The Perfect Setup: Matching Your Characters to Your Plot by Shauna Holyoak #storymakers class notes

Hello! 

There are different arcs in a story and ways to use them in your writing.

Let's learn about a few of them!

👉 Positive Character Arc

    Protag overcomes external obstacles and internal flaws to become a better person 

Example: Steve from Stranger Things is selfish and shallow and changes to caring toward the end

👉 Flat Character Arc

    Protag begins in possession of the truth, then uses it to make a positive chance to the world around her

Example: Wonder Woman

👉 Negative Character Arc

    Protag succumbs to external obstacles and internal flaws to become worse

Example: Anakin

PROTAGS need DESIRE and MISBELIEF 

There are FOUR standard parts of an arc:

1. DESIRE (want) What the character thinks they need to become 'happy'

2. MISBELIEF ( lie) The misbelief that stands in the way of achieving their want/desire 

3. WOUND (ghost) The event that caused the misbelief 

4. TRUTH (need) What your character actually needs to become whole (happy)

Example:

KATNISS 

Desire: to take care of her family

Misbelief: she has to do it by herself

Wound: her dad died, her mom checked out

Truth: Can have others help

THE STORY'S THEME is often the characters TRUTH! 

Can you do find the parts of an arc in your favorite story?

Proust Questionnaire for your characters

Marcel Proust was a French writer from the late 1800's. He made these questions up for personal evaluation, but they work splendidly to get to know your character better:

Here is Proust’s Questionnaire:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favorite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favorite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favorite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

What Do Your Characters Want?

I struggle so much in writing. Some days, I sail through writing or edits. Other days, I check Facebook and Instagram five hundred times in an hour. When I'm struggling, finding a good article to help my brain get out of a rut, as happened when I read this post by Nathan Bransford years ago. I thought I'd repost it here, mostly, because I need it right now!












What Do Your Characters Want?

Motivation. It's the powerful emotion that inspires people to get off the couch and grab a tub of ice cream. It's the only thing that is strong enough to pull me out of a very warm bed when it's still dark and cold outside. And it's what inspires Mario to save the princess, despite all sorts of finely rendered cartoon characters standing in his way.

How does this relate to books? Every good book begins with a protagonist who wants something. 

I know that this kind of seems obvious (and it probably is), but there's a reason you don't generally see books about characters cast about by the whims of fate without any sense of purpose or desire whatsoever. Even Odysseus, essentially a powerless character blown about by the gods, has a rock solid motivation: he wants to get home. 

Now, your character doesn't have to know what he/she wants on page one, but it should be conclusively clear by page 30, preferably earlier. And then, every step your protagonist takes after that point should be a step toward that goal, only they are thwarted at every step by obstacles and characters who have their own set of desires. 

Many novels, especially genre novels, have a built-in motivation. Think: "save the princess" fantasy novels. It's built into the plot. The protagonist wants to save the princess. There's your motivation. 

But better yet is a novel where a character wants more than one thing, and these two things are at odds. The main character might want to save the princess, but he might just have his eye on the king's throne as well, so he has to decide by the end of the novel which is more important to him. Better still is a character that wants things that are internally contradictory so that they not only have to battle the exterior obstacles to get what they want, but they have to battle conflicting desires within themselves as well. 

Here's a way of illustrating that, Super Mario Bros. style. 

Good: plumber wants to save the princess.
Better: plumber wants to save the princess while besting green-clad brother with similar goal
Best: plumber wants to save the princess while besting green-clad brother with similar goal, but although he is brave he is plagued by the creeping sense that the gamer controlling his every move might want him dead

Every time you introduce something your character wants, internal or external, whether it's saving the princess, acceptance from their parents, or snaring a white whale, you're introducing aplot arc. The main arc should open at the beginning and close conclusively in the climax of your novel. Smaller arcs may be introduced and closed somewhere in between.

Every single character you introduce, major or minor, should also have their own plot arc(s) with defined goals and motivations. The more important the character the longer and more complex the plot arc(s): i.e. your main villain's plot arc is probably introduced toward the beginning and closed at the end, and we probably have a rather nuanced sense of their own desires and contradictions.

This is often where writers miss opportunities: every character, big or small, has to show motivation, agency, and desire. They have to have their own plot arcs. And it's important that the arcs have a beginning, middle, and end. Unless you're under contract for book two, make sure those plot arcs are closed!

At every step of the way, on every page, with every exchange of dialogue and every action, characters are trying to achieve their desires but run into obstacles, whether internal, external, or because they're encountering characters who want something different than they do. This is conflict. 

More about conflict on Thursday.

Writing Dialogue by Julie Wright

Julie Wright gave some good advice on writing dialogue. There is so much great dialogue can do for a story. I sometimes forget the reader can't read my mind. We can't assume readers can read our character's minds either.
And what is the best writing mechanics to SHOW us more about who and what the characters are thinking/feeling/struggling with.

I'm just going to bullet point it all.

Good dialogue should (must do at least ONE):

• Reveal character
• Set the tone
• Alter relationships (build up or tear down)
• Increase tension
• Move plot forward

Carefully:

• Don't info dump
• Use adverbs sparingly
• Don't need cussing
• Make your dialogue count

There is a different between real dialogue (which is SHOWNG) and narrated dialogue (which is TELLING).

There's a great chapter in the book, SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Renni Browne and Dave King.

Now, go through your first five chapters and test out your dialogue. How is it? Showing? Telling? Does it reveal the character? 

What book have you read that you loved the dialogue?

Creating Character ARCS by K.M. Weiland

Powerful Character Arcs Create Powerful Stories

Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters—but it just isn’t grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It’s time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.

By applying the foundation of the Three-Act Story Structure and then delving even deeper into the psychology of realistic and dynamic human change, Weiland offers a beat-by-beat checklist of character arc guidelines that flexes to fit any type of story.

This comprehensive book will teach you:
How to determine which arc—positive, negative, or flat—is right for your character.
Why you should NEVER pit plot against character. Instead, learn how to blend story structure and character development.
How to recognize and avoid the worst pitfalls of writing novels without character arcs.
How to hack the secret to using overarching character arcs to create amazing trilogies and series.
And much more! Gaining an understanding of how to write character arcs is a game-changing moment in any author’s pursuit of the craft.




Opening line: "What if there were a sure-fire secret to creating stunning character arcs?"


I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend to any writer, beginner or published.

Ms. Weiland discusses three basic arcs:
The positive Change Arc
The Flat Arc
 The Negative Change Arc

She goes into detail on each and what to write at each crucial points, like the midpoint. Each chapter was easy to read and understandable. And what I really liked was how she used examples from books and movies to explain her points. This is one I'm going to keep around and read with each new story I write.

Wednesday Writing with 2 Felines

Writing prompt! And cat alert! Our cats are such babies! Seriously, forty-six degrees in the garage is warm for them. They've grown their fur out and are quite cozy. But Trixie, or Little Cat, always ends up scratching at the back door with big kitty eyes. Someone always gives in and opens the door.
Our cats have trained us well.

How well do you know your characters? Here are a few questions to ask about your characters:

Does your character have a will of his/her own?
Can you predict your character's action or next move?
Does your character react differently in different situations?

Can you see your character changing?

Were you able to answer the questions?

Here is an excellent article on fully developed characters.

On a related note, do you have pictures of your characters? Post one! I'd love to meet him or her.

And now for a randomly selected picture of one of my characters.

Derek, the brother of the true king who has been misled to hate his brother by someone who wants to throne for themselves. This character is from my book Belle of the Ball which is roughly outlined and mostly in my head. :)

LDStorymakers Conference~ Crafting Endearing Characters with Jensen and Jensen

Krista and Marion (not married!) were quite the funny pair as they taught how to create protagonists we want to win, villains we love to the, and secondary characters we couldn't live without.







Krista handed out the best, fastest most helpful character bio. Ever.
Here are a few of ideas for developing in depth characters:
Name
Age
Fears
Habits
Appearance
Secrets
Strengths
Flaws
Obstacles
Why will the leader like this character?

I thinking writing down this kind of information for your characters is helpful. It's also good to have it close by while you write.

Power of Three~ Character Building

One of the hardest things to write is good characters, all of them. How many times have you read a book and only one or two or three characters have any life to them? The rest are just...there?
Do you have trouble filling out your characters?
Have you tried the Power of Three for your characters?

Try these ideas on ALL your characters:

Three wishes
Three fears
Three flaws
Three heroic qualities

Here are ones I did for my MC, Angelica:

Three wishes:
To be a normal girl
For her dad to not have to work so much
Get her sister out of an abusive relationship

Three fears:
She really is a serial killer
She will lose her family
She is a monster

Three flaws:
Set herself up to be unlovable so no one else dies
Distrustful
Chooses to be a wallflower

Three heroic qualities:
Loyal
Brave
Smart

Now your turn.
Choose one category and share with us in comments! 

Building better characters with Mr. Potato Head

Lisa Mangum gave a great, hands on, presentation at Book Academy using a childhood toy.

How do you build a better character?

What does your character see?

• How does he perceive the world? With paranoia or rose-colored glasses?
• What does he need to survive?
• Look outside the character to how the setting affects him.
• Is it an urban setting? Rural? Alone? 
• Think how the boy who lived under the stairs saw Hogwarts. When a character moves to a different environment, he will naturally compare it to what he has seen before.
• Look inside.
• Use introspection. Does the character have to plan everything? 
• Are they confidant in themselves?
• What are their flaws? Exploit them!

What do they hear?

• Do they only hear complaints? Compliments?
• What does the character say when they talk to themselves when they are alone?
• What do they think about? Process?
• Do they believe they are good? Bad?

What do they say?

• Pet phrases
• Slang
• Do they lie?
• Prefer silence?
• Dialogue reveals something about the character like education level, beliefs, prejudice.
• Words can hurt AND heal. For some, words are weapons.
• Voice is one of the best ways to showcase a character

  
What dreams or goals do they have?

•  
• What are they reaching for?
• What is their hearts' desire?
• Evaluate 'nice to haves' and 'have to haves'.
• Dreams drive us! Withholding the fulfillment of dreams will force the character into action, into growth
• Be specific about dreams!

Where is the character going?

• What actions will they take? 
• Motivation is a powerful tool for revealing character

Where does your character stand?

• What does he believe in? Fight for? Die for?
• Where is their boundary? Push them over that line over and over again

Characters with well-defined values--even if you don't agree with them--make compelling, interesting and memorable characters.
Characters with conviction are characters who move the plot.