10 Steps To Hero
Page 15
If your hero changes through their character arc, then it’s only natural to assume that their perspective changes too. Protagonists have epiphanies and realizations about different aspects of themselves as they reach the climax of their character arc. These realizations are profound enough to enable them to overcome their flaw. Surely, if the realization is powerful enough to do that, you can assume their ‘perspective’ or lens will warp and distort too. They will see and therefore describe the world and their experiences in a new light.
Example: The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
"Her voice had lost none of its smoke-rasp, but where it was once husky and sultry, it was now like dragged-over stones. The darkest sense of triumph snuck into my heart.” Roshani Chokshi, The Star Touched Queen, p.265.
This sentence shows the passing of time as the protagonist compares what she saw in a character earlier to how her voice appears now. It also shows the degradation of the character she’s describing. The fact the protagonist’s feeling triumphant indicates how she’s changed. What’s not clear is whether the character was always like that, and it’s only now the protagonist’s changed that she can see the character for what they are, or if the character really has degraded. The point is the sentence reflects the change in the protagonist’s lens.
Don’t be afraid to be silent
The thing with protagonists is that they’re always front and center. This means you can easily fall into the trap of thinking you need them to be noisy. But some of the most powerful conversations are silent.
Example: The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
"Her silence was louder than Harold's voice. It's her greatest power, though she never used it on me. She’ll stare at you as you try to pull your thoughts together, to say something that’ll reach her, but she’ll never reach back. I’ve watched her pull things out of people–secrets, confessions, promises to let us stay an extra month–with her silence alone. She wields it like a weapon." Melissa Albert, The Hazel Wood, pp.26-27.
I adore this description for so many reasons. Firstly because it shows the power of silence, but also because of the way the protagonist (Alice) describes her mother. While Alice describes her mother’s use of silence as a weapon, she also says ‘she never used it on me’. That statement holds a level of implied arrogance. Alice thinks she’s above her mother’s ways, and deems herself better than everyone else, but it also gives her a blind spot.
"I knew it was coming, but the words still took a chunk out of me. I stayed very still when he said them, because I didn't know what else to do." Melissa Albert, The Hazel Wood, p.111
This is another example of how your protagonist might use silence as a powerful descriptor of both emotion and action. We’ve all experienced emotional overwhelm. Some of us scream and cry, others retreat into themselves to process emotion. Again, it’s an example of how a hero’s lens can vary and how actions can implicitly tell the reader so much.
STEP 10 - Sprinkling The Unicorn Dust — AKA the Hero Lens Summary
Everything the hero does, sees, feels and thinks encloses your reader into a tiny literary lens. Nothing happens in your book unless your protagonist experiences it. Everything is channeled through her. She is the lens your reader looks through when reading your story.
The lens is made up of four parts:
1.Actions
2.Thoughts
3.Dialogue
4.Feelings
The way your protagonist describes her experiences – the metaphors and descriptor choices – tells the reader about their personality.
Imbuing your hero’s descriptions with their unique sense of personality will give your hero depth and make them sparkle on the page.
A habit is a routine movement, action or behavior often done in a repeated pattern. Usually, it’s automatic. It’s something that a reader would deem normal.
A quirk is more unique and idiosyncratic to your character, it’s a deliberate behavior. Usually, it will stick out to your reader or other characters.
Quirks typically help:
define your character by distinguishing them from other characters
show the reader a character’s uniqueness rather than telling them
create tension
create conflict
create a barrier or flaw for the hero to overcome
It’s not the loud garish people we remember. Usually, it’s the ones that have the largest impact on us, for example:
Someone who changed us in some way – making us think differently, or by giving us a personal realization.
Someone made us feel something.
Someone who surprised us.
Someone we related to because we saw part of ourselves in them.
Doing something unexpected is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal as a writer.
The reason juxtapositions are so effective at describing people is because they evoke such strong imagery.
The more explosive ‘outer’ emotion should be shown through the action and dialogue. The inner emotion should be shown through thought and body language.
A juxtaposed emotive scene will have an ‘obvious’ central emotion, usually, the more explosive of emotions, like anger, sadness or hate. Simmering underneath will be the softer more conflicted emotions like, regret, relief or love.
If your hero changes through their character arc, then it’s only natural to assume their perspective changes too. If the realization is powerful enough to change them as a person, it’s natural to assume their ‘perspective’ or lens will warp and distort too. They will see and describe the world in a new light.
Questions to think about
What quirk or habits does your hero have?
Have you used all elements of the hero lens in your story?
12
Conclusion
You did it. You stuck with my made-up words and bizarre analogies for an entire 45,000 words. I hope if you made it this far, you’ve learned a thing or two about creating a hero with a sprinkling of dust on his halo.
You should have understood that stories are more than the sum of their parts. Gestalt it, baby. Weave that web of connectivity and remember: your hero is the embodiment of your story. Most of the steps in here are the foundations, the bricks and mortar you need to put in place so you can layer your particular hero’s lens over.
In the appendices there are lists galore, including positive and negative traits, soul scars and more.
If you’re still nervous, don’t be. Remember, rules are there to be broken and beauty — or maybe I mean heroism — is in the eye of the beholder. It's up to you to decide what your hero should look like, but I hope that you base your decision on what you've learned, as well as the tropes of your genre and market. Don’t stop studying. Break down your favorite hero’s structure and study it in forensic detail.
This is it. Congratulations on graduating Hero School. All you need to do now is chuck the hero ingredients in, mix them around and slide your novel in the oven. Bake for 80,000 words and voila.
You’ve got this.
Go forth, and bake ye a hero… and me a cake!
13
Thank you
Thank you for reading 10 Steps To Hero. I hope you found it helpful as you created your hero.
If you liked the book and can spare a few minutes, I would be really grateful for a short review on the site from which you purchased the book. Reviews are invaluable to an author as it helps us gain visibility and provides the social proof we need to continue selling books.
If you would like to hear more about future publications or receive a checklist to help you create a villain, please sign up here.
http://eepurl.com/bRLqwT
Finally, if you haven’t read 13 Steps To Evil - How To Craft A Superbad Villain, then you can get a copy using the link below.
Read 13 Steps To Evil - How To Craft A Superbad Villain
Acknowledgments
I’m not sure why writi
ng the second book in a genre is so brutal, but both of mine have been. Which is why I have a number of thank yous to give.
Thank you first to my wife for being patient with my creative ways, and for supporting me to follow my dream. For the thoughtful things you do, like researching laptop stands when my back is breaking. You’ll get that Mercedes… I promise. Atlas, you are the reason I work every night, sneak words in corridors and coffee queues and constantly strive for more. One day, I will show you that it’s possible to follow your dreams and succeed.
Thank you to my mum for filling my childhood with magical stories and moving libraries when I’d read everything in our local one. You gave me the key to imagination, and for that I’ll always be grateful. Dad, thank you for your no-nonsense support and making believe I am capable of anything.
To my writing girls, Suzie, Helen and Lucy, we will succeed in literary world domination. One word, one sentence, one book at a time.
Allie Potts, my accountability partner, who on more than one occasion this year had to tell me to pull up my big girl panties and soldier on. You saved me from so many tantrums.
Adam Croft… Legend, occasional comedian, secret mentor, grammar Nazi, reluctant friend… your support means more than you’ll ever know. Thank you.
To Dr. Amy Murphy (or possibly now Shennan) thank you for over a decade of friendship and being the nerdy shrink we all knew I’d never be. Your input and psychological fact checking is always deeply appreciated.
To the writers, bloggers, friends and readers who filled out my research survey and made this book possible, I am indebted.
Last, and most importantly, thank you to you, the readers, for taking the time to buy and read this book. I hope it’s been helpful and I wish you every success in your writing career.
About the Author
Sacha Black has five obsessions; words, expensive shoes, conspiracy theories, self-improvement, and breaking the rules. She also has the mind of a perpetual sixteen-year-old, only with slightly less drama and slightly more bills.
Sacha writes books about people with magical powers and other books about the art of writing. She lives in Hertfordshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.
When she’s not writing, she can be found laughing inappropriately loud, blogging, sniffing musty old books, fangirling film and TV soundtracks, or thinking up new ways to break the rules.
http://eepurl.com/bRLqwT
www.sachablack.co.uk
sachablack@sachablack.co.uk
Also by Sacha Black
13 Steps To Evil - How To Craft A Superbad Villain (and Workbook) For Writers
Your hero is not the most important character in your book. Your villain is.
If you’re fed up of drowning in two-dimensional villains and frustrated with creating clichés, this book is for you.
In 13 Steps to Evil, you’ll discover:
How to develop a villain’s mindset
A step-by-step guide to creating your villain from the ground up
Why getting to the core of a villain’s personality is essential to make them credible
What pitfalls and clichés to avoid as well as the tropes your story needs
Finally, there is a comprehensive writing guide to help you create superbad villains. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned writer, this book will help power up your bad guy and give them that extra edge.
If you like dark humour, learning through examples and want to create the best villains you can, then you’ll love Sacha Black’s guide to crafting superbad villains. Read 13 Steps to Evil and the companion workbook today and start creating kick-ass villains.
13 Steps To Evil How To Craft A Superbad Villain
13 Steps To Evil How To Craft A Superbad Villain Workbook
Also by Sacha Black
Keepers - The First Book in the Eden East novels
* * *
Seventeen-year-old Eden East lives in a world ruled by fate.
A fact she accepted, until her soul was bound to her enemy. Now, accepting her fate is impossible, especially when Trey Luchelli appears. There's something strangely familiar about him. Something Eden really ought to ignore. But the more she tries, the more she's drawn to him. Eden is determined to find out what he's hiding, no matter the cost, even if it’s her heart.
Then her parents are brutally murdered, and everyone’s a suspect, including her best friend.
Murder. Secrets. Destiny.
They're all connected.
But the path to answers is fraught with betrayal and danger. And the closer Eden gets, the more she unravels a dark history that will force her to question everything she's ever known.
* * *
Keepers will transport fans of The Red Queen, The Young Elites and The Lunar Chronicles to a world unlike any other...
The Eden East Novels:
Book 1 - Keepers
Book 2 - Victor
Book 3 - Trey (2019)
Further Reading
Character development
13 Steps To Evil - How To Craft A Superbad Villain, by Sacha Black
The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
The Negative Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
The Positive Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland
The Writer’s Guide to Character Traits, by Dr. Linda N. Edelstein
Studying Story Structure
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby
Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne and Steven Pressfield
Dan Wells lectures on the seven point plot plan https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC430F6A783A88697
Studying Screen Writing/Screen Structure
Save The Cat by Blake Snyder
Screen Plays That Sell by Michael Hauge
Notes
4. STEP 3 – Perfection Perfected
1 Please note, no offence was meant to anyone who is actually a psychopath. But, you know… emotional apathy and all.
9. STEP 8 – Clichés vs Tropes
1 You should know, at least 30% of this book was written at 5am. I’m a hypocrite. What can I say? My black heart just prefers midnight. No matter how productive I am at the crack of dawn, damnit, I’ll always love being a night owl.