Character Arcs

        I love a good character Arc.  The way a character develops is important to your story.  There are some instances where it's important you main character changes, and there are some instances where it is important they don't.

        One of my favorite character arcs is Wesley (Played amazingly by Alexis Denisof) from the shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Angel."  While all of the characters developed through the series and showed all sorts of change, he is the one that changed the most dramatically to my eyes.  Even more importantly his changes made sense.

       If you were to take a look at him in the beginning, he was a naive and even silly character.  He hid his inexperience under false bravado and made mistakes due to the fact he was so green.  I always felt  that one of the tragedies of his arc in Buffy, is that had the group included him as he wanted he might not have made some of the bad choices.

      One of the only moments he loses his inherit goofyness in Buffy (season 3) is when he calls the watchers onto Faith instead of letting Angel try and help her.  I always felt this decision was made on his part out of anger for not being included in the plans to help the rogue slayer, and being kept out as an outsider, and not just because he felt it was the proper thing to do.

      When he returns in Angel however, he is all jokes and awkwardness again.    Wesley once again can not be taken seriously or counted as competent as he becomes the foil to the competence of Angel.  Of course as things progress he becomes more competent and you see him grow as a character.   And then it happens.  The story arc with Angel's son Conner.

      If you can point out any part that changes his character this would be it.  Wesley makes some bad choices (that from his point of view are right, and you can argue that they are) and ends up helping Angel's son get stuck in an alternate dimension and gets his throat cut.  To top that off, Angel who can be argued to be the closest friend he has attacks him in the hospital and threatens his life.

      From that point on in the series Wesley is a darker more serious character.  Even after he makes amends with Angel and the crew he never becomes the funny, optimistic character he was.  Instead he is brooding and serious to a point that makes Angel look happy and bouncy.  There are rare flashes of the man that was before this event, but at the point his character was changed for good.

     The important thing looking at this arc, is that it was O.K. for the events to change his character for good.

      If Wesley had gone back to the happy, optimistic character of the first three seasons, it would have cheapened the actions he took and the events they led too.  Instead we see a tortured character who is paying daily for his failings, even to the point that in season five when he is supposed to have forgotten everything to do with Angel's son, he still is dark and pessimistic.  However, because you spent the whole ride with him, you still shed a tear when he dies at the end of the series.  (Seriously, the scene where he dies in Illyria's arms is completely one of the most heart wrenching things I've watched on T.V.)

      The lesson here is that you shouldn't be afraid to change your characters.  The more dirt, grime and blood you run them through the more dirty they should be.  No one is unchanged by large events in their life, and if there are no large events in your fiction then what are you writing about?  Trust your characters and let them change in believable ways and you will have more connection with your readers.  I know this is something I struggle with and one of the things I'm looking at more and more as I edit my book.

       So what is your favorite story arc, and what have you learned from it?

On Being a "Bad" Writer.

So, I admit that I am not a very good writer.

      When I am in a hurry and typing, I often mix my then, and than.  I will misplace words like effect and affect, and my their, they're and there also suffer.  I re-use words and throw in bad similes and over use words like simply and gloss over description.  I live by spell check and other such programs to help keep me on track.  I am, for the time being a bad writer.

      I have been reading Stephen King's "On Writing."  This is a great book for me to read because he actually gives different advice then what I've heard on writing excuses, and other things I've read.  Part of it is that Stephen King is a discovery writer, so he doesn't draw out a big outline etc... before he writes.  He creates a situation and characters and then lets them lead the way.  In comparison, one of my favorite authors Brandon Sanderson, Always knows the end of the book before he starts.  Mr. Sanderson also plots out and does a large outline on his book which is closer to the method I follow.

      I have had very many moments reading "On Writing," where I have disagreed greatly with Stephen King.  He says that Bad Writers will never become good writers.  I say anyone who works hard enough to get there, can become a good writer.  You have to be willing to work for it though.  He actually talks about outlining as (and I can't remember his wording) a bad tool to use.  Both of these things tell me one thing.

     There are a lot of opinions out there and none of them are necessarily one hundred percent right.

      I am tackling the bad writer idea.  I think that everyone is a bad writer.  Everyone writes out a rough draft that has plot holes, flat characters, issues in pacing,  and a million other glaring issues.  If there is an exception to this rule you are probably looking at such a low percentage of writers that it is almost not worth mentioning. In the beginning with every word penned, every character written, everyone is a bad writer.

      What makes a good writer is discipline.  Sitting down over a story you have written and fixing it.  This means re-writing, editing, and killing your darlings.  It means letting go of some ideas and finding new ones.  It means that you need to be able to go back and kill you bad writing and make it good writing.

      This doesn't happen overnight.  You have to hone your skill.  Be willing to get some feedback and listen to it.  Words have to flow from your fingers with every intent of their destination being the nearest trash bag, or deleted once you are done.   No one is born a good writer.  Fewer still become great writers.  In the end it is all subjective anyway.

       As a matter of fact I'm going to use a good example of a oft attacked "bad writer."  Let's look at Stephanie Meyer of "Twilight." fame.

       I have read the Twilight series.  (Yes as a dude I am admitting this.)  On my first read through I thought it was a decent enough series but I didn't see the greatness in it that everyone else did.  I tried to re-read it more critically and couldn't get through it.

      Let's be honest, Bella is a self centered depressive character whom causes all the problems she has to wade through in the first place.  The books make promises they never keep, and looked at outside the narrative there are plot holes and issues with the story all the way through.  There is one thing though....

      The books appeal to the right demographic.  They caught fire because Bella is relate able to girls every where and it's a love story with a sparkly vampire prince charming.  You can stand all day and point out the flaws in the story, characters, and even about the author herself.  (I have heard horror stories) At the end of the day Stephanie Meyer had a good recipe and she was successful.  At the end of the day she isn't a bad writer because she had met her mission.  She created a story, and entertained people with it in a way that got great notice and has her set for life.

      People can praise or tear at her, but no one can take away her success.

      If you are writing for other people you have to look at your success in the same way.  There is not a successful author alive who doesn't have a group of people who openly criticizes them.  No one is ever going to write a book so perfect that everyone will love it, let alone like it.  So don't write for everyone, write for the people that matter to you.

     If you don't know who you are writing for turn around and figure it out.  The last thing you need to do is write horror and introduce it to a Jane Austen reading group.  They are not likely to be your type of group, and you will never get good feedback or love for your writing even if it's the greatest piece of horror ever written.  (Unless its a Jane Austen, meets Cujo, Meets Lestat.  Then there might be something for them to enjoy.)

       So, feel free to be a "bad writer."  Even someday when your great you will still wear that label.  I wear mine proudly because understanding that right now I am a bad writer, is the only way to become a good writer.

And someday hopefully a great writer.

Ben.

On Feeling Discouraged.

Let's be honest.

     You can hear again and again the struggles of writers as they tried to get published.  From J.K. Rowling living in a car and being a single mom, to Brandon Sanderson having written four or five book before being published.  Stephen King talks about not being able to afford "the pink stuff" (amoxacillin) for his sick child in his book "On Writing."  There are plenty of stories of "this author struggled to make it" to varying degrees.

      The problem is, despite the stories it's hard to look at the author in question and not see where they are know.

      Now I am sure we can find plenty of authors who also didn't have a hard time getting published.  We just don't hear about them because what is interesting about "I wrote a book, sent it in and they loved it?"  I would highly guess these authors are in the minority as the vast majority rack up rejection letter after rejection letter.  I think part of the passage of becoming a known author is working hard despite rejection and moving forward.

      This is the advice I'm sure you've heard again and again.  Keep working, keep writing.  You have to write over a million words before your writing is up to snuff.  You need to hone your craft, you need to keep submitting, you need, you need, you need.

      Sometimes "you need" is a daunting path to look down.  It's even longer when you realize that even if you do get a book deal and published you still have another roll of the dice on whether or not people will buy your book, or if it will flop.  There is every chance you will work your butt off, sacrifice time with family, and  lose thousands of hours just to find out that your newly published book doesn't sell.

      Dan Wells ("I Am Not a Serial Killer") posted a chart a couple month ago on how much published authors make.  The reality of this chart is that about 1% of published authors make over six figures.  Most make very little.  (I tried to find the chart and couldn't) He had a chart for self published authors as well and the figures were about as encouraging.  No one should become a published author in the hopes of being rich.  In most cases it's a supplementary hobby.

      I will make the argument that the charts may not have taken into account that I suspect most authors who get published write one book and quit.  Or finish their trilogy and when it's not a break away give up.  I highly suspect that 1% of authors sitting on larger incomes are people who just kept writing.  Book, after book they ignored the fact that sales weren't amazing or that they didn't seem to be gaining traction.  Then one day they realized they had grown a larger fan base, their books continued to be discovered and suddenly they were making money.  This is suspect is the normal way being manage a career from writing.  I think the very rare ones are those who write a book, or series and suddenly get discovered and are thrown into the lime-light.

      Discouragement is normal.  You need to have your downs to feel your ups.  You need to have bad experiences to have the good.  You will have good moments.  Even your first rejection letter can be a good moment, you have to choose to make it so.

      In the end you have two choices.  Let discouragement win, throw in the towel, and walk away, or stand straight and keep on writing through the frustration.

The pen is in your hand.

Ben.

Introductions are in order.

I am an aspiring writer.

Badly done cover before I changed the name the first time.

      I prefer to use that phrase rather then "I'm a writer," or "I'm and aspiring author."  Why? Well it's simple with me.

      I am a writer who is unpublished and still honing his craft.  I have finished the second book that I have written so far and am fighting myself into editing the little beastie.  Some authors have issues sitting down and writing consistently.  My nemesis happens to be the editing table as it were.

      You sit down, look at the work you have already done and you know it's not good enough so you change the words, fix the errors, and look for issues that aren't working.  This is where my first book died.  I may revisit it eventually, but for now I consider the story broken to the point where I would just have to rewrite the book from page one on.  Now that may not be the worst prospect, but I would rather take what I have put down on paper and rework it then start from proverbial scratch.

      The book I am working right now is presently titled "The Dark Below,"  I am debating taking the name back to "The Dragon's Apprentice."  It's a little urban fantasy that I realize after I wrote it really doesn't hold to much "urbaness" at all.  Most of it is spent in what might be considered fantasy type settings.  As it is, I like the book and the story and I am looking forward to having the writing reworked to the point where I can start marketing the book out to different agents/publishers.

     My goal is to have a new book written edited and finished every six months eventually.  Right now I'm still working the Book I did for NaNoWriMo back in November, so I've let myself get way behind schedule.  Part of this, is as it is the first book I want to actually market I have been farming some feedback before I go into crazy editing mode.  The other part is that I hate editing so as long as I have an excuse to put it off.....

       I am going to start working on being productive anyway.  I am prepping the outline etc... for book 2 of this trilogy and also working a side project.  I need to make sure I am still writing consistently however, with my job I don't have the luxury of being able to say I will write at time A consistently.  My schedule changes and fluxuates so my goals need to be set at places like, I will write 10,000 words this week.  I find I have a hard time writing daily, but when I do sit down I normally can bang out 3-5 thousand words.  There was one Saturday during NaNoWriMo where I knocked out 12,000 words in one day where I just marathon wrote.

      I will tie this up with my favorites list, and influences.  The books I suggest you, and everyone reads are as follows.

Robin Hobb.  The Farseer Trilogy.  (The rest of her books are fantastic, but this trilogy I love more then most.)
Robert Jordan.  The Wheel of time.  (I was reading it where there were only four or five books in the series"
Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn series, and Way of King Series.  (He also wrapped up Wheel of time)
Jim Butcher.  The Dresden Files.  (Simply amazing.  He uses the same formula for every book and it's so good it doesn't feel like it.)
Kim Harrison. The Hollows Series. (Another great Urban Fantasy)

     And my list goes on from there.  I will probably look back and realize that I missed several I would have wanted to mention.

Next time I will have an actual subject to discuss.  I will be past the introduction stage.

Ben.