S.B. Stewart-Laing's Blog, page 28

Weather Report

Weather patterns need to get more love in Fictionland.
It's one of those essential facets of what makes a setting unique, but often gets put aside unless the weather is being used to cause conflict or set a mood.
I'm not arguing that your novel should include constant updates about the weather. However, it should not be a forgotten aspect of the setting; furthermore, wildly improbable weather patterns or weather that's atypical of your setting will potentially scupper suspension of disbelief, unless there's some in-universe explanation. 
Don't just manipulate the climate in your setting to add dramatic emphasis (it was a dark and stormy night!) or cause conflict-- rather, think about how the characters interact with the weather as it would be naturally. Their mood could cause them to see the falling January snow as a cozy blanket, or as leaching away the colour from the outside world, or as freezing everything into stasis. The same snow, but viewed though the lens of the story and characters.
Also, think about the climate patterns and what that means for your characters. Rather than stir up a freak August snowstorm (or February, if you're in Argentina) why the characters traveling in winter (or the appropriate snow season for your setting). Did they intend to? Are they prepared? Maybe they came from a tropical latitude, and are totally taken aback by the snow, or maybe they got suddenly delayed. Think about the characters as having a relationship with the world around them, rather than the world (particularly the weather) acting around the characters. [image error]

Defining Character Moments, Part II: Revealing Character In-Story

Actions speak louder than words, and a critical aspect of revealing your characters to your audience is through character action.
Each of us react to situations based on a combination of our inherent personality traits (yes, a big part of personality is biological!) and a lifetime of accumulated knowledge. Any response to conflict reveals volumes about someone's personality, worldview, and past experience-- or, later in the story, demonstrate important character growth.
As I've mentioned before (usually while ranting about Walter Scott), it's important to make sure that the traits displayed by the character's actions are consistent with their stated nature, and that the other characters have logically explainable actions to their behaviour. (I should note this doesn't mean a rational response-- but one that makes sense in context. For example, a character feeling anger because her BFF is moving away for university isn't rational, but if said character has established abandonment issues, it makes sense in the context of the story).
It's necessary that the reactions to conflict are unique to the character-- forget about what a generic person 'should' feel in a given situation, and think about how that character responds as an individual. This not only lends authenticity and makes your character more memorable, but allows for some surprising plot progressions as the characters don't take the 'expected' course of action.

Defining Character Moments, Part I: Building Backstory

When building up a character backstory, it's often hard to get a sense of perspective. I think this is probably why we get characters with minutely detailed backstories that have only partial contribution to the main plot, and characters who get buried under avalanches of manufactured angst. In the first case, it's a matter of not honing in on key events in the character's life; the second case is about mistaking piles of tragic events happening to the character as being character development.
I think everyone has their own style of creating characters. But personally, I like to pick out character traits, skills, or the like, and think about the events in the backstory which explain or interact with the defining features of the character.
A major mistake-- one that leads to the 'heaps of angst' approach-- is to think that a defining backstory event needs to be dramatic and tragic. A positive event can be a huge moment of development. For example, someone discovering a talent, or connecting with a mentor, or achieving a major goal. Or observing some incident at a key point which leaves some indelible life lesson. The possibilities are as varied as your characters, so this is your opportunity to get as creative as possible. Go to it![image error]

From Characteristic to Individual

In her review of The Craft, the Nostalgia Chick pointed out that while the main characters were developed and given various sources of teenage angst, the black character doesn't get developed beyond her race. Even her angst is all about racism.
This may be a particularly obvious example, but it's a common phenomenon-- there are plenty of fictional characters whose development never gets beyond 'the woman' or 'the gay one' or 'the Chinese one' or whatever. All of the conflicts in their life, as well as their entire self-identification, are consumed by one characteristic. The problem is that these characters lose their humanity and become representatives of their group's collective 'experience' and 'issues'.
Of course, in real life, people are unique. There can be commonalities in people's life stories based on things like ethnicity or disability or religion or what-have-you, but everyone will develop their identity and world view based on their personal history and environment.  Giving your character a detailed biography and thinking about how characteristics like their sexual orientation, gender, race or the like feed into that life story will give you a much more believable person.
Furthermore, it's good to remember that just because someone differs from the 'norm' (which in Fictionland seems to be a ambiguously-white, able-bodied straight man), this is not necessarily the source from which all conflict in their life springs. [image error]

Heroines vs. Laser-guided Sexism

[image error] Assuming that your setting is based on our human world, your female characters are probably going to run into some sexism (I say 'probably', because maybe she's all alone in a space capsule or the forest or something). This certainly isn't lost on the authors behind lady leads.
I am taken aback, though, by what I like to call laser-guided sexism, most annoyingly the legion of yucky guys who come out of the woodwork to creep on the protagonist, giving her an outlet for feminist rage and also a weird complement on her sex appeal. The other flavour, which tends to overlap, is the macho misogynist guy who says 'girls can't do X. Now make me a sammich!'.
Now, I don't object to the icky characters on principle-- creepers of all races, genders, etc gonna creep. But I do have an issue with three aspects of these stock characters and their interaction with the lead:

1) Protagonist-centric bad behaviour. Assuming the sexism problem is a major issue in your fictional world, the audience should see evidence of this elsewhere.
2) Oblivious protagonists.  The thing about living in a society that has an entrenched power imbalance is that everyone is aware of it, even if only on a subconscious level. If there are blatant manifestations, like segregated public places, routine invasions of personal space, or discriminatory employers, the characters who live in this setting not only are aware, but have presumably developed coping mechanisms. So the character acting surprised and scandalised about something which is allegedly a routine part of her life breaks credibility.
3) It makes sexism about individuals. Yes, it's easier to personify sexism as Mr. Macho Meaniehead, but it makes the issue about a single 'bad apple' being a jerk (or being 'jealous' of Mary Sue the protagonist) rather than a larger social system. It's a lazy answer-- jerk is taught a lesson about Girl Power, problem solved. Except for everyone who's not the protagonist.

Yes, it's more difficult to show a systemic social problem and its effects on your characters. But if you want to actually tackle feminist issues in your fiction, please do it right. Really take some time to have your characters wrestle with the resulting problems, not just show off the lady lead. [image error]

Them's The Rules

As writers of fiction, we ask our audience to suspend their disbelief. For a speculative fiction story to work, the audience has to believe in faster-than-light travel or unicorns or zombies or angels or time travel or alien abduction, or whatever new and exciting concept you cook up.
A key element is internal consistency. The characters, the story, and the rules of the rules of the world need to make sense, even if only self-referentially. At best, continuity failure shakes the reader out of the story by causing them a bit of head-scratching; at worst, it reeks of authorial intervention, especially when reality seems to warp around the characters for no reason (barring unfortunate encounters with Infinite Improbability Drives).
Different authors have different approaches, but my coauthor and I are both big fans of the 'series bible' technique. Whether you keep it in a notebook, an online log (my coauthor) or a spreadsheet (Yours Truly), or a stack of color-coded cards, this is where you document the salient details of your world and characters for future reference.
For the world, include things like the limitations and mechanisms of magic or technology, relevant geography (including distances and travel times between key points), important deviations from the 'real world' timeline, the natural history of magical or alien flora and fauna, the history of major countries/governments/political movements...In short, someone should be able to pick up these notes cold and write a short summary of your fictional world which would include plot-relevant backstory and physical setting.
For characters, you want to get the physical descriptions, life history (particularly family details and important life events), a timeline (to make sure their backstory is reasonable, barring a Time Turner), and personal details such as education level, political views, major relationships, career/job/skills, and sexual orientation. There are a selection of online character sheets which can help you organise your thoughts.
You'll probably have to play around to figure out the best way for you to keep track of this information and then use it to create strong continuity in your story. But the payout for keeping your story believable and coherent is huge. [image error]

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!

I've mentioned before that one way to write a sympathetic antagonist is to have their good intentions go horribly awry. This runs counter to the idea, which seems ingrained in a lot of fiction, that only good people with good intentions can accomplish good outcomes, and only bad people with bad intentions can cause suffering.
The inverse of the kindly-intentioned character who wreaks havoc, of course, is the villainous individual-- possibly with equally nefarious intentions-- who manages to do something beneficial as an unintended consequence of pushing their agenda. This also encompasses unpleasant people who accomplish ultimately positive ends by less-than-gentle methods.
This is another way to add a layer of uncertainty and complexity to your characters. It also demonstrates that their actions do not take place in a perfectly controlled vacuum, but rather a multifaceted world where intentions guarantee nothing.  [image error]

Job Qualifications

'How did you get into the church? Was it like "collect twelve crisp packets and become a priest?"' 
-Father Ted

Given the number of characters with poorly defined occupations (let alone the outrageous level of apparent unemployment, underemployment, and weirdly ambiguous employment in Fantasyland), this issue doesn't come up as much as it might. However, it's worth noting that when one gives a character a profession, one should check to see this character meets the requirements for doing it. That could include schooling (and passing the requisite exams), physical fitness, gender, monetary resources, or any number of other prerequisites appropriate to your setting. Few things scream Mary Sue like a character who is an inexplicable exception to the rules of their vocation. 

That rule goes double if they're good at said profession, and their competence is a plot point. Find out what sort of training the character would have undergone, and what other skills, qualifications, or characteristics they'll need to have achieved success in their chosen field. This can be an interesting opportunity for character development as well, particularly if the character is unusual in their profession in some way.

If the character's incompetence is a plot point, it's also worth considering how they obtained the job in the first place, let alone hung onto it. This obviously happens in real life, but in that case there's a reason beyond 'because the plot says so'-- the person has tenure or connections or one irreplaceable skill-- so if you're writing in an entrenched screwup, think about why they're in place. As a side-note, a character doesn't have to be bad at their job to trip up the protagonist. Someone competent who disagrees about methodology, or has more information or experience, or does things a certain way from habit, can clash with other characters without undermining their abilities. [image error]

Comic Relief Failure

‘The Long Black Veil’ is one of those classic tragic ballads that has gotten into the popular consciousness. Now listen to this recording (thanks, Youtube!) of Johnny Cash performing it live.

For those of you skipping the video, some wag in the audience responds to the song’s big reveal with cheering (it's not clearly audible, but Cash does respond, and it wrecks the mood). A more recent and very NSFW version of this stunt has made the rounds of the internet, in the form of someone interrupting a comic monologue by PattonOswalt, triggering an avalanche of insults from the comedian. This type of random, mood-shattering intrusion is the reason many people say they dislike ‘comic relief’ characters in serious stories. While it’s vital to vary the story’s mood to avoid wearing the audience down, no one likes when suspense is brought to a screeching halt with slapstick, or when a tender moment is wrecked by someone’s dirty joke. It’s critical when writing in comic relief to respect each scene. Don’t use comedy as a crutch because you want to avoid writing emotionally intense scenes, or because you’re covering up a lack of real feelings in your story. Allow suspenseful or sad or tender sequences to unfold undisturbed. Second, the humour should be organic to the story. Mood shifts don’t need to consist of funny moments injected into a serious storyline. A contemplative scene can give the audience a much-needed break from high-adrenaline action sequences just as well as a comic one. If humour doesn’t feel right in your storyline, don’t use it. It’s not required. Third, the type of humour needs to work with the story. Random jokes or slapstick are not your only comic relief options. You can make use of a character’s snarky internal monologue, or absurd situations, or a darker flavour of satire. It’s all about what works with the overall story.  [image error]

Democracy in Fictionland

I saved this post for after the US election, because I was watching from abroad, refreshing my browser approximately every five seconds.
Now that Obama has been re-elected (yay!), it seems appropriate to write about voting and democracy in fictional settings. There aren't that many examples of functional representative democracies in fantasy (science fiction has more), but there is a vast amount of great plot potential there. Elections, struggles to pass new laws, the effort of maintaining public image... lots of great possibilities, and continual sources of real-life inspiration.
Some things to think about:
Who gets to vote? This means accessibility issues as well as actual laws restricting voting eligibility by things like gender, race or land-owning status.How informed is the average voter? Do people have widespread access to news sources such as newspapers, radio, etc. What are the 'hot' issues? How are people polled?How old is this democracy? A system that's just starting out is different than an ingrained one.
Now I'm off to make some red, white and blue cupcakes and celebrate. [image error]