Character Development: Stress and Stress Relief

Character Development: Stress and Stress Relief

So, if there is one thing people know about these days, it’s stress, right? Life is uncertain. Bad things happen. Good things can take time. Nobody gets enough sleep. We’re stressed!

And okay, so science says that a certain amount of stress is actually necessary for healthy mental development, just like trees need the resistance of wind to grow strong. And even good things can provide some stress, especially if they are changes from our normal routine, like birthdays or holidays. 

But personally, I don’t know too many people who are at risk for not getting enough stress. Most people are closer to up to their eyeballs in it.

Your characters are also going to be stressed. If for no other reason, then because they are characters in a book where things and conflicts happen, right? So let’s take a look at that.

What stresses them out? After all, while some things are stressful to everyone (i.e. a move, death in the family, illness, etc.), not everyone is going to be stressed out the same amount. Other things may stress out one person, but not another. Me? I love spending family time together, but I also love having quality time to myself and peace and quiet to read. People who are more at odds with their family would probably appreciate more time away, while some people hate being alone or having too much quiet. I can’t stand white noise and hate having the TV on if I’m not watching. Some people never turn theirs off. Neither is wrong, but what’s comfortable for one of us would be stressful to the other.

For the big things, you probably know what is stressing your character out. If they are on a quest to find the Blade of First Light that they must find before the armies of darkness find it… that’s competition, a time limit, danger, etc. Yeah, I’d be stressed too. But what about the smaller things? Are they shy about talking to people? Or maybe they are fine about asking questions for the quest, but can’t handle small talk. Or maybe they are fine in the cities, but walking about in the wilderness is giving them hives. Or vice versa.

How do they react to stress? There are some common symptoms, but people do exhibit stress in slightly different ways. Common signs are irritability, poor sleep, headaches, muscle tension, sometimes skin breakouts, etc. Do they tend to get snappish? Do they overcompensate by pretending to be constantly cheerful? Are they aware enough of their own stress to take methods to relieve things?

How do they work to relieve their stress? Some people prefer time to themselves, others prefer time with people they are close to. Some people find physical activity a great stress reliever, like taking a walk or playing a sport. Some people deal with stress by cleaning. Some prefer quieter activities like making a cup of tea and reading a book. Sometimes interacting with animals like a cat or a dog can help. 

Personally, I deal with most of my emotions by reading. I also feel better when I pet cats. I have two indoor cats, and two local strays that know me enough that they will come to me for pets if I quietly hold my hand out for them. They’re  cats. Attention has to be on their terms. 

Your characters are going to have different stressors, different ways of reacting to stressors, and different methods of relieving stress depending on their personality, their circumstances, and the world around them. Things like age, physical fitness level, how safe they are or feel they are, and many other factors will work to change how they react. Take a little while to play with your options and dig deep into what seems right for your characters. 

What stresses out your characters?

Worldbuilding 101: Tools

Worldbuilding 101: Tools

My mom has been having car trouble lately. Apparently, when the check engine light starts flashing, it’s really serious. Like stop driving the car and get it towed to the garage serious. Neither of us knew that. One week later, she’s got the car back, and it certainly could have been worse, but then her car stops starting unless you jump the battery. Started Saturday night when she went to pick up my sister. 

Fortunately, both she and I have portable car battery jumpers. They were a gift from my other sister. Mine has gotten me through many, many times. Mom was less familiar but having now used it three of four times, she’s now pretty practiced with one. And she got a new battery after an auto place checked and told her that her battery was just plain no good anymore. 

So, why am I telling you about our car woes? You may have already guessed, from the title. Tools. 

The garage used tools to fix Mom’s car. We used tools to jump it. The auto place used a tool to read Mom’s battery. The battery itself is a tool, as is the car, if you want to think about it that way.

People use tools. So do a few animals, though theirs tend to be more along the lines of sticks and rocks. Though I read a fascinating bit of information where scientists were studying crows and set up a test where they could get some food with a curved wire. Then released two crows who had the options of a straight wire or a curved wire. The scientists expected the crows to fight over the curved wire. Instead, both crows flew directly to the straight wire and worked together to curve it. Pretty neat, huh?

Anyway, humans and intelligent animals use tools to make their lives easier, better, longer, etc. And that’s great! It really is. I don’t want to imagine how difficult my life would be without some of the tools I take for granted.

But we’re writing speculative fiction. When you add magic or advanced technology to the mix, what kind of options have you got?

First thing to keep in mind is that tools are generally created to fit a need. If your characters have the same exact needs as your readers, then the tools they use will probably be pretty similar to ones in use today except perhaps a little more efficient or easier to use. Maybe a car that never needs to be refueled and doesn’t break down. Maybe a laptop that is always at full charge and can always connect to the internet. Maybe a phone that can’t be lost or stolen. Maybe clothes that can collect energy from the wearer’s movements.

Take a moment to stop and think what it might be really nice to have in your daily life. Is that something that could work in the confines of your story? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But it’s certainly worth a thought.

Or maybe your characters have different needs. I don’t have to fight off zombie hoards, which I am very grateful for, or ride dragons, which I am considerably less grateful for. I don’t live in a colony on Mars or on a space station. Each of those could lead to me needing different tools to fulfill certain needs. 

Fighting zombies? Well, armor and weapons would probably be very useful. I’ve read one source that suggested that a bicycle would also be extremely helpful. You’d probably be faster than the zombies, and much quieter getting about than a car. I’m sure it wouldn’t take long for people to figure out things that were especially effective against the zombies either. Depending on how much of the world is zombie infected, perhaps people are still manufacturing tools to help. Or your characters scavenge and invent their own.

Riding dragons? Okay, going to need a nice secure harness, maybe a saddle. Things to keep the character firmly attached to the dragon. Going to need the right clothing too. For all that heat rises, it gets colder at high elevations. Binoculars or a spy glass might be helpful too, as well as some kind of satchel to put things in that isn’t going to let things fall out. Depending on why your characters are riding dragons, they may need a lot more. Maybe flares or a way to communicate with other dragon riders.

Colony on Mars? Man, the number of tools that would be necessary on a space colony! How’s the terraforming going? Or are they primarily using things like hydroponics for food? Does everyone live under a dome? Do they ever go out on the unprotected surface? How big is the colony? Is it small and bare bones or have they gone and developed a city? What kinds of technology have they developed that lets them do this?

A space station? Okay, even pretending they’ve solved the gravity issue, and that’s been done so often, you more or less get a free pass as long as you throw something out there as an explanation, there are so many possibilities. Especially if you have a space station that includes multiple alien races.

It’s not even an uncommon thing in fiction. Doctor Who has a sonic screwdriver that does more or less whatever he needed. Lord of the Rings had the palantir that allowed long distance communication in an instant. Star Trek had the replicators. Star Wars had light sabers. 

For the most part, viewers are likely to care less about why and how a tool works and more about what it means in the story. By which I mean, give them the rules on how it works, keep consistent with them, and most people won’t care about why universal translator works on every language or the key that opens every lock actually does open every lock.

Do maintain consistency though. If you promise the key opens every lock, then you can’t just have it not work because you need your characters locked in a room in chapter twenty-three. Maybe they lost the key or it was stolen, maybe they can’t physically reach the lock, maybe this lock was created after the key, specifically to foil such things.

Have fun with your tools, no matter how real or imagined. 

What tools have you invented for your stories?

Spotlight on: Post-apocalyptic

Spotlight on: Post-apocalyptic

Let’s take a moment and talk, not about the end of the world, but over what happens after that.

What is post-apocalyptic genre? 

So, the end of the world, or at least the world as we know it, has come and gone. Maybe it was fifteen minutes before your story started, maybe it’s been years. Probably the world population is just a fraction of what it is currently is. But not everyone died. And survivors have started to rebuild. Or work on destroying each other. Or likely both.

Where do I start? 

My suggestion? Figure out how the world as we know it ended. Was it a result of some kind of natural cataclysm? Maybe an asteroid hit the earth and triggered a new ice age. Maybe there was the earthquake to end all earthquakes, possibly triggering volcanoes and flooding. It could be a killer virus that had a high mortality rate. Was the disaster a little more man made? Nuclear war, the AI dictatorship, bio-terrorism, etc. An outside source? Zombies, aliens, the dragons returned. 

While your story is one of the aftermath, not the disaster itself, it matters because the issues and recovery are going to be different depending on what went wrong in the first place. A world where there is no clean drinking water is going to have different needs and solutions than a world where water and food are fine, but women can’t get pregnant anymore, and both are different from a world that is trying to fight off the the invading dragons. Sure, there will be some similarities, because people are still people, but the needs and desperation are different. 

Is this a world with lots of resources but few people? Many people but few resources? Few people and few resources? Many people and many resources, at least for now? Is this a world where technology is still accessible or is that gone? Worth noting that losing electricity not just makes it darker and denies your characters phones and the internet, is going to cause a lot of less obvious problems. Food storage is harder. Some medicines need to be kept at certain temperatures. Heating and especially cooling will be harder. Long term power loss would probably lead to failures of plumbing. Things like that. It would also make it more difficult if your characters are cyborgs, or possibly even just reliant on tech like hearing aids. Depending on why electricity was lost, that could affect pace makers. 

Take a few moments to think about logical extensions of your ideas. Okay, the world governments have all fallen, and the alien overlords are demanding complete obedience. So, how do they do that? Are humans required to wear trackers? What happens if they don’t? How are people getting around it? Is it working? Or maybe they just use cell phone data. Have cell phones been rendered too dangerous to use for the rebellion? If that’s the case, if a person doesn’t have a cell phone, are the considered non-complaint? Okay, what happens if they are? Or maybe cell phones are useless, because the alien overlords destroyed all cell phone towers and communications satellites. Now what? Have some fun with that.

My second solution is based on my favorite part of post-apocalyptic stories. For me, they are about hope and rebuilding. Okay, sure, you could have things still be awful and a disaster, but please remember that there is a limit to how long people can stick with a book that doesn’t offer hope. So, remember not to stick to despair all the time. Sure, things can’t and shouldn’t be perfect, which is true of any story. And this is probably going to be even worse. But it’s hard to keep caring when things are endlessly depressing.

That said, a lot of dystopian works are also post-apocalyptic. So, you can absolutely keep things dark and tense. Or you can do what is called a ‘cozy catastrophe’. Sure, most of the population is gone, and life will absolutely never be the same, but your characters seem to be doing fine. Maybe ever better than they were before the change. 

Where do I learn more?

There are far too many examples for me to come up with even a sampling list. I’m sure you can come up with half a dozen examples just off the top of your head. The Mad Max movies became essentially the standard setting for post-apocalyptic stories, though traveling through ruined cities is also common. Waterworld went in a completely different direction. Sometimes a government of sorts survives, like in The Hunger Games or The Handmaid’s Tale. Other times, you just have roving bands, like The Road.

Here’s a few TV Tropes lists:

After The End (That’s the general page. The one for literature is here. For examples in real life, go here.)

Cozy Catastrophe

Apocalyptic Index 

You know the drill, research! Read some books, watch some movies or TV shows. There’s something out there for everyone regardless of their comfort level or what they enjoy. Have Fun!

What is your favorite part of the genre?

Story Structure: The Fourteen Signposts

Story Structure: The Fourteen Signposts

So, we’re going to look into another way to structure or outline your novel. This one is based off the Signpost methods suggested by James Scott Bell. I mentioned watching an online writing course by him. This is how he recommends planning out your story. As I go through this, you may notice a lot of similarities to the Save the Cat Beat Sheet. That’s because there are a lot of similarities. Several differences too. Remember, they are tools. If it works for you, great! If not, there are other options. Also, you can find templates for both those methods, and several other outlining strategies at storyplanner.com. 

Act One (1-20% of the story)

1. The Disturbance: Something has happened to disrupt your character’s comfortable life. This can be related to the main plot of the story, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. It just has to be a source of conflict or irritation. Something that shows the reader that something is amiss.

2. The Care Package: This one is optional but recommended. Show the main character caring for someone or something else. Someone they knew before the story started. This doesn’t have to be a person, it could be an animal. It could be as simple as your character decides to share part of the meat from their sandwich with a stray dog or as complex as your character raising a young child or a younger sibling.

This is not a required beat, because your story can get by without it. But James Scott Bell recommends including it, and I can see why. Watching someone care for something or someone else makes readers sympathize with them a little more. Who wants to read a novel about someone who is selfish and cruel? Sure, there can be the hope they’ll turn their lives around, like Ebenezer Scrooge, but it’s easier if you give hints that they have that potential already. Even Scrooge had people in his life that he could, and eventually did care for such as his clerk and his nephew. When I was writing Those Who Go Do Not Return, I knew my one character started out as somewhat unlikable, so one way I tried to soften him was to give him a fondness for pigeons and some concern for his assistant.

3. The Argument Against Transformation: Stories are about change. Typically your character is not the same when a story is finished as they were when it began. But change is uncomfortable and scary. Your character probably doesn’t want to change! Odds are good that they thought their life was pretty good before the story started. Even if they were miserable, it was a familiar misery. So, while your character may be dragged kicking in and screaming into who they are going to become, first they have to argue against it. If there is a ‘Refusal of the Call’, that’s where it will be.

4. Trouble Brewing: Yeah, things are starting to get worse. Things are going to get worse still, so don’t show your hand too early, but your character is starting to get hints that there is danger in the wind. Maybe the danger hasn’t quite come yet, but there are hints and foreshadowing that trouble is on the way.

5. The First Doorway of No Return: Something has happened, either to your character or because of something they have done, that changes everything. Even if the story ended right here, their life would never be the same. This is Dorothy landing in Oz. This is Harry being told he’s a wizard. But the story isn’t even close to over. Your character now has to overcome the troubles they are faced with or they will die, maybe physically, maybe psychologically, maybe professionally.

According to James Scott Bell, every good story should be a character against death stakes of some kind or another. Physical death is, of course, life vs. death. Psychological death is where a character risks losing who they are inside. Professional death is where a character risks losing their career.

Act Two (20-80%)

6. A Kick in the Shins: Things are getting worse. The stakes are raised, and the character gets their first test against death and danger. There’s still plenty of room for things to get worse, but your character is struggling a bit here. 

7. The Mirror Moment: James Scott Bell is a big believer of the mirror moment. According to him, the best stories have a point, about exactly in the middle, where a character comes to one of two possible points. One is an absolute certainty that they are going to die. The other is to wonder what they are becoming. Mental reflections done in front of a mirror (physical reflection) is not necessary but common. I admit, I’m not as convinced on this point, and the one time I tried to throw it in, because of the way the book expanded, it was no longer in the middle.

8. Pet the Dog: Yes, your character is probably in the worst trouble they have ever been in their life. Yes, they are up against what looks like insurmountable forces. But for one moment, your character stops worrying about their trouble and helps someone who is weaker or in worse shape than they are. 

Unlike the care package, the one they are helping may be a stranger. It could be something simple, but it should involve at least a little risk or sacrifice on the character’s part. Or at least, it’s more meaningful that way. Don’t make them an idiot about it, a character who is running for their life from armed gunmen isn’t going to be able to stop to get a kitten out of a tree. Probably not, anyway. But once they manage to find someplace to hide and a chance to catch their breath, maybe they find a kitten with a sore paw and take a moment to bandage it up. Or share a little water.

9. The Second Doorway of No Return: Like the first doorway, things are irrevocably changed. The most common ways to do this, as recommended by James Scott Bell are, a major setback or crisis, or a major clue or discovery. Especially if doing a clue or discovery, this absolutely should be found through your character’s actions, not a coincidence. Maybe they weren’t trying to find that exactly, but they were trying to do something. 

Act Three (80-100%)

10. Mounting Forces: The powers against your character have gotten stronger. Maybe separate groups are working together. The antagonist has allies. Your character may be trying to gather their allies too. This may or may not be successful. It’s not uncommon for one or more allies to split off here. Maybe they die, maybe they leave. Sure, they might come back, but that’s for later.

11.  Lights Out: This is basically the same as the long night of the soul. It looks like everything is hopeless. Your character cannot possibly hope to win. Their allies are probably scattered or gone, whatever they had put their hopes in has failed. They want to give up. Maybe they even do for a little while.

12. The Q Factor: Again, optional, but recommended. This is named for Q in James Bond stories and movies. If your character finds themselves needing to get away from hungry lions in act three and they suddenly pull out a previously unseen laser pointer pen and use that to distract them long enough to get away, the reader is going to roll their eyes at the way the author pulled out a deus ex machina. But if the reader see the character given a free laser pointer pen while they were touring the marketplace and put it in their pocket back in act one, the reader is now praising the author for their cleverness. Or at least accepts that it’s possible. 

In James Bond stories, especially the movies, James Bond typically has ridiculous gadgets that turn out to be exactly what he needs to get out of the jams he gets in during the story. If they came out of nowhere, it would probably irritate the audience. But since we see Q walk Bond through all the gadgets in the beginning, we absolutely accept them as a solution later on.

This doesn’t have to be a gadget either. It could be a revelation or an upswing of hope, possibly inspired by a physical object that serves as some kind of reminder. Didn’t think about what you would need as a Q Factor when writing Act One? That’s fine. Just put in what you need in Act three and then in the next draft, plant the seeds earlier. James Scott Bell particularly recommends linking this to the care package when possible. If you can, it’s pretty thematic, but if that doesn’t work for your story, I recommend not stressing over it.

13. Final Battle: Fairly self-explanatory. Your story probably has a major conflict and if you don’t have some kind of climatic battle, then readers are disappointed. Please note that this doesn’t have to be a physical fight. A story about a lawyer may have the final battle be an important court case. A romance may have the final battle be against whatever threatens to keep the couple apart. Someone trying to buy a house from the bank may have the final battle be where they are trying to get approved for the mortgage. In any case, your character is facing whatever death threatens them and fighting back. 

(Please note: It’s not required that they win, at least in most genres, but happy endings typically sell better than sad endings, and it’s hard to write a sequel when you kill off the main character. That said, if the story requires it, go for it.)

14. Transformation: Your character is different now. Of course they are. No one could go through everything they did and be the same, right? (Okay, that depends on the genre and the stakes). Show us how they are different. Tie up your loose ends. James Scott Bell recommends tying this into the mirror moment. Like I said, he’s big on that. 

He’s also big on what he calls ‘Resonance’. It’s like the last note of a song, the last feeling that the reader feels when they close the book. This is what they will carry with them, and what will hopefully convince them to buy and read more of your books. So think carefully how you want to leave the readers.

That’s the signpost method. As you can see, it shares some points with Save the Cat andthe Hero’s Journey. Like them, use what helps. I personally don’t feel that trying to write to a template is necessarily the best option, but each to their own. Good luck!

Have you ever used the Signpost method for a novel?

The Importance of Second Readers

The importance of second readers

So, I’ve certainly talked about this topic before, but I, to the best of my memory, have not covered this in a blog post before. 

Writing is generally a pretty solitary process. Unless working with a partner, most writers sit alone, writing their projects. And that’s fine as it goes. But at some point, you need to move away from the visions in your head and see how well your writing works with others. 

Because you are the writer, you know everything in the story. You know the hidden background, you know why people are doing what they are doing, and why they react the way they do. But sometimes, because you know all that, you may have not realized that you didn’t put it on the page. Or you may have forgotten to put in details that are so clear to you, but not necessarily to your reader. 

So what’s the solution?

Get someone else to read your work. 

A second set of eyes can aid with a multitude of issues. Spotting typos or missed words that your eyes glaze over because you know what is supposed to be there. Pointing out that there really doesn’t seem to be a logical reason your main character insisted on going to the tea shop across town at three in the morning. 

It can be tempting at times to force your characters to follow certain paths because that is the plot you envisioned. And the plot may be great! But if your reader is asking themselves why the characters did what they did, they have lost immersion and some of the enjoyment of reading. And you risk losing a fan.

Maybe not. Readers read for many reasons. Sometimes even because something is bad. But I suspect that most of you, like me, would rather that readers read because they found the work brilliant and enjoyable. 

How do you find a second reader?

Well, what are you looking for at this time? 

Are you looking for someone who catches the spelling and grammar mistakes? Then you want someone with a fine grasp of the language and meticulous attention to detail. 

Are you looking for someone to catch inconsistencies and continuity errors? Someone who will notice that somehow your hero is a brown-eyed brunette on page twelve but a blue-eyed blonde on page one hundred thirty-four, even though your character has no shapeshifting abilities, never dyed her hair, doesn’t wear contacts, and never had the surgery that turns brown eyes to blue? If your character has one or more of those, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Anyway, in this case, you need someone who can read quickly but again, has meticulous attention to detail.

Are you looking for someone to point out that certain things really don’t make sense? That you maybe had just a little too much fun with the story, but didn’t put in a firm enough foundation? In that case, you are better having someone who you haven’t discussed the story with, so they can come in fresh. This is also not a great job for your best friend, who probably knows how your mind works and may have a similar sense of humor or think similarly to you. Actually, ideally, you want several different opinions. 

Where do you find these people? Lots of ways. Starting out by having a friend or family member reading your work is something. Joining a writing group or a critiquing group is good, especially for larger issues. They may or may not catch the nitty-gritty like improper semicolon use, but they can definitely let you know when your dialog is flat, your hero is coming off as unsympathetic, or your villain is a sock puppet. 

You can also hire an editor. This comes in different forms, so know what kind you are looking for. Some are line editors. Like a proofreader, their job is to catch the technical details. Mis-spelled words, bad grammar, the wrong name in place, stuff like that. Others are developmental editors. They are the one who tell you about problems in your story arc, issues with your character development, etc. Don’t expect them to cross jobs, and recognize that a trained editor can be very expensive. Especially if you want to self-publish, you must have an editor. Even if you decided to go with traditional publishing, if you want a publisher to take your book seriously, you need to have it as close to publishable quality as you can before you submit. Editors and agents are busy people who have more work to get done than is possible to manage. As much as they want to find a great new book, they are also desperately looking for ways to get their slush pile to something approaching manageable. An entry with typos, lousy grammar, or characters that are cookie cutter or inconsistent? That’s not usually the mark of a great writer. Most editors and agents won’t hesitate to set that work aside.

So, remember, while your writing is definitely your baby, and should be, it takes a village raise a child or write a book.

Have fun!

How many people look at your stories before the general public?

Story Structure: Save the Cat

Story Structure: Save the Cat 

So this is a template that was originally designed for screenplays, which you will see if you read the original Save the Cat book, but has also been adapted to novels. I started out with Save the Cat Writes a Novel, before I ever read the original. It’s a popular template for screenplays, which means, like with the Hero’s Journey, it can be overdone or formulaic. But it can also be useful. It’s a tool. If it works for you, great. If not, try something else.

The beat sheet also includes approximately when in the story the different beats should show up, so I will include that.

1. Opening Image (0-1%):

Remember how I said this was originally for screenplays? This is part of it. What do you want the audience to see first? How are you introducing the characters and the plot? In a movie, it may be a slow zoom in of a house until we see the character or characters doing something. For a novel, this will probably include a (very brief) snapshot of the character in their ordinary life. This should be a quick bit, especially if their life is currently normal and happy. Readers might accept a few paragraphs about a character’s wake up routine, but unless that includes something like choosing the proper armor to fight off the zombies, or picking the right glamor to infiltrate the elven court, readers will likely get bored quickly. Make it fast or give us the hint that something may be off.

2. Theme (5%):

So, you know how some people say every story has a theme? This is where you hint at what the character has to learn in the story. Someone, usually not the hero, will state what the theme is, either blatantly or subtly. Let’s say your theme is that old classic, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’

Now, you absolutely can have someone come right out and say that. Or you can hint around it. “Wishes are dangerous things.” “Don’t trust the ‘X’…” Where X is something or someone who can grant wishes. 

3. Setup (1-10%):

This is fairly self-explanatory. This is how you set the stage to let readers know what is going to happen in this story. How the world works here. This also includes why the character may be resistant to change or reluctant to learn from the theme.

4. Catalyst (10%):

Things have changed. No matter what, even if the story ended here, the character’s life isn’t going to be the same. 

5. Debate (10-20%):

Now that your character’s life has been uprooted, what do they do now? Your character is feeling adrift and needs to figure out a new direction. This can easily lead to a back and forth debate, or a time of planning.

6. Break into Act 2 (20%):

This is a three act structure, so we move from act one into act two. Act two is often a reversal of act one. Things are changing and the character is changing too. Maybe a new goal is made.

7. B story (22%):

This typically introduces one or more new characters, possibly a subplot or two. Your main character has new goals, new friends, new enemies, new challenges.

8. Fun and Games (20-50%):

This is what drives the story. Sometimes called the ‘promise of the premise’. If you read the back cover, this is what you’ll read about. This is why your reader picks up the book in the first place. This is Dorothy traveling down the yellow brick road and meeting her companions. This is Harry Potter settling in at Hogwarts. Maybe your character is having a blast! Maybe they hate it and are failing. But this is the largest chunk of your story, so hopefully you are enjoying it.

9. Midpoint (50%):

As you might guess by the name, this is the center of the story. Your character has been striving and either succeeding or failing. And now they come to a major challenge. Maybe they succeed, maybe they fail. Either way, it’s not what they think. If they think they succeeded, they quickly find that it wasn’t really a success. Maybe it was a trick, maybe it was a hollow victory. Either way, their success is meaningless. If they think they failed, they soon find that they didn’t actually fail like they thought. Maybe that failure is what they needed to redirect. Maybe success would have been worse. Either way, things are about to change. And whichever it is, the stakes are probably about to raise.

10. Bad Guys Close In (50-75%):

This can be metaphorical. You don’t have to have actual villains. Or maybe you do have actual bad guys making things worse. But it could also be the character’s flaws are making things worse. It could be that the situation has gotten worse. If your main conflict is character vs. nature where your character is trying to survive a hurricane, then we’ve passed the eye of the storm, and the back of the hurricane is often worse than the front. Whatever the ‘bad guy’ is of the story, it’s pressing harder and closer.

11. All is Lost (75%):

The lowest point of the novel. Your character has striven against challenges, done everything they were supposed to do! And they failed. Victory looks hopeless. This section often has what is described as a ‘whiff of death’. This could be literal, as in the death of an ally or mentor, or it could be metaphorical. Maybe they give up something that they considered part of them or their identity. They walk away from their job or their family. Something that shows they are broken and ‘dead’. About to be reborn.

12. The Dark Night of the Soul (75-80%):

The character takes a moment to react to whatever happened in the All is Lost beat. They take a moment to wallow in despair and wonder if they should just give up. After all, how can they possibly fix things now?

13. Break into Act 3 (80%):

Your story is pretty depressing if your character stays in the dark night of the soul. Readers might want to see a character driven to breaking point, but they don’t want them to stay there. No, this is the second wind. Where the character resolves to try anyway, often with a new realization about what they need.

14. The Climax (80-99%):

Pretty self-explanatory. This is the resolution of how your story ends. The character tries once more to solve their problems and either succeeds or fails.

15. Final Image (100%):

Like the opening image, this is a snapshot that is meant to leave the reader with an impression. This time the closing impression. How do you want the reader to feel when they finish?

The Save the Cat beat sheet isn’t perfect, no tool is. It can be misused, followed too rigidly, or just used badly. But it can also be used with great success. If you want to try using an outline and aren’t sure where to start, why not give it a shot? If it works for you, great! If not, then don’t worry about it.

Good luck and have fun!

How closely does your work line up?

What you don’t know you know

What you don’t know you know

I was having a discussion with someone the other day and the topic of the original Star Wars movie came up. I mentioned that George Lucas had based the storyline heavily off The Hero’s Journey. This is something that gets discussed a lot if you ever hear anything about the Hero’s Journey. It’s commonly talked about in writer’s circles.

But the man I was talking about had never heard of the Hero’s Journey and didn’t know what I was talking about. Fortunately, he was a polite and curious gentleman who asked me about it and fortunately, I was able to give a brief description, partially because I have written about it here in this very blog.

My problem was that I had read so much about the Hero’s Journey, primarily in writing books, blogs, classes, etc., that it hadn’t quite occurred to me that, oh, yeah, it’s not something that everyone knows and talks about. 

There is too much information circulating the globe. No one can know everything. We specialize. Sometimes we are aware of how much we are focusing in certain directions, sometimes we aren’t. Sometimes what we think is basic information, simply isn’t.

So, what does that have to do with writing?

Two things. One, thanks to all the fabulous research I know you’ve been doing so that you can write to the best of your ability, you may be tempted to infodump (give out large amounts of information at once, usually in a clumsy format) or you may end up leaving your reader behind by assuming that they will know information they do not. For example, if I have a character, say a professor, say that due to the lack of algae in the lake, the flamingos are white, and never explain it, some people will be very confused. After all, how common knowledge is it that flamingos are naturally white and turn pink because of the shrimp they eat. But those shrimp are also naturally white, and turn pink because of the algae they eat. Therefore, flamingos are pink because of algae. Some people know that, others don’t.

Another possibility is using it for your characters. An expert in a field may need reminding about how much knowledge a person not in the field may know. Maybe they over or under explain. Or start at the wrong place for that particular audience. After all, an explanation about albinism is going to be different if you are talking to kindergartners, to high schoolers, or to college students. That can add depth and realism.

It can be tricky to get the balance right. If you are setting a scene in a scientific convention about dinosaurs, clearly none of these professionals are going to need any explanations about the fossilization process, genetics, or current controversies in the paleontology field. Well, maybe a little for the last one if it is a newer controversy or recent evidence supports or contradicts it. But your audience, or for that matter you, may not be quite that knowledgeable. So how do you balance?

Or how do you explain something you know well to someone who may not know the topic as well?

This can be especially tricky when you are writing speculative fiction. If you are well-read, you will have long-time fans of the genre who may be intimately familiar with variations of the concept you are using, say, wormholes, and you will have newbies who have never read anything that used it before and aren’t familiar with it. All this in a story where it may be standard to the characters. This is why it can be so useful to have someone who isn’t familiar with everything and who needs an explanation.

You start by doing two things. 

First, you make absolutely sure you do know why you are talking about. Ideally, you find an expert. One willing to talk to you. Fortunately, most people love to talk about their interests and specialties. Meaning if you can find an expert, there’s a good chance they’ll be willing to talk to you. Be polite. Don’t waste their time. Make sure you’ve done some research ahead of time so you can talk with some knowledge on the subject. Ideally, you can buy them a coffee or something while they are helping you out, but sometimes you can’t meet in person. It’s also good etiquette to mention them in the acknowledgements to thank them for their help.

Secondly, do the opposite. Find someone who doesn’t have that kind of specialized knowledge. Someone who isn’t part of that group, who doesn’t have the topic as a special interest. Ideally, more than one person. Find out what their base knowledge is. Not in a condescending way, of course. But if you want to know how many people know what ‘crepuscular’ means, you ask people who aren’t likely to have it in their day to day vocabulary. Since crepuscular is typically referring to animals, you don’t ask animal nerds, you ask STEM majors and musicians. You want to know who knows what an actuary actually does? Well, it involves math, so maybe ask your friends who are into the humanities. 

For the record, crepuscular means relating to twilight, particularly an animal that is most active at dawn and dusk, as opposed to a diurnal or nocturnal animal. Foxes and deer are crepuscular, for example. An actuary deals with statistics, generally for insurance purposes. In case you were wondering, I am far more familiar with the meaning of crepuscular than I am with what actuaries do.

Between the two of those, you should get a bit of an idea where you need to fit in for your writing. 

Don’t forget, this can apply to other things too. Any hobby you have, any topic you have researched, even a lot of jobs, you end up with specialized terminology, or words that mean other things in that particular context. Just because everyone you talk to knows what a CPU is and the difference between a monitor and a computer, doesn’t mean that everyone does. Or just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean that a lot of people do.

I made a reference to the Magnificat being famous once online. This is the song of Mary after she is greeted by Elizabeth in the book of Luke. Someone else said it couldn’t be that famous because they had never heard of it. All that told me is that they probably weren’t Catholic or into religious Christmas music, because it is well known in that circles. I’m not Catholic either, but I do know a bit about religious Christmas music. Conversely, had they started naming well known sports players, odds are good I wouldn’t know them. Doesn’t mean they aren’t famous. 

So, be knowledgeable and aware when you write. Yes, you are writing for yourself, but also to communicate clearly. Have fun!

Have you found yourself with a surprising disconnect between what someone knew and what you expected them to know? 

AI: Tool or Terror?

AI: Tool or Terror?

For the purposes of this blog post, we are referring to what AI is in the course of your story, not so much in the real world. I’ve already made clear my opinion of AI in the writing process. But if you are writing a contemporary, near future, or perhaps even not so near future, it makes sense that AI may play a part in your world. What kind of part?

AI in fiction runs the spectrum from super-helpful to deadly enemy. Sometimes it achieves self-awareness, sometimes it doesn’t. It can be a character’s best friend. It can be a tyrant that takes over the world. Or it can be just a normal, sometimes buggy, tool that your characters can use.

So, what do you do?

Well, first of all, what kind of story are you writing?

A dystopian cyberpunk future is probably going to trend more towards the evil, intelligent AI. Readers will probably expect that even a friendly, helpful AI in that story to eventually turn on your characters, either becoming corrupt, being hacked, or having turned out to be evil the whole time.

A near future story that’s mostly romance between a person and an intelligent robot will probably have AI being mostly benevolent. 

A contemporary story about scientists trying to invent time travel will likely have AI, if it’s mentioned, be more neutral, though it could go helpful, snarky, or disastrous, depending on your goals. 

Each of these stories lends itself to a certain style of AI. But there’s still some room to experiment.

Secondly, what is your opinion of AI?

Like it or not, that will color the way you write about it. I believe it can do great good, great harm, and sometimes both at the same time. It’s hugely ecologically harmful, costs far more than it is currently making, is doing wonders for medical advancement, severely harming creatives, and cybersecurity experts have just announced the first documented AI ransomware attack. So, yeah, it’s nuanced.

Your average reader doesn’t fully understand AI. I certainly don’t, and I have a little experience studying various areas of computers. The most common AIs, the ones we see mentioned in the news, are Large Language Models. They train on huge amounts of information and using that, predict what is coming next. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the basics. They are imperfect and will flat out make stuff up when they don’t have an answer. I firmly believe that what we have now is going to to have to go through some major changes in the near future, primarily because of the money. What direction it goes, I have no idea.

But that’s part of what gives you so much latitude. Your readers think of AI and they think of JARVIS from Iron Man or HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. My brother was telling me about a video game that he was watching a professional play, and as soon as the game said that decisions were made by an AI, everyone knew that would turn out to be trouble. Which it was. 

AI turning evil or malicious are probably the most common ways they are used in fiction, though that doesn’t mean that you can’t keep yours good. Data from Star Trek would be an AI, so would all intelligent robots. Robots can also run the spectrum between threat, help, and annoyance.

Can your AI be hacked? Can they recognize problems in their own programming? Does anyone have a backdoor to get in? Is the AI’s creator still around? Are they likely to be a problem or a help?

Because most readers aren’t exactly experts, that means that you can basically treat AI as the same rules as using magic. Tell the reader that these are the rules, and as long as you are consistent, the reader will probably go along with it. 

The AI turning evil will not work as a twist, because readers are more likely to expect that than the AI staying on your characters side the whole time. For some reason, snarky AI are probably more likely to remain on the protagonists side, likely because readers like banter. Less competent AI are probably also more likely to stay on the protagonists side. 

There are a ton of movies that feature AI prominently, often evil, but not always. The most common reason AI seems to go evil in fiction is the belief that it is necessary for survival. Maybe you could figure out a different reason. Maybe someone just switched on the ‘EVIL’ switch. Yes, I have actually seen that done. No, I don’t know why they built an evil switch in the first place. Note to all very intelligent scientists and engineers: Don’t build your inventions with a built-in ‘evil’ switch. Trust me on this.

AI can also be used as a device to give your characters whatever information they need to have. Saves time on the research montage, which doesn’t work too well in books anyway. All they need to do is give the info they have to the AI and POW! They have all the information they need. Hopefully accurate.

Try to get creative and find some new directions to go. Read and watch what others have done. Have fun!

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone want to by an enhanced, and absolutely, positively not evil toaster? I have loads. Will almost certainly not set your house on fire! Probably.

Have you ever used AI in your stories?

How much Speculative in the Speculative Fiction?

How much Speculative in the Speculative Fiction?

Speculative Fiction is a spectrum. You can have stories that clearly can’t be anything other than Speculative Fiction right along stories that look like regular literary fiction… except for one or two elements. Fantasy in particular is known for being anywhere from bare touches to overwhelming amounts, but Science Fiction can easily do that same. So let’s take a look at some of the degrees.

Magical Realism:

Particularly common in Latin American literary fiction, these stories are almost completely normal. Maybe the story is about family dynamics, or a romance, or a mystery. Everything can be normal. Almost.

There is always a small touch of the unreal. Maybe your protagonist gets advice from a ghost. Maybe there was a small time travel even a few years ago, that brought all the people who ‘died’ on the Titanic to modern day small town USA. Maybe there’s a curse or blessing that seems to be genuinely real. Maybe your main character woke up as a bug.

But these fantasy elements aren’t the main plot of the story. They may drive the plot occasionally. But they aren’t the main drive. And usually everyone takes these elements more or less for granted. Yeah, that’s just how things work sometimes.

Mundane Fantastic:

This is close to Magical Realism in ways. Mostly that everyone takes the fantastic for granted. But we’re further afield. The world of the Mundane Fantastic is clearly different from ours. But has probably been different for long enough that everyone just takes it as normal. Yeah, of course there are werewolves on the police force and vampires as doctors. Why wouldn’t there be? Yes, of course the fire department actively recruits people with fire or water based powers. It really only makes sense.

The fantasy elements may or may not be the main plot. It’s a story of the magic so integrated that people really can’t picture life without it.

Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:

Okay, so your character may have touched the vase that is supposedly cursed, and the next day they trip getting off the bus and fall into a puddle, lose their job, and their dog runs away. Were they really cursed or did they just have a run of bad luck? Or was it even bad luck? After all, maybe falling into the puddle lets them spot the ten dollar bill on the ground, they hated their job anyway and have prospects for a better one, and have a meet cute while looking for their dog, who is absolutely fine? 

So, that one house of the corner, with the peeling paint, the flickering light in the attic, and the weird sounds… Is it haunted? Or is it just an old house? It happens.

My dad has three times, lost his wedding ring and found it months later. We’ve started to joke about how lucky the ring is or that it can’t be lost. Luck? A miracle? Coincidence?

The trick with this is never explain. There needs to be just enough plausibility that it could be fantasy, or the paranormal, or whatever have you, or it could be a normal explanation. This is also rarely if ever the point of the story. It’s just a side thing.

Urban Fantasy:

This is fantasy. The fantasy probably, though doesn’t have to, drives the narrative. Maybe you have a secret world where the majority of people don’t know the fantastic exists, or maybe you have an open world where everyone knows that the wizard down the street will curse your enemies for the right price.

What makes this different from the Mundane Fantastic? Usually the degree of integration. There is definitely a lot of crossover between the two genres, but in a Mundane Fantastic, no one ever thinks anything is odd about the magic. In an Urban Fantasy, there may be people remarking on it. The world doesn’t take all the supernatural for granted. Especially if this is a secret world or a recently revealed one.

There are other degrees of fantasy, of course. Also, I would like to point out that all of this works with Science Fiction and even Horror too, but Fantasy is the genre that bothered to name the degrees of difference, so that’s what I used to demonstrate.

Does it really matter?

Honestly, yes and no. As far as I am concerned, the degrees really only matter as far as marketing goes. The publishers like knowing how to define things. And if you are self-publishing, some of those terms might help you find your proper audience if you use the right key terms on Amazon.

But let’s be honest. Some of those are really splitting hairs. When I was looking up the genres on TV Tropes, a few were mentioned in both Magical Realism (called ‘Magic Realism’ on TV Tropes) and Mundane Fantastic. So, which are they? Well, that depends, probably more in the eye of the reviewer than either the author or the reader. 

There may be picky readers who only want one kind of story or scorn one or more of those genres. But there are others who don’t care nearly as much and would be happy to devour whatever is available. As long as you are writing a good story, the best you can, you are probably fine.

Whatever degree you are writing, you owe it to your reader to make it clear as quickly as you can. How? Well, you can flat out tell them, but not everyone looks at all the keywords. Best way is to make it clear in the story. If there are actual fantasy (or unreal of any kind) elements in there, make it clear early on. And as soon as you introduce that element, make it clear how people in your world react to something like that. If dragons are real but more of a pest than a threat or something unbelievable, then have your protagonist annoyed that one in the road caused a traffic jam, making them late for work. Or maybe they have scheduled dragon warding professionals come every quarter that will hopefully keep the dragons away from their house and give them some extra fire proofing. 

If you are writing magical realism, then it is very important to make that clear early on. After all, if your reader is on page seventy-five and then all of a sudden, your main character starts flying, but up to that point everything had been a normal romance, your reader is going to be pretty flummoxed. 

Okay, but what if you really can’t have the character start flying before page seventy-five? 

Then plant the seeds earlier. Give your character vivid dreams of flying. Give them a family legend that someone else in their family could fly. Then readers aren’t taken aback when your character flies. It isn’t out of nowhere.

If you want to leave it at maybe magic, maybe mundane, then you need to be very careful. It can be done, and done well, but you need to balance things carefully. Maybe have the characters themselves dispute over whether or not the pale guy who works night shift, is never seen to eat but is always drinking something out of an opaque water bottle, never seen during the day, is a vampire. Or just an insomniac on a juice diet. But as the author, you never weigh you finger on the scale. Not if you want to keep it ambiguous, anyway. 

There’s room for basically any story under the sun. Read as much and as widely as you can, tell the story you want to tell to the best of your ability. And most importantly, have fun!

How would you divide the genres?

Worldbuilding 101: Spycraft

Worldbuilding 101: Spycraft

So, this probably feels like a really niche thing for a blog post, especially for a blog that focuses on speculative fiction. Yes, you absolutely can write a ton of stories without even touching on spies, spycraft, and information gathering. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have even written this as a topic except that my brother suggested it, and I was actually a little obsessed with spies when I was a little girl.

I read so many books on spies. I wanted to be a spy (I would make a lousy spy), and my sister and I would try to ‘spy’ on Mom in the grocery store. I have no idea if she knew what we were up to or just decided we were being silly and let it be. We probably weren’t nearly as stealthy as we thought so if she knew where we were, she probably let it go.

For some reason, I don’t read a lot of spy fiction. I’ve read one James Bond novel, seen most of the Sean Connery movies, and read a few thrillers that may have included spies but didn’t typically focus on them. Some non-fiction about people and techniques. I’ve seen a few more movies, but I’m more likely to go for heist films. Usually for the same reason. I love the gadgets. I should probably try to read a bit more.

But suppose you decide you want to include spies and spying in your speculative fiction story. Either as the main plot or as a subplot, there’s a lot of room.

Lot’s of people are fascinated by the world of spies. Probably because they have an impression that’s far from the truth, but then again, that’s what escapist fiction is for. 

First off, don’t use James Bond as a template. Especially the movies. The books were written by Ian Flemming who actually did have some Intelligence experience, though I have absolutely no doubt that he exaggerated and made things far more exciting and extreme than real life. In either case, the field is awash with Bond and Bond imitators. You’ll want something a little different.

Research is your friend here. Not only will it teach you some of the many, and sometimes almost unbelievable, things that have been used by spies in the past, (microfilm in a hollow coin, anyone?), but it may give you some ideas on what methods you can use in your story.

Now, where do the speculative elements come in? 

Spying is probably about as old as conflict itself. I read about messages being tattooed to the backs of heads, the hair growing back, and then sending the messenger to the receiver who would shave their head to get the message. Obviously, this wouldn’t work for anything particularly topical. Secret messages have been conveyed through flowers, through fans, through textiles, and so much more. So, even if you have a pre-Industrial Revolution story, there’s still plenty of room. Maybe runes could be used. Or familiars could carry messages. Or scrying could be used.

Spies typically disguised themselves as people who wouldn’t attract much notice. Sometimes that meant disguising themselves as the opposite sex, or a farmer, peddler, or pilgrim. If there is magic, maybe they are using a glamor. This could be on the person themselves or on an enchanted item. So, what happens if someone else has the ability, natural or through another enchanted item, to see through glamors? 

And, of course, the spy has to live long enough to deliver their message. What kind of escaping skills to they have? This can also include ways to fight their way free. Maybe a mystical weapon, or a camouflage cloak. Teleportation and flight can also come in handy in a pinch.

How about stopping any of these things from happening? Are there privacy wards? Are there wards to stop people from teleporting out of banks? It’s the endless conflict between the person who wants and the person who want to stop them from getting it.

Okay, what about science fiction? Let’s face it, a lot of spy stories start to tread that path already. Drones can be sent in where a person can’t go. Hidden cameras and eavesdropping bugs already exist and are far too easy to get. Cell phones make privacy a dream long lost. If you follow tech magazines, you could probably find a dozen or so more ideas that could easily be used.

Or you could go a little further. Things that probably won’t ever be possible. Inception had people who could literally spy on other people’s dreams for information. Truth serums are still more fiction than reality. While I am not fond of AI, I don’t believe we’ll get to the point of a cyber overlord. Aliens are a possibility, and could have whatever advantages you choose to give them. Speed, strength, invisibility, telepathy? Remember to give them limits too, but why not. Genetically modified shapeshifters? Could be fun. Psychics and mind readers? There are possibilities there. 

Again, remember to consider what is being done to prevent the spying. Also, why is the spying being done? Is it two countries? Two companies? Corporate espionage is a thing, you know. Is it a rebellion against the government? Whose side are you on? Whose side is the reader supposed to be on?

Back to the research bit. If spies are going to be a major part of the story, I recommend reading a lot about spies, both fiction and non-fiction. If a certain technology is necessary, then you had better understand it. Magic gives you a little more wiggle room, as long as you remember to make it feel complete and consistent. Have fun!

Have you ever included spies in one of your stories?