 Drama: January 08, 2014 Issue [#6069] |
  Drama
This week: Why the Main Character Needs Strong Will Edited by: Joy  
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"In order to exist, man must rebel."
Albert Camus
“Whether a character in your novel is full of choler, bile, phlegm, blood or plain old buffalo chips, the fire of life is [should be] in there, too, as long as that character lives.”
James Alexander Thom
"I write repeatedly—against my will—of those things I fear most happening. Losing a loved one, losing a parent, losing a child. I'm in terror of losing a child. It's never happened to me, but I am clearly compelled to write about it over and over again, and in a way I think, psychologically at least, this says more about me autobiographically as a novelist than the fact that Danny Angel goes to the Iowa Writers Workshop and has Kurt Vonnegut as a teacher, which I also did."
John Irving
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. This issue is about the existence or the development of a strong will in the protagonist and other important characters in a story.
Your Drama Newsletter Editors: zwisis NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
A strong story needs strong assets, such as characters, plot, originality, voice, and style. Among these assets, characters are the most important. If the characters are created well, the story will have a chance.
A weak-willed character cannot carry the burden of a conflict. He simply will not fight. A character, especially the protagonist, must be willing to put up a fight for his beliefs or for what he wants.
It is true that some weak-willed characters exist in the beginnings of some successful works of fiction, but even a weak-willed character has to gather up strength or evolve and develop a powerful dominant trait as the story progresses. Nora in the Doll’s House by Ibsen and Cinderella of the fairy tales are examples of such a character.
From the opposite way of looking at a weak-willed character, if the writer can strengthen or accentuate on his weakness, for example making a dull person the dullest he can be, the story will still succeed, possibly as a comedy.
Sometimes a character’s weakness may be the source of the conflict or it may become the catalyst to solve the conflict. This kind of a weakness may be an addiction or an acquired manner of behavior from an earlier experience. Still, the character needs the strength of will whether he perpetuates that weakness or overcomes it, and he also has to have an established point of view that he is not too willing to let go, especially on matters relating to the conflict.
Then, how do we go about creating a strong-willed character out of a detached, spineless one? The answer lies in the traits we give to that character while we are first creating him. In one or a few of his traits, the character needs to have the seeds of that trait’s future development. Early on in the story, a spouse who will betray his partner may have a roving eye or he will believe that type of a betrayal is excusable; a child who will become a criminal may have the seeds of the crime hidden inside him. The same is true for the cowering weakling who eventually will save the humankind from extinction.
This development in a character from that hidden seed is what we call the character growth. This growth takes place as the character reacts to the conflict in which he is involved, whether his reaction is the correct one or not for solving the conflict.
Having pitched for the strength of will in a character, we must also point out that some weaknesses, such as a mother’s giving in to her children, may easily provide a starting point for a powerful story. If the writer, however, shows the mother always giving in to everyone around her, the mother will not become a protagonist with a strong will, and if the conflict is solved somehow, it will be because of some outside force, such as Deus ex machina, which means the problem is suddenly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of a new event or character. Deus ex machina is an inept plot device, implying a lack of creativity on the part of the author.
In short, whether the strong will is evident inside a character in the beginning, as in tales of adventure, or the character develops it during the course of action, as in dramatic fiction, the stronger the will, the more powerful the story will be.
Until next time...Wishing you a happy, healthy, prosperous, and very successful 2014...
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This Issue's Tip: If you started your story with a disturbance, it means you have just begun bonding the reader with a character.
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ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy 
Thank you for another great, helpful newsletter. Your newsletter today about prompts reminds me of 1960 when I taught Creative Writing to eighth graders. I'd put words on the board (shoe, tree, ball) and be surprised at the poetry and essays. I played "the Grand Canyon Suite" and they 'heard' the rainstorm come and go, and wrote great poetry and essays. You're so right, prompts help get creative juices flowing. Thanks. ann
Thanks for the input, Ann. And yes, young people have vivid imaginations to surprise us sometimes.
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Quick-Quill 
Prompts; My favorite place to look at was Alice's Curiosity Shop. I wrote some great things. Reminded me of Friday the 13th TV series. I love picture prompts and have a few in my port. I look for them when I need a break from a novel or Nano. Something to open different flood gate so more productive ideas can flow.
I know what you mean. I love picture prompts, too.
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Mitchopolis
Thanks for the comprehensive and well done article on prompts. I have on occasion been amazed at the road a prompt can lead me down. Several times I have developed an idea based on a prompt that grows beyond recognition of the original concept that I can barely remember how I arrived at my final product.
Yes, that happens very often, but if we have a good story, that means the prompt has done its job.
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BIG BAD WOLF is Howling 
Prompts inspire stories.
Yes, that's why we have them.
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