Or get a time machine and ship your manuscript solely about an internal journey back a hundred years, or find that niche of the literary world (yes, it exists!) that produces those books nowadays. Many books of that sort historically weren’t blockbusters, having similar success in the day as they would now, but were recognized later for their merits. It took The Great Gatsby 20 years, and that isn’t an extremely cerebral book anyhow.
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From what I’ve read, it’s the opposite. The internal problem is the king.
My problem is that I never have that mighty internal obstacle overcoming which is also what makes the character eventually resolve the plot. And, apparently, all my characters are unlikable. Plus, it’s hard to understand what I am writing to start with, not to mention that pacing is off and tension is just not there, so nobody ever can possibly care about so what.
Once I resolve these little snags, I will be fine.
Honestly, why I even write is a mystery lol.
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Not all stories NEED an internal arc. If the external story is strong, the character can stay the same (think The Martian - pure action, no internal change, great story).
But without an external arc, all you’ve got are feelings and those can run on. There’s a reason why externally-driven stories do so much better commercially.
And for the record, a love story is an external genre.
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IIRC the Cat says there is growth because he he has to understand his adequacy to the impossible challenge etc. Overall, yes, that’s what I like writing, but every book on craft I am reading is dead set on the internal flaw/misconception and emotional hooks/emotional undercurrent that is what brings story alive if and only if they successfully merge with external growing challenge.
Yeah, all those bestselling authors and storytellers with million reads who just pour their heart out and the story just turns out hooking with characters everyone adores…
If you are not like that, and try to follow the advice, sometimes it misfires.
Advice: The character should be flawed, has an internal problem, but likable! Oh, and vunerable, cause it’s 2021.
Me. Okay, okay! Why don’t my main character who is hopelessly stuck on a delusional first love, rejects a spectacular offer, because he feels that it would be appropriating the said love’s dreams and abandoning them. That gotta be likable and flawed! Vulnerable! Obvious growth incoming! Mwa-ha-hah! I have it!
Readers: OMG, he is a whiny ungrateful brat…
Me: Nearest wall, where art thou, 'cause I need to bang my head right now.
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Characters. Tell me everything you know about characters - and more so about the character flaws. I struggle with character flaws a ton.
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Oh my gosh, there are whole books on characters! LOL.
I, personally, don’t define a “flaw” for my characters. The flaws emerge when I define their wants and needs for the story, the backstory behind those wants and needs, and what internally is keeping them from satisfying those wants and needs.
Some of the best writing advice I ever got was DIG DEEP. Don’t accept the surface reason of why the character feels that way. Keep asking why. Dig all the way to the shame cave – that place hidden deep inside where we tuck those moments that, even years later, make us red-faced and uncomfortable. What is in your character’s shame cave, and how does that affect THE STORY.
Flaws and wants and needs are relative to the STORY. What flaws and issues will make the character struggle to achieve his story goals?
I also create what I call a “nugget.” (I learned this 15 years ago in a screenwriting class.) The nugget is the inner conflict that is being argued (like compassion vs. honesty), which is forced into action by the external events.
In the book I’m querying, the nugget the protagonist – and each of the main characters, it turned out – was struggling with was fulfillment vs. responsibility. Note that neither of these is “BAD.” Also note that each can be positive or negative, depending on how extreme it is. We have to see the struggle – see the character cycle through the good and the bad of each before finding their resolution.
The order of the conflict words is important, because the first word is Act 1:
- Prior to the inciting incident, the character is living the positive side of the first word.
- The inciting incident make the character feel the negative of the first word.
- They can’t deal with that, so in the first half of Act 2, they swing to the positive of the second word.
- As the problems grow worse, they swing into the negative of the second word in the second half of Act 2.
- In Act 3, there’s the murky depth of finding the balance, the resolution.
In my new WIP, the nugget is faith vs self will. I’ll let you know how it works out.
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Question: How cringe-inducing can an inner monologue be before an editor rejects it? I read Walking Disaster and that was a goldmine of unintentional hilarity.
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Depends on where the cringy inner monologue is and whether it’s appropriate to the book.
Snort, I’ve read some pretty cringe-inducing inner monologues too. I’m not a fan of First Person because of it.
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I try to make the inner monologues in my books cringey on purpose to provide character and humor, but that’s very fair. Problem is, seems that tons of books these days are first person.
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Depends on the genre. Some genres have a fair amount of FP; others have almost none.
What you’re doing is fine – it’s character voice – at least until you’ve stopped forward progress in the story because of it. Voice can sell a book. But some techniques are better as seasoning than as a standalone dish.
First draft – write all of it you want to. When you edit, look at each and ask yourself whether it’s serving the manuscript or not. Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe if trimmed/edited.
In the first draft, try all the things. You never know what will and won’t be effective! Make yourself happy. Have at it with the wish fulfillment and the word vomit. You’ve got all kinds of time to make it better later.
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Hm that’s a lot of interesting information! I’ll try that out, thanks!
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Hello, thank you for doing this!
I’m currently writing a duology. The first book features character a and character b, whereas the second book features character a and character c. My pov is third limited, and I’ve been alternating chapters between each mc. How would I successfully pull this off, without having to just write an mc’s pov when the narrative calls for it?
I have a question about third person pov. Instead of third person omniscient or limited, why can’t a book be told from the pov of a godlike third person entity who knows everything but also sympathizes with each character?
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From the examples I’ve heard, it’s a very difficult thing to pull off. I suppose it is possible, but nobody has done it well yet.
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I think most people would just call that slightly spicier than normal 3rd person omniscient.
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@NotARussianBot and @FranklinBarnes
I just don’t see why a third person omniscient narrator has to be cold and detached. Objective, yes. But what’s wrong with empathy for each character? Even the villain, since this narrator would know what was driving the villain and what made him the way he was. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
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Making them an actual character with a real name and existence in the story is very risky.
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Yes, but why give this theoretical narrator a name or existence? It could just be an invisible narrator, like any third person narrator.
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I see. At first I thought it was an actual character narrating everything.
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Nope, I’m just picturing the usual third person omniscient narrator…except with a heart. (੭ˊᵕˋ)੭‧˚₊̥✧
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