Archive for ◊ June, 2009 ◊

For Novelists II
Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | Author:

I’ve recently run into the same situation with two novelists: their protagonists were neither sympathetic nor likable. I didn’t want either one to come out on top. In fact, I wished both characters would simply drop dead somewhere around the end of chapter two–which was essentially what happened, because I stopped reading.

I am a ghostwriter; it’s my job to keep reading. Imagine if I was a literary agent or acquisition editor — I would never have pushed through as far as I did. And in both cases, the fault lay in accuracy; both novelists assured me “this is what really happens.”

Bully. “What really happens” is the stuff of news reports and nonfiction. Not novels.

Novels are fiction; i.e., “made up” or “pretend” or “not real.” People who read novels are looking for a protagonist they can either pretend to be, enjoy reading about, or at least root for. Granted, despicable characters can be a lot of fun to write. Where would fiction be without rapists, murders, and thieves? They challenge the protagonist, create undeserved misfortunes, and provide dramatic tension. But regardless of how much depth and backstory you provide for them, they cannot be the main character.

We have to like the main character.

Got a really juicy bad guy? Great! Set him up to drive an equally enticing good guy nuts. Let that delicious queen of unrelenting evil needle and aggravate the flawed but lovable protagonist princess to distraction. Maybe you’ve got a kamikazi pilot bent on killing as many Americans and Brits as possible–no problem. But either he’s a guy torn between duty and morality or he’s got to go up against an Allied hero. And even if the  hero doesn’t survive, the kamikazi has to somehow lose.

Bottom line: fiction needs to be satisfying; real history seldom is.

So unless you can figure out a way to make them sympathetic or redeeming, don”t offer a rapist, murderer, drug dealer, pimp, hijacker, or (ugh) politician as your protagonist. Flip the story around and make them the villain.

Your readers will thank you.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936

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For Novelists
Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | Author:

Eerily, I’ve had the same conversation with a series of aspiring novelists in the last month or some, to wit: novels are not movies. They’re about people, not events. Even when they’re wrapped around a real event, they’re about the people experiencing the event, not the event itself. Nonfiction is about events.

Furthermore (the discussion goes on) the main character, aka “protagonist” in literary parlance, has to be sympathetic enough for the reader to want to read about them, even root for them. That protagonist then journeys through the plot, undergoes a character arc, and ends the story at least slightly changed, hopefully (but not necessarily) for the better.

Finally, the conversation concludes, the book opens and closes on the protagonist, not on a secondary character or subplot.

These concepts aren’t “rules” so much as they are accepted realities for communicating with a cold reader. When someone in a totally different state who has never heard your name before picks up a book you’ve written, you want to have a better-than-fair chance of capturing their attention and getting them to read your story.

If the fundamental “rules” of fiction are 1) it must be compelling and 2) it must be plausible within itself, then keeping the above simple guidelines in mind will help you achieve those two goals.

It’s simple. And complex. Like all writing.

Questions? Call 1-800-641-3936

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Category: Writing  | Tags: , , , , ,  | One Comment