The Three-Part Writing System

Photography by Alex Mazurov

In returning to my blog, after a six-month limbo, I'd like to introduce The Three Part Writing System, something I've been perfecting during hiatus.

It is simply this. There are three parts to writing: Plot, Story, and Craft.

What's the difference between Plot and Story? The Plot is composed of the events, by themselves, with no added decoration. The Story is made up of the color and emotion of things. If you took out a piece of the Story, it might not affect the events, but it might damage the atmosphere you're trying to create.

Let's see if I can make it simpler.

Let's say your protagonist is a young soldier in the trenches of WWI. He has crucial information that he must deliver to his commanding officer, but to do that he must cross enemy lines. He decides to bribe an enemy soldier into stealing him an extra uniform.
Those are the events. That's your plot.  That is the logical sequence of events.

But let's add a little flair. Your protag has been wrestling with his conscience throughout his enlistment. He believes the war is futile, and even considers that by not delivering the information, the war would be shortened. As he walks through the trenches, he sees the men around him, singing songs half-heartedly and clutching letters from home, photographs of wives and children.
There. That's your story. It doesn't affect the fact he has crucial information to deliver. It doesn't affect the Plot. But it does add some delightful drama and conflict.

And, finally, Craft. These are the words that you, as an artist, choose to weave together. It's all good and fine if your plot and story are amazing, but if you write in a jerky "See Spot run. Spot runs fast" prose, the book will fail. Craft is how you write it. Don't we all love those writers who write cleanly, whose words flow along, who make us not want to put the book down?

Take Frances Hardinge; "By day the villagers fought a losing battle against the damp. By night they slept and dreamed sodden, unimaginative dreams. On this particular night their dreams were a little ruffled by the unusual excitement of the day, but already the water that seeped into every soul was smoothing their minds back to placidity, like a duck's bill glossing its plumage." Mmmm. She has a way with words.

And there it is, ladies and gents. The three things that make up a book. The three things to focus on, to improve, to hone to perfection. Learning how to write won't be instantaneous. But nothing that ever came easily was ever worth it.

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Creating Characters: Motive

Every character, minor or major, needs a motive. It’s the driving force behind everything they do.
In other words, their reasons. That’s all good and fine, but what it really boils down to is that there are consequences to their actions.
I cannot stress how important motive is. If there’s no reason your character should be doing something, then why are they doing it? Unless there’s a motive, your book will end up as pointless as a kid’s menu maze.

Courtesy of Applebee's

Self Interest
Face it. The human race can be selfish. But there’s a fine line between selfish and smart.
One of the most overpowering motives for a character is death. Most characters desperately don’t want to die. Death is the reason they do things they know are wrong, because self-preservation kicks in.
It doesn't have to be that extreme. Lying and cheating are things we do because we're afraid of the consequences.
This includes personal goals.
Other People
If humans were entirely logical we’d never risk our lives for someone we love, get angry, or set off on quests with only faith to guide us. If Spock needed to find the Holy Grail, he’d make sure of its location and existence before he went after it.
For the sake of a good story, humans don’t think in pure logic. We think about others. We do so many crazy things, good and bad, because of other people.
Your main character might risk his life for the woman he loves. That’s good.
He might get angry at a minor bad guy and accidentally spill the beans. That’s bad.
But either way, his actions are affected by other characters. The reason he acts is because of someone else.
Even the villain can be affected by others. Take Voldemort. He is so intent on killing Harry Potter himse that he spends far too much energy preparing a secluded trap for Harry and not enough time protecting all his lovely horcruxes.

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Guest Post: Janice Hardy on "Trail Blazing"

We’ve all read stories where clues were so seamlessly dropped in along the way that until the big secret was revealed, we never even realized they were there. But when we finally did, all the pieces of the story fell into place and we were awed by the skill in which that bread trail had been left. Those writers made it look easy, as if they knew from page one what clue went where and how it would all come together in the end.
I’m sure there are bound to be a few writers out that who really can write that way, but for most of us, those clues are either planned ahead of time, inserted after the fact, or happy accidents. Sometimes, (heck, probably most times) a combination of all three.

Planning the Trail
Some clues we know about in the planning stage of the novel. Those details that came to us as we were brainstorming and writing our outlines or making our notes. Important clues we work hard to build a scene around. Often these are the things our protag’s will discover down the line in some fashion and a critical plot twist may even hinge on them. They’re important, which is why we know about them from the start.

Stumbling Upon the Trail
Then there are those details that just kinda happen, and it isn’t until after that we realize that throwaway detail could be so much more. A bit of backstory or internalization that suddenly has greater meaning, an off-hand setting element that becomes the perfect hiding place for a long lost secret. The types of details that lurk in our brains and leak onto the page, and somehow, always seems to be better than the stuff we actively think up.

Marking the Trail
Last, there are those details that we go back and add in once we’ve figure out how the story unfolds. The purposeful red herrings, the hidden clues, the telling off-hand remark. Each detail is inserted at just the right spot so the reader can follow that trail, even if they don’t realize they’re following it.

Keeping the Trail Clean
No matter what type of writer you are (outliner or pantser), odds are you’re going to go back at some point and edit. Doing an edit pass for clues, hints, and foreshadowing isn’t a bad idea, especially if you’re not one of those mystery writers who think of these things naturally. (I think mystery writers are born with this skill) If you’re not sure where to leave those bread crumbs, try asking…

When do I want the reader to start suspecting things?
Sometimes you’ll want a surprise, other times you’ll want the tension of trying to figure it out to help pull your story along.

When does my protagonist start to figure it out?
Readers often spot things long before characters, but if it’s too obvious, then your character might look dumb if they haven’t figured it out yet. Make sure you have a good balance between reader hints and character hints. If your protag needs to know something by page 45, leave enough clues before then so the realization feels plausible.

Are there any slow/weak spots that could use some freshening up?
Weak spots in need of help could be opportunities to create a scene that links back or foreshadows another. Would adding in a layer of mystery help?

Do the characters encounter anything thematically or metaphorically linked to the thing?
You know how someone can say something and make you think of something different? Your brain picks up on it because there’s some link between the two things. You can do the same thing with your characters. Something they’ve heard or experienced might be the perfect trigger for a memory or realization in a later scene. Or, you can go back and add something that can make this happen.

Trails are made by folks wandering back and forth over them, so it makes sense that a good plot trail might take looking at from both ends of your novel. Knowing where a plot or subplot ends up makes it a lot easier to figure out where it starts. The more you wander that trail, the more you learn about it and the more you can share with those starting down it for the first time.


About Blue Fire

Part fugitive, part hero, fifteen-year-old Nya is barely staying ahead of the Duke of Baseer’s trackers. Wanted for a crime she didn’t mean to commit, she risks capture to protect every Taker she can find, determined to prevent the Duke from using them in his fiendish experiments. But resolve isn’t enough to protect any of them, and Nya soon realizes that the only way to keep them all out of the Duke’s clutches is to flee Geveg. Unfortunately, the Duke’s best tracker has other ideas.
Nya finds herself trapped in the last place she ever wanted to be, forced to trust the last people she ever thought she could. More is at stake than just the people of Geveg, and the closer she gets to uncovering the Duke’s plan, the more she discovers how critical she is to his victory. To save Geveg, she just might have to save Baseer—if she doesn’t destroy it first.

Buy it here.

About Janice Hardy
A long-time fantasy reader, Janice Hardy always wondered about the darker side of healing. For her fantasy trilogy THE HEALING WARS, she tapped into her own dark side to create a world where healing was dangerous, and those with the best intentions often made the worst choices.
Her books include THE SHIFTER, and BLUE FIRE from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She lives in Georgia with her husband, three cats and one very nervous freshwater eel.

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How to Write Magic

Magic will make or break your book. There is no in-between. How you handle magic can mean the difference between an epic and just-another-fantasy-book.

Know Your Limits
Magic must have limits. Your characters can’t snap their fingers and have everything they want appear from thin air.
The other day I was critiquing a friend’s rough draft. A battle occurs between the magical bad guys and the relatively unarmed good guys. The bad guys were hurling everything they had; sending shockwaves through people, shaking the ground, uprooting slabs of cobblestone street and flinging it through the air, ect. Then, out of the blue, one of them turns a good guy into dust.
What?
If the antagonists had that power all along, why didn’t they use it? Turning your enemy into a pile of dust sounds a tad more effective than a shockwave.
Decide where your book’s magic is limited. J. K. Rowling created several rules for her own writing, such as “magic cannot bring dead people back to life” and “whatever you conjure out of thin air won’t last”.

Counteract
“But for heaven’s sake − you’re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out − well − anything!”
“…The trouble is, the other side can do magic too...”
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Where there is light, there is darkness. Your protag can’t be wandering around with invincible magical powers.
Either the villain has magic too, or the protag’s magic comes at a price. Or both.

Supernatural Villain
If you’ve got a magical antagonist on your hands, you’ll probably end up writing an epic final battle. The battle should never be won because of magic. It’s not about who’s got the stronger firepower, it’s about good triumphing over evil. The main character should win because of a clever plan or an oversight on the villain’s part.

Supernatural Problems
Nothing gets handed to your character with no strings attached, least of all magic. Your character should make mistakes and possibly get hurt because of it.
Take the classic example of Frodo and the ring of power. It’s not just a cool ring that can make you invisible, it’s an evil artifact that slowly poisons and manipulates you.
If your character has a power, it doesn’t have to kill them. But it should weaken them or occasionally backfire.


Believable Magic
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but your magic must be believable. If a modern day kid starts seeing fairies, he’s gonna think that he’s gone crazy. Normal people wouldn’t think, “I can see fairies! Magic is so cool!”
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice thinks the whole thing’s a dream from start to finish, which is exactly what a sane person would think.

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How to Create a Traitor

Traitor : A person who betrays another, a cause, or any trust. (Webster’s College Dictionary)

Betrayals are one of the most delightful plot twists. Not only does the traitor plunge everything into chaos, but can emotionally scar trusts and friendships.

True or False
The author knows thing that characters don’t. Is the traitor truly betraying their own side, or are they leading the enemy into a trap?

True Traitor
A cut-and-dry case; a traitor offers something of value to the enemy for selfish reasons.

False Traitor
Here’s where things get tricky. The “traitor” has not truly defected, but is trying to trick the enemy.
Back in 480 BC, the Persians attacked Greece. The Greeks had about 200 ships while the Persians had 700. A Greek general named Themistocles knew that unless they created a concentrated attack, the Persians would wipe them out. So he sent a trusted servant to the Persians. The servant played the role of a traitor, and he told the Persians that the Greeks were in disorder. He claimed that if the Persians attacked the Greek’s beachside camp by morning, they could take the Greeks by surprise. The Persians rushed to do battle and were ambushed by waiting Greeks.


The Offering
What is the traitor giving the enemy?
Knowledge is the first thing that comes to mind. The traitor often carries secrets to the enemy, such as locations or weaknesses. Let’s take World War II. Traitors provided information such as the whereabouts of Jews, the construction of new war technology, or the names of underground leaders.
Traitors can also provide prisoners. Oftentimes a traitor arranges to lead those who trust him into a trap. Then the enemy can swoop down and pick up his prisoners.


Motive
A character always has to have a reason for their actions. What motivates someone to commit treason?
Greed-They are basically bribed by the enemy. They are promised wealth or a high position of power. Sometimes they are threatened with death, or the deaths of those they love, so they concede.
Victory-They want to be on the winning side.
Revenge- They have a personal vendetta. In exchange for their betrayal, they ask for permission to kill so-and-so, to have what’s-his-face’s property, or to enslave that-one-guy.


Effects
Information given to the enemy can mean death for numerous people.
The traitor’s personal life is marred. Relationships are broken, their family can be torn apart, and most of the times the traitor is stabbed in the back by those he helped.
People who trusted the traitor can become bitter and angry. Some develop grudges while others only become deeply wounded and fall into depression. Those led into traps may find it hard to trust anyone ever again.

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Boring Book Syndrome: Tough Love

This post is an expansion of tuesday's Tough Love section.

This seems to be a major issue for people; what to do when you love part of your story but hate the rest. 

One of my earliest stories suffered from this love/hate controversy. I loved the world I created and spent hours working out its mechanics. The events played out like actual history, and the villain was one of the most chilling antagonists I’d ever created.

One problem though; I absolutely hated the main character. The solution seemed simple. If you don’t like your main character, change him.
He went from slave, to thief, to soldier, to mythical creature. He became a She and flip-flopped back into a He. I hated every single one.
I figured I’d change it from character-driven to event-driven. But I couldn’t find the proper opening. All the doors that led into my richly imagined world seemed like they could only be opened through a character.
I gave up. I sadly stuck all related writings and drawings in the back of my file cabinet and forgot them for years.
A few months ago I stumbled across my old rough draft. I noticed that one character appeared in almost every scene and lit up the otherwise bland novel; the antagonist.
That couldn’t be right. The antagonist couldn’t be the main character!
But I noticed something. The antagonist had goals, the antagonist had enemies. True, he wasn’t a very nice main character, but he fit the description. The key to the story was right under my very nose.


So what do you do when you struggle to write something you love?

Step 1: Identify what you hate.
What’s holding you back? Is it your setting, your characters, your idea, or your writing technique?

Step 2: Change what you hate.

Setting: is there a way to write the same story somewhere else? Does it have to be a magical world? If it’s set in your basic medieval forest, is it possible to tell your story in a lush ancient jungle or vice-versa. Don’t let setting get in the way. The place you feel the most enthusiasm for is where you should be.

Characters: What character do you hate? Can you erase him? Can you change him? If it’s the main character, can you write the story without him? Can you put someone you love in his place?

Idea: Why do you hate it? Is it because it’s unoriginal and based off a movie you love? Don’t worry about being original. Half my books start out sounding exactly like the movie/book that inspired them. With each new draft you veer away from that plotline until someday it’s entirely yours.

Writing Technique: Don’t worry about what your rough draft sounds like. Every rough draft sucks. However, if you’re so frustrated with the way it sounds that you can’t go on, try experimenting with the style. Should it be more serious? More whimsical? Should you change the point of view? Let’s say you’re writing a horror story. You’ll probably not want to sound like Junie B. Jones or Spock. It’d be hard to raise suspense through the perspective of a kindergartener or an alien who can’t feel fear.

Step 3: Replace
If Step 2 doesn’t work out for you, try replacing what you hate with what you love. Go through your draft and pinpoint things that you felt excited to write. Give the things you love center stage.

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Boring Book Syndrome

Most of us (if not all) have had a rough draft that petered out and died. This is a separate form of writer's block. This is the Boring Book Syndrome. Symptoms include:

We've gotten bored with it,
We can't figure out what happens next, or
We're so in love with the idea and character that we refuse to let it go.

Bored
The idea may be interesting enough but even those can fall flat. If the writer isn't passionate about the idea, the book will come to a standstill.
Bestselling books don't always sound the greatest (Twilight: Girl falls in love with vampire. Harry Potter: Boy goes to wizard school.) And ideas that sound cool may never make a good book. (Black Powder: Boy goes back in time to stop the invention of gunpowder so his friend won't die. Have you ever heard of it? Probably not.)
The point is,if you as the writer aren't totally into your story, maybe it's not the one you should be writing (yet). Don't trash the idea completely; set it off to the side until you're ready to give it another shot.

What Next?
Don't freak out if you don't know for sure what happens next. Write whatever you're struggling with on a post-it-note and slap on your bedroom door. Then don't worry about it; you're subconscious will take care of the problem and one day the answer will come to you.
And if that doesn't work, rewind your plot back to the last point you felt the most energy. Un-write whatever comes after that.

Tough Love
Sometimes you love the characters and world you've created so much that you don't want to give up. But you can't go any farther and your plot is lacking the finer points of credibility.
Write it anyway. Fix it as you go along; revise. Some people say 'don't write it if it isn't a spectacular idea.' That really depends on the writer. Some of us are character-driven. Some of us live for plot. Don't dump it just because it isn't perfect. Rough drafts are never perfect.
If there's any reason for a story to be loved, that's a good enough reason.

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Made to Stick for Writers: Story

Finally, something both readers and writers understand; story.

People have tried for years to classify stories by their plot. Aristotle claimed that there exist only four; simple tragic, simple fortunate, complex tragic, and complex fortunate.
Christopher Booker insists there are seven (overcoming the monster, rags to riches, quest, voyage and return, tragedy, comedy, and rebirth) while Robert McKee argues that there are twenty-five.

According to the authors of Made to Stick, successful and sticky stories can be categorized into three basic plots.

The Challenge Plot
The most basic of the Basic Plots. Character faces insurmountable odds and succeeds.
This includes most of Booker's plots such as overcoming the monster, rags to riches, and the quest.
The Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, and Cinderella are all Challenge plots.

The Connection Plot
Two people (or groups of people) from radically different backgrounds come together. The tension in these types of plot can range from the consequences of being found out or the struggle to understand each other.
This is where you find your Romeo and Juliet, Twilight, and Titanic movie.

The Creativity Plot
The character has a mental breakthrough that allows them to deal with problems.
Stories such as Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone or Galileo's analysis of the Solar System.
But not all Creative Plots are about changing the world.
When Ernest Shakleton and his crew were stranded, members threatened to mutiny; an act that could mean death for everyone. So Shackleton assigned the whiners to sleep in the same tent as himself. His presence toned down their negativity so that it didn't spread to others.


Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story (You are here)
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Credible

For a fiction writer, trying to make your book believable can sound stupid. Of course fantasy books aren’t credible. Who’s going to believe that there’s a magical school called Hogwarts, or that people fly on broomsticks, and people talk to snakes?
Well, my sister did. When she was little, she waited patiently by the mailbox for her Hogwarts acceptance letter and asked Santa Claus for a “Harry Potter” broomstick.
But most readers aren’t five-years-olds who will soak up every tooth-fairy lie you tell them.

To write a credible book, you don’t have to utterly convince the readers that the story is true. You just have to make it believable enough that they will pause and remember that, “Oh yeah, these characters don’t exist.”

The book has to make sense. I cannot stress that point enough. You have to fill in plot holes and, above all, your character needs to act realistically. They should weep for the death of loved ones, they should have weaknesses and fears, and they shouldn’t escape their problems totally unscathed.

Use convincing details to add credibility. If I can visualize it, I can believe it. (You’ll note that this ties in with Concrete.)

If you lose your credibility, you can’t get it back. The minute the reader spots a mistake like, “Hang on…wasn’t that character severely injured the day before?” or “How did the poor village boy suddenly learn to fight?” or “I thought she left her sweater at home, how is she wearing it now?” the believability of the book goes down the drain.

For more on this subject, see Believable Part 1 and Believable Part 2

Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible (You are here)
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Made to Stick for Writers: Unexpected

To make something unexpected you must break a pattern. Doing so captures the audience’s attention. “Once upon a time…” is so common that the sentence fails to surprise.

In Patricia Kindl’s book Goose Chase she began with, “The King killed my canary today.”
Already we have several questions: Why did the king kill her canary? What does he have against birds or the narrator? Who is this king? How did he kill it? Was it an accident?

First of all, it’s surprising. It’s not the usual way for a fairytale to begin. Secondly, it’s interesting. We realize that we’re missing a lot of vital information and so we want to keep reading to find answers.

To be unexpected you must grab the audience’s interest and, more importantly, hold it.

Surprise
We become surprised because what we expect to happen doesn’t. In other words, our “guessing machines” fail us.
If that’s the case, then it should be easy to create a “hook” at the beginning of our stories, right? All we should need to do is write a surprising sentence. Wrong.

While our hooks need to be somewhat surprising, it can be difficult to craft one that avoids planting a red herring.
For example, if the first sentence was “Sitting in the shade of the tree early that morning, I could never have imagined that by sundown my whole family would be dead.”
What! We inwardly gasp. How did the whole family die?
We’d be curious to discover the cause and to read the, no doubt, thrilling adventure that led to their demise.

But what if the book suddenly begins describing every aspect of the narrator’s staircase. She then explains to us that her “whole family” consists of an old greyhound named Maddock who trips on said staircase and dies. Thus, by sundown, the narrator’s “whole family” is dead. It’s only after that episode that we get to the actual story, which is much less thrilling than we imagined.

You’d probably feel tricked and frustrated. The hook sentence turned out to be a red herring that did nothing but attempt to lure you into a dull story.

To write a successful hook it must both surprise and reflect the main idea, or the core, of the story. The stupid dog dying was NOT the story’s main idea and so it failed. Miserably.

Interest

Now that we’ve got the reader’s attention, how do we keep it?
Let’s talk Velcro; Velcro connects because one side is made of hooks and the other is made of loops. The hooks snag the loops and Voila! It sticks together.

We have the “hooks’, so to speak. We have the answers to the reader’s questions. But before we can answer their questions, we have to make them want the answer. We have to make them realize that they’re missing crucial information.

To do so, ask yourself, “What questions do I want my audience to ask?”

Once we know the questions ourselves, we can gently point out what the reader doesn't know by creating mystery.

“The man was killed by the king because he distributed treasonous flyers” leaves very little to become curious about.
By withholding information we can create mystery.
Instead, we could show the man being arrested by the king’s guard. We could show the guard proclaiming that, as a traitor, he will be tried.
Now we’ve got the reader asking questions; What did the man do that was so treasonous? What will happen at his trial? Will he end up dying?

Intro
Part 1: Simple
Part 2: Unexpected (You are here)
Part 3: Concrete
Part 4: Credible
Part 5: Emotional
Part 6: Story
Part 7: Epilogue

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Writing a Rough Draft: The Easy Way

When I start writing a novel, I get a picture in my head of the hefty two-hundred page book it will become. So I'm disappointed when the rough draft ends up around twenty pages. I add scenes just to lengthen it and bog it down with unnecessary sentences.

Well, I think I've got the solution.

Write your rough draft as if you're writing a short story.
I recently wrote a short story and it ended up about the same length as most of my rough drafts. Sure, the pacing is a little fast, but the point is, a short story gets to the point and doesn't have uncertain pauses. If I wanted, I could easily make it longer.

I don't know if you've ever read The Arabian Nights. While the stories could certainly be expounded, they are told in concise language;

"The grand vizier conducted Scheherazade to the palace and left her alone with Sultan, who bade her raise her veil and was amazed at her beauty."

This single sentence could be lengthened into several paragraphs;

"Scheherazade didn't speak; merely followed the grand vizier submissively. He glanced at her sideways. She didn't look like the rest. She wasn't sobbing uncontrollably, didn't claws at his robes and beg him for release. She had a thoughtful step and, while her hands trembled slightly, she did not seem afraid. The vizier shook his head. She was either incredibly brave or incredibly dim-witted."

See? Already a whole paragraph and we haven't even finished coloring in the sentence. We could tell how the vizier bowed once and scuttled out. We could add dialogue. We could write in the sharp intake of breath as Scheherazade raises her veil.

So, if you're having trouble fleshing out a story, write it so that you're telling instead of showing.
Write it as a short story.

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Elements of Fiction: Foreshadowing Part 2

We've discussed what foreshadowing is and its most common form.
So how do we create foreshadowing?

Dialogue
What people say can hint at future events. For example in The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell;

"...Great sport, hunting.”
“The best sport in the world,” agreed Rainsford.
“For the hunter,” amended Whitney. “Not for the jaguar.”
“Don’t talk rot, Whitney,” said Rainsford. “...Who cares how a jaguar feels?”
“Perhaps the jaguar does,” observed Whitney.
“Bah! They’ve no understanding.”
“Even so, I rather think they understand one thing—fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.”
“Nonsense,” laughed Rainsford. “...The world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are the hunters."

This conversation rings with meaning when Rainsford later becomes the "hunted".

Events
The things that happen in the beginning can carry symbolism of what is to come.
From Michele Torrey's Voyage of Ice;

“A baby bird...”
Dexter peered into the tree overhead. “Must’ve fallen from its nest. C’mon, Nick, put it down. It’ll make a fine meal for something...”
“But we can’t let it die.”
“All things die, Nick.”
“I can feed it milk. And a worm, maybe..."
The hatchling was warm in my hands, and all the way back I whispered to it while Dexter rowed the boat and rolled his eyes.
...For two days I kept the bird alive, but it finally died as Dexter said it would. I held the cold, stiff body, thinking maybe it wasn’t really dead yet, but Dexter snatched it from me and buried it in a hole in the yard.
“It’s over,” he said, dry-eyed and looking disgusted.
I bawled my eyes out. Couldn’t help it. I visited the little grave for weeks, until it was overgrown and I could no longer see where it used to be.

Later in book, Nick shows the same compassion for life when he, and others, are stranded.

Narration
A simple sentence can allude to what's going to happen. Tucked neatly in a story could be,

"That was the last time Marcus ever saw her..." (This is a direct telling that something happens that prevents Marcus and the girl from ever seeing one another.)

"His words were kind enough, but his voice was cold. I was suddenly afraid..." (The narrator is always right, and holds great sway on the reader's opinions.)

"But it was too late anyway. No one could survive six months in Antarctica... (Whenever someone says something is impossible in a story, we usually assume it isn't. Because that's what writing a story is about; doing the impossible through a story.)

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Elements of Fiction: Foreshadowing Part 1

Foreshadowing: Giving hints to help the reader predict future events.
Okay, so why would we want readers to predict something? Aren't we supposed to surprise them? Yes and No.

Surprise is good. It can jolt the reader and intrigue them.
But sometimes, foreshadowing is far more intriguing. Let's look at the most basic form of foreshadowing; a prophecy.

Let's say that in the prologue an oracle declares that in ten years a young boy will find a long-lost sword. After the sword is used to kill his mother, he will use the sword to defeat a dark sorcerer in the mountains.

Now, why would a reader want to even read the story? They basically know the plot, right? Sure, but they are missing information and they know it.
How does the boy find the sword? How is the sword used to kill his mother? Does that mean he kills her? Why? How does he even get involved in the defeat of a dark sorcerer? How does he use the sword to accomplish that? Who is the dark Sorcerer and why should he defeat him?

I'm not saying this is an award-winning plot. But foreshadowing can generate interest and discussion. The reader will want to read, just to find out the answers to their questions.

When writing foreshadowing, think about "What do I want my audience to ask?"

This question should especially be used at the beginning of a story. You want generate enough questions that it draws the reader in from sheer curiosity. However, be careful not to overload. There is a fine line between curiosity and frustration.

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Breaking Writing Rules

I've come across several writing blogs that challenge writers to "break all the rules about writing that you can. It's the only way to be original. Rules are confining. Ignore them all."

Now pay attention, because this is important; you shouldn't write a story with the sole purpose of breaking as many "rules" as you can.
It won't make you stunningly original or creative. It will probably just make your book suck.

Granted, there are some rules that won't work for everyone. Novelists are told that the main character should grow and develop by the end of their book. For short story writers, this rule is usually unnecessary for such a short time span.

Rules are really just guidelines or suggestions; a roadmap to give you hints about where the heck you're going.

The most successful books follow the "rule" to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Breaking that rule will, more likely than not, result in a mess of a plot.

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Raising The Stakes

No matter how huge the conflict, if it doesn't directly affect the protagonist, why should the character care? Why should the reader care?
By raising the stakes, the protagonist's life becomes more entangled with its conflicts. Things spiral out of control because of the protagonist's attempts to stop the threat.
Examples:

Conflict: War threatens protagonist's homeland.
That's all good and fine, but how does it affect protagonist?
Complication: Protagonist's brother forced to serve in enemy's army.
Now it's more personal.

Conflict: Protag's mother is dying.
Complication: The only known cure is at the end of the world.

Conflict: Character is framed for theft.
Complication: If character can't prove his innocence, his family will be killed.

Conflict: Character's father dies.
Complication: The father left a debt that the character must pay.

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Creating Post-War Scenes: Part 2

Families
The obvious consequence of war; loss of life.
Even after a war, the ache of the dead is still there. Brothers and sons become soldiers, civilians are killed, and families are split in the general confusion of bombings, refugee camps, or by hostile governments.

Destruction
War is messy. Entire cities can be destroyed in the process of warfare. Records, art, and homes are deliberately damaged. During World War II, London was bombed, and some of France's great architecture and art demolished.

Soldiers
Soldiers can return home haunted and bitter.
After the Vietnam War, many veterans sought psychological help, but most were refused since citizens at that time were against war and hated the returning soldiers.

Agriculture
Without the soldiers in the workforce, that's that much less people farming and preparing food (This one really only applies back to when most everyone was a farmer.) Starvation and famine can follow long wars, what with half the population growing crops for the same amount of people.
During the American Revolution, hungry armies would often raid civilian homes for food and not bother paying for it.

Fashion
This one's not a very common effect of war, but I thought it somewhat interesting.
During World War I, women were asked to stop buying steel-framed corsets to provide more metal to the war effort. Consequently, corsets went out of style (thank heavens).

Roles

As most of us know from 7th grade Social Studies, the lack of men in the workforce during World War II provided women the opportunity to do more jobs, resulting in this marvelous bit of propaganda;

(Never seen that before...)

Children will also shoulder more responisblity when given the chance.

War changes not only boundries and countries, but lives.

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Creating Post-War Scenes: Part 1

Even after a war is over and done, the world isn't automatically perfect. There's still quite mess left to clean up. Every aspect of the countries involved (especially for the losers) is affected.

Economy
Wars aren't cheap. Each country has to pay for their armies. Uniforms, ammunition, and necessities have to be provided, usually at the expense of civilians.
The currency's value can also be decreased. Toward the end of the Roman empire, enemy looting and government spending of the state's gold made the value of Roman coins drop.

Boundaries
Land; you can't make more, what's there is there. Throughout the ages, countries’ borders have waxed and waned. Persia once stretched from India to Libya, all through the conquering of other nations.
So what land do the conquerors receive? How have the maps changed? What have the losers sacrificed?

Losers
Every war has a losing side, even if they do come to a agreement or sign a treaty.
They may be forced to give up land or money. Notably in ancient times, the victors could have them enslaved, such as the Babylonians, or revoke their rights, much as the Romans did to the Jews.

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Solving Problems and Creating Solutions

It's all good and fun to heap conflicts on our characters. That's what we want, right? The only problem with problems is that we have to solve them.

Two Birds with one Stone

One way to solve is by using one problem to solve another. You wouldn't believe how often this works.
For example, I was struggling with a Character A's lack of involvement in the plot. I was also trying to figure how Character B finds out that Character C is in trouble. The solution to both? Make Character A the messenger boy.
In these cases, the two interlocking problems aren't always obvious. Try combing through your story and making a list of plot holes and problems. Then put a couple together to see if they match up. It's sort of like a puzzle; two puzzle pieces are enigmas alone, but click them together and you're that much closer to the finish line.

The Brainstorm

This is the most logical technique; sit around and think brilliant thoughts. However, for most of us, it's not that easy.
Brilliance doesn't happen under pressure. Which is why the brainstorm shouldn't be taken seriously. If you're exerting pressure on yourself to be a genius 24/7, chances are you won't be.
Trust me. I once stressed and racked my brain for an hour, convinced that the only way to complete my book was by refusing to stop my brainstorm. In a word; failure. The only thing I accomplished was a week-long writer's block.
Successful brainstorming should be relaxed musing. No pressure, there's always another day to be amazing.

I never quite know when I'm not writing. Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, "...Thurber, stop writing." She usually catches me in the middle of a paragraph. Or my daughter will look up from the dinner table and ask, "Is he sick?" "No," my wife says, "he's writing something."
~James Thurber

Change the Facts

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts
~Albert Einstein

Sometimes, we write ourselves into a corner. The scenario is too impossible, the conflict cannot be resolved, and the characters are dead meat. If that's the case, un-write and rewrite. You're the author. Give the villain a tendency to oversleep, make the dungeon walls hastily built, the fortress located in an abandoned quarry, the evening wine drugged (You can imagine for yourself what these suggestions would resolve.)
You don't have to make things easy for the characters, just possible.

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Elements of Fiction: Characters Part 1

Probably the most important thing in any story; the characters. The plot, conflicts; everything revolves around them. Naturally, we need to spend some time on them.

Types

Protagonist
This is the main character. He's the guy who makes the choices, it's his life you're detailing. While most tend to be likable heroes, over the past few decades readers have developed a taste for characters that you should by no means find appealing. But instead, their selfishness, cowardice, or blurry logic can make them roguishly endearing instead of evil. Perhaps it makes them seem more human.
But there's a fine line when using this technique. They must do some good things, and at least possess one good quality. Otherwise, they're just annoying.

Antagonist
The antagonist is the bad guy. He's not always present as a character. In some conflicts, the antagonist exists in a different form. The antagonist does everything in his power to stop the protagonist from achieving their goals, which tend to negatively affect the goal of the antagonist. For more on casting them, check out my post Creating Villains.

Secondary Character
Secondary characters, while not in the spotlight, interact by forming relationships with the protagonist and antagonist.

Minions
While minions are stereotypically the evil villain's cronies, I prefer to classify them as those who side with the antagonist. This doesn't not necessarily make them evil. Several times, this type of secondary character might do it out of fear, confusion, or naivety.

Friends
Friends help and support the protagonist. They usually influence the main character's decisions, thus influencing the plot. Some friends may have once been Minions or In-betweens.

In-Between
These guys don't side with either the protagonist or the antagonist. They work for their own interests and causes.

Static and Dynamic

Static
Have you ever stared at a static television screen? While the fuzzy black and white is certainly in motion, they seldom change into something better or worse.
So it is with static characters. Static characters are defined as any character that remains the same throughout a story. They don't really grow or change. Their personality remains the same throughout the story.

Dynamic
Dynamic characters are affected by their circumstances. They can become braver and stronger through their trials. At the other end of the spectrum, the conflicts can prove too much for them, and they lapse into bitterness, thoughts of revenge, or fear.
Every main character must be dynamic. If they do not develop and learn throughout their story, what's the point of it? If throughout our lives we never changed, then what would be the purpose?

Naming Your Character
I believe I wrote a post on that a while back, as well as a collection of good naming sites.

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Writing What You Want

I've repeatedly said in posts that "You are the author. The decisions are up to you. It's your book, do whatever you want..."
But sometime you have to sacrifice what you want for what makes sense.

I've developing another rough draft on the side. In it, I want the main character to fall in love with this girl. But that messes up my plot and destroys the personality I've created for my character. As much as I'd love a love story, I can't do it while retaining the character's true form (and the girl doesn't deserve him anyway.)

R.L. LaFevers, when writing Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist, created a character that she didn't want. On her blog, she said;

While I was writing the first book I ran into the problem of Nate and Aunt Phil having to travel all over the world...and how to make it interesting rather than episodic or a simple tour guide recounting. Drama, I thought! I need to increase the tension! Make Nate proactive!

So I had Aunt Phil send Nate out on the wing to go up to the propeller and see what was gumming up the prop...
And much to everyone's surprise (not the least of which mine) it was a gremlin who was gumming up the works and out she popped into the story.
B-but . . . I didn't want a gremlin in the book! It didn't work! It mucked up the world I was building and mixed mythologies and . . . and . . . No, I wailed!
But try as hard as I might, I simply could not write the book without her. And if you know how life works, it is probably not surprising to learn that for many readers she is one of the most popular parts of the book.

Sometimes, no matter how badly you want something, your book must come first.
Hey, no one ever said writing a novel was easy.

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