In this series you are invited to share an excerpt of 500 words from any of your published books . This feature is for any author who has been …
Smorgasbord Book Promotions 2024 – Share an Excerpt – #Supernatural Adventure The Last Drive by John W. Howell
Hi, gang. Craig with you for part two of my series about writing to market. You can pick up post #1 here if you missed it. For purpose of a quick …
Like Starting All Over Again.
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I never thought much about ‘Accomplishment vs Failure’ stories. One could argue that every story touches on this. The protagonist needs to succeed in whatever they are attempting in regards to the main plot. If they don’t accomplish their goals then they’re going to fail. Makes perfect sense, right? So, why would there be a separate theme for something that comes off as a given?
From what I was reading, this type of conflict connects primarily to sports or any type of competition plot. This article also notes it would encompass performance stories such as musicians, dancers, etc. Considering this aspect, I can see what the difference is between general success. In a sport or performance, the character is trying to achieve a victory on some level. It isn’t to save the world, but maybe to win the big game, earn a spot on Broadway, or sell a painting to make rent. This is at a smaller scale than ‘life vs death’, but just as important to the characters. It’s the life and death of their dreams that is at stake here.
An aspect of these stories is that the protagonists always have the option to quit and give up on their dreams. This would fall under failure and be an acceptable result if written correctly. Other heroes don’t have this option such as in horror when they can’t just walk away from the serial killer. There’s a much easier out in giving up here, which is always looming over the character. Many times, they will quit at some point and then enter the third act with renewed determination. Kind of predictable, but audiences still get into the ‘phoenix’ effect.
I think this is a very relatable conflict for people. Most have had dreams at some point in their lives. A reader can understand the passion the character has even if they lost or area delaying their own. Seeing that the character has talent for what they want to do helps us believe in them achieving their dreams. They become a surrogate for hope, which can be inspiring to a reader. Think about sports movies and how a viewer who doesn’t like the real sport might really get into the heroes winning in the end. It’s not the sport we are stirred by, but the strong desire to win. Everyone wants to have that in their life instead of crushing failure. Through these stories, an author may rekindle hope and passion in a person too.
Touching on the failure side of the equation, I think all of us can remember a time we feared losing. Not only that, we all know what it’s like to come up short and lose, which is what the alternative to accomplishment. So, our own ‘fear’ of failure and the pain it gives us can pull us into a story. We start internally, or externally, cheering for this character and become emotionally invested. Probably more than in the previous conflicts since we’re more likely to have experience here.
What do you think of this conflict? It does seem fairly straightforward and deeper once you look at it from a sports/performance perspective.
Posted by Joy York Can writing really be cathartic? Research studies say it can. In a 2018 article published in the Cambridge University Press by …
Expressive Writing: Creative and Cathartic
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I’ve seen it both as ‘Chain Mail’ and ‘Chainmail’. We’ll leave that argument alone because now we’re going to learn a little about this type of armor. It’s one that is still finely crafted by some people today for a variety of reasons. First, what is chainmail?
For those who don’t know, it’s a type of metal armor that many DnD players see as the step between leather and full-plate. Plenty of things in the middle, but that’s not the point. A piece of chainmail is made by linking small metal rings together and shaping them to be a vest, headpiece, shirt, or just about anything. This creates a protective mesh, which warriors wore across the globe. Chainmail granted more protection than previous armors and was flexible enough to allow semi-easy movement. This was the superior armor for nearly a thousand years in some countries.
Here are some facts:
Is chainmail still used today outside of Ren Faires and historical reenactments? Yes! The metal ring mesh is still good protection against stabbing, so it is used in:
And there we go. Enjoy Chainmail Day!
As the post title says, I got a little bit of progress with editing Darwin & the Demon Game. I made it through the first 4 chapters ut a reason for that will be explained later. I’m remembering that this is the book where I started doubting myself a lot. Darwin is supposed to be slightly more independent and confident, which throws me. He can be these things, but I come dangerously close to making him like every hero with no confusion, misunderstandings, fixations, and panicking. Those can’t go away entirely, so I have to make sure he doesn’t go too long without one of them. So far, I’ve only had to adjust things a bit and no major rewrites.
Last weekend would have seen me get further, but I ran into a few issues. Editing started off slow on Saturday because I stayed up late the night before to get laundry done. Forgot that I’m in my 40’s and won’t bounce out of bed after little sleep. More like a flop onto the floor, whimper, and curling around my CPAP machine. So, I moved slow and got some done before lunch and more before an afternoon Pokemon Go thing. Finished up the 2nd chapter before bed though. Sunday went wrong with my son going to the doctor in the morning, going in search of a new supermarket, cleaning the house, and family visiting for dinner at the last minute. Got half of chapter 3 done though.
I tried to do better though. Brought a chapter to work to get some editing done on breaks, but that didn’t get me very far. It wasn’t until Thursday when I had to stay home due to my back locking up and triggering my IBS that I got more done. Guess a big plus side of working with paper is that I can be bedridden and still do work. Not entirely sure what caused that mess, but it was joined the night before by a new recipe turning on me with mild violence. To be fair, I’ve been really stressed over personal stuff that I can’t get into here. My patience has been pushed by some people and it resulted in several rather heated conversations.
Nothing else really happened since it was a crazy work week and I had to do a lot of cooking. Aside from Wednesday night, all of my other recipes worked out. Think I’m done for a bit though. Want to let someone else cook while I focus on writing and getting blog stuff set up for November and December. Got 5 posts left for November and then I’ll dig into December unless I have time for editing.
There won’t be much or any editing this weekend. I have my son and we want to enjoy the fresh air before it rains and gets cold. It’ll be primarily Pokemon Go, but he might work on his art for a bit too. It won’t be for long, so I might only be able to tackle blogging. Still haven’t gotten used to the idea of editing a few pages instead of a full chapter or at least a section. I’ll get time throughout the week and next weekend though. Don’t think I have much planned after Tuesday night. Might even get to work on some editing while I’m stuck at an event on Thursday night.
Given that I didn’t do much else or have much planned, I guess I’ll jump to the goals:
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I’d say ‘Love vs Hate’ is second only to ‘Life vs Death’ in terms of oldest stories. Humans fought to survive before they had civilization, so that one is built into our instincts. It wasn’t until we became civilized that the concept of love evolved into what we see today, which is more than simply needing to breed. Of course, the opposite of love is hate, which is where we get the conflict.
Some may guess that this deals with stories of romance. While that is a genre, it’s also a fairly common storyline. Love can blossom in nearly any situation if you write it correctly, which isn’t always the case. I’ve seen plenty of complaints whenever a non-romance story gets a romantic subplot. So, an author needs to be a bit careful about adding one to make sure it doesn’t overshadow the real story. Not that it stops people because falling in love is one of the most common actions that people share. Even if the relationship failed or you only hope to fall in love some day, you get the concept’s idea.
Being that even children understand love to some extent, you would assume that it’s easy to write about with little criticism. Unfortunately, love can be defined differently from person to person. One reader might think ‘love at first sight’ is unbelievable and another will have experienced such a phenomena. A divorced person will see the emotion in a different light than one who has been happily married for years. There’s no way to effectively combat this though, so you’re going to have to hedge your bets on most people accepting your storyline. Not agreeing with the method of love, but accepting that is is feasible for the characters. Good luck with that headache.
On the other side of the ‘Vs’, we have hate. Unlike love, this seems to be more universal in its definition. Hating something is when you truly don’t like it. If it’s a person then you may want bad things to happen to them or at least for them to go away. That’s the opposite of love where you want a person to be closer. Hatred is rather straightforward in how it operates and influences people. So, this ‘Vs’ could also be about how a complicated emotion (love) goes up against a simpler one (hate). That is not to say hate is hard to explain though since the triggers for hatred can be complicated. Yet, we do tend to wrap our heads around it more easily than love regardless if we agree or not.
Something that keeps coming to my mind is the flip-flop that stories do at times. We probably all know a story where the main characters start by hating each other and then fall in love. Plenty that go from love to hate as well, especially if betrayal is part of the background. With the polar opposite nature of love and hate, we can see how easily it is to create a story where the characters can jump to the other side. Both are incredibly strong emotions, which can instill passion, so there is a chance of crossing wires. This would come off as natural too unless the division or unity is forced without any level of understanding. The characters can’t abruptly change their minds on each other, so events have to push them in the right direction.
Think I’ll always be tempted to throw a ‘love vs hate’ storyline into my books. As long as it makes sense though. Certain characters aren’t the love or hate type, so I would have to force the issue. Not a good idea. Just shows that you should think if your characters would even want to fall in love or be capable of utter hate before you attempt to add this storyline.
What do you think of the classic ‘love vs hate’ story?
The Story Circle pertains to the character arc of the protagonist. Dan Harmon is the mastermind behind the Story Circle. Currently an executive …
Story Circle
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(Mankind always has to go searching in the mysterious places of reality. Our curiosity knows very few limits even if it gets us into trouble.)
Depthless seas
And limitless skies
Drawing us to them
Teasing at our wonder
Daring us to enter them
Putting life upon the table
Danger at our very heels
We are a race of explorers
Diving into mysteries
Using mind and flesh
Depending on a little luck
To see us safely home
Legends of Windemere 