The Stars Are Not Made of Fire

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Maybe Things Are More Complicated: The Complicated Villain

Writing


I have been thinking about creating stories and how to make them more interesting. In my opinion stories are better when we acknowledge that maybe things are more complicated and we should embrace complicated villains. I am currently working on a novel outline for a book about angels, demons, and a psychic. A string of mysterious deaths occurs, the psychic is pulled into the homicides, and there is supernatural agency at work.

I am working on laying out cause and effect streams for all the major characters and seeing how the threads interact. This has lead me to thinking about ambiguity in fiction, villains, and portraying character.

Ambiguity

I have written about villains in the past in a post titled “The Best Types of Villains.” Repeating what I wrote in that post is not helpful. I discussed various types of villains such as the inexplicably evil villain, the type of villain who manipulates situations, men portrayed as villains because history is defined by the conquerers, the out of control child villain, and the sociopathic villain who spreads his doctrine to others.

Depth of Villains

Villains are much better when they are portrayed with depth. This brings in ambiguity. For instance, if a character is just simply someone who vandalizes for the sake of destruction and the reasons for their destroying things is never explained this is a type of inexplicably evil villain. Perhaps the character puts caltrops on the road because it makes them smile to see people’s tires blown out. The sheriff’s deputy who has just been hired is put in charge of tracking down the one planting the caltrops. This is not a very compelling story.

Yesterday I was in a group of folk, some of whom have done street art and some taggers. In the past I created public chalk murals with the intent of spurring thought and discussion. I don’t entirely understand tagging– spray painting one’s symbol or tag. To me the tagging doesn’t inspire thought in anyone else or serve anyone other than the tagger. I was asking why someone would tag and continue to tag to the point of it being a felony charge. I could understand the thrill the tagger might get from doing something against authority, surreptitiously defacing property in plain sight, and having a level of notoriety swirling around them, but ultimately what they are doing holds little ambiguity.

Changing the Stories

So, let’s change these stories slightly. What if the person planting caltrops is trying to prevent the sometimes legal and sometimes illegal deforesting of old growth forests? The caltrops are still against the law but perhaps so is the felling of some of the trees. Who is the villain? In the situation with the tagger, what if the the story were set in a police state where people were oppressed and each incidence of tagging gave the populace hope? Who is the villain?

The story of each character always has its own unique perspective. The determination of who is the villain might be subtle and the character of the characters has to come through via showing and not telling.

Here is a scene portrayal. I hope it holds ambiguity and relays what I am talking about.

The male character sighs and shakes his head. He says, “I can never count on you for support. I just wanted a relaxing conversation. A little distraction. Some time away from everything. I am so stressed out. I really wish I could count on you, but you always just think of yourself and what you want. You don’t really care about me.”

The female character, crying, says, “I do care about you. A great deal. I am trying. It’s just your dream. The dream you just told me. Why did you tell me about it?”

“What about it? It was just a dream,” male character says.

“But you said it was about having a love affair and then breaking off with the woman. Why did you bring it up?”

“See. You don’t care about me. I am sick and stressed and have a stressful day tomorrow. You bring this up to talk about when it is late. And you know how hard it is for me to talk about my dreams and such. This is all about you. About what you want. You want to be in a relationship but you don’t care about me. Just don’t care. And I cannot count on you,” says the male character.

Who Is the Villain?

Who is the villain? The woman who is asking about the dream the man has just told her that is about a love affair being broken off? Or the man who is condemning the woman for reacting to the dream he has chosen to tell her about when it is late, he is stressed, and he is feeling sick?

Villains can be the same stuff of heroes, it is just a matter of perspective. A man can be creative, brilliant, well-educated, working in a field for the common good, and articulate and at the same time manipulative and selfish. He can believe he is virtuous all the while he is making decisions and hurting those around him. He might do this while feeling justified or placing the blame elsewhere. The downfall of a human being is rarely so clearcut as to be a simple decision on the part of a person to be “bad.” The nature of a situation or the stated character does not make someone exempt.

If an angel allows the murder of four girls by a priest and tries to put the blame on another innocent person, are they virtuous just because they are an angel?

If a demon tries to prevent harm to a human, are they still evil? What if it is so the demon can possess the human? What if it is so the human won’t be damned? Is the demon truly evil no matter what?

Things Are Complicated

People are complicated. Situations and motivations can be complicated. The cancer patient may seemingly evoke sympathy, but what if he is ultimately merely manipulative and just happens to have cancer? (As in the television show “Breaking Bad.”) The widowed mother who needs to support her children may evoke sympathy even as she sells marijuana, but what if she has always been a selfish, wild-child? (As in the television show “Weeds.”)Villains whose actions and motivations are ambiguous help us to explore our dark side. They help us to learn and see the everyday situations that might arise to cause a person to make less than virtuous decisions. Fully fleshed out villains are always ambiguous and more interesting.

Character Driven Improv-Plot OR Pre-Plotted Thematic Story? Which to Use?

Writing

This morning as I have been reading “The Death of the Necromancer” by Martha Wells and drinking coffee. I have been thinking about plot. I think there are a few ways to approach plot. Each individual writer has to find what works for them. This might be why writing advice books are not always the most useful of things. Which to use a character driven improv plot or a pre-plotted thematic story? Which to use?

Two Characters and a Situation

Let me state up front that plotting stories is not always my strong suit. And because of this I have been putting a fair amount of mental effort into thinking on what creates really good stories and good plots. To my mind there are two basic approaches to creating a story arc or plot. One is to create a character or two and plunk them into a situation and see what happens. In this approach the characters take over. As long as the author can maintain a sense of emotional honesty and integrity about who the characters are and how they would respond, the story does not lose focus with divided points of view. The main character remains the main character because the whole story comes from this character’s reactions.

Pre-plot

Another way to create plot would be to take a story idea, create a situation, think through what the author wants to say, and create a character to enact the story. This type of plotting and preplanning can create a story where the author knows ahead of time what the ending will be and where the story is headed and thus avoids the pitfall of not knowing how to end the story. This type of story can be tough though because the characters still need to be thought through and complete. Anything less will lack authenticity.

The Ode Less Traveled: Iambic Pentameter

Poetry, Writing, writing prompts

I have written about the book “The Ode Less Traveled” by Stephen Fry in the past. At one point I was going to work my way through the book and do all the exercises. Life intervened and I never did do the poetry exercises. This morning after reading about eighty pages of Stephen King’s book titled “On Writing” which really is very good and I will probably write about it another day, I pulled out “The Ode Less Traveled.” The Ode Less Traveled, writing iambic pentameter…

Iambic Pentameter

I read the first section. It introduces the book and talks about meter in poetry. The first exercise involves listening to the rhythm of a set of selections of two lines of poetry that are written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a type of meter where every other syllable is stressed. An example would be:
“He bangs the drum and makes a dreadful noise.”

I read through all of the examples and felt confident that I had the rhythm of iambic pentameter. The second exercise in the book is about writing iambic pentameter. I need to work more on this.

Writing in Iambic Pentameter

Here is what I wrote this morning. It, uh, needs work shall we say. I am still trying to get the hang of this iambic pentameter thing.

Touched

The wind blew fierce and whipped the trees with might
Brown branches bent, cracked, and fell to sodden ground.
With rain, green grass grew slick, dove grey rock black.
The thunderbirds rode chariots of cloud

We hid under woolen blankets to watch.
The scent of pine, lightning’s ozone sharp tang,
And sweat scented the air. I watched the waves,
Relentless scour the shore. Thunderclaps boomed.

One strike from heaven turns sand into glass.
What once could flow unformed and ordinary,
becomes jagged and sharp with crystalline
knowledge too delicate and dangerous.

Writing in Meter is Challenging

Writing in a structured meter is hard because you begin to force the meter in your thinking and after awhile you just simply cannot hear the stresses on the syllables. I posted the above poem just to give an example of what I mean. After working on this for the better part of a half an hour I am sure that if I were trying to talk to someone the way that I would say the word dangerous would sound as though I was not a native speaker of English. Also while writing this poem, I was convinced the second line was good iambic pentameter. Looking at it now the stresses are all wrong. I am going to let this activity rest for the day and come back to it tomorrow.

Try writing something in iambic pentameter! It makes you think about the word choice and offers a restriction that forces a bit of creativity.

Sunday Writing Discussions #16: Action Steps to be a Better Writer

Writing

Sunday Writing Discussions #16: Action Steps to be a Better Writer

To write is a verb. It is something that a writer does. There are no magic manuscript fairies that live in the walls, come out when the writer dreams, and ooze their blue-black blood onto the page. No computer daemons that compose while the computer is powered down.

I have been spending a great deal of time and energy thinking about plot and structure and ways to approach the way that I write to improve my writing. To think is also a verb and for me analyzing and thinking about a piece before I write it is a necessary step in the creation of a work. But inevitably my butt needs to be settled into my chair and I need to feel the ever so slight pressure of the keys of my mac under my fingertips.

Knowing myself and the way that I approach writing this is useful for me.

Active Steps

Today, I was thinking about additional active steps I could take to improve my writing and what advice I would pass on to other people who want to write. Since you have drunk the sweet wine, enjoy the addictive thrill of writing, and have stopped by my blog for a bit of a pick-me-up, I will share what advice I have for you that I am doing myself:

1. Do it.

Write. Find ways to sneak writing in at every opportunity. Write prose poems for facebook posts. Small six sentence stories can be done quickly and you can send them as email gifts to friends and family. Write before breakfast. Write after dinner. Be chic and write in a moleskin. A tatty old spiral bound notebook is a great place to write. Write on paper napkins. Amuse other people in odd places and write on bathroom walls. Write.

2. Read.

Read poetry, fiction, blogs, non-fiction. Take every opportunity to let words flow into your mind. It is like being a literature dragon accumulating gold. Immerse yourself in the rich cultural collective of words. Know the pride of Achilles, the tragedy of Juliet, the beauty of Tinturn Abbey, the rape of the lock, why vampires shimmer in the sunlight (even if you feel this is the most debasing thing the trope has ever suffered), the conviction of Howard Roark, who kissed Ryabovich, why Katniss volunteers, and what expecto patronum means. Find sites like www.paperbackswap.com and www.bookmooch.com to supply you with material. Visit that most wondrous hall of wonders– the library and declare the librarians your book goddesses.

3. Think about what you read.

Study it. Take apart a passage that worked exceptionally well and theorize why it worked. Write down phrases that struck you with their beauty and eloquence. Savor the words. What makes Hemingway, Hemingway? How does Graham Greene pack so much into his novels? How is it that Angela Carter’s dense prose comes off without being purple? Why is it that the best of classic science fiction had such enthusiasm that it is still worth reading even if dated?

4. Learn about diverse things.

Engage with knowledge. Explore the world. Try new activities. If you have never been to Blantyre or Alexandria, how can you know the response to a tall, white American as he walks through the crowds of the market? What really is nano-technology? How did people in the middle ages make clothing? What is the history of the development of guns? What does a person feel the first time they… watch an elephant walk down the road? gaze at one of Monet’s waterlilies? ride in a hot air balloon? swim in an ocean? Our world is so vast. So many things to see, do, and learn about. Let your curiosity set you free and enrich your life.

5. Improve your writing.

Get feedback. Critique the writing of other people because it will make your writing better. If you don’t know the rules of grammar– learn. If you have no idea of how to transition from one scene to the next– ask people, keep experimenting, and improve your abilities. Sites like www.critters.org can help you find other writers to critique your work and manuscripts for you to critique. Use the spellcheck and grammar check on your computer. Get familiar with books like The Well-Tempered Sentence and The Transitive Vampire by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Invest in The Elements of Style or a couple style books.

6. Make friends with other writers.

Other writers are not your competition. They are your comrades with pens. They can give you feedback, engage with you in exploring ideas about writing, help you network, and be there for you when you receive disheartening rejections. Find community because no one can do something as grand as become an author on their own– even if it is true that writing is a solo act.

7. Believe in yourself.

This is actually quite a hard thing. All of us have a voice. Sometimes because of life events we get silenced. Sometimes our hearts are broken or responsibilities weigh so heavily that we lose our buoyancy. Or we get told by well-meaning people that we cannot write. Believe in yourself and your talent. Don’t let circumstances or others silence you.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson once said, “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

8. Recognize the value of your work.

Don’t give your work away for free to others to make money off of it, demand its value. If publishing a poem or a story in a semi-pro magazine and seeing your work in print is enough payment for you, great! But you decide what is sufficient payment and expect some value to come from your work. Writing is work and should be paid as work. While every writer has to advance in their career and may start at a lowly spot, continuing to improve and persevering will pay off. It is possible to make a career of writing, many people do it. Expect that your work will be given its value.

9. Write for an audience.

Not everything everyone writes will be universally received. However, write keeping in mind that the intent of the writing is for other people to read it. The goal really is to produce a piece of writing that entertains, challenges people’s conceptions, informs, etc.

10. Get creative and take risks.

Break new ground. It keeps the endeavor fresh. Enthusiasm is something that reads through. If you are passionate about what you are writing, this will come through and will help to captivate readers.

11. Get businesslike.

I am going to admit that I am not good at this. The creative side of writing is what keeps me going. I am stimulated by analyzing how good writing works and new ways to approach fiction. I am not so good at thinking pragmatically about my writing. So as I write this, I am setting this as a goal for myself. Create a spreadsheet or some other system, send works out for possible publication, and keep track. Save receipts that cover the cost of doing freelance work. Get systematic about sending out inquiries.

Accept writing work that is paid even if it is not preferable. Learning to write and follow someone else’s style guide is part of the business of writing. Get creative about finding new markets. Try new ways to market publish. Think “monetize”. Getting paid for a piece is a grand reward. Seeing your income increase as your writing works its way out into the world reinforces the value of the endeavor in your mind’s eye and everything flows in an upward cycle from there.

When I started writing this post, I didn’t know how many things would be on the list. I could add other items like try new forms or forget any delusions about being “A Writer,” but I think this list is pretty good. If you are reading this and you can think of other items to add, please put them in the comments. I am always working on improving my writing and perhaps you will help me.

Thursday Writing Prompts: A Few Questions to Consider in World Building

Writing, writing prompts

I was thinking about an exercise that I once had to do for a cultural anthropology class. Our assignment was to take an ordinary object (like a paperclip, hair tie, or empty thread spool) and pretend that it was 3000 years in the future and we had no idea what the object might be for. We were to create a scenario for the use of the objet and tell its cultural significance. So if a site had hundreds of paperclips, what might be made of this? Were the paperclips a type of currency? A symbol with some sort of religious significance?

I also recently read an article by Michael Moorcock where he described having a kind of pre-created bank of fantasy items that could populate his stories and give them everyday realism. Today’s writing prompt is an exercise to do just that. Here are some questions to consider to help build a realistic fantasy/science fiction world:

1. Look around your bedroom. What would have not been present in the room 200 years ago? What forms of technology are present in the room? What do they do? How might those pieces of technology move forward and become changed/advanced? Technology having to do with transportation, communications, and information storage have changed dramatically in the last two hundred years. How might these change over the next two hundred years? What about medical technology? Might it become more independent and less dependent on the oversight of doctors? More oriented towards people taking care of their own health? What might it look like?

2. What might ordinary things like pencils, clothing hangers, books, a printer, a bed, a table, a chair, or headphones look like in a future setting? How could they be transformed?

3. What materials might clothing be made of?

4. What might an ordinary citizen in your created world have in their pockets? What routine objects might they use through out the course of a day?

5. Mobile smart phones are almost indispensable at this point in history. Seven years ago almost no one had even heard of them. Think of some gadget/device that might be indispensable in the world and time period of the fictional setting you are creating. What does it do? Why is it indispensable?

6. What does the food look like? What kinds of things do your characters eat in a day?

In thinking about these questions, go beyond your first thoughts. First thoughts are usually obvious thoughts that have been seen/read/stated previously. Delve deeper and explore creating the rationale behind the setting and objects that you create. Make it seem as real as possible.

Writing is cool because we get to be wizards of words and make realities! Have fun creating!

Sunday Writing Discussions #2: Process

Writing

When I first returned to writing fiction after a several year long hiatus, it came easy. I sat down and wrote a 120,000 word drawer novel in 6 weeks. I would get an idea for a story and just sit down and write it without any real preparation, research, notes, or anything beyond enthusiasm and my laptop. As I kept writing and my sense of what constituted a good story grew, it became not easier to write, but much harder. I could see the discrepancy in what I was writing and what I wanted to be able to write. This was very frustrating and several times I came very close to giving up on writing entirely. But the only ways to get better at writing are to read, write, critique, think, and write some more. I am still working to improve my writing and probably will never feel that my writing is “good enough,” but the days of feeling totally blocked are hopefully behind me.

I think writing is more thinking than it is writing at this point. Currently, when I edit and critique novels or short stories often the really glaring errors are because the author has relied on cliches, genre tropes, over-used turns of phrase, not thought through their ideas, etc. Often where the stories fall down is that they are not fully thought out and considered in all aspects. This shows in the writing. There will be inconsistencies and logic issues and the writing might not flow or be succinct. When I read stories of this nature, it feels to me like the writer is still in the process of thinking through their story.

While often writing books are of limited value, I do think that creating a type of list of things to include in one’s fiction or a written out, and always in progress, definition of one’s poetics is a good idea. It can guide the writing. Examples of things that are in my list of “writing rules for short stories” for myself include the following:

1. if I am writing a short story, begin the action as close to the onset of the plot of the story as possible
2. introduce the main character, the conflict, and the setting in the first hundred words
3. a story has to have certain elements which are a beginning, a middle, an end, a conflict, at least one character, a setting, and a plot
4. pick one point of view for a short story and stick to it, make sure that the character whose point of view that the story is being told through is the most ideal character for that particular story and the theme I want to convey
5. if I am writing a story with a speculative element, the speculative element needs to be integral to the story and add extra meaning
6. make sure the opening paragraph intrigues
7. all plot points must follow logically from one another
8. all elements must be intentional and considered within the total setting of the story
9. no extra words– descriptions and details must convey extra meaning about the characters, add to the tone, and be well chosen

Further, following this list means that I have to prepare to write a story. I cannot just sit down and spit out a rough draft fully formed in one go. I have over the last couple of years developed my own process which has multiple steps. Often I am working on many stories, poems, and essays at one time. Currently, I also have a cookbook, two non-fiction books, and a novel in various stages that I am working on as well. Here are the steps that I use in my process to get writing done:

1. I collect ideas, information, interesting settings, possible plots or conflicts, and imaginings of characters.
I keep multiple files on my hard drive with each of these headings. If an idea or whatever occurs to me or I stumble across something interesting, I file it away.

2. I routinely review all the ideas and whatnot in the files on the hard drive.
Quite often when I have an interesting idea, it isn’t enough for a story. It might be the impetus for a story, but none of the elements of fiction that those hard drive files represent can alone be a short story. It takes an assemblage of ideas and elements to make a story come together. Also, sometimes a really good idea just needs to sit and stew in my subconscious for awhile. Lately, I have been working on a set of stories whose original ideas first came to me a couple years ago and I stashed the ideas away.

3. When working on ideas, I find others to help.
Sometimes I just get stuck and I can feel that all the elements for a story are close to being enough to make the story happen but not quite, at this point I ask for help. I have a group of people that I feel comfortable with and I put my ideas out to them so that I can get assistance with brainstorming.

4. Once I think I have a complete idea for a story, I write out a one sentence synopsis of the story and a theme phrase for the story.
This is actually quite important. If I cannot write out in one sentence what the story is about, I will flail around trying to figure that out in the rough draft and it will be a frustrating experience. Secondly, the theme phrase I use while writing the short story is kind of like a mantra in the back of my head so that I stay centered on what I want to say. Themes are tricky because if you write the theme out in the story with too heavy of a hand, it can become preachy and a real turn off. I also want to “show” my theme rather than preach. Keeping the central idea at the back of my head keeps things focused without becoming too much on a soapbox.

5. After writing the one sentence synopsis, I write out a point by point plot synopsis and feel out the possible plot for its logic.
All the turning points in a story must feel like they logically flow from one to another. Before I start writing I work this through to avoid plot bunnies.

6. Once I know what my plot is going to look like, I design my characters for the story.
I like to write out histories, research whatever is necessary about the characters’ backgrounds so I have it to supply details, etc. before I start writing my stories. For me, having this background information to hand is helpful because it can inform the story even if I don’t explicitly use all of it in my story.

7. I research anything that I don’t already know and whose details are necessary for the story.
I don’t prescribe to the notion that one must only write what one knows (at some point in the future I am going to write a blog post on this). I think all of us have experiences and emotions that we have felt that we can use to put ourselves in the shoes of our characters and make them seem authentic. Further, I think that writing is a grand opportunity to learn new things. Research can be talking to people who do know about what we need for our characters or it can be reading wiki articles. However, this research happens it needs to occur to make the story believable. If I am writing about sailboats or Shanghai and I know nothing of either of these, I need to learn so that my story works.

8. I write the first draft.

9. Let the first draft sit for 2 to 3 weeks if possible.
I do this while I am working on other projects. A little time helps me be more objective about the writing so that I can see where changes need to be made.

10. I rewrite the first draft.

11. I have other people critique the writing.
It is very important to have a group of folks that you can trust who will look at your writing and give an honest and constructive critique. The only way to get better at writing is to get good feedback. I don’t feel that anything that I write is good enough yet. I am still working on my writing. I will also say that my writing is my writing and I am the one who makes the choices about what to rewrite. If I offer a story for feedback, it is up to me to analyze whatever feedback I get and figure out what to do with my short story.

12. I send the story out for possible publication.
I will be honest. This is the hardest step for me. I am still struggling with this. But really how else to know if one’s writing has reached a professional level?

Almost every piece of fiction that I write goes through all of these steps. This is my process. I don’t know if it would work for anyone else. I would also add that I read all over the place and study many subjects so that I have a constant input of information to generate ideas. I also study great works by known authors. Lately, I am reading Bernard Cornwell, but I have been studying Hemingway’s works to understand more completely what he is doing and how he constructs his characters and his novels. Writing fiction is much more than declaring oneself a writer. At the end of the day writing does mean plunking one’s butt in a chair in front of a desk and hammering out words on the keyboard– and doing the necessary prep work to make that happen.

What do you do to make it so your writing can happen? What is your process?

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