Author of comic sci fi and fantasy

Author: James (page 1 of 3)

Turn up on time, do the work…

A few years ago, in my day job, I was lucky enough to hear Grayson Perry speak.

He might have addressed us as Claire, or as himself. I don’t remember. It might have been the first time I heard the analogy of the Helsinki bus station. What I do remember is how profoundly practical he was about the business of making art. In being practical, he was inspiring.

He said there were just three rules to being successfully creative: Turn up on time; Do the work; Be nice to people.

It’s such a simple little phrase, but there really is everything you need to know in it. When the pandemic hit and we were all confined to little boxes and when motivation, be it carrot or stick, was needed just to get each of us to drag ourselves to work each day, this little set of rules gave me everything I needed to do just that.

Firstly, turn up on time. Of course, it’s just good manners. It’s respectful. But it also means have some respect for yourself. Turn up on time not just for others, but for yourself. I try to set aside some time every single day for writing. I haven’t always stuck with that, but I’ve been far more productive in all the periods I have than through any grand marathon yet sporadic writing sessions. I believe that implicit in this phrase, turn up on time, is instruction to have a time to turn up for at all. Show yourself some respect. Show your craft some respect. Schedule some time just for you to do your thing. And stick to it.

The second part of the message – do the work – is as valuable if not more so. I can’t remember who said it (possibly Logan Murray the excellent stand-up teacher) but they observed that actors find acting so exposing that they would much rather sit around and talk about it than do it. Though that is true of most forms of work. Most work involves exposing yourself in some way: write from the heart, promise to be funny, reveal your character; have an opinion in the meeting. It would be far easier not to do it, but to talk about it. To plan. To mull. To muse. Grayson reminds us that we can’t. We must get on with it. We must do the thing. If we are writers we must write. If we are attendees at a meeting we must speak up. Do the work.

And finally, be nice to people. I love this almost more than the others. Because life is hard and we’re trained to see it as a competition. Led to believe that to win, to succeed, we must assert ourselves more than others. I’m sure for some people that is true. But it’s a horrible way to go about your life.

Be nice to people. Be nice to people because you don’t know what they’re going through. Be nice to people because people don’t remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel. Because it doesn’t cost anything. Because it’s actually a sign of supreme confidence. Because it will make your life easier not harder. We need support around us. None of us can function in a vacuum and being nice to people can win over strangers.

Grayson Perry’s words are written on a card above my desk. When I am my best, it is because I turned up on time, did the work and was nice to people.

Such brilliant advice.

How to use the Myth Structure for Writers App to Create a Compelling Story

Myth Structure for Writers App

The Myth Structure for Writers App uses a writing tool known as the Hero’s Journey to structure your story. The Hero’s Journey recognises that our favourite stories follow a distinct pattern – and have been doing so for generations.

The pattern of the Hero’s Journey is so ingrained in our psyche, so tried and tested, that as audience members we feel cheated if the story we’re experiencing doesn’t follow it. So as a writer you should know it!

Want to know more? Read on to find out more about the Hero’s Journey “Myth Structure” and how it can shape and inspire your writing.

The Hero’s Journey

In 1949 the academic Joseph Campbell published a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which he outlined the common elements of thousands of stories he’d collected over time. He recognised the same patterns or events in many, many stories, usually in the same order. He proposed all stories have a basic underlying pattern that make them satisfying. When you become familiar with the pattern you begin to understand why – but more of that later.

Fast forward a few years and Christoper Vogler, author of The Writer’s Journey was working as a story development exec in Hollywood. He created a short, accessible summary of the various stages that Campbell had outlined and begun sharing it with his colleagues. It caught on pretty quickly. Here was a magic formula for making a satisfying story – and that’s exactly what Hollywood needed.

In fact, when you hear about the “Hollywood formula”, I guarantee that most times this is what is being referred to.

Christopher Vogler’s version of the story arc is simpler, (and I would say more visceral and less academic) than Campbell’s, so it’s his version that is available in the Myth Structure for Writers App and that I’ll cover off in more detail here.

The Hollywood Formula

The Hollywood Formula, known as the Myth Structure or the Hero’s Journey actually looks something like this:

The Myth Structure

The story starts at the top and moves round in a clockwise direction. Each icon represents either a moment or a sequence in the story and has it’s own name.

What is amazing about the Myth Structure is that even without a story in your head, just stepping through the various elements of it, one begins to form, and for that reason its an incredibly powerful tool.

In his excellent book The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler uses a movie often voted the best movie of all time – Star Wars – as an example. I think that’s a pretty good example so let’s stick with that. I’ll use the film’s structure to give examples as I step through each of the stages, but I’d encourage you to look for these same moments in pretty much any successful film or story.

Before we begin I want to make it clear that this is not the ONLY way to structure a story, but it is a very versatile and satisfying one. There is no shame in using this structure, but think of it as an empty shell to fill with your creative, brilliant interpretation of each stage.

If you would like a copy of the Myth Structure for Writers app, which has all of this information as well as a project space to create your own stories in this framework you can download it from the app store here.

Myth Structure for Writers App
Myth Structure for Writers

The Ordinary World 1.The Ordinary World The Ordinary World

To begin with, we see the Ordinary World of our main characters. This is where you establish where your story is set, introduce us to your main characters, and baldly state what the moral of your story is going to be.

Often the very first thing we see is a picture that sets the scene. It could be a cowboy riding out at sunrise, or an enormous spacecraft hunting down a smaller one against a starry background. It could be a Christmas department store or a playing field, lit by floodlights. Either way, present the world.

Then we probably want to see our characters doing their everyday thing in this world, Remember the ordinary world of the characters means what they find ordinary, not what you do. If you live in space in the middle of a war, then a battle among the stars is a common occurrence. CIA agents expect to be pulling their weapons and performing dawn raids. Killers are out there ‘a killin’ people. It’s whatever is Ordinary to them.

And then you should highlight that as well as this being everyday, it isn’t perfect. There are some things that need fixing or mending. Big things like stopping the war, small things like a teenager not connecting with their parents. This world is ordinary, but its not perfect.

Why is this bit important? Well, first you set the scene. As a writer you’re promising insight into a new world we don’t know that well. Then you need to lead us to some characters in that world, who are used to it, at home in it. Why? Because then we relate to them. That’s how we feel about the world. Also, if it’s a bit broken, we think, well I hope that gets better. So you have primed your audience for a story…

In Star Wars we meet the good guys – a rebel princess, and the bad guys – a black robed robot-man, and a bored kid who is a really good fighter pilot but has duties on a farm that harvests water. He’s bored and not living up to his potential. The rebels aren’t winning. Do we want to see those things fixed? Yes, we do.

In Se7en we see a fairly standard pairing – rookie cop and long-in-the-tooth investigator looking into a gruesome murder… It’s grim but it’s also everyday. Crimes of passion happen, people don’t think about killing each other.

Call to Adventure 2. The Call To Adventure. Call to Adventure

Once we understand the routines of the Ordinary World, then it’s time to shake it up a little. Or preferably a lot. This is what we call the Call to Adventure. Something major happens to someone here.

Usually the Call to Adventure is delivered by an outside force that comes crashing into our Hero’s world. It brings a tremendous opportunity and a grave threat at the same time. It needs to promise great reward and great danger.

In Star Wars, the Call to Adventure for Luke comes when he uncovers the message from Princess Leia imploring him for help. In Se7en it’s when they discover that the murderer has sent them a message – Gluttony scrawled in grease on the wall. This is premediated murder.

Myth Structure: Refusal of the Call 3. Refusal of the Call Myth Structure: Refusal of the Call

The Hero, and the audience, should understand what the Call to Adventure means. It can’t be ignored. It won’t go away. It has to be dealt with. Luke can’t simply ignore this message he’s received.

But the Hero doesn’t immediately drop everything and rush off to sort things out. There is a moment of refusal. Either the Hero is too scared to go, or someone tells him: no way.

Luke’s uncle Owen tells him that Ben Kenobi’s just a crazy old man and orders him to wipe the droid’s memory, and refuses to let him go to the academy early…

In Se7en the Captain tells Somerset that Mills shouldn’t be on the case.

The point of this section is to make it clear that this quest is no mean feat. It’s going to be dangerous. The hero is going to have to risk something very important to them if they go after it. Do they really want to do that? This section serves a purpose to say: “This means something.” It’s the sign that says “abandon hope all ye who enter here…”

Myth Structure: Meeting with the Mentor 4. Meeting With the Mentor Myth Structure: Meeting with the Mentor

The next phase is a kind of preparation. If you want to do something you’re not prepared for, you need to seek the advice of someone wise. In Luke’s case this is the crazy old wizard Old Ben (Obi Wan) Kenobi.

The Mentor is usually someone who has been through the battle before. They give the Hero some precious gifts that will help in the new world (a light saber) and some information they’d do well to remember (Darth Vader killed your father) In Se7en, they literally go to the library and learn about the Seven Deadly sins – which also expands the context beyond the rainy city streets to all the realms of heaven and hell.

This helps us deepen our interest in the adventure ahead. It is also a justifiable way of delivering a bit of structure and carefully delivered exposition.

Myth Structure: Crossing the First Threshold 5. Crossing the First Threshold Myth Structure: Crossing the First Threshold

The Hero usually still isn’t quite sure. The more they know about the new world, the less attractive it becomes. Yes they’re armed and ready, but do they want to go?

Eventually something pushes them through that door. A final force that they can’t resist any longer, the final piece of motivation: Luke’s family is slaughtered by imperial troopers looking for the droids.

So the hero and sometimes the Mentor have to go into a world they don’t know. It’s an exotic, upside-down world full of dangers and they usually land with a bump – getting into a bar fight or being shot at when they visit the killers apartment. They’re from another world and they’re not welcome. Things are done differently here.

Myth Structure Road of Trials 6. The Road of Trials Myth Structure Road of Trials

In Christopher Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey he calls this section Test, Allies and Enemies because this is where the Hero faces a series of tests (battling TIE-fighters, learning how to feel the force) while establishing friendships and making enemies. It does exactly what it says on the tin. This is the Hero learning by doing, rather than being told, and working out who is friend and who is foe. It’s a critical stage.

I call this the Road of Trials simply because I find it a bit more poetic. But the same things happen. The hero learns through trial and error as he moves towards….

Myth Structure: Approach to the Innermost Cave 7. The Approach to the Innermost Cave Myth Structure: Approach to the Innermost Cave

This section occurs just before the first major battle with whatever is standing in the Hero’s way. The Hero is likely to go face to face (more or less) with his most powerful adversary – but before he does there’s a moment of preparation. This is the calm before the storm.

Here the heroes share personal stories about how they came to be here, what made them who they are, why this journey is important to them too. It’s a cementing of friendships, but also a build-up of anticipation for how the next phase is going to be difficult and scary. The heroes talk of their homes – we get a sense of how far away they are – and their philosophy (“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster […] kid”) . If they’re really dim they’ll show another character a picture of a loved one back home, and we the audience will go “well they’re going to die!”

Myth Structure: The Ordeal 8. The Ordeal Myth Structure: The Ordeal

This is the big battle – either the defining fight, or the courtroom “showdown” where the two opposing forces fight supposedly to the death. It is probably the first time the Hero meets their nemesis face-to-face. (Although Darth Vader and Luke do not meet in Star Wars, Darth Vader senses him, and is certainly aware of the impact of their presence).

The main quality of this episode is a huge clash of forces that will not be stopped by each other. Not everyone will survive, and the hero may not necessarily win, but will instead be left licking his or her wounds.

In Star Wars the whole sequence of rescuing Princess Leia is their Ordeal.

Either way, this is the moment that the audience has been building towards, the storm itself. Make sure it’s spectacular.

Myth Structure: The Reward 9. The Reward Myth Structure: The Reward

After having faced down the opponent, the Hero is usually granted some kind of reward. Either they uncover a bit of information or a tool that will help them defeat their enemy once and for all, or they are rewarded on a personal relationship level. This can be where the love interest tension is resolved, or a hard won friendship is cemented.

This part represents the euphoric feeling of having faced up to one’s fears. It’s always worth pushing yourself. But we should understand this is just a moment of shelter – the dark forces are not completely defeated yet… They have just been forced to withdraw.

Myth Structure: The Road Back10. The Road Back Myth Structure: The Road Back

The Hero and his team have made themselves known to their opponent as a visible and credible threat. Here, the dark forces that oppose them will gather pace and rather than being the pursuer, they are now the pursued – either physically or metaphorically.

This section will often involve a chase, a flight from the special world they have entered back to their home world. Suddenly the threat didn’t just exist over there… it’s starting to threaten their home world too. They have raised the stakes in taking the fight to the enemy and now the enemy is coming back to them…

The Hero is clear: there’s no way to defeat the menace by just standing up to it, he or she needs to be cunning as well – to come up with something clever to defeat their opponent.

Myth Structure: Resurrection 11. The Resurrection Myth Structure: Resurrection

As the dark forces close in there is usually a moment where the Hero hits rock bottom and faces the most tragic of losses. What this means will depend on the story but it can often mean that something happens that dashes all hope of winning. The Hero and the team reach a point where they cannot see a way to beat their opponent, and they’ve brought the problem back with them. Sometimes a key character dies. or the hero dies or a betrayal is revealed. Whatever occurs here, it represents a catastrophic failure for the hero.

The hero enters a period of mourning. Life is now worse than it was when they set out to answer the call. They are personally responsible for that situation too. This is their very darkest hour.

But, as the saying goes the darkest hour is just before dawn. At some point. the hero discovers, or realises, or is presented with some information that means there is a slim, slim chance….

This is where the title of this section comes from: The Resurrection. If the hero appears to die, this is where they will come back, or if the plan has failed this is where they will discover the one thread. What is resurrected here is Hope…

Myth Structure: The Return With Elixir 12. Return with Elixir Myth Structure: The Return With Elixir

This final section is the big showdown, where the slim plan is put into action, wobbles a little and then probably succeeds (it doesn’t always by the way – it depends whether you want to paint the world as a just and hopeful place or not).

Although in a way the name Return with Elixir inplies coming back home with the trophy, it is really best to think of this Elixir as being the Secret ingredient that can be used to defeat the enemy in the final battle. This is where the gift that the mentor gave the hero, and everything that they have learned – about their enemy, about friendships, about themselves come together in the winning formula to defeat their enemy.

The return with Elixir also implies that the hero becomes recognised as having that special gift – which they alone possess because they have been on the journey.

And that is the basic Hero’s Journey/Myth Structure formula. As you read it I hope you suddenly found recognisable moments from any genre of film popping up.

Why the Structure Works

There is much debate about why we tell stories, but the most common reason is to pass on wisdom. We recognise in every hero the person we’d like to be. Life plays out like a story: we know there are things we should tackle, life throws things at us. We need to get a bit of advice from an older mentor, learn some skills. We need to pick up friends along the way, and share our fears. We need to tackle our problems and accept that we can’t always defeat them first time round. We need to regroup and praise ourselves for trying. We discover that as we get better at things we face harder challenges – not everyone wants what we want. We also have to face complete defeat and disaster and its these experiences alone that teach us what we are capable of and gives us that most precious of things: hope that we might just achieve our goals.

And that is what the 12 stages of the Hero’s Journey show us, framed as a tale set in an unfamiliar world.

The Myth Structure App

in the Myth Structure for Writers App, which is available for iPhone, you will find

  • Detailed descriptions of each stage
  • Key moments to cover in each stage
  • Approximate placement
  • A Projects section for you to capture the Myth Structure of your own stories
  • Export functionality to save your work into your writing software

Thanks for reading! Hope you have been inspired!

How to Use The Enneagram App to Create Better Characters

Enneagram For Writers App
Download the Enneagram for Writers on the App Store now

The Enneagram for Writers App is a handy little pocket guide to the Enneagram. Read on to find out how to use it to improve your characters…

Characters in stories need to feel complete and whole and real.

What does this mean? Well it means they need to be full of conflict. But also consistent. As a writer you get told these things all the time: make your characters consistent. Oh and full of surprises. Yep, Writing is hard.

Fortunately the Enneagram can offer just that: Consistent characters that are brimming with contradiction…

For a brief introduction to what the Enneagram is, and how it can benefit your writing, I have put together a complete introduction to it here.

If you’re already familiar with the Enneagram, then let’s go into a bit more detail.

How the Enneagram can help

Let’s start with where most writers go wrong. (many? some? I actually don’t have the stats… but bear with me.)

The first mistaken trying to create interesting characters is just to make characters randomly quirky. You know the one: Big ego, terrified of snakes. Okay bad example. But you know the thing. There needs to be some inner consistency to the character, some inner gravity or they’re just going to fly off like a set of loose cannons.

This is where the Enneagram helps. Each personality type has a core idea running through them like the writing on a stick of rock.

One of the other biggest mistakes writers make is to write characters just like themselves (particularly the heroes).

In these stories, everyone is anodyne and doesn’t really have flaws or contradictions, and all the characters are alike.

This in turn pours cold water on any chances of conflict (A writer doesn’t want bad things to happen to people like them! They don’t want that character make stupid decisions that they then have to pay for! To suffer pain…) So conflict gets set aside.

But that’s exactly what we need from a character in a story!

With the Enneagram for Writers you have psychological templates for nine different types of people. Each type is like a different chemical element, or a different flavour of personality. Each type is anchored to a particular way of seeing the world, a particular belief, that affects how they interact with the world – described through their various traits.

So the Enneagram offers a writers a core personality and belief that the individual character can be built around.

Download the Enneagram for Writers on the App Store

How to use the Enneagram for Writers App in your writing

The first thing to do is make sure you understand the different types. Spend some time looking around the various traits that each character type displays. You’ll start to pick up that common notion that drives everything a particular character does.

The next job is to assign each of your characters a particular type. This is most important with your main character, but also with your secondary characters so you’re making sure you have a wide range of viewpoints and potential reactions.

You can go to the My Projects section to create a new story and store the personality type of each character.

Don’t feel you have to cover every base. It can work well if you hero and villain are the same type but with different approaches. Both could be after exactly the same thing and show there are many routes to a goal – but offering the audience the chance to consider which one they approve of. Also we hate the things we recognise in ourselves right?

Then for the major characters consider where and when they are going to display elements of the various traits. The more they do display, the more rounded they will appear.

This is where the Enneagram journey comes in.

The Enneagram Journey

A character usually starts in Act One displaying a notion of their Holy Idea (effectively the Thing They Believe is Very Important). Fairly early on the character will make it clear that “this is the sort of thing that’s important to them” – whether it’s justice (Reformer) or being original (Individualist). However in that first act we’re also going to get a sense of their Ego Fixation (effectively the Thing They Obsess About). This is also sometimes called their flaw. Remember the Enneagram deals with psychology so you need to think of a way for that flaw to manifest itself. It’s no good having the character just say “But I do get angry when I see injustice…”!

By having the character express their Holy Idea (through action) but also inadvertently display elements of their Ego Fixation we instantly see a character in inner conflict…

In Act Two, the character is propelled to try to achieve something in the real world. In this act they’re balancing two other traits.

The first is their Burning Desire that pushes them towards something and the second is their Great Fear that they subconsciously are constantly avoiding.

Most of your screenplay is going to be about putting your character in a situation where they want to reach the thing they desire and the thing they fear is in the way.

The Enneagram also describes the Temptation of the character type – that behaviour they revert to (or are tempted to revert to) in their darkest hour. Most characters reach a point in the story where they go to this place. They become, for a while, un-likelable. It’s necessary if they are to be saved again…

In the latter part of the story the characters must face their Vice and a Virtue. Usually they are presented with a choice that is theirs to make alone.

Whether they chose Virtue (a selfless expression of ourselves – putting ourselves before others) or Vice (the selfish path) should only become clear at the very end. This is the point that we the audience decide whether we’ve seen an up ending or a down ending… Either way we’re kept waiting to see how it turns out… guessing to the end about a character we really feel we know…

Conclusion

By adding an Enneagram type to each character we suddenly have a set of consistent, but contradictory actions that offer almost endless possibility AND a fully formed character arc.

So in summary the Enneagram

  • Gives us a core personality to shape the specific character around
  • Tells us how a character will most likely react in a given situation
  • Defines the sort of goals, flaws, desires, fears, bad behaviour a character type possesses, and their potential to become a true hero or despicable loser.
  • Gives us the framework for our character journey
  • Gives us a unified view of character that still bubbles with contradiction
  • Guarantees we won’t just write ourselves – and even if we do we have the tools to explore those flaws we know are there!
  • Provides a ready made, but infinitely adaptable character arc

So if you’re interested in exploring the Enneagram more and finding out about each of the character traits, head over to the App Store to download the Enneagram for writers app. You’ll understand your characters – and just maybe the other people around you – more!

How to Create Richer Stories with the Themes for Writers App

Story Themes App

The Themes for Writers App is a handy way of tracking the theme of your story in order to be sure it resonates with something the audience cares about. In this post we’ll explore why every story has a moral, why that moral belongs to one of the seven themes and how you can make your writing richer by going deeper into the world of your themes.

So let’s start with the basics…

Your story’s moral and your story’s theme.

Most stories have a moral, all stories deal with a universal theme.

The moral of the story is an answer to the question “what is the story really about?”; what’s the universal truth wrapped into your story? When you finish a book or a film you’re often left thinking about the questions it raised – is killing ever justified? Are we caring for the people we love or are we smothering them? What’s more important: loyalty or justice? At the end of the tale the writer shows us a world and says: like it or not the world is like this. The moral can usually be summed up as a phrase: “good will always triumph over evil” or “you can’t beat the system”.

Your story’s theme is, for want of a better phrase, the sphere of human experience that the moral explores.

These thematic areas are basically the seven things that human beings care about deep down: the quest for love, the urgency of survival, the need for justice, the journey of knowing oneself better, forging riches, establishing power or the need for recognition.

In the Themes for Writers App these are summarised as:

Love
Survival Theme ImageSurvival
Justice: Theme for Writers ImageJustice
Self Awareness Theme ImageSelf Awareness
Money Theme ImageMoney
Power Theme ImagePower
Glory Theme ImageGlory
The Seven Story Themes for Writers

The idea that there are only seven themes was first attributed to celebrated writer Goethe. When I heard about I couldn’t get it out of my head. There are a fixed number of things that we care about. Our stories always circle around at least one of these themes. I hope that once you get to know these themes you’ll begin to find them in the heart of each and every story.

Sometimes you will find several themes being covered in a single tale. However the most common approach is to explore many different aspects of a single theme and this can help create a really rich story.

Morals in Themes

In most stories, the theme is fairly obvious – a romantic comedy is about love: the importance of love; how love isn’t always easy to achieve. Morals of a love story could be: “To love someone else you have to let some part of you go”, or “to find love you have to first conquer your fears”. These are “love morals” and your story, while being about love in general, should depict (but not hammer home!) the moral.

It’s quite common, particularly in films for the moral of the story to be clearly stated by some character other than the hero – very early on. Pretty much every film will have some character deliver some piece of advice like “You know, if you want to find love, you’ve got to let something go.” At the time, it just sounds like another wise piece of unhelpful advice. But as the movie plays out that – without ever saying it again – that statement will nag at the audience. Is he/she going to be prepared to let that thing go? Surely he realises he can’t have her and the trophy? Oh you idiot don’t go after the trophy – go after her! The audience is practically screaming it at the screen…. The hero is the last to realise…. Wait, it’s not the trophy that’s important… its her! This is when we the audience get a kick! Yes! Finally! It’s an incredibly satisfying moment for the audience. Tease them with it then give it to them in the end.

(Or kill him or her off and tell them “well you’ve learned a lesson today folks” depending on what sort of mood you like your audience to leave in.)

The points are

  • Bury the moral early, so the audience have it in the back of their minds
  • Never repeat it verbally, just show it playing out
  • To do this, know your theme
  • Your moral relates to one of the themes.

Once you’ve seen this in one movie, you’ll spot it in pretty much every one. For more on this and other brilliant movie-writing advice (“Theme Clearly Stated”) check out “Save the Cat” by the late great Blake Syder.

Themes For Writers

Values and Themes

Just as there are seven themes, there are also different flavours or values in that theme. It’s your job as a writer to offer a rich journey through all the different aspects of that theme.

In a story about Love there are often lots of different types of love: Romantic love, Buddy love, the love that comes from knowing someone for decades, the love that is better for being fleeting or unobtainable. The more of those elements you throw into your screenplay mix, the better, the richer it will be.

As well as the positive side of the theme, equally important are the negative side, the neutral side and the deepest, darkest side.

In the Themes for Writers App we refer to those values as

Themes for Writers NeutralNeutral
Themes for Writers Positive Positive
Themes for Writers NegativeNegative
Themes for Writers NadirNadir
Themes for Writers: the extremes to visit in your story.

I’ve listed them in this order as this is usually how we meet the flavours of these values in the story. I’ll now explain

Themes for Writers Neutral Neutral – When we first meet our characters they are experiencing the neutral version of the theme. They’re ticking along – but something is missing. There is a lack of Justice. They’re Surviving by just living an ordinary life. But there is a sense that something needs to change…. Love is missing from someone’s life, the prize is just out of reach, our hero is effectively powerless. The hero is clearly lacking something in that thematic space.

Themes for Writers Positive Positive – Then the opportunity to experience the positive version of that theme is presented to the character. They see how good the world could be! They meet someone they could love! They are presented with an opportunity to win something amazing. So they go after it. And pretty soon they meet the…

Themes for Writers Negative Negative – Life isn’t smooth. Nice things don’t always come our way. Here is a fundamental truth: when we become aware of the positive side of something we care about, we very quickly uncover the nasty side of it too. In a world where true love is a goal, we need to be aware that there is a nasty, seedy side of love too. To reach the positive we have to learn how to cope with the negative.

Most of the rest of the tale is about swerving between not just one of these positive aspects of the theme, but many different versions of the positive and negative aspects of this theme. Amazing romantic gestures have to sit side by side with the saddest, most pathetic, heartbreaking version of anti-love. And at some point we have to reach rock bottom. This is the…

Themes for Writers Nadir Nadir. The Nadir is the very lowest point of the tale. Not only has everything gone wrong, it’s gone irretrievably wrong. It’s a moment in the story where the very worst version of the theme rears its ugly head. Often the Nadir has a hint of deception surrounding it – the person we thought loved us was actually cheating on us, or using us. The power we have was used to cause unbearable suffering. Justice lets us down, rewarding the wrong-doers.

The Nadir serves a very specific purpose. It is this

The Nadir stretches the elastic of our despair so that when it is overcome we are catapulted into a joyful place. The worse things get, the better it is when they are resolved. In other words – the key to a satisfying ending is to precede it with a very real and terrible possible outcome…

In this way the Theme also helps structure our story.

If we were to draw a diagram of how the themes play out in our story it would look like this

The Story Themes arc showing where significant versions of the theme present themselves.

In the above schematic we see that we begin in the world where there is an absence of a specific thematic value. In a Money story, say, we start with someone getting by – just ticking along, but then an event opens up an opportunity for them. A positive vision appears: someone just gives them a million pounds, or a secret treasure is revealed. This gives them a purpose and drive.

The story then plays out and at some point they realise that this thing they’re chasing isn’t all its cracked up to be… There are negative aspects too – they’re going to have to learn how to be sensible with their money or that not everyone can have money, and those that do aren’t always deserving. This is where you have to be at your most inventive – present the audience with all the joys and horrors that the quest for this theme can bring.

This whole host of good and bad aspects of the theme make the picture actually looks more like this:

Theme Arc of Story expanded

After a few of these ups and downs, there comes a moment where the hero faces the worst of all version of the theme. You as a writer also need to come up with some extreme negative – but the Themes for Writers app should be able to help. Here in the Nadir the hero faces extreme corruption perhaps – they are invited to become part of an elite of secretive billionaires controlling the world: this is what money can do to people!

So having faced that awful situation, they are finally prepared to make the right choice. Again, it’s up to you to tell the audience what that is: “it’s better to live in poverty than to be part of this elite cult”, or “the hero uses their riches for good rather than evil,” but usually there is a positive ending.

It isn’t always a positive thing that crashes into the hero’s world. In a horror for example the arc might look like this where a big negative (a monster) kicks off the story; there is a moment where the heroes think they know how to beat it; it reveals a deeper horror (they’re one of hundreds of kids slaughtered this way) and perhaps they never quite escape…

Negative Theme Story Arc
As long as you are mixing up various aspects of the theme you will find the story is rich and eventful.

Conclusion

I hope this post has helped you

  • Understanding how important having a clear theme is in your story
  • Inspired you to take a theme and run with it
  • Think about how to enrich your story by visiting lots of aspects of your theme
  • Given you the tools to think about where to place significant Theme moments in your writing for maximum resonance with the audience

The Themes for Writers app can help you keep track of the themes of many stories, or the multiple themes in one story.

Themes for Writers on the App Store

How to Use the Enneagram: A Guide for Writers

The Enneagram
What is the Enneagram? Well, this is what it looks like. Read on to find out more.

The Enneagram is a great tool for writers to have in their toolkit.

It can help create a balanced and diverse cast of characters, and it can help create main characters who are complex and contradictory, yet consistent. In other words: characters that seem real. And isn’t that always the hardest part about creating characters? Because the Enneagram is based on human behavioural types, it can do just that.

So, first things first…

What is the Enneagram?

The Enneagram is a model of human psyche that divides people into nine personality types. These types have names like “Reformers”, “Helpers”,”Achievers” and they describe a set of traits and beliefs that are common to people that fall into those types.

The Enneagram then describes a number of aspects of personality – a mixture of behaviours and beliefs such as a “vice” or “virtue”, a “great fear” or “great desire”, a “temptation” they fall back on under stress that are common to that type, and identifying the characteristic of each personality type in that particular mode of behaviour or belief. For example, a “Reformer’s” Great Desire is to be seen as doing good, a “Peacemaker’s” vice is to be lazy or disengaged. There are also two fairly idealistic traits common to each personality type: the “Holy Idea” (basically the noble idea the character is obsessed about in the back of their mind) and their “Ego Fixation” (the selfish, childish obsession they carry with them everywhere).

In a series of upcoming posts will I outline each personality type in detail but for the time being detailed descriptions are fully available in the Enneagram for Writers app, and a breif summary of the types and behaviours is at the bottom of this post

Enneagram for Writers
Enneagram for Writers

The beauty of the Enneagram is that each personality type has a common thread running through their psyche, which determines both their good and bad qualities. That makes sense in the real world. If we’re obsessed about doing things right (as the Reformer is) that can make us idealistic, a do-gooder, but also just as often angry and resentful or a hypocrite – in the same day, the same breath even.

Complex and contradictory. But consistent.

How the Enneagram helps with designing well-rounded characters.

Each of us is a tangle of conflicting, well-intentioned motivations. Sometimes we’re good, sometimes we’re bad. Sometimes we’re selfish, sometimes we’re thoughtful.

Usually we’re all of these things in the pursuit of one goal, buried deep in our psyche. We want to be loved, we want to fix the world, we want to be original. We may not like it but it colours everything we do.

Your characters should be the same. That’s why the Enneagram is so helpful.

By assigning a single personality type to our characters we get a consistent set of positive and negative behaviours to play with. We can make fairly good guesses about what they might do in any given situation. And this is fundamentally what defines a character.

Characters are what they do. You will hear it time and again on your journey as a writer. And it’s completely true. What a character wears, how they talk, what car they drive are all completely irrelevant because that stuff is only first impression – it’s a cover of a book – designed to lure us into thinking one thing or another. But its only as we watch the character in action, how they treat others, what they do in a tight situation, that we judge them. And believe me, the audience is there to judge. It’s what we’ve paid money for.

By assigning an Enneagram type to the charatcer you are instantly presented with at least seven different mode of behaviours that the audience will completely buy into – will completely “get”. And, a whole spectrum of emotions and states to take your character to – each time painting a more human figure.

The Enneagram really is a key to unlocking your character’s psyche. And if you need a backstory, ask yourself what it was that sent your character down this particular path….

How the Enneagram helps with cast design

The Enneagram is also a very helpful tool for designing your cast.

In every story there are usually one or two main characters, and a set of supporting characters. If you are using the Enneagram, it can be a good idea to assign (different) Enneagram personality types to every one of your characters.

Why? Here are five good reasons:

  1. Secondary characters that feel rounded and fleshed out offer the audience delightful hints of a world beyond the one they are seeing. It’s a real treat to feel there’s more to this story than just the one being presented
  2. If you use the full range of personality types you will find a range of different characters and you won’t simply be “writing yourself’ into every other role.
  3. Secondary characters suddenly can present unexpected opportunities. They start to tell you how they want to behave and this can inspire unexpected twists and turns.
  4. Your main characters are often defined by how they’re different from another character. They use anger while another character uses negotiation, for example. Such differences serve to emphasise a particular trait. Repeat these glaring differences to really hammer a character trait home (so again your main character resorts to anger while another character uses mere assertion etc)

Conclusion

The Enneagram is a very simple and very handy shortcut to a whole cast of consistent, yet complex and contradictory characters.

Exercises to try out

  • Work out what type your main character is likely to be based on what you need them to do.
  • Try changing their type to see if it alters how they might tackle the problem
  • What happens if your main antagonist is the same personality type as the protagonist?
  • Try to work out what type you are. Your close friends and family. Does it change how you see their behaviour? Does it help you recognise when you are just “writing yourself”?
  • Start with a character type and zero in on a particular trait… What is the story that emerges from putting that character in a particular situation?

Extra: The Enneagram Types

The Enneagram
  • The Reformer – who believes in change and wants things to be better – in many ways an idealistThe Helper – who believes in love and understanding – their role is to make the world a better place.
  • The Achiever – who craves recognition and success and isn’t afraid of working – and fighting – hard for it
  • The Individualist – who craves to be different and creative and special – often dreamy, artistic and disconnected
  • The Investigator – a cerebral type who believes the world is one of truth and deceit  – it is their job to make sense of it.
  • The Enthusiast  – who believes life is an adventure to be seized by both hands – who rejects the mundane
  • The Loyalist – who believes firmly in the commitment to an ideal or institution – who requires solidity and continuity in life
  • The Challenger – who craves security and seeks to vanquish threats – someone who will take arms for their cause.
  • The Peacemaker – who craves harmony and consensus – who is diplomatic and a mediator.

Enneagram Traits:

  • Holy Idea – this is an idea that the type holds as some kind of greater goal – for example, The Reformer seeks perfection in things. They are idealists – perfectionists
  • Ego Fixation – this is what the type tends to fixate on when they’re at their most inward-looking – the opposite of their Holy Idea. For the loyalist that might manifest as Cowardice. They fear change.
  • Basic Fear – this is the thing that terrifies the type – an inner trait that they subconsciously avoid at all costs.  For a Helper, this is the sense of being unworthy of someone’s love.
  • Basic Desire – another basic trait that encapsulates their heart’s desire – the sort of feeling or experience they subconsciously crave. For the Enthusiast that’s the joy of the experience of life.
  • Temptation  – this is the character’s weakness – how they behave when they let their personality traits get the better of them. Challengers are tempted to reject others in pursuit of self-sufficiency
  • Vice – this is an outward manifestation of their personality. A physical desire they revert to. For Individualists, this can be jealousy. Being envious of others success.
  • Virtue – this is a commendable trait that the character displays when they’re at their very best. For Investigators, this can be a cool detachment that gives them tremendous insight.

The Ennagram for Writers gives a full breakdown of each of these traits for each of these characters.

That’s right! My first novel, The Colour of Robots, is available to read now.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • It’s science fiction, as defined by the fact it’s got space, spaceships and robots in it. But also an all-female pirate crew and some scientists.
  • It’s even funny in places.
  • You can buy it on kindle (here)
  • And if you like reading words on a page there’s a paperback here
  • If you subscribe to Amazon, you can even read it for free.

So why wouldn’t you? After all you love science fiction and you’re always happy to be amused right?

Here’s the full blurb:

Sci-fi adventure: It is a hundred years since the War with the Robots and the universe is now a much safer place thanks to the Empire’s ‘Anti-Robot’ directive outlawing anything with more artificial intelligence than that required to operate a dustpan.
Therefore it comes as a complete surprise to haphazard junior planetary engineer Karl Dougan when he discovers two fully-functioning, supposedly long-extinct robots on a remote planet.
Sadly for Dougan, he’s the only one who knows anything about it and, lacking the courage to tell anyone else, he sets out to quietly fix things himself.
This takes him on an adventure involving the fleet of the Imperial Navy, space pirates, a determined journalist who doesn’t rate him very highly, a rogue battle computer, and a homicidal, slightly farty, pet cat.

Oh, and seven very driven, acutely intelligent robots…

So there you go, now you’re fully equipped. Head on over. check out the reviews and join us on the journey.

The Colour of Robots on Amazon

jamesmarson.png

Welcome

I’m James Marson. I’m a writer based in south London and author of comic sci-fi novel “The Colour of Robots”, which you can read more about here.

 

You might also be interested in the Little Apps for Writers which are little handy app tools for storytellers.

Please get in touch if you’re interested in hearing more about any of my current projects.

And now on to my latest batch of silliness: The Lazy Planet Guides….

Thank you!

Hi

This is just a quick thank you to everyone who’s read “The Colour of Robots” and posted a review.

You are lovely people.

If you’ve read “The Colour of Robots” but haven’t yet posted a review – please, please do! It means the world to me and there is NOTHING more valid than YOUR recommendation.

NOTHING.

Thanks all.

Welcome to the Lazy Planet

Welcome to the Lazy Planet Guides.

Here at Lazy Planet we believe that travelling the world shouldn’t be a hassle. But so often it bloody is. So we don’t bother.

Our dedicated team of Lazy Planet bloggers firmly refuses to travel the globe searching for the best spots to eat, the most amazing sights to see and things to do, preferring to let others do the work while sitting with their feet up and a grande latte in their hands, surfing the web. Sometimes they just make stuff up.  We’re those kind of people.

It’s said that if you want to know more about a place you have to act like you live there. Or actually just go live there. And that just sounds like too much hard work. So, we’ve guessed.

We hope you find some useful titbits that will enhance your visit to whatever marvellous city break you’re going on or fabulous beach resort you’ve discovered, but if you don’t, I’m afraid we honestly don’t give a spaff.

Here are some pictures of people enjoying themselves we’ve stolen off of the internet.

 

The Lazy Planet Guide to Valentines Day Eating in London

by Bethan

kitten

Hello!

London is so the hub of the world food thing at the moment. Everywhere you look there are places to eat. So it must be.  And with Valentines Day coming up now’s the time to be treating someone you love –  or admire, or want to have carnal squidgy with – by taking them out and watching them eat.

So join me for my weekly [you’ll be lucky – Ed] round-up of places to eat as I gather together all the places to eat and be taken out to dinner. I’m generally free on Thursday evenings. And if you’re reading this Kyle, feel free to you know, just call me, or return my calls or whatever. It’s polite, okay.
So here it is – my round up of the best places to eat in London for Valentines day or not.
The Beardy Guzzler – Shoreditch High St.
Upmarket cardboard food served on cardboard plates with cardboard cutlery. Bring your own pair of brightly coloured braces, checked shirt and beard. Shit.
Hash Browns – Victoria Park
Where hash cakes meet breakfast. Not ready for your comedown? – come down to Hash Browns. Check with local police for opening hours.

IMG_0516 (1)

You have to eat it.

 
Marco Pierre White at Raymond Blanc – Mayfair
They hate each other. Watch them kick seven shades of shit out of each other in the open kitchen while you try to finish an awkward meal with your loved one.
 
The Veggie Sausage Factory – Farringdon
Churning out indistinguishable vegetable platters since 2003. Unrivalled, if smelly.
The Swinging Fifties Burger Palace  Leicester Square
With genuine swinging. Be prepared to go home with someone twice your age.
Pie and a Pint and a Fight   London Bridge
Special reductions for students. Friday is early bird fight night. And so is the rest of the week.

IMG_0469

F**k

The Window Cleaning Platform at the Shard. – at the Shard

 Enjoy this uniquely terrifying dining experience on a suspended, unstable platform, eighty floors up.
RippOFF – King’s Road
Watch your bill rise eye-wateringly fast as business-savvy michelin star chef Arnold Ripp does you slowly over eighteen minuscule courses, delivered with carefully calculated pretention.
Escalattoria – Russell Square
Novelty Italian dining and the UK’s only restaurant on an escalator. Impossibly erratic service.
The Water Bar – Kennington.
Serving twelve different types of tap water at £8 a bottle. Excellent if you’re keeping an eye on the calories/vitamins/nutrients.

Cafe Rouge Alert – Aldwych

IMG_0872

Unnerving

This terrifying dining experience fuses the glamour of nineteen-thirties Paris with the opening few days of the Nazi occupation. Allo Allo it ‘aint.
The Klingon Eatery – Piccadilly
Star Trek themed restaurant serving Klingon inspired dishes and drinks. With everything from the menu to the signs to the toilet in Klingon this is a mind-bogglingly difficult evening.
No! Sushi –  Run out apparently.
Findus Keepers – Dalston
Serving original Findus crispy pancakes only – choose from beef and onion, chicken and bacon, fish bits and unclassified. Genuine original Eighties product. Not health rated.
RAW!  – Balham
For those who like your meat on the sanguine side. The meat is fresh from the animal to your plate as God intended it if God hated cooking.
There is a chef, but she’s ornamental.

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Yep. That’s how it comes.

 

Kebabylon– Clapham High Street
The place to come eat kebabs when you’re so drunk you can no longer speak. Like the tower of Babylon only made of meat. Mind the sick by the front door.
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Well that’s it for this week! Happy Valentines (if you buy that shit).
Bethx
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