A couple months ago, I started a thread on the Writers Stackexchange for people to post what they thought were some of the best "rules" of writing. It's accumulated several interesting answers and links. One of these links brought me back to an article I had previously read and forgotten about, an excellent little feature in the Guardian where they simply asked a number of talented writers what their rules were.
Many of these lists are interesting in and of themselves. Some of the rules are absolutely genius, while others strike me as obvious or complete garbage. Some directly contradict each other. What's really interesting is to look at the article as a whole. All of these authors have had success by some measure or another. But their methods and their outlooks on life and on writing are obviously quite varied.
There are as many ways to write as there are writers. It's easy to get bogged down wondering if you're "doing it right," when there really is no wrong way. As Neil Gaiman says, "Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down."
Monday, March 21, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Radical Honesty (in Writing)
A while ago, I came across an article in Esquire about "radical honesty." (I don't normally read Esquire - Jeff Atwood tweeted it.) The idea is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: avoiding all the little white lies, fibs, and whatever else we justify them as. Even the ones we tell our kids to protect them. Even the ones that make others happier than the truth ("do these jeans make my butt look fat?").
I won't say whether or not we should all follow the philosophy it describes in every aspect of our lives, but there is one place where radical honesty always makes a difference: in our writing.
I'm from the American Midwest. I don't want to generalize, but we're stereotypically a stoic, quiet people, descended from Scandinavians, frequently Lutheran. We have a phrase to describe the cultural personality here: "Minnesota Nice." We don't like to rub people the wrong way. We don't like to talk about our problems (or other people's). When someone asks you how you're doing, you say "fine." Not great. Not terrible. Fine.
I can't speak for everyone, but my upbringing was typically Minnesotan. And there are lots of things we don't talk about. Health issues and personal problems. Politics. Homosexuality. Any sexuality.
While some people, families, and geographic areas are going to be more repressed than others, just about everyone has at least one issue that they feel a little awkward about. And when you feel awkward about something, you tend to lie to yourself. When you lie to yourself, it bleeds into your writing and makes it weak.
Say you're uncomfortable talking about sex. You would feel strange, or maybe outright uncomfortable, writing a sex scene. But what if your story involves a couple of adults who are falling in love? Consciously or unconsciously, you shy away from anything that might lead toward sex. Maybe the characters would go down that road, and maybe not, but ultimately you've closed off a possibility. Every scene is a room with hundreds of doors leading in different directions. Each one you lock leaves you with fewer possibilities.
You can fight this, right here, right now. Assess yourself. What makes you uncomfortable? What would you feel weird writing about? What topic would you be embarrassed for your grandma to read? Write down a whole list of them, if you have to. Then come up with a scene that centers around that issue and write it. Nobody else has to ever see it, but you need to write it down. You need to know that you can.
Try writing two or three scenes, even. Sometimes it's hard to unlock those doors. Just remember, if you care about your writing, you have to be fearless. Fearless writing is strong. It feels truer. It starts doing things you don't expect it to do.
Someday, your characters will pull you down that path. Instead of pushing them back, you'll follow, and on the other side of that door, you'll find an amazing story.
I won't say whether or not we should all follow the philosophy it describes in every aspect of our lives, but there is one place where radical honesty always makes a difference: in our writing.
I'm from the American Midwest. I don't want to generalize, but we're stereotypically a stoic, quiet people, descended from Scandinavians, frequently Lutheran. We have a phrase to describe the cultural personality here: "Minnesota Nice." We don't like to rub people the wrong way. We don't like to talk about our problems (or other people's). When someone asks you how you're doing, you say "fine." Not great. Not terrible. Fine.
I can't speak for everyone, but my upbringing was typically Minnesotan. And there are lots of things we don't talk about. Health issues and personal problems. Politics. Homosexuality. Any sexuality.
While some people, families, and geographic areas are going to be more repressed than others, just about everyone has at least one issue that they feel a little awkward about. And when you feel awkward about something, you tend to lie to yourself. When you lie to yourself, it bleeds into your writing and makes it weak.
Say you're uncomfortable talking about sex. You would feel strange, or maybe outright uncomfortable, writing a sex scene. But what if your story involves a couple of adults who are falling in love? Consciously or unconsciously, you shy away from anything that might lead toward sex. Maybe the characters would go down that road, and maybe not, but ultimately you've closed off a possibility. Every scene is a room with hundreds of doors leading in different directions. Each one you lock leaves you with fewer possibilities.
You can fight this, right here, right now. Assess yourself. What makes you uncomfortable? What would you feel weird writing about? What topic would you be embarrassed for your grandma to read? Write down a whole list of them, if you have to. Then come up with a scene that centers around that issue and write it. Nobody else has to ever see it, but you need to write it down. You need to know that you can.
Try writing two or three scenes, even. Sometimes it's hard to unlock those doors. Just remember, if you care about your writing, you have to be fearless. Fearless writing is strong. It feels truer. It starts doing things you don't expect it to do.
Someday, your characters will pull you down that path. Instead of pushing them back, you'll follow, and on the other side of that door, you'll find an amazing story.
Friday, March 4, 2011
It Pays to be Self-Employed
When you work for someone else, two things generally happen. They pay you, and they make money. If they're a functional business, they make more money from your work than they lose to paying you. When you work for someone else, you're almost always being paid less than you're actually worth.
Many writers dream of writing for a living. If you're smart though, you quickly realize just how much work it would be. It's frightening to think about supporting yourself, and perhaps a family, with nothing but your words.
If you dream of writing for a living, don't give up. It's possible. Not easy, but possible. Don't let someone else, some faceless corporation or soulless cubicle farm, reap the benefits of your hard work just because the alternative is scary.
Many writers dream of writing for a living. If you're smart though, you quickly realize just how much work it would be. It's frightening to think about supporting yourself, and perhaps a family, with nothing but your words.
If you dream of writing for a living, don't give up. It's possible. Not easy, but possible. Don't let someone else, some faceless corporation or soulless cubicle farm, reap the benefits of your hard work just because the alternative is scary.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Yet Another Blog
I mentioned previously that I've been looking for a new blog series to work on, and I wanted to do something on gaming. Well, I decided to take it a step further.
(I'll still be posting here weekly.)
(I'll still be posting here weekly.)
Friday, February 18, 2011
A Master Class in Fight Scenes, with Robert E. Howard
As part of my goal of reading 50 short stories this month, I've been reading volume one of The Best of Robert E. Howard.
REH wrote pulp fiction in the 20s and 30s, and he's known for action-packed adventure stories. Nearly every one of his stories has a fight scene, and he writes them quite well. So as I've gone along, I've started to read the book as master class in fight scenes.
Many people seem to struggle with fight scenes. I know I've had some issues, personally. I don't write that many of them, and they can be difficult to get right. On one hand, fight scenes are one of the most direct ways to show conflict - characters disagree, and they duke it out with pure physicality. On the other hand, fight scenes can't be purely physical - they have to be imbued with emotion to be meaningful.
In addition to that dichotomy, the writer has to decide how much descriptive detail is enough, and how much is too much. A fight scene that lacks detail won't create any tension. A fight scene with too much detail can quickly bore the reader to tears.
REH's fight scenes tend to follow a pattern, and it's one that addresses these concerns very well.
REH wrote pulp fiction in the 20s and 30s, and he's known for action-packed adventure stories. Nearly every one of his stories has a fight scene, and he writes them quite well. So as I've gone along, I've started to read the book as master class in fight scenes.
Many people seem to struggle with fight scenes. I know I've had some issues, personally. I don't write that many of them, and they can be difficult to get right. On one hand, fight scenes are one of the most direct ways to show conflict - characters disagree, and they duke it out with pure physicality. On the other hand, fight scenes can't be purely physical - they have to be imbued with emotion to be meaningful.
In addition to that dichotomy, the writer has to decide how much descriptive detail is enough, and how much is too much. A fight scene that lacks detail won't create any tension. A fight scene with too much detail can quickly bore the reader to tears.
REH's fight scenes tend to follow a pattern, and it's one that addresses these concerns very well.
- Start with descriptions of the characters and their emotional states. How do they react to the upcoming fight? Are they excited? Scared? Angry? How do they show it?
- As they leap into battle, give a few sentences of detailed description. Swords clash, parry and counter, guns are fired, etc.
- After the first few sentences, zoom out from the action a bit. Describe how the characters move and fight in a more general way. For example, character X fights fast and wild, while character Y stays on the defensive, only counterattacking when he sees an opportunity.
- Zoom back into detailed description as the fight finishes. What does the killing blow look like? Howdo the characters feel about the fight's conclusion?
I like this style for a few reasons. The description up front reminds the reader exactly what these characters are fighting for, and it makes the fight emotional as well as physical. The detail at the start of the fight makes it feel visceral. By zooming out in the middle, we avoid having to sit through pages of detailed description without feeling like we missed out on any action. Then we zoom back into detail to lend excitement to the finale.
I know some writers are dead-set against patterns and prescriptions, but I encourage you to at least try this one the next time you have to write a fight scene. Although you could call REH's fight-scenes "formulaic", they don't feel repetitive (and this is coming from someone who's read at least 5 of them in the past two days). He simply found a very efficient way to pack the necessary components into a slick package.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Janet Fitch Writes
...and she does it pretty dern well.
This is one of the best "no-nonsense solid writing advice" blogs I've come across in quite a while. Her 10 Writing Tips and Thoughts on Dialogue posts are good places to observe this. Once you're done with those, go read the rest.
This is one of the best "no-nonsense solid writing advice" blogs I've come across in quite a while. Her 10 Writing Tips and Thoughts on Dialogue posts are good places to observe this. Once you're done with those, go read the rest.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Blogs and Essays
Lazy Friday spur-of-the-moment late post!
I enjoyed the series on real-life settings that I've been running for a few weeks, and I've been thinking I'd like to start running short series most Fridays. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a new series yet, so today's post is going to be a mish-mash.
I've come across a lot of interesting writing-related blogs and articles lately, so I thought I'd link a few.
I enjoyed the series on real-life settings that I've been running for a few weeks, and I've been thinking I'd like to start running short series most Fridays. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with a new series yet, so today's post is going to be a mish-mash.
I've come across a lot of interesting writing-related blogs and articles lately, so I thought I'd link a few.
- Nathan Bransford recently ran a contest for the best first paragraph of a novel, and it accrued 1500 entries! You can read the winner and the runners up here. They're all pretty good. Also interesting, one of his readers went through every single entry and talked about what she learned.
- Tom Dupree discusses his experiences as an editor at a publishing house. It's an interesting read, and helps put a human face on a job that doesn't always have the best reputation among aspiring authors. I'm looking forward to the next part in the series.
- J.S. Bangs has a blog about writing that I found through Writers.StackExchange. Insightful commentary on writing and technology.
- Clay Shirky has an interesting blog looking at technology and its effects on the present and the future. He is unabashedly optimistic about the ability of technology to better our lives.
- Paul Graham, while not as prolific as most modern bloggers, has a number of extremely deep and well-thought-out essays on technology. This essay on the word "hacker," and the motivations of those who "hack", is fascinating.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Winner-Take-All...but for How Long?
I recently came across a blog post from a few years back. The gist is that technology companies rise to prominence: IBM from early computers to the 80s, Microsoft through the 90s, and Google in the 00s. IBM was expert at selling business solutions, and they still are. They couldn't keep up in the personal computer market, however. Microsoft out-maneuvered them, and it turned out that software was more important than hardware when it came to selling PCs. With the advent of the web, Google came into its own, dominating not only search, but online advertising. IBM and Microsoft still exist, and they still even dominate their core markets, but the internet is the future, and it's unlikely that anyone can wrest it from Google.
However, it's also interesting to note that the blog article was written in 2007. In the interceding years, the landscape has changed yet again. 2007 also happens to be the year the iPhone was first released.
I suspect that Apple is becoming the new king of the hill. Each time the crown has passed, it has been because of a massive shift in technology. First, computers (IBM), then personal computers (Microsoft), the rise of the internet (Google), and now, mobile computing (Apple). However, Apple is more than simply "mobile". Apple has ushered in an era of miniature computing. Granted, there are now hundreds of "smart" mobile devices that aren't Apple products, but Apple built the consumer market for these products. Right now, it's a menagerie of smart phones, music players, tablets and netbooks, but these varied devices are already beginning to blur and merge.
The internet affords limitless access to information and requires very little computing power to access. Thanks to Moore's Law, microcomputers are now powerful enough to handle most of the basic tasks the average computer user requires. Those big boxes on the desktop are becoming excessive for many tasks.
Within a few years, I suspect the average user will keep their primary computer in their pocket. The only limitation to these mini-computers is their input and output. Tiny screens suck, and tiny keyboards and touchpads are even worse for any sort of serious input. But paper-thin screen technology is beginning to look promising, especially combined with advances in ultra-flat, flexible circuitry. Imagine you take your smartphone to a restaurant, a library, a bus. Any surface can be a cheap screen: a table, a wall, or the back of the seat in front of you. Your phone connects to the nearest screen in seconds with bluetooth or wifi.
Apple got in on the ground floor. They are a major reason miniature computers have become the latest trend. They have already made ridiculous profits, and they're poised to make more. But what about the currently reigning king of the technology hill, Google? Their domain is internet, and internet is no small part of mobile computing. Google also has its own contenders in the mini-computer arena: Android and Chrome OS.
Google is smart, and they play to their strengths. Both of their mobile platforms are open-source and free. Google makes ambitious products and gives them away. They make their money from advertising, and every new widget is just another place they can sell ads. Chrome OS is lightweight, designed to be little more than a portal to the internet. It's a simple idea. Perhaps too simple. As much as Google has pushed internet applications, there's still only so much you can do inside a web-browser.
Android, on the other hand, is the biggest rival of Apple and their iProducts. In the private consumer arena, it's the only rival worth mention. The battle lines here are interesting. Android is designed to be as open as possible, inviting handset manufacturers to produce lots of Android phones in all manner of make and model. Google doesn't care if an individual Android phone does particularly well, because there are dozens of them, and plenty more on the drawing board. Google makes it easy to create applications for their operating system. They don't worry about making any money from any of it. They'll recoup it all by selling ads.
Apple's ideology is largely opposite. They jealously guard their hardware and software secrets. They meticulously craft technological artifacts that make consumers drool. They control everything from the circuits to the software, and everywhere along the way, they charge a premium. They create devices designed exactly to Apple specifications. If you like those specifications, their products are elegant and easy to use. And expensive.
So, the interesting question now is whether Apple will win this market in the long run, or if Google will retain its crown.
However, it's also interesting to note that the blog article was written in 2007. In the interceding years, the landscape has changed yet again. 2007 also happens to be the year the iPhone was first released.
I suspect that Apple is becoming the new king of the hill. Each time the crown has passed, it has been because of a massive shift in technology. First, computers (IBM), then personal computers (Microsoft), the rise of the internet (Google), and now, mobile computing (Apple). However, Apple is more than simply "mobile". Apple has ushered in an era of miniature computing. Granted, there are now hundreds of "smart" mobile devices that aren't Apple products, but Apple built the consumer market for these products. Right now, it's a menagerie of smart phones, music players, tablets and netbooks, but these varied devices are already beginning to blur and merge.
The internet affords limitless access to information and requires very little computing power to access. Thanks to Moore's Law, microcomputers are now powerful enough to handle most of the basic tasks the average computer user requires. Those big boxes on the desktop are becoming excessive for many tasks.
Within a few years, I suspect the average user will keep their primary computer in their pocket. The only limitation to these mini-computers is their input and output. Tiny screens suck, and tiny keyboards and touchpads are even worse for any sort of serious input. But paper-thin screen technology is beginning to look promising, especially combined with advances in ultra-flat, flexible circuitry. Imagine you take your smartphone to a restaurant, a library, a bus. Any surface can be a cheap screen: a table, a wall, or the back of the seat in front of you. Your phone connects to the nearest screen in seconds with bluetooth or wifi.
Apple got in on the ground floor. They are a major reason miniature computers have become the latest trend. They have already made ridiculous profits, and they're poised to make more. But what about the currently reigning king of the technology hill, Google? Their domain is internet, and internet is no small part of mobile computing. Google also has its own contenders in the mini-computer arena: Android and Chrome OS.
Google is smart, and they play to their strengths. Both of their mobile platforms are open-source and free. Google makes ambitious products and gives them away. They make their money from advertising, and every new widget is just another place they can sell ads. Chrome OS is lightweight, designed to be little more than a portal to the internet. It's a simple idea. Perhaps too simple. As much as Google has pushed internet applications, there's still only so much you can do inside a web-browser.
Android, on the other hand, is the biggest rival of Apple and their iProducts. In the private consumer arena, it's the only rival worth mention. The battle lines here are interesting. Android is designed to be as open as possible, inviting handset manufacturers to produce lots of Android phones in all manner of make and model. Google doesn't care if an individual Android phone does particularly well, because there are dozens of them, and plenty more on the drawing board. Google makes it easy to create applications for their operating system. They don't worry about making any money from any of it. They'll recoup it all by selling ads.
Apple's ideology is largely opposite. They jealously guard their hardware and software secrets. They meticulously craft technological artifacts that make consumers drool. They control everything from the circuits to the software, and everywhere along the way, they charge a premium. They create devices designed exactly to Apple specifications. If you like those specifications, their products are elegant and easy to use. And expensive.
So, the interesting question now is whether Apple will win this market in the long run, or if Google will retain its crown.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Real-life Settings: Ghost Towns
As humans, it seems like we're constantly building. Entropy does its steady work, systematically wearing down the universe, and we stand against that force. We create to spite time.
Sometimes, though, time gets the better of us. People inevitably die. Towns and cities are lost to disease, famine and war. Even entire civilizations collapse, given long enough. However, I love looking at the remnants of these lost bits of our past. There's something eerie and strangely beautiful about places where people once lived, abandoned and ravaged by time.
One of the best-known abandoned areas in recent history is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It encompasses the 30 kilometers around the doomed power plant. Although Chernobyl itself was sealed off - literally entombed in concrete - the radioactive material released from the plant contaminated this huge area, forcing the then-Soviet government to evacuate over a hundred-thousand people. People had no warning and no opportunity to collect their belongings. Now, decades later, the possessions of the zone's former citizens remain where they were left.
Some excellent photo series on the zone can be found here, here, and many other sites.
My favorite ghost town is closer to home, in Centralia, Pennsylvania. It sounds like fiction. A little coal-mining town locates its dump in a used-up strip mine. A controlled burn on the dump, executed by the town's volunteer fire department, finds its way into leftover coal veins and burns its way into the ground. Deep beneath the town, it smolders for decades, unable to be put out. It spews noxious gases and tremendous heat, and it shatters the very earth the town was built on.
Ruin crept slowly into Centralia. It took years before people realized the full extent of the danger and moved away. A few residents still remain, even today. Smoke pours from the ground now. Most of the buildings have collapsed. The streets and yards are criss-crossed with chasms and sink-holes. And deep underground, the fire slowly burns. It may continue to burn for centuries.
Photo series of Centralia here. There's also a massive flickr group.
Gunkanjima, or Hashima Island in Japan was also a coal-mining community. Buttressed by concrete walls against the sea, and filled with plain, uniform concrete structures, the island looks more like a prison than a place people would call home. In its hey-day, the early 1960s, it may have had the highest population density in the world.
Coal from Hashima was used in the industrialization of Japan, but eventually petroleum became the fuel of choice. By the mid-1970s, the entire island was abandoned.
Articles (and pictures) here and here.
Finally, there is the abandoned town of Kolmanskop, in Nambia. It was founded in the desert because of the abundance of diamonds in the area. The early miners became extremely wealthy. Being mostly German, they built up an extravagant small town in German style, with impressive amenities for such a small settlement. However, time went by and the diamonds became scarce. Abandoned in the mid-1950s, the desert has sought to reclaim it. The town is still a tourist destination, but most of the original buildings are filled with several feet of sand. Some are completely buried.
More info and pictures here and here.
This marks the end of my series on interesting real-life settings. Hopefully you enjoyed it. I personally find these sorts of places endlessly interesting, and I could probably do many more posts on the topic. However, this is mainly a writing blog, and I've covered most of my favorites.
If you're interested in discovering more strange, amazing or abandoned places, there are a few great resources you can follow-up on.
Atlas Obscura is a site that covers all sorts of interesting places.
Artificial Owl specializes in abandoned places and urban decay.
Urban Explorers is a site for those who want to find the hidden wonders of the urban world.
Next up, a new Friday series, possibly about video games.
Sometimes, though, time gets the better of us. People inevitably die. Towns and cities are lost to disease, famine and war. Even entire civilizations collapse, given long enough. However, I love looking at the remnants of these lost bits of our past. There's something eerie and strangely beautiful about places where people once lived, abandoned and ravaged by time.
One of the best-known abandoned areas in recent history is the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It encompasses the 30 kilometers around the doomed power plant. Although Chernobyl itself was sealed off - literally entombed in concrete - the radioactive material released from the plant contaminated this huge area, forcing the then-Soviet government to evacuate over a hundred-thousand people. People had no warning and no opportunity to collect their belongings. Now, decades later, the possessions of the zone's former citizens remain where they were left.
Some excellent photo series on the zone can be found here, here, and many other sites.
My favorite ghost town is closer to home, in Centralia, Pennsylvania. It sounds like fiction. A little coal-mining town locates its dump in a used-up strip mine. A controlled burn on the dump, executed by the town's volunteer fire department, finds its way into leftover coal veins and burns its way into the ground. Deep beneath the town, it smolders for decades, unable to be put out. It spews noxious gases and tremendous heat, and it shatters the very earth the town was built on.
Ruin crept slowly into Centralia. It took years before people realized the full extent of the danger and moved away. A few residents still remain, even today. Smoke pours from the ground now. Most of the buildings have collapsed. The streets and yards are criss-crossed with chasms and sink-holes. And deep underground, the fire slowly burns. It may continue to burn for centuries.
Photo series of Centralia here. There's also a massive flickr group.
Gunkanjima, or Hashima Island in Japan was also a coal-mining community. Buttressed by concrete walls against the sea, and filled with plain, uniform concrete structures, the island looks more like a prison than a place people would call home. In its hey-day, the early 1960s, it may have had the highest population density in the world.
Coal from Hashima was used in the industrialization of Japan, but eventually petroleum became the fuel of choice. By the mid-1970s, the entire island was abandoned.
Articles (and pictures) here and here.
Finally, there is the abandoned town of Kolmanskop, in Nambia. It was founded in the desert because of the abundance of diamonds in the area. The early miners became extremely wealthy. Being mostly German, they built up an extravagant small town in German style, with impressive amenities for such a small settlement. However, time went by and the diamonds became scarce. Abandoned in the mid-1950s, the desert has sought to reclaim it. The town is still a tourist destination, but most of the original buildings are filled with several feet of sand. Some are completely buried.
More info and pictures here and here.
This marks the end of my series on interesting real-life settings. Hopefully you enjoyed it. I personally find these sorts of places endlessly interesting, and I could probably do many more posts on the topic. However, this is mainly a writing blog, and I've covered most of my favorites.
If you're interested in discovering more strange, amazing or abandoned places, there are a few great resources you can follow-up on.
Atlas Obscura is a site that covers all sorts of interesting places.
Artificial Owl specializes in abandoned places and urban decay.
Urban Explorers is a site for those who want to find the hidden wonders of the urban world.
Next up, a new Friday series, possibly about video games.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Learning Writing Lessons from Games
As a gamer and a programmer, I've long been interested in game design. This is a short video where Tom Chatfield explains 7 ways that games reward the brain. He shows how games are designed to provide incremental rewards to the player, making them feel satisfied about playing, while also giving them incremental goals to keep them motivated.
While watching this, I began to think about how the principles he talked about could be applied to writing. Granted, gaming and reading are very different experiences, but writers do share some goals with game designers. We want the reader to feel satisfied about reading, and we also want to motivate them to read on.
So, how do these principles apply to writing? In games, the player usually has a virtual representation: an avatar. This is the person on-screen that the player identifies with. In the game world, the avatar is me. When the player does something amazing in the game, they don't tell their friends, "I made the guy on the screen do this cool thing." They say, "I did this cool thing in the game."
Readers have a similar association with strong characters. They identify with protagonists. They share their struggles, their failures, their victories. They empathize. This is what keeps us reading.
Experience Bars Measuring Progress
This seems like a very game-centric concept. You can't very well have an experience bar on every page of your book, measuring your protagonist's progress. But what is the actual goal of the experience bar? It is designed to quickly and easily show the player how much they've progressed, and how far they have yet to go.
You can do something similar in a novel. Your characters are on some sort of epic journey, whether it be physical, mental or emotional. Throughout the book, they're making incremental progress. Though they may not know where they're going to end up, they probably have a goal. So remind your readers about this. Have your characters reflect on their progress. Doing this once or twice can really ground the reader, and it can prevent them getting lost in complex, twisted plots.
Multiple Long and Short Term Aims
Most complex characters have multiple goals they're working toward, just as you or I do. Rare is the person who works unwaveringly on a single project, devoting their life to one thing. Most of us have a few things we'd like to accomplish - this week, this year, and before we die. Give your characters several goals to strive for, some easier and some harder.
The reader identifies with the characters, and feels satisfaction when they can succeed at something challenging. With multiple goals, a character can succeed at something (or even fail) without losing that Ultimate Goal, that quest that encompasses the entire book.
Reward Effort
Characters have to experience failure. A book about someone who succeeds at everything isn't very interesting. Every protagonist has some primary conflict that they're trying to overcome. On the road to success, there have to be some setbacks, some roadblocks, or the journey isn't worth reading about.
That said, you have to do more than beat your characters down. There must be difficulty. There must be failure. But the character should also get something out of it. Perhaps they've failed, but they've learned a valuable lesson that will help them succeed next time. Perhaps they've discovered some vital information, or realized the strength they never knew they had. They have a reason to persevere through the difficulties and failures, because every one still gives them something that will ultimately help them achieve their goals.
Readers love characters that persevere, and the knowledge that they're making progress toward their goals despite hardship will keep the pages turning.
Rapid, Clear Feedback
Everything a character says and does has a consequence. Sometimes, it should be quickly apparent. Other times it will not be obvious for some time. But the actions of your characters affect the people and the world around them. Don't show your characters doing something that has no consequence.
An Element of Uncertainty
There are no guarantees of success in life, and there should be none for characters either. Without the chance of failure, there is no challenge, and nothing to keep the reader engaged. This can be simple difficulties on the way to the goal, or it can be taken to extremes, such as having an important character die partway through the book or a series. When something like that happens, the reader knows there are no guarantees. The characters are not only fallible, but mortal as well. The more there is to gain or lose, the more engaging the story will be.
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