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Could you make a profile template for a deity in a polytheistic society? Like the ones where it's like Name: Age: Gender: and so on. I would do it myself, but I just can't think of everything their profile would need. Thank you~
I honestly don’t think there’s much else I can add to my existing character template that wouldn’t apply to a deity. If anything, add Powers or Governance to it, but that would probably suffice.
-Headless
I'm about to start writing my novel, but I'm stuck on one thing- trying to decide whether to write in first or third person! My novel is set in a dystopian world, and my point of view will change between three or four characters. Can you describe the difference between the two, the ups and downs, and which one is good for what kind of writing? Thanks!
Hey, there! You got it, let’s talk about points of view!
First person: Personal Mode
First person uses “I,” “me,” “my” to make a character into a narrator, as if they are telling the reader the story themselves.
Intimate view of the character: First person lets you show a lot about one character, from their perspective.
Unique voice: Especially when working with multiple perspectives, first person allows you to develop a number of unique voices and narrative styles for each one. This can be especially useful if you’re working with a unique narrator—telling a super-bloody zombie apocalypse story from the point of view of a five year old makes for a very different story than if it were told in third person or by an older narrator.
Narrator consistency: First person lets you play with things like unreliable narrators. Even if your multiple perspectives are all accurately relaying events, they may be inconsistent with each other as each character tells their own interpretations of events, which can leave room for reader interpretation.
Voice fails: If your first person voices aren’t distinct or consistent enough, you run the risk of them blending together and all sounding alike. First person is a different beast than third in that first person essentially reads like 100% dialogue, as one person is actively telling the story.
Action limitations: First person limits you to what your character can see and hear for themselves. You can’t take the narration away from your first person narrators to showcase something else without doing it with a) one of your other narrators or b) killing the first person narrative entirely. You’re afforded a lot of freedom within the one character, but you sacrifice your ability to see the rest of the world for it.
Multiple witness accounts: Especially when working with multiple first person storytellers, you run the risk of having too many people tell the same story. If you can, avoid having everyone go over the same events (doubling back)—covering the same ground three times doesn’t necessarily make for a more interesting story, just a longer one.
Second Person: Interactive Mode
I know this wasn’t part of the question, but as long as we’re talking about POV: Second person is when you use “you,” “your,” “yours” to put the reader in the story.
Starring you: Second person puts the reader in a participating role in the story. This can be pretty neat, but is hard to do for long stretches of time. There isn’t a lot of fiction written from second person because it can be very hard to pull off.
Hey, reader!: A use for second person can be in the form of interacting with your readers in the narrative. Lemony Snicket and Tolkien both did this by addressing the reader directly (“you”), making this not necessarily a POV choice but a stylistic one.
There are a few different kinds of third person. Let’s break ‘em down.
Third Person Limited: Standard Mode
Default mode: Third person limited is a pretty common method of storytelling. If you’re not sure what to do, sticking with third limited is generally safe and effective.
Freedom of information: Third person frees you from having to stick so tightly to one character. You can explore things the (current) main character cannot see without jarring the reader out of the story’s default narrative style.
Dramatic tension: By limiting your perspective to one character (or one at a time, at least), you can heighten the tension in the story by hiding information from them. First person gives your readers a front-row seat to your character’s every thought. Using third person allows you to hide information from the reader that, when done right, can be a good source of foreshadowing and tension.
Impersonality: Third person isn’t as intimate and introspective as first person can be. Third person can still explore a character’s thoughts and feelings, but will have to break into the narrative to do it in the same way that dialogue does in order to show it directly.
Third Person Omniscient: God Mode
I know everything: An omniscient narrator can relay information that is happening to any character, not just the (current, as in your case) main character. You as the writer can be flexible with how much information you give about any character, since you have the freedom to give all, some, or none of it. Some writers are liberal with sharing every character’s mindset, and others are more judicious about what they reveal. It’s up to you and your story.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Not being tied to one character at a time allows you to explore and show things that are happening outside the main characters’ scope.
Let me tell you all of the things: Just because you can show everything, doesn’t mean you have to. If it doesn’t belong in the story, if it doesn’t need to be said, then don’t say it. If you’re determined to show every single thing leading up to the climax, you run the risk of bogging down the story with unimportant details and side stories, no matter how cool they are. And, similar to first person, if you offer too many interpretations of one event, the event’s impact may get muddled behind all the different tellings.
Third Person Objective: Camera Mode
Action!: An objective narrator doesn’t relay thoughts or feelings from any of the characters. This narrator is a spectator without any stake in the story.
What do you think?: Because objective doesn’t spend any time mulling over the characters’ opinions and feelings, readers are forced to come to their own conclusions about the story. If you are writing a story where you want the readers to form opinions on their own, objective can be a great way to make them do it.
I am a movie camera: Objective narrators don’t give us any information about thoughts or feelings, relying solely on what happens rather than why it happens. Because of this, objective can make it harder to showcase your characters’ inner thoughts and feelings.
Your job is harder: Because objective is objective, you as the writer don’t have a lot of wiggle room when interpreting events. Your job is now completely to tell it like it is, and nothing else—all the interpretation is now on the reader’s part. This can be good for exploring serious themes without getting “preachy,” but removes a lot of your freedom to interpret your own story.
There’s no wrong decision when deciding what POV to use unless you aren't consistent within the story. Try them all out and decide which you like best!
-Headless and Dev
Hello! In my young adult novel, I have two characters who've been best friends since middle school and later go on to slowly fall in love with one another. This, however, happens long after a huge, shaky patch in their friendship due to some major secrets they've been keeping from each other (for highly justifiable reasons). Any tips on how to develop a slowburn romance from their friendship after it heals?
Whenever you write romance, it’s good to keep in mind that no two relationships develop or grow the same way. There might be a dramatic formula for romance as far as narrative and plot (beginning/middle/end), but there’s no magic combination of vocabulary and plot points that will make the romance 100% perfect. And that’s ok! Every romance is different, what will make it work is the execution.
Reconciliation will be an important part of it, especially at the beginning. The nature of the secrets will probably also play into how this reconciliation goes—if either of them were hiding dealbreaking secrets, they will need to spend some time figuring out how to move past them, weighing whether or not it would be worth it to move past them, etc. If there are lingering trust issues as a result of whatever happened with their secrets, that may also affect how their relationship develops—is there a period of time where they still feel they can’t believe what the other says? What happens to help them repair the trust?
Considering that this is a YA novel and that these two characters have known each other since middle school, keep in mind that people change an awful lot between middle school and young adulthood! There might be a period of “getting to (re)know you” similar to how two strangers might meet, especially if they haven’t had contact in a while or if a lot of things have changed. Depending again on their secrets, they may need to approach each other as strangers before they can move on with a relationship as friends or romantic partners. You might want to spend a little time developing your characters’ mindsets as they move through the stages of familiarity to intimacy, the better to get inside their heads for any given moment in their relationship. Are they still hesitant about something? At what point does that hesitation go away?
-Headless and Dev
My villain takes people's souls, and I really want his motivation to be that he takes souls because he can, because he likes it, but I'm afraid that this will come across as "I'm evil because I'm evil", how do avoid this problem?
The first point we’ll make is that evil for evil’s sake isn’t an automatic fail for a villain! It’s perfectly fine for a villain to be motivated by evil.
That said, the way to avoid evil for evil’s sake is to establish motivation for the villain outside of “I like it.” Why does he like it? What does it do for him? Without this piece of characterization, the villain is just enjoying souls because.
Additionally/alternatively, your villain’s motivation might be that he’s powerful and he likes power. Power going to his head can be a strong motivator in and of itself.
-Headless and Dev
(1 of 2) Hi! I'm rewriting a story to include more diversity, and I'm having trouble with nonbinary characters. I've never written nonbinary before, and I'm wondering how to refer to them in a way that seems natural. I feel like readers are so used to seeing "he" and "she" that the addition of new pronouns/the inability to call someone a "man" or a "woman" to reference them in a sentence would be difficult to adjust to. Especially since the nonbinary characters I'm writing in this section are
(2 of 2) minor and unnamed (major ones will come in later), it feels a little odd. But since I’m writing fantasy, it feels even more unnatural to NOT include all and any genders. Do you have any tips?
HELLO YES I AM NONBINARY LET’S TALK ABOUT GENDER
I am firmly in the camp of “make them adjust to it.” The only way you can make something sound natural and normal is by treating it like a natural and normal part of the world. Readers are smart! When you make a big deal over something, so will (well, should) the audience—and similarly, when you treat something as a casual thing, so too will (should) the audience.
Whether this is by using invented pronouns, making use of they, referring to them as nonbinary or as null-gender/agender/whichever branch of nonbinary you think these characters are closest to, the way you refer to these characters has to be consistent and feel natural. Including minor nonbinary characters before introducing major ones strikes me as a smart way to go about it when writing for an audience that may or may not be familiar with the concept of nonbinary gender—if you do need to explain it by proxy to the audience ("Are you a boy or a girl?" "Neither/Both/[etc]." "Oh."), you can do it once and establish it as a part of the world that the narrative doesn't have to linger over. Does that make sense?
I love the inclusion of nonbinary gender/s in fiction, especially in fantasy fiction, and I think audiences can adjust to just about anything. If dragons and magic are believable, why not nonbinary gender?
-Headless
not sure if this has been asked, but are there any tips you can provide on making "black" names? I understand that many black parents will name their kids normal things like John and Jane, but names like Quevenzhané also feel like a part of African culture which shouldn't be erased. I don't want to derive from stereotypes and "black" names seem too individualized and unique to take from existing people.
Have you considered asking a blog like writingwithcolor instead of us? I am white/Chinese and Dev is white, so we are really not the best answerers for this question. Neither of us really feel able to help you with this.
-Headless
Anything with the number five in it
15, 25, and 35 answered.
5: Did you take writing courses in school/college?
Dev: I have never taken a creative writing class. I took classes that had more of a “how to write” element in high school and in college I have taken many classes that are writing-intensive but are not “writing classes.”
Headless: Dev has a leg up on me as far as education—I barely graduated high school and dropped out of college! I never found or got into any creative writing courses in any of my years of schooling.
45: What’s your favorite character name?
Headless: The last time I got this question it was Helm Hammerhand, but now I’m going to have to go with Snow Crash’s Hiro Protagonist.
Dev: Oh my god.
Headless: "Stupid name." "But you’ll never forget it."
Dev: Hmm. Stoick the Vast is another pretty good one, out of How to Train Your Dragon.
Headless: There are lots of good names out there.
Dev: Oh! Gwaihir the Windlord!
Headless: Nice.
Writer’s meme—ask us stuff!
7, 17, 27, 37 and 47?
27 answered.
7: Have you ever been part of a critique group?
Headless: Not formally. Friends and I would casually discuss writing and share stories, but I have never been a part of any really organized writing group.
Dev: Me neither.
17: Would you like your books/stories to be turned into TV shows, movies, video games, or none?
Headless: Yes! All of it! I think it would be stunning—not just being successful enough for there to be a demand for any/all of that, but (possibly) being involved in the making of it as well. I love games and movies, and getting to see the behind the scenes of how they work would be spectacular. What I think I would love the most is for fans to make games/webshows/etc., without any input or say from me. Seeing different interpretations of what people drew from what I wrote would be fantastic. For this same reason, I absolutely guarantee you that I will be on fanfiction.net and Ao3 reading fanfiction if I am ever published.
Dev: It depends on the work in question. Each medium differs in what is required for success, and certain kinds of print media translate better to some visual media than to others. By necessity, the movie/TV/whatever adaptation will not be the original work, but if the production team is good enough it could be an effective movie/show/game that translates my plot, characters, and themes into a new presentation. In general I would say that the “limited miniseries” (think Andrew Davies’s Pride and Prejudice) for something like BBC or HBO is the closest filmed approximation to the novel in its length capacity, but successful two-hour movies of books have been made. Whatever works best for the book in question is what I’d pick, I guess.
37: What’s your oldest WIP?
Dev: I don’t have a work-in-progress.
Headless: Five years. Fun fact: the last time I answered this question, it was a seven-year WIP that I have since finished!
47: If you could steal one character from another author and make them yours, who would it be and why?
Headless: I like this question… but the more I think about it, the less I come up with. Creating a cast of unique characters to go into an equally unique world is such a huge part of what I love about writing stories, I don’t think I could do anything with one that someone else has made.
Dev: This is by no means my only potential choice, but I would love to get my hands on Francis Dolarhyde as he appears in Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon. He is probably my favorite literary villain at the moment or a least a strong contender because of the great humanizing complexity the original novel gives him despite the extreme horror aspect of his character (for one thing, he kills people and replaces their eyes with mirror shards). He is empathetic, tortured, but utterly, utterly corrupted beyond redemption (even though his main character arc is an Icarus-like flirtation with becoming a “better” person through the transformative power of human connection and compassion). I am conflicted on this question though, cause the only characters I would think of for this question are characters like Dolarhyde who I thought were incredibly well written in their original setting, and I would not want to change that but adding my own stuff to them.
Writer’s meme—ask us stuff!
