Better to Give than to Receive
Victoria
Grossack
It’s my personal tradition to do a not-quite-as-serious column to
celebrate the end of the year. As this is December, the season of giving
gifts, I’m going to type up a few thoughts about the sort of presents you
can make in your writing.
What the Heck Do I Mean?
You may very well wonder what I’m talking about. Let’s not think about
writing for a moment and focus only on gifts in real life. They’re often
expensive. They’re frequently wrapped in shiny paper and tied with ribbons.
They’re supposed to show love or affection, although a host of dysfunctional
emotions are associated with gifts as well. At Christmas or other holidays
and birthdays, they’re often expected.
Gifts often have more impact, however, when they are not expected.
Or when they are delivered in a misleading manner. A diamond brooch given
wrapped in the Sunday comics will be more surprising and unexpected than a
diamond brooch delivered in a jeweler’s box.
Gifts – or the absence of a gift – can have other impacts. Imagine how a
child feels when she expects a birthday present but doesn’t receive one! Or
imagine receiving a bad gift – not merely something that you don’t
personally want (such as an ugly sweater) but a gift designed to insult you.
An erstwhile boss of mine told me how he once gave his brother-in-law a
beautifully wrapped lump of coal. The brother-in-law was apparently quite
upset when he saw the coal (even though a real present was waiting
for him in the cupboard).
And what does anything of this have to do with you, an author creating a
story?
You can give gifts to your characters. You can give gifts to your
readers. And, for the rest of the article, I’d like to talk about these
gifts.
What You Give Your Characters
What do they want most? These don’t have be
what-you-might-buy-in-a-store kind of items, but deeper wants and more
profound desires. Perhaps Joe wants to win Mary’s heart. Perhaps the young
woman wants to beat breast cancer. Perhaps the doctor wants to find a cure
for a disease. Perhaps the young actress wants an audition. Perhaps the
young man wants a scholarship. Perhaps the candidate wants to win the
election (thank goodness that, as I write this, there are four years until
2012).
An aside: Understanding your characters’ wants is one of the best ways of
developing your characters. It also helps to motivate scenes and to drive
your story. I believe that it’s so fundamental for creating good fiction
that I wrote two columns a couple of years ago for Fiction Fix; you can find
them by going to the Archives or by writing to me.
What do your characters expect? Some characters – those perhaps
who are naïve or young or spoiled or over-confident – will expect to receive
what they want, without any effort. Other characters, humble, downtrodden,
may have lower expectations. A third set may be very rational, and have
expectations that are reasonable. A fourth set may be absolutely clueless,
even though it’s obvious to the readers. There are plenty more types of
expectations available. As the creator of your characters, you must know
what the nature of these expectations and convey them to your readers.
What do they actually receive? Now, this is where the story
becomes interesting. Your characters’ expectations will generally not be
met, at least not at first. The snooty people receive something that means
their comeuppance – and possibly learn and grow. Heroes may receive a
challenge. The humble are elevated – but perhaps only after a suitable
period of misery. Sometimes the humble – especially if they were unpleasant
about it - are humbled again at the end (for the most classic example,
consider Uriah Heep of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield).
Note that what you give your characters should generally start them on
the road to change or even adventure. Of course, by the end, most of the
issues should be resolved, and if you’re writing genre fiction, you may have
to resolve the story and the plot in a prescribed manner. Most romances end
with the couple together and pleased about it; most detective stories end
with the murder understood and the murderer stopped.
Consider your readers. You should also consider what your readers
want. And also, what your readers think they want may not be what they
really want. They may think that they want everything to turn out
wonderfully for Mary Sue, but they’ll have a much better reading experience
if it doesn’t happen so wonderfully for a while.
How You Deliver Your Gifts
How is a gift delivered? In real life, a gift often sits beneath the tree,
being poked and prodded. It can be sent through the mail, or it can be left
anonymously on someone’s desk. It may be wrapped, it may be hidden, it may
be too big to be wrapped or hidden.
Let’s carry the metaphor over to story-telling. A gift which is sitting
under the tree but which may not be opened until a certain date is like
having an event looming in the story for your characters. The event may turn
out well (shiny wrapping paper will give your characters a certain
expectation); it may turn out poorly. The characters have, however, the
opportunity to speculate, to worry, to anticipate. They have the chance to
examine the future event (gift) from the outside, from afar, and to wonder
about it at length. In other words, a gift under the tree can be a great
source of tension for your story, and is generally more interesting when it
turns out to be something unexpected.
A gift arriving unanticipated through the mail or left anonymously on a
person’s desk is akin to a not-completely-understood surprise entering and
impacting the lives of your characters. Perhaps your characters will be able
to figure out who is responsible; perhaps not; perhaps they will assume one
benefactor but later learn that they have another (such as Pip in Dickens’s
Great Expectations – I really seem to be on a Dickensian roll right
now). Mistaken assumptions can lead to lovely and colorful plot threads. The
assumptions your characters make, however, should be consistent with their
personalities, situation and information.
You must also remember your readers. It is one thing to mislead your
characters; it is another to mislead your readers. Now, misleading your
readers is not always a bad thing; in fact, in some genres (such as
detective stories) the readers are paying you to mislead them (while playing
fair enough to figure it out if they pay attention). You need to consider
how and when to give your readers information. What do they need to know?
How long can you keep them wondering – while still entertained? In other
words, how long should you keep information and consequences under wraps?
The Very Best Gift
Finally, the biggest gift you can give to your reader is to make your
story and your writing as good as possible. This begins with improving and
mastering your writing, and developing and thinking through your story. But
it also means being aware of your readers and their feelings throughout the
story. It means reviewing your story with a critical eye and making sure
that everything is there for the sake of the reader.
You all know those gifts that were given to you by people because they
wanted to give you something, rather than because you wanted to have it?
Admittedly, sometimes these presents work out very well, because they’re
exactly what the recipients needed, even they did were unaware of it.
However, often those given-because-I-want-you-to-have-it presents end up on
a dusty shelf in a closet.
So, consider writing your stories with your readers in mind, not just
because they’re the stories that you want to write. Now, this does not
mean writing stories you don’t want to write (writing is hard enough without
working on a project that doesn’t interest you), but telling your story in
such a way that your readers have an enjoyable, satisfying reading
experience.
So, take care with your writing. And, if you’re giving out presents this
holiday season, siphon off some your pent-up creativity to make those great
too!
Questions? Comments? You want to use this article? Feel free to contact
me a grossackva at yahoo dot com.
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