Balancing Light and Dark

[Balancing light and darkness; source.]

I've been blogging about writing in a more literary fashion.  One thing authors have struggled with is finding the right balance between light and darkness.  Some authors intentionally keep their pieces light.  Modern versions of fairy tales often have almost all light with very little darkness.  Yet the human experience rarely reflects this kind of existence.  If it's a book specifically for children, this makes sense.  But if it's for an older readership, there ought to be some kind of real challenge, some kind of difficulty or experience grappling with the darkness of this world.  If there's no real challenge/struggle/drama, there's no story.  However, a story that is unremittingly dark can overwhelm and turn off many readers.  Part of the point of writing is to entertain and to bring enjoyment to someone's life.  Most people don't find enjoyment when a piece is either all dark or all light. 

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So where can a writer find that balance?  Part of it is in the genre.  How much light or darkness is appropriate for the genre you're pursuing?  To find this, it's a great idea to read a lot of that genre.  Familiarize yourself with how others balance light and darkness.  Read materials about writing that genre.  You can push the envelope one way or another, but most people have certain expectations for the level of light or darkness and will find the experience of reading your book unpleasant if you stray too far outside the norm. 

[Hamlet]

Shakespeare is a good model for balancing light and darkness.  He writes characters with both light and dark aspects and tends to alternate dark scenes with light scenes.  A good model for this is "Hamlet" with the porter scenes.  We get a heavy, dark scene of Hamlet learning his father was murdered by his uncle, who now inhabits the throne and is married to his mother.  That is immediately followed by the porter scene, the source of the knock knock joke, full of whimsy and humor.  Another source for light would be love, hope, and joy.  However, I once read a book that went predictably back and forth like a wavelength, joy then sadness then joy then sadness then joy then sadness.  It got a little old and redundant. 

[Map your balance; source]

When you have a draft, I would recommend mapping out your areas of light vs darkness.  If it feels like there is too wide a span where it's one or the other, it may be a good idea to lighten the dark scenes with a bit of humor/hope or darken the light scenes with foreshadowing of hardship to come.  This doesn't mean undercut the emotional depth with humor.  It helps when the darkness and light can appear together, one enhancing the other as in a painting. 

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The story needs to be balanced, but the first step is often to balance your characters, particularly hero and villain.  If you have a character who is just too dark with no redeeming characteristics, think of a way to help the reader see their point of view, even if the point of view is not one the reader can condone.  Show his/her humanity.  If you have a character that is so light that he/she becomes a Mary Sue, perfect without flaw, it's time to consider flaws that work within the context of the story.  Snow White is only a perfect Mary Sue in Disney.  In the Grimm Brothers' version, the evil queen reflects Snow White's own vanity, selfishness, and other dark traits back at her.  In destroying the queen, she's symbolically destroying the darkness from her own soul.  It's best when you plan these flaws from the beginning, so the story actually works as a way to help them work through those flaws, so the darkness springs somehow from or relates to the character him/herself.  Jane Austen's Emma highlights a character whose drama and exploits spring out of her own selfishness and ego.  Dr. Jeckyll self destructs--taking many people with him--because of his hubris and his drive to create a perfect world, instead, turning himself into a serial killing creature born of nightmares. 


It's important to figure out what balance would work for your story.  Are your characters a mix of dark and light?  Does this balance keep them intriguing?  Does your story balance dark and light in a way that works in your genre and with your plot line?  If not, it's time to work on it. 

Hero's Journey: A Review

["Jungle Book" source]

I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion.  As I did my recent review a couple of weeks ago, I realized it's been years since I talked about the importance of the hero's journey in writing.  Early Disney movie makers had never heard of the hero's journey, so their stories tended to meander a bit, sing a bunch of songs, throw in some humor, and hope for the best. For the most part, people still loved their movies.  However, to the modern mind, they seem to be lacking.  A lot of people remember "Jungle Book" and "Aristocats" and the like fondly, but if you watch, say, the modern live action "Jungle Book," you'll see a striking difference.  That difference between a meandering narrative without clear purpose or plot and a tightly-written story people look at as brilliant and meaningful is often the hero's journey.  

["Star Wars" source]

Many decades ago, Joseph Campbell studied classic tales and songs of heroism like Greek myths, fairy tales, sagas, and found the commonality he laid out as the hero's journey.  It's hard to find any writer, especially writer of adventure stories whether on movies or in books, who has not studied the hero's journey since it has become such a staple in Disney/Pixar movies and elsewhere in Hollywood.  Lucas even had Campbell on the set of Star Wars: New Hope to make sure he got the format right.  

[Harry Potter source]

The hero's journey starts in the character's normal world.  Think Luke Skywalker, Jane Eyre, Harry Potter with their respective oppressive aunts and uncles.  They're at home, and things are as they have always been.  He/she receives a call to adventure like Harry's or Jane's call to go school or Luke's invitation to train with Obi Wan, which they often refuse.  They often some kind of supernatural aid such as Obi Wan or the Hogswarts professors.  They, then, accept the call and step past the threshold into the underworld and go into school/training/whatever.  Their mentors/trainers (the Obi Wans/Ms. Temples/Professor Dumbledores of their respective worlds) help them through challenges and temptations in the underworld until they reach a place of abyss/death/rebirth and revelation (think Harry Potter's death/train station scene, though it takes several forms).  He/she is transformed, undergoes some kind of atonement, and becomes the master of both worlds.  He then returns home with a "gift of the goddess," a gift he/she gained from the supernatural.  This is the basic hero's journey, though this same journey takes countless forms.  

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There's also a variant specifically for heroines, called the heroine's journey.  It essentially follows many of the same pathways but involves a separation from the masculine, a journey that involves sorting out the feminine identity from masculine expectations and roles, reconnecting with the feminine, and then the reintegration back into the masculine world having undergone a healing transformation into one's true self.  Here is a discussion in some depth on the subject and its importance.  

This is just a quick thumbnail sketch of what the hero's journey involves.  If you haven't made a study of it and its beats, I highly recommend all writers do so.  Readers (at least subconsciously) walk into an adventure story expecting it.  If you'd like to know more, The Story Grid is a great place to start.  I highly recommend studying up and learning what the hero's/heroine's journey can do for your stories.

Poetic Word Choice

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I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion.  The difference between a good piece of writing  and a truly polished piece of writing is careful attention to the individual words.  This is not something to worry about the first draft or even the second.  This is what you worry about when you're on your final or almost final draft, when you've done everything else you can think to do.  Consider each word, each connotation, the rhythm and rhyme of each poem and polish it some more. 

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One thing to consider is sounds.  Consider whether assonance (similar vowel sounds often at the beginning of a word) or alliteration (same thing but with consonants) can help.  In other words, are there places where the same consonant or vowel slipped into multiple places in a sentence helps its unity of sound?  Take note of the alliteration in the last sentence.  A lot of poets use this technique, especially with children's poetry.  Children often like rhythm and rhyme in their stories, and similar sounds like this are a sort of rhyme.  I'd caution that too much of this can make a line seem cheesy, especially in adult pieces.  But a little can create unity and poetic beauty without the overuse of obvious rhyme, adverbs, or adjectives. 

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Another thing to consider is poetic use of imagery.  Prose will often speak in a straightforward fashion, sometimes using adverbs or adjectives.  To turn the language into something more poetic is to use metaphors, similes, and word plays.  We can say, "She went into the room," and it gets the job done.  We can even say, "She swept into the large chamber," and we get a better visual with a stronger verb and an occasional adjective (as long as we don't get overly purple or ornate to the point that no action happens).  But if "She twirled like a dancer in her first ballet into her new bedchamber," the simile achieves several things at once, including showing insights into her character, giving the reader a powerful visual, and setting the stage just a little better.  If your first draft looks like the first example, your second looks like the second example, and your third looks like the third example, you're moving in the right direction. If possible, consider using rhythm, emphasizing certain syllables as in a song or Shakespeare. 

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Another thing to consider is tight language.  Every word should have power and do several things at once when possible.  Every verb should be potent, the adverbs minimal, and the adjectives creative and fresh.  Beware of overwriting such as "She rode her old horse into the middle part of the central region of her favorite town in the world and searched the surrounding roads for the man she was targeting."  This is bland and wordy.  You can say the very same thing with "She clopped Rosie, her second-hand nag, through her favorite town to Main to hunt her target."  Seek and destroy words that aren't necessary and search for more powerful/descriptive versions of what remains. Any repetition that remains should be intentional language play that adds to the meaning rather than increasing verbal clutter. 

There is much more to poetry.  Turning prose more poetic can enhance the beauty of your writing and make it more literary in so many meaningful ways. 

Top Tips

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I've been blogging for over four years, most of them on how to write in a more literary fashion.  I thought this week I'd do a round up on the most helpful techniques on which I've written when it comes to writing in a literary fashion.  Writing in a literary fashion is all about taking a simple story (about life, in poetic form, or in fiction form) and adding deeper meaning. 

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1. Find your passion.  Before you can write, you need to find what genre, what style, what characters, what meaning excites you.  Literary greats like Shakespeare, Austen, and Dickens start with what excites them and makes them love to write.  Dickens had a passion to give insights about the plight of the poor.  Austen and the Brontes had a passion for writing romance.  Shakespeare loved history, comedy, and tragedy.  What drives you to read?  What drives you to write?  Whatever it is, read that.  Write that. 

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2. Plot at a deeper level, with meaning in mind.  Consider what motivates or drives your story.  This is where you can push past cliches to use outlining, types of conflict, balancing light and darkness, hero's journey principles (or the female version, if that works better with your character, base your story on a fairy tale or piece of classical literature (Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare, etc), and/or consider themes as a foundation for your storyline (religious themes, social commentary, etc.). 

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3. Characterize main characters and antagonists at a deeper level, which can include intensive backstory planning, loss and tragedy, basing characters on a well-researched characterization system such as the Meyers-Briggs system or the enneagram (either of which can give a strong and deep basis for character relationships, so you don't have to do the work yourself), foils, archetypes such as the everyman, or on classical characters  (as in placing Darcy- and Lizzy-like characters in a Shakespeare yarn set in medieval France, the present, or a dystopic future), or on one of several interviews you can find online. 

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4. Consider perspective and the use of irony, personification, referencing literary material with shakespearean, biblical or allusion, foreshadowing in multiple ways, flashbacks, symbolism, themes, and any of a plethora of literary devices that can enhance the meaning that you plan for your story.  Decide how you will keep rule number one in writing, which is to help the reader feel. 

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5. Polish with meaning in mind.  Consider any writing devices you haven't already used such as polishing your voice, similes and metaphors, enhancing sensory imagery, deepening dialogue, enhancing emotional depth, unreliable narrators, and a balance of showing vs telling.  Examine and weigh words--and especially the working title--for depth, word play, poetic devices, etc. 

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6.  Send it out in the world to get help with revision from writer's groups, friends, beta readers, freelance editors. 

7.  Seek out an agent, publisher, or consider self-publication and research the process. 

Start over with a new piece.  You can do this. 

Step by Step Indie Publication

Next week, I will return to blogging about how to make each piece you write more literary.  This week, I will give you the boiled-down, simple steps to self-publication.  If you want more detail and further instructions on this process, you can look up online classes like https://thewritepractice.com/ and https://www.childrensbookformula.com/.  They have been amazing.  But here are the steps I followed just recently to break into print.  As I said last time, you're welcome to pursue an agent and regular publication.  But if you know your pieces don't follow a regular formula, if you don't want to be tied down with contracts, if you're tired of getting refusals, this may be the route for you. 

Here are the steps and(and some of them can be done in any order--the first two should really simultaneous):

1. Write, polish, get feedback from alpha and beta readers, polish again, send to a freelance editor, polish again.  Basically make the best piece(s) you possibly can.  If it's a kids' book, Fivrr and similar websites can direct you to an illustrator and cover designer for which you need to pay very little.  If you want to illustrate it yourself, that's fine, though keep in mind that a cover may do better if it's professionally done.  If you're just writing a short story or other short piece, you could find a picture you like from Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, or other free-for-commercial use image.  It's great to cite your source, but you don't need to pay for it.  Make sure to read carefully all legal issues involved. 

2. Set up a writer's platform and make friends among the writing community, so they can share your stuff even as they share yours.  This includes a blog, a web page (it can be free, though it looks better if it is paid and has your name as the domain, for which you have to pay) on which you allow (through mailchimp, mailerlite, etc) the opportunity for readers to subscribe to an email list, Pinterest (which gives you permanent and free advertising), Twitter (get followers by following those eager to follow back, especially fellow writers), a FaceBook page, and any other social media you can find, with special emphasis on getting an email list. 

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3. Publish your story to KDP (Amazon's indie publication branch) and/or Draft2Digital (publishes to everything, including Amazon, though that requires extra steps) in order to get it into the hands of readers everywhere.  If you want to read your own piece or hire someone This is really the easy part and really only takes a few minutes. 

4. Invite your writer and other influencer friends to read your piece and write reviews, the more the better.  Send out messages to all of your social media, email lists, etc. that you're going to launch.  Launch.  Send out messages that the piece is available.  Get everyone you can giving reviews because anything fewer than about 25 reviews means you're not very visible on Amazon.  The more you can get, the better. 

Those are the bare-bones steps.  After that, it's just a matter of finding people to come and read your piece.  There really is a lot more to getting your piece known about and read.  Just doing this doesn't necessarily make you a lot of money.  But it will get you published.  If the goal is to be published, the only thing holding you back from publication is you. 

The hard part I'm still working on--as are many writers--is getting attention to the piece.  For that, you can think about media, ads, paying a PR firm, etc.  There are many classes and webinars out there to help you figure out the advertising end of things.  But if just seeing your name in print is the goal, it's easy.  I just don't want you to fall into the trap I did and pay someone to do this for you.  I let a company publish my academic theses, and they've been making all the money I haven't for my hard work.  I haven't seen a dime, yet I could have done all of this myself.  Don't let someone tell you that you have to pay for this.

You can do this for yourself.  You don't have to wait for someone to publish you.  Publishing firms do have PR for themselves and will get you read if all of this sounds like too much.  The drawback is that you are then, as I said, under contract, signing your work away for someone else to make money, and you're only seeing something like 10%.  On the other hand, 100% (minus Amazon's 30% or 70% fee, taken off the price people spend per book) of nothing is nothing if you can't get it read.  And once it's published any way, many publishers won't look at it.  Consider carefully.  Research.  Listen to some free webinars.  Figure out which is the best way for you, and just do it.  I sat on pages of writing for years.  I'm just now actually getting it out there.  I wish you the best. 

A Guide to Publishing Categories

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I've been blogging about writing in a more literary fashion; however, this post is going to be more of a summary of what I've learned about the publishing world from recent webinars, podcasts, and courses.  If you know this from other resources, this post may not be useful for you.  For those who have just started thinking you may want to get published one day, possibly one day soon, this is for you.  Once, traditional publication was pretty much the only racket in town if you didn't want to foot the bill for every step.  Now, you have traditional publication, indie publication, and everything in between. Now is really the time to publish if you haven't yet because there are so many options.  Step one is, of course, to write a book/story/poem/etc., unless you want to find a publisher/category/contest and write what they want, starting with what they're looking for. 

The first kind of publication is, of course, traditional publication.  From what I understand, they once had a stranglehold on what did and did not come into the spotlight.  In order to come to the attention of a conventional publisher, you first research through Writer's Market , Google, or some similar resource for specific publishers and their requirements.  Writer's Market (online) is a wonderful resource full of the most recent information, including the name of agents and publishers.  For a lot of publishers, they only accept agented manuscripts, but there are some smaller or lesser known presses that will accept you without an agent.  Know your genre.  Know the publisher, including specific names, and how to submit before you just start sending your manuscript everywhere.  The drawback of traditional publication is that they can be incredibly picky.  It's wonderful if your piece fits squarely into a niche that they're looking for.  If not, you need to send it to one right after another, researching and obeying their rules exactly, or you will get nowhere.  If you find a publisher, your standard cut is about 10%, give or take, often split with that agent, but you pay nothing up front.  My pieces are a little more niche than most, so I haven't had a lot of luck going this way.  If, however, you've just written something that squarely fits in one of these markets, this is a great way to go.  They do usually gain the rights to your book, unlike all the others on this list. 

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The second kind of publication is vanity press.  Vanity presses are eager to find your manuscript.  They will take just about anyone and will, indeed, help you get your piece published.  But you pay for everything, piecemeal, to do it.  They get their income from you and often charge a high premium in the thousands of dollars and beyond to produce something you may or may not be happy with.  Many of them are predatory, so you'll want to be sure to do your research in advance.  They often do little to nothing to market your piece without more money from you.  It's easy to get published here, but then you'll often be in the same boat as you would have been indie publishing and for a lot more money. Sometimes, getting published with one of these presses does nothing or something negative with your reputation as a writer.  Do a lot of research before you go forward with one of these.  I've periodically bumped into one of these and researched it, but I hesitated because they said I had to pretty much market myself unless I wanted to pay thousands on top of their base price. 

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Hybrid presses can, at first blush, look like a vanity press.  They do charge up front but not nearly as much and often take a much smaller cut of sales than a traditional publisher, if they take one at all.  They are more selective than vanity presses because they want to protect their reputation, which means they also want to protect yours.  They often include marketing in the fees you do pay.  They may limit their services but are clear about what they will and will not do for you, which may include marketing as part of the original fee.  I have found a hybrid publisher with which I will be working to produce my chapter book series.  Chapter book series are a very niche market simply because a lot of publishers don't want to occupy their space on short, cheap books on short paperback books.  My hybrid publisher will charge up front and will help me with marketing as part of the fee, but they will not take a percentage out of my sales.  I will be publishing my chapter books, at first, anyway, because producing one short chapter book would involve the same costs as publishing a set of books, so it makes a lot more sense to publish them in collections.  If you're looking at niche markets, this may be a good way to go if you can afford the up front fee and find one particular publisher that works for you. 

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My latest experience has been with indie publishing.  You keep all the rights and make all the money, above and beyond the fees that, say, Amazon might charge (30-70%, depending on the option you choose).  What you will pay up front here is the individual aspects of producing the books, including editing, marketing ads, covers, illustrations, etc.  It can be hard to get a lot of sales this way because you are your own marketer.  It is easy and fairly quick to publish your piece on KDP (Amazon's self-publishing wing) and Draft2Digital, which can make your book available worldwide, but getting reviews, readers, etc. can be a challenge.  It helps when you do have a writer's platform, an email list, etc.  Next time, I will spend longer on what I have learned and the classes in which I have learned this information, so you can consider pursuing a course like this to walk you through all of the steps of going from writer to indie published and (hopefully) successful writer.  If you're interested, you can look at my indie published short story to see what it looks like.  You can even publish paperbacks through the route I will talk about next time. 

Regardless of the route you elect, you will need to do research and make sure you have selected the publishing method, which is right for you.  A lot of people have found success through all of these routes.  Just know what you're doing before you pursue any of these routes. 

Searching the Universe for Ideas

I've been blogging about writing in a more literary fashion.  The first critical step in any writing endeavor is to seek out an idea, a story concept.  There are many ways to do this, but some are likely to lead to more literary works than others.  Writing in a literary fashion is about building and revealing meaning beyond the surface.  If one plans to do so from the very beginning, it can be easier. 

You can just wander your world and look for interesting events, bits of dialogue, or people.  Observing the world may help you come up with a quirky or interesting alternative explanation for what you find.  This, alone, won't necessarily lead to literary stories, but it could give you some vivid descriptions and characters, which can be added to a story you're working on.  It's possible that observation can lead to some fascinating and literary stories.  As I said, literary stories are all about building and revealing meaning beneath the surface.  Sometimes, that can be harder to do when one starts with reality than when one starts with something already rife with cultural meaning.  In books like 1984 and Animal Farm, Orwell started with cultural observations and turned those observations into social commentary still impacting our lives today.  In A Modest Proposal, Swift merged satire with social commentary in order to make a biting and literary piece.  Writing from observation can certainly be done and done well, especially if one approaches it from a social commentary perspective. 

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You can also find story ideas from historical events.  Many of Shakespeare's famous pieces turned history into literary fiction, as did Homer's Odyssey and The Illiad, among countless others.  Books like these form the backbone of modern western literature. The key is not to just recount the events as they occurred but to imbue the events with meaning beyond just the facts of the story.  Otherwise, it's just history.  Every line and event needs to have more than the obvious meaning, and every scene needs to have multiple layers like you may find in books like The Help. The story should not be simply a recounting of facts but an interweaving of story, meaning, and fact. 

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A reader can also use dreams to shape meaning and tell stories.  A dream is full of personal and sometimes general symbolism.  There are countless books of dream interpretation, or one can take a dream and turn it into whatever you want it to be.  You may dream of yourself, but your main character doesn't have to remain you.  You can use your dream as a starting point to spin something new, as several writers have done such as in The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Catch-22, and Frankenstein.  However, if you just record the events of the dream, it probably won't make coherent sense, let along literary meaning.  As with history or fact, the dream is just a jumping off point.  It's up to you to build meaning and literary merit. 

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Also, a writer can use a literary source to create something new.  This can be done to an extreme like in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, wherein the original text is simply added to with new motifs and zombie-fighting events.  However, more commonly, a writer will take a fairy tale, Shakespeare play Jane Austen novel, the Bible, or any such text and turn it into a new story.  James Joyce's Ulysses and Eudora Welty's The Robber Bridegroom come to mind. 

Any of these sources can produce effective literary weight in its subject matter if the writer is careful.  The important thing is to read a lot within whatever genre you want to write and figure out what works for you.