S.B. Stewart-Laing's Blog, page 11

Writing Convincing BFFs

My best friend and I have known each other since we were twelve, and been friends since we were fourteen. When we talk to each other, the words Gibraltar, Starbucks, cod, lemmings and the phrases 'you broke Mt St Helens', 'shark orgy', 'like a glacier', and 'the tacky bastard' are linked to entire stories ranging from the traumatic to the absurdly hilarious, and renditions of 'Single Ladies' and of the Goldfish jingle will send us into gales of laughter.

If you're feeling left out, that's my point-- long-time friends accumulate shared experiences, develop a shared narrative and culture whether they're part of a duo or a larger group. Given enough time together, friends will even have their own language rife with references and inside jokes and private slang.

If your characters become friends over the course of the story because they share common experiences and overcome obstacles together, this process will probably show organically. If your characters start out as friends who face the world together in the story, you'll have to build up the story of their friendship before your opening sentence. This doesn't need to make it onto the page, at least not in its entirety. But there should be hints and references to their history-- inside jokes, fights they've patched up (or that simmer unresolved), thrills and sadness and boredom they've shared. We don't have to see flashbacks, because all those references and shared events will inform their interaction, even if we only start to follow these characters after the plot gets rolling.

On Working With Coauthors

Michael and I in Life Aquatic costumesTeamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision.  The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives.  It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. 
--Andrew Carnegie

Almost every time I tell people (or remind them) that I work with a coauthor, they are intrigued. A big part of this, I think, is that popular culture tells us writing is a solitary task, best done on a typewriter in a quiet bedroom, or on a laptop in the corner of a deserted cafe. We are shown images of writers shutting out the larger world to live in their minds.

For some people, this is an ideal working style. As someone who is prone to overanalysing things, I like the reality check of another person working on the story. Plus my creative thinking benefits from working alongside someone with a totally different perspective on many things (more on that in a moment). Michael, an extrovert, prefers to think aloud, and does his best writing when he can talk through his ideas with someone beforehand. For both of us, working as a team yields better results than either of us could achieve alone. 
Although any creative collaboration is a unique relationship, there are some things that one should consider before teaming up on a storytelling venture:
Find someone whose worldview differs significantly from yours. It turns out that we do our best creative work (as far as end results) when we're teamed up with someone with whom we regularly clash. You'll benefit from having a fresh perspective so you don't get stuck in a creative rut. When your ideas are regularly challenged, you'll be forced to think outside the box.Find an enthusiastic critic. Michael and I are pretty ruthless plothole hunters when we read each other's outlines or chapters. As a result, a lot of plot dead-ends and silly ideas don't even make it to the page, making the whole process more efficient, and giving us a better end result. Find someone whose writing skills compliment yours. As a data scientist, I'm pretty focused on big-picture causality, so I love working out plots. Michael, on the other hand, is less confident with the big picture, but has lots of acting experience that lends itself very well to developing interesting characters. With our powers combined, we can have both. Make sure you like the other person. Even if you have diametrically opposite views on, say, whether National Treasure is a brilliant mystery movie or cinematic rubbish, you need to fundamentally respect and get along with the other person, or your creative relationship will implode. Figure out your division of labour beforehand. Michael and I split up the characters and write chapters totally separate from each other, while other author teams write the material together. Also think about how to divvy up research, querying, and other logistical tasks. Figure out the legal stuff. For example, do both of you own the copyright? Who handles the money? How is it divided? If the team splits up for whatever reason, who gets ownership of what (foreign rights, etc)?
If writing teamwork is for you, I'd highly encourage it. It's a fun and ultimately rewarding way to build a story. 

A Man & A Dress

Recently, some reviewers had a snit about the film Frozen . The plot point that caused the upset was that the Prince who shows up to sweep the lead character off her feet early in the film isn't her true love-- in fact, he's the main villain. The central storyline is about the relationship between the sisters, not about a man whisking a lady off to her 'happily ever after'*. 

There is also a pressure to include a central romantic plotline in speculative fiction aimed at teens and adults, even if it gets in the way of the action or doesn't fit the characters. This is particularly true of female characters, who seem to get paired off right away. Sure, sometimes the pairing is more of an ongoing romantic tension and near-misses, but this is seen as obstacles to the inevitable romance, rather than a cue for the characters to get on with the story.

Now a lot of times, a romantic arc fits naturally into the story, and that's great. Forming relationships-- romantic or otherwise-- is a fundamental part of the human experience. That said, romantic relationships tend to be shown as superior to other social bonds, especially for women, when that simply may not be the case. Some people are just not into romantic relationships, for starters. Others might value their family or close friends as much (or more than) their romantic partner (particularly if it's a more casual relationship). Finally, the idea that a female lead has to be paired off sends the message that women aren't complete people without a (male) significant other, because female worth is seen as being tied to female (hetero)sexuality. To the point where a reviewer would be upset about a character not running off to a happily-ever-after with a guy she met literally hours before.

Remember that unless you're writing romance or erotica, a romantic plotline isn't a genre requirement. It's okay for your characters to end the book single and satisfied with whatever they accomplished and maybe find a compatible partner somewhere offstage. It's okay for your character to reject incompatible potential partners rather than rushing to pair up with any old person. It's okay for your character not to care about finding a romantic partner, period. It's even okay for them to turn their house into a cat ranch.

In the end, it's more important to be true to your story and your characters than to cling to a trope just because everyone else is doing it.

*There can be debate about whether or not this plot point was handled as well as it might have been-- the prince's villainy came as an almost complete ambush for the audience as well as the character-- but the issues about gender expectations remain.

Alternate History by Causality

Working out an alternate history timeline can be a daunting task. There are any number of points of divergence to choose from, and it's easy to go down a rabbit hole of possibilities. Throw in alien space bats, and the potential plots are absolutely overwhelming.

One way writers handle this is by writing 'steered' alternate history. These works get us towards a specific outcome, and move from the original point of divergence (which can be in the backstory or in the plot of the work itself) towards a pre-determined outcome. Stories like this can work very well, especially when the planned outcome serves to make a point (the mocumentary Confederate States of America makes excellent use of this). And it can be just plain fun, particularly if you have a specific alternate world in mind. It's even possible, as Confederate States of America did, to set your story well after the event that serves as the point of divergence.

At the same time, steered alternate history presents several challenges. First, it requires a light touch so that the outcome seems natural, rather than contrived. Second, it's important to have a clear idea not just of where you're going but why. Third, even if they never make it to the page, it's important to plot out all the intervening events between the point of divergence and your end 'goal' so that you have a cohesive world. You may also need to reference these events in unexpected ways as the story develops.

Because I'm a data scientist, and fixated on causality, my preferred method for plotting is to use counterfactual history techniques. While this is generally seen in 'hard' alternate history, it can still be applied to alien space bat scenarios (Michael and I being firmly in alien space bat territory). It's important to note that this means your story will be largely 'unsteered', with the plot determined almost entirely by causal events stemming from the original point of divergence. The advantage to this approach is that it centres on plausible cause and effect relationships, so there's a lower risk of your scenario seeming contrived. Plus it can be a good tool for exploring questions about history and society in a realistic way, rather than presenting a more conclusive answer.

In summary, both approaches require a similar amount of research, and a similar amount of plotting time spent on the course of the plot after your chosen point of divergence. In the end, I'd recommend the second technique for capturing that event, and the second for a story which looks exclusively at the (perhaps distant) aftermath.

Clap Your Hands If You Don't Believe

Since I've been blogging a bit lately about religion and people of faith, I thought it was only right to give a nod to atheists and agnostics in fiction. Oddly, while certain genres seem to be heavily populated with non-believers of some variety, there's also a ridiculously high population of evil atheists at large in Fictionland. And unfortunately, there's enough ill-will towards this group to merit an entire Wikipedia page.

First of all, atheists aren't any more cookie-cutter in their beliefs than any other group. There are those who subscribe to a non-theistic religion (such as Buddhism or Taoism); there are those who don't particularly see any evidence of a God or Gods and don't care; those who are staunchly undecided do to said lack of concrete proof; those who actively believe there is no higher power with televangelist-level enthusiasm; and those who want to stamp out all faith. While some of these people are pendantic, or amoral, or bigoted, the majority are nice people minding their own business-- basically, the same distribution as the adherents of any other belief system. Your character is just as likely to bump into a pleasant person who doesn't believe in God as they are to meet a raging Dawkins fan.

That said, athiests are a global minority, making up between 2% and 10% of any given population in general. The upshot of this that your character is unlikely to be surrounded by non-believers unless they live in a fictional universe where this is significantly more common (this seems to be the case in Star Trek, for example), or are primarily interacting with people in a group in which non-belief is more common.

It's also disconcerting to have non-believer characters in a universe which explicitly includes elements consistent with religion. Even if these elements are fairly minor-- maybe vampires are repelled by crosses--it's odd that characters seem to ignore them. (I also have a major peeve with non-believer characters who encounter some creature or phenomenon straight out of Abrahamic religion, and do not respond by sprinting to the nearest church, mosque or temple, because in universe that would be the rational response!). This is something you need to keep in mind as far as worldbuilding.

Finally, there are some settings where an athiest character is going to stick out like a sore thumb. Even in the modern world, there are countries which actively persecute non-belief (see the link up top). History is an even more hostile place (the obvious exceptions being majority-Buddhist countries and the like). So if you're writing such a character, it's important to consider whether they'll need to keep their beliefs under wraps, or even be actively in danger.

If Satan, Then God

Recently, I've been intrigued by the show Sleepy Hollow. It is essentially urban fantasy, but instead of the usual cast of vampires and werewolves, we have demons brought forth by the impending End Times. If you're able to check it out, I'd recommend it as an example of good (and fun) character development.

What caught my attention (aside from the spot-on casting) is that the characters frequently reference sources such as Milton for their information. The juxtaposition of Biblical text, Christian folklore, and general American folklore does a lot for the show's atmosphere.

It also got me thinking more generally about the use of deuterocanonical stories (and religious-flavoured folklore) in fantasy tales that don't make much use of the underlying material-- the religion which inspired the derivative folklore in the first place. Sleepy Hollow wisely decided to focus almost exclusively on the material in Revelations, which is in many ways separate from the rest of the Bible. (And since if you put a dozen Christians in a room and ask them what Revelations is all about, you'll get at least fifteen different answers, there's very little danger of 'messing up').

From a completely utilitarian perspective, using the religious folklore without delving into the underlying religion creates a fundamental worldbuilding problem. For the folklore to exist in real life, it requires the religion to have existed first (even if it springs from a fusion of several belief systems, those systems have to had existed first to create the syncretic folklore). In a universe where the folklore is true, it is intrinsically tied to the rest of the religion-- you can't have a awesomesauce Holy Grail unless Jesus existed, and by default the rest of Christianity; if Satan is real, that means he got tossed out of Heaven, indicating the existence of an Abrahamic God. And so forth.

This doesn't mean that you have to turn your fantasy story into an in-depth exploration of religious history. However, you should think through the other logical worldbuilding implications of having specifically religion-derived folklore be true in your fictional world. 

Have a Bit of Faith

Humans, as a group, are believers. There's even a part of our brain which seems to be all about spiritual experiences.
But you wouldn't know it from most urban fantasy. Although it's ostensibly set in the world as we know it, only with the addition of supernatural creatures, it seems to be overwhelmingly populated with athiests and agnostics*. Now, if your story is set in a secular future, or in an alternate history timeline without religion, or the like, you can skip the rest of this rant. Honestly, I'd be interested to read a story which fully explored the implications of an alternate history scenario where monotheism never caught on-- it could be a fascinating setting.

Unfortunately, a large swath of urban fantasy authors seem to operate under the following two conventions:

Religions besides Christianity do not exist, except as the mysterious folk-magic rituals of the 'magical minority' character;Christianity is not a religion but rather a subsidiary branch of the Evil League of Evil
Seriously, guys. There are 1.6 billion Muslims out there, or about one in every five people. Another 15% of the world is Hindu, and about 10% are Buddhist. That's not counting pockets of less populous religions-- Shinto, Judiasm, and various folk religions around the world-- which mean a geographic area may have an usually high concentration of people who adhere to these belief systems. There's a big world out there, and we need more people writing urban fantasy set in Bamako or Tokyo or Izmir or Galilee.

But even if you're compelled to set your story in Wisconson, there's not much of an excuse. Given the amount of global travel, a character who is a white, middle-class American hanging out in the Midwest, should have met people of different religions who aren't the helpful 'magical minority' magician. That said, since urban fantasy seems to love the default Anglo-American protagonist, it might be realistic that they primarily interact with Christians, which brings me to my second pet peeve.

There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world**, or approximately one in three people. Per the grand tradition of Abrahamic religions, we enthusiastically disagree about a lot of things, the end result of which is a large number of different denominations that are definitely not interchangeable. This can range from using different versions of the Lord's Prayer to having different stances on issues like whether to ordain women or marry same-gender couples. (Although I'm not a fan of Laurell K Hamilton's work in general, the Anita Blake series does handle this well).  In much of Urban Fantasy City, however, the dominant religion appears to be some mashup of Southern Baptist and miscellaneous evangelical denominations, entirely populated by mean-spirited fanatics.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that churches are a jerk-free zone, because there are people attached to any religion, philosophy, or cause who are just there to vent their anger or excuse their antisocial behavior. But simply put, there are enough Christians-- ranging from the intensely pious to the people who amble in to church on Easter morning only-- that the law of averages takes over, and we're a pretty good sample of the general population. Statistically, it's almost impossible that they won't run into some perfectly nice Christians, and even ones who don't fall in line with the official church view on whatever the main character is promoting.

Give people of faith-- many faiths-- a chance to be unique characters in your urban fantasy. Allow yourself to develop a more realistic world, populated by people who aren't just diverse in colour but diverse in their beliefs.


*There is also something odd about the residents of a world which is confirmed to have magic dismissing mythology and religion.
**This number is people who identify as Christian. Whether some of those people, whose jerktastic behaviour indicates they have a very dim grasp on the tenets of their professed faith, actually count is a debate for another time and place.

How Not To Be 'That Guy' At A Historical Site

For those of you who are not caught up on the activities of the Internet Outrage Machine, Ani DiFranco has caused a fracas by organising (and then cancelling) a feminist music retreat at a former slave plantation that is know for its sanitised depiction of slavery*, and then following up with an apology which managed to completely miss the point. When you're done facepalming, there's an important lesson here for all of us.

If you write historical fiction in any capacity, you'll probably go visit some sites of interest. This means you'll be interacting not just with the present physical features, but with the layers of past events, which will have different significance to different people. While you may only be interested in one aspect, others may glean an entirely different meaning. It's also important to remember that while you may have an academic interest, the history of a particular site will be incredibly personal for others.

Because of this, it is important to do your background research before you go in, so you don't miss critical pieces of context. This seems obvious on some level, but it's so easy to overestimate what we know. All of us, by dint of human nature, have a limited perspective, and may never be able to 'get' someone else's experience on a visceral level-- but that's not to say we shouldn't try. But even if we fall short, we will hopefully have a better understanding of their lives.

The past isn't walled off in some alternative dimension. I keep harping on this point, but events from hundreds of years ago continue to have a profound effect on our daily lives. Depending on how this turned out for our ancestors, or our region, or our 'in group', we may be acutely aware of this, or blissfully ignorant. While history is full of depressing examples of humans who can't play nicely with others, the solution isn't to 'move on' by brushing it all under the rug. As painful as it is, acknowledging our past failures and their effects on society today is the only way we can repair the damage.

Finally, when you're at a historical site, this is not the time or place for the Oppression Olympics. Focus on the issues at hand, and the experiences and history of those particular people and institutions. Studying history can be uncomfortable and depressing and rage-inducing, but I like to think that those are natural reactions to seeing our fellow humans suffer, and that we can channel those reactions into making things better now (good vibes, while well-intentioned, have limited utility here). Whether that's volunteering or donating to a good cause or writing something that will change hearts and minds, or just changing the way you go about your daily business.

*They use the phrase 'willing workforce' to describe the slaves, as well as multiple paragraphs explaining how nice the owner was to them. Because owning another human being is totally cool if you pay for their healthcare, in order that they may remain 'valuable tools in the operation of his business'.

Organising Your Writing

Happy 2014 everyone!
I'm sure a great many of you have made new years resolutions to get your life and/or your writing organised. Working with a coauthor does help me on this front, since it requires a certain amount of baseline coordination to work with a second person (remotely, as well) on something creative. At the same time, I get just as overwhelmed or blocked or off-track as anyone else working on a long-term project. So here's some tips that have helped me over the years:

Keep a 'series bible'. This document is a repository for all your world-building info, including details on characters, technology, backstories, and whatever else you might need, even things that may not make it onto the page. Having all your backstory and setting info in one place saves a lot of backtracking in search of details, or patching error-induced plot holes. Make plot-point index cards. Write summaries of your scenes on index cards and use this as a method of outlining. Since you can move the cards around, this allows you to experiment easily with different plot structures. Mind-map. This technique can help you figure out cause-and-effect relationships between plot points, work out the details of group dynamics, or diagram the command structure of your spaceship.  Invest in special software. My Lady Friend recently introduced me to Scrivener. Although it's not free, it's reasonably priced, particularly given its functionality. For example, it allows you to create scenes and chapters as separate folders, to be organised and worked on in any order you wish, as well as giving you the ability to track your progress. Set specific goals.  It's hard to keep on track when you have vague goals like 'finish a novel, sometime'. To make things easier, set small, specific, sequential goals-- for example, to finish an outline by a certain date, or write a certain number of words a day. Tools like Google Calender can help by sending email reminders. Have someone hold you accountable. Telling someone about your project and asking them to bug you about your progress is a highly effective way to keep on task. It's doubly effective if you do the same for them-- keep on their case about their home improvement project or blog or whatever.
That said, writing should be an enjoyable process. If it's a chore or actively making you stressed, take a break. But otherwise, keeping your project on course will help you feel productive and gratified as a writer.
Best of luck with your projects in the coming year.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone hope and happiness in 2014!