The significance of this sort of error checking was brought home to me when I was writing my first novel, Wish You Were Here. My artist friend was reading a draft of the book in order to begin working on the cover art. In one chapter, I described a scene where a rabbit is (evidently incorrectly) prepared for cooking over a fire. In an email, my artist friend explained to me how one would properly field dress a rabbit. Thus began my dedication to researching such things.
My second novel, One Nation Under God, is a dystopian future story. Since specific dates are significant in the story, I made sure that when I mentioned a full moon on May 1, 2026, it really will be a full moon on that day. Because, hey . . . you never know what’s on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s nightstand.
EXERCISE
In order to develop good researching habits, I recommend starting with the material of other writers, since you’re not likely to be as forgiving with their work as you would with your own. For this exercise, choose any book from your bookshelf and select any chapter or story in it. Go through each paragraph carefully, making note of any statement of fact that would apply just as much to the real world and not just the world of the story. Then check everything.
The hero in a fantasy novel rides a horse for sixty miles in four hours. Possible or not?
A rancher in 1850 buys barbed wire for his fences. Possible or not?
A cop shoots out the tires of a moving vehicle, bringing it to a quick stop. Possible or not? For that matter, permissible or not?
In short, leave no assertion unchallenged. Your readers won’t.
LISA RENÉE JONES
How Do Sub-genres Impact Your Creation of a Hero?
LISA RENÉE JONES is an award-winning author who sold her multi-state staffing agency in 2003 and has since published more than thirty novels and novellas across several genres, including her Harlequin Blaze trilogy and Zodius sci-fi series (published with Sourcebooks).
Creating a hero is one of the most important things we do as authors. Our hero has to do more than “look” like a hero. He has to act like one. His actions have to back up his character in a way that leads readers to define our hero and make him worthy of his title. How the writer takes the internal and external events that occur in the story to make this happen is critical to having readers relate, and/or empathize, with the character. The way this connection is executed is critical and it’s important to understand how the genre impacts that execution.
The paranormal hero and the conflicts in the story: Usually the hero is saving the world from some horrible apocalyptic terror. That makes him pretty darn likable right there. He can shoot anything between the eyes and not miss. He’s a hero so, of course, he would only actually shoot the bad guys. He has some destiny that, no matter his present state of mind, says he’s special. His journey to accept/become that destiny is critical to who he is as a character.
There will be a lot of external conflict in most paranormal stories. Stories might include demons, monsters, or just bad people/beings who are after something that will be horrific for the world. There’s a ticking clock, and the good guys need to beat the clock to keep the bad guys from winning. Another common thread is that the heroine is forbidden to the hero, monsters are trying to kill her, and he must save her.
In the “save the world and woman” scenarios, there is a lot of fighting, running, searching, and so on. This is where the hero can get lost. However, his mighty weapons, his yummy body, or even his bedroom skills cannot be all that makes him a hero. When there is a lot of external conflict, it’s easy to forget the emotional conflict. Who is he? Who was he as a child? Who does he want to be? How do these things impact everything he says, does, desires, despises, and loves? In a romance, how do these things make the story and the love that is created between the two main characters stronger?
For instance, if the hero is suddenly a vampire, then he needs blood. He must find a way to get that blood. Why does this impact him emotionally or why does it not? How does it impact his ability to love and trust, as well as his choices in life and this story? Does the hero hate blood? Did he witness a horrible wreck and lose someone and the blood brings back those memories? He needs to have baggage because we all have baggage. That baggage doesn’t define us, but how we handle it does.
Don’t let the paranormal world building and action make you forget the character of the hero. The story is a romance or a horror story or a suspense. Think about the internal motivations of the character. If those motivations are clear, then the hero can even tread on territory that isn’t always considered hero-like and we will forgive him, because we see where he is coming from and what drives him.
In a romance, there are two primary characters. Think about their internal conflicts, not just the external ones, that bring them together or tear them apart. External conflict matters, but internal conflict and growth have to occur along with external actions.
How does the external conflict in a scene develop/change the internal conflict?
External should move internal forward.
The suspense hero and conflicts in story: Now you have a hero who is often a soldier, in law enforcement, or some kind of macho character. Not always, but often. Again, we have this larger-than-life hero. He’s doing something by choice to save a tiny part of the world he wants to impact. That’s big. That gives him the assumption of being a hero, but it doesn’t mean he is. Just because someone is a judge, a doctor, or a police officer doesn’t mean he does it with honor and pride.
Your hero is likely to have a killer chasing him and the heroine, or to be chasing one himself. The running, the fighting, the searching for the bad guys, becomes a conflict that can take over. Remember: External should move internal forward.
Why does the hero do what he does? What has messed with his head in the process and changed or molded his viewpoints? How does the life he’s created, the choices he’s made, or not made, impact the story and his relationships? Is he a reluctant hero or a willing one, and why? Does he have a deep need for vengeance that secretly drives him and is slowly destroying him?
The contemporary hero and conflict in story: In most cases, a contemporary story has removed demons, the guns, and the nasty stuff we all hope never really touches our lives. Only . . . wait. Does it? There are intense things in life that impact us that have nothing to do with guns, vampires, running for your life, or killers. The real-life demons. Losing a job, losing a dream, losing a child or spouse, or just your confidence because of something horrible.
These are real stories that could really happen without much suspension of reality. They are driven by internal conflict, but you must find creative ways to deliver the story without it becoming boring. You must reach out to the reader with emotions and relatable life events that are not the boring parts we all use books to escape from. You can take a mundane scene and use your craft to make it emotional. To do this, the main character/s must really pop from the page and feel real.
The trick to these stories is creating a platform that allows the hero to be a hero and not allowing that platform to be too limited and/or contrived. If it’s a romance, he needs a way that he becomes his heroine’s emotional hero. If this is not a romance, then maybe he just needs to be his own hero, but he doesn’t know if he has it in him. If you don’t dig deep enough and build a large enough story, with the ins and outs of life that stretch deeper than the fluffy surface, then you will have readers frustrated. For example, there can’t be something easily resolved by talking and the hero and another person don’t just talk. You don’t want the reader to throw the book against the wall and scream, “Just tell him!”
This kind of story building also doesn’t allow your hero that platform he needs to do things that make him a real hero. To come off as a true hero, you have to give him a way to shine by way of your storytelling.
EXERCISE
Now that we’ve looked inside the genres:
1. Outline your story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Each should have an emotional arc for the characters. I’m not talking about a synopsis of what happens, but more of what do they (the key characters) feel when it’s happening.
This doesn’t mean that you have to know everything that is going to happen, but you need an arc. Point A leads to point B to point C. A storyline that lets you do that is important. One thing people forget to do when they outline is define emotional growth, and therefore they forget that the story must include the emotional arc.
2. Character outlines. Who is the hero? Who is the heroine? Why does she fit your hero and help him be a better hero? Or vice versa. In contemporary drama it is often the hero that helps the heroine find her way to the other side of a battle. Thus, he becomes a hero for her. Knowing your characters helps shape their responses and the external conflict.
An example of an outline follows.
The Character Sheet:
• Basics—name, hair, eyes, age.
• Siblings—ages, names, and how their relationships are with the character you are outlining.
• Parents—Who are they? What do they do? What were they to the hero in the past and present, and how have experiences with them molded the hero’s life? Are they alive? Are they dead? Rich? Poor? Alcoholic? Was the father a famous athlete the hero had to learn to be like, or never thought he could be like? Did this impact his relationships with siblings?
• Home life—growing up and how that impacted the hero’s future.
• Favorite stuff—foods, sports, clothes, and little things that make us all who we are/unique. This could be a love of old cars, a history buff, a comic geek, like some people I know who can’t get enough comic books, and so on. For example, my hero in The Storm That Is Sterling loves Dr Pepper and M&M’S.
• The events that formed any torment inside the hero.
• Past loves—how and why they ended and how they impact the person’s life.
• Jobs—past and present. How did he get where he is now?
• Education—Did he go to college? Did he want to but couldn’t afford to? Was he caring for a sick family member and could not? Or . . . ?
• Tragic events in life, if any. Having only happy times can be just as important as having many bad times. Past experiences equal present reactions.
This is my basic list, and as I write I often tweak this and I always add to it. I also keep this list for ongoing reference because I need to ensure my character doesn’t change in future books. Repeat this character outline for the heroine and villain characters you are starting to develop who will have their own books later, or show up again in other books. You don’t want a character to be developed one way, draw the readers to him/her and be unintentionally altered when he or she shows up later.
I hope I’ve offered at least a few tidbits of helpful information.
PIERS ANTHONY
Wood Knot Dew
PIERS ANTHONY is a longtime speculative fiction writer who got a BA in creative writing, made his first story sale in 1962 after eight years of trying, then went on to publish more than 150 books, twenty-one of which were New York Times paperback bestsellers. Currently he lives on his tree farm in backwoods Florida with Carol, his wife of fifty-five years.
My spot definition for the science fiction genre is the literature of the possible. You make one assumption that may be contrary to fact, then build a story around what could be if that non-fact were true. The reader’s willing suspension of disbelief leads you into a thrilling adventure. Thus it is true speculative fiction, and I have written a lot of it in the course of close to fifty years since my first sale.
My definition for fantasy is the literature of the impossible. Virtually all of it is contrary to fact, and also, to common sense. You know it never was, is not now, and never will be, but if it is done well, you enjoy it anyway. It is perhaps the purest form of escapism, because you know it lacks all credibility. I have written a lot of that too, and made my fame on it.
The particular fantasy series I am best known for is Xanth. That is so far out that sensible rules of fiction hardly apply. They say you can have an ordinary character in an extraordinary situation, or an extraordinary character in an ordinary situation. Well, I like to have unbelievable characters in an unbelievable situation, and ludicrous puns abound, in violation of any serious rule of writing. For example in Night Mare the protagonist is Mare Imbrium, after whom a section of the moon is named: a female horse who carries bad dreams to deserving sleepers. When she communicates, it is in the form of a spot dreamlet that appears over her head, showing a human woman who can speak human. Once when an evil man caught her and put a bit in her mouth so he could ride her, her dreamlet speech was muffled by the gag. So are my readers revolted? Hardly. In three quarters of a moment, readers can send me half a slew of puns. So when asked where I get my ideas, I can say from my readers.
What, then, could I possibly have to teach anyone about effective writing? Well, let me make a grunting effort. A cardinal rule is to make it believable. You might think that for me that’s like stepping on a stinkhorn: it makes a foul-smelling noise and a pink polka-dot stench that keeps folk away in droves. Yet it can be done with the right approach. You need to get the reader on your side, not only willing but eager to suspend disbelief. If you can make the reader laugh early on, you’re probably home free. If you laughed when reading this, I’ve got you. Now I can get serious.
One key is to be consistent in your framework, to the extent feasible, so that it hangs together. I suspect that the person who said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” was thinking primarily of copy editors, but there is a place for a sensible consistency. Another is to have little human details in your inhuman fantasy, such as your monstrous ogre having a sore toe, or your fire-breathing dragon suffering an itchy wing. That humanizes them, because you remember when that clumsy elephantine oaf stepped on your toe in the dance, and when you were jammed on the plane and got that intolerable itch right in the middle of your back where you couldn’t reach it, and folk stared as you contorted. You identify, and then you can accept the ways in which these characters differ from you and still root for them.
And difference is important. You don’t want your main character to be just like every other main character in fiction. You know, strong, handsome, beautiful, smart, talented yet intriguingly vulnerable. These qualities are fine, but they don’t suffice. You want a significant difference that will distinguish your character from all others in the universe without making him/her too different to be appealing. There is the challenge, and the success of your piece may depend on how you handle it.
So how have I handled it? Consider my recent Xanth fantasy novel Knot Gneiss. That’s a different sort of title. The main character is Wenda Woodwife, who speaks with the forest dialect, saying things like, “I wood knot dew that to yew.” In Xanth you can clearly hear the spelling, so you immediately know her origin. Today she is a perfectly ordinary garden-variety fantasy princess who loves children, but her accent makes her immediately distinct. You just know that when she married Prince Charming she said, “I dew.” So there is her difference, constantly apparent without interfering with the clarity of her situation in the story.
EXERCISE
Find some minor but nice way to distinguish your main character from all others in the past or present, or who may in some alternate future come into being. Maybe even make notes of prospective traits you can draw on at need. I maintain a huge “ideas file” of notions for that purpose, because the best ideas are apt to come at odd and often inconvenient moments rather than when you need them. I scribble them down in pencil, then transcribe to the file when I’m at the computer. They can come from anywhere when you’re working, playing, eating, romancing, or reading. No, don’t copy mine; that wood knot dew.
IDEAS AND INSPIRATION
“I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed quickly, to trap them before they escape.”
—RAY BRADBURY
AIMEE BENDER
The Secret Room
AIMEE BENDER is the author of four books, including The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (both Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group). Her short fiction has been published in Granta, The Paris Review, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, and many more, as well as translated into sixteen languages. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches creative writing at USC.
This writing exercise came out of teaching Angela Carter’s wonderful book The Bloody Chamber. Her language is so rich it is like eating piles of maple fudge in a hot bath during a thunderstorm. But she also courts a certain darkness, and that’s how the depth floods in.
This exercise works best with a group of at least four. A writer could do it on her own, but it’s best to get images from outside oneself, I find. I’ll explain it with a group, and then offer a modified version for the solo writer.
I use exercises like these all the time—for myself, and in my classes. Who really knows where the good work lives? We grope, and the groping is incredibly important. There can be stifling pressure on the ideas we hold too sacred, and there can be freedom and invention in stories that come from unexpected places. All the exercises I give are just trying to tap into those less-traveled territories.
Now Write! Page 4