Sci-Fi Setting Prompt

 (inspired by this Wikipedia article)

Setting: A world bombarded by constant solar storms where electricity is gathered and used from the aurora's current. What other effects would the solar storms have on the world? How might the inhabitants design workarounds for issues that arise?

Two Kinds of Character Development

Character development: The most fun and grueling part of writing. Our characters are our little guys--we love to give them names, cool outfits, and plenty of trauma. Characters give both authors and readers a chance to roleplay as someone brave, powerful, and important. We all want to be the main character.

However, characters often give writers big headaches. First-draft characters can be like soda: They go flat quickly. It's not enough to have an awesome name and be an awesome person--Sir Flamelight Ironhammer III must also be human (even if he's an elf or dragon), relatable, flawed, and most importantly, changed by the end of the story. This calls for character development.

But what is character development? One of the problems with the term is that it's used consistently (or rather, inconsistently) to mean two things. In one sense, characters develop like a Polaroid picture as the reader gets to know who they are and what they would do in certain situations. On the other hand, characters develop like business professionals, gaining new skills and growing as an individuals--becoming someone different and hopefully better. Let's call the Polaroid-type development "character revelation" and the business-type development "character growth," and I'll give a brief overview of the characteristics of each and some techniques for development.

Character revelation occurs constantly in good stories. Everything the MC does reveals something about who they are as a person, both in general and in the moment. In general, characters reveal a voice and personality that remain consistent throughout the story--the character is "in character," so to speak. In the moment, character revelation manifests in three ways.

1. The "characteristic moment" in the opening scenes. In this scene, the character often makes a small but interesting decision that illustrates who they are. This moment introduces their overarching personality, but also traits specific to the first half of the story, such as their flaws and the Lie they believe.
2. The character's struggles. As the character faces conflict and the failure of their old habits, struggle scenes show their reactions, revealing new facets and deeper layers of personality. Often the character is more self-aware in struggle scenes, which deepens the reader's understanding of who they really are. Gradual backstory reveal often contributes to struggle scenes.
3. The "new self" at the story's end. This scene may mirror the opening characteristic moment or reflect back to an important event or choice earlier in the story. The character demonstrates a new, improved personality, revealing their changed self to the reader.

Hold up! Isn't this overlapping with character growth? Of course it is--the whole point of stories is that the characters grow. Anything to do with the character will connect to character growth on a basic level. However, the key difference between character revelation and character growth is that revelation is all about showing the reader who the character is and who they're becoming. The keyword is reaction. Character revelation asks questions about how the character would act in x situation, given that y has occurred and z is on their mind. Character reactions to the plot make up the bulk of character revelation.

Character growth, on the other hand, focuses on what it takes to make the character change. Character growth has to do with causes, and revelation with effects. This is the character arc writers slave over before they begin writing. What Lie does the character believe, what flaws must they overcome, and how will such a stubborn, lazy character ever change? Here are three quick tips for brainstorming character growth.

1. Make a list. Figure out your character's fear, flaw, and desire. What are their positive traits? What are their negative traits? (Hint: Almost every positive trait has a negative flipside, and vice versa. It's like Aristotle's Golden Mean, with something bad on either end. Confidence is good--cockiness is bad. The two can coexist in one character.) This list will help you far more than your character's eye color or favorite food ever will.
2. Find a template. I use a character arc template based off of the 3 Act Structure, which is heavily character-centered. Find a character arc template that works for you--KM Weiland has some great ones, and there are so many internet sources for writers that have great free content for character growth! Don't make things hard for yourself by trying to reinvent the wheel. Find a template you like and modify it as needed.
3. Do whatever it takes. As I mentioned above, characters are lazy and stubborn--after all, they're human. (Or at least, relatable for humans.) Characters do not want to change. Change is painful and it's a lot of work, and characters will do anything to avoid it. They'll rationalize bad behavior, make cowardly decisions, and live in utter denial before they decide to make a change. So, you need to push your characters to their breaking point--physically, emotionally, and morally. What is one thing they will never, ever do? Okay, great. Now what will it take to make them do it? What is your character's one weakness, their sore spot, their line in the sand? Think like a supervillain--you know you want to. Will they change if it's the only way to save their friends and family? Will they give up their misguided want if it means getting the girl? Focus on character motivation. Give them a reason to change, and make it a darn good one.

Character revelation and character growth go hand in hand to shape your character into someone great. Take advantage of both techniques to craft a character your readers will follow all the way to The End.

February Writing Prompts

 Sorry I haven't posted in a while; I was having technical difficulties. Here's one prompt for each week of February! Let your imagination run wild.

#1. Setting Prompt: An hot classroom with windows that won't stay open.

#2. Character Prompt: An uneducated character who is smart but underestimated by everyone around him.

#3. Object Prompt: A pair of slippers with scissors tucked inside.

#4. Music Prompt: Love and War in Your Twenties by Jordan Searcy (Spotify)

Bonus points if you can use them all in one story/poem/flash/whatever you write!

Music for Writers

Music or no music? Some writers require total silence to work their creative magic. Others, like me, are bopping to NF at their desks while they scribble or type away. For those of you out there who are music lovers, here are five songs I love for writing!

Come Alive The Greatest Showman (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)

Featured Lyric: "When the world becomes a fantasy / And you're more than you could ever be / 'Cause you're dreaming with your eyes wide open."

I love this song because it's all about the amazing effects imagination can have on people. Honestly, the whole Greatest Showman soundtrack has this vibe.

To the Dreamers for KING & COUNTRY

Featured Lyric: "To the soulful / Heart open hopeful / Keep on charging ahead."

This song is so encouraging to people who feel like they always have their head in the clouds--a fight song for creatives of all kinds.

New Wine Hillsong Worship

Featured Lyric: "Make me Your vessel / Make me an offering / Make me whatever You want me to be."

This lyric is one of my prayers over my writing life, that God would use me for His purposes. I hope other Christian writers can take encouragement and inspiration from this song, too.

Born For This The Score

Featured Lyric: "Feeling the rhythm inside of my chest / All I need is just a pen / I know I was born for this."

This song is a battle anthem for writers that will rev you up and make you want to write more than you ever have before. I love this song for getting fired up to write.

Non-Stop Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Featured Lyric: "How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive? / How do you write like you need it to survive? / How do you write ev’ry second you’re alive?"

I love to play this song when I'm typing and try to keep up with relentless beat. It's always fun to imagine your writing is following in the footsteps of one of the great writers of early America.

Enjoy this sampling of my writing music! What are some of your favorite songs to write with?

What is Speculative Fiction?

If you've ever looked to submit a piece of writing to a magazine, or even tried to publish a book, you may have come across the term 'speculative fiction,' and the term itself may have been a source of some speculation for you. What is speculative fiction, and why is it everywhere?

Speculative fiction is a clump of genres that include fantasy, science fiction, and horror, among others. Fantasy is one of the most popular and fastest-growing genres today, especially young adult fantasy, so lots of publishers are looking for speculative fiction. Let's take a look at some of the genres and sub-genres that fall within the broad umbrella of speculative fiction.

Fantasy

There are many kinds of fantasy, high and low, epic and medieval. Oxford Languages defines the fantasy genre as "a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure, especially in a setting other than the real world." This definition can be misleading, as some iterations of fantasy, such as kingdom adventures, contain no magic. For now, let's say that a story could be considered fantasy if it takes place in a world unlike or separate from our own and involves elements that don't and can't occur in our reality. A couple unique subgenres you might come across:

Science fantasy, a blending of science fiction and fantasy. Imagine fairies with ray guns, for example.

Magical realism, a story that is set in our world but where some magical elements are accepted and not explained or singled out as unusual. One example of this is Salman Rushdie's short story "The Prophet's Hair."

Science Fiction

Science fiction is similar to fantasy because it often takes place in a world not our own (or so far advanced it's nothing like our own). However, sci-fi's focus is often on technology (especially in "hard sci-fi") and futuristic scenarios. Space travel and alien races often play a role, but aren't essential: Time travel, artificial intelligence, or virtual worlds (among many kinds of technological advances) can also play a central role. A couple unfamiliar subgenres you might run into:

Space opera, a dramatic adventure tale set in outer space, which often involves war and romance.

Time slip, which occurs when a character unknowingly or accidentally travels through time.

Horror

Horror isn't just for movies; it's also a genre of literature primarily concerned with inspiring feelings of terror in the readers. "Horror" may not be a term you usually associate with "literature," but some well-known classics fall into the horror genre, including Bram Stoker's Dracula and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Horror falls within the realm of speculative fiction because it usually deals with the supernatural or occurrences with no natural explanation. Some unusual subgenres you might find:

Eldritch horror, which focuses on human encounters with the incomprehensible, often associated with HP Lovecraft's "abominations" and weirdness in general.

Gothic horror, typically set in the late 18th or early 19th century and associated with complex villains, spooky architecture (gargoyles, anyone?), and isolation, focusing on battles with evil or the supernatural.

+ + +

These aren't the only genres categorized as 'speculative fiction'--sometimes dystopian stories, fairytale retellings, and other surreal stories make the cut. But the genres listed above (and the subgenres I highlighted) are generally accepted as falling under that umbrella. Next time you run across 'speculative fiction' in your publisher search, you'll know what the editors are expecting.