Creating Convincing Characters

The Baldwin Project: Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin

2007-10-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

The Baldwin Project: Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin

King Canute on the Sea Shore

Plagiarism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2007-10-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Plagiarism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation).
Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiare, "to kidnap") is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement.

Unlike cases of forgery, in which the authenticity of the writing, document, or some other kind of object, itself is in question, plagiarism is concerned with the issue of false attribution.

Plagiarism can also occur unconsciously; in some cultures certain forms of plagiarism are accepted because the concept can be interpreted differently.

What is a Short Story?

2007-04-21T15:47:00.000-07:00

Marion Zimmer Bradley
(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley

When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living writing for and selling to these markets, but it is necessary to learn a few simple rules.

These rules can be broken, and they are broken all the time in commercial fiction, but only by writers who know them so thoroughly that they know exactly how and why to substitute equivalent elements for the mandatory -- yes, I said mandatory -- elements which the editor needs to have in every story she buys.

Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money.

Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes.

They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.The average reader, however, does not read for literary reasons. The average reader does not know that literary reasons exist.

The average reader -- this cannot be overemphasized if you wish to make a living at writing fiction -- reads to be entertained. And the kind of thing the reader wants has been carefully studied and seems not to have varied much since the Odyssey, the first novel in existence, three thousand years ago or so, which told how a hero struggled through many dangers to get home to his wife and family and run off the bad guys who had moved in on his preserve.

So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY
Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:

1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to be able to identity with the way in which your main character, your protagonist, solves his or her problem. (There is a variation of this plot, in which an Absolute Bastard Gets What is Coming to Him, and the reader enjoys watching him come to grief; but this isn't for beginners.)

2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe they are sufficiently insuperable. If your hero/ine goes out to fight a bear, it must not turn out to be a teeny-tiny bear cub he could put in his pocket and take home for a pet. The reader must have a REAL PROBLEM. A FAKE PROBLEM is also known as a "paper tiger."

3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by his Fairy Godmother, the God in the Machine, or the US Cavalry coming over the hill at the last moment. This deprives the reader of a chance to sweat, struggle, cry over, empathize, suffer with, and otherwise feel the strength of the character as he fights to win out over heavy odds.

4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that Our Hero will win the ball game, the girl, the war. A subset of this is what is called the "idiot plot" -- the plot can keep going only because everybody is acting like an idiot. This is the story where all the problems could be solved by asking a simple question. "Why were you kissing that man?" "Because he is my favorite uncle." End of romantic agonies. This is also the story where the girl does not tell the police what she knows because she jumps to the conclusion that her lover is the murderer.

5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as worthwhile. Cosmopolitan readers, for instance, would probably not be willing to weep and suffer over a housewife who would steal, lie, and cheat to get new cushions for the sofa. It is getting harder and harder (in these days of feminism) for romance writers to convince their mostly-female audience that a woman would suffer all kinds of humiliations for a man because he happens to be rich, handsome, and "romantic". On the other hand, your goal can be just too cosmic: John Wayne winning World War II all by himself, or Captain Kirk saving the Galaxy single-handed.

STARTING YOUR STORY
In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:

WHO is your main character? Male? Female? A rabbit or a robot, a king or a slave, a macho hero or a wimp, a sensuous siren or a tough Amazon?

WHERE is this happening? We must know whether we are in the dungeons of the Inquisition, near the canals of Mars, cruising the jungles of the Upper Amazon or the deserts of the lower Nile, in the Frozen North or the Golden West or the locker room of the local high school, backstage at the Metropolitan Opera, or in a dugout with the Yankees.

WHEN does this take place? This is especially important in the science fiction or fantasy novel, but it is also relevant to historicals, Gothics, westerns... everything, perhaps, but ordinary boy-meets-girl romance. In order to create the scenery of the story in his or her head, the reader must know almost at once whether this is today, the day after tomorrow, pre-history, the days of King Arthur or the French Revolution, fifty years ago, or "long, long ago in a Galaxy far far away...."

WHAT kind of story is this? The first page, or paragraph, of a Gothic differs enormously from the beginning of a Western, and neither could be mistaken for the first page of a romance, a fantasy, or a sword-and-sorcery adventure, all of which differ greatly from a story of hard science and technology or from a children's book. You should also establish the feel, or mood, of your story, so that the reader knows at once whether this is a funny, flip satire or a serious romance, whether it is farcical, melancholy, or tragic.Most readers know exactly what they want to read, and they expect a certain kind of story when they buy a certain kind of magazine.
The readers of Analog would be very angry if they found a sword-and-sorcery tale in their magazine, and while Ellery Queen's Mystery prints science fiction maybe once a year, that sf story has to be an sf detective story. When a reader buys a magazine, he has a very clear expectation of the kind of story he wants to read, and if he doesn't get it, he stops buying the magazine; and if the editor doesn't deliver it, the editor is out of a job. If your reader is bored or disappointed by your first page -- or paragraph -- nothing on earth will induce him to turn the page and read the second. And if the editor is bored or disappointed with page one, no reader of that magazine will ever see the story.

SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY
Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements. They seem so obvious it is hard to understand why many amateur writers never bother to think about them, far less to check them. Yet I get several manuscripts every day in which the writer pays no attention to these simple things.

So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against almost insuperable odds, solving his/her problem by personal effort, winning a worthwhile goal and being changed, preferably for the better, by the experience.

Remember that the editor needs good stories. If she can't find them and print them and deliver them to her public, she is back pounding pavements looking for another job. Ask yourself:

WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character? Can the reader identify, will the reader WANT to identify, with that particular character and his/her problems?
HOW can you best tell this person's story? First person? Third person? Omnipotent observer? Is the story funny, tragic, thoughtful, slapstick?
Where do you START your story? It is seldom right to start when the main character is born. At what point in his or her life is the protagonist facing this critical experience about which you have chosen to write, and why is it important? In general, you should get right into the action. Stories which begin with three pages of description of the weather usually lose the editor after about a page. SHOW, don't TELL, is a good motto.
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants a story which concludes "Now, the moral of this story is..."; but in general, what was your story ABOUT? What was the POINT of the story? Analyze to yourself three or four stories that you liked, and ask yourself why you liked them; what made you finish them instead of putting them down half finished and wandering away? What was the author saying? Was the story worth reading? Why or why not?

IN CONCLUSION
Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.

Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. She wants to find good stories, and she wants to deliver them to her public, but it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to keep her wanting to turn those pages, wanting to find out what happens next. If she makes it that far, even if she can't buy this particular story, she'll remember your name, and next time you have something that meets her needs, you'll probably make a sale.

If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, reach for a printed form, and put it on the pile for her secretary to reject. There are always more stories waiting. If she is bored with your story, she knows her readers will probably be bored too. It's her job to know what her readers want, and to deliver it to them, so they will keep coming back to her magazine for the kind of entertainment they paid their beer or movie money for.And this, guys, is where we came in.

-- Marion Zimmer Bradley
Back to Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust home page

Outlets and opportunities for Writers

2007-03-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

The Soho Theatre & Writers Centre, the Bush, The Royal Court and The National Theatre, all have proactive Literary Departments and accept unsolicited work.

Ray Bradbury: exclusive video interview

2007-03-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

an exclusive video interview with Ray Bradbury, taken at his home in Los Angeles in 2001.
There are a dozen or so clips, each a couple of minutes long, and the range is fantastic!

He holds the record for the most rejections from the New Yorker magazine!

Any one who likes stories, on the page, the big or little screen, reading, watching, creating ... should find this a fascinating experience; like reading his books or watching his films.

Dandelion Wine Reviews

2007-03-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Having just read a bunch of reviews, I feel the strongest urge to reread the book, but have to search for my copy, which I probably lent to some one! I guess I'll buy another, maybe to make it an annual reading filtered through my own maturity and distance from the first reading.

Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. DANDELION WINE stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small town summer in 1928.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon.

It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.

Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.

Here are a few reviews to give you a flavour....

Reviewer:
Ellie Reasoner This book is Bradbury in top form. Although not my absolute favorite title by this author, I have found a lot of joy over the years in re-reading this little book that I first picked up off a school library shelf when I was eight. It's obvious Bradbury was writing a story set in the time and place of his own childhood "as it should have been" and it makes me wonder if given time I'll think back on my own youth in similar terms. When I was little, after I read this book, all anyone had to do was say, "Watch out for Lonely One" referring to the killer who stalked Green Town's ravine at night and I was good and scared. Heck, that probably works today, too. From its unique May-December romance to its protagonist who becomes that one soul in a million to truly understand that precious gift of what it means to be alive, Dandelion Wine is simply wonderful. Read this book and travel back with the national treasure who is Ray Bradbury to the delightful world of the fantasy-powered Midwest of the 1920's (as it should have been).

Reviewer:
Jeanette Thomas "book geek" I first read Ray Bradbury's miracle of a book, Dandelion Wine, when I was 16, and I have read it every year since. Over time I continue to gain a deeper appreciation for these lovely, strange, often magical vignettes (more properly parables, each one with a little implied moral) that explore the nature of happiness, the magic of love and, above all, what it means to be alive. To me, the overarching intent of the book is to remind all us adults that:

Being alive means maintaining a balance between Discoveries & Revelations and Ceremonies & Rites. Though the latter are important, binding us to our family & our community, our future & our past, it is Discoveries & Revelations that make us think, experience, change, and grow.
Being alive means living in the present. Even if this means giving away the tokens of a beloved past, as happens in one particularly poignant tale.
Being alive means being connected with the world - with family, neighbors, your community, the earth. It's no coincidence that the mysterious murderer haunting Douglas Spaulding's Childhood is called The Lonely One.
Being alive means being able to experience happiness ... not only understanding the nature of happiness, but possessing the wisdom not to let yourself be tricked into pursuing something that can't/won't make you happy.
Being alive means recognizing the presence of magic in our everyday lives. Because magic is out there ... in the spring of a new pair of tennis shoes, in the mysteries of love, in the essence of Dandelion Wine.

Contrary to popular opinion, I do not believe Bradbury intended this to be a book about childhood. In fact, his 12yr old narrator, Douglas Spaulding, does not appear in many of the parables. I do think that Bradbury intentionally chose a child as his narrator, however, because children are inherently alive -- always discovering, always filled with wonder, connected to their family and the world and the present in ways that we begin gradually to forget as adults.

Dandelion Wine is both nostalgia and a cautionary tale, challenging us to remember what it felt like to be alive and reminding us adults that - unless we take care - we may become so consumed by life that we forget to be alive. As far as I am concerned, this book is a little bit of magic in and of itself: part essence of childhood, part elixir of wisdom. Believe and partake!

Reviewer:
Modest Witness Its protagonist may be a child, but this novel is not really suitable for a thrill-seeking, modern juvenile audience. Dandelion Wine is an exquisitely realised contemplation of life and mortality, but its themes are both too subtle and too layered for a young reader. That's fine, really. This is a novel to be anticipated and appreciated as the reader matures. As I grow older, and with each subsequent reading, I discover a deeper melancholy and richer ironies inthe text - so that rereading this book has become a special summer ritual for me.

and here's someone who less than enchanted!

Reviewer:
J. W. Bennett "waxy_one" I'm a new fan of Bradbury. I love the incomparable Something Wicked This Way Comes and a whole heap of his short stories, The Illustrated Man and Golden Apples of the Sun to name my favourites so far. I came to Dandelion Wine expecting to be mesmerised, but sadly, I just found the book was too easy to put down and rather hard to pick up again. There are some great ideas and interesting imagery, but the whole lacks a narrative thread to entice more thrill-seeking readers, and in the end, after four of five chapters, I just found the whole thing a little...well, dated. In no way should this put people off Ray Bradbury. Those seeking a semi-romance about the state of childhood could do worse than to read Dandelion Wine. For me though, I much prefer his fantastical and dark works, and in the end, Dandelion Wine became too sweet and cloying for my tastes.

What is a Short Story

2007-03-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

Short Story?
From Marion Zimmer Bradley

The following extracts(c) copyright 1996 by Marion Zimmer Bradley, are from an excellent article that goes into much greater detail.
I want these snippets to give you a taste, an overview that will sharpen your appetite to read the whole item, which offers advice related to almost any genre of creative writing!

Marion Zimmer Bradley says:

When I speak of a short story, I am referring to the commercial or category short story, not the New Yorker or "literary" short story. I am dealing with the techniques for writing and selling what is known as commercial fiction. I have long contended that anyone who can write a literate English sentence can learn to write and can make a modest living ...

Virtually all category fiction -- whether science fiction, romance, suspense, fantasy, adventure, western or any other category -- follows a similar outline which for convenience is known as a formula. This word has acquired very negative connotations, but basically it is a simple summing up of what experience has told editors that the readers appear to want in fiction. Writers who master this formula by giving the editor what his readers want can make a modest living anywhere, and some of them make amazing amounts of money. Writers who ignore this formula, either out of ignorance, or because they honestly believe that creative writing must not be bound by the demands of category or formula, usually end up as starving artists -- unless they are geniuses, in which case they would not need writing technique classes. They call their work literature, and rage against the public which does not recognize literary forms.

So let us examine the elements of commercial fiction.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY

Most short stories work on some variation of the following (so do most novels, but the novel works at a different speed):

A LIKABLE CHARACTER overcomes ALMOST INSUPERABLE ODDS and BY HIS OR HER OWN EFFORTS achieves a WORTHWHILE GOAL.

Amateur stories, in general, are unsalable because:

1. The main character is NOT LIKABLE ENOUGH. Your reader wants to

2. The odds are NOT INSUPERABLE ENOUGH, or the reader does not believe

3. The main character DOES NOT SOLVE HIS PROBLEM BY HIS OWN EFFORTS. The problem is solved FOR the character by

4. The RESOLUTION is too predictable, too pat; the reader knows all along that

5. The GOAL is not worthwhile enough, or this particular audience does not see it as

STARTING YOUR STORY

In the first couple of paragraphs -- certainly on the first page, unless your story is approaching novel length -- the reader will want to know the following things:

WHO is your main character?

WHERE is this happening?

WHEN does this take place?

WHAT kind of story is this?

SELF CRITICISM: HOW TO ANALYZE YOUR STORY

Most of the elements of the short story (as well as the novelette or novel) come down to these simple elements.

So as you analyze your story, remember your likable character up against

WHAT KIND OF PERSON is your main character?

HOW can you best tell this person's story?

Where do you START your story?

WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? Nobody, these days, wants

IN CONCLUSION

Most sales are lost either on the first page, where the editor simply cannot get interested enough in your story to continue reading, or on the last page, where the editor is not satisfied with the solution; the resolution is not tight enough, believable enough, or interesting enough.

Remember one thing: It is not the editor's job to try to get interested in your manuscript. ...it's still your job to get her (or him) interested in the story you are telling, to keep the editor turning those pages until she comes to the end; you have to
.

If the editor gets bored, nothing is easier than to stop reading, ... There are always more stories waiting.

And this, guys, is where we came in.

A separate peace: John Knowles

2007-03-11T00:56:00.000-08:00

The following is from NovelGuide (details at end)

As with most novels, it is best to begin a discussion of thematics by examining the title. The phrase, "a separate peace," is mentioned once in the novel when, speaking of the Winter Carnival, Gene writes: "it was this liberation we had torn from the gray encroachments of 1943, the escape we had concocted, this afternoon of momentary, illusory, special and separate peace" (128). The Devon of 1942 and 1943 is, at times, a haven of peace and forgetfulness for Gene and his classmates. And it is significant that it is termed a "separate peace" because it indicates that the peace achieved is not part of the surrounding reality, which, for Gene, is a world of conflict, a world at war. The joy that the older Gene remembers upon re-visiting Devon is due to such momentary periods of complete freedom achieved during the summer of 1942 and the following schoolyear, moments when a sixteen year-old could live without conflict or rules, and forget about the encroaching reality of a world war.

The novel is about a young man's struggle to achieve and maintain such a separate peace. And although the setting is in an America in the midst of war, the focus of the novel is internal. For the majority of the plot, the distant war is an illusion for the students in Gene's class, and for the reader, the war becomes the biggest metaphor of the novel: a metaphor for the internal conflict of a sixteen-year old boy. Gene's soul becomes a battleground where jealousy, fear, love, and hatred combat for control of his actions. And amidst the turmoil of adolescence, it is the victory of the dark forces of human nature that make Gene realize that each person is alone with his enemy, that the only significant wars are not made by external causes, but "by something ignorant in the human heart" (193). Thus, Finny's fantastic assertion that World War II is an illusion maintains a certain truth in light the real war that occurs in the story.

The novel's conflict arises out of Gene's refusal to recognize his own feelings of jealousy and insecurity as the real enemy. Instead, his fears are projected onto his closest companion, Phineas, whom Gene suspects of possessing his own feelings of envy and self-loathing. With Finny as the enemy, Gene is plunged into a world of competition and hatred, where the only crucial elements worth preserving are his own survival and superiority. Ultimately, this act of self-deception drives Gene to malicious thoughts and behavior, destroying any feelings of affection and friendship he might have once had for Finny. Upon realizing his mistake and discovering that Phineas does not share Gene's envy and hatred, Gene's isolation and self-loathing deepen and he intentionally cripples the one person who wants to be his friend. As Gene writes, World War II is not the real scene of battle: "I was on active duty all my time at school: I killed my enemy there" (196).

Knowles documents what happens when adolescence confronts manhood and the fears that develop when change becomes a reality. Gene, Brinker, and Leper all become casualties of this change by convincing themselves that the enemy, the cause of their fears, lies outside of themselves. Phineas is the one shining example to contrast the self-deception of his classmates, for Finny does not see the enemy in the people around him. Indeed, Finny does not see the enemy at all. He embodies the peace that Gene tries to achieve, his physical grace a reflection of the harmony within himself. Gene perceives in Phineas the harmony that he yearns for but cannot attain. Because of Gene's own insecurity, a reciprocal and non-competitive friendship becomes impossible. For though the two need each other and are often described by Gene as extensions of each other, the balance is unequal: Finny needs Gene as a companion and a friend, someone with whom to share in the challenges of growing up and facing the reality of adulthood; but Gene's need is a born out of jealousy, he covets Phineas for the harmony and confidence that he himself does not have. And so rather than share in the friendship that Finny offers, Gene destroys the peace that he was unable to find in himself.

Phineas is the novel's greatest casualty. He becomes a metaphor for the peace that is lost when Gene is too afraid to identify the enemy within himself. For indeed, Finny's harmony is damaged after his fall from the tree. He is forced to confront the overwhelming challenge of being crippled for life, and, most importantly, the horrifying realization that the person he thought was his friend is responsible for his injury. The task, it seems, is too great even for Phineas, who dies because of the hatred and insecurity around him. The peace and friendship that Gene lost, the peace that is Finny, becomes for Gene so internalized that he no longer perceives Finny as separate from himself, evidenced by his feeling that Finny's funeral is his own.

NovelGuide ( is the premier free source for literary analysis on the web. We provide an educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary Literature Profiles, Metaphor Analysis, Theme Analyses, and Author Biographies.

Dandelion Wine - another sip!

2007-01-14T15:03:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia has an excellent page with plenty of info:

Background and origins
As Bradbury writes in "Just This Side of Byzantium," a 1974 essay used as an introduction to the book, Dandelion Wine is a recreation of a boy's childhood, based upon an intertwining of Bradbury's actual experiences and his unique imagination.
Farewell Summer, the official sequel to Dandelion Wine, was published in October of 2006. While Farewell Summer is a direct continuation of the plot of Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, a novel with a completely different plot and characters, is often paired with the latter because of their stylistic and thematic similarities. Together, the three novels form a Green Town trilogy.

R Bradbury's Books

Plot summary
Dandelion Wine is a series of short stories loosely connected to summer occurrences, with Douglas and his family as recurring characters. Many of the chapters were first published as individual short stories, the earliest being The Night (1946), with the remainder appearing between 1950 and 1957. For chapters who began as short stories, their original titles are given in parentheses below.

Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury Chapter One

2007-01-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

Having read this for the first time, decades ago, I've read it many times since.

Twenty minutes ago, I discovered that it was a semi-autobiographical novel.
Had I not been so 'in to' science fiction, I doubt I would ever have picked it up.
It is an enchanting read, full of whimsey and wonder ... there are some reviews in my other blog.

Extract from chapter one

Chapter One

It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer.

Douglas Spaulding, twelve, freshly wakened, let summer idle him on its early-morning stream. Lying in his third-story cupola bedroom, he felt the tall power it gave him, riding high in the June wind, the grandest tower in town. At night, when the trees washed together, he flashed his gaze like a beacon from this lighthouse in all directions over swarming seas of elm and oak and maple. Now . . .

"Boy," whispered Douglas.

A whole summer ahead to cross off the calendar, day by day. Like the goddess Siva in the travel books, he saw his hands jump everywhere, pluck sour apples, peaches, and midnight plums. He would be clothed in trees and bushes and rivers. He would freeze, gladly, in the hoarfrosted icehouse door. He would bake, happily, with ten thousand chickens, in Grandma's kitchen.

But now-a familiar task awaited him.

One night each week he was allowed to leave his father, his mother, and his younger brother Tom asleep in their small house next door and run here, up the dark spiral stairs to his grandparents' cupola, and in this sorcerer's tower sleep with thunders and visions, to wake before the crystal jingle of milk bottles and perform his ritual magic.He stood at the open window in the dark, took a deep breath and exhaled.

The street lights, like candles on a black cake, went out. He exhaled again and again and the stars began to vanish.

Douglas smiled. He pointed a finger.

There, and there. Now over here, and here . . .

Yellow squares were cut in the dim morning earth as house lights winked slowly on. A sprinkle of windows came suddenly alight miles off in dawn country.

"Everyone yawn. Everyone up."

The great house stirred below.

"Grandpa, get your teeth from the water glass!" He waited a decent interval. "Grandma and Great-grandma, fry hot cakes!"

The warm scent of fried batter rose in the drafty halls to stir the boarders, the aunts, the uncles, the visiting cousins, in their rooms.

"Street where all the Old People live, wake up! Miss Helen Loomis, Colonel Freeleigh, Miss Bentley! Cough, get up, take pills, move around! Mr. Jonas, hitch up your horse, get your junk wagon out and around!"

The bleak mansions across the town ravine opened baleful dragon eyes. Soon, in the morning avenues below, two old women would glide their electric Green Machine, waving at all the dogs. "Mr. Tridden, run to the carbarn!" Soon, scattering hot blue sparks above it, the town trolley would sail the rivering brick streets.

"Ready John Huff, Charlie Woodman?" whispered Douglas to the Street of Children. "Ready!" to baseballssponged deep in wet lawns, to rope swings hung empty in trees.

"Mom, Dad, Tom, wake up."

Clock alarms tinkled faintly. The courthouse clock boomed. Birds leaped from trees like a net thrown by his hand, singing. Douglas, conducting an orchestra, pointed to the eastern sky.

The sun began to rise.

He folded his arms and smiled a magician's smile. Yes, sir, he thought, everyone jumps, everyone runs when I yell. It'll be a fine season.

He gave the town a last snap of his fingers.

Doors slammed open; people stepped out.

Summer 1928 began.

About This Blog!

2007-01-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

Creating Convincing Characters is an online community that I set up in 2000.
Initially, it was to promote and to back-up the TypeCasting workshops that I run from time to time.

I had hoped it would develop into a thriving community, buzzing with actively creative people who wanted to give and get feedback, share ideas, learn from each other, and so much more!

Well, it didn't work out that way, sadly. Who knows, though, perhaps this blog will help to bring new life the that group!

The reasons are many ... but that was then and this is now. Blogs, My-Space, YouTube and other wonder of the web have since appeared and evolved and, having been weaned on (if not quite weaned off) science fiction, I delight in all things high-tech. I don't understand most of them any more than I did as a boy, but I certainly benefit from them.

So, I decided to resuscitate and blog the CCC content, which includes articles, guidelines, links, frameworks for people who create fictional characters and want them to be full of life and conviction.

I have already revised and posted a few articles, which I hope you will find interesting and useful. You are invited to comment, question or contribute in any way you want.

And, of course, let people know about what you are doing, writing, reading, playing.

go well

MM
TypeCasting Workshops

S C R I P Ts

2007-01-14T09:39:00.000-08:00

Situation Challenges Resources Intelligence Plot Theme

NB: hir is intentional

I created the SCRIPT model as a framework for analysing the structure and the progress of a story (plot) and its relation to the transformational arc of the protagonist i.e. the story's main Character/s, the antagonist(s), key supporting characters and lesser characters who do more than merely make up the crowd.

SCRIPT can be useful for mapping out a story's structure or for exploring - and amending - any weaknesses during and after the actual writing, always with reference to the character/s development and transformation as the story unfolds.

The three act structure, like the Script model, provides another underlying framework, even if it invisible, that is not restricted to drama on stage or screen but useful for any of the venerable and ancient art of story-telling, ranging from sagas to short stories.

Both the three act structure and the SCRIPT model are intended to help the flow of your creativity. They can also work well as skeletons, frameworks or templates for giving and getting feedback on the material we offer up for other people's kind or cutting comments!

OK, let's expand on each item of the acronym:

Situation
The basic story outline; the environment - the time and the place - in which your Character/s act and interact. The external forces that impact on the Character/s and influence their decisions, which could be anything from the weather, the sea, the living room, the workplace, the bedroom, the mean streets of the naked city, or some fantasy future scape.
Do your Characters create or stumble across situations? Does everyone except the Protagonist know what's going on? Is the Protagonist the only one - as far s/he knows - in the know?
Is s/he losing hir way, or hir mind? Is s/he hoping to find her True Self, or merely waiting for Godot?
Is this the Last Action Hero or the End of Days? Much Ado about Nothing or Everything you ever Wanted to Know about Sax but were too Winded to Ask?

Challenges
What demons or devils will your Characters meet? Do angels or anxieties, temptresses or terrors visit in the wee small hours? Does seduction or sedition compel them to change the situation they are in? What secrets or lies will be disclosed, and what demands or deficits await to be discovered? And, of course, we will thrill as we join our key characters, rising to meet the challenges on their journeys of self discovery and personal evolution!

Resources
What can the Character/s call upon in an hour of need? Who will be on their side, offering support or sympathy? Who will proffer, or withhold, clues, connections or contact?
What skills, experiences or expertise, does your Protagonist already have or will need to call upon? What resources must s/he demand or develop? Is hir partner, hir bank manager, hir former best friend, hir worst enemy the one with just precisely what s/he needs?
Are there more inner resources than s/he realises or admits?

Intelligence
Smart Alec? Beautiful Bimbo? Cold and calculating or intuitively sympathetic? Intellectual? Emotionally authentic? Does s/he know how to deal with people, or is s/he out of touch with humanity?
Intelligence may be intellectual or emotional, spontaneous or calculating. Is your character depriving a village somewhere of an Idiot? Is Mensa keeping a space warm just in case? Is s/he one ball short of a tennis match, or is s/he a match for anyone s/he meets?

Plot
The story itself as it unfolds. This may conform to the 3-act structure, and can be related to the development of the (main) characters i.e the transformational arc of the protagonist.
Act 1 Let's call this the set-up stage. We know the situation, and we may have some idea of the challenges s/he (the protagonist - and the other characters, of courses) will face - clues and hints can be given. We may also know something of the way hir limited resources or intellect will impact on how s/he will or will not handle the challenges ahead.
Act 2, when s/he'd rather retreat to the relative comfort of ignorance or indifference portrayed in the set-up, our Character begins to discover, painfully, reluctantly, intriguingly - if we create interesting enough challenges - that s/he is more (or perhaps less) than s/he imagined. If we skilfully plot hir progress both in story terms and in personal evolution terms, and if the 3 Acts harmonise with the stages of hir personal development, our stories will have greater subtlety and substance, and our Characters will be more real and more rounded.
Act 3 we start to tie up loose ends. Cliffhangers from Acts 1 & 2 are resolved, although there will still be doubts, obstacles, threats, uncertainties. The Character/s discover that they are wiser, warmer, wittier than they imagined. One or other of them saves the world, or hir marriage, or hir dignity.
Our audience will, by this time, either like or dislike our creations. Whether they celebrate because s/he got hir due reward, or seethe because s/he didn't get her just desserts, they are more likely to remember them if we have given them substance as well as surface.
Such is life - and, after all, whose plot is it anyway?

Theme
Every story, real or created, can be made more compelling and convincing with a central theme. In real life, this theme can recognised as a form of 'currency.''
In some families, for example, the currency may be academic success, in others athletic prowess. Physical attraction, public acclaim, notoriety are themes / currencies than can be recognised in real life, as well as in fiction.

Some say there are only 7 basic plots, e.g. boy meets girl, loses girl, gets girl. Or, girl loses her way, finds her way, gets in the way, and so on.
Clarity about the your theme, will enable you to enrich and embellish the story by weaving the theme through various scenes and chapters.

Theme can also echo in snatches of dialogue, be reflected in vibrant images, hidden in subtle metaphors, emphasised by the dynamic tension between characters, and be reinforced in the connecting links between the '3 Acts.'

Remember, the 3-act structure is simply a scaffolding to support the elegant detail of your wonderful creations. It can also help in deciding where to put cliff-hanging moments (e.g. just before the commercial breaks?)

go well MM

TypeCasting Workshops

LOGICAL LEVELS: Transformational Arcs

2007-01-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

Attitude Relationship Identity Values Beliefs Skills Actions Environment
See also Evolution of Character

This framework relates Character development to the structure of a story.
As you read what is written below, picture a series of concentric spirals. Each relates to or connects with all the others, and there's a constant 'flow' or feedback of data between them.
That said, it is also useful to recognise a basic hierarchy from bottom to top.

In real life, if you want to effect lasting change on any level, something MUST happen on the level immediately above. If you omit a level, for example trying to change beliefs without realising that someone lacks a basic skill or capability, then, although they want to behave differently, they may literally not know how!

For our Characters, let's start at the end and end at the top!

What attitude, character or 'spirit' do you want your Characters to develop, evolve or manifest at journey's end i.e. what kind of person (Identity) do you want your protagonist to be by the closing credits?

For them to have achieved this, how do their actions, reactions and transactions differ as the story unfolds, in response to the issues or relationships s/he meets along the way? And in what ways does the audience hear, see and feel these changes taking place?

By the end of the story, how do the Characters perceive themselves differently? If asked, 'Who do you think you are'? how would they answer? Do they - and the audience - have a different sense of their identity?

In what ways are the answers obvious in their actions? Are they less arrogant or more self-assured? Do they have more self -esteem or greater insight? Less restraint along with greater responsibility?

How have their values changed? Do they value other people more, or material goods less? Does principle now matter more than profit, or do they value Mammon more than God?

What are their beliefs about the world? About themselves? About other people? About ambition, emotional authenticity, beauty, gender, people who are different? What do they now believe about their past or hope for their future?

What skills did they develop as they dealt with the challenges that you set up for them? Are they more capable of standing on their own two feet (assuming they have two!)? Are they better able to stand up to the bully in the boardroom or the playground? Can they read when once they were illiterate? Cry when once they were impervious even to onions? Can they cope with a class room of unruly 7 year olds, or quell a seething mob with nothing more than a sharp wit and a blunt penknife?

And, to develop those skills and capabilities, what actions or non-actions, what behaviours did the Characters use or not use? In what way did s/he act or react to challenges and people? What strengths or weaknesses did s/he overcome in the face of opportunities and threats?

In the setting of your story, in what environment did Characters start out, and what path led them to this, the hoped-for plaudits? The necessary punishment? The fitting end of the story?
Roll final credits!

go well MM

TypeCasting Workshops

EVOLUTION OF CHARACTER

2007-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF CHANGE?
See also Logical levels and Transformation of Character

NB Hir is intentional

The internal or external factors and forces that our characters have to deal with are as important to our creation as the Characters themselves. Those forces will determine any changes in the Characters’ thoughts, feelings and actions - and thus hir development and transformation.

The Logical levels model offers a framework for understanding and deciding which level(s) we need to focus on, tune in to or grapple with.

Our decisions will be determined by the type of Characters we want to create, the challenges we set them, the story or plot line itself, and whether they are reactive or proactive personalities. It also depends in what sense, if at all, we want our people to develop or grow.

The (bracketed words) below refer to different Logical Levels.

These levels form a hierarchy, and the relationship between them is highly significant, and extremely helpful for Creating Convincing Characters – and for developing more cohesive stories.

Typically, in ‘real’ life as well as in fiction, impulsive gut reactions (behaviour) may prevent hearing or acknowledging the beliefs and values that underpin other people's limiting or limited behaviours.

Your protagonist may, thus, appear a cold, callous and calculating schemer who, frankly my dear, doesn’t give a damn!

Are other Characters impulsive? Reactive? Myopic? Deaf to anything that doesn’t fit their world map? Pathologically spontaneous? Are they the effervescent, fun loving, life and soul of the party or the wilting wallflower who neither has nor goes to the ball? Is s/he warrior or wimp? Whinger or winner? Liberator or loser?

Does hir tenacious hold on opinions, beliefs or values lead to or stem from arrogance and aggression to exclude other viewpoints? (identity and relationship).

Does low self-esteem (identity/ value) prevent hir from learning (behaviour) the skills (capability) required to improve the quality (beliefs/ values) of life and relationships?

When Destiny or design brings Bubbles (him) and Brainy (her) together, how do they affect each other? Is this one wiser and that one weaker? Is one stronger, and the other, enigmatically, stranger? Does one grow in stature as the other shrinks?

Do you want your Characters to transform slowly and tortuously, or will you, they, the audience, be delighted - or downhearted - by a short, sharp shock?

Changes will happen or be required either to remedy, generate or evolve some aspect of Self, Other or Situation.

REMEDIAL

Changes on the levels of environment and behaviour will usually be remedial as we, or our Characters, attempt to adjust what is awry, mend what is broken or heal what is wounded. Obviously some changes will build on what is already good, other changes will make for improvement, and yet others will be made proactively in anticipation of, rather than in reaction to problems.

Hints and clues in act two may be the first signs of the Character’s potential transformation. Assuming the three-act structure, problematic attitudes, assumptions and actions that have been set up in the first act will need to be addressed in the second act to generate plot and people possibilities. The issues will then need to be redressed, loose end tied, in the third act so that key Characters are seen, heard and felt to have evolved, or at least to be in the process of evolving.

GENERATIVE

Changes in capabilities, beliefs, and values will generate new possibilities, either plus or minus, desirable or not, in environments, individuals and relationships.
Act-two, or the middle section of the story, will be more satisfying if the Protagonist has some awareness of the benefits - or at least the necessity - of change, although s/he may resist or be stymied at every attempt.
Hir assumptions, hir horizons, hir aspirations and attitudes must expand. Even though s/he may not yet be ready to grow as a person, we see that it is possible – and if we like hir, we may also hope that s/he makes it - or doesn't suffer too much!

EVOLUTIONARY

Changes in identity, relationship, and spirit enable Characters to evolve and to develop their full potential as individuals and in their relationship to a world of people, things and ideas.
Of course, they must still face obstacles, deadlines, self-doubts and other people's scepticism.
They may recognise that basic needs have gone too long unmet, or only been met at terrible expense to others; or they may have learnt that a hovel in Huddersfield with the One True Love is preferable to a Mansion in Manhattan or Mayfair with Old Money-Bags (Get Real). Or they may realise that, by settling for Ms, Miss or Mr. Right Away, they have lost Miss, Ms. or Mr. Right!

Yeah, Right!
Anyway, if all goes well, by 'Act-three', if you want to mock or mimic Reality with a happy ending, the Characters will be more fully rounded. They may be poorer but wiser. Knowing more, they may be less sure of themselves - and nicer for it. Our audience, and our bank manager will be well satisfied with our creation - and our audience well pleased by our Characters.

And if that sounds like a happy ending, doesn't it just show how life can imitate art?

go well
MM