Musings

Weekly Musing: The Basics Part One – Character

DH Hanni

Over the last few years I’ve noticed people seem to have forgotten what the basic elements of a story are. I’ve also noticed certain terms misused by both avid book readers and fans of TV and movies during discussions. At first I dismissed this as people getting terms mixed up in the heat of the moment during a debate. But the more I hear this confusion, the more I pondering maybe it’s not a simple brain fart. Over the next few weeks I’ll be going over the basic literary elements in an effort to help people keep things straight.

First, let’s start with what makes up a story. We’ve got characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. Most of these elements have many components to them which is where I think people get confused and mix up terms. Keep in mind that any information I’m presenting is quite basic and doesn’t apply 100% to every story. Many books exist which don’t follow these “rules” exactly which is what makes it’s fun for the reader.

Let’s start with one of my favorite parts of a story and what I personally start with and that is Character.

Each story has at least one character known as the protagonist. Most of the time it is a human but can be an animal or even an inanimate object. Most people associate the term protagonist as the main character is good. This is regardless of genre and for the most part, stories do revolve around what we would consider a good person.

Many stories have one protagonist whom the story revolves around. However, it’s important to keep in mind not all stories have only one protagonist. Other characters can be used and some novels exist where it’s hard to define who the protagonist is. Usually this happens in an epic series, such as A Song of Ice and Fire, but can happen within a standalone novel. Family sagas are another example where there may be multiple protagonists.

The opposite of the protagonist is the antagonist. Usually this character is thought of as the bad guy or girl as they are trying to prevent the protagonist from achieving something. Again, the antagonist doesn’t have to be human as it could be nature, an animal, or even the protagonist if the story is the character’s internal struggle. Just as it is possible for a story to have multiple protagonists, it’s possible to have multiple antagonists. Perhaps the lead character is facing several adversaries on his or her journey. Or if the story has multiple main characters, each will more than likely have their own antagonist.

One thing I’d like for more people to realize is that although terms like protagonist and antagonist set up a good vs. evil connotation, this isn’t always the case. What it means is we have a main character who has an adversary of some kind. Stories exist in which the protagonist is evil and their opponent is good. These are rare, but they are out there.

Next we move into minor characters. Simply put, a minor character serves to help advance the story along in some way. A majority of stories have at least one minor character. Either minor characters can play a small, ancillary role, such as the briefly seen parents of a protagonist, or they can play a significant role such as a sidekick, advisor, comic relief, eventually dead best friend, etc.

A very important component for a character’s story is determining what point of view in which to tell their story. Most stories use first person or some form of third person whether it’s limited (strictly from one and only one character’s point of view but not using words like “I” or “me”) or omniscient (telling the story via more than one character). Very rarely is second point of view used in which the narrator uses “you” as a way to distance himself or herself from the story.

Generally a story is told from the protagonist’s point of view whether that be first person or third person. However, like everything else in literature, there are exceptions. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the narrator is Chief yet the main character is Randle Patrick McMurphy. In the Harry Potter series, Harry is the main character and the story is told through third person limited. More complicated novels will frequently employee multiple points of views in order for the reader to see the big picture.

 

Although these are some of the basics that go into the character element, it’s easy to see how quickly an author can complicate things. Even turning one of these components on its head can vastly change the complexion of a story before factoring in the other pieces such as setting, the plot, conflict, and resolution.

Musings

Weekly Musing: I’ve Got a Crush On You

DH Hanni

Ahhh, the stench of soon-to-be-decaying flowers and melted chocolate permeates the air this time of year. Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day. A day meant to celebrate love apparently forgetting that there are actually 365 days in a year, all of which provide a fine opportunity to celebrate love.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I don’t consider myself to be the most romantic of people. But this hasn’t stopped me from having a crush or two or more on a fictional character. I’m not ashamed to admit that since I know I’m in good company and I know it’s not gender, age, or genre specific.

Why is that we as human beings develop crushes on a fictional character? I think the quickest and easiest answer is because the fictional character stays the same. Even the most well-developed character is still static. After all, he or she isn’t subject to the real world on a daily basis and can’t be beat down by life. It’s a comforting thought especially when life is ever changing and the story and characters on the page will always be there.

Either that or having a crush on a fictional character is just plain fun.

I don’t think there’s anything harmful or odd about it. Most people know the difference between real life and fiction and I think the crush, like real life ones, passes. At least it does for me but I’m fickle. In fact I think it might be a compliment to the author because he or she has written a character so likeable that they become likeable.

When we do develop a crush on a fictional character, what is it that first draws us in? Is it the physical description or is it personality? I imagine a lot of it has to do with what we find agreeable in real life. I know for me it’s all about what kind of personality the character has. Write a funny, smart, and somewhat awkward and snarky male character and chances are I’ll be hooked. Throw in a physical description of dark hair and eyes and I’m ready to throw on a T-shirt with the dude’s name on it.

Not really. I’m not insipid.

Or maybe it’s about being strangely drawn to a fictional character the polar opposite of what we would consider worthy of our time in real life. But in between the pages of a book, he or she is worth our time and long after we close the book they stay with us. In a way it’s kind of like “dating” but without the cost of a date and messiness real relationships have.

Does what we find crush-worthy in a fictional character reflect what we desire in real life or vice versa? Ahhh, the classic which came first: the chicken or the egg? The answer probably has a lot to do with what kind of books you read and at what age you started reading them.

For example, most of the books I read as a teenager were not romantic as I wasn’t into that stuff. If the stories did have it, I really didn’t pay attention. It wasn’t until I feel in love in real life that I started paying attention to that kind of stuff. An ah-ha moment happened in which I recognized I seemed to fancy a certain kind of romantic male character.

Which leads me to ponder what if I had always been of a romantic heart and read romance novels, would I have turned out differently? Naturally there are more solid psychological factors that contribute into what we find attractive that far outweigh the influence of a book. Much as it pains to me somewhat dismiss the power the written word can have on life in some instances.

In the end, we all have crushes on a fictional character. Whether it be more of a romantic kind or a type of wish fulfillment, it doesn’t matter. It’s hard not to when an author has worked hard to craft a character and story that resonates with readers. It’s part of the process of trying to elicit from the reader a visceral reaction. So regardless if you have a special real life someone, go ahead and snuggle up with your fictional crush once in a while. Have fun imagining him or her feeding you ice cream in the bath tub.

Musings

Weekly Musing: In a World…

DH Hanni

Filled with videos of pretty much everything imaginable, book trailers fight to make their presence known. Yes, I said book trailers. But unlike a movie or TV show, you won’t find these playing at your local movie theater. Until I decided to pick this topic for my weekly musing, I’d never even seen one.

Book trailers can be constructed in a variety of ways. Many cast actors to recreate scenes from the book. Others cobble together images that may or may not actually be related to the book’s subject matter. Some simply show lines or have a voiceover reciting passages from the book while images are displayed.

While researching this subject, several questions popped up. Who watches these? How do people know about them? Do they work? Do we need them?

In researching who watches book trailers it appears the overwhelming majority are viewed by teens and librarians. I was surprised to learn that many school and public librarians use book trailers on their websites as a way to introduce a book to potential readers. It wasn’t, however, surprising to learn teens are drawn to book trailers. This is probably why most of the book trailers I found and watched were for middle grade and YA books.

Trying to figure out how people discover book trailers was trickier. There are some websites dedicated to book trailers like Book Trailers for Readers and Slime Kids both of which are geared toward younger readers. Many major publishers also have book trailers for upcoming releases although I noticed it was only for a handful of titles. The biggest resource for book trailers seems to be YouTube. What this tells me is book trailers are still an unknown to most potential readers.

This leads me to my next discussion point. Just how effective are book trailers? Articles and opinion pieces I read indicated having a book trailer really didn’t have much of an impact upon book sales. With authors increasingly being asked to act as their own marketing and publicity department, even if they aren’t self-publishing, spending hundreds to thousands of dollars to produce one seems risky as this article from 2011 argues. That being said, a book trailer may be beneficial if you’re a YA author since they may sway teen readers.

While the publishing industry constantly changes and evolves, it was incredibly difficult to find more current articles on the subject matter. Even the pro-book trailer articles I read were from the early 2010s. I was only able to find an incredibly small amount of current articles on the subject matter. This lack of enthusiasm, if you will, causes me to think book trailers really aren’t effective.

In an effort to make sure I was doing due diligence to you, the reader, and myself I searched YouTube to see for myself. I did searches by famous authors and lesser known authors and the results returned very little. If the author did have a trailer they weren’t for current books even though the authors I searched all have had recent releases.

Many of the “popular” book trailers I found on YouTube had been up for years. For example, the most viewed trailer had over 5,000,000 views in the 3 years. Sounds like a lot, and it is something to be proud of, except when you realize the most popular cat video on YouTube has over 78,000,000 views in 2 years. Yes, there are other book trailers with over 1,000,000 views, but if you look at when those trailers came out, it’s anywhere from 3 to 5 years ago. In a world where people’s time and attention spans are fleeting, taking years to get that many views probably doesn’t translate into big sales.

Which leads me to my final point. Are book trailers needed? Books have been around for thousands of years. TV and movies, on the other hand, have been around for several decades. It seems odd to me to try and convert a print medium into a visual in an effort to encourage people to buy the paper version. Um, what? Also, a book is a quiet activity designed to allow the reader to use the author’s words as a jumping off point to imagine another world. A book trailer takes this away by shoving someone else’s artistic vision of the book onto the reader.

Personally, I’ve never thought about using YouTube for a book recommendation. That’s what friends, the library, Amazon, GoodReads, walking through a physical bookstore, etc. are for. While watching several book trailers, not a single one made me even want to read more about the book let alone propelling me to purchase it. Maybe because I’m kind of a grump most annoyed me as either being poorly acted, pretentious, bizarre, or boring. Never have I had a friend say “Oh, my god, did you see that book trailer? I gotta have that book. You should go watch it right now.” Nor have I ever heard random people say this to each other.

So in a world where we are saturated with endless trailers filled with ominous BONG!!!! sounds (please, can we retire that?), let’s leave the trailers to their proper home; on the big screen and our TV sets and away from our books. You want a reader to pick up your book? Write an exciting, interesting blurb but most importantly, write a good book. Word of mouth still matters and is still one of the most effective ways of spreading a book’s praise.