Focusing your Conflict

Welcome back to Notes from New York. Today, we’re talking about focus. When you write a novel, some elements take the spotlight over others. This is necessary. You can’t give equal attention to every element of your novel. Some things are meant to take center stage while others skirt around in the background.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in your story is focusing too much on the wrong thing. Every story as multiple conflicts and sometimes, the story devotes far too much attention to the wrong conflict. For instance, perhaps there is a post-apocalyptic event or war. Because of the magnitude of this crisis, one would expect it to take the spotlight. But sometimes, funny enough, a book pours its focus into a comparatively smaller plot, like a romance. I mean sure, I get it, romance is important to a lot of novels but if you’re focusing on conflict between your main couple while bombs are going off in the background...there might be a problem.

Hunger Games played off this trope by emphasizing the irony in constructing a romance angle in a fight to the death. Other novels, like Harry Potter, Mistborn etc. keep the romance as a subplot, giving the focus to the more interesting things. You know: dark wizards and saving the world.

Now obviously, I’m giving a drastic example, but this can happen in contemporary fiction as well. I read a manuscript once where an arbitrary conflict between characters took a lot more focus from far more severe financial struggles and a natural disaster. Reading the MS had me wondering aloud ‘does this really matter right now?’ You don’t want your reader doing that.

So when you’re looking at your conflicts in your book, think to yourself: What are my conflicts? Make a list of all of them, from the bigger plot stuff to the character level dilemmas. Then reorganize that list, putting the biggest conflict at the top and the smaller at the bottom. This should help to illustrate which plot threads should be getting the majority of your focus.

Never give your reader the chance to wonder ‘why does this matter’? Focus on the right conflicts and your MS will thank you for it.

Hero Spotlight: L and Hermione

Today let’s look at two examples of great intellectual characters, one who meets their intellectual match in the form of a person, and one whose intellect is tested by more extenuating circumstances.

First let’s look at L. Yes just L. L is the hero of an anime called Deathnote. I know some of you may be thinking that Light is the hero, but he is clearly the villain in this pair. This sherlockian relationship is what happens when Moriarty is your main character. And he gets a magical notebook that can kill anyone just with a name. And he likes potato chips.

Yeah, this was my first anime.

L, however, is the detective assigned to his case and the entire first season of Deathnote is devoted to their amazing back and forth. He is intellectually similar to Light but distinguished from him in his commitment to Justice. L at many turns, is too smart for Light and it takes a stunningly complex, long, overarching plan for the villain to finally get the jump on him. L is an awkward sort of genius utterly committed to justice, or what he believes is justice, but it’s also clear he respects Light in a lot of ways.

Despite kicking him in the face

Since the anime isn’t from L’s perspective, we don’t get to see into this head, but we root for him until the end. L remains one of my favorite anime characters. Episode 25 is exceedingly painful for me. Those who have watched the anime know why.

Another character near and dear to my heart is Hermione. Any bookish girl who grew up reading Harry Potter looked up to Hermione in all of her brilliant awesomeness. And while of course she is brave and tough and many other things, her chief quality is her amazing brain. She knows just about everything about magic and is at the top of all of her classes. And of course, this intellect gets her friends out of trouble many times. They would actually be dead without her.

Hermione’s intellect is constantly tested by the situations around. Sometimes her brain power isn’t enough, which she even admits in the first book. And she’s certainly not the best at everything. Harry beats Hermione in potions with the help of the Half Blood Prince’s book and she struggles in divination. Her greatest fear is failing her classes. In many ways, her intellectual match can also be her high expectations for herself.

But what makes Hermione such a strong character is her bravery. She is a Gryffindor after all, and even in spite of these fears and failures, she fights tirelessly to protect her friends, eventually evolving from a know-it-all, to a woman wise beyond her years.

And she punches Draco in the face

That's all for now! See you next week as we tackle our next hero archetype: the lovers. Until then, happy writing!

Heroes and Heroism: The Intellectual vs. Their Intellectual Match

Last week we looked at the fighter so lets jump to the other end of the spectrum to those heroes that rely on brain rather than brawn. This is one of my favorite heroic types: The intellectual. 

The intellectual is, in many ways, the opposite of the fighter. They are more reserved and prefer analyzing a situation before rushing into it. Their greatest asset is their brains. And they have no problem bringing others down a peg with their superior knowledge.

There are a million and two examples of the intellectual in fiction, movies and TV. Of course there are many, many different versions of the great Sherlock Holmes, from Robert Downey Jr.

To Benedict Cumberbatch 

To the Disney version starring mice (main character is not named Sherlock, but he is basically Sherlock). 

And all of them have their Moriarty, who puts them in their place and tests their intellect more than ever before.

But there are so many more shades to the intellectual archetype than Sherlockian heroes. Hermione is also an example of an intellectual as from the very beginning, her greatest strength is her bookishness and cleverness which saves her friends on many occasions. 

Sazed from Mistborn belongs to a culture of intellectuals, the Terrisman who collect history, religions, science and other areas of studies by way of Freuchemy.

So what ends up ultimately being the downfall of these heroes who are so brainy? They meet their intellectual match.

Now this could be a human being of course. A renown super villain or psychotic, smart enough to evade the hero and even out think him. The scary thing about this kind of intellectual match is it points out just how similar the hero and the villain are. This kind of match up can make the hero doubt their own humanity and wonder what really makes them so different. And I love complex psychological exploration like that.

But the intellectual match doesn’t have to be a villain. Sazed experiences an existential crisis after losing someone important to him. He decides none of his vast knowledge means anything anymore. The intellectual match can be circumstances beyond the hero’s control. Circumstances that make their vast knowledge irrelevant.

All of these situations put our brainy heroes through a test and, just like the fighters, they must overcome and become stronger than before.

Join me on Friday as we take a look at two very different intellectual characters! Until then, happy writing!

Heroes and Heroism: The Fish out of Water vs. A whole new World

Welcome back everyone! Today we’re looking at the fish out of water trope.

This is a classic trope, especially in fantasy, and it’s not hard to see why. Introducing a whole new world becomes much easier when the hero is just as confused as the reader. This makes the fish out of water relatable and sympathetic all at once.

The defining conflict of the Fish Out of Water is, of course, the land. The surreal world unlike anything they’ve ever seen. They must adapt quickly to different laws and principals in order to survive, usually struggling to keep up with their fellow characters.

Take Harry Potter for example (who I know we used in the last example but, hey, he fits more than one trope), a boy who doesn’t know he’s a wizard until a half giant comes knocking on his door. and tells him so.

Suddenly he’s thrown in the wizarding world of which he knows nothing about. Of his two best friends, one is a pureblood wizard and the other is muggle born but also a genius who knows everything there is to know already. This was a brilliant move on Rowling’s part because not only is Harry lost in this new world, he also has people around him to guide him and answer his—and the reader’s—questions.

This is the thrust behind portal fantasies as well, in which someone from the real world is sucked into another dimension. Take the Chronicles of Narnia or Vision of Escaflowne.

If done poorly, this hero can come across as cliché, boring or a cheap way to make world building easier. But if done well, it can be a lot of fun, especially in young adult. High school, college and the prospect of adulthood is confusing and scary. Everyone at that age feels at least a little stranded on land. It’s nice to have someone in a fictional world that feels the same. 

Hero Spotlight: Harry Potter and Vin

Welcome back! Today we’re taking a look at two great examples of chosen ones: Harry Potter and Vin.

Unless you’ve been living at the center of the earth for the past few decades, you know who Harry Potter is. My generation in particular has been inundated with wizarding culture. We practically grew up with the characters. So it’s only fair to give a shout out to Harry Potter, a chosen one in every sense of the word.

Some people take issue with Harry Potter as a character. Usually when they do, it’s for illegitimate reasons. Like the fact he has flaws. Or acts like a realistic teenage boy. Or doesn’t respond well to the pressure of losing everyone he loves.

And while I don’t have time to defend Harry against critics, I do want to use him as an example of the crushing pressure of the weight of the world on chosen ones. Because of a prophesy he didn’t ask for, Harry loses his parents in his infancy and is forced to grow up in an abusive environment. When he finds out he is a wizard, everyone he meets lauds him as some fantastic wizard, the only wizard to survive a killing curse. He is supposedly destined for great things.

But Harry is also an eleven-year-old fish out of water. He’d rather live as a normal wizard without so many expectations but he is constantly pushed into situations no child should face. He stands up to them of course, but with increasing consequences as he gets older. He even ends up with PTSD after the events of book 4.

I love these books because they show how screwed up it is to hail someone as a chosen one, especially a kid. It can have a lot of internal and external effects, all of which are explored in the books.

While Harry Potter is a prime example of why you shouldn’t build someone up as a chosen one, the Mistborn trilogy shows the inherent difficulty of interpreting a prophesy at all. One thousand years ago, a great hero was supposed to save the world. He did, but enslaved it, so we can’t really call that a win, can we? The story is set in the aftermath. But who is the real chosen one? Who was really supposed to save the world?

There are a lot of possibilities brought up throughout the books, but Vin is certainly one of the prime candidates.

Vin is one of my favorite main characters in anything ever. I love her. I love her so much. I love how she’s a survivor who wears tomboyishness and femininity with equal strength. I love to watch her work through her trust issues. I love how street smart she is. I really, really love her, just like I really, really love these books.

Not only does everyone rely on Vin to make things better, some even organize a religion around her. It’s a lot of pressure for someone who doesn’t even believe in her own capabilities. All the while, it’s hard to nail down exactly what the prophesy means or whether or not it’s even accurate. For fear of spoiling it, I can’t go into more detail, but it’s brilliant. Really. Mistborn takes a classic trope and questions its very foundation.

That’s all for this late Hero spotlight. Will be returning next week to look at the fish out of water trope! Until then, happy writing!

Heroes and Heroism: The Chosen One

Welcome back everyone! Today we’re talking about another very common hero trope--one that borders on cliché, especially in fantasy. That being the chosen one. No matter how far under a rock you live, you know at least one example of a chosen one. Harry Potter, Aragorn, Luke Skywalker. All three of these heroes are heroes foretold to defeat an ultimate evil, unite their people, or save the world. Or all three if the prophesy is feeling ambitious. They are the last hope and the ones everyone looks to in times of trouble.

However, unlike superheroes, who choose to use their powers to save others, Chosen one’s are sort of… forced into it. Their mentors or family tell them from a young age, everyone knows their name and they must train in order to rise to the occasion of the prophesy.

The Chosen one faces responsibility, of course, but more than that, they face the weight of the world’s expectations. When you’re a prophesied savior, everyone expects something out of you. Some expect power. Some expect kindness. Some expect wisdom. And some people just want to kill you. Usually the villain threatened by the prophesy.

But the dilemma for many Chosen Ones? They don’t want all of this fame or responsibility. Harry would happy live a normal life at Hogwarts as an ordinary wizard with his friends. Aang would rather play and have fun than become the Avatar. Aragorn is more comfortable as a ranger than a king. And yet, despite what they want, they are still needed by the world.

A lot of people find this trope cliché and stupid, mostly because prophesies seem like a cheap way to make a main character special through no merits of their own. I don’t hate on this trope quite so much because while there are plenty cliché ridden prophesied heroes, there is a lot of interesting conflict that comes from unwanted responsibility. If you’re a chosen one, you’re caught in the hands of fate and often feel like you have no control over your own life. Or you look at the weight of what you must accomplish and doubt that you’ll ever measure up. There are lots of fun psychological things to be done with this trope.

We’ll get into more specifics during the spotlight, but remember: just because a hero type has been written to death doesn’t mean it can’t be done well and with a new twist. Just make sure you use the trope to its fullest potential and don’t gloss over how heavy the world really is.

Villains and Villainy- The Redeemed

Alright, so here we come to our final villain type and one of my personal favorites. The redeemed villain. This is the villain that starts out bad. The villain that in the beginning you hate and want to see go down. But over the course of the story, you slowly warm up to them as you discover their motivations were grayer than you thought.

You can probably name off several redeemed villains off the top of your head. They’re everywhere throughout literature. It’s not hard to see why, either. All throughout this series, my continued mantra has been ‘make your characters human’. This trope capitalizes on that by breaking through an audiences initial first impressions and changing their minds.

Remember Severus Snape? Of course you do. The mean professor who was a red herring for half of the evil doings at Hogwarts? Who likes him? 

Well... a lot of people now. Because while Snape’s actions are still incredibly problematic and he really is a pretty terrible person for taking out his anger on children who he had authority over, by the end of book seven, we see the reason behind his actions. We see some of the tremendous good he has done through the tremendous bad. And we soften to him.

A lot of the villains I’ve talked about in this series get their redemption too. Lots of baddies from Once Upon a Time and Avatar the Last Airbender get their redemption (We’ll talk about Zuko in the spotlight). They have an arc that eventually leads them back to the good side. None of them start out evil, so they don’t have to end evil.

The key to pulling off a good redeemed character is to know where they’re going from the get go. That way you can smooth the transition and plan for it. You can add hints even at the beginning that your villain isn’t all bad. You don’t want a redemptive arc to just pop out of nowhere or it feels cheap and disingenuous. The result shouldn’t make the reader think, ‘what?’ It should make the reader think, ‘Of course! How did I not see the signs?!’

What’s so wonderful about this trope is it truly plays off the complexities of human nature. All human beings have a dark side, and some let it take over more than others. But it’s never too late to turn back and do good. It’s a hopeful trope and probably the one I use the most in my writing. These characters, the redeemed villains, are my absolute favorites in any given series. Because they make me so happy when they get back on the right path.

Thanks for reading. See you for the villain spotlight on Friday!

Villain Spotlight- Dolores Umbridge and Joffery Baratheon

Last week on the spotlight, I fangirled. This week? Its time for a rant.

Not that you haven’t heard a rant in this vein before. Because today I am discussing two of the most infamously hated villains of all time. Dolores Umbridge and Joffery Baratheon.

Oh my god, where to start.

I think it says a lot about a Harry Potter character’s evil when people want them dead more than Voldemort. VOLDEMORT! The main villain of the series. The monsterous man who ruined the lives of our young hero. But if given the choice? Oh yeah. Everyone would take out Umbridge. Because she is just the most unpleasant woman.

Oh sure, she hasn’t killed anyone (though she did help sentence several muggle borns to Azkaban in book seven). But she weasels her way into your soft spots and hits you where it hurts. What I mean by that is, she’s familiar.

Most people haven’t personally known a Voldemort. We’re pretty familiar with the archetype at least. But a lot of people have known an Umbridge. That person who is so bigoted and so ignorant and yet so very sure of their righteous intentions. The person who shames you and makes you feel lesser than them with just a condescending laugh. Plenty of people have had teachers or coworkers like this. Voldemort is a threat sure. But a far off threat.

If you don't get this last one, you haven't watched the Very Potter musicals. And you should

As one of my friends once put it: “Umbridge is personal”.

And then there’s Joffery. Even if you haven’t seen Game of Thrones, you know Joffery. As far as evil goes, he definitely takes the cake from Umbridge for pure number of people hurt and kingdoms screwed up. He does a lot more damage with his power. He tortures people and punishes them for misdemeanors and makes foolish decisions that throw the seven kingdoms into war. Which destroys supplies. Right before a winter. And winters last several years in this world.

Not his brightest moment.

There are certainly people who do as much damage as him. Tywin Lannister for instance, causes tons of pain. But he doesn’t do it for the sake of causing pain but for some sort of aim. And also he’s not STUPID. At least he’s aware of what he’s doing. Joffery knows nothing and he causes pain for the fun of it. And even Ramsay Bolton (who is totally more twisted) at least is smart. That’s a redeeming quality right?

At least he gets slapped a lot

Joffery has no redeeming qualities. And that is why he is so hated. Though it will be interested to see who ultimately comes out of Game of Thrones the most hated. Because there are some recent new contenders.

*Cough* episode nine season five *cough*

Still, these are good villains. As much as I hate them, it’s really because they do their job to well. Because they get under my skin to the point where I can’t enjoy them. That’s a well written villain right there. Making villainy as disgusting as it is in reality.