The Lifeblood of Fiction: Conflict and Desire

Imagine a novel without conflict. Nobody hates your protagonist, nobody drives you forward. There’s no war, no cancer, and certainly, no bad relationships. For good reason, this does not exist. The world of fiction, like our real world, must be fractured to be entertaining. Better yet, there must be frustration and hardships in order for the piece to move somebody. 

What drives a character can bring the conflict. It doesn’t have to be about bullets in a gun, conflict can be simple. If your protagonist’s dreams, or desires have them wanting to be a politician but their family is from the ghetto, your conflict is built-in. Conflict can be derived from real-world circumstance. No one will question you if your character, white and living in Detroit, fears for his life or wellbeing on the wrong side of 8 mile.

As a writer you need to think of your character as a person. What do they want? Surely, your character, even if she’s just a “typical high school girl”, wants something in life. A romance novel would be uninteresting if it is simply about the kiss and tell. It has to have zest. Who is this character? Is she obsessed with cheerleading? Is Mean Girls her reason to live? Does she talk exactly like that annoying character from Glee? There’s other considerations too. Does she want to go to college? Does she want children? Your character is a person.

Desire is what gives a character, or person, the desire to battle conflict. A person with no stamina, or initiative will surely not press on if they’re denied entrance to their favourite college. Worse, a person whose entire family was killed, may not want to continue - unless they have a desire to change the world. 

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” 

                                                 ― Doris Lessing

Conflict and desire are not just what makes a novel, or creative piece worth reading, it is what makes them real. Fiction, in its own sense, must be true. Of course your spaceship doesn’t have to be real, but the situations must be human in a sense. It is not possible to truly identify with a character or story that does not have a driving force. This sort of “story”, if you can call it that, would be stale. 

Written by Shaylynn Hayes

The Map to Fictional Worlds

Writing about fictional worlds can be time consuming and full of behind the scenes work.  It can also be frustrating when the "insignificant details" don't work out the way they're supposed to.  The truth of it is, though, every detail is crucial when you are writing about a world that doesn't actually exist.

As this wonderful article from Writing-World.com will tell you, the first thing that you need to do is define your world: what it looks like, the time period, the kinds of people that live there, local animals, etc.  You may be sitting there thinking "Why do I have to include animals?  No one cares about that!" But, if your character is being stalked by a dark shadow in the bushes is it going to be a rabbit?  A bear?  Maybe even a tiger squirel!?

Cute, but vicious!

The stalker makes a difference whether or not your character makes it back alive, so it plays a role.

The second most important part about writing within a fictional world is to keep in consistent.  If the people's moods fluctuate that's fine, but if the world is attacked by a monster and three hours later everyone's dead except your protagonist- that's not so good.  It's a huge jump to make, and you may lose a few readers.

Personally, I find the hardest part of creating a fictional world is making sure your characters stay constant.  By that I mean your protagonist is from our world and lives in our society.   When s/he goes into the new world that's set in an alternate universe where cavemen and dinosaurs exist, their lifestyles are going to be different.  Once your characters from each world meet each other, sometimes those important differences blur together too quickly for the reader to believe it's character development, and it's confusing from that point on.

In my opinion, fantasy writing is harder than realistic fiction because you have to consider creating a world that is unique, but not so different that it alienates the reader.  The goal to a believable world is to have a handful of noticeable differences, but bring enough of our world into it so that readers find familiarity and safety.

A movie that does this well is Gabor Csupo's "Bridge to Terabithia" based off the book of the same name by Katherine Paterson.  It's about two ten-year-old neighbours who create a fictional world and vanquish monsters that resemble their school bullies.  The most impressive part about this movie is the believability of Terabithia.  See for yourself!

We've all day-dreamed about overcoming our fears and ruling over those that push us down, and this movie allows us to see ourselves in the characters.  Fantasy writing is frustrating and hard on the imagination, but if it's done right, the results are well worth the struggles. 

Fiction - Now What?

Whether you’ve written the next vampire-human love story (or a twisted BDSM fanfiction inspired by said love story), or an epic quest that makes Ulysses seem like a walk in the park, you have the choice of either letting it join the rest of your masterpieces in a coffee stained notebook that you’ll eventually forget on the bus, or doing something with it.

But what?

You could post it online, sure. There’s lots of sites out there where you can post your writing just for the hell of it - Writing, WritersCafe, and Booksie to name a few - but where does that get you? Other than the personal satisfaction of finally having your writing ‘out there’ for the entire world (re: maybe a couple of people unless you’ve established a devout fanbase) to read, you haven’t really gotten anywhere. And you definitely haven’t been compensated for all the sweat, tears, and bloody fingers.

If you’re looking for more bang for your buck (or just a buck), try gussying up your piece and submitting it to a literary magazine. The majority of periodicals will compensate you for your published piece - you won’t be rolling in the millions anytime soon, but it will certainly get your name out there.

 But with thousands of magazines floating around, it can be difficult to pinpoint one that’s perfect for your writing. Before submitting, you should try to read a submission or two, as well as the periodical’s mantra and submission guidelines. Keep an eye out for Canadian based magazines in particular - many try to keep it local, like CAROUSEL and Brick. There’s plenty of lists out there, from CanLit’s to wikipedia.

CAROUSEL is a Canadian literary magazine chock-full of local writing and creepy art. [credit]

Another way you’ll get monetary compensation for your work is by entering contests. Again, with periodicals, keep it local! The Canadian Authors Association has a great page for finding legitimate contests for your writing.

Of course, if it’s a novel that you’ve poured dozens of late nights and cups of coffee into, it’s unlikely a magazine or contest will publish this in a whole. Sites like Lulu, ArtBookBindery, and CompletelyNovel will help it get printed and essentially self published, but unless you plan on giving it to your close friends, it likely won't go further than your mother bragging to all her friends about how her baby has written a book. Getting that manuscript out there can be difficult, but lots of sites like Writer's Union or The Star offer tips in turning that pile of papers into a hardcovered best seller. Again - try to keep it local and narrow your search for Canadian based organizations.

Sometimes, it pays to be a Canuck. 

Writing Can Change The World, But That Doesn't Mean It Always Will

It is an undeniable fact that books, or any form of writing in general, can have a great impact on the world. They can open up a whole other perspective that the audience may have never previously considered. However, when writing, the sole purpose should not be to change the world; this is simply too great a task for some bound pages, or some words on a computer screen.

No matter how far away in this world, many of us are connected by the internet, as well as books, blogs, or any other forms of writing.

The primary focus of a novel, a blog, or any other form of writing, should not be to change the world; instead, it should be to relate to the audience. No matter how hard a topic is being tackled, the writing cannot be a dull, dry, statement of facts – that is what we call a textbook, and as students we all know how fun those are to read.

Right in the feels... Any student can all relate to this guy all too well.

The most influential series of books I have read in my lifetime is by far the Harry Potter series. The reader can take these books at face value: it’s about a wizard and his friends. Yet J.K. Rowling managed to make it about much more than just an entertaining saga about magic. She shows the effects that war can have on a society, the value of friendship, what it means to be courageous, as well as the fact being different is never a bad thing. On the surface, this is a book about magic, and a wizard and his friends. However, one can take so many lessons away from it.

The ultimate good vs. evil

 Writers can change the world for the better; as I have said, that is undeniable. Writings have a profound influence on our society and the people in it. Look at The Catcher in the Rye, or To Kill A Mockingbird. These both challenged the audience, as well as made them think in a way which many had not before.

Even the cookie monster seems to have questioned his own morals.

However, writing something with the purpose of changing the world will likely disappoint authors, and will most likely result in failure. As Kathy Mac has said on countless occasions, write for you. Keep your audience in mind, but no matter what it is you are writing, do not give it the responsibility of changing the world. If your writing is good enough, it just might do just that. Have faith in your writing, but most importantly, have fun with it! If you love what it is you're writing, readers will pick up on that and love it too. Only when the audience truly loves your writing will they question the issues you have undoubtedly raise, and before you know it, you'll be teaching people you don't even know!

"I just love your writing so much! And you also made me question something in my life! Way to take Maisie's advice!"