Hey all, Sam here.
Where does the time keep going? The past couple of weeks it has felt like time has just sped past…and it’s like I haven’t been able to do nearly as much as I hope to do. I keep hoping things will settle down a bit and I can mark a bunch of things off my to-do list.
I am starting to prep up for NaNoWriMo, and trying to focus a bit more on creative output, so hopefully the rest of this year is filled with bonus Weekend Writer posts, as I work through writing craft discussions and deep dives and sharing writing snippets with all of you.
So welcome back to another installment of Weekend Writer, the series where I focus on the craft of creative writing. The first Friday of each month I utilize several random prompt generator tools to create some prompts to spark creativity (for art or stories or song or poetry… it’s whatever you want to use it for). Then the final Friday of each month, I share some of my creative writing–usually a snippet inspired by one of those prompts, but there also might be other snippets shared from other projects too. Then, for all the other Fridays, I dive into a creative writing discussion, whether that is based on a lecture, a panel, a video, or a book on some topic around creativity and the craft of writing.
Thank you so much for stopping by…and let’s get started with this week’s writing chapter deep dive.
Craft an Emotionally Charged Story That Will Resonate with Readers
Emotional impact shouldn’t be dropped into your novel as an afterthought or forced upon your story with a pair of pliers and an iron grip. It should be carefully sewn into the fabric of the story to create tension-filled moments that will keep readers turning pages. In Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict, you’ll learn how to layer emotional moments and deep connections to create a tapestry filled with conflict, pathos, and genuine feeling.
• Create emotional depth, conflict, and tension in your novel by carefully crafting your plot, characters, setting, word choice, and more.
• Learn what makes readers “tick”—and what will elicit the strongest emotional responses.
• Write believable, emotional scenes and dialogue—and trim away the sappiness.When writing a novel, your ultimate goal is to make readers smile, weep, rage, and laugh right along with your characters. Writing with Emotion, Tension, & Conflict will show you how to evoke a multitude of feelings in your readers—and keep them coming back for more.
Chapter Two: Motivation and Realism
Continuing on our main topic of writing with emotion, tension, and conflict, this chapter immediately starts with this first section on character motivation.
Character Motivation
A prime motivating factor or prime motivation is an event or a series of past happenings that shape a character’s personality.
Page 22
Basically the main motivation for a character should be tied into their backstory, to all those events that have shaped the character into who they are when we meet them in the story. Sounds both simple and complex, which I suppose is true of a lot of aspects of writing.S
So how do we do this? Well, their history and their motivation, and the events that have shaped them should give them strengths and weaknesses, flaws and fears, conflict, friends and family, all the things that help to build a character that feels like they could be real.
Create Characters with built-in conflict
Build in conflict as you personify your story people, and give them diversity. Use their pasts, their needs, and their fears as fodder for conflict. Use their strengths and their weaknesses against them. Their backstories, combined with characterization, will be motivation for everything they do. It will shape their goals and define the way they react to situations.
Page 22
This all makes sense. We are all a product of what has happened to us, what we’ve experienced, the people we’ve met…it helps to shape us, shape our thoughts and our desires and our goals. And if that’s true of us, then of course it should be true of our characters.
But, even more than that, we can have all of those past events and interactions and conflicts for the characters shaped how we want them to better reinforce the story.
I know I’ve thought of character and conflict this way with my D&D characters, and it does sometimes change or affect the way they handle certain conversations or encounters. It helps the character become more than just words and numbers on a character sheet.
Stick to Your Guns – a side note text box (Page 24)
Here St. John lets us know that while we need to be open to suggestions and new ideas, some factors of your story should be considered sacred. Before brainstorming with others, lay down the ground rules, letting others know what ideas you won’t budge from. Those things should be aspects that got you excited about the story in the first place, because you’ll need that excitement to keep you motivated to move forward.
I like that this is brought up, because I think it is valid and reasonable. Yes, we should be open to certain changes or shifts with our stories and characters…but we also need to know when an element of our story is essential to the heart of the story. Be ready to kill your darlings, when necessary, but also be aware of which darlings should be protected.
Conflict reveals your character’s emotions, and it’s emotion through which your reader identifies. If the conflict isn’t emotional for the character, it won’t be emotional for the reader. If you want the reader to care about these people–and you do–engage his feelings.
Page 25
I know for me, as a reader, I have an easier time being swept away in a story if I feel some sort of emotional connection to the story, which means there has to be something about the characters that I understand, or some sense of who they are that resonates within me. If I care about the characters then I can wade through slightly weaker plot to get to stronger plot, because I care about what happens to the people in the story. So, for me, yes, plot matters, but to me, plot is secondary to the characters.
Obviously there are other readers and writers out there who believe differently, and that’s fine. Do what works for you and what feels right to you. You know…love your best creative life.
Simple and Complex Conflicts
A simple conflict can be every bit as powerful as a complicated one; how the characters react and resolve it makes all the difference. A simple conflict relies more on internal conflict and characterization, while a complex conflict relies more on external conflict or plot.
Page 27-28
I like the contrast of simple conflict being internal and complex being external…but I feel like to me, a complex conflict is often complex because of underlying internal conflicts and inner battles.
And I also feel like many small simple conflicts can start to build up and compound on each other to become a more complex issue and conflict later. I guess it depends on your characters and the story you’re telling.
When readers know about the experiences your characters have had, it makes the characters’ goals and reactions motivated and believable.
Page 29
Again, this circles back to caring about the characters…readers care about them by learning about them and following them, and then because of caring about them readers want to know more about them…and soon readers not only understand the characters and their goals and motivations, but they also care about why they feel the way they feel.
Developing Backstory
When creating backstory, you need to think about factors and incidents that shaped your character. These can include:
- A Belief System
- Values
- Family and Friends
- Fears and Phobias
- Prime Motivating Incident
It is imperative to keep your character’s history in mind as you unfold the story. However, beginning writers often lay out all of their backstory right off the bat to make sure the reader gets it. Big mistake. This is known as an info dump. The reader doesn’t care yet, so he’s not invested for the time it takes to get through the backstory.
Page 30
This is something I still need to get better about, not info dumping when it comes to backstory. I think I’m getting better because of thinking about character arc during TTRPG campaigns, and now it’s just a matter of translating that into my stories better. It is definitely a good thing to think about a character’s previous encounters and history and mindset in order to understand where they are now, and where they are hopefully heading in future.
Well, that’s all from me for today. I’ll try to maybe start doubling up on some of the chapters for this book. Otherwise it’ll take like 7-8 months to get through everything. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 