Action vs Violence

[Action or violence?-source]

 I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion. This post is about defining terms and about gradations of action in a story. Some stories avoid any kind of physical danger. Modern and historical romance novels, children's stories, and other stories are primarily character-driven and often focused more on relationships. There may be brief scenes of action or physical risk, but this is often not an issue in these stories. At the other end of the spectrum are stories that are nonstop action, death, and/or destruction. When one is writing this kind of story, one must be aware of the audience and purpose as the writer crafts a story.

[Action vs Violence-source]

I first became aware of that fine line between action vs violence from famous actor and director Jackie Chan. He says he wants his movie to have “plenty of action, but not violence." So what's the difference? If a character seriously injures or kills another character, that is violence. Think "Taken," "Terminator," "Alien," horror films, war movies, and the like, where guns, swords, or other means draw blood and cause serious bodily harm. Movies and novels with violence are everywhere. 

[Examples of Action-source]

Action, meanwhile, is still about movement, risk, and danger, but it often doesn't involve bloodshed, broken bones, and gory death. Think most Star Wars, Harry Potter movies, Disney, and similar shows. Jackie Chan may knock down and fight enemies, but no one is bleeding. There's still something at stake, often something broken in the world that the main characters need to fix, but graphic violence is rare or minimal. 

[Heroes and Villains-source]

There is a place and an audience for any approaches to physical risk and danger. Frequently, books intended for younger audiences avoid violence in favor of action. The focus is on defense and heroism. Right and wrong are clearly defined. Heroes rarely kill the villain. If the villain dies, the story will often avoid having the protagonist somehow avoid delivering the killing blow by having the villain, himself, or someone or something else causes that death. In Disney movies, the prince, dwarfs, or some other side characters push the dragon off the cliff. Gaston leans back trying to stab the Beast, and he falls to his death. There may be some violence, some blood, but most of it is off-screen, high-tech (against robots or using a laser or lightsaber), magic-related, or somehow minimized. 

[Violence-source]

Older audiences often prefer gradations of gray. Violence can be throughout, with the protagonist and other characters meeting the antagonists' violence with their own. Think Marvel's Punisher. The hero can also be made to seem more heroic in hesitating to meet violence for violence, death for death. It may be that the hero doesn't hesitate to use violence but only kills when forced or doesn't kill at all. Marvel's Daredevil, for instance, will beat down hallways of enemies to rescue a child, ally, or antagonist, but he draws the line at killing. The conflict between Punisher's and Daredevil's perspectives on whether or not killing is justified or necessary is built up as the central theme of season two. The show combines and alternates between action scenes and ones of intense violence, depending on the needs of the story. 

[Mirror-source]

Choosing how to use action without violence, a focus on violence, or somewhere in between will depend on your intended audience and what you're intending with it. Where is your focus? What level of risk and action works for your genre, your protagonist, and your story? Be true to your main character. Your antagonist and protagonist should mirror each other in some way. What makes them the same? What makes them distinct? If your hero uses more intense violence than the antagonist, what makes him/her/them the hero? Think of the morals and ethics of the characters. What is limiting or enhancing the level of action and/or violence? Think carefully through your approach and how this highlights your important characters to make your whole story more intentional and meaningful.

Avoid Bogging down Story and Character

[The Doorway to Understanding Writing is Reading: source]

I've been blogging about writing in a more literary and meaningful fashion. I've read thousands of pages of fiction in the last year, some of it very very good, some of it mediocre, some of it so painful I couldn't finish it. What often made the difference was when information/backstories weighed so heavily in the story that both story and character have been bogged down to the point of being sunk. 

[World and Character Building: Source]

Most stories and major characters need some kind of backstory. If you're writing in fantasy, sci-fi, or a similar genre, you also need to build a world. All of this can be fascinating if you slip it out little by little, allowing your character to fully immerse into the world as deeper and deeper levels are slowly revealed by interactions with each other and their slowly revealed world. Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, for instance, start in a normal world. As they interact with that normal world, we learn more and more about who they are and how they respond to a world that becomes increasingly bizarre, more magical, more surprising. 

[Wall of Words: Source]

However, if that second or even first page, had started like so many amateur writers do their worlds, a reader could not get past that positive wall of info dumping wherein we learn every detail on their past and every detail on their world right away. There are readers that will plow through that, who are just as fascinated by your narrative explaining every little thing about every character and the world right away. But most of us will be turned back. It does not invest us in either emotionally in character or world, which is the point of good storytelling. The reader wants to be swept up, not bored or walled off. 

[Informed Attributes: Source]

The other way you can really turn off a reader with data dumping is by telling your reader all about a character and then never fulfilling your promises. This is called giving your characters informed attributes. Man, this character is hilarious. But he never does anything funny. Wow, this character is a super genius. How smart is he? So amazingly smart. But he never does anything to PROVE he's smart. We just have to take the narrator's word for it. This makes the narrator a liar and unreliable. Which is a whole separate strategy if it's used intentionally. In general, it's better to SHOW he's smart or funny. Then, your narrator never has to say it. The reader just knows.

[Using Informed Attributes Used Intentionally for Humor: Source]

An author can use informed attributes intentionally for a specific purpose. They can work for humor or irony. "You're so hilarious," says the enemy in a dry tone, highlighting how serious that character is.  "What a genius," the main character's best friend says sarcastically. Then, the character has to prove his best friend wrong. Or you build up a big, evil, scary villain only to show the reputation was based on gossip and lies. He ends up being the protagonist's mentor. Or your characters are all about a quest to find the mighty wise one only to find out his reputation was exaggerated, and they're on their own again. Informed attributes can work if they're not used straight but as an emotional strategy. 

[Data dumping: Source]

Large spans of data dump all at once are touchy but can sometimes be done after the first chapter or two. Some authors can get away with it if they first spend the time to get the reader emotionally invested in the characters and world. The fastest way to do this is to show what your character cares about then steal it or some part of it away. Show they love their family and then slowly reveal that their dad already died or show their horror as their sister is stolen from them. Then, your reader is along for the ride, even if there is a bit of dumping here and there.

[A Heart-shaped Hole: source]

Give us the character's heart then punch holes in it. We first see Percy Jackson's bond with his mom, then she's gone. We feel Harry's ache for a family long gone. MCU's Black Widow enjoys an idyllic childhood with loving parents for the first few minutes, then it's all shown to be an illusion, all of them separate quickly. 

[Let Your Readers Be Detectives: Source]

The other place a reader rarely wants a data dump is at the end. The beginning and end of any piece of writing are the most memorable. You don't want to start or end on a data dump. Even if you're writing a mystery, the truth should slowly sneak out over the course of the story. It may be summed up by the detective at the end, but if it all comes out in one dump, the reader may find this frustrating and poorly written instead of satisfied they were able to make some good guesses based on context clues. The ending is about an emotionally fulfilling wrap-up. 

[Invest Time and Emotion in Your Characters and World: source]

Information is good and necessary to telling stories. The backstory is critical in most pieces. But if it comes in a huge dump truck first thing, you'll rapidly lose readers. Invest us in characters and your world as the truth behind them comes out. Now, it's time to look through your pieces and spread out any info you find and make informed attributes into real attributes that tie your reader closer to the story instead of walling them out. 

Troping without Cliches

[Tropes in Writing: Source]

I've been blogging for over seven years, mostly about how to write in a more literary fashion.Tropes are everywhere in writing. In fact, a trope is a building block of writing. Any figure of speech can be called a trope. But when one thinks of a trope in a story, movie, or play, one thinks of a building block of a story such as a character or event in a story. Every story uses tropes.

[Trying to Avoid Tropes: source]

Even when one tries not to use tropes, it's practically impossible. There's even a trope for stories that are striving to be tropeless. It's impossible to avoid troping in a story. When one thinks of a character trope, one thinks of a type of character or plot device, the antihero, the plucky heroine, the sidekick, the man vs nature story structure, etc. However, what is possible is avoiding cliches with those tropes. For most people, the first idea is usually the cliche. If one pushes beyond that, that's where fresh stories begin.

[Tropes as the beginning of Ideas: source]

There are so many tropes that it's impossible to count and it all depends on the definition of a trope. But even if one focuses on character tropes, it would take a very long time to name all the available tropes. One can easily google them online. What it comes down to is that almost every character you will read about or see falls into one trope or another. The best books, literary or otherwise, don't simply plug in a trope and call it good. Authors of good books use tropes as a start but not an end. 

[Starting with a Princess in a Tower: source]

One of the main differences between good literature and simplistic stories is how much work the author puts into making the trope their own, making it something fresh. It's not enough to write about a simple princess in a tower, a damsel in distress waiting for her simplistic prince to come and save her as a dragon prowls its base. What makes her unique? How is he more than he seems? 

[Making a Trope Fresh: Source]

And, often better yet, how can the author flip the trope to make it something that feels new and fresh in order to stand out from the pack? One can simply flip the trope in the obvious way and have the damsel save the prince. One can have a prince or princess save the dragon or the dragon save one of the others. 

[Pushing the Trope further: Source]

Any of these can work, but you can push a trope further. Maybe the "princess" is actually a cowgirl, and the "prince" is a rancher in modern or period days, and the tower and/or dragon is metaphorical. Or maybe a literal dragon shows up in the wild West. Maybe the princess has sci-fi tech and has to steal the tower to take it somewhere to save her kingdom, fighting the mage prince and his training master, the queen of dragons, in order to do so. Maybe the tower, itself, has to fight the other three off to save itself. Who is the bad guy? Who is the good? Or are they all morally gray? Or perhaps anybody winning means the end of the world. 

[Now, it's your turn: source]

Think through your stories. Are you relying on simple tropes? Do you have a story that would benefit from pushing that trope and turning it into something fresh? If you use simple tropes, how can you make them unique? 

Side Characters

[cast of characters-source]

I've been blogging on how to write in a more meaningful and literary fashion. One critical character type that you'll need to include for almost every kind of story, whether fictional or factual, is the minor character. Minor characters flesh out your world, make it feel more realistic. Without them, it's just your main character(s) and their antagonist(s). That can work for some books and short stories but not many.  Most stories need inhabitants that people your world, and you'll need to give some thought to how to craft those characters. 

[Minor characters peopling the world-source]

One kind of minor character is someone who may be a name and/or face who is part of the crowd, one who doesn't play much of a part in your story but simply serves to texture the world. These characters can be given some slight description, a name, a face, but they should generally be unmemorable. They mostly serve as a backdrop. They may interact with the main character but only in minor ways. These are the hotel clerk, the main character's student and/or her parent, a witness to a crime, etc. Think of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in "Hamlet." They started out as his friends, became his enemies, and eventually ended as pawns in his war against his father, used by both side. 

[Hamlet-source]

If they serve any part beyond just peopling your story, it should be to highlight some aspect of your main character, to make them stand out. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern highlight Hamlet's progress from bystander to blade of justice in his late father's ghostly hand. If your protagonist is running for his/her life, the minor character is the distant sibling ignorant. of the hero's danger or the tourist simply enjoying the sights. They're living the peaceful life your protagonist wishes to have. They're bodyguards of the enemy who show the competence or lack thereof of the protagonist. They may stand out briefly or steal a single scene, but they shouldn't overshadow the main character. Every character that stands out in any way should be there to advance the protagonist and/or the plot, in whatever small way. One of these characters could even start out part of the background but turn out to be a secondary character or an antagonist or an important key to the mystery, a rifle on the wall.

[Peopling world like Harry Potter's--source]

Another kind of non-protagonist character is one that plays a significant role, a secondary character. This is the kind of character that can be memorable, can steal scenes, may land clever lines and star in pieces of the story but should not be the main heart of the story. Subplots can revolve around them, but the main plot should engage directly with the main character.  If the main goal of the antagonist is to thwart a secondary character with no connection to the main character, your story will feel disjointed, like you chose the wrong protagonist. Ron and Hermione can take the lead for certain parts of the book, but Harry Potter is clearly the perspectival character, the protagonist. In the aforementioned "Hamlet," Horatio is the only character who comes close to knowing the truth behind Hamlet's charade. 

[Mirroring the protagonist--source]

These secondary characters help the protagonist grow, give them the opportunity to interact in order to illustrate aspects of the character, and provide side conflicts and comic relief. They mirror and contrast with the protagonist's choices. These are friends, significant others, and other associates that mirror and expand the plotline. Their critical role in the story is to help the main character grow and pursue their main goal. They challenge the main character and help them grow. They enlighten aspects of the main character even the main character doesn't understand. They may be threatened to help the protagonist rise to greater heights or even sacrifice themselves on some level to help the main character succeed. 

How are you using your side characters? Do they ever take over as the protagonist or overshadow your main character?  Do they always serve an important enough role to justify their existence?  Why is each one there?  How do they improve and enhance your hero's voyage?  

Destroying the Precious

[Editing time-source]

 I've been blogging about how to make writing more literary. One of the most important differences between inferior fiction and amazing fiction that kicks off a future with diehard followers is the editing process.  Your first draft can be absolute trash, but as long as the editing takes as long and as much effort (on your part and someone else's) as it needs to, you can still end up with a brilliant and meaningful final copy.  Your writing process can involve outlines, pages of background and characterization, or just a lot of pantsing.  The key is in editing, and some of that may likely involve scrapping the moments, characters, entire scenes, or long chapters into which you've poured your heart.  Sometimes, your final best work involves shooting your darlings, those bits that are just too precious, too detailed, too inessential to stay.  

[Your Draft-source]

So you have a draft.  You may love this draft or hate this draft.  It can be anything from short poetry to an autobiography to literary (non)fiction to the wildest sci-fi romp. That draft is done.  Now what?  Don't even think about looking at your commas or other fine editing at this stage.  The first step is to take a careful look at the structure and major characters, themselves.  If you can afford to have a freelance editor who does this kind of story editing, all the better. Even Stephen King needs an editor, and he's a master. If you have a publisher breathing down your neck, great.  They may have someone to pitch it.  You may also have friends or a writer's group to look over.  Or you may be doing it all yourself.  I don't recommend the last option, but sometimes, there's no choice.  

[Editing-source]

Regardless of whether you now have a pile of editors' or other readers' comments, you really need distance from the text, as much as you can afford to give yourself.  If it's a few days or even a week, fine.  If you can give yourself a whole month or more, even better.  When you've just carefully crafted that cherubic/charming/witty/scathing/etc cast of side characters, what you see as amazing dialogue, a brilliant series of scenes, and a whole book that just feels wonderful to you, you're too close.  It's like investigating the murder of your best friend.  There won't be any emotional distance, and you're not ready.  

[Taking a closer look--source]

Because when you start giving your manuscript a really close look at your story editing, you need to see it with fresh eyes.  You need to see each scene, each character, each description with a clinical eye.  What purpose does each aspect of the story serve when it comes to building up the main character's story arc, the critical subplots, the overall plot, or the 3- 7- or 12-act structure, whatever you're using?  If nothing, it can't stay. 

[When beauty achieves nothing--source]

If there's a beautifully written, breathtaking scene that you poured your heart into that doesn't contribute substantially to the symphony that is your piece, it needs to go.  If there's a clever, witty side character that draws too much attention from the protagonist's main growth, you may want to keep him/her/it/them for another story.  You don't have to simply erase.  You can always keep a running side document where you keep your best cuts.  It may inspire you later. 

 

[Achieving balance--source]

But if you've got 30 characters in a 100 page book with very little characterization or possibly a breathtakingly purple (florid, overly descriptive) background with uninteresting foreground characters, something, probably a lot of somethings, need to go. It's at this stage you're finding your balance and the voice of your narrative.  I don't care how much you love that scene/dialogue/character/set. If it doesn't perform a critical role in the overall story or distracts in any way, it's time to break up with it for the sake of keeping the narrative compelling.  If it becomes too precious, too specific, and slows down your story, it just can't stay.  

[What feedback can feel like--source]

Editing can be such a hard part of writing. You get feedback that may feel like a gut punch or leave you reeling, wondering how you'll achieve what the reader wants.  Trimming back scenes and characters you love can feel like you're parting with your best friends.  It has to be done to make your final product what it needs to be to keep the reader glued.  

                                                                   `

Structure of Romance

[Writing Romance Novels--source]

 I've been blogging about how to make a piece more literary. One piece of advice almost every writer will give you is to read what you plan to write. Since I am working on clean romances, it makes sense to read a lot of them. And I have, from Austen to Bronte to Stephenie Meyer to an ever-increasing list of modern writers. Some write period romances, some fairy tale adaptations, some fantasy, some modern, and some sci-fi. There are patterns that hold true, no matter the genre. 

[Exploring characters' eyes--source]

Step one is to dive into the protagonist's character. If we're talking about a heterosexual couple, several romances give intense focus to the female lead alone. Occasional romance novels only focus on the male. Some authors, such as Stephenie Meyer, write a book from one perspective then book from the other (Twilight back to back with Midnight Sun gives you both). The other perspective is entirely a mystery or, as in Austen and Bronte, we get hints of other perspectives from an omniscient narrator. This is how we get such an intense focus on Lizzy, but we still get to hear Darcy's perspective on her "fine eyes." Later authors will often do a Midnight Sun on a classical work, or recreate Austen's original work through, say, Darcy's perspective or Bronte's through Rochester's eyes. 

[Romance on a bike--source]

Many modern romances balance the male and female leads (once again, in heterosexual romances), alternating between the two. Keep in mind that it's possible and always best to introduce the characters through show (show them losing a friend or family member; show them caring about something or someone) rather than endless data dumps. The reader needs an immediate attachment to one or the other, or the reader is gone. The way the main characters relate to each other can come as a shock to the reader: an assassin and his/her target, beings from two different (possibly alien) races or cultures, a peasant and a royal, etc. Many start as strangers like in Jane Eyre or Northanger Abbey or friends as in Mansfield Park. Several start their relationship as enemies before anything romantic begins. It's not a version of Pride and Prejudice nor of Much Ado about Nothing if sparks don't fly one way before they ever do the other. 

[Romance Begins--Source]

After that, the dance begins. The couple-to-be meets and has their first impression of each other (or we get a portrait of their existing relationship). There may be some kind of chemistry or interest associated with a description of (usually) attractive looks, but frequently, the initial meeting is one of indifference or a negative response. It appears for a time the characters will remain in separate orbits or in the status quo. This is the hero's journey's equivalent of the normal world. 

[Next Stages in the Dance-source]

Then, something happens (often danger, if it's genre, or enforced interaction if it's more literary or mainstream). Some action forces the two out of their regular orbits. This is the call to adventure, and one or the other or both protagonists often refuse at first. They reject that force that brings them together. Frequently, there will be some kind of early touch that excites an initial physical response for good or for ill. Sometimes, any kind of touch waits until the characters realize that they've started to first trust then feel something for the other. As they interact more and more, touches, accidental or otherwise, become more and more frequent until they make a realization of first an instinct to protect, then some level of trust, then romantic feelings. Sometimes, those feelings go unrecognized or misunderstood until the last few pages. 

[The dance--source]

The first touch is often just a brush, a light touch on the arm, a rescue, two bodies running into each other through force of circumstance, etc. As the characters become more and more interested then interactive, the touches start on the outside, an arm, a hand, clothing. Then, the touches tend to focus around the face, a touch of the cheek, foreheads touching, a light kiss somewhere on the head or hair. All of this may crescendo with a light then intense kiss. Some tales end with this. Some result in the two making some kind of commitment like living together, a title like boy/girlfriend, or marriage. If the romance is of the more intense (not classified as clean variety), the crescendo may be sexual in nature. This blog is not about that kind of romance novel, but they're common. The best way to get a feel for any kind of romance novel is, as with any writing, to read the masters and learn from those who know how to write the scenes you want to emulate. 

[Together in the End--source]

One way or another, your book can't be classified by publishers as a romance if the two characters don't end up together. It may take one book or two or three or several for this happily ever after. The rhythm of the dance and rate of movement from one level of touch and romance to the next will depend on your plans for plotting. Books like Twilight often have the couple together on some level by the end of book one. Everything that happens next just takes them through other adventures with the series ending only after marriage and childbirth. The reader can feel satisified if they just read book one. And sometimes, there's only a standalone, so there is no book two. Meanwhile, Vampire Diaries and several other books may carry on with a love triangle, building suspense over several books. Other books tag team, creating a series of romances all in the same world, interconnected but not the same romance, over several books. 

One way or another, if you want to write romance novels and get the feel for their rhythm, find which kind of romance novel you like and immerse yourself in them. Get a feel for how they're structured. Then, you'll be able to write them for yourself. 

Curses, Foiled Again

[Foils=Opposites who are also mirror images; source]

I've been blogging about how to write in a more literary fashion. Recently, I watched a video highlighting how the best villains are mirror images of the hero, or even the hero's greatest fears and desires taken to an extreme. There are many villains that don't do this, villains that are bad for the sake of being bad or so far removed from the hero that the hero defeating him/her/it is simply a thing the hero does as part of an adventure. The hero swings a sword and takes down a minotaur, but the minotaur is just a monster, not a reflection of the hero's soul. It's by far better when one remembers that story is character, and character is story. Most writers will tell you every part of the story should further the plot, setting, or main character along. However, if story is character, then it's better still when setting, minor and even major characters, and the antagonist help the character grow. The best kinds of antagonist-protagonist pairings are foils, opposites who are also mirror images of each other in many ways. 

[Star Wars-source]

If you think of the lesser Star Wars entries, for instance, they're about hero(es) fighting the empire. Main characters shoot their blasters, run around, go to hyperspeed, even swing a light saber, and bad guys go down. They fight big enemies, but those bad guys don't reflect any part of the hero. The characters do stuff, and stuff happens. But there aren't character arcs. The hero, Boba Fett for instance, goes out and fights monsters. He faces mobsters and governors and enemies of all sorts. But none of these challenges transform him into anything but the character he was in the beginning. Rey starts the story as a competent hero and ends the story as a competent hero. She fights bad guys. She stands up for the little guy. She even faces off with the Emperor's forces. But none of these things make her anything different than how she started. 

[Flat Characters-source]

The same thing happens in other movies, TV, books, etc. Disney's Hercules starts a noble hero. He gets a reputation for being what he started, but he doesn't change. Hades is his opposite in every way. Captain Marvel fights bad guys as a hero who always remains a hero. She gets more skills but doesn't grow. Her villain is not like her. Most Disney bad guys are the opposite of the hero(ine) in every way. You can read any of a number of pop lit books and find the same thing. Heroes go out and show how heroic they are, but they don't grow. Their villains are extremely different from them, dark and evil and black-hearted. They deserve to go down to the hero because the hero is Good. The bad guy is Bad. 

[Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren-source]

However, in the very same stories and sagas, you may also find villains that are externalizations of the protagonist's internal struggle. Ben Solo starts very much a follower of the Empire. He's been emotionally destroyed, like Anakin, so he turns to the Dark Side. But unlike Rey, his antagonists reflect some part of his soul. Rey mirrors back the Light Side he tries to hide. Snoke shows the powerful Sith Lord he wants to be. Emperor Palpatine echoes back to him the ultimate power he wants. He grows as he faces off with externalizations of his internal struggles. 

[Star Wars character development-source]

The same is true of the Mandalorian and Luke Skywalker. The Mandalorian has embraces a lifestyle all about money. When a child-father connection and love show him the errors of his ways, he has to face people just like how he has been, from bounty hunters to Mandalorians to force wielders who echo part of who he is and externalize his interior struggle. Each conflict helps him grow from misunderstanding to understanding until he becomes a hero. Luke starts a reluctant hero and a kid and, through facing off with his own father, the man who he can become, he learns what he does and does want to become in order to become a hero. 

[Rapunzel--source]

The best of the Disney characters also face off with their mirror images. Flynn Ryder from "Tangled" has to fight with his fellow thieves, his former allies, in order to grow from selfish thug to hero. Rapunzel has to face off with her own mother figure, someone who raised her, someone who she placed as her ideal self for all of her growing up years, in order to regain her identity. In "Encanto," Mirabel has to confront her grandmother who is like her in so many ways in order to save her family. Spider-man comes toe-to-toe with his professors, mentors, heroes, and other ideals, friends, and former allies to grow from clueless boy to great hero. 

[Snow White-Source]

One of the best examples in literature that comes to mind is the Grimms Brothers' "Snow White." Her Stepmother with the mirror is the personification of Snow-white's own vanity. The items that tempt her are a comb to make her lovely, corset laces to improve her figure, and an apple, representing budding sexuality. In overcoming the vain queen, Snow White overcomes her own vanity. Meanwhile, Harry Potter faces off with Voldemort, who, in childhood, could have been his mirror image. The main difference in their lives is one embraces dark, and the other embraces light. They are clear foils. His growth comes when he overcomes the personification of the path he chose not to take.  

Take a look at your antagonists. Do they reflect any part of your protagonist's internal struggle?  Is the tale one in which stuff happens, and people do stuff, or is there real growth as the hero faces off with someone that mirrors his dreams, fears, and flaws back to him? If not, how can you change that?