Eneh Akpan Writes: story

Showing posts with label story. Show all posts

Sunday, September 15, 2013

A Character is NOT a Rose

Bram Stoker's (1847-1912) Notes on the personal for his novel Dracula. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roses will always smell sweet. I can't say the same about characters who seem to be strung up on hubris by default.

In fiction, the names given to characters are almost as important as the theme of the story. That fact is beyond dispute. You have to make character names as memorable as character traits.

A vampire that stalks the night who goes by the name Dracula would strike terror into the hearts of folks long before his true form is revealed. Consider Lord Voldermort in the Harry Porter series. And the fact that the villain's name was altered after he turned and became a twisted sorcerer.

In real life, in fiction even in scripture, names have featured elaborately in programming the mindset of its bearer as well as those of the people around them. Readers would root for heroes with memorable and likable names. But there are rare moments when an heroic feat hauls an otherwise ordinary name into a threshold of heroism.

It's art and in this realm, rules are flimsy things.

As precaution, make an habit of giving your protagonists admirable names and then tag your villains and anti-heroes with horror-inducing names unless you know, to do otherwise, would sell your story faster.

A rose by any other name will smell sweet but a character on the same basis will definitely suck. That's food for thought.

Keep your pen bleeding.

Akpan

Sunday, January 20, 2013

What's the Criteria for Classifying a SciFi Story?

Updated: June.15.2015

Science fiction is a genre of fiction based primarily on popular scientific principles and sometimes, on principles created especially for the story. Modern SciFi tales have witnessed a shift in the form of the genre and this change owes in large part to advancement in technology. Almost every story indulges in the application of complicated gadgets and sometimes exhibit science themes but these are not by classification science fiction stories.

For Science fiction nerds who deserve a hiatus from this confusing trend in fiction, it seems necessary to draw a line indicating the limit or extent of the SciFi genre. I have listed five peculiarities which most stories that fall under this genre exhibit. But rules are rules and creativity has been known to break them.

This is how you can identify a science fiction plot:

1. If it is Governed by the Laws of Science

There are exceptions as you will find out in 5. If the plot is in line with the laws governing the execution of scientific experiments, it is most definitely science fiction. If the plot of a story is driven by and depends solely on the limits and boundaries of set science laws then it is scifi.

2. If Conflicts Are Resolved Via Scientific Principles

In contrast to magic or sorcery in fantasy, the plots of a scifi tale must prove and uphold the power of science. Not of sorcery or religious belief or basically, the human emotion. If it must prove anything else it must have its root from a scientific viewpoint.

3. If the Plot Explores Science-Oriented Issues

There is a world of difference between a story with a science theme and a plot that explores scientific issues with intent to resolve it. The plots of scifi burrow deep into science and are only resolved when the scientific riddle has been solved. That's different from say a James Bond movie which only involves complicated technological gadgets but lack the drive for scientific research.

4. If there's No Trace of Supernatural Elements

I believe this one explains itself, effectively. Unless you're writing sword and sorcery or a religious book, science fiction plots do not explore the supernatural or things that cannot be solved with chemical formulas. Of course, there may be traces of religion in a scifi story, characters in the story may profess faith but the overall theme of the story is always explorations in science.

5. If it is Predictive in Structure

Because scifi delves into the unexplored realms of science, the structure of the genre is particularly predictive. When people use phones in movies today it is not so spectacular. But back when phones were still items of speculation, an author writing about a time when these gadgets would become available to everybody could be said to make predictions. Thus, predictions in science fiction is different from that of sorcery or divination.

Prediction in scifi is simply another way of saying speculation.

This discussion is open to debates why, it's science fiction, the literature of ideas. And there's definitely, other methods of identifying this genre besides these five. But if it works for any of you out there, my mission is accomplished.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Saturday, January 19, 2013

15 Tips On Adding Suspense to Your Scenes

An indispensable tool when amping up your plot, suspense can make your story memorable or prove it to be totally penny dreadful. It is unarguably a very important part of writing fiction. And it's no wonder, a lot of experienced insiders have spoken about the necessity of adding suspense to your scenes and allow it to carry the story to the heart of the reader. Read on, you might learn a thing or fifteen but it sure won't hurt.

Photo: nashvillearts.com

The courage to imagine the otherwise is our greatest resource, adding color and suspense to all our life.

― Daniel J. Boorstin

Suspense is like a woman. The more left to the imagination, the more the excitement. Although I do not profess to be an authority on women, I fear that the perfect title [for a movie], like the perfect woman is difficult to find.

― Alfred Hitchcock

In suspense novels even subplots about relationships have to have conflict.

― Jeffery Deaver

There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human's mind against the Enemy.

― C.S. Lewis

For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words.

― Ken Follet

We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.

― Mary McCarthy

Show me a character whose life arouses my curiosity, and my flesh begins crawling with suspense.

― Fawn M. Brodie

Even cowards can endure hardship; only the brave can endure suspense.

― Mignon McLaughlin

Suspense is very important. Even though this is humor and they're short stories, that theory of building suspense is still there.

― Sergio Aragones

As for suspense, I like to write books that draw you into the hero's plight from the opening pages, where people put their lives on the line for something - a belief, a family member, the truth.

― Andrew Gross

The rules of suspense are that you do know, and you just don't know when.

― Gus Van Sant

Tradition is the enemy of suspense.

― Steven Moffat

You have to go out of your way as a suspense novelist to find situations where the protagonists are somewhat helpless and in real danger.

― Nelson DeMille

Tension and suspense come from characters whose goals conflict with each other.

― William G. Tapply

I'm fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn't make a good suspense film.

― Alfred Hitchcock

Akpan

Thursday, October 4, 2012

5 Tips on Reading Like a Writer

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

I have something for you. Especially, if you’re a writer but I guess any fervid reader might learn a few tricks from this post.

There is a world of difference between reading (despite the intensity of the reader) and reading like a writer. I know a lot of writers feel the same way, too. The tips which follow are not all there is about reading like a writer but they’ll suffice for now. For me, more than for you.

1. Live Inside the Story

This is an attempt to see the reader through your eyes as well as your senses. You’re learning how the reader is influenced by the printed page. Don’t act it. Really live in the pages and allow the words touch and move you until you hear the author’s pulse as the words pour through the windows of your eyes into your heart. Take the words through the follicles in your body.

2. Read with a Pencil Close By

If ‘Read a lot’ is the first part of the writer’s creed (The second part being Write a lot.), the writer ought to regard books as a student treats his/her textbooks. Underline words and phrases, which strike you as peculiar. Put a square around special words. Use curly brackets, asterisks, question marks, exclamation marks, any symbols that might aid sharp and brilliant recall in time of need.

The purpose of marking phrases or whole sentences and paragraphs is to help you find the appropriate words/phrases or paragraph during your writing period. It’s easy to identify a line or box standing in the middle of a page, to find the sentence it guards. Use highlighters and colored pencils/pen. Any word that kicks up your interest should be marked for further escapades.

3. Read between the Lines

Look beyond the obvious. Strip the words of contextual and metaphorical context and dig straight for the meat.’

Read guided by the simple but forceful truth: you are a writer. Make the words on the page appeal to you; listen to the author’s heartbeat as he speaks to you. Weigh each word on the scale of your emotion as the meaning slides home with an audible thump.

4. Add Your Own Words

Here’s one important reason you should have a pen or pencil beside you when you read.

Reading is a stimuli for creativity. A word, a phrase, an expression could spark a bust of inspiration and you would want to mark your place with… words. No other spot can serve that need like the space beside the words that initiated the inspiration.

Add your words to the ones already on the page; it will make you feel like you belong. The pages become less formal and more personal. To have your thoughts side by side, buttressing, explaining and magnifying the ones on the page gives the idea of everlastingness to the printed text. It keeps the memory of the experience fresh.

5. Observe the Writing Style

Ask yourself questions like, How would I write this, if given the opportunity? Or How would this look if I had penned it?

Be on the lookout for peculiar twists, things out of the way the author uses to achieve a particular effect.

Note the beginning, the middle (body, if nonfiction, rising action/climax, if fiction) and the landing of the story. We can always learn a thing or two from one another. Sometimes, it might be what not to do while writing in a particular field or genre.

What a writer needs to do above all else, is to live inside books. Read intensely and in every field there is. You need to be something of an expert at various times to write in a particular field.

So read. Let the words form pinions under you, fly you beyond the edge of reality until you tread unknown pastures, and smell the fragrance of the Shakespearean Rose.

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Your VILLAIN is Someone's HERO

Photo credit: Flickr

Yeah, and why not?

They all seem to be fighting for a cause.

Here’s a striking example from personal experience:

From a different P.O.V, Thomas Harris’ famous character, Hannibal Lecter would have been a formidable villain.

I had the misfortune, or whatever you might call it of reading ‘Hannibal’ first before any of the other books in the series. I ended up disappointed when Dr. Hannibal was not caught or gutted (not necessarily in that order) at the end of the story.

I was rooting for Clarice Starling and completely ignorant the whole time of the fact that Dr. Hannibal was the main character of the book while Agent Starling was tagging along for the ride! Imagine the surprise when Hannibal annihilated everything in his path and successfully kidnapped the FBI agent (Starling) assigned to his case.

The most fearful villains are the ones amped up with a reason for their actions. Morality issues are added boosts for these ‘bad guys’. Most of them believe their actions are for the good of humanity.

When you arm a villain with feelings and concrete emotions and throw in a bit of history in the mix, the reader either despairs for the hero of the story or falls in love with the ‘bad guy(s)’.

Villains do not understand why people hate or fear them. Many are driven beyond the lip of sanity because of the way people react(ed) toward them. You might need to remember this when you create villains for your story.

Making your villain(s) formidable and lovable involves giving them:

1. A history

2. A cause to live or die for

3. Concrete emotions–may involve making them fall in love, probably with somebody who doesn’t know who they really are. (This makes your reader see them as humans and as people going through rough times.)

Of course, your heroes do not always have human or superhuman enemies but when they do have ‘em remember your villain is the next guy’s hero.

Love them or lose your readers!

Keep your pen bleeding!

Akpan

Thursday, September 27, 2012

How to Make your Story Compelling

If anything’s 100% guaranteed to put the kick in your story, it’s your fictional people–your characters.

Story is important, yes. But somebody once said, Plot is character. I believe him/her. And you will as well once you see what this post has to offer.

Your story is bound to move your readers if it’s populated with compelling characters

Will Smith and son in Pursuit of Happyness
Photo credit: Flickr

Readers want characters they can identify with.

The protagonist of your story does not necessarily have to be superhuman. They don’t even have to fit into the prototype Rambo-style hero niche. The single ingredient which shoves a reader beyond the edge of reality and sends them scrambling into your fictional world (and if I may add, with great pleasure) is how much you make your characters partakers in the fellowship of your reader’s sufferings.

Compelling characters are often than not, ordinary people going through the motions, having the blues. And especially, characters who attain the goal of their dreams when they come through. That goal could be anything from something as other-worldly as superpowers to one as ordinary as a job. (I’m thinking of Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness, here.)

What are the things that strike you about your favorite stories? Who are your favorite characters? There might be a story there.

Plot is what your characters do. The bottom line is who your characters are and what your characters do should be interesting or you end up with a blunt tale in your hands.

Without compelling characters, there can be no compelling story.

Let your pen bleed!

Akpan