Writing Ensemble Casts in your Stories

Quan

As of this post, I am currently writing a high fantasy trilogy featuring a group of heroes questing together to save their world against a vicious death cult. This presents a unique challenge in that you really have multiple potential protagonists and you want to portray them all with equal depth and development. So when presented with that conundrum, the question becomes whose eyes do you tell the story through?

How about all of them?

I chose to approach this issue by switching my POV character with every new scene. Each of my characters has a unique voice and way of seeing both the world and their comrades. So I tap into that by following the most important character in a particular scene through the scene and writing from their perspctive. And I decide that on a scene-by-scene basis, so each scene is told from a different character’s perspectve. This is a technique you might want to consider when writing stories about multiple characters.

Do’s and dont’s of switching POV

The biggest rule about writing from multiple points of view is not to disorient the reader. You want to be consistent with who’s head you’re in at any given time. I separate things by scene, where each complete scene in a story is told from the perspective of one character. I try to make it clear early in the scene who the POV character is, and after the scene ends, I put an extra space between scenes to make it clear that there is going to be a change. But there are other approaches. Some writers switch characters within a scene, but they still make a point to separate the segments of the different characters. Just make sure that it is clear who the reader is following around, and when you switch to somebody else.

How to determine which POV to use at a certain scene.

For my story, I look at the scene I want to write and ask myself which character would have the most to say or do in it. Whose perspective would make the most sense and would reveal the most about what is going on at all levels within that scene? I also factor in previous scenes, and whose perspectives I had used previously. These are factors you want to keep in mind for your story. Which of your characters would resonate the most with what is going on at that particular moment in the story?

Managing Interactions

Another thing you need to be cognizant of is how your ensemble interacts with each other. How each character is viewed and presented should change as perspectives and points of view change. Different people view different people differently. To Lois Lane, Superman is her husband, her lover, the father of her child, and a respected peer in the journalism world. That is totally different from how Batman sees Superman, which is also totally different from how Lex Luthor sees Superman. But each person’s view of him reveals more about Superman than if seen through the eyes of just one person. You can do some interestng things with that.

You also want to make sure that your point of view stays consistent as these different characters interact with each other. You don’t want to have Billy be the POV character talking to Jack, but then switch to Jack’s POV mid-conversation. That can confuse and disorient the reader, which is something you don’t want to happen.

Using Stage & Screen as a template.

I like to model my character interactions after interactions on television, plays and movies. I understand most of those interactions aren’t the most realistic, but I enjoy the heightened drama of those interactions, how every character has something witty or profound to say, and how there is very little wasted dialogue and movement. Real life interactions are not nearly as clear cut, and can be very messy, uncoordinated and awkward. Oftentimes people don’t know what to say, or say the wrong thing, or stumble over their words, or make gestures that can be misconstrued. These are things that can be tapped into for good effect, but they can also get in the way of moving the story forward if not handled correctly. I like how in screenplays the most important dialogue and interactions are presented first. So when these characters interact, start with what is most important for advancing the narrative, and branch out from that.

Writing a story with multiple POV characters is not an impossible task, and can be done effectively. The key is to make sure that each character is given an equal amount of respect and care. Your reader should come ou of the story with a deep understanding of everyone in your ensemble. Keep that in mind and you should be able to effectively handle it.

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Your Hero Doesn’t Have to be the Hero!

Quan

The vast majority of stories are told from the perspective of the altruistic (even if flawed) hero facing the odds to accomplish whatever goal he or she has n mind. They may stumble and fall, but it is clear that particular lead character is the one you as a reader should be rooting for to solve their problem and succeed. This is a tried and true method of storytelling, and it obviously works. Having a likable, relatable character makes it easier for readers to get invested in the story because they genuinely want to see if their protagonist can overcome the obstacles put in their way. Even tragic heroes that are doomed to fail have some redeeming qualities that readers can get behind.

But what if I told you there was another viable way to approach the story? What if you told the story with the villain as a protagonist? Or with a companion to the actual hero as the protagonist? These are storytelling approaches that have also been done, and done well. Ahab was the hero of Moby Dick, but the story was told through the eyes of his first mate Ishmael. The legendary exploits of Sherlock Holmes were told trough the eyes of his trusty sidekick Watson. And L. Ron Hubbard’s epic sci-fi saga Mission Earth was told almost entirely with the central villain of the story, Soltan Gris, as the point-of-view protagonist. It can be done.

Writing the story from a different perspective allows you to add new nuances to our story. Watching the story through only the hero’s eyes can be like watching with blinders, and you don’t really get to see what is going on beyond what the hero is paying attention to. But if you tell the story through someone else’s eyes, you can point out details about your hero, the situation and the world your characters populate that the hero will miss. A supporting character can see your hero’s more vulnerable moments, faults and foibles better than the hero, and may be in a position to comment on it. Telling the story through the antagonists eyes allows you to poke holes in the logic and idealism that drives you hero to try to complete their mission, and also might serve to humanize the villain and make him more relatable. Telling the story from the perspective of an everyman passer-by or a random person caught up in the crossfire of he story adds a different, more detached viewpoint, that can focus on the realtime consequences of the hero’s actions and how they affect everyone else that isn’t directly involved with the events transpiring. In a recent Magic: The Gathering story set on an ancient Egypt-themed world, a series of short stories were dedicated to chronicling the average people of that world caught up in the middle of an epic struggle between the heroes of the story (The Gatewatch, a collection of powerful mages dedicated to protecting the multiverse) and an army of undead warriors and evil gods led by the ancient elder dragon Nicol Bolas. By reading the events of the story through their eyes, you can get a very real and relatable sense of the stakes of this battle and how it really affects the world the battle is taking place on.

The first thing you want to do is take a look at the basic framework of or story and ask yourself who is involved in it. Obviously your typical protagonist will be there, but usually the protagonist isn’t alone in their journey. Who else is in the story, and how can they offer a different perspective on what is happening?

Or maybe the hero’s journey isn’t the most interesting aspect of the story. Have you taken a deep dive int your villain or antagonist, and followed their story? What if that was the more fascinating tale? The protagonist of The Talented Mr. Ripley series is charismatic, likable and relatable. He is also a liar, manipulator and cold-blooded murderer who will doublecross and destroy anybody in his way to get what he wants. And for many of his books, there is nobody else hat can match how despicable he is to make him come of as more sympathetic or heroic. He is no antihero. He is clearly the villain of his own story, but what he does and how he does is is an engaging read because readers are actively wondering if he is going to actually get away with everything he is doing, and who – if anyone – will be the one to finally stop him. That is a formula that can work for you, if handled properly. There is a reason why iconic villains like Darth Vader, The Joker, Lex Luthor and Dr. Doom often get to be the protagonists of comic books. Even the villain is a hero in his own mind.

I am currently working on a series of fantasy stories where the actual hero of the entire saga only makes brief cameo appearances, and the reader doesn’t realize that the protagonists I’ve been telling the story though aren’t the real heroes of the story until the very end. Unreliable narrators make for very engaging protagonists. You can really play with tat, and mess with reader expectations, by portraying a less-than-noble protagonist in a noble light. It can really add some depth to your story and keep the reader guessing.

So when you start writing your next story, take a look at all of the characters involved, and consider experimenting with who you tell the story through. You might get a more engaging story by telling it through someone else’s eyes and voice.

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How to Write a Trilogy

Quan

Trilogies are a holy grail in storytelling. They make any story larger and grander, and can create a real connection over time between the reader and the central characers. I’m in the process of writing my own trilogy, so I thought I’d do some digging into what makes trilogies work. I found a bunch of great advice on a bunch of other blogs, so I thought I’d share my findings with you, along with some of my own observations from writing my own trilogy.

  1. The first part of the story must be able to stand on its own merits. The Master & Commander series of books are quite popular, but when adapted for screen, never made it past the first movie (despite the movie being pretty damned good and making a lot of money). The lesson is that you cannot assume that your storyarc will make it to book two. Make sure your first story is strong and well-told and can work as a standalone story.
  2. Part two takes everything that worked about part one and ramps everything up, the stakes are higher, the character swings are bolder, and the consequences more severe. And part three is the closure where story arcs conclude and loose ends are tied up.
  3. Throughout the stories, there have to be details, thematic or otherwise, that tie the three stories together. Ideally, your reader should be able to sit and go through all three stories in one sitting and feel that they have read one complete narrative.
  4. To piggyback off of point one: each part of the trilogy has to work as a self-contained story within itself while at the same time advancing the overall narrative. You never know which story will be somebody’s jumping-on point, so you want to make sure they get a complete story in that one instance, whether they are reading part one or part three. At the same time, the most successful trilogies have a narrative thread that develops over the course of the series. It could be a plot arc or a character development arc, or even a setting/environmental arc. I’m a huge James Bond fan, and I love each of its 25+ movies, but the stories pitting him against Spectre and Ernst Starvo Blofeld resonate the most with me because the rivalry between the two is built and developed over the course of multiple stories (i.e. Dr, No through Diamonds are Forever was an excellent build, as was Casino Royale through Spectre). Likewise, the original Foundation Trilogy chronicled the fall of the Galactic Empire and the rise of the Foundation over the course of many generations.

For me, a good trilogy is a prime example of the 3 act rule that I spoke of in earlier posts, just in a bigger package and working at a Meta level. To review, Magic: The Gathering Head of R&D Mark Rosewater (who also wrote episodes of Roseanne) described the process in three steps: 1) get your protagonist stuck up a tree. 2) throw rocks at them. 3) get your character down from the tree. This works withn the confines of a regular story, but it also works within a trilogy. The first story gets your character stuck up the tree. Even within your protagonist’s resolution of the story’s central plot, there are seeds planted which show that the greater problem has not been solved yet. Think Star Wars: yes, the Death Star was destroyed, but the Empire still rules the galaxy, and the big bad (Darth Vader) was still out there to create havoc in a future movie. The second story raises the stakes and truly puts the heroes in jeopardy of not completing their overall goal; like in Empire Strikes Back, where Luke and Company were dealt devastating blows by Vader, Palpatine and the Empire and the only central plot of the story was whether our heroes could survive it all and make it to the end of the movie. And the third story ties everything together and resolves everything, like in Return of the Jedi where Luke finally redeems his father and destroys the leader of the Empire…along with another Death Star.

There are a lot of things to keep in mind if you are planning a trilogy, but then there are added challenges if a story you originally hadn’t intended on expanding organically develops into something that needs more installments. Maybe your standalone story is so successful that your fans of your publisher demand a follow-up or two. Or maybe you have so much going on in your sequel that you can’t contain it all in one book. In those instances, the best thing to do is to do a deep dive into the world you created in book one. Pick out as many aspects of the settings, plots, subplots and characters that could be explored, and find an overall theme you can build an overarching narrative from that can carry multiple books.

So if you are hankering for a good narrative challenge, try taking one of your stories and expanding it into a 3-part saga. You might discover some new things about your world that will only serve to enhance your original idea.

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Interview with Jonis Agee

Quan

Jonis Agee is most likely the highest-profiled author I know. She is critically acclaimed, and has won more than her share of literary awards. She also has the distinction of being one of my creative writing teachers at the University of Michigan. I learned a ton about the craft of storytelling from her, and it is an honor to post her insights on her writing process here. Get more information about her and her books at her website jonisagee.com.

What inspires your writing?

This is a good question. I have to stop and think because it changes all the time, and it has changed over the years each time someone asks it. I always knew I would be a writer, even before I began to write. It just came to me that that would be my job. And it’s a great one! All kinds of things move me to write: it’s a form of talking to others, sharing things that move me, disturb me, fill me with happiness and beauty or outrage and a search for meaning and understanding. Each story, poem, or book I write is an investigation of something that is happening or has happened that I want to explore and address. My latest novel, The Bones of Paradise built up over fifteen years of thinking about and visiting the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, for instance. When I was told the story of what generations of ranchers did to the oldest son to guarantee their legacy, I was moved by another form of injustice and found a way to yoke the stories together to build the novel. I am currently writing a novel set in the Missouri Ozarks during the Civil War and 1930 with the building of Bagnell Dam and the Lake of the Ozarks. It explores the ongoing issues of racial, social and economic tension and the injustices that have never been resolved there. My people are from that part of the country and I have spent a lifetime trying to understand them. I guess that’s what finally moves me: the urge to tell people’s stories, people who are historically forgotten or ignored, working people and people whose lives are troubled, people who rise above their circumstances and search for dignity and meaning, and people who go the opposite direction.

What is your process of developing characters?

I collect old, historical pictures, the kind you find in junk shops and antique stores. I look for the faces and scenes that seem to speak to me, and then I began to listen to the stories they might have to tell. Sometimes a character will appear before a picture, and Flannery O’Connor style, I will hear their voice speaking and begin to write their words and feel their world unfold around them, a scene or story that led up to the words they spoke. I quickly have to find out where a character is, specifically, what the place is in detail. I guess I’m pretty literal about place and setting. The minute I see them in a place, watch them move around, I begin to know them. I work to get them to take over the story, to let the unexpected happen. I love how Toni Morrison lets her characters do good and bad things, regardless of where they fall on the axis of morality, so I try to open myself and the characters to those other sides of themselves. If I have a character who seems too good to be true, they usually are, so I roughen them up by seeing what is petty, mean, small or hidden inside them. We all have those moments where we don’t do or say the right thing for a whole variety of reasons, and to make a complete portrait of a human being we need that aspect too. The same is true of characters who are so dark or evil that they’re wooden tropes. I will write from their point of view, trying to get them to reveal their own story of themselves, how they see the world and what they are, which can bring some deeper understanding to the character for the reader. Or I look for what they love, without reservation, what they love so wholeheartedly that they are briefly disarmed in the embrace of that creature or thing. In one novel I discovered that a bad man, a truly bad man, really loved his dog. I mean, he treated that dog as if it were a girlfriend or a brother he never had. It had a terrific life, and seeing that capacity for positive feeling in that bad man, made him more complex and interesting. Another thing I do to develop characters is figure out what their dreams, desires, fantasies, nightmares, fears, and histories are. That takes a long time, but it’s key to grasping what a person is. I noticed several years ago when I was writing South of Resurrection that I had this urge to explain my characters psychologically too much when I was writing, I kept getting stuck on the word “because” and it was a real problem because I don’t have an advanced degree in psychology. Also, I was using too much of the pop psychology that was bombarding the media. Most importantly, my characters were tipping over into types because they were simply the result of a designated trauma. I made a rule then, that freed both the characters and me the writer: I could not use the word “because.” Characters acted and felt certain things without me having to pause for long and simpleminded diagrams of their mental health. I discovered that it’s important to let characters simply act and suffer or enjoy the results of that action, that we don’t always know or need to know or can know the root cause of behavior, that is what makes us interesting and worthy of spending time with, I believe.

Did you Start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

I wish I could outline my stories. It would make the writing go faster I think. But, no, I never outline. I’m just lazy enough that if I know how the story turns out, how and when the angles of change occur, then I get bored and don’t want to write the whole thing. I have to be surprised by the characters and the story. I often hear or see the opening, and then I go to work to figure out how this all started and what these people are going to do next.

How much research did you need for your story?

With the novels I do a lot of research, whether it’s concerning place or historical events and place. Always place has to be researched. For instance, I have to know what plants, trees, animals, birds, weather, sky, water, houses, economic issues, ethnic, racial, religions are in a place. I read histories of a place regardless of whether the novel is historical or not. If it is historical, for instance, The River Wife, set in the New Madrid area of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquake was the big inciting event for the novel. It was also the biggest earthquake in North America, with aftershocks lasting a year. The old town of New Madrid was taken by the Mississippi River then, and the land developed swamp and sand boils and bottomless springs. I spent time learning about earthquakes, the Civil War since a decisive battle over the control of the Mississippi River and war supplies occurred at New Madrid, cotton growing, the depression and prohibition, Hot Springs, Arkansas, and women’s rights in those periods. I had to learn about architecture of the time before the Civil War and Audubon who wandered in the region teaching young women to paint while he researched and drew birds. I read his letters, and he became a character in the novel. When I write historical novels, it usually takes me longer, say six years because the writing is slowed by research.

What researching methods did you use?

I go to the place where I am setting my novel usually. I drive around. I meet people, listen to their stories, how they see their world. I visit the historical museums in the little towns where I am going to put my story. I read a general history or two of the state or the region to get a sense of how the region developed. The Sand Hills of Nebraska where I have placed three of my novels, including the most recent, The Bones of Paradise, I did a great deal of research into the Lakota people who originally roamed the region until they were forced onto the reservations in South Dakota just over the Nebraska border. I spent time on Rosebud primarily but visited Pine Ridge too. I read a great deal, of course, about history, religion, and everyday life. Because the land itself is the source of every aspect of life out there, I had to research grasslands, cattle management such as diseases and the economics, and explore life in very small, isolated towns and ranches. I do a lot of just poking around to discover what stories are in a place, how the people there exist, how they get along and don’t. I read the small town weekly newspapers too. I used to look into the phone books to see what businesses were there, the names of people. That’s harder now, of course.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Always. That’s why I go to the place I’m writing about and put myself into the world, to see what it will send back. I have found scenes and plot lines and characters using this method. I sometimes draw on my own history. It’s impossible not to. But I don’t see myself as someone who writes autobiographically. I inhabit the worlds of my stories through my imagination. That’s what gives me the greatest pleasure, allows me to live a much broader and fuller life than I would otherwise. Reading and writing are absolutely linked in this way for me.

How did your publish?

I began writing as a poet, and my first published book was a long poem of ninety pages, with Truck Press, a small literary press. Then I turned to fiction and published two collections of stories with small literary presses, followed by my first novel which was published by what is now a division of Random House. All my novels have been published by large New York presses, and my last four short story collections have been published by Coffee House Press, which has grown to have a significant national presence as a literary, non profit press.

Why did you do it that way?

I didn’t plan it out this way. I actually got a literary agent when he was judging for the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. He liked my work. Many years later, when I had a novel, I won a Loft McKnight Fellowship in Fiction, and they printed a booklet of our fiction and sent it to Editors at big presses in New York. An editor, Jane von Mehren, liked my work, contacted me, and we sold her the novel I had been working on for eight years. She was my editor for the first five novels until she became a literary agent. The editor of my latest novel, Bones of Paradise published by William Morrow, was Jessica Williams, and she did an excellent job. Meanwhile, my short story collections seemed a better fit for Coffee House Press. They keep the books in print and give me the latitude I need to take risks with my writing and subject matter. It works for all of us.

How long did it take to land representation for your latest novel?

I sent novel drafts to my agent for about six months, and then she began to submit it. It took about a month or so to sell it to Jessica Williams at William Morrow. I try to wait until I think the novel is pretty much done before I send it to my agent, and then I make revisions as she suggests. My husband, writer Brent Spencer, is my first reader.

What advice would you have for writers looking to publish the way you published?   

For novels, find a good strong story with characters that readers want to care about even if they are not paragons of virtue. Write enough drafts that it doesn’t need a ton of work on revision. Query agents, friends, other writers with agents, etc. to get an agent if you are looking to publish commercially in New York.  Get help with a good query letter for agents. Don’t expect agents and editors to do the kind of editing you read about in the past. Everyone is overworked. If you are interested in smaller, literary presses, look at what they publish and check out their websites for submission guidelines. Again, have the book in final form.

Do you use beta readers? No.

How many revisions did it take to get a final draft of you most recent novel?

At least six. I usually write complete drafts and end up throwing some of them away, restarting, reconceiving, etc. I apologize to the trees of the world. I print out each version. Each draft is too long, especially early on…say 700 pages or so. I spend time at the end of the process cutting and compressing. That is the really painful part.

What are some of your methods for establishing a believable and immersive setting you stories? 

I look for the smallest parts after establishing the big frame of a setting. I think of those long sweeping shots of the opening of films, or of the close up camera shot that gradually pulls out. I try to find where dust is, in the air, on character clothing maybe, on tables, etc. I think about what fills interior spaces in terms of “stuff” and what accumulates that indicates our living in a place. I addressed some of the business of place earlier in my comments because it’s so important to me and my storytelling.

What are you writing now?

I’m just finishing a new collection of stories that are very different for me. They cross into fable, myth, fantasy, surrealism, you name it. They explore the intersections of realism and fable or myth that create reality.

As I noted above, I am also writing a new novel, which I hope to finish this year.

What is your advice to other writers?

Write. Read. Write some more. Enjoy your job! Seriously, if you are a writer, you were chosen as much as you chose it. Throw yourself and everything you have into it! Our village is relying on us to tell their stories.

Her latest novel is The Bones of Paradise. Go get your copy now!

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Upload Memorable Characters First in a Narrative

Quan

When a teacher steps into a new classroom, they learn the names of two types of students first: the troublemakers and the top of the class. Anyone who has ever taught knows why this is true. The troublemakers are disruptive, and you’re forced to learn their names early just to keep them in line.

“Alright, quiet now, Ricky.”

“Sit down, Tiffany.”

“Don’t throw that, Jay.”

This, of course, is playing into their game, but this is one match you’re not going to win. On the flip side, however, you also learn the names of the top of the class early on, because when you’re teaching and trying to elicit answers to gauge how much the class understands, it’s the students who are quickest on the uptake in the given subject that end up raising their hand first.

“Ok class, how do you correct this sentence: ‘He walk to school.’ Yes, Bella?”

“‘He walks to school.’”

“Right, subject-verb agreement. ‘He walks to school.’ Good job, Bella!”

Perhaps it’s not fair to the well-behaved students, or the ones who aren’t as good at that particular subject. You’ll eventually learn those other kids’ names as the month goes on, but that’s, ultimately, a life lesson: those who are most engaging stick in our heads foremost.

So it goes with writing.

Characters in prose can’t be the students whose names you’ll eventually remember as time goes on, because, as writers, you’re constantly trying to keep readers engaged. I think every writer should have this taped over their computer: ‘The world is full of distractions. Keep your readers engaged in every sentence, every page, every chapter.’

It’s best to accomplish this with your characters because it often takes a couple of chapters of a novel for readers to get caught up in the plot. However, characters are generally introduced immediately. There aren’t many books where, in the opening pages, a character hasn’t appeared: a main character, a supporting character, a minor character, but a character nevertheless. In order to give these individuals populating the early page a personality that will hook readers, keep these techniques in mind.

  1. Make your characters’ quirks exciting. If you must have them go to an ordinary store on a mudane errand in the beginning of your novel, so be it. But have them decide they’re going to go out in their pants that they spilled mustard on earlier at lunch, and in their shirt with a gaping hole in the underarm, because they figure they’re just running in and out really fast so who’s going to care?
  2. Keep your characters weird. If they must work at an average job for an average company in the first chapter, okay. But have them wake up on time, leave home early, get to work early, then drive around the office looking for the closest parking space, going round and round the block until they’re actually a minute late to work.
  3. Show your characters’ neurotic sides. If they’re just sitting home in the first chapter doing nothing much, fine, but they can still treat their pet like a baby, spoiling it rotten, talking incessantly to it, and paying it more attention than anything else to an eyebrow-raising degree.

As writers, don’t focus on the bland of character personalities. That, of course, would be boring, and to some degree everyone is exciting, weird, and neurotic. So make sure to capture this in your characterization. Give your readers a reason to take note of their behavior, because just like the troublemaker, and the top student, two extremes in every class whose names are first remembered, everyone is memorable in some way, even when going about the mundanities of their daily lives.

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People Are Twitchy

Quan

Have you ever seen actors accept awards for their performances and wonder what made their performances stand out so much from the performances of their peers? Or read a story and wonder what it was that made a character seem so real and relatable to you? The answer to both questions usually lies in nuance. Beyond the broad brush strokes of who a character is supposed to be and how he or she is supposed to be portrayed, it is the details and minor tics of that performances that make a character seem more real and more human. These small behaviors and tics can often give away more information about the character than some of their major decisions and character traits. If you want to make your characters more real to the reader, you want to tap into these small actions.

I say that people are twitchy because it is a rare occasion when someone is standing perfectly still doing absolutely nothing. Even when people are doing something as menial as walking or having conversation, there are tics, facial expressions and body language that helps convey what is truly on their minds and how they feel about their current situation.

This is a key to avoiding having talking heads in a conversation, or even spending too much time in the inner thoughts of a character. You can break up all of that by showing even some small actions or movements. It could be a character folding their arms defiantly, or tapping their feet impatiently. It could be a character nervously picking at their facial hair or at a scar, or a character swaying back and forth as they speak. When a woman touches a man’s hand during a conversation, she is looking for a connection. A lot of people wave their arms and hands to emphasize what they are talking about, and they do it subconsciously without even knowing that they do it.

Facial expression gives a lot away without the character having to say of think anything, too. Study how the human face contorts with different emotions and thoughts. Eyes widen, narrow or dilate. Jaws drop, lips purse, brows furrow or raise, nostrils flare, ears perk. This adds to your story in that they are very visual cues to how a character is behaving that a reader can see in their mind’s eye.

The best moment to introduce these small behaviors is when a character has to react to something. You can give away a lot about what your characters think or feel about the new information you have presented with them without having to resort to them directly saying something, or without having to delve into their thought processes and spell out what they are thinking and how they feel. When fists clench, someone is readying for a fight, whether or not a punch is ever thrown.

This is also good for enhancing action, where there is a lot of stuff happening in your scene. If you want to show what a character is thinking without risking a stop in the action to process their inner thoughts, then show it through their body language and facial expression. Is your protagonist tired from chasing the bad guy through the streets? Then show them stopping to catch their breath, hunched over, clutching their thighs with both hands, panting heavily with their eyes squinted shut. It’s a very visual indicator of what state your character is in at the moment, and it says a lot more than trying to explain how tired they are.

You can even use these nuances to mislead. How often have you seen instances where somebody is saying one thing, but you can tell that they don’t mean what they say? Body language and facial tics can be a dead giveaway to when someone is being insincere, or when they are deliberately trying to mislead. Even when someone is trying to control their body language to mask their true feelings, you can often tell when they are acting.

You can define characters by their facial expression and body language. Maybe your heroine twirls her hair when she is nervous, or maybe your villain has a particular hand gesture he does with his index finger and thumb when he is trying to emphasize his point. This is a way you can give your characters added depth and make them recognizable.

Adding more subtle and nuanced behavior makes your characters more human and relatable. It also has the added benefit of helping add to your word count. So the next time you write, be sure to add some of these details to how your characters interact with their worlds.

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Take a Baby Step

Quan

I believe every writer has dealt with writer’s block in some way, shape or form. Even when it’s not as extreme as staring at a blank screen and not knowing where to start, you can and oftentimes will encounter situations where you don’t know what to write next. Maybe you have a vital character you haven’t quite figured out yet, or a situation your characters are in that you haven’t figured out how they get out of. Maybe you have something brewing in your mind’s eye but can’t figure out the write way to get that vision in words. Either way, you will be faced with a situation where you won’t know what to write next.

There are a number of solutions to get the creative juices flowing and the words pouring out again, but I’m going to focus on one approach in partcular. I use it often when I get stuck. Heck, I use it often when I’m wring these blog posts. I’m actually doingit right now: as I write this, I’m also adding bits and pieces to 5 other blog posts.

Question: how do you eat an elephant?

Answer: one bite at a time.

Even if you can’t do everything, you can at least do something. Making progress is making progress, If you can add even the smallest tidbit to your writing piece; a sentence here, an idea there, a note you might want to come back and develop or a germ of a character idea you might want to explore, or some tidbit of useful data you fond researching on Google; then you are still actively growing and cultivating your story, and it all counts. That small piece of information you added could be the catalyst to opening a flood of new content, or be the inspirationt hat erases yor writer’s block and gets you going.

I do it quite often, and not just for this blog. If I’m stuck on a story, I don’t sit and pore over it for too long. I’ll just add a few sentences or a new plot point I’ll want to work towards or maybe some backstory elements I’ll want to come back to. Heck, for the book series I’m working on, I’ll even jot notes and ideas down for future books, with the full intent on planting seeds for those plot developments somewhere in my current story. Every little bit helps, and it all counts.

So do this exercise for a story you are currently stuck on. Look at the current situation your characters are in, and ask one of them, any one of them, what they think of the situation. Make them tell you in exactly one sentence. Then write it down.

That’s it.

One sentence.

If nothing else comes to mind, that’s okay. Leave it there and try again tomorrow. If your character has more to say, then keep going. But don’t put any pressure on youself to add more than your imagination can generate right now. Be happy with that one sentence…for now.

The next step is to see if you can add another sentence tomorrow. Sooner or later these sentences will start to string themselves together, your creative juices will flow and you’ll be hammering out entire paragraphs, scenes and chapters. But you don’t have to rush it or force it. Heck, when I was writing Double Entry, I made progress when I was stuck by literally having my protagonist say out loud that he didn’t know what was going to happen next, which mirrored how I felt at the time. Other charatcers had a response to that, and that conversation between them turned into a pivotal scene in the book.

Even a 1000 mile journey will get shorter with every inch of progression. And a baby step is still a step. If you can add something – anything – to your story to help it advance, no matter how small, then you have helped advanced your story forward, and have taken a step towards the creative breakthrough that will help you make significant progress in your story. So what are you waiting for? Add something to your story right now!

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How Storytelling Applies to Other Types of Writing

Quan

If you have been reading my blog regularly, you know that my main focus has been on improving as a storyteller. But also if you’ve read my author interviews, you would see that many of the authors I have interviewed wrote nonfiction books. There is much more to writing than just writing fiction. There are nonfiction writers, marketing writers, journalists, technical writers, essayists, and a plethora of other forms of writing that people engage in.

But I maintain that storytelling can be, and often is, a crucial aspect in all forms of writing, above and beyond just fiction.

Storytelling makes any writing more engaging

Anyone that has read a textbook for class or research knows that a lot of writing can be dry and uninteresting. It is a reason why a lot of people dread reading. A good story takes the reader on a journey where they follow how everything progresses over time. The way you write your piece can take your readers on that journey. The reader in now invested in the narrative you are presenting, and wondering how, or even if, the subject you are presenting can solve the problem you have created. Now your reader wants to know more about the subject you are writing about. They want to know the details because each detail you present could be part of the solution to the problem, or even present more problems that need to be resolved. It’s human nature: if you witness something begin that catches your attention, you will naturally want to see it through to its completion. You can use that to your advantage.

Benefits of adding a storytelling element to your writing

Making your writing piece into a story helps make your point more digestible. Your writing is no longer just a stream of facts statistics and ideas. There is a definitive, driving point to what you have written, and all of your supporting information now has a clear direction it is pointing in. If you are marketing, or writing to sell something, telling a story help the reader envision themselves in the situation where your product or service would be beneficial. That way they can better visualize the benefit your service or product will bring to them.

Creating a narrative.

The classic 3-act structure can be used in any setting. Simply, put, act one presents a problem, act two is the process of trying to solve the problem, and act there is the resolution of the problem. So now the question becomes how to compile your writings to fit this structure. Here is a simple, three-step way to do hat.

1. Find The Problem

Whatever you are writing about, whether it be advice you are giving, a product or service you are trying to promote, a theory you are trying to explain, or an explanation of how something works, it is in response to something that created a need for what you are writing about. Start by pinpointing where exactly that need was generated. This is the beginning of your story.

2. Find The Solution

Whatever conclusion you were going o write about, whether it actually solves your problem or not, is your solution in this context. It is the end of your story and the resolution for what you are setting up.

3. Find The Process

Now you have to figure out how to get from the genesis of your problem to its resolution. This is where all of your data, or historical references, or your selling points come into play. You actually have some creative liberty here with how you present the details, you can show how each of your points responds to different aspects of the problem. You could show how your solution initially responds to the problem, how the problem reacts (or present counter-arguments to your solutions), and how the solution responds to those responses, or a number of other ways of presenting the information. The most important thing is to show a progression where the problem you have pinpointed is resolved over time. This is the journey that you are taking you reader on.

If you can mold your non-creative writing project into a story narrative, you will make your writing more engaging and appealing to the reader, and they will be much more comfortable with reading what you wrote completely from beginning to end. Give it a try and see what you come up with.

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Interview with Angelique Clemens

Quan

I’ve known Angelique from way back in my college days. She is a vibrant, outgoing lady with a ton of insight to offer via her debut novel “Can I Borrow Your Skin?” While creating her author website for her at angeliqueclemens.com I took the time to interview her about her book.

What inspires your writing?

Life. I am moved by significant events in my life and the life of those around me. Writing about those experiences and working through different outcomes is what inspires my writings. As humans, we naturally think through what-ifs and daydream. For me that daydreaming and trying to visualize a world different than the path I took can open doors to another story.  

What is your process of developing characters?

I write biographical fiction therefore the characters’ relatability is imperative for the success of the book. I spend time developing storyboard for each of the main character of the book and their relationship.

Did you Start with a story outline or did you make it up as you went along?

It is a combination of both. I spend time developing the characters and their relationship, but I do not outline the entire book.

How much research did you need for your story?

Can I Borrow Your Skin is based in a time period and in an area in the world that I am quite familiar so I did not have to research those aspects of the book.

What researching methods did you use?

I did research some of the sporting event scores and schedules using the internet.

Did you draw on personal experience?

Absolutely! I definitely included elements of my own life in the book. We, as authors, do write what we know and I know my own experiences the best.

How did your publish?

I have a friend that owns a publishing company. He mentored me through the publishing process.

Why did you do it that way?

It was cost-effective and never felt like I was going at it alone.

How long did it take to land representation?

It was instantaneous for me once I reached out to him.

What advice would you have for writers looking to publish the way you published?

Contact Shawn at shawntblanchard.com, his is an excellent author, speaker, and mentor.

Who did your cover and marketing?

Shawn’s team did my cover based on my ideas. I marketed the book based on the advice received from Shawn.

Did you use beta readers? How did you secure them?

I did. I reached out to a group of authors and subject-matter experts that I knew.

How many revisions did it take to get a publishable book?

Three!

What do you think readers that have never experienced situations like your protagonist will gain from reading your story?

How to love themselves. The protagonist spends so much of her time adapting and in so doing she feels as if she is losing herself. Persons reading my book will hopefully walk away from the book thinking to themselves that it is OK to not be perfect and that trying to be what everyone expects of you will have you in a situation where you are never who you know yourself to be.

What are you writing now?

The sequel to Can I Borrow Your Skin

What is your advice to other writers?

Embrace the process! Allow yourself to enjoy the experience.

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Putting Your Spin on an Established Story Type

Quan

How often have you read a book, watched a movie or played a video game and thought to yourself “You know, if I had written this, I’d have the story go another way”? I go through that a lot. Most stories follow well-established sets of tropes and conventions. But what makes a story idea “new” or “fresh” is the unique twists and changes they put on a story to make it different from what has come before. There are different ways you can do this, and each way creates fertile ground for new, groundbreaking story ideas that you can tap into.

Inverting Expectations

One of my favorite movies is the Drew Barrymore film “Ever After.” it follows a popular trend in movies where they take classic story and retell it with more modern sensibilities and attitudes. In this case it was a more assertive, independent and empowered Cinderella that didn’t need a fairy godmother or a magic pumpkin to get the attention of the prince.

It has been done countless times in comic books, like in DC Comics’ “Tales from the Dark Multiverse,” where things go horribly wrong during iconic events in the DC universe’s history, and those stories play out entirely differently from their original counterparts, with much darker outcomes.

To take this approach you can simply take a well-used story trope, study how that archetype usually progresses, and then ask yourself what would happen if you changed a few key details. There are lots of variations on the classic “hero’s journey” story type because of this. Imagine taking the story archetype used in “Dances with Wolves,” “Fern Gully” and “Avatar” and changing a key plot point so that the story goes in an entirely different direction.

Adding New Elements

The popular card game Magic: the Gathering has a history of taking popular stories and putting their spin on it. Whether it be Gothic horror with their Innistrad storyline, or Arthurian legends and Grimm Fairy tales with their Eldraine Storyline, or Japanese mythology with their Kamigawa storyline, they make a habit of taking well-known story tropes in pop culture and using them as the basis for creating something both new and familiar. You can do the same thing, by taking that story archetype, keeping the framework as-is, but adding some new elements to make the story unique. What would happen if you took that Dances with Wolves story type and added a live film crew that broadcast the whole saga like a reality show, with a live audience?

Making Fundamental Changes.

Quentin Tarantino’s film “Hateful 8” is, at its core, a chamber mystery. A bunch of unique characters are locked into a room with a mystery to solve, where possibly one of them is the culprit. It is a classic type of storytelling mastered by writers like Agatha Christie. Tarantino, however, puts two unique spins on the trope by first placing the story in the Wild West, and secondly by not having anything particularly mystery-worthy happen until more than halfway through the movie. The mystery until that point is figuring out why these disparate people were brought together in the first place.

For this approach, find a classic story archetype and try altering different aspects of it. Change the locale or the time period. Change the protagonist or the villain. And then see how those changes affect the story. We’ve seen that Dances With Wolves story in the wild west, in a Brazillian rainforest, and in outer space. What if you set the story in a circus? And had a drag queen as the protagonist instead of the typical male?

You don’t have to have a total blank slate when you are trying to come up with a new story to write. It is perfectly acceptable to take well-use story types and make changes to it to make the story your own. Give it a try and see what you come up with.

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