Growth and Failure

The longer the story, the more failures there should be and the greater the change that should occur.

This is the case for anything you write, but the more episodic the series is, the more this holds true. TV series, ongoing web series, and web comics are the most obvious examples of this.

Basically what this means is that your characters can’t succeed at everything they try to do. One thing about shows like Supernatural (the early seasons) is that you as the viewer know that, for the most part, by the end of every episode, the Monster of the Week will have been defeated and everyone you care about will still be alive and healthy. There are overarching plots, but they are tangential to most episodes and don’t affect much.

In Stargate SG-1, on the other hand, they spend eight season facing one major enemy (the Goa’uld), and they spend many of the episodes fighting the Goa’uld in some form or another. And sometimes they fail and the Goa’uld win, and sometimes they win and that later helps the Goa’uld win, and sometimes they don’t fight the Goa’uld at all, and those missions may be either successful or not to a lesser degree. Beyond that, there are lower level failures: they try to make a spaceship and it almost kills some of them, they try to make a new spaceship, it doesn’t work as hoped at a pivotal moment and they almost lose the entire planet, they build a giant spaceship and it gets stolen (briefly), they build more giant spaceships and one gets shot down over a planet and then later they need to get that spaceship home and it (temporarily) gets stuck in a giant sentient gas cloud. All of this means that sometimes they don’t have a spaceship that can do what they need even though they’ve been trying to build one for most of the show, but at the end of the show, they end up with spaceships whose capabilities and weaknesses play a pivotal role in the show.*

My point in recounting all of that (other than to get you all to watch Stargate) is to show that, especially when you have a long series where you want to show a great deal of growth (and I’ll explain why you need that in a second), you can’t just have them win every time they try to grow or every time they try to defeat an enemy. You have to have them fail, too, or there will be no stakes and it will be hard to suspend disbelief.

So…why do you need growth?

Basically, if you end up in the same place that you started, what was the point of your story?

Well, you cry, they defeated the major enemy. Isn’t that enough?

And to that I ask (because I like holding imaginary teaching sessions): If they could defeat the major enemy (or if they could get the girl/boy/non-binary person, or if they could get into the school they wanted, or if they could do whatever else they want to do) with the capabilities they had in the beginning, why didn’t they? There is no need for a story if your characters have everything they need to succeed when the story starts.

And as for why you need failure? Here are three reasons.

One, failure is realistic. Things rarely work well on the first try, especially more than once, which means that the more things a character (or group, organization, etc.) is trying, the more they should fail. If you think about someone trying to learn a language, they basically never (without an eidetic memory) remember all words the first time they see/hear them, or use grammar perfectly on the first try, or pronounce every word correctly. They will get some, but they will rarely get all. The same should go for someone who is trying to learn how to fight, for example. Even if you get everything right the first time you are shown it (which may or may not happen), you’re not going to get it right every time. You might fail more at some things than at others, or fail at the same thing over and over. Sometimes it’s because you don’t understand how to do it, sometimes it’s because your brain and your body aren’t communicating well, and sometimes it’s because your muscles just aren’t strong enough or your body isn’t flexible enough for it to work. Those are all failures that can and do happen in real life.

Two, failure raises the stakes. If you know the main characters are going to succeed at everything they try, or that their failures aren’t going to have any consequences beyond that episode (or chapter, etc.), there are no stakes. There is no concern for whether the character will do well or whether they will be ready in time, because they always are. There is no risk, because there is no failure.

Three, failure is interesting. As we see in Stargate, entire episodes can be built around failures. Failures make for interesting storylines, and sometimes successes that turn into failures can turn into even more interesting storylines. You defeat the Big Bad only to have a Bigger Bad rise up because of it? That’s a great storyline, and shows what was ultimately a failure by the characters. You stop someone for personal reasons at the expense of stopping someone for strategic reasons? Great storyline, because it not only prolongs and changes the conflict, it also adds an opportunity for personal growth and/or conflict into the mix.

With that, failures can also cause really interesting interpersonal interactions. Let’s so all of the characters are counting on Bob to pull off one part of the plan, and despite trying his best, Bob fails. Now everyone blames Bob (or maybe some subset of them blame Bob, depending on their personalities) and it causes tension in the group. Maybe this tension ultimately leads to Bob leaving because he can’t take the blame anymore. Now you have a splintered group all from Bob’s one failure.

What types of growth and failure can you have?

(I’m glad you asked, me.)

Here are some examples (primarily for militaristic/adventure type stories, but there’s a mix)**:

*Of course, Stargate has some of its own issues with this, like the fact that Daniel has been brought back to life more than once, so the viewers stop believing that Daniel is ever actually dead.

**When I use the term failure, I don’t mean that it is the fault of the character or organization (necessarily, though in some cases it might be). I just mean that it is not-success.

Advice: Too Little Action in Dialogue

Including action with dialogue is just about not having “talking heads.” In other words, you don’t want something like this: “Did you have fun at the park?” Marissa asked. “Yeah, we stayed all afternoon and fed the ducks,” Betty replied. “I wish I had been there. The board meeting ran late and I got stuck in traffic on the way home.” “That stinks. Do you want to go with me to Angie’s party later?” “Sure,” said Marissa. The problem with this dialogue is that Marissa and Betty are just talking heads. They don’t seem to have arms or legs and we can’t tell what environment they’re in. But, if you slip in a little action, the whole conversation changes: Marissa slid into the booth across from Betty. “Did you have fun at the park?”  “Yeah, we stayed all afternoon and fed the ducks,” Betty replied, removing two menus from the edge of the table and handing one to Marissa. “I wish I had been there. The board meeting ran late and I got stuck in traffic on the way home.”  “That stinks,” Betty frowned. The conversation paused momentarily as the two women looked over the cafe’s selections. A cute server came over to take their order, and Betty couldn’t help but flirt with him as Marissa teased her with a subtle eye roll. As soon as he left, Betty leaned forward and asked, “Do you want to go with me to Angie’s party later?” “Sure,” said Marissa, grinning broadly. Now suddenly the scene has more context. At the very least we know they’re in a cafe ordering lunch, but we also learn some things about how the two characters interact with each other and others around them. So, adding action to dialogue isn’t really about writing long descriptions. It’s just about finding ways your characters can move around, interact with their environment, and interact with each other. Try to imagine the scene before you write it, almost as if you’re watching it in a movie or TV show. Think about where they are and the kinds of things they’re doing while they talk, then include them. :)

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ACTION 1. standing ankle deep in water that glows 2. kneeling in the center of a decaying temple 3. walking in the rain, with no destination 4. stalking a strange creature through the city streets 5. standing at the edge of a cliff, staring into the distance 6. mingling at a masquerade, searching for someone specific 7. crouching in the shadow of a ruined wall, cursing their luck 8. wandering through a forest in the middle of the night

APPEARANCE 1. not all white wings belong to angels 2. casual defiance of gender stereotypes 3. the reality of long hair, flowing gowns, and nature 4. raised in a culture where clothing is optional 5. scars that are revered and scars that are reviled 6. voluntary body modification 7. no one asks to be changed like this 8. crossed with a non-mammal

ELEMENTS 1. fire that does not rage 2. soft, barely-there winds 3. stagnant waters 4. shifting, untrustworthy earth 5. life that is selfish and greedy 6. death that is giving 7. darkness that nurtures 8. light that destroys

EXTRAS 1. forces beyond our control 2. things the ancients left behind 3. destiny versus free will 4. doing the wrong thing for the right reason 5. doing the right thing for the wrong reason 6. playing god 7. wanting what you can’t have 8. never knowing there was a word for it

First, get a professional to help figure it out.

In the meantime, you can try things like asking specific questions, such as “are you hot?” “are you hungry?” (“do you want a sandwich/soup/whatever?” is probably better). DON’T stop asking at the first “yes” - check to see if the “yes” or nodding head is just an automatic response by asking a few more questions. Contradictory ones can help weed out automatic “yes” - “are you hot” followed by “are you cold”.

The important part is they must be yes/no questions and as specific as you can make them. “are you hungry” could be difficult - many times I do not know that I am, I just know I feel off, but asking me if I want shrimp or a sandwich makes my head click and oh yeah, I’m hungry.

As you practice this you’ll probably notice that fussiness is usually confined to just a few things and can tailor your list to be the most likely causes first.

Hope that was helpful.

Another thing is don’t make a big deal about it. My son is 5, and autistic, and if you pressure him, he shuts down. I tell him “Hey, deep with,” and I take a deep breath, and say “Can we slow down and figure out what’s wrong? Are you hungry, thirsty, or hurting?” If he says the last thing, I switch them around. If it’s the same answer, I fulfill that need. I tell him “Remember, if Damien is hungry, he says ‘Mama, I’m hungry,’ so next time, just tell mama, okay?” and it usually works unless he’s really excited. If he forgets, no big deal. it takes a lot of work from everyone, though. My whole house has figured out what his grunts and noises mean, and it’s hard to break them of the habit to just give him what he wants. If he doesn’t grasp a concept immediately, no big deal, we come back to it later. It’s work for another day when he’s more receptive.

Fantasy Bingo

Source for Comic: Book Riot

Writer’s Block

A picture says a thousand words. Write them.

Mission: Write a story, a description, a poem, a metaphor, a commentary, or a critique about this picture. Write something about this picture.

Be sure to tag writeworld in your block!

catchpoint

“Catch points and trap points are types of turnout which act as railway safety devices. Both work by guiding railway carriages and trucks from a dangerous route onto a separate, safer track. Catch points are used to derail vehicles which are out of control on steep slopes (known as runaways).”

November 2011, Salt Lake City, Utah. Caleb Krauss, just shy of his sixteenth birthday, survives another day in a home that is in a state of continual dysfunction. Diagnosed with autism as toddlers, Caleb and his sister’s daily lives revolve around intensive therapy and biomedical interventions that their parents believe will eventually lead to a cure. Lonely and presumed incompetent, Caleb copes through his joyful obsessions, which include freight trains, Hayao Miyazaki movies, and the sweet neurotypical boy who volunteers in his special education class. But when Caleb discovers labor martyr Joe Hill and is inspired to run away from home, both his and his family’s routines and isolation become suddenly derailed.

In short, a queer, autistic, train-hopping teenager runs away from his abusive curebie family, leading to a massively misguided law enforcement investigation into his disappearance.

I’m going to make this into a comic when I get a little more time and drawing skills. I’m trying to put together a proposal for an autism-related publisher, so if you could reblog this so I can show them people would be interested that would be really cool. :)

Ok. I’m doing this. Shooting for mid November to start putting it online.

Reblog if you can, it would be nice to get the word out more. I have secured a publisher (Autonomous Press), but this will be available for free online before and after the book(s) come out.

Some advice for when you’re writing and find yourself stuck in the middle of a scene:

Never delete. Never read what you’ve already written. Pass Go, collect your $200, and keep going.

This is the literal best writing advice I have ever read. Period.

Philip Roth (via thescriptlab)

Thoughts on doing right by nonspeaking people

realsocialskills said:

Several things:

Remember how much you don’t know:

Keeping in mind the possibility that she understands language (or that she might be able to learn how to use language):

Regarding communication support:

Keep in mind the possibility that she does not understand language, or that she needs help understanding it:

Make room for stuff she cares about:

Help her to find a peer group:

Find ways of listening to her:

Creative arts therapists might be helpful:

Share what you know about her communication:

Don’t make decisions for her that she can make for herself:

tl;dr If someone doesn’t speak, it’s important not to assume they’re unable to understand language — and also important not to assume that they do. In either case, it’s important to listen to them, speak to them respectfully, work on finding ways to support their communication, make room for their interests, and respect their decisions.

Writers skype group!

Still plenty of space for the skype group! Writers, camp nano-participants or not, are welcome~  It’s good to bounce ideas off each other, to vent/laugh/share inspiration or prompts, ideas, etc. 

If you’d like to join, send me an ask with your skype name! I’d just give mine out but you’d never find me, as apparently there’s a good hundred people with the same name as me.