Determined Fate

This is actually a really good question. I. Don’t know?

I think Red would hold off on using the safeword until he absolutely had to, and by that, I mean he’d only use it if he thought what was happening was going to trigger one of his episodes. The safeword wouldnt be for him, it would be to make sure he never hurt his pets.

This is probably something the poly will have to talk about at some point, since that’s obviously not the point. But I also wonder if Red honestly cares or has strong enough feelings about any activity otherwise. Does he honestly care what they do as long as they’re safe and happy? probably not. I cant think of anything off the top of my head where red would use the safeword with dance and lust.

Red making innocuous color puns like "cyan't lookin fer trouble. ya blue it fer me though didn't ya? better back off before i put a periwinkle in yer plans. there aint no smoke without sapphire, yanno. i mean it." just rapid fire pun pun pun and nobody else notices-

This is actually a really good question. I. Don’t know?

I think Red would hold off on using the safeword until he absolutely had to, and by that, I mean he’d only use it if he thought what was happening was going to trigger one of his episodes. The safeword wouldnt be for him, it would be to make sure he never hurt his pets.

This is probably something the poly will have to talk about at some point, since that’s obviously not the point. But I also wonder if Red honestly cares or has strong enough feelings about any activity otherwise. Does he honestly care what they do as long as they’re safe and happy? probably not. I cant think of anything off the top of my head where red would use the safeword with dance and lust.

Nothing can quite kill a story’s pacing like a big hunk of introspection, except, of course, its cousin, the info-dump. The reason for this is that the more time we spend reading a character’s thoughts, the less immediacy the story has, which means the less the audience cares about it. Often beginning writers put in whole paragraphs or even pages of introspection in addition to info-dumps–killing the pacing and readers’ interests even more. Some writing instructors will tell you that you shouldn’t spend more than 20% of the novel in a character’s thoughts. But yet in some successful stories, this rule is completely disregarded.

I admit I can be a sucker for a good chunk of introspection. I just love character depth. So how do you master introspection so that it makes your writing stronger, not weaker? Well, here are some tips.

1. Less is More

Because beginning writers usually also love character depth and are trying hard to get the audience to feel close with their characters, they will often write huge chunks of introspection, especially in the opening. It’s a great way to annoy or bore your audience. What usually happens, is that the writer–because she or he is the writer–already feels a strong connection to her characters, and in an effort to get the audience to feel and see what she does with her characters, she thinks that writing more is the answer.

In reality, writing less is more. If you truly want your audience to love your character as much as you do, you need to let them discover the character for themselves–you don’t need to spoon-feed them with chunks of introspection. You need to let them come to their own conclusions about your character.

Have you ever sat next to someone at a social gathering, maybe a wedding, who will not stop talking about himself, even when you’ve said multiple times you are trying to leave? That happened to me a few months ago. I literally said I needed to leave, but he just kept going on and on.

You think I’m looking forward to talking to that person ever again?

No way! I’m going to try to avoid him.

To get your audience interested in your character’s interior, you need to show them just enough. Keep it short enough to stay interesting, but long enough to cover the character’s point. A glimpse of an interesting interior will make us want to come back, without slowing the pacing in your story so much we want to get away.

You can sneak in bigger chunks after we already know and care about the person. But almost never put big chunks in the story’s opening. (Rare types of stories can break this rule though.)

2. Look Forward, not Back

A mistake that is easy to make is to only include introspection that looks back at something–something that happened earlier in the story, or, that really naughty thing, a flashback, and have the character relive it in his or her thoughts.

It can be very important to have a character think back on something. But since introspection naturally takes away immediacy, it’s often better to have your character think forward on something. What could happen. (Yes, you’ve heard me talk about this before.) The past can’t change (unless you shift context). But the future is something we can only guess at. And having your character think forward on something can create anticipation, tension, hooks, fear, dread, or hope, and then makes the audience want to read more to see what happens.

It’s not necessarily bad to look back, but it’s problematic if you only or almost only ever look back, and not forward. Ideally, if your character is going to look backward, see if you can connect it to something that is forward–how a past experience is going to effect an upcoming one, how a past experience makes the character fearful or hopeful of a future one.

3. Make it Intriguing

A chunk of introspection can hold the audience’s attention if it’s intriguing in some way. This means that the character’s thought can’t simply be a recap of something the audience already knows or read. Introspection needs to have a reason to be in the story, which usually means it needs to bring something new to the table.

While it’s common for introspection to take away from tension, because it takes away immediacy, when used well, it can actually add tension, through your character’s interpretation, perspective, and predictions. If your character is dreading something that could happen, and how it will completely unravel her world if it does–that can kick up tension.

At the beginning I talked about how introspection can come from the writer trying to create character depth. Character depth can be intriguing–but only if it’s something new or unusual. Rehashing what a character thinks for a full paragraph is boring if we already know what the character is naturally thinking. Rehashing isn’t depth. It’s repetition. To achieve more depth, you need to peel back your character’s layers to reach something deeper–an inner motive, thought, or feeling. And it should be interesting. If your character appears happy that her best friend threw a birthday party for her, but when we go into her mind, she’s fuming–that’s interesting. To add depth, we want to peel to answer why she’s fuming and then why she’s pretending to happy even though she is fuming.

Introspection can be very intriguing when it asks thematic questions. Remember the key here is the questioning. If your character is musing about the theme’s final answers without having considered the questions, it’s more likely to be boring. But if they are legitimately questioning something moral, ethical, thematic, or intellectual, that can stir the reader’s own mind, which makes it interesting.

Introspection can be intriguing when the character brings a new interpretation, or new context, to the story. For example, having the protagonist think back to some small talk he had with an unassuming taxi driver can be really boring. But reading about Sherlock’s interpretations of that exchange can be mega interesting. Why? Because he brings so much new context to the table. His introspection appeals to our intellect.

If you need to have your character think back for a bit, one way to keep it interesting is to have them change the context and interpretation of what they are thinking back on. That gives us an interesting way to interpret the past event and it gives us more character.

4. Entertaining

You can get away with a bit of introspection if it’s entertaining. If your character has an interesting voice or worldview, audiences won’t have a problem sitting through her introspection. Lemony Snicket is a great example of this. He can write a whole paragraph about his thoughts an driver licenses, and it’s so entertaining that we love it. We like to hear the way he thinks and his voice.

The May 2019 Prompt Set, as promised! 

As usual, please feel free to tag me in anything this expires! I hope it inspires you! Have a good month and good luck! 

Text Version: 

May Prompt Set 2019

The calm before the storm

 Boots 

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it”-Robin Williams

Rush

Change

‘If the world comes crumbling down, I’m not going to stick around to pull you out from the rubble.’

Late bloomer

The sky is falling

Knock on Wood

“Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine”- Anthony J. D’Angelo

Rare

Not made of stone

‘You might want to think twice about the storm’

Cave

Durable

Every rose has its thorns

“In every walk with nature one receives far more then he seeks”-John Muir

Pond

‘Fire does more than burn; You should know that better than anyone’

Nest

A rolling-stone gathers no moss

Wary

“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain”-Henry Wadsworth

Honey

The cold light of day

‘Im just saying, there’s a reason no one lives in those woods’

A face like thunder

Contract

Bewildered 

Rain-check

I’m so honored I could be your motivation. 

Writing good, interesting, and relatable characters will always do more for a story than having an amazing plot. People like stories about people, not places or events or things.

I think I understand why so many writers, especially amateur writers like myself, have a hard time with developing well-rounded, non-Marysueish characters. For a lot of people, fiction and fanfiction is a way to escape our current reality. In our fantasy lives, we tend to base characters on ourselves, people we want to be romantically involved with, or relatives we wished we had.

The problem with inventing people from scratch based on idealized notions of what we want ourselves (or spouses or parents or whatever) to be, is that we forget that human beings are nuanced creatures with complex motivations. We end up with comic book style creations where the heroes are all beautiful, intelligent, and honorable people and we end up with villains that are evil just for the sake of being evil. 

All humans are the sum total of their experiences and they behave in ways that are generally explained by those experiences. They exist in their own rich realities independent of yours, and when you invent people to play a part in a narrative, failing to recognize that tends to make them seem caricature-like. For example, if you had an abusive boss, would you imagine this person literally exists to make you miserable and nothing else, like when they’re not on the screen in your life, they’re sitting in their lair, steepling their fingers and cackling about how they would walk in tomorrow and threaten to fire you for no reason? More likely your boss has other problems or personal issues going on and just wrongly takes them out on you. Maybe they’re in a failing marriage, maybe they’re struggling with some kind of addiction. It’s those little details you need to think about when writing characters, even if you never reveal them to your readers. 

Because a lot of people interpret “show don’t tell” as “use visuals instead of dialog” or “play out scenes instead of referencing/describing them” which is an arbitrary rule that doesn’t communicate well what the issue is.

What I mean by “Express, don’t state” is that the facts of your story should be conveyed through the story’s elements instead of stated in the story.

If a character is depressed or guilt ridden, it should be expressed through their attitude, their actions, their decisions, their reactions, etc. instead of stating “this character is depressed”. Whether it’s done through dialog or a visual of a rainy cloud doesn’t matter, because it’s still conveyed directly to the audience instead of being evident in the text itself.

Random Undertale attack!!! ♥♥♥ 

I’ve been drawing a lot of my Gaster interpretation (code named:Creepster), but there are actually two Creepsters, a Pacifist and  No-Mercy version.  I’ve been focusing a lot on the No-Mercy Creepster because I like drawing angry raging monsters, so I decided to shift a bit and explore Pacifist Creepster.

He’s a very sad goop, who misses his boys and tries to do whatever he can for them, even if all he can muster is tucking them in while they catch a few zzz’s on a bench in Waterfall.  Well, at least Sans is catching some zzz’s.

Thanks for your question, anon!  This is a good question :)

The kind of story you’re referring to is a character-driven plot, a popular style of fiction recognized in stories like Anne of Green Gables, The Help, and Anna Karenina.  These plots follow characters through their lives, with no single, definitive plot – rather, multiple small ones that serve the overall theme of developing the main character/s.  So in this sense, there is storyline – just a more subtle kind.

Naturally, these plots have different rules than plot-driven plots, which can make them a new, challenging experience for a writer who isn’t accustomed to it.  This is actually something I’ve been working on for the past year, transitioning from a plot-heavy story to one which simply follows two characters up to their wedding!  So I’ll just share with you what I’ve learned over the past year…

Character-Driven Writing

There are a few absolutely necessary ingredients to a successful character-driven story – to keep readers interested without a singular, gripping plotline.  You won’t be surprised by the first one…

1. Strong, Three-Dimensional Characters

It’s obvious that solid character-driven stories are built on solid characters, as is any story, really.  But with character plots, this is all your readers have keeping them there – the personalities, backstories, emotions, flaws, and goals of your characters.  A story based on a character’s life won’t be read if that character isn’t relatable and interesting.  So when planning your characters, make sure they are relatable, three-dimensional, flawed, motivated, and unique.

2. Engaging Conflicts

Between characters or inside them, conflict must be something that involves your readers as much as a dystopian war scene or a magic-wielding hero arc. There should be multiple kinds of conflict, although the strongest should be internal conflict.  It’s the strongest tool for character development, which is a necessity for this kind of fiction.  Create moral dilemmas, interpersonal disagreements, relationship trouble – be a little sh*t to your characters and make problems out of everything.  Put them in specific situations that draw out their flaws.  Bring their self-image crashing down in one fell swoop, and then give them a swift kick in the ass until they man up and develop.  This kind of intensity will keep your readers paying attention, just to see what happens next.

3. Character Chemistry

I can’t stress this one enough: if your story revolves around your characters, they must have chemistry with each other.  There’s nothing more painful than watching a bunch of three-dimensional, beautiful characters gather together and talk at each other like sticks.  This is doubly important for romantic couples, as they are often the heart of character-driven plots and must be believable (else they become annoying).  There are different ways to research for your chemistry experiments; I typically observe popular friendships/relationships on TV, or look back on my old text conversations to see how my old friendships developed.  Find what works for you and apply it to your story!

4. Wins and Losses

This is a crucial element to writing a character-driven story, mainly because it’s easier to overlook here than in plot-driven stories.  When there are only interpersonal and individual plots, rather than long, drawn-out plots, it’s not as natural to find the highs and lows, the peaks and valleys, of your story.  It’s tempting to make everything go right (or wrong) in one long sequence, and that’s no good.  Find a rhythm; when your character loses her job, introduce her to a possible love interest.  When the love interest makes your character’s life into a daydream, introduce a new job that creates distance between them.  This sort of give and take – where everything is never completely good or completely bad – is essential and will lend your story more realism (and entertainment!).

Those are my main tips, but if you have any specific concerns about your story, send me another ask and I’ll try to help :)  Thanks, and good luck!

Hi Anonymous,

I’ve heard of other writers having this same problem, so you are not alone! Here are some ideas that come to mind when I think about this.

Coming up with a Plot (from scratch)

First off, you have ideas for characters or scenes, and that’s a starting point, and you probably (I’m assuming, because it wasn’t that long ago) saw my post, What to Outline When Starting a Story, which can give some guidance on what to consider. However, if you have no idea where to even come up with a concept for your plot that post can only be so much help.

Conflict out of Story Elements

Since you have some ideas about character and scene, I’d try building off that. In some cases, you might need to flesh those out a bit more to continue (I don’t know, since I don’t know how much you have those figured out).New York Times best-selling author David Farland points out in his book Million Dollar Outlines that characters grow out of their setting. We are all influenced by our setting–where we live, where we spend our time, what century we’re part of, etc.

Setting –> Character

Farland goes on to say that out of character (and setting) comes conflict:

Setting + Character –> Conflict

Plot obviously comes from some sort of conflict, the character reacting to and trying to solve that conflict or conflicts. But let’s finish out the diagram/equation.

Setting –> Character –> Conflict –> Theme

How conflicts are dealt with in the story create the theme.

It should be noted though that this diagram may not be helpful to everyone, and it’s also possible to work backwards from it. For example, I personally don’t like the idea of starting with the setting–although, realistically, pretty much all stories start there, if only to the most basic degrees (time period, real world vs. fantasy world, Earth vs. space, etc.). I often like to start with character. But as you work on your character, at some point, you are going to be looking back at what kind of life he grew out of and where he came from, and where he is now. Other people may like to start with conflict, and work back into character and setting. So, it doesn’t have to be linear.

But let’s look at the conflict part. You need some form of conflict to have plot. As I mentioned a few weeks ago in my post Are Your Conflicts Significant? the conflict should either be broad (far-reaching) or personal to the character. If it’s not either, it’s probably not that significant. However, it should be noted that you can make almost any conflict broad, or personal.

But how do you even get to that point? If you like Farland’s diagram, what I would suggest would be looking at those characters and setting. Brainstorm conflicts by asking yourself questions.

What conflict can come out of this setting?

For example, in some stories, major conflicts come straight out of the setting. Most if not all dystopians, like The Hunger Games fall into this category. You can even look at movies like Interstellar, which deals largely with space travel. The major conflict came out of a setting (Earth will soon be inhabitable). In a fantasy story, conflicts can come out of the world and worldbuilding (setting), whether it’s the magic system or the world itself. In Lord of the Rings, the major conflicts often come from the setting (Frodo has to make it to Mount Doom) and magic (the One Ring is a magical object that must be destroyed). In historical fiction, it can come out of setting–what are some of the conflicts the world was dealing with during WWII?

But what about something more small-scale than Panem, outer space, and Middle-earth? Setting can play a role there too. What kind of conflicts can come out of attending high school in 2017? What conflicts might be present there? What conflicts might come out of trying to start a career as a woman centuries ago? The story doesn’t have to be epic for this sort of brainstorming to work.

Les Miserableis a good example of how setting can play into conflicts, whether it’s being a struggling young mother, a convict, or participating in politics.

What conflict can come out of this character?

Once you have your character, you can try brainstorming conflicts for her. Now, there are sort of two ways to approach this.

One, you look at your character–her personality, strengths, weaknesses–and ask yourself, what would this character want? Figuring out what your character wants is often vital to a good story. In some stories, it can be more simple, basic, or straightforward. Maybe your character just wants money. In other cases, it might be bigger. Maybe your character wants to defeat an evil ruler. It can be somewhat philosophical. Maybe your character dreams of ridding the universe of a false god, like in His Dark Materials.

When you know what your character wants, you can start brainstorming conflicts by considering what could stop her from getting what she wants. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo volunteers to destroy the Ring, but there are literal obstacles in his way. Space, for one thing. He has to travel for miles and miles and miles. Then there are other people and creatures: orcs, Shelob, Sauron, even his own companions–these people are in conflict with him. He has to deal with getting hurt, wounded, and fatigued. All these things are keeping Frodo from his goal. And of course, his ultimate want is to return to the Shire, but he has to destroy the Ring first.

If your character wants to be in a relationship with someone, there are obstacles too. Maybe the love interest doesn’t know he exists. Maybe there is a family feud, like in Romeo and Juliet. Maybe there is a love triangle. Whatever your character wants, you start brainstorming what could keep him from getting it.

A second approach to brainstorming conflicts with character is to look at your character and consider what kind of situations would be difficult for them, what would make them grow. In some cases, they might be the reluctant hero. Love him or hate him, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Edward Cullen is a good example of this sort of thing. He’s a “vegetarian” vampire living his life, and then out of nowhere, a girl shows up that is basically his personal brand of cocaine. How is he supposed to deal with this? Worse. He has feelings for her. Immediately, Edward is in conflict.

Now, you can combine both methods. And in reality, both those examples have both. Sure, Frodo volunteered to take the Ring, but he was basically the only person who could. But look at him. He’s just a humble hobbit. He doesn’t do magic, he doesn’t know warfare, and he knows very little about the world. But he’s thrown into a situation where those characteristics will be tested. Similarly, Edward is thrown into a situation, but he ends up having wants too. He wants to be in a relationship with Bella. But the fact he is a vampire and she has potent blood is a conflict that impedes that.

So you can brainstorm conflicts from setting and character.

Plot out of Conflict Types

Let’s look at this another way.

There are five types of conflict.

Since I’ve been doing a lot of sketching and not a lot of full drawings, I thought I’d do another drawpile compilation post! Consisting of my characters, deltarune hell, and a fic which is slowly absorbing my entire being.