Posts Tagged With: fiction

Persistence is something writers need, but think about your characters as well.

Often our more interesting—especially bestselling—novels and memoirs are about persistence and its role in resolving a conflict or rising to a new level of accomplishment, or learning the harder, best lesson.

Examples? If the writer Larry McMurtry and the cowboy characters in LONESOME DOVE weren’t persistent in a huge way, we may not have had the Pulitzer winner that the book became. You need persistence to survive a dusty, multi-state cattle drive.

I recently read THE ASTRAL LIBRARY by Kate Quinn, a bestseller about a young woman with everything going wrong in her life right down to a stolen bank account—until she entered a library within a library. The magical world tested her and taught her how to be persistent against adversity.

Persistence teaches or uncovers lessons. Your character should grow smarter as your manuscript moves along. Take stock:  What has your protagonist (or you in your memoir) learned after every 30 or so pages? Make a list. Do you need to revise? At least think about things?

I often mention the memoir HOW TO CATCH A MOLE by Marc Hamer. It’s a superb example of questioning persistence in your life. How long do you fight against the moles? How long do you do anything before you change?

To persist is to refuse to give up UNTIL you learn something, get better, discover the secrets.

To persist is to prevail. How do your character prevail? Does each chapter build? Or, have you accidently let your character take too long of a rest? Get them back into persisting if you want to sell and find your magic.

Why does “persistence” work so well with characterizations and plotting?

Because it flows through an entire story (if you want to win over readers).

Persistence works, too, because it questions your character:  When is it time to change? Or quit? Or get stronger and smarter? How? Get better or not? Why?

Persistence is hard for writers and your character to sustain over the course of a novel, screenplay, story, poetry collection, etc. There are rewards for your endurance—even if it takes years for that project to get out there.

At an annual writing retreat with former novel class participants, each writer has shown PERSISTENCE. I’m in awe. These writers have been together since 2012. They started with no publications. Now they have at least two novels each published (with one almost published) with a mix of major publishers and great independent publishers, with more novels and nonfiction works coming.

Do you have a character you can’t sell or get right? A manuscript not doing so well?

Lay out “persistence” on a plot grid. How does the character (or you in the memoir) embrace and show persistence through Acts 1, 2, 3?

Writers at my retreat persist in meeting yearly, staying in touch, and supporting each other throughout the year. They persist in attending conferences and online workshops. They persist in revising multiple times.

Persistence creates magic.

Persistence is that “long-haul stuff,” but worth it.

It opens doors, just as it does in THE ASTRAL LIBRARY and HOW TO CATCH A MOLE and LONESOME DOVE…and your writing project.

Attachment (dictionary meaning):  anything added or attached; affectionate regard or devotion.

In storytelling an “attachment” means things you add to a character to make them not only distinct but to possibly take away and thus challenge them.

An attachment is part of the plotting exercise, and can also be used in the sales wording for the novel’s back cover or inside jacket.

The attachment—when messed with—is also a handy tool to force change in a character and the trajectory of the story.

Attachments can entertain effectively. They draw in readers.

Example of attachments:  In the classic movie The Wizard of Oz the girl Dorothy has an aunt as her advisor/protector (attachment) who is lost when Dorothy is whisked up in the tornado. After she’s in Oz, Dorothy gains three helpful friends (attachments) but almost loses them, and later the Wicked Witch wants to take Dorothy’s dog (attachment from the start) and the new mysterious, magical ruby shoes (attached at a significant plot point). Dorothy is forced to change and grow when those attachments are threatened. We feel for her emotionally.

Attachments help us care about a character, even laugh, as in the dogs, cats, and other pets attached to protagonists in mystery novels and more. Those attachments show up on the cover on purpose—they draw readers.

A bland character might have few or no attachments, but can be improved when you add or change the attachments.

Attachments are planned and planted by wise authors.

A plot may sprout from characters with attachments. A plot may also be improved by revising with a new attachment.

Introduce a supportive best friend early, for example, who leaves before or at the Midpoint Crisis so we can see the protagonist shine on their own. The attachment was necessary in order for readers to witness your character suddenly cope without a buddy. We empathize with the loss of a friend or “going it alone.”

Effective stories strip away or mess with a character’s attachment(s) in order to make the character DESPERATE enough to make decisions, take ACTION, and GROW.

If a character or plot is too shallow or “thin,” add an attachment early on, revise, and see where it takes you.

If critique buddies aren’t connecting with your manuscript, experiment with an attachment or two.

If the publishing and producing worlds aren’t connecting with your character, think about how attachments can bring in needed layering—and fun for the audience. Superman got a dog, after all, in a recent movie.

Attachments are superb when they have “weight.”

Example:  Saying a character lives in a two-story house doesn’t have weight. You can’t sell that. Yawn for page one of your novel. Instead, what if your character reveals they saved for years to buy a historic house built by a famous mobster or poet? And they’ve lovingly restored it to its former beauty. Now the house has “weight” for readers. Losing that attachment would mean something to the character and readers.

How would you sell that scenario to an interviewer? Just give us the attachment info:  “After lovingly restoring a former mobster’s house for years, Fred discovers…(you fill in the blank).”

Dorothy in Oz had 1) a dog, 2) ruby shoes literally attached, and 3) various friends/mentors who helped her journey. We rooted for those attachments.

What are one to three significant things your character might be attached to that you can use to improve characterization and plot?

Attachments help you create a character that grows and a plot that wins readers.