How To Use Free Mind, Part One: Creating A Simple Plot

It’s been a while since I blogged, and I thought I’d start blogging regularly again. The idea for this 3-part blog series came to me randomly while using the free mind map software called “Free Mind”, which you can download here (it lists the versions by operating system).

I’ve found mind mapping to be an effective way to just get an idea down on paper, without worrying about structure or character development or anything specific about the story. When you mind map a plot in particular, you just focus on the basics first and anything specific later.

The basic things you’d need for your mind map are:

·         Title

·         Main Character(s)

·         Conflict

·         Theme

·         Setting(s)

·         Genre(s)

 

For an example, I’ll show you the mind map process I’d use if I were to mind map an old story I wrote years ago, back when I had no clue what the rules of writing were. If I were to rewrite it now, it would need a major reworking of both the plot and the characters. But for the sake of the mind map example, it will also allow me to keep it simple.   

The story, at its core, was a coming-of-age fantasy (specifically, portal fantasy) novel, about a girl named Lucille who discovers a mystical doorway in a forest and a wolf chained by that door. The wolf—a shape shifter—explains that he has been waiting for years and years for someone to set him free and for that someone to journey back to the world beyond the door, and help him vanquish the evil. Now, we have our basic idea.

Opening Free Mind, you should get a blank mind map. If not, go to File> New to get a fresh mind map.

In the middle of the page you should get something like this:

 

 

 

       Click that circle and you should be able to edit the text inside the circle (called a “node”)

Here’s where we insert our title: SAPPHIRE PRINCESS. Depending on your novel, the title will be different. If you are still trying to figure out your title, put: WIP in the node bubble. To help figure out your novel’s title, I wrote a previous blog post on finding titles here.

Next, right-click that bubble and you should get a lot of options. Click the option with the light bulb, labeled ‘New Child Node’. A line should appear with a text box.

Label this text box: Main Characters.

 



Next, who are your main heroes? Do you have a name for them? If so, right-click the Main Characters node and click New Child Node (or press: Insert, on the keyboard) however many times to insert one or more main characters. In this case, I have at least four main characters: Lucille, who is the main heroine. Her mentors—the wolf-shifters—Akoto and Silver and, finally, the main villain, Resmiel.

Within each character’s text node, write as many attributes about them that you know. Age, gender, race, odd clothes or physical looks, favorite color or pet, anything specific to them within the story like powers, or their past, or their role within the story—anything that comes to mind.

If you can’t figure out something or if there is a reason for that trait important to the book, write the question or elaborated answer in a child node connected to that particular trait, like in the example below:

The next thing you should put in a node is: Conflict. Conflict could be as simple as your character missing the bus and having to get to their destination another way, or as complex as saving the world from alien invaders. A few questions to ask yourself when considering the different threads of conflict are:

·         What or who will your characters face in the story?

·         What will your hero have to face in regards to the villain?

·         What will he/she need to come to terms with?

·         What will tear her down, both physically and mentally?

·         What will be her goal/goals within the story?

·         What or who will stand in her way, in regards to succeeding those particular goals?

Create a child node from Conflict to include each main character. Then create nodes from their names, put a possible conflict or conflicts, and add additional details (in more nodes) if required. Some conflicts will involve each character or will be between two characters (such as the main hero and the villain). For this example, I’ve just done a few regarding the character Lucille.

 

Creating a new node from the title node, the next thing you will detail is: Theme. Theme is possibly the most challenging thing to boil down in a book. What are we trying to say, beyond all those perfectly constructed metaphors? What are we trying to tell the readers? What does this scene, this character, this idea, object or symbol contribute to the overall book, to the big picture—the theme of the book? Your theme could be anything from racism, to good vs evil to love conquers all…so long as the scenes and the plot reflect it.

Next would be Setting. Where does your story take place? What time period? What’s the name of your city or town or fictional world?  What details about the place(s) are important? Put them in nodes if needed.

 

 

Finally, the final node you can add is: Genre. What is your novel? Where would you put it on shelves? Would it be a paranormal romance? A fantasy? A historical? A science-fiction novel? As each genre has its rules and requirements regarding plot, it’s important you know what exactly you’re going to write. You can’t have novels straddling too many genres, otherwise it gets confusing for both readers and publishers to know exactly what group and to whom this book is marketed for.

 

Hopefully this process, while time-consuming, will be helpful in creating a sort of outline and a plot for your novel.

Stay tuned for part two of this series, How To Use Free Mind, Part Two: Figuring Out Character Conflict.

 

Thanks for reading!

- HC



Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing, as defined by Dictionary.com, means “to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure.”

Foreshadowing allows for the writer to turn rather innocuous or unimportant details into something that carries significance at the end of the work because of the way they move the story along and/or affect the characters. Two things are key: Atmosphere and symbolism. Atmosphere allows the reader to get a feel of the mood, what emotions they should feel for the character and what sort of importance this place or overall mood has on the character itself.

Foreshadowing often works hand-in-hand with the symbolic meanings of things, people or events according to that characters universe; or with the characters own desires and fears, as a way for the writer to “tell the future” of that event or character without spoiling the journey.

But in order to foreshadow future events, you must first have a plan. A set up. Like building a house, you must have a foundation before you can begin on anything else. With foreshadowing, your foundation is what you want to foreshadow. Do you want to foreshadow a death? A character having to face a fear? A character having to do something in order to reach his goal? Or maybe you want to foreshadow a big revelation that throws everything off track?

A good film that shows a form of simple foreshadowing and a character overcoming his obstacle to continue his journey, is Disney’s The Haunted Mansion. In it, the main character’s son is afraid of spiders and won’t squish one on his bedroom window with a rolled up magazine. Later on in the film, the main character and his daughter are trapped in the mausoleum where they had to search for a key to solve the mystery of the mansion. When the door closes, trapping them inside with zombies that have come alive, wanting the key back, the son must open the door. Only problem is, big spiders crawl out of the door and he doesn’t want to get near them. In order to save his father and sister from the zombies, he has to face his fear of spiders and open the door.

Whatever it is, you must scatter clues early in the manuscript in order for any future events concerning those clues to have any sort of impact. In her blog post about foreshadowing, blogger Debz Hobbs-Wyatt says: “…Don’t draw the reader’s attention to something, some aspect of a character’s personality, like a phobia of spiders, if you don’t draw on it later.”

It might take a few drafts, but, if done subtly, foreshadowing also allows you to reveal things about a character, using bits and pieces of backstory to foreshadow reactions and fears that may lead to certain decisions and actions later in the novel.

Foreshadowing can incite many emotions but there are three chief emotion “types” of foreshadowing:

1. Doubt/ Dread: The foreshadowing that incites doubt or dread, like any scene in the novel, should fit with the character and situation. This type should be foreboding, incite worry for the character.

An example of that type of foreshadowing is shown in Suzanne Collins’s YA dystopian fantasy, The Hunger Games, when Katniss tells her little sister, Primrose, that she won’t be picked for the Reaping and sent to die in the Hunger Games, where children are forced to kill each other for the entertainment of the public. The reader feels Katniss’s dread about Prim being chosen for the Games—but this foreshadows Prim’s name being chosen and Katniss’s choice to go in her place.

2. Excitement/Anticipation: This type is the kind of foreshadowing that makes people curious as to how things connect, how this symbol, event, or character, associates with the rest of the story. Most often, this foreshadowing is used to indirectly suggest an outcome for a character or event.

An example of this type of foreshadowing occurs early in Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy, The Wheel of Time, in book one The Eye of the World. In it, Moiraine, an Aes Sedai—a magician who can wield the One Power—tells Egwene, an innkeeper's daughter from the village of Emond`s Field who can wield the One Power, that she “…may go far. Perhaps even the Amyrlin Seat one day, if you study hard and work hard.” The Amyrlin Seat, while also being a chair where the head of the Aes Sedai sits, is also the title given to them, likened to a king or queen. Much later in the series, just as Moiraine said, Egwene does become leader of the Aes Sedai order.

3. Surprise/Shock: This type of foreshadowing often comes with a huge revelation or an event that the character didn’t expect. With a reader, the foreshadowing specifically for that moment will often come during the second time reading the novel as they see what led up to the climax, what clues they were given by the writer to try and piece together the character’s journey.

An example of this is in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third novel in the Harry Potter series. For this example, I’ll only be using the events from the film adaptation as it’s been a while since I’ve read the novel and do not currently have it on hand. In both the novel and the film, Hermione seems to be taking two classes at the same time and managing to be present for each. Ron and Harry can’t figure out how she can be in two places at one time. It’s revealed near the end of the film, that Hermione has been using a Time Turner—a device that allows the user to go back in time—in order to take two classes in the same time slot. Using the Time Turner, Harry and Hermione travel back to save a supposedly “dangerous” Hippogriff, named Buckbeak, from being slaughtered. Using Buckbeak’s ability to fly, the pair are also able to retrieve Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather, from Azkaban.

Earlier in the film, the event that foreshadows the use of the Time Turner itself, is when Harry, Hermione and Ron visit Hagrid and, somehow, end up being hit with thrown snail shells. When the Time Turner is used, Harry uses these shells (in much the same manner as before) to get the attention of his “alternate timeline” self, thus changing the outcome of many events.

Have you noticed examples of foreshadowing in the books you’ve been reading? If so, what are some of the types you've seen?

- HC

Forked Roads and Man-eating Bears: Character Decisions

Decisions, decisions…

Characters have to make decisions—ones that set them on a journey at the start of the novel—otherwise there would be no story to tell. It’s usually a minor goal, something the character wants to do at first, before something—like an event or person—forces them on the overall focus, the overall goal for the novel itself.

For example, if a man—a reformed ex-con—decides to work as a janitor at a high school, he might come to work one day and find a body in one of the stalls. This spurs a whole new complication for your character: Is he guilty or innocent? Who really did it and why?

Connected to—or caused by—this minor goal, might be what’s called the inciting incident. The inciting incident is defined as the event that sends your protagonist out into the world, ruins or changes his current situation, and forces him to find answers—to answer the questions that this incident brought on, or to change things for the better. In our example with the ex-con janitor, finding the body in the stall is the inciting incident.

Likewise, character decisions must cause jeopardy and sacrifice or set in motion the inciting incident. For example, in Suzanne Collins’s dystopian fantasy trilogy The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen’s decision to go hunt illegally, to provide for her family, puts her at risk with the law. This decision (minor goal) helps when she is later put into the arena for the Hunger Games, to survive and fight others to the death—thus helping to save her family and world from poverty and oppression from the Capitol (overall goal).

In Christopher Paolini’s first high fantasy novel—book one of The Inheritance Cycle—Eragon, the elf Arya sends the dragon egg away via magic, from the main villain of the book (minor goal), but this event gets herself captured. The main hero, Eragon, finds the egg which begins his journey as a Dragonrider, to help bring down the tyrannical king, Galbatorix (overall goal).

Using yet another fantasy novel, in Tamora Pierce’s romantic fantasy series Song of the Lioness, the main heroine, Alanna of Trebond, decides to switch places with her twin brother, to dress as a boy, in order to allow him to go to the City of the Gods to train as a mage, and for her to travel to the castle to become a knight (minor goal). This decision puts her at risk, because she could be killed if her gender and disguise was ever found out. In the other novels of this series, Alanna’s knighthood allows her to protect the king and restore order to the world around her (overall goal).

Please note that this character decision-making can be applied to any genre—I was just using the ones off the top of my head—many of them being fantasy.

Most novels nowadays—regardless of genre—should have the character’s decision appear at the start or within the first chapter. Set your character on a journey and make them fight or suffer to reach their goal. Force them to change it, making a minor goal into something much larger, on a much larger scale—or force them to abandon that original goal entirely in order to fulfill this bigger, overall goal that should become the bulk of your novel’s focus.

Think of your character’s decision as a forked road metaphor. On one path, it’s rainy and cold but empty. On the other…maybe a huge man-eating bear lies somewhere on that path? Which path will he choose to reach his goal—to get home? The easy, raining one? Or the man-eating bear path?

Let’s say he decided to take the easy route—he’d get a little wet and cold, sure, but his path is clear, right?

Now, what if, on that easy path, you—the author—decided he needed a challenge to overcome? You don’t want your novel to be a simple, boring read do you? Let’s put the man-eating bear in his way—what is he going to do next? Run or fight?

Either way, this “easy” decision just shook this character’s world, changed his current situation, and forces him to face something much bigger them him—just as the inciting incident in your own novel must do.

When trying to decide your character’s decision that drives the novel’s plot, think of this metaphor. The minor goal in your novel—in this case, trying to get home—must be connected to, or cause, the inciting incident to appear. Pretty soon, that rainy route home should leave your protagonist confronting a giant, man-eating bear.

What happens to your hero next is up to you.

How To Create a Powerful Character Sacrifice

Sacrifice. For such a simple word, it carries a lot of power. And that’s what your own character’s sacrifice should do—be powerful, even if it’s simple; be memorable and resonate with readers long after they’ve closed the book.

But how do you do that?

A question you could ask yourself, while developing your novel, is: What is the character’s goal? Basically, what does she pride herself most in? What does he want most in the world?

A characters goal could be as simple as wanting a specific Christmas gift—like the protagonist of the classic movie A Christmas Story (1983) who, despite his family and his teacher’s claims that he’d shoot his eye out, wants a Red Ryder BB gun. Or the character’s goal could be as difficult and complex as destroying an object to save the entire world from destruction—such as Frodo’s quest to destroy the One Ring in J R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Once you’ve found your character’s goal, define what stands in their way. What obstacles deter her from her path? What delays him from reaching his goal? This is where the antagonist comes in. Now, the antagonist in this case could also be an object or event—not just the main villain in your novel. In a scene, the antagonist could be your car not starting on an important day, a bad snowstorm, or when a monster appears.

Now, it’s important to have the main villain cause most of the trouble but, sometimes, the hero and villain have to be apart for some time—whether it’s because they are in different areas of the world, have different hobbies, or it wouldn’t work in the novel for the hero and villain to be in the scene together. Whatever the reason, the hero and the villain must deter each other and make things worse for each other—thus making things worse for them both. Which can play a big part in raising the stakes.

You’re probably asking yourself what do stakes have to do with character sacrifice? A lot. Good questions to ask while figuring out your stakes are: How can this get worse? Or, what if?

To raise the stakes for your character, the character must make choices and those choices must have consequences. What if her marriage ended and he got custody of the kids? What if the bomb went off and killed innocent people? To continue raising the stakes, making your character’s story stronger, beliefs must be put into question—and the character has to act against those beliefs. What if your character believes war is wrong and yet must incite rebellion to stop the enemy? What if your character must lie to save someone yet thinks lying is wrong?   

To continue raising the stakes in your novel, the character’s internal conflict must be at odds with the external conflict. The internal conflict refers to to personal, mental, or psychological conflict, whereas external conflict deals with the surrounding world—such as a storm or a war. Success in one conflict may mean failure in the other.

Raising the stakes—making things worse and more difficult for your characters—makes the hero stand out. What your hero must do, what he has to risk, to reach his goal, makes your normal main character worthy of the title “hero.” So, another question you could ask for your character’s development, is: What must my character do—what must he risk—to reach his goal, to get what he wants?       

There’s a reason the most powerful kind of sacrifice is self-sacrifice. Everyone, at some point, is afraid of death or not reaching their goals and, when someone gives up everything—even their goals, it speaks volumes. To create a powerful sacrifice for your main hero, create anything significant for the character, a source of support or happiness—family, friends, a cause, or an attribute. Then let them make a choice: What is most important? What is worth dying for? Put them in a situation where they must give up everything, or at least give up their goal, for their cause or to save those most important. Even if they don’t die, the hero will be changed forever from this act, their sacrifices will be powerful, and thus the book will be—to your readers—memorable.

Thanks for reading!

- HC

Plotter or Pantser

Plotter- those who plot things out.

Pantser- those who fly by the seat of their pants.

Not the legal definition I’m sure, but ever wonder which method produces more successful authors? Do the methodical win out over the spontaneous? I have to say, I’ve been curious about the breakdown. Do more writers get published who rely on careful planning or do the ones who wing it triumph?

Don’t mistake me. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer for this. Everyone has their own style whether it involves outlines and pages of notes or a shot in the dark. Both ways can produce amazing results.

Being too lazy to try and discover what method famous authors’ favor, I can only tell you about unpublished me. As you might guess from the comment above, I’m a pantser. My current work in progress began with only the opening scene in my head and not much more. But is that the whole story?

I think there is more to being a pantser than meets the eye. Although I don’t write anything down, that doesn’t mean I don’t plan. I usually spend days just thinking before I type a word. Generally, I have the whole chapter in my mind and even a direction for what happens down the road. It’s the details with dialogue or setting that usually spring out of nowhere, not the plot itself.

And I have been known to digress, to delve into the world of a plotter. On my opening chapter, I jotted down everything I wanted the chapter to achieve. Opening chapters have to be such workhorses that I didn’t want to leave anything out. And when I got to the ending chapters, I was petrified. How could I wrap up all the details and bring everything together without forgetting a major part? I couldn’t decide in what direction I wanted to take the ending. Who should live and who should die? When to reveal what? I started noting down key items to remember. And that spread to include more and more elements until I had—gasp—a crazy mixed up mess in no order at all.

I began to color code the mess. Items in red were open threads that I hadn’t decided how to resolve. Items in orange were already written and finished. Items in green were resolved in my head, but not written in the ms. Blue items were things I might include, but maybe not. As I got through chapter after chapter, the red parts turned green and finally orange. The blue words disappeared. My notes ended up being amazingly helpful. Who knew!

Would I ever work out an outline for an entire novel ahead of time? I’m way too lazy. Will I use a crazy mess of a system to aid my memory? That’s for sure.

All in all, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans how you get the job done. What matters is maintaining the pace and making sure the plot stays firmly at center stage. No outline in the world will keep you from letting the characters yack about unimportant matters or descriptions from going on forever. Writers have to be able to judge that from experience.

And where do you get experience when you aren’t published? Reading. Reading. Reading. Reading other published novels can teach you about pacing. It’s the example to follow to make sure every chapter advances the plot and isn’t a limp, useless biscuit of rambling.
 

What say we have our own informal poll? Don’t deny it, we’re all curious. We want to know what floats the other one’s boat. Plotter or pantser? How far do you take preparedness? Or avoid it?

Building Effective Heroes

Earlier in the week my FTLOW sister ReeVera did a post on identifying your hero, listing attributes that make a character a hero, as well as the traits that are often mistaken for those of a hero, but aren't.  Here, in a second part to that post, I'll explain how to create effective heroes your readers will want to read about again and again. Since I write fantasy, and some of the requirements for fantasy heroes are different than for other genres, most of my tips revolve around that, but many of them apply to other genres too.

Creating an effective story hero or heroine is as hard as creating any other main character, be it a protagonist, a villain, a love interest or a sidekick. In fact, if the hero happens to be the MC, it's harder, because they're the person the reader has to identify with and care about the most. Equal only to the villain at least in a fantasy, they also have to stand out the most in the reader's mind. It should be understood that while heroes are generally thought of as brave, bold, moral, and strong, this alone is no longer enough. Readers look for something deeper in their heroes than they did in the 80's, when characters were either good or bad, strong or weak. Such characters now come off as cliche, one dimensional, and even cheesy. So how do you create a hero who makes a lasting impression and is immediately likable to your reader? Here's some tips I've found.

Make your hero human

I'm not referring to race, here. If you write fantasy or sci-fi, you might want a hero who isn’t actually human. What I mean is, give them human qualities. Even if they are an angel from heaven, or even a god, don't make your hero perfect. Have them make mistakes, and pay the price, fall on their face, argue, or be temped by evil. If it fits the plot, perhaps even have them turn evil. Just make sure that when they do make mistakes, there are consequences, and they face them. And if they turn evil, have them come back from it in the end. Also, have your hero effected by loss, pain, injustice or evil. Make them feel sad when they lose a loved one, angry when the villain hurts someone, frustrated by major setbacks, strike out when someone beats them down. Strong heroes are great, but if they don't have moments of weakness or believable emotional reactions, they won't feel relatable. Machines don't feel pain or emotions, and God is perfect, but in stories, the reader should sometimes forget the cybernetic hero is a machine, and even gods mess up once in a while.

Give him/her a quirk

Oddities and unique attributes are a great way to make a character stand out. This can be something as simple as a habit of rubbing her temples when she's under stress, pinching his nose when he's frustrated, playing with the hair or a necklace when nervous. Or it can be something more complex, like an obsession with monkeys, or a strong dislike for a certain television show.  Aside from making the person unique from your other characters, when used correctly, these can help to identify the hero when he speaks without telling it in tags or descriptions, create interesting dialogue, enhance personality, and make them feel more real. Everyone has a quirk. So should a hero. 

Give your hero a dream/goal

Everyone who's been reading me for a while knows how much I love to pull tips from writer and literary agent Donald Maass, especially those from his book, Writing The Breakout Novel. One of the first things Maass tells us in his section on characterization of a hero is to make your hero want something. In any good story, in any genre, the main character has some sort of struggle they must overcome. There is something they want, so badly that they're willing to face impossible odds to obtain it. It's integral to a good plot to have your main character driven by some overwhelming need. This creates strong personal conflict, and either builds the foundation for the main conflict, or produces a secondary conflict that enhances and adds depth to the main one. Also, lack of ambition or personal stakes can make the most otherwise dynamic character seem flat and drain an otherwise great storyline of tension. The hero's goal or dream can be the need to cure a loved one, fly to a distant planet, save a pet, get a certain job, get revenge on a villain, or finally get the girl of his dreams to give him the time of day. Conflict or something at stake is what keeps readers wanting to see how things turn out. It creates the struggle that is at least part of the basis for your story, or sometimes it's entire focus. It's the reason the hero must get the girl, return home, get the job, or save someone they love. In some cases, it can also be an added motivation to stop the villain, on top of the moral need to set things right, because unless they complete the struggle, they can't reach their personal goal. Dreams do not have to be huge or lofty, but it should suit the hero and set the tone for the character. They should also be something the hero can't stand to lose.

Make your hero suffer.

What makes a hero's dream matter to the reader, and what makes them want to see the hero obtain that dream, isn't just that it's important to the hero, but that they must overcome constant obstacles to obtain the dream they're after. This is what makes readers root for the hero, want to see them win. If your hero has nothing driving them, nothing personally at stake, there is no struggle. If there is no struggle, the reader has no reason to want to see the hero win. Likewise, if everything comes too easy for them, readers lose interest. So give your hero a goal or dream, and then make sure you find ways to let them get only so close before it's pulled away from them until the end. The back and forth struggle will keep readers wanting to read on in order to see if the hero gets what he or she has been working for the whole novel to achieve.

Make your hero strong..but not too strong

Along with making your hero suffer, it's important to make them a strong, determined personality. They need to be someone who won't turn tail at the first hint of danger or whine about everything that goes wrong. This doesn't mean they don't feel fear. It means they keep going in spite of it. This doesn't mean they don't ever complain or that everything is roses all the time. It means they note their misgivings when necessary and then do something about it. It also means they defend what's right even when no one else will, even when it could, and sometimes does, cost them everything.In addition, where possible, if you can rob the hero of what he or she cares about the most without destroying the plot, do it. Just be sure they find a way to resolve the loss in the end. Creating suffering for the hero brings more obstacles to face, and the more your hero overcomes, the stronger and more heroic they will be to the reader.

Make your hero someone to look up to/Larger than Life

One of the fastest ways for readers to identify the hero in a story is that it's the person who always takes extraordinary actions to set things right. Every time something major happens that forwards the plot and brings the hero closer to the resolution, it should be an action on the part of the hero. Heroes need friends and should rarely get to the end of the journey on their own, but the most profound actions should be the hero's. It's ok if a hero is saved by others, but not all the time, and not without the hero trying to do it his or herself, taking actions that, without having done, the rescuer couldn't rescue them. Make your hero stand up and take actions no one else would. Make them proactive. Make them bold and defiant. This is a key factor in what makes us see them as heroes, what makes us want to be them.

Create a fear/weakness for your hero

While heroes should be brave and take on challenges others would never face, they should also be afraid of something. Fearless heroes are great in theory, but that's rarely to be taken literally. Your hero's fear doesn't have to be a phobia, though it can be. A fear can be that of losing a loved one, of a certain object or animal, a particular nightmare, or a fear that something horrible that happened before will happen again. If there is a fear or weakness that holds the hero back from resolving the conflict, it adds tension to the story, depth to the character, and provides ways to make their overall struggle more powerful. If it's placed right, it will also enhance the degree of suffering the hero must endure, thus evoking stronger emotions from the reader. I should note that, while it's fine if your hero's fear is paralyzing, the fear should be something that the hero eventually overcomes, especially in this case, and it shouldn't hold them back to the point where they won’t take action. Cowardice is not an admirable trait. Also, the hero's fear should be something that ties into the main plot and keeps them from the resolution in some way, even if it's only for part of the time. If it’s integral to the plot to have the hero held back from the goal by his or her fear until the end, that's fine, but make sure they always find another way around the fear and keep heading toward the goal. This will allow you to show the hero's fear and make it powerful without them coming off a coward, and it will make the hero's triumph over the fear in the end a stronger victory for the reader.

Make your hero weaker than the villain

I've heard people say that a hero should always be the villain's equal. In some ways this is true. The hero should be able to take the villain on, and in most cases, win in the end. But if the hero starts out as the villain's perfect match, the villain ceases to present a challenge (While you're here, check out this post on what makes villains memorable from Madelaine Bauman). In order to create conflict, it's essential that the hero have difficulty overcoming the major obstacles the villain presents. Whatever your villain's strengths and skills are, at least some of the hero's counterpart strengths and skills should be weaker. Much weaker at the start, and growing closer to equal as the story goes on, thus making it harder for the hero to defeat him, while at the same time, drawing the hero closer to their resolution.

Give your hero strong dialogue

Have you ever been in a situation where you had the perfect comeback right there, screaming to be said, but you didn't have the guts to say it until it was too late? Or, the perfect gem of a reply didn't come to you until long after the moment is lost? In real life, we rarely get a second chance to deliver our genius one liners until the bully is gone, or give that perfect pickup line until well after the guy or girl of our dreams has already walked away.  But in a book, you have that chance. You can pause and take time to consider what the hero will say when the villain puts him down, the abusive husband beats his wife, or the most popular girl is still standing there waiting for the hero to say something smooth. Is there something you have always wanted to say, but you didn't because you knew it would get you in trouble? Make the hero say it! Is there something you'd kill to tell the woman you've been mooning over for months, but you know you'd never be able to pull it off without going red or the words coming out bass ackwards? Make the hero say it! Like quirks, well thought out lines and unexpected zingers make memorable heroes that stand out from the crowd and make us fall for them every time.

Next to the villain, effective heroes are the hardest characters to create. It's difficult to strike the delicate balance between morality and temptation, humanity and larger than life traits, strength and weakness, fear and bravery. It's so easy to overdo one trait and end up with an unlikable or unrelatable personality. But if you imagine your hero as someone you and your readers can aspire to be, yet still identify with, if your hero faces and takes on challenges you only wish you could overcome, you'll build a hero readers will love and never forget.

So tell me who is your hero? Whether in a story or in real life, who do you look up to most and why? Share with us. One day, someone might name your character as their hero.

Until next time everyone, write on!

Bloggerific: MADELAINE BAUMAN--Outlining

I’ve heard people say outlining works for them, and I’ve heard a few people say it kills the creativity. But why is that? Like writers have different styles and writing habits, they also have different ways of outlining their works, getting the notes down on paper so that the ideas don’t fade away.

Today, I’m going to tell you three different ways to outline.


1) The Bare Bones Method

What I call the “Bare Bones Method” is when the story is written down but the concepts are barely or not fleshed out at all.

If you are interested in knowing how to do this method, here’s how I did it:

Title: Chronicles of the North, Book # 1: “Behind the Door of Many Runes”
Genre: Action/Adventure/ Romance
Summary: Follow the tale of Lucille Sari, a young woman who discovers an ancient kingdom with a tragic past behind the Door of Many Runes: Winter’s Heart. On her journey, she is burdened with the revenge of a demon and with an abandoned throne at stake; she must call upon her two wolf guardians, Silver and Akoto, for help.

Was the throne reclaimed or did darkness prevail?

Outline

(Story begins with a page in Lucille’s journal. Story then switches to Lucille before the journey.)

Fifteen-year-old Lucille Sari dreamt of an abandoned castle, not knowing she has an inheritance: A sapphire-stone castle far in the Northern Point of the Compass. Mishaps bring her to ruin of a castle. Her guardian, Akoto, a man trapped in wolf form by an ancient spell, had a dark role to play with the destruction of this castle. She is taken to a shrine, where a goddess of the hunt speaks to her about a prophecy.

A few weeks later, on the borderline between the end of the fall equinox and beginning of winter, a red light begins glowing around a ring and is humming. Lucille is warned not to touch the ring, but curiosity beckons her to touch it. It flares with a burst of red flame and Lucille is plunged into a dream (Dream-like vision) and learns the catastrophic history of the North…

And so on and so forth. As Donald Maass says in his novel, Writing the Breakout Novel: “The best outlines relate the whole story in miniature, and include scraps of setting detail, characterization and dialogue, which nicely highlight the story’s turning points. Outlines are most effective when they are in the present tense and third person, regardless of the tense and person of the novel.” (pg 253)


2) The Script Method

If you break your novel up into a script-like format what would it look like? Probably a little something like this:

Chapter 1: An Unfortunate Case

Scene 1

Present Day (late afternoon)

Judy, a cop in her late thirties, is looking over the body of a murdered teenager. The teenager is her own daughter. The daughter is wearing a bloodied black hoodie and there is a large gash in her stomach. She is naked below the waist. Judy remembers the last words she and her daughter exchanged.

Flashback (night before):

Judy is sitting at the kitchen table, dressed in a robe. Her daughter comes down the stairs, dressed in that same hoodie and a pair of jeans. She tells Judy she will be home late. Used to her daughter’s late studying nights, Judy thinks nothing of it, but only says “Be careful.”

Present Day:

Judy turns away from the body and…etc.

This method allows for you to order scenes and keep the novel on track. I haven’t tried this method out, but who knows, it might work for those who are big on organization and for these novels that jump around in time a lot.


3) The Bullet Point Method

The “Bullet Point Method” is fairly simple. This is a method that, for me that has become a lifesaver when planning future scenes and, sometimes, entire chapters. And, simply put it’s a chapter in brief bullet points, similar to the “Bare Bones Method”, but even less specific. It allows for total creativity flow without the feeling that you’re writing the whole story right then and there.

So…what method(s) works for you?

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Madelaine Bauman is the author of Hybrid Blood, a current work in progress. Feel free to stop by her BLOG and read some of her other posts, or visit her Facebook PAGE.