When I used to write for competitions, I would make lists of ways
that judges might look at my work in order to grade it. For example,
some judges might look for an ending that brought them to tears, while
another might be more interested in an intellectual feast. A couple of
you asked what my list might look like.
So here is a list of things that I might consider in creating a piece.
First,
a word of warning. When I was very young, perhaps four, I remember
seeing a little robot in a store, with flashing lights and wheels that
made it move. To me it seemed magical, nearly alive. My parents bought
it for me for at Christmas, and a few weeks later it malfunctioned, so I
took a hammer to it and pulled out the pieces to see what made it
work—a battery, a tiny motor, some small colored lights, cheap paint and
stickers.
Your story should be more than the sum of its parts. It should feel magical, alive.
But
when we go through a checklist like this, we’re looking at the parts
and not the whole. When you’re composing your story and editing it, you
must be constantly aware of the whole story, keeping it in mind, even as
you examine it in detail, making sure that one part doesn’t overbalance
another.
Setting
My goal with my settings
is to transport the reader into my world—not just through the senses,
but also emotionally and intellectually. I want to make them feel, keep
them thinking. This can often be done by using settings that fascinate
the reader, that call to them.
Do I have unique settings that
the reader will find intriguing? In short, is there something that
makes my setting different from anything the reader has seen before?
If
my setting is in our world, is it “sexy” or mundane? (People are drawn
to sexy settings. Even if we place a story in a McDonald’s, we need to
bring it to life, make it enjoyable.)
Do I have any scenes that
might be more interesting if the setting were moved elsewhere? (For
example, let’s say that I want to show that a king is warlike. Do I open
with him speaking to his counselors at a feast, or on the battlefield?)
Do
I suffer by having repetitive settings? For example, if I set two
scenes in the same living room, would one of them be more interesting if
I moved it elsewhere?
Do my descriptions of settings have enough detail to transport the reader?
Did I bring my setting to life using all of the senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, smell?
Do my character’s feelings about the setting get across?
Do
I want to show a setting in the past, present, and suggest a future?
(For example, I might talk about a college’s historical growth and
importance, etc.)
Can a setting be strengthened by describing what it is not?
Does my setting resonate with others within its genre?
Do
my settings have duality—a sometimes ambiguous nature? (For example,
my character might love the church where she was married, have fond
memories of it, and yet feel a sense of betrayal because her marriage
eventually turned ugly. So the setting becomes bittersweet.)
Do
my settings create potential conflicts in and of themselves? (If I have
a prairie with tall grass and wildfires are a threat, should I have a
wildfire in the tale?)
Do my characters and my societies grow
out of my setting? (If I’ve got a historical setting, do my characters
have occupations and attitudes consistent with the milieu? Beyond that,
with every society there is almost always a counter-movement. Do I deal
with those?)
Is my setting, my world, in danger? Do I want it to be?
Does
my world have a life of its own? For example, if I create a fantasy
village, does it have a history, a character of its own? Do I need to
create a cast for the village—a mayor, teacher, etc.?
Is my
setting logically consistent? (For example, let’s say that I have a
merchant town. Where would a merchant town most likely be? On a trade
route or port—quite possibly at the junction of the two. So I need to
consider how fully I’ve developed the world.)
Is my setting
fully realized? (Let’s say I have a forest. What kinds of trees and
plants would be in that forest? What kind of animals? What’s the history
of that forest? When did it last have rain or snow? What’s unique about
that forest? Etc.)
Does my setting intrude into every scene, so
that my reader is always grounded? (If I were to set my story in a
field, for example, and I have men preparing for battle, I might want to
have a lord look up and notice that buzzards are flapping up out of the
oaks in the distance, already gathering for the feast. I might want to
mention the sun warming my protagonist’s armor, the flies buzzing about
his horse’s ears, and so on—all while he is holding an important
conversation.
Are there any settings that have symbolic import, whose meanings need to be brought to the forefront?
Characters
I
want my characters to feel like real people, fully developed. Many
stories suffer because the characters are bland or cliché or are just
underdeveloped. We want to move beyond stereotypes, create characters
that our readers will feel for. At the same time, we don’t want to get
stuck in the weeds. We don’t want so much detail that the character
feels overburdened and the writing gets sluggish.
So here are some of the checkpoints I might use for characters.
Do
I have all of the characters that I need to tell the story, or is
someone missing? (For example, would the story be stronger if I had a
guide, a sidekick, a love interest, a contagonist, hecklers, etc.?)
Do I have any characters that can be deleted to good effect?
Do
I have characters who can perhaps be combined with others? For example,
let’s say I have two cops on the beat. Would it work just as well with
only one cop?
Do my characters have real personalities, depth?
Do my characters come off as stock characters, or as real people?
Do I know my characters’ history, attitudes, and dress?
Does each character have his or her interesting way of seeing the world?
Does each character have his or her own voice, his own way of expressing himself?
Are
my characters different enough from each other so that they’re easily
distinguished? Do their differences generate conflict? Remember that
even good friends can have different personalities.
Have I properly created my characters’ bodies—described such things as hands, feet, faces, hair, ears, and so on?
Do each of my characters have their own idiosyncrasies?
Do
I need to “tag” any characters so that readers will remember them
easily—for example, by giving a character a limp, or red hair, or having
one who hums a great deal?
How do my characters relate to the
societies from which they sprang? In short, are they consistent with
their own culture in some ways? And in what ways do they oppose their
culture?
What does each of my characters want?
What does each one fear?
What things might my character be trying to hide?
What is each character’s history? (Where were they born? Schooled, etc.?)
What is my characters’ stance on religion, politics, etc.?
How do my characters relate to one another? How do they perceive one another? Are their perceptions accurate, or jaded?
Does each character have a growth arc? If they don’t, should they?
How honest are my characters—with themselves and with others? Should my readers trust them?
What would my characters like to change about themselves? Do they try to change?
Do
my characters have their own family histories, their own social
problems, their own medical histories, their own attitudes? Do we need a
flashback anywhere to establish such things?
Nice article about why story submissions get rejected. Pretty useful things to keep in mind for writing fanfics and stuff! These are the sorts of things that make me just close the fanfic and move on. Haha.
on the one hand i agree with this but on the other hand one of my coworkers rented an alpaca from a petting zoo and brought it to work because my boss said she wanted an alpaca sweater but the guy didn’t hear her say sweater and didn’t want to upset her by asking why the fuck she’d want an alpaca
I think that highlights a good genre difference: miscommunication in drama is frustrating, overused, and just kinda shit. Miscommunication in comedy is fucking hilarious.
If people are willing to forgive and forget all the bad and arrogant things James and Sirius did in their youth, than why are people still hard on Fleur Delacour? Is there some rule on Tumblr that only troublemaking boys get forgiveness while girls don’t that I’m not aware of? Just saying.
At Target this lady told her son he couldn’t have a Wonder Woman doll because “that’s for girls” and then bought her daughter the same one. It got me thinking about how often I see people bar young boys from appreciating girls/women as protagonists and heroes, and my own experience with it as a kid.
the fucked up thing about job interviews is that everybody Knows that youre just there because you need money to stay alive, everyone Knows that the companys interests are in your mind secondary at best to you having a home and not starving, but they still need to hear you beg and tell them how much The Company means to you and how great an opportunity it is to work for them its so masturbatory
