Tip #204: Character arcs (in 5 easy steps)

1. Ask the impossible of your character.

2. Make them a) want it, and b) believe they can achieve it: this will motivate them to put themselves through hell to get/achieve it.

3. Allow them to reach a crisis where they realise they will have to change in order to get/achieve it.

4. Allow them a chance to re-evaluate their desire/need.

5. a) Your character changes and achieves their goal, b) your character realises they never/no longer need(ed) it, or c) your character tries to change and fails.

H. R. Filmore's Reminders to Self, January 2012

Tip #203: Start with the antagonist

Conventional wisdom: The hero drives the story.
This is correct, but it's the end point of the plotting: it's what the audience see.  The antagonist is the part of the story that will cause all of the surprises in the story.  The more of the opponant that's hidden, the more plot you have: the more danger, the more surprises and reveals you can spring upon character and audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_mZ-XokOTg

Again, this tip has been paraphrased.

Tip #202: Twist ending

Ultimately, what makes this plot twist so unexpected was... The possibility just doesn't occur to people. Because the revelation was so unexpected, Stead was able to cram the beginning with all sorts of clues without having readers make that final leap.

http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2009/12/how-to-pull-off-amazing-plot-twist-when.html

Tip #201: Characters drive story

What you want to strive for in your ending is a sense of the inevitable. That somehow, based on who your characters are at the beginning, this ending and only this ending is what had to occur.

http://www.kathycarmichael.com/articles-and-seminars/articles-and-workshops/endings-workshop/

Tip #200: Character desire/goal

Given example:  Saving Private Ryan

The desire/goal of the story is not what the character wants in life/generally (to leave war behind and go home).  The desire/goal is the one that's specific to the story (saving Private Ryan).  When the character realises their desire, the story ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XgnOpZBuLE

This tip has been paraphrased.

Tip #199: Character contradictions

{One of the things that} makes a character intriguing is when the outside words {how they think others see them} juxtapose with the inside words {how they see themself}. When they're opposites or don't seem to match.

http://jessicanelson7590.blogspot.com/2012/01/put-your-character-in-box.html


It also says a lot about a character when they see themselves differently to how others do.  I think this happens with everyone to some extent.  How do your characters see themselves?  How do they see each other?  How do they think others see them?  How do their perceptions change over the course of the story?

Tip #198: Write for the love of it

this year I’m setting a daily writing goal. My goal is this: “Every day, I will write for the love of it.”... The idea behind this is simple: if you’re having fun doing something, you tend to do it more and more.

http://www.davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=51

Tip #197: A great setting

a great setting... makes us imagine how we'd react if we were placed in that world. And it makes us wonder whether we have the makeup to thrive within it.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/05/what-makes-great-setting.html