How to Choose Character Fears

With everyone's favorite spooky day upon us, let's talk fear. Your protagonist needs a fear. But not just any fear. You can't toss in the fear of clowns because it's hot on American Horror story. You can't use spiders just because they make your skin crawl. You have to choose a fear that works specifically against your character.

Think goal.

Whatever your character's goal is, wouldn't it be interesting if she had to face her fear to get to that goal? So what is she working toward? Breakfast? Riveting goal! Your protagonist wants to make breakfast, but first...she has to do the dishes, and she's afraid to reach her hand into the murky water. She doesn't know if she'll grab the blade of a knife or worse--a slimy piece of food. Her stomach churns. And then it rumbles. But she has to do it to make breakfast.

Now let's build on goals and fear and focus on character flaws.

A character flaw will take the reader deeper into your character and world than a fear because not everyone will relate to the same fears, but we do all relate to feeling of inadequacy thanks to our weaknesses. Let's say your protagonist is afraid to ask for help. You can take that deeper by giving him the character flaw that he doesn't let himself appear vulnerable to anyone. So wouldn't it be juicy if his goal were to clean his entire apartment so he could make dinner for his girlfriend? But uh-oh! She's coming in two hours and he hasn't cleaned in two weeks. He's going to have to call a friend and ask for help. But this makes him vulnerable because 1) he's going to have to ask for help, and his friend could say no, 2) if his friend comes over, he's going to see the mess AKA what a mess he is, and 3) he's going to have to tell his friend why it's so important to him to get the apartment clean--for love, man--and love makes us vulnerable.

Deepen it even more with history.

Of course we all know not to dump backstory, but you need to know what part of your character's history caused her specific fear and character flaw. And then if you sprinkle a hint to your readers, they'll gain a deeper understanding and appreciate it even more when your character jumps that fear hurdle to get to the goal. So back to our first example. She wants breakfast--needs it. It's the most important meal of the day! But the thought of dishes make her blood pressure rise. Why?

Because when she was little, her older brother played a cruel prank on her. It was her turn to do the dishes. The bits of slimy food floating in the water always made her squeamish, but she sucked it up because it's just food, after all. She plunged both hands into the bubbly water, pulling our saucers and spoons. Her shoulders relaxed a little. She washed a knife--she hated not knowing if she'd grab a knife. Always afraid to get cut. She reached back into the water with both hands. Her right hand brushed the ridged edge of another knife. She grabbed it gently. She sucked in a breath as something slimy brushed her other hand. It's just food. Grab it out. She fished around and felt the thick slimy texture again. Her heart thud-thudded against her chest. She pulled and out came a snake. The beady eyes looked right at her. The tongue flicked in and out faster than her heartbeat. She screamed, her body tensing in panic, and the dishwater turned red with blood as she still held the knife in her other hand.

The Qualities of a Hero

PSA: MY BOOK, BETRAYAL OF THE BAND, RELEASES THIS MONTH! Just had to get that out of the way before talking about this month’s theme: Heroes

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. A geeky teenager (Spider-Man), a wealthy playboy (Iron Man), a highly trained orphan (Black Widow). (Can you tell I’m an Avengers fan?) But even the most ordinary person can be a hero (or heroine). So what makes a hero heroic? The ability and willingness to save the world? If that were necessary, we’d all be writing superhero or save-the-world stories, and we’re probably not. At least, I’m not. Everyone in Betrayal of the Band is an ordinary—though musically talented—high schooler. But that doesn’t make them any less heroic.

So how do you take an average, everyday protag—or even an unlikeable protag—and turn them into a hero (or heroine)? I’ve composed a short list of a few of the qualities, but I’d love to hear some others!

1. Sacrifice. In most stories, the hero (or heroine) is making a sacrifice. This doesn’t need to be a huge, life-or-death sacrifice like Harry Potter makes at the end of The Deathly Hallows. This sacrifice can be an ordinary, every day giving up, such as turning down a college scholarship to stay home and assist a disabled parent or coaching a younger sibling in soccer instead of hanging out with friends on the weekends. In Into the Fire, by Kim Vandal, the hero (or heroine), Kate, sacrifices dating and most of a social life to appease her mother’s fears. While these aren’t life-or-death sacrifices, for the hero the sacrifice is a death of a dream or a desire and also the willingness to put someone else ahead of those dreams or desires.
2. Love. Often a hero (or heroine) is motivated by a strong love. This doesn’t need to be romantic love. Think Katniss in The Hunger Games. She volunteered out of love for her sister, and she never saw herself as a hero for doing so. Even Iron Man, who mostly only loves himself, is spurred on when Pepper is threatened. This is probably related to sacrifice—because who’s going to make a sacrifice for someone they don’t care about?—but caring for someone more than for themselves is a quality of a hero.
3. Fight. A hero (or heroine) is willing to fight for what’s important. Again, this doesn’t have to be a huge, “oh no, the evil villain is going to destroy the whole world unless little old me stands up to him.” This is the boy willing to stand up to bullies in defense of an almost stranger. Or the girl refusing to let the loss of an athletic scholarship destroy her college dreams. In The War that Saved My Life, Ada is the least likely hero. She has a club foot and can’t even walk when the story begins. She’s been so abused, both physically and verbally, that she truly believes she’s worthless and useless. Yet she never quits. She continues to care for her brother and pushes herself to learn things like riding a horse, because the hero (or heroine) always keeps fighting.

These are only three qualities that define a hero. What would you add to the list? How can you use these elements to make your protag even more heroic?

Sarah Tipton is a writer of Christian Young Adult fiction. Her debut novel, Betrayal of the Band, releases in August 2017.

Sometimes Ya Just Gotta Kill Em

I had this character once whom I adored. Her dialogue was so easy to write and she was young, scrappy, and hungry, and I'm not giving away my shot. Oh  I loved her! I even named her after my childhood best friend and this character, in my mind, became a vital part of the book.

Everyone who read this character LOVED her and so when I first got a note from a CP that they loved the character, but that she didn't seem to have enough agency and kind of seemed pointless, I was like, "What? WRONG."

I brushed off that note and kept revising, but there was something about it that stuck with me. As I kept revising, I began to see what my CP was talking about. Her role in the story was spotty. She didn't seem to have enough of a purpose to be on the page all the time. She lacked a lot of depth outside her role of spurring the MC onto new plot points. Yeah she was funny and sarcastic and challenged my MC, but was that enough?

Sadly, I realized that my most favorite character I've ever written needed to go. Y'all, I was sad. It was truly like killing one of my kids—or like taking a time machine and altering the space-time continuum so that there was no kid ever in the first place.

It ended up being a much better thing. I was able to combine her character with another one and it COMPLETELY changed the pacing of the story for good. More than the benefit to the story, having the guts to cut her character (and all those awesome dialogue lines) gave me courage as a writer. Sometimes it can be hard to cut thousands of words. You're afraid you'll never get them back—as if revising them out means 10k less words you'll ever be able to write in your lifetime. But we both know that's not true.

Killing your darlings is a tough, but necessary tool writers have to use. We can't be a slave to our characters or even plots, we have to be always be writing in service to the story.

So if you're having a tough time with a particular plot line or a character, take a risk and remove it. See what happens! You might just find your story is stronger because of it.

Want to connect?

Find me at www.destinycole.com

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How’s the Weather?

What do you talk about when you can't think of anything to say? The weather, of course! Seriously though, weather has been on my mind a lot. Or affecting my mind.

While the calendar says spring arrived over a week ago, in interior Alaska, we still have snow. Like a lot of snow. Like you could lose a full-grown Labrador in the snow. But last week, the sun appeared and so did puddles, and I started to feel sunny inside too. Then the clouds came back.

After nearly nine years of living in Alaska and experiencing the extremes of sunshine-all-the-time and darkness-all-the-time, I’m beginning to see how the weather affects me. January and February are tough months if I don’t have plans to leave the state for warmer, sunnier climates. Last week, when the sun was shining, I felt happy and energetic. Then when the clouds returned, I felt lazy, listless, lethargic.

I’m so moving to Hawaii someday.

Anyway, what does this have to do with writing? In high school English, we talked about weather being used as symbolism. At the time, I thought that was dumb. The weather occurs regardless of how a person feels. It doesn’t rain when I’m sad or depressed. The sun doesn’t shine just because I’ve gotten good news. And to an extent, I still feel that way. The weather doesn’t mirror my emotions.

But from experience, I know weather does affect a person. When I’ve had bad news, a sunny day makes me angry. An overcast day zaps my energy and pulls me down, even if everything else in my life is happy and positive. And today, with the sun shining again (despite SNOW this morning!), I don’t feel the pull to lie around napping all day like I have every other cloudy day this week. 

So the weather should be considered in our characters’ lives. Besides the obvious—one doesn’t go cross country skiing on the river in the summer—how is weather impacting the plot? What would a scene look like on a rainy day versus a sunny day? What if the day were windy? Humid? Dry? And how is the weather impacting the character’s mood and behavior? Good news on a nasty-weather day? Bad news on a sunny, blue sky day? For a character who deals with stress by gardening or running might like bad news on a sunny day, and bad news on a stormy day for that same character could send her into a desperate situation if caught outside in the rain, thunder, and lightning. 

Obviously the weather isn’t a consideration in every scene, but give some thought to how the weather could add conflict to a scene or within a character, and have some fun considering the possibilities!