Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Good Advice

Hey, it's a quote from Husband!*

"Discover what each character needs."

Great writing advice, right? Even though he uses it for films, it's the same sort of idea. And it can help get me out of a NaNo slump. Because my characters will always need something (a drink of water, a slap, to find the key to the hidden garden door**, whatever). And if I give them what they need, the story will be over. So, naturally, I give them (or allow them to take) what they think they need, insuring all manner of mayhem.

What does your character need? A quest? Love? A job? Comedy? Some kind of Personal Knowledge? If you know what they need, you're well on your way to denying them for a few chapters (or a lot of chapters, if you happen to be a long-form, dedicated, non-flighty sort of writer). Let's get back to the writing.***

*When I hit that, the "!" didn't come out, because I was sliding off of the shift key. It said Husband1, but only for a second. He is Husband 1, you know, but also HusbandForever.
**What? That's been done? Why didn't someone tell me that 20,000 words ago? Come on, people!
***As opposed to the writing about writing, which is nice, but doesn't add to my climbing word-count. So, bye.

3 comments:

  1. Awesome advice and just what I needed! Thank you! I'm totally off to deprive my character!

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  2. Great point! I'm writing about that on a meta level this week talking about character arcs—what a character needs internally in the beginning of the book and what the get from the resolution.

    http://jordanmccollum.com if you're interested.

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  3. I like it. Now, what does my murderer need?

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