Writing Major and Minor Characters

This week we talked about the importance of not only developing your major characters, but making sure that your minor characters are compelling even when they have a minimal role.

How do authors do this well? Well let's take a look at JK Rowling, who has hundreds of minor characters and yet somehow we remember every single one of them. Not only do each of them have a distinct voice and appearance, she also only introduces them as they become necessary to the plot. For example, she doesn't just list of the names of each of the professor's at Hogwarts and expect us to remember them. Rather, we're introduced to Snape and McGonnaGall and Quirrell as Harry progresses through the school year and his classes, and we learn more about their personalities as Harry learns more about them.

However while it is important to at least acknowledge the existence of each of your minor characters, they don't need to be as fleshed out as the main character. We don't need to spend a page talking about characters that have little relevance to the plot. The amount of detail a character gets should reflect on how necessary they are.

Major Characters: When it comes to developing your main character there are two important parts to every single one of them; they all have to want something and they all have to have character flaws. Every character wants something, rather it's to marry the prince, become famous, carry the Ring to Mordor, or defeat the evil wizard. You get the gist. And no one is interested in perfect characters either. Character flaws make it so the reader can relate to your story.

Stereotypes: Avoid these like the plague--well mostly. There are some stereotypes that can be helpful, especially when you're writing from the point of view of the opposite gender. While it's true that guys are less emotional and girls more so (most of the time anyway)--don't make either of these points the defining trait of your character. When writing books with female characters there is a system known as the Beckdale Test: which basically states that does your work contain two or more girls, and do they talk about something other than boys?

Here are some older posts on the site that also talk about character development:

http://ypublish.blogspot.com/2013/07/characters-realistic-exciting.html

http://ypublish.blogspot.com/2013/03/developing-characters.html

Here are also some good questions for you to ask yourself about your main character. Once you've done that trying having your character "write" a letter to you the way you think they would, and then write one back. It's a great way to get to know their voice.

What/Who/Where is your character's...?

Name: 

Nickname:

Occupation:

Food Dislikes:

School:

Hair.Eyes/Height:

Personality:

Shoes:

Wants to:

Weapons:

Obstacles:

BF/GF:

Home:

Love:

First Kiss:

Age:

Religion:

Precision Editing Group - Free Critique!!

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know about a great opportunity to get feedback on your work. Precision Editing is offering free critique from a 10 page submission (No children's books). They're accepting your first ten pages of novels, etc.

You can submit your first ten pages of work to: editor@precisioneditinggroup.com.
This is a very generous offer, and we want to thank them. If you submit, remember to be very grateful for their time and feedback!

Great Site for YA writers and readers

Just stumbled upon Cynthia Leitich Smith's website, and it looks loaded with information and commentary on writing...Check it out!

http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2014/05/audio-actors-interview-giveaway-todd.html?spref=tw

Go Where the Pain & Pleasure Is

I found this video today and I think she gives good advice.

Go to the Pain - think back to the painful experiences you've had, and write from there.

Go to the Pleasure - she says to write what YOU enjoy, write what you want.

She talks about publishing and it's a bit more encouraging than talks on publishing are sometimes. I'm not a hundred percent sure about self-publishing - that's a choice for us all individually - but check out her video and see what you think.

Welcome Zina Petersen to YPublish!

Zina Petersen is our new faculty advisor for the club! We are so happy to have her, and excited to learn from her experience. She shared some websites that might be interesting to take a look at - including blogs from authors and editors.

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

http://jscottsavage.blogspot.com/

http://www.ulfelder.com/category/blog/

http://www.garycorby.com/

http://jeffreysomers.com/blather/

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

http://absolutewrite.com/

We also discussed possible connections with Gibbs Smith publishing, and we hope you all will consider querying Gibbs Smith in the future. :)

http://www.gibbs-smith.com/

Plot

Three parts of plot:
SETTING (how the plot is at the beginning)
Tensions in the world before the conflict emerges
i.e. Hunger games - Katniss, in district 12, they're starving and she's sneaking out to go hunt
Level 3. Bystander to fight (and later gets involved in the fight) - more rare (The Matrix - humans against the machines, there's a fight
(The Host - she's a bystander, then get's pulled into the fight/conflict)
Level 2. There's a fight in progress, but it is NOT the same as the conflict.
(i.e. Hunger games - the fight is can they stay alive in district 12 - not the fight/conflict of the actual Hunger Games)
Level 1. No fight (i.e. Monster's Inc, The Hobbit)

CONFLICT
The main conflict in the story
i.e. The Hunger Games, fighting to stay alive
Level 3. Loyalty & Law - Choose between loyalties/laws they are familiar with and something else - element of choice and sides.
(i.e. How to Train your Dragon, Monster's Inc)
Level 2. (Most common) Focused fight - physical or internal, but they are actively fighting. This entails both sides fighting - the people have a chance, and have some control.
Level 1. Perceptual - there isn't a physical conflict - there could be perceptual danger, or
the main character doesn't have much control - they are acted upon. This is harder to do for full length stories. Class struggles can be a type of perceptual struggle.
Oliver Twist, Ever After?

RESOLUTION
i.e. Katniss and Peeta both managed to get out alive

Level 3. (Most common) Defeat using Clever use of Law - (i.e. Harry Potter defeats Voldemort destroying the Horcruxes and using the hallows
Monster's Inc defeats him by using the simulator - using something that's been established earlier. Hunger Games - Katniss decides they should eat the berries. The law is that the games have to have a winner, so taking away a winner means the Capital fails, so she uses that to beat the Capital/games)
Level 2. Physical Defeat - (Can be satisfying but aren't as mainstream now) The team wins, the Hobbit
Level 1. Perception unified but unsolved. These don't work as well with longer stories, but work fine with shorter stories. (i.e. Godzilla - in some versions, goes back into the ocean and he's gone. 1984 - the government finally braks his mind and he knows they're going to kill him eventually, and the book ends with him knowing that but not actually dying.)

The Rule: You should NOT let your plot drop lower. If you're story is a 2-2 ____ you can't end the resolution with a 1.
1-2-3 is okay, 3-2-1 is not. The only way to have a good resolution ending at a level 1 (Perception unified) is if you have your setting and conflict stages be 1 also (1-1-1 works, 2-2-1 doesn't).

Some examples:
Monster's Inc - the conflict begins by a physical conflict of kicking them out (2) but escalates to a 3 when they have to choose loyalties.

Aladdin - setting 2 (starts with his own fight for survival on the street), conflict is 2 (focused fight), resolution 3 (Aladdin uses the rule of genies against Jafar and defeated Jafar)

Twilight - setting 1 (no fight), conflict is 1 (she doesn't have any control over things) or 2 (focused fight - his blood lust for her, her resistance/choices), and resolution 2 - physical win over the other vampire.


The Atonement / Fall Story: 1-2-3

Endings in a Series:
The plot of the first book should come to resolution. I.e. there's resolution to the main conflict for the first book. And the plot over the series is to defeat the main bad guy - THAT is not the main conflict of the book, so they can resolve/solve the fight (and have a good resolution of 2 or 3) and then the main bad guy getting away doesn't defeat the resolution of the first book.

Link to the Class website that Kim is in - thanks so much to Kim for this mini lesson!!
http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/elang410am/fictionedit.html

Tips from Brandon Mull

Thanks to Mossy for the notes on Brandon Mull's lecture here at BYU this month.

**Day Dreaming & Imagination**

We've all heard that all the stories have been told, that there's nothing new.
Solution? Remix it like a dj.

Take old concepts (i.e. journey to go get an apple from the garden) and put a twist. Remix, recycle, reuse old material adapted to new forms. So it's not really new, but it's new to the readers.

Voice: Every writer has a voice unique to them.

Critique from others: Think about it, don't dismiss it right off, take some of what people say. Sometimes his editor would suggest huge changes, but thinking about things for a few days might make you realize it's a fabulous suggestion that really improves your book.

Write what you love, what you want to read, and what you think is awesome. You should put your all into it. Optimal area for action - it's probably what you know best.