Posted in * Meeting Notices, Character on September 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
September 16, 2017 3:30pm-5:30pm
Next Saturday, Bret Wilson (aka Russell Pike) will lead our study group in a discussion called the “Character Cake”, about how to present a character in a meaningful way in prose.
We have time for one or two critique sessions in second hour.
Happy writing until we see you next weekend.
In the meantime, keep in touch by joining our Facebook Open Forum at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pocatellowriters/
Posted in * Meeting Notices, Character, Critiquing, Dialogue on March 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
Saturday, March 18, 2017, 3:30pm-5:30pm
Sherrie Seibert Goff will lead our March meeting on the topic of writing powerful dialogue. Effective dialogue moves the plot forward, conveys information, creates tension, deepens characterization, creates immediacy and stirs reader empathy.
We will talk about various techniques to improve one’s writing of dialogue, as well as dialogue’s many roles in writing good fiction. Please join us at the Marshall Public Library to pick up a few pointers and lend your own ideas and expertise to the discussion.
In the meantime, hang out with a few of us in our Facebook OPEN FORUM at https://www.facebook.com/groups/250065325099597.
Posted in * Meeting Notices, * Member Info, Character on February 13, 2017|
This coming Saturday, Charity Henson Samora will continue with our study session on CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Come and pick up a few pointers on how to improve your story with realistic and memorable characters. Bring your ideas and expertise as well. Hope to see you all there.
Posted in * Meeting Notices, * Member Info, Character, Dialogue, Editing, Hooks, Endings, Story Arcs, Theme, Plot on August 17, 2016|
Marshall Public Library
Saturday August 20
3:30pm-5:30pm
Tammy Godfrey will lead a workshop on WHY YOU NEED CONFLICT. She says:
“A story conflict is a problem facing the main character. This problem might be a romantic rival or a horde of attacking zombies. It might be an internal struggle; for example, the character has to overcome a particular fear or a bad habit. Conflict is important because it makes things happen. If everything in your character’s life is perfect, there is no reason for her to take action. There is no reason for anything to change. And no change equals no story.”
This Saturday will be a two-hour workshop, so we won’t have time for any readings or critiques. (Next critique session will be on September 3rd, if we can work it in so near the holiday.)
In the meantime, keep in touch by joining our Facebook OPEN FORUM at https://www.facebook.com/groups/250065325099597/
Posted in * Meeting Notices, ., Character on July 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Please join us this Saturday July 16th at 3:30pm at the Marshall Public Library for our monthly writers meeting. Tammy Godfrey has offered to lead us in a 2-hour workshop on CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. This is the first of a 3-part lesson she has taught at writers conventions.
Tammy says that three important elements a story needs are character, a setting, and conflict. Our workshop Saturday will cover the first element, which is character. (Perhaps we can get Tammy to do the other two lessons at future meetings.)
Anyhow, we expect the study session will take the full 2 hours, so we will have no time for readings or critiques this time. (Sorry, to anyone hoping to read. Next critique workshop will be August 6th.) Looking forward to Tammy’s presentation, and to seeing you all at the meeting. – Sherrie
Posted in * Meeting Notices, * Member Info, ., Character on April 15, 2015|
Pocatello Writers Meeting
Marshall Public Library
Saturday, April 18, 3:30pm-5:30pm
Greetings, Fellow Writers:
CHARITY HENSON SAMORA has volunteered to lead us in a workshop session on Characterization for our April writers meeting.
Please join us at the Marshall Public Library at 3:30pm for our study session. Second hour will be reserved for readings, if you want to share some of your work.
Come to get inspired and enjoy the company of local writer friends. In the meantime, keep in touch on our Facebook open forum.
Posted in Character on July 26, 2013| 1 Comment »
UNFORGETTABLE ANTAGONISTS
If you think your hero is the most important part of your book, think again. Your story is only as good as your antagonist—the character standing in the way of your hero and his goals. The antagonist is the story’s engine. He needs to be just as interesting and richly layered as the protagonist.
Good villains and antagonists are cherished by readers. Transform your bad guy from a one-dimensional paper doll into a force to be reckoned with—and remembered. (Think of nurse Ratched, professor Moriarty, Hannibal Lecter, Simon Legree.)
How do authors create deliciously real antagonists that will live forever in their readers’ minds and nightmares?
Antagonists are Not the same as Villains
The terms antagonist, villain, or bad guy technically mean the same thing: a character who acts as an opposing force to the protagonist, hero, or good guy. But each term carries subtle nuances conjuring up a different type of character. A villain is always an antagonist, but an antagonist is not always a villain.
Villains are a stereotype of black or white, good vs. evil, and often manifest as heartless greedy bastards, mindlessly evil sadists, serial killers, or sociopaths who are just plain bad for the sake of being bad.
Antagonists inhabit the moral ambiguities and gray areas of life, where things may or may not be acceptable and an explanation can make the difference in the audience’s perception. The old saying goes that one man’s insurgent is another man’s freedom fighter. Wars are fought between people who think they’re on the right side. Simply put, an antagonist can be any sort of anti-hero or person standing in the way of the protagonist getting what he/she wants. (Consider romantic protagonist Blanche DuBois’s struggles with her brother-in-law in Streetcar Named Desire).
Clashing Motives
The antagonist always opposes the protagonist. The protagonist wants to free the slaves; the antagonist wants to keep them and the economic power they provide. The protagonist is a rational woman; her antagonist is a religious zealot. They possess needs and wants that exist in defiance of one another.
Make it clear that the bad guy’s goals conflict with the hero’s, and have him pursue them ruthlessly. An antagonist is essential because without him driving the conflict of the story, the hero cannot overcome obstacles and develop as a character. How did their lives intersect and collide? Did the protagonist have something to do with a turning point or crisis in the villain?
The Antagonist Needs to be Your Hero’s Equal
Nothing will make your hero more heroic that pitting him against a worthy adversary. Make you villain at least as smart, strong and capable as your hero. Who wants to watch a football game when the score is 72-0? If you make your antagonist equal in strength or even stronger than your hero, it will make the story very exciting!
As well as being smart, the bad guy needs the “power” to follow through, whether it’s money, superior intelligence, charisma, knowledge of forensics, strength, or connections. The smarter your villain is, the better your hero looks when he wins. When the writer has the villain do something stupid so the hero can defeat him, it not only makes the bad guy look dumb, it makes the hero look weak.
A good plan is to let the antagonist win periodically throughout the story, but not in the end. The hero is always better than the bad guy, but for maximum tension show the antagonist winning the final face-to-face confrontation until the hero pulls out the victory against all odds.
Humanize the Villain
An infusion of humanity is what makes antagonists worthy opponents. The best villains are ones that readers can connect with. Always make sure your baddie has more than one dimension, whether it’s a dark humor, high intelligence or kindness towards a person he cares about. Make the bad guy handsome; make the bad guy powerful—more so than the average man on the street, but not a superman. The more human your antagonist seems the more frightening and captivating their story will be.
Maybe the antagonist has something he fears, or something or someone he loves. Get the reader to identify with the antagonist at least once in the story. For example, the bad guy has another enemy who almost kills him.
Show similarity, humanity, feelings (he is looking for a nursing home for his father, or gets stuck in traffic and misses his favorite show, or loves Kit-Kat bars). No villain is truly 100% evil (unless he’s the Joker). We always hear about the shock from neighbors of serial killers saying “I can’t believe it. He was such a nice guy.”
A wonderful exercise is to write a scene from your antagonist’s mind and outlook, even if his POV is never in your book. Write in his voice—first person—as if he’s talking to you. Let him tell you how he feels, what he wants, what he’s planning. You will engage a close connection that your readers will sense, whether or not this particular writing ever goes into your manuscript.
(Dean Koontz actually switches POV in his thrillers and takes you deep into the mind of his monster by making him a viewpoint character, creating more empathy, or dread, in the reader.)
Most stories are told from the hero’s viewpoint, but this exercise will help you find the complexity within the hero’s opponent. We don’t need sympathy for antagonists necessarily, but we demand empathy. If we cannot understand them, then we will not believe in them.
A Defining Moment
Antagonists think they’re the protagonists. The bad guy will have convinced himself of his own nobility. People who do bad things often justify their own actions as being positive—Hitler thought he was the savior of mankind and that his appalling agenda was justified. Their motives may be basically understandable, but their ultimate goal and their processes are extremely twisted.
You can reveal to the reader that the antagonist is beyond redemption by having the villain drop his good side altogether in some sort of “kick the cat” moment. This defining action shows us why the antagonist is the antagonist—a glimpse that exposes the depths of his trouble-making, his hatred, his perversion of the ethics and social mores of man. This moment is a sign to the hero, and the reader, that the antagonist must be stopped.
The hero of the tale needs the reverse reveal: a sort of “save the cat” moment early on, where we get to rally behind the hero because he does something noble or shows an admirable reaction or belief. He rescued a cat from a tree, metaphorically.
What Motivates your Antagonist?
Writers sometimes have trouble making the middle of their novel exciting. A villain who acts, instead of simply sitting around thinking wicked thoughts, is the best possible cure for a sagging middle-book. Revisit the antagonist’s motives and use them to kick-start the action and stir up the conflict. There is something the villain wants, or something they think must happen, and they have a fanatical belief about what they think is necessary in order to attain this goal.
Good antagonists work from a place of self-interest. Find a good reason your antagonist wants what they want; evil for the sake of being evil isn’t enough in the competitive fiction market. World domination, power and control are age-old motivations; so are greed and revenge. Lust, greed, and hatred can drive even ordinary people to do dastardly deeds. The villain may be afraid of something: the hero, death, failure, the dark. Delusion makes the antagonist even more determined.
A hypocrite is an antagonist who feigns goodness. He is guilty of all sorts of treachery, but on the surface he’s all honey and sunshine. He puts a righteous face on his misdeeds, but the reader knows the truth: this guy is not just bad, he’s a fake. And we hate him all the more for it.
The crusader is someone who fiercely believes he is doing the right thing, and indeed he may well be fighting for a good cause. He is driven to fanaticism—and thus dangerous decisions—by his passion for his cause.
Of course not all stories offer an epic battle between good and evil. Sometimes basically good people end up doing bad things because they feel they have no choice. Often the conflict is about good people with opposing views struggling on different sides of a crisis. The well-meaning antagonist is doing the right thing, and usually for the right reasons, but has nonetheless been forced by the story’s conflict to do battle with your hero.
In such cases, try making the antagonist’s torment more internal or subtle: instead of outright anger, how about resentment? Instead of pure regret, how about guilt?
The Antagonist can have a Story Arc
Antagonists can change, like anyone else. Don’t assume the antagonist needs to be a static, unswerving face of conflict—make this character shift with changing conditions, have his madness deepen, his hatred or pain worsen, his zealotry grow. He changes, grows or sometimes shrinks, same as the protagonist. Villains die, get locked away, tumble off buildings still spitting their animosity, and sometimes they even repent, switch sides, or reveal a secret noble agenda. (Darth Vader)
When the Antagonist isn’t a Person
The antagonist can be an idea (racism), an institution (the CIA), a natural disaster (zombies or killer asteroids). The reader cannot identify with a committee. A reader loves a character to hate, so give them what they want! Give your big-issue antagonist a character’s face and name. Build a character that embodies all aspects of the social issue or force of nature plaguing the hero or threatening the world.
For example, the epitome of racism could be cast as the neighborhood grand wizard poo-bah of the KKK. Enlist opposition from a callous field agent working for the ainstitution. Maybe a beloved cousin joins the opposing army, or a greedy politician thwarts the good scientist who is trying to save the world. Racial bigotry becomes Hilly Holbrook in The Help. Political abuse of power is epitomized in President Snow from The Hunger Games.
Posted in * Meeting Notices, Character on July 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Saturday 4pm-6pm
Marshall Public Library
At July’s meeting we will discuss how to create memorable antagonists, villains and bad guys—think nurse Ratched and Hannibal Lecter.
If you think your hero is the most important part of your book, think again. Your story is only as good as your antagonist—the character standing in the way of your hero and his goals. The antagonist is the story’s engine. He needs to be just as interesting and richly layered as the protagonist.
If you have time, make a list of your favorite antagonists for the meeting. Jot down what you liked and loathed about them. Why are they memorable for you? Why do you love to hate them and hate to love them?
Note: Wayne has signed up to read in the second hour, and we still have room for one or two more. Hope to see you there.
Posted in Character, Hooks, Endings, Story Arcs, Theme, Plot on June 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Strategy: Helpful Patterns in Fiction
(review by Ralph Norton)
Theme & Strategy by Ronald Tobias (1st ed, 1989). Amazon rates at 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 6 reviews. This report covers the first half of the book, discussing Strategy, and its use of Patterns in fiction. Strategy: either bulldoze ahead without one and hope for the help of the gods, or develop a strategy. Knowing how to write great dialog or gripping action, but more is needed to write cohesive fiction. Strategy is knowing the number of characters needed to make a plot work, how much action is too much (or too little), etc. Strategy holds your writing and scenes together.
Definitions:
Dramatic Structure: rise &fall of action, climax, denouement.
Deep Structure: plot, character, style, imagery, symbolism, tone; the glue holding the work together.
Pattern: what weaves together the fabric of the story; its logic and consistency. As a science analogy: in biology, patterns are in everything from macro scale migrations down to the colors and patterns in a moth’s wings.
Strategy: actions taken by the author to create sound & meaningful Patterns; an author wants to create an elegant, consistent Pattern. He must consciously control it, not cede it to readers. The human mind (including readers’!) takes randomness and turns it into patterns (like constellations in the night sky). Strategy encompasses other elements (most obviously: choice of Point of View, characterization, etc.).
1. Start with “a beginning” (note: not the necessarily same as “the beginning”). 2. Pick an ending. This is not necessarily the ending you stick with, and it might even end up being your middle and not the ending at all – but it IS the second point of the “line” you’re writing. Now you’ve got a direction! 3. Set Short-term Objectives. The ending is your long-term objective; in between you need way points (individual dramatic units) to write towards/through. Units may be scenes, acts, chapters, longer segments, etc. Note these smaller units have the same beginning/end structure as the larger story. 4. Develop a Working Strategy. A working strategy constantly readjusts itself to meet changing circumstances. Changes can be minor, or plot-altering: things like a character taking over the story, etc. 5. Don’t Ever Look Back. This is a comment re: worrying/editing earlier writing. Get the story told before editing.
PATTERN IN AUDIENCE. The relationship between the author and the reader is often taken for granted, but is what makes or breaks a piece of writing. Some writers (e.g., Steinbeck) become arrogant, think they/their “art” are above the audience. One writer suggests fighting this by picking one actual person and writing to him/her. Anticipation (i.e., the readers’), pattern, and strategy are the three elements of storytelling. A story is a shared experience between writer and reader. Every story should offer a challenge, a mystery to the audience (i.e., suspense, intrigue; e.g., Citizen Kane and “Rosebud”). This isn’t limited to works in the Mystery genre; it’s what keeps the reader interested. What’s going to happen? Or what’s coming next – suspense is not necessarily plot; it might be style, imagery, language (e.g., poetry). Mysteries can work on multiple concurrent levels: e.g., in The Old Man and the Sea, plot changes are intertwined with character development. What’s going to happen? What does the old man symbolize (e.g., Christ? Capt. Ahab?)? Writing should generate many actual and/or unasked questions. Just like in a mystery, the author gives clues, but not answers, until the end of the tale (or unit). Until the end, an answered question is to be replaced by a new one. Writing is like a chase, with the reader chasing the writer, trying to figure out the questions. If the reader wins, he loses (and so do you): you wasted the reader’s time. The writer needs to balance dropping good, accurate clues vs. the risk of losing the race.
PATTERN IN STRUCTURE. Stories are themselves part of a familiar pattern: there are no new stories, no new plot lines. All the stories we know are as “old as the hills;” only the presentation varies. Their patterns are so deeply ingrained as to be inescapable. Their patterns are images, plots, characters, sounds, etc., that are psychological archetypes . Embrace these archetypes and use them. Even the classic 3-part story structure (Beginning, Middle, End) is itself an archetype. Whether it’s the “start” or not (e.g., in medias res), sooner or later, you must write your Beginning.
Beginnings have several Objectives: Establish Character(s) – do one at a time or in small groups, and important characters first; Establish Place – don’t leave your characters in a vacuum – they need places to go, ground to walk on, things to see; Start Action – raise the central question of the story. Start the story late – start with the plane taking off, not with its loading and taxiing down the runway. Establish Tone: comedy, tragedy, adventure? Give a sense of the story’s style: breezy, silly, somber, whatever.
Middles are next, and harder than either Beginnings or Endings. Characters run into obstacles, twists, complications. Problems intensify. The writer needs to keep the reader just as off balance as the characters– don’t write in a straight line.
Endings are the resolution of the characters’ problem(s), for better or worse; it is the climax, the big finish, the sum of the beginning and middle. Think of classic fairy tales and myths: how they are structured, typically with three movements, each with their own Beginning, middle, end, in addition to the overall structure. The Rule of Threes is another classic fairy tale example. For more in depth examples: read the book!
PATTERN IN PLOT. Unlike real life, fiction takes place in a well-ordered, cause-and-effect universe. “The King died and the Queen died” might be a story, but it is not a plot. There is no connection between the two events. But with “The King died, and the Queen died of grief,” you have the beginnings of a plot: the two events are bound together. The linkage of events creates the pattern in events, thus creating plot.
As you write, you develop a web of connections (patterns) between characters, between places, between events, between readers’ expectations. All of these patterns are interwoven: what a character does/says is influenced by his location, etc. Patterns take shapes: e.g., the Revenge plot. Think of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The first sentence gives pieces of the character’s motivation, establishes the revenge plot, sets up expectations (and questions), etc (book’s p. 52); the whole story is only 190 sentences. Aim to be as good as Poe! We’ve done exercises in our club re: continuing from an initial sentence. We build on clues or suggestions of the sentence: just so does a story build on the clues the writer provides. Poe also builds on his clues. Yet at the same time, Poe reverses the Patterns the reader expects: for instance, he never reveals why the central character desires revenge (actually making the reader suspicious of him, etc.). Poe takes a familiar pattern and makes it original by the way he tells it, not because no one has told a similar tale before.
In all of human literature, the book’s author states the total number of distinct plots is – 36. There’s been no new plot “since before the birth of Christ.” Of the 36, 8 are rarely used today
PATTERN IN ACTION. Action is the means to the plot’s ends. Actions build on each other, like tiers of a pyramid. Build properly, and the pattern of their structure builds suspense and tension. After writing a scene, ask yourself in what way it contributes to developing or answering the plot questions you have raised. If/when you get “stuck” and don’t know how to proceed, return to your plot questions and ask yourself how to direct your efforts towards answering them. Make sure not to overwhelm the reader with plot questions (two or three unanswered questions are usually enough). Start giving answers right away, but use different pacing – some get answered sooner, some in dribs and drabs over time. Readers must feels they are making progress in answering plot questions, or they lose interest. Make sure the action is consistent with the phases (or “acts”) of the story.
PATTERN IN CHARACTER. Action is character; character is action. Yet: plot is also action. It’s all inter-related. Character is pattern (i.e., Behavior). As you bring your characters on board, you enter the arena of Character Dynamics. Three characters (six relationships, or triangles) or multiples thereof is the most common in longer works; short stories can get by with only two main characters, but too often, two is too few. Many story lines (e.g., “Adultery”) require three characters. Note that increasing the number of characters increases relationships exponentially: 3 = 6, but 4 =12, 5 = 20, etc. The more characters interacting, the more complicated it is for the writer (multiple characters can be spread into their own “triangles” across different story units, however, keeping the triangles “separate”). Handling more than a “triangle” is not for the feint of heart or for the inexperienced!
You create characters not by their plot function (that will make them dry and stilted). You create them by their behavior, their patterns of interactions with other people, places and things. Those Patterns need to realistic, sound, probable (but not predictable – that’s boring). In terms of “knowing each other,” some characters will be better than others (just as in real life); but all of them will be constantly trying to understand the others. Likewise, readers will be assessing the fictional characters you create. Fiction is also about change in character, usually as a result of stress. Stress pushes characters into areas they’ve not entered before, and no person is capable of all kinds of action. Such stress is rarely induced by choices between good and evil; rather, it comes when one must choose between evils, or when good must fight good. Readers no longer know who to root for, or what is fair.
Characters also have two faces: the private one, and the public one. The two are often contradictory. Emotions must be consistent with character. Characters must be powerful: a mix of common and uncommon traits. Major characters must rise above the simplistic and generalized. Characters should be true to themselves. Character’s motivations drive plot, not vice-versa.
Posted in * Meeting Notices, Character, Hooks, Endings, Story Arcs, Theme, Plot on June 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Saturday 4pm-6pm
Marshall Public Library
Join us for our third Saturday meeting for June.
Ralph Norton will lead a discussion on Strategy: Helpful Patterns in Fiction. The glue that holds your story together is the wise use of “patterns” in structure, plot, action and characters. Come listen how to write more cohesive fiction and improve your storytelling.
See you there,
Sherrie
Pocatello Writers 