Writing Tips- Antagonists.

Antagonists are very important aspects of a story. In fact, so important, that many authors and how-to books often talk about them.

When we think of the word, antagonist, we often think of some kind of evil overlord who wants to kill everyone and destroy the world. But not all antagonists are "bad guys", in fact some can be good. An antagonist is simply something (as they don't always have to be a person) or someone who gets in the way of our protagonist's goals.

Antagonist as 'something'. (Man vs. Nature)
As I mentioned, your antagonist can be a 'something'. For example, they can be an diesense that is wiping out the population and when your protagonist's love gets sick and prevents your protagonist from getting married.

It could be a test that your character has trouble passing, like a driver's test, and can't make a road trip with her friends unless she gets her license.

One could say these type of antagonists could be easier to write about because they aren't exactly "characters" in the normal sense, yet still play a crucial role in the story.

Antagonists as people. (Man vs. Man)
This is most common type of antagonist. And probably the hardest to develop. What I mean by this is that in order to create a wonderful antagonist, your antagonist should be just as developed as your protagonists. they should have goals and motives just like your 'good' guy. Janice Hardy from The Other Side of the Story, says this about antagonists:

One thing that's help me when writing from the bad guy's POV, is to make them the hero of their own story. Few people actually consider themselves evil or bad, so even if there's a bit of conscience bugging them, they'll rationalize it same as your hero would. To them, the protag is the one getting in the way and messing things up. The protag is the villain.  

Making them real people with real goals also makes it a lot easier to write from their perspective, because it isn't about what they're doing to the protag. It's about what goal they're trying to achieve and what obstacles are in their way -- just like your protag. So make them the protag of their story. The hero in their mind. Treat them the same way you would your protag. Except they don't get to win in the end.

Creating a good antagonist involves just as much time and work as developing your other characters. Remember that even your antagonist should have some kind of redeeming quality. No one (well, except Satan) is evil. Your antagonist should have good and bad traits, just like any person, and a history. He should have motivations for being evil that make sense.

Here's some more great advice on this subject by Janice Hardy (I love her advice):

Next time you’re crafting an antagonist, try thinking about: 

What happened in their life to make them this way? 

Like Magneto and the Nazis, is there a defining event or series of events that crafted why he feels as he does? Is that something that others can understand and even relate to? Is there a way to make readers sympathize with him because of this? 

Can you add some honor or nobility to their actions? 

Magneto is trying to protect his people – the mutants. Can your antag’s heart be in the right place? People do the wrong thing for the right reasons all the time. Maybe your antag is trying to do something noble on the grand scale, but they’re choosing to get there in a less than honorable fashion.

What tough choices have they had to make? 

Have there been sacrifices? Losses? Odds are your antag didn’t win every battle, thwart every foe and have a life on easy street before they met your protag. Are there key moments in their life where a choice shaped them into who they are? And better still, are there places in the story where you can exploit that? 

What about their “evil plan” is worth pursuing? 

Bad guys who want to destroy the world and kill everyone in it never made sense to me because, um, don’t they need those things to survive as well? (Unless you’re a Dalek. Their desire to destroy the world makes sense for them) Bad guys with a plan that has some element worthy of all the nasty things they’re doing are a lot more compelling. You get why they’re acting as they are. 

The more personal the conflict between protag and antag, the more developed that antag should be. 

Anyways!

Antagonist as a society. (Man. vs Society)
When I think of books with this for their conflict, the main type of book that comes to mind most often are dystopian books. In these stories, the society is the antagonist. And they are against your protagonist because he/she may think differently from them or somehow oppose it.

Antagonist as your protagonist. (Man vs. Himself)
These books I imagine are harder to write when there is an internal struggle for your protagonist. I've never written one myself but I can imagine that this would actually be really good. But it'd be hard.

Resources:
When being bad is good...
How X-men can help you craft a better antagonist.

So what are your favorite antagonists? Why are they your favorites?

Sincerely,
Sareh

Writing Tips- You're Awesome!

I had a really awesome post idea for today that I wanted to share with you today. But being me, I didn't write it down. So now I can't remember what it was. 


Anyways, I decided I'm going to write a post today about not being afraid of what you write. In case you're confused here's what I mean. 


Don't be afraid of how others will perceive your work. 


If you want to write about that subject then go for it. My latest WIP involves a lot of blood and violence. Not that there's a lot of fighting, but the culture involves a lot of taboo subjects and things people might get squeamish about. 


For a while I was worried that people wouldn't want to read it because it involves human sacrifice and things that go along with that. I even describe it in detail during a couple parts of the story. But then, I've been thinking: just because someone else wouldn't want to read this doesn't mean I shouldn't write it. 


So then I've kept the parts and decided that if they need to be taken out later on, they will. If not, I'll keep them. 


Your writing is awesome regardless of what someone else says. 


No matter what the reviews say or the comments you might get, your work is still awesome. As long as you think so. If you want to write about something you're passionate about or something that you feel needs to be included in the story, go for it. 


Everyone has an opinion and not everyone is going to like everything that you write. That's life. But the other thing is that there's at least one other person out there who will at least like what you write. For everyone person who doesn't like something, there's another who does. And that's okay. 


But...


Keeping that in mind, you should still consider the other side. Even if someone completely hates your work, you should still accept their opinion and consider what they're saying. Maybe they can offer advice on something that you missed or something that needs to be worked on. Their opinions and comments can be just as helpful as praise. 


Don't let it go to your head.


This goes both ways. Don't let praise go to your head and think you're the best writer out there. There's always something you can improve on or learn. Even J. K. Rowling isn't the best writer out there and she probably still has things she can learn or improve. 


Don't let the negative comments get to you either. Just because someone doesn't like something you wrote doesn't mean you're the worst writer ever. You're not. And don't even think about throwing that work away just because someone said they didn't like it. It may not be your best ever, but its still good. 


And if you have second thoughts about your piece, take a step back, breathe, and look at it a second time. Maybe not right away, but give yourself enough time that you can look at it with a clear head.   


Writing takes practice just like anything else and you can only improve by reading and writing as much as you can. You cannot get worse. 


Also, keep in mind that you're not alone. There are thousands of writers out there and remember this: for every published writer, there's another thousand wanting to be published. That may or may not be true, but you get the idea. 


Everyone has their ups and downs. Some days, I feel like the worst writer out there. And other days, I feel awesome. That's life too. 


So in short, remember these key things. 

1. You're awesome no matter what someone says. Writing and in life in general. 
2. Don't be afraid to write what you love. You never know, you could change someone's life. 
3. You're not alone. If need be, find other writers you can talk to who understand.
4. Writing takes practice. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again... and again. 
5. You can only get better. 
6. Life is full of ups and downs. Its how we respond to them that matters. 
7. There's always something to learn or improve on. Unless you're God.
8. Every author started like the rest of us: unpublished and with a story to tell. 
9. Don't give up. Dr. Suess got over 200 rejections before The Cat in the Hat was published. 
10. On earth, the sky is blue. 

Sincerely,

Sareh

Writing Tips- World Building

World building is very important. It's probably easier if you're writing in a real-world setting and even harder if you're creating your own world. In any case, it requires research and thinking.

First Step: Research
World building has two things to build a great and believable world. Creativity and research. When one researches, one must remember that you do not need everything you research. In other words, you must figure out what to read. If you're using historical parts in a fantasy novel you probably don't need the most credible sources. Although it's also good to make sure you have true facts in case you end up using something that makes you sound like you don't know what you're talking about. But even if you're creating your own version of a culture, you'll still need to use your imagination.

Even though one must be careful about how much you research because it can quickly take up your writing time and you may never end up starting the story, how much one researches depends on how closely you want your story to relate to true facts. If you want your story's culture to sound like something from Ancient China, you may want to research that culture unless you want to loosely base your culture off of it.

But besides researching historical facts, researching scientific facts and other things will make you sound like you know what you're talking about. You might ask why you need all this researching if you're writing a fantasy novel, but you see, there's these things called plausibility and realism.

Plausibility vs Realism
Plausibility is making your fantasy sound real, as if you're almost there. Realism is using facts from the real world to help make your world sound real. Without real facts, you might end up making your work harder than it has to be.

Tips to help your world:

• Make a list of rules and stick to them: If your world uses time travel and you can hyper-jump to a planet, make sure that if so, you can hyper-jump during any time of the novel unless there's a reason why. If your spaceship can do so during one chapter but can't the next, why? 
• Create maps and research them: I love making maps. They can be very helpful in not only knowing what your world looks like and deciding where things are, but they can help with traveling. They can help you decide what routes to take, where buildings, towns, and geographic features are. How long does it take to get to the next town? How far apart is one town from the next? Knowing where deserts commonly are found and why can be useful. Knowing weather patterns and what causes them are the same. 
• Stick with real things or have a reason not too: If you decide not to have gravity or some universal rule, make sure you have a reason why. Maybe a gaint spell came along that caused the world to loose its gravity. Or it has something to do with being closer or farther away from another planet or maybe it's less dense or more dense. 

What Creatures inhabit your world?

Three tips to decide what flora and animals are normal in your world:

1. There are no created animals, all the animals and plants we know of exist.
2. There is part created creatures/plants, part animals we know of existing: Creatures that don't really exist live in the same world as animals and plants such as deer and coconuts. Remember that the animal kingdom is arranged in a pyramid with large predadors at the top and a larger number of smaller creatures at the bottom.
3. There is no creatures that we know of exist: In other words, you created all of your creatures and plants. Remember that your creatures should fill the same roles as earth animals. Like horses. Although your creature that has a horse-like roles can do things horses can't like flying.

Government

Creating your culture's government is very important. Every society and culture has some type of government. And characters are often a part of something government related. Some types of government can be:

• Empires
• Kingdoms
• Anarchy
• republic
• city state
• feudalism
• dictatorship/totalitarian
• communism
• federation

And then these governments can be separated by even more things like:

• patriarchal
• matriarchal
• militaristic
• theocratic

And within these are even more things your people can be apart of. States, armies, secret societies, government agencies, guilds, and other things ran by governments. 

Creating Culture

Many things help create culture, things like:

• Religion- What someone believes in can greatly affect the culture. How often do the characters pray? Are they deeply religious or not so much? If your culture has religion, recall that religion usually affects every day life and almost everything that people do. In Christianity, most people might go to church every Sunday or some people go once in a while. Muslims pray several times a day. 
• weights and measures- Things like pounds, miles, and quarts are part of the system that America and one other country uses. Everyone else uses things like the metric system. The American system was based on how long the average person's arm or foot was, while the metric system is based on the number ten. How do people count time? By the postion of the sun or the moon? How much does something cost? And what do they use to decide that? Coins, feathers, shells?
• sayings and slang- What people say, how they say it, and what they mean by it differs from culture to culture. Where I live, people say something is "breast" when something is awesome or cool. My cousin says "cool beans" when something is cool. I bet people over in Africa have their own slang for when something is cool.
• diet and food- What does your culture eat? Meat, just veggies and fruit, or both? Also remember that many cultures have different foods from other ones. Italian is very different from Chinese food. Or something that's a common dish in Africa would be exotic in America. 
• music, art, and pop culture- Music and art all say something about people's culture. The Egyptians are famous for their hieroglyphs and the sarcophagus that hold mummies. While the Olmec in Ancient America carved giant heads.  
• prejudice/racism/tolerance- Back in WWII there were many anti-Jewish feelings. People were racist or against Jews. People can be prejudiced against fat or malformed people. Some people tolerate certain groups of people but view them as like second class citizens. 
• manners- Is it polite to bring food when you visit another home? How does your people greet each other? Its important to know what is rude and what isn't. As is how to show respect to someone of higher rank. Do they bow or salute? 
• clothing- The type of clothing and how they wear it contributes to culture. People in India wear saris while the traditional dress for the Japanese is the kimono. Is their outfits made out of cotton during the summer and wool in the winter? Are bright colors worn in the summer and spring while dull colors are worn in the winter and fall?

So what are your favorite created worlds?


Sincerely,
Sareh

Writing Tips- Prologues: Aye or Nay?

Random thought: so since tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I have been reading the articles on Yahoo! about it and in one of the articles it was talking about how President Bush was at a elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. Well the name sounded familiar and I couldn't think of why, but when I was going over some of the articles on here recently, I saw that Tuesday's post mentions Sarasota. Yep, the same town where President Bush was in ten years ago, just got on the news so soon to the anniversary of 9/11.

Anyways, back to the actual article. I was going over the comments I have gotten on my books on Inkpop recently and it came to mind that some people don't mind them and others hate them. So the question came to when is: when is it ever okay to use a prologue and does my story really need one?

Well, does it?
According to A Writer's Guide to Fiction, prologues should be used...:

• To show a scene from the past or near future that may be too jolting in the rest of the story.
• To introduce a character or point of view that may never be seen again in the rest of the story.
• To provide critical infromation about the background, history, etc. that the reader needs to understand in order to understand the rest of the story but may not fit into the rest of the story. 

Here's some tips:

Some writers tend to have a prologue when it really isn't needed. For example, if you have a prologue, look and see if that information you have there could be sprinkled into the rest of the story without causing too much problems. If you can fit that information into the rest of the story without changing anything too much, chances are that you don't need that prologue. 

In The Cursing, I have a prologue. And in some ways it really isn't needed, but it's important to the story because it shows a) the viewpoint from a character who won't ever get her own point of view again and b) it shows some truth to what really happened in the past. I.e, it shows that Tatiana's aunt lies to her all the time and is evil and mean. 

Keep in mind:

• Some readers just plain don't like prologues, even if they are well written and are important to the story. But if you feel that your story must have a prologue, buy all means, go for it! 
• Prologues are not meant for info dumping. That's one of the reasons I didn't really liked Ready Player  One. It info dumped for the first eighty pages.
• Try to keep it somewhat short. Although there are many books out there where the prologues are quite long (In The Book Theif, the prologue is actually several chapters and lasts more than ten pages). 
• It's your book. Even if some one says that you shouldn't have a prologue you don't have to listen to them unless you know that you really don't need one. 

I personally don't mind prologues but only when I think they work for the story. \Sometimes, I've seen it where the author has a prologue to remind readers of what happened in the last book. For example, in Eldest, the prologue tells us what happened in Eragon. Sometimes I find this really nice, especially if its been a while since I've read the last book or if it took a while for the book to come out. 

So, do you like prologues or not? Does your story have one? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Writing Tips- Character Sheets

There are plenty of ways to create your characters but as I'm sure we all know, a good character is a well developed one. If anything the author or yourself should know a lot about the protagonist of the story. We should know them inside out and sometimes learning even the little things about them is good. Some of it may not all go into the story, but the more you know about your character, the more real he/she/it will seem.

Character sheets, I've found, are very helpful for developing characters. One book I read recommend you fill one out after you've completed the story, but I find that filling them out as you write is very helpful. Not only is it good for learning more about them, but it's good for keeping facts straight. How many siblings does your character have? What's his eye color? His fears, his wants, his goals, etc.

I've found many examples of character sheets over the years since I've started writing, but one of the most useful I've found is one from Gaia.online (sure it's game site but you can talk to people on it and stuff). I've listed it for you below to use and I've also posted the link to the page where it's found.


Full name of Character:
Reason, meaning or purpose behind the name:
Nickname:
Reason for nickname:
Race:
Occupation/class:
Social class:
Physical Appearance:
Age:
How old they appear:
Eye Color:
Glasses or contacts?
Hair color length and style:
Weight and height:
Type of body (build):
Skin tone and type (i.e., harry, slimy, scaly, oily, fair, burns easily):
Shape of face:
Distinguishing marks (dimples, moles, scars, birthmarks, etc.):
Predominant feature:
Is s/he healthy?
If not, why not? Or why are they healthy?
Do they look healthy? Why/why not?

Favorites:
Char’s favorite color:
Least favorite, why?
Music?
Least favorite music, why?
Food:
Literature:
Expressions:
Expletives (curse):
Mode of transport:
Hobbies:
How do they spend a rainy day?
Personality:
Are they a daredevil or cautious?
Do they act the same alone as when with someone?
Habits:
Drinks:
How much:
Greatest Strength:
Greatest Weakness:
Soft spot:
Is their soft spot obvious, why/why not:
If not, how do they hide it:
Biggest Vulnerability:
Background:
Hometown:
Type of childhood:
First Memory:
Most important child hood event that still effects him/her:
Why?
Education:
Religion:
Finances:
Family:
Mother:
Relationship with her:
Father:
Relationship with him:
Siblings, How many, relationship with each:
Children of siblings:
Other extended family:
Close? Why or why not:
Attitude:
Most at ease when:
Most ill at ease when:
Priorities:
Philosophies:
How they feel about themselves:
Past failure they would be embarrassed to admit:
Why?
If granted one wish what would it be, why?
Traits:
Optimist or pessimist? Why?
Introvert or extrovert? Why?
Drives and motives:
Talents:
Extremely skilled at:
Extremely unskilled at:
Good characteristics:
Character flaws:
Mannerisms:
Peculiarities:
Biggest regret:
Minor regrets:
Biggest accomplishment:
Minor accomplishments:
Darkest secret:
Does anyone know?
How did they find out:
Self-perception:
One word they would use to describe themselves:
One paragraph of how they would describe themselves:
What do they consider their best physical characteristic and why:
The worst one? Why?
Are they realistic assessments?
If not, why not?
How they think others preserve them:
What four things would they most like to change about themselves:
Why?
If they were changed would they be the same person, why/why not:
Would changing of number 1 make them more happy? Why/why not:
Interaction with other people:
How do they relate to others:
How are they perceived by strangers:
Friends:
Wife/husband/lover:
The Hero/Heroin:
How do they view the Hero/Heroine:
First impression of the char:
why?
What happens to change this perception:
What do people like most about this char:
What do they dislike most about them:
Goals:
Immediate:
Long term:
How do they plan to accomplish them:
How will others be effected by this:
Problems/Crisis:
How do they react in a crisis:
How do they face problems:
Kind of problems they usually run into:
How they react to new problems:
How they react to change:
General:
Favorite clothing, why:
Least favorite, why:
Jewelry:
Other accessories:
Drives:
Where do they live:
Where do they want to live:
Spending habits, why:
What do they do too much of, why:
Most prized possession, why:
People they secretly admire, why:
Person they are most influenced by, why:
Most important person in their life before story starts, why:
How do they spend the week just before the story starts:

Gaia Online- Character Sheet

So, have you ever used character sheets? Do you find them useful? What the best one that you've ever used?

Sincerely,

Peony

Poems- Lyrical

When you think of lyrical poems you probably are thinking of songs. While lyrics now refer to words in a song, lyrical poems do not tell a story but they instead express the feelings and thoughts of the poet. Lyrical poems come in many forms including sonnets, ballads, and odes.

These days, these types of poems do not have to rhyme or be set to a beat or music. Even so, much of lyrical poems is written with a meter based on the number of syllables or stress. Some types of meters include the trochaic (two syllables, with a long or stressed syllable then a short one or unstressed syllable) or Pyrrhic meters (two unstressed syllables). There are more but those are some meters. Some people even mix different types of meters together.

Example of Lyrical Poem
If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 


So, have you ever written one? If you have or you would like to try one, would you mind sharing it with us? 


Sincerely,
Peony