FSN - Day 13 - Strengths and Faults

[ladyseishou]

Day 13 - 18 days until the start of NNWM




This week we’ve been taking a closer look at our story’s main characters: their back story, their mannerisms and disposition, and desires. We’ve also talked about how it is the protagonist’s great need for something or someone and the antagonist’s desire to prevent the protagonist’s from winning the prize that drives the story from start to finish.

Today, Nano Writer, we’re going to give our hero a little help and because we can (we’re The Writer, right?) we’re going to give our hero three wishes…

That’s right, three wishes to help our protagonist in his quest to win his heart’s desire. But there’s a catch or two - isn’t there always?

The wish can only help him with his quest. It can not guarantee his success.
The wish can only be something that he can do for himself, find within himself - a skill or talent.

Okay… go and make your character happy!

What? You say that your hero suspects something up (not his first time working the wish angle) and wants your advice? No problem!

Review what it is that they really, really want (once again read over your premise) and talk about what kind of cool skills or talents that will aid the hero with his or her quest…

For example, if the story is about winning a war to bring peace to the kingdom, you might suggest to the hero to ask for physical strength. If the story is about making first contact with an alien race, you might offer an ear and intelligence for languages.

Beauty, a sense of humor, wisdom… anything really. But only three. Make a list.

Got it? Great. But now here’s the catch and there’s always a catch. You knew that.

No, we’re not invoking some sneaky interpretation, i.e. wish for great wealth and get told the money’s in the bank, just got to steal it. But - there is just the small matter of payment. You pretty much don’t get something for nothing, especially when we’re talking three really cool wishes, right?

So as payment (equivalent trade if you rather) for the skills or talent on your hero’s wish list, he or she must also take on a fault or weakness (or two), something that will basically make things harder for the hero as he struggles to achieve his quest. Why, you ask, do we need to make things even tougher for our hero - he’s already taking on a powered-up bad guy…

Well generally speaking, a flawed protagonist helps connects the hero to the reader - it makes the good guy sympathetic and human. Nobody’s perfect.

This constellation of strengths and weaknesses makes up what is usually called the character’s “inner journey” - the part of the story when the hero recognizes that he (or she) is standing in his own the way of achieving his (or her) goal and must find a way to overcome this weakness or flaw or face total failure.

So going back to our examples: if your hero has great physical strength, we might might also make him afraid of germs and consequentially he spends a lot of time and effort avoiding dirty situations. And our alien language specialist? She’s xenophobic. Or pathologically shy.

Interesting? You might want to know more, right? That’s the idea!


Tomorrow is right-brain Friday and we’re going to put our lists aside and do something crafty. Until then, keep writing Nano Writer!

Comments

[kallistixf]

Just wanted to say thank you for all these posts -- they're great!

[ladyseishou]

kallistixf! Glad to see you're back! And thank you! I just hope these long-winded things might be helpful. Will the goddesses return this November?