Don't Duck Trouble
(If you can't duck it, I wonder if you can goose it?*)
In fiction, the best times for the writer -and reader- are when the story's main character is in the worst trouble. Let your characters relax, feel happy and content, and be worried about nothing, and your story dies. Pour on all sorts of woes so your poor character is thoroughly miserable and in the deepest kind of trouble, and your story perks right up -along with your reader's interest.
The moral: Although most of us do everything we can to avoid trouble in real life, we must seek out ways to add trouble to our character's lives, putting just as much pressure on them as we can. For it's from plot trouble that reader interest comes.
There are many kinds of fiction trouble, but the most effective kind is conflict.
You know what conflict is: It's active give-and-take, a struggle between story people with opposing goals.
It is not, please note, bad luck or adversity. It isn't fate. It's a fight of some kind between people with opposing goals.
Fate, bad luck or whatever you choose to call it may play a part in your fiction too. Adversity -that snowstorm that keeps your character from having an easy drive to the mountain cabin, for example, or the suspicious nature of townspeople that complicates your detective's investigation -is nice, too. But those problems are blind; they are forces of some kind that operate willy-nilly, without much reason -and so are things that your character can't confront and grapple with.
In other words, it's all well and good to have your character leave his house in the morning and slip and fall on a banana peel, thus making him feel bad all day. But such an event comes out of nowhere for no good reason; like real-life events, it makes no sense. It is caused by nothing much and leads to nothing special.
Adversity in all its forms may create some sympathy for your character. But your character can't reasonably try to understand it, plot against it, or even confront it in a dramatic way.
Conflict, on the other hand, is a fight with another person. It's dramatic, onstage now, with the kind of seesaw give-and-take that makes most sporting events -and many coutroom trials- exciting stuff. When in conflict, your character knows who the opponent is and has a chance to struggle against him. In conflict, your character has a chance to change the course of events. In taking the challenge and entering the fray, your character proves himself to be worthy as a story hero: he's trying to take charge of his life ...determine the outcome ... win.
The calmer and more peaceful your real life, the better, in all likelihood. Your story person's life is just the opposite. You, the writer, must never duck trouble -conflict- in the story. You seek it out, because that's where the excitement and involvement -as well as reader sympathy for your character- lie.
* This commentary is McKenna's, not the author's.
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Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #1
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #2
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #3
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #4
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #5
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #6
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #7
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #8
(If you can't duck it, I wonder if you can goose it?*)
In fiction, the best times for the writer -and reader- are when the story's main character is in the worst trouble. Let your characters relax, feel happy and content, and be worried about nothing, and your story dies. Pour on all sorts of woes so your poor character is thoroughly miserable and in the deepest kind of trouble, and your story perks right up -along with your reader's interest.
The moral: Although most of us do everything we can to avoid trouble in real life, we must seek out ways to add trouble to our character's lives, putting just as much pressure on them as we can. For it's from plot trouble that reader interest comes.
There are many kinds of fiction trouble, but the most effective kind is conflict.
You know what conflict is: It's active give-and-take, a struggle between story people with opposing goals.
It is not, please note, bad luck or adversity. It isn't fate. It's a fight of some kind between people with opposing goals.
Fate, bad luck or whatever you choose to call it may play a part in your fiction too. Adversity -that snowstorm that keeps your character from having an easy drive to the mountain cabin, for example, or the suspicious nature of townspeople that complicates your detective's investigation -is nice, too. But those problems are blind; they are forces of some kind that operate willy-nilly, without much reason -and so are things that your character can't confront and grapple with.
In other words, it's all well and good to have your character leave his house in the morning and slip and fall on a banana peel, thus making him feel bad all day. But such an event comes out of nowhere for no good reason; like real-life events, it makes no sense. It is caused by nothing much and leads to nothing special.
Adversity in all its forms may create some sympathy for your character. But your character can't reasonably try to understand it, plot against it, or even confront it in a dramatic way.
Conflict, on the other hand, is a fight with another person. It's dramatic, onstage now, with the kind of seesaw give-and-take that makes most sporting events -and many coutroom trials- exciting stuff. When in conflict, your character knows who the opponent is and has a chance to struggle against him. In conflict, your character has a chance to change the course of events. In taking the challenge and entering the fray, your character proves himself to be worthy as a story hero: he's trying to take charge of his life ...determine the outcome ... win.
The calmer and more peaceful your real life, the better, in all likelihood. Your story person's life is just the opposite. You, the writer, must never duck trouble -conflict- in the story. You seek it out, because that's where the excitement and involvement -as well as reader sympathy for your character- lie.
* This commentary is McKenna's, not the author's.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #1
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #2
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #3
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #4
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #5
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #6
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #7
Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, #8
