Stranger than Fiction?

I think we can all agree that fiction and reality are two totally different pair of shoes - as in, Manolo-Blahnik-I-will-break-my-ankle-and-say-thank-you versus those ratty woolly slippers you've been meaning to throw out for the past eon or two.

*** Interlude: Be honest now, which of those two immediately made you think of reality? ***

Putting aside true-story documentary-style writing and the realm of academia, fiction is what people writing books deal with, day in, day out (and I'm not including memoirs in that list, because I'm rather sure some or even most of those involve a judicious bit of fiction, too)(Am I being too cynical there? If yes, sorry)(no offence to those of you writing memoirs, of course). 

Writers get their cues, their inspiration, from all over the place, be it flights of fancy or, yes, reality. But no work of fiction is ever the same as reality, because let's face it, reality is either too strange or absurd to believe (I'll get back to that in a bit) or too boring to be worth putting down on paper. A good writer will know or at least learn how to pare down reality to those crucial bits that make up the backbone of a story, and then work from there - because quite frankly, the minutiae of daily life are not (in general) what people want to read about. A story has, as my primary school teacher drummed into us, a beginning, a middle and an end, and anything that does not belong to one of those or lead from one to the other is very likely superfluous to the whole thing. Dialogue is only good if it furthers either plot or character development/understanding, scenes should only be included if they have a point to make. 

That's not how it happens in real life. 

*** And no, before you ask, beginning, middle and end don't absolutely have to be in order. We're talking fiction here, remember? ***

On the other hand, life is sometimes stranger (or, like I said, more absurd) than fiction. The holiday I've just come back from is a good example - I went to Bali with a group of friends, or at least that was the plan. We ended up on something of an odyssey thanks to a volcanic ash cloud courtesy of some Sumatran volcano. First our flight was cancelled (right about at the time we were at the airport to get checked in), then there were no flights except one to Jakarta, so we went there (flights were leaving from Jakarta to Bali, which seems weird given the ash cloud thing but whatever) and spent the hours waiting for our flight there finding one from Jakarta to Bali. We spent the night at an airport hotel in Jakarta (Google maps time: 10 mins from airport to hotel; Jakarta time: 1 hr from airport to hotel, right through some rather scary favela-type housing areas). The plane we managed to get booked on to Bali was supposed to leave at 8am-ish, but actually left at about 3pm (thank you again, ash cloud). I think we spent about 9 hrs at Jakarta domestic airport, during which we had to treck up and down a set of stairs again and again because the only board with flight info was downstairs and all the waiting area-type places were upstairs. They also managed to call out our flight but actually meant to call out a different flight number, so we rushed to the gate only to be told that the airport system (!!!) had the wrong flight number recorded and no, no matter what the airport website said, our flight had not just left.... and don't even get me started on the boat trip from Bali to one of the Gili islands!! 

*** Am I ranting? Probably...sorry....***

Long story short, our trip (and don't worry, we did manage to have a great time in spite of the series of unfortunate events) was one for the books. HOWEVER...that doesn't mean that writing down what happened makes a good story for anything other than a dinner conversation. It was merely a series of events, however annoying, and not a story in a fiction writing kind of way. Writing it down as is might be therapeutic - and rather amusing in retrospect - but even in terms of travel writing it lacks something - wait for it - namely a storyline. Things were happening, but they were happening TO us (the main characters, in this case). A story is not (only) made of things happening TO the main character, they are about what the main character does or feels or whatever whilst things are happening. 

Reality may throw fiction-esque situation at us, but that just makes us part of the population of planet earth. Things happen. Turning real situations into fiction, now there's something writers can do (some better than others). Find the backbones of what makes reality interesting, put some flesh to that, make sure it all fits together in a coherent way and voilà, a story! None of that reality mumbo jumbo. 

***Manolos all the way, baby!***

Good to be BAD: Why We Love the Villain

Every story needs a troublemaker. Have you ever wondered why the most enduring stories have the worst villains? Ever put down a book because you just didn’t care about the story? Maybe the stakes weren’t high enough. Maybe the bad guy just wasn’t…bad enough.

Several years ago someone gave me this advice: to write a strong plot, start with the antagonist. It sounds backwards, right? But from a storytelling perspective, it makes perfect sense to start with the villain. Here’s why:

The villain is often a twisted version of the hero. Strong villains have a motive that opposes your main character’s goals. If your hero wants to eat ice cream, your villain is blowing up ice cream delivery trucks because of some deep-seated sundae phobia. Both hero and villain have similar interests, but on opposite sides of the issue. They are two sides of the same coin.

The best villains have a tragic backstory. When we learn about these defining events in the villain’s past, we begin to understand why they act that way. Maybe the poor guy hates ice cream sundaes because his psychopathic mother forced him to eat giant sundaes every day until he got sick, while he was locked in the basement staring at decomposing rats. We sympathize. It’s a complicated and yet compelling feeling, to care about the villains even as they do horrific things.

Villains reflect the evil we see in ourselves and others. Let’s face it, there’s a villain in every one of us. Fictional villains just take it to a whole new level of badness, often with cool stage makeup and special effects. Fictional villains offer a safe way to voluntarily process the deep, philosophical horrors that play out in our own communities. Like that dark and terrible day when Blue Bell recalled all the ice cream because of the dread villain Listeria. There is evil in the world, Aurora.

Villains provide creative freedom. As writers, we spend hours developing the character qualities of our protagonists. For those of us who write series fiction, we need to stay within the confines of our main characters because they are the anchors that hold the whole thing together. But introduce a new villain to the mix, or give your existing villain a new toy, and all bets are off. Ice cream trucks explode. Banana splits ooze with poison syrup. Anything can happen.

And finally, the main reason we love a good villain:

Villains are unapologetically selfish. Hell-bent on getting their own way, villains are determined, driven, and will stop at nothing. Killing? No biggie. Blowing things up? Sure. Allowing gallons and gallons of delicious Blue Bell ice cream to go to waste? Whatever it takes. We might not agree with their methods, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we admire a villain’s commitment. Go hard or go home.

Next time you sit down to write, turn the monster loose. Make your villain more evil and powerful, so your hero can get stronger. Up the stakes. Give us drama, make us cringe, incite tears. Back your hero into a corner, give the villain the upper hand, and then see what happens. Can your hero overcome the strongest of villains? 

Now that’s a good story.

On-the-Page vs Fade-to-Black; How Do Your Characters Like Their Sex?

Photo by Jonathan Cohen

I'm a fairly new writer. My background is business and technology. Fiction is my first love, but some aspects take me out of my comfort zone. In fact, I didn't want to tell friends or family about my writing journey, unsure where it might lead. 

I've gotten over that. 

Now that I've come out of my writing closet, the question I'm asked most often is; “Does your book have any sex?"

Um, no. It's a thriller.

People nod politely and offer their two cents. “More people will buy it if there’s sex.”

Perhaps they're right. 

Many thrillers do include bedroom scenes. One of my long-time favorite authors, Stephen White, often kept the bedroom door closed, but still alluded to his main character as a sexual being.  White ended his 20-book series in 2013 with a great 250-word scene. It’s quite apparent what’s happening in the bed without many descriptive words beyond ‘breasts.’

We all color the story with our own perspective. Ten people reading the same book will each take away something different. When I asked five readers if Stephen White’s character ever had on-the-page sex, everyone had a different answer, ranging from; “Never!” to, “Oh, yes, he had sex all the time. Remember, when he left his wife?”

(For the record, White’s character did not leave his wife.)

Some readers want more details before a scene fades-to-black. The euphemism, on its own, indicates shades of gray. 

Which leads me to my next rant. At what point does on-the-page-sex make, or break, a book?

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY sold 100 million copies. My stepdaughter recommended the book, with the disclaimer, “I want you to read this book. But we can never talk about it.”

I read the first book with a train-wreck fascination. E.L. James’ controversial trilogy was all about the details.  Her characters did not leave much for reader imagination. I didn’t read either of the next two books, figuring my sexual education was complete.  But I will raise the question, would the book have had such overwhelming sales without the sex?

Probably not.

Books allow us, as readers, a little voyeuristic peek inside someone’s head. Many think of series characters with the fondness of an old friend. To be allowed inside a friend’s head, with access to their thoughts and feelings is the singular beauty of fiction. 

Researching this article, I referenced Forbes The World's Top-Earning Authors, (recall my background in business?) and created a table to look at the trend (see below). Surprisingly—or not—E.L. James pushed James Patterson out of his number one position in 2013. It should be noted that Ms James did not have a book released in 2013, while Mr. Patterson released fourteen.

The authors (above) in red are more generous with details before their fade-to-black scenes. The shift to the left seems to indicate that readers do want more detail from their characters. In 2010, only one (red) author placed in the top five. Last year clocked three out of five. 

How much on-the-page sex is right for your readers? And are you, as a writer, comfortable going there?

For me, it’s complicated. I think I’m going to work on my alluding techniques.