Crafting conflict

"The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself." ~Garth Brooks

Without conflict, a story wouldn't be worth reading, or writing. A story needs a protagonist coming up against their worst fear or fiercest enemy. It's about testing their character and moral choices. It's about entertainment. About exploring the human condition. Struggle. Most importantly, it's about change and growth.

In order to create meaningful conflict that touches the hearts of our audience, we need to abuse our characters. This doesn't always mean throwing him into battle. It's much  more dramatic to figure out what your character is particularly afraid of, the more unconventional the better, and make him face it. What's the most important thing in the world to him? Threaten to take it away and watch what he does.

Types of conflict

Inner conflict: The character struggles with what they want and what they must do, right and wrong, personal gain and spiritual devotion, etc.

Relational conflict: The character struggles with another person. 

Social conflict: The character struggle with a group.

Environmental conflict: The character struggles the elements or wildlife.

No matter what type of conflict a story has, the stakes must be high. The outcome has to mean everything to the character.

Conflicts for the writer

As writers we face conflicts at every step of story creation. Every detail requires us to make decisions, some more difficult than others. When we come across something that really has us stumped, there are a few things we can do to help us make the right choices.

Relax: Nothing blocks creativity more than stress. 

Exercise: Studies have shown that when we move our bodies our creativity heightens. I like to take walks in nature because being in the fresh air surrounded by trees helps with relaxation.

Dream: This one might sound strange to some, but it's another one that has studies to back it. If you think about your problem right before you fall asleep, the answer just might reveal itself in a dream.

Tomorrow's post - Dramatic dialogue

Beautiful beginnings

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth ... not going all the way, and not starting." ~Buddha


Most of us love the idea of a new beginning. It's a fresh start, full of possibilities and wonder. Beginnings, however, don't always live up to our expectations, or those of our readers. They say you have three paragraphs in a short story to captivate an editor. In a novel you have about three pages, if you're lucky. Readers are busy these days. If the opening of a story doesn't grab readers, even non-editors, they're likely to toss it aside. Let's take a look at some things that can help us connect with our audience right from the start. 

Who does what and where

Character: Give them someone to care about. This entails creating a protagonist readers can either sympathize or identify with and easily imagine. 

Conflict: Something goes wrong for this character, or at least there's a hint of some future trouble.  Since readers care about him/her, they are going to want to come along for the ride. 

Setting: Add enough detail to help anchor readers into the story.

Set the tone: Is the story going to be comical or serious, frightening or romantic. Choose words and setting details that portray these qualities.

A word about descriptions at the beginning

While it's important to develop the character and setting enough for readers to care about and feel a part of the story, the beginning isn't the place for long descriptive passages, generally speaking. We want to start off by throwing readers into a situation and give them just enough to make them want to come back for more. More information can be sprinkled in along the way to the finish line. A few well selected details about setting and character can go a long way. 

Study and practice

It's always a good idea to learn from the masters. Pull several novels and short fiction collections from your shelves, or visit your local bookstore, and read the opening paragraphs or chapters. Pay attention to how the authors set up character, conflict, setting and tone. Then, when you're working on your own story, try several different approaches and see what works best.  

Tomorrow's post: Crafting conflict 
  
 

Creating amazing action scenes

"Never confuse movement with action." ~Ernest Hemingway



There's nothing like a good action scene to get your heart pumping and glue you to the pages. Even if a story doesn't fall into the thriller or adventure genres, it's not unusual for action to pop up from time to time. I've gathered a few tips to help make these sometimes tricky scenes work. 

• Pace: Action scenes work best when they move fast. Too much description and the excitement quickly wanes. Now isn't the time for back-story or scene-setting passages. Keep to the point and incorporate needed details into the action. 
• Setting: While it's never a good idea to spend much time on descriptions in an action scene, it's still important to ground readers in the story by using a few well chosen setting details. In an action scene, it's best to introduce setting details by incorporating them into the action. Have the characters knock over the multimillion dollar sculpture or put a fist through the dirty, paper thin wall.   
• Structure: Use short paragraphs with short or fragmented sentences to give a feeling of urgency.
• Set-up: If a character needs to be an expert at karate or have on him a certain weapon in order to survive the scene, make sure he uses those skills or that weapon throughout the book to make it believable when he pulls it out during the action.
• Stakes: The most powerful action scenes put characters in a real jam. Maybe he's not only fighting for his own life, but also the life of whomever he loves most, or the lives of an entire city or planet. Have the character desperately need to be somewhere, time is running out, or already out, and the action is delaying him. 
• Verbs: We're all familiar with the passive voice woes. Active verbs, while always a good idea, are especially important in action scenes.
• Dialogue: This isn't the place for long-winded conversations. Short powerful dialogue can often be more effective at keeping readers breathless. 

Tomorrow's post: Beautiful beginnings

Special thanks to Arlee Bird for starting the A to Z Challenge! Visit his blog at http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

New Sun Rising, paperback launch

 The time has finally arrived, this amazing charity anthology containing short stories (including one of mine ;-), poetry and artwork is now available in print. I love holding a book in my hands and turning real pages! Buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/New-Sun-Rising-Stories-Japan/dp/0987138316/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353568874&sr=1-2&keywords=new+sun+rising+stories+for+japan

In order to gain maximum exposure, we're asking all those interested to purchase the book at Amazon.com on  Saturday, November 24th. This will create a "chart rush" that will push the book to the top of the Amazon lists and cause more people to see it. Of course, it can be purchased at any time. Every cent, excluding Amazon's small fee, goes to the Japanese Red Cross. Read more about the project and the chart rush here: http://storiesforjapan.blogspot.com/2012/11/new-sun-rising-paperback-launch.html

View the book trailer below:

Spiders

Read my story "The Rules of Magic" in this creepy crawly anthology. Both e-book and paperback editions are available.

Taggers: a review

Taggers by Miles Brandt has within its pages a lot to admire. There are a couple twists that actually made me gasp, one near the beginning that sets the entire novel in motion, and one at the end. I can often see twists coming from a long way off, but this one, the one at the end, completely blindsided me. I think because there's so much that kept my mind fully engaged along the way, I never had time to consider how it would all end. It's packed with spiritual and life philosophy, interesting characters and a very engaging love story.

One of the things I admire most about this book is the way it's written. Using the tools of his trade, right down to paragraph and sentence structure, word choice and tense, Mr. Brandt manages to portray the mental state of his characters, who by the way are escaped psychiatric patients.

I also admire the author's willingness, his fearlessness, to go to uncomfortable places and show us a world none of us would ever want to visit outside fiction. He does so with great honesty and skill, making the tough moments bearable by keeping it real and giving readers a glimpse into broken minds.

A worthy book, indeed.

Visit the kickstarter for Taggers HERE.

Now Available! New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan

The kindle edition of the long awaited New Sun Rising is now available. It's been a little over a year since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, but they still need a ton of help. All profits from this anthology, filled with artwork, photography, poetry and stories, will go the the Japanese Red Cross. Please support this cause and help spread the word. Purchase it at Amazon.com