I feel lucky to land C for my first A to Z day. There's no guarantee I'll stick to writing topics this month, but C is so clearly Character, Conflict, and Choice.
These are the fundamental building blocks of every query and every story.
1. You need a character with goals.
2. There must be something that is preventing them from reaching that goal--conflict. This could be internal, external, or both.
3. The character needs to make a choice that matters. One that will move them closer to their goal or to failure. This process is often repeated until you reach that goal (or as in some books--die).
It's as simple as that.
Check out this great video clip. I wish I'd learned this earlier in my writing journey.
What other writerly C words can you think of? How do you dig deep for character development, conflict, and realistic choice making?
No one would argue that the romance genre is hugely successful as a market. I don't consider myself a romance writer, however all of my books have a thread of romance in them. Maybe you are a romance writer, but even if you're not, there's much to learn from the genre that will improve our own stories. Whether it be science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, horror, contemporary, or any other genre out there.
What Romance Writers Understand
Emotion
People read romance to feel the emotion of first love all over again. They love the anticipation, the disappointment and subsequent journey to repair and reunite the lovers, and finally the pay off at the end.
The emotions in our novels might be slightly different, but we all need to ensure our stories are cram-packed with them. If someone picks up a horror tale, they expect to be scared so bad they can't sleep that night without the bathroom light on. Those reading suspense in any form want to be kept guessing while sitting on the edge of their seat in concern for the characters.
Getting the picture?
So how do we ramp up the emotion?
Conflict
We talk about this one all the time on UB, but has it sunk in? Conflict doesn't have to be high speed chases, kidnappers, and explosions in order to keep readers interested. Here's a quick refresher course on the two types of conflict.
External--
Something outside of the character (another person, the environment, etc) that forces them to take action or change. This conflict MUST MATTER, not be something stupid (like Sharknado, just saying) that is simply a tool to push your characters somewhere. Make it realistic.
The external conflict should make the character face what they fear the most.
The introduction of the external conflict often brings the internal conflict out into the open. This conflict is solved by external means--they cut the right wire to shut off the bomb, the cops/FBI/CIA/detective catches the bad guy, and so on.
Internal--
In many genres, including romance, this is the most important type of conflict. Internal conflict is all about what your character brings to the story intellectually and/or emotionally. It comes from their experiences, beliefs, personalities, and prejudices.
This type of conflict is solved by character growth.
Identity vs. Essence
This is perhaps the most important concept of them all. It follows perfectly that last statement referring to character growth. Here's the best way to start talking about identity vs essence.
Just like ogres, all of our characters need to have layers. We start with Identity, or how the character sees themselves or how they think the world sees them. As the story progresses, conflict peels away the layers of identity until we are left with Essence--the character's true self. Reaching essence is reaching their potential.
I don't know why, but I'd never considered character arcs quite in that way before. The presenter didn't talk about Shrek, but when she mentioned peeling away the layers to get to the essence that's exactly what I thought of.
QUESTION For You:
Share one of your favorite character with us and tell briefly how their identity from chapter one changed to essence by the end of the book or series.
How do we keep the reader on the edge of their seats, turning page after page? We use conflict and crises. A book can have both, and most do. You can have a book without crisis, but you CANNOT have a book without conflict.
“Conflict is what makes a story worth reading. Without a struggle, a moral choice, tension, and opposing forces, a story would be nothing but a boring discussion of facts.” "How to Write Conflict" (link no longer works, sorry)
The difference is that crisis is usually a circumstantial event or action, such as a car accident, a robbery, a break-up in a relationship. Conflict is the choices or struggles the character has to make, sometimes because of crisis. Conflict happens inside the character.
These are the Basic Types of Conflict in a Story:
Inner Conflict: The character is struggling within themselves, with what they want or what they do
Relational Conflict: The character is struggling with someone else
Social Conflict: The character is struggling with a group
Survival Conflict: The character is struggling with fatality
Situational Conflict: The character is struggling with a situation -- in this case, the character’s problems involve the interests, problems, ambitions and situations of others and their affect on the character.
Man vs Nature
Man vs god or religion
The trick is taking one of those conflicts and making it feel real and unique.
More websites on conflict and tension in fiction: Fiction Factor—a list of essays on conflict.
There are so many novels being released into the world every day that you might think you're biggest challenge is being unique--finding some way to stand out. That's partly true. You need to find your own voice and take on things that will make those tried and true tropes (say that five times fast!) feel fresh and new.
However, there are certain things every story should have. I'm going to share them with you by linking to some of my favorite posts about them.
The 5 Essential Story Ingredients--Totally different from what I'm listing below. Great post though on how to help keep your reader engaged in the story.
A complete structure (plot)--you know, a beginning, middle and end and all the stuff that keeps the story moving? This link takes you to another page with links. Links to a powerpoint, a youtube presentation, etc. Definitely worth your time! Especially if you're a visual audio learner. :) How to Build a Story
