Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 20

Structuring an Ensemble Cast with Plotlines

Writing an ensemble cast can feel daunting, especially when most writing advice is for stories that feature one, or maybe two, lead characters. How is an author supposed to structure a novel or series that has four, five, or six? One of the most useful approaches, is to consider plotlines.

Years ago, I did a post on the different types of plotlines in stories: external, internal, relationship, society/world, influence character, and undercurrent. I mentioned that most stories benefit from having at least three different types, because this creates dimension.

By far, the most popular combination is external, internal, and relationship. And usually, the protagonist is the lead of all three. However, this isn���t the only option. You could have external, relationship, and society, for example. And the same character may not always be the lead. Plus, once you have three different types, you can add more���more of the same or other types.

With these principles in mind, there are two main ways to approach ensembles.

Sets of Plotlines

In the first approach, you create sets of plotlines. The Lord of the Rings is a great example of this (particularly in the films).

We have Frodo, a lead, with his own set. He has an external journey of taking the Ring to Mount Doom, an internal journey of his struggle with the Ring, and a relationship journey with Samwise.

Then we also have Aragorn, another lead with his own set. Aragorn has an external journey with the war, an internal journey over taking his place as king, and a relationship journey with Arwen (and arguably Eowyn).

The Fellowship also breaks down into more plotlines. Merry and Pippin have their own external, internal, and relationship journeys (though to a lesser degree), and so does Gimli.

Eowyn, Arwen, and Smeagol are other notable characters who get their own personal journeys.

Every character, though, is ultimately connected into the world/society plotline with the war against Sauron���they are each influencing or being influenced by it. So this is the glue that holds the sets together.

Admittedly, not every character mentioned here gets three plotlines, but that���s okay, because you only need three different types in the story, not three types for every key character. Speaking of which . . .

Splitting a Set

In the second approach, you start by having different characters share the three dominating plotlines, then go from there.

So in contrast to The Lord of the Rings, where Frodo and Aragorn get their own full set, in Umbrella Academy the dominating set gets split.

In season one, the dominating plotlines are external, internal, and relationship, but they are split between characters.

Five holds the main external plotline. He is trying to stop the apocalypse from happening by unraveling the mystery of what started it. He does not have strong internal or relationship plotlines.

Instead, Vanya holds the main internal plotline (as well as a big relationship plotline). She���s struggling to come to terms with the fact she has powers.

Allison holds another major relationship plotline, with Vanya.

There are other plotlines too, but those are the ones that impact the story the most, and they are split up.

From there you can add more, similar to Lord of the Rings. In Umbrella Academy, we also have Luther coping with the fact he wasted years on the moon (internal) and has feelings for Allison (relationship). Diego loses Patch (relationship) and wants revenge on Hazel and Cha Cha (external). Klaus is trying to get sober (internal) in order to connect with Dave (relationship). Vanya also has a minor external plotline about performing as a violinist. And Hazel and Cha Cha are trying to kill Five (external), but Hazel has doubts about the job (internal) and is developing feelings for the lady at the donut shop (relationship).

Above all this, there is a society/world plotline with those involved in the bureau.

But the glue that ultimately holds everything together, is Five���s quest to stop the apocalypse (the dominating external plotline). Every character influences or is influenced by that.

Typically with ensembles, the trick is that the characters and their plotlines have to somehow be connected to or influencing each other.

However, on the rare occasion that they are not, then often the glue is the theme. You could technically write a story where the characters never cross paths, nor fit into a greater plotline, but they each have a journey about the same theme topic ( . . . which may be a subject for another post).

In any case, if you are writing a long epic, like The Lord of the Rings, you will have more space to build out more plotlines for more characters. If you are working with a shorter story, you may want to split three or four dominating plotlines between leads, and keep any other plotlines minor, like The Umbrella Academy. The less important the plotline, the less it needs to be on the page.

With these approaches, you should be off to a great start in structuring your ensemble story.

The post Structuring an Ensemble Cast with Plotlines appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers

Have you ever watched a movie based on a book you read and realized the book is so much better? As a writer, this phenomenon excites me, because we can create an experience for readers with words that studios are desperate to replicate with their huge budgets. But how can that be? Will books become obsolete as more and more content streams into homes? I highly doubt it. Writers have a few tricks up their sleeves that movies can���t use. And if you combine these elements on your pages, you���ll create an immersive experience that all the money in the world can���t put on the screen.

Movies rely on 3 elements of writing in their scripts to tell their stories ��� Setting, Dialogue, and Actions.

They can also use music, lighting, and special effects to enhance the whole experience.

Writers have 2 extra elements at their disposal ��� Reactions, and Inner Thoughts.

(Strictly speaking, movies can try to replicate Inner Thoughts by using an actor���s voiceover, but that gets annoying quickly if overused ��� advantage, writers!)

That���s right, only in books can a reader climb into a character���s skin and experience their world through their eyes. This is why books aren���t going anywhere, and why many times, the book is better than the movie!

The 5 Elements of Writing Include

Element 1: Setting ��� Your world is alive in your head as you write. Make sure that you���re giving your reader some hints along the way to help them construct your beautiful world in their minds. Try sprinkling 2-3 details of your world by letting your characters interact with your setting at the top of each scene, or immediately after the characters arrive at a new destination within a scene to make your setting pop.

Element 2: Dialogue ��� Just like a movie director, you as the writer can decide when to zoom way out and let time pass quickly for your characters, sharing only summary details like a movie montage, or zoom right in close and hear everything that they have to say. Dialogue is a great tool to include when you���re zooming in, letting us hear the actual words that characters say to one another. Dialogue in books is trickier to punctuate than you think, and many writers get this wrong, consistently. Check out my dialogue punctuation cheat sheet that should clear up any questions you have and get you punctuating dialogue like a pro, once and for all.

Element 3: Actions ��� This element includes describing all the stuff that characters get up to in your book. These actions can be small, such as scratching a nose during a conversation, or huge, such as jumping in front of a moving train to save their nemesis and furthering your plot.

Element 4: Reactions ��� When done right, sharing how a character reacts or feels in their Point of View will have your reader laughing, crying, or sitting on the edge of their seat right along with your characters! The Emotion Thesaurus is an amazing resource to get your creative juices flowing and practice how to get these emotions and reactions on your page.

Element 5: Inner Thoughts ��� This one is the slam dunk element that will tip your readers over the edge, falling into your pages. Whether you have a narrator, or it���s written from a character���s Point of View (POV), they are your reader���s guide on the journey, and will let the reader know how to feel and react to the story as they go. Let this inner voice of your POV character(s) shine, giving meaning to the events that unfold in your book���s plot. This element is what gives your story personality, helping it stand out from the rest, so have fun with it. 

What if the 5 Elements of Writing aren���t Balanced on Your Pages?��

Have you ever read (or written!) a scene that feels a little flat, and you just can���t seem to put your finger on why? Chances are, the writer has leaned too heavily on 1-2 of these elements of writing for a page or more, without taking full advantage of the full range at their disposal. Reading passages like this feels more like a chore, and readers will disengage.

Some examples of the elements being out of balance are:

Including long paragraphs of setting description clumped together without anything happening in the scene. Readers can only digest so much information at once, and if you include too much (commonly referred to as an info dump), readers will start to skim to get back to the action on the page, missing all your beautiful descriptions.A page or more of quick back and forth dialogue, with minimal actions inserted between what each character is saying. This is a problem commonly called talking heads , where it feels like your characters are just heads blabbing back and forth, not providing any context. You can have quick exchanges, but keep these short and to the point for maximum impact.Long tirades in a character���s head (Inner Thoughts), while not moving the story forward. This one feels a lot like an info dump to read.Scenes that go from action to action, meticulously detailing the things your characters do, without giving them time to React, or reflect on what it means to them in that moment using Inner Thoughts.

The good news is, this imbalance is easy to spot when reading your own drafts, and easy to fix. In addition to simply counting the number of elements you���ve used on each page using the list in this article, you can spot areas in your draft that need attention quickly, paying attention to the white space on the page.

A long section relying heavily on quick dialogue is easy to spot when there is lots of white space on your page.Too much setting description or inner thoughts is easy to spot when the text is dense on your pages, with long paragraphs and few breaks

Having awareness of the 5 Elements of Writing in your writers��� toolbelt will help you craft pages that hold your reader���s attention, making it feel three dimensional. Using 3 or more of these Elements on each page will keep your reader���s brain engaged and make your scenes feel richer and fuller, even better than the movie will be when it comes out.

The post Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Underdog

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

DESCRIPTION: At the start of the story, this competitor is woefully outmatched and has no chance of winning. They typically begin as a reluctant participant who eventually dedicates themselves wholeheartedly to coming out on top.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games series), Frodo Baggins (The Lord of the Rings series), Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator), Margaret ���Maggie��� Fitzgerald (Million Dollar Baby), Rocky Balboa (the Rocky franchise), Vince Papale (Invincible)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Adaptable, Alert, Ambitious, Appreciative, Cautious, Centered, Curious, Disciplined, Efficient, Empathetic, Focused, Honorable, Humble, Idealistic, Industrious, Inspirational, Just, Passionate, Patient, Persistent, Resourceful, Responsible, Simple, Spunky, Wise

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Apathetic, Gullible, Ignorant, Impulsive, Martyr, Nervous, Reckless, Resentful, Stubborn, Uncooperative, Vindictive, Withdrawn, Worrywart

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Starting out at a disadvantage
Displaying determination and grit
Persevering when times are tough
Being resilient in the face of setbacks and opposition
Being humble and teachable
Adapting to new situations quickly
Keeping their eye on the prize
Making sacrifices to reach their goals
Seeing failure as an opportunity to learn
Using adversity to fuel their determination to win

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Experiencing discrimination because of their race, gender, skill level, or social status
Lacking the necessary skills or tools to win and not knowing how to acquire them
Being asked to compromise their principals to gain an easy win

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Isn���t an individual but is a group, people, or nation
Continually encounters morally ambiguous or impossible decisions on their journey
Has an atypical trait: Lazy, Spoiled, Ungrateful, Controlling, Confident, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
A predictable plot line that ensures the underdog���s success
The rebel leader facing insurmountable odds who rallies support through rousing inspirational speeches and leads his followers to a quick victory

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Underdog appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Phenomenal First Pages Contest

Hey, wonderful
writerly people!

It���s time for Phenomenal First Pages, our monthly critique contest. So, if you need a bit of help with your first page, today’s the day to enter for a chance to win professional feedback!

Entering is easy. All you need to do is leave your contact information on this entry form (or click the graphic below). If you are a winner, we’ll notify you and explain how to send us your first page.

Contest DetailsThis is a 24-hour contest, so enter ASAP.Make sure your contact information on the entry form is correct. Three winners will be drawn. We will email you if you win and let you know how to submit your first page. Please have your first page ready in case your name is selected. Format it with 1-inch margins, double-spaced, and 12pt Times New Roman font. All genres are welcome except erotica.Sign Up for Notifications!

If you���d like to be notified about our monthly Phenomenal First Pages contest, subscribe to blog notifications in this sidebar. 

Good luck, everyone. We can’t wait to see who wins!

PS: To amp up your first page, grab our  First Pages checklist from One Stop for Writers. For more help with story opening elements, visit this Mother Lode of First Page Resources.

The post Phenomenal First Pages Contest appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Behind the Scenes: How to Craft Compelling Backstory

A character���s backstory is where all the gold is buried in terms of their motivations and misbeliefs. Who we are in the present depends to a large extent on what has happened to us in the past. It���s critical for you to know your protagonist���s personal history���but that���s a pretty easy thing to work out. There are numerous character questionnaires available on the internet that you can spend hours filling out.

What you do with that information, however, is trickier���and everything depends on it. If you front load your novel with your protagonist���s life story or give them a variety of quirks and habits that don���t get used in any meaningful way, you will be squandering all that valuable information you amassed and possibly even turning readers away.

Creating Connection

In your opening pages, your main objective is to create connection between the reader and the protagonist. But we don���t usually connect with someone who tells us their life story. If we���re unlucky enough to sit next to that person on a long bus ride, we get up and move. We connect with someone who intrigues us, who makes us want to know more about them. We interact with them, watch how they behave and what they say, and develop our own ideas about who they might be.

Here���s the key: we should want to know more about your protagonist before we actually find out. When it comes to backstory, keep your readers on a need-to-know basis. Show us who this protagonist is. But don���t tell us why they are the way they are���not yet. That���s something you should hold back for later.

In fiction, we also connect with someone who has a strong voice. Contrary to what this might sound like, voice is not (or not only) about the way your character talks. Voice is about who they are as a person, and how that���s expressed in the things they notice and how they relate to what���s going on around them. This is why it���s so important to know that backstory. If you don���t, you won���t truly know who your protagonist is, and they won���t come alive on the page.

But then you have to use this information. If you���ve given your protagonist an extreme fear of heights but then their narrative goal has nothing to do with climbing a mountain or hanging out with their crush who lives on the twenty-seventh floor, that information becomes mere window-dressing. You���re not using it in a purposeful way���i.e. as an obstacle to your protagonist getting what they want.

Using Your Protagonist���s Backstory

We need to be strategic about our protagonist���s backstory: when to use it, how much of it to use, and how.

Use backstory to create intrigue. That means dropping hints and clues in the first half of the book that slowly get answered in the second half. There should be very little in the way of backstory in the first half of your novel. Treat your readers like detectives. Assume your novel is a puzzle they want to solve���and give them the space to do it.

Sprinkle backstory hints into scene. Rather than sitting your reader down and info-dumping a long passage of family history on them, give us one dinner scene. Show us how your protagonist interacts with their parents, their annoying siblings (and maybe their siblings��� spouses), their children, a server. Every one of these interactions can reveal character if you let it.

Build backstory hints into voice. Don���t give us a long history on how your protagonist is miserably single. Set a scene on Valentine���s Day. Make them walk past restaurants and flower shops. Give us some snarky internal monologue.

Don���t tell us they���re the bossy eldest sister. Show us how they behave with their younger sibling. Don���t tell us that baking is their life. Show the way they see possibilities for icing in the shape of a flower.

Showing your protagonist in action rather than telling us about them allows the reader to participate in the process of getting to know them. You are trusting your reader, giving them space to think rather than spoon-feeding them all the answers. And readers remember things better when they participate in them rather than being told about them.

What About Flashbacks?

Flashbacks are the uppity first cousins of backstory. Yes, they involve dramatization, which lifts them out of infodump territory, but you should only use them when absolutely necessary. Why? Because they come with a built-in disadvantage: whatever you���re dramatizing has already happened. No matter how interesting it is, it will necessarily lack both tension and immediacy. If your flashback is too long, it has the potential to create confusion in your narrative. By the time your reader returns to the present-moment storyline, they���ve forgotten where they left off.

If you must use a flashback���such as to dramatize the origin of your protagonist���s misbelief���the best course of action is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. The longer you linger, the greater the chance for confusion. Use cues to let the reader know when you���re moving back in time and when you���re returning to the present moment. Keep your reader���s ease of experience in mind. If they have to stop and think about where or when they are, you will break immersion and take them out of the story.

In Conclusion

The backstory of your characters is crucial to know, but like research, it is information and needs to be handled with care. Your job is to bring that information to life in such a way that it becomes part of what happens, who these people are on the page. You should never have to stop the story to tell us anything about your characters. The story should be showing them to us at every moment. That���s how you create the essential connection that makes us want to follow them right to the end.

The post Behind the Scenes: How to Craft Compelling Backstory appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Storyteller

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

DESCRIPTION: Part historian, entertainer, and conscience, this character has a knack for storytelling through oration, song, poetry, the written word, or other creative means. Their stories often challenge societal norms and raise important questions for listeners.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Scheherazade (One Thousand and One Nights), Karen Blixen (Out of Africa), Jaskier (The Witcher), Clopin Trouillefou (Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Creative, Curious, Empathetic, Enthusiastic, Focused, Imaginative, Inspirational, Intelligent, Passionate, Pensive, Perceptive, Persuasive, Philosophical, Playful, Spontaneous, Whimsical, Wise, Witty

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Catty, Confrontational, Gossipy, Manipulative, Melodramatic, Mischievous, Temperamental, Vain, Verbose

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Being gifted at distilling complicated ideas down to a message people can understand
Being comfortable addressing a crowd
Liking the sound of their own voice
Using their gift to shine a light on injustice and right wrongs
Enjoying being the center of attention
Dominating conversations
Honing their storytelling skills
Having poor time management
Often being distracted or lost in thought
Difficulty keeping secrets

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Being told something they���re not allowed to repeat
Their work being stolen
Living in a place where there is no freedom of speech
Being thrown in prison for sharing certain information

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Is afraid of public speaking or drawing attention to themselves
Has a successful day job, with storytelling as a side gig
Has an atypical trait: Abrasive, Evil, Timid, Stingy, Vindictive, Dishonest, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
The starving artist storyteller
A storyteller who is able to churn out brilliant and perfect work with little revision
The storyteller as a minor character with no arc, whose only role is to reveal truth to the hero or audience

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Storyteller appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Release Day: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus Is Here (& a Giveaway!)

Another book joins the family today: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility!

Writing authentic emotional reactions can be difficult when a character is the sort to hide what they feel. Whether it’s due to fear, painful past trauma, or personal insecurities, they believe that if they keep their emotions in check, it will save them from being judged, feeling vulnerable, or being viewed as weak.

Sure, self-preservation is common in the real world (don’t we all hide our feelings at times?) but in fiction, it can spell disaster.

Why? Because emotions need to be accessible to readers if we want them to care.

One way or another, our characters need to reveal what they truly feel, and this is where an emotion amplifier can be a handy tool. These states or conditions act as a challenge, conflict, and emotional destabilizer all rolled into one.

Pain, pressure, competition, mortal peril, arousal…these and other amplifiers have the power to increase a character’s volatility, making it nearly impossible for them to emotionally self-regulate. This sets them up for overreactions, misjudgments, and (hopefully) colossal mistakes they will need to fix and learn from. 

A Companion to The Emotion Thesaurus

What began as a small ebooklet is now an expanded second edition that explores 52 unique amplifiers capable of causing physical, cognitive, and psychological strain. In addition to our signature descriptive lists, this companion will show you how to use amplifiers to enhance inner conflict, overturn the status quo, reveal deeper emotions & vulnerability, and create opportunities for your characters to gain self-awareness and personal growth!

A more detailed look at this book
The list of amplifiers covered in this guide
What writers are saying about The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus
Where to find it in print and digital formats or buy direct as a PDF.

Win a Free Workshop!

We are so excited for you to meet this new book we’re doing something fun to celebrate: a workshop giveaway! If you’d like to win a seat in a Zoom webinar where we’ll dive into Emotion Amplifiers and show you their superpowers, enter below.

Giveaway now closed – watch your inboxes!

Psst! Your odds are great – our Zoom room holds 100 seats!

The date and time for this workshop are yet to be determined, but if you win and can’t make it in person, don’t worry. A recording will be available for a limited time.

Enter by May 17th, and good luck!

Don’t forget to let your writing friends and clients know about this giveaway – we’d love to see you all win seats!

The post Release Day: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus Is Here (& a Giveaway!) appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Release Day: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus Is Here!

Another book joins the family today: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility!

Writing authentic emotional reactions can be difficult when a character is the sort to hide what they feel. Whether it’s due to fear, painful past trauma, or personal insecurities, they believe that if they keep their emotions in check, it will save them from being judged, feeling vulnerable, or being viewed as weak.

Sure, self-preservation is common in the real world (don’t we all hide our feelings at times?) but in fiction, it can spell disaster.

Why? Because emotions need to be accessible to readers if we want them to care.

One way or another, our characters need to reveal what they truly feel, and this is where an emotion amplifier can be a handy tool. These states or conditions act as a challenge, conflict, and emotional destabilizer all rolled into one.

Pain, pressure, competition, mortal peril, arousal…these and other amplifiers have the power to increase a character’s volatility, making it nearly impossible for them to emotionally self-regulate. This sets them up for overreactions, misjudgments, and (hopefully) colossal mistakes they will need to fix and learn from. 

A Companion to The Emotion Thesaurus

What began as a small ebooklet is now an expanded second edition that explores 52 unique amplifiers capable of causing physical, cognitive, and psychological strain. In addition to our signature descriptive lists, this companion will show you how to use amplifiers to enhance inner conflict, overturn the status quo, reveal deeper emotions & vulnerability, and create opportunities for your characters to gain self-awareness and personal growth!

A more detailed look at this book
The list of amplifiers covered in this guide
What writers are saying about The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus
Where to find it in print and digital formats.

Win a Free Workshop!

We are so excited for you to meet this new book we’re doing something fun to celebrate: a workshop giveaway! If you’d like to win a seat in a Zoom webinar where we’ll dive into Emotion Amplifiers and show you their superpowers, enter below.

ENTER THIS GIVEAWAY

Psst! Your odds are great – our Zoom room holds 100 seats!

The date and time for this workshop are yet to be determined, but if you win and can’t make it in person, don’t worry. A recording will be available for a limited time.

Enter by May 17th, and good luck!

Don’t forget to let your writing friends and clients know about this giveaway – we’d love to see you all win seats!

The post Release Day: The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus Is Here! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Queen Bee

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

DESCRIPTION: An attractive and popular girl or woman who uses her status, control, and powers of manipulation to maintain her social standing or put people (especially other females) in their place.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Cersei Lannister (A Song of Fire and Ice series), Hilly Holbrook (The Help), Regina George (Mean Girls), Heather Chandler (Heathers), Kathryn Merteuil (Cruel Intentions)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Alert, Ambitious, Analytical, Bold, Charming, Confident, Decisive, Diplomatic, Extroverted, Intelligent, Observant, Organized, Persistent, Persuasive, Sophisticated, Spunky, Uninhibited

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Abrasive, Callous, Catty, Confrontational, Controlling, Cowardly, Cruel, Dishonest, Fussy, Greedy, Haughty, Hostile, Hypocritical, Inflexible, Irrational, Jealous, Judgmental, Manipulative, Materialistic, Melodramatic, Possessive, Pushy, Selfish, Spoiled, Stubborn, Vindictive

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Being assertive and confident
Valuing status and power
Taking great pains with her personal appearance
Being able to work a room
Enjoying attention and being in the spotlight
Being skilled at identifying other people���s weaknesses
Holding those in her inner circle to a high standard
Pitting followers against each other
Using fear or intimidation as a control tactic
Responding poorly to change; not pivoting easily

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Encountering someone who won���t be manipulated or controlled
Having to move to a new area or social group and rebuild her position from scratch
Moving to a new school, job, city, etc., where the rules are different and her methods are ineffective
Encountering collective resistance from followers who used to be loyal

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Has a hidden vulnerability she goes to great lengths to conceal, such as domestic abuse or a person she���s protecting
Loses her position and has to create a new life for herself
Has an atypical trait: Socially Aware, Introverted, Appreciative, Self-Destructive, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
The shallow and self-centered queen bee who has no underlying reason for her behavior beyond wanting to be popular

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Queen Bee appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

10 Reasons Why Emotion Amplifiers Are Good for Your Story

We’re just a few days away from releasing a new book, The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility, so things are getting exciting around here! May 13th is the magical date, so I hope you’ll stop in and help us celebrate!

What makes this book special is that it’s the grown-up version of a small digital booklet we released long ago, a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus. Amplifiers are special states and conditions that have the power to make your character emotionally reactive. Whether it’s an amplifier like pain, scrutiny, pregnancy, or something else, when something starts messing with a character’s psychological and emotional equilibrium, that’s bad for them, but good for the story. Needless to say, we had to come back to this topic and explore it in full!

Emotion Amplifiers are unbelievably good for a story. In addition to making a character emotionally volatile, here are 10 more reasons to include them:

1. Amplifiers make it harder for characters to hide what they feel.

Characters are like people–they often mask what they feel to avoid judgment, vulnerability, and the perception that they are weak. But if your character is hungover, enduring high levels of scrutiny, or it’s been ten hours since they last had a cigarette (withdrawal), it becomes harder to keep their emotions in check. A slip–forgetting their filter, telling someone off–and suddenly their emotions are on full display.

2. Amplifiers are great for uncovering a character’s faults, flaws, and sensitivities.

Characters are motivated to control events around them as much as possible, which can make them seem more capable and strong than they actually are. Derailing their plans with an amplifier is a great way to show readers they don’t have it all together and can lose their emotional grip just like anyone else.

3. Amplifiers infuse scenes with tension.

When a character’s stress levels are heightened because of an amplifier like hunger, illness, or pain, the reader becomes glued to the page, wondering if the character will be able to handle the extra strain.

When a reader is unsure of what will happen next, the tension they feel causes them to read on…exactly what we want!

4. Amplifiers generate conflict.

Sometimes your character can manage the strain of an amplifier, and sometimes they can’t. If distraction, sleep deprivation, or even attraction causes your character’s attention to drift, they could fail to spot a threat or worse, taking their situation from bad to worse.

5. Amplifiers can help make a character relatable.

Most amplifiers are common enough that readers have experienced them themselves, or at least know the challenge they represent. So when a character is struggling with something like stress, pressure, or bereavement, readers relate to the character because this situation feels like common ground.

6. Amplifiers pressure characters to deal with their inner conflict.

It can be tempting to ignore personal problems when there’s a difficult decision to be made, but if characters continue to avoid the hard stuff, readers will disengage.

Deploying an amplifier at the right time can make the character’s situation untenable, forcing them to search within and find a way to change their situation for the better, even if this means a cost or sacrifice.

7. Amplifiers provide the opportunity to grow.

In a story, characters should make plenty of mistakes so they can learn from them. Letting emotions take over because of an amplifier like addiction, burnout, or confinement might mean taking a foolish risk, doing or saying something that damages their reputation, or creating big problems for themselves. Dealing with the fallout of bad decisions and emotional volatility will teach them to find a better way next time.

8. Amplifiers support your story’s structure.

Stories contain a framework of turning points and characters must move from one stage to the next for the story to progress. The problem? Fear can make them resistant to take on certain challenges, and they become resistant to leaving their comfort zone. An amplifier like danger, dehydration, arousal, or physical disorientation can force them to march into the unknown so they can secure what they need most.

9. Amplifiers give the story’s premise or conflict scenario a fresh edge.

Stories naturally contain elements and scenarios that will be similar, especially within a genre. The addition of an amplifier, perhaps one like brainwashing, an injury, mental health condition, or intoxication, will help readers see your events as unique, and give you a way to show a character’s individuality in the way that they handle the challenge.

10. Amplifiers encourage readers to connect with your characters on a deeper level.

Amplifiers are familiar to readers as these states and conditions are part of the human experience. When an amplifier brings a character’s emotions close to the surface, readers can’t help but be reminded on their own emotions and humanity. This fosters empathy and connection, and the reader becomes invested in what happens next.

Becca and I explore over 50 different amplifiers in this second edition of The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus and as a companion guide, each entry is styled very close to The Emotion Thesaurus.

For an advanced look at all 52 amplifiers and a peek at some of the thesaurus entries, just go here.

I hope to see you back here on May 13th for our official book release & celebration!

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