A couple of months ago, the creator of one of my favorite webcomics launched a website, with two guys I had never heard of, called Writing Excuses. I finally got around to listening to the podcasts yesterday, and I highly recommend checking them out.
It's basically just three guys sitting around and talking about writing, only the three guys happen to be a successful webcartoonist, a guy who received an offer for his first horror novel, and the guy who is going to finish The Wheel of Time. They make fifteen-minute podcasts to discuss an aspect of the craft. Each of them has a unique style, so the listener is presented with multiple approaches to the act of writing being discussed. I learned quite a bit (possibly more than I did in college, getting a degree in writing) from listening to them, and was able to scratch out a few notes to myself on how to improve the story I'm working on.
I'll give an example. I believe it was in Episode 6: Flaws vs Handicaps where a question came up of how to make a flawed character. This is something I've struggled with, because I always feel like I'm at one of the extremes -- either my character is flawless, or completely useless. Even when I think I've done an okay job in that area, sometimes I still think I have a boring person to read. There were two concepts in the podcast that jumped out at me:
1. A flaw is something you overcome; a handicap is not.
2. To know what flaws to give your character, figure out what the conflict is, and give your character the flaw that will make him lose that conflict.
In regards to 1, I immediately thought of an error I made when I hit the reset button on my novel. I decided that, in order to make him more interesting, I would give Gabriel chronic health problems, and make him bitter because of that. Then, once I started writing his interactions with his sister, I thought, "Well, she's really kind to him, so he wouldn't grow up angry." The result was an un-flawed character with a handicap. By taking away his bitterness toward life, I removed the only thing that could potentially serve to mark his growth as a person.
As for 2, this concept was like being handed a solid gold key to good storytelling. In retrospect, it should have been obvious. What makes a conflict compelling? When you think the main character could actually fail. The best flaw to give a character is the one that could potentially spell doom for him and/or everything he holds dear. Is the conflict a final showdown with the bad guy? A common flaw is to let the desire for revenge cloud judgment. A negotiation with a hostile foreign leader? Make the person racist. It makes so much more sense now than when professors kept repeated, "Flawed characters are interesting. Flawed characters are interesting. Flawed characters are interesting."
I'm a better writer for having listened to these guys. Go check out Writing Excuses and report back with what you've learned!
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4 comments:
Hey StanManX - Great post. Thanks for the heads up on Writing Excuses. I ran over and listened to the p-cast on Killing Your Darlings and had a general look around.
Looks pretty cool. Loved the 15-min format. I'm sure I'll be wandering back over there.
Much cheer. Oh, and thanks for making me laugh at CBAB. :-)
Killing Your Darlings was rough for me, because I've been working on my first novel for a long time, and here these guys are saying that most writers need to kill that. Ouch! Except they also said it was fine to come back to it later, with experience under your belt, so I'm still going to finish it. I'll just be sure to write at least one other novel before I try and publish the first one :)
CBAB - I say it "kabob" in my head.
"CBAB - I say it "kabob" in my head."
LOL!
sounds like a great website to check out. ive recently grown tired of a different podcast that i had been listening to regularly so something new would be good.
by the by i am planning on linking your blog on one of my new websites. i'll send you a link when it's done.
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