One of the great things about writing a protagonist that your readers can root for is writing an equally sinister antagonist.
The hero and the villain play off each other.
You can’t have one without the other and your reader has no one to root for if there is no one to fear and root against.
Thus we must create villains that really make the stakes high.
Write your sinister antagonist as more clever and more dangerous than your protagonist and then you will have a good concoction for an epic battle of good and evil.
Then let’s talk about making our antagonist sinister so that we make the plot more interesting.
Make the antagonist sinister by allowing them to reach their goals
What does the villain want?
Power?
Money?
Fame?
Give it to them or make them start out with it.
In ready player one, the main antagonist has an entire company working towards his goal to control the Oasis and thus the world whereas our hero is just one boy.
What are your villain’s morals?
The more your villain lacks morals the more sinister they appear.
Portray this over time and even confuse and make your reader question their intent a couple of times before revealing that they ultimately care for no one but themselves.
As they get closer and closer to their real goal make them act out more and more to show their true brutal sinister rationale.
How does your antagonist feel about their own morality
I think this can go either way. Some villains know they are in the wrong and relish in it.
This makes for a truly sinister villain because at some point you realize there is no hope in reasoning with such an individual.
But on the other hand some authors like to have a misguided character that truly believes they are the hero and are doing what’s best for everyone. (Thanos VS Dr. Robotic)
How to Write a Sinister Antagonist
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But nobody wants arrogance and there’s a fine grey line between the two (is it grey or gray?).
If your character is too confident then it comes across as arrogant and your reader will start to loathe them.
But one main reason most people like the jerk is because she is confident.
Confidence is a very attractive quality.
What is the opposite of confident?
– Needy
– Clingy
– Whining
– Pathetic
– Self-loathing
“Ewww…”
If you’ve been reading and a character is too sympathetic towards their own bad situation it comes across as unattractive. This is self-loathing, the opposite of cool, confident, and collected.
These are simple ways that you can write your lovable jerk. Avoid the above list.
Part of the reason people love a jerk is because without shouting “I’m really confident!” they just are. They ooze cool and confident because they aren’t afraid to say what they are thinking because they could care less what the other character thinks.
If your character is too confident this plays the opposite and your reader starts to despise that character.
We have to let the confident vibes go a little but then play some other strings too to bring the whole song together.
#2 Can’t Keep Up With Him
Quick Wit
Something that helps our jerk be admirable and get away with being a little bit of a jerk is having a quick wit.
Remember all those comebacks you thought of a day later and said “Ugh! I should have said that!”
Your lovable jerk is quick and never misses an opportunity for a quick comeback.
What’s at play here?
People admire and love to be around a person with an entertaining quick wit.
There is a give and take though. (Just remember that to nail down the lovable jerk you’re always on a fine line between annoying and suave, attractive and not so much.)
This doesn’t mean your character is running around insulting everyone. That’s a jerk, not a lovable jerk. Everyone loves to hate the know-it-all jerk and they want to see them get their comeuppance.
That’s the opposite of what you want your reader to feel about this character.
You want your character to be a bit of a jerk but at the right place and time.
Timing is important.
Think of Sherlock. Extremely intelligent and a faster mind than anyone he interacts with. He could dance circles around anyone with his wit, but utterly rude the majority of the time.
Even though he can be insultingly rude at times we still love him and want him to accomplish his goals.
We love him and find him interesting because he is fun to watch and extremely intelligent.
We also like him despite his jerky side for another reason.
#3 Good Will
Slightly good intentions
This works with anti-heroes too.
You can love a jerk like Sherlock because he ultimately is looking to stop the bad guys and save the innocent.
His internal motives may be complex, but at the end of the day his actions save the victim and stop the villain.
In a scenario like this we excuse bad behavior because we experience mostly good behavior.
We as humans are very good at overlooking some bad if the good outweighs it in our opinions.
For instance, if you made a list of pros and cons about a character like Sherlock his pros would outweigh his cons for most readers. Not all of course, but most.
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How to Write the Lovable Jerk
#4 We are Hoping He’s not as Deep as a Puddle
Character Depth
A lovable jerk can be nothing but a Jerk at the beginning of our reader meeting them, but if they don’t change slightly or if more about their character doesn’t get revealed by you the writer, as time goes on, your reader will never like them.
For example, Finnick from Hunger Games is a jerk character that many fans love.
It helps that he’s attractive but let’s take a deeper look. We all know looks can give you an advantage, but they can only take you so far before you’re labeled as an attractive, stuck up jerk.
When we first meet Finnick he’s just a jerk. Pain and simple.
But then we spend more time with him and find out he’s for the rebellion.
Further in we see multiple caring sides of him as he tries to protect all those around him. He carries an elderly handicap woman on his back to try to save her life.
His fiance is captured and turned crazy and he remains faithful to her. In the end he gives his own life for Katniss Everdeen and a cause bigger than himself.
Finnick may be stuck up and full of himself at first glance but with time we see his depth of character and that makes him a lovable jerk.
#5 Nobody Likes A Whiny Whiner
There’s a specific writing trick where you can add a sad incident or backstory to a character to gain some sympathy for the character.
Tread lightly with this one.
It can be easy to start with that or to drone on and on about how terrible and tragic their unfortunate event is, but don’t do this.
If you are going for a lovable jerk something bad or many bad things can happen to them, but they need to react correctly in order for your reader to feel positively for them.
Unless you use it as humor or a small arc in their story they can’t wallow in sadness for an entire chapter or two. Humorously they can wallow a little, but realistically it can push your reader away from that character if you’re not careful.
If you want them to be lovable they can only mourn for a moment or for a time that the reader can fast forward through.
For example, “he drank himself to sleep every night that year.” And done.
Okay, realistically we can give a few more fun facts about their depression than just that, but soon and very soon something that sparks change needs to take place.
You can use sadness for depth of character but if your jerk is to be loved, make it short.
Another way to use tragedy in your jerk’s life is to make him get over it quickly and to move on.
This can be helpful for creating character depth as well.
#6 “I’ve Been Looking at the Man in the Mirror”
Change
One really easy way to write a lovable jerk is to create a character that is about to make a BIG change.
We’ve seen this done many, many, many, many (if you didn’t know, it’s been done a lot) times and it works out equally well despite maybe being a little over done.
One of the major monarchs of this type of lovable jerk is Scrooge.
Scrooge is an iconic lovable jerk that starts out as… well… he starts out as a Scrooge (pun intended) but we see a transformation in his character and in the end he’s super generous.
Another good example is Jack in The Family Man.
Jack leaves his high school sweetheart for riches and success.
When we meet him he’s so high on the high horse that we couldn’t stand to be around him, but as the story goes on he completely changes into a really awesome character.
This type of transformation, redemptive story is a great way to make a lovable jerk.
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One thing Tolkien, Rowling, and Lewis all have in common?
They all know/knew how to create characters that readers love and root for.
What are the secret ingredients they used that we can too?
Child-likeness.
Vulnerability.
The Underdogs.
Naivety.
Child-likeness
In all their stories that ended up changing the world, they either chose children to follow or childlike creatures.
In Harry Potter, we follow Ron, Hermione, and Harry. They all start out as tots and we follow them through some horrific trials hoping nothing bad happens and that they win and that the bad guys lose.
Why is this?
It is because of innocence. We as humans favor the innocent party and blame and condemn the bad guilty party.
Harry didn’t do anything to Tom Riddle to make find and kill his parents and try to kill him. We obviously think this is horrid and we wish Harry will survive and that Tom will receive just judgment.
That is how Rowling got us to first root for Harry.
We started to care for him when he was only an innocent baby and someone evil came and did horrible things to him that ruined his life.
Lewis did a similar thing choosing different children to follow in Narnia.
For instance in the lion the witch and the wardrobe we see Lucy an innocent little girl lost in a strange world with no one to help her against the evil witch that rules over the land in great fear and darkness.
Mr. Tumnus finds Lucy and tricks her into falling asleep at this house so he can deliver her over to the evil witch queen.
Vulnerability
Again we have a vulnerable, naive and innocent youth pitted against an older more powerful character with an unreasonable motive to hurt or kill the child.
Instantly as a rational human, we are rooting for the poor child to not be harmed and for the evil queen to receive punishment for her evil acts.
It’s only natural to feel this way given the scenario.
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How to Write Characters Readers Love to Root For
The Underdogs
Tolkien didn’t use children. But he chose creatures that had a scenario that was just as persuasive: Hobbits.
Hobbits are extremely childlike in nature and we would never want any harm to befall them.
When we think about Sauron sending orcs to carry out genocide on them and burn down the shire we are in no way rooting for Sauron. We are most assuredly hoping for the best for the little fury footed hobbits.
In each of these scenarios, the author gave us a world where the underdogs are pitted against antagonists that are much more powerful and cunning than they.
Why do we root for the underdog?
Who do we love a great underdog story?
Don’t we resonate with the underdog?
Don’t most of us feel like the underdog that is just trying to make it?
Naivety
We were once children and had adventures of our own.
We have children and see them and want to protect them.
Children are the picture of innocence and naivety and we are naturally inclined to root for them.
Use this knowledge if you dare to write your next story.
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Dystopian fiction is any fiction writing where the world setting is futuristic and the way people have to live to survive is less than ideal.
The opposite of dystopian would be a Utopia where everyone lives happily as equals and no one suffers want our hunger and there is no crime against humanity.
What is a dystopia?
It is a setting either worldwide or regional in which survival is difficult and corruption and crime are rampant. No Character lives without some suffering in this type of setting.
Discovering a new dystopian world
Our dystopian world doesn’t have to be Earth and it doesn’t even have to be the entire planet that you’re working on.
It can be a region or a different planet altogether, but something looks good with dystopian society is the background.
Usually dystopian happens after a thriving society.
Having the remains of what once was a vibrant civilisation is actually a very appealing look for a genre like this.
Think I Am Legend.
All of the buildings and houses of the major cities were left.
Grass, weeds, and trees grew up around them and on them.
Roots broke through roadways. Animals ran through street corners where man had once dominated.
It was now empty and nature was taking it back.
Ideas like this are helpful in creating a dystopian story where you can see what was there before and how it makes the ruins look there after whatever caused civilization to crumble.
Get ideas from reading and watching dystopian fiction critically
Look at stories like:
– I Am Legend
– Hunger Games
– Snowpiercer
– Divergent
– Maze Runner
– The Walking Dead
– A Quiet Place
– Water World
– Children of Men
– Alita
All great places to get a feel for what you are trying to accomplish.
And when we say to consume something critically out just means to watch and read it and be thoughtful about what you like and what you don’t like.
What works for you and keeps you interested and what causes you to lose interest.
This way you can come up with your own story that will be unique and also thought provoking.
Different dystopian scenes we’ve already seen
– Apocalypse
– Zombies
– Military
– Aliens
– Pandemic
– Global Warming
– Nuclear
– A.I.
– Gov take over
– Monsters
– Evil corporation
– Giants
– War ridden
– Anarchy
– Evil overlord
– Cloning
– Breeding
– Vampires
– Werewolves
– And combinations of the above
8 Thoughts on How to Write Dystopian Fiction
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This is just my belief but there really is nothing new under the sun and lots of story ideas have been redone hundreds of times and readers and audiences still really enjoy them.
Some authors might say to avoid vampires, zombies, and aliens etc.
I find that to be overrated input.
Think of all the shows and movies and books that have repeated the same creature themes or end of the world ideas and have still made for great stories.
There are hundreds of vampire stories yet when another one comes out many people are interested.
The key takeaway here is that if we decide to write another alien story in what ways can we tell it better and different than our predecessors?
Try to hone in on what’s relevant
My wife and I (well mostly me) recently watched Colony.
You know what drew me to wanting to watch it?
My sister told me it was about a society that was lock-down by the powers that be…
Coronavirus anyone?
I was immediately intrigued to see what the story was and how it would play out.
Spoiler alert! Don’t read further if you don’t want to know!
But it turns out that it was an alien invasion and even though I’ve seen many alien invasion but now it was still interesting to watch and think about.
So don’t be afraid to use old ideas.
Just do your best to give them in a new package with interesting characters and story points.
Hope this helps!
Happy writing!
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It’s okay to use Tv and movies for inspiration, but BE CAREFUL.
Again with the blizzard analogy.
If I’m writing “Tundra Man” it probably won’t help to watch “The Office.”
We can play devil’s advocate all day with excuses in our minds why watching the office will get me writing and my nap afterwards is also going to be extremely stimulating.
But it would be more to the point if I found documentaries on blizzards to get good imagery in my mind of what a blizzard really looks like and the temperatures and the height of the snow. How quickly frostbite sets in, etc.
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I’ll be the first to admit that I am the worst at getting rid of distractions.
I’m a total hypocrite, I shouldn’t even list it as advice, but it is true for just about everyone, myself included.
I have a habit of wanting to do a million things all at once at every second of every moment.
“I can multitask!” I tell myself. (and by multitasking, what I really mean is watch my TV show and only end up writing three sentences during a 3 hour Netflix binge)
When I’m being good I find a quiet secluded place and let the words fly. If I’m being naughty I have music going and the TV is on and 3 hours later I have a paragraph. Boo.
Getting rid of distractions can include:
– Turn off notifications
– Turn off phone
– Silent mode
– Airplane mode
– Leaving the house or room
– Going to the car
– Going to a coffee shop with headphones
– Classical music
– Musical beats
– No words music
– No TV
– No friends around
– No family around
– No pets
– No comfy chair
– No food
– No alcohol
– Locked doors
– No games
– No distractions
Some distractions are common to everyone.
Some are more specific to you.
We do our best and give ourselves a fighting chance if we figure out what’s distracting us and cut it out.
When I used to write for clients this was almost a must. I would shut out the world by having music with no words on. A lot of times it was classical but I don’t feel the genre matters as much as it allows you to think clearly and formulate your own words instead of the lyrics.
Just do it
At the end of the day, the unfortunate news is:
What do you do when you don’t feel like writing?
Do it anyway.
Any great author or freelance writer will tell you this.
Use the tips above to help create the ideal environment for writing to happen but without us stretching our will power muscle, it just ain’t gonna happen.
Willpower is like a muscle. The more we humans force ourselves to do things we don’t want to do at first the easier it’ll be the next time.
Here’s some ways to help will power grow:
– Create a daily exercise routine
Getting the blood flowing helps us think more quickly and clearly to write.
– Create a writing habit
If you get up and write every day for 30 days. On day 31 you’ll feel weird if you don’t write.
– Eat something that’s fun for your brain
Go for protein, fiber, and phytonutrients over sugar.
– Water
Our brain needs a lot of water to function. Give it a glass or bottle before you ask it to spill out coherent thoughts.
– Don’t bite off more than you can swallow
Create writing goals that are realistic. Start small and work to where you want to be daily.
I used to cringe at writing a sentence and then a paragraph. This seems silly now.
Write everyday, flex that will power muscle and soon writing a 60,000 word book won’t seem too daunting. It will just take some time.
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Whether the villain knows it or not their main purpose is to oppose the protagonist and create conflict.
The villain or antagonist can take many forms
Our villain is extremely versatile and can take any form.
They could be human, animal, or even an event in nature.
In order to create an epic villain though, you will want it to be intelligent as these make the most emotionally striking villains.
There are a few villain archetypes we will mention below.
We can have multiple villainous characters
Also it should be noted that you can have multiple characters that have goals against your main character but in the end it is best to have one that over arches the rest.
For example, in Harry Potter, Harry has many antagonists:
– Draco
– The Malfoy family
– Bellatrix Black
– Nigini
– Draco’s gang
– Death Eaters
Even some friends betray him along the way, but Voldemort outplays them all.
You can have a Gray Villain
This type of character would be labeled as dynamic.
We can do this type of characterization with any of our characters.
But with a dynamic villain that means that they may have some inner conflict about good and evil.
They may believe that the evil they do undershadows the overall good they are trying to accomplish.
An example would be Thanos.
He believed that the genocide he was carrying out was for the good of all living beings. Even though he murdered half the universe he believed that he was its unsung hero.
This would be a type of gray Villain.
They aren’t black and white.
They aren’t intentionally good or evil. They are somewhere in the middle which if done well causes conflict wand differing opinions amongst readers.
Think Loki.
Sometimes Loki does evil things and sometimes he helps the hero. It all depends. He is a Gray villain.
As readers we aren’t quite sure what he will do next.
This keeps our readers on their toes with our villain. They never know what he’ll do.
Another good example is Kylo Ren.
A dynamic villain can have redemptive qualities like Kylo Ren.
This antagonist struggles with the light and dark side within him.
He does terrible things in the name of darkness, but in the end turns out to help the protagonist, our heroine Rey.
Which is a parallel to his grandfather and mentor Darth Vader who also struggled with the light and dark in him to eventually in the end be redeemed for attempting to destroy Sidious and save the Galaxy.
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Again a static character can be any part of the cast, but the static character is 100% one thing and doesn’t change.
A static villain is purely 100% evil to the core.
As a writer we can hide that evil for a time but at the end of the story we will have revealed to the world that they were down right rotten and there is no saving them.
There are many good examples of static villains:
– Jafar
– Voldemort
– Hades
– Darth Sidious
– The depiction of the joker from Dark Knight
There is much inspiration to draw from for a static villain.
The more sinister you make them the better.
Try to reveal deeper and deeper over time that this villain is despicable.
Make your readers guess a little but in the end hit it home so there is no guessing.
“Some people just want to watch the world burn.” Alfred about the Joker.
That’s a static villain. They take pleasure in evil.
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Make These 5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
Opening scenes are extremely important.
It can’t be stressed enough that taking our time with the opening scenes and making sure that our reader will want to go along for the rest of our character’s journey is of the utmost importance.
Thankfully, there are definite time-tested techniques and writing skills to help us write an opening scene that will help hook our reader from page one.
Focus deeply on chapter one in your self-edit process.
Chapter one is easily our most important chapter.
It will be tried and tested the most.
The reader will test it.
The editor will test it.
Even friends and family will test and judge it to see if the rest of the book is worth reading.
Don’t hold anything back on chapter one.
Make 100% sure that it is going to draw our reader in and keep them engaged.
If they weren’t hooked by chapter one the rest of the book is pointless. Almost no one is going to read it.
How are we going to hook them?
We are going to give them a gift.
We are going to make them feel something.
Have you ever heard someone say, “we are going to watch this movie. It’s so good! Get ready for a tear-jerker!” They know from this phrase that it is going to make them cry but yet they watch it anyway.
It’s because people want to feel something.
And they will know from starting chapter one what they are going to feel emotionally by reading our book.
– Love and romance
– Heartache
– Resolution
– Empathy
– Sadness
– Horror
– Fun and excitement
– Thrill and suspense
– Adventure
What does our story promise them in the following chapters?
Give them a taste for it in chapter one.
Give them an unspoken promise that if they read on they will feel it more and feel that emotion again.
By giving them emotion we allow them to connect with our story on a deeper level.
Whatever genre your story is in use the emotion they feel to keep them going.
Give them something intellectual to look forward to.
We understand that emotion is important.
But intellectual enjoyment is important too.
What are we going to teach them about that they didn’t already know?
Will we show them how a detective solves a case?
Show them what it is like to be any one of these character types:
– Warrior
– Knight
– Surgeon
– Officer
– Astronaut
– Engineer
– Billionaire
– Genius
– Hobbit
– Wizard
5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
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What world are we going to help them see into that they didn’t know much about before?
For this we must do great research if we are really to make it intellectually entertaining.
The closer it is to real life facts built into a story the better.
There are fictional parts we create and make up but if it’s about a real life scenario. The closer we can get to giving them insider information the better.
First lines matter but they aren’t your one-off hook.
I disagree with the idea that the very first line is your only chance at hooking your reader.
Don’t get me wrong. The first line is very important.
James Patterson talks about first lines and how important they are.
He spends time crafting them and is very proud of some first lines he’s come up with.
But a strategic first paragraph can be just as powerful.
The first should reveal the feel of the emotion the reader will feel throughout the story.
If horror then fear and shock.
If romance then love.
If suspense, make the first line build suspense or thrill.
The first line should be like an appetizer to an 8 course meal.
They should know from the appetizer what type of meal it is and that the meal is going to be delectable.
The promise of conflict.
We must above all else promise our reader one thing.
Conflict.
If you can’t creatively figure out how to give your reader interesting conflict throughout the tale, scratch that story and start on the next.
We must make our reader the promise of conflict and along with that promise, we must deliver resolution.
If we do not give them eventual resolution, they will feel cheated on the end and most likely will not bother with book 2.
Remember that in storytelling (as with all relationships in life) we are building trust and relationship with our readers.
One of the main reasons James Patterson does so well is that he made a promise to his fan readers long ago that if they grabbed one of his books it was going to deliver a certain set of promises.
What can you promise to entertain your reader with?
– Mystery
– Suspense
– Thrill
– Resolution
He made these unspoken promises to his readers and he never stopped delivering.
So fans keep coming to him because they can trust him.
That’s how we need to be.
Always making promises to our reader that if you read our story we are going to deliver what we promise.
Make promises and deliver on them and you won’t just hook your reader from chapter one but you’ll hook them through book 2-3-4-5-6 and beyond.
Start with the end goal in mind and being a great storyteller will be more possible.
5 Writing Techniques a Part of Your Opening Scene to Hook Your Readers From Page One
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Stephen King is known for his horror writing, but if you’ve seen anything of his quotes or read his thoughts on writing.
You’ll see right away that he is blunt, straight to the point, and not afraid to say what he’s thinking.
That’s a big part of what makes his writing tips enjoyable and refreshing. He’s not political and he’s been in the business long enough to know that you just can’t please everyone.
So don’t worry about pleasing everyone.
No matter what you write, if you write, someone or some group will find you and try to discourage you.
For instance, full disclosure:
Just recently a member of a group on Facebook found our site and trolled How to do the write thing.
Something we said in one of our villains posts offended he or she who shall not be named and they went and reported it to the entire Facebook group.
The entire group nasty things about us and some of them commented on our site yelling at us and telling us how horrible we were.
To be honest at first I was worried and shocked, but I got some great advice from a blogger that I found while Googleing looking for advice.
They reminded me that even if you try your hardest to be kind, polite, and helpful no matter what, if you put yourself out there someone will find you and try to discourage you or take you down.
The best way to deal with it is to expect it and react with positive thoughts.
So that’s what we did. We didn’t retaliate. We moved forward. We changed the post so that it wasn’t perceived as offensive and we enjoyed the extra traffic we got from the Facebook group 🙂
That’s another lesson to be expounded upon later: “bad publicity isn’t always bad marketing”
So the first lesson is:
1. Don’t be afraid to put yourself and your writing out on the line
Some people will love it and some people will hate it. This is to be expected.
We don’t have to explain ourselves to every person that finds our writing and opinions offensive.
Personally I think we should do our best to be kind, polite, and live at peace with one another.
But if you don’t want to offend anyone or have anyone mad at you the only solution is to live in a cave and do nothing. Hah! Even then someone might find you and be offended that you’ve decided to live as a hermit.
Disclaimer: This doesn’t mean we’re saying writers should run their mouths and be purposefully offensive.
We’re just saying you need to go ahead and write and don’t sweat the small stuff 😉
“If you disapprove, I can only shrug my shoulders. It’s what I have.” – Stephen King
Stephen himself used to be ashamed because he would receive hate mail and was accused of very nasty things.
But at a point he learned that no matter what if you write, and write well, someone will find a reason to not like you.
“If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that’s all,” – S.K.
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If you didn’t know it yet your first draft of any story is trash.
It has to go through the editing process many times to become something that people will want to read and enjoy reading.
Authors have been using editors for a long time now. Don’t make the mistake of being the first writer in centuries that thinks they don’t need an editor.
And furthermore don’t expect that every story you write will be worth a reader spending their time on.
We should write in this way.
Does your story interest you? Would you buy it? Do you like it? Would you like to see it in a movie or TV show?
Most of us are biased. We love our stories like they were children, but if you don’t even like your own story you’ve got a real problem.
Why would I expect someone to read what even I don’t like?
But don’t let this fact get you down.
That’s not the point.
“Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.”
We should prepare ourselves for the hard long journey of writing.
We should react to it with optimism.
We should know the bumps along the way and be prepared to accept them and move forward.
So many writers have heard more rejection at first than acceptance and it is the ones that kept moving forward despite failure that succeeded.
Of course there are outliers, but this is not to be expected.
3. Expect to be rejected
Expect some failure, but just keep working and moving forward.
Speaking of failure. My first job writing was for $20 an hour. And I was excited.
I thought that was a lot to be paid for a writer and I thought this was a great opportunity!
I was fired after 3 hours.
It was a deep blow.
And to be completely honest with you, it was extremely discouraging.
The employer was at least very nice and cordial about it, but it was rejection and failure.
But I didn’t want to give up.
I continued moving forward and after A LOT of trial and error I made it to getting paid $150+ an hour before I took a break from freelance writing. To give some perspective it was over the course of 2-3 years that I worked my way up through the freelance market.
I don’t say that fact to brag, but I want people to have and see first hand that perseverance is important.
They say that most people’s “lucky break” happens after years of hard work and perseverance. Doesn’t sound so lucky anymore.
For sure, it’s hard and rejection hurts. (Whoever says it doesn’t is lying. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but rejection will never hurt me.” – lie.)
But don’t quit.
Stephen wrote “Carrie” in a trailer, very poor, and it was rejected many times, but he persevered.
And you can too.
Next we are actually going to disagree with Stephen.
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Disclaimer: (this is just MY opinion. You are welcome to have a different one :))
Personally, watching TV has fed my creativity, not hurt it. And watching movies has given me the ability to see how I want things to play out in my stories and writing.
It’s easier for me to imagine my character jump, flip, dance, and swing a sword. Or shoot a bolt of lightning out of her hand having seen it with me own two eyes on TV and in movies.
I don’t know why but that’s just my experience that watching stories gives me ideas, it doesn’t hurt them.
But here is a critical piece of advice.
Watch critically, not passively.
When I’m watching I’m not JUST enjoying. I’m thinking about
– Actions
– Acting
– Dialogue
– The plot
– Subplots
– Story
– Character arcs
– Character development
– Things they chose that I like
– Stuff they did I didn’t like
I’m learning and putting into practice while I watch.
For example, we just got done watching Colony on Netflix (recommend if you like dystopian sci-fi. 2.5 on family friendliness as there is definitely skip worthy scenes)
If you do plan on watching it, spoiler alert:
In Colony, one of the main characters Will Bowman is a good man who chooses to make compromising choices to save his family.
His character is however dependable and positive even though his life is chaos 24/7.
Instead of whiny or wallowing because of his problems he looks for and acts on a solution.
They maintain his faithful demeanor through all of season 1 and 2, but season 3 they did something that made me cringe.
They turned him into an emo version of himself where he was angry and wore black all the time.
I couldn’t stand it. I understood that he was grieving, so I waited to see how they would use it, but it was SO out of character for him. At some points he recovered a little but in the end he kept making choices that I felt were choices his character might not make but changing producers might…
This happens from time to time with TV and movies. They change producers or directors in the middle of a story and things go coocoo. But that’s beside the main lesson here. (Subpoint: be careful with your character arcs and don’t hand the story over to someone random in the 3rd season 🙂 )
So when we watch we as writers can see in stories what we like and what we don’t like.
We can watch and read with a critical eye and mind looking to see the way we want to do it and finding best practices.
This helps us create our own voice and style that readers will know they will get if they read our stories.
Stephen says TV is “poisonous to creativity”. I haven’t found that to be true for me but the opposite.
But he does say, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot,”
I agree with the sentiment. We MUST read a lot and write a lot to be writers.
There is no way around that in my mind at this point.
But I don’t think we have to “toss the TV out with the bathwater” if you know what I mean.
5. Expect the process to be rough
“there’s plenty of opportunity for self-doubt.”
Writing is not just tough because other people won’t always like what you write.
Sometimes we are our own worst critics and self doubt and self doubt can persuade us to go no further or that the story we have isn’t good enough.
But that’s not really up for us to decide.
All we can really do is put in the work and put it out there and see what follows.
It’s a risk for sure, but the question is “is it worth the risk to you?” Only you can answer that question for yourself.
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10 Writing Lessons From Stephen King
6. Writing can be very lonely
Stephen gives us a powerful image by saying that writing fiction is like crossing an ocean in a bathtub.
You’re not moving very quickly. The space is tight and you are very much ALONE in a sea of black depth.
Sounds frightening, and at times it is.
No one wants to be that alone for that long.
But if we are going to give our writing a chance to live and do something we have to be the ones to tell the story, or it might never be told.
7. Enjoy your process
Every writer has a space and a process.
If you don’t that’s okay, it just means you haven’t found it yet.
And sometimes we have to move and change our process and that’s okay too.
We move around a lot, but right now my process is to go out on our back screened-in porch and write outside. When I first wake up I have my morning routine I enjoy and reading is a part of it. Next, I head outside.
I love nature and the natural noises that come with it (birds, squirrels, breeze, leaves, etc). It’s a very peaceful environment for me with little to no distraction. I am really able to zone in and focus. When I look up the outdoor smells, the greenery, and the trees all give me a sense of happiness. (Sounds like a tree hugger)
I have a specific chair I sit in and depending on the day I either write on my phone or laptop. These days I’m enjoying my phone more.
It could be very different for you and that’s fine. You might hate nature. You might love writing in your closet or car.
I actually heard a story of a lady recently who was having trouble finding a place to write with no distractions.
With a family and tight quarters, this place did not exist in her home.
She started going out to her car and writing. It took her some time, but she ended up being able to finally finish her entire novel in her car!
So you may think you have nowhere to write but if you get creative you’ll find somewhere.
Enjoy finding what you like to be your space and process.
Maybe you like to write with pen and paper.
Maybe you like to write in your closet.
Maybe you want to write on your roof.
Whatever it is, find a space/ process of your own and use that to make a happy habit you enjoy.
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“Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground … Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world.”
We have to unearthed our characters and our stories.
They have to be dug up from our own minds.
They have to be revealed from the world around us.
Stories are about the journey and they lurk around every corner waiting to be discovered. I’m not talking about some mystic thing here. I’m being literal.
If you watch the news or go to school or go to work, stories are happening all around you. You only have to be willing to see them, find them, and write them.
Fiction is so fun at times because we can take details from real life and throw them into a story for our reader to enjoy.
Sometimes the hardest part is doing the long tedious work of discovering our story along the way.
We have an idea and we love it but we don’t know how it ends yet and we don’t have all the middle pieces to get to the end. The only way to get there is to think fng start to write and see where it goes.
Another hard thing can be that we know we’ve discovered a really great story but sitting down and trying to communicate it to someone else through words feels like it just doesn’t do it justice.
These are all hurdles and hard work if one is to be a writer.
“The most important things are the hardest things to say,”
“They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings.”
Sometimes it is hard to put into words the drama that is playing in our minds, but that is to be expected and worked through. There is no way around it.
9. Don’t over-describe
“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s,” – S.K.
We really have to think more simply about description and telling a story.
It’s important to focus on getting what we see in our heads into their heads using just words on a page.
We don’t have to overthink it more than this. When we decide to over-describe we can often lose our reader to boredom.
“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling,” – S. K.
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“One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you’re maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones,” – S. K.
It’s easy to make the mistake to think that the reader is bored of simple words. This is a BIG mistake
Writer’s get bored with limited vocabulary, not readers.
Now there are definitely readers that want bigger vocabulary and harder reading and if you want to serve that audience, that’s fine but for at least 90% of regular consuming readers the rule is write somewhere close to a 9th grade reading level.
The key is to know your audience. To whom are you writing?
– Children
– Teens
– Adults
– Academics
– Writer’s
– Etc
If we are writing to the masses and just trying to tell a good story, use simple words to give great imagery.
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If you enjoy 10 Writing Lessons From Stephen King, storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
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