Lawyer and Writer

Everyone knows that a story needs to have conflict. In fact, every single scene in your story should have conflict. Conflict is the main point of a story, and if there's no conflict in a story, then there's no story.

But knowing that, if you're like me, then you have a hard time sometimes figuring what constitutes conflict.

Conflict isn't just about having a fight on every page. If your book is filled with scene after scene of people arguing with each other, it'll get boring. Conflict is about your character overcoming an obstacle in their path.

Conflict is when a rainstorm stands between a lover and their date, and they don't have an umbrella.

Conflict is when a character desperately needs money to achieve their goal, but doesn't know where to get any.

Conflict is when a character is tempted to do something they know is wrong, but it'll help them to accomplish something great.

Conflict can be internal or external. It can be with other characters, or with natural forces, or with their own conscience.

A good shoot-em-up battle is fun, too.

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Listen to my interview on Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing! I talk mostly about Mortis Unbound, and Star Trek.

Friday is a bad day for blogging for me, but Sundays are a good day. Somehow this balances out.

Anyway, today's tip is about the two most important questions you should ask yourself when developing a plot for a novel. Though there are probably many more that are also key, these are biggies in my opinion.

1. Does this make sense?

Sometimes when you're writing, especially if you've followed my advice and have a great outline using the organic method, you will get to a certain point in the book where the character is going to take some important action that is absolutely necessary for them to get to the outcome you need.

And there's a little voice in the back of your mind that says "But..."

Because the action, for whatever reason - maybe because of the personality of the character, maybe because of something you've established earlier in the book, maybe because there's an obviously better course of action available - doesn't make any sense.

It sucks. But you have to ask that question, and you have to answer it honestly. If the action taken doesn't make sense, then you've lost the reader, and the whole rest of the book is ruined. It's key to find a way to either make it make sense, or to find another course of action that will still get you where you want to go. Or redevelop the ending in line with the new course of action.

2. Is this the most creative and mean I can get?

No one wants to read a book that's predictable, or where the stakes aren't high. If you fear for the character's life and don't know what's going to happen next, you'll be on the edge of your seat. If the most important decision a character has to make over the course of the book is whether to have white or brown bread on their sandwich, no one will care.

Generally as I'm plotting, I look at my first impulse and throw it away. The butler did it, yes! It's logical because I've already worked out all the great reasons why he would and he had the opportunity. No wait, maybe it's not the butler, but instead everyone will think it is, and instead it's the maid, who seems to have a solid alibi, and besides she's been the love interest of the main character for three books. It'll be devastating when he realizes.

The latter is a far more interesting outcome. Not only is the situation one that'll surprise and shock the reader, but it creates real consequences to the main character. You always want to be throwing away the most obvious and logical next steps and digging deeper, trying to find something that'll create more conflict, more emotional impact, and not be the first thing everyone thinks of. Remember, if it's the first thing you think of, then it's probably the first thing everyone else will think of, too. You don't want that.

Today's tip is about Point of View.

There are lots of different POVs. The main ones that people use are First Person, Third Person Limited, and Omniscient.

A lot of urban fantasy uses first person POV. Harry Potter is written in third person omniscient. The majority of fiction is written in third person limited. If you don't what understand the different types are, go here, because I'm not going to explain it further in this particular article.

Third person limited is by far the easiest to write. The reason why is that you have the most freedom. You can write one scene from the point of view of the best character to tell it, and the next scene can be from another character's point of view entirely, while the other character isn't present at all.

Omniscient, on the other hand, is far more difficult. You have to be careful not to confuse the reader when you shift from head to head. Because readers are used to limited, you have to be very smooth when you're shifting within the same scene. It took me three reads to realize that J.K. Rowling wasn't staying in one particular character's head throughout a scene, though I thought at first she was writing in third person limited.

First person is pretty easy to write, but has its own limitations. You can't really have multiple characters in a single book all refer to themselves as "I", so if you're going to write first person, you have to set up the book basically so everything important happens in the presence of the main character.

If you write Homestuck fanfiction or are Andrew Hussie, then you can use Second Person. Otherwise, don't do this.

And the tip?

Don't Forget Whose Head You're In.

Whether you're writing in third person limited or in first person, you want to keep in mind the character's unique voice. Remember D for Dialogue? The character's inner world influences the way they see the world, just as it influences their word choice and sentence structure.

You should be mindful of your character's biases, their world view, what they think of as important and what they don't. All of this should come through in adjective choices as you describe the world around them, because the reader is seeing it through their eyes.

Writer's block is something that I've written about before, but no list of writing tips is complete without addressing it.

Personally, I wouldn't go so far as to say that writer's block doesn't exist. But I do think that it is not a mystical, uncontrollable force. It can be overcome. It can be beaten.

There are two main reasons why writer's block happens, at least in my experience.

1. When something has gone awry in the story.

2. Negative self-talk - aka, the Inner Editor has struck.

If the problem is the first, then it's caused by your subconscious. You know that something is going off, that perhaps there's a big plot hole that you've created, or you know on some level that you're painting yourself into the corner.

I've been affected by this many times. Sometimes it takes me a day to get through the problem, sometimes longer. The main way to avoid it is to recognize it when it's happening, and then to go back through the most recent developments in a draft, to see where things are going wrong. I usually have to back up a few steps and move things in a different direction.

On the other hand, if the Inner Editor has convinced you that writing is far too difficult to move on with and it's best to just catch up on Game of Thrones, then it's you're stuck in a far more difficult situation. It's not writer's block - it's negative self-talk. The only way to beat it is with positive reinforcement.

Write a little, even if it's hard. Tell yourself that writing is fun, that it doesn't matter even if the writing is bad - that you can always fix it later. Tell yourself whatever it takes, but write something. Even if it seems terrible, it's better than nothing.

The best way to beat writer's block, is to write.