I am a total psychopath, sure.

Now…

I am at the grocery story and there is a frazzled woman in front of me. She has two young kids and a toddler, and she is rushing because her husband is coming home from deployment and she’s throwing a surprise party.

I chit-chat while making goofy faces at the littlest. Maybe I creatively distract the other two from the candy so she can check out. I tell her to take her time and breathe. Since I only have a couple things, it takes only a minute and I see her in the parking lot juggling the kids and the basket which I offer to return for her.

On the way to return HER basket, I remember that, in all the chit-chat, I forgot one of my bags. So, I run inside and wave good-bye as her mini-van pulls out of the parking lot.

Fifteen minutes or so passes and I am now on I-20.

Same backup…but is it the SAME ACCIDENT?

I ONLY spent a handful of minutes with this woman and her three kids, but I KNOW that mini-van, and recognize the American flag bumper sticker and the little family of stick figures.

I am not only affected, I am possibly inconsolable.

THIS is the magic that “Normal World” can create for your story. We “hook” with a problem. In my made-up scenario, the woman is in a hurry. Her PROBLEM (action) is she WANTS to be setting up the party BUT she has too much to do and is running late. And, if I (the author) am introducing her, then readers are trained to sense something BAD is likely to happen.

***Psst, this is called “dramatic tension.”

I might not even give the names of this mom and her little ones, but they matter far more (emotionally) than had I started too soon in the action (on the highway). Yes, I needed to get close (the store) but not too close. I began in dramatic action.

When we take too long, we risk boring readers and fail to hook them enough for a sale, let alone a read (or review). If we go too quickly, then there is no chance for the reader to CARE. We’re imbibing in dramatic action’s inbred third cousin, melodrama.

Be careful with melodrama. Invite it in and, before you know it, it drinks all the good whiskey and falls into a coma…only for its identical twin to move in, fake a pregnancy, and plan on stealing your romantic partner.

Be Creative with Your Beginnings

For the record, I HAVE been new. I’m still learning all the time and it’s easy for me to fall into old habits. It is natural for us to start a story in a place where we begin every day.

Waking up.

Someone being awoken from sleep in the beginning of a novel is not per se forbidden. It’s just low-hanging fruit. Figure out WHAT your story is ABOUT then get as close to the problem as possible.

I strongly recommend all authors have a log-line. HERE is how to create one. In a log-line, you will be able to tell anyone WHAT YOUR BOOK IS ABOUT IN ONE SENTENCE. Have that and WAY easier to write the synopsis. It is also much easier to figure out where in medias res actually is.

We can talk about log-lines more another time.

WHAT Should a Beginning Accomplish?

Other than hooking the reader and hopefully landing a sale? Well, now we have to keep ON HOOKING! And people laugh when I say writers (storytellers) are the TRUE oldest profession *rolling eyes*

An excellent story is WOVEN. Have you ever seen a crocheted blanket where someone has missed a stitch? MORE than one stitch? Stitches ALL OVER? If not, feel free to visit me in Texas. I have loads.

It’s OBVIOUS whenever you drop a stitch.

Same in any textile. Look at fabric for a shirt and we can INSTANTLY spot where a stitch went wonky. Or for a sofa or a decorative pillow.

Same in stories.

We need to hook each and every line to the next and next and next until the reader runs out of pages and suddenly realizes, with a sinking heart…they are finished and out of BOOK.

Oh nooooooo!

BUT, to do this we need to know what are some ideals in the beginning.

• Hook the Reader’s Interest
• Present WHO the MC is (or in certain genres like mystery or thriller, who the OPPOSITION is). Some genres begin with a prologue (check out The Seven Deadly Sins of Prologues), and often the opposition is mentioned in a prologue. By CHAPTER ONE, however, we need to be introduced to the MC.
• Introduce the Big Boss Troublemaker (also known as the CORE antagonist responsible for creating the story problem that will be resolved by Act III).
• Establish what POV the author is writing in (first person, first-close, third person, third-shifting, omniscient, etc.)
• Give us a sense of time and place.
• Set the stakes.
• Offer a sense of the author’s STYLE.
• Render all readers helpless to put our book down…

By now you might be thinking, “That’s all?” while others of you are thinking “THAT is ALL? Why not go for world peace while I am at it, Kristen?”

Yes, that is all (for now) and world peace would make a terribly boring novel.

The Beginning “To Do” EXAMPLE

Since I give a lot of the same examples, we’ll do one that is a little different. One of my ALL-TIME most beloved books is William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. Why? It beautifully demonstrates all the elements of a superlative beginning.

I also wanted to use it because horror can get a bad rap, especially when Hollywood gets involved. Because learning that a movie that is infamous for shock value actually is a book that begins with many layers of nuance? Mind…BLOWN.

In fact, nothing particularly “shocking” happens until a third of the way into the novel and yet Blatty is RIVETING.

Prologue Opening:

Northern Iraq

The blaze of sun wrung pops of sweat from the old man’s brow, yet he cupped his hands around the glass of hot sweet tee as if to warm them. He could not shake the premonition. It clung to his back, like chill, wet leaves.

If this beginning doesn’t hook at least those who love a good scary story, unsure what will. At this point, there is no gore, no pea soup, no spinning heads…only a sense of impending dread.

WHY? WHAT IS CAUSING THIS FEELING?

The reader will (likely) keep reading because we are inherently nosey and we DO WANT TO KNOW.

Priest and archaeologist, Father Lankaster Merrin (who is AN MC, but not THE MC) will reenter the book later. The reason Merrin is in the prologue (again, check out that blog of how and when to use a prologue) is because Blatty wants us to know Merrin has fought this enemy before (INTRODUCES an MC, the BBT, also gives us a clue about the core story problem).

Merrin’s dread is that he senses his old foe (the demon, Pazuzu, has regathered his strength and wants another go at him). Pazuzu is first hinted at via premonition, then when Merrin picks up an ancient amulet of Pazuzu’s head, and finally (notice it is in threes) when he goes out the the dig site and sees the statue of Pazuzu (Demon of the Southwest wind, Ruler of Sickness and Disease).

When Blatty closes out the prologue, a chill wind suddenly kicks up and Merrin notes the wind is from the southwest.

His final sentence in the prologue is:

“He hastened toward Mosul and his train, his heart encased in the icy conviction that soon he would be hunted by an ancient enemy whose face he had never seen, but he knew his name.”

Just WOW! I’m not speaking to those who’d rather play in traffic than read horror (I can’t please everyone). But for everyone else, maybe even people on the fence about the IDEA of reading The Exorcist, you have to admit that is a KNOCK OUT hook!

More Blatty Beginning Beauties

Within two pages, it is clear that Blatty is writing in omniscient POV (GOD has the camera), which is a nightmare of a POV to write without devolving into confusing head-hopping. BUT, Blatty nails it.

Sense of time and place:

The fragrance of licorice plant and tamarisk tugged his gaze to poppied hills, to reeded plains, to the ragged, rock-strewn balsa road that flung itself headlong into dread.

I think he not only paints a stunning picture of a roadside in Northern Iraq, but notice, he STILL puts in that hook.

…to the ragged, rock-strewn balsa road that flung itself headlong into dread.

Using some anthropomorphism with the road, we get even MORE clues signaling DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

We sense the stakes are not only life and death, but might just extend beyond THS life.

A big thing here, however, is to notice how we get a REALLY clear sense of Blatty’s STYLE right in his beginning. I am a crow when it comes to words and gorgeous prose. Cannot get enough of it. Yet, just because this is what I like, doesn’t mean everyone likes it.

The Old Man & the Sea Beginning

If I could think of any author who might be the furthest from Blatty, immediately Hemingway comes to mind.

Opening Sentence:

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days, a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.

What do we learn in this beginning?

Immediately, there is a PROBLEM. Eighty-four days without catching a fish when one makes a living fishing is, in a word, a PROBLEM. We also see the POV is third-person and can take note that Hemingway is not big on a lot of description.

For readers who aren’t keen on a lot of decoration, Hemingway might be a better fit.

We “get” that the BBT causing the CORE story problem is salao (the worst form of bad luck). Bad luck is represented via a PROXY in the form of…NO FISH.

If the old man catches a fish, he’s no longer salao and would possibly be welcomed back into the small community that has cast him out.

But note just HOW MUCH information we get without all the glittery prose.

The reader is TOLD that the old man wasn’t always alone. He HAD a young boy to help. How long?

Forty days.

For those who might not know, forty is a biblical number that can either represent testing (Jesus fasting in the wilderness before beginning His public ministry) OR it can represent judgement. According to the book of Genesis, when God first judged the Earth, it rained for forty days.

Thus, when it comes to The Old Man and the Sea, within just a little bit of text, we get a LOT. Is the old man in a time of testing OR is he (like his neighbors believe) facing supernatural judgement?

We wonder because when the boy left the old man’s boat, he immediately caught THREE (another biblical number/symbol of the triune nature of God) fish (another symbol of Christianity).

And maybe Hemingway inserted those Biblical symbols and references into the text. OR maybe he left the prose just spare enough so that the book would read differently for every reader.

Maybe another reader with another background would get something totally different, because Hemingway doesn’t strictly spell out what he meant (the way Blatty often did).

For instance, the Chinese have major issues with the number four. It’s often considered unlucky, possibly because it sounds so much like the Cantonese word for death. Between forty, and eighty-four, and ways to divide eighty-four? A LOT OF FOURS. Meaning an Asian reader (not some blonde from the Buckle of the Bible Belt) might get the same sense of dread, but for a wholly different reason.

Begin a Study in Beginnings

T.S. Eliot once said, “Good writers borrow, but great writers steal.” Now this is NOT and invitation to plagiarize, but there IS good news. The wheel works. It has already been invented, so guess what? No need to reinvent the wheel!

There are countless fabulous beginnings, so no need to totally reimagine beginnings as we know them.

Read your favorite beginnings. What hooked you? How? Why? What kept you turning pages? STUDY IT. Then take your favorite elements and create your own. Practice! Remember that attention spans are getting shorter by the day and it is harder than ever to stand apart.

Could I take your opening three sentences and COMPEL a sale?

Would readers be helpless wanting to know more? Cool thing about only three sentences (like the one-sentence log-line) is you can test them on people. Most people are much cooler with hearing an opening 3-5 sentences than committing 12-15 hours to a whole novel.

And you might make a sale!

Did my beginning hook them? Why? Why not?

For the record, I am here to offer guidance, not a straight-jacket. This is a list of the IDEAL elements we’d introduce so y’all have a better understanding of what exactly you need to accomplish in a beginning.

The best writers/stories all check off almost all of that list within at least five pages of the beginning.

We can also do the obverse of this. What beginnings totally STALLED? WHY? Can you fix the opening? What went wrong? Why did you lose interest?

Thoughts on Beginnings?

What are some of your favorite beginnings? Why? Have you noticed a pattern among your favorite beginnings? Maybe a pattern among books you left unread?

I LOVE COMMENTS!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of JUNE, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

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 (and maybe even time with an agent).

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). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

MAY WINNERS:

Pamela Reece, Lisa Brooks, and Anthony Butler. Since I had a delay (taking care of Mom after her shoulder surgery), I am feeling super generous since y’all were SO GENEROUS with ME!

Please send the first 20 pages (5000 words) to kristen at authorkristenlamb dot com. Put in a Word document, Times New Roman, 12 point font, one-inch margins. Feel free to go a little over if you need to finish a thought, paragraph, chapter. I can always STOP reading. Just don’t get crazy.

The post Set a Story ON FIRE from Beginning to End appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

“Real” writers (and critics) know a lot of things, but one thing they know is genre. And whatever genre you’re writing—for the record—it is probably stupid.

Last post, I made a joke about what makes us “real writers,” which is a notion that has cracked me up for at least fifteen years. Writing, for some weird reason, is one of the few professions that seems to always carry around this crushing existential crisis of whether or not we are REAL.

Like Schrodinger’s writers. If you put a writer in a box, are they simultaneously a freaking GENIUS and a talentless-hack-poseur?

I might think this “real writer” stuff is funny…but at the same time I also struggle with it.

Real writers always seem to be whatever I am not. They also DO whatever I don’t do and write whatever I don’t.

Today, we’ll pick on genre.

Your Genre is Stupid

Do you happen to write those silly little romance novels? Maybe those goofy cozy mysteries? Heck, I can read one of those in about three hours. Probably only took that long to write. Dragons, smut, and aliens. What DUMB genres.

Though NOT NEARLY as dumb as those LOOONG books.

Like Ken Follett and that Pillars of the Earth. Just how padded was that thing? Did he really feel the need to use every word in the English language, and then some? Apparently he did since there’s a WHOLE series.

Space books? Dumb. Sexy books. Dumb. Westerns? Obviously dumb. Self-help? Why would I waste time on just how dumb those are.

All right, now that I have probably either confused or ticked off everyone reading this, I DO have a point.

How many of us, deep down, BELIEVE THIS? This crushing doubt is what keeps us from starting, finishing, publishing, marketing, or even admitting we are a writer aloud and to other people. Deep down, we believe whatever genre we write is dumb, despite any or all evidence to the contrary.

Whatever genre we write is either useless fluff, boring pontification, derivative, whatever, *insult nonsense here*.

Genre Envy

Genre envy happens to me pretty much every time I read a good book, watch a great series, or go to a writing conference.

Say I am at a conference. I meet the romance authors who can write a book-a-month. They’re getting movie deals, and their books are translated into 27 languages and I think, “Now THAT is a real writer. I should write faster.”

Of course, then I meet the next author who writes deep, thoughtful, provocative novels so long that a print copy is heavy enough to take out a burglar. And I think, “Now THAT is a real writer.”

So, I go to the next session where there is a spitfire teaching me how to balance life, love, kids, cooking, working out, pets, and who tells me that mastering EXCEL is the secret to joy. And I think…Dear God please kill me. EXCEL? And THEN I think, “THAT is a real writer.”

I watch Netflix and there’s something light and fun. I should write more like THAT. Then I watch The Last Kingdom. No, I should write more like THAT. Those are REAL stories.

Want to know the funny part? I am actually right on ALL counts.

Maybe I’m the only one who does this so I am happy blogging to myself. But, I admit I struggle with genre envy. Too often, it seems the only REAL stories are whatever ones are not like mine.

Even down to writing all these blogs. I get so much enjoyment out of helping y’all laugh at a very intimidating world, and then making that world just a little less scary.

Word is, I’m even pretty good at teaching, encouraging and inspiring, but I’ve honestly held back on writing more TEACHING BOOKS because—SIGHS—then I wouldn’t be a REAL writer because we all know….

Those who can do, and those who can’t TEACH.

Which was a line from a George Bernard Shaw play that is still used to disparage educators despite being utterly flawed. Some of our greatest doers were also our greatest teachers. Ever heard of EINSTEIN? Apparently, my subconscious thinks he’s a “fluke” (along with Oppenheimer, Feynman, J.K. Rowling, and J.R.R. Tolkien).

***For the record, I’ve recently realized how dumb that is and just…yep.

Consider the Source

Maybe y’all are not like me and you are super confident that what you write is exactly what the world wants and needs (please send tips). I know when I was new, when I decided to quit working in Corporate America, I believed my writing WAS EXACTLY what the world had been waiting on.

This was before I found out the world around me had an opinion.

Everyone is a CRITIC.

If you haven’t seen this, take the three minutes for the good cry laugh.

As I mentioned, when I said I was going to become a writer, my grandparents thought I was joining a cult insane. Despite literally WALLS of books through their ENTIRE HOUSE, they believed I was doomed to poverty and foraging in dumpsters for food.

***Joke was on them, Taco Bell had a .99 menu…and I only foraged in dumpsters for furniture and the occasional outfit. I LOVED it when the guy next door fought with whatever girlfriend, because he always threw away any clothes left in his place on actual garbage day…and yes I am a bad person but I needed new tops more than the landfills did.

Anyway, my grandparents thought fiction was stupid. This came from a grandfather who literally bought and read every single Louis L’Amor book. If it was in space, SIGN HIM UP! My grandmother never met a Tony Hillerman or a Dick Francis she didn’t PREORDER.

Since I was reared by my grandparents who almost always had a book in hand, imagine my shock when they told me it wasn’t a REAL job, and that no matter what genre I wrote, it was stupid going to land me in the poor house.

One friend told me to write romance, another told me that mind candy was useless and I needed to put my intellect to good use with some solid NONFICTION.

I felt like that little bird in “Are You My Mother?” I’d hatched without one mommy genre I truly LOVED—because I’d read all of them—and so I flitted around asking “Are You My Genre?”

Still struggle with that.

Which Genre is WORTH Writing?

Let’s go back to all you guys I insulted earlier. I’m sure I didn’t say anything you haven’t heard. Romance authors? Y’all just AMAZE me. I cannot write romance. And we all hear the Hallmark jokes and laugh (while those writers who can write Hallmark stories are laughing all the way to the BANK).

And it isn’t just money for me. I genuinely wish I had the skill to weave a world where love wins and do that over and over and over.

That is not a gift, it is a SUPER POWER. The world NEEDS you. Maybe you will never win a Pulitzer, but who cares? Y’all make the world a brighter, prettier, sexier, livelier place. We need books that remind us about love, or being young, the thrill of a new relationship, or even the deep resonance of love that endures.

For the writers out there churning out space alien books or westerns, or alien westerns? Same thing. Not ALL writing needs to be heavy because LIFE is heavy and sometimes, we just need a break. We need to remember good guys win, love triumphs in the end, that broken people can heal.

We are SO overloaded, books help us remember what it’s like to be kids again. To believe in magic and dragons and spaceships or magical dragons with spaceships.

For the literary folk, y’all provide ways for us to question our world, look at life in a new way, from another point of view. What y’all do is critical as well.

What Genre Should YOU Write?

THAT is a question only you can answer. Did I mention an incredible book called Dear Writer, You Need to Quit?

I’ve been blogging HERE for almost 15 years, and I work really hard to give you guys a lot of options because writing is not One-Size-Fits-All. People are all different and we have different strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, we CHANGE. It is called GROWTH.

Why do I mention this? Because we are now Digital Age Authors which is hell awesome. It changes ALL the time. If you’re really good at one type of writing and you are happy and achieving YOUR goals? Keep at it. Maybe Amish Erotica hasn’t taken off, but the world might not yet be ready for Fifty Shades of Hay.

Conversely, the WONDERFUL (and maddening) part of our profession is we have to learn to reinvent and pivot. If you’ve been writing one genre and now you’d rather mainline cookie dough than write any more YA Urban Fantasy? Do something different! Maybe it will fail, but maybe it’ll work.

Or MAYBE it will just be the nudge you need to remember why you loved your genre of choice.

Which Books SELL the BEST?

We’ve spent all this time talking about genre and I hope you are feeling a bit better. Yes, the same world that spends every extra minute enjoying what creative people create is the same world that’ll tell you this isn’t a real job and that whatever you are doing is stupid.

The trick is not believing it. Because I am going to let y’all in on a secret. After all this, the books that sell the best are *dramatic drum roll*…

FINISHED ONES.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Western writer Louis L’Amor “wrote 100 novels, over 250 short stories, and (as of 2010) sold more than 320 million copies of his work.” Does this, however, make him any more or less of a REAL WRITER than Emily Bronte, J.D. Salinger, Oscar Wilde, and others who only had ONE BIG BOOK?

There are plenty of writers who’s works became classics, sold a bazillion copies, were made into award-winning movies, but they were essentially what the world calls one-hit-wonders, which I have feelings on that, too.

***Check out Self-Sabotage: I Don’t Deserve Success HERE.

Regardless of what you write, it doesn’t matter so long as you finish. There have been a ton of “crappy” internationally best-selling FINISHED novels, but I have yet to encounter the runaway success of a half-finished PERFECT novel.

So give yourselves permission to love what you write, because if you fall in love with it, we can feel that. And odds are much better we’ll fall in love with it too.

What are Your Thoughts?

So y’all know, I reward initiative. Are you someone who keeps changing genre? Do you have genre envy? I SO love George R.R. Martin complexity, but it would break my brain trying to write it. Is it hard to believe what you write matters? Come on! Spill! I can’t be the ONLY one.

To prove it and show my love, for the month of MAY, 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 (and maybe even time with an agent).

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). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

The post Give Up! Why Your Genre is Probably Stupid appeared first on Kristen Lamb.