Writers in the Storm

by Ellen Buikema

Everyone makes mistakes, which is okay because making errors is a quick way to learn.

You receive a message from one of your beta readers that reads, “I loved your surprise ending!” Then you see these words. “But your main character . . .  There wasn’t much to like or dislike. I just couldn’t relate.”

This is not possible. How could someone not love my spunky protagonist?! She is awesome!

So, you re-read your manuscript only to discover that your protagonist is three dimensional in your mind, not on the page. Not complex enough.

No worries! Here are some fixes.

Make Your Characters Dynamic

These four elements can help avoid oversimplifying characters:

Figure out what your character Wants and Needs

Don’t assume that your character’s Wants and Needs are the same things. Most characters think that what they want is what they need. Often, characters don’t know what they need.

Want vs need creates conflict in the story—the character might think, “If I do this, then I’ll get that.” What the character intends doesn’t always happen, which created tension. That’s the story. An easy way to plot this out is to ponder several questions:

• What is your character's state of mind at the story’s start?
• Where are they going?
• Where will they land?
• Will they get what they need at the final destination?

For example, in Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker’s Wants are healthy. He wants to become a Jedi, join the Rebellion, and fight the evil Empire.

Luke Skywalker’s Needs are to let go of his anger, fear, and hatred. By failing to do this, he puts his own life as well as those of his family, friends, and Rebellion forces in danger.

If you’re stuck for your character’s wants and needs, think about your own life experiences. Or, you can practice by inserting information from other stories. Maybe your character Wants to run away from home, but Needs to deal with their feelings of abandonment from being ignored growing up.

Give them inconsistencies

Contradictions are a great way to keep your characters interesting. Make them a bit unpredictable.

• What if the hero isn’t brave?
• How about a Matchmaker who can’t find a good match for themselves?

Frodo from Lord of the Rings: the most unqualified, harmless person who is the only one able to take the One Ring, of evilest magic, through the dark land of Mordor to be destroyed.

The Ronan Lynch character of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle series is rude and rough with most people, but can be thoughtful and tries to help his friends when he notices something is wrong. This makes him likeable, giving the readers something to emphasize.

A way to play with a character’s contradictions is to describe their wonderful and terrible sides: to fall for them, yet really want to give them a piece of your mind.

Example:

A character is a delightfully talented actor. But that actor agrees to give a performance on the same day of a good friend’s wedding knowing full well he’ll be late to the ceremony at which he is the Best Man.

Gift them with flaws—keep them relatable

We all have flaws. Your character needs them too. Your readers relate to sympathetic and dynamic characters. Not all characters need to, or should be, loved, but we do want the readers to feel for them—thereby keeping the readers engaged in the story.

Gift the character with positive and negative qualities. Serious, with a quirky sense of humor. Fearful, but willing to stand up for their friends in a pinch. The balance of positive and negative bestows the character a realness, while giving the reader someone with whom to sympathize.

A way to keep track of your character’s flaws and strengths is to make two columns, with flaws on one side and strengths on the other. This will help with your character’s backstory. It also helps you to keep track of these traits.

Example:

A heroine that is courageous but over-thinks everything can work to get her cohorts in and out of trouble. Or a sidekick who is faithful but envious can cause interesting issues with the other characters.

Let them be vulnerable

Vulnerable characters have depth. Allow your characters the chance to be emotionally open to the reader. This lets them be sympathetic and irresistible. We see their internal battles and empathize.

Example:

In the novel The Sightless City, the character Sylvaine is a Ferral, a species of furry, clawed beings who are looked down on and treated poorly by the human majority. Sylvaine has been called a beast all her life. Instead of directly fighting against prejudice, she tries to prove herself the exception by becoming an engineer, which Ferrals aren’t allowed to be.

She fails, making her susceptible to the corruptive influence of one who promises to give her the powers of an engineer, and an identity free from the discrimination and self-loathing that comes with being a Ferral.

Using a character’s fear to show their vulnerability is a tool writers can use to make their characters dynamic.

• What are your character’s fears?
• Is it loss or lack of control, rejection?
• What would happen if they had to face their fears head-on?

Creating space in your story for your characters to face these fears, and deal with them as they may, will allow your reader to see them as sympathetic.

When writing your characters, what do you do to keep them from being oversimplified? Who is your favorite, complex character? What is it about that character that you find relatable?

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About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by İbrahim Özkadir from Pixabay

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

When someone first asked about creating a plot-subplot template for their toolbox, I was baffled. “Why would you need to create a template? Why not just use the W, or the Hero/ine’s Journey, or Discovering Story Magic, or Plotting Via Motivation, or the Snowflake, or Personality Ladder, or -- oh. Yeah. I get it.”

There are all KINDS of templates, and a lot of ‘em (like those mentioned above) are extremely good. But not every template works for every writer, which is why creating your own makes sense.

Looking at various templates you’ve tried, it’s easy to spot things you liked and would be happy to keep...as well as things you didn’t. That’s where plot-subplot customization comes in.

Obviously, what kind of fiction you’re writing will make a difference. (Sure, readers also love NON-fiction, but plot-subplot templates don’t really apply there except in an occasional biography or memoir.) So, you need to consider questions like:

Does your genre require an open-to-interpretation or happy or cliffhanger ending?

Does there need to be a subplot?

How many can / should there be?

If the main plot has a happy ending, can a subplot end differently? Ambiguously?

Are there certain high / low spots the reader has every right to expect as the story unfolds?

This is a lot to consider, and it helps to have in mind some examples of stories you’ve liked. When you think about books or movies or TV series you’ve admired—not just lately, but at any time in your life—think about what you admired IN that story. What did you find particularly appealing?

It can’t be something like “the lead actor” who entranced you. It can’t be “the gorgeous setting” that caught your eye. It’s gotta be the template itself that you liked...the way the story unfolded, the thing/s it focused on more intensely, the ending that left you feeling highly satisfied.

Which, once you’ve chosen a few stories you found particularly appealing, leads to some questions about each of ‘em:

1. What high and low spots stood out?
2. How many, if any, subplots were there?
3. How did the main plot end? How about the subplot/s?

And, speaking of subplots...

We already know there’s gonna be SOME kind of connection between them and the main plot. For instance:

* Sidekick/s have an issue separate from their relationship/s with the main character/s.

* The main character has more than one problem to solve...maybe one professional, another personal.

* Subplots bring in an issue that wouldn’t automatically arise in the main plot but which deepens the situation, the backstory, the conflict, and/or the theme of the story.

Of course, the main plot deserves more page-time and more attention than any subplot. But you can do things with subplots that you couldn’t have done with the main one.

This is where “theme” becomes a big deal.

Let’s say you’re writing a classic romance or mystery where the main plot’s ultimate resolution is “love conquers all” or “justice is served.” Let’s also say you don’t want readers thinking “hmph, that wasn’t very true-to-life.”

Having a subplot in which love DOESN’T conquer all, or justice ISN’T served, gives your book a more realistic overtone. (Some readers will love that nuance. Others will wish you’d stopped with the classic resolution reinforcing what they prefer to see. You can go whichever way you like!)

What else can your subplot/s do?

* Provide information you want the reader -- but not the main character -- to have. If the main character’s searching for a hidden treasure but doesn’t know it’s stored in the volcano that’ll erupt in 36 hours, your story’s tension is a lot stronger when the readers KNOW about this hiding place than if they have no idea where the treasure is. They’ll be getting sweaty palms, which they love, and your subplot can deliver that.

What else can a subplot do?

* Help you develop characters who’ll become important later in the story, or later in the series.

* Reveal backstory which the main character doesn’t know about (or doesn’t think of as any big deal) by having a side character refer to it.

* Create a different mood. If your main plot is a nail-biting thriller, your subplot can give the reader some much needed moments of humor. Or if your main plot’s a heartwarming love story, your subplot can remind ‘em that life isn’t always sunshine and roses. Switching moods every so often will help keep people intrigued. They’re never 100% sure of what they’ll get in the next scene.

So, your subplot has some mission relating to the main plot, along with pursuing its OWN narrative arc.

That means—since it’s unfolding as a plot, just like the main story is unfolding as a plot—it’ll need to fill the same requirements as any good plot. But generally <whew> not as many.

All of which goes into creating your plot-subplot template, and that starts with answering the question about stories you appreciate. Even without analyzing their template/s, it’s fun to choose a few examples of stories that have left you feeling genuinely satisfied. Which leads to our:

Prize-Drawing Question

What’s some element those Stories You’ve Loved have in common?

Someone who answers will win free registration to Creating a Plot-Subplot Template, my February 3-14 email class on that very thing. Saturday afternoon I’ll have random-org draw a name and post it at the end of the comments—so check soon, because class will start on Monday morning!

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About Laurie

After winning Romantic Times’ “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then, she’s taught online and live workshops including the upcoming Creating a Plot-Subplot Template, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. With 50+ titles there so far, she’s always hoping for more.

Top Image by Tung Nguyen from Pixabay

by Lisa Norman

Writers are emotional creatures. We spend our time creating worlds, characters, and experiences, but the emotions we absorb from others often sneak into our creative lives.

​When I’m working on a dark scene in a story, I go to dark places that can be hard to come out of.

A student of mine recently came back from a writing conference feeling sad, grumpy, and stressed. As we talked, she realized that much of her stress wasn’t hers—it came from the struggles of writers she’d spent time with. She’d picked up their worry about publishing, finances, and rejection, even though her own situation was solid.

That conversation made me think about how often writers carry emotions that aren’t ours. 

Negativity can creep into our lives from many sources. Our stories, our friends, social media, or the news can derail joy. Do we need to live with the negativity we absorb?

What if we choose something else?

How Others Shape Our Emotions and How to Take Back Control

We’re influenced by the people we hang out with and the media we consume. Emotions and attitudes can become ours without us realizing it. As writers, many of us enjoy a profound empathy with others, something we’ve developed to help us build deeper and more relatable POV characters. But sometimes those emotions can overwhelm our own.

Take marketing. I’ve met writers who hate it and avoid it because they’ve decided it’s no fun. But I’ve also met writers who see it as a creative challenge. They enjoy connecting with readers and have fun experimenting with ways to share their work.

The difference isn’t in the task—it’s in the attitude. When I coach writers, I try to find marketing tasks they’ll enjoy, steering them away from the ones that conflict with their natural approach. Marketing can absolutely be fun. But it can also be a nightmare. One way to shift it from ugly to joyful is to connect with our own inner joy.

Are you surrounding yourself with people who lift you up or drag you down? Are you consuming media that inspires you or leaves you drained?

The Scarcity Trap

My mom lived her life in a constant state of scarcity. Even when she was financially stable, she believed she couldn’t afford to be creative. That mindset shaped her choices and held her back from joy.

Let me tell you: my mother was a fantastic salesperson. She won awards. In Silicon Valley, she was the top selling real estate agent for many years in a row. Could she have afforded to spend some time on her art? Yes. But she chose to work with a fierce focus towards financial success.

I’ve mentioned her story before, but if you haven’t heard it: She got cancer. The cancer took her ability to sell, but left her just enough energy to dabble in art. Only then did she discover she had a talent for it. After her death, I was told that she could have made an even better living selling her art. Knowing artists in our area, I believe this to be true. But she never saw that possibility. Judge for yourself: the featured image on this post is one of her paintings. She'd been a painter for about 2 years at this point.

I’ve seen that same scarcity mindset in writers. We worry that there isn’t enough time, money, or talent to go around. We compare ourselves to others and assume limits that don’t exist.

Creativity doesn’t work that way. Writing thrives when we let go of fear and embrace possibility.

Choosing Joy

Writing isn’t always easy, but it can be joyful. Joy comes when we shift our focus from what’s missing to what’s possible.

Here are some ways to find joy in your writing life:

• Find your people. Spend time with writers who inspire and encourage you.
• Set boundaries. Limit exposure to negativity, whether it’s social media, toxic conversations, or self-doubt.
• Celebrate progress. Even small wins deserve recognition. Every step forward matters.
• Reframe challenges. Instead of dreading marketing or editing, try seeing them as opportunities to connect or grow.
• Practice gratitude. Remember why you started writing and what you love about it.

Sharing the Joy

When you find joy in your work, it shows. Your readers feel it. Other writers notice.

Joy is contagious. When you approach writing with positivity, you inspire others to do the same. Instead of adding to the stress and struggle so many writers feel, you can be the one who lifts them up.

The Gift of Joy

Writing has dark moments. We write about hard things, and we face challenges. But we don’t have to live in that darkness.

Joy is a choice, and it’s a gift we can give ourselves and others. 

What will you do today to find joy in your writing and share it with the world?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by Betty Powell.