In this episode we cover: 

• Why diversity in fiction is important
• What to do if you’re afraid to approach writing diverse characters
• Sensitivity readers
• What you need to research
• How to include diverse characters when you yourself are not diverse

This week’s question is: Tell us a book you’ve enjoyed with diverse characters.

Recommendation of the week is: Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June

Apple

Kobo

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

***This show uses affiliate links

Diversity resources:

Writing With Color Blog

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

The Antiracist: How to Start the Conversation about Race and Take Action by Kondwani Fidel  

We Need Diverse Books

Writing Diversely

How to Write Black Characters: An Incomplete Guide by Salt and Sage Books

Find out more about Eliana on:

Website

Instagram

Rebel of the Week is: Laura Rye

If you’d like to be a Rebel of the week please do send in your story, it can be any kind of rebellion. You can email your rebel story to rebelauthorpodcast@gmail.com or instagram me @sachablackauthor

No new patrons this week, but a big thank you to my existing patrons. If you’d like to support the show, and get early access to all the episodes as well as bonus content you can from as little as $2 a month by visiting: www.patreon.com/sachablack

This Show is Sponsored by ProWritingAid

Find out more about ProWritingAid here.

DISCOUNT CODE: REBEL25

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The post 102 How to Write Diverse Characters with Eliana West appeared first on Sacha Black.

Life’s a funny old thing, so often we go through difficult times and have to make hard choices. Sometimes we lose friends, loved ones, gain new ones, have children. We travel and feel moved to change our entire lives. We give up careers and start again. I’ve seen my fair share of cross roads probably the most significant was being told if I waited to have kids, it might be too late.

My choice?

Turn left – be young free and have money, travel.

or

Turn right – fork out thousands for fertility treatment and suffer losses and emotional torment.

I turned right. It was the right decision, but when you’re faced with a cross roads the decision isn’t always obvious.

This week, the writespiration is all about Cross Roads. Maybe your character is physically at a cross road, maybe they have a choice to make. If you fancy joining in, jot a few words or a short story and I will publish it with next weeks post.

Here’s mine:

He was trembling.

“You’re pathetic,” I growled.

His incessant twitching was irritating. The tap, tap, tap, of the tightly wound knot rattled against the chair I’d tied him to. It was giving me a headache.

I put the cold barrel of the magnum against my temple hoping the cool metal would ease the ache and pulled another dining room chair out. I sat down in front of him. 

“You got a choice, Marty.”

Sweat dripped off his face and crawled across his shirt. I pointed the gun at his chest, rubbing the barrel into the sweat.

“Get a grip of your self…” I dug the gun into his chest a few times. Each time, he wince harder. 

“Baby… honey… You don’t have t..”

I slid my finger over the hammer and pulled it down till it clicked. 

“Did I say you could talk?”

He pulled his lips tight and shook his head.

“You had twenty years of marriage to talk, Marty. Now it’s my turn.”

“I’m sorry baby, I didn’t… She didn’t… I won’t do it again, I swear.”

I raised my hand and fired the gun at the wall. The crack thundered across the dining room. The bullet ripped into the glass cabinet. Glass splintered and showered the dining room table I had laid night after night for twenty years. My favourite china set plummeted to the wooden floor  shattering and camouflaged itself in amongst the glass.

“Look what you made me do, Marty,” I said waving the gun at the remains of my dinner set, “that was my best fucking china.”

I stood up. My chest felt tight. Blood rang in my ears. I scanned the dining room with its matching curtains and furniture.

“You took the best years of my life, for what?” I peered at the collection of photo frames filled with nephews and nieces instead of my own children.

“A bunch of whores and prostitutes?”

I shook my head and swallowed the lump in my throat.

“I was going to give you a choice. But you know what I realised, Marty?”

His lips flopped open.

“Don’t fucking answer that… I’ll tell you what I realised. You don’t deserve a choice. This is my cross roads.”

I leant into his face, my nose millimetres from his.

“You stink like shit, Marty,” I said wrinkling my nose and trying not to breathe in his sweat.

“I want a divorce… and this…” I said pushing the muzzle of the gun deep into his crotch. He flinched, lip quivering. A wet patch spread across his trousers. I pushed my finger onto his lip, “shh,” the corners of my mouth curled into a toothy grin and I cocked the hammer.

“This is for the for the two decades of tears I shed each and every time you fucked another woman. This is so no one else will ever have to cry for you again.”

I fired.

***

So to last week. I loved last weeks writespiration, so I will endeavour to post it again albeit it with a different word, I think it produced some fascinating entries with wonderful insights into all your minds!

First in with a response to last weeks Writespiration was:

Rachel with this fab entry

There was an eerie silence lingering in the air. Everyone eyeballed each other wondering who was going to be the next to stand up and say something. They were all thinking. No one wanted to be the bearer of bad news and played “nose-goes” inside their heads willing someone else to say something.

***

Next Helen with a super eerie entry

Silence. It was all around him. Weighing heavy on his ears, on his time. Time that he scratched out, one by one on the damp bricks, the only indication that it passed the slivers of light through the barred window high above. No one came to see him. No one cared, it seemed, that he still lived.

***

The wonderful Michelle joins us this week and gave an emotional entry

Silence. A beautiful voice, his laughter are forever gone. Lost in silence are the sweet words. “hey, Mum, love you.” The silence is unfathomable. The silence tears at the heart.

***

Geoff gives his best TanGental entry this week :p

Silence is a long way from home, which is a hollow noduled bucket in Minneapolis and rather twee in a woebegone sort of way. Carriage bags have a habit of breaking silcne wit a rustle and a grimace. Shoping with silence is a chore and

***

Hugh follows Geoff with some equally tangential thinking – I just love where these are taking

If silence is golden then why am I not rich and living in outer space where it is silent. I love being silent like in the silent films which I don’t understand because they have no talking in them and are often in black and white and all fuzzy to watch. I wonder if they served popcorn in those days?

***

Jane gives this beautiful entry

Silence. The word sounds so loud when I think about it. Like when you put your head underwater. The sound of water. And the night air when everything else is quiet. Except the silence.

***

Sarah‘s written a cracking entry

Silence. Beeping, hacking, coughing, talking, yelling, beeping. Fleeting moments. Time is gone. Walls close in. Hoping. Waiting. For silence.

***

Foy joined in this week with a wonderful dialogue entry

“Would you shut up already?! I told you we’re not going to the zoo to harass the lions today.
That’s next week.”

***

The post Writespiration #44 appeared first on Sacha Black.

We constantly worry about how to write better. But actually, there’s a benefit to being able to recognise when you have written badly. And sometimes it’s fun to just reel off a load of codswallop.

This week, your challenge is to write the WORST opening line you can. Give it your best, and produce your worst!

Because this is an actual competition, The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest and I am secretly amused by all the nonsense that is to come, I am going to pick a winner… The winner will be announced in next weeks writespiration, the deadline is Sunday 31st May.

If you fancy it, why not submit to the real competition? – their deadlines the June 30th.

here’s mine, and it’s definitely bad!:

It stunk like rotten putrid gone off eggs but dear old mumsy with her tatty dirty apron thought the round pancakes were a success – I really really didn’t want to eat them – But decided not to offend her and held my bulbous nose and puckered up my reluctant lips, bottoms up, I thought.

***

Now to last weeks writespiration. First the lovely Jane who wrote a stunning poem that was originally published in the Ogham Stone Literary Journal. You can find the post on her website here.

Often at the turning of the year,

When the grass is bright and damp with autumn rain,

And last buds open with the failing sun,

I listen to the windsong in the trees.

When white-winged gulls blow in from stormy seas,

And the tang of salt hangs heavy in the air,

I hear the waves break on a lonely strand,

And taste the smoke and ash in long-dead hearths.

When only starlight guides the homing geese,

Their booming voices singing sailors’ songs,

I hear the echo from the vaulted sky,

And feel the northlands in their beating wings.

But when the blackbird sings his end of summer song,

And the white gull skims the restless ocean foam,

The whispering comes from deep in blood and bone,

The wind, the stars, the heart’s pulse call me home.

***

Ali submitted an emotional entry. It really makes you feel her longing for a sense of belonging:

Their eyes hook into my back like claws as I pass by. They keep their thoughts locked and silent in their heads, but their faces smoulder with resentment, distrust. They bite back the words but their message burns into my skin just the same, “You don’t belong here.”

And they’re right. I don’t. But I won’t go back, I can never go back, though my heart yearns for home. Those like me, well, we’re not welcome anywhere.

For me, home is not bricks and mortar. It’s not tied up in four walls, anchored in place by geography, or a slot in the vastness of time. The home I long for is family, acceptance, love. Home is not where I came from, but perhaps where I’m travelling to.

***

Geoff entered this last minute flash, and what a piece it is, he created such a disturbed character crazed by his loss in so few words.

Home Cruel Home

It’s the feeling of the bricks, sort of not quite slimy to the touch. That’s what I remember. Derby smooth stone, someone told me and they’re right. It does have that same slippery texture. But it isn’t the same, feeling an abstract. There isn’t the connection to the place and time. When I leant my face against its soothing surface after the burning; the hardness when I pressed my hands against the bricks, trying to push through the wall as Jimmy held me back; the way my tears made the slippery surface glisten. I wanted to stick to that wall, melt into it, be part of it. I’m still not sure whose screams I remember from that day but I’m sure some of mine were trapped in those bricks. Jimmy told me they demolished the cottage – ‘unsafe’ he said. I think it’s because of the ghosts. There had to be, after that fire, after those deaths. For a long time I wanted one of those bricks; it was all I asked for, for Christmas, birthdays, certain it held some part, some essence. Jimmy says it was me asking for bricks that made dad lose patience, had me committed here. I’ve plenty of time to lean again the bricks in this place, plenty of time to remember, to hear the screams. When I get out, I’ll go back, get a brick and hold it to my cheek. Then I’ll be home again.

***

The post Writespiration #42 appeared first on Sacha Black.

I don’t think I am alone in obsessing over reading blogs about writing, but all it does it confuse me. I mean, how much attention do we really pay to understanding our own writing process?

Until recently, when I had an epiphany, I’d spent a long time thinking there was a right way… a right writing process I should be following. There isn’t. I decided to sit down and really give my process some thought, because if I can understand my own process, then I can shape it and tweak it to maximize my effectiveness. I hope this post helps you do the same.

Everyone’s process will of course be different, but if you are in any doubt about your own method, if you’re blocked or just feel something isn’t right, then I strongly recommend you do your own version of this to understand your process. Because I love visual things, I have depicted it in a pyramid:

 ***

Usually I prepare and organise till I’m blue in the face, lists run in my blood. But it wasn’t working for my writing, so I let go of doing most ‘preparation’ to write this novel. One thing I couldn’t let go of was an outline. I need it, for my sanity! For me, it doesn’t have to be massive, but because getting the timeline/action down is the most important thing in my first draft, I need a paragraph outlining each chapter. I never follow the outline to the letter, things get moved, cut completely and then changed again, but it’s a guide.

Step 1: Decide what you need before you start – an outline, a synopsis, masses of research or just an idea.

***

PLOT

This is where you figure out what is most important to you to get down on the page first. This will also be dependent on how you work out and develop your characters.

Step 2: Decide what’s most important to you in draft one.

Here are my questions to help you work out your own process for draft 1:

• What do you like doing first?
• How do you develop your characters? Do you know them before you start writing or do you see how they develop on the page?
• How well do you know your setting before you start?
• Do you need to do lots of research?

I tried to use character sheets and interview each one before I started, but it didn’t work for me and trying only made me tie myself in knots worrying I was a shit writer because I couldn’t answer the questions.

So I sacked the preparation off and let the characters develop on the page. For me draft one is all about timeline and action. I need to get the basic plot down on the page. There’s only a little bit of creativity and imagery woven in to the story at this stage. I can’t get everything perfect in the first draft, so I don’t even try. I don’t worry about the chapter, three chapters ago, that Ive decided needs a rewrite, I just keep going. But how do I combat this incessant need to edit?

Step 3: Create an editing map.

I create one place, with a designated section for each chapter. Dump decisions or notes about chapters or characters or whatever you like under the appropriate chapter section. That way you keep your thoughts and decisions ready and organised for when you want to edit.

The benefit of an editing map is it will allow you to pattern spot your thinking. If you find you constantly put notes about characters then you know that’s what needs to go in the next draft. If you comment about setting then work on that next and so on.

***

CHARACTERS

Have a break before starting draft two, the longer the text the longer the break should be, but its up to you to decide how long is right for you. I imagine I will put my manuscript down for a month or two – or as long as I physically can.

Here’s where I hack the manuscript or story to pieces, I focus on finalising the timeline. Moving chapters or scenes till they are right, but I get it right here. Once this draft is over I don’t want to have to move the timeline much more. Whilst I do this, I study the characters. Picking up on their salient traits, emphasising or minimising them, checking consistencies and making very rough notes about each one, so that I get consistency across the whole story – bit like an editing map but for the characters – let’s call it a character map.

Step 4: Check your editing map for patterns of your thinking before you start editing- whatever is most salient is what you should work on next.

Step 5: Create a character map – it can look like whatever you want, and be as big or small as you want but should have relevant or key bits of information about your character to ensure consistency when editing.

Step 6: Once the timeline is finalised plot a loose map of chapters / scenes so you can easily find bits you need when editing.    

The character map ensures I check their back story and history and start weaving in detail.

Finally I start thinking about the world and environment. I know a lot of detail about my stories world before I start writing, so I don’t need to do much work to create it, more weave the detail in, in draft 3.

***

WORLD-BUILDING

Have another break before starting draft 3.

This is world-building time. I know for some people this will be the first draft stuff. But not for me, world-building comes in as a finishing touch – madness given the genre I write (fantasy/dystopian), but my world building is really done before I outline. The world in my current novel is what came to me first, so even though I only start to weave the detail in now, I already know what needs doing. My other focus in this draft is to finalise characters, detail, backstory and ensuring all the foreshadowing is in the right place.

Step 7: Check your editing map again

Ask yourself:

• What’s left to perfect?
• Have you checked details?
• Is your world complete?
• Are your characters perfected?
• Do you need to foreshadow?
• Does your timeline work?

***

PERFECTING THE MANUSCRIPT

I’m rubbish at proof reading. But I have to at least attempt it before giving it to beta readers and editors. So I proof read, check everything, over and over till I feel like I have done as much as I can do. I check:

• Characters
• Timelines
• Consistencies of: characters, world, locations, storyline, descriptions etc
• Grammar/spelling/word order/sentence structure etc
• General errors
• Story arcs / character growth

***

BETA FEEDBACK

This is the bit where you crap your pants a little – your hand shakes as you tentatively give your manuscript over to be critiqued by beta readers.

Once you stop crying! You edit in your feedback and hey presto you’re ready to pay a developmental or copy editor or seek an agent or whatever you feel your next steps should be.

 ***

RESEARCH

Step8: Research along the way, don’t get stuck making all the decisions before you start

There’s one section I haven’t mentioned. Research, and that’s because I research constantly. From before I pick up the pen, right through to the end of draft 3. I don’t worry about having all the tiny details before I start, or I would never start, plus I change my mind too often to decide everything before I begin; so I research details along the way.

***

This post is not meant to be a guide to the only writing process– the complete opposite in fact. This post is just my personal method of writing, my process. It will only be right for me. But what I hope it does do, is help you get some insight into discovering your own process. 

What does your pyramid look like?

The post 8 Steps to Discover Your Perfect Writing Process appeared first on Sacha Black.

I’ve been thinking about my own antagonists/villains in my WIP, and what I can do to develop them and make them more hateable because they’re loveable.

Your villain needs a redeeming quality or positive trait. 

Even Voldemort has positive traits. As Tom Riddle, he is charming and handsome, and as Voldemort, he is patient and intelligent. This, although you never really like him, at least makes you feel sorry for the mess Tom ended up in. Hence you empathize with Voldemort. It gives depth to his character and draws you into his story. Isn’t that the point of stories? To be drawn in and empathize with the characters? I like nothing better than that feeling of finishing a novel or a series and feeling bereft like I just lost a friend. To me, that is the mark of a good writer, and personally, I think empathizing with villains is one of the key elements needed to do that. Make the reader feel for your villain. Make their craziness, their insane ideas and philosophies seem plausible just for a minute. Momentarily make the reader care about the villain, before slapping them back to reality with a chunky slab of crazy villain.

But How?

In developing my villains, I use six simple sets of questions/principles to create what I think is an authentic baddy. These aren’t meant to be comprehensive solutions to the best bad guy you can create, but a starter for ten on basic elements you need.

1. History

No doubt you created a rich and full personal history for your protagonist and probably for most of your supporting characters too. But did you do the same for your villain? It’s important to know how they got that way, rather than just having an evil character for the sake of it. So I’ve started to ask myself lots of questions:

• Why are they a villain?
• Did something happen to them?
• What was their childhood like?
• What was their relationship with their parents like?
• Did they ever have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
• What’s the best thing that ever happened to them?
• What’s the worst thing that ever happened to them?

And loads more, have you got any key questions you ask your villains, I would love to add them to my list…?

A lot of these questions will lead you to the answers and information for some of the points below, like where they get their morals or reasons/motives from.

2. Positive Traits = Realism

There’s nothing worse than a flat villain. A villain who is evil for the sake of it. No one is evil for the sake of it, and no one is just plain evil. That’s an exaggeration you can only get away with in very young children’s books, and even Disney films the villains have at least one positive redeeming quality. You need to make sure you give your bad guy at least one positive trait. It gives balance to all their negative ones, and with balance comes realism and believability. It makes them human, relatable. After all, humans aren’t all good or all bad, so your villains shouldn’t be either.

Maybe they are kind to a sidekick, or a pet – take Voldemort again, he has a pet snake which he loves called Nagini. It’s redeeming quality – to love another thing and gives him depth and authenticity.

3. Emotions

Villains need emotions just as much as heroes and supporting characters do. It gives them validity, authenticity and encourages conflict. Emotions drive the plot and show historical wounds. Emotions mean weaknesses, which mean blind spots. Blind spots mean a hero can exploit his weaknesses and beat them.

4. Morals or Reasons

“I want to destroy the world….”

“Ok, why?”

“Because I do….”

Sounds pathetic right? You need to give your villain a reason to want to destroy the world. Not just because ‘they do,’ no one will accept ‘because I do’ as a valid reason and it will make your villains seem false, flat and unbelievable.

But better than reasons, are morals. Giving your villain morals makes them truly insane. If they have morals they not only think what they are doing is right, but they think it’s just and for the better good of everyone else. It also makes it harder for the protagonist to destroy the villain if they aren’t all evil. I spoke about Dexter and his anti-hero ways, and the fact that his morals are what make him and his TV series. The same principle can be applied to villains but in reverse. I guess like an anti-villain.

If you have ever been drawn into a villain’s master plan and momentarily agreed with them, let me know in the comments. I have, the last time it happened was with Virgil, in the final book of the Disturbed Girl’s Guide to Curing Boredom Trilogy, its one of ‘those’ books, one that made my most inspiration books ever list. Virgil sucked me into his evil virus-releasing world-destroying plan, with a well argued and to be honest, quite logical plan for destroying most of the population! But of course, I came to my senses.

5. Motive = Conflict

This is part and parcel of morals and reasons. But is the most important aspect of your villain. It’s the why behind their plans. Without the why you don’t have a good enough villain. The ‘why’ gives you conflict, the fundamental disagreement between villain and protagonist. Conflict gives you plot and believability. You don’t have to have reams and reams of why explanation either. Take Captain Hook he hates Peter Pan because he cut off his hand. Or the evil Queen in Snow White, she’s partly driven by vanity, but that leads her to be envious of Snow’s beauty. 

6. Character Arc

Your protagonists should through change and grow as your story progresses, and so too should your villains, even if it’s just a spiral downwards. If your villain is the same at the beginning as they are at the end, then what was the point of the journey and the battle with the protagonist? They flat lined and I imagine quite a boring villain.

Questions I’ve been asking myself include:

How does the story affect the villain? Do they get more evil and bitter? Or do they see the light and get redeemed? Or maybe I should just kill them off!? How do they feel about what happens to them? What is their goal or objective?

Whatever you choose your villain’s journey to be. They should end the story different to how they started it.

***

If you liked this post, why not get even more awesome writing tips in the book 13 Steps To Evil – How to Craft Superbad Villains. Click this link and just tap the logo of your device or regular bookshop and it will take you to the right page.

You can also get a FREE villains cheatsheet and a villain’s short course by joining my mailing list just click here.

Read Keepers, the first book in my Young Adult fantasy series now. Or to hear more about the release of the sequels as well as get regular CogMail updates you can do so here.

You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads

The post 6 Simple Steps to Superbad Villains appeared first on Sacha Black.

April brings the start of another series, as I start to look at the villains in my novel, I thought I would share with you the things I learn. But first: Audience Participation Required…

I want to run a poll, to see who your favourite villains are? Comments below. There are no rules your villains could be from literature, TV, Film, Theatre or anywhere else for that matter, and you can have more than one if you like.

The Telegraph has a list of the 50 Best Villains if you need some inspiration.

It’s not something that I have thought about very often. Don’t we usually have a favourite hero? Not a favourite villain. But villains are the characters that linger, that you love to hate, so why haven’t I thought about this before?

I had a little look at the list and picked out my faves from it.

Captain Hook is on there at 40

The Joker from Batman is at 23

Patrick Bateman from American Psycho is at 17

Hannibal Lecter at 14

Lord Voldemort came in at 5

Cruella de Ville came in at 2

Not on the list, but one I had to add is, Ursula

She had to make the list, partly because I have a strange obsession with Octopuses, but also because I loved the Little Mermaid, until I watched it on maternity leave, and realised the absolute horror of the contents, cue a feminist rant on The Abomination That is Disney.

I asked the wife who her favourite villains were and she said the joker, but specifically Heath Ledger’s joker, we both agreed there was something special about the way he played it, neither of us have actually figured out what that ‘special’ was yet, but I’ll come back to you! I find it interesting that most of the villains on the list were male, and that as a result most of the villains on my list are male. But I will write another post about that later. Suggestions on good female villains?

So who else can you add to my list of ultimate villains? I would love a big old list to be able to deconstruct and study, so if you have a moment, please do comment.

If you liked this post, subscribe here to hear about the release of 13 Steps to Evil, my writing craft book designed to help writers craft superbad villains. Due for release MAY 2017. 

The post Crafting Villains Series #1 Who’s Your Ultimate Villain? appeared first on Sacha Black.

If this Writespiration inspired you then jot a few words, a poem or a story and post below and I will post them with a link to your blog in next weeks post.

Here’s mine:

What is Love? By Sacha Black

“What does it feel like, Mama?”

“What does what feel like, Joseph?”

“Love.”

“Well,” I said picking him up and drawing him into my chest, “It’s warm and squidgy, and filled with cuddles and warmth. It sounds like glorious sunshine, and birds chirping in spring and sometimes like waves crashing on the sand.”

“Oh,” he said wriggling out of my arms. He frowned at me, and puckered his lips into a pout.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“But, if love sounds like all of those things, then what does it taste of?”

I smiled to myself and planted a kiss on his forehead.

“What’s your favourite food?”

“Mama don’t be silly, you know it’s ice cream and marshmallows.”

“Then honey, I strongly suspect that love tastes of ice cream and marshmallows.”

***

Last weeks writespiration had three fantastic submissions:

The first a moving tale of innocence by Geoff Le Pard

Dust

No pavement this
A line of dust
Trod hard by toil.
Sifting grains held
Till the rains come.
Or tears and sweat.
Or blood.

Only children now touch
With curiosity,
Wiggling toes,
Questioning fingers,
Filtering grit,
Sizing each piece,
Testing for abrasion
On soft untroubled skin.

Only children have time
To explore.
Lives not yet
Trammelled by toil
And sweat
And blood.

Soon enough the rains will come.

***

The second a wonderfully emotional Haiku by Rachel

The dog sat, waiting.
He looked at his surroundings.
His family was gone.

***

The third submission was a beautiful tale of childhood memories by Charli Mills

Little Towns by Charli Mills

I lagged behind our guide, tugging at my daughter’s sleeve.

“Rose, this is like a scene from my childhood.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Mom, you grew up in North Dakota. This is Nepal.”

“Look—that little girl. Give her braids and that would be me, playing in the street while Pa loaded our wagon.”

“Seriously, Mom.”

“And that man in the doorway. He stands, arms folded, like Nels the shopkeeper. And that woman in the striking material. His wife I bet. Nels’s wife always dressed better than everyone else.”

“What is with you? We are in a foreign country.”

Nepal inspired me. I now knew that I would return home and write about my childhood. “Every place in the world has its little town on the prairie.”

The post Writespiration #32 appeared first on Sacha Black.

My aim here, is to see if I can convince you to get up close and personal with your own inner psycho…

Have you ever watched Dexter? If you haven’t, you should. It’s great, Wiki says:

‘Dexter is an American television drama series. Set in Miami, the series centers on Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a blood spatter pattern analyst for Miami Metro Police Department who also leads a secret life as a serial killer, hunting down criminals who have slipped through the cracks of the justice system.’ 

A rubbish blurb if you ask me it doesn’t give half the detail of Dexter’s utter brilliance. Dexter is a psychopath. Not a sociopath as lots of people would lead you to believe. Sociopathy has a biological element, i.e. you are born like it. Dexter witnessed the murder of his mother as a wee laddie and it scarred him into emotional apathy hence, he developed psychopathy.

The interesting thing with Dexter is that although he can’t quite feel emotion, he wants to. He doesn’t want to kill people, he wants to be good and a nice person, but his ‘dark passenger’ doesn’t let him, he gets these urges to kill, so his adoptive father teaches him how to kill and get away with it, but he is only allowed to kill people that adhere to the ‘code’ i.e. a very bad person who escaped from the police.

What does this have to do with your own personal inner psycho, and more to the point, why can it make you a better writer?

Well, the writers of Dexter literally torture him, and torture us by torturing him. Throughout the 8 seasons, Dexter teases us with ‘almost emotions.’ For example, Dexter gets a girlfriend and eventual wife (Rita) who fully believes that Dexter is in love with her, so much so they have a child together. What is magical about this series and why I am writing this, is the extraordinary juxtaposition this creates: Dexter’s is unable to feel emotion, yet he strives for a normal life and indeed grows fond of Rita, and their son Harrison who he would protect with his life.

The lesson I have learnt from Dexter is just how important it is to torture your characters, and in every way possible. If you torture your characters your viewers or readers feel even more for them. I felt tortured with Dexter as I watched.

Emotional Torture:

Dexter is put under some extremely emotional torture throughout the series. For example, he tries to live a normal life, and have disguise – which involves Rita, but actually, he ends up being extremely fond of her, and they get married and have a child. We watch as he wrestles with himself and his own inner turmoil trying to work out if he does actually feel anything, whilst knowing he wants to spend time with them and be with them, not something he is used to. So when we see Dexter finally attain what he has been striving for – some semblance of normality and a sense of love. It is ripped away as Rita is brutally murdered which = Dexter emotionally tortured. Utter brilliance. I cried, a lot.

But the important lesson here is he was tortured. I felt for him, and as a result it gave him a ton of depth as a character. Here are the main ways Dexter was tortured, and the elements I think you should include in your stories to help readers feel for your characters:

Mental Torture:

Dexter constantly has to hide who he is, his murders and all the shenanigans he is up to. In one of the series there is another killer ‘The Ice Truck Killer’ who threatens to expose his whole life, he works out who he is – his real brother who he was separated from as a child, and this brother dates his adoptive sister. The torture Dexter has to go through juggling all the balls and trying to prevent his sister from being murdered leaves him exhausted, exposed and vulnerable, and quite frankly, me on the edge of my seat.

Physical Torture: 

Not always appropriate granted it will depend on your novel, BUT, there are some things you could do – say for example you are writing a chick flick book you can still physically torture your character. If they had a long journey to take, you could make it physically demanding, put obstacles in the way, make it exhausting for them. Dexter was beaten and tortured on a number of occasions through out the show, every occasion only serving to make us feel even more sorry for him, but then it was appropriate to the show and also kind of karma for him. The interesting thing is, despite the number of murders he had committed we empathise with him and completely excuse his murderous behaviour, quite worrying really!

Moral Torture: 

This was perhaps on a par with emotional torture for being the best method to get me on the edge of my seat. Despite being a psychopath and a killer, Dexter had morals. And lots of them. He lived his life strictly by ‘the code’ which his dad gave him. He would only kill certain people if they met the code, but throughout the series we watch as people who don’t match the code push him, and threaten to expose him, making him test his morals and everything he believes in, because if he went against his code then he would just be some common murderer. It’s his moral code that makes him interesting and unique, and what drives the viewer to see what he will do, how far does he have to be pushed before he will break his code? Who would he break the code for?

It’s a fascinating case study and if you haven’t watched it, honestly you should. But what’s the point I am actually trying to make?

Torture your characters… Get up close and personal with your own inner bit of psycho in order to create strange and nasty methods for torturing your characters, it will only serve to make us readers turn every page until the book is finished. Use the types of torture above, obviously you don’t need to use them all, and obviously not all at once, or  not even all in the same story. In fact it is probably better not to. But do use some of them. Push your characters to their limits, make them have to work hard for their goals and it naturally brings their character to life, gives them layers, texture and grit and importantly creates something the readers to enjoy.

My question to you is:

What’s your inner psychos preferred method of torture?

I think my psychos preference is for moral and emotional torture, I love a bit of moral torture to really test your characters fibre. How far can you push them before its too far?  Can you crush them? How far is too far? What would make them break? My inner psycho is going nuts thinking about how I can torture my characters next, and also about timing it just right, right when they think they are plain sailing… boom!

I would love to hear from you…What’s your inner psychos preferred method of torture?

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I think it’s an interesting thought, to recognise and even inflict situations on our characters that make them act completely out of character. We strive really hard to ensure consistency with all our characters, I fret over it constantly, trying to ensure their features, attire, and behaviours are consistently consistent! But doesn’t it make for really believable characters when they act completely out of character because ‘of something’ ? I think it makes them more rounded. The hard part is working out what would make them react like that!

I would love to know what makes some of your main characters act out of character, if you have a moment, please leave a comment below as this particularly fascinates me.

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