Ian Dawson's Blog - Posts Tagged "conflict"
Keeping Your Characters Off-Balance
Should your main characters ever feel comfortable? Should they ever feel like everything is okay and their life is going just fine? Of course, the answer to these questions – especially when dealing with fictional characters – is an emphatic NO. Over the course of the story, it is your job as a writer to keep them as off-balance as possible.
In the real world, we often have a strong desire for balance and calm in our daily lives. Too much stress or anxiety can take its toll on the human mind, body, and spirit, so we often escape to places where we can refresh and recharge. With fictional characters, this sense of calm should be a constant struggle to obtain. It not only can make them more in-depth as characters, it can also make for a better story.
The old adage is that Conflict = Drama. And drama is what drives the story forward. Like most writers, I tend to want to protect my main characters from harm. But in doing so you do a great disservice to your characters and your readers. Putting your characters in harm’s way, giving them impossible situations to get out of, and relentlessly giving them obstacles to overcome makes for a better story and can help strengthen and add dimension to your characters.
This is where the concept of the Character Arc comes into play. Your characters should evolve and change over the course of the story, and keeping them off-balance and having to find ways to try and resolve their problems helps them grow as characters. Don’t forget that your main character should go through some sort of change or metamorphosis over the course of the story.
Granted, you want to give the reader a sense of what is a normal day for your characters before the inciting incident turns their world upside down. That’s fine. It’s what Joseph Campbell refers to as The Ordinary World. But once that Ordinary World is thrown off, it’s time to take your characters on a very bumpy ride.
Your main character’s primary goal – aside from the goals your set forth for them once the story gets underway – is to return to their normal as fast as possible. Don’t let them get there. And even once the goal of the story has been achieved and their world seems to be back to normal, the journey they have taken over the course of the story has forever changed them ion some significant way.
They can never return to the Old Normal they had before the story began. And that’s a good thing. They have grown as a character. They have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And they have come out the other side a stronger, more realized person because of their journey.
It is often during times of great stress or trauma that real people show their true colors. It is your job as a writer to create these types of situations for your characters to keep them off-balance. It doesn’t have to be a life-threatening event, but it should be something that will forever change them for the better…or worse.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
In the real world, we often have a strong desire for balance and calm in our daily lives. Too much stress or anxiety can take its toll on the human mind, body, and spirit, so we often escape to places where we can refresh and recharge. With fictional characters, this sense of calm should be a constant struggle to obtain. It not only can make them more in-depth as characters, it can also make for a better story.
The old adage is that Conflict = Drama. And drama is what drives the story forward. Like most writers, I tend to want to protect my main characters from harm. But in doing so you do a great disservice to your characters and your readers. Putting your characters in harm’s way, giving them impossible situations to get out of, and relentlessly giving them obstacles to overcome makes for a better story and can help strengthen and add dimension to your characters.
This is where the concept of the Character Arc comes into play. Your characters should evolve and change over the course of the story, and keeping them off-balance and having to find ways to try and resolve their problems helps them grow as characters. Don’t forget that your main character should go through some sort of change or metamorphosis over the course of the story.
Granted, you want to give the reader a sense of what is a normal day for your characters before the inciting incident turns their world upside down. That’s fine. It’s what Joseph Campbell refers to as The Ordinary World. But once that Ordinary World is thrown off, it’s time to take your characters on a very bumpy ride.
Your main character’s primary goal – aside from the goals your set forth for them once the story gets underway – is to return to their normal as fast as possible. Don’t let them get there. And even once the goal of the story has been achieved and their world seems to be back to normal, the journey they have taken over the course of the story has forever changed them ion some significant way.
They can never return to the Old Normal they had before the story began. And that’s a good thing. They have grown as a character. They have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. And they have come out the other side a stronger, more realized person because of their journey.
It is often during times of great stress or trauma that real people show their true colors. It is your job as a writer to create these types of situations for your characters to keep them off-balance. It doesn’t have to be a life-threatening event, but it should be something that will forever change them for the better…or worse.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
Writing Tip of the Week: The Importance of Conflict in Your Story
People generally do all they can to avoid Conflict in their everyday lives. We will often go to great lengths to stay out of situations that make us uncomfortable, make us confront an issue, or even deal with someone who makes us feel anything but peaceful. For the most part, humans prefer a sense of neutrality.
But not in fiction.
Fiction requires Conflict as an essential ingredient to make a narrative move forward. There has to be something or someone driving the protagonist to act; to get them out of their neutral state and make them work toward a goal that looks impossible to achieve on the surface.
Let’s explore a little about Conflict and its role in fiction.
Conflict = Dramatic Tension
Your protagonist wants something. Another character wants something else. Only one of them can get what they want in the scene or chapter. And so, this Conflict creates Dramatic Tension between the two characters, and – hopefully – the Conflict and dramatic tension pique the audiences’ interest. Who will get what they want? How will they negotiate to get what they want? What are they willing to do or say to achieve their goal?
Watch any film or TV show, and you will see this played out on either a small or a larger level. If you watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – or most procedurals – you can see this play out in almost every scene. There is a conflict between the detectives over how to interrogate a suspect. There’s Conflict between the suspect and the detectives interrogating them. There’s Conflict while a witness is being questioned. All of which creates Dramatic Tension and leaves the audience curious and wanting more.
Comedy is also rife with Conflict. Yes, Dramatic Tension does exist in sitcoms and comedy movies as well. It’s what helps keep the story moving forward and the audience engaged. On I Love Lucy, Lucy Ricardo wants to be in a TV commercial. Her husband, Ricky, says she can’t do it. A Conflict between the two characters has now been created. It then evolves into Dramatic Tension, which in this case is played for laughs.
Conflict Isn’t Always Good vs. Evil
When we picture Conflict, we think of Batman vs. The Joker or some other large-scale epic showdown between good and evil. But that is not the case. While this is a clear-cut example, conflicts are often between best friends, or kids and parents, or employees and employers.
Maybe the characters just have a minor disagreement about how to punish their child for their bad behavior. Perhaps it’s a conflict between and father and son over what type of first job the son should apply for. Small conflicts between characters that aren’t an explosive battle of wills destroying Gotham City can be just as impactful, just as exciting, and just as engaging.
Conflict Should Be Organic
The source of the Conflict that occurs should have sense and logic to it within the story you are telling. Have you ever watched an action movie where a car chase or bar fight just happens for no reason? If there’s no reason for the Conflict to arise, it feels forced and out of place.
All characters want or need something. When your characters each want something different, a conflict is formed. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos wants the Infinity Stones to achieve his goal. The Avengers have an opposing goal: stop Thanos from acquiring the Infinity Stones. It’s a basic conflict, but it makes sense and is logical within the confines of the story being told.
There should be a reason for Conflict to exist at that moment in the story. If there’s no conflict present, figure out why and what’s causing a lack of Conflict between the characters involved. At the same time, don’t force Conflict to happen. If you cut the scene or chapter, would it impact the story?
Conflict Ups the Stakes for the Protagonist
Imagine a story where nothing goes wrong for the protagonist. No matter what, everything goes right. Now, take that same character on her way to a big job interview, when someone runs into her, shoves a device in her hand, and seconds later, the office building she was headed to explodes and collapses. As she comes back to the reality of the chaos around her, she discovers there’s a detonator in her hand. Her fingerprints are all over it. Someone notices the device in her hand and calls out. Panicked, she gets up and runs.
She’s now wrongly accused of blowing up a building that she was headed to, with her fingerprints on the detonator and people screaming that she caused the explosion.
Talk about Conflict and Upping the Stakes!
While this is an extreme example, giving the protagonist a – even to them – life and death situation to deal with gives them motivation to achieve a goal despite the odds. Katniss in The Hunger Games ups the stakes on herself when she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the games. The stakes continue to mount as the games continue, and she must do all she can to survive—plenty of Conflict.
In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods wants to go to Harvard Law School. Based on what we know about Elle at this point in the film, even we think she’s creating stakes that seem impossible.
Both The Hunger Games and Legally Blonde show us two strong protagonists actively putting themselves into situations where the stakes could not be higher for either one of them. The stakes up the Conflict, which increases the Dramatic Tension, which keeps the audience engaged.
Internal and External Conflict
Characters can have inner conflicts, wants, needs, desires, and motivations. These can help add dimension to a character and help lead to their growth and arc through the narrative.
External conflicts are opposing forces outside the inner life of the character.
In Lethal Weapon (1987), Sergeant Martin Riggs is depressed and suicidal (Internal Conflict) after the death of his wife (External Conflict). His new partner, Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, is melancholy about his age and retiring from the LAPD (Internal Conflict). He is not very happy to be saddled with a new partner who’s a live wire (External Conflict). Two characters with conflicting internal and external conflicts then have to face a conflict even larger than them. No wonder the movie was such a hit!
Giving your characters Internal Conflicts that must be dealt with during their External Conflicts is an excellent way to up the Stakes and add to the overall Dramatic Tension.
Creating Conflict between characters in your writing is a fun way to see how your protagonist and others respond to someone entering their space and destabilizing the neutral world they - like all of us in the real world - so desperately desire. Take a few of your characters and write a couple pages of Conflict between them and see if you discover anything new about them.
And, the next time you watch a movie, a TV show, or read a novel, observe what the Conflict is in each scene, what the stakes are, and how those conflicts and stakes lead to the dramatic tension in both the scene and the narrative as a whole.
Happy writing, and I’ll see you next week!
But not in fiction.
Fiction requires Conflict as an essential ingredient to make a narrative move forward. There has to be something or someone driving the protagonist to act; to get them out of their neutral state and make them work toward a goal that looks impossible to achieve on the surface.
Let’s explore a little about Conflict and its role in fiction.
Conflict = Dramatic Tension
Your protagonist wants something. Another character wants something else. Only one of them can get what they want in the scene or chapter. And so, this Conflict creates Dramatic Tension between the two characters, and – hopefully – the Conflict and dramatic tension pique the audiences’ interest. Who will get what they want? How will they negotiate to get what they want? What are they willing to do or say to achieve their goal?
Watch any film or TV show, and you will see this played out on either a small or a larger level. If you watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – or most procedurals – you can see this play out in almost every scene. There is a conflict between the detectives over how to interrogate a suspect. There’s Conflict between the suspect and the detectives interrogating them. There’s Conflict while a witness is being questioned. All of which creates Dramatic Tension and leaves the audience curious and wanting more.
Comedy is also rife with Conflict. Yes, Dramatic Tension does exist in sitcoms and comedy movies as well. It’s what helps keep the story moving forward and the audience engaged. On I Love Lucy, Lucy Ricardo wants to be in a TV commercial. Her husband, Ricky, says she can’t do it. A Conflict between the two characters has now been created. It then evolves into Dramatic Tension, which in this case is played for laughs.
Conflict Isn’t Always Good vs. Evil
When we picture Conflict, we think of Batman vs. The Joker or some other large-scale epic showdown between good and evil. But that is not the case. While this is a clear-cut example, conflicts are often between best friends, or kids and parents, or employees and employers.
Maybe the characters just have a minor disagreement about how to punish their child for their bad behavior. Perhaps it’s a conflict between and father and son over what type of first job the son should apply for. Small conflicts between characters that aren’t an explosive battle of wills destroying Gotham City can be just as impactful, just as exciting, and just as engaging.
Conflict Should Be Organic
The source of the Conflict that occurs should have sense and logic to it within the story you are telling. Have you ever watched an action movie where a car chase or bar fight just happens for no reason? If there’s no reason for the Conflict to arise, it feels forced and out of place.
All characters want or need something. When your characters each want something different, a conflict is formed. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos wants the Infinity Stones to achieve his goal. The Avengers have an opposing goal: stop Thanos from acquiring the Infinity Stones. It’s a basic conflict, but it makes sense and is logical within the confines of the story being told.
There should be a reason for Conflict to exist at that moment in the story. If there’s no conflict present, figure out why and what’s causing a lack of Conflict between the characters involved. At the same time, don’t force Conflict to happen. If you cut the scene or chapter, would it impact the story?
Conflict Ups the Stakes for the Protagonist
Imagine a story where nothing goes wrong for the protagonist. No matter what, everything goes right. Now, take that same character on her way to a big job interview, when someone runs into her, shoves a device in her hand, and seconds later, the office building she was headed to explodes and collapses. As she comes back to the reality of the chaos around her, she discovers there’s a detonator in her hand. Her fingerprints are all over it. Someone notices the device in her hand and calls out. Panicked, she gets up and runs.
She’s now wrongly accused of blowing up a building that she was headed to, with her fingerprints on the detonator and people screaming that she caused the explosion.
Talk about Conflict and Upping the Stakes!
While this is an extreme example, giving the protagonist a – even to them – life and death situation to deal with gives them motivation to achieve a goal despite the odds. Katniss in The Hunger Games ups the stakes on herself when she volunteers to take her sister’s place in the games. The stakes continue to mount as the games continue, and she must do all she can to survive—plenty of Conflict.
In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods wants to go to Harvard Law School. Based on what we know about Elle at this point in the film, even we think she’s creating stakes that seem impossible.
Both The Hunger Games and Legally Blonde show us two strong protagonists actively putting themselves into situations where the stakes could not be higher for either one of them. The stakes up the Conflict, which increases the Dramatic Tension, which keeps the audience engaged.
Internal and External Conflict
Characters can have inner conflicts, wants, needs, desires, and motivations. These can help add dimension to a character and help lead to their growth and arc through the narrative.
External conflicts are opposing forces outside the inner life of the character.
In Lethal Weapon (1987), Sergeant Martin Riggs is depressed and suicidal (Internal Conflict) after the death of his wife (External Conflict). His new partner, Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, is melancholy about his age and retiring from the LAPD (Internal Conflict). He is not very happy to be saddled with a new partner who’s a live wire (External Conflict). Two characters with conflicting internal and external conflicts then have to face a conflict even larger than them. No wonder the movie was such a hit!
Giving your characters Internal Conflicts that must be dealt with during their External Conflicts is an excellent way to up the Stakes and add to the overall Dramatic Tension.
Creating Conflict between characters in your writing is a fun way to see how your protagonist and others respond to someone entering their space and destabilizing the neutral world they - like all of us in the real world - so desperately desire. Take a few of your characters and write a couple pages of Conflict between them and see if you discover anything new about them.
And, the next time you watch a movie, a TV show, or read a novel, observe what the Conflict is in each scene, what the stakes are, and how those conflicts and stakes lead to the dramatic tension in both the scene and the narrative as a whole.
Happy writing, and I’ll see you next week!
Writing Tip of the Week: A Simple Story Formula
What are the essential elements that make up a story? How do we combine those elements in a simple formula that can be expanded upon? It all comes down to a simple story formula that is also that basic of a story’s logline:
HERO + GOAL + OPPOSITION = CONFLICT = STORY
These three factors are fundamental to keeping your main character active and motivated throughout the story.
Let’s talk about each one.
The Hero
This is your main character, your protagonist. We will follow the person from the story’s beginning to its end. They will go through the most CHANGE as the story progresses, following an arc that will change their perspective, change their outlook, and change them as a person by the time they get to the finish line.
We are rooting for this character to achieve what they need to accomplish, which is…
The Goal
What do they want? Why do they want it? What happens if they don’t get it?
The Hero’s goal takes them on a new journey that they weren’t expecting to be on, but it is one they have no choice but to take on and hopefully complete.
The goal should cause the Hero to be ACTIVE to achieve it. Do they need to start something? Stop something? Prevent something? Run for something? Save something or someone? Fix something? Destroy something? These are all active states and goals for the Hero to move toward and accomplish.
It doesn’t mean that obstacles won’t pop up and attempt to thwart their progress as they work toward their goal. They also have to deal with…
The Opposition
From a supervillain to a judgmental parent, the Opposition or antagonistic force exists to cause CONFLICT for the Hero throughout their journey. The Opposition exists to do all it can to prevent the Hero from achieving what they’ve set out to do.
Most of the time, thanks to our overabundance of superhero movies, we think of Thanos, The Joker, or The Riddler as examples of clear opposition for the Hero. But know that it doesn’t have to be a world-ending conflict that the Hero is dealing with. It can be anyone in the main character’s life that exists to give them problems or issues that affect their journey.
Adding It Up
As stated before:
HERO + GOAL + OPPOSITION = CONFLICT = STORY
Using these elements, think about how you can plug the factors in your story into these spaces. Do you have an active hero who is out to achieve a goal but is prevented from completing it due to opposition causing conflict for the hero?
If yes, you have the basic parameters to develop a good story. But this is only the beginning of your story’s evolution from a basic story idea to a larger project.
Final Thoughts
This week, take some time to break down your favorite movies or novels into this formula. You’ll find that all mainstream films and books follow this template.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
HERO + GOAL + OPPOSITION = CONFLICT = STORY
These three factors are fundamental to keeping your main character active and motivated throughout the story.
Let’s talk about each one.
The Hero
This is your main character, your protagonist. We will follow the person from the story’s beginning to its end. They will go through the most CHANGE as the story progresses, following an arc that will change their perspective, change their outlook, and change them as a person by the time they get to the finish line.
We are rooting for this character to achieve what they need to accomplish, which is…
The Goal
What do they want? Why do they want it? What happens if they don’t get it?
The Hero’s goal takes them on a new journey that they weren’t expecting to be on, but it is one they have no choice but to take on and hopefully complete.
The goal should cause the Hero to be ACTIVE to achieve it. Do they need to start something? Stop something? Prevent something? Run for something? Save something or someone? Fix something? Destroy something? These are all active states and goals for the Hero to move toward and accomplish.
It doesn’t mean that obstacles won’t pop up and attempt to thwart their progress as they work toward their goal. They also have to deal with…
The Opposition
From a supervillain to a judgmental parent, the Opposition or antagonistic force exists to cause CONFLICT for the Hero throughout their journey. The Opposition exists to do all it can to prevent the Hero from achieving what they’ve set out to do.
Most of the time, thanks to our overabundance of superhero movies, we think of Thanos, The Joker, or The Riddler as examples of clear opposition for the Hero. But know that it doesn’t have to be a world-ending conflict that the Hero is dealing with. It can be anyone in the main character’s life that exists to give them problems or issues that affect their journey.
Adding It Up
As stated before:
HERO + GOAL + OPPOSITION = CONFLICT = STORY
Using these elements, think about how you can plug the factors in your story into these spaces. Do you have an active hero who is out to achieve a goal but is prevented from completing it due to opposition causing conflict for the hero?
If yes, you have the basic parameters to develop a good story. But this is only the beginning of your story’s evolution from a basic story idea to a larger project.
Final Thoughts
This week, take some time to break down your favorite movies or novels into this formula. You’ll find that all mainstream films and books follow this template.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
Writing Tip of the Week: Humanizing Characters Through Conflict
When someone is put under pressure and forced to react to conflict or some emergency, you often see a different side of the individual. They may panic, or they might stay level-headed during this time of crisis. They may lash out and become angry or violent, or escape the situation and leave the problem for someone else.
Conflict can reveal a lot about a real person and a fictional character as well. Increasing the pressure, tension, and opposition on your main character can help you craft a stronger narrative as you decide how your hero deals with stressful situations.
It’s easy to avoid conflict and keep to yourself in the real world, but your main character doesn’t have that luxury. In fact, they should be thrown into the deep end of conflict as soon as possible once their goal has been established. They don’t have time to avoid anything; they have a journey to take and a problem to solve.
How they deal with conflict at varying levels can tell the reader or viewer a lot about your main character, and create empathy or sympathy for them, depending on the situation. This is an excellent opportunity to humanize your main character by putting them under pressure and showing the audience how they handle themselves and their opponent.
Do they joke their way out of the situation? Do they use force to end the conflict? Do they run away to avoid getting hurt? Any of these gives us insight into who this person is and creates a more relatable character.
Take two characters from a story you’re working on, put them in a room, and give them something to argue about. How does Character A deal with the conflict? How does Character B? How is the conflict resolved? Did they resolve the initial conflict, or did it escalate into a larger conflict between them?
Exploring how your main character and other characters in the story deal with conflict can make them relatable to an audience and make them more human in dealing with the many problems they encounter in your story.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
Conflict can reveal a lot about a real person and a fictional character as well. Increasing the pressure, tension, and opposition on your main character can help you craft a stronger narrative as you decide how your hero deals with stressful situations.
It’s easy to avoid conflict and keep to yourself in the real world, but your main character doesn’t have that luxury. In fact, they should be thrown into the deep end of conflict as soon as possible once their goal has been established. They don’t have time to avoid anything; they have a journey to take and a problem to solve.
How they deal with conflict at varying levels can tell the reader or viewer a lot about your main character, and create empathy or sympathy for them, depending on the situation. This is an excellent opportunity to humanize your main character by putting them under pressure and showing the audience how they handle themselves and their opponent.
Do they joke their way out of the situation? Do they use force to end the conflict? Do they run away to avoid getting hurt? Any of these gives us insight into who this person is and creates a more relatable character.
Take two characters from a story you’re working on, put them in a room, and give them something to argue about. How does Character A deal with the conflict? How does Character B? How is the conflict resolved? Did they resolve the initial conflict, or did it escalate into a larger conflict between them?
Exploring how your main character and other characters in the story deal with conflict can make them relatable to an audience and make them more human in dealing with the many problems they encounter in your story.
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
Help! My Story Isn’t Working! – Is It the Characters?
After a brief break, we’re back and talking about one of the key aspects of any story: the Characters. Think about your favorite movie, TV series, or novel, and it’s the characters populating the story that immediately pop into memory. They are the driving force of any narrative and the primary reason we keep watching.
However, it’s possible to run into challenges when creating and crafting characters for a story. Let’s look at some potential problems and their solutions.
But first…
Who Are These People?
Fictional characters come in all shapes and sizes, but they also have their own assigned roles in a story. Here’s a quick run-down of how you should look at each character that lives in your fictional world:
Main Character: They drive the story forward; without them actively pursuing a goal, the story has nowhere to go.
Antagonist: The person opposing the main character and trying to prevent them from reaching their stated goal.
Secondary Characters: These can include friends, love interests, sidekicks, pets, or anyone who is associated with the main character or antagonist, offering them advice, support, or assistance.
Tertiary Characters: Minor characters your main character meets along their journey. They may be in only one chapter or scene, but the information they provide or the actions they take assist the main character positively or negatively and can contribute to the story’s direction.
Utility Characters: A crowd at a concert. Protesters. Campers. Patrons at a biker bar. These are usually nameless characters that help give a location atmosphere and personality. These are extras (aka background artists) that can be described to enhance the location currently inhabited by your other characters.
Now, let’s dive into a few possible problems you may encounter as you work with your characters.
Problem: My Main Character is boring.
Possible Solution #1: Make sure they have a Character Arc.
Your Main Character should evolve over the course of your story. They should have problems, issues, conflicts, and relationships established at the start that they can then work on and resolve as the story unfolds, develops, and wraps up.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of being afraid to have your Main Character have problems or conflicts. You might be fearful that readers will turn against them or not like them as the Main Character. But flaws add depth to a character and make them more relatable to the audience than being the poster child for perfection.
As you develop your Main Character, focus on how they change over the course of the story. What events take place around them or to characters in their circle that help them change as a person? These are pieces of the puzzle that can give your Main Character more depth and make them less boring.
Possible Solution #2: Consider Recasting
Okay. You’ve taken the first step and admitted your Main Character is dull. What character in the story do you enjoy writing about? What is it about them that makes you excited to get to their chapters? That is who should be helming your story, and it may be time to either cut your original Main Character completely or move them to a secondary role.
No matter what type of story you’re writing, your Main Character needs to be compelling, interesting, and engaging to the reader. Often, we relegate that type of character to the role of second banana, thinking they are too zany to work as the story’s protagonist.
However, it is worth considering the idea of having them take on that role. Or, you may consider another alternative…
Possible Solution #3: Merge your Main Character with the fun one.
Blend the aspects of the Main Character with those of the fun character and see what new energy and life is injected into your story. Now you have a Main Character with some zip to them, and you can have some fun and let them not be so rigid and boring as they once were.
Problem: My Main Character is too passive.
Possible Solution #1: It’s all about choices.
If your Main Character is passive, this means things are happening to them; they are not making things happen. And while it’s okay for your Main Character to get into situations beyond their control, it’s how they react to those situations that determines if they are being passive or active.
And you definitely want your Main Character to be ACTIVE and MAKING CHOICES that help move the story forward.
All stories are like Choose Your Own Adventure books. As authors, we are the ones making the choices for the reader. We must choose actions that propel the story forward while also putting the Main Character in control of the action. Even if their choices are wrong and lead to tragedy, they must be at the center of those choices and actions.
As you work through your story, think about your Main Character’s choices. Their choices reveal aspects of their personality to the reader. If they are passive and allow others to make decisions for them, the reader will lose interest.
Possible Solution #2: Do they have a strong goal?
Your Main Character needs a reason to exist. That reason is a GOAL they need to achieve by the end of the story. The goal can be a person, a location, or an object. It’s whatever exists at the end of the journey that motivates the Main Character to keep going.
It also has to be on a scale where if they fail to achieve their goal, there are literal or figurative life-or-death consequences associated with it. This means the goal you pick for your Main Character should motivate them into action, which should eliminate any passive tendencies they may have.
Throw in a ticking clock, where they only have a limited amount of time to reach their goal, and it adds another layer of suspense to help drive the Main Character into being active in their pursuit of the goal.
Possible Solution #3: Who’s the opposition?
There needs to be someone in your story trying to prevent your Main Character from reaching their goal. Your Main Character must be willing to confront this person to achieve that goal, and the only way to do that is by being active.
It’s important that the opposition – also known as the Antagonist – has a direct link to the Main Character in some way, and that their defeat is crucial as part of reaching the goal at the end of the story. This defeat can be literal or figurative, but it’s crucial that it takes place as part of your Main Character’s journey.
The need to defeat the Antagonist and reach the final goal must motivate your Main Character to take action and propel their arc and the storyline forward. These elements should leave no room for your Main Character to be passive during their quest.
Problem: I keep losing track of all my characters.
Possible Solution #1: More characters = More problems
If you’re writing your first novel, I highly recommend that you limit the number of characters that populate your story. This will not only make your writing life easier, but it will also help keep the story on track and focus your attention on the main storyline and its characters.
While novels can have dozens of characters, it should be noted that each character should exist to serve the story. If they’re just there, they need to go. It’s as simple as that.
Plus, once they are introduced and named, they need a description, a link to the Main Character or the overall storyline, and are now another person you have to keep track of as you write.
Don’t stress; streamline instead. Merge characters. Cut characters who add nothing to the story. Eliminate subplots that have no value to what’s happening in the main narrative.
Possible Solution #2: Make a spreadsheet
Of course, if you must have a lot of characters, it’s time to do the technical work and create a spreadsheet. This will provide a visual breakdown of each character, their relationship to the Main Character, their purpose in the story, and a brief description.
Now you don’t have to remember if Bob is Dave’s cousin or Dale’s, and if he was the tall cousin or the short one. You have a reference guide to help you as you write.
Possible Solution #3: Outline, Outline, Outline.
Before you sit down to write a single chapter, I strongly advise you to outline your story so you know all the ins and outs of what’s going to happen, which characters are where, and how everything fits together. This will prevent headaches down the line as you are knee deep in the manuscript. It’s a lot easier to track where a character is in an outline than in a 100,000-word document.
I recommend outlining any story you want to write so you have a complete picture available before you begin writing. You can always alter the outline, but you’ll have access to how everything unfolds and evolves in your story before things become too difficult to fix.
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
There are so many aspects to character that we didn’t cover here, but I hope these tips give you a starting point to get your Main Character back on the right track. There are hundreds of books available that delve even deeper into the world of character development, so if you are interested in exploring this topic further, I highly recommend seeking those out.
Next Time…
We briefly talked about the story’s Antagonist, and with an Antagonist comes Conflict! We’ll talk about that in the next post!
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
However, it’s possible to run into challenges when creating and crafting characters for a story. Let’s look at some potential problems and their solutions.
But first…
Who Are These People?
Fictional characters come in all shapes and sizes, but they also have their own assigned roles in a story. Here’s a quick run-down of how you should look at each character that lives in your fictional world:
Main Character: They drive the story forward; without them actively pursuing a goal, the story has nowhere to go.
Antagonist: The person opposing the main character and trying to prevent them from reaching their stated goal.
Secondary Characters: These can include friends, love interests, sidekicks, pets, or anyone who is associated with the main character or antagonist, offering them advice, support, or assistance.
Tertiary Characters: Minor characters your main character meets along their journey. They may be in only one chapter or scene, but the information they provide or the actions they take assist the main character positively or negatively and can contribute to the story’s direction.
Utility Characters: A crowd at a concert. Protesters. Campers. Patrons at a biker bar. These are usually nameless characters that help give a location atmosphere and personality. These are extras (aka background artists) that can be described to enhance the location currently inhabited by your other characters.
Now, let’s dive into a few possible problems you may encounter as you work with your characters.
Problem: My Main Character is boring.
Possible Solution #1: Make sure they have a Character Arc.
Your Main Character should evolve over the course of your story. They should have problems, issues, conflicts, and relationships established at the start that they can then work on and resolve as the story unfolds, develops, and wraps up.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of being afraid to have your Main Character have problems or conflicts. You might be fearful that readers will turn against them or not like them as the Main Character. But flaws add depth to a character and make them more relatable to the audience than being the poster child for perfection.
As you develop your Main Character, focus on how they change over the course of the story. What events take place around them or to characters in their circle that help them change as a person? These are pieces of the puzzle that can give your Main Character more depth and make them less boring.
Possible Solution #2: Consider Recasting
Okay. You’ve taken the first step and admitted your Main Character is dull. What character in the story do you enjoy writing about? What is it about them that makes you excited to get to their chapters? That is who should be helming your story, and it may be time to either cut your original Main Character completely or move them to a secondary role.
No matter what type of story you’re writing, your Main Character needs to be compelling, interesting, and engaging to the reader. Often, we relegate that type of character to the role of second banana, thinking they are too zany to work as the story’s protagonist.
However, it is worth considering the idea of having them take on that role. Or, you may consider another alternative…
Possible Solution #3: Merge your Main Character with the fun one.
Blend the aspects of the Main Character with those of the fun character and see what new energy and life is injected into your story. Now you have a Main Character with some zip to them, and you can have some fun and let them not be so rigid and boring as they once were.
Problem: My Main Character is too passive.
Possible Solution #1: It’s all about choices.
If your Main Character is passive, this means things are happening to them; they are not making things happen. And while it’s okay for your Main Character to get into situations beyond their control, it’s how they react to those situations that determines if they are being passive or active.
And you definitely want your Main Character to be ACTIVE and MAKING CHOICES that help move the story forward.
All stories are like Choose Your Own Adventure books. As authors, we are the ones making the choices for the reader. We must choose actions that propel the story forward while also putting the Main Character in control of the action. Even if their choices are wrong and lead to tragedy, they must be at the center of those choices and actions.
As you work through your story, think about your Main Character’s choices. Their choices reveal aspects of their personality to the reader. If they are passive and allow others to make decisions for them, the reader will lose interest.
Possible Solution #2: Do they have a strong goal?
Your Main Character needs a reason to exist. That reason is a GOAL they need to achieve by the end of the story. The goal can be a person, a location, or an object. It’s whatever exists at the end of the journey that motivates the Main Character to keep going.
It also has to be on a scale where if they fail to achieve their goal, there are literal or figurative life-or-death consequences associated with it. This means the goal you pick for your Main Character should motivate them into action, which should eliminate any passive tendencies they may have.
Throw in a ticking clock, where they only have a limited amount of time to reach their goal, and it adds another layer of suspense to help drive the Main Character into being active in their pursuit of the goal.
Possible Solution #3: Who’s the opposition?
There needs to be someone in your story trying to prevent your Main Character from reaching their goal. Your Main Character must be willing to confront this person to achieve that goal, and the only way to do that is by being active.
It’s important that the opposition – also known as the Antagonist – has a direct link to the Main Character in some way, and that their defeat is crucial as part of reaching the goal at the end of the story. This defeat can be literal or figurative, but it’s crucial that it takes place as part of your Main Character’s journey.
The need to defeat the Antagonist and reach the final goal must motivate your Main Character to take action and propel their arc and the storyline forward. These elements should leave no room for your Main Character to be passive during their quest.
Problem: I keep losing track of all my characters.
Possible Solution #1: More characters = More problems
If you’re writing your first novel, I highly recommend that you limit the number of characters that populate your story. This will not only make your writing life easier, but it will also help keep the story on track and focus your attention on the main storyline and its characters.
While novels can have dozens of characters, it should be noted that each character should exist to serve the story. If they’re just there, they need to go. It’s as simple as that.
Plus, once they are introduced and named, they need a description, a link to the Main Character or the overall storyline, and are now another person you have to keep track of as you write.
Don’t stress; streamline instead. Merge characters. Cut characters who add nothing to the story. Eliminate subplots that have no value to what’s happening in the main narrative.
Possible Solution #2: Make a spreadsheet
Of course, if you must have a lot of characters, it’s time to do the technical work and create a spreadsheet. This will provide a visual breakdown of each character, their relationship to the Main Character, their purpose in the story, and a brief description.
Now you don’t have to remember if Bob is Dave’s cousin or Dale’s, and if he was the tall cousin or the short one. You have a reference guide to help you as you write.
Possible Solution #3: Outline, Outline, Outline.
Before you sit down to write a single chapter, I strongly advise you to outline your story so you know all the ins and outs of what’s going to happen, which characters are where, and how everything fits together. This will prevent headaches down the line as you are knee deep in the manuscript. It’s a lot easier to track where a character is in an outline than in a 100,000-word document.
I recommend outlining any story you want to write so you have a complete picture available before you begin writing. You can always alter the outline, but you’ll have access to how everything unfolds and evolves in your story before things become too difficult to fix.
Just the Tip of the Iceberg
There are so many aspects to character that we didn’t cover here, but I hope these tips give you a starting point to get your Main Character back on the right track. There are hundreds of books available that delve even deeper into the world of character development, so if you are interested in exploring this topic further, I highly recommend seeking those out.
Next Time…
We briefly talked about the story’s Antagonist, and with an Antagonist comes Conflict! We’ll talk about that in the next post!
Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!
Help! My Story Isn’t Working! – Thank You
Anyone can write a story. To write one well requires time, passion, energy, and an attention to detail and craft. Over the past series of posts, I intended to give you some tools and tips to apply to problematic elements of your stories to help you move past any roadblocks and achieve your goal of finishing a draft.
Much of the writing process involves trial and error, taking the time to work through problems and trouble spots to find the perfect solution for what ails your narrative.
The problems we discussed in these posts – Story, Plot, Character, Conflict, and Stakes – are all elements that require your complete focus, and should be 100% in place during the Outline phase of your writing project.
It doesn’t mean things won’t change and evolve as you flesh out your story, but having this complete road map at your side as you write will prevent frustration and writer’s block in the future.
If your problem wasn’t covered in one of these posts, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post or on social media. I will address your question or topic in an upcoming post.
Thank you for taking the time to read my Help! My Story Isn’t Working! Series.
Until next time, Happy Writing!
Much of the writing process involves trial and error, taking the time to work through problems and trouble spots to find the perfect solution for what ails your narrative.
The problems we discussed in these posts – Story, Plot, Character, Conflict, and Stakes – are all elements that require your complete focus, and should be 100% in place during the Outline phase of your writing project.
It doesn’t mean things won’t change and evolve as you flesh out your story, but having this complete road map at your side as you write will prevent frustration and writer’s block in the future.
If your problem wasn’t covered in one of these posts, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post or on social media. I will address your question or topic in an upcoming post.
Thank you for taking the time to read my Help! My Story Isn’t Working! Series.
Until next time, Happy Writing!
