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

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. 

The World of Wrimos

During the four month long summer, it's easy to become lazy and cease to be productive.  The days get lonely, and before long you're having heart-to-heart conversations with your cat.

Or is that just me?

Anyways, as some of you may already know, there is this wonderful online writing competition called NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) which stands for "National Novel Writing Month".  NaNo is an online competition for writers of all skill levels, ages, and styles, and is available around the world.  Participants, or Wrimos, (as the NaNo staff like to call their writers) make a free account and they fill out the information needed to participate.  It takes place in the month of November and every day of the month each Wrimo is responsible for writing 1 667 words. If they keep up with their daily word count they'll have a 50 000 word novel by the 30^th.  Easy, right?  Not so much.

Personally, my favourite part of NaNoWriMo is the weekly pep talks that the staff write for all participants.  They're always funny to read, as well as motivational.  After a few lacking days, those pep talks were sometimes the only things that could get me going again.  Even more inspiring, is that some of these pep talks are written by well known authors such as Lemony Snicket, Scott Westerfield, and Kate DiCamillo.

I think this pretty much sums up the awesome-ness that is NaNoWriMo:

Last summer I enrolled as a member in Camp NaNoWriMo which runs the same as the normal NaNo season only it takes place in June or August, whichever you prefer.  The goals of Camp NaNo are the same, and participating in this program made the summer productive for me.  It was hard work, but I completed the competition and now have the first draft of a manuscript staring me in the face.  

The front of my Camp NaNoWriMo mug

The back of my NaNoWriMo mug

Being a participant in  Camp NaNo showed me the value of having a supportive writing community to immerse myself in, and that every writer has to start somewhere.  A year ago, during 2011s NaNoWriMo, one of the pep talks came from Kelley Armstrong, a popular author who writes teen series.  She revealed that the first book in her Darkest Powers series, “The Summoning”, was originally a NaNo novel.

Is this inspiring or what?

In my opinion, NaNoWriMo is the perfect jumping point if anyone wants to consider the option of writing novels professionally.  The NaNo staff are committed to helping you reach your noveling dreams, whatever they might be.  NaNoWriMo is a safe place for all writers, and in my case, it's made all the difference.

If you'd like more information on NaNoWriMo or any of the programs under its umbrella, or just want some cool writing merchandise, please click here!