The Olympics vs. Novel Writing

My son Daniel at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.

Why have most of us been glued to the Olympic games the past few weeks? Is it just because it occurs only once every couple of years? 

I think it's more than that.

We get pulled into the athletes lives. We worry about them. Their prospects, their injuries, their personal challenges.

We felt the incredible disappointment when Jordyn Wieber didn't make the all around in gymnastics. We cringed when Jen Kessy had to take a medical timeout from her volleyball competition to warm her freezing feet. We rooted for runner Oscar Pistorius whose legs were amputated at age eleven months and for Cullen Jones, who learned to swim after a near drowning.

We see (thanks to the media) glimpses of the athletes' backstory--but not too much. If all the coverage was about the athletes' history, and not about what they're accomplishing or attempting right now, the backstory would have little meaning. It's the slice of backstory that adds depth to the individual's character, adds meaning to their goals, and makes their victories and triumphs so easy to share.

How about your novel? 

Is it so weighed down by backstory that your character doesn't do much except think about the past? All the Olympic athletes wouldn't have made it to London if they spent their time agonizing over their challenges or the unfairness of life. Let your character be impacted by his or her history. Let it make them stronger, more vulnerable, more fallible, but don't let it consume them and keep them from moving forward.

Is it too free of backstory? A character who acts without any connection to their past, their baggage, their life lessons, is not three-dimensional. What if the media only covered what the athletes did in the 'now', and ignored what they've overcome to get to that point? Watching elite athletes win medals would be a whole lot less compelling. It's the emotion we watch on the medal stand that tugs at our hearts. Seeing the athlete realize success after so many years of hard work, deprivation, and focus pulls us into their story. Are you so fearful of including backstory that you miss this connection to your readers' hearts?

For more information on creating unobtrusive backstory, check out this series titled "Making Your Reader Love Backstory" by author and writing teacher Randy Ingermanson. His four-part series will make you a backstory expert.

Part 1| Part 2| Part 3| Part 4

Read through your manuscript with balance in mind. A balance between enough backstory to give meaning to your character's present actions, decisions, failures and successes. Have the Olympics inspired your writing in other ways?

Book Review: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression

You've heard me mention The Bookshelf Muse on the blog before. Writers Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are some of the most generous writers I know, offering a huge amount of information to writers--free.

If you've never checked out The Bookshelf Muse, you need to head over there. Ackerman and Puglisi have assembled a constantly expanding series of thesauruses (or is it thesauri?), which has earned them a spot in the Top Ten Blogs for Writers.

On , you'll find a character traits thesaurus, a weather & earthly phenomena thesaurus, a color, shape & texture thesaurus, a setting thesaurus, and a symbolism thesaurus. The emotion thesaurus has recently been gathered into an ebook, which makes it an amazing and handy reference for writers trying to evoke emotion without settling for cliches.

And, generous as they are, Ackerman and Puglisi are offering a sample of the book for free. In the sample .pdf file, you'll find "15 specific conditions (Pain, Hunger, Thirst, Attraction, Exhaustion, etc) that can alter a character's physical and mental state." Once you check it out, you'll probably see why having the book on your computer or ereader would be so helpful. For even more examples from the book, check out the sample entries here.

The $4.99 price is a small amount to pay for seventy five emotions, complete with all the details of how to show those emotions. From body language, internal sensations, actions and thoughts, writers will feel confident in keeping their writing fresh.

Do you have any tried and true resources for showing your character's emotion? Do you act things out yourself, or watch movies depicting the emotion?

Book Review: Fiction is Folks, by Robert Newton Peck

For Christmas in our house, everyone gets a few books. Even me. : ) In December, I was browsing in a used bookstore, and I came across Fiction is Folks: How to Create Unforgettable Characters, by Robert Newton Peck.

It's an old book. Out of print. Sometimes books like these can be lemons, but then I read that the author also wrote A Day No Pigs Would Die. I decided to take a chance on it. Besides, it was only a dollar.

I'm glad I did. There are few craft books that are difficult to put down. This is one of them. Peck is funny. Sarcastic. Entertaining. And in between the entertaining words, the reader finds Peck has hammered home every one of his points. The subtitle is absolutely correct: Characters are what readers remember, what editors look for, and what turn aspiring writers into published authors.

In Fiction is Folks, writers will learn:

~how to use yourself as a character--and when not to

~how to write about people the way they actually are--instead of how they ought to be

~what homework you need to do on each of your characters--and how to use the results

~"narrative drag"--what it is and how to cure it

~how to create believable villains

~how to turn what bugs you into a salable idea

~how to take a short story and turn it into a novel

~why you should invite trouble into your story.

Really. You should find this book. Buy it used on Amazon, or check out PaperbackSwap or BookMooch. I couldn't find out if Peck is still living (he was born in 1928), but he's a fascinating guy. He's the first of his entire family to read and write. And Fred Rogers (yes, that Mr. Rogers) was his best man. Add this book to your library.

Guest Post: Characters in Conflict, by Randy Ingermanson

This article by writing teacher Randy 

Ingermanson may very well revolutionize 

the plot of your novel. Read all the way 

through to discover how to make your 

fiction as gripping as a NYT bestseller.

Creating: Nothing is More Important Than...

Long ago when I began learning to write, I 

picked up this handy definition of fiction:

Fiction is "characters in conflict."

That's a good rule of thumb, and yet it isn't 

the whole truth, nor is it always strictly true. 

Let me give you a couple of counterexamples:

Imagine a novel about two thugs, each trying to 

kill the other. These thugs are mindless brutes. 

Neither one much cares about anything. Neither 

one even cares whether he himself lives or dies.

Therefore, neither does the author. Therefore, neither does the reader. The entire story is 

nothing but pointless violence.

Are there "characters in conflict" in this story? Yes.

Is this fiction? No.

This is not the sort of story anyone would want to read. Having "characters in conflict" 

is not enough.

Imagine a second novel about a lone character, the last survivor of an ill-fated run 

to the South Pole in 1901. Our hero's goal is to make it home alive, bringing important 

scientific data gathered along the way. But lugging those rocks slows him down and 

makes it far more difficult to survive.

There's only one character in this story, so we don't exactly have "characters (plural) 

in conflict."

But is this fiction? Yes, and it could make a gripping tale. (It would be similar in spirit 

to the real-life Scott expedition of 1911, which had no survivors.)

Clearly, "characters in conflict" is not even necessary.

So the old definition of fiction as "characters in conflict" seems to need a little revision.

What is fiction, really?

I've been thinking about this lately and my conclusion is that a better definition of 

fiction is "values in conflict."

I define a "value" as a "core truth" for a character, which can be phrased in this form:

"Nothing is more important than ________."

A "value" is any word or phrase your character would use to fill in the blank. Most 

characters will have several values. Good characters will have several conflicting values.

In the first counterexample I gave above, neither of the thugs have any values that 

your reader can identify with. Most characters in most novels could at least say, "Nothing 

is more important than survival." But the two thugs in question lack even that basic value.

No values. No story. It's that simple.

In the second counterexample, our hero is all alone in his world, but he has two powerful 

values:

* "Nothing is nore important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than scientific discovery."

These values are at odds with each other. The character can dump his load of rocks and 

improve his chances of getting home alive. Or he can risk his life for the sake of science. 

When the going gets rough, which will he choose?

Fiction is about making hard choices between conflicting values.

We should note that one particular value, "Nothing is more important than survival," 

is practically universal. Virtually all characters in fiction have this value. Virtually 

all readers have it too.

Deep fiction comes when a character has one or more values that rival the survival instinct.

At a recent conference, I analyzed THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins, to 

see what made it work. I found that the strength of conflict between the values of the 

main characters drove the novel.

Here's a quick summary of the story:

A 16-year-old girl, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to take her sister's place in an arena 

where 24 teens will battle each other to the death. One of the other competitors, Peeta 

Mellark, has been secretly in love with Katniss since they were five years old.

THE HUNGER GAMES is a deep and powerful story. The reason is very simple. Each 

of the two main characters has three values that are in conflict.

Let's look at Katniss's central values:

* "Nothing is more important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than my sister."

* "Nothing is more important than avoiding love, because the more people you love, 

the more you have to lose."

Each of these values is in conflict with the other two. Katniss decides early in the story 

that she values her sister more than her own survival.

The ongoing conflict in the story comes as she feels a growing attraction to Peeta. Can

she dare to return his love, when she knows with certainty that they can't both survive 

the arena?

Likewise, Peeta has three central values:

* "Nothing is more important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than protecting Katniss."

* "Nothing is more important than being true to who you are."

For Peeta, these values are in massive conflict.

Like Katniss, he decides early in the story that his survival is the least important of his 

three main values. He goes into the arena planning to sacrifice himself to keep Katniss alive.

The problem for Peeta is that he's a genuinely good, decent, and caring person. In the 

arena, it won't be enough for him to fight merely to protect Katniss. Defense alone won't 

save her. If Katniss is to live, the other 22 must die.

To save the girl he loves, Peeta is going to have to kill. He must steel himself to be ruthless. 

To be somebody he is not. To violate his identity and therefore to trample one of his primary 

values. Can he do that?

There's a reason THE HUNGER GAMES works so well with readers. The novel is packed 

full of value-conflicts. Hard choices. Moral dilemmas.

If you've read THE HUNGER GAMES, think about some of the other principal characters:

Katniss and Peeta have a coach, a drunkard named Haymitch. What are Haymitch's values 

and how are they in conflict?

Katniss is lucky to get an amazing stylist who deeply cares about her, Cinna. What are 

Cinna's conflicting values?

There's a massive brute named Cato in the Games who is obviously the guy to beat. 

Does Cato have values? Can you guess what they must be? How do they create conflict 

for him -- and for Katniss and Peeta?

Values are critical to great fiction because values determine what your characters do. 

Values make your characters' actions believable. Conflicting values make your characters' 

actions unpredictable.

So how about that novel you're working on? Is it ripping your heart out because 

each one of the central characters has to make an impossible choice between two values?

If so, what are those values?

If not, then it might be time to change your game plan. Look into your characters.

Push them against the wall and make them fill in the sentence, "Nothing is more 

important than _________."

Take what they tell you and run with it.

For the novelist, nothing is more important than values in conflict.

Nothing.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the
Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 28,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

Did you just have a light-bulb moment? I sure did. My NaNoWriMo novel 

will be far stronger having applied Randy's ideas. How about you?