Post #182 August 26, 2019

“Sustaining Narrative Tension and Building Suspense”

No story worth its words can get very far without narrative tension.  That’s what propels stories forward, what keeps readers turning the pages.  Although I have my own ideas about how to create and sustain suspense, I found the following article from Writer’s Digest hard to beat.  I’ve reproduced it in full below….

1. Give the reader a lofty viewpoint. The reader should have foresight. Let the reader see the viewpoints of both the protagonist and the antagonist. By giving the reader a ringside seat to the story’s developments, she gets to see the trouble before the protagonist does. The reader sees the lines of convergence between the protagonist and antagonist and feels the consequences of the perils ahead. Also, this technique allows the writer to place emotional weight on the reader. The tension will build from the reader’s self-imposed fears of knowing that the hero is on a collision course with disaster.

2. Use time constraints. Another key way to build suspense is through the use of time. The protagonist should be working against the clock, and the clock should be working for the bad guys. In Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds’ The Altman Code, Covert One agent Jon Smith has only days to prove the Chinese are sending chemical weapon materials to Iraq. In Greg Iles’ 24 Hours, Will and Karen Jennings have one day to escape their captors to rescue their child from a kidnapper. Every minute you shortchange the protagonist is another notch up on the burner under the reader’s seat.

3. Keep the stakes high. This doesn’t necessarily mean the story’s hook has to be about global annihilation. But the story must be about a crisis that’s devastating to the protagonist’s world, and the hero must be willing to do anything to prevent it from occurring. Therefore, the story could be about a father trying to rescue his wife and child from an impending flood, or an innocent man who’s framed for murder going on the run to establish his innocence. The crisis has to be important to ensure readers will empathize with the protagonist.

4. Apply pressure. The protagonist should be working under what seems to be insurmountable odds. All his skills and strengths must be stretched to the breaking point in order to save the day. The hero should bend, but never buckle under the pressure the antagonist applies. There should be only one person left feeling helpless in the story, and that’s the reader.

5. Create dilemmas. Suspense loves a dilemma. The antagonist needs to be throwing things at the protagonist that present awkward challenges or choices that will test her caliber. The choice must seemingly be a lose-lose situation for the protagonist. This may take the form of choosing to save one person while leaving another to die, picking up a gun after swearing an oath never to do so again or taking that offered drink after years of sobriety.

The antagonist, by his nature, will cross lines without a second’s thought, while fully conscious of his actions. But the protagonist is a different breed—as a hero, he can’t let innocent people die without a fight, or stray from his morals or promises. The great thing about dilemmas is that they need time to be solved, and with the pressure of time constraints, the tension can only build. So test, tease and tempt the protagonist.

6. Complicate matters. Pile on the problems. Give the protagonist more things to do than he can handle. The hero has to be stretched wafer-thin. If you’ve ever seen one of those old music-hall acts where spinning plates are perched on top of flimsy bamboo poles, and there’s some poor guy running himself ragged trying to keep all the plates from crashing down, well, that’s how it should be for the protagonist. The hero should be that guy trying to keep all those plates spinning, while the antagonist is forever adding another plate to the line. By the end of the book, the protagonist should be just barely preventing everything from crashing to the ground.

Let’s use The Altman Code and 24 Hours as examples again. In The Altman Code, Jon Smith’s problems are further complicated by having to break the president’s father out of a Chinese prison camp. In 24 Hours, Will and Karen Jennings’ daughter is diabetic, and the kidnappers don’t have her insulin. Both these examples add another layer of complication to their respective stories.

7. Be unpredictable. Nothing in life runs perfectly to plan for anyone. Make nothing straight-
forward for the protagonist. The hero shouldn’t be able to rely on anything going right for her, and any step forward should come at a price. The antagonist shouldn’t go unscathed, either.

8. Create a really good villain. In a mystery, the villain has to be somewhat transparent because you don’t want the reader to catch on to who she is too quickly. But in a suspense novel, the bad guy is very visible. A great villain isn’t someone who twirls a handlebar moustache and ties damsels to railway tracks. The ultimate antagonists are smart and motivated. They have to be to have created this spectacular hook that’s going to keep readers riveted to their La-Z-Boys for the length of a book. Flesh this person out. Explore the antagonist’s motivations and character. Give the reader reasons why the antagonist is who he is. The reader has to believe in and fear this person. The villain has to be a worthy opponent to our hero. Anything else won’t do.

9. Create a really good hero. If the book has a great bad guy, then it’s going to need a great hero. This may be key to any story, but the suspense hero has to be someone the reader believes in and cares about. When the hero is in peril, the writer needs for the reader to hope that person will pull through.

10.  Write in short sentences.

Suspense writing is all about creating a pressure cooker with no relief valve. You have to keep turning up the heat using multiple burners. Employ these techniques and your reader will never come off the boil.

This piece from Writer’s Digest captures just about all the techniques and do’s and don’ts of good suspense writing. Just putting this down in the blog has made me think and go back to make sure I’m doing these things in my own work.  Use these points as a checklist for your own stories.  And let me know how it’s going.

The Word Shed will take a 2-week hiatus for an end-of-summer break. The next post to The Word Shed comes on September 9, 2019.  See you then.

Phil B.

 

 

 

Post #181 August 19, 2019

“Monument is Coming!”

In a few months, I begin a major novel of science fiction called Monument.  It won’t be finished until mid-2020, at the earliest.  It’s a bit of departure from what I have been doing.  Here’s an excerpt from my Chapter and Scene Notes for Chapter 1….

Chapter 1

Helios Station

In Parker Orbit around the Sun

June 1, 3155 CE

Onboard a research and monitoring station called Helios (orbiting the Sun in ‘Parker’ orbit), two astronomers Aditi Surat (female) and Carlos Tromelin (male) are manning the late shift when they notice strange effects occurring in the Sun’s photosphere. The Sun’s measured total output has dropped below baseline values, triggering warning flags and alarms aboard the station.

 

After some discussion with UNISPACE centers on Mercury and Earth, Helios is commanded to send several unmanned probes into the Sun, through its outer atmosphere and into its convective zone, to take measurements and determine the cause.  The Sundiver probes are launched and the data they send back indicates that, for reasons not fully understood, the Sun’s fusion process has become less efficient and the Sun’s energy output is dropping—fast.  Previous attempts to increase solar output through the ill-advised use of nanobot ‘doping’ of the Sun may be causing this (known as the SunBoost Project).  Years before, in an effort to increase solar output to provide greater energy for human settlements around Mars and Jupiter, swarms of nanobots were dropped into the sun, to assist in the fusion process.  UNISPACE now believes this process has gone haywire and the bots are having the opposite effect: destroying hydrogen nuclei that the Sun needs to continue fusion.

 

The Sun now seems to be on an accelerated aging track.  Something must be done and UNISPACE declares a Class 1 Emergency. 

 

Chaos City, Europa

June 3155 to May 3156

 

Over the next year, an emergency contingency plan is worked out through the Concordance (an alliance of most human worlds and settlements across the solar system): the plan is to use either Saturn or Neptune to siphon off material and stream the material across space to Jupiter.  If enough material can be deposited onto Jupiter, the Concordance believes Jupiter can be ‘ignited’ to begin fusion and become a second sun.  It’s a controversial plan with unknown and perhaps unknowable effects and controversial as thousands of settlements in and around Jupiter space will have to relocate. 

 

Heading up the project will be architect Pieter Delano, a famous and visionary developer of worlds across the solar system.  Delano views the Sol Secundas (Second Sun) Project as his grandest effort to date, a legacy project that will leave a lasting name for future generations to revere and admire.  Delano admires architects of the past, from the pyramid builders of ancient Egypt to his own illustrious ancestor Philippe Dugay, creator of the terreta concept, which enabled widespread settlement of the solar system in the 23^rd century. 

 

But as plans are being developed and scoopships assembled around Saturn to begin the Project, Delano receives disconcerting news from a Concordance station in high Jupiter orbit, in fact on Europa.  The news: Jupiter is in trouble too.  It’s shrinking, losing mass somehow.

 

Astronomical observations and atmospheric probes confirm a suspicion: there seems to be a sink or a wormhole at the core of the planet.  Somehow, it’s losing mass into this sink.  How did this sink develop?  Historical research on Jupiter’s past details multiple episodes of this cyclic loss of mass occurring in recent centuries.  It all seemed to start around the year 2249 CE. 

 

This makes Delano highly suspicious.  The year 2249 CE is burned into his memory.  It was the year that his ancestor Philippe Dugay began a project to unravel Jupiter completely and use the material to build a new Ring for the Concordance, a new band of terretas and settlements between Jupiter and Saturn.  Delano is suspicious that his ancestor Dugay is fiddling with Jupiter even as he is trying to ‘bulk’ the planet up to ignite it as a second sun.

 

The problem is clearly in the past.  Delano seeks approval from the Concordance’s Time Guard to travel back to that time (year 2249), confront his ancestor and make him stop fiddling with Jupiter.  Time Guard ultimately agrees, with the proviso that another time jumper accompany Dugay, an experienced chrononaut named Evelyn Kasongo.  Delano and the Time Guard agree on details and parameters of the mission.  They must succeed or else the world of 3155 CE will die, when the Sun goes dark, which may come in a generation or less.

 

Determined to succeed and both annoyed and angry at his rambunctious ancestor Philippe Dugay, Delano and Kasongo board the jumpship Gemini and travel the local worldline back to 2249 CE.

 

Intrigued?  I am and I’m looking forward to writing this one.  I’ll be providing more details on this project and updates on how it’s going as the start date (sometime in November 2019) approaches.

The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 26.  See you then.

Phil B.

Post #180 August 12, 2019

“Quantum Troopers Return”

In a few months, I will be beginning a new science fiction series of 10 episodes called “Quantum Troopers Return.”  This series is a continuation of my original series Quantum Troopers (formerly Nanotroopers).  Why this series?  In a word…numbers.  I’ve had over 14,000 downloads from the original series and some 46% of my downloads since I first went online are from Quantum Troopers.  My readers seem to like this series and want more. 

The series will feature the same or similar settings and most of the same characters but will be comprised of all new adventures.

Toward that end, here’s a brief excerpt from my outline notes on the first episode, entitled “Fab Lords.” It is scheduled to be available on February 7, 2020….

Chapter 1 “Nano Monsoon”

1. UN Boundary Patrol geoplane Mole, on patrol a few kilometers below Tunis, Tunisia detects an unknown, subterranean vehicle nearby. It’s not a UN vehicle.  Captain Will Mack tries to follow, but the target eludes them.  Mole surfaces outside Tunis, contacts UNIFORCE.  Capt. Mack ordered to fly to Paris.  UNQC called in as well, to UNSAC briefing.
2. Q2 and other intelligence agencies (as well as WHO) have determined that the cartel Red Harmony has entered a new business in a big way: manufacturing and distributing illegal nano, twist and unlicensed matter compilers (fabs).  Intel from jungles outside Jakarta is suspicious.  UNSAC forms a special ops team with 1^st ANAD in the lead, to investigate strange goings-on in and around Jakarta.  The Indonesian capital is being overrun by rogue nano, fabs out of control and a twist epidemic. WHO and BioShield can barely keep up.
3. At Table Top, General Kraft summons Colonel Johnny Winger to a briefing, where he lays out UNSAC’s orders and the mission details: Find out what Red Harmony’s got going in around Jakarta and if possible, render their supply networks inoperative.  A lot of rogue nano is turning up there and BioShield needs help.  The task force (Detachment Alpha) will be comprised on specialist atomgrabbers from 1^st ANAD and BioShield. 
4. The Detachment sets off by hyperjet to Singapore, where they will meet with Boundary Patrol crews to recon the area. 
5. Straight away, Detachment Alpha encounters Red Harmony bot swarms and drones making illicit deliveries to mules inside Jakarta from somewhere in the nearby jungle.  A 2-geoplane mission is formed to investigate.  But on approach to the coordinates Q2 has identified, one geoplane is attacked and rendered inoperative.  When Prairie Dog investigates, they find a wrecked geoplane on the surface (under jungle canopy) and the crew missing.   Detachment commander Col. Winger was among the missing crew.  Where are they? Are they dead, imprisoned, hostages? Detachment command falls to the exec, one Quantum Sergeant Al Glance.
    
   This should give you an idea of what’s coming.  There are both advantages and disadvantages in doing series fiction.  I’ve covered this before, but I’ll reprise some of my ideas on this again here….

Many science fiction writers do series stories.  There are some definite advantages.  One is that you can ‘amortize’ your research and development of fictional worlds (very important in sf) across many titles.  It takes time and hard work to develop an alien world set in a galaxy far, far away and be consistent and somewhat scientifically accurate.  Series writing in sf enables you to have a ready-made setting to drop your story into…all you need is a plot line.  Usually, series also have continuing characters.  You don’t have to re-describe Flash Whizbang each time, since presumably the readers already know a lot about him.  Think Tom Swift, Nancy Drew or even better, Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. 

But there are definitely challenges and pitfalls in writing a series too.  You’re constrained (to some degree) by what you’ve written before.  The longer a series goes, the more detailed your notes had better be, since nobody can keep all those myriad details in their head…except your readers, who will surely let you know that in story #1, Flash was blond with two heads and in Story #5, you describe Flash as brown haired with tentacles.  Take notes.  Consistency is vital in series writing.

That said, you’d like to have a character who can meet challenges and grow and change in resolving them, as real people do.  Which means, you can either plot this growth out ahead of time or just write the stories and be surprised by what Flash develops into as he evolves in your mind and on paper.  Actually, I do a little of both and I suspect many authors of series do as well.  Ideally, your main characters have enough imaginary room to evolve as the series goes on.  We see this in TV as well, which lends itself well to series stories and characters.  When developing and writing series fiction, know your main characters well.

Another issue in writing series fiction is coming up with ideas for plots.  This really should be pretty well thought out ahead of time.  There should be an overall story arc for the series, into which your individual stories will fit, perhaps chronologically or in some way thematically.  The story arc should be something that can be stated in a single sentence

Sometimes series just develop without authorial intention.  That’s what happened to my series The Farpool Stories.  Originally, there was only The Farpool.  But the reader response was sufficient for me to consider writing another story with the same characters and same setting, with some expansions and adjustments.  After the second book, I decided to make the Farpool stories a formal series and plotted out a story trajectory that would make sense.  Now all books have been uploaded and there may be more someday.  And, through the wonders of wormholes and time travel, the series could come back to the place it originally started, albeit in a different time stream.  You gotta love science fiction.

 

Interestingly enough, due to what happened to my main character in Quantum Troopers, I will have to do some serious finagling in Quantum Troopers Return to make his comeback believable.  More on this later.

 

The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 19, 2019.

 

See you then.

 

Phil B.

 

 

Post #179 August 5 2019

“When Characters Won’t Behave”

In recent weeks, I’ve been working on an episode of my series Time Jumpers.  I have one character named Nathan Golich who just won’t do what my outline says he should do.  It’s like he has a mind of his own and insists on going off in a different direction from what I planned.  I’ll bet this happens to a lot of writers of fiction.  Sometimes characters are ornery and try to force an author to veer off from what he planned.  And I’m not talking about Pirandello and his “Six Characters in Search of an Author” either. 

The question is: should you follow this ornery character on his singular un-outlined journey or not?

1. Why follow a misbehaving character?
    

1. Maybe the character is developing along a story path that is more consistent with what has already occurred.  This could be a problem with your outline or how you originally imagined the character to be.  Try following this new path for awhile and see where it takes you.
2. Maybe the character is responding to things you didn’t outline.  This may be suggesting there are some plot mechanics that should be addressed.  Maybe it’s a motivational issue…the character is motivated by something you didn’t think of, but it’s there subconsciously anyway.
3. Perhaps the character has attributes you didn’t notice before or plan on.  Funny how this is…imagination and experience sometimes rear their heads at the damnedest times.
4. Or maybe the character (as he or she is evolving) seems more interesting, more intriguing, more off beat or quirky than you realized.  In other words, more memorable.  And if they’re more memorable to you, chances are they will be more memorable to your readers as well. 
    

1. Why you should not follow a misbehaving character
    

1. Darn it…the character is just not taking the story where I want it to go.  I’ve got my outline, all my character bios and motivations, my setting details, but this one just won’t behave.  Ask yourself this: what story are you actually trying to tell?  Maybe it’s not the story of this character at all, but of another one.
2. The character motivation somehow doesn’t make sense.  It’s not believable.  Re-think or re-do the bio of this character.  Or ask yourself: what would you do in the same situation?  It is possible to write a character into an impossible situation.  If this happens, you’ve got some backtracking and re-writing to do.
3. Consider telling the story from the Point of View (POV) of another character.  Maybe that’s what this character is telling you: Hey, wake up!  This isn’t my story at all.
4. Go back to square one and start over.

   
   

   A fictional character who won’t behave as you expect or outlined can be both intriguing and annoying at the same time.  There are always rich story possibilities when this happens but every character should always be in service of the greater story.  I believe this is especially true of serial characters, characters who continue from one story to another.   If this happens to you, pay attention and ask some of the questions I’ve outlined above.  Then move forward in whatever direction seems best. In my case, I’ve allowed the character involved to dictate some fairly major changes in the story in the hopes that it will all work out in the end.  Here’s hoping I haven’t misplaced my trust. 
   
5. The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 12, 2019.
    
   See you then.
    
   Phil B.