More tidbits from the desk of a hard-working author.
Dear Auntie Deborah:
Help! My characters have gone amok and
won’t follow the plot of my book! What can I do to whip them into shape?
-- A Frustrated Author
Dear Frustrated:
The short (but brutal) answer is that your characters behave
the way you created them. Their histories, personalities, goals, and
motivations are all part of that creation. So if you — like so many of us! —
find your characters resisting the demands of the plot or going off on their
own adventures, it’s time to take a step back and delve deeper into what’s on
the page and what’s in your creative imagination that isn’t explicit but
nonetheless exerts a powerful influence over the character’s behavior.
Looking at it another way, stories can be driven by plot (a
series of actions where one leads inevitably to the next) or by character (the
motivations and inner conflicts dictate the character’s goals and actions).
(Other possibilities include ideas — mysteries, for example — or environments —
where the world itself is the focus. But your problem really pertains to the
competing demands of plot versus character.)
If you’ve conceived of the story as a plotline first and
foremost, of course you want interesting characters but you also want them to
follow the script. One way to do this is to work backward to discover what kind
of person would make those choices and have what it takes to overcome those
obstacles. You cannot simply plug any character into any role and have it work
(unless your characters are all “cardboard.”) “Misbehavior” = mismatched
personalities and roles.
If, on the other hand, you have a compelling, fascinating
character with an agenda of her own that doesn’t fit your plotline, you can
always chuck the script and see where the story goes when driven by
this character.
Dear Auntie Deborah:
Why are poets so underpaid in
comparison to novelists?
-- Impoverished Poet
Dear Impoverished:
I can speak best about my field: I write science fiction and
fantasy, at a pro level for over 30 years, at lengths ranging from about 5,000
words (short for me) to 150,000 (on the long side for me). Typically short
fiction is paid by the word, and the current pro rate is 8 cents/word. So that
5,000 word short story would be paid $400. Very few modern poems are even that
long. Go back a couple of hundred years, and you’ll find book-long works of
poetry, but not today. So poetry is typically paid not by the word but by the
piece, often around $50. Most poetry magazines can’t afford to pay more, btw,
even if they’re subsidized by universities.
If this seems unfair, it is! Poems are not easier
to write than prose. They’re exquisite little gems, where every word must be
exactly right, and the whole is crafted for precise emotional and intellectual
impact. I’ve written a little as part of my novels (like song lyrics or quotes
of poems a character has created) and it’s exhausting. I’d rather write pages
and pages of prose narrative than a 10 line poem. So it’s likely that a poet’s
output will be much less in terms of word count.
All that said, poets are treasures of their culture and
until recently have been supported by wealthy or noble patrons who recognized
how poetry gives voice to the best ideas of its age. Today, as pointed out
elsewhere, accomplished poets are likely to be supported by grants or other
awards. That happens occasionally for novelists, but mostly not. I’m in awe of
true poets, in view of how painfully I wrestle with a few lines here and there,
while turning out an entire novels is relatively child’s-play.
Dear Auntie Deborah:
Which is easier to write, a screenplay
or a novel?
-- Get Rich Quick
Is writing poetry easier than writing screenplays? Is
writing screenplays easier than playing jazz piano? Is dancing ballet easier
than writing a novel? Is painting a landscape in oils easier than singing in an
opera?
Everyone’s mileage varies. All of these (and more) are
different art forms, to which are suited by temperament, training, and
experience.
If you’re looking for something that is “easy” and does not
require discipline and dedication, try… I can’t think of anything worthwhile
that doesn’t.
Dear Auntie Deborah:
What should you not do when writing a character’s backstory?
-- Confused Newbie
Dear Confused:
Don’t inflict it on your reader in massive, indigestible
chunks that bring the action to a screeching halt.
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