Playing Favorites: Parents, Part 3

     On Monday I started a series on Parental Favoritism, and followed up on it on Wednesday--now, late on a Friday night, I'm finishing up the series, at least for the foreseeable future.  Here are the last four words that I currently have on the subject of how to spice up your parental favoritism (sub)plots.

7.  Put the protagonist somewhere in the middle

    People, especially young people but old people, too (and sometimes to far more harmful degrees), have this tendency to polarize the world--there is up and down, there is left and right, there is black and white, there is cold and hot, and there is nothing in between.  This comes from a lot of different places--childhood naiveté, absorbing too many stories with this same black vs. white mentality, a lack of empathy, strict teachings (usually theological) that stress the duology of an Cosmic Good and a Universal Evil in a universe that acts with an inherent morality, etc.
     Now universes with an inherent morality can be very interesting, but only if the universe's morality is the universe's, and not the character's--again, unless your character is some kind of God with special universe-bending powers, they probably shouldn't be the one calling the shots one hundred percent, and their viewpoint shouldn't be the only Absolutely Correct one.
     All that being said, sometimes there exists more than just Favorite and Least Favorite; a lot of kids have more than just one sibling.  If your character exists in a home where favoritism is going on, or is thought to be going on, instead of putting your character on due north or south, maybe place them somewhere more toward center stage--from this vantage, they can comment on the rivalry (if one exists) as they see it, on how the favoritism (if it exists) plays out, and how it affects the rest of the family--while at much less risk than a family Black Sheep, children who are neither favorite nor least favorite are every bit as affected by things like this, and, if they have a good voice and interesting things to say, could provide a fresh perspective on things.

8.  Don't let your kid get hung up on this shit for FOREVER

     If your character had to wash more dishes than their sibling as a kid, they shouldn't still be talking about it when they're thirty.  Unless you want them to come off as whiny, lazy, boring, and entitled, at least.
     Favoritism in a home can cause problems, it's true; some of those problems might last for the rest of the kid's life, or at least have lasting impacts.  But unless the wounds really are so deeply scarred, your little kids are likely to put it behind them sometime after college, if not during--you can't exactly pull the "I'm Mom's Favorite" card when your landlord asks you for rent, so privileged kids leading non-privileged lifestyles will learn pretty quick how bad a job Mommy and Daddy did setting them up in the world, while their baby brother, who always had to wash the dishes and clean the toilets and a million other things, will first of all be overjoyed to no longer be under his parents' thumb, but will second of all have a lot of skills that will serve him later on.
     Even if the wounds are deep, your character may revisit them from time to time, especially during rocky periods in their life, but they're not going to still be obsessing over it by the time they have a family of their own, because there will be more important matters to deal with than the way Mom used to look at you when you brought home C's on your report cards.
     Basically, while it can still be a part of them, don't let it define them.

9.  Let your character realize that their parents aren't actually playing favorites

     Sometimes it's all in your character's head.  Let that be the case sometimes.  Let them figure it out.  Let them deal with the fallout.  Maybe after all those years of thinking they were the least favorite they find out their sister thought she was the least favorite too, and they reconcile--maybe after believing they were the least favorite it turns out they were the favorite, and expected to stand on their own; maybe they thought they were the favorite, but they're only treated so well so they'll shut up and stop bothering their parents.
     Maybe their parents just love them the same amount as all their siblings, but in different ways, and your character is forced to face the fact that the universe actually does not revolve around them, and they can't be the center of it at every waking moment.


     This has been TheSpiderWriter's take on parental favoritism in fiction.  I hope the details provided here have been helpful, and that they serve you going forward.  If you have any thoughts to add or something you'd like to discuss, feel free to drop me a line!

Playing Favorites: Parents, Part 2

     On Monday, I posted an article about parental favoritism, said a bunch of words, and left off with more thoughts about how to spice up your parental favoritism plots stirring in my head.  These are those thoughts.  Please enjoy them.


4.  Have the favorite feel bad about it

     Most of the time in fiction, when a character finds out that they're the favorite they're super smug about it--they lord it over the other characters and do their best to make them as miserable as humanly possible.  OR, the favorite is totally oblivious to the favoritism, and feels neither one way nor the other about it once they do find out--maybe they aren't a dick about it, but they kind of just accept it as the status quo.
     And yeah, that's ONE way to think about it, but there's also another, perhaps more realistic alternative--delicious, delicious guilt.
     Whether it's because they love their siblings and don't want them to feel left out, or because their siblings treat them poorly because of their heightened station in the home, let the character feel bad about their position of privelege, whether they're the protagonist or not.  If they are the protagonist, this is a perfect way to shoehorn in your childhood angst without falling back on the age-old (and so oft poorly done) abuse tropes that clutter every genre in the history of man, and it makes them out to be a more sympathetic character than the Raging Doucheholic many favorites turn out to be.
     If they aren't the protagonist, it can help subvert the sibling rivalry trope and adds a further depth to their relationship and the general dynamic of the home; it makes for a more complex narrative and gives the protagonist more than just straw men to wail against--maybe they still hate them, but even so, at least we're seeing a character in a universe that is not protagonist-centered.
     Which is just another reason why you should

5.  Make the other siblings sympathetic characters

     They don't have to be heroes, and they can even be antagonists, but your protagonist's siblings are people, too; they have hopes and dreams and aspirations, wants and needs and motivations, ones that include your protagonist and ones that don't.  Their world does not revolve around bullying your protagonist for being better/smarter/worse/dumber than them.  I actually have a lot to say about sibling relationships that I won't put here (that's a post for another day), but as far as this article goes, it boils down to; it's (probably) not any of the siblings' faults that they're favored or disfavored.  Maybe your characters don't see it like that, and that's fine, but show that and then show why.
     No matter how antagonistic, let each sibling have something in them that's redeeming--a soft spot for cute things, a special affinity for helpless people, a shocking capacity for generosity, or even just a particularly witty scathing tongue.  Throw the audience a bone and give us a reason to like the favorite or least favorite--better yet, give the protagonist a reason to like or even love their sibling(s)!  Relationships are complicated, and it can be a love-hate thing if you want, but chances are good, after spending so many years together, there are at least some things the little brother likes about his older sister, and vice versa.

6.  Make the impact of the treatment realistic

     A lot of the time in fiction you see kids being treated unequally by their parents, and they either turn out right as roses when they should be dealing with some shit, or they get totally fucked up for years over the smallest of transgressions.
     If your character is their parents' favorite child, they're going to either grow up feeling entitled, because they get whatever they want and never have to work for it, and won't last long in the real world, or they will grow up walking on eggshells in a desperate bid for perfectionism, ever afraid that they could, at any moment, fall from grace.  They could be egotistical and think they're all that, or they could be neurotic about doing things The Right Way so as not to disappoint their dear dear parents.
     If your character grows up as their parents' least favorite child, they're likely to wind up with a lot of self-esteem issues and either pent-up aggression or open resentment, depending on the situation; they're more likely to suffer from depression and less likely to do well in school.  These may be the kids who end up throwing themselves into relationships with much older people later on in life, looking for the parental approval they could never get.
     Of course, these are only a few ways that parental favoritism could affect your characters, and I recommend doing research into how favorites and least favorites turn out, and figuring out how your character would blossom in the station they currently maintain and under whatever form of pleasure/displeasure their parentals dish out.

     Again, this isn't all I have to say, but I'll finish up this series on Friday.  If you have any thoughts on writing parental favoritism, feel free to drop some dialogue in the comment section!

Playing Favorites: Parents, Part 1

     In fiction, it's all too common to see parents play favorites.  This is, to some degree, a reflection of real life--as impartial as we try to be, we all have biases, and sometimes those biases sprinkle down to color what we think of our children.  Whether they try to or not, parents think of all their children in different ways, which doesn't mean that they don't love them equally--it's often equal, just different, much like the children themselves.
     A lot of the time when we see this trope, it's our protagonist who is most affected.  Either they're the favorite (like Thor from Thor) and deserve to be because their siblings are all such prats, or (far more common) they're the least favorite, like Loki, or pretty much any character that has siblings, in which case they either deserve it (usually retroactively) or they don't, which is where most protagonists  seem to end up.
     Nine times out of ten, this is done poorly; everything is painted in stark lines of black and white, the sibling(s) are shitheads, there's no reason why the protagonist should be treated the way they are, and when playing the part of the punching bag, it's either as the abused True Heir (ala Cinderella) or as the kid who has to do chores because God forbid they help out around the house a little.
     An easy solution is to just not bother with the favoritism dynamic, but it can be done well, and completely leaving out the reality of favoritism is like leaving out the reality of all the -isms in life; nice to see, but ultimately dishonest.  You can only run from the truth for so long.
     Anywho. here are 3 ways you can make your favoritism dynamic more interesting.

1.  Let there be subtlety

     In real life, favoritism is most often displayed in the small things.  It's not typically the grand, showy, "My sister got a car for her birthday and I got six months hard labor" that it's often made out to be.  Parents don't try to let their children know if they do have a favorite--they try very hard to hide it, but when it leaks out it's usually in the form of extra praise or admonishment for one party or the other, or they give slightly more lavish gifts to one than to the other--or, yes, maybe they sympathize more with character A's need to get homework done than they do with character B's, so they make character B do character A's chores for a night, or something like that.
     Your character's parents are people, and most people don't try to be mean or unfair "just because."  Which reminds me--

2.  There has to be a reason for the favoritism

     One of the best portrayals of "Least Favorite Child Syndrome" I've seen to date was in a book I read quite some time ago, but whose title I have, unfortunately, forgotten.  The basic plot was that this little girl was an outcast--her siblings were mean, her mother favored them above her, and she was bad at English and art but good at math.  She adopts a puppy at one point but doesn't want her family to know about it, her art teacher tries to help her get extra credit by taking her to the zoo, the dog almost gets eaten by a lion at some point....  The details are kind of hazy.  Like I said, it's been a while.  (If anyone knows the title of this book, let me know so I can cite it, it's a great book and I greatly recommend it)
     But like all children who think themselves unfairly treated, this little girl believes herself to be adopted, and daydreams about her "real family" finding her and stealing her away from her kidnappers in order to give her a better life.  This is, of course, bullshit, and the sister even points out as much while they're looking at old pictures of their mother, because little miss protagonist looks just like Mommy used to, which becomes extremely relevant towards the end of the book, when Miss Protag confronts Mommy Dearest and straight up asks why her sister is the favorite.
     Instead of denying it or telling Miss Protag to go to her room or burn in hell, Mommy Dearest starts to cry.  She admits that she's been playing favorites, and apologizes, and tells Miss Protag exactly why--because Miss Protag is exactly the same as Mommy Dearest was as a child, and Mom has a lot of pent up self-loathing that she's concentrated into the toxic chemical storm she rains down on her youngest child.
     This isn't right by any means, but it was an amazing moment that has (obviously) stuck with me ever since--you never see parents admitting to playing favorites, and you certainly never get to hear the story from their perspective, which means a lot of the time the favoritism is just this thing that happens for no discernible reason rather than something real that is the cause of an effect.
     Maybe your character's parents hate him because he's like them, or love him for the same reason--maybe he's favored or disfavored because he's the more able, or the less, or because he has interests that mesh with/conflict with his parents', or they dislike him because he's an asshole.
     Maybe, if he's the favorite, it's because he works the hardest, and doesn't ask for gifts, and does what he's told, and behaves himself, etc. etc.  Maybe he's earned every facet of that favoritism to such a degree that he doesn't feel he's the favorite even if he is; remember that your character's perceptions of reality will not always be in tune with the actuality of reality.

3.  Explore it from the parents' POV

     As I mentioned above, this, as with most things, is a nuanced issue.  Parents are just people, and all people are flawed; there are different sides to every story, and we have a tendency to focus inordinately on the part of the story that's written by the child--and if we're being honest, children have a pretty bad track record for understanding the way the world works.
     Let the parents tell their side of the story.  Maybe it's a horrible side to the story and they really are assholes, but at least give them the chance to try to make us understand--it could be that their intentions really are noble!  Or that they have no idea what they're doing and it's all just the subconscious effects of reproductive narcissism.  Maybe they don't really have favorites at all, but the sickly child needs more attention than the child who's perfectly healthy, or the problem child gets more attention because the parents feel the need to straighten her out.  A lot of the time, the more capable and trusted a child, the more likely they are to end up on the back burner while parents are distracted--they can have an infinite capacity for love, but they will always have a limited amount of time and energy.
     Maybe the parent is just reacting to the vibes they're getting from their kids--when I was growing up, my mother and my baby brother were upset with each other a good half of the time because my mother and I would go and have "Girls' Nights Out" while he stayed in the trailer park.  My brother might have thought it was a result of favoritism, but every time my mother would spring an unexpected event on us, I would be eager to go and John would insist that he would rather stay home and hang out with his friends.  My mother would argue, John would argue back, my mother would relent and then complain about it in the car (because she wanted to spend time with both of us, and he did this quite often), and then later, when we came home and told him about the movie we'd seen or the park we'd gone to, John would be upset that he "didn't get to go" when I "always did."
     It wasn't a matter of love or affection or favorites; it was just that he chose to use his time differently (and, to be perfectly honest, he had more friends than I did with whom to while his time), and then, being a kid, upon regretting the use of his time, blamed it on the person who had wanted him to use it differently in the first place.
     That rambling anecdote is to say, parenting is hard, and parents deserve the chance to have their stories told, too.
     Whether you explore it from their actual POV or in an honest (or semi-honest or just honest-as-they-see-it) confrontation with a child (or children), or if you write an entire book about it from the parents' perspective, make sure that the parent either sees it as a reasonable way to act, or that they struggle with the guilt of their actions--the Evil Stepmother trope is all well and good in fairytales, but we've stepped well past the battles of Static Good versus Static Evil in the modern age; all things are agathokakological.

     I have more to say, but this post is fairly long, so I think I'll end it here and pick up with number four on Wednesday.  In the meantime, what are your thoughts?  What do you look for in your favoritism subplots?  Are there any particularly good/bad portrayals you've come across recently?  Let us know!

The Coates Curriculum for Creating Characters (And Five Other Ways To Do It Too)

     Recently I had a conversation with one of my friends about our shelved drafts and past WIPs, and she admitted that she has a really hard time writing anything but fanfiction.  She seems to have a good handle on world-building and plot, but she has difficulty creating her own characters, and I know for a fact that she's not the only one.
     Now everyone creates characters differently; everyone has their own process, their own methods for getting under those characters' skins, and character building can be difficult, especially if you're new to writing, or if you've been in the fanfiction trenches for a long time.
     Bu never fear!  TheSpiderWriter is here to help!
     Ultimately, only you can do you, but here are a few methods that I use to get my characters breathing.


1.  Borrow Someone Else's

A)  The Technique

     Notice I said borrow.  Borrow, not steal.  What's the difference?
     The difference is, stealing someone's character is stealing someone's character--you take a vivacious figure, like, Megamind from Megamind, as a random, nonspecific example, and you plop them in your story, change a few details--maybe he's a human instead of an alien!  But he's still got a big head, and mispronounces lots of words, and his parents died saving his life, and he has a crush on that reporter girl, and....yeah.  That's stealing.  You stole Megamind and gave him a different name and some cosmetic surgery; he's still not yours.
     Borrowing is more like taking someone else's character and tracing the outline, then filling it in with different stuff.  You're not trying to put Megamind in your story, just pieces of him--his childish naiveté, perhaps, with a smidgen of angst and a dollop of arrogance.  Then you take these broad strokes and refine them, using the characters around them and the history you make for them to make them new and different and completely your own--Megamind, evil mastermind alien supervillain-turned-hero becomes, I don't know, *vague hand gesture indicating the application of the Fuck It Adjustment* Don Cheezley, a sensitive high schooler hiding the pain of being orphaned beneath a front of arrogance, who, until his parents' death, was homeschooled, and kept largely away from the rest of the world because of his parents' religious beliefs.
     Now that he's in a foster home, and public school, his inner world is dark, labyrinthine, and tumultuous, but the outer world is bright and new and strange.  As he explores the outside world for the first time, he makes friends, enemies, tries his best to survive high school, and makes a few new friends who are out of place in the grand scheme of things, but have a handle on this whole "irl" thing.  With their help he starts learning how to blend in, but also slowly comes to the realization that his parents were cultists, and while they loved him very much, the damage from the things they taught him--and the things they didn't--will be difficult to reverse.
     (That character you can steal.  I have no use for him.  ... yet.)

B)  The Work

     To keep yourself from plagiarizing, and to make sure that this character is breathing (it can be hard to tell with borrowed souls), you have to work hard.  Developing the backstory and making this character stand out on their own is crucial--and it's important that the characters they'll be interacting with aren't all from the same cast this one was taken from, or else you'll just end up with a bland echo chamber of someone else's work.  If this is how you create all your characters, you first of all have a lot of work to do, and second of all, should be taking them from variegated sources.
     You may have to do a lot of writing before you really start writing--when I started the first draft of what would come to be called Captive Stars, I borrowed a couple characters that I had trouble writing as anything but the same characters in an AU--I had to write five or six drafts of the story's start before the character's started to really live their own lives, no longer beholden to the source material from which they'd sprung.  It was only once the sweet baby was snarking at the protagonist and the practical sidekick was romantisizing the world around him that I could call them real, and it was at that point that they really took on a life of their own.
     Ultimately I ended up scrapping those characters completely because the story took a very different turn and they were no longer necessary (such things happen, unfortunately--you may have to do a lot of scrapping along the way to your final draft, my fine friends), but I keep them in my back pocket for a prospective future project--you never know when something you scrap could become useful in the future, after all.
     My point (however much work it's taken to get to it) is that, while this is arguably the easiest route to take, there's still a lot of work you'll need to do, because these characters still need to be yours--no one else's.
   

2.  Frankenstein It

     Another method is to take pieces from multiple characters--whether they are yours or someone else's--and MacGyver them into something useful.  This one is a little bit more difficult to figure out, but so long as you don't let any one character donate too many limbs, it's easier to make this creature your own--when done well, it becomes one of those perfect blends where no one reading the novel can tell where any one trait came from.
     Sticking with the Don Cheezeley example, maybe you want Don's love interest/good friend to be wacky but in touch with reality, and also snarky, so you take the giggly madman do-as-you-like parts of Spongebob Squarepants, the logician parts of Spock, and the sardonic wit of Severus Snape, super glue 'em together, and grin at your monstrosity before it starts speaking in tongues and tries to devour you.
     When you do this, there's a lot of sanding down that needs to happen--you can't have Snape's wit AND his moody demeanor if you're trying to make him do the Spongebob laugh, and the Spongebob's Cloudcuckoolander activities will be greatly reeled in by Spock's logical approach to life--you pick the parts you want, then the rest you discard.  The holes between, or the parts where conflicting traits would ordinarily overlap?  Those you have to fill in for yourself--and again, your backstory and the world around your character will play a vital role in this; no human being develops in a vacuum, and as such characters cannot be completely disconnected from the world they live in.

3.  Base It Off Someone From Real Life

     Basing a character off of someone you know IRL can be tricky--if you make them too similar, you risk offending the person they're built after, and a possible suit for defamation of character or whatever the kids get sued for these days.  When basing a character off of someone from real life, unless the figure in question is a public one, you'll want to be subtle about it being an actual person.  Keep it loose--take what you need and make up the rest, and try not to let the character resemble the person too much--and whatever you do, never, absolutely not once ever, use their real name, or anything close to it.  You don't want to get into that.
     Combining more than one person can help, or you could combine the person with one or more fictional characters--you could Frankenstein from a little bit of everything, if you wanted!
     Again, remember your backstory and supporting cast; they. are. vital.

     The first three all come down to; borrow all you like (borrowing is, ultimately, what we're doing every time we're inspired by something--there's no shame in it) but never take any too much from any one source.
     Now we come to the more difficult parts--the parts where you try to conjure something out of nothing.
     *Cue dramatic music*

4.  From Scratch--Planned

     There are a lot of ways to set about making your own completely "original" character, but it comes down to this:  This is where she is, what she's doing there, where she's been, and what she looks like.  These are the things she likes to do, this is what she wants, why she wants it, and these are the things in her way.
     That's pretty much it.  You can fill out character questionnaires to get a better idea of who your character is, or use random generators to pin it down (I recommend Springhole.net), or just jot stuff down on paper until you feel that your character is fleshed out.  As long as you have the basic questions written out, you have a character,  Making them breathe is a matter of finding their voice, their habits, their manner of speaking--keep a character bible, write down everything you can, search out lists online, watch people as you go about your day.  Think about your character's quirks and habits, the way they walk, talk, dress--write it all down, maybe draw your character, and hope for the best.
     In the end, hoping for the best is all we can do.  Sometimes, a character you create will fall flat.  That's okay, though!  That's why we edit, after all.

5.  From Scratch--Spur Of The Moment

     Sometimes you just need to wing it.  Start out with a name, a general purpose, a smidgen of an idea, and just go.  It's the Improv Method for character creation, basically--you just need to let the information flow, and allow this character to reveal itself over time.
     It seems like a nothing method, but honestly?  It works.  These can sometimes be your best characters; they have the most potential to surprise you, and just like with Improv (can you tell that I just got back from my Improv class?), some of the best things come from surprising yourself.  Hell, a lot of my favorite characters are ones I got to know by going in blind--basically the whole cast of (my shelved WIP) Silhouette were sparse sketches that came alive when I turned them out on their journey, and when I wrote The Snake With Amber Eyes, a little girl named Shelby snuck in from the sidelines and basically stole the story.
      These little guys can be a handful, and the con to this method is that it can leave you stymied in the middle of a scene because you don't have all the information you need for them, or the character can come out inconsistent or not-fully-formed, which is a valid issue.  They can also take the story completely off the rails and leave you reeling, but, as always, it can--and should--be fixed in post.

6.  How I Make My Characters

     >Stares at screen
     >Makes guttural noise
     >Throws up arms
     >Makes pterodactyl noise
 
      The truth is, my methodology for creating characters is wildly inconsistent.  I mix and match from the list above--for some projects, I base characters off of books and movies I've seen, for some I plan them all out beforehand and fill out a million questionnaires, sometimes I sit for hours using random generators to develop a human being, for some I slam real people onto the pages and change their names and give them super powers, and for some, I just straight up wing it.
     Consistencies exist, though--I almost always draw my characters, at least the important ones, so I can get a feel for what they look like, and use their facial features and posing, etc. to reveal aspects of their personalities.  I do a lot of characterizing in my head on the fly--I listen to music that reminds me of the character, connecting it to their life and choices, I fill in the blank spaces of their backstories and envision scenes with them as I go for walks or try to sleep at night.
     Sometimes I tie characters into the zodiac to better pin down their personalities--this character is really emotional and all-or-nothing, so maybe he's a Scorpio, which would also indicate blah blah blah, etc. etc.
     But a lot of the time, I'm making it up as I write, or else sitting up in bed at three in the morning to scribble down notes before I fall asleep and forget them.

     The Coates Curriculum for Creating Characters essentially comes down to this:

1.  Make them breathe.
2.  Keep thinking about them.

     It doesn't matter, ultimately, how it's done, as long as it works for you and produces a character that seems like more than just a puppet on a string or a thinly veiled clone of someone else.  Just keep working at them, pushing them, trying to figure out their insides, and once you think you have it down pat, let them surprise you--even if you've planned everything out perfectly beforehand, if they ask you to deviate from the path, let them do so--you can always scrap it later.
     But you might be pleasantly surprised at how well the character knows themselves--which is to say, probably better than you do.

Two Ways To Add Drama To Your Novel

     Drama is important in your novel--one can argue that without drama, there is no novel.  You can write a book without an antagonist, a series without a singular set of characters, a play without a plot, a novel that's mostly a comedy, but you can't write anything without drama.  Drama is your meat and potatoes.  Maybe comedy or romance or fluff is your desert, and everybody loves them some pumpkin pie (or at least I do.  It's fine if you prefer cherry or apple or whatever.  More pumpkin for me.), but you can't eat that entire pie without a few solid meals in between.  You'd get sick and end up malnourished, and it wouldn't be a pretty sight, I assure you.

     Basically, without tension; stakes; DRAMATICALITY!, your jokes (or fluff, etc) will fall flat, because there will be no reason to care.  Even if your jokes are funny, your characters will have nothing to do, because there won't be any action propelling them to make the mistakes that people find endearing; action is all that drama is.  And without those elements, there's no reason for a novel to exist.  We could just as easily have picked up a joke book, or read some fanfiction and not have bothered with the lackluster story that's been presented to us.

     And if you're not writing a comedy or fluff piece, drama becomes all the more important--in fact, it becomes just about everything.

     There are lots of ways to add drama to your novel, but here are the two big mainstays of fiction.  They form the basis of basically everything your book is about, many times out of one hundred.

     The first thing you do is find out what the character fears most.  Is it snakes?  Commitment?  Flying?  That creepy old dude squatting in the porta-potty down the street?  Pinpoint that fear.  Point out that he's afraid, figure out why he's afraid.

     Then slap him upside the head with that fear; force him to face it head-on, and set the stakes high enough that he has to do it.  Make him the only one qualified to catch snakes to make a special anti-venom for his baby brother, tell him that if he doesn't marry his on-again off-again girlfriend that she'll be deported, shove him into a situation where the only way to find the mystical prince destined to save the world is to bring gift offerings to Porta-John and spend a week living with him in the cramped porta-potty for which he has named himself.

     Then, once he's faced a fear and come out stronger (or weaker) for it--do it again.  And again.  And again.  Repeat ad infinitum, or until your novel is finished.  Whichever comes first.

     The second thing to keep in mind when trying to stir up drama is what your character wants most.  Does she want to be a member of a famous band?  Does she want to go on an amazing adventure?  Marry the girl she's been crushing on for like, forever? To go to college and get an education so she can make her family proud?

     Now give it to her.  Make her work for it--or don't, either can work, depending on how the story is laid out; if the story starts with this sudden blessing bestowed upon her for no reason, that's fine!  It'll make the next step less tragic, if she hasn't done anything to earn it.  But let her have this one.  Let her earn this victory, become that band member, marry that girl, be the Chosen One--and then let her reap the consequences.

     Make them substantial.  Make them horrible and totally unexpected--make her doubt everything she's ever wanted; it's not so great, being a superstar, she finds, and her idols, it turns out, are total assholes; she quickly finds out that she doesn't actually know the girl of her dreams at all, and they're terribly incompatible--perhaps horrifically so; the adventure she wanted involves levels of violence and hardships the books never cover--she forgot that she was never good at gym class and probably should have thought this out a little better; and of course, the degree she wants isn't really the one she wants, and she wonders how she ever thought it was.

     For the best effect, sprinkle these twisted gifts with elements of her worst fears, and laugh as her life spirals down into something she never expected and doesn't quite have the skills to deal with.

     Now force her to find a way out on her own.  Whatever skills she lacks, she has to find a way to gain them, whatever mistakes she's made, she has to find a way out of it, no mysterious saviors, no easy solutions, no (or few) external forces, no Deus Ex Machinas--she got herself into it, and now she has to get herself out.

    And this, comrades, is the very heart of drama.

How To Win NaNoWriMo in 15 Days

     Last year, I won NaNoWriMo with a couple days to spare, and I was pretty proud of myself.
     THIS year I won NaNoWriMo in HALF the allotted time, and I felt pretty darn great, I tell you what.  Unfortunately I didn't finish my novel in time (I'm too damn long-winded), but I walked away with a certificate and a smile and a good portion of a first draft for a story that I'm really into.
     Of course, if I kept the secrets to my success a secret, it wouldn't exactly behoove all of you writers out there, wondering how you can get not just your NaNo Novel, but ANY of your fast drafting on even faster, so I'm here to spill the beans and teach YOU how to blow the fishes out of the water with the power of your magic writey-downer abilitations.*
     Here's eight tactics YOU can use to win big fast!

*not a word.

  

1.  Cheat

     Okay, so not cheat, exactly, but sort of???
     See, what allowed me to win so quickly was the fact that on the first day of NaNo I was able to log 11,518 words.  No, it's not because I'm some sort of superhuman (I mean, I am totally some sort of superhuman, but that's not how I was able to write so much).  My secret?  I took NaNoPlotMo VERY seriously; I outlined like hell and scribbled down every note and spare thought I had, fleshing out the first half of my novel so vividly that half my job on day one was essentially copy-paste-expound-upon.
     This also meant that, for the first half of my novel at least, I had a clear idea about where I was going, who my players were, etc, so once I hit the ground I hit it rolling, fullspeed downhill with a fire on my ass.
     This is sort of cheating, yes, because all the WRITING is supposed to be done during November, but taking extensive notes is just an expected part of October for us NaNoers, and no one is looking over your shoulder raising their eyebrow at you for "thinking too much," so you do you and take as many notes as you want, comrade, it's your journey and can't no one tell you how to climb that mountain but you!
     (Also, no one can tell you not to write tons of run-ons in your first draft.  NO ONE.)

2.  Don't Look Back

    This is just one of those old classics of the NaNo experience, but still SUPER helpful.  Like, so helpful oh my God, I spent most of last year's NaNo just LEARNING this one, and it's helped in all my drafting since; don't go back and reread.
     It's tempting, I know!  But you must resist the urge.  Go back a chapter or maybe two if you need to at the start of the writing day, to try to kickstart your creativity, remember where you left, etc., but don't go any further back and do not, I repeat, DO NOT, I REPEAT AGAIN FOR FURTHER EMPHASIS, DO.  NOT.  EDIT.  
     I know those words are being real shitlords--they're screaming at you, begging you to come fix your mistakes, taunting you with your imperfections, but don't do it!  It will only slow you down, it could lessen your word count (which is all well and good during editing season, but not when you're drafting, ESPECIALLY not with NaNoWriMo), and you'll lose all your momentum.  Even if you're suffering from a block, you'd be better off getting up and going for a walk, or reading, or watching an hour of TV than risking a trip into the bog of edit hell.
     Don't even look back for details--if you forget a detail, make it up, you can always fix it in post.  And hey, who knows, maybe you'll like the new way better!
     Just, in general, if you can possibly help it, don't look back.  The time for looking back is not while your chainsaw is half-way through the lonely housewife's torso; the time for looking back doesn't come until the last grudge match has been settled and your bloody trail of carnage and slaughter finally matches the tale of woe and revenge set down in the notebook you made to look like that one from Deathnote.  That's when you bust out the bleach and start checking IDs.

3.  Don't worry about POV

     This year, I couldn't decide if I was writing from multiple third person limited or from third person omniscient.  Last year, during Camp NaNo I kept slipping into second person POV, too, and randomly switching tenses.
     This is pretty normal, we all do it to some degree, some more than others--our brain will just randomly switch gear and suddenly a third person story has six paragraphs of "I went to the store today" slapped in the middle.  Don't sweat it.
     This is another thing that can be fixed in post.  If you're not sure what POV you even want the story to be in, just write.  Write whatever comes to mind and deal with the aftermath later.
     That goes for tenses and shit, too.  Just don't worry; again, it can all be fixed in post.  Right now, the most important thing is to get that story out of your goddamn body before it has the chance to escape in a less palpable form, or takes hold of your brain and drives you MAD.

4.  Big casts help

     I'm not saying that big casts are the answer, or that they're right for your particular story, and I'm DEFINITELY not saying that every story needs to be an ensemble.
     What I AM saying is, I had a big cast this year (both years.  I'm a fan of large casts.  Sue me) and it really helped keep my juices flowing--I had a lot to work with, a lot of subplots to dive into, and any time I couldn't figure out what my MC's next move was, I could cut to some of the more minor characters and talk about a subplot for a chapter or two, which allowed me the time to let my MC ruminate on his options and decide what to do next--and, sometimes, for new characters to invent themselves.
     And of course, while writing my MC's scenes, I was able to work out what my side characters were doing, etc., etc., which makes for a good process most of the time.


5.  Set a big word count and follow that shit

     After my eleven thousand word victory I was like HELL FUCKING YES
     But I knew I had to keep working--I told myself that I would write at least three thousand words a day.  I didn't, of course, but I tried to; some days I went over, some days I went under, but because I was so far ahead, it wasn't any problem--even if you don't get off on the huge side of the bed the first morning of NaNoWriMo, exceeding the normal goal is a good thing to shoot for--maybe you write two thousand words a day instead of 1667, maybe three thousand, maybe five thousand!  Whatever you can handle, do that and do it consistently; that way if something happens and you're under one day, it's no big deal.  If you do it enough and for some reason you have to skip a day, again, you have some room under you, no big deal.
     BUUUUUTTTT.....

6.  Don't skip a day

     If you can help it, don't skip.  I know you have those pretty little days' worth of word credits saved up from all your SUPER DUPER WRITE-TASTICNESS, but do your best not to let them get to you.  If you take that day off, it's going to seriously screw with your momentum, which is what fast-drafting is all about.  You gotta go hard bro, 'cause in this game, there's no goin' home.  *Insert Murder Eyes*
     Plus, by skipping a day, your manuscript becomes a little less clear in your mind, details become a little more hazy--if you knew what you were going to do in the next scene, maybe you lose it, or lose part of it, and you risk the dreaded need to (DUN DUN DUUUUN) TURN BACK.  *LOUD MELODRAMATIC GASPING*

7.  Set up a routine that works for you

     I like to work in chunks of several hours at a time, when I can, so I try to get up early and write for a few solid hours before school, before I've expended my creative energy for the day, and then I do my best to squeeze in whatever extra time I can between classes--maybe you work best at night, though, or for fifteen minute intervals throughout the day; maybe the only time you can squeeze it in is while hastily shoveling bologna sandwiches into your chomping maw at the midday hour.
     Whatever works for you, set a time and try to stick to it--then grab whatever extra time you can get your grubby little hands on.  Try to set up a workstation if you can, leave your computer on sleep instead of off so it takes less time to boot up when you feel the desire for a pyre!

8.  Throw shit in there

     Obviously, you don't want to just slam a random thing down for the words, but don't censor or limit yourself.  Use those adverbs and adjectives you're not sure you'll need, you can cut 'em later!; write that introspective diatribe, you can change it later!; give a flashback that explains the entire character that you're pretty sure you'll end up using like four sentences from in the end; you can cut the rest of it later, but at least now you know, and this is a part of fast drafting that, as more of a pantser than a plotter, I love, because now I have all this information about my characters and their lives that I can use later, or not use at all, but at least I can write the character with all this shit in mind!
    And my wordcount is boosted, and no one got hurt**, and all is well.

**Except for all those people you murdered on number 2.