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PUBLISHED AUTHOR? Got some good advice for the less experienced? Send it to me at
sodgers@tassie.net.au.
ADVICE FROM PUBLISHED WRITERS!
1. Dr Bob Rich, author of "The Mother's Sword". "The Sleeper Awakes" etc has this to offer;
Hi there! Listen to this:
Breakfast is dancing.
She watches, her body hugging the ground. She ignores the drifting drizzle
that wets her red fur, the cold wind that cuts to the bone, and watches. The
bird clicks and screeches, a painfully high-pitched sound, and rhythmically
raises and lowers his body, displaying that silly tail. As he turns away,
she unleashes tense muscles and blurs forward. The long neck snaps between
her teeth and she enjoys the hot taste of blood.
The babies will eat today.
You've probably guessed it, I was a fox then. If you're Australian, you'll
also know that I caught a lyrebird.
To me, this is the major joy of writing. I can be anyone, anything: a proud
warrior of the plains, a spoiled princess, a drug addict on the verge of
dying, but also a tree, a man-eating creature from outer space, even a rock.
The only limit is my imagination, and I am cursed with too much creativity.
The thing is, you have the same level of creativity. Everyone does. Watch
little children: they do. Then they are pulled into line by adults, and go
to school, and are told by big kids to 'grow up, stupid'.
I used to know that I was not creative. I was a scientist. I started
writing, and it has changed my life. I now see stories everywhere, in
everything. I am never bored, don't need entertainment.
If others like my stories, hey, that's great! But I don't need their
approval. My inner theatre is reward enough. Come and join me and create
your own.
Sincerely,
Bob Rich http://bobswriting.com/
2.
ROSANNE DINGLI is the author of three books of fiction. Her award-winning stories have appeared in print since 1986. Her novel-in-progress has (she hopes) a very believable hero. She advises on how to create -Credible Protagonists
In her book "Happenstance", Carol Shields created a back-to-back story. One side of the book is "The Husband's Story", and the other "The Wife's Story". We have two narrations of the same five days, seen from the point of view of two related but separate protagonists.
What a fascinating exercise! Readers love things like this - but they are very hard to carry off. Only very experienced writers can do it. Why?
I'm an experienced writer and teacher of writing: I'll tell you why. Creating believable protagonists is far from easy. Creating TWO, and telling the same story from both their angles is incredibly hard, because it means the writer has to know both extremely well - very intimately. And they have to be different, but human and believable.
The only way to make good characters is to know every single detail about them: how they move, how they think, what makes them angry or happy, what overwhelms them, how they solve problems and what they fear. Not only that: the writer must be able to send it clearly and without ambiguity to the reader's mind, using swift, sharp and direct descriptions and narrations.
Dialogue forms a fundamental part of this 'sending' or transfer from the page to the mind. Description is too, and narration. These three things are hard to learn how to do individually - learning how to juggle the three seamlessly and seemingly without effort is what all writers are constantly learning how to do.
The best way is to learn these points:
- Each piece of dialogue must be valuable and carry the story along. It must be linked strongly to the action taking place and the characters involved.
- Each protagonist must be given an idiosyncratic speech or body language 'badge' that must recur occasionally, to form a strong picture in the reader's mind. This 'badge' must be very subtle, sometimes almost unobservable except by the very experienced.
- Each narration must be placed firmly with a specific point of view: preferably the protagonist's. Point of view is not necessarily 'voice' - more about this another time.
- Each description should preferably be seen from the protagonist's perspective. In "Happenstance" by Carol Shields, this can be fascinating, especially how the husband and wife see their own home!
- Readers should preferably like the main protagonist and feel what the writer wants them to feel about him/her.
- Readers should preferably hate antagonists.
Creating feelings to which readers can relate seems hard, but finding a good theme for your story will solve this problem. A theme (which is distinct from the 'premise' - more on that another time) can usually be described by an abstract noun and is generally an emotional human issue, for example "jealousy and envy"; "ambition"; "sibling rivalry". Link your protagonist to your theme very strongly, and there you have the main frame of your story.
The writer must have an intimate knowledge of how and why that theme is important to the protagonist: why he/she reacts to it, what they will do for and about it, how they will use it toward their ends, etc. In a novel or longer story, use a different theme and a smaller character to create a sub-plot or two.
And most importantly of all: keep your protagonists human. No human being is always good or always evil. None of us is always certain or always modest, or always truthful, and so forth. Give your main person a margin of inconsistency, moments of indecision, an ability to make mistakes, or a blind spot that renders them lovable.
And there you have it. Simple, isn't it?
PUBLISHED AUTHOR? Got some good advice for the less experienced? Send it to me at
sodgers@tassie.net.au.
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