kiingocreative

[kiingocreative]

With one year ending and another kicking off, I naturally find myself pondering my achievements and look at what’s in the cards for the future. I personally have never been great with New Year’s resolutions. The idea that, once a year, at a time where my headspace is invariably a little screwed up by the reality that time is flying by, I should hurry to make a bucket list of things to do with myself in the short-term always felt a little short-sighted to me. Whenever I’ve attempted it, it’shad a fleeting and desperate quality. Not my best work.

Instead, throughout the year, and especially towards the end of the year, I like looking at time gone by in themes and to view time ahead in visualisations. Normally, I come up with laundry lists of things that happened andwish lists of things to come. This year though, as I cast a long, hard look at what I’ve done both in my personal and professional life, I struggled with the lists. One thing stood out more than anything else and eclipsed the rest: the sobering realisation that the only constant in my life is change. I’ve worn many hats, done many things, found myself in many different situations. And that’s the keyword right there: different.

Genres, styles and gigs.

After I published No Pain, No Game, I wasn’t entirely sure what would come next. I looked at others around me—romance writers, dystopian fiction writers, YA writers—and something in me didn’t quite relateto any label. No one box ever felt like it quite fitted.

Since my first novel was published, I’ve written fan-fiction, non-fiction, contemporary fiction, and started a fantasy fiction novel. I’ve started blogging. I’ve taken my literary interests beyond writing and into professional editing and beta reading. Ittook a while for me to look at my constant shift in direction without feeling unsettled. I spent so much time, effort and energy into figuring out what ‘my thing’ was. My style. My genre. My vocation. My voice on instagram, my brand, my content. All the pieces that made up this mysterious beast that had to be‘my thing’.

Now I look back, all I can see is that the moment I thought I had nailed ‘my thing’, it almost instantly evolved into something else. From different genres, to different paid assignments, to different types of posts on social media. I used to see successful accounts on Instagram and think they looked like they’d got it. They’d found their ‘thing’. They were consistent and congruent. I’d been striving to find that path for myself, but my literary journey has been a lot more like a sinuous earth trail in the mountains than a straight cemented road.

Had I been doing it wrong?

You don’t know what you don’t know

I came across this quote in Matt Haig’s fantastic A Boy Named Christmas: ‘An impossibility is just a possibility you don’t understand yet’. It seemed fitting. When I consider where this year’s taken me (and where I’ve taken myself) I realise that I could never have predicted any of it. A lot of things would have seemed impossible before they happened, and only now can I see how they could work out so seamlessly, with the benefit of this great and wonderful thing called hindsight.

There I was, trying so hard to build a path for myself—the path—one that involved me knowing where I was going and how I was going to get there… and it turned out that the best and most impactful events of the last year were all wholly and completely unpredictable. I used to think that this unpredictability was a hindrance, especially when it came to building a writer brand, a readership and a presence in the literary sphere where consistency is key. Now, however, I’m changing my tune a little. Had I stuck to my original plans, I would have run the risk of blinding myself to opportunities to learn and grow.

For someone like me, who thrives on knowing what’s happening, when, where and for how long (some call it OCD, I call it being on top of things) letting go of the idea that I have control over my writing journey—or my life journey in general—isn’t an easy feat. But if the past couple of years have taught me anything, in fact, it’s that I need to do exactly that.

Things will happen that I never saw coming, people will come onto my path out of the blue and events will stir me in one direction or other. Opportunities to write different things or to write differently, to explore different mediums will pop up, often only temporarily. I can control none of that. All I truly have control over is how I respond to these turns in the road.

Embracing change: The past does not equal the future

Looking ahead at the year to come, my first thought is that I truly need to give myself a little more grace. Yes I can be proactive on a lot of fronts, I can instigate things to a certain extent, but I also need to give myself room to react to the things that are just bound to happen without me being able to prepare for them in advance. Better even, I need to accept that the majority of the most amazing things that have occurred this past year came from situations that were presented to me, and all I had to do was embrace them with an open mind and an open heart. I’ve said yes to the things that felt right, that rung true, deep down.

By previously trying so intently to find some consistency, I lost sight of a very important truth: that change is good. Change shakes things up. Change helps me grow. And in that growth, new things will emerge, new ideas with sprout, new relationships will spark unexpected collaborations.

‘The past does not equal the future’, says behavioural coach Tony Robbins, and as far as my writing journey is concerned, that’s actually a relief. I think back to the very first pieces I wrote, back in my teens and, though I’m glad they happened, I’m also glad my writing style and storytelling abilities have improved. Could striving for consistency have prevented me from learning from my mistakes, by trying too hard to keep being the writer I was then? Where I wanted consistency, I risked stagnation. Without looking so far back, I’m even glad present Lucie is a better writer than the Lucie who wrote No Pain, No Game. Thank God my writing has changed and my literary endeavours have expanded. It’s made me a better writer and a better person.

See it, believe it

What’s left for me to do as, armed with this new outlook, I ponder the year to come is to take a breath and focus less on what I want to make happen and more on how I want to feel, and the kind of writer I want to be. Those decisions, when led by a strong sense of inner truth have never led me astray. I close my eyes and I picture the feel of it all, in all its splendid colours and all its minute details.

In A Boy Named Christmas, Matt Haig writes: ‘You can’t see something you don’t believe in’. I couldn’t agree more. We polish our own rose-tinted glasses and we see only what we chose to see. If we want our writing path to take us to wonder-filled places, we need to believe it’s possible before we can see the way there. And the best way to picture the right outcomes? Focus on how it makes you feel. Focus on what makes your sound shine and your heart sing.

I’d encourage any writer out there to try this out: think not of what you want to achieve, but how you want it to make you feel. Visualise it. Paint a picture of it in your mind. Layer it over and over again until it’s as real as it can get and let that guide you. Know it, see it and believe it. Write it down, make it real. Let that be your North Star.

If you keep your eyes on that particular prize, you may find that what may seem to make sense in the short term isn’t actually the best way to serve your long-term vision. It’s easy to get distracted with day to day logistics, with what others are doing orwith social media. It happens to the best of us. If ever you get side-tracked, as has happened to me many times before, then you may find relief in the knowledge that the only true constant is change and that this, too, shall eventually morph into something else.

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[kiingocreative]

Irony is all around us. From when you choose the shorter line at the grocery store that ends up taking twice as long to the fact that the most shoplifted book in America is the Bible.

The concept of irony originated in ancient Greece. It comes from the word “eironeia” which means feigned ignorance. A character named Eiron in Greek tales would defeat his opponents by underselling his abilities and making them believe they could win then surprising them with his awesomeness.

Irony is the difference of expectation vs reality. It is the reason shows like “Nailed It” are so popular. In real life, in movies, and in literature—we love to have our expectations fail in the most satisfying way. When used correctly, irony is powerful.

There are three kinds of irony: situational (when the opposite of what you think will occur, happens), verbal irony (when you say the opposite of what you mean, ie. sarcasm), and dramatic irony (when the audience knows about the irony but the character does not).

You’re in eighth grade reading Romeo and Juliet for the first time. You know Juliet is faking her own death. You know it’s a grand plan to help her be with the man (let’s be honest…boy!) she loves. But Romeo doesn’t know. Now you watch him, on the edge of your seat, as he kills himself in the name of love. The ploy that could have saved their relationship has now killed them both. That is the pinnacle of dramatic irony. If say, after she fell asleep Romeo decided to run away to Antarctica and be a penguin farmer… that wouldn’t have satisfied us.

Irony should make sense and satisfy the reader.

In The Wizard of Oz, the lion wants a heart but learns he’s very caring already; the tin man wants a brain but finds out he was always intelligent; the lion thinks he’s a coward but was always very brave. They go on a journey to get what they want only to find out they already had it. That is situational irony.

Fahrenheit 451 employs situational irony with firefighters whose job is to burn books. (And if you want to add to this irony, this book about censorship was banned for a while in the states).

Lemony Snicket is a master of verbal irony, writing things like “Today was a very cold and bitter day, as cold and bitter as a cup of hot chocolate if the cup of hot chocolate had vinegar added to it and were placed in a refrigerator for several hours.”

The Truman Show used dramatic irony when the only person who didn’t know Truman was in a television program was Truman himself.

The witch in Hansel and Gretel attempts to eat the children and gets trapped in her own oven.

For fun let’s talk about examples of irony in real life:

1. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the official name for “fear of long words”

2. One of Crayola’s past CEOs was colorblind

3. Titanic was claimed to be an unsinkable ship

Irony can create humor, suspense, highlight character flaws, strengthen themes, etc. Irony can make your story truly great.

Now, go have a terribly beautiful day, lovelies!

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[kiingocreative]

I was recently commissioned to write a piece about two books by Charles Moore, The Black Market: A Guide to Art Collectingand The Brilliance of the Color Black: Through the Eyes of Art Collectors. The books offer a panoramic view of the world of art collectors and the Black Market—art made by Black artists. Whether or not you know anything about collecting art or the Black Market, these are fascinating reads, especially in the modern climate.

But this isn’t quite the topic on my mind today. Whilst reading the books, I came across a couple of quotes that stopped me in my tracks and got me thinking:

“[Artist] Biggers welcomes differing opinions—stating that, as an artist: ‘if everyone agrees in the positive or just the negative, then something hasn’t worked’.”

And:

“As an artist, Nina Chanel Abney revealed that she’s ‘intentional about creating work that gets a mixed response’.”

I previously wrote about negative reviews and how, as writers, we can learn to look at getting a negative review on our work in a positive light. But the perspective I was taking was purely in terms of writing the book you want to write, and then dealing with a negative review as a sort of inevitable and unfortunate aftermath. Coming across those two passages in Moore’s work got me considering the topic in a whole different light:

More than just learning to deal with bad reviews… Should we aim to create work that is going to generate mixed reviews in the first place?

We can’t please everyone, sure. But should we actually actively make sure to displease some of our readers?

Art as a vessel

Since the very beginning, art has been a vessel, a vehicle to convey messages to the public. Artists have always used their art to share their views of the world and the societies they live in. They portray their vision of the world. And since that in itself is subjective, the output is bound to be divisive.

The same is true for every book we write and tale we tell. The most seemingly innocuous stories out there convey messages, not just in terms of what is said, but how it’s said, too. They’re a mirror for the writer’s views, perception of the world, a reflection of their values and inclinations. Again, all very subjective things, which aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. For Charles Moore, that’s a good thing:

“A good artist”, he states in The Black Market, “can make interesting works. They can hold an audience’s attention for a certain period of mind. The great artists, however, can make interesting art while being conscious about their subjectivity and relationship with the world around them. Great art isn’t just about the aesthetics; it is a highly critical intellectual activity.”

Working those ‘little grey cells’

In that case, as writers, we must learn to look at the creative process in a different light. It’s about telling the stories we want and need to tell, yes, but it’s also about being aware of the messages—conscious or unconscious—we weave into our work, and the people at the receiving end of those messages. It’s about leaving those messages open to interpretation, and welcoming anyone’s differing opinion from the outset. Because, if someone disagrees, it means it’ll have made them think about our work enough to ponder the matter and form a view of their own.

With that in mind, far from wanting everyone to leave a five star review, we should aim for our readership to interpret the stories we write in their own way and to think about them critically. In short, we want them to think, to reflect, to use their ‘little grey cells’ (and kudos to those of you who got the Hercule Poirot reference!).

As Charles Moore says in The Brilliance of The Colour Black: “Refusing to restrict herself to just one material, medium, message, or cause, [artist] Nina Chanel Abney explores the universes of fine art and commercial art as she embarks on a mission to share her art through every medium necessary to find—and provoke—her audience.”

I like that. From that vantage point, our mission as writers is no longer to please others, or simply to express ourselves, but also to provoke a reaction in our readers, and to welcome the positive and negative feedback with the same satisfaction, that of having done our job well.

Art as a conversation starter

Is that not just angsty, some of you might ask? Can’t anyone just create something for the pure joy of manifesting a piece of work into existence, without any ulterior motive?

Of course we can. But even those apparently inconspicuous pieces reveal a lot about us as writers, our experiences and our views of the world. And that alone sends a certain message, whether you like it or not.

Similarly, when you chose to tackle a topic in your writing voluntarily, just because you convey one particular message in one piece of work doesn’t mean you have to stick to it forever or in the same manner.

In The Brilliance of the Colour Black, Moore goes on: “Abney reveals that she wants viewers to have a “personal relationship” with her artwork, so she tries to avoid being pigeonholed or associated too strongly with one particular cause or message. By making the events and figures depicted in her work somewhat inscrutable, she accomplishes open interpretability for the most part.”

And, ultimately, what is ‘interpretability’? It’s leaving things open-ended. It’s allowing others to take what you create and read it in any way they wish. It’s having people who’ll love your work and people who won’t, and people who’ll get it spot on and people who just won’t see your point, or read it completely wrong. And some who’ll write good reviews and some who’ll trash your book for everything they hated about. But… (Yes, there’s a but, and a good one at that!).

Even for someone to trash your book with passion they’d have to think about it enough to evaluate why they hated it. They’d have to have that conversation with themselves about what it was in the book that didn’t work for them. And, in the process, it’d have made them think, deeply, profoundly about your work and what you were trying to achieve. It’d have them exploring their own understand of the world and challenging their views of particular scenarios. In doing that, regardless of where they land with your work, little by little, they’ll end up expanding their horizons.

And that alone, in my view, is quite a win.

Disruptors make the world go round

If you’ve read some of my previous articles, you may know where I’m headed: what now? What does this mean for us writers? Have we failed if we don’t get our readers to intensely weight the ins and outs of our work after they’ve read it?

Absolutely not.

What I am saying however is that we should be conscious of the messages we convey in our writing, whether we want it (or know it) or not. And we shouldn’t shy away from people disagreeing with what we’re saying or how we chose to say it. We should aim to step away from that stigma of bad reviews, that more common approach that says something like ‘getting a bad review means you’re worthless as a writer and your work sucks and you should hide in a hole and never write another word again’.

Instead, from the moment we put the very first word of any WIP down, we should embrace the idea that some people will strongly dislike it. That some readers will disagree with any (or all) parts of our work. We should welcome those reactions. Better even, we should hope for them wholeheartedly.

It’s easy to receive praise, or to get someone to agree with you who’s pre-disposed to like your work. What’s not that easy, on the other hand, is to be a disruptor. To get someone who’s not on the same page as you to consider your work and articulate an opinion, even if at the end of the day their view on the topic still differs from yours.

So here’s my challenge to you (and to myself): next time you sit down with your WIP, or read a negative review on your work, or come across someone disagreeing with something you’ve written… Force yourself to step away from that downward spiral of self-doubt and self-criticism. Instead, congratulate yourself on a job well done.

In a world where people’s attention span averages a few seconds, where original thought has been nearly eclipsed by avalanches of pre-digested and oversimplified content, it’s our duty as writers to help readers reclaim their critical thinking powers, to help them re-learn how to make their own opinions, one word at a time.

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[kiingocreative]

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I picked up a book from my local library a few weeks ago called “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. I thought it would be dull and I was going to return it a week later having read only a few pages but at least I tried. I was wrong. It is delightful and very useful. It basically does a deep dive into how to read a book with a critical eye and try to find the connections to ancient stories and really think about the meaning of different elements. And I must admit, I do not do that enough.

For example: when a character goes underwater and comes out, typically this is some kind of baptism. The character emerges changed. Sure not every time. I’m sure some characters have gone swimming for the joy of it and it didn’t mean they were a changed person, but it certainly can. Now I have a tool to put in my back pocket if I want to show a character change and can’t figure out how to do it! And that’s only one way of many.

This book is also making me feel better about my own lack of originality. So many stories out there have similar characters or plots to Shakespeare, the Odyssey, Greek Mythology, the Bible, and so much more.

In the book, Foster states that it is nearly impossible to be completely original because there is only one story. That’s it. One. And that is what it is like to exist. We can only write about existence and the happenstance that falls within it for that is all we know.

But it is OK that your stories aren’t original. How many songs are covered by other bands and people still listen to them? How many times have Christmas songs been sung by different people and we still listen to them whether the rendition is Aretha Franklin or Justin Bieber? Just because a story has been done, doesn’t mean it’s been done by you. And it doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there who want to hear your rendition.

In his book, Foster suggests it’s not only OK that we can’t create original stories but it is actually a GOOD thing. When they can find the similarities between the old and the new it opens the reader up to a whole new level of depth within the story. If we already know the story of Romeo and Juliet, now we can enjoy West Side Story (among other tales) in a brand new way. We can find connections and differences and hunt for meaning and now the story comes alive and is more dynamic.

Have you ever looked through popular Instagram accounts and thought, “How on earth does this have so many likes? It’s just a common phrase with a pretty background.” People enjoy the familiar. We want what we are familiar with, just in newer packaging. Why do you think a series sells so well? Maybe our goal as writers isn’t always to create something totally new. Maybe we can take something old and spin it and change it until it becomes something new. Recycling in a sense.

But the only way to do that is to learn to read like a writer. While you read, think, “Why is this scene here? Where have I seen this scene play out? Why did the author choose this season? What is the symbolic meaning of this color dress?” And then, “How can I pull elements of this to use in my own writing?”

Then you sit at the table with all your newfound knowledge of the inner workings of stories and say, “How do I arrange this in a way that brings my readers the most pleasure?”

None of that is easy. We tend to read just to feel something. We will read a book and enjoy the feelings it brings and put it down to pick up the next without rolling it around in our minds and enjoying each flavor like a connoisseur. But if we could slow down. If we could take our time. What difference could that make for our writing? For our readers?

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[kiingocreative]

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I’ve always been fascinated by the creative process, and more specifically the relationship writers have with their craft. In fact, a while back I wrote about writing and desire, and explored the idea of writing as a relationship with ourselves as human beings.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how my relationship with writing has its ebbs and flows. There are moments when everything simply works out and others where no one’s speaking the same language.

As with any relationship, it’s like a dance, where each partner has to follow the right tempo at the right time. Sometimes magic happens, and the audience stands by in a large circle, watching, mesmerised, and sometimes, it’s such a dramatic fiasco one of you might well trip and end up with their face smashed into one of the cream-covered cakes on the nearby buffet.

When You’re Stepping on Each Other’s Toes.

Sometimes, when I sit down with a piece of writing, be it my WIP, a blog article or a series of Instagram posts, things aren’t flowing. You might know the feeling, the one that’s a little like every word you chose is wrong, like none of the sentences really flow, like the tone isn’t right, the story doesn’t add up and your mind starts bringing up the hundred and ten other things you could be doing instead of trying to write this piece that just doesn’t want to be written.

It’s like standing on the dance floor with your writing, and neither of you really knows the same steps, and all that ends up happening is one (or both) of you ends up stepping on the other’s toes, and everyone’s getting frustrated. At that point, the temptation to just give up is high, and the appeal of the other side of the room, where both of you can get a refill on your drinks and forget about this dancing business is great.

I used to be a master at giving up on a piece whenever I felt out of sync with it. I’d be quick to make an excuse and disappear off to do something else. The longer I’ve been writing, however, the less I’m tempted to run away at the first signs of trouble.

Just like with dancing, where both partners need to learn about each other’s styles and abilities before they can figure out the right steps, some pieces need time to find their bearings, their pace, their voice. Few people master the perfect tango on their very first go, especially if they’ve just met their partner. There may be compromises to be made, and adjustments, and depending on how flexible each partner is, it may end up working well or not at all.

My go-to now? When I feel my writing and I stepping on each other’s toes and dancing to different tunes, I set a timer for thirty minutes and I keep writing anyways with the best of intentions. It may be rubbish, it may be very little, but pushing past that initial hurdle has always served me right. A lot of the time, I find that there is some use to whatever I’ve written, and I’m tempted to keep writing when the timer’s up. But even at times when I have to throw away every single word I’ve written in that half-hour, I’ve trained my brain to persevere, rather than cower in the face of difficulty.

When You’re the Only One on the Dance Floor.

That said, there are times where writing simply isn’t happening. Where I’m facing a wall so high there’s just no way around it, no matter how many thirty-minute timers I set for myself. Times when I’m trying to drag my writing, kicking and screaming, onto the dance floor, to no avail. Times where I can see my writing sitting cross-armed and cross-legged on a chair at the other end of the room, refusing the budge, and I find myself swaying sadly on my own in the middle of the dance floor.

I’ve found myself in such situations before where, no matter how much coaxing and pleading and begging I resorted to, my writing simply wouldn’t oblige me. There were occasions where stepping away from the ballroom for a while was sufficient and, by the time I got back, I’d find my writing more inclined to shimmy with me.

Similarly, there were occasions where I’d leave and come back, many times over, and I’d still be standing by myself, like a fool, in tears, under the disco ball. I’ve often wondered about what to do in these situations. If I’m working on a piece that is just not happening, what should I do?

I recently came across a great and truly refreshing article by the fantastic Elizabeth Day titled ‘I’ve Finally Learned to Quit’ where she talks about ‘the simple pleasure of giving up’. In our modern society of high achievers, there’s a stigma around quitting. Somehow it’s not acceptable to chose to cut your losses when something just isn’t working. It happens with relationships, jobs, friendships, or any other form of commitment, big or small. ‘Fake it till you make it’, the saying goes, and ‘don’t stop till you reach the top’.

But is that really all worth it if you have to fight the odds every step of the way? That sounds exhausting, and rather unfulfilling. As a writer, wouldn’t it be kinder both to yourself and your craft to let an idea go, if you genuinely feel it’s not the one for you?

Only you can answer that. As for me, I think life is too short to force writing that doesn’t want to be written by you. I’ve learnt to thank the idea in question for presenting itself to me, but acknowledge that we’re probably not right for each other, suggesting, as kindly as I possibly can, that we part ways and search for partners that are better suited to each of us.

When Everything’s in Sync.

And then… And then…

Then there are the perfect moments of alchemy where everything just works. Where the words are flowing out of me almost faster than I can write them. Where the ideas are popping around in my head like the fireworks of ecstasy in Ratatouille. Ideas that are so happy to be collaborating with me they keep me awake at night, distracted in every moment of every day, desperate to go back to my WIP the instant I have a spare minute or two.

These are the times where the ballroom’s bathed in a warm, magical glow. Where my writing and I are waltzing, tango-ing and salsa dancing to perfection. Where there’s not even one step out of line. Where the sensuality of our moving bodies is such that every person in the room has stopped to watch us, hypnotised by our synchronicity. If it were a movie, everything around us would fade away and slowly disappear, and we’d keep swirling in slow motion, never breaking eye contact.

I’ve had the incredible good fortune of experiencing that perfect sync on several occasions throughout my writing career and, every single time, it’s blown my mind. I know these immaculate moments don’t last forever, so I’ve learnt to enjoy them whilst they’re happening, and to be grateful for them.

The Master of Your Own Rhythm.

More importantly, I’ve learnt not to beat myself up over the fact that my writer’s life isn’t always a perfect sync—and God knows there’s enough pretence on Social Media to make one think it should be otherwise.

Ultimately, my relationship with my writing has proven to be as ever-changing as the one I have with any living, breathing human being. Your writing won’t always want to dance. Somedays it’ll be temperamental. Someday’s it’ll be in a fabulous party mood. Someday’s it’ll be impossible to get it out of bed. A bit like us writers, in fact. And when you do both make it onto the dance floor, there’s no telling what sort of a wriggle each of you is going to be in the mood for.

There’s a lot out there around what things should or shouldn’t be like, what makes you a success or a failure. My two cents? Screw that. Screw what anyone else has to say. Screw the shoulda, woulda, coulda. No one’s to say what pace is best for you, but you. No one’s better placed to know what dance and what tempo works for you and your writing better than you can. I say make your own rules. Pick your own rhythm. You can build the relationship you want with your writing, one that works for you, and no one else can have a say in it.

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[kiingocreative]

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Conflict–One of the Most Exciting Aspects of Story!

In one of my previous articles –How to Make Your Fictional Gatherings More Realistic– I touched a little bit on conflict resolution as it relates to our characters. A character’s reactions to conflict is more than just a way to create an interesting scene, it is a direct reflection of who they are as a person. So is the way your character approaches conflict.

How do your characters handle being approached with difficult conversations? How about initiating difficult conversations? If you’re dealing with a power dynamic situation, it can affect both of these things.

“We all know what it’s like to hear something that’s really painful and we totally reject it. Maybe we disagree, maybe we feel attacked, maybe we feel it’s unjust for somebody to have said this to us. And when we react, we react out of wanting to totally reject the experience of hearing this difficult feedback.” –Matthew Hepburn

To be averse or not to be

Conflict Averse characters:

Changing the subject or avoiding the subject altogether, leaving to be free from the conflict or facing feelings of desperately wanting to flee. These are all ways a character will react that not only struggles dealing with conflict but also doesn’t know how to cope with the tension that conflict brings. These characters may struggle in facing their own thoughts and feelings, particularly the negative ones.

The one with the screw loose

Conflict Seeking Characters:

These characters might struggle with their relationships, avoid introspection and often blame others for even their own wrongdoings. They might be liars, con-artists, dominators, aggressors, bullies. They will go to great lengths to cause trouble, as they find a real thrill in the suffering of others. These characters are basically game for anything to start a conflict, or continue a conflict.

Difficult conversations: Characters in a position of relative disempowerment

This character answers to someone above them. A ruler, a manager, an older sibling… it doesn’t matter who it is that they answer to in this particular discussion. What matters is how they approach a difficult conversation when it is in relation to this person of power in their world, because how they approach the conflict can be the cause and effect of the reaction, or response, of the person in power. For simplicity, here are two opposite ways a character might approach a person in power with a difficult conversation:

A cautious approach:

In a cautious approach, this character in a position of relative disempowerment will fulfill a number of things during a tension-filled conversation:

1) They will reaffirm the relationship they have with the person in power so that the person in power knows their commitment/loyalty/desires of their well-being is true and important

2) They may attempt at giving the person in power some form of agency over how they receive the difficult information by asking when it’s a good time to have the tough conversation

3) They will share the positive intention first

4) They will speak openly and directly

These are all things that will potentially lessen the chances of a reactive character in a position of power from being set off.

A non-cautious approach:

A non-cautious approach is more likely to result in the person in power reacting (I’ll explain why down below). In this kind of scenario, where a character is not cautious when approaching the person in power with a difficult conversation…they generally aren’t considerate, they don’t set importance upon the relationship they have with the person in power and they don’t put focus on their positive intention. Maybe they don’t even have a positive intention, which could be a reason for why they have not approached this conversation cautiously–this will all depend upon the complexities of your characters.

Difficult conversations: Characters in a position of power

The person in power is the one who makes the call. They’re in charge by either having been appointed, promoted, or simply born to be where they are. This character often does not take lightly to being approached with negative feedback or general difficult conversations, unless of course they are a *rare* non-reactive person in power. The reason? It’s simple: they are used to being the one who tells others when they are not performing up to par. They are the ones who give the negative feedback and initiated those difficult conversations, not the other way around. Sure, we can have reasonable and respectable characters in a position of power, sometimes they are needed! (But, are they as fun?)

Responding Characters:

This powerful character listens to understand. They are reflective by nature and want to not only understand themselves, but to understand others. This character is often grey (not in the good or bad sense) in the sense that they can hold space for different view points and perspectives, as they aren’t necessarily hard and fast on only having one way to go about doing things (unless of course an idea goes against their core values). They can hold space for the polarity of life and what it means to be human. This character will sit with what’s been said to them and contemplate it in great detail, looking at all sides, all considerations. They will likely respond with a calm disposition, and with respect.

“When things are going well, people are actually holding strong opinions but very lightly, and they’re able to perspective take. And listen to other people and listen really deeply and authentically, not just waiting to pounce on the weakest part of somebodies’ idea.” –Matthew Hepburn

*Potential Game of Thronesspoiler in this paragraph, proceed with caution!

An example of this character is Daenerys from GOT (Obviously I’m not talking about the later seasons *I haven’t read all of the book yet, so they may differ*). Dany is a noble leader, who only wants what’s best for the people who relay their trust in her. She is fair. When she is approached with issues from her people, she listens wholly and contemplates all that is real and possible. In her early ruling days, she actually listens to her confidantes by heeding their advice and warnings. For a time, I really feel she is a character in a powerful position that responds rather than reacts. Of course if we look at her later on, this analysis would be quite different (thanks for keeping us on our toes Martin).

Reactive Characters:

“If we’re in a place of a lot of power, sometimes we react to the way other people come at us in really strong ways.” –Matthew Hepburn

“Let’s say you’re in a position of power because you’re a human and a mosquito flies up and sucks your blood. You might just totally destroy the thing. That’s a relationship of a power imbalance, where one being came up to you with a need, expressed it, and you didn’t like it and you just crushed their life out of existence.” –Matthew Hepburn

Well, you know the kind. This is a person we’ve all had the pleasure of dealing with. And although they may not be very pleasant to engage with in real life, it is a real joy to make our characters deal with them. These characters are basically hell on wheels. They are typically unapproachable, which makes approaching them all that more terrifying for the character (and all that more exciting for the reader). These characters are often emotionally driven, and so when they react (instead of just responding) they’re reactions are often unpredictable because they are so fueled by how they feel in any given moment. Gosh these guys are fun, aren’t they? They can be passionate, but often these people don’t focus their passion in positive places. Instead, they carry the story along by creating added conflict, tension and general difficulties.

*Spoilers ahead for The Joker, take heed!

Let’s look at the amazingly crafted villain, The Joker. No, he is not in a position of power (early on, at least), and yet, he can still be quite reactive. I would say he is on the far spectrum of reactive, actually, as he reacts with aggression. His reactions are emotionally driven, but as we’ve learned if you’ve watched the movie, his traumatic past combined with his specific mental illness equate to his reactions being so drastic they result in murder and often happen after a realization of having been personally attacked in some form or another. (Example: suffocating his mother after finding out he was actually adopted and she had lied to him his entire life.)

But there are also reactive characters that are a little less dangerously reactive, such as, Treena of Favoured Adder in my novel Age of The Almek. She is mostly unapproachable, and in a position of power as she is The Master of Tagondo’s daughter. She is next line to rule Tagondo and relishes in this fact. Treena likes to inflict pain and discomfort upon those that cross her, using her sidekick Cain of favoured Fenwick to do the dirty work. But mostly, in this first book of the series, her reactive nature is emotionally driven in provocative ways, as she satiates her anger and irritation by being illegally sexually active with men.

Ultimately, a lot goes into the construct of our characters. Their back story and mental state, position of power and where they sit on that reactive scale, (it obviously, doesn’t stop there!) all come together to create their own personal reactions to conflict and whether they’re a responsive or reactive person, conflict averse or seeking conflict. Reactive characters–both the ones I create and the ones I get to read about–are some of my favourite kinds of characters. The cool part? Characters can change. What was once a responding character can become a reactive character, or what was once a character in a position of power can become a character in a position of disempowerment, etc. That freedom, to shape a character and put all kinds of terrible and wonderful things (including the harrowing, yet juicy reality of conflict) in their path is one of the most joyous (and evil *muhaha*) things about being a writer and creating book worlds.

Podcasts referenced:

Ten Percent Happier, Don’t Side With Yourself with Matthew Hepburn

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I recently listened to the audiobook version of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’d read the book a while back, but I fancied immersing myself in it again, and what better way to do it than by listening to it (especially when it’s so well narrated, by Liz Gilbert herself).

I’d been going through an odd phase in my writing journey. My new book was with BETA readers. I had a somewhat steady stream of blog articles and beta reading reports that kept me busy. I had the first two pages of a novel that I’d written on the plane on my way to Greece last September, but hadn’t touched again because I didn’t really know where to take things from there.

All in all, it had been a while since I’d written something just because I wanted to, rather than because there was a need for it. I’d gotten a little bit out of balance of late. I’d sort of assumed that, when creativity stroke, I’d start writing my own stories again.

And so I waited. And waited. And waited��

A Two-Way Street

Listening to Big Magic reminded me of something crucial: that you can’t keep waiting for your writing to show up for you, if you’re not ready to show up for your writing in the first place. I can very well picture my creativity crossing her arms and throwing me a sidelong look, thinking ‘dude, if you’re not really committed to this, why should I even bother to tag along?’

It’s a two-way street, and I’d been treating it as though I could just wait, distract myself with other things, and see what happened without taking any steps of my own. By this time in my writing journey, I should have known better, but it’s easy to fall into those traps every once in a while, even when you know exactly what they are and what you should do to avoid them.

Whilst this article isn’t an advert for Big Magic, I will say that reading the book, and listening to it recently unblocked a lot of things for me, creativity-wise. It helped me reconnect with the source of it all, it reminded me of what it’s all about. It made me pick up those two lone pages of my new novel and give them some proper TLC.

And, it made rethink some of the ways in which I’d been regarding and treating my writing that simply needed to change.

Be the Spokesperson for your Writing

I don’t know about you, but I struggle speaking up for my writing. It feels almost embarrassing. Like I’m bragging or singing my own praises. I could go to war for another writer’s book that I loved, screaming about it on every platform I can. But doing the same thing for my own work? Not a chance.

I know I’m not alone in this, because I’ve had this conversation with fellow writers, and they confessed to the same thing.

…How crazy is that?

There again, in comes Big Magic and the concept that creatives are merely a vessel for their creativity. That you aren’t your creativity, and neither do you own your creativity. Your creativity comes and goes, looking for the right partner at the right time to make some magic happen. Just like any collaboration or relationship we keep, if we’re not supportive of our creativity, would it really want to stick around and do all the work for us? For a while, maybe, if our creativity finds itself in the mood to cut us some slack. But not forever. Definitely not forever.

I’ve found the idea of dissociating myself from my writing in that way helpful. Because then, if I’m going to war for my writing or screaming about it on every platform I can, it’s no longer about me singing my own praises, it’s about me speaking up for this great partner I have, this amazing collaboration with my creativity, and the wonderful magic we’re making together. It’s me celebrating the beauty we came together to make. It’s not bragging, it’s taking pride in the work creativity and I do together.

Now, should I learn to be able to speak up for myself and my work regardless of whether creativity happens to be by my side? Yes. A hundred per cent, yes. But, one step at a time. For now, this is helping me overcome this huge impostor syndrome I get every time I talk about my writing, because it’s much harder to feel like a fraud when you’re singing your partner’s praises rather than your own.

Be your Writing’s Very Own Patron

One thing that’s been bothering me is that I don’t live off my writing. I simply don’t make enough money out of my writing endeavours to lead the life I want to lead. And, for a long that’s something I’ve found frustrating.

…Until I came across this passage in Big Magic in which Elizabeth Gilbert says something like this (and I’m massively paraphrasing, here): Why on earth would you put that kind of pressure on yourself and on your writing? Why would you demand that your writing support all your financial needs? Why would you risk suffocating it to the point that it may one day desert you?

By having a job that pays for your bills, your mortgage, your groceries, your coffee beans and your pets’ kibble, you take away the need for your writing to be the main breadwinner in your relationship. You create space for it to breathe and to do what it does best: to show up for you, unencumbered, so you can do some incredible work together.

So what if your day job has nothing to do with writing? If it pays for the space you need to write in, isn’t that sufficient? If it pays for your peace of mind so you don’t have to stress about money, isn’t it all that’s required? Of course, we’d all like to write a bestseller that takes care of us for life, but realistically, the chances of that happening to most people are slim. And what would that be saying to our creativity? It’d be like entering a new collaboration and saying to your partner, before work’s even begun: ‘listen, you seem nice, so I’ll give it to you straight. I’m in this for the big bucks. If you don’t have what it takes to make that happen, we might as well not bother and just end this thing right here’. If there’s one sure way to scare your creativity away, I’d say this is it.

Think of it this way: By taking care of your own financial needs, you become your writing’s very own patron. You become the top sponsor for your writing endeavours. Patrons in the Renaissance would pay for their artists’ material needs—their paint, brushes, their studio, and so on—so that they could do what they did best in the best possible conditions: paint.

Be your writing’s patron. Be the one who pays for the logistics of daily life so that your writing doesn’t have the pressure of wondering how it can pay for your electricity bill.

Be your Writing’s Biggest Cheerleader

We all have our down moments. We all have our doubts. We all face uncertainty. When it comes to writing, it happens to the best of us. Times when writing doesn’t come naturally. When the words aren’t quite flowing. When a chapter isn’t working. A time when you simply can’t be bothered with it. I’ve been there more than once.

My knee-jerk reaction used to be to berate myself. To get frustrated and to eventually let things be until I felt like writing again. Usually, the longer I left it the harder it became to ‘feel like’ getting back to it. And then there were the guilt trips because I wasn’t writing and the spirals about how terrible a writer I was if I couldn’t write consistently—if I could even call myself a writer. You get the picture.

But now I think of my writing as my partner, it’s a lot trickier to be so hard on it. I wouldn’t talk to a friend the way I sometimes talk to myself. So, in those instances, I started addressing my writing the way I would a friend in need: with kind, supportive words, but without letting it get away with procrastinating for no reason. I remind my writing that we all have our moments. That, yes, taking a break is important, but that you need to watch out for those times where you’re stepping away from the task at hand because you’re simply scared or doubt your own abilities. I tell my writing that I know it has what it takes to face whatever challenge there is and that, whatever happens, I’ll be there by its side to lend a helping hand.

…You’re joking, right?

I can see the most sceptical amongst you roll their eyes at all this like I’ve just lost my mind. Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t, who’s to say? All I can tell you is that building a healthy relationship with my writing, and my creativity in general, has helped me treat it (and ultimately, myself) with a lot more care and respect. It’s allowed me to build trust with my writing, and a sense of diligence I was struggling to achieve before. If that’s madness, I guess I’m a little mad, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I know my writing thanks me for it.

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A question has plagued me as of late. “How do modern age authors do this?” (This being write and show up online and still exist in their personal life) How do they handle writing and having an online presence? What kind of presence do they have? Where? Teach me oh masters who came before!

Before the days of social media you had to jump through a lot more gatekeepers and subduing them was your only option. And yes that part sounds terrible. But now it seems like there are too many options and how are you to know which one is going to work? What if you spend a year building a following for your bookstagram only to get nowhere with it?

That’s why I decided to do some research.

Ursula K Le Guin ran a blog where she linked to all her impressive titles that range from chapbooks to fiction to poetry, children’s books, and essays. She did a lot. She started her blog a few years ago at the age of 81. How crazy! Age is truly just a number.

Authors like Neil Gaiman and Teju Cole use Twitter as their playground, interacting with readers and using their suggestions for short stories which helps them build loyalty and interest.

David Mitchell wrote a short story he published to Twitter in 180 character sections in order to promote his book in 2014.

Veronica Roth who wrote the Divergent series curates a tumblr page where she gives writing tips, book updates, and funny internet memes.

Many authors, especially the newer up and coming ones, take to instagram and now TikTok to get their audience. Some post real life photos and updates and others use humorous skits and interviews with others to drive their content.

John Green started out as a vlogger on YouTube with his brother Hank Green just creating educational videos. If you haven’t seen them, you should go watch some of them. Both men are good at what they do. I watch Hank on TikTok all the time just answering people’s random science questions. It’s awesome. People love John’s dorky self and want to buy anything he writes because of it.

I could go on and on. If you would like to do this research yourself and find more examples, you can start as I did by Googling “how do famous authors navigate the technology age” or “up and coming authors of 2021” and then search them on whatever social media platform you usually use and see for yourself.

In my opinion, it all comes down to this: the specifics of how you show up online don’t matter. If you want to dress up as different characters and do skits or talk about whether or not Batman was really a good guy (the Green boys have a video about this on YouTube) that is awesome and you should do it. All that really matters is that you show up as your most authentic self.

Be you, loud and proud and the right readers will find you.

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When we talk about writing these days, we think a lot about word count, digital tools, writer’s block and social media. As we should, because that’s what being a writer encompasses in our day and age. It’s not just about the stories we put down on paper, it’s also about everything that comes around it—marketing, promotion, mental health and networking.

But it wasn’t always like that. Hundreds, even thousands of years ago, our ancestors would have looked at and thought about writing in very different ways. Somewhere in the multiverse, ancient Egyptian scribes look at our obsession with Bookstagram and roll their eyes at how bad a turn the world has taken, probably mighty glad they weren’t born in the twenty-first century. True story.

What would they have said of some of the more contemporary additions to the Oxford dictionary, I wonder, such as ‘YOLO’, ‘noob’, ’jerkface’ or even ‘schmoozefests’. They’d probably have mummified us alive—and with good reason.

So, today, I’m stirring away from my traditional blogging topics to take a stroll down ancient memory lane, and looking at the origins and history of the craft we modern writers know and love.

The origins of writing.

It is widely accepted that writing first appeared 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). What started with pictorial signs slowly morphed into a more complex set of characters. History shows that, as early as 2,900 BC, those characters were being engraved into wet clay with a stylus, coming together in a system of markings called cuneiforms.

The image below show a record of wages paid to Mesopotamian workers 4,000 years ago:

And because the only real constant in life is change, cuneiforms evolved over the following 600 hundred years, persisting over time, up until 75 AD, remaining one of the main writing systems used for several civilisations deep into the Christian era.

When writing was a lot like drawing.

When we talk about the origins of writing, I think most of us instantly think of the Egypt and hieroglyphs, which is possibly because the Egyptians make for much fancier and more entertaining popular culture content, and have a lot more cinematic appeal, than the Mesopotamians. The earliest signs of hieroglyphs appeared later however, somewhere around 3250 BC.

The word hieroglyphic comes from the Greek hierogluphikos, which is itself composed of hieros, meaning ‘sacred’, and gluphē which means‘carving’.

Here’s an example of an Egyptian stela dating back to 3,600 years ago, representing an hymn to the Egyptian God Osiris:

Hieroglyphs could be carved into small ivory tablets or painted with reed brushes. Interestingly enough, each form has its own name. Hieroglyphs written in ink are called hieratic, which means ‘priestly’ script, whereas carved and painted letters used on monuments are called hieroglyphs, or ‘sacred carvings’.

This gives writing at the times of ancient Egypt two key functions: either a ceremonial one, or one that was used in for royal and religious purpose.

What a way we’ve come, haven’t we, from a time where the written word was solely celebrated and sacred, to the modern age where it can be anything from religious texts, to philosophical essays, gripping storytelling… and online trolling.

A writing world tour: from China, to Mesoamerica and the Indus Valley

Over the following centuries, writing started popping up all over the globe, with each civilisation making up their own variations. From characters engraved on animal bones in 1300 BC for ritualistic purposes in China through the later stages of the Shang Dynasty, to evidence of written language in Mesoamerica (the area currently running from the south of Mexico to Costa Rica) in pre-colonial times.

For the Mayas, the position of scribe was one of high status in society, a great honour often bestowed on the younger offsprings of the royal family. Here’s an example of the Mayan writing system, a set of characters and linguistic rules that still raises many questions amongst historians today:

Through the Indus Valley (nowadays Pakistan and Northwest India), we find evidence of symbols on objects that today’s experts suspect is a form of writing dating back to 7000 BC. Across the ocean in Rapa Nui, Polynesia’s Easter Island, archeologists have uncovered a small number of wooden tablets inscribed with characters resembling human, animal and plant symbols the meaning of which remains shrouded in mystery.

Storytelling and the oral tradition.

What historians tell us is that the most ancient forms of writing were mostly reserved to administrative, spiritual or religious purposes. It tells us a lot about what people were doing, how they went about their business and what they believed in. It documents their day-to-day and helps up build a picture of the kind of lives they lived. What it doesn’t cover in great detail is the element of storytelling as we tend to know it now.

Although writing is well documented through the ages, when it comes to storytelling in general, it wasn’t always the case. The passing on of stories varied from culture to culture, but a lot of civilisations have storytelling as an oral tradition in common. Whether through songs, chanting or epic poetry, our ancestors used the spoken word to relay stories that were passed down from generation to generation, until they were eventually written and published.

What’s it to us?

But why does that matter, I hear you ask. Why even bother with looking that far back and burdening ourselves with the habits of people who lived millennia before us and whose experience of life would have been so far beyond our limited understanding.

It’s not that I was so keen to share random fun facts with you—although, admittedly, I love a good fun fact! But, no, there was reason behind the madness.

I was personally never a fan of history lessons back in school. I could never remember dates or relate to dry facts and figures about people who lived so far in the past they seemed to come from a different planet altogether.

But researching this article reunited me with history a little. It brought to light the incredible evolution of the written word, and how far back it travels. It illustrated how thousands of years ago, people already craved expressing themselves in a written format.

More importantly, it reminded me of how, as far back as it goes, writing was something that was sacred, reserved to a select few who were taught to treat it with respect.

Carrying The Legacy

This makes me think that, although I can’t back up the idea of reserving writing for a select few and preventing a whole class of the population from expressing themselves (repression doesn’t seem like the right way to go, for some reason!) I quite like the idea of the written word being treated with that level of reverence. That, regardless of what you’re writing, no matter the genre or the style, it should be something that we, as writers, approach with care, attention and respect.

I love the mystery that still reigns over ancient forms of writing, over the meaning and intentions our ancestors hoped to convey through often strange symbols. And I love that we, modern writers, have the chance to carry out that legacy.

I wonder if, centuries or millennia from now, our descendants will look at our work, at the stories we told, and wrote, and published, and find any mystery in it. I wonder if they’ll try to decipher it as a reflection of the joys and woes that plagued our modern age. I wonder if they’ll display examples of our books in museums. I wonder if we’ll make an appearance in articles they’ll write about the history of the written word and the way their ancestors used it to convey meaning and emotion. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t (as long as the world hasn’t ended by then, maybe they’ll be able to attest to how much of a scam Global Warming was or wasn’t… but that’s a different debate altogether).

All I can do in the meantime is keep wondering, and make sure that whatever writing I put out there in the word upholds the great traditions and intentions of all those who used the written word before me.

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But first, Self-reflection

This podcast conversation that I’m referencing in this article made me think a lot about my own cages, these walls that I put up that either knowingly or unknowingly cause me limitations. Like when I was a closet writer, for example. I wrote for years without feeling I could talk about it with anyone, for fear of being judged, or not taken seriously. But the truth was, I wasn’t taking my own writing and creativity seriously at the time. That was circumstantial though, as the season in my life didn’t really allow for the dedication and commitment that I felt “taking it seriously” would entail. I chatted a bit about that in my first ever article for Kiingo called Why I Use Self-help as a Tool for Writing Fiction. Long story short, I wasn’t quite ready to come out of my cage and expose my love for writing because it didn’t feel my dream carried enough weight to it. Which is silly looking back, but it was my perception at the time. It was my cage, and boy did I feel awfully comfortable in it. For a time.

“Catharsis is almost the gift, it’s the ah-ha, but it doesn’t do the work. It’s like, maybe the catharsis is the key in a way, it’s leading us to the hard shit.” –Jake Wesley Rogers

Once I had a little more time to dedicate to writing and I sat down to write a novel, I realized, I didn’t really know how to write a novel, let alone a good one, so I signed myself up for some creative writing courses through Algonquin College. Simultaneously, I started writing Age of The Almek part-time. I began slowly telling a few close friends and family members that I was writing a novel (along with a series of dreadful short stories). This dream of mine wasn’t being taken seriously by others, but it would be a while before I would be okay with that. I finished my creative writing courses and was progressing in my novel. I was introduced to my now, editor, during that time, who tackled the many issues with my short stories. When my husband, Alex, dropped a key right at my feet. It was a heavy one, because it shifted my perspective in an instant… my cage door flew open the moment I pushed that key into the lock. He said: “If you ever want to finish this novel, you’re probably going to have to write full-time.” BAM. Mind blown. Cage opened. I suddenly saw my desire to build a career in writing in a different way entirely. If I was going to truly accept this path, I needed to give it my all, which for me meant that I needed to build a disciplined writing schedule.

Thus began my full-time writing journey, which lead me to:

A) Starting my writing account on Instagram where I found inspiring, supportive and crazy talented like-minded friends.

B) Owning the fact that I was indeed a writer and a creative.

C) Allowed me to finally finish the first draft of the book which took me one and a half years to complete.

D) Allowed me to polish the book and have it ready for publishing in just under three years. E) Taught me what writing discipline looked like for me. (It also taught me what un-healthy writing habits looked like… which was another key all on its own.)

F) Made me more receptive to finding other keys on my journey to becoming an author.

Needless to say, keys are everywhere, (evidently, so are cages) but being open to noticing these keys and picking them up is necessary to unlocking our cages.

“I think it’s kind of the job of the artist to just drop keys, you know. Just leave a key. You don’t have to pick it up, you don’t even have to acknowledge it, but if you want it, it’s there.” –Jake Wesley Rogers

So, we can drop keys for others too? Hmm… I really like that. Let this article be an opportunity. Let it be my key to you, dear writer, instead of just being a tangent of my wild and untamed mind, let it be a perspective that may encourage you to look at your own writing in a different way. What cage is holding you hostage right now? Know that I’m wholeheartedly rooting for you to break free of it. I hope this article will not only challenge you to put more intention and thought into your character’s opportunities (keys) and struggles (cages) but also into your own as a writer and creative.

Alright, let’s get to the fun part. The part where we take the spot light off ourselves and shine it on our characters.

Now to Relate it to Our Characters

Firstly, to explain what I’m understanding keys and cages to be. Basically, like I hinted at above, cages are our limitations and keys are the opportunities to which we can break free from such limitations.

Let’s look at cages as it relates to characters in fictional stories:

What is your character’s main struggle? What are they trying to overcome? Those struggles are their cages.

I’ve recently come across this podcast episode which entirely shifted my perception on character ARCs, and I’m now loving this idea of using keys and cages to create them. It offers a bit of a visual aide, if you will, when crafting realistic/relatable changes in our characters.

Keys must be dropped for your character, and then they must decide if they will “pick them up” or not. If they don’t, what happens? If they do, what happens? Chances are what happens following them picking up the key will be much more impactful than what happens if they don’t.

*The Hunger Games spoiler alert

Take Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and her friendship with Rue. Rue drops a significant key on Katniss when they are hiding up in the trees. She quietly alerts Katniss of her presence and of a tracker jacker hive. The hive could potentially harm the career tributes and buy them some time to get down, away from the careers and to safety. Katniss picks up the key. Which takes great courage, (and yes, desperation) and vulnerability to trust Rue. She knocks down the nest. This opens a cage for Katniss by breaking her free from her self-imposed isolation (where she had thought she was better off on her own), to seeing the value in an alliance. Breaking free of that cage was a huge part of her ARC, because she later forms an alliance with Peeta, which ends up saving her life and contributes to her winning the games.

Side Characters be Droppin’ Keys

We all love a good side character, the kind that highlight the strengths or weaknesses of our MC’s. They can add in a certain element to the story that the MC may not bring to it, like humour, for example. Side characters can be a delicate balance though. Many writers seem to put a great deal of focus on allowing their side characters to add just enough significance to a story without letting them take away from the MC. One really great way to do this, is by having your side character drop keys for your MC.

“It takes vulnerability and courage to use the key, and then vulnerability to walk through the door, and then vulnerability and courage to stay on the other side.” –Jake Wesley Rogers

When our side characters drop keys, they are adding a ton of significance to the story, while simultaneously propelling the MC forward on their path. Maybe the side character introduces the MC to an expert in decoding ancient scripts, or knows the ropes of a new town the MC has just moved to, or is the complete opposite to the MC and can point out their weaknesses when it’s necessary. It’s ultimately gifting something to the MC that they wouldn’t otherwise have without that side character.

It’s up to you if your MC picks up the key. If they do, it will affect the course of their story. If they don’t, it’s simply a missed opportunity, which could later be the cause of great suffering for them, depending on your story and what you do with it. An unaccepted key can always be offered again later on.

Can Villains Drop Keys for Our MC’s?

Is the grass green? Is the sky blue? YES and yes. (Technically, yes… but there is a deeper scientific reason as to why. Leave it to a writer to research random facts.) Of course a Villain can drop keys! In fact, I hope they do. These keys may “look” differently than the ones a side character drops, and that is entirely okay.

Most likely a Villain’s key for an MC won’t just highlight the MC’s weakness, it might even aggravate it. Does the MC “pick up” the key? If they do, it might irritate this weakness to the degree that the MC must use that key to open whatever cage is needing to be opened. Once they do, there is typically no going back, because to open a cage is to accept some new-found knowledge or lesson, which in turn incites change. There is no going back once something has been changed.

The Cages that Remain

“And I’m trying to figure out what cage, because I’m still in one, I know I am; we all are.” –Jake Wesley Rogers

I feel like we will all, always be in a cage of some form–there are always lessons to be learnt and limitations to be broken free of. The same goes for your characters. If they’re realistic, they’re always going to have cages. Which is why (one of the many reasons) in a book series you typically see a different villain and new weaknesses for the MC to overcome in each book. Of course it would be boring for the reader (and writer) to continue to live through the same exact scenarios book after book. And, it’s more realistic that an MC will have different and new challenges (different cages) to face as they embark on their journey to achieving whatever it is they desire.

“I think sometimes we’re in cages of our own making.” –Brene Brown

Whether it’s a cage of their own making, or one that has been imposed by someone else, or something else, cages are your character’s struggles. They’re the limitations that hold them back. The walls that keep them in place. Whichever cage(s) your character will open and walk out of will be relevant for your story. And when that happens, you want your readers to cry and laugh and cheer for your MC, just as they would a friend. Those cages should inspire us, shake us to our core, make us cringe–whatever it is you want your story to achieve. The cages that remain, however, will ground us and remind us of our humanity.

Podcast referenced:

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, Songwriting, Storytelling, and Dropping Keys with Jake Wesley Rogers

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I have a problem. My problem is: I’m impatient. That’s why I was googled “How to Slow Down Your Writing” (which yielded zero helpful results by the way). Since I’m a pantster, I don’t fully know what is going to happen in my books any more than the reader does. I have a general idea of what direction the characters are headed and what lesson they need to learn but I discover the rest as I go. And I want to get to the finish line so badly! It’s like waiting for your food when you’re famished and seeing everyone else’s come by. But writing isn’t a fast food style business. It’s more like love making. And who wants to do that faster?

My need to go fast and get to the end means I don’t spend enough time on each individual scene. And this means the emotional impact the scene could have is lessened. It means conversations are cut short. It means backgrounds aren’t properly described. There is a time and a place in your writing for these kind of scenes. Not every scene needs to be drawn out and a shot straight to the heart. But a lot of them do.

I know some of you are over-writers and planners who already know what is going to happen and you write too many words and need to cut most of them. And I think that is amazing. I think it’s easier to cut than to add when editing. For you, a change of pace may mean knowing when you can speed up and leave some of it out. It’s about balance.

My impatience means most of my scenes are very fast-paced. Pace is determined by the length of your scene, the length of your sentences, how much time you spend on the action, and how quickly the action moves.

A fast-pace leaves your reader on the edge of their seat. They feel the way you do at a restaurant when that food just isn’t coming fast enough. It creates of form of impatience in the reader (I’m convinced what you feel when you are writing is what they will feel when reading, but that’s for another conversation).

A slow scene lets your readers calm down. It’s lets them and your characters rest. It lets the character development take hold. It is a time to show the backstory in more detail. It is the time in your story when the real change takes place.

Characters don’t change all of a sudden because their friend died. But they do change slowly while learning new things about this friend on their walk to take the thing to the place for the person while avoiding the other things. And sometimes those things are round and go on a finger. Characters change while talking and while facing smaller trials and while trying their old ways and finding it isn’t working. Then after the friend dies or the other big all is lost moment happens, they put on their big boy pants and are ready to implement those changes that have been SLOWLY building up.

Fast creates tension.

Slow creates relationships.

And there is a time and a place for both.

Which do you need more practice with?

Me? I need to slow down.

Going slower will also help you, dear writer. Writing is a journey and if you don’t enjoy the journey, the destination is less worth it. Writing as a career means a lot more time writing than finishing. Think about how much time it takes to pump one of these babies out. You are going to spend 90% of your career creating and 10% having created. Slow down and smell the metaphorical roses on this twisty path towards insanity…I mean publishing.

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It’s widely acknowledged that, for those of us in the writers community, landing a book deal is the highest of heights. It’s the Holy Grail of writer-land.

I think it’s fair to say that, for a lot of us, self-publishing wasn’t a first choice. A lot of us in the indie writers community have queried agents in the hope of getting representation and to have someone to approach publishers on our behalf. I myself spent a year querying agents for No Pain, No Game, to no avail, before I decided to self-publish. I’m glad I decided to take the matter into my own hands, otherwise my book might still be nothing more than a file on my laptop today, but there are still days where I wonder whether I should give querying a try for my second book.

In one of my unofficial Instagram polls, I asked the writers community whether, if they had a choice, they’d prefer to self-publish or be traditionally published. The results are clear: 71% of writers would prefer to be traditionally publish, against just 29% who’d rather self-publish. An interesting trend, given that most of the people who responded are themselves self-published…

The Allure of Traditional Publishing.

I ran a quick poll on Instagram to try and figure out what draws people to traditional publishing. For a third of writers, the main reason is getting help with the logistics of publishing a book (such as marketing and book promotion). For the remaining two thirds, it’s about giving themselves a better chance that the book will be a success. I thought it might also have to do with a sense of prestige, and the idea that being traditionally published might be seen as more legitimate or respectable than self-publishing but, when I suggested it, no one selected that option. Curiouser and curiouser…

It’s no surprise that a fair chunk of writers would look at a traditional book deal as their ticket out of the logistical difficulties and challenges of self-publishing and book promotion. Marketing and book promotion has to be the number one pain-point for every single indie writer I’ve ever spoken to. It’s definitely mine. It takes time and effort and research and trial and error to get book promotion right… It’s a huge learning curve, especially if you have no prior knowledge of it. The act of balancing writing with marketing and book promotion is a tricky one, and it doesn’t take too much to send the plates you’re juggling flying in all directions.

I find the idea that being traditionally published gives a book higher chances of being a success interesting. There are certainly valid reasons behind that. For one, being traditionally published means getting the backing of a powerhouse whose whole business model is built around promoting and selling books. It gives you access to resources and connections you may otherwise never be able to reach, budgets you can’t even begin to fathom and expertise born from decades of shipping books from concept to bookshelf, day in, day out. Of course, that’s bound to make the process smoother than someone’s who’s trying their hand at it for the very first time and has no support network in the industry.

Ifs, and buts, and coconuts.

But… And, to my mind, there’s a but. In fact, there are a few.

I think that the generalised idea that getting a traditional book deal equals higher chances of success is two fold:

Firstly, working with an agent and a publisher means gaining access to mounts of combined experience in the industry. They’ll know what sells, what doesn’t, and they’ll have very clear standards to abide by when it comes to releasing any book into the world. It’ll come in the shape of perfectly formatted books, typo-free manuscripts and beautiful, eye-catching covers. You can pour all the money you want into promoting a book but, if said book looks, feels and reads unprofessional, no one’s going to buy it. And the few who do may end up trashing it in their reviews. Being traditionally publishing forces writers to go through a process of checks and balances that ensure every single book that’s released meets professional standards. That reason alone is enough to give any book better chances of succeeding.

For seconds, I think that one has to look at the business model behind every facet of the traditional publishing machine. Because, yes, at its core, that’s what it is: a business. It’s made of people who make a living out of selling books. No one in there is a charitable entity. Yes, they’ll love books and be passionate about the authors they work with (or, at least, most of them will be), but at the end of the day, everyone needs to make a living. Agents are paid based on commission, so they only make money if your book sells. Publishers will advance the money to get your book polished, edited, formatted, published, promoted… But they can only be profitable if they’re able to make that money back, which is, if your book sells. Writers look at their books as their babies, their creation, a piece of their soul… Agents and publishers look at that fragment of us in terms of its likelihood to bring in the big bucks.

And with that in mind, writers have to look at traditional publishing through a different perspective, because that explains how difficult it is to land a book deal these days. With the market so saturated and the competition so fierce, agents and publishers have all the incentives in the world to be extra picky, and select only the books they know with a high degree of certainty will be a success. That is, if they have two books in front of them, and one is a risk whilst the other is a more assured bet, they’re much more likely to pick the latter.

One is bound to ask, then…

Is it really that being traditionally published gives you better chances of success, or is it that the books that are traditionally published are handpicked in the first place because they have higher chances of succeeding?

Not all it’s promised to be?

To me this is the heart of the matter. Yes, landing a traditional book deals has its benefits, but I think there’s a general misconception around what being traditionally published means. It’s not so much that any agent or any publisher can make any book a bestseller. It’s more that, by playing it safe, every person involved in the process of traditionally publishing a book banks on better chances for a book to sell well.

And that doesn’t mean that every single pain point writers face with promotion and marketing when self-publishing will disappear if they land a book deal. Of course, having the marketing powers of a publishing house behind you is incredibly helpful, but that’s not necessarily sufficient on its own. Your publisher or agent won’t manage your social media accounts. They won’t spend time figuring out your content calendar. They won’t write your blog posts or your newsletter. They’ll put you out there to some extent, but you’ll still need to do your fair share of it yourself.

In return, you’ll be giving up the rights to your work, a larger share of the royalties, and (in many instances) the right to decide what your book looks like in terms of formatting and cover design (might I add here that all of these services are available to hire on their own, including book promotion and social media management). With traditional publishing you also surrender your work to release calendars that are outside of your control. On average, traditional publishing deals have a book-to-market lead time of a year or two. This means, between the moment your book is written and the moment it comes out, a couple of years might have elapsed, whereas self-publishing gives you full control of your own project plan and deadlines.

You get some, you lose some and, at the end of the day, it’s all about what you’re ready to trade.

Self publishing as a way to disrupt the status quo.

The other thing with traditional publishing is that, well, it’s in essence traditional. It’s mostly doing things the way things have always been done because they have a bottom line to think about. It’s more likely to play it safe, because higher risks means a higher chance of a poor Return On Investment—and no business wants a bad ROI.

In the Instagram poll I ran, someone commented that they like self-publishing because they ‘liked the concept of disrupting businesses’. I can’t agree more. In a world where industry giants control the ins and outs of what readers get exposed to, independent publishing is a way to shake things up a little. It’s a chance for new voices to be heard, new risks to be taken, and new stories to be shared.

I’m pleased to see that, in recent years, the standards of self-published books has risen exponentially. Gone are the days in which being self-published meant releasing an unprofessional-looking book with typos and a bad cover (or at least, those days are mostly gone). We live in an age where the tools we need for promotion and marketing are accessible to all, and where local communities are eager to rally behind local creatives. Now more than ever, everything’s possible if you’re ready to put in the time and effort. One no longer needs to have a traditional book deal to become successful or relevant. The increase in success stories in which self-published authors have reached heights as impressive as traditionally published authors give me hope that change is well on its way.

And it’s not just that. We talk of success as though the only way to be successful was to become the next J.K. Rowling. Does that mean that the majority of us whose books don’t make it to that level of stardom are doom to fail? Nonesense! There are ways to increase your reach and make a living as a writer that don’t require you to become richer than the Queen of England, even if financial abundance is your main motivator. There’s a world of nuances between being completely unknown and being a literary mega-star. There are indie writers out there who have a decent reach and a faithful readership without necessarily making millions or landing movie deals.

I’d encourage each and everyone of us to go back to the source and ponder our ‘why’:

Why do we write?

Why do we publish books?

What does success look like for us?

Figure out what you want, know what you’re after, decide what you are and aren’t ready to trade in, and give yourself the resourcefulness to go after it, regardless of what route you take. We still treat landing a traditional book deal as the blanket answer to our self-publishing problems, but I personally wouldn’t be so quick to embrace it as the all encompassing remedy to all of our woes.

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

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From Flat to Unforgettable

We have all experienced a flat gathering, the kind that make you want to leave the moment you get there… the kind where you may have even preplanned a stealthy, early escape. But what about the other kind? The ones that touch us in seemingly inexplainable ways, the ones we will remember for years to come.

To start, a quote by the author of The Art of Gathering:

“Why do some conferences change a field and others you kind of feel used and deflated and leave feeling worse about yourself after? Why do you go to some weddings and you remember some for the rest of your life and it actually inspires you to be a better person?” –Priya Parker

Here is some sparkly news for us writers: Priya Parker helps us understand that the ways in which we are touched by a gathering, isn’t inexplicable at all.

So, I want to flip these questions around that Priya has asked and instead reference fiction writing, and ask: Why do some book gatherings leave the reader feeling bored and disappointed? Why do some book gatherings leave the reader feeling excited and even more intrigued in the fictional world? How can we take our book gatherings from feeling flat and forgetful to being more impactful and significant?

In my last article, I shared this idea of gathering with purpose and how we can create something called multi-layer gatherings for our fictional stories. Full disclosure, I recently created this wording of “multi-layer gatherings” to help wrap my mind around how humans gather, how I’ve built gatherings to date, and how I can build exceptional gatherings in my work going forward. On a whole, I use the in sight of self-help (a very broad term… I know) experts to help shape how I approach my fiction writing. Today I’d like to explore multi-layer gatherings a little deeper and how they can create a sense of realness for our stories based off of real-life pointers from Priya Parker, the expert in gathering.

As a quick recap on what multi-layer gatherings are: they are gatherings that have been intricately planned, with a large intent on establishing the purpose. The goal is to make these gatherings realistic, so that all the details make sense to the reader and they themselves feel as if they are a guest at your book’s gathering. If you haven’t yet read my previous article: Planning Fictional Gatherings with Purpose, it covers seven different things that as writers we may want to consider when building gatherings. Below, I share six more aspects you may want to consider.

What is the need?

“Every ritual, every collective gathering, at some point, was an attempted solution to a need at the time.” –Priya Parker

“Meaning lies in specificity.” –Priya Parker

I briefly spoke about the birthing and re-birthing ceremonies that take place in my novel Age of The Almek, in the previous article I wrote. The Almek need these ceremonies in order to exchange bloodlines between the colonies. This need is important for the characters to understand so that they are more likely to cooperate and follow the rules that have been put in place for the ceremonies. It also gives significance to the gathering and makes it feel more fleshed out and realistic.

My question for my book world when planning those particular gatherings were: “What does my civilization need in order to survive and thrive?” This question was appropriate for my story because it is a story about survival. Aside from the water issues, which is coped with in different ways outside of the birthing and re-birthing ceremonies, incest amongst the colonies was a potential risk factor and the solution was the ceremonies (AKA the gatherings).

The need for the gathering may be very well linked to an obstacle in the book. One of the obstacles that The Almek face is that the two colonies are segregated from one another. And so the people do not move freely between colonies, and are in fact, forbidden to do so because of the strict laws and oppressed nature of the society that they live in. The need to exchange people (and by people I really mean bloodlines) intermittently is necessary for their survival. Who the hosts of the gatherings are greatly impacts these ceremonies because they ensure things are done in a very controlled and barbaric fashion.

Looking at what our society or characters’ obstacles are might help us realize what the need for the gathering is.

Vroom, Vroom

After you’ve established who the host of the gathering will be (which is a point of discussion in my previous article) it may be interesting to consider what underlying emotion is driving their desire to hold the gathering.

As emotional creatures, we are often driven by our emotions, letting them take the wheel. However, some individuals may not even invite their emotions to sit shotgun, let alone in the driver’s seat. This idea would be the same for your characters–some are naturally more, or less, likely to be driven by their emotional state. What about the host of your gathering? Do they hold this gathering out of sadness or fear, joy or contentment? This driving force helps you make for sensical reactions out of the host when things go awry, or when things happen to go right to plan. Which in turn makes the gathering feel more realistic, significant and memorable.

Does Everything Have to be About Conflict?

Let me follow that question up with: are you even human if you don’t face some sort of conflict on a regular basis? Life, is full of conflicts. Both big and small. This will most likely be true(ish) for our characters too. Now, think back to gatherings you’ve attended over the span of your lifetime, hasn’t there often been an element of conflict in them somewhere? A dish that was dropped and crashed to the ground in a million tiny shards. The person operating the sound system experienced technical difficulties. A sibling that drank too much alcohol. Or a beloved pet that escaped and many fled the gathering to search for it (true story). These things happen, and they can also happen in your fictional gatherings to make them feel more real. The added benefit being it increases the tension in your story.

Does that dish that crashes onto the floor happen to crash in the middle of an important speech? Or is it a piece of someone’s great grandmother’s fancy porcelain collection?

The conflict you choose will likely be suitable for your main character, or at least affect them in some way. Depending on how you write it, there is no conflict too small! Perhaps the conflict might even be connected to the rule(s) the you make for the gathering, which I will touch on in a couple paragraphs.

“Unhealthy peace is an inability or a refusal to see, to name, or to engage with the fracture in front of you.” –Priya Parker

When there’s conflict, there’s typically a resolution or an avoidance of a resolution. What does conflict resolution look like for your characters in your book? Are any of your characters conflict averse? Meaning, the moment they catch the slightest hint of conflict they flee the space and attempt to hide. Or at the very least, they deeply desire to flee the scene. Or do they seek conflict because they find it thrilling? I have found it helpful to think about the ways that people I’ve come across in my life have handled conflict. I often reflect on how I personally handle conflict. I also love paying obsessively close attention to how characters in movies, TV shows and other books handle conflict (I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only obsessive one here)! I believe that noticing these things help put conflict, and possible reactions to conflict, into perspective. Which will surely do positive things for our stories.

Dealing with conflict is universal to being human, but we all have strengths and weaknesses which means we all deal with conflict differently. Maybe, depending on the specialty of the gathering, a certain character who may normally be conflict averse, is pulled into a situation where they have to be confrontational, shifting the events of the gathering and maybe even shifting the character’s path or relationships.

Conflict is often at the centre of many scenes in our stories, and, sneaking it into our gatherings can only add to the experience!

What’s in a Name?

“Give it a name.” ­­–Priya Parker

Don’t we name everything? From our vehicles (Interesting fact: I once had a white truck called White Shadow, if you’ve seen the movie Turbo, you’ll get me), to our favourite pair of sneakers, to our body parts (I think you know that I’m not talking anatomical names). So, why would we not name the gathering that happens in our book worlds?

Naming the gathering helps build your book world because beyond just signifying the events or importance of the gathering itself, it helps establish the culture and the ways the people operate. It can reflect the societies’ beliefs, and can reveal more information about the host. For instance, in Age of The Almekthere is a ceremony that takes place called Coakai. Now, this name signifies their primitive culture (note: this is a word I made up *as far as I know* for my book world), and also tells the reader a bit about the host and ruler of the Kala colony, Master Oberon of Favoured Kenoak. If you notice… part of his last name is even in there. This man really conveys his superiority and excellency in many ways… Coakai is just one of those ways. As a quick overview, in this book The Almek are lacking in safe drinking water, and rain is sparse. During the ceremony of Coakai, Master Oberon puts on a display for his colony whereby he communicates with Mother Earth and can request rain from her. During the ceremonies, every time he does his bizarre ritual it somehow rains. It is believed that he is the conduit for open communication to Mother Earth. This all shows their spiritual beliefs as a society as well.

The name really is another piece of the puzzle. It can tell the characters what to expect and what is expected of them (if preparedness is your aim). It also shows the reader that you as a writer have intent for what you’ve written. You haven’t just thrown this gathering in willy-nilly, you’ve put in the time to know its purpose, to name it, and to consider what the gathering truly means for your story.

The Invisible Structure of a Gathering Lies in the Role of the Host

Have you ever noticed how weddings are mostly smooth, flawless engagements? (Give or take the odd conflict, of course!) The guests generally know where to be and when, what table they’re going to be seated at for the dinner, where the reception will take place, etc. This is because the bride and groom (and whoever else has helped them in planning this gathering) have put a lot of intention and care into planning the purpose and have set the norms for the day.

“Generous authority is using your power as a host to protect and fulfill the purpose for the group. To help the group do its work.” –Priya Parker

At a wedding, we know our purpose is to celebrate the couple and their vows. We do this by partaking in speeches, whether by listening or taking a turn ourselves, and by snapping photos of the bride and groom cutting the cake. Some of us even dance up a storm (raises hand *and the roof* simultaneously) all the way to the end of the night because it’s such a feel-good gathering. We are embracing the connectedness and joy with others.

“The art of gathering, fortunately, does not rest on your charisma or the quality of your jokes. Gatherings crackle and flourish when real thought goes into them, when often invisible structure is baked into them, and when the host has a curiosity, willingness and generosity of spirit to try.” –Priya Parker

Setting the norms of the gathering takes all of the above and is going to help formulate how our characters are involved. Do they have certain roles or objectives they need to fulfill during the gathering? Or is their only duty to sit, be still and watch, like the spectators during the birthing and re-birthing ceremonies in Age of The Almek? Are the guests of the gathering allowed to mingle, or only speak with certain people? Do they have assigned seating? Can they come and go as they please? The norms and rules may overlap a bit, so keep this in mind.

What Are the Rules?

“Give it a rule.” –Priya Parker

I might be a rule bender at heart, but giving rules to the book gatherings that I create brings me a lot of joy. Especially when I get to create unfair rules and rebel characters that want to bend (or break) those rules.

These rules can tie into your societal laws, but they don’t have to. Adding in rules that are specific to the ceremony is a funky-fresh way to make the gathering feel more authentic. Consider what’s important for your world and the characters. What kind of behaviour could have a dramatic or negative impact on the gathering?

Perhaps the rule could link back to the driving force for the host. If they are fearfully holding the gathering because they are scared of being alone for an identified reason in the book, a rule might be once everyone comes, the doors are locked and no one can leave until the designated time. Or if they are contently having the gathering, a rule might be no one is allowed to bicker or fight. Going back to the conflict of the gathering (because everything seems to come full circle, doesn’t it?) the rule can also inspire the idea for conflict as well.

A Secondary List for Multi-layer Gatherings

I’ve created this secondary list of things to think about that may aid in making the gatherings we put on the page more realistic. Take from it what serves you and your story and leave the rest:

1. What is the need for the gathering?

2. What is the driving force for the host? Think emotions.

3. Create a conflict (An obvious one, but a goodie)

4. Give it a name.

5. Consider the invisible structure by establishing norms.

6. Give it a rule.

Shameless Curiosity

A deep, shameless curiosity of being human continues to follow me through my life (it hasn’t always been shameless though). I want to know more about how we do human… on an individual basis but also on a grander scale. This curiosity continues to be the driving force behind my personal studies and my writing.

When it comes to gatherings, I believe the more we objectively analyze and question how humans come together in real life, the more impact our book gatherings will have on our stories, and in turn, our readers.

Podcasts referenced:

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, The Art of Gathering Part 1, with Priya Parker

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, How We Return and Why It Matters Part 2, with Priya Parker

#writingtips #screenwriting #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writers #writing #writerblr #writing advice #writing community #writing resources

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I am heavily motivated by the idea of helping people. I have a tiny bit of a hero complex. In fact, I don’t understand people who don’t. I feel if we all helped each other, we could make the world better. It’s why I became a teacher. What better way to help the future generations than to educate them? Except for one problem—a tiny problem…ok a BIG problem—I don’t like kids who aren’t my own and the idea of lesson planning makes me want to chop off my own foot. (Of course, I didn’t know that about myself until my first year in my own classroom.)

I love writing. More than anything else I have ever done, I LOVE it. But there is always that small voice telling me I’m not helping anyone. I always had this idea that I had a larger purpose in life and I would help make other people’s lives better. How does writing do that? I’m just putting down words and people might not even read them.

Does that sound familiar? Are you ever hit with the feeling of “I like this but what is my PURPOSE?” It can be kind of debilitating, can’t it? It’s caused me to second guess everything about my future goals. Well, if you are like me and feel un-useful in pursuit of what seems like a selfish career choice, let me convince you otherwise.

Do you know what held the world together at the beginning of the pandemic? I mean… in my opinion at least. Netflix. Especially Tiger King. And books. And games. And entertainment. But especially Tiger King (Carol Baskins definitely killed her husband, guys).

During a traumatic time of fear, having stories that made us feel less alone and helped us forget the problems for a little while was exactly what the doctor ordered. Stories help take us out of our fear and let us escape for a little while.

Stories also help us deal with our problems. It is so much easier to admit your flaws when you find them in a fictional character. It is easier to process feelings that don’t seem to be happening to you. Stories help you process negative emotions you might otherwise avoid.

Stories show us we are not alone. I had a difficult childhood. No one in my community seemed to understand me because of it. I was ostracized. But then I found books like The Boxcar Children or A Series of Unfortunate Events and I realized I wasn’t the one person alive going through terrible events. Even if the characters are fictional, it still showed me that my experiences were not unique. Others like me do exist. That realization helped me walk through hell with my head held high because at least I wasn’t the only person in there.

Stories can invoke deep thought. If you think about any famous dystopian they serve to warn us about possible futures. They point out the flaws in society and help us to uncover the truths between the lines.

Stories are so powerful.

All writing is powerful. If you write non-fiction, you have the power to completely change someone’s life and help them learn things they never could have without you. So powerful!

Writing is done alone. And it can feel kind of selfish.

But it is so necessary.

Darling writer, YOU are necessary. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

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*Brief mentions of physical and emotional abuse in a fiction work*

The Power of Purpose and Expectations

Have you noticed that when we, as humans, gather in groups there is always a purpose? A birthday or a graduation, a concert or a work engagement. Sometimes we gather for more subtle reasons that revolve around more basic human needs like to eat food, connect with others, or even to exercise together. But, usually there is a purpose, a reason why we’re gathering. This purpose often brings meaning to the gathering. It allows those who are joining to know roughly what to expect when they are there, and what is expected of them. In various ways different societies and cultures have generalized expectations for specific gatherings. For example, in Canada, it is expected that we wear black to funerals. This idea of coming together to honour and mourn a life lost, all in black, is a sign of respect. It also creates a sense of unity and togetherness, as it acts as a reminder that each person is there for the very same reason.

Expectations in gatherings don’t always lead guests to feeling united though, sometimes guests may feel segregated… depending on the details of course. Maybe the expectations are too steep, or are simply not clear.

An important thing to note, is that as humans we don’t just gather for happy, we also gather for sad, for anger and sometimes for evil. If history has shown us anything, it’s that purpose, good or bad, can make people feel connected and empowered.

Often in reality we are given ample notice on the details of a gathering that we’ve been invited to. However, in fiction, allowing the characters notice about a gathering and its purpose isn’t always necessary. Sometimes these things can catch a character off guard, and, depending on the story, this can be thrilling, exciting or traumatic.

In darker works gatherings are often ominous, gruesome and unpredictable. However, even though it may be so, there is always purpose.

So, is Purpose the True Foundation of Any Gathering?

Priya Parker says that gathering is: “The conscious bringing together of people for a reason, shaping the way we feel, the way we think and the way we make sense of the world.”

Take The Handmaid’s Tale. Without giving too much away, there is a scene where the handmaid’s gather for a ceremony called “the salvaging”, as requested by Aunt Lydia. The details of the gathering are not disclosed to the handmaids until they arrive. Basically, a man had done something unthinkable and so the handmaids are given permission to do whatever they want to him. Now the handmaid’s themselves had previously been stripped of their independence, taken from their children and partners, and regularly physically and emotionally abused. But these realizations (depending on the person) either take a back seat for a brief moment while at the gathering, or they become charged as the central reason for their participation. The reason being, the foundation of the gathering had purpose. To harm the man in front of them. To seek revenge. Without a doubt this gathering played a role in shaping the feelings, thoughts and perspectives of the handmaid’s both during and afterwards.

Another good example of gathering with purpose and what it looks like in fiction: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs(now might be a good time to come clean about my wide range of taste in TV and film…) There is a scene when the animals of the forest stumble upon Snow White and soon after, lead her to a tiny house for shelter, which ends up belonging to the dwarfs. They gather inside the house to help Snow White clean dishes and dust for cobwebs. This gathering was not planned, however, the purpose to help Snow White and to tidy the cabin brings them together, uniting them. It also changes their thoughts, feelings and the way they view the world going forward. The animals, now trust human beings, and Snow White now feels hopeful and no longer lonely.

In order to plan gatherings that hold weight in our stories, they must have a strong foundation… and that foundation is purpose.

Location, Location, Location!

“Meaningful connection is bodies in a room.” –Priya Parker

In a room, in a cemetery, in a basement that screams The Blairwitch Project–it’s not about the where in general, but the where can be extremely significant for your story.

In my debut novel Age of The Almek, there are several different points of gathering throughout the book. The most crucial being The Circle, where there are regular ceremonies called “birthing ceremonies” and “re-birthing ceremonies”. These gatherings are what I’m going to call for the heck of it, “multi-layer gatherings”. They are organized by The Masters of the society, regulated by the Defenders and witnessed and participated in by the civilians. These gatherings are tied in with the laws and societal beliefs, so every Almek is obligated to attend. Back to the where though: The Circle is in fact a large circle of sand smack in the middle of the two colonies and surrounded by seating for the citizens and their Masters, and beyond that is a fence to keep it all contained. The significance of The Circle lies in A) what happens there and why B) it is the only time the two colonies (who are quite unhappy with one another) unite together as one.

Who Gathers here?

Priya Parker defines a gathering as: “Anytime three or more people come together for a purpose.”

I know it won’t come as a shock when I say that who holds the gathering could be just as important as the purpose of it. Is the host a noble character trying to make change? Are they the rulers of the society or town? Are they the villain? Perhaps they’re both the ruler and the villain? The person or people hosting the gathering will set the tone for the gathering. It will likely be the thing you decide on before you decide on the purpose.

As for who attends the gathering, that will be another important aspect to consider. How many people are at the gathering? Is anyone excluded? Why or why not? Chances are pretty good that the answer to who attends (and who doesn’t) will be tied in with your society and its laws.

Mantras

The Oxford Dictionary states that mantra means: “(originally in Hinduism, and Buddhism) a word or sound repeated to aid in concentration in meditation.” It also says: “A statement or slogan repeated frequently.”

The Happy Birthday song is without a doubt the mantra of many birthday parties in Canada. The song Whistle While You Work is the mantra for Snow White and her forest friends during their cleaning sesh. And, if you go to a work conference or a talk, I’d be willing to bet they often have mantras too. Maybe it’s only squeezed in a few times, but it’s there, and it holds power. If a specific series of words or sounds in repetition can put our individual minds in a state of ease and concentration, what does it do for the group as a whole?

In Age of The Almekthere are many mantras, (it is a newly, yet primitively, developed civilization, so I had a lot of fun playing around with the mantras). During the gatherings at The Circle that I mentioned above, there is snapping fingers in unison and a reciting of the closing scripture upon completion of a ceremony where all must say: “One with the earth.” The Orator, Zev of Favoured Astor, has specific mantras he says on repeat throughout the ceremonies as well. But these things aren’t necessarily obviously mantras to a reader or to the characters. They may be overlooked as merely parts of the process (which may actually be where their force lies) but they are powerful enough to put the characters and readers into the headspace that they need to be in in order to understand the full experience. Some inclusions are merely shadows (or flicks of light, depending on your story) that only add to the overall picture and experience. Mantras, or chants, can create a unified experience by pulling each individual out of their own thoughts. Thereby the group as a whole meets on the same plane simultaneously (give or take the odd rebel) and becomes engrossed in (and complacent, if not elated in) the happenings.

Outcomes and Goals

The purpose of a gathering could also be the goal, or maybe there is a goal beyond the purpose. For clarity, and in case you want to read another definition, (wait a minute… you’re a writer, of course you do!) Oxford dictionary defines purpose as: “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.”

And goal as: “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.”

Here’s a made-up example: Maybe the purpose of holding this gathering is to celebrate a*fictional* Tomtom turning sixteen in his tribe. But the goal will be to show potential wives that he is now a man, and to prepare him for his first solo journey in to the wilderness to get his first kill.

Outcomes are also important to consider. What changes following the gathering, if anything at all? Is it a one-time gathering in your story that drastically changes the way your main character, or several characters feel, think, and perceive the world going forward? Or is this a gathering that happens regularly and the changes that take place are more subtle?

Multi-layer Gatherings

What is a multi-layer gathering? To be honest, it’s wording I recently created to understand how humans gather and how to shape the gatherings that happen in my books with more intention.

Things to consider when building a multi-layer gathering in your story:

1. The purpose: A reason for gathering. It doesn’t matter what the reason is, (do your characters all gather to cut their toenails together? Ew. But, fair enough…) as long as it’s important for your story.

2. The location: Again, it doesn’t matter the where, it just matters that the where is important for your story in some way.

3. Who is holding the gathering?

4. Who is attending the gathering and why?

5. Mantras: Words or sounds that are shared–either heard, spoken or acted on–in repetition. These things might be spoken or acted together in unison, or by one or many people and observed by the rest.

6. Goals: Is there an ultimate aim, or desire that the gathering could achieve beyond the purpose?

7. Outcomes: What changes, if anything?

An Opportunity…

We have the opportunity to make people feel that they are a part of something. We can do this (obviously in real life with the real gatherings that we plan) but as writers, we also get to do this with our book gatherings. We can look at those gatherings that happen in our stories a little more critically and with a little more intention. Surely this extra care can only add life to the books the we release out into the world.

Here’s to gathering our characters with purpose.

Podcasts referenced:

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, The Art of Gathering Part 1, with Priya Parker

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown, How We Return and Why It Matters Part 2, with Priya Parker

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Once upon a time, in a faraway land… Boy meets girls. Girl’s in distress. Boy rescues girl. They marry, have plenty of children, and live happily ever after…

Sounds familiar?

If it does, it’s because a lot of us have been (and still are) brought up on traditional fairy tale romance that reinforces a very specific type of gender images and relationship dynamics. I remember always wondering about why that was, because it personally was never a mould that appealed to me.

In fact, if you must know, the very first ever article I wrote, at fourteen, was one that questioned the format of traditional fairy tales and the dynamics in which characters were entrapped—the girl who always needs rescuing, the boy who’s always strong and just in time to save the day and that obsession to get everyone married and living happily ever after.

Shortly after that, I wrote my very first series of short stories, one in which I portrayed my friends and I as super-heroines, kicking butt and doing some saving of the day for a change.

At the time, though, it wasn’t quite as common to question the more socially acceptable constructs around relationships, gender and sexuality. Fast-forward three decades, thankfully, we’re getting there.

Is Traditional Romance Dead?

In the twentieth century, the ‘once upon a time’ tales are still sounding familiar—one can’t erase centuries of literary and cultural legacy so easily!—but they’re also starting to sound outdated, old-fashioned and restrictive.

In an age where society promotes better inclusivity and diversity, we’re beginning to see more variety of representation emerge. Popular culture is exploring the realms of LGBTQ+, fluid gender dynamics, badass female characters, high-EQ male characters and, even, non-monogamy.

There’s a reason why that content is so popular and spreading more broadly: because it speaks to a large part of the population who never recognised themselves in the more traditional models of gender and relationships, and it educates those who never really thought about it but are open to keeping up with changing times.

So, what does that say for traditional romance? Does this spell the death of all the ‘boy meets girl’ scenarios everywhere? Not quite. If that were the case, novels like Twilight, After and Fifty Shades of Grey—all featuring heterosexual, monogamous relationships where the lead female character is highly dependent on her (rich, White, emotionally unavailable) male counterpart—wouldn’t have been such massive hits, both on paper and on screen.

The Lifeline of our Romantic Ideals.

Don’t get me wrong, far from me the idea of pointing fingers—I indulge in that stuff as much as anyone else from time to time. I recognise its flaws, and yet I consume it happily. But I do wonder… What is it then that keeps us enthralled by stories that follow such similar storylines and reinforce stereotypes that we know, deep down, to be limited and limiting?

My guess? That we still have lingering ideals from the ‘once upon a time’ era, and centuries of societal conditioning, that tell us that women are there to be rescued, fall in love (with a man), be taken care of, get married, have kids, and be happy forever. Similarly, those ideals tell us men are meant to be strong, ruthless, unemotional, rich and highly sexual (not to mention, well-endowed).

What’s problematic with this in my view is that it isn’t inclusive of other constructs and variations that, as it turns out, are a lot more common than previous generations would have had us think.

Despite that, the ideal remains. I think these more traditional romance scenarios speak to people because it sounds ‘nice’. It’s lovely, isn’t? The idea of being unique enough to be the only one to get through to the closed-off alpha male, the thought of being cared for for life, of completing one another wholly, the vision of driving off together into the sunset… There’s something cosy and comforting about it, something to hold onto and aim for—at least in theory.

Change is Coming, At Last.

In practice though, I’d argue that these stereotypes can often do more harm than good, because they make it a norm that not everyone will necessarily relate to. It leaves little room for alternatives, and feeds into unrealistic ideals of gender representation and relationship dynamics. For anyone who doesn’t feel like they fit into these moulds, it can feel suffocating.

Thankfully, as I said, things are evolving. Slowly but surely. The last few years have seen an exponential rise in LGBTQ+ literature, giving a whole group of readers a chance to connect with characters in ways they might not have been able to before. Sexuality, desire and relationship constructs are all coming in a wider variety of shapes and sizes than ever before.

Similarly, the portrayal of gender dynamics is evolving with, for instance, the rise of more capable, badass female characters—women who can hold their own, make their own rules, and aren’t waiting for anyone to come and rescue them. Male characters, on the other hand, are more emotionally switched-on and starting to step away from previously widespread toxic masculinity.

Anyone who’s queried literary agencies will have undoubtedly noticed that more and more agents are on the hunt for LGBTQ+ and queer literature, and stories featuring characters that break the trend of traditional male and female characterisation.

All this signals that change is finally underway, and I, for one, couldn’t be happier.

The Law of the Masses.

I suppose one has to address the elephant in the room: the very fact that, at the end of the day, what tends to work is what appeals to the masses—in other words, what sells. And if you can’t please everyone, then whoever has the power and the money to put stories out there (literary agents, publishers, movie and TV producers) then you might as well play it safe and release whatever you know has the best chances of success. The impending avalanche of Christmas romance novels and movies is a good illustration of exactly that.

Does that mean we should accept the status quo and never, ever try to change? No, a million times NO.

As writers, we have to remember who we write for. Yes, we write for ourselves, but we also write for every reader out there who’s meant to read the stories we tell. For everyone who needs to hear what we have to say and who will be able to relate to our words. We write so that others won’t feel alone in their experiences, so that they’ll feel seen and heard.

That, I’m afraid, means we can’t just keep catering for the masses. We can’t keep following trends just because that’s what works best. We can’t force masses into the same boxes, because masses are made of millions of individuals, each with their own stories, their own feelings, and their own idiosyncrasies. And these individuals are eagerly waiting for a chance to relate to a whole different box, to a world of different images, to messages that will finally feel right to them. As writers, it’s our duty not to let them be forgotten.

Off With Their Heads?

So, what? Should there no longer be romance novels for people who enjoy or relate to heterosexual, monogamous ‘boy meets girl’ scenarios?

Of course, not. Trying to make room for more inclusivity by censoring a particular style or genre would be counter-productive (and somewhat ironic!).

All I’m saying is that the century-enduring vision of the traditional gender and relationship images we portray in popular culture, and through our writing, should be challenged.

I firmly believe that writers are the spokespeople for their time. They observe the changes in the society and era they live in, they capture history in the making, and they relay it to others. And since the ideas we once collectively focused on around gender and relationships are changing, so should the stories we tell.

If we were to write retellings of the most well-known tales out there… Couldn’t Hansel and Gretel be queer? Couldn’t the little mermaid and Eric be swingers? Couldn’t Cinderella be polyamorous? Couldn’t Belle be bisexual? Couldn’t Snow White and Prince Charming have marriage issues? Couldn’t any of these well-known characters decide, of their free will, not to marry or not to have children?

I wonder… If we stepped outside of the boxes we’ve drawn for ourselves, if we smashed the walls that have encased traditional romance ideals for far too long, what wonderful, original and modern stories could we come up with… and how many readers could finally feel like they’re not alone?

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Be Open-minded!

Let’s first talk about the Self-Help book: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck by Mark Mason.

Now some may say that this book is too crass with an over-the-top case of potty-mouth, but the way I see it, we’re all adults here. If you’re looking to make change or improvements, it’s important to be able to set your own likes and dislikes aside to seek the good. It’s actually essential to spotting opportunities. Another way to say it is: be open minded! With that being said though, there are many different self-help voices and platforms, just because one jives with me doesn’t mean it will jive with you. Whether you’re familiar with Manson and his work or not, I hope you’ll keep reading to hear me out on why I have found this topic particularly helpful in my fiction writing.

The thing I like the most about The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck, is that it’s self-help without the fluff and it’s direct. It may be a little harsh, but I personally don’t mind that. I use some of the concepts in this book with my character building and let’s be real–when it comes to developing characters and worlds, in general, we all want direct, straight forward tools that are easy to put to use. Since I personally use self-help to improve my fiction writing, this one is golden in my books.

Perceived pros and cons of this book aside, you’re likely wondering what the heck “pain for pleasure” is and why I think it’s useful in fiction writing.

What Does “Pain for Pleasure” Mean Anyway?

Manson explores this idea of pain for pleasure by explaining that “Everything comes with an inherent sacrifice–whatever makes us feel good will also inevitably make us feel bad.”­–Pg 36. “What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for? Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.” –Pg 36 “Because happiness requires struggle.”–Pg 37. I view all of this as a way of getting a deeper look at our character’s beyond just their motivations and desires, I would argue this idea is more closely tied in with their values.

Naturally, this made me reflect on my own pain for pleasure ratio–what kind of pleasure do I like enough that I am willing to suffer pain for? For starters: writing. Gosh, writing is painful isn’t it? Sometimes it can be down-right hair-pulling, what with its high demand for our blood and sweat. But it’s also therapeutic, rewarding and soul-filling. I don’t just desire to write, I value it. In order to be a writer, you must accept the pain for the pleasure–you must value writing. For some the ratio of pain may out weight the pleasure. However, I think our pain for pleasure ratios evolve as we age, depending on the season of life that we are in. Six years ago my children were so young that to even consider carving out the time to write was so massively painful that I simply didn’t, the pleasure was not up to par in that particular season of life for me. Thankfully, we are constantly changing, and so too, are our seasons.

Characters’ Pain for Pleasure Ratio Put to Practice

Once I get the self-reflection out of the way, my mind wanders to my characters. They are so real in our minds, aren’t they? Almost like creepy little alternate personalities… that hopefully don’t quite become an exterior part of us (think Splitthe movie, 2016).

I always like to ask myself: What is my character’s pain for pleasure ratio? What are they willing to suffer and for what kind of pleasure? Are they a noble MC? Take Cole of Favoured Pollard for example. He is a Tagondian from Age of The Almek, my debut novel. Cole is willing to suffer the pain of putting his own life (and quiet indifference) at risk to keep a promise to an elderly woman that he loves and trusts. In this agreement he promises to protect a transfer–a Kalian woman who has transferred to the colony of Tagondo where he lives. Even when he realizes how stubborn this Kalian woman is, he suffers the frustrations of dealing with her self-righteous and arrogant demeaner (okay, at times, he does find her uptight nature entertaining) all because, the pleasure and value of keeping his word is important to him. It is so important to him, in fact, that it far out-weighs the pain of dealing with her.

Or take Arya from Game of Thrones. My perspective of her is that she willing to suffer the pain of training through gruelling – mentally and physically – circumstances, being isolated from her family just to have the pleasure of ticking off the people on her list that she wants to get revenge on. Arya greatly values retribution, her desire, however, is that she may be the one to fulfill it.

It works on the villain scale too: take Gothel from Rapunzel. She is so obsessed with her youth and beauty that the cost of kidnapping Rapunzel as an infant, caring for her (I use the word “caring” lightly) and living in secret in an isolated tower is all worth the pleasure of keeping her youth. She clearly values glowing skin and ebony hair beyond just a desire. But it can be both. For Gothel, I would say it is both a value and a desire.

The Difference Between Value and Desire

Desire means to long or yearn for something. Value means to hold something in high regard.

You can have one without the other.

One can desire to be a writer but not see the value in putting in the time. One can desire to be fit but not value the work it would be to persevere. One can value having a college degree but not desire to get one for themselves. One can value the freedom of speech but not feel the desire to speak what is on their mind.

In the end, I think when we reflect on our own pain for pleasure ratio, or even what we perceive the ratios of those around us to be, it brings into perspective what human beings are willing to suffer for. It brings to light how important our values are. I ultimately think this ratio is an interesting testament to our unique differences, and can especially be helpful in establishing differences amongst our characters. Granted, our fictional characters are likely going to have a bit more drastic of a pain for pleasure scale so that conflict is at the centre of ours stories. Either way though, it’s pretty cool that we can use self-help as a tool to explore our characters’ values and willingness to experience pain for them.

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