Monthly Archives: November 2023

How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction

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By C. S. Lakin

Every person or character, at any given time, is in a particular mood. Generally, mood is a person’s state of mind, but it’s more than that. Mood can also describe the disposition of a collective of people, a certain time in history, or the ether of a place.

Regardless of what kind of mood we speak of, it’s always subjective. Ten people can be experiencing the same event at the same place and time, yet, depending on their perspective, their individual mood will differ.

We all know about moods and have a range of them we express and feel, whether we’re aware of them or not. We can sense others’ moods just as they can sense ours. The mood of the character should affect the way he perceives his environment, and expert writers will carefully choose words and imagery that act like a mirror to their emotions.

First, Consider Your Scene’s Purpose

Your story may have an overall tone or mood, but every scene is a microsystem of mood that depends on the emotional state and mindset of your character. When you plot out your scene, you need to first think about how your character will interact with his setting based on his mood and the purpose of your scene.

Remember: it’s the purpose of the scene that determines all the setting elements—what you choose to have him notice (and not notice) and react to and why.

Words Are Everything

However, learn this truth: it is not the originality of a world or the degree of creativity in the world itself that makes a fantasy novel shine with brilliance; it’s the choice of words and phrases that the author uses that evokes not just a right sensory experience but makes readers fall in love with the writing.

Please note: this doesn’t just pertain to fantasy novels. Every novel involves the creation of a “world,” and so writers need to take just as much care in the creation of any world in any genre. Take a look at this hastily written sentence:

Bill walked through the forest until he found a cottage set back in the trees . . .

Now consider the reworked description below that I spent a bit more time on:

Bill slogged along the leaf-choked path, the spindly arms of the bare maples quivering in the cold autumn wind—a feeble attempt to turn him back. But he pressed on until he spotted, nestled in a copse of willows, the derelict cottage slumped like a lost orphan, the lidless windows dark and vacant. Hardly a welcoming sight after many tiresome hours of travel.

A specific mood is created by bringing out Bill’s mindset and emotional state. Without knowing anything else about this scene (if I’d written one), a reader can clearly sense the purpose of the action by the things he notices and the words used to describe them

To immerse your readers in the world you’ve created, you need to spend time coming up with masterful description. And the components of such description are the nouns, verbs, and adjectives you choose.

Mood Nuances

We all know about moods and have a range of them we express and feel, whether we’re aware of them or not. We can sense others’ moods just as they can sense ours. The mood of the character should affect the way he perceives his environment, and expert writers will carefully choose words and imagery that act like a mirror to their emotions. It’s a reciprocal factor: mood informs how the character sees his setting, but the setting also informs his mood—shifting it or intensifying it.

Take a look at this passage from The Dazzling Truth (Helen Cullen):

Murtagh opened the front door and flinched at a swarm of spitting raindrops. The blistering wind mocked the threadbare cotton of his pajamas. He bent his head into the onslaught and pushed forward, dragging the heavy scarlet door behind him. The brass knocker clanged against the wood; he flinched, hoping it had not woken the children. Shivering, he picked a route in his slippers around the muddy puddles spreading across the cobblestoned pathway. Leaning over the wrought-iron gate that separated their own familial island from the winding lane of the island proper, he scanned the dark horizon for a glimpse of Maeve in the faraway glow of a streetlamp.

 In the distance, the sea and sky had melted into one anthracite mist, each indiscernible from the other. Sheep huddled together for comfort in Peadar Óg’s field, the waterlogged green that bordered the Moones’ land to the right; the plaintive baying of the animals sounded mournful. Murtagh nodded at them.

 There was no sight of Maeve.

Culler is masterful in her usage of imagery to convey sensory detail. The feeling of rain on Murtagh’s skin is described by flinching at spitting raindrops. The blistering wind attacks his pajamas. Dragging the heavy door shows the sensation of his muscles working—proprioception. And of course we have visuals, which paint the stage for us.

We also have the sound of the brass knocker—used for a specific purpose—to tell us he’s concerned about the children waking. This is a good point to pay attention to: sensory detail should serve more than one purpose. Don’t just add a sound or sight without thinking of the POV character’s mood, concerns, mindset, and purpose in that moment. The more you can tie those things to the sensory details, the more powerful your writing.

Weather

Writers are sometimes told not to write about weather. It’s boring, right? But weather affects us every moment of every day and night. We make decisions for how we will spend our day, even our life, based on weather. And weather greatly affects our mood, whether we notice or not.

Since we want our characters to act and react believably, they should also be affected by weather. Sure, at times they aren’t going to notice it. But there are plenty of opportunities to have characters interact with weather can be purposeful and powerful in your story.

Strong Verbs and Adjectives

Using strong and effective verbs and adjectives will help you craft setting descriptions that are masterful. Every word counts. To borrow unfaithfully from Animal Farm: All words are created equal, but some words are more equal than others. Some words are plain boring, and others take our breath away.

Mood is one of the 3 M’s of character setup, and you’ll want to make sure you get the character’s mood, mindset (what she’s concerned about), and motivation on that first page. What happens in the scene will shift the mood in some way, resulting in some change in mood by the end of the scene. So think about what that mood will be like at the start of the scene and what’s changed in the mood by the end. Using the setting interactively with your character is the most powerful way to masterfully accomplish this!

Source: writershelpingwriters.net

Visit us at First Edition Design Publishing

Tips for Writing a Successful Story Climax

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Escalation is an important element of story structure. The opening pages are often quiet as key players are introduced, the setting is established, and readers are given a glimpse of what’s wrong in the protagonist’s world. The catalyst then provides a choice, where the hero leaves their ordinary world and steps into a new one. In the next half of the story, they work their way toward the goal that will fulfill them, facing many conflict scenarios that challenge their methods and way of thinking. In those story moments, the stakes get higher, the consequences more drastic, and the clashes more incendiary until everything culminates in a final confrontation that will determine if the hero achieves their goal or not. This confrontation is the climax of the story. The reader has known from the beginning that this moment would occur; it’s what they’ve been looking forward to, why they’ve stuck with the protagonist for so many pages. A successful climax will help determine how satisfied the reader is with the story, so it’s vital that we get it right. 

What Is The Climax, Really? 

The climax is the final showdown between the hero and their nemesis. The two may have butted heads already—multiple times, possibly—or this might be the long-awaited battle they’ve been working toward. Different structure models position this pillar at various places, but it’s generally agreed that it works best in the last half of Act Three. This allows for the proper build-up to the climax while leaving enough time for events to resolve afterward. The purpose of the climax is to give the protagonist a final chance to succeed and achieve the story goal. Numerous conflict scenarios have tested the hero’s resolve and abilities so far. They haven’t always succeeded, but as the struggles have gotten bigger and the stakes have grown, they have moved steadily toward their outer (and inner, if they’re working a change arc) goals. And now comes the biggest test of all: the final meet-up with the nemesis. It’s the protagonist’s last chance to prove themselves. If they fail here, they fail for good. As a result, the climax should definitively determine who wins. 

<img data-attachment-id="53292" data-permalink="https://writershelpingwriters.net/2023/11/tips-for-writing-a-successful-story-climax/protagonist-wins/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/writershelpingwriters.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Protagonist-wins.jpg?fit=940%2C788&ssl=1" data-orig-size="940,788" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="Protagonist wins" data-image-description="<p>victory, winner,

It also allows the hero to display what they’ve learned on their journey. Whether they’ve acquired skills, identified a strength they thought was a weakness, rejected a long-believed lie, or adopted a new mindset, what they’ve learned should tip the scales in their favor during the climax. This is often where the inner and outer journeys merge because the changes they’ve undergone and the lessons they have learned about themselves are exactly what they need to achieve the outer goal. When it’s done artfully, that synchronicity creates a satisfying resolution for readers as the pieces click into place. Lastly, the climax should mirror the catalyst. As Michael Hauge says in Writing Screenplays That Sell: “Just as the aftermath contrasts with the setup at the beginning of a screenplay, the climax of the story mirrors the opportunity (catalyst). While the opportunity begins the forward movement of the story—begins the hero’s visible journey by taking him to a new situation—the climax ends that journey by resolving the hero’s outer motivation (story goal).” In a story with a three-act structure, there’s an invisible hinge at the midpoint that divides the story into two halves. James Scott Bell likens the midpoint to a mirror because the events on one side reflect the other. In this way, the climax relates back to the beginning, closing out the journey that started in your first pages. 

What Are The Elements Of A Successful Story Climax?

To recap: a successful story climax should tick the following boxes:

  1. It’s the final showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist.It mirrors the catalyst/opportunity. A definitive winner emerges.If the protagonist wins, they do so by using the lessons they learned during their journey.The victor (whomever it may be) achieves their goal. 

To illustrate how these elements can be used to craft a perfect climax, let’s use Star Wars: A New Hope as an example. In a nutshell, here’s what happens in this important scene:

<img data-attachment-id="41292" data-permalink="https://writershelpingwriters.net/2021/02/the-authors-guide-to-redeeming-villains/darth-vader-4354735_1920/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/writershelpingwriters.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/darth-vader-4354735_1920.jpg?fit=1280%2C1920&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1280,1920" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="darth-vader-4354735_1920" data-image-description="<p>Pixabay, Darth Vader, villain

Luke Skywalker uses his Jedi training to destroy the Death Star, crippling the Empire and sending the enemy packing. Peace and safety are restored to the galaxy.It’s the final showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist. Luke’s fight to destroy the Death Star is the last confrontation between him and his enemy in this story. It should be noted that the true villain here isn’t a tangible one that Luke can face off against; it’s the empire. But every protagonist needs a physical adversary to battle. That’s provided in the form of Darth Vader, and Luke’s defeat of the empire is also a defeat for him. It’s a good reminder that if your hero is going up against an antagonistic force rather than an actual person, you’ll want to introduce a physical antagonist for them to fight against.It mirrors the catalyst/opportunity. Luke’s catalyst occurs back on Tatooine, when he’s invited to learn the ways of the Jedi and help the Rebellion defeat the empire. The climax mirrors this as the journey he began culminates in him destroying the Death Star. It’s also a nice touch that the person who offered Luke his catalyst opportunity (Obi-Wan) shows up unexpectedly in the climax to remind his protégé that he must use his Jedi training if he wants to succeed.A definitive winner emerges. This is made clear in the rout of the empire and the medal ceremony that follows.If the protagonist wins, they do so by using what they’ve learned. Luke is unsuccessful in destroying the Death Star until he embraces the lessons he learned from Yoda—mainly, his knowledge of and connection with the Force. The victor (whomever it may be) achieves their goal. Luke’s goal was twofold: learn the ways of the Jedi and defeat the empire. Thanks to Yoda, he has begun his journey to becoming a Jedi and has completed the first part of his objective. With the destruction of the empire, he achieves the second.

A Few Caveats

The protagonist won’t always win. If you’re writing a tragedy, such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Into the Wild, or Up in the Air, the hero will fail to defeat their adversary and/or achieve fulfillment and improve themselves.Maybe they’re unsuccessful because they didn’t learn what they needed to learn, or they weren’t able to fully embrace those lessons during the final confrontation. Sometimes, their internal conflict remains unresolved, and they allow self-doubt, fear, pride, or another habit or hang-up to rule the day. It’s also possible that they achieve their goal only to discover that it was a false goal—one that made things worse or ended up ruining them.If your protagonist is doomed for failure, element #4 becomes inverted: they don’t succeed precisely because they haven’t gained the knowledge they needed or they failed to utilize it when it mattered. The rest of the key ingredients remain the same, regardless of who wins.Quiet climaxes can be just as effective. While many thrillers, suspense, and action movies require a gargantuan clash at the end, other kinds of stories don’t necessarily need this. The climax of Pride and Prejudice, for example, happens with Lizzy and Mr. Darcy going for a simple walk. They don’t even argue at this point. Instead, they admit their past failings, express their love for each other, and decide to get married. It’s a quiet climax that still achieves its purpose. It is their final confrontation as antagonists and happens at the right point in the third act. Lizzy’s recognition of pride as her fatal flaw allows her to overcome it and find true happiness with Mr. Darcy. And her choosing him for a husband reflects the catalyst (her determination when she first met him to have nothing to do with him). This is something to keep in mind if you’re writing the kind of story that calls for a low-key resolution. A quiet climax can work as long as it does what it’s supposed to do.As you can see, the climax is important, both for your characters and readers. And the necessary elements for this moment can be applied to all kinds of stories, giving you a blueprint for success when writing this vital scene.

by BECCA PUGLISI

Source: writershelpingwriters.net

Visit us at First Edition Design Publishing

Writing Flawed Characters Who Don’t Turn Readers Off

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No one in the real world is perfect, and so characters shouldn’t be either. To seem as real as you or me, they should have flaws and strengths, and these sides of their personality should line up with who they are, how they were raised, and reflect the experiences they’ve had to date, good and bad.

While we develop our characters, however, we need to remember that flaws come with a tipping point. If we write someone with an overabundance of negative traits and behaviors that are a turnoff, the character will slide into unlikable territory. And yes, if the goal is to make a villain, antagonist, or other character loathsome, that’s fine–mission accomplished. But if we want readers to be on their side, too much surliness, negativity, secretiveness, or propensity for overblown reactions can cause a reader to disconnect.

Like a joke taken too far, it’s hard to claw an audience back once they’ve formed negative judgments, which is why we want to be careful and deliberate when showing our character’s negative side. Antiheroes tend to wear flaws more openly and can be semi-antagonistic as they battle the world’s constraints, so this line of likability is something to pay close attention to if we want readers to ultimately side with them. Here are some tips to help you.

How to Write Flawed Characters
& Not Turn Readers Off

Show A Glimmer: no matter how impatient, uptight, or spoiled your character is, hint there’s more beneath the surface. A small action or internal observation can show the character in a positive light, especially when delivered in their first scene (frequently referred to as a Save the Cat moment.) It can be a positive quality, like a sense of humor, or a simple act that shows something redeeming about the character.

Imagine a man yelling at the old ladies crowding the hallway outside his apartment door as they pick up their friend Mabel for bingo, and then seeing him swear and fume at the chuggy elevator for making him late. Not the nicest guy, is he? But when Mr. Suit and Tie gets to his car outside, he stops to dig out a Ziploc bag of cat food and carefully roll down the edges into a makeshift bowl.

What? Here the guy seemed like an impatient jerk, but we discover part of his morning routine is to feed the local stray cat! Maybe he isn’t so bad after all. (Talk about a literal interpretation of “saving the cat.”)

Use POV Narrative for Insight: characters are flawed for a reason, namely negative experiences (wounds) which create flaws as an “emotional countermeasure.” Imagine a hero who stutters, and he was teased about it growing up. Even his parents encouraged him to “be seen and not heard” when they hosted parties and special events. Because of the emotional trauma (shame and anger) at being treated badly, he’s now uncommunicative and unfriendly as an adult. This type of backstory can be dribbled into narrative with care, as long as it’s active, has bearing on the current action, and is brief as to not slow the pace.

Create Big Obstacles: the goal is to create empathy as soon as possible, and one of the ways to do that is to show what the character is up against. If your character has a rough road ahead, the reader will make allowances for behavior, provide they don’t wallow and whine overmuch. After all, it isn’t hardship that creates empathy…it’s how a character behaves despite their hardship as that gives readers a window into who they really are.

Form a Balance: No character is all good or all bad. Give them a mix of positive traits (attributes) and negative traits (flaws) so they feel realistic, and ensure their negative traits contain a learning curve. For example, their negative traits may be good at keeping people and uncomfortable situations at a distance in the past, but in your story, they won’t help your character get what they want. Your character will have to see this for themselves, and it’ll only happen when that flawed behavior and way of thinking leads to poor judgment, mistakes, relationship friction, and other problems, the poor sap.

Eventually the character will see that they need to change up their behavioral playlist if they want to succeed, and this means letting go of the bad and embracing the good, opening their mind to a new way of thinking, behaving, and being. This is where their positives get to shine, so lay the foundation with qualities that may start in the background, but come forward and show them to be rounded, likable, and unique.

Of Special Concern:
Your Story’s Baddies

It’s easy to give an antagonist flaws because your intent is to make readers dislike them, but even here, caution is needed. Hopelessly flawed antagonists make shallow characters and unworthy opponents, so we want to also give them strengths (like intelligence, meticulousness, dedication, and discipline, for example) to make them formidable and hard to beat.

This forces your protagonist to work their hardest, and in a match up, nothing is guaranteed. Being uncertain about the outcome of these story moments is what will hold the reader’s attention to the very end.

by ANGELA ACKERMAN

Source: writershelpingwriters.net

Visit us at First Edition Design Publishing

Three Ways to Make Readers Care About Secondary Characters

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A common mistake I see in client manuscripts is a cast of secondary characters that simply exist to help or to outright block the protagonist. They’re either ready, willing, and able to drop everything to help that protagonist reach their own goal. Or they’re a character who is out to make the protagonist’s life hard for no logical reason.

Let’s face it. That’s not how real life works, as everyone has wants and needs of their own. Fictional secondary characters are no different. Their relationship with your protagonist should work like sandpaper, revealing internal growth your protagonist needs, or revealing their commitment to reaching their external goal. If we craft our secondary characters well, they should create a tug-of-war inside the reader. Readers should empathize with each secondary character’s inner motivation and struggle with who to primarily cheer for. This applies to antagonists every bit as much as it does to an ally. Conjuring empathy for each and every secondary character makes those characters more engaging, and it forces you as the writer to create the most compelling protagonist possible. Your protagonist’s desire to reach a particular goal fueled by unmet inner need will have to work that much harder to earn that top spot in reader’s hearts because you’ll have crafted compelling contenders, vying for that spot.

Let’s talk about three ways to achieve this…

They Must Have Their Own Inner Desire/External Goal

It helps to look at any given scene from the perspective of every secondary character you’ve included. If those characters are only on the page to help your protagonist achieve/block their goal, then it’s a missed opportunity. Secondary characters should consistently add tension to scenes—tension that grows your protagonist internally or externally. It’s far more interesting when we get a sense for what other characters want in a scene because we can gauge how that may help or harm what the protagonist wants.

Even if your secondary character is supporting your protagonist and aiming to reach the same external goal, their inner motivation shouldn’t be the same as any other character. What’s motivating each of your secondary characters? Does their motivation conjure empathy in the reader, even if we don’t support that end or we still cheer for the protagonist more? What’s the logic or backstory behind that secondary character’s motivation? Does your protagonist wrestle with the way even an antagonist presents logical motivation to them? Does your protagonist struggle seeing what their allies are giving up in order to support the protagonist’s end?

Tip: A secondary character cannot help or rescue your character without your character losing something they value.

The Secondary Character Must Challenge Your Protagonist in Some External And/Or Internal Way

If your secondary character is an ally or a romantic interest of your protagonist, we might not expect that they’re working like an antagonist, trying to thwart the protagonist’s success. Still, even allies and love interests should be working to grow the protagonist.

*Is that secondary character working like a mirror the protagonist doesn’t want to see themselves in?

*Are they asking hard questions about the protagonist’s hidden fears or motivations?

*Is the secondary character someone the protagonist wants to be like but they’re not ready or unable to accept that they’re never going to be that way?

*Are they asking more from your protagonist than the protagonist is ready to give?

*What does retaining that ally or love interest cost your protagonist?

*How does having that character’s help or support complicate things?

*Are they forcing your protagonist to look at backstory events from a different perspective?

*Forcing the protagonist to empathize with the motivation of any given antagonist?

Tip: The answers to these questions should not be the same for any two secondary characters. Each secondary character must challenge the protagonist differently in order to earn their keep.

Their Dialogue Can’t Solely Exist to Teach Your Character (And Reader) About The Story World

We’ve all heard it. Secondary characters saying things like, “As you know,” or sitting your character down to hand them the handbook on your story world. As much as possible, the dialogue and even the actions of your secondary characters should convey intent and a hint of their own inner world. The problem with dialogue that carries worldbuilding or stark plot-based information is that it oftentimes fails to reveal more to us about your protagonist or that secondary character. Worse yet, it leaves almost no room for the protagonist to respond with dialogue that conveys their own intent or emotion. Unless your protagonist has approached a secondary character with a very specific question that requires an answer containing information, try to think of secondary character dialogue as an opportunity to reveal their intent and emotion as much as possible. To challenge your protagonist.

Tip: Study every line of dialogue to see if you can attach an emotional “label” to it. You should be able to read the line and sense some primary emotional current running through the content. Anger, avoidance, relief, elation, etc. Emotions that are almost always red flags for weak dialogue are characters expressing awe or curiosity. Lines like, “Wow!” or, “What is that?” Those types of lines simply exist to set the other character up to talk at the other character/us more. If the line of dialogue doesn’t leave space for a response of some sort, then you know it’s not reaching its potential for adding tension.

What aspects of secondary character creation do you struggle with most? Do you find secondary characters easier to craft since the pressure isn’t as direct as it may be in crafting the protagonist? When you develop secondary characters, how do you bring them to life effectively?

Happy writing!

by MARISSA GRAFF

Source: writershelpingwriters.net

Visit us at First Edition Design Publishing