“I am a story teller. If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon.”
― Philip Pullman

Write a Theme, Not a Sermon

lecturn (Photo credit: Erich Kesse)

Every book is “about” something. What is right or wrong, love conquers all, and other profound topics. The theme is the core message of the book. In essence, it is an opinion about reality – a perceived truth. Likely, it is something you believe in strongly. This is great. It means you can write strongly about it. But for fairness to the reader, depth in the book, and conflict among characters, do not forget to include other perspectives.

Readers love a dilemma, a lesson, and a side to take. You can meet these wants by offering the reader choices, showing the consequences of these choices, and laying out the good and the bad. A theme has complexity. Share the different perspectives and your reader is more likely to be swayed to side with your belief. Give a one-dimensional argument and the reader will not be able to justify your claim when faced with arguments against your claim. Give them some ammunition so they can fight by your side. Preach to your readers and you will probably loose them. Woo them – show, don't tell.

Writers draw lines in the sand between good and bad. Some lines are clear, while others are blurred. Regardless, there are at least two sides taken – otherwise why draw the line? If you only present one side of the argument, what are you arguing for or against? Show the many facets of your theme. Display other views, then prove why they are not the best choice. Clarify your theme by showing it through action, dialogue, and (if possible) mood or description. Each time you invoke your theme, take a different approach and it will enrich your book.

Typically, your main characters' actions and words will support your theme. So they will definitely come into conflict with people who believe differently. You can make these conflicts as subtle or as blatant as you like. In the case of “love conquers all”, maybe the heroine has a friend who believes some things are unforgivable or money is more important than love. For a hero who champions personal freedom, he might come into conflict a system designed for the good of the many. Your main character may have to make choices that put his beliefs to the test. Use your imagination and you can come up with so many ways that your theme can generate conflict – and choices.

I think every book has a theme. You may not have started your book with that theme in the front of your mind, but you do make certain assumptions based on your personal beliefs. A belief that appears throughout your book can be developed into a theme. To give a theme life, develop it like you would a character – good and bad, show don't tell, place it in many situations and watch it react. Your book will be richer, your readers will thank you, and your characters will have a moral compass to guide them.

Create a Magic System: Spell Casting

Fire spirit (Photo credit: christopherselac)

Today's blog focuses on creating a system for spell casting. Writers usually start with this element of their magic system. They usually – but not always – have a good grasp of how their magic users cast spells. But in creating my own world, I this was one of the last things I decided because I saw the other elements as more important to my social structure, my world history, and my theme. But spell casting is not mere frills, it is the act of changing potential into actuality. It is what most readers focus on as the magic. And it is often what most sticks in their minds. Make it good.

I will refer to the means of converting magic to a product as a spell. Consider what requirements must be met for a spell to be cast. Maybe all it takes is a strong need and the ability to use magic. In most books, magic-using humans are uncommon or even rare, even if there are other races where this is not the case. Magic users are either born with the ability or gain it through other means. If you go with the birth route, decide whether magic ability is active at birth, if an infant's potential can be tested. If you decide that magic ability can be imparted, some options are: a deity, another human magic user, a magical creature, an artifact.

Magic ability can be instinctive, learned, but usually is a combination of the two. Giving your magic user the ability to use magic instinctively makes it easier to accidentally cast spells (maybe discovering his or her ability in the process). You might want this trait for a volitile character because strong feelings can take physical form. In the other extreme is magic that is aquired purely through learning. This can be through spell books or schools. Schools provide popular settings for coming-of-age tales as well as sources of information, help, or starting points for a quest.

Spells usually require resources in the form of energy, tools, and/ or sacrifices. This helps limit the ability of the magic user and makes things more realistic and opens the door to conflict, crises, and weaknesses. Usually both magic energy and personal energy are consumed. Tools may be consumed or reused. Sacrifices are usually reserved for more potent spells with living sacrifices being more valuable and human sacrifices being the most powerful – and usually condemned. But these are only guidelines – not rules. And you are also free to create both multiple systems of magic and multiple types of magic users in your world. This is the topic of the next blog.

Create a Magic System: Introduction

Mage hat (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I love fantasy books and poems. One of my favorite elements of the genre is the presence of magic. Typically magic is a manifestation of will or desire that makes possible the impossible. Authors can use magic in so many ways. Magic can simply be a backdrop – a piece of the fantasy world – but it can also be so much more. Many editors and agents (I'm told) look for magic to be integral to the story. How you interpret this demand is up to you.

The ability to use magic may be integral to your main character – the main character in my current WIP is judged by society by her lack of magic. Or your main character may be innately magical – such as a shape-shifter. Magic may be integral to your character or world's back story – mage wars shaped the current land and society of my world and behind the scenes the main antagonist is trying to free an evil god from his ocean prison (an effort that triggered the actions of my current WIP's villain). And magic could be integral to your plot – my magic-less girl must rescue her father's dragon from a powerful enemy mage.

Writers can use magic to deal with a theme or issue close to their hearts. Magic can be used to explore power, social issues, environmental issues, good and evil, corruption, justice and injustice, personal differences, elitism, identity, or even the price of gifts. To incorporate magic in your theme, consider the source of your magic, the structure of your magic, the types of magic and types of magic users, the people and creatures who can and cannot use magic, and the social implications of the ability to use magic.

For the next several days we will look at the last four elements because they are crucial components to the creation of a complete magic system. Source, structure, types of magic and magic users, the magic user, and social implications – every creator of a magic system needs to thoroughly know these four components even if most of the information never appears in the book. The writer needs to know this information to ensure their world is consistent, logical, and comprehensive. Consistency becomes more important when multiple books are planned for the world. Logic is an important ingredient in reader belief. And comprehensiveness is an aid for both, as well as a way to a more complete world.

Theme: An Answer or a Question?

English: Speech balloons. Question and Answer. Icon for FAQ or Help. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Earlier I wrote about theme as though it had to be a statement or opinion about life. Like much with writing, this is a rule made to be broken. If a theme can be a statement, can't it also be a question? Absolutely!

I do believe that a theme says something about life. Every book poses one or more questions. An author can attempt to answer the question through their characters and plot or subplots. This is probably the most common choice. But sometimes an author will try to present two (or more) perspectives, give them equal weight, and then present a dilemma with no clear “all good” path forward.

Why would a writer choose this path? Maybe as a personal challenge – it is probably the more difficult and less used of the paths. But the decision might also come from what the author wants for the reader. I think that writers who choose to not answer the theme's question are writers who want readers to really think about the book. By not giving the reader an easy out – by not giving them the answer – the question haunts the reader. The readers must devise their own answers.

Theme does not have to pose a question that either has a clear answer or no answer. I am sure that you can choose an approach that falls somewhere on the spectrum. An answer that is mostly good with some bad. An answer that blends the different perspectives. An answer that follows the “bad” perspective and leaves the readers dissatisfied (which means you have made your point). Okay, you get the picture. So all that is left is to decide how you want to present your question to your readers.

Write What You Know in Fantasy And Paranormal

Бородатая змея (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Counter-intuitive? Not at all. I write magic and dragons and don't think I have a harder time than a contemporary writer with this issue. If you are writing fiction, you are expected to use a little imagination to bring it to life anyway. I don't think the old adage is meant to be taken literally. Or rather, you know more than you might think.

• Emotions: Whether it is telepathic lizards or werewolves, all characters have emotions. Their motivations might deviate from humans, but the emotions are still the ones humans have. Humans like you (at least I assume). You experience emotions every day so put what you know to the page.
• Motives: I said non-human characters may have slightly different motives but they should still be comprehensible to readers. You know about motives from your own experience, talking to and watching others, and from reading.
• People: You also know how to make multi-demensional characters. The same guidelines can be followed when making nonhuman persons and people. There might be a few superficial differences (a diet of blood, the ability to do magic, or fur and fangs, for instance) but people are still people underneath.
• Important Issues: You know what issues are important to you. Issues have inherent conflict and are well worth tackling in your work. Since it is important to you, you should be aware of multiple sides to the issue and be able to realistically represent them. From bullying to global warming, any core issue can be adapted to your fantasy worlds.
• World-building: Non-fantasy writers often overlook how much research goes into world-building. The land, water, and weather have to align. The types of plants and animals need to be reasonable for the climate. A cat-creature probably will eat meat, not plants. A snake-creature can probably see infra-red.

The adage “write what you know” should also be expanded to “write what you can learn”. I justify this modification by the fact that once you learn something, you know it. Research is probably essential to any story and fantasy/ paranormal is no exception. Write what you know, what you knew, and what you will know. Write your heart out.

Suspense in Dialogue

There are many ways to introduce suspense into dialogue. Suspense is the element of uncertainty. What is going on? What will happen next? Because dialogue is “people telling other people things”, you may wonder how the sharing of information can lead to uncertainty.

• Revelations: The realization that things are not as they seemed a minute ago. This can evoke feelings of wonder, surprise, or unease. Questions arise in the reader's mind about what the revelation means for the character's future.
• Threat: The belief that the character has somehow come under attack. The threat may be to physical well-being, but the threat could also be mental or emotional. The threat usually connects to the scene goal and complicates the goal somehow. The reader should be left uncertain how the character will respond to the threat.
• Thoughts: Often this happens when a viewpoint character thinks something that cannot be said aloud. Thoughts reveal information to the reader that non-viewpoint characters are (usually) not privy to. The reader should be led to wonder if/how/when the “secret” will come out. If the thought is one of inner conflict, the reader will be uncertain how the character will cope. Plans for future action can also be suspenseful, especially if the POV character is unsure whether the plan will succeed.
• Theme: Have a character state the theme and let other characters react. Because the theme is the central topic of your WIP, your characters will have strong – and different opinions about it (even something like “love conquers all” can be controversial for your characters). Voicing the theme can create momentary suspense because the reader knows there are characters who strongly disagree and the reader wonders how such a character will react.