Apologies

There will be no blog post today... All my work on this post was deleted and I'm retyping. This happens to everyone. Take this as a lesson. Save your work.

The Perils of a Main Character

Main characters, for a long time, have been a literary staple. They get a lot just on face value. Even if a main character is pretty evil, he's still a protagonist. Even if a main character is a loser, he's still a hero. And even if a main character is the worst character in a whole novel, he still gets the most page time.

 

Ideally, main characters would be the best characters. Fun to read about, enjoyable to spend time with. Not whiny, or so irritating that your eye starts twitching after three pages. As a writer, you don't want to sit down at your laptop and open up Word and be like, "oh my head... I have to write about her again." You don't want an MC to be something you're stuck with.

 

Maybe, in fact, you don't want to have an MC at all.

 

How often do you hear, "The minor characters were so much more interesting"? Or, "I wish such-and-such had gotten more screen/page time"? Quite a bit, in my experience. (My experience is very cultured and longstanding. I've been around for a while.)

 

I'm going to use Harry Potter as an example in this post, because it conveys my point well. First, look at Harry The Character. No one likes him. Seriously. He's this guy who has no hobbies except sitting on a flying stick and trying to catch a tiny golden sphere (don't get me wrong, great hobby. I do it all the time, myself). As has been noted before, his friends do everything for him and he just happens to luckily pull a sword out of a hat occasionally (love it when that happens). Also, what's up with the shortness*? And the distinct lack of contact lenses? He's also a little too angsty and righteous. I'd probably go crazy if I had an obligation to write seven books about Harry The Character.

 

Now let's look at JKR's minor characters (by which I mean Not Harry). Luna Lovegood. Neville Longbottom. Bellatrix Lestrange. Rubius Hagrid. Narcissa Malfoy. Gilderoy Lockhart. Severus Snape. I could keep going forever, if only because the names are so sinfully pretty. Either way, JKR's minor characters are so engaging and glamourous--- and Harry is so pointedly the opposite of that--- that I can honestly say I'd rather read a book about Petunia Dursley than Harry The Character.

 

Take now, for instance, Jodi Picoult (of course I'm not biased because she's my personal hero). She's all about perspective. Read any one of her books, and it's difficult to put your finger on a solid "main character." She rotates POVs, and allows you to reach into a character's head and see a scene from different viewpoints. Most characters get equal page time, and they're all able to share the fullest extent of their opinions, their stories, and their desires.

 

The thing is, when you try to write a whole book from one single person's perspective, you lose a lot. Readers get annoyed at the main character, because they're so ranty or whingy. Or they get annoyed at the other characters, because they're not allowed to see their point of view. There's so much dimension that can be added to a story simply by switching POVs back and forth. So try it. Have multiple main characters. Write one chapter as Frances and one as Craig. You might find that you like someone else a lot better than your "main character." You might find that you pick up a whole new plot thread, or realize that everything ties together in a way you hadn't seen. Again, in my varied and prestigious experience, you never know what can happen.

 

I once saw it phrased that too often, minor characters are treated like they're just events in the main character's lives. You shouldn't be writing a scene based wholly on how it will result for your FMC or MMC. You should write each character as though they're a human being, driven by needs and wants that are just as potent as a main character's. When they interact with your MC, they shouldn't be simply reacting; doing and saying what's most convenient for your Harry. You may have created a character simply for purposes of reacting to your MC's actions--- a policeman, a teacher, a sister--- but remember that each character is a person. Each character has a past, and each character wants a future. Write accordingly.

 

Daily Prompt: Choose one of the scenarios below, and write about it from three different POVs (or more, if you like). Suggestions for the POVs are listed, but feel free to improvise. Always save your work. Post your story or excerpt of <1000 words below.

A bank robbery (the robber, the bank teller, a bystander at the ATM, a police officer, a bank manager)

A wedding (the bride, the groom, the priest, the bridesmaid/best man, the bride/groom's mom/dad)

An oral report (the student presenting it, the teacher, the students watching it)

Christmas Eve (a young child, a parent, Santa Claus, an atheist, a department store worker, an elf)

A grandma's death (the coroner, the grandma's adult child, a grandchild, a spouse, the grandma)

 

*disclaimer: most short people are very cool. Most of my best friends are below average height. But Harry The Character/Daniel Radcliffe can't pull it off.

Manipulation of Cliche

It's often said that your writing should be unpredictable, and go against the expected. Above all, it's said that you should keep the widest possible berth from cliches.

But how can you defy the expected if we don't have a standard for "expected"? As it happens, we do. That standard is called cliche.

Quiet as a mouse, writing on the wall, dark and stormy night--- all of these and more are cliches that most writers will learn to avoid (like the plague). But really, you shouldn't scorn cliches. Like any other tool in writing, you should simply learn how to maniuplate them to fit your purposes.

Modifying a cliche can help you to make a much bigger impression than you would otherwise (especially in first sentences/paragraphs). For instance, take this sentence from Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman):

 

"It wasn't a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but there's the weather for you. For every mad scientist who's had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime."

 

What a great sentence. Even taken completely out of context, it still retains a satirical aura to it because it's so obviously troping the "dark and stormy night" cliche (credited, for the record, to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, sometimes called the purple prose poster child). It also sets a tone for the reader.

 

In the realm of first sentence cliches, the obvious go-to is "once upon a time." A modern reference to this that comes to mind is the musical titled "Once Upon A Mattress," or the book "Once Upon A Marigold." These are both great manipulations of cliche for several reasons.

 

• A title is the first thing you hear about a book, movie, song, musical, etc. You want your title to be something that stands out, but also something that's easily memorable. But you don't want it to be weird or forced. (For instance, when I'm reading movie reviews and I see something titled "RED" or "HOP" I'm like, okay, I get it. Don't yell at me. "Red" or "Hop" would have sufficed. Same goes for something like Diary of A Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules [who's Roderick? why the Dell I care about him?] or Hanna [who's this Hanna chick? why do I care about her? why are you so intent upon not giving me any clue what this movie is about?])
  Once Upon A Mattress and Once Upon A Marigold are both memorable, because they play off of "once upon a time." Even though I haven't read Once Upon A Marigold in years and I've only read lyrics to Once Upon A Mattress, the names stick in my head. And because they're based on a phrase that's already well-known, they don't sound weird or forced.
• The title asks a question. Once upon what mattress? To me, this title is a little suggestive and it makes you want to Google it. And once you do, you find out that the story is a fractured fairy tale--- an adaption of the Princess and the Pea. This is a fascinating premise, so now you're further hooked.
• The title is not over-the-top. Once Upon A Marigold's sequel is called "Twice Upon a Marigold." In my opinion, this is an acceptable title,  but only because it's a sequel. If your debut or standalone novel was called "Twice Upon A Marigold," I would shake my head and be like, "Man, you're pushing it." After all, if you warp the cliche beyond recognition, you're completely defeating the point of manipulating it in the first place. If I adapted "dark and stormy night" to "visually straining, pigment-depleted, and weather clemency-unenhanced daytime-doppelganger," then absolutely no one would associate it with the phrase "dark and stormy night." Moreover, my adaption sounds so patently annoying that no one would ever want to read it.

Because I'm exhausted now and I think I've cranked out enough pretentious, stuffy blogginess for one day (I'm pretty inept at this right now, but I'll improve), I will leave.

Daily Prompt: Pick one of the cliches listed below. Adapt it and write a story to go along with it. Always save your work. Post your resulting story (or excerpt) of 500 words or less in the comments, if you so desire. And have a great Monday.

-It made my blood boil

-My eyes began to glaze

-She was grasping at straws

-It got under his skin

-My skin crawled

-A glimmer of hope in his eyes

-Difficult for me to swallow

An Introduction

Welcome to the Chosen One blog!

As stated above, this is a blog with a purpose*. Every day, ish, I'll post some sort of writing-related post for followers to mull over. (For example... characterization, grammar, publishing, coffee, and whatnot). By all means comment below and discuss the topic of that day's post. Now that I'm actually typing this out, in my head it sounds super-pretentious. But because a lot of people today have blogs like this, I don't feel as bad as I thought I would. Instead, I'd like to invite you to sit back, explore, and enjoy the blog. I hope it offers you some valuable resources on occasion, and that you get a little amusenent out of it.

And join as a follower, of course. Everyone likes more followers.

And promote it to your pretentious teenage writer friends! Everyone likes promotion.

*blogs with a purpose, for the record, look pretty shiny on highschool apps. Just saying.