We often get quite a few questions from authors curious about BNBS concerning what it's all about and how can they manage their campaigns.
In order to answer some of these questions, we thought it might be beneficial to put out some points that those of you currently in the middle of a campaign or anyone remotely considering using BNBS to get published.
There will be more coming on the website over the next few weeks, but as a starter for ten...
And for those of you already in campaigns, there is some really useful information at the following link - https://goo.gl/ay9YPz
And you all always know if you need anything at all, you only have to ask Kelly and I and we will help as much as we can.
Next week for #talkabouttuesday, a very special guest author!!
Every story consists, in one form or another, of a selection of specific characters; archetypes interwoven into a specific story arc. And what I’m about to tell you isn’t new… Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler have already covered this, but I think they are amongst some of the most important writing lessons anyone could ever learn and should always bear in mind when constructing their plot.
In fact, it's probably something you already do and don’t even realise. Don’t believe me? Okay, consider these:
1.) The hero is introduced in his/her ORDINARY WORLD
2.) The CALL TO ADVENTURE.
3.) The hero is reluctant at first. (REFUSAL OF THE CALL.)
4.) The hero is encouraged by the Wise Old Man or Woman. (MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.)
5.) The hero passes the first threshold. (CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.)
6.) The hero encounters tests and helpers. (TESTS, ALLIES, ENEMIES.)
7.) The hero reaches the innermost cave. (APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE.)
8.) The hero endures the supreme ORDEAL.
9.) The hero seizes the sword. (SEIZING THE SWORD, REWARD)
10.) THE ROAD BACK.
11.) RESURRECTION.
12.) RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR
Don’t think you can fit this around any story? Okay then…
We meet farm boy Luke Skywalker on Tatooine (ordinary world introduction). He meets R2D2, C3PO and Obi Wan Kenobi. Obi Wan tells him of his father who fought in the Clone Wars (call to adventure). Asked to accompany Obi Wan, Luke refuses until he discovers his aunt and uncle murdered which then persuades him otherwise (meeting with the mentor). Journeying to Mos Eisley, he meets Han Solo and Chewbacca (crossing the threshold) that leads to an encounter with Princess Leia, the Death Star and Darth Vader (tests, allies, enemies). He journeys deep into the Death Star (approach to the innermost cave) but loses Obi Wan to Darth Vader (ordeal). Returning to join the Rebellion, he joins them in an attack on the Death Star (seizing the sword). Successful in blowing up the gigantic space station, he receives his reward alongside Han and Chewie (the road back). Indeed, in Return of the Jedi, he almost turns to the dark side whilst fighting his father which is the resurrection. The lesson Luke has learned throughout the entire Star Wars saga is about the light and dark sides of the force and how powerful friends and family can be (return with the Elixir).
Everyone knows the old adage of ‘the villain makes the hero’. You need the evil so overwhelming that the most unlikely good can overcome it. Joseph Campbell knew this, which is why his construct for what makes the best stories can be seen in countless tales over countless years.He also knew you needed specific character types, or archetypes as he called them, to make your stories truly come to life. And they were; heroes, shadows, mentors, heralds, threshold guardians, shape shifters, tricksters and allies.
Using Sherlock Holmes as an example – Holmes is the hero, Moriarty is the shadow or villain, Watson is the mentor with guiding principles, Irene Adler could be the herald who calls the hero to adventure, Lestrade could be the threshold guardian standing in the way of important points, the shape shifter could be Stapleton in The Hound of the Baskervilles, the trickster, once again Irene Adler/Moriarty and the allies, well Lestrade again and even Adler on some occasions if the circumstances suit her. The character types can be interchangeable, but the fact exists that they are always there in some respect.
Works with Doctor Who too…
The Doctor – hero.
Dalek/Cyberman/Sontaran/Weeping Angel – villain.
The Face of Boe– mentor.
Wilf (Donna’s uncle who ended up being the cause of the 10th Doctor’s regeneration)– threshold guardian
Captain Jack Harkness – shapeshifter
Missy/The Master - trickster
Amy/Sarah-Jane/Clara/Donna/Martha/Rose - allies
Think about it… it works with your story too though granted, as with anything, you may not have rigidly adhered to these guidelines. Stick too closely and your story will be stilted… deviate too far and your story will be lost in a mire of plot holes and inconsistencies. But use it as a skeleton framework to build your story around, and you can shuffle them about, retitle them, delete some, add others and discover the true power held within your story. Power to tell the most wonderful of tales that you hadn’t even realised.
When I began writing Hellbound in 2012, I made one huge, monumental mistake.
I carried out no research, whatsoever.
International bestselling author, Steve Alten, had taken me on as a writing coach client where he would act as a mentor of sorts, editing each chapter as I went along and offering narrative suggestions where appropriate. Upon discussion of Hellbound’s general plot, I opted to write 5 pages of the first chapter off the top of my head. You would think I would pay attention to a man who, as I mentioned at the beginning of this sentence is an international and New York Times bestselling author.
Do I tell you this to boast? Not at all. Steve has taken around 14 clients under his wing since he started his writing coach programme and being a huge fan of his work, I got a huge buzz just out of him teaching me how to write basically... which is what it ultimately amounted to because, of course, I knew better!
These pages were immediately met with justified criticism because, as he rightly said, I was lacking research and perspective. Who was the antagonist? Why was I opening on him? His name didn’t work, it wasn’t creepy enough and sounded more like a rock star's I had called him Cameron Brett Easton, in homage to the great author of American Psycho) Where was the prison? Was it real or fictitious? Basically, I hadn’t written anything that would hook the reader, which is probably the most important aspect of any book.
I quickly realised I was writing what I thought I knew about prisons and prisoners, when I actually knew nothing.
I needed to learn it and then write it.
As an example, here is a sample from the opening of Hellbound before and after research being carried out:
Original draft
Blacktower penitentiary currently housed two hundred and eighty-seven prisoners who were awaiting execution for their various crimes, though it had the capacity to hold more than three hundred. It was divided into 3 levels, each self-contained with its own amenities and individual security measures. The upper level housed the murderers and rapists of the country; the middle level catered for those criminals with particularly exotic tastes in crime, such as contract killers and assassins who had had the misfortune of being caught in the act or just after. These criminals were awaiting the death penalty due to the nature of their crimes, which had either been performed for financial motivation or were their actual careers. This differed from those criminals on the first level, as it could be argued that, however repulsive their crimes may well have been, theirs were also crimes of passion and instinctual, and not necessarily premeditated.
However, it was the lower, third level which held the piesta résistance of the criminal world. This was where, in virtual solitude and isolation, the country and possibly the world’s, most dangerous and unrepentant criminals resided as they awaited their day of reckoning. Here you could expect to find the serial paedophiles who took joy in murdering their victims and disposing of their once, innocent bodies in the most abhorrent of fashions. You may also expect to see the serial killers who had used new and unusual methods of taking their victims lives, which ranged from simple dismemberment to more extreme examples of culinary and gastrological cuisine.
The being that Harrison Maybrick was coming to watch die today was of those people. He was known only as Erebus.
Not great, is it? Nothing of substance about it; dull, unimaginative and completely lacking in perspective for the reader. Below is after conducting a month of research into maximum security prisons and visiting Ireland -
Final draft
ADX Absolomwas unofficially referred to as Alcatraz of the Blasket Islands. The maximum security prison was situated on the Dingle Peninsular, an archipelago at the most westerly point of Ireland. Known to the Irish as An Fear Marbh, the land mass resembled a sleeping giant. To the guards who worked behind its stone walls, it was simply called “The Dead Man.”
The prison covered thirty-seven acres and contained four hundred and ninety cells, each one reserved for men convicted of the most violent crimes in need of the tightest control. Each inmate would spend their life sentence in their cell – essentially a concrete box with a four-inch wide sliver of window. Furnishings were limited to a concrete bench built into one of the walls, a toilet that stopped working if blocked, a shower that ran on a timer to prevent flooding and a sink missing its plug to prevent it being fashioned into a weapon. In return for good behaviour, the prisoners had the opportunity to have a polishedsteelmirror bolted to the wall. A radio and atelevision – all controlled remotely so the inmate did not actually come into contact with them – were additional rewards to be earned. Only recreational, educational and religious programming was permitted by the warden.
The man he was waiting for on this occasion was being prepared in a room adjacent to the death house. He had been transferred from Sector 17 – a group of cells designed to hold the most dangerous of Absolom’s prisoners. It currently held two prisoners. After this day was over, there would only be one.
The first draft was sloppy, rushed and lacking anything that remotely resembled reality, despite the fact the story is fictional. The final draft was tighter, grounded, detailed but not overly so, and most importantly, believable.
If you establish even the most fantastical elements of a story in some reality, the reader will follow you anywhere.
Take Jaws for example. Peter Benchley didn’t think that audiences would buy the shark being killed by a gunshot to an oxygen cylinder. Steven Speilberg said that if he could keep them for the first hour and a half, they would buy the last five minutes. And it works. Due to the intricate and detailed nature of Brody, Quint and Hooper’s characters and the idyllic and homely setting of Amity Island, you buy Brody’s heroic last-ditch attempt to kill the shark with a rifle and a combustible oxygen cylinder (not to mention John Williams's epic score!)
Research is where Hellbound, any novel, begins to become something more than you originally envisioned. It is in this process that your story goes from just words on a page to a living, breathing world, populated with characterisation, locations that come alive and scenes that make the reader feel as though they were there with you as you wrote them. After all, you cannot shortchange the reader by ‘telling’ them what it’s like; you have to ‘show’ them. They need smells, terms and atmosphere.
They need to feel as though they are there. After all, they are going to hopefully want to spend more time in the worlds you create, so it pays to ensure that your world, the one you wish them to join you in, is as real as the one we live in now (though with all the research on my computer relating to serial killers and executions, Kelly is starting to worry!!)
For our first #TALKABOUTTUESDAY blog piece, we have a very special guest to kick us off.
Steve Alten is the international bestselling author of 17 novels including Meg, the Domain Trilogy, Grim Reaper;End of Days, The Shell Game, Undisclosed and many more. He was also my writing coach and editor of Hellbound. I learned so much from him about writing, editing, structure, character development and most importantly, the necessity of research. I've never forgotten the lessons he taught me and try to impart as much of his wisdom as I can to budding authors.
However, I could never do justice to his expertise and knowledge, so in that case, I shall leave it up to the man himself!
