What are the best practices for securely managing bibisco projects? This is one of the questions that bibisco users ask me most, so in this post, updated to version 2.3 of bibisco, we will analyze how bibisco stores projects and the safest way to manage them. Let’s start from the beginning: bibisco is a desktop application, just …
Do you have ever heard about this third Narrative Technique, the Backstory? I am sure you do. Think about the sentence which often begins with a “…years ago”. This sentence concerns the way to give more information about the past of a character or a story. The Backstory technique aims to provide more intensity and …
Let’s move on to our narrative techniques series. In this second article of the narrative techniques series, we write about a second important narrative technique that is the Show don’t tell. This is not just advice from writers to writers but an accurate technique fundamental to use in your novel. How many books have you …
If you think that a writer uses only his imagination to write a novel, without rules, you are wrong. With this post, we open a long series on narrative techniques used by writers and screenwriters of films. Let us begin this narrative techniques series with the first one: Chekhov’s gun.
They are pillars that give structure to the story, the characters created, and the dialogues. A writer must know how to master these dramaturgical tools in order to create a solid and compelling narrative.
All these elements must be skillfully correlated with each other in order to build the structure of the narrative. We will discover together that the elements inserted in a story are never random. On the contrary, they often have a dramaturgical function, and that they belong to a defined narrative technique.
As a writer, you need to understand the value of your characters.
You can write an amazing story, but if the characters are boring – no one is going to read it. But what defines boring?
One of the biggest mistakes writers make is thinking that people only want to read about good things – they want the characters to get the girl, find the perfect job, win the lotto … unfortunately, that’s not the case. And just like in reality, no one likes someone who “wins” all the time. It’s boring!
It’s unfortunate, but it’s true – we want to see other people fail. And it’s not because we are horrible people – it’s because we want to know that those perfect people also have their flaws. And watching a character in a novel try, and try again, is much more interesting than watching them succeed all the time.
It adds a sense of nervousness, “will they or won’t they”, and it helps the reader relate more. Unfortunately, we don’t all lead perfect lives.
If you’re writing a novel, you’ll understand the most important aspect is the characters. And ensuring those characters keep people interested while they’re reading is vital. If your characters are doing the same thing, day in and day out, people are going to get bored quickly. This is why the evolution of characters in your writing is essential.
Think about those novels that you remember that you may have read 20 years ago. Why do you remember them? It’s the characters. And most likely, it’s because those characters underwent some sort of physical, emotional or psychological transformation. (Take a look at The Hero with a Thousand Faces of Joseph Campbell).
So, why if your characters don’t evolve your novel is useless?
We have thus come to the end of this long journey. We explored the Hero’s Journey with its stages and Campbell’s archetypes. However, there is a final archetype that supports the Hero on his journey: the Trickster. We talk about him in the last article of the Character Archetypes Series. Last but not least.
Indeed, it is often a character that is remembered very easily even after a long time. Let’s find out who the Trickster is and what are its characteristics.
The beauty of common people: keep them boring, or shake things up!
Every story has “common” characters who keep showing up in novels because they may be significant to moving your story along or they may be just there as a mention.
They don’t have any kind of past trauma, and they may not be the lead, they are just as important. For starters, it gives the reader a sense of realism – not everyone lives a dramatic life, and even the people who seem most insignificant in your life can play a huge role. Or, they have the potential to shake things up a bit, particularly in your writing.
And just like in life, if you didn’t have these “common” people who don’t bring drama everywhere they go, it would be boring, right?
Speaking of the difficulties the Hero faces before considering his venture and Journey over, in the eighth article of Character Archetypes Series, we now encounter another archetype: the Guardian.
The guardian tests the hero by creating difficulties for him, probing his strength and will to complete his journey.
The most important ingredient in a novel is not the plotline!
Anyone can think of a plot, such as a person brought up in the wilderness discovers an unusual shard that turns out to be the key to closing an inter-dimensional portal. Their unique skills mean that they are the only person for the job.
The problem isn’t the storyline, it’s your character.