Well now that I'm hopefully back in the swing of things here on the CS, I have a couple of emails that I wanted to respond to this week. All three are about the writing process and even though a few may rehash a little info from here and there, I thought they were definitely worth putting out there for everyone.
And here we go...
Brian, I'm writing my first novel and I have some really great characters created. I know the major plot points in my story. I'm having trouble creating fill-in matter to keep the story moving. Any suggestions? - Thomas
I honestly have to confess to a love of what you refer to as "fill-in matter" Thomas. I'm an enormous fan of the little things in character interactions that make them feel real to a reader or viewer. Take the couple of scenes in The Avengers where Agent Coulson is bugging Captain America to sign his vintage trading cards. Yes, it's a setup to a bigger payoff later but the moments and references to them make the character all the more real. Bar scenes, sidewalks, elevators: they all make great places to generate interactions that not only fill the time in between major scenes but can also really flesh out a character for your reader. For example, I'm in the process now of writing a completely unexpected sequel to my last novel based on fan response. My first question to answer was "is there more story to tell?" followed by an immediate "well okay, then what is it?" I went back to basics, well at least what I consider the basics for the way I write. I took two characters, created a scene, and let them run around in it and just watched what happened next. Strangely enough I got a book out of it that about 60% completed now. In this case I started with two established characters that my readers haven't seen spend much time together, but have reason to do so, getting drunk and running off at the mouth. The humanity of the moment generated a much larger story. My suggestion: start with something small, get your characters talking, then see where it leads you. Remember the poker games on Star Trek: The Next Generation? What better way to get your characters talking?
Why do you think authors have stopped writing pure fantasy anymore, well at least successful authors have anyway? - Francis
Okay, there are two ways to answer this. The first: Francis, run home, turn on HBO on demand and immediately watch both seasons of Game of Thrones. You can mail George RR Martin your letter of apology letter (Tyrion Lannister for President, but I digress). The real answer to this is to say that I don't think you're looking in the right places Francis. There's still PLENTY of fantasy being written by a lot of very successful authors (Fifty Shades of Grey anyone? da dum dum rimshot). I think part of it stems from the fact that a lot of the new guard in fantasy are newer authors that aren't quite household names yet and that also maybe the nature of fantasy has changed a bit. I'm not personally a huge fan of the classic high fantasy stuff. I tend to lean more toward the fantasy grounded in reality, your Harry Dresdens and the like. That's probably why I'm such a big fan of the Marvel movies and Nolan's Batman et al. I like to see that material brought into the real world more than I want to go chase dragons with Anne McCaffrey, but again to each his own.
One of my creative writing professors in college told me that my characters were unrelatable. It's been about ten years since then and after seminars and writing groups and all kinds of other junk I just had a proofreader / editor tell me the same thing. Is it time to quit? - Bob
Bob, and I mean this in the most supportive way, if you quit you're a moron. Go back over the notes your proofer and editor gave you. The Question (cap intended) here is WHY? If they didn't tell you than, in parlance, you better ask somebody. I wrote a character that everyone hates almost categorically and I'm actually proud of him. Why? He generated an emotional response in the readers. I'd be willing to bet that where a bit of your problem lies is that your character(s) aren't sympathetic enough. They lack human qualities that make your readers care about them. I know when I was first learning how to write fiction I had a bad habit of making 2-D puppets for characters and them making them "dance" to tell my story. Then i wrote a story about a vampire taking in a werewolf like a lost puppy after a festival of gore and slaughter and my professor nearly shit herself with happiness. Apparently I had finally figured out how to make a character do something people responded to. Sadly the next scene was so bizarre, so completely gothed out and preternaturally emo that she suggested I buy a new computer and burn whatever I wrote that crap on, but hey, I learned something after all. Bob, maybe try this. Take one of your characters and honestly evaluate them as to how much your reader really knows about them. You don't want to drown a reader in details but something as small as having a character mention they hate the smell of cheap cigars because it reminds them of a real bastard of an uncle they grew up with can get you a lot of mileage.
Well, while that may not be a quest-for-fire like knowledge drop, I hope it at least helps these three folks out a bit. Well, back to the fire pits. Have a great weekend!
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