A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I’d had to put timelining of the four-story SF series I’m working on on hold, because I’d managed to bugger up the way my protagonist’s major problem (her wound) got resolved at the end of the first story. I’d like to explain that a bit, at least the way it was explained to me.

Characters have flaws, and they have wounds. Flaws are usually consequences of wounds. When it comes to developing a series, the wound will usually carry on through the entire series. I used Harry Potter as an example; his wound is that Voldemort murdered his parents, and that doesn’t get sorted out until the defeat of Voldemort at the end of the last book. However, Harry has a series of flaws: self-doubt, arrogance, the worry that he’s a new Voldemort in the making, and so on. And each of these provides a background for one of the books, and is resolved by the end of that book.

So while wounds and flaws are related, they’re distinct.

But there’s more to flaws than just setting them up at the start of a story and resolving them at the end. Far better is to make the resolution of the flaw vital to the resolution of the story as a whole.

Here’s an example: Neo in The Matrix. Neo’s flaw is that he won’t accept that he is The One. In terms of wants and needs, he wants to believe that he’s not special (and the Oracle reinforces this when she tells him he isn’t). But he needs to believe, because until he does he doesn’t stand a chance against Agent Smith. So his wants and needs conflict.

So then comes the fight with Smith, and Neo dies in the Matrix. BUT… at that point, Trinity tells Neo’s real-world corpse that she loves him and that means he must be The One, because the Oracle told her so. And now Neo believes; he knows he is The One. He is reborn with world-bending powers, and can take on Smith with one hand behind his back.

In the first story of the series I’m working on at the moment, my protagonist realises that what she thought she wanted was a phantom, and that what she really needed the whole time is about to be taken away by the bad guy. This happens when the bad guy himself tells her that he’s going to take that thing from her, not realising that he just gave her a reason to fight as hard as she ever has, and doomed himself in the process.

Hopefully I’ve shed a little light on how wants and needs can tie into flaws in a way that all comes together at the end of a story, in such a way as to make for a more powerful tale.

THE thing with the Twitter hashtags is that they can often be a bit misleading. At this moment I’m working on the Untitled Sci Fi Novel project, but at the moment I’m not actually writing anything.

This project is four stories back to back, with the same central  character, set in the same universe. Each story is self-contained, but there’s a separate story arc that runs across all four. I’m using my own process (as described in Finish Your Book) and in a particular way; I’m developing all four stories in parallel, rather than doing the first down to scene level before I move on to the second, and so on. Right now I have the top-level structure for the first three stories pretty much done, and I’m getting the fourth one down; it’s coming along well, and I should have that finished in a couple more days.

In other words, I’m world-building, and I’m developing the story, and I’m developing the characters. But I’m not writing anything other than my notes.

And that leads to something that is probably extremely trivial but bugs me nonetheless. You see, Twitter has hashtags like #AmWriting, and #AmEditing. But I don’t see #AmWorldBuilding, or #AmDevelopingCharacters, or #AmThinkingAboutAStoryIdea.

So I gave up on those hashtags. I don’t use anything but #AmWriting. If I’m in the car, thinking about a story idea while doing 75 down I-25, then I’m writing. I’m writing if I’m making notes about a character, or working on scenes, or building the timeline. Basically, if I’m doing anything at all that’s moving a story from the first seed of an idea to actual ink (or e-ink) that someone can read, then I’m writing.

And on that note, I have to run out to the store. But you can bet I’ll be “writing” at the same time.

Until next time . . .

p.s. A few words about the events at UVA:

• They’re not “alt-right”. The term alt-right was invented by a nazi to describe nazis without calling them nazis. These c*nts are giving nazi salutes and carrying swastika flags. They’re nazis. Call them nazis.
• So far about 99% of the tweets I’ve seen are condemning what’s been going on. That’s an encouraging sign that most people are against these bigoted, spoiled, white trash. I take some comfort in that.
• Meanwhile, as of about sixty seconds ago, Comrade Trump hasn’t tweeted a damn thing about it. Fifteen hours without a tweet has to be some kind of record for him. I’m wondering what mealy-mouthed bullshit he’s going to spout when he does bother to say something.