How can you make a character more than the conflict?

Discussion in 'Character Development' started by jmh105, Jul 24, 2016.

  1. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I think you've got to start with story right away. I don't think it always has to be dramatic. I quite like a quieter story, sometimes. However, story is key. You shouldn't put the story off or try to ease into it. I just don't think that really works. Try to develop story and character at the same time and see if things don't fall into place.
     
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  2. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, it doesn't have to be action, but you must start with some kind of hook. The beginning should do something to develop attachment and interest quickly so they can find the rest later rather than stopping. Like the King's Speech, to go back to it, it starts with him badly doing a speech. It's dramatic because of how embarrassing it is. It makes you care about him getting better.
     
  3. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, but I'm getting a vibe of a series of incidents without any overarching plot or plots carrying through the story.
     
  4. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Why?
     
  5. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    Uh....because there's been no description of an overarching plot?
     
  6. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    There seems to be a notion of changing or building relationships and of them doin' their biz with the gang stuff.
     
  7. ChickenFreak

    ChickenFreak Contributor Contributor

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    That doesn't feel like a plot to me. It feels sort of like plot raw materials, but not yet a plot.

    OK, an example. I just watched the movie Divergent, which I really didn't like much, but that's not the point.

    Divergent is set in a specific world, and it has all that faction and training stuff. And it would be possible to write a novel that's just a personal story, of Tris's training and forming relationships and how she deals with hiding her nature, and all that.

    But that's not what the movie was. It had all those things, but it had them in the context of a big, world-changing set of events.

    Similarly, The Hunger Games had a specific detailed world, and it could have shown Katniss trying to survive day-to-day life in the world, the hardship of the life, her relationships, stuff like that. But it didn't--it had the Hunger Games, a specific event, to serve as a spine for the book. And it didn't have just any old Hunger Games; it had one that went nonstandard and had, again, an effect on the world.

    Now, I'm not demanding an effect on the world, because I frankly don't that much like big world-changing stories. So, a smaller plot: Waitress is about a piemaking waitress with an abusive husband. It could meander through her life and give us little incidents with her relationship with her husband and her piemaking, but instead it starts out with her pregnancy, and it ends with the resolution of her pregnancy. The end also resolves the marriage, and the piemaking, but the pregnancy is the thing that gives the novel structure--it forces her out of her routine, and sets goals and deadlines for her actions.

    The Wizard of Oz was about Dorothy's arrival, her quest to go home, and her going home. Some of the other Oz novels similarly had an overarching plot line. And some of them didn't, and the ones that didn't were much less satisfying.

    Harry Potter could show us all the interesting stuff going on in school, and little romances and disappointments and tragedies. And it does have plenty of that. But every Harry Potter book also has an overarching plotline.

    Now, does a novel or movie HAVE to have a "spine", an overarching plot? Probably not. But I think that trying to get away without one is going to be extremely challenging.
     
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  8. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I agree with @ChickenFreak - we're both just basing this off the description, not the story itself, but it feels more like an extended character sketch than a story. I'm not seeing the overarching problem-solution or conflict-resolution structure, just lots of little problem-solutions/conflicts-resolutions.

    The plot can be based around something as simple as a character finding his place and learning to accept himself or learning to trust others or whatever - the plot would be showing us how this happens. So possibly the main plot is the transgender man coming to value himself and trust his friends, but then the book really is mostly about the problem (insecurity) and the solution (security) tightly related to being transgender. If that's not the book you want to write, I think some other problem-solution structure would be helpful - (group of friends about to fall apart) - (group of friends find a new, safer home) or whatever.
     
  9. jmh105

    jmh105 Active Member

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    I can honestly see how an overarching plot could benefit me. I always thought that the crime and gang relations could be a vehicle for the main deal, internal conflict, but I'd like more feedback on that idea.

    So far (as much as I've written), a boy, Jacques, has run into a robbery and, due to personal issues, assists the robbery vs. apprehending them. He thinks about joining them, but then joins the gang after losing a loved one that night (his pet). Now he's trying to get assimilated into the gang, and at some chapters we see Nolan's POV on this.

    Is this start too slow? Later in the book I have them displaced from their warehouse. Should I place this event much sooner to help facilitate a larger plot?
     
  10. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    You really just have to decide what your book's about. If your book is about Jacques trying to get into (or out of) the gang, then that's your main arc and you should get it introduced pretty quickly.

    If your book is about the displacement, you should introduce that fairly quickly.

    You may ask yourself - why does my book end? What has been resolved that will allow readers to walk away feeling satisfied? The answer to those questions will probably help you determine what the main plot is (or whether it's missing).
     
  11. FireWater

    FireWater Senior Member

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    The website "Story Fix" by Larry Brooks has some really good info on how to create the type of "spinal" plot structure that Chicken Freak describes. There's a concrete art, or almost a science, to it. I hate to use the term "formula" because that has a connotation of using the same elements over and over, which I dislike, but there's a pattern that all successful stories typically share in terms of structure and the timing placements of certain types of plot changes. It's a very useful resource.
     
  12. Vagrant Tale

    Vagrant Tale Active Member

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    Write a good character, then make them trans. I've written a few gender-bender characters (two hermaphrodites and a transvestite) and though I've never dealt with the transgender issues of our current society, these characters are actually pretty fun to write. Just bear in mind there's a lot of opportunities to have fun with these types of characters, it isn't all "doom and gloom."

    Now as for some input, I've been doing a bit of studying on writing lately, so I'll try asking some questions to see if that will help at all.

    1. From your description, I can't tell if you are trying to write literary fiction or commercial fiction. Literary fiction (sometimes called character-driven) deals more with the internal world of the protagonist, set into a given setting. Something like Catcher in the Rye. Commercial fiction would be something like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, which deals more with the external world and struggles of a character(s). From your initial post it sounds like it might be dealing a lot with the internal but as your thread has gone on it sounds like it might be dealing with external. So which is it?

    Mind you, its totally normal to mix-and-match, just make sure to define which one you are leaning towards.

    2. What is the character's external story goal? Something material that exists in the outside world.

    3. What is the character's abstract story goal? Why do they want this? It sounds like this one should be easy for you.

    4. How has the character changed at the end of the story? It doesn't have to be dramatic or huge, and it doesn't even need to greatly affect their behavior.

    5. Think of your external story problem. In what unique ways does your character interact with this problem? How would other characters interact with that problem if they were in your character's shoes?

    Not really asking for you to answer these, but these might be good questions to ask yourself over and over to make sure things make sense, or reveal some things you may not have clarified with yourself.
     
  13. jmh105

    jmh105 Active Member

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    Bayview, I will certainly ask myself why/how the book ends. That would probably help in figuring out how I'm going to get to that point. :eek:
    My book has 7 chapters so far. If I were to make it about displacement, would it be too late in the game to introduce that in the 8th or 9th chapter?

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    I will definitely bookmark "Story Fix" :D

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    VagrantTale, Nolan certainly came before being transgender, but he wasn't developed. He was an antagonist whose actions suggested "insecure" to me. Then I identified a cause of the insecurities to being transgender. That's certainly not the right approach, but that's how it happened and I'm hoping to fix it.

    I will answer your questions! It'll be a help to everyone keeping an eye on this thread (including myself).

    1. I'm writing literary fiction, with primary focus being on the characters/internal conflict. External plot elements include being displaced and moving into someone else's house, violence, etc. However, I am definitely leaning towards literary fiction.

    2. Externally, the characters are looking to steal what they need and live as comfortably as they can in their warehouse conditions. When things go south, they're looking for someone to pay their medical bills. When things go further south, they're hoping for someone to stay with. For Nolan, specifically, he is hoping to be able to use his hormones to maintain physical results (in secrecy).

    3. For an abstract story goal... It sounds easy, but I need to think about it.

    Jacques, I believe, feels very ostracized at home and is looking for somewhere to breathe, I guess. He wants to be among people who would look at him as a person rather than a walking burn scar. So he wants to be at peace with himself but, a bit more unrealistically, he wants other people to be at peace with him. So he's expecting people to not be staring at his patchy-looking face. In addition, Jacques wants to be more certain of himself, recognizing that he's kind of socially weak/awkward (even before the dilemma with how people treated him when he was injured). Seeing confidence emanate from Nolan, he hopes to learn from him--but the other boy is a bit standoffish, which obviously disappoints Jacques. Hopefully at the end he can gain a bit more self-confidence and all that. Maybe he can even share some of his newfound confidence with Nolan, who turns out to be not as confident as Jacques thought?

    Nolan is a bit easier, since we've established that he is self-conscious about how he appears to other people. I think he wants to be seen as a guy vs. a transgender guy. He hates feeling like he has something to prove and wishes he didn't have to. Probably, he needs to realize he really doesn't have to prove anything, and that he shouldn't feel ashamed. Um, he has unresolved parent issues (so many issues about various things that I can't elaborate on all of them here) and he feels guilty about leaving the house when he could have gone to their funeral when things happened... He also feels guilty in general for feeding into his desire for self-preservation/perpetuation by doing chivalrous things like saving people not just because he cares about others (he does!), but also because it satisfies a lacking he feels he has. So he thinks he acts too selfishly in that regard. At the same time, at some points he understands that in order to be able to help the people he loves/be closer to them, they must not know of his circumstances--otherwise they'll push him (their help) away. I bet this selfishness/selflessness combo (as well as self-righteousness in believing he has the power to help people) help stimulate his conflict. He also has unresolved friend issues that precede the parent issues so in general, he's kind of wrestling with his past and his peers' perceptions of him and what he should/shouldn't do, and what he will/will not become.

    Sorry about all that rambling! I am not sure if any of that made sense--if it doesn't, tell me and I hope I can fix it. Mostly, I went on and on for my own reference, haha.
    Anyways, writing all that makes it more apparent to me that being transgender is a big deal in Nolan's narrative. Is this a bad thing? If so, how can I turn the focus, in part, away from his biological insecurities and more towards other topics that make him more wholesome as a character?

    4. Jacques becomes much more confident, but not to a point where he's a totally different person. He's just more in a position to make a move towards Nolan and cultivate some sort of mutual respect/slight friendship.
    Nolan... He's kind of a wreck by the end, but hopefully there's a sliver of hope for him.

    5. That's a good question! Jacques, being unused to all these changes, might fret more while Nolan might be more focused on his internal problems in relation. So if they have to move around, he might worry about finding a secure location to be injecting his hormones without people watching him. He might worry, too, about his girlfriend and dog and how moving around might impact them--or whatever other problems the external conflict might present them. One of his other friends gets injured, too, in the violence that ensues, so practical stuff might be of concern.. Um, other characters would think about things differently considering they are different people with different problems? Sorry, that answer is a bit vague.

    I hope that's helpful to everyone! If you could point out anything wrong with what I wrote or suggest things that might help in making Nolan, for example, not be too preoccupied with his biological problems so as to avoid reducing him to a label, that would be great.
     

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