Plot Study: Introduction

The introduction ‘act’ of your story is where you give the reader all the information about the world they will be entering, along with background to explain the upcoming conflict. It’s your opportunity to lay the foundations for the rest of the tale.

Characters

It is during this section that you introduce your characters, giving an insight into their personae, allowing the reader to familiarise themselves with your cast before you throw them into the ‘meat’ of your story. Often, characters will come and go within a story, and this is your opportunity to introduce the core group of characters who will be playing the lead parts.

Obviously, the protaganist is introduced here directly, but what about the antagonist? Should he/she be explicitly introduced? I suppose this is entirely dependant on personal taste. For me, I like to only hint at the main protaganist during the introduction: That way, you can build some tension as the reader tries to figure out who is the main bad-guy.

The World

The introduction gives you a chance to introduce your world: Its people, the governmental structure, and the current situation it is in. It also is a chance to put into context where your characters stand within the world - which can be of utmost importance to the story.

History

As in the real world, the history of your created realm often will have shaped how it now stands. Your introduction gives you a chance to tell part of that history, and your readers will have a greater understanding of the world.

The origins of the protagonist, antagonist or any other character could well be inter-mingled with the history of the world, so you can also explain their background - And legends are always a nice way to give hints to what will happen later on in the story.

Atmosphere and Tone

The atmosphere and tone of your story could well stay the same throughout, and the introduction is a nicely convenient place to put them in place, giving your reader a taster of what to expect throughout the story.

However, the tone and atmosphere could also change by the end of the story, but you need to set the initial tone so the reader can see the changes. What better place to do it than here?

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I mentioned I would be using the ‘Lord of the Rings’ as an example throughout this theme, so let’s take a quick look at what Tolkien did in his ‘introduction’ to do that which has been discussed above.

Starting off in Hobbiton, we are introduced to the race of Hobbits, who are a friendly, happy-go-lucky race of people who have no care of the outside world. It is also here that we meet our main protagonists: Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. We see their attitudes, ideals and personalities quite well - Frodo, the adventure seeking young man who feels bogged down by responsibility; Sam, the duty-driven gardener who loyally serves his master (Frodo) well; Finally, Merry and Pippin who are both very similar: cheeky, mischievous friends who haven’t a real care in the world.

We’re also introduced to Gandalf, who plays a big part in the story, and get an insight into his position and power. But, his main ‘purpose’ during this part of the plot, from a storyteller’s viewpoint, is to give us, the reader, an insight into the history and world. He tells the story of the One Ring, and its creator, Sauron, while also giving us an idea of the world outside Hobbiton.

Overall, the tone and atmosphere are happy, cheerful and bright (Just about all Hobbits’ speech is ended in exclamation points!), yet during Gandalf’s telling of the story and legend surroudning the Ring, we get a hint of the darkness that will later prevail the story.

The introduction ends quite nicely as Frodo is charged with leaving Hobbiton to take the Ring to Rivendell so the elves can choose what to do with it.

Tolkien gives us a nice example of how Freytag’s analysis actually works in literature, and we’ll take a look later at how the other sections are utilised.

Your Introductions

What do you like to see/put into the introductory phases of stories? Do you like the way Tolkien makes his introduction? What other introductions have you enjoyed? Share with us!

Naming Your Cast

When it comes to characters, one of the most difficult things to do is actually give them names. I know it can, on occasion, be a stumbling block for me. So, let’s take a look at some of the ways we can effectively name our characters. (A lot of this will relate to character names when you are writing inside a world different to our own.)

Form and Origin

This is important when you are creating your world. How are names formed? Is the family name first, as in Japan, or last like the Western world? Also consider such things as the use of apostrophes: Are they used to denote certain ‘portions’ of the name?

Are names based upon the occupation or social standing of your characters? Are they derivative of whatever your character does? For example, John Miller. This character may well be a miller’s son or a miller himself. A lot of real world names, especially family names, have evolved from family names: Carpenter, Taylor, Smith and Fisher are good examples of this. Also consider if titles, whether current or ancestoral, become part of names. For example, Rand al’Thor from Robert Jordan’s ‘Wheel of Time’ series; the ‘al’ prefix denotes the title of Lord and is a remnant from when his home village was part of a long-dead nation.

Be Consistent

Find a formula from your decisions on form and origin. Keep to it. Of course, if your story features more than one nation/culture, you may well need to develop multiple forms: One for each. Maintaining the same fomula will do a couple of things primarily. Firstly, it will make name creation easier, and secondly it will add authenticity to your writing and story.

Of course, exceptions can be made to consistency. But, exceptions are exceptions for a reason: they are rare and unusual. If every other character is an ‘exception,’ you might as well not bother with a formula at all.

Still Can’t Name That One Character?

It can be hard, even after building your framework, to name all the characters in a story. What can you do when a name just won’t come to you? Make it up! The first collection of letters that spring to mind can then be used to make a name. Or, try this:

yrgpfuiqwehpfiqewuhpfwieuqfh

I’ll admit, I just bashed my keyboard (gently, as I use a laptop) a few times. But, from it, I can pick up a few letters, like Fiq and Fwie, that run together in such a way that look like names. Fiq Fwie is a nice alliteration, but I don’t like it. Yiq Fwie seems better, so I’ll go with that. (Keep an eye out in my upcoming novella for a cameo from Yiq!)

Inspiration

It can come from anywhere. Wookies from Star Wars were so named because of a random comment by one of George Lucas’ friends when driving. “You just ran over a wookie,” I think is the quote, but I’m unsure. Maybe real life names, especially if writing inside the real world. Even if you aren’t, they could be used. Matthew could easily become Matew, for example. A nice-sounding name that would feel quite at home in a fantasy novel.

Other sources of inspiration could be history: My main RolePlaying character is called Saladin, as in the Muslim leader during the Crusades. Another character’s name then comes from Saladin’s birth name: Yousuf. Historical names are a nice inspiration and can also give an interesting viewpoint when making your characters to start with.

Mythology and legend. There are some awesome names in ancient legends and myths: Thor, the thunder god; Achilles, the legendary warrior; Set, the Egyptian God… The list goes on. And, of course, you can make your own derivatives on these names to fit in with your formula, or the feel of the story: An obviously Oriental sounding name may not fit into your sci-fi novel, but make an adjustment, and it could fit fine. Take Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars: The name derives from chi-gung (or qi-gung dependant on translation), which is a form of Chinese internal exercise focusing on energy.

And you?

What do you do when naming your characters? Do you have any tricks for coming up with names? What do you use for inspiration? Share your thoughts and ideas with us.

Character Development

This post will focus a little more on RolePlay than solely literary projects. As always, though, it can certainly be applied to writing normal fiction.

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When playing your character, the desire is always there to have them grow. This is entirely understandable and something that should happen. How can let your characters develop in a way that is both realistic and pertinent to the story? Let’s find out!

Events Are Key

All events that take place in the story will, in some way, affect your character. Whether it’s finding their love/parent/sibling/best friend dead or injured, or hearing a conversation between two others. You need to decide how these events will change your character and in what way.

Will the death of a loved one send your character into an endless rage? Make them depressed? Let them see life from a new perspective? Only you can decide that, as the character is your own. What’s important is that you remember to ask yourself the question, “How will this event change my character?”

Consistency

No matter what developmental changes you go for, you must be consistent. If ‘Event A’ (let’s say the death of your character’s father) leads itself to seeing your character a more thoughtful, life-respecting person, you wouldn’t see him/her then go on a killing spree. However, suppose ‘Event B’ is your character’s spouse being murdered. Would your character then want to exact revenge on the world? Probably not. Progression and development is often a linear path that builds from past experiences. So, being a life-respecting person for however long between the two events, your character’s reaction to their spouse’s murder will be reflective of that. Possibly.

You need also to be consistent with the profile you wrote when creating the character. If your character is a kind hearted, loving and jovial ladies’ man who enjoys rap music, chances are that the first few events to happen to him won’t change a lot of that. Unless they’re massive events, of course. He’ll still like rap music, still enjoy flirting with the ladies and probably (even if hidden) still be kind hearted even if your story starts out with his family being taken hostage.

Development Doesn’t Always Mean Improvement

In RolePlay, it’s far too tempting to have a character that is omnipotent, all-knowing and admired by any that meet him/her. Regardless of the position your character starts with, remember that everything that happens will have an effect. These effects could very well result in your character improving, say, a skill, or growing in influence.

Sometimes, though, to keep realism, your character might seem to regress. Go backwards. Perhaps forgetting how to do something, or being rendered incapable. Maybe a political twist means that your character loses the influence they had over the king/queen. This is actually perfectly fine and doesn’t reflect badly on you as a roleplayer.

In Conclusion

With every event, simply consider how it would realistically affect your character. Then apply that to your character’s development. If you do this, you will find yourself watching and writing out a person who is believable and you will be trusted as a roleplayer and writer.

Penny For Your Thoughts

What do you like to do when looking at character development? What do you like to see? Whether in terms of roleplay or general fiction, your thoughts are valued.

What I Learned From… Community

Time once again (Yay!) for Robert Hruzek’s monthly WILF on Middle Zone Musings. This month’s subject is all about community. So, in keeping with the current theme here on A Writer’s Journey, I’ll be discussing what I learned from community in relation to characters.

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Within each community, be it a ‘real life’ community, an online one, or one written into fiction, each person seems to have a place. A position, a status, a ‘rank.’ When creating our characters, it is vitally important that we take these positions into consideration.

From the newbie, to the seasoned veteran within a roleplay community; the king of a country in comparison to a chimney sweeper. All will have certain attitudes on towards the other. When our characters interact, we need to always ask ourselves, “What attitudes would this person have towards that person?”

These will of course then affect how your characters interact, their dialogue, and also their behaviour around each other. All of these things add to how easily your readers can suspend disbelief and ultimately how successful your story/roleplay/novel is.

In regards to how your characters develop (a subject that will be covered later this week), it is important to also consider other communities that already exist. Positions within communities are always shifting. The newbie roleplayer may well become as renowned and respected as those who were the veterans when he/she first joined. The chimney sweep may well find himself married to the king’s only daughter. These will change your characters viewpoint, attitudes and demeanour.

However, you must take into consideration how these changes occur. One does not simply change positions overnight. It is a gradual process that not only requires time, but also work. So too must your characters’ different changes (personality, attitude, even attire) be gradual.

Any community you are in can work as a great study piece for you to ensure you keep your characters within the realms of their ‘rank.’ All you need to do is spend a little time watching. Be it in your school, your work, an online community, or even within your own friendship circle. All communities are similar in this sense; or so I have observed for myself.

What do you think?

Am I talking rubbish? Or does my idle musing here make sense? How do you ensure characters act according to their position? Give me some feedback, I value all your thoughts on this area!

Bringing Your Characters to Life

We looked at character creation a while back, and what is needed when making your wonderful protagonist, or the dastardly villain. But, how can we bring those characters to life? Regardless of the genre or setting, characters need to be believable so our readers can make a connection: Whether it be a working girl in a romance, a rampaging orc in a fantasy, or a Martian overlord that wants to take over the universe in a sci-fi novel, your characters need to be more than simple mannequins acting out your play.

Let’s take a look at a few ways of bringing your characters from the page into the minds of your readers.

People Are Not Static

They are near constantly moving. Even when sat in a bar, talking with an old friend, there is so much movement: A finger tapping on the table, the act of taking a drink, lighting a cigarette (at least, back in the good days when one could smoke in a bar), shifting positions to keep comfortable.

A lot of the time we don’t notice these things, but next time you’re down the pub, just watch a few people: It’s actually quite amazing, and at times amusing. There are countless tiny, seemingly insignificant things we can put into our character.

I’m not in any way saying that we write every little thing our characters do. But the occasional drop of information makes them seem truly alive. Let me ask a question to illustrate: Would two people sit at a bar and chat for an hour without drinking any of their ale?

Microsoft Sam? No thank you!

For those of you who don’t know, Microsoft Sam is the electronic-voiced text-reader built into Windows: Monotonous, boring, and mildly irritating.

Realistic dialogue is an often repeated message when discussing quality writing. And rightfully so! Here are a few pointers for making your dialogue realistic:

• A greatly stressed point: Listen! Listen to how people speak in real life, then apply that to your writing.
• Contractions. Real people are more likely to say “don’t” than “do not.” It makes the speech seem more natural, and for your readers contractions will allow them to more easily ‘hear’ what characters are saying.
• Accents or dialect. Not all people speak in the same way, so demonstrate this when writing dialogue. A dwarf, for example, is more likely to say, “Do ye really wannae fight me?” than “Do you really want to fight me.”
• Tone of voice. A construction worker will have a much less formal tone than, say, a king or queen.

People Change

While I’ll be covering character development and growth later in this series, it’s certainly worth a mention here. The events in your story, whether large or small, will have some impact on your characters if they’re involved in them.

Your character’s won’t be the same on the last page as they were on the first.

Tell Me More (Like, did he have a car?)

That covers just a few basic things which can help make your characters alive and believable. What other techniques or tricks do you use when bringing your character’s to life? Share them with us!

Characters: A Focus

The weekend saw me finally begin my novella, and as such I spent a lot of time thinking about characters. I think it would be nice, for the next couple of weeks, to give a focus on this all-important aspect of fiction writing and roleplaying.

My approach is going to be one primarily aimed at the literary viewpoint, though it will also certainly be pertinent to roleplaying. A variety of aspects will be covered, and hopefully this series of posts will do two things: 1. Give an insight about how I view characters and their importance, and 2. serve as a reference guide for all of you.

Your Input, If You Will

While I have the main series planned, I’d also like to offer you the chance of dicating once again what is put on the blog: After all, you guys are the ones who have to read the posts! So, what would you like to see discussed during this series? Anything you want to learn? A particular opinion of mine you’d like to see voiced? Or maybe you’d like to make a guest post? Let me know!

The Purpose of a RolePlay Post

I was looking through a few of the old tutorials I had written over on RolePlay Gateway, and spotted this one. It’s a good edition to be added here, I’ve decided. As such, below is a revised version of the tutorial. While designed specifically for RolePlaying, replace ‘post’ with ‘chapter’ and I think it’s equally as pertinent to fiction.

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Each post you make in a RolePlay is your opportunity to contribute positively to the story being played out by the group of writers. Oftentimes, for new RolePlayers it can be difficult to know exactly how to do this. As such, this tutorial is designed to make it a little easier for you.

Three-Fold

There are three primary purposes to a RolePlay post:

1. Reveal your character.
2. Develop the environment.
3. Move the plot forward.

If you do these three things, your posts will certainly have a positive impact on the story, creating an enjoyable read for your fellow players, as well as any silent observers you may have. However, let me elaborate a little on each point in turn.

Revealing your character: Each of your posts should reveal some aspect of your character. Whether it be their appearance, thoughts, personality, attire; any developing traits or quirks, or maybe traits that are regressing and becoming less and less prominent over time.
One mistake often made by inexperienced RolePlayers is revealing everything about a character in the first post. What are you going to write about after that? An introductory post should be just that: An introduction to your character… Letting the reader and other players know that your character exists. Subsequent posts can be used to reveal further aspects of your character. Giving you things to write, and others to read.

Developing the environment: The environment is an essential part of any RolePlay, and is constantly changing: It should be alive. The sun moves across the sky, for example; so if you have two characters sat in the sun, a few posts later (perhaps an hour or so later in ‘In Character’ time), they may well be sat in the shade. Make mention of that. A person in a bar shifts off his stool to go to the bathroom. Make mention of that. It’s important to maintain a ‘real’ feel to the environment.
Also, atmosphere is an important part of the environment. Does moving into the next dungeon hall, for example, mean a deathly silence that weighs heavy on the party? Is the tavern a smoky, smelly place full of tension? Make note of these things.
The environment is the world your readers are drawn into. If a city was made entirely of still backdrops in a movie, with only the main actors moving, not many people would watch it.

Moving the plot forwards: Each of your posts should move the plot forward in some way. What’s the best way to do this? Maybe the easiest is through ‘prompts’ and ‘reactions.’ Let me give you an example:

A Prompt: As John Smith opened the door, he looked to the man he’d been chatting with and cocked his head to indicate the man should follow.

A Reaction: Dave Johnson noticed the strange fellow who’d been sat next to him a few minutes ago make some gesture. Picking up his drink as he stood, Dave walked towards the door.

Rudimentary examples, I know, but they should give an easy understanding of what I mean.
Another major aspect to consider about developing the plot is pacing. What amount of time should each post represent? A minute, a day, a week? Whatever is pertinent to that particular post. For example: Your party of wonderful heroes spends a full day on horseback. There is no need at all to describe every mile. But maybe you need a post where they break for lunch? To give a chance to display their discomfort, complaints, etc. Or do you just wait until they make camp in the evening. The choice, of course, is your own, but it’s something to consider.

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Well, there you have it. A quick overview to the purpose of a RolePlay post. Now you are armed with the tools needed to play a positive part in any RolePlay you join.

Your views

What do you feel RolePlay post or chapter should contain? Do you have tricks you use to maintain any of the points raised above? Share them with us! We’d love to hear what you do and what your opinions are.

Battling Writer’s Block The Easy Way

All writers know of, and dread, writer’s block. That sudden lack of inspiration, a depletion of creativity. A costing of money, even. It can be one of the great banes of writers’ lives, and is never at all welcomed. So, how can we battle it? How can we unblock our creative pipes?

Try This Simple Irony

My writing of this post is actually a result of my own writer’s block. I had absolutely no idea what to write on my blog, which is probably mostly due to the fact that I have been rather distracted this past week with various away-from-computer issues. So, my mind has been entirely in some other direction than writing of any kind. Let alone writing about writing.

So, I decided, “Hey, I’ve got writer’s block, let’s write about that.” And as you can see, it’s actually worked pretty well. Though probably not as long as my other blog posts, I’ve been able to actually produce a post for you all to read. And hopefully a post that will be helpful.

If you have writer’s block, whether in regards to your novel, blog or any other type of writing, try writing about your writer’s block. It could work wonders in getting those pipes nice and clean once again, at which point… Hey presto! You can write again.

Your Experiences

Give this method a try and let me know how it works for you. Do you have your own tricks for beating writer’s block? If so, share them with us. It’d be great to hear them!

Writing From A Different Focus

Sometimes, as a writer, it is far too easy to remain within a defined comfort zone. Whether it be a particular genre of writing, a specific style or a point of view that is essentially the same, we generally are proficient within our writing comfort zones. But as we try to grow as writers, perhaps we should try to step away from our areas of comfort.

A nice excercise in this is to change our focus. Whether this is a change from third person perspective to first or second, or perhaps moving away from scenery descriptives to more motion-orientated work. And maybe even shifting from fiction to non-fiction.

All of these things challenge us and as such make us grow as writers.

A Challenge

As a group writing project, I challenge you push yourself and give writing from a different focus a try.

• Post a new entry on your blog with your writing piece, linking back (in the spirit of community) to this post.
• Give a brief (or not so, it’s your choice) explanation of how what you wrote moved you away from your current comfort zones and a little on how it helped you to grow.
• I’ll (again, in the spirit of community) compile a list of all the entries for reference.
• Please email me a link to your entry at hayhed2k3@gmail.com so I can add you to the list.
• Entries should be received by the end of Sunday 19th April. (I’ll go by EST on this deadline).

Have Fun!

I hope that you all have fun with this little challenge and group-write; I am certainly looking forward to some brilliant reads.

Characters: An Alternative Creation Story

This is yet another post in response to my Twitter survey, suggested by George Angus over at Tumblemoose Writing Services. I had actually been planning a post similar to this as part of my reality in fiction theme I’ve been running over the past week or so. George had made the request of looking at character creation in RolePlay so the focus will be shifted a little from my original intentions, but it works for ‘normal’ fiction also.

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Characters are key to any story. They’re the crutch upon which the story rides, conflict is created and the reason that people will read your work. They play an especially important part in RolePlaying: They are the tool by which you are able to write and interact. Your posts are focused on them, you must rely on their own view of the world to bring it alive. You, for all intents and purposes, become that character while playing. But, how important is the creation process of your character?

It all starts with a name

At least, for me it does. I’m among a rarity in RolePlay: My character becomes my muse and in a sense all my roleplay writing comes from the character itself. When first introducing a character, I generally know nothing about him/her beyond their name. Their appearance, personality, likes/dislikes, and abilities all come to me as I write. For me, this allows a nice progression for my characters throughout the story.

However, that doesn’t really give a true insight. So, let’s take a closer look at character creation.

Balance

It’s essential. More so than a lot of people realise. Regardless of setting, genre, race or rank of your character it needs to have balance. It’s very tempting (and even I fell in this trap when new to the RolePlay scene) to create a character without flaws, a character all powerful and all knowing. But oh, how bland such characters really are! No one is perfect. And neither should your characters.

They will surely have weaknesses, fears, personality flaws and yet they indeed will still have their own strengths. The art to character creation is finding the right balance: Someone with no strengths at all is just as bland, remember.

The Process

Creating a character can certainly be broken down into a number of steps:

1. The basics: Age, sex, race and appearance. These all are dependant on what setting you’re playing in. In a post-apocalyptic world where all adults were killed, you wouldn’t make a character over the age of 18. Sex most often is never an issue: Man, woman, both, neither - the choice is yours. Race again is an important one for maintaining reality. In a realistic setting (based in our real world) you would’t play an elf or Martian. Appearance again is all dependant on the factors already taken into account. It needs to keep with the world in which you are playing; would a European person in the 1300s really wear a ninja outfit? I doubt it. A guy wearing a skirt? Well, maybe. But a woman wearing a full suit of armour is perhaps not so likely (I’m going to get lynched by all the women readers now!). And would your dwarf really be five foot eight inches tall?
2. Skills and abilities: Here again balance is the key. Someone with muscles that dwarf even WWE wrestlers who can move with the ability of an Olympic gymnast? That just wouldn’t happen, I’m afraid. A person who is masterful with every weapon in existence? Not unless he’s been around for several eons. Masterful in one weapon? Oh, certainly. Able to shoot lightning from her knee all day without any effect? Maybe, but is that maintaining balance, or looking for an all-powerful sorceress? Making magic usage effect your characters creates a nice feel for realism: They don’t have a constant supply of energy. Just like the knight wouldn’t be able to ride his horse for three weeks non-stop.
3. Personality: I once saw a character profile where the character was “shy and talkative.” What?! Again, keep things realistic. Conflicting personality traits like that make your characters unbelievable. This will break what was discussed in an earlier blog. Something of utmost importance. Sure, have your character shy and maybe one person to whom they can approach with total ease: That’s entirely believable.
4. Background History: A lot of people like to write a full biography for their characters. While this may be useful to some people it isn’t at all necessary. If nothing more than why your character is where they are at the begining of the game/story and their current motivations and goals, you’ve provided more than enough information. And, revealing everything at once means you lose a great back-up tool when you can’t think of what to write: The Flashback.

And there you have it. A nice skeleton profile of your character, ready to leap into whatever game you’re taking a part.

Why?

Why go to all this effort though? Surely you can just write out your character as you go along like I do? Definitely. Often for new RolePlayers this gives a nice template for easily making a character, when perhaps it isn’t the most natural of things to do. Also, it can provide a quick reference tool for other players to learn about your character. The players can then have an understanding and look to implementing sub-plots with you or areas of conflict or mutual interest.

If writing for a purely literary purpose, the character profile can help you to organise your cast of characters. Though I would add in one more area: Relationships. Between main characters, other minor characters and anyone they may meet. As your novel progresses it’s a good idea to also update that section (along with all others - I know they can all change at times) to keep your information up to date so you have a quick and simple reference tool.

Your very own creations

Have you roleplayed before? Written a novel? How did you go about creating your characters? Please share with us. Everyone is different and my own methodology may not be the same as yours. Let us know how you write your own story of creation!

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