Writers in the Storm

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

Alpha males sell books.

No matter what else they might be good at -- and we’ve all seen them be good at LOTS of things! -- they’re fabulous at selling books.

But that doesn’t mean every reader, much less every writer, adores those classic alpha males.

For one thing, we have a hard time defining exactly what an alpha male IS. I’m going to ask your opinion, down below, but first let’s look at what we love about these guys...and why we resent them.

Alpha males take command, right? Which can be wonderfully attractive -- and which can also be downright annoying.

What makes the difference?

Or IS there any difference?

Picture a guy who’s standing at the scene of a five-car pile-up, telling everyone what to do. “You! Back up the van. You! Get that bike out of the way. You! Move your vehicle toward the curb.”

He’s a hero, managing to accomplish whatever needs taking care of and getting everyone around him to do what he says.

But now picture that same guy giving those same orders in a grocery store parking lot where nobody’s hurt, there are just a lot of cars backed up. Suddenly he’s a bossy jerk.

Yet he hasn’t changed his behavior. It’s only our interpretation of it that’s changed.

That’s part of what makes it tricky to write the kind of alpha hero who’s guaranteed to delight readers.

What else makes it tricky?

Well, there’s a fine line between a man who’s strong enough to withstand whatever the world can throw at him while never breaking down, and a man who’s incapable of expressing any emotion except anger.

There’s also a fine line between a man who’s all about protecting what’s his, including the woman he loves, and a man who views that woman as his possession.

And there’s another fine line between a man who’s so incredibly sexy that every woman in the room is dazzled by his sizzling presence, and a man who’s willing to share that smoldering sexuality with every woman in the room.

How much is too much alpha?

How little is too little?

(Okay, did everyone else’s mind just go to the same place mine did? Sorry!)

But readers who love books about alpha males don’t usually stop to think where that fine line should be. All they know is, they LIKE their romantic heroes to be strong, confident, vigorous, powerful. Suave or rugged is okay, CEO or firefighter is okay, fighter jet or Harley is okay, but aside from those little details there’s not a whole lot of room for compromise.

With alphas, there’s NEVER room for compromise.

And that’s exactly what makes them so easy to resent.

How come they always get to call the shots?

How come they can attract any woman they want just by crooking their little finger?

How come they don’t have to deal with the things all the rest of us do?

Oh, but wait! Once this alpha hero falls in love with the heroine, he’ll have to change his ways...right?

Er.

Well.

That’s tricky, too.

Because if suddenly this rip-roaring testosterone-driven leader of the pack is murmuring, “Yes, dear, I’ll pick up the drycleaning and be home for dinner whenever you like” -- drat it, he’s no longer quite such a thrilling prize.

He’s more of a regular guy...the kind most readers wish would remember to pick up the drycleaning in everyday life. So where’s the romantic excitement in THAT?

You see the dilemma?

Alpha males are as tough to write as they are to live with -- and yet they’re so attractive, we can’t just throw them out of our pages!

How do we get around that?

It helps to look at what makes each alpha unique. We already know these aren’t cookie-cutter characters, but their differences go beyond Harley vs fighter jet, suave or rugged, firefighter or CEO.

There are other elements to consider, including their origins and their pack and their beta counterpart and their environment and their personality type, which we’ll do next month in my “Alpha Males From Abe To Zeus” class.

And here’s where your opinion on two issues comes in. (In fact, I might want to quote you on these, so please let me know if that’s NOT okay.)

Two questions for you

First question: Do you know any alphas in real life -- and if so, what are they like? Admirable traits, annoying traits, some of each are fine!

Second question: Have you written any alpha heroes -- and if so, what did you like most and least about the most recent one?

I’d love to get your thoughts on this...and by the way, if you live with an alpha male in real life (rather than on the page where you can just set him aside any time he gets too difficult), you have both my admiration and my envy!

Laurie, betting everyone here would appreciate tips on How To Live With An Alpha from those who’ve figured out the techniques.

What are your answers to the two questions above? Do you like reading books with alpha males? Please tell us about it in the comments section!

About Laurie

Laurie Schnebly Campbell has been intrigued with alpha males ever since she heard that they’re the ones who are always breaking dishes. (Suddenly her husband looked less clumsy, and more sexy!) She’s teaching a class on why, whether, and how to write irresistible alpha males, from November 2-13 at http://heartsthroughhistory.com/workshops/alpha-males.

Top Image by skeeze from Pixabay.

by Eldred "Bob" Bird

With NaNoWriMo just a few days away, many WITS readers are probably prepping for the mad dash—plotting, building character profiles, setting word count goals, and stocking up on the caffeine delivery system of their choice. Others (like me) are beginning to panic as they stare at a blank page and hope beyond hope that a brilliant idea will descend from the heavens like a gift from God and drop into their addled brian in time for the November starting gun. Unfortunately, inspiration rarely work that way.

It’s times like these I like to play what I call “The What If Game.” It’s a game of possibilities conjured up by looking at the world through the warped lens of what is best described as a funhouse mirror.

Rules of the What If Game

Okay, there really are no rules, but the basic idea is to take the world around you and turn it on its ear. Everyday objects and situations can make great fodder for stories when we twist them, turn them over, look at them from a different angle and ask, “What if?” Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

• Look around you and pick an everyday object. How is it normally used? What if it was used in a different way—the crazier the better. Who would use it for another purpose? Would they use it for good or evil? Maybe the object is the focus of a mystery (i.e.: The Maltese Falcon). Could the object be a catalyst for tension and disruption (i.e.: The Gods Must Be Crazy)?
• Pick two people you know who are total opposites—I like to look at my old high school yearbooks for this one—and put them in a scene together. What if they were given a challenge to overcome that required them to work together? Up the ante by making things as awkward as possible. Stirring in a little unrequited love is always a good way spice thing up.
• Think of someplace you would never want to end up. It can be a real location or a fantasy world. What if you were transported there, stranded and left for dead?  How did you get there? Who sent you? How do you survive? How do you escape?
• Try to recall a situation you or a friend found themselves in that ended without issue. What if something had gone terribly wrong? What would have happened to them? Who would be responsible? How would they fix the situation?

I could write a whole book of these prompts, but you get the idea. You just have to look at the world through what the comedian Gallagher (yes, the watermelon smashing guy) called “New Eyes,” something he learned by watching his three-year-old daughter observe her surroundings. According to him, she called a restaurant “the dinner store.” Makes total since, right? Children don’t have preconceived notions formed by years of experience. As creatives, we have the ability turn off our adult expectations and see things through the eyes of a child. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from the general population.

Execute Your What If

Now that you have the seed of an idea, go ahead and write the scene. It doesn’t matter how long or short the piece is, just dump your brain on the page. The scene doesn’t even have to make since or be complete. You’re just developing an idea at this stage of the game, so don’t worry about grammar, sentence structure, or full-blown descriptions.

You might have to do this for several of your what-ifs before something sparks and catches fire, so be patient with yourself. No one ever said being a writer was going to be fast and easy.

And Then What Happens

Once you have something on the page, you have a foundation to build on. Read your new scene, tweak it if you like, then ask, “…and then what happens?” What’s the next step on the journey? Does the first scene point you down a specific path? Maybe there are several ways it can go. Explore all the possibilities. One is bound to click and send you in the right direction. If you hit a dead end, back up and try again.

At the conclusion of each scene you write, ask, “…and then what happens” again and repeat the process. Keep stitching the scenes together until you have the bones of a complete story. If you think of something that might happen down the road somewhere, go ahead and write it when the inspiration hits. There’s no law that says you must write in chronological order. The future scene might guide your process and give you a target to aim for.

You should also consider that maybe your story starts before that foundation scene. Instead of asking what happens next you might want to turn it around and ask what happened that led to the current situation. There’s no guarantee the first scene (or chapter) you wrote was the best place to start the story.

An Example of a Successful What If Game

A fellow author was talking to me about the stem cell treatment she received for her back. I’d also heard about some the research being done with stem cells to repair spinal cord damage in people who were paralyzed due to back injuries. I wondered if there might be other application for the treatment. Here’s where the What If game led me.

Stem cells can repair nerve damage in the spinal cord, so what if you applied the same treatment to other nerves groups in the body? I thought about where else nerve damage might happen—hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose. Nose! What if the olfactory nerve was damaged? What if you couldn’t smell anything? Smell is also a big component of taste as well.

Okay, now I have a character with a damaged nose and a loss of smell… and then what happens? The person seeks out an experimental treatment involving stem cell therapy… and then what happens? The treatment works at first, but then something goes wrong—the new nerve cells start growing out of control… and then what happens?

You get the idea, right? I kept this up until I had the framework for my pulp short The Smell of Fear, a story about a veteran police detective, injured on the job, who tries an experimental treatment to regain his sense of smell. The story went in several different directions before I settled on the final details, but in the end, I was able to spin a compelling tale by starting with one simple question—What if…

A Final Thought

Occasionally, we all get those dry spells in our creativity. The What If game is just one way to get things flowing again, but there are a multitude of other resources on the web to give us a kick-start. Here are a few favorites:

• The Random Logline Generator is a fun (and sometimes hilarious) tool. Keep hitting the button until something catches you eye.
• You don’t need a refrigerator to play with the words from Magnetic Poetry. Try their free Online version.
• Need help with characters? Try Character Generator. While you’re there, check out the name and plot generators as well.
• The Character Builder at OneStop for Writers is also an invaluable resource. Build your character's backstory, motivations, behaviors, traumas, physical characteristics, and more. Plus, you can save the information for future books if you're writing a series.
• Reedsy is great resource for all things writerly. Try their Plot Generator on for size.

A quick search of the web will yield thousands of other sites to help get your creative juices flowing.

So, what works best for you? Do you have any favorite exercises or resources? Let us know in the comments below.

About Eldred

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives). His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. He can be found on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

by Tasha Seegmiller

I am deep in a revision of a novel that will serve as my MFA thesis. This story is about a woman, her children, her faith, her marriage, and a little bit how easy it is for modern women to get lost in the tumult of obligation. It explores how dreams and ambitions can be both independent of a woman's roles in life, and yet undeniably intertwined with those roles.

There are many kinds of relationships that are tricky ones, but particularly when they are relationships where partners can both love and hate equally, simultaneously, and then defend one another with unwavering conviction.

The complication of relationships, as near as I can tell, comes down to how the characters love and how they feel loved.

As it is now 2020, I’m working on the assumption that most readers have at least heard of The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. This 1995 book explored the ways that people demonstrate love and the ways that people feel loved, and I think the ideas presented within are essential for authors writing any kind of love relationship.

Before that, C.S. Lewis wrote The Four Loves, a religious and philosophical exploration of the way people love and why they need to love. (This book is free on Kindle Unlimited.)

While I acknowledge there may be more ways for people to love than those expressed in these works, the fundamental ideas remain the same: two people in a loving relationship of any kind are going to love differently, a diversity that may expand as that character is placed in the position of expressing different kinds of love.

I’ve got a few forms to consider.

1. The Parent Relationship

I know some people who cannot think of their parents without a feeling of bitterness and betrayal. Others have an unwritten agreement of mutual politeness and still others will keep their parents apprised of the occurrences in their lives on a regular basis.

The question for your character is how does he feel about his parents, and, if applicable, step-parents or guardians? How does he demonstrate those feelings when in proximity of these people? Is it similar to or different from how he expresses their feelings?

This can also be something to consider in the situation that character is the parent, how they feel about their children, how they think their children feel about them.

2. The Sibling Relationship

A great depiction of the sibling relationship can be seen in the way that Jane and Elizabeth Bennet interact with each other in Pride and Prejudice, and the way that Marsha and Jan Brady perceive their relationship in The Brady Bunch. Both of these have times when a sister is frustrated; both have a time when a sister is supportive.

The question for your character is how does she feel about her siblings? If she’s an only child, how does she imagine it might have been to have someone to chat with? When something great happens for a sibling, does your character feel the draw to celebrate or perceive yet another mark on the sibling measuring stick which she will never be able to attain? What kind of an event would launch your siblings from the status of feuding to allied?

3. The Friend Relationship

I am very happy to admit that I have come into the incredible fortune of having friends who are kind and supportive and encouraging. But just as with any friendship, there are going to be moments when someone is going to do something that annoys someone else. That’s the reality of life.

The question is how does your character respond when they have been hurt by someone or when they discover they were the reason someone else felt "less than?" In The Lord of the Rings series, we get to see the love that exists between Samwise and Frodo AND we get to see the frustration (acknowledging that some of this is impacted by magical things) that these two feel. The friendship between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo is also a good depiction of admiration and annoyance.

The question for your character is does he feel loved by the people who he associates with? How does he communicate with his friends? What would be considered the ultimate betrayal for these friends and what would be the thing, the only thing, that could heal that betrayal?

4. The Love Relationship

Whether you have characters who are meeting or dating or engaged or married, there is a depth of courage and vulnerability that must be present within a relationship that is going to be built on love. This year, my husband and I celebrated our 21^st  wedding anniversary and I’m happy to tell anyone who cares that I love my husband WAY more than when we got married. I am also happy to tell them that we had quite a bit of negotiating (aka “heated discussions” aka “silent treatments” aka “a few good fights”) to figure out how to be open and honest with each other.

The love that we get to see in Me Before You goes through these ebbs and flows, moments of anger and celebration. This is also the reason that I love watching Madam Secretary, because there is an exploration of what it means to be married and raising kids and working jobs and . . .

The question for your character is what does she want beyond the clichéd roses and chocolate? How does she demonstrate love for someone with depth and vulnerability? What is she willing to hide to get the person she wants to be with? What is it about her connection with this significant other that makes her willing to fight to stay together when there are so many reasons she could run?

The trickiest thing about writing about love between characters is the mandate that we, as the authors, explore how these kinds of love feel and look and sound. The fun part is observing others. The hard part is understanding our own tendencies and how they may work within our own stories.

What stories showcase one of your favorite forms of love? Can you think of a love relationship category that I didn’t consider? Please share it with us down in the comments!

About Tasha

Tasha Seegmiller believes in the magic of love and hope, which she weaves into every story she creates. She is an MFA candidate in the Writing Program at Pacific University and teaches composition courses at Southern Utah University. Tasha married a guy she’s known since she was seven, is the mom of three teens, and co-owner of a soda shack and cotton candy company. She is represented by Annelise Robey of Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Top Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay