Showing posts with label AtoZ. Show all posts
Friday, April 5, 2013
Emotions Belong To Readers
When it comes to using emotion in a story, the person whose emotions should be most important to you is the reader.
An emotionally invested reader is more likely to go wherever the story leads, and also more likely to make allowances for parts of the story they aren�t too sure about.
You can still keep readers engaged through intellectual curiosity or general drama and action, but grabbing them emotionally is always going to be the most intense experience for them.
An emotionally invested reader is more likely to go wherever the story leads, and also more likely to make allowances for parts of the story they aren�t too sure about.
You can still keep readers engaged through intellectual curiosity or general drama and action, but grabbing them emotionally is always going to be the most intense experience for them.
The simplest way to do this is to mirror emotions. The character in the story feel happy or angry or scared and the reader feels the same.
But you can also create scenarios that induce different emotions in reader and character. A killer taking great pleasure in his kill won�t engender the same in the reader. A daughter pretending she doesn�t know her own mother in front of her cools friends can make the reader weep while the characters on the page all behave with barely any emotion at all.
The ability to juxtapose characters in such a way as to spontaneously combust into emotion for the reader is a tricky thing to achieve but can be a very powerful an experience for the reader.
The cause of emotion rather than the display is where to focus. In order to do that effectively, you need to understand how actions create emotions.
This can be difficult since in real life we just feel what we feel and ascribe blame retroactively. I feel angry at Jack, therefore what Jack did must be worth getting mad about.
But that isn�t necessarily true. I could just be an over-sensitive whiner who likes to fly off the handle whenever challenged by a reasonable person. Judging actions by the emotions they create within you personally is not the best barometer.
You have to be able to step outside of your own personal feelings and view things objectively, see where the emotion is coming from (or isn�t) and adjust accordingly.
If a girl sees a snail on the way to school every day, and one day the snail is dead and the girl is upset, will the reader be upset too?
Maybe.
If the girl is bullied at school and ignored by busy parents, and uses the snail to confide in, telling it her fears and worries, even though the snail doesn�t respond in any way, when it dies will her anguish be felt by the reader now?
If the snail is killed by the school bully who drops a brick on it, can I switch sadness into rage?
If she takes the snail home and the mother is disgusted and throws it over the garden wall, and the girl retaliates by taking the mother�s pearl necklace and flushing it down the toilet, can I create sympathy for the girl? The mother? The snail?
Any given situation can be turned in any given direction emotionally if you understand the link between what people do and what they feel. How well it works is a matter of skill, but the emotion in the reader is waiting to be turned on. You just have to decide which switch you want to flick.
But you can also create scenarios that induce different emotions in reader and character. A killer taking great pleasure in his kill won�t engender the same in the reader. A daughter pretending she doesn�t know her own mother in front of her cools friends can make the reader weep while the characters on the page all behave with barely any emotion at all.
The ability to juxtapose characters in such a way as to spontaneously combust into emotion for the reader is a tricky thing to achieve but can be a very powerful an experience for the reader.
The cause of emotion rather than the display is where to focus. In order to do that effectively, you need to understand how actions create emotions.
This can be difficult since in real life we just feel what we feel and ascribe blame retroactively. I feel angry at Jack, therefore what Jack did must be worth getting mad about.
But that isn�t necessarily true. I could just be an over-sensitive whiner who likes to fly off the handle whenever challenged by a reasonable person. Judging actions by the emotions they create within you personally is not the best barometer.
You have to be able to step outside of your own personal feelings and view things objectively, see where the emotion is coming from (or isn�t) and adjust accordingly.
If a girl sees a snail on the way to school every day, and one day the snail is dead and the girl is upset, will the reader be upset too?
Maybe.
If the girl is bullied at school and ignored by busy parents, and uses the snail to confide in, telling it her fears and worries, even though the snail doesn�t respond in any way, when it dies will her anguish be felt by the reader now?
If the snail is killed by the school bully who drops a brick on it, can I switch sadness into rage?
If she takes the snail home and the mother is disgusted and throws it over the garden wall, and the girl retaliates by taking the mother�s pearl necklace and flushing it down the toilet, can I create sympathy for the girl? The mother? The snail?
Any given situation can be turned in any given direction emotionally if you understand the link between what people do and what they feel. How well it works is a matter of skill, but the emotion in the reader is waiting to be turned on. You just have to decide which switch you want to flick.
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Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Differentiating Through Dialogue
While there�s nothing wrong with making characters sound different by giving them specific accents, it�s not something you can do for every character in a story. Not unless your tale takes place at the United Nations.
And while giving them vocal tics is useful, yeah? It helps identify them quickly, yeah? It also gets old just as quickly, yeah?
Rather than using how people speak to make them stand out, it is much easier and more effective to use what they say rather than how they say it.
And while giving them vocal tics is useful, yeah? It helps identify them quickly, yeah? It also gets old just as quickly, yeah?
Rather than using how people speak to make them stand out, it is much easier and more effective to use what they say rather than how they say it.
If one person is for the new helipad on the local hospital and one is against, and a third is only interested in getting the other two to stop arguing, then their individual positions on the matter is what marks them out.
In order for this to work you have to streamline the conversation a bit. In real life, people may go off on tangents or use chit chat to pad out lulls in a conversation, but doing that in fiction will only undo any work you�ve done to establish which character is taking which stance.
Obviously, you can still use dialogue tags and the characters� names to identify them, but even if you do that, it can become confusing in dialogue heavy sections if you allow them to go off-topic.
You don�t just want a reader to be able to follow who�s saying what if they carefully read every single word at full concentration, you want them to be able to get into the flow of things and automatically get a feel for who�s speaking.
By staying focused on the matter on hand, whether it�s robbing a bank or going shopping for shoes, and giving each character a distinct objective, who�s speaking will become much easier to work out.
In order for this to work you have to streamline the conversation a bit. In real life, people may go off on tangents or use chit chat to pad out lulls in a conversation, but doing that in fiction will only undo any work you�ve done to establish which character is taking which stance.
Obviously, you can still use dialogue tags and the characters� names to identify them, but even if you do that, it can become confusing in dialogue heavy sections if you allow them to go off-topic.
You don�t just want a reader to be able to follow who�s saying what if they carefully read every single word at full concentration, you want them to be able to get into the flow of things and automatically get a feel for who�s speaking.
By staying focused on the matter on hand, whether it�s robbing a bank or going shopping for shoes, and giving each character a distinct objective, who�s speaking will become much easier to work out.
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Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad. Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Choosing Character
There are two basic types of character: the ordinary person and the special person.
The special person is really good at their job, has skills most people don�t, or maybe even possesses powers beyond those of regular folk.
The ordinary person is like you or me.
Once you decide which type your main character is, the important thing is to get the reader to see the character as someone worth reading about.
Both types have certain drawbacks which, while not a problem, need to be addressed.
The ordinary character often starts off his story with not much going on. It�s necessary to establish the kind of life he leads, but this can easily become boring.
There�s no reason why everyday life has to be a chore to read about, but just portraying a character�s existence accurately isn�t going to be enough to hold the reader�s attention.
There�s no reason why everyday life has to be a chore to read about, but just portraying a character�s existence accurately isn�t going to be enough to hold the reader�s attention.
The risk with the specialist character is that they will deal with their problems too easily. The plot can be so well suited to their particular set of skills that it ends up feeling contrived.
The guy who was a hero in the army beats up ten guys, builds a gun out of spare parts and makes an impossible shot to save the day. Luckily, those were the three things he was really good at.
The guy who was a hero in the army beats up ten guys, builds a gun out of spare parts and makes an impossible shot to save the day. Luckily, those were the three things he was really good at.
In both cases, you need to show the character as more than one dimensional. And to do so as early as possible. You can do this for both types in a very similar manner.
The ordinary character still has to deal with mundane issues before things get crazy, and how he deals with them will reflect his personality, even if that personality wants to run away and hide.
The special character can�t use his special skills in all situations. If a meter maid insists on giving him a ticket he can�t just karate chop her in the neck.
The special character can�t use his special skills in all situations. If a meter maid insists on giving him a ticket he can�t just karate chop her in the neck.
We all have to deal with unglamorous problems that have nothing to do with saving the world or finding love, but rather than rushing through them to get to the main plot, those are the moments you can use to your advantage.
If you make those moments socially awkward and difficult to navigate, how your character responds will establish the kind of person he is very quickly.
If the character is in a rush and is told to wait, you can show them waiting and getting frustrated, but that doesn�t reveal anything. If you show how they get around a minor obstacle in an unexpected way it will show the kind of person they are, and it will also make the scene more interesting.
The key is not to allow them to just do as they�re told. Give them a reason why they can�t wait and then see what they do.
A character who is forced to cut in at the head of a line when normally they would never do that will reveal a side of themselves in a dramatic way without the need for guns and car chases. If you can come up with a good enough reason for why they can�t back out, the rest will take care of itself.
And often how the character handles the situation will surprise even the writer.
If you found this post useful, please give it a retweet. Cheers.
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Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad. Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Beginnings And Their Endings
My view has always been that great first lines are overrated. Famous opening lines tend to become famous after the fact. Once a book becomes acclaimed or well-loved, the opening takes on a significance that it didn�t have to start with. Nobody read �Call me Ishamel� and thought, Genius!
First paragraphs are overrated too. Orson Scott Card has a theory that the first paragraph is a freebie, and I�m inclined to agree with him.
The first paragraph can be in a different POV, be generic or introductory, set the tone, or be the lyric from a song. It doesn�t really matter and readers don�t really expect it to be consistent with the rest of the book.
Ever since somebody came up with Once upon a time... readers have understood that.
First chapters, however, are important.
First paragraphs are overrated too. Orson Scott Card has a theory that the first paragraph is a freebie, and I�m inclined to agree with him.
The first paragraph can be in a different POV, be generic or introductory, set the tone, or be the lyric from a song. It doesn�t really matter and readers don�t really expect it to be consistent with the rest of the book.
Ever since somebody came up with Once upon a time... readers have understood that.
First chapters, however, are important.
They didn�t used to be, or at least not as much as they are now, but with the way ebooks are sold, allowing only access to the first few pages, it is much more likely that reader will read that sample and use it to decide on whether or not to make the purchase.
That isn�t how I would choose to judge a book. My experience is that openings of books rarely give an accurate indication of whether the rest of the story will be any good. Sometimes a book starts great and stays that way till the end, but rarely. Sometimes they start well and fade, other times they�re slow to get going and then come into their own.
However, the emphasis on the first chapter is changing because of online sites offering the first chapter for free. And not only does it matter that you give the reader something to draw them in, it also helps if the end of that chapter makes them want to keep reading (i.e. buy the book).
Of course, this will lead to a lot of gimmicky ends of first chapters of the kind where something outrageous and inexplicable happens to make the reader want to know what happens next. Despite knowing it�s a writerly ruse, enough people will be unable to resist to make it a ruse worth considering.
Whatever your thoughts on what should be happening in your first chapter, if you hope to sell it online, it�s worth bearing in mind how important the opening few pages will be, and while not every story should start like a cheap thriller, it might be an idea to think of chapter one like the first part of a serial.
That isn�t how I would choose to judge a book. My experience is that openings of books rarely give an accurate indication of whether the rest of the story will be any good. Sometimes a book starts great and stays that way till the end, but rarely. Sometimes they start well and fade, other times they�re slow to get going and then come into their own.
However, the emphasis on the first chapter is changing because of online sites offering the first chapter for free. And not only does it matter that you give the reader something to draw them in, it also helps if the end of that chapter makes them want to keep reading (i.e. buy the book).
Of course, this will lead to a lot of gimmicky ends of first chapters of the kind where something outrageous and inexplicable happens to make the reader want to know what happens next. Despite knowing it�s a writerly ruse, enough people will be unable to resist to make it a ruse worth considering.
Whatever your thoughts on what should be happening in your first chapter, if you hope to sell it online, it�s worth bearing in mind how important the opening few pages will be, and while not every story should start like a cheap thriller, it might be an idea to think of chapter one like the first part of a serial.
If you found this post useful, please give it a retweet. Cheers.
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Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad. Monday, April 1, 2013
An Awesome Idea
For this year�s A to Z Challenge I will be doing a series of hints and tips on how to get from the start to the end of the writing process. I will be keeping these posts relatively short (for me). And a big thank you to Arlee Bird for creating the A to Z Challenge. Cheers, Lee!
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Some people can sit down with a blank page and start writing. Come to think of it, we can all do that. But some people actually like what they end up with. And by some people I mean not me.
What most of us need before we start writing is an idea. A good one.
I don�t mean a complete story or vision for what you plan to write, I�m talking about an initial spark to get you going. It is possible to start without that, but I wouldn�t recommend it.What most of us need before we start writing is an idea. A good one.
It could be an image, a photo, a line of dialogue, a scene, an object. Whatever it is that first excites your imagination into story mode, the usual advice is to stick it on the wall above where you write, make it the wallpaper on your computer desktop, pin it somewhere you can see it all the time.
I find it more useful not to do that.
Take the thing (if it�s an idea or a line of dialogue, write it down or make a Word document) and put it away. In a drawer, in a folder. Obviously put it somewhere you won�t forget. Label it clearly. Then don�t refer to it again until at least after the first draft.
The longer you can manage the better.
At some point in the writing process you will get lost. Your enthusiasm will desert you and you�ll start to imagine that what you�re writing is a big pile of poo.
That�s when to get out your inspiration and remind yourself what started you down this road.
Because familiarity makes things lose their lustre. Depriving yourself of the thing that inspired you in the first place helps it keep its magic. It won�t necessarily help you solve any problems or come up with great new ideas, but it will, hopefully, respark your enthusiasm for the project.
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Check out my latest stories for free on Wattpad (I'm experimenting with this site).
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