Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Character doesn't have enough say in what happens (FBB #2)

First Book Blunders #2

The Character Doesn't Have Enough Say in What Happens

As an opposing point to what I wrote about in the first First Book Blunders post, many authors take too much control over the plot and narrative.

I have nothing against planners (people who plan their stories in advance). In fact, I've started to adopt this method more and more often. I think, in many cases, it can be very useful. They point I'm trying to make is that sometimes your characters want to veer from your plan, and you have to let them.

There was a book I read last year. It wasn't the author's first book, but it was their first series of books, and therefor, their first ending of a story arc. The way a certain character's arc was working, the character was going to have to die, and the author didn't want to kill this character. Many authors go through this, and it becomes a crucial decision. This was a decision she stumbled over.

You have to give your characters room to breathe. If their arc ends in such a tragic way, you're going to have to let it happen, or your book will suffer.

The author I was talking about kept trying to avoid the ending. You could feel her desperately clinging to reasons that character could live, but in the end, she realized it had to happen. Because of her trying to avoid it for so long, the book had a forced quality to it, and when it did get back on track, it felt sudden. The change was quick and jarring. It lost a lot of it's believability. Character-wise, it made perfect sense, but the book was not set up in a way where that ending fit anymore. She'd written herself into a corner.

I mean no offense to this author in any way. This was something I struggled with myself when I was younger. I still do sometimes. I don't want to make certain things happen, but they have to. It feels right.

An example in the work I'm currently writing, is when one of my characters runs away from home. In the outline, I said that they would be out one day, then they would find a shelter, because they hadn't brought food. As I wrote the story though, my character came out as this very intelligent person who would never forget something that important.

I didn't make the outline work. I let my character take the reigns, but I held her hands, pushing her gently back on track and letting her wander as she got there. It took longer than expected. I had to introduce characters that weren't originally there. There are now more subplots to weave into the rest of the book, but I don't regret it in any way. I can tell, already, that it was a beneficial move.

As for the response of readers to that author previously mentioned? She got a lot of hate for that ending, and some people seem confused. They don't understand why authors like John Green get praised for killing characters, and this author gets hated. I don't think some of the readers even know why they hate it so much. They say the obvious ("I loved her! How could you?"). Then some just don't know. They didn't like the book. It seemed, in some ways, worse than the others. I think it was because of that FBB that she included,

There's nothing wrong with straying from your outline. Your outline, in the end, may be completely incorrect, and that might be the best writing decision you ever make. The important thing is not that you stick to the original plan, or what you want; it's that your story and your characters make sense.

What is FBB?

First Book Blunders are mistakes that I notice in many first books. I call them mistakes because they may jar the reader, confuse them, or give the writing an amateurish feel. Many times, if you see these mistakes, they are in the debut novel written by the author, so I've grouped them together under this name. I have yet to see anyone else do this, and since I am myself trying to find these so I may avoid them in my own fiction, I thought they may help some of you.

Please check back in soon for the next FBB!