Session 6: Wrap-up

This time, we:

• Share insights and questions regarding the Session 5 exercise
• Workshop a short story
• Hear from Jim, who is leading the discussion on beta readers

Examples of Antagonists

We discussed how antagonists don't have to be the Darth Vaders of the story; antagonists can be environmental catastrophes (Twister), war zones (War of the Worlds), cultural attitudes and expectations, illness, corporations ...

Within our group, we are writing about:

• A genetic disorder that shows itself in different ways and the people have different narratives around it and how it affects their mortality and lives;
• Opium addiction;
• The institution that’s doing mostly bad things;
• The man/revenge that is the personal level;
• The incidental side-kick who ends up being a ‘bad person’;
• Societal attitudes about career and motherhood;
• Internal conflict.

Important to remember that a story's man character—sometimes referred to as the hero and usually the most sympathetic character—isn't always all good, just as its villain or antagonist isn't always entirely evil. The best stories have complicated characters with shades of gray. A main character may be doing a good deed (saving the world/the girl or winning the war) for entirely selfish reasons. The antagonist may be an antagonist by pure dint of being the thing or person that stands in the way of our hero achieving his or her mission. A villain can absolutely have good intentions, but those actions/intentions still serve as a block or threat to our protagonist's journey.

Often the "villains" in a story are manifold, which keeps the dramatic tension nuanced and prevents the conflict from constantly being one showdown after another between the same two characters. For example, one story may have a human villain, an "evil" institution (which your human antagonist may be a representative or embodiment of), and then an internal conflict.

The internal conflict is often a battle between what a character wants and what is best for his or her own interests. This inner struggle can be applied to any manner of subjects: addiction, loving the "wrong" person, knowing you have to destroy the One True Ring but also feeling too exhausted and mortal not to succumb to its power ...


Beta Reading

Alpha Feedback is the ‘what do you think of this?’ broad strokes feedback.

Beta Feedback is great for honing the editing skills. Main goal being getting contextual feedback: characters, plot, flow, anything that might feel ‘off’ for readers.

Many beta readers will try to edit. Tell them no.

Personally: get in the right headspace first because it’s not a time for pats on the back, it’s putting yourself out there to get constructive feedback, sometimes rough but fair.

Pick the right readers: 4 minimum suggestion. You want eyes on the pages. Use the numbers to dictate how much of a problem something is. You can’t argue with numbers, so let the math do the work.

Give a deadline: about 4 weeks is good. 2 months is too long.

Who to choose: Allocate an aspect of the feedback to specific readers (you don’t have to make that the main purpose, but if you value someone’s specialised area, then choose them to get that POV). Choose an ‘end user’: the basic reader who reads for the heck of it, just to get a reading on the general appeal of the book.

Format matters: try to give it in a format that people can read.

Give context: what state is the manuscript in at the point the reader is receiving it?


Quote of the week

Accolades go to Jim, and I am paraphrasing here ...

There can be a million ways to fix a problem in your story but the real goal is to solve that problem.

The idea being that a fix is a patch or a shortcut—kind of a ta-daa! moment that comes out of nowhere and isn't necessarily in keeping with the plot or character development. A solve would be in keeping with both.