The Confabulator Cafe

Author: jcampbell

  • Naughty by Nature: Character and Plot’s Love-Hate Relationship

    “Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

    The idea of plot-driven versus character-driven writing seems, at first, to be as opposite a question as nature versus nurture. Does your character develop out of the necessity of the plot, or does the plot drive forward because of your characters.

    The convention, or at least the one I see most commonly preached in the endless stack of writing books I read, is that your plot should develop out of your characters. Essentially, if you put interesting characters in an interesting setting and watch what they do, you will have an interesting plot. With all due respect to the amazingly talented and knowledgeable writers of those craft books, that isn’t entirely true.

    Your plot will be meaningless without good characters. No one will care if you have an amazing plot line if they don’t feel close to the characters involved in it. They have to see, smell, hear, and even feel the characters you write. But no one will care about your characters unless they do something interesting. They must be involved in an interesting conflict or it is all for naught.

    This is not life. This is art. It isn’t enough to be reality television and have cameras following your characters around catching all of their torrid trysts and failings as if it is some textual Jersey Shore episode. Art is about the constant meshing of character, plot, and prose. That is what makes the medium of writing special.

    Generally speaking, I approach most stories with a sort of screenwriting mentality. I know my premise and at least one or two plot points. I will have a general ending in mind, although it isn’t always the one I end up writing. Writing is like starting on a trip to the beach without knowing how you are going to get there. If you somehow end up on a skiing trip in the mountains, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as you still have fun.

    I have to at least have a premise before I know what sort of characters will serve my plot. As characters begin to develop, the plot will flesh out, maybe even change a bit, but still the needs of the plot are integral to deciding what characters my story will require writing.

    It isn’t an either/or process. Storytelling is architecture. You need blueprints. You need to know what the building will look like, but you can’t go breaking the laws of physics because eventually the damn thing is going to have to stand on its own. If your plot and characters don’t work together, your story will suck.

    Most writers will consider themselves good character writers or good plot writers. They will be more comfortable with one or the other, and they will concentrate accordingly. I’m sure some of my colleagues will swear by one or the other. But ultimately, the thing we all have in common is that we are willing to make sacrifices to our characters for the plot and vice versa.

    Do our personalities shape our actions or do our actions shape our personalities? Who knows? Who cares? Leave the life questions to the philosophers. You have a story to make work. In writing, the answer to the question is always “Yes.”

  • Banned and Dangerous

    “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it.” – Mae West

    Literature has been a flashpoint for centuries. Every generation of every society had problems with certain literature. Books have pushed thought and idea to their breaking point.

    That is what literature is really about. It’s about exposing the dark underbelly of life, showing us the things that we think, but are afraid to admit. Literature shows the truth of human potential, both in triumph and tragedy.

    It is a powerful and dangerous medium. People have been killed, jailed, or ran out of town for things they wrote. Writers get protested, boycotted, or outright censored by others who feel what they wrote crossed some sort of line.

    What is that line, though? It is an ever-changing, evolving thing that is based entirely on social norms. Quite frankly, the line is worthless, and part of art is finding that edge. Artists have lived on that line since story-culture was born.

    You cannot second guess the line. You can’t wonder where it is, and if what you are writing is going to be hated or even latched onto by people with political agendas. Just write. If it is good, maybe it will get published. If some people think it is offensive, that’s their problem.

    Books should never be banned just because someone is scared by what they find inside. It isn’t society’s job to protect me. I can make my own decisions about what I think and feel. So can most of you. The banning of art by any government or organization is a red flag in any society.

    Now, I’m not suggesting that you should let your children read whatever they want. But what you choose to let your child to read, or what your school district wants to teach them should be between you, your school district, and your child. Chances are, your school district will be much more conservative than the average person anyway.

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  • Handing Over the Keys

    “All meanings, we know, rely on the key of interpretation.” – George Eliot

    The axiom in writing is always “show, don’t tell.” With due respect to the originator, sometimes in writing, you should tell. In fact, that is one of the advantages of prose over screenwriting. In screenwriting, you are forced to show out of an inability to tell without seeming fake.

    The question becomes, how much do you want to leave open for interpretation? If you want your reader to really get your theme, you can hit them over the head with it. I know a writer that once told me you should never leave anything open to the interpretation of your audience. I disagree. I want the reader to think about what I wrote and what it might mean.

    There are a lot of readers out there who like to work a little bit when they read. They like to think about the message of your story and decode the various metaphors. There are some that would rather you tell them. Generally, however, you can tell them your theme without bludgeoning them with it.

    Character is defined by thought and action. Story is essentially putting characters in a situation and seeing what they do. What they do, and what they think about their situation is how the reader gets to know them.

    These days, everyone wants to see action and dialogue. Readers have been conditioned by film to look for those two things.  Still, we cannot forget that prose writing, is in essence an interior art. We have the ability to hear our POV characters thoughts. We should take advantage of that.

    Humans think about what is happening to them. Characters should do the same when there is time to do so, and when it doesn’t slow down action.  Action and dialogue are generally vague conveyors of message. Thought is more specific. The art is in finding the balance between the two.

    Writing is a very personal art, a conversation between two people, the artist and the reader. Trust your reader and work with them. Know the expectations of readers in your genre and write to them, then defy them. Make them think. Make them feel like they are a part of your art.  Some genres allow more introspection than others, so know what your readers’ expectations are. Some allow more telling, while others only want action.

    As you can see, I will not suggest doing one and not the other. I will not say “never” tell. Never doesn’t exist in writing. There is only what works, and what doesn’t. Whatever you do, if you do it well, that is all that matters.

    Show, tell, allow interpretation, or explain it all. What matters is that you keep writing, and you write the way you love.  Personally, I love handing over the keys to the reader and letting them drive awhile.

  • Other People’s Muses

    “Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” – Paul Gauguin

    Art is a dangerous thing.  It is a key that can open many doorways.  However, you don’t know what will be on the other side until you have already crossed the threshold.  For an artist, art unlocks perceptions and inspiration you might not have otherwise found.

    I have always been a fan of using art as inspiration for my own art, especially writing.  Writing is about perspectives, about being able to shift between your perspective and the perspective of sometimes imaginary people who are nothing like you.  Allowing another artist’s work to move you can be a good shortcut.

    Art is always an expression of self.  By letting others express themselves, you can get out of your own way.  I’ve found inspiration and writing material in the art of many other mediums.

    I’ve never been one to wait around for ideas.  There aren’t little inspiration fairies floating around my head offering to sprinkle me with creativity dust, at least not that I have seen.

    If I need an idea, I go looking for it.  I’ve mentioned finding inspiration in lines of poetry in a past blog.  But I have also found inspiration from works of art in other mediums.  My novel, Kill Creek Road, began as an idea taken from the song lyrics for “Water’s Edge” by the alternative band Seven Mary Three.  The concept grew away from that initial idea, leaving it behind, but the lyrics got me through the initial planning.

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  • A Living Hobby

    “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” – Ernest Hemingway

    As a short fiction writer, I have never concerned myself with character development. I start writing, and the character comes out subconsciously. When the first draft is complete, I have gotten to know my character.  I’ve spent time with him and know who he is. During the second draft, I bring him more into focus in the early parts of the story.

    The good side of this is that it is very organic and spontaneous. It is beautiful, like watching a flower bud bloom before me in time-lapse vision. The bad side is that I am flying blind, and significant parts of the story will have to be re-written.

    When I wrote my novel, I felt I needed to do a little more planning. I decided to utilize something closer to my method when writing screenplays. The way I was taught, in order to write a screenplay, you need to do a lot of preparation. You have to know your character before you start the first page because you don’t have the luxury of finding him in that format.  Instead, you write character biographies, as in depth as you can, about the character and his life.

    This is written as quickly as you can write it, much like laying down a short story. You don’t want to over-think the biography. Let it flow.  Let the character speak through you. Don’t speak for him. If you think too much, you run the risk of making your character seem to convenient, or too stock.  Don’t concentrate on the character’s actions within your conflict.  Look at his characteristics away from it.  What was your character like before his life went to Hell?  You may not use it all, but you never know what may become important later.

    If you are a writer, chances are you are a people-watcher, as well. Your mind has picked up various ways of speak, mannerisms, habits, and all sorts of character traits that you aren’t even aware you saw. As you work, these will flow through you. (more…)

  • Letting Lunatics Loose

    “Writers are the lunatic fringe of publishing.” – Judith Rossner

    In this digital world, self-publishing has become a very real alternative to the traditional publishing route.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that for some people, self publishing in a digital format may be more profitable than traditional publishing.

    For example, it is entirely possible that your share of the royalties on a book you publish yourself on Kindle may be greater than for a print book that you get published through a publishing house or agent.  That being said, I don’t think I would go that route if I had other options, unless I already had the sort of fan base that can provide a writer with a living.

    The benefit of self-publishing is total control.  No one else is telling you what your art is supposed to mean, or how you should go about writing.  No one is droning on about how your characters aren’t likable or your scenes don’t work, or they simply don’t get it.

    The downside is much the same.  No one is telling you that your writing is crap and you really need to work on it before publication, no matter how married you are to that metaphor in Chapter 6.

    My belief is that if you are going the self-publishing route, you had better have a support group that includes very talented, very experienced editors.  Otherwise, hire a professional to take a look at it and tell you what is missing, where you have gone wrong, and what changes you might consider.

    You can’t do it all yourself.  You are too close.  There are too many things going on in your brain that aren’t on the paper.  What makes total sense to you may seem foreign to anyone less psychic than Sylvester Stallone’s mom.

    I’ve read a couple of self-published books, and the results are mixed.  Personally, I’m not willing to put my name on something that I don’t know for sure is ready.  In fact, I would rather have other people tell me it is ready.  When it comes to my work and other people reading it, I don’t like taking chances.

    It is my name, and my reputation that is on the line when someone sits down to read something written by Jack Campbell, Jr.  However, I really like the feeling that someone else believes in what I’ve written as much as I do.

    There may come a day when I go the self-published route, but not without the helpful advice of several talented friends.

  • The Aesthetic Tragedy

    “Behind every exquisite thing that ever existed, there was something tragic.” ~ Oscar Wilde

    I am a visual person.  When it comes to structure, I like paragraphs that look good on a page.  I don’t want them to be too long, or too short.  I despise too little dialogue, or too much.  I want a delicate balance between action and dialogue, between setting and character.  I want my writing to be aesthetically pleasing upon the page.

    I find that big blocky paragraphs are unpleasant to read, and that page upon page of dialogue seems lazy outside of a screenplay.  Mixing dialogue with description keeps me showing rather than telling, which is, of course, important in writing.

    If I feel that a page seems too dialogue or description heavy, I will try to fix it during the re-write.  Ultimately, though, what works is always more important than how it looks, and if the paragraph works the way I wrote it, then I leave it alone.  As with everything in writing, the visual aesthetic is more a guideline than a rule.

    Most of my scenes themselves are set up like a screenplay, which is the first medium of writing I really took seriously.  Many times, I join a scene in mid-action, or as close to the conflict of the scene as I possibly can.  The rest is written based on feel and instinct.

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  • I, Apprentice

    “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

    I’ve often read about writers, especially young writers, who write like the writers they are reading.  I don’t have that issue.  In fact, I wish I did.  How easy would it be if I could instantly write like a successful writer.

    However, I have learned some great things from some amazing writers.  From Bradbury and Gardner, I learned you don’t have to write poetry to write lyrically.  From Hemingway, I learned that the simplest sentence can be powerful.  From Faulkner and Twain, I learned you don’t have to stray far from home to find intriguing settings.  From Steinbeck and Joyce, I learned a fulfilling story isn’t about living happily ever after.

    We can learn so much from the supposed masters of our craft.  But, I believe you can learn something from any writer or any reader.  Look at the contributors to the Confabulator Café.  We all have our own styles, strengths, and weaknesses.

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  • Eating Your Dead

    “The difficulty lies not so much in the developing of new ideas as in escaping old ones.”
    ~ John Maynard Keyes

    If writing is my addiction, developing ideas is my obsession.  Once I have a premise, especially a good one, I will mill it over for days.  The strange thing is that more often than character traits and plot lines, I get flashes of language and dialogue.

    Even when I am not actively working, I am writing in my head, constructing quotes.  Anyone who has read my writing knows I enjoy linguistically lining up sounds and syllables.  I wiggle words against each other, hoping the verbs vibrate and the tone trembles.

    My journalistic training singles out sound bites, excavating bits of dialogue from syllabic slabs.  I attempt to craft art, and in the process develop character and plot.

    This may sound odd, but it has always worked for me.  It’s how my writing brain functions.  I don’t seek out the sound bites.  They show up while I obsess about my premise.  I write them down for later use while ideas take shape.

    My one rule is that I will never force a favorite phrase into a story.  If I have a beautiful metaphor, but it doesn’t seem natural in context, I won’t use it.  I’ll save it for later.

    Cannibalism is allowed in art.  If it doesn’t work on its own, if the idea doesn’t have enough heft for a full story, that doesn’t mean it is bad.  What may not drive a novel may be perfect for a short story or a sub-plot.  A protagonist who can’t carry the conflict may be a great supporting character, a sequin sewn in to the fabric of another story.  It is decorative, but still helps the new piece shine.

    I don’t believe in broken premises.  If I can’t make it is work, it isn’t necessarily a bad idea.  I’m just not the artist needed to pull it off.  I won’t waste a ton of time chasing an idea that isn’t working for me.  I’ll lay it aside, but never get rid of it entirely.

    In writing, you eat your dead.  Someday, the abandoned premise, approached from a fresh perspective, may speak to me.  Twice now, I have re-written stories several years later and found them to work in ways they never could have when I originally wrote them.

    An artist changes over time, and characters I could only pretend to understand as a college kid are brutal reflections as a 32 year-old divorced father.

    Never throw away an old idea.  Maybe it isn’t a bad idea; it is just ahead of its time, waiting for you to catch up.

  • Clocking In and Checking Out

    “Work every day.  No matter what has happened the day or night before.  Get up and bite on the nail.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

    When I was sixteen, I got my first job, bagging groceries at a small-town Hy-Vee.  I was “a helpful smile in every aisle” no matter what the day had given me up to that point.  I stood at the check-out, cheerfully asking “paper or plastic” to every customer.

    I learned a lot in that first job.  I learned a firm handshake, a warm smile, and how to work hard.  My approach to every job since then has been a constant continuation of striding quickly, grinning in a Looney Tunes tie, to the front of the store to deal with the six o’clock rush.  Clock in and get to work.

    That is the way I write.  I will write anywhere, at any time, on anything.  No matter what else is happening around me, no matter what other issues life has presented me, no matter how I feel, I straighten my Bugs Bunny tie, put on that smile, and get to work.

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