Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 113

Theme Made Simple

Let’s talk about theme, shall we? No, don’t run away. I know it can be hard to understand and even harder to do well, but theme plays such a huge part in writing a story that resonates with readers. Luckily, Daeus Lamb is here today to share a technique for incorporating theme into your story without being pedantic. 

[image error]You’ve read that book before. All you can say at the end is, “Wow.” The book wasn’t just entertaining, it was…powerful.

Having done your due diligence and scoured the internet to learn how to write like this, you’ve learned that the power these stories carry comes from their well-executed themes. It sounds great in theory, but theme is a scary word. To be honest, you’ve started to think that theme is a mystical force that descends upon some novels and passes over others at random.

Let’s unpack theme and discover how it is actually easy to manage once you understand the basics. Before we get carried away, let’s ground ourselves with a definition.

Theme: the moral topic that your story covers

So far, so good. We know we don’t want to be preachy, but just having a moral topic in our story doesn’t sound too frightening. Your favorite novel probably covers a moral topic.

Pro tip: don’t confuse theme and message. A theme is a moral topic, and it isn’t controversial. “Love,” for instance, could be a theme. A message is the point you make about that theme, and messages very often are controversial. More on messages in a bit…

In your novel, you’ll want to pick one main theme to focus on. Let’s say your theme is love. That’s great! Lots of stuff can happen that’s related to love. Here’s what not everybody knows though. The best novels focus their energy primarily on one aspect of their theme. The tool we use to direct our focus is called a focusing question: a moral question about one aspect of your story’s theme. This is the main question your novel is trying to answer.

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If our theme is love, one focusing question could be, “How do you love those who ignore you?” This doesn’t restrain us from writing scenes about love in general, but it keeps our story lean and strong. As much as we’d love to write a novel that encompasses everything there is to say about love, we’d only end up writing ourselves into a tangled mess.

Now that theme has been explained, let’s talk about how to execute it well in your story.

While there are a million different little tricks to improve your theme, the basics are not hard to master. We’re going to call the basic system for creating a good theme the parable strategy. In classic parables, lessons are effectively conveyed through this very simple process.

Character A acts one way (good or bad).
Characters B through Z act differently.
Basic cause and effect takes place and characters experience different outcomes depending on their actions.
The reader examines what happened and learns a lesson.

Step one is that character A (your protagonist) acts one way. We want our character’s actions to be pertinent to our theme, so we look at our theme and focusing question. In a beautiful piece of simplicity, all we have to do is give him his own personal answer to our focusing question by which he operates in life. Our character could have many answers to the focusing question of “How do you love those who ignore you?”:

Show them care without pestering them.
Treat them roughly till they get the point and stop acting like a jerk.
They don’t matter. Ignore them back.
Pester them with attention.

These answers to the focusing question are called experiments in living. It’s the way your character chooses to act in regards to the theme. It’s them taking their personal philosophy and making their own life the guinea pig of that philosophy. We assign one of these to our protagonist, then move on to the other characters.

Why the other characters? Because we need to explore the theme from more than just one angle. Applying different philosophies to other characters allows us to show the reader how how some experiments in living work and others don’t. These different philosophies also add depth and complexity to the cast.

And now we move on to step 3. Contrary to popular belief, a message is good for your story because it ties together the theme. Only when messages are on the nose do they stink like rotten potatoes. Step three of the parable strategy allows us to deliver a message in a very natural, refreshing way. Take a look again at the four experiments in living listed above. Wouldn’t they all lead to different outcomes? Wouldn’t some outcomes be better than others?

To tie together your theme, all you have to do is let cause and effect work its magic. Let good experiments in living lead to satisfying outcomes and bad experiments in living lead to unsatisfying outcomes. At the same time, restrain yourself with a healthy dose of realism. Often, a satisfying outcome is only reached through great sacrifice and an unsatisfying ending doesn’t always mean absolute, 100% failure.

Now you’ve learned the basics of theme. I won’t lie and tell you these simple techniques will make you the next Dostoevsky. There’s more to it than that. Still, you should never tell yourself you don’t have what it takes to write a story with a great theme. Such a feat is well within your grasp.

Hopefully this tutorial has broadened your understanding of theme and how it can work. It takes practice to become adept at incorporating theme into stories, and now you have the tools to get started. Take heart, because writing a story with a great theme is now a feat within your grasp.

[image error]When Daeus was fourteen, he did something that was definitely not recommended for the faint of heart. He wrote a story. This dangerous expedition developed in him an addiction to storytelling. Since then, he may or may not have visited numerous doctors, all of whom have announced his case hopeless. Current symptoms include: locking himself in a room for hours to write, a heightened consumption of raspberries and chocolate, and becoming a psychopathic stalker of his Kindle. If you’re brave enough to check out some of Daeus’s endeavors, pick up a free copy of his book The Golden Ziggurat and take a peek at his online writing school.

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How to Write Introspection Well: Show “Just Enough”

[image error]Nothing can quite kill a story’s pacing like a big hunk of rambling introspection, except, of course, its cousin, the info dump. The reason for this is that the more time we spend reading a character’s thoughts, the less immediacy the story has, which means the less the audience cares about it. And yet some stories have whole passages of introspection. So what gives?

Here are some tips to help you master introspection that makes your writing stronger, not weaker.
Less is More

Because beginning writers love character depth (who doesn’t?) and are trying hard to get the audience to feel close to their characters, they will often write huge chunks of introspection, especially in the opening.

In reality, writing less is more. If you truly want your audience to love your character as much as you do, you need to let them discover the character themselves—you don’t need to spoon-feed them with chunks of introspection. You need to let them come to their own conclusions about your character.

To get your audience interested in your character’s interior, you need to show them just enough. Keep it short enough to stay interesting, but long enough to cover the character’s point. A glimpse of an interesting interior will make us want to come back, without slowing the pacing in your story so much we want to get away.

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You can sneak in bigger chunks after we already know and care about the person. But almost never put big chunks in the story’s opening.

Look Forward, Not Back

A mistake that is easy to make is to only include introspection that looks back at something—something that happened earlier in the story, or, that really naughty thing, a flashback, and have the character relive it in his or her thoughts.

Since introspection naturally takes away immediacy, it’s often better to have your character think forward on something. What could happen. The past can’t change (unless you shift context). But the future is something we can only guess at. And having your character think forward on something can create anticipation, tension, hooks, fear, dread, or hope, and then makes the audience want to read more to see what happens.

It’s not necessarily bad to look back and sometimes you need to, but it’s problematic if you only look back. Ideally, if your character is going to look backward, see if you can connect it to something that is forward–how a past experience is going to affect an upcoming one, how a past experience makes the character fearful or hopeful of a future one.

Make It Intriguing

A chunk of introspection can hold the audience’s attention if it’s intriguing in some way. This means that the character’s thought can’t simply be a recap of something the audience already knows or read. Introspection needs to have a reason to be in the story, which usually means it needs to bring something new to the table.

While it’s common for introspection to take away from tension, because it takes away immediacy, when used well, it can actually add tension, through your character’s interpretation, perspective, and predictions. If you character is dreading something that could happen, and how it will completely unravel her world if it does–that can kick up tension.

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Introspection can be used to create character depth, which can be intriguing–but only works if it’s something new or unusual. Rehashing what a character thinks for a full paragraph is boring if we already know what the character is naturally thinking. Rehashing isn’t depth. It’s repetition. To achieve more depth, you need to peel back your character’s layers to reach something deeper—an inner motive, thought, or feeling. And it should be interesting.

Introspection can be very intriguing when it asks thematic questions. Remember the key here is the questioning. If your character is musing about thematic answers without having considered the questions, it’s more likely to be boring. But if they are legitimately questioning something moral, ethical, thematic, or intellectual, that can stir the reader’s own mind, which makes it interesting.

Introspection can be intriguing when the character brings a new interpretation, or new context, to the story. If you need to have your character think back for a bit, one way to keep it interesting is to have them change the context and interpretation of what they are thinking back on. That gives us an interesting way to interpret the past event and it gives us more character.

In closing, when working with passages of introspection, make sure it adds value to the story, instead of taking value away.

[image error]Sometimes September scares people with her enthusiasm for writing and reading. She works as an assistant to a New York Times bestselling author while penning her own stories, holds an English degree, and had the pleasure of writing her thesis on Harry Potter. Find out more about September here, hang with her on social media, or visit her website to follow her writing journey and get more writing tips.

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Milestones that Provide a Valuable Opportunity to Look Back

So, funny story.

In January 2018, Becca and I hit 10 years of blogging. TEN YEARS. That’s a lot of time, but also not a lot of time, because we all know time flows differently in the book business. It’s all hurry up…and wait. Repeat. Forever.

[image error]Writing, publishing, book selling…it is one crazy roller coaster ride. As much as we can sometimes hate parts of it, we also love it. Deeply.  (If not, we all would have gotten off by now, right?)

So much has changed in 10 years, including us being busy to the point where we didn’t even realize it had been 10 years.

That’s also something we all understand: the writing roller coaster isn’t just a maze of loops, drops, and cloud-touching peaks, it also forces a person to contort and twist constantly. Being a writer these days means thinking on the fly, mastering business skills, navigating deadlines, building a brand, and becoming a subject matter expert in many things. You need a live example of adaptability, persistence, and grit? Look at any writer who is steering their career.

[image error]Rewinding the Clock

Fact: when Becca & I started blogging at The Bookshelf Muse, we were clueless. Utterly. No idea what we were doing, no idea of where the roller coaster was leading. We just had a dream of publication.

That blog is only a landing page now because we moved everything to Writers Helping Writers. But, thanks to the Wayback Machine, I was able to find an archived version of that first welcome post.

We chose the name “Bookshelf Muse” because we liked the idea that maybe something we did could inspire writers and help them see they could do this book thing we all love so much.

[image error]We started with a feature called “Thesaurus Thursday” to explore different emotions and the body language that went with them. We struggled with this and thought if others did too, it might bring some traffic our way. Our first post was “FEAR.”

(Note our “Esteemed Bookshelf Stalkers” list: 24. We were thrilled that 24 people read our blog!)

In 2012, we took a huge leap of faith and decided to turn the Emotion Thesaurus on our blog into a book. *whispers* A self-published book. We did it because people were pirating our content and selling it. Plus, we felt that a) traditional publishing probably wasn’t ready for a “book” made of lists, b) finding a publisher willing to take on two newbies to teach others about writing was unlikely and c) it would take too long to publish. The industry had a pretty negative attitude toward SP back then, and we knew we were half-crazy to do it, but we uploaded the book anyway.

Our hope, factoring in the long tail of self-publishing, was it might sell 50,000 copies in its lifetime. That would put us over the moon.

Never did we imagine it would become a staple for writers, or be used in university programs or analyzed in thesis papers. Never did we fathom it would be translated into 5 other languages or lead to a series of 6 books. We never thought it would also kick off an entire website filled with tools we helped to design so writers could write stronger fiction faster than ever.

Something else happened in January, another milestone that still hasn’t quite sunk in.

We sold our 300,000th book.

Ten years ago, we were two writers grappling with how to get our fiction published. We were trying not to make utter fools of ourselves by blogging. We had 3 comments on our first emotion thesaurus post.

We never could have imagined this. Our gratitude to you, our supporters, champions, biggest believers…off the charts. We have no words (oh, the irony for two thesaurus-makers!).

But this post is more than a thank you…it’s a message, too. 

Don’t get caught up in where you are (or aren’t) right now, or how steep the roller coaster incline is ahead of you.

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BECAUSE YOU
(ABSOLUTELY, UNEQUIVOCALLY!)
HAVE GOT THIS.
We believe in you. Always have, always will.

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Funeral Director

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

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Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

Occupation: Funeral Director

Overview: Funeral directors oversee end-of-life preparations (either to pre-plan a funeral, or after death) and will have a variety of responsibilities including body pick-up, preparing legal documentation, working with surviving family members to arrange for funeral services (the burial and cremations arrangements, casket and flower arrangement options, music and slideshow options, attending to the obituary and creating pamphlets for the service, transportation, etc.). A director also coordinates with a church and minister (if used), volunteers, caterers, florists, and any other agencies required. They also oversee the funeral service itself, ensuring everything is run according to the wishes of the deceased and their family.

Often the funeral director will also prepare the body itself, attending to storage, embalming, body preparation (dressing and appearance), and cremation (if it is requested). If so, the director may be called an embalmer or mortician.

This profession requires a special sort of person, someone who is not only comfortable with death but also highly empathetic. They must have a strong work ethic and be able to handle long hours and an unfixed schedule. Death isn’t 9-5, and people working in this industry can receive call outs for body pickups at any time of the day or night, seven days a week.  Funeral directors often miss out on family outings, birthdays, and special events because duty calls, and so if they have a family, the support and understanding of its members regarding the job is imperative.

Necessary Training: Required education may vary depending on the state or location one practices in, so if this factors into your story in a real-world locale, do some research for that area. In general though,  most directors will have an associate degree in mortuary science, if not a batchlor’s degree. A funeral director also needs a license to practice in the state they work in. Directors must also be educated in the legal aspects of body preparation and follow strict guidelines and procedures, not only for the forms to be filled out (death certificates, etc.) but also in the case of chain of evidence situations so that any legal proceedings can move forward seamlessly.

Funeral directors also require “soft skills” to work well with those who have lost loved ones. To offer genuine support in a difficult time, a director should be compassionate, a good communicator, and have strong patience. Grieving people may struggle with decision-making and memory recall, or may change their minds frequently because they are in a very emotional state so being able to navigate this and remain calm and supportive is essential.

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: Basic first aid, blending in, empathy, exceptional memory, gaining the trust of others, good listening skills, hospitality, multitasking, sculpting, sewing, talking with the dead, time management, cosmetology

Helpful Character Traits: calm, centered, courteous, diplomatic, disciplined, discreet, efficient, empathetic, focused, honorable, hospitable, independent, industrious, kind, mature, meticulous, nurturing, obedient, organized, patient, persuasive, professional, proper, responsible, spiritual, supportive

Sources of Friction: a difficult body collection (the body of a child, a loved-one, or someone who died in a very horrible manner, a person who is the same age or is similar on some way to the director), conflict between relatives over funeral arrangements, a break in the chain-of-custody, making preparations for those who have no one to make their arrangements, struggling to have a work-life balance, balancing the mental and emotional toll of one’s work, family members who are not understanding of the pressures of one’s work, social prejudices against one’s career, missing instructions or paperwork accompanying a body, theft of a body or items with the body (such as jewelry), employee misconduct, families who refuse to pay, problems during the funeral, misprints in a obituary or on a death certificate, being short-staffed, equipment malfunctions, a body being cremated by mistake

People They Might Interact With: grieving family members, church management, volunteers, pastors and ministers, florists, caterers, community hall organizers and staff, representatives from the military (the the deceased was in service) or a specific church organization (if one held a position within the organization) who play a role within the service, police investigators, coroners, repairmen, delivery people, employees

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: If a character is in this profession because it is a family business, they may feel it is an obligation career that holds them back from things they might find fulfilling (pursuing higher education, following a passion that requires time and energy they don’t have, giving back through volunteerism, etc.)
Love and Belonging: A character in this industry may struggle to find and maintain loving relationships due to the demands of the job and the stigma that comes with this type of work.
Safety and Security: A character could fine themselves caught up in a dangerous situation if they are working on a high-profile client (a criminal, a mobster, or a person of interest in a federal investigation).

Common Work-Related Settings: car accident, cheap motel, church, community center, construction site, courtroom, flower shop, funeral home, hospital (interior), hospital room, house fire, morgue, nursing home, parking garage, parking lot, police station, underpass, waiting room, wake

Twisting the Stereotype:

Morticians are often portrayed by men, so why not assign this profession to a woman?
Rather than dour and somber, show your mortician character as an extroverted, exuberant personality with a great sense of humor
People in this profession are very comfortable around death…but what if your character wasn’t? What emotional wound, fear, or reason could he or she have for being in this industry?

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Characters As Mirrors

[image error]I’ve been thinking lately about something that Angela and I touch on in all of our books: The Mirror of Real Life. It’s this idea that something in our stories is like a mirror for readers that reflects back to them something of themselves. When we portray the character as this mirror, it draws readers in and encourages empathy because they recognize a commonality with the character.

In today’s world, where there are roughly a gajillion books your readers could be buying, it’s super important to pull readers into YOUR story. You want them staying up way too late finishing your books, thinking about them after they’re done and running to the computer to see when the next in the series is coming out. While there are a number of ways to encourage this fascination, one of the strongest methods is by writing characters that resonate with readers on a personal level. So I want to talk today about common elements that, when applied to our characters, increase our chances of engaging readers.

Fears

I’m not talking about surface phobias like Brussels sprouts and spiders (though, please, both are icky). I’m talking about deep-seated, debilitating, life-altering fears: rejection, failure, betrayal, physical harm, the death of a loved one. These fears are so great that they become drivers for our behavior, leading us to do and not do things that we believe will keep these painful events from happening. Inflicting these on our characters is cruel and probably makes us as authors horrible people, but they do serve a solid storytelling purpose: they tap into common experiences that readers understand. When readers see the character struggling with a familiar fear, a connection is forged, and empathy is born.

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Traits

There are many contributors to the formation of a character’s positive and negative traits. Fears can be a factor: Mom is proactive, observant, overprotective, or paranoid because she’s afraid something will happen to her kids; Joe worries about rejection, so he tends to be withdrawn, abrasive, or cautious. Upbringing can be instrumental, along with the caregivers who raised the character, positive experiences and successes they’ve had, their ethics and values—even genetics can play a part.

Regardless of their origin, when a character’s dominant traits mirror those of the reader or people in the reader’s life, the character becomes more interesting. Traits like stubbornness, optimism, fairness, and impulsivity act as tags that say, “Hey! This guy’s just like me, or Grandma, or that jerk kid who lived down the road who used to shoot me with his BB gun.” Giving your character flaws and attributes that are common to the human experience can be the most straightforward way to bridge the gap between readers and your cast.

Human Needs

[image error]This one takes us back to Psychology 101 (which is farther back for some of us than others) and good ol’ Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The premise of this theory is that there are five basic categories of needs that all people must have in order to be wholly realized. When one of these is missing, we become compelled to fill that void, and we do this through adopting new habits, thought patterns, and beliefs that align with that purpose. These needs are universal, meaning that even on a subconscious level, we all share them. So, for example, when readers see a character whose safety and security has been compromised, they understand what that’s like and why it’s so important for the character to get it back. Boom! Connection.

Story Goals

And how does the character regain that missing need in their life? Through an overall goal. To paraphrase Michael Hauge in Writing Screenplays That Sell, every plausible story idea can be explained with a simple formula:

It’s a story about A (the protagonist) who wants B (the story goal) because Y (the missing need that will be filled through the accomplishment of that goal) .

Getting the girl, escaping an alien invasion, winning the court case, avenging oneself—we see the same goals repeated from one story to another because they’re tried and true ways that missing needs can be met. Why does he need to get the girl? Because he’s missing love and belonging. Why does she want to win the court case? Because it will provide the esteem she’s been lacking for so long.

Story goals resonate with readers on two levels. First, they’re goals the reader personally has pursued or have seen others pursue. Secondly, they recognize, often subconsciously, that achieving that goal will fill the need; they know that getting B is vital to the character’s happiness and success, and they want the character to win. Give your character an overall goal that not only makes sense for the story but also meets that internal need, and you’ll increase the chances that your reader will relate to the character.

Self-Growth

We may not verbalize it often, but we all are on a journey in this life to improve ourselves. We don’t want to be the same people ten years from now that we were yesterday, and we all hope to leave the world a better place than it was when we found it. When readers see characters on this journey of discovery and self-growth, they get it. They’ve been there. And they want the character to succeed because if the character can do it, then there’s hope for them too.

Emotional Wounds

[image error]I saved this one for last because, when it comes to mirroring real life, nothing has the impact of an emotional wound. We’ve all experienced terrible things in our lives—singular events or repeated situations that were so emotionally and/or physically painful that we don’t want to ever go through them again. Readers can relate to those experiences and their devastating effects. As a matter of fact, when you take the effort to explore your character’s backstory and unearth this formative event, it enables you to incorporate all of the aforementioned elements, resulting in a character that reads as true-to-life and utterly relateable. In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

Something awful happens to your character (emotional wound). They become afraid that it or something similar to it will happen again (fear). So they adopt emotional shielding to keep them safe in the form of new characteristics (traits), behaviors, and false beliefs about themselves or the world. But instead of protecting them, this shielding ends up creating other problems, such as keeping others at a distance or limiting their ability to successfully do what they love (human need). To fill the void, they either knowingly or unknowingly set out to accomplish something (story goal) that they believe will meet that need. But they’re unable to succeed because the wound is hobbling them, holding them back. It’s not until the character is able to face that wounding event and come to grips with it (self-growth) that they can distance themselves from the past and move forward into the future.

Basically, the wound is the Alpha and Omega of reader-character relatability. It supplies the starting, middle, and end points for a story structure and character arc that will offer many opportunities for readers to see themselves in the protagonist and the story. And once readers care about your character, they’re going to want to keep reading to see if he or she overcomes.

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Writing By Design Part 2: Pattern and Repetition

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In my previous installment, I introduced you to writing by design and how you can use techniques from the visual arts to inform your writing. In particular, we looked at the concept of space and how the finite nature of it can affect your writing.

Today we turn our attention to the design elements that help us navigate space—pattern and repetition. In design, patterns help achieve visual harmony and repetition establishes what the patterns are in the first place. But there is a more subtle element at play, and this has to do with the psychology of expectation.

Tension and Expectation

There is a whole body of psychological research that examines what happens physiologically, cognitively, and emotionally when people expect one thing and the outcome turns out to be different. A lot of this research centers around music and the tension that occurs when we expect the tune to go one way and it instead goes in a different direction.

[image error]In design terms, when we talk about tension it usually means that something in the design is off-balance or out of whack. For example, when two objects almost overlap (but don’t) or when a layout is almost centered (but not quite), it creates visual tension. This tension occurs because visually we expect the objects to overlap and the layout to be centered, so when it’s just a little bit off, the design overturns those expectations.

This ties to what psychology researchers refer to as the tension-expectation theory. This is the idea that when we have certain expectations and those expectations are not met (or are broken), we experience tension. Musicians and designers have been talking about tension and balance for decades, but more recent research has shown similar findings in other contexts, like in storytelling and literature.

It makes total sense that this tension-expectation theory would also apply to writing. Think about it: when we craft a story, we establish a level of trust with readers and set the “ground rules” for how the narrative will play out. A little bit of tension—unexpected surprises and plot twists—hooks readers and helps keep them turning pages.

But shattering that trust altogether could backfire. This is why we usually try to avoid drastic changes, like switching protagonists or using a totally new point-of-view, once we’re far into the story. Of course, we can always “break the rules” for effect, but as writers we need to remember that when we set certain expectations, breaking them will create tension for our readers.

Rule of Three

One of the best tools that allows us to play with this idea of tension and expectation is the rule of three. The rule of three is a sequence containing three similar elements. These can be characters, objects, even events in the story. The key is that the first two elements in the sequence set up a pattern, an expectation for what the third element will be, but the third element breaks that pattern.

[image error]The classic rule of three example, of course, is in the fable of the three little pigs. In this case, the whole story is one gigantic rule of three. All three pigs build houses, but they each use different materials: straw, sticks, and bricks. When the wolf comes, he blows down the first two houses easily, but the house of bricks stands firm.

Another great example of the rule of is the movie The Wizard of Oz. This time the rule of three plays out in the new friends Dorothy meets on the road to Oz: Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. The first two are similar in that they’re humanoid but are not actually living creatures. We know this because when they cross the poppy field, Scarecrow and Tin Man are unaffected by the Wicked Witch’s sleeping spell. Lion, on the other hand, is a living creature and we get the sense that he is a little bit different from the other two. After all, he gets his very own extra song about being king of the jungle that he sings when they’re waiting for an audience with the Wizard.

The reason the rule three works is twofold. First, it’s concise. Three is the smallest number possible where you can both establish and break a pattern in one fell swoop. But there’s another wrinkle to this rule: it’s ingrained in our collective consciousness. We almost expect the third element of a sequence to be a twist on the first two.

Of course, the minute your audience comes to expect a twist or surprise, it stops being surprising. As writers we constantly have to walk that fine line between stretching our readers’ expectations without completely shattering their trust. As you look at your own writing, ask yourself: What patterns am I creating? Some patterns are necessary because they give your story structure and stability. Other patterns might pigeon-hole your story and you may need to shake them up.

If that’s the case… take a note from Taylor Swift and “shake shake shake.”

So far in this series, we’ve covered two design elements: space and pattern. In upcoming posts, I’ll dive into two other aspects of writing by design: light and color theory. Stay tuned because there are so many more juicy techniques we can learn from design and apply to our writing.

[image error]Gabriela Pereira is the founder of DIYMFA.com, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters degree in writing. She is also a speaker, podcast host for DIY MFA Radio, and author of the forthcoming book DIY MFA: Write with Focus, Read with Purpose, Build Your Community (Writer’s Digest Books, July 2016). Join the word nerd community at DIYMFA.com/join.

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Character Occupation Entry: Taxidermist

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

[image error]Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

Occupation: Taxidermist

Overview: Taxidermists are trained in the art of animal preservation, restoring a variety of animals to a lifelike state, drawing out their original beauty and strength. Taxidermists often have specialties, which may include pets, fish, reptiles, birds, small animals, or large game. They may have a small shop where they handle pets and local wildlife, or may focus more on animal trophies (either in an area where many hunter frequent, or as more of a commercial operation that deals in exotic animals). A few highly skilled taxidermists also work with natural history museums, creating displays used for educational purposes and repairing items already in the collection.

Taxidermists are both male and female and view their profession as artistic. Most are very passionate about recreating the breath of life through their work. It requires a certain artistic eye and attention to detail as certain aspects of the animal must be incorporated in the preservation, such as an accurate account of muscles in movement so this can be recreated in death. Some practitioners in this field will take on any job that they feel skilled to handle as work can be sporadic or revolve around hunting seasons, while others have ethical boundaries and so they avoid certain jobs (such as preserving endangered animals or those shot for sport). They take a great deal of pride in their work.

Overall, taxidermists see a variety of clients—hunters looking to obtain trophies, pet lovers struggling to release an animal companion, and people who find dead animals and want to preserve the beauty of their forms.

Necessary Training: There are several certificate and diploma programs for this field but a degree is not necessary. Courses cover anatomy, interpreting reference material, and the mounting techniques, processes, and tool handling required to prepare carcasses. Students also learn how to treat and tan skins, feathers and furs, how to create habitat construction, work with forms, as well as become proficient in air brushing and other finishing procedures. Often people get their start by apprenticing under a licensed taxidermist, learning on the job and taking classes as they need them or to specialize in a particular area.

A person is required to have a license to practice, they may need special permits to work with migratory birds or endangered species, and they must abide by regulations set by fish and wildlife. The exact licenses or permits may vary depending on the location of your taxidermist, so if this factors into the story set in a real-world location, make sure to do your research.

A great deal of research into an animal is needed to understand their structure and movement to ensure a lifelike end product. Taxidermists usually have an impressive collection of reference books, pictures, and videos to help them with the shaping of subjects that they work on. If they own their own businesses, some skills in management and accounting is also needed to manage accounts, pay bills, and balance the books.

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: a way with animals, carpentry, empathy, multitasking, photographic memory, repurposing, sculpting, sewing, strategic thinking

Helpful Character Traits: calm, cautious, centered, creative, focused, imaginative, independent, nature-focused, observant, resourceful, talented, thrifty

Sources of Friction: clients who don’t pay or who have impossible demands, being asked to prepare an animal that was an illegal kill, people who discriminate against one for the type of work one does, having difficulties keeping a seasonal business afloat, being asked to work on animal when one has ethical concerns, making a mistake when preparing an animal that causes it to be misshapen or ruined in some way, a break-in

People They Might Interact With: neighbors, hunters, wildlife officers, commercial agencies, delivery people, locals

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: A character who sees this career as their life’s work as a way to honor the dead by giving them beauty in death would be devastated if an accident or illness damaged their ability in some way (the steadiness of their hands, vision problems, etc.)


Esteem and Recognition: Characters in this job may struggle to be given the recognition they deserve for their artistry because many view it as a morbid practice, not a creative pursuit


Love and Belonging: Building loving relationships with a romantic partner may be an obstacle as potential partners could be turned off by this type of profession

Common Work-Related Settings: basement, bookstore, garage, hardware store, taxidermist, workshop

Twisting the Stereotype:

Taxidermists are often men, so choosing a woman might be a way to freshen this profession
A taxidermist who was especially known for taking on taboo projects (displaying animals in a way that depicts cruelty, not compassion…or even using human subjects) might also be an interesting alternative
How about a taxidermist who uses this career as a way to build his own private collection…that would cause a lot of embarrassment or even legal action if discovered?
A taxidermist known for creating humor with his subjects (dressing up animals in human clothing, hats, and props, or creating diorama habitats where the animal is drinking with friends, playing cards, betting on a horse-race or other fun, ironic, or even poignant scenarios) might create sought after collector pieces.  This might “soften” the attitude people have toward this profession so they see it in a more creative and “art-like” light.

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The Role Of Emotional Wounds Within Character Arc

Of all the pieces of backstory we should understand as authors, none are more important than our protagonist’s Emotional Wound.

[image error]A powerful statement, but here’s why. Think about your own life for a moment. The experiences you had in your past, and the people part of those experiences have made you who you are today. They shaped you, in good ways and bad, and you behave in a very specific way as a result of your personal collection of life lessons. In fiction, we strive for authenticity by building characters as much like real people as possible. To do this, we need to think about their life before the story begins and how formative experiences have shaped them.

And, as we all know, there’s no experience more life-shattering than a psychologically traumatic one.

Past wounding experiences generate fear and pain. Unresolved, they will embed pieces of festering shrapnel into the character’s psyche which will eat away at their esteem and self-worth. The result? A character who holds back in life, adopts dysfunctional behavior as a shield, develops skewed biases about how the world works, and internalizes destructive false beliefs about her own self-worth.

This sounds like a recipe for a deeply unfulfilling life, doesn’t it? It is.

Until our character is ready to revisit this backstory wound, identify the problems and fears that are eroding her happiness, and adopt new attitudes that will help her move forward in a healthier way, the wound will keep what she wants and needs most out of reach.

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Are you thinking “character arc” right about now? You’re bang on! This scenario, taking a character from broken to whole, is known as the Change Arc. This is the most common type of arc and is all about transformation and growth. Full of ups and downs, it can be difficult to write, so let me share a blueprint to help.

(I’m including hyperlinks for all the big working pieces, so if you haven’t read The Emotional Wound Thesaurus, they can help to show how everything fits.)

THE JOURNEY OF LETTING GO

At the start of a story, the character is seeking to obtain her goal (outer motivation), which she may be pursuing to either avoid something undesirable or to satisfy a yearning (inner motivation). The pursuit of this objective is difficult or may seems impossible. There might be roadblocks in the way and people or forces standing against the character (outer conflict), but the unmet need continues to drive her toward her goal.

As the story progresses, she gradually gains small insights into the things that are holding her back (inner conflict), what she fears and why (the wound and the lie), and how her habits and biases (emotional shielding) are probably not helping her cope. With these baby steps of self-growth, she learns and matures, adapting to her current circumstances and achieving minor successes that increase her confidence. These successes may be akin to false positives, though, because she hasn’t fully rejected the fear and false beliefs that are causing her damage. Still fearful of emotional pain, a lot of her shielding remains in place. She also continues to embrace the lie; she doubts whether she really deserves the goal but is cautiously hopeful things will work out.

[image error]A point will come in the story when she hits an impasse or suffers a significant setback. This is her dark moment, where she hits rock bottom. She sees that she can’t win going forward as she has been—that if she wants her goal, she must examine her position honestly and take a closer look at some of her internal issues. This means she must confront her emotional pain and challenge the lie she believes.

Depending on the nature of the wounding event, gaining insight can be painful, but it has to be done. The character must eventually awaken to two things: first, she must see her wound in a new light, admitting that it has held her back and kept her from being happy and fulfilled. Second, she must view herself differently, in a kinder light, and believe she is worthy of something better and is deserving of happiness.

This self-awareness will change her view of herself, allowing her to replace her disempowering beliefs of unworthiness with empowering beliefs (that she is worthy, has value, and is capable of achieving change). This new, balanced perspective frees her from any feelings of blame, responsibility, or unworthiness she carries about the past, which shatters the lie and replaces it with the truth.

Refuting the lie and putting the wounding event into perspective enables her to forgive herself (if necessary) and be free of the fear that has steered her actions to date. It also changes her misconceptions about the world and how it operates. She is no longer held prisoner by fear; instead, she has hope and is infused with determination. Complete, centered, and embracing her true self, she does what is needed to achieve the goal, even if it means making personal sacrifices.

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Moving past the wound will not remove her fears completely, but because she believes in herself, and she knows what she must do, she is able to embrace the challenges ahead. Despite the forces that stand between her and her goal, she is ready to move forward by shedding the negative qualities that are holding her back and either adopting new, positive traits or honing forgotten ones.

As she moves toward her goal, she may be tested by encountering a situation similar to the wounding event. This will trigger the same fear, but her newfound strength and belief in herself allows her to master it instead of being mastered by it. Once she successfully navigates this situation, she will gain her goal (provided you are writing a HEA).

These are stepping stones you can use to show your character’s own journey from incomplete and unfulfilled to satisfied and whole. Remember that wounds will never be forgotten. But once the character faces the past and sees it differently (and lets go of any lies or self-blame she may feel) she has an inner strength she lacked before. Moving forward, she will behave differently, deploying healthy coping strategies and harnessing positive qualities to stay centered and on the path to wholeness.

[image error]Do you write stories that use the Change Arc?

It’s the most common character arc because this type of journey is one we can all relate to. Unfortunately emotional pain is not limited to fiction. As people, we’re all seeking ways to move forward, grow, become someone better, and heal. This is why the transformation (change) arc is so popular with readers.

This is a very condensed version of the healing process, but we hope it helps. If you need more assistance with the impact of emotional wounds and mastering this vital piece of character arc, try the Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma.

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How to Banish Interruptions from Your Writing Time

Some writers have complained to me recently: “I want to get more writing done, but it’s so hard to deal with the interruptions all the time.”

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It’s true that interruptions are deadly to a regular writing routine. Researchers reported in 2014 that people who were interrupted while writing produced poorer quality essays than those who worked undisturbed. Other research has found that it can take an average of twenty-three minutes to recover lost concentration after an interruption.

Twenty-three minutes. If you’ve set aside 30 minutes to write, that’s pretty much your whole writing time, blown.

Sometimes life just happens, but there are a number of things you can do to reduce the amount of interruptions that interfere with your writing. If all else fails, there are ways you can limit the time it takes to get back into your work.

 3 Ways to Reduce the Risk of Interruptions

Let’s start with reducing the odds you’ll be interrupted in the first place.

Choose a time when people don’t need you: If your writing time is regularly interrupted, think about adjusting it to a different time. Maybe you could write first thing in the morning before anyone else gets up, or last thing at night when everyone else is asleep. Maybe you can grab thirty minutes of your lunch hour, or write after work before you go home. Choose a time when others think you’re doing something else to reduce the risk they’ll try to contact you.
Isolate yourself: When I worked for a corporation, I wrote in the stairway because no one went through there. Despite all the focus on health these days, most people still take the elevator! Think of somewhere no one will find you.
Shorten your writing time: If your writing time is constantly interrupted, shorten it. Twenty minutes of focused, uninterrupted work can be worth more than an hour filled with interruptions.

3 Ways to Protect the Time You’ve Chosen

Once you’ve chosen your writing time and duration, you can take steps to protect it from interruptions.

Have a talk with your family: If you’re writing at home, let your family members know that your writing time is not to be disturbed except in an emergency. (You may also need to explain what a real emergency is!) Make it clear that your time is to be respected.
Close the door and put up a sign: Families need reminding, so go somewhere you can close the door and put up a “do not disturb” sign. If your family is particularly stubborn, add some other reminders, such as, “Knock at your own risk!” or “Interrupt only in the case of an emergency!” Make sure you turn your phone off or silence it so you won’t be interrupted by messages and alerts.
Stick to your guns! Many writers—women especially—feel such a maternal instinct that they allow interruptions to their writing time even when they don’t want to. Remember that you are the only one who can protect your time, and that you deserve to have it so you can make progress toward your goal. Stick to your guns. You have all the rest of your day to nurture everyone else.

3 Tips to Help You More Quickly Return to Your Work

Even if you accomplish all of the above, you may suffer an interruption now and then. When that happens, try these tips to shorten the 23 minutes it usually takes to get back into your story.

Write down what you just went through and put it aside: This helps you dump the issue out of your brain so you can tend to it later. Jot it down on a notepad (Johnny needs a permission slip signed), and get back into your scene.
Use earphones or noise-cancelling headphones: Some writers find using music while writing can help them more easily slip into their make-believe worlds. If you find music distracting, get yourself a nice pair of noise-canceling headphones to help you focus.
Read aloud: If you’re struggling to get your mind back on your work, backtrack a few paragraphs and read your prose out loud. It increases focus, shuts out extraneous thoughts, and helps you zoom in on your story.

[image error]Bottom line: interruptions kill your writing progress. See them as the dastardly villains they are, and banish them from your writing routine for good.

Your turn! How do you eliminate interruptions from your writing time?
Sources
Foroughi, C. K., N. E. Werner, E. T. Nelson, and D. A. Boehm-Davis. “Do Interruptions Affect Quality of Work?” Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 56, no. 7 (August 2014), 1262-1271. doi:10.1177/0018720814531786.
Pattison, Kermit. “Worker, Interrupted: The Cost of Task Switching | Business + Innovation.” Fast Company. Last modified July 28, 2008. https://www. fastcompany.com/944128/worker-interru....

[image error] Colleen M. Story is the author of Overwhelmed Writer Rescue—a motivational and inspiring read full of practical, personalized solutions to help writers escape the tyranny of the to-do list and nurture the genius within. Get your free chapter here! For more information, please see her motivational blog Writing and Wellness and her author website, or follow her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story).

Psst! For more on how to reduce interruptions, boost productivity, and add more sanity to your writing routine, click here for your two free chapters of Overwhelmed Writer Rescue!

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Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Jeweler

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. (See this post for more information on this connection.) It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

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My favorite jeweler. Click to visit her Etsy page!

Occupation: Jeweler

Overview: There are many careers within this industry. Jewelry designers (the focus of this entry) are those who design and manufacture jewelry. They may own their own business where they create products from their own imaginations, or they might work for a larger house, manufacturing jewelry requested by those in charge.

Necessary Training: No official training is required. Many people starting out in this field receive the necessary on-the-job training by apprenticing to a successful jeweler or working for one. Jewelers should be creative, but if they want to work independently, they’ll also need to have some knowledge of business and marketing.

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: Haggling, mechanically inclined, promotion, repurposing

Helpful Character Traits: Ambitious, creative, curious, disciplined, imaginative, industrious, meticulous, passionate, patient, patriotic, quirky, resourceful, talented

Sources of Friction: Being shortchanged by a customer, manufacturing a custom design that the customer isn’t happy with, a customer’s jewelry breaking due to a defect, discovering that the jewels one has been using weren’t sourced ethically, the price of materials rising and affecting one’s ability to buy them, being robbed, financial difficulties that make it impossible to buy new materials, one’s designs not being accepted by the public or critics, knock-off jewelers stealing one’s designs, being blocked creatively and having difficulty coming up with new ideas, an injury to one’s hands that makes it difficult for one to work, friends and loved ones who expect one to make jewelry for them for free or at discount, being unable to succeed creating one’s own jewelry and having to go into business for someone else, impatient family members who want one to give up the dream in favor of something more lucrative

People They Might Interact With: Customers, suppliers, delivery people, landlords, retail personnel at stores where the jeweler shops for merchandise, trade show attendees and vendors, jewelry store personnel, personal shoppers

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: It’s notoriously hard to succeed financially in a creative field. A jeweler who has to work extra jobs or take on a jewelry-related career that isn’t satisfying can easily become personally unfulfilled.
Esteem and Recognition: Esteem can take a hit when customers, critics, or buyers aren’t interested in or openly disparage one’s creations.
Safety and Security: A jeweler who is unfamiliar or careless with the chemicals and metals they’re working with may experience safety issues from misuse.

Common Work-Related Settings: Antiques shop, art gallery, black-tie event, museum, salvage yard, shopping mall, small town street, trade show, workshop

Twisting the Stereotype: 

Independent jewelers are often portrayed as women while high-end creatives are usually male (Harry Winston, Neil Lane, etc.). Switching this up could provide a welcome change
Jewelers typically work alone, but what about a partnership? Creative collaboration can be a wonderful thing, but it also provides many opportunities for realistic tension and conflict.

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