Write Drunk, Revise Sober
Tuesday, October 9, 2007 . 9:43 PM
The Pre-Drink - 10/9/07 Some premises may sound like proverbs or platitudes. If you're still having trouble forming your premise, try finding a saying that at least comes close to what you think the moral of your story should be. Then rework it so that there is a clear cause and effect relationship within the statement. Bam! Instant premise.Here are some good places to start your search:
http://www.manythings.org/proverbs/
http://creativeproverbs.com/
http://aesop.pangyre.org/morals.html
Remember: slow but steady wins the race! 0 comments
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Monday, October 8, 2007 . 5:11 PM
Sobriety Test #2 - PremiseThe premise of a story is, basically, its theme. What is it about? Where does it start and where does it end? What is the cause and what is the effect? What is the moral of the story? The premise answers all of these questions succinctly but accurately.
One of the best introductions to the concept of the premise was written by Lajos Egri in his book The Art of Dramatic Writing. You can read the first chapter at http://www.writerswrite.com/fiction/egri.htm. His work was written primarily in relation to plays, but is applicable to just about any narrative writing.
The most notable things about his approach are his emphasis on premise as arising from character, and his notion of the explicit cause and effect nature of premises.
Some of his examples of premises include:
Bitterness leads to false gaiety.
Foolish generosity leads to poverty.
Honesty defeats duplicity.
Heedlessness destroys friendship.
Ill-temper leads to isolation.
Materialism conquers mysticism.
Prudishness leads to frustration.
Bragging leads to humiliation.
Confusion leads to frustration.
Craftiness digs its own grave.
Dishonesty leads to exposure.
Dissipation leads to self-destruction.
Egotism leads to loss of friends.
Extravagance leads to destitution.
Fickleness leads to loss of self-esteem.
Now that you have your protagonist in place, you can create your premise. Think back to the character's strength and flaw, his want and his need. If this is a positive story, the premise should describe how the strength leads to the achievement of the goal. For example, "Faith in friends leads to triumph over evil." With that statement, you've set up that the protagonist will succeed in his quest to defeat some evil by relying on his friends.
Try to use your character's strength and need to create the premise for your story. It should be very brief, no more than a short sentence, and should have both a cause and an outcome. Keep it simple but precise; you can embellish with more details later, when we start to worry about plot. 0 comments
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Friday, October 5, 2007 . 1:47 PM
The Pre-Drink - 10/5/07 Now that you have a protagonist and an antagonist, you're finished with character stuff, right? If only.Think of all the people you've met in your life: friends, family, classmates, colleagues, coworkers, and so on. Pretty long list, huh? And in their own ways, they've all impacted your life somehow, making you who you are and helping bring you to the place you are today. Thankfully, you'll never have to put that many people in your story, or even worry about defining them in order to create your characters. However, you will need to do some brain work to come up with the supporting cast for your story.
There are three basic categories of secondary characters: those who 1) help the protagonist, 2) help the antagonist, or 3) help the reader. Don't go crazy coming up with every minor character in the story at this point; just define the ones who will be most important to the character. You can work on the "extras" when you discover that you require them.
Characters who help the protagonist can be just about anything. Usually they will be friends or family who stand by your hero in his hour of need. They can also be the professor who provides a necessary clue to help solve a mystery, or the good Samaritan who gives him a ride when his car breaks down; basically, anyone who assists your character, in whatever way, to achieve his goal goes into this category.
Conversely, characters who help the antagonist (or harm the protagonist) can also be just about anything. They will usually be friends or minions of the villain, or simply enemies of the hero, and they are determined to get in the hero's way and stop him from achieving his goal. Perhaps the protagonist is being chased by the police for a crime committed by the antagonist; those police officers, even if they are good people, are helping the antagonist and hindering the hero.
What about this helping the reader thing? Characters in this category won't necessarily help or hinder the hero, but they will usually help the reader understand what is going on in the story somehow. They may explain vital plot points, or describe aspects of the setting, or they may exist mainly to provide the reader with a sense that the world of the novel is a realistic one populated with real people. Few characters will tend to fall into this category, as most of the people who would deserve any attention in your world should do something to further the plot, and would thus be either #1 or #2. But, say, a girl who stumbles on a spaceship sometime prior to the events of the story, thereby letting the reader know that aliens are abroad, doesn't really help anyone but the reader.
It's fine if you want to hold off on this until you have a better idea of what you need based on your plot. You don't want to create a really great minor character and then find yourself with absolutely no reason to include him in the story. But if you already know that your main character won't get along by himself, or that your antagonist needs some goons to do her dirty work, now is the time to develop those characters so that they can be as realistic as your hero and villain. 0 comments
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Thursday, October 4, 2007 . 2:20 PM
The Pre-Drink - 10/4/07 Some people are better at remembering faces than names; something about having a live person attached to words on a page can make the name more realistic and more memorable.And thus, your easy (relatively speaking) task for the day is to try to put a face to your characters. Scrounge around on the internet and find photos for (at least) your protagonist and antagonist. You can use movie stars as they are or as characters from specific films. You can find random people's vacation photos. You can even use artwork if you're so inclined, but find some visual representation for your character. Bonus points if you can draw it yourself, but that's certainly not required.
Enjoy the scavenger hunt! 0 comments
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Wednesday, October 3, 2007 . 4:58 PM
The Pre-Drink - 10/3/07 Once you have a firm handle on the basics of your protagonist (his want, his need, and his flaw) then you can move on to the next most vital character: the antagonist. This is the person who will, quite simply, oppose your character.Unless you're writing a Bugs Bunny cartoon, the antagonist needs to be as realistic as the protagonist, meaning you have to know a lot about her as well. As with the protagonist, the antagonist will have a want, a need and a flaw. The good news is, once you've answered these questions about your hero, it's as simple as flipping the coin.
Whatever the protagonist wants, the antagonist probably doesn't; in fact, she probably wants the opposite thing, so you've already got that part taken care of. However, it may instead be that she merely wants something that would, by its nature, conflict with the protagonist's want. Either way, by already having the protagonist's want established, you're most of the way to determining the same thing for your antagonist. If you're making the antagonist an all-out villain, what she wants will probably be motivated by some vice or flaw like greed, envy, insanity, revenge, power, etc.
Assuming you are writing a fairly straightforward story, what the antagonist needs is, well, to lose. Alternately, you might say that the antagonist needs to realize that her want is wrong and that the protagonist's want is preferable. Or you can give the antagonist a completely different need based on her flaw. Which leads me to...
The antagonist's flaw will not necessarily relate to the protagonist's flaw, but her flaw will be the thing that eventually leads to her downfall. Whether this flaw is directly manipulated by the protagonist, or whether it impedes the antagonist in some other way, this is what will make the difference between winning and losing. Typically, the antagonist will be able to clearly see the protagonist's flaw, but not her own, and because of that she will never change. If you want your antagonist to be redeemed at the end, you'll need to make her aware of her flaw and give her a means to correct it, just like you did with your protagonist.
As a side note, I've noticed something about villains: It is likely that the antagonist will never truly comprehend the protagonist's source of strength. Because of that, she will underestimate him and he will beat her. This is something useful to consider when creating your antagonist, because it may give you an open door into her back story. For example, a protagonist who finds strength in his friends would lead to an antagonist who cannot understand why the protagonist would rely on other people for anything. This kind of antagonist probably didn't have many friends growing up; why not? Answer that question and you're on your way.
When creating your antagonist, use the same questions and template you used for your protagonist. Always keep in mind the basics discussed above, and make sure that they are supported by the rest of the details that you add to make your character more realistic. Few things kill the joy of victory so much as having a fully realized hero but a one-dimensional villain; after all, if the bad guy is made of cardboard, how hard is it to beat him? And how good does it really feel when you do? 0 comments
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Tuesday, October 2, 2007 . 4:19 PM
The Pre-Drink - 10/2/07 Since this week's focus is character, check out this website for an exhaustive list of questions you can answer about your protagonist (and other characters):http://www.errantdreams.com/static/pc_questions
Some of the questions are, in a sideways sort of fashion, actually questions about setting. You may want to hold on to these for later, or you can answer them now and fill in more details when we get to Sobriety Test #3: Setting.
Don't let yourself be overwhelmed; you don't have to answer all the questions, and you certainly don't have to answer them all at once. Try tackling one group at a time, or just pick the ones you find interesting, or set a timer and give yourself ten minutes to answer as many as possible and skip the ones you don't know. You can always go back and change your answers, so don't worry about being right or wrong.
The more you know, the less you have to make up while you're actually writing your novel, which avoids potential conflicts and confusion. You'll also be better prepared when we get to Sobriety Test #2: Premise.
So load up on knowledge about your character. As the great Terry Pratchett said, "...a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." 1 comments
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Hey there. Happened to stumble across this, and thought you might want to know that the set of questions you linked to got turned into a much longer and more thorough toy, the 365-question pdf, found about halfway down this page of resources. Personally I think 1-5 questions per character (usually 2-3) is about right, but I love having variety to choose from.
Then there's the epiphanies, which includes some character questions as well.
Part of what I love about random character questions is that you never know what you'll learn about your character!
Anyway, I'm glad you liked the questions.
By 
, at
October 3, 2007 at 8:43 PM
Monday, October 1, 2007 . 5:12 PM
Sobriety Test #1 - Character Character and premise are the foundations for any story. Most of the time, the argument goes that character yields premise, but it's sort of a "chicken or the egg" question: you can start with a character and then craft a premise, or you can start with a premise and then craft a character. Either way, there are important questions to answer about both your character and premise.Your protagonist, or main character, is the motivator of your story. Why? Because he is the one making the decisions that lead to the events in the story. If the character isn't developed, then the actions don't seem motivated, and the characters become puppets going through the motions at the whims of their master. It's tough to relate to a character that has no control whatsoever over what's going on around him or seems to make inconsistent decisions. It's even tougher to relate to a character that has no depth, no past, no defined personality and quirks. The more you develop your main character, the more the reader will sympathize with him and become concerned for the outcome of his story.
So what do you need to know about the character? If you know nothing else, you need to know:
* What he WANTS
* What he NEEDS
* What his MAJOR FLAW is
Those three things will create the premise for you. Unfortunately, those three things are not always immediately apparent, so it's usually easier to do some other work first. Let's try to answer some basic questions about the character, stuff that won't necessarily be included in the story but can be helpful for creating a realistic, compelling character. Try these questions on the protagonist first, then move on to the antagonist, then to secondary characters and so on.
1) What is the character's name?
I'm terrible about picking names. I always want them to be significant, but not cheesy; cool, but not so cool that they sound unrealistic; unique, but not ridiculous. Baby name websites can be a good place to start, because they'll often give you information about what names are currently popular and what weird names celebrities are using for their kids and so on. They also let you search by various criteria such as country of origin or meaning.
Sometimes it's best to pick the name of one of your friends or family or coworkers just so you have something to call the character until you answer more questions. You can always go back and change it later, no charge.
2) When was your character born?
Every year, Beloit College puts together a list they call the Mindset List, which includes a number of factoids regarding the students who enter college that year. For example, this year's introduction states, "Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead."
When your character was born can affect his outlook on the world, his knowledge of history and culture, his tastes in clothing and food, and many other important aspects of his personality. The good news is, you get to decide when he was born so you can pick a time frame that's convenient to you.
You might also want to consider the astrological significance of your chosen birthday. This can help you focus on specific character traits if you don't have a clear idea of what you want your character to be like. Scan the horoscopes and see if you'd rather your character be an Aries or a Libra, a Pig or a Dragon. Not only is this a useful tool, but if you get rich and famous and people become obsessed with your character, this kind of thing will become important and significant to them and you don't want to get caught with your pants down, figuratively speaking.
3) Where was the character born?
See above regarding outlook, tastes, etc. You can always make your character a rebel in his hometown, but be sure you know what he was rebelling against in the first place.
It's probably best to have the character come from a place you are familiar with. I am reminded of an episode of CSI: Miami, in which the main character visits a house in Coral Gables. To anyone who lives in or near Coral Gables, there was no doubt that this house and its neighborhood were most definitely NOT in Coral Gables. If people in your audience can tell that you don't know what you're talking about, you've lost them. However, if you're willing to expend the time and energy to properly familiarize yourself with a specific location, go nuts.
Also, you can make your character from a specific place, but set it up so that the character moved at such a young age that he doesn't remember anything about said location. It's cheap, but it works if you absolutely must have him come from a place you haven't visited. I don't see why you'd do that, but to each his own.
4) Where does the character live now?
See above. This may or may not be where the story takes place; if it is, see above harder. Also see Step 3: Setting for more on the subject.
5) What is your character's race/ethnicity/heritage?
This may or may not relate to both #3 and #4, but see both for details. Don't pick a heritage unless you are familiar with it, because again, you'll just end up looking like an idiot to people in the know.
Each culture has a different set of norms and moral imperatives, so keep those in mind when you decide what ethnicity to choose. In addition, race can be a volatile issue depending on the setting of your story; don't set a story in the Deep South and make the character Hispanic unless you intend for sparks to fly.
6) What does your character look like?
Write at least the basics: height, weight, eye color, hair color and skin color. Consider race when making your choices. Try to avoid really strange options if you're going for a realistic character, even if you're writing fantasy or science fiction. Exceptions are characters that are deliberately trying to be strange or rebellious, i.e. a teenager who dyes her hair purple and gets yellow contacts that make her eyes look like a cat's. Keep in mind, however, that the "normal" people in the story will not be overly accepting of an abnormal appearance.
The height and weight of a character will affect how he acts and moves. How muscular or athletic is your character? Don't create an overweight middle-aged character and then have him sprint after bad guys unless you intend for him to die of a heart attack during the chase. Likewise, don't create a tall swimmer-type and then have him collapse in exhaustion after minimal exertion.
Decide whether your character is attractive or not so much. Most main characters are above average in the looks department, but whether that is true for your character is up to you. This can also affect the character's personality; good-looking people usually have more self-confidence and are less introverted than not-so-good-looking people. Another popular trend is for a character to be good-looking but not know it; this is bordering on trite at this point but is still an option if you so choose.
Does your character have any tattoos or piercings? Again, this affects how other characters will react, and it can be a telling factor with regards to your character's personality.
7) What does your character do for a living?
The broader question here is one of lifestyle. Does your character make a lot of money or not so much? Does he like his job? Does he have a dream job that he idly lusts after or is actively pursuing?
A character's job can say a lot about him, or it can stand in contrast to his personality. Imagine an accountant who secretly wants to paint nude models, or a janitor who can do advanced mathematical proofs in his head. Or, perhaps consider an engineer obsessed with making everything perfectly straight, or an actress who immerses herself in her roles to the point of losing contact with herself. Whichever you decide, make sure it's realistic given your character's age, location and physique.
8) What is your character's major strength?
This could either be a virtue that your character possesses--wisdom, courage, prudence, mercy, honesty, etc.--or it could be a source of strength for the character, such as love for his children or a sense of justice and fairness. This is the thing that keeps the character from giving up when the odds are stacked against him and failure appears to be imminent (or it has already happened). Usually, this is something that the antagonist lacks, causing him to underestimate the protagonist's will to succeed.
Be very careful with this question; a trap that many burgeoning writers fall into is that they load their protagonist down with strengths and go light on the weaknesses. This kind of character is called a "Mary Sue" or "Gary Stu" and is typically an idealized version of the author, created to allow the author a fictional realm in which to be awesome and revered. All of us have fantasized about something like this at one time or another, but it doesn't make for good reading to everyone else. Try to pick one central strength, or a few complementary ones, and leave it at that.
9) What is your character's major weakness?
See above. This could either be a vice--lust, cowardice, greed, indifference, etc.--or it can be something that weakens the character like an emotional Kryptonite, perhaps a phobia that paralyzes him or the sound of his father's voice that makes him feel like a helpless little kid again.
This is the thing that makes the character fail, the thing that he must overcome in order to succeed. Typically, the events of the story will cause this flaw to be exposed, acknowledged, then squashed like a bug. Unless you're writing a tragedy, the character must change between the beginning and the end, and this is where the bulk of the change is focused.
For example, a proud person might not want other people to help him reach his goal (what he WANTS). By the end of the second half of your story, this character would understand that he is flawed and can't do everything himself, and that he needs his friends/family/whoever to help him reach that goal. He overcomes his pride and succeeds. Roll credits.
Remember those three things I mentioned in the beginning? The ones you MUST know about your character? This is one of them. Give this considerable thought before you commit, because it will be used to create your plot, if not your premise and theme as well.
10) What does your character want?
This is a pretty heavy question. People visit psychiatrists for years trying to figure this one out for themselves, and now you have to do it for your protagonist. The answer to this question will determine at least the first half of your plot, during which your character will spend his time trying to get what he wants. Think of it has his driving goal, the motivation for the story. It can be an object--Dude, where's my car?--or it can be a person, or it can be some outcome of events--revenge, workplace success, learning to use the Force, etc. Whatever it is, you must be able to clearly identify it in, say, five words or less. Yes, five is an arbitrary number, but the point is to keep it short and sweet.
Will your character get what he wants? That's for you to decide. As the Rolling Stones say:
"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you might find
You get what you need"
Which leads us to the next question...
11) What does your character need?
This is even more important than what your character wants. Think of a toddler screaming at his parents in the middle of a grocery store: what he WANTS is candy, but what he NEEDS is a good spanking. It's like that with your character as well. He may know what he wants, but rarely does he realize what he needs until the second half of your story, if he ever realizes it at all. Your job is to figure out what he needs and see that he gets it. Maybe he wants to learn to use the Force, but he NEEDS to gain the maturity and discipline to use it properly. Maybe he wants to get the girl, but he NEEDS to learn to respect women instead of treating them like objects. Maybe he wants to win the big game, but he NEEDS to discover that winning isn't everything.
There are near-infinite possibilities, but as with determining the character's want, you must be able to define the character's need very succinctly and specifically. The two can be complementary, in that your character can achieve both in the end, or the need can surpass the want. Whatever you decide will influence both the premise and the plot, so don't go changing one unless you're prepared to topple a whole house of cards in the process.
There are many other questions you can answer about your character--Does he like coffee or tea? How often does he brush his teeth? Is he allergic to anything?--but these will give you the solid foundation you need to start thinking about the next step in crafting the novel: Premise. 0 comments
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Sobriety Test - Introduction Like most writers, when I decide that I'm going to write a story, I usually have one of five reasons:1) I have an interesting character whose story I want to tell.
2) I have an interesting theme or idea that I want to convey.
3) I have an interesting setting that I want to describe.
4) I have an interesting plot that I want to explore.
5) I have an interesting scene that needs a home.
Saving the last one for discussion later, the other four reasons have to do with the four basic elements of literature: character, theme (or idea, or premise), setting and plot. Every story has all of these elements, be it short short fiction or a multi-volume novel, but the best stories are able to interweave them into a cohesive whole without letting one or the other dominate. Unfortunately, it's rare to have all four of these things magically appear in my head all at once, so while I generally start with one, I have to work to create the other three.
But how to approach that work? What's the most efficient and effective way to assemble these elements into the proverbial well-oiled machine that is a good story? Different methods are successful for different people, but here's my take on the subject, step by step. I'm assuming that you're writing a fairly straightforward story with a relatively happy ending; if not, you'll need to make some modifications to some of the points I discuss. Hopefully, however, this will be useful no matter what kind of tale you plan to tell. 0 comments
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Octoberfest begins today! No, not Oktoberfest, which technically began in September this year. I'm talking about the inaugural edition of our 31-day festival of preparation for that most overwhelming feat of literary abandon, NaNoWriMo!We'll be starting each week with a "lesson" on a specific topic, and the daily prompts for the rest of the week will focus on that topic. By the time the month is over, each of us should have done enough pre-work on our novels that when we actually have to start writing them, we'll be practically drowning in ideas.
The one rule for this month, in keeping with the rules of NaNoWriMo, is that you absolutely cannot write anything that is intended for direct use within the novel. By that I mean you cannot write any scenes, excerpts, dialogue--nothing that would be copied verbatim later, because that would be cheating. All you can do is make notes and outlines and diagrams; NO WRITING OF THE ACTUAL NOVEL CAN BEGIN UNTIL NOVEMBER 1.
For more information, the NaNoWriMo website is http://www.nanowrimo.org/. Sign-ups should start tonight, barring technical difficulties.
Happy Octoberfest! Let the drinking games begin! 0 comments