When Bad Things Happen to Good Protagonists

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

Perfection is boring, said more than one writer and even more readers. We can appreciate perfection, of course, as in a gorgeous sunset.  But when we're seeking to be entertained, it's all about the imperfection of things going badly for the hero.

No one seeks hardship upon themselves, and when given the choice we will choose the lesser of two evils. Our hero has the same instinct for self-preservation, so he/she will try to avoid trouble at all cost. Which is why problems must be thrust upon them, usually by someone with an opposing agenda.    

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly," said Plato, "while bad people will find a way around the laws." This great forefather of fiction knew that characters with a propensity for doing bad are good at creating conflict for a sympathetic hero. When trouble strikes as a result of an outside force, our innocent victim is considered a passive protagonist.

On the other hand — just as in real life — trouble can be self-inflicted, caused by the hero's own carelessness, bad judgment, stubbornness, or other misstep. This active protagonist can attract adversity, if only via good intentions gone wrong. They had set out to accomplish something, only to have it go awry.

In general, writers are told to avoid the passive protagonist because readers don't invest themselves as readily in a hero who things merely happen to. They wish to identify with someone who wants something and is intent on getting it.

The ideal plot, it would seem, will star an active protagonist capable of causing his own calamity (the archetypical flawed hero), only to be further thwarted by an equally active antagonist who brings even more tribulation to the table. Our poor imperfect protagonist can't get a break. They have an enemy but can also be their own worst enemy.

The goal is to pile on however much misfortune it takes to convince the reader that all is lost; that there's no possible way the hero is going to come out on top. They will, of course. But it's all the stumbles threatening that victory which keep the reader turning the page, since trouble — no matter who's causing it — is just plain interesting.

Circle Around for Your Story's Success

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


It seems like just yesterday we'd be flipping the pages of the latest Archie or Batman comic book and we would come across this headline:

"Tired of being picked on? Nobody picks on an ATLAS MAN!"

The cartoon accompanying this full-page ad showed a beach bully kicking sand at a skinny fellow (named Mac) and his girl.  After confronting and being threatened by the muscle-bound brute, Mac vows to get even some day.  In the next panel, he signs up for Charles Atlas' bodybuilding course, and in the end he becomes the hero of the beach.

The word balloons changed over the years, I noticed, so sometimes Mac's girl was sympathetic when he vowed revenge.  Other times she said something demeaning like, "Oh, don't let it bother you, little boy." Originally, the cartoon showed the aftermath of a now-powerful Mac knocking the beach bully out.  Over time, the advertisement eliminated that panel, probably because it promoted violence.  Or maybe Mac punched out his verbally abusive girlfriend off-screen.

The point is, in the full version of this miniature morality tale, we are given a definitive "before" and "after".  Before, Mac is picked on by a bully.  After, the underdog becomes top dog.

This classic Atlas ad is a simple but effective example of the full circle readers want in their stories. There has to be a situation that needs resolving, and by the end of the story that situation must be resolved.  Without either, there is no sense of accomplishment.

A time-tested method is to establish, at the beginning of the story, our hero in his/her current state (their "Ordinary World", as the experts call it).  We'll see them going about their normal routine in their normal circumstances so that we understand the status quo.  After that, things go topsy-turvy and the hero's world as they know it comes under siege by whatever problems the story dictates.  A series of ups and downs follow, until finally there is victory and we are rewarded with a scenario that hearkens us back to the original roots of the hero.

This return to the "ordinary world" will clarify the results of what has taken place and show how things—and hopefully the hero—have changed.  The hero doesn't physically have to return to their hometown with a parade waiting for them.  Sometimes the hero in fact cannot go back to their world, but an early vulnerability that is now a strength is easy to convey.

If the character arc has been apparent enough, it may not even be necessary to change a thing. A mere reminder of how things used to be could be sufficient.  Perhaps the hero was swimming at the beginning of the story.  Toward the end of the story, the hero is swimming again.  Same activity, but this time we know they possess a contentment they didn't have the first time.

Life itself affords us very few clear-cut befores and afters, so we find fulfillment in those we experience with our fictional friends.  Letting readers go full circle with the bookends of an obvious before and after is an easy and effective way to bulk up a skinny story.

New Words in the Dictionary

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

It had to happen sooner or later. Binge-watch is now officially ensconced in the American English language. As are riding shotgun, throwing shade, and train wreck. Roughly 1,000 new terms have recently been added to the dictionary, but don't despair if you can't find time to learn them all. Some are so 2017 that they are guaranteed a short shelf life.

One that doesn't deserve immortalization is woo-woo, slang for describing someone that's really out there. You will never hear me—nor any other self-respecting man—resorting to using "woo-woo". People would think I was cray-cray. (Please, Merriam-Webster, never let cray-cray make it in.)

I do, however, kinda like humblebrag.  To humblebrag is to make a seemingly self-critical statement that is really intended to boast ("I only came in second place in the entire country"). Instead of fishing for a compliment, it baits and hooks itself.

Among the more interesting additions is wayback machine, which relates to going back in time, if only in the mind. Mr. Peabody and Sherman were using that very device back in 1961. Why it's only caught on after 56 years must have something to do with Netflix.

That said, you'll also be hearing wayback used as a noun in an entirely different context, referring to the area in the back of a van, which you can open up by putting the rear seats down. To my knowledge, it doesn't help you go back in time.

Meanwhile, there are other words that are on the verge of verbal extinction.  While you can still find them in the dictionary, word has it that it won't be for much longer. They include frutescent (resembling a shrub), muliebrity (femininity) and snoutfair (describing someone attractive or charming, even though the word is neither).

Since some of these terms are rarely used anymore, such as agrestic (rural), embrangled (confused), or rum peeper (mirror), it's only right that they be exuviated (cast off).  But I will miss skedaddle, because there are times when I actually do skedaddle, and will no longer know what to call it.

Words come and go, and fortunately only a couple of the lamer offerings mentioned in my 2016 post on the subject have survived. The wise writer will do well to avoid fly-by-night phrases that readers won't identify with in thirty or forty years, unless the goal is specifically to date a character by using dialogue du jour.

Constant Conflict

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


One of the Oscar Best Picture contenders earlier this year was Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson and based on the 1967 book The Unlikeliest Hero: The Story of Desmond T. Doss.  HBO just had another of their free weekends, so I watched the film again, and doing so reminded me of something:

I love boot camp.

Mind you, I'm a peace-loving guy with pacifist leanings, but I've always been riveted by scenes involving new recruits meeting their drill sergeant and being taken through the rigors of basic training.  

Hollywood loves war movies. Conflict is perhaps never portrayed bigger and bolder than in a battle scene.  But the face-to-face tension of an underdog trying to keep it together under dire conditions is human drama we can all relate to.

A workplace with a tyrant boss, a classroom with an unreasonable teacher, in-laws who can't be pleased, even domestic quarrels, are ready sources of inherent tension that can escalate our protagonist's real problems. Such challenges come in infinite varieties, but if they are resolved as part of a happy ending, these subplots are typically addressed in one of two ways:

1. The troublemaker gets their comeuppance. The conniving co-worker is exposed, the miserly uncle gets arrested for embezzlement, the contentious neighbor breaks a leg falling off a ladder, and the hero is right there to enjoy it.

2. The troublemaker turns out to be ally. The overzealous drill sergeant eventually reveals his human side. When the hero rises to the challenge and their strained relationship takes on a hint of mutual respect, it becomes clear that everything the sergeant put him through was for his own good. That moment feels like a satisfying character arc in its own right.

As we talked about in my recent Suite T post ("Who Is Your Contagonist?"), anyone or anything that stands in the way of our hero's success makes for good conflict along the way. Those everyday scenarios that we inflict on our hero can cause hardship right along with the actual antagonist.

Page-turning prose relies on the story's ability to keep the problems coming.  Providing that steady supply of friction in your fiction can ensure that your reader doesn't go AWOL.

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What Brand Are You?

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


Some years ago in a writing magazine, I noticed an advertisement for Kleenex®.  But they weren't hawking facial tissue.  This was a fairly official-looking admonishment to all writers advising them that Kleenex® is a registered trademark, and that whenever the word Kleenex® is used, it should be capitalized with the copyright symbol ® added to it.

Presumably this even mattered because people tend to call any brand of tissue a Kleenex®, for example, "Could you pass me a Kleenex®?"  You can already see how distracting it would be for writers to include the symbol in a novel.  Almost as distracting as the heavy-handed alternative, "Could you pass me a facial tissue?"  (People don't talk like that.)

My gut reaction was that Kleenex® should just be happy to be such a front runner that they would become the go-to word for not just their product but all others like it.  However, many products—from Ex-Lax® to Preparation H®—are equally, um, zealous about protecting their brand name.

It does have to be a little frustrating when you're Coca-Cola® and a large portion of the population refers to any kola nut-flavored carbonated drink as a "coke".  But it feels a little over the top when a catchy TV jingle like "I am stuck on Band-Aids, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me" is changed to the clumsy "I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me". Cramming "brand" in the middle of an established slogan suddenly sounded a little desperate.

You may be old enough to remember Funny Face Drink Mix (similar to Kool-Aid, with the kid-friendly flavors Goofy Grape, Injun Orange, Freckle Face Strawberry, Chinese Cherry, Loud Mouth Lime, and Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry).  In a short time, someone decided that two of the flavors were potentially offensive, so Injun Orange became Jolly Olly Orange, and Chinese Cherry became Choo Choo Cherry.  (I'm surprised Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry wasn't picketed for being insensitive to cowboys.)

In more recent years, perhaps you noticed when the jingle "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man" became "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks."  (That one I do get, since a friend of mine's sister works at a hardware store.)

Clearly, companies go to a lot of trouble to protect their brand.  If you're a writer, you have a brand that should be just as important to you.  While it may seem foreign to think of yourself as a product, consider Hollywood stars with established images, like Brad Pitt and Melissa McCarthy.  It's hard to picture Pitt in a slapstick role, or McCarthy playing Anne Frank.  Then there are chameleons like Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, who can do both comedy and drama, but that very flexibility has become part of their brand.

The cover of a Stephen King book is distinctively Stephen King, evoking the bad vibes that lie inside.  His Maine radio station WKIT is also fit for a King, with songs like "Black Magic Woman" and other ditties that would be right at home in a soundtrack to Christine.  You know what you're gonna get when you buy a Stephen King book because of the consistency throughout his work and throughout his platform.

When readers see your name, what should come to mind?  What image will help promote your books?  Just what is it that you want to say to the world through your writing?   These are good questions to ponder as you tweak your website and before you post things on Facebook.  In defiance of the old saying, not all publicity is good publicity if it goes against the image you want to project.

As you develop your brand, follow in the attentive, consistent footsteps of proven marketing successes like Kleenex®. Becoming a brand people know and love is nothing to sneeze at.

When Genres Collide

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

One can only guess what Jane Austen would think of the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  In 2009, author Seth Grahame-Smith and Quirk Books cleverly capitalized on a current hot topic by sinking their teeth into Austen's 1813 classic, creating a new novel of manners and monsters.  A movie of the same name made it to theaters in February 2016.

Call it a parody, call it a mashup, but whatever you do, don't call it a one hit wonder.  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies started a zombie apocalypse of its own, inspiring other authors to write such twisted tomes as:

• Alice in Zombieland
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• Little Women and Werewolves
• William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Empire Striketh Back
• Grave Expectations
• Android Karenina 

Grahame-Smith continued to contribute more of his own fangy fare with 2010's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Even fairy tales have not been safe from those who would rewrite history. That Risen Snow: A Scary Tale of Snow White and Zombies picks up where happily ever after leaves off. It turns out that Snow's resurrection doesn't come without a certain complication.  Which makes me fear for Sleeping Beauty, who was dead to the world even longer than Snow before her prince showed up.

More than simply grabbing the coattails of a passing fad, a good hybrid novel not only captures the spirit of the original material but adds its own page-turning twists.  Another popular genre, Steampunk, shares a similar premise of mixing the ordinary with the extraordinary.  In this, H.G. Wells was well before his time.

Author Kerry Nietz shared how he came up with his novel Amish Vampires in Space in the May 2014 issue of Southern Writers: "For me, it was an interesting mental challenge. Could I intersect three genres—Science Fiction, Amish, and Vampires—and produce a compelling and plausible story?" Nietz succeeded, and followed up with 2015's Amish Zombies in Space. 

Perhaps you can think of other mashup possibilities.  I myself would enjoy a novel in which Sherlock Holmes matches wits with The Mad Hatter.  These two insane geniuses on opposite ends of the mental health spectrum would make for a very fun read indeed.

But let's not stop there.  Might I also suggest these titles, just ripe for the writing:

• Calamity Jane Eyre
• Little Orphan Annie of Green Gables
• Green Eggs and Hamlet

With so many genre mashups yet to be tapped, don't be dismayed if the zombie and vampire trend is not the bandwagon you feel like hopping on.  All you need is a little imagination to come up with another idea worth fleshing out.

In the Summertime

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


Down here in the South, most students have just wrapped up their school year and begun their summer vacation.  Up North, many kids are still hitting the books, and will continue to well into June.  Officially, the calendar says the first day of Summer is June 20th.  But the days have been hot and summery enough lately that many Southerners consider Memorial Day Weekend the start of the sunny solstice.

"Summertime and the livin' is easy," said George and Ira Gershwin (actually, it was DuBose Heyward, the author of Porgy, the novel on which Porgy and Bess was based).  Regardless of whether your daddy's rich and your mama's good lookin', there are plenty of folks who dispute Porgy's sentiment because Summer often means juggling even more things than usual.

It's not necessarily bad stuff, just more stuff.  We tend to fill our summers with as much as we can, hoping to make up for all the months when we've worked so hard, feeling like this is the only chance we have to do the things we don't have enough time for. 

Which brings me to the question, did you make any writing resolutions back in January?  Did you pledge to write a page a day?  500 words a day?  More importantly, have you been successful?  I've pondered that very subject with a number of authors lately, and, like me, most of them were faithful to their goals for at least a week.

As honorable people, we make it a point to live up to the promises we make to others.  Commitments we make to ourselves, however, are too easy to break, since no one's around to punish us.  But don't we do just that, with feelings of disappointment in ourselves, regret, and lost opportunity?  If we had started on that novel in January and kept at it for the last 150 days, even a 500-word goal would mean 75,000 words under our belt today.

Stephen King says he writes 2,000 words a day.  Julia Cameron shoots for three pages, roughly 750 words.  Your own mileage will vary, as it should, and you might do well to start small.  On those days when you surprise yourself because you've written 3,000 words, you'll know you've gotten back your groove.

To those authors who manage to write two or more books a year, I'm preaching to the choir.  I don't know how you do it, but I love you for being a source of hope for the rest of us.

500 words a day is an easy task when you're having fun.  As a matter of fact, this blog post is exactly 500 words long. 

As you enthusiastically make your other plans for the summer, I encourage you to include a recommitment to (or the initiation of) your writing resolution. Remember how important writing is to you and how good it would feel to get your book written by December 31st.

Then your resolution for 2017 could be all about your next book.

Another Side of Southern Writers, Part One

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine


In each issue of Southern Writers, we proudly present interviews and instructional articles by the cream of the publishing crop.  Having featured over 900 outstanding authors in our four years of publication, I thought we'd turn the tables today and throw the spotlight on the unsung heroes who help make each issue possible: our staffers and regular contributors. It won't surprise you that most of them are authors in their own right. 

Susan Reichert, our Editor-in-Chief, somehow manages to orchestrate a magazine, a publishing company, a writers group, author seminars, and a dizzying bevy of other projects, while I have yet to see her lose her equilibrium or her cool.  Everyone on staff has been inspired by her ability to stay focused, sometimes in the midst of chaos. What are the secrets of staying balanced? Susan's latest work, Storms in Life: Overcoming–Surviving–Living offers advice for everyone from busy executives to families in crisis. You'll find her encouragement to be the calm after the storm.

Her blog, "Authors Visits", features interviews above and beyond the magazine at http://authorsvisits.com


Writer-at-large Chris Pepple is also a speaker and a freelance writer with two books of encouragement and a novel in the works. Look to See Me, her collection of "slice of life" short stories, delivers a glimpse into the lives of ordinary women who possess extraordinary determination. Each woman in these stories walks through life with a unique blend of faith, courage and love. Chris introduces the reader to women whose voices should be heard and whose stories should be told.

http://chrispepple.blogspot.com



 
Jessica Ferguson is an award-winning author heavily involved in writers associations. She not only writes a great interview, she tells a riveting story. Mystery and romance go hand in hand in her latest novel, The Last Daughter, in which a woman with too many questions about her past seeks the answers that lead to an emotional journey into danger.

Jessica is currently working on a friendship series—four girls, four stories—for release in 2016.  Check out her blog at http://jessyferguson.blogspot.com




Londa Hayden heads up writers groups and conferences, and has created an instant classic for the holiday season. Candy Moon inspires the Christmas spirit in a charming tale that follows a family on their way to help others less fortunate. In a world where traditional values are challenged, Candy Moon is a well-timed children's book that is long overdue, with colorful illustrations by Nick Nixon.

The sequel, Candy Moon Choo Choo, is due out this fall, as is Where Two Rivers Meet, the first fiction novel in the Washington's Woods series. Both are available for preorder at http://londahayden.com.

W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing and a former literary agent. A popular conference speaker, his "Book Proposal Boot Camp" column appears in each issue of Southern Writers. Among his helpful writings for aspiring and experienced authors, Terry's Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams is a must-read that covers the essential skills for every writer to get published. For practical advice from a pro, this is the place to go.

Terry also offers answers to proposal questions at http://www.AskAboutProposals.com

Poet and educator Sara M. Robinson graces each issue of Southern Writers with her column "Poetry Matters." Her latest book of poetry, Stones for Words, takes the reader through five distinct levels of an evolutionary journey of her writing and philosophy of life. Her personal development is likened to layers of hard and soft rock, which she must mine for definition and clarity. With characteristic candor, Sara is not reluctant to involve the reader in the intimacy of her thought process and writing revelations.

Her next poetry book, Sometimes the Little Town, will be released in early 2016. It is poetry based on the photo books of well-known regional photography of Hobby Robinson. The people and setting around small town Elkton, VA, are the focus. www.saramrobinson.com

There are more fine authors who appear in each issue, and they are the subject of my Tuesday, July 28th blog post.  

If you enjoy what these wordsmiths do in Southern Writers, I encourage you to check out their own masterpieces. You'll experience firsthand how their talents help make a magnificent mag.