I always knew coauthoring had benefits – half the workload, and twice the platform to launch from are the obvious bonuses. Sure, you have to split your royalties, but you also share the costs. But I had reservations (how do you allocate who writes what? What if you don’t like each other’s ideas or writing?), so it was relegated to something other authors did. 

Until a fellow author approached me, asking me to cowrite an urban fantasy series. I was nervous. I was intrigued. I asked some questions. I hesitantly agreed. Not long later, I approached another author friend wondering if we should do the same with an idea I had percolating. One that felt like it could be far better served if it was molded and cultivated by more than just one mind. 

And so my coauthoring journey began. 

And it’s been such a delightful adventure that it sparked the very words you’re reading. With a highly successful dystopian series (which may or may not have interest to option the film rights…), and a twelve book urban fantasy series releasing next year, I discovered the benefits of sharing the writing and marketing process. 

Writing can be a lonely business, so I’ve really delighted in having someone to share the highs and lows with far more intimately. Your coauthor shares the excitement and the anxiety because they’re living it with you. What’s more, it’s exciting to see your word count grow on the days you don’t write, meaning books with your name on them are released twice as fast. It’s easier to rapid release and your backlist grows at twice the rate. 

I’ve been lucky. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive. But I know other coauthored projects never see the light of publishing. There seem to be several key ingredients that are the foundation for success in my coauthored projects. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Trust 

At this stage, Amazon only allows authors to publish under a single name. That means one person from your writing duo (or trio, or septuplet if you’re feeling ambitious!) will be publishing your books on their KDP dashboard. It will be their role (aka headache) to split the royalties each month for the lifetime of your books. 

What’s more, another writer is going to see your work at varying stages of draft (personally, this was a challenge for my perfectionism tendencies). If I didn’t trust my coauthors to be positive and constructive, it would’ve been a much more difficult process. 

Ask yourself:

• Who will be publishing the books? How will you report earnings and costs? 
• Do you feel the feedback you’d be getting is valuable? Do you think it strengthens your writing?
• Are you willing to be tied to this author for the life of your books? 

Respect

When you write a book with someone, you’re molding two creative visions into one. There are times that process won’t be seamless. The truth is, you’re not going to agree on everything. Authors get possessive about characters, have different ideas for the direction of the story, misunderstand communications. You’re probably at different points of the plotting-to-pantsing spectrum…

The assumption that everyone can, and should, speak their mind is a necessary foundation of coauthoring. But it needs to be done respectfully—with a willingness to compromise and a joint desire for a win-win solution. 

You need to consider:

• Are you able to speak openly with your coauthor?
• How will you resolve disagreements? 
• Are you both able to communicate different perspectives in constructive ways?

Complementary Skills

This is one of the benefits of coauthoring, but the more you’re conscious of it, the more you can harness it. Is one writer better at character arcs while the other has a knack for thinking up plot twists? Does one author excel at seeing the big picture while the other will nit-pick at the details? Are one of you skilled with Facebook ads while the other works on building the newsletter? 

Spend a little time articulating the following:

• What are your strengths? What will you bring to the coauthoring project?
• What are your coauthor’s strengths? How can you learn from each other? 
• What skills are you still developing? In what ways could your writing career benefit from working with another writer? How can you benefit theirs?

A Shared Vision

In the same way you’ll need differences and contrasts with your coauthor/s, you’re going to need similarities because these commonalities will be the foundation for your writing endeavors. A shared passion for the story concept and its characters. A desire to see your books succeed, even when life gets busy or the kids get sick. Ultimately, writing a book takes dedication and hard work. If you’re writing a series, then the workload and timeframes just multiplied. 

Make sure you discuss:

• What are you hoping to achieve by publishing this story/series? Does your coauthor feel the same? Are you both equally excited and passionate about this concept?
• How will you actualize these plans? Shared calendars? Checklists? Word count targets?
• Do you both write at the same pace? What work and family responsibilities do you both need to take into account? Are you able to agree on timeframes (and stick to them)?    

I’ve found coauthoring to be deeply rewarding and something I’ll be continuing into the future. In fact, when you find the right person, the end product can be stronger than a book you write solo.

What about you? Have you had success with coauthoring? What have you found rewarding? Challenging? I’d love to hear your experiences. 

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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Capturing the unwinding threads of a relationship is complex. Just like the real world, our characters have a history of weaving those threads together, usually with the intent that their fabric will be as tight as Egyptian cotton. 

But people evolve, circumstances change, and sometimes a relationship isn’t strong enough. Usually these ruptures don’t happen quickly; they involve little tears and big tears over days, months, and sometimes years.

John Gottman, the guru of relationship therapy and founder of the Gottman Institute, outlines the following four factors as tell-tale signs that all is not well with a married couple. In fact, when the frequency of these four behaviors are measured within the span of a 15-minute conversation, Gottman and his fellow psychologists can predict which marriages will end in divorce with striking precision.

If you’re looking to capture this heart-breaking (or cathartic) process in your story, either with your main characters or with those memorable secondary characters, then consider these four predictors of relationship breakdown (they are a wonderful way to capture ‘show, don’t tell’ and to create some interesting moments into your story).

Contempt

Far more toxic than frustration, contempt is a virulent mix of anger and disgust which involve seeing your partner as beneath you. Apart from its direct consequences of either belittling or angering a partner, contempt involves one character closing themselves off to their partner’s needs and emotions. 

If you constantly feel smarter than, better than, or more sensitive than your significant other, you’re not only less likely see his or her opinions as valid, but, more importantly, you’re far less willing toput yourself in their shoes to try to see a situation from their perspective.

Consider these examples:

• Jane sends Jo a list of groceries for tonight’s dinner. When Jo gets home, Jane realizes that Jo picked up self-rising flour instead of plain flour. Jane becomes frustrated, asking Jo what sort of idiot doesn’t know the difference between the two. She even posts it on Facebook so her sisters can see what she has to live with.
• Barry is organizing his next fishing weekend with his two sons. Daria laughs as they are packing their tackle boxes, pointing out to their sons that she caught the biggest fish last time she went out in their godforsaken tin-can-of-a-boat.

Criticism

Like contempt, criticism involves turning a behavior (something your partner did) into a statement about his or her personal character (the type of person he or she is). As many of us have experienced or observed, fault-finding and belittling behaviors add up. Over time, darker feelings of resentment and contempt are likely to brew.

• Alex has a habit of leaving her cereal bowl—soggy, uneaten Wheaties and all—on the coffee table every morning. Sam makes sure she notes it each day as she collects them, pointing out what a lazy and inconsiderate partner Alex is.
• After a sleepless night, Jake overheats baby Bobby’s mashed pumpkin. When Bobby spits it out and starts screaming, Sally scoops him up, shouting over the top that when it comes to parenting Jake couldn’t raise a sweat let alone a child.

Defensiveness

Defensiveness involves a sense of protectiveness and guardedness about our thoughts and feelings. A character who is being defensive will often play the victim in; at times that may be justified…others, not so much.

• A couple are late to a cousin’s wedding. Ashleigh is the first to say, “It wasn’t my fault!” as they slip into a back pew.
• Jane is online to her best friend, typing furiously that she never got a chance to tell her husband about the dint in the car door because all he does is watch YouTube. If he gets upset about it, he can’t say she didn’t try to tell him.

Stonewalling

If your character can sense an argument brewing and their response is to shut down or walk away, you’ve got a stonewaller. Stonewalling can be just as toxic for a relationship as criticism or contempt because it keeps your characters from addressing their underlying issues. When perspectives don’t get a chance to be explored, then frustration is likely to morph into resentment.

• Ian and Sarah are arguing about their credit card debt. When Ian asks Sarah exactly how much those shoes cost, she turns and walks away. Picking up her phone, she retreats to the bedroom.
• During a parent teacher interview, Jacqui suggests that maybe their son isn’t succeeding in math because of the children he’s sitting next to. Her husband, Jed, rolls his eyes at the teacher, shifts his seat forward, and tells the teacher that their son just needs more challenging work as he’s obviously bored. Jed starts enquiring about extension work.

Are you seeing how you could weave these behaviors into your own narrative? I hope so! I’d love to hear how you’ve already done this, or how you plan on showing your characters’ unravelling relationship. 

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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Then I trimmed my nails.

The truth of the matter is, to be human is to procrastinate, but I think writers take procrastination to a level that non-writing homo sapiens would be in awe of. The reasons writers are so awesome at delaying, deferring, or dithering is multifaceted. First of all, we often don’t have a hard and fast deadline. This is particularly the case for first time authors or self-published authors. There’s no cranky boss frowning and threatening unemployment as that external motivation to keep your head down and pen-in-hand. Second, writing is an uncertain and objective art. We have no guarantees that our hard-working efforts are going to be liked or popular. Finally, writing eighty thousand odd words takes time and effort. What’s more, some of those words flow like a fountain…others feel like you’re trying to dig them out of the Sahara.

What’s more, our brains don’t like uncertainty or discomfort. Take away those external incentives, and you’ve got even less reason for our grey matter to want to spend time in that space.

Let’s look at the four top reasons why writers procrastinate so you can develop an understanding of your own reasons for avoidance.

Perfectionism

Setting the bar for the realms of perfection is like inviting procrastination to come and live with you. The prospect of trying to write the perfect prose, the perfect paragraph, the perfect masterpiece of literary fiction is pretty intimidating. It’s much easier to go and scoff at reality TV shows.

Self-doubt

We all carry a critical inner-editor that likes to voice its opinion on our faults and weaknesses. Some days, that snarky pessimist concludes we don’t have what it takes. Sitting with uncertainty and disbelief in our talent isn’t a pleasant place to be—it’s much easier to take a load off your freezer by cleaning out all the ice-cream.

Fear of failure

We’ve all tasted failure, and it’s a bitter, nasty slap that stings long after we faced it. Our brain isn’t stupid—it knows that you don’t want to repeat that little exercise—which means that just the whiff of a misstep and it starts pointing out how awesome your garden would look if you actually spent some time in there…

Low energy levels

Pushing yourself past your “I’ve had enough for today” point is hard. When we’re tired it’s harder to focus, it’s harder to stay motivated, and it’s damn well harder to figure out if our character arc is heading in a convex or concave direction! Those are the days where the prospect of reading or TV or mindless scrolling through Facebook are pretty seductive.

If you look for a common theme among those four dot points, you’ll notice that it’s an avoidance of discomfort. Whether it’s the present unpleasantness of self-doubt or unachievable standards; or the projected prospect of failure; or having to write when we least feel like it; avoidance is your brain’s immediate solution. And it’s pretty effective to—if you go and find something better to do, the uncomfortable feelings go away.

It goes without saying that whilst you’re ridding the garden of weeds, your books aren’t getting written. And we’ve demonstrated enough times what not writing is going to mean for your writing career. We’ve all been there. We all know.

To write even when your brain is suggesting otherwise, consider the following:

• Remind yourself why you write. Our passion is driven by something bigger and better than the immediate rewards of TV or food or Facebook. Write down why you write and put it somewhere prominent. Next time you consider procrastinating, read it and consider which is more important.
• Make room for the uncomfortable feelings that writing can evoke. All those discouraged thoughts, the thorny feelings, all the pessimistic predictions are going to come along for the ride whether we like it or not. Ask yourself, can you make room for them as you write?
• Incorporate some rewards for your achievements. I know Nica does this—when she hits a target of so many words, she buys herself a treat (I asked if it was chocolate, but she said it’s usually a book). Give yourself the gift of external motivation for your efforts in overcoming the very human desire to procrastinate.

How do you bust through the procrastination cycle? Let me know in the comments!

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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Humans like complexity: puzzles, questions, layers. It fascinates us. My guess it’s because there are so many complex systems in nature that our brain needs to navigate successfully. Ecosystems, weather systems, the tax system…But the one that has the most influence on our evolution are social systems.

Our relationships were vital to our survival. Throughout the ages, fellow humans have been our friends— the ones we collaborate and cooperate with to gain more resources, and our foes—our competitors who can hold the power of whether we live or die. These relationships gave rise to social systems: rules, expectations, and norms. These same social systems are enduring but constantly changing, strongly connected but disjointed, adaptive but counter-intuitive (like, why do I bother asking my sons if they’re hungry?). As writer, what’s important to know, is that the minute evolution finds something that enhances our survivability, it lights up our neurons and makes it pleasurable (think calorie rich cheesecake or gene reproducing sex).  

So it’s not surprising the brain is drawn to complexity (think about a piece of art that caught your attention—did it have layers?), is curious about complexity (did you spend time wondering and pondering?), and attends to complexity (how long did you stand there, wondering and pondering?).

It’s why complexity in stories also attracts us, and I’m going to hypothesize that a significant proportion of best-selling novels capture complexity in their pages. As I think of the novels that I loved, the ones that stayed with me, they all had complications, intricacies and layers. They were complex.

And I don’t just mean a complex plot. Complexity isn’t all about the whoa-didn’t-see-that-coming. It’s more than that, and to explain it, I’m going to use permaculture. For any non-horticulturalists out there, permaculture is the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. How does it relate to writing? Well, you’re either about to learn a valuable strategy for writing awesome scenes, or you’re about to wonder about the convoluted mechanics of my brain…

One of the principles of permaculture is that any element in your garden needs to perform more than one function. Chickens? Yes, they produce eggs. But they’re also scrap munchers, manure makers and little walking tractors. Feed them your left over lunch, then use them to turn over old garden beds, and fertilize them in the process. The eggs are almost a bonus! A grape vine growing on a trellis? At the right angle, it can provide shade from the hot afternoon sun for a bunch of veggies, it can provide a nice little micro-climate for the strawberry bed beneath, oh, and its fruit and leaves are edible.

A good scene will do the same. It works on more than one level. Through careful consideration and design (just like a permaculturalist), you add more value for your reader, more experiences and emotions and information for your reader to devour. You’d already have an idea of the function of your scene  — usually moving the plot forward. Here are some ‘layers’ you can add to a scene to add complexity:

Deepen characterization

Let your readers learn something about your character they didn’t know. Let their quirks shine through, slip in a little of their backstory or their wound or their strengths. As they learn about how the plot is evolving, let them learn about this person they’re journeying with.

Explore theme

Use a little symbolism or metaphorical word play to explore the deeper question, worldview, philosophy, message, moral, or lesson your book is probing.  You could slip it into dialogue, the setting, or your secondary characters.

Explore a secondary character

Your secondary characters are a great way to explore theme, but they can also be a juxtaposition or complement to your main character (and/or antagonist). Use them to elicit emotion in your reader — whether it’s empathy for them or for your hero. Expand the focus of your scene to include interesting and valuable information about them, too.

Foreshadow

I do love some nice foreshadowing, both as a writer and as a reader. Foreshadowing elicits intrigue, which in cognitive terms, means curiosity. Whilst entrancing and educating your readers about what’s happening right now, you can give them a taste of what might be coming…

Deepen setting

Your setting is a character in itself. It can help your hero, or be a major roadblock (either literally or metaphorically). It can set the mood, provide context (e.g. the culture or the historical period) and denotes the passage of time. Weave it into your scene like a best-selling author.

Show off your writing talent

Sprinkle a little purple prose or a few clever metaphors. Implement those literary devices or challenge the ‘rules’ of writing. As you take your reader on this ride, do it in style. Most importantly, do it your way.

So, if you have a scene that you think might be a little ‘flat’, or if you’re looking to jazz one up so it has more impact, I recommend engaging your green thumb and employing this handy little permaculture principle: every scene must perform more than one function.

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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I’m a psychologist, so I like to believe there are a set of characteristics that can predict author success. Sure, like any subset of the population—and I’m going to define ‘successful authors’ as those who generate a full-time income from their writing—there’s always going to be diversity, surprises, and outliers. But like any good bell curve (that wavy line that most psychometric tools are based on), there are going to be some characteristics, some traits, that are predictive of the majority.

That’s what every author dreaming of success wants to tap into.

To be a writer who generates a decent income from your creations, you need to do two things. Firstly, you need to craft a story lots of readers will love. The most successful authors have woven together all the intricate pieces of a good story so well that millions of people pay to experience their literary offerings. Secondly, you need to get that book in front of enough readers for it to hit critical mass. Whether you’re trad, hybrid, or indie, marketing and promotion is a challenge every author will face.

Writing and marketing are two essential and interdependent skills you’ll need to reach successful author mecca.

So, could there be a cluster of traits that predict which author can reach those heights? I’m proposing that one such cluster is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the capacity to monitor your own emotions as well as the emotions of others, to distinguish between and label different emotions correctly, and to use emotional information to guide our thinking and behavior and influence that of others. Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been found to be correlated with better social relations, being perceived more positively by others, better academic achievement, and better psychological well-being.

Now, you’re probably wondering how this relates to writing, while at the same time, already seeing some links to your author life. Fascinating, huh? Let’s break down EI into its components, and explore them in terms of a successful author.

According to Daniel Goleman (one of the founding fathers of EI) there are five components of EI:

Self-Awareness

The ability to recognize and understand our own emotions is infinitely useful as a writer because emotion is a central part of any good book. Emotions are what drive your characters, and therefore your plot. How are you going to label, capture, and convey emotions on the page if you struggle do it in real life? What’s more, to be a writer in the long-term takes a particular mindset. Successful writers have passion and perseverance, and look after their psychological well-being. To do that, you need to be self-aware.

Self-Regulation

Anyone who has written beyond the first flush of excitement of an amazing-gotta-write-it-right-now story idea, knows that writing is hard. It’s takes a whole lot of time and a whole lot of perseverance. To keep creating, day after day, week after week, a successful author knows they need to regulate and manage their emotions. There are times when getting words out and onto the screen is like pulling teeth (the molars waaaay at the back), when vacuuming is more enticing (I’ve even cleaned toilets rather than write), and rejections and negative reviews are downright demoralizing. Those days, successful authors will demonstrate self-control, conscientiousness, and flexibility.

Motivation

There are two types of motivation: extrinsic—being motivated by external rewards, which in the land of writing would include riches, fame, and a spot on the Ellen Show; and intrinsic—motivation powered by personal reward, which looks a whole lot different. Writers high in intrinsic motivation are driven to return to their writing cave over and over because they gain personal satisfaction from the process of creating. The successful author? Well, they’re totally wanting to regularly milk the cash cow, but that’s not their only driving purpose. They wouldn’t dream of silencing the characters in their head because they’re driven to share and to give. The process of literary creation is a reward in itself.

Empathy

Empathy is defined as the ability to understand how other people are feeling, and recognizing, on some deeper level, how you would feel in their shoes. You need to empathize with your characters, so you can capture the nuances that are part of any emotional experiences. Writers who do that convey rich and authentic experiences. They blur the line between reality and the story world for the reader. Empathy is also a great skill to have when we engage with readers and fellow writers…  

Social Skills

The final piece of the EI puzzle, social skills are possibly the component that seems least relevant to being a successful author. After all, we write alone, right? The truth is, every word we write has been influenced, motivated, or touched by another human being. The truth is our creativity is a product of community. And so is your writing success.

Social skills allow people to successfully navigate social situations. Successful writers, those high in EI, are great communicators (on and off the page), they can successfully negotiate and resolve conflicts, they build bonds and nurture instrumental relationships, and they collaborate and cooperate. Every successful author I’ve ever spoken to has talked of the connections and support they received from writers and non-writers. They often attribute their success to them.

The great news is that EI can be harnessed and developed. Consider any of the following strategies to improve your emotional intelligence:

• Getting fluent in the “language of emotions,” or learning how to identify, differentiate between, and explore different-but-related emotions.
• Observe how you react to others, making a concerted effort to put yourself in their place. Note how you can use this with your characters.
• Examine how you react to stressful situations and work on staying calm, collected, and under control. Note when you’re motivated to stop writing, and why (and then keep writing).
• Consider why your write. What are the extrinsic motivators, but what are the intrinsic motivators? The intrinsic motivators are the ones that will keep you writing over the long haul.
• Notice how you engage with others. Does this help your writing career? How can you capture these social interactions on the page?

What do you think? Do you know any successful authors, and do you think they are high in emotional intelligence? I don’t suppose you’ve spent time with Stephen King or Nora Roberts, and wouldn’t mind passing on my details for a little study I’d like to perform…?

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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We’re fascinated by our fellow humans. In fact, we have a profound desire to try and understand the thoughts and feelings bouncing around other people, the characters on TV…the hero introduced on your first page.

From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. Our fellow humans are pretty darned important to our survival. They’re our friends; the ones we collaborate and cooperate and mate with, and our foes; our competitors who can hold the power of whether we live or die. It’s why we get a burst of dopamine when someone smiles at us and the same part of our brain associated with physical pain lights up when we’re rejected (in fact, research has found that Tylenol is an effective way to reduce the anguish of social loss).

The wonderful news is that this desire to understand and connect transfers to the fictional characters we create on the page. It means that your reader is looking for someone they can connect with. Someone who will allow them to slip off of their shoes and step into their life so they can safely trek through new territory. They want to blur the line between themselves and your protagonist.

Your reader is wired for it and they are seeking it when they open a book.

You need to give it to them.

How? Well, there’s four key ways to achieve this. The first two acknowledge that a character needs to be someone your reader can establish a relationship with—and the truth is, we empathize more with people we care about. The more invisible the boundary with the self and other (i.e. the character), the easier it is to slip into empathy. To do that, we’re going to explore our commonalities. As diverse as we all are, and as unique as each of our characters are, there are some things that are universal to all humans: a want and a wound.

Make them Want

We empathize with people we identify with, and there are some needs that are universal. Basic human needs. These deep-seated drives grab our attention because they hold evolutionary stakes. Survival, hunger, sex, protection of loved ones, fear of death, all grab us by the guts. The caveman song of survival or hunger or death? Their intrinsic connection to their father, mother, sister, brother, wife, child? That’s what we want to tap into.

As complicated as your plot gets, at its core it should be basic. It should connect with us on a visceral level. Ask yourself, would a caveman understand the core of your story? Does it have physical and/or emotional stakes? Even if your book is a sweet rom com, you need to be able to say yes.

Make them Hurt

I challenge you to find a person who isn’t carrying a wound, consciously or unconsciously. Our brains have a tendency to internalize negative events. I’ve worked with children who blame themselves for their parents’ divorce, teens who punish themselves for social transgressions, and parents who blame themselves for their child’s disability. These perceptions and conclusions aren’t always rational (or helpful), but they’re very human. Wounds will make your character authentic and ultimately someone a reader can empathize with, no matter what they’re facing.

The next two components are about harnessing two powerful psychological processes: curiosity and emotion. Your character needs to be someone who grabs our attention, and what captures our attention? Anything out of the norm, unexpected, or surprising. So we make our character unique. Then we harness the crucial emotional element by grabbing those heart strings and not letting go. To do that we make our character someone who is ‘more’.

Make them Unique

It’s a well-known rule that you want to avoid stereotypes and clichés when it comes to character development. Stereotypes and clichés are familiar, commonplace, and banal. But anything new, different, unexpected, or unprecedented? That grabs our attention, all because when we are experiencing something new we are also, quite inevitably and unconsciously, learning.

Which is why you need to make your character unique. How do you make your handsome billionaire CEO stand out in a crowd of other drool-worthy billionaire CEOs? You got it—surprise your reader. Intrigue them.

Make them one-of-a-kind.

Ask yourself, what about your character is unique? Is it their circumstance, their personality, their mannerisms? What haven’t readers come across before with this particular person on a page? Those are the characters your reader wants to spend time with.

Make them More

Many writers assume that to create an authentic, relatable character, they need to make them ‘like us.’ And they’re right. Relatable and authentic are pretty darned important, the issue is that you run the risk of having a character who is ordinary. And yes, that does translate to boring (sometimes depressing).

Luckily, when we make our character want and hurt, we create a character a reader can connect with. We all yearn and we all bleed. But the characters who are memorable? The ones who stay with us long after we finish the book? The ones who have us looking to see if maybe, maybe this book’s (please let it be) a series?

Those characters are more.

These characters have something about them that is extraordinary or exceptional, not in looks or intellect, but in timeless virtues. Traits such as compassion, strength, integrity, insight, a commitment to justice, family, love, steadfastness, sacrifice, selflessness. Essentially, they are any trait that is admirable or inspirational. In fact, research has shown that reading about good people elicits a sense of elevation and inspiration.

Ask yourself the following: what is extraordinary about your character? Even if they are an ordinary Joe Blow who lives next door, works nine to five, and drives a Volvo, what is extraordinary about him?

Have you incorporated some or all of these key components into your character/s?

Looking for an easy way to create characters that are authentic and resonate with readers? The One Stop for Writers’ Character Builder makes this possible.

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post The Key Components of a Compelling Character (According to Psychology) appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Our brain is driven by emotion. We may like to think we’re rational beings, applying the rules of logic calmly and sensibly to those little and not-so-little decisions, but our every thought, our whole perspective is colored by emotion. What this means is, that as a writer, you need to convey not just what happens (the action) in your story, but also how this affects your protagonist and how they feel about the events (the reaction). Why? Because that is what your reader is going to connect with. Without emotion, it will be neutral, boring…put down and the remote picked up.

Which seems straightforward…. except emotions aren’t that simple. During the 1970s, psychologist Paul Ekman suggested there are six basic emotions that are universally experienced in all human cultures: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. And in some ways he was right. These six emotions are actually recognized across the globe, across a multitude of cultures, and are even expressed by babies who are blind.

But… (there’s always a but), so many emotions are far more complex and heterogeneous to be fitted neatly into six (or even sixty) categories. Where does humility rest? Where do you slot nostalgia? And what about dolce far niente, the pleasure of doing nothing; or the feeling of ilinx, the excitement of wanton destruction (like throwing a pile of loose papers out the window or deliberately smashing a delicate china cup), or even pronoia, the strange creeping feeling that everyone is out to help you? Emotions can be intense feelings directed at someone or something, they can be a state that is mild (such as annoyed or content), or they can be not directed at anything in particular (as in anxiety or depression). Just as primary colors combine to create rainbows and kaleidoscopes, primary emotions blend to form the full spectrum of emotional experience.

To start with, each separate emotion appears in a variety of forms with great differences between them. There are many types of love or anger or hope. Then there’s emotion’s great sensitivity to personal and contextual circumstances. How a person attributes or understands a certain context will influence what emotion is elicited. Fifty dollars won through good luck could elicit surprise; fifty dollars earned by hard work may elicit pride; and fifty dollars received from a friend when experiencing cheesecake-withdrawal is likely to beget gratitude.

Great writers, the writer we all want to be, understand this complexity and capture it.

How?

They realize the goldmine of emotions is in the detail.

Parents are adept in capturing this. If a mother or father had to describe how Alex feels when told they are moving interstate; they’ll notice the long blink, the shifting of weight, the glance at the teddy sitting on the chair on the other side of the room. What’s more, they can tell you what each of those details mean. They notice the subtleties and nuances of their children because they are invested in noticing. They care. And they pay attention.

And we can use that framework too. No two hugs are the same. No drive to work is identical to the last. No handshake can be replicated exactly. Details are interesting, intriguing, and loaded with emotion. They take the big stuff like fear or love, and tease them out into their levels and layers, where they contrast and where they combine, how they heal and how they hurt.

Consider the manuscript you’re writing right now and ask yourself any of the following:

What are your thoughts? How do you capture emotion’s complexity? How do authors you admire achieve it?

For more help effectively writing your character’s emotions for readers, One Stop for Writers has a whole thesaurus dedicated to different emotions, as well as numerous templates and worksheets to help you become familiar with your character’s emotional range.

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post Capturing Complex Emotion: A Writer’s Superpower appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Every writer who has spent time studying the craft writing knows of the character wound, and that they are the foundation of a strong, memorable character. Why? Because they make characters complex, authentic (I challenge you to find me a person that isn’t carrying an emotional wound, consciously or unconsciously), and they provide the foundation for the most moving moments a story can contain—the character arc. Yep, wounds are the birth of the change and growth your reader is there to experience.

Sure, not all stories need a character arc (and therefore a wound); there’s New York Times best sellers out there that leave the character the same way we found them. But who doesn’t love the story of the underdog, the one that perseveres, the hero that overcomes? I’ve never done the math, but my guess is those stories are disproportionately represented in the coveted #1 ranks. I think it’s safe to say a character wound is an important part of your writing repertoire.

A character wound is a painful past event that changes who your character is. In psychological terms it’s called the ‘negative core belief*’, whose definition is almost identical to that of a character wound— ‘a negative, broad, and generalised judgement an individual has made about themselves, based on some negative experiences they have had during their earlier years.’ Whether you define it intuitively, or scientifically, in essence, it’s a thinking pattern rooted in our past. One that will impact how your character perceives the world, and ultimately the choices they make.

(*You may have seen Angela and Becca refer to this as the lie, misbelief, or false belief. Read more about it here.)

Most writers acknowledge this and incorporate a character wound into their character’s backstory, but what the simplistic definitions above don’t capture, is that wounds (and our negative core beliefs) are multiply determined. What do I mean by ‘multiply determined’? Essentially, every belief, thought, bias, and perception we’ve built about ourselves and our world is a product of not one incident, but a layered and dynamic interaction of nature and nurture.

In psychology we call it the biopsychosocial model, but I wouldn’t spend any more time on that term than the seconds it took you to decipher it. What writers need to know is that the wound their character carries has been created by the interplay of a variety of factors. Consider the following:

Your Character’s Biology

Early scientists subscribed to the “tabula rasa” theory of development; that at birth the human mind is a “blank slate”. In fact, every one of us arrives in this world with certain predispositions programmed into our microscopic DNA sequences, which means any character in your story has the same roots. Consider the play of genetics and neurology that influences your character’s temperament, personality traits, intelligence, and physical attributes. If your character is extremely introverted and short, they are going to respond very differently to an abusive father than a character that is brash and built like a barn. If your character has a family history of mental health issues and they see something no one else can, they are going to jump to a whole different set of conclusions than someone who doesn’t. To create an authentic person on your page, you need to reflect these biological building blocks, because they play a part in how your character internalises their experiences and how they engage with others.

Your Character’s Psychology

This component focuses our lens on how your character thinks and behaves. Heavily influenced by both biology (nature) and the social context (nurture), your character’s wound is a reflection of their perceptions, thoughts, emotions, motivations, personality, and behaviour. Sure, you can have a hero whose ex-wife cheated on him (and is about to meet his soulmate…who’s a shifter), or a young, orphaned boy who lives on the streets (and is about to discover he’s the only hope for an ancient civilisation he didn’t know existed), but is your character an optimist? Are they a quick thinker, or do they need time to process the events that unfold around them? When it comes to crunch time, do they avoid, do they rationalise, do they go on the attack? A wound, the belief that we’re unlovable for example, doesn’t exist within a vacuum. Your character’s psychological traits are going to mold that belief into something very nuanced and unique (and the awesome bit is that you, the writer, get to say what that is!).

Your Character’s Social World

Our social world has been molding us since the day we were born. Our parents, our broader family dynamics, our communities, and our culture are all layers that define us. Social factors are probably the most invisible influence when it comes to the private and often unseen thoughts that live in our heads, but it’s equally as influential as biology and psychology. Your character may have been through trauma, abuse, grief or loss and have reached some conclusions about themselves or their world. But when they decided that adults can’t be trusted, that they are a failure, or that they don’t belong, what world were they living in at the time? Were they isolated and discriminated against, or did they have economic security or a strong cultural identity? How did these factors impact on the wound your character carries? Did they reinforce it or challenge it?

We all want our characters to be authentic and realistic. Capturing that on a page, heck, in a book, is a challenge considering how complex and complicated Homo Sapiens are. But it’s a challenge worth investing in, because crafting a character that becomes as real for your reader as they are to you is something every writer strives to create. And ultimately, that unforgettable character is a key factor that will have readers coming back for more.

What do you think? Have you considered all these layers when crafting your character and their wound? How do these layers weave together to challenge or reinforce your character’s wound?

For more help brainstorming and fine-tuning your character’s wound, check out the One Stop for Writers Emotional Wound Thesaurus.

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post How To “Level Up” Your Character’s Wound appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Psychologists will often conduct a case formulation when a client presents in our office. If we want to be part of the change the client is seeking, then we have to have a good understanding of the client and all the factors that influence them. Now, are you seeing any parallels with a writer and their character? As writers, we want to understand our characters on a nuanced level that will allow us to create an authentic connection with our readers. We want a character who others can relate, empathize, or connect with, even if they don’t need to like them.

When psychologists aim for this level of comprehensive understanding, one framework we’ll use is the Four Ps. We apply this model to gain information about how to instigate change and move forward. Interestingly, stories are also about instigating change and moving forward, so it’s not surprising that writers can gain from this framework. Using the information you create from the Four P framework allows psychologists to understand their clients and their environment in a comprehensive manner. I believe writers can do the same for their characters and the story world they’re building.

Predisposing Factors

Although psychologists call this part of our world ‘predisposing factors’, in the world of writing, this is your character’s backstory. Psychology allows us to delve into this backstory with a deeper level of nuanced understanding. This is because psychology knows there are biological, psychological and social factors that impact our personality and behaviours.

For a writer, this means considering both the internal and external factors that have shaped your character. Although not every point will be relevant to every story, reflecting on the following areas is going to give you a deeper understanding of your character when they enter the story.

• What traits does your character already present with? Are they extroverted, introverted, highly intelligent, impulsive, have a family history of cancer or mental illness?
• How has your character managed stressful situations in the past? Are they avoidant, do they rationalise, do they go on the attack? Are they quick thinkers, or do they need time to process the events that unfold around them? These personality and psychological structures are going to predict how your character responds to the challenges your plot is about to throw their way.
• How has their social world influenced them? Cultural and sociodemographic influences are what every writer needs to consider when crafting an authentic character. If your character is a Caucasian, middle-aged man who grew up in middle-class suburbia, their childhood environment is going to be quite different to a Hindu girl who grew up in the slums of India.

Precipitating Factors

Precipitating factors are actually described as inciting incidents in the psychological literature, which serendipitously aligns with story structure terminology. When we consider precipitating factors in our story, think of the inciting incident that may launch your hero into act two or three, but also all the little instances where their wound or misbeliefs are triggered which will allow you to show what really pushes their buttons.

• What situation/s would directly challenge your character’s understanding of the world?
• Two people may experience the same precipitating event, but react differently depending on their backgrounds, life experience, social support, coping strategies and current circumstances. Which of these influencing factors are relevant to your character and story?
• How can you use this knowledge to challenge, trip up, or even confirm, your character’s perception of the world in small ways throughout your story?

Perpetuating Factors

Perpetuating factors are very much the nuts and bolts of your story world. These are the factors that maintain your character’s thoughts and response style, and will either reinforce them, or challenge them. Perpetuating factors are likely to be a carefully considered mix of the following:

• We all see the world through our own perceptions and beliefs. Consider what this lens looks like for your character; are they an optimist or pessimist, do they struggle to understand social cues, are they depressed, do they believe no one can be trusted?
• What social relationships are currently impacting on your character? Do they have a supportive teacher, avoidant parents, a broad peer network or only one trusted friend? What does this mean for your character’s choices?
• Consider your broader story world—a dystopian society is always going to impact on its story world inhabitants (particularly depending on which side of the social ladder you got allocated to), but how does it impact on your character personally? How does this information relate to everything you’ve already learned?

Protective Factors

Protective factors are one reason I love the Four Ps model—protective factors delve into your character’s strengths, resilience and support. It allows us to explore our character’s assets, but in detail from their internal traits, to the world you’ve created around them.

• What traits does your character have that will aid them as you drag them through hell—I mean, the story? Are they street smart, are they great at problem solving? Are they empathic, optimistic, funny, determined, disciplined or dedicated? Take a little time to consider the strengths your character already had when they first walked onto the page.
• Who are the people around them that support and help them? Some of these already existed in the details of your backstory, like the grandmother who taught your character to stand up for the underdog, through to a new mentor that teaches them the rules of the fantastical world they’ve just discovered themselves in.
• What strengths does your character have that they aren’t aware of? The external perspective of a psychologist, or in our case, the writer, holds an objectivity and understanding a person may be too close to see. Consider how your character may discover these strengths, and what that could mean for them.

Can you see the wonderful link between case formulation and character building? By reviewing and applying the four Ps, what have you learned about your character? Your story world?

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post Deepening Character Complexity with the Help of Psychology appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

There’s one powerful motivator that led your reader to your book — curiosity. Human curiosity is so powerful it has us doing completely unproductive things like reading news about people we will never meet, learning topics we will never have use for, or exploring places we will never come back to. Think about it, have you ever got lost, ever tried something just to see what would happen, or did things just for the heck of it? Yep, that was curiosity working its magic.

Curiosity is what captured a reader’s attention when they saw your title, your cover, and then your blurb. Their synapses fired. Their mind wanted to know more, because when we actively pursue new information, we’re rewarded with a flood of pleasure inducing dopamine (just like when we eat, have sex, or snort cocaine). Evolution knew that the drive to find new and novel things helped us not only survive, but thrive, so it wired it into our grey matter. And once that spark has been created and your reader has turned to the first chapter, you need to keep that flame burning. Thankfully, psychology has studied curiosity, and we writers can use what they’ve discovered.

Here are the top three literary devices you can use to capture your readers curiosity:

Questions

The human drive for question gave us wonders like planes that can carry cars and cameras you can hide in your tie. Our brain doesn’t stop asking questions because it knows that’s how it learns and evolves. This means your book needs to be driven by questions. Questions raise uncertainty. Unknowns. And if there’s an unknown, then humans want to make it known. There will be a big question that will drive your story—such as will Frodo get to Mount Doom and save Middle Earth? But there will also be all the little interesting questions along the way – like did Gandalf really just die? Who was that hot elven-chick that just rescued Strider? What will happen to sad, twisted Golum? Your book will need a variety of whos, whens, whys, and wheres to keep your reader engaged.

Ultimately, there’s one question that every one of these can be classified under. It’s the mother-question that’s drives your reader like astrophysics drove Einstein and dust filled homes drove Hoover. And I propose that every scene in your book needs to have this question define it. I’m suggesting that each chapter needs to finish on this question. I say that your protagonist, and even your secondary characters, need to have this question hanging over them. It’s what will keep your reader turning those pages. Because their mind will be asking the most important question of all—what happens next???

The Element of Surprise

Surprise is a sure fire way to capture a reader’s curiosity.  When presented with anything unexpected our brain lights up and hones in so it can explore and learn. Eyes look for longer, arousal is heightened, attention is focused. Create the element of surprise through the following:

• Novel characters—interesting people interest us. We don’t expect a villain to be someone we can empathize with, or the shy pen-pusher to be the hero. Quirky people do the unexpected – just think Don Tillman from The Rosie Project. Those are the people characters we want to spend time with.
• Unusual situations—everyday people thrust into unusual circumstance do unexpected things. These unprecedented or unpredictable situations are the ones our brains know we can gain something from. We didn’t expect a sadist to be someone a naïve, virginal girl would fall in love with, but man, did that concept sell some books!
• Unexpected ideas—research has shown that babies are particularly interested and focused on exploring those situations where their expectations were contravened. Challenge assumptions, create concepts we hadn’t considered before.
• Ambiguity – a situation where we can’t decide between different, competing hypotheses or ideas, or where the existing information just isn’t sufficient to draw a solid conclusion will have your reader curious. We all know that feeling when we can’t quite figure out which is the correct answer. Was Darlene’s drive to run away from home because of the guy she met online? Or was it because of the relationship with her father…? How many hours have you poured into a book to get to the answer?

A Gap in Knowledge

Research has shown that we find it harder not to listen to someone talking on the phone (so we only hear half of the conversation) than to listen to two people having a face-to-face conversation. Basically because curiosity is a drive for information – the drive to know the answers to all the questions we’ve just discussed. We want to explore. We want to fill in the gaps. That very drive will have your reader turning pages hour after hour. Consider the following:

• Foreshadowing—yep, plant a seed. Leave clues. Allude to something more complex, more intriguing than the initially suspected. You’re hinting that something is coming.
• Drip feed important information—we are most engaged when we know there is still more to be learned. If we think we’ve figured it all out, that there’s nothing else worth knowing, our brain moves onto the next novel stimuli, which equates to a reader putting down your book and picking up the remote. Show your reader some valuable information, but also let them know they don’t know it all. They’ll have to keep reading to get all the pieces of the puzzle.

Curiosity is what’s going to keep that magical chemical concoction swimming around your readers’ brains and ultimately keep them reading. Weave the elements that spark curiosity through your book and you’ve given your reader a reason to keep reading. We’ve all been there, it’s 4 am, on a week night, with children that are early risers…knowing we’ve run out of coffee—but we just HAVE to know the answer!

What do you think? Do you see some of these elements in your favourite books? Have you incorporated them into your own stories? I’d love to hear what you think.

Heads up!

Tamar’s book, Grit for Writers: Why Passion and Perseverance are the Keys to Your Writing Success is now available. (Sounds like a great read, doesn’t it?)

TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post Three Powerful Techniques To Harness A Reader’s Curiosity appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

I would imagine that nearly every writer has an understanding of why they write. Most of us have been lifelong readers. Most of us have deeply respected and admired those talented people who produce movies in our head with nothing but strategically placed words. On a more personal level, there’s the indescribable sense of flow when the words pour out oh-so-effortlessly, there’s that stroke of brilliance when a plot twist strikes out of nowhere, there’s the feeling of creating something that no one else has before. Every one of those feelings is motivating and rewarding and necessary for our long-term writing mojo.

Writing Requires Commitment and Motivation

But the road to the publication dream is littered with unfinished manuscripts, dejected hearts, and writers wondering if they should turn around and head home. The reality is that success in the writing game is more of a marathon than a sprint, and that sort of motivation tends to wax and wane. But as I was researching my upcoming Grit for Writers book, I discovered that Angela Duckworth, best-selling author of Grit: Why Passion and Perseverance are the Secrets to Success, defines purpose a little differently. She frames purpose as ‘the idea that what we do matters to people other than ourselves.’

Writing is all about Connecting with Others

 If that mission statement doesn’t apply to writing, I don’t know what does. Sure, writing is about creating something unique, our own slice of the impossible and extraordinary. But the short stories, the poems, the self-help books, the scary, moving, funny, touching fiction we put out there is actually for the reader (otherwise we’d be happy for them to remain in our computers). Ultimately, we create them to entertain, to inspire, to provoke what-ifs, to elicit emotions, to broaden horizons, to challenge perspectives. That drive is about touching others.

We’re Wired to Want to Connect

This desire to connect is actually been programmed into our DNA. Evolution’s job was to make sure we survived, and humans haven’t just survived, we’ve thrived. Evolution achieved this by making survival-enhancing behaviors pleasurable. If our ancestors hadn’t had a hankering for food and sex, I wouldn’t have written this post, and you wouldn’t be here to read it.

And just like our drive for these essential-to-survival needs have been deeply wired into our programming, so did seeking meaning and purpose. Why? Because the drive to connect also enhances our survival. Evolution discovered that humans who connect were more likely to survive than the loners (much to the dismay of my hermit tendencies). Communities kept us fed, built us shelters, gave us sanitation and electricity and printing presses. So if fellow humans help us survive and thrive, we need to want to be with fellow humans and connect with them.

Purpose is the Foundation of Your Motivation

This is why we aren’t content to let our manuscripts collect virtual dust on our computers. Why else do we reach out to our favorite authors to let them know how their book touched us? It’s also why positive feedback or reviews are just as good as chocolate (believe me, it’s significant that I wrote that).

It’s not surprising that research has shown that having purpose allows you to be persistent in your goals and resilient when you experience setbacks. It’s because you feel inspired by something bigger than yourself. When you acknowledge that your writing contributes to others, in a magnificently diverse and deeply unique way, you appreciate the value of what you do. Once you articulate this, you’ll discover that purpose is the foundation for your passion to write.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Why do you write?
• How will your writing contribute to others?

Purpose is the Foundation of your Message

Now that we’ve articulated why we write, I’d encourage to think a little deeper. Writing gives something to our readers. Something unique. Something straight from you. This is the part that you can use to fine tune the story you’re writing right now. Ask yourself; what’s the message, opinion, or world-view that you’re trying to convey? Maybe you want to share stories of human triumph or raise existential questions, maybe you want to warn of the harsh realities of human nature. That value or statement is what will shine through your story. Ultimately, readers won’t remember the details of your brilliant prose or clever metaphors (although they’re pretty useful to get them to read to the end), they will remember what they learned. Just like I’ll always remember The Fault in Our Stars because it made me think of how we touch others before we die, or The Little Prince because it had me reflecting on how close-minded we adults are, your theme or message will be tied in with your purpose

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the theme or message of your current manuscript? How does it tie in with why writing is important to you?
• Imagine yourself fifteen years from now. What do you want readers to remember you for?

I encourage every writer to identify how their writing is personally rewarding, but at the same time, is connected to the well-being of others. What’s awesome is that this process will have a twofold benefit. You’ll articulate the message of your book, which gives the reader a gift to take with them long after they finished your story (and keeps your plot focused). But whilst you’re tapping out the thousands of words needed to get there, purpose will be the source of your motivation tomorrow, next month, and when we’re both lamenting how much fan mail is in our inbox

I’d love to hear your perspectives. The diversity of the writing community is one of its many strengths.

What is your purpose? Does keeping this in mind help you in the marathon of writing success? How does it connect to the theme or message in your book?

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TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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The post What Is the Real Purpose of Writing? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Today we have a treat. Tamar Sloan, Psychologist and YA author is lending her brain to us to talk about what psychology can teach us about writing, so please read on!

Being a psychologist, I might be biased, but I believe psychology is the ultimate compliment to writing. Think about it, psychology is the study of human behaviour and emotions, relationships and social interactions, psychopathology and human dysfunction. What do novels explore and ultimately mirror? You got it; what characters do and feel, their relationships and interactions, the worst of humanity and our inspirational best.

So what can psychology teach writers?

1: We’re a product of our past.

I’ve touched on this when discussing attachment theory, but our perceptions, core beliefs and aspirations are all powerfully influenced by everything that has been. It was the basis of Freud’s theoretical framework, and although his theories such as penis envy or the use of cocaine as an anti-depressant haven’t really stood the tests of science (or feminism), he was right about some things. Our past matters. I’m talking your childhood, your adolescence, what you learnt in your first job, but also your parents, their parents and the hundreds of generations before us. Our history makes and shapes us, and the ones struggling and succeeding in your book should too. If you want authentic, relatable characters then know your characters backstory, their triumphs and their failures, and how that shapes where they’re going next.

2: We’re all afraid of something.

Fear is hardwired into our brain. Deep, deep in the primal part that we don’t have a lot of conscious control over.  I won’t go into the science of it all (I could, but it would be a whole other blog post…) but what it means for you is that every character in your book is going to be afraid of something. And I’m not just talking about heights or spiders. As social creatures (also powerfully programmed into our grey matter) the fear of rejection, being alone or the threats other humans can pose to us (as competitors or predators) are powerful influencers on our behaviour. The visceral reactions we experience facing a sabre tooth tiger or a shaft of light bouncing off a blade is just as real and physical as the response to the loss of a loved one or being dumped.

And fear is tied in with avoidance. Our brains protective instinct is to evade and escape anything that could be potentially unpleasant (incidentally, the ‘fight’ part of fight or flight is also an avoidance strategy – it’s a means to get away or make something stop). So whatever your protagonist is afraid of – brain sucking zombies, their parents disapproval…loving again – they are likely to go to some very unhelpful lengths to not experience it. In essence, it means fear is a powerful motivator, can be born of a deep wound, and is the part that our readers ‘get’ on a universal level that connects us all.

3: We all need a purpose.

When a client is sitting across from me sharing their hardships and their hopelessness I listen and validate. What I often hear is that they don’t have a direction or a purpose, and it’s going to be something we’ll explore in a therapeutic context. That’s because humans need to know where we’re going, and have an idea of how we’re going to get there. It’s how we learn, progress and move forward. Thinks about it, have you ever been stuck? How did it feel? I’m going to hazard a professional guess and say not so fabulous. But the moment you caught a glimmer of a solution, a way forward, things changed huh? Even if was the most unhelpful, counterproductive solution you could have conceived, you still had a direction. And direction feels better than stagnation.

This should reflect in the art form you’ve chosen. Readers don’t want a character wandering aimlessly thorough the pages of your book. A goal is what we connect with. Readers want to know, need to know, why your protagonist is making the choices they’re making – even if it’s the worst idea ever.

4: We’re not “one thing” all the time.

Now this is a tricky one, because research shows that personality is relatively stable over time. If you’re born an introvert, you’ll always have introspective, hermit tendencies. If you were a worrier as a child, you’re probably a bit of an anxious adult.

But personality characteristics function on a continuum, meaning we fluctuate. I’m an introvert, I love my alone time, in fact I need it to recharge. But I can be highly social, almost extroverted in certain contexts. Put me with close friends and I talk over people. Work social function? I’ll mingle and smile like I know what I’m doing.

To write authentic, realistic characters you need to remember that depending on what’s going on around them, they may do what they’ve always done, but they may also surprise us. To write characters with depth and complexity you’ll have to capture the human capacity to be whatever we want to be if we put our minds to it.

5: We grow and change, grow and change.

As a psychologist I get to see the power of human choice unfold in my office every single day. It’s a beautiful, inspirational sight to behold. It’s also has devastating and life-long outcomes. But it’s what drives our personal evolution, it’s how we become…more. It’s the pivot point of our lives and needs to be in your book.

Think of all your favourite novels, the ones that had you losing contact with reality and precious sleep. Was the character different at the end compared to when you inhaled that first line? I would bet my registration on it. Even the ones that end up worse off than when they began, that have loved and ultimately lost, change still occurred.

That’s the part that stays with a reader. To be honest, the dammed good ones changed us as we traveled alongside that transformation. So, if psychology were a mentor, an advisor, what would she say? Capture that in your book.Save

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TAMAR SLOAN

Tamar Sloan is a freelance editor, consultant and the author of PsychWriter – a fun, informative hub of information on character development, the science of story and how to engage readers.Tamar is also an award-winning author of young adult romance, creating stories about finding life and love beyond our comfort zones. You can checkout Tamar’s books on her author website.

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