The Many Layers of STAR TREK--the movie

On Friday, we watched STAR TREK for about the gazillionth time.  I simply LOVE this movie.  True, many die-hard trekkies will disagree with me, but I think the screenwriters and JJ Abrams did a fantastic job.  So many novels and movies miss out on what makes a story memorable.  But I think Abrams nailed it. 

So what does it take to make a movie or novel to go from 'meh' to a 'blockbuster'?

Characters.

This was the reason LOST was such a powerful show.  It wasn't about the logistics of a plane breaking apart with possible survivors, or even the idea that it was some form of purgatory.  It was about the individuals and how they related to each other, both with their weaknesses and their strengths. 

So,  Abrams had a huge problem of making a STAR TREK 'pre-quel' of a VERY popular series.  How do you write a realistic story of how the cast of characters found each other?  All the characters came from very diverse backgrounds, but as a team they meshed into a true working unit of personalities, foibles, and quirks to the table and all Abrams did was mix and shake well. And it wasn't just cut and dry cardboard characters, but layers of humor and nuance added to the mix that made this movie one I will watch over and over again. 

What about your keeper books versus the books you read and said, "meh"?  What did they have in common with Star Trek? 

I don't know about you, but I'd have to go with MANY LAYERED CHARACTERS.  And the best thing you can do for your stories is to give your characters layers--like SHREK when he was describing an ogre and talking about the layers of an onion.

This is why a first draft isn't a final draft.  Most writers don't truly know their characters until they finish the story.  I don't care how many character charts or arcs or whatever the you diddle with, it isn't until you throw disastrous stuff at your characters and write their reactions do you really know who they are.

If you haven't seen STAR TREK, watch it.  If you aren't a trekkie, who cares?  But study the characters, their personalities, and their interactions with each other.  I bet you can add character layering to your writing arsenal, too.

Write on!

Breakthrough

I had been piddling around with this second book in a middle grade series for about six months now. I started it in August 2009 with a vague idea of what was going on. I wrote about ten thousand words, but puttered around and couldn't finish it.

In the interim, I wrote two serial blog stories to get into the protagonist's mindset. I thoroughly enjoyed writing them and I'm currently submitting them to various contests and magazines, but I didn't get the breakthrough that I wanted. I plowed my way through the story, until I reached page 70, roughly 22000-words, the halfway point. I didn't have enough story to finish. The story was going to be totally boring and not worth writing.

What was I going to do?

Well, I did a lot of thinking. AND I refered back to a logline I had to write for an online agent contest that I had entered.

When a water nymph ensnares a special needs child who can see the magical world, a half-elven tween, a faerie and the child’s mean sister must work together to save her.

Two things stood out. 1) it was a red herring, 2) I had to get my protagonist and her sworn enemy to work together.

The supposed villian wasn't the character in the logline. It was someone I had planted in the beginning of the story, but I had made the mistake of listening to a writing buddy (don't get me wrong, I LOVE MY WRITING BUDDY. She has great input and is a wonderful brainstormer, but she doesn't write fantasy, uh, in other words she doesn't live in la-la land like I do!), and dropped the premise. I could insert the premise without changing the first half of the story, but I needed to find a good reason for this character to commit this horrendous act.

--I called my brother. He's retired from the Corps of Engineers and I needed to know about dams and lakes. He gave me enough for my idea to make sense YAY! Breakthrough #1

The second problem was forcing my protag and her enemy together. How could I do that? The enemy's sister almost drowns and my protag happens to be at the right place to save her, BUT the family is at the hospital. How could I get these two together. Cue my Writing Buddy. She suggested that the moms played Bunco together. It didn't work for me, but it got me thinking--see, this is the beauty of good writing buddies. They jostle you enough to get your mind to working--my protag's mother moved them back to her home town after her father was killed in an accident. The mothers had been BFF's for thirty years, but the kids didn't know it. Who would you trust to watch your daughter if you have to stay at the hospital with another child? Your BFF, of course. Breakthrough #2!

I have a great backstory for my villian. I can throw my two humans together. It works! Oh, I'll need to do some major tweaking, but the bones are there. I wrote 3500 words on Thursday. On Friday, I managed to write 1000 words, but stumbled as we had to put our dog to sleep.

I just love it when everything falls together! And I expect to finish my MG novel next week.